“Yes. Except hisbattery, as you call it, is alive and partially bound to him by ethereal strands of interdimensional power. He requires another being, from the opposite dimension, to complete his seizure of power. And the Heart of Darkness. All in one place.”
Angels and demons could hold power in multiple dimensions.Hayyel. The angel was partially trapped. Opposite dimensional could mean hell and a demon. Did Mainet have a demon trapped already? “Are you trapped in his web?” I asked. “Are you being drained?”
“Oh, yes, my Jane,” he whispered. “Just as are all of my kind who dwell in this city of death. Heed these words, for I will soon be unable to speak to you.” He looked at my hip. There was a tiny popping sound and Leo vanished.
CHAPTER 6
Nice Riding, Too. Very Rodeo.
“Crap,” I muttered. Louder, I added, “You coulda been less mysterious.” Leo didn’t answer. Didn’t mean he was gone, just meant that if he was still around, he was done being helpful. As usual. But that look at my hip. He had been staring at the pocket holding the Glob, the only magical weapon I fully owned, one that had been made from part of my own body.
Death magics. Demons. Angels. And the Glob. And... I had drunk Leo’s blood. I wasn’t a vamp, but technically I was Leo’s scion. Was I being drained? “Alex. You still there?”
“Affirmative,” he said softly.
“Is that why I’m having trouble with my shifting? Through the preexisting relationship with Leo, as his Enforcer, so that this Heir, Mainet, is draining me enough to make me lose control?”
“I don’t know, Janie.”
But Leo had pointedly looked at the pocket holding the Glob. That look had seemed expectant. Purposeful.
As if the Glob might be the only thing standing between me dead and Mainet as king of the world.
Leo had shown me that I had a valuable weapon. More, he had mentioned my crown. As long as I had them and the heart, I stood a chance. My people stood a chance.
Koun appeared far down the street, his armor discarded, his blue-tattooed body mostly naked, a sword unsheathed in one hand, walking toward me up the street. Fully vamped out. I had no idea how he got out of the house. If I hadn’t seen him paralyzed with a stake in his belly, I’d never have guessed he had been wounded. His belly was healed now, his body reflecting the red and blue lights of emergency vehicles, his pale hair long and unbound, blowing around him in the swirling river breeze, a veil that rippled like fine silk. He looked exactly what he was—a Celtic warrior, fearless, vicious, death in vampire form.
Along the street, cops turned and placed hands on the butts of their weapons. Two stepped behind engine blocks and aimed over the hoods of cop cars. This was the kind of situation that could go bad in a hurry.
I stepped out of the shadows. Using all that formal mumbo jumbo I had learned, I shouted, “Here stands the Dark Queen. Here walks our Enforcer and Executioner. We seek peace.”
The cops looked from the mostly naked Celtic vamp to cat-snouted me and shook their heads. Their body language said,Only in New Orleans, but they relaxed, guns went back into holsters, and one of them actually smiled.
I blew out the breath I was holding. Koun glided up to me, his bare legs moving with that vamp grace and elegance I had envied for so long. His expression told me he had news, but with that vamp stillness he habitually wore, I couldn’t tell if it was good or bad. My heart stuttered.
Eli’s response of panic shocked through me. I sent out thought of,Wait, and felt him settle, uneasy, worried.
To Koun I said, “Bruiser?”
“He is well, My Queen.”
Eli felt my relief and we both pulled away from that battlefield connection, erecting walls as best we could this close in time to the concluded deadly danger.
Koun held his sword close to one side, and with his other, bloody hand, he covered my mic. Softly, for my ears only, he said, “This attack at the prison had two waves, which Alex’s drone cameras discovered. They were moving in, to surprise and decimate us in the quiet after the attack here. Your Consort’s team encountered the second wave two blocks away and engaged your enemies. I joined later for the mopping up. Your Consort and I and the teams with him dispatched fourteen Mithrans and incapacitated as many humans. No casualties on our side. The injured are being dealt with.
“Your Consort allowed one Mithran and four humans to escape. I understand that his people carried tracking devices and had tagged the vehicles used by the second wave.”
“And?”
“Alex’s flying drones are currently attempting to track the escapee’s cars. One is heading downtown, but there seems to be a glitch on its tracker. The other disappeared out of range into uptown before the drone could lock on.”
I heaved a sigh and tapped my mic. “Alex, I know you heard all that and know all this. Update.”
“I have research started, security programs running”—he meant hacking into more cameras, but he didn’t say that—“additional drones flying patterns, and, with any luck, the drones will pick up the vehicles. I’ll try to have something for you when you get back.”
Before I could respond, Koun stepped in front of me and lifted his sword to the sky. It wasn’t some symbolic gesture, but a defensive stance. I followed his gaze and saw coils of rainbow lights, the shimmer of frills, pearlescent horns, and the glint of dragon scales. In the night sky I recognized Pearl and Opal, two arcenciels, dancing in flight, fully visible to human eyes.
The cops called in a paranormal sighting. The neighbors turned their attention and cell phones from Koun and me to the night sky. I was sure there would be half a dozen vids of arcenciels flitting and glimmering, which would likely go viral. I clutched the heartbox to me, wondering if this was what the rainbow dragons wanted. Wild guesses were both my forte and my undoing.
