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  Could they be in the void, too? It seemed likely, though I threw the question at Max anyway.

  His mind sighed. I fear that is the case, he sent.

  Not good at all. I made a mental note to check in with Mom and my sister, the Ruler of Demonicon, to see if any witches or demons were on the lost list. For now, focus, Syd. Focus.

  At least the drach were all accounted for. I could have asked Piers about sorcerers, but he was losing his to the Brotherhood, so the question was just bad timing.

  Turned out Moa didn’t have my sensitivity to my friend’s losses.

  “Are the sorcerers all accounted for?” There was a nasty edge to her voice that made me want to choke her. She knew exactly what she was doing and I had no doubt it was plain, petty bitterness at her own plight that drove her to hurt my friend.

  “If you mean the ones not stolen by the Brotherhood,” Piers snarled back, “then yes. As a matter of fact.”

  The old vampire’s fangs showed as she smiled at him. “Then aren’t you glad we’ve located Jean Marc for you?”

  Piers’s elation was sudden and tempered with greedy hunger. “Where?” Why did I have a sudden image of him ripping open the Brotherhood’s new leader with his bare hands and drinking his blood?

  Sorry, my demon sent. My bad.

  I choked on a snort of laughter, my own heart lifting, before I clamped down on hope with a firm grip and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “What’s the catch, Moa?” There was always a catch.

  But she shook her head, real fear replacing the cruelty of what she’d tried to do to Piers. Everonus shifted with discomfort, too, Nona bobbing a slow, steady nod in silence.

  “No catch,” the old maji woman said, surprising me. She looked up and into my eyes with her fear naked on her face. “We need you, Doombringer. And we must trust you.”

  “Why?” They really didn’t have to trust me. Never did before. In fact, they blamed me for a lot of things.

  Nona sighed, deep and tired. “You came back,” she said, barely a whisper. “You committed to this plane and to the Universe by returning and risking everything to do so.” She smiled faintly, kindly, reminding me of Trill. “We must do what we can at this point to help you see this through.”

  Okay then. While I still didn’t trust them in return, and doubted they gave me their 100% either, this was another win for the home team.

  “Tell us where.” Piers tensed beside me, hands clenched into fists that struck slow, steady blows to his thighs.

  “You’re not going to like it.” Moa could have rubbed it in, but she sounded as weary as Nona.

  “What else is new?” I snorted and dropped my arms to my sides. “Just tell us.”

  “In North America,” Everonus said. “In the territory of the Hensley coven of California.”

  He said what?

  Tallah.

  Oh. My. Swearword.

  If Tallah was harboring the Brotherhood, I was going to kill her myself.

  ***

  Chapter Nine

  “How long have you known?” I was all ready to leap through the veil and end the Hensley coven, but oddly it was Piers who was the voice of calm reason.

  He seemed more level, more balanced suddenly, the man I knew and cared about shining through at last. That helped cool my jets and bring me back to focus as Moa squiggled in her seat in discomfort.

  “Does it matter now?” She gestured at me. “Go, fetch the piece from Jean Marc, return it to Creator and fulfill your destiny.”

  She did not get to give me orders.

  Max shifted beside me, his growl and a puff of fragrant smoke all the evidence I needed he felt the same way. “Be careful where you tread, Moa,” he said. “You have put this plane and this Universe at risk and I have allowed it. But the time for that kindness has passed.”

  She shrank into her throne slightly, though I had doubts she truly feared his wrath.

  Piers shrugged at last, all the tension leaving him. Was it the ability to act that loosened his heart toward me? Or just the fact he finally decided working together was preferable to the uptight trio before us?

  “Time to go,” I said to him, ignoring the elder council members. “I get Tallah.”

  Piers’s gray eyes were clear, even kind. “There are others who need to be in on this, Syd. And you know it.”

  What, the voice of reason suddenly? I wanted to smack him.

  “I would think you’d be the last person who would want to wait.” I didn’t mean to grind my teeth at him, shocked when he chuckled then rubbed his tired face with one long fingered hand.

