I nodded, running down that idea. “Maybe that is why so many people are acting strangely. A priest becoming a tyrant. A fierce Shepherd becoming a frightened sheep. It’s why everyone seems to have become what they are not. Acting against their natures.”
I thought about something else I’d heard from Xuanwu. Black Sheep. I was the Black Sheep of my family. As was Roland. Eae. Samael. Alucard. And so many others. Hell, Nate’s friends in St. Louis were all Black Sheep and they seemed to be doing pretty well together.
A fleeting suspicion crossed my mind—whether our parents had set us up to fall in love with each other. Judging by all of their other scheming, it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility to tack on arranged marriage and made my stomach squirm unhappily ever after. My feelings for Nate were my own, not some fabricated equation.
Right?
Another sobering thought slithered into my ears like an oiled snake, making my shoulders twitch. “Master Calvin Temple helped you come up with a way to protect me from…the Masters,” I said, emphasizing his title and the name of our enemy being the same.
Qinglong nodded. “Calvin believed that one of the first Temple ancestors here in the States was one of the first Masters. The one who set their entire plan in motion. He felt a personal responsibility for it, hence his devotion to the fight.”
Good god. Nate would love to hear that.
“How do I know you’re not one of them?” I asked guardedly.
He smiled, nodding. “I am blood bound to this room by both your father and mother. But your blood is even stronger than theirs. Much stronger…” he mused, curling his flesh-stache with his claws. “Perhaps we could renew that oath. A gesture of faith.”
Wanting to see how such a thing could work—for future use—and wanting to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I could trust Qinglong, I extended my arm.
Qinglong accepted it carefully and made the smallest of punctures in my wrist with one of his claws. Then he lowered his head and lapped up the small pool of blood. I grimaced at the ritual and pulled my hand away when he was finished. I stared at him as he licked the blood from his lips.
“That’s it?” I asked, finally realizing he wasn’t going to say anything about it.
He nodded, smiling. “I am now bonded to you,” he said. “Not as any kind of servant or anything, but if you focus, you’ll sense a…harmony between us.”
I closed my eyes, doing as he said. And…he was right. Nothing extreme, but a faint hum, like a silken string between his chest and my own. And despite its size, it was as strong as cable wire. I opened my eyes, shaking my head in disbelief.
“See?” he said, smiling. “You can feel me, now. If ever you see me and do not feel it, you will know I found a way to break your oath. Highly unlikely, with your blood.”
I nodded slowly, still trying to wrap my head around it. “Being a Master has a lot of perks. Why wouldn’t you join them?”
He smiled, shaking his head. “My existence consists of sharing powers with my fellows. If I’m to die standing by it, reincarnation will be kind to me for my steadfastness.”
He had been locked up here for a while, so I didn’t bother asking him about Dracula, presuming he wouldn’t know much more than I already did.
“Lock up behind you on your way out,” he said in a faint, hissper. And I turned to see he had disappeared.
“Hey, fix Solomon!” I shouted. But no one answered. Damn it.
Chapter 34
I heard a noise behind me and spun, ready to hurl magic and grab Qinglong by the flesh-stache until he agreed to heal Solomon of the black veins.
So I was more than surprised to see Claire and Last Breath standing in an open doorway I hadn’t even noticed, staring at me with concern. I saw an old bloody handprint on the interior frame of the door—likely my mother’s ward to protect her laboratory from the Masters.
“Don’t come in!” I snapped, holding up my hands urgently. “It’s warded!”
My friends gave each other a long, silent look, but they didn’t approach. They tapped their ears and made a shrugging gesture. I frowned. They couldn’t hear me? Wow. That was a relief. Good to know I hadn’t had this whole secret conversation about an evil secret society hell-bent on overthrowing humanity with the fucking door to the hall open.
No wonder Qinglong had disappeared so abruptly. He’d probably sensed them.
I held up a finger, telling them to give me a minute.
