In a sea of white, we stuck out like black sheep. If I hadn’t known better, I would have said we were going to a funeral—not this sham of a trial. If things went badly, I’d make damn sure it wasn’t our memorial service.
“Ms. Grey, we’ve been expecting you.” The receptionist, whose name I didn’t know, spoke to us in clear disapproval. “You were to arrive with your guardian, Roy Grey.”
A small grin touched Ella’s lips and she leaned forward, into the other’s face, forcing her to back up a step. “He’s coming.”
Knowing the way, I pulled on Ella’s hand and went to the left, passed the desk where the hallway curved in the shape of a crescent. The receptionist scuttled behind us, her shoes a rapid click, click, click over white and gold-flecked granite.
“You can’t just go wherever you want! You’re supposed to wait for a member of the council to come get you. There is protocol,” she called after us.
I glanced over my shoulder. “The council and its protocol can go fuck themselves. We’re here and we’re doing this now.”
The woman stopped following after us, the act of her mouth fishing open and closed using up all her strength.
We left her standing in the middle of the hall while I steered Ella to the agency’s version of a courtroom. The same place I’d gotten my first blowjob. Richard had ruined that experience when he’d walked in. He’d beaten the shit out of me when we’d gotten home for my “utter lack of respect” but it had so been worth it.
I pushed on the tall black door and entered the round room. The five men seated at the U-shaped table looked up at my approach. I knew them each by name, one was even my great-uncle, not that I’d ever called him anything other than Cornelius.
Richard sat in the center, on a raised chair to set him apart from his peers. Like the others, he was dressed in a set of white robes—the black and gold sash dangling down his chest marked him as the leader. The sight of it rubbed me the absolute wrong way. What a hypocritical asshole. I wanted to take his special cord and strangle him with it. The subtle way Ella balled her fists at her side told me she was thinking something similar.
Richard locked his beady eyes on me and curled his lip in a condescending sneer before shifting his gaze to Ella. He looked her up and down, the animosity written plainly on his face much better than the sexual look that would have earned him a punch in the face.
Even though the bond no longer connected Ella and me, we had something stronger. Less pansy than love, more real than a soul-deep connection. I was attuned to her. When she reached out with her power, it swept over my skin and I followed its path, curious.
She touched Richard’s mind, a very deliberate, controlled attack. Her voice drifted through my head even though her words were meant for him. Boo.
His nostrils flared in response, a physical reaction that had me suppressing my amusement. Fuck, I loved her. Richard’s fear and hatred scented the air with a sharp, foul odor that had my predator inching closer to the surface. I don’t think he’d expected us to show up. The asshole was in for a world of hurt.
“Let the record show,” Richard’s voice echoed off the shiny black walls, “Ms. Grey has disregarded proper protocol and,” he glared at me as if I was worse than the shit on the bottom of his shoe, “brought an unauthorized guest. You will both need to wait outside until we’re ready to begin.”
Ella squared her shoulders. “No.”
My distant uncle, Cornelius Reynard the Fourth, blinked at her. His full face and long white beard made him look a little like Santa Claus. “What do you mean, no?”
“You heard me. I’ve got things to do tonight.” She glanced at Richard and grinned, exposing her fangs—a silent threat.
The four old men whose ancestors had helped found the agency blustered. I knew for a fact they’d never stepped foot outside of their politics to get their hands dirty. These men who would try to decide Ella’s or anyone else’s fate disgusted me. They had no idea what it was like outside of their protected walls.
Ella pulled a rolled scroll from the back of her skirt and threw it to the ground, showing them exactly how she felt about this charade—all of this was a waste of time she didn’t really give a crap about. The parchment unrolled, showing golden glints of ink.
She clasped her hands in front of her and looked each one of them in the eye as we’d rehearsed. We wanted to make sure everyone was damn clear on what the stakes were. “I’m being charged with biting a human. A direct violation of the oath I swore in this room seven years ago.”
