Chapter 13
Andrei
A s night fell over New Orleans, the city hummed to life. I took a deep breath, listening in on the chaotic energy and savoring the scents of the evening. There was one scent in particular that caught my attention … spilled human blood, reminding me I needed to feed soon.
Liam and I headed to meet my driver, Dominic, who had his phone pressed to his ear. He looked stressed. When he saw me, he spoke a few words and hung up.
“What’s going on?” I asked him, my hand clenched at my side. In the corner of my eye, I noticed Liam subtly shifting next to me, as if he could sense my change in demeanor.
“Alexei called from outside the club,” he said, sounding uneasy. “No one can get in the building to open up. He’s called Meredith a hundred times but mentioned he hasn’t seen her since last night.”
My stomach felt like it plummeted into ice.
“There’s a spell on all the doors and windows, too, and some strange symbols written on everything. Someone’s also blocked off the sewers. A few security guards were inside, but we can’t get ahold of ’em now.” He paused, looking to me for directions.”
“What do you mean that there’s a spell? Why haven’t our witches been called? What about the cameras?”
“No one can get ahold of them, either, sir. Someone disabled all the security cameras two hours ago, so no one saw who entered the club to do all that shit.” Dominic looked even more distressed, but I didn’t care. I turned to Liam, baring my fangs at him.
“Is this your coven’s doing?” I growled, grabbing his shirt collar.
Liam seized my wrist and sent a tendril of red mist down my arm, snapping against my flesh and forcing me to release him. I shoved him away, and he straightened his shirt back. “You know goddamn well we didn’t do this. That den of sin is of no interest to the coven. We just want the sword and her mother dead. This sounds like a personal problem.”
I snarled, feeling the threads of my self-control fray.
Yanking the car door open, I said, “Dominic, get us to the Black Diamond as fast as possible. I don’t care if you have to run over pedestrians. Get. Us. Back.”
Without another word, the others climbed into the car, and we sped off into the night.
Dominic deserved credit for getting us back to the club in under ten minutes, even though he broke every traffic law while not killing anyone.
During the drive, I managed to leash my anger but felt its beast roaming beneath my skin, still agitated at the disrespect and inconvenience placed on me.
As soon as I find the intruders, I’ll shred them into pieces and feed them to the Mississippi catfish , I mused as we pulled up to the front door.
My head of security, Alexei, was waiting. I shoved open the car door and strode over to him. The assholes who did this had chained off the front door, and several markings covered the ornate wooden surface.
The markings resembled ancient runes but none I recognized from when I practiced the craft centuries ago.
“What the hell is this mess? You couldn’t find one witch to help? Why do you even bother showing your face to me?”
Before Alexei spoke, Jackson rounded the corner from the alley.
“This is worse than we thought. It’d be smarter if you came through the back door. Witches weren’t the only ones who sealed off the building.” He paused, his eyes narrowing. “We’ve got bigger problems than we were told. Trust me, it’s not just magic at play here.”
“Then who was it?”
“The Bayou Perot Pack.”
“The werewolves? Not possible. Those dogs have nothing to do with magic, and besides, we killed more than half the pack, including their Beta, Franklin.”
“And you killed the Alpha’s wife,” he remarked. “Don’t be a fool to think the wolves wouldn’t recruit a coven to help them carry out their revenge. You knew damn well they’d never let that go.”
“The Moon Stone Pack killed her,” I reminded him. “I was just their weapon to do it.”
Jackson jerked his head toward the alley, and Liam and I followed. When we reached the back of the building, a prominent symbol painted the green metal service door. Liam let out a low whistle.
It was the crest of the Bayou Perot. It was a pair of wolf fangs glinting under a crescent moon with a torn, bloody bat wing draped over the moon’s curve—an old symbol of the eternal struggle between my kind and theirs. The bastards wanted us to know it was them.
I growled and walked to the door, but Jackson grabbed my shoulder before I could touch the handle. “Someone spelled the building. No one has been able to touch it. See?” He lifted his hand and touched the door. There was a loud crack in the air, and Jackson yanked back his hand, his skin blistered.
“It’s a blood shield spell,” Liam remarked from behind us. He closed his eyes and lifted his hand. A red glow trickled from his fingers, touching the door as if probing the shield. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes. “Well, shit. The spell’s tied to you, Andrei. You’re the only one who can break it and get inside.” He waved a hand to the crest. “Touch it, and the shield will crack.”
“Not to state the obvious,” Jackson started. “But I think you better stay outside. It’s pretty damn clear we’re walking into a trap.”
“Someone compromised my club, Jackson— my business. Fuck those wolves. I refuse to let some weak magic deter me. Liam, you’ll come inside and deactivate any magic those wolves used.”
Liam nodded, while Jackson shook his head and stepped back. I grabbed the door handle, and in an instant, a flash of pain and blue light shot through me, followed by a pop that echoed down the alley. I wrenched the door open, nearly tearing it from the hinges, and stormed inside. As I rounded the corner past the DJ booth, I froze.
“Jesus Christ.”
My club was unrecognizable, with debris and wreckage covering every inch of the space. Broken shards of glass and liquid from every bottle of wine and liquor that was once behind the bar now spread out along the tile floor.
They’d ripped everything apart, leaving only splintered wood and torn upholstery. Deep claw marks marred the furniture, ripping through the leather sofas and chairs.
The cushion foam hung from the rafters like globs of yellow fat. They’d smashed the tables beyond recognition, scattering debris across the torn-up carpet. Some wolf had ripped the red marble bar clean from the wall and slammed it vertically into the center of the dance floor. Every glass and light fixture lay shattered, the glass twinkling in the mess.
