Bloodlust (28 page)

“He’s so happy,” I said softly to myself. “Beedebopdelooolah.”

I kept my eyes on my brother as he ambled towards a parked car, unlocked it and waved towards his family. He was so relaxed. There was an ease to his manner which suggested he knew nothing of wild tempers and crazy dragons. I knew nothing about him but I could tell from just looking that this was someone who was contented. Someone who was at peace with the world and their place in it. Maybe he had my bloodfire and maybe he didn’t. But even if he did, he obviously kept it well under control. Fire wasn’t his life in the way that it was mine.

I blinked away tears. My twin brother got into his car and drove away, while the woman and two children headed back inside.

“Mack,” Corrigan began.

I looked back at him. “I have to go.”

“Mack, wait.”

I shook my head and wrenched the door handle. “I need to be on my own.”

And then I was outside and running.

Chapter Twenty Four

Several hours later I was standing in a darkened street staring up at a familiar looking building. Corrigan had tried to contact me with his Voice several times, but I had shut him out. I’d make it up to him later. It was probably better he didn’t know what I was about to do.

I touched my stomach very lightly. “I know this is do what I say, not do what I do, but this is not something I want to catch you ever even thinking about. It’s a bad thing. The capacity for evil resides in all of us and what I’m about to do could well be considered evil. So don’t you dare try anything like this yourself.”

I looked back at the house. I knew I wasn’t exterminating their entire species. I knew there would still be some left over who weren’t there this night. Some who may well want to come after me for this. But I had decided there were no more choices to make. Not now. I’d just have to hope it was enough to make damn fucking sure they were too scared to ever try to really come near me or mine again. I thought briefly of Aubrey. He probably wouldn’t have been too happy but he’d have understood. In a way it was revenge for him as well as protection for my family. Then I closed my eyes and thought of dragon.

Fire and blood and anger mixed up inside me. The pain of transformation was fleeting, as if giving a blessing to my decision. I opened my eyes, a red haze clouding my vision as if all I could see was a fine mist of blood. And there would be fucking blood spilt this night. My little match hovered in my mind. I considered it for a second, then blew it out. I wouldn’t be needing it.

*

When I arrived at Alcazon, it was still possible to hear the clanging sirens of the fire engines. I completely ignored them, heading straight up to the restaurant and the now very familiar private room at the back. Everyone was already there. Alex and Balud were sitting together at the far end. Good. That meant there had been some progress made on the weapons. Several of the council members were already in deep discussion.

“Do we know whether it was Endor or not?”

I sat myself down and jerked my head towards the attending waiter, and asked him for a glass of milk. I could feel Corrigan watching me, but I didn’t look his way.

“It doesn’t make sense that it was him. We know he’s going after Air next, not Fire.”

“And he would need to attack a fire based creature, not just kill them with fire. But who else could it have been?”

A silence descended around the room. Several heads slowly swiveled in my direction. A tall glass was carefully placed in front of me with beads of condensation already forming around it. I leaned over and picked it, taking a sip and idly watching the waiter depart.

“The vampires were attacked this night, Miss Smith. Rather catastrophically.”

“Indeed,” I murmured.

“Their numbers have been decimated.”

I caught a drip on the edge of the glass just before it fell onto the table.

“That is a shame.”

“Crazy psycho bitch,” someone hissed.

There were several intakes of breath. I merely smiled.

“So,” I said, putting down the milk and looking around, “do we have an entry point into Dorchadas or not, then?”

The Arch-Mage stepped in. “We’ve worked out a way. There are indeed some considerable wards in place to prevent strangers from wandering in, but we think we’ve come up with a way to stop that from happening. Having the Fae has helped enormously.”

Beltran nodded. “We can combine our magic with the mages and focus it in such a way that when they open the portal, there won’t be so much as a flicker of attention drawn to it.”

“Excellent.” I turned to Alex and Balud. “Have you made any progress on the palladium?”

The mage looked remarkably unhappy. I had the feeling it wasn’t to do with the fact everyone was pretty much convinced I’d just nuked two dozen vamps out of existence.

“We have.”

“And?” I prompted.

