Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
LAYDEN
Oh shit. For the past half hour, I’ve completely forgotten about the world outside this limo.
Ammit. We’re supposed to go confront the goddess who’s been murdering people.
That’s the entire point of what we just did.
We weren’t just finally giving in to our desires or consummating our marriage, or as close to it as I’m likely ever going to get.
I take a deep breath and try to focus, but my mind feels completely blank. Like I just blasted every thought I had out from my balls through my shaft and down her throat. For once in my goddamn life, I don’t feel an ounce of hunger gnawing at me.
I just feel purely happy.
Phoenix licks her lips while reaching for her discarded jeans. She shimmies back into them quickly.
“Layden,” she says with urgency while looking at her phone. “Hurry. We could already be too late. I texted John Paul that there was a threat and he needed to stay in his office, but I’m not sure if he got the message or not. He hasn’t responded yet.”
I nod while grabbing my own jeans. Phoenix finishes tugging her shirt over her head and reaches for the door handle.
“Wait,” I say, but she’s already pushing the door open. I grab my shirt and follow her out. I’m zipping up my jeans and pulling my shirt on as I run after her. Get your head back in the game right now.
She’s moving far faster than her normal pace.
She’s usually careful not to show any of her superhuman characteristics when we’re around anyone else who might be able to see.
Now that she’s finally told me everything about what she really is, I wonder what else she might have hidden from me over the years.
I’m able to keep up with her only because I never claimed to be human myself.
I might not have my wings anymore, but I can still run far faster than anyone from this realm has a right to.
No one’s watching us in this moment. The limo is double parked in an alley close to the building housing the Ancient Religions department. We don’t have to cross much of the open campus before we’re there.
“Something’s wrong,” I state what’s obvious as we see students spilling out of the building entrance. Some of them are screaming. It snaps me back into the present reality, at least.
Especially when Phoenix starts to cry, “No, no, no!” and starts shoving past the people exiting to get to the double doors.
But it’s a mob of panicked bodies.
I move in front of Phoenix since I have wider shoulders.
I push through the crowd like a battering ram until we have a clear path to the door.
There’s a bottleneck of students trying to get out all at once.
I yank several people through the opening.
When more fill up the gap, I shove into them and hold them back until Phoenix can follow behind me.
They shout at us angrily, but I ignore their protests. I let go of the flood of people only once I feel Phoenix safely at my back.
Together, we thread our way through the panicked, pressing mob.
It doesn’t take us long to figure out what has them fleeing in terror. We’re in the building with the large round atrium and research displays behind glass in the center apex of the structure. There was a model display of an early religious temple behind the glass when we visited last time.
Now, there’s a dead body displayed there instead.
Not just any dead body, either. Blood is everywhere across the floor and walls.
The body is severed into pieces, arranged outwards symmetrically in a circle from the chest. It’s exactly like the crime scene we saw in the dorm room.
I don’t feel like I have to even look closely to know that the heart is missing.
Around the room, there’s a handful of other fallen, bloodied bodies, eyes vacant. They all look young, like college students just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Phoenix is right.
We’re too late to prevent whatever this is.
She runs right up to the glass of the atrium. A gasp of horror comes from her throat as her hands slap against the glass. But then she backs up quickly with a hand over her mouth. “It’s not him. It’s not John Paul.”
Her head swings to me wildly, voice choked. “Do you think he’s still in his office? Maybe he already left the building?” She looks toward the fleeing students hopefully.
I nod while trying to think. “He had to have heard the commotion happening, right?”
“His class is at nine-fifteen.” She looks down at her phone screen. “We still have five minutes before it starts. He might not have heard it all. Sometimes he works up to the bell with his headphones on. He says it helps him get in the right headspace for teaching.”
“Where’s his office?” I ask urgently.
“Come on,” Phoenix says over her shoulder, already taking off for the stairs at the edge of the large, circular space.
The crowd behind us is finally thinning as more students manage to get through the doors.
They must have all gotten out of their eight o’clock classes and discovered the gruesome murder scene.
Someone wanted this to be very public.
Anyone who could hear the screaming would have followed the mass exodus down.
