by Patti Larsen
“So did I.” Femke’s jaw jumped as her power surged against the magic of the other leaders struggling for control. “But the Empress decided to act ahead of schedule. Which meant a mad scramble to avoid a war.” She glared at the black pavilion not far from our position. The Empress sat perched on a huge carry chair, giant men surrounding her. She was the only one who seemed calm, collected. Almost serene, if it weren’t for the tightness of her expression, the way she glared at the front doors of the werepalace. The slim, dark form of Jiao hovered nearby, her eyes meeting mine a moment before she bobbed a nod to Max.
“Typical.” I sighed and rubbed my tired eyes. “Plan?”
“Stalemate.” Femke pointed at the palace. “Danilo has himself well shielded. Charlotte’s been searching for a way in, but so far without any progress.” Speaking of my werefriend, two wolves loped toward us, just as flickering shadows appeared at my shoulder in the evening air. Sunny and Frank arrived the same moment Charlotte and Sage morphed into human form. Femke snapped her fingers, a pair of black robes arriving by way of her harried assistant. Charlotte’s casual nakedness always made me blush, though Sage seemed less comfortable with it, thus the robes.
“The damned fool.” Charlotte rarely swore or lost her temper in a visible way, but her hands trembled as she jerked tight the knot of the sash holding her robe closed. “He’s going to get everyone killed.”
I turned to Max, to ask his advice, only to see him frowning at the pavilion. “What?” Again, I noted the calm of the Empress. “Something I should worry about?” Like we needed more.
“Perhaps,” he sent. “But only if Moa is foolish enough—” He stopped speaking as her head turned, her beady black eyes fixed on him. His own flared with light in answer as I felt the two giant minds collide. Without another word, the veil tore in a rush of power and Max was gone.
I stared after him, shaken and more than a little worried as the Empress looked away. My attempt to reach her was blocked, but not by her magic.
By sorcery. Panic bit into my gut. “The Brotherhood,” I said. “They’re here.”
Femke swore. “You’re certain?” Quaid was already spinning to focus on her, their minds touching a moment in a flare of power before he turned away again, Enforcer fire flying as he tossed out silent orders.
“No,” I said. Because I wasn’t. But who else could it be? When I sought out the source, I was blocked again. Not Piers, then, or the Steam Union. It had to be Belaisle.
No way he was beating me twice in one day.
“We’ll just have to watch for them,” she fretted. “But it leaves me little choice. We have to act now. And I hate to do it this way.” Femke’s grim face turned to the palace. “We’re going to have to force our way in.”
Charlotte grimaced, looked away. I understood her concern. If Danilo was using the combined power of the werewolves inside to support the shields, Femke’s attack would not only harm him but strip the magic of those he used to protect him. It was a huge sacrifice, a massive blow to the werenation. And yet, if the Brotherhood was involved it was possible they were siphoning that power anyway.
“There might be another way.” I tested the shielding, felt the power there. But wait. There was no dark magic linked to Danilo’s wards. Only the magic of the weres. I could bore a hole in it if I wanted to. Isolate Danilo. But it would probably kill him. Could I live with that? I met Charlotte’s eyes. Did she know? She had to. Because she nodded to me before looking away again.
The only problem was that left me with a giant question. Why were the Brotherhood protecting the Empress? Or were they? Could she, instead, be a target? No, I didn’t believe that. She would sense their presence and never allow them to harm her. She’d survived too long to fall into a trap of Belaisle’s making.
In on it, then. What was Moa up to?
Sydlynn. Max’s voice reached me from within the veil. This is bigger than the werenation. Moa is after something, or she would never risk exposing Jiao’s true form.
What are you talking about? I spun on the pavilion, found the Empress staring at me again. My mind still clung to the sorcery connection, not grasping or comprehending his mention of Jiao.
I will deal with the lóng, he sent. But you must contain her mistress.
Oh, boy.
