by Lucy Lyons
He grinned and stood up, stretching his arms above his head and swinging them around him.
“Did you see their faces, though?”
“Yes, wolf, it was amusing. But now the master vampire whose impending arrival even you must feel at this point, knows you’re here too.”
“Our Alpha sends her regards to the master vampire of the west coast, and her condolences that she can’t help you herself, but she had other business to attend to.” Nick bowed genteelly and Clay laughed again. “Now, where do you want us?”
I felt the pressure Nick was talking about increase until it felt difficult to breathe, and I automatically checked our defenses again. Clay moved to the stained-glass window closest to the door and glanced out.
“There’s a limo pulling up.” Clay whistled and shook his head. “I don’t know what I was expecting, but the guy travels in style.
Behind me, Nick was directing wolves to join the humans and wererats in the far corner of the compound, ready to run if they heard the explosions start. Vampires were lining up by rank, and Dominique took up a spot in the corner, behind a phalanx of vampires.
I hopped up on the bar, pulled the Glock out of my waistband, and set it on the bar next to me. Nick ran his hand up my thigh and I smiled down at him.
“Do not speak out of turn, Caroline. Not tonight.” The smiled faded from my face and I nodded. The pressure was turned up another notch, and I gasped and almost tumbled from the bar.
“That’s it,” I hissed and slid to the floor. I pressed the palms of my hands flat on the bar top and activated the second layer of defenses in the ground between the club and the street. Immediately we could hear howls of pain as anyone standing between the door and the limo writhed in pain from the shock of the runes I’d just sent up in flames.
The pressure decreased until I could breathe again, and I heard panting and gasps from the wolves that told me I wasn’t the only one who’d been feeling the weight of all that power.
“Are you all right?” Nick asked, and I motioned for him to pick me up. I wriggled on the bar until I was comfortable, and scowled down at him.
“I’ll live.”
“That, remains to be seen, young lady,” came a thin, reedy voice from the front door. Nick’s face turned from pale to ash at the sound, and he gave me a hard look to stay silent.
“Master Delius, what a pleasure,” Nick said as he pasted a cool smile on his face and pivoted to greet the council emissary.
“Lord D’Elbrecht, it has been an age.” Delius wheezed. I understood why his voice sounded the way it did, once he pulled the hood back from his face. His nose had long since rotted away from his face, and his lips were pulled tight across his fangs and chin. If he had been able to salivate, he would’ve need a bib to protect the velvet and lace robe that thankfully covered him from chin to toes.
“Yes, Master Delius, it has. I am pleased to receive members of the council in my humble home.”
“It is your taste, Nicholas, isn’t it? To lure hapless humans to you, rather than hunt?” I tried to hide my surprise, but somehow, the lidless, bulging eyes of the master vampire caught the flicker of emotion across my face. “And the Venatores sorceress, I presume?”
I didn’t speak, per orders, but laid my hand on my gun for comfort.
“She is my servant, Master Delius, not a Venatores. She was simply raised by the order of the Watchers.”
“A watcher, watching her master feed off those she was raised to protect? Well, that is delicious irony.”
My jaw clenched until it ached, trying to prevent me from starting a war by insulting a master vampire who was so ancient, he’d become a walking mummy. Nick stepped forward and slightly to the side, which put him between me and the master vampire, which made me even more nervous. My eyes kept going back to the front door, waiting for the grandmaster to make an appearance.
I finally understood the phrase, “tension so thick, you could cut it with a knife.” Even Delius fell quiet as a massive and malevolent power approached the club. There was the sound of beating wings, and suddenly, I could feel the power pressing in from all sides.
“We’re surrounded,” I said softly to Nick.
“It’s okay. Just be still.” He stepped forward with his hands spread in welcome and the vampires nearest the front door backed away as another shrouded figure came through the opening.
I would’ve said he walked through, except that the movement didn’t seem like walking. Even with the robe he wore skimming the floor, it looked like he was floating above it. The vampires we’d heard land around the club closed in, and my wards all went off at once, burning through them with little to no real injury as the magic dispersed between what had to be thirty vamps simultaneously.
I tried to split my attention between the vampires and the newcomer, but settled for hoping our vamps and wolves could handle the underlings, so I could focus on the one that even the wizened, ancient Delius bowed to and backed away from.
“Grandmaster Caius, it is an eternal honor,” Nick went to one knee before the new vampire, and the other vampires followed suit. I stayed where I was, as did the wolves and Dominique in the back, and the hooded figure took notice.
“You do not bow before the master of all vampires, little human?” I blanched at the sudden, overwhelming need to bow my head, and forced my neck to stay stiff as I stared at him.
“I bow to my master,” I managed to reply past the lump of fear in my throat. I slid off the bar and closed the distance to Nick before kneeling so my side was to Grandmaster Caius and I faced Nick. I placed my forehead on the floor, tapping into the power of the building without having to use any show of power, and I activated the final runic spells that I’d adapted from spells I’d had to counter in the desert of Arizona.
