Sally’s eyes widened and then snapped to Costin’s. “Oh dear.”
* * *
Alston stoodat the entrance to the enormous mountain. It reminded him a bit of the warlock stronghold. Outside, a perfectly formed geologic feature, but inside, a fortress fit for a king. He’d used his power to mold and shape the earth into rooms, halls, and spaces that would be useful for his army. As he worked on the new Order headquarters, he’d reached out to some of his long-time spies amongst the ranks of the pixies and trolls, sending them out to gather information and new warriors. That had been a month ago. Now the fortress teamed with supernatural followers: trolls, pixies, warlocks, fae, and vampires. No elves had joined, but he wasn’t concerned. Ludcarab could handle those warriors. He was likely keeping them close for the time being. Cain had not arrived either, though Alston had sent out a few vampires to let the vampire king know their new compound was ready. Alston could only assume Cain was busy rebuilding the vampire community as quickly as possible.
“You’ve done well.” Shehan, the warlock leader for the Order, walked up beside him. Thus far, she was the only leader that had made herself known after Peri’s destruction. Shehan hadn’t been at the compound when it had gone down. Thankfully, she’d been out recruiting more of her people.
“It’s not the first time we’ve had to rebuild, Shehan,” Alston reminded her.
“True.”
“Still no word from the other supernatural representatives?” Alston asked.
She shook her head. “It’s time to appoint new representatives. We have to assume they went down with the compound.”
Alston agreed. Now that they had a place to continue to work on their plan, there was no reason to wait. They needed to move forward.
“What about Ludcarab?” the warlock leader asked.
Alston clenched his teeth as he thought of the elf king he so despised. “He will be here when it is time.”
“That’s quite cryptic.” Shehan narrowed her eyes on him.
Alston shrugged. “We’re all evil masterminds, Shehan. ‘Sharing is caring’ is not our motto.”
The warlock snorted. “Despite all we’ve lost since Perizada’s stunt, I think you gained a sense of humor.” She nodded at him and walked further into the mountain. “It looks good on you. But evil masterminds or not, sharingiscaring because it keeps our evil mastermind asses from being blown up. Maybe think about that a little.”
Alston watched the warlock representative walk away, her words rubbing against the inside of his skull like wool against his skin. There were definitely secrets among the Order representatives. Could it have been some of those very secrets that had allowed Perizada her way in? Maybe. But transparency required trust. And Alston didn’t trust anyone.
“There’s still no sign of Tenia, my lord.” A small voice came from behind him.
Alston turned and looked down. One of his pixie spies, a little over a foot tall, stood staring up at him.
“I’ve searched everywhere, even the warlock mountain,” the pixie hurried on. “I found the fae you’d assigned to accompany her and the djinn.”
Alston titled his head as he waited for the pixie to continue.
“He’d been killed. Stabbed with a fae blade.”
“The blade had been left behind?” Alston asked, his brow drawing low.
“N-n-oo,” the pixie stuttered. “I could feel the magic residue left from the blade in the wound. He’d been dead for a while. But a fae blade leaves quite a significant amount of power.”
Alston took a slow, deep breath and waved the pixie off. If Tenia was alive, but her son, who had been in the compound at the time of the cold fire, was dead, then he no longer had any leverage over her. It wouldn’t be surprising if she’d killed the fae male who’d accompanied her to the warlock stronghold. It also wouldn’t be surprising if she joined with his enemies now that she didn’t have a child to protect. “That would be most unfortunate,” he muttered to himself. Most unfortunate indeed. Tenia was entirely too powerful to have as an enemy. The uniqueness of her power made her especially dangerous. The fae would have to be removed at the first available opportunity.
Turning his back to the interior of the mountain, Alston looked out over the vast range of peaks arrayed before him. Most of it was bare, as winter still held the plants in its grips, but here and there, tiny buds of new life began to emerge. The promise of spring. Soon the mountain range would be covered from top to bottom in all different shades of green. He took a deep breath, the cold air filling his lungs. A new season was coming, and, with it, a new Order.
* * *
Cain wrappedthe darkness around him as he stood on the far side of the Wyoming mountain range, staring in the direction of Alston’s new construction. The high fae had been busy. Cain had been busy as well, searching high and low, contacting old covens, reestablishing his ranks. So many had been destroyed by those accursed wolves. But he would rebuild. That was the great thing about being a vampire. As long as there were humans to turn, he had a potential army just waiting to be built.
The problem was, while Cain had been away from the high fae and Ludcarab, he’d discovered, or rediscovered, how very much he disliked both males. He found the idea of working with them again, even as a charade, downright nauseating.
His time away from the other two leaders had given him some perspective. He now realized with Sincaro gone thathewas the new vampire king. And it washisdecision if he continued working with the current Order leaders or ventured out on his own.
What Sincaro had failed to realize was that the vampires were by far the most important race among the Order’s ranks. No other species could reproduce themselves so quickly, effectively raising an entire army in weeks. Of course, he’d need to have his lieutenants share the workload. He couldn’t have a vast swath of warriors taken out in a single blow if he lost a sire that had created too many new vampires. But that was no big deal. Cain still had many of the powerful elder vamps under his control, and they were stronger than Ludcarab and Alston knew. With such power, Cain should be leading the Order, not that pompous high fae.
Cain raised a hand, resting his elbow on the arm still folded across him and tapped his chin with his finger. “Perhaps itistime for the vampires to rise up,” he said to the surrounding forest. “You other supernaturals have ruled long enough.”
