“We’re under attack,” I repeated.
Ignoring her questions was best. Impatience fuelled her anger making her a deadlier predator for the fight to come.
“From who?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never felt anything like it.” I paused. “This power is greater than mine.”
Considerably greater, but she doesn’t need to know that.
“Where are my people? Gwendolyn asked. “Why haven’t they returned with you?”
Brightness lightened the gloom in the distance. It cast an eerie radiance across the rooftops and surrounding streets.
“Explanations are for later.” I squared my shoulders and braced my legs. “Fight now.”
A crack of thunder rolled across the starry skies. A miasma of purple smoke plunged from the heavens and gushed into the courtyard to encircle us.
Disembodied laughter drifted from the roiling mass.
Gwendolyn and I retreated until we stood back to back.
My arms rose defensively as I prepared to hurl a warning sphere of magics at the intruders.
Gwendolyn snarled, her body shaking from the force of it. “The noise?”
“Wings,” I muttered. “Hundreds of them.”
I glanced over my shoulder at the radiant ball swopping over the rooftop then floating to the ground. Humming faintly, it hovered in the air, pure energy sparking from its nebulous core.
The smell of earth and sunlight permeated the beforehand dank space.
Grudgingly, I accepted the likelihood I was about to die grew vast, and drew deeper on the Source. At the same time, I readied a number of offensive spells to subdue multiple attackers. I’d fight. Protect myself until nothing but the cooling cinders of my body remained. I’d never stop defending myself.
If I don’t whom else will?
Instincts raging, my ears pricked at a strange noise. I snapped forward and scanned the buildings opposite with a critical eye. I used the hypersensitive veil of my fairy sight to penetrate the deeper shadows. The world became varying shades of electric blue, but still, I saw nothing.
A black cloud of giant moths rushed around the corner and filled the courtyard. Each swish of a palm-sized wing reverberated until the flapping deafened me.
The moths coalesced into a red and black tornado that tightened, and reformed as a lissom figure slinking towards me.
The red-eyed female had warm brown skin and a wild cascade blonde hair. Tattoos glowed on her cheeks. She smiled, a toothy flash that made my insides clench. The sum of her features was vaguely familiar, but the expression on them alien.
What the hell is she?
Ruthlessly dampening my shock, I hurled a ball of icy fire. My aim was true. It struck her chest, and consumed her in riot flames. With a sharp command, I froze the fire into jagged icicles.
The ice sculpture crackled in the warmer air, glistening under the moonlight.
Quiet laughter puttered from the amethyst smoke as it crushed together. “Do you have such a trick for a trickster?” From the smoke swaggered a dark-skinned male with amused purple eyes. Runes of power were inked across his bare chest, and lower, below his navel and above the waist of his tattered jeans between twin strips of pelvic muscle.
“Cael!” Gwendolyn spun around and pointed at the female I’d frozen, jaw dropping, eyes bulging.
I turned with a sense of dread.
The ice cracked then splinters shot in every direction.
With a swoop of my arm, I conjured a wall of warmth. The shards melted long before harming me, or Gwendolyn, now cowering at my heels.
The female shook out her hair. Irritation marred the harmony of her diamond-shaped face. “The beings of this time are tedious.”
With a flick of her wrist, I levitated ten feet into the air, spread-eagled.
“Calling on the elements to kill an enemy is senseless,” she scolded. “Hot blood flowing through your fingers, spattering thickly over your face, dripping a flood onto your bare toes….” She gasped, breathless with excitement. “That’s what makes a kill magnificent. Not showy demonstrations of power.”
I couldn’t move my limbs.
My eyes swivelled, and I rolled them down to fix a glare on my captor. I eased a fraction of her hold with a hard won flex of my banked power.
Somehow she suppressed my magics. Locked it tightly inside me.
I bit out, “Release me,” through stiff lips.
“Is that all you can manage?” She cocked her head. “So weak? Perhaps you’re not the one I seek.” She turned her thoughtful gaze to Gwendolyn.
