by Cate Corvin
The pixie let out an outraged squeal. Suraziel winced at the shrill sound blasted directly in his ear, and sighed. “Fine. An anatomically-correct Ken doll with interchangeable dick attachments.”
I nodded. All totally understandable and reasonable demands. I was already halfway to forgiving the voyeurism. “Deal. What’s your name?” I addressed it to the pixie, but Suraziel answered.
“This is Lula Fray,” he said. Lula clambered back up on top of his horn, brushing an invisible speck of dust off her shoulder and looking self-satisfied. A puff of shimmer followed her, painting Suraziel’s cheek with glitter.
“You’re a lifesaver, Lula,” I muttered, clutching my towel around myself more tightly. An inside-pixie was a thousand times better than sending Càel out, but I wasn’t going to stand here in a hotel bathroom in a towel to interrogate the tiny Faerie.
I sent Will and Suraziel out, ignoring the burn on my cheeks as I did so. I knew I wasn’t actually blushing. Will was, though, which was weirdly gratifying.
I hung my towel on the bar, but before I could get down to pulling on clean clothes, Càel pushed me back against the wall and kissed me, working his way down my neck. It didn’t matter that he’d screwed my brains out fifteen minutes ago. As soon as his fangs touched my skin, my entire body decided it was game on all over again.
“Wow.” Suraziel was sprawled across the bed again when we finally emerged, beaming up at us and looking far more lustrous than a demon had a right to. “And I hadn’t even asked for dessert.”
Six
Tori
Will was the only one of us with an appetite for real food.
I sat cross-legged on the opposite bed and watched him eat a Chinese takeout meal of chicken and rice while Càel idly combed his fingers through my hair. Suraziel closed his eyes as the pixie whispered in his ear.
“Do you need to stare at me while I eat?” Will asked. I realized I was staring, watching the muscles of his throat work with a frozen sort of fascination. The way they all moved together, the pulse between the tendons…
“Sorry. Everything is just so much more interesting now that I have hawk vision.” I made an effort to jerk my gaze away and cleared my throat. “So now that we’re all here and done shopping for our Hawaiian shirts, we need to make a real plan.”
Will dropped his fork in the rice and scowled. “The plan is me going home. I don’t want you going anywhere near him, you or Sura.” His eyes flicked over my shoulder. “Or you, Càel,” he added grudgingly. The vampire waved a lazy hand, but he was listening intently.
I set my jaw, but Will had a point. Percival would have charms all over his estate that were designed to trip when a Shadowed Worlder came near. Càel or I would probably set one off just by walking near the property line.
Suraziel was a different story. He’d fooled hundreds of people for four years now with that impeccable glamour. Not even Libra’s defenses had kept him out, which was a disconcerting thought. If he made it in, what else could?
“Okay. You and Suraziel go in. How do you get rid of Percival if he’s there? What reason would you have to be home?”
The demon stretched and Lula flitted around his head before settling again. I felt those tiny black pinprick eyes on me like stones. “Honestly, I was just thinking we rush in, grab your mom, sling her over my handsome and capable shoulders, and walk on out like it’s a normal Wednesday.”
We all glared at Suraziel. “That’s the worst plan I’ve ever heard,” Will said, echoing my exact thoughts. “We have no reason to be home, and we need to be there by tomorrow to stand a chance of getting away with this before Burns sends out the letter.”
“Is it the worst plan you’ve ever heard?” the incubus asked. “Is it really? What about the time it was proposed that you wear a suit made of steak to draw the moonspawn out?”
“You’re the one who proposed that.” Will stabbed the last bite of chicken with his fork. “Which makes you a repository of terrible ideas. Given that you’re a demon, I can’t say I’m surprised.”
“He’s so mean,” Suraziel whispered to Lula. She made a tinkling sound that I took to be a pixie laugh.
I sighed and rubbed my temples. Making plans with them was a nightmare. “Okay, meatsuits aside, Will and Suraziel are going in, telling Percival… I don’t know. We have a day off? Maybe we’ll get lucky and he won’t be there at all.”
