Quinn was beside him, unchained, and looking down at his nails, lips pressed into a bored line. In his dark turtleneck, he looked like a yuppie waiting in line at Starbucks. He didn’t look impressed to be a guest of honor.
Selene waved to the crowd, smiling as if at a parade.
“Oh god, they’re going to unsoul Lucas and Delilah first.” Red stared at Basil. “We can’t let that happen. You know who they are, what they’ve done!”
“You think I want the Bloody Byrneses reunited?” Basil shook his head. “I’m fighting it, but it’s draining my will to live, here. Literally.”
“They need souls. We’re lost if they don’t have them,” Red muttered. Fatigue made her droop. She kept building mental barriers to her magic only to see them crumble like a sandcastle in the tide. She strained to stay on her feet as the machine jerked into place and stilled. Her head swam from the all the spinning. She forced herself to focus. They had to find a way out of this. Hilde couldn’t win, or else the entire world would lose. This tech would only spread.
Agents dragged Delilah over to her family at the base of the tower.
Delilah tossed her head, blond braid still impeccable despite the fighting. “I find you three in the center of a mob. Why I am not surprised?”
Quinn laughed. “Oh, you know you missed this.”
Selene cooed. “We’ll be a family again soon.”
“Did you at least kill some before they caught you?” Lucas asked, blowing a lock of unruly black hair from his eyes.
Red sighed in relief to hear Lucas sound like himself. They hadn’t ripped out his soul… yet.
A hush bloomed in the crowd as Hilde Higbee descended from the Genesis Machine to the sands. She held up her hand. Her mechanical, disguised voice boomed from behind the mesh mouth of her mask. “Our species have been cursed for over a century. Tonight, we will bring the most wayward of our flock back into the fold. First southern California, then the world!
Hilde held up her hand to hold the applause. “It was thought to be impossible by the Blood Alliance, but we had a leader with vision—Michel de Grammont. For decades, we strove for a cure to this curse. Peril dogged our righteous quest because we had to stay hidden from the few who profited from our suffering. No matter what we lost along the way, we knew the truth. This was never about a machine. It was about the movement!”
Letting the throng bellow its approval, Hilde waited. “I worked beside Michel until the end. I know he would be so proud of the Dague, whether they are here at this unholy restoration or watching the recording from screens around the world. Even in death, his plan guides us. He showed us who we are!”
Closing her eyes, Red tried to block out the recriminations looping in her head. She thought she had saved the city, but she had only cut one head off the hydra. Michel had wanted more than LA. It was just a step to conceal the debut of his machine. His only mistake had been being distracted by her face and the possibility of regaining his lost love, Penelope. Maybe his death had sped up production, but it hadn’t stopped his ultimate plan. This whole farce, from the cameras to the dramatically lifting tower, was pure Michel.
Cheering and whistling, the crowd stomped. Some held their palms up and swayed as if feeling that unholy spirit. The crimson light from the machine glowed on their flat white masks. Each one was identical to Hilde’s.
Hilde began again. “The August Harvest was a plague unleashed on our kind. None of us have been immune. I lost my own to this scourge. Two walked into the sun, one asked a hunter to stake him. Another still remains afflicted.” She pressed her hand to her chest. The voice scrambler behind her mask couldn’t hide the mother’s sorrow. “We have suffered while the Blood Alliance has done nothing but take our most precious traditions from us. We once had mighty bloodlines that caused the alchemists, the shifters, and the fae to tremble. It wasn’t the curse that took that from us, but the opportunist elders in the Blood Alliance. They sold us safety in exchange for our values, but they only made us weak!”
The mob hissed.
Red swallowed back her fear at Hilde whipping the crowd into a frenzy before the grand finale. If there was time for speeches, there was time for sabotage. She stretched out her magic senses to probe at the machine. She anchored a thread of her energy and let it spool down into the Genesis Machine. There was a flaw. She just had to find it.
“You will witness the restoration of the most profane and bloodthirsty vampires our world has ever known.” Hilde disappeared, blocked from view by the bulky machine, as she strode closer to the base—toward the controls. “We have already cured the Black Libertine and the Mad Seer. The Genesis Machine will restore the rest of the original four souled vampires. You’ll never guess our other surprise guests...”
