“Do you think they’re working with the fangheads here?”
“No. They didn’t seem to know you were no longer in New Orleans. They were trying to draw out the Dark Queen,” Alex said. “Wrassler sent a pic of a message they left at the front door of NOLA HQ. It specifically demanded that your head be tossed out to them, no longer attached to your body. Clan Bouvier provided armed assistance to the police until they had things under control again.”
“Good.” The last thing NOLA vamps needed was problems with the local cops. “Play Sabina’s message again.” I watched the stone of the graveyard and the marble of her mausoleum burn as I listened to the priestess’s message.
“I am badly damaged.” That horrible cough sounded as if she was hacking up a lung. “Near true-death. The larger fragments of the Blood Cross are destroyed.” Cough. “My mausoleum is on fire.” Long silence. “I dig through the earth... with the last sliver of the cross in the Americas.”
My cell dinged and I answered, “Wrassler? You okay?”
“We’re fine, Leg—” He stopped just as he was about to call me Legs. His voice changed into the formal tones he once used for Leo. “Empress. But there are police in the front entrance. “What are your orders, my queen?”
My queen.Bruiser was in a sleet storm. Ed was skinned like a deer for butchering. Eli was taking care ofbusiness in a bivouac in freezing conditions in an unheated church—the best possible place for humans seeking shelter from vamps. The Asheville MOC knew nothing about NOLA. I was on my own.
I said something that my housemothers at the Christian children’s home where I grew up would have washed out my mouth for. With lye soap and a spanking too, most likely. Alex found it all highly amusing, blowing a teenaged snortle through his nose.
I said, “First order of business, I will not be referred to as queen. Got that?”
Alex asked, “Is that a royal decree?”
I swatted the back of his head.
Alex rubbed the spot as if I’d hurt him, but he was grinning. “You want Gee and Shaddock in here?”
I showed my fangs at him in what might be called a smile, in some universe, and nodded. “Please.”
Laughter and his normal New Orleans accent in his voice, Wrassler said, “I miss you people.” Without giving us time to respond, he went on, “Alex, see if they might be speaking Romansh.”
“Romansh?” he asked.
“It’s spoken in some EU countries,” Wrassler said. “There’s some of the former Atlanta vamps on the video too, five who took off rather than submit to Katie when she took over as Master of the City there, and three I recognized on the video footage as having fled when Rosanne Romanello defeated the New York City MOC. They were all with the fangheads who attacked us, so it’s a mixed bag, maybe a new alliance.”
He was describing a batch of masterless rogues, the kind I used to track, stake, and leave true-dead. “I want to see the vid,” I said.
The younger Younger nodded.
Wrassler said, “Yes, ma’am,” like a good Southern gentleman of a recent but bygone era. “And some good news. Derek showed up on the HQ steps. He’s been beaten to a pulp and bled nearly dry, but he has a heartbeat. Vamps are feeding him and will turn him if needed. He signed the papers.”
Derek had signed papers permitting himself to be turned if he died? “Oookaaay. Tell him if he grows fangs, we’ll get Amy Lynn Brown down there to get him through the devoveo as fast as possible. And make sure his mother has someone to continue her treatments.” Derek’s mom had cancer and Derek was working as the full-time NOLA Enforcer to keep her fed and healing. Last I heard she was holding her own. And then it hit me that Amy was here in Asheville. In danger.
I cursed again, this time under my breath. One step at a time, my old life and responsibilities in New Orleans were descending on me. I could run away again. I could turn human and die. Or I could stay in half-form and deal with treachery. Save my friends.
Gee and Shaddock entered the back door. I could smell their magic and mixed scents on the air. “Gee, Lincoln, get in here,” I called. “I need advice.”
“I attend my queen,” Shaddock called back. I had a feeling he was picking on me and when I saw his face, I was sure of it.
Brushing sleet off his shoulders, Gee said, “The little goddess has my attention.”
I would deal with the goddess stupidity later. I didn’t know if Gee called me that because I could timewalk, or because of the power I had overle breloque, or if it was because of the curse of the Anzu that kept his kind from truly shifting shape. Or just to be annoying. And I didn’t have time to figure it out now.
“First, is Amy safe?” I asked Lincoln.
“Yes. The little girl, my scion, is safe,” he said, his expression going grim.
Relief eased the unexpected tightness in my joints, but a tension headache was starting behind my eyes. I used to have a lot of those in NOLA.
I nudged Alex. “Explain it to them all so we’re all up to speed. Wrassler, you’re on speaker. It’s Alex, Gee, and Shaddock. Everyone else is stuck in Asheville in a snowstorm.”
“Huh. It’s spring here. We got green tomatoes in the garden. I’m putting you on speaker here so the securityteam can listen in. The cops are banging on the door, but they can wait.”
