The Vengeance Demons Series: Books 0-3 (The Vengeance Demons Series Boxset)

by Louisa Lo

  The Council members took a collective intake of breath and exchanged greedy looks with each other. Though they already figured Serafina must have closed their portal to Dualsing somehow, to hear that she was actually able to get onto the changeling plane was something else. I could practically hear the Council members plotting how they could take advantage of Serafina’s access to Dualsing. If they couldn’t have their master returned, then at least they could wage a great war in the name of justice. I wondered why Serafina would want to share the information about Dualsing, but she gave me a look that told me there was a good reason for her reveal.

  “While it is true that I was able to get in,” she continued, “I had a great deal of help. A changeling who was living on the vengeance plane helped me open the passage. But he’s gone now. He’d decided to stay with his own people.”

  “You hear that?” I asked the Council, hiding my own shock at her words. I was rather fond of Pedro. He was a good kid. “Just in case you’re thinking about capturing Serafina to open another passage into the changeling plane. It won’t work because she can’t do it alone.”

  “And I won’t be able to help you, either,” Eldon said. I had no idea when he got up from the slab, but there he stood beside it. “I’ve shed the last of my changeling essence. You will no longer be able to use me as an anchor. If you don’t believe me, use your senses.”

  It was comical how in a few moments the Council members’ faces went from hopeful to suspicious then to bitter. Their senses must have confirmed that Eldon wasn’t lying.

  “So no war for you.” I helped my remaining friends off the floor. They looked like hell, but there didn’t appear to be any long-term effects from their ordeal.

  High Judge Advocatus said, “Even if we are to reach an agreement about releasing you and your friends, Megan, there’s still the matter of the war and public opinion. The Council must be seen as keeping its word.”

  Ah, so we were down to negotiating the specifics now. That was practically a yes to my proposal.

  “What, you want my help in getting you out of this hole you dug yourself into, with all those promises made of ultimate retribution? Fear not. I might just have something to soothe the beast of popular opinion.” I turned to Serafina, “Did the children all make it back okay?”

  “Yes. They’re at a secret location as we speak. There are about a hundred of them,” Serafina replied.

  “You see? A hundred kidnapped supernatural children just got rescued. They’re from a cross section of the Cosmic Balance,” I told the Council. “Gregory already has the right to the financial benefit of this operation, Fir got the street cred for helping our changeling cousins, but the Council can take the official recognition. Spin it whichever way you want. Make yourselves legendary heroes in the face of the evil changelings, or whatever. How’s that for appeasing the populace?”

  I stole a glance at Gregory, hoping he wasn’t too pissed off by the idea of his old man getting undeserved credit due to his own actions, especially considering the choking incident earlier. But to my surprise he seemed strangely smug about it. It was his father who looked as if he’d been asked to swallow a lump of rotten cabbage.

  “You’re willing to let us claim this victory as ours?” Minister Lex said incredulously.

  “Yes. Take all the glory you can stomach, as long as you leave my friends and family the hell alone. And no ‘accidents’ befalling them, either.” I’d finally come to understand that the things that were valued in the world I was trying to be a part of—the co-op credits, vengeance markers, and social recognition—were all but an illusion, a distraction from doing the actual right thing, and I had as little use for glory as a mercenary ever did.

  “That…that could do. That could do very well. The press will love us, and our reputation will grow,” a Council member who was responsible for public relations and inter-species liaisons breathed. I could practically hear the wheels turning in his head and see white smoke coming from his ears.

  High Judge Advocatus huffed. “But even with tangible results, the public would still need to feel that the changelings did not get away with their crimes. They need someone concrete to blame and to be brought to real justice. The wrongdoers couldn’t get away with their bad deeds. That’s the essence of a good vengeance.”

  Oh, the irony of the words. There would be no good vengeance if the intention wasn’t pure, and if the purpose of the fight wasn’t just. I could see that now.

  “You want someone to bring to justice. How about her?” Serafina carefully took out a small casing from her dress pocket. A Barbie doll suspended in the center of it. At close examination, it wasn’t a plastic toy, but a real, pixie-sized girl all dressed up in silk fineries. She appeared to be asleep.

  “Deirdre,” Eldon exclaimed.

  “May I present to you, Deirdre, queen of the changelings,” Serafina introduced the miniature figure on her palm. “We had captured and miniaturized her.”

  I now understood why Serafina had been so open about having been to Dualsing. There was no point hiding it because she had been planning to reveal the ace in her, well, pocket.

  “Her changeling essence is gone, just like mine.” Eldon’s eyes were wide.

  Serafina nodded. “We made sure that the Council would not be able to use her to get into Dualsing.”

  There were many burning questions I was dying to ask Serafina. Like how did they manage to capture such a prize, and who the heck was ruling Dualsing now? Again, later.

  High Judge Advocatus looked at Serafina as if he was seeing her for the first time. “It would appear that I underestimated you, niece.”

  “Thank you, uncle,” Serafina said, deadpan.

  “The changeling queen is wanted for the murder of Serafina’s cousin, plus all the kidnappings committed during her reign.” I grinned. “You guys can have a very open trial. Make a TV circus out of it. The public digs that kind of drama. Especially with her exotic beauty and the royal title. How’s that for a distraction?”