The vampire gawked at the newcomers. Stunned as she seemed, a gleam of anticipation cast a sly edge to her features. “Who are you looking for?” Gwendolyn licked her lips, eyes darting to the side to keep track of the male who circled her appreciably.
He lifted a lock of her hair and sniffed it. Trailed his fingers across her waist then spanked her ass hard. “This one is mine.”
“Curb your lust.” The female beckoned to the vampire with a curl of the fingers. “We choose our pets later.”
Gwendolyn’s face blanked. Without pause, she stumbled to the female and dropped to her knees, face upturned, and expression rapturous.
The male snorted. “Like you waited to choose yours?”
Tensing, the female pierced him with a scary look. “Your meaning?”
They locked eyes. Leaned infinitesimally closer. The mounting tension made it difficult to breathe the air was so laden with raw energy.
Sensing dissension, I naturally began to plot. If they fight it grants me an opportunity to escape. To my disappointment, the moment passed, and the burst of energy eased.
Both strangers jerked as if freed from a constricting hold.
I suspected there had been a silent battle fought, the victor unknown.
“The fairy,” the male drawled, rolling his massive shoulders as if weight lifted.
“He’s not fae anymore.” Sickly perspiration studded the female’s brow. It was dabbed dry by the back of her hand. “Did you not feel the turmoil bleeding from him? It disturbed the very air.” She dragged her tongue over her bottom lip. “Divine. Virile. Magnificent.”
“In love.” The male crossed his arms and rocked back on dusty heels. “There was darkness in him, but nothing compared to the radiance of the light.”
She waved away his words. “He’ll make me a fine consort. That silly twit will do something to set him off. With all that rage exploding inside, fuelling dark desires he can’t possibly comprehend, he’ll look for someway to cope. Then he’ll be mine.”
“We’ll see.”
“You have no faith in my charms. Is this body not perfection?” Turning her attention to the prostrating figure at her feet, the female pouted. “No, you’ll not do at all.”
An invisible hand swatted Gwendolyn across the face.
Flying across the concrete the vampire Queen rolled to a stop at the base of the crumbling staircase. Eyes wide with shock her head was twisted backwards, the bones in her neck a grotesque protrusion.
The female looked at her blood-encrusted nails with a moue. Frowned. “So breakable.”
Violet eyes smouldering the male spun on the female to shove her chest. “I wanted her.”
“Quit bellyaching, Ti Malis.” On the intonation of his name, her voice deepened to a guttural rasp.
She pushed back hard enough to dislocate his shoulder.
Grunting, he yanked it into place. Rolled the joint and flexed his fingers. “Bitch.”
“Imbecile. Her head is attached. She is vampire and will heal.” Her fearsome gaze returned to me. “More importantly, she’s not the one I seek. This cesspool,” she shuddered, “is crawling with nothing else but vermin.”
In my periphery vision, I watched the whitish radiance die.
My sensitive ears picked up the rustle of clothing, and the shuffle of bare skin as the gritty floor abraded it. My nostrils flared at zesty scent of the forest.
Another in
truder materialised behind me.
“Since when are the undead not a favourite of yours, Marinette?” asked a foreign voice. The deep baritone echoed profoundly.
“They still are Damballah.” I lowered until I hovered man-high from the earth. She tapped my boot. “This must be the one we sensed. Handsome. No? He’ll make a fine pet.”
Chills iced my bones. Never again will I be owned.
My power surged, and I dropped to the ground in a crouch. Lightning fast, I sprang and wrapped my hand around her throat, a dominant move that terrified females into submission.
She giggled and fluttered her eyelashes. “Harder.”
I dragged her forward and thrust my face in hers. “Who are you?”
She kissed me, wrapping an arm around my neck and rubbing her body against mine. She purred low in her throat. Grabbed my groin and squeezed. My eyes rounded. Her wet tongue slithering along the seam of my lips snapped me from my disbelief.
Releasing my hold, I lurched back. Roughly rubbed the back of my hand over my mouth grimacing in distaste. “Vile.”
