by Patti Larsen
He shrugged. “Sidhe,” he said. “The few maji who migrated there.” The drach squinted up at me. “The early Brotherhood was in its infancy and was approached, but turned them down. Though, I recall, there were a few sorcerers who joined.” Max’s hands twitched as though reliving a memory. “You realize how unique your plane really is? The vast divisions of magic that exist there aren’t replicated in any other. As though the division of the Universe originated there and created the largest diversity.” He seemed startled by his own words, paused a moment as if struck by something he hadn’t thought of.
“Did it?” That would make a lot of sense.
Max sighed at last and shrugged. “I honestly don’t remember,” he said. “Though, it seems likely, doesn’t it?” He rubbed at his chin with one big hand. “I realized quickly if I didn’t step in, Moa and her kind would be eliminated. But their uniqueness deserved preservation.”
How kind of you to think so, my vampire sent, with as much sarcasm as Sass’s normal tone.
Max bowed his head to her—to me—with a faint smile. “I encouraged the races to come together, to form a council of sorts. Their infighting was damaging the development of their power.” His hands rose and fell in a futile gesture. “I had no idea it persevered.”
“It has,” Jiao said in a soft voice. “And they are the reason I’m here.”
Max didn’t comment, telling me he knew that already or at least suspected she’d joined him not out of a desire to be his apprentice, but on orders from the Empress. Now I knew it was on orders from the council of hers it didn’t make much difference.
Or make me like her any more.
“Master,” Jiao said, what sounded like genuine hurt in her voice while I tried to scoff but found it increasingly difficult to disbelieve her, “you must understand. I was misled.” She bowed her head, hands folded in front of her, the vision of regret. “But your magic has cleaned me of their darkness.” She looked up, brightness in her face, a real smile—was I that big of a fool to fall for it or was she really altered by his influence after all?—lighting her face. “I have seen and done things my kind has only dreamed of. What they were meant for all along.” Her smile faded. “I see now, and have for some time, my people have only been slaves to the Empress and her council.” Fierce pride woke in her black gaze. “I am the first free lóng any of us can remember.” Jiao bowed her head once more. “When this is over, when and if you see fit to release me from your magic, I shall do the same for my people and we will be our own again.”
“There is much you don’t know of your kind,” Max said, gentle though I fought my need to distrust her. “That the Empress and those she works with managed to break through the veil from time to time. To find the only race besides drach and maji able to live in any plane.” Jiao’s? I stared at her as she looked up. “The lóng are not of this plane, my dear. And are meant for so much more. But your kind died out many, many years ago.” His sadness was hers and I felt at last as though I were only an observer in this sorrowful tale, holding my judgment and my silence. “Or, so we thought. Your destiny has always been to ride the veil, Jiao. Your people are my people.”
Everything clicked together. “The lóng are the drach evolved.” So many revelations today. I should be used to them by now, but they still caught me flatfooted at times.
“Indeed,” Max said. “I had no idea they lived, that some survived.”
Weird for an evolution of a species to die out before the first incarnation. I guess Creator’s initial attempt was the winner.
“Did you know this when you saw Moa again? When we first met Jiao?” He’d been surprised to find the young woman there, but hadn’t reacted with anger to the Empress.
“I had no idea at that time,” he said. “Not until I freed Jiao from Moa’s grip. Though it was the reason I accepted her apprenticeship, as I had grown to suspect. Her transformation at the werepalace in Ukraine assured me I was correct.” Max looked out the window, voice sad again. “I don’t know if they’d preserved the lóng on purpose,” Max said, “or enslaved them. It doesn’t matter now.” He looked back again, smiling gently at her. “When this is over, I will do as I promised.” So, his little things worries weren’t about me, then, not entirely.
Why wait? I sent it directly to him.
For fear of damaging balance we desperately need. Max’s indecision hurt my chest, like pressure on my lungs. What if freeing them all alters the Universe?
Oh, Max. I hugged him with power. What if it helps?
