18
Tobias
The rendezvous point turned out to be an abandoned warehouse at the docks in Red Hook. The fact Marquez had the gall to camp out in Tobias’ kingdom after he’d injured Kitty and kidnapped Christo, not to mention sending Zafoni; caused his anger to surge.
There wasn’t a soul around during the approach, but he knew eyes would already be upon them. He strode toward the specified entry point with confidence, Will and Rion at each side. The air was still, and unnaturally quiet, but no one was surprised by it.
When they reached the door, and Marquez’s minions still had not made contact, Tobias growled under a breath.
He sniffed at the air, searching for signs of blood, or Undead.
The faint scent of multiple vampires could be detected beneath the salty aroma and stale industrial smells, but it told him nothing.
Nestled between a steel wall brandished with all manners of graffiti, and three triple-height roller doors, awaited a single pedestrian entrance. The door had no external handle, nor a keyhole.
“It’s a test,” Will observed. “He’s toying with us.”
“Flashing in would be unwise, without knowing what is on the other side of the wall,” Rion said.
Tobias turned to him. “We don’t have a choice.”
“He’s right,” Will agreed.
With a succinct nod, Rion placed a hand to each of the males’ shoulders and flashed them all inside.
The huge room was empty, but Tobias wasn’t foolish enough to think it would be so easy. After a brief moment of eye contact with his two companions, they moved forward.
Will and Rion had barely called forth their immortal forms, when vampires began pouring into the space. Yep. There it is.
As had become the norm, Rion summoned two swords of wrath and tossed one to Tobias. Meanwhile, Will called his Holy sword and set it alight with pure white flame. It never ceased to impress, how blinding that thing was.
“Just putting it out there,” Will shouted to Rion, as he started swinging the sword like a lightsaber, “but you’re pyrokinetic, and your sword is looking much more ordinary than it should.”
With drawn brows and thinned lips, Rion stared at the sword in his hand. A second later, it ignited. Brilliant orange flames licked against the cool metal until the sword had become its own miniature inferno. The look on his face once it had worked, was priceless.
Tobias sniggered and charged forward into the relentless tide of violence waiting for them. The first wave of adversaries were easy to defeat, offering no more of a challenge than Zafoni’s wannabes. He’d expected this.
Marquez had sent in his dispensable soldiers first, intending to tire him out. He would have known Tobias wouldn’t come alone, but he didn’t know just how much power Tobias had behind him.
Another wave of Undead spilled out of every corner and crevice, demanding a little more finesse than the initial onslaught. Still, they overcame each threat with ease, gaining ground and driving the enemy back toward the shadows.
At either side of Tobias, Will and Rion were easy to spot with their magnificent wings on display, but they never stayed in one spot long, flashing in and out of sight, bringing the True-Death to Undead in every part of the room.
Their speed and precision caused a flood of confusion, as the vampires didn’t know which direction to concentrate their efforts upon.
“Are you getting bored yet?” Tobias asked via mind link.
“Hardly,” Will replied with a gleeful grin. Using the vampire impaled on his sword as a battering ram to knock down a group of Undead, he then staked everyone who had fallen as a result, before they could rise again.
“We have barely gotten started,” Rion added. His blade sliced through the air, leaving whispers of death in the echoes, vampires crumpling to the ground all around him. Tobias could tell by watching that the half-demon was soaking up all of the terror and fear radiating from his victims.
“Meh, I’m bored. Let’s have some fun with this.
” Tobias decapitated a vampire and staked another as they spoke.
“I’m going to cast a glamour to make these idiots think they’re still fighting us.
We’re going to head to the back left corner.
It’s the only place new threats aren’t coming from. That’s where Marquez will be watching.”
“You do take all the fun out of things,” Rion said.
“Right?” Will commiserated.
“Remind me why I brought you two with me?” Tobias strode toward the door.
The fact none of their enemies followed or tried to impede him gave Will and Rion clear indication he’d cast the glamour. They materialized at each side of him, and together the trio moved on to the next chamber of the building.
As Tobias had predicted, Marquez stood in the center of the next room flanked by six guards.
Wearing an elegant three-piece suit, with his dark hair slicked back into a low ponytail, he could have been mistaken for a mobster.
The smug expression and air of authority gave hint to the perception he had of his station.
Now that they were beyond the battle zone, an enormous window had appeared in the wall dividing the two spaces. Marquez must have glamoured the window so we wouldn’t notice his location. It’s what I would have done, I suppose.
The Floridian king didn’t even flinch when they walked in, indicating Tobias’ illusion of invisibility was on point. It was difficult to suppress his inner satisfaction at having one up on his maker, but somehow, he managed to retain focus.
He crept over to Marquez and stood right behind him. “Who do you think will win?” He whispered near the male’s ear.
Marquez spun around, searching for the source of the voice. Tobias let him sweat for a few seconds and lowered the illusion. After a quick side glance at the battle raging on with just the one side fighting themselves, Marquez growled deep in his throat.
Despite the lapse in control, the male recovered quickly, his black gaze reflecting boredom and impatience. “I see your glamour has improved.”
Tobias gave a darkened grin. “Among other things.”
“And you stand with a fallen and an angel, how innovative. You think this will be enough to overpower me?”
“I am not a fallen, far from it.” Rion’s eyes gleamed with the promise of wickedness.
“Not to mention we are not the only ones who stand with him,” Will said with a grin.
“All of this for a servant, whom you could easily replace?” Marquez still bore the air of a man in charge.
