Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
A nand had joined us at the same building where I’d initially met the Conventicle and negotiated the new terms of operation. At the door, I had a moment of pause. I would agree with Helena very few times in my life, but my presence during this meeting was one time; we were in accord but for completely different reasons. When it came to Peter and me, there were no coincidences. The shades had been freed at the same time I was released from the underworld. It would be easy for the Conventicle to make the connection. The connection might be harder to make without me present. Out of sight, out of mind.
I wasn’t na?ve or optimistic about Helena’s newfound interest in my safety. She didn’t want me there because my continued presence with them bound me to the royal trio and offered me some form of protection. People would see me as an extension of the royals, although she claimed I’d be treated with hostility because people would eventually link me with the continued mishaps. It was the protection that she didn’t want me to have. Helena wanted them to do her dirty work and get rid of me—leaving her hands clean.
Helena and Areleus believed my death would make things significantly better. As much as I hated to admit it, they weren’t wrong.
Entering the building, we were met with speckles of blood at the entrance. Crimson handprints made gruesome patterns on the wall. Violence didn’t have a smell, but it had a feel. It created tension and unease in the room. I couldn’t keep up with the royals, who left me behind as they raced to the meeting room. When I got there, Helena’s hand was pressed against the closed door, a halation of light peeled away from the door, and her lips moved fervently.
When it stopped, her shoulders slumped with fatigue. “It’s done,” she whispered.
Preparing myself for a gruesome sight, I was relieved that it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined, if I ignored the shade’s mangled body. I wasn’t sure if they breathed normally, but this one clearly wasn’t.
At our arrival, Madeline raised her head from the table where she’d been resting and glared at us. The Conventicle’s new vampire drew back his lips, exposing stained fangs. A naked man lay face down on the floor. I assumed he was a shifter. Totally comfortable with his naked form being exposed to the world, he lifted his head to look at us, then let it drop back to the floor. The claw mark on his back mended in such a dramatic fashion it looked cinematic. Across from them was another fatigued-looking group who divided their looks of contention between the royals and the shade.
“The other members of the Conventicle,” Dominic told me. There were a hundred and twenty members, but I’d only met the representatives.
Dominic took in the room and focused on Nailah and the other Seer who were on the far side of the room, sunk into opposite corners, their bodies in a static state and displaying their peculiar violet eyes and disfiguring grimaces.
“What do you see, Nailah?” Dominic asked.
“The same,” she whispered. Death of many people in this room. She eased closer to the dead shade, the bevel of her frown increasing. “If it was alive, I’d be able to read more from their kind.” The other Seer moved closer, his unenthusiastic expression unchanged from the first time I’d met him. His t-shirt revealed the brightly colored tats that formed sleeves on his arms. Nailah stopped at the shade. He continued toward me, inspecting me with a haunting interest.
“It’s her again,” he whispered. “She’s the reason we are going to die.” With a quick sleight of hand and unexpected flash of movement, he lunged at me with the blade he was suddenly wielding. My hands shot out for protection just as Dominic pushed me out of the way. Unable to get my footing, I stumbled back and fell.
Dominic grabbed the Seer. He wrenched the knife from his hand. The sound of bone breaking and the Seer’s wail of pain resounded in the room. The Seer crumpled to a heap on the floor, cradling his arm. A whimper escaped when he saw the fire erupt from Dominic’s hands.
“Dominic!” I shrieked. His eyes snapped in my direction, fury blazing in his eyes as his lips drew back into a sneer. Violence was a tinderbox in the room, waiting for him to ignite it and erupt everyone into a storm of violence and magic. I couldn’t let that happen. The infighting would surely give Peter the advantage.
“Please,” I said, noticing Dominic had returned to his plan of burning the man alive.
I crawled over to the Seer and ignored the anger he directed at me. If he was ever in a position to try again, he would. As much as I wanted to tell Dominic to finish him, my empathy wouldn’t let me. I was one person causing a great deal of chaos. The most pragmatic thing to do was to kill me. I wasn’t confident that if faced with the same dilemma, I wouldn’t try the same.
“Someone help him.” I looked to the royals who were defiant in their refusal. Madeline looked hesitant, perhaps from fear of retaliation from the royals, whose cold mien did nothing to dispel that concern.
“It’s okay,” I soothed, my words holding more confidence than I felt, especially with Helena sneering at me. I gave Dominic an entreating look, and he finally relaxed.
“Heal him,” he directed Madeline. “Know this is Luna’s wish, not mine. Any more attempts on Luna’s life will be severely punished. And I will ignore her unwise requests for mercy.”
