Serpent's Hold (The Last Serpent, Book 5)

by Morgan, Tansey

  “Warlocks also use magic that doesn’t adhere to arcane laws,” Vikram said, “If he uses his powers against me, or any one of us, I’m not sure I can adequately counter his spells.”

  “Have none of you read the art of war?” Leo asked.

  “Know your enemy,” Vikram said.

  “So, you have read it.”

  “I have, and while I appreciate that we at least now know things about our enemy, I have to remind you that warlocks are notoriously tricky to deal with.”

  “Not if you’re a demon,” Aiden said.

  “What?” Vikram asked.

  “Funny thing about warlocks, too,” Leo said, “Their magic isn’t too different to ours. Want to know why?”

  “Why?”

  “Because warlocks get their power from the same place we do.”

  “That’s impossible. How… I’ve never read about that before.”

  “And that’s where your weakness lies, Vikram. You rely so much on what you can learn from books. There are some secrets that haven’t ever been written in books, and some secrets that have been written, and then put to the torch.”

  “So, you’re saying warlocks have been erasing any and all knowledge about themselves from history books?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying. There isn’t a ton I can do about Elroy throwing magic at someone, but I understand how his magic works, I’d be harder to hurt with it, and that should give us an advantage. It’s the rest of the information I’ve gathered that’s going to be useful.”

  “How so?” I asked, “You just said he has an bunch of vampires working for him… they nearly killed you the last time they got hold of you.”

  “That’s only because I didn’t know I’d be going up against so many and because I was alone. Now that I know they’re there, I can be better prepared.”

  Leo produced an amulet from out of his shirt with an amber pendant the size of a coin hanging off it. As he showed it around, the pendant seemed to catch the light in a way that made it almost sparkle, but it was as if the orange light was emanating from within, and not from the surface of the pendant itself.

  “How did you get that?” Liam asked, seeming to instantly recognize it.

  “You know what this is?” Leo asked.

  “A sun gem…”

  “That’s right,” Leo said, “And do you know what it does?”

  “It kills vampires.”

  “It doesn’t kill vampires,” Vikram said, correcting, “That’s just a myth. It does, however, paralyze them in some cases, and make them flee the scene in others.”

  “You’re both half right.”

  “Wait, so this is like a vampire nuke?” I asked.

  “In a way,” Leo said, “The sun gem activates only once, it’s a very rare and powerful kind of magic. When it activates, it triggers a supernaturally charged pulse of bright sunlight to shine from inside.”

  “And it hurts vampires?”

  “Some it paralyzes, some flee from it, others are hurt by its magic, and others turn to ash.”

  Turn to ash. Briefly I remembered that night in the parking lot at the mall, when the vampires had come for me in the night. Dante had done something to one of them, I remembered seeing a white light appear, and then the vampire turned to ash. But I hadn’t seen Dante holding one of those sun gems. He had just… clicked his fingers and made it happen.

  “Okay,” Liam said, grinning, “So, that’s how we get rid of whatever vampires we find.”

  “Not exactly,” Leo said, “Like I said, this is a one shot kind of thing. Once the magic inside the gem is spent, it can’t be used again until the following night. It gets its powers from the sun, which means we have to use it at just the right moment to get the most out of it.”

  “Where’d you get it?” Vik asked, “Sun gems are rare.”

  “What does it matter where I got it from?”

  “Because, it just does.”

  “And I say it doesn’t. We can sit here and argue all you want, but it’ll be a one sided conversation, I promise you.”

  Silence filled the room. “For the record, I don’t like this plan,” I said.

  “What’s not to like?” Leo asked, smiling smugly.

  “Resting the entirety of a plan on a single one-shot gadget? Sounds like a hail Mary pass to me.”

  “It’s only a hail Mary pass if you don’t think you have what it takes to pull it off. Between the six of us, I know we have what it takes. All you need to do is have a little faith.”

