My teeth ground hard. I couldn’t run after him or shoot him from behind while I tried to stem the flow of blood from Cat’s throat. All I could do was watch impotently as Dom and Findlay fought a losing battle to fend off the remaining vampires. And in the end, putting pressure on a neck wound this severe was only likely to extend the time she had left, not save her life.
We were all going to die.
Move out of the way, human.
Valerius’ voice was like a crack of thunder in my head, unexpected and resonant with power. I shook my head once in denial. This was all my fault. I couldn’t leave Cat now in her final moments. She needed me.
“Cat, baby, hold on,” I whispered, applying still more pressure to the wound. Her eyes bugged and her hands reached weakly for me. Tears splashed onto her cheek and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to stem their flow. For a moment, I was back in her small apartment, cradling her body amidst candles, her blood soaking through my blouse after the botched ritual I was blamed for.
“Hang on. I’ve got you.”
Out of the way, Valerius insisted. Do you want her to live or not?
“What?”
Give me my vengeance and I will heal her.
I didn’t want to listen to the demon. It was very likely he was just blowing smoke up my ass and intended to start on world domination the moment I let him through. But if there was a snowball’s chance in hell that he could save Cat, I had to try. We’d come too far to let things end this way. And I still had a vampire to kill.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
Manipulate her blood.
Dimly I recalled Dominic’s explanation of the ideograms on my arm. He’d told me one of my powers related to blood. Could it really be used to save my sister? I’d already promised so much of myself. What was one more deal? But if I gave up full control, there was no telling where Valerius would stop. Making a snap decision, I shouted for the only person I trusted to do the right thing.
“Dom!” I shouted. “Dom I need your help!”
Dominic’s shining silver shield whizzed around the room, cutting through the assembled vampires like an electric boomerang. Gore painted the walls red and the vampires that hadn’t retreated to the upper levels were hanging back, anxiety written all over their pale faces. Dominic paused in mid-motion, sparing a petite vampire in a scrap of red fabric that barely qualified as a dress from a sudden parting with her head. She let out a squeak and bolted for the stairs, joining her fellows.
Dom’s eyes went wide when he spotted me crouched over Cat, desperately trying to stem the flow of blood from her neck. He set off at a run, sliding most of the way to the stage. A small lake of blood and vampire sludge filled the front hall. God help the poor souls that had to clean this mess up.
“Valerius says he can fix this,” I panted. “But I don’t know if he’ll just stop there. I need you to promise to put me down if the time comes.”
Dominic’s mouth tightened and fear shone in his dark eyes. “Nat, don’t do this. There has to be another way.”
“There is no other way!” I sobbed. “She’s going to die. Now promise me damn it.”
His eyes flickered with darkness. No doubt he was remembering the last time he’d shot me. Now I was asking him to do it again.
Dom’s answer was barely more than a whisper. “I promise.”
With a shuddering gasp, I let go of my white-knuckled grip on control. Valerius surged to the fore and my vision sharpened, the fangs in my mouth tapered down to brush my bottom lip. The bloody battlefield smelled suddenly sweet to me. The pulse of magical blood beneath my fingers drew my attention down to the human woman laying beneath me.
“Catalina Valdez,” Valerius murmured. “You were a worthy opponent.”
Vivid images of Cat’s struggle flashed before my eyes. She’d spent the better part of two years in Mictlān, dragging the stubborn demon down with her, keeping him trapped in the underworld where he could do no harm. And slowly, over the course of two years, the demon’s feelings toward my sister had become…warm. Friendly even. Her small, indomitable spirit became a shining beacon it could count on as surely as the Northern Star.
When she’d been threatened, he’d responded. The vampires that had tried to kill her in her hospital bed met sticky ends. The sorcerer that had attempted to end her life had received a sound throttling when he attempted to do the same. I struggled to peer through Valerius’ dim recollection to see the face of Cat’s attacker but could only make out the broad strokes of him, not the total picture. Too tall to be Findlay. Too powerful as well.
