Hex Me All Night Long, page 3
“What do you mean by privacy?”
“Alma cast a spell, so anything we say will be only between the two of us. Your guards can’t hear, and neither can my people. It’s a chance for us to get honest.”
His appalled expression made me smile.
“I have been honest,” he said. “I don’t plan to give up the artifacts. They are powerful weapons, and I plan to use them to fight the sabbatianoí.”
I slammed my palm against the table. “They are not weapons.”
Legabute raised his bushy brows at me. “Do you know something about the artifacts that I don’t?”
“Like what?”
Legabute’s eyes rolled back into his head, and his skin went grayish-blue right before he fell sideways from his chair and onto the floor.
“My king!” one of the vampires shouted. Two more raced over to their fallen sovereign. Then they went pale and dropped on top of him.
My mouth went dry as an explosion rocked the castle.
Alma clutched my arm. “What’s happening?”
I touched my earpiece and didn’t bother with the code. “Monty, what’s going on out there? Report.”
Nothing but static came back. Shitballs. Comms were out. “Alma,” I told my negotiator. “Go. Find Monty. Tell him Snow, err, Legabute is down.”
Alma, after a curt nod, apparated out. She was a civilian contractor, not an agent. Getting her out of harm’s way was a relief. Two vampires ran into the chamber. The first one grayed and toppled, dead to the floor. “Get out,” I commanded the second. “Keep everyone out of this room.”
The undead man had seen what had happened to his friend, so he didn’t argue as he turned on his heel and ran. I scanned the room, trying to find a cause, magical or otherwise, for the fallen vamps. I couldn’t see or sense anything, but whatever it was hadn’t affected me at all. The vampires were the only targets. I ran to Legabute and checked to see if there was any hope for him. His body was already starting to turn into a dried husk, and parts of him were flaking off. Shit, shit, shit.
Magic didn’t affect vampires, so this wasn’t some vampire killing spell.
Brita poofed into the room. “Saturday fuckers,” she said. Her wild curls were wilder than usual, and her face was red and glistening with sweat. “They were in the catacombs when we got inside,” she reported. “They took out barrier wards then killed every vampire down there.”
I had to swallow the knot forming in my throat. I rasped, “And the artifacts?”
Brita's grim expression told me before she even spoke. “They’re gone. After they killed the vampires, they grabbed the artifacts and hauled ass..”
The vampire I sent away was back at the door.
“Don’t!” I warned him before he could cross the threshold.
“Outside,” he said frantically. “They are killing anyone who tries to run.”
“Son of a fairy’s ass,” I hissed. I nodded to Brita. “Let’s go.”
—Andrak—
Following the Boom…
Cas took off running toward the compound. The sound of screams sent me barreling after him.
It took a couple of minutes to get through the rough terrain, and it took every ounce of willpower not to sprout wings and fly the distance to the compound. When I hit the clearing, I cussed myself for not following my instincts. The castle was in flames. Vampires were running across the drawbridge and then dropping to the ground when they reached the other side. That’s when I heard a familiar “Aiiiyeeeeeeeaaaaaah!”
I scanned the sky and saw a gorgeous blonde witch zipping through the sky on her broom. Was Shirley attacking the vampires? That didn’t seem right.
She threw four successive fireballs, and I followed the trajectory. Four men in black robes, with their arms raised to the sky, swatted away the fireballs as if they were mere annoyances. They were chanting in Latin, and glowing letters covered their forearms.
More vampires escaping the fire fell to the ground, their bodies turning gray and wizened. These had to be the sabbatianoí necromancers that Shirley spoke about. The reason the vampires were desperate to keep my heart.
One of Shirley’s fireballs was launched back at her, and she barely dodged it. The curly-haired witch, Brita, was throwing her own barrage of magic at the group. It was as if the necromancers had a barrier around them deflecting any magic.
Cas shifted into a large wolf and launched himself at the nearest robed man. The man disappeared as the wolf landed.