Which explains why it’s so eerily empty when Phoenix and I reach the second floor.
It looks like people got the message and evacuated in a hurry.
Chairs are askew at desks. Computers have been left on with screens still glowing. Doors to offices stand open.
But there’s a light coming from under one door that’s still closed at the end of the hallway. Phoenix hurries toward it with determination. She doesn’t bother knocking. She just yanks the door open hard.
Right in time to find Professor Rossi on his knees before Ammit.
He looks up at Phoenix with terror on his face.
“Help!” he cries desperately.
Ammit turns at the same time. Her eyes go wide when she sees the two of us standing there. She lifts a hand toward us, and I feel the churn of lust for Phoenix hit immediately.
But this time, it’s bearable. My cock goes stiff, and I’m distracted by my overwhelming need for Phoenix. But I’m still satiated by everything we did in the limo on the ride over. I can still actually think, mostly clearly, and remember what we’re here to accomplish.
I see the surprise register on Ammit’s face as Phoenix lifts her hand toward the goddess. Ammit suddenly stops moving. Not a single muscle twitches as Phoenix paralyzes her body through blood magic, freezing her in place.
“We’ve got to get her out of here before anyone sees,” I say quickly while looking around. “The police will be crawling all over the place any second now.”
Someone downstairs had to have called emergency services.
Yes, Vlad might own the police department, but it’ll still get extremely messy if his granddaughter is discovered at the scene when they arrive.
Especially if she does whatever it is I know she really wants to do to Ammit in front of witnesses.
With the magical murders downstairs, it all might be too big for even Vlad to keep properly contained.
Phoenix nods grudgingly in agreement. “We’ll have to deal with her elsewhere.”
“What are you doing?” The Professor grabs frantically for his phone. “It’s her! Ammit! She’s the murderer. We need to call the police immediately! She was about to kill me!”
“You—” Ammit starts to say, but Phoenix closes her fingers into a fist. The motion shuts Ammit’s mouth so that nothing but angry noises come out.
I snatch the phone out of the Professor’s hands before he can dial. “What are you doing?” He looks furiously at me, but I ignore his outrage.
We don’t have time for civilian complications right now. If Phoenix is feeling anything like the lust I am, Ammit’s still trying to throw everything but the kitchen sink at us with her powers. Phoenix might be barely holding on to her control, and I don’t want this man distracting her focus.
“Walk,” Phoenix orders Ammit firmly. The goddess looks furious but begins to do exactly as Phoenix commands. She marches out of the office and down the hallway toward the stairs.
“Will someone please tell me what’s going on here?” the Professor asks while following us as we head down the stairs. Ammit is at the lead with Phoenix right behind her.
“Not now, John Paul,” Phoenix says sharply. I can tell by the strain in her voice that I’m correct about her situation. She is fighting hard against Ammit’s influence.
When we get to the bottom of the stairs by the atrium, John Paul’s eyes widen as he stares at the gruesome scene through the glass.
“Mother of God!” He crosses himself and turns away. He looks like he’s going to throw up as we pass by the display.
The whole building has emptied out completely.
Our car isn’t far from here. If we can just get Ammit out of the city limits, then Phoenix will be able to deal with her in the way that she needs to.
Or we can call Sabra to help us if Phoenix has changed her mind about the plan.
Maybe I can talk her into that option on the drive.
“Go home,” I tell John Paul as we approach the double doors we came through earlier. “We’ve got this situation under control now.”
He hurries ahead of me, but stops and turns around before pushing out through the doors.
“Oh, I don’t think you do,” John Paul says.
I roll my eyes in frustration. But before we take another step forward, one of the double doors opens from the outside, right behind John Paul.
A familiar face appears in the doorway.
“Sabra,” Phoenix says in obvious confusion. “What are you doing here?” She glances over her shoulder at me with an angry, questioning look. “Did you text her to come?”
I shake my head because what the hell is happening? Not only is Sabra standing there, but Vlad is directly behind her. Police sirens sound in the distance, getting closer.
That was extremely fast. The college kids called the police, who must’ve already notified Vlad of the situation.
