Smoke, Vampires, and Mirrors

by Dima Zales

“I’m joining Sasha’s quest to save Earth,” Claudia says in a tone that seems to imply, “And I dare anyone to try to stop me.”

  “This sounds like a family matter,” Pozoj says, backing up. “I’m going to go.”

  “No,” Claudia says imperiously. “You’re coming with me.”

  “Sounds like I am.” Pozoj rubs his chin.

  “Let’s go.” Claudia grabs his hand and drags him out at a speed that would dislocate the shoulder of a non-dragon.

  Nero watches them leave with an unreadable expression on his face, and I can’t help feeling like I’m in big trouble—for no reason.

  “I’m also going to Earth,” I say firmly when he turns to face me. “Don’t even think about locking me up somewhere for ‘my protection.’”

  There.

  I said it—and will defend my stance with everything I’ve got.

  Chapter Five

  Nero nods. “Okay.”

  “It should be up to me to put myself in danger or not as I wish. You can’t just—wait.” I look at him like he’s sprouted horns. “Did you just say ‘okay?’”

  “Yes.” He comes toward me. “Since you always find trouble despite whatever guards I place on you, I decided it would be best to keep you at my side at all times.”

  “Right.” I lift my chin. “Just know that I’ll be at your side only if I want to be at your side.”

  “And you do.” A dark smile touches the corners of his eyes as he stops in front of me. “You know you do.”

  “And we’re going to Earth,” I say, ignoring the swarm of butterflies his proximity stirs up in my stomach. “The members of the Council asked me to tell you that the favor you owe them is going to be your help with Tartarus.”

  His face hardens. “Did you really think I was going to let Lucretia and my other employees die? And your parents and all my allies on the Council? That I boosted my power just for laughs?”

  Deciding it wouldn’t be wise to remind him about the “let Earth die” comment he made earlier, I quickly put on my magician hat and rattle out, “You should thank me. Now you get to save Earth—as you would have anyway—but also owe fewer favors to people when you’re done.”

  “And how should I thank you?” He leans in, his limbal rings expanding.

  I swallow. “I don’t know. I can’t think of anything that wouldn’t turn this nice castle to rubble.”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” he murmurs, gazing down at me. “Thanks to the wards, things would be different if I thanked you here.”

  Oh, that’s right.

  The castle prevents dragons from turning—the turning being, presumably, why our last encounter got so damaging to our surroundings.

  I gulp in air audibly as my gaze flits between his lips and his neck.

  Nero’s lips curve, and he dips his head until those lips touch my ear. “No blood this time,” he whispers. “I want you to be aware of every moment. Every touch. Every thrust.”

  Wow.

  I think I just had a heat flash.

  I’ve never been this turned on by words before. But we can’t do what I’m dying to do. Earth is running out of time.

  “Time,” is all I manage to say to Nero when he raises his head. “Have to hurry.”

  “If we go to Earth by wing, we’ll get there before Vlad and the others,” he says logically—and even this, somehow, sounds seductive.

  Before my blood pressure can spike at the idea of traveling ‘by wing,’ he bends his head again and captures my lips with his.

  Double wow.

  Our kiss is more mindful this time, like we’re savoring each other, trying to memorize every movement and sensation. At the same time, we start ridding each other of pesky clothing. With each piece of material that comes off, the heat inside me grows, every stroke of his palms over my skin further stoking my need.

  Feeling like I’m burning, I sweep glasses and plates off the table onto the floor with a wide arc of my hand, and Nero grabs me by the waist and sits me onto the freed-up space, still kissing me.

  Damn, this is good. Even better than I recall—not that I recall much of our last encounter. But I do remember us kissing when I was human, and this is infinitely hotter.

  Could it be my vampire senses heightening everything? Or his power nap?

  Then again, maybe it’s my feelings toward him that are changing and coloring my perceptions.

  Before I can delve into that further, Nero moves his lips to my neck, then down, down, down, and my brain scrambles like eggs on a frying pan as he starts feasting on me. My whole body shudders with orgasm after orgasm that arrive as if to the beats of the Candy Shop song. And then things escalate as I return the favor and we proceed to the home run.

