My stake found her chest, even as I completed the spin to face her. “Try me, Shadow. You’ll be next.”
She snarled. Samson groaned. Goran’s fire blazing Fey swords illuminated the corner of the room, and the tip of Hakan’s Kilij pricked the skin of Georgia’s neck.
We all held our breaths, trapped in a standoff with deadly repercussions. None of this was helping me find Luc. Bickering amongst ourselves wouldn’t get me to my brother any sooner. And Nut alone knew what the Kral was doing right now.
But I couldn’t back down. This was my home. Ediz was Hakan’s familiar. He was family.
Never show fear. Never give an inch. Always stay on guard.
Even with your friends, it seemed.
“Has he ever done that to me?” I growled low to Georgia.
“No.”
“To my brother?”
“No.”
“My mother?”
“No.”
“Papa?”
“No.”
“To anyone I know?”
The Dark Shadow cocked her head thinking. “Does Marcus count?”
Marcus was one of my father’s vampires. He and Matthias were the personal guards appointed my mother. Why on earth would Samson need to weave a dream for Marcus?
“He is a bit of a jerk,” I offered.
The Dark Shadow smiled and pulled back.
“Now he’s a pleasant jerk,” she said, and Georgia reappeared in her eyes.
She looked directly at me and said, “Are we good?”
“We are so far from good,” I muttered, but I nodded my head anyway.
She stepped back completely. Samson climbed to his feet and brushed himself down.
“You’ve become stronger, Ellie,” he said as if being hurled into a wall by Light was an everyday occurrence and warranted commending.
“You’re not who I thought you were,” I accused.
“I’m still me, kiddo,” he murmured.
I reached up and rubbed my face. None of this was helping Luc.
Hakan stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder and then reached down and helped Ediz to his feet. Poor Ediz. His Erbörü hunt had been terminated, and he had no idea it had happened. It was a violation of his rights. It was Dark indeed.
My eyes met Samson’s.
“I will not make excuses,” he said, “but say only this. Your brother needs every bit of help he can get.”
I felt my shoulders droop and let out a defeated sigh. Georgia was a hunter. She was the best. And Samson was the Darkest vampire I had ever met who hadn’t yet gone over rogue. His Dark would call to Luc’s Dark. He could be an asset.
They both were.
I didn’t like it. I didn’t like what he’d done. But Ediz’s fixation on Georgia would have made cooperation between us impossible. We would have had to leave Ediz behind. And that seemed wrong.
Luc needed every bit of help he could get.
“Don’t ever do that again,” I said to Samson.
“Éliane,” he said, “I cannot give you that promise. Georgia is my mate.”
Theirs was a complicated relationship. The Dark Shadow and Georgia were often at odds. Jett understood the Dark Shadow. Samson loved Georgia with all of his heart. But as I turned my face away, I saw something out of the corner of my eye that made me stop. Samson’s vampire-within - a huge-arse black dog - was chasing the Dark Shadow. And the Dark Shadow was laughing.
I shook myself and looked at Hakan.
“Can you accept that?” I asked him.
“I have no choice, hayatim. It is done and cannot be undone.”
“But if he tries something like that again…”
“I shall rip off his head and feed Ediz his eyeballs.”
“That’s my man,” I said, and Georgia snorted.
Goran’s Fey blades stopped flaming. In the next heartbeat, they were hidden from sight. Hakan had returned his Kilij to its sheath at some point, but his eyes remained steadfastly on my face. Samson remained where he stood, and Ediz shook himself like a wet dog. Georgia reached out and patted him on the head.
I snarled.
“You have claimed him,” she said. “That’s good.”
I sighed. Vampire politics and supernatural relationships were not for the faint of heart. I’d been raised to survive in this world using my strength and cunning. Diplomacy was a tool to be employed when the outcome suited my needs. And right now, I needed Luc found.
Life sucked.
Hakan’s mind brushed mine. He has done me a service, he said.