“We can’t count on luck, but it’s very possible he’ll be gone.” Will folded the empty takeout carton and sunk it in the wastebasket from across the room. “Father travels a lot, and he’ll leave Connie behind for most of those trips. Worst case scenario… we force Connie out. I’m sorry, Tori, I know you don’t want to traumatize her by throwing her in with vampires, but it’s better than waiting to see what Father has planned for her, and as long as he’s got her there, he knows he has a way to bring you home.”
I shivered a little as the memory of the little church behind Godalming Manor popped into my head. Will’s mother had been skinned alive before she’d been killed there. And Percival was the one who’d branded the demon’s sigil into her chest, creating a pinpoint location for his infernal patron to appear.
“I think it’s only fair that we tell everyone what we’re in for,” I said. “Percival murdered your mother, probably a demonic blood sacrifice. But for what? And why does he want me or my mom?”
Will shook his head, his green eyes distant. “I have no idea. In the four years since she’s been gone, nothing’s really changed. We’re still wealthy, we still have our family lands, but… it’s not like he’s gained anything new, except…” He trailed off for a moment and I raised my eyebrows, waiting for his revelation. I finally had to clear my throat to get his attention. Will snapped back to reality. “It’s the sort of thing no one would notice unless they went a long time without seeing him, but it’s like he hasn’t aged a day since then. He still looks exactly like he looked the day she died.”
Suraziel nodded. “Longevity’s a pretty popular request. If the demon he summoned was savvy, he’d be on the hook for another blood sacrifice before he regained eternal youth, though.”
“Then this demon was probably pretty savvy.” Will scowled. “Why else would he have targeted Connie and Tori? One of them’s probably meant to be the sacrifice for the youth portion of the deal.”
“Are we going to have to deal with his patron demon?” I asked. “Any chance it might come to his rescue? This is your wheelhouse, Suraziel.”
He sat up, no longer looking sleepy and lazy. “I don’t know Will’s father personally, but from what I do know, he doesn’t sound like the type who would’ve bargained for personal protection. Besides, any demon worth his hellfire would’ve had a clause hidden in the contract that keeps them from being on the hook for a petitioner. No one wants to go to bat and die for some idiot. Being reborn takes millennia. It’d be a total waste of time.”
Will was eyeing Sura with an expression like he was seeing him in a whole new light. “If you came into my house, would you be able to tell who his patron is? Sniff out his infernal essence or something?”
“What makes you so sure his patron is a male?” Suraziel asked slyly. “But yeah, I could probably ‘sniff the infernal essence’. A better question would be, where are we taking Connie when we have her in hand?”
It was odd to feel so calm about an incubus talking about taking my mom in hand, but as long as he kept the glamour of Sura Enver on, he stood a good chance to keep her level-headed while we spirited her away from the place she probably thought of as her refuge from the world.
Deep down, she had to know what was going on, that she was a prisoner in her own home, but it was so easy to remain complacent when you knew you had a refuge from any responsibility. If there was one thing my mom really wanted, it was a place where she could forget she was ever a slayer at all, that she’d had a husband and son she’d adored who were now dead… and now, essentially a daughter, too. Everyone she’d ever loved was gone. I
wouldn’t blame her for not wanting to leave.
“The Night’s Paladin.” I sat up straighter as soon as the words came out of my mouth, suddenly sure that it was the perfect answer. It was the only answer. The Paladin was a slayer, true, but his allegiances were with the Shadowed Worlders. Càel and I would be welcome for as long as it took for Mom to get used to the new me, and Percival wouldn’t expect her to run into the Paladin’s arms for safety when she could go to any other slayer. “He lives on neutral ground. Even if Percival finds out where she is, the Paladin can keep him out.”
“The Paladin is like, eighty years old,” Will said doubtfully, but Càel was nodding in agreement with me.
“Heartfall will be safe for Victoria, too. We can convene there, my sisters and I alike, to lay the plans against our Maker.” He stroked my back as he spoke, assuring me of the solidity of the plan.
