19. CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Omaera
Another cry in Gemma’s voice down the hall had us all running.
The sword was now an extension of me and I held it out in front as I made my way down the hallway. Maxar and Drak hobbled behind me as best they could.
A door was open, and another scream shook my bones.
I ran in to find Lerris standing over Gemma as she writhed on the floor, blood flowing out of her nose and ears. She clutched at the side of her head. Blood seeped from the corners of her eyes and it looked as though she’d raked her nails repeatedly down her face. Everything was battered and bloody.
Rage filled every corner of my body and just as I prepared to charge forward and take off Lerris’s head, thunder cracked through the room like a sonic boom, shoving my uncle hard against the far wall, his head hitting the brick with a deafening crack. Maxar and Drak were thrown too.
Only I remained standing.
I ran to Gemma, brushing the hair off her face. “Gem. Oh Gemma! I’m so sorry.”
“He’s getting away,” Drak said pointing at Lerris, who was scrambling to stand up and open the exit door right next to him.
I wanted to kill him. But my friend was more important. My mates and their injuries were more important. This wasn’t the end of my war with Lerris. But for now, it was the end of the battle. I needed to care for my soldiers, take them home to heal.
Lerris and I locked eyes. Triumph mixed with pain flickered back at me. “Those powers aren’t yours, you mongrel. You can’t hide from me. I’m the true king and the whole realm knows it.”
Then he limped out the exit, the slam of the door making the whole room shake.
I shook Gemma by the shoulders. “Gem. Gemma, you need to wake up.”
Her eyes were closed, but she was breathing.
“Help!” I demanded, looking to Maxar and Drak.
They scrambled up from where they were on the floor and made their way over.
“What do I do?
Maxar kneeled down beside Gemma, hovering his palms above her body and allowing little yellow and purple flames to flicker out. Some of the cuts on her face began to heal.
“That’s all I can do,” he said, extinguishing the flames. “I don’t have powers to heal her anymore. I don’t have enough energy to cauterize anymore. I’m sorry.”
“It’s enough for now,” I said. “Stay with her . . . please.”
They nodded, and I ran back to find Zandren.
How did Drak put him down with a bite? Did he have different kinds of bites? Did he have a poison in his fangs like a snake that paralyzed people?
I reached my big bear and fell to the floor beside him. “Zandren.” I shook him gently. “Zandren, you need to wake up now.” Resting my hand on his head, I bent low and pressed my forehead to his. “Please wake up. Please.”
“My fangs have a paralytic in them,” came Drak’s voice behind me.
Didn’t I just ask them to stay with Gemma? I spun around prepared to give him hell, but he had Gemma in his arms and Maxar was behind him. My expression softened.
“It’s voluntary,” he went on. “It’s why I could bite you and not cause your limbs to stop working. But I bit Zandren and injected the paralytic, so he stumbled away and then stopped moving. It’ll wear off though.”
“When?” I asked, stroking his fur.
“I gave him a big dose because he’s huge, so a few hours.”
“Gemma needs medical attention now.”
Drak nodded and gently set Gemma down beside Drak.
“We need to get out of here. We’re sitting ducks,” Maxar said, glancing around. He appeared mostly healed, but his tattered shirt from Zandren’s claws hung like scraps of torn fabric off his ripped abdomen.
He was right. Lerris could dispatch an army to finish the job. We needed to leave. We also couldn’t go back to the apartment. He knew where we lived. It wasn’t safe anymore. Nowhere was safe.
Drak was on his phone. “Yeah, and we’ll need a safe house too.” He nodded. “’Kay. Thanks, Raver.” He hung up. “Our ride is on his way.”
Because Bauer and Arik left us, Drak promised to take care of our getaway vehicle. Hopefully, the driver would be strong enough to help lift Zandren.
In less than five minutes, Drak’s phone buzzed and he went to let in this Raver.