I almost leaped out of my skin as a rattle of bullets hit a glowing wall of blue. What the hell? Only then did I realize Danilo had brought in his mafia friends as reinforcements. A thin line of them, bully boys reminiscent of the two Charlotte had taken care of in the restaurant where we’d found Iosif, trained their ineffective yet troubling guns at us. I’d mistaken the bodies guarding the doors as just werewolves. But they were far from alone. And from what I could tell of the faces of Charlotte’s people, their distaste for their allies came through as loud and clear as the rapport of gunfire.
The bullets weren’t a risk as long as the shield remained intact. Still, accidents happened.
Could this mess become any more complicated?
“You’re going to have to handle this,” I said, striding away from Femke. “Take out the guns first. I’ll be right back.” I hated to leave her hanging, but Max’s warning had to be my priority. Not to mention the sorcery. Femke and the others could handle Danilo for now, keep him contained. The bigger stuff was all me.
I felt someone chasing me, turned my head to find Charlotte and Sage on one side, Gram and the vampires on the other. Though it was good to know someone had my back as I glanced up and caught Quaid’s dark eyes, I almost sent them back.
He looked away again a moment later, still shouting orders.
I didn’t need him anyway.
Bitterness stung but I shoved it aside and rejected my first impulse to ask my friends and family to retreat. He had a job to do and so did I. Besides, I had my peeps at my back and the Empress in my sights. If she had a plan to turn this to her advantage or an ulterior motive connected to the Brotherhood I didn’t know about, that was about to change.
She saw me coming, of course she did, but didn’t react. Nor did the sorcery surrounding her dissipate. She just sat there on her portable throne and stared at me.
Perhaps caution. My vampire was notorious for such suggestions, but this time I didn’t listen.
Screw that, I sent. She’d better feel like talking.
The black blossom of my own dark power opened beneath me as I prepared for battle with the opposing sorcery. While I might not be able to find the source, I could damned well do some damage to the caster.
I was halfway to the pavilion when a commotion at the palace doors drew my attention, though it took me a couple of stuttering steps to come to a halt, to switch my focus. I stopped, spun to look, shocked to find Danilo emerging onto the front steps. Femke was already moving, almost to the line of shields keeping her and the others safe, within twenty feet of him. He held up his hands for attention, the mafia men grouping around him, his own wereguards reluctantly flanking the men with guns. As though their meager, mortal weapons could protect the wereking from our power. How little they understood, even with the knowledge he’d given them.
Which made me wonder just how much the common soldiers were aware of. Not that it mattered. Anything they witnessed from this point on told them everything they needed to know about paranormals and the truth of our existence.
“You asked for parley,” Danilo said. But not to Femke. His eyes were locked on the Empress. “Your compelling words have my attention. As does your compassion for my fallen queen.”
I looked back and forth between them, a frown forming, heart pounding. The Empress did what now? No way did she apologize to Danilo. And, from the darkness of her expression, the calculating look on her face, she’d only maneuvered him into a position that suited her.
What have you done? I shot the question at her, boring through the sorcery shield only to find it gone.
I’ve done nothing, she sent. Though I’m prepared to finish this.
My mind dove for the now
missing source of dark power, realizing my mistake. Whoever it was in charge of the sorcery shield, they had nothing to do with Moa. All the while my mind churned around Danilo’s appearance. He fell for an offer to talk? Seriously? There had to be something wrong with him, past his deep seated werewolf honor, if he believed the Empress had any interest in peace. Maybe Danilo realized his mistake, because he hesitated after speaking, hands falling to his sides. Opened his mouth as though to go on.
Didn’t get to say another word. Not when a black tunnel formed to his right, a writhing, red and gold form emerging from it before it snapped shut.
Inside Danilo’s shields.
And lunged for him.
It was as though a fairy tale had come to life. A sinewy creature of Asian history as graceful as a breeze, as deadly as the dragon it was, flowed forward in a ripple of scales and leaped for the wereking.
He should have been dead. None of us could reach him. Even as my mind screamed in frustration, the sky above us opened up in a shimmer of light.