“Stop them!” Shirley shouted. “Don’t let them get away.”
Wings jutted from my back, unfolding as the rest of my body changed into my true form. Staring down a fifteen-foot silver dragon, the robed necromancers were understandably startled. The element of surprise meant that only two of them got away when I sprayed them with dragon fire. The third stopped screaming when the heat burned the air from his lungs.
Shirley swooped down to land on the ground near me.
She snapped her fingers. “Extinguish!” The necromancer stopped burning. Since he was already dead, I thought it was a waste of magic, but Shirley didn’t think so. “Get him bundled and back to base, Cas,” Shirley commanded. “Monty,” she added. “Get your ass down here. Shit has hit the fan. I repeat, shit has hit the fan.”
She turned her attention to me. “I thought I told you to stay out of this. That I had it handled.”
“Clearly.” I glanced from her to the wolf Shifter, wrapping up the dead guy. “How did that work out for you?”
She huffed her irritation and rolled her eyes. “How were you able to get through their shield?”
“You know magic doesn’t work on me and that my fire is not magic.”
“That’s right. Shit.” Her lips were pouty, and she looked wildly sexy as she straightened her disheveled hair.
“And my…uhm, the stone fragments?”
Shirley’s face pinched. “Gone.”
My gut twisted. “Gone? How?”
“Those fucking Saturday creeps,” she said. Her fraught gaze met mine. “They killed the king and his men, then took the pieces.”
“Where are they?” I growled. I swept my tail across the ground, kicking up rocks and dust. “I will grind their bones to dust.”
Shirley walked over. “Easy there, Andrak. I have a plan to find them, I promise. Let me gather my team. Can you get yourself back to base?” She put her hand on my chest, and a tremor ran through me. For a moment, it almost felt as though my heart had returned.
“I’ll be there.”
Chapter Four
—Shirley—
Needing eye bleach and a stiff drink after rounding up my agents.
* * *
Goddess in Pampers! I’d just had a front-row seat to the shittiest of shitshows, and unfortunately, there was not enough Pepto Bismol in the world to get me off the metaphorical toilet.
“Fuuuuuuuuuuck!” I screamed when I apparated over the Bering Sea where Dee and Time Bomb were taking a well-deserved break in the isolated Alaskan grotto where we’d plotted Dee’s rescue. The place was completely off the grid, which meant no cellphone, radio, or internet service, so it was down to me to get them back home for the mission.
I still couldn’t believe what had happened. The only warning we’d had that the sabbatianoí had arrived at the Ravenblood compound was when Lagabute fell lifeless from his chair at the head of the negotiation table. Then, much to my horror, all the vampires in the room started dropping like flies.
“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!” I screamed once more into the icy wind.
I had to get my head in the game. I’d taken chances in the past and pushed the boundaries of witch laws to nab rogue magic users who used black magic. The council had never pushed back because I got results.
But this time, my efforts resulted not only in total mission failure but also in the death of the vampire king. I wasn’t sure what my punishment would be, but landing a stint in Cellblock D, a place designated for witches who abused their power, wasn’t out of the question. Which was why I couldn’t report back to my superiors yet. If I was in jail, Andrak might not ever get his heart back. On top of that, the sabbatianoí, if they could figure out how to unlock the power, could create a powerful army of immortal sanguine drakonkin necromancers, and that would mean genocide for the vampires. I’d never forgive myself if that happened.
I ached as I thought about the look in the dragon’s eyes when I told him his heart had been stolen…again.
“Fuck, fuck, Fuuuuuuuuck!” He’d trusted me to keep my word. If I had let him go in, fire a-blazin', there would’ve been some collateral damage amongst the undead, but at least the artifacts wouldn’t have ended up in the hands of a bunch of necromancers on a mission to destroy all the vampires. On top of that, with Legabute dead, Baz just moved to the front of the line for the Ravenblood throne. Not something he ever wanted, and if he turned down the job, it would fall to his heir, Dee.
