“Come in,” a voice called groggily.
Zack strode into the tiny room, lit the bedside lamp, then closed the door, crossed his arms, and stared at his friend, who’d clearly been sleeping.
“I’m going after Lily. You can come or not. Your choice.”
Jason peered at him with groggy confusion. “What?” He ran a sleepy hand through his hair and struggled to sit up. “They found Lily?”
“They know where she is. Somewhere in the Anacostia Forest.” The panic he’d been struggling to keep at bay tore through his lungs. “It’s full of wolves, Jase.”
“How long has she been there?”
“Two and a half days.”
“Zack…”
“Don’t say it! She’s smart. Too smart to get herself eaten.” His jaw tensed. “I’m going after her.”
Jason swung his legs over the side of his bed. “Quinn and the others will be…”
“Fuck them. I’m tired of everyone thinking I need my sister to protect me. Besides, you know what will happen. She’ll tell me to wait here, like she has every other time I’ve tried to go with her. Wait here, stay safe. Fuck. That.” Zack turned and reached for the door handle. “Come with me or not, Jase, but don’t say anything. They’ll figure out I’ve gone as soon as Quinn gets home. You can tell them then.”
“Zack, wait, man. You passed out earlier.”
Zack whirled back, turning on him. “So what? I’m dying. Don’t you think I know that? But hanging around here doing nothing isn’t saving me. All it’s doing is wasting what time I have left when maybe I could be saving Lily.”
Jason met his gaze, his own somber, but thoughtful. “You’re right.”
Zack stared at him. He was?
The ex-Marine grabbed his jeans off the foot of the bed and started to pull them on. “I’ve been itching to get back out there for days to hunt for my wife.”
“Then why didn’t you leave before this?”
Jason glanced up, meeting his gaze. “And miss watching you morph into Superman?” He stood, fastening his jeans, then grabbed his boots. “I’ve been telling you all along that when you were ready, we’d leave together—you to find Lily, me to find my wife. It looks like that time has come.” A smile flickered across his face. “Let’s see what kind of vampire ass you can really kick.”
Despite the bold words and the disappearing smile, Jason’s eyes were as serious as the grave. Trying to kick vampire ass usually got a human killed. Zack had seen that during his own days as a captive. He and Jason stood an excellent chance of dying out there. But staying safe in here was no life, not when the women they cared about were missing. Or in danger of being eaten by wolves.
The blast of the car horn startled the Black Wizard, nearly making him stumble. It infuriated Quinn. The asshole driver clearly saw the old man in the middle of the street, but instead of slowing down and going carefully around him, he let his own annoyance at being ever-so-slightly inconvenienced scare the crap out of the ancient male.
She felt the Black Wizard’s arm shoot straight out at the car, a small Lexus, and suddenly the car stopped. Just…stopped…as if it had hit a brick wall, its airbag erupting.
The moment Quinn saw the driver move, and knew he was basically unharmed, she smiled, mentally. Nice job, grandfather.
“I stopped the dragon. I will kill it.”
No, no, don’t kill it. It’s not a dragon, just a human driving a…horseless carriage. You stopped him and he’s uninjured. Let’s leave it at that. They needed to get out of the street. Do you see that building to the right? Walk over to it. Quickly.
“But the dragon…”
Is disabled. It won’t hurt us. Move, grandfather.
Finally, he did, shuffling at the speed of a tortoise. Not bad for a male she now knew to have been over seven hundred years old when he died, although he was, technically, using her body. At least she thought he was. It was hard to tell exactly how they’d merged. All she knew for certain was that she was no longer in charge, and had been flooded with his memories from the moment she got here. He’d had surprising honor in his younger years, had loved deeply numerous times, and raised several families. But in his later years, he’d lost all patience with humans. And while that might be understandable, he’d used his abilities unconscionably.
A grumpy old man with infinite power was not a good thing, as it turned out.
