What could they do together?Ahhh. Dominique might know or guess that I had the other ruby.
I had been challenged by Dominique Quessaire. Dominique was a traitor. She had waited to try for my head until after I had something she wanted—my clan and my people. My ruby? Had she been looking for it in Leo’s office when she beat holes in the wall? And Adrianna—her lover whom I had finally killed true-dead—had been afterle breloque, the crown of the Dark Queen, when I took her head. Dominique wanted the most importantobjets de magie. Dominique had visions of grandeur.
She had seen me fight, knew what I could do. She was good with two swords, even better with one. Better than me by far with any weapon.
My mind circled back to Adan. Adan had been playing with time. The last moments of the battle that had freed Adan flashed through my memory. There was something there, something important about using magic. Time slapped back to full speed.
“As the last member of the inner circle of Clan Yellowrock able to wield a weapon, I accept for my master,” Koun said. He was standing behind me and I had no ideawhen he had appeared there. “Weapons,” he said, “one sword, one battle-ax, no armor.”
“I will fight the Blood Master of Clan Yellowrock and no other,” Dominique said. Her tone and her stance were insolent and there was a trace of something in her light eyes that said she expected to win by cheating. “First blood.”
“Challenge accepted. One blade each, no longer than fourteen inches. Claws and talons,” I said. And then I smiled, letting my lips expose my teeth slowly in threat. Beast peered through my eyes. “Jewelry is acceptable.”
Dominique blinked, realizing that I knew about the ruby, knew she was going to cheat with magic against the most important rule in Sangre Duello and dominance fights. And that I didn’t care.
“Here and now,” Dominique said.
I gave her a jut of my head and drew on Beast energies. Everyone cleared the floor space and I moved to Eli. My partner and second was holding a Desert Eagle .50- caliber handgun at his thigh. He holstered it with a tiny click. “You sure about this?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m sure.” Because I had remembered the thing I had learned when Adan was in a cage, harnessing the timewalking magic of an arcenciel. Stealing her magic. If I could feel the pull of Dominique’s ruby, then I could use its power. And the motes of power in my middle said I could take all its magic for myself. I was becoming the Dark Queen in truth.
“What blade?” he asked.
“The Mughal blade.”
Eli paused in helping me prepare for this fight. “Why?”
“Because the myth that came with it said that the blade has magic in it. It will deflect or lessen the mortal blow of any enemy. Whoever owns the blade can’t die in battle.”
Eli shook his head, not happy with my answer. He preferred weapons that blew things up.
I glanced around, noting where everyone was. Ro Moore was standing in front of a window that had once been a fire escape. Her gaze went from the fighting ringsto the roof below and back, watching for anyone who might want to interrupt the proceedings with a hand grenade. I hadn’t even considered that possibility. I was getting lax. Good thing I had trained smart people. I nodded to her. She nodded toward the windows at the back of the room with a faint smile.
I looked there and saw Brenda Rezk guarding that possible access. Yeah. Smart people. Go, me.
I was ready.Beast?I thought.I need some claws. Just claws.
Jane needs killing teeth and power of half-form.
Not this time. Just claws.
My fingers went knobby and hard and I gasped. The tips burned as if I’d stuck them into red-hot coals. Beast’s retractile claws re-formed at the tips, ten killing claws. My fingertips oozed blood and I licked it off.Ouch,I thought at her.
Deep inside, she said,Five and five killing claws.She sniffed at me, and turned away.
I stepped into the fighting ring and closed my eyes, breathing in Eli’s Zen and my skinwalker meditation. Letting my body relax and tense all at once, just as if I was going to shift into a difficult form. The bell sounded. My eyes opened and Dominique attacked, shouting,“Ralentissez!”
A thin line of power shot from her necklace. A slowdown spell, hidden in the ruby and released with awyrd. Time slowed down. The five pointed energies in my middle reached out and wrapped around the line of magic. Altered it. Pulled it in.
Incorporated thewyrdand the energies into my own.
A silvered vamp-killer stabbed at me.
I bent around the blade in a dance move. Stepped into her reach. Clawed her face with one hand, slicing deeply into her waist with the Mughal blade. I yanked on the blade, cutting into her.
Dominique screamed, that piercing vamp ululation that said she was dying. Her eyes flashed scarlet. Her fangs schnicked down. She ripped away, tearing my blade from her flesh. She disappeared with a tiny pop of sound.Toward the window where Brenda Rezk stood guard. Dominique landed, ripped at Brenda. Tearing out her throat. Dived through the window. Landed on the roof below with a loud, hollow thump. Brenda fell, her blood a pulsing spray, her head at an awful angle. Titus’s second caught Brenda’s body. Eased her to the floor. It was too late. There was not enough left to save.
Koun leaped after the traitor. Paused in the window. His gaze tracked Dominique, his body and tattoos catching the lights in strange blue and black shadows on pale skin. He watched her run, his head following her progress around and toward the water at the front of the house. A moment later, he tilted his head to me and said, “In spite of the angel of death, all is well, my master.”
