Chapter Thirty-Two
The Audi pulled up outside the club and Soph stared up at the tower that was Sinister. Even though it was early in the night, people were already lined up to get inside.
“Are you coming in?” She asked Eli, then turned in time to see him shake his head.
“I’ll do my rounds of the other clubs first. I’ll come back when you’re rowdy and drunk.”
“Better not be planning on taking advantage of me,” she warned with a smirk.
“Oh believe me, I’ll be taking every advantage possible.” He leaned over, squeezed her thigh and kissed her.
She opened the car door, only to have his hand tighten on her leg. “Soph.”
She pulled it closed again, heart rate spiking at the sudden seriousness in his tone. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just…” he exhaled a slow breath, looking uncharacteristically nervous. “I was wondering if you’d like to come to Paris with me.”
She stared. “On Wednesday?”
He nodded. “I’ll have a few days of meetings, but after that, I thought we could go down to the French Riviera and take a yacht along the coastline. Just us and no one else for a couple of weeks.”
She continued to stare, and he cleared his throat. “It was just an idea. I -”
“Yes,” she whispered, heart hammering so hard it made her feel dizzy. Weeks with Eli. Alone, on a boat. Far, far away from the city her grandmother lorded over. “Yes!”
He grinned and kissed her before giving her a nudge to go. “I’ll see you soon, Witchling. Have fun.”
She opened the car door once more. A few people looked at her as she got out, wearing her black jumpsuit and holding her gold clutch. She waved to Eli, then headed for the club door as the Audi shot up the street.
“I’m here for the hen’s party upstairs,” she told the bouncer. He was a massive brick of a man, and Soph was sure she saw a gleam of predator in his eyes. Would Eli hire vampires as bouncers? This was the club for all things supernatural, she supposed.
The bouncer stepped aside and nodded her through. “Up the lift,” he directed. She entered the club through a mirrored tunnel that shot her reflection into infinity. The tunnel opened up to a balcony. The club, though it played trance music, gave off the vibe of a grand ballroom, with a high-domed ceiling and sweeping staircases. There were small bars and booths set into the walls, rising at least three stories. Soph couldn’t work out how one would actually reach them, but there were people there.
She only had to follow the balcony a short way to find the lifts. The one she got in had a pixie waiting in it. Soph paused, but the pixie smiled and pressed the button for the top floor. Soph couldn’t tell if it was a costume or if this creature was the real deal.
The lift shot upwards and its glass walls gave her a nauseating view of the club below before it lifted into the upper floors and another long, mirrored tunnel. Finally, it stopped and Soph got out. The pixie waved her off.
There was only one door; a great slab of industrial steel set into the wall. Soph pressed the doorbell, and the door slid open silently. Music and fog drifted out of the penthouse, and Soph slipped into the spacious living area that opened to a long balcony that overlooked the city. A DJ was set up at one side of the room and pixies wove through the dancing women, offering drinks and food. One of them approached Soph, and she accepted a glass of champagne with thanks.
“Soph!” Luie extracted herself from her friends to give Soph a hug. The bride-to-be’s white dress glowed pink and purple under the lights. “This is so amazing!” Luie shouted over the music. “I can’t believe Eli let us use it!”
“It’s just thanks for his invitation to the wedding at such late notice.”
“Just thanks?” Luie laughed. “I admit I felt bad for Marco, but damn girl, I am really loving Eli right now.”
Soph shook her head with a smile. Luie wasn’t finished.
“Like, he even arranged for Chase to come! Chase fucking Rickon!”
Soph’s eyebrows shot up. “He what?” her eyes scanned the room. Drunk girls - many from Luie’s own coven - filled the space. Some danced, some played drinking games, and others chatted. There were entertainers there too, pixies and other strange creatures, and then there was Chase, outside leaning on the balcony, surrounded by a group of fawning women.
Soph excused herself from Luie and made a beeline for him. He looked up as she approached, and the grin he gave her was disarming. She didn’t miss the way the vivid green of his eyes dulled to an almost hazel colour.
“Soph,” he leaned forward to kiss her cheek when she reached him. “Lovely to see you again.”
“What are you doing here, Chase?”