Liam walked past me and kneeled on the floor. He let his magic flow across the tile, covering the walls and broken furniture in its red tentacles. He looked at me with a grim expression. “There’s no trace of other magic on this floor. No traps, nothing. They wanted to trash the place and leave the mess for you to see.”
I clenched my hands and walked deeper into the area. That’s when the smell hit me. Rage coated my tongue, burning my throat.
Vampire blood.
I looked more closely at the walls and saw dark splashes. Beneath the clotted blood lay piles of ash.
The missing security guards.
Jackson came up next to me, his face stricken. “What in the fucking hell?”
Hot rage boiled inside me. I’m going to rip out their spines through their mouths.
As I opened my mouth to bark orders, there was a muffled cry coming from my office. The three of us took off up the stairs, and I threw myself against the locked door. The wood cracked in half and fell into the dark office. An even more intense smell of blood washed over me, and I staggered back.
That scent was familiar. Too damn familiar.
Carefully, I flipped the light switch and illuminated a prone body sitting in my desk chair—a form that was dripping blood into the carpet, a form with pale, golden-blonde hair.
“Meredith!” Jackson shouted, taking a step into the office. I threw my arm out and stopped him.
“Don’t,” I said steadily, but my body and mind were anything but calm. “Look at her.”
The wolves had bound Meredith to the chair with silver chains, an eerie glow against the links, most likely magic to keep her from breaking free of them. They also strapped a silver gag over her mouth, as if to silence her screams. The rips on her clothes showed me she’d fought back before they subdued and restrained her. Despite her head hanging low against her bloody chest, she was still alive.
When I looked closer, I saw that silver staples had sliced open her arm, and dark red blood dripped down her skin, pooling on the floor. She must have been here for hours.
I looked over my shoulder at Liam and hissed. “I thought you didn’t sense any magic.” I pointed toward Meredith. They were the same chains I had used to tie up that messenger, Brayden, when we exchanged a hostage for Keith.
“The power’s so faint I couldn’t detect it downstairs,” Liam whispered. “Just go slow, and don’t touch her. I’ll work on disenchanting the silver chains first.”
Slowly, Jackson and I stepped into the office, while Liam chanted his spell. We moved toward the chair, and at the sound of our footsteps, Meredith’s eyes opened, and her head shot up. She began thrashing, muffled shrieks coming from the silver gag. Meredith shook her head back and forth, and a glint of metal around her throat caught my eye. It was a wire.
The room fell silent, as if something sucked out all the sound, leaving only the steady ticking of the clock against the wall.
I turned to grip Jackson by his shirt’s collar, but it was too late. When one of his legs moved forward, his foot hit a small peg in the carpet, and a whirring noise. The wire suddenly tightened against Meredith’s throat. I used my vampiric speed to rush toward her, but the moment my hand reached out to grip the wire, it sliced deep into her neck.
My eyelids couldn’t even blink before Meredith’s head rolled from her neck and dropped into her still-twitching lap. Liam gasped from behind me as my body went still, my breath caught in my throat. I staggered back until I felt Jackson’s chest, then fell to my knees right as Meredith’s corpse crumbled into pieces of ash and flesh, falling to the wet carpet.
“Fuck! Meredith! Meredith, no! What did I do?” Jackson fell to his knees with me, his breath ragged. My jaw cracked as I gritted my teeth in fury. That’s when I saw the trap in its entirety.
The bloody wire had snapped away from her body and ricocheted against the wall with a crack. I jumped to my feet, leaving Jackson behind me as I followed the wire toward my bookcase. I realized then that magic had concealed something.
My blood ran cold as I saw multiple stacks of C4 come into view, each stack with its detonation wire going into the walls of my office. They had rigged Meredith as a bomb, and she had inadvertently set it off. I ran to Jackson, grabbed him by the shoulder, and sprinted out of the office. I shoved Liam toward the stairs with my free hand.
“Liam, run, dammit!” I shouted as we descended the stairs. I crashed through the front door, where Alexei, Dominic, and two other staff members waited.
“Get away from the building!” I screamed. “Run!”
We all began rushing down the street when a roar chased us. A wave of intense heat slammed into our backs, throwing us into the dirty, rain-clogged gutters. Then the world shattered in a concussive blast of brick and smoke. As debris rained down on us, I threw my hands over my head. Nearby cars blared, and distant shouts of humans rang in my ears.
Once the debris settled, I lifted my head and looked back at my club.
Smoke filled the air and climbed toward the rising moon, but soon, I saw beyond the thick black clouds. My club was gone, reduced to rubble and ashes. I rose to my feet and ran back to the shattered building.
“Drei! What are you doing? Stop!” Jackson shouted after me, but I drowned out his voice.
I only had minutes before the police started digging through the rubble. I needed to get the key and the book.
I leaped over the partially broken wall attached to my office and ran to where the vault, now surrounded by drywall and burning wood, sat smashed into the floor. The fire raged around it, and the paint started peeling away from the metal. I hurried over.
The explosion didn’t do this, but someone had unlocked it, the door wide open, and the latch pulled back into the lock.
I reached inside, moving my hand around, and felt nothing. “No!” The Book of Shadows, the Burning of Angels Key, and my murder for hire contracts were all missing.
There were only three people who knew where I’d hidden them. They must have tortured Meredith for the code as she was the only one who had it.
Rage burned inside me as another thought came to my mind. Where’s Jase?
I stumbled backward, dropping to my knees. My knuckles slammed into the concrete again and again, each blow splitting the skin open, only for it to heal moments later, then tear again with the next hit. Meredith, my friend—my loyal companion for over a hundred years—was dead. The Fire key and Book of Shadows were gone, the only hope to save Jase’s and my soul from burning in the Underworld.
Like a wild animal, my screams pierced through the darkness.
Rage … only pure blinding rage ….