by J. P. Rice
I slid along the jiggly flesh of the dragon to position myself near its right wing. Pembrooke swooped in and Alayna held out her little arm for me to grab onto. I swiped at her hand and missed as the black dragon and I plummeted.
Pembrooke looped back around. Judging by the rate at which I was falling, this would be the final attempt. The orange dragon cut down his speed, which made my heart race but would also make it easier to grab onto Alayna’s hand.
He tilted his wings forward to cause a little more resistance to help with the endeavor. I zeroed in on Alayna’s dainty hand and my eyes never left it. The dead dragon continued to drop as I got up on my knees and reached my hand out.
The wind whipped through my hair as Pembrooke approached. My hand hit Alayna’s and it yanked me back off the black dragon who hit the ground with a nasty thud. I started to slip, and right before I fell, Alayna’s nails dug into my fingers and drew blood.
The dragon flew off to the side of the battle field and landed. I scoped out the scene to see where I could help. When I scanned the area, it appeared that the battle was all but over. The black dragon was the final one from his side, besides the two that I could have unleashed on Pittsburgh with the return potion.
A smattering of sidhe warriors ran away in disgrace, disappearing into the horizon. Another group darted off into the forest. I spun around a few times and realized that all the king’s men were dead or had retreated.
The dullahans and combined faerie armies celebrated victory. The dwarves banged their swords off their shields and the pixies buzzed with glee. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I’d helped, but it was these people who’d taken back their land. They deserved all the praise for the willingness to lay down their lives.
Alayna got down from Pembrooke and kneeled down. She pulled two handfuls of grass and soil out of the ground and massaged them in her palm. Her lips moved, but she was only mouthing words and I wasn’t a great lip reader. I also wasn’t a genius, but I had a pretty good hunch that Alayna was lifting the curse on the crops that she had set more than five hundred years ago.
A flash of lightning cut through the cloudless sky. The former queen rose to her feet. The glittery rainbow-colored enchantment that had come from the king floated over the battlefield and settled above Alayna. I ran over to help protect her from the king’s spirit.
When I got about halfway to her, the shimmering magic formed into the shape of a butterfly and grew in size. The colors swirled within the wings until they finally settled on a rich magenta. As I looked closer, I realized that it wasn’t a butterfly, but just a pair of wings.
The wings began to beat and floated down close to the ground. They flew up to Alayna, danced in front of her for a few moments and then went around behind the former queen. Her shirt stretched and frayed, then finally tore away, falling harmlessly to the ground.
In an amazing act of magic that I couldn’t explain, her hideous scars started to heal, smooth skin replacing the old wounds. The wings, which resembled the honorary pair in my backyard, floated up to her back. As they neared her pale flesh, sparks jumped from her back to the wings.
The wings sank into Alayna’s back and she stepped forward from the impact. She bit her lip, but the look of pain quickly faded, forming into a smile. A few wing beats lifted her off the ground and she squealed in glee, rising ten feet in the air within a few moments.
I looked around at the cost of removing a king. Supernatural bodies were littered about and the gagging stench was already being blown around.
The ground shook as Pembrooke took a running start to launch himself in the air. The quaking made my knees buckle and blurred the gruesome images of the battlefield. The orange dragon lifted off and flew next to Alayna. I couldn’t recall ever seeing her so happy as she raced alongside her old friend. It was impossible to put everything back in the bottle once the contents were spilled. But for that brief moment in time, Alayna had her old life back. The shame of being a pixie with clipped wings was no longer. She had her wings again.
Chapter 32
I slinked into Jonathan’s office with my heart racing, unsure of how this meeting was going to go. He was sitting at his desk talking on the phone and motioning to me to sit down. He didn’t appear angry, but from what I had seen recently, it could change in a moment. As I sat there fidgeting in the comfortable chair, I thought about the last week.
My trip to hell seemed like it had been ten years ago. I’d learned to embrace the behaviors that helped keep the city safe. There were necessary evils in the world that I was learning to accept. I still had lingering concerns about Belphegor and Lucifer coming after me.
The vampires and werewolves hadn’t come to any kind of truce. I looked at the man in front of me who’d started this whole mess. I’d heard rumors that Octavius, the alpha wolf, was ready to go to war over the King’s Mountain massacre as it had become known. I planned to get involved to squash the beef and keep the city as safe as possible, so I’d set up an appointment with Octavius through his assistant.
Jonathan still had issues involving the vampires from Philly. The Larimores had a pact with all the other clans in Philly that if one was attacked, it would be treated as an attack on all. Like a U.N. Article Five deal.
I stared at Jonathan as he spoke without a care in the world. He seemed like he was talking to an old friend and kept twirling the phone cord around his finger. As he reveled in his own bliss, it was as if he had no clue that he had pulled the pin on the grenade. An impending and inevitable explosion was on the way. The only question was which war would come first, an intra-vampire war or the battle with the wolf shifters?
I’d come to the Purple House straight from the coronation of the Rosendales. Hail, Rosendales. Mirera and Fetterman had been crowned at a lovely ceremony in Sleepy Willow. The Rhyming Red Cap had been named Head Viceroy of the island in return for his support in the great battle.
