The Blue Devil

by Quirah Casey

  “And you’d just forget the fact that I shot you and stole your target?”

  “I mean, I’d still make you pay for that, but—”

  “Save it. I’d never leave my brother.” She stops outside a door, listening.

  “I really didn’t want you anyway,” I lie. “I was just being nice.”

  She turns to look at me, smirking. “Of course you were, because you’re the nicest person I’ve ever met.”

  She turns back to the door, slowly turning the knob and pushing it open before peeking in. “Shit,” she mutters, and I look over her shoulder.

  “Fuck.” I move past her, kneeling next to the chair in the center of the room. Blaine is knocked out but still alive, his heartbeat faint. It looks like he’s gone through a meat grinder, his skin bloody and covered with deep cuts. His wrists are raw where the rope holds him.

  I start to untie him, and he groans and opens his eyes, blinking wearily.

  “Blue…” He’s disoriented, but from the way he’s desperately trying to push words past his lips, and I know that whatever he has to say is important. “It’s…” His head drops, and he forces it up again, his eyes just barely open. “It’s…Alenin.”

  A gunshot rings through the room and I whip around to see Paris hit the ground, a red stain blooming on her chest.

  Then nearly a dozen bullets are pumped into my back, and I crash to the ground. The agony only lasts for a moment before I can’t feel anything. When I try to move with no result, I realize I’m paralyzed. As my eyes flutter closed, I glimpse Feliks Alenin standing over me with a smug grin on his face, his gun pointed directly at me.

  “I told you I’d get you, bitch.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  I drift in and out of consciousness, my brain foggy. I feel the scrape of rough concrete against my back, but that’s it before I black out again. When I finally come to, I’m in an unfamiliar room. My body feels heavy, refusing to move no matter how hard I try. I can hear a plethora of voices, but I can’t discern what they’re saying. I see a flash of blue hair before my eyes drift closed again.

  “I told you not to hurt her too bad,” an unfamiliar woman’s voice drifts through my consciousness. It’s clear she’s furious. I try to force my eyes open to see who the woman is, but my efforts are in vain.

  “She’s not hurt, just out from that drug you told me to give her.” I recognize the low, masculine voice. Alenin.

  How did I not realize that he’d be involved?

  “Yes, but you took liberties.” The woman’s irritation cuts through the room like a knife. “You didn’t need to shoot her that many times, no matter how strong her blood is. I made sure that the poison was potent enough for four bullets to do the trick. She didn’t need a fucking dozen, you idiot.”

  “Maybe you should have done it yourself. You wouldn’t have even needed the bullets considering…” Alenin’s voice fades as I feel myself starting to drift again.

  A loud sound rings through the room, bringing back some of my awareness. It takes me a second to realize it was a slap. “Watch who you’re fucking talking to. Don’t forget you’re dealing with a g—” I miss the rest of what the woman says as I lose consciousness again.

  When I open my eyes, I find another set looking directly at me. They’re so close, and all I can see are the blue irises. I blink and the eyes are gone, but I know that I’m not alone in the dark room. No, I feel the presence that has been trailing me. It washes over me like the waves of a hundred tides, harsh, intense, and breathtaking. My heart rate picks up as my throat tightens and my head starts to swim. The sinking feeling in my gut tells me I’ve underestimated my enemy.

  “Don’t worry, doll,” says the feminine voice from earlier, and I try to turn my head, but I still can’t move.

  I start to panic.

  Am I permanently paralyzed?

  “You’re perfectly safe. I won’t let anyone do anything to you, not my precious Blue.” The woman’s voice echoes around me; it’s like she’s everywhere. But I can’t move, can’t see. I can smell her, though and I instantly know what she is: a dragon. But…something else, too, something I can’t quite recognize. “You can calm down.” Her voice is too reassuring for someone who’s been trying to destroy me.

  “Who are...you?” I don’t sound quite like myself, my words slurring, my tongue thick. “What…what did you give…me?” I’ve never had anything affect me like this in my life.

