It mattered little. Grateful for the gift, faintly amazed the plan had after all succeeded, he bore down, their furious passage erasing a long strip of yellowing turf to bare dry dirt. He held Antinous in smoke-tinted sunlight as the sun mounted and the dying Emperor screamed, no longer vibrating with a battle-roar but choking on a high whistling cry.
Certainly the light stung Nemesis’s hide, scoured sensitive eyesight. It did not raise blisters or swelling, though, and even as his enemy clawed frantically, the balance had been tipped. Steam rose from the roasting of elder flesh, curling grey coils freighted with veils of grit. Muscles shriveled, eyeballs collapsing, the skin of Antinous’s face splitting and desiccating with increasing speed. The more damage was wrought, the swifter sun-shock accumulated.
One more violent effort, wrenching the patriarch’s arms from his son’s flesh. Nemesis held the squirming, struggling, dissolving thing to earth as morn strengthened by increments.
A last gurgle, a final burst of glittering particles, and only yellow steam remained, shredding as thunder once again growled in celestial halls. Along with the smoke-tang, the greenness of petrichor intensified.
Rain was now increasingly likely.
Nemesis remained on hands and knees, shuddering as the gouges in his gut sealed. The sunlight did not quite harm a new daywalker, but he still did not like its inimical prickling, robbing him of strength even as the wonder of survival spilled through nerve and muscle both.
Leila.He was somehow upright, left hand a bar across his slowly healing midriff as he staggered for the house. Shredded curtains waved upon a flirting, strengthening breeze. Bits of debris pattered down, the villa now a slumped ruin. A deep furrow was gouged across flagstone patio, the ballroom’s flank torn wide.
Stepping into shadow was a relief.
“Leila,” he whispered to the house’s shattered depths.
There was no reply.
The storm finally broke midafternoon, lightning piercing sky-dams, torrents sweeping over long orange-and-yellow tongues stretched from the cauldron of the oilfields. The wrecked pumps still burned, belching smoke—it would take some time for every iron-gantry dragon to be subdued—but the refineries had both been extinguished and all told the mortal authorities were relieved at the rain.
Even if lightning had struck the old Schellburger mansion, provoking a much smaller fire which gutted the historical monument. A certain rich local philanthropist had reportedly been caught in the flames along with several of his staff; that particular item of news would be buried under far more pressing concerns.
Of a ragged, half-naked figure carrying a long bundle swathed with dusty antique window-drapes from the residence, nothing was ever said. The mansion’s cavernous garage had largely escaped damage, many of the gleaming vehicles within eventually auctioned off by authorities; if a dark-red SUV with heavily tinted windows had gone missing, nobody cared. It was enough that Grishkov’s property was available for new owners; several developers had been eyeing the fraying estate for almost a decade now.
The city would remain free of sanguinant for a short while, but power—and predators—abhor a vacuum. Any territory so prime was meant to be ruled. There was unrelated, much more interesting news buzzing in the subterranean gossip-streams of the demimonde.
It was whispered that Nemesis had turned on his Maker, but none could say for certain. For all of Antinous’s get had vanished from the earth.
CHAPTER 31
A bright,indistinct smear hovered before her. Water ran, the torrent eventually shutting off. The thirst was back, rasping and awful even if the necklace held it at arm’s length; she could not scrape up the strength to push against deep swimming lassitude.
Quiet, hoarse instructions. “Lift your arm… there. Good. Tip your head… sit up, yes, like that.” A hand at her metal-clad nape, flowing warmth rinsing her hair, sluicing away smoke and terror. The bright smudge was glare on blue and green tile; soap-scented steam rose in slow-motion streams. “Close your eyes.”
Her lids drifted down. More rinsing, then she was lifted, a small metallic clink and the slippery sound of draining. The brush of a towel—patting gingerly, not scrubbing hard as she would—drifted along her skin. More movement, cooler drafts passing leisurely over damp skin, and more directions she didn’t bother to resist.
Save your strength.The shakes had her, muscles quivering as if after several days of hard workouts and too little food. A small noise, her throat vibrating inside a cage of golden knotwork. Was she trying to scream?
“I know,” he soothed. “A moment more,puella mea. Then I will feed you.”
She strained to open her eyes. Couldn’t. The necklace’s invisible grip was now far too strong.
Oh, God. Is it the old crazyass?Sharp burst of terror, but she was locked in darkness, in an unresponsive body.
The only comforting thing was a steady, almost familiarka-thump, pause,ka-thump. It meant something, she just couldn’t remember what.
Fabric draping, heavy and clinging-soft. Pressure moving her one way, then another. She sank into more softness, swayed, was caught and returned upright. Sitting, she was sitting on something—was it the bench? Had the ancient, terribly jittery vampire brought her back to the dusty pink room? It smelled too clean, though—fabric softener, fresh air loaded with the scent of mimosa trees, night air carrying the powder-spice through open windows.
That’s nice, but I need to know…
What did she need? The thirst was growing too intense for the necklace to push it away; her throat was an agony of burning.
“Here, my Leila. Feed.” Pressure against her lips.
Layla. That’s me, that’s my name. Oh, good, I’m glad to know that.
A slight shifting sound, her mouth suddenly hot and numb. Teeth clamping, and a burst of something wonderful hit the thirst, surrounded it, drowned the burning in deep comfort. Tangerine-taste, again, and chocolate milk. A hazy drifting memory of Meemaw’s stuffing on a particularly good Christmas, the stickiness of cheap watermelon lollipops bought with pocket change after school.
