“Really?” Cain hooted, leaning forward. “A fucking cave?”
“You have a problem with that, Candy?” she asked, baring her teeth.
He shook his head, leaning back and smirking at the nickname. “I actually thought it sounded kind of cool. Like a lair.”
“Oh.” She thawed slightly. “Well, it’s not like I can go sign a lease on a new apartment or go back to my old house with these assholes looking for me,” she grumbled, glancing towards the church.
I gritted my teeth, mentally adding one more reason to the Let Me Count The Ways I Hate Thee list I was compiling for Roland—my justifications for why he needed to pay for what he’d done. Why he needed to die. Claire was forced to live in a fucking cave? Definitely going on the list—right below stealing Callie’s stuff and hoarding it like a creep. Other reasons included obvious crimes, but also more heinous, overarching ones.
I couldn’t let him become too powerful—or risk him losing his fight to bring a very pissed off Dracula back here to Kansas City.
I had to get rid of his barrier around the city. Because if there was a war coming on the horizon, the Freaks of Kansas City—whether they wanted to or not—needed to be able to enter the fight. If this impending war was as big as everyone seemed to fear, we weren’t fighting for a single city or a specific faction within the supernatural community—but all our continued existence. Or at least our freedom from this big bad enemy who obviously intended unpleasant things for us. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been called a war.
Roland had also betrayed his own values—becoming that which he had once hunted. I had to put him down for his own good. The old Roland would have wanted me to. If I thought too hard on that, I began remembering every single good time we’d had together—
I closed my eyes for a three-count, centering myself, my purpose. Once confident that I was back in control, I opened them again.
“Let’s hope a skanky demon’s stank doesn’t travel further than others,” Claire teased, pointedly leaning away from me. I nudged her with an elbow, narrowing my eyes. The breeze was blowing the wrong way for that to be a concern. The bitch. She smiled back innocently.
Le Bone’s attack had been exceedingly clever. Making me look and smell like a demon during the one time my face might have gotten everyone to lower their figurative guns—fitting right into Bellerose’s ploy to entice Roland to rob or kill Dracula. It had made me an outcast—even from my potential allies. Because demons had no friends.
“We really need to catch one of them,” I murmured. Because we needed to know what was going on inside the church. Le Bone should have been dead, and he’d had no ability to do magic when I last saw him a year ago. And he obviously held some kind of authority, because last night he’d ordered his vampires to kill the demon, and they had died trying to obey that command. Maybe he really was the mysterious second lieutenant.
“Even if we kidnapped one of them, it still won’t get us past the ward,” Cain said, jerking his chin at the church. I grunted, spotting a very faint red hue surrounding the entire building, almost like fading fog. Roland’s ward around the church. Invite only. I felt the power as a gentle hum—even from across the street.
“And nothing matters until tomorrow night,” Claire added.
I was assuming Xuanwu’s warning about the Blood Moon had meant the party started at moonrise, or full dark. He hadn’t elaborated, and I figured it was better for us to show up too early rather than too late. That’s when we would make our move on his church.
No. My church, not Roland’s church. My name was on the deed. Sure, I had granted Roland access to it, letting him use it as his base of operations, but I was technically still the owner unless he’d lawyered up somehow to get me removed.
But Xuanwu had been pretty confident—and I begrudgingly agreed with him—that the ward would also stop anyone tainted with Heavenly blood. And the demon illusion around me would also complicate matters—either with the guards, or the ward itself. I let out a frustrated sigh, cursing how intelligent Roland was—how he thought everything through so completely. Then again, I wouldn’t have the talents I had today without his lessons. The student had come to slay the master. Tomorrow.
I watched the Regulars occasionally exiting the coffee shop, shaking my head. They really had no idea what was going on. Still, I sensed a tension around them, some primal instinct that they were in more danger than they should be. None of them listened to this instinct, but they subconsciously felt it. To be honest, I felt it, too. But my shoulders were tense from unseen eyes, sensing silence watching me from a distance. Unless it was my overactive imagination warning me to keep an eye out for ninjas.
