“Like I did when I left the church.”
“And as we Mithrans are going through now,” Ming said.
“Nell is the one who broke the chain of Death with that question, with this reading,” Yummy said as she flipped over the middle card. It showed two angels flying above the Earth, blowing trumpets. “Judgment. You are becoming free of what held you back.”
“But my question was ‘Why are the Mithrans different now?’ So if this stuff is really magic, then you vampires are the ones becoming free.”
Yummy flipped over the top card. It was a globe being held in the hands of two children. The children were naked, winged, and flying in the air.
“The most auspicious card in the entire tarot,” she whispered to me. “The card of the World always shows the globe of Earth held in the hands of twin children.”
I flinched before I could hold it in. My sister Esther had just given birth to twins. But it was unlikely that vampires would be interested in plant-children. And the twins on the card looked like stylized cherubs, not plant-people.
“This card of the Major Arcana means great success in all areas of life.” She smiled at Ming. “If this is the answer to her question, the good fortune is to be in all areas of our lives.”
“Ifwe survive this change,” Ming said. She turned her black eyes to me and said, “I will answer your question. The change within us began recently with an upheaval and the return of our souls. It is still happening now. We are still in dangernow. One hour before dawn, all of my Mithrans younger than a half century are chained in their lairs and watched over by their most trusted blood-servants. This is the only way they can be prevented from walking into the sun and burning. Shackled by who we are becoming, we wait out this change together, hoping we will all survive.
“Also,” she continued, “there are enemies in my city. The body we found is proof of this.”
Without turning over any of the other cards, Yummy gathered them into the single deck, placed them in the tin box, and strapped it closed. I assumed that meant our card session was over. I had survived.
Ming settled her vampire eyes on me, but I didn’t feel any attempt at mesmerism. She wasn’t trying to roll me. “Many people and creatures want the Blood Tarot,” she said. “Black-witches, blood witches, power-hungry humans, weres of any stripe, Anzu for reasons of their own. The dragons of light—the arcenciels, who do not want a powerful tool in the hands of anyone—wish to find it. The skinwalker and the Dark Queen. My enemies, both Mithran and Naturaleza.”
Were-creatures and skinwalkers.Unit Eighteen had three special agents who were werecats. FireWind was a skinwalker. And FireWind had been breathing down my neck asking questions about my search for the Blood Tarot. Soul was an arcenciel, and she had been on vacation for far too long, long enough that Unit Eighteen was growing concerned. And Mithrans and Naturaleza were both vampires. One group kept humans like pets, the other liked hunting and killing. Until tonight, they all had felt like maggots to me.
“With the Blood Tarot,” she said, “I have great power. All others want the cursed deck. I have it. Therefore, you will work with me, for me, and I will protect you.”
Instead of answering her demand to work for her, I said, “You said your enemy was after the cards, but you didn’t offer a name. Who?”
“The most dangeroussearcherof all: the Grand Inquisitor, Tomás de Torquemada,” Ming said. “He is near us. Hesearchesfor the final death of the undead and for the Blood Tarot. Hesearchesto bathe in the blood of his enemies. Hesearchesfor the end of this world and the rebirth of the next. And he intends to ride the dragon.”
Wackadoodle,I thought, just like T. Laine said. Except that the forms of the wordsearchhad been oddly accented.
“I owe you two boons,” Ming said, “yet I offer a third if you will do one thing for me. A small thing for one such as you.”
“I won’t promise you anything,” I said.
She was still holding me with her eyes, but she didn’t try to roll me, which might be the most strange part of this entire evening, because all vamps wanted to roll people and drink them down. It was what they did. I didn’t break the contact either.
She took on a pleading expression. “I ask for little of you. Yet I offer a third boon,” she said. “Find Tomás. Kill him. And kill the four and the four who guard him still, for even with souls to guide them, they are now no better than they ever were.”
“I’m a special agent with a law enforcement agency. I’m not a hired killer,” I said.
“Protecting the public is part of your job, yes? He seeks my land, he seeks my head, and if he is successful, he and his scions will take the Blood Tarot and ride the dragon. If you do not kill them, your city humans will die. And your own kind will suffer as well.”
“I’m not a hired killer,” I said again.
“So you say.” She tilted her head, that birdlike thing they do. “But the time may come when you hold his head and his restored soul in your hands and you will be forced into a choice: to allow him to die true-dead, or to save him. Make the choice that brings safety to yours and to mine.”
I answered in the way law enforcement had to in the presence of a powerful, not quite sane vampire. “Ming of Glass has offered information. PsyLED Eighteen has listened and understands. You said there was a dead body on your property. Where is it?”
“It is yours,” she said.
I hoped she didn’t mean that the dead body was my own.
“You may go,” she commanded.
Not taking my eyes from hers, I got up and walked away from the table. No one followed. I had been in Ming’s clan home before, and though the foyer floor was changed, the walls were pretty much where they had been. I said softly, hoping comms was still listening, “I’m heading to the front door.”
