She sat up, suddenly, and reached for Bruiser. I’d seen that expression on a vamp’s face before. It was the beginning of Onorio binding.
“This is all that I can do without binding her, My Queen,” Bruiser said.
“Stake her,” I said to the blood-servant who still held the dripping stake. The wood floors were going to be hard to clean with all this dried blood on them. To Bruiser, I added, “Drain that one,” and pointed at the next in line.
It took four vamps before we found another one Bruiser could drain deeply enough to control without binding him. From that one, we learned that this Mainet fanghead was still in Europe. A problem for another day, no matter what he had planned.
I had always wondered who had fed the real Immanuel to a nutso skinwalkeru’tlun’taand then put that imposter in place. Who had pulled all the strings? The black magicwould have given Immanuel’su’tlun’tamemories but not muscle memory, not physical skills, not body movements and emotions. Not handwriting. Who had taught that imposter the minutiae he needed to walk among vamps. Who had provided the teachers?
A freaking dang Pellissier, of course. Why the hell not?
However. Shaun was our problem right now, and he had the fancy snake amulet that gave him some kind of magical power or protection. Snake armbands were common amulet forms, because they could be worn under or over clothes, could be filled with multiple magical workings, and could double as jewelry, which allowed hands-free fighting. I sometimes wore empty snake armband amulets as part of my ceremonial gear.
I asked more questions. Got a lot of jibber jabber gobbledygook.
I looked at Koun. “Stake these vamps. Toss them all into the sub-five basement. Put guards all around them armed with silver blades and shotguns loaded with the special silver-lead fléchette rounds. If one of the vamps so much as twitches, kill the vamp true dead and put the body in the sun. Separate their humans. Secure them in the breakroom The humans will go to new masters for incorporation into any clans willing to accept them. That means throughout the entire U.S.”
In the crowd, several humans panicked, and Bruiser’s eyes tracked them. “Yes, My Queen,” he said.
Loudly Koun said, “Let it be recorded. The Dark Queen has shown mercy to her enemies. My blade shall not be fed. For now.”
I thought that was a little too poetic and hopeful, but I didn’t say so.
***
It was an hour before dawn when my team and I left HQ via the front door. Beast lent me her night vision, turning the world silver and gray and vibrant green.
Jane did not let I/we/us drink vampire blood,Beast thought at me.Jane wasted good strong vampire blood.
Maybe next time we’re in Beast form,I thought back.
We were halfway down the long steps when the Glob grew suddenly, blisteringly hot in my pocket. “Attack,” Ishouted, warning. I leaped from the stairs, out of the way. Midair, Beast-fast, I yanked the Glob from its padded pocket, pulled open another pocket, and wrapped the Glob in the hanky I kept there so I could hold it. Raising the weapon high over my head, I landed in the parking area on toe pads and one knobby hand, protected at my back by the building. A familiar place. I’d try not to die this time. Eli and Bruiser dropped to either side of me. Koun and Thema in front of me. Lightning flashed from the sky and exploded in the center of the parking area. Blinding. I blinked against the retinal burn to see a faint glow in the center of the parking area.
Ka stood there.
Grandmother was standing at one side, Monique, her head leaking, was propped at her other side.
“Nice magic trick,” I muttered.
Thema laughed.
But the Glob went so hot it burned through the cloth in my hand. The stench of scorched cotton andu’tlun’tasweat filled the air. I had grabbed from the wrong pocket. The cloth wasn’t a clean hanky. I had grabbed the scrap of Grandmother’s cloth shift from the sweathouse.
Hayalasti Sixmankiller threw back her head in a wordless scream. Her back arched. Her polluted skinwalker magic rushed out of her, toward the heating Glob and her sweat. She started to shift, changing shape. Grandmother’s hair lit with flames that shot high. Aya leaped at her, the two forms tumbling into the darkness.
Ka took a step toward me. Her body wavered, shimmered. Shifted. Aurelia took the next step forward. She wavered. Again she was Ka, and her eyes were wild, like a rabid fox, trying to hold her thoughts together. But she was full of arcenciel blood. “I miscalculated,” she said, as magic coiled and swirled around her, and once again she was Aurelia.
The Firestarter was more sane, and this one’s magic was untouched by the Glob, but I could see it, a thick mist of black and scarlet buzzing with motes of orange power. The mist of energies was heavy, held protected by a thin layer of foul green. “I need another host to stabilize my forms,” she said.
Grandmother stepped in from the dark, looking just fine.
Where was Aya?
“She is mine,” Grandmother said.
Ka reappeared. “I need the locket,” Ka said. “Join me, sister.”
Sister... Shock scorched through me.Turn of phrase? Or some kind of horrible reality?