They were already working on a way to revitalize and clean up the other world. It would be a long process, but now that the crop curse had been lifted, they could clean up all the corruption associated with food delivery.
The Rosendales had insisted that I take over as king, but I had my own city to take care of. I had a slight inkling that Alayna would like to reclaim her old post, but she had turned down the offer too. I settled for having an entire other world as an ally. In the grand scheme of this crazy game of supernatural posturing I found myself involved in, that meant a great deal.
Alayna still hadn’t totally warmed up to me again, but it was just a matter of time. I’d fixed my screw-up, but that didn’t erase the mistake completely.
A new ally known as the Sphinx was staying at my house. She’d told me that the two black dragons had flown away as soon as they had materialized in Pittsburgh. So I had that to worry about now. I hoped it wasn’t a male and female for breeding purposes. The Rosendales had kept the Dragon Horn in case the two obsidian dragons found a way back to Sleepy Willow. We assumed that all the other evil dragons had perished in the battle, but a few of them could have escaped in the commotion.
Artoise was still on the loose. That son of a bitch. So much for his empty promise of returning to Clara Spiritus in two weeks. I planned to have Blodeuwedd track him down with the services of her avian friends.
I still hadn’t recovered fully from the gunshots. The pain was gone, but the itch had spread to my arms and chest. The cold sweats were still prevalent and my memory had gone to shit. It felt as if another person was running around inside me. Not as bad as the demon implant, but it still scared the shit out of me. I’d even mentioned it to Jonathan during our brief phone call to set up our meeting and joked that I felt like a vampire.
Our phone call had gone better than expected and he hadn’t been mean mugging me or anything like that, which surprised me a bit. He told the person on the other end to stop by as soon as they could and hung up the receiver. He stood up and walked around his desk. He lingered for a few moments, gazing at Guernica by Pablo
Picasso on the wall.
I had prepared my magic on the way in because I wasn’t sure how Jonathan would react. His ominous silence would normally cause my hands to sweat, but for some reason I felt comfortable in the vampire stronghold. Right at home. However, I’d be a damn fool not to stay alert.
As he stared at the painting, I tapped the toes of my shoes on the ground and prepared to jump up and fight if he came at me. I’d seen the wild side of the six-hundred-year-old vampire and remembered how he had struck with the quickness of lightning.
How far did saving a man’s life go? Time to find out. Jonathan couldn’t deny that I’d saved his life. Actually, since I’d found out he was a liar in the last week, the stock of his word had taken a hit. I needed to be careful with how much I trusted him. The days of blindly following him were fading from the rear-view mirror as I pressed on the gas and hauled ass down the road with my new life heading in the opposite direction.
Life had the innate ability to come at you so fast you never even realized something of import had happened. I’d wanted to take a step back and spend time with the family but I’d convinced myself that I needed to go with the vampires to get the portal so that I could rescue Alayna. Those decisions could come back to haunt me if the cross-state vampires knew me or found out who I was.
“So.” Jonathan turned to me. “We are now merely business associates. The days of friendship are over. You saved my life in Philadelphia and for that, I owe you a huge debt of gratitude. That is the only thing saving your life right now.”
I shifted around in the chair, keeping my magic ready to go. I just wanted to ask if Reg was all right.
He continued, “You made me look a fool in front of my clan. Several. Times. Repeatedly. So I know it wasn’t just a mistake. I chose to believe you over my clan members. I don’t have to tell you how weak and utterly stupid that makes me look. I trusted you and I shouldn’t have. And for that, our friendship is over.”
He moved over and leaned back against his desk. He folded his arms over his chest in a defensive manner. “We can remain business associates, but don’t expect any more gifts. In fact, my associates will be coming by your house to pick up any gifts that you’ve forfeited with your deceit. You even called me complaining with your sanctimonious horseshit about my men being on your land. You don’t have any more dead vampires on your property, do you?”
That was rich coming from the guy who had been lying about the shifters and the vampires from Philly. I blurted out the real question on my mind, “Is Reg okay?”
He stared at me for a few moments, brooding, but it almost seemed like an act. “I’ll get to that later. There’s an important matter we need to discuss. I was just talking to our doctor friend. And I told him about your symptoms.”
He turned around and shuffled some of the papers on his desk. He came across as nervous, and although I was the one who normally avoided eye contact, he stared down at the floor. “He thinks that those bullets that hit you were doused in vampire blood.”
I was confused. “Come again? What are you trying to say?”
“The doctor thinks your blood stream may have been tainted with some vampire blood.”
“But. Then. That would make me a vampire.”
Jonathan looked up from the floor and confirmed my suspicion with a silent look.
“How does that even work? Wouldn’t the blood have dried? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Mike. How many things have you seen in this business that make perfect sense? We live in the world of imagination. If someone can think it, it can happen to us.”
A glaze of sweat formed over my body and the fiery sensation of anger swept from my heels to my head. I couldn’t be a vampire. Could I? When I thought about all my symptoms, it made perfect sense now.
“How can we change it? I mean, how can I go back to normal?”