Areleus and Helena attempted to stand in solidarity with Dominic, but their masks kept breaking, showing their contempt for me. The vampire hadn’t missed it as he moved toward the injured Seer.
I eased away as a battle-weary Madeline whispered a spell, her hand hovering over his arm. His pained grimace was replaced with a somnolent look of relief, but he continued to cradle his arm. The Seer’s injuries seemed to heal quickly after the vampire knelt next to him and bit into his own arm, breaking the skin and offering it to the Seer’s mouth. I allowed my attention to drift over the room in an attempt to keep the bile down at the sight of him drawing blood from the vampire’s arm. I wanted out of their world, and despite the benefits of knowing about the supernaturals, part of me wanted to unlearn and unsee everything.
“What have you done?” the harsh voice behind us demanded. The royals, Anand, the vampire, and the shifter didn’t seem surprised by the large group of people and six animals spilling into the room. I counted a panther, three wolves, a hyena, and… I couldn’t place the other animal.
“A dhole,” Anand whispered, startling me. His careful eye on the dhole was a clear sign to pay close attention to the predators who had just sauntered in. My protective instincts pushed me to focus on the menagerie of animals, but because all eyes were on the dhole, I suspected he was the most dangerous of them all. Behind them was another group of people. Madeline glared at them. Magic wielders.
Disabling the shade had taken so much from her that she couldn’t put on her mask of arrogance and assurance. Another group of five floated in as if they rode on the wind. Undeniably vampires. Their appearance made me want to retract the many times I’d mocked the Broad Street Creatures of the Night. These stood out. Not just for their otherworldly movements and eyes that were pits of blackness. I tried to place what made them seem to exist in a time where things were very different. Despite being dressed in modern clothing, they seemed liked anachronisms. The royals were immortal; I knew they were older than they looked but it was never revealed in their actions or mannerisms.
Helena, Areleus, and even Dominic swathed themselves in their arrogance like a cocoon. The five vampires possessed the same air of haughtiness. If it were in their power, everyone but them would be wiped out from existence, leaving only a few for food. They bared crimson-tinted fangs, from recent feedings, I suspected.
Hostility swelled in the air. Reading the disdain, I assumed the room had just been taken over by the New Conventicle, the people who wanted to get rid of the existing power and take it for themselves. Adrenaline jetted through me. I wanted to be anywhere but in this room and in their line of sight. Their ferocity and confidence showed they would rule without fear of consequences. Being that inflexible left no room for exceptions—even for me. They had wanted me dead when they learned of my role in releasing the prisoners. From the cold looks that breezed in my direction, things hadn’t changed.
To win the game of survival, I needed to know the players and allies, the reasonable ones, the power players, and the threats. I was trying to figure that out from just looks. Not one member of the New Conventicle looked as if they could be reasoned with. Even the ones who didn’t glare at me with fierce disdain might not be reasonable, just deceptively quiet, storms waiting to demolish everything in their path. That was probably why cautious eyes kept going to the dhole. I made sure to put more distance between me and it.
I had met the reps of the Conventicle. Since the New Conventicle wasn’t official but a collection of enthusiastic supernaturals waiting to unseat the current group, there wasn’t a hierarchy. The differences between the groups were stark. The current Conventicle was politically driven and ruled by appearances. The New Conventicle didn’t suffer from such things. There was an off-putting hunger and brutishness to them, qualities that would work in their favor in a coup.
“Why are the shades here?” asked the tall, well-built witch. His pleasing carved features and winged cheeks were distorted by his scowl. Velvet sepia skin and chocolate-brown eyes belied his presence that bellowed he was a force to contend with. Those behind him presented a similar energy.
It was only a matter of time; they would be the new face of the Conventicle.
“They escaped,” Dominic said in a crisp tone.
“Samuel.” Another witch called to the witch marching in Dominic’s direction. Despite her neutral tone, it served as a warning.
His glower softened as he looked over his shoulder at the woman warning him. “He’s allowed the worst of our kind to escape, and if the rumors are true, he was imprisoned himself. Shades, whose housing was his domain, are now free in our world. We were attacked by three of them. With all our abilities combined we were only able to destroy one, and we lost seven of our own. I think fearing Dominic is neither warranted nor deserved.” He looked directly at Dominic. “Or allowing you to keep your job. You’ve failed. Why shouldn’t you be relieved of it?”
“Are you willing to sacrifice your life to try?” Dominic asked. Samuel kept a distance from him, his eyes sweeping over the room, clearly determining the best way to shield himself while exacting the harm he desperately wanted to inflict.