He stared into my eyes, fear there. Can we risk it?
I turned to Jiao, seeing her in a brand new light while she met my gaze with her own open, frank expression. Not arrogant after all. Inquisitive, curious, but guarded. How had I been so stubborn and blind?
Um, yeah. Lived in Sydville my whole life. When had I not been stubborn and blind?
My demon snorted.
Naturally.
“If the lóng are the evolution of the drach,” I said, “why did they die out?”
Max shook his head, sorrow in every feature. “We don’t know,” he said. “By the time we realized they were missing, they were already gone.”
Sounded familiar, didn’t it? “How long ago?” All I could think of was my vampire friends, of Sebastian and Alison, the half-echo, half-vampire, of all the spirit power missing.
Max must have known where my mind was going because he sighed. “At least two millennia,” he said.
Well, that shattered that, didn’t it?
But Sass was frowning. “They couldn’t have just vanished,” he said. And looked down at the ribbon around my wrist.
Oh. My. Swearword.
“Max,” I whispered. “Could they have…?”
He grasped my wrist, pulled me toward him. Touched the ribbon with one hand and Jiao with the other. She shivered as the ribbon flexed around me, finally uncurling from my skin to slip over the back of my hand. It wound around Max’s flesh, to Jiao. When it touched her she cried out, soft and afraid, but in wonder, too, eyes huge. It lingered a moment before returning to me, tightening with an almost sigh before falling still.
When Jiao looked up and met my eyes, hers were full of tears.
“I guess we know where the lóng went,” I said.
Max nodded, in wonder and fear. “To the other Universe.”
***
Chapter Twenty Four
Sass broke the hushed silence. “Tell us about this council,” he said. Leave it to him to be practical. “Are they good, bad, indifferent?”
“I think they’ve proved not the latter,” I said.
Jiao nodded, swiftly wiping at her face and the few escaped tears there. The professional, cool veneer she wore returned, though this time I saw through it to the young woman she really was, all animosity fading away. She reminded me suddenly of a young and damaged Charlotte and I immediately classified her under “protect while being protected”.
“Not either,” she said. “Private and for their own purpose.”
“What races remain?” Max’s expression settled as well, as if he hadn’t just made a massive discovery about his people.
“The Sidhe, though only a handful who stayed behind when the realm split,” Jiao said. “The vampire elders.” She gestured to me. “Moa made two others who still survive with the original magic of the essence you carry.”
Good to know.
“Maji?” I thought of Trill. That would explain a lot, too, wouldn’t it? What if Trill was working for the old council? The idea hit me so hard I almost missed Jiao’s response.
“A few,” she said, sealing the deal for me. Sass’s face twisted as he clearly made the same connection I did.
“If Trill is working for them,” he said, “why do they want the pieces of Creator? Do they have access to the Stronghold?”
“How could they?” I turned to Max. “Could they?”
“With the help of the lóng,” Jiao said. “It’s possible.”
“So Tr
ill might not be as bad as we think,” Sass said, offering me something to hold onto. Nona had said I didn’t know the whole story, that Trill wasn’t the enemy. But if she wasn’t, why not come to me directly?
I wasn’t buying it. Still, the total about face I’d just endured with Jiao made me pause and think. “Maybe I should meet them after all,” I said. “And find out what I can about them and their goals.”
Jiao looked suddenly worried. “Not alone,” she said. “I beg you.”
“They can’t hurt Syd,” Max said with gentleness.
“Perhaps not,” Jiao said, “but Syd has friends and family they can use against her if they don’t get what they want.”
Sounded like bad guys to me. Made me wonder how much a certain other someone knew about all of this. And if he’d be willing to tell me.
I left Max and Jiao, Sass remaining as they talked quietly about her people and the implications of their existence in the other Universe. Yes, it was a fascinating conversation I might regret missing later, but I was a take action kind of girl and not so much about the supposition and guesswork side of things if I had a definite plan I could follow.
