Lily, Hans, and Markus had backed off a few paces. When a mortal sees Death, they instinctively know who he is, it is built into their very souls.
“Little one,” he replied, in English. “Are you seriously contesting with me over this mortal’s soul? Are you going to take that belt off your bathrobe and whip me with it?” he continued, sounding amused. I knew what he was feeling, I had been there and done that. This was interesting to him but he was not in the least bit afraid of me, but he was prepared to have it play out, the business of being the Angel of Death was boring, to say the least. Something like this was a welcome change for him, I knew.
The Scythe of Death was well known and had been used countless times by Death on countless occasions to reap the souls of mortals. The Scythe of Life on the other hand, had only been used a few times since the beginning of creation. It had been used at God’s command, given to one of his archangels, to transport a mortal directly to heaven, body and soul together, before they had died. Manifested, it would be just as an effective weapon as Death’s Scythe, a magical blade capable of killing any mortal creature, including an angel that had manifested.
I said its true name and with every ounce of my power willed it to me and it appeared in my right hand. We were both now armed with magical scythes. I smiled at him showing my fangs, letting him know he was going to be in for a fight.
I struck in a blur, using every bit of my strength and speed and almost caught him off guard. I had picked the best qualities of various supes in the mortal world but even combined it was not good enough. God had made angels to be superior to other creatures and even with everything I had, he was just stronger and faster than me. Fighting with a scythe is like fighting with a quarterstaff, only with a long dangerous blade at the end. The staff of the scythe, although it appeared as made of wood was also magical and could not be cut by another blade, even a magical one. The staff part was used for defense, as well as offense and I had given him a good thump on the elbow when I had surprised him in my initial attack. He had since almost sliced my head off, it was only a matter of luck that I had leaned back just in time, instead only taking a slice to my left cheek. It was a wound that would not heal as I had healed other wounds, I knew. It would heal as a human would and I would surely have a scar there if I managed to survive this.
We must have been a sight to see as we danced across the yard, exchanging blows. The seven foot Angel of Death dressed in black robes with a black scythe fighting a little shifter mortal girl dressed in a white terry cloth bathrobe that was dragging the ground.
I had one chance and one chance only. Angels can’t cheat, it is simply not part of their nature. I was not now an angel, however. He swung his scythe and I met it but instead of resisting and countering I let it easily knock my scythe to the ground without any resistance and he stumbled just for a fraction of a second and I was on his back, the dagger of darkness I had in the pocket of the bathrobe at his throat, the light of heaven shining forth, letting him know he was in mortal danger of being killed.
He had stopped, frozen, the tip of my dagger had drawn a small drop of blood. “You cheated!, he exclaimed.
“Mortal girl,” I answered.
There was a sound of ripping, of bones growing and knitting together and Rolfe fully shifted, lowered himself off the table, towering over us both, making Death look a bit small and puny. Rolfe was almost a force of nature himself, I knew. He was holding Emily’s hand and they took a step towards us.
“Is this guy bothering you, Smith?” Rolfe said.
“No,” I replied, untangling myself from Death and placing the dagger of darkness back in my pocket.
Death looked at Rolfe in wonder, not challenging, he would not take a soul from a living body. “He lives,” he said. “Thank you for stopping me,” he added. “How in the world did she bring him back to life?” he continued.
“Who knows,” I answered. “I am not God.”
You could see the pieces of the puzzle beginning to fit together for him as he looked at me and smiled.
“Are you sure this guy is not bothering you?” Rolfe asked again.
“No, Rolfe,” I replied. “He’s family.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
I sat on top of the picnic table watching Emily lead Rolfe around. He had shifted again now back to his human shape and Emily had taken him inside and found some sweats he could wear. I missed his bear shape and that deep gravelly bear voice of his. It was really cool, not many shifters have a beast shape they can actually talk in, usually it was growls and howls. Death had departed, taking both scythes, I still had my dagger. He had indicated that he wanted to talk to me and didn’t want to wait around for me to die in order to do it. I had told him that I would be in touch and explained how I would do it. We parted on good terms.
Hans and Markus sat on either side of me, also watching Emily and Rolfe. They were now a bonded pair. She had gone deep to bring him back and I don’t know what she had whispered to him but it must have gotten his attention. For shifters, despite the huge age difference, this was a natural course of things and a bonded pair of shifters is pretty easy to spot. It was like their Pack magic had blended together as one, if you looked at them and tried to sense the shifter magic, you could not tell them apart.
James had called, he had made it out okay and only lost a few of his group. They had managed to pull out a few of the wounded from my group from the front part of the building before the Feds had arrived to take over the crime scene. They hadn’t been able to sense any more living in the back of the building, the four that had followed me into that hallway of death had not survived. Lily was watching the interviews and the news inside the cabin, she told me the back part of the admin building was caved in, the rubble from when I had broken through the roof must have snuffed out most of the fire as she said there were just a few wisps of smoke rising up from that side. Our group of shifters had done what we set out to do, but at great cost, and many families would be grieving right now.
