by Rae Foxx
Fighting against my Alpha command.
Too bad, bitch.
'Fuck, that’s hot.' Howl mentioned through our bond, he and Saxon pulling to stand behind me, all of us facing the Queen as she bent under the sound of my voice.
As I controlled the Queen.
Fucking hell! I was controlling the vampire queen!
“Answer me, Katarina,” My voice was that same rumble, the electricity buzzing its way into place as though it was part of me, or maybe it always was.
Katarina stood, swaying on her feet with eyes that were as dead as she was.
“We will fight, daughter of origins--all of us," she mumbled, everything about her hollow and cold. "We will fight if for no other reason than to get rid of you. Your welcome here has come and gone."
"Close enough." I beamed. "I'll take it."
Fuck, power felt good.
Chapter 14
"What the hell just happened?" Saxon asked from where he was leaning against Howl, his eyes wide as he stared between me and the Queen, clearly aware he was missing something.
He wasn't the only one.
"Wondering the same thing," I said in a grumble lest the Vampire queen that I was apparently controlling would catch on that something was going on. I don't care who you are, being controlled by someone is fifty shades of fucked up.
And I was the one doing the controlling.
Controlling a fucking vampire queen with my alpha voice.
"You got her to agree..." Mama said, her green dress ceasing it's irritating swishing as she stared at me in awe. God, way to add more freak out to the current what the hell I was living in.
"I just asked," I lied. All of us knew that it wasn't anywhere near that simple.
"I must say, Ivory, your child may be more skilled than even you," Melusine said in a voice that didn't sound nearly as bored as usual.
I was going to need answers, like now, and with the way the queen was staring at me, I would need them before she broke out of whatever I had done to her.
'It’s got to be something about your Alpha powers mixing with vampires glamouring. I’ve heard of that.'
So had I, and I had done it before; to my mates, when I lined them up and made them please me. But that was in the bathroom with my four mates who would do anything for me anyway. This was in a blood coated room with the fucking vampire queen.
'You glamoured the Vampire Queen,' Howl added on, which really wasn't helping.
The words glamour and Queen rattled around in my head and laughed, ‘You're making me sound like a doll. A glamour doll.’
‘Like Barbies? You don’t strike me as a barbie girl,’ I visibly flinched at Howl's assumption.
'I’m more of a rip the head off the barbies girl, but isn’t this the same thing?' Especially with the Queen who was now shaking her head.
'Well, maybe finish off this one before she realizes what you have done to her.' Agreed.
I cracked my knuckles and neck like some kind of badass boxer going into battle and took two quick steps forward, Katarina still staring blankly forward. This was going to be too easy. Or it would if her guards hadn't sensed the threat and jumped into action, all of them moving as one as they stomped feet against the stone floor, rattling the broken shards of the throne and lowering their spears.
"Shit!" I jumped at their sudden movement, turning from the queen to the army. They already looked like a twisted mutant army with their pale skin and red eyes, add the angry scowl that was being thrown at me from each and every one of them and I might as well have been facing an army of the dead.
Wait. I was.
"Chill out!" I yelled as demanding as I could. I had controlled the queen. Shouldn't take much to control these guys too. "You are fighting with me now... didn't you hear her?"
Not one spear lifted, instead, the army took two quick steps forward, the massive doors at the back of the hall slamming open as lines of vampiric soldiers marched their way in. Double shit.
Hundreds of them piled into the room in formation, line after line of soldiers at the ready. Their lips were pressed tight and Scarlet mumbled something like ‘holy sexy vamp soldiers’. I gave her a look, making it clear I heard that.
We were going to have to have a talk later. Murder armies were not sexy, no matter how many rippling muscles they had.
'If you can control the queen, you sure as fuck can control them, little wolf,' Howl interrupted my stare down, pulling my focus back the sharp-pointed spears that were moving in.
"This is unfortunate," Melusine said, sounding bored again.
'Yeah, that's not going to happen. I already tried that and they multiplied. No thank you.'
'You have to focus on the magic, little wolf. Not how deep your voice sounds.' Sometimes I hated the reminders of how in my head he was. I really needed to figure out how to block him out. 'Try it.'
I wasn't sure what he was responding too, but I turned to glare at him anyway, the guy gave me a smirk as he whispered to Saxon and Finn, no doubt relaying everything that was going on. Tommy was still floating on his smoke, he and Mama smoking one of his cigarettes like they were watching a bar fight.
God. Two peas in a bottle of jackass those two were.
“Attention?” I said, the new half-growl, half-Ivy rose above the whispers. I tried to focus on the magic instead of the low man voice I was putting out, and for a second the vamp guard looked as though they were fighting the power, shifting their eyes to the queen more than once. Tommy chuckled and over my shoulder, I flipped him off.
'Told you.' I snapped, turning to give him a glare, but he was no longer smirking at me. He was staring at Katarina, all color had drained from his face as she shook off the last of the alpha glamour I had covered her with.
"What an interesting child you are," She crooned, all of those electric sparkled faded to nothing as the army continued to move in. "All of that beautiful blood inside of you has done some interesting things to your ability. Powerful blood mixed with powerful blood; rest assured that I will not make the same mistake again."
