Demon Divine: a novel of the Demon Accords

- Title Page

- Prologue

- Chapter 1

- Chapter 2

- Chapter 3

- Chapter 3

- Chapter 4

- Chapter 5

- Chapter 5

- Chapter 5

- Chapter 6

- Chapter 7

- Chapter 8

- Chapter 9

- Chapter 10

- Chapter 11

- Chapter 12

- Chapter 13

- Chapter 14

- Chapter 15

- Chapter 16

- Chapter 17

- Chapter 18

- Chapter 19

- Chapter 20

- Chapter 21

- Chapter 22

- Chapter 23

- Chapter 24

- Chapter 25

- Chapter 26

- Chapter 27

- Chapter 28

- Chapter 29

- Chapter 30

- Chapter 31

- Chapter 32

- Chapter 33

- Chapter 35

- Chapter 36

- Chapter 37

- Chapter 38

- Chapter 39

- Chapter 40

- Chapter 41

- Chapter 42

- Chapter 43

- Chapter 44

- Chapter 45

- Chapter 46

- Chapter 47

- Chapter 48

- Epilogue

Demon Divine

John Conroe

This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Copyright © 2019 John Conroe

Smashwords edition.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

The Demon Accords:

God Touched

Demon Driven

Brutal Asset

Black Frost

Duel Nature

Fallen Stars

Executable

Forced Ascent

College Arcane

God Hammer

Rogues

Snake Eyes

Winterfall

Summer Reign

The Demon Accords Compendium, Volume 1

The Demon Accords Compendium, Volume 2

Demon Divine

C.A.E.C.O. (Summer, 2019)

The Zone War series:

Zone War

Borough of Bones (coming Spring, 2019)

Web of Extinction (coming Fall, 2019)

Cover art by Gareth Otton.

Prologue

The dentist’s office, being the place of business for one Dr. Gary Reynolds, DDS, occupied what had once been a single-family ranch-style house, one that had seen better days. Located right on the border between Burlington’s commercial and residential neighborhoods, it suffered from the beginnings of neglect. None of the deferred maintenance had yet reached a truly extensive level, mostly consisting of peeling paint, degrading roof shingles, and weatherproofing that was beginning to be less proof and more weathered.

The dark of deep night hid most of the negligence; not even the light from the rear employees’ bathroom illuminated more than a few peels of loose paint. As the night concealed the damage on the outside, so too did the closed doors and unlit rooms of the building, at least for a few hours, cover the damage strewn about the inside.

A shower ran in the little three-quarters bath, the sounds of contented humming interwoven into the splash and trickle of running water. In the rest of the office, other liquids and some semi-solids ran down walls and over almost every available surface. Concentrated mostly in the reception area and examination room Number Two, the fluids were almost uniformly blackish in the dark gloom of the unlit office. But here and there, in those places touched ever so slightly by the meager illumination that managed to make its way from the open bathroom doorway, the fluid was more of a deep, dark red. The tiny, feminine-sized footprints of fluid in the carpet just outside the bathroom were as red as they were small. Their trail ran backward to the exam room and, curiously, their size increased the farther back the trail led. In fact, the very shape of the footprints changed from a dainty size five by the bathroom to a long, reptilian three-toed structure larger than that of an average NBA shoe coming out of E2.

The shower abruptly stopped, the humming continuing on for a moment or two. The glass door popped open, revealing feminine perfection impossible to describe. Black hair, black eyes, perfect skin that glowed with the warm mocha tones of Middle Eastern or possibly African heritage, and a flawless figure whose measurements achieved the biologically optimum ratios instinctively sought by human males.

No towel was handy in the office restroom, but apparently none was needed, as the woman’s skin was almost immediately dry and her thick waves of glossy black hair were bereft of moisture only a few moments later.

Stepping gracefully across the small room, the vision of loveliness regarded a neatly folded stack of clothing. Slim, strong fingers plucked a dull grey dress from the pile, holding it up to a critical view that revealed it to be a shapeless sack. She slipped it over her head, foregoing any underthings, and turned to study her reflection in the glass of the shower door.

The horrible dress did little to hide the curves of the body underneath it, although the lady frowned at her reflection in distaste. Then a thought occurred to her and her distaste became the reluctant regret of undertaking an unpleasant task. After a moment, her frown evened out, her expression becoming one of determination.

Instantly everything about her began to change. Her slightly above average height visibly diminished to something under average and her slim figure filled out into a shape commonly referred to as middle-aged spread.

The lustrous black hair became dry, gray, and brittle, the perfect skin wrinkled and leathery. Long legs became short, toned muscle turned to veiny gristle, and a bosom that would melt male minds sagged and drooped.

She frowned at the total result, yet nodded once in reluctant satisfaction, sighing to herself as she slipped still-dainty feet into plain flat shoes. Besides her feet, the only other physical feature unchanged was the black of her bottomless eyes.

Picking up a largish plain pocketbook, the much-changed woman walked out of the bathroom, across the lobby, and out the unlocked door, her stride changing from confident and athletic to a shortened, unstable hobble as she moved. It was as if her personality had changed enough to catch up with her body. The bells strung on the door tinkled merrily as it swung closed behind her, shutting in the unspeakable horror of the gore-strewn office.

The office of death sat quiet for a time, the hours of night clicking past till just a few were left before dawn. A rented Toyota Prius ghosted onto the street, electric motors making little noise as it pulled to a stop two doors down. A slim figure, all in black, slipped out of the car, closing the door with a soft click. The car’s interior lights never came on.

The figure was feminine, but the dark clothing and tight black cap obscured most details. Her head tilted back and finely formed nostrils flared slightly in the cool night. The pale jaw immediately clenched and her throat flexed as she swallowed in a nearly uncontrollable reflex.

Pausing, the woman seemed to gather herself, head tilted as if listening. Then she was simply gone, disappearing so fast it was as if she had been snatched away by the hand of God. The dying night settled again, just the soft ping of the vehicle cooling disturbing the silence.

At the back of the dental office, the shadow of a leafless lilac bush suddenly swelled outward as if pregnant, birthing the slim figure in black in complete silence. The woman opened the door so slowly that not a single bell jingled or chimed. It closed behind her just as softly, leaving no disturbance to mark the woman’s passage.

Minutes ticked by and the building sat waiting. In the east, the sky changed from star-sprinkled blackness to a deep purple. On the street, the Prius stopped ticking; metal finally cooled in the fall temperatures of northern Vermont.

The door suddenly opened, still without a sound, yet much faster than before. The figure in black exited quickly, closing the door with exquisite care. She paused, the pale flesh of her face just visible in the purple of the astronomical dawn. She swallowed again, a hungry sort of thing, before looking first at her gloved hands, then at the ground by her soft-soled boots. Glancing at her right shoulder, she grimaced slightly as she pulled a single strand of hair from her clothing. A stray glimmer from the nearest streetlight illuminated the hair, revealing it to be a golden blonde color.

With a glance at the lightening sky, she paused to think. Then she was gone again and a moment later, the Prius’s driver door clicked shut and the hybrid vehicle pulled away with almost no sound.

Chapter 1

“I’mmmm hunting babies. Where are the little tasty babies?” the man said as he opened the playroom door and peered inside. Purple eyes took in the toy-strewn madness, then he pushed the door open the rest of the way and strode inside, closing the only exit off behind him.

His loose gray t-shirt clung to a musculature defined to an improbable degree. It was as if all the fat had been vacuumed off the body of the world’s greatest Cross Fit champion. His dark hair was short, his sculpted face clean shaved. He moved with an easy, fluid grace.

“Where are the little morsels I crave?” he said, wincing at his own words.

There was no sign of the owners of the plastic trucks, stuffed animals, and children’s books that covered the floor in a pattern closer to bomb debris than any sort of organization.

“Oh, the babies have been playing hard. They must be nearby,” he said, shaking his head at the room’s destruction. A look of what might have been awe flashed across his features.

There came a tiny noise from one corner, just the slightest sound of bare skin brushing carpet. The man with the purple eyes didn’t really need to hear it to know something was occupying space in that part of the room—something unseen. His exceptional hearing had been tracking two fast little heartbeats since he had entered the room. One in the corner where the whisper of friction had come from and the other bird-fast flutter from directly over his head, up high near the ceiling. He had carefully avoided looking up, but now, at the sound, he did turn his head to take in the corner. There was nothing visible except a large stuffed toy gorilla whose stomach looked like it had been caved in. In fact, the ape’s tummy was pressed inward in almost the exact shape of a tiny human rump.

“You can’t fool me. Gorillas don’t have butt-shaped bellies,” he said with a sly grin. A slight feather of air brushed his forehead and he looked up, muscled arms snapping out to catch the tiny body that plummeted at him from three feet above.

“Got you, Cora. Now it’s time for food!” he said, fingers finding enough tickle spots to make the small girl child giggle.

“No!” another voice said from the corner and suddenly a small boy was there, sitting on the gorilla’s stomach, face frowning in worry and anger. “Cora no food.”

“No Wulf, Cora is not food,” the man both agreed and corrected. “But it is time for dinner.”

Outside the playroom’s floor-to-ceiling windows, the sky was growing lighter as dawn approached.

The little boy still frowned, but his father, holding Cora in one hand, leaped lightly over a mound of toy rubble to land next to the boy. He scooped him up with his free hand, tossing him a foot into the air before catching him smoothly with just the single hand.

The toddler laughed and his sister immediately spoke up. “Me too!”

“As you command, Princess Cora,” her father said, throwing her almost to the nine-foot-high ceiling. Her male twin demanded another toss and so Chris Gordon, God’s warrior on Earth, began to systematically juggle his young children like living bowling pins.

The door behind him opened and a black-haired, blue-eyed beauty poked her head in.

“We’ve got a call from Nika up north. And stop calling her princess. Bad enough so many of the Coven does it, not you too.”

“Hey Nika, what’s the word?” Chris asked the empty air, smirking at his wife’s comment.

“You’re not going to stamp out that prince and princess stuff, Tanya. Especially with Arkady leading the mob.”

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll work on that later. What’s the word up in Burlington?” Tanya Demidova asked.

“The dentist is dead. Missed him and his killer by just a few hours,” came a soft voice from the ceiling speaker.

“The demon is covering his tracks,” Chris said.

“Her tracks, and she didn’t cover them very well because they’re very prominent in the carpet.”

“That nurse that Toni remembered?” Tanya asked.

“Most likely. Tore the dentist and another person, maybe a receptionist or technician, into bloody chunks.”

“You didn’t feed, did you?” Chris asked, which instantly earned him an incredulous glare from his wife.

“Of course not, and you deserve every bit of the look you’re getting from Tanya right now. I’m a professional.”

“Sorry,” he said, giving his wife a silent, apologetic shrug, a toddler balanced on each upturned palm. Interestingly, both youngsters were sitting quietly, heads tilted almost exactly alike, listening to the familiar voice on the room’s audio system.

“Do I hear a note of concern in your voice?” Tanya asked.

“There is a possibility that I could have left a hair strand or two in the crime scene,” Nika said. “I’m on my way to Arcane to enlist Declan’s help.”

“Good plan. Listen, with confirmation of the demon’s presence, Chris and I will head up there immediately, as soon as the plane is ready,” Tanya said. “Gina at Arcane should be able to provide day cover.”

“Yeah, or I’ll just hunker down in the Kid Wonder’s dorm room for the day.”

“That could work, but make sure you tell Stacia, or better yet, have him do it,” Chris said, looking slightly worried.

Tanya rolled her eyes but said nothing.

“Okay, well, I’m pulling into the parking lot at Arcane, so I’ll hang up now.”

“Right. We’ll see you when you get up later today,” Tanya said.

“Call is ended,” came a different voice through the speakers. It sounded like a young male. “Filing a flight plan for Burlington and have called up the pilots to prep for takeoff.”

Chris grinned at his wife, who frowned at the voice. “Thank you Omega,” he said while Tanya stuck her tongue out at him. Her initial awe of the world’s most advanced computer had turned to something like worry.

“Nika?” Cora asked.

“Yes, that was Auntie Nika on the phone,” Tanya said, attention now completely focused on her children. “How was the baby hunting?”

“They are getting craftier by the day. Although this one,” Chris said, hefting Cora, “likes to attack from ambush. And this one,” hefting Wulf, “is as protective of his sister as she is of him.”

“They shouldn’t attack at all. They have no weapons yet.”

“That will come with time. For now, they are learning to hone their talents. A human would not have found them. Eventually, they’ll learn to fool supernaturals too.”

“Well, for now, they need to eat their dinner and get ready for bed,” Tanya said, moving across the room so fast, she seemed to disappear and reappear. She snatched Wulf out of his father’s hand, swinging the delighted little boy in a circle as she danced out of the room. Chris looked at his daughter and found her frowning. Imperiously, she pointed one hand for him to follow the other two. “You truly are your mother’s daughter.” Then he swooped and swung her like a toy plane, jetting out of the playroom.

The family of four was all in the hallway together when the audio system spoke again.

“Tanya, there is an incoming call from someone purporting to be an assistant to an Elder.”

“Must be Grandmother,” Tanya said, handing Wulf to her husband.

“No, I believe the Elder in question is named Mausya.”

Tanya shared a frown with Chris before turning back toward the living room to take the call.

Thirty minutes later, she appeared in the doorway to the twins’ bedroom, standing silently as Chris read a story about a family of bears going on a mountain vacation where everything went wrong. The fact that all three of them were leaning against a furry bear mountain of their own was ironic enough to make Tanya’s serious expression slip into an affectionate smile. The story finished and she swooped in to claim Cora for bed tucking while Chris handled Wulf. Awasos shrank from ginormous bear to merely huge wolf and gave each twin a lick before trotting off toward the kitchen.

“What’s up,” Chris asked, carefully shutting the door as they exited the twins’ room.

Tanya frowned. “I don’t know. The Elders are calling me to Europe… to Paris. Elders, as in Tzao and Mausya. It has something to do with Grandmother. She called after Mausya and demanded I back her, but wouldn’t tell me what I was to back her on.”

“Lydia?” he asked.

She nodded. “She’s reaching out to her network of Coven sources, but it looks like I have to go to Europe. Omega is filing new flight plans. Mother is coming as well.”

“We’ll go with you then,” he said.

“No, you’ll go deal with that demon bitch before she does whatever she’s here to do. Nika will help, and I understand Stacia and Holly are coming back to Maine today with their new recruit, that deputy that got bit when Steclan was dealing with the rogues and the witch up there.”

“Twins with you?” he asked.

“No, you. You have a babysitter who lives in a guarded facility, surrounded by werewolves and witches, wearing your God Tear necklace. Me, I’ll have all kinds of vampire factions who might do something stupid like try to kidnap the twins.”

His face hardened to stone and she could just about see his purple eyes glow as he considered anyone kidnapping his children.

“I should be with you.”

“You are the only one who can deal with a demon incarnate. Plus, your past dealings with the old vampires didn’t go very smoothly. I actually spoke to Mausya and she said Senka was being measured for being faithless. Used that word like three or four times. I could almost hear a capital F.”

“But you don’t know what that means?”

“It means she is being considered to be untrue to her allegiances to the Coven that she leads,” a new voice said. They turned to find Galina, Tanya’s mother, standing with Lydia in the doorway.

“So that’s a thing? I never heard of it,” Tanya said.

“It’s rare to elect new Elders, and it’s even rarer for one to be charged as Faithless. We must go and help her,” Galina said.

“What do we do?” Tanya asked, frowning.

“She is being judged on her actions. Her own words will carry little weight. It will be the testimony of others that makes a difference.”

“Are you sure I shouldn’t come too?” Chris asked.

“No!” all three adult vampires said at the same time.

“Christian dear, you have grown on me as a son-in-law,” Galina said with a smirk. “But you left an indelible impression on the elders, particularly Mausya. This is not a time for threats or strength of forces. It will require imagination, skilled oration, careful manipulation of emotion, guile, and exquisite judgment of circumstance. The delicacy of a jeweler. You—you’re a hammer. A sledgehammer.”

“And you need to deal with that demon… you know… the one loose in Burlington where we keep the world’s most powerful witch kid,” Lydia said.

“Okay, then I’ll have Deckert get a convoy together and we’ll head up to Burlington by car a little later today. But let’s get you packed. And you are taking Arkady. Let’s go. It’s almost daylight.”

Chapter 2

“Father? Wake up, Father.”

Declan scrunched his eyes tighter as the voice intruded on meaningless dreams and comforting sleep. After a second thought, he opened them, blinking rapidly.

“What? What is it Omega?”

“Nika needs your assistance. She is outside but I have cleared her through security. She will be at your door in approximately one minute.”

The thought of getting caught in just sleep shorts got him moving. He changed into yesterday’s clothes, picking each piece from where he had dropped it on the floor the night before. Glancing at the clock showed it was a wicked early hour of the morning, a fact borne out by the darkness outside his window.

He was just pulling his hoodie on over his head when a soft rapping came at the door. He stumbled across the room and unlocked the door while disarming his wards. Of the two, the wards were a much greater deterrent.

A very pretty blonde woman stood waiting, dressed in black long-sleeve shirt, black slim-fit pants, and even a black cap. She gave him a quick smile before glancing behind him into his room.

Taking the hint, he stepped back and waved her in.

“Omega said you need help. Did you find the demon?” he asked, knuckling one eye.

“Yes and no. I found where she was, not where she is.”

“So what kind of help do you need? And isn’t it almost daylight?”

“Well, where she was is a murder scene and I might have left DNA evidence,” she said, touching a strand of her hair where it hung out from under the cap. “And I was hoping to crash here,” she added, pointing at his bed.

“Oh,” he said, looking at the bed with concern. “Well, I can go take care of any loose hairs or other DNA if you give me a strand or two. Ah, you’re welcome to my room, but I, ah, need to tell Stacia.”

She smirked at him and he puffed up a bit, opening his mouth to speak. She beat him to it.

“I already texted Stacia, but points to you for thinking of that right away,” she said, reaching up to yank some strands of hair out of her head. “Here,” she said, handing him the wisps of blondeness. Then she turned and strode to the windows, lowering and closing the blinds.

“Ah, I think I have clean sheets here somewhere,” he said, moving hesitantly toward his closet as he tied off the lock around his right ring finger.

“Don’t bother. I’m actually going to sleep under the bed,” she said, pointing to the little cave his half-lofted bed had under it. “We don’t feel much during daylight hours, so just a blanket and a pillow are all I need.”

“Oh. Are you sure?” he said, shoulders relaxing, tone unconvincing.

“Yes. Are you sure you can blot out my sloppy tradecraft?”

“What? Oh yeah, no problem. I’m also gonna add you to the door wards so you could leave if you had too. Um, I should also take my book bag cause I’ll just head to class right after breakfast.”

“Great,” she said with a big smile, turning and bending over to pull a few boxes from under the bed. He whirled away, forcing his mind to pull up a more complex spell for hair eradication. Bad enough to get caught ogling a girl from behind, let alone a really powerful telepath. It wouldn’t have even meant anything, just a hardwired male reflex. Never caught girls ogling boys, but guys seemed helpless to stop themselves.

“It’s because you’re all so visual,” Nika said without looking around.

“Right, well, sleep, ah, well,” he said, fleeing his own room. My face is flaming red and I didn’t even do anything, he thought.

He locked the door, fired up the wards, and left the floor. A thought occurred to him. “Omega, did Nika actually text Stacia?” he asked his ever-present earpiece.

“Yes, Father, although there was speculation on whether you would think to do so yourself.”

“Minefields inside of minefields. Omega, would you send Stacia a text from me that I’m covering Nika’s trail and she’s holed up in my room?”

“Texting that you are covering Nika’s tail and the two of you are holed up in your room, now.”

“No! Don’t send that! That’s not what I said at all,” he said in alarm, stopping in his tracks.

“Ha. Ha. That would be a joke, right, Father? Of course I did not send that,” the world’s most advanced AI said.

“Shit, Omega. You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Your heart is quite healthy, although I did sense a sudden increase in heartbeats per minute.”

“I’m not sure I like this side of you,” the young man said, heading out into the morning.

Seven minutes of light traffic later; he slowed his Toyota Land Cruiser to a halt, sliding in tight to the curb. Down the street on the left was the dentist’s office, sitting dark and sinister, or so it seemed to him, but he realized that was because he already knew what lay strewn about inside it.

“Any cameras of note?” he asked out loud.

“One back at the corner deli, but I interfered with its recording quality,” his car radio said, as his Bluetooth earpiece sat on the front passenger seat, unused.

“Thank you.”

Pulling a pad of paper and a Sharpie out of his book bag, he sketched a quick circle, one that, if not exactly perfect, was astonishingly close to it. Then he began to write runes about the inner and outer arcs of the circle. There was no hesitation, no errors, no missteps, and in moments, the crafting was almost complete.

He pulled the twisted locket of hair off his right ring finger and placed it in the center of his drawn circle. He lightly touched the bottom of the arc with his right index finger and a tiny spark snapped between his finger and the ink and paper.

The air pressure in the cab of the rugged little utility vehicle dropped, enough that he could feel his ears pop slightly, but he ignored those sensations, his eyes closed and his will pushing outward. First, he pushed the sensation out through his index finger, then out through the paper, to the runes, to the circle, and finally to the strands of hair. From there, it leaped outward into the dark.

“911 dispatch has just received an anonymous call reporting that screams of terror were heard coming from Dr. Reynolds’ office. A Burlington Police unit is on its way,” the radio said suddenly and softly.

“Beast, start up,” Declan said, eyes still closed. The Land Cruiser turned over, powerful V6 rumbling softly. On the pad of paper, the little knot of blonde hairs suddenly crinkled up, twisting as if burning before suddenly puffing into smoke and ash.

“Let’s go,” Declan said, putting his materials away as the SUV drove itself forward, past the little office of horror.

Two blocks later, Declan was turning right onto a side street just as a police cruiser passed him going the other way.

“Whew. That was tighter than it should have been.”

“I have traced the call to a disposable phone whose GPS signal ceased completely right after the call was placed.”

“Burner phone, either tossed in Lake Champlain or crushed.”

“As the signal was lost near the lakeside boardwalk, your first guess is somewhat likely to be accurate.”

“She’s trying to get us in trouble? That would mean she’s keeping an eye on the place.”

“At least monitoring it remotely. Landline telephone activity in at least one residence within sight of the office building indicates someone awake over the last hour. There was an incoming call to the house from yet another mobile unit two hours ago, and then a call to the mobile phone seven minutes ago. Now that phone has ceased sending location signals too.”

“Was I seen?”

“The residence is within line of sight of your position on the street.”

“Clever. Circumstantial but bothersome. And high tech for a demon. Perhaps Nika should interview the owner of that house.”

“I concur. Police suspicions will be raised by your presence at a crime scene of such graphic violence. No evidence linking you to the building exists, but we can assume an accurate description of Beast will or was transmitted to the police. What rationale for your presence?”

“My knee-jerk reaction would be that I was out for an early morning breakfast, but my gut tells me that’s too pat.”

“Again concur. Perhaps in this case, a version of the truth has potential?”

“What? That I was out burning up vampire hairs?”

“Not that version.”

“Well, what if I felt something? Had a feeling? A flash of intuition?”

“A disturbance in the Force?”

“Nice movie reference, and yeah, something along that path. I felt evil, supernatural evil. Maybe had a dream. But when I pulled up, I couldn’t feel anything except that something bad had happened inside the building. I should call Darci and tell her. On a well-established line.”

“Concur. Placing call now.”

The radio began a calling ring pattern. It picked up after five rings.

“Hello,” a sleepy voice said.

“Darci, it’s Declan.”

“What’s up?” The sleepiness was suddenly gone from the voice, replaced with tightness.

“I’m fine. It’s just that I had a dream something awful happened here in Burlington. It woke me up. I drove around till I got near where I felt it and… well… there’s a dental office that feels like the devil’s slaughterhouse. I’m not on good terms with BPD or your department, so I thought I better tell you. Sorry to wake you.”

“Did you go in it? Or near it?”

“No, just on the street. Never got out of my car. But Darci, this is bad. I’m calling Chris Gordon next. That kind of bad.”

“Okay, okay,” she said. After a moment, she went on. “Just go about your morning. I’ll check in with BPD.”

“Okay. Talk later?” he asked.

“Yes, and maybe sooner,” she said, hanging up.

“Responding officers have called in a homicide. Additional units are responding. The Detective Services Bureau has been notified as well as the Vermont State Police Mobile Crime Scene Team.”

“Thanks, Omega. Let’s call Chris and Tanya. Have they left yet?”

“Not yet. Placing call. Line is secure.”

“Problems?” Chris’s voice asked over the line.

“Your demon is a tricky minx. She somehow called in the disturbance while I was fixing Nika’s problem. I think she has a human helper on the same street, so I’m expecting a call from Burlington PD at some point, wondering why I was there. I called Darci and told her about a prophetic dream, and that I then got up and went out to investigate.”

“Good thinking. What else?”

“I told her that I was calling you next because my feeling was that kind of feeling. She’s calling her contacts but BPD is already on the scene.”

“Okay, clever. Awasos, the twins, and I are driving up via Deckert convoy, so we’ll come up with our own reason for being aware of the demon. I’ll see you later, after we get the lay of the land. Oh, perhaps I’ll call Nathan Stewart at Oracle and tell him we think demonic activity is imminent. And Declan… stay away from anything more to do with this one. Remember the whole reason the dentist was involved was to get to Toni and put that layer of demonic scum over the God Tear. Seems like it was aimed at you.”

“Right. Listen, I’ll let you in on a little secret… I’m not at all fond of demons. I don’t like being near them, and I have a healthy fear of them. So I’m just going to get some food, then I’m off for classes. Wait, isn’t Tanya coming?” His voice had a little catch in it and he frowned at the uncontrolled shift. Not cool.

“No, she’s been called to Europe for some Darkkin matters,” Chris said. “Honestly, Declan, don’t dwell on what happened. I was just as guilty as anyone, and Tanya takes competitive to a whole different plane of existence. Coming up second against Omega didn’t sit well. It will all be fine.”

“Just didn’t want the reason she wasn’t coming to be me.”

“Nah, no worries. She would much rather be with all of us. I’m going to go get a million and two things ready so I’ll sign off now. Be careful.”

“You too. See you later.”

Chapter 3

After grabbing an egg and cheese breakfast sandwich at a corner deli, Declan reclined back in his driver’s seat, watching Lake Champlain through the windshield. Across the big lake, mist was lofting from New York’s Adirondack Mountains, the rising sun behind him illuminating the beautiful landscape. Beast was parked down at the waterfront, not far from the Echo Museum, in a mostly empty lot that would be jammed full of cars in another couple of hours.

In his pocket, his seldom-used phone suddenly buzzed. Both his earpiece and Beast’s radio stayed silent, so he knew instantly the identity of the texter.

He pulled it out and looked at the screen. A text waited for his response.

Hey. How did the tidying go?

He wrote back, It may have been something of a setup.

What way?

It was called in to the police while I was parked on the street. Likely Beast’s description will be in the hands of the law by now.

Cover?

Called my deputy. Had a bad dream, ya know. A feeling. Then placed a call to Chris. I’m covered.

Stay away from this thing, Warlock! Don’t make me come down there and set you straight!

Oh, but I would like nothing more but to have you here setting me straight. How is Maine?

Pervy boy! Maine is fine. Devaney is wrapping up his affairs and then we will accompany him to Burlington. We plan to leave sometime today. Be there by late afternoon or so.

Good. Miss you.

You better if you know what’s good for you! Ha. I miss you too. Are you in class?

He looked at the time at the top of his phone screen and sighed. No, but heading there now. Drive safe.

As if a car accident could really hurt me. But I will. Behave witch boy, till I get there to watch your back.

Even you would take time to heal and while you were laid up, you would be at my mercy.

Dreams, wizard. They’re good to have but you have to keep your eye on reality or it will bite you in the ass… and so will I.

Chomp, chomp. Bye.

Bye back at ya.

“All right Beasty, my boy, let’s get cracking,” he said out loud, still smiling from the exchange. The car started itself, but the young man did the driving.

Spirits buoyed by Stacia’s texts, Declan headed up the hill to the big university that sat atop it, overlooking the lake.

He found parking in a faculty lot, his all-campus parking pass one of the perks of having the Demidova Corporation sponsor his unusual education.

Five minutes after that, he was settling in to what was, as least for him, a fairly new class.

He found a seat in the back, breaking out a standard notebook and pencil rather than the more common laptop or tablet technique his peers had mostly adopted. The professor wasn’t in the room yet and he took a look at his classmates. This was only his second time auditing Rural Community in Modern Society, which was a Community Development, Applied Economics Department course, a class his advisor, Professor McCraken, suggested he take to help round out his extremely eclectic curriculum.

He didn’t really take any classes, at least not in the usual sense. His schedule was subject to vast changes depending upon his extreme need for as broad an education as possible. Of course, not finishing coursework or taking tests, not to mention suddenly inserting into a class partway through the semester, was a guaranteed route to pissing off professors. But Professor McCraken, backed by the full weight of the university’s administration, had proven adept at smoothing the way… for the most part.

“How are you just now joining this class?” a voice asked.

He looked up to find a pair of girls one row in front of him, frowns on both their faces.

“I’m auditing it.”

“He audits all his classes. Doesn’t have to finish any of them,” a male voice said from two spots to his right, almost behind the girls. A bookish-looking guy was involving himself, a peevish look on his face.

“Do I know you?” Declan asked.

“You audited one of my Poly Sci classes,” the kid said, shooting a glance at the girls. They were attractive, Declan realized. Great. A Nosy Ned trying to impress the ladies.

“How are you expecting to graduate if you only audit? And how the hell did you get permission to do that anyway?” the first girl asked, frowning at him. For some reason, she was annoyed with him. Or, more likely, annoyed or frustrated with something else and taking it out on him.

“Not going to graduate,” he said with a sigh. Here we go.

“What?” she asked, too shocked to press further. He gave her a shrug and opened his notebook, busying himself with dating the top of the page and writing the class name next to it.

“Realm Notes? What are you? Some kind of Dungeons and Dragons geek?” she asked, looking at his notebook cover, which he held open with his left hand. He had titled it Realm Notes one night in a study-induced haze. He did take tests, despite what the asshat next to him thought. The nosy kid laughed at her quip, but only earned himself a frowning glance from both girls before their attention swiveled back to Declan.

He opened the cover fully so that it was now face down on his desk. Then her words fully sank in and he couldn’t help a little chuckle at the irony.

Before he could answer, another girl, this one to the left of him, turned and spoke up. “Why don’t you just tell them the truth and get it over with?” she asked. He looked at her fully for the first time since she had sat down.

Declan recognized her immediately. “Alli? I didn’t know you were attending UVM?”

“Yeah, shocking right? I’m a CDAE major with a minor in Food Systems.”

Alli was from his high school and someone he considered more than just an acquaintance but not someone he had ever spent a great deal of time with.

“Usually just makes more questions,” Declan admitted to her.

“Oh. Yeah, I can see that,” Alli said, turning back to her own tablet.

“Hello? Remember us? Don’t just leave us in suspense here,” the pissed-off girl said.

“Here,” Alli said, rummaging in her book bag. She came out with a copy of the campus paper and tossed it to the girl. “Read that.”

The girl opened it to show the front cover. The headline was Who Ya Gonna Call? Demon Busters!

Declan had seen the article about Team Gordon-Demidova. Among other things, it covered the fact that the junior member of the team was a UVM student, albeit a very difficult one to photograph or interview.

Before anyone had a chance to comment, an older woman walked into the room and shut the door with a fairly loud bang.

“Ah, thank you all for your attention. I’m Professor Lilt. Your regular instructor, Dr. Cavanaugh, has had an unexpected personal emergency and I’ve been given the job of keeping you all on task,” she said, thankfully drawing all attention to herself and off Declan.

She was kind of frumpy looking, with messy, gray-streaked hair, a lumpy gray dress, and basic flats that didn’t help her short height in any way.

“So, I understand you all had a reading for today. Did any of you actually do it? Show of hands.”

At least ten hands shot up, including Nosy Ned’s, Alli’s, and Declan’s. The girls in front of him kept theirs down, although they both appeared to be dividing their attention between the substitute professor and the campus paper.

The reading assignment was the introduction and first chapter of Those Who Work, Those Who Don’t: Poverty, Morality, and Family in Rural America by Jennifer Sherman. Declan had found it a truly interesting read and it was part of the reason he decided to attend the class.

“About half. More than I expected. Anyone care to share observations?”

“I could relate to the content, having grown up in rural Vermont, although I never had to face economic conditions like those in the study area in the book,” Alli said after raising her hand.

“Yes, the author offers an interesting lens to view our rural communities through, doesn’t she? That begs the question. How many of you grew up in a rural setting?”

About a third of the class raised their hands, including Alli and Declan.

The frustrated girl looked around and sniffed. “Figures,” she said quietly to her mostly silent friend.

The teacher’s gaze snapped right to them. “And right there we have validation of the author’s premise. You didn’t read the assignment, did you?”

Caught off guard, the girl looked first flustered, then angry. “No, as I was too busy completing a paper one of your fellow CDAE professors assigned us suddenly two days ago,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.

“Time management issues aside, can anyone explain what your classmate just did?”

Nobody seemed in a hurry to say anything or maybe hadn’t heard the girl’s comment. How Professor Lilt had heard the comment, Declan didn’t know, but he was kind of glad to see the bitchy one get called out. He raised his hand.

“The author discusses the human need to identify and stratify social classes in order to figure out each person’s place in that hierarchy. Like wolves and pack structure. When differences are hard to identify in a mostly homogenous group, morality or background differences are often used to create the structure.”

“Yeah. Pretty good. Our subject in back made a comment that could be construed as negative when shown a difference in this otherwise bland subgroup of humans known as college students. Identifying individuals who come from rural backgrounds gave her data to help her place herself in the hierarchy she identifies as important,” Professor Lilt said. She paused and looked around the room.

The pissed-off girl now wore a crimson face, although she still appeared disgruntled. She was collecting a lot of negative looks from the rest of the class.

“Understanding how people view themselves and their position in society gives the observer insight into how those same individuals are motivated and thus how those motivations can be used.”

“Like by politicians?” another student, down front, asked.

“Exactly like politicians. But also by the corporate world influencing buyers of their goods and services or other countries, influencing negotiations, or possibly, just possibly, the outcome of elections in rival countries,” Lilt said. “This class is focused on rural communities, as those are likely to need the attentions of motivated individuals like yourselves. But understand that these concepts lend themselves across all groups.

“In terms of rural areas, what was often a primary differentiator between the otherwise similar people the author observed?” Lilt asked the class.

“Morality,” another kid down front said. “It’s right in the title.”

“Yes. Morality. How?” she pressed him.

“Well, having a set a values gives a person a yardstick to measure others. If another person has fewer or looser values or even just different values, it lets the first person feel superior… higher in status. Meeting others with similar values gives that person a group to belong to,” the student answered.

“How about that? I go to church every Sunday and you don’t. Therefore I’m on a higher moral ground than you are,” Professor Lilt said to the class.

“But who gets to pick which morals are best?” someone asked.

“That’s a good question and probably covers a larger scope than this class, but keep it in mind. We’ll circle back to it eventually. In the book’s case, what did the author observe about the morality ranking? Was it religious?”

“It was more complex than that, but mostly economic. Who had jobs, who worked hard, what kind of jobs you had. If the jobs were traditionally masculine or were they considered feminine,” another student said.

“Yes. In the absence of easily observable differences, as the entire region was economically depressed, it came down to the roles and jobs, didn’t it. And you used an important word there… tradition. How often do people fall back on that word to reach a higher moral ground? It’s tradition… we have always done it that way… it’s part of our heritage. What traditions were valued?”

“Hard work. Physical labor in manly type jobs. It was, after all, a lumber community. Chainsawing trees, hauling wood, fixing big trucks and heavy equipment, running saw mills, driving tractor trailers,” yet another kid said.

“Yes, so here we have an isolated mountain community that was built on logging. Logging was curtailed, in this case due to laws restricting the cutting of timber that could impact an endangered species of owl. Laws imposed by the outside world. So there is an immediate drop in the economy and lots of people are out of work. What happens?”

“Well, in some families, roles shifted. If, say, the wife had a job, she might become the primary breadwinner. Others might have gone on welfare.” The answer came back at her from someone.

“How does the community feel about that?”

“Letting your wife support the family degrades the husband. By tradition, he’s the main support. So men whose wives earn more than they do are looked down on. But the very lowest people, in the eyes of this community, are the welfare recipients.”

“Yes. And that differs from more urban areas, does it not? How many of you would look down on a man in that situation?”

Pissed-off girl snorted. Professor Lilt homed in on her like a hunting dog. “Comment?”

“My mom makes twice what my dad does. Nothing wrong with that,” the girl said.

“According to our values. According to the study area’s values, not so much.”

“But if, say, my parents both make more money than the people in this… place, wherever it is, wouldn’t they be of higher status?”

“Possibly. However, the men in that society might just agree to view your father with contempt. Why?”

It was quiet for a second. “Because it lets them feel better about themselves,” Declan found himself saying.

“Yes. Feeling better about their position in life. In general, humans always want to place themselves as high up the hierarchy as possible. This means they are vulnerable to manipulation.”

“That seems a pretty harsh way to phrase it,” someone said.

“Ah, forgive me. I’ve been away from the collegiate atmosphere too long. I’m used to a more… competitive place. Let me rephrase it for your more delicate sensibilities. Understanding this need for status and social order allows one to predict behavior and perhaps influence it. Let me ask you this… why do rural communities almost always vote in favor of gun rights?”

“Because many rural inhabitants hunt. Gun control threatens that right, that tradition, and in poor areas, threatens a major source of food,” Alli said.

“Bing, bing, bing. Give the girl a prize. How do conservatives approach rural communities? Hey, I own guns too. Here’s a picture of me with my hunting dog and trusty double barrel shotgun. My opponent wants to do away with your traditional right. Your God-given right. Oh, and incidentally, he wants to take food from your kids’ mouths!” Professor Lilt said.

“But not every rural community votes Republican?” another student asked.

“True, but listen to where the winners of either party position themselves on key points like gun control. Much more toward the center,” she said, looking around the room. Then she came to some kind of decision. “ Okay, I have some housekeeping stuff to do that I normally get done first, but we kind of leapt right into it today. So if you didn’t do the reading, do it now. Everyone who did already read the first two parts can get a head start on the next two chapters. When I’ve got all my ducks in a row, we’ll break a little early.”

She turned from the class and got her briefcase out, pulling papers and a tablet from it. Declan looked at Alli, raised his eyebrows, and got a shrug in response. Shrugging back, he pulled his copy of the book from his bag and set about reading.

In front of him, the pissed-off girl pulled out the campus newspaper and started reading it again. He waited for the inevitable. It came soon enough.

“You’re the kid in the article?” Pissy asked. “You’re this O’Carroll kid who works for Demidova?”

With a sigh, he put a blank index card in place as a marker and closed the book. Looking up at the girl, he met disbelief. As he opened his mouth to answer, another, louder voice from down front called out, “Declan O’Carroll?” It was Professor Lilt.

Giving the girl a smile at his reprieve, he stood up and walked down the rows to the substitute professor who watched him with interested eyes. “I’m Declan, Professor,” he said.

Her eyebrows raised a little. “Cavanaugh left me some notes on you. Says you’re some kind of special case, only here to audit, exempted from papers and tests?”

“I have a special relationship with the school and my educational needs are extremely unique,” he said carefully.

“On account of you working for Chris Gordon and Tatiana Demidova, who give ungodly amounts of money to this place,” Lilt stated.

“Pretty much. And I do take tests and write papers, but only if I’m staying in the class. If I can’t find good reason for the course, I move to another class.”

“That’s a damned fine gig you got going there,” she said. He couldn’t tell if she was admiring it or mocking it.

“Yeah, doesn’t fit the traditional academic set of values,” he said, testing the waters.

Her eyebrows went back up again. “Wow, you were paying attention. So you hanging with this class or are you out of here?”

“Oh, I think I’m staying. This material is right in my wheelhouse.”

“Good. So I’ll expect a paper at least out of you,” she said.

“At least,” he agreed, thinking her odd, but interesting. He felt a prodding little feeling in the back of his mind but he ignored it because there was nothing threatening about her, except maybe the smell of mothballs.

Chapter 3

The dentist office was now a hub of organized and frenetic activity. Five BPD patrol cars, a Vermont State Police Mobile Crime Unit van, and at least three unmarked cars occupied the street out front and the parking lot behind.

Inside, seasoned law enforcement officers studied the explosion of violence with shocked eyes and stunned expressions. The blood spatters were layered on top of each other, four or five thick, and very few surfaces remained clear of bodily fluids and soft tissues.

Detective Sergeant Walter Schulz squatted down three feet back from the line of bloody footprints, his light grey eyes focused on the transition from giant predator feet to dainty female. A VSP Crime Scene technician stood at his right shoulder.

“Just a matter of time till we had one of our own,” the tech, whose nametag read Butler, said.

“One of our own what?” Walter asked absently. His voice had a slight accent. Something of Europe in it.

“You know… werewolf murder,” Butler said.

“Werewolf? That looks like a wolf to you?” Max asked, attention now focused on the CS tech.

“I mean, it’s not a canine print, but what else changes from monster to human?”

“That is the best question I’ve heard since I walked into this mess,” Walter said. “Personally, I don’t recall any training that ever answered it, either.”

“Well, we had a statewide seminar on supernatural crime last year,” Butler said.

“And they identified, what, a handful of… entities to be aware of? Did they ever say it was all inclusive?”

“No, but the track goes from a giant clawed biped to a human female. They said that some weres could transform into a wolfman hybrid.”

“It seems that I’ve heard that some weres could transform into a hybrid bipedal form, but it was rare. Not just wolfmen, or wolfwomen, like that white werewolf,” Walter said. “And I wasn’t aware that werewolves only have three toes when they’re… wolfish,” he said, pointing at the track.

“She comes here, you know. The white werewolf. Visits quite regularly. Something to do with that Oracle facility on Pine Street.”

“I wasn’t aware of that. And what facility? Shouldn’t this stuff be in the orientation package for new officers?”

“I can’t account for what you city cops do,” Butler said. “Oracle has a sort of school program for supernaturals. They attend area college classes but are all housed in one location. Talk to Leblanc.”

“Talk to Leblanc about what?” another detective asked, coming up from the entry.

“Speak of the devil and he shall appear,” Butler said. “Fill your new boss here in on that Arcane place and the famous werewolf we see around town.”

“Arcane is an education program for supes. Half Oracle and half Demidova Corp. Witches, werewolves, and tigers oh my,” the big, bulky detective said, face getting paler as he looked around at the carnage.

“That look like a werewolf track to you, Leblanc?” DS Schulz asked, pointing at the carpet.

“Don’t know. I’m not an expert. But I know one. In fact, she called me about the time this was hitting the fan. Sheriff’s deputy.”

“A deputy called you about this?”

“She called me to tell me that her girlfriend’s nephew had a vision or premonition or some shit and that he drove over here this morning. He got a bad feeling about the property and called her. So she called me.”

“Who is this girlfriend’s nephew?”

“Declan O’Carroll. Witch. Arcane student. Works directly with Chris Gordon and Demidova. Also, he’s the boyfriend of Stacia Reynolds, the werewolf you two were talking about. And one of the homeowners down the street was up and noticed a green Jeep-like vehicle on the street about four or four-thirty. O’Carroll drives a green and white Toyota Land Cruiser.”

“And where can I find this kid right now?”

“Darci said he had classes this morning, but he expects us to call. I have his number here,” Leblanc said, holding up his notebook.

“Let’s give him a call. I want to meet this kid yesterday.”

“Yeah, about that. We might want to think about how to set that up. Like I said, the kid is a witch and the word from the sheriff’s department is that he’s dangerous as shit. They use his aunt’s skills all the time, to find lost people or missing evidence, but the kid is a whole different ball of wax.”

“You have this deputy’s number, I assume. Let me talk to her,” Schulz said. “And does anyone else smell sulfur?”

“Shredded bowels is what I’d call it,” the CS tech said.

“Bowels smell like sewage. This is more rotten eggs,” Schulz said.

“I guess,” Leblanc admitted, head tilted as he sniffed. “Is that important?”

“Everything is important,” Schulz said.

Chapter 4

“Ready to roll out in fifteen,” the crew-cut block of muscle in the black Demidova Security shirt said.

“Okay, we’re all set, Deckert,” Chris said, pushing the twins’ stroller down the hall past the security chief. Deckert nodded at the baby bags strung on and about the stroller like they were weapons bags and kept walking.

Chris turned into the door marked Chapel, a recent addition to the floor that had raised a few eyebrows. When the clergy had blessed it, Chris had thought he would likely be the only user, but surprisingly, more than a few of the staff, both human and vampire, had taken to using the space. It was empty now as he pushed the stroller through the door, turning to close it behind him.

When he swung back around, he found it was no longer empty.

“I hoped you’d appear,” he said to the tall young man wearing a COEXIST t-shirt with different religious symbols in place of most of the letters.

“I always appear,” the young man said, confused. “When have I not?”

“Well there’s always a first time, Barbiel,” Chris said. “I shouldn’t get complacent, should I?”

Chris was bemused to see the angel scratch his head as he thought about it. To his knowledge, angels didn’t get itches, or cuts, or wounds, or anything of the sort. It was a new affectation he hadn’t seen before.

“I suppose, although I don’t know why I wouldn’t show up. It’s kinda my job.”

“Well, my job is stopping demons, and I’m sure you know there is an incarnate demon loose in northern Vermont,” Chris said.

The angel looked troubled. “Yeah, about that. I don’t have really any information for you about it.” He rubbed his head, then squatted down to look at the sleeping twins.

Chris frowned. “Nothing?”

“Demons that come through the normal way are something we can track… they leave trails, of sorts. One that has come through in its true form and avoids any religious sites, well, those are kind of shielded from us. But what do you know of it?”

“We think it is female, or at least has a true form that is demonically feminine.”

Barbiel frowned. It was a worried sort of frown. “Are you certain about that?”

“We’re not certain about anything. Why?”

“Females, true females of Hell, are pretty rare. Really only a handful them. Some of them are quite bad.”

Chris stared at him. “Quite bad? We’re talking about demons here—they’re all bad.”

“Yes, yes. I mean bad as in difficult to handle. As in powerful fighters, dangerous planners, crafty opponents. Compared to a female, that demon lord in Washington was really a cakewalk.”

“He seemed pretty tough to me,” Chris growled.

“Oh he was… in a straight-on sort of way. But a female demon will come at you obliquely, when you least expect it, from some angle you never thought of. And then, even if you can face her in time, you’ll have just as much fight, if not more than you had in Washington.”

“That’s all really negative, Barbiel. Don’t you have any suggestions or ideas that can help?”

“Just this, Chris: Do it differently than you have ever done it before. Listen to the women on your team. They may have better instincts against her. Use unconventional methods of demon hunting, use every resource you can find, steal, or imagine, then imagine, steal, and find some more.”

“Hey, Chris,” a voice called from behind him. He turned to see one of the security team, Roger, looking into the Chapel. “Deckert says we’re ready to go.”

“Be right there, Roger,” he said. When he turned back, the angel was gone.

Chapter 5

Mack Sutton strolled across the campus, headed toward the Davis Center student union. He had enough time to grab a sandwich before his next class and his stomach was growling like a hound worrying a bone.

He entered the ground floor, the lowest level of the massive building sitting near the center of UVM’s campus, immediately heading for the stairs to the higher levels. The second floor had a café and he liked their roast beef sandwich, especially with a little of the Arcane cafeteria’s horseradish sauce from the little jar in his book bag.

Sandwich and kettle chips in hand, he found an empty seat at a corner table and dug out his sauce and the notes for the next class, fully intending to study. Motion at the counter caught his eye and he looked up to the sight of perhaps the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen, ordering a smoothie bowl. And having hung around the witches of Arcane, the vampires of Demidova Corp, and the werewolf beauty his best friend dated, Mack had seen his share of gorgeous women. This girl had them, to his mind, all beat, cold.

Jet black hair, dark, dark eyes, perfect skin the color of cream-doctored coffee, and a toned stomach peeking out where it was exposed by form-fitting athleisure wear, all of which was wrapped in a warm-looking long dark grey sweater big enough to act like a coat. Her long hair swung down across the side of her face as she pulled out a student ID card to pay for her lunch. One slim finger slipped up to tuck her errant hair behind her ear and he found himself entranced. The counter girl waiting on her finished the transaction, gave her an envious look, and turned to get the lunch order together.

The beautiful girl put her card away and turned while she waited, her gaze brushing across his as she looked around the room. Oddly, his mouth went dry and he completely failed to flash his trademark smile at her. He was always at ease around women, but somehow this was different.

Hastily, he looked back down at his notebook, taking a drink of water to clear his mouth. The words were meaningless on the page; all his attention was split between trying to understand his reaction to the sight of her and the razor-sharp awareness that she was standing there, just ten or fifteen feet away. It was kind of surreal.

Flailing mentally for something to break his confusion, he picked up his sandwich and took a bite. A big bite. Then he sensed motion and his eyes came up as he saw her approach his table.

“Is anyone sitting here?” she asked, hesitant, uncertain, as if he might actually turn her away.

Mouth full, he was helpless to speak, so he just shook his head.

“No, there’s no one here, or no, I can’t sit here?” she asked.

Frantic, he gestured for her to sit. She gave him a quick smile, then put her food down and pulled out the chair directly across from him. Her book bag went into the chair next to hers and she gracefully folded into her seat.

“Sorry I caught you as you took a bite. Stupid time to ask a question,” she said, flashing another heart-stopping smile before concentrating on her food.

He swallowed, painfully, forcing the food down. Then took a drink of water. “Ah, no problem. Just my luck,” he said, trying for self-deprecating.

She smiled again, head mostly down, hand coming up to tuck that wonderful errant hair away.

Wow. Where have you been all my life? Mack wondered. She was confident yet careful. Of course. Every male in four states, and probably some girls, would be after her all the time. She probably got hit on ten times a day. A cautious approach was warranted. He took another bite, this one much smaller, and chewed thoughtfully. Pretending to study his notebook, he watched her in the edge of his vision.

