“You’ve just left her there to rot?” His voice went high-pitched, betraying his smooth ease in a way I’d never seen before. “Tell me where she is. Or else I’ll slice your Enforcer to pieces.”
I was pretty sure he was talking about me, and he’d have a hell of a fight on his hands if he tried it.
The Magister regarded Christian Dogaru for a long and chilly moment before he finally turned to Dorian with a nod. “Give him the location of the base, Dorian. As much as I’d like to see Zoe beat down the head of the Dogaru Clan, tonight is not the time to escalate our issues into a war.”
Dorian kept his gaze forward, his expression stony and unblinking. He was trying his best to hide his emotions, or else he might end up fighting Dogaru himself. Through our bond, I could feel his rage and his anger at the threat being made against me. But he agreed with the Magister. We couldn’t afford to start a war, and attacking the Clan leader would only become the first in many long and bloody fights.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Dorian said in a monotone voice. “I’m afraid that I can’t give you the location.”
“Excuse me?” Christian Dogaru snapped. “You will give me the location of my daughter now or I will break Zoe’s arm in half.”
“They transported us via a spell,” Dorian said, clenching his jaw and refusing to glance my way. “We were kept in the dark about where we were going. All we can tell you is that it was somewhere in a forest. It was mountainous and cold. There was snow on the ground but not very deep. With the distance we traveled, I would put us somewhere within the United States. Most likely Colorado.”
Christian Dogaru’s arm was around my neck before I saw him move. As fast as most Daywalkers were, he was faster, almost as fast as the Nosferatu we’d fought in Scotland. He was older—some would say the oldest, at least in Boston—stronger, and far more vicious. That last bit was what sent my heartbeat racing. Because he could rip out my neck in two seconds flat if he wanted.
“Christian,” the Magister’s voice held a sharp warning, and he had his blade to the heart of one of the vampire’s men. His quick action caught me off guard. After everything we’d been through, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Magister felt he’d be way better off with Zoe Bennett no longer in the picture. “I’m sure we can work through this problem some other way. No one needs to get hurt, especially not Zoe, who has done nothing but befriend Anastasia. She stood by her side even when your daughter made some fairly questionable decisions.”
“You’re so quick to call for peace, but you didn’t sing this same tune when it mattered the most,” the leader of the Clan said with a vicious smile. “Where were you when the Blood Hunter Coven attacked my young? Where were you when they burned my house to the ground, killing so many of my blood? You stuck by them, not us. The murderers.”
With his teeth only inches from my throat, I closed my eyes and breathed deep. I had a feeling this was a conversation that had been a long time coming, the airing of dirty laundry they both desperately needed. But, I really wished they hadn’t chosen to tango when I was only inches away from a pair of sharp fangs.
Magister Salvatore let out a harsh laugh. “You’re calling them murderers? That’s really rich coming from you, Dogaru. Or did you forget the way you slaughtered my council?”
“The slaughter of your council was well-deserved, and you know it,” he hissed, stepping closer. “Once again, your kind attacked us first, targeting us in some warped plan to control the demon beasts. If we hadn’t acted, that warlock would never have been stopped.”
“You were only targeted by the blood mages because you and your Daywalkers have a history of violent behavior against humans. Or did you forget that little part? Too busy trying to turn around the blame onto us?”
Dogaru’s lips curled. “Mages have their own violent histories. We all do. Werewolves, fae, vampire, mages. Even your precious humans.” His grip around my neck tightened. “Now, tell me the location of the rebel base. Otherwise, you’re going to have to find yourself another Enforcer to take her place.”
“Zoe’s not an Enforcer,” Dorian cut in, raising his hand to show he held no blade. “She’s only in training, and she had absolutely nothing to do with what happened to Anastasia. If you want someone to punish—a real Enforcer—take me instead.”
Christian Dogaru frowned. “What are you playing at, Kostas? We both know you’re an Unbound. Anything I do to you is merely temporary. Why would I swap when your pain and suffering would be a slight blip on the radar?”