“For that, I gift you your life,” he continued. “Use it well.”
Garish red light seeped from the tips of my fingers and sunk into Cat’s skin. The blood beneath my finger began to congeal at once, clotting at a rate I’d never seen before. Within thirty seconds the wound appeared weeks old. It puckered at the edges and Cat would definitely require skin grafts if she ever wanted to look the way she had once, but it was still a fucking miracle. More tears seeped from my eyes and Valerius caved beneath my wishes, propping Cat’s body up so I could cradle her against one shoulder.
Cat chuckled weakly. “You’re such a softie, Larry.”
I snorted. “She named you Larry?”
“We agreed you wouldn’t call me that,” Valerius chided, though it sounded odd coming from my mouth.
I never wanted to let her go. But there were still enemies above. At least thirty of them still living, by Valerius’ estimation. He could pick out the dark aura of each of them. Against his power it felt like gentle suction, rather than the soul-destroying draw that the vampire’s possessed. There was simply too much of Valerius for any one creature to siphon off.
Algerone Lamonia was situated on the very top floor, and he was moving with quick, agitated movements.
He cannot be allowed to escape, Valerius thought darkly.
“Agreed. Let’s kill him.”
Valerius nodded once and handed Cat off to Dominic as if she weighed no more than a kitten. Dom stared at us, eyes wide.
“Nat, you have to stop this madness,” he hissed. “You’re injured, and weak. You’re in no condition to go up against Algerone Lamonia. We’ve got what we came for. Let’s grab Findlay and your sister and get out of here. The more power Valerius uses, the harder it will be for you to regain control. You don’t know where he’ll stop.”
“I will stop when I have Lamonia’s head in my hands and his body is a lake of blood,” Valerius sneered, voice resonating like a struck gong in the sudden silence of the room.
Dom’s hand shot out to catch my wrist, stopping us before we could vault up the long, winding staircase to the second floor.
“You’re not going up there alone,” he said with a hint of growl in his voice. “I promised Nat I’d end you if you got out of control. This place is full of Trust officials and paper-pushers. You hurt one innocent and I’m taking you down.”
My mouth curved into an arrogant smirk and Valerius tilted his head once in acknowledgment of the threat. “You may try, mage. It is only for Valdez’s sake that I spare your insolent life. Cross me and you will live to regret it.”
Let’s go kick their asses, I snarled. I tried vainly to reach for my guns, but Valerius wouldn’t allow my fingers to grip the Beretta or CZ 75. Instead, my vision dimmed, giving me only a vague, blurry impression of what came next. It was like trying to squint through the tint of a very dark windshield. My body felt distant and unreal, as though I’d been dosed with anesthetic.
Darting shapes entered my field of vision and someone’s hands reached out, seizing the head by the ears. The hands pulled hard and split the face before me in two as easily as a child tearing through construction paper. Dark fluid fountained out of the shape before it dissolved into mush in my hands. Valerius resisted the urge to lick the sticky substance off our shared hand.
The revulsion that thought elicited made me shy away from st
ill more of the images. They flew by like stills on a projector, each horrifying and repulsive. I should have been screaming my head off, but a strange, calm detachment kept me from reacting to more than the sensation of blood on my skin. Ribs pulverized beneath my fists. Vampire faces contorted in agony as Valerius removed limbs or impaled some on their own weapons. A string of gray intestines trailed through my fingers like Mardi Gras beads before dissolving into yet more blood.
I bit down, crunching on bone. Then I was choking on something warm and sweet, and Valerius’ power fell away from my eyes, showing me exactly what he’d allowed me to block out. As his consciousness faded from my body, the taste of copper filled my mouth. Blood. I’d swallowed blood. Whose? And how much?
I gagged and bent double, pausing in the middle of the corridor as strength seeped back into my extremities. My shoulder refused to work right and a cursory glance to my left showed that the joint hung outside its socket. It left only my right to swing loosely at my side. My clothes clung unpleasantly and every hair on my body stood on end, as though I’d just been exposed to a live wire.
