“Wait.” I threw out my boot to block the closing door. It slammed hard against my foot, and I flinched in pain. “Let us in or I will go to your grandfather right now and tell him about your job working for a human.”
It was a bit of a bluff, and I was going out on a limb here assuming that Fane hadn’t told his grandfather about his second bartending job. But I was pretty certain I was right. There was no way in hell a centuries-old vampire would approve of one of his direct descendants working for what he considered food.
Fane narrowed his eyes and hissed. “You’re playing with fire, little witch. I should reach out and snap your neck right now.”
A growl rumbled from Dorian’s throat. “Go ahead and try. There’s three of us and one of you. And from the looks of it, you’re not doing so well.”
Dorian was right. Fane held onto the door like it was the only thing giving him strength. The burn marks were scattered across his pale skin, still red and angry. The wounds looked a hell of a lot better than they’d look on any normal person, but they still must have stung like fire ants. Without his signature horns, he looked pretty fucking pathetic for a vampire.
Fane growled right back at Dorian, but then he cracked open the door a little wider. “Fine. Come inside.”
The three of us filed into the loft apartment. Everything was stark white and pale in the moonlit room. There wasn’t a splash of color anywhere. Even the paintings that hung on the walls were beige with images of horns in each and every one. Fane hobbled to a curved white couch and sunk into the cushions, pulling a knitted throw over his aching body.
“You’re not healing very fast,” Laura said. “Is it because of the burns?”
Fane winced as he shifted on the couch. “Really, must you gape at my pitiful state?”
“I’m sorry,” Laura stammered. “It’s just…well, I thought you healed faster than this. Doesn’t drinking blood help with that?”
“I don’t drink blood very often. See?” Fane pointed to his eyes, which were a pale pink instead of red. “Now, why the hell are you here? To torment me needlessly while I’m in pain?”
Dorian strode closer to the couch, his large commanding frame towering over Fane. “Are you aware that three blood mages have died recently?”
“Three?” Fane clucked his tongue. “No, I was aware of two. Both outside of Descent. Both by what looked to be a werewolf attack.”
“That’s right, though it was three instead of two,” I said. “They all died near Descent, within half an hour of speaking to you at the bar.”
Fane fell silent, staring at us. His eyes sparked with a new kind of irritation and rage, and his hands curled tight into fists, making his long fingers scratch against the soft skin of his palms. “If I’m understanding you correctly, you seem to be insinuating that I was involved in their deaths.”
“That’s not what we’re saying,” Laura said quickly. “But you have to admit, there’s a connection. There has to be. Why were they there? What did they speak to you about?”
The vampire began to laugh, a wet choking sound that caught me off guard. Frowning, I glanced at Dorian, who just shrugged, though his brows furrowed to a sharp and pointed V. “Oh, dear, sweet little witches. You’re so innocent. So naive. So oblivious to what’s going on within your own world.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I snapped.
“I did not kill your blood mages,” he said, “though I would not feel guilty if I had. They deserved their fate.”
“Excuse me?” Laura stood from the chair, body visibly shaking. Anger sparked in her eyes, and she glared down at the vampire. Even though she was short and petite, she suddenly seemed larger than even Dorian. “I know some vampires like you have no moral compass, but you can’t honestly tell me you believe an innocent mage deserved a brutal death? You say you have no demonic ties, but if that’s not evil, then I don’t know what is.”
“I’ll tell you about something evil, my dear.” He flashed his fangs as he smiled at Laura. “A coven of angry mages who wants to destroy every vampire on this planet, including yours truly. After what happened this fall with your traitor Enforcer and the various battles we waged against each other, the Blood Hunter Coven decided to do whatever it took to destroy us. All of us. I bet you’re wondering what caused that fire at Slayerville. Well, I know exactly who it was. The Blood Hunter Coven.”
With a sharp gasp, I stared at the vampire. “You’re lying.”