“We can check out Abundant Angel and the Shepherds after,” I said, shaking off the thought. “I’m not even sure we should bother with them. This really has nothing to do with the Vatican like we originally thought. They’re just defending their—”
I caught motion in a sheltered carport near the front of the church grounds and zeroed in. Bellerose himself shambled out from beneath the carport, and my fingers flexed instinctively, wanting to risk it all and take him out with one climactic immolation like Sodom and Gomorrah, except fangier—Suckem and Vamporrah.
But I immediately froze, blinking in disbelief. Henri’s once chiseled, and handsome face was now a glistening, scarred ruin, like he’d been doused with Holy Water. Gone was his confident swagger and deep undertone of authority. Although as tall as a scarecrow, his shoulders were slumped and his crimson eyes—which had been a misty gray last time I had seen him—darted about anxiously as he shuffled to the front door of the church, slipping meekly inside beneath a red haze that briefly settled over his shoulders like a gauze curtain. Then he and the red haze were gone as the door closed.
The power I had sensed as it settled over his shoulders—scanning him to verify he had permission to enter—had become a momentary sharper, buzzing sensation compared to the constant gentle hum of before.
I turned to Cain and Claire, my eyes wide. “Did you see that?” I whispered.
Cain nodded woodenly. “That…didn’t look like a man in a position of power…”
“Look!” Claire hissed, jerking her chin back at the church.
I turned to see two more familiar faces stalk out of the carport. Two beautiful women with dark hair, eyes roving the street alertly. And their eyes glinted crimson in the light of the rising sun. The Paw Patrol—just yelp for help.
Paradise and Lost.
Claire growled under her breath. “They used to be so cool,” she complained. “They had already been building a pack before you left. But now?” she said angrily, narrowing her eyes. “Let’s just say that working for Roland has increased the demand. Wolves have been popping up from all over the city to join, having lived in hiding since the old pack disbanded. Working for Roland must have its perks because they have faced zero challenges to their unique shared-Alpha arrangement.”
I grunted. I knew Paradise and Lost—how determined they were. With or without Roland’s backing, they would have kept their position as Alphas. Still, Roland’s influence would have definitely limited dissenting opinions.
If I looked just right, I could see faint shimmers of red in the eyes of the other patrolling wolves—those who weren’t wearing sunglasses, anyway. None of their eyes were as vibrantly crimson as Paradise and Lost or Henri Bellerose, but to someone who knew to look, it was unmistakable. They all shared a blood bond with Roland.
Paradise and Lost walked up to the entrance to the church and opened the doors, strolling inside without issue. Like with Henri, I spotted the faint ripple to the air—as if they had walked through a crimson gossamer curtain. The crimson haze didn’t seem to bother them in the slightest as they passed the threshold. Maybe they couldn’t even sense it, and it was simply because I was a wizard that I had seen and felt it.
I tried to think back on my time spent training with Roland—anything Roland might have taught me that would give me an idea
how he’d made his ward. But nothing came to mind, leading me to believe that one of his lieutenants had been behind it—trying to make a ward that mirrored the one around Dracula’s castle. But Henri…that had been a broken man. That hadn’t been a man playing a secret game, that had been a hopeless wreck—a shell of a man.
Cain suddenly grunted, drawing his dagger as he leaped in front of me, deflecting a projectile so it slammed into the brick wall rather than my throat. I craned my neck to look past his shoulder, ready for a fight.
A figure stepped forward from the shadows, directly into the sunlight, his fangs glinting in the sun as he spoke in a honeyed, Southern drawl. The sun seemed to reflect off his skin in a faint shimmer that wasn’t quite a sparkle—
Nah. It was a fucking sparkle.
“Well, well, well…” he drawled like a friendly Good Samaritan, “looks like we have some spies. And did I hear you say kidnapping? We don’t take kindly to kidnappers in these parts.”
And then he was striding closer, not a flicker of concern in those eyes. Not crimson eyes.
