“Thanks.”
I rapped on the wood.
“Come in,” Paimon called.
Mira pushed open the door and fell back to let me through first. The drapes were drawn and the bedside lamp was the only illumination in a room haunted by shadow. Paimon sat up in bed in a similar pose to Vritra. His clothes were clean—a cream t-shirt and dark joggers. It was strange to see him in human clothes. His blue skin contrasted sharply against the pale material of his shirt. His cerulean eyes were dark and reflective in the lamplight. Amon sat in a chair by the window. His hair was damp and swept off his forehead, and his eyes were fixed on his brother.
“Hello, Carmella. Mira,” Paimon said.
Amon glanced across at us and lifted his chin in greeting.
I offered him a tight smile then turned my attention to Paimon, “How are you feeling?”
“I’m alive. That is a blessing.”
He didn’t know how close he’d come to having his throat slit. “I’m glad.”
“Are you?” Alara emerged from the bathroom. Her hair piled atop her head and a bathrobe wrapped around her body. “You ordered your man to kill him.”
“Yes.” I met Paimon’s gaze head on. “I would have killed him myself if you’d caused my mate to die.”
Paimon flinched at the word mate. “You went through with it?”
“I did.”
He nodded slowly. “I thought you smelled different.”
“What? When did you notice that? Was it when you tried to kill me at the yaksha meeting?”
Amon snorted derisively.
Paimon closed his eyes for a long beat. “Yes.”
Now that we had that sorted. “I’m not here to discuss who wanted to kill who. I’ll do what it takes to protect my people, just as you would, but I accept that by standing against Malachi’s wishes, you have allied yourself to us. So that kinda makes you my people now too, and we need to work together if we’re going to stop Malachi.”
“There is no stopping him,” Paimon said. “I hoped that by standing up against him I’d start a movement, that more would join my side and that the alliance would be dissolved in the face of such opposition. But the council cut the head off the snake quicker than it could strike. By imposing the harshest sentence, they planted fear in the hearts of all those that would do the right thing.”
“What about you, Amon? What do you think?”
Paimon replied for him. “Amon disagreed with the rebellion. He believes that we can effect more change by working with the council. That maybe we could convince them to change their minds.”
“We could have tried harder,” Amon said. “We had many sympathetic ears. I was making headway and then you come back from your little kill mission all torn up and in turmoil and your rash actions cost us everything.”
Paimon’s lips tightened. “I did what had to be done.”
“No. You acted on impulse. You acted out of guilt. You made a grand gesture to make it up to the woman who now belongs to another.”
Wait, was he talking about me? I looked to Alara and her lips were pressed together so tightly the skin around her mouth was pale and bloodless.
Paimon had rebelled because of me. What? That made no sense. He’d tried to fucking kill me!
“Excuse me,” Alara walked out of the room.
“One second.” I followed.
She was pressed to the wall outside, eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
“Alara, what the heck is going on?”
She made a strange choked sound. “I should have let him kill you.”
Whoa, well that was a bit extreme. “So, why didn’t you?”
“Because it would have killed him.”
“But you two are in love with each other now.”
She gave me an incredulous look. “Yes, I thought so too. We consummated our relationship. I gave him my heart and my body, and I thought he had done the same, but his need to end you told me everything I needed to know. It was his way of exorcising you from his system. And in that moment, I knew that if I allowed him to do it, he would lose a piece of himself, that he would never be whole. So, I stopped him. I’m in love with him, Carmella, but he doesn’t love me. He’s still in love with you.”
My stomach did a strange nauseous flip. “I’m sorry. I really am.” I placed a hand on her shoulder. “I know how much that can hurt, trust me. But, right now, we need to put all that mess aside and work together for the greater good. Yeah, I know it sounds corny but it’s the truth. Can you do that?”
She took a shuddering breath and swiped at her eyes. “Yes. Of course.”
“Warrior princess, remember?”
She rolled her eyes. “Not when it comes to matters of the heart it seems.”