“Will Rhianwen and Morgrainne be allowed to leave the Clouded Court at a time like this?” My stomach lurched as a disconcerting thought occurred to me. Rhianwen was, in essence, my second mother. How would Mom feel, not only having lost her daughter to vampirism, but to another mother as well?
I was going to have to be very gentle about how I broke the news to her. If she calmed down at all once she realized what I was.
“We’ll send Lula in with the news before we leave. It’ll be on their heads to come up with a reason to go, but if there’s one person Thraustila would like to befriend, it’s the Paladin. He has access to Shadowed Worlders we’ve yet to make contact with. Sending the Morrígna to confer with the Paladin would seem like an excellent idea to him.”
“Good deal,” I said, letting out a long breath. “So we go in, take Mom by any means necessary-”
“Including killing Percival?” Càel asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Including killing Percival.” Will looked up at my vampire with shadowed eyes. “He’s been dead to me since I realized what he did. If he has to die to prevent another blood sacrifice… so be it.”
I wanted to reach out and touch him, but I kept my hands to myself. Head in the game, Tori, James whispered in my mind. Save Mom, then figure out your feelings for him.
“We’re all in agreement. Will and Suraziel will go for her. Càel and I will be around as back-up if anything goes wrong. Are there any liminal gates on the property, Will?”
My stepbrother nodded. “Fa- Percival has a gate outline inscribed in his study. If we murder him, we can open that one. Otherwise, we’ll have to drive to the one we used over winter break, which could take too long. We have to time it around the sun.”
I swore under my breath. I’d spent almost the entirety of my second life underground in the safety of Libra Academy. The concept of the sun being a danger to me was still a new one.
“If there’s no gates nearby, how are we going to get to Godalming Manor at precisely twilight?” I asked.
Will glanced at Suraziel, and the demon made a face.
“Oh, come on. Not Bathin’s intestines again.” I knew it was immature, but I couldn’t help groaning.
“If it helps, I’m not entirely sure they’re his intestines,” Suraziel said.
It didn’t help.
“Whatever gets us there without exposing you to sunlight.” Will propped his ankle across the opposite knee, his gaze boring into me. “That’s the most important part.”
My thoughts stuttered to a halt. More important than revenge? More important than making his father pay for what he’d done?
Maybe it was a sign of how entrenched in my own rage I’d been that the idea of revenge coming second seemed incomprehensible.
Not to mention the fact that I’d apparently usurped the love of family and tradition in his heart. I never would’ve expected my stepbrother, of all people, to give up the life he had for some slayer-turned-vamp from a trailer park.
Even though we’d been sworn enemies not that long ago, I hoped that if worse came to worse, and we needed to kill Percival to escape, that Will wouldn’t have to be the one to do it. He had enough burdens to bear.
But the plan seemed solid to me. Enter via Bathin’s Path (I mentally suppressed a shudder), grab my mom whether she wanted to go or not, escape to Heartfall and claim refuge from the Paladin. Easy peasy. At this point, I couldn’t afford to place importance on my mom’s mental wellbeing over being snatched by vampires. Better to need therapy than be sacrificed to a demon.
“Are we going to need a sacrifice to make it through the Path, and if we do, what kind of sacrifice are we talking?” I asked. “I’m willing to sacrifice a corndog, but I’m not killing a human to make it through.”
Suraziel bit back a laugh. “A human would be preferable, yeah, but it’s not a necessity. We’re going to need meat. Lots and lots of meat.”
Seven
Suraziel
Sometimes, a demon had to be thankful for the friends he had.
Especially when said friends just got you.
I’d told them we would need meat to make it through the Path, an alternate dimension twisting through the guts of one of Hell’s largest, sleepiest infernal Fathers. Most people didn’t get what it took to satisfy his offspring. I’d sort of anticipated they’d grab a few cheeseburgers, maybe a New York strip steak, and call it a day.
Tori stared down at the pile of cow laying on the grass of Central Park, steam wisping into the darkness. “That’s a lot of fucking meat.”
Will nodded in agreement.
“I mean, that’s a whole cow. Where did you even find an entire cow in New York?”
