The Fallen One (Sons of the Dark Mother, Book One)

by Lenore Wolfe

  Lucius nodded.

  Mira stepped forward upon hearing that. “Lucius,” she said quietly, “we don’t even know if Constantine would be the one to bite her. He may order it done.”

  Dara broke in at this. “No. He took great pleasure in personally turning me.”

  To which the room once again broke into an uproar.

  Once more, Dara reached up to silence the room. “I only mention this because Constantine is likely the one to bite her.”

  Mia nodded. “Good. Then if he… bites me—the vaccine just might do something to his powers,” she said, looking at Lucius to make sure she understood this correctly.

  Again, he only nodded.

  “Well, then—we really have no choice. We may have a powerful weapon. We cannot throw away this opportunity.”

  Justice had been quiet throughout this, but at her words he put his arms around his sister, gently turning her to look at him. “Mia,” he said gently. “You have no idea if the vaccine will do anything to Constantine. And if it does, you have no idea what the rest of the vamps will do to you!”

  Mia nodded. “I do realize the danger, brother. But the Sisters of Three will be tracking me. And we really have no choice—but to try.”

  Justice dropped his arms away in defeat. It was clear that he would not again order her not to go. He had looked a bit taken aback with himself when he had done so the first time. He’d obviously not meant to give her an order, but had reacted solely out of emotion.

  He wouldn’t do so again.

  He nodded, and she hugged him.

  Morgi had remained quiet since first bringing up this plan. She had stayed out of it, making it clear that the choice was Mia’s—and Mia’s alone. Now she stepped forward to offer her assistance in making Constantine believe he had captured Mia—without making him aware that they were actually planting her.

  So Mia prepared for the appropriate time when Morgi would assist in tricking Constantine into believing he had acquired his prize.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Second Chances

  The men had been holed up at Second Chances for two days. In addition, Justice had been in a foul mood ever since they had planted Mia, so no one dared to go near him. He looked like he would take the opportunity to rip someone apart with very little provocation, so every once in a while Conrad would place another drink into his hand, hoping it would help mellow him out.

  The other men kept their distance. The humans usually turned around left the tavern within minutes of entering.

  On top of that, the waiting was wreaking havoc on all of their nerves. Justice clearly needed to do battle, and if things didn’t break open soon, no one knew what was going to happen.

  Justice had left the tavern only once and, if possible, he had returned in an even worse mood than before. Gradually, Conrad had learned that Jes had tried to help him to contact Mia to see if she was okay, but from what little Justice had said, so far it hadn’t gone that well.

  Conrad poured Justice another drink. He waved to one of the guards to take over at the bar, and sat down across from Justice. He was on a mission to get an explanation about what had happened, and he wasn’t leaving Justice alone until he had one.

  He had to know if the girl was okay.

  Only then, would he know whether or not his friend was also okay.

  Mia was locked in an abandoned building. It looked like an old warehouse. The building was made of old wood, but the roof appeared made of metal. She had heard a train nearby, but she had no idea where she was other than somewhere in the city; but she only knew by the sounds she heard from outside.

  Constantine had been taunting her for several hours, and she was beginning to question her sanity for deciding to come here. So far he had kept Morgi around, but nothing in his demeanor said that he would follow through on what they had hoped to gain when she had come here.

  He didn’t do anything else to her—only taunted her. He seemed to get some kind of enjoyment out of getting her to lose her temper—so she kept up her usual smiles instead.

  That seemed to irritate him. And right now she could do nothing more but fight him with her wits.

  She gave Constantine the best look of boredom she could muster. But he only laughed at her. He circled her, again, as she struggled against the ropes with which he had tied her.

  When he wasn’t here, he left her alone for hours at a time. He didn’t even leave a guard around so she could ask for a drink of water. Mia had no idea why he had brought her here, but she had lost all hope that he was actually going to try to turn her.

  Instead he had brought an old witch, and right now that witch was busy setting a circle around her that left Mia breathless. She had no idea if the sisters were capable of this type of power, but she did know that if she could sense it, there was little doubt about how powerful the witch really was.

  If she hadn’t realized that before, she knew it now by the look in Morgi’s eyes. Constantine didn’t always let her come around, but he’d allowed her come today and right now she was busy watching the old witch work.

  Constantine had seemed happy to see her when she’d brought Mia to him—Morgi that is—though he had looked a bit disappointed that he hadn’t captured Mia himself. Morgi had brought Mia to Constantine as a prize, telling him that she had heard he was after the girl, and she had wanted to make things up to him since they had fought when they’d last been together.