Lily brought me the phone when Jane called. She was on the way and would stay with me at the cabin here for some time, at least until we could see how the aftermath would play out. The vamps had lost about a dozen but had wiped out the guards completely. She had sensed that James and his group had been pinned down upstairs when they went in after Sarah and Chris so she and Queen’s Blade had entered from the other side to help them out. They had grabbed the hostages and when the guards had heard them and turned around the shifters had wiped them out.
The Feds had not found any “official” prisoners at the prison, just some supes that the cops had brought in and they had claimed they had been mistreated and tortured and had witnessed other supes that had been executed. The whereabouts of the Mayor and our Captain were unknown, it was going to take awhile before they identified that big splotch on the ground near the burned out helicopter. The FBI agent in charge and Randi were directing the investigation at the prison. Lily told me the pictures of the prison they were showing from the news helicopters made it look like a war zone.
Lily had brought me the phone again when the Winter Queen called for me after her interview. Lily avoided looking at her daughter and Rolfe, there was nothing she could do about it, but it must have been a real shock. Jill told me that she and Diocletus would remain at our Tanglewood cabin, they would stick around for awhile to handle any press concerns, the rest of the fae had returned to the Summerlands. I would have to pay the Queen’s Blade a visit, I thought, and thank him for his help.
Hans and Markus were talking about my resemblance to Death, especially the bony face and the deep sunken eyes. Hans insisted that I must be Death’s twin sister and that it was nice that I had a twin as well. I had to smile, they didn’t know how true that friendly kidding really was. I put each my of arms around their shoulders and drew them closer to me as we sat on the top of the table watching Emily and Rolfe. As much as we wanted to be inside watching the news, watching a newly bonded pair of shifters was fas
cinating. It was like a beautiful sunset, watching something like this. They didn’t care, they only had eyes for each other. Markus remarked that it was nice that the guy gets the girl in the end, knowing I had eyes for Rolfe, at least at one point. I told them about London Jane, I had gotten the girl as well, it seemed. Hans and Markus would be staying here for awhile as well and they would get a chance to meet her.
Dawn was just two hours away. I hoped Jane made it here soon. I had dinner all planned out for her.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“You are going to have to move,” Sarah had said. Three days had passed and both Jane and I were wanted for questioning in what they were calling the Massacre at Central Prison. Sarah had given me a tip that a search warrant had just been signed by a judge that afternoon and the FBI would be in Pack territory with that warrant looking for us in the morning.
There was now a ton of evidence that the Mayor and our police captain had kidnapped and murdered both humans and supes and had misled the public about what was going on. Still, many people had died at the prison, including police officers and National Guard troops. We could either face the music or get out of town, preferably out of the country all together. James had refused entry for the FBI and had his lawyers fighting in the courts to prevent them coming in. A judge had now signed off on the warrant.
London Jane had a lot of contacts in London, that’s where she was from originally, making the long trip to the Southern Territory by boat nearly twenty years ago. “A fight with Mom,” she had said. Her mother had become a vamp when she was just two years old, continued to raise her and turned Jane in the old fashioned way the day after she turned eighteen.
“Let’s hope she is not still mad at me,” Jane said. “We could be going from the frying pan into the fire. She was a bit old fashioned, and didn’t appreciate my sexual orientation. Hopefully, time has changed her views on that. I haven’t spoken to her since the day I walked out of her life.”
We didn’t see many other options at this point, I hoped this was going to work out. Now, just to figure out a way to get there without being caught. The airports were out as the FBI had stationed witches and fae at the airports looking for anyone trying to glamour their way through.
The ports were also being watched very carefully. I had come up with a plan, however, one I felt certain would work. Taking a portal to Faerie would work for me, being part fae, and I could then take a portal to London. That option would not work for Jane, the entry into Faerie would kill her.
When the few remaining dragons had escaped Faerie centuries ago they had used their own magic, using an existing portal on the fae side and a natural human portal on this side of the divide.
The use of such portals in the human world had been a closely guarded secret among the most powerful of witches and the art had become lost over the years. The dragons had used Stonehenge as their exit point on this side of the divide, it had been created by human witches as a portal to different areas of the world. Great rocks and stones seemed to be the key to natural portals, there were a few here and there scattered around the world and we had one just up the road from us in Mount Pilot. We would make the leap from Mount Pilot to Stonehenge and would travel from there to London.
I was going to fly Jane up there in my dragon form and using dragon magic, transport us in the blink of an eye to Stonehenge. Jane was looking forward to it and I was confident that I could pull it off.
