by Zoe Parker
Iza approaches the object of her interest, calmly grabs a handful of his hair and rips his face from the woman’s neck. Motioning to Licar, she indicates the human and focuses on the vampire she has ahold of.
He is not very pleased by her hold; he is thrashing against her grip, but it is unbreakable. His head is twisted at an odd angle, so he cannot reach her with his hands. It is not for lack of trying.
She pulls his head back, so she can look into his face.
“That was a young, innocent girl,” she says quietly.
I know the vampire can hear, even over the music. Iza is using her special voice.
“She’s food,” he insists, with a lisp through his two pointed teeth.
Normally Iza laughs at such a thing but she is not entertained by him at the moment. “No more innocents die here.” She puts her hand on his shoulder.
“How are you stronger than I am?” he demands belligerently.
Instead of answering him, she twists his shoulder, holding on to his head. There is a crack as his neck breaks, but she does not stop there. Levering her foot on his shoulder, she pulls and twists until his head comes right off.
“Snack time,” she says quietly, tossing the head to the ground.
The body slides into an unnatural shadow and is gone. Then she turns to the group of vampires approaching, including one of the old ones. Her glamour is still up, hiding her from their green eyes.
“Okay, Count Chocula, what’s your agenda? Are you going to threaten me too and then challenge me to some type of wrestling match? Because right now I just want to go home and you’re in my way.”
Iza’s patience is gone. Her mood has turned sour. It makes me want to kill the vampire she killed again.
“Does she make up names for everyone?” Adrian says from beside Licar. “Is she always so impatient, too?”
“This is patient for her. The mess with you was a world record,” he answers.
“You are the Shepherd?” This gets Iza’s attention—someone recognizing her. It also rouses her suspicions. He continues, “Some of us, including me, received a call to come here.”
She reached vampires as well. Interesting.
“What do you eat?” she asks instead of answering the question.
“Humans, of course, my lady. We are blood drinkers, after all.”
“What kind of humans?” She taps her foot impatiently as she asks.
“We do not take innocent life, my lady.”
She shakes her head and argues, “I just killed one of yours for it.”
“He wasn’t one of mine. He came with—”
He is interrupted when someone shoves him out of the way. “We do not owe this woman any type of explanation. The Duke will not take kindly to them being in our area.”
Iza turns immediately to the speaker. “And you are?”
“I am a representative of the Blood Duke’s court. I have come to see if this clan is being run correctly. We heard rumors that Darius here is not keeping blood houses for nobility.”
Iza makes a face. A blood house is self-explanatory, and she does not like it… or nobility either.
“Can’t they just order takeout?” At her joke, multiple people snicker.
I catch the hand that he lashes out at her an inch from her face. Iza does not even flinch.
“I am a noble from an old, respected family and no person of your status will treat me in such a way—” His words choke into silence.
I had enough. He tried to slap her. The smell of his fear fills me.
It is oozing off them all now.
“This is my friend, mister representative. It looks like he’s happy to meet you.”
I hesitate, unsure if I should kill him or not. I can feel her anger, but not her bloodlust. She wants me to wait.
Funny her being the sensible one.
“So, what’s this about a Duke. I thought your people were ruled by a prince?” she inquires. It is a good question.
“Our Blood Prince has disappeared. The Duke is leading our people in his absence,” Darius answers, not sounding happy about the situation.
“He is part vampire?” someone asks from in front of us.
Reluctantly I drop the man, turning to see the speaker. I ignore the anger in the green eyes of the man looking up at me from the floor.
“Ha, ha. No. He’s something scarier than the lot of you,” she says, amusement in her tone.
‘I can kill them all, Iza. Then we can go home,’ I offer.
‘Not yet. But it’s starting to sound like a good idea.’
‘Are you going to try diplomacy again?’ I ask her, hoping she will not.
It will be much simpler to just awaken the dormant marks, kill the ones that are Light marked, and be done with it. My preference is for them to die sooner rather than later.
The coldness of a blade sliding through my chest surprises me a lot more than it hurts. Iza’s shock-filled gaze looks at the blade sticking out of my chest, then up to my face.
But before I can turn to deal with the man on the other side of it, Iza’s eyes bleed straight to black and her skin turns blue.
“Oh, fuck,” Jameson whispers.
I smile. Finally, she is pissed.
Chapter Forty-Two
Phobe
With her power fully awake, her hair a mass of thrashing anger around her head, Iza literally walks through me. Her Magiks melting the blade sticking out of me and healing me completely. Her reasonable side knows I will heal in seconds, but her temper does not recognize reason.
Her arms crawl with darkness as her armor materializes. The shadows begin to come alive and move in the club—the Fiends and Forlorn, making themselves known. Roars of anger sound in the club; her fury is contagious.
We all feel her rage.
She stops an inch from the man’s face and then, in a blindingly quick move, grabs his ears with her armored hands, bringing his face down to the level of hers. He fights her hold, hard, but there will be no getting out of that grip.
“I’m sick of assholes like you.” Iza is using that special voice again.