“Dude,” he said, shaking his head, “we were idiots.”

Balud cleared his throat. “It appears I made an error. The document I found suggesting palladium was harmful to necromancers was actually a translation. And it seems not a very good one.”

I’d been right all along. I sighed. “Let me guess – there should be an article in front of palladium. It’s the Palladium. Not palladium.”

The pair of them nodded.

Fucking hell. Three tiny letters had spelled out our failure at Loch Ness.

“So the Palladium isn’t as useless as we’d thought,” I said. “The question is how does it work?”

Everyone stared at me.

“It’s a statue. A tiny wooden statue. It’s hardly a fucking machine gun. What are we supposed to do? Hit Endor over the head with it and then he’ll collapse and die?”

Nobody answered. I stared around the room. “Well, will somebody fucking find out?”

Several heads bobbed up and down vigorously. Maybe they were afraid I’d set them on fire too. It turns out I was a monster after all; I just needed to have my priorities changed.

“Okay. I need one representative each from the mages, shifters and faeries.” I nodded to each one in turn. “We’ll enter Dorchadas within the hour.”

Corrigan folded his arms across his chest. “You can’t go.”

I gave him an irritated look. “I’ll be fine.”

“No, absolutely not.” He shook his head implacably.

“Mackenzie…”

I was excruciatingly aware of everyone following our little byplay. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

I understood his reasons for demanding my non-participation, which meant I was staying calm. That didn’t mean I accepted his point of view though. I was pregnant, not helpless.

“We’re not going to attack, or do anything that will give away our presence,” I said gently. “We’re just to do a bit of information gathering. Hence only four people will enter. We can keep a low profile if there are less of us.”

“Spying!” Alex interjected. “Cool! If I go along can I get a watch that shoots tranquiliser darts? Or maybe a fountain pen disguised as a gun?”

I raised my eyebrows at him. “You want to come along?”

He shrugged. “I’m not the best person in a fight, Mack Attack, I’ll be the first to admit that. But I’m great at keeping hidden and, besides, if Aubrey can step up to the plate then so can I.”

“I’m happy for Mage Florides to volunteer himself,” the Arch-Mage interjected.

Corrigan stood up. “I will be representing the Brethren.”

Of course. I gazed up at him with a mixture of gratitude and exasperation.

“I’m a werepanther. My fur is darker than anyone else’s so I’ll be better placed to conceal myself in shadows.” He jerked his head at me. “Your red hair makes you a target. You should stay behind. It’s just common sense.”

I growled at him. “I will wear a fucking hat.”

The Summer Queen rose also. She clearly wasn’t enjoying my banter with the Lord Alpha. “Lord Sol will attend in the name of the Fae.”

Corrigan scowled.

“Great.” I checked my watch. “Set up the portal. We’ll go in thirty minutes.”

I drained the rest of my milk. I needed to splash some water on my face to freshen up. Hopefully I could borrow some deodorant or perfume from someone too. The smell of bonfire still clung to my nostrils and I was fairly certain my clothes reeked of baked vamp.

*

Thirty minutes later, the four of us stood together, ready to broach the Otherworldly barrier to Endor’s realm. Alex was hopping from one foot to the other. I wondered whether he was regretting volunteering. He gave me a quick tense smile when he caught me looking at him, and continued jumping around. I hoped he wasn’t going to end up being a liability.

Solus hooked his arm through mine. “This is simply wonderful. The two of us together, in the dark.” He sent me an arch look and a saucy wink. “Why anything could happen.”

I could almost see the hackles rising on the back of Corrigan’s neck. I pointedly re-directed Solus.

“Have you managed to get a date yet with your Celtic student?”

He suddenly deflated. “No. She has thus far remained immune to my quite considerable charms.”

“Imagine that,” I murmured.

“It’s a war of attrition, dragonlette. She’ll agree eventually. It’s meant to be.”

The Fae was obviously aware of Corrigan watching us closely because he abruptly flipped back to flirting. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “How do you feel about a threesome?”

