Cia, the moon witch, would be at full power when the moon rose. Got it. So the ward would go up the moment that Cia could draw on the source of her power.
This vamp might know that. The Heir was powerful, with a gift for the dramatic. He certainly knew he could put his hands on the gate and not suffer from a blast of witch magics. In the cameras positioned across the street, mounted on the buildings owned by HQ, we watched as he laid his forehead on the metal. It was almost as if he was praying, and with his arms stretched out and up, there was more than a hint of symbolism in the position—the view of the Christ on his cross as seen from behind. The cross that the Sons of Darkness had mixed with all the other bloody wood from Golgotha’s murderer and thief to create the first blood drinkers. All the vamps standing with us in the foyer recognized the imagery. He was saying he was now king, that he would die for his people and his mission, that he was the way forward. And that the Dark Queen allowed him to get this close. It was a mark of the position he intended to take and proof of my failure.
I wasn’t a master vamp in the sense of the blood tie that bound scions to a Blood Master, but I knew Koun was standing behind me. I could feel his presence and his power through all his blood that was in me. He felt at full power, which meant he had taken in a lot of human blood to heal his broken ankles. I could feel Thema and Kojo, who had also clearly fed well. And I could feel Eli and his girlfriend, Liz, in one of the entrances to the foyer, the battle bond awakening between my secundo and me. There was no way Eli was ready to fight, and he hadn’t talked to me yet, but I felt his heart rate, steady, calm. I figured he was still mad at me. But it was only fair. He and his warriors kept me safe because I was mortal, so I kept him safe for the same reason. Or tried to.
I put on a headset and accepted weapons from Quint. I even let her strap the rigs on my thighs and hips, kneeling, working around me. “ID confirmation?” I asked Alex, who was in the lower-level main security room.
“We got one view of his face.” A fuzzy still-shot appeared on the upper corner of the screen. “Probable ID, Mainet Pellissier.”
Just as I figured, the guy who wanted to take over the world, starting with killing me, was at the front entrance playing God. “Oh goodie,” I said. As I watched, Mainet stepped away, threw back his head, his black hair flying, revealing his face, and leaped straight up. It was like levitating but fast, as if the ground had been a trampoline.
He landed on our side of the twelve-foot-tall fence with ease, dropping to his toes, one knee, and the fingers of both hands in the circular parking area before standing and again outstretching his arms. Doing the Christ thing and at the same time indicating he wasn’t armed. He was also proving that he could walk into my territory unmolested.
Fanghead protocol said they were supposed to present themselves unarmed when entering another vamp’s territory, but this felt more like an invasion than obeisance. Mainet was apparently alone, not that I trusted what I was seeing, not with a vamp who controlled transport-circle witches. He could have backup anywhere. My vamps moved toward the entrance.
“Hang on,” I said. They stopped with that preternatural stillness vamps could achieve, not breathing, not blinking. “Let’s see what he does.”
On the screen, Mainet vamped out slowly, so very slowly, showing his control of his powers. His jaw unhinged. His five-inch-long fangs slowly swept forward and down with that click I couldn’t hear but knew had to be there. The sclera of his eyes bled scarlet and his pupils widened into the black pits of hell. I wanted to clap. Slowly. With sarcasm.
Beast can jump higher,she thought at me.
The vamps in the room vamped out too, almost as if he was calling to them. Mainet Pellissier was reaching out to the vamps through... though Leo’s bloodline. Ahhh. I stepped from the security nook and spotted Leo, once again standing in a corner, his hands clasped in front of him, his head bowed. He was wearing a gold cross with tiny holes in it on a gold chain around his neck. Okaaay. A vamp with a cross, not burning and on fire. So maybe it was protection?
Yet, Leo slowly vamped out too.
As if choreographed, all the vamps turned toward the front entrance.Crap.
I needed to be the DQ. I needed that power. I needed the crown.
Behind me, a soft clatter sounded and when I turned around,le breloquewas sitting on the security desk. Wrassler whispered a curse word.
I had either calledle breloque, or it knew it was needed and came on its own, proving it was a magical AI... or sentient. Either possibility was coolio or scary or both. Right now I was going with coolio. I reached back, grabbed the laurel-leaved gold band, rearranged the headset so it wouldn’t get smashed against my scalp, and put the crown on. It snapped tightly into place on my skull with anow-worthy speed.
I didn’t know what I was doing, but I had to start somewhere. Why not at the top?
I concentrated on Leo, reaching out to him, willing him to think of me. Slowly, the former master of the city turned to me. He took a breath and blew it out. An instant later, every vamp in the room breathed. Leo’s fangs retracted and his eyes returned to human normal. There were multiple clicks around the room as all the vamps returned to looking human.
They all pivoted in place and looked at me.
Something weird happened in my chest, a heated, sinuous gathering of power. With it came an emotion that defied immediate description beyond a burst of... something like... joy. I laughed. “Holy crap.”
The vamps around me smiled, because it was happy human laughter, not vamp mockery or cynicism. Oddly, they seemed, for the moment, tranquil and calm. For vamps.
Bruiser moved from me to Leo, and my heart did a little skip of fear. Fear that he might be leaving me for his old love, before I saw the null cuffs in his hands. He held the wide bracelet out and Leo extended his hands. Bruiser clicked the cuffs onto his former master’s wrists and adjusted a second cuff until it fit around Leo’s head. Leo closed his eyes and his shoulders dropped as the power being exerted by the maker of his bloodline was cut.
“I am sorry, my old friend,” Bruiser said. Faster thanI could follow, Bruiser’s arm came forward. Leo grunted and dropped to the floor, boneless. There was a wood stake poking from his belly.
Bruiser had just paralyzed Leo.
Instantly, I schooled my face and my emotions to neutral. No shock. Hiding my surprise. Instinctively I projected a placid calm, like a still lake beneath a full moon. I took a breath and shoved it out into the room as well.
All the vamps looking at me took a second, unneeded breath and visibly relaxed.So. Okay. Yeah.They were being called through Leo’s old bond. But with Leo out and the corona on my head, we were safe. Safe-ish. For a while, anyway.
“Let’s go see what the unwelcome visitor wants,” I said.
Before I could move to the airlock, Liz, Cia, Big Evan, and Molly stepped into the center of the foyer. Evan motioned everyone back and the Everharts and Truebloods took places in a small circle. I realized they were standing on my crown, the six-foot-diameter symbolic version of it embedded in the gray and white marble. They all sat inside the band, too close for a good circle, knees touching. Molly said, “Begin.”
An Everhart/Trueblood witch circle sprang into being. It wasn’t balanced, because they needed five to act as a full circle, and Carmen was probably staying with the children, and Cia still lacked the power of the moon. But it was a bloodline circle, all of them joined by genetics and love in one way or another. Molly touched the brass band in the floor and light blazed up, so bright all the humans turned away. This circle was way more powerful than I expected.
