by Liddie Cain
The servant stepped over to Felix and cleansed his head as well. When we stood, the water quickly evaporated from our bodies, and the steam swirled down into the fountain. It left our hair and skin dry. The chamber doors opened on their own and, we stepped through.
Lady Devina sat in what could be called her drawing room. There was a door that opened to the back gardens of the Palace. Bookshelves lined most of the walls and were full of records, manuscripts and spellbooks. The Lady was poised on an ornate arm-chair with large windows behind her. She directed us to a matching couch that was positioned across from her arm-chair.
“I have heard of the human the two of you are in love with,” she declared before we even took our seats. There was nothing demonic looking about Devina. She was tall and slender with long legs that gave her the appearance of a dancer. Her hair was black as a raven’s wing and piled up on her head in an intricate design of braids. A silver diadem was poised on the crown of her head. She wore a white robe trimmed with black feathers. It was open at the front, barely covering her large breasts and revealing a white loin cloth that left her hips bare except for the black feather straps that swept over her hip bones.
“You neglect your dominion to focus on the human, Thrasher.” Felix had served as Devina’s warlord when she started her battle to take this throne. He had earned the nickname the Thrasher for his hand to hand combat expertise. She had rewarded him with his dominion when they overtook the previous inhabitant.
“Lady Devina, I am still maintaining my dominion. The human possesses unusual blood, that empowers those that drink it and others have learned of this that would try and take her for their own.”
“So your excuse is that you are fighting to protect your property?”
Felix managed to keep a neutral face. “Yes, my Lady.”
Then she turned her black eyes onto me. “The vampire magistrate. You also claim the human. Can you not protect her from these threats?”
“My Lady,” I answered solemnly, “these outside threats seem to be coming from an archdemon of another dominion. I have not the power to fight against one of your archdemons.”
“Of course no,.” she answered quickly. “Nor should you.”
Then she grew quiet, debating, before finally crossing one of her legs over the other one and addressing Felix again. “Your human, you saw that she is a new soul?”
“Yes, my Lady.”
I thought it was a weird thing for her to confirm that Felix was aware of. It was hard to read Devina, but I felt like she knew more than what she was saying.
“Your magistrate should feed from no one else but her.”
I widened my eyes, “I could kill her It takes away my control.”
“Get better control.”
She stared at me. I swallowed and gave a quick nod. Then she blew out an exasperated breath.
She stood and lifted her hand. Power channeled from the ground into her hand. It materialized into a black mist that rose into the air above her fingertips. She dropped her hand, and the mist floated across the room to settle on me. I felt it flow into me, rushing through every molecule. My body floated into the air as it felt like fire licked across me. I managed to keep from yelling, but when I was finally dropped back onto the couch, I grunted. My fangs had extended, and I had to soothe them back into place. I felt as if I were full of an adrenaline rush and ready to fight anyone I came across.
“Thank you, my Lady.” Felix said.
“Make it worth my time, Thrasher. You are one of the strongest archdemons with now one of the strongest vampires as your magistrate.”
She sat back down and leveled another glare at him before continuing, “And you’ve been suspicious of Monroe? He is the one.”
She started to say more then stopped. The whites of her eyes suddenly bled all the way black, and the room grew dark as her face started to transform into an expression of anger. Felix braced himself, leaning slightly closer to me. Her council members crowded into the room. She stood as they approached and spoke in a rush of jumbled whispers that were impossible to understand. They responded in the same secret language that only she and her council knew.
Then the lights came back up, and her eyes blinked back to normal. Her council quickly left the room. She sighed, perched back on the couch and picked up her tea cup.
“Monroe wants my position, Felix.” She took a sip from her teacup and watched Felix’s face.
He just looked at her with confusion. “He hasn’t the power.”
“He thinks he has figured out how to gain it.”
“Through Roz?”
“Quite. Will you use her the same way, Felix?” Her words began to echo, power swelling up behind them as she punched the question across the air. The air carried the power to him and wrapped around his throat, shoving him up out of his seat as if she were doing it with her hand. The spell would choke him if he lied.
“No, Devina. I do not aspire to take your throne,” he gasped out.
Devina took another sip from her tea cup before setting it down on the coffee table in front of her again. She flicked her finger downward in his direction, and his throat was released. He dropped heavily to the couch and rubbed his neck.
“So it is love?”
“Yes.”
“Like you are soulmates? Destined to love one another?”
He gave a small shrug. “As lame as it sounds, yes.”
Her lips pressed together as if she was displeased with this information, but she hid her response quickly.
“Monroe has your human.”
It took a second for it to sink in for both of us. Felix cursed. We both ran to the door.
“Felix,” Devina said calmly, and Felix was frozen in place. His eyes spelled his rage. I stopped and turned back to look at her. Anger had transformed her face since she knew this was Monroe’s move to defeat her. When she spoke, her words echoed. Her council had returned to her side to witness her proclamation.
“I, Lady Devina, overlady of the Earth realm demons, hereby grant you with the power to execute a death warrant for Monroe Warren, archdemon of the New England Dominion, for the charges of treason and theft.”