“I’m quite fond of that servant, and he is worth saving.” Tobias wasn’t the slightest bit intimidated, which surprised even himself. “However, we also came for our angel.”
“Your… what?” The haughty smile disappeared from Marquez’s face.
“We’re all fond of her, but her brother is the most displeased that you’ve injured her.” Tobias looked to Rion. “Am I right?”
“Most certainly.” Rion held up a hand and produced a fireball.
He allowed it to dance up his sleeve, across his shoulders and down the other arm, until it joined the flames crackling against the blade of his sword.
Despite the heat and intensity of the flame, not a thread on his Ralph Lauren suit-jacket was damaged.
“Brother?” The color drained from the Floridian vampire’s face. “You’re one of his sons?”
“Yes. I know about the oath you took to protect my sister. If you do not rectify this situation, I might get… upset.”
“Not if we end you first,” grunted one of the guards. He charged forward, and Rion promptly incinerated him.
“You have no idea what we’re capable of, or who else we have in our corner,” Will said with pride.
“Yes,” Tobias agreed. “Did you really think we would be foolish enough to bring all of our assets to the first hurdle? You’d be surprised at what we could conjure in mere moments.”
“I don’t believe you,” Marquez said. “If you had more cards up your sleeve, you would have approached this entire event differently.”
“What makes you so sure?” Tobias asked. “I wouldn’t do anything the way you would do it.”
“You spent far too long at my side.” Marquez growled. “You know too much.”
“Well, if you’d been a better king, maybe he wouldn’t have left,” Will said with a shrug and a pouty face.
“You irritate me.” Marquez glowered at him.
“He irritates us all, but he’s quite resourceful,” Tobias said. “Loyal, too.”
Marquez’s expression darkened with every word. “I have forces. You couldn’t hope to defeat all of them.”
Rion marched over to the doorway they’d come through and released a colossal fireball, with a casual under-armed pitch.
As it sailed through the air, it seemed to gain momentum and substance, decimating everything in its path.
Not a single vampire was left, not even the bones from the one hundred and twenty bodies that should have remained.
The sheer heat it would have taken to not only achieve that, but in mere seconds, boggled the mind.
Tobias loathed to think how much energy that had cost the male, and hoped to hell it wasn’t going to come back and bite them on the ass, but it was a fucking impressive display of power.
“What the…” Breathed another guard.
Suddenly, the sound of drums could be heard. Rion had called the hounds. In twos and threes, they materialized on the scorched floor in rapid succession, until several hundred had amassed in the space. Shit, that’s the entire pack… I hope you know what you’re doing Le Roux.
“You command the hounds, too?” Marquez moved his gaze from Rion to Tobias. “How the fuck did you convince him to work for you?”
“Well, see, we’re really more of a collective,” Will said.
“We are the Immortal Trinity,” Tobias declared.
The Floridian’s eyebrows lifted in unison. “I thought you were the King of New York?”
“Oh fuck, was I only supposed to have one job title?” Tobias’ smirk grew bigger. “Whoops.”
“I’ll bet he thinks you’re only supposed to have one servant, too.” Will cocked his head to one side.
“Are you claiming to have more than one?”
When Tobias had last seen Marquez, the Floridian king had had two servants. At the time it had seemed impressive. Now, he realized the older vampire had grown complacent in his rule.
“He has eleven,” Will continued. “And another demon, and a shit ton of Angels. Oh, plus the actual kingdom he took over. Yanno, if we’re gonna get specific.”
Marquez stared at Tobias for a long time. “I find this extremely difficult to digest.”
Tobias sent a message through mind link to Lori, and moments later, Lyla arrived.
“You!” Marquez shouted. “What are you doing here?”
Lyla called forth her demon form. Before the transformation was complete, ice had begun to form on her wings and in her hair.
“I stand with my allies, and demand you produce Christo Barrett and Kitty Silverwood immediately. The fact my presence has been requested tells me you are being your usual deplorable self.”
Marquez panned his gaze across the four of them and then to the hounds in the next room. “How? How have you amassed this – this – whatever this is?”
“Well damn, we haven’t even produced any angels or vampires yet.” Will sniggered.
“Can we stop this ridiculous bullshit and fix what you broke?” Tobias demanded. “You and I can settle our differences later. Right now, we need our people back. Don’t make us end every last soldier you brought with you.”
Marquez heaved a great sigh. “Hurting Kitty was an accident. She stepped in front of your servant when we were trying to terminate him. I take my oath seriously and I would never have allowed harm to come to her intentionally.”
“Do you think that absolves you of blame?” Rion shouted. “Where is she?”
“We hoped if we let her rest, she would recover,” Marquez said. The regret in his tone sounded genuine, which was unexpected.
“She had better still be alive,” Tobias took a step forward.
“You used an immortal blade, didn’t you?
” Will asked. “Otherwise, this wouldn’t be a big deal.
If you’d used a regular blade, her mortal body would have died and she’d have left the In-Between.
That would have been annoying but not dangerous, she would have been able to regenerate eventually.
But, an immortal blade would bring a True-Death. ”
“She is not dead, yet.” Marquez parked his gaze on Tobias once more. “If your angel can heal her, I will take you there now.”
“What about them?” One of the guards pointed at the hounds.
“Oh, did you think we were in charge of them?” Will asked.
Tobias gave a gravelly humorless laugh. “They make their own choices. You’ll just have to hope they decide to play nice.”
And with that, he followed Marquez from the room, with Will, Rion, and Lyla in tow.