Another vampire, of course. And between the two of them, and Maxar, they managed to drag Zandren’s body outside, where they then rolled him up a ramp made of the pallets and into the back of a big, cube van. We nestled Gemma beside him, and I ordered them to take us to the hospital.
“What are we going to do about that thing?” Maxar asked, pointing at Lerris’s henchman, who was still bound, his eyes wide with fear.
I glanced at the fire mage. “No loose ends. Lerris—and possibly this fool—killed my father and my aunt.”
Maxar grinned. “Shall I make him suffer, my Queen?”
I hummed for a moment; the henchman made a noise of protest against his gag.
“We need to get going,” I finally said. “Make it quick.”
Maxar nodded. “As you wish, my Queen.” Black fire shot from his palms and there was just a quick scream of protest around the gag before the henchman’s body burst into flame, crumbling to ash a moment later. The acrid smell of burned flesh hung in the air, making bile coat the back of my tongue.
“To the hospital,” I said suppressing the urge to gag and getting comfortable between my best friend and my bear-shifter mate, in the back of the cube van.
“Too risky,” Raver said, holding onto the door of the van. “There’s a healing mage—equivalent, if not superior, to your human doctors—not far from here.”
“Gemma’s human,” I protested, stroking my friend’s hair.
“The healing mage will still be able to help her,” Maxar said. “It’d be tough to explain some of her injuries to a human doctor.”
“Fine,” I exhaled, glancing down at Gemma. “Let’s go then.”
Raver nodded and shut the door, leaving Gemma, Zandren, Maxar, and me in the back, while he and Drak took the two seats in the front.
“She’s going to be okay,” Maxar said, wincing from pain as he held his abdomen, which was seeping blood from where Zandren had clawed him. He funneled some flames against the gashes to cauterize the wounds.
I glanced at him, pure, unadulterated rage bubbling up in my belly. “She better be. I’m already on the warpath. You don’t want to see me when I have nothing left to lose.”
We arrived at the healing mage’s house about two hours later. Raver said he could have taken us to a closer one, but he wanted to take us out of immediate harm. And since Zandren was still paralyzed and unconscious, and Gemma was also unconscious but alive, I reluctantly agreed.
The healing mage lived out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees, with a river running below a small hill at the rear of the yard. Birds chirped and squirrels tittered like the world wasn’t going to total shit as we unloaded from the van.
We left Zandren in the vehicle, since there was no use moving him, and Raver carried Gemma into the house.
“Your Majesty,” greeted a comely woman with bright white hair, sharp blue eyes, and twin dimples, as we arrived at her front door. She bowed her head. “It is an honor to meet you.” Her expression turned sad. “I’m so sorry about Delia. I knew her well, and she was so kind. Truly tragic.”
I pressed my lips together and nodded curtly. “Thank you.”
She ushered us inside and motioned for Raver to set Gemma down on a hospital bed inside what appeared to be a proper infirmary. Western medical equipment along with a whole wall of herbs, poultices, and other medicinal plants took up half the room, while four beds took up the other.
“We’ll be safe at Melissima’s,” Raver said. “She’s on the right side of all of this.”
Melissima nodded and pulled on some latex gloves. I tugged close a chair, settling beside Gemma, and held her hand. Tears spilled down my face as I took in all the dried blood covering her. This was because of me. I’d never not feel this guilt. Never not try to make it right and keep her safe.
“She will be okay,” Melissima said, resting a gloved hand on my shoulder. “I can feel her energy. Feel her fight. She is tired. She is weak, but she isn’t ready to leave this world yet.”
I choked on a sob as more tears fell. “Thank you.”
“You go get some rest. I need time with the patient. There is hot water in the kettle in the kitchen.”
“I don’t want to leave her.”
“I understand, but I need my entire magical focus to be on her. If you are here, you will absorb some of my energy and focus. She is human, you are not. I am not. Anything I practice will default to you, as we are of the Realm. I need you in another room so my magic can only go into her.”