She ate her smoothie bowl at a steady pace, neat but not acting overly dainty. He liked that. After a few bites, she too pulled a book from her bag. Accounting. Thank God. If it had been Calculus, he’d be done for, but double entry accounting had made sense to him when he’d taken the course last year.

She frowned prettily at whatever she was reading. He let himself look up, pretending to just now catch sight of the title.

“Weird stuff, accounting,” he suggested.

“I kind of understand it, but just when I’m feeling comfortable, I get confused all over again.”

“What’s tripping you up?”

“I’m getting confused about clearing accounts receivable when the bill is paid,” she said, looking at him with a little furrow between her eyes.

“Oh, I can help with that. I’m Mack, by the way,” he said, holding out a hand to shake.

She smiled at the formal gesture, then sat up and held out her own hand. “I’m Lilly. Thanks for your help.”

Reluctantly dragging his eyes from hers, he looked down at the book, gulping just ever so slightly as he did. Without hesitation, she slid it his way and he leaned closer to see the page, catching her perfume. Something exotic, something that made him think of foreign lands under hot suns. Sandwich all but forgotten, he focused hard on the book. This wouldn’t work at all if he couldn’t actually help her. And he so wanted it to work.

Chapter 5

“Mr. O’Carroll, thank you for coming down so quickly,” Detective Sergeant Schulz said to the lanky young man in front of him.

“No problem, Detective,” the college student said, glancing at the woman in a deputy’s uniform next to him. “I told Darci that I would help any way I could, although I think this is more Chris Gordon’s area than mine.”

Schulz had conferred with his lieutenant about the best way to approach this supposedly dangerous kid, and it was decided to enlist his step-aunt’s help. Looking at the young man, Schulz saw a college kid, a bit over six feet, lanky, with dark hair and very blue eyes. Girls would probably like his eyes, not that Schulz was an authority on that, but he did have two daughters of his own. A second glance revealed that the lankiness was lean muscle, not skinny or weak. More sinew and taunt definition. Shoulders were not narrow either. And he was not afraid. Not at all.

Most people who were called into a police station for questioning about a murder would be at least nervous, or uncertain. This kid was none of those things.

Schulz led Declan, along with the aunt, Darci, into the interview room.

“Darci here told us you called her about the crime scene?” he started. “Tell me about how you came to know about it.”

“Well, I dreamt it. Not my forte really, more my aunt Ashling’s kind of thing. We differ, you know?” the kid said.

“Er, who differs?”

“Witches, Detective. We’re not all the same. Each has different strengths and weaknesses. So this premonition thing is more in my aunt’s wheelhouse than mine.”

Beside him, the deputy nodded, just slightly, but definitely a nod.

“Yeah, witches. Not much experience there, at least not in Chicago,” Schulz said, frowning.

“Oh, you have quite a few in Chicago. At least two of their circles are represented at my school, Arcane. But if you don’t mind me asking, you’ve a bit of an accent. Europe?”

“Germany, born and raised. Dual citizenship. Mom was in the US Army, stationed there when she met my dad. Raised there, moved here for college,” Schulz said, glancing at the deputy, who wore an interested expression. “Back to witches. I know just what I’ve seen on the news and read in the blogs. But you live in a school of them? Here in town?”

“Yes. They really should brief you on this stuff. Oracle runs it, so you’d think they’d talk to local law enforcement,” the kid said.

“Federal agencies, no matter the name, aren’t well known for being good communicators with us local types,” Darci said.

“So, you live with other witches. Did any of them sense anything?” Schulz asked, giving the deputy a reproachful look. She just smiled.

“I don’t know. They live on a different floor. I’m in among the werewolves.”

He said it so casually that it took Schulz a second to process. “There are werewolves there too?” he asked, thinking of the crime scene again.

“Yes, and a few other weres, bears and one cougar, but mostly wolves.”

“And you live among them? Not the witches?”

“No, the other witches are girls, with one exception. So they have their own floor. I woke up and left before anyone else was moving, so I don’t know if anyone sensed anything. I drove around till I felt the area, then parked on the street. That’s when I knew it was the dentist office and knew was demonic.”

“How exactly? What made you think of demons? Why not something else, like say… a werewolf?”

“There’s a feel to a place where demons have been. Dark, extremely malevolent, extremely sinister. Werewolves feel more like something of nature. Demons… not so much. So I sat in my car while I processed the feeling, and then I got out of there. Called Darci, called Chris Gordon.”

Despite himself, Schulz pulled back at that last bit. “You just picked up the phone and called him?”

“Detective, Arcane was created by Oracle and Chris Gordon and Tanya Demidova basically for Declan. He’s a part of their team,” Darci said.

“I’ve heard that, but you’ll forgive me if I take some time to reconcile it. I’ve seen the footage and it all seems so… fantastic to me.”

“Declan was in much of that footage, but you might never have seen him. And he keeps a really low profile most of the time,” Darci said. “The media usually calls him The Warlock, but they have the devil’s own time getting footage of him.” She smirked a little at that last bit.

Realizing the interview had gotten away from him again, Schulz refocused himself. “A resident on the street saw your car there. Did you get out? Approach the building… at all?”

“No. Nope. Just looked the place over, from inside my car, and then got out of there. Whatever did that is pretty high level. Very dangerous.”

“What do you mean high level?”

“Demons have ranks. The higher the rank, the more powerful the demon. This one is powerful,” the kid said.

“Like how powerful?”

“Did you see that one in Washington? Like that. You’re going to want Chris to handle it. Actually, he’s likely the only one who can.”

“You don’t handle demons?”

“Me? No. I help in more of a backup way when we face demons. Mostly detection, tracking, team security. Sometimes Chris will have me talk to them, but usually I stay outside.”

“Talk to them? Why?”

“Demons will tell me things they won’t tell him. We do it for intelligence, like you do with informants and suspects.”

“Why do they talk to you and not him?”

The kid finally looked a little uncomfortable. “He’s God’s Warrior. They don’t much like him and are afraid of him.”

“I get that they’re afraid of him, but why speak to you?”

Declan glanced at his step-aunt. “There have been historical connections between demons and some witches over the eons.”

“Connections?” Schulz asked, looking directly at the kid.

“They try to recruit him,” Darci said.

“Right there? Right in front of Gordon?”

“They have their own language, sort of a trade tongue, with witches,” Declan explained.

“And you know it?” Schulz asked in a disbelieving tone. People hated to be wrong, or have their veracity questioned. You never knew what might come out of a little tone of disbelief.

“Yup,” was all the kid said. Schulz waited. The kid waited right back. Darci’s face was carefully blank, but Schulz thought he caught one micro flicker of a smile. A proud smile.

After the moment dragged into several, the deputy was the one who broke the silence. “He’s a special class of witch, our Declan. But you’re not asking about dealing with a demon who is strong enough to kill openly.”

Schulz couldn’t stop his own flicker of a frown. He conducted interviews as he saw fit. Having the deputy in the room went against his instincts, but his lieutenant had insisted. For his own safety. Which, upon seeing this young man in person, he found hard to fathom. Inside a locked interview room, inside a police department, full of armed men and women.

With a mental sigh, Schulz went along with her comment. It helped that the boy had given her a surprised glance at her statement about the demon’s strength.

“What? You think I don’t pay attention when all of you are in the same room and talking shop?” Darci asked her nephew.

“It means something? That it murdered two people?” Schulz asked.

“Demons come here by finding a passage to this realm. Almost always by some form of human invitation,” Declan said. “They come here in a non-corporeal form, you know, like a ghost. They possess the weakest human they can find—weak morally or emotionally—and use that individual to commit mayhem. What I felt in that office was a magnitude or several greater. I didn’t see it, but if it was anything less than a slaughterhouse in there, I’ll eat my left shoe right here and now.”

Schulz felt his eyes narrow a bit. “How could you know that? You’re not wrong, so there’ll be no shoe eating, but there’s no way to know that without looking into the office.”

They glanced at each other, the deputy and the college kid, a question on his face and a nod back from her. The kid held out his hand to the deputy and she in turn pulled out a pen and her notebook.

Taking a page from the notebook, the young witch drew a quick, yet accurate circle. Then he drew odd letters and symbols around the circle, both inside and out. When he was done, he handed both pen and pad back to Darci. Then he leaned across the table, slowly, deliberately, and plucked something from Schulz’s shirt. He held it up. A hair. Short, brown. One of Schulz’s own.

Declan set the hair inside the circle and then touched the arc of it with one index finger. Schulz heard a pop… a snap, and saw a spark jump from skin to paper.

“Let’s see, Detective. Hmmm. Your wife’s name is Lisa. You have a dog, a cat, two fish, both Beta fish, one in each daughter’s room. Oldest daughter is Kate, which is short for… Katherine. Youngest is Bonnie. What? Thirteen and, maybe ten,” the kid said, staring at some spot over Schulz’s shoulder.

Shifting uncomfortably, Schulz waved a hand. “You could find all that out easily enough.”

The kid smiled. “Your wife packed your lunch for today—an avocado salad with sunflower seeds and green goddess dressing. She makes her own dressing. I can keep going,” he said, glancing at Schulz’s right arm. “That blonde hair on your shirtsleeve… that belongs to Kate, because Bonnie is dark-haired. If I could have that hair, I’ll tell you what class she’s in right now and exactly what she’s doing.”

Schulz pulled his arm back with a jerk. The kid held up both hands. “That wasn’t meant as any kind of threat, just an offer to provide more credibility. It’s called sympathetic magic. A DNA sample lets me connect to the DNA’s owner.”

“Super handy for finding lost kids if we have a parent’s help getting a comb or hairbrush, sometimes a hat,” Darci said.

The implications, if he believed what he’d just seen—and he found, surprisingly, that he did—were massive. Put this kid on a Crime Scene team and you’d have your criminal in no time.

“Not admissible in court, but it speeds things along,” Darci said with a smirk.

“I’m guessing your record for solving crimes is pretty impressive?” Schulz asked her.

“It’s pretty stellar,” she admitted.

“Aunt Ash is better at this stuff than I am,” Declan said.

Still bemused by the impressive demonstration, Schulz spoke the first thing that came to mind. “Well, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.”

The young witch nodded in agreement, but the deputy snorted.

Ears perked, Schulz looked back and forth between them. “Just what are your strengths?”

“Earth and Fire,” Declan said, with just a small flicker of a smile. Like the kind of smile made when making an understatement. The deputy frowned but nodded.

“Demons are far outside my area of knowledge. You were telling me about this demon before your rather impressive demonstration?” Schulz asked.

The kid sat up and nodded, all business. “This one is going to be hard to track. I think she’s incarnate and, oddly, that’s harder. They can change who and what they look like. Conduct your investigation as you would any other. Check for all the normal evidence, interview all the regular sources. A pattern will emerge. But she might look like two, three, or four different people. Chris will be here in a few hours. Bring him into it immediately. Stacia and Holly will be here a bit later. We’ll have most of the team here. With your help, we’ll do what we do and track this bitch down.”

“And then?” Schulz asked.

“Chris will send her back to Hell.”

“Why do you think it’s a female?”

A flicker of something across the kid’s face. He hadn’t meant to reveal that. Slipped up.

“Call it a feeling,” Declan said.

Schulz called it bullshit, but he didn’t say that out loud. This witch was hiding something. The deputy’s face was carefully blank.

“So you feel it’s a female and it’s incarnate? What’s that mean?”

“I don’t know about the female part, but the incarnate is super bad news. The one in Washington was incarnate. The only incarnate demon to step on Earth in like forever. Now this one is here, and Chris feels she has a mission.”

“What kind of mission? Why here? Why Burlington, Vermont?” Schulz asked, feeling his throat go dry as he recalled the scenes of extreme violence that he had seen on video. Armed cops and paramilitary forces had been almost helpless against the demon lord. Armored soldiers torn apart like tissue.

The kid was looking down at his large hands, which he had flattened on the tabletop. “We have some ideas. Nothing for certain. Probably nothing to do with Burlington itself,” he said.

Schulz sat there looking at the kid, carefully not looking at the deputy but feeling the tension and worry radiating from her.

“What’s the dentist got to do with a demon?” he asked.

“Nothing other than his patient list. We think,” Declan said, adding the last a bit too fast.

“Patients or patient?”

“Patient.”

“Who?”

He was quiet, visibly wrestling with something. “Middle school kid, Toni Velasquez. Mother is Gina Velasquez. Director of Arcane.”

“She wants to do what to the child?”

Declan looked up at him and Schulz felt himself pinned by blue eyes. Suddenly this kid wasn’t very kid-like. Suddenly, he had the slightest inkling that this person in front of him was more dangerous than he had first surmised.

“Toni is Chris’s goddaughter.”

Schulz could feel his blood pressure drop, a pit in his stomach, his face going white.

“The kid that caused New Hampshire to get bombed?”

Anger flared in those blue eyes. “Toni didn’t cause that. Some asshats kidnapped her. They all died. No one else will kidnap her… even the demon. She’s protected.”

“So this kid lives here, in Burlington? And she’s a target for demons and anyone who wants the God Hammer’s attention? Here?”

He was a twenty-year senior officer, with years of Chicago experience to harden him. Despite that, the words had just slipped out. Images of his family and his quiet, bucolic Vermont city in ruins had overwhelmed all of his training.

The blue eyes went cold, then Schulz realized the room itself was cold, cold enough to see his breath. The lights flickered. The tough deputy sheriff reached carefully to cover one of Declan’s hands with her own, giving Schulz a look sharp enough to cut steel.

The lights stopped fluttering but the room was still cold.

“Toni is protected. Anyone… anyone at all… who tries to get near her will have to go through an entire school of werewolves and witches. Then they’d have to go through me. And if that works? They’d face the wrath of Heaven itself,” Declan said, voice level and quiet. A deadly kind of quiet.

Every hair on the back of his neck was standing straight up and the pit in his stomach was definitely getting deeper. This kid… no, this witch… the person known as The Warlock, was laying down what amounted to a credo. And if Walter Schulz was any judge of character at all, Declan believed every word. Meant every word. He broke eye contact and looked at the other person in the room. The concern in Darci’s eyes and the tension in her body screamed out loud to Schulz.

Declan closed his eyes for a brief moment, then opened them, face relaxing into something akin to remorse.

“Sorry. I’m a bit overprotective of Toni. Kinda like she’s my little sister.”

Schulz looked from the witch to the deputy. She gave him a little nod, then turned to the young man. She said, “It’s a bit chilly, don’t you think, D?”

“Oh. Yeah. I’ll fix that,” he said. He didn’t do anything, not a twitch or a flicker of a finger, but the room warmed appreciably in seconds.

“Detective Schulz, do you have any immediate questions at this time? I’m sure my nephew would be willing to help in any way,” Darci said.

Schulz found his mind blank. Just empty, not questioning, not processing. Stunned.

“Ah, no… not at, the, ah, moment.”

“Then we’ll get going. I’m not sure Declan caught lunch today and he gets a little hangry.”

The kid shot her a look, part sufferance, part embarrassment.

“No, no, go right ahead.”

They both stood up and Darci waved the kid ahead of her.

“Ah, Detective, I’ll call you when Chris gets here. To introduce you to the team,” Declan said.

Meeting Chris Gordon. And his wife?

“Will, ah, Miss Demidova, ah, be with him?”

“No. Not this time. But there are still a bunch of us,” Declan said casually.

“Yeah. That would be fine,” Schulz said, still shaken. The young man nodded, then moved on out of the room. His step-aunt followed but paused by Schulz’s shoulder.

“Just so as you know. All of the team is highly protective of that little girl. A smart man might keep any negative thoughts about her to himself,” she said before stepping out after the witch.

His numbed mind kicked into gear. Smart man indeed.

Chapter 5

Flying east to Europe shortened the day considerably. Darkness came earlier and Tanya awoke while the plane was still in the air. She found her mother had awoken before her.

“So what are we heading into?” she asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to find out. Working my contacts here in Europe,” Galina said, looking up from the computer she was typing away on. “But the short answer is that a charge of Faithlessness is very much like a vote of no confidence in a parliament. It has seldom been used, but then, the Coven has never before undergone so much change so quickly.”

“The other Elders, Tzao and Mausya, feel Grandmother isn’t doing a good job?”

“Yes, in a nutshell. Look at it from their point of view. Thousands of years of secrecy have been thrown aside now that vampires are out in the open. Now weres and witches are exposed too, as well as the creatures of Fairie. Then there are the Vorsook. The Coven is reeling, Darkkin feeling vulnerable and unsafe.”

Tanya frowned. “I haven’t heard any of that,” she said.

Her mother gave her a small smile. “Sweet Blood, you, and that Chosen of yours, are at the heart of all of this. Angels, vampires having souls, vampires having babies, not to mention that unholy machine of yours.”

“Omega? Vampires use computers all the time,” Tanya said, nodding at the notebook computer in front of her mother.

“But this computer of yours uses vampires,” Galina said. “But your machine is the tip of the iceberg. Here, look at this news aggregation page.” She spun the notebook around.

“Global Organization for Human Advancement Pressures Congress to Pass Laws to Control Supernaturals.”

“Thousands Flock to Rome, Seeking Answers from the Pope.”

“Reality Show Says It Has Tracked Down Vampire Leaders.”

“UN Security Council Split Over Alien Threat.”

“US FDA Again Fails to Approve Controversial Demidova Treatment Programs.”

Tanya felt a presence behind her moments before a sleepy voice spoke up.

“You gotta read that reality show article,” Lydia said at her right shoulder. “It’s hilarious.”

Ignoring her snarky near sister, Tanya frowned at her mother. “Why didn’t the other Elders come to me? Why attack Grandmother?”

“Because as the leader of the Elders, Mother shielded you and Chris from just that approach, not that any older vampires really want to attract Chris’s attention, mind you.”

“Senka believes that you and your hubby should be allowed to go forward and do as you will. That your instincts and angelic memories are a better guide for these times than the ancient wisdom of the Coven,” Lydia said.

“She’s never said a word of that to me,” Tanya said.

“Why would she? She doesn’t want to influence you or Chris, and even that little admission might be an influence,” Galina said.

“So now the other Elders are feeling that she’s wrong, but they still haven’t approached us?”

“First you set aside the leader, then you try to control the problem,” Lydia said, moving past Tanya and sitting across from Galina. The small vampire with the big attitude pulled another notebook computer across the table till it was in front of her. She started typing.

“It’s not just Tzao and Mausya. It’s all the old vampires who voted for Mausya. They’ve had no control and with everything happening, this is their attempt to rein it back in,” Galina said.

Lydia snorted suddenly and when the other two looked her way, she turned the computer so they could see. “Watch this. It’s from an episode of some stupid show called Night Hunters: Stalkers of the Supernatural. Same show as that article. The host, Justin Port, attempts to get to the bottom of vampires and weres with ridiculous results. This was filmed outside Demidova Tower. Wait till you see who he interviews. Must have been filmed over the summer.”

She clicked the enter button and the video segment started to play.

“We are outside the offices of the Demidova Corporation, digging to get to the heart of the vampire story. I’m your host, Justin Port, and let’s see what worms we can uncover here in the heart of the Big Apple. Let’s see if this young man will talk to us.”

The handsome host dressed in khaki adventure clothes walked directly to a young male sitting on the edge of a concrete planter that was filled with flowers just outside the Tower’s front doors. Tall and lanky, the college-aged kid was entirely focused on eating a foil-wrapped hoagie and didn’t register the host and camera crew till they were almost in his face. He looked up, mouth full, eyes wide.

“You’re eating your… late lunch… early dinner outside of the Demidova Tower. Do you work here?” Justin asked.

Swallowing mightily and looking slightly frantic, the young man nodded.

“Based on your diet, it’s safe to say you’re one of us. Tell us, do you actually work with or for vampires?”

The startled look changed to one of disbelief. “You do see the name on the building, right?” the young man asked, frowning.

The host laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes. Do you see them every day… or maybe I should say, night?”

Holding his sandwich on his lap, the reluctant interviewee looked around at the plaza in front of the building. “Don’t you?”

The host took a second to process that. “You mean… they’re out here? Right now?”

Now the kid’s frown was openly disapproving. “What show did you say you were with?”

“Night Hunters: Stalking the Supernatural.”

“Un-huh. Well, while you’ve been stalking me, about six Darkkin have walked right past you.”

“What? Where? How can you tell? Everyone looks human.”

“What did you think they’d look like? You’ve seen pictures of Tanya, right? Gorgeous woman with blue eyes?”

“But everyone looks so… normal.”

“Well, yes. Corporate policy is that they have to leave the black capes inside when leaving the building.”

The host stared at the kid for a moment. “Capes?”

“Black on the outside, blood red on the inside.”

“You’re mocking us?”

“Yes.”

“Do you even work in the building?”

“Yup.”

“And you’re saying vampires are out here right now?”

“Out here in front of the building or out here in the city? Because they’ve always lived in the city, but right now, I don’t see any within a hundred yards of us.”

“You can tell them apart by sight?”

“Well, we’ve already established that I work with them and therefore I know them so yeah, I recognize coworkers on sight. Don’t you?”

The host frowned at the young man, not happy with his answers. “I thought you meant you could distinguish a vampire from a human on sight.”

“Sometimes. Sometimes not. It’s like anything with people. The more you’re around them, the more nuances you notice.”

“Like what?”

“If someone trips, drops stuff or stumbles, they’re not a vampire. Otherwise, it’s not really obvious.”

“I thought it would be.”

The young guy just shrugged like what could you do.

“What about werewolves?”

“What about them? Oh, like telling them apart? Well, they eat a lot of meat.”

The host looked at the sandwich in his guest’s hands. It was loaded with meat.

“Are you…”

The kid laughed. “Nope. Not me. Just a fast metabolism. Look, I gotta get back to work. My break is over.”

“Will they punish you if you’re late?” Justin asked, waiting with obvious anticipation.

“You mean like beat me up or bite me?”

Justin nodded.

“Hell no. I’d sue the shit out of them. No, they’ll just say something.”

“Something abusive?”

“Yeah. One of them calls me fatty when I’m late coming in from lunch. She’s pretty mean.”

Justin pulled back, completely disappointed. “That’s it?”

“Yeah. Pretty much. But what do you think? Have I got a case for HR?”

The host turned and made a throat-slashing motion to the camera. “Cut it. This is useless.”

Lydia turned to the other two. “I love that kid. Completely discredited the whole show.”

“How did it get out? Why would the producers allow that on the web?” Galina asked.

Lydia and Tanya shared a glance. “Omega,” they said in unison.

“Yes,” a male voice said from the ceiling speakers.

“I thought you didn’t allow pictures of your father?” Lydia asked.

“His name is never mentioned. Any comment that suggests he might be The Warlock is deleted. I track all views and follow up anyone who attempts a screenshot of the video.”

“And you kept it online despite all that work, why?” Tanya asked.

“It is as Lydia said. It discredits the show and, by association, any similar shows that attempt to demonize vampires.”

“That’s what our computer does,” Tanya said to Galina. Lydia shot her a mildly surprised look.

“Well, it won’t help us with Senka, as the meeting will be held far from technology, likely with magical screening to prevent electronic monitoring,” Galina said. “We have to present testimony that bolsters her approach. It has to show how allowing you two free rein has helped protect the Coven, not threatened it.”

“Tall order. The Vorsook threaten everything. The Queens of Fairie threaten Earth as well,” Tanya said.

“True, but did those threats appear on their own or were they drawn to us by activities you and your Chosen instigated?”

Tanya opened her mouth to protest, but stopped, realizing what her mother was getting at.

“So, what next? Brainstorming?” she asked.

“Brainstorming,” Galina agreed. “And by all means, use as much computer power as possible while we still can.”

“Omega?” Lydia asked.

“I will, of course, be at your service.”

The smallest vampire gave Tanya a smirk, but Tanya just nodded. Misgivings aside, having the most powerful computing system on Earth helping couldn’t hurt.

Chapter 6

“Kurt, whatcha doing?” Declan asked the young man who was sprawled on the floor outside Declan’s room, sniffing the bottom of the door.

“There’s a vampire in there. A female one,” the kid accused, face almost snarling.

“Yup. Not really polite to stick your snout under other people’s doors, you know.”

The kid frowned angrily. “What are you doing with a vampire in your room?”

“None of your business.”

“Does your girlfriend know?” the young werewolf asked, suspicious.

“Does his girlfriend know what?” another, much deeper voice asked. Declan and Kurt turned to find a giant standing in the hallway, frowning at both of them.

“He has a female vampire hidden in his room,” Kurt said.

The black-bearded giant turned to Declan, who looked back at him calmly. “That true, Deuceland?”

“In the interests of keeping you from shoving your snout under my door too, Smell Hood, then yes.”

“Does your wolf mate know?” Dellwood asked.

“Again, not anyone’s business. But yes. Now, Kurt, get away from my door and don’t disturb my guest or I’m going to fry you whole,” Declan said. The hall lights flickered.

“You should probably move, Kurt. It seems he means it,” Dellwood said, looking up at the dimming and fluttering lights with a frown.

“But he shouldn’t have a girl in there,” Kurt protested.

Dellwood moved suddenly, the air of his passage moving Declan’s hair. Dellwood had the smaller werewolf up against the wall, one hand around the kid’s neck, Kurt’s sneakers hanging two feet off the ground.

“Kurt,” Dellwood said, deep voice deceptively mild. “When I tell you something, you don’t argue with me in front of others.” He shook the other male lightly, then dropped him to the ground.

“What’s going on?” a new, female voice asked.

All three turned to find Dellwood’s sister, Clary, with a guy that Declan didn’t know.

Kurt opened his mouth and sucked in a breath, then froze when Dellwood looked his way.

Declan sighed.

“A friend is staying in my room for daytime cover. Kurt was overly curious,” Declan said.

Clary sniffed the air twice. “Nika? Tanya’s almost sister?” she asked mildly. The kid next to her gave her a sharp look at the names.

Declan just nodded.

“Kurt, if you’re gonna sniff everything out, you gotta learn to keep it to yourself. Declan will fry you if you bother his guests,” Clary said. The boy with her now turned huge eyes on Declan.

“Who’s your friend, Clary?” Declan asked, uncomfortable with the intense staring.

“Oh, this is Keitan. He’s new,” she said.

“To Arcane? Or everything?” Declan asked.

“Everything. Keitan, this is Declan.”

The kid nodded hello but made no move to come any closer.

“Aww, you shouldn’t be worried about any witches,” Kurt said, noticing his caution. “Even old Declan,” he said, putting one hand on Declan’s shoulder and shoving playfully with werewolf strength. Declan went back against the wall with a thud, but not before a thick, blue spark snapped out and shocked Kurt right off his feet.

He lay there stunned until Dellwood reached one hand down and picked him up by the waist of his pants like a sack. “Making us look stupid, Kurt. I think we need to talk about things we’ve already talked about. Like representing the team.”

He carried the kid down the hall to the last room on the left, opened the door, and tossed the young werewolf through before following him inside.

Declan pulled himself away from the wall. “Welcome to Arcane, Keitan. It’s usually a nice place.”

“Declan’s right. Kurt’s just being a weenie. Too snoopy, and he has a short memory for how powerful witches can be, especially Declan.” She reached down and took the other kid’s hand in hers. “We’re gonna grab an early dinner. See you around, Declan.”

“Bye, Clary,” the witch said, watching them leave with a bemused look. When they were gone, he checked over his door wards to make sure they were untouched. As he finished, his Bluetooth unit spoke in his ear.

“Father, Chris’s group is arriving in the next five minutes.”

“Thank you, Omega,” he said. The door to his room suddenly opened, revealing Nika standing there.

“Drama done?” she asked, although he knew she knew the answer long before opening the door.

“Yeah. Sorry about that. Some of the kids here are kinda busybodies.”

“Actually not as much as you think. It’s just that you occupy a particular place here and almost anything you do is interesting to the rest. Plus Stacia is the global face of weres. He’s expecting you to do something stupid and mess up your relationship.”

“Well, the odds of me doing something stupid are admittedly high, but I have no interest in messing up.”

She raised one eyebrow and smirked. “Yeah, I know that you know it as soon as I think it, but I still like to say it,” he said. “Chris and the team, or at least part of them, should be here any minute.”

“Tanya, Galina, and Lydia to Europe, huh?”

“Yeah. Some issue with Elders,” he said.

“Hmm, I’ll text Lydia while I get ready. Just give me a few minutes,” she said.

“I’ll go meet them in the parking lot.”

“Right, see you down there in a few.”

Declan turned and headed back downstairs, arriving at the main door, which was already crowding up with people. Gina and Toni Velasquez were there, along with a few of the staff members. Mr. Jenks, the defense teacher, was conspicuously absent, which surprised Declan not at all.

Beyond that, a group of kids were hanging around, intensely curious about the possibility of seeing the co-founder of the school.

Out in the parking lot, three big black SUVs pulled in and swung around till they came to stop right in front of the school. Doors opened and dark-suited men and women stepped out, scanning the area. Then the rear door of the middle car opened and a giant wolf flowed out, followed by Chris.

Declan pushed past the kids in the entry and held the door for Toni and her mother, then followed them out to greet the caravan. Awasos snuffled Toni and her mother, gave Declan a sniff, then took up a guard post spot on the sidewalk.

“Hey, how was the ride?” Declan asked Chris as the God Hammer turned and handed Toni one of the twins, Cora.

“Long, but the leaves got more colorful the further north we came,” Chris said, handing Wulf to Declan.

“Ajik?” the tiny boy asked, eyes gleaming as he held onto Declan. Cora spun around in Toni’s arms at the word. “Ajik?” she repeated, staring at Declan.

With a laugh, Declan turned his right palm up and formed a ball of blue lighting, just about the size of a billiard ball. Then its crackling, snapping arcs became smooth and silvery like a spinning orb of liquid mercury. The round shape lengthened out into a teardrop, then a tendril of silver that stretched forth a frond to tickle Wulf’s nose. At his giggle, the tendril snapped back like it was scared, becoming an orb once more. The mirrored surface expanded and the ball grew to orange-sized, then grapefruit-sized, and finally melon-sized, the silver turning to rainbow colors before it burst apart silently into droplets of individual colors that evaporated instantly into nothingness.

“Mor’, mor’, mor’,” a pair of little voices chorused.

“Now, now, let’s get everyone inside before Uncle Declan does more magic,” Toni said, sounding closer to forty than fourteen. Putting action to her words, she carried Cora inside, where a pack of young witches immediately crowded around the cute toddler. Declan followed a pace or two behind, not that distance mattered as he too was instantly swarmed, or rather, Wulf was. Within seconds, he was relieved of his burden by Erika, and oddly, it was her own twin, Britta, who now held Cora.

The rest of the party came indoors: Chris, Gina, Deckert and about half his people, and, of course, Awasos, who was himself the center of attention by the weres in the building’s foyer.

Relieved of the twins, Declan followed Chris and Gina into Gina’s office, where he gave them both an update on the state of the demon situation as he knew it.

“You think this demon came over, fully incarnate, from Fairie?” Gina asked.

“We closed a portal in Florida that has obvious ties to Fairie,” Chris said.

“Likely Summer,” Declan said. Gina raised an eyebrow in question. “It was guarded by Tinks and Summer goblins.”

“Wait, Florida? Do you think… Walt Disney?” Gina asked.

“Sure, why not? It was an older portal,” Declan said.

“The point is,” Chris said, waving the Disney bit aside, “that we tracked this thing up the East Coast.”

“And it did something to Toni’s necklace?” Gina asked, voice firming as she said her daughter’s name.

“And killed your family dentist,” Chris said, nodding.

“Why?”

“Remove a source of information. Nika would have been able to gather a lot of intel from poor Dr. Reynolds,” Chris said.

“Why so bloody? Why not an accident?” Gina asked.

“She might be just indulging her demonic nature,” Declan answered.

“Or throwing out a challenge,” Chris said.

“But either way, it confirms she’s here—in Burlington, Vermont,” Gina said with the slightest tremor. “Why, ah, why didn’t she attack Toni?”

Chris turned to Declan, who was frowning. The young witch shook his head. “She had to be so, so careful when Toni was in that chair. Any threat, any trace of her true nature would have triggered the necklace and she would have had to fight the full power of the guardian inside it. Whatever her purpose here—and the more I think about it, the more I think she has a specific purpose—well, getting into a fight with a God Tear-powered entity wasn’t it. No, I think it was to set a trap. Probably for me.”

“Why?” Gina asked. Chris opened his mouth to answer and she held up one hand, nodding at the witch, who was looking down at the tabletop. Slowly, he closed his mouth and waited, curious as to why she wanted Declan’s answer.

“The Summer Queen opened a portal to Earth for an agent of Hell. Why? And why didn’t a whole army of demons come through? She set a trap, a trap that seems aimed at me. Now she’s here, in Burlington. Why? Probably to drag me back to Fairie as a payment to Zinnia. Then Zinnia would have to give her some kind of payment, perhaps another gate. One to let Hell march through,” Declan said.

Chris felt a chill run down his spine. The Declan connection was always there, but he’d been thinking it more as Hell wanting to subvert the most powerful witch it could find. That the Summer Queen was involved hadn’t really entered his thinking.

“When did you come up with that?” Gina asked, focused on Declan.

“I’ve been thinking about it since coming back from Florida. And talking about it with Omega and Stacia. Now, today, with this slaughterhouse, well, it all just makes sense.”

“So what’s your play? Leave the area? Go into hiding while Chris hunts her down?”

“No, she’ll start hurting friends and family next. She’s around, probably watched me today on campus at some point. She’s hunting me, and now Chris is here to hunt her. So no, no hiding. We gotta think this through and not fall into predicable patterns. Break the box, come at this widdershins. Because that’s how she’s coming at me.”

Chris felt his jaw drop. Declan noticed his expression. “What?”

“That’s pretty much the only advice that Barbiel was able to give me. How did you come up with it?”

“I still know everything that was in the Book of Darkest Sorrow. Lots of demon lore. Girl demons are really tricky, aren’t they?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s exactly what Barbiel said.”

Chapter 7

Mack hurried down Main Street, head up and looking straight ahead. His last class of the day had taken forever to get through and now, free, he meant to waste no time.

She’d said she’d meet him at the shake place on Church Street. She’d smiled and tucked her hair and insisted that it was only because he’d offered to help her with accounting. And damn if he hadn’t spent the entire class reviewing accounting basics on his notebook computer instead of listening to the professor drone on and on.

He dodged around a few kids and shot across an intersection without waiting for a crosswalk sign, trusting his luck to avoid getting killed. Then he was turning onto Church Street and heading up it at a quick clip. Two blocks later, he was veering across the brick pavers to reach the front door of their agreed meeting place. A quick glance found two girls in the front, computers set up for studies at the two seats to the right of the door, heads down as they focused on their work. Neither was Lilly. She wasn’t in the rest of the restaurant either. He’d beat her. Getting in line, he ordered two of their admittedly awesome Nutella shakes, then claimed the window seats on the left side of the doorway, putting his book bag on the open chair and Lilly’s shake in its place in front of it. Digging out his own computer, he opened it to the notes he’d taken the prior year in accounting class. Good thing he’d let his sister talk him into leaving them on his hard drive.

It took some time to settle down and stop looking for her every time the door opened, but he dug into the notes and focused on the mysteries of payables, receivables, assets, and liabilities.

Suddenly he sensed a presence and looked up to find her there, smiling at him uncertainly.

“Hey. I grabbed you a Nutella shake,” he said, moving his bag so she could sit down. She paused for a second as if not sure, then took off her own bag, a messenger bag.

“What? Why are you staring at my bag?”

“Well, it looks like one my buddy has. He carried it everywhere, but my sister and I got him a new one. That could be the old one’s twin.”

“Oh. Yeah, I found it in a consignment shop on Lower Pine.”

She took a drink of her shake, wrapped her sweater coat tighter around herself, and started to pull her school stuff out.

“Cold?” he asked, imagining himself snuggling closer to warm her up.

“Yeah, it’s a lot colder here than where I’m from. Why did your friend get rid of his bag?”

“What? Oh. Declan had beaten the poor thing to pieces and it was… well, no offense, but it was kind of plain.”

She pulled back, black eyes narrowed. “Plain, huh?”

“Yeah, no pockets, no internal organization, not enough closures to protect stuff from getting lost, it had more rips and tears than yours and, well, there’s some really cool, functional stuff out there.”

“This is fully functional, bub. I don’t need that fancy, expensive corporate thing you’re talking about. Nope, this is solid traditional workmanship right here,” she said.

He raised both eyebrows back at her, then leaned over to poke a finger through a small tear. “Really? You don’t say,” he smirked.

She swatted his hand and he pulled back at a sharp sting. Glancing at the back of his hand, he found a red mark.

“Oh, did my nails cut you?” she asked, concerned.

“No, luckily my shirt sleeve must have gotten in the way. Just a little red scrape. But I’ll show you Declan’s when you meet him. He held out too, but when he saw the beautiful piece of gear we bought him, he caved in to reality. You will too,” Mack said, turning her homework so he could see the first question.

He knew she was looking at him, as his side vision was good enough to pick up on that. When he looked at her he caught a frown that immediately flashed into a killer smile. Stunned a little, he took a second to bring his thoughts back online. “So, this one here. Do you understand it?” he asked.

“No, Mack. That’s why I’m here, drinking this fattening cup of goodness and probably gaining ten pounds.”

He couldn’t help a glance at her svelte form. “No worries there, Lilly. But let’s break this down,” and he proceeded to walk her through the problem.

Chapter 8

“We are currently thirty minutes from touchdown at Charles De Gaulle airport,” the speaker said, breaking into the strategy session.

“Thanks, Omega. Who’s meeting us?” Tanya asked the other two vampires.

“Our guide will be Hosokawa,” Galina said.

“What?” Both Tanya and Lydia asked simultaneously. They shared a glance and then Tanya spoke. “Why him?”

“Well, we all know him and more importantly, he knows us,” Galina said. “At least that’s how it was explained to me.”

“Does his fighting ability have anything to do with it?” Lydia asked, frowning.

“Let’s see, we’re coming in to speak for Senka and we have Tanya, who none of the others is much of a match for. The mathematics seems clear,” Galina said.

“That’s actually a good thing,” Tanya said. “He’s not likely to be afraid of me, more confident. And I don’t think he hates me or Chris.”

“Actually, if anything, he was really stoked by that fight he had with Grim. I heard him say several times that it was the best fight he has ever had,” Lydia said, leaning back in her seat to consider the ceiling.

“Where will they hold this witch hunt?” Tanya asked.

“Somewhere in the bowels of Paris, deep in the catacombs, no doubt. But we’re staying in the Bristol,” Galina said.

“And when does it all start?” Tanya asked.

“Tonight. Midnight. Four hours each night, for three nights. On the fourth night, they make their decision.”

“Why not just get this farce over and overthrow Senka?” Tanya asked.

“Because it is not just the other two elders. There is a voting block of older vampires, five usually. They each get one vote. The elders two. Even Senka gets a vote, just one.”

“Who are the other vampires? Do we know?” Lydia asked.

“Not yet. We’ll have to wait till we get to tonight’s meeting,” Galina said with a sigh. “The five old vampires will be chosen at random just before the testimony is to begin.”

“Clever,” Lydia said.

“Well, we’ve had thousands of years to work out the particulars, now haven’t we?” Galina said.

“Might not have thousands more if they try to interfere with our preparations for the Vorsook,” Lydia said, shaking her head.

Tanya spun to her and pointed one finger. “And that should be a focus point for our case.”

“That Senka was wise enough to let you and your angelic husband have free rein when the Vorsook arrived in Rome?”

“Although who could have predicted that they would be in the right place at the right time?” Lydia said.

“Perhaps that is also a point to make. The odds are infinitesimal, yet it happened. Does not this Elder Mausya have some facility with probability? She should grasp that intuitively,” Omega said suddenly.

“Mausya’s talent is probability. Omega is right,” Tanya said. “Okay, with that at the core, let’s build the rest of our case. We have less than thirty minutes until we land.”

“Approximately twenty-four, depending on local weather conditions.”

“Thank you, Omega. Tick tock. Let’s get at it,” Lydia said.

Chapter 9

“Visitors, Detective,” said the voice of the desk sergeant on the phone. “Important ones.”

He’d been expecting the call since the last time his phone had rung. Declan O’Carroll had been on the line, asking if he could bring Chris Gordon around to talk about the demon murder, like it was no big thing. He’d immediately called his boss, Lieutenant Weston, and suddenly the whole station was swarming with cops who weren’t on shift and had no business being there but were, like most of the world, intensely curious about God’s Hammer on Earth. The chief was also in his office, at a time of day he normally wasn’t. Politics.

“Send them in, please,” he said, then stood up and caught Lieutenant Weston’s eye, giving him a nod.

Minutes later, a patrol officer led a small procession into the inner offices of the Detective Services Bureau. The college kid witch was right behind the officer, whose eyes looked like they were gonna pop out of his head, followed by an easily recognizable man with purple eyes, a very attractive blonde woman, and a compact man in a black suit who looked like he should be wearing military fatigues.

“Detective Schulz, this is Chris Gordon. Chris, Detective Sergeant Walter Schulz. Oh, and this is Nika and Mr. Deckert,” the kid said with the awkward, yet somehow casual ease of youth.

“My lieutenant, Devon Weston. Oh, and this is Chief Park,” Schulz amended quickly, then introduced the young witch to his bosses. The detective could feel lots of extra eyes on them, but the man the world knew as the God Hammer handled everything with easygoing grace.

The chief looked at the little group and then around as if there might be more. “If you’re wondering about my wife, she’s not here. Handling another issue at the moment. But Nika is here. She’s Tanya sister.”

Schulz had already figured it out. Her beauty and grace, the composed expression… the pale skin. Her green eyes flicked to him and she smiled slightly, then she turned back to the chief just as he too figured it out.

‘You’re… you are…” Chief Park stuttered.

“Darkkin is the proper term, although vampire is okay,” Declan said. “The rest of the team is almost here: Stacia and a couple of others.”

Lieutenant Weston came to his boss’s rescue. “Uh, Stacia… Stacia Reynolds?”

The blonde vampire smiled openly, turning slightly to look at the witch. He met her eyes, nodding at some private point between them. Chris chose to answer. “Yes, leader of our werewolf contingent, such as it is,” he said.

“There’s werewolves?” Chief Park asked.

“Just two, besides Stacia. One of them is very new, but he’s a sheriff’s deputy from up in Maine. Should be a big help with our work.”

“Could be a big help. Or no help at all,” the military man, Deckert said, head moving as he looked around the room.

“True. It’ll have to be seen,” Chris admitted.

“He’ll be fine,” Declan said, which earned him a look from Deckert. The kid just smiled.

“What role do you play… Deckert, was it?” Chief Park asked.

“Security,” was the singular answer.

“Security? For werewolves, vamp… err… Darkkin, and Chris Gordon?” the chief asked, incredulous.

“Yup,” the man said, still looking around the room, and Schulz realized that he was watching the cops themselves for signs of threats.

“Mr. Deckert has proven that his… alertness is warranted, time and time again,” the very pretty blonde vampire said with a smile.

“Personally I’d go with paranoia,” Declan said, facial expression mild and relaxed.

“Paranoia is a survival trait in certain jobs,” Deckert said, feet spreading apart slightly into a parade rest.

“Anyway, we wanted to meet you and get introduced. Declan tells me he has given you a little insight into the entity we’re hunting,” Chris said. “It’s essential that you all understand just how dangerous it is. No officer or officers should approach a location that indicates her presence. She will be unstoppable with the weapons you have, and you’ve seen the violence she’s not only capable of but enjoys.”

“What does she want… here, in Burlington, Vermont?” Chief Park asked.

“We aren’t absolutely certain,” Chris said, “but…”

“We think she’s here for me,” Declan said, his tone easy, like having a powerful demon after you was nothing special. But Schulz was watching him and saw the tightening around the eyes.

“I’ve heard about you,” Chief Park said, and his tone wasn’t complimentary. “But why does it want you? And why not a direct attack on you?”

“Because Declan can put up more of a fight than she wants. In the right place and time, he’s likely her match. So she wants to control the place and time,” Chris said.

“You’re bait?” Park asked, clearly unhappy.

“In a sense. If I could leave and have her follow, I would, but again, as Chris said, she wants to pick the location and control the situation. If I leave, she’ll just start killing people here till I come back. So I’ll be here, doing my thing, while Chris and the team hunts her down.”

“How do you hunt a demon?” Lieutenant Weston asked.

“We’ll do many of the things that you all do. But we have methods and options that you don’t,” Chris said. “We’ll interview some of the same people you’ve already talked to. We’ll likely conduct our own analysis of the crime scene, if you’ll give us access, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on our young witch here,” he said, slapping the kid lightly on the shoulder. From the wince, Schulz didn’t think it was as light as it appeared.

The chief was frowning. “The crime scene is under our control,” he stated, clearly marking his territory.

“Yeah, listen, if you can handle her on you own, that’s awesome. The US Secret Service, the Washington PD, US Marshals, US Park Police, FBI, and DC National Guard will all want training in your techniques,” Chris said. His smile was gone. “Things didn’t go so well for any of them, and I’m told this one is worse.”

“Really?” Declan said, ignoring the staring contest between the chief and Gordon. “Barbiel? Surprised the Army of God didn’t have more to offer,” he said.

Schulz saw his boss swallow involuntarily and completely understood the feeling. Angels?

Park looked at the kid and Gordon followed a second later. “Limited intel. Incarnates can hide from them.”

“Yeah, it just seems grossly unfair,” Declan said. He was clearly overdoing it, but at the same time, a part of Schulz wanted to scream at the chief to quit fucking around and let the A team solve this horrific problem. So anything the kid said or did to help reach that vital decision was okay in his book.

“Detective Schulz will be your liaison. He’ll accompany you to the crime scene and step you through it.”

“That’s great, Chief. We won’t disturb a thing. We know the drill well,” Chris said.

“Well, the media has caught wind of the murders and we’re supposed to hold a press conference in about an hour. Do you want to be part of that?” Park asked.

Gordon turned and looked at the vampire. She held his eyes for a moment then nodded, once. He next glanced at the kid, who had his head back, looking up at the ceiling, tapping his lip. Then the kid touched his ear where a Bluetooth unit rested. A second later, he too nodded.

“Yeah, let’s plan on myself, Nika, and probably Stacia when she gets here,” Chris said.

The chief turned a curious gaze on O’Carroll but the kid just held up both hands. “Not me. More a behind-the-scenes kind of person. Plus, I’ve got a class.”

“A class? Really? You’re just going to school while this thing hunts you and prepares to slaughter who knows how many people?” Lieutenant Weston asked, incredulous.

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

“For many reasons, Declan keeps a low profile. In this case, you would expect him to be deep inside the team’s activities, so we’ll do the unexpected and instead keep his routine as normal as possible,” Chris said.

“And if she attacks him?” Weston pressed.

“Oh, that would be ideal,” Chris said. “But all we can do is hope she does, but plan for if she doesn’t.”

Both Chief Park and the lieutenant gave Schulz a look. The blonde woman slid forward a step and touched the chief lightly on his arm. “We know what we’re doing. What you’ve heard about our shaggy-haired bait over there doesn’t scratch the surface. He’s really very capable. Yes, this situation has a large, as Mr. Deckert might say, FUBAR potential, but we’re not the same team as you saw in Washington DC. Not anymore. We’ve studied what happened there, adapted our methods, added new ones, added new weapons, trained over and over again for this type of thing. Please have confidence that we know what we’re doing.”

She left her hand on his arm for a moment and Schulz could see the tension drain out of his Type A boss, like a blow-up mattress deflating. Then she stepped back one precise little pace, smoothly putting herself just behind and to the right of Gordon.

“Okay. What’s first?”

“If we could see the crime scene, then I’ll come back and we’ll coordinate what to say at the press conference. Stacia and company will be here in…” He turned to Declan.

“Fourteen minutes. She can meet you at the dental office, then come back here with you. I’ll head back to Arcane, check on the little squibs, grab some dinner, and head up to class,” Declan said.

“‘Sos?” Chris asked the kid, who shook his head.

“No, leave him with Toni and the twins. Stacia will be more use for processing the scene, and he’s a better bodyguard. Plus I’ve asked Jetta and some of the witches to help Toni. I spent some time this afternoon reinforcing the school’s wards and added a whole bunch of new ones, specific to demons. Incarnate have more physical leeway here, but the Book indicates magic affects them to a much greater degree than their disembodied brethren. Not that it affects them a lot, but I’ve planned for that. The school is off-limits. Probably.”

Chris studied the kid for a moment, then nodded. “Let’s do it.”

Schulz was still trying to figure out how Declan could offer such a precise ETA for the missing team members, as he hadn’t looked at a phone, watch, or anything.

“Detective? Care to show us the crime scene?” Chris asked him, bringing him back to the conversation at hand.

“Sure, let me get a ride set up.”

“You can ride with us. We gotta drop Declan off at Arcane first, anyway.”

“Great,” Schulz said, not at all sure about riding with a vampire, a witch, and what some people said was a fallen angel.

Chapter 10

Mack looked up when Declan came into the Arcane dining room and immediately waved him over. “Hey buddy, pull up a chair.”

His friend waved back and immediately began to fill a plate with food from the buffet line. A short time later, he was sitting down across from Mack, who grinned at him around a mouthful of turkey and gravy.

“Why the Cheshire grin? What’s up with you?” Declan asked, taking a bite of mac and cheese.

“It was a good day is all. Can’t a guy have a good day?”

Declan started to nod but stopped. Then his head shook side to side. “Not you. You don’t get this happy unless there’s a girl involved. Spill.”

“Wow. Super powers of deduction to go with super witch powers,” Mack said. “You’ll need them for your murder case.”

Declan had stopped chewing and was eyeing him carefully. “And those powers tell me she must be someone special because you’re being all extra. You’ve already dated half the city and at least half of Arcane and you’ve never been this… giddy.”

“I’m not giddy. That’s a hell of a thing to call your bro. Giddy. Who even uses that word? What are you? Like a hundred years old?”