She jerked her chin upward. Felix was released from his paralysis at the same instant that the enchantment to block our telepathic and empathic abilities was lifted. “I can’t feel her.”
“I’ll send you home.”
“Thank you, Devina.”
“Serve me well, my Thrasher. You will be rewarded.”
Then she blew her breath towards us. It became a great wind that swirled around us, lifted our feet from the floor. My sight went black as the wind closed in around us quickly. Then we were dropped on our feet outside of my house.
Darby saw us walking toward the house and ran out to us, tears still sliding down her face. “They took her, Mac! Roz is gone. Jason and Barden are dead,” she said through her sobs. I rushed to her.
“I know. Where did they take her from?” She was still sobbing and I reached out and gripped her arms. I heard the crunch as I did it. She screamed in pain and turned pale.
“Shit, Darby, I’m sorry.”
Felix cursed.
Sylvia appeared in a blur of speed, and I shook my head at her. “Devina just gave me more power, and I’m not used to it yet.”
“You crushed her arms,” Sylvia gasped then bit down on her arm and placed the wound up against Darby’s quivering mouth. “Drink, love, it will heal you.”
Felix was growing frustrated and yelled, “Where did they take her from?”
“Bedroom!”
Felix disappeared. I looked at Sylvia. “You got her?”
As soon as she started to nod, I rushed to the bedroom. Felix was standing in the middle of it, growling in frustration. “I can’t feel her, not even her mark.”
Barden and Jason were on the bed, nude and unconscious. “They aren’t dead.” I muttered.
“No. But I can’t read anything from Jason because he’s so far gone into
repose and I can’t do a fucking thing with the Unseelie.”
“Call Conall.”
“Yeah.” He looked around the room. “I don’t see anything in here that tells me how they got her.”
He jerked his phone out and made a call to the Unseelie King’s secretary. As usual, he was told that the King was unavailable. “Tell him this very instant that Felix called and Rozalyn has been taken, Barden has been put under a spell, and that I need him to appear in ten seconds.”
Then he hung up and shoved his phone back in his pocket.
“I am going to rip Monroe’s head from his body,” Felix muttered. Arnold knocked on the door a moment later, then the Unseelie King walked in. He paused to look at his court member on the bed then glanced at us.
Felix gestured at Barden impatiently. “See if you can see what is going on with him.”
Conall frowned. Likely, this kind of thing would be performed by some of his staff usually. But the king did not protest. Felix wanted to deal with him because it was the quickest way to get orders for assistance from his court. Conall also liked Roz. He swept his jeweled cloak back from his shoulders and leaned over the bed, placing his hand on Barden’s chest.
“He was enchanted, but not directly.” The air texture changed around us, and Conall poured power into the room. There was a haze around us that suddenly made the strings of the spell flowing from Jason into Barden visible. “The vampire passed it to him. Looks like the vampire consumed it.”
Felix’s eyes widened. Then he let out a long rant of curses. “The donor that Roz was talking to! I heard some of the conversation and she was telling Roz that a weird woman grabbed her hair.”
Conall released the power he was using, and the air started to return to normal. “Whatever it was, it let a succubus manipulate them. Barden also consumed Roz’s blood. He has the same inner glow as he did the last time,” the king stated with a frown.
“They drew the power from Roz into Jason and Barden and used it to incapacitate them,” I said.
Felix smashed his fist into his hand and roared in anger. His skin broke into his fire ember physique as he grabbed Jason’s leg and dragged him off the bed. The power made the room tremble. Felix showed his absolute control over the denizens attached to his dominion. With pure power, he reanimated the sleeping vampire and caused him to retch out all of the tainted blood he had consumed. The blood that was in his system seeped out of his pores. It spread out across the floor around him. The curse rose up like a puff of smoke, and Conall destroyed it with a surge of power from his staff.
Jason and Barden both opened their eyes. Jason, drained of blood, woke up in a feral state. Felix froze him in place while I called Arnold to bring him blood from the blood bank. Barden sat up, unconcerned at his nudity. “What happened? Where is Roz?”
“Monroe has her,” Felix barked.
Conall explained what had happened as Arnold brought in two bottles of blood. We let Conall check it for more curses before he nodded, and we set it beside Jason. Felix released him, and Jason grabbed the blood, drinking both in a matter of seconds. I explained the situation to him as he was finishing and he had come out of his feral state. He slammed the bottles on the ground, the glass shattering and scattering across the floor.
“Whatever we need to do to get her back, I’ll do it,” he said with a pained voice.
“Great. If I had an idea of how to find her that would be amazing,” Felix replied dryly.
“I will return to the Unseelie Court and organize searches.”
Felix nodded. “Thanks. Might be the only way we can find her.”
Fog swirled up around the Unseelie King and he disappeared from sight. Barden and Jason started to get dressed as I swept up the shattered glass. When Roz returned, and she would, I didn’t want her to step on broken glass.
