Chapter 13 #2
“I didn’t think you’d care,” Emma said, bewildered by the woman’s childish tantrum.
Lillian raised her chin. “I don’t.”
Great. Spurned lover or naturally bitchy? Emma wondered. “Master Kennedy had no way to predict what you would wear this evening, Lady Ramsey. I dressed myself.”
Unconvinced, the hostess leaned back and folded her arms against her more generous bust. “Is he still clinging to his ridiculous vampire slayer theory? We went to exquisite lengths to maintain absolute secrecy about the location of our event this year. In fact, you, a mere adept, shouldn’t even be here. ”
“I—”
“In fact, if there were hunters here, then surely they followed you. Now, as I see it, you have two options. You can turn around and leave, or I can have you and your pet kicked out. I’ll only make the offer once.”
“We’ll leave,” Emma bit out.
Satisfied, Lillian sniffed and strode away. Her husband gave them an apologetic smile then followed on his wife’s heels like a faithful puppy dog waiting for a treat.
“Wow,” River muttered. “Talk about a jealous, scorned woman.”
Disappointed in the outcome of her talk with the Ramseys, Emma kneaded her temples with one hand. As she did, a broad-shouldered man in coveralls passed by her right, a pest-control agency’s emblem on his left arm.
Pest-control at a vampire party? Lillian wouldn’t dare allow them on the premises now.
She twisted around and followed his path through the crowd, unable to see more than the back of his blond head. He walked through a dancing couple, a ghost who emerged on the other side of them without a hitch to his stride.
“Where are we going?” River whispered.
Emma made a soft shushing sound and continued to drag River by the hand.
The impression left of a Joe who had already visited the Chateau, strode away whistling a merry tune under his breath. Emma hurried to the undisturbed toolbox left beneath a banquet table, petrified. It had been tucked behind a propane cylinder.
“River… I think we were wrong. They weren’t planning to storm the building or place explosives outside.”
“What?”
“They’re too smart to leave it all depending on a crude homemade bomb. Or, at least, that Josh guy is. They have more than one thing in place.”
“What do we do? Can we move it?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never dealt with explosives before. If I mess with it, I’m likely to vaporize all of us.”
“We don’t want that,” River muttered.
A quick glance over her shoulder revealed no one standing within the vicinity of the table. She crouched down and placed a hand out, palm down above the box.
Focus, Em. Focus.
A bell tolled in the distance, the echo of a midnight chime ringing twelve times.
“Emma?” River whispered. “People are looking at us.”
Before she could respond, a sharp bang shattered her ears, accompanied by a wave of dry heat.
Emma stumbled back and fell onto her bottom as shrieks of terror and piercing wails filled her conscious mind.
She breathed in the odorous stench of burning flesh, the balmy scent of the gulf, and ashes on the wind.
Gunfire and screams followed the initial cacophony.
And she screamed too when she staggered to her feet, only for River to catch her with both arms. The real world returned to her, a dozen vampires lounging in varying states of relaxation, some sipping from flutes of blood, others from living, human necks. They stared at her.
So much for remaining lowkey.
Lillian appeared like a storm cloud, and equally as furious. “What are you doing? I told you to get out of here.”
Emma’s eyes snapped to the grandfather clock to her left and saw less than a minute remained until the toll. Not even a minute, fifteen seconds.
“There’s a bomb beneath this banquet table,” Emma blurted out, while the spectating bluebloods watched the disturbance.
Whirling on the points of her impossible stilettos, Lillian faced an enormous, tuxedo-clad brick wall. “I’ve given you a chance to peacefully leave, but I see you won’t give us any choice. Titus and Brutus, please remove these two wastrels from my gala.”
The clock tolled.
Titus grabbed Emma around her bicep and yanked her forward a step.
It tolled again, a second time, and then a third, spiking Emma’s pulse to a feverish tempo. Titus tried to remove her, taking her by the arm as another champion arrived. “River, shield it now!”
When River flung out both of her hands, the bangles surrounding her wrists clattered together and flashed. Energy whirled around them like two opposing currents, and a spectacular flood of mystical light spilled over the banquet table.
Emma slapped Titus’s hand aside then spun between River and the second approaching guard.
While both appeared enormous and intimidating, strength had nothing to do with size when it came to vampires.
She stabbed her stiletto through the top of his foot.
Titus tried to grab her from behind, but she drove her elbow into his solar plexus.