“Fuuuuuuuuuck!” I’d really blown it with this one. I would live with the consequences after I made it right.
Time for the pity party to end. I might be in trouble up to my witchy eyeballs, but there were so many more people I knew and cared about whose lives were completely altered by the evening’s events.
I popped into the grotto where Dee and Time Bomb were located. “We’ve got trouble,” I told them.
A chilly breeze blew at the back of my neck. I whipped around expecting another fight, but all I found was a broken window and no bad guys.
“Hey, what happened here?” I asked, then shook my head when I noticed my agent and his mate were both extremely naked. “Never mind.” I seriously didn’t want to know. “As I said, we’ve got trouble.”
Dee pushed her dark hair back over her shoulder as her lips thinned in irritation. “The only trouble I see is a bossy witch interrupting a perfectly nice and private moment,” she muttered.
I don’t know if it was the fact that the RMCA was blowing up and that this mission might spell the end for me, or if it was losing Andrak’s heart after I’d promised to get it back, or if I was just over vampires with attitude. Whatever the reason, I got more snappish with Dee and TB than I’d intended. “Well, get dressed, kids,” I said hotly, “because the sabbatianoí have stolen the artifacts, and we’ve got a bargain to keep.”
Time Bomb pulled the covers up around Dee’s shoulders as they both sat up in bed. He looked at his mate and shrugged, “Well, that was a short honeymoon, baby.”
“And nobody puts Baby in the corner.” Dee pivoted her red-eyed gaze at me. “You go get a head start. We’re going to join you later.” When I didn’t leave, she added, “Or you can stay and watch. I’ve always been a bit of an exhibitionist.”
I hadn’t even gotten the chance to tell Dee about Legabute before she and Time Bomb were making out again. It was hard to fight the urge to mate, or at least that’s what I’d been told. It was easier to let them finish than to fight at this moment.
“Finish up and get dressed. I’ll be back to get you in twenty minutes,” I told them, though I wasn’t sure how much they heard. Then I popped off to find Baz and Drag. The new vampire king had to be informed of the status of his clan.
—Andrak—
Waiting on a bossy, frustratingly sexy witch somewhere in the Missouri Ozarks in a remote cabin in the woods….
* * *
The guy I roasted was wrapped in a blanket on the porch, but it was far enough away from the front door for me to avoid the scent of cooked meat. Yuck.
Brita, the auburn-haired witch, came out of the kitchen eating a smoked sausage stick. She took a bite and waved it at me. “Hungry?”
I couldn’t bite back the sound of disgust that huffed from my lips. “No, thank you. I don’t eat meat,” I told her.
She waggled the slim stick at me. “That’s right. You’re a vegetarian.”
“Vegan,” I corrected her. “I don’t eat any animal byproducts, either.”
She nodded. “Better for the environment, huh?”
“Better for my digestion.” Smoked trickled from my nostrils as I thought about the last time I’d accidentally swallowed a medieval knight hellbent on lancing me with a dragon harpoon. I had to leave my castle for two weeks while I crapped and puked Sir Tasteslikeshit the entire time. I’d only meant to bite him hard enough to break his neck, but he’d released the harpoon just as I’d snatched him, and when I lurched out of the way, I gulped down everything above his collar bone. The metal from his helmet had been easier to pass.
“Your loss is my gain,” she said. “More for me.”
Her mate, the wolf Cas, put his arms around her from behind and kissed her neck. “Have we heard from Shirley yet?”
Monty, a red-haired warlock, sat on a blue cornflower divan. He scrubbed his face with his palms, and worry creased his brow. “Not yet.”
“Tell me more about these sabbatianoí?” I asked the warlock. “What kind of power do they possess that your witch magic can’t stop them, and vampires are helpless before their chants?”
“The sabbatianoí is a faction of vampire hunters who, having been born on Saturday, think they’re blessed with the divine power to kill vampires.”
“From what I saw, they’re not wrong. They effectively eliminated the vampires coming across the bridge without laying a finger on them.”
