After a dozen crazy suggestions of how we might murder Peter during our meeting, Gunnar’s phone rang and we cut off, abruptly. He answered it, turning his back on us and speaking in a low tone. I walked over to Alucard, putting my finger over my lips. He furrowed his brows but nodded, sitting up straighter. I crouched down beside him, keeping an eye on Gunnar.
“Things are crazy in Kansas City, Alucard. Worse than I’ve ever seen. Far worse than when Roland went postal.”
He pursed his lips, and I could tell he was already formulating an excuse to tell me he couldn’t help. I placed a hand on his wrist and squeezed, smiling warmly. I felt the tension drain from his forearm and he sighed, flashing me a guilty smile. I peeled my lips back and let my fangs pop out with a mild effort of will.
Alucard hissed and leapt completely off of the couch, putting it between us. “The fuck!?” he hissed.
Gunnar glanced over his shoulder with a one-eyed scowl, placing a finger over his lips to tell us to shut up. We both nodded, doing our best to look innocent. Alucard turned to me with a concerned look.
I shrugged. “I tripped and landed on a Nephilim with my teeth. It just sort of came over me.”
“A Nephilim?” he sputtered. “Heaven is going to be pissed. What is Eae going to do—”
“Once I bit the Nephilim, his buddy’s bracelet fell off and he attacked Eae, almost killing him. He had a fancy new set of silver claws like mine, and they absorbed Eae’s blood.” Alucard’s eyes were practically bulging out of his skull. I nodded, understanding his shock. “I think the Nephilim are a different breed of vampire who feed on angels. They wear these bracelets that bind them to the angels, and they have no freaking idea. The second the bracelet broke—after I whipped out these silver beauties,” I said, tapping my new fangs, “the Nephilim instantly came to my call. Craziest shit ever,” I said, shaking my head.
Alucard stared at me, woodenly. “The hell do you want me to do about it? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Brainwashed Nephilim vampires?” he whispered in disbelief, as if I might not have heard it said out loud before. I nodded. “What about you? Do those things crave angel blood?”
I thought about it for a few moments and then shook my head. “I have zero cravings, but it definitely gave me an insane boost of energy when I drank Nephilim blood.”
He shook his head, muttering under his breath. “Damn, Callie. What about the Shepherds? Heaven? Even the Sanguine Council is going to be concerned about Nephilim suddenly joining our ranks.”
I nodded. “Tell me about it. Which is why I’ll need your help once we take care of things here. Roland is already rounding up the Sanguine Council and bringing them back to Castle Dracula. I’ll need you to help him keep the new family together while we figure this all out.”
Alucard frowned. “Wait. Why is he bringing the Sanguine Council to your castle? Do the Shepherds already know what you did?”
I shook my head. “No, but Heaven does. As do the Seven Deadly Sins.”
“Wait. What?” he gasped, sinking his claws into the expensive couch. “The Seven Sins?”
I nodded. “Archangels are pestering me, too. Let’s just say that no one is particularly happy with me right now. In fact, they’re all downright terrified. War is coming to Kansas City, Alucard.”
He froze, studying me. “All that is happening back home…and you still came here for us?” he whispered.
I nodded. “To be fair, they took one of mine, too.” I pulled my silver butterfly from my pocket. The totem I used to hide my Horseman Mask. “And we are family.”
He nodded his agreement, but it was a slow, thoughtful movement. “Thank you, Callie.”
Gunnar hung up his phone and turned to us. I shot Alucard a meaningful look, informing him to shut his mouth, and the two of us turned to look over at the Horseman of Justice. “It’s time,” he growled, hefting Mjolnir in his palm. “We will play it by ear, but none of us will do anything to put the hostages in danger. Alaric Slate is still out there, so I imagine Peter has a backup plan to ensure his continued existence over the next few minutes.”
We nodded, grimly. “Let’s go.”
37
The three of us advanced from different directions, zeroing in on the colossal, white, glowing tree that dominated the grounds of Chateau Falco. The tree climbed a few hundred feet high, and I spotted a treehouse in the upper branches. Nate’s Beast, Ruin, lived there rather than with his mother, Falco. I wondered what he was up to. Possibly in hiding due to Olympian spies?