“Go ask them. I’m sure they’d be more than happy to tell you the truth.” He shuddered as he pulled the blanket up to his chin. “However, despite their terrible actions, I didn’t kill them. Someone else must have gotten to them. Another vampire, maybe. For awhile, I was certain it was a werewolf. There’s been one running around the city these past few months.”
“We’ve ruled out the werewolf,” Dorian said quietly. “This information about the coven’s plan to destroy vampires. Where did you hear this?”
A smug smile spread across Fane’s lips. “From their own fucking lips. They told me one night at Descent. They didn’t realize I was a vampire at first. I overheard them talking about going back to the old slayer ways from the 1700s, so I asked a few questions. Turns out, they’re not very good at keeping their own secrets.”
“What about the nights they died?” Laura asked. “On the video footage, they walked in, ordered a drink, and then left. Pretty strange coincidence, don’t you think?”
“Oh, that.” He chuckled to himself. “I compelled them. After I heard all about their little plan to destroy my kind, I decided to put a suggestion into all their pretty heads. Come see me and have a little drink. They were spiked with Cloud Red.”
Laura wrinkled her nose. “That’s horrendous.”
“Don’t be dramatic.” Fane clucked his tongue. “I gave them a vampire elixir. I didn’t murder them, love.”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “Did you compel all of them to go see you?”
“Each one was told to come in on a night I planned on working,” he said, groaning as he shifted on the couch. “Another mage would have come during tonight’s shift, but as you can see, I’m flat on my back here. It’s a shame. I need the money for another pair of horns.”
“Shit.” I crossed the room and stared out at the deep night sky. We were halfway across Boston, and we’d just come from Descent. The club would be open for a couple more hours, but would we get back there in time? Even though Fane was a vampire and our only suspect right now, I believed his story. Someone else was killing the mages, just after they visited Fane in the club. If another mage went to Descent tonight, would he make it out alive?
Chapter 22
We tried warning the manager on the way, but none of our calls got through. I didn’t expect them to, anyway. It was a busy Saturday night, and the place had been crammed with metal fans when we’d left. He was most likely up to his eyeballs in drinks. I’d worked enough hectic nights to know just how impossible it was to answer the phone when people were demanding another round every five seconds.
“Right.” Laura sat up front for once, and she twisted in her seat to face me. “Here’s what we know so far. Fane Dogaru works at Descent because he needs some more horns. A group of blood mages walks into a bar, and he ends up overhearing them boasting about a plan to destroy every vampire on the planet, which…well, that’s a whole other can of worms I can’t think about right now.”
Sighing, I patted her shoulder. Of all of us, the news that the Blood Hunter Coven was dead set on breaking the alliance was hitting her the hardest. Even though she hadn’t yet joined their ranks, I knew she’d been thinking about it. Right now, she was marked, but she was still a ship without a sail. While she’d grown up in the bone mage community, she wanted to join her own kind. She felt a loyalty to them that I could never understand myself, because I felt no such thing toward the Shadows.
But this changed everything for her.
“Don’t worry, Laura.” Dorian twisted the wh
eel and pressed his foot harder on the pedal. “We’ll take care of that. First, we’ve just got to make sure no one else dies tonight.”
“Right.” She nodded. “Let’s focus on what we know. After hearing their plan, Fane decides it would amuse him to compel the blood mages to drink some vampire elixir. Probably because they’d end up making a fool of themselves. Instead, they end up dead a block or two away.”
“As asshole as the drink thing is, I’m inclined to believe him,” Dorian said. “It’s the kind of thing that Fane would do.”
“Me too,” I said. “Though that leaves things really up in the air. If he didn’t kill them, who did? The wounds look werewolf in nature, but I think we’ve ruled that one out. Could be a demon that’s gone corporeal without us knowing, but that seems strangely random. Why would a demon be methodically going after blood mages? I think whoever it is has to be connected to this whole slayer plan.”
“It’s most likely another vampire.” Dorian’s frown was punctuated by the flash of passing headlights. “Fane said he’d planned on sharing the news with Christian this weekend, which would mean no other vampire knows about the plan yet. That said, he could have been lying to protect someone.”
