“I need your help.” Flint sounded different—more erratic than usual. “It’s about Sage.”
“Oh?” I took a sip of blood, trying to cool the rush of emotions that flooded my mind whenever I thought about Sage Montgomery. “What type of trouble has my favorite shifter gotten herself into now?”
“She’s run off,” Flint said. “With the First Prophet of the Vale.”
“He’s alive?” Disgust wracked my body at the mention of the infamous First Prophet. “I thought he was killed in the battle at the Vale.”
“He survived,” Flint confirmed. “And he’s brainwashed Sage into running off with him.”
By now, every vampire knew the story about how months ago, an ancient demon soul had possessed a witch’s body and allied with the wolves of the Vale. The First Prophet was the first of the wolves of the Vale to receive dreams from the demon—he believed the demon was some sort of savior for the wolves.
So he’d welcomed the possessed witch into his pack. With the witch’s help, he’d gathered the numerous packs in the Vale to war against the vampires they shared their land with. Once the ground was soaked with supernatural blood, the witch was able to do the spell to open the Hell Gate, releasing hundreds of demons onto the Earth.
The First Prophet had played a huge part in getting us into this mess with the demons in the first place.
How had Sage managed to get involved with him?
I downed the rest of my blood quickly, needing the strength for the rest of this conversation.
“Don’t tell me,” I said, fearing the worst. “She’s imprinted on him.”
“No.” Flint sounded just as disgusted by the possibility as I felt. “Nothing like that.”
I was relieved—but only slightly. “Then why’s she with him?” I asked.
“He’s convinced her to join him on this insane hunt around the country to kill demons,” he said. “He says that once he kills enough of them, he’ll be allowed entrance to Avalon.”
“And you think he’s lying?” I asked.
“I know he’s lying,” Flint said. “The Earth Angel would never let the First Prophet into Avalon. The quest to kill demons was never his, and neither is the heavenly weapon he’s using to kill them with. The quest belonged to one of the coyotes of the Southwest Texas pack. Noah—that’s the First Prophet’s given name—was so desperate to get to Avalon that he killed the coyote shifter, stole his heavenly weapon, and made the quest his own. He’s stuck under some insane delusion that if he can complete the quest, the Earth Angel will change her mind about him and accept him onto the island.”
“That does sound rather insane,” I agreed.
“The First Prophet assisted in opening the Hell Gate,” Flint said. “He’s not in his right mind. And now he has my sister convinced that he’s some kind of anti-hero on a quest for salvation.”
“Sage always had a weakness for anti-heroes in need of salvation,” I said bitterly.
“Then you understand how she could get mixed up in all of this,” Flint said. “But I need Sage home, with me. I’m not supposed to tell anyone this—so you need to keep it between us—but the Montgomery pack is in the middle of making an alliance that will keep us safe in the upcoming war. The alliance will be made official in a week. If Sage isn’t home by then, she’ll be left out of the alliance forever.”
Flint normally wasn’t a man of this many words. So I listened, but the more he continued, the more I wondered what he wasn’t telling me.
“Sage knows about this alliance, yet she’s staying on the run with the First Prophet?” I asked.
“She isn’t of her right mind,” Flint said. “The First Prophet is a talented manipulator. She’s convinced that she needs to help him. But what do you think will happen once he goes to Avalon and tries to get credit for completing a quest that wasn’t his? I can’t say for myself, but I doubt the Earth Angel will take kindly to what he’s done—nor will she look kindly on his co-conspirators. Which is why I need Sage out of this mess and home where she belongs.”
“I understand,” I said, worry coursing through my veins at the thought of Sage out there with the First Prophet of the Vale. “But what, exactly, do I have to do with this?”
“I have it on good authority that Sage, the First Prophet, and a human pet they’ve been keeping with them will be heading to Chicago soon,” he said. “Specifically, they’ll be heading straight to your doorstep.”
I didn’t bother asking how he knew this. The Montgomery alpha wouldn’t reveal his sources to me, just like I wouldn’t reveal any of mine to him. “You want me to try talking some sense into her?” I asked. “Convince her to part ways with the First Prophet?”
“That won’t be enough,” he said. “If you truly want Sage to be safe, then you’ll kill the First Prophet and his human pet, and bring Sage to me.”
He sounded eager—overly so.
I’d learned from experience that it was best to be on guard whenever someone sounded too eager. Especially when they wanted someone dead.
“I’m glad you called,” I said, since it was best I remained neutral until I had more information. “You know I want Sage safe just as much as you do.”
“So we’re in agreement, then.”
“We are,” I said. “I’ll call you once I’ve made progress, but Sage will be safe in my hands, and her companions will be appropriately taken care of. I don’t make promises lightly, but I can promise you that.”
Once we ended the call, I stared out at the glittering skyline, contemplating how to proceed. I was looking forward to seeing Sage—each year I hadn’t seen her had torn at my heart in ways I hadn’t expected. Despite the way I’d ended things with her, I’d never stopped thinking about her. I didn’t think I ever would.
But I had to push my feelings for Sage to the side for now.
