by Lucy Lyons
“Do you feel strong enough to fight, Soma?” Nick asked as I gripped the hunter’s hand and shook it vigorously.
“I’m OK, Clay, really,” he assured me, gently retrieving his appendage from my grasp. “I feel shaky, but my head’s clear, and I managed to push the leopard away without help.” He glanced around at the wolves, still celebrating his successful change, and shook his head. “Is this tug-of-war inside me what you’re always going through?”
I nodded and shrugged. “It gets easier with time. The more control you have over your abilities, the faster and less painful the shift becomes. The beast within is part of you, but you have to make sure it doesn’t take over.”
“You say it’s part of me but then talk about it like a separate entity,” he scoffed. “I don’t know how to handle it.”
“Think of your human, conscious self as the ego and the beast as the id of your personality,” I explained as our pack witch, Henny, had explained to me. “You wouldn’t let your id run amok enacting all your most base desires, but it’s still important to your psyche and gets to make some of your choices, right?” He nodded and shivered.
“I felt like I had a fever. Now I’m freezing.” Ashlynn called for a blanket, and I motioned to Bernie, the former alpha for our pack, to come and help warm him. Bernie and his mate, Sarah, both huddled with Somayo, sharing their body heat and warming him as I called Nick and Caroline over so we could finish the conversation we’d started almost two hours before.
“A lot has happened and we still need to move on Caracarai, before it’s too late.” I rubbed my neck as I spoke, still aching from the beating I’d just taken.
“We can’t Clay,” Nick replied. “We’d never get enough people there to stop him, and we don’t have enough power to spellbind him.”
“Then what do we do? Let him go and wait for him to attack our city?” My voice sounded petulant, even to me, but I was out of ideas and sickened by the prospect of losing a battle against an enemy that couldn’t stop killing and was now free to cleanse the entire earth of humankind.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Jasiri cleared his throat, and I glanced around to see Portia watching us intently. She shook her crown of feathers and waited for me to gesture for her to continue, shifting from one foot to the other and swallowing repeatedly.
“We could lure him back here,” she finally offered, her voice low. I’d never seen her so unsure, and I found myself reaching for her as Ashlynn did the same. “I’m all right, you two. It’s disconcerting how much wild magic is inside of you all. We lost the hellhounds and the nightmare creatures of the Sluagh centuries ago, and here they are again, in the form of men.” I tried to ignore the insult in her words and reminded myself that the only thing that the High Fae feared was the Sluagh they called upon to vanquish enemies they couldn’t destroy for themselves.
“It’s a good plan, to get him back to the city he remembers protecting. But aren’t you afraid to help us because we might have to kill your brother, Portia?” Caroline’s voice was calm, but I felt her turmoil. Vash was a victim, but he was murdering innocent people who were helpless to stop him.
“We are immortal, Clay. You can’t kill him.”
“You’re long-lived, Portia,” I corrected her. “I’ve been killing so-called ‘immortal’ creatures for half my life. If push comes to shove and it’s what we’ve got to do to save the men, women, and children he would massacre, I’ll find a way to end him.”
“I’ve found that nothing, so far at least, has survived without a head,” Caroline added. “What do you think, captain?” Caroline used Portia’s title to remind her that she was with us as the captain of the Red Daggers and that her duty was to protect the humans, not her brother.
“If you get that close, I wish you luck,” the Cetan spit.
“We aren’t trying to kill Vash, Portia. But that won’t stop us from doing what we must. You understand that, don’t you? That we’re not trying to make it harder for you?” Ashlynn took Portia’s hand and held it tightly as the Cetan’s eyes widened. She jerked her hand back and snarled at Ashlynn for touching her. “Well, so much for respecting the wild magic we share,” Ashlynn muttered as she took my hand instead.
“Among shifters, Portia, touch is important for friendship, comfort, and respect. We aren’t the only ones who need to learn about the other parts of Fairy, and you could start by not insulting the alpha female of the most powerful wolf pack in your country.” I stared her down until she closed her large round eyes in a slow blink and turned her back on me.
Ashlynn nudged my arm and motioned with a nod. I followed her gaze back toward Somayo, who had finally shaken the wolves off and was standing near the edge of the jungle with Simi. I watched as she held his hands up, kissing each fingertip as if she were counting to make sure they were all there then moving to his arms, his shoulders, until she slid her palms over his face and tipped his forehead down to hers. I looked away from the tenderness of the scene and let Ashlynn lead me back to the vampires and wolves who had gathered around the fire, waiting for instructions.
“Who’d have thought that it would take a life or death gamble to get those two to admit their true feelings?” Ashlynn asked as we joined Nick and Caroline by the fire.
“Do remember us?” I retorted, and she hip checked me as I chuckled. “Portia’s right. We’ve got to get him back to the city. Then we’ll need the Fae, Caroline, and all the power that we can muster and a whole lot of knowledge that I don’t know if any of us has to imprison him until we can heal him.”
“If we can heal him.”
We’d reached the fireside and Onyxis had finished my thought aloud. I nodded, and we took our places by Nick’s side, looking out over our clan.
