“There’s always the curse,” I said quietly, gesturing at myself. “I mean, as horrible as this is, there’s one pro in all of it. There no longer has to be an end point for me and Dorian.”
“And who will curse me?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “And how? According to legend, there has to be a reason for the curse or the spell won’t work. A crime that has been committed, something like murder. Now, I know I’m not perfect or anything close to it, but I’ve never killed anyone. And I don’t think I could.”
“Ouch.” I winced. “Well, when you put it that way, you make it sound like I’m a terrible person who deserves this curse.”
“Oh, Zoe, I didn’t mean it that way,” she said quickly, throwing an arm around my shoulder and pulling me close. “All I meant is that a mage needs to have a good reason for casting the curse. It’s a punishment. There are things you’ve done that could be twisted to meet that requirement, like when you killed Vincent in the demon realm. Now, I know you had your reasons, and that you’ve always tried to do what’s right. Hell, I’m glad you killed Vincent. But not everyone will interpret some of your past actions that way.”
“That explains a lot,” I said. “Wagner was the one who cursed me, and the reason is probably because I killed his friend, Vincent.” Closing my eyes, I sighed. “So really, I’ve done this to myself.”
“Well, it’s his mistake.” She gave me a smile as she squeezed me tight. “Because now it means you’re doubly as strong, and you’re practically invincible. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he realizes exactly what he’s done.”
Chapter 30
“We’ve got a demon spotting,” a voice came through the walkie talkie I held in my hand. The night before, I’d been so cold I’d needed a thick pair of gloves. Now, I could no longer feel the temperature of the air. My entire body was a sheet of ice, though I couldn’t feel the sensation myself. All I felt was numb.
“Phoenix here,” I said, using the code name we’d decided before our patrol this evening. “What’s your location?”
The walkie talkie filled the night with static, but I was glad we’d made the change from cell phones to something else. It made it easier to get in touch with the click of a button rather than wait for the person to answer the ring on the other end of the line. Faster communication meant we could get backup in place much quicker than the night before.
“We’re at Location Echo,” the voice said. “We’ve done as planned and haven’t approached the creatures. We’ll await your arrival before making contact.”
“Got it,” I said with a nod. “We’ll be there in five.”
Everyone out on patrol would hear the call of alarm. Some would need to trek across the city to the rendezvous point, but I would go ahead and get there now just in case the demons realized they’d been spotted. A few minutes later, Dorian and I both arrived at the scene with Laura and Anastasia close behind. Two mages, Chris and Michelle, squatted in the bushes lining the street, and they quickly waved us over to join them.
“They’re over there. In the bar,” Chris hissed, pointing at the building half a block down the road. Frowning, I inched forward to scan the surroundings. We were in a fairly busy part of town, which wasn’t ideal. There were a lot of university students milling around, several bars squatting back to back while laughter rang out through open doors. Even though it was getting deep into the night, this part of the city was still abuzz with activity. If the demons wanted to take out several hundred humans, they could do so quickly and easily here. My hope that they’d stick to cemeteries and fields hadn’t lasted very long. They were making their moves now, and there was no more holding back.
“Which bar?” I asked. “There are like five of them in that direction.”
“The Whiskey Horse,” Michelle said. “Honestly, I thought I was imagining things when I saw some dark wings flashing against the window, but I edged inside the place just long enough to scope things out. There are three of them in there. And they’re really corporeal. I don’t understand why the humans inside haven’t started freaking the fuck out yet. Haven’t they seen the news?”
I frowned. “So, the humans inside saw the demons?”
“You got it,” Chris said with a worried frown. “And it gets weirder than that. The humans gathered around them, gazing at the creatures as if they were viewing some kind of art gallery.”
