by L. A. Banks
Bradley held his head in his hands as Winters hugged himself and rocked in a chair across the room. Bear Shadow and Crow Shadow just hung their heads, thoroughly dejected.
“I should have never, ever, ever have suggested that she go into that level of darkness . . . I intellectually understood this stuff . . . but never had direct combat contact with it. I was always your researcher—the man with his stupid nose in dusty books. I put her on the front line, let the one person who truly believed in me down,” Bradley said, looking up at everyone with bloodshot eyes. “I promised to keep her safe, and I didn’t.”
“You did everything you could,” Sasha said, encircling Bradley with her arms and hugging him hard from behind. “You saved an entire team and the Seelie Fae nation . . . Now let us go to the UCE and see what help we can get for her, all right?” She walked around Bradley and held on to his upper arms, squatting down to face him. “We are not going to just roll over and allow her to die. I promise you, that is not the way of the wolf.”
“No, it definitely is not,” Hunter said, landing a strong hand on Bradley’s shoulder. “We will bring your mate back to wholeness.” His open, wolf gaze held no guile as the two men stared at each other. “I saw my Sasha, my grandfather, and my men all demon corrupted . . . I know the pain of witnessing such a tragedy. You have given me my family back . . . I will fight to the death to restore yours.”
A nurse came through the door and hailed Doc, making everyone look toward her. “Sir, there’s a Lieutenant Woods on the phone who says it’s an emergency and that he needs to speak to a Captain Trudeau.”
Doc headed to the door with Sasha and Hunter. “My cell was off in the ICU . . . pray to God nothing else terrible has happened. The general already wants a meeting with the White House, specifically the president.”
Sasha gave Doc a look but didn’t comment. She couldn’t even begin to process that issue right now.
“Bear, Crow, you stay with Silver Hawk to guard the patient. Three strong Shadows . . . Doc will be here with a man who knows the dark arts and one who is adept in human technology.” Hunter followed Sasha out of the door, his instincts twitching as they dashed down the hall to Dr. Williams’s office.
By the time Sasha got to the telephone, she was out of breath. “Yo, Woods, talk to me.”
“Major evac going down,” Woods said. “Unseelie Fae spotted in the area; Vampires are pissed—as we knew they would be. We’ve got to get a prisoner to court under hostile circumstances, but also have to get Seelie civvies behind garrison walls before sundown. We’re in position down in the French Quarter as we speak.”
“Roger that,” Sasha said, circling the desk as she spoke. “Have any humans been attacked since that last attempt on Winters?”
“That’s a negative, Captain.”
“All right, hold your position. We’ll meet you down there. But that’s a tightrope walk in that area, because the blood clubs share turf and will be opening up within the hour.”
“Affirmative. That’s why we’re moving like greased lightning, Cap. We’re at Aurelia’s Ale Alley down on Bourbon; it’s an underground little Fae pub, and that’s where we’ve been able to get the word out. Most of these folks already know the way to Sir Rodney’s camp and are gone, but for the slower-moving ones or the seriously frightened, we need to give them an escort.”
“Are Sir Rodney’s troops in the area already?” Sasha rubbed the nape of her neck, her eyes on Hunter and Doc.
“Affirmative.”
CHAPTER 24
It was great to be able to shadow jump again and get where she needed to go without delay or discovery. She held the returned amulet in her fist and said a quiet prayer of thanks as she jogged alongside Hunter and emerged in the pub. Nervous Fae archers were milling about. Woods and Fisher stood the moment they saw her.
“Damn, you guys are a sight for sore eyes,” she said, just having killed their demon spirits with rapid machine-gun fire.
“Missed you, too, Cap,” Woods said in a confused but good-natured tone. “How’s everybody back at Tulane?”
Hunter shook his head as Fisher stepped closer. “What happened?” Fisher glanced around their small group.
“Clarissa is in critical condition,” she said in a tight voice. “I need to talk to Sir Rodney’s advisors to see how to break the dark spell.”
“Son of a bitch,” Fisher said, spitting out the wad of gum he’d been chewing. “I knew we should have smoked that little weasel the moment we saw him—right between the eyes.”
