by Kristie Cook
And I also recognized Lucas.
He wore a suit with a red, white, and blue tie, looking like a professional businessman rather than an evil warlord of demons. My stomach sank.
“Fuck me,” I whispered under my breath. “He’s in the White House?”
“We apologize for this last-minute calling of the press, especially at this early hour,” the woman said into the microphone. “However, false news has already been spreading around the world, and we needed to put an immediate stop to it. Madam Vice President?”
The other woman with Lucas nodded and stepped up to the podium. “News stations around the world in earlier time zones than us have been reporting false information about a fine gentleman, Lucas Emerson, who is here with us now. The story proclaimed Mr. Emerson as leader of the supernatural terrorist group the Amadis—”
I shuddered at the thought. We most certainly had not said that in the news release we submitted.
“—which has been attacking, murdering, and terrorizing humans around the world. It is believed the news story was submitted by the Amadis themselves in a blatant attack of libel and scandal on Mr. Emerson, who is a well-respected defense contractor serving several countries, including the United States of America. I can personally vouch that Mr. Emerson is not associated with the Amadis in any way, and is, in fact, helping us build defense systems against the supernatural creatures.”
Several snorts sounded around the room. My heart stopped as Lucas stepped up to the microphone.
“I have known about the Amadis group long before its blatant attacks and have spent much time, effort, and resources on trying to defeat them,” he said. At least that wasn’t a lie. “Now I am working with militaries around the world to train and prepare them to fight these abominable and unnatural creatures. With diligence and determination, we can defeat them, and they know it is only a matter of time. Therefore, they are grasping at straws by accusing me of their own atrocious acts. Consider the pen name of their leader—A.K. Emerson. She has previously claimed that she is my daughter.”
He looked directly into the camera now, as though he looked directly at me. Which was exactly what he intended.
“Rest assured that I would never produce such scum. She is deluded. You have seen her insanity on camera in the past during interviews. And this instability makes her more dangerous than any enemy man has ever faced. This footage proves that she must be stopped immediately.”
Lucas’s face faded out as a video played, showing a nighttime scene of a home on fire, people screaming in fear and running chaotically through the street. Lights flashed across the screen and blasted into homes. Two wolves and a tiger ran down the road, looking feral as they appeared to be chasing innocent humans. The scene cut to daytime with authorities investigating the sight. Four charred bodies, two the size of a child, lay in the street, the camera focusing in on the gruesome image. Then the scene changed once again.
“As you can see, she and her husband were directly involved in this sadistic attack on an innocent family in Istanbul, Turkey.”
The new video showed footage of Tristan and me at the side of the house. A flame shot out of Tristan’s hand and into a window. The video was bogus, but we couldn’t exactly call the media and tell them what really happened.
“You know her as A.K. Emerson,” Lucas said when his face returned to the screen, “but her real name is Alexis Ames Knight. She is the dangerous one you must be wary of. She is the one you must report to authorities if you see her. She is the one you should not approach on your own, but allow the authorities to do their job. If you’re watching, Mrs. Knight, take heed: We will not back down until we have reclaimed this world as ours. We will make you all extinct. Souls like yours can never win.”
I threw up a little in my mouth.
“Asshole liar,” Vanessa muttered.
“Actually, he didn’t state a single lie,” Tristan corrected. “Excluding the video, anyway.”
“No,” I agreed, “except he has the norms convinced that he’s one of them. When he says we, they have no idea he means the Daemoni. When he says souls like ours, they think he means the damned. He has them completely snowed, and the world is going to end because of him.”
“I can’t believe he turned that around on us,” Blossom said.
“It’s not terribly surprising,” Char replied. “We don’t think like him.”
I stared at Lucas’s face on the screen, and my skin crawled. “Well, maybe we need to start.”
Chapter 5
I turned on my heel and strode out of the room before I totally lost my cool. Tristan followed me to my office.
“You didn’t see this coming?” I asked him as soon as the door shut.
“I see solutions, not the future. I don’t know all the facts on their side, so I can’t see what their best decisions are. I didn’t know just how far up the political ring Lucas had reached.”
“Pretty high up, I’d say. The freaking vice president of the United States vouched for him. Praised him!” I blew out a breath pregnant with frustration and despair as I dropped into my chair behind the desk. I set my elbows on the desktop and rubbed my temples. “They may as well be worshipping Satan himself. How do we protect people like that? Why should we?”
“They don’t know, my love. We have to believe in the goodness of humanity.”
I looked up at him and tried to smile, but couldn’t. I didn’t see his face, but saw the video of the blackened bodies instead. Was there any way that could have been real? The fire was supposed to have been contained. What had the Daemoni done? Tears stung my eyes.
“I don’t know how to fight this kind of darkness, Tristan. They murdered those poor, innocent children and made us look like the baby-killers.”
He came around to my side of the desk, leaned against its edge, and crossed his legs at the ankles. “We can’t underestimate them.”