My feet carried me up the stairs to the tower, my thoughts churning as I approached Belaisle’s prison. The four drach guarding him bowed their heads to me, didn’t say a word as I pushed my shields through the entry and stepped inside past the heavy door.
Liander looked up from where he sat, still at the desk, pouring coffee.
“I was hoping you’d show,” he said with a smile I immediately distrusted. Okay, so I distrusted him no matter what. But his smarmy attempt at good humor and welcome just made my stomach roll. “Can I offer you some refreshment?”
He was kidding, right? Like I was going to just sit my ass down with him and have a coffee as if we were old friends or something. And who the hell gave him a creature comfort like java? Regardless of my mixed feelings I found myself doing just that, taking the offered cup through my power, sipping the hot freshness, feeling the caffeine roar through me, perking me instantly.
Belaisle’s gaze drifted to the black ribbon around my wrist and, for a moment, I caught his true emotions, the surge of fear and rage that showed before he looked down at his own mug.
“Andre Dumont says hello,” I said. “At least, he did before he died.”
Belaisle’s upper lip twitched. “How thoughtful of him to think of me in his final moments.”
I sipped. It really was great coffee. “Andre was like that.”
The Brotherhood leader leaned back, smile returning. “I assume you’ll be turning me over to the World Paranormal Council?”
“About that.” I grinned, showing teeth. “Turns out they’d love to have you, but Max and the drach, they have this thing about you. Don’t want to give you up. And since I wouldn’t put bets against them in a fight…”
Was that desperation? I hoped so.
“I suppose I should have expected that.” He stared down into his mug. Shrugged and drank. “Then you’re here about Dark Brother.”
Why did that tone make me shiver? The mere mention of Creator’s sibling from Belaisle’s lips raised goosebumps on my arms.
“I didn’t think you’d be willing to talk about it.” I set my mug down, coffee forgotten.
Belaisle laughed briefly. “Didn’t say I was.” He winked. “What do you want to know?”
“Why the sudden agreeability, to start.” Liander wasn’t notorious for his helpfulness.
“Perhaps I know the futility of my position,” he said. “Or anything I might impart to you is worthless. Or,” he leaned in, darkness overtaking his yellow eyes, something reaching through him, if only barely, to mock me, “he doesn’t care what you know because you’ve already lost.”
I slapped him with power, rocking his head to the side, upping the pressure of the shields. Belaisle gasped for breath, but when he turned back, his eyes had resumed their normal color.
“Now,” I said, “let’s try again.” Never mind my heart pounded like a galloping horse, that fear like I’d never known at what I’d just seen tore into me. Dark Brother. There was no way he should have been able to reach in here. And I needed to tell Max what happened. But I also needed Belaisle to see me unconcerned, unafraid. “What can you tell me?”
Liander toyed with his cup, spinning it sideways. “His true aim,” he said. “To revert all magic to the one true power of the Universe.”
“Sorcery,” I said. And thought of the white power now living inside me. It stirred in response to my attention while Liander went on.
“The very thing.” His teeth flashed, reminding me of a rodent behind his goatee. “If his Universe survives, then sorcery reverts to dominance once and for all.”
“What’s his beef with other powers?” Shouldn’t matter to someone like Creator’s dark sibling.
Belaisle didn’t comment, brow coming together.
A thought crossed my mind as I considered everything Max told me about the split in the two Universes. “Do they even have other powers there?”
His yellow eyes flickered to black and back again.
Well now. Wasn’t that interesting?
“A bit confused is he, the old boy?” I pushed my cup away. “About all this odd magic floating about in this Universe?” Zoe said the white sorcery was only on this side, too. Sounded like Dark Brother was into old school and had no interest in newfangled.
Could we use such details to our advantage?
“You already know they are no match for sorcery,” Belaisle said.
“Not alone,” I said. “But you already know we’re teaching the races to access their sorcery while keeping control of their original powers.” That had to be it. Liander’s reaction told me nothing, and that told me everything. “He’s afraid of us because we’re different and he doesn’t understand why.”