Tell me about it. “Come on. Let’s get back in there before Mira rips Paimon a new one for kidnapping her.”
A flash of alarm crossed her face and then she quickly re-entered the room. We walked in to find Amon leaning forward earnestly in his seat, arguing with Paimon.
“You’re wrong,” Paimon said. “Time wouldn’t have mattered. Malachi has the council in his thrall. He has the power.”
This was exactly why Malachi’s actions made no sense. “Yes, he has the power, so why is he waiting to strike? Why wait for the eclipse? Why not strike now, tonight or yesterday? Why wait?”
Paimon sat forward. “What is an eclipse?”
“It’s when the moon aligns with the sun so it blocks out the sun’s rays for a minute.”
“When the moon kisses the sun…” he trailed off, his tongue pressed to the back of his teeth.
He wasn’t asking a question but recalling something someone had said.
My pulse sped up in excitement. “Yes, I guess you could call it that. Who did you hear talking about it?”
“Malachi visited our realm twice. I wasn’t there the first time. But, on the second, I was permitted into the council meeting after Malachi left. They mentioned that we needed to wait until the moon kissed the sun so that the eye of judgment would not be on us. Something Malachi had said to explain why we couldn’t act sooner.”
“Eye of judgment? What the heck could that mean?”
Alara licked her lips. “That cosmic god, Yule, mentioned there were ancients that watched over the cosmic beings. What if there is a higher power that watches over even them?”
“You think Malachi is trying to avoid someone finding out what he’s doing?”
“I don’t know,” Alara said.
“I need to speak to Elora.” I dialed the high witch and waited for her to answer. The phone rang for ages, but didn’t go to voicemail and finally she picked up.
“Hello.” Her voice was crisp and brusque.
I popped her on speakerphone. “Elora, I’m here with a few friends brainstorming about tomorrow. What do you know about eclipses?”
“Aside from the fact that they are great sources of mystical power, which is why our summoning will only work if we draw power from it?”
“Um, yes.”
“Not much. I know it won’t last long, a few minutes at most, the total eclipse will only last a minute, if that.”
I filled her in on the whole moon kissing the sun and Alara’s theory that Malachi was trying to avoid being seen by a higher entity.
“Then maybe that is his window for delivering the sermon via broadcast,” the high witch said.
Suddenly, it all clicked into place. “His sermon must involve the expenditure of a vast amount of energy. When he did it before, he did it underground, way underground. Maybe the humans he took were to test his abilities? He needed to see if his mojo would work. And now he’s doing a full purge, but he needs the eclipse to cover that moment when he expends all that energy. I think you’re spot on. The eclipse will be when he broadcasts the sermon. In that minute, he plans to take over all the minds in the city.”
“So, what do we do?” Mira inquired.
Now that I knew when Malachi would strike, the counter me
asure was obvious. Why the heck hadn’t we thought of it as soon as we found out he’d commandeered the net? “We make sure that no one is watching. We create a diversion. An event for everyone to go to that doesn’t involve sitting at home on a computer or playing on a phone.”
“But how do we let everyone know?” Elora asked. “We can’t exactly broadcast it.”
“We do it the old fashioned way. We post fliers and we do it tonight.”
“But what will the event be?” Mira asked.
“An eclipse party. We’ll have a fucking eclipse party, and we’ll make sure we have the manpower to protect our people.”
For the first time since I’d discovered Malachi’s true nature, I actually felt as if we had the upper hand. This was going to work.
It had to.
15
It was almost three in the morning when I crawled into bed beside Vritra. The IEPEU had called all hands on deck to distribute the hastily printed fliers around the city—through letter boxes and stapled to posts, they were everywhere. We advertised free food and an awesome live show. A hell of a lot to get organized in one evening, but a few phone calls and we’d managed to amalgamate the smaller events into one huge one.
