by Clare Kauter
“Embarrassed about something?” I asked. When Rainbow didn’t answer, I decided to voice my theory. “You were the girl Ravi met in the bar. Did Pierre send you in there to recruit someone else to join the cult? Is that the task you were meant to complete before he turned you?”
She clenched her jaw and breathed angrily. Yeah, that’s a thing. Shush.
“You can’t sense energy,” Henry chimed in, realising where I was going. “You were meant to get a magical, but instead you came back here with Ravi.”
“I don’t imagine Pierre reacted too well when you brought a human back to camp,” I said.
“He was fine about it,” she hissed. “Anyone could have made the same mistake.”
“So who ripped him apart?” I asked.
“Probably all the baby vamps around here,” said Henry. “They must be hungry.”
I nodded. “Right. I guess that explains why there were only a few bits of him left.”
“Pierre had us leave the body near your house as a warning.”
“Some warning,” I said. “Not only did it fail to scare me, I wasn’t even sure it was meant to be a message for me. You really could have been more thorough with that. Why not leave it on my doorstep or something? Better still, in bed next to me? You guys have no imagination.”
“They probably couldn’t get past your wards,” Henry pointed out.
“Right,” I said. “Although Rainbow here seems to think Pierre’s all-powerful. Surely a couple of pesky little wards wouldn’t stop him.”
“He could have gone inside if he’d wanted to,” said Rainbow. “He chose not to.”
“Why?”
She hesitated.
“Right,” I said. “Because he’s actually a total scaredy-bat.”
“He found the Hallowed Talon!” yelled Rainbow.
“Cool for him,” I said. “Sounds super lame, though. Like part of a dodgy arcade game.”
“You’re too dumb to understand,” she said.
“Oh, I’m too dumb? I’m not the one praising a magic claw, Rainbow.”
“He’s the strongest vampire alive. You don’t stand a chance against him,” she spat. “He will crush you into the ground and rip your entrails from your stomach and –”
“Alright, calm down,” I said.
“Scared?”
“Have you forgotten about that time your boss came to the coven and ran away from me in terror?”
She glowered at me. “He was not afraid of you!”
“OK, fine,” I said. “He’s just weaker than me.”
“You’re pathetic and he will kill you.”
“Sure he will.”
While I was talking big, part of me was slightly concerned. There were a lot of vamps around here. Fast and strong and magical and filled with hatred for me and love for their leader. Confronting them seemed like a bad idea. I needed to sneak in and rescue Honey first, and then we could go from there.
Satisfied with the information I’d extracted from Rainbow, I turned to Henry. “How are you doing?” I asked.
“Good,” he said.
He looked a lot stronger than the last time we’d come into the forest. Pierre’s vortex didn’t appear to be affecting him so badly this time, so I guessed that he’d been right about my force field protecting him. Even I could barely feel it anymore. Rainbow was unaffected by the vortex since she was born human rather than born magical, and so didn’t have all that much talent for magic in the first place.
“We should call backup,” I said.
“Who?” Henry asked. “The witches’ powers will be useless against Pierre. Not to mention that the baby vamps will chow down on them instantly. You saw how Ravi ended up. It’ll be carnage.”
“Good point.” I gave Rainbow the side eye before looking back at Henry and saying, “Maybe our – uh – informant?”
“No,” said Henry. “Absolutely not.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Well, can you at least send the Reaper a text? Just make sure he checks in with us soon.”
“Oh, the Reaper will definitely be checking in with you soon,” Rainbow commented.
“I appreciate your wit, Rainbow, but now is not the time for that sort of negativity,” I said. A wolf howled to the moon in the distance, bringing me back on track. I turned to Henry. “OK. Let’s head back to camp and we can come up with a plan on the way.”
He nodded. “OK.”
I frowned. “Really? You’re not going to make me come up with a better plan?”
“Our plans never work out anyway,” he said. “If all else fails, just kill everyone.”