  “Right, but once we get the vampires,” Liam said, “I mean, assuming we do… what are we supposed to do next? The sun gem won’t have an effect on Elroy.”

  “That’s where Raphael comes in.”

  “Me?” Raph asked.

  “Yes. You and your psychic magic will come in handy here.”

  “I told you before, warlocks are psychic dark spots. My powers won’t work on him.”

  “They don’t need to work on him—you and Liam need to work together to make your powers work on the stunned vampires.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Once the vampires have fled or been turned to ash, the only ones remaining are going to be weak enough that the right kind of magic can manipulate them into doing what we want.”

  “You mean mind-control them?”

  “That’s exactly what he means,” Liam said, “And I’ve heard of this being done before. Psychic and a necromancer combining their magic to turn even powerful vampire lords into puppets.”

  “I’ve read about this too,” Vik said, “But I’ve only ever heard of this being done to a single vampire at a time, you’re taking about manipulating an entire room of stunned vampires… this… this is a herculean feat.”

  “What do you say, boys?” Leo asked, “Feeling like Hercules?”

  Liam and Raph exchanged confident nods. “We are,” Raph said.

  “Good. Now, Aiden and I are going to take us all to the drop location. Once we’re there, we’re going to spread out. Lilith is going to make herself look like Eddie and pretend to be our buyer.”

  “I’m going to what?”

  Leo looked at me, grinning. “What’s the matter? Never thought about shape shifting into a man before?”

  “I happen to like the female form.”

  “So do I, but we have to make sacrifices here tonight. Can you do it?”

  I sighed, “I think I can do it.”

  “Perfect, then let’s get this circus act on the road—we have less than an hour to scout the drop zone and get into position.”

  Vik nodded, looked at Aiden, and gave him a hand. Raph offered his hand to Aiden also. I took one of Leo’s hands, and Liam took the other.

  “You know where to go?” Leo asked Aiden.

  Aiden nodded. “I do.”

  “Okay, then let’s get the hell out of here. We have a warlock to catch.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Leo and Aiden had taken us to a quiet part of London; near the river, but far enough away from the prying eyes of residential estates and busy working districts. Here there were cranes, unfinished buildings, and heavy duty construction vehicles waiting to be used in the morning. In the shadow of an in-construction, oval shaped structure, with large, black, plastic sheets for windows, is where the drop was to take place, and where I had turned myself into a man.

  Climbing into the disguise had been as easy as assuming any other, but there was something about wearing a man’s shape that really didn’t sit naturally with me. Maybe it was because the form I identified with was feminine, or because there was something about being a succubus that just didn’t enjoy taking on a masculine form. It was a strange thing to think about, but seeing as how I was standing alone in the middle of a construction yard, waiting for someone—I didn’t know who—to show up, I had a lot of time to myself and my thoughts.

  I pulled my collar up against the cold and tightened my jacket around myself. As the moments slipped past, my unease began t
o grow, like a worm wriggling around in the pit of my stomach, then climbing into my chest. Never mind that the others were waiting nearby, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. The worm didn’t care about that. All the worm wanted to do was put my senses on high alert, cause my skin to prickle over, and make my heart start to race.

  When I heard footsteps fast approaching, my heart began to beat even faster. Faster still when I saw the person to whom the footsteps belonged was much closer than the sound had suggested he was. It was almost as if he had been moving ahead of the sound of his own body, and it creeped me the hell out.

  “What’s going on, Eds” the man said. He was thin, short, and incredibly pale skinned. His eyes were bright marbles of dull light reflecting from the lights nearby, his hair matted and black, his lips as blue as a corpse’s. I almost wanted to tell him I had no idea what guy he was talking about, but then I remembered what I looked like, and I nodded.

  “Nothing but the cold,” I said, repeating the secret code words Eddie had told Leo to use. “Do you have it?”

  “You know the drill; you first,” the vampire said.

  “That’s not the drill. First you show me the goods, and then I show you the money? Otherwise I’m going to take my substantial business elsewhere, and you’ll have to explain that to your master. I bet he won’t be pleased.”