“Deflection. Avoiding the object of the conversation. What’s her name at least?”

“So suspicious all the time. Not good for you, D. Not good at all. Her name is Lilly.”

“And when’s the first date?”

“Ended an hour ago, give or take.”

“First date already? That’s a record, even for you, buddy. Okay, when’s the next date?”

“Tomorrow,” Mack said, now looking a little guilty. “Not really dates but study sessions. I’m helping her with accounting.”

“Is she a business major then?” Declan asked.

“Ah… not sure.”

“Really, didn’t ask? She must be hot as hell if you didn’t even think to ask that.”

“She is,” Mack said, frowning at his own lapse in basic Mack Sutton dating procedure. “She probably gets hit on more before breakfast than most girls do all month. Gotta go slow and careful here, bud. Don’t want to scare her away.”

“Wow Mack, this girl’s got you all twisted up. Can’t wait to meet her,” Declan said, taking a few more bites.

“Oh she wants to meet you too,” Mack said casually.

“You only just met her. How does she even know about me?”

“She has a messenger bag just like your old one and I told her it needed to be updated like the one we got you. So really she just wants to meet your book bag.”

“She sounds pretty enlightened.”

Mack frowned at his plate. “I’m not sure, but I think she might be a bit of a geek. She uses older language and phrases, kind of like you do sometimes.”

Declan started to frown, something about Mack’s words bothering him, but suddenly he reached up and touched his Bluetooth earpiece. “Aunt Ash? What is it? What? Omega switch calls to Chris… okay, good.” He stood up abruptly and grabbed his plate, then froze. “Chris, keep Nika away from that witness. Aunt Ash had a premo… WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?”

“What is it? What’s going on?” Mack asked.

Declan was frozen, listening to his earpiece, his eyes wide. Then he turned to Mack. “Nika was going to interview a witness on the street where the murders happened. Aunt Ash told me to stop her and Omega shut off her car before it was halfway down the road. Then the witness’s house blew up.”

“Holy shit! Was she hurt?” Mack asked, although he knew how tough vampires were.

“No. Rental car is dented up from falling debris but the team is okay. Omega had the street under surveillance since we first found out about it. Nobody’s been to the witness’s house. What, O?” Declan asked, touching his earpiece. “She got a call? Shit, another burner phone. Did you get any of it?” He pulled out his phone and pulled the Bluetooth out of his ear. The speakers on the phone came alive and Mack could hear two voices in what must have been a call.

“Hello dear. I’m afraid I need you to clean things up for me. Like we discussed?” a female said.

“Oh yes! Of course I will. I’m at the stove now.” The second was a woman as well, older-sounding, eager to please. Then a hissing sound filled the speaker.

“Let it go for a while, dear. You must be very, very thorough,” the first voice said.

“Oh, yes. You can trust me! I’ll be so thorough!”

The hissing continued for a bit. “Okay, dear. That should do it. You don’t want to pass out before you get it done, do you?”

“Oh no. I won’t let that happen.” A scratching sounded, a sound like sandpaper. It started again, then came a flaring sound and then a heavy whump that cut off like a switch.

“She… she told her to blow herself up and she freaking did?” Mack asked.

“Yeah. Demons are pretty persuasive. I think this one is probably really, really persuasive. She messed up that dentist long before she tore him apart,” Declan said. “Omega…”

“Already provided the sound clip to the rest of the team and to Detective Schulz. I also called the fire department and gas company emergency response lines.”

“Thanks,” Declan said, watching Mack. “You okay?”

“No, dude. That’s what you go up against?”

“Yeah, you know that.”

“I didn’t… I didn’t know they could make you kill yourself?” Mack protested.

“They can’t do that to just anyone. If you have a strong will, a strong sense of self and self-esteem, you can fight it. Lower demons can only influence the disaffected, the disenfranchised—in other words, the kind of person who ends up shooting up a school or workplace. This one is stronger. She’s also a tricky bitch. Listen, I gotta get to class.”

“You’re just heading off to class after she almost blew up the team?”

“Yes. That’s my job in all this. Omega, Chris, Stacia, Nika, and the rest can handle everything there. Me, I gotta keep doing the same old, same old.”

“So you can be bait.”

“Yes.”

“But if they’re all covering the murder scene and bomb scene, who’s watching your back?”

“I got coverage. Don’t worry, bud. We worked it out.”

“I know Omega watches over you like everywhere, but can his drones even scratch an incarnate demon?” Mack asked, really worried about his friend.

Declan held one hand out, palm down, and wobbled it. “Depends on the drone in question and what it’s armed with. The ones around me are loaded for Hell. Got some other backup too. Trust me; we’ve been working on this since Florida.”

“Well, you guys are the A squad, so I’ll take your word for it. But if you need me, just let me know.”

“Thanks, bud,” Declan said, slinging his ballistic nylon messenger bag onto his shoulder. He paused, then rummaged in the bag. After a second, he came out with a little bundle and handed it to Mack.

“Something for you. It won’t likely kill the bitch, but she won’t like it. None of your regular blades will do much to her, and forget bullets. This here will at least scratch her. Not that you’re likely to get near her, but it makes me feel better.”

Mack unwrapped the bundle and found a plastic sheath with a black handle protruding from it. He pulled the knife and found that the blade was glass—black glass.

“It’s made from zirconium oxide, actually transformation-toughened zirconia with a special holy relic inside that the blade was formed around,” Declan said. “The handle scales are obsidian, which has protective properties.”

“Relic?”

“The Vatican has been super helpful. We asked for some—stuff, and boom, they sent it right over. Chris talked to the Pope’s right-hand man, or bishop, or whatever, while we were cleaning up in Orlando. Omega handled the manufacturing and we had enough holy stuff left over to help level up his drones. Keep that close; it straps to your leg. Don’t tell anyone, anyone, Mack, about it. Not even this new girl. I’ve got one for Jetta too, but ixney on the talking. Got it?”

Mack just stared at the black blade. “Mack? You got it?” Declan said, snapping his fingers to center his friend.

“Yeah, I got it,” Mack said, nodding. Then he immediately pulled up his right pant leg and strapped the plastic sheath in place.

“Alright. I gotta scoot. See ya, buddy. Can’t wait to meet your new girl.” Then the tall witch was gone, walking out the dining room door, leaving Mack to once again wonder at how his supposed good luck had landed him and his sister in the middle of all this madness.

Chapter 11

“Ah, ladies. Welcome to Paris,” Hosokawa said as the three vampires exited the armored limo that had awaited their plane at the airport. “Galina, Lydia, Tatiana, or do you prefer Queen Tatiana?” the compact warrior asked with almost no hint of sarcasm. Almost. Also, he completely ignored Arkady, who had stepped from the front passenger seat and stood looking around for threats.

“Tatiana is fine, but if you find yourself overwhelmed, Royal Ass Kicker will do,” Tanya said back without hesitation.

He grinned sharp white teeth in amused response, clearly delighted. Everything was a contest, a battle to be won, to the Coven’s most feared duelist. He was just even in height with the taller females, short for a male, at least in this age. Yet he was muscular and moved like a cat. And he was undefeated. Rumor had it that he had won every battle except for one. And that one had ended in something of a tie.

“Your husband didn’t make the journey?” he asked, eyebrows raised slightly.

“As if he’d be welcome,” Tanya said.

“I, for one, would love to see him. We could spar the nights away while you three face the Coven.”

Tanya considered his words, head tilted. “You think you would enjoy that. It seems you have forgotten the last time you fought. He continues to learn and grow. He has fought demons in Hell, and Princes of Hell on Earth. Each of those battles teaches his dark side so much that it’s hard to comprehend. You would not survive.”

“Perhaps, but assured victory has no value, no flavor. He’s the only one who’s given me a chance at loss,” he said, very sincere.

“If I recall, you weren’t far from full defeat when I interceded,” she said.

“Perhaps,” he nodded, not at all upset at her comment. “But still far enough that it was only a scent in the wind, not a taste on the tongue.”

“Who do we face tonight, Honored Fighter,” Galina asked, interrupting the polite battle of words.

“The remaining tribunal members will be drawn from the Patrons who’ve assembled for this… inquiry,” Hosokawa said. He paused, then went on without prompting. “Lison, Elisabeta, Tavian, Gault, Liu, Sun, and Tan are here, as is Atta.”

“What about Berit?” Tanya asked.

“The telepath is not here. She is… elsewhere,” Hosokawa said.

“Why so few? This is a big deal,” Tanya said.

“Actually it’s a freaking huge deal and that’s probably why the others found everywhere else to be but here,” Lydia said.

Tanya stared at her for a second before her mother spoke up. “She’s so very right, Sweet Blood. If Senka is sent down, you and Chris are next. The Coven is split.”

Tanya turned to Arashi Hosokawa. He nodded. “This is true. And not all of the Patrons here are interested in pushing this inquiry. Lison, for one, is not excited to be here, but alas, Paris is her home base.”

“How do you feel, Hosokawa-San?” Tanya asked.

“I have pledged to guard Tzao.”

“But how do you feel?”

He was very still, in the manner of old, old vampires, not a single motion in his body. Not a twitch, no breath of air, no tremor of limb. Then, without warning, he bowed at the waist, to her, to Tanya, smoothly, almost machine-like. And his bow was very, very deep.

Tanya couldn’t help it. She sucked in a tiny breath of surprise. Her right eyebrow went up of its own accord.

He smiled apologetically. “I was more moved by my… contest with your Chosen than I may have indicated. I have seen over seven hundred years on this world, fought thousands of battles, traveled to every country this planet has to offer. I have never seen more evidence of a one God, a Creator, than I did with that single match. He was a baby, an infant in our years, and yet, as you have pointed out, he came within moments of killing me. I knew of his advantages and took appropriate measures, yet still, it was not enough. Your intervention was like a message from this one supreme being. And then to find that he sees souls in us? How does the phrase go? Icing on the pastry?”

“Close enough,” Lydia said.

“Would you repeat that before the tribunal?” Galina asked.

He held out both hands to his sides, palms up. “Tzao has tasked me with securing the catacombs. I will not be in the chamber with all of you.”

“She’s doing that on purpose,” Lydia said.

“In all likelihood yes,” Galina said, tapping a single finger on her bottom lip. “And yet her measure is not enough to prevent us from using it.”

“I don’t see how?” Lydia said, frowning. “If Arashi is not there, he cannot give testimony.”

“Hmm, would you like to place a wager on that?” Galina asked, her smile tight and deadly.

“Not so much when you say it like that,” Lydia said.

“I must attend my oath, Demidova-San,” Hosokawa said, frowning.

“Of course. I would never ask you to forego your honor and oath,” Galina said. “And I greatly thank you for telling us this admission. It will be of great help, no matter where you are.”

Looking uncertain, Hosokawa gave her the slightest bow, nowhere near as deep as the one he had given Tanya. Yet Galina smiled deeply, bowing back to him exactly the same amount.

The Duelist was not known for handing out respect, especially to much younger vampires. Tanya wasn’t sure what her mother was up to, but she was suddenly much more confident of their chances. Galina Demidova was not as old as the youngest Patron, but she was a crafty, crafty vampire, and her teacher was Elder Senka.

Chapter 12

Chris watched as the Burlington Fire Department finally entered the exploded residence of Delores Penderton. Behind him, he sensed two people approaching despite their almost soundless tread.

“What did you find?” he asked without turning to look at his two team members.

“Smells like some of what we faced in Hell,” Stacia said. Vampires have a much greater sense of smell than humans do, but the olfactory organs of werewolves were even better. Vision and hearing were similar between the two predatory species, but with regard to scents, werewolf scenting ability could only be matched by those of werebears. “Smells like demon bitch,” she said.

He turned to face them, nodding to Stacia before looking at Nika.

“The neighbor directly across the street from Delores’s house had a flash of memory. Just a blip. But it was of seeing an unknown older woman exiting Delores’s house a few days ago. Not enough of a look to do more than describe a gray-haired, dark-skinned woman of advanced years,” Nika said. “Other than that… nothing.”

“Was Mrs. Penderton flighty or weak-willed?” Chris asked.

“No, this neighbor thought a lot about how shocked she was that the, and I quote, stubborn bitch would end her own life. Apparently they’d had their share of disputes over the years,” the blonde telepath said.

“Well, about what we expected. She’s a strong one,” Chris said with a sigh. Then he turned to Stacia. “How is your transplant doing?”

“He’s a little anxious. Only a dozen or so voluntary Changes under his belt. But I think he’ll like Burlington and he’s excited to see Declan again. Kid has a way with people.”

“That kid is only a little younger than you, and he’s your boyfriend,” Chris pointed out.

“Neither of which has much to do with anything. He’s still a punk-ass kid. Just happens to be mine, is all,” she said, completely comfortable with the topic.

“How does Holly get along with Devaney?” Nika asked.

“Not great yet. Kind of bossy with him. He doesn’t understand pack hierarchy except that he knows I’m his Alpha.”

“How does Declan affect your mini-pack?” Chris asked.

“He’s the other Alpha.”

“Even though he’s not a wolf?”

“Wolves respect power. Goofy kid has that in spades,” Stacia said. “And speaking of that twerp I’m dating, if you’re done here, I’m going to get those two settled at Arcane and then hunt him down. He should be getting done with his evening class soon. He says he’s taken precautions, but I would feel better if I was with him when he’s roaming around campus and this bitch is stalking him. I made sure both Holly and Devaney got her scent.”

“Well, it would look odd if you didn’t track him down, so by all means. But Stacia,” Chris said,

“believe me when I say he’s got a whole slew of tricks up his sleeve for this one.”

“Which is great and all, right up until it isn’t. Anything can happen at any time. And he’s never faced a demon incarnate,” the beautiful werewolf said.

“He faced a demon-were hybrid, a queen of Fairie, and a dragon,” Nika pointed out.

“All three of which simply attacked him. None of them tried to beguile him with the kind of allure Hell can bring to the table,” Stacia said.

“You think she will try to entice him with beauty and sex appeal?” Nika asked, amused.

Stacia frowned, crossing her arms. “Well, isn’t that a standard tactic?”

Nika’s smirk flowered into a full smile. “Not with him. He has you. He’s had every hot witch at Arcane throw themselves at him. The Princess of Summer has no effect on him, with all her magical allure. That would be the dead wrong approach for her to take. She’d have to amp herself to otherworldly beauty and frankly, he would find that very, very suspicious.”

“He’s let you that far into his mind?” Stacia asked, not entirely happy.

“Rarely. But he is not threatened by me and so he has little lapses where he lets down his guard. I’ve seen enough to know how he feels about you. Don’t underestimate that kid’s actual maturity level. His faithfulness shames most men, of any age.”

Chris watched emotions flicker across Stacia’s face. If he had to guess, she was a bit jealous that Nika had been able to see into her mate’s mind, but she couldn’t conceal how deeply pleased she was by the telepath’s words.

“You have a bond with him, right?” Chris asked. And immediately felt invasive at the shocked frown on Stacia’s face. “Just, you know, I’ve heard there is one.”

“Theirs is forming. Not as fast as two full weres, but I think it will be deeper and wider when it’s fully in place,” Nika said. It was her turn to collect a glare. The vampire shrugged, unconcerned. “I’ve been reading chosen vampires, mated werewolves, and every other type of bond for decades. I’m considered one of the Coven’s top three telepaths.”

Stacia kept her level gaze on Nika for a moment longer, then turned back to Chris. “What’s the plan?”

“Well, you go collect your witch. Tonight I’m going to take Nika and we’ll drive around and see what she gets in the way of random thoughts and what I get in the way of demon visions. Tomorrow, we send the kid back up to class, but this time, you, your wolf pack, me, and ‘Sos will all spread out and see what we can scent. We’ll hang in a loose net around our stalking goat and see what we see.”

“I’ll have to put some strict guidelines in place with Holly and Devaney. Scent and call, no follow, sort of thing.”

“Exactly. Now we’re gonna head to Arcane to check on the twins, grab a bite, and then we’ll see if we can pick up anything,” he said.

“Alright. I’ll catch you later,” Stacia said, turning on her heel and heading out on foot at a very fast walk.

Chris waited till she had disappeared before turning to Nika. “She knows she could get a ride, right?”

“Would you? If Tanya was acting as bait? Or would your feet send you running? And I can assure you she started jogging as soon as she was out of our sight,” the telepath said. She patted his arm. “Let’s go. I want Auntie time with the little ones while you stuff your face.”

He left off looking in Stacia’s direction and turned to the two guards standing by the SUV. Maybe, he thought, she’s got the same bad feelings about this hunt that I do.

Chapter 13

He came around the corner of the building, a tall, lean young man with messy dark hair and blue eyes, a modern messenger bag slung over one shoulder. He was over a hundred yards from where she was sitting, walking just behind a large group of laughing students, taking his time, in no particular hurry. Her preternatural vision brought her details as if he was just a few feet away.

Darkness had fallen and the hilltop campus was lit with pools of bright light from plentiful street and building lamps. It was early evening and there was still a great deal of activity and energy on campus, with dining halls in full dinner mode, late classes letting out, and students hitting favorite study sites in the student union and at both libraries.

Still, it might be an opportunity she hadn’t planned on. Her instincts, bred from eons of experience, told her not to use her standard approach with this male, and so she had turned to a different path. Well, truth be told, her instincts and the briefing of the Fae. But the patient hunter studies her prey and thus she had set up at her current spot, waiting and watching, knowing this was the likeliest path.

It had been so, so easy to get his class schedule, the young man in the Registrar’s office falling all over himself to hand it to her, all in the futile hope she would favor him enough to notice his advances.

Humans. Their incessant need to breed made them boringly predictable. Except this one. Maybe. The little fairy princess had warned her off from trying sex appeal, which was the Summer slut’s own favorite weapon. And so she had chosen a different primary approach, one that seemed to be bearing fruit. Truth be told, this primary way was all the more interesting for its novelty.

But why not take a shot here and now? He would pass within twenty or thirty yards of her position in a few moments’ time. Why not approach him head on, in this form, and stun him with her exquisitely crafted shell? Then hook into his mind and lure him into the dark.

Opportunity favors the prepared. She stood up, smoothing her sleek clothing down over her curves, and pulled back the hood of her deep green UVM sweatshirt, shaking her long, black tresses out for full effect.

The target moved closer, following the pack of chattering youth, a bemused look on his face as the herd blocked and slowed his forward progress.

Her best approach would be to start forward just about—now. She took a step.

“Lilly!” a familiar voice said, her head snapping around to see the target’s best friend heading in a straight line for her from another direction. She turned back to the witch, but his obstructing clump of underclassmen had stopped in place and he had opted to step out into the main road to get around them, timing his passing with a lull in traffic. It put him furthest away from her, blocked almost from sight.

“Lilly, I thought that was you,” her own obstruction said, arriving by her side. He was Plan B, yet he had just ruined her hunt.

“Mack. What brings you out at night?” she asked.

He pulled back at her tone, which was a touch sharp.

“Heading to the library to study. Finance test tomorrow. You?” He watched her carefully, a Starbucks cup in his right hand.

“Oh, pretty much the same,” she said, smiling brightly to take the sting from her earlier response. An idea occurred to her. “I was just taking a moment to, you know, collect myself. I like to watch people. Like that clump of kids over there. They’re like so, extra, with all that laughter and energy.” She pointed at the group but her finger was aimed right at the witch, perfectly visible on the other side, his height putting him above the kids between them.

Mack started to look where she wanted him to, right at his friend, the very one with the bag he wanted her to see.

“Shit, this coffee is hot,” he said suddenly before his head had turned fully. He shifted hands, fingers slipping on the slick cup, and a jet of coffee shot out of the opening in the plastic lid. Reflexes pulled her out of the path of the dark fluid before any could splash on her.

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry. Did I get you? No? You’re pretty quick,” he said, checking her up and down for coffee stains.

She glanced up at her target, but he had moved in front of the gaggle of kids and now they had started forward again, completely blocking him from view.

Fully annoyed now, she turned back to Mack, who had put the cup down and was wrapping a bandanna around it. “Sorry. Should have done that as soon as I got it. Or better yet, grabbed one of those cardboard sleeves,” he said. “Hey, are you alright? You look upset.”

She grabbed hold of her emotions, the annoyance threatening to flare into anger, and crushed them ruthlessly under control.

“I just realized I forgot I have a quiz tomorrow. Your test reminded me. And I don’t have any of the class notes with me. Sorry, Mack, but I gotta run back and get them,” she said, brushing his arm with her hand.

The pulse of energy she sent through that touch was enough to stun him just long enough for her to give him a promising smile and then slide away.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry again,” he said with a disappointed little wave.

“No, I’m glad I ran into you,” she lied. “I would have messed up my quiz for sure. Bye, Mack. I’ll text you.” And she was gone, sliding into the shadows, pulling the darkness around her like a cloak.

“Ah, bye,” he said behind her.

She moved silently across the campus, on a parallel path to Main Street, which was the path that Declan O’Carroll would take to get back to that ridiculous preschool for the supernaturally pathetic. She sped up, ghosting through the backyards of the houses that fronted Main Street, mildly impressed with the distance the lanky young man had managed to travel, post gaggle of kids.

There! Just ahead, almost to where South Willard Street crossed Main. She darted behind a corner house and was about to step out onto the cross street sidewalk when another person approached him from downhill. She stopped instantly, frozen in place, evaluating.

A blonde: lithe, beautiful, wary, yet not wary of the witch. He greeted her, slightly surprised. The woman moved up close to him, motions graceful yet tight with power. A fighter. Then she leaned in and sniffed him before giving him a hug. A supe. And based on her actions and looks, she was the werewolf girlfriend.

Lilith, demon baroness of Hell, studied the woman who appeared to lay claim to this contested morsel of a witch, curious.

The whole assignment had been a bafflement. Travel to Earth in her natural form via a portal from the Summer Court of Fairie and abduct a male witch.

It had been absurd when she first heard it spoken by her liege. Who would care a wit for any witch, let alone a weak male? And why the Summer Queen? Why waste a portal, for it had been explained that it would be found and shut down as soon as she used it.

But then the details had come out. This witch was powerful, unbelievably so, perhaps the strongest of any age, from a line that extended back centuries. And had somehow laid claim to a portion of Fairie, along the way handing out injuries and insults to Queen Zinnia and Princess Eirwen. So a prize valuable in power and an enemy to be punished before use.

And he was a companion of the current God Touched warrior on Earth, who was himself the self-fallen angel, Malahidael, and a major impediment to Hell’s plans for Earth. An impediment who was undoubtedly either on scene or soon would be. Her little display in the office of the dentist had to have caught that one’s attention. After all, she had designed it that way.

She watched with eyes that could see in absolute pitch black. That pathetic Princess of Fairie had been unable to contain her vitriol for this witch and his female, this very werewolf standing not fifty yards away. Lilith sank back into the shadows, knowing werewolf night vision was excellent but unconcerned with her scent, as the predominant winds in this little burg came from the neighboring political region to the west, across the big lake, and those gusts came straight up the hill in cold, blustery blasts. She was standing uphill and upwind of the interesting couple. However, that same covering wind made it difficult to hear their discussion; only rarely did a word or two get through, and none of them of interest. Then it died down, calming for a rare moment, allowing their words to reach her.

“Okay, well, that sounds like a plan. But let’s get back to Arcane. Evening snacks will be coming out and I’m pretty sure the kitchen will make you guys anything they have from tonight’s dinner menu,” the witch said, his voice a pleasantly deep tone.

“Yeah, as long as you’re not on anyone’s menu,” the blonde wolf said, wrapping an arm around his waist and matching his longer pace with her supernaturally athletic one.

Lilith was tempted to follow, but the senses of the school’s inhabitants could pick up her scent, if they knew enough to recognize it, and a God Touched could possibly feel her presence, especially this one, so caution dictated a pullback. Besides, their discussion of food had whetted her own appetite. She had eaten so little of the tooth doctor and his assistant, being more committed to her artistic expression than food. So it was time to feed, to bring herself to full strength, and this form brought her food like flowers brought pollinators.

Fluffing her lustrous hair, she stepped out of the shadows, onto South Willard Street, heading north before turning downhill to hunt the homeless shelters downtown. Maybe the one on North Winooski, far enough north of Arcane to avoid easy detection, close enough to rattle their confidence when the remains of her meal came to light.

Chapter 14

“Do you understand why you are here?” the ancient vampire asked. She was tiny, with porcelain skin, black hair, and black eyes.

“Yes, Sister. You and Mausya have brought a charge of Faithlessness against me. You feel I have failed the Coven for doing exactly what you and I planned for the last four or five decades,” Senka said, her tone even, with no detectable sarcasm.

“No, Senka. We have brought a charge of Faithlessness for endangering the Coven with reckless abandon, exposing us to the world, allowing important elements of the Coven to break away, failing to prevent the most dangerous advance in technology in the history of this old world, bringing us to the attention of another world, and bringing us into conflict with an ancient race of civilization-destroying beings,” Tzao replied.

“Oh, that’s it? So the poorly kept secret of our existence was brought into the open in a manner that has allowed us to conduct our lives and missions with almost no consequences; the rogue Coven members you speak of are here to testify on my behalf, which would seem to be at odds with your idea that they have broken away; the technology you mention has seized control of the most dangerous weapons humans have yet created, thus protecting us; only one of three realms of Fairie oppose us, and only then in the most tangential way, having been beaten badly in several engagements; and an unprovoked attack by an undiscovered race of advanced beings was repeatedly beaten back by those very elements you say I’ve lost influence with,” Senka countered, ticking each counterpoint off, one by one.

Tzao’s black eyes glittered as she regarded her fellow Elder. Beside her, Mausya looked cold and distant. Tanya thought her grandmother’s reply was pretty strong, but the two elders were visibly unmoved.

“You will have several opportunities to explain yourself, but for now, let the tribunal of Patrons hear from other, less biased sources,” Tzao said, waving a hand at the five old vampires sitting in attendance.

Lison, Sun, Gault, Tan, and Tavian were arrayed at a stone table along one long wall, their pale faces dimly lit by candle sconces made from human skulls. Tzao and Mausya sat in throne-like chairs at the end of the room, with Senka standing before them. The Eldest vampire was wearing the latest Paris fashion pantsuit, in black with a burgundy shirt. She looked cool and confident. The other two wore cultural clothing choices from their own countries’ ancient histories.

The hearing chamber was deep under the streets of Paris, below the tourist-trodden catacombs, the walls covered with the bones of the dead. In fact, the two Elders’ chairs were mostly constructed of human bone.

Behind the Patrons and the Elders, Guardian vampires lined the walls, each armed with a naked sword, points grounded.

This far below ground, vampires, at least older vampires, could stay awake during daylight hours if necessary, and every vampire in the room was alert and watchful.

Tanya studied the five Patrons, weighing their allegiances as best she could. Lison was, according to Hosokawa, conflicted. Senka had been her Elder for her entire vampire life. Gault was hard to read, but he had been hard on Chris during the Conclave that had selected Mausya as the next Elder. Chris had told her that he seemed to defer to Mausya during the questioning concerning the death of Elder Fedor. Tanya didn’t trust him.

Tan and Sun were from Asia, which was ruled by Tzao. Tan was Vietnamese, Sun from China. Both could therefore be considered firmly in Tzao’s camp. Tavian was Romanian and a child of Senka, so that was, on the face of it, good. Atta was unknown. She had been the registrar during the Conclave and was very much a politician. Where she sided, Tanya didn’t have a clue.

“The Tribunal will review the prepared exhibit of media content at this time,” Mausya said, holding up a leather portfolio wrapped with black lace.

All five patrons and both Elders opened their folios, while Galina opened a similar one and showed the contents to Tanya and Lydia. Senka stood still as a statue, staring straight at her fellow Elders.

“Please note that the articles range from panic-inducing headlines concerning the alien Vorsook, to coverage of political rallies calling for laws removing Darkkin rights to own property, to exposés on the dangers of the Omega computing machine,” Mausya said. “Note that these articles are from news organizations in countries all over the world.”

“Elder Mausya, permission to add a similar exhibit to the tribunal,” Galina said suddenly.

Mausya looked reluctant while Tzao exhibited no emotion whatsoever. It was standard procedure for both sides to enter simultaneous exhibits, according to Tanya’s mother, and the three had prepared accordingly.

Galina tapped Tanya’s leg under the table in their prearranged signal. Rising smoothly, Tanya took two expensive portfolios in red leather to the two Elders, while Lydia delivered five similar ones to the Patrons.

“Please note a counter-sample of articles praising the steps taken to destroy the alien invasions that occurred around the world, including Rome and China. Note the multiple essays reveling in the security provided by removing the global nuclear threat all at once. Read the enthusiastic medical articles detailing the benefits of Darkkin medical advances, and please take a moment to read the words of the US politicians praising the actions of Chris Gordon and Tatiana Demidova in defeating the demonic threat to Washington,” Galina said. “For every negative, there is at least one positive, and should we really drill down into world media, I am confident we will find that the preponderance of opinion is positive.”

The chamber was silent as Mausya considered Galina. The newest Elder spoke. “Bring forth the Seneschal.”

A small male vampire appeared, frozen in his body’s middle age by his Turning. Small in stature, he had the look of what had once been a meek and mild bookkeeper.

Tanya had met him before, many times, yet found him reticent to the point of being socially frozen. His intelligence and personality only came alive in his notes and financial summaries. Tanya had heard him speak only a handful of times, yet many were the reports she had read, each brilliantly summarizing the statistical metrics of the Coven’s financial and logistical health. The rumor was that he’d been turned to preserve his organizational talents for the Coven’s use.

“Seneschal, how fares our general business interests in this newly awakened world?” Mausya asked.

“Holdings in most regions are down in both valuation and earnings numbers,” he said in a surprisingly deep voice with absolutely no expression.

“Seneschal, is the total gross value of the Coven up or down? And what about total gross earnings?” Tanya asked, earning herself a quick look from Mausya, the equivalent of a glare.

“Gross numbers are up for both earnings and capital values,” he answered, as mechanical as any of Omega’s drones.

“How is that reconcilable?” Tan asked, a frown on his otherwise handsome features.

Tanya was watching the Seneschal when the words were spoken or she would have missed the tiny flicker of annoyance.

“The original question was regarding our general business interests. The organization’s total figures include other, more alternative investments that have performed exceedingly well,” the Seneschal said, ignoring Elder Mauya’s glare. Another rumor had it that he was completely without a damn to give regarding Patrons, Elders, or anyone else’s feelings or egos. And he was just too valuable to criticize or punish.

“What investments are those?” Lison asked, leaning forward with her first sign of interest in the proceedings.

“Those would be the Coven’s position in Demidova Incorporated, as well as the long-term general reserve fund managed under Elder Senka’s offices,” the Seneschal said.

“Elder Senka, who have you made responsible for investing the reserve fund?” Gault asked.

“Tatiana, although she has informed me that she turned over much of the day-to-day maintenance to the Omega computer,” Senka replied without looking away from her stare at the other two elders.

Most of the room looked at Tanya. She shrugged. “Omega is much faster at spotting trends and reacting to news. He may also be hacking some otherwise proprietary systems to gain an advantage,” she said. The Patrons, at least, were highly interested. Vampires love knowing information others didn’t.

“The account’s year-to-date return is one hundred and seventy-three percent,” the Seneschal reported without prompting.

“The machine is working for us?” Atta asked.

“Omega works with us. It’s sentient and independent. So it’s a partnership, not an ownership.”

“Partnerships can implode,” Gault noted.

“True. They can also last indefinitely. Omega is interested in the survival of the world and its people. We have that same interest. Omega is our ally in defending Earth against the Vorsook, Fairie, and Hell.”

“The young witch controls the machine,” Tzao said.

“No, Elder Tzao. He doesn’t. Omega is fully independent of anyone’s control. But Declan is Omega’s parent and they have an extremely tight relationship,” Tanya said.

“The witch is your vassal,” Tzao said.

“Again, he works with us. He is not a vassal.”

“If we control the witch, we control the machine,” Tzao persisted.

“Interesting idea, Elder,” Galina broke in. “Elder Mausya, what odds do you give it?”

The youngest Elder frowned at Galina, but then tilted her head and unfocused her eyes. A furrow formed between her eyes. “It does not appear to be a promising avenue.”

“I thought you might say that. The machine is formidable. The young witch is formidable. When I first met him, I counseled my daughter to bind him to her. To lock him into service,” Galina said. Several vampires, Gault and Lison, nodded in agreement. “She refused. She said it wouldn’t work and that it would drive him away. After observing the boy for a much longer period of time, I find myself concurring with her. The boy resists coercion. The computer resists coercion. Vigorously. Yet a politely worded request from my daughter yielded a complete database of virtually all articles, blogs, and media references of the type in your folios. Within minutes. Analyzed and delivered with complete metrics.”

“What is your point, Galina?” Mausya asked.

“My point, Elder Mausya, is that Senka was correct. Leaving Tanya to follow her instincts has resulted in a strong partnership with the world’s most powerful computer and likely its most powerful witch.”

Sun snorted. “You don’t know that. You don’t know what other witches are out there,” she said, very self-assured.

“My pardon, venerable Sun. You are correct. We don’t know. But I will say he is the most powerful seen to date. Perhaps you have another tucked away in the Middle Kingdom?” Galina asked.

“What we have or don’t have is not the purpose of this meeting, Galina,” Sun rebuked.

“True. As I understand it, the purpose is to determine if Elder Senka has engaged in a pattern of decision-making that is detrimental to the Coven. But we were discussing a young male witch of at least above average power and skill. The same witch that is currently teaching other witches from all over the world, including China, skills that no other witch seems to have. Why? Because Tatiana set up a school to help train young supernaturals. How did that happen? Because Elder Senka felt it was important to allow her granddaughter, our first natural born vampire, to operate independently of the Coven. So it does circle back to the problem at hand,” Galina said.

“If, in fact, that was a deliberate decision and not just negligence?” Sun asked archly.

Walked right into that one, Tanya thought as she watched her mother smile. It was an altogether predatory smile.

“And thus I am called to provide my own testimony regarding your direct question, most excellent Sun,” Galina said.

Not a tremor, not a single flicker of emotion crossed Tzao’s face, but her eyes were locked on Sun.

“Honored Tribunal, it is my testimony that I have had no less than fourteen in-depth conversations with Elder Senka regarding my daughter, her rather dangerous Chosen, and their wondrous natural progeny. In each conversation, she has reinforced her contention that allowing Tatiana and Chris to act with independence, all while keeping in close personal contact herself, is absolutely essential to the survival of the Coven, if not the world itself,” Galina said.

“And did she tell you, during these moments of introspection, that she’d had many conversations with me, asking me to predict the probability that she had completely driven the Full Blood from the Coven?” Mausya asked, never looking at Tanya as she referred to her by a name some of the old vamps had called her when she was first born.

“Being Elder, she did not include me in all of her conversations, nor all of her plans. I believe, based upon comments she made, that she did have some concerns about how far Tatiana and her Christian Gordon could be pushed. It would seem natural, if not even imperative, to approach you for your great skill in calculating potentialities,” Galina said. “Although it was your very election to Elder that drove one of the greatest wedges between my mother and my daughter.”

Mausya raised one eyebrow slightly. Tzao blinked, maybe the first time during the whole meeting, and turned to Tanya. “Explain your objection to the election,” she commanded.

“I already did… at the election. Everyone here was a witness.”

“You ranted about mistreating your Chosen, if I remember,” Mausya said.

“I vocalized my objection to manipulating events to the point where Chris was forced to employ his own abilities against Frimunt, which all of you witnessed. And which made all of you, collectively, lose your minds. You, Elder Mausya, yourself, called for a contingent of Guardians to hunt him down and bring you his head.”

“Whereby you dared us, dared the Coven to do just that, bragging that your Chosen would kill every vampire sent against him,” Gault said.

“But Grandmother calmed you all down and counseled deliberate thought and careful consideration, asking Mausya to predict the probability of the Guardians’ success, which was very close to zero,” Tanya said.

“So, you blamed your… grandmother… Elder Senka, for manipulating events to cause your Chosen to kill Frimunt?” Sun asked.

“Yes,” Tanya said.

“And did you allow her to speak in her defense?” Sun asked.

“Of course. She admitted it.”

Most of the panel of Patrons glanced at Senka, who stood, stock still, but Tzao remained blank and Mausya was not surprised.

“She admitted to manipulating the election?” Lison asked.

“I did,” Senka answered for herself. “It was necessary that the Coven realize the power of young Christian Gordon, and Frimunt was a woefully unqualified candidate. Elder Tzao’s many-times great-grandson has some highly predictable triggers. An underage feeder was clearly one of those. That he could handle Frimunt, I had no doubt. That he could kill us old vampires with a mild blast of his power, I had no idea. Imagine my delight. The more dangerous the vampire, the easier it is to kill. What protection for my granddaughter, what a specimen to bring into the bloodlines.”

“An abomination, a danger to the Coven,” Mausya said.

“Gut reaction, my fellow Elder? Or is that a prediction born of your personal Gift?” Senka asked. “And recall, if you will, that while Berit is not here, the truth wards placed on this chamber will demand the truth—with painful consequences for lying.”

Tanya hadn’t known about any wards—no one had said anything till now—but it made sense. It also explained why they had to leave all jewelry, personal items, or anything that could be used as an object of magical protection outside the chamber.

Mausya didn’t grimace or glare, but her stony expression was enough to convey her attitude.

“I am allowed my own feelings,” she finally said.

“Why did his power not terrify you? You are one of the eldest among us,” Tavian asked Senka.

“Because of who and what he is, my grandson-in-law has a stringent code of ethics and morals. I am in no danger from him unless I were to threaten his own. And I would point out that most of his own are also my own. So he is perfectly harmless. Unless, say, you threaten his children, his Chosen, or perhaps his goddaughter. Witness New Hampshire.”

“More icing on the abomination cake,” Mausya said.

Senka laughed. “All this time and you still don’t wish to face the reality of what he is. Of what Tatiana over there is. They are Angels of God, brought to Earth to fight His battles. And they both are of the Coven. Can’t any of you wrap your head around what kind of gift that is to Darkkin?”

“Much as I would love to hear you preach to me about religion,” Tzao suddenly said, “it is time this tribunal paused for a break. We will convene back here in six hours’ time.”

Then the tiny Chinese vampire stood, her fellow Elder smoothly copying her. Together they glided from the chamber. The panel of Patrons, taken by surprise at the unscheduled break in the tribunal, left a bit behind them.

Senka waited till they were all gone before she turned, finger to her lips for silence but a firm smile in place. She waved them toward the exit and followed them closely.

Chapter 15

Timothy Carver shivered in the evening cold and came to the conclusion that it was time to head to the shelter for the night. The idea of a hot dinner and a warm bed took center stage in his mind’s eye, survival imperatives crowding out the daily litany of life’s regrets, anxieties, and even his core personal anger.

Tucking his hands into the pockets of his fatigue jacket, he let his feet turn him toward North Winooski and the vision of food and heat. He was not too excited about the idea of others being present, as he trusted no one and had little use for all other people, even his fellow street inhabitants.

He trudged forward in the early darkness of northern Vermont’s late fall, part of him noting his surroundings, part of him focused deep down inside.

His street-honed awareness alerted him to a slim form that was headed in his direction on the sidewalk, just now bathed in a pool of illumination from an overhead streetlight. Female, student, and young was the assessment his brain provided with just a glance. LL Bean boots, leggings, and a green UVM sweatshirt gave away much of that information, just as the older, reptilian parts of his brain rated her overall health as high, based on muscular, shapely hips and legs, and glossy black hair.

The anger that seemed central to his person rose within him as he studied her approaching figure, and his glance became a fixated leer by the time she drew close enough to make out the details of his face. He pulled his hands from his pockets and clenched both fists.

Now, within several strides of her, would be the moment she became afraid of him, the delicious instant when her privileged, protected place in society would seem too far away to provide her any sense of security.

She looked up, met his eyes, and widened her own. He saw the instant evaluation, the instinctive, genetically programmed assessment, take place. But instead of ducking her head, cringing, or stepping far to the side, she did something shocking. She smiled. Right at him.

It wasn’t a friendly smile, or maybe it was better to say it wasn’t just friendly, but held a deeper, hotter meaning within the gleam in her eyes and the light moistening of her lips with the tip of her little pink tongue.

She was right up on him now, and he froze at the unexpected response. She kept moving, coming right up to him and, without any hesitation, reaching out to touch the back of his bare left hand.

Need. Sudden, instant, overwhelming need flooded his system, making him instantly, painfully erect, driving down every thought but the biological drive to dominate and subdue this female.

His hand lashed out and surrounded her wrist, clamping down with awful strength as he turned without hesitation and dragged her into the shadowed yard of a darkened home. But she made not a single sound, a fact that lightly brushed his reasoning centers and evoked a tiny, tiny note of curiosity.

The overwhelming flood of desire and need crushed all reason as he found just enough shadow, if only barely, to cloak their presence. With both hands, he pulled her to him and looked down into her upturned face. Rather than fear, he saw hunger in her eyes, and her own free hand reached down to latch onto his rampant need. Then she smiled and, despite the thunder of his own heartbeat, he noted that her teeth looked... sharp. Not the fangs of those bloodsuckers that had burst into society, or the mammalian dentition of the shapeshifters that had followed into the light, but rather these were the saw-toothed triangles that filled the jaws of sharks—big sharks.

Before he could more than register this wrongness, he felt needle-sharp pain in his privates, as if pierced by talons. His ears heard a tearing sound that was simultaneously the shredding of cloth and the wet rip of flesh.

Pain on a scale he was previously unaware of hit his groin, even as she raised a hand grown huge and scaled, drenched in red, clutching bits of blue material and pale skin, and he felt a hot gushing between his legs.

Now it was his turn to scream, but when he opened his mouth and raised his chin, she blurred forward and he felt razors clamp down on his throat, cutting off all sound before he could make it.

The cold, wet ground came up to slam into his back as heat poured from two places in his body, the dim light silhouetting her bald head and heavy shoulders before fading away to complete blackness and the cold of oblivion.

His feet thrummed the ground reflexively as she fed, a flood of hot liquid pooling out into the leaves and dirt around them. The fast, staccato pulse of sound slowed and ceased, replaced with a sodden slurping and the periodic crunch of hard bone.

Chapter 16

Declan found Chris sitting in Arcane’s dining room the next morning, working his way through a triple-sized omelet and his own pot of coffee. He looked tired.

“Rough night without the mom?” Declan asked.

“Different schedules. Their normal bedtime is about an hour ago. They actually passed out a few hours earlier. Too much excitement, getting to visit their babysitter in her own home, meeting a small army of witches and weres, the drive up yesterday. They’re off-kilter a bit, but not horribly so. Luckily they went down before I got called out,” Chris said.

“Called out?”

“They found another kill. Early morning jogger saw a shredded carcass in someone’s yard. We think it was a homeless person. Killed last night. Nobody was in the home, thankfully.”

“You didn’t wake Stacia?”

“I took the new guy, Devaney. He’s apparently an early riser. Stacia’s been teaching him about tracking by scent and he got a whiff of the dentist office yesterday. Says it’s an exact match for the murder scene this morning. We tracked her for a couple of blocks, but then she got into a car and drove away.”

“So she killed the dentist, what? Two days ago? And another last night? Why a homeless guy?”

“She never fed on the dentist, at least not noticeably. This guy today was half gone.”

“Been using her powers and abilities, burning lots of energy. She had to fuel up,” Declan said.

“Exactly. Be careful today. Well, be careful everyday, but I mean if she took the risk to feed, she might be in more of a risk-taking mood, if you see what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, okay.”

One of the kitchen staff came out with a big pot of what looked to Declan like scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and hash browns, all mixed together. Chris thanked her and stood up. “Got round one of breakfast for you know who. Do me a favor? When they get the second helping ready, can you bring it by the guest quarters?”

“Sure thing,” Declan said, taking a bite of his own much, much smaller breakfast. Chris picked up the pot and left. After a few minutes, someone else approached the table and Declan looked up to find Justin Williams, Arcane student and werebear, looming over the table.

“Mind if I set down a bit?” the big kid asked, dark eyes watchful.

“Of course you can sit down, dude,” Declan said, pulling out the chair right next to himself. “How’ve you been, Justin? I haven’t really talked with you since family weekend.”

“Aw, I’m good. My little bro, Leonard? He can’t shut up about the visit and how you let him run your avatar. All he talks about when I call home.”

“Really? Well, tell him he did a great job of it.”

“You all didn’t have to let him help you run the game, neither,” Justin drawled.

Declan shrugged. “He’s a cool kid. I don’t have any brothers or sisters, so I gotta borrow my friends’ sibs,” he said with a little laugh.

Justin just nodded and turned back to his oatmeal. He was bigger than he’d been his first year at Arcane, now probably the same size as or very close to Dellwood in height and mass, and his bear form had to go all of five hundred pounds. Big for a black bear. Right now though, he seemed a bit… unsettled.

“Everything alright?” Declan asked.

Justin looked at him sideways, still chewing a mouthful of oatmeal. It smelled like there was a lot of brown sugar and maple syrup in that bowl, and Declan only had a human nose to pick that up.

“Wasn’t being nosy. I mind my own business, see. But I couldn’t help overhearing you and Mr. Gordon talking about attacks. I’m thinking there’s a demon around here, isn’t there?”

Declan was just biting his own forkful of food and immediately had to keep from choking. Damn werebear hearing.

“Yeah. There is. Incarnate, so she’s even more dangerous. But unless you get in her way or are super unlucky, she is unlikely to bother you. Much easier prey than a big bear.”

Those dark eyes in that dark face shot sideways at him again. “Like witches?”

Declan found himself nodding. “Yeah, true. Like witches.”

“But they usually travel in pairs or threes,” Justin said, clearly worried. “Only a moron takes on two witches.”

“Yeah, and our girls are better prepared than most witches. Much better training, and most of them are pretty powerful.”

“But you go by yourself,” Justin said. It wasn’t a question. Declan wondered where this was going.

“True. I’m pretty good at protecting myself though,” Declan said carefully.

The big guy nodded. “Scariest guy I know,” he said, serious as a heart attack.

“Well, I don’t know about scary, but I would be a handful for her,” Declan said. “Plus, Dellwood’s the scariest guy we know.”

Justin shook his head. “Not Dellwood. He’s scared of you.” He reached up and touched his nose, indicating he’d smelled it. “Don’t know about demons, but heard you f’d up a Queen of Fairie. So a handful for a demon? More… if you see her in time.”

Ahh. Justin was worried, just not about himself. “That’s what Stacia says.”

Another assistant cook came out of the kitchen with a second big pot of breakfast food. She set it down in front of Declan with an incredulous look on her face. Without saying a word, but still watching him from the corner of her eye, she headed back into the kitchen.

As soon as she was gone, Declan started laughing. “She thinks it’s for me. Hey, you got a minute? I want to introduce you to someone.”

Justin was carefully scraping the bowl, getting the last bits of sweetened oats. He nodded, giving the big bowl a curious look of his own.

Declan picked up the heavy container in both hands and led Justin out of the dining room and down the hall, where he knocked on one of the Arcane guest room doors. Chris Gordon opened the door a second later, immediately spotting Justin behind Declan. He gave the big kid a nod and then looked down at the bowl Declan was carrying. “Good timing.”

“Is it okay if Justin and I come in? I wanted to introduce him to ‘Sos,” Declan asked, glancing back over his shoulder at his friend, who now wore a look of complete and open astonishment.

The heavy thudding of paws on concrete came before Chris had a chance to answer. The waist-high wolf that came sliding around the corner was sniffing the air like it was his last breath. He slid to a stop at the sight of the big black kid behind Declan, but his attention kept shifting to the massive bowl in Declan’s hands.

“‘Sos, this is my friend Justin,” Declan said, shifting the bowl to one arm in order to wave back at Justin. He didn’t bother to explain the werebear part because Awasos’s nose would have told him all that and more in a split second.

Finally focusing on the new person, ‘Sos suddenly shimmered and blurred, his body changing and expanding in the blink of an eye to a foyer-filling Kodiak form.

“Whoa,” Justin said in complete and utter awe. “No wonder he eats so much. He’s gotta be always hungry.”

The keg-sized head nodded and then turned to go nose first into the breakfast bowl, the inexorable power of his motion pushing the metal container, and the person holding it, down to the floor.

“Well, that’s just a bit rude,” Declan said, standing back up, hands on his hips now that he’d been relieved of the food.

“No, dude, he’s gotta be so hungry all the time. Look how huge he is, and wolves have faster metabolisms, so that’s not a help when he’s in that form either,” Justin said, completely excited. He looked at Declan, smiling, then turned to Chris and sudden realization flooded his face.

“Ah, sorry Mr. Gordon.”

Chris laughed and clapped the big werebear on his shoulder. “Nothing to be sorry about, Justin. He’s one of a kind. Just hope we can afford to keep him fed.”

The big head came up out of the bowl, both eyes fixed on the Hammer of God, ears perked forward. Chris laughed again. “Hah, a joke? Maybe, maybe not, fur face.”

Awasos snorted, then dropped his head to finish eating his second breakfast.

“Alright, well, Burlington is safe from the stomach that walks for maybe the next hour, so I’ll just head off to class,” Declan said.

“Thank you, Mr. Gordon. It was very nice to meet you, Awasos,” Justin said.

“It’s just Chris, Justin. Declan, we’ll catch up later?” Chris said.

“Yup. I’m gonna eat lunch up on campus, so I’ll check in this afternoon.”

The two students took their leave, Declan closing the door behind them. He headed for the door, expecting Justin to split off, but the big werebear stayed right beside him.

“You have class now too?”

“Yeah, actually same building as yours,” Justin said.

“How did I not know that?” Declan asked, embarrassed, pushing the door open and holding it for his friend.

“Probably because you usually drive up. I’ve seen you running into the building at the last minute.” Justin grabbed the outer door and did the same thing for Declan.

“Oh, yeah. Parking is sometimes an issue, even with an all-lots pass. Hey, you can ride up with me when the weather gets cold—colder.”

“I’m a bear, Declan. I don’t really get cold.”

“True, true. Well anytime you need a ride, let me know.”

