by Mark Tufo
His fingers slid down her arm to take her hand. His palm warm and dry. “Would you like to forget the past, Miss West? I could make you forget all the pain and regret. Become this body fully. You could make her a better person, my Angelique.”
Tamsin suddenly felt light-headed and fell, more than sat, back down in the metal chair. His offer was unexpected to say the least. She had no doubt the Prince could pull it off, whatever his ulterior motives might be. And with Elder Blood, royal or not, there had to be hidden motives. Even in her limited experience, she was sure the Primes were a deeply devious race.
Duprey's offer though...it made her catch her breath. Never had she confronted so much power in one person. Soul Eaters used magic. The Prime was magic, right down to his bones. Angelique must have had similar power, the same deep magic as her father. There were still shadowy places in this body that Tamsin could not feel. Perhaps the power was hiding there, just under the surface, only a little out of reach.
Everything around her faded away as she considered his words.
To forget.
All of it.
And become what? Would she be Angelique or Tamsin or some sort of hybrid? Instinctively she sensed she would not be the person sitting right here, right now. Tempting. Very tempting. No more searches for corpses-to-be. Body and at least spirit, if not soul, together. What would happen to her sense of purpose? There was more than herself at stake in this deep game of dark enchantments. The Soul Eaters would go on with their warped spells, dooming innocent people to dust. Every one of them she killed enabled someone else to live. She had made a vow to fight them, to take down as many as she could and maybe put herself back together in the process. That purpose should not change, even for this.
Around her the room came back into focus and filled once again with the sounds of battle raging on the other floors.
The Prime seemed to understand her decision without any words passing between them. Gracing her with a courtly bow filled with old world courtesy, he helped her to her feet.
“Let me say goodbye to my child.” The mantle of dark magic melted from him revealing for a moment exactly what he was in that room, a father grieving for a lost daughter.
Leaning forward, he grasped the back of her head and kissed Angelique tenderly on both cheeks, murmuring softly in a beautifully rhythmical language Tamsin did not understand.
They stood like that for some time as he spoke. His embrace was warm. She hugged him back without thinking, murmuring, “I'm so very sorry.”
He pushed away to look searchingly at her, his steel gray eyes wide in surprise, “I believe you sincerely are.”
The clock was ticking.
“I must go,” was all she could think to say. “I have to help someone. My friend.”
“Drake. Of course. How very ironic.” He released her. “Until we meet again, Miss West.”
There was an undercurrent to his words that made her understand they would meet again. Very definitely. Shivering inwardly, she could only hope it wouldn't be too soon. Resisting the temptation to look back over her shoulder, she fled the room to find Drake and Knightly.
Death in the charcoal gray suit watched her go, standing silently for a long time in the empty room.
◦ Chapter 16
Chaos reigned up and down the warehouse. Stairs, storage rooms, offices: all had been turned into a battleground. Knightly had a frightening assortment of supernaturals on his payroll apparently. The vampires, silent and implacable, however, were a formidable force. So far the two sides appeared pretty evenly matched. At least judging by the bodies and gore.
Tamsin was grateful the vampires left her alone as she ran zig-zagging through the mayhem. The place had looked large from the little she saw of the outside, but not this large. She couldn't seem to get her bearings. Everything swam dizzily in front of her. Hopefully Drake was still in Knightly's sitting room. Although she wasn't sure exactly where that was.
She moved warily on floors slippery with blood. Oh, for just a little lick, the Angelique part of her whined. A sip or two of the sweet, red nectar. Desperately she sniffed at the scarlet streaks and made a face. Neither vampire nor human. No good to her. Angelique's body was weak and getting weaker. She was a Prime, surely she had reserves of power tucked away? What secrets was Angelique holding back? She had called on the power of air before. Unfortunately that didn't seem to be a particularly helpful element at the moment and she was so very tired.