“We have to get the priest to safety. Have you seen him?” I whispered to Caroline, who stood between me and her husband.
“He left already, so that’s something,” she replied quietly. “One less human life to be afraid for.”
Nick turned to me and offered me the floor, and with a nod to Portia, who hovered in the shadows near the back, I explained to the werewolves and the wererats the nature of Vash’s venom. I cautioned them to stay back, herding him when we brought him through the gauntlet that we would create using Fae glamour, the vampires, and myself as bait since Jasiri was still badly wounded. He nodded weakly, and Ashlynn glanced at me in concern.
“We need Jasiri to help us with the prison to understand how to make the magic work, and if we even can, now that it’s been disrupted,” Caroline spoke up, and I flinched.
“I do not blame you for trying to save a human life, wolf,” called out the fading werejaguar. He coughed, and blood flecked his lips and fell to his lap. “The only thing I am sure of is that human sacrifice is the only sacrifice big enough to seal the prison. Our ancient people knew no other way.”
“Well, that’s a bridge we’ll cross when we get to it,” Nick interjected, steering the conversation back to the division of duties. The wererats, who were remarkably strong but still weaker and smaller than the wolves, would carry weapons and any magical devices the Fae and Caroline needed to the top of the hill.
“That’s us, the last great line of defense,” my friend Fin laughed as a few of the rats grumbled about being pushed to the back of the battle.
“Yeah, and you have the best nightsight, which may be necessary if we have to bring the whole city down. There’s an entire sewer system that you could set up explosives in and set them off from a safe distance, pulling the ruins down on any living thing inside the city walls,” I reminded them. At the thought of blowing up an entire city, the grumblers stopped complaining and began talking among themselves, plotting and designing.
“I don’t like that you’re the bait, Clay,” Ashlynn worried. “But I’ll stand by your side. I’m fairer than you are, and whiteness of skin is a variable to when he attacks.”
“Thank God for that,” Somayo boomed as he approached us, “or I might be in really ba
d shape.” He grinned and put an arm around Ashlynn. “So, what do I get to do?”
“Want to find us a human sacrifice?” Jasiri joked weakly. “I’m certainly in no shape to be catching anyone.” I held up a hand as murmurs rose from the shifters and vampires in front of us.
“No one is sacrificing anyone for this, OK?” I asked. “If a human’s life is powerful enough to set the magic in motion, there are more powerful things we can give without any more loss of life.”
I gave directions to Bernie and Ashlynn to divide up the wolves and give then more specific instructions and stepped out of the council to flag down Maria and Onyxis, who were heading back toward the large tent we’d commandeered for our medical center.
“Do you know how this is going to play out, Maria?” I asked her, and she shook her head.
“I will give you all the aid I can in recapturing my son, but I can’t help you kill him. I’ve spent too many years trying to find and rescue him.”
“He needs to come with me to be rehabilitated and freed from his psychic wounds, Maria,” Onyxis argued. “If you have him, your mad king will find him that much more easily.”
“Your king?” I asked. “Aren’t you High Fae?” Onyxis laughed, and the sound was like glass breaking over my eardrums, crackling and sharp. I put my hands to my ears without thinking, and she laughed again, but it sounded much more human. I lowered my hands and shrugged at her, too exhausted by fragility of Fae egos to ask why she’d wasted energy on glamour meant to hurt me.
“I’m a queen of my own kingdom, Clay. I was the queen of all dark Fae, but I was beaten and replaced by a puppet for the mad king of the High Fae,” she told me, motioning me through the tent flaps ahead of her. “I was exiled instead of killed, and I made my own family, giving magic a home among men so the High Fae couldn’t squander it all.” Her voice grew soft and wistful as she sat on a stool next to mine. “I used to rule the dark Fae and the Sluagh. Now I rule the half-bloods who are the new protectors of humanity.”
“You seem satisfied with your life, Night Mother.” I used one of the titles affectionately given to her by the vampires, and she straightened up, flushing with pride.
“I am. Who would’ve imagined that the Fae who made humans far the dark through the middle ages, the source of so many delicious nightmares, would be forced by her own progeny to protect the foolish mortals?” she scoffed at herself. “Yet there is more strength for me out here in the fear humans have of the creatures of the dark. So much power as the queen of the vampires that I’ve started to forget what it feels like to miss Fairy.”
“As long as you don’t break the rules and start killing or enslaving humans,” I reminded her. “I agree that you should take Vash with you, and Maria should help us find the way to taking the weapon that could free him.”
“But we have to capture him first, Clay,” Maria interjected. “He is the first of my Red Daggers, the finest warrior I’ve ever known. He will not go easy into a new prison after finally tasting freedom.”
“Right. But we’re the things that monsters are afraid of, Maria. Isn’t that right, Night Mother?” Ashlynn smiled coyly as she spoke, but Maria grew very still, and the air around us chilled until I began to shiver uncontrollably. My mate held her ground, and I winked at Onyxis, still shivering from the frost that was beginning to form on my body. Ashlynn didn’t budge. Only the slight trembling of her legs and fingers betrayed how cold she was as she stared down the ancient, powerful Fae.