  “So many questions, little one. I’m afraid I don’t have any answers for you...not yet, at least.” My eyes start to drift shut again. I try my hardest to keep them open, but they refuse. “It seems you’re going again. Too much poison,” she admonishes. “Fucking Feliks…”

  The next time I’m able to open my eyes, I no longer feel the dark presence. I can feel my fingers, though, flex them even, but my wrists are tightly bound. No matter how much I pull, the ties won’t give.

  Alenin appears in my line of vision, a wide grin stretching across his face.

  Fucking asshole.

  I should have seen this coming. When my contact said that Alenin hadn’t come into the office either, I’d assumed that he’d been taken too. Of course, I didn’t give two shits.

  One of the culprits was right in front of me the whole time, and I didn’t see him. I’d completely dismissed the unimpressive agent, putting him out of my mind as soon as I his ugly face was out of view. He’s always been gunning for me, but I assumed that after decades of failing, he’d finally given up.

  I should have known better.

  “All these years, I told you I’d get you, but you didn't believe me.” He lets out a slow, exaggerated laugh, his eyes wild. I hear a door opening, and footsteps. But Alenin is in full supervillain mode. “I was right under your nose this whole time, and yet you had no fucking idea.” His laughs turn to a fit of giggles, and then he’s wiping tears away.

  “Don’t act like you’re the one in charge of this whole operation,” I snap, cutting his monologue short. “I know the difference between a leader and a follower. Whoever that woman is that was here earlier, she’s the one in charge.” Even if I can’t quite beat the shit out of Alenin yet, I can still hurt him verbally, and I’ll take what I can get. “I mean, really, Alenin. All these years, and you couldn’t come up with a plan to take me out on your own? You had to get someone else, someone much more powerful than you, to help you try to take me down.”

  He bares his teeth, but it doesn’t have the effect he was going for. “We’re not just trying, you stupid bitch. We have you. There’s nowhere for you to go.”

  “As long as I’m alive, you haven’t won,” I remark, feeling much more calm and clear-headed. Now that the drug is fading from my system, I can find a way out of here, wherever the fuck here is.

  Are we still at the house in Oltinie?

  And if so, where the hell are Mel, London, and the rest of my people?

  “I wanted to kill you, but I was advised not to.”

  “You mean you were commanded not to. You’re someone’s little bitch boy.” I laugh, knowing it’ll get under his skin. If I can get him to start making mistakes, I’ll be able to get myself out of this situation.

  He grits his teeth and leans close to me, as he does, there’s a flurry of movement behind me. Alenin looks up, over my shoulder. “I’m not going to do anything to her,” he snaps.

  I focus my hearing, surprised to hear a collection of hearts pounding behind me. There must be almost a dozen lackeys standing against the back wall, guarding…me? Apparently, that woman really doesn’t want me getting hurt.

  “M and I are partners. I’m not her bitch boy.” The woman has to be M, the one who wrote me those notes.

  “Funny you say that, since she’s clearly the one calling the shots. She told you not to kill me, and you have no choice but to listen. She even sent other people in here to make sure you don’t disobey!”

  Alenin’s skin starts to shift as his temper flares. “You don’t know shit!”
<
br />   “I know a lot. Particularly about what a real leader looks like. You, Alenin, do not look like a leader.” I study him in disgust. “Not even close.”

  “I won’t let you get in my head. I know that’s what you’re trying to do, and it won’t work.” He shakes his head and backs away from me. “Are these mind tricks the way you got Blaine to work with you?”

  “No, Blaine came to me, actually. He said that he knew the CDA had stuck him with an incompetent partner, and he wanted my help. I agreed out of the goodness of my heart.” I discreetly test the bindings on my wrists again, but they won’t give. I could always call Onyx or Otmscheniye; however, due to the angle, I still might not be able to use the swords to cut my bindings. Calling them will have to be a last resort.

  “That’s a lie,” Alenin barks. “I don’t believe he came to you. I was surprised when Roetresias came to us and said that you had shown up at Tarae’s with Levitsky and that other dragon.”

