by Ally Shields
“I have a possible answer,” Ari offered.
“Which is?” Andreas gave her an odd look. “Did you learn something in Cincinnati?”
She nodded, then realized Daron couldn’t see her. “Yes, from the rogue witches,” she said, talking to the speakerphone. “Are you aware of the problem we have with a black witches’ coven?”
“Yes, Andreas told me. You went to Cincinnati to confront them.”
“Sort of. I haven’t had a chance to tell Andreas any of this,” she gave him an apologetic look, “but I found out the coven had a fight with Ursula the night of the first massacre.” She filled in the few details she knew. “Ursula may have been injured in some way, her powers depleted.”
“You think she has been recuperating,” Daron mused. “That could explain her inactivity, except she is a vampire. Most of us regain full power in one sleep cycle.”
“No matter how badly she was hurt? A couple of our vampires were so severely injured last year they took days, even weeks to recover.”
“But they were younger, weaker vampires, and Marcus was nearly mummified,” Andreas protested. “Ursula is thousands of years old.”
“Yeah, I know that, but these witches are powerful too. There were thirteen of them, and they can attack psychically from a distance, staying out of reach. More important, they are from Europe and have fought the O-Seven for centuries. If anyone knows how to hurt an enforcer, it would be this coven.”
“She has a point,” Andreas conceded.
“Yes. How does that help us?” When no one answered, Daron said, “Too bad the witches will not join forces with us.”
“Actually, they would,” Ari admitted quietly. “But the price is too high. They want me to join their cause, lend my magic to their dark witchcraft, and return with them to Europe.”
“A high price indeed,” Daron said. “Black magic taints the soul.”
“I assume you said no.” Andreas’s gaze was direct.
Ari nodded, understanding his concern. While Andreas had adapted well to vampire life, he still struggled with his belief that his soul was eternally cursed.
“Did she turn them down or not?” Daron demanded. “She cannot—.”
“She did,” Andreas interrupted, still watching her as if she might change her mind.
“A wise decision. But that brings us back to Ursula.” Daron heaved a deep sigh. “I see no alternative but to kill her. And it will not be easy. The O-Seven will be furious with us, but we cannot allow her to continue this slaughter. I am meeting with the princes shortly. I will call afterward, but I am out of ideas.”
Ari watched Andreas’s face as he disconnected. Daron had sounded so discouraged. “Guess I’d better get dressed after all. I assume we’re having a strategy meeting.”
“Yes, the conference room in twenty minutes.”
No one was late. The news of the second attack had already leaked throughout the vampire community. As his lieutenants sat around the table in the living area, Andreas delivered the latest details.
It wasn’t a comfortable meeting for Ari. The threat from Ursula had made everyone irritable, but other issues added to the tension. Glorius’s constant flirting with Andreas was getting on Ari’s nerves. In fact, she was on low boil. And this was her first meeting with Gabriel since she’d seen him kissing Claris. Perhaps due to their own stress, Glorius and Gabriel were both flaunting their behavior, as if to goad her. If that was their goal, it was working.
Ari clenched her fists under the table as Glorius rested her hand on Andreas’s arm for the third time.
“You worry too much, my prince,” the vampiress said in a soothing tone. “Why would Ursula come here? Riverdale is insignificant, far beneath her notice.”
“Au contraire.” Gabriel’s smile was wry, as he lapsed into one of the rare glimpses of his mother’s French upbringing. His fun-loving French expatriate grandmother had passed the language on to her daughter, who in turn had taught it to her son. He chose odd moments to show it off.
Gabriel stood, moved behind Andreas and Ari, and placed his hands on both chairs. “These two are why she’ll come here. The O-Seven is worried about what they did to Sebastian. Ursula will use the current rebellion as an excuse to eliminate them—if she can.”
Ari’s temper rushed to the surface. She pushed out of her chair and whirled to confront Gabriel. “Are you really blaming us for this?”