  The Council member responsible for media relations looked like he was about to pass out from excitement.

  I didn’t feel too bad about the indignity and likely life imprisonment that awaited Deirdre. That was the problem with being a bloodthirsty psychopath—not a lot of people would be too outraged by your punishment, even when it was dished out by people who were just as horrible.

  “And the new ruler of the changelings has vowed that there will be no more switching,” Serafina added.

  “A return of the kidnapped kids, a gain of a prisoner, and obtaining the promise of no more kidnapping,” I counted the three points on my fingers. “You don’t even need a lot of spinning to make this look good.”

  Now High Judge Advocatus smiled. They all did.

  So it was decided. The Council went back to looking righteous, and my friends and I went back to our lives and pretended we didn’t know they were not only assholes, but the very enemy they claimed to fight against. All was peaceful.

  At least for now.

  Epilogue #1

  In Serafina’s Shoes: As Adults

  RE-SURFACING FROM THE Tree was a bit of a shock. After spending what felt like an eternity underground, the waning twilight seemed incredibly bright and such a miracle because a part of me had wondered if our group would be able to make it out at all.

  “A lot of downed trees here,” Megan observed as we made our way out of the boundary of the vengeance headquarters.

  The broken timbers were covered in a fresh layer of snow, their demise a stark reminder of the aftershocks that must’ve shaken this plane when the Council’s passage with Dualsing was severed.

  “I didn’t notice when I was here earlier,” I replied honestly. I was too intent on racing to Eldon’s side.

  “Serafina,” Megan asked once we were out of the boundary, “have you thought about where you’re going to stay for the next few nights?”

  “No, I haven’t.” But now that Megan mentioned it, I realiz
ed I couldn’t bear the idea of staying under the same roof as my uncle, who had turned out to be a betrayer of everything I was taught. I had no idea if my own birth parents were also involved with the Greys, and I wasn’t ready to find out just yet.

  “Feel free to stay with me. Rosemary wouldn’t mind. You remember my roommate Rosemary, right?” Megan said. Then she glanced at Eldon. “But if you prefer to be with him, my parents’ house might be a better choice. Their place is bigger than mine. And I don’t think they’ll mind, either.”

  “I appreciate the offer,” I told Megan. “Let me speak with Eldon first.”

  There was so much that needed to be said between us.

  “You go ahead,” Megan said with a knowing smile. “We’ll wait here. I have to make a few calls about Grandma anyway. And with all the adrenaline coursing through our bodies, it’s not like anyone is rushing to get home to head straight to bed.”

  Eldon and I split from the group and walked in silence for a few minutes. I was at a loss for how to begin the conversation, and that made me strangely self-conscious. What did one say to someone who had just said goodbye to everything he’d ever known, including his life-long ambition, his magic, and his supernatural identity? How did one comfort someone who had been betrayed on so many levels, even by his own trusted dragon, no matter how valid the reason?

  I wasn’t even in the position to offer him a place of my own to stay on this plane.

  “Finny.” Eldon finally turned to me. “I don’t know what to say first.”

  “That makes two of us.” I gave him a shy smile. When he didn’t return it, my smile faltered. His gaze slid away without meeting mine, and his lips thinned into a stubborn line. He was right in front of me, yet farther away than ever, even more than when he was captured.

  Noticing my hurt bewilderment, Eldon halted, catching my wrist so I stopped as well. Then he let it go as if our touch burned him.

  “Finny, I’m not handling this very well.” He sighed with a mixture of sadness and frustration.

  “What’s the matter? At the very core of it?” I asked. There were merits in the human analogy of ripping off a band aid.

  Eldon took a deep breath.

  “I don’t deserve you,” he blurted, there was anguish in his voice now. “Because I didn’t choose you.”

  “Go on,” I encouraged Eldon to explain further. We needed to talk about this if we were to move forward.

  “I didn’t choose you,” he repeated. “Not in the way that matters. I didn’t choose you when we were at Dualsing, before you went back home. Not really. I thought I was, but wanting you got mixed up with wanting the throne. I didn’t choose you for you, even when I claimed I was.”

  “Eldon, that’s in the past.” The choice he made, and the choice I made because of it, lay before us. Would I have been happier if our course was set right from the get-go? There was no use dwelling on the what-ifs.

  “No, you don’t understand,” he emphasized. “I didn’t choose you then. And I didn’t give up my ambition tonight for you, either. You’re not the primary reason, anyway. I did it mainly for my own people. So that’s twice I put you second, and damned if I’m going to ride into the sunset with you now as if you’re some kind of consolation prize.”

  He spit out the last two words, disgusted.

  “Even if you want to? Riding into the sunset, that is.” I gestured toward the last slice of the sun disappearing over the trees.

  “Finny, how can you be so calm and forgiving about this?” He ran his fingers over his hair in frustration.

  “Do you want me to fault you for not considering me your primary motivator in the face of some very tough choices? You just told me you gave up the chase for power because it was the right thing to do. And that’s the way it should be. You shouldn’t have done it just because of me. You would’ve come to resent me. We’re not in the land of fairy tales anymore, and we should also leave behind the unrealistic notion of their version of happily-ever-after.”