How do you figure that? He violated Ediz.
Ediz would have hunted your familiar to her end. I would have been forced to kill him for the offence. He has been with me for centuries.
Ah, shit.
I shall not thank him, Kafinefendi. But he has my thanks.
Meaning Hakan could live with what had happened. Because it suited his needs. Vampires could be very pragmatic.
“OK,” I said aloud, aware everyone knew Hakan and I had been communicating telepathically. Georgia smirked at me when our eyes met. “That was one way to wake the fuck up.”
Samson let out an imperceptible breath of air. Light tried to flicker inside him. He was trying to find his way back, and my acceptance of what he’d done was helping him. Georgia, I was sure, would help him with the rest. He wasn’t my vampire. Not my problem. But he was my mother’s. Still, I had never been a tattletale, and I wasn’t about to start now.
Unless he threatened my family. He didn’t, I thought. So I pushed the puzzle of Samson Beauregard aside for now; wiping my hands.
Georgia offered me a rare genuine smile.
“So, the Ambrosia sent you,” I said, heading toward the kitchen part of the big room we were in. I started grabbing things for an impromptu breakfast. I was starved. Someone had kept me busy all day and used up my energy reserves.
“You know I would come for Luc without having been asked,” Georgia offered.
“But the Ambrosia knew you both could help.”
“Yes,” she bit out. She didn’t like that he knew about Samson. Because there was no way Samson was included in this little SAR team set up by the ancient Iunctio councillor because he looked good hanging off Georgia’s arm.
“That is something we will address on our return to Auckland,” Samson promised her.
“Good luck with that,” I said, and brought the breakfast tray of fruits and yoghurts, bread and cheese, and a selection of meats to the table for those who could digest such things.
I shoved a grape in my mouth and chewed.
“So, where do we start?”
Goran stepped forward and swiped a slice of cheese. Ediz started piling up everything onto a thick slice of dark bread, then lathered the entire lot with tzatziki. It was one way to go.
The vampires looked like they might up-chuck.
“I will hunt,” Georgia said, watching Ediz devour his creation with fascination.
“And I’ll make myself known,” Samson added, purposely not watching the Erbörü at all.
“How do you plan to do that?” I asked.
He let out a little of his Dark. I almost choked on the segment of orange I’d been about to swallow.
Hakan stepped forward and rubbed my back and then picked up a grape and slice of cheese. He wrapped the cheese around the grape and placed it in his mouth. We all stared at him, eyes wide and jaws hanging open dumbly.
Well, Ediz didn’t, he was too busy tucking into his second tower of tzatziki.
“That is disgusting,” Georgia said.
I smiled. “Two hearts. Two souls. And I’m guessing two stomachs?”
Hakan leaned forward and kissed the side of my head but said nothing.
I felt his arm settled around my shoulders and the heat of his frame invade my body at my side.
He was vampyre. I knew he was. He drank blood. He had fangs. But there was more to the Mhachkay than that.
And they were born this way.
“What will the Kral do?” I asked him.
“They are weakened. They will need to build up their strength. This gives us some time, but not much. My uncle is not a patient man, so he will be seeking alternate methods to achieve his goals.”
“Such as?” Samson asked.
“Such as allies who can function while he cannot.”
“Who?” Georgia asked.
“I have searched for those who once supported the Kral’s reign,” Hakan advised. “They no longer exist.”
“Just how long have you been awake?” Georgia asked.
“Longer than the King.”
I smiled at Hakan’s evasiveness. I’d get it out of him eventually, but keeping his secrets safe was fine by me for now. And Georgia and Samson did not deserve to know his secrets. Not after what they had just pulled, even if Hakan saw Samson’s Dream Weaving as a service.
“Then who does that leave?” Goran asked, interrupting the staring match Georgia and Hakan were having.
I’d like to think my Savaşçı had that one covered. I smirked and then returned my attention to the table.
And in particular, the Dark Fey guard.