Càel flexed his hands. Congealing animal blood coated his arms from fingertip to elbow like wet gloves. “I didn’t. I had to carry it in from the stockyards outside the city.”
I’d wondered if the scent of animal blood would send the vampires into a frenzy, but they both seemed totally immune. I guessed animal blood wasn’t nearly as appealing as human blood, or each other.
Tori gave Càel the kind of look that made me prickle with jealousy at times. “You carried a whole cow?”
“I could carry a whole cow,” I muttered, but no one heard.
“It was nothing.” Càel stood up from the gory task of opening the sacrificial creature. “You will eventually have the same strength, shíorghrá.”
I tried to picture short, slender Tori carrying Càel, Will, and me over her shoulders and failed. She’d been preternaturally strong as a slayer, but as a vampire… by the time she hit five hundred years old, she’d put humanity’s strongest Iron Man to shame.
My scalp prickled when Lula gripped a lock of my hair, leaning over to watch the carnage. I was still mentally kicking myself over failing to recognize her on the streets, but seriously. All pixies looked the same from further than ten feet away, and since Thraustila had arrived, there were hundreds more than usual flapping around like the world’s most annoying moths.
“You ready?” I asked her, and felt a tiny hand pat my scalp in reassurance. Lula was a champ among pixies.
We’d spent the entire previous day hammering out the logistics of the plan.
Get meat: check. Reconvene in Central Park: check.
Lula had her own mission in this. By Satan, I’d buy her all the Barbie Dream Houses and convertibles she could ask for if she pulled her weight. I’d buy her a whole harem of Ken dolls, one for every day of the year.
I slid a tiny vial from my jeans pocket. It was no bigger than a grain of rice, specially-made courtesy of Thornton Apothecary, and filled with exactly one drop of my saliva. All Lula had to do was spread that drop on the neck of the next woman Thraustila intended to feed on tonight, and he’d be too caught up in the throes of lust to care that his daughters would be taking flight to Heartfall by midnight.
Lula gripped the minuscule vial, an armload of a burden for her, and Tori’s eyes caught the fluttering movement of her tattered wings.
“Hey, fly safe, okay?” she said, sidling closer. The pixie preened on my scalp, pleased to be addressed directly by her-
Well. By someone who was important to her, that was for sure. The kelpie’s message had driven home exactly what Tori was now, and suffice to say, she wasn’t just another vampire.
“Go with Rhianwen. She’ll bring you back to us.” Tori reached up and offered the pixie a single fingertip. Lula almost swooned when she touched her, a fully-open hand against Tori’s finger, then took flight, leaving a spray of sparkling lavender dust in my hair.
Rogue pixie: check.
Now we just needed to make it through the Path to Godalming Manor, and we could move on to part two. That was the part that was going to give me gray horns from stress.
None of us liked the idea of Tori being anywhere near Percival, not when it was clear he was up to some Very Bad Shit. Worst of all, I couldn’t confirm for sure his patron demon wouldn’t appear to defend him. Was it unlikely? Sure. Could I count on it? Nope.
But we all knew she wasn’t going to sit back in Heartfall to cool her heels and let us rescue her mom. Even though every fiber of my being longed to lock her in one of the Paladin’s cells until the deed was done, I had to treat her like what she was and let her handle things for herself.
“We’re ready,” Will said. His face was paler than usual. He wore the Libra Academy uniform he’d brought with him, and we’d swapped out our Hawaiian shirts for spell-imbued slayer armor. Except for Càel, who seemed to have abandoned all pretense of remotely caring what people thought and had on nothing but a pair of black pants and boots. I’d caught Tori eyeing his naked torso more than once. “Let’s get this over with. No hesitation, no looking back.”
Càel hoisted the dead cow over his shoulder, which looked like an impossible feat of physics despite his strength. “Open the gate, demon.” There was a mild grunt in his voice, which almost made me smile. So, perfect Càel wasn’t totally infallible.
We gathered around him, laying hands on each other so we were all connected. I reached out for the infernal realm, hellfire prickling at my palms, and met Tori’s eyes as she looked up at me.