And the drach came flying through.
***
Chapter Twenty Seven
Danilo’s shields collapsed, along with Femke’s. And pretty much everyone on the lawn and the steps. Even I fell to my knees, the wards created by the Enforcers dissipating with a pop so loud my ears ached. The drach overhead roared, the earth under me shaking from the volume and pressure of their power.
All but the slim, red and gold Chinese dragon. She tried to run—it had to be Jiao, my struggling mind understood at last—but there was nowhere for her to go. Max dove from the sky while his fellow drach settled around the palace, a ring of giant dragon shapes surrounding everyone, their power containing us. I added mine to theirs as backup, though they really didn’t need me. Femke appeared unwilling to fight them and Danilo was just rising from where he’d fallen on the steps. He appeared shaken but unharmed, his face full of sorrow, faint confusion.
Damn it. Was I right about him being thralled? The faint taint of dark power he shed as I touched his magic disappeared like a puff of smoke. But not before it laughed at me in a voice I knew.
Liander Belaisle.
Max landed hard on the grass, his transformation from dragon to human doing nothing to soften the blow of his touchdown, as though the beast in him still had shape. The Chinese dragon squealed in protest as he gestured, a band of rainbow magic encasing her. He pulled her to him with mighty jerks of his powerful arms, until she lay, panting and writhing, at his feet. She appeared smaller than I’d first thought, body slim and low profile, though still the height of a horse and as long as a house.
Jiao’s squeal turned to a scream as Max’s power pressed down on her, forcing her back into human form. Unlike the weres, and like Max and his people, she retained her skintight black clothing as she collapsed in a heap at his feet.
When he yelled at her, it was in the song of the drach. I felt like I witnessed a primal moment, a thunderstorm washing over rocks, destroying a landscape with the power of its attack. She shrieked back in reply, her own song sharp, painful to hear. I threw up an acoustic shield around them as I noticed the agony their argument was causing the others, the sound cut off like a switch being flipped, though the edges of the wards bowed outward, a testament to the power of their words.
Someone hit me hard in the back and I turned from my stumble with a curse on my lips to find the Empress staring up at me with baleful, beady eyes. The long cane she’d used to strike me still hovered, threatening, her thin lips twitching as her fury took over.
“How dare you interfere!” She tried to hit me again, her power in conjunction, but my vampire was faster—and so was Charlotte. The weregirl grasped the cane and jerked it from Moa’s hand even as the ego inside me that created the Empress suppressed her magic and forced her to back down.
Femke was at my side, her own magic crackling. “If I discover you’ve had some part in this disaster, I will personally ensure you are exterminated once and for all.”
The Empress just stared at me, her fury receding. Eyes narrowed, she shrugged her thin shoulders, looking even more the mummified ancient she was.
“Let it be,” she said, voice soft. “I’ve done what I can. The game goes on.”
I didn’t get a chance to ask her what she was talking about, to demand she tell me about her connection to Belaisle. Why was she working with the Brotherhood? With a flicker of shadow, the Empress fled, leaving her people behind. And though I reached out to try to find her, she vanished from my touch without a trace.
I’ll go after her. Sunny was already on the move, but I stopped her.
Let her go, I sent. Whatever she’s involved in, I would imagine Belaisle is at the helm and he’s not very happy with her at the moment. Give her some time, she might come to me herself.
Sunny didn’t look happy, but there wasn’t much alternative.
Considering we still had the were issue to deal with, I figured it was the best I could do. I’d deal with Moa later. And the sorcerer she was working with.
Would I.
Danilo had recovered enough by then he fought the drach to raise his shields. I had no idea they could just shut him down like that and was grateful they were there. I felt the power of the weres still existed, just blunted and quivering under the control of the drach.
Max finally dismissed my bubble of power and stepped free of the shields as the protections collapsed. Jiao slunk away from him, head down, before disappearing in a puff of smoke. I stared at him, shocked he let her go, but he didn’t comment and I was grateful enough for his intervention with the rest of the mess I didn’t scream at him.