I reached through the building, but instead of moving out, away from the structure, I pushed down through the stone to the sublevels, and then below that. This had been a vampire hideout for decades, and something had lived here long before that. Wishing I had thought of it sooner, I searched for the one thing even my own master didn’t know I could pull out of my witch’s hat.
Then, just outside the back door in the Woodland area, I found what I was looking for. Damn it. I can get help, but I don’t know how fast, I sent to Dominique.
Then get help now. Don’t wait. I resisted the urge to nod in agreement, and reached out for some spark that would let me raise the scores of bodies I’d found, discarded, no doubt, by Glory as she finished torturing them.
The first skeleton responded, and I felt the earth form around it, piecing it back together until it resembled the walking corpses of popular T.V. I moved to the next, and a third, trying to touch as many as I could with the life spark in my magic, before I was forced to move. It had been only seconds that I’d been on the floor, but it felt like more, and my heart began to race with fear of being caught.
“Why are you suddenly so afraid, witch?” the grandmaster drawled. His voice felt like maggots squirming in my ears, and I pushed out with my magic to stop him from burrowing into my head with his magic. The big push allowed me to do the same underground, and when Nick lifted me off the floor, at least a dozen zombies were climbing up through the earth with the command to stop anyone trying to get into the club.
“Stop, Caroline,” Nick commanded, and I slammed the door on my own power, cutting me off from the zombies I’d made. Instantly I felt an emptiness inside me where the power I used to animate them came from. My animations weren’t just creatures I set in motion. They were part of me, and I felt a little lost for a moment without connection to that. Timidly, I took Nick’s hand, and he closed his around mine. The thread of power between us gave me back some of the strength I’d lost, and my heart slowed to a less frantic pace again.
“Are you afraid of me, witch?” Caius asked again, and I stared at the emptiness that was his face in the shadow of the hood.
“I’m afraid of your purpose here,” I answered honestly, and Nick squeezed my ha
nd in approval.
“And what is that, do you believe?”
I glanced up at Nick, hoping for a clue to the correct answer, but he looked straight ahead at Caius. I mimicked him, and forced myself to face the floating apparition before me.
“I fear that you bring violence with you, and will force my people to fight you, and therefore the council, even though we respect vampire law, and have done nothing wrong.”
“Done nothing wrong, says the witch who brings her master power that she refuses to share with the council.” Caius swooped in close to my face and I jumped back automatically, breaking contact with Nick to get away from him.
“From what I understand, you cut yourselves off from that power when you stole the life from your queen and buried her for a thousand years,” I hissed. The moment I spoke the words, I knew they were true. Nick stiffened and turned to me, his face inscrutable. Caius stopped advancing and the entire room went still, with collective horror at my accusation.
Chapter 11
I’m sorry, Nick. I have no idea where those words came from, I’m so sorry. I ruined it, didn’t I? I chanced opening the telepathic link between us, but Nick shut me out, slamming the door on me so abruptly I physically flinched from the mental force.
Caius stayed only a few feet away from where I cowered behind Nick, wishing that I could take back the words that had slipped out of my mouth and hating myself for proving I was unworthy of Nick’s trust.
“Your servant insults me and accuses me of treason against my own. Show your loyalty or suffer her consequence.” I backed away from Nick and Caius, towards the heat and safety of the pack.
Nick raised his hand and a whimper escaped my throat before I could stop it. He opened his hand, fingers outstretched, then closed it into a fist.
Defend. The telepathic order breathed through me, and the vampires sprang into action, forming a line between me and the pack, and Nick and the council masters.
“Wait!” I called out, and Nick’s shoulders stiffened. “Where is the grandmaster’s servant, Nicholas? Where are his people? I don’t trust this.”
Nick scanned the room, and with a jerk of his head, a vampire ran to the door and looked out.
“I can’t feel them, but there are Venatores out here, and the other humans are gone,” the guard reported.
Dom, the back door. They’ve gone to find it, and I’ve taken all the help from there and brought it to us. I felt her assurance and she hurried back behind the curtain to take the stairs down and help our shifters and the few vampires we’d left behind.
I pushed my way to the front line and rejoined Nick, taking my place as his second, one step behind him at his right. I felt Colette join me, and Rachel did the same on Nick’s left.
Caius threw back his hood and laughed, and the sound was even more terrifying than the sight of his wet, rotting face. Unlike Delius, he had all his facial features. But the wet, rotting flesh hung from his cheekbones and cartilage, moving independently of the rest of his face as he howled with insane laughter.
At the sight of him, I automatically held my breath, before realizing that he hadn’t smelled when he entered the club, and he still didn’t now. The sight of the oozing, purulent wounds on his face and neck made the gorge rise in my throat and fear gripped me, bringing me to my knees.
“Caroline, get up.” At Nick’s command, my body rose automatically, and I searing pain filled my head. I could barely form enough of a thought to understand that the terror that filled me was the grandmaster’s glamour. But I knew Nick was fighting it, and I clenched my jaw and forced myself to obey him.
Behind me, there were screams as vampires crashed through the antique windows, some of them landing on our people. Vaguely, I felt my animations blindly attacking vampires and then Venatores as they rounded the building. Something sharp sliced into my arm and the physical pain was enough to clear the shrieking in my head for just long enough to dodge the blade as it came back for a heart-strike.