My eyes were gritty and my body ached. The eclipse would happen tomorrow at one fifteen in the afternoon, by which time the majority of the city should have made their way to the football stadium on the south side for the eclipse party. I’d be at the Mayfair mansion helping with the summoning of Malachi. He’d come, if only to rage at having his plan derailed. My jaw cracked with a huge yawn and Vritra wrapped his arms around me, but didn’t wake. He’d been sleeping heavily when I’d snuck in a few hours ago to tell him about our new plan. He needed his rest after what had happened, and damn if I didn’t need mine. Elora had said to stay awake but it was inhumanly possible after everything I’d put my body through. I’d just have to hope, that this close to the eclipse, Malachi had more important things to worry about than me.
Vritra’s body was warm and inviting and I snuggled close, resting my head on his chest. A few hours’ sleep and I’d be able to fill him in on the new plan, but for now, my eyelids fluttered closed.
I awoke to feathered kisses across my collar bone and my body already throbbing beneath exploratory hands and fingers. I arched my back and splayed my legs giving him better access.
“You’re feeling better then.” My voice was a moan of pleasure.
He laved my nipple with his tongue. “Let me show you.”
God, yes. We made love, slow and easy, connecting in a way we hadn’t done before. He’d almost died, I’d almost died, but we’d both been given a second chance and we were here, together. Every touch, every caress was a blessing. As the first rays of the sun lanced across the room, painting it buttery gold, we climaxed together, riding the wave in a desperate embrace.
***
The kitchens were crammed with djinn and asura. Eggs were being scrambled and bacon fried. Amon glanced over his shoulder at me and raised a spatula in greeting. He could cook? Nice. It seemed like both the asura and the djinn liked to fuel up before a battle.
Paimon was seated at the end of the table with Alara. His lips tightened and his words dried up as he locked gazes with me. Alara turned her head to glance my way. Her mouth parted and then twisted in pain. A spark of anger flared to life inside me. Damn him. Was he blind to Alara’s hurt or did he just not give a shit? Vritra slid an arm around my waist, seemingly oblivious to the weird dynamic, and dropped a kiss on the side of my forehead.
“Sit. Let me get you some food,” he said.
Paimon tore his gaze away and I took the nearest seat, which just happened to be beside Gita and opposite a couple of djinn.
“Are you nervous?” Gita asked. “Because I’m nervous. I mean, what if he has a counter plan?”
“Malachi?”
“Yes, him. What if he has a plan B we know nothing about?”
“Then we deal with it as it comes up.”
It was easy to forget how young she was, barely twenty-one and still not fully trained, and here we were asking her to go into battle against cosmic gods. Wait, what the heck was I talking about. She was exactly the same age as Malina and I had been when the void had attacked.
I patted her arm. “Whatever happens, you won’t be alone. We have each other, and together we can overcome anything.”
The djinn opposite us snorted in derision.
I glanced up at him sharply “Do you have problem with that?”
He pressed his lips together and slid a sideways glance down the table at Paimon.
I arched a brow. “Is there something you guys aren’t telling us? Is there something we need to know?”
Paimon shot his fellow djinn a lethal glare. “No. Valefor is simply of the school of thought that believes we should have followed the council’s decree to the letter.”
“What?”
“I didn’t want this,” Valefor said. “I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m not a rebel.”
Wait a second, was he trying to say he agreed with the council’s decision to ally with Malachi? Yep, the look of disgust on his face, told me that was exactly what he was trying to say. And here he was, enjoying my hospitality and eating my damned food.
I leaned forward in my seat and slid his plate toward me. “Were you part of the yaksha attack?”
His eyes twitched, and he swallowed.
Yeah, dickhead, you’re in the lion’s den now, and you just poked it with a stick. “Were you?”
This time the sideways glance he shot Paimon’s way was slightly more panicked, and it sent a spike of adrenaline through me. He was a mouse and I was the cat, and man did I want to bat him around a bit before crushing him. How dare he sit here and gloat about hurting my people? At least the other djinn were contrite. They regretted having taken part in Malachi’s scheme, but this one? Yes, this one would be an excellent vessel for a little venting.