Finally, he reached the curb and climbed it. Quinn breathed a small sigh of relief, though only a small one. She still had to get them back to Vamp City.
“Why do you call me grandfather?” he muttered.
Because that’s what you are, generations and generations back. I have the same ability to throw vampires against the wall as you have. And I’ve learned how to create bubbles in which to trap vampires and werewolves. Unfortunately, that’s about all I can do since, while my mother was one of your heirs, my father was of Levenach.
“That could never be,” he spat.
The feud between you died with you. None of Levenach’s progeny were ever sorcerers, thanks to your curse. And your line has almost entirely died out. They’re calling me the last sorceress. And I may be that. But the Levenach curse is strangling most of the magic I inherited from you. I cannot be what I am meant to be, the Black Wizard’s heir, until that curse is lifted. And you’re the only one who can lift it.
He was silent for several minutes as he studied the houses lining the street and ran his hand along a black metal fence. “If I lift the curse, all those of Levenach’s blood will suddenly come into a magic they did not know they possessed. The world will be filled with wizards again, Levenach wizards.”
Hell. Was it possible he was right?
As she tried to come up with a counterargument, he continued down the sidewalk, seemingly fascinated by the porch lights and streetlights. When his gaze moved to the sky, she was half-afraid he was going to lose his balance and fall backward.
“Where are the stars?” he asked.
There are too many lights to see them.
“Then how will we find our way home?”
For a moment she felt sorry for him. This is all a bit overwhelming to you, isn’t it?
“Overwhelming is an inadequate word. This is the world that will die?”
Not this one, no. The other one. The quiet, safe one. This is the real world now.
“A pity.”
A lot of people who live here would probably agree with you.
He turned the corner onto a side street.
Grandfather, where are you going? We need to stay close to where we came in. Let’s go back, shall we? She might be able to find another sunbeam, but it could drop them anywhere in V.C.—in the middle of a contingent of Cristoff’s guards or a pack of hungry wolves who wouldn’t recognize her in the ancient male. Grandfather, stop!
But the stubborn old male just continued to walk father and farther away from their safest path home, in his unsteady, shuffling gait.
Chapter 27
“Ax! We’re out of time. Unless you want to get stuck here for the day, we’ve got to go back.”
The sky was beginning to lighten in the east with approaching dawn, purple clouds smudging a lavender sky over the Washington, D.C. skyline. They’d reached the neighborhood on the east side of Rock Creek Park which he believed to be the location of Sakamoto’s castle in Vamp City, but though they’d been racing up one street and down another, they’d found no sign of the dangerous old man.
“He has to be around here somewhere,” Arturo growled.
Micah shrugged. “Where? For all we know, she’s already back in V.C.”
And it was possible. The magical tracker he’d put on Quinn weeks ago wasn’t working. He couldn’t even feel her emotions. From the moment Tassard changed her into the Black Wizard, Arturo had been unable to get any sense of her at all. It was as if she no longer existed, which was driving him insane.
“We’re already starting to smoke, Ax. We’ll be lucky to make it back t
o the Boundary Circle before we burn, as it is. Any more delay and we’ll have no choice but to go to ground. We’ll be stuck in D.C. for the entire day.”
Which was the last thing they could afford to do.
“All right.” The words stuck in his throat, but they had no choice and he knew it.
Together, they ran for the Boundary Circle, which was not, unfortunately, close by. It was going to be tight, and they’d be hurting by the time they reached it.
“Sooner or later that glamour will wear off, and when it does, Quinn will find her way back to Sakamoto’s,” Micah said.
Arturo glanced at him. “Assuming she has any idea where she is when she snaps out of it. I don’t know if she’s even aware of what’s happening. She might accidentally come through a sunbeam in a bad place.”
“A hundred things could go wrong and we both know it, Ax. But Quinn is smart. And she’s strong. She’ll make her way back to us one way or another.”
As long as that bastard wizard didn’t do something stupid while he was still in charge. Something that would get her killed.
