Edge of Humanity (Only Human Book 5)

by Candace Blevins

  He pulled away and blinked at me. “Yes. Thank you.” He looked at Cora. “And thank you, dear Cora. Change.” He shook his head and met my gaze. “Just a little more and I’ll be at full strength, but it’s good you stopped me.”

  If I gave him my blood, we’d have him at full strength, but he’d have access into my head.

  “What percentage are you at now?”

  He froze, but quickly reanimated. “You would offer?”

  “Having you at full strength would be good, but…”

  “I’ll top him off after I’ve changed and fed,” said Cora.

  Marco gave me a wistful look. “I’m not often a fan of drinking from free-range humans, but I would very much like to taste you, should you ever trust me enough to offer.”

  “Free range?” I asked, not sure if I should be insulted or flattered.

  Cora sighed. “Vegetarian, which usually makes humans smell more like prey, but in your case it doesn’t anymore. At least not to me.”

  She’d pulled most of her clothes off while we talked, and changed without saying anything else. One moment she was Cora, three seconds later she’d morphed into a beautiful wolf.

  “Come, dear Cora,” Marco told her. “I will find you some food.”

  He blurred into the house, and the wolf followed him. I trusted them to look out for each other, so I went to check on Nathan, who was now wrapping Aquila in silver despite the fact it was burning his hands to a crisp.

  “Let me, Nathan.”

  He handed me the chain without arguing, and moved Aquila so I could get him trussed up. We’d bound all four Celrau when Marco and Cora-the-wolf came outside. Marco had a large bag, and he walked to us with it, his eyes on Nathan. “Raw buffalo. Shall I give it to the wolf and lion near the fence, or would you rather?”

  “Presley’s on his way with food and a van. We’ll need to take Panda with us in lion form, and I’ll keep him unconscious until I get him to the Pride’s land.” He motioned towards the fence. “Take it to Ranger. I could use some human food. I won’t change until I’ve seen to Panda.”

  He changed his hands to paws, and back to hands, and they were healed. “I need to wake Kane. He should be okay. Just stunned. He’ll need human food, too, when we can get it.”

  “I’ll wake my people as well,” said Marco. He looked at me. “You shouldn’t be here until I’m sure everyone has control.”

  I looked at Cora. “You staying wolf or changing back?”

  She morphed back into human and put her clothes on. I was fucking freezing, and she acted like being naked and dressing outside in the New England winter wasn’t a big deal.

  I noted my chest and feet were colder than they should’ve been. Obviously, my warming vest and socks had suffered the same fate as the earbuds. My hands were in my pockets but it wasn’t helping.

  “My heater things stopped working. I guess I short circuited them with all the—” I cut myself off. Marco didn’t need to know I’d destroyed the portal.

  He probably didn’t need to know I could levitate, either, but I grabbed Cora’s hand and levitated us up to the roof. She helped support herself once I got us started, but it was still mostly me. The explosion and then feeding a vampire had taken more out of her than she’d admit. Even changing hadn’t brought her back to a hundred percent. Of course, she’d changed twice and only eaten once.

  “Nathan,” I said in a normal voice, “Cora’s going to need human food, too, when it arrives.”

  His glance up on the roof let me know he’d heard. No need to tell me he’d see to it. I knew he would.

  I aimed my thoughts toward Cora.

  Was the explosion physical in any way? Did you hear it with your ears, or just feel it? I was worried someone might call the cops even though the nearest neighbors are gone, but we seem to be in the clear.

  I think it was all on the energy plane. Nothing physical.

  A van full of humans and shapeshifters arrived to feed the vampires within ten minutes, and Presley showed up with a panel truck in another five minutes. We loaded the live Celrau into the panel truck along with everyone else, including those brought to be vampire food.

  Nathan assured me a cleanup team was on the way to deal with the hyena and vampire bodies. Marco seemed fine with the Drake clean-up crew taking care of the bodies of his dead, which made me even more convinced he’d used the opportunity to get rid of an enemy and her supporters.