  “Just take us to your mother already,” he said, “before I change my mind.”

  We left the trio there to their ineffectualness and lack of action. Maybe something would snap in them, too. Wake them up, force them to do something. I wasn’t holding my breath and, quite frankly, I trusted the two people in my company and their cooperation far more than I’d ever the elder council. Let them hum and haw and continue to conspire without doing a single freaking thing.

  I had a job to do.

  Mom looked up in surprise from her desk as I let us into her office. Damn, I should have warned her, but from the firm and determined look on her face, she already knew why we were there.

  At least, the part about Gram.

  I shouldn’t have been surprised Varity was with her, the elder Rhodes Enforcer leader nodding to me all casual, as though this were another day at the office. Well, wasn’t it? I was shocked to find my ex-husband in attendance, his black robe disguising his muscular body, the accustomed tang of his chocolatey spiced magic giving me a moment of sadness that startled me more than his presence.

  Thankfully, Piers was there to take over when I hesitated, covering up my instant of old hurt as he plunged into what we’d just been told. Mom sank to her chair again, eyes huge when Piers told her about Tallah.

  “What has she done?” Mom’s jaw tightened while Quaid stood, grim and frustrated.

  “I shouldn’t be here,” he said, shaking his head at Mom when she stood again, protest on her lips. “I want to help, Miriam, you know that.” The man I’d once shared my life with shook slightly, visibly torn. “But you know I’m not allowed to interfere. Not without talking to Femke.”

  We all knew where that would end up. The leader of the World Paranormal Council had changed. Understatement. She’d turned into a crazed and broken shell of the witch she’d once been thanks to the Russian Mafia leader who’d kidnapped her. We’d rescued her, sure. But she’d been beaten, drugged and under the influence of a Black Soul sorcerer. I’d tried to reach her, only to be told by the elder council the WPC was to remain ineffectual so they could do their job.

  The realization at that moment I was finally able to act hit me like a blow. Quaid must have seen the shock and sudden joy on my face, because he paused, blue flames pulsing around him.

  “You’re going to help, then.” Relief reached me, his and my own, mingled together.

  Oh crap. Now I had two imminent things to deal with and both felt immensely important. Tallah? Or Femke? Kick ass or save a friend?

  I had to even think about it?

  “I’ll see you in Hong Kong,” I said, not kindly.

  Visible calm altered his expression, loosened the tension there. He’d asked me not so long ago to act on Femke’s behalf. I’d turned him down. I was so done disappointing the people in my life.

  “Don’t worry, kiddo,” Varity drawled, winking at me. “I can handle the Hensley’s and the Brotherhood. We’ll keep you posted on tracking down Jean Marc through Tallah. If she knows where he is, if she’s truly betrayed us, I’ll know about it in short order.”

  Quaid nodded, looking more calm and himself than he had in a long time. When he disappeared into blue fire, I turned to Mom, decision made.

  The elder council might not have given me much, but their unwillingness to share triggered my own need to be the exact opposite of them. And gave me a brillia
nt idea I might well come to regret.

  Without asking permission, I strode forward and grasped my mother’s hand, connecting with the woken sorcery at her base. She gasped in surprise, wide open to me as I thrust my white version at her and felt the darkness devour some of it.

  When I pulled away, I feared I’d feel weaker than before. After all, I’d been drained just recently by the void, hadn’t had time to fully recover and here I was giving away the ultimate magic of Creator. Instead, to my surprise, I felt stronger than ever and shivered with the icy pleasure that came from connecting to the fresh power in my mother’s control.

  She stared at me with wide eyes before hugging me in a suffocating grip. “Syd,” she whispered.

  “Yeah,” I whispered back, hoarse as the magic bound us so tightly together I knew this bond would never be broken, not even in death.

  “I didn’t know you could do that.” Mom released me, wiping at moisture standing in her blue eyes. The streaks of silver in her hair seemed reduced, the deep line that had shown her advancing age not so noticeable now. Renewed vigor seemed to glow from her cheeks, her eyes and her smile made me feel young again.