It didn’t go unnoticed by the royals. Claws were exposed and magic hummed. Madeline stood. Her features hardened, her hand moved into a defensive position, and her lips parted in readiness to perform rapid-fire spells. The shifters from the established Conventicle had changed. And I was surprised by the number of Conventicle vampires that I’d missed, who were now baring their fangs. Anand drew two blades that looked more dangerous than the ones I’d previously seen him with.
The Seer came to his feet then retreated toward the wall, his eyes glowing violet. Nailah’s eyes sparked violet that then disappeared. Annoyance flitted across her face. Shaking her head, she slowly moved to the center of the room, her comforting gentleness replaced by disdain and frustration. She demonstrated an admirable level of confidence standing in the middle of a barely suppressed violence-lust and brewing war.
“You are all going to die. Some in this fight, others at the hands of the shades and Peter. Lives will be irreparably damaged, and you will be at the mercy of the Awakeners, Peter, and the shades. Fight this out later.” Her gaze slid over the royals who maintained their look of impassivity.
“With them at the helm there will always be problems,” Samuel asserted.
“Can you put your issues aside until this is over?” Nailah suggested.
“How can we when they refuse to address the problem?” he asked, and everyone in the room turned to look at me. The enigmatic human, the root of the problem. Despite not knowing what I was, they knew I’d attributed to some of it, if not all. They got an A for good insight. The royals gave nothing away. Their solidarity was impressive.
“Give me your word that this person isn’t the cause of the existing problems,” demanded one of the New Conventicle vampires. Her auburn hair was pulled back into a ponytail, drawing attention to her cruel, coal eyes. As a result of a recent feeding, her parchment skin held a rosy color. Her narrow face consisted of sharp points that made the smile she attempted to give Nailah even more unnerving.
Nailah struggled to answer in a way that made me think she was bound to the truth. Lies of omission were her only tools to circumvent it. The room waited while her lips parted and closed several times.
Before she could answer, an explosion of magic hit her in the chest. Sailing across the room, she smashed into the wall and crumpled to the floor as plaster rained down on her. I swallowed my scream before I could make my way to her. Areleus was by her side, his fingers pressed to her neck, looking for signs of life. Please be alive , I recited over and over. I needed her to be alive.
The shades swooped in.
Magic streamed into the room with them. Behind the swarm of creatures was Peter, his self-indulgent smile directed at me. I ran, moving out of his line of sight and the shade heading for me. In the sudden chaos, I scrambled toward the exit. Out of my peripheral, I could see Anand at the other side of the room, his spine curved, drawing in his magic—ready to reveal to the others what he was in order to save them. Black illuminated vines fanned from him to inflict their pain and send the shades into a retreat. It didn’t happen. It was the vampires who responded to his magic. Collapsing on the ground, they writhed in pain. Anand quickly retracted his magic, shock skating over his expression. I assumed he’d been unaware of his effect on vampires. Aware that this discovery would make him a target of vampires, I hoped they attributed the assault to Peter. Anand retrieved his blades and ran into the fighting in the center of the room.
Steering around the fighting, I kept shifting my attention from finding safety to looking at Nailah and signs of progress. Several times, I caught Areleus doing the same. There wasn’t any noticeable change in her, and Areleus took his rage out on the assailants. The shades’ arrival had made allies of the New Conventicle, Conventicle, and royals.
A shade threw a shifter through the air and met the animal on its landing, plunging its clawed hand into the shifter’s belly. The dhole proved to be the one to fear. Moving in and out of his animal form to meet his fighting needs, he floated with a swiftness that appeared ethereal.
Areleus lunged at one of the winged shades. His hand pressed into the creature, battering magic into it that made him buck and convulse before collapsing. But his recovery was quick, and he countered with a firestorm at Areleus who was slow to react, shocked that the shade’s magic worked on him.
Dominic had enclosed Peter in a diaphanous shield to stop his advance, but Peter destroyed it with a simple touch. Once the shield fell, a tightly coiled ball of magic soared toward Peter from a witch whose face was screwed tight in concentration and effort. Without taking his eyes off his target—Dominic—Peter made a few movements of his fingers, changing the magic’s course. In the ball’s return route, it expanded, sprouting sharp spikes that slammed into the witch, impaling him and exploding into an opalescent mist that covered him. The witch keeled over, gasping for air, twisting and writhing, lips casting spells that had little effect on the wound in his chest or the convulsions that ravaged him. I risked a glance around the room, looking for a way to get to him or find someone to help. Whatever magic Peter had done had restricted the witch’s magic.