  It didn’t take Mia long to realize that these two had a very unusual love/hate relationship. In fact, it appeared that Morgi had been trying to take Constantine down for many years. Mia had no idea why he trusted her at all, but it was equally clear that Constantine was much too arrogant to take her, or anyone else, for that matter, as a serious threat.

  Not that Morgi hadn’t done him some serious damage in the past; in fact, the first day she’d brought Mia there, Constantine had spoken of a time far in the past, when he’d first had laid eyes upon her. He’d said that he had loved her even then.

  And then, he had said that he had since forgiven her for interrupting the other changes he’d had in mind for the Bible.

  This confused the heck out of Mia.

  She knew that humans believed the Bible was written by men, but inspired by God. Mia found the human’s beliefs, regarding the Bible, confusing.

  But—from the sounds of it—Constantine had somehow… influenced some of the things that were written there.

  Mia had known he was old—but she was amazed to realize—just how old.

  He had also mentioned a time when Morgi had nearly beheaded him, but he had somehow narrowly escaped her. Yet—he seemed to have forgiven her that too.

  He seemed to have more of a respect for her—than to hold any contempt for her. In fact, it seemed to Mia that the closer that Morgi had come to killing him—the more he loved her for it.

  Talk about having it bad for a woman.

  They were busy talking now, while Morgi watched the old witch.

  Constantine knew why Morgi watched her, because he laughed and reminded her. “Don’t get any ideas, my red-headed vixen. I almost had you beheaded once already,” he warned.

  Morgi laughed and shrugged. “I underestimated you that day. I won’t make that same mistake again.”

  This only seemed to amuse the old vamp. “Come love,” he said, taking her arm. “We have much time to make up for.”

  And although Morgi gave him a dark look, she didn’t stop him from leading her from the room.

  Mia frowned as she watched them leave. Why he didn’t realize Morgi was up to something in bringing Mia to him, she didn’t know. Or perhaps he did suspect her—and that was why he had not tried to turn Mia.

  Or perhaps—the knowing was something Morgi banked upon.

  Constantine had turned, just before they reached the door and watched with some glee as the old witch worked. And then he had announced, “Do not fret; I have a special plan for you—my little beauty.” He had smiled then. “One th
at I could not have planned better myself, one that my beauty, here, brought to me—when she brought me—you.” Stepping close to the circle, his eyes had darkened then, and his fangs extended. “I will turn you—and then, I will leave you within a circle, like the one you sit within here now, where the Sisters of Three will get to watch you turn.” He raised a silver brow. “Feel the power of the circle? Of course you do. And so will they. They will watch you turn—and there will not be a single thing they can do to stop it.”

  And with that—he’d led Morgi from the room.

  Leaving Mia behind—a prisoner of the circle.

  The men were waiting at Second Chances when they finally got the word that Constantine’s armies were on the move. It had been several weeks of waiting—but they had heard down the pipeline that a large army of Constantine’s men were converging on the city.

  Now they understood why there had been a delay. He’d been waiting for a number of rogue factions—not only from outlying towns and cities, but also from other countries—to arrive to join him. Some of the factions had come from as far away as England, Scotland, and Australia.

  This was a war Constantine intended to win.

  He had big plans for the humans once he won this war, and Dracon’s men were starting to hear rumors about some of them. Constantine’s plans were fraught with greed and control, as well as expressing desire to be seen as a god, but it was obvious that the battles themselves were his primary objective.

  He seemed to enjoy the battle, itself, more than his need to dominate every person on every plane. But from what they had heard, he wasn’t above wanting that too.

  His plans could only bring about the certain destruction of all. He seemed to have no use for humans—other than as a source of food. He appeared to have no respect for them as a life-form.

  While still a human, Constantine had been the Emperor of Rome and had tried to control an entire people through the use of religion. As a supernatural power, he sought to control the Earth on all planes, with brute force if required—his goal was to become the all-powerful one of the Earth itself.

  Even the oldest factions of vampires were appalled. What would the world become, with such a power ruthlessly destroying everything in its wake? Had they not learned that such greed would only bring the destruction of them all?

  Hadn’t they learned this from the fall of Atlantis?

  There the greed for power—the need to have more and more control—had caused many of them to try to steal the stone that sat at the heart of the Earth, renewing them all, wanting it all to themselves. They hadn’t been content with gaining the renewal; they had wanted to own the stone.

  They had wanted to have it all.

  Hadn’t all of the races learned at that time that, all too frequently, the quest to have it all only brought forth the destruction of everything they sought?

  Only balance could bring the joy and happiness everyone sought.

  And balance was never found in the greedy coveting of more—and yet more—until everything good had been used up and there was no more good left.

