I put my hands on his wrists so he would stop, so I could think again. “Help me get dressed,” I said raggedly.
He chuckled, and went to get a pair of scissors.
Once we had fixed up my shirt and my favorite sweater, I sat down on the bed to coil my hair into a braid. It had grown about another three inches during our interlude on the dining room floor.
“If we keep this up, you can start calling me Rapunzel,” I said.
“I don’t think any interactions we might have in the future will have the same effect,” Nathaniel said. “You have come fully into your power, and so have I.”
Yeah, but we haven’t had a complete “interaction” yet, I thought. What if the full power of Puck and Lucifer were combined within us?
It was a little scary to contemplate. I wrapped a rubber band around the bottom of my braid and stood up.
“Time to get rid of this vampire problem,” I said.
“Shall I gather our forces, then?”
“No,” I said, going into the dining room and slinging my sword across my body. “Leave them be. You and I can handle this.”
Plus I didn’t feel like having a conference in which I was a) grilled about the sudden appearance of silver wings, and b) questioned about every decision I might make. There was something to be said for traveling light.
We didn’t even bother going downstairs. I didn’t want the others to hear us on the stairs and come outside. I opened the kitchen window and flew out, Nathaniel following.
I’d been without wings for only a short time, but I’d almost forgotten the wonderful feeling of freedom that came from flying. I wished I had time to enjoy it, to swoop and twirl and revel in the joy for a few moments.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt happy like that, happiness untempered by responsibility and fear and guilt and confusion. Even when I was with Gabriel there had always been a sense that our time was limited, that the bliss we felt couldn’t last.
I hardly remembered being a child, much less a carefree one, although I suppose there must have been a time when I turned cartwheels and collected dandelions like other little girls.
All my life, death had been a constant companion. Death was the reason my mother was never at home, the reason why my father was gone. After my mother died, death was my profession.
And once I met Lucifer and Azazel, death become the instrument by which I exerted my will. There was a trail of bodies behind me, and my hands were soaked in blood. I should have been more troubled by this, but I wasn’t. Every choice I had made had been in defense of me and mine.
The gray clouds over Lake Michigan were still swirling, and I could see a poison green fog rising above the surface.
“Alerian rises,” Nathaniel said. “Can you not feel it?”
I could feel it. I hadn’t been able to before my new wings and new powers had emerged, but now I sensed Alerian’s presence the same way I could sense Lucifer’s. He was still muted, though, like he hadn’t fully awoken yet.
“Let’s worry about Alerian later,” I said. “I’ve got a checklist I’m working from here.”
“Where should we go?” Nathaniel said.
“We want all of the vampires to gather in one place,” I said. “So we need a place that will accommodate them, and then we need to call them to us.”
“And can you do that now?” Nathaniel said.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “I realized a few things about Azazel’s formula that can work to our advantage.”
“Which are?”
“First, Azazel used the blood of Agents. Lucifer and Puck both told me, ‘Once an Agent, always an Agent.’ I realize now that they were both trying to help me in their usual backhanded way. I am an Agent still, even if I’ve chosen not to be affiliated with them. They can’t take that away from me. The power was always there inside me. I just didn’t realize it.”
“And how will this help you to draw the vampires to you?”
“I have an affinity with the Agents’ blood that’s in the formula. In addition, I was the daughter of the maker of that formula. I’m pretty sure that Azazel put a little of himself inside that serum, too. Remember how the vampires behaved when we found them at Azazel’s mansion?”
Realization dawned on Nathaniel’s face. “Like zombies. Like they were under some kind of compulsion.”
I nodded. “How much do you want to bet that Azazel made sure there was some kind of fail-safe in the serum? If Therion tried defying Azazel, then dear old Dad would be able to bring all of the vamps that had taken the formula under his control.”
“If you exert your will, the vampires that have taken the serum will not be able to resist you, just as they would not have been able to resist Azazel,” Nathaniel said.
“That’s what I’m counting on,” I said.
I pointed to the giant bowl that protruded from the top of Soldier Field. “What do you think? Can we fit all of the vampires in there?”
“Even if they cannot all fit inside the building, they will gather near it if your ability to call them to you works,” Nathaniel said. “But I think it will be sufficient.”
“I hope it will,” I said, and we flew toward the Chicago Bears home field.
If there were more vampires than could fit inside a giant football stadium, then our troubles were bigger than I thought. Despite my newfound power and my expressed confidence to Nathaniel, I wasn’t as certain as I seemed. When we’d flown over the city as the invasion started, it seemed that there were millions of vampires, but that couldn’t be. There was nowhere for all of them to hide. Except…