“I know,” she replied voice husky. She jerked a shoulder. “But I haven’t been kissed in a millennia, and I’m too impatient to wait on my chosen consort to take my pleasure. I made do.” She ran her hands over her hips. “This body is lush, young and beautiful. The soul who owned it before was pure. A waste. I’ll make better use of her talents.”
“I grow weary.” A white-haired, white-bearded man strutted around me to pause at Marinette’s side. His light coloured hair was a stark contrast to his dark skin. He owned the deep voice. “We lay claim to this territory or not?”
“Mine,” I snarled. “This city belongs to me.” I took a threatening step. Frosty curls of magics swirled around my clenched fists. “Leave or die.” An emptier threat will never be spoken, but gods, I meant it.
The man looked me up and down then dismissed me. “Well?” he asked his companions. “What says Malice?”
“I like it here.” An unconscious Gwendolyn hung limply over Malice’s shoulder, and his large hand palmed her buttock. Climbing the broken steps into the vampire nesting grounds, he tossed over his shoulder, “The werewolves and zonbi are too tired to carry on. We stay.”
Panting shifters emerged from shadows. Hollow eyed undead followed in their wake. Porous skin sagged over lumbering bodies starkly void of fleshy padding. Skeletal faces missed eyeballs and lower jaws. Many of the lurching corpses were merely rattling bones covered in tatty clothing.
With a nod in my direction, Damballah ambled after Malice. He swung a short cane of ivory at his side, and puffed his cheeks to whistle. The fetishes strung about his neck jangled as he walked.
An owl landed on Marinette’s shoulder in a furious beating of wings. She stroked its feathered breast and turned those red eyes to me. They glinted with amusement at my strained despondency. “We should discuss the future. Don’t you think?”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Lochlann
Daphne made a show of centring her focus on Kian. The Knight was tall. Her head barely reached his collarbone, and she smiled when he slung his arm over her shoulders, slumped, sighed, and leaned his considerable weight. Dark eyes rolling to look at her, his lips twitched when her smile dimmed in exasperation.
Daphne’s eyes gleamed as they flicked to me. “The witches are dead.” I schooled my face not to crease in amusement at her evident satisfaction. “I can’t figure out why though.”
Idly playing with one of her braids, Kian’s face tightened. “The Houngan drained them.”
She shuddered. “The corpses do look gaunt.”
“We should not have trusted him.”
“He wasn’t trusted.” Daphne pinched Kian’s side. “The witch said we needed him.”
When he chuckled, she grinned again.
Feeling my chest tighten at the playful exchange, I cleared my throat.
Daphne’s gaze met mine then slipped away. “How are you doing, Lochlann?”
I was exhausted. I fed the magics of my people to the witch for her spell. The circle sucked on my power when the spirits rose, but I staunched the flow before I’d become trapped. The dead witches either hadn’t had enough power to protect themselves, or were unable to retain control in the face of darkness greater than them.
“Fine,” I replied. I felt Kian’s eyes on me. “You will address me by my title, vampire.”
She snorted, and I felt her embarrassment.
An awkward silence fell.
“Well, I am dead on my feet.” Kian offered his arm to Daphne. “I have an earthen cellar beneath my dwelling you’re welcome to. Sunrise is a scant hour from the horizon.”
Gazing at him trustingly, Daphne curled her arm around his and tossed a scornful look in my direction.
Jealousy crawled up my spine.
Kian touched the vampire with such ease. I’d told the fairy to watch her during the battle, so my jangled nerves stopped baiting me to find and protect her, not so the Knight would befriend her.
Daphne confounded me. My greatest shame was because of her. Even that paled in comparison to what I let her do earlier when she’d risen.
The ghost of her body beneath my hands still made my fingers twitch. Long after I released my hold on her waist I felt her pressing lips and sharp teeth. A shiver of pleasure shimmied through me at the remembered sensation. She’d not taken much. In a shy voice that set my ears tingling, she’d confessed she wished me at full strength for the resurrection.
My gaze drifted towards her, but I made them pass quickly as if she were some insignificant thing skulking for favour.
