by Skye Knizley
While it was stunned, Raven kicked it with all her strength, trying to shatter its knee. It was like kicking a brick wall. The demon grunted, but there was no apparent damage from the impact.
With speed that belied his size, the demon spun, lashing out with one massive fist that struck Raven in the side of her head and sent her tumbling into the wall hard enough to leave an imprint in the concrete. The impact left her stunned and fighting for breath as her ribs cracked and a lung collapsed from the impact.
She fell to the ground and watched helplessly as the monster lumbered toward her, dragging its axe behind. Step after ponderous step it came, in no rush to finish the kill.
Raven shook her head and forced herself to her feet. No way was she dying on the floor gasping for air like a beached fish. She leaned against the wall, looking for a way out. There had to be something that would work.
Ten feet away, the monster roared again and charged, raising its axe for a two handed killing blow. At the last moment, Raven tried to dodge aside, but her wounds were too great. She ducked the worst of the blow, but the axe bit deep into her left arm, breaking the bone and making it useless.
She screamed in pain and rolled beneath one of the lunch tables for what protection it would provide. In the semi-darkness she examined her arm, hissing at the pain from the broken bone and torn muscle. It wasn’t going to heal any time soon, not without blood.
Blood.
She turned and looked at the floor, covered in lycan, vampire and faerie blood among others. There was even Van Helsing blood mixed in there somewhere. The grooves Arden was using to collect it ran the length of the floor, beneath the tables and benches to a pool in the center of the room. Raven crawled forward, cradling her wounded arm to her belly, using the tables for what cover they would provide. She moved table to table, rolling and dodging as the Behemoth smashed the steel tabletops into scrap.
She was almost there when the Behemoth ripped the table above her away in a screech of torn metal and unearthly howling. Raven could feel it above her, knew the massive axe was seconds from cutting her in half, but she kept going until she reached the pool in the center of the room. With a final heave she pulled herself into it, sinking beneath the surface.
CHAPTER TEN
Aspen
Tempeste Manor, Outside Chicago, IL, 7:00 a.m. Dec 24th
The sun should have been a glow on the horizon, peeking through the storm clouds and casting rays of holiday cheer on Chicago, but it was nowhere to be seen. The morning was as black and snow-filled as the night had been, complete with hellish red-streaked lightning and precipitation that looked more like ash than snow.
Aspen’s SUV plowed through the snow until she reached the driveway of Tempeste Manor, which was almost snow-free. The staff had been working hard to make sure the entrance would be safe for anyone who came calling, that much was obvious.
She slowed at the end of the driveway and frowned at an unfamiliar black four by four parked near the main entrance. She thought she knew all the cars at Court, she and Raven made a point of checking plates and owners on a regular basis. You couldn’t be too careful, not with the Renegades trying to overthrow the House and put a maniac on the throne.
She parked behind at the curb and climbed out, still studying the SUV. It was big, bigger than most anything she was used to seeing on the road with six wheel drive and ground clearance that required steps that unfolded from the rocker panels to get into the cab.
Aspen passed between it and her Jeep and started up the steps to the front door. She was met at the door by Thad, dressed in combat gear that stood in stark contrast to his feminine Visual Kei style. His makeup was perfect, as was his long black hair and neatly trimmed beard.
“Aspen, we’ve been expecting you. Where is Raven?” he asked.
Aspen brushed past him. “Dealing with an emergency at work. What’s going on? Whose car is that?”
“Mine. Sort of,” Marie said.
Aspen turned to see Marie Laveau standing in the doorway to the den. She was a tall woman, heavy set with greying dreadlocks pulled into a colorful scarf. She wore a long skirt that matched the scarf, a yellow tunic and a dark brown sweater, all she ever needed as proof against Chicago’s winter.
“Marie? What are you doing here?” Aspen asked.
Marie smiled and took Aspen’s hand. “It is all hands on deck, child. Where is Raven?”