I nodded. That seemed like a good idea. We left Rainbow bound tightly to the tree, magically gagged, and headed back to camp. Seeing as the cultists were marching to my house to kill me, we’d be able to break into Honey’s cage while the camp was empty. Having Honey onside would even our odds a little in the fight against Pierre.
Chapter 22
By the time we got back to the camp, most of the cult members were gone. The air felt a little lighter so I guessed Pierre had left with the others. Henry and I crouched behind the same log as we’d hidden behind earlier to scope out the scene. There were still two magicals wearing purple robes standing sentinel by Honey’s cage next to the bonfire. Sensing their energy, I could tell that they had both been werewolves prior to being turned into vampires. This was not your typical combination, as vampires and werewolves tended to avoid each other. Clearly, though, Pierre had decided to buck tradition and build an army as strong as he possibly could to take me down.
Honey was sitting helplessly in the cage, tears rolling down her cheeks. Naw. She must’ve been worried about me. Not that she had anything to be worried about – by the time Pierre actually found me, Honey would be out of her cage and she’d be able to help me overthrow him.
But there was a problem. How on earth was I meant to get Honey out of the cage? Even if we did somehow manage to overpower those vampire-slash-werewolves, I wasn’t sure how exactly I was going to get the doorless cage open. I didn’t dare touch it – who knew what Pierre had made it out of? I imagined it had all kinds of wards over it to prevent people from breaking Honey out. Or, in fact, to prevent Honey from breaking herself out. While it was built from wispy, almost cloud-like magic energy, it was stronger than a cage made of any metal.
“We need to distract the guards somehow,” Henry whispered. “I should do that while you talk to Honey. She may be able to tell you how to get the cage open, even if she can’t do it herself.”
“And you’re going to take on the two werewolf vampires yourself?” I asked.
Henry shrugged. “Got any better ideas?”
“Not really,” I said. “Although I still think we should call in backup.”
“Satan is in a meeting, I’ve already messaged Death, and Ed is more of a liability than an asset,” Henry replied. “We can’t call in any light dwellers. In fact, we can’t call in anyone who doesn’t already know what you are, because once they hear what happened to Honey people are going to get suspicious. We don’t have another option. This is it.”
“You have a point,” I conceded. “That doesn’t mean I like it though. This is dangerous. Werewolves hate shifters at the best of times, and now that they have extra vampire powers from Pierre they’re going to come after you in a big way.”
“I know that,” Henry said. “But we don’t have a choice. Just make sure you get Honey out of the cage as quickly as possible and I’ll be fine.” I could see in his eyes that even he didn’t believe that.
Henry began to stand and I grabbed his arm.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “You can’t go now!”
“The others could be back at any moment,” Henry pointed out. “We don’t have time to sit around talking about what our plan is. I’m going to distract the guards, and you’re going to free Honey. That’s it. Now let’s get to it.”
He stood, shifting into a bat. While Henry didn’t like flying, it seemed like a good idea in th
is case. At least with wings he would be able to get away from the wolves more easily. The bat-Henry turned to me and nodded once before flapping his way down to the bonfire. Once there, he swooped at the head of one of the guards, who began flailing around, trying to scare Henry away. The other guard came over to help and Henry began attacking him too. The guards began to scream in panic, at first not understanding what was happening. Then they sniffed the air and slowly turned to each other, realising that they weren’t being attacked by a bat, but a shifter.
Henry clocked the moment of eye contact between the wolves and used the opportunity to fly away. Werewolves weren’t known for being the smartest animals in the forest, and they didn’t seem to realise that this whole thing was a ploy. They both shifted into wolves immediately and began to run after Henry. He led them into the woods, away from the camp, leaving Honey unguarded.
The second they were out of sight, I leapt over the log I was hiding behind and ran to Honey’s cage. The closer I got to the cage, the warmer my necklace grew. Further evidence that Pierre was using a companion item to perform magic these days. (Well, that or the Doomstone thought Honey was a threat to me, but given that she was locked in a doorless cage it seemed unlikely.)
