by Kris Greene
Circling overhead was a flock of ravens darting in and out of the pulsating mirrors as the spell-casters empowered the teleportation spells. The ritual put a great strain on the casters and it was doubtful that the weaker ones would survive the ordeal, but their lives mattered little at that point. He needed to get word to his allies and he needed to do it quickly.
“The last of the couriers have been dispatched,” Alex told him. He looked worn and haggard, but he was still standing, which was more than could be said for two of his fellow casters. The young warlock was showing great promise and Titus made a note to himself to thank Dutch for sending him.
“Thank you, Alex.” Titus patted his broad shoulder.
“Will there be anything further?” Alex wiped a trickle of blood from his nose with the back of his hand.
Titus looked over just in time to see another one of the spell-casters keel over. “Yes, bring me fresh vessels to cast a teleportation spell.”
Judy couldn’t believe her luck when the security firm she worked for had informed her that she would be getting a transfer to Titus Corp, one of downtown Ontario’s most prestigious companies. Maxwell Titus was one of the most powerful men in the country and known to pay his employees far more than the average salary. When she’d accepted the transfer she expected to be assigned to one of the bigwigs who worked for Titus Corp, but for the last three days she’d been little more than a babysitter for Titus’s niece, Leah.
Even though she had been briefed beforehand she still wasn’t prepared for what she saw. Leah was a beautiful girl barely into her teens with soft pink hair and eyes of molten gold. Her skin was white, but not like the color, more like looking at the moon on a clear night. It was obvious that she was not human, but her origin wasn’t in the brief and Judy dared not ask. The one thing that had been made clear to her before taking the job with Titus Corp was that she was not to ask questions.
Judy stretched and looked at her watch. She had another five hours to go before her shift was over and watching the paint dry in the girl’s room didn’t help the time to pass any quicker. Judy gave a cautious glance around before slipping the pocket-size book from the pocket of her fatigue pants. She had been warned by her superiors about bringing any kind of foreign material into the room, but it’s not like she was bringing in drugs. There was no way that a copy of Kris Greene’s Pretty in Black could cause any harm.
“What’ve you got there?” Leah called from the bed, scaring Judy. In the three days she had been looking after Leah, she couldn’t recall ever having heard the girl speak. Her voice was almost musical in pitch, but there was something about the power in her words that made the hairs on Judy’s arms stand up.
“Nothing,” Judy lied and went back to her post near the door.
“Come now, I won’t tell my uncle. Let me see.” Leah’s lips curled into a hint of a smile. It tugged at Judy’s heart.
After giving a cautious look around, she leaned her rifle against the door and walked over to the edge of the bed. In the light she could really see Leah, and the child was almost too beautiful to turn away from. Without even realizing that she was doing it she held up the small paperback novel for Leah to see.
“Oh, a Kris Greene novel. I absolutely love her.” Leah’s eyes lit up. “My uncle Titus doesn’t let me read much, as you can see.”
“Yeah, I noticed that your uncle is pretty protective of you,” Judy said.
“He’s more like my jailer than my uncle with all his rules. Of all the things I’ve been denied since coming to stay with him, reading has been the hardest to live without.” Leah pouted. Her eyes suddenly lit up as if she had an idea. “Do you think I could read a few passages?”
“No, I’m not supposed to,” Judy told her.
“Please, please, please, I pinky swear that I won’t tell anyone.” Leah held her pinky up.
Judy beamed at the girl as if she were the sister she never had and locked pinkies. “Okay, but keep your mouth shut. I can lose my job for this,” she whispered.
Leah’s face lit up as if Christmas had come early. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell a soul.” Leah extended her hands for the book hoping that the woman didn’t see them trembling in nervous anticipation. The illustrated cover was barely an inch from Leah’s reach when Judy and the book were snatched away. Standing a few feet away were Titus and his vampire consorts, Helena and Raven.
Helena glared up at the frightened woman with her lips pulled back into a snarl. Judy could see razor-sharp fangs slip down from behind her gums. “Do you know what you almost did, human?” Helena snarled.