I didn’t wait for an answer as I made my way over to the table and scooped up the dragon figurine I had noticed earlier. The one that looked just like Qinglong. His brother had given me a black tortoise figurine, so I was betting this was also some kind of totem—one that Qinglong had given to my mother.
Maybe it would help me find him later. I shoved it into my coat pocket, glad that it was small. I took one last look around the room, my eyes lingering on the space where the sheathe had been. Excalibur’s new vessel.
I shook my head, walking towards them. I kept my wounded wrist out of their immediate sight and waited for them to turn around before smearing a bit on the frame, right beside my mother’s print. I lifted my hand, holding it up to her print, smiling sadly. She’d…done her best. I was still pissed at her for it, but I thought I understood it. She was the mom who took a bullet to save her daughter.
It’s just that no one else had ever known there had been a shooter.
“Thanks, mom,” I whispered, pressing my forehead against her print.
Then I walked through the opening and closed the door behind me.
“Glad to see you’re alive. We haven’t been looking for you or anything,” Claire said coldly, folding her arms.
I let out a breath, nodding. “How long have you been standing there?” I asked.
Claire was wearing a fluffy robe, and I remembered she had shifted in our fight back at the warehouse—what felt like a million years ago for me.
Last Breath was in full-on lion mode, sans armor, scowling at the door warily.
“Just got here,” she murmured absently, her eyes also pinned to the door. “Who…” she began, trailing off as she cocked her head suddenly, sniffing much more intently as if she’d caught a dangerous scent. Qinglong. Was he still here? I couldn’t feel him through our strange blood bond, so I was doubting it.
Last Breath had already flung a big meaty paw across Claire’s chest, even though the door was closed. “Are you…feeling okay, Callie?” he asked nervously, staring at my arms.
I frowned. “I think so.”
“What were you doing in there, and why couldn’t we hear you?” Claire asked, settling her eyes back on me.
I stared back at her for a minute, not entirely sure how to answer. What could I tell her? “A guy with a mustache,” I finally whispered. “Well, a flesh-stache, technically. And the room is warded from eavesdropping.”
“You were doing a guy with a flesh-stache,” she said flatly, the beginning of a grin tugging at the corners of her lips, “in a room warded from eavesdropping.” She nudged Last Breath with an elbow. He found it about as humorous as I did.
“No. Never mind.” I indicated the room behind me. “This was my mother’s laboratory.”
Claire’s face wilted at the dark change in topic. “Oh. It’s…nice,” she said lamely.
Last Breath was shaking his head in open disbelief. “And you’re sure you feel fine? Nothing strange in your arms or chest?” he asked again.
I frowned at him, then glanced down at my arms, inspecting them. I lifted the neck of my shirt but saw nothing wrong. “I’m fine. Why?” Was he talking about the demon disguise?
Last Breath let out a relieved sigh but didn’t look entirely relaxed. “It’s just…” He waved a hand at the doorway. “Solomon tried to enter this room and was knocked unconscious. He doesn’t remember any of it, and he woke up with black veins. I found him right here, still in the doorway.”
I let out a breath. “Yeah. He…well, he wasn’t supposed to go in the
re. My mom booby-trapped it.” I didn’t want to admit that there had been a freaking dragon living here without their consent. I knew I would have to soon, but I just needed a minute to myself. Qinglong had said he would shed some light on how to help Solomon, but at least I knew we had three or four days.
I could find Qinglong before that. We’d bonded. Or I would go pummel Xuanwu into telling me where his mustached brother would likely go after a twenty-odd-year prison sentence. Maybe Qinglong had just needed to go potty. Because I hadn’t seen a restroom.
“I think I know how to help Solomon, but it’s going to have to wait a few days,” I said, ignoring the flat stare from Last Breath. “Trust me on this. I’ll tell you all about it soon, but right now I just want to get away from here.” I pointed at the door adamantly. “Just to be safe, no one enters this room without me. My mother’s ward is still active, and I need to figure out how to take it down before anyone else ends up like Solomon.”
Last Breath nodded thoughtfully, staring at the wooden door. “Your mother was a very clever wizard.” I could sense the million questions on his mind, but I didn’t say anything.