“Right.” Well, this made about zero sense. For one, demons didn’t typically go inside buildings, for reasons no one had ever truly figured out. Some said it was because they couldn’t, an idea that was thrown out when demons gathered in an auto repair shop several months back. That said, corporeal demons lived by different rules than the ones who merely came through as mist and smoke. They seemed like different creatures entirely, and the best thing to do moving forward was to throw out any old assumptions that hadn’t been proven to be universally true.
That said, even if these demons could and would go inside, why the hell weren’t the humans responding to their presence, especially after the recent reports in the news? By all accounts, they should all be fleeing this street as fast as their Converse-clad feet could carry them.
“I think it will come as no surprise to anyone that something isn’t right here,” I finally said. “The humans should be reacting. The fact they aren’t makes me think there’s something else going on.”
“Like what?” Michelle asked with a frown as she rested her hand on the blade strapped to her waist. “You think they don’t see the demons or something?”
“Oh, I think they see them,” I said. “But what they look like to them is the question. You all stay here. I’m going to go scope things out.”
Michelle pressed her hand on mine and pulled me back. “Shouldn’t you have backup? What if they see you and start to attack?”
“I think it’s best if no one else goes inside that place yet. Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.”
When I pushed inside the bar, my senses were hit by an intoxicating mix of familiar scents. They snagged on my memories, filling my mind with so many moments of my past. Blue Moon Tavern had been such a home to me for the past several years, a place where I’d felt safe, even when it had been anything but. I hadn’t had a chance to reach out to my boss since the rebels had taken the bar. The time would come when I would need to explain what had happened to his precious business. And I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to tell him the entire story.
One day, I would have to fix things for him.
Sighing, I shrugged through the thick crowd of bodies until I spotted the three demons hovering in the back of the room. Michelle had been right. They simply stood in the midst of all these people, their large black wings stretching so wide they hit the ceiling. No one seemed even the slightest bit uneasy by their presence, and the demons themselves seemed to take zero interest in the humans who were watching them with curious expressions. It was if they were some kind of exotic animal on display at the local zoo. People were vaguely interested, but they weren’t afraid.
“Excuse me,” I said, pausing when a girl tried to squeeze past me to reach the bar. “What’s going on back there?”
“Oh, that?” She cast a glance over her shoulder at the demons and shrugged. “Word has it they’re just visiting Earth to help fight against those crazy black creatures that have been on the news lately. No one really wants to ask them if it’s true though. I mean, look at them. They’re, like, ethereal and shit.”
“Wait, what?” I flipped her words over in my head, trying to make sense of them. It was difficult to ask her directly because I didn’t want to alert her that anything was wrong or that I clearly didn’t see whatever it was that she saw. “Sorry, I forgot my glasses at home and can’t see really well without them. To me, they just look like massive blobs. Mind describing them for me?”
“Oh!” She widened her eyes as she turned to stare at the creatures once again. “I mean, they pretty much look exactly like what you’d think a gorgeous ma
nly angel should look like. They’ve got the faces of Chris Hemsworth, the bodies of The Rock, and the whitest wings I’ve ever seen. Basically, they are super gorgeous and powerful, and they said they’re going to save us all.”
“Right,” I said, unable to keep the skepticism out of my voice.
Something was definitely off here. It was as if the demons had an illusion cast on them, one that only the humans could see. Or maybe they’d cast the illusion on themselves. If these demons had been brought into the human realm via a hole in the veil, they could have enhanced powers none of us had ever seen before.
“Have they done anything besides stand there since they got here?” I asked, glancing at the winged shadows that stood like hulking tanks against the wall. Everyone was staring at them with such open adoration that it made my stomach boil with unease. If the humans didn’t know to be scared of them, then this situation would only end in more deaths. Instead of running away from these creatures, they’d run right into their arms. At least until the demon angels started killing everyone.
“Nah,” the girl said with a shrug as she cast a bright smile at her guardian angels. “They’ve just stood there. It’s like they’re keeping guard in case those monster things and those crazy-ass witches come back.”
“Come back?” I asked. “You mean, back to Boston?”