“Like I said, working. What’s going on?” Aspen asked.
Thad closed the door and locked it with a heavy bar. “You don’t know?”
“Know what? Look, Levac and Sloan were attacked, she almost lost the baby. Levac is missing, Raven thinks a Dark Coven is going to kill him and drain his blood,” Aspen said. “We don’t have time to waste.”
“It is worse than that, child,” Marie said. “Much worse.”
Aspen looked at her. “Tell me, then.”
Thad ran a hand through his hair. “I missed it, I totally missed it.”
“Missed what, damnit!” Aspen yelled in frustration.
Marie laid a hand on her arm. “The city is falling, child. This storm, it isn’t natural. It’s a spell freezing everyone in the city.”
“Why aren’t we affected?” Aspen asked.
“It doesn’t affect preternaturals,” Thad said. “None of us are affected, but humans are helpless to the magik. Easy prey for the preternaturals.”
Aspen shook her head. “I was just with Sloan, she was surrounded by EMTs and on her way to the hospital. I saw plow drivers, cops−”
“They weren’t human, Aspen,” Thad said. “They were like us, vampires, lycans, mages, maybe even Fae.”
“No way,” Aspen said. It didn’t make sense. She should have felt a spell that powerful, sensed if she was surrounded only be preternaturals.
“I know it’s hard to take in,” Thad said.
Aspen glared at him and pulled her hand free from Marie. “How did this happen, Thad?”
Marie paced away, lost in thought. “A Dark Coven returned, one we didn’t expect, one loyal to your sire and only your sire. It is their doing, though I don’t know how. Masking a spell like this, one this dark, no one should be able to do such magik. It is beyond my knowledge, and yours.”
“How do we stop it?” Aspen asked.
Thad blinked in surprise. “Stop it? Aspen, we’re preparing to escape, to get Mother to safety outside the city. We’ll regroup in Boston, where Selene is waiting for us.”
Aspen stared at him like he’d lost his mind. “What are you saying? That we just give up Chicago? Give up on these people?”
“We can’t stand against magik this big, Aspen,” Thad said. “Renegade vampires and lycans have the city, eventually Section 13 or one of the scarier government programs will intervene with extreme prejudice. We don’t want to be here when that happens.”
Aspen couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Just give up? Let the Renegades win? If they took the city, millions of innocent humans would die. Worse, their evil would spread. The Renegades believed that preternaturals were the rightful top of the food chain and they meant to make slaves of the human race. The war that ensued would ravage the Earth, it would be the apocalypse.
She walked back to the door. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Give up? After everything we’ve fought for? Raven has died protecting this House. She’s put her life on the line, protected both of you to the best of her ability and you’re just going to throw it away like her sacrifices meant nothing?”
She turned and looked back at Thad. “What does Valentina have to say about this?”
“She doesn’t know,” Thad said. “She’s resting, I am making the arrangements in her place.”
“With no authorization,” Dominique said from the stairs. She pulled her hair behind her shoulders and strode forward, a tiny woman full of righteous indignation.
“Do not wave your powers at me, Thaddeus McCoy Tempeste!” Dominique snapped.
“For this you need approval. I know you are not a fighter, but this choice is not yours to make,” Dominique said. “I thought better of you, my son.”
“We have lost!” Thad snapped. “Staying only puts us in more danger, there is no logic in remaining here, we are lambs to the slaughter and I, for one, don’t want to die for a useless cause.”
“As your sister is fond of saying, it isn’t over until she’s dead, and maybe not even then,” Dominique said.
She turned. “Aspen, I need to consult Raven, please contact her and fill her in. I will speak with Valentina.”
She looked at Marie. “You, Mambo, should know better. Attend your bones, find the heart of this threat so we may take action.”
She looked back at Thad. “And you, regent, will stand down and stop acting like a frightened child. We will run when Valentina says we run, and not before.”