The ribbons twisted. My stomach flipped. The pulse at the side of my neck doubled.
Hakan turned to look at me. Both Samson and Georgia had homed in on my rapidly beating pulse.
“El?” my friend said.
I felt myself falling backwards. No one reached out to catch me. I landed on my butt on cold dirt.
All around me was rock, curved up and over my head creating a cavern. And front and centre was a stone plinth I had spent way too many hours on. On it sat a crown; thorns twisted this way and that, dear antlers rising up behind it.
“Son-of-a-bitch,” I muttered, and the ribbons twisted and turned and knotted and released in agreement.
Then I was back in Istanbul, Hakan holding me, Georgia shouting, Ediz hissing, Goran waving his arms around and chanting in Fey and Samson looking all Dark and dangerous and threatening.
“The Ljósálfar,” I said, my voice not loud enough to carry over the cacophony. “The Ljósálfar!” I shouted, and everyone stopped.
“What did you say?” Samson asked.
“It’s the Ljósálfar.” I looked up at Hakan. I was pressed to his chest, his arms wrapped around me. We were both sitting on the floor of his house.
I had fallen. And Hakan had caught me.
“The Kral has allied with the Ljósálfar,” I said at last.
“That is impossible,” Goran muttered. But he knew as well as we did that it was not. The Light Fey had broken their chains when Luc and I had come into our powers.
But had it been them who broke the chains or had it been the Kral?
Or had the Kral simply used the opportunity to his advantage?
“Well, that’s unfortunate,” Georgia muttered.
“That’s not the worst of it,” I told her.
I didn’t need the ribbons to remind me. I remembered facing off against the rabid vampire at the ghouls’ sports bar back in Auckland City. I remembered the parasitic entity that consumed the Light Fey who I’d killed with stolen Iunctio power in the council chambers. I remembered what Aliath had told me about the corruption in the Light Fey and who now lead them. I remembered it all.
“His name is Kaleth,” I said, my mouth dry. “He’s the new Ljósálfar King.”
Goran vanished in a flash of light and the scent of ozone.
We stared at the spot he had been standing in and said nothing.
What was there to say? The Mhachkay had been formidable before, despite having only just awoken. But the Mhachkay allied with the Light Fey was a whole other beast.
A corrupted and lethal beast.
And they were after my brother.
7
This Was Going To Be A Mess
The night was long, and it was dark. Just not the type of Dark we wanted.
“Can you sense them?” I asked Georgia quietly.
We were back at the Sultan Ahmed Mosque; dust and debris coated the tiles, and the light of the moon shone softly reflecting off broken pillars and rubble. Georgia cocked her head to the side, eyes glowing red, and then sighed.
“If they arrived on Earth through a portal to here, they’ve masked themselves well.”
“You said you could track them,” Hakan accused.
Samson growled. Georgia offered a fang-filled smile and looked the Mhachkay prince in the eye.
“I can only track that which is there to be tracked, vampire.”
“Where else would they have appeared?” I demanded.
“Auckland is familiar,” Samson offered. “It’s the only home Lucien knows.”
“The spymaster is not so careless as to bring the Champion’s Dark son under the Sanguis Vitam Cupitor’s nose,” Georgia countered.
“But if we use the same argument,” I said, “Paris is familiar to Alain. Paris was once his home.”
“Yes,” Georgia said, nodding. “That could work.”
“The Mhachkay will not have based themselves there,” Hakan advised.
“The Kral wants Luc,” I argued.
“He will send hunters of his own, but he will not step foot in Paris if he can help it. Paris was also once home to the Iunctio.”
“He hates them that much?” I asked.
“He will wish to wipe them from the history books,” Hakan offered. “But first he will wish to be whole.”
“Entwined with an Enchanted,” I surmised.
“He will not get your brother, hayatim.” His promise was backed with a determined stare. If Hakan could fight his uncle with willpower alone, he would surely win.
But there was more to this battle than that.