“She’ll be okay,” Maxar said, resting a hand on my other shoulder. “We’re just going to go to the adjacent room.”
I kissed the back of Gemma’s hand and reluctantly stood up, following Maxar, Drak, and Raver out to the living room.
Maxar went into the kitchen and found tea bags. He filled up four mugs, bringing them to everyone. When he pulled his hand away to give me my mug, that’s when I caught a glimpse of just how badly Zandren’s claws had scored him. He wasn’t bleeding anymore, but I saw muscle and bone. And oh, god, was that . . . was that part of his liver?
I sprang up from my seat. “You need to go see Melissima. I can see your bones.”
“I’ll heal,” he said with a wince before sitting down in the last empty seat at Melissima’s kitchen table. “She needs to funnel all her magic into Gemma. If she has any left, she can take a crack at me.”
A roar from outside had the three men lurching to their feet.
Zandren.
I raced out the front door, nearly tripping over a sprinting chicken in the yard, before I made it to the back of the van.
Zandren had shifted back to human form and was stirring, trying to sit up. I crawled into the van. “Easy. Easy.”
He blinked open those soft, brown eyes that I loved. “W-what happened?”
“You tried to kill us,” Maxar said. He pointed to his abdomen.
Zandren blinked. “I did that?”
I ran my hand affectionately over his bare thigh. “Lerris took control of your mind when the flame crown fell off. He turned you against us. Well, everyone but me.”
Guilt filled his eyes. “Who else did I hurt?”
“Nearly bit off my leg,” Drak said deadpanned.
Zandren shrugged. “You probably deserved it.”
“Drak bit you and injected a paralytic into your body so you’d stop attacking everyone at Lerris’s behest,” I said.
“Did you at least get Lerris?”
We all exchanged looks.
“He uh . . . he got away,” Maxar said.
“But we’ll find him,” I replied. “Now that we know it’s him and what he’s after, he can’t hide forever. And we won’t hide forever. Just enough for everyone to get strong again. ”
Raver’s expression turned sad. “I wonder if he’s behind the vampire killings?” He glanced at Drak. “Didn’t the mage you captured say that a demon approached him and promised him a high position in his master’s court?”
“Vampire killings?” I asked, taking Zandren’s hand in mine and giving it a big squeeze. What were they talking about?
Raver nodded. “Someone is coming after vampires. Killing them with zero provocation or remorse. Women. Children. Families. Nobody is safe.”
My eyes widened. “That Phaceanesh, the one I killed in the alley, he said something about being hunted.”
“You never said anything about that before,” Drak said, his tone accusatory.
“I’ve been a little busy,” I shot back, shooting a harsh glare his way before refocusing on the other three men again. “He said ‘you’re hunting us. Killing us for sport’. But he was referring specifically to demons. Then he said something about turning the tables, which I assume meant that he was going to kill a demon. I must have completely forgotten about it until now.”
“It was a traumatic night for you, Little One,” Zandren said softly. “A lot happened. It’s understandable.”
I smiled at him, then turned back to Drak and Raver. “How long has this been going on?”
Drak pressed his lips together for a moment in thought. “It’s been happening for probably the last six months, but in the last month it’s gotten more frequent. Near daily reports of murders or attempted murders. A lot of vampires are going into hiding.” Drak’s expression was dour. “I was torturing a rogue hunter mage for information when I was struck by lightning.”
I swallowed. Torturing?
Could he see my demeanor change when he mentioned his vocation?
“He was caught trying to sneak into a vampire family’s home. Said there is a reward for every vampire head you bring in. At first, we thought he meant the Phaceanesh, but either he misunderstood, or all vampires are being targeted.” Drak glanced at Raver. “After I was struck by lightning, I recommended to King Howar that Raver take up the position I once held, figuring out who is behind this. ”
“And you think it’s Lerris?” I asked.