I’m losing my mind.
Flustered, and without a word to either of them, I left, and followed Conall down the main pathway leading deeper into the Wyld. The Warrior made short work of the journey to his dwelling, and I jogged to catch up.
Turning a bend, I found Conall waiting for me at the base of his tree. He must have heard my harried footfalls. “Are you too tired to speak with me?”
Weary, Conall smiled. He adjusted his hold on Ana. “Let me put her to bed.”
Hands to hips, I drummed my fingers in impatience, waiting for him to see to the witch. Time not spent doing something important seemed wasteful, but I needed to unburden my mind.
I trusted no one more than Conall.
He trod down the steps carved into the tree, his expressive face closed and drawn. I wasn’t the only one using the last of my reserves. His unique gold eyes were sunken and void of sparkle.
After we spoke, I’d order him to rest. Conall was stubborn. If I left him to his own devices, he’d neglect his needs, and work without sleep until he collapsed, or cracked under pressure.
It took me some time to straighten my tangled thoughts into something understandable. My tongue burned as I spoke the words troubling me. “I hurt.” I briefly closed my eyes. There was no need to pretend with Conall. “They left me. After everything, they lost faith.”
Leaning heavily on his dwelling, Conall studied the ground. “The Tribe understands.”
“Do they?” I snorted laughter. “When they believed the transgression Rae and Breandan’s bond they felt sorry for me. Nothing overcomes a connection that powerful. They held pity for my circumstance, and there was respect.”
“Many hold you in the highest esteem.”
“Ah, but that many is no loner among the Tribe. I cannot hide how I feel.” Touching my chest, I shook my head. At his words and mine. “Before they left I witnessed their disgust. I cannot blame them for it.”
“The vampire is fierce.” Conall stared at his boots unable to meet my gaze. “A Warrior should be honoured to find his life mate.”
“Oh. What do you know of finding your fated female?”
His shoulders drooped. “Nothing.”
As fast as my anger reared it diminished. It wasn’t his fault my people were sickened by my taste in female. My clenched fists released. It was good of him to try and make me feel better. “T
hat was cruel.”
“It was the truth.”
“But poor of me. You never judge others harshly. The only time I have seen you cross or heavy handed is toward one of your bloodline.”
“I am the Eldest.”
“As am I.” I chanced a glance at him. He looked at anything but me. Talking about his family always shamed him. “You rarely make Elderhood seem burdensome. I admire you for that.”
His chest bowed. “It is my responsibility to care for them. To guide them.”
I was glad he took gratification from his duty. It made it easier to explain my feelings. “Just as it is my responsibility to guide the remainder of our kind. A right I fought for.” I thought of Devlin, and his death. Little brother and sister’s lives came close to being lost in my absence. They remained in danger. If I’d involved them deeper in my plans would things have turned out better – less treacherous? “Yes, I have fought ruthlessly and at great cost.” I rubbed my chest. The ache wouldn’t leave me be. “Our kind are dying, Conall. Those left need protection. I cannot afford my attention so splintered.”
“Strong emotion is not easy to bear. Deny your feelings and they will destroy you.”
“You always seem in control.”
Conall shrugged. “My nature.”
Yes, this fairy’s nature was one of the most stable I’d seen, a direct contradiction to his sister’s.
Trying to control Rae’s nature was like closing your fist over a firecracker. She and little brother were similar that way.
“Thank you for letting me speak without condemnation.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “It is soothing.”
“You are my Lord. Your needs are paramount.” He slumped. “You would not be having these troubles if I had not failed Rae, and she you. I will atone when there is balance.”
I eyed him. “Explain this failure?”
He stared at the pale dawn. “So many mistakes made. I never thought to look at Temple.”
“You assume responsibility for things beyond your control. You did not find Rae because it was not time for her to be found. Even then I doubt the outcome would have been much affected.”
“Ana can manipulate events to steer paths that have gone wayward. If I had been more diligent in my search, or more attuned to mother’s ramblings when she came to me I would have realised she decided to hide with the humans.”
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