“Nessa!” cried Honey, eyes wide in shock. “You need to go. If Pierre finds you here –”
“He won’t,” I said. “Isn’t he off somewhere trying to kill me?”
Honey sighed. “He thinks it will break the spell you put over me.”
“I didn’t put a spell over you.”
She nodded. “I know that, but it doesn’t matter how many times I tell him what happened, he doesn’t believe me. He’s convinced himself and all his followers that you’re out to kill all vampires or turn us into your slaves. It’s idiotic, but I can’t seem to make him realise that.”
I shook my head. “I will never understand why you like him, Honey,” I said.
“He really is quite sweet, underneath it all,” she said. She paused. “Deep underneath.”
“Well, we can talk about your terrible taste in men later. Right now I need you to tell me how to get you out of this cage.”
Honey shrugged. “I wish I knew,” she said. “Whatever spell he’s put over this, it’s far stronger than anything I can break.”
“Do you know how he’s fortified his powers?” I asked.
“He’s found some sort of magical artefact,” she said. “I don’t know how, but he’s fused its powers with his own.”
“A companion item, you mean?” I asked.
Honey nodded. OK. So the Claw of Whatever that Rainbow had mentioned was a companion item.
“Do you know who I am, Honey?” I asked.
She stared at me for a beat before responding. “Yes,” she said, nodding once. “I’ve told Pierre, but he doesn’t believe me. Trust me, if he did, he would not be doing what he’s doing.”
I nodded. “It’s OK,” I said. “Most people don’t believe it at first. But this is good. If he somehow used the companion to create this cage, then I should be able to use the stone and the other companions to bust it open.”
“Do you know how?”
Nope. I had no idea. “Sure,” I said. “I’ll just…”
I was saved from finishing that sentence by an interruption from behind me. Well, maybe ‘saved’ is the wrong word. The voice that interrupted my conversation with Honey didn’t belong to someone who was there to help me.
“You’re even more of an idiot than I gave you credit for.”
Chapter 23
It was Pierre.
Judging by the look on Honey’s face, she hadn’t been expecting him to show up either. Well, that was something. At least she hadn’t set me up. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before turning around to face Pierre.
“In case it was unclear, this was a trap,” Pierre continued. “And not even a particularly good one. Yet you blundered in to try and steal back your slave, just as I predicted you would.”
Pierre was standing several metres away from me. His purple-robed minions lurked behind him, watching gleefully as he taunted me. My brain whirred. Was that why there hadn’t been wards over the camp? Because he’d wanted me to find it? How did he know I would? Maybe he’d felt me enter the forest earlier in the day and set up the trap then. But why hadn’t I sensed his energy when he was sneaking up – ah. I hadn’t felt him creep up behind me because of the energy coming from the cage he’d trapped Honey in. I’d thought that was the only dark energy I could feel, when really Pierre had been there the whole time.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice that Sister Rainbow was missing? Did you think a simple cloaking spell would stop me from being able to sense you?” he jeered. “I have become one with the Talon of Truth. I see all.”
“Dude, every time I see you it seems like you get less stable,” I replied. “Have you considered seeing a therapist? Or maybe reading some self-help material? I’ve got some recommendations if you need –”
“Ha! We all know what reading material you’re interested in,” he said. “Sister Rainbow told us about your murder manual!”
“That was a misunderstanding,” I said.
“Don’t lie! I can smell lies!”
“No, I can smell that too,” I replied, wrinkling my nose and looking around. “It doesn’t smell like lies to me.”
The smell had been masked by the campfire earlier, but now that I was on this side of the camp it was overpowering. Looking around in the darkness, eyes watering, I saw a patch of something dark splattered across the grass and up the side of the main hall. It was dark, but the firelight was enough for me to make it out. Dried blood.
“I think what you might be smelling is the little bits of Ravi that are stuck in the grass over there,” I said. “There’s definitely something rotten around here, but it’s not my lies.”