Aspen stopped her. “Dominique, this coven has Rupert. I need help finding them, may I join you in updating Lady Valentina?”
Dominique shook her head. “No, my daughter, but I will tell her. Rupert is family, and we will rescue him if there is a way.”
She hurried away and Aspen looked back at Thad. “You heard her, we’ve got work to do.”
He shook his head in disgust. “This fight just costs us lives. How many of us have to die to protect this city?”
“As many as it takes, Thad,” Marie said. “I disagreed with the wisdom of running, but will stand by the family, as well you know. I will stand with it now.”
She hefted the heavy purse she’d left sitting next to the door. “I will return to my shop and consult the bones. You should hear from me by midday.”
“Pandora, Ashwell, Cassie, Sigfried, Ellen, Trace…we will all die before this is over,” Thad said.
Aspen grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him close, rage rising in her eyes. “You listen to me, Thaddeus. I don’t know when your spine turned to jelly, but my wife is out there right now, fighting for us. My friend and brother has been taken and could be dead. Pandora and Ash? Casualties in the war who deserve vengeance. We don’t turn tail and run, we fight back.”
“And when your wife falls to the violence?” Thad asked.
Aspen’s eyes were blazing. “She won’t, but if she does, I will kill every motherfucker who had anything to do with it.” She let go and strode away. “Get to work, Thad.”
“Where are you going?” Marie asked.
“To find Rupert.”
She took the stairs, pausing on the mid-floor landing to pat the door to Raven’s old bedroom before continuing to the second floor where she and Raven had set up a study, a place where she could practice magik within the safety of the House. She’d spent the better part of a month gathering a collection of components, ancient tomes and an altar from the Faewild. She rummaged through the desk she’d placed under the window and pulled out a map of the city that she placed across the altar. She then mixed a collection of aromatic herbs, Faerie dust and powdered crystals that she spread around the map. When she was satisfied with the arrangement, she selected a pink crystal pendulum and began her spell, swinging the crystal in a slow circle above the map.
“Blood of my blood, love of my love, I call to thee,” she said, addressing the map. “I call to thee, show me the path, help me find you in the darkness.”
The dust she’d spread across the map began to move, a swirling tornado of magik that spread across the map, searching, seeking Levac.
“Help me, Rupert! Show me the path,” Aspen said.
With a flash of purple magik, the powder settled onto the map, Most of it vanished, but a small circle appeared a few miles into the lake, where the map showed only open water. There was, as far as the average person was concerned, nothing there. But Aspen and a select few knew there was an ancient island hidden within the mist, an island where one of the most powerful witches in history had once tried to open a hellgate. It was also the place where Raven had died.
“Damn. Raven isn’t going to like this, not one bit.”
The Pit, Beneath FBI Headquarters, Chicago, 7:00 a.m. Dec 24th
Raven sank deep into the pool of warm blood, letting it fill her wounds and drinking deep. It tasted foul, worse than any blood she’d ever tasted, but she could feel the power coursing through her veins. Whatever Arden had been up to, it involved more energy than anything she’d seen in a long time.
But that wasn’t the immediate problem. The Behemoth was.
Healed, angry and itching to get some killing done, she burst from the pool with a roar that sounded as if it was coming from some feral monster out of legend, not a human throat. The Behemoth, searching for some way to get at her, turned in surprise and raised his axe.
“I’m not finished with you, ugly,” Raven said. “Come get some.”
The Behemoth charged, his huge feet thundering in the empty chamber. Raven drew her knives and watched him come. They were all but useless against him, but would suffice until she found some way to destroy him.
He swung his axe in a sideways motion intended to cut her in half. Raven ducked below the blade and slashed at his wrist, opening a welt that dripped green ichor and causing the monster to howl in pain.
