Witch is good ambush hunter,Beast thought.
I said, “Without the mayor’s and NOPD approval, and unless there is further violence against your people, my people can only fight inside the house. Not on the grounds.”
“I have spoken to the mayor, the governor, and three leaders of the New Orleans coven,” she said. “I have approval from all to protect the grounds. Your Mithrans will be allowed to fight as needed.”
“This is a crime scene. Multiple witches are dead. You had to step over them when you entered.”
Ailis flinched ever so slightly at the memory, as if I’d poked her with a sharp blade.
“You lost four prisoners,” I said, pushing the blade deeper. “Two witch prisoners and... two other prisoners.” My heart clenched at the thought. Did Bliss know who the skinwalkers were to me? I hadn’t personally arranged for them to be imprisoned here. That had been Ayatas FireWind, my bio brother and a big shot in PsyLED. Had he given the witches the relationships and bloodlines when he brought the skinwalkers to them? I had no idea who knew what about the missing prisoners. But usually when there was trouble in NOLA Aya stuck his nose in. It was odd he hadn’t called already, wasn’t here.
“I would like a dossier of each missing person,” I said, “a list of crimes and transcripts of court proceedings—should such transcripts exist—for each missing person, and a breakdown of their abilities and power signatures.”
“All pertinent files have been sent to the IT and security department of the Dark Queen.” A faint smile softened her harshly beautiful face. “It was nice to talk to Alex again.”
As opposed to talking to me, implying this conversation wasn’t nice. Okeydokey. Fair, if a little mean. I was not now, nor had I ever been, nice. However, this was a change in how Bliss/Ailis acted to me. Harsh, stiff, a tad bitchy. I wondered if she was being difficult because I had the box and she didn’t, or if Lachish had been talking behind my back, poisoning the waters. And if so, why? Or... yeah. There had been some hot Bliss/Ailis on Eli dancing at a party not so long ago. Maybe Bliss/Ailis had wanted more and not gotten it and blamed me? Or, worse, they had done the dirty deed, but Eli had pulled away and she blamed me? People were weird so it could be anything, but no way was I asking Eli about his sex life unless I absolutely had to.Ick.
Since I didn’t quite know what was happening, I let my cat lips curve into a small polite smile, one that hid my fangs, and didn’t reply.
“The circle in the street,” Ailis continued, “may be a problem. It isn’t active, but it isn’t dead either. There is some kind of passive, waiting energy involved. I’ve directed the NOPD to put hazard cones up and police tape around it until the guard-coven is up to checking it out. The ones not dead or injured are down for the count. The wardens expended personal energies defending the wards. They need to spend time in full circles, recharging themselves and their amulets.”
I grunted and said the proper phrases I feared might come back to haunt me. “Whatever the NOLA witch council needs from the Dark Queen, whatever is in our power to provide, is yours. Except for this.” I rapped on the heartbox.
“The witch council of New Orleans is honored to have the attention of the Dark Queen.”
Attention, not assistance. Yeah. A little snark in that last bit. “My people bled to save yours and to save this.” I tapped on the heartbox again. “They could have died, along with your witch guards and friends, and this wouldhave been lost. My emissaries will make certain that the witch council is made aware of our sacrifice, and why it was necessary.”
Bliss’s eyes went wide. “Emissaries?”
“Before you get cheeky with the Dark Queen, you should make sure what diplomatic channels are already open,” I said. “The Roberes have been in contact with the USA witch bigwigs. Seems no one in NOLA told them about the Heart of Darkness being in the city, let alone in the prison. And they were also not informed about a vampire attack on the prison, in an attempt to regain said heart, until my emissaries told them. So why don’t you take care of your house and I’ll take care of mine. And the vamp heart.” Again I gave the box a single tap.
“You tell her, Janie,” Alex said into my earpieces.
Beast shoved her ability to tamp down pain into me and I twisted my hips, slinging the pillowcase holding the electronics behind my legs. I managed to get my bad arm repositioned on the heartbox, all without showing the agony of the movements. “Just so we’re clear,” I said, sounding only a little breathless, “I have access to a small portablehedge of thornsand several null amulets. I’ll keep the heart of the SOD safe until this place is repaired and the wards properly strengthened.”
Ailis/Bliss reached out both hands for the box. “But—”
“No buts,” I interrupted. “You want to play on my battlefield, you want my people to defend you and yours, then you’ll play by my rules and you’ll show proper respect to my office, even if you can’t show it to me personally.”
I turned and walked from the house as Alex said, “Meee-ow.”
“Alex, my arm feels like it’s being mangled and set on fire all at the same time.”
“Roger that. Sending someone to bleed and feed you. Eli’s on the way to the ambulance,” he added.
I waited at the front door, hearing the gurney and the tramping of loud human feet, feeling my brother-by-choice move as his gurney was pushed along the hallways and into the foyer. His dark eyes found mine instantly, our connection still strong even this long after the battle. He held out one hand and we gripped palms for a moment ashe went past, his armor blood splattered, his dark-skinned thigh tightly wrapped in multi-colored sticky wrap. “I’ll need surgery,” he said, his tone matter-of-fact.
“I’ll see that someone new is standing by to donate.” I meant a vamp to feed him, and he gave me a curt nod. Every time a human drank vamp blood, they stood at risk of becoming addicted, and every time a human drank from the same vamp, they stood a chance of being rolled by the vamp and becoming a human blood-slave or blood-servant.
Eli had long passed the safe threshold for drinking any vamp blood at all, but without the blood, he would take forever to heal, and rehab might not work this time, not if the injury had damaged the metal nuts and bolts holding his leg bones together. With the blood, he would be healed and in a safe place in a day, two days tops.
That might accelerate his change into whatever he was becoming, but he and I had talked about it several times, and Eli had long ago weighed the consequences of drinking more vamp blood against being permanently maimed. Recently, he had signed the papers to drink, even if it meant accidently being turned. We both knew he was no longer just human.
I released his hand and the paramedics pushed him outside. I tapped my mic. “Alex. Update on my Infermieri?” Infermieri were vamps who could donate forever without making humans into slaves, and whose blood was such a potent healer that a single drop could heal a human from most mortal wounds.
“Negative. I sent a formal request to Lincoln Shaddock and another to Florence herself, asking her to return to NOLA to feed Eli. No reply yet.”
Koun came online to the comms, and said, “Have there been attacks on any of the clan homes or the Mithran Council House?”
