It’s like an intense surge of dopamine shot—
“I am speaking to you.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
Vitae darkened.
Pain receptors throughout Bradley’s body shrugged off the dopamine and fired off spikes of agony.
“Master, I meant Master.”
“Better.”
The pain faded and pleasure returned.
“How many more can you acquire?”
Bradley yawned and his stomach complained. “There is only one more waiting for pickup.”
“They will wait, you have other things to do.” Vitae strode toward the entrance, head high and a tantalizing sashay to his incredible ass. “Come with me.”
Don’t have to ask me twice.
Bradley giggled. He hadn’t been this besotted since he’d latched eyes in that Dungeons & Dragons playing girl, Joanna, in the second Gamers movie.
Not that she was real exactly, well the actress was, but not Joanna. Hell’s I’m even babbling to myself. It’s like I’m so exhausted I’m drunk.
Vitae strode out of the service areas into the hotel’s old dining room. Motley construction crews of mixed faeries worked feverishly to repair the dilapidated room. If the gold and silver gilding and elaborate ornamentation emerging were any indication, his Master’s throne room would be opulent in the extreme.
Bradley yawned.
They passed the mostly finished throne to the main elevator bank. A hobgoblin in a bellhop uniform pushed open a rebuilt gate and gestured Vitae into the elevator.
Bradley trudged inside, stomach grumbling.
“Stop making those noises,” Vitae snapped.
“Sorry, my lord.”
“Your whole species is sorry,” Vitae said.
The hobgoblin smirked, pushed the gate closed, took hold of the elevator control lever and wheeled it forward into the descend position. The car stuttered downward.
Oh my god, a hobgoblin is lowering us to a secret lab! My, no, Master’s lab.
“How long will my first batch of enforcers take?” Vitae asked.
“I’m not sure,” Bradley said. “Whiskers took several hours, but she had originally seemed geriatric. Still, a human body has quite a bit more mass for the troll marrow to regenerate.”
“I need them immediately,” Vitae said. “There’s a war on. My domain must be secured before we conquer our enemies.”
The old-style laundry was the only fully rebuilt room outside Vitae’s suites. Bright fluorescents reflected off of white tiles and shiny medical equipment. A lot of the equipment he’d procured himself, but once he’d collected a full set the faeries had been sent out to acquire duplicates.
To Bradley’s left, goblins and grendlings fought corpses into refrigerated drawers. At the far end of the room, security doors separated the lab from rooms Vitae forbad everyone to enter.
“I want your first batch ready by—”
“B-batch?” Bradley’s squeak turned into a yawn. “With respect, my lord, I haven’t tried this on humans yet. I should start with one, and—”
“You will start with five.”
“Whiskers didn’t exactly follow my orders. Sure, she was a cat, but I have no idea how well controlled human-troll hybrids will be. If something goes wrong, I might not be able to control—”
“Silence, wafer!”
Bradley’s lips clamped shut.
“I cannot take any more of your sniveling,” Vitae glowered.
Pain shot through Bradley. The emptiness in his stomach intensified the constant ache to something Jurassic. His limbs folded, collapsing him to the floor. He’d only been trying to explain the dangers involved, trying to protect his master from untested and unforeseen consequences.
“Control will not be a problem. Remain here.”
Obeying Vitae eased off the pain. The pleasure crept back in to overlay it as Bradley stayed where he’d fallen.
Dopamine is known to create addictive side effects, and repeated exposure to dopamine in these doses is likely to force my body to build tolerances. How much longer before my world is only pain and not-pain?
Vitae returned carrying a tray of blood packs. The sight of him spiked the dopamine in Bradley’s system and all that mattered was how much Bradley adored his master.
“Introduce this essence compound into the bloodstream as you animate my enforcers. They will obey without question.” Vitae’s nose wrinkled. “I included a small amount of your essence so you may command them in my stead so I needn’t waste any more of my valuable time on such trifles.”
“What do I do when this runs out?” Bradley asked.
