“In the Financial District.” My heart raced. “Where in the hotel?”
“The … Suite de Paris.” Gary looked like each word was painful to push out. “ … big ceremony. Volod invited important Vampires from around the country. It had to do with his most successful accomplishment.”
I whirled and grabbed my phone from my weapons belt. “See what else you can get out of him, Desmond,” I said as a PTF agent let me out of the cell.
First thing I did was call Colin as I ran up the stairs and out of the detention center into the Paranorm Center. “Meet me at the unbirthday party. I’ll be there in less than a minute.”
After Colin agreed, I dialed Angel and gave her the information.
When I burst out into the night above the Paranorm Center, Colin was waiting for me. “Hotel Charone,” I told him.
He grabbed my hand and in the next second we were standing a short distance from the hotel. No other Trackers could possibly be here yet.
“We don’t have time to wait for the others.” I looked at my phone. “Seven minutes.” Fear shot through me as I looked at Colin. “Can you transport us straight to the Suite de Paris?”
Colin shook his head, surprising me. “I can’t transport someplace inside a location that I’m not familiar with.”
“We would need you to find out which floor the suite is on and where the stairwell is,” I said. “Better to just get us to the front door. Now.”
FOURTEEN
Colin used his Dragon charm spell to get by the doormen and to elicit information from the concierge. I had pulled a glamour and stood next to him. Jitters ran through me. I could hardly stand still.
Three minutes if they held to the twenty-four hours. We only had three minutes to get to Rodán, to save him from a fate that was truly worse than death.
As soon as the concierge gave the information to Colin, I went straight for the stairwell. Colin vanished behind a glamour and I knew he was following me even though I couldn’t see him.
I ran up the stairs. Every flight felt like a lifetime. Fourth floor. Seventh floor. Ninth floor.
Tenth floor.
Instead of slamming the door open, I pushed it and slipped through it. Vampires have unreal hearing and I didn’t want my element of surprise ruined.
Colin and I raced for the doors to the suite.
They were closed.
And two Vampires stood guard outside.
Paranorm Vampires. A Vampire-Shifter and a Vampire-Werewolf. I was afraid they would be able to see through my glamour—a lot of paranorms could in the past. Good thing my father and Desmond had worked with me on perfecting my glamour. The Vampire paranorms didn’t move from their posts.
I checked my phone. Two minutes.
Sure that Colin would follow my lead—or had the same idea I did—I went up to the Vampire-Werewolf. I saw his nose wrinkle and he looked around right before I grabbed his head.
I jerked his head down and my knee up at the same time so that my knee broke his nose. He started to make a sound but I was already using the momentum to flip him to the side, his head firmly in my palms.
As he went to the right, I twisted his head to the left and snapped his neck.
It would have killed a normal Werewolf. Not a Vampire-Werewolf.
He growled and stumbled to his feet as he grabbed his own head and twisted it back the way it should be.
My hand went for a wooden stake on my weapons belt.
To the side I saw Colin grappling with the Vampire-Shifter, who was morphing from one animal shape to another. Colin couldn’t be seen, still behind his glamour, and the Vampire-Shifter looked like he was losing the fight.
I raised the stake and drove it toward the Vampire-Werewolf’s heart. He couldn’t see me but he must have sensed me there because he knocked my hand away.
The stake flew out of my hand and landed several feet away.
I dropped and rolled on the carpet, away from the Vampire-Werewolf. He was stumbling, trying to keep his balance. Blood no longer flowed from his broken nose. It had already healed.
Less than a minute. I didn’t know the exact time but we had been fighting for at least ninety seconds.
I drew the mini crossbow with a stake made of silver and aimed it for the Vampire-Werewolf’s heart.
The moment the stake pierced his chest, the Vampire-Werewolf collapsed.
I turned toward Colin and saw him finishing off the Vampire-Shifter with a swing of his sword. The Vampire-Shifter’s head rolled across the carpet.
No time to wait for Colin. I jerked open the door to the suite.