I gripped a katana in each fist, but I had folded my arms across my chest, so the bared blades created an X across my torso and extended past my shoulders at an angle. Ryuu’s black blade felt warmer in my hand, and I once again picked up on his intoxicating scent. I took a grip on my emotions with a measured breath before my fangs popped out at the thought of Ryuu as a prisoner. My face was utterly blank as I scanned the mansion’s grounds in search of Peter.
The three of us feigned mild surprise and suspicion at seeing each other, because our notes had told us to keep this a secret. Part of me had wanted to tell Gunnar and Alucard of my suspicion that Nate was behind this, but I knew their faith would shatter if I ended up being wrong. They had enough on their minds without me adding false hope.
Alucard walked like a young billionaire software developer heading to a board meeting where he fully intended to fire everyone who deigned to wear a suit as swiftly as possible so he could get back to his disc golf tournament. With each step, his flip flops slapped and smacked, and his unbuttoned linen dress shirt technically followed his company’s dress code policy, even though his swim trunks did not. He still wore his large Ray-Ban sunglasses and moved with an almost unnoticeable feral grace. I felt a strange kinship between us, now. I could recognize his scent—cigar smoke and scotch.
Gunnar carried Mjolnir loosely at his side, and his biceps threatened to tear through his sleeves if he flexed too hard. He looked like he should have had an American flag tattooed on his bicep and a bald eagle gliding over his shoulders at all times. The coin on his white leather eyepatch glistened in the sunlight, looking both regal and sinister. I was confident that the coin was what he’d chosen as a totem for his Horseman’s Mask. I felt a strange pull every time I looked at it, basically confirming my suspicion. But I still couldn’t sense Nate. None of us could.
A man materialized out of thin air in my peripheral vision, standing before the towering white tree. I spun to face him, holding out my two blades in anticipation of an attack, but he did no such thing. He was tugging an eyepatch down from his head, dropping it to hang down his chest, although he didn’t appear to be missing either of his eyes. Was that what had made him invisible? That was ironic, an eyepatch for a missing eye that made one invisible to others. He wore Nate’s satchel—the one I had given him. I had no idea who he was, which obviously made him Suicide Pete. Try as I might, I still couldn’t sense Nate or his Mask of Hope. This wasn’t him.
Gunnar obviously recognized the man, but I could see Alucard did not. We all stared at him with barely restrained fury, only held in check by the fact that he had our loved ones as his hostages.
“Long time no see,” Peter said with a slimy smile. He patted his satchel. “I’m looking for Nate. He missed a meeting I requested, leaving this behind in his stead. You’re going to help me open it if you want to see your loved ones again. I die, they die. Oh, and Alaric is watching,” he said with a sneer, “so don’t try anything funny. Let’s go,” he said, motioning for us to approach.
Then he turned his back on us—something you just didn’t do with murderous monsters. We glanced at each other, set our jaws, and approached him. He brandished his hand dramatically, revealing a bracelet of some kind. A Gateway roared to life, but I could have sworn I heard the faint sound of breaking glass before it came to being. A Tiny Ball? Gunnar had mentioned something about a bracelet giving him access to wizard’s magic, so why had he used a Tiny Ball? I couldn’t sense any magic on him. He j
umped through without waiting for us to join him.
I cast Gunnar and Alucard a wary look. Peter wanted us to jump in after him without telling us the destination. It could be a prison or a trap of some kind. But it was our only option to get back our loved ones. Gunnar and Alucard jumped through first, fanning out to either side in a defensive line. The prick was playing power games, giving us subtle reminders of who was in charge. Pouring salt on our wounds. I was the goddamned Horseman of Despair. It was time to remind him of that fun fact. I stepped through the Gateway and into the unknown, my face as calm and still as a frozen pond.