“I will prepare more as the ingredients become available. This should suffice for your first batch. Now, get to work.”
19: Shared Intel
Quayla
I trudged into the sanctum. Its destruction registered somewhere in the back of my mind, but I lacked the energy to care.
“You did the right thing,” Anima said.
I nodded, picking my way up shattered stairs.
A flash of light blinded me on the first landing. Power washed over me—fire and life, lightning and ice, mixed in a warm blanket of what I could only name palpable love. Arms followed the power and then wings.
The embrace echoed the moment of my birth, the hands that had lifted me from the shell fragments and cradled my first vulnerable moments in Creation.
Anima whispered into my ear. “You’re not alone, Quayla.”
I eased back from the embrace. Just as fast as I’d been wrapped in the strange power, it vanished, but in that last moment I’d glimpsed Anima once more.
Every eye on every part of her body was crying.
Dread rose with every step. I stopped at the landing, eye locked on my bedroom. I crossed to my door. There weren’t any good reasons for Summus or Anima to lie about my nest going missing, but after all the work I’d done to refill it, I had to see for myself.
The door to my room hadn’t been locked, but the faeries had torn it from the frame anyway. I picked my way through the refuse and stared at the place I’d killed myself to save Vitae.
I failed that too.
The Lady had warned me that someone who wanted me dead had stolen my nest. A quiet sound rose in my ears—a gentle river hastening toward a towering waterfall.
“Quayla?” Anima said. “They’re waiting for you in the garden.”
All that work. All my sacrifice.
“Shield Quayla?”
“I’ll be right there.”
We’d tried to find the faeries responsible for stealing our eggs. Ignis, Terrance, and even Vitae had searched and questioned and fought for those answers. The egg’s value to a mortal would dwarf a king’s ransom, but with faeries I’d been unable to discern a motive.
Taking the nests made even less sense.
It was insult atop injury.
I wasn’t the reader Vitae was, but I’d learned enough to understand why the others couldn’t replace their eggs. We could, however, simply construct new nests. A Shieldheart’s Guide to Nests made replacing a nest sound like a tedious pain in the ass, and refilling a new nest would be worse, but losing our nests wasn’t the crisis losing our eggs presented.
It’s almost a good thing we haven’t rebuilt my egg yet.
“Little Sister?” Terrance asked.
I turned to find both Terrance and Ignis in my doorway.
“Are you all right?” Ignis said. “Anima said you were crying.”
“Yeah, sorry,” I wiped away tears I hadn’t realized had escaped. “The Lady told me, but I didn’t want to believe her.”
“What Lady?” Terrance asked.
Ignis extended a hand before I could answer. “Come along, we can discuss this in the garden.”
I took his hand, happy for its warmth, and let him lead me into the garden. Sights and sounds in the greenhouse heartened me—probably as Ignis had known they would.
Summus slumped on the fountain’s edge looking wan and pale. He
flashed me a smile, lifting one hand high. “I’m fine, just need a short breather.”
“Rest, Divine One,” Terrance flashed me a smile. “Little sister is going to tell us a story.”
“Where are Caelum and Vitae? Without my nest, we need to rebuild my egg.”
“I cannot reach either of them,” Anima said.
“Tell us about your Lady, little sister.”
I took a deep breath and launched into my exploits, starting with the revelation of phoenixes to Detective Foxner and ending with the rewritten memories of every mortal I cared about.
Ignis’s eyes focused on the middle distance, but he nodded grim-faced. Terrance looked old, launching into his encounter with the brownies and Yarque. Ignis’s attention returned and he added his own encounters to the tale.
He included his encounter with Emma, eyes accusing me with every word. “Quayla’s assertions proved correct. Emma accepted a Fae Kiss for the return of her cat. Originally, I thought she’d been innocent of anything but drawing the initial runes and a healthy case of denial. After she was cleansed, I found a work space used to add runes and faerie essence to animal collars. The runes weren’t complete, so I am not sure of their purpose.”