  Tarae’s gaunt imp byurtid comes to mind, and details start to fall into place. He wasn’t the only byurtid left at Tarae’s because he was the only one who remained loyal; he was there to see if anyone would come poking around. When Blaine, London, and I did, he ran and told these people, and they killed Tarae, using her to send a message: Talk, and you die.

  “Then I saw you and Blaine in the car at the scene of the wolf’s hanging. And then at Charisma. I knew that this little relationship of yours was going to be a problem.” He tsks.

  “You say that like you’re jealous, Alenin. You want Levitsky?” I mock him. “I mean, yeah, he’s into men, but I don’t think you’re his type. You’re a bit too…spineless.”

  “Shut up and let me finish fucking speaking!” Spit flies out of his mouth as he shouts. He huffs out a breath, getting control of himself. “So, when he came to the CDA with the lead on our warehouse, I made sure he was inside the building when the sprinklers went off.”

  Everything makes so much sense as Alenin lays it out. How M was always a step ahead of us, how she knew to set the sprinklers off that night, knew that the CDA was going to be there.

  “But somehow he made it out of that fucking building. And, presumably, made it to you somehow—your blood is the only thing I know of that works as an antidote to M’s poison. That shit is next-level.” His voice quiets for a moment in amazement. “Thought about sneaking some of the poison and taking out a few people who’ve pissed me off in the past, but M says it can only be used with her authorization.”

  “And you’re her little puppet. You can only act when she pulls your strings.” I chuckle. “She sounds like a pretty damn powerful woman. Too bad I’m going to have to kill her.”

  “You couldn’t kill her even if she had both hands tied behind her back and her eyes closed,” Alenin brags, grinning. “She’d squash you like a bug. Not even you can match her power.”

  “Is that why you let her control you?” I turn my head as much as I can to address the others in the room. “Is that why you let her control all of you? You all let her tell you what to do. Didn’t you join her so that she could break the bindings that held you in servitude? So you could be free? Yet here you are, doing her bidding. You traded one slave master for another.”

  “You can’t turn them against M, so stop trying,” Alenin says, rolling his eyes. “And you’re one to talk about slave masters. You treat your wyryns like shit.”

  My eyebrows raise at that. “Is that how you got one of my people to turn against me?” I ask.

  He rubs his hands together. “It really wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. When M suggested turning one of your people, I told her she was crazy, that she didn’t understand the brainwashing that goes on in your den. But it turned out to be as easy as stealing candy from a baby.”

  “Who was it?” I inquire.

  He smirks. “I’ll let you see for yourself, right after I finish my story.”

  He starts to pace the room, his hands folded behind his back. “After we failed to kill Blaine in that building, I suggested that we kill him when he went home, but M said that we should wait it out, that he’d come in handy. It all worked out perfectly. I called him with a fake lead, and as soon as we met up, we ambushed him and brought him here. We left his phone on knowing you’d trace it, and you didn’t disappoint. You came running, and we were ready for you.”

  There’s the sound of wood groaning as the door opens, and I turn to see Cherilyn rush into the room, guns blazing, with Klara hot on her heels.

  About time, I think to myself, knowing my girls can take these guys, no problem. They won’t be blindsided like I was.

  “Palha!” Cherilyn breathes, pointing her gun at Alenin.

  A shot rings through the room, but not from Cherilyn’s weapon.

  Cherilyn gasps, looking down at the blood flowing across her chest. She spins and lifts her gun at a new enemy, but before she can fire, Klara lets off another shot, this one hitting Cherilyn square in the head.

  She falls to the ground.

  Alenin grins, gesturing to Klara. “May I introduce you to your rat?”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  “Surprise,” Klara says, smirking as she lowers her gun.

  I look at Cherilyn’s body, a pool of blood forming beneath her. I’ve been the cause of enough death to know that the life has left her. Even beatus rarely outlast bullets to the skull.

  I look at Cherilyn’s body for a second more, and it makes me think of Paris Stendahl, who I’m sure is also dead by now.

  Focus.

  I bring my eyes to Klara, who couldn’t look more self-satisfied if she tried.

