No one tried speaking with him.
Eae was there, perched on the roof of a bus stop for all to see, and he looked anticipatory. His wings were in full display and he wore armor. He glanced back at the Shepherds and I noticed the snarling, roaring polar bear held down by chains and a few SHITs. I also saw Fabrizio at the front of his group, glaring at me with cold eyes. I smiled back. It costs nothing to be polite. Eae turned back to me with a dark, promising smile of his own, so that it looked like the two prize-fighters were taunting each other. The crowd ate it up, and I could soon hear hushed conversations as Dorian wandered through the crowd like a shark, taking bets and bringing the cheer back to church.
I didn’t spot any Regulars, thankfully, and since we were in a mostly commercial area—and the police had cordoned off the area—I figured it was about as Regular-free as it was going to get.
I had known that with this many parties present, all strapped for a fight, everyone would be too cautious to be the first to turn on each other. Because that would leave their backs open to an attack from a different party. I had needed this tension and chaos. A stalemate.
Everyone waiting to see me fight whoever wanted to volunteer before I squared off with Eae. Which is why I’d gone to Dorian’s party last night—to ruffle some feathers. To pick a fight.
With everyone who had a grudge with the White Rose’s murderer.
I felt the Mask quivering in my pocket again, hungry to team up, but I kept it there.
My white ninja outfit drew quite a bit of attention. Or maybe it was the red Cross Pattée I’d painted down the center of my chest with the vampire’s blood. Ryuu had merely smiled when I asked him, so I was confident I wouldn’t offend Yín or Xuanwu. I’d also made my leather jacket white so as not to clash or be recognized. Functional and chic.
Without further ado, I pulled out the silver katana from a strap on my belt—a temporary fix since I didn’t have a sheathe designed for it—and slammed it into the pavement at my feet. Then I held up the vial of my silver magic, lifting it up for all to see.
“Blood and sword. Petals and thorns of the great White Rose.” I spat on the ground. “Any questions?” I asked. No one spoke. They just stared back at me for about a minute.
Fabrizio finally stepped forward, Claire growled louder behind him, railing against her chains and her captors. “Not so much a question as a commandment, demon—”
“Meridiana,” I interrupted, not even looking at him as I inspected my nails in the glow of the blood moon. “A Succubus, if you’re interested…” and this time I did look up at him, with such a smoldering and suggestive look that he actually blushed. My laugh rang out like a bell in the quiet street, echoing for a few seconds.
His face darkened. “Hard pass, Meridiana.” He muttered, straightening his shoulders. “You say you killed the White Rose—one who had the support of the Vatican at her back.” I very studiously managed to keep my face clear of anger at that blatant lie, when all I really wanted to do was break my foot off in his ass. The backing of the Vatican! News to me! They’d turned on both Roland and me at the drop of a hat—even after we saved them from both a traitor and the resulting public embarrassment.
In fact, it could be argued that our decision to help them then had sort of precipitated this fight. Roland wouldn’t have been a vampire if we had refused to help them, but Roland had chosen to sacrifice his mortality in exchange for preventing a war between the Sanguine Council and the Vatican Shepherds. “For that,” Fabrizio continued, snapping me out of my dark thoughts, “I will personally send you back to Hell. If I fall, Eae will have his chance to do God’s work.”
Eae bristled at that, but he didn’t challenge it. He had to be very careful how he acted today. If he helped me too obviously, the Shepherds might lose faith in an angel—an unacceptable choice with disastrous consequences, according to Eae.
Claire roared again and I bit back my instinctive smile. Soon, Claire bear. Soon…
Without Eae and Claire’s help, the Shepherds might not have shown up at all, despite Fabrizio’s apparent bravado. Claire’s part of my plan had been to warn them about tonight—which they would have dismissed as a lie—as well as telling them she’d almost had me dead to rights when the Shepherds and Eae had interrupted us outside of the cave, which they also might have disbelieved—maybe even doubting Eae’s worth or loyalty.
Which was why I’d told Eae he needed to go to Dorian’s party and pick a fight with me. My terms for our duel lent credence to Claire’s claims—the ones they had initially dismissed—and made Eae look willing to die for the cause.