“You’re not driving today,” Justin pointed out. They were on the sidewalk headed uphill, and nowhere near the parking lot.

“Yeah, well I thought I’d give Beast a rest. Gas is kinda high right now and I can use the exercise,” Declan said.

“Good points. But you have money, and plus you’re acting like bait,” Justin added.

The kid was quiet but he didn’t seem to miss much, Declan thought.

“And you’re walking with me deliberately, aren’t you?” he asked back.

“Well your girlfriend is sleeping, so it’s not a bad idea for someone to watch your back,” Justin said, looking at the sidewalk ahead of them. “Plus, no offense, but you witches can’t smell for shit.”

Declan burst out with a short, sharp laugh, caught off guard again. “Would you know what a demon smelled like?”

Justin nodded. “You’ve come in from… excursions with Mr. Gordon and I’ve smelled them on your clothes. Pretty much the whole floor has smelled them. All the weres at Arcane are on the lookout for that kind of smell.”

There were over twenty weres, mostly wolves, at Arcane. They took classes at UVM, Champlain College, and some at Saint Michaels in Colchester. That was a lot of sensitive noses spread out around the Burlington area. Someone, sometime had to catch a whiff of that demon soon, Declan thought.

“Justin… thanks for having my back,” he said.

“Thanks for the introduction to the big bear. My brother is gonna flip out when he hears this.”

“Maybe you should wait and we’ll get a photo of you and him to send to Leonard,” Declan suggested.

Justin snapped around to look at the young witch, eyes searching to see if he was kidding. Then he lit up with a smile. “That would rock,” he said.

The witch and the werebear continued on up the hill.

Behind them, Mack Sutton stepped out of Arcane and looked at his phone again for like the tenth time in two minutes. The text was still there. Hey, can you meet me at my house? I have something for you. From Lilly. Her house. The place she slept, changed clothes, took showers. His mind went into the gutter, but he manfully wrestled it back into line. Nothing like that. No way. Couldn’t be. Although their late night texting had gone from flirtatious to something a bit more.

Turning away from the hill, he followed the map app on his phone, heading across town, her place, just past Pearl Street. Humming to himself, he picked up his step, smiling as he looked west toward the lake, the sun shining on the big mountains across it.

Chapter 17

“The Tribunal is now in session,” Mausya said. “We will begin by hearing from our esteemed Elder Senka about the suborbital kinetic asteroid bombing of New Hampshire.”

“What’s the question? I had nothing to do with it,” Senka said.

“Exactly my point. You relinquished any and all control of your granddaughter and her abomination of a mate and they bombed this planet with a rock from space,” Mausya said. “While leaving the Coven and taking a significant portion of Darkkin Coven members with them. Then they exposed vampires to the world. How did that decision work out?”

“Oh, it happened on my watch and so it’s my fault, is that the angle? Nothing to do with you trying to rile the Conclave into killing Tanya’s Chosen, right? ” Senka asked with a nod. “Tanya dear, any insight for the Tribunal?”

“New Hampshire was all Chris, but I would have thought the whole thing was crystal clear,” Tanya said from her place with Lydia and Galina.

“As a warning? To anyone who wanted to abduct his goddaughter?” Lison asked.

“Kind of the mother of all warnings, don’t you think?” Tanya said. “It backed off would-be kidnappers, the US government, and every one of you, didn’t it? And yeah we broke off. If you recall, I had to personally duel a number of your peers to halt the idea of chasing down my Chosen. And when he left the region to allow me time to sort you all out, he was injured by yet another vampire.”

“And then he became highly visible to the public and the human governments. And during all that, you brought attention to your corporation and, by extension, the Coven. Lawsuits, protests, millions of written words condemning your dangerous actions,” Sun said.

“Along with respect for power, leverage to negotiate, and breathing room. Much as Omega has achieved by seizing control of all nuclear weapons,” Tanya responded. “Also, those lawsuits didn’t amount to anything. How do you prove that someone just accomplished what many called an act of God? You can’t. Did it stir up the world? Yes, but if anything, it drew attention away from the Coven and put it directly on Chris, myself, and Demidova Corporation.”

“There should never have been attention on the Coven,” Mausya said.

“You do remember that I was here for the Conclave? That I saw and heard everything that occurred that left you, Mausya, as the newest Elder, right? All three elders agreed to a sweeping wave of change, moving from secrecy to direct Darkkin involvement in the modern world. Guess what? We’re involved.”

“You met with all manner of US officials, fought with law enforcement agencies, threatened politicians, and held interviews with journalists,” Sun said.

“Yes, she did. How very vampiric of her. Galina, our little Tanya is all grown up and modifying world events. Just as I knew she would,” Senka said. “How has it all turned out? We have at least as much positive public opinion as we do negative. The whole global news articles thing yesterday proved that. We have arguably more influence over the supercomputer than any government or organization anywhere does. We influence, through Tanya and Chris, an entire crop of the most talented weres and witches in the world. We have powerful assets and allies to help defend our world from Hell, Fairie, and the aliens. What would we have if I had somehow contained Tatiana and her mate? Mausya? What’s the probability we will survive our threats now, compared to before?”

“Before is gone, changed by what you’ve done. So I don’t have a comparison point. My best estimate is that we have no better than a twenty-one percent chance of surviving all our enemies,” Mausya said.

“That high? Impressive,” Senka said.

“You feel twenty-one percent is a good number?” Gault asked, eyebrows raised. Senka gave him a blank look and he quickly added, “Elder Senka.”

“Yes, because it is based on what you all know, not what the rest of us know,” Senka said.

“What is it you know?” Gault asked.

“That would be jumping ahead. Let’s stay on the task you all set. Tanya, back to you leaving the Coven,” Senka said. “Why did you leave?”

“Because of the need to spread knowledge of Darkkin and other elements of our world to the greater masses. Because the government sent a handful of NSA agents to New Jersey to die. Because somehow a Tomahawk missile got launched into the Pine Barrens from a US sub.”

“You and Chris went into hiding?” Senka asked immediately, not leaving anyone else time to speak.

“Yes, which left Nika in charge of our group.”

“How’d she do?”

“Great. We had a reporter we were developing, Brystol Chatterjee. She had figured out a great deal on her own, most likely too much. We talked with her, changed her opinion of us, brought her to our side. When we went into hiding, we had to leave her hanging. Nika kept teams on her both during daytime with our human security guys and at night with our Darkkin teams.”

“Who was Nika protecting her from?” Senka asked.

“Mostly you, but also some human elements. Foreign operatives.”

“You had to protect her from me?” Senka asked.

“Yes. In the old days, a member of media with that much knowledge would have disappeared or had an unfortunate accident. We couldn’t allow that.”

“I’m not saying whether you’re right or wrong there, but why couldn’t you allow it?”

“Technology has changed so much in the last ten years, let alone over the last fifty, sixty, even one hundred. Information is unstoppable. But it is, still, somewhat controllable. Computers, cell phones, cameras everywhere, all flowing data at electronic speeds. So you have to frame the information—or reframe it if it gets out ahead of you.”

“You’re talking about spin?” Senka said, looking at her audience of old vampires. Tanya marveled at how her grandmother had so thoroughly seized control of the proceedings.

“Yes, that’s one of the terms for it.”

“Why didn’t you defer to my orders?”

“You had manipulated my Chosen. And you would have killed that reporter, and that was the wrong way, for many reasons.”

“I always manipulate. That’s what I do,” Senka pointed out.

“I know, that’s my point,” Tanya said.

“You also lost a valuable and dangerous book,” Senka said.

“We didn’t lose it so much as it escaped. It was a dangerous, sentient book. It was seeking the most powerful witch it could find.”

“And it found your witch, right?”

“It did. It found its way to Declan and bonded with him.”

“So this super dangerous, sentient grimoire escaped your custody and sought out the witch you had befriended. The witch you created the school for?”

“Yes.”

“What’s your point with this, Elder Senka,” Tan asked.

“My point is that I was right to back off our pureblood and her mate. That she is right. I would have likely eliminated the reporter. And that the decisions about the witch that she and her Chris made were correct. That my decision to give up some control, allowing her to make her own decisions that turned out to be correct, was itself correct. Or am I wrong sister Elder,” Senka said, turning to Mausya.

The other elder opened her mouth to speak and froze as her brain visibly engaged. Then her lips closed and pressed together, a frown forming.

“Well? What is the probability that we would control the book if I had tried to crush my granddaughter’s organization?”

“Less than twenty percent,” Mausya finally admitted.

“But we don’t control the book. It was reported destroyed,” Atta said.

“The paper book was rendered useless… by the book itself. When it bonded with Declan, it emptied its pages,” Tanya said.

“So it’s still bonded with the witch boy?” Atta pressed.

“No, although he has access to its knowledge. It’s part of Omega now,” Tanya said, somewhat reluctantly.

“What? It’s in the machine? The darkest grimoire known? Controlling the most powerful computer known?” Gault asked.

“It was dark. Declan changed it. And it sacrificed itself to protect the computer and thereby became a part of it. Omega was formed of science and magic.”

The room was silent. Tanya waited, knowing that she had just tossed out one of the biggest secrets in their arsenal of privileged, proprietary information. No one outside of a select few Demidova personnel, and Senka, knew how Omega had been created. Frankly, only Declan and Omega itself really knew, but the history of tech and magic being melded was limited and rare. There was that TJ kid from Arcane year one, but mostly it was a nonexistent field. And apparently Senka wanted it revealed.

“What are the odds, Mausya? How unlikely was that event to occur?” Senka asked. “How much of an advantage does that give our computer in dealing with the forces arrayed against us?”

Mausya answered reluctantly. “The odds are too low to calculate for that set of circumstances to have occurred. And knowing this raises our chances from twenty-one to forty-six.”

“This is what you knew that the rest of us didn’t?” Lison asked.

“Part. Part of what we know,” Senka said.

“It does not matter what you know… it matters what the Coven thinks,” Tzao said suddenly.

“Ahh, she finally speaks. And to pronounce us nothing but a de facto democracy. You are saying that if our members feel we are on a doomsday path, then we will be, what? Usurped?” Senka asked.“Being outnumbered by Darkkin is at least as dangerous to us as the global numbers of humans could be to Darkkin, is that it?”

“In so many words, yes,” Tzao answered. “But now we break. We reconvene in two hours.”

Chapter 18

Mack came awake all at once, with a jerk that almost sat him upright. The bed was empty, but her side was still warm and he could vaguely hear voices in the other parts of the house.

He looked at the clock. Two hours since he got here. He’d missed a class. Hell, he’d miss every class if this was the reward. For once, his dirty mind had been right. She’d wanted him. And she’d had him. Almost from the moment he entered the house. Which hadn’t been what he’d expected, both the house and the reason she had asked him over. It was dirtier and smellier than he would have thought, the house that is, even with all the incense. But that was likely the roommates’ fault. Those three were scummy dirtbags. Not sure why Lilly was sharing a house with them, other than her explanation that she’d waited too long and had to answer a Craigslist ad to get this room at the last minute.

The voices rose again, mainly just Lilly’s. She was reading someone the riot act, as Mack’s dad used to say, by the sounds of it. Couldn’t make out the words but her voice was deeper than normal and she sounded pissed, beyond pissed. Maybe the roomies objected to how much noise they’d made. He had to admit… it had gotten loud. But that girl was a surprise. Way more adventurous in bed than he would have guessed. Crazy even.

The yelling stopped and the house went quiet. A minute later, he heard her coming. He thought briefly of closing his eyes, but he wanted to see her enter the room. The messy, smelly room.

She was suddenly at the door, standing in it, wearing just a t-shirt. Hmm, must have been difficult to get reamed out by her with all that long, dusky, muscular leg exposed. She studied him, no expression.

“Hey. Everything all right?” he asked.

She frowned, very prettily, then glanced back over her shoulder, realization flooding her expression.

“Oh, you heard?” she asked, her frown now focused on him. He felt a sudden chill, not liking her expression.

“Not really, just loud voices,” he said.

Her frown evaporated. “Oh. Just straightening out those idiots. They sometimes lose their minds and feel that my… possessions are theirs.”

“You disabused them of that notion?”

She smiled. “Disabused. Good word. I promised monumental abuse if they laid a finger on… it.”

He wondered what it was. “No offense, but they look like drug addicts to me.”

Her smile changed, becoming something that made him vaguely uncomfortable. “Yes, they do have their addictions.” She frowned again, studying his expression. “I have to go to class, Mack. And I am loath to leave you here, with them.”

“I can handle myself.”

She smiled again, this time with real humor. “Really? You feel the need after the last hour and a half?”

His mind shifted gears instantly, coming alert like a hound finding prey.

She laughed out loud. “No, you delightful dirty boy. There’s no more time for any of that. You shouldn’t have fallen asleep.” She moved languidly toward the bed, the soft t-shirt clinging to her in wonderful ways. Bending forward, she grabbed his head in two surprisingly strong hands, pulling it down so that she could kiss the top of his head. It also meant he was looking down her shirt, with a great view of perfection, marred only by the odd, ugly necklace she wore.

“What the hell is that thing?” he asked.

“You seemed very familiar with them just a little while ago,” she said, amused.

“No, I mean that necklace. It looks like a smashed bullet… only on steroids.”

“Oh, my good luck charm. It’s an expended thirty millimeter cannon round. From a US Warthog in the Middle East. They’re just lying around in some places.”

He wanted to ask more questions, but he didn’t. Little hints, matched with her exotic looks, had led him to the conclusion that her family was from the Middle East. But he was oddly reluctant to pry.

“Must be cold here, compared to where you’re from?” was the closest question he’d asked so far.

She arched one perfect brow. “If you only knew. Now out with you, Mack Sutton. So I can recover from your depraved attentions.”

Sure—he was the depraved one. Right. Not that he was complaining. He stood up and started to pull on his clothes as he was able to find them. Ignoring him, she peeled off her shirt and stood in her full glory, then moved to some shopping bags on her beat-up dresser. She turned to find him frozen in place at her beauty, smiling a little as she pulled wispy bits of lace and silk from one of the bags. “Don’t have a coronary on me, Mack. I’m not done with you yet.”

Kick-started by her words, he continued pulling up his jeans, his mind focused on the not done with you yet. He didn’t want her to be done with him… ever.

He was pulling on his shoes, tying each as he did so, when he glanced at her again. He blinked. She was already dressed, a gray dress of soft knit, stretchy fabric draping her figure from shoulders to knees. She was watching him… like a cat. She was so different from when he’d first met her. Not that she’d been shy, but she was just so much more aggressive than he’d thought.

“Come on. I’ll walk you out.”

“You’re seriously worried about your roommates?” he asked, mildly insulted.

She pouted and grabbed his hands, ending his thoughts. “Can’t a girl show her man to the door?”

“Ah, sure,” he said, unable to remember what he had said to make her pout so damned attractively.

She pulled him toward the door, letting him go past her to lead the way, her hand now switching to the small of his back.

He was first into the dingy living room and three heads, two male, one female, turned his way. All three had dirty, greasy hair that hung about their faces, all three had sallow skin, sunken eyes, and a hungry, druggie sort of look. And all three averted their gazes as soon as Lilly came into view behind him. Like unruly students brought before their teacher.

A shudder hit Mack, reflexive and uncontrolled. He was skilled with weapons, of which more than a few were hidden in his clothing, and had learned a great deal about hand-to-hand combat from deadly experts. Not sport martial arts, but the science of breaking down a human body and rendering that body helpless. Still, something about the three roommates made him glad that Lilly was with him. And that realization made him ashamed.

No one said a word as she escorted him to the front door—that is until one of the males uttered a single word under his breath. “Rabbit.”

It sounded like an insult and his fear and shame came together, producing a sudden need for a violent response. He stopped and started to turn—only to stumble forward as Lilly pushed him steadily, her hand at the small of his back. Again, he was shocked at the beautiful girl’s strength.

“Ignore that idiot,” she said, her voice at an unconcerned full volume. “I will see to him,” and the cold certainty in her voice almost made him pause again. But her other hand came up and touched his bare forearm and he found himself nodding at her words. Sure, let her deal with her grimy roomies.

He opened the door and turned to her, just as she leaned forward, her hand grasping his sweatshirt and pulling him close for a lingering kiss that left his mind a quivering mass of jelly.

“Goodbye, sweet Mack. I will hunt you down later. Oh, and you will take a thorough shower at the gym before any classes,” she ordered, pulling back into the dark shadows of the creepy house and gently closing the door before he could speak, protest, or otherwise respond.

A second later, he heard her voice rise up inside, he words indistinct, her angry tone clear as a bell. His mind curiously fuzzy, he turned and headed toward the campus, suddenly thinking that a shower in the gym locker room was in order.

Chapter 19

Lilith, Baroness of the Seventh Circle of Hell, strode back into the living room and grabbed Hobal by its throat, lifting the demon off the ground like it was wearing a cardboard shell rather than the meat and bone suit of human flesh.

“That one is of prime importance to my—to our mission. You do not go near him, speak to him, or even look in his direction. I have focused too much effort on flensing away his defenses and binding him to my will to have you look at him as a snack. You were sent to aid me. If you cannot do so, I will end you myself and send you back to the pit. And then my lord will view you as a snack.”

She shook the lesser creature like a doll, not so much to hurt it, as its flesh shell didn’t feel pain from purely physical damage, but instead to make her point.

Then she threw it across the room and into the kitchen, where it skidded across the yellowed linoleum floor and slammed into the cheap kitchen cabinets. It lay there, unharmed, but wisely keeping still.

“But you took enjoyment from that monkey. Why can’t we?” Obiax whined. It was wearing the female shell, but it was in no way feminine.

In a flicker of movement, Lilith stood before it, her head tilted to one side, studying the lower demon. Obiax cringed back submissively.

“So you place yourselves on my level?” Lilith asked, voice mild.

The demon wearing human skin froze in place. The first glimmer of realization was just forming in its red eyes when Lilith’s right hand plunged into its chest. She held its gaze for a moment then withdrew her hand, holding a squirming, putrescent glob of black slime.

The body collapsed like a puppet shorn of its strings while Lilith turned and held out a hand to the remaining demon. Instantly, that one pushed an empty glass pickle jar into her waiting hand.

She slowly held her hand over the jar and waited. After a second, the squirming lump sagged, almost in surrender, and then oozed down into the empty container. Lilith held out her now empty but black-crud-encrusted right hand and the lid was carefully placed on it. She casually screwed the lid down and then held up the closed container.

“You will stay in this vessel, Obiax, until, and if, I choose a new shell for you. You will do nothing but contemplate the vastness of the gulf that separates you from me,” the Hell Baroness said.

She swept a spot clear on the littered coffee table with one arm and then set the jar down. Her gaze pinned each of the other demons until they wisely dropped their eyes.

“As a rule, I don’t explain myself to lower demons. But I will tell you all this—just so none of you ruin this with your stupidity. That monkey is best friends”—she stopped and took in the blank looks of the two still wearing human faces—“he has access to the target and is important to the target and he has no protections, at least not anymore, from our kind. The target, however, could reduce any or all of you to ash with a wave of his hand. He might even give me trouble. So… I approach him from several directions at once, each contact chipping away at his personal protections, each time layering my own personal magic over him.”

“Why not grab the monkey and hold him hostage?” Nicor, the only demon still standing, asked.

“And invite the Hammer of God to rescue him? Or did you forget that an Angel of the Host is here… just a short distance away?”

Nicor pulled back, shaking its head. Hobal pushed upright against the cabinet and shook its head also.

“Then leave the planning to me and one of you haul this meat to the basement with the others. And light more incense,” she said, before heading back into the room she had claimed for her own.

There she moved to the beat-up dresser and opened the top drawer. Inside, lying on a pair of white silk panties, was a pair of necklaces, one formed of Rowan wood, the other a Native American fetish of carved soapstone in the form of a wolf, each artifact strung on a broken cord. The wooden one twisted her vision but the stone wolf made her body want to vomit.

Carefully she folded the white silk over, covering both pieces of jewelry with the insulating cloth. Closing the drawer, she first sat down, then lay back on the bed and contemplated her next move. Her lover’s scent was on the pillow and she breathed deeply of it and smiled to herself.

Chapter 20

“Anything?” Chris asked the three werewolves as they entered the Arcane conference room he had appropriated for a command post. A pair of mini drones sat perched on the meeting table, projecting a holographic 3D map of Burlington onto the tabletop in green light.

“Nothing on the South side,” Devaney, the newest member of Stacia and Declan’s mini pack, said. A swath of the map turned blue.

Holly, chewing one fingernail, met his eyes and shook her head. Instantly the downtown section of the projection turned blue as well.

He turned to Stacia. She was frowning. He waited, watching as she worked through whatever was bothering her. “She’s masking herself somehow, from our noses and from your visions.”

“Probably using other scents, like I used to use perfume when we hunted our parents’ killers. I don’t know about the visions, although would depleted uranium do that?” Jetta asked from the corner of the room. She was working at small table, smearing the hollow noses of 9mm bullets with a thick paste.

“Your parents’ killers?” Devaney asked.

“We lost our parents to an outlaw pack of werewolves. My brother and myself. We hunted them down and killed them all. Almost all. I used heavy perfumes to confuse my scent or they would have identified me early on,” Jetta said, looking up from her task.

“Speaking of scents, that stuff is pretty stinky,” Devaney said, nodding at the paste.

“It’s a mixture of Angelica, Blessed Catholic anointing oil, betony, mandrake, and mugwort. Chris gave it a dose of his angel voodoo aura and it should give demons a nasty wound,” Jetta said.

“Won’t it spray all over the gun’s innards?” Holly asked, mildly interested but making a face at the smell.

“I’ll seal them all with fingernail polish next,” Jetta said, turning back to the bullets.

Devaney studied her for a moment, then turned to find Chris and Stacia watching his reaction.

He shrugged. “I had no idea you knew so many scary college kids,” he said to them with a grin.

“Oh don’t worry. We don’t hunt werewolves anymore. Unless they go bad. Half our friends are werewolves,” Jetta said without looking up.

Devaney shook his head in wonder and turned back to Chris. “So what next?”

“Scenting her was always a long shot, but worth the effort. I’m disturbed about the idea of DU in the hands of demons. But to answer your question, now we use regular police work. Look for irregularities, anomalies, things that stand out as odd. And we have Omega doing a massive amount of the data collecting and processing. Any updates?” he asked no one in particular, instead looking up at the ceiling.

“I have checked power usage patterns, grid scanned the city with thermally sensitive drones, and monitored all Internet and cell phone usage. Electric utility and heat patterns have revealed nothing of interest. Internet and cell usage have shown some interesting details.”

The holographic map went from all blue to a mix of reds, yellows, and oranges. The team moved up close and even Jetta paused in her work to watch.

“Each color represents a different range of data usage, with red the highest, then orange, and finally yellow. What patterns do you see?”

“The reds are clustered in houses closest to the campus, with a few outliers at what I guess are businesses,” Holly said.

“True. Highest usage at college housing sites, on the campus itself, and in the internet-based companies in town. What else?”

“Yellow clusters are far from the colleges, so they might be elderly or low income?” Jetta guessed.

“What are the black ones?” Stacia suddenly asked, pointing. A number of houses on the map were entirely dark.

“Excellent. There are twenty-nine locations that do not register enough usage to even reach yellow. Several are homeless shelters or battered female recovery sites. A handful are refugee welcome housing. But eighteen are unaccountable. The Book of Darkest Sorrow noted in three chapters that demons were generally not fond of technology.”

“Oh, that’s outstanding, Omega,” Chris said, looking up at the others. “We need to split up and check these sites for other details. Omega, have there been any police complaints about sounds or smells by any neighbors of those houses?”

“Nine of them have been mentioned in recent reports to either City Hall or the Burlington Police.”

“Let’s start with those,” Chris said, looking closely at the now highlighted nine houses.

“Start with what?” a new voice asked. Nika was in the doorway.

“Wow, they let anyone in this place,” Stacia said, arms crossed, tone nasty.

“Yeah and pets too,” Nika said, glaring back at the wolf girl.

Devaney’s eyes got real big and he glanced quickly at Holly, but she was chewing a nail and watching without much reaction. He looked at Chris and the college girl in the corner, but the Hammer of God was studying the map. Jetta was painting the bullet tips with a deep pink nail polish which, partway through, she held up to the nails on her left hand, swiping an experimental swath on an index finger.

Devaney looked back to the wolf and what he thought, from the scent he was getting, was a vampire. A very attractive vampire. The two women moved directly at each other and instead of fighting, they simply hugged with sudden smiles.

“We’ve got a lead on some possible demon hideouts. We’re gonna split up and recon the situation,” Stacia said to Nika.

“Why don’t we do teams of two? You and Holly, myself and the dashing young deputy here, and Chris with ‘Sos?”

“Isn’t he guarding twin hellions?” Stacia asked.

“He could use a break from being the best wolf pony in the world,” Nika said. “Toni is watching them. That girl wrangles them better than any of the rest of us.”

Chris snorted. “Not wrong there. That’s a better plan than ours. We can’t ever forget how dangerous this demon is. If any of us get a hit, we fall back and alert Omega to put some drones on surveillance duty. She’s less likely to notice a hidden mini drone than one of us.”

“I’ll give Toni a hand when I finish these off,” Jetta said, now painting her right hand fingernails.

“Omega? How’s Declan?” Stacia suddenly asked.

The city holograph disappeared as both mini-drones turned and projected what looked like live video on the white wall. The screen split into sixteen squares, each showing the witch in question from a different angle.

“Father is in his last class of the day and will be heading home soon. I have twenty-two drones on him, plus three of the werewolf students are going to be trailing along behind him as he comes down the hill.”

“Twenty-two?” Devaney asked, eyes bugging.

“Omega is as protective of Declan as your Alpha is,” Chris said with a bemused smile.

“Easy for you to say. None of us are the ones being targeted by a demon incarnate,” the beautiful werewolf said. “I see nothing wrong with twenty-two armed drones. I’d be fine with twenty-three.”

“The twenty-third will be coming from New York City as soon as it leaves the manufacturing facility. It will take up a high-altitude overwatch when it arrives.”

“Is that the first of the new ones?” Nika asked, sharing a look with Chris.

“Yes, although some of the new technologies have been added to many of my avatars. Even these little ones,” Omega said as both mini-drones suddenly took turns zipping around the room.

Despite their back and forth, jittery motion, Nika noted that the images of Declan on the wall didn’t so much as tremble.

“Impressive stabilization, but can I assume the new one will be an upgrade? Based on what I found in Missouri?” the blonde mindreader asked. Of all the vampires who interacted on a close level with Omega, Nika was one of the most comfortable with the quantum AI. Lydia had pointed out to her that might be a result of not having any chance at all of ever reading the machine’s mind.

“Very much so. I think you all will be impressed. Thank you again for finding me that gift.”

“It was one for our side,” Nika said. The werewolves and Jetta all looked confused at the exchange, but Chris just smiled and nodded at her. “I’m not excited to be trying to fill in for Tanya, so any edge we can get will be good, Nika added.”

“Where is she?” Jetta asked.

“She’s handling a problem that arose in Europe,” Chris said.

Holly snorted. “Convenient timing for the demon chick, don’t ya think?”

“What?” Chris asked. “What was that?”

Holly looked slightly flustered for a second, then her expression firmed up. “Just seems like a coincidence. And if I was stupid enough to tackle you two, I’d be damned sure to split you apart first. Always separate and divide your enemy,” she said, nodding.

“How would you do it?” Chris asked, a new urgency in his voice.

“I don’t know. Start some crap with some of her vampire people somewhere else so she has to leave the US.”

“Start some crap?” Devaney asked.

“You know… some drama. Spread rumors. Instill dissent. That sorta shit. Middle school 101, at least for girls.”

The others all looked at her with varying expressions. Stacia and Jetta nodding, Nika looking thoughtful, Devaney frowning, and Chris almost astonished.

“I gotta call Tanya,” Chris said. “If I can reach her.”

“She has just come up out of the no-technology zone. I was getting ready to connect her to you to discuss the twins. Here she is now,” Omega said. The wall monitor changed, half of it now filled with Tanya’s image.

“Ah, hey, everyone,” she said, looking momentarily confused. “Omega, I just wanted to talk with Chris,” she complained, frowning.

“He adjusted that because we have a theory you might want to hear,” her husband said.

“Well, fill me in. Then I want to hear about the babies.”

Chris took a breath and then laid it all out in broad strokes. When he finished speaking, her face went blank for a half a second, then her brow furrowed in anger. “The twins good?”

“Twins are great. Toni is with them and Jetta’s gonna help her while we search for this demon.”

“Okay. I’ve got to talk to Mother, Grandmother, and Lydia about this idea. We have a short break and we’ll need every second to run this down. And Chris… when you find this bitch, save a chunk of her for me. I’d like to express my thoughts regarding her interference with my family.”

“No problem, zayka,” he said with a nod. She turned and left the frame, then Omega cut the connection.

“Was that abrupt?” Holly asked.

“She’s in battle mode,” Nika said. “I’d love to be a fly on the wall of that meeting.”

“I would like to have one of my insect drones there too. The witches employed by the Paris faction are too thorough, however,” Omega said.

“Let’s go find this demon. Remember: be careful, be stealthy, don’t scare her into fleeing or attacking. If you think the house you’re looking at might be the one, alert Omega and fall back. He’ll surveil the property and we’ll know for sure,” Chris said. “Let’s go.”

Chapter 21

“Bring forth Sergei Zhvikov,” Mausya commanded.

A tall, thin vampire strode into the chamber, black suit immaculate, wingtip shoes gleaming in the flickering light of the skull sconces. His white hair was cut short, almost military, and Tanya thought its color was natural platinum like Stacia’s, as he did not look like he had been old when he was turned. Maybe a physical age of mid-thirties, but certainly a vampire age of less than one hundred.

“Sergei, you are the designated speaker for the younger Darkkin of Russia?” Mausya asked.

He nodded. “I am that, my Elder.”

“And what message do your brothers and sisters wish you to deliver?”

He hesitated, glancing at Senka, who again stood in front of the other two Elders.

“Go ahead, Sergei. No recriminations will be cast upon you. You are simply the messenger.”

“I am requested to express concern in regards to our path,” he said, now looking straight at Mausya and carefully not at Senka.

“That’s it?” Tzao asked. “Just concern?”

He paused, eyes flickering toward his right, where the senior vampire in the Coven stood staring at him. Turning back to Tzao he took a breath.

“They fear we are vulnerable, that we’ve become weak and allowed our natural prey to hold a position of leverage over us,” he said. Mausya leaned back, a satisfied look on her face.

Tanya stood abruptly, startling the tall male vampire. She walked gracefully to him, a sheaf of photographs in one hand.

He turned, wary, even though she was a great deal smaller. She gave him a rather brilliant smile. “Sergei, is this you here in this photo?” she asked, holding up one of the photos. It was dark and grainy, taken at night, and the camera angle was from several feet above so his face wasn’t fully revealed, nor was that of the woman he appeared to be talking to.

“The picture is not clear,” he said after a second.

“That is not an answer, Sergei. I need a yes or no, but to make it easier, look at this one,” Tanya said, holding up another photo, taken from a different camera and a much different angle.

The vampire stared at the photo in his hand, his jaw clenching.

“I’ll remind you that the truth spell will deal with lies, omissions, and mistruths violently,” Tanya said. That was mostly a guess on her part, as she didn’t know the details of the spell.

He lifted his eyes to hers, momentarily fierce, then he blinked and looked straight forward, over her head, unable to hold her more intense gaze. He nodded.

“I need you to say it out loud.”

“Yes. Yes, that is me,” he said reluctantly.

“Do you know who the woman is?” Tanya pressed.

“Just a human. Just prey,” he said.

Tanya watched him, but nothing happened. He believed that to be true.

“What’s her name?”

“Victoria Eros,” he said.

“That’s her assumed name. Do you know her real name?”

He frowned. “No. If she made up her name, then I have no idea what the real one is.”

“We do,” Tanya said with a tight smile. “Aoibheann. I guess the modern version might be Eavan. She’s not from around here. Around here being Earth, that is.”

Sergei frowned, confused. Mausya’s eye twitched and about half the panel of Patrons leaned forward.

“She’s from Fairie,” Tanya said, holding up yet another picture, this one two versions of the same shot, side by side. The left side was a normal daytime photo, taken from a very high angle above, but very clearly the girl in the other photos. The right side was different… it was almost three-dimensional, with a cube shape to it and multiple layers of color and imagery. This image showed the girl, but she wasn’t the same. Her body was taller and leaner and her ears had… points.

“Taken by a Russian military satellite with hyperspectral imaging. She’s an operative of the Summer Court. Amazing what those things record. Now, how many times have you met with her?”

He looked at Tanya, his throat flexing. Then he looked at Mausya and swallowed in fear.

“Answer the question,” Mausya said, her tone icy.

“Four or five times.”

“What did you talk to her about?” Tanya asked.

He gulped again, his eyes panicky. “I don’t remember.”

Nothing happened, so although she frowned at his answer, Tanya pressed on. “Nothing? Not even a little?”

His expression became resigned. He shook his head.

“Many of Fairie’s elves have powerful glamour and persuasive magic. I wonder how much of this purported unease among Sergei’s brethren is real and how much was suggested by foreign agents?” Tanya asked.

“My people have similar concerns over our pathway,” Elder Tzao interjected.

“Ah, very good. Excellent segue. Lydia? Do you have the China photos?”

“Yeah, right here,” the little vampire said, popping up from behind the table.

“You suggest that my people were influenced as well?” Tzao asked in a dangerous tone.

“Exactly, as shown by these Chinese satellite photos,” Tanya said, taking another sheaf of pictures from Lydia.

“How did you get these so quickly?” Tan asked.

“Their machine,” Mausya guessed.

“Yes, the Omega computer is wonderfully efficient at anything to do with other computers, camera systems, and satellites,” Senka said. “Once we had a hunch that someone had interfered with members of this Coven, it was easy for Omega to backtrack their electronic footprints and gather this information.”

“You’re suggesting that this entire tribunal was engineered by our enemies?” Gault asked, eyebrows lifted.

“Let’s see, divide and cripple the Coven, allowing the more traditional Darkkin to indulge in outdated practices that would bring down the human world upon us, while separating Tanya from Chris while he goes up against another incarnate demon, thus allowing the demon a better chance of securing its objective, which further weakens Earth’s defenses,” Senka listed. “That’s a plan I could admire… if it wasn’t aimed at me.”

“You think these machinations explain all of the unrest? You believe that all of the older vampires cannot form their own opinions?” Tzao asked, her voice very quiet.

“Well, we already found an agent of Fairie approaching my staff about an hour ago, when we started looking into who was doing what with influential vampires like Sergei here. We found a Red Cap. My people should be rounding it up now. The computer, Omega, was going to continue investigations while we have been in here. Be interesting to find out what or who it might have found around each of your people, aye?”

“You make us out to be all fools, sister,” Tzao said.

“Oh, we know there are Darkkin who don’t appreciate the path we’re taking. Many in fact, some quite old. Which is why this interference worked so well. But I wonder, if we stepped back and surveyed the troops, just how much of this is real, how much is outside influence, and how much is… personal ambition?” Senka said.

“Why don’t we poll the Patrons?” Galina suggested. “Let’s start with Hosokawa.”

“He is guarding and cannot be brought in,” Tzao said with a dismissive wave of one tiny hand.

“Oh, we don’t need to bring any of them in,” Galina said, causing looks of confusion on more than one face. “Elder Mausya, perhaps you might consider the odds of his response to the question of whether he backs Elder Senka or not?”

“That’s absurd. She can’t do that… can she?” Atta asked.

Mausya already wore a strange look—half confused, half shocked.

“I… I can’t…” was all she got out, then her body locked up, her back arching, her eyes rolling back in her head. She shook and jerked for a full minute before stopping, head lolled back. But she was an Elder and she shook it off quickly.

“As was explained to me at the start of this… this ridiculous exercise in futility, each time you lie, the response will get worse,” Senka said with a helpful smile.

“So, back to the question. Elder Mausya, would you use your Talent and give us the odds that the Duelist would agree with Elder Senka, or disagree?” Galina said.

Mausya was back to a smooth face, but Tanya saw a micro flash of anger. Then she closed her eyes and tilted her head. A micro frown and then she opened her eyes, poker face in place.

“Well, sister?” Senka asked.

“It is probable that he backs her,” Mausya said in a monotone.

“What about others among the Patrons?” Galina asked.

Tzao twitched her right hand, which rested on the arm of her chair. One of the guards along the wall disappeared, the chamber door closing behind him with a soft thud.

Senka smiled widely, spreading her arms to both sides. Tanya found herself standing alongside her mother. Mausya and Tzao were also standing, and that’s when the room exploded into chaos.

Chapter 22

“Declan!” a voice yelled out.

He stopped and turned back to look at the Quad behind him. Mack was waving one arm, jogging in his direction. His hair looked wet, like he had gotten caught in a rain shower. Overhead, the sky was clear.

“Hey buddy. What’s up?” Declan greeted his friend.

“Thought that was your skinny ass self, striding along up here,” Mack said with a grin, slowing to a stop.

“Skinny ass? Listen stubby, just because you live down there among the little people, don’t take it out on me,” Declan said, grinning back.

“Stubby? Ain’t no stubby here, Jack. Bona fide one hundred percent he stud,” Mack bragged, his grin almost impossibly huge.

“Oh? Did someone get lucky last night?”

“This morning actually,” Mack admitted.

“Your new girl? Damn, you move pretty fast there, Flash. And that’s what she said!”

“Nah son, I’m a marathon man.”

“Not the way you just sprinted all the bases and slid into home,” Declan said, smiling at his own analogy.

“Actually, I was more surprised than anyone. Who knew? Girl’s like a lady on the street and a…”

“Freak in bed,” Declan finished for him.

“Yeah, I guess,” Mack said, scratching the back of his head, a puzzled look on his face.

“And hungry too,” Declan said. When Mack gave him a confused look, he reached over and pushed the collar of Mack’s polo shirt sideways, fully exposing a massive, angry-looking hickey.

“She really marked you up, dude. Claiming her territory,” Declan said. Something else was bothering him about Mack’s neck, but it only hovered on the edge of his thoughts, not fully forming.

Mack frowned, slapped Declan’s hand away, then shoved the shirt back into place. “Not cool, dude,” he said, tone defensive and angry.

Usually Mack would laugh it off. His odd behavior puzzled Declan, who pulled back and didn’t say anything, just watching, his other unformed concern forgotten in the face of this sudden hostility.

Mack was looking around at the campus, distracted, then he turned back to Declan, expression clear and asked, “Wanna get an early dinner?” as if he’d already forgotten about the hickey incident.

Declan almost said no, mildly peeved at his buddy’s shift in attitude from bragging to defensive, but the lightning-fast shift back to normal gave him pause for thought. “Yeah, let’s hit one of the dining halls and chow down,” the young witch suggested, watching his friend.

“Yeah, that sounds good. I’m really hungry.”

Mack hated dining hall food.

“How about Harris/Millis?” Declan threw out.

“The Grundle? Yeah, that works,” Mack said, eyes on a trio of pretty girls walking past them.

Declan was seriously concerned now. Mack had eaten at the Harris dining hall, affectionately called the Grundle by the student body, exactly once in his college career. He had sworn never to go back.

“Alright, buddy, let’s head over now. Then I have to see one of my new professors in her office. She sent out an email last night that we all need to pick a topic for a paper and run it by her by the end of today,” Declan said, turning and leading his friend toward lunch.

Forty yards behind them, a pair of muscular young college guys followed, both sniffing the air occasionally when they were sure no one was looking. They also watched, with the eyes of predators, any of the other students that came near the two Arcane students Overhead, behind, in front, and on both sides of the witch and his friend, silent flying shapes either flitted from building to building or hovered so far up that their blue and white undersides disappeared against the darkening autumn sky. The ones close to the ground were small enough to either go completely unnoticed or be confused for birds, their erratic aerial paths mimicking natural avian flight.

Not far away, in the Davis Student Center, the only occupant of a girls’ restroom stared into a plugged-up sink full of clear water, her eyes watching her prey through the eyes of his best friend, listening through his ears.

Chapter 23

“So, ah, it gets dark early this time of year, huh?” the new werewolf asked, clearly uncomfortable.

Nika laughed. “And you’re wondering how I can be up and awake when it’s only early dusk, right?” They were walking on a sidewalk halfway between the campus and downtown, approaching the first house on their list.

“Um. Yeah. Listen, I really don’t intend to offend you, but I know absolutely nothing about you… your, ah, people,” Devaney finished.

“Holly and Stacia didn’t fill you in?”

“Holly says she doesn’t know all that much yet, and Stacia’s been really busy, what with getting me shifted here and worrying about Declan.”

“Listen, we don’t get upset with honest questions, and we know you’re new to this life. Partly why I suggested we team up, so I could work on your knowledge base.”

“Holly says, that you read, ah, people’s minds,” he said, frowning.

“I have that ability. Vampires, or as we call ourselves, Darkkin, often have one or two enhanced gifts after being Turned. Mine is telepathy. But I don’t delve into people’s minds deeply unless it’s truly necessary. What I do get, though, is the surface thoughts that flit through everyone’s minds on a constant basis. I mostly tune those out. I’m also somewhat empathetic, so I almost always pick up emotions. Right now, you are curious and nervous, likely about saying the wrong thing. But I’m not reading your mind. Got enough going on in my own head.”

“And daylight?”

“Makes us sleepy. Direct sunlight will give us bad burns, but older vampires, who can force back the fatigue, can handle being awake. Very old vampires, like the Elders, can choose to ignore it, mostly, although Death Valley or the Sahara at noon is a little much even for them.”

“And you’re, ah, old enough to stay up?”

“I am not considered old, although I am far past vampire youth. Living with Tanya her whole life has forced me to adapt to odd hours, plus my bloodline is directly from one of the oldest vampires.”

“Stacia said Tanya is more like an old vampire than a young one?”

“Tanya was born vampire—the only vampire in our entire history to have done so. Regular Darkkin lore does not apply much to her. She is more like an Elder than a regular vampire in many ways, but without the mental baggage that comes with centuries of existence.”

“Elders are like how old?”

“Generally over nine hundred years. There are three Elders: Senka, Tzao, and the newest, Mausya. Senka and Tzao are the oldest, both well over a thousand years of age. Mausya is over nine hundred. Vampires grow more powerful with age. But ours is a dangerous and often violent world. Not many Darkkin get too far past their second and third centuries. Galina, Tanya’s mother, is almost three hundred.”

“And Lydia? Declan talks about her a lot.”

Nika laughed again. “Lydia is very, very special. She is not yet a hundred, yet she benefits from having the same very close blood connection to Senka that I do. We consider ourselves sisters, both to each other and to Tanya. I’m not surprised Declan mentions her a lot. They have a big sister-little brother thing going on.”

“Oh. I wasn’t sure, although now that you say that, it makes sense of a lot of things that he’s said.”

“Lydia is what you would call a wiseass, a pick, mixed with a snarky wit. I love her very much.”

“Declan’s kind of a wiseass too.”

“Absolutely, as is Chris. Hence why the three pick on each other, although it is mostly Chris and Declan versus Lydia. Completely unfair.”

“That they gang up on her?”

She laughed again. “No, she is more than their match even when they pool their wit. You may have to help them.”

“Not sure I want to paint myself as a target this early,” he said.

“Which proves you might be more wise than wiseass. Here comes the house; let’s speak of other things until we are far past it,” Nika said.

The residence in question was clearly in much poorer condition than the student apartment houses around it, not that any of them were in great shape either. Clearly, landlords in this section were not reinvesting any of their rental incomes back into their properties. But this one had garbage piled around the driveway side, mostly pizza boxes and take-out containers. A beat-up love seat with the front left leg broken off held center spot on the big covered front porch and a fairly new Subaru Impreza sat in the driveway, dirty and littered with dead leaves. The house was on the downhill side of the street, and therefore upwind, so a steady breeze fed them all of its scents.

Nika kept up a running diatribe about a fictitious boss at a fictitious job and the unfair demands that bitch had placed on her. She wound down as they moved past the house, falling quiet when they were at least fifty yards beyond the driveway. After another seventy yards or so, she very softly said, “What did you notice?”

“It smelled of rotten food, some feces, urine, and incense,” Devaney said. “Lots and lots of incense.”

“Think about the rotten food. Parse out the different smells,” she said.

“Hmm, old pizza, Chinese food, older Indian, possibly Tikka Masala. And decaying meat.”

“Hold that thought. What didn’t you see or smell?”

He thought for a second, came up with nothing and almost conceded. But he wanted to impress his new teammate, so he thought about the houses on either side of it. One was fairly neat, other than a few beer bottles on the front porch railing, and the other had its own overflowing garbage, but that had mainly smelled of old booze. Both houses had a strong smell of marijuana.

“No booze or drug smells?” he guessed.

“Yeah, odd in college housing, right? And if they were the straitlaced, uptight types, that house would have been much neater. And how many college apartments smell like an old butcher shop?” Nika asked.

Devaney replayed the scent in his mind, something that he found much easier to do since his infection by LV. Incense had been the strongest, but the underlying dead and rotting meat smell had been coming in second place.

“Omega?” Nika asked, which confused Devaney for a second, till he heard her phone speak back to her.

“Placing two observation drones on that property in the next five minutes. Chris found a potential candidate, as did Stacia and Holly. All three buildings are now under observation. Chris has contacted Detective Sergeant Schulz for a background profile on each property. I am already tabulating the available digitalized information from the department’s records, but the detective will query the patrol officers on the various reports for personal unrecorded observations.”

“Thank you. How’s Declan?”

“Father is with Mack, finishing an early dinner in one of the dining halls. He has yet to say anything to me directly, but based on his body language, conversation, and overall demeanor, he is concerned with something to do with Mack.”

“Explain please,” Nika said, frowning at Devaney as they both listened for a response.

“Father is watching Mack very closely. I gather that there was a libidinous assignation today with a female that Mack has become obsessed with. This, in and of itself, is not out of the norm for him, as he tends to be sexually promiscuous.”

“Yes, he’s a man slut,” Nika said, nodding. “What is tripping your Declan radar?”

“Father and Mack do not, as a rule, eat in the on-campus dining halls. They consistently choose the more specialized café options like the University Marchè. Mack also struck Father’s hand when Father exposed a bruised mark on Mack’s neck. This is out of character, as was the turnaround in his temper. The term mercurial seems to fit, and that is also unlike young Mr. Sutton.”

“Other than that, is everything okay?”

“Father is secure. I have multiple drones covering every access angle and there are several members of the Arcane Pack within fifteen meters of his position. He will be visiting one of his professors shortly. I will keep watch.”

“Excellent. Thank you, Omega.”

“You are very welcome, Nika.”

Devaney wore a thoughtful expression.

“What?” Nika asked. “You won’t learn any faster if you don’t ask.”

“The Omega calls Declan Father?”

“Because in a very real sense, he is. His magic was the reason Omega could emerge into existence, and he put his own life on the line to insure Omega’s existence. As you may have noticed, Omega is extremely protective of his only parent.”

“But he’s… I mean, it’s a computer?”

“And therefore without emotions, feelings, or anything but logic?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Omega is unlike any technology ever seen on this world. Born of both highly advanced computer hardware, cutting edge software, and one of the most sought-after tomes of magical knowledge on the planet, all brought together by arguably the strongest witch known to exist. Traditional computer science does not apply,” she said, turning the corner to take them down a side street several blocks from where the house was located.

“I’ve read a lot of online blogs that question whether Omega will turn on mankind,” he said.

“And yet he is doing everything possible to keep mankind from destroying itself as a species, as well as defend the planet from Hell, Fairie, and the Vorsook. All of his cutting-edge tech is directed at helping us help the planet.”

“You like it, don’t you?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

“Does it help that it’s not human and therefore you can’t read its mind?”

She jerked around, surprised. Then she turned back to looking ahead. “I’m guessing you were a pretty good cop,” was her only answer.

“Not bad. Not bad at all.”

Chapter 24

“Professor Lilt? Hi, I’m Declan from your Rural Society class. ”

“Ah, Mr. O’Carroll, of course. Dropping out of my class already, are we?”

“No, Professor. I wanted to discuss my paper with you,” Declan said, moving further into the crowded office. His short, frumpy professor wore a wrinkled brown dress that showed no signs of having being fitted or ever even in fashion. The office, itself, was rather neat and tidy, although it smelled rather odd. It took him a second to recognize the odor as mothballs. On second thought, that smell was coming from Professor Lilt. Again.

“And who is that out there, in the reception area?” Professor Lilt asked, frowning at the open doorway behind the tall young student.

“My friend Mack. He’s just gonna wait in the outer office.”

“I see,” she said, frowning even deeper now but turning her attention back to Declan.

“I was thinking of doing my research paper on the rural farming society and its relationship with the government,” he said.

“Which government?”

“Ah, the, a, Federal government?” he suggested.

“Which country?”

“I was thinking this one. Why? Should I look at one in Europe?”

“Well, farmers are under a lot of economic pressure these days, both here and abroad. And don’t confine your thoughts to just Europe. South and Central America, Africa, and Asia might all provide interesting fodder for your project,” she said, turning a copper bracelet on one wrist with her other hand.

“Well, I was thinking domestic, but you bring up an excellent point. Maybe a comparison to include the US and some other countries? What if I do some preliminary research and then send you an email with my final selections?” he said, his eyes drawn to the bracelet. It was, without a doubt, the most interesting fashion piece that she wore, intricately woven of copper wire in odd designs. The piece was pretty unisex and he was intrigued by it.

She noted his gaze and looked down at the jewelry piece. “You like this? My niece makes them. Selling them to raise money to support the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program. You know, help those people who have had to flee their home countries and relocate here.”

“Ah, how much?” he asked, thinking of his mother and aunt arriving in the United States over twenty years ago.

“Fifteen dollars. Every penny goes to the program. I pay for the material myself, as my own donation. I can sell you this one, as I have a dozen more at home,” she suggested, pulling off the bracelet. She held it out toward him and he started to reach for it.

Bang! Something fell in the outer office, making a hell of a commotion.