“I was just—”
“Giving our sneaky little guest exactly what she wanted,” Titus said as he strode into the room. Trailing him were Raven and the two female security officers who had been standing guard outside the room. Titus knelt and picked up the discarded book that Leah had been reaching for. He flipped through the pages briefly before incinerating the book in his hands. He turned to Judy, who was still in Helena’s grip. “Had you been foolish enough to give her the book, I can only imagine what kinds of catastrophes our little goddess might’ve cooked up. She may even have managed to escape.”
“I would’ve done more than escape, Titus. I would’ve shown you the true meaning of pain,” Leah threatened. She tried to muster up even a fraction of her stolen powers, but could do little more than flutter the net of her canopy bed. Leah was a powerful sprite who had once been worshiped as a goddess. Decades prior, she had been tricked by Belthon and fallen victim to an ancient spell. Leah had been trapped inside the body of a teenage girl. Her powers could not reach maturity and therefore she could not break the spell. She had inhabited several hosts’ bodies over the years, but with each it was the same. Just before the girl reached maturity she would be murdered and Leah cast into another host. She had been leapfrogging through time that way for almost one hundred years, waiting for an opportunity to reclaim her powers and seek revenge against Belthon and Titus for her imprisonment.
“Leah, why do you strain yourself when you know you cannot break the spell binding you to this room? I must say I’m surprised you were even able to manipulate this human the way you did.”
Leah folded her arms. “It wasn’t hard. Anyone working for you, mortal or supernatural, can’t boast of having good sense.” She looked at Raven when she said this. The vampire took a menacing step toward Leah, who smiled. “Do my words anger you, demon? I’ll bet nothing would please you more than to rip my throat out. Have you ever tasted the blood of a goddess?” Leah held out her wrist invitingly. “They say it is sweeter than the blood of ten witches.”
Raven’s eyes were fixed on the small blue veins under Leah’s white skin. She could smell the rich fey blood in the young girl so strongly that it left a sweet taste on the back of her tongue. A low growl escaped Raven and before she could stop herself she was moving forward. Only the firm grip Titus had on her shoulder stopped her from swooping down on the young girl.
“Control yourself, Raven,” he whispered to her. Raven nodded in understanding, but kept her hungry eyes locked on Leah. Titus was warning Raven against touching the girl more for her own safety than that of the sprite. Raven was an old and very strong vampire and if the sprite were to gain access to her it would end disastrously. “Leah, it would be wise for you to stop taunting my aides.”
“Why, when the gods taunt me every day that they allow you to live? You disgust me, Titus!”
“Of this I am sure, but it does not change the fact that you are here to serve me and only the death of one of us will change that.”
“Good, because I see your death coming sooner than expected, which I’m sure is why you’ve come.” Leah folded her legs under her and glared up at Titus. “How many of your forces has the Hunter slain already? Ten, maybe ten thousand? Either way, the results will be the same. As long as you chase the Nimrod, you will be undone.”
Titus’s eyes flashed with anger. “Taunt me all you want, sprite. Even your once grea
t powers cannot manipulate the strands of fate, but I can and you will help me. Helena.” He turned to the vampire.
Helena smiled and punched a hole in Judy’s chest. She turned her hand left and right inside the girl’s ribcage and pulled out her still-beating heart. Slowly she sank her teeth into the organ and drank deeply. She reluctantly pulled her fangs loose and offered the heart to Raven, who bit down and drank her fill, all the while keeping her eyes on Leah. The blood had slowed to a trickle when the heart was finally passed to Titus. His powerful hands flattened the heart, spilling blood over his knuckles and onto the floor. Titus turned, hands dripping blood, and stalked over to the bed.
There was madness dancing under the surface of Titus’s words when he spoke. “I see that all these years as my slave have done nothing to dull that sharp tongue of yours, but I will break your spirit yet, sprite. Blood and bone is the dowry for what I need.”