“Enough, Maria,” Onyxis finally huffed. “The alpha isn’t going to back down to you, and you’re wasting time that should be spent setting up a smoke signal for your insane child.” The air instantly warmed, but my body kept shaking long after Maria spun on one heel and disappeared inside the tent.
“We have a Fae to humanely capture and relocate before he kills us all,” Ashlynn stuttered, her teeth chattering. “What do you say we get this show on the road?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I started to put on my shoulder holster without a shirt, thought better of it, and slipped the muscle shirt Ashlynn was holding out for me over my head. Shoulder holster was next then my gun belt. The belt was a relic from my Venatores days that allowed me to carry two extra automatics on my hips and run without them moving, with cushioned thigh straps and crossover design to provide stability.
Ashlynn watched me intently, her legs crossed as she sat on the tent floor. She didn’t carry a gun, but she’d learned how to use one. For her, my weapons were a humorous curiosity, and she’d asked more than once why I still trusted guns more than my own magic.
I didn’t know why. I’d been shooting a gun since I was big enough to hold one without falling on my ass. I’d been trying to work magic for a fraction of that time. When the final battle was being fought, I knew it would be with tooth and claw. But the more shots I could get in before I was within reach of those deadly talons, the better.
I was still adding knives to my custom boot sheaths when a disturbance outside had Ashlynn on her feet and out the door to investigate. I dropped the additional throwing knives I’d been contemplating and followed her out only to see Jasiri flailing wildly at the Fin and a couple of the wererat soldiers who had been trying to minister to him.
“Leave me be. I know what I’m doing!” he screamed, his voice high and thin with pain that seemed to be driving him insane. “There must be a sacrifice. There must be . . .” His voice broke, and he sank to the dirt, his waxy face beaded with sweat. His dark skin had taken a gray undertone, and his eyes were cloudy, his limbs no longer responding to his command.
“What can we do, Jasiri?” I asked, approaching him cautiously. “We healed Somayo by making him one of us. I don’t know how to help a fellow shifter.”
“You can let me be the sacrifice if you get me to the cavern where we first met, but it will only work if I have enough life left in me to offer to the stone judges.”
I remembered those horrible stone statues with their blood red robes and had no desire to go back to that place. I glanced around at the horrified faces of my packmates. I’d gotten us into the mess we were in trying to save a life. Now a man I couldn’t save was offering himself to the horror of human sacrifice, and I couldn’t make myself agree to his wishes. My gaze turned to Ashlynn, who took my hand and brought my fingers to her lips.
You are the alpha. It is your responsibility to do what must be done, she reminded me silently.
He’s my friend, I replied, my thoughts tinged with grief even though I’d only known him a day. He saved so many lives and has to pay for my mistake with his own? If they took him to Fairy, you know Maria could cure him.
Then send him to Fairy, and we’ll make this work another way. We won’t allow another life to be lost to this. The Fae created the monster we hunt. They can cure his victim. I knelt before Jasiri and gently touched his shoulder, speaking low enough that even surrounded by creatures with supernatural hearing, only he heard my next words.
“I promise to you that I will do right by you and make sure Vash never harms another human or shifter, Jasiri. Please forgive me for my ignorant mistake. I’m a monster hunter, but I’m also a monster. I should’ve known not to assume the worst of you.”
He reached up with his left hand and patted my shoulder but didn’t say a word. I called out to Fin to wrap him in a blanket and stabilize him for transport then went in search of Portia, who’d been absent since I’d seen her at the fire. I checked in at the tent, sticking my head in without announcing myself and ducking just in time to dodge the lantern that flew out of the tent past my head.
“Get. Out.” Maria growled then began pacing again, ignoring me completely.
“You have to take Jasiri to Fairy,” I blurted, instantly regretting that I forgot who I was speaking with.
“I have to do nothing, wolf. You forget yourself and your place in this hierarchy. I would warn you against repeating your mistake.”
“With all due respect, Master Shedu, I’ve forgot
ten nothing. Your people created this problem, and you have to take Jasiri back and save his life.” I stepped in front of her and put up a hand to stop her. “He’s dying, Maria, like, right now. He won’t make it to the cave to sacrifice himself, as he’s so nobly offering. Take him through the doorway, and heal him.”
“You want to be rid of me so you can murder my son,” she snapped, and I felt my hand draw back in a fist. I forced my hands to my sides and looked into her eyes, unwavering.
“That lie was beneath you, but I will forgive the insult this once because you’re grieving for your child,” I said through gritted teeth. “I will not forgive it a second time.” I saw the corners of her eyes twitch and braced myself for a blow that never came.
“What will you do with Vash?” she asked instead, her voice low and measured.
“My hope is that if enough of us are willing to spill our preternatural blood, no one will have to die to appease the statue things that seem to seal the prison,” I sighed. “Then you and I will figure out how to get me into Fairy, and I’ll get you the mirror sword thing you need.”
“You in Fairy?” she scoffed. “Forget anything I ever said before now. You are one ballsy Fae, and if you can pull this off, I’ll get you into Fairy, somehow, if only to see you do what so many full-blooded Fae have died attempting.”