Colette brushed past me and stabbed a vampire in the side of the neck and I felt a hot rush as blood hit the side of my face. Automatically, I held my breath and ducked as my lieutenant sliced across the vampire’s throat and severed his head from his shoulders. Quickly surveying the room, I saw Clay locked in hand to hand combat with another vampire, pushing his face away to avoid the snapping jaws and fangs of his opponent. I reached out with my power to the wolf in him and drew it out, just enough for Clay to get a boost of strength.
He snapped the vampire’s neck and dropped him on the floor. Glancing my way, he saluted and immediately turned and lunged for a vampire trying to ride another wolf that had shifted into animal form.
All around me was the chaos of battle, and somehow, Nick kept me shielded from the assault, even as he started to draw from my power to aid him. I pushed more of my power into him, trusting our clan to keep me safe from other attacks.
I went to my knees as Nick and Caius used my body to fight their battle, as my people bled around me, and it was too much. I screamed for help, and time stood still as my animations, my zombies of Glory’s victims, flooded through the open door and attacked anything that wasn’t me. I saw a rotted corpse sink her teeth into Clay’s leg and he yelped with pain and stared at me. I managed to shrug and reached out to anything that held my magic.
Not ours. Nick and Caius had both released me, shocked by the undead that had poured into the club. The vampires had stopped fighting each other, unsure of who was the enemy in the face of their collective nightmare come to life. I used the confusion to get to my feet and return to Nick’s side, with my hand in his.
Is this you? His voice in my head was full of revulsion and tinged with fear. I squeezed his hand, and tried to reassure him.
They’re all yours. Command them, and they will obey. He scanned the room and paused at the zombie who I’d frozen mid-chew on Clayton’s ankle.
His hand tightened around mine, and she stood and lumbered over to us. She kneeled in front of Nick, and in a raspy, breathy whisper exhaled, “Master.” I jumped back and Nick held me tighter so I couldn’t break the connection.
“Oh, my God,” I heard someone gasp, and thought it might have come from me.
“Abomination!” Caius howled in his wet, gurgling voice. I saw his claws flash just before he raked them across Nick’s face and shoulder, and without thinking, my knife was in my hand and I was slashing at him. I nicked his arm, but the robes were too voluminous for me to get through to any flesh under it, if there even was any.
He dodged my hysterical attacks with ease, like a puppet on strings, leaping impossibly high and coming down behind me. There was a flash of pain across my shoulders and I fell flat on my face, relieved that he’d missed severing my spine because of my sword, though it felt like he nearly had, from the scorching pain of the wound on my shoulder.
The pain intensified almost immediately, and when I looked up at Nick for help, I realized why. Nick’s wound was festering already, pus and rot beginning to creep beyond the initial wound to his throat and chest.
“Oh, God. Oh, my holy God,” I panted. “Don’t let the masters mark you,” I called out to the fighting vampires. Their talons spread disease.” Horrified, I touched the raked wound that hit my arm and shoulder. My holster hung from the weight of the gun and I drew it and fired into Caius.
“We must kill them,” Nick panted. “Our only chance now, is to kill them and prepare to fight the remaining members.
“Great,” I managed to choke out past the lava that engulfed the left side of my body. “That should be simple, considering if they scratch you you’re dead. No problem.” I cursed inwardly and reached out to the runes I’d activated. “Die!” I shouted, and our vampires automatically dropped to the floor and covered their heads like we’d practiced in training. I released the energy of the runes that Henny had taught me, and there was a blinding light, as my false sunshine threw a spear of light across the runes in a wave, coursing from the stage to the front door
at about waist height.
Howls of pain and fear filled the room as the light burned even our vampires. The weakest of the invaders were turned to ash, but our vampires and the strongest among them survived, and Caius people were badly wounded. Our vampires fell back and the wolves took their place at the front line under Clay’s command.
I watched in amazement as they followed his lead without question. Getting back to my feet, I struggled out of the remains of my shoulder holster. I tucked the Beretta into the front of my pants and drew the short sword, discarding the ruined leather harness.
A vampire with blistering burns across her face bared her fangs at me and lunged, and I sidestepped, gasping from the pain in my left shoulder. I raised the sword and slashed at her as she pivoted and attacked again, this time catching her across the arm as she tried to dodge and parried with a dagger.
I forgot about the zombies I’d raised, putting all my energy into ignoring the pain in my left side as I fought. It wasn’t until I heard the shrieks that I glanced down to see two of my animated corpses clawing and biting the vampiress. They both been hacked to pieces, neither had their legs and one could only hang on with one bony hand as they ate their way through her, but no matter how hard she hit them or stabbed, they didn’t come loose.
Shaking, I backed away from my handiwork. Nick shouted a warning, and I ducked and turned in time to Caius talons slash towards my face. I rolled out of the way and screamed as my left shoulder hit the floor. My sword fell from my trembling hand, and two vampires appeared at my side, and through my pain blurred vision I recognized Germain and Michael.