Rodán was at the front of the room bound, and by the look in his eyes, he was drugged.
Volod was beside him. I had just enough time to see Volod slide his fangs into the vein at Rodán’s throat.
“Rodán!” I screamed from behind a group of fifty or so Vampires who were all watching Volod.
My glamour dropped.
Volod jerked his head up. His eyes met mine. Blood coated his lips and fangs.
Rodán’s blood.
Nausea gripped me, the desire to throw up taking me off guard.
“Get the Drow bitch,” Volod snarled as he pressed Rodán’s listless body to him. “But bring her to me—alive.”
Heat roared through my body. I’d just declared myself in a room full of Vampires. Who now had their gazes fixed on me.
Not only did I sense the Vampires, but I sensed more paranorms who had been turned.
I didn’t have time to look at Colin. The Vampires closest were almost on me before I could draw my daggers.
Two Vampires lunged for me.
Fire blasted them as an elephant-size Dragon appeared beside me. Orange-yellow scales glittered gold on its huge body, on the ridges along its back, and down its long, spiked tail.
The Vampires burst into flames as Colin fried them. Smoke filled the room, making it hard to breathe.
Fire wouldn’t kill the Vampires, but it would slow them down before they regenerated.
In the time Colin had given me, I drew both of my Dragon-clawed daggers. I had to get to Rodán. Somehow I had to stop the process before Volod turned him.
So many Vampires were coming at us and so much smoke filled the room that I couldn’t see Volod and Rodán anymore. Couldn’t see a way toward them.
Colin roared and the whole room shook with his bellow. He stomped on furniture and swung his great spiked tail within the confines of the suite.
A half-charred Vampire burst out of Colin’s flames and reached for me. I rammed one of my daggers through his chest and twisted, grinding out his heart.
I gave a Drow warrior cry as I raised my other dagger and sliced through a Vampire’s neck. Her head tumbled to the floor as her body dropped.
“Can you see Rodán?” I shouted to Colin.
The big Dragon reared up to look over the crowd of Vampires and through the smoke. Then the Dragon dropped back down and shook its huge head.
My heart thudded as I raised my daggers to fight off three more Vampires.
The scream of a leopard twisted in my head right before it bounded out of the crowd. The huge cat knocked aside the Vampires closest to me.
A Shifter-Vampire.
I took a step back as the leopard crouched, ready to pounce.
Then more Vampire paranorms crept through the crowd and circled us. Dopplers, Shifters, Werewolves. All paranorms, but all Vampires, too.
Blood rushed in my head. Adrenaline spiked inside me.
Vampire paranorms stood around us and filled the distance between Colin and me and the door.
Surrounded.
Shouts came from behind me and throughout the room. I swung my gaze in a quick sweep. Some relief shot through me as I saw that several New York City Night Trackers had arrived.
Ice crept forward as a white jaguar, Robert beside him in cougar form. Max in Werewolf form gave a low growl as he came up from the opposite side. Joshua and Angel approached in human form.
A huge tiger Shifter rushed me. The white jaguar slammed into him. Both rolled to the side, snarling and fighting.
Angel snapped her whip, a cracking sound echoing throughout the room. A rottweiler roared and leapt toward her. She wrapped her whip around the big dog’s body and jerked. With incredible strength, she yanked the rottweiler hard enough that it flipped end over end and came to a thud at her feet, entangled in her whip. She drew a wooden stake from her weapons belt and drove it home through the Vampire-Shifter’s heart.
Joshua raised his flail and swung it at the lion Vampire-Shifter. The lion roared and batted the spiked ball away.
Max in Werewolf form went for the throat of a Vampire-Werewolf. The Vampire-Werewolf twisted out of the way and snapped at Max’s neck. Max yelped as the Vampire-Werewolf ripped away a chunk of flesh.
A Vampire-Doppler, a raven, flew at my head. Before it reached me, Desmond shot a burst of his magic at the bird. Feathers floated down as the bird shrieked and tried to get out of the ball of light.
