“What kind of trick is this?” she hissed. “You have no right to challenge.”
I focused, finding the deadbolts and crushing them. She backed up when the door swung open and I pushed myself out, falling into a lump on the floor. Muscles and tendons popped back into place, my body healing almost instantly. I hadn’t realized how drained I was becoming by never shutting down. I felt stronger than I had in a long time.
I rose smoothly to my feet, facing her, and felt a sudden rush of blood to my head. I hadn’t expected her to be nude. She stirred something in me that I knew wasn’t wholly mine.
“Wow,” I whispered, the word escaping me before I could catch it. She truly was a work of art, but that wasn’t part of the plan. “Pack laws don’t distinguish the meat,” I said, pulling my eyes up to her eyes. “Otherwise the strongest wouldn’t be able to claim new shells. You just confirmed that Ulnyx’s soul is inside of me, and that makes me eligible to challenge. They’re your rules, not mine.”
She backed up a few steps, her eyes dropping to my own naked form. I fought to stay confident, despite her gaze on my overly cooperative midriff.
“You’ve put me in an uncomfortable position diuscrucis,” she said, looking back up at my face. What about the uncomfortable position she had me in? “When I win, I’ll be forced to answer to the master for killing you.”
I tried not to smirk, but I couldn’t help it. Ulnyx had told me how he thought this would play out, but Lylyx’s overwhelming fear of her master was making it much easier. I couldn’t communicate with either of them now that I was awake and my energy had been restored, but I knew they would experience the moment. I could imagine the demon’s glee.
“You aren’t going to win,” I said. “In fact, you’re going to lose on purpose, because it’s the only way you have a chance to survive.”
Her anger flared, but she didn’t argue. Instead, she walked across the room, rocking her hips suggestively. I ignored the temptation to follow her retreat, instead taking in my surroundings. Judging from the faded yellow striped wallpaper, the worn hardwood floor, the arched wood roofing, the filthy windows, and the pasture beyond, I figured I was on the top floor of an old farmhouse. It must have been the master suite, or an apartment, because there was one door which I knew led out to the rest of the house, and another that led into the bedroom, and beyond it the bathroom. That was where Lylyx was headed.
She returned a minute later in a white silk robe that covered her modesty, but didn’t leave much to the imagination. I could feel Ulnyx still buzzing below the surface like the caged animal he was. She tossed me a matching robe.
“Not that I mind the view,” she said. “But it’ll be easier to do business this way.”
I caught the robe, fighting to keep my face from flushing. I slipped it on and focused, re-rendering it into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. I did the same to her clothes; not a glamour, but an actual alteration. It seemed simple, but that kind of precision had taken months to develop. Judging by a sudden change in the atmosphere, she knew it was no parlor trick.
“I agree,” I said.
“Last night?” she said. It was obvious she had just realized how badly she’d underestimated me.
“I had a long day, and was running out of steam,” I replied. “You should have killed me when you had the chance.”
She looked at me like that was the dumbest idea she had ever heard. “Kill you? Do you know what she would have done to me for killing you? Besides, you have Ulnyx in you, I can see him in your eye. I’m not stupid, I know extraction is a supposed to be a myth, but there are rumors there’s a djinn in Moscow who can do it.”
I filed that tidbit away. Josette had said it couldn’t be done, but there wouldn’t be any harm in paying this djinn a visit once Sarah was safe. “You keep talking about your master. I know it isn’t Gervais, so who is it?”
Her face blanched. “The Demon Queen,” she said.
I tried to stay stone-faced, to not give anything away. My heart began to pound, my mind began to race, and I knew I had blown it. The witch had been right, I was a fool.
“She sent an archvampire to our den with the phone,” Lylyx continued, her voice frightened in response to my body language. “She told me if I would follow her, she would make me Great.” She smiled. “Of course I agreed. I’ve been in charge of the pack since Ullie left, but I’m getting old, and it was only a matter of time before I was challenged to a fight I couldn’t win.” She laughed. “I didn’t expect you to be the one to make that challenge.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It was better to know what I was dealing with. It was better to know Charis had suckered me, but to what end? I clamped down on my emotions and opened my eyes again.