Belaisle laughed. “Dark Brother fears no one.” Again the depth in his gaze. I addressed it directly.
“Don’t push me,” I said, voice soft, threatening though fear laced my veins with ice. “We’re not as easy a target as you might think.”
“And your fate is sealed, Doombringer,” he snarled in return. “Come. I will deal with you personally.”
The pull of his mind surged, Dark Brother writhing inside Belaisle. I felt him tugging on me, trying to jerk me across the veil, though there was no entry, my power pulling away even as the drach magic holding Belaisle flexed in sympathy.
Max’s familiar magic surged, driving Dark Brother away. Liander gasped as the door banged open, the Brotherhood leader collapsing onto the table with his cheek pressed to the wood while the drach leader roared at the entry.
Belaisle looked up when Max fell silent, face exhausted but grinning. A hint of madness lit his eyes as he flashed his teeth at me.
“A pity,” he said, “we’re on opposite sides. We could have worked well together.” He licked his lips, slow and vile, the attempt at seduction not lost on me.
Grossed out beyond belief, I pushed back from the table and hit him hard with power, pinning him until he panted for breath. Max retreated, leaving me to clean up my own mess.
“Tell your master,” I said, “I’ll see him soon.”
I only wish the courage I portrayed was honest.
***
Chapter Twenty Five
Sass and I stepped out into the basement, the young man’s form he wore sighing as he finally released it. I watched him, felt him return to a cat and bent, scooping his fat, furry body into my arms. Sass purred loudly, kneading my arm, eyes closing in content.
“That,” he said, “was most satisfying, Syd.”
I hugged him tight. “I’m glad you’re enjoying it.” At least one good thing came out of today. Okay, so more than one. But most of the rest had been countered with so much awful I didn’t want to go over it again.
Bad enough Max gave me a hard time for prodding Belaisle. Not my fault Dark Brother came through, was it? I finally retreated for home, w
ith the name “Doombringer” lingering in my mind. I’d been the Light One for so long, this new moniker gave me pause.
Just whose doom was I meant to bring?
The stairs creaked under my feet, the kitchen lit by the glowing fixture overhead. I stopped in my tracks at the sight of my werefriend sitting at the table, blue eyes watching me. Iosif sat next to Charlotte, eyes locked on Tippy’s chest who served him coffee while rolling her eyes at me.
If he grabs my ass one more time, she sent, I’m going to turn him into something he’ll regret.
“Thanks for taking care of things,” I said to her out loud. “You’re awesome. I’ll handle it from here.”
Saved his life, she sent in a huff before leaving the kitchen with her long, red hair bouncing.
Iosif turned back from watching her leave with a leer on his face. A leer that vanished when I crossed to him and leaned over the table, invading his space.
“Touch one of my people again,” I said, nice and pleasant, “and they’ll never find your body.”
Didn’t take a show of magic to get him to bob a fast nod of agreement. Normals. So easy to handle.
I glanced at Charlotte whose blue eyes laughed at me. Nice of you to let Tippy take one for the team.
All she had to do was smack him, the werewoman sent, cold and uncompromising. I’m not her mother. “We have unfortunate news,” she said out loud, mood shifting. Iosif nodded again, as though his eagerness to please me transferred to the item at hand. I kept my focus on my werefriend, sinking into a chair while Sass perched on the table, watching. “We think the ties between the werenation and mafia remain as strong as ever, even without Danilo’s interference.”
How was that possible? “Who’s behind it?” Charlotte’s eyes tightened, lips thinning as Iosif spoke.
“We think the present regent might be involved.” He glanced sideways at Charlotte while my heart flipped over in sympathy.
“Olena.” My werefriend’s mother. Dear elements, what the hell was wrong with her family? First her brother, now her mom? After her father sacrificed everything to save her. Just… wrong. So wrong. “Femke?”