Vritra appeared over the djinns shoulder and from the corner of my eye I noted Paimon shift in his seat.
But when my mate spoke, his tone was even and calm, although his anger and his need to hurt communicated itself to me through the bond we shared. “Maybe you should retire to your room,” he said.
The other asura who had been standing around closed in on the djinn seated at the table. It was a warning to our guests to stay put—a warning not to try anything.
Valefor was bigger than Vritra, all the djinn out massed the asura, but Valefor’s face drained of color under Vritra’s regard and the potent presence at his back. Once again, asura power channeled through me, a variety of signatures which I was sure I’d come to recognize with time.
“I’d take his advice, Valefor,” Paimon said.
Vritra stepped back and Valefor stood with a scrape of his seat. He strode from the room, chin held high, and Vritra jerked his head in Mani’s direction. The asura exited after the djinn.
“Why didn’t you tell us he wasn’t on board?” Vritra asked Paimon.
Paimon sighed. “If you hadn’t noticed, I was severely incapacitated upon arrival.” He bit out the words, his gaze fixed on the table, as if he couldn’t bear to look at my mate.
Vritra inclined his head. “Very well. Is there anything else we should know?”
Alara shook her head. “No.”
Vritra grabbed a plate from the counter behind him and walked round the table to take the seat beside me. He forked up some scrambled egg and held it out to me. “Baby, you should eat.”
My stomach grumbled as if on cue.
Gita laughed.
I accepted the mouth full, then picked up a slice of toast and held it out to him. He was just as hungry, neither of us had eaten since the mating ceremony hours ago.
The door slammed shut behind us.
I glanced over my shoulder and then around the room.
Paimon was gone.
Amon took Paimon’s vacated seat and passed a plate of food t
o Alara. I noted Paimon’s partly eaten breakfast, and the fact that Alara had nothing. She stared at the plate before her and then swallowed hard.
“You need to keep your strength up,” Amon said. His tone was soft and tentative.
She nodded and picked up the fork.
Paimon was being a total dick and we didn’t have time for this shit. “I’ll be back in a bit, babe.” I kissed Vritra on the lips.
He gently grasped my wrist as I got up to leave. “I’m not blind,” he said. “And my patience isn’t infinite. There are only a certain number of times I’ll allow him to look at my mate like that.”
I nodded. “I know.”
How could I fault him? He was an ancient demi-god. A dragon. This was his nature and I’d known that when I’d jumped into bed with him. He was my mate, and there would be no one else for either of us. But, damn, if another woman looked at him like Paimon had been looking at me, I’d have ripped out her throat.
Paimon was outside his bedroom door when I caught up with him. Man, that djinn could stride.
“Hey, wait up!” I jogged up to him as he opened the door.
His shoulders tensed, but he paused. “Go back to your mate, Carmella.”
“Yeah, I intend to, but first we need to chat.”
He stepped into his room and I followed.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“About your attitude toward Alara.”
“My what?”
“You slept with her, is that right?”
His expression smoothed out. “Are you jealous?”
Was I? I waited for some kind of twinge, or green-eyed monster to go roar, but there was nothing. “No. I’m really not.”
His eyes tightened. “Then why do you ask?”
“Because she’s in love with you, and because she risked her life and the life of my mate to get you to safety. Because when she materialized here with your semi-conscious body, she was an emotional wreck refusing to leave your side.”
He frowned. “She was?”
“Yes. She was. Your betrothed is in love with you and maybe if you stopped mooning after me you’d be able to see that. What we had was never meant to be. It was a fleeting attraction, a connection forged by our time practically living inside each other’s heads. But it’s over. You know deep down it is, so let it go. You have a woman who loves you, maybe if you let go of the past, you can love her back.”
Unleashing Magick: an Urban Fantasy Novel (The Witch Blood Chronicles Book 4) Page 12