  The vampire didn’t immediately move from where he stood, directly beneath a broken light. I almost couldn’t see the details on his face, and that was starting to make me more than a little nervous. If only he’d step a little closer to where I’m standing… then I’d be able to see his face, at least.

  “Alright,” the vampire said, and he unzipped a small satchel he had under his arm. The further he drew the zip, the more light escaped the bag, until there was just enough of it to illuminate the vampire’s face. That, however, only served to make the thing look more menacing, as shadows clung to his face tightly. Inside the bag there were a number of phials, all of them free floating instead of neatly arranged in a briefcase. “Here it is.”

  “Good,” I said, reaching into my jacket pocket. I produced an envelope and held it in my hands. It was thick with British bills, and was easily the most amount of cash I had ever carried around on me. “I’m always good for the money.”

  The vampire zipped the bag up, phials clinking inside. “So,” he said, “Come on over here and we’ll make the trade.”

  “How about you come here and we’ll trade?”

  “I don’t have time for shit like this.”

  I held the envelope out. “Neither do I, and I’m not moving from here.”

  I needed him to step into the light so that Vikram could get a clear shot at him with his magic. Vampires had keen senses, so he, Liam, and Raph had remained far enough away that the vampire wouldn’t be able to easily hear their heartbeats on the wind, or smell their warm, human skin. But they also couldn’t see very well from where they were—this entire neighborhood was dimly lit, almost to the point of being pitch black.

  “Looks like we’ve reached an impasse,” the vampire said.

  “”Doesn’t have to be an impasse. All you have to do is reach over and take this envelope, then I’ll take that bag off your hands and we don’t have to see each other again.”

  The vampire’s eyes narrowed to fine points. He tugged the bag and its strap up and over his head, then held it in his hands. Careful, he took a step, followed by another, and another. He was getting closer, each step bringing him further into view. But my hands tightened around the envelope when the vampire suddenly stopped moving and stared at me.

  “That’s close enough,” he said, “Toss the envelope over and I’ll toss the bag.”

  “Toss it and they break, asshole,” I said, “And if they break, then I break you.”

  The vampire took an angry step toward me. “Oh yeah? You and what army?”

  A thought crossed my mind. “I don’t need an army to wipe the floor with you. You’re nothing but a low-life creature that can’t survive without drinking the blood of other people. Know what that makes you? A parasite.”

  “Watch it, I’m warning you.”

  “It must suck to serve people like me, h uh? Watching us pure breeds walking around, knowing we were born, and not made.”

  “You’re forgetting the part where I’m faster, and stronger than half of those pure breeds. I could snap your neck before you knew what had even happened, you pathetic little prick.”

  My heart was pounding now, but the vampire was almost at the light. I wanted to take a step back, to keep my distance from him just in case he was as fast and as strong as he claimed he was, but moving would have been a mistake. It would have signaled weakness, and I needed to keep him riled up, which meant I couldn’t move. “Yeah? Try it, asshole.”

  The vampire hissed, then grinned widely, showing me his elongated canines that looked sharp enough to tear through flesh like it wasn’t even there. “There’s nothing stopping me from killing you and ripping that envelope from your hands, right after I’ve drained every last drop of blood in your body,” he said, finally coming into the light.

  Taking a deep breath, I let my disguise melt away into my own skin, revealing not only Lilith beneath what had been Eddie a moment ago, but also allowing my wings to unfurl, and my wickedly sharp claws to manifest. The vampire’s eyes widened as, suddenly, my entire profile seemed much larger than his, especially with the giant bat like wings curling around my body. Fear darkened his face. I wasn’t sure if he was going to attack me or set off into the night, but he didn’t get a chance to do either.

  A blast of magic smacked him against the shoulder, causing him to spin and fall, stunned and unable to move. I rushed up to him, grabbed the bag of phials, and pried it from his paralyzed hands while the vampire’s eyes bore down on me. He didn’t know what had hit him, or from where the attack had come from, but he knew I was in front of him, and he wanted to hurt me. I could see it written all over his face.