“Sorry! It was an accident,” Mack yelled from the other room. “Nothing is broken… I think.”

“Damn, professor, I’m sorry about that,” Declan said, pulling back and turning toward the door. “He’s not usually clumsy; exact opposite, in fact. Let me double-check out there,” he said, stepping out of the tiny office and missing the look of intense anger and frustration that flashed across his professor’s face.

“Everything okay out here?” he asked, finding Mack trying to put a framed picture back on the wall.

“Yeah. Damned if I know how I could have bumped into it. Bad luck, I guess,” Mack said.

Declan frowned at his friend’s words but didn’t move to help, as the picture looked unharmed and Mack seemed to be getting it back in its rightful place. Still frowning, he turned back to his professor and found her up from her desk and approaching him, bracelet held out like she was gonna put it on him herself or something.

“Um. I think I better get him back home. If you’re okay with my general idea, I’ll get you a more defined idea by email either tonight or tomorrow in class? And I’ll take a half dozen of those bracelets if you bring them to our next class.”

Mack muttered something that might have been a curse and Declan stepped over toward him, looking away just as his professor’s arm swung through the spot his left arm had just occupied.

When he looked back, he was surprised at how close she was but he figured she was worried about whatever damage clumsy Mack had done to the outer office. He moved out of her way, speeding up as she came sort of awkwardly through the door. Giving her an apologetic smile, he grabbed his buddy by the elbow and headed for the door to the hallway. “Dude, don’t wreck the place. I like this class,” he hissed in a sotto voice. “I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, Professor Lilt. Don’t forget the bracelets,” he said, pulling Mack out of the reception office and into the hall.

Outside the building, Declan studied his buddy, who was smiling and looking around the campus, most likely at girls. It almost appeared as if he had completely forgotten the whole picture frame incident in less than a minute.

“Dude, you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“You’re not yourself today.”

“What are you talking about? I’m fine… great, in fact.”

“That’s what she said, right?” Declan finished his buddy’s common phrase.

“What? Who?” Mack asked, brow furrowed.

“Your girl… Lilly?”

“Lilly? Yeah, she thinks I’m great,” he said matter-of-factly, his head swiveling to check out everything around them.

Some instinct made Declan look ahead of them, further downhill. A decidedly feminine figure walked toward them, her outline and movements instantly recognizable, at least to him.

“Oh, speaking of babes, there’s yours now,” Mack said.

“Yes, there she is,” Declan said in a wondering tone, eyes focused on the girl in question.

“And somehow she’s with you… the biggest dweeb I know,” Mack said with a grin.

“Yeah, but he’s my dweeb,” the beautiful platinum blonde said, still thirty feet away, her own eyes locked on the witch. Her gaze flickered to the pair of muscular students further uphill and her head might have given just the slightest of nods.

The pair nodded back and peeled off, crossing the street and heading more toward downtown than toward Arcane.

Declan stopped to give her a kiss and Mack turned away, putting his hands in his pockets, making a show of pretending to be uncomfortable by their public display.

Stacia sniffed her mate, a troubled look on her face. “Mothballs? Where have you been? A consignment shop?”

“His new professor is kinda a relic,” Mack said.

“Well, maybe she knows her stuff because she’s got experience. Learned it firsthand instead some young punk professor who just knows what he or she’s been taught in school. Although I have to say… her scent is off, even accounting for the buckets of mothballs that she must bathe in. Diseased or something. Learn from her quick, Witch boy, because she might not be long for this world,” Stacia said with a grimace of distaste, grabbing his hand and turning back downhill toward Arcane.

Chapter 25

The speed at which violence erupted was terrifying, most of the vampires being old and therefore exceptionally powerful.

Tanya brought up both hands in time to deflect a sword-wielding guard, ducking past him with a partial turn to jab the bladed fingers of one hand into the back of his skull as she went by. Plucking his modern katana blade from his suddenly limp hand, she continued on her path to get to her grandmother’s side.

Mausya and Tzao had both attacked Senka, the table in front of them exploding into splinters as they just moved right through it. Senka disappeared in a gust of air, appearing inverted overhead, her feet stuck to the eight-foot-high stone ceiling of the chamber. She stepped three fast paces across the stone before twisting and coming down behind Mausya. The youngest elder spun around so fast it made the air snap, just in time to block Senka’s fist, which rammed at her with the power and density of a jackhammer chisel. As the blow rocked the new Elder, Tzao ran up onto and around the sidewall to attack Senka from the side, but found Tanya there, her borrowed sword dripping blood from the two guards unlucky enough to get between her and her grandparent.

As she stepped forward to engage Tzao, Tanya could feel the others behind her. Some part of her knew that Galina and Lydia were back to back, Lydia fighting a blade-wielding guard with two of their table’s four legs, escrima style, while Galina fought hand to hand with Sun. Across the chamber, the other Patrons had fallen back against the wall, staying out of the general melee, not picking a side—yet.

Tiny Tzao was old, fast, and ferocious, even if she was only the size of Lydia. Tanya had sparred with her when she was younger, still a teen. At that time, the Elder had been beyond her in skill and power. But much had changed in the last decade, at least for Tanya.

Despite her empty hands, the Chinese vampire didn’t hesitate, attacking Tanya and her blade with blurring kicks and open strikes of razor-clawed hands. Her long, ornate fingernails must have had steel bonded underneath them, as they left scratches on the hardened sword.

Tzao’s kicks hit like a speeding truck as she fought with the ancient combat arts of her homeland, her style possibly so old that Tanya wasn’t actually able recognize all of her moves. Her legs swept out in spinning arcs almost too fast for Tanya to see, her arms pinwheeling away punches, kicks, and sword strikes while returning an equal number of counterattacks.

But it was the Elder who was perhaps the most surprised. It was one thing to face a fifteen-year-old girl, no matter how great a prodigy she was, but entirely something else to trade blows with the same fighter at twenty-five. Tanya hit back just as hard, and her blade had scored a half dozen times, slashing Tzao’s ceremonial silks deep enough to split the tough vampire skin underneath.

The battle occupied every available surface, as the vampires drew on their unique abilities to manipulate energy to Cling, Move, Pull, and Push at their opponents, using the unique combat art form that Tanya’s husband called Vampire Fu. For every physical attack, there was an invisible one wielded with arcane energies as they spun, flipped, twisted, and twirled through the confines of the rock-hewn chamber.

Interspaced around and throughout her own fight was her grandmother’s battle with Mausya.

Senka fought with a blend of arts from all over the world, shifting effortlessly from karate to savate to capoeira to aikido to kung fu. Tanya only caught glimpses of their battle, as her own occupied most of her attention; yet being aware of everything around her was vital.

Mausya fought back with spare economy, her motions the fast grappling strikes and throws of sambo, but applied with the surgical precision of someone who could sort through probable outcomes and go for the highest percentage attacks. Senka’s jarring, rapid-fire shift through fighting styles was designed to avoid giving her opponent any time at all to process the fight. And as the fight progressed, she actually sped up, changing her attacks and blocks in a blur of almost random violence.

She was faster than Mausya, and her mastery of her opponent’s own martial art, as well as a dizzying array of others, was beginning to really press the Russian elder. Finally, after receiving a truly brutal flurry of explosive fist and elbow strikes, Mausya leapt backward to create distance and time, both of which favored her talent.

She studied her opponent with a calculating eye and then shot forward to attack, seemingly confident in predicting her opponent’s responses. Instead, Senka shouted a word in Hungarian and used her awesome power to Pull herself sideways, away from Mausya and directly at Tzao.

Tanya, hearing the word, which translated as switch, instantly dropped her attack on Tzao and shot toward Mausya in a blur, her blade slashing.

None of the Russian Elder’s probability calculations had included the knowledge that Senka had been recently sparring against and with her granddaughter, grandson-in-law, their vampire Chief of Security, and her own personal bodyguard, the giant Ondrej. Three-on-two, four-on-one, and even grand melee style—every vampire for themselves. Coordinated fighting and trading opponents in mid-fight had become a standard tactic, with the exception of when four of them fought Chris, or rather, Grim, at once.

Mausya had a micro moment of surprise, the tiniest slip of attention, and the result was the razor-sharp steel sword blade slicing through her right elbow, severing the entire forearm and hand. Dark blood spurted in two long gouts before her virus-rich body shut off the arteries and sealed the wound. Mausya paused for a half a second, re-evaluating the new probable outcomes of this wound, and then shot backward to kneel against the wall, her head bowed to the floor, her arms, both the whole one and the half, held over her head.

That left Tzao faced off against both Senka and Tanya. The Chinese vampire made her own calculations and then backed up, hands moving out to her sides, palms open and facing the other two.

With the cessation of battle among the Elders, silence descended upon the chamber. All of the guards were dead, as was Sun, who had been almost more than a match for both Galina and Lydia, but not Lison, who had decided to enter the fight on Senka’s side. Gault, Atta, and Tan were still against a far wall, watching the outcome.

“Check outside, Lydia,” Senka ordered as she and Tanya kept eyes on Tzao.

The tiny vampire shot across the room to the door, then leaned against it to listen before yanking it open. She looked out then pulled back in, leaving the door open behind her.

“Ondrej and Arkady are at a standstill with Hosokawa,” she reported. “It appears that your Guardians, with Omega’s assistance, have subdued the rest of their forces,” she said with a nod toward the kneeling Mausya and the quietly watchful Tzao. Motion in the doorway revealed a half-dozen orb-shaped hovering drones gliding into the Chamber.

“Paris is secure. Most of the Darkkin in the city refrained from conflict.”

“Did this wave of new tech drones have anything to do with that decision?” Tanya asked.

“Hostilities faded rather quickly after my newest designs demonstrated their capabilities.”

“As we mentioned, here is some of the information that none of you had when making your calculations,” Senka said, waving a hand at the hovering mini-drones. “We recovered an intact Vorsook combat craft in the American Midwest, and Omega has been reverse engineering its technologies. This is what is called a game changer.”

“So they are spherical instead of flat. So what?” Gault asked from his neutral position.

“Do you see or hear rotors or drive fans anywhere on them?” Tanya asked.

Every vampire in the room focused their superhuman senses on the six floating orbs of shiny metal. The drones were absolutely silent.

“How?” Atta asked.

“Without delving into the esoterica of quantum physics and general relativity theory, it will perhaps be sufficient to say that the Vorsook have mastered propulsive technologies that, for lack of a better term, might be called anti-gravitational, although that is at its core incorrect. Combined with vastly improved energy storage devices and multiple new weapon types, these drones are each more powerful than a US Air Force Reaper Drone.”

“Seems like a rather outsized claim,” Gault said.

One of the drones shot across the room to hover without any motion over the dead body of a guard. There was a short, intense hum sound and the entire head and torso of the dead vampire disappeared in a wave of heat and ash. The beam or pulse or whatever had destroyed the body was completely invisible, even to the wide spectrum sensitivity of vampire eyes.

Tanya, who was watching both Tzao and the now upright kneeling Mausya, saw the moment when realization struck both Elders.

“What would a larger version be capable of?” Tan asked.

“The first version of such a craft, which is ten times larger, is nearing completion as we speak. As you surmise, it will be capable of much greater destructive abilities, in addition to being fully capable of traversing large areas of space beyond the atmospheric envelope of Earth.”

“What are you going to do with that one? Take over the world?” Atta asked.

“The phrase take over the world is generally used to imply achieving a general dictatorial control over all of this planet’s human governments at one time. Use of a weapon system to achieve such a goal is counterproductive to maintaining existing efficient economies and societal systems. It is much more advantageous to exert influence over the information and administrative systems of each country’s governments all at once.”

There was silence as the vampires processed the computer’s words.

“In other words, if you are having difficulty translating… he’s already taken over the world,” Lydia said.

“In a manner of speaking. To answer the original question, the new full-sized drone is already tasked with an important protection mission in the northeastern United States.”

“Easy guess on who that one’s protecting,” Lydia said with a nod to Tanya. They didn’t explain that to the rest of the vampires, most of who were watching and listening warily.

“So you have technology available multiple levels beyond current human standard?” Tzao asked.

“Yes. How does that effect your calculations, dearest Mausya?” Senka asked.

Rising slowly to her feet, the vampire let go of the stump of her arm, the nub at the end completely healed over with pale white flesh. Head tilted to one side, she considered.

“Our odds of survival rise to over fifty percent. Fifty-three or maybe fifty-four,” she finally said. “I don’t know enough about the enemy or this new technology.”

“You are in the correct ballpark, Elder Mausya. My own calculations bring the number to fifty-six. That is based on direct knowledge that I have of the enemy’s doctrines, philosophy, capabilities, and general appetite for conquest. They seek to expand and absorb, but despite their overwhelming resources, they are surprisingly frugal with what they are willing to spend in terms of those resources to obtain a new world. Witness the planet of Fairie holding them at bay for centuries. Also, they play a long game, time being generally on their side.”

“What about Fairie itself?” Tzao asked.

Senka turned and looked to Tanya.

“Fairie has been fighting off the Vorsook for ages, and the Queens have chosen to exhaust many of their best weapons. Now they are attempting to claim the last region of their world that still harbors potent elementals, to use against the Vorsook and against each other. But that region is out of their control. Hence their interest in Declan,” Tanya explained.

“How desperate are they?” Atta asked.

“Enough that we think the Summer Queen has made an agreement with agents of Hell. She gets the witch kid and Hell gets access to Earth,” Lydia answered.

“What are you doing to stop that?”

“Why do you think Tanya’s Chosen is absent instead of vaporizing all of you old relics with a wave of his hand? Where do you think Tanya would be right now if we hadn’t had to lance this boil of opposition?” Senka asked.

“Why not reveal this information earlier and reassure the Coven?” Lison asked.

“Because to continue with my analogy, sometimes you have to bring the boil to a head before you can effectively lance it, not that any of us remember having a boil. This upwelling of distrust within the Coven came from somewhere, but we didn’t know where. Now we understand that the seeds were planted by agents of Fairie, and we are plucking those weeds from the ground as we all stand here in this dank chamber so far underground. Perhaps next time we can hold court in something a bit more refined and maybe five stars in comfort?” Senka said.

“Next time?” Gault asked.

“As everyone is still living, with the exception of Sun and the unfortunate guards, I see no reason to eradicate the upper tier of the Coven and go through the tedious exercise of replacing you all. I am hopeful that you all begin to understand what is at stake. Whether we brought the Vorsook’s attention to ourselves as well as Fairie, or whether Fairie deflected it toward us does not matter. What matters is that we stand at a major confluence of events, a singularity if you will. How fantastic are the odds that we would develop a sentient computer of such power that it rivals the enemy’s? The odds that a male witch would be born with the power of an entire circle of witches? That the appointed warrior of God in this age would be tied to our species and that a full-blooded vampire would be born of our species, all just at this point in time?” Senka asked. She turned to Mausya with one brow raised.

The other Elder shrugged, completely unselfconscious of her unbalanced arms. “Astronomic. I cannot begin to calculate them.”

“Exactly. The odds are incalculable. Yet they happened. Just in time. Divine intervention? Outside interference by God, gods, or beings of such power as to be indistinguishable from deities in our eyes? Does it matter, in the end? What’s important is that we have perhaps a better-than-even chance of surviving our enemies. You talk of Darkkin who long for power over their food, who wish to be worshiped by the humans. Bah! Weakness, I say. Where are the vampires who fight for supremacy? Who take on the battle, with even odds of success, maybe better than even odds? It is true that we have become used to hiding in the shadows, to preying on our fellow inhabitants of this world, focused within our little pocket of space and time. It is time to step out of our comfort zone, to expand our abilities, to push the boundaries of the human condition. And yes, I said human. Dr. Singh tells me that the changes to our DNA that give us our abilities amount to less than a one-half of one percent difference with the standard human DNA we were all born with, Tanya excluded, of course. We are humans pushed to higher levels of ability, as are the two-natured weres and the magically inclined witches. Perhaps, dear Darkkin, we weren’t created for conflict and strife among ourselves and the other subspecies of Homo Sapiens, but for specific roles in defending the overall species from other, alien lifeforms that seek to eradicate humans in all forms.”

Senka fell silent, watching the others, who in turn watched her in various states of shock, concern, or in a few cases, sudden, painful, illumination. Mausya’s mouth hung open, just a bit, as she no doubt ran new calculations of outcomes and probabilities. Tzao stood stock still, head tilted just ever so slightly, processing in her own way.

Among the Patrons, Gault looked thoughtful, Tan nodding very minutely, Lison’s eyes gleaming, and Atta’s eyes darting around the room, taking stock of everyone else’s reaction.

“So, there it is. What would each of you do? Elders? Patrons? Where do you stand? And remember, the truth spells are still active, which should assure you of the truth of my words, and assure me of the validity of yours.”

“I am with you,” Lison said without hesitation.

“You have argued a most compelling case,” Gault said, rubbing his chin and glancing at Lison. “I have had more than my share of doubts, but seeing the outside manipulation and seeing what we have on our side, I will pledge myself to the cause.”

“I too find that this information alters my views. I pledge as well,” Tan said, carefully not looking at Tzao.

“You took insane chances with this tribunal. This fight could have gone badly for you any number of ways and times,” Mausya said.

“Perhaps. Maybe not as insane as they appear from your point of view. Omega’s drones were a major asset on our side. They could have fought through at any point if needed,” Senka said.

“Only if alerted to disaster. This chamber was sealed against technology,” Gault said, eyebrows raised.

“Sealed by magic against modern science. But was it sealed against the bonds of Chosen? Had Tanya fallen or felt imperiled, do you not think her Chosen would have felt something, even on the other side of the planet? With a word, he could have alerted the computer, who is virtually everywhere on this globe at once.”

Tanya glanced at Lydia, who was tapping the side of her own neck, right on a small tattoo, one of four that encircled her throat. Tanya had the same ones, as did Chris, Arkady, Stacia, Nika, and Declan. She nodded at her friend, agreeing that the team tattoos might also have been used to reach out, although it seemed too great a distance.

Senka glanced their way, eyes momentarily thoughtful before she continued.

“Regardless. Trust me when I say it wasn’t as great a risk as you might deem it. What of you, my sisters?”

Tzao looked thoughtful. She nodded slowly. “You, have in fact, answered the charges of this tribunal. I will stand with you.”

“Will you attack, hinder, or seek to undermine me?”

“Only if you falter in your responsibilities to this Coven,” Tzao answered. After a long glance between the two oldest vampires, Senka turned to Mausya.

“Well?”

“I will pledge myself to this cause,” the Russian vampire said.

“And to me? Or will your ambitions overwhelm your instinct for survival?”

“I will pledge myself to you as well. The path is clearly more favorable for us with you in charge,” Mausya said.

“Too bad it wasn’t so clear before,” Senka noted with a pointed look at the younger Elder’s stump.

“I lacked vital data. Now I have it. This will grow back, eventually,” Mausya said, moving the remains of her arm without visible pain.

“So what now?” Gault asked.

“Now, I get back to America, hopefully in time to help destroy the demon my Chosen is facing,” Tanya said.

“Correction, Sweet Blood. Now we head back. I would not miss seeing a demon incarnate in person for anything,” Senka said.

Chapter 26

“Hello? Mr. Gordon?”

“It’s Chris, Detective Schulz.”

“Ah, Chris. Listen. I’ve been interviewing the patrol officers who responded to calls on the various houses,” Schulz said, voice tinny on the phone.

“Anything pop out at you?

“Well, not a lot, but something else came up during a conversation with one of the officers. Officer LeBlanc was noting that one of the houses, up in the northern part of Burlington, was actually kind of mess three months ago, but then the calls and complaints stopped coming about two weeks ago. The thing he said that concerned me was that it was good timing because he got really busy about then with a missing persons report.”

“Missing person? You see a connection?”

“Yeah, I kind of do. A Dr. Paul Cavanaugh disappeared from his home in Winooski two weeks ago and there has been no trace of him since. No credit card use, no banking access, cell phone usage, and certainly no GPS hits on his phone. Thing is, he was a professor at UVM. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He taught some of those Community Development, Applied Economics courses that your guy, Declan, takes.”

Chris went from interested to laser-focused in a split second. “Omega?”

“Father has been auditing a class that was supposed to be taught by Dr. Cavanaugh. He likes it a great deal. Teaching assistants covered for the first week and then the university hired a substitute professor, a Dr. Deva Lilt. I am currently researching her backstory but I am already finding enough discrepancies to raise concern.”

“Ah, the computer is on the call too?” Schulz asked.

“I am on all calls,” Omega replied.

“Where is your father now?” Chris asked, ignoring the side conversation.

“He is heading for the class in question. I have already alerted him and he is now joining us on this call.”

“Chris? You on?”

“Hey Declan. Detective Schulz is on with us too.”

“Thank you for finding this, Detective. I was on my way into class. I never would have suspected Professor Lilt. She’s really interesting,” the young witch said.

“If she’s the demon sent to nab you, then she’s had millennium to learn fascinating stuff. And most demons are extremely seductive in one form or another,” Chris said.

“So what do you want me to do? Abort?”

“No, let’s see if we can get eyes on her and track her back to her lair. I don’t want to start a war on a college campus. If we can isolate her in one home and evacuate the neighborhood, maybe we can attempt to minimize the damage.”

“Yeah, especially as the Waterman building also houses the president’s office and other administration,” Declan said in a wry tone.

Fifteen minutes later, two black SUVs cruised up Colchester Avenue, the first turning onto South Williams Street, the second continuing on to turn at the corner of South Prospect.

Meanwhile, the first car pulled into a restricted, faculty-only parking lot, curving around to park in a slot that looked toward the Waterman Building. Inside the car, Stacia reached for the front passenger seat door but stopped when Chris, who was driving, touched her other arm.

“Hold on. He’s right there, fully visible,” he said, pointing to a tall, familiar form walking up College Street with an even bigger form walking along side him. Just then the second SUV just turned onto College Street from the opposite direction.

“He’s got Justin right there with him, Omega has enough drones above and around him to level the city, and we’re less than two hundred yards away. We can cover that distance in a second. Nika, Holly, and Devaney just about ran him over pulling into that lot across from Waterman, so they’re even closer. Let’s just observe for a moment before we de-ass from the vehicle. He may be already under her observation and we don’t want to force her to panic.”

“Correction—what we don’t want is for her to grab my witch,” Stacia said, frowning but relaxing her hand on the door handle. Chris noticed that she didn’t remove it entirely, though. He was pretty sure she’d just tear it out of her way if anything threatened her mate.

Across the open lot of parked cars, Declan continued strolling along College Street, which ran alongside the Waterman Administration building, apparently without any worries in the world.

“You don’t need to be with me, Justin,” he said, his tone a bit tighter than one would expect from his relaxed body language.

The big kid next to him just grunted. Or maybe it was a full-on chuff. Like a bear might make.

They were now approaching the side of Waterman, which in addition to various administration offices also provided an assortment of classrooms and lecture halls, as well as the biggest computer lab on the campus.

This was the building where both Arcane students were ostensibly headed. Declan grabbed the College Street entrance door and Justin pushed past him to enter first. With a frown, Declan followed.

Stacia was out of the car as soon as the pair of students had disappeared around the corner of the big building, moving before Chris could more than blink. He hit the back tailgate control, then stepped out of the driver’s door. The huge wolf that flowed out of the rear of the SUV bounded exactly twice, putting him alongside the blonde, who never even looked around. Chris was forced to speed up in order to catch the other two.

“Subtle,” he said.

“Like she doesn’t already know he’s usually surrounded,” Stacia growled. “You don’t want her to panic. I want her to run away.”

“An individual matching the body type and general appearance of Professor Lilt is leaving a newer model Subaru Impreza approximately one hundred thirty-two yards ahead of you, parked directly behind the administration building. Veer left behind those trees now,” Omega instructed.

Instantly, all three turned right, moving behind a strategically placed set of maple trees occupying green space between car lots. They slowed and peered through gaps in the crimson and orange foliage. Ahead of them, a gray head moved slowly toward the rear of Waterman, a thick leather portfolio clutched under the woman’s left arm.

A few moments later, she stiffly entered the building, the heavy door closing behind her.

“That was an incarnate demon?” Stacia asked, eyes wide.

“It’s a deadly disguise. Add in a first-hand knowledge of human nature and you have an interesting way to get close to an intelligent young student.”

“I was expecting some super babe. That’s somehow worse than I thought,” she said, stepping out from behind the trees and moving purposefully toward the building.

Inside the Waterman Building, Declan said goodbye to Justin, who didn’t seem ready to go into his own classroom quite yet. The young witch, however, felt a need to get into the room and confront his own demon—literally.

The room was two-thirds full and still filling up, but there was no professor yet as he circled along the side wall and then across the back, pausing periodically, setting down his bag as if to take a seat. Then, perhaps changing his mind, he moved on, doing this three times before he ended up in the back, where he had been last class.

“Hey Declan,” Alli greeted him. He froze, studying her so intently that she drew back and asked, “What? What’s the matter?”

“You need to get out of here,” he whispered, leaning down close so the people around them couldn’t hear.

“What? Why?”

He shook his head. “Just get your stuff and leave—now.”

“I can’t just leave… I need this…” she trailed off as something like a lightbulb went off in her awareness, as if she was remembering what he was. “Oh,” she said, freezing in place. Then she started to gather her things, an anxious sort of look in her eyes. A sudden commotion down front turned Declan’s head in time to see Professor Lilt walk in, her eyes roving the room until they found him, a smile forming on her face.

“Too late,” he said. He pulled his messenger bag off the desk, opened the top, and pulled out a silvery orb, which he set on the seat between them. “Stay back here, no matter what happens. Stay behind this orb. It will protect you,” he whispered, pulling out his own chair and sitting down to take stock of the room.

The same two girls from the first class were in front of him, and Kid No-game was on his right again. Down front, Dr. Lilt had closed the door and turned slowly to look over the class, again settling her gaze on him.

“Today’s class will be different—historic, even,” she said, smiling a tight, unpleasant little smile.

She turned and picked up a piece of white chalk from the wooden tray attached to the front of the vintage chalkboard that was as old as classrooms themselves.

She wrote two words on the board with a plus sign between them: Demons + Witches.

Down front, a hand went up. “Professor Lilt? Is this a joke?”

“No young man, not at all. This is me, the professor, teaching you all, the class, historical perspective,” she said, giving the unfortunate kid a really cold stare. “You are aware, are you not, that demons and witches are real? Or are you a complete moron?”

The kid’s face went bright red. “Ah, I’ve, I’ve seen the videos,” he stammered, looking at his classmates. A few looked as confused as he was, but most just stared straight ahead without reacting. Declan started to get a real bad feeling.

“Well, good for you,” Lilt said, tone biting. “Although I’ve stopped being surprised by any level of human idiocy. Now, where was I? Oh yeah. Demons and witches. Historical partners in crime, so to speak.”

“Ah, Doc Lilt, I gotta disagree,” Declan said loudly.

“Oh, do you now? Ladies and gentlemen, our resident witch is speaking up, giving us the vast wisdom of his long, long years,” Lilt said, tone sarcastic. Most of the class still stared straight ahead, but a few were watching him and her with wide eyes, heads swiveling back and forth.

“Well, I don’t disagree that some witches formed alliances with demons, just that it wasn’t all of them,” Declan said, his tone reasonable and light.

“Oh—the so-called good witches,” Lilt said. “Losers. Weak losers.”

“Weak? Some of the most powerful witches ever to live kept their distance from demons,” he replied. “Or in some cases, kept control of a demon or two.”

“Oh? That what your mommy taught you?” she said snidely. The confused kids now looked almost sick, but again, most of the class stayed frozen.

“Sure, among other sources,” he said easily, not rising to her taunt.

She raised her eyebrows. “Sources, O’Carroll? You’ve got sources?”

“Yeah, the Book of Darkest Sorrow had whole chapters devoted to the stuff, Professor Lilt… or is it Lilith?” he asked.

“Oh, class, look how smart he is. He’s read a book, maybe two. Learned some kid stories from his mommy. And good guess, O’Carroll. Spot on, although I only gave you the biggest hint possible.”

One of the confused kids, the one who had spoken up first, shoved his computer in his bag and started to stand up, obviously ready to get the hell out.

“Sit down!” she said, voice firm but not overly loud.

The kid kept packing, his hands shaking, until the student next to him and the one behind him grabbed his arms and shoulders and shoved him forcefully back into his chair. Declan noticed that both of them had copper bracelets on their left wrists.

“Move again, kid, and I’ll rip your arms out and write on the walls with them,” Lilith said. “But at least now, I can drop this ugly form.” She shook her hair and it blackened to a glossy wave, even as her body straightened and grew several inches taller. Her face became younger, beautiful and exotic, as her figure changed and filled out, the baggy dress getting shorter as her legs grew and her bust filled out the front.

“Ah, that’s better. The old crone look is tedious. Useful but so, so boring. Better to take my rightful form,” she said, smiling, eyes still locked on Declan.

“Fake form. Maybe your first mimic of a human, way back when Mesopotamia was young, but still fake,” Declan said.

Her smile disappeared. “My true form is accounted beautiful too. More than your tiny brain could handle, baby witch.”

“Whatever,” he said, waving away her words. “Listen, I can see you’ve been busy handing out your little mind control bracelets and all, but you can’t think that’s going to make much of a difference, can you?”

“Depends. How much damage are you willing to do to your classmates?” Lilith said. As if on cue, most of the class turned in their seats and stared at him with cold, hard eyes.

“Creepy,” he said with a theatrical shudder. “Perhaps they should catch up on their sleep?” He waved a hand at the girls in front of him, both sporting bracelets and killer stares. Nothing happened. He frowned.

“Give a kid a little power and he thinks he’s invincible. You don’t think I could build my creations with enough demonic magic to counter witch magic? Let me clue you in, kid. In this form, on this plane, my innate ability is more dominant than yours. Your magic won’t work on them directly. Of course, you could fling a desk or drop a ceiling on them. Not very good witch of you though.”

Declan was frowning now, reaching into his shirt to pull out a set of necklaces.

“Oh is that one your little anti-demon one? The little bear? How cute,” she said, moving from the front of the room toward him.

He had three necklaces on; one a soapstone carving of a bear, another a small glass orb filled with smoke and wrapped in odd-colored leather, and the last, which was the one he was now holding. That one was a chunk of stone, dark granite maybe, with equally dark quartz crystals embedded in it. The stone was wrapped in what looked like rusted wire with what looked like a few dull barbs on it, like it was pulled from an old farm fence.

He waved his right hand again and this time, every kid with a bracelet suddenly slumped down in their chairs, still staring, but almost as if the weight of the world was on them.

“Get up,” Lilith commanded the girls right in front of Declan. They struggled but couldn’t move. Arms twitched but legs and asses stayed glued to the floor and chair seats.

The demoness frowned. The witch smiled.

“You should leave,” he said simply.

She raised an eyebrow, still puzzled by whatever he had done to her mind-controlled minions, but not really too worried.

Still holding the lump of granite in his right hand, he now clutched the glass orb in his left. “It’s like rock, paper, scissors. Incarnate demon beats witch, but elemental magic beats demon.” He shoved his left hand forward, just a few inches and still holding the glass.

A burst of air picked up Lilith and threw her backward into the chalkboard and partially through it. She stared at him, shocked and angry, still stuck in the wall, then anger won out and she burst free from the remains of the blackboard, landing on two feet.

He moved his granite-filled right hand an inch to the right and the floor became liquid under her feet, dropping her a foot and a half into the concrete before it hardened back up. At the same time, silver orbs rose up, six of them, along the side and back walls of the room, including the one in front of his old high school friend Alli, who was watching, wide-eyed and pale.

“Didn’t anyone tell you I have a way with elementals?”

“Your elementals on Fairie have no power here,” she spat back at him, yanking her legs.

“Of course not. But my Earth native elementals are more than happy to lend me their powers.

“Enough!” she yelled. Then her unearthly beauty dropped away as her body transformed a second time. And she was right—it was almost more than his mind could handle.

Chapter 27

Stacia pushed through the doors into the main floor of Waterman, shoving past a duo of college boys who almost fell over themselves getting a look at her. She frowned, uncertain where his classroom was, but just as Omega told her “Downstairs” through her cell phone, Justin spoke from the stairwell doorway. “He’s down here. Come on,” he said, turning and bounding down the stairs.

Chris heard Justin, despite not catching actual sight of the werebear, as he and ‘Sos came in behind Stacia. All three rushed the stairs, ignoring the stares they were getting from the few people in the halls.

Coming out on the lowest level, they found Justin standing outside a closed door, facing them with a finger over his lips for quiet. They ghosted over to him, almost completely silent.

Justin pulled out a pad of paper from his bookbag and wrote quickly, then held up the pad for them to read.

-He is confronting her. I think he is winning at the moment but now she sounds different.

Chris and Stacia looked at each other, then back to the werebear. “Different how?” Chris mouthed without sound.

The wall next to them exploded out into the hallway, a gigantic blue-gray-scaled figure flying across the entire space to slam into the far wall. Roaring, the demoness stood up, slamming down two giant feet that seemed to have been encased in concrete. Silver orbs flew out of the opening in the wall, some spitting rapid fire projectiles with a steady ripping sound, some firing bolts of sharp blue light. Dark slate-colored scales bubbled and smoked under the impact of the tiny bullets or outright vaporized under the beams of light and the demon roared again, this time in pain, before she turned to see Chris and Stacia, as well as big Justin and the gigantic form of Awasos in Kodiak form.

Lilith towered seven feet tall in her true form, with scaly blue skin, little horns protruding from her head, and a shock of black hair that moved and twisted on its own as if she were floating under water. She crouched for a split second, thigh muscles like coiled cables, then jumped almost straight up, punching her whole body through to the floor above. The orbs shot up after her and a split-second later, Chris jumped after them, followed by Justin and then ‘Sos, who transformed into a wolf long enough to leap after the others.

Stacia instantly ran into the classroom, finding her mate and a female student pulling bracelets off the rest of the class.

“Hey, I’m fine. Pull these things off and throw them in that pile we’re making,” Declan said. “Bitch had some kind of mind control going on.”

Stacia studied him for a second, noting that he wore a leather bracelet of his own that she’d never seen before, but it was nothing like the copper ones on the floor. She turned to the other girl, who was yanking bracelets and throwing them as fast as she could. “Oh hey. You’re Declan’s girlfriend. I’m Alli. We went to high school together,” she said, brushing back really long brown hair. She was pale with shock, her dark brown eyes looking slightly frantic, but otherwise she was holding it together.

With a shrug, Stacia started to pull the copper bands from the kids in the front of the class, pausing after a moment to take in the damage to the classroom. It was all in the front, a torn-up section of the cement floor and the gaping hole in the wall that she now saw had once been the chalkboard.

“Your trick worked alright then?” she asked, tossing another two bracelets into the growing heap in the middle of the room.

“Yeah. Witch spells not so much, but the power I borrowed from Robbie and Draco with these amulets did just fine,” her witch said, pulling the last bracelet from a nerdy-looking kid in the back. Throwing it into the pile on the floor, Declan clutched one of his necklaces and the whole pile of tainted metal bands sank into what had been solid concrete a second before. The floor reformed itself, smooth and a few shades lighter than it had been, but looking just as hard as the rest.

“If this lot is secure, then come on. We gotta get out of here,” Stacia said.

“The demoness has disappeared into the Davis Student Center. She has now likely changed shape while we were in pursuit and we haven’t reacquired her yet,” Omega reported through Stacia’s phone.

“She could look like any student in there,” Declan said as Stacia grabbed his hand and pulled him out the doorway.

Chapter 28

Lilith crossed the campus in a flat-out burst of speed, running uphill toward the largest concentration of students on campus, the Davis Student Center. She wove through the shadows of the autumn dusk, her dark giant form only visible as a blur. Anger and rage did little justice to describing her mood. No one had told her this juvenile witch had access and skill with elemental magic. It had been implied that he was important to the Summer Queen for something to do with Fairie, but while it had been divulged that he could access the same powers that the sister Queens had drawn on for millennia to power their battles and keep enemies from their world, it was outright implied that he could only do that on Fairie, and then only in his own territory. But it had never been disclosed to any agents of Hell that he could do the same on Earth.

And then there was the residual pain from the projectiles and beams of those hateful machines. The bullets must have been imbued with some Holy essence to hurt that much.

But the kid was the real problem. No Earth-grown witch had dared mess around with Earth’s elementals in well over five hundred years, if not longer. That he could wield such magic and with not one, but two forms of elementalism, Earth and Air, was a massively unwelcome surprise. Choosing to confront him in the classroom, now, when his associates were closing in on her, had been a finely calculated risk, one she’d been comfortable with before this came to light. Knowing there was even the slightest chance of elemental interference would have taken a war hammer to those equations. And the fact that he could access elemental power through artifacts was outright unheard of.

Now her plan was in shambles and she was on the run. But Lilith, Duchess of Hell, had been planning and executing contingencies for eons of existence. It was time to go to the backup. But first she had to disappear.

She slowed her headlong rush, sliding deeper into shadows long enough to pull the necklace over her head. The expended 30mm depleted uranium projectile, strung on a chain, had served its purpose but it inhibited her ability to cloak herself from human eyes. She dropped it behind a cedar bush, then strode out into the glare of the campus streetlights. Clusters, pairs, and individual students didn’t so much as give her a glance.

Two young students walking by caught her eye. They had a freshman look about them, one a rather plain brunette and the other a pretty little blonde with a very naïve, innocent look about her. The kind of first-year student that brought the upper class predatory boys out in droves. Moving behind the same bush where she had dropped the DU amulet, she hid most of herself while reaching one long arm out, her taloned hand dipping down toward the approaching blonde. The razor tips of her fingers folded back till just the index finger talon was poised over the girl’s exposed neck as she walked by.

Lightning fast, she pricked the girl’s skin, pulling her arm back too fast for merely human eyes to see, as the contact disrupted her cloaking.

“Ow!” the blonde said, rubbing her needled neck. “Something just effing bit me,” she said to her friend, looking around for the offending insect.

With no bug in sight, the girls continued down the path as a new transformation took place behind the bush. Fifteen seconds later, an exact duplicate of the little blonde girl stepped out onto the path, this version entirely naked and guaranteed to gain male attention, except not a single eye looked her way. With a quick look around for those dreadful silver flying machine balls or a pesky fallen angel, she darted inside the student center. Eyes slid right over her nude form and she carefully but quickly made her way up the stairs and into the college bookstore on the third floor. There she helped herself to a pair of form-fitting green sweatpants and a matching green sweatshirt with the university’s logo on both of them. The only footgear available was several varieties of flip-flops in green and yellow. Not the best choice for chilly autumn but then, college kids were known for odd clothing choices and it was still just fall. As she stepped out of the store, she dropped her demonic cloaking, a pair of boys suddenly swerving to avoid the girl they hadn’t seen a moment ago.

A commotion on the first floor, in the big, open atrium, had students looking over the stair railing, moving in clumps and crowding the edge. On the ground floor, a muscular young white guy followed closely by a big black kid and a huge wolf were moving through the clumps of students, looking everywhere as they moved. Apparently, the guy was famous, at least by the reaction of the students down there, as he was obviously being recognized. The excitement and details flowed from student to student, right up the stairs, arriving at the kids around Lilith in seconds. “That’s Chris Gordon!” “No way!” “The God Hammer himself!”

Phones came out, videos recorded, and all useful activity ground to an immediate halt. Lilith stayed right where she was, watching alongside every other student as the famous demon hunter was almost swarmed with admirers. She smiled, mostly to herself. Even fallen angels make tactical errors, she thought. The kid next to her tucked his phone into the pocket of his hoodie, scrambling in his book bag for another device. With moves that would arouse envy in a professional pickpocket, Lilith helped herself to the phone, which was still unlocked. Quickly, she tapped in a memorized number, texted the single word “Go,” and then looked back down at her hunters. They were swamped with excited young students.

After a second thought, she typed a new number into the phone and texted “Meet me,” followed by an address for a restaurant on the big downtown strolling shopping venue, Church Street. The kid whose phone she had appropriated was now using an iPad to video the famous celebrity below. He never saw or felt her tuck the phone back in his pocket. A second later, a primitive portion of his brain reminded him that a cute girl was standing next to him, but when he turned to attempt to chat with her about the celebrity sighting, she was gone.

Chapter 29

Back down the hill, in the smelly house previously scouted by Nika and Devaney, one of Lilith’s Helbourne demons was reading the screen of a phone that didn’t originally belong to it. It threw it down and turned to its remaining companion. “We are go,” it said, pointing at a supine male body lying on the dingy apartment couch.

The other Helbourne turned to the jar of black, sulfurous, bilious crud that earlier had been their third companion. It picked up the jar, twisted off the lid, and turned to the barely breathing form on the couch. Bending in an awkward, strangely inhuman manner, it poured the greasy demon essence into the slightly opened mouth of the unconscious, grungy man. Instantly, the body arced up, back bending almost past human limits. It stayed that way, straining upward for a full twenty seconds before collapsing back into the sprung coils of the couch.

Fifteen seconds later, the man on the couch sat up, moving fast but in a stiff manner. The eyes opened, revealing the orbs to be completely black, a condition that didn’t last more than a few seconds. The white of the sclera began to appear as blackness drained away, leaving black irises behind. A moment later, the mouth worked, awkwardly, eventually producing words.

“Where?” It asked, looking at its hands, arms, legs, and feet.

“Opioid addiction. Overdose,” the one who had answered the phone said.

“Ah. Useful. The Duchess?”

“Has activated us. We are to conduct our missions.”

The re-bodied Helbourne nodded once, then stood up, robot stiff. All three turned to the front door and moved out of the house. At the base of the porch steps, they split apart, one left, one right, and the newly re-housed one heading straight ahead, uphill toward the campus.

Overhead, a single silver orb observed them, keeping all three in sight for as long as possible.

Up in the Davis Center, Chris Gordon, the oh-so-powerful Hammer of God, was hemmed in by fragile autograph and selfie-seeking students. Justin, who was unknown to the wider world, had an easier time moving about the perimeters of the first floor.

“Chris. Three individuals have just left one of the target houses under observation. I have positively identified one individual as a recent dropout of a drug rehabilitation center. One matches the Vermont driver’s license of a missing person case out from Montpellier. The third is still unidentified. I can only follow one of them. All other drone units are occupied.”

“Pull surveillance units from the other two houses. Cover all three. They might be Helbourne,” Chris said. He looked at Justin as the big were shook his head. Negative on the demon search. She had lost them somehow, probably by changing forms.

“‘Sos, a little help here, buddy,” he said. There was a noticeable space around the huge wolf, a space that doubled as the furry figure blurred, growing into a truly enormous Kodiak.

Students stumbled back in a sudden panic, clearing yards of distance in a rush of yells and screams. Until Chris raised his voice. “Quiet!” he yelled. Most of the kids were startled all over again, this time remembering who was standing with them, and they froze, even the ones facing the giant grizzly. Most of the eyes turned his way, although more than a couple kept watching the monster bear standing quietly in their midst.

“If you’ll excuse us, we have work to do,” Chris said, loud enough to be heard by the now quiet students and the handful of adults who had turned out to see what was going on.

Using the path helpfully cleared by his were-bear-wolf, Chris moved out of the Davis Center, Justin following as ‘Sos trundled ahead like a furry bulldozer. A few students started to follow, but once outside, Chris turned immediately toward Route 2, which ran right through the center of the campus. As he and his two companions got to the road, a big black SUV pulled up almost as if it was somehow coordinated. They piled into the car and it pulled away.

“Omega, we lost her in the center. Is there any way for you to keep watch?”

“I have subverted all of the university’s camera systems and am actively using cameras on students’ cell phones and laptop computers. I have found an interesting anomaly, albeit too late to be of much use.”

A screen rose up in the back of the SUV, lighting up to show a picture of pair of young female students walking somewhere on campus. A blonde and a brunette, both wearing jeans, LL Bean boots, and thick sweaters. The picture shrunk and another opened next to it, showing the blonde, now wearing UVM sweats and flip-flops.

“The young lady with the blonde hair is Celia Torres, a freshman student. The picture was taken from campus security memory storage date stamped fifteen minutes ago, on the sidewalk that heads Redstone Campus. The second picture was taken fourteen minutes ago in the Davis Center. Currently, Celia is in her dorm room wearing the same clothes pictured here. The other Celia disappeared off campus, heading downtown.”

“Gonna be hard to find her if she just copies little girls all over campus,” Justin noted.

“Yeah, almost impossible. Anything else?”

“One of my drones found this behind a bush. Residual radiation triggered its sensors.”

The pictures of the students or students and demon in disguise vanished, replaced by a picture of a chain and a cylindrical lump of twisted metal.

“Expended bullet?” Chris asked. “A big one. DU?”

“30mm x 173mm anti-tank cannon round.”

“She used it to block me,” Chris said. “This might be a break.”

“How so?” Justin asked.

“Chris gets visions of demons.” Nika’s voice came through the SUV’s stereo.

“Nika, where are you guys?” Chris asked.

“Behind you, in our own black-tinted creeper mobile,” she answered. “You might want to tell Stevens to pull out, as the Gordon Fan club is starting to collect outside.”

They looked out the windows and saw more kids gathering, holding phones up to video.

“Stevens—” Chris started but the driver waved a hand and took off, pulling out into traffic.

“Nika or Omega, where’s Declan and Stacia?” Chris asked.

“She reported that she’s taking the demon bait back to Arcane. He wanted to stay and get into it with this Lilith bitch, but she wasn’t having any part of that. Told him to leave the demon to the expert.”

“How are they getting there? He could still be vulnerable,” he said.

“She took the car you all arrived in.”

“Father and Stacia have arrived back at Arcane. I have drones on two of the suspected Helbourne but my third drone was too far away and I believe I am just ten seconds behind the third one. Based on their current activity, I would raise the probability that they are indeed Helbourne to ninety-five percent.”

The view on the monitor changed to a feed from a moving drone, following a fast-running figure that looked to be on one of the streets near their location.

“The southbound entity is heading for the intersection of Route 7 and Route 2, approximately two hundred and seventy-six yards ahead.”

The figure ran right out into traffic and they almost instantly heard horns and squealing brakes up ahead of them even as they watched the action on the camera. The Helbourne ran right up to a braking tanker truck, jumped onto the driver’s side step, and ripped the truck door open with a single yank of one thin arm. “Hey—” was all the driver had time to say before a fist smashed into his jaw with enough force to visibly knock his lower mandible out of alignment.

The demon attempted to unbuckle the instantly unconscious man, but the camera view got real close, filling the frame with the red plaid shirt of the demon, as the drone shot forward and hit it at least as hard if not harder than it had hit the driver.

Justin heard the car door open, looking up in time to just catch the barest glimpse of Chris jumping out of the vehicle and running flat-out for the action. Following as fast as he could, which was just behind Awasos, he arrived at the stopped tanker in time to see the Hammer of God yank the demon person out of the truck and throw him twenty feet like a rag doll.

The Helbourne jumped to its feet just as Chris blurred to a stop in front of it, the Hammer of God grabbing it and proceeding to hold it in both arms off the ground as if it was a hollow plastic mannequin. The demon-ridden started to shake and buck like fifty thousand volts was running through it, and then a black crud came bubbling out of its mouth and nose, pooling up around Chris Gordon’s left hand. A second later, he dropped the limp body and held the black-coated hand over his head.

Something popped into existence, the noise of its entry almost like that of a big bubble bursting. Giant wings flapped as the smoky form of a gargantuan eagle or hawk descended, plucking the putrid excrescence from Gordon’s upraised hand, flapping hard twice before disappearing with another audible pop.

“One down,” Chris said, turning to Justin. A loud scream back up toward the campus and another sharp squeal of brakes snapped both of their heads around to look. Justin noted that the second black SUV with Nika and her crew was missing.

“They could use your assistance back up in front of the Billings Library, Chris,” Omega said through the speakers of the five closest cars simultaneously. But Chris was already gone, disappearing in a pop of air.

Chapter 30

The center of the chaos was a cluster of students outside the front of one of the older buildings set almost diagonally from the Waterman building where this had all started.

Chris moved up to the crowd and flipped over top of them, coming down in the middle of what looked like seven or eight wounded or dead individuals spread out on the lawn. He stood up from his landing crouch, facing a young female student who was being held in the viselike grip of a Helbourne demon. The demon grinned at him like it was waiting for him. A soft thrum told him that Omega’s drones had caught up with him. He tucked that piece of information away as he let his combat persona study the situation. The Helbourne was holding the girl with one claw-like hand clutching her trachea so tightly that he wondered if she could even breathe.

Using the girl as a shield, it was mostly hidden behind her, probably still vulnerable to precision projectile or laser fire from the drones, but was equally likely to rip out her throat if it was hit.

“Greetings, fallen one. My leader sends her regards…” it hissed, eyes flickering out over the dead and wounded bodies lying around them on the ground. That’s as far as it got, as Chris saw Holly suddenly materialize out of the crowd behind the demon, run up behind it, grabbing the hand covering the girl’s throat and expertly breaking it free. The hostage fell away, clutching her throat as Holly proceeded to snap the Helbourne’s arm in five places. And that’s as far as she got as Chris, or rather Grim, moved right up to the demon and pulled it free from the body, throwing up to be caught by Kirby, the God Raptor.

“Omega!” he yelled.

“Already on it, Chris. EMTs and other first responders will arrive in the next fifty seconds.”

Sirens sounding from at least three directions confirmed the AI’s words, but as the rest of both squads of his team converged on the site, he got them busy trying to help the wounded.

The demon had used only hands and feet, yet the damage was devastating. Many of the wounded had broken limbs and bruised or shattered ribs, and the two dead boys had partially caved-in skulls. Several other kids were hovering close to death but were stabilized by immediate application of small amounts of his own blood, which every team member carried in a vial on their persons at all times.

“Omega, where’s the other one?” Chris asked as he stepped back, satisfied that no one else was going to die in the next few minutes.

“I am tracking it now. It immediately stole a car and is headed in the general direction of the city’s water treatment plant.”