“Your time is up,” I said. I walked over to the desk and picked up the cellphone. “She calls you on this?”
Lylyx nodded. I looked at the contact list. I wasn’t familiar with the country code, but it wasn’t the United States. I pushed the call button.
“Nobody’s going to pick up,” she said. “She calls me, I don’t call her.”
I let it ring eight times, and then got disconnected. It was worth a shot. “Who was the vampire?” I asked.
“His name is Cho. He’s based in Japan. He looks like you can knock him over with a feather, but he laid out ten of my pack and fed on one, just to show me that he could.”
Cho. I knew the name, but I had never met him. The angels cut him a pretty wide path; an indication of his power. It seemed Charis was gearing up for war.
I put the phone back on the table, and then heard a ring. Not from this phone, another one in the bedroom. I found my own cell sitting on a dresser. Obi. He’d have to wait.
“So,” Lylyx said, joining me in the bedroom. “I think I know what’s going on now, but how did you know about the law?” She stepped right up to me, invading my personal space. Her scent had changed again, to something decidedly more enticing. She was close enough that I could feel the heat of her body radiating outward.
“Ulnyx told me,” I said, trying to back up and finding only the bed behind me. She knew exactly what she was doing.
“You can talk to him?” she asked, surprised. She inched herself forward, tightening an increasingly small gap.
“Only when I’m not awake, it seems. He’s an asshole, but he cares for you. He...”
She leapt at me, pushing me back onto the bed and shoving her lips up against mine. I could feel Ulnyx struggling against me. He was testing me, and whether she knew it or not, she was helping him.
My control over him was absolute. I sealed off my mind to the Were, feeling the loss of his power as I used my own to disconnect us. I overwhelmed him, punishing him for even trying. I pulled myself away from Lylyx, rolling out from under her and getting to my feet. She turned over and spread herself out on the bed.
“If you’re going to be alpha,” she said, “you have an obligation to breed.”
“An alpha is obliged to nothing,” I replied. “Now get up, and let’s get this done. I need to be in Paris.” I left her laying there, heading for the door out into the rest of the house.
“Wait a minute,” she said, hopping off the bed and rushing in behind me. I turned to face her. “Let’s get this straight before we go down. You make the challenge, I accept. We go outside, we fight. You’re going to pin me, right?”
I shrugged. “Unless you’d rather I kill you.”
Her expression was pure lust. “Now you sound like Ullie,” she said.
I shook my head and pushed open the door. As expected, it opened out into a short hallway with a couple of doors on either side and a stairway directly to the right. I took the stairs down with Lylyx trailing close behind.
The remainder of the pack, minus the ones I had killed and the two that had gone to get the truck, were sitting in the living room of the house, watching some kind of French ‘Three Stooges’ rip-off on an old tube television with bent rabbit ears. They were spread out across a be
at sofa, a rocking chair, and a worn burlap rug, dressed in their finest jeans, tees, and leathers. Six males and a female, their heads swung around in unison when I stepped on a creaky floorboard.
“Seriously?” I asked, motioning at the television. Their lips curled in response, and they began to rise. Lylyx stepped around me and stayed them with her hand before they could get themselves in trouble.
“What the hell is this?” asked the female on the rocking chair, a too-young girl with short black hair and a large skull tattoo on her neck.
“Relax,” Lylyth said. “The diuscrucis has Ulnyx’s soul. He knows our laws, and he’s challenged me.”
Seven mouths gaped open.
“He can’t do that,” one of the males on the floor said. He looked like a model, with a petite frame and high cheekbones.
“He can,” Lylyx countered. “He has Ulnyx’s soul - he’s already proven it to me. Our laws are clear. Follow me outside.”
I could tell they didn’t want to go. I could tell they would have preferred to try to rip my throat out. It didn’t matter. Lylyx turned and opened the front door, leading us outside onto an old porch in sore need of some paint. The small box truck pulled up a few seconds later, and the remaining two weres jumped out. Lylyx raised her hand to them also, and when they saw their pack mates, they fell in line.