  “Neither did I.” I turned toward Varity, held out one hand. She accepted readily, moments later beaming at me as our own connection pulsed between us.

  Piers was next, though he hesitated. “Mother,” he said, that one word all he needed to say.

  I shrugged. “Let her try to track us through power she doesn’t have.” At least, I hoped that was the case. Regardless, I was willing to take the chance. Piers needed what I could give him, needed the edge against the Brotherhood that would mean success. For I had zero doubt sharing had even crossed Jean Marc’s mind.

  In fact, I was counting on his greed.

  Piers’s alteration was the least apparent visually, but the most magically. I felt his power lighten, if that was possible, the white sorcery washing free the bits and pieces of his hurt while it pumped up his strength so much he glowed in my mind’s eye for a moment before settling down again.

  “Bollocks,” he whispered. And winked.

  But when I turned to share with Max he shook his head, smiling gently but sadly at me.

  This is enough for now, he sent. It’s time to retrieve the piece, Sydlynn.

  Whatever his true reticence, I nodded and spun back to the others, though I was sure the drach lord wouldn’t be happy Femke was my issue of choice. He’d just have to deal with my decision to put her above Creator for the time being. I’d get to Jean Marc and his pesky pack of nastiness. And how.

  Varity’s lined face seemed younger, too, her grin cocky and brilliant. “Shall we?”

  The veil responded instantly, though my first step was halted before I could make it when a desperate cry hit me hard and fast, as though Sunny only had an instant to send her plea.

  SYD!

  Her cry was all I needed. The veil diverted instantly, carrying us to the vampire mansion instead of Hong Kong, dragging Varity along with me by accident in my haste to help. I hurtled through, white sorcery ready. And stumbled to a halt, power failing, while the collapse of Sunny’s shielding hit me like a blow.

  I could only stare in horror as the hundreds of vampires filling the front yard of the mansion vanished in a wave of black.

  Two figures remained behind, shuddering inside a crystalline structure of shielding. I threw white sorcery at Uncle Frank and Sunny, feeling them siphon it but knowing it was too late.

  The void pulled at me, eager and hungry.

  Syd. Sunny didn’t sound afraid, just resigned but confident. Her blue eyes locked on mine as the two wavered, shields failing despite my attempt to help. Did I hold back? Did fear keep me from giving them everything I could? I didn’t want to consider that while the void sucked at the edges of my power, locked firmly on the two vampires I loved so much. We will be waiting for you on the other side.

  And then, with a soft pop of darkness, they disappeared.

  In that instant all of the spirit magic of our plane disappeared after them, the distant, desperate cry of the Empress of vampires going with it.

  ***

  Chapter Ten

  I ran. For Nepal and the spire castle and the soul of the oldest vampire in the plane. Not of my own accord. I’m a bit ashamed to admit it likely wouldn’t have happened if I’d been left up to my own devices. But I wasn’t given a choice.

  My vampire persona took hold of me and threw me bodily through the veil and into Moa’s bedchamber, déjà vu a momentary blip of disconcertment as I staggered to a halt at the sight of the slight, trembling vampire mother wavering as black fought to devour her.

  Syd. Mom’s voice sounded level in my head, but with an edge of fear I recognized as pure terror. My spirit magic is gone.

  I know. I grit my teeth against my vampire’s desperation while she reached for Moa and tried to hold her. I’d only ever once before felt the undead creation of Iepa take full control of me, and was so surprised by her actions I let her.

  But even she wasn’t strong enough, not with all the power I had at my disposal, to hold Moa safe. The only thing that snapped me out of my complacency was the tug of the void, familiar by now, but stronger than ever as Moa cried out, hands outstretched toward me, vanishing into the black.

  Pulling the vampire essence within me along with her.