They can see her now, these mortal creatures. See her Magiks alive and powerful, and displaying some of the true monster she really is.
“Blood Prince, can you hear me?” she speaks out loud, but also through the connection this vampire has to the Prince. Her Magiks are making this vampire a form of telephone. It is something she should not be able to do at all.
But Iza likes to do the impossible.
“I suggest you get your ass back here and fix this Duke person. Darius is mine now, as you will be when you get here. I suggest you do it NOW.”
Then she smashes his head between her hands like a fruit. His headless corpse falls limply to the ground.
She looks at his companions with a completely evil smirk on her face. “Anyone else?” she asks, so coldly the temperature of the room drops. Ice begins to form on glasses, causing some to shatter from the cold.
“The Duke will send assassins now,” Darius states.
Iza cocks her head to study him. He grows uncomfortable under her gaze.
“The Blood Prince will come and take care of him.” Her voice echoes in the small area. “Between the shifter’s shit and this crap I’m not in a good mood anymore.” She wills it, and the dormant marks of the vampires burn to life.
“All of the Dark are mine now.” Her Magiks glow like purple fire around her. There are several noises of surprise.
She turns to her right. “Those three.” She points at three vampires clumped together. I do not question her meaning; the intent is there in her eyes. Moving, I kill all three of them with one swipe of my dagger.
If there were not others present I would have eaten them.
“Oh, tsk, tsk Darius. You have a spy close to you.” She points at a female off to his left side, who is trying to disappear back into the crowd.
“But she’s my—”
“Girlfriend. Yes, I know. She’s a spy
for someone who’s trying to kill your Blood Prince.” She studies Darius a moment. “She’s Dark too, but she isn’t loyal. You see when I claimed all the marks I got the goods on everyone with one. She isn’t very loyal to you either.” She leans close to him and says, “She was sleeping with tomato head.”
Iza steps forward and calmly guts the woman with her sword.
“All right, I’m done for tonight.” She starts walking towards the door as her sword disappears in black smoke. “Adrian, I want the name of the person who gave you those bullets. The timing is too coincidental. Jameson, get the Sidhe folks ready, I have a feeling we’re about to get a big influx of people.” She kicks the door open and steps out into the cold night air.
“I didn’t get all of the vampires or shifters, but I got the quality. The Blood Prince and Alpha Lord are mine.” She stops, and Adrian almost runs into her.
“Actually, I don’t want to talk to you right now. It’s because of you this bullshit started. Get me the name and give it to one of them to give to me.” She indicates the Nightmares and Jameson.
Who still does not have a shirt on. The vain creature.
Adrian opens his mouth to argue but Licar pats him hard on the back and says, “Our Lady has given a command. It is in your best interest to obey.”
After a moment of regarding the big Nightmare, Adrian nods and retraces his steps.
“The shifters have children. Guard them.” She is whispering to her Fiends.
I take advantage of her distraction to piggy-back her thoughts. She is already planning for a conflict with the shifters and vampires. She is strong enough to trace the strands she shares with them to the strands they share with others.
“The vampires will need help transporting their families, too. The others won’t take kindly to the ones now connected to us. Their hierarchy is a lot like shifters, small pack-like families all connected to a local leader, who is then connected to a Prince. Rather complicated, but it works for them.” She stops walking halfway to the limousine and turns to us.
“This is going to be a goddamn mess.” After that statement, she climbs into the car and is silent the entire drive home.
Chapter Forty-Three
Iza
This whole Shepherd thing is a pain in the ass. The one time I try to be fair and all that garbage, it blows up in my face. Then I go and lose my temper.
A knife can’t kill Phobe. Much worse has been done to him. Why did I react like that? I search inside myself as I walk towards my room. The answer comes to me with a quickness that damn near takes my breath away.
Because I can. I did it simply because I can. Before, I couldn’t fight back, I couldn’t stand up for myself or him. Now… now I can.
Wow. How is this realization just now hitting me?
Hallways and doors appear in my path, taking me where I want to go, where others can only go if I wish it. There is only one thing I want right now: solitude. I don’t even want Phobe around. I need to think; I need to digest everything. I can’t think when there are other people around.
Especially tall, dark, and distracting ones.
“Iza, are you hurt?” The little voice stops me in my tracks. Knox. The Sidhe let him find me.
I turn to him and force a smile on my face. “Nah, I’m good. What’s up, little man?”
He stands there with his little hands tucked behind his back, staring at me. Something is different with Knox. He’s been avoiding me a bit, so it’s great that he finally searched me out.
My solitude can wait for a little while.
“Who is Phobe to you?”
I frown but make the smile stay on my face. That’s a weird question for him to ask me. “He’s my friend. You know this.” I cross to him and kneel in front of him. “You wanna go watch a movie?”
Knox loves movie time. He shares my family movie addiction.
“No.” With that, he turns around and walks off.