  The vampires quietly fed while we rode in the dark, in an even darker corner of the bumpy, loud, freezing-cold truck. I worried the tall panel truck couldn’t get us far into the Pride’s land, but it did fine on the gravel road.

  Three female lionesses greeted us when the door went up.

  Kells motioned to me and said, “The fire is already going. Are you strong enough to walk?”

  I jumped down and Cora came right behind me. “I am, but Cora and Nathan need human food. Probably Kane, too.” I glanced at Marco and looked back to Kells. He looked as if he were back to full strength. “The other humans and shifters brought orange juice and candy bars. They shared them with us, so they probably need more food, too.”

  Kells looked to one of the other lionesses, who turned and ran away — I assumed to get food.

  Presley had driven, and he came around the truck. His eyes scanned everyone, taking us all in. “Kells. If you’ll see to Kirsten and her wolf friends, His Majesty and I will take care of the lions.” He looked at Marco. “You and your snacks are welcome around the fire, and they are welcome to the food when it arrives. If you’ll take our prisoners with you and keep watch, we’ll join you when we’re able.”

  The group moved to the fire while we talked.

  “The hospitality is appreciated,” Marco responded, his voice almost formal. “We’ll watch over the prisoners until you can help. I’ll see what I can do about getting into their heads, but won’t take further action unless necessary.”

  I’ve been around supernaturals who work together without needing to resort to political language. I had the feeling these two mostly trusted each other, but were also wary. On friendly terms but not friends.

  I needed to see Abbott and Nathan working together before I could get a sense of how much damage had been done to our local fellowship. It would hurt my heart to see our local leaders speaking to each other as lawyers in a courtroom might, or mediators on a battlefield.

  “I was careful not to get Celrau blood on me, and I’ll continue to do so,” I told Presley and Nathan. “We need to be sure none of the humans come in contact, and that any shapeshifter who does changes to nullify the effects. Do you have someone you can assign to smell everyone, just to be safe?”

  Nathan looked at a young woman I assumed was a lioness. She nodded, and turned to wander through all of us. My nerves settled a little more. I’d worried Aquila would take one of us over and cause problems even when wrapped in silver.

  “I have a proposition,” Marco told Nathan. “I know where the Celrau live in New York. I propose we drop the bodies still in the yard off, so they’ll see them. The method of death is specific to Kirsten. Correct?”

  Nathan looked at me, considering. “That could work. We can put the word out that this is what she does when her daughter is threatened. No one needs to know they were out cold when she killed them.”

  I shook my head but realized they might be right. Still, I had to argue. “Stop trying to make me a bad-ass.”

  “Making everyone terrified to go after Lauren keeps her safe,” Cora told me. Her oh-so-tired voice was soft, gentle, but it packed a punch. She loves Lauren too.

  The fire warmed my hands but did nothing to warm my core. I was frozen from the inside and only a bowl of hot soup while taking a hot bath would warm me — and that wasn’t going to happen in the near future. I turned away from the fireplace and looked at all of them.

  “Okay. I’d prefer it to be a rumor, but if you think it needs to be Marco or his people saying it outright, I’ll trust ya’ll to know
the best way to get the information out.” I looked around. “Who’s watching Lauren now? Do we have eyes on her?”

  “We do,” Nathan assured me. “She’s fine.”

  My heart settled in my chest, when I hadn’t realized it needed to.

  “Okay. What if I torture Aquila and then we turn him over to the Concilio?”

  “The devil you know,” said Nathan.

  The same old argument. Someone would replace Aquila and we wouldn’t know them. When Abbott said it, the whole phrase was, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”

  I shook my head. “Aquila has a personal grudge against me. Theoretically, the next asshole won’t.”

  “Possibly true.”

  “Either way, we captured him so we have to kill him or turn him over, right?”

  Nathan paused a beat before saying, “Right.”

  “Wait. What aren’t you telling me?”