Because Flint was hiding something. Something big. Something that involved Sage.
And whatever he was hiding, I was going to get to the bottom of it.
The Angel Trap
Dark World: The Angel Trials 3
1
Noah
I sat in the back seat of the Range Rover, Raven’s head laid out on my lap as Sage sped north up the freeway. Sage drove fast. Way faster than any of the other cars on the road.
We needed to get to Chicago as quickly as possible. It didn’t matter if a cop tried to stop us. If they did, we’d throw a pod of memory potion at them and make them forget they’d pulled us over in the first place.
Meanwhile, I ran my hands through Raven’s hair, trying to will her to hold on. Her skin was red, charred, and blistered—because she’d held onto my heavenly knife and used it to slay a demon that I was supposed to kill.
Humans weren’t supposed to handle heavenly weapons. While heavenly weapons felt normal to supernaturals, they burned hot to humans. Apparently it was like getting your hand near a hot stove.
It was a warning to them—letting them know to stay away from magic too powerful for them to handle.
Raven had been too stubborn to pay attention to the warning.
When Raven, Sage, and I were ambushed by a strong warrior demon and the strange red-eyed wolf shifter that accompanied him, Raven had gotten ahold of my heavenly dagger and killed the demon from behind.
Holding the heavenly weapon for so long had nearly killed her.
It still was killing her.
The injuries the heavenly weapon had inflicted on Raven were mortal, so healing potion hadn’t worked on her. She’d been unconscious since killing the demon. Saving her should have been hopeless.
But she’d reached out to me through our imprint bond and let me know that vampire blood could cure her.
I’d never heard of vampire blood being able to do such a thing. Neither had Sage. But it was the last bit of hope I had to save Raven’s life, so I’d grabbed onto it.
Unfortunately, if Raven was right and vampire blood could save her, the vampires had gone to a lot of trouble to kee
p this secret from all other supernaturals for centuries. Just knowing about the power of their blood could get us killed.
So we had three options.
One: Ask a vampire nearby in Nashville to borrow some of their blood and risk them likely sending their coven to kill us.
Two: Corner a nearby vampire in Nashville, kill them for their blood, give it to Raven, and hope no one ever found out.
Three: Go to a vampire we could trust and hope they’d be willing to save Raven.
I’d been seconds away from choosing option two—finding a random vampire and killing them for their blood. It wouldn’t have been moral or right. But I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I let Raven die.
However, Sage had sworn there was a vampire she could trust in Chicago. A guy named Thomas Bettencourt.
I’d never heard of him before. Then again, I didn’t know much about the supernatural community outside of my hometown of the Vale. Everything else I knew had been what Sage had told me during the past few weeks when we’d been working together to kill demons.
She’d certainly never mentioned a vampire in Chicago by the name of Thomas Bettencourt.
But I trusted Sage. So if she said we could trust this Thomas guy, I believed her. Plus, Raven had sent a burst of positive energy in my direction when Sage had mentioned Thomas.
Raven didn’t want me killing a random vampire to save her life, either. Not when there was another option on the table.
Which was why we were now driving as fast as possible from Nashville to Chicago. The map on Sage’s phone said we could get there in seven and a half hours, but with the way she was speeding, we’d get there sooner than that.
I studied Raven’s face, finding her beautiful despite her red, charred skin.
Was it just me, or was the red a deeper color than before?
She was getting worse.
If I couldn’t hear her weak heartbeat and feel her warm energy through our imprint bond, I would have thought she was already dead.
What if we didn’t make it in time? What if she took her final breath right here in this car, before we had a chance to save her?
My heart descended into darkness at the thought. I’d had so many awful things happen to me in the past few months—I couldn’t handle Raven dying on top of all of it.
Not before I told her about our imprint bond.
If she died, surely it was some sort of cosmic punishment for what I’d done at the Vale.
But I couldn’t let my mind go down that path. If I did—if I let myself think about all the terrible things I’d done and witnessed—I’d get pulled further and further down a spiral of defeat.
I needed to distract myself.
What better way to do that than to learn more about this mysterious vampire that Sage trusted with her life?
“So.” I focused on Sage as she expertly weaved her way around two cars blocking our way. “I think it’s time you tell me about Thomas Bettencourt.”
2
Noah
Sage’s eyes hardened the moment I said Thomas’s name.
I recognized that look. It was heartbreak.
Whoever this vampire was, he’d done a serious number on her.
“Thomas is the leader of the Bettencourt coven,” she said, keeping all emotion out of her voice. “They’re a powerful coven in Chicago, and they all live in the Bettencourt Hotel. They get their blood from the humans who stay there as guests.”
“They must be able to afford a lot of memory potion,” I guessed.
That was the only way a vampire coven could stay in one place for so long—if they could afford enough memory potion to keep their victims unaware of the fact that they were being fed on. All supernaturals hid from humans. Our community had gotten especially strict about it in the past century, as humans had grown in number and developed weapons that were extremely dangerous—even to us.
Yes, we were strong enough to overpower humans like they were insects. But against a nuclear bomb?
