“Catalina is Nat’s sister. She was an influential member of the Trust. An advocate for change in our dealings with demi-humans. You would have liked her. She was attacked and used in a brutal ritual. Nat was found at the scene and convicted of black magic. Catalina was left comatose after the incident and never recovered.”
“Not anymore she isn’t,” I muttered. “This thing inside of me? It was the thing they tried to put in her. She’s alive, and she’s conscious. For now.”
Elle’s glasses magnified her eyes so that they appeared huge in her face. She went pale. “That’s awful. And now they have her? They’re using her against you?”
I nodded. “After this, they were going to ship me to Wolf Isle. Apparently once Valerius completely takes root in my body, I won’t be able to control him. He’s basically a ticking time bomb of demonic power. He will incinerate the whole island. All the wolves will die. The vampires will blame it on a natural cataclysm. You, the virus, my sister – it was all a setup.”
Elle pushed to her feet, hands clenched at her sides.
“We can’t let that happen! They forced me to make that virus. I thought they’d kill my mother. I didn’t realize, there are worse things than death. They wanted me to make a virus that would spread through the demi-races, and I refused. I escaped, leaving my mother behind. She’s like them now. A husk that drinks blood. It’s too late for her, but we can still stop them.”
A pang of sympathy ran through me. Poor girl. I couldn’t believe that I’d ever considered her much of a threat. She was as much a victim as Cat. A tremor ran down my spine. Would Lamonia turn Cat into a vampire, just to spite me? I wouldn’t put it past him. We had to find a way out of this mess.
I spread my hands wide. “I’m all ears, princess. If you have any ideas on how to stop this mess, please share.”
Elle’s cheeks flushed pink. “I meant it in a more abstract sense. We have to formulate a plan.”
Dominic’s lips pursed in a distinctly paternal way, like he was watching a pair of daughters fight. “Don’t be cruel to her, Nat. She’s doing her best here.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of. I know advances don’t happen in a day, Dom, but I don’t have time to wait around for your prodigy to come up with a cure to the virus or whatever the hell’s been done to me. I have three days to live. The vampires put me on a timer. If I don’t report back, I’ll die.”
He blanched. “Oh Gods, Nat. I’m sorry.”
I rubbed my temples, trying to assuage the pressure I could feel building there. Being dead didn’t stop you from getting headaches, apparently.
“I wish that was all. Every time I die, the demon gets more powerful. By the end of all of this, I won’t be human anymore.”
He just stared at me. “What will you be?”
I stared out at the night sky, the still streaming swamplands, and the remainder of the destruction I’d wrought. It was just a taster. I hadn’t even dipped my toe into the vast ocean of power that this thing had to offer. I was afraid of what happened when it rose to drown me.
“I don’t know, Dom,” I whispered. “But it scares me. When this thing takes over, promise me you’ll stop it. Even if you have to kill me again.”
chapter
21
AFTER SHOWERING, I PASSED OUT on the bed. I vaguely registered Findlay returning sometime later, and quiet voices, but I was too exhausted to rouse myself. I drifted in and out of sleep, dreaming of blood and fire and giant reptilian teeth.
There was only one guest room in the cabin, which made sleeping arrangements a bit dicey. Eleanor had taken to sleeping on the couch. She seemed to eat, sleep, and breathe her work. When she wasn’t eating the camp rations, cookies, or canned food that Dominic had been able to scrape together on short notice, she was either napping or peering through a microscope.
So that left one of two options. Dominic and I could share the bed while Findlay stayed out on a bedroll to watch Elle. Or Dominic and Findlay could cuddle up together on the narrow twin mattress and let me camp in the main room with Elle.
Findlay went with option C, none of the above. A popular choice, and always a good option when you didn’t know the answer to something. Or in this case, didn’t believe a word of your roommate’s story and suspected them of planet-ending evil. As you do.
