Unturned- The Complete Series

by Rob Cornell

  I made myself laugh. It was damn hard to do that while in the room with someone I intended to execute.

  Orosco waved me inside. “Come. Come.”

  I entered, and the assistant closed the door behind me.

  Orosco clasped his hands behind his back and raised his eyebrows. “So the Unturned graces my office.”

  “Not the first time I've been here,” I said.

  “Of course not. You are, after all, a minor celebrity in the paranormal world.”

  I tried to look flattered. I wasn't really sure how to arrange my face to make it look like that, though.

  “So here I am,” I said. “Now what?”

  “Let's have a chat.”

  Orosco approached his desk, but instead of taking the seat behind it, he took one of the two chairs in front of it. He held his hand out to the other chair, encouraging me to sit.

  I hesitated, a mistake, but the thought of sitting beside him made my insides cringe. I couldn't get the sight of Fiona's dead body on my couch out of my head. Which also led to thoughts of Mom. And the witches. And Markus Hope. And Toft. And Sly nearly dying. All the fucked-up shit I'd dealt with for the past several months.

  This guy had been a key player in it all.

  “Please. There's no need to be intimidated,” he said, clearly misinterpreting my reticence. “You will be a leader just like myself. The vampires will do your bidding, dedicated to the Unturned.”

  “You seem awfully sure that they're going to follow me.”

  “I have friends among some of the eldest vampires in the city. Obviously, not old enough to take charge. But they seem to think your taking on a leadership role as the Unturned will work. Some of them worship you, Sebastian. Many of them fear you. Some of them hate you. But there is no leader who does not have dissidents.”

  The way this guy was talking made me queasy. Leadership role? He clearly had a God complex. His problem was, he thought I had one to.

  It was bullshit, but it would work in my favor. Would help me to get his guard down. I was uncertain of the level of his power, so I didn't want him to see my attack coming.

  I went ahead and sat down in the chair beside him.

  This seemed to make Orosco very pleased. He smiled, showing teeth and all. “So what made you change your mind?”

  I had expected this question. I only hoped my answer convinced him.

  “I had a run-in with the Maidens of Shadow,” I said.

  “I've heard about that. I hate to lose them as an asset, but I fully understand your need for revenge. I don't hold it against you.”

  Well I'm sure glad he approved.

  Dick.

  “They had me at a disadvantage,” I said. “I didn't like that feeling. I decided I needed to be where the real power is, with allies who were strong, so strong that they could wrest control of an entity as large as the Detroit Ministry.”

  Orosco laughed. “You flatter me.”

  “I don't mean to flatter you. I'm just stating a fact. I see the future, and it belongs to you and your followers. So I am going to follow you, too.”

  He sighed contentedly, as if he'd just finished off a warm bowl of soup and was pushing himself away from the dinner table. He smiled some more, stretching it so far I thought it might split open his face. I hoped not, because I wanted to do that myself.

  “It would be quite the thing having the Unturned at my side.”

  “I just hope I can actually help.”

  Orosco steepled his fingers. His smile slackened. “The question is,” he said, “whether or not I can trust you.”

  I shrugged, trying to look casual. “Compared to you, I'm a little peon on, right? Not something someone like you would have to worry about. Even if you can't trust me, I'm no threat to you.”

  “No, I suppose not.” His smile broadened once more. “We should get down to it then.”

  I nodded sagely—at least, I thought it was sagely. “What do you have in mind?”

  “We'll start with the elder vampires. I can set up a meeting within the next couple of days.” He raised his eyebrows. “If that's all right with you?”

  I inclined my head, this time going for stately. But instead of saying anything, I tried to think about my next move. I needed to get this guy's guard down.

  “Is everything all right?” Orosco asked.

  “I was just thinking,” I said, without thinking. “There was a rumor that the previous prefect, before the GMF replacement, had a refrigerator filled with craft beers hidden somewhere in this office.”

  “You don't say?”

  I put a hand over my heart. “I'm just telling you what I heard. I've always hoped that it was true, being a beer snob myself.”

  He wrinkled his nose. “Hmm. I don't much care for beer.”

  Yet another reason not to like the guy.

  “So you haven't found anything like that in here?”

  He lifted his shoulders.

  I gave him a conspiratorial smile. “Can we look around for it?”

  “I'm not sure now is the time for something so trivial.”

  Beer? Trivial? What was wrong with this guy?

  Obviously, he wasn't going to bite. I looked around the room for something else I might use to preoccupy him. A decoration to compliment him on, a picture of his family, maybe just the office's view of the International River and the lights of Canada on the other side. The Windsor skyline twinkled in the night.

  He saw me looking out the window and took it from there, without any prompting from me.

  “Majestic, isn't it?” He stood and rounded his desk, stood before the window, and clasped his hands behind his back. “It makes me glad you decided to come to me after dark.”

  Something in his tone unnerved me, like he knew something I didn't. I didn't dwell on it though, because the bastard had just put his back to me, and I wasn't going to get a better chance than that.

  I shot to my feet, held out my hand, and engulfed my fist in blazing orange fire. But before I could get any further, Orosco spun around, and held his hand out, palm facing me. He whispered a word under his breath.