He grinned again, spreading his hands wide. “My man Eli said some of the ladies might like some company. Who am I to say no?”
Soph gave a non-committal grunt and waved for another glass of champagne.
“How’s my man Eli going anyway?” Chase teased. “Been a bit lonely, some girl stealing my bro away from me.”
“How could you be lonely with all these tasty morsels around?” She retorted, waving at the girls who still clustered at his side, waiting for his attention. Chase’s smile widened and his bared teeth were disconcerting.
“I bet Eli fucks like a vampire,” was Chase’s comeback. Soph’s eyebrows shot up as her stomach simultaneously dropped. Why would he say something like that?
“I’ve always wanted to fuck a vampire,” one of the girls beside him said. Her friends giggled. Chase and Soph glanced at each other, then both burst out laughing.
“Hey, look,” Chase said, the tension between them ebbing away. The vampire leaned closer so the other women couldn’t hear him. “Eli told me about your fantasy.”
Soph’s eyebrows shot up, and her jaw dropped. Surely not… Chase merely grinned. “He told me to keep my eyes off you tonight, but I wanted you to know that whenever you’re keen, I’m keen. Deal?”
“Sure…” she said faintly. She couldn’t believe Eli had told Chase that she wouldn’t mind a tumble in the sheets with the two of them.
“Chase,” one of his groupies whined in a sing-song voice. Chase gave Soph a wink, eyes brightening to possessive green again before he turned his attention back to the women fawning over him.
“Hey, Soph!” One of the other bridesmaids called and Soph went to join her. Drinks flowed freely after that, and the hours blended together. It was just when Soph was wondering where Eli was that the music cut out and the lights shut off.
There were groans of disappointment and someone said, “It’s only one a.m.! Are we getting cut off?”
“No, we’ve got it booked the entire night,” Soph said, moving through the dark room towards the door. From the balcony, she saw that no other buildings were dark - only theirs was. Odd. A circuit must have tripped.
She was almost at the door when a deep boom sounded beneath them. The guests in the penthouse fell quiet. There was another boom, this time loud enough to shake the floor.
“Was that a bomb?” Someone whispered.
“No,” Chase appeared beside Soph, hand cupped around her elbow. “It’s black witches.”
And then Soph could hear them; a guttural shrieking coming from below, but getting closer. Her heart raced and her amulet flared hot against her skin. A few people behind her gasped, and she knew without looking that the other witches’ amulets or tokens had reacted the same.
“Run,” she said hollowly as the shrieking reached the outside of the penthouse door. When no one moved, she spun around. “RUN!”
Something hit the door and pounded on it. The guests screamed, finally moved to action.
“This way!” The pixies called. “The emergency exit is this way!”
“You better go,” Chase said to Soph when she didn’t move. She should go. What could she possibly do against black witches with predator blood in their systems? And yet, she looked at Chase, who also didn’t run. His green eyes glowed eerily in the dark.
“What are you going to do?”
He shrugged, almost nonchalantly, though he seemed sad. “I’ll fight them so the ladies can get away.”
“That’s chivalrous,” Soph murmured. Something else thunked against the door, then another and another. Her heart thundered unevenly, but she stayed resolutely where she was. “I’ll fight with you.”
Chase stared at her, expression unreadable. Then one of the black witches found the door switch.
“Fuck,” Soph and Chase whispered simultaneously. The steel door slid open and the predator witches piled through it. Soph thought she could count six, but they moved so erratically that she couldn’t be sure. One of them at the front rose, red eyes gleaming, lank hair plastered to her face. Soph was sure her heart stopped completely.
Before the predator witch could move, a ward billowed out, hitting the black witches, making them scream. A second ward followed, then another. Soph whirled to find Luie and her coven approaching. Each of them had their right hand forward, while their left held a crystal. They chanted, low and in unison.
Beside Soph, Chase went to his knees, caught under the effects of the wards. A predator witch rose and retaliated with her own spell. It hit the light witches’ wards and shattered them.
“Regroup!” Luie commanded. Her witches reached for second crystals and this time when their wards billowed out, Soph joined them, praying that no-one noticed she pulled her own energy and not from a crystal.