Surprised, Raven slashed again, this time ripping into his knee and thigh. Her silvered knives bit deep into its skin, sending chunks of hardened flesh spinning away into the darkness. The Behemoth stumbled and fell to one knee, before rising and lashing out with his axe. Raven barely rolled aside in time, coming to rest with her back against the wall. Her knives hurt it, but not enough to kill it. That was a surprise, but they were made with the same metal as her father’s sword, Hrunting. It wasn’t iron, it was too light, but it had similar properties.
“You could have told me, Dad,” she muttered.
She rose on one knee and rolled again as the Behemoth’s axe struck. Sparks flew as it cut through the wall where she’d been standing and lodged against one of the structure beams hidden behind the concrete and steel. The monster struggled to rip it free, and Raven saw her opening. She leapt into the air and rammed both blades into his back. Armored hide tore, ribs snapped and ichor, the slime that passed for blood in hell, spurted, covering Raven’s arms.
The Behemoth roared and ripped his axe free, taking pieces of the support beam with it. He then flailed uselessly at his back with his free arm, trying to dislodge Raven who held fast to her knives. She locked one hand around a spike protruding from the Behemoth’s shoulder and twisted her knife with the other, seeking his heart.
“You bleed, which means you can die,” she growled.
In a fury, the Behemoth plucked her free and threw her with one hand. She hit the wall with enough force to crack concrete and fell to her hands and knees, gasping for air. She could feel her ribs and shoulders were broken, but healing so fast, she hardly felt the pain.
Raven shook her head to clear the cobwebs and spotted a discarded shotgun. The guards carried USAS-12 shotguns for use should prisoners escape. Their shells carried everything from garlic to pieces of lightning struck tree, enough to kill or wound almost anything. She scooped it up and rose to one knee with the big gun pressed to her ruined shoulder.
She squeezed the trigger and leaned into the recoil. The big shotgun thundered, emptying its magazine into the rampaging Behemoth. Shell after shell punched through its chest until it was mothing but a mess of ground meat, bone and steel. Slowly, almost comically, the Behemoth’s axe slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor a second before he collapsed beside it, dead as the nails protruding from his skull.
Raven dropped the shotgun beside him. “Give my regards to Arden, you son of a bitch.”
She found her disca
rded pistol and wiped ichor from the slide before slipping it into her holster and beginning the long climb to the surface. She ached all over and she felt sick. She’d never tasted such a bizarre cocktail of blood and it was doing strange things to her stomach.
On the landing sixty feet below Chicago, she fell to her knees and retched, sending blood spilling across the black stained concrete. When she was finished, she leaned against the wall feeling weak, but better.
‘Are you there, Asp?’
‘On my way back to you,’ Aspen replied.
Raven started climbing, taking the steps one at a time. ‘Where’s Rupert?’
Aspen paused. ‘I’ve got bad news, lover.’
‘How can this possibly get worse?’ Raven asked.
‘Rupert is on Outcast Isle, and Thad is gearing up to flee the city.’
Raven stopped and glared at nothing. ‘You’re right, its worse. What is happening at the Manor?’
‘Apparently there is a spell on the city that is freezing everyone in town, everyone that is human, anyway. Thad is so scared he was ready to turn tail and run for Boston,’ Aspen replied.
‘What did Mom have to say?’
‘Nothing good. Thad is in the dog house and the Vampire Court is gearing up for a final fight against the Renegades.’
Raven started climbing again, moving faster. ‘Swell. Any sign of them?’
‘Nothing yet. I’m almost there, finish this in person.’
The connection ended and Raven took the steps two at a time. What the hell was Thad thinking? Giving up made no sense, they had the entire Court behind them. No one in their right mind wanted Strohm or one of his childer on the throne. They would fight to the last fang if need be, so why was Thad throwing in the towel?
She pushed through the emergency door at the top of the stairs and almost walked into a ring of officers, all armed to the teeth. Raven recognized two of them, they were lycans, part of Section Thirteen.
“Take it easy, guys, I’m on your side,” she said.