It was already eight p.m., we were waiting for Rolfe and Emily to stop by so I could say my good-byes. Stonehenge was four hours ahead of us and we wanted to have time to get on the road to London before dawn. Rolfe and Emily had gone on a “hunting” trip together, we all knew the real reason for that trip. Emily’s mom had gone back to her place, she didn’t want to think about it. I had called Rolfe a few hours ago and told him our plans, he wanted to make sure they saw us before we left and were already on their way back to the cabin. I had already told Hans and Markus. I assured them we would return at some point. Jane had the vamps’ best lawyer helping us and she would do what she could for us in our absence. We did not tell her where we were going, and I didn’t tell Sarah or Chris either. They knew we were leaving but had no idea where.
I am going to miss the friends I made here, I thought, as I sensed Rolfe and Emily approaching. I was going with Jane to meet her family. I was more nervous about that than anything. I hoped she didn’t press me about mine but I would have to tell her something one of these days. None of my friends had told her about the Angel of Death, leaving it to me if I wanted her to know.
It was good to see Rolfe and Emily before we left. I told them I didn’t know when, if ever, we would be returning. Jill had come up with another strategy for us to get out of the mess we were in and they had spent a lot of time on the phone talking to Jane’s lawyer about it. We would have to see how it played out. As usual with the Winter Queen, she could see a way to accomplish almost anything. The key was going to be in the execution of the plan and this time we were depending on lawyers to do it.
Jane would be carrying our two backpacks, our cover would again be students, we looked the right age and we would dress the part of two students, backpacking and hitching rides, seeing the sights of England. She had a rope she would loop around my neck to hold onto as I was flying. The weather here was clear, where we were going was a good bit cooler, with rain and fog in the forecast for tonight. That would help as Jane’s plan had us flying most of the way to our destination.
“They call her Rose Red,” she said about her mother. “It must run in the family because she is the Master of the City of London. Unlike me, however, her power and influence runs through the entire country and half of Europe. I used to ask her every morning what business or territory she was going to take over that day, she loved to talk about her plans, she wants to unite the entire vamp world under a central rule with her being the one in charge, of course. She has many business interests and investments, owns many properties, and has a lot of influence in the human government. If we can repair our relationship, we should have no fear of arrest or extradition.”
“Her only vice is the game of chess, I think she sees it as an extension of what she does, a form of battle and a strategy for winning. My plan is first to get a feel for how she is going to react to me being home and then see if she will come to me rather than us walking up to her front door for an unannounced visit. About thirty years ago she came up with an idea that took off and has now taken hold in almost all of Europe. Motels for vamps, run by vamps and their human servants, letting vamps travel freely without fear of finding a place to stay after the sun came up. Bottled blood or human donors that each vamp house makes arrangements with, the servants run things during the day for human visitors and the vamps at night. It was a great plan and she now has over one hundred of these hotels in Great Britain alone. There is one such hotel in Guildford, outside of her official territory, and managed by an old friend of mine. Us showing up there will mean she will know that I am nearby. There is a chess tournament taking place there in a few days, a major event she has hosted for many years. She will have the opportunity to make the first move towards either reconciliation or continuing our fight, for her that will be significant. She knows I am a vamp master here, showing up in London without her advance approval would be taken as a threat.”
“Does she know about me?” I asked.
“Her primary weapon is information,” Jane replied. “She knows.”
I shifted in the back picnic area, lowered my head and Jane climbed up and with Emily’s help on the ground managed to loop the rope around my neck. Rolfe, Hans, and Markus were there as well to see us off. My beast was not happy about having to leave my friends and let out a great scream, shooting a stream of fire towards one of the picnic tables, it bursting into flames. I was resolved that I would return, and soon. With a great flap of wings we were off.
As we approached the top of Mount Pilot, my dragon could sense the magic in the natural
portal there. As I flew over the top, I used every bit of dragon magic I had, focusing on our destination and with a great effort of will, we were over Stonehenge in a moment so fast it could not really be measured.
The change was so sudden, I was a bit disorientated and my tail dropped down and clipped one of the great stones in the ring, almost squashing some vamp tourists milling about. When the last remaining three dragons had escaped Faerie, the same thing had happened to one of them, knocking a stone over. The vamp tourists being there in the middle of the night was another one of Rose Red’s successful business ideas. It simply could not be helped.
I regained my equilibrium and with another great flap, sending a wind up that knocked down some vamps down this time, I gained altitude and headed for Jane’s chosen next destination, the rail station at Salisbury. Night tourism and night trains for vamps had been another big innovation and money maker for her mom. Vamps are just as interested in places like Stonehenge as humans are. From there, a quick train to Guildford and we would be at the Inn before dawn.
“It’s called the Angel Hotel,” Jane had said.
Of course, I thought. What else would it be called now?
* * * *
The Winter Queen had asked us to make one adjustment to Jane’s plan. We would show our real passports instead of fake ones. This would alert the authorities in the Southern Territory immediately of where we were and more importantly of where we were not. I had transferred a ton of money from one of my offshore accounts to Jane’s lawyer and we now had a team of lawyers on our side.
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