The Phantom King (The Kings) (27 page)

Thane made it through his attacker. And the next one
. And somewhere between knocking out the third and turning to deal with the fourth, he wondered how there could possibly be so many. Marius had acquired a veritable army of demons to follow him.

And they’
d all come here to help
him
get
to Siobhan?
Why? Yes, she was beautiful, and yes she was a warlock, and yes she had stored a boat-load of power over the years, and yes she might even be his queen….

Thane felt a
frisson
of fear and determination rush through him. He’d answered his own question.
The Akyri King would be hard pressed to come up with a more desirable meal than an innocent warlock who m
ight also be one of the 13
Queens.

Thane gritted his fanged teeth and the fourth Akyri he was
fighting
went sailing, a
s did the fifth
. He
felt the magic he’d stolen earlier rush to the fore, ready to be cast
even
though he knew it would be a fatal error in dealing with these men
.
As he spun to
find his next opponent
, a second bolt of lightning split
the
night air
.

This one was
so close that it set Thane’s teeth on edge, buzzed through his mind, and made the world seem distant for a moment.
Electricity struck the roof and then traveled through the already burned wood and cascaded like a
spider web
over every piece of furniture in the house.
It lit up the ground beneath him like a grid, melting a bit of the tread on his motorcycle boots.

Time seemed to slow in the wake of the blast, almost coming to a stop.
Thane turned in that slow-motion battle, his silver eyes searching the bizarre chaos.

He found himself standing at the center of the
lit-up and
burned-out house,
Jason Alberich
, Roman
D’Angelo
,
Steven Lazarus,
and Marius
the Akyri King all within a
few feet of each other. The five
of them formed
a
pentagram
of throbbing, crackling
magic, o
f power
ancient and
unnamable
.

The shadows danced and wavered around them,
their depths darkening into familiar shapes. Thane
glanced at them and frowned. He had the strangest sensation…
that each one was watching him. Waiting.
It was as if
the spirits of his realm had gathered along its borders, an army of souls ready to charge the world they’d once known f
or their king. It couldn’t be, though
. Once an Anime was trapped in Purgatory, they could never get out again. It was impossible.

Wasn’t it?

For some reason, in that very moment and in the midst of the magic as thick as wa
ter in the air around him, it felt like anything was possible
.

Two feet away,
Marius’ red eyes burned with untold hatred and far too much power.
He turned those red eyes on Thane
and flashed his fangs.
“
I’ll have her,
Phantom King
. Mark my words.
” Then he looked at Alberich. “And you, Warlock
King. You
can find any warlock anywhere in the world….” He laughed, and it was a horrid, wretched sound, harsh and hoarse and deep.
As he laughed, the fallen Akyri around them began to pull themselves up – even the ones he was sure he had killed.

“The warlo
cks are your domain,
”
Marius continued.
“And the Akyri are mine.
” His smile broadened and his eye
s
burned like laser beams where they were locked in Jason’s gaze. “
Even the beautiful blonde ones
hiding
on tiny islands in the middle of the Pacific.”

Jason
’s
green eyes flashed red. He moved forward – and met a force field of inconceivable magic a
s the Akyri King t
h
rust his power
in an outward blast, simultaneously opening an instant portal to some other place.

It was a dark place and it was a horrible place.

Thane had a split-second impression of it before Marius and every one of his Akyri
lackeys
were enveloped in
deep, dark
cold and
impenetrable
black – and
then
sucked away.

A second later,
Jason sent away his own Akyri, all of whom had come through the fight relatively unscathed. He only chose the best.

In the aftermath
of the battle
, three
k
ings of the supernatural world
and one surprising newcomer
stood alone, their chests rising and falling with exertion, their clothes torn and tattered, the house around them in ruins.

Outsi
de, a handsome ginger tom
cat whipped his tail against the pavement of the sidewalk in agitation. He made a small, perhaps frustrated sound. His whiskers twitched.