Can’t they tell I’m trying to save their damned lives?
Emma ducked beneath a swinging fist and twisted, flipping around behind Titus and kicking the back of his knee. She brought him down low to her level and thrust the muzzle of her handgun against the back of his head. Brutus had a short-barreled shotgun pointed at her.
“Everyone calm down. No one has to get hurt right now,” she said.
The chime rang again for the ninth time.
“Why are you doing this?” Lillian demanded. Her voice rose high and shrill, both offended and petrified.
“There’s a bomb beneath that serving table and every single vampire here is going to die if we don’t do this. Now shut up, sit back, and prepare to say thank you.”
A vampire among the cluster of gawking attendees shrieked at the same moment a thundering boom clapped through the air.
Muted by magic, the explosion shattered the banquet table and flung splinters of smoldering wood against the semi-translucent shield.
Great balls of orange fire raged, and smoke billowed while the magical barrier sparked.
Shrapnel from ball bearings and bolts bounced harmlessly inside.
River’s spell didn’t break against the onslaught within, but the flames churned and lit the faces of everyone watching.
Holy shit, she did it! She really could do it!
Mouth slack, Lillian’s bone-white face slowly turned to Emma. “You didn’t lie.”
“You have like one second to point that gun away from her before I do to you both what that explosion didn’t do,” River said tersely to Brutus.
She swept one hand through the air like a horizontal blade stroke, instantaneously extinguishing the fire left by the raging explosion. The bubble dome faded seconds later.
Brutus holstered his firearm in a rush.
Holstering her own gun first, Emma whirled to Lillian and glowered. “Now do you see? Your petty, vindictive childishness almost got everyone here reduced to ashes, including yourself.”
“But how? When? We checked everything. Vetted everyone who came through the door to fix up the place.”
“Your exterminator yesterday wasn’t who he appeared to be, and you’re damned lucky I was here to prevent this,” she snapped.
Her whole body buzzed with the lingering rush of adrenaline, making her restless and uneasy.
She paced to the left, the crowd clearing from her path, and gestured toward the curtained windows.
“Right now, there’s probably at least a dozen or more hunters waiting outside for any survivors to flee, and then they’re going to gun you down. ”
To the credit of the nobles, no one screamed or panicked again. They watched instead, observing the situation and speaking in hushed voices among themselves. Lord Ramsey placed an arm around his wife’s trembling shoulders. “Tell us what to do,” he said.
After clearing her throat, Lillian drew herself taller and nodded in agreement. “Yes. What can we do now to safeguard everyone?”
“Stay inside. Adrian and several of our friends are outside looking for the hunters.”
“And if they come in?” someone asked from the crowd.
Emma gazed at the anxious faces then at her companion’s serene and composed features. “We can’t remain here with you. If they come in, you and your champions will have to fight. Prepare your defenses and be ready for anything.”
Harrison’s voice crackled over the comms line.
“Bigot Gandalf and Joe entered a church on Chartres Street ten minutes ago and they still haven’t come out.
They must be doing a hell of a lotta hocus pocus because there’s a light show going on right now like y’all wouldn’t believe. I think he’s trying to free her, dude.”
River stole a glance at a clock on the wall.
“Tonight’s the final night of Mardi Gras festivities, which means there’s a lot of power in the air from all the excitement.
We’ve already established he’s a junior mage so…
Shit, I should have seen this. He’s not strong enough to pull her out of the gem on his own, so he’s relying on the ambient energy from the city’s crowds and the leylines to help him.
If I was going to perform an intense magical ritual, it’d be now. ”
“We’re pinned down outside the party,” Adrian replied. The strain in his voice made Emma’s pulse spike.
“River neutralized the bomb Joe placed inside the party. Thanks to her, everyone here should be safe,” she reported. “The Ramseys should have things under control inside, so River and I can head to the church.”
“Emma, it’s too dangerous to go alone,” Adrian protested.
“No more than letting him free that fallen angel. We’re going.”
After a long pause, a heart-stopping pause in which she thought Adrian would never relent, he finally answered, “Good luck.”
“Be safe.” She turned her gaze on River. “Think you can transport us a few blocks?”
“I can get to Jackson Square, but I’ve never brought someone with me without a circle.”
“I trust you,” Emma said.
River studied her face then nodded. “All right then, stay close and don’t let me go.”