  It’s official.

  This is the best sex I could imagine.

  Mind-blowing doesn’t even start to describe it.

  When it’s over, and I lie sprawled on the table on top of Nero, I feel glad he didn’t let me drink his blood—or do anything else that would mess with my memory.

  I want to remember this.

  If we fail and Tartarus kills me along with all the people on Earth, I will still die a relatively happy woman. Especially if Tartarus lets me do what I just did with Nero one more time.

  Or two. Or three.

  “We should get ready,” Nero murmurs, but he doesn’t let me go.

  “Yeah, we should,” I say, but I don’t extricate myself from his hold.

  “I made arrangements for you to see someone about those nightmares,” he tells me softly. “I also want you to have a session with Lucretia when—”

  “You what?” I pull away, more confused than angry.

  “I spoke to Bailey Spade,” he says, sitting up. “She can see you as soon as we get to Earth.”

  Bailey Spade. Why does that name sound familiar? “The dream walker?” I exclaim, remembering him talking to her during our helicopter ride. “How did you speak to her? Is she here?” I look around as though this mystery person is about to jump out from under the table.

  “To power up, I slept,” Nero says matter-of-factly.

  “Great,” I say sarcastically. “That explains everything. Thanks.”

  “Once she establishes a connection with a client, Bailey can visit their dreams regardless of what Otherland she’s on,” Nero explains. “Only the first session needs to be in person. She has to touch you when you’re asleep—which is why I asked her to meet us on Earth.”

  No longer feeling the post-coital bliss, I jump off the table and start to dress. “Why do I have to do this? I don’t even need to sleep anymore, so no nightmares. Problem solved.”

  “Nightmares are just a way for your subconscious to let you know something is wrong,” Nero says, pulling on his own clothes. “And you don’t have to do this. It would just make me feel better if you did.”

  Is this Nero asking nicely?

  It’s so sudden I swallow my snide remarks and consider it—and quickly decide that no harm could come from some therapy. Provided I’m alive to enjoy the healed mind, that is.

  “I’ll definitely talk to Lucretia,” I tell Nero. “And I’ll think about the dream stuff as well.”

  “Good,” he says. “Now let’s go.”

  As if possessing some sixth sense, Nero locates Claudia in the labyrinth that is the castle, and we all go outside where Pozoj is waiting by the door, holding a rucksack.

  “I want you to look after things until we get back,” Nero tells Pozoj as he undresses once more and sticks his clothing into the rucksack.

  “Must he?” Claudia says with a pout. “I wanted him with us.”

  “I need someone trustworthy here,” Nero says, and Claudia concedes with a sigh.

  Pozoj starts to say something, but Claudia begins to undress and he turns into a mute—probably not trusting himself to speak with all that drooling.

  Those two definitely have something going on.

  Swaying her hips, Claudia walks up so close to Pozoj that he’d be abl
e to give her a breast screening if he wished. In the most seductive way possible, she stuffs her dress into the rucksack, then grabs the bag from Pozoj’s unsteady hands and hands it to me.

  This is when I stop gloating over Pozoj’s discomfort and recall what the plan is.

  Yep, sure enough.

  Nero and Claudia are turning into dragons.

  “Going by wing” is exactly what I feared—me on dragon back again.

  Confirming my guess, Nero grabs me with his claw and has me mount him.

  Again.

  “Good luck,” Pozoj finally manages to say, and Claudia roars back something that sounds like “thanks” and zooms into the air.

  Nero launches up too, and I grab onto him for dear life. When we flew before, he clearly wasn’t in as much of a rush as he is now.

  Five or six underwear-soiling minutes later, we’re already by the gates, and I get a reprieve as the siblings take on their human shapes and we enter the gates on foot, with me doing my best to ignore both of their naked bodies.

  Well, actually, I ogle Nero’s but politely avert my eyes from his sister.

  We walk this way through a few Otherlands, and during our trip, Claudia asks Nero a million questions about his life back on Earth. I listen intently but don’t learn anything I didn’t already know.