  Nathan glanced at Marco before telling me, “The Concilio’s orders are to kill them or turn them over, but Marco just told us he knows where they are in New York. They’re in his city with his permission. He’s letting them come in where he can keep track of them instead of slaughtering them and then having to look for whoever moves in when they’re gone.”

  “Okay.”

  “There are exceptions to the Concilio’s rule. We’re wiping out all free Celrau and keeping enough with power alive so we don’t exterminate an entire race, but there are reasons for leaving some alive, here and there, while we reduce their numbers. I can get away with letting a few lose.”

  “You’ll never wipe us out,” said Aquila from behind us, obviously in pain. “The Concilio doesn’t control other realms.”

  I turned away from the fire again and looked down at him. “Who makes your portals?”

  He glared at me and didn’t say anything.

  “They’ll have a god or demi-god beholden to them, or perhaps just in league with them,” said Marco. “Though, something obviously went wrong with this one.”

  Marco’s vampires were a good ways from the fire. Marco stood ten feet from me, off to the side so he wasn’t in the direct line of heat, and also so he wouldn’t have to see the fire behind me. The shapeshifters who’d fed him and his people stood on the outside of the ring of humans, who were pressed close to the fireplace beside me. I scanned the group and saw Ranger, still in wolf form, with his back to me, watching the woods.

  You’re probably hot this close to the fire, I told Cora. See if you can make your way to Ranger. I don’t know if he’s guarding against something in particular, or just generally having our back.

  Keep your head with Aquila. Chess game. He thinks in decades and centuries. You think in years, months, and weeks.

  She walked toward the woods, and I looked to the vampires on the ground. Only Aquila was awake.

  “Tell me who the two men on the bridge were.” I’d once accidentally gone to him through the nothingness, and he’d been in deep conversation with two men. I hadn’t known enough of what I was doing to stick around long enough to find out who they were, but I’d forever regret not finding out.

  That’s it. Keep asking him questions. Marco looked as if he was focused on one of his people, but his voice sounded in my head. Was he seeing Aquila’s thoughts?

  When Aquila didn’t answer, I tried again. “What deal did you strike with Hell?”

  Still no answer, but that was okay. I was looking forward to cutting pieces of him off. “Are you wondering why you can’t contact any of the people who came through with you?”

  “I can only contact people in this realm. Nice try.”

  I shook my head. “Remember the psychic explosion? The gate flew apart. Gone. Something tells me they were new recruits because no one had trained them too much. They had the basics of swordplay, but against people who have centuries of experience, your only hope was in bringing through huge numbers. With the door down, killing them was easy. You and your unconscious friends are the only ones still alive.”

  He clearly didn’t believe me. “We’d brought through at least thirty. There’s no way you killed them all.”

  “Excellent counting. Twenty-nine dead. The bodies will be delivered to the seventy-two of your kind allowed to live in New York City.”

  “Ah. Brooklyn, actually,” said Marco. “They’re permitted to hunt in specific burrows. Another rot is living in New Jersey, but they aren’t there with my permission so they’ve been a little more circumspect when they hunt.” In my head, he said, I can’t break through his shields. Sorry, love.

  “Rot?” I asked aloud.

  “My kind organize in coteries. A group of Celrau are known as a rot of vampires.”

  I rubbed my eyebrows. Of course they were, but we were getting off track.

  “Tell me what I want to know,” I told Aquila. “Answer all my questions honestly, and I’ll do my best to see to it you get a true death instead of being handed over to the Concilio, so you’re one of the specimens kept alive.” Apparently necessary so the Concilio couldn’t be accused of total genocide against a species. Surely he’d want to escape infinity as a prisoner of the Concilio?

  “Your word?”

  “I won’t kill, lie, or go against what I know to be right to make it happen, but I’ll do what I can otherwise.” For most anyone else, I’d have felt guilt about forming a promise I knew could easily be sidestepped without breaking it — but I didn’t feel an ounce of remorse about doing it to Aquila. I’d be happier knowing he was true dead, but if we needed to keep him alive, I could do it without going back on my word.

