Heaven.
A voice intruded, tentative, faint, but unmistakably Lucy’s. She heard it only in her head, but the girl had to be close. As far as Lysette knew, her mind-reading capabilities didn’t reach more than ten yards or so.
Lucy wasn’t alone. She was with Ethan and not in her room. Lysette fancied the girl had probably just passed along the corridor outside her door, because the sounds gradually faded. A spike of worry ran through her. No way should Lucy be out there, even accompanied by a vampire.
Especially accompanied by a vampire.
Lysette moved quickly toward the door, eyeing her clothes in annoyance but, knowing she couldn’t spare the time to put them on, she settled for cinching the robe’s belt tighter then cracked her door.
She peeked out. The corridor was empty, dark mahogany panels making it seem even murkier. She slipped out, then wedged her shoe in the door to prevent it from closing and locking. The last thing she needed was to have to call out the vampire equivalent of a caretaker.
She moved down the corridor, unable to get the main instructions out of her head. Never walk these corridors alone. What choice did she have? As she approached the first bend, Lucy’s thoughts again popped into her head and she made herself slow down. Caution before stupidity.
Ethan was talking to her. The excitement in his voice was as clear as a Caribbean sky. “Strahovski is cool. A majorly cool dude. He loves newbies like you. I’ll take you to meet him soon.”
Lucy asked how many vampires lived here.
“Hundreds. At least.”
Lucy then asked how many shades lived here.
“Dunno. Hundreds, I guess. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”
Lysette wondered what the hell that meant. She was about to slip around the corner and interrupt their midnight rendezvous when Ethan continued his line of thought in a much more somber tone.
“Used to be a lot more though. In the old days.”
“Old days?” Lysette could hear Lucy normally now. They were just beyond the curve.
“We’re told not to repeat this too often but, hey, you’re young and pretty and I’m young and dumb so what can they do?”
Lucy giggled. Lysette held her breath.
“Vampires . . . well, all Ubers actually, live a lot longer than guys like Ceriden and Strahovski would have you believe. The pretty much don’t die, they just fade away slowly as they grow tired of this world. Tired of living. They withdraw, retreat to an unknown, quiet place and are never seen again. But they live on.”
“How many?”
Ethan let out a breath. “Thousands. Tens of thousands.”
“And their shades?”
“Are let go. They are no longer required. The Withdrawn no longer need blood sustenance. They even co-exist with each other. It is said they have gone beyond all worldly concerns.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. Wow, right? C’mon, let’s head to Strahovski’s room.”
Lysette was about to step out, a reprimand already on her tongue, when a strong arm slipped around her waist. It encircled her like a band of iron, the fingers ending up inside her robe and touching her bare skin. Lysette jolted then bucked like a spooked horse, but found that she could barely move.
A set of dry lips brushed against her left ear. “Should you be out of your room, sweet meat?”
Lysette screamed. The arm locked her body in as a wet tongue found her earlobe. She was panting, heart racing with anger and fear. In her turmoil she totally forgot about reading her assailant’s mind, something that might actually have helped her.
Lucy came around the corner first, looking startled. Then Ethan, an expression of fear on his face. When the two popped into sight the man holding her backed off. Lysette turned quickly and found herself staring at a handsome, stubble-strewn face, the most remarkable feature being the piercing pale blue eyes.
The man held up his hands. “Hey. I was playing with you. It’s all good fun.”
Lysette shuddered, still thinking about his fingers touching her bare stomach.
“You shouldn’t be out here alone,” he said again.
Lysette turned to Lucy. “I need to have a word with you.”
She grabbed the girl and walked off, taking care to put plenty of space between her and the new vampire as they passed in the corridor. Then she put her head down and headed straight for her room.
“Stay in there,” the man said to her back. “I hear there be monsters out here.”
EIGHTEEN
The call came in well before dawn. Lysette felt that her head had barely hit the pillow. When she sat up, looking for her phone, Lucy was already standing at the foot of her bed, holding it out to her.
