“What the hell was that, Falco?” I whispered. She didn’t answer me, but she felt concerned. I checked my surroundings to see that I was back in the more modern area of the mansion.
I glanced back with a frown at the mysterious doors.
Only to find that they were no longer there. Just a smooth wall. “Screw this place, Falco,” I muttered, turning away and resuming my journey through the mansion. I pulled out my phone and called Gunnar. “I’m here,” I told him.
“Oh,” he said, sounding surprised. “Meet me in the office in ten minutes.”
“Will do,” I said, shoving the phone back into my pocket and sheathing my katana.
It took me a few more minutes of walking to begin recognizing where I was. Nate’s mansion was just shy of twenty-thousand square feet, and I knew of at least two pocket dimensions that were not included in that number. There were unused dining rooms, more random cabinets of curiosities than in most museums, and cozy little lounges, reading nooks, and libraries branching out from the wide, elegant hallways that inconsistently crisscrossed the mansion. The place was easier to navigate by memory than by map or any logical system of architectural design. Each generation of Temples had added onto the home, choosing their own layouts and room types, so it was actually surprising that I hadn’t been lost longer than a few minutes. Especially since I’d started in an area with a magical door that I had never seen before.
I hadn’t seen or heard a single soul yet. I paused to study a glass cabinet that contained a crystal menagerie of exotic animals the size of large coins that looked so realistic they took my breath away. Lions, monkeys, peacocks, unicorns, and—
A metallic clanking sound behind me caused me to instinctively and blindly let loose a blast of air to neutralize the threat, since I was still on edge after my flight from the monsters behind the locked door of the historical wing.
I didn’t hit anyone, but my magic knocked over something big with a loud crash that sounded like ancient pottery. It was safe to guess that whatever I had destroyed had likely been both priceless and prehistoric. Literally irreplaceable.
It was followed by the sound of shattering glass, making me wince. Nate would not be pleased with me.
Like I was opening up an unknown medical bill, I turned to assess the damage. I winced to see a new collection of china and crystal glasses spilling out from a broken, glass display case near the entrance of an unused dining room. To me, it represented a steady waterfall of burning money. But I didn’t see a body or even any sign that there had ever been one. I tried focusing on my new vampire senses for any kind of heartbeat, but I was too worked up to focus. I felt like a piano wire strung too tight. But as I focused, I made out the sound of running feet through the sound of breaking dinnerware. I narrowed my eyes, warily, not sure how to process the development. If some stranger had just hurled a blast of power at me, I would have probably run away as well. What if it just been a houseworker trying to do his or her job for the Temple estate?
Or…
It could have been an enemy. Forgiveness was the better part of failure, so I hauled ass after them instead.
35
I’d barely taken two steps before rapid, incessant barking drew me up short and I stumbled, terrified that I might have been attacking friendlies. I let out a relieved smile, realizing it was likely Gunnar’s puppies—long story short, he and Ashley had sired wolves rather than human babies. Weird was the new normal when Odin’s wife was running the delivery room.
The wolf pups were hyper intelligent, and definitely not typical puppies. It was almost like they were reverse werewolves. All I knew was that it had something to do with Freya, Odin’s wife, giving them some form of protection during the delivery. She swore they would become human in the near future, but keeping them in wolf form for now would keep them safe. Safer.
Except the longer I focused on their barking, it didn’t sound happy and playful. In fact, it sounded frantic and afraid. I was running again before even realizing it, racing towards the sounds and hurling more blasts of fire ahead of me. What if Peter had not only taken Ryuu, but was trying to take Gunnar’s pups? The letter had said not to tell anyone about it. I hadn’t even told Hermes, knowing that I could only trust him as far as I could throw him.
“Calvin and Makayla,” I whispered, horrified. They were being taken. I knew it in my bones. I bolstered up my speed and started throwing more fire while shouting at the kidnapper to stop running if he didn’t want to get hurt. I was ignored.
I almost felt bad for the poor bastard trying to hurt the pups, but there was also the chance that the pups were simply rough-housing and one had bitten the other a little too hard. Calvin and Makayla were werewolves, after all.