A body plummeted from above, sprawling practically at her feet. She wrinkled her nose at the smell, sickening to the Prime. Shapeshifter. Glancing up, her heart leapt to see the face staring down.
“Drake!”
“Wait there, don't move.” He leaped from impossibly high to land softly on his feet.
With a grace that belied his size, he was beside her, bruising her mouth with the strength of his kisses.
He didn't even think about it, he just needed to kiss her. Her little tongue danced with his and their bodies urged them to go further, deeper, harder. She held him tightly, with the same passion if not the same strength. A volley of gunshots brought them back to the dangers of here and now. He pulled her with him, their backs flat against the wall. They were both breathing heavily, though not from exertion.
“This place is like an M.C. Escher print,” he panted. “The stairs and hallways seem to lead everywhere and nowhere all at the same time.”
Tamsin nodded. “Some kind of wards or spells. I can feel them buzzing.” She slipped her hand in his. “How did you get away?”
Squeezing her hand, he gave her a small half-smile, “The Prime's public relations committee paid a social call. Knightly became, shall we say, distracted."
A chorus of screams echoed further along the corridor, coming closer, then fading away.
“Can't blame him.” Drake leaned away from the wall to scan the corridor beyond. “If I was under attack by the Duprey clan, I'd have a hard time focussing on anything besides running like hell! Which is pretty much what I've been doing trying to find you in this maze.”
“I met Angelique's father.”
His brows arched up.
She nodded, “Exactly! Terrifying man.” There were more gunshots, this time very close. “I'm thinking we might want to wait outside until the field of battle becomes a little less crowded. We can make sure Knightly doesn't slip away before it's our turn."
Drake gave a quick nod of agreement. “Let's try the upstairs windows, they seem less guarded by spells. The vamps came through the one in the study with no problem. We could climb down the outside of the building.” He looked to the stairway, “If we can find it again.”
“Up or down?”
“You pick.”
She gave a tired sigh, “Up. It was up, wasn't it?”
If she had been in full vamp form, the spells would have proved no impediment. She could have tracked Drake's scent back the way he had come. To her he smelled fresh as a field of summer wheat. Unmistakable. But she wasn't and she couldn't. Several floors up they found a set of steel doors that looked familiar. Throwing them open, they ran in full of hope. It was indeed almost identical to the drawing room, decorated in a very similar style including the big plate glass windows overlooking the water below and the dancing flames of the fireplace opposite. They gave each other high fives.
Unfortunately this room had something the other hadn't: a pair of Fire Tigers crouched and waiting in one corner. Very big ones. Their long, striped tails whipped back and forth and they bared their teeth in anticipation of a meal. As they sprang – one at Drake, one at her – the big cats burst fully into flame.
The impact threw Tamsin to the floor. She brought her legs up, pushing against the beast's belly with her boots, both hands gripping the throat and jaws. It roared in her face; topaz eyes searing into hers through the flames. The heat coming off the beast took her breath away. Desperately trying to keep the monster's teeth from her throat, it was a few heartbeats before she realized her hands w
eren't burning.
A horrible, howling scream and the other Fire Tiger fell nearly on top of her, jaws agape, eyes already clouding over in death. Drake loomed above her, his arm raised for a killing blow with an iron poker from the fireplace.
Primes were linked to elemental powers and only one their downfall. That meant Angelique must have control over fire.
“Wait!” She screamed, “Don't kill it yet.”
Letting Angelique's body take over, she felt the flow of fire run up her arms and over her chest. Drake's flannel shirt began to smolder. This body, Angelique's body, literally drank up the heat. The fiery air tasted sweet. Every ripple of flame filled her with power; feeding her hunger. The beast struggled to be free, recognizing a predator stronger than itself. Tamsin, with the vampire's fingers, hung grimly on until the tiger fell from her, a blackened, drained husk.
So much power.
Tamsin didn't stand, she levitated up from the floor.
She was nearly naked, the clothes burned to threads. Even Angelique's sturdy motorcycle boots were smoking at the edges.