I snapped awake when I heard the door slam, my finger already in the trigger of the gun I’d stashed under my pillow. But it was just Findlay leaving. He was set to get a safe transport back to Trust headquarters in Miami. Using a direct portal from the cabin to the Everglades was like sending up a signal flare to anyone with the skill or inclination to look for us. There would be more magic flowing in the big city, and thus his departure wouldn’t be noticed.
Dominic banged out the screen door after Findlay. I trailed behind him, stopping on the threshold to listen in on the conversation while also keeping Elle inside. I wasn’t an idiot. By most people’s standards, I was pretty clever. But Elle was in a league all her own. There were times when she talked that all I understood were the “the’s, ‘and’s’ and ‘buts.’
So rather than stew in my own intellectual inadequacy, I lounged in the doorway and peered through the wire mesh to watch Dominic try one last time to persuade the rat bastard to stay.
“Come on, Findlay,” Dominic coaxed, leaning his weight against one of the dock’s support beams. “We need a second guard for the security detail. That was really something, what you did with the gators. You sent them packing.”
“A trick which I am unlikely to be able to replicate,” Findlay sniffed, tossing his back lightly into the back of the airboat. It dipped a few inches into the water and settled after a moment.
“What makes you say that?”
“Because the vampires will be prepared for that now. You do recall that the one called Geoffrey escaped?”
My grip tightened around the door jamb. I should just have gone after Geoffrey myself, rather than bother with Dominic and Findlay. He’d been within my grasp. I could have ended it right then and there. Instead, I’d trusted Findlay to take care of him. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
My stomach clenched in worry. If I hadn’t cooked half the vampires, Elle would already be dead, and maybe Dominic too. But my rebellion might have cost Cat her life, or worse, her soul. I wouldn’t know until I could battle my way out of this godforsaken swamp and find her.
Only when I applied logic could I calm the raging panic that was gnawing at my insides. Algerone Lamonia and his fellows had designs for Valerius. But they also needed to give me a reason not to turn the American coastline into a literal hellscape. So long as I still had a tether to humanity, I wasn’t likely to turn their weapon around on them and shoot them right in the face.
“Besides,” Findlay sneered. “You already appear to have a second sentry. That is if you still trust Valdez.”
Dominic glanced back at me. I knew that I’d earned the doubt that crossed his face. He’d defied the powers that be and risked everything he had to slip information to me. He’d saved my life. And then I’d repaid him by using him and trying to kill his charge.
My story sounded crazy, even to me. It was going to take time to repair what was broken between us. But his hesitation still felt like a punch to the chest.
Dominic finally shrugged. “It’s up to you, Findlay. I’m not going to force you to stay. Just be careful, will you? And check in with that information as soon as you can. I want to know everything you can tell me about Nat’s family tree. There has to be a reason that she and Cat were targeted.”
“Besides the obvious political motive?”
“I’m certain it’s deeper than that, Findlay. Promise me you’ll try.”
“I will impart what I have learned to Vogel and she will contact you with the relevant information. She’s supposed to be at a summit, discussing the legislation she and Catalina proposed. We’re reasonably confident it can be passed this time.”
&nb
sp; “I hope so. Travel safely, Findlay.”
Findlay stepped down into the boat after his things and nodded once, not turning to acknowledge Dominic again. He’d refused to look at any of us after finding out that I would be staying under house arrest, rather than chained in the basement like he thought I deserved.
The engines whirred to life and then Findlay was off at top speed, disappearing into the distance without another word. Behind him, the horizon was glowing purple in the predawn light.
Dominic trudged up the dock and the small hill toward the cabin. He paused when he found me standing in the doorway.
“I thought I told you to watch Elle.” The reprimand was soft, but I still flinched.
“She’s working. She’s not near any windows, and I’m faster and stronger than I was before. I can handle whatever comes for us. Besides, nothing short of a rocket launcher is going to get through the wards you’ve set up.”
“How much of that did you hear?”
“Enough.”