Jonathan didn’t say a word as he walked around and sat down in his leather chair. “I’m afraid there’s no going back from here. I’ll try to find out whatever I can, and I will help you with your transition. As a business associate, of course.”
My association with Jonathan had somehow gotten more complicated than it already was. As I sat in the chair with sweat running down my face and collecting in the stubble on my chin, I felt like I’d been run over by a train. My world had been rocked.
“We have a few other things to talk about when you are ready,” he said, trying to change the subject to get my mind off accepting the fact that I was a vampire now.
Stunned, I said, “Go ahead.”
“As far as our adventures go, the clan from Philly isn’t going to do a damn thing. However, if you see any of those Larimores running around Pittsburgh, be sure to alert me. The shifters are going to be a bigger problem. They seem set on starting a war.”
“Why don’t I go talk to them?”
“Do you know Octavius?”
“I know of him. His assistant seemed pretty nice when I set up a meeting with him. But I’ll just do what I do. The same way I got you and Glenda to squash your beef. I think peacemaker might be my best attribute. I’ll set up an appointment and go talk to the guy. It can’t hurt.”
Jonathan studied me. His wry grin suggested he was impressed that I’d taken the initiative to set up a meeting, but his eyes questioned my true intentions. “Tread lightly. And if he demands anything excessive, tell him to fuck off. Do not, I repeat, do not, and I cannot stress this enough, do not make any sort of deal without conferring with me first. Got that?”
“Will do. It will be nice to get a close look at the werewolves. I feel like there’s so much I haven’t seen yet.”
Jonathan laughed. I asked, “What?”
He said, “You know very little of the supernatural scene in Pittsburgh. Think of it as a luscious tit. You’ve only scraped the nipple of the massive iceberg. Get my drift?”
I nodded, and he continued, “Did you know that Thor has been spotted in Pittsburgh? Did you know that two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse just caused a scene at one of the bars on the Southside? Did you know that the Greeks and Norse have many members in Pittsburgh?”
I just knew about the Celts and I’d traveled to the Greek hell, but I didn’t know all this had been going on in Pittsburgh. “What does it all mean?”
“Isn’t that your job to figure out? Obviously, something big is going on if the horsemen were here. With June coming back, I’d bet she has a wicked plan up her sleeve.”
“June?”
“Never mind. I’m flooding your brain with too much information that you can’t use right now. If I find out anything, I will alert you as a business associate would do.”
“What if we set up a Supernatural Board of Pittsburgh? Everyone gets a seat at the table and we could set some guidelines and laws. It would help us keep the Red Cavern in line if we had a coalition. They might go against us individually, but they wouldn’t if we banded together.”
“That’s not a bad idea. I think you should explore it more. I’ll surely represent the vampires’ interests.”
That gave me something to work on. Bringing peace to Pittsburgh was the reason the Celtic Gods had appointed me in the first place.
We said our quick goodbyes, not as friends, and I turned to leave his office. As I passed the chairs, someone knocked on the door. I couldn’t help thinking that I was forgetting to ask Jonathan something when Lexis popped her head in the door.
She said, “Jonathan. Gale is here to see you. She didn’t have an...”
Jonathan cut her off. “Send her in right away.” Then he mumbled, “I just talked to her.”
Lexis’s head disappeared, and a tall red head sashayed into Jonathan’s office. She didn’t look like a vampire, but she didn’t look like a normal human either. There was something magical about her, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. She reminded me of Burn.
“I’m glad we can still work together. Let me know if you hear anything else I might need to know,” I re
minded him, but his attention was glued to his new guest.
I nodded and exchanged a quick hello with the redhead as I left the office. I opened the door and almost forgot to say goodbye. “I’ll talk to you later, Jonathan.” The vampire who was big on courtesies barely heard me because he was focused on the woman.
I kept thinking there was something I was forgetting as I walked to the lobby. As I headed for the front desk to pick up my car from the valets, I still couldn’t grasp the fact that I was a vampire. To distract myself from that, I thought about Jonathan’s words and how there were so many entities in Pittsburgh that I didn’t know about.
Lexis saw me coming and picked up the phone to call for my car. I nodded my thanks and spun around to head outside. I stopped dead in my tracks as my best friend stood in front of me, amazingly alive.
“Reg. I’m so sorry.” I wanted to reach out and hug the man, but like Alayna, he didn’t seem ready to forgive me just yet.
“Hey, man. I think you and me need to have a little talk.”
I couldn’t gauge his emotions. He appeared calm and cool, but he could just be hiding his anger. He gestured toward the hallway and started to lead the way as I followed him in silence. Even if he were to end our friendship, I was just happy he was alive again.
Alayna and Reg were safe again.
I’d scored the redemption I had been seeking. Now I could concentrate on family life with Burn and Dante unless something new popped up.
That is the end for now. The Bloodline World adventures continue with a new main character entering the mix. Please enjoy a sample of Ginger Storm after a few quick messages.
If you would like to keep up with J.P. Rice and receive the free prequel, Modern Merlin, that shows how far Mike has come as a man and a wizard, you could join his urban fantasy reader group. It also includes mythological creature features, urban fantasy news and all things concerning J.P. Rice. Sign up: HERE