“And werewolves like to play ruff,” I said with a humorless chuckle, trying to convince myself. I skidded to a halt, realizing that since I could use my magic again, I could make a Gateway to cover more distance faster. I just had to be careful not to appear in the wrong place and accidentally slice someone—like the pups—in half. I pulled deep on my power, remembering a sitting room that seemed close to the source of the barking. I released my magic and a jolt of energy exploded up through my fingers. I yelped in pain, staring down at my failed Gateway. I cursed out loud as I heard furious grown werewolves howling and roaring in the distance, approaching the frantic puppies from the opposite direction so that we might pin them between us. If the werewolves thought it was cause for concern, I felt vindicated in my blast first, ask questions later policy. “Why isn’t my Gateway working?” I cursed as I began running again. A Gateway had brought me here to Chateau Falco’s lawns, and then Hermes’ Gateway had dropped me off in that old, haunted wing of the mansion.
So why wasn’t mine working now? Some kind of ward that let me hurl deadly magic but not travel?
Falco continued to grumble her displeasure, making the walls and floor shake, but I couldn’t tell if she was warning me not to use Gateways or if she was telling me to hurry up and save the pups. What the hell was going on here? Voices, shouts, roars, and now vampire screams grew closer as I ran, and then I heard a loud crash just around the corner from me. I reached an intersection of halls and cursed to find that a wall had collapsed, blocking the hallway with rubble, a thick marble column, an armoire, and a table. I set to work, using my magic to fling the rubble behind me and tunnel my way through the blockage. Loud howls and roars drew closer on the other side of the rubble but were still some distance away.
Similarly, the sound of screaming vampires, roaring dragons, and blasts of flame emanated from what sounded like the first floor. In fact, I saw a dragon swoop past the window outside, telling me that the fight wasn’t just inside Chateau Falco. Who the fuck was attacking us?
I now heard echoing howls from the pups as they called out for what had to be their father’s sudden roar of vengeful fury. I heard someone curse, trying to hush the puppies, but they were too far away for me to do anything, even without the rubble cutting me off from them. If I could hear the kidnapper, I was so damned close!
The mansion began to rumble more violently, and the barking grew more incessant. On a whim, I tried reaching out through my vampire bond, calling on Alucard. What the hell is going on, Alucard?
Callie? he thought back, sounding stunned. You’re already inside? How did you get past the wards? And since when could you use telepathy?
I growled. Priorities! Who is attacking us?
No idea. We just got past the wards when I saw the dragons shift and sprint inside as if all hell was breaking loose.
I growled, still flinging rubble behind me, but the barking was now drifting farther away. The pups are in danger, I said, glancing out a nearby window. I think they are on the second floor, near the guest rooms. Hurry.
I heard an explosive roar and shattering wood in the far distance—on the other side of me and the pups. Gunnar? I continued tearing at the blockade with my magic, flinging furniture and stone behind me while simultaneously trying t
o simply blast through it, but it felt like every stone weighed twice as much as it should. As if Falco was trying to make my job harder. “What the hell, Falco? Help me save them!”
“There he is!” I heard Gunnar shout in a much deeper voice than normal. He was in full alpha werewolf mode. “He has Calvin! I will fucking eat your heart, PETER!”
I snarled, my vision turning red at the call to arms. Peter. The motherfucker who had taken Ryuu. “Come on, Falco!” I screamed. “Let me through!”
I felt the ground and walls vibrate beneath and around me, responding to my plea. But I felt that wave of power drift past me like I was on a boat watching a shark swim beneath me. Moments later, it sounded like goddamned bombs were exploding on the far side of my impenetrable blockade. Wood splintered, glass shattered, stone cracked and crashed, and it felt like Falco was breaking out of the eggshell of her mansion, a screaming, violent leviathan of rage that sounded like a high-pitched wailing cry.
In response, I heard Gunnar howling and snarling, sounding as if he were being bludgeoned or trying to withstand a tornado, shielded only by the relentless fury of a protective father. It made my heart skip a beat to hear the raw agony and rage in his bestial roars. Even on my side of the blockade, smoke began to fill the air, both from dust and debris and a very real fire that might trap and smother us all.