He pursed his lips. “You don’t have to look so wounded, Valdez. The last time I trusted you I was nearly killed. And the time before that you were going behind my back, breaking our most sacred laws. You’re lucky I’m not watching you like a hawk.”
I threw my hands up in disgust. “Really? That again? You want to bring up Landon?”
“I don’t understand why you ever went to him. Why would you want to work for a mercenary?”
“Because I already was one!” I hissed. “I might as well get paid well for it. I might as well be able to choose the lives I ended, rather than commit murder that was politically expedient.”
“That’s not fair. We helped people, Nat.”
“Yeah, because it was so fair when Ewan wiped out that city in Burkina Faso.”
“That wasn’t–”
“Or when Councilman Hendricks had you turn a fae city’s only drinking water into poison because they didn’t submit to the Trust’s demands.”
His face was slowly but surely turning red. His hands clenched into fists at his side. “Natalia, you’re not mentioning the context. You’re making it sound like what we’re doing is–”
“Evil,” I finished. “We weren’t superheroes, Dominic. We killed just as many as we saved. And I was so damn sick of it. So yeah, I took jobs for Landon. Because I felt like I was actually making a difference. And I’d go back and do it all over again.”
“Then why the hell are you staying, Nat?” he snapped. “There are a million other places you could be. Sniffing out the mole. Rescuing Cat from House Lamonia. Something. If you hate me, why stay here? Your job is done. Move along.”
I shook my head slowly, keeping my eyes fixed on the floor. I wouldn’t cry in front of him again. I’d done it once this week and that was humiliating enough.
“Is that what you think? That I hate you?”
“Don’t you?”
A low drone of sound interrupted our tiff. At first, I thought it was a plane going by overhead. But as it drew nearer, I recognized the sound of the boat’s engines. We both turned toward the sound in unison.
“Findlay,” Dominic muttered. “He must have forgotten something.”
“His spine, probably,” I muttered. “I’m sure I’ve seen it lying around somewhere.”
Still, I couldn’t help but feel a prickle of unease as the sound drew nearer. Maybe it was instinct born from years of dealing with the man, but I just knew that the other shoe had to drop sometime. It was all too easy. In less than twenty-four hours a squad of vampires had been trounced by a wizard who didn’t even rank among our most powerful offensive players. What he’d done with the gators was admittedly impressive, given that he could usually only manage to control a few predators at a time. Prey were easy. Rats he could summon in droves. But he’d only approached me with a few wolves when he’d cornered me in the Alps. So unless he’d somehow found a way to boost his skill level–impossible, without blood sacrifice, which the Trust was vehemently opposed to–he shouldn’t have been able to do it.
The truth slammed into me like a Mack truck. Oh, Gods. How had I missed it? I’d had a lot on my mind, it was true. Coming back as an undead, demon-possessed corpse would do that to a person. Worrying about the hostage a vampire held against your cooperation would do that too. But I’d had sleep, a bath, and some good sex in recent days. How the hell was I so muddled that I hadn’t taken note of it earlier?
“We have to go. Now.”
I yanked on Dominic’s arm so hard that he actually made a sound of pain. I pulled him into the house, scrambling toward the sitting room where Elle crouched over a beaker. She had her tongue wedged between her teeth and a look of intense concentration on her face. Paired with the glasses and pigtails she sported it was almost cute. I couldn’t fawn over the image for long, however.
She whipped her head around to look at me, alarmed.
“What’s going on?”
“I’d like to know that myself, Nat.” Dominic wrenched his arm out of my grasp, rubbing his wrist reflexively. There were red marks where I’d gripped him.
“Findlay,” I gasped. “It’s Findlay. He’s the mole.”
Dominic just stared. “That’s not possible, Nat. I know he’s an ass, but he’s been here with me the whole time. We don’t have any communication with the outside world. I’d know if he’d been in contact with someone. He’s not–”
The distant sound we’d heard just a minute ago became a roar. That was no airboat coming toward us. Someone, or several someones, were approaching on a jet ski.