“I don’t get how they did it. How did they see us? We were cloaked. How did they keep all of those norms quiet about what they did? There were dozens of witnesses and cameras.”
“Powerful, dark magic. Mind control and memory erasure. Perhaps even possession.” He lifted his hands, palms up. “They have all sorts of weapons at their disposal.”
“So do we. But we can’t use them.”
“We won’t use them. It’s not worth it. Trust me, ma lykita. We will fight the right way.”
“And we will lose,” I said with a sigh.
He squatted next to me and placed a large, warm, comforting hand on my shoulder. “Council meeting starts in five. Let’s figure out how we can win.”
I forced myself to my feet and wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m so glad you know what you’re doing, because I haven’t the slightest clue about war strategy. Or how to counter someone who’s trying to take over the world.”
“You know more than you think you do.”
“Why? Because I have Lucas’s blood in my veins?”
Thanks to the asshole sperm-donor, I had a darkness in me that my predecessors hadn’t possessed. But I still didn’t think I could ever know how to think like him. I wasn’t sure I wanted to, but with all of humanity’s souls at stake, I might not have a choice.
“No. Because you are the matriarch and leader of a powerful society and army, with the Angels behind you.” He kissed my forehead, then added, “And because you have me.”
“Thank the Angels.” I tried to smile at the cocky grin he gave me, but couldn’t. “I’m so scared,” I whispered as I leaned my head on his shoulder. “So afraid of doing the wrong thing.”
“There will always be that fear,” he said, his voice low and serious. “Nobody who’s ever been in war knows if any decision is absolutely right. At least, nobody with a conscience. I’m sorry, ma lykita, I wish I could tell you it would be easy, but always questioning yourself is part of being a leader.”
And I thought simply being an adult sucked. Being a leader was like parenthood, except with thousands of chil
dren and a million times that many lives relying on me.
“Alexis?” Char called to me from the media room. “There’s more news on the telly.”
Yay, I thought with a sigh as I reached for the remote control, wondering what was going to knock us down next.
“Breaking News” scrolled across the top of the screen, an anchorman sat at his desk, and video footage played in a corner box, showing people lowering various national flags from a long line of poles in front of a glass office building. “We have just received confirmation from the White House. With an overwhelming vote, unanimous by all of the major powers, the United Nations has ceased to exist. All treaties have been declared null and void.” The video ended, and the camera zoomed into the anchorman. “Ladies and gentlemen, I do not know yet what this means, but we are closely monitoring this story and will find out for you.”
A blue cartoon bear wiggling its butt against a tree replaced the anchor’s panicked face as the network broke for a commercial.
“Shit,” I muttered. “Do you think Solomon’s okay? We haven’t heard from him in days.”
I considered for the first time that maybe he’d been discovered as a vampire when the Daemoni had made their existence known. In fact, they crawled all over the U.N. and likely would have outed him to the norms. Surely the news would have reported the “monster” at the U.N., while conveniently ignoring the real beasts. Unless they quietly killed him to avoid bringing attention to themselves. My imagination ran wild and worry pushed my brows together, but then I picked up on the new mind signature when it arrived in the mansion.
“I am fine, and I am here,” a deep voice with a Haitian accent carried from the hall shortly before the vampire himself appeared in my doorway. Tall with a medium frame, the ashy skin of a pale vampire with black heritage, and cornrows that reached his shoulders, he most certainly was here. I jumped to my feet and rushed over to greet him with a hug. “I do bring news, but not what you want to hear.”
Tristan strode behind me and clapped Solomon on the shoulder. “Let’s get to the council meeting so we can discuss it.”
We flashed to the council hall where Owen and Char already worked on setting up the ability to hold a conference call. Rina would have never fathomed such a thing when she ruled. If her entire council couldn’t be physically present, they would wait and proceed when they had a majority. Tristan and I had sat in on meetings from our office in the Captiva safe house, but it had probably taken Mom’s power of persuasion to convince Rina to allow it.
The thought of Mom and Rina made my heart squeeze.
First order of business involved swearing Owen, Vanessa, Blossom, Jax, and Sheree into the council. Second was finding out which existing members would stay. Julia’s absence had already been noticed. Swearing in my team members and dismissing Julia were no-brainers, so this felt like my first official action . . . request? . . . no, my first official order as matriarch. It was time to get real. My throat suddenly dried up, and the speech I’d mentally prepared vanished from my memory.
Back in the day—about six or so years ago—when my books started becoming a big thing, I’d often felt like an imposter. Like a fraud pretending to be something amazing, while always fearing that eventually someone would figure out the truth. Apparently, I wasn’t alone in that thinking. Creators of all types lived with constant doubt of their own talents and abilities, especially the more popular their works became.
But that feeling didn’t compare to this.
I didn’t belong here, in this seat. I’d only sat at this table a handful of times, and now I occupied the leader’s chair. The matriarch’s throne! Who was I trying to fool? Me as matriarch? Ha! I hadn’t even had the chance to learn how to lead an army—had struggled to lead my miniscule team—so who would ever entrust me to rule an entire society? Certainly not everyone here in this room with me right now. They knew better.