“Whoa. That’s a little creepy.”
“I was going for helpful.”
Lysette tried a smile. “That works too.”
“You realize it’s still only three in the morning?”
Lysette ruffled stiffened fingers through her messy hair. “I kinda got that. Jeez,” she shook her head, “this thing never stops does it?”
She put the phone to her ear, listening as Ceriden said, “We have a sighting on Abaddon. This time at the Vienna Zoo.”
“That was quick.”
“These old towns . . . Vienna, Zurich, Paris, Prague . . . some of my personal favorites darling, are above average population for vampires. We have a strict ratio—of humans to vampires—but it’s always hard to control. Of course, at times like these that also means more arses in gear, if you know what I mean.”
Lysette did. The streets out there had to be crawling with Ubers. Not so good for the tourists, but excellent for Aegis. She looked up at Lucy.
“Looks like we’re in for a fight. You ready?”
“Lately, that’s my life. I don’t do anything except fight.”
Lysette threw on a few clothes and a heavy jacket. “Look, I’m sorry I embarrassed you with Ethan. But vampires? They’re not to be trusted. Can you really think they have your best interests at heart? Like your father does.”
“My father? He’s not here.”
“No. but I just know he wishes he was. With all his heart.”
“Is that a mind-reading thing?” Lucy’s voice turned sarcastic.
“No. it’s a human thing.”
“Vampires have feelings,” Lucy said defensively.
“I agree. And only a few of them are agreeable. The rest—” Lysette shook her head.
Lucy stared at her, a war of emotion happening right there in her expression, right before Lysette’s eyes. In the end, youth won out.
“You’re not my father,” she said, turning away. “And I don’t have a mother. So don’t even start with that.”
Lysette walked past her and toward the door. This battle was getting to be as hard as the one to save the world. “Let’s talk later,” she said. “After we’ve kicked this demon’s ass back to hell or wherever it came from. C’mon.”
Lucy nodded, face set to sub-zero. Lysette hurried them along and to the waiting cars. Within minutes they were on the way back to Vienna and Ceriden was keeping in constant touch with his ‘forces’ at ground zero.
“Abaddon is scoping the zoo out. Flying around and around. These artefacts of theirs must be harder to pinpoint than we think.” He turned a speculative gaze on Jade. “It’s been thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years since they last saw them. The world changes.”
Jade, an elf even older than Ceriden, bobbed her head up and down. “You are right, King of Vampires. Humans would not believe the histories, the archaic monuments, that lie in dust and rubble beneath their young feet.”
Vienna’s skyline came into view. Ceriden gunned their car toward Schoenbrunn Palace and its zoo. By the time they arrived, the roundabout outside was thick with figures, as were the surrounding streets, all cast in dark shadows by the faint street lights.
Lysette whistled. “All vampires?”
“Surprisingly no,” Ceriden admitted. “Lycans also. We
again have Kinkade partly to thank for this gathering. Even though his spirit inhabits the body of Leah Aldridge he is still able to occupy part of his gargoyle network.”
“All for Abaddon?”
“Yes. We are now at war.”
Ceriden abandoned the car outside the locked palace gates, then pushed through a gap the vampires had already made. The jog along the large inner yard took some time, as did the run around the side of the palace and across the rear gardens, and would attract police attention, but Aegis was confident of their role here. Diplomacy would not save their world.
“We only have a few hours till dawn,” Ceriden shouted from the head of the crowd. “Make them count!”
They swarmed into the zoo, those vampires too eager to wait for the gates to be smashed simply piling over the fences. The skies above were lit by stars and a half moon. Abaddon’s menacing shadow flitted overhead, screeching as he saw the approaching force.
Something fell from one of his great claws and smashed down among the vampires, crushing many and sending the rest to their knees. A partly eaten animal. Something big and unrecognizable. As the vampires ran along the zoo’s paths, Abaddon swooped in low, dropping like an attacking fighter jet, jaws opening to reveal racks of bloody teeth.