I heard Gunnar shout, and suddenly the air in the halls was filled with the burning stench of ozone as if lightning were gathering all around me, filling every surface with static demons just waiting for a little carnage. I heard a metallic pinging sound that instantly made my ears pop, and a dazzling explosion sent a blue shockwave that knocked me on my ass and flipped me over and over until I slammed into a wall with a gasp, struggling to catch my breath as my heartbeat skipped out of sync in an erratic drum solo.
I dazedly began hurling wizard’s fire at the blockade, screaming Gunnar’s name and telling him it was me and that I was here to help, even though I couldn’t clearly hear my own voice. I climbed to my feet and raced towards the barrier in the hall, blasting away for all I was worth. I couldn’t hear the puppies barking anymore, but I could hear vampires and dragons drawing closer, pulled towards the epicenter of the mysterious electric blast.
I felt Chateau Falco groan, almost like a weary sigh, and then whatever force had been impeding my efforts collapsed and the pile of debris exploded outward, creating an opening I could fit through. So she had been blocking me!
I stumbled through and ran towards the sound of voices. I rounded a corner to find Gunnar in full bipedal werewolf form, clenching a beefy, one-handed hammer in his fist and kneeling on the ground as he read a tiny slip of paper. Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir. Gunnar had claimed it for himself when he and Nate had killed the god of thunder in recent weeks—or so I’d been told. Mjolnir crackled and burped little arcs of electricity to the ground around him, latching onto the marble like twitching spider legs. I saw Ashley standing in the center of a ring of shattered marble tiles, looking numb and hollow, her eyes vacant.
“My babies,” she croaked.
Alucard skidded to a halt on the other side of her and met my eyes. He wore flip flops, swim trunks, and an unbuttoned dress shirt with black Ray-Ban sunglasses. The Daywalker Master Vampire of St. Louis was also the Horseman of Absolution and a dear friend, despite being my subordinate—one of the few vampires I knew I could trust outside of Roland in Kansas City. He clenched his jaw and gave me a brisk, resolute nod. Peter had just earned his execution, and no one here was going to let it be a slow one.
Gunnar rose to his feet and slowly turned to stare at us, a giant white werewolf with an eyepatch seemingly branded into his eye socket. His single blue eye crackled with lightning, similar to Mjolnir at his side. “I hereby condemn Peter to death,” he growled, licking his massive ivory fangs. He met my eyes, and then Alucard’s. The one-eyed wolf panted, his massive shoulders bunched forward and quivering with pent-up energy. “It is time to ride, Horsemen.”
“Lock down Chateau Falco,” I growled. “I think we all need to have a chat in private,” I said, thinking of Falco’s obvious efforts to hamper my aid in rescuing the puppies. Putting that together with Hermes’ strange warnings and advice, it was blatantly clear that something very strange was happening behind the scenes here in St. Louis.
Gunnar nodded his agreement. “Secure Chateau Falco. No one in or out!” he bellowed. Ashley snarled, deciding to be the woman in charge of the security initiative and snapped her teeth at anyone not moving fast enough for her liking. Every single werewolf, vampire, or shifter dragon in the halls evaporated like ghosts to follow her lead. Gunnar grinned proudly and then turned to me and Alucard. “Let’s go to Nate’s office and compare…notes,” he said, grimacing down at the crumpled note in his paw. “Literally.”
So much for keeping our notes secret.
36
The three of us sat in Nate’s office, not bothering to hide our anger. We’d compared notes and found them all exactly identical. Peter had been busy this morning, even before the abductions. I learned that he was an old friend of Nate and Gunnar’s, and that he’d sold his soul to work for the shifter dragons when they first came to St. Louis.