Hunter nodded as Sasha rubbed Fisher’s shoulder. “Have you seen Shogun? It’s getting dark; there’s trouble brewing . . . The hair is standing up on my neck.”
“He’s cool. He’s on patrol outside with his men,” Woods said. “He’s—”
A huge crash shattered the plate-glass window, as a body fell through it. Everyone stopped, ducked, and took cover as patrons screamed and ran. Tables overturned, and patrons bailed over the bar. Wolf howls rent the air. Sasha and Hunter were a blur.
The body was human; she could smell the blood as she passed it. Sulfur hung thick in the air, but oddly it wasn’t a typical Vampire signature. whatever it was had used a human as bait, trying to draw the wolves out since they would never be able to find them behind Sir Rodney’s fortress walls. Cowards! This would only add to the heat from the NOPD.
Sirens immediately sounded; the local law enforcement agencies were on high alert. Sasha ran like the wind, her hair lifting off her shoulders as she and Hunter closed in on the scent. Fae archers were on lampposts and telephone wires, fleet-footed agility keeping them aloft as they went after their invisible prey.
Hunter ducked out of the way of a fireball that hit a tavern and set it ablaze. In an instant he was inside the inferno, ushering out humans that would have been trapped. Then a Fae archer turned to put out the fire and paid for the service to mankind with his life. A blue ice bolt came out of nowhere and speared the gallant archer in the chest.
Seelie archers yelled a war cry; arrows were cast down; wands came out; the battle had clearly changed to Fae against Fae.
Innocent people were in harm’s way; Sasha and Hunter turned from the battle, doubling back to help civilians out of burning cars and collapsing buildings. Collateral damage was mounting and there was seemingly no way to stop it.
White lightning and colorful sparks streaked the sky, hit rooftops like fireworks, and turned eaves into tinder. New Orleans was burning. Sheets of ice covered rooftops, making it difficult for Seelie Fae archers to stay aloft. But they zapped the roofs dry, put out flames, and went in hot pursuit of the aggressors.
On the ground, wolves become a single pack, following the undead scent. A blue-lipped Fae crashed to the ground right at Sasha’s feet, stopping traffic as he clutched his narrow chest, holding on to an arrow lodged in it. But something invisible and deadly whirred past her that had an animal scent that she’d never encountered.
Human pedestrians gaped and screamed; one woman got blown off the corner by a swirling gust of snow as Unseelie fighters raged past her. Hail came down like bullets, crashing through windows, damaging roofs, and bringing downtown traffic to a complete standstill.
Police vehicles couldn’t get through. SWAT choppers beat overhead. Three Unseelie warriors materialized in the middle of the street; Shogun leaped, becoming wolf before the viewing public to collide midair and rip out a throat.
Humans shrieked, not knowing which way to run first. Cars drove into buildings, disoriented drivers slammed into other motorists. A blue Gnome dropped down behind Sasha and she spun, kicked him in the face, and sent him into Hunter’s powerful grip.
Machine-gun reports echoed in the distance. Aurelia’s had to be under siege, and that meant her men were, along with all others in the establishment. Her men would be trapped. Police helicopters took stationary positions so that the NOPD could take aim at the only thing they could, wolves attacking what they clearly thought were people on the ground, not realiz
ing the wolves were savaging Unseelies.
Assault rifles squeezed off rounds. Shogun and his men dodged bullets by seeking the alleys. Then suddenly the choppers’ blades ceased whirling; ice covered them, the outer skin of the choppers froze over, and men plummeted to the ground.
The results were horrific; the explosion catastrophic. They had to get the fight out of the city limits. Law enforcement vehicles were everywhere and they were sitting ducks.
“Let Kiagehul go!” a female Unseelie screeched as she materialized for a second and pointed at Sasha. “Your humans die if he dies. Fair exchange is no robbery!”
Sasha and Hunter looked at each other. Vamps were obviously in this now, after the lair bust earlier in the day.