He looked confused. “That isn’t what I meant. I was stating the simple facts.”
“That isn’t how it sounded. If I’m such a liability, maybe I should leave.” She turned her head to glare at Oliver and Glorius. “Do you two agree with him?”
Now Andreas was on his feet. “Arianna, please. Let us not make the situation worse by fighting among ourselves. If you and Gabriel have issues, now is not the time.”
She wasn’t backing down. “I still want to know how the others feel. Well?”
Glorius shrugged. “It is what it is.”
Bitch.
Oliver took his time. “The O-Seven has had part of its focus on Riverdale since Daron settled here nine or ten years ago. Sebastian’s death reminded them of our existence and that we are growing stronger. It was inevitable.”
As she listened to Oliver’s measured words, some of Ari’s misdirected anger faded. She felt Andreas’s heavy gaze on her. “I’m going to get coffee. Can I bring anything else?”
Andreas asked her to bring glasses and two bottles of wine. She nodded as she left the room. She was tired—and irritable. Let them talk about her while she was gone. She needed a break and time to think about what Gabriel had said. Perhaps he was right that she’d placed the city in danger. That little gem of truth might take time to absorb.
Since the coffee pot had been turned off, emptied and cleaned, she brewed a fresh batch. She rustled around to find the glasses, selected two bottles of wine from the pantry rack—including the Chianti that was Andreas’s favorite, and found a tray to carry it all. By that time her anger had faded.
When she walked into Andreas’s study, the talking stopped. “Break time.” She flashed a tentative smile and set the wine bottles and glasses on the table, then took her own seat. “Do we have a plan?”
“We have decided that locating Ursula is our top priority.” Andreas paused, and everyone looked at Ari. “But our best chance at that may depend on you.”
“Me? How?”
“By going to the scene of the last attack. You may be able to pick up her trail or sense something else that we cannot.”
“I’ll try, but we have to make it a short trip. The rogue witches will be back, and I intend to be here when they come.” She offered a wry smile. “My bosses expect me to police Olde Town every once in a while.”
“I’ll guard Spirit Cave while you’re gone,” Glorius said.
Ari looked at her in surprise. Maybe the vampiress was more than an obnoxious flirt.
Glorius caught the look and returned a smirk. “It means Gabriel and Oliver will have to do all the rest. The house, the club, the compound, and deal with the nest leaders. The cave’s the easiest job.”
Ari wasn’t fooled. The vampiress had chosen the riskiest assignment where she might have to face the coven with little backup. No one mentioned that, and Andreas simply thanked her.
Glorius stood to leave. “I assume you’ll be going to Canada tomorrow tonight. What happens if you find Ursula?”
“Then we talk with Daron and the other princes. Arianna and I will not attempt to kill or capture her by ourselves.”
Glorius arched a delicate brow. “There will be no capturing of that one. But it’s good to know you won’t endanger yourself.” She swung her hips toward the door. “I’d hate to lose you, darling.”
Gabriel gave a snort of laughter. Oliver got up shaking his head as if he didn’t understand any of them and followed her out.
Ari looked at Gabriel. “You think that’s funny?”
“I do.” He studied her with a lazy
look. “Still pissed about Claris?”
Andreas stood. “Dawn will be here in an hour, which gives the two of you a time limit to work out your issues. This is the last I want to hear on this particular subject.” He walked out and closed the door behind him.
Ari pushed her chair back to follow. “I already told you how I feel, Gabriel. There’s nothing more to say. Except…” She stood and looked down at him. “If you hurt her, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Ari—”
“Do you love her?”
He bolted upright in the chair. “Christ, I barely know her. What you saw…the kiss, it was our first, and we were caught up in the moment.”
“Do you kiss every woman you meet?”
“Not every woman.” He relaxed back in his seat again. “I haven’t kissed you yet. Not that I would try,” he added, seeing her sharp look. “Andreas would kill me.”
“Nooo, I would. Now you’re making a joke of it.”