I was saved from answering by the crackle in the air, signifying that the portal to Dorchadas was open. Instead of the usual pretty purple flickers in the air, however, these were darker. Nausea rose up through me. I touched my stomach almost unconsciously in some pathetic attempt to prepare myself. Prepare us, I amended silently.

Solus went through first, followed by Alex, with me, then Corrigan bringing up the rear. As soon as I was through, I retched. It was an effort not to groan aloud, but I managed, just, to keep quiet. When I straightened back up, Corrigan was watching me with disapproval.

Alex held something out in his palm.

“What’s that?” I kept my voice low and quiet, unsure whether there was anyone around who might hear us.

“Breath mint.” When I narrowed my eyes at him, he grinned slightly. “I was in Russia with you, remember?”

“You were in Russia? When?”

I rolled my eyes at Corrigan. He may have been speaking in a whisper, but his annoyance was still obvious. “For fuck’s sake. You’re going to need to stop doing the whole protective thing. Platonic relationship, remember? And even if it wasn’t, I think I’ve proven I can take care of myself.”

A muscle jerked in his cheek. I could see him battling with himself to avoid taking our little spat even further.

Wrong time, wrong place, my Lord.

It’s not just yourself any more. You need to show a bit more maternal responsibility.

I just slaughtered half the bloodsuckers in the city. My maternal responsibility is doing just fine.

He snarled in my head.
Were they threatening you?

Solus cleared his throat. I realised Corrigan and I were facing each other, gesturing expressively with each Voice communication. I guessed it looked pretty strange. I snapped back into the physical world as Alex broke in.

“Which way, dudes?”

Focusing on what we were supposed to be doing, I took a step backwards to stare into the darkness. There was very little to be seen. I was getting so very tired of the dark. Corrigan raised his head and sniffed, then pointed to his left.

“Can you smell Endor?”

He shook his head. “Nothing so specific. But there are living creatures off in that direction.”

It was good enough for me. We headed off in single file, Corrigan in front so he could use his superior sense of smell to keep us on track. The ground beneath us was crunchy, making it difficult to tread quietly. I peered down, trying to work out what it was we were walking on. It seemed to be a mixture of materials, different sizes and lengths. There was a curved shape to one that was just like…I looked back up. Okay. We were walking on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bone fragments. Excellent.

The air felt clammy and heavy, almost as if a thunderstorm was about to break. I sucked a breath deep into my lungs. It left an unpleasant taste on my tongue and I made a face. I really didn’t like it here.

We’d hardly travelled any distance, when Corrigan halted. I almost went careening into Alex’s back, and only just managed to pull myself back in time. I leaned out to my right, trying to see why we’d stopped. There was a faint glow up ahead. Bingo. I crossed my fingers that it was as a result of Endor himself, and not some other nastie we’d have to avoid. Tapping Alex on the back, I motioned for him to veer right, and then for Solus behind me to head left. If we could flank whoever it was, and get close to see what they were up to, then we might just learn something useful. Corrigan turned and looked me. He flashed a sudden grin, and exploded in a mess of ripped clothing and black fur. His werepanther form padded up and he butted his head against my stomach, purring. He might have been trying to look like a cute harmless cat, but the powerful muscles rippling down his black feline body belied his true self. I scratched his ears, then pushed him gently back around and forward.

Corrigan as a werepanther made no sound at all while he picked his way through the path of bones. I, on the other hand, was like a heavy footed elephant in comparison. No matter how gingerly I tried to tread, there was still a sickening noise of crunching under my feet. I lifted myself up onto my tiptoes and began to move more slowly. We didn’t have the Palladium with us and we weren’t prepared for a fight. It was imperative Endor didn’t hear me.

The light grew stronger as we approached. It was some kind of fire, burning in a small metal barrel. Surrounding it were several free standing walls which oddly appeared to be moving. I strained my eyes. What the fuck was it?

Corrigan spoke in my head, causing me to jump.
Birds. Lots of birds.

I peered closer and realised he was right. Each wall was covered with them. Different kinds and different sizes. I spotted crows, pigeons, even a peacock. Every single one of them seemed to be affixed somehow through their bodies. Their wings, however, were flapping and free. The lack of sound caused by their continuous movements was beyond eerie.