The revelation shocked me. I’d let Emma live, been convinced of her innocent ignorance. I almost couldn’t face him, but I had to know. “The collars, could they have something to do with the abductions?”
“I found another runes collar in the remains of a battle ground. Different, but I think both are connected to your animal thefts.” Ignis’s voice hardened. “You should have destroyed her, Quayla. You never should have left a Fae Kissed alive and free.”
Summus stiffened.
The world seemed to fall away beneath my feet. I’d tried to slay the sad little woman, but I hadn’t been able to deliver the stroke. I’d even gone so far as to tell Ignis he didn’t have to investigate.
But he did anyway, and he didn’t fail in his duty.
“That choice isn’t yours to make, Ignis,” Summus said.
“She refused repeated offers for redemption. There was nothing left to do but slay her,” Ignis said.
“You should’ve brought her to my attention so I could judge her,” Summus said.
“Be at ease, Divine One,” Terrance said. “What would you have done different? She was colluding with the Sidhe, doing their bidding. She couldn’t be allowed to spread her knowledge of faeries or their offers.”
“I know that,” Summus snapped. “It still wasn’t a choice for a shield to make without consulting us.”
“I will not apologize for doing the right thing, Summuseraphi.” Ignis folded his arms. “There was no reason to tax you emotionally or essence-wise when the solution was so obvious.”
I barely dared utter my speculation. “I figured the cat was so old, it couldn’t have lived much longer. I thought maybe after the thing died, Emma could’ve changed her mind. Repented and come back to the light.”
“No, little sister. Even if she hadn’t been crafting collars for the Sidhe, we couldn’t have risked what someone she told might’ve chosen to do. I stand in accord with Ignis,” Terrance inclined his head to Summus. “Neither you nor our Divine One have faced as many Fae Kissed as we have. We’ve seen how quickly a bad apple can spoil a bushel.”
“Ignis still shouldn’t have taken it on himself,” Summus said.
“With respect,” Anima said. “We have larger issues needing your focus. I am unable to find Vitae or Caelum, The Isaac will need to prepare a new identity for Ignis, we don’t know why your nests were stolen, and if Quayla’s description of her encounter is accurate—meaning no suggestion that you fabricated any of it Shield Quayla—then one of the Dark Trinity may be behind much of the death and chaos spilling over into Atlanta’s streets.”
“Anima is correct,” Terrance said. “Summus, can you locate our wayward shields?”
Summus went still. After a few moments, his head swung back and forth. “Caelum has not called for his Divine feather.”
I swallowed. “Could he be in his egg?”
“Caelum died after entering the Goblin Market, and the brownies used his access card to invade our sanctum,” Anima said.
I turned to the elder phoenixes. “Is there any way to tell if Caelum was reborn versus in the process of rehatching?”
“Not without his egg to examine,” Ignis said. “Any luck locating Vitae, Summus?”
“None,” Summus said.
“What about Vilicangelus? He and Vitae always seemed to share a connection.”
“Vilicangelus was grievously injured,” Summus said. “He cannot help in this case.”
“You don’t look to be in too good of shape either,” I said. “You mentioned being low on essence?”
“Yes. Yours is not the only Shield I am watching, and the Sidhe war has increased the need for my attention ten-fold of what it should be.”
“You need to recharge your essence,” Terrance said.
“Yeah, but I haven’t the time.”
My thoughts flashed back to Summus’s initial description of how he’d been elevated to Divine. “Terrance is right. You have to make resting a priority.”
“I can’t. I would be out of touch. There isn’t anyone who could cover for me while I’m away.”
“There are many Shields but few divine,” Terrance said. “We will manage while you recuperate.”
“I’ve only been Divine a little while. I can’t just take a vacation.”
“I think dying would be a worse sin,” Ignis said. “We’ll find the others and take care not to needlessly expose the truth to wafers.”
“As is already your duty,” Vitae strode into the garden, dark formal robes embroidered with crimson and gold replaced his suit.