In Red’s spirit gaze, the spectral brightness ratcheted up. A throbbing hiss escaped out the top like a boiling tea kettle.
“Oh, god, it’s happening!” Basil screwed his eyes shut.
Red stiffened as magic drained from her, breaking through her mental barriers. She felt it twist and mingle with Basil’s inside the Genesis Machine. Straining to keep ahold of her magic, she followed it spinning around the hollow core. It lit up in her spirit gaze as it tumbled into a stereo amplifier, hanging on the inner wall of the device near the top. A satellite dish lifted toward the sky above the boxy contraption. She felt the energy rumble as it hit the component. A tear slipped down her cheek. She had found the signal amplifier, but it was too late.
Hilde stepped in front of the crowd and raised her palms, shaking them as if at a prayer circle. “We were shunned from paradise, pushed from our destiny as the supreme predators on this globe, but tonight, we push open the doors of Eden. Our souled brothers and sisters will be free.” She waded into the crush of white masks. “We will all be free! Tell me if you feel that unholy spirit!”
The cheering echoed through the flat desert, shaking the Genesis Machine from the intensity. Masked vampires cavorted as if they were at something between a rave and a tent revival. Camera lenses pointed up at the thick haze of energy spewing from the top like a volcano. The mystical mist was visible even to regular eyes.
Reaching for Basil, Red strained against the chains crisscrossing her back. “Your hand!”
Basil struggled to touch her. Their fingers brushed.
Chains cutting into her side, Red yanked herself closer to him. The device shook, loosening the bolts on one of her chain hooks. Finally reaching him, she squeezed his hand over the jagged metal of the machine. Connecting with his soulmancer magic, she examined the signal amplifier with her third eye.
It looked like they had salvaged the part from the dumpster of an electronics store. Only one dial remained. Handwritten runes symbolled curse and uncurse on either side. She was damn sure it hadn’t said that on the outside interface. The engineer called it a bug; it was a fucking feature. The Genesis Machine did more than just suck souls—it could return them.
Another round of applause rose under the growing haze of ectoplasm. Hilde’s voice was drowned out by the roars and cheers. Red thought she heard Lucas calling out to her again, but it was all too loud. Voice hushed under the roar of the excited mob, she spit out her idea. “We can flip the signal, take out her army. She has over fifty here. Look at them, they’re her inner circle. She’ll break the machine herself to stop it. We’ll get most of them until she does. The rest will scatter.”
“I don’t know.” Basil grumbled, sweat pouring down his face. “What if we mess up and just make them even more evil?”
“Try it.” Red mentally cursed. He was frozen from fear. She felt it too. Adrenaline battled fatigue inside her. The machine was warming up and getting ready to blow. They needed to do something before they were too weak to do anything. “Start small, then! Hit the soul whammy on Quinn,” Red said through chapped lips, deciding quickly. He was unbound and seemingly trusted by the Dague now. If they had him on their side, he could get Lucas and Delilah free. She shot Basil a wavering smile. “W
e’ll do it together.”
Basil nodded, gripping her hand tighter. He closed his eyes.
Red imagined knitting their magic together into a rope. She anchored it to the mouth of the volcano. Visualizing diving into the energy like a bungee jumper, she let her last barrier down. Her awareness spun in the center of Genesis Machine. She tumbled through smoky quartz strapped to the walls, then shot down through gold wire to computer servers at the base, retrofitted for magic with mystic bone relics instead of motherboards. It felt like being on a roller coaster, even if she hadn’t physically moved from her chains. As the magic bounced up toward the signal amplifier near the top, Red pushed her will into switching the polarity.
Hilde cried out to her disciples. “The Genesis Machine awakens!”
The machine convulsed. Crimson clouds grew thick around it, obscuring the sight of the assembled Dague. Screws popped out of the hook securing her left chain. This might have the most advanced blending of magic and technology she had ever seen, but it had been built as quick and shoddy as the tunnels. She gripped the steel wall to stay upright.