Sirens wailed in the distance.

Chapter
Eighteen

There was a dark
cloud
hanging
over
Roman D’Angelo
as he entered the meeting room for the 13 Kings that night.
The
air was already swimming with the heady mixture
of barely checked magic when Roman stepped
in and closed the door
behind him.
He was late. His place was at the head of the table, and normally
he would have been the first
to arrive. Especially when he’d called the meeting himself.

However, nothing about this night was status quo, and when he walked
in, he felt the weight of twelve
sets of very powerful eyes follow him to his seat.

There were twelve original Kings present
today. Ma
rius the Akyri King was missing. In his place sat Jesse Graves, the werewolf council Overseer.
He’d had the invitation to join them for months, but it took something very personal and close to home to finally bring him to the table.

So much was happening all at once, it felt apocalyptic.

There was this business with Ophelia…. Roman was not a man any sane person would want to piss off. But Ophelia was not sane. And she was not really even a person. She was a vampire, which was difficult enough for Roman to wrap his head around, but not only was she a vampire, she had acquired more power than a vampire of her age should have acquired.

He’d sensed it as she’d entered his mind. No one else in the world could
do such a thing, not even Evie
though she was close. He could feel his wife’s abilities growing every day. Lalur
a had been right when she’d reiterated
that in the game of chess, the queen is always more powerful than the king. Evelynne D’Angelo was about to prove that perfectly.

But for now, Roman’s private thoughts were safe from everyone but the young woman he had once courted, had once
thought
he loved, and who now apparently hated him and everyone he actually
did
love.

Someone out there – some other vampire – had turned Ophelia despite Roman’s edict as king that such a thing would no longer be done. Now the law
against turning  mortals
was lifted and the vampires of Roman’s realm w
ere allowed to bring new humans
into their ranks in certain, special
circumstances. However, in 1798
, it was not allowed. There were very good reasons for this.

When Roman killed the former king and took over as sovereign of the vampires three thousand years ago, he’d claimed the throne of a nation so debauched and overrun with bloodthirstiness, it had disgusted him to his core. The first thing he’d
done was ensure
that the death, destruction, and utter disregard for human emotion come to a sudden and firm end.

Three magic words were necessary for the trans
formation of human into vampire: Addo Nox Noctis.
Roman had hidden away the words, hidden away the means to force this change upon mortals, and issued the decree. Punishment for br
eaking this law had been strict
indeed.

And apparently, at least one very important infraction had gone unnoticed. It was no wonder that when Roman, delirious with grief, had gone to the Phantom King’s realm to ask for Ophelia’s Anime, she had not been there. Despite the fact that she’d died a wrongful death, run down by a carriage in the streets of London in the prime of her life, she was not in Purgatory. That was what Thanatos had told him.

Roman hadn’t believed him at the time.

He believed him now.

He could not help but wonder what vampi
re had caused this to happen. And w
hy turn Ophelia? Certainly, she was lovely. But
had it been worth it?
Roman’s vice-like grip on the vampire nation and the punishments for breaking his laws were so severe, any vampire willing to do so would have had to be insane. Or very, very smart.

Or both.

W
hoever he
w
as, Ophelia had referred to him
as a “master” vampire
and as good as promised that he would be coming for Evelynne. To say nothing of the threat Ophelia posed herself.
She felt forsaken
by him and displaced by Evie
, and she meant to seek revenge. The easiest way to devastate Roman would be to attack Evie directly.

It was hi
s worst fear.

Roman knew he couldn’t trust the 13 Kings
. The fight
that
he, Alberich
and Thane had just experienced with the Akyri King was testament to that as well. He couldn’t have Evie
join him in the meeting room. T
here was so much power sitting at that table, if any o
ne of the others
was
somehow involved in
Ophelia’s
transformation
or was on Marius’ side
, Evie’s life
would have been placed in
jeopardy
.