Dominic peered out the window and blanched at what he saw. I couldn’t help but look as well. I regretted it the instant I did.
Geoffrey was back, along with a cadre of vampires on jet skis. He floated along on the airship, an unconscious Findlay draped over the seat. Geoffrey was standing upright in the boat, balancing something very familiar on his shoulder.
“Now,” I hissed. “Call for a transport right fucking now.”
But it was too late. Geoffrey adjusted the rocket launcher on his shoulder with a small, sharp smile, and waved to me through the window.
Then he took aim and fired.
chapter
22
THE WARDS HELD. BARELY.
The cabin shook to its foundations and my knees hit the hard, unfinished wood of the cabin. Elle was only saved from knocking her head against the table by Dominic’s strong arms. He seized her in a bear-like embrace and took the brunt of her fall on his back. The wind left his lungs in a gust and he lay gasping on the floor, even as the building settled.
Cold air rushed in from above. Dominic’s wards had saved the place from being blown sky high. As the vampires had anticipated, he had used his alchemy to make the walls and ceiling sturdier. I knew that it had probably been the consistency of steel by the time he’d been through with them.
That was probably why the wood had acted like shrapnel, fragmenting and sticking into everything that the cabin had to offer. The couch looked like a pincushion. What had passed for a kitchen was in ruins, with water gushing out of the sink like a severed hose.
I belatedly realized that I’d taken most of the damage. The slide of blood down my back should have hurt more. Was Valerius shielding me from it? Or was I in shock?
Dominic wasn’t entirely unscathed. He had a shard of wood sticking out of his calf about the size of a playing card.
“Oh my God,” Elle gasped. “Dom! You’re hurt! Let me–”
“No time,” I snapped. “We have to get out of here.”
“How?” Dominic rasped, staring at my back with wide eyes. “Even if we called for one, it will take time for someone to craft a stone and then to get to us. They’ll be on us before then.”
I staggered upright and reached inside my coat, groping into the ether. I’d only been able to salvage one of my guns from the juvenile monkey pack that the vampires had strapped to me. Waterproof, my ass. I offered the C
Z 75 to Dominic.
“I’ll trade you. Give me your phone and I’ll make a call. You lay down cover fire.”
“What do I do?” Elle asked, squinting through the debris toward what had been her contribution. The table was buried under rubble. There was no way any of her research had survived the pummeling the cabin had just undergone.
I shrugged off my bullet-proof jacket and draped it around Elle’s shoulders. She shoved her arms through it after a moment and I popped the collar around her neck, trying to offer the most protection it could muster. It wasn’t going to be perfect, but at least her center of mass was protected. Scoring a headshot on her wouldn’t be nearly as simple while we were on the move.
“You stay put and don’t give him any trouble.”
We edged toward the front door slowly, Elle curled into Dominic’s side like a frightened cat.
I squared my shoulders. What I was about to do was stupid. Reckless. It went against everything I’d ever been taught. But what the hell? My body was dead. My soul was barely attached to it. The mage they’d gotten to do the magic had probably been Findlay. No wonder the duration of the spell was so short. He couldn’t manage much more than that. I was surprised he’d been able to do it at all, even with the blood sacrifices he’d no doubt been doing.
I strode toward the front door. My gait wasn’t as smooth and confident as I’d have liked. There was too much crap in my back to allow for free and graceful movement. Pain rippled in little waves down my back as I walked. Nope. The demon wasn’t deadening the pain. And it appeared the shock was wearing off.
The wire mesh that covered the front door was hanging loosely. The vampires were just making it to shore as I sauntered out. A good number of them paused, apparently having heard of what had happened last time. They glanced at their leader, who was still situated on the boat, one boot on Findlay’s back. He smiled at me.
“I told you I’d be the one to end you, Iron Heart. Any parting words?”
“Just one question. How’d you get Findlay? He’s a blowhard, not a warrior. I can’t imagine he was thirsty enough for blood to come to you for it.”
Infernal Assassin- Vampire Killer Page 18
