“Babe...” His tone called me stupid. And loved. And family.
I laughed once, but it was a sad tone, not real laughter. “I shot Monique. And broke her wrist. She heals up nicely with vamp blood, but if she’s messing with his brain, I’ll end her.”
“Roger that.”
Together we stepped from the back door. I spotted Brute, who was standing, four-pawed, beneath the window of the cottage. I bent slightly forward and crab-raced to the cottage, Eli behind. He sped to my left and disappeared around the cottage, making sure this wasn’t an ambush.
I leaned close to the building but couldn’t hear a thing. Eli joined me from the right and mouthed,Clear.
“Wish I had cat ears,” I whispered. I glanced at him and grinned. “Never thought I’d say that.”
From his dry bag, Eli pulled out a tiny black rubber suction cup and pressed it to the lower corner of the window. We waited a moment to make sure no one inside had seen the tiny cup appear, but there was no reaction from within, the voices talking on without change. Eli snapped in a small plug and unwound three black wires, two earpieces,and one micro video port, which he plugged into his cell. He handed me an earpiece and took one for himself.
Just that fast, we had ears and eyes inside. I loved tech. “Mr.Prepared.”
“Always.”
I worked the earbud in and could hear just fine, Bruiser’s voice and Giovanni’s, hers all seductive. I wasn’t jealous of her tone, so like a vamp in mesmerism. She had no idea what Leo had put my sweet-cheeks through. No way she could roll the former primo, especially not with the silver cuffs on her wrists and head. I took in what I could see of the room. It was the back bedroom of a two-bedroom cottage, decorated in leaf green with charcoal gray walls and white trim. Giovanni, wearing dark purple pants and a sweater, was sitting in a captain’s chair in front of a gas fireplace, which was not lit.
“I am not the Firestarter who attacked the Winter Court of the Dark Queen,” she said. “Look at my hands. At my face. You saw that one. The Firestarter...” Her voice trailed off and she bowed her head. The woman was facing away from the window; Bruiser was sitting in a second chair, facing slightly away from her, at an angle from me.
I had to wonder why they were talking about Aurelia Flamma Scintilla, the Firestarter sorta-Onorio who started out a witch-in-the-closet nun and made burning vamps to death her reason to live. Who picked her as a topic? And why? Aurelia was dark haired, dark eyed, and was neither vampire nor blood-servant, but a rarer creature, similar to Bruiser and the B-twins, but a dark type of Onorio called asenza onore. We saw an illusion of the former nun last March as we fought a losing battle.
“I am not Aurelia,” Monique whispered, so softly I nearly missed it. “I did not burn the mausoleum in New Orleans.”
And then I understood. They were talking about Leo’s death. It all came back to Leo. To his death. His burial. The burning of his mausoleum. I had assumed that all those blasted layered political threads he had woven together over the years had come apart when he died. But clearlythere were threads I didn’t know about. It seemed Leo had woven me and my entire family into his final tapestry.
“The Firestarter,” she said, “is in New Orleans once again. It is said that Aurelia burned the outclan priestess to a crisp, that the priestess was true dead. But the Firestarter doesn’t believe this. She is hunting for Sabina.”
That figured. Aurelia tried to burn Sabina to true death, hoping to find and steal the relics guarded by the outclan priestess. Monique shook her head as if she was sad, her dark blond hair moving on her shoulders. She raised her bound wrists close to her face, as if scratching her nose. Eli said that Linc had healed her, but clearly only partially. Someone had splinted and wrapped the broken wrist and let her clean herself up. I wouldn’t have bothered. But then I’m not a nice person. Niceness was saved for friends, and we didn’t really know what Monique wanted or the extent of her power.
She was right about the Firestarter and Sabina, useless as the reports were. Gossip in vamp circles touted both versions, a dead Sabina, and sightings of the blackened husk of a woman, hunting humans, leaving them happy and alive but much lighter on blood. It was possible for badly burned, very old vamps to survive, and if she did, Sabina had the last piece of the Blood Cross in the United States. And probably other stuff too. Possibly even the last ingots of the iron Spike of Golgotha. Along with the wood of the crosses, the nine spikes of the crucifixion had been found all in a pile, collected, and re-shaped into a single spike, a dark magic amulet called the Spike of Golgotha. Then ingots had been cut off of it: they were used in time-magic, dark magic, and the creation of amulets of power.
Mate is in danger,Beast said.
Yeah?I thought to my furry half.I don’t see it.
Beast sees.She showed me her vision, as thin smokelike tendrils of purple and green magic swirled lazily in the air over Bruiser’s head. Magic, even though thesenza onorewas wearing null cuffs. That shouldn’t be possible.
But Bruiser wasn’t blind to her antics. Woven through the strands of her magic was Bruiser’s own power: red, blue, green, and a soft golden yellow knotting off thepurple and green strands. This convo was a verbal and magical duel of sorts, as if Bruiser was using the cuffs to figure out how strong Monique was. He was fighting back, but with defensive magic only. I had asked Bruiser not to challenge Monique today, so... right. He was defending only, not attacking, because I had asked him not to. I scowled.
And then I saw the silver null cuff on Monique’s head slide through her hair and dangle in the fingers of her broken wrist as she lowered them to her lap. She had gotten the head cuff off. Bruiser stared at it in her hands, even as the one on her wrists clicked and fell to her lap.
My Consort smiled. He had known it was coming free. He had let it happen. And he was wearing gloves. I hadn’t even noticed. They were nearly the color of his skin, and in Beast’s sight, they glowed with power, different from the cold energies of the null cuffs.Hedge of thornsenergies.
I tightened, not sure if I should intervene. Eli shot a look at me. I shook my head, mouthing,Not yet.Bruiser had known what she would do, what she was doing. He needed this mental combat. Needed to overcome this woman and her power. He needed towin.
Seduction and wile in her tone, Monique said, “Sabina, if she lives, knows where another relic is. I will leave Jane alone if you help me find it. There is rebellion brewing, Onorio andsenza onore, and also against some of the ancient Mithran overlords. You could stand beside me. Work with me. We could lead this together.”
Bruiser’s magic lashed at Monique’s, stabbing and twisting, pulling the strands apart. He murmured, “Ancient Mithran overlords?” He chuckled. “I am loyal to the Dark Queen. I am not interested in joining an Onorio rebellion. Your service to the Flayer of Mithrans—an ancient overlord himself—changed you in some fundamental way, Monique. Your magic feels unclean, tastes vile against mine, lacking in life and joy. No human exposed to that noxious combination of ancient evil and irrationality could stay sane.”
Monique said, “I am more than I once was. As you could be too.”
“Again, not interested.”
“And what of Leo Pellissier?”
“My master is dead.”