  “Lilith, get back!” Vikram yelled. He was rushing over, flanked by Liam and Raphael. Leo and Aiden stepped out of the darkness around them, manifesting from inky, black clouds.

  I stepped away from the vampire once the bag with the phials was securely in my hands. Vikram readied another magic blast as he came up to the vampire and hurled it at him like a pitcher throwing a ball after a run up to the mound. The magic struck the vampire, and it squirmed onto its side, but remained paralyzed.

  “Now it’s your turn,” Vik said to Liam and Raph. “Do you think you can do this?”

  “We’re going to find out,” Liam said, then he and Raph stood over the vampire, Liam on one side of him and Raph on the other, and they stretched their hands out over him. With eyes shut, both men muttering the same words at the same time, they started preparing a magical effect neither man had ever before attempted.

  I watched as, all around us, a chill wind began to manifest, tugging on coats, and messing with hair. When my skin began to tighten and feel like it was being marched on my millions of ants, I knew something was going on, even if I couldn’t exactly see much with my own eyes. But then Liam and Raph joined hands, and as soon as they touched, a luminous purple cloud was born, a cloud which seemed to be filled with lightning, crackling around inside.

  The cloud immediately descended on the vampire, crashing into him like a wave before dispersing with a sound like rolling thunder, then Liam and Raph pulled away from each other and stared down at the man at their feet. The vampire slowly started to struggle as his motor functions returned. He seemed to have to fight to stand, and when he managed to get on his feet, his balance was off, but he wasn’t running, or attacking, and that was something.

  “What the hell happened?” the vampire asked, looking at us—us—for answers.

  “You got hurt,” I said, stepping forward. My wings were gone, as were my claws. I was just Lilith, now. “Are you okay?”

  “I think so. How did I get hurt?”

  I looked ov
er at Raphael, giving him a questioning look. Was amnesia part of the deal? “Somebody attacked you, but we drove them off. I think they were after your stash,” I said, handing over the bag.

  “Shit, Elroy would have killed me if I’d lost this and come back empty handed.”

  “Elroy is the one who called us to make sure no one was planning on jumping you,” Leo said, “Good thing we were here.”

  “Yeah… it is.”

  “Anyway, we should be getting back to Elroy. Doesn’t look like your dealer is going to show up, and we need to get paid. How about you take us to him?”

  Confusion washed over the vampire, as if the part of his mind Raphael had suppressed was rebelling against the idea that we were meant to be his backup, or that we were even associated with Elroy at all. But the vampire shook his head, gripped the bag more tightly, and then looked up at Leo.

  “Alright, I’ll take you to the theatre; it’s just a few streets down.”

  Theatre? “Lead the way.”

  The vampire nodded, turned around, and began to quickly move away from the area, disappearing into the darkness only moments after having moved away from us. Vik was already on his phone, checking for the theatre’s potential location. There was only one. “The Lion’s Crown,” he said, holding his phone up to Leo. “Think you can take us there without having been there before?”

  “I can do anything,” Leo said, his voice smug and full of confidence.

  “Okay,” I said, “Then let’s get it done, because we need to beat that vampire to the theatre.”

  “We don’t just need to beat him,” Aiden said, “We need to beat the phone call he’s probably going to make, letting his boss know what happened.”

  I looked at Leo and took his hand. Liam took Leo’s other hand, and as soon as he did, Leo whisked us all through the dark tunnel, and toward our final destination.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  For the second time tonight I found myself wearing Eddie’s skin as a costume, but being in cover was necessary if I wanted to get close enough to the center of this hornet’s nest without being discovered too soon. Aiden and Leo had become shadows, leaving Liam, Vik, and Raph to enter the theatre through the side door. This wasn’t exactly an ideal situation, especially considering this theatre didn’t look abandoned—closed, but not abandoned.