“Because it wouldn’t be a blip. Since I’m much harder to kill, you can do far more to me than you can do to her. You could make me suffer for years if you decided it was worth it.”
For a moment, I thought Dogaru was actually considering the swap. He regarded Dorian coolly, like a strange specimen on display for him in the lab. “You want to swap your immortal life for this mage. You really are under a curse, aren’t you? Very well. If that’s what you choose to do, then I’ll happily make the trade.”
“Excuse me. I don’t think so,” I said, scowling out at Dorian. He must be an idiot to think I’d go along with this. Never in a million years would I swap myself for my partner. I wouldn’t let him sacrifice himself in order to save my own neck.
“Come on, Zoe,” the Magister said, reaching out a hand to pull me to his side and away from the Clan leader. “Dorian can handle this, and we need to keep you safe.”
“Wait just one minute,” Christian Dogaru’s voice suddenly went ice cold. “When Kostas offered himself in her place, I didn’t question it. Of course he would trade his life for hers. But you? Going along with it?” Dogaru shook his head and narrowed his eyes. “The Salvatore I knew would never agree to such a thing. Kostas is more important. He’s much more valuable.” For a moment, no one spoke, but then Dogaru opened his blood-red lips to continue. “Or is he? Perhaps you’ve realized you have something far more valuable than an Unbound vampire now. And if that’s the case, I’m certainly not going to give her back to you.”
Shivers stampeded along my skin. The vampire leader was talking about my shadow powers, since he could smell the magic in my blood, but he needed to stop before he said too much. The Magister had no idea about my true powers, and we needed to keep it that way.
“They’re both valuable, which means we’re done with this conversation.” The Magister flicked his fingers, and instantly, two Enforcers flanked his sides. Christian motioned to his own men, and a V formation settled in around him, Dogaru leading the front. Tension racketed across the quiet streets. Every cell on my body went on edge as the two supernatural groups made their aim.
Tires screeched across the pavement, and headlights bounced on the road. Christian hissed and dropped his grip around my neck, giving me just long enough to whirl and kick him in the gut. Dorian’s arm found my waist, and he launched me into his arms, turning to run back toward his building’s front door.
The sound of bodies hitting bodies filled my ears, and I squirmed in Dorian’s arms. We couldn’t run from this. The Magister needed our help. But before I could voice my words, a van squealed to a stop beside us. Masked men slid open the door and quickly surrounded us before throwing us inside.
Chapter 21
“Let me guess,” Dorian said, his voice on edge as he scanned the masked figures in the back of the van. “More rebels. I’m assuming you’re here to take us back to the base.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about, Kostas,” a guy said, lifting his mask to show off a tattooed face that matched the rest of his body. “We’re just here on Magister orders to get Zoe out of there and back to headquarters. Safe and sound. Just happened to mean you as well.”
“Bruce?” Dorian asked, his expression relaxing. “Didn’t recognize you with the mask. When did you all start wearing that kind of thing?”
“Magister’s idea. He thought it best to keep our faces hidden. That way no one knows who took Zoe. Except for him, of course. Figured it might be best to keep Do
garu in the dark just in case he decides to retaliate against us.”
“I find it really hard to believe Magister Salvatore would go to that much trouble to save my ass.” Frowning, I braced myself against the van’s steel frame when it hurtled around a corner. “Plus, it’s a little insulting to think I need to be whisked away like some kind of Disney Princess or something. I should be the one protecting the Magister, not the other way around. If I’d needed to kick Dogaru’s ass, I could have.”
“The Magister knows you’re strong,” Bruce said with a nod. “That’s why you’re valuable. He doesn’t want to lose you in a small skirmish with some bloodsuckers.”