The vampires screeched, diving headlong out of its path. Lysette grabbed Lucy and pulled them behind a great tree. Abaddon reached the limit of his dive and started to rise again, scooping up unfortunate bodies as he went. Vampires were struck and flung to left and right, some became stuck between the demon’s teeth and others were up and swallowed along the flicking forked tongues. Lysette saw one Uber force his way out of a gap between Abaddon’s teeth and hurl himself to the ground below, landing safely, the luckiest vampire ‘alive’—at least for that moment in time.
Lysette watched the enormous serpent as it rose once again over Vienna. “We have to ground it,” she said. “Make it change shape, even.”
Ceriden’s voice, shaky, came from one side. “I believe I may have suffered from premature infiltration.” He moaned. “Meaning—we attacked too soon, of course.”
Jade kept her cool, saying, “You should have waited for the beast to find its treasure.”
Ceriden shrugged. “Hey, I got caught up in the moment.”
Lysette indicated the dozens of vampires falling from Abaddon’s full mouth as he rose further into the sky. “So did half your force. The next time he comes around, we have to be ready.”
“What do you propose?”
Lysette smiled. “Our chosen one. Lucy. You think you can drop a water bomb on that bastard’s head when he comes again?”
Lucy blinked as if shrugging off her inner woes and remembering exactly why they were here. “Sure. I think so. If it works like it did at the beach.”
“You haven’t practiced since then?”
“Well, no. I’ve been . . . we’ve been . . . preoccupied.”
Lysette tried not to judge. This wasn’t the time. They were gambling everything on Lucy being able to bring a hierarchy demon down. And the moment of truth was approaching.
Fast.
Abaddon flipped over at the top of his flight and came arrowing down once more. Eyes blazing an inferno red locked on target. A jawline the size of a bus cracked wide open, fire and mangled bodies dripping between dagger-shaped incisors.
Lucy made a squeak of fear, turning away.
Lysette knelt beside her, hiding a growing mountain of fright and fear. “It’s okay. It’s all right. Just concentrate on your power and nothing else. Concentrate on me. That’s it. Look at me.”
Lucy’s eyes fixed on Lysette’s.
But then Jade, one of their original instructors back in York, was beside her. “The power. Let it come. Let it flow. Feel it course through your brain, your body. It is one with you, an extension of your thoughts, just another limb maybe, as natural as the decision to blink. Your will summons it, feels its power, the immense force. But your will also controls and shapes it. You are an elemental. You hold the power. And now that you are your own woman, you have the choice of decision and command.”
Lysette winced a little at Jade’s words, but watched in admiration as Lucy’s face turned hard with resolve. The girl looked upward, straight into the plummeting visage of violent, fiery death.
Vampires screamed and fled the area, leaping into animal shelters and around buildings, some even diving into pools within enclosures. Lucy stood resolute with Aegis and the Chosen at her side, and swept up her hands in a rise-up gesture.
Instantly, a wall of water shimmered into sight, surging up as if shot out of an invisible cannon. The streaming swell crashed into the descending serpent before it even registered what was happening. Water broke against its skull like waves breaking against a mountainous escarpment, then rushed straight back down to earth. Lucy staggered slightly, the exertion draining her, but immediately concentrated and let loose another upwelling blast.
The second wave again struck the demon before it could think. Disorientated, soaked, blinded and furious, it misjudged its flight, hammering face first into the ground with a resounding thud like a mini-earthquake. It screamed in writhing agony. Wings beat wrathfully, destroying tarmac paths, concrete walls and wrought iron enclosures. Animals screamed. Ubers were crushed as they tried to escape. The forked tail flicked up and down, striking the ground again and again with hateful, brute force. Lysette crouched low, shielding her eyes and head as the image of a serpent flickered. She turned quickly toward Jade, but the elf was busy trying to keep Lucy from collapsing headlong into a dead faint.