I realized, in that moment, that she hadn’t told Last Breath or Solomon about any of this specifically because they would have tried to talk her out of it. Or they would have poked their noses into the Masters and gotten themselves killed in a failed attempt at vengeance.
They carried guilt, thinking they had failed her. Guilt they never should have had to carry.
But I knew that somewhere out there, beyond the veil of life, she was smiling.
Because she’d saved their lives from unseen bullets, too.
Chapter 35
The chirping chorus of singing birds rolled over me, increasingly louder, as we neared the balcony—the only part of Solomon’s Temple I felt familiar with. At some point, Last Breath had shifted back to his human form—turning back into Richard, in my mind—and had snatched up one of the ever-present robes seemingly hanging everywhere. So I looked like I was escorting the two of them to the spa for a romantic massage or something.
Richard and Claire had tried speaking with me on the way through the halls—about seven hundred miles of them, it had felt like—but I had walked in a numb haze for most of it. I remembered ultimately telling them a fabricated version of the truth—that my mother had spelled the Seal of Solomon to redirect me to her laboratory upon first use and that I’d learned some things from my mother’s effects. I said nothing about the Masters, though. I wouldn’t until I thought more on the blood bond ritual Qinglong had shown me.
Both for their safety and my own.
There was pretty much only one person I wanted to see right now. Because Xuanwu had given me a job, and speaking with his brother, Qinglong, had served to verify some truths for me. I needed to murder hope.
Upon hearing what I’d gone through—even the redacted version—the two of them had grown very quiet. After a time, Claire had started telling me what they’d been up to—since I’d forgotten to ask. Whoops. I learned that they had checked on the still unconscious Phix and caught Solomon up on events in Kansas City before searching for me. When Richard hadn’t been looking, I’d mouthed the word Dracula to Claire, silently asking if she’d shared that information with them. She had shaken her head no, and I’d let out a soft sigh of relief.
We finally reached the balcony and I took a deep breath of fresh air, imagining my parents doing the same in their day. Maybe Calvin and Makayla Temple, too. All staring out at the beauty below as they strategized how best to deal with the Masters and protect their kids.
Other than repeating the world “Wild,” again and again, Claire seemed to have gotten over her shock of seeing Solomon’s Temple—after an apparently extensive inspection—and she now acted more familiar with it all than I could even pretend. I couldn’t even really remember what I had seen on the walk back to the balcony, I’d been so lost in my own thoughts.
I would have to figure out a way to get anyone else into my mother’s laboratory without poisoning them, of course, but that could wait. I didn’t want to unlock the room only to leave again for Kansas City. My Seal and blood mix had been the key to get inside the room unscathed, so maybe I could use one of those to break the ward my mother had put in place.
For the fifth time, Richard appraised me up and down, checking that I was unharmed—other than the small cuts on my palms. “I’m glad you’re okay, Callie. I got to that warehouse as fast as I could. The moment I sensed you were in danger, I came.”
I had begun to nod at the first statement but hesitated at his last comment. He hadn’t said that before, or I hadn’t heard him. “You…sensed that I was in danger?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.
Richard nodded. “Much stronger than the others before it.”
I blinked several times. He had sensed me in danger other times. Probably when I’d been fighting Alucard and Claire, but that sensation must have been significantly stronger when Eae was about to behead me. And Richard could just, what, appear at my side to protect me?
Richard nodded at me from within his high-necked robe, letting me know I’d spoken out loud. I opened my mouth to ask a question, thought of a better one, and then an even better one. Ultimately, I decided to just keep them to myself for later. I was on a timetable. I needed to focus on Kansas City. Solomon’s Temple could wait, and I had a job to do for a tortoise.
“I’m pretty sure Eae recognized me right before the world caught fire and burned away,” I said, flicking my hair where I had felt the flush of warmth when Eae had last looked at me.