Half an hour later, we arrived at headquarters, a top-floor penthouse apartment, along with two more floors below it, that spanned the entire width and length of the towering building. The Bone Coven council members used to live in a picturesque mansion on a tree-lined street among the most prestigious parts of Boston. But, then the vampires set the place on fire, and the coven was forced to find alternative housing for its leaders. This place was pretty impressive, but it just didn’t hold the same magical charm of the original.
We were ushered into a make-shift conference room where three council members were waiting for our arrival. Dorian and I settled into our seats, and only a few moments passed before the Magister joined us at the table. He looked totally and one-hundred percent fine. Whatever fight had been brewing must have fizzled out after the van stole Dorian and me away from there.
With a deep sigh, he leaned forward in his chair and steepled his hands. “I apologize for the shock of the van, but I made the signal to get you out of there when Dogaru refused to back off from his threats. I had to make sure nothing happened to either of you. We have bigger fish to fry than an angry Clan leader.”
“At this point, there’s so many fish that I think we might need to get another frying pan,” I said.
“You’re right. And that’s where you come in, Zoe,” the Magister said, nodding to his fellow council members. One of the men cleared his throat, shuffled some papers, and pushed his glasses down his nose as he read the notes before him.
“Yes, hello, Zoe. I don’t believe we’ve met. Magister Salvatore asked me to come aboard after the, ah…”
“The slaughter of our council members by the Dogaru Clan at our previous base.” The Magister’s lips went tight. “Go ahead. Continue, Theodore.”
“Yes, the ah, slaughter,” the man said, clearing his throat. “Regardless, I’ve been communicating daily with our various coven members living in the city. Our civilians, if you will. There have been some disturbing reports over the past few weeks. Demon sightings, mostly. A few attacks. Luckily, nothing serious, but it does raise some alarms.”
“Which is to say, Professor Ivan Wagner’s strength is obviously growing by the day. We can’t be sure how many demons he has under his control at this point, but it must be more than a few. And he isn’t in some foreign locale. He’s here in Boston, and he’s testing his demons.” Magister Salvatore nodded to the next council member, who flipped through his own set of papers.
“We’ve met. I was at your hearing way back when.” He gave me a tight smile. “I’ve been monitoring activity near Belzus’s graveyard, since that appears to be where the first demon came through the veil. I haven’t seen anything myself, but there are some deep claw marks in the pavement just outside the gates.
“Claw marks?” I raised my eyebrows. “That sounds…unsettling.”
“Yes, indeed,” the Magister said. “And if the demons are able to make that kind of imprint on the world, their strength is obviously growing. We don’t know by how much, but it’s enough to cause us some serious concern.”
“We’ll do anything we can to help,” Dorian said, leaning forward and placing his strong hands on the solid oak table. “Anything except try and force innocent mages to fight a war they aren’t prepared to fight by creating an army of Nosferatu. That isn’t fair or right, and you know it as well as I do.”
“We know we cannot force them to create Nosferatu, and the Bone Coven doesn’t want to, especially after what the blood mages have done to Ben,” Magister Salvatore said. “Instead, I want you to talk to them. Show them why they should join the fight in other ways. And if they still refuse to do anything but sit on the sidelines, they need to give us the Witch’s Blade. It might be our only chance at conquering the demons when Wagner finally turns them onto us in full force.”
“That…actually doesn’t sound like a terrible idea,” I said slowly. “You just want us to go in and talk to them? I mean, we can do that. Can’t we, Dorian?”
Dorian gave a nod. “Yes, sir.”
It was almost too good to be true, and I had a momentary flash of guilt for assuming the worst about the Magister. Ever since we’d returned from Scotland, he’d shown nothing but a desire to do what was best for both the coven and for humanity. He didn’t want to go along with the siege, but he’d felt he had no other choice. And as much as he didn’t agree with the tactics of the Blood Coven, he’d been backed into a corner in a way. We needed mages in order to fight the next war. And all Magister Salvatore was trying to do was keep the peace, so that we could all stand together instead of apart.