“The original Saturday freaks,” Cas interjected, “were wiped out by the vamps, down to the last man. They were mere humans with a culty bug up their asses that the vampires were evil and needed to be banished. Instead, they’re the ones who disappeared. Then, all of a sudden, a couple years back, these dudes start showing up, taking down one vamp after another without having to bite them, tear off their heads, or stake them with silver.”
Monty nodded his agreement. “Baz’s own uncle, an original sabbatianoí, had been turned during the war between the two groups. And with that action, the new sabbatianoí were born. They are all-powerful warlocks who were first born sons and born on a Saturday and practice the darkest of forbidden magics. Necromancy.” He stood up and began pacing. “They were even stronger than they were the last time we encountered them. With your heart….”
“Yes,” I told him. “I can see the problem.”
A blonde witch apparated into the room, but it wasn’t Shirley.
“Gigi,” Monty said, relief apparent in his voice. His wife strode across the room and wrapped her arms around him.
“I’m so glad you're safe,” she said. Then she slapped him hard in the center of his chest.
“Ow,” he complained. “What was that for?”
“For going on this stupid mission without telling me.”
“It was routine until the necros showed up.”
She balled her fists and put them on her hips. “If it was so routine, how come I spent the last hour getting grilled by Leelu Danby about Shirley going rogue?”
“Impossible,” he scoffed.
“Not impossible,” she countered. “Leelu has ordered us to take Shirley into custody. A failure to comply will mean all of us facing a jail sentence.”
Monty blanched.
I stifled the urge to barbecue the lot of them. “If any of you attempt to apprehend Shirley, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”
“Calm down, big guy,” Cas said.
“We’re not turning Shirley over,” Brita added. “She might’ve gone off books, but she isn’t practicing black magic. I’ll quit first, and the witch council can sit and—”
Monty interrupted her before she could finish and gave her a pointed look. “No one here is arresting Shirley. Everyone, calm down.”
Gigi held up her hands. “Put your claws away. Monty’s right. I was passing along what I was told. I have no intention of turning Shirley over to Baba Yaga’s bobble-headed warlocks.”
That was a relief. “As long as everyone is in agreement, then I shall let you all live.” For now, I thought ruefully.
Cas clapped me on the shoulder. “Dude, we’ve got Shirley’s back and yours. We made a deal, and we’re sticking to it.”
Drag, Baz, and Shirley appeared inside the living room. The vampire looked ready to spit nails.
“Where’s Desma?” Baz looked around. “I need to speak to my daughter now.”
Shirley’s tired eyes met mine. “I’ll be right back.”
In less than a minute, she poofed back into the room with my sanguine drakonkin and his mate.
Desma’s expression was just as angry as her father’s. “What the fuck is so important we had to come right now?”
Baz stared at his daughter, his face flushed with anxiety. “Legabute is dead,” he said bluntly.
Dee sat down on the chair behind her. Her eyes went wide with disbelief. After a moment, she glanced back at her father. “The king is dead,” she said, her voice distant and hollow. “Long live the king.”
Chapter Five
—Shirley—
In the Ozarks, wishing I’d gone into the love potion business with my sister.
* * *
“Baz and Dee, I know you have a lot to discuss, but I’m going to need Drag right now.”
The pink-haired witch cocked her head to the side. “What’s up? Do you want Time Bomb and me to walk the perimeter, see if any of those Saturday jerks show up?”
Drag could feel and hear magic. Most of the time, she wore a dampening charm to keep the sound from overwhelming her, but that wasn’t the power I needed from her right now. “No,” I told her. “I need you to stay here.”
“And do what?” she asked suspiciously. Now, even Baz and Dee were paying attention.
“I need to interrogate a suspect.”
She raised her brow at me. “That seems more like a Monty or Gigi thing than a me thing.”
“This suspect happens to be dead.” I moved my gaze to Monty. “Where’s the body?”
The warlock paled and touched his throat. “He’s charbroiled, boss.”