“So you admit you’re lying?” Pierre said, face filled with triumph.
“What? No!”
“Do you deny you came here tonight to kill us all?”
“I do deny that!” I said. “I thought someone had kidnapped all these magicals to sacrifice to the King of the Damned for the full moon. It wasn’t until I came here that I found out you’d started a cult.”
“It’s not a cult!” the cult roared as one.
I took an inadvertent step back. Yeesh.
“Sure, guys,” I said. “My point is, I had no intention of killing any of you. I wanted to save you from dying. Then I found out you were keeping my friend in a cage and I decided to let her out. I haven’t really thought about what I was going to do with the rest of you.”
Not in any detail, at least.
“Force us to drink your poison blood, perhaps?”
“It’s not poison!” I snapped. “And I’ve never forced anyone to drink it because I’m not a psycho! Stop rewriting history, Pierre.”
He opened his mouth to respond, but before he could there was a rustle in the woods nearby and a vamp emerged.
“We’ve found her, sir,” said a werewolf vampire. The wolf-vamps seemed to outnumber the other kinds, probably because wolves were dumber and naturally more susceptible to brainwashing.
Pierre frowned. “And where is she?”
“She’s bound to a tree in the woods.”
“You didn’t bring her back?”
“She’s tied up with magic we couldn’t break,” said the vamp wolf. “Jonno tried to touch her and it knocked him out. So I left him there too.”
Pierre turned to me, livid. “What have you done to Sister Rainbow?”
“I literally just tied her up,” I said. “Obviously I wasn’t going to do any permanent damage. She’s my barista. I’m not insane.” Probably.
“Tell the truth,” he said. “Admit why you’re here!”
“I already told you why I’m here! I was trying to find Ravi’s murderer, then when we felt the energy in this forest we thought you were going to sacrifice –”
“We?” he repeated.<
br />
Oops. I’d thought he already knew Henry was around somewhere, but it didn’t seem like that was the case. Pierre turned to one of his followers – another wolf – and sent him off to look for Henry.
“I’m an idiot,” I said.
“You are,” Pierre agreed.
“At least I’m not a psychopath who locks my girlfriend in a cage,” I snapped.
“You don’t have a girlfriend,” said Pierre.
“I could if I wanted.”
“Sure,” said Pierre. “You seem like you’d be a joy to spend time with.”
“You’re one to talk! You have to lock your girlfriend up to get her to stay with you!”
“The only cage Honey is imprisoned in is the one you have locked her up in, forcing her to become your slave!” cried Pierre.
I frowned. “Dude, that’s just a blatant lie.” I nodded over towards Honey. “She’s in a literal cage.”
The minions looked at each other and hesitantly nodded their agreement behind Pierre’s back. Ooh, dissent. Excellent. Maybe I could get them onside with my wit and charm! OK, maybe that’s a stretch. Failing that, with my logic!
“She’s right,” said Honey. “I’m definitely in a literal cage.”
I smiled smugly. “That Toenail of Truth clearly isn’t working for you if you’re spilling lies so liberally.”
“Seize her!” Pierre commanded, pointing at me. His followers obliged, rushing me and pinning my arms to my side. Huh. So maybe I didn’t have enough time to get the minions onside after all.
I took a couple of deep breaths, channelling energy from the necklace I was wearing. Pierre approached me slowly while the (unbelievably strong) baby vamps held me still. The stone and companions were growing ridiculously hot now, and as Pierre came closer, they began to glow. Brightly. Pierre stopped in his tracks, his eyes dropping to my chest.
“Perv,” I said.
“Remove her necklace,” Pierre ordered one of the minions.
Damn it.
The minion did as he was told and all the energy I’d just about managed to call upon dissipated. The minion ran to Pierre and handed the necklace over. At least, he tried to. The second the metal touched Pierre’s skin, there was a loud bang and a cloud of sparks. The necklace fell to the ground while Pierre cried out in pain, looking down at his hand. Even from here I could see the white-hot burn it had left on his skin.