Then him being here now, dressed up in armor…well, yeah. It was convincing.
Eae had a few other small tasks he was supposed to have done, but all I could do was hope for the best.
Alucard suddenly swaggered out from the crowd of vampires to lock eyes with me. “On behalf of Roland Haviar, Master of Kansas City, I’d like to rip your cute little nose off, hell-twat.” He glanced at Fabrizio with an amused sneer. “But I’ve never been one to turn down sloppy seconds.” He glanced back to me. “For the record, I wouldn’t mind if you killed this one,” he said, pointing a thumb at Fabrizio.
I sighed tiredly. “I do have an appointment with the vampire priest I must get to,” I said, licking my lips as I pointed at the doors to the church, “and then a wrestle with my brother,” I added, blowing a kiss at Eae, “so let’s move this farce right along, shall we?”
“You don’t want to attract Roland’s attention, demon,” Alucard said with a sneer.
“Is your new puppy so important to you?” Paradise asked, strutting forward from behind her pack to steal Alucard’s sunshine.
Lost stepped up beside her, smirking. “We haven’t house-broken him, yet.”
Alucard hissed at the two of them. “Back off. She is mine. I practically giftwrapped Cain in a bow and let you two bring him in, let you two accept all the credit.” Their faces paled in slight shame, but they recovered well. “You owe me. Roland will see my value for once rather than relying on that lickspittle, Bellerose. We all saw how useless he turned out to be.”
Paradise and Lost growled at Alucard. “You’re not supposed to even be here. You’re supposed to be watching Cain,” they snapped, trying to regain some of their authority.
Alucard scoffed. “You want to bring up more of your failures in front of your pack?” He laughed. “Fine. You two couldn’t get him to say a word! Cain must be the pig with the brick house, too tough for the big bad wolves!” he laughed loudly in their faces. “You had to beg for my help again to get any answers out of him. And I made him sing.” Paradise and Lost were furious with shame this time, which was an interesting sight to see. Alucard waved a hand dismissively. “Anyway. He stands no chance of escaping his chains without help. Trust me. Let him rot. He’s just another murderer.”
I hid the smile from my face. Alucard had brought Cain in—an interesting development—and one that served to earn him some credit with the wolves. Allowing him to even interrogate Cain. Clever. And he’d used our code word, murderer, letting me know Cain was in position. I really hoped my blood bond to Alucard was stronger than his bond with Roland.
But this was a show, and a show required entertainment. I would learn pretty quickly if Alucard was just telling me what I wanted to hear. I caught a faint flicker of a shifting curtain in the window of Roland’s church, and my heart jumped. Roland? Was he watching?
I hoped so. The whole point of this party was to piss him off enough to draw him out.
I slowly turned to Alucard, my face a cool, blank mask. “You beat my dog?” I asked him.
My tone made everyone flinch. Alucard smiled back at me, nodding. “Repeatedly.”
I nodded slightly. “Any last words?” Everyone got way the hell back from us.
Alucard cracked his neck left and then right. “I’m going to hit you where the sun don’t shine, hell-twat.”
And he leapt at my face.
; Ding! Ding! Ding! Round one.
Chapter 53
I shifted to the side, backhanding him across the face with an echoing crack on his way past. The Hellfire crowd cheered raucously, shouting out bets for Dorian to take, but he was too busy watching us with his mouth hanging open. I flinched as about a hundred golf umbrellas snapped to life before the vampires. They held them out in a shield wall and I instantly understood why—they were protecting themselves from sunlight. Alucard.
I quickly dove to my right, rolling to my feet as a blast of brilliant sunshine slammed into the space where I had just been standing. It left a small crater in the pavement, glittering with sparkles. I narrowed my eyes at Alucard, squaring my shoulders and wanting to stay within ten paces of him—close enough to dart forward when I saw an opening.