Zack strode into the kitchen with Jason, dismayed to find Mukdalla standing at the counter, stirring something in a mixing bowl. She smiled when she saw them. “I’ll have pancakes ready in a few minutes.”
“I’m just going to make a sandwich,” Zack said. “I want to sit outside and watch the sky lighten. I still have trouble telling night from day around here. Jason said it’s because I’m spending too much time inside.” He hoped to hell the explanation made sense and that he wasn’t rambling. And that Mukdalla didn’t notice he was beginning to sweat.
With the need to reach Lily burning a hole in his gut, he grabbed the bread and ham and made himself two huge sandwiches, while Jason made himself one and filled a couple of water bottles. Getting away from Neo’s without someone stopping them was going to take a miracle. His pulse hammered at the certainty they were going to get caught, which of course they were if any of the fear feeding vampires came anywhere near him in this state. They’d know right off that something was up.
He handed the sandwiches to Jason who stuffed them in the leather satchel that hung across his body.
“How far are you going?” Mukdalla asked, a touch of suspicion in her voice. Or maybe not. Maybe he was just imagining it.
“Out by the stables,” Jason said. “We’ll get the best view out there.”
“Rinaldo’s on watch.”
Zack nodded. They might have to wait until the sun was all the way up and the vampires back inside before this could work. But he’d wait as long as he had to.
He led the way outside, the night air cold on his heated flesh. It was strange. Although he knew he was running a fever that should have long ago baked him alive, he didn’t really feel hot unless he was working out. He didn’t usually perspire, though he was doing it now, thanks to the nerves that were eating him alive.
Zack headed for the stables, trying to keep his stride to an ambling gait when all he really wanted to do was run. Beside him, Jason played it super cool, as if they really were just out to watch the sky lighten. Then again, a Marine ought to be good under pressure.
“Heading somewhere?” Rinaldo asked good-naturedly, appearing out of nowhere as vampires had the habit of doing. “Is something wrong, Zack?”
Dammit. It figured that Rinaldo would pick up on his nerves. Thinking fast, he said, “I’m not feeling great, Rinaldo. I don’t think I have much longer.” They kept treating him like some poor, pathetic dying martyr. He might as well use it to his advantage. “I’m tired of spending so much time inside. I wanted to see the sunrise and maybe just spend the morning out here.”
Rinaldo made a sound of sympathy that told him that maybe he hadn’t overplayed that too much. The vampire clasped his shoulder. “Let us know if you need anything. Either of you. I’m heading back in soon, but Sam’s on watch next.”
“Thanks, Rinaldo,” Zack said quietly, coughing for good measure. He watched the vampire slowly make his way around the house, then turned to Jason. “I should get an Oscar for that performance.”
Jason’s only response was to grunt.
“Let’s get the horses ready, Jase.”
“I’d rather wait until the sun comes up. Neither one of us will be able to see shit until the sky lightens.”
Zack’s limbs were about to go crazy with the need to get this over with, to get on the horses and go. But he knew Jason was right. They sat on the ground on the side of the barn away from the house, where they wouldn’t be seen…or their disappearance noticed. Zack thought about eating one of the sandwiches, but his stomach was in knots.
His foot tapped the ground, his hands keeping up a steady tattoo on his knees.
“Keep it together, Zack,” Jason said quietly. “Watch the sky. You do need to learn to tell when the sun comes up in the real world, especially now, when it makes such a difference to the vamps. There’s a slight glow when the sun first appears. You have to be watching to notice it.” Several minutes later he said, “There. Do you see that?”
Zack shook his head. “Let’s go.”
Jason snorted. “Fine. We need to get a bead on Sam first so that we can stay under his radar.”
Out of nowhere, the terrible, heavy lethargy swept through Zack again, wiping him out. He collapsed back against the wall, banging his head.
“Zack!” And then Jason was in his face. “I’m going to get help.”