I sheathed my swords behind my back, leaving the hilts showing over each shoulder as I silently thanked Aphrodite for such a badass suit. No need to worry about sheaths when the blade stuck to my clothes like a magnet. Peter stood a safe distance away, facing us openly. I stared directly into Peter’s eyes, unblinking, still unable to sense Nate in our new location. Then I calmly turned around and discreetly called up my angelic gauntlets—but to a lesser degree so they were almost translucent. I then grabbed the edges of the fiery Gateway, insulated from the flowing ribbon of sparks. It writhed in my grip, fighting me, but I swiftly twisted my wrists in a sharp gesture, and it shattered. The Gateway collapsed in on itself with a choking thump that sent a shockwave of air outwards. I released my gauntlets and calmly turned back around with an absent nod of satisfaction as if I’d done nothing more than taken out the trash.
Peter stared at me in disbelief. He hadn’t known it was possible to break a Gateway. To be fair, I hadn’t either.
Hence, why I’d called up my gauntlets. I gave him a truly wicked smile and a slow nod. I’d shaken his confidence.
He stood stiffly, as if wary of something dangerous, flanked by two stone gargoyles. I scanned our new meeting place, checking for strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. It looked like a bank, but a very strange one. No marketing material posted on the walls and no ATM. The space directly behind Peter was wide open for more than twenty feet—no chairs, desks, coffee stations, or couches. Gunnar and Alucard both grunted, looking as if they recognized the place.
If this was a bank, where were all the customers? The suspected teller line was empty, and it was noon—a time when most people went to cash checks or make a deposit. I had also never seen a bank with two big ass statues perched on pedestals near the entrance to the large, open lobby. Having spent some time at Chateau Falco and now Castle Dracula, I was one-billion-percent sure that they were not just statues. They didn’t move or breathe but they looked eerily realistic.
I studied the puny man with a frown. One of him against three Horsemen? What the hell was going on here? He was obviously petrified, and if Alaric had been watching back at Chateau Falco, why had we come here where he had no backup?
Peter cleared his throat. “Consider this Switzerland. If any magic other than that Gateway goes off, these statues come to life and beat down everyone.”
We remained silent. We could still beat him with our fists. Alucard looked more than willing. The man took a slow, deliberate step backwards and—
The three of us collectively gasped and stepped forward in disbelief as Peter changed in the blink of an eye, revealing another person entirely. Alucard even ripped off his glasses and crushed them in his fist. I sucked in a sharp breath and clutched at my chest, my knees growing weak and unsteady as the blood drained from my face to see Nate Temple where Peter had been only seconds before.
But…I still couldn’t sense him? Was this some kind of maddening illusion?
I heard a solid thud as Gunnar dropped his hammer, shattering a section of the tile floor. The crackling blue arcs of electricity from the legendary hammer fizzled out as if grounded by rubber.
“Nate?” I whispered, struggling to process the fact that my wild hypothesis about Nate being behind Ryuu’s abduction was actually spot on.
“What the hell is this?” Gunnar demanded.
“Where. Is. Peter?” Alucard demanded in a strained rasp. “If you killed him, I will never forgive you,” he snarled, apparently not believing it was really Nate. Or maybe he did, and he was threatening his friend for stealing his chance at revenge. Long story short, we were all on edge, confused, angry, and suspicious.
“Yahn was never in danger,” Nate said in a surprisingly compassionate and guilty tone. “I didn’t mean to abduct him, believe it or not. He gave me a birthday tackle through a Gateway.”
Alucard stared back at him, unable to speak. That…made no sense. Peter had abducted Yahn. Gunnar had seen it on the security feeds at Grimm Tech. I noticed two thick bracelets on Nate’s wrist, making me frown. If they had put him under permanent illusion that I couldn’t even sense…how had taking a single step backwards into the open lobby revealed the truth? And without even a flicker of magic that I could sense?
“Your pups are safe, too, Gunnar. Better than safe, actually,” Nate said, smiling at his best friend. I still couldn’t sense Nate via our Horseman bond, so I wasn’t entirely sold on the revelation either. If the Peter illusion had been so compelling, then it made sense this was yet another trick. I hadn’t sensed any magic when he changed his appearance, but he had deliberately stepped backwards as if passing through a ward. I eyed the statues again, wondering if they were some kind of illusion breaker or if it had been the floor itself. “They were running around like lunatics when I shared a drink with Yahn less than an hour ago,” Nate said with a casual shrug. Then he pointed at Gunnar’s hammer. “You almost killed me with that earlier.” Gunnar stiffened, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly. Nate was the person I’d been chasing through Chateau Falco? No wonder she had tried to stop me from killing him! She had known the truth!