“The blood clubs!” Sasha shouted. Dodging traffic, she mounted a roof through a shadow and grabbed a Fae archer’s arm. “They want the prisoner and are using humans as hostages. Fall back and take it to the blood clubs. That ought to get the Vampires to force the Unseelie to come to court and bring a cease-fire. Since they want to play hard-ball, let’s do the same damned thing!”
Hunter ran ahead of the pack as Sasha doubled back for her men.
“Listen to me, Woods,” she said, ducking down behind a Dumpster in back of the building. “I want you and Fisher out of this hot zone now!”
“But—”
“No buts,” she said, eyeing him and Fisher hard. “You’ve done your part. I want you to guard ’Rissa and Doc. This is gonna get uglier before it gets better, and you hear all those sirens out there? NOPD and all types of authorities are gonna be crawling all over this place . . . Westford already got a call from state police.”
“Oh, shit,” Woods said, leaning back against the building.
“Yeah, oh, shit. That’s why I want you guys to have plausible deniability, if this doesn’t end up right.”
“But we’re not big on leaving your ass out in a firestorm, Cap,” Fisher said.
“I love you guys, too—but right now, cover your asses and make sure the rest of the team at Tulane doesn’t come under attack. Use the iron shells and the rowan as well as silver. Vamps and Unseelie could be working as a unit . . . plus there’s something else out there that I can’t see.”
She didn’t have time to argue with them, it was a direct order. Fall back. “Where’s the grenade launcher?”
Fisher and Woods gave her wide smiles.
“In the van we came in, across the street,” Fisher said, seeming much improved.
Sasha was in and out. The Dumpsters cast a shadow; there was nothing but shadows inside the van. Full metal jacket—she was locked and loaded. So the Vampires wanted to allow their Unseelie buddies to use innocent humans as hostages, huh? She came out of the darkness in front of the baron’s Blood Oasis, aimed, and fired.
“Kill another innocent on my watch and it’s your ass! I, Sasha Trudeau, declare war!”
She slid into another shadow, but not before she saw Shogun in her peripheral vision. He and his men were decimating fleeing Vampires that came out of the inferno like rats jumping off a sinking ship.
Insanity had her in its grip; she walked in the front door of the baron’s casino, a semiautomatic in each hand, hit anything with fangs point-blank, and was out. Wolves came in right behind her, savaging anything that dared to move.
Overturning crypts, she sent a message that the next time it would be daylight. She, Hunter, and Shogun came together at the edge of the swamp with Fae archers. Sir Rodney’s men had captured eight Unseelie and one Vampire.
“Dead or alive?” Sir Rodney asked his men.
“Dead,” his captain of the guards said, taking Sasha’s gun out of her hand and pulling the trigger hard twice toward the Vampire prisoner’s head. His men let go as embers exploded. “In the morning, we torch all their graves.”
“Truce!” a disembodied voice called out. “This is a matter for the courts to decide!”
“Good, you bloody bastards!” Sir Rodney shouted. “Court is in less than an hour!”
This was a very different session than she’d attended before. This time there were no neutral parties. Order of the Dragon security forces were clearly vexed with the Vampires and Unseelie; Fae archers had hair-trigger tempers, having just lost a man. Wolves were united, except for the very small minority faction that still had allegiances to the Buchanan clan. Mythics and Flame of the Phoenix members were so traumatized by the carnage that even they wanted blood. Then there were the Vampires—who were flanked by the Unseelie Fae.
Yeah, this time was wild. Sasha looked around at the tense groups waiting for the UCE’s pillared hall to rise out of the swamp and for the emergency session to be called to order. Everything was out of control. She had no way to know how many innocent human and Fae civilians had been hurt or killed as collateral damage. If something went wrong here, there was no neutral party to intervene and to restore order. It was as though all of the superpowers in the region had their fingers on the nuclear buttons, and everyone was so riled up that they really didn’t give a damn if they left a smoking black hole—even if they’d go up with it. The entire issue of principle seemed to be the core of the debate. Screw the greater good, the helpless, and the meek. The entities coming into this hall wanted a pound of flesh.