Dom’s breathing, ragged and harsh drew my attention to where he lay, crumpled and bleeding on the floor. His fingers were badly mangled and his gun hung loosely from one hand. His grip on it was tenuous at best. I hoped that whatever had hit him hadn’t impaired his ability to grip a weapon permanently. I knelt as best I could with a knife jabbed into my thigh.
“Dom, what happened?”
Dom let out a hysterical laugh. “You went through them like a blender, that’s what. The few that slipped past you, I managed to pick off with the gun or my shield. And then that fucker attacked me. Said this was your kill, not mine.”
I stared down at the oozing wound in horror. I’d done that? Oh God, how could I have done? We argued most of the time, but seeing him hurt made my chest fill with shame and guilt. How was he supposed to hold a gun or a wand without a working hand?
“I’m so, so sorry.”
I hated how my voice trembled. Hated that tears stung my eyes, obscuring the grievous wound I’d inflicted on him. I cringed away from the stiff feeling of my clothes, the blood that clung to every inch of my bare skin. I’d never felt this much death in one lifetime. It felt like the Grim Reaper himself had baptized me. Why had I let Valerius take over? He could have killed Dom. I wanted to rail at the demon for it, but he was nowhere to be found in my head, hunkered down for another long stretch of contented slumber.
Dom braced his back against the wall and pushed himself up with difficulty, keeping his grip on the wound. He needed medical attention, but the steely look in his eyes told me he was about as likely to accept that as I was to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
“Algerone is the only one left,” he panted, looking out over the empty room. Oil paintings were splattered with gore and the chandeliers sizzled as the flesh blood dripped from them onto the imported carpets. “Everyone else has fled. Let’s finish this once and for all.”
Only now did I recognize the hallway we’d been limping down under its coat of red. We were only a few feet away from the heavy and intricately carved mahogany doors that led into Algerone’s office. My jaw set and my head bobbed once in acknowledgment. My trembling fingers undid the latch on one of the holsters hidden beneath Ashby’s borrowed frock coat.
chapter
27
IF I EXPECTED ALGERONE LAMONIA to cower or scream at my sudden appearance, I was sorely disappointed.
He didn’t even turn to look at us when we kicked the mahogany doors open with a bang. The oak floorboards of the study shone in the predawn light. The heavy blue drapes that covered the windows the last two times I’d visited this place were parted, allowing a thin stream of sunlight to slice through the room between us, like a guillotine. Algerone was standing in the dark shadow of a tall bookshelf, but already some of the morning light was hitting him. His skin was tinged a light pink from the barest hints of sunlight he was exposed to. Soon smoke would begin to curl off of him when the first rays of the rising sun hit him in the face.
He looked towards the window wistfully, before fixing me with his gaze, no doubt deciding which obstacle was less likely to be fatal to him. A low chuckle escaped him as he turned up the collar of his tailored suit, shrinking further into the shadows. The purple and silver embroidery shimmered as he moved.
“Did you rush up here to end me and leave your sister to die, Iron Heart? How cold of you. Ashby was right. You would be an excellent addition to the house. Pragmatism is a valued trait of House Lamonia.”
“My sister is going to be fine and your entire house is dead,” I spat. “None of you will be valuing anything anymore.”
“You think every member of the Lamonia Herald is here within these walls? There are more of us out there than you can imagine.”
Lamonia turned to face me at last, and I was struck once again by his beauty. The strong line of his jaw didn’t waver or tremble. His pert, upturned nose wrinkled in distaste as his skin began to smoke. His cold, glittering eyes examined one of his hands, as though he were studying something particularly interesting.
“Ah, how tiresome,” he sighed. “I did hope my constitution could stand up to the sunlight a little longer. Forgive me if this conversation is brief, Iron Heart. I’m afraid that I don’t have much longer to live.”
I thumbed the hammer of the Beretta back with an audible click and took aim.