“We don’t know. But it makes sense. If Lerris killed Donovar, he expected to have a court of his own. So to make promises like the one he made the mage isn’t unfounded.” Drak focused on Raver. “Do you know the name of the henchman Maxar torched?”
Raver shook his head. “No. But I’ll find out. Once I know you’re all safe in hiding, I’m heading back to New York to meet with the King. Then I’m going to go hunting.”
Zandren stood up, and I helped his naked ass climb down out of the cube van.
“Melissima has some clothes in here that’ll fit you,” Raver said, leading the way back into the house. “You’re not the first bear she’s hosted.”
Zandren grunted. “Don’t really care about clothes.”
“The rest of us would prefer not to have a staring contest with your one-eyed snake, thank you very much,” Maxar said dryly.
Zandren merely grunted again.
Raver ducked into a back room, returning a moment later with a stack of clothes. After some trial and error, Zandren settled on gray sweatpants that actually fit, and a yellow T-shirt that he looked like he was going to Hulk out of any second.
The men all sat down at the table, and after I made Zandren some tea and brought it to him, I went to grab a spare stool from the island to sit on, but he snagged me around the waist and hauled me into his lap, kissing the nape of my neck. “I’m sorry if I hurt you, Little One.”
“I was the only one you didn’t hurt,” I said, settling into him, grateful for his sturdy presence and warmth behind me.
Drak and Raver exchanged looks, but they stowed them as soon as they caught me watching.
My brain hurt from how many questions cannoned around inside of it. And one that wouldn’t leave me alone was: what was the thunderclap all about?
“You okay?” Zandren asked, rubbing my thigh.
I shook my head. “No. Not at all. ”
He kissed my shoulder.
“What do you think that big thunderclap was all about?” I asked, addressing Maxar and Drak, since Zandren was unconscious and in a different part of the warehouse when it happened. “The one that happened right before Lerris escaped.”
Drak lifted one shoulder and shook his head.
“I think it was more of your powers gaining strength,” Maxar said. “As we’ve seen, when you’re enraged that’s when things get intense. That’s when your powers are strongest. And you were not only terrified for Gemma, but also livid with Lerris. I think it was just . . . for lack of a better term, you reaching the next level of your abilities.”
Drak and Raver both nodded. Zandren grunted behind me and rubbed my thigh affectionately.
“Yeah . . . I guess that makes sense.”
“Scared the shit out of Lerris, so it worked,” Maxar said in an attempt to make me feel better.
I gave him a meek smile of appreciation.
“So now what?” he asked. “Lerris isn’t going to stop. He basically said as much. He wants the throne. Someone out there is paying for vampire heads, and for all we know there could be an uprising in the making when the Realm finds out a hybrid is our new queen. Just because we’re all cool with Omaera being half human and we welcome the diversity in the gene pool, doesn’t mean everyone is going to just take this new regime lying down.”
“Particularly because not only is she half human, but any offspring resulting in her mating with anyone of us, will be a human-demon hybrid with another species,” Zandren added. “That’s three species. Unheard of as far as I know. And we all know how,” he cleared his throat, “ pure some people prefer their species to remain.”
Maxar, Drak and Raver all made faces of disgust.
“Such outdated views,” Raver said with a headshake. “Diversity is the spice of life. I’d be perfectly fine if my mate turned out to be a mage or demon.”
It was lost on nobody that he didn’t say shifter as well. Zandren made a faint, low growl in his chest, but it was soft enough that I was probably the only one to hear it.
“It means we need to prepare for battle,” Drak said cooly. “It’s coming, whether we like it or not. Everyone will choose a side.”
They all turned to me.
I lifted my brows and pivoted on Zandren’s lap so I was sitting sideways and could see him, as well as the other three. “Then I guess this means war. We fight for freedom. We fight for peace, and . . .” I glanced at the sword Lerris had nearly beheaded me with, where it sat in the middle of the table “we fight for vengeance.”