  “But that brings me to my next point. I’m not a creature of the fairy tales anymore. I now have no more power than a regular human. I won’t be able to protect you if something happens. I might even be hunted by enterprising supernaturals who believe that my mortal status is but a cover.”

  I sighed. I often wished I had Megan’s straight-forwardness, but now seemed like as good a time as ever to channel a bit of her practicality in the situation.

  I turned on my phone and did a quick search on all the rental properties around the day care center where Gregory had placed the children we freed from Dualsing. There was an empty building nearby that used to be an indoor trampoline park. Perfect. I forwarded the link to the Advocatus family lawyer and requested that he take care of the lease for the building right away. He replied almost immediately, his text simply reading: “Consider it done.”

  “What are you doing?” Eldon asked, confused by my sudden obsession with my phone.

  “Taking out a loan against my trust fund to set up a support center for the kids. I have a year off school. I have the time and money at my disposal to do this, and do it right. The Council might make a big fanfare out of rescuing these kids, but the actual legwork of identifying, supporting, and counseling them is not something the authorities would care about. I know what they’re going through and I can help with the transition. And you’re going to help me help them.”

  “Finny, did you hear what I said?” he demanded. “I’m no longer of magic.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  He gaped at me.

  “You were born a changeling,” I continued. “You inherited all the traits that come with that heritage. You’re not a prophesied king who was, by rare design, unselfish. But you managed to overcome your nature. That is your real magic. And don’t you dare downplay it. I need your strength by my side.”

  Eldon was expressionless for the longest time, until his face opened in a slow smile. “You’re a force of nature. Not the gentle and contemplative Finny I knew.”

  “No. I grew up,” I conceded.

  “I know.” Eldon pulled me into his arms and pressed his lips to my forehead. “I’ll be honored to help you at the support center, m’lady, and I hope we get to know each other all over again.”

  “As the adults we became,” I said. Real life relationships took time to nurture and grow, and I wanted to get to know this new Eldon. So achingly familiar yet refreshingly new.

  “As adults,” he agreed.

  Epilogue #2

  Back to Before

  THE GROUND OF THE hospice looked the same as the last time I set foot on the property, which wasn’t really that long ago, but everything had changed now.

  I stared up at the window of the room where Sandra Hogan, the target from my co-op assignment, resided. I felt her life essence all the way from here, meaning it was still going pretty strong. She hadn’t passed on to the next world yet, just as Gregory had promised. But she might as well because her vengeance was now utterly beyond my reach.

  So was getting a degree at Demon U, for that matter.

  “Megan, are you sure about this?” Gregory asked from behind me.

  I took a deep breath. “Yeah.”

  I’d been making discreet but frantic calls to everyone and anyone who could possibly know where Grandma was—excluding her “friends” from the Council. No one had heard from her, or if they had they wouldn’t tell me. I was close to the point of pulling my hair out when Esme got a call from her mom. I guess there was nothing like almost losing a daughter while climbing Mount Olympus to strengthen the mother-child bond. The renewed relationship proved fruitful as her mother had delivered a vital piece of information to us—she’d seen Grandma.

  The specialist of scorned women and scorched male genitals was on her first day back from vacation, immersing her soul in the endless sea of data that was the Internet when she felt the presence of another supernatural.

  A fellow vengeance demon. Weak. Substance-less. Away from he
r body which was shut down for healing. A soul that was part of this world still, yet not.

  Esme’s mother, having been Grandma’s star pupil back in the days when Gran was lecturing at Demon U, recognized the essence of her former mentor—and former mother-in-law—right away.

  Dammit, Grandma must be pretty desperate if she had chosen to hide out and rest on the Internet—she hated computers, no matter what a necessary evil she thought they were.

  Esme was now following her mother into the Internet in search of Grandma. I couldn’t even put into words how much I desperately wanted to be part of that expedition. But such a trip required someone more experienced as a guide lest the soul became lost in the vast kingdom of information. Esme’s bond with her mom was of love and blood, while my only link with the lady was her ex-husband, my dad. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Esme was the better choice for the job, as much as it was killing me to wait around for news.

  So instead of driving myself crazy with worry, I came to the hospice to do some detangling in my own life. Somehow, despite her status in the vengeance society, I thought Grandma would understand why I had to do what I was about to do.

  Maybe that had something to do with the fact that as it turned out, her status—esteemed member of a respected governing body—had also been built on shiftier sand than expected.

  Gregory faded to the background as I approached the front of the hospice. A haughty-looking vengeance demon, a TA from fourth year I knew only by face, greeted me on the doorstep. And by greeting I meant she looked me up and down as if I had dirt under my fingernails and broccoli in my teeth. I produced the vengeance file on Sandra Hogan and held it out for her, but she didn’t take it. Not yet.

  “Do you, Megan Aequitas, agree to hereby forego this vengeance case, and all the privileges and responsibilities that are associated with it?”

  I sighed. “I called you here for this purpose, didn’t I?”