His next blast came directly at me—a bar of solid light aimed at my chest. I spun away, wincing at the unbelievably raw heat emanating from it, and let it hammer into—and entirely through—the umbrella shields behind me. Puffs of dust and agonized screams erupted for those unfortunate souls who were kissed by sunlight. The umbrellas had been to protect against daylight touching them…
Not a raging hard-on whipping out directly from the sun’s nether regions.
And I was fairly confident that I’d caught a hesitation in Alucard’s eyes a heartbeat before he unzipped his solar fly. A telegraphed warning?
He cursed, wincing at the damage he’d caused before rounding on me.
Whether this fight was an act on Alucard’s part, or entirely authentic, I had to make it look convincing. Impressive. Enough to draw out Roland. But I also wanted to be moderately careful about revealing my skills. There was every possibility that me fighting Alucard wouldn’t be enough to draw out Roland and that it would take me fighting Fabrizio and possibly Eae as well. I wanted to conserve my strength somewhat.
Because I needed to make sure I had something left in the tank when he came out. Or I would have to find a way inside the church—and I was hoping my Horseman Mask had some damned clever ideas on that front.
I had to fight better than I usually did, with half of my usual weapons. And Alucard couldn’t risk looking weak. The fight had to be intense enough that no one had time to think about anything else.
So…
I scooped up the Silver katana, yanking it out of the pavement, and rushed Alucard. He grunted, flinging his hands at me with another blast, his eyes staring directly at my shoulders. I took a risk and fell into a baseball slide, hoping his look had indicated his aim.
Another bar of fire screamed over my head, but I had already been holding my arm up to shield me from the heat. Another line of poor bastards with worthless umbrellas went down with puffs of dust or screams—those unlucky enough to receive a kill-shot.
I used the momentum from my slide to jump right back to my feet and punch Alucard in the chest. He grunted loudly, taking his own swing at my face. I ducked and gave him a body-shot.
“Told you,” he wheezed in a whisper, “I would hit you where the sun don’t shine,” he coughed, taking a feeble swing at my head, keeping us close. “The vampires,” he muttered, regaining his breath. Then he grabbed me and hurled me right back towards the umbrella academy vampires.
I grunted as I hit and rolled, not bothering to hide my smile. I hadn’t caught his hint earlier, but it looked like he was really on my side. I came to my feet, stumbling slightly as I veered towards an untouched group of vampires.
Alucard pointed with his eyes, and I evaded as another bar of light—this one actually a triple bar of light that pounded through the umbrellas like rice paper. I kept running and Alucard kept blasting, taking out more and more as Paradise and Lost began to howl—either calling up reinforcements or attempting to tell Alucard to stop, I wasn’t entirely sure.
They had a point, though. Too much more of this and people would get suspicious.
I skidded to a halt and hurled a blast of air at Alucard, knocking him on his ass. I glanced up at the church discreetly to see someone was still watching from the window, although I couldn’t make out a face. Good enough.
I sprinted at Alucard, holding the katana over my head as I swung it down at him. Sparks flared as I missed, striking the concrete. Luckily, this wasn’t a typical sword but my Silvers magic or the blade would have snapped. Alucard tripped over his own feet and I caught him with a back kick right in the jaw, knocking him out cold.
I slid the sword into my makeshift sheathe before walking up to the Daywalker and nudging him with my boot. He didn’t stir.
I bent down to grab him by a leg—just like Cain had done—and dragged him towards the church as the crowd grew still. I stared up at the window, smiling as I dropped Alucard’s foot. I placed my hands on my hips and shouted.
“ROOOOOOOOOLAND! COME OUT TO PLAY!”
I waited a few moments, but the doors remained closed.
Then I kicked Alucard once for good measure—making it look like a lot harder of a blow than it was—and turned around to face the Shepherds, keeping the church in my peripheral vision but turning my back entirely on the vampires and wolves. What was left of them, anyway.
“Okay. I think I’m all warmed up, now. Who’s nex—”
A bar of crimson light about twenty feet wide suddenly erupted out from the very top of the church, shooting straight up into the sky. It struck an unseen crimson dome high above with an earth-shaking gong like a struck bell.
Damn it. I was out of time. There went my plan to draw Roland out.