"Fine by me," I forced a shrug in an attempt to keep myself as disinterested as possible, even as I tried to awaken my blood and glamour her again. "I got you to agree to fight with us."
Katarina's grimace slipped into anger, a sharp exhale pushing passed the clench in her jaw as she stepped closer to her army following her every move.
"You glamoured me, child. The words of a trick are not words at all." She was smug, her voice dripping with a fear that even pushed the Fae army behind me to shift uncomfortably.
What was it with these women? Bitch extraordinaire and everyone was ready to run from her. I needed her army, and if I let her take control of the situation I had a feeling we were all going to be skewered at the end of the wall of spears. Hell, even if she let us all walk out of here our chances of survival weren't very high. Which left me with one option: Lying.
Which I was super good at.
See, already getting practice in.
"You say that but I tried to get your army to bow to me, and instead more came," her smile spread, clearly prepared to accept her victory and reward her army. But I grit my jaw, squared my shoulders and spoke louder, which seemed like the best possible choice to appear like I knew what the hell I was talking about. "My power only works to push you towards what you already want. You want to help us."
Her smile slid, that tight jaw glare returning as her eyes flashed red. Saxon hissed a warning behind me but I ignored him. I was all in.
"You want to help us," I continued before she could get a word in. "You want to retain your crown and your power, and you know as well as I do that if you don't fight you are going to lose that."
She was back to that pale translucence as if the hard slap of my words had zapped any blood out of her.
"You are going to fight with us, aren't you Katarina?" My voice sounded normal, so I knew I wasn't controlling her. She knew it too, which made it all the more beautiful when her lip twitc
hed and she stepped closer.
"You are wonderfully entertaining, child of the first. I will give you that. But getting me to agree to this fight only gets you to the battle. How do you suggest that we win it? You need a plan if you expect me to fight with you."
She thought she was so crafty this one, but this one I was already ahead of her on.
That book needed to be in my hands. Nicky’s throat needed to be slit. Danvers’ deserved to be decapitated and Daddy Dearest needed to die or snap out of the curse--whichever came first.
Oh, and the Demon King had to be diverted somehow so I could do all of said things.
'That’s a fucked-up to-do list.'
'No shit.'
Good thing I already had a plan. I may have fucked up my whole Wizard of Oz army infiltration, but I had a few more spy movies up my sleeve.
Up next: Create a diversion.
“Nicky’s being shielded by that hybrid army and the Demon King," I began, looking between the three Queens as I laid everything out. "Plus, she’s got Oberion and Danvers as her personal bodyguards. The only way we can even get close to her is to get the army she has in the desert as far away from her as possible."
“To get all of them out of that valley you’ll need a big ass distraction,” Scarlet called from behind me. “I mean, bigger than Carred Cheese.”
“We got this!" The twins said at the same time.
"Not this time, boys." I interrupted, still looking between the Queen of the Fae and the Queen of the Vampires. "This job is too big for you. This job needs a few queens."
I placed my hands on my hips, trying to figure out how to relay this plan while still sounding like I knew what the hell I was doing. I needed figurines and a map but all I had were shards of glass and a river of blood. Tasty... I mean gross.
It would have to do.
“We need to evacuate the school," I began drawing a square with blood and grabbing a few pieces of glass to represent everyone. "You two will take your armies there and make a big ass deal that you are there. Tell the students to head for the hills and get ready for the army to get to you, keep them busy and me and my posse will head in and take out Nicky from the back."
"Posse?" Finn asked, his lips pulling into a smirk as he tried to swallow his laugh.
"Take Nicky from the back?" Tommy added and I chucked pieces of glass at both of their heads.
"We are evacuating the school, but to what end?” Melusine asked as she and Mama stepped forward, watching my battle plans in confusion. It was better than the 'your dumb as shit' smile Katarina was giving me.
“You are going to draw them out. When Nicky hears that you are there she will send the army after you. She won't be able to resist you two together, two birds one stone and all that." They all looked confused as a raccoon in a buffet at that, but I plowed on. "With what I've seen of Nicky she’ll send anyone but herself into action."
"She's right," Tommy said, flicking a cigarette to the side and earning himself a look from the queen. I guess Saxon wasn't the only vampire who didn't approve of smoking the essence of people's souls and discarding the butts wherever he pleased. "She’s a fucking coward to the core. She will want you gone, but she will find a way not to do it herself. Why else do you think she surrounded herself with strong fighters? Pater? Danvers? My dad... She's weak. We can exploit that."
"This might actually work," Katarina mumbled and I about wet myself in shock.
“Yeah, it will!" I agreed more enthusiastically than army generals usually did. Or so I'd seen in the movies.
"I believe we need more than that," Melusine announced, staring at the pieces of battle glass. "We may be enough, but I would rather not risk it. I want this done in one battle. We need some kind of trigger to pull the army towards us, something to really get under that bitch’s skin.”
"Too bad we can't clone me..." Welcome to the world of Ivy. I got under Nicky’s craw like nothing else.