That wasn’t something we wanted to test out.
The vampires were especially strict about keeping themselves hidden. Most vampires lived in one of the six kingdoms—one on each continent—but there were a handful of covens and rogue vampires spread about as well. If a coven or rogue vampire got too reckless and the humans nearby got suspicious, the closest vampire kingdom swooped in real fast to put an end to it.
If the caught vampires were drinking from their victims but allowing them to live, they were usually allowed to take up residence in one of the kingdoms.
If they were draining the humans dry, they were killed.
The only vampire kingdom that allowed their vampires to kill was the Tower. But the Tower was in South America, so their laws didn’t apply in the United States.
Vampires caught out of line in the United States were handled by the Vale.
“They can certainly afford it,” Sage said. “But I’m not sure how often they have to use it.”
“Really.” I leaned forward, intrigued, keeping Raven’s head steady on my lap the entire time. “Why’s that?”
“Because Thomas isn’t just any regular vampire,” Sage said. “He’s a vampire prince.”
I whistled, not bothering to hide that I was impressed. Vampire royalty were far stronger than their common counterparts. Because in addition to their regular supernatural powers, they could use compulsion.
Which meant they could look someone in the eye and command them to do whatever they said.
When it came to erasing memories, memory potion was always a better bet over compulsion. But compulsion could definitely be used to make a human forget about an encounter or two with a vampire.
It explained how Thomas and his coven had been able to live in one place undetected for so long.
“What’s His Highness doing here?” I asked, not bothering to hide the sarcasm from my tone. “Shouldn’t he be in his kingdom, doing whatever it is that princes do?”
“He was turned by Mary of the Haven,” Sage said. “In the 1930s—after the Great War—Mary searched for strong humans she thought could become powerful vampires and turned them, so she could keep the Haven as protected as possible.”
I nodded, not surprised at all. The Great War of the 1920s was one of the darkest times in supernatural history. It made sense that Mary, the ruler of the Haven, had wanted to increase her numbers to keep the Haven protected.
As the most peaceful kingdom in the world, the vampires of the Haven drank only animal blood. But this made them weaker than vampires that fed on human blood. So they needed other ways to protect themselves. Before the Great War, the vampires of the Haven were already well protected thanks to their alliance with the local tiger shifters. But increasing their population with more powerful vampires—vampires with unique abilities, like Rosella who could see the future—made them even stronger. Everyone knew not to mess with the Haven.
“Thomas was our age in the 1930s—during the Great Depression,” Sage continued. “He had a talent for machines—tinkering with them and getting them to work—but he was only making pennies. Those were hard times back then. So when Mary came to him and asked if he wanted to be turned into a vampire, he took her up on the offer.”
“Hold up,” I said. “Mary made him an offer?”
I didn’t think vampires gave humans an option on if they wanted to turn or not. The vampires I knew—which honestly, weren’t many—had been turned against their wills.
“The Haven is a kingdom dedicated to peace,” Sage said. “Any vampire willing to survive on animal blood is welcome there. And when a vampire of the Haven turns a human, that human is always given a choice. Thomas saw turning as the best chance out of poverty, so he took it. He had access to money in the Haven, and he wanted to wire the money to his family to keep them comfortable for the rest of their lives.”
“But now he lives in Chicago,” I said, and Sage nodded. “If he was turned by Mary, shouldn’t he still be in the Haven?”
/> “Mary doesn’t want any resident of the Haven to be a prisoner there,” she said. “All Haven residents are free to leave, although it’s their responsibility to remain under the radar wherever they go. Mary isn’t responsible for anything they do if they leave the Haven. Thomas did live there for the first decade after he was turned, but the Haven is more of a… traditional place. They’re not up to date on the latest technology. As Thomas saw glimpses of the progress the outside world was taking, he yearned to be a part of it. So he left, bought the hotel in Chicago, and turned it into the Bettencourt of today.”
“It sounds like a fancy place.” I stroked Raven’s hair as I spoke. Even though she was unconscious, I needed to remind her I was there for her and that I wasn’t going anywhere—not until she was healed, and not ever.
“You have no idea,” Sage said. “Thomas turned the hotel into a fortress.”
“I can’t wait to see it,” I said, since I was curious. “But when I asked about Thomas, I wasn’t asking about his personal history.”
Sage stared straight ahead, saying nothing.
“I was asking about your relationship with him.” Apparently she needed me to spell it out for her.
“I know you were,” she said. “And I was purposefully avoiding talking about it.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because Thomas and I have a… complicated history.” She tightened her grip around the steering wheel, the broken look in her eyes returned.
“How complicated?” I was more curious than ever. Sage was a straight shooter, so whatever had happened between her and Thomas must have been pretty bad.
“Beyond complicated.” She took a deep breath, and then let it out all at once. “Because once upon a time, Thomas Bettencourt and I were engaged.”
3
Noah
“What?” I didn’t know what I’d expected, but it certainly hadn’t been that. “You mean engaged to be married?”
The Angel Trials- The Complete Series Page 31