And he was trying his best to find us a way out. If that meant talking to the Sun Coven, then we’d have to fucking go talk to the Sun Coven.
“We’ll go just as soon as we’ve found Laura and Anastasia,” I said. “Any idea where we can find that rebel base?”
The Magister shot a glance at his council members, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”
“What?” I curled my hands into fists. “Why?”
“This matter is time sensitive,” the Magister said with a smile. “You will be going to the Sun Coven immediately. Only after you do this will we allow you to seek out that rebel base.”
My heart thumped hard. “But they have Laura. We can’t just leave her there.”
The Magister cleared his throat and continued discussing the plan as if I hadn’t said anything at all. “We will take the siege wall down just long enough for you to get inside the Sun Coven grounds, and then it will go right back up until you’ve convinced them to either join us in the fight or hand over the Witch’s Blade.”
“Understood.” Dorian elbowed me in the side when I merely scowled. But how the hell could he expect me to be happy about this situation? Laura was still a prisoner of the rebels, and I wasn’t being allowed to do a damn thing about it.
“There’s only one problem,” Magister Salvatore said, tapping his chin. “After your little break-in at the Blood Coven castle, our allies are feeling a tad irritable. They want results from our siege, and they want them now. They’re discussing a forward attack. I can buy us a little time, but not much. You have twenty-four hours to discuss a truce and get the Sun Coven to hand over the blade. After that, I’m afraid we’ll be forced to make a move.”
Chapter 22
“We have one chance to make this work. Let’s make it count,” Dorian whispered into my ear as we hovered just inside the siege wall. Darkness enveloped us like a cocoon while a clear night sky sparkled with a million stars. Out here in the desert—where the days were long and the sun beamed down from a cloudless sky—the Sun Coven had built themselves a post-apocalyptic home. It was a tiny little town cut off from the world. The perfect place for supernaturals to build a base. But it also meant regular trips into civilization to stock up on food and water, which had ended up being their downfall in all this. They were trapped.
There was so much riding on our little trip into Sun Coven territory, so much that I didn’t want to think about what would happen if we failed. Having control of the Witch’s Blade meant we could eliminate the demon threat once and for all, and it meant we would no longer be chained to the wishes of the Blood Coven. The Magister wouldn’t have to play by their rules anymore. No Nosferatu army necessary.
“We need to move fast, but
we need to avoid being caught before we know exactly who we need to speak to. Otherwise, an angry sun mage might decide that knocking us out on the spot is the only option,” I whispered as we peered around the side of a lean-to building that looked as though it had battled more than a dust storm or two.
“What is it with you and sneaking around?” Dorian asked with a light laugh. “We’re not breaking in here to steal something. This is one of those times when we actually want attention. I’m pretty sure that hiding in the shadows will achieve nothing but drawing this entire mission out far too long.”
“It isn’t sneaking,” I said, crinkling my nose at him. “It’s scoping things out, getting a feel for things before we reveal ourselves. The last thing we want to do is ruin this one chance the Magister gave us.”
Dorian shook his head and stepped out from behind the building. I braced myself for impact, expecting a hundred different spells to be lobbed at us at once. But after a long moment where absolutely nothing happened at all, my breath expelled from my throat. We hadn’t been attacked. Dorian was still standing tall, and he’d started moving down the long line of buildings, his bulky frame nothing more than an outline against the dark sky.
I followed just behind him, glancing around as we passed house after house. My boots crunched the rough sand, the only sound in the stillness of the night. Sun mages relied on light in order to cast their spells. Being in darkness made them weaker, so they kept themselves tucked safe indoors when the moon rose into the sky.
“Wait. Can you hear that?” Dorian froze in place, raising a finger in the air while he cocked his head. Frowning, I drew myself in to his side and rested my hand on my dagger’s sheath. In the distance, I heard the frantic beating of heavy wings, and then the night erupted into screams.
Chapter 23
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