Felix sighed, picking up my thoughts. “They’ve cut her off from me, Mac. I don’t know if we will get her back.”
I shook my head. Arnold came back into the room and finished cleaning up the glass. “Then we track him. Sooner or later, he will go where she is.”
“He will know we are there.”
“I can hide you.” Brinna’s voice came from the doorway. Felix sneered toward her.
“Little late, aren’t you, angel?”
She was unfazed by his aggression and met his gaze coolly. “Do you expect an angel to watch over her intimate moments? As soon I knew she felt fear, she was gone.”
“Felix, it was obviously well planned. They knew we had a meeting with Devina, knew Roz would be left with Jason because we had already sent in the paperwork for making him the deputy magistrate, and figured out how to make sure Brinna wouldn’t watch her that closely.”
“Deputy magistrate?” Jason asked.
Felix nodded at him. “Yeah I was going ahead and getting approval before I talked to you about it.”
“So we go with Brinna?”
“I think it’s the best plan.”
I turned and looked at Jason. “I need you to step up and be the deputy magistrate right now because I don’t know how long we will be gone.”
“Yes,” he answered, remorse on his face. It would be some time before he would forgive himself for allowing Roz to be taken while he was supposed to be protecting her.
“Take over here,” I continued. “Rose and Darby will need to keep Roz’s spa running. Destiny and Sylvia will need to make sure the donor program runs just as smoothly as before, because there are some new vampires arriving. One of them is named Hugh, and you can trust him. Notify us if the Unseelie King arrives.”
Then I looked back at Felix. “I’m going to get some petty cash from the office and burner phones from my office in case we need them. Can you think of anything else?”
Felix shook his head, but Jason quietly added, “Roz wasn’t wearing any clothes when they took her.”
I stopped, unsure why this had not occurred to me. My Dove was out there frightened, more than likely mistreated and being used by a sadistic archdemon and she was doing it all without a stitch of clothing on. It made this violation feel so much harsher. Anger rushed over me. Felix touched my shoulder. “Mac.”
I shoved him away from me, again forgetting the boost of power Devina had gifted me, and sent him flying across the room. Only Felix’s ability to transport himself saved the wall from having a large, demon-shaped hole in it. But it helped; my anger cooled and Felix was unoffended as he spoke to my mind.
“Glad you got that out. I’ll meet you in your office shortly.”
***
The capital of Monroe’s dominion was New York City. This worked in our favor, since the higher population density naturally promoted a much higher population of vampires. It wasn’t necessary for Brinna to conceal me, only Felix. This meant that we could split up. Monroe had two residences in the city, but after the first full day of going back and forth between them while Brinna and Felix monitored his office building, none of us had picked up on any sign of him.
Conall walked up the street toward me a couple of blocks away from one of the houses I had been checking. I lifted my hand to acknowledge him. Since there were plenty of humans around us, he had used some glamor to make himself blend in. The illusion worked on me, too. His face looked the same, but his clothing was a modern black suit and his hair looked short.
“Hello. I’ve sent a couple of pixies into the house you were just watching. Let us see if they have found anything.”
We paused near one of the subway entrances, and I asked, “Did you already check the other house?”
He nodded. “Yes. There was nothing to indicate that Rozalyn had been there recently.”
“I doubt it for this house, too.”
The Unseelie King frowned. “Are there residences in the city that we are not aware of?”
“I suppose that is possible. If they don’t find anything, we could ask Felix.”
“This archdemon must meet his death for this violation. I will have it no other
way,” Conall said darkly.
“You and me both,” I agreed.
“Mac. Alliances have been a long tradition for both the Dark and the Light court. I have made such alliances with demons in the lower realm before. I think it is possible that they might be conflicting with the alliance I wish to offer your Rozalyn.”
I frowned, not liking the way that sounded. “Will you take back your offer?”
“No. In fact, I will honor that offer before it is even agreed upon. Should you or Felix ever be told that my loyalties lie against Rozalyn, be assured that it is not you that I will betray. I will not end those alliances early and raise alarm. If my army is ever called against you, know that I will stand for you.”
I bowed to him. “That makes me very happy to hear.”
“Rozalyn gave me a joyful gift, and I will not forget how grateful I was for it.”
Two pixies descended from the rooftops to land on his shoulders. They concealed themselves in little balls of light, one yellow and one blue. I could not see anything but the very tips of their wings fluttering behind them. They spoke to him, but it only sounded like little bell chimes to my ear.
“They are telling me there was no sign of her,” he finally said.
“I expected it, but tell them I am grateful.”
He looked back and forth between the pixies again before they disappeared. Conall sighed. “I regret I wasn’t greater help. I will return to my Court now, but if you find another place to search, I will send help again.”
I nodded. “Safe travels.” He turned up an alley and faded from sight.
Realizing that we were not going to find any significant leads before nightfall and that Roz would be spending yet another night without being in my arms was devastating. It also felt like we were just in the wrong place. Bringing her here wouldn’t make any sense. There were just too many chances someone would notice what he was doing.