I just stared at the newcomer, dumbfounded. “Alucard?” I gasped.
The Daywalker froze, narrowing his eyes with a frown. “No one is supposed to know that name, here.” He looked me up and down, assessing me. “I guess being a demon has its perks. Pity it doesn’t come with a severance package for a sudden, violent, horrifically painful and messy death.”
And he resumed his measured pace, claws extending from his fingertips.
Cain grinned from ear-to-ear, licking his lips as he drew his dagger. “I’ve wanted to do this for a very long time.”
Alucard halted, eyeing the blade with amusement. “You sure you want to do this? Here?” he asked, smirking darkly.
Cain squared his shoulders. “I don’t pick the ballroom. I just fucking dance, disco ball.”
Alucard hissed at him like a cat doused with a hose.
Chapter 22
My momentary feeling of relief at seeing a familiar face had popped like a pricked bubble, even as my mind raced to process what was going on here. I knew Alucard Morningstar. He was a Daywalker Master Vampire from St. Louis, and he was friends with Nate Temple. Could this mean…that Nate was trapped here, too? That sent both a flutter of anxiety and hope through me. If I could convince Nate it was really me, I had a very formidable ally to help me storm Roland’s church.
Then again…
It might mean Nate was working with Roland to avenge my presumed death.
Xuanwu’s request whispered in my ears, but I forcefully shrugged it away. Was this what the Black Tortoise had meant? Had he been warning me that Nate Temple was in town and that he had allied himself with Roland?
No. Claire would have known—or at least heard—about an event like that. And it would have been one of the first things out of her mouth upon seeing me. Also, Nate was not one to hide behind closed doors. He was the guy to blast all the doors down with fiery whips and a laugh. There was no way he was in town without anyone knowing.
Cain risked a quick look back at me, startled. “Wait. You know this ass-clown?”
Alucard frowned at the three of us, obviously not recognizing me. He finally dismissed me and turned back to my defender. “Not sure where you’ve been, Cain, but you really should have brought Callie back with you. Nate Temple isn’t going to be pleased to learn you misplaced her. Luckily for you, Roland won’t let you live long enough to face Temple’s wrath.”
I placed a hand on Cain’s shoulder, holding him back for a moment. “You’re working for Roland?” I asked anxiously.
Alucard frowned at me again. “I don’t remember saying you could talk, demon. I would hand you over to Roland as a gift, but he’s got more important things to do with his time. Which means you and I will get to know each other very well over the next few weeks. You know, as I’m stripping the flesh from your bones and asking you very nicely to tell me your demon name,” he said, his lip curling up in an anticipatory grin.
Claire chose that moment to hit him in a tackle, having been largely ignored up until this point. Alucard saw it at the last moment and rolled clear, kicking her off him and into a dumpster near the Jeep with a loud crashing sound. Cain also lunged, swiping at the Daywalker with his bone dagger. He got close enough to slice Alucard’s shirt, but the crazy vampire just laughed as he jumped clear and kicked Cain in the chest hard enough to stagger him. Howls erupted from the direction of the church, catching the sound of our skirmish and sending reinforcements.
“Nowhere to run, now, my sweets,” Alucard drawled.
I gritted my teeth as I saw Alucard’s hands begin to glow with golden light. I knew how fast and deadly he was, and he obviously saw only a brunette demon woman, not Callie.
Knowing I didn’t have time for a long, drawn-out fight—maybe not even a short, brutal fight—with the werewolf guards inbound, I closed my eyes as Alucard squared off against both of my friends. Claire had been sidestepping as if to put herself between me and the approaching werewolves. If I didn’t end this quickly, we were about to see Roland very fast, and judging by Alucard’s comment—it might be more accurate that we were to be executed before ever getting the chance to waste Master Roland’s time.
And it sure seemed Alucard was on Roland’s payroll, even without the telltale crimson eyes. Was…Alucard the mysterious second lieutenant?