Frowning, I rested my chin on the seat in front of me, staring out at the dark night. “So, a vampire got wind of it, and now he’s taking them out one at a time. Why the claw marks? Why not drink their blood?”
“Maybe he or she is trying to throw us off the scent.” Laura shrugged. “If we’re going around chasing werewolves and demons, we’ll never turn our attention on the vampires.”
“Speaking of demons…” Dorian slammed his foot on the brakes. I jerked forward, the seatbelt clinching tight around my body. The car swerved sideways and slid to a stop as the sound of screeching tires filled the air.
In the middle of the road, a demon stood on the center white line, its large veiny wings flapping high in the air. A tornado of wind swarmed around the car with every beat, the demon’s body thick and corded with black and twisting muscle. My mouth went dry as I stared up at the creature. It looked a hell of a lot different than the smoky shadows I was used to. This one looked pretty fucking solid.
“This is not good.” Heart clanging in my chest, I leaned forward to get a better look. The demon was bigger in its solid form, too. I’d never quite noticed how expansive they were when they moved through the air like dark and stormy clouds. “Looks like Belzus was right.”
“At least we found it?” Laura shuddered when the demon let out a roar that shook the ground beneath our feet. On the right side of the road, screaming humans spilled from a twenty-four hour pizza place. The demon turned toward them, reaching out a knotted hand to pluck one from the crowd.
Dorian shot out of the car without a word, his eyes focused on the fleeing humans.
“Dorian!” My heart lurched into my throat, and I jumped out of the car to chase after him. Just as I began to run, a car door slammed from behind me. It was Laura, joining me in my rush to help Dorian. With my heart torn in two directions, I slowed and turned her way.
She held up a hand and shook her head, her eyes flickering with fierce heat. “Don’t you dare tell me to get back in the fucking car. I’m coming with you. I’m helping. And that’s final.”
I hesitated, but then nodded. “Do your best damage, my friend.”
We turned toward the demon and raced toward it. With my eyes locked on Dorian’s body, I blocked out the sounds of screaming, of running, of sirens blazing in the distance. All I could focus on was my partner. I knew what Dorian was going to do. Despite what the fae had told us, he would try to destroy the demon with his own venom. He needed to try. I knew that as well as I knew that the moon rose in the sky every night. It was just the kind of vampire he was.
No, it was the kind of person he was.
“Dorian, stop!” I cried out as my feet pounded the pavement. The demon loomed higher and higher until it appeared as tall as the buildings themselves. “It won’t work!”
He was half a football field down the road, but he heard me. His feet paused on the pavement as he half-turned my way. With a slight smile on his lips, he held up his hand in a wave, as if to say goodbye. My heart pulsed with pain, and I threw myself forward, determined to stop him from sacrificing himself this way.
All around me, cars screeched to a halt. Humans poured from their cars and screamed in fear. Windows crashed and doors slammed open in the buildings rising high on either side of the road. Everyone was getting the hell out of here. Everyone except for us.
I jerked to a stop and dug the bone chalk from my pocket, muttering under my breath as my hands shook so hard I could barely draw the rune. The symbol for Ward. With one hand closed tight into a fist, the other grabbed my dagger. I clenched my jaws as I lifted my hand to cast the spell. The bone magic fought against me. More so now that I was intoxicated by fear. It refused to cooperate like it had that day in the crypt, like whatever power I’d been drawing from was no longer there.
The orange wards rippled and shook, but they finally broke free of my hand, hurtling toward the demon that loomed high over Dorian’s head. Just as my partner reached the creature, the orange balls surrounded the dark form, trapping it in the middle of the street.
Dorian dove forward and sunk his teeth into the demon’s leg. It screeched, thrashing its head back and forth. The wards trembled, snapping sharp pain through my hand. My whole body shook as I tried to hold them tight. The wards flickered and popped, and for a painful second, they disappeared altogether until they flamed back around the demon.