Yet.
“Council Leader.” He bowed to Femke, a towering powerhouse over her tall, slim form. To her credit, she held her ground without a twitch in the face of his massive magic. “There are those in attendance who are not welcome here.” He gestured to the steps of the palace, to Danilo and the soldiers of the mafia who stood staring, their useless guns dropping to their feet. Clearly Max’s magic handled the threat of bullets as well as the shielding keeping us from the wereking. I exhaled softly in sudden fear as Max’s full power showed its strength. I’d long thought myself his equal, being maji. Even let my own power out to play from time to time. But the sheer volume of energy available to the drach left me breathless and more than a little happy they were the good guys.
“I’ll deal with them, if you don’t mind, Lord Drach,” Femke said, clear and firm.
He bowed to her, his energy retreating as the drach rose from the ground with giant beats of their vast wings and, one by one, disappeared through the veil. Max remained, but stepped behind me, his magic no longer holding Femke's—or Danilo’s—back. “Forgive the intrusion,” he said. “My part is dealt with. You may proceed.”
Femke’s mind touched mine in awe and shock, none of which showed on her face. Oh. My. Swearword.
She could say that again.
Femke didn’t let her loss of command from Max’s magic slow her down, though. Before Danilo could gain control again, she pushed her power forward, surrounding the werenation and smothering his response. Part of me wondered if he was tired of fighting or understood he’d been controlled, because he gave in with little effort. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him as Femke spoke in a booming voice boosted by magic.
“You’re not welcome here.” She didn’t have to address the mafia members by name. They knew who they were. She made sure of that, pummeling their ordinary minds with her displeasure. “Your masters have no hold over the werenation. And if I discover even one of your kind attempts to interfere with my people again, I will personally take steps to ensure they—and all of you—do not survive our next meeting.” She sent a blast of fear based magic, pure spirit energy, right through them. Some of the hardened, tattoo covered men sobbed in response. More weapons clattered to the ground as she went on. “You’ve seen too much today. We can’t allow you to remember. But, you will remember this.” Blue sparks soar
ed overhead, cascading down over each and every one of them. “This place and these people are off limits to you.” I watched their faces blank, their eyes glaze, all but fear leaving them. “Now, go. And never return.”
Her magic sent them away in bursts of blue flame. I could only hope this was the last we saw of them. I just couldn’t bring myself to believe it.
I joined Femke, meeting Mom’s eyes in surprise as I realized she’d been there all along, as we walked the short distance to the steps to confront Danilo. He didn’t fight, just stood there, shoulders bowed, head down, while his people stood behind him, their sorrow a living, breathing thing.
They knew what was coming. And not one of them had the heart to stand up for him, though as my magic examined him more closely I was convinced of the truth. As if I needed more proof.
How had I missed the control of sorcery over him?
We did look. But. My vampire whispered as my demon and Shaylee both cringed in regret. Not closely enough. We were too busy thinking he’d done this alone. Too quick to blame, when we know better.
Only my sorcery was happy, lapping at the edges of the darkness left in Danilo. His eyes met mine and, in that moment, his gaze told me he knew, too.
“If only you’d come to me from the beginning.” Femke’s voice whispered to him, barely loud enough for me to hear and in a tone that told me she already understood it was never an option.
“I couldn’t,” he said, equally as softly, his only explanation. I needed to show Femke what I’d seen, that he wasn’t entirely culpable. But he straightened before I could and faced her, expression set, looking, for the first time since Yana died, like a true king. “You’ve come to arrest me?”
“By the power of the World Paranormal Council,” she said, crisp, commanding. “I order you to stand down and charge you with crimes against your people and all paranormals.”
Danilo nodded even as Quaid stepped past me. I watched my husband’s magic encircle the wereking’s wrists in a pair of glowing handcuffs, doing my best to stay calm and objective while my heart ached and my mind shrieked at me to protest. To stand up for him. Speak up.