“Where do you want to do this?” she asked me.
I scanned the area. There was a small pasture off to the right of the house. “In the pasture,” I said. “That way your pups can wait behind the fence.”
She nodded, and we walked over. Once we’d hopped the short chicken wire fence, she turned to her brethren. “You all stand witness to the diuscrucis...”
“Landon,” I interrupted.
“You all stand witness to Landon’s challenge for leadership of the Mekong pack. I have acknowledged him as the rightful bearer of Ulnyx, the former alpha of our pack, and have accepted his challenge.”
There were a few growls and grumbles, but no one said anything.
“Just come at me like you think you can win,” I said. “Don’t hold anything back.”
Lylyx smiled. “I hadn’t planned on it. I want to see what you’ve got.”
We separated by twenty feet, and Lylyx shifted, her body growing and elongating until she had the demonic form of the Great Were. I remembered Ulnyx’s battle against Tiberas, and how he had remained in human form to embarrass the old were. I renewed my connection to the demon, feeling his power running along with mine once more, and allowed my form to change.
The weres outside of the pasture howled in support of Lylyx as she made her first attack, charging in quickly, faking left, and kicking out at my left knee with her right foot. It might have been a good move twelve hours ago, but I was at the top of my game now. I stepped lightly aside and grabbed her leg in my massive claws, and then pushed forward, forcing her to either allow her leg to break or be knocked onto the ground. She tumbled backwards, and I came down on top of her.
“Not so bad, is it?” she asked in a throaty growl. I was suddenly aware of myself, and she used the distraction to rake her claws across my face, and then knee me in the groin and throw me aside.
I rolled to my feet, just in time to block two more quick strikes. “Clever,” I said, catching her wrist and pulling her into my foot. The reverse force sent her bouncing to the opposite side of the pasture. She shot back up and charged again.
She was all teeth and nails, scratching, clawing, and biting at me while I batted her strikes aside with efficient ease. She was skilled, I admit, but I had already been delayed long enough. I ducked under her next blow and rushed forward, grappling with her and taking her to the ground like a linebacker. It was ugly, but it did the job. Once her weight was below mine, it was only a matter of time before I had gotten hold of her arms and pinned her.
“Surrender,” I said.
“No,” she replied, wriggling and twisting, trying to break the hold.
I hadn’t expected that. I leaned in and took her neck in my razor jaws, biting down hard enough to draw blood. I could taste it on my lips, at once exciting and disgusting. She roared in pain, and ceased struggling.
“Fine,” she said. “I surrender.”
I jumped off of her and shifted, knitting my torn clothes back together. Once Lylyx had changed, I pulled her to her feet, noticing the mark and bruising where I had bit her.
Lylyx had been alpha of the Mekong pack, but she had nothing to transfer, because Ulnyx had already taken it. There was no mojo to make me commander-in-chief, no special powers to bestow. It was kind of anti-climatic. The only real difference was that when we retreated back over the fence, the other weres all followed behind us without a word.
“So, now what?” Lylyx asked, once we had returned to the master bedroom. I had left the pack downstairs, and instructed them to leave the television off.
“Change your clothes and meet me downstairs,” I said, grabbing her cell and updating my wardrobe to my standard blacks - leather jacket, polo, jeans, and boots. “I have to make a phone call. Do you have any transportation besides the truck?”
“There’s a bike stashed in the barn out back. Am I coming with you?”
Another bike? I wasn’t exited about the prospect. We hadn’t staged the show just to leave her there waiting for Cho to come put an end to her. That was part of the agreement I had made with Ulnyx.
“Yes. Bring the bike around with you,” I said, shutting the door to the bedroom, and heading downstairs.
I stopped at the bottom and whistled to get the attention of the weres, who were talking amongst themselves. They silenced in an instant, giving me their complete attention.
“I have a feeling you won’t be safe here,” I said. “Lylyx and I are headed back to Paris. I want you to find somewhere else to hang out for awhile.”