The wards forced the predator witches back again, but once more they recovered, shattering the light wards with ease. In the break where Luie’s coven reset, Chase lunged forward, teeth bared, to grab a predator witch. The witch howled, raking nails over Chase’s face. He hissed, grasping her head and snapping her neck.
“Now!” Luie shouted and once more Soph raised her hands, allowing fiery energy to flow unabated from her palms. Her magic rippled in the air, blending with that of the light witches who had moved to flank her.
Chase cried out, forced away with predator witches in the face of the light wards. Soph was torn between helping him and banishing the lot of them. A shadow passed through the doorway and the room shook, dust falling from cracks that appeared in the ceiling. A woman stepped into the room and her eyes were red, but she wasn’t feral like the others. She stood tall, reddish hair blowing around her face.
“Sierra,” Soph gasped, letting go of her ward in surprise. Sierra smiled and waved a hand. The light witches’ ward vanished in a puff of smoke.
“Hello, Sophia,” Sierra purred, her voice eerily high. “Time to call in the debt, my dear.”
Soph had no fucking idea what Sierra was talking about. “Luie,” she said, “more wards, now!”
“We can’t!” Luie panicked. “She’s drained our crystals!”
Fuck!
Sierra grinned. “Get them.” The predator witches howled and flashed forward with inhuman speed.
“RUN!” Soph roared to her cousin, then she flung her hands up, funnelling raw energy through them. The predator witches were thrown back, crashing through furniture to smash against walls. Sierra raised her own hands, projecting her own ward. The spells collided, sucking oxygen from the air. Soph cried out, pushing harder. Cracks appeared on the floor between them, zigzagging across the room. Great chunks of stone fell away. Soph was acutely aware that they were on the top floor of a very tall building. They were going to fucking die.
“Soph!” Luie screamed. Soph couldn’t look, but she was thankful to hear her cousin wasn’t close anymore. She tried to back away, but that gave Sierra ground to strengthen her ward. Soph cringed, hands shaking. But she didn’t lower them, nor did she rein in the magic that flowed from them.
There was a roar, and Chase appeared. He threw himself at Sierra and, caught unaware, the other witch lost the hold on her magic. Both she and Chase were blasted across the room by Soph’s spell. They smashed into a wall, cracking it with sheer force. Sierra slumped unconscious to the ground, but Chase, dazed, staggered back to his feet. Soph lunged forward and grabbed his wrist.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here!” She shouted. The whole building was shaking, and there was a horrifying whistling sound coming from beneath them, like wind in a tunnel.
Chase grabbed her around the waist and they hurtled towards the exit, smashing through the door and down the stairs of the fire exit. The building swayed violently and Chase reeled into the wall, dropping Soph.
“Fuck!” She landed on her feet, but staggered down half a flight of stairs. She kicked her heels off.
“Are you okay?” Chase gasped, flashing to her side. The building veered the other way, and both of them toppled down another flight of stairs. Soph hit the edge of a step with her hip, crying out.
“Sophia!” Her name echoed from the top of the stairwell and down through the tunnel. Sierra was coming.
“Oh my god,” Soph groaned, rolling to her side to try and rise. Chase crawled towards her, heaving her upright.
They bolted down the stairs as another tremor wracked the building. The air filled with the shrieks and screams of the predator witches as they gained the stairwell above.
“Almost there,” Chase gasped and Soph saw the final landing before them, and could hear people screaming outside. Someone stepped in front of the door and Chase skidded to a stop.
“Not the vampire I was expecting,” Adriana mused, twirling a polished stake between her fingers.
“What the fuck do you want?” Soph screamed.
Adriana shrugged, a smile on her face. An odd wind pressed over them, and beside her, Chase shook his head, clapping a hand to his ear. “Time to call in the debt, apparently. Sierra is ready and your grandmother gave the go ahead.”
Sierra. Soph thought numbly. Sierra is the Founder, not Adriana. And what the fuck did this have to do with Nona? Adriana twisted the stake once more, then flung it at Chase.
“No!” Soph cried. With one hand she pushed Chase aside, and with the other she threw an energy spell at Adriana. The witch blasted back through the door. For a brief second Soph could see the street beyond, then the building collapsed. She had only a second to throw a ward around herself, before everything went black.