The man next to Richard, Leon, flipped open a folder and looked up at me as if he’d just read my name. “That is correct.” He cleared his throat. “Mr. McGregor, who you’ve brought with you, was admitted to the hospital for blood loss. We’ve got the records here, including pictures.”
“Right,” I said deciding to intervene. “I’m not human. I’m a demon.” Straightforward, no bullshit. I shoved my conviction into my words, letting them taste the truth behind them.
The men—sans Richard—sputtered, dropping their guards enough to forget I’d been excommunicated and therefore removed from existence in their eyes. It was Cornelius who spoke first, “Micah—”
“Save it,” I growled, never removing my gaze from Richard’s hostile one.
As if Ella commanded it, which I’ll admit would have been really badass, the door opened, spilling light into the dim chamber.
Roy walked in, Hannah on one side, Eli on the other, assuring he wouldn’t fall. Our hospital break hadn’t done much to speed his recovery time. Behind them trailed four of the more lucid women we’d rescued. Finally, taking up the rear was Dante, his untamed mane of hair making him look every inch the animal he was. On his arm was my mother, a tiny slip of a thing compared to his mass.
An ache of sadness washed through me and I forced myself not to look away from her. She still didn’t acknowledge that I was her son or that Eli existed, something Castro said she might never get back. A collective gasp sounded from the council’s table at the sight of her. Richard shoved his chair back and rose, feigning outrage—acting as if he had no idea what we’d been up to. Surely he’d known we broke into the facility.
The second Marianna saw him, she jerked back as if she’d been slapped. Fear filled her eyes, one of the first emotions I’d seen—felt—from her. Ella grabbed my arm, keeping me from doing something incredibly satisfying, such as slitting Richard’s throat.
“What kind of a sick joke is this?” Richard bellowed.
His face was red, his eyes wild. While the council might see his reaction as anger, I knew the truth. Panic. Sweat poured off his skin and rolled down the sides of his face and neck. The pungent odor of his fear filled the room.
“What is the meaning of this?” Cornelius asked, his confused gaze never leaving Marianna. She looked at him with an inkling of recognition. Something like hope filled his watery eyes. I’d never known much about my mother’s life before Richard and I wondered if she’d been close to her family.
Hannah pressed a kiss to Roy’s check and strode forward with her bounty of stolen records, her hips sashaying with confidence as she went. She glared at Richard, then placed a folder in front of each man, the contents inside directly, and in some cases indirectly, relating to them. We’d discussed at great length our strategy going in.
“Your honor,” she said, stopping in front of Cornelius, her voice sweet and soft, I’m sure matching the smile she gave him. “As you can see, your niece is alive. She, along with several other women, were abducted and held at a private facility where they were tortured and forced to breed with demons and shape shifters.”
“Outrageous lies!” Richard yelled, his anger causing spittle to fly through the air.
My wrath lashed through the room. Joining with it was Ella’s, Eli’s and Roy’s. The hard ball of fire in my gut roiled and my skin prickled with rage. A need for violence consumed, my only mission in life to make Richard pay for every single one of his sins.
<
br /> “Bullshit, you cocksucking prick.” I crossed the room in two strides.
I slammed open each folder and shoved them at the councilmen, pointing to the ugly truth of what the institution had done. “These women were drugged. Raped. Their memories swept, and then sent back into the world. Some survived, others didn’t. Look at what this bastard did to my mother! She doesn’t even know who the fuck I am!”
I glanced back in time to see Marianna flinch. Tears filled her eyes and slowly rolled down her cheeks.
My voice cracked from the intensity of emotion running rampant inside me. “She’s a fucking shell of a woman, her life stolen and it’s his fault.” I pointed to Richard, aiming between his eyes where I should have placed a bullet long ago.
Dillon Sanders, the man on Richard’s right, glanced at the file, scanned the print. He looked up at me. His growing anger fed my own. “Where did you get this information?”
I had his and everyone else’s rapt attention.
“There’s a facility near Albany.” I removed the file I’d tucked into my suit jacket and handed it to Cornelius. “This is Marianna’s file. Richard isn’t my blood. My father was a Feurety demon whose name was Derrik.”