Drake stared at her floating there, willing Tamsin's form to appear. All he could see were the thin, hard planes of the Prime's body covered in her mantle of skull tattoos.
“Tamsin?” He was unable to hide the hesitation in his voice.
She couldn't hear him. The world slowed to a stop. Primes seemed to be able to move between time almost effortlessly. Never more so than now. Drake was as still as a photograph, so fast had she become. The fire was a drug revving up her heart, her mind, everything she was or had ever been. Her past swam before her in a dizzying kaleidoscope of images. The weaknesses and vulnerability. The monsters who had taken that weakness and lured her to her death and the ephemeral spirit she had become.
Nature versus nurture is not just a concept for a Soul Seeker. You had to know where you ended and the new body began – metaphysically speaking. Otherwise you could lose yourself. Right now, Tamsin didn't want to know where those limits lay. She didn't care. This body was amazing; the energy moving through her like rocket fuel. She hadn't felt like this with the air or sand. Fire must be special to the Princess. Her element of choice. To be able to manipulate flame! The feeling was almost as strong as the rush from the blood in the museum.
The Prince had already more of less given her his permission to keep the body. Maybe this is what he meant. Becoming one with Angelique's powers.
She looked at Drake. If she couldn't kill Knightly, then she would have to die to free the Fae.
Angelique's vampire blood had the ability to beguile. She could seduce anyone, anywhere, anytime. Perhaps for Drake, the passion of these last days had been just that: the Prime's blood taking control. Was he worth giving up all this power for? Did he really care? Did she? She could just walk away from all of them.
Drake pushed his Fae powers to the limit, slipstreaming into time, right beside her. Muscles straining. Focusing on reaching the flaming figure vibrating almost invisibly three feet off the ground. This would be just like Angelique; to leave enough spiritual residue waiting to contaminate the unprepared. The woman tainted everything she touched. Reaching for her, knowing her new powers could kill him, Drake ran his hands along the bony line of Angelique's back and hips. Her skin was searing hot and she was breathing far too fast, sucking at the air in quick, shallow gasps. He kissed her, though her mouth singed his like hot coals, murmuring the words, “Come back, Tamsin. Come back to me.”
His lips were cool and the clean, the pure taste of the Fae brought back their hours together. Her fingertips had already memorized the feel of his face beneath them, the smell of his skin, the tickling tease of hair on his chest and belly as his strong body pressed her down. She had been so free laying between his legs, his heat upon her. For the first time since her death she had felt whole again.
Whole as Tamsin.
With that thought, she broke the fever of Angelique's possession. She was Tamsin West and she was stronger than this. Heart strong. Better than any evil vampire princess, Prime or not. Her breathing slowed. Tamsin blinked and she gave a little cry, as though waking from a nightmare.
Under his hands Drake felt the bony contours of Angelique swell and soften. Her breasts pressed against his chest and the hard line of Angelique's mouth became round and soft and sweet. She was Tamsin again, in his arms.
“Tamsin, I thought I'd lost you." He buried his face in her hair, kissing the top of her head, then her eyes, cheeks, and throat. "I have to tell you something," he murmured into her ear, his breath on her skin.
“Shh,” she raised her face, laying a finger to his lips. “Shh. You don't have to say anything. It's just the blood talking. I know. I understand Angelique's powers better now. You were, are beguiled by the vampire. Her blood. She's the one you made love to. You don't have to pretend. Knowing that doesn't change anything for me.”
He looked at her dumbfounded, his eyes staring in disbelief. “You think I made love to Angelique? That I said those things and felt those things with her?” He took both of her hands in his. Immediately he felt Tamsin's little fingers and palms, not the sharp talons of the Prime. “I made love to,” he paused, his voice hoarse. “I see a small blond woman who's long hair seems forever tangled. Who looks back at me with eyes as gray as a stormy sea. She has a little crooked nose and round mouth set in a heart-shaped face, one bottom tooth just a tiny bit in front of the others. She makes me smile. She makes me laugh.”