  “This is a world that Tartarus already destroyed,” I tell Claudia when we get to the JFK airport clone and exit the underground corridors to the sight of all the husks.

  She looks around, wide-eyed. “How awful. I think I might’ve been here as a child once, long before this happened.”

  Stepping over corpses, we head toward the exit.

  “So, Nero,” I say as we walk. “I’ve been meaning to share with you an idea I had. A way to prevent that vision with Ariel and Felix.”

  “Yes?” he says without stopping. “Aside from sitting this out, of course.”

  “Well, that’s kind of it. I want them to sit this out.” I step outside. “And, in case it needs to be said, I’d like you to assign guards to watch them to make sure they can’t end up in that room with me.”

  Nero looks at me with a raised eyebrow. “Do you understand the irony of what you’re asking?”

  “This is different from when you kept locking me up for my protection,” I say.

  “Sure,” Nero says. “Tell yourself that.”

  “I’ll ask them nicely first,” I say defensively.

  “Sasha.” Nero stops and gently clasps my chin, forcing me to look up at him. His eyes are almost puppy-asking-for-bacon pleading. “Can you please sit this one out? It would mean a lot to me if you would. Pretty please?”

  “No,” I say, outraged. “I already told you—"

  “See.” He lets me go, the pleading expression replaced with a smug one. “That’s what asking nicely accomplishes.”

  I grit my teeth. “Will you help me or not? I don’t care if this makes me a hypocrite.”

  “Consider it done,” he says. Then he steps away and turns into a dragon.

  “Mr. Grouchy wins again.” Claudia winks at me, then also assumes her dragon form.

  I sigh as Nero places me on his back, and the flying commences once more. This time, it’s more interesting than scary because I’m getting used to this mode of transportation and because the world below me is so much like Earth.

  When we reach this place’s equivalent of Manhattan, I’m tempted to snap a few selfies, but I don’t, in case that breaks some Cognizant rule I’m not aware of.

  “This is so cool,” I yell to Nero and pat his scaly neck. “Helicopter tours have nothing on dragon-back flights.”

  Nero replies with an amused-sounding roar, then dives for the Statue of Liberty to give me a good look at it. This version of the monument is holding a sword instead of a torch for some reason—but otherwise looks the same.

  Claudia catches up with us, and we speed up as we turn toward New Jersey.

  Before long, we land.

  “I didn’t see Vlad or the others,” I tell Nero when he turns back into his mouthwateringly naked self.

  “They might’ve taken the boat,” he says and, to my disappointment, grabs the clothes from the rucksack I’ve been carrying. “I’m sure they’re not far behind,” he adds as he gets dressed.

  “Fine,” I say and take the lead, walking toward the next set of gates. Nero and Claudia follow, resuming their earlier chat.

  “The next world is Gomorrah,” I say to Claudia when we stop before the gate leading there. “After that, Earth.”

  “This is so exciting,” she says. “I last visited Gomorrah when I was little. It was magical.”

  Nodding, I step into the gate—and nearly collide with Ariel, Felix, and Rasputin when I exit on the other side.

  Chapter Six

  “What are you doing here?” I exclaim as Claudia and Nero step out of the gate after me.

  “I foresaw that you’d come out of this gate,” Rasputin explains in Russian, and Felix translates my biological father’s words for Ariel. “So we decided to greet you.”

  Oh yeah.

  I did see a vision where Rasputin told Ariel and Felix that he foresaw my arrival on Gomorrah. He even knew I’d be a vampire, and told my friends about it.

  That conversation must’ve happened recently, and might explain why Ariel is looking at me so strangely.

  “This is Claudia,” I say. “She’s Nero’s sister.”

  Everyone examines Claudia with poorly concealed curiosity. Then they look at Nero, likely to determine a resemblance—which is quite obviously there.

  “How about I tell you the story of her rescue as we walk to Nero’s club?” I say and begin walking.

