Chapter 48
Chapter Forty-Eight
Nikolai
My leg bounces with nervous energy as the car speeds down the empty road. I’m tracking Lena’s phone from the passenger seat as Kian pushes the Aston to its limits. Her phone is located at an abandoned timber warehouse about twenty miles from Kian’s estate. We’re only a few miles out.
“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Ariki growls from the back seat.
“I’m trying!” Kian grits between his teeth, flooring the gas pedal.
“Take the next left,” I direct Kian. “It should be just up ahead, straight on. Kill the lights.”
He hits the lights, slows the car, and cuts off the engine.
“We need to walk the last quarter mile to keep our movements hidden,” I say.
We approach quietly on foot. I don’t know who’s taken Lena, Boden, and Cal or what abilities they might have or what state they might have them in. Nothing good happens at an abandoned warehouse in the woods during the middle of the night.
I use my vampire speed to get to the warehouse and do some recon before Kian and Ariki can arrive. Two steel doors on either end of the building and windows only on the second floor. I grab hold of jutting stones and rebar, hoisting my way up the building to get a look in a window. Shit.
I jump down to the ground. “They’re in there, bound and detained.
” I relay what I saw in rapid hushed words to Kian and Ariki as they arrive, “It’s an open space, stacks of crates at one end.
Boden and Cal are about a dozen feet from the door, and Lena is in the middle of the open space.
Looks like six magicae, at least. Four on Bo and Cal and two next to Lena. ”
“Could you tell what they are?” Ariki asks.
“Yeah,” I confirm. Their mental shields are shit. “Two angels, a fire fae, and the rest gargoyles.”
“Two of us through the front door, one through the back?” Kian looks at Ariki and me.
“But one more thing. One of them seems to know Lena…quite well.” I can see her in his mind, his mental version of her not nearly as lovely and clever as she is. “He’s thinking of a memory of her as a child.”
Ariki swears under his breath, and Kian’s face darkens with anger.
“Let’s get them out of there. We can question her when we control the context,” Kian snarls.
Ariki takes the back door, and Kian and I kick the front open. We enter into chaos.
Cal and Boden are struggling against three men, one of whom is currently blazing from Boden’s flames.
Lena has moved closer to the crates on the far end and appears to be standing off with another three.
Kian rushes to Cal and Boden, helping them easily take down the men there, while I run toward Lena.
She’s fixated on the gargoyle in the center. She doesn’t even glance my way.
She screams in his face, demanding he kneel.
Her voice takes on an eerie quality. All three men moan before dropping to the ground.
I can read their pain through their minds.
It’s unlike anything I’ve witnessed before.
It’s almost like she’s repeatedly hitting them with lightning, but it’s deeper than that.
Her power is going right to the source of their pain receptors.
Agony alights their nerve endings, like she’s pressing an invisible taser right into their nerves. All three men collapse to the ground.
“Lena,” I coax, trying to redirect her attention. She ignores me.
“I will not be used!” she screams, standing over them like a dark goddess. Her curls, backlit by the low industrial lights, float around her face on an imperceptible wind, dancing like flames. “Not by the Dark Suns, not in Adrik’s name.” Her voice, full of fire and venom, echoes through the space.
Ariki steps out behind the crates on her other side.
“I will not be used. Not by the royal houses, not by the whole of the motherfucking Realm of Sidera,” she spits out, jerking the man in the center toward her by an invisible leash.
There’s no coming out of this alive for these men.
Red-tinted saliva bubbles from their mouths, blood leaks from their eyes and flows freely from their ears, down their necks.
Two of the men go limp, crumpling completely.
“And I will certainly not be used by you, Sergey,” Lena whispers between clenched teeth.
Her power is undeniable. And not at all typical of a succubus or a seraphim.
The scene is macabre, grotesquely ethereal.
The temperature in the warehouse has plummeted since we entered.
Lena’s power is so cold it burns. My breath curls in front of my face, and a sharp, almost metallic scent hangs in the air and mixes with the coppery smell of blood and frost. It’s the scent of frozen ozone, a distinct and slightly sweet aroma.
A hint of freezer burnt air. It’s a scent that feels alive, crackling with the energy of a lightning storm.
“Lena, sweet girl, you can let go,” Cal whispers, as they limp to my side. “It’s over now.” She doesn’t acknowledge them. It’s as if she doesn’t see or hear us.
