Jermaine’s swords came to ready. He moved between the street and Tex with his dogs.
White Kow-bikes screamed around the corner and up to us. It was Koun and Eli, no helmets, heavy armor, weapons bristling everywhere. The Chief Strategist and Enforcer of Clan Yellowrock leaped from his bike at full throttle, into a vamp spring, and popped into place at my side. Eli gunned a final whine from his engine, bopped the bike over the curb, into the air, and wheeled down on the church lawn. He laid the bike down on his good leg, shaving up a swathe of grass. And he was suddenly standing beside me.
I was still nauseated, but I didn’t smell his blood, so that was good. I made it to my feet. Longfellow climbed up my arm and perched high on my shoulder. That little flying sucker was heavy.
Tex, Koun, and Eli exchanged looks. None of themlooked at me. Dang it. Though maybe I looked as if I was gonna hurl or fall over, so there was that.
Koun demanded into his mic, “Alex. Backup. Local LEOS. Where?”
Over the earbuds Alex said, “No local law enforcement presence will be forthcoming. You’re on your own. And our backup is two miles out, still trying to get there from the Yellowrock Clan Home. Bro. Pull back from the church. Pick Jane up and carry her if you have to.”
No local law enforcement presence, not even to keep the humans safe behind barricades. Again. Something cold and hard formed in the back of my brain. A plan, a decision, an idea.
“I’m staying.” I pulled a stake and glared a threat at Koun. “You can’t carry me with a stake in your belly.” I looked at Eli. “Don’t. I’ll have to beat your ass in front of the guys.”
Eli chuckled. “Babe.” Unspoken were the words,You could try.
The high-pitched whine of more crotch-rocket bikes shifting through gears sounded in the distance. The bikes were moving closer.
“Ours?” I asked Koun.
“No, My Queen.”
There were several, all coming from the same general area. “Company?” I asked. “Advance troops? The kind who figured out their stupid transport circle isn’t working and they decided to do it the hard way?”
There was a slight click and a change in the ambient noise of comms. The general channel was off, and I was on a personal channel. “Jane,” Bruiser said into my earbuds. His voice softened into that special tone he saved just for me. “My Queen. Listen.”
Soledad’s Spanish-accented voice was picked up by a mic. “Mainet searched for the crown for many years. He has claimed the heart and will claim the crown on the same night. Angelina’s visions began to grow the moment she touched the crucifix. I have taken it away and given it to her father. He brings it to you. But know this. Before I put her into a deep sleep, she said many things. From herwords I have gleaned that the Heir will use the heart to kill the woman who killed the Son of Darkness, Angelina’s Aunt Jane. The Heir will take the witch who cared for the Heart of Darkness and use her as the sacrifice. With those two deaths, he can force the crown to accept him. Then the Heir has all he needs to bargain with a demon and fully bind an angel. He can take the power of heaven. The old tales tell us that such a one will have the power of God.”
“Rule of Three?” Bruiser asked.
Soledad whispered, but I heard her words. “He needs nine participants, any combination of three witches, three Skinwalkers, three Mithrans, or three Onorios.”
Comms switched open again. Alex said, “I hate to interrupt but, update. Brandon and Brian Robere have been placed under heavy guard and are being escorted to HQ. Grégoire’s personal guard is now at the null prison to protect it—human and vamp force. Heavily armed. We have Soledad and the kids with us at HQ, and secure.”
“Angie is spelled asleep on the security room table with the strongesthedge of thornsthey could make over her. Three Everhart witches are guarding her, arguing about where they’re supposed to be. It’s loud. They’re pissed. The Truebloods are on their way to the queen’s twenty.”
Twenty. My location. Right.
Rule of Three. Ka, Gramma, me. Lachish as sacrifice. Mainet’s own fangheads. His three witches, assuming Ursula survived my stakes. If I wasn’t here, he wouldn’t have enough for three groups of three anythings. Unless—“Crap. Has anyone checked on Aya’s location?”
“Eli and I informed PsyLED Knoxville on the day of the first attack,” Bruiser said, his tone neutral. “And they sent the new guy to NOLA. I haven’t thought about FireWind since.”
Because, yeah, my bio brother hadn’t called me, and I was the queen, and so I was either supposed to think about family crap like that and I hadn’t, or wasn’t supposed to think about crap like that and someone else was. The role of being queen was along the lines of me flying by the seat of my pants, for my entire life. “Okay,” I said. “That was my job.” I punched his number. It went straightto voicemail and I left a message to call me. I even saidplease.
“PsyLED out of Knoxville was informed that Mainet Pellissier was here to wreak havoc in our city. I spoke to Soul herself,” Eli said.
He was talking about the associate director of PsyLED, who happened to also be the head of the arcenciels, insomuch as the rainbow dragons had a leader. Soul didn’t like me much, but she cared about her people, her rainbow dragons, and her law enforcement crew. I had to assume she was keeping track of everything, though I’d never know which of her roles would come first, arcenciel business or PsyLED business. Alex was murmuring into his comms, and I heard enough to know he was talking to someone in PsyLED Knoxville.
When he ended the call, Alex said, “There’s a reason why they’ve shown so little interest in what’s happening in NOLA. This time I got Nell Ingram on the line. She says FireWind and Rick LaFleur have been out on a case in a remote area near Sassafras Mountain, in South Carolina. She last spoke to him at five p.m., three days ago. She hasn’t been able to get in touch since. They sent out a tracking party led by a wereleopard named Occam—no first name. Nell and her people think FireWind and LaFleur are out of cell range, but they should have been able to send up a drone and at least ping them.”
“They’re worried,” I said.
“ ‘Concerned’ is how Nell put it.”
My heart dropped slowly into my gut. My brother and I hadn’t gotten along well at first. He did, after all, try to kill me when we first met. But lately we had gotten along better together, and hewasmy brother. And Rick was... history, but an important part of my history. He might have been part of the reason I stayed on in NOLA, initially, back when we were seeing each other. And Aya and I were working on our non-relationship issues, when both of us found time away from our jobs. That weight in my gut solidified. “Ask Nell to keep trying and to keep us in the loop,” I said.
“Copy that. She said they can send someone out of the Alabama office.”