I flipped my hand up to show them the mark embedded in my palm.
“Do. Not. Open. That. File,” Richard seethed. “They lie. They use sorcery to trick you. She is the Queen of the Vampires, she killed four agents!”
“That is hearsay, Richard,” Leon snapped. “Their bodies have yet to be recovered, and without a proper autopsy, we can’t determine what happened to them.”
I tracked Richard’s movement, seeing it in my head before his hand even twitched. He reached for the file—the damning evidence of his involvement. Ella got to him first. Phazing behind him, she hooked an arm around his throat and pulled him back.
Her voice was low and feral. “Touch it and I’ll snap your neck.”
Damn she was sexy.
“You bitch!” he screamed.
A growl ripped from my throat and I advanced. The four men seated at the table jumped up and looked wildly around the room—unprepared for or unaccustomed to what Ella could do. They glanced first to where she’d stood a second ago, then at Richard and her restraining him. He kicked and squirmed. I read the violence lurking in her eyes and knew she wanted to break his neck, to feel the bone snap beneath her hands. I also saw the restraint and the resolve—it wasn’t her job to decide his fate.
“Open the folder,” I demanded, trusting Ella to keep Richard occupied. Of the two of us, she was less likely to harm him.
A squadron of armed guards marched in and surrounded the perimeter of the room. Their drawn weapons were as much a part of their uniform as the expressions of concentration on their faces. The women we’d brought shrieked. A jumble of panic and terror spread out.
Wonderful, just what we needed. Trigger-happy hunters swept up in the panic. Eli let go of Roy’s arm and gathered the women close, using his body to shield them as best he could if things went south. Good boy. Dante stalked to Hannah’s side, positioning himself in the line of fire to keep her out of it.
The room fell silent as Cornelius scanned the file. Revulsion filled his face, twisting his mouth into a grimace. He looked up, into Richard’s face with something akin to horror. “This, this is your handwriting, Richard. You knew about—you authorized this?”
Richard mocked him with a snort. “No one wanted to prepare for the future. The world evolves while we sit back and do nothing! I would not see humans lose this war to the demons and the vampires. We needed an edge. I saw an opportunity and took it. I did what needed to be done.”
“And what exactly was that?” Ella hissed into his ear.
Her words ripped through me until I saw nothing but red. My sister flashed before my eyes and with it, flames curled from my hand and up my arm, a heat I didn’t feel through the burning rage.
“Forcing women to mate with demons who ripped them apart from the inside out?” Her grip on his throat tightened. “Erasing their memories and rewriting their path in life like you did with Marianna? She never loved you and you couldn’t accept that. Then later, when you wanted me and was told no, you just couldn’t accept it. I know what you paid Julian to do. That backfired, didn’t it? Everything you’ve ever done is coming back to blow the fuck up in your face, you piece of shit.”
“You cunt!” He slammed his head back, cracking her in the forehead.
I surged forward and reached across the table, grabbing Richard by the front of his robes. I jerked him to me and brought my fist across his face. Blood arced into the air. I let go of Richard, allowing him to hit the ground seconds after the splattering drops did.
“I could stand here and tell you how pathetic you are.” I advanced.
Flames I now controlled licked out, curling in the air like an extension of myself. I stepped on Richard’s throat, pinning him to the floor when the weasel would have crawled on his hands and knees to get away from me.
How many times had he made me crawl? Blood leaking from my mouth? My wrist broken? My ribs battered?
“But I’m better than that. You abused me and Eli for years while you sat on your goddamn pedestal like your shit didn’t stink. I hope you rot in hell for what you’ve done, for the pain you’ve caused.”
The air shifted, my skin prickling in warning micro-seconds before Julian appeared beside me. I snarled, baring my teeth at him. No way in hell was he getting anywhere near Ella. The guards shifted their weapons this way and that, not knowing whom to aim at.