Which was enough to almost sell me on what my eyes were seeing.
“What about Ryuu?” I whispered, struggling to control my rapid pulse and the unpleasant feeling in my stomach.
Nate met my eyes and I almost took an involuntary step back at the depth of pain and commiseration in his eyes. It really was him. He nodded with a reassuring smile. “He’s fine. He was sleeping when I left to come here. I’m not even sure if he knows he was taken yet,” he said with a guilty smirk. “I’m sorry, Callie.”
My eyes welled up with tears and I fell to my knees, drowning beneath the waves of rage that had threatened to consume me. I was relieved, but I was furious. With my new abilities as a quasi-vampire, controlling my passions was beyond difficult. What if I’d actually succeeded in murdering Nate back at the mansion? It was a sobering thought on the lesson Roland had always taught me—never let passion rule reason or allow feelings to overlook facts. “How…could you?”
My question cut him like a razor. He hung his head, taking our shared anger like a man facing a firing squad. The Horseman of Hope had knowingly hurt his fellow Horsemen…but he was taking ownership of it. I could see that he empathized with our pain but that he still stood firmly behind his decision. Humility was not a suit comfortably worn by Nate Temple—not in public, anyway. In private, sure, but hardly ever in front of others. Despite my relief at seeing him safe and relatively unharmed…
He’d better have a damned good reason for hurting his newest siblings, his closest allies, and his fiercest friends.
His Horsemen.
He was now on trial, and I feared the judgment we might demand. We were not impartial. What had been so important to him that he’d been willing to risk so much? And why all the secrecy? What were the Olympians up to that he feared his Four Horsemen might not be able to handle? Why not just take the fucking fight to them? Now!
There had to be a ridiculously good reason. Nate was always the one to suggest exactly that course of action.
He took a deep breath and lifted his head to meet my accusing glare. “To keep them all safe, believe it or not. And to give you plausible deniability. Zeus was planning to do exactly what I did to you. Because he’s been running around town wearing my face, trapping me in the guise of Peter, and Carl in the gu
ise of Alaric. He’s the one who took Alice,” Nate whispered, gritting his teeth.
And that’s when it all clicked firmly into place. Alice. Of course it was all about a child. Nate would do anything for a child, but for Alice he would break the world. The girl’s mother had died, willingly, to grant Nate and Alice the chance to defeat Mordred in Fae. Since that time, Alice had been firmly glued to his side. She was a startlingly powerful being in her own right, but she was now an orphan, and Nate considered himself the patron saint of orphaned children. Judging by the painful look on Gunnar and Alucard’s faces, they at least empathized with his motivation. Whether his chosen solution was acceptable or not, the jury was still out.
His comment echoed in my mind. Zeus had kidnapped Alice. No wonder Hermes had been so sketchy. If he were caught snitching, Zeus would have killed Alice, sending Nate into a spiral of murder and chaos that no one would have been able to stop. It was his one major weakness—his people, especially his children or those who couldn’t look after themselves.
But it was also his greatest strength. How fucking big his heart was when it came to protecting the less fortunate from bullies—whether they be gods, titans, monsters, or entire pantheons.
“She wasn’t as lucky as your loved ones,” Nate continued. “She got taken by a real monster. In your case, a monster saved your loved ones,” he said, emphasizing the word and pointing a thumb at his chest. “If I’d approached you in any way other than this cloak and dagger scenario, Zeus had assassins watching you. All of you.”
The implication was obvious. Innocents would have died. Our loved ones would have died. We would have died.
Tense silence answered him, and I glanced at Alucard and Gunnar, curiously. Had they received visits from Aphrodite or Hermes? Someone else? Despite Nate’s explanation, our response was not as promising as he might have hoped. Especially Alucard. He looked ready to murder someone. Anyone.
Trinity: Feathers and Fire Book 9 Page 21