There’s a sour note in the voice of the Sidhe. It brought him to me, reluctantly. That was incredibly weird, but kids go through phases, or so says the Google God. And Knox has a lot of shit to work through. I’m probably being paranoid.
Fuck that.
I pursue him and easily catch up. “Knox, what’s up with you?” I ask, grabbing his shoulder to turn him around.
Green eyes study me with hurt in them. “Peter says that you don’t love me anymore, because of Phobe,” he says quietly.
Hitting my knees in front of him, I pull him to me, hugging him tightly against me and say, “Oh, babe I will always love you. No one will ever replace you in my life.”
For a moment he stands there unmoving, and then his skinny arms wrap around my shoulders and he begins to cry.
“Peter said when his Mom met a guy she started being mean to him,” he sobs out.
God, how do I fix tears? Wait, I’ll buy him a bike. He mentioned one of those before. Presents fix things.
And with these kids, so do hugs. So I keep hugging him.
“Well, I’m sorry that happened to Peter, but it won’t happen to you,” I reassure him as I pull back and wipe the tears from his cheeks.
With a sudden smile he kisses my cheek and turns and runs off. Kids are so freaking weird.
Walking back to my room, I shake off the weird encounter and file it away to think about later. Maybe I really do need some quiet time to myself.
Flopping on the bed I turn on the TV. TV makes your brain numb, this will work out for now.
First to think on the shifter situation…
The door to my room flies open and Ruthie staggers in, giggling. Her arms are full of snacks and DVDs. Behind her walks Michael, carrying Cadey, with Lissa and Louise bringing up the rear.
I sit up and sigh but it’s a happy sigh. I wait for Knox to come in the door but after a full minute I realize he isn’t coming.
Isn’t he the one who told them?
“Where’s Knox?”
“No idea. He made a new little friend and has been hanging out with him,” Michael answers, handing Cadey off to me.
He immediately buries his hands in my hair. It’s not a big deal my hair loves him.
He must be with that kid Peter right now. That part of me that was worrying about him is more relaxed after our little talk, mostly.
Juggling the baby and some chocolate—that I’m quite happy to see—I laugh at the kids settling in for the movies. They brought four, so they plan on staying awhile.
I guess solitude is overrated, ha.
“Iza, there’s a woman who wants to be our new mommy,” Louise says.
All the noise ceases at once.
She crawls up on the bed and onto my lap. Brushing her hair out of her face, I smile at her. “Now what’s this about a new mommy?” I ask her.
“An imp wants to adopt us.” Lissa ever the kid-adult, answers.
Well, is this a good or bad thing to them? “And what do you think about it?”
“She makes good cookies,” Louise says.
“She’s really nice,” Lissa follows.
“Hugs,” Cadey says, flopping onto my shoulder.
“I suppose the most important question is, do you want her to be your mommy?”
All three of them frown in concentration.
“Yes.” Lissa says after a moment and Louise nods. Cadey just hugs me again and drools a little on my shirt.
“Good, then. We’ll have to throw you a party!”
A big party where I can go cry afterwards. I’ll be happy to see them happy, but sad because right now they are kind of my kids. And soon they won’t be.
“Movie is starting!” Ruthie says crawling up beside us. Michael flops at our feet.
Let the movie marathon begin.
Chapter Forty-Four
Iza
Since there are so many children getting adopted, which is spectacular, we decided to have an actual party to commemorate it. By the end of the evening, several of the shifters and vampires showed up with their families.
There are a lot of awkward silences, but for the most part people are rubbing along together. The vampires are a snooty lot though. The shifters too, in their own way. It’s a work in progress.
The best reaction so far is from Florenta. She is out-snobbing the snobs. It’s entertaining, to say the least. The indulgent smile she sends my way on occasion makes me laugh as well. I think she’s messing with them on purpose.
Florenta is a bit of a snob but she’s not stupid.
Sighing in satisfaction, I survey the occupants of the room. This is a big step for our people. Auryn waves at me from a few tables over; she has little Minos in her arms.
For this little pocket of time, the people look damn near… happy.
Tomorrow is also Halloween, so another party, but with candy. Excited for the holiday, I stand up and clear my throat. The silence is immediate.
“Attention, guys and gals. Tonight is special for two reasons. One all the kids finding loving families. Everyone deserves to be loved, right? And two, tomorrow is Halloween!” The room breaks into cheers, mostly from the kids.
“Now, first—I want to thank all of the folks who stepped forward to take these wonderful kiddos in. Thank you for realizing they are special and need to be treated that way!” That about sums up my speech abilities. I move on.
“Second, did you know that you can dress up as monsters and go door to door and get free candy?” I ask the room in general.
Some laugh, some seem really surprised.
“So, for us that means one thing… well, two, if you count free candy. We get to wear costumes, or in some cases take them off!”
The kids cheer again. Someone even howls.
“The party will start after trick-or-treat time. And yeah.” Awkwardly, I sit down.
That was not fun. How the hell do people do that all the time?
‘What costume are you wearing?’ Phobe’s questions surprises me so much I turn in my chair to look at him before catching myself.