“You don’t want to do this,” the man begs, glancing over at us with pleading eyes. “I wouldn’t hurt you, not really. We’re basically family.”
Her eyes are cold and resigned like this is an inevitable outcome, and she is a dutiful avenging angel. She is the most beautifully deadly thing I’ve ever witnessed.
Lena leans down, pressing her lips to the man’s ear, tenderly, almost like a last kiss.
She whispers, “I don’t have a family anymore,” before doubling down on her power.
His body gives out. He gurgles a final whispered word, broken and quiet, “Emiliya.”
Lena’s expression remains impassive, and her face doesn’t light with recognition. It’s almost like he didn’t speak at all. I hear his heart stop, yet Lena makes no move to call back her power. Her eyes are glazed over, her pupils blown wide.
I whisper her name while she continues to stare entranced at the oozing bodies. The temperature in the room continues to drop as her hair remains floating on a phantom breeze.
“I told you not to touch them!” she screams at Kian, who is supporting Boden under the arms. She raises her finger in their direction.
“It’s okay.” Kian holds a hand up in appeasement before doubling over with a grunt. Boden lurches to catch him, but they’re both too unsteady on their legs. “Fuck.” Kian shudders in pain, the veins in his neck pop and strain against his skin. Shit, she’s completely lost control.
“I don’t trust any of you!” Her voice is scratchy from screaming. “You all lied to me again and again.”
“Darling girl, it’s alright,” Cal soothes.
Ariki steps closer to her, readying to do whatever he must. “She’s too far gone,” he shouts to me.
“Nik, you need to get into her head and pull her out of it. I don’t want to hurt her,” Kian yells, trying to hold back his shadows, which are tumbling from his palms and slowly slinking toward Lena in an attempt to protect their master.
I push against her mental wall. It’s as solid as ever.
“Stay back!” She glares. The wind around her picks up, tossing her hair wildly across her face.
Ariki lunges toward her, and her head snaps in his direction. He groans and clutches at his chest like he has been hit in the sternum.
She shrieks, “I will not let you lie to me or use me anymore!”
“We want to help, I promise,” Cal coaxes. “You can let go now, sweet girl.”
“Cal?” She blinks but makes no move to stop.
“Yeah, darling, I’m here,” Cal assures.
“I can’t let go, it’s too much. There are too many.” Her power is going to burn right through her if she doesn’t bring it to heel.
“Umnitsa, look at me,” I urge her. “You have to let it go. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
She turns her head in my direction, eyes wide and frantic.
“That’s right, clever girl. Eyes on me,” I say.
“It’s all secrets and manipulation, plotting and exploitation.” Even through the glassy sheen in her eyes, she glares daggers at me. “I’m not one of your chess pieces to be moved across the board.”
Ariki and Kian fall to their knees. They’re stronger than other magicae, and her power is waning, but it’s still too much.
I brush against her mental shields, nudging her door gently, like saying hello. “YA ne khochu pechalit’ vas nichem.” I don’t want to cause you any pain. I slowly reach for her. I pull a little harder on the door in her mind. “Let me in, úmnitsa. I can help you. Let go.”
Her eyes soften, just barely, silver welling at the corners. She nods once, and her door cracks open, just the tiniest bit. But it’s enough.
In my mind’s eye, I see a ray of golden light streaming from her to me. “That’s it. So clever,” I praise, and follow the light.
“I can’t let go.” Tears break from her eyes and stream down her cheeks.
“That’s okay. I know. Just let me in. You have to let me in.” My mental grip tightens on the handle of her softly glowing mental door—its edges shimmering. The moment she relaxes her hold on the door, I tug, throwing it wide open.
I’m no longer in the cold concrete warehouse. Instead, I’m standing within an inviting glow—a realm bathed in golden sunlight, where the air is warm and filled with the scent of blooming roses. The warmth seeps into my bones, melting away all the cold and anguish from a moment ago.
I didn’t even realize how cold I had become.
Not just tonight, but over the last few decades.
It’s like I’ve never known true warmth. Being here is restorative; I feel whole and new.
Like I gorged myself on the strongest blood, but so much more powerful.
Every step is light, as if the ground itself sighs in pleasure at my presence—serene, welcoming, perfect.
Her mind feels like she tastes, like roses and gin.
I could bathe in the glow of her light for eternity and never grow tired of it.
Her memories and thoughts float around me in the form of rose petals on the wind.
I catch one in my hand—she’s a child in the arms of a scrawny teenage boy sharing an ice cream cone.