Leah screamed and backpedaled, knocking over her nightstand and the plate that had been on it. She quickly grabbed the plate and broke it against the ground, threatening Titus with a jagged piece. “There will be blood here today, demon, but it will be yours!” Leah charged Titus with the shard of porcelain, intent on carving his eyes out. Before she could complete her lunge, however, Raven had her, hanging helplessly in the air. From the look in Raven’s eyes you could tell that her control had finally slipped. Her fangs flashed and she was on Leah, but before she could break the skin Titus grabbed her head. With a snap he wrenched the vampire’s head to the side and broke her neck.
“NO!” Helena shouted and rushed toward Titus. He grabbed a fistful of her golden hair and jerked her head back so that her throat was exposed to him.
“Have you all taken leave of your senses?” Titus threw Helena across the room and into a wall. The impact wasn’t severe enough to do any real damage but it certainly brought her back to her senses. “If you want to fight over flesh like dogs then I will be more than happy to drop you back off in the swamps where I found you, whoring and feeding on tourists and animals to sustain yourselves.” Titus turned to the door guards. “If either of these jackals moves without my say-so shoot them through the head.”
“Yes, sir,” both guards answered.
“And you.” Titus snatched Leah by the front of her nightgown. She cringed in his grip as the blood on his hands stained the soft silk, threatening to seep through. “I believe you have a story to tell.” Titus smeared the blood across Leah’s face and stepped back.
Leah’s body jerked and seized as the blood on her skin began to boil. She howled in pain, sending a beam of light from her mouth to bounce on the ceiling. As the blood cooled, it sank into her skin and the pain seemed to subside as a glow began to develop around Leah. Her body snapped upright and when she slowly turned to Titus her eyes burned like the morning sun. When Leah spoke, the power of her voice humbled all in the room. “Ask and receive the goddess’s truth.”
Titus got right to the point. “Why does the Nimrod still elude me?”
“Of course, your fool’s mission.” A soft breeze swept through the room, blowing Leah’s hair back from her face and showing the hard lines around her eyes and mouth. She always looked older in the thrall of her power. “The Nimrod eludes you because it is not meant for you to have. It has chosen the Hunter as its new mate. Even the Bishop struggles to maintain his influence over the Hunter as the bond between weapon and host grows increasingly stronger.”
“Yes, but the Hunter is still just a man. He does not yet understand the power bestowed upon him,” Titus pointed out.
“A temporary setback. The Knights of Christ are reborn and will soon come into their own. Though the Hunter is still a novice, he learns a bit more every day. Under the tutelage of the Medusan, the Hunter will awaken and lead the Knights against the dark forces,” Leah told him.
“You are wrong, goddess. The Medusan are extinct. I saw to that personally,” Titus corrected her.
Leah hovered closer to the foot of the bed, but Titus did not back away. “Four hundred years ago, your treachery destroyed the sacred order of the Time Keepers, but your ego saw to it that there would be one to watch you fail.”
“Jonas.” Titus recalled the young scholar he had betrayed and left to die.
Leah nodded. “The Medusan has seen all that has passed and all that will be. It is this knowledge that will help consummate the marriage between the Hunter and the relic. For now the Hunter is still blind, but the light of Sanctuary will soon show him the way.”
“With all due respect, goddess, your vision is flawed. Sanctuary was burned to the ground and its leader murdered.”
Leah slowly descended to the ground and stood before Titus. He was a foot taller than the girl but still felt small in her presence. She looked at him not with her usual scorn, but with pity. “The Great House has indeed fallen, but what do wood and stone matter when the magic still lives?”
“But Angelo . . .” Titus started.
“. . . is dead. You’ve said as much already. The High Brother’s spirit has ascended, but his power remains on Earth, tucked quietly in another and waiting to be discovered.”
This was something Titus hadn’t expected. Each Spark was the very life force and source of its house’s power. Each was powerful in its own right, but together they empowered the order. When Riel slew Angelo it was a great boon for the dark order, not just because one of their greatest adversaries was no more, but because the destruction of Angelo’s Spark meant that the circle of power had been broken, leaving the order vulnerable for the first time in almost a millennium. Had Angelo passed it to another of the High Brothers, the house wouldn’t have burned—which meant he’d entrusted it to someone or something outside the order. As long as someone carried the Spark, there was always the threat that the Great House in New York could be resurrected. Titus couldn’t allow that.