“Where have you been?” Ignis demanded.
“Attending my duty,” Vitae said. “Where is Caelum?”
“Missing,” I said.
Vitae dismissed me with a look. “Anima, locate Caelum.”
“Shield Quayla spoke true, Shieldheart.”
His expression hardened. “I heard Shield Aquaylae, Anima, and I gave you an order.”
I charged him, stopping just short of colliding nose to nose. “Leave her alone, Vitae. I already told you that Caelum is missing.”
“It, not her,” Vitae turned his back on me once more. “What news on the search for our eggs?”
I inhaled, a hint of taint underlying his spicy scent.
“We’ve already brought Summus up to date,” Ignis said. “How about you inform the rest of us what you’ve accomplished?”
Vitae made a dismissive gesture. “My research hasn’t yet born fruit, though it seems clear we must take the fight to the Sidhe, teach them our Shield is not their playground.”
I lowered my voice. “Ani? Is something wrong with Vitae?”
Hurt undercut Anima’s response. “There is a lot wrong with Vitae, Shield Quayla.”
“Anima,” Vitae scolded. “You will show the proper respect.”
“Little sister?”
“Vitae doesn’t smell right,” I said.
“I got Sidhe blood on my robes.” Vitae looked down his nose at me. “Since I’ve driven myself tirelessly in the search for our eggs, I haven’t had time to give them proper laundering.”
I frowned. “Where’s the Shieldheart’s Guide to Nests? It’s not in the library.”
Vitae hesitated. “Were you not the last to take it from the shelves?”
“You removed it from the sanctum, Vitae,” Anima said.
“If that’s so, I must have left it in the car. What do you need to know, perhaps I can answer your question,” Vitae said.
“We need to make new nests to replace those that were stolen,” Terrance said.
“Including yours,” Ignis added.
“So, we need the rune diagrams for nest dominance,” I said.
“Anima, please display the necessary runes,” Vitae said.
“I cannot display
that information within the greenhouse.”
Vitae whirled toward me, face contorted. “What the hell did we hire your wafer for then? Get him back in here to finish the job.”
I held myself still lest my grief show. “He’s been rewritten. He won’t be of any further assistance.”
A smugness replaced Vitae’s anger. “Good for you.”
“But you still need to modernize this Shield,” Summus said.
Vitae whirled, a rejoinder on his lips. A neutral mask fell over his features as he inclined his head. “As you direct, Divine One.”
“We will need the guide, Vitae,” Terrance said. “DragonCon began yesterday and as of now any death will send us into an egg.”
“Except for me,” I said.
“We will not let you suffer True Death,” Ignis said.
“Exactly why I shouldn’t go off to recuperate,” Summus said.
Terrance scowled at Summus. “We can build new nests without you. You need to rest for when we or your other Shields have need of what only you can do.”
Summus nodded at the floor. “To be gone as short a time as possible, I’m going to have to try a deep slumber. I won’t be reachable until I’m done.”
“We will endure until you are fit to perform your duties, Praefectus,” Vitae said.
Was that meant to be condescending? Us, sure, but would Vitae really treat a Divine One with open disdain?
Summus stiffened.
He heard it too.
Our Praefectus gave Vitae a hard look before vanishing in a flash of light.
Summuseraphi
Summus stood in Atlanta’s Sanctum hidden behind a veil of light. He was exhausted, but he couldn’t shed the feeling that Atlanta’s Shieldheart was the heart of the Shield’s internal troubles.
He drew on his essence, concentrating his core much as he had transmogrifying as a water phoenix. He pictured his mentor.
“Vilicangelus, Vilicangelus, Vilicangelus.”
Summus clapped his hands together.
Light sped around him, streaking by as if he were driving through a blizzard.
The sound of Summus’s clap faded.
He appeared in a vast hall. Ancient, glowing columns illuminated the room. A choir filled the background with dulcet harmony. Light and music enervated Summus.
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