  I shove back the emotions that try to overtake me, my gaze becoming steely as I detach myself from what’s going on. “I wish I could say I was surprised, but really, if someone gave me a list of people in the den and told me to pick the weakest, the easiest to bend, it would be you.” Despite my harsh words, Klara never actually struck me as a possible rat…for the reasons I listed. She’s weak; the den has practically carried her for the past couple decades. The only thing that confuses me is that she didn’t have access to my office. “I should have let you die the night Mel found you in that alley. Instead, I took pity on you. My mistake.”

  Klara shakes her head as she steps over Cherilyn’s body without pausing. “You didn’t take pity on me,” she snaps. “You saw a chance to make another fucking soldier. That’s all you do. You find women with nothing left, no one to help them, and you manipulate them, making them think you really care for them. All you care about is building a mini-army so that when your past catches up to you, you’ll have others around to fight your battle.” She spits at me. I turn my head, but the glob still lands on my cheek.

  “Mousy little Klara,” she mimics, her tone sugary sweet. “Do you know how many times I’ve heard you call me that?”

  “I mean, if the shoe fits…” I shrug to the best of my ability, my binds making me stop short.

  Klara’s fists ball. “You only think of yourself—”

  “Not true,” I grin, my eyes boring into hers. “I think of others when I’m bringing them ultimate pleas—”

  “Shut up!” Klara yells, her hand curling over the gun in her waistband. She raises it and points it at my head. “Now is not the time for you to start with your stupid fucking innuendos, we all already know you’re nothing but a whore! Just remember, you’re at our mercy, and guess what? No one is coming to help you.” She lets out a laugh, throwing her head back. “There won’t be a last-minute rescue, not this time. Mel is currently meeting her maker. The only thing I hate is that we couldn’t kill her in front of you.”

  Mel isn’t dead. She’s bluffing.

  Then why hasn’t she come to save me yet?

  “Trying to play mind games with me?” I push the thoughts away, concentrating on Klara, refusing to let my hard mask fall. “Don’t forget who taught you all you know, little girl. You may have some other woman pretending to be your mom now, but don’t forget who fucking ra
ised you. I took you in when you had nothing."

  Mel. Please be alive.

  “But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” I taunt. “Children are always ungrateful.”

  Klara loses control of her human form as she charges toward me, rusty scales appearing on her skin, but Alenin grabs her roughly. “You’re no fucking mother, you’re a master manipulator!” she shouts as he holds her back. I smile, trying to push her further, knowing her control is already slipping.

  “She’s just trying to get in your head,” Alenin hisses in Klara’s ear.

  She ignores him. “You want to talk about children, huh?” Klara asks, her eyes lighting up with excitement. “How’s Ru?”

  My blood pumps faster, my vision blurring and pressure building in my skull. My dragon starts to push out, scales shimmering to the surface of my skin. But the transformation stops at siem form; I can’t shift.

  “Don’t bother. As long as that rope binds you, you won’t be able to turn,” Klara remarks as Alenin lets her go. I feel the hard, cold metal of the gun as she presses it against the side of my head. “I wish I could blow your brain out like I did to Cherilyn,” she snarls, before pulling the gun away and stepping back. “I’ll just find Ru instead.”

  “Stay the fuck away from her!”

  “Bet you wish you didn’t call me mousy little Klara now. You know, for a while I regretted turning on you. But then you tried to kill me that night at The Lair, would’ve killed me if Mel hadn’t stopped you. That’s when I realized that you really didn’t care about me. Why should I care about you?”

  She approaches me again and I hear the other people in the room stir, on guard. “I really should just do it, kill you and deal with the repercussions.” She points the gun at my head again, and I wonder if she’s really going to fire, if she has the nerve.

  I never find out because the door comes flying open again. There’s a flurry of movement, the sound of a gunshot, and then London is standing over me, swiftly cutting the rope that binds my hands. I listen to the sounds of grunting, shuffling, and gunshots, turning my head to see Mel and Butch standing back to back, picking the byurtids apart. Butch’s shotgun glows with green and blue runes as she pulls the trigger—her gun is silent, I notice—taking down any creature unlucky enough to be in her line of fire. Talon, Reed, and a couple of my other wyryns are also in the fray.