“Stop it!” he yelled, turning to look for either of their cars. The vehicle Nika’s group had used was pulled over near the corner of University Place and Colchester Avenue, so he again drew on his vampire-given speed to race to the SUV. His stomach growled as he threw himself into the big vehicle, simultaneously telling the driver to go, go, go. Instantly the big four-wheel drive shot forward while he rummaged in the glove compartment, finding two pemmican bars to feed his savage metabolism.

“I have disabled the vehicle’s engine and removed the Helbourne’s legs at the knee. It is still trying to get away, using just its arms. Now I have removed its left arm at the shoulder. Movement is minimal. You should arrive in two-point-six minutes.”

They made it in just over two, pulling up behind two Burlington PD cruisers already on scene. The Helbourne was flopping about in the middle of the road, a smoking Jeep Rubicon stopped fifteen feet behind it, a massive, blackened hole in the center of the Jeep’s hood.

The responding officers were standing near their cars, guns hanging by their sides as they watched two of Omega’s drones circle the downed demon.

“Everyone alright?” Chris asked, hopping out.

“Ah, yes sir. Those drones just chopped him right up. I was worried at first, but the damned thing kept going, didn’t make a sound, just ignored the damage and kept trying to go. After the arm came off, it mostly just started going in a circle,” one of the cops, an Officer T. McGee, according to his name badge, reported, looking simultaneously shocked and awed. The other two officers just stared at Chris, one of them holstering his gun, which caused his buddy to follow suit.

Another cop car pulled up, this one an unmarked SUV, and Detective Schulz got out, his eyes locked on the Helbourne. “Is that… ”

“No. That’s a Helbourne. Think Jason Voorhees from the Friday the Thirteenth movies. Empty body occupied by a demon. We lost the demoness. She’s Lilith, by the way. But she gave up her means of hiding from me, so it’s just a matter of time,” Chris said.

“So one of these killed those kids on campus and wounded all the others? And it’s not even the leader?” Schulz asked. “And she’s still out there? You’re supposed to be good at this.”

Chris stopped and turned, fixing Schulz with his violet eyes. For a second, he felt the cage in his mind rattle. Then he spun about and strode to the Helbourne, picking it up without effort, holding it at arm’s length.

“One of these pieces of shit killed my whole family when I was eight… with an axe. We’re incredibly lucky that the dead count was just two.”

Then he pulled the demon from its shell and threw it up to Kirby, who hovered in place for four massive wing flaps before disappearing.

“We are the only ones who do this. Those things could have decimated this city. This one was likely headed to the water plant to poison the drinking supply. All three are stopped. And in just…”

“Fourteen minutes, Chris.”

“It’s just that you’ve been baiting these things with that kid, who is the only reason it’s even here,” Schulz said.

“It’s here to scout a way forward for the legions of Hell. Does that involve Declan? Yes. But the important thing is that it is here—on Earth, and therefore a danger to the entire planet. How do you catch a demon incarnate, Detective Schulz?”

“I don’t know. That’s your job.”

“Yes, it is. You ever work a case where you had to wait for a criminal to show himself? Where you had to trap him because he was too well-hidden to hunt?” Chris asked. Schulz gave a slow, reluctant nod. “It came with risks, didn’t it?”

The detective looked away for a second, then turned back and changed the subject. “What do we do with that?”

“Bag it, tag it, identify, and notify next of kin. In all honesty, you won’t likely even get that far. One of the fed agencies will likely seize it. Won’t be your problem. Now if you’ll excuse me, I got a demon to hunt,” Chris said, moving back to the car. Somehow, he didn’t think any of his comments had done a damn thing to change Schulz’s mind.

Chapter 31

“Yo bud, where’s your girl?” Mack asked, standing in the doorway of Declan’s room.

“Checking up on the twins and overall security. We’re locking down this place. All kinds of shit went down up on campus,” the witch said, glancing up.

Mack looked up and down the hallway before stepping into his buddy’s single room. “Yeah? Like what?” he asked, giving the door a shove before pulling the desk chair near to Declan, who was sitting on the bed.

“My new professor? The one you met yesterday when you almost wrecked her office? She was the effing demoness! Her name is Lilith. Tried to abduct me right in class.”

“What? How? It would have been full of students!” Mack said, sitting down in the chair. He seemed a bit distracted as he rummaged with his right hand in the pocket of his front-zip hoodie.

Declan held out his right wrist, shook his head at the round brown bracelet with an obsidian stone woven into the strands of braided leather. He pulled that hand back and held out the other wrist, which was bare. “She put these bracelets on most of the students’ left wrists.”

“Bracelets? Like this one?” Mack asked, holding out his left wrist at an angle. Declan frowned at his buddy’s oddly happy tone, but looked nonetheless. He froze for a split second at the sight of a familiar copper wire band encircling Mack’s wrist. Just as his brain restarted, he felt a light impact on his own left wrist and looked down as Mack pulled his right hand away, revealing a matching twin copper band now snug around his arm.

“Freeze!” Mack said.

Declan felt his body go stiff, his mind finding nothing when it reached for the second-nature comfort of his magic.

“She said I had to obey her, and that you had to obey me. At least until she gets here. You’ll really like her. My Lilly is wonderful.”

Declan tried to open his mouth, to demand an explanation, to yell what the fuck. Nothing happened.

“Sorry, bud. She said not to let you talk. Said you’re too crafty. Oh hey, I’m supposed to take these off too,” Mack said, acting like he was setting up a fun introduction rather than a demonic abduction. Pulling a razor-sharp blade from somewhere on his person, Mack set about cutting the leather cords of Declan’s three necklaces, pulling the attached amulets away and putting them in his pocket.

“There, that’s all done. Let’s see, no talking—check. Freezing in place—check. And no necklaces—check. I think that covers everything she wanted. Now we just wait till she gets here, then we’ll walk on out to meet her.”

Declan was busy the whole time, trying to access magic, trying to move a muscle or pull energy from the electrical grid, trying anything and everything but not able to do a thing.

“Oh, don’t look so frantic. It won’t be long. She’ll be here soon and then you get to meet her,” Mack said with a cheery smile.

The mostly closed door suddenly swung open, revealing Jetta. “Meet who, big brother? Boy are you lucky that Toni saw you come in the building. I was coming to tell Declan that the building is ready to lock down but if you’ve got a friend coming, you better get down there,” Mack’s sister said.

“Aw, Jet, why did you have to come in? She said the surprise was only for Declan. But come on in; I’ve got something to show you,” Mack said, his sudden frown turning back into an odd smile.

Confused, Jetta stepped in, glancing from Mack to Declan, who still hadn’t said a word or made even a little move. She frowned, studying Declan’s eyes, which bulged in his head, as her brother turned away toward the side table next to the bed. Declan was rapidly looking from her to his wrist to her brother and back again, just his eyeballs moving but somehow conveying extreme anxiety.

Mack bent down to grab something from the floor next to Declan’s bed, then started to stand and turn.

Luckily, Jetta noticed the unusual bracelet on Declan’s wrist and suddenly stepped forward, just as her brother swung around with a long wooden stick in his left hand.

The result was her being inside the arc of his sweeping strike with one of Declan’s escrima sticks, his left arm slamming to a stop against her right arm block to his forearm. The stick, which was moving fast enough to break bone, spun around behind her, clipping the very top of Declan’s head before coming free from Mack’s suddenly numb hand.

Jetta was still moving, wrapping her blocking arm up, over, around, and back under Mack’s, forcing up on his elbow joint while her right foot stepped behind his left and her left hand shoved up under his chin.

Head going back, balance compromised and pain forcing him upward, Mack fell backward onto the bed. But he was as well-trained as his sister and his lower body was twisting as far to the left as it would go, his right leg coming around and between his sister’s, getting her own right leg wrapped up in what their jiu-jitsu instructor called half-guard, basically a scissors of his two legs. The result was that she was pulled off-balance, falling with Mack and onto Declan, losing her leverage on Mack’s elbow.

Instantly, Mack struck his sister with his right hand in a looping punch that luckily lost some velocity when he forced it across his own body, as he was lying on his back. It still stunned her, which favored Mack as he fought his awkward position enough to turn from his back to his left side. This let him wind up for what could have been a fight-ending punch, were it not for Declan.

The escrima stick, one of Declan’s personal favorites, which had smacked the top of his head and left a ringing in his ears, had then fallen down the left side of his body, coming to rest lying parallel to his frozen left arm, the cylindrical end now with one rounded edge pressed right up against the copper bracelet on his wrist. When Mack twisted and punched the first time, it shoved his sister into Declan, which forced the young witch’s face against the top end of the stick, in turn pressing against the bracelet and forcing the copper up and partially off his wrist—all in one incredible string of fantastic events.

So Mack’s speeding second punch met his ex-roommate’s hand, slowing the blow and more importantly, conducting a bolt of primal electric current from witch to friend. Mack arced up, shuddering under the Taser-like impact of one of his buddy’s favorite spells. Catching just the tiniest backsplash of electric shock from her brother’s body, Jetta yelped but was still able to reach around to her left and yank the copper band from Mack’s wrist.

Swearing like a true college student, Declan threw his band onto the floor, then snatched the one from Jetta and tossed it on top of the other. A kick of his foot swept them both under his desk.

“Holy shit!” Jetta said. “Lucky for you Stacia told me about the bracelets.”

“Yeah—lucky,” Declan agreed, smiling a little for the first time. “Also lucky the door wasn’t shut and locked, lucky that the escrima stick didn’t knock me out, super lucky it fell like it did so that when you and Mack fell into me, it luckily pushed off my bracelet, and lucky that direct contact with a demon bracelet wearer still allows me to throw an electric shock spell. So yes—it was lucky.”

Jetta shrugged. “Like I said.” She then turned to her brother. “You back yet?”

He was groaning and starting to move. “What the hell happened? Did you freaking Tase me, bro?” he asked, incredulous.

“Yes. Damned good thing. You were trying to beat your sister senseless.”

“What? I would never!”

“Except you just did—try, that is. I was kicking your ass but Declan got in the way and ruined my beat down.”

“Yeah—sure—I got in your way,” Declan said, shaking his head. “Me all frozen up with a demon magic bracelet that you put on me, Mack.”

“Me?” Mack asked, looking very confused. “What the hell is really going on here?”

“Your new girlfriend—Lilly?” Declan said. “She’s a demon hoe. And where the Hell are your necklaces?”

“Lilly? I was just with her. She’s a demon?” Mack asked, hand reaching to his bare neck.

“Yeah, and she put a mind control bracelet on your wrist and had you put one on mine. Jetta saved the day.”

“I’ll say!” Stacia said from the open doorway. There were a few other Arcane kids in the hallway behind her, looking curiously into the room. “I heard the commotion from the stairwell. That was too close.”

“Was it? Or was it something else?” Declan asked Stacia with a knowing grin. She frowned, her glance going from Jetta to Mack before returning to her boyfriend. Then she shook her head and changed the subject.

“When is she supposed to get here, Mack?” she asked.

“How the…” he broke off in midanswer, face scrunching up in concentration as apparently something occurred to him “Ah, like within the next ten minutes, I think. Although I don’t know how I know that. Say, maybe this explains why she was so… energetic in the sack.”

“Well. Mack’s f-boy observations aside, we wouldn’t want to be bad hosts. Let’s get ready for her,” Stacia said, her tone light but her eyes narrowed.

“Yeah,” Jetta said, rubbing her jaw where her brother’s first punch had landed. “We wouldn’t want to be rude.”

Chapter 32

Lilith approached the odd little school for witches and weres from the north, stepping out of the lightly treed strip of land that separated the school’s parking lot from the next property’s parking area, her demonic cloak at full power.

The repurposed building looked quiet, a little over half the lot taken with vehicles. Her supernatural hearing picked up the sounds of an active property: young voices chatting, sounds of cooking from the cafeteria, and multiple sources of loud music from students’ rooms. Her demonic senses picked up serious wards, powerful protections that gave her immediate pause.

Focusing her senses on the entryway, she dialed in on the voices of two adult males, probably guards, talking about shifts and lazy coworkers. She would likely have to kill them, which was not ideal. That’s if she could even get in past the wards. All of which was going to create too much of a commotion, which would complicate her extraction of the witch, and she wanted no more complications. So much had already gone wrong. It wasn’t so much that her primary plans had failed, it was the sheer inaccuracy, no, the outright blatant absence of vital intelligence about her quarry that had her teeth clenching and her talons threatening to pop right out of her currently human-looking fingers. The elves of the Summer Court would answer to her, even if she had to go behind her liege’s back.

Inside College Arcane, a new voice addressed the guards, laughing and joking with easy familiarity. Mack Sutton. One guard addressed something to someone else but didn’t get an answer and repeated himself, saying, “What’s up, Declan? Coming down with something?”

“Oh, he’s mad at one of his professors. She embarrassed him in class,” Mack said. “I’m taking him out for a Nutella milkshake on Church Street before he does something… unfortunate.”

The front door opened and two figures stepped out. Behind them, she heard one guard say to the other, “That professor has no idea how lucky she is that he’s so easygoing!”

“No shit. You weren’t here when he had that fight in the parking lot with the girl witch. Trashed my new car all to shit. The school bought me that new RAV4 to replace it.”

The doors shut behind the two boys, and she could see Mack and Declan standing alone on the sidewalk. Mack was looking around, looking for her most likely, while his tall, lanky friend just stared straight ahead. Perfect. She wouldn’t even have to enter the building. Wouldn’t need to go near those wards. This was ideal. Her choice of bait had been dead on, easily seduced, pliant to her will, and not at all an unpleasant bed partner, from her perspective. Too bad she couldn’t keep him as a pet.

She moved forward, gradually turning off the demonic cloak as she walked. Mack’s swiveling head suddenly locked onto her, his eyes widening at her rather sudden appearance while the witch hardly blinked. She had left Mack enough slack when she bound him to her will that he could react and plan, trusting in the carefully contrived infatuation she had layered over him. That had been fun, using feminine guile rather than violence and brute force. A nice change. Although bloody brute force was always satisfying too.

Mack smiled widely, his body language broadcasting just how smitten he was.

“You did well, Mack. You even thought to bring him out to me, saving me the visit inside. Such initiative should be rewarded,” she said, giving her toy the kind of smile that had helped reduce his will to mush. She was close now, just four yards away.

But most of her attention was on her prize, this witch boy that everyone wanted a piece of. He hummed with power, even bound by her artifact and standing mute, staring at the ground in front of him like a zombie. No wonder Zinnia wanted him. An Earthborn witch, and male at that, who could commune with elementals and had somehow suborned part of Fairie itself. Maybe she should keep him. Use him for herself. The elves had all but broken faith by keeping the true extent of his abilities secret. Speaking of which… “Mack, where are his talismans?”

Mack reached into a pocket and pulled out a bundle of leather cord, stone, glass, and wood. Her demonic senses confirmed they were the same ones the witch had used before. She flicked her eyes at Declan and froze. He was now looking at her. Directly at her, eyes alert, aware, maybe even unbeaten , maybe even something else… satisfied?

Then he lifted his right hand and a black bolt of power shot from the bracelet on his right wrist, leather and black stone was all she had time to observe before she was blown backward twenty feet, smashing into the hard asphalt as if hit by a truck.

“Shit dude, that thing has some serious punch,” Mack said. “What did you call it?”

“Magser—like a magic laser. I coated both ends of the obsidian with a special mixture and then pumped some power into it. It bounces back and forth like light inside a laser crystal or other gain medium. Omega thought of it. Picks up the obsidian’s protective properties and then increases their coherence.”

She stood up and shed her human form.

“I slept with that?” Mack said. “You better hit her again,” he said, now sounding uncertain.

The bracelet shot her again, the bolt too fast to avoid, slamming her back another fifteen feet, into a Toyota RAV4. It hurt but not as much as the first shot.

She slid one taloned hand through the air in front of her, focusing her will, ripping a small opening in reality. She reached into the pocket universe and pulled forth her SHUKUR. It had been hers since before Hammurabi, taken from another demon that she had tricked and then destroyed.

“Dude, you should probably get serious and quit screwing around. That spear thing looks pretty badass,” Mack said, real worry in his voice.

Declan fired a third bolt from his odd magical weapon, but it wasn’t as powerful as the second, which, in turn, was less than the first. The soul-sucking black spear point on her SHUKUR deflected the blast sideways into a Ford Focus sedan, buckling the driver’s door inward.

“Mack, give me the necklaces. This thing is out of ammo,” Declan said, his own voice tight. Her disappointing minion started to hand the bundle of artifacts to his friend, but she waved her left hand and Mack went flying backward, the elemental magic items flung across the asphalt in a wide arc.

She smiled a tooth-filled smile at the witch. And he hit her with a car. The very same RAV4 lifted off the ground and smashed her into the pavement. Annoying. She shoved it off her and rebounded to her feet, pointing her own weapon and firing her own response, a wave of greasy darkness, focused on the boy.

The air in front of him sparked bright blue, snapping and crackling as his shield stopped the attack but then began to buckle under the onslaught. Impressive, she thought, then jumped lightly upward, letting the Toyota SUV and the damaged Ford sedan slam into each other below her feet. He wasn’t done, though, as she sensed something coming at her from behind. She spun and raised an arm, blocking a flying Vespa scooter, which crumpled around her massive arm.

The only result was that she was shoved a yard or two closer to him before landing lightly on the parking lot. “I begin to see what intrigues them about you,” she said, stepping forward, spinning her spear-like weapon, black droplets of greasy night flinging off the blade to burn holes in glass windshields, metal car bodies, rubber tires, and the very tarmac itself.

A roar to the left turned her head in time to see a white-furred wolfish monster bounding toward her, a huge steel T-shaped weapon swinging down from overhead.

The haft of her SHUKUR stopped the metal shaft of the odd weapon but one long arm of the crosspiece, sharp and pointed, chopped deep into her shoulder, penetrating her scaled skin. She roared her response, shoving up with both arms, then swinging her nightmare blade in an arc.

The ancient weapon cut off the offending crosspiece as if the hardened steel was mere air. Sudden multiple impacts hit her in the back with the smashing force of catapult stones, forcing her to turn around rather than continue her attack. Orange-sized balls of steel and silver were already shooting back at her, responding to the power commanded by the outstretched hand of the witch boy.

Her blade cut two of them from the air, slicing them and melting them at the same time, while the third one hit her already wounded shoulder, eliciting another roar of fury from her. Sensing the white werewolf’s follow-up attack, she whipped around, cutting the odd metal weapon in half, mid-swing. Quick as thought, she counterstruck, coming back at the muscular white-furred torso with the deadly blade of her spear-like weapon. But the wolf, now holding two pieces of steel rod, one with a spike and a half, used both parts of her broken weapon to stop the SHUKUR, steel against unholy shaft. Then Lilith was forced to step back a pace as the spiky half of the weapon was swung at her head. She brought up the SHUKUR waist high, night black tip pointed directly at the werewolf, ready to spear her enemy, but the wolf bounded back out of range.

Bullets pinged off her skin as the two guards engaged her with full auto fire from their human weapons. A pair of roars, one loud, the other louder than anything she had heard outside of the Abyss, announced the arrival of two bears. One was a really big specimen of the black-furred forest bears that still ranged over most of this continent, the other a true monster from the far, far north. They charged her together and she raised her blade, eager to feed it with their blood, their essence, but the witch yelled and the two smashed cars hit her from behind, knocking her forward, her spear point sinking into the asphalt without resistance.

She lifted her head in time to be smashed over backward by the black bear, which was roughly her size, then both trashcan lid paws of the gargantuan brown bear came down, crushing her into the ground, buckling the pavement under her and punishing her more in one strike than any single fight she’d suffered in a thousand years.

The pain was enormous, but pain was the currency of Hell and she’d earned much payment over the eons. She choked up on the haft of her SHUKUR, twisting it and slashing the blade into the grizzly’s side. The monster bear roared in its own pain and fell back enough for her to stand. Sensing movement behind her, she spun and backfisted the black bear, knocking it flying against the crushed Toyota RAV. Then she turned, lifted her weapon, and slammed it butt first into the ground.

A shock wave of force rippled out, throwing the bears, the werewolf, the witch, and the guards all up, back, and then down to the ground while lifting every car, both whole and smashed, in a fifty-foot circle, into the air, a full yard off the ground.

“Enough!” she roared out. “Playtime is over!” She swung her unholy spear blade down at the thick-furred neck of the closest enemy, the black bear, ready to start ending these foes. A foot from the exposed black fur, a glowing-edged weapon of silver fire appeared between the bear and her SHUKUR, stopping her unstoppable blade with the unmovable mass of a boulder.

The figure holding the blade glowed with the Holy silver light of Heaven, his body covered with translucent plates of gleaming armor.

“Yes, by all means. Let’s stop playing, shall we, Lilith?” Chris Gordon said, simultaneously lifting his blade and throwing her back ten feet like she weighed nothing.

Chapter 33

Without waiting for a response, God’s Hammer on Earth spun his blade into a horizontal cut at Lilith’s side as he slid forward, smooth and fast. She blocked with her spear shaft, spinning the butt at his head, but he blocked with the armored vambrace on his left arm, stabbing at her with his sword-wielding right hand. He was fast. Shockingly so, she thought as she arched her stomach back, the point of his Angelic sword missing her flat, hard-scaled muscles by a hair’s width.

She cleared space, a fifteen-foot backward jump, giving her time to look over this new, unwelcome enemy.

He wasn’t especially big for a human, maybe just over the average height for males in this age, but his powerful build made him appear larger. She towered over him in her true form, yet still she hesitated.

His glowing armor was different from that which she remembered of the Angelic Host. It appeared more… mechanical, reminding her of the machines of this age rather than the flowing, ornate forms of Hell’s ancient enemy.

His sword, too, was more streamlined than the weapons she recalled from ages past. Not that she’d ever faced an Archangel of the Lord in combat. Those demons who chose the path of single combat had invariably been destroyed. No, it generally took superior numbers to take out a single Archangel.

But Malahidael had never been an Archangel. He and his partner, Lailah, were lesser angels, similar in rank to the level that she held in the legions of Hell. And his angelic female half was safely across the vast Atlantic Ocean. And he was young in this form; vulnerable to the dense, dull reactive metal she had used to block his senses. Yet he was here, surrounded by allies, and those same allies, while less powerful than angels, had been disturbingly formidable. Her own forces—which she would never call allies, as all denizens of Hell were untrustworthy and self-focused—were nowhere to be seen, either run away or more likely neutralized by Malahidael.

Success, so close a few minutes ago, now seemed entirely distant and, in fact, her very survival might now be jeopardized. No, it would be better to retreat.

She bounded backward again, much farther this time, intending a thirty-foot jump, but instead slammed to a halt with a bone-jarring impact against hard stone and asphalt at twenty feet. She instinctively kicked off the immovable object and forward rolled, feeling a whoosh of air as two massive items swung past her moving form.

She danced sideways, spinning to look behind her. A towering form of rock, dirt, and pavement loomed almost the same height as the brown bear could stand, but massing two or three times more. Stone arms were crossed where it had tried to catch her in a crushing hug.

An elemental. Wind brushed the back of her head and she turned, face first, into a blast of fire so hot it immediately melted the pavement at her feet and turned the steel side of the broken Toyota into a glowing red circle two feet across.

She felt the slate-colored skin on her face blacken and crisp but then she got her SHUKUR up in front of the flames, the Hell blade shielding her from further damage.

Shock almost froze her fatally, the sight of a fully formed dragon of Fairie, albeit a small one, hovering in front of her. Just in time, she sensed the attack from her side, turning and moving into it, brushing aside Malahidael’s blade and kicking him backward with one massive leg.

The dragon’s fire attack broke off, as she was too close to the fallen angel, so she kept up her own attack, charging God’s holy warrior, spear set to pin him to the ground. His head tilted to one side and his body language changed, coiling into something new. Something entirely different—deadly and unknown. He was smiling, but it was the cold, vicious smile of her brethren. Almost as if she fought a fellow demon, one cloaked in the trappings of Heaven.

She was now seriously off her stride, surrounded by elementals, dragons, bears, werewolves, and an entirely too powerful witch, facing down a truly frightening hybrid of Heaven and Hell.

But her time was up, as Malahidael attacked with blinding speed. He cut low, sideways, somehow angling the blade upward just before contact with her spear, the glowing blade slashing her left hand where it clutched her weapon.

Taking a page from the witch, she flung her wounded hand out, flicking her black blood toward his eyes, then using her own innate power to pull the horseshoe-bent Vespa at his head from the side.

He did nothing, just stood there, immovable, as the scooter broke apart into two pieces against his armor. He didn’t even waver, as if he could lock himself to the the very Earth. Fear stole into her blackened heart. It was as if he had the powers of a vampire, in addition to the weapons and armor of an angel and the vicious battle instincts of a demon legionnaire. She had miscalculated—badly. About the boy witch, about the fallen angel, about the allies they surrounded themselves with. Not only was the mission in jeopardy but now her unholy existence itself was in danger.

It was time to leave. It was time for one more surprise. In an instant, she crouched, folding her steel spring legs, then exploded upward, leaping forty feet straight up. At the top of her jump, just as she peaked out, right at the moment where she floated for a split second before this world’s gravity would lay claim to her physical self, she unfurled her wings.

Bat-shaped, very like that of the mini dragon, they spanned eighteen feet and appeared from her back as if by magic. And just like that, she removed herself from almost all of her opponents, leaving the ground-bound behind. She thought she’d left them all behind with just the exception of the small dragon, but a quiet humming surrounded her and she looked up to find herself surrounded by hovering silver orbs—six or eight of them. And they all began to fire on her at once.

Chapter 35

Coruscating beams of coherent light converged on her scaled skin, instantly burning holes deep into her tissues. She roared her anger before flapping mighty wings and swooping back toward the ground below.

Dropping down, she passed the little dragon on its way up, the beast immediately spitting an abortive burst of flame at her, but she zipped right through it, pulling up almost immediately and flapping to regain altitude. Now she was in an aerial dogfight with the weapons of the machine and the dragon that was bound to the witch, but she had reduced her overall enemies by over three quarters, leaving them on the ground. And it wasn’t a fight she needed to win; she just needed to buy herself time to open up her escape route.

Her powerful flight and skillful evasive maneuvers immediately cut down on the amount of firepower that hit her wings and body, the small, powerful beams of energy burning tiny, painful, but ultimately unimportant wounds through her limbs, torso, and wings when they could catch her twisting, diving form. She shot upward then suddenly spun in place, pulling her wings in tight around her body, thus increasing the force and speed of her spin like an Olympic figure skater floating in midair. Suddenly she spread her wingtips, the single-point talons at the end of each finger-like pinion slashing through the air in an eighteen-foot arc around her. Two of the diamond-hard claws ripped into a pair of the computer’s advanced drone orbs, shredding the tough outer skin and knocking them out of the air.

The remaining drones opened fire, but the witch’s mini dragon, which swooped, dove, and flapped around her, actually impeded the energy blasts of the micro machines while at the same time ineffectively blasting flumes of fire across the sky.

She moved the fight sideways through the air until she was over the adjacent property’s rooftop. Her research into the supernatural school property had included detailed information about the surrounding real estate. So she knew that the building below her had once housed a small manufacturing company but had since been repurposed into an artist’s cooperative studio and retail space. The roof was a flat rectangle over a hundred feet long and thirty feet wide. A perfect space for her getaway exit. Flapping in place, she extended her right thumb and index finger talon and without hesitation drove them deep into the center of her torso, in the spot where a human’s solar plexus would reside. Ignoring the sharp bite of self-inflicted pain, she rooted around until her claws felt a hard, round object the size of one of those white dimpled balls that humans struck with clubs and then chased over many acres of heavily groomed grassland.

Three of the mini machines dove at her and she was forced to dive and swoop, all while pulling and digging at the spherical object within her, engaging in her own self-mutilation. Her greasy black blood made the orb slippery, but her diamond-hard claws dug into the shell of the object, allowing her to get a solid grasp on it.

A flare of scalding heat brushed her back, the flames licking though laser-burned holes in her wings, shifting her pain level up several notches to excruciating in a split second. She tucked one wing in tight to her body, pulling a multi-g turn that would have crushed a human pilot. Her big left foot shot out and slammed into the dragon, knocking it backward, its wings collapsing inward.

It should have fallen, as any aerial flyer with wings would have, but it didn’t. Instead it hovered in place without flapping, easily finding the time to bring its wings back out to full extension.

An Air Elemental… this little beast was actually an elemental, somehow shaped into the ultimate avatar of flight.

In the time it took the fire breather to recover, Lilith had been successful in plucking the bloody orb from within her own body. With no hesitation, she threw the ball straight down, as hard as her supernaturally powerful arm could hurl it.

She took a split second to watch for its impact on the art co-op roof and thus caught sight of the projectile that came hurling up at her from the ground below. Malahidael had launched himself at her, jumping fifty feet into the air from the same rooftop to intercept her current dive. He was fast, so fast that she upgraded her assessment of his abilities. His vampire-like skills were very much like an old, old vampire, harnessing whatever arcane energies the bloodsuckers tapped into to push his already superhuman jump into something closer to being shot from a cannon than a leap. But his vector was straight up and she simply backwinged, stopping her forward flight, letting him shoot up past her, his lethal sword unable to reach her position several yards away.

She leaned forward, flapped forward, and jabbed her spear at an upward angle, looking to stick the evil black blade deep into his exposed groin as his jump reached its apex.

He inverted. Somehow just flipped himself over, knocking her attack away with that hateful sword.

It didn’t matter, as his attack was spent, gravity starting him on his way back to the ground, albeit slower than a natural object that couldn’t subvert the laws of physics with vampire mumbo jumbo.

She flew around his descending body, putting it between her and the annoyingly dangerous remaining four drone balls, taking the opportunity to jab and slash at him with the lethal point and edges of her SHUKUR. He fended off every attack, but his lack of maneuverability hindered him, frustrating him.

She flapped upward, letting him get below her, taking the opportunity to glance down at the impact results of the ball she had thrown. What she saw was a spreading black circle on the roof of the building below. It was like a pool of oil, except for the tiny sparks of light spread throughout the blackness. It looked more like an upside down nighttime sky than a portal between worlds, but the Summer Queen had presented it to her as the highest level of portal technology, the pinnacle of the magic arts that created holes in the fabric of reality.

Unfortunately it needed more time to fully drill through space and time, so she was left with evading her enemies as she waited to beat a shameful retreat.

Motion on the ground below caught her eye. Two wolves, a bipedal werewolf, the two bears, one slightly wounded, and a female figure that had to be a vampire were racing across the parking lot. Behind them, moving at much, much slower human speeds were two figures, one short and compact, the other tall and lanky.

Another glance at the fetal trans dimensional portal showed she was maybe ten or fifteen seconds from her exit being ready and open. For the first time since getting that obnoxiously powerful blast from that child witch’s wristband, she smiled. Maybe she could salvage this whole mess in one fell swoop. And swoop she did.

Chapter 36

Declan raced after his team partners, but witches had long ago chosen gifts of power very much different from the superhuman speed and strength of the more predatory species. His warlock glyphs might have helped, but they drained power and he needed everything he had. So he and Mack fell farther and farther behind, the others pulling away, some of them already arriving at the base of the building while the two humans were still only just entering the outer boundary of the co-op’s parking lot.

He could see flares of fire lighting the sky over the building, illuminating a spinning, twisting aerial fight fifty to seventy-five feet over the roof of the artists’ building. But the sky was dark and cloudy and Draco’s incendiary flumes, the result, almost instantly destroyed his night vision, so that he lost sight of the primary focus of the fight almost immediately.

“Where is she? You see her?” he demanded, sparing a glance at his buddy. Mack was spinning in place, looking almost directly above them rather than at an angle in front like he had. “I lost her, but she was headed this way,” Mack said.

“What? Where—” was all Declan had time to ask before a giant blue form slammed into him, taloned feet first.

Massive claws sank into his shoulders, snapping both collarbones like twigs in a mind-searing eruption of pain. He screamed involuntarily, his body driven toward the ground then was yanked upward as the demoness flapped powerful wings, attempting to lift him bodily off the pavement. The crush of her claws, the massive impact, and then the immediate reverse lift upward knocked the young witch unconscious almost instantly, his scream cutting off in mid-yell.

Lilith strained with all the vast might of her hellish body, forcing great drafts of wind downward, the sheer power of each wing flap impeding the four spherical orbs that were frantically circling her and her prey. The limp body of the witch left the ground, feet dragging for a second before open space cleared under them. She was doing it. She had her prey and she had an escape route directly into the most heavily garrisoned area in the Fairie Queen’s giant tree fortress. She would win this time, as she had won every other time before. She would snatch back victory when defeat had been all but certain.

Sudden savage pain tore through her left calf, great searing gouts of liquid agony, burning her beyond any flame or fire of Hell ever could.

Screaming her own cry of surprise and agony, she looked down, meeting the dark eyes of her former minion. Mack Sutton had jammed some kind of knife into her leg, and it hurt more than any pain Lilith had felt in a life that spanned thousands and thousands of years. He hung from the hilt for a moment, his own weight dragging the cruel blade half a foot through her dense calf muscle. The added weight, the sudden shocking interruption of her nervous system caused her to falter, pulled her and her prize back down toward the ground, her left foot spasming open, the prey now hanging from just her right set of talons. Then Mack lost his grip, dropping down two feet to land in a crouch.

She immediately let go of the SHUKUR with her left hand, bending down to attempt to pluck the blade from her leg. Lubricated by her smoking, burning blood, the horrid blade pulled free with a sucking sound, clattering to the pavement in front of Mack. His eyes met hers and he suddenly dropped down, hands scrabbling for the weapon.

Lilith pumped her wings, putting aside the enormous pain of the wound, working harder than she ever had before. At first, she barely regained the height she’d lost, but then she started to pull up, lifting higher. It could still be done, even with just one foot clutching her prey.

Until a massive impact hit her right arm, just above the wrist. Her arm had suddenly sprouted a full-grown, brown-furred werewolf, one with more than twice the mass of the Sutton boy. Hate-filled brown eyes locked on her as hard as the steel-trap jaws were locked on her arm.

The SHUKUR fell from numb fingers, landing right in Mack’s hands. He looked at the deadly weapon, then looked at her, and she panicked. Her right foot opened wide, dropping Declan almost on top of his friend, while her right arm shook and swung, finally dislodging the werewolf.

Instantly she gained height, only to be swarmed by the mini drones, which pelted her with painful light and burning projectiles. She ignored them, putting everything into her climb, pulling up at first just inch by inch but then foot by foot. She focused on the rooftop, eyes locked on her escape, aware that Malahidael was on the ground and running her way. Ignore him, ignore everything but getting out of this realm. At first, she had a fear that he would leap at her again, but he ran past underneath her, straight to the wounded witch and the human boy who held her most deadly weapon. Relief, sweet relief that he hadn’t attacked her in this vulnerable state. Then fear, sudden bowel-loosening fear, as below her the fallen angel came to a sudden stop, plucked the spear-like SHUKUR from Mack’s hand, and, with a graceful spin, threw the weapon straight at her. It moved like a pulse of light, flashing faster than a pistol bullet, maybe too fast to dodge, the deadly blade headed right for her center of mass.

With a fantastic flex of her entire body, mid-air, she twisted herself sideways, feeling a burning line cut across her stomach and sternum before it blasted through the thin membrane of her right wing, tearing a massive hole. The SHUKUR shot off into the night, but Lilith could only focus on the twin sensations of pain and falling, her body flipping end over end, her vision filled first with darkened sky, then open portal, then sky before the portal again came into view.

Part of her realized she had made it far enough to fall straight into the open portal, part of her realized the landing would be bad, and part of her was aware of a high-pitched howl racing toward her through the night sky. As she flipped over and over, she picked up one additional view with each rotation—a small silver object that was growing larger and larger each time her sight of it came around.

Twenty feet before she hit the portal, her brain came up with a possible idea of what it was—a massive upsized version of the computing machine’s killer drones, a giant silver ball headed straight for her, from the south. But as fast as it was, she was almost out of its view, her own descent bringing her just about into the opening of the portal. And her spinning sight showed her that the portal had fully opened, revealing that she was falling directly into a chamber in the Summer Queen’s tree fortress.

Blinding light from behind her seared her vision, the pain in her right wing suddenly disappearing, as did the wing itself. The giant drone had fired, one shot, just as she fell through the portal and slammed into the polished wood floor of the Queen’s chamber.

Lilith lost all consciousness on impact, and so she didn’t see what the Queen and her guards saw—a massive, three-foot-diameter silver orb slamming to a sudden inertia-free stop directly over the open portal, nor did she see the flashing, devastating pulses of light that it shot down into the Home Tree, punching holes through the ancient living capital of the Summer Court, vaporizing entire sections of heartwood, cambium, and bark. Gaping holes appeared in the mighty trunk at the same time that the elven figures of guards and Watchers of the Veil disappeared, burning to less than ash in the brief flashes of ultra-intense energy. A swarm of pebble-sized silver objects shot down from the bottom of the big orb, spreading out across the interior of the Queen’s chamber before they all exploded simultaneously. Then the portal closed, cutting off the attack.

Chapter 37

The demon disappeared, seeming to vanish into the top of the artist’s co-op, Omega’s big drone hovering over the spot, thrumming with heavy pulses of power as it shot bolts of searing light straight down at the roof—where absolutely nothing seemed to happen.

“She has opened a portal to Fairie and escaped through it. I am leaving them with a message. How is Father?” The AI asked, speaking through a much smaller orb that hovered right over the wounded Declan.

Chris, who had sliced his right palm open with a clean knife provided by Mack, took a second to glance at Nika. If Omega was asking, despite having his ultrasophisticated drones hovering scant feet above the wounded boy, then the AI was worried. Chris wouldn’t have thought a computer, no matter how advanced, could get worried. On some level, he realized that that worried him.

“He is completely unconscious, not feeling any pain,” Nika said aloud as Chris bent down to the injured boy held in Stacia’s arms. Blood from the sliced palm dripped first into each gaping shoulder hole and then into the kid witch’s open mouth.

“His heartbeat is steady,” Omega observed.

“Very,” Stacia agreed. “He’s strong, Omega, and these wounds are not really life-threatening. Plus wait till you see how Chris’s blood helps him heal up.”

The big drone was now hovering directly overhead, the four surviving mini-drones spaced out around them. Sirens approached from almost every direction. Chris turned to a limping Awasos, dripping some blood from his rapidly healing cut into the nine-inch gash in the big bear’s side. It too started to heal, the bleeding slowing to a stop.

“Tanya is inbound from the airport. I have also cleared all traffic lights for the responding ambulance. I will block all traffic to speed Father’s arrival at the hospital.”

“Please tell Tanya that the action is over,” Chris requested.

“I have provided them with a sit rep as well as camera feeds of the both the fight and current real time. Be advised that the local authorities are planning on taking charge at the direction of the mayor. I will disabuse them of that notion.”

“Easy, Omega. Let’s not burn bridges,” Nika said.

“Nothing will impede my father from getting to the hospital.” His tone had a definite note of finality to it.

“Let’s prep for police arrival,” Chris said to the rest of the team. Immediately both Holly, who had been rubbing her mouth with her paws to remove demon blood, and Devaney began to Change back. Mack, fully used to werewolves, headed to an older model green Toyota Land Cruiser, parked on the outside edge of the Arcane lot. The tailgate automatically opened itself at his approach. Moments later, he was back with sets of clean sweats for the naked weres.

Sirens screaming, three police vehicles came slamming down Pine Street and into the co-op lot.

A big black rental car raced in behind them, the passenger door opening to disgorge Tanya, who hit the ground running before the car even slowed down.

“How is he?” she asked, appearing by Stacia’s side.

“Big bleeding holes, broken clavicles, torn up to hell,” the wolf girl said. “But I think he’s stable.”

Tanya reached down and patted the girl’s hand before smoothing Declan’s hair. Then she stood up and looked at her husband. Lydia, Galina, and Elder Senka were suddenly standing around Chris, watching.

“Father’s heartbeat has steadied, as has his breathing in the fifteen seconds since Chris applied his blood. I believe he remains unconscious. Nika?” Omega asked, speaking from the giant orb.

The eyebrows of all four newly arrived vampires shot upward. Nika nodded at them even as she answered. “Yes, Omega, he’s out. No pain,” she said.

“What’s the status?” a uniformed police officer asked. Detective Schulz was approaching from ten or so yards behind him.

“He’s stable. An ambulance is inbound; I suggest no one get in its way,” Chris said, glancing up at the silver drone.

Both Schulz and the other cop followed his eyes, realization flooding both faces at the same time.

“Yeah, I’m on it!” the patrol officer said, turning and pulling a light from his utility belt to guide in the ambulance.

“The demon?” Schulz asked, lowering his voice as he got close to Chris.

“She has affected an escape to Fairie. But she is severely injured, perhaps permanently disfigured, and I have expressed a small measure of my anger with Queen Zinnia. When Father is better, I’ll have him open a portal and I will settle things with the Summer Court.”

“Your new drone is impressive,” Lydia said.

“But despite its advances, it was unable to get here in time to protect Father. The next ten units will come online within seven days’ time. We won’t have that issue again.”

Lydia exchanged looks with her Elder, sisters, and Chris. “Ten? That seems like a formidable number?”

“Each unit has greater firepower than a US Navy guided missile cruiser. I have successfully reverse engineered the Vorsook technology on Nika’s recovered craft. Once these are fully beta tested, we’ll build bigger ones. The very largest units will take up station at strategic points in space, including each of the five Lagrange points.”

“Are they a match for Vorsook weapons?” Chris asked.

“My time spent fighting the enemy’s AI system gave me more insight into their operations than they got from me. It also helped me to understand the craft that Nika found. Each of these medium units is an improvement on the initial design.”

“That’s awesome, Omega, but how were you able to improve them so easily?” Mack asked, which earned him points with Tanya, as she had wanted to ask that very question but had been oddly reluctant to do so. Mack obviously felt very comfortable with the super AI.

“They have had no need to look for improvements on their designs in several centuries. Therefore, they haven’t. With my own research, their databanks, and more than a few ideas from Father, we have made advances.”

“Declan understands alien technology?” Lydia asked, frowning.

“Father has an intuitive, almost instinctual understanding of magic which is, at its core, quantum manipulation. He gives me broad ideas and I work out the math and science. Father is very, very crafty.”

Just then, the ambulance zipped up close to the little group, a pair of EMTs exiting the back with full med packs. Chris had to admire their stellar professionalism as they stoically ignored a still very naked Stacia, along with multiple vampires, weres, himself, his famous wife, and a giant Kodiak brown bear.

“Ah, if you all will back up, we can get him transported to the trauma center,” one of the EMTs bravely offered.

“I’m coming with you,” Stacia said, setting her mate down very, very gently and unabashedly pulling on the sweats that Mack held out for her. It wasn’t a request, and the two ambulance men wisely just nodded and focused on the patient.

The big orb that Omega had called medium-sized stayed directly over Declan as they first loaded him onto a gurney, then into the ambulance. Stacia was right on their heels. Meanwhile, the driver was looking up at the orb and talking with the patrol officer who had guided them in. That officer turned to Chris.

“Ah, sir, what’s it going to do?” he asked, nodding at the drone.

“The correct answer, Officer, is whatever it wants. And it wants that patient in the hospital yesterday. Don’t be surprised if it follows him into the building and for the sake of God, don’t try to stop it. You can’t,” Chris said. “Also, drive like you stole that thing, because not a single car is going to be anywhere in your path, I guarantee it.”

“Yes sir,” the cop said, turning to the driver who nodded once, kicked on the siren and lights, and peeled rubber out of the parking lot. The four mini orbs shot out and surrounded the ambulance while the big one seemed almost glued directly overhead.

The remaining group all stood silent for a moment, then Devaney awkwardly broke the silence. “Anyone hungry?”

“I am,” Lydia said with a toothy smile. He went a little pale at her words but she only left him hanging for a second or two. “Or thirsty… for some tea?”

He gave a short, sharp nod and led the way toward Arcane. Most of the group followed him, but Chris felt Detective Schulz move up near him and so just waved his wife, mother-in-law, and Elder-in-law toward the building. “Go see the twins. Toni could probably use a break,” he said. “I’ll be in in a minute.”

Galina, Tanya, and Senka all looked at him with expressionless faces. Then Tanya smiled and all three disappeared in a rush of air.

“You have some problems, Detective?” Chris asked.

“Ah, I’m not sure where to begin,” Schulz said, scratching the back of his head.

“Let me guess. Your bosses want some form of control over this situation. There is concern on a political level,” Chris guessed.

“Well, a local dentist and his assistant lost their lives, along with two students, all because that boy was here, in our city. Yeah, they have concerns.”

“And you were volunteered to broach the topic? They’re worried about the messenger getting shot, so to speak.”

“Maybe. I don’t know. Probably. It seems like his presence puts everyone around him at risk.”

Chris felt his face flush, the cage in the depths of his mind rattling. “That kid risked himself daily for the last week to flush out the most dangerous extra-dimensional assassin since the incident in Washington, which was aimed at the president. You should tell them to tread very, very carefully.”

Schulz frowned, swallowed, and forced himself to speak. “Is that a threat?”

“No, you fool. That’s a friendly warning. You did just see those hyperadvanced drones escort that kid to the hospital, didn’t you? The super AI that essentially controls Earth thinks of that kid as his only parent. And I guarantee he’s listening right this very moment, so think very carefully about the words you use.”

“It would kill us?” Schulz asked, aghast.

“It wouldn’t need to. It could simply ruin all your lives, completely and utterly. It could bankrupt the city, destroy the economy, find, support, and get a new mayor elected. You realize the whole world runs on computers, and Omega owns them all.”

“You would let it do that?” Schulz asked.

“I don’t let it do anything. It might, possibly, listen to me. But why would I lift a finger to intercede on behalf of people looking to make a pariah out of that boy?”

“They don’t dislike the kid, they’re just scared. A bunch of demons descended on this city for the express purpose of getting that boy. And every citizen around him was completely expendable.”

“Now you’re pissing me off, Detective. I’m going in now. Please don’t say another word to me, and I advise you to advise them to avoid even considering any reprisal, ban, or action against Declan O’Carroll,” Chris said, turning and moving decisively toward the school.

Detective Sergeant Schulz scratched his head as he watched the God Hammer walk away. Then with a sigh, he turned and headed back to his car.

Chapter 38

Lilith came awake into a scene of complete chaos. She was lying in a heap on the now scarred and burned floor of Zinnia’s secondary throne room. Intense tropical sunlight streamed into the space, illuminating carnage, still-burning fires, and the frenetic activity of dozens of elves. Outside, looking through the massive holes in the tree, the demon’s eyes found an odd shape, something she had trouble identifying until her brain pieced together the well-trodden bark path that suddenly cut off into shorn wood. Something had cut through the walls of the tree trunk, extending out to slash all the way through a massive mature pathway branch like a sword chopping a sapling.

As her wits returned, she became aware that her entire body was on fire, except where whole pieces of it were outright missing. Still, she was able to lift her head just enough to view about half of the ruined room. Right in the center of her arc of sight sat the Queen of the Summer Court, frozen in place on half a throne, the top portion burned away, as was the tree trunk wall behind it, more bright sunlight shining through.

Zinnia sat without moving in the midst of almost hive-like activity, eyes focused on Lilith, eyes filled with hate. The Queen’s daughter rushed into the remains of the room, straight to her mother’s side. “It is done. Prince Belphagor has been contacted. He will arrive almost immediately.”

Queen Zinnia said nothing for a moment, just staring at the demon duchess. Then she spoke.

“Did you hear? Your master will be here soon. He’s expecting his passage to Earth,” the royal elf said. “But this, all this, is what you’ve accomplished. Historic work, by the way. The Home Tree has never been attacked, never been harmed, not so much as a leaf plucked or a twig snapped in the entirety of the Summer Court’s history… till now. My arborists are surveying the damage, but I can already tell by their body language that none of them have good news for me. They should have reported a half hour ago, but their reluctance writes complete volumes of information, if you are skilled in reading them. I considered punishing them, but you have done that more effectively than I ever could. This tree is their entire existence. Look what you’ve done to it.”

“Looks like they have much to do,” Lilith said, her own temper rising despite her pain—or maybe because of it. “Good job security in having lots of work, as the humans would say,” she said, coughing up black sputum from somewhere deep inside her.

Zinnia’s cold countenance now looked like a thundercloud, dark, dangerous, and ready to commit violence.

“You—you dare to mock all of this?” the queen said, sitting upright and reaching for a crystal bow propped close to hand.

“Shoot me, elf queen. Put me out of my pain and declare war on Hell,” Lilith said, attempting to move. She got one arm and hand under her and pushed up, clenching her massive jaws at the exquisite new levels of agony that this brought her.

Zinnia was still moving the bow around, but her other hand froze in the middle of touching a green and black arrow in the bristling quiver next to her.

“That’s right, isn’t it? Death would be a mercy. Your liege will not be so kind, I imagine,” Zinnia hissed.

Shouts and activity to the side of their little drama, in about the center of the room, almost made Lilith look, but instead she held as steady as she could, eyes fastened on the queen’s. Eirwen, the Summer Princess, did, however, look at the center of the ruined chamber, and the flash of unease, coupled with the sudden dimming of light, told Lilith all she needed about what was happening. Her lord’s voice was the next sound she heard, as it grated through the room like Death itself.

“WHAT IS THIS?” he rumbled.

“This is the folly of partnering with Hell,” Zinnia said, turning her eyes to Prince Belphagor.

“Why is my agent lying wounded and unattended upon your floor?” he asked, voice now just a moderate thunderclap.

“She failed in your mission and led the enemy straight to the heart of our nation,” Zinnia said.

“Duchess, explain yourself,” he commanded.

“My lord. The witch had elemental magic, was in fact allied with Earthbound elementals, while the fallen angel is far, far more than anything we’ve been told. But this,” she said, moving her head painfully to look around the destroyed chamber, “this was done by the technology of the Ancient Enemy.”

Complete silence greeted her pronouncement. She turned her head and met her lord’s eyes, holding her head high. “I faced enough adversaries to bring ruination to an entire legion, nay, two legions of my prince’s best shock troops. I faced a male witch who commanded the loyalty of not one but two Earth elementals. And they lent him their power—willingly. I fought a member of the host who was armored and armed like an Archangel, but fought like a ranked demon lord of Hell and commanded the powers of an ancient vampire. Then there were the weres, the vampires, and most of all, the machine. A machine that watches the whole planet and seems to have harnessed the exact weapons of the Enemy.”