  An invisible force struck me full on, and I flew backward, slammed onto my back on the priceless fairy rug. The rusty taste of blood filled my mouth, and when I ran my tongue across my bottom teeth, I found one missing.

  Son of a bitch.

  I got to my feet. Tapped more energy to draw fire again, this time into both hands.

  He looked at me with a small smile and sighed. “I was afraid of this. In fact, knowing what I do of your history, I should have expected it.”

  I didn't argue with him, just threw my fire from both hands. It streaked across the office straight for him.

  He raised his hands, muttered some more words, and held his ground.

  My flames turned to harmless sparks and embers that quickly faded in the air.

  “I thought you understood,” he said. “I might not look like much, but I've been a wizard for at least five times as long as you've been a sorcerer. Besides, you just walked into the center of the Ministry offices of Detroit. The very branch of the Ministry that I now rule. Did you really think you could come here, defeat me, and walk out alive?”

  “Accomplished number one, about to accomplish number two. And number three?” I shrugged. “Two out of three ain't bad.”

  He laughed. “We'll see.”

  I dug deep and brought up the blue fire this time. I squeezed my fists as tightly as I could, felt the wavering heat around each of them, and bared my teeth.

  He jabbered a line of Latin, swiped his hand through the air, and the front of my shirt ripped open, leaving a bloody slice across my chest as if he had cut me with a scythe.

  I staggered backward. For an instant I didn't feel any pain, then it came as quick as his cut. I cried out and lost my concentration, which killed my fire spell. I didn't have a chance to collect myself before he struck again.

  He clenched his fists at his side and whispered more word
s that I didn't understand, mostly because he was mumbling—I knew my fucking Latin. His gaze bore through me, and then I felt a terrible cold wrap around my heart as if a specter had reached in through my chest.

  And then I felt my heart stop.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  I felt cold all over, as if my blood were chilled. The pain in my chest shot down one arm. I could already feel myself dying. I pounded at my breastbone as if that might help start my heart again, but it didn't do any good. Orosco's spell had me gripped tight.

  “I hate to be the one to end such a unique life,” Orosco said. “You really should have joined me.”

  Now would have been a good time for a witty comeback, but when your heart stops beating, it's kind of hard to talk, let alone think of something clever. Instead, I dropped to my knees. I could feel my life draining out of me as every second passed. As if that weren't bad enough, the two goons that had escorted me into the office came in through the door carrying handguns.

  This was it then. I'd go out with a stopped heart and a bullet in my brain.

  Strangely, I was okay with that. The thing that bothered me was that I wasn't taking Orosco with me. I couldn't die until he was dead, too.

  My first instinct was to tap the anger my hopeless situation had sparked. Give these bastards a taste of the blue fire. I held back. Right now I didn't need strength, I needed style. Urvasi style.

  I closed my eyes. I sensed Orosco's guys step up behind me, but didn't let it distract me, even though at any second one of them could blow the back of my head off.

  I reached down into the center of myself, found that place of acceptance, was surprised I found it so easily. I realized I had already started going to this place before I even walked into the building. Because I had accepted that I was going to die. That had been part of my plan. The only piece missing was Orosco's death. So what was I supposed accept now?

  Failure?

  What would happen if I died without taking out Orosco? Could Jackey's team follow up and catch them off guard while he was focused on killing me? Assuming Jackey and his extraction team were even on their way and hadn't gotten stopped by Ministry security first.

  I couldn't count on it. And something told me that Urvasi's lessons in acceptance didn't mean giving up. And I was not going to give up.

  I opened my eyes and slowly rose to my feet. My stopped heart felt like a cold stone in my chest.

  I could accept that.

  From behind me came the twin clicks of the goons pulling back the hammers on their guns.

  Fine.

  And while I accepted that, Orosco couldn't. “Stop, you idiots. You'll ruin the rug. That thing is worth more than ten of you.”

  Somehow I managed to laugh, even without a beating heart. I'd always criticized the Ministry for having such an expensive, extravagant piece of decoration in the prefect's office. It was a pointless indulgence. The obscene amount of money they must have spent on it could have gone to something more useful. Who knew that one day it would provide just the moment of hesitation I needed?

  I charged forward, straight at Orosco. He kept his arms at his sides, his hands clenched into fists, and his hard gaze on me. But that hardness weakened, his eyes going wide, as he saw me coming.

  Running without the blood rushing through you like it's supposed to is a weird feeling. My ears rang. What felt like a cramped muscle in my chest turned into a burning agony. But I kept my head down and plowed into Orosco with my shoulder.

  He let loose a small oof. His spell broke, and my heart throbbed double time as if to make up for lost beats.

  I lifted him up off his feet and forced him backward toward the massive window. I drew on my power and called on the wind to blow a hole through the glass.

  Shards of it flew in all directions, glittering like stars against the night sky.

  “No,” Orosco shouted.

  And then I shoved him through the open hole.

  He screamed on his way down the dozen or so floors, the sound of it fading as he fell.

  I wavered on the edge, almost going over myself, but I conjured another gust of wind that pushed me back and steadied me on my feet.