“It’s not working!” Basil yelled.
“Fuck! I have to switch it manually.” Red shrugged off the loosened chain and crouched under the crimson smoke. She slipped over the edge of the Genesis Machine to step on a rickety pool ladder. Climbing quickly to the signal amplifier a yard down, she reached for the dial and switched it from uncurse to curse. She climbed back up as the machine belched smoke. She heaved herself over the side to land back on her plank.
“Get those chains back on before they see you!” Basil said. “The clouds are parting.”
Red pulled the two chains back over her shoulder, holding one in place as she grabbed Basil’s hands. “Focus on Quinn. The energy wants somewhere to go.” She visualized the rising currents of magic directed toward the tall broad-shouldered vampire. The fog coming out of the machine lightened to a pink. She pushed her own energy to Basil. “Now! Do it now!”
Face tightening, Basil screwed up his eyes and reached out toward Quinn. In her spirit gaze, white fairy lights danced around his straining fingers. Gathering into an orb, the lights shot down through the haze to ground below. Basil slumped forward against the hot metal of the device.
The Genesis Machine trembled, puffing out more smoke. The spectral glow dimmed and sputtered to darkness. A collective gasp ran over the crowd. The wind blew away the haze to reveal a sea of white masks staring up at Red and Basil.
Kneeling, Nedda, Sal, and Donal whispered among themselves as they slyly glanced up at their gawking guards.
Hilde pushed through her minions, stomping past her kneeling captives to the tower. Her disguised voice held a note of uncertainty. “This is a part of the process!”
Red glanced at Quinn as he put his hand to his temple and closed his eyes. She squinted to see the lash of guilt fall on his face or maybe see him fall to his knees.
He merely straightened his shoulders.
Delilah looked at him, eyebrow arching.
Hopping, Selene clapped her hands. Her little black dress fluttering around her knees. “Do it again!”
Lucas laughed and pointed his bound hands at the machine. “Your rubbish pile broke.”
“Unplug it and plug it back in again.” Quinn suggested dryly as he rubbed his nails on his chest and then looked at his fingers. He inched closer to the machine.
Hilde released a robotic hiss of frustration as she walked past him.
In their perch above the action, Basil poked at Red. “It didn’t work! Isn’t he supposed to go all superhero?”
“I don’t…” Red trailed off as movement caught her eye on the far edge of the crowd. A stir rippled through the Dague.
Quinn lunged for the Genesis Machine, fists raised to punch through the control interface.
Hilde jumped for him, pushing him off balance.
Fist denting the sheet metal side, Quinn’s impact rippled up the machine. Red clutched the side. “Yes! I knew it!”
Hilde threw him back away from the interface. The mask fell off her face leaving only unvarnished fury and fangs behind. She signaled to her disciples. “Attack!”
“I thought about your offer, but I’m not much for cults.” Quinn growled as he circled Hilde. His eyes darted to the crowd surging closer.
An agent rushed him.
Gunfire broke out. Red lifted her head. Blurred figures sprinted from the darkened desert. An afro and raised fist peeked up from the charge. She glanced down to the base of the machine.
“Cora’s here!” Delilah lifted her silver cuffed wrists, smiling. She darted to the nearest guard and looped her arms over his head. She yanked the blessed silver through his neck. The head popped off like a dandelion off a stem.
His body crumbled to bones.
Quinn wrestled a gun from an agent before shooting him in the heart. He frowned at Delilah. “I’m sorry for everything that I said tonight.”
“Love you too, baby.” Chin lifting, Delilah raised her bloody chained cuffs. “Kill everything in a mask.”
“Just like old times!” Selene trilled.
“When did you get fun, Delilah?” Lucas chuckled as he headbutted the guard to his left. He turned to run toward the steps of the machine.
A henchman rushed to stop him.
Hands still bound, Lucas spin-kicked a mask off the Dague follower.
“We can win this.” Red grinned. Pulling her gaze from the ground action, she pushed her chains off and hopped over to Basil. She tugged on the hooks fixing his chains in place. The screws were tighter on his. She popped her head up to call out for Lucas, words dying when she saw Hilde.
