The woman, splayed on the floor, braced her arms and sat up. She turned slowly to me, her eyes wide. “This is true? You killed one of the Makers?”
Makers. Probably an ancient name for the Sons of Darkness. Gotcha.Snow had melted on her from the warmth of the room, her hair wet and glistening, her clothes spotted and drenched with damp. “Pretty much.”
“He is dead? Forever? Never to rise?”
Except for that pesky heart. I really needed to deal with that last body part, which was in the hands of Jodi and the NOLA witches. Didn’t say any of that. I said, “Unless he can resurrect himself from Brute’s crap, no. He isn’t coming back.”
Thema reacted to that, a flash of some unnamable, almost-human emotion that seemed to be composed of humor and joy and grief all at once. She managed to get to her knees, one hand over her belly wound, the tang of unfamiliar vamp blood on the air. “And the young Son of Darkness is here? The Son of Shadows ishere,” she emphasized, “in this place? This is true?”
The Son of Shadows. Yeah. That fit with the whole “shadow thing” in Edmund’s mind.
She drew a knife that gleamed wicked bright in the lights. Eli went all tense/still/dangerous, his weapon in a two-hand grip, aimed at her head.
“He’ll be in Asheville tomorrow,” I said, my eyes flashing between them, Shaddock’s security all scary vampy and Shaddock slouched against Kojo, watching the rest of us.
There was something new and powerful about Shaddock, a leashed, contained capacity for violence, the way a bomb looks before it devastates the landscape. Casually, the MOC removed the stake in Kojo’s abdomen. He licked the blood off the wood in a gesture that was nonchalant, oddly amused, and all vamp.
I finished, “The Flayer of Mithrans willnotbe progressing to the inn. He has a place in town.”
“There is no place at the inn,” Shaddock said, laughter in his tone, oddly quoting the Bible as he pulled away from Kojo.
“We will destroy the Flayer of Mithrans,” Kojo said. He sat up in measured movements, reaching for a matte gray case big enough to hold a rocket launcher. “And all he holds dear. We will wipe the lives of his loyal ones from the face of the Earth.” He flipped up large thumb locks.Holy crap.It held some kind of rocket launcher. Shaddock’s new vamp said, “We will scorch the land where he stands and none will escape us.”
Two of Eli’s weapons were out again, one aimed at the kneeling Thema, the other aimed directly at Kojo. “Touch that and die,” my partner said softly.
Everything went still and silent, the way it did with any threat. I could hear Shaddock’s humans breathe, short and shallow, the breath of prey when they caught sight of a predator.
Eli said, “This is the Official Winter Court of the Dark Queen of the Mithrans. You do not draw weapons in her presence. You fight with her, at her command, or you leave her territory. This is not up for discussion.”
Kojo swiveled his head toward Shaddock, that inhuman move vamps could make, more bird than mammal. He started to vamp out, his pupils dilating and his sclera becoming a bloody scarlet. Shaddock ignored him, amused, watching me. He tipped an imaginary hat at me. This was a test of the DQ. He’d set me up.Dang fanghead.
But... I had not taken up the mantle of power Leo had given me nor the power of the Dark Queen. Some of the people I loved had been captured or gone missing because I hadn’t done my job. Others may have died.
I hadn’t done my job because I was sick and it was too hard.Woe is me.Except I wasn’t sick right now. It was time I fixed things. And with vamps, might meant right. And that meant over Shaddock too.
“Kojo,” I growled. The vamp twisted his head to me like an owl, too far, too smooth. “This is the hunting territory of the Master of the City of Asheville. But it is the political territory of the Dark Queen. You fight with me and at my command, or you die. In the moment. And Master of the City Shaddock dies with you, for the insult to my position and power. Choose.”
Shaddock tensed.
Yeah,I thought.You want to play vampire games? Try me.“You brought them into my territory and home,” I said to him, all vamp-formal. “It is my right to drink down all of you.”
“You aren’t a vamp,” Shaddock said.
Softly I whispered, “Try me.” He said nothing, his body tense and hard, but his expression uncertain. “I’vestayed silent and out of action too long,” I said, hoping he understood my words and the meaning beneath them. “People in Europe have died. That isnothappening here.”
Kojo said, “You would take from me the realization of a goal that is seven hundred years in the making,woman?”
“Pretty much. First of all, you don’t get to blow up my enemies long-distance. I will not allow collateral damage of the humans in my territory. Second, our enemy has my primo. He’s using Edmund to communicate and I want Ed back. I’m not giving up my people. Third, my Onorio needs blood, but I can suck it off the floor and feed him if necessary.” I figured that last part was insulting enough to prove I was the bigger predator.
Kojo’s lip curled and he stood, a willowy, sinuous movement that would do a big-cat proud. Shaddock allowed the movement, stepping back. “You will understand this. I have been used as Translator by the Flayer of Mithrans.” The title Translator was imbued with pain and hatred and fear. “I will destroy the entire world before I allow him near my soul again.”
“Yeah, well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to annihilation,” I said, “butIintend to rescue Ed from the Flayer, and I’ll killyoubefore I let you harm my primo. Just so we’re clear.”
“Can he get inside your head easily?” Eli asked Kojo, moving silently around us, taking in everything, and simultaneously getting a better shot angle. “If so,” he continued, his voice so soft it was its own kind of threat, “that makes you a liability.”
“No,” Kojo said, the single word hard. “Not without him taking my blood once again,” he said, his accent growing stronger. “Before, when he stole my blood to claim me, I was his prisoner. He made use of my wife, against her will. Even now, if he tries to drink of me, tries to take over my mind with his spirit of darkness, I will die true-dead first.”
“As will I,” Thema said. And she was suddenly holding a small subgun, a different configuration, make, and model from one of Eli’s, but no less dangerous. Eli movedalmost vamp-fast, keeping them both in line of sight, his fingers at the triggers. This was going bad fast.