What was Volod doing? Where were he and Rodán?
Another Werewolf leapt toward me and I raised my dagger. Colin, in human form, swung his fist and hit the Werewolf in the muzzle. Bone snapped, the crack loud, and the Werewolf flew across the room.
A shadow rose up in front of me and formed into human shape. A Shadow Shifter. I’d never seen him coming. He grabbed me around the neck with one hand, holding me so close to him that I couldn’t use my daggers.
I head-butted him.
Lights sparked behind my eyes but I caught the Vampire-Shadow Shifter enough off guard that I was able to throw him off me.
I whirled to see that my team was being circled by Vampire paranorms.
They were everywhere. Too many of them.
I clenched my Dragon-clawed daggers as Max, Angel, Joshua, Ice, Colin, and I stood against one another in the circle of Vampire paranorms.
My heart thudded, my mind spinning, as I looked for a way out.
A thud from the direction of the suite’s doors. From the corner of my eye I saw Desmond walk in. “Get out,” I shouted. “Desmond, get away.”
He ignored me. Extended his hand. Green light flowed from his hand to the center of the circle. The light enveloped me and my team. Tingles skittered along my skin.
Colin put his hands on my shoulders.
Everything went dark.
A blink and then we were all in the center of my living room in my apartment.
“What?” I spun to face Colin. Desmond was just behind him. “What are we doing here?” I looked from one of them to the other. “Where are Volod and Rodán?” My whole body trembled as I spoke, frantic with fear.
Desmond shook his head. “It’s too late, Nyx.”
I went totally still. It felt like ice was slowly creeping over my body, making its way from the top of my head all the way down to my feet.
“No.” I shook my head. “No. Take us back, now.”
“I’m sorry,” Desmond said.
The world dimmed as it hit me.
My body started shaking violently.
Control of my elements slipped through my grasp.
Lightning cracked outside my apartment window. Wind shrieked. The windows shattered. Rain stormed through the window and into the room.
Furniture snapped. More glass shattered.
Splintered wood and glass shards began to spin within the room around us, as if we were in the middle of a hurricane. A piece of glass scratched my arm, but I hardly felt the pain.
Shouts over the storm, yet I barely registered them.
The room shook and trembled as my earth element rocked the apartment building. A cushion burst into flame and I was vaguely aware of Desmond putting it out with his magic.
Water soaked everything. My wet hair was pasted to my face and rain rolled down my face and body. The wind blasted me so hard it almost knocked me to the floor.
The whole room shook and shook and shook and flames burst throughout, so fast Desmond could barely keep up.
“Nyx!”
My name being called.
“Stop! You’re going to kill us!”
Words that made no sense to me.
The next thing I knew I was in Colin’s arms. We were on the floor and he held me, rocking me.
I trembled and shook and the room trembled along with me. Wind and rain whipped my and Colin’s long hair around our faces, the water chillingly cold.
“Nyx.” He spoke close to my ear, and somehow I heard his even tone. “Calm down, honey. Calm down. You need to get control over your magic and you need to do that now.”
“Rodán.” I said his name in a moan. The rain wetting my face made up for the tears I would never be able to cry.
Colin continued to rock me. “You can control it. You can do it.”
Realization finally cracked through my pain. My magic was so strong, so powerful, that I struggled to reel the elements back in.
“There you go,” Colin said. “You’re doing it.”
I tried to concentrate not on Rodán but instead on my elements. It was like hiccuping. I’d reel in my magic then lose a little when I saw Rodán’s face in my mind. Reel it in, then another hiccup as I saw him again.
“Good job.” I felt Colin’s lips against my wet head.
It was over. The storm of my emotions was over—outside me. Inside they still raged.
“Bloody hell,” Joshua said.
“Shit. What was that about, Nyx?” Ice stood above me and glared down, his arms folded across his chest.
Yet I thought I saw compassion in his ice-blue gaze.
Desmond just watched me.
I didn’t care what any of the Trackers thought.