  Hadn’t the humans seen this with the desire for more land, wealth, gold, control, and power? And hadn’t they all watched and shook their heads over that greed?

  And yet, here was a power who, once more, sought to have it all.

  The Earth had tipped wildly out of control on Her axis from the imbalance such greed had brought about before in its quest for power. Only the hard work of all the masters and Fae—only the combined love they had all had for Her as they had pulled together as one, and combined their love and power while they worked to hold the grid—had saved Her from complete destruction.

  The dark powers had been working hard ever since to again try to gain control over Mother Earth. Those who had worked so hard to prevent the destruction at the time of Atlantis still worked hard now to prevent these beings from gaining the control they sought. They could not allow the dark power to prevail again. They had everything to lose.

  Hadn’t the humans learned that one man defending his home had the strength of ten men trying to invade it?

  They could not allow Constantine to invade their home—or the home of the humans. It would only mean certain and complete destruction of not just a way of life—but of their beloved Mother Herself.

  Jared had sent word that his men were ready. Caesar had left right away to put his men in position, where they would lay in wait for while the vampire hunters led their prey to them. The vampire hunters were busy, at that very moment, leading the fledgling vamps to the armies as bait. Roman and Ophelia were set up deep within Boys’ Town. Roman had sent Lucius through the doorway to the Queen of Darkness. The queen herself would have to help him to return.

  Dracon and Justice left to get the vamp, Fae, and Jaguar armies into position. While they prepared the armies, Jasmine was with them.

  Conrad, and the guards who had been located at his bar, had the hard part: waiting. The hub was too important, as the center of all communication, to close it now that the struggle had started. Conrad was itching to get in on the fighting, but he knew that he must be patient.

  And so—they all sat back to wait.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  War

  It was just after three in the morning when Constantine sent a large wave of fledgling vamps. They moved through the shadowy streets—their shadows slithering before them as the moon caught them in her rays, their shadows stark against the old brick buildings.

  By all appearances, Constantine’s people had been very busy during these weeks of waiting—turning humans into large, fledgling armies. However, they still could not outnumber the Jaguar, Fae and Ancient Vamp armies. For the ones who had waited for so long for this strike to begin—winning this part of the battle was almost like taking candy from a baby.

  However, what Constantine’s fledgling vamps lacked in numbers, they made up for with strength, speed, and power. They hit fast and hard; however, the human vampire hunters had been preparing and practicing for this moment for weeks. None of them had become a vampire hunter due to a fluke. Most of them had a good reason to hate vampires: most of them had lost a family member or a friend, or someone else they loved.

  It was more two hours before Conrad started to get word of the vampires’ attack on the city. The human vampire hunters had set up guards to relay word of the hit as the vampires moved farther and farther into the city. As they had known, it was a good-sized group of vampires, but even at their greatest, they were outnumbered three to one by Justice’s armies.

  The vampire hunters won a lot of respect on this day from the supernatural armies. The stories pouring in to Conrad, and told to the guards that had been left behind to wait, were that the humans had been the fiercest fighters out of all of them.

  Conrad sent the runner, who had come to inform them of how things were going, on his way. He smiled and muttered that he wasn’t actually surprised, and then he nodded and clapped one of the guards on the back.

  “They’re the ones defending their homes,” he said, smiling. “They were the ones defending their families—from a force who would destroy it all.” He picked out several of his favorite shot glasses from where he had them perfectly aligned on one of the taller shelves. He then poured all of the men a drink—he even poured drinks for a couple humans that were still there. “All through history, one man, defending his home, has always been worth three who were invading—leaving a wake of destruction—trying to steal it all.”

  The humans looked confused. They had only heard rumors regarding the current battles, but it sounded like the right side was winning, and so they drank.

  Conrad grinned. They would have drunk anyway—it was free booze.

  The guards were busily nodding their agreement to what Conrad had said. They were used to his rants. He was much more emotional than the Jaguar People, but very well-respected. None of them were sure what he was—though they all knew he wasn’t human. No one seemed to know where exactly Con
rad was from.

  They only knew—Conrad was large. He was fierce—and he was passionate. They knew that he wasn’t one to have on your bad side—but no one would fight harder for his friends.

  And each and every one of the guards was his friend.

  Conrad made a point to get to know all of the men. He also made a point in rotating them, so he had plenty of time to get to know each and every man.

  The sisters were ready and waiting, too, when Constantine hit. Like Conrad, they were given updates as Constantine’s armies made their way through the darkened streets. The human vampire hunters split up and led them down the streets and back alleys, splitting them up and leading them farther and farther apart from one another. The vampires didn’t realize what was happening until there were several vampire hunters to every vampire.