"You really are a child. Do you really know nothing?" Katarina rolled her eyes in a ‘must I do everything’ motion. “The frilly Fae can disguise people...” She trailed off at the end of the sentence like I was supposed to guess the fucking rest of it.
Oh.
Oh!
“If I didn’t hate your fucking guts, we might be friends,” I said to the vamp queen who had leaned her head back and pinched her nose as if whatever I had said had given her an instant headache. Or made her brain explode.
I was going to go for the later.
"So you can disguise some of the Fae guard to look like me and Ivory?" I asked Melusine, who was already beaming and nodding with a motion so subtle it moved her hair more than it did her head. "Would that work?”
“Fae charms are powerful." Finn cut in, taking my hand in his and kissing the palm. "I can do it. Watch.”
He waved his hand as though conducting a symphony and two guards stepped forward both of them beaming as much as the queen. Their smiles didn't even flicker as stars and smoke swirled around them and they slowly began to mutate into me and Ivory. I had clearly been transported to the circus of freaky clones, they were exact replicas. Well, except for the size of my nose.
Close enough.
“Well, that will certainly work.”
“We need more-just in case.” Melusine stepped forward waving her hand and pulling four more guards to the center of the room, they bowed to her before being transformed into Howl, Finn, Saxon and even Tommy. "There. If we want to drag her out, we must do it the right way. Don't give her any reason to resist the temptation of killing us. To kill the last people who have the potential to end us."
She said that last part with that same airy prophetic voice she had in the Fae kingdom, each word trickling down my spine like ice. something that really wasn't helped by the fact that she only looked at me when she spoke.
"Okay, you two and your armies to the school," I said, moving glass to the square like the plan was settled. "Me and my posse to the wolf queen. Alias can monitor Nicky’s armies movement and come tell us when they are deep enough in the forest for us to attack. We will take them all down while you take down the army. Wham Bam thank you, ma'am."
"As long as it ends that way, we will all be happy," Tommy said, giving me a wink, but I ignored him.
I was still trying to embody the kick-ass army general persona, which I realized was nearly impossible to do with my blood-streaked skin. I still gave it my best shot and straightened my back before giving my last few words before we all marched to what was hopefully not bloody demise.
“Well, here we fucking go… Let’s take a bitch down.”
Close enough.
Chapter 15
“Well, they’re still here. That’s something positive."
"The army that wants to kill us still being there is a good thing?" I asked, giving Howl a look as we all stood on the tree line, staring down at the army that I was pretty sure had multiplied since we had first seen them.
"Don't know about Howl, but with your luck, I was sure they’d be gone and we’d have to hunt those fuckers down,” Tommy said, giving the army one last look before moving into the clearing we had arrived in and plopping down to lounge on the dirt, a lit up a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
"Gee thanks," I mumbled, folding my arms over the fluffy shirt I had found to wear. "I am starting to question how I didn't figure out you were a demon before this."
"So you've said. You need a new comeback honey." He smirked and blew the smoke in perfect rings over toward us, the lazy things erupting through the pink light of dusk-like glittering necklaces.
“Of course you can blow smoke rings." I half-laughed, half-accused as I batted the smoke rings away. "Another fucking thing you lied to me about?”
“It didn’t really go along with the trailer park loser vibe I had going on. Besides, you don’t do well with competition and you thought you were the best.” He shrugged one shoulder and leaned back; eyes closed as he blew rings toward the sky.
He looke
d almost normal like this.
Almost.
“I am the best," I reminded him, kicking his hand out from under him and sending him flat-backed onto the forest floor. "And don’t you forget it.”
He flipped me off but under his breath, I heard him mutter, “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Well, we've got a few hours before they catch wind of the Queen's armies and start moving," Saxon said, sniffing the air like he was picking up Morse code. "We might as well start setting up camp."
“Camp?” It seemed odd to camp out and relax when everything inside me was twisted and knotted in anxiety over what lay in the future for us. "Like with tents and everything."
"Tents?" Scarlet asked, confused. Okay, I guess camping in tents would be a little weird for someone who could shift into a tiny forest animal.
"Yeah, like the mortals do," I clarified, which didn't help much. Everyone but Tommy and Finn were absolutely perplexed.
"With campfires and shit," Tommy snapped, having pushed himself back to sitting and producing another cigarette. "Come on, guys. It's not that hard."
“Even with these tents," Saxon began, stepping forward as he pretended he knew exactly what tents were. "Tonight we should enjoy ourselves, my rose. That army isn’t moving yet. Nicky is subdued, if only for a moment. No one is attacking us. Let’s breathe a little.”
Saxon’s cooler, but not quite icy breath fanned over my face and I closed my eyes. I reveled at having him back, hearing his voice again. He had only been dead for a few minutes but damn, longest ten minutes of my life. Except that time I was almost dead. And the time Howl was almost dead.
Oh my god... the last twenty-four hours had been a shit show. Are we one hundred percent sure I had survived that? Because looking back I was seriously starting to question.
“I’ll shield the camp, it will keep us safe and then we will know when Alias has penetrated my forcefield,” Finn said already turning to wave his hands in the air.