I pushed my wet hair from my face as I looked up at Desmond. There had to be a way to get to Rodán. It couldn’t be too late. It just couldn’t. “Help me find him,” I said in a hoarse whisper.
The Sorcerer shook his head. “I’m sorry, but it’s been done. Rodán is one of them now.”
“No!” I scrambled to my feet and Colin followed me. I felt the room shudder a little as I almost lost control of my elements again. “I won’t give up on him. I won’t.”
Colin wrapped his arms around me from behind. I didn’t know if he was trying to comfort me or subdue me.
“Rodán was probably pretending to go along with it,” I said as I looked up at him. “He’s not one of them. He’ll never be one of them.”
“You’ve gone too long without sleep.” Colin drew me in close. “We’ll sort things out after you get some rest.”
I shook my head. “No. Are you serious. I don’t need sleep. How can I sleep now?”
Colin rubbed his hands up and down my wet arms, but his warm palms did nothing to chase away the chill that iced my body.
I felt so helpless. So hopeless.
Nothing would ever be right again.
FIFTEEN
The spring night was cold but Volod didn’t feel the chill as he, Monique, Elizabeth, and six of his Vampire paranorms stood in the Trinity Churchyard Cemetery.
Anger burned beneath his skin at the thought that somehow the Drow bitch had found him.
A sense of satisfaction cooled him again. Whatever the case, she’d been too late.
The waxing moon peeked in and out of thick clouds moving slowly across the dark sky. A breeze tugged at his long hair and at the black coat he wore over his black suit. As far as he was concerned, this was a special occasion.
Volod pushed away thoughts of his plans almost being wrecked—for now. He would deal with that problem soon enough.
In the three-century-old cemetery, many nearby headstones were badly eroded, some too worn to see the names. The remains of the humans would be no more than dust. Humans had not been buried here for over a century.
But Vampires were actively buried here. Only no human or paranorm was aware of that fact.
Volod glanced at Monique and Elizabeth, who stood beside him. Despite the fact they were on e
ither side of him, he could feel the tension between the two, so much so that he found it amusing, even arousing.
Elizabeth had not taken well to Volod bringing Monique into his clan, much less the fact that she had shared his bed from the time he had turned her. That Elizabeth was not pleased was certainly an understatement.
Volod focused on the grave and allowed himself to feel some measure of grim satisfaction that this part of his plan had come to fulfillment.
However, capturing Rodán had been harder than he had anticipated. Even with all his precautions and preparation, he had underestimated the Elvin Proctor.
Volod stared at Rodán’s catafalque as two of the Vampire paranorms shoveled freshly dug dirt on top of the modest coffin.
“Will it be any different for him as to when he shall rise?” Monique asked as she glanced from the coffin to Volod. “He is unlike others of our kind.”
Monique had warned him that Rodán was ancient and powerful. Volod just hadn’t grasped how ancient and how powerful she’d meant. Monique had neglected to mention that to her ancient was over a thousand years. To Vampires, it meant three centuries or so.
Volod was ancient. Yet a child compared to Rodán.
That thought had him grinding his teeth. But he had proven who was smarter, who had control. And now he was Rodán’s Master.
“No, it will not make a difference,” Volod said as he studied her. “Now he is like everyone else.”
Monique said nothing and returned her gaze to the coffin that had almost disappeared beneath the dirt being shoveled onto it.
A feeling of jealousy bit at his consciousness, an emotion that surprised him. The level of respect Monique clearly had for Rodán, and the fact that Monique and Rodán had been lovers at one time, made Volod almost furious enough to eliminate Rodán when he rose and be done with him.
Almost.
He had let Monique bite and take Rodán’s blood last night, but Volod had bitten him tonight. It would allow him to have a mental bond and the control he needed over the soon-to-be Vampire.
Much to his surprise, Volod still felt a bit queasy from ingesting Rodán’s blood. Taking the blood of the human he’d had waiting had barely helped him recover. He had since directed one of his Vampires to discard her drained, lifeless body.
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