“No.” Zack didn’t know where he found the strength, but he grabbed Jason’s wrist and held him fast. “No. Nothing’s changed.”
Jason stared at him, none of the thoughts flying through his head registering on his face. Probably because he already knew what Zack would say.
“If this happens when you’re riding, you’re going to fall off the horse.”
Zack shrugged. “Then I fall off the horse. Give me five minutes and I’ll be stronger than you, again. These…events…have been happening for the past couple of days. I just haven’t told anyone. I’ll be fine in a few minutes.” And then for how long? Because they were coming more and more often. He wouldn’t admit that to anyone else, but he couldn’t lie to himself. “I’ll be fine.”
He could tell it cost Jason to sit back down, but his friend did. And within a few minutes, thankfully, Zack felt as if his full strength had returned.
All of a sudden, the ground began to shake, violently.
Zack’s gaze swung to Jason. “Let’s go. They’ll never hear the horses over the rumbling.”
But Jason didn’t move.
“I feel fine, Jase.” As if to prove his point, he leaped to his feet, took Jason’s hand, and hauled him to his.
Zack held his breath, worried that Jason was going to refuse.
But finally his friend nodded. “Wait here while I find Sam.” Moments later, he returned. “He’s on the other side of the house, but won’t be for long. Can you ride bareback?”
“I’d ride a werewolf if it would get me to Lily.”
Jason threw him a look that was half amusement, half respect, and nodded. As one, they slipped into the stables, then swiftly led two horses out again. As they mounted and took off, Zack glanced back at Neo’s, at the sunbeam illuminating a small circle in the backyard that would keep the vampires in hiding. The ground continued to rumble, effectively disguising their hoofbeats. Until someone thought to check on them, they wouldn’t be missed.
They’d done it! A clean getaway.
But as Zack turned front again, and headed into the now light-dotted, vampire and werewolf infested darkness of Vamp City, he was slammed with a memory of his enslavement, of the beatings he’d taken, of the casual cruelty and murder he’d witnessed.
For a moment, he wondered if he should be celebrating this escape from safety. Because even if Lily was still alive, the chances that he and Jason would be able to find her, and get the three of them back to Neo’s in one piece, were slim to none.
For a brief moment, he wondered what in
the hell he was thinking embarking on this mission without Quinn and her vampires at his back. Except they would never be at his back, that was the problem. They’d leave him behind.
No, he was doing the right thing. When he thought of Lily, of the shine of laughing intelligence in her beautiful eyes and the sweetness of her bright smile, he knew he’d happily take on every vampire in Vamp City if it meant the slightest chance of seeing her again.
Chapter 28
Look, grandfather, if you lift the curse it’s possible that a few Levenach heirs may come into their magic…if they have any. But it’s unlikely that many of Levenach’s bloodline have survived two millennia.
Quinn felt like she’d been arguing with a brick wall for the past half hour, to no avail. As dawn had broken, as the landscape had become fully visible to eyes that she suspected hadn’t seen very well in the dark, the ancient male had become more and more agitated. He’d finally stumbled into the backyard of a residential home and lowered himself to the ground beneath a huge maple tree.
Now he refused to budge. She wasn’t certain he could get himself back up if he wanted to.
Sooner or later, the transformation was going to wear off—she hoped. He’d be gone and she’d be free to walk back into Sakamoto’s garden the next time the sunbeams broke through. But if she didn’t get him to lift the curse before that happened, all of this would be for nothing.
She’d been trying to cajole him into lifting the curse since they got here, but he just sat beneath the tree, trembling, his heart pounding. If she hadn’t seen some of the truly vile things he’d done in his later years—like sending a thousand poisonous snakes to wipe out a village simply because the villagers had made too much noise during their midsummer’s revelry—she might actually feel sorry for him.
A few minutes ago, when the sun came up, her heart sank, because she knew Arturo had tried to find them. And failed. Hopefully he’d made it back to V.C. before dawn and wasn’t stuck on this side, waiting out the daylight.
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