Gabriel sighed. “It is my fate to be a passing fancy. Your friend is still in love with her wizard. Trust me on this, Ari.”
“Yeah, right. It’s getting close to dawn. You better hurry.” She flashed him a reluctant smile as she turned toward the door. “It really isn’t you I’m worried about. I’m afraid I can’t trust Claris not to lose her heart.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The following evening Ari and Andreas accompanied Prince Bolivar as he approached the entrance to the destroyed Canadian compound. Ari looked around, absorbing the scene visually, keeping her other senses blocked. She wasn’t ready for any emotional input. First, she wanted to understand the mechanics of what had happened.
“These are reinforced steel doors.” Bolivar pointed to the main entrance leading into the underground vampire court. The prince was tense, visibly shaken. “Swatted down. There’s only one dent in the metal.”
A single massive blow. Nothing less than Ari had expected. Everyone knew Ursula had super strength. But what Ari was looking for tonight was any evidence of the vampiress’s mental powers. The enforcer hadn’t attempted to bespell Ari at the meeting in Toronto, nor had she displayed any psychic ability in countering the witch coven’s attack. She always used brute force. And that was unusual. Enough to draw Ari’s attention.
She accompanied the vampires inside the compound and looked around the deserted rooms. Broken and tumbled furniture lay scattered across the floor. Not a gory scene. The blood and bodies had already returned to nature through the process of accelerated decomposition inherent to vampires.
“What happened once she was inside?” Ari asked.
“She killed everyone.”
“Killed them how?”
The prince stiffened, visibly offended by her blunt question. “Dismembered.”
“Did she bespell them first?”
“No. You want all the bloody details?” he asked angrily. “Here, listen to it yourself. Does it sound like they were hypnotized?” He pulled out a cell phone, punched in a string of numbers, and put it on speaker. “I was in a meeting, so it’s all on voice mail.”
At first she heard a normal voice. The caller was informing his prince of a break-in at the compound. Then the screaming began, and the occasional high-pitched laughter that Ari recognized as Ursula’s. The sounds sent prickles over her skin. Ari wanted to ask Bolivar to turn it off, but she forced herself to listen. When she heard the cell phone in the recording clatter to the floor, the sounds of tearing flesh and slurping were almost unbearable. She didn’t look at Andreas or Bolivar. Both vampires were shielding, but the pain would be in their eyes.
The screams continued until the voice mail ran out of message space.
“Goddess, help us,” Ari said under her breath. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too.” Bolivar’s voice was tight.
“Eleven were lost?” Andreas asked, breaking into the raw tension.
“A minimal crew. I’d moved everyone else to safety.” Bolivar looked off into the distance. “There were enough to keep things running and warn off the curious. I never thought she’d come here.”
Ari walked into the hall while Andreas and Bolivar continued to talk. She wanted to be away from the powerful auras of the two master vampires before she opened her senses. She found the main audience chamber and entered. Three broken chairs. Otherwise the room looked untouched, but an aura of death still clung to the air. At the time of the attack, there would have been blood and body parts. Ari halted in the middle of the room and took a deep breath. She lowered her shields and reached out with her witch senses.
Terror and rage surrounded her, overwhelmed her. Vivid images of savagery; smells, emotions, a crushing sensation of power. Her knees went wobbly. Ari staggered, regained her balance, and cut off her sensory receptors.
Andreas appeared at her side. “Arianna, I saw part of that.”
Unable to speak, she fought to recover, taking several deep breaths.
“Is she all right?” Bolivar watched from behind Andreas, his voice concerned, even leery.
“Sorry. That was awful,” she whispered to Andreas. “Too much all at once. I should have shut down our link completely. There’s no reason for both of us to feel this.” She looked at him with eyes narrowed in pain. “Give me a moment, and I’ll try again.”