The blind, old crone that always presided over the trials came out with her bewitched ledger and pen, which looked more like a wand than a writing instrument. She set the book of records in the air aloft and flung the pen at it so that the pen hovered above the book.
“There is no stenographer, save the book. It records only that which is truth. The normal recorder is too traumatized to attend . . . She is of the Mer—a Siren crier of the deep—and even she will not be party to this travesty.”
The crone’s voice sounded like fingernails on a blackboard and all the wolves in attendance cringed until she was done speaking. She pointed to the gavel and it immediately stood on its handle and spun around, wildly shrieking.
“All rise . . . Court is in session! The book shall be the judge, the record cannot be altered!”
The large, dusty tome that appeared as though it were covered with ancient black serpent skin creaked open with a thud in the air, flipped several of its moldy pages to a clean page, and then waited as the pen poised itself above it.
“We have a very serious complaint,” the crone murmured. “A capital offense that could and has caused war to break out even in front of humans.” She turned toward the back of the court and pointed with a gnarled, arthritic finger. “Bring in the prisoner!”
Wolves howled and Shogun and his men escorted the slight figure down the aisle bound in iron and reeking of rowan. Fae drew back and covered their noses and mouths with cloths and forest leaves, but their eyes hardened and their jeers rang out as a sickly-looking Kiagehul passed their grandstands. A growl crawled up Sasha’s and Hunter’s throats; this was the man who had nearly wiped out their entire family. Vampires curled their lips, showing fangs, insulted by the open hostility exhibited by the Seelie in court.
But the aisle suddenly became ice slicked as a frigid blast dropped the temperature by forty degrees and caused frost to cover the boxes and chairs. Sir Rodney turned from where he sat with Sasha and Hunter in the front box on the right and all eyes followed his as Queen Blatand of Hecate strode down the aisle.
This new threat absorbed Sasha’s complete focus for a moment. The queen had the most fragile features she had ever seen. If she weren’t so evil, one might have called her beautiful. She had large, amazingly clear, pale blue eyes. Her eyebrows were a perfect arch of platinum hair that nearly matched her skin as though she were albino. Set against her huge, questioning eyes was a delicate dusting of white lashes. She had a tiny button nose and a cherub’s mouth, interestingly hued a deep blue that caused such a contrast against her skin that Sasha had to stare. Her small breasts were the perfect teacup size, pushed up in an elegant, old-world, beaded gown, her entire tiny torso and wasp waist held firmly by unforgiving cors
et stays.
Icicle earrings sparkled in her ears; seed pearls, diamonds, and bits of blue ice crusted her ice-blue gown. In her delicate hands she carried an ice wand and a large fan made of packed snow that had a pattern of snowflakes. But it totally blew Sasha’s mind to see her strut down the center aisle in ice stilettos, eyes locked in hatred with Sir Rodney’s.
“Clearly you did not believe that I would allow you to put a member of my court to death without the proper trial and formalities to be sure that action would be sanctioned.” She gave Sir Rodney the evil eye and then promptly slid into the Vampire booth, taking the baron’s arm.
“I might have known that you would be in bed with that cold-blooded Vampire bastard,” Sir Rodney spat. “Ice water also runs in your veins, so I’m not a bit surprised by the alliance.”
The queen fanned herself as the Vampires hissed, remaining cool. “Always hotheaded, my summer prince,” she said in a deceitfully sensual tone. “It is uncomfortably warm in this swamp of a location you’ve exiled yourself to . . . therefore, I do not take your unchivalrous welcome as an affront. It must be the heat that has you so cross and unmannerly.”
“Welcome to New Orleans, Your Majesty,” the baron crooned, his eyes black with rage as he looked over at the Seelie bench. “Although this has at times devolved into what amounts to a kangaroo court, today our objective is justice for your captured national who is being held hostage—as well as for my wrongfully attacked lair and establishment.”
“Held hostage?” a Fae archer shouted from the back. “The bastard killed me brother!”
“Order, order!” the gavel yelled, whacking itself on the empty judge’s bench.
“My top advisors tell me that when the Seelie Fae archer died, my court member was in iron chains,” the queen said coolly.