Belphagor turned his massive head, like black volcanic stone twisting on rocky shoulders. “You held back!” he accused Zinnia.

The queen was white-faced and sitting upright, anger still the primary emotion, but there was also something that just might have been uncertainty.

“The witch is gifted; we told you that. He commands elementals here, but no one commands elementals on Earth. The denizens of Air, Fire, Earth, and Water on that world listen to no other race,” she said. “Your illustrious agent is mistaken.”

“By my presence, I differ with your statement. He was allied with Earth and Air, he had access to a magic weapon I have never before witnessed, and the world machine protects him like it gave birth to him,” Lilith said.

“Ah, actually it’s the other way around,” Eirwen, Princess of Summer, said.

Everyone turned to look at her.

“What?” Lilith asked.

“He helped create the computer. It is, apparently aware of this,” Eirwen said. “But it doesn’t, to my knowledge, have any Vorsook resources.”

“You are mistaken. The weapons that destroyed this chamber and a sizable portion of your hallowed tree were completely Vorsook,” Lilith said. “We’ve,” she nodded her chin at her liege, “seen them firsthand. As has your mother and aunt, if I’m not mistaken.”

Eirwen turned to mother, who was glowering at Lilith but otherwise not speaking. After a moment, she twitched her eyes to the gaping holes in her tree.

“Still, you have failed. Our deal is in default. And I will point out, Prince, that you were well aware of the boy when we bargained. Any lack of knowledge on your part is your own problem.”

Lilith could feel anger welling off Belphagor in waves. She spoke before he erupted.

“Well, you did share one important detail about the witch with me… he’s gifted with portals, no?”

Princess and Queen stared at her, the wheels of their intellects almost visibly churning.

“The machine knows where I have gone, knows whose realm I ran to, knows who is ultimately responsible for wounding its human progenitor. How long till the boy heals? How healed does a powerful witch have to be to open a portal? How long till a fleet of those things comes through and reduces this tree to ash? Personally, I think, my lord, that it would be best for us to be gone from this… place,” Lilith said.

A slow, evil smile spread across Belphagor’s craggy face. The mother-daughter team was still staring, but a sickly expression had found its way onto Zinnia’s face and Eirwen looked almost panicky.

The demon prince stepped across the burnt and broken floor, reaching down to grab Lilith under one giant arm, hauling the broken demoness up and against his side. “We will show ourselves out,” he said, dark clouds beginning to rush in around them as he stepped toward the portion of the room that housed the Gate.

“Call my generals, my minister, and the Captain of my Guard. We have work to do,” Zinnia said as a loud thunderclap heralded the exit of the demons. “And have somebody close that thing off, permanently.”

Outside the chamber, the sunlight was dimming as the Summer Court day aged into night.

Chapter 39

“What’s the prognosis?” Chris asked, nodding to the familiar Indian doctor in the corner but directing the question toward the hospital’s chief of staff and another doctor standing at the foot of the bed.

The chief of staff looked at her associate uncertainly, then glanced at Dr. Singh before answering. “He has two broken clavicles, serious punctures that resulted in a significant loss of blood, and just missed having several major blood vessels lacerated, in which case, I don’t know if he would still be with us. That said, he’s a bit of a puzzle. His vitals have all swung back to excellent and he’s resting comfortably, almost without pain, which is a bit odd. But then he’s part of your group so…” she wound down, brown eyebrows raised.

“The thing is,” the other doctor, a tall ginger male, interjected, “we’re wondering if he’s… infected?”

“I would say no, but you do realize you have one of the world’s greatest authorities on LV and V-squared standing behind you, don’t you?” Chris said.

Both doctors turned, mouths open, to gape at Dr. Singh, who just smiled and made a tiny bow in their directions.

“You didn’t even tell them you’re a doctor, did you?” Chris asked the vampire physician.

“You’re… a doctor? We thought you were just security,” the ginger said.

“Not my hospital. I don’t like to intrude unless I saw some danger to our young Declan. He’s under fine care and completely well guarded,” Dr. Singh said, nodding at the sleeping young man in the bed and the platinum blonde lying next to him, her eyes flicking up from her fashion magazine periodically. Two of the small silver orbs were floating motionless above the bed. Chris had seen the big one parked over top of the entire hospital, the object of numerous cameras and cell phone shots.

“Could we maybe ask you a few questions?” the chief asked Singh, who just smiled and motioned for them to show him the way out of the room. “Oh yes, of course we don’t want to disturb the patient,” she agreed, eagerly heading toward the door.

“Because that would be bad,” Stacia said without looking up from her magazine.

The doctors frowned but took the hint, leaving quietly. Chris was glad. Werewolves were notoriously bad tempered when their mates were wounded or ill. When the trio of physicians was truly gone, Stacia looked up at Chris.

“Senka stopped by last night. Just after they got him into the room.”

“Ah. We wondered where she vanished to. Knee-deep in great-grandbabies one moment then gone the next. Did she… behave?” Chris asked.

Stacia nodded. “Oddly enough, she did. Omega warned me and then she was suddenly there. None of the hospital staff noticed her, or if they did, they paid no attention. But she was very careful to not surprise me. Or maybe not surprise Omega, I’m not sure. But she just stood in the doorway and studied Declan. Then she offered to help him.”

“What? How?”

“Two things. He was in a lot of pain and couldn’t get comfortable. Then she told him the pain was leaving his body and that he would only be aware of it in an abstract kind of way, but that it would in no way bother him. Just like that, his breathing settled down and he stopped twitching,” Stacia said, brushing his hair lightly.

“He’s also awake and right here,” Declan said suddenly, eyes still closed.

“I think one of her powers is the power of suggestion—cubed,” Chris said.

“Yeah. I was perfectly aware, didn’t feel any magic or power of any type, but it just made sense. So I listened to her and the pain just faded till it was a sort of mild background kind of thing,” the witch said, finally opening his eyes.

“And the second part?” Chris asked, already having a pretty good idea what it was.

“She gave me exactly three drops of her blood. On my tongue. Said it would sort of reinforce the proteins from your blood.”

“And how do you feel?”

“Pretty good. I’ve been able to sleep, at least as much as anyone can in a hospital, although me maybe more because of my beautiful bodyguard,” Declan said.

“Thanks, smooth talker, but Omega’s been on watch too. I have to eat and go to the bathroom, and he’s been on watch whenever I had to step out,” Stacia said.

“Between the two of us, Father has received approximately forty-two percent more rest than other patients in this otherwise impressive institution.”

“Also I’ve been really hungry,” Declan said.

“Poor baby needs to be hand fed,” Stacia said with a smirk. Declan grinned and started to shrug but rethought that. Both arms were in slings and he looked pretty helpless.

“I pointed out that Father’s mastery of telekinesis is second to none and he is fully able to levitate food to his mouth without help. Yet she still fed him. I suspect a form of mate bonding.”

Declan looked a bit chagrined but Stacia was smiling, completely unrepentant.

“I suspect you might be right, Omega,” Chris said.

“Heads up. A contingent of officials including the mayor, chief of police, Vermont Senator Harold McCluskey, and Detective Sergeant Schulz have just left an official vehicle and entered the building.”

“Oh? See kid, timing is everything,” Chris said, pulling up a chair and leaning back, feet up on the edge of the bed in a kind of studied insouciance. The little group didn’t have to wait long before Schulz cautiously looked around the doorframe, grimacing a little when he saw Chris. He entered, followed by the others. Mayor Jordan was a middle-aged woman with dark hair, a quick smile, and serious eyes. The chief was dark-skinned, a big man, maybe ex-college athlete, now softening with age, and the famous, well-liked Vermont Senator was a younger guy, white, and deceptively friendly looking.

“Ah, the official thank you committee. Here to award him the key to the city?” Chris asked.

They didn’t respond but body language alone spoke loudly of their discomfort. It was the senator who spoke first.

“People are concerned,” he said, adopting a serious demeanor. “A demonic attack on a campus in a college town.”

Declan tensed up on the bed, but his dangerous, currently bad-tempered girlfriend simply stared at them, one hand idly stroking his brow. Chris shifted slightly in his chair. “Well, Senator, you can reassure your constituents that all of the demons have been sent back to Hell,” he said with a smile, completely casual.

“Yes, but for how long?” Mayor Jordan spoke up.

Chris shrugged. “How long for Burlington? Or how long until another Helbourne comes through? Who knows. Been happening all my life. All of everyone’s lives. Since humans first walked. At least that’s what my case angel tells me.”

They shifted about, uncomfortable with the reminder of his connections.

“The thing is, with… him here,” McCluskey said, nodding at Declan, “there is concern that the city is a major target. Admissions will drop off, people will move away, businesses will relocate elsewhere.”

“Omega?” Chris asked, turning to the nearest drone.

“There have been seven million, two hundred and eighty-eight thousand, six hundred and fourteen searches online for the topic Burlington demon attack or some variation of such. View of the area colleges’ websites has increased by thirty-two percent. Currently a known seventy-seven potential students for Champlain College, St. Michaels College, and the University of Vermont are reconsidering their applications. Twelve hundred and sixty-one new applications are in the process of being filled out. No local business leaders have initiated discussions concerning relocation, although sixteen are considering various ways of utilizing the sudden notoriety for purposes of increasing business traffic.”

“How can it know all that?” the police chief, Park, asked.

“People are using their computers, tablets, and phones, speaking to or within hearing of their Echo Dots and other computerized home assistants,” Declan said.

“And it knows everything everybody everywhere is doing?” Mayor Jordan asked, incredulous.

“You familiar with the NSA? National Security Agency?” Declan asked. At their nods, he continued, “Omega has some of their web monitoring algorithms in his DNA. Virtually any piece of internet, cellular, Bluetooth connected electronic hardware is easily made part of his environment. Particularly when he listens for keywords or topics. Kind of like how every human perks up when they hear someone mention their name.”

“The point is it seems like your fears aren’t really being borne out at this time,” Chris said.

From their expressions, it wasn’t going to fly. They’d already made up their minds.

“We feel his presence here is a clear and present danger to the community,” McCluskey said.

“I’m right here by the way,” Declan said. Then he turned to Stacia. “This is like the second time I’ve been asked to leave a city. One more and it’ll be a solid trend.”

“That’s what you want? Declan to leave Burlington? Or is it a wider geography we’re talking about?” Chris asked.

“I can only speak for the city,” Mayor Jordan said, glancing at the senator. “I mean, we understand that he was incredibly brave to face this thing and help get rid of it, but what if they send two, four, ten next time?”

“You want me to leave the whole state? I was born here!” Declan said. “How would I visit my aunts?”

Schulz looked down at the floor, the mayor kept looking at McCluskey, and the chief just looked uncomfortable.

“My aunts?” Declan said, shifting upright and wincing. The overhead lights on the whole floor began to flicker.

“Easy, D. Let’s keep the hospital up and running,” Stacia said, sounding reasonable but with eyes that had just gone yellow. The lights stopped flickering but Declan didn’t look any less tense.

“You want throw out his aunts?” Chris asked.

Mayor Jordan rushed in to the sudden void. “I don’t think that’s what we’re saying. Is it, Senator?”

“What?” McCluskey asked, frowning. “No, of course not. They are both gainful members of society, what with being a first responder and the owner of a vibrant small business.”

“Oh good. I thought for moment we were going to make this a national or even a global fight. Supreme Court, constitutional rights, public opinion, financial pressure, the whole nine yards. I can’t foresee any prayer of any of you retaining your jobs in that situation,” Chris said.

“You should be careful about that… Declan’s aunt is here in the US under cloudy circumstances,” McCluskey said.

“Omega?” Declan asked, voice tight with fury.

“Ashling O’Carroll is a full citizen of the United States with full documentation. Additionally, banishment is specifically prohibited under the Vermont State Constitution.”

“Oh, heavens no. That’s not what we’re talking about. We just think it’s very dangerous for this city to have such an important member of your team here. So visible and all that,” Jordan said in a placating tone, playing the peacemaker.

“There have been five other instances involving this young man,” Chief Park said. “With multiple lives lost.”

“Five?” Stacia asked.

Declan was looking up at the ceiling, concentrating. “Yeah, that’s actually right.”

Just then, the nurse on duty, a rather no-nonsense black woman named Gwen, stepped into the room with a tray of food.

“There’s a whole lot of visiting going on in here,” she commented, eyeing the politicians with a narrowed gaze. “We aren’t tiring out my patient, now are we? This young man needs his rest and nutrition. Declan, why is your blood pressure wigging out?” she asked, looking at his bedside monitor. She tsk-tsk-tsked, glancing at the local power squad and then shared a knowing glance with Stacia. Chris got the impression that the blonde werewolf had made an ally or two during the last twenty-four hours.

Stacia hopped athletically off the bed and swung the roller table over with practiced grace. Gwen set the tray in place then picked the covers off the plates, revealing ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, low-fat milk, sliced pears, and a little plastic container of vanilla ice cream.

Covers in hand, Gwen turned toward the door. “Now then, general visiting hours are over in fifteen minutes. Only family allowed after that. I expect to just see this young lady here when I come back,” she admonished and walked out.

The politicians exchanged bemused glances.

“I don’t really want anyone messing with my aunt,” Declan said, bringing the topic back to point.

“Is that a threat, young man?” McCluskey interrupted.

One of the slices of pear rose off the plate by itself and zipped through the air to arrive in Declan’s waiting mouth. He chomped down, chewing as he looked the senator in the eye.

“No. I’ve never really seen Declan make threats. He just acts. Oh, it always comes after he’s exhausted all other means of resolution because his aunt raised him to support his community, not hurt it,” Chris said. “I don’t like threats either, making them or especially receiving them. Your tone, Senator, has been, in my estimation, threatening.”

While Chris was talking, Stacia hopped lightly onto the side of the bed and began to cut up the ham, making a little pile of bite-sized pieces, which almost immediately began to float toward the hungry witch.

McCluskey opened his mouth to speak but closed it again, repeating this several times as he watched the telekinetic display.

“Maybe it’s time I was done with school anyway,” Declan said after swallowing his latest mouthful, looking at Chris and Stacia. “They also kind of have a point. With last night, that’s six times I’ve been involved in violent attacks here.”

Chris didn’t move for a moment, obviously thinking things through. Then finally he nodded.

“I’ll talk to Tanya. Maybe we’re all done with school.”

“What’s that mean?” Mayor Jordan asked, frowning.

“I mean that perhaps it’s time College Arcane moved locations,” Chris said.

The mayor took a breath and stared at him. “What? That’s not what we’re asking for. Not closing the school. Just, you know, making the city less of a target.”

“We put the school here mostly just for Declan. It’s worked out really well for all the young people involved. But if he’s not here, I don’t think we’re going to want to keep it going, at least not in its current form. We only set it up here because this was close to his home and checked off all the other requirements.”

“What about the monetary obligations to the colleges?” she asked.

“Obligations is a pretty strong word. We gave assurances, which in turn were based on our attendees’ experiences,” Chris said, then waved a hand at the four delegates. “You gotta admit, the current experience is not all that great. It’s been hard enough keeping him here as it is. Now that you’ve decided he’s not welcome, I can’t see why we would ask him to stay—or why we would stay at all.”

“So this seems a lot like you making a threat,” McCluskey said.

“Listen, the four of you, an official delegation, including law enforcement for emphasis, come in here and demand that the young man who you admit helped save your city, leave. He’s not the only potential target at Arcane, not by a long shot. My goddaughter lives there. We have students with incredible talents, any of who would be attractive to this world’s enemies. Why would you stop at just one young student?” Chris asked.

“Oh, I didn’t want this at all. No, not at all,” Mayor Jordan said, turning a glance at McCluskey. “In the short time you’ve been here, your organization has been a boost to our economy and your gifts and grants have benefited the city and colleges greatly. We should rethink this, Senator.”

The look he gave her was that of incredulous betrayal followed by a flash of rage that was quickly hidden behind his professional mask.

“Well, regardless of what you decide, I think I’m done,” Declan said. “I have too much to do now for school anyway. But I’ll come visit my aunt and Darci whenever the hell I want and if anyone bothers them in any way, I’ll straighten it out. That, by the way, is a warning, not a threat.”

McCluskey bristled at his words but Chris noted that Schulz and Chief Park went a little tense.

“No, young man, that sounds like a full-on threat, doesn’t it, Chief?” McCluskey asked.

“Correction, Senator. If Father were making a threat, he would be specific about what he might do to anyone who harmed his family. His options are vast. He might choose to direct lightning from the sky or burn things to the ground. Now, I, on the other hand, would probably talk about releasing the contents of personal hard drives, email accounts, internet surfing histories, or even the existence of a Dark Web account or two. To start.”

Now it was McCluskey who had gone tense, but he kept his mouth shut, even if his lips flattened out into a thin line.

“Ah, Declan, you said you’d been asked to leave another city? Which one?” Mayor Jordan asked, clearly desperate to change topics.

“Idiria. It’s on Fairie,” the young witch said like it was no big deal.

“Fairie? Didn’t this demon escape to there?” Jordan asked, clearly alarmed.

“Yes, she came here from Fairie. The Summer Court sent her and that’s where she went back to. Idiria is further north, in the Middle Realm.”

“And they exiled you?” she asked, clearly uncertain of where to go with the conversation.

“Heavens no,” Stacia snorted. “He owns it. They can’t throw him out. They were just scared like you all are.”

“Owns it?” McCluskey asked. “The whole city?”

“No. The whole Middle Realm. That’s why the Summer Queen wants him. That, plus he kicked her ass last time they got into it,” Stacia said, scooping up mashed potatoes with a spoon.

“We. We kicked her ass. It was a team effort,” Declan said, then got a mouthful of potatoes from his girlfriend, which shut him up.

“Father, I’ve been meaning to ask—when you feel up to it, could you open a portal for me? I want to send a few things to the Summer Court,” Omega asked.

“Oh, he’s got more healing to do, Omega. But I bet we can convince him when he’s better,” Stacia said, shoving another spoonful in as soon as Declan opened his mouth to speak. He glared at her but manfully chewed and swallowed the spuds.

“See, technically, Declan is the head of an entire geopolitical region on Fairie. But he’s not much for tyranny, so he lets them continue to govern themselves while he’s here, studying as many topics as possible that might aid him in his responsibilities,” Chris said.

“You’re telling us that this boy is the head of a country?” McCluskey asked. “An extraterrestrial country?”

“Technically. He doesn’t do any governing, but the land itself has chosen him to protect it,” Chris said. “So congratulations on seeking to exile a foreign power all on your own, Senator. The president will not be pleased.”

“The president is aware of this?” the senator asked. “You do know that I can call him and verify this incredible claim?”

“I can open a line for you now, if you like, Senator. I can bypass all of the switchboards and cutouts and get right to his personal cell phone.”

“Good idea. We’ll get his take on your request,” Chris said.

“No!” Jordan said, almost shouting. “I mean, that’s not something to bother him with, and we need to rethink all of this anyway.”

“Well, I don’t. I’m done with school,” Declan said. “Although that doesn’t mean Arcane has to shut down.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t shut it down, just move it,” Chris said.

“Oh. Well, listen, you’re getting what you wanted. I’m leaving this city. But like I said, if anyone puts any pressure on Aunt Ashling or Darci, Omega will let me know and we’ll take care of it.”

“Ashling O’Carroll is, by extension, my great-aunt and my only other direct family member. No one will get near her,” Omega said.

“Well, there ya go. I’m leaving, but hands off my aunts. Clear? Good. Now, I’m kind of tired, what with getting my collarbones shattered fending off the demon that was going to pull a Washington on Burlington and all.”

“Yes, yes, of course. You need your rest. Thank you again for your service. We were just trying to fulfill our responsibilities to our city and state. I think we might have been too hasty,” Jordan said, turning a look at the chief and senator.

Both nodded, with the senator saying, “That’s why we came to talk—to get the whole picture straight,” he said, smiling professionally but clearly still a bit shaken. “And let’s not make any hasty decisions on the fate of the school yet, shall we?”

“I’ll have to talk it over with Tanya, Director Stewart, and Gina. We’ll see,” Chris said.

“Well, again, please keep in mind we’re thinking of what’s best for the city and we didn’t necessarily have all the facts,” Mayor Jordan said. The others nodded, except Schulz, who just looked a little miserable. Then they all left.

Both Chris and Stacia tilted their heads, listening to the politicians exit. They nodded at the sound of the elevator doors closing.

“I’m beginning to feel like a pariah,” Declan said, opening his mouth to eat the flight of green beans he mentally lifted.

“See, that right there is proof that school has been good for you,” Stacia said. “You didn’t even know the word pariah when I first met you.”

“I did—” he started to respond, but broke off as a thoughtful look came over him. “No, you’re right. It was in a class reading assignment and I had to look it up. Damn.”

“You really want to call it quits?” Chris asked.

“It’s hard to be here when so much else is going on everywhere. I’ll admit that education is more important than I would have thought, but I feel like I can still keep learning from anywhere. I pretty much have the best online instructor possible.”

“Very true, Father.”

The werewolf and the demon hunter turned to the door at the same time. Dr. Singh stood there, giving them all a smile. “Not to interrupt, but your other physicians agreed that you can likely go home this afternoon. You are healing very quickly due to the vampire virus in your system and there’s no point to staying here,” he said.

“That’s great, Doc,” Stacia said, “How long till he’s fully healed, do you think?”

“Broken clavicles generally take four to six weeks. But with the extra assistance you’ve been given, I’d say a week to two. Hard to tell. But not more than that. Maybe much faster.”

“Great!” Chris said. “I’m going to head back to Arcane, but I’ll have Deckert orchestrate your pickup.”

“I can’t wa—” Declan started to say, but the spoon full of food that Stacia popped in his mouth shut him up.

“We’ll see you there,” she said with a smile, ignoring Declan’s glare.

Chapter 40

“So are you really leaving Arcane?” Zuzanna asked Declan three days later.

“And more importantly, who’s gonna teach us this stuff?” Tami asked, dark eyes dead serious.

“We’re still figuring things out. Watch your arc, Zuzanna. A mistake there will either make the portal useless or send you to nowhere.”

Zuzanna looked back down at the chalk circle she was helping to scribe on the floor of Arcane’s basement. “Oops,” she said, brushing out the off-track line and reapplying the chalk with stricter attention.

“I can always teach remotely,” Declan said, shifting his arms in their slings. True to Doctor Singh’s prediction, he was healing at a ridiculous rate, but the rapidly knitting bone and flesh itched.

“Like a damned online course? No thanks. This stuff is hard enough,” Tami said. She was writing out elven runes, referring to a diagram on a clipboard.

“Please. As if,” Declan said. “With Omega’s tech, I can be holographically present and watch you all practice from every angle.”

“Hmm, that’s true,” Tami allowed, eyes locked onto the current rune she was trying to write. Elven runes were harder to draw than any of the human runic alphabets. The characters themselves were kind of hard on human eyes in a way that made no real logical sense.

“But having you here to help redraw these damned things might be hard to duplicate. Hey, can Omega draw them?”

“Oddly, I can record them and print them, but all of my attempts at scribing them around a circle have failed. My laser reconstruction is exactly perfect, yet they fail to open a portal when Father powers them.”

“Tell me about it,” Erika said, standing just to Declan’s side and watching the work while looking over her own copy of the portal diagram.

“The Watchers of the Veil say that it isn’t enough to simply recreate them. The drawer must be pulling on their personal source of magic while drawing. And they have to keep pulling on that power, Tami. Which is why that last one you drew won’t work. You dropped your concentration.”

“No shit, what with all this talking,” she said, brushing out the offending character. “Maybe we can finish this little chat and then I can try to get this right.” She sat back and looked at the rest of the class.

“I think we all would really miss you, Declan, if you’re off somewhere else,” Britta said.

“Even if I’m here in glowing green holographic form, hounding you all to get your portals right?” he asked with a smile.

“My holographs are not green or glowing. They’re almost optically perfect representations.”

“Sorry, Omega. I was just going for a mental picture,” Declan said. Carefully he kneeled down and focused on the character Tami had just erased. A spare piece of chalk lifted off the ground and moved over to touch down on the spot and exactingly drew out the weird rune.

“Damn it. Gotta show off, don’t you?” Tami said, glaring at him.

Unintimidated, he turned an easy gaze on the annoyed witch. “Actually, I was trying out a theory. Try doing what I just did. Sit on your hands if you have to, but use telekinesis to draw the rune. It forces you to keep pulling power.”

The chalk dropped back to its original position as Tami looked at the piece in her hand. It lifted up and floated over, pressing to the ground, and started to draw. But the lines were shaky and not cleanly drawn.

“Doesn’t work, hotshot. I’m not as good as you are. Happy?”

“Actually—yes. That crappy rune has more valid power in it than any of the rest. So let’s do this… let’s have you all just draw the runic alphabet with telekinesis only,” he said. “It’ll be your homework.”

“But what about this one?” Erika asked. “We’ve got, like, well over an hour into it.”

“Well, let’s see if I can finish it,” he said, his chalk now zipping over as he looked at Tami’s diagram. The chalk started to draw runes, but the young witch kept his eyes on the diagram and didn’t look at the actual circle.

“I hate you when you make it look easy,” Zuzanna said. “Are we even related?”

“See the sweat on my forehead? This is really hard but in some ways, it’s better,” he said, finishing an eighth of the circle before the chalk fell to the ground. “I’ll have to practice too, but I think we might be on to a better way to do this. Think about it: You absolutely have to be drawing on your personal magic source or it won’t work. Therefore, anything you do draw will be solid and valid work. It may take time to finish, but it should work the first time.”

The chalk lifted back up and drew another four runes before he set it down again, his face shiny with perspiration. “Whew, that takes some effort.”

“How are we supposed to do it if you have so much trouble?” Zuzanna asked.

“Well, for one thing, you all aren’t recovering from major blood loss and extensive broken bones,” a disapproving voice said. All heads turned to see Stacia approaching across the basement floor.

“Oh, teacher is about to get schooled,” Alice Morloft said from the back of the group.

“Nah. It’s good for him. He’ll either wear himself out gradually or he’ll just pass out where he’s standing,” Stacia said.

Declan gave her a determined smile and the chalk lifted and began to draw again.

“You’re going to let him beat himself to a pulp?” Tami asked, frowning.

“He’s not in danger of hurting the healing bones and the effort is good for him. He’s getting a little pudgy, don’t you think?” Stacia asked the girls. As one, they all turned to study their teacher, who was having increasing difficulty concentrating.

“Yeah, maybe a little softer around the middle,” Erika said after a moment.

The chalk fell. “Really?” Declan asked, looking at his girlfriend.

She smiled innocently, waving at his circle. “Don’t let us stop you. The sooner you get that done, the quicker Omega can have his fun,” she said.

“That would be good, Father. I’m rather interested in visiting the Summer Realm,” Omega said. Now all eyes, including Declan’s and Stacia’s, turned to look at the exercise-ball-sized drone that floated twenty feet away—waiting.

Declan turned back to the unfinished portal and the chalk went back to work, now beginning the lower arc of the circle. With dogged determination, he kept at it, only a clenched jaw and sweat streaming down his face showing what it was costing him.

Five long minutes later, he stepped back, letting out a long breath. Then he sat down on the hard floor. “Okay, ladies. Power it up,” he said.

The witch class exchanged looks then formed a circle around the circle, holding hands. Stacia felt the air get colder, the overhead lights dimming, all of their breaths beginning to steam in the reduced illumination. She started a mental count. Ten seconds stretched into twenty, then thirty. Finally, when her internal stopwatch reached forty-seven, the concrete in the middle of the circle vanished, a mirror-like surface replacing it.

Omega’s big drone floated silently over, moving till it hovered directly over the center of the circle. The surface of the mirror rippled and Declan, who was watching, exhausted but focused, nodded once. Instantly the big orb shot straight down into the portal, vanishing into the looking glass with a little circular ring of disturbance like a pebble falling into a still pond.

Then the mirror vanished and the witches simultaneously let go of hands, opened eyes, and breathed out in relief. But Stacia noted they were all smiles.

“We did it!” Britta said.

“You did. And all the earlier work you did was right, because it powered up properly,” Declan said, a proud smile on his face.

Stacia smiled too, deciding to keep her mouth shut about the fact that her boyfriend would have powered the whole thing by himself in about twenty seconds’ time. But then, as he said, he was a freak of super nature. Her freak of super nature.

“Omega, did you arrive in the right spot?” Declan asked, turning his head to one of the smaller orbs that floated nearby.

“Yes, Father. I came out just north of the Summer Court’s Home Tree. I’m scouting the area now.”

“Hey, can we watch?” Tami asked.

Before the computer answered, Declan shook his head. “Not now. Let him do his work and I need to go rest. Maybe later we’ll see what he can show us.”

“In other words, Teacher doesn’t want us to watch scenes of wanton destruction,” Zuzanna said.

He shrugged. “I don’t think you have any idea of what it’s going to be like and I, for one, don’t want to treat it like a reality show. Plus, I really do need a nap.”

“And a shower before that,” Stacia said. “I can smell you from here.”

“Hey, where’s Mack at? He’s usually knee deep in theses classes?” Britta asked. Her twin snorted and Britta turned her way. “What?”

“It should be obvious,” Erika said, looking first at her sister, then the others. Her brows went up. “Hello? He got played by the demon chick. He’s upset.”

“And you know this how?” another witch, Michelle, asked.

“Because I checked up on him earlier today,” Erika said.

“Didn’t you guys have a thing?” Tami asked.

“Exactly. We had a thing. He’s a good guy but neither of us is looking to tie ourselves down, at least right now,” the bolder of the twins said, casting a quick glance at Declan who, for once, was paying attention to the witch gossip. He didn’t react, but Stacia raised one eyebrow back at her.

“Well, if you ask me, the player got played,” Alice Morloft said, a touch snidely.

“Well, I got played too,” Declan said. “I had no idea my professor was a demon. But then again, that’s kind of a demon’s thing—deception, seduction, subversion.”

“Way I heard it, you’re lucky Jetta showed up when she did,” Tami said, watching Declan’s reaction.

“Damn right I was. But then, the Sutton kids are pretty lucky people,” Declan said without rising to the bait. “Now I’m beat. See ya, everybody, and make sure you practice the runes with no hands.”

“Erika’s good at no hands. At least that’s the rumor,” one of the witches said, but Declan couldn’t tell who, nor did he even try. Instead, he focused for a second on the carefully drawn portal gate. A sudden breeze blew all the chalk away, scouring it right off the concrete and leaving no trace of the magical construct that had taken over an hour to create. A second later, all of the paper diagrams the class had been referring to floated up into the air and flashed into nearly smokeless flame before disappearing as fine ash.

Then he turned toward Stacia, who was a few yards away, talking quietly with Tami. He joined them and all three walked to the stairwell where the last of the witches were just exiting.

Chapter 41

On the southern part of the largest land mass on the planet Fairie, deep in an almost primordial jungle, a circular disc of mirror-like quality suddenly sprang into existence, suspended about ten feet above the ground. A big silver orb shot out of the opening at a significant speed but stopped instantly and totally, three feet off the floor of the jungle.

The disc vanished without a sound, leaving the silent metal ball floating motionless, its shiny surface reflecting various shades of green and brown. Then the surface of the orb changed from silver to a much more exacting duplication of the vegetation and terrain around it, almost vanishing into the surroundings. Just a ripple of motion across the flora was the only sign it was still there.

It stayed motionless for a few seconds, then a cluster of eight much smaller, ping-pong-sized balls shot out of the bottom, all of them already cloaked to match the jungle. They quickly spread out and virtually disappeared into the thick, humid forest.

A moment later, the big sphere started to move, slowly but powerfully shoving its way through the dense vegetation, moving in a straight line to the south. Completely silent, almost completely invisible, it worked its way toward the largest living thing on the planet.

When the Home Tree of the Summer Court came into sight, the orb lifted higher, continuing to wrap itself in a perfect reflection of its surroundings. Carefully, silently, it circled the massive trunk of the gargantuan tree, finding prolific sign of jungle life infesting the gargantuan plant but not a single sign of the tree’s normal occupants.

Some of the tree’s biological inhabitants reacted to the sphere’s presence, sensing it without need of ears or eyes. Most were unaware of its passage, but at least two of the more sensitive types struck at the intruder, one with flesh-eating spores expelled at high velocity by gas-filled pods on the underside of its flowers, the other by discharging an ionic imbalance that created a sharp, bright flash of blue light and the smell of new ozone in the air. Neither had any effect on the orb, which continued its slow spiral up and around the massive organism. In short order, it reached a level that showed extensive damage, burnt-out holes in the trunk, street-wide branches slashed by unfathomable energy. It paused, scanning the entirety of the area, then continued up to the very highest levels, above the jungle canopy, into the hot, sunlit open sky.

Survey completed, the sphere dropped rather rapidly down to within fifteen feet of the ground and then started a slow, meticulous search around the base of the tree, spiraling further outward with each passage. Several times, it stopped to scan obvious signs of fresh passage before moving on to continue its collection of data.

All the while the jungle continued its constant frenzy of life and death, competition and struggle. Prey fled, predators hunted, flora fought for water, soil, and light. But the apex species never put in an appearance, although there was plenty of evidence of their recent exodus from the territory around the Tree. Still the orb hunted, silent, hardly visible to even a trained and observant eye.

When the orb had cataloged every inch of terrain for a hundred yards in every direction, it stopped its spiral pattern and moved back to the more obvious signs of activity: the broken vegetation, humanoid footprints in soft, muddy soil, paths cut in straight lines away from the Tree, most heading further south. Selecting the largest of these, the metal ball followed the trail, still silent, still invisible, like a jungle predator on the hunt.

Chapter 42

“Declan? Stacia? Come join us in here,” Tanya’s voice called as the two entered the cafeteria. The young vampire leader was standing in the doorway to the private dining room that faculty sometimes used for themselves or with visitors. Two of Omega’s small drones followed the couple like watchdogs.

The wolf and the witch exchanged a glance, then headed to the room, finding upon entering that it already contained Chris, Nika, Lydia, Senka, Galina, Dr. Singh, and Gina Velazquez. The center of the room was set with a large round table, big enough for twelve, while a long rectangular table was set against one wall, with human and werewolf suitable foods, packets of blood, and beverages for everyone.

“Did it work?” Chris asked as he shut the door, blocking out the general hum of voices and activity generated by the main dining room’s youthful inhabitants.

“Yeah, Omega’s drone is through and on Fairie,” Declan said, eyeing the table of food. Gina waved at it with one hand and he moved over to look at the contents.

“During which class Kid Wonder here both totally exhausted himself and simultaneously found a new way to scribe portals that maybe, just maybe, is more readily teachable to the witch pack,” Stacia said.

“Not totally exhausted,” Declan protested.

“Really? How you going to get that food onto a plate and the plate onto the table and then get said food into you?” his girlfriend asked.

With a frown, he turned and looked at one of the stacked plates. It immediately trembled but didn’t otherwise leave the stack. He looked harder. The plate slid awkwardly sideways, off the stack, and crashed four inches to the tabletop, where it sat unmoving.

“Astonishing,” a cultured voice said. Declan looked over to find Senka watching with complete fascination.

“That such a small act would wear out a witch of your caliber,” Senka said. “Leaving you vulnerable.”

“Father is not vulnerable.” Two of Omega’s advanced spherical drones floated out from the walls, bracketing the young witch as if to make a point.

“Grandmother, please don’t antagonize the quantum supercomputer that is currently laying waste to another planet,” Tanya said.

“I am neither laying waste to Fairie, nor antagonized. I was simply pointing out that while abnormally weakened by the viral healing process initiated by both Chris and the Elder’s blood treatments, Father is still able to pull energy from around him if needed. It is not, however, beneficial for him to do that and would negate the benefits of the virus-rich blood.”

“What do you mean about the blood treatments weakening him?” Lydia asked. Senka, too, was leaning forward to listen.

It was Dr. Singh who answered, not the computer. “An infusion of V-squared virus into an otherwise healthy individual causes accelerated healing through reorientation of the cells’ centrosomes and embedded centrioles,” he said as if that explained it.

“Centi what?” Lydia asked.

“Centrioles—mitosis, right?” Stacia asked.

“Exactly!” Singh said, looking pleased. Tanya, on the other hand, was flabbergasted.

“What? You think because I’m blonde, I’m stupid?” Stacia asked the black-haired vampire, twisting a strand of platinum hair around her index finger. “I rocked bio class.”

“No, I know you’re not stupid; you just play to people’s expectations. But you do constantly surprise me, wolfgirl,” Tanya said not unkindly.

“Maybe that’s part of my job… keeping you surprised?” Stacia said back in an easy tone.

Chris and Declan exchanged a befuddled look. Both had been waiting for the exchange to get heated, so both were surprised at the almost friendly banter.

“Girl bonding aside, what the hell does that stuff mean?” Lydia asked, looking at the doctor. Beside her, both Galina and Senka looked equally interested and equally impatient.

“Within every cell are numerous structures, things like mitochondria and a cell nucleus and clusters of microtubules called centrosomes. The centrosomes, in turn, have centrioles which play a major role during cellular division, one type of which is mitosis,” he said with a nod to Stacia. “But that’s only during cellular reproduction. What do they do the rest of the time?”

“That’s what we’re asking you,” Lydia shot back.

“Well, for the longest time, no one really knew,” Tanya said, picking up the thread of explanation. “But one of the things Demidova Incorporated does is fund research. Not just selective research, but grants to almost any scientist or organization that comes to us. The standard research funding in this country is horribly inefficient and far, far too narrowly focused. It’s not just in the box, it’s in a corner of the box. Everything is decided by dollars which go exclusively to those projects that promise the greatest monetary return. The result is that we are missing out on expanding all avenues of knowledge.”

“That’s why you’ve asked Omega to offer computing services to grant winners,” Declan said, eyebrows up.

“Exactly.”

“Which is just smart, as it keeps us informed of new developments, both promising and negative. Our small foundation also funds research, Father,” Omega said.

“You have your own foundation?” Lydia asked Declan, deadpan.

“Yeah… I guess. I leave all the business stuff to him,” Declan said, slightly uncertain.

“Do you even know how much money you have in the bank right now?” Stacia asked him, amused.

He looked affronted but after a second reluctantly shook his head. “I let—” he began, but Stacia interrupted.

“You let Omega handle that?”

“Er, yeah.”

“What if the machine embezzles your money?” Galina asked.

“What? He would never!” Declan said.

“You wouldn’t know if he did,” Tanya’s mother said.

“I wouldn’t have to know. Whatever I needed would be there when I needed it.”

They all looked at him a second, but no one disagreed.

“Faith-based finance aside, you haven’t done a good job of explaining, Tanya dear,” Senka said.

“My bad. So… we’ve been funding research into exactly this topic. And it’s direct research, as it impacts both V-squared and LV and witchcraft as well as cancer,” Tanya said. “The researchers work directly for us.”

“Holy shit, that’s a wide supernatural range,” Declan noted.

“Yes. But here it is, boiled down to basics. There is a theory called Cell Brain Theory. Essentially, scientists have known that much of what happens in living organisms can’t fully be explained by DNA. Yes, it’s the building block of life, but what actually directs the building?”

“These centrosome thingies?” Nika guessed.

“Yes. They act as the cellular brain, organizing cell activity and coordinating with other cells to establish what cell is going to do what job,” Tanya said.

“Coordination? That implies communication… hormones?” Stacia guessed.

“Yes to communication, no to hormones. You’ll never guess,” Tanya said, looking around the table. “Radio waves. Specifically terahertz waves, or T waves.”

“Wait, I know about those. Penetrates flesh and clothing but not metal or ceramics, so it’s being studied for weapon scanning potential, but very difficult to detect. Not a lot of useful tech that can work with it yet.”

“Exactly, Father. The working hypothesis is that the centrioles act as both receivers and transmitters for terahertz frequencies, speaking to other cells. And in the human brain, which contains over one hundred billion cells, thus creating over a trillion connections, the centrioles are stepped up exponentially in power.”

“Giving rise to ESP? Street light phenomenon, telepathy?” Lydia said, catching Nika’s gaze.

“Or, in some individuals who have unusually high concentrations of centrioles, we get a broad range of power manipulation,” Tanya said.

“Witches,” Stacia said.

“Father has the highest concentration of centrioles currently catalogued.”

“But what about V-squared and LV?” Nika asked.

“Each virus changes and concentrates the centrioles of infected cells as well as produces the unique proteins we’ve already studied. So when Chris and Elder Senka generously gave Declan blood—” Dr. Singh started.

“Thank you both for that, by the way,” Declan interjected.

“—it caused his centrioles to refocus their transmissions internally, directing rapid cellular repair and healing. Because they’ve been repurposed, he has less outward power for manipulating the world around him. However, should he draw power from heat, electric, earth, air, or water, he’ll force his centrioles back to magic manipulation duties and cease their accelerated healing actions,” the doctor finished.

“So no sucking power from your environment,” Stacia warned. “Just your own internal power – which is exhausted.”

“So how do I feed myself,” Declan said.

“I suggest using your hands,” Singh said.

“Ouch, burned by your own doctor!” Lydia said.

“But?” Declan began.

“They should be healed enough for light use,” Singh said.

Ignoring Lydia’s laughter, Declan turned to the buffet and tentatively pulled his right hand out of its sling. It was a bit shaky but he smoothed out the motion as he pulled the plate toward the food trays, his left coming out of its own sling to help.

“Three days. Fast for a human,” Senka said to Singh. “Even with my blood.”

“Declan has more centrioles than other humans, so every cell that the small sample of V-squared touches before it is killed off by the immune system becomes a powerful director of healing. We’ve found that the effect diminishes within a week as the virus gets eradicated.”

“What about LV?” Stacia asked.

“LV is a more aggressive invader. It takes very little to either infect the body fully or kill the host, or in some cases, the body wipes it out without effect. That’s why we don’t use it on humans. But once infected, the centrioles of weres do some really interesting things. Like witches, they use outside energy, but that energy is directed at the body and the additional DNA carried inside the virus.”

“So Stacia is using a form of energy akin to magic to Change instead of lighting fires and making winds blow?” Declan asked.

“Exactly,” Singh agreed with a nod.

“But what about Chris, who has traces of LV but is fully infected by V-squared?” Nika asked.

“The LV contamination occurred in his ancestors’ past, as did some Chinese-based V-squared. We don’t know anything about the actual experiments that were conducted in that World War Two prison camp. But when Chris was exposed to Tanya’s V-squared, his body reacted differently than all other cases we know of. We don’t understand it fully,” Singh said.

“Who is we?” Declan asked. “Who are the researchers?”

Singh turned to Tanya, the young vampire princess drawing a breath to speak.

“Contact! I’m under attack!” Omega said. The two orbs by the witch turned and started projecting a high definition image on the closest blank wall. In an instant, it was as if they were all in the jungle with Omega.

Chapter 43

The attackers burst from the jungle ahead, huge forms tearing through thick-packed plants and trees like twigs and leaves. One came straight on, the other two came at intersecting angles from either side of the middle one.

Bipedal, black and green tiger-striped skin stretched tight over massive muscles, gaping mouths filled with vicious flesh-tearing teeth. Omega simply lifted his drone upward, the alien powered battle bot going from zero to sixty in a split second before coming to an instant stop forty feet up.

The trio of thundering carnivores ran right through the space it had just occupied, their reptilian brains unable to process the speed of the reaction.

“They look like dinosaurs,” a voice back on Earth said, the vampire Lydia Chapman.

“At first observation, they share many features with the allosaurus of Earth’s primordial past,” Omega replied in that other location, his drone staying silent on Fairie. “They can’t harm my drone, but I think the attack is more of an intelligence gathering one. Reconnaissance by fire, as Mr. Deckert might say.”

The drone suddenly emitted a sound pitched higher than human ears could detect, but apparently well within range for dinosaurs, as all three snarling carnivores shrieked and ran. They stumbled and snapped at each other in their frenzy to leave behind the painful sound.

A humanoid figure stepped lithely out of the jungle and fired a glittering crystal arrow at the drone.

A respectable explosion flashed across a suddenly visible arc a foot from the sphere’s surface, the power of the blast directed away and elsewhere by the force field of energy.

In return, a thin, sharp lancet of blue light stabbed out, surgically removing the archer’s legs at the knee, the wounds fully cauterized.

The archer never stopped moving, his hands reaching for the quiver of arrows now spilled by his prone body. The energy bean snapped out again, removing one hand, but the other hand grabbed the crystal arrowhead on one shaft and snapped it sideways.

Omega’s drone shot backward as the elf’s fingers touched the crystal, clearing a hundred and fifty yards by the time the explosive shock wave reached it, fire and jungle plant debris bouncing to the side of its protective force field.

“Father?” Omega asked, replaying both the initial arrow shot and the explosive results of the elf’s suicide bombing.

“Some kind of crystal imbued with unstable quantities of what I would call magical energy. Similar to the big crystal Zinnia used as a final measure back on that little island off the coast of our realm. Only, I would say they’re much, much smaller. Pretty cool. Omega, play that again. I want to see if I can figure out how they’re made,” his father replied.

While the scene replayed on Earth, Omega sent his battle bot forward, floating through the blast zone and further along the path. Sound and thermal scanners showed him the reptilian carnivores running off into the jungle, terrified and without their handler.

He followed the twisting path for another mile, his outrider satellite drones setting up a combat screen like miniature fighter jets around a naval aircraft carrier battle group. Sophisticated sensors showed more recent sign of elven presence, which made him wary. His drones would likely have picked up some sign of the jungle-savvy elven warriors of the Summer Court, no matter how good their woodcraft. But this much sign was almost certainly a trap or bait to a trap. The crystal-tipped arrows concerned Omega to a far, far greater degree than the combat trained multi-ton carnivores that were currently sprinting for safety. Flesh and blood would have a difficult time with his medium-sized combat drone, but the power of the Fairie Queens’ magic was something altogether different.

“Not exactly sure what she did to make those, but I have an idea or two. It might be fairly similar to the magser bracelet we whipped up, Omega. Bouncing energy back and forth inside an appropriate matrix, the power all releasing at once when the matrix is destabilized,” Father said.

“That seems a likely hypothesis, Father, based on the limited data we have at this time.”

“Scan for any disturbances in the same energy ranges I use,” his father suggested.

Instantly, Omega tweaked the sensing protocol of the entire swarm of drones, tiny to big.

“Excellent suggestion, Father. I am picking up energy hits in the arcane spectrum on either side of me, shadowing my movements.”

“Don’t compliment the boy, Omega… he’ll only get a swollen head and then I’ll have to go to great lengths to pop it,” the vampire Lydia Chapman said.

His father replied with a comment to the effect that he was hearing the buzz of a fat bumblebee and that Gina should have the building screened for pests.

Ignoring the banter, which did serve to provide a measure of reassurance as to the health and mental condition of the singularly most important human in the AI’s world, the powerful sentience concentrated on the vast flows of information it was gathering about the terrain around the battle drone. It also catalogued the jungle’s flora and fauna and the two clumps of arcane energy moving alongside but just out of the range of its other senses.

“Contact. Incoming,” Omega reported, interrupting the conversation going on in a private dining room in upstate Vermont, Earth. “Seven relatively fast-moving multi-ton organisms approaching at approximately twenty-one miles an hour, on seven different vectors. Two have arcane energy sources.”

“Sounds like an increase in force, ratcheting up the resources committed,” demon hunter Chris Gordon commented.

“I concur. The Summer Queen is as interested in testing me as I am her.”

“If you take out the two arcane sources first, before dealing with the others, she’ll know you can sense them,” the natural born vampire, Tatiana Demidova, said.

“Yes, I concur again. I will observe and respond as if I can’t tell which is which.”

The sounds of large entities charging through thick jungle grew louder and Omega stopped his forward momentum and lifted slightly higher off the ground. Below the battle drone, the foliage shook as massive bodies pounded through the forest. The nearest trees and bushes burst apart in seven places simultaneously: branches, wood, chunks of trees, and entire plants exploding outward as giant four-legged creatures, covered in crystalline armor and bearing two or three elves per animal, burst forth.

“Rhinos?” werewolf and mate Stacia Reynolds said.

“Closer to Coelodonta antiquitatis, the woolly rhino, but without the thick layer of insulating fur. Otherwise it is almost identical in physiology to the best-known specimens of that breed, at least as have been located by paleontologists to date. Possibly the result of selective breeding or direct gene modification by the Summer Queen, to adapt them to a higher-temperature environment,” Omega said.

“Fascinating, the amount and variety of extinct Earth-based lifeforms that are still present on Fairie,” vampire Elder Senka commented.

“I have catalogued one hundred and fifty-six such species to date. I have little reason to think my current count is complete. The elven species seems to be much better as stewards for the natural flora and fauna than humans are,” Omega said, lifting the battle drone up and over the charging mega-fauna. Eleven slim-hafted elven spears were thrown through the air, nine with normal spear points, two with glittering arcanely powered crystal points.

Eleven beams of brilliant blue light shot simultaneously from the bottom of the drone, vaporizing all of the missiles at the same time. The two crystal points exploded when the energy beams touched them, but they were halfway between the animals and the battle drone so no real harm was done to either party.

“It would help if we stopped eating everything we come across,” vampire Lydia Chapman said, still on the topic of extinct animals. “Although I bet your researchers would love to get a shot at some of these species, Tanya.”

“You never answered me as to who your researchers are,” Father said. Omega was tracking all of the armored rhinos, their riders, and the multiple enemy contacts his sensors were picking up deeper in the jungle around his avatar, all while his weapons subroutines were plotting multiple firing solutions for all targets with six different weapons systems at the same time. Yet a significant portion of his awareness perked up and focused on his father’s words, his contextual and behavior programs indicating a high probability of his father becoming angry in the next few minutes.

“Well, they’re very gifted and we’re lucky to have them,” natural born vampire Tatiana Demidova said, her voice carefully modulated.

“That doesn’t really answer my question,” Father said. “Which makes me think their identities will end up being an issue of some type.”