Chapter 54
Other than the initial gasps, the street had gone very quiet, everyone staring up at the crimson beam of light with horror. It hadn’t been a blast of power, but more like…
A homing beacon. It rippled with power, seeming to twirl and rotate like a drill.
I averted my gaze to check on the crowd. They all looked on the verge of fleeing for their lives. Well, Dorian’s crew did. Some of the vampires looked awed by the crimson beam while others, including the werewolves, looked ready to make me pay for taking down Alucard and hurting so many of them in the process.
The Shepherds looked nervously upon the crimson beam, but they soon shifted their attention to me. I spotted Xuanwu and his two monks staring directly at me, three boulders in the sea of panicked faces of the Hellfire Club behind them. And an idea suddenly hit me.
I reached into my pocket to cut my thumb on his figurine. “Emphasize my words,” I breathed, squeezing the turtle in my fist. I saw his clawed fist clench on the hilt of his sword.
I let go of the tortoise figurine and turned to flash a big grin at the vampires and werewolves. My voice rang out like a bullhorn, crisp and clear over the rising sounds of panic. “Hell hath no fury like a demon bored!” I shouted, raising my arms slowly.
And then I immediately opened up my vision to the Silvers and…
I gasped, my smile evaporating. Xuanwu was suddenly zipping straight past me—close enough for me to touch—on his way to the vampires. Despite everyone else suddenly moving as if swimming in honey, Xuanwu was fucking Flash Tortoise. And he was laughing and screaming like a Norse berserker on cocaine-infused mead, his beak spread wide and his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth like a dog on a car ride. In fact, Xuanwu looked exactly as happy as that dog would.
He was a tornado of death. I saw his icy blue katana flick and slash across vampires and wolves without any resistance whatsoever. He targeted specific locations within the vampire and werewolf camps—each victim ten feet or more apart from one another.
To inflict maximum chaos when they suddenly heard screams from all over their camps, rather than all from one front like a typical attack would do. Even with my Silvers vision, he was a blur of tattered robes, icy blue blade, and outstretched claw.
I snapped out of it, returning my vision to normal and forcing the smile back onto my face. I glanced over to see Xuanwu standing beside his monks as if I’d imagined the whole thing. I saw his cloak ripple ever so slightly, follow
ed by the faint click of his sword returning to its sheath.
Emphasize, I’d told him. Good god.
I stared down the vampire and werewolf camps just as a dozen of the red-eyed monsters suddenly dropped, clutching their stomachs to hold in their intestines. Then came the howls and screams—from both the inflicted and the untouched. Paradise and Lost spun from me to their army, barking orders, demanding what the hell had just happened.
I stood there, smiling, with my arms outstretched, and within moments all attention snapped back to me. I let out a forced laugh, figuring even if it sounded a bit strange, they would just think demons had strange laughs.
There wasn’t a comedy club in Hell, after all. Or…maybe the best ones were down there.
Everyone got really freaking nervous to see that the crazy lady in white somehow killed a dozen heavily protected wolves and vampires with a mere thought.
They hadn’t seen anything yet. This next part was to take back my toys.
I began to slowly twirl, laughing up at the sky. “Hello, Darkness, my old friend…” I sang.
And clouds of smoke puffed into existence in half a dozen places within the Fabrizio and Roland camps. Men and women began to scream as they fell, and I saw a dozen wizard shields spring into existence near the Shepherds. Werewolves suddenly grouped into small units of four or five—backs to each other as they glared out at the smoke, snarling and biting at the air, their hackles raised aggressively.
Chains snapped and a beastly roar announced that somewhere on the other side of the world, a lady butterfly had flapped her wings…
And a pissed off polar bear rolled over an army of Shepherds in Kansas City.
She barreled through them like a gust of wind through a field of wheat—just with a lot more blood spurts and sounds of snapping bone. Shots rang out as several of the SHITs with more practical foresight unloaded on her with small caliber pistols—and even a shotgun!
I glanced up sharply to find Eae now standing atop the bus stop, his face pale. If Eae hadn’t done his other job, I was going to rip his wings off.
Feathers and Fire Series Box Set 2 Page 86