Julian didn’t look at me, didn’t acknowledge Ella, who looked at him with a very carefully constructed blank expression. Her gaze met mine and we shared the same the thought—what the hell was he doing here?
The vampire pulled out several pieces of paper and set them on the desk as if phazing into the Shadow Agency headquarters was an everyday occurrence. “Here you’ll find documentation that Richard obtained a Laminas Animarum also known as the Blade of Souls. Several weeks ago, he approached me about removing Ella’s soul. In addition to recording the conversation, I have bank documents showing the transfer of funds into my account from your agency.”
Richard sputtered and I pressed harder on his throat, shutting him up.
Julian turned, spearing me with his one good eye. A piratical black patch concealed the one Ella had stabbed. “She’s yours, mongrel.”
He vanished as if he’d never been. Cornelius rose and motioned the soldiers to come forward. “Detain Richard McGregor and take him to the cells. We have enough evidence for an arrest.” His gaze met mine. “In addition to the new evidence we’ve just acquired, you can rest assured the agency will investigate this hospital, shut it down, and uncover its purpose and those behind it.”
“No!” Richard growled. He clutched my ankle, fingers biting into my skin, and struggled.
Ella phazed to my side and lifted her chin, acting as if Richard wasn’t flopping on the ground at her feet. The councilman on the far left placed his clasped hands on the table and spoke, his voice carrying as if he used a microphone. “Ms. Grey, we find you innocent of the charges filed against you. You’ve taken control of the vampires?”
Not that I’d had any doubt, but thank fuck. Ella’s relief, her hope, curled out.
“Yes, I have,” she said with confidence. “They won’t be a problem any longer—no more revolts or mass raids. I’ll make sure of it, and punish those who decide the rules don’t apply to them.”
“Right.” He nodded. “See that you do. You’re free to go.”
I stepped out of the way when the guards approached. Before Richard could move, the hunters descended and flipped him onto his stomach, slamming him against the floor. They pinned him down, catching his flailing limbs and cuffing him before drawing him up off the floor.
“You think you’ve won, but you haven’t.” He spat on the ground. The doors opened and the men filed out, taking Richard with them. His voice carried down the hall. “Y
ou haven’t won!”
The fuck we hadn’t.
Cornelius and the other council members surrounded Marianna and the group of women we’d brought, a flurry of conversation commencing. What had happened to them? Had they seen Richard involved personally? I tuned out their discussion and focused on my soon-to-be wife.
Fuck she was gorgeous. Her eyes were bright with triumph, her skin flushed. She took my hand, lacing our fingers together, the connection between us tangible. Ella met my gaze and grinned like an idiot. It wasn’t badass. It wasn’t sexy. But holy hell it was the best thing I’d ever seen.
Her happiness filled me near to bursting. “I think you owe me a date,” she said in a smug voice.
I bent, pressing my lips to hers softly. My words were low and husky, for her ears only. “If by date you mean us checking into a hotel for some really hot, really debauched sex, then yes I do.”
She snorted. “You won’t be saying that when I’m as big as a house and I’ve got cankles.”
I tried to imagine what she’d look like in a few months, her stomach swollen with my child. My cock hardened at the thought. “Knowin’ you carry my child makes you ten times hotter. Cankles. Mood swings. Midday cravings. Whatever. I’ll be there every step of the way.”
She laughed against my lips, a sweet sound I’d cherish until the day I died.
“You say that now. Just wait until I have to push this kid from my—”
I shook my head and pressed a finger to her lips, shushing her. “Don’t ruin it.”
“Take me home and make love to me?” she asked.
“I can do that.”
I lifted her chin and sealed my mouth over hers, taking her lips in a possessive kiss that didn’t come close to showing her how much I loved her, what I’d do for her. Whatever came at us, we’d deal with it together.
About Madeline Pryce
Madeline Pryce wrote her first novel when she was ten, penned with neon-pink ink in a loose-leaf binder. Captivated by romantic literature, yet intrigued by the paranormal, she continues to develop her own voice, writing the kinds of stories that inspired her as a teen.
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