The young girl had exhausted herself. But she had given them all a chance.
Lysette crawled forward, Ceriden, Cleaver, Ethan and a hundred Ubers alongside her. The colossal serpent faded again, becoming transparent, then solidified once more. All the while it shrieked and writhed, venting its anger upon the clear silver night and the churning, sodden ground.
Lysette held up a hand. “Wait. Just wait.”
The demon’s aspect glimmered and wavered, becoming ghostly. As they watched, the outline disappeared to be replaced with the body of a man; a half-naked man wearing torn robes and a large crucifix, hair shorn to bristle, and carrying a gem-studded cross of gold.
The man cried out as he dropped the cross, falling to his knees.
“Abaddon’s artefact!” Ceriden roared. “Move your bony arses!”
A swarm of bodies broke cover, all bellowing in rage, looking for a little revenge for their brethren and to fight for their king. The robed man instantly transformed again, this time into a man-sized clawed beast with horns and wings. Even that image flickered slightly.
“I will see you all again when this place joins the Pit of Night. You will bow to me or die for me.”
“Ain’t no conjuring gonna happen,” Cleaver mocked a little. “Without all these artefacts, man.”
“You cannot hope to keep the artefacts from us.” Abaddon whispered. “They are us.”
With a look of resignation and regret that was instantly covered by a snarl, the demon escaped into the skies, becoming a speck in less than a dozen seconds.
Silence fell across Vienna Zoo. Then all the survivors realized that they still lived, that Abaddon was defeated, and that they’d secured a precious artefact.
Lysette ran back to Lucy. “You did it. We did it. We got one!”
Still recovering, Lucy’s eyes turned happily to Ethan.
NINETEEN
Back at the castle, Lysette found that Strahovski had organized a dawn celebration. By all normal rules, values and acceptable practices, the rising dawn was a night creature’s signal to retire, but today was a day of days. They had defeated a hierarchy demon. Strahovski, at least, thought a party was in order.
Lysette entered a blacked-out ballroom, shaking her head at the sumptuous feast that had been laid out down its center. A rich-man’s buffet, topped and tailed by slowly turning spits stuffed with dripping meat.
Ceriden leaned
in close to Lysette’s ear. “Any occasion. Any chance he gets, Strahovski will try to outdo Milo, my chef. This is all for show, my dear, all for show.”
“Shouldn’t we be getting back to Florida?”
Ceriden crinkled his face. “Not necessarily, no. We still have a few hierarchy demons unaccounted for. Baal and Belial at least. And they could turn up anywhere. Europe is a far more likely place than Disney, I’m afraid.”
“So what happens now?”
“Now?” Ceriden studied the steaming offerings along the enormous table. “We take a night—or day—off. I just hope ol’ Strahovski’s invited a few celebs.”
Lysette watched the vampire walk away. Such an odd fish, she thought. Yet the library were still working out all the details. The Text of Seven was still being analyzed. Mysteries were still being unearthed. In real-time this was all playing out way too fast for the good guys. What they needed was a luxury the newer, modern world no longer had—time. These days people found it hard to find a few spare minutes, let alone entire days.
She drifted over to a champagne table, trying out the different types. Her days in Monaco had put her in good stead for a bash such as this. The old Lysette would have mingled, read some minds, and picked a target whilst being graciously courted and fawned over. The new one was torn between wanting to find some real friends among her new teammates, and remaining aloof to decide who their real enemies were. In addition to all that, she missed Giles. Their parting couldn’t have come at a worse time. The couple were just starting to bond, to become comfortable in each other’s company, and now they were relative strangers again. Text messages and e-mail would never replace real human interaction, no matter how hard the media and communication companies tried.
Lysette drank some more, then drifted over to another table. Here they were mixing cocktails. A Dark And Stormy caught her eye: a mix of ginger beer and black Goslings. When it crossed her lips she sighed happily. The nectar was divine, a gift of the gods. She took it away and headed for the food.
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