“You’re right. You don’t.”
I tried to keep my hand steady as I slowly squeezed the trigger. I’d never killed a vampire this old before, and I couldn’t afford to miss. If the first bullet didn’t stop him, I was unlikely to get off another round before he ripped out my throat.
“Before I go,” Lamonia said casually, “allow me one question. How long has it been since your last death? How long will you even be aware of yourself, or will you forget everyone you ever loved?”
Algerone’s perfect mouth formed a secret smile as I hesitated. How long had it been. A sudden wave of exhaustion made my fingers twitch, but I didn’t lower my weapon.
“I’ve got a few more hours at least,” I said. “Which is more than enough to kill you. Unlike you though, I’ll come back. You made sure of that.”
“Yes, you will. Until you don’t. Until Valerius takes over and destroys this world in the furnace of Hell.”
“That will never happen. I found the girl you trapped in the Paris catacombs. Elle has succeeded in making a cure for the lupine virus. The wolves are being evacuated as we speak. After we’re finished here, I’ll get Findlay to remove the curse.”
“Silly child. You still think this is all about you?” Algerone smiled. “You’re dealing with powers far greater than you comprehend. The truth is, I’ve been protecting you. I alone wield the power to control the Aztec demons. If you kill me now, you’ll have doomed not only your lupine buddies, but all life on earth.”
My veins turned to ice.
“What are you talking about?” I asked. In the back of my mind, I remembered what Valerius had told me once: that he’d come into the world not to condemn, but to save. Was there some larger threat out there I wasn’t seeing?
“You didn’t really think you could beat me, did you?” Lamonia continued. “That I wouldn’t have been a dozen steps ahead of you? No, you may have the upper hand right now, in this room, but the game is far from over.”
I frowned at him, a bead of sweat forming on my forehead. My arm was already feeling the weight of the pistol, and I supported it with my other hand.
“I’m not playing games,” I spat, taking a step forward. The sunlight glinted off my weapon, shooting like acid into Lamonia’s face. He hissed, baring his fangs and flattening himself further against the wall. This is what he really was. Despite all his poise and fancy clothes, he was a blood-sucking predator in a handsome meat suit. I could feel the void of his aura sucking the energy out of me with each passing second.
“There’s st
ill time to save your friends,” Lamonia said. “If you allow me out of this room safe and whole, I can give you the location of our failsafe. It’s not too late to make a deal.”
My stomach flipped nervously, and my finger hesitated over the trigger. Hadn’t I been the failsafe? I’d been their Hail Mary pass. The last person in my bloodline who had the ability to host Valerius. Well, besides Sophia, who hadn’t yet grown into her full potential.
I wished I had more time. We’d see how smug he felt after I’d gotten a few knives into him. He deserved everything I knew how to dish out after what he’d done to my family. But he had to be bluffing. He wanted me to run out the clock asking him questions, so he could sneak out when I died. He was just trying to distract me.
I squared my shoulders, steadying my grip on the enchanted pistol. Algerone had succeeded in getting most of the Trust in his pocket, through a decades-long scheme that required my family heritage. He’d been behind the gruesome ritual that put my sister in a coma for two years. And he’d very nearly destroyed the werewolf race, with the Trust’s help, by forcing Elle to create the lupine virus. I couldn’t let him leave this room alive. Plus I was so tired of making deals. How much more could one girl be expected to give up?
“This ends now, Lamonia.” I informed him coldly. “I don’t care how you die. If you want to fry like an egg, that’s your business. But come one step closer and I’ll bore a hole in your skull. Dealer’s choice. But you’re not leaving this room alive.”
Lamonia clutched the windowsill behind him with a grimace, though he still managed another grudging laugh through the pain. His fingers grew black and bony under the light, the pink flesh giving way to the leathery skin beneath. Sharp fingernails sprouted like thorns, ripping through the wood slowly. The screeching sound made me wince.
“Well if you insist on being unreasonable, I suppose I have little choice, do I?”
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