  Everyone follows me, and I launch into the story of Nero’s war on the usurper. By the time we’re mid-way through the lobby of the skyscraper, I’ve finished telling them how rescuing Claudia had gone down—with Felix translating for Ariel since I was speaking Russian throughout.

  Clearly bored, Claudia interrupts my story mid-way to ask me for my deck of cards. I hand it to her, and she begins examining them, as if she might find hidden leprechauns that help me with my “magic.”

  I resume the story and conclude with, “After that, I saw a vision of you guys talking in Rasputin’s room. So, Felix, thank you for the research on Lilith. Because of that, we know she used the chorts to arrange my death and my transformation into a vampire.”

  A vampire sire-bonded to her—but I don’t mention that to them yet. Nor do I say anything about the looming threat of Tartarus.

  The last thing I want is for them to panic and rush to Earth.

  “This seer stuff really hurts my head sometimes.” Felix’s unibrow seesaws across his forehead. “You know what I did from a vision—but in that vision, Rasputin knew you’d thank me, also from a vision.”

  “Speaking of that.” I tug at Rasputin’s elbow. “Do you know why we came here?”

  “No,” he says. “My vision ended before you got a chance to explain, and I didn’t dig deeper because I’m trying to preserve my seer powers, just in case.”

  “That makes sense,” I say as we cross the street to Nero’s club, with Claudia gawking at the Gomorrah sights next to me. “Then I’ll explain shortly. First, though, I have a big favor I want to ask of Felix and Ariel.”

  The noise of the music inside the club doesn’t let anyone reply to my announcement, but when we get inside the elevator, Felix asks, “What’s the favor, and why do I have a bad feeling about it?”

  “I saw a very bad vision involving the two of you,” I say. “So I wanted to ask you to take a vacation here on Gomorrah—basically, to stay away from Earth for a few days. Also, I want you to stay out of hospital rooms—even on this world, just in case. And, most importantly, you need to stay away from me.”

  Ariel clears her throat. “Are you going to tell us why?”

  “I’d rather not.” I glance at my shoes.

  “Does it have anything to do with your new state of be
ing?” She sounds concerned.

  “It does, but you don’t break your sobriety, if that’s what you’re worried about,” I say.

  Ariel visibly relaxes, but Felix’s jaw juts out. “If this is about being able to stand up for myself, I’m working on something with Itzel that might—”

  “This isn’t a fight that can be won by force,” I say. “Staying away is the only option.” The elevator opens, and I exit after Claudia, who rushes down the corridor, clearly excited to explore even the most boring parts of her brother’s club. “I know I’m asking a lot.”

  “I’ll do it.” Ariel takes out her vape pen and takes a puff. “But I can’t stay here for long. It’s better if I’m at rehab.”

  Of course. Is it hard for her being around me now that I’m a vampire? Or is it just Nero’s club that poses a problem?

  “You can be wherever you want,” Nero replies before I can say anything. “My guards can watch over you there just as well.”

  “I’m not staying here if you’re going to be facing danger,” Felix says. “I’m coming with you.”

  I look at Nero, who raises a questioning eyebrow. I can tell the bastard is enjoying this.

  “Felix, please,” I say, using my strongest version of the puppy eyes. “I don’t ask you for much. Can’t you just give me this one thing?”

  He snorts. “Yeah, right. You ask me for stuff all the time. Remember the research you thanked me for a minute ago? What if you need my skills again?”

  “I’ll have to make do without,” I say. “I can’t risk what I foresaw.”

  “Tell me what the risk is, and I’ll decide,” Felix says.

  “Fine.” I stop and take in a deep breath. “In my vision, I kill you.”

  Ariel backs away, nearly stumbling over Rasputin.

  For some reason, that hurts me. Does she think that because I’m a vampire, I’m capable of such an atrocity?

  “You’d never do that,” Felix says confidently, which makes me feel a tiny bit better.

  “I wouldn’t if it were up to me,” I say. “Unfortunately, in this vision, I have no choice in the matter.”

  Felix looks thoughtful for a moment, then smacks his forehead. “Of course. It’s the sire bond. How did I not think about that?”