Tamsin was astounded. For a moment she couldn't breathe. “That's, oh God, that's me. You saw the real me! As I was before. That tooth! I had the straightest teeth except for that little flaw. My mother said I didn't need braces and I begged her for them. We fought about it all the time when I was in high school.” She gave a laugh that turned into a ragged sob, “How could you see me?”
“I don't know. Maybe I was meant to find you or the other way around. Magic has an awful symmetry to it. Whether the Gods are toying with us or helping I have never been able to decide.” He rested his fingers in the little valley between her breasts. “Your human heart, that is what I felt beating next to mine. I made love to you, Tamsin.”
She didn't know vampires could cry. Drake held her close, running his hands over her bare skin.
“I thought I was gone forever.”
“Not to those with eyes to see, Tamsin. I will look for you. Always. I promise.”
His eyes turned opaque and he froze.
Knightly had found them.
◦ Chapter 17
The Soul Eater was bloodied and battered, the elegant silk dressing gown in tatters. She did not think the battle with the Prince's vampires was going well. In one hand he held an amulet that glowed with power, in the other a short sword, completely black, that seemed to be made of crystal. He shut the door, sliding home thick bolts.
“Take the sword, Drake.”
Raising one hand, the Fae easily caught the weapon as Knightly tossed it to him.
“Defend the door.”
Drake stood silent sentinel, sword up and ready. The door shook as whatever was on the other side started to batter its way in.
Tamsin wasted no more time. She recited a spell held ready on the tip of her tongue. The magic caught Knightly full on, throwing him up to the ceiling, then smashing him back to the ground. As though held by invisible strings, he soared to the opposite side of the room. Tamsin slipstreamed beside him, grabbing his hair. She smashed his forehead onto her upraised knee. Fresh lines of scarlet ran from his ears and eyes.
“Did you think I came unarmed, Knightly? I've learned a few tricks.”
He didn't struggle. He laughed. There was an edge to it; sharp as a knife. “Parlor tricks is all you know.”
He aimed the amulet at her.
A volley of razor-edged spells ripped through the air. Tamsin called on her body to react and she ran between them, whirling and dancing with the doom. She levitated, rising up to the ceiling where she crouched, upside-down like a spider.
The door shattered and three vamps burst in. Tamsin could smell them, the same familiar smell as the others. Each vamp soldier had iron claws as long as daggers attached to heavy bands at their wrists and they swung them like battle axes. Drake spun, meeting every blow. The black sword was everywhere at once, blocking, attacking, defending. The blade seemed to absorb the energy from the vampires' attack and the battle was eerily quiet.
Not so her and Knightly's. Their spells screamed at one another like banshees, ripping gaping holes in the walls and ceiling as the two of them slipstreamed around the room in a blur of motion, everywhere at once. She deflected one black rune that ripped so deeply into the ceiling, a desk and chair set came crashing down from the room above. The furniture landed, just as it had stood, in a cloud of cement and dust in the middle of the room. A Dire Wolf, or something much like one, stood crouched on the desk, apparently shocked into silence by the sudden fall. It gave a puzzled look around and both she and Knightly paused in their fight to stare back. There were voices from above. The monstrous beast's whiskers twitched and its lips curled into a snarling growl. With a mighty leap, the wolf turned from them and jumped back up through the hole. A fresh round of screaming started.
Tamsin tuned it out, focusing on her own battle. Drawing on her new powers, she summoned fire from the dancing flames in the fireplace, shaping them into the form of a blazing dragon. Jaws gaping, it whirled and spun, snatching up the Soul Eater to hold him in the air where he danced in an almost comical fashion. The sorcerer slashed at the dragon with his emblem, cutting through the spell-beast's jaw. Knightly fell to the floor, singed and burning. His long, shining hair stood up on his crown, nothing left but a smoking thatch. He felt it with one hand and howled in rage.