But if he’s here already, that means he had to have left the compound right after Phoenix and I did this morning…? I don’t get it.
“I’m here to help you,” Sabra says, stepping into the large echoing rotunda. Vlad follows her inside. Before the door shuts completely behind them, I see his black-suited vampire minions spreading out in a perimeter around the outside of the front of the building.
“What are you talking about?” Phoenix says with clear confusion in her voice. “We already have a plan for dealing with this. Look, I’m sorry I didn’t call you earlier to coordinate—”
“Wait!” I call. Just as a feeling of deep wrongness tingles down my spine like ice, I reach out to grab Phoenix’s hand. “They aren’t here to help us!”
But before I can pull her back, a magical golden light sizzles up around the floor of the huge circular room we’re still standing in.
“What?” Phoenix asks, still sounding so confused by what’s happening. She tries to take a step toward Sabra, but it’s like she’s run straight into an invisible window. She bounces backward.
“What the fuck, Sab?” Phoenix asks with hurt in her voice.
Oh shit. I don’t know why Sabra has betrayed us, but I suddenly have a horrible sinking feeling that I know why this murder happened specifically in the atrium. It isn’t just because it’s a public display of gore for maximum horrific effect.
It’s because the 5-story rotunda around the atrium display is a giant, perfect circle.
And of all the mages I’ve ever met over the centuries, none of them are better at circle magic than Sabra.
“I’m just doing what has to be done,” Sabra says. She sounds nothing like her normal bubbly self.
She doesn’t sound sorry either, that’s absolutely certain. She just sounds completely blank.
“She’s loyal to me above all else,” Vlad says while taking Sabra’s arm like one might take a lover’s. He walks right up to the outside of the circle we’re now bound within.
Phoenix’s mouth drops open in shock. “You did this to her?” And then her eyes widen as understanding dawns. She gasps low. “You didn’t. Tell me you didn’t.” Her voice comes out low and horrified.
Vlad just shrugs casually and runs his hands over Sabra’s hair like she’s a pet. She turns her face toward his touch as if she’s an animal seeking approval from her owner.
Oh fuck. Even I get it now. He made Phoenix’s best friend into his blood slave.
“When?” Phoenix demands with her voice breaking. “How long ago did you do this to her?”
“Since right before the two of you ran away together at nineteen, and you brought this wonderful opportunity to us.” He shoots a villainous smile at me.
Then he looks down at Sabra, who’s all but hanging on his arm adoringly. “Of course, she turned around and came immediately back when I called out to her. She can do nothing else but worship me and serve my every whim without question. As did her mother before her and hers before her.”
“You son of a bitch!” Phoenix screams at him with raw emotion. She runs at the invisible wall again. I grab her around the waist to hold her back from hurting herself against the barrier.
“I had no idea when you brought the boy back to us ten years ago just how deeply he was connected to the ultimate power I’ve sought for so long.
” Vlad’s twisted smile comes back to focus on me.
“We could have saved ourselves all this time and trouble, lad, if you’d just told me who your father actually was. ”
“My father’s dead to me, you dickwad. And he’s long gone from this realm anyway. So fuck off.” I shoot runes at the floor beneath us to try to break whatever circle spell Sabra’s laid down. But they disappear as soon as they touch the marble surface.
Vlad laughs loudly and claps his hands together. “That’s what makes all this so delightful. And to think, if you’d just done as I commanded and produced the offspring I asked for, none of this might have been necessary. But now we’re here, and I do so love to be present for a family reunion.”
What the actual fuck is he talking about?
I look around the circle more carefully. Only now do I realize that it’s not just Phoenix, Ammit, and I who are caught in this magical trap.
John Paul holds out his arms and smiles a familiarly sinister smile directly at me.
Then his body and features begin to morph.
In moments, the creature from my nightmares is suddenly standing in front of me. He’s handsome in a terrible way as black wings grow and then flare out ten feet wide on both sides of his powerful back.
“Son,” growls a deep voice I know all too well. “It’s been too long since we’ve spoken.”
What in the ACTUAL FUCK is happening?
Phoenix’s professor has been my father all along?