“No, I mean here. This street. This strip of bars,” she said, cocking her head. “Did you not know that there was a brutal attack here a few nights ago? Those winged shadow things slaughtered an entire bar full of college students. Like, twenty people died.” When I shook my head, she frowned. “Damn girl. What rock have you been living under?”
“Shit.” Nibbling my lip, I gave her a nod and began to back toward the open door. “Thanks for the info. If I were you, I’d get out of here and go home. It’s not safe. Okay?”
Alarm flittered in her gold-specked eyes, but a moment later she broke out into a laugh. “Good one. Like these glorious angel dudes can’t take care of anything that comes our way. I think I’ll stay here with them, thanks. Anywhere else in the city is probably much more dangerous than this.”
Chapter 31
“So, what’s the deal?” Laura asked when I joined the cluster of mages on the sidewalk. They’d eased out from behind the bushes, but it didn’t matter. The sidewalks were full of tipsy students, and no one was paying attention to the weirdos whispering amongst themselves.
“Honestly, I don’t have a fucking clue.” With a deep breath, I repeated everything I’d learned while inside the bar. What the girl saw (angels instead of demons), what she’d said about the night of the attack, and how she’d reacted when I told her she’d be better off at home. Whatever these creatures were up to, it sent a shiver of unease down my spine. They were setting some kind of trap. I could feel it in my bones. But what that trap was? I hadn’t the foggiest clue.
“I mean, why are they making themselves appear as angels and why stand in a bar where there has just been an attack?” I asked. “Does it make any sense to you?”
“Not really,” Michelle said with a frown. “But you have to remember these creatures think a lot differently than we do, right? Their number one focus is to feed on as much life-force as possible. Those humans inside are their food. Maybe this is their new tactic for devouring as many as possible in a single sitting.”
“Yeah, I thought the same thing, but it wasn’t like they were feeding on anyone in there,” I said. “No one looked scared or in pain. Hell, they looked like they were having the time of their lives.”
“That’s because they are,” a voice said from behind us. The six of us whirled on our feet to find Professor Ivan Wagner standing in the middle of the road, surrounded by an army of pale-faced, red-eyed, hollow-boned vampires. A chill went through me as I flicked my gaze from one creature to the next. There was no doubt what these soldiers were. I’d faced them in Scotland, and now we were facing them here.
“You brought Nosferatu to this place?” Anastasia hissed, and I swore I could see the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. “How dare you.”
“Congratulations. You have proven yourselves to be far too tough for your own good. If you’d just given up a long time ago, then I wouldn’t have needed to bring these creatures here with me,” he said with a wicked smile. “You’ve forced me to take our fight to the next level. I know you’ve been hunting for me. So, here I am.” He spread his arms wide as his smile twisted even wider. “Here’s your chance to take me out. Good luck.”
He flicked his fingers, motioning to the Nosferatu behind him. In seconds, the dozen vampires had launched themselves across the street to join us in a fight. I bent my knees and curled my hands into fists, bracing myself for impact. A second later, I was on my back when a Nosferatu twice my size slammed into me. Grunting, I rolled onto my stomach and jumped back to my feet, feeling a surge of strength coming from my newly-fed heart.
As strong as I was, my hybrid cursed form couldn’t match the brutality of a Nosferatu, but I sure as hell could put up a fierce fight. Sniffing the air, I threw myself to the right just in time to miss the hurtling fist of the vampire. I smiled and shot out my own fist, aiming for his head. Nosferatu were notoriously hard to kill but damaging their skull would knock them senseless long enough for me to get a grip on my blade. And then I could sink the steel into his skull.
But I missed, my hand meeting air instead of flesh. I ducked down when he swung another blow my way. Crouching low, I kicked hard at his stomach, hitting him square in the chest. The vampire stumbled backward, his mouth and eyes widening into O’s. Bullseye, I thought as my lips twisted into a smirk. He’d fallen back. I ripped my dagger from my sheath and flicked it to my left hand while I curled my right hand into a fist. The Nosferatu caught his balance and eyed my new stance, sizing up my weapon with a frown.