“Where is the Spark?” Titus asked.
Leah smirked. “Neither here nor there, but in between.”
“I’ve not time nor the patience for your riddles, sprite,” he warned.
“It is no riddle, Lord Titus, but a truth. One that your ignorance blinds you to, but in time you will learn.”
“Time means nothing to the immortal,” Titus told her.
“But you are no immortal, Titus of Athens. It is magic that sustains your wretched life, the same magic that prevents your master from bestowing true demonhood upon you.”
Titus absently rubbed the scar on his chest. During his botched coup of the Seven-Day Siege, the Hunter had buried the trident in Titus’s chest. For reasons unknown to any of them the blow didn’t kill Titus, but the center point of the trident had snapped off and four hundred years later remained lodged in his chest. The broken piece was both a gift and a curse: it made Titus more powerful, but it also rejected Belthon’s attempts at making Titus a full demon. The piece of the Nimrod that remained in Titus’s chest was a constant reminder of what he had lost and what continued to elude him.
“No, but the Nimrod will change that. Four centuries ago I was denied my chance at godhood, but I will have my reward. If I have to level New York City to make it so, I will have my prize.”
Leah hovered a few feet off the ground and looked Titus in the eyes. “And do you think the aristocrats who rule will sit by and allow your personal vendetta to spill into the mortal world and risk exposure? You will call your gathering and spread your lies. Some will listen, but others will see you for the serpent you are.”
“And it will matter not when I am master of all. I will usher in a new age for supernatural beings as well as mortals.”
“What you will usher in is war, Titus. Not all of Midland’s refugees will be receptive to falling under the rule of Belthon and the dark order. They will not follow you.”
“Then they will die!” Titus said heatedly.
“Or you will,” she shot back. Leah sat on the bed and curled her legs beneath her. The light in her eyes was beginning to fade, but she had a parting warn
ing. “Beware, Titus, for the mouse has become the cat. You won’t have to chase the Nimrod much longer because it will come to you.” With that the goddess’s light faded and Leah was a child again. She lay on the bed, curled snugly under her blankets, and drifted off to sleep.
“Damn you,” Titus cursed the sleeping girl. He stormed toward the door when suddenly he remembered Helena and Raven. “Take her to your quarters,” he said to Helena, pointing at Raven. “She’ll be fine in a few nights.”
“I will attend her personally,” Helena assured him, scooping Raven in her arms. The girl’s body was completely limp, but her eyes were wide and staring at Titus with contempt.
“No, you have more pressing duties. Help the sorcerers bind Leah for transport and then join me in the Hall of Mirrors.”
This surprised Helena. In all the years she had been with Titus, Leah had never been moved from her room—and for good reason. The body she was trapped inside and the wards binding the room were the only things keeping her from reclaiming her power. If she were able to unlock even a fraction of her magic, she would surely destroy Titus and all who served him.
“My lord, I don’t think we should move her from the room. If she happens to get loose . . .”
“I know full well what could happen if Leah is freed, which is why I’m bringing her with us. With Flagg gone there is no one here I can trust to make sure our little guest is kept secure. Once all is ready we will be leaving Ontario for a time.”
“And where are we going?”
“To New York City,” he said, much to Helena’s surprise. “We have a gathering to attend and then we’ll see to the youngest of the Redfeather clan and my weapon!”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“This is it?” Gabriel looked at the sign in front of them quizzically.
“According to our little friend here it is,” De Mona said, covering her nose with her hand. The overwhelming stench of the various animals seemed to invade every one of her senses. They had crossed three boroughs before finally winding up in the Bronx, where the rips closest to the Iron Mountains were hidden. According to Gilchrest the main entrance to the goblin court was located somewhere within the Botanical Gardens, but De Mona had been apprehensive about dropping into Midland so close to the goblin stronghold and the unknown. Gilchrest had reluctantly told them about a second entrance that was located inside the Bronx Zoo.