Andreas took her hand without speaking. It calmed her, and she straightened. “I’m fine now.” She looked at Bolivar. “This is hard to do with so much vampiric energy around me. It would be easier if you waited outside.” When he nodded, she turned to Andreas. “You help to ground me, but if you stay, you have to block your magic and not interfere.”
“Whatever you need. As long as you are not in danger, but if I think you are…”
“Understood.”
Ari waited until Bolivar was outside, grasped Andreas’s hands with hers, and released her magic one thread at a time.
The sensory input came piece by piece this time. She smelled the metallic odor of blood, caught glimpses of the massacre as Ursula slashed her way around the compound, moving so swiftly she appeared to wink in and out. When the terror and panic of the dying grew to an overwhelming crescendo, Ari tightened her hold on Andreas’s hands, and he drew her back from the brink.
Ari’s senses centered on Ursula now. The rage. The lust of power. Ursula’s frustration at not being able to experience her victim’s terror. The intense pleasure from ripping flesh with her claws.
Ari severed the connection. “The freaking bitch. She enjoyed this.”
Andreas didn’t speak until she loosened the death grip on his hands. “Shall we go outside?”
“Yes, I’d like that.”
They found Bolivar leaning against their rental car.
“Did you learn anything?” he asked, straightening.
“I know a lot more about Ursula, about how she functions.” Ari focused on the moonlit parking lot and breathed in the crisp night air. It helped clear the ugliness away. “She’s clever, not smart. She can’t get into their minds, but she feels things and reacts to them.”
“But can you find her? Did you learn where she’s hiding? I’d like to kill her with these.” Bolivar held up his clenched fists.
Ari nodded, understanding his rage. “I have no idea where she is. She wasn’t thinking about anything except killing.” Ari wasn’t going to mention Ursula’s glee. It would only increase Bolivar’s pain.
“Then we wasted our time coming here.”
“No, that’s not true. I learned what Ursula can’t do.”
“Will it help destroy her?” Bolivar’s face was a frozen mask, but she heard the fanatical edge to his voice.
“Maybe. She can’t read or influence minds. She lacks the power to get inside her victims’ heads and control them.”
“That’s not possible. Every vampire can manipulate minds.”
Even Andreas gave her a doubtful look.
“Not Ursula. Seriously. I felt her try, felt her frustration. She can’t do it. I doubt if she was ever a b
ig thinker, and her telepathic and hypnotic powers never developed. That’s why she’s channeled all her energies into physical prowess. If the witch coven had known that, they might have defeated her. Ursula is all brawn, no brain.”
“But can we use that to kill her?” Bolivar sounded as if now the possibility had been raised, he couldn’t dare to believe it.
“Um, I can’t guarantee that. The witches could have, because they caught her off-guard, preoccupied. She is so single-minded, they could have -made a psychic attack before she realized they were there. I think that’s how she was injured. The witches just didn’t realize they had the advantage, and they fled.”
“You could always kill her with witch fire,” Andreas said.
“Yes, but I can’t be everywhere. Now that we know she can’t hypnotize her prey, we can plan to use other weapons. As long as we strike first. If anyone hesitates, she’ll kill them before they can react. That’s the problem with relying on the witch fire. I can’t strike first.”
“Your Witches’ Oath,” he said.
She’d sworn to use the magical fire only for defense. That meant she had to wait for the other side to make the first aggressive move.
Bolivar’s face deflated. “We’d have to catch her by surprise, which isn’t likely to happen. Any other ideas?”
“Not yet,” she admitted.
Andreas’s voice was tight. “Ursula will keep killing until we stop her.”
“I know.” Ari looked at the two men. “And she’s obviously recovered from any damage the coven did. She won’t wait long to strike again.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Once they were aboard the jet and flying home, Ari gave Andreas the other details she’d gathered at the scene. The terror she’d felt from the dying, Ursula’s savagery and pleasure. Ari kept her recital matter-of-fact, but she still shuddered with the memory and set her glass of wine on the table between their swivel chairs.
“She has no human feelings left. Not even a spark.”