Hilde sprinted to the controls. She called out to her followers. “Fight, my warriors! We will soon turn them to our side!”
Groaning, the Genesis Machine came to life. The metal quaked, rivets squealing. Light grew in the center. The energy bounced chaotically, thumping like a shoe in a washer’s spin cycle. It sucked at Red’s energy like a tidal undertow.
“Damn it!” Basil moaned, swaying in his bonds. “It’s worse than before!”
Shaking her tingling fingers, Red tried to free Basil again. The effect of the machine had eased now that she wasn’t pressed against it, but each touch of the metal slurped at her magic. “Hang on! I’ll rip out one of the components in this fucking thing.”
“No, it’s unstable! The shoddy thing is falling apart. It will blow up with me strapped to it! Turn it off!” Basil cried.
The pops of guns mingled below with the thud of fist meeting flesh. A bolt flew off the machine. Disjointed humming echoed inside its core.
Basil licked his lips, staring hollowly down the center of the device. “We switched the signal, but it’s not going to re-ensoul the state. It’ll be lucky to span fifty yards. The machine is breaking down and taking me with it.”
“No, it won’t! I’ll stop it.”
Basil’s features sharpened into determination. “I don’t want to die a legend, but I accept it. I’ll soul vamps as many I can. When you retell the story, be a dear and double the numbers.”
Nodding, Red hugged him quick. Her guts churned. She ran down the trembling stairs, hoping to dart to the controls before someone caught her.
Pulling out her last vial of holy water from her hunter’s kit, she scanned the fighting as she stepped onto the desert floor. A revolver was better protection, but the sound would draw attention. Someone would notice that one of the batteries had escaped even in the chaos. Pressing against the metal sheet body of the machine, she sidestepped toward the interface. The crowd had scattered to fight the reinforcements, but the turncoat DVA agents stood their ground.
Nedda fought alongside Sal and Donal to guard Alzbeta and the unconscious vampires pulled into the shadow of the tower for cover.
Hands behind his back, Lucas kicked a gun out of an agent’s hands, then lunged forward to knee him in the groin.
Delilah and Selene orbited around a big buck of a vampire
dressed like a Mormon on mission. Selene skittered forward to grab his rifle and bend it, giggling.
Quinn struck Hilde with the butt of his gun. He made eye contact with Red. A ghost of a smile lifted his lips even as guilt darkened his eyes. He tossed the gun aside to pull Hilde into a headlock and dragged her back.
Red jogged closer to the controls, heart in her throat. She didn’t know how long Basil would last before she could shut it off.
An agent marched toward her, sneering under his sunglasses, gun raised.
Recognizing him as the one who’d cuffed Delilah, Red recoiled and tossed holy water into his face.
Hissing, he grabbed at his face, dropping his weapon.
Delilah pulled him back and tackled the agent, holding down his shoulders. Blessed silver cuffs burned his face.
Heart racing, Red dodged the fighting vampires.
Delilah called out. “Get the key, Selene!”
Selene leapt on him, straddling his hips. Giggling, she fished a key ring from his jacket. She tossed them to Delilah before grabbing a stake from his belt and slamming it into his heart.
Red ran to the controls and braced her hands on either side of the interface, trying to figure it out. The lit-up keypad teased her while the unlabeled dials mocked her. How did she turn this off? She glanced over her shoulder.
The Dague had greater numbers but the LA troops were breaking through the center of the crowd.
Kristoff fought alongside them, his Kevlar vest and one of his sleeves missing. His blue eyes found hers.
Red sighed in relief to see that he had made it out of the tunnels and broken free of the DVA agents.
Cora led the pack with a raised scimitar as she sliced through the defenders.
Red’s heart rose at the sight, but the sinking feeling in her stomach hadn’t faded. They were still too far away with too many between them. She cursed as she noticed Quinn sparring with Hilde and two minions. The wily Utah supreme had gotten out of his headlock. Red refocused on the interface, twisting a flashing dial, using her spirit gaze to monitor the effects. “I need cover!”
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