And a devilish thought came to mind. We’d been looking for someone to kidnap…
I closed my eyes and focused on a power I didn’t often use—and didn’t entirely understand. All I knew was that it had once helped me chase down an extremely fast supernatural being or two, allowing me to see a few seconds into the future in order to overcome their supernatural advantages.
Cain hadn’t fared well against it, so I was betting it would work just as well on Alucard.
The Silvers purred at my touch.
I opened my eyes and time abruptly slowed down for everyone but me. Simultaneously, a storm of silver rain suddenly splashed over everything in sight—a torrent of rain that no one but me seemed to notice. As each raindrop struck a physical object, it stuck like silver paint, and soon the entire scene was soaked with the dripping, silver liquid—which was an entirely different experience than the last time I’d used them, catching me momentarily off guard.
But no one else seemed to notice, blinking languidly and moving as if underwater. The silver scene illuminated other things—like a web of thin crimson ribbons extending out from the street behind Alucard in the direction of the church, and I knew it indicated the paths that the incoming wolves would take upon arrival. I even knew it would be about a minute before they arrived—when I had expected they were already on the way. Maybe they had to get permission slips from their mommies, Paradise and Lost, before they were allowed to cross the street. Or they obeyed the leash laws and were trying to wake up their vampire leash-holders.
Or maybe they had a hell of a lot of faith in Alucard handling the problem himself.
I noticed a thicker, braided, crimson and gold rope of power extending directly out from Alucard, and knew it signified his ties to Roland, or perhaps his ties to the ward around the church. That he was indeed working on behalf of the Red Pastor. Whether that was through some bond or a handshake agreement, I couldn’t tell. But the thickness and darkness of that rope of power gave me cause for concern. The gold was crackling with light while the crimson was trying to smother the gold, warring against each other for dominance even though they were braided together—and stronger for it.
Regardless of what that might signify, we only had a few minutes to get the hell out of here. I sensed eyes suddenly latch onto us like grappling hooks, so I glanced back, deeper into the alley, only to find familiar silhouettes with rapidly shifting shadows, not at all encumbered by my Silvers and their ability to enhance my perception of time. Xuanwu’s ninjas didn’t advance or retreat—they simply observed us. I let out an uneasy breath at the thought of attempting to run past them to escape
the wolves and Daywalker.
Whether they were here to attack the demon or Daywalker, only the next few moments would reveal. And they weren’t slowed down like everyone else. Were they immune to the Silvers? I really needed to have a sit-down with Solomon and find out what he knew about them. All I knew was they were somehow related to my Heavenly blood.
There really was no other direction to take, though, because one look at the Jeep now revealed a veritable net of thin crimson ribbons slowly snaking over it—inbound guards—telling me it would be a race to see who reached it first, and the odds weren’t good.
Unless I changed something.
I felt pressure building in my temples, threatening a debilitating migraine if I held the Silvers any longer. That was a new sensation. Then again, Kansas City was very different these days. Maybe Roland’s wards were impacting the Silvers. And my power was touching more people than the last time I’d used it—more variables to predict. I needed to move. Fast.
I assessed Cain for an opportunity. He had one foot raised as he prepared to leap towards Alucard, and I saw a ribbon of chrome leading ahead of him, depicting his intended course of action. He was going to wildly miss his target. Alucard faced Cain and was in the process of flinging his hand towards him. I saw a crimson and gold ribbon of smoky light suddenly wink into existence between Alucard and Cain’s chest, showing me the Daywalker—unlike Cain—was not going to miss his target.
I was apparently working with junior varsity material in Cain.
I walked between the two, my head feeling as if it was about to split open at the strain of holding the Silvers any longer. I bit down, clenching my jaw as I rotated Cain’s shoulders just enough to avoid Alucard’s strike. Then I hurled a blast of air at Claire’s stomach, likening her to a white cue ball in a game of pool so that she would hit the side of the Jeep. The power hit her and she drifted off her feet like I’d struck her with zero gravity. Then I crouched down and prepared to replicate a Mortal Kombat finishing move on Alucard.
Feathers and Fire Series Box Set 2 Page 66