“How about Versailles?” the model joked. He started laughing, until I stared him down. Take any crap, and they would just keep giving it. I had learned a lot in the last five years.
“There’s a small bed and breakfast in Chantilly,” the girl with the tattoo said. “We can check in there.”
I looked at her and smiled. “Sounds good,” I said. Her face turned red in response. “You’re in charge. Take these other mongrels and lay low until you hear from Lylyx or me.”
The other weres all looked to her. I could feel their jealousy over my favor. Weres were weird. She got to her feet and started barking orders, getting them ready to go.
I pulled my cellphone from my pocket the moment I stepped out of the farmhouse, unlocking it and navigating into my list of missed calls. Obi had tried me three more times while I had been out mud wrestling. I hit the call button.
He picked up after three rings, sounding agitated. “Hey, man, I called you like five times already,” he said. “You should try picking up your phone sometime.”
My mind flipped through a few witty retorts, but I abandoned them for simplicity. “It’s not easy being me,” I said. “I assume you have something?”
He laughed. “Yeah, of course I have something. It’s a latitude, longitude, and date. The date is today. I put it into Google Maps, guess what I got?”
“Yankee Stadium?” I guessed. Not likely.
“Damn Yankees. I’m a Red Sox fan. Try Eiffel Tower. Aren’t you in Paris?”
Eiffel tower? Then it was no coincidence that I was here, now. Or that Lylyx had been sent to distract me, not stop me, and that she had said something about it not being time yet. I was supposed to take that data, supposed to look for the pattern. Whoever had planted it, they had a little too much faith in me. Or maybe they knew I would turn it over to Obi, and that he would be able to crack it?
“Hey, you there man?” Obi asked.
I swallowed my heart. “I’m here. This just got a lot more complicated. What time?”
“Nine o’clock, French. You need me to catch a flight out?”
After everything I had said in my anger, the minut
e he thought I needed him, he was ready to back me up. “No, thanks,” I said. “Listen, I’m sorry for the crap that I dumped on you. It’s been tough.”
There was a silent pause. I could hear him let out a deep breath. “Don’t sweat it, man,” he said at last. “I can’t pretend to know what it’s like, so I won’t. All I want is respect for my own decisions.”
I didn’t know what to say. I heard the rough tumble of a motorcycle coming to life out behind the house.
“My ride’s coming,” I said. “If you want to do me another favor, track down Thomas and see if he’d be willing to risk his heavenly eternity to help me out. Tell him it could be super important. All I need him to do is trace a pair of fangs onto the front of the chest in the corner. Once its open, take a look at my notes inside, and see what you can do with it. Start at JFK, that’s where I saw him last.”
I didn’t know how relevant the mystery I had been trying to unravel would be to my current predicament, but I was starting to feel like there were answers to something in there, and that I would need those answers sooner rather than later. Still, the contents of the chest were my most closely guarded physical secret, and it wasn’t easy to trust Obi to it. It was even harder to ask him to find Thomas. Trust sucked like that, I realized. No matter how many times it burned you, you couldn’t live without it, or you’d always be empty and alone.
“Can do,” Obi said. “Give ‘em hell.” He disconnected.
I couldn’t ignore how striking Lylyx was when she tore around the house on a fancy Italian pocket-rocket. She had covered her skull in a full black helmet with a wolf’s head airbrushed on it, the fangs bared around the front so it looked like it was eating her head, and traded her clothes for a white tee and leathers that accentuated everything feminine. She skidded to a stop next to me.
“I’m ready to roll boss,” she said, patting the seat behind her. “Hop on.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I thought about driving the bike myself, but decided I would rather conserve my energy for whatever was going to happen once we got back into the city. I slipped over the saddle and wrapped my arms lightly around Lylyx’s stomach, and then clutched her tighter when she launched away from the farmhouse. We rocketed down a gravel driveway and out onto a narrow paved road that split a pair of fields. This really was the middle of nowhere. I was amazed my cell had worked here.
Betrayal (The Divine, Book Two) Page 9