A beauty of a golden dragon named Alaric Slate. The man wanted to perform some eclipse ritual that would make him the strongest dragon in the world—the Obsidian Son—but his son, Raego, had beaten him to the punch with the help of Nate Temple and…Hermes, believe it or not.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Alaric had been killed and Peter’s throat had been slit almost at the exact moment he’d been frozen into an obsidian statue, and that had pretty much been the end of that. Peter’s statue had been placed on Raego’s lawn as an ornament and reminder of what happened to those who chose the wrong side against Raego, the Obsidian Son and ruler of all dragons in the world. That, apparently, did not apply to Qinglong. Maybe because he was not a shifter but an actual dragon?
It wasn’t relevant, so I didn’t bring it up.
Everything had been fine, for years, until the middle of the night when Peter had somehow broken out of his statue—still fucking alive—with the help of Alaric Slate—also still fucking alive—and they’d broken into Grimm Tech. There, they had been seen on security cameras, acting very…strangely before abducting Yahn during his surprise birthday party when he’d come in for work that morning. The three had disappeared, and no note had been left behind.
The moment Alucard learned of this, he took the fight to the dragon estate, threatening to destroy everyone and everything inside if he didn’t get an explanation on how and why the dragons had allowed the chaos to happen. In short, he’d acted like a damned emotional father for his adopted daughters’ boyfriend, the chameleon dragon.
I also did not bring up the fact that Greta had been distraught about Yahn not calling her on his birthday.
Again, it seemed irrelevant, and Greta was the absolute worst. I didn’t want anyone here helping her to feel better.
Soon after, Ryuu had been abducted, and now Gunnar’s pups, both with similar notes about meeting Peter at noon on the lawns of Chateau Falco—which was rapidly approaching.
Gunnar had changed into jeans and a white tee and was clenching Mjolnir like a stress ball. Alucard’s face was set into a menacing frown even as he reclined on the Chesterfield sofa.
I chose not to bring up my meeting with Hermes since I couldn’t be confident of exactly how my fellow Horsemen were being observed by the Olympians. I cleared my throat since the room had been silent for a few moments. “What the fuck is living in the Roaring Twenties wing of this haunted mansion?”
Gunnar arched an eyebrow, his white eyepatch shifting so that the silver coin in the center glinted in the sunlight from the windows. “Roaring Twenties wing?” he asked, frowning.
“An old section that was full of dust, old school lamps and asshole shades of some kind. Also, I’m almost certain Falco was impeding my efforts to rescue the pups.”
&nbs
p; Gunnar and Alucard nodded, both of them looking troubled as they murmured their agreement.
I let out a frustrated sigh. “Why can’t we sense Nate?” I demanded. “And why the hell hasn’t anyone killed Peter?”
Alucard grunted, looking more alert at the already asked and answered question. “I tried to kill the man responsible for the statue’s security and I was informed that I was being irrational,” he said with a sneer and finger quotes in the air.
Gunnar dropped Mjolnir onto the table with a solid thunk, making us both flinch and look at him. “You threatened to lay waste to the entire dragon nation,” Gunnar growled.
“And?”
I shot Alucard an empathetic look, but then said, “That does seem a little extreme. Raego is the one who killed him, so we can be sure he had nothing to do with freeing him and healing him.”
“If it wasn’t for the dragon’s mishandling of the statue, Peter and Alaric never would have succeeded in robbing Grimm Tech and kidnapping Yahn!” he roared, jumping to his feet.
I grimaced. “Worst surprise birthday ever,” I muttered, folding my arms. Before I’d even finished speaking, I felt Alucard’s rage spike up a dozen notches through our vampire bond.
Alucard’s fangs popped out and he clenched his fists. “You’re not helping, Callie,” he warned. I barely prevented my own fangs from popping out at his insubordination.
Gunnar cleared his throat. “You two ready to stop fighting each other? My children were just abducted. Actual children, not hardened warriors with a few fights under their belts.”
That sobered me up. I took a calming breath. “All right. This Peter asshole knew how to get to us. The question is, what does he want?” I asked, hoping for a lead into the Olympian connection.
The meeting devolved from there, and I realized that we were an uncoordinated hot mess without Nate’s guidance.
Trinity: Feathers and Fire Book 9 Page 20