The fallen witch got Madeline’s attention. She headed toward him, her lips and fingers twisting in unusual ways. The mist appeared to move from the witch but kept returning to its target. The fiery wave Dominic lobbed in Peter’s direction engulfed him. For a moment, shock fell over him. I expected the distraction to be enough to destroy the mist that Madeline was struggling to dismantle, but the fire engulfment crystalized then exploded in shards that spread out for several feet, hitting anyone unable to move out of the way in time or put up a protective barrier.
The satisfied smile that curled Peter’s lips quickly vanished when Dominic lunged at him. Dominic’s punch to Peter’s face was delivered so quickly, I realized I hadn’t seen the extent of Dominic’s abilities. A primitive fury drove their fight as they exchanged blows, alternating between magic and physical strikes. Peter was proving to be the antithesis of the studious awkward person he’d presented for years in the bookstore. Skilled in combat and magic, he may have wanted to damage Dominic, but his main objective was to get to me. Each strike and counter defense brought him closer to me, positioning him to remove any obstructions between us.
One of the shades lurched toward me, only to be stopped by Helena grabbing it by its wing and hurling it back and sending it slamming into a wall. Her face was bright with exhilaration. There wasn’t any denying she reveled in the chaos and violence. Scanning the room, she headed to where a vampire and two shifters were losing their battle with a shade. Moments later Helena’s body crashing into the table sent splinters of wood flying. I grabbed the broken table legs that skidded a few feet from me. If the shades were supposed to bring me in alive, they hadn’t gotten the memo. I battered at the creature who struck with a shot of magic that rammed me in the chest, sending me careening back several feet. Recovering at an impressive speed—well, for a human—I was on my feet and swinging my weapons at the shade, hitting him in his exposed sharp teeth. From either pain or shock it shuffled back a step. Dodging the bodies that were being slung as I ran, I couldn’t determine whether they were alive, just that none of them were shades.
I darted out of the door, ignoring the nagging feeling of being considered a coward. What the hell was I supposed to do? Fight people more superior in combat, violence, and magic than I was, to make a point? What would be the point? That I could die easier than suspected?
Weapon in hand, I rushed down some stairs toward the nearest exit from the building, wishing I had something that could do more damage, especially when I found the dhole waiting near the door. My self-preservation alarm was telling me he wasn’t there to protect me. When his eyes remained on its target—my neck—I clutched my weapon tighter, prepared to swing it for all its worth. Pepper spray was tucked away in my pocket and I debated if I should risk losing the grip on my weapon to retrieve it. It was no use in my damn pocket. Should have kept it at the ready.
The dhole charged, zigging past me and lunging into the air, soaring as if he’d grown wings. He tore into the man behind me. Magic, meant for the creature it wouldn’t effect, hit me. Another person brandished a knife. The dhole slipped out of his animal form into an intimidatingly tall, sleekly muscled man, who was a human embodiment of the animal he shifted into. He grabbed the knife and used it on them, breaking it off at the handle before tossing it aside.
Then he dashed past me, meeting a vampire with short hair and bared fangs with a punch so hard, the man’s head snapped back. The vampire delivered several punches to the dhole’s face and a strike to his gut, knocking the dhole back into human form, although he recovered from the fall before my eyes could fully grasp the movement. I was becoming unconvinced he was just a shifter by his movements that matched the vampire’s fluid speed. The vampire grabbed him into a chokehold and wrenched his head to the side, fangs advancing to his neck.
Whipping around, I headed for another exit in the opposite direction. My shirt was grabbed from behind and the wooden leg snatched from me. The human dhole smashed the wood against the wall, giving it a stake-like point.
“Don’t you move,” he commanded with a thick English accent.
The fuck I’m not. He’d just disabled three Awakeners, who were feared by most of the people upstairs, and he had an English accent. I’m calling it: supervillain.
Retrieving my pepper spray, I didn’t risk looking back to see him stake the vampire with his makeshift weapon. My hand was on the door, pepper spray ready, when I was yanked into a firm chest. My height giving me somewhat of an advantage in this instance, I raised my arm, prepared to blindly discharge the spray, when it was forced against my chest and I was bound and whisked away.
When I was released, in my dizziness, I spun and aimed, too unfocused to see the person in front. My arm was grabbed and repositioned.
“Luna!”
Dominic. Relief flooded me at the sound of his voice.
“I have to go,” he said.
“Nailah,” I managed.
“She’s here. My father brought her.” He was about to leave then paused, pulled me to him again, and after another dizzying wave, I was in his bedroom. He moved away from me, hurriedly, pulling a strand of hair from my head. With a quick invocation he erected the barrier.
“Nailah should be fine. Don’t break this barrier for anyone except me.” And then he was gone.
It was the lack of certainty about her well-being that made it so hard to keep to his directive. I wanted to know. Needed to know. But after a long internal debate, I stayed put.