Luc was Dark. So Dark he would be easy to track once a hunter scented his trail. He would call every Dark thing to him. The Nosferatins in Paris would suddenly have their workload doubled. Tripled. That sudden increase in Dark would get noticed by those who kept an eye on the former Iunctio’s base of power. Paris meant a lot to vampires of old.
The Kral’s men would find them. So would Georgia, though; I had complete faith in my friend. But finding Luc and saving him were two separate things. Yet one did not exist without the other.
I knew what we had to do. I hated it. But my father had taught me well. I’d just failed to realise his parenting style had been a lesson right from the start.
“We split up,” I said into the quiet of the night. All eyes turned to look at me. Some showed surprise. Most showed vampire impassivity. “Georgia and Samson hunt Luc and Alain,” I added. “Find them,” I said to my friend. “Contain them. Keep them safe for me.”
“We will,” the Dark Shadow and Georgia said.
“And you?” Samson asked.
I looked at Hakan.
“Will all the Mhachkay who aren’t hunting Luc be with the Kral?”
“His hold on them is strong, despite his diminished state upon waking.”
“He couldn’t hold you,” I pointed out.
“I am a Mhachkay prince. Heir to the throne. I am the only one who can resist him.”
“Are there some who would wish to resist him but can’t?”
“Perhaps.”
“Are there any you trust?”
“Time has changed the landscape.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled at him.
He smiled, then reached up and touched a dread. He had a fascination with them, I realised. Hakan was not the type of man to show affection. He did touch. He did show physical support when needed. But reaching for the dread had almost been an unconscious act on his part. He was drawn to my fierce hair as I was drawn to the fierce warrior in him.
It is not your hair, he said in my mind.
Then what is it?
You are my match in this and all worlds.
He thought I was fierce, too.
“There is one,” he said aloud, “I still called a friend after leaving Adrianople. P
erhaps if we can separate her from the Kral’s power, she will help us.”
We needed someone to entwine their blood with Luc’s, to stabilise his power. In doing so, I could only hope it was enough to contain his Dark.
“Is this friend powerful?” I asked. And why did it have to be a woman?
Hakan grinned. “She was once the most skilled of our kind. A Cadı of great renown. Many feared her. Many coveted her power. The Kral most of all. She will be difficult to free, but she will be worth it. The longer your brother is left without a Mhachkay to ground him, to entwine his blood with theirs and hold it dear, the Darker he will become. If left too long, no one, not even the Kral, will be able to save him.”
None of that had me feeling comfortable. Not a single word. And especially the part about this woman being a witch. Maybe that handy-dandy translation ability I’d acquired on Entwining and consummating my relationship with Hakan wasn’t as nifty a thing as I’d at first thought.
But Luc was growing Darker. I knew it. I could feel it. Even if I couldn’t sense where he was; I could feel his anguish. His Dark. It would take a powerful Mhachkay to entwine him now, and the clock was ticking; I didn’t have time to be picky about it.
“OK,” I said, nodding my head; more for me than any of my companions, I was sure. “Georgia and Samson to Paris after Luc. You, me and Ediz to…where exactly?”
“Adrianople,” Hakan said with a grim smile.
“It’s not called that anymore,” I told him. “It’s known as Edirne.”
He snarled. “Empires rise and fall,” he growled quietly, speaking of the Ottomans who must have named the place at a guess. “But the spirit of Hadrianopolis will always survive.”
If he said so.
“And Ediz will accompany the Nothus,” he added, almost as an afterthought.
“Not happening,” Georgia snapped.
“Your Rüya Dokumacı has a debt that I claim,” Hakan immediately replied.
“Debt?” Georgia growled, flashing fang.
“Samson did fry Ediz’s brain,” I offered.
“Stay out of this, El,” Georgia growled. “Mhachkay, you wanna try that again? And this time with a little circumspection.”
“You do not know the meaning of the word.”
Georgia stepped forward, finger raised, and stabbed it at Hakan’s broad chest.
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