  Aquila took at least a dozen of my rapid heartbeats to decide, but finally said, “I can only tell you of Erebus, though he calls himself Moros.”

  “I need the name of the other person, too.” When he didn’t say anything, I added, “Let Marco into your head so he can verify you truly don’t know who the other person is.”

  Fifteen seconds later, Marco sighed. “He tells the truth. The third person has a fog around him. Aquila knows who he is only when he’s in the man’s presence.” He stepped closer to the bound vampire. “You contact him with a phone number?”

  Aquila looked at me instead of Marco. “I had people follow the trail, to try to find out who owned the number. I wanted to know who he is, too. The person I call sends an email to someone in Egypt, who texts someone also in Egypt, who Skypes someone in bumfuck Louisiana, who mails a damned letter to a UPS drop-off place in Baltimore. A woman picks the letter up, reads it, drives to the airport, and flies overseas in a private jet. It appears she’s headed towards Europe when I lose her. That’s all I can tell you.”

  “You intercepted the letter once, and it said AQ, the date you called, and the message you gave,” said Marco.

  “Right. Fuck, the silver hurts. Just kill me already.”

  “Who will replace you?” I asked.

  The look on Aquila’s face can only be described as panic.

  “His protégé,” said Marco. “Interesting. The vampire cares for someone. Do your people know?”

  Aquila closed his eyes and shut his emotions down. I didn’t even see the pain from the silver in his face or body language.

  “He’s singing nonsense songs in his head,” said Marco. And he pushed me out before I got a name. I can still hear his thoughts, but only those on the surface.

  “We need to wake the other Celrau. One will go free. You’ll tell me which.”

  Marco nodded and motioned towards the other Celrau, and they all awakened within moments. One immediately peed his pants. Bloody pee, which is just… ewww. I noted Marco and all of his people moved into the woods and out of sight just before they awoke, but I didn’t ask why — he likely was hoping the Celrau wouldn’t realize we had Strigorii with us, and thus wouldn’t shield their minds as heavily.

  Looks like we know which will be sent back, Marco telepathed when the Celrau pissed himself. Let’s keep them all alive to watch whatever you intend to do, though. In cas
e I change my mind. Also, the one on the other end seems quite powerful. We may want to send him to the Concilio, in case they can get more from him than we can.

  We should question him as well, then. What do you advise — should we question him before or after we question Aquila further about his protégé?

  Before, since he doesn’t know what’s already happened.

  Can you get in his head?

  A long pause, and then. I can hear his thoughts, but I can’t get farther. He doesn’t realize I’m here, so he hasn’t locked everything down tight. The silver has weakened him greatly. He understands English but thinks in Polish. He’s more powerful than Aquila. What made you decide to spare him?

  I’m not sure it was a logical decision. It just felt like I shouldn’t kill him yet.

  We didn’t need to continue down that line of questions, so I stepped to the man’s feet and looked down at him. Despite the silver, and the fact I was over him, his facial expression was clear he was looking down on me, as if I were nothing.

  26

  “Your name?” I asked. The arrogant vampire glared at me. He was clearly too evolved to speak to a mere mortal.

  Oscar. I wasn’t sure why Marco was going to let me appear to know things I didn’t, but I’d consider that later.

  “Your position?”

  General? Shit. We’ve hit the motherload. I’m going to have one of my people knock Aquila out again while we question this one.

  “Where do you live?” I asked Oscar.

  France. They took over a vineyard. I have it. A pause, and then, I’ve known the rots in my territory have figured out how to avoid the Concilio’s roving sniffers, but didn’t know how. It seems they’ve figured out a way to keep the sniffers away from the places they live. A few have the ability to move about unseen, so they travel in packs with those people. Oscar has this ability, which is why he’s here. Aquila does not.

  “Who makes your gateways? And which realms do you go to?”

  He doesn’t know the Demon’s name. They go to the Hell Realm and… I can’t catch the name, but he associates it as the Land of the Elvenfolk. It can’t be Faerie unless they’ve made a helluva deal.