  Oh, hell no. My demon snarled her denial and latched onto my vampire, Shaylee grounding us deep within the mountain for support. I wrapped all of us in white sorcery, sweat leaping out onto my skin, body shaking as my vampire began to slip away.

  No. Not today. Not on my watch and never if I could help it. I’d chosen to give up my drachness to save her once. I wasn’t about to let her go now.

  But the void, the pull, the power… so hard to resist, and my vampire was losing, I was losing. Until the black ribbon on my wrist, sleeping since our previous encounter with the darkness, snapped awake and, with an audible snarl, reached for Moa.

  And in that instant, in probably the only act of selflessness she’d ever made, the Empress of the vampires cut the tie between herself and my vampire and pushed us free.

  The void opening snapped shut. I stood there a long moment, panting and trembling while the ribbon settled, its power still diminished but satisfaction radiating from it while my demon and Shaylee hugged my vampire close.

  That, she sent, was interesting.

  I snorted, a kneejerk reaction to the stress. Understatements, I sent. Your favorite.

  She grunted and shrugged the girls off when we all realized she wasn’t going anywhere. It’s quite possible, she sent with sadness in her mental voice and touch, I’m all that remains of spirit power on this plane.

  Max stepped through the still gaping hole in the veil and settled one hand on my shoulder. “In the Universe,” he said, his own sorrow lingering. I felt his power, diminished and no longer a vivid rainbow. Even the drach were affected?

  This was terrible news. We needed the strength of the first race to combat the Order if they somehow managed to break through. I had feared even before now Dark Brother’s soldiers were stronger—at least in numbers—than Max’s people. Now?

  I didn’t want to think about what might happen now. Not when this plane, this place where I’d always felt at home, suddenly seemed empty and dull. It took me a moment to realize the lóng had gathered, a dozen or so men and women, a pair of kids that had to be Jiao’s brother and sister, staring at me without a trace of hope.

  “Your time here is done.” Max gestured at a new slice he made in the veil, the Stronghold appearing on the other side. “It’s time for your race to know the truth about your past and to join the fight against Dark Brother.”

  One of the men, a bodyguard I recognized as a well-known face at Moa’s side, shook his head, backing away. “We will remain and wait for the return of our mistress.”

  Well, that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. Instead of arguing, I whispered a request across the veil and was
unsurprised when Jiao appeared almost immediately. She ignored me in favor of her people, black bob shining around her olive cheeks, dark eyes cold and uncompromising.

  “Moa will not return,” she said and I wondered at her harsh tone. But they seemed to expect and welcome it, focusing on the young lóng like they hadn’t with Max. “Our time is now. And Doombringer is our new mistress.”

  I wasn’t sure that was the right way to go, but they turned to me as one and bowed. Great, just what I needed. I’d had enough issues breaking my werefriend and the queen of the werenation, Charlotte, from her bond to me when she’d decided she owed me her life. The last thing I wanted was a bunch of evolved drach thinking I was their messiah.

  “Doombringer.” The leader—he must have been, looking enough like Jiao I wondered if they were related, “what will you have us do?”

  Sigh. “Go with the drach,” I said, pointing at Max’s Stronghold portal. “And do as they tell you.”

  They marched without further question. I caught myself grinning as my demon spoke up.

  Now, if only everyone else would just do what they’re told, she grumbled.

  I closed the way back to the vampire mansion, Piers and Varity joining me momentarily in Nepal then passing through to the Stronghold. There was a time when this place would have been full of Enforcers from the North American Witches Council, and another when my coven and refugees of the ill-fated Brotherhood/Witch alliance were welcome. But the betrayal of Erica Plower changed all that. When the Enforcers joined forces with the Brotherhood, the Stronghold’s fury at the alliance meant the end of their habitation. If the Stronghold’s soul was still present, he would have prevented Varity from passing into his plane. As it was, the theft of the heart of Creator, taken by Trill Zornov at a time I still trusted her, meant this place was no longer awake and aware. I still missed his deep, graveled voice and depth of spirit. Had to do something about getting him back, if I could.