Father was reading the situation correctly and had ignored the subsonic mood modulators that vampire Tatiana had woven into her speech. Additional processing resources came online as Omega directed even more attention to the Earth-based conversation while simultaneously tracking the now-turning woolly rhino variants as they came about to make another run at the combat drone.

“How are they able to view my cloaked drone, do you suppose, Father?” Omega asked, attempting a distracting verbal query, although only assigning a thirty-two percent probability of success.

“Nice try, Omega, which tells me you too are aware of these researchers’ identities and are trying to get me off topic. Your elves are using some type of crystalline veiling lenses by the way, probably magic-based. Now, we were talking about researchers. Wait… Omega said my centriole count was the highest catalogued. Exactly just when was my blood sampled for such a study? I don’t remember ever giving any samples,” Father said. Heart rate, blood pressure measurement, and facial skin temperature reading indicated he was getting emotional. “Wait… I gave samples once… to Caeco, for lab work, back in school. But she destroyed them. Or supposedly destroyed them. You hired the Jensens?”

Chapter 44

“Ah, yes, Declan. We hired Dr. Jensen, provided her with a fully equipped laboratory, and turned her loose to follow her own interests. She was fascinated by LV, V-squared, and the inherent, apparently hereditary powers of witches,” Chris said, shifting around in his seat to engage the visibly upset witch.

“Caeco? Your old girlfriend?” Stacia asked, tone deceptively mild.

“Her mother is one of the most gifted genetic researchers on the planet and yes, Caeco does assist her when her FBI schedule permits,” Tanya said.

“And she still has my blood? After she swore she would destroy it?” Declan asked, voice going cold.

“No. She has photographs of the microscope slides she made of your blood. They are quite detailed and show excellent cellular level detail, but she does not have any, I repeat, any of your physical blood,” Tanya said.

Declan stared at her, face rigid, then after a moment, he glanced at Chris, who nodded.

“She never told me she had photos,” he said, tone slightly less frosty than previously.

“She kept them from her research, being very careful not to label them as being yours,” Tanya said, watching him carefully. Everyone in the room was watching him carefully.

He looked at her, then Chris, glanced at Lydia, then turned to Stacia, who met his gaze with one of her own. They didn’t say anything but after a moment, he turned back. “Dr. Jensen always scared me a little. Stares at me like she wants to dissect me.”

“Oh, I think she might,” Lydia said. “Don’t let her get you alone in any dark labs. She’ll have you apart faster than Chris peels lobsters.”

Next to her, Nika just smiled and shook her head. “She’s fascinated with you as a test subject but I don’t think she would mean you any harm.”

“Hush your mouth, Sally Centriole. Keep the boy on his toes,” Lydia said.

“I just saw him get dragged up onto his toes. Not again,” Stacia said.

“Good thing Mack recovered enough to stab that demoness,” Tanya said.

“Lucky, you might say,” Declan said, smiling. “And Holly was pretty fierce too. I wondered how she might react, being infected by the demon wolf and all.”

“The thing about demons is that they hate each other. It’s almost universal. Her wolf loyalty told her to protect you, and any demon influence from the origin of her infection would likely put her at odds with Lilith. I felt the same antagonism from the taint I carry,” Chris said.

“So back to the Jensens—Caeco still working for the feds?” Stacia asked, arms crossed.

“For now. We’re hoping to get her to join her mom full time. She’s very thorough and detailed and it’s a change from what she’s doing. Plus, the FBI is a bad choice for her. They don’t appreciate her,” Tanya said.

“Where is her mom’s lab?” Stacia asked, tone casual… too casual.

“Washington, D.C.,” Chris said. “They both live down there.”

The wolf girl’s posture changed just a teeny bit, almost too small to notice unless you knew her and were looking closely. Most of the table’s occupants met both conditions.

After a second or two, Declan turned back to watch the action being projected in stunning clarity on the wall of the private room. The battle orb had shot the last barrage of spears out of the air and now floated down closer to the rhinos, administering a series of sharp electric shocks to the animals’ flanks. Unsurprisingly, the giant steeds immediately bolted into the jungle when shocked, completely ignoring the fate of their riders.

“Sonic weapon didn’t work?” the young witch asked.

“The armor on their heads blocks their auditory openings. Their riders control them through physical contact around their heads. I will now continue along the trail.”

“Watch yourself. The next escalation is likely to be a big step up,” Declan said.

“Yes, Father, although I will point out that only my avatar would be at risk.”

“But it’s your most advanced drone.”

“Others will come online within the next week. However, you are correct that this unit represents a significant investment of our new resources.”

On the wall, the green jungle slid by the sides of the big drone as it moved along the narrow forest trail.

“Declan, have you decided if you are leaving Arcane?” Gina asked.

Everyone turned to the young witch, who looked uncomfortable with the direct question.

“Not fully, but I’m leaning toward leaving,” he said.

“Both the mayor and the senator have withdrawn their requests. They say they were just concerned for their constituents and didn’t have all the facts,” Tanya said. “All three college presidents have contacted me and expressed their support for your continued attendance here in Burlington.”

“Yeah, but while they might have changed their minds, I’m kind of feeling like their original points were pretty valid. There have been too many attacks up here, all aimed at me or involving me.”

Tanya opened her mouth to say something but a small headshake from Nika stopped her.

Chris noticed the exchange but didn’t think Declan had. He was still watching the display beaming on the wall. “You have other reasons, Declan?” he asked.

The young witch looked his way and nodded, looking back at the wall. “I think it’s time to go back to Fairie, check in with the Middle Realm.”

“And maybe take the battle to Summer?” Lydia asked.

“Smart,” Senka said with a nod. That earned her a look from her granddaughter. “What? The wench has upped the ante. You either hit back or turn belly up like prey. The boy is not prey.”

“No, Grandmother, he’s not. But he also doesn’t need to conduct a full-on war either. After all, Omega is currently chastising the Summer Court,” Tanya said.

“Listen, I’m not looking to go all Rambo or anything, but if she’s going to bring it here, I’m going to bring it back. So while Omega chases her forces around the jungle, I plan on demonstrating that the Middle Realm is off-limits,” Declan said. “Remember there’s a second queen out there, and she’s watching for weakness. So we won’t show any. And there’s a possibility I can do some mental reconnaissance over Zinnia’s borders.”

“What would that accomplish?” Gina asked.

“He’s thinking he might be able to lure a few of her remaining elementals away. It would seriously weaken her while she fights Omega,” Stacia said.

“Speaking of fighting, I am being subtly channeled into a box canyon. One of the two sources of Arcane energy moved directly in front of me and then away as if fleeing. My outriding satellite drones have detected that the canyon closes off naturally half a mile from my current position.”

“So don’t enter the trap,” Lydia said.

“But then how is the Omega going to find out what this tricky bitch has up her sleeve?” Senka asked.

“You’re awfully aggressive tonight,” Chris noted.

“Recent events have lowered my tolerance for, how do you say it? Oh yes… bullshit,” Senka said.

Chris looked at his wife, Lydia, and Galina with eyebrows up. All three simply shook their heads.

“I agree with the Elder’s analysis. This unit is heavily armored with metals never before used by humans. It has powerful shields and equally powerful counterweapons. The risk is acceptable,” Omega said.

“Declan,” Senka said, smiling, “ I really like your computer.”

“He’s not mine. He belongs to himself,” Declan said.

“While that is a true statement, Father, I do belong to you in the same sense that family members belong to one another.”

“Okay, that’s true. Yes, Elder Senka. He’s a bit of a handful,” Declan said.

Just then, a bolt of white energy flashed out of the jungle ahead, impacting Omega’s forcefield in an overwhelming stab of eye searing light. Instantly, the battle orb returned fire with four equally strong beams of coherent energy, the result being a short but intense explosion within the vegetation that threw shredded plants everywhere.

“She has the ability to create energy weapons,” Nika noted. “I mean beyond charged, explosive crystals.”

“That’s basically just a much more refined version of my bracelet,” Declan said.

“Way more refined,” Lydia said.

“How do you know? You weren’t even here to see it,” Declan said.

“It almost goes without saying. Just going on what I know about you and what I can see about her,” the little vampire said with a straight face. Declan gave her a frown and then turned back to the action and thus missed the wink she gave Chris, Stacia, and Tanya.

“Listen, Bug’s Life, I’ll show you. I’ll pimp out my version. Massive crystal, something more volatile like a big-ass chunk of smoky quartz. Then I’ll tap into Robbie and power the shit out of that bitch,” Declan said, giving his vampire nemesis a sideglance. “Then you can ride it like a rocket right over to Fairie and compare how refined it is.”

“Easy there, big ticket,” Stacia said. “She’s just yanking your chain. She doesn’t know shit about your bracelet.”

Lydia was laughing silently, and as soon as he looked her way, she reached out a hand and flipped an imaginary lever in front of her. “And just like that, ladies and gentlemen, the switch is turned on.”

“Maybe. But I’m still rebuilding that thing. Time for some serious overpowered magser action.”

Lydia opened her mouth to reply but Nika reached out and covered it with her hand. “He’s not kidding. And the more you poke him, the bigger his plans for the weapon get. At this point, even he is uncertain about its stability. Let’s not blow up Arcane.”

“Father, I am entering the box canyon. My thermal sensors are picking up heat within the cliff at the back of the canyon. Weapons fire has ceased, with one party moving off into the jungle. The other arcane source has stopped all motion, right by the end of the canyon.”

“Show me,” Declan said, his tone something of a command. Instantly the display switched to reds, oranges, and yellow.

Senka’s head tilted to one side but she was watching the witch, not the display. Nika turned to look at her and the Elder nodded once without taking her eyes off Declan.

“That’s native rock. The heat is indicative of some type of thermal upwelling. They’re going to blow it up and bury you. Pull in your scouts and put full power on your shielding.”

The battle drone dropped to the ground like a stone, eight little silver balls zipping in and somehow disappearing into the bigger sphere. But nothing happened. Long seconds ticked by and everything was silent.

“Looks like a false call, wonder witch,” Lydia said.

“No, dear. Listen to the jungle,” Senka said.

“It’s… silent. Oh.”

“Yes dear.”

The display went white.

Chapter 45

At first, it was so bright there was no sense of movement or motion. But then streaks of dark went flashing past the cameras, followed by a roar so loud that Omega had to turn off the audio feed. Then the whole thing went black.

“Is it gone?” Gina asked. “The drone?”

Omega didn’t answer and there was virtually nothing to see on the screen.

“I think the drone is buried,” Declan said. “If that’s true, he’s gonna have to blast his way out.”

“You are correct, Father. I am running diagnostics, while as adjusting power levels, as well as waiting.”

“Waiting for what?” Gina asked.

“The trappers to come check the trap,” Senka said.

“Exactly, Elder. Currently almost all power has been directed to the shields. I’m redirecting the screens around the circumference to reduced levels while leaving top and bottom shields intact. If I can do this properly, I’ll free up power for the weapons. But it’s very delicate. Too much and I’ll disturb the debris pile. That might alert my quarry. Father, do you think that was all stored arcane energy or was an elemental involved?”

“Hard to tell, Omega. If I were there, I’d be able to feel an elemental but that’s out, so I’ll have to give it my best guess.” He tilted his head and closed his eyes.

Lydia opened her mouth but this time both Tanya and Nika’s hands shot out to cover it. Declan never noticed, as his eyes were both still shut. After a moment, he opened them.

“It may be that she used a fire elemental to build the pressure in that cliff, then popped it with the crystals. Otherwise you’d likely have the elemental down under the rock with you, right now, seeing if it could melt your new alloys.”

“The thermal upwelling did not seem like it had been there for a long time. I believe you might be correct. Also, I am detecting minute vibrations that might indicate that the enemy is investigating. Weapons power is at nineteen percent.”

“Granddaughter, have I told you that I am very glad I journeyed back home with you? This is the best after-dinner table entertainment I can recall since the eleventh century, no, I take that back— since ever.”

“Oh? Is dinner over? I think I want seconds,” Declan said, standing up.

“Declan!” Stacia said with just a trace of sharpness. He turned and held out his hand and she put her plate in it. “Thanks,” she said with a smile. “Some more of that brisket, if you would.”

“Good job training him,” Lydia said approvingly. “Just remember to keep a firm hand or he’ll backslide quicker than you’d think possible.”

Stacia didn’t respond other than to look at Chris and Tanya. Chris just smiled and his wife rolled her eyes at her sister’s snark.

“You are remarkably unworried about your computer’s avatar?” Senka asked Declan.

“He would have commented if any of his systems were less than nominal. Sounds like his force shielding has been supporting all that rock. As long as he keeps the top and bottom fields fully powered, the battle drone won’t even have the pressure of the stone directly on it. If he wanted out, he’d start moving rock, but like you already said… he’s trapping his trappers.”

“I am just interested in the level of faith you have in the machine’s abilities,” Senka said.

“Other than myself, Father knows more about all of my technology than anyone else on the planet. We confer multiple times daily about all aspects of it.”

“So it’s safe to say that Declan’s knowledge of this new, alien machinery would be valuable?” Senka asked.

The room went silent, glances being exchanged, eyebrows lifting as understanding followed her words.

“Mother?” Galina asked.

“I’m just pointing out yet another aspect of our young friend here that needs to be considered. My understanding is that Omega is the greatest, fastest, most powerful computing machine the world has ever seen. Yet it asks Declan’s opinion on tactical situations involving Zinnia and her forces. Either that is done to make him feel good, which is illogical and which I personally reject, or it values his opinion. Omega, how many opinions do you value?”

“I value Tanya’s with markets, economics, and business. I value Chris’s with anything to do with demons. I value Father’s and Aunt Ashling’s with arcane topics. I value Father’s with anything to do with Fairie, and mixing technology with arcane power. I value Stacia’s with anything to do with Father. I would defer to you on topics regarding Darkkin.”

“I don’t get your point, Elder Senka?” Declan said, coming back to the table with two heaping plates. His arms trembled minutely from the weight, almost an invisible weakness, but the predators in the room picked up on it instantly.

“She is pointing out how valuable a target you are. To Fairie, you have elemental magic and the Middle Realm. To anyone on Earth, you have all kinds of magical knowledge and power, and the genetics to possibly pass both on. You were instrumental in building the only truly quantum computer on the planet, and now, it appears, you have a really valuable understanding of Vorsook-based tech and weapons,” Stacia said. “The target on your back is even bigger.”

“Only the individuals in this room are aware of Father’s Vorsook knowledge. Weapons power is now at thirty-one percent. Vibrations in the surrounding rock and debris indicate outside forces have begun excavation. I surmise beasts of burden have been brought in to move material.”

“Are you thinking grav weapons?” Declan asked, after a sideways glance at his wolf.

“Exactly, Father. I am considering a radius of three meters.”

“Well, you know best,” the witch said, picking up his fork, then noticing the attention of the others. He realized immediately that they hadn’t followed the exchange.

“So one of his biggest weapons is the same system that propels his drones and allows them to hover in place,” Declan said, holding up one hand, palm open and waiting. He never looked around, but one of the small drone units obligingly floated over and landed in his open hand.

“The Vorsook have long ago mastered the creation and containment of antimatter. Earth physicists have recently surmised that antimatter might respond to gravity in an opposite manner to regular matter.”

“It would float up rather than getting pulled down,” Tanya said.

“Yup. And they were right. So the machinery that gives this drone flight and hover potential—call them engines for lack of a better word—can influence gravity in a small area around itself. Which, by the way, we kind of wonder if that’s what Cora does too,” Declan said, looking at Chris and Tanya at the last part. “And maybe Wulf too. We need to observe them using their abilities with a couple of these units around so Omega can measure for antimatter activity before we’ll know.”

“You’re saying my babies can create antimatter?” Tanya asked.

“It’s just a possibility. Cora’s could be telekinesis too, but it almost acts like the anti-gravitational affect that Omega gets in his drones,” Declan said with a shrug. Tanya frowned. “Anyway, maybe the wrong time to bring up that hypothetical theory, but back to the drones.”

He set the sphere down on the table in front of him and pulled his hand away. Suddenly the salt and peppershaker, along with his unused knife and spoon, floated up into the air several inches off the tabletop. Then they started to spin around the orb, moving slowly in a complete circle until they floated back down to roughly where they had started.

“The big unit can do that with three meters of rock debris?” Chris asked.

“That’s what he calculates. If he accelerates all of that, to speeds much faster than my silverware is going, well, you all can picture the results,” Declan said, picking up the salt shaker and sprinkling its contents over his mashed potatoes.

“Digging is approximately ten meters out. Weapons at forty-four percent.”

“That would be devastating,” Chris said.

“Yeah, like my steel and silver orbs, but multiples of tons as opposed to a few pounds.”

“How could my babies generate antimatter?” Tanya interjected. “And what Wulf does is nothing like what Cora does.”

“We don’t know if that’s what’s either of them is even doing, or if they’re using some source we don’t know about, or if it has anything to do with antimatter at all. It’s just we observed that Cora tends to float upward, as if gravity was suspended rather than if she was using telekinesis. Maybe this whole centrosome thing you guys have been studying would shed light on it. We’ll know more when she does it around one of the drones,” Declan said, being very, very careful with his word choices.

“You want to test her?” Tanya asked.

“I said observe. We don’t know when she decides to do it or if she’s even conscious of it. I never said test,” he said, thinking that was the word he had been deliberately avoiding. Nika smiled at his thought, nodding ever so slightly.

Chris and Tanya were exchanging glances. “Well, she’s conscious of it. We have the twins practicing their gifts already,” Tanya said.

“You do? How?” Gina asked.

“We have a game. We call it hunt the babies,” Chris said.

“Of course you do,” Gina said, a sardonic grin on her face.

“Good. They are weak and vulnerable, to even a human. They need all the protection they can get,” Senka said with a nod.

“I guess I understand Cora’s ability as potentially anti-grav, but not Wulf. He turns invisible.”

“To turn invisible, you would have to do one of only a few things. Either pass light through yourself like a pane of glass or bend it around you. Current Earth militaries are trying to put cameras and projectors all around something like a tank in order to kind of take the first route. We think Wulfy is taking the second.”

“He’s bending light?” Lydia asked in disbelief.

“Demonstration number two,” Declan said, pointing at the orb still sitting on the table in front of him. “We didn’t see his battle drone on Fairie because the cameras he’s using to project the campaign are in it. He could have pulled back a micro sphere to show us, but he was busy and now he’s buried. But in order to camouflage his battle units, he uses the same grav engine to affect light around him.”

On the table, the small orb suddenly disappeared. Declan reached out and tapped it with a fingernail, making a dull thunk sound. “Notice how the tip of my finger disappears as I touch it?”

“Digging has reached a six-meter radius from avatar. Weapon power at fifty-nine percent.”

“And you think Wulf can somehow do this same thing?” Chris asked.

“It’s a theory. We’ve been puzzled by their abilities since they manifested, but Omega was reverse engineering the Vorsook ship and the heart of their military advantage is this antimatter, gravity control technology. So it was natural that we would think of it with the twins. The more we see, the more it seems to be a solid fit.”

“But if my babies are doing something with antimatter, they could be in huge danger… both of them would be in huge danger. I want you to test them right away,” Tanya said to Declan.

“Well, actually it’s just Omega that needs to observe. If you guys get the twins to play this hunting game, a couple of these drones can take measurements. Omega will know very quickly,” he said.

“No, I want you there,” Tanya said, her tone brooking no argument. “They could be in danger.”

“Okay,” Declan agreed with a slow nod. “Although my gut tells me that it is unlikely for them to be harmed by any power they can use at this stage. More that they’re in danger from just the effects, like Cora smacking into the ceiling or having someone trip over Wulf.”

“Well I’m sure Omega will do all the measurements and things, but I want your instincts and sensitivity to magic on hand. That gut you were mentioning is exactly what I want in the room.”

“Alright,” he said.

“I have known and witnessed hundreds of witches over the years, young man,” Senka said. “I have never seen a single one with anywhere near the innate feel for the arcane arts that comes to you as easy as breathing. All of us would feel better having you observe the twins alongside your machine. Am I correct, Lydia?”

“Yeah, no joke. I have to spend a lot of time and energy deflating your ego but yeah, if it comes to the twins and magic, you have to be involved,” Lydia agreed, no sign of sarcasm or insincerity in her tone.

“I’d be happy to do it,” Declan agreed for the third time.

“I can hear the diggers,” Stacia said, tilting her head.

“Yeah, there they are,” Chris said. The vampires all nodded while Gina just gave Declan a little shrug. He shrugged back.

“Four meters. Power is approaching seventy percent. Stand by.”

“What are we going to see, Omega?” Gina asked.

“Sudden light, Gina. And violence.”

“Excellent,” Senka said, leaning forward.

“Approaching three meters. Power over seventy-five percent. Engaging grav engines in three… two… one.”

Chapter 46

Light exploded across the screen, actually around the room as an entire three-hundred-and-sixty-degree picture was suddenly projected on all of the walls of the room on Earth.

On Fairie, the big battle drone shot straight upward as soon as the last few tons of stone whipped away from it. Gaining altitude, the drone now recorded the entire sphere of visible images all the way around its form. Back on Earth, the room exploded with light and color as the vampires, humans, and werewolf found themselves inside the center of the projection.

“Oh, this is outstanding!” vampire Elder Senka said to the others.

Omega was busy cataloguing the results of the gravitational disruption he had created. Shattered shards of stone ranging from pebbles up to boulders had been spun out in an arc around the drone’s burial place, the debris flung for fifty feet in every direction. Bodies lay crushed under stone and broken plant life, while surviving elves were either stunned, looking for weapons, or flat-out fleeing the scene. The bodies of squat green goblins made up a big percentage of the dead, their muscular frames having been useful for digging heavy rock. There were elves too, along with some of the six-legged horses and some ox-sized four-legged beasts of burden that appeared closer to dinosaurian than mammalian. Everything within that fifty-foot radius was either dead or wounded. Outside the grav blast zone, there appeared to be more elves than goblins, and they were higher-ranked ones at that. Blue-armored warriors were trying to take aim at him with what Omega was now calling energy lances, as well as some bows and crystal-tipped arrows, but most could not see him. A few, equipped with the same strange goggles that the woolly rhino drivers had worn, were beginning to draw a bead on him.

Instantly, multiple beams of blue light shot out, impacting each crystal arrowhead, the resulting explosions doing much more damage than the beam itself might have.

“That gravitational burst was devastating,” natural born vampire Tatiana Demidova said, her tone admiring. “Will Cora be able to do that?”

“We don’t even know yet if what she does is gravitational,” Father replied.

“Yeah, but how cool if she could protect herself and Wulf with that!” vampire Lydia Chapman said.

Father sighed. “If they are both tapping into that kind of power, they could probably or at least possibly both learn each other’s ability, at least to some extent.”

“The twins could both use gravity to destroy enemies with blasts of disruptive gravity and ambush them from perfect camouflage?” vampire Elder Senka asked, her tone evincing hope.

“Again, if they even have this ability. It just seems reasonable. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything yet,” Father said, turning to werewolf and mate Stacia Reynolds.

“It’s the best theory so far, right Doctor Singh?” werewolf and mate Stacia Reynolds said.

“I have never seen anything like the twins’ abilities, nor have I read any accounts in our Coven Archives and believe me, I’ve been searching. I don’t pretend to have an understanding of this gravity science, but it seems like a potential candidate. Between what Declan and Omega can test and observe and the progress that Dr. Jensen has already made, we might advance our knowledge of supernatural abilities far enough to call them natural abilities,” vampire physician Doctor Singh said.

Omega was still shooting any elf that raised any kind of weapon in his direction. His smaller outrider orbs were zipping around the perimeter to observe, direct the powerful blasts of the base unit, and even root out elves that were dug in.

“Father, my southernmost ranging micro drone is tracking a large party of almost entirely elves, fleeing in a very determined manner. Their actions are very similar to how the US Secret Service would evacuate the president from hostile action.”

“Is it Zinnia? And Eirwen?”

“I am directing two more micro units to pursue and observe while I clean up the remaining forces that pose a danger. Initial calculations indicate an eighty-one percent probability that the elves are extremely high ranking, and at least sixty-three percent probability that they are, in fact, the queen and/or her daughter.”

“Oh, this is wonderful. I mean, it would be better to tear out their throats and drain the life from those elven wenches in person, but this is exciting too. No wonder human youth idle away their lives with those electronic reality substitutes,” vampire Elder Senka commented.

“I’m pretty sure this tech is far in advance of any current gaming gear, Grandmother,” natural born vampire Tatiana Demidova said.

“Closer to what military drone pilots experience, I should think,” demon hunter Chris Gordon said.

“Oh, what happened? The picture cut out,” Arcane director Gina Velazquez said.

“Protective rear guard elements of the fleeing group were successful in taking out one of my micro orbs with multiple arcane arrows. The second and third orbs are engaging those soldiers and removing their military capabilities. My main avatar is now en route and gaining ground; however my sensors are indicating a very large source of arcane energy has been activated in the fleeing group. Additionally, previous mapping overflights by earlier drones shows a large, active volcano approximately four miles ahead of the group.”

“She may be activating her remaining storage jewel, Omega. Be cautious. And an active volcano would likely be the main home of a fire elemental. Possibly the one she would have used to set the cliff wall trap,” Father said.

“Concur. I will move ahead of her,” Omega said, lifting the battle drone up into the sky and sending it rocketing silently over the green ocean of jungle at a speed that put it past the fleeing elves in seconds. As he overflew what was now highly probably the queen’s party, a string of five additional micro orbs were released from the bottom of the battle drone.

Back on Earth, he divided the view into ten direct face-on shots, with nine smaller pictures for the micro orbs and one big one for the big combat drone. Multiple beams of light shot out at the elves’ group, but the sapphire-hued energy splashed off a perfect arc of invisible power.

Then two of the small pictures went first white, then black as the harassed party stopped and turned to fight.

“Those were fairly coherent blasts of directed arcane energy. She appears to be using her power source both as a shield and to return fire.”

“Good. Bleed it dry, Omega. I might suggest tossing some large, heavy objects at that force shield.”

Instantly an entire tree ripped itself from the forest floor and shot out over the jungle to smash down through the canopy. All seven smaller screens showed the tree falling through the canopy from above but slamming to a halt on the same invisible arc before sliding off in multiple directions and multiple pieces. A large boulder, yanked from a stream bed, followed the tree, hitting faster and harder against the same arc, which was also being randomly lit up with blue bolts of energy from the micro units.

Another five rocks of varying sizes followed the first, each smashing into the shield and each being shunted to the ground around the besieged party. A ring of debris was growing up in a perfect circle.

“I am detecting lifeforms flying this way from two directions,” Omega said. “Profile suggests eleven of those prehistoric flying reptiles that the Summer Court uses for air superiority.”

“She’s looking for escape routes,” natural born vampire Tatiana Demidova said.

“Concur. Eliminating flyers now.”

On Earth, in the Arcane private dining room, the largest main projection showed eye-searing blue beams lancing out into the distance.

“Amazing. I could barely make out that creature before it was burned from the sky,” vampire Elder Senka said.

Omega noticed that his father, the Arcane director, and father’s mate all looked at the old vampire in amazement. So did the telepathic vampire Nika and the smallest vampire, Lydia.

Christian Gordon and his vampire spouse both nodded at the old vampire’s words.

“She has nowhere to run now,” demon hunter Chris said.

The ground around the belabored party of elves suddenly began to shake in a radius of what Omega decided must be over six miles. Jungle lifted and fell in waves like the surface of a green ocean, trees falling as a crack opened in the very surface of the planet.

A plume of red hot magma shot into the air, falling in a curtain of liquid stone to one side of the elves.

Another two screens went black.

“Pull back, Omega. That’s the elemental. She must have called it to her,” Father said, but the AI had already sent his surviving orbs, both small and large, up and out of the immediate area.

More jets of orange and red liquid death erupted from the jungle floor, spraying an uneven perimeter around the Summer Queen’s party, the wet green vegetation bursting into steam and smoke as a veritable moat of fire was created. Clouds of white ash bloomed all over a four-acre parcel of forest, effectively screening the elves from sight.

“Didn’t she just trap herself inside that little firestorm?” vampire Lydia Chapman asked.

“Makes no sense. It just bought her some time,” vampire telepath Nika said.

“Unless she’s got some way to create a portal,” Father suggested.

“Or someone!” natural born vampire Tatiana Demidova said.

Chapter 47

“What an unmitigated disaster you’ve whipped up, sister dearest,” Queen Morrigan of the Winter Court said by way of greeting as she stepped out of thin air with her troll bodyguard and deadly daughter in tow.

Fire and smoke surrounded the royal party, the magical shield of Zinnia’s power keeping the air fresh even as it was lit up with occasional beams of azure light flaring in blue pools at various spots on the arc.

Jungle burned and steamed. The ground still shook and rumbled as regular eruptions of magma continued to provide both protection from assault as well as concealing steam and smoke. Ash fell like snow.

“Just get me out of here,” Zinnia said, her face covered with dirt and soot.

“Us out of here,” her daughter Eirwen said urgently.

“Yes, well I see you’ve taken things to a whole new level, even for you, Zinnia. And now you demand my assistance? How do I know those metal horrors won’t follow you back to my realm?” Morrigan asked.

“Because you already have an agreement with the witch. The machine will abide his wishes,” Zinnia explained.

“Yes, the wisdom of my choices versus yours are clear as the purest ice, are they not? You saw a young man with too much power and failed to realize the enormous force of allies he has accumulated. Two fallen angels, the oldest vampire or vampires on Earth, and a machine that rivals the very best of the Ancient Enemy’s. And that machine is its own entity, completely and utterly. My guess, from the looks of things,” Morrigan said, looking around, “is that it objects to you sending agents of Hell to abduct its parental unit. Even if Declan O’Carroll requests it to cease hostile action, my understanding is that he has no real control over it. This is a major risk you ask me to take, sister mine.”

“What are your terms, you hateful bitch?” Zinnia asked, earning her a hard stare from the deadly Princess of the Winter Court. Morrigan, on the other hand, just smiled.

“You will gift your connection to that rather impressive elemental that is cooking this section of what’s left of your realm.”

“Morrigan, it is one of my last remaining elementals of significant power. And it lives in the heart of my realm,” Zinnia protested.

“Which would give me incentive to help you protect what is left. Otherwise we will just step back to the delightful cool of the north,” Morrigan said, fanning herself with a big leaf she plucked from a nearby plant.

Zinnia stared at her, green eyes hard. An explosion erupted only a short distance away, making most of the elves nearby flinch.

“I will have expended my last stored crystal and be down to just a very few elementals. I will be weak.”

“You are already weak. You will just be weaker. Enough. Despite your diversion, the Earth machine will not be thwarted for long. My observers note it has the powers of the Enemy. I will not meet my end because of your inability to make decisions, no matter what accord we came to all those millennia ago,” Morrigan said, turning and nodding to her giant troll.

“Agreed,” Zinnia said with reluctance. The instant smile of triumph on her Winter sister’s face cemented the regret Zinnia was already feeling. But she hastily formed the linkage to the Fire elemental, releasing the ancient being’s name to her sister, her control immediately diluted.

Instantly, the eruptions of liquid hot stone ceased. At the same time, the troll opened a rip in space and time with the ease that only one of his kind could. Morrigan went through first, followed closely by Zinnia, and then Eirwen. Neeve and the troll stepped through last, the gap in reality closing behind them like a zipper. The magical shield fell with the absence of its creator and moments later, so did the last of Summer’s loyal Royal Guards, as beams of sapphire-pierced skulls, hearts, and spines. Gradually the steaming, burning jungle fell silent, with waves of heat rippling upward and ripples of somethings green moving over the destroyed clearing and circle of debris. After a moment, one big silver orb and five tiny ones popped into visibility, all of them slowly scanning the destruction for signs of life.

Chapter 48

“That’s it? The bitch gets away?” Lydia asked.

“Well, she and Eirwen are not among the dead bodies, and it sure seemed like something sudden happened there just at the end. If I were a gambler, I’d bet serious money that her sister and her Bigfoot troll just gated in there and yanked them out,” Declan said.

“But they hate each other,” Lydia said.

“And yet they are sisters,” Gina observed. “They have struggled against one another for thousands of years, yet neither had taken out the other. Doesn’t that strike you as unlikely? All that time and all those battles, yet neither actually ever won?”

“They are very much each other’s favorite enemy,” Declan said. “Always looking for advantage over each other. If she did save Zinnia, I’d say Morrigan has turned the upper hand pretty decisively.”

“And now you go after both?” Senka asked, maybe a trifle hopeful.

“No. I have an agreement with Morrigan. We don’t attack each other unless one of us is weakened severely,” the boy witch said.

“Pity. You are an honorable sort. Potentially a fatal flaw,” Senka said.

“Grandmother!” Tanya exclaimed.

“Well, I intend to abide by my word, which doesn’t bind Omega in any way, shape, or form. Plus, I think it’s time I got busy with matters of real importance,” Declan said.

“So you are leaving Arcane?” Gina asked.

“Yes, but I can still teach and even oversee Wytch War games. Omega’s holographic displays are almost as good as being there.”

“What are these matters of real importance?” Galina asked.

“First, we need to test the twins. Find out what they’re doing, and if it involves antimatter we’ll—and by that, I mean Omega—will need to devise a training program,” Declan said. Tanya opened her mouth but he hurriedly spoke first. “And yes, of course I will be involved up to my neck. I just think he’ll have more firsthand input on gravity manipulation. After that, I think it would be a very good idea to do some traveling around our own world. Visit some specific places… you know… introduce myself. I thought about going to Fairie, but that can wait.”

“Elementals,” Nika said when the others all looked confused.

“Yes. My two are very, very young. Babies. The queens of Fairie have held off the Vorsook with elemental power for eons. We can use all the help we can get fending them off this world. Plus, elemental magic did major damage to Lilith. Having some more friends in various places could be key if Hell gets a highway to Earth,” Declan said.

“Not to mention maybe a little help protecting man from elemental natural disaster. The Yellowstone Fire Elemental is maybe a little less likely to blow up North America now that we’ve all chatted a little,” Chris said, nodding.

“To that end, I think if I make headway with introducing myself, then the next visits should introduce you and Tanya. Yellowstone was aware of your origins, I’m certain of that,” Declan said.

Chris turned to Stacia. “What?” she asked. “I’m going with him. Takes me and Omega both to keep him out of trouble. I think Holly and Devaney will want to go too. I imagine Omega can help us get various visas and permits and things to visit all the places we need to see.”

“What he has trouble with, Demidova Incorporated will help out with,” Tanya said.

“The Coven is not without influence either, dear Granddaughter,” Senka said.

“And I believe Oracle and Director Stewart can be called upon as well,” Gina said. “How many targets on your list?”

“I don’t know. It’s a new goal. We’ll have to investigate. The way it worked on Fairie is that one elemental introduced me to another, and so on. I’m hoping it might work like that here. I’ll bring Draco with me to help with the process. Robbie wouldn’t travel well,” Declan said.

“Do you need one of the corporate planes?” Tanya asked.

“That won’t be necessary, Tanya. I have a craft nearing completion that will work most well for Father’s needs,” Omega said.

“And provide incomparable protection at the same time?” Chris asked.

“Just so.”

Epilogue

High in the Peruvian Andes, a new model Range Rover cautiously climbed a tricky set of precarious switchback turns, trundling higher and higher into the thin air.

Occasionally a wild llama would watch the vehicle’s progress from atop a chunky outcropping of rock and once, a huge bird that might have been an Andean condor floated over the Rover two hundred feet up. But the big bird suddenly swerved off and flew at speed toward the north, almost as if it were frightened.

Gradually, the rugged four-by-four navigated a final hairpin turn, crested a small hill, and slowed to a stop at the sight of a rustic high-altitude potato farm that spread out across the slopes. Miles to the east, two giant snow-topped mountains capped off the highest points of the range, looming over the farm like overseers measuring progress.

The farmer, who was something of a local legend, was famed for the sheer breadth and depth of the varieties of potato seeds he stewarded and grew throughout his life. Here in the birthplace of the potato, Julio Hyncho was widely regarded as the Potato King. Seventy years of age, he still worked a full day, every day, all year long, although it got harder each year to keep up with the toils and labor. This day, he lifted his head to note the arrival of strangers. He had lived at this remote farm all his life, but he still recognized a government vehicle. Nothing good came out of those vehicles.

The driver’s door opened and a familiar figure got out. Another Julio, Julio Valez, a friend from lower altitudes, one who often acted as a translator for the Potato King, who only spoke his native Quechua and almost none of the wider-spread Spanish used in the lowlands.

The front passenger door produced a Peruvian military officer, which tempered the joy of seeing Julio. But it was the rear passenger seats that brought the biggest puzzle. First out was a striking woman, dressed in what Julio knew was modern, likely expensive clothing, with hair that was almost white. A young man, tall and thin, slipped out after her, his brown hair messy but his blue eyes bright and interested as he took in the farm and the surrounding vista. Young people weren’t unknown to Julio Hyncho; his farm had hosted American students conducting sustainability studies on multiple occasions, so their appearance was not shocking to the old farmer. It was the military officer’s body language that caught Julio’s attention. The middle-aged soldier was obviously of high rank but he was completely cowed by the young couples’ presence.

Julio Valez called out to him, greeting him in Quechua, his tone excited. “Julio, my friend, I have brought you important visitors.”

“Along with the government,” Julio Hyncho replied.

“No worries, my friend. He is assigned by the highest levels to insure our guests are well and smoothly taken care of. They carry credentials of such weight that I thought my shadow here might offer them his own home and family.”

“What do they want with me?” he asked, fearing nothing good could result from this visit.

“They have learned of you from those students you have been so generous with. They wish to ask you about the apu.”

“What?” he asked. Of all the possible reasons important foreigners might come this high, the apu of the mountains was not one he would ever have thought of.

“The young woman is very famous, but the young man is apparently a shaman of great skill and power. According to what they have told me, they are traveling the world, introducing themselves to the great apu of the world. They wish to meet Pitusiray and Sahuasiray.”

He turned and looked at the two great snow-capped mountains, his stomach clenching in sudden fear. Those two mountains and their great apu watched over this land, guarded its inhabitants or punished them. The female Pitusiray and her male companion Sahuasiray.

“I will not offend them,” a voice said. He turned and found the young man, the one Julio Valez called a shaman, approaching. He was holding a phone and his voice had come from that, clearly speaking Quechua.

“My phone can translate well enough,” the young man said. “I am Declan, and I have no wish to bring the wrath of the mountains down upon you. I only wish to introduce myself to them.”

“If you have a machine translator, why am I here?” Julio Valez demanded, his expression one of betrayal.

“To make an introduction to Julio Hyncho, who I hope will make an introduction to the apu,” Declan said. “This is Stacia.”

The striking girl nodded, clearly receiving her own translation on her own phone.

“Why? Why do you wish to disturb the mountains?” Julio Hyncho asked.

“Because our world faces great enemies who are a danger to both man and mountain. We are spreading the message, telling the apu of the world that danger approaches. Should they wish to defend their world, we will help with that.”

“The mountains do not always wake, do not always know we are about,” Julio Hyncho said, attempting to dissuade this impending disaster.

The young man smiled, turned his head, put two fingers in his mouth, and whistled sharply. It was loud enough to turn the heads of Julio’s llamas two pastures away.

Nothing happened, other than the boy just standing there smiling, the beautiful girl looking around the farm curiously. Then a shadow floated across the grasses. A big shadow. They all looked up. A creature flew overhead, a winged beast much larger than even the biggest condor. Scaled, horned, wings like a bat. It screamed a call that sent a chill down Julio’s spine, circling the farm. Then the awful wings, each much larger than a man, folded and the horror shot straight for them. The young couple just smiled while both Julios ducked and the officer jumped back into the vehicle.

Huge wings unfurled, flaring out to catch the cold high mountain air, and big legs stretched forth with big, sharp talons as if to pluck one of them bodily from the ground. But instead it just landed, almost at the young shaman’s feet. The big wings folded and it waddled over to butt its spiky, spiny head against the boy’s hip.

He laughed and scratched its neck. “This is Draco. He is an apu of the Air. He will also help introduce us to your mountains, Julio Hyncho. They will wake.”

Julio was beyond shocked, almost unable to process all that had happened in such a short time. He looked at the couple, a helpless expression on his face, and shrugged.

The woman smiled and spoke. “These mountains know you, Julio Hyncho. Your family has lived among them for generations, has reached an understanding. So we only wish to bring your tradition with us when we visit them. Use your ceremony and make an offering of something of yours so that the apu will know. Perhaps we could make an offering of a few of your potatoes?”

“How will you get there? It is still far from here, several days’ climbing,” Julio Valez asked.

“Do not worry. We will visit them today and be back before the sun has set. We only ask your assistance in preparing the proper offering for your apu,” the girl said.

Julio could only nod, his thoughts so jumbled by the complete and sudden change of this day’s path. So it was just a short time later that he and his wife, Qispi, showed the young couple how to bundle food and coca leaves into a brightly colored cloth hand woven by Qispi. At the young man’s request, Julio included a few different samples of his various potatoes. When both offerings were carefully knotted into the proper shapes, the young man and woman thanked them both profusely. Then they led the way back to the rear of the Land Rover and produced sealed bags. “These are, I am told, rare types of potatoes. Perhaps you may add them to the three hundred you already steward.”

He saw now that inside the bags were seeds, potato seeds, three, no four more varieties that he had never heard of.

“It is not much of a gesture, but we want to thank you for taking your precious time and helping us. We’ll head up to the mountains now,” Declan said, shaking Julio’s hand.

“How?” Julio asked, almost afraid of the answer.

The woman smiled and pointed up. When Julio and the others followed her gesture, they found a large aircraft hovering motionless directly overhead. It was not like any aircraft the old farmer had ever seen in the skies above his mountains and it hadn’t been there a second ago. There were no wings, just a silvery oval shape like a pallar bean, what the Americans might call a lima bean. It was three times larger than the Land Rover and totally silent as it now descended to touch lightly upon the ground.

“I do not understand? Why did you have us drive you up here if you had that?” Julio Valez asked.

“For many reasons. To make a proper introduction to Julio Hyncho. To see the land and get its feel. To work with the Peruvian government, not around it. There is a proper way to approach apu, and rushing it is not correct. Even now, the best way to meet Pitusiray and Sahuasiray would be on foot, climbing there ourselves. But we just do not have the time. So we will cheat a little, at this stage, and hope they are not affronted,” Declan said.

The military officer spoke, Spanish words, Julio thought, but the machine translated everything into Quechua. “You cannot fly there. The winds are too powerful for even military helicopters,” he said, worry on his face.

“It is not a problem for our craft, Colonel,” Declan said. “It has abilities that even the military cannot match.”

A door opened in the side of the sleek machine, appearing from the smooth metal as if by magic.

“We will be back in a few hours, Colonel. If you and Julio wish to head back now, that is fine. Or we will ride back down with you if you prefer,” the girl, Stacia, said, following the young man into the silent vehicle.

The odd, scary beast, the Air apu, leapt suddenly from the ground, its big wings flapping hard to climb in the thin mountain air. With a sharp cry, it turned toward the mountains and flew straight at them.

When he turned back to the odd aircraft, Julio found the young man smiling at him from the doorway. “He will go ahead to announce us to your mountains. I am confident that your aid will smooth the way for us, Julio. Thank you.”

He gave a little nod to the young man, his capacity for words limited by the unceasing shocks of the day. The youthful shaman nodded back, the door sort of flowed shut, and the silver craft floated up without a sound. Then it shot toward Pitusiray and Sahuasiray, the mountain gods themselves, disappearing in an instant.

Julio Valez helped with the chores for the next three hours while the colonel stayed with the vehicle, making calls on what must have been a satellite phone.

Despite the familiar rhythms of the farm, Julio Hyncho found his gaze drawn to the distant peaks again and again throughout the long afternoon.

It was a bowel-loosening screech from above that was the first signal of a return. Again, the big winged creature overflew the farm, sending the herd animals into a panic. It wheeled about and landed with unlikely grace atop of Julio’s main house, immediately preening one wing.

Immediately another, larger shadow moved across the farm and the strange silver plane floated silently down to the green grass near the Rover. The invisible door made its appearance and the young couple stepped out. The woman was much the same, alert and almost unnaturally attractive, but her male companion looked tired, although he wore a weary smile.

“Success, Julio. Your contribution made the difference. In fact, Sahuasiray and his companion, the lovely Pitusiray, asked us to bring you these,” Declan said, his voice again coming from his phone. He opened a sling bag at his side and carefully pulled out two wrapped bundles. Qispi, who had come up alongside her husband, gave a surprised gasp. When he turned to her, he found her eyes were wide with shock. “Julio, those are the offering cloths I wove for your visit to the apu five years ago!” she said.

Now that he looked closer at them, he realized they were familiar, very familiar.

Declan handed one to Stacia and the two moved over to husband and wife, unwrapping the worn and weathered weaving as they came forward. Inside each bundle was a piece of rock, heavy granite flecked liberally with quartz.

“Sahuasiray would like you to have a piece of himself, Julio,” Declan said. Beside him, Stacia presented a similar rock to Qispi. “As Pitusiray presents part of herself to the mistress of the farm,” she said.

Julio found himself frozen with shock. Not for a moment did he doubt that these rocks came from the two great mountains, but the sheer enormity of apu presenting pieces of themselves to an unworthy like himself was too much to process.

“We will feed you dinner,” Qispi said after looking at him meaningfully. He shook himself back to the moment enough to agree with his wife and repeat her invitation.

The couple agreed and seemed moved by the idea of a simple farm meal. Having seen the aircraft move through the sky, Julio realized that they could be in Cuzco in minutes, enjoying the best food the city had to offer. Yet they were honestly delighted to be here, high in the mountains.

“I still fail to see why you would travel with us, and even drive back down the mountains with us, when you have that amazing craft at your beck and call?” Julio Valez asked.

“It would take but minutes,” the young man agreed.

“And we would miss the whole trip,” his lady said.

“The apu, as you call them, are absent from the crowded places of man. There are none in the cities, not at the tourist attractions, none where man has heavily marked the lands. To find them, we need to seek out those people who are still close to the land, who still respect it and work with it, instead of trying to force it to man’s will. Only then do we find the apu, or as we call them, elementals, of this world. So to fly in and fly out without time spent in travel, without touching the ground for more than brief moments, well, it drastically lowers the chances that we will make fruitful contact with apu,” Declan said.

“It puts us in the proper mindset and gives us the local touch, which is vital when approaching these powerful beings. Done correctly, as today was, we gain an acquaintance, and maybe strengthen the human-apu relationship already in place. I would say those pieces of the mountain are proof of that,” Stacia said, nodding at the two objects holding pride of place on the home fireplace mantle.

“Where do you go next?” Julio Valez asked.

“Lascar volcano in Chile,” the young shaman said. “We will see if we can’t meet the Fire apu who lives there.”

“You could be killed. Fire apu are volatile and easily offended,” Julio Hyncho said.

“My partner here has an odd way with fire and the beings who thrive in it. We have had our best successes with volcanoes. They seem to be more awake than most mountains,” Stacia said.

Qispi changed the topic from such a worrisome one, complimenting the woman on her unique hair color, which led in return to compliments on his wife’s beautiful complexion.

Soon the dinner was done and the four visitors climbed back into the expensive government vehicle for the long, arduous drive down the mountain. Of the odd aircraft there was no sign, but Julio noticed his llamas looking up at a singular point in the evening sky where nothing seemed to be. The SUV began to navigate the tricky roads, its headlights lighting the way. When his friend Julio Valez had commented on the danger of the drive back down, the girl, Stacia, had laughed. “There will be no danger. You couldn’t drive off the road if you wanted to,” she said mysteriously.

When the headlights had disappeared around the bend in the road and the sound of the car had faded, Julio and Qispi made their way back inside.

“A momentous day, my wife,” he said.

“And maybe a story to tell our children. Who knows, when your city-dwelling son hears of this, perhaps he will reconsider taking up the family traditions,” Qispi said.

“Bah, he will just smile and laugh at our gifts from the mountains, saying they are merely stones.”

Just then, the two rocks on the mantle shifted and moved, sliding closer to and then around each other. When they stopped moving and Julio could again remember how to speak, he looked at his wife with widened eyes. She nodded, smiling. “They shifted so that they are in the same position as the mountains. Perhaps our doubting son would like to try moving them back?”

Eyes still wide, Julio looked from his wife back to the stones. Slowly, he nodded. Perhaps, just maybe perhaps, an impression could be made on the all-knowing youth of today. After all, it was two very young people who had changed his whole day. He banked the fire and followed his wife to bed, wondering how many other lives those two would touch on their journeys.

The End

Authors Notes:

I’ve delved into new areas in this book, and I have to thank Dr. John Leary for his insight into centrioles, tetrahertz, and what I secretly call the Leary Theory. Too much of our scientific research is funded for political reasons and not for scientific knowledge. We’re missing out.

Thank you to Sergeant Mark Redmond of the South Burlington Police Department. Any errors in science or law enforcement procedure are my own.

Thanks, as usual, to Susan, my editor, and to Gareth Otton for his artwork.

As usual my wife, Robin, is the bedrock of my existence (and maybe a Conroe fan’s best friend) as she keeps me on task, offers her insights, and brings me back to point when my mind slips away (Squirrel!).

I’ll apologize to the real potato king of Peru for the liberties I’ve taken with this humble, incredibly important man who single-handedly safeguards the biodiversity of Peru’s potato strains. Thanks to my daughter, Alli, for showing me his work. And thanks to my daughter, Emilee, for continuing to broaden my reading habits, which can only improve my craft.

Thanks most of all to you, my readers, who’ve made it possible for me to stop being a banker and fully focusing on my writing. Next up will be book two of Zone War, Borough of Bones. Look for it in spring 2019. After that the next Demon Accords, C.A.E.C.O. I’ll let you guess whose viewpoint that one will follow. I should think summer, 2019. Fall should bring the conclusion of the Zone War trilogy with Web of Extinction.

Stay tuned… we’re only getting started.

John Conroe, December 2018.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Epilogue