  Over the howling, chilly wind that blew through the broken window, I heard a gasp behind me. I turned around. The pair of Orosco's black suited strongmen gaped at me, their guns down and forgotten for the moment.

  I used their instant of disbelief to my advantage and conjured twin flames in either hand and hurled one ball of fire for each of them.

  Both struck them at center mass and sent them flailing backward, guns falling from their grasps, their black suits and ties burning to tatters.

  They hit the floor screaming and rolling, occasionally bumping into each other in their mad effort to put out the flames.

  For good measure, I cast another duo of fireballs and burned the flesh off their bodies.

  Their screams quickly died.

  I didn't fool myself into thinking this was over, though. The Ministry occupied three floors of the RenCen, and had a full security detail. I imagined Orosco's assistant had probably already called them.

  I stepped out of the office and found the assistant still sitting behind her desk, no phone to her ear, just a shocked expression.

  I approached her, and she cringed back as if I meant to strike her.

  “Did you call for backup?” I asked.

  She slowly shook her head.

  I raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

  “He's not my prefect. He never was. But if I wanted to live, I had to pretend.”

  “That must've been hard.”

  She swallowed and glanced toward Orosco's open office door. “Has it gotten any easier?”

  I smirked. “It's downright simple now. He's done.”

  She visibly relaxed and pressed a hand against her chest. “Thank the gods.”

  I was feeling cocky, and a little juiced up on adrenaline, so I couldn't help myself, and said, “No. Thank me.”

  “Heh.” She rolled her eyes. “That's cute.”

  I tipped an imaginary hat. “Have a good day.”

  And then I walked out of there, no extraction team necessary.

  That should have been the end of it, right? But when I exited the RenCen's central lobby, Orosco stood there waiting for me.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Blood was running down Orosco's face from a slice in his scalp. His right arm was bent funny and dangled loosely at his side. One of his eyes was swollen shut, and half of his bottom lip was missing. He looked like hell.

  But that motherfucker was still alive.

  He curled his lip as he shambled toward me.

  The sound of city traffic rushed in the air. I glanced around at the shadows, but couldn't see any sign of Jackey or his people. It was just me and Orosco.

  His sudden appearance took me by surprise, so he got in the first move.

  He raised his good arm above his head, fingers in a claw as if he were holding something in his hand. “Circulus ignis,” he shouted.

  Next thing I knew, flame swirled around me, forming a circular wall that started closing in. I felt my skin blister from the heat, and the moisture in my eyes and mouth evaporated. Before I knew it, I was engulfed in fire.

  My first instinct was to thrash about, and now I knew what it must have felt like to be a victim of my own flame. I panicked and dropped to the ground, started rolling. My clothes were burning away, patches of my skin peeling and turning to black flakes that floated away on the breeze. The pain was unspeakable.

  But there was a part of me, that centered part of me that I had found when I was up in the office, still there, still aware enough to remind me that, Hey, I can control fire. I tapped my magic, this time not needing to conjure fire because I had it available.

  Besides, I wasn't trying to make fire, I was trying to kill it.

  My magic quickly extinguished the flames, but the damage had been done. Whole sections of my clothes had been burned away, and un
derneath, my skin was blistered and blackened. Shock kept me from feeling most of the pain, but it didn't dull it all. Waves of agony pulsed through me. Every breath seemed to stretch my skin and make it worse.

  I lay on my side, curled up in a fetal position, facing Orosco so that I could see him approach.

  He walked with a limp and clutched his side as he came over. I hoped his fall had caused some internal bleeding. I don't know what kind of magic he’d used to survive the plummet from so high—that must've taken some serious wizardry. Wizards gathered their power mostly from arcane languages out of dusty old books. He must've had a lot to say on his way down.

  His feet scratched against the cement as he hobbled within a foot of my face.

  I twisted my neck to look up at him, which caused all sorts of new pain.

  He wiped some blood out of his eye. With a piece of his lip ripped off, and all that blood on his face, his scowl looked absolutely demonic.

  “You are brash, young, and stupid,” he said, his voice a wet gurgle. “You're an insult to your family name.”

  My tongue pressed against the gap where my front tooth used to be. My whole mouth tasted like blood. “Say what you want about me,” I said. “But leave my family out of this.”

  “I'll be honest, I only know the Lights by reputation. And from your parents' treachery against the Ministry.”

  He held out his hand toward me, as if he meant to help me up. But then he spoke a couple of ancient words and closed his fist.

  For the second time in one night, my heart stopped beating. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, the edges of my vision turned gray and fuzzy. Wouldn't be long before the gray turned black and closed in completely.

  This time there was no pushing him out of a window, there was no chance for a physical attack at all. In my burned-up condition, I couldn't fight back.

  Of course, I still had magic, but all the pain and my cooling blood made it hard to concentrate. The icy pressure in my chest was too much to bear.

  Then I saw a shadow move behind Orosco. First, I thought it was just more darkness closing in on me, thought that any moment the whole world would go black forever. But the shadow pulled away from the others and became Odi. Once he was clear of the shadows, he became a blur.