“Worried, are we?” I asked with a smile. “Good. You better be.”
“Oh, I’m not worried,” he said in a low hiss, a sound that reminded me of a whisper of harsh wind on the top of a midnight mountain. “The warlock is right. You’re easily distracted. Makes you easy to control.”
Frowning, I held my stance. Either this was an attempt to trick me into turning away so that he could launch himself at my back, or there was something else happening behind me. I relaxed my body, letting it still so that I could tune into my enhanced senses. In the distance, I heard the clash of steel on steel, the crunch of breaking bones, and I could smell blood filling the air. At the corners of my eyes, my vision began to turn red. Even though I’d recently fed, my new body was hungry for more. Pain radiated through my chest, but I swallowed it down as best I could. Dorian had warned me this would hurt, but my only choice was to power on, welcoming in the pain as fuel to my furious fire.
“They’re fighting,” I said. “Not really surprising.”
“They’re not the only ones fighting,” He licked his lips and grinned. His teeth were stained red. “Can’t you smell the difference, Unbound? Or does your curse prevent you from sniffing out the different levels of iron in human blood and mage blood?”
“Human blood?” My heart thumped, both from desire and from fear at what he’d said. Surely the humans would have stayed inside the bar with their guardian angels when they saw the fight that had broken out on the streets. Surely they hadn’t wanted to venture out into the middle of this?
I turned toward the sounds of fighting behind me, and my entire body turned to ice. Humans had spilled out onto the sidewalks from the bars, their faces ashen as they clustered together. On every side, the demons rose up high around them. From the fear in their eyes, it appeared that the angel illusion the demons had been wearing before had been cast away to reveal the true forms of these creatures. But the most chilling thing about the situation was the lack of screams. The humans were so full of terror that they could barely even move their legs, let alone yell.
“What are they doing?” I asked, whirling back toward the Nosferatu. He was gone. I s
hifted to my left and then to my right, scanning the street for any sign of the silver-haired vampire. It wasn’t until I turned back toward the demons that I spotted him. He’d joined the circle around the humans, and his eyes had turned a red so bright that he could have been spotted from the moon.
My heart thumped hard in my chest as a new kind of fury ripped through me. This was some kind of corral. The demons and the vampires had led the humans to a slaughter, and if I didn’t do something—and fast—they’d all end up dead.
“Wagner!” I called out, glancing from face to face with a newfound focus. I had to find the warlock who was behind it all. Laura and Anastasia were tag-teaming three Nosferatu, and Dorian was taken on two vamps at once. The two bone mages who had called for backup were fighting vampires here and there, and nowhere among the fight could I find the warlock. Narrowing my eyes, I strode into the middle of the fight, listening for any sign of the warlock’s presence. He had to be somewhere. He wouldn’t have left. He had set up this battle and this weird corral of the humans for some reason that I didn’t understand. Not yet. And I didn’t have time to puzzle it out.
All I knew is that I had to find and stop him before whatever he’d planned actually came to fruition.
“Zoe, watch out!” Laura cried out as something dark blurred by me. I whirled toward the shadows, but they were gone before I could lock my eyes on them. It was Wagner. I knew with every beat of my new vampire heart. He was using his shadow powers to lurk in the night, doing only the goddess knew what.
Something cracked loud and sharp from the direction of Laura’s shout. I shifted toward the noise, seeing Laura’s prone form on the ground. Blood leaked out of a deep wound on her neck. Beside her, Anastasia had collapsed to the ground, and she stared vacantly at the dark sky above. Heart charging into my throat, I rushed away from Wagner’s shadows to fall to the ground by Laura’s side, my knees digging into the cold, hard ground.
Witch's Fury (The Bone Coven Chronicles Book 4) Page 13