And then Dorian jumped away from the demon, pulling his fangs back into his mouth. The three of us stood there motionless, watching and waiting and hoping for the venom to take hold, hoping that Christian Dogaru had been wrong and Nosferatu fangs weren’t needed after all.
But then the demon dropped back its head and bellowed so loud that all the glass in the buildings around us shattered in a single burst. Shards rained down on the pavement, and clouds rolled across the sky. The demon puffed out its chest, rippling its wings. With its eyes locked on my face, it slammed against my wards so hard and so fast that my magic shattered into pieces to join the broken glass.
I stumbled backward, the demon’s harsh power rocking through my body. The rune on my hand ached, like it had been burned in a fire. For a moment, everything in the world slowed to a stop. The demon stared down at Dorian, and Dorian stared right back up at the demon.
Heart in my throat, I began to move my feet just a second too late.
The demon wrapped its hand around Dorian’s body and let out a roar that shook the earth. Everything stopped. Nothing in the street moved an inch. And then half a second later, the demon went up in smoke.
“Dorian!” I screamed, racing after him, my hair streaming behind me. Tears pricked my eyes, and fire danced in my stomach. I could save him. I could get to him. But the road was empty, and the demon was gone.
And it had taken Dorian with it.
Chapter 23
“Zoe, he’s gone.” Laura placed a soft hand on my back and sunk onto the pavement beside me. “The cops are coming. We should probably get out of here. I’m not sure we can answer the kind of questions they’re going to ask, and we don’t have the time to try. Descent closes in less than an hour.”
Tears stinging my eyes, I nodded. Laura was right, but I could barely focus on the present, too caught up in the moment that Dorian had been snatched away. The demon had taken him from us, back into a realm where we could never go. Not unless I opened myself up to the dark power within me.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I answered it without looking at the screen. “Hello?” My voice sounded empty, numb.
“Zoe Bennett?” The voice was frantic on the other end. Scared. He sounded slightly familiar, but I couldn’t place him, not with the fog in my brain. “It’s Sean. We met earlier tonight. I’m calling you because—” He let out a choked sob. “There’s been another murder at my cl
ub. I found the body when I went outside for a smoke break. Please. Please make this stop.”
In a robotic voice, I told the man to stay put while I called the council to fill them in on the news. We had protocols for this kind of situation. Since my partner had been targeted, I had to take the night to catch my breath. Another Enforcer team would go to Descent to take care of the situation there while a second team would come clean up the demon’s mess. And I’d have to add another victim’s name to the killer’s hit list. I closed my eyes as the grief overwhelmed me.
“Nathan? What are you doing here?” My feet slowed on the stairs leading up to my apartment. Nathan Whitman sat on the top step, his head hanging heavy in his hands. He glanced up when he heard my voice, his puffy, purple-ringed eyes highlighting just how little sleep he’d gotten in the past few days. Nathan looked like he was in far worse shape than I was right now. And that was saying something because I had a hole inside my body, one that was the size of my heart.
“Zoe. Laura.” He sighed as he stood. “Thank god. I was starting to worry you didn’t live here anymore.”
“I live here.” Frowning, I strode up the rest of the stairs and drank in the sight of him. Hair stuck out in all directions and dirt splattered across his skin, he’d clearly just spent the night in wolf form. “What’s wrong?”
“Can I speak to you?” His eyes flicked to Laura. “Alone? And do you have any food? Shifting makes me so hungry it hurts.”
“Of course,” I said with a nod. “Come on in.”
Once inside, I led Nathan into the kitchen while Laura went to the back room to check on Grams. I grabbed some frozen chicken from the freezer and got it boiling on the stove before sitting down in the chair across from him. His unexpected arrival gave me something to do, something that didn’t involve agonizing over the moments before Dorian had been taken by a demon. I kept going over it in my head. Replaying the scene until I came to one conclusion and one conclusion only. If I’d used my shadow magic, Dorian would probably still be here with us right now.
The Bone Coven Chronicles: The Complete Series Page 37