“We entrust you.” Three words whispered into my mind. Cassandra’s voice, although somehow layered with Mom’s and Rina’s, too. “The Angels believe in you.”
I glanced up at the statues of the angel-warriors that glared down on us from their perches near the ceiling. Their large wings were spread wide, and they held swords in each hand, fierce determination carved into their stone faces. During the abomination of Tristan’s trial, I’d thought them angry with us. For some reason, I now felt as though their eyes pierced me through to my soul. As though they were the ones speaking to me, and at the same time, waiting for their orders. From me.
Tristan’s hand slid over my thigh under the table and gave me a reassuring squeeze. Fake it until you make it, he’d said. That’s exactly what I had to do.
With a deep breath, I stood, placed my hands on the edge of the round table, and leaned forward. I wanted to make sure those listening through the device set in the middle of the table heard me loud and clear. I just hoped my voice wouldn’t crack like a preteen boy’s and betray my lack of confidence. I cleared my throat to be sure.
“Many of you have served my grandmother and the Amadis for a very long time,” I began. Unable to look at any of the faces sitting around the large, stone table for fear of losing my nerve, I stared hard at its center. “She brought the kind of leadership we needed during her era. I didn’t always agree with her decisions on the surface, but I knew deep down she did what was right for the Amadis and humanity at the time.”
Swallowing down my nervousness, I took the chance of looking up. Several people nodded in agreement. Someone on the phone let out a “hear, hear” and another agreed with an “aye.”
I glanced at the angel statues again and then let my gaze travel around the table to all of the faces, different colors and nationalities and even species, watching me intently.
“However, this is not that time. The Angels have already warned me that everything has changed, and we have witnessed that with our own eyes. With our lives. The world is a different place than it was a century ago or even a month ago. And we must be different, too. The Amadis were started as the Angels’ army on Earth. We’ve been fortunate over the last few centuries to behave as more of a society and culture, immersing ourselves in human civilization, rather than an army involved in constant war. We’ve had to fight small skirmishes, yes, but not like the battles we face now. It is time to rise up and be the warriors we are supposed to be.”
I looked each of them in the eye as I continued, my confidence growing with each word of conviction I spoke.
“There will be blood. There will be carnage all around. I may not have a lot of experience with war, but I do know this much. We’ve already seen it. I also know this: We will be a part of it. We will fight. We will be the ones drawing blood if necessary. We will serve our purpose, whatever it takes.”
“Absolutely,” Charlotte said. Solomon and my new council members nodded in encouragement. Exactly what I needed.
“I will say it now, and I will say it clearly. I am not my grandmother,” I declared. “I will not sit on the sidelines and watch, formulating complicated, covert plans that eventually bring results down the line. That may have worked in more peaceful times, but not in today’s new world. We will act. And we will do so swiftly. We will take the offensive. When I say we will fight, I mean it. And I mean we. I will not ask anyone else to do what I will not do myself. So don’t try to stop me. Rina entrusted me to lead our army, and I will continue doing just that as matriarch. I will not sit by in the comfort and safety of a palace while my people’s lives are being sacrificed.”
I paused for a breath and took a moment to scan everyone’s minds. As expected, some were balking at my directness. I pushed on because this was important to me to address now so I wouldn’t have to deal with the backstabbing later.
“If you are ready to plan and execute a true, physical war for humanity’s souls, I invite you to remain on my council and join us in defeating the Daemoni.” I looked at the few faces who had been involved in accusing Tristan of treason. “But if you cannot respec
t me as your matriarch and the decisions I make as such, then consider yourself dismissed. This is the very reason Julia is not here today. I appreciate advisement, but I will not tolerate disrespect of me or of Tristan as my second. If you have a problem with our style of leadership, you may leave now.”
“You mean making rash decisions for ill-planned missions such as the one last night that has backfired in our faces?” Armand asked. The French vampire with the dark widow’s peak had been one of Tristan’s accusers, and I knew full well he had no confidence in me as a leader.
“The mission was well-planned,” Charlotte corrected. “We initially achieved its primary purpose.”
“Which, as Armand put, backfired in our faces,” Robin, the were-falcon, said.
“We didn’t know the full extent of Lucas’s infiltration into the world’s major powers, such as the United States,” Tristan said. “Russia would be expected because the Daemoni’s major cities are located in her borders. We knew Lucas had been dealing at some level with the U.S. and other militaries, but not so overtly with the executive branch. He used to lie low from them, working behind the scenes. Now we know that has changed, too. So we have more information than we did twenty-four hours ago, which is a benefit.”
“Four humans were killed because of it,” Armand said. “Including two children!”
“Which is terrible,” Charlotte agreed, “but we don’t know where those bodies came from. They may have already been dead. Or they could have been fake. The Daemoni mages may have been creating an illusion for the Normans.”
“Or, they could have killed four innocents to make their point against us,” Robin said, her dark, beady gaze bouncing among my team’s faces.