Richard was frowning at me in confusion, but Claire smiled broadly, elbowing him. “I told you she wasn’t listening when I told her.” She abruptly wrapped me up in a hug, patting my hair soothingly and squeezing tightly, and I knew it had nothing to do with my hair.
It was the first time I had let her touch me since leaving my mother’s laboratory—she was hugging me for every painful word that had left my mouth on our walk, letting me know she was there in any capacity I needed. I hugged her back, feeling my shoulders relax at the physical contact of a caring, empathetic heart. I hadn’t known how tight my shoulders were.
“I love you, Callie,” she whispered. “I’ll always be here for you, even if your cat’s a dick.” Richard grumbled unhappily.
I laughed, squeezing her back tightly.
I remembered her trying to hug me a few times on our walk back to the balcony, or to hold my hand, but I had rebuked any physical contact, feeling too raw.
I definitely hadn’t heard her tell me I looked like myself for the first time since last night. For Claire, it had been the first time in over a year that she had actually seen her best friend.
“I never saw any demonic form,” Richard said, squinting at me as if I was an optical illusion that he could overpower through sheer will. “But I do need to speak with you about something. Privately.”
Claire bristled, but I placed a hand on her shoulder, still staring into Richard’s eyes. “It’s okay, Claire. Wait here for a minute,” I said, motioning Richard to walk with me.
Claire folded her arms, glaring at Richard. “She’s just going to tell me later!”
I smirked, shaking my head. We walked in silence for a minute or so, putting enough distance between us for Claire not to overhear…whatever it was Richard wanted to say.
“Lot of weird stuff going on, Callie…” he said after a few more steps.
I frowned. “You mean the guy with the flesh-stache?”
He pursed his lips, shaking his head. “I still want to hear about that, but I was talking about your apparent demon disguise,” he said, gesturing at me with a wave of his hand, “And your friend from the alley.”
I came to a dead halt. “Excuse me?” I asked in a frosty tone. “You mean the vampires trying to molest Phix or the guy that sucker-punched me?” I demanded.
He turned to face me, shaking his head uncertainly. “You knew that man, Callie. He approached and you
spoke with him…”
I stared at him incredulously. “What the hell are you talking about? He attacked me!”
Richard was shaking his head firmly. “No. He did not. I saw the whole thing. This is the first chance I’ve had to talk with you since then,” he explained. “And I’ve never seen this demon disguise Claire keeps talking about…” he reminded me, eyeing me up and down.
Part of me was furious that he would insinuate such an allegation, calling me a liar. But…another part of me felt an intangible terror at the implication. Richard, judging by his face right now, was entirely sure of himself. One of us had to be wrong…
And that event had been a blank spot to me. Just that flash of light and then a familiar looking man walking away. Le Bone. Which meant…
I took a calming breath, ignoring the tingling sensation in my fingers at the thought of something happening to me that I couldn’t remember. “What did you see, Richard?” I asked.
I think he could tell by my tone that he’d managed to freak me out. “A man approached you. You held up your hand for us to give you some privacy, so I thought it was a friend of yours. You spoke briefly for a few moments, and then I think you shook hands. Then you did something with your magic. Your Silvers…”
My heart skipped a beat, and I suddenly felt like I was going to vomit. I…had done this to myself? Why? And why couldn’t I remember any of it? Why hadn’t Cain remembered?
“All I remember is a flash of light and falling down,” I told Richard, taking a deep breath to calm down. “Cain remembers the same thing. It’s why he was getting his ass kicked when the vampires came out of nowhere. He was already on the ground, just like me. In fact, being on the ground is the only reason that electric net hit Phix instead of me…” I said, realizing that for the first time.
Richard frowned at the contradicting story. “You and Cain both fell when you used your Silvers, and the man left a heartbeat before the vampires descended. It was so sudden that I didn’t see it coming. My guard was down because you were speaking with this man without any apparent concern. Then Phix was injured and I had to return here, or I would have asked you about all of it sooner. I didn’t even realize it was a big deal until Claire mentioned your demon disguise.”
Feathers and Fire Series Box Set 2 Page 74
