I couldn’t resist sauntering up to them, about to ask What’s up? when my question died on my lips. There was a sinkhole in the street, in the center of the intersection, about twenty yards from the manhole. Dust bil owed up from the hole as a group of firemen and FH-CSI officers stared down into it.
Iris saw me first, and raced over to throw her arms around my waist. “Menol y! You’re safe!”
Chase whirled. “Menol y! Wade! Thank God you’re okay. What happened? We were waiting for you, and then after a while there was this loud explosion and part of the street caved in.”
“We got him.” I looked at Chase, shaking my head. “He was too far gone. There was no chance to stop him other than to kil him. He’s dust. It was Charles Shalimar. He thought he was some sort of martyr, cal ed himself the sword of justice. He also managed to find himself a live hand grenade, and that’s what happened to your street.”
“You guys lived through a grenade?” Chase stared at us, his eyes wide. “Shit. Are you okay?”
I nodded. “We’re hardier than you think. Charles survived it, too, but he couldn’t survive a stake through the heart. The kil ing spree is over, Chase, but now we have to put out the aftermath. You might want to spend a little time in your news conference mentioning that a couple of vampires took care of the problem.”
He caught my intentions. “Yeah, if we show that you guys wil ingly went after one of your own, that might be enough to appease the recent spate of hate crimes against vampires.”
Maybe, but I wasn’t so sure. I had a nasty feeling things were going to explode pretty soon, unless some clear and definite lines were drawn. But I wasn’t going to dampen his optimism. He’d seen too much horror over the past week or two, too many bodies. At least we’d caught our man and taken him down.
“Yeah, maybe you’re right.” I walked over to Iris, who had moved back to stare down into the hole, next to Wade.
“You need to get home. Morning’s not far off.” She glanced up at me—I was barely five one but I was stil more than a foot tal er than she was. “Menol y, things are shifting, aren’t they? Something is on the move . . .”
“Yeah, I can feel it, too.” I stared into the chasm, wondering what we were talking about. But instinctively, I knew. Something big was coming, something big and something bad, and it felt like things were growing more and more chaotic. “Let’s go home.”
Wade gave me a quick hug and headed out for his apartment. I waved to Chase and headed back to my Jag, Iris beside me.
“How did you get down here?” I asked, after a moment.
“I made Vanzir drive me down, then told him to go home. What the hel happened with him? He seems mute, almost. . . docile.”
“You don’t want to know,” I whispered. “But you wil . Soon, Iris. It’s not up to me to tel you.”
And with that, we climbed in my car and headed for home, the silent streets passing by in a blur of snow and concrete.
When we got home, I silently went in to pick up Maggie. She was dead to the world but the minute I lifted her, she woke and gave me a sleepy yawn, then a giggle, and yanked on my braids. I held her close, sitting on the end of Iris’s bed, kissing her downy head and ruffling the calico fur that covered her body. Her wings folded and unfolded with delight, and she wrapped her arms around my neck and went to sleep against my shoulder.
For some reason, my heart felt like it was breaking, and for the first time in a long while, I wanted to cry. I pressed my lips to her head, then her nose, and then rubbed my cheek against the top of her head.
Iris came in, watching me closely. After a few minutes, I felt like I was back in control of my emotions and I softly slid Maggie back into her crib and fol owed Iris out into the kitchen. Shade and Delilah were there, both wearing pajamas. Vanzir was straddling a chair, leaning his arms on the back of it.
“We have a lot to talk about,” I said, sitting down next to Iris. “Can we do tea? I may not be able to drink it, but damn it, I need some feeling of continuity.”
Iris nodded, bustling over to the sink to fil the kettle. Shade offered me a bottle of blood from the fridge, but I wasn’t hungry. I’d drunk deep from Roman and stil felt sated from feeding on him.
Delilah pul ed out Camil e’s steno pad. “Okay, where are we at? And if we’re going to do this, I need cookies.”
“You just want cookies because you have a sweet tooth that won’t quit,” Shade said, grinning as he brushed his fingers down the side of her face.
“And what are you going to do about it?”
“Nothing, because it’s part of you.” He bent to kiss her ful on the lips, and I tried to repress a grin.
“Get a room, you two. Come on, let’s please get a handle on what’s going down.” I waited til Delilah was finished smooching with Shade and paying attention, then said, “Wade and I kil ed the vampire who was murdering hookers. In doing so, we blasted a hole in the middle of the intersection. Or rather, our kil er did. He had a grenade. Grenades go boom when you pul the pin.
Which he did.”
Delilah blinked. “Say what? He was carrying around a grenade?”
“No, he had one in his bedroom down in the tunnels. By the way, there are several things we need to get on the table. Vanzir—I have to tel them. They have to know.” I was talking about the Demon Underground, but apparently he misunderstood.
“Fine, so tel them. Camil e would have to sooner or later. I’ve lost my powers thanks to a big-ass mistake.” He stared at them, and before I could stop him, he added, “I . . . I overpowered your sister in the tunnels when Morio was attacked, and the Moon Mother stripped me of my powers.”
Delilah jumped up, her eyes wide. “You did what?”
“Stop—before you think a single thing.” I stood up and crossed between their line of sight.
“Delilah, stop. Camil e and I had a long talk. She’s dealing with this—and there were extenuating circumstances that forced Vanzir’s hand. It was a bad situation, no matter how you looked at it, and neither one had much say in the matter. Vanzir’s feeding got away from him and Camil e made a choice.”
Delilah was shaking—I could see the tremors in her hand. She slowly took her seat, glowering at Vanzir. “What did Tril ian and Morio say?” Then a look of stark terror fil ed her face. “Oh Great Mother, what the hel do you think Smoky’s going to do? This isn’t something that you can keep from him.”
“We kind of figured that out, and hel . . . I don’t know. I’m thinking we should send Vanzir away for a little while until Camil e has a chance to talk to Smoky and smooth things over. We could send him to Otherworld for a little while, or to stay with Grandmother Coyote.”
Vanzir shook his head. “I can’t stay with her, she scares the crap out of me. I could stay with a friend in the Demon Underground.”
“Speaking of the Demon Underground, I’ve seen it.” Again, with Vanzir’s help, I outlined what we’d found below the surface. Once again, Delilah looked like she was seriously thinking of throttling Vanzir.
“You didn’t think to tell us about it? You didn’t tel them that the shadow men were guardians?
You put everybody at risk—” She hung her head, and when she raised it, I could see Panther staring through her eyes.
“Pul it in, babe. Pul it in—Vanzir has reasons. Maybe not the best, but he does have reasons.
Remember, we watch every thought about him. You don’t want to do something that cannot be undone.” The soul binder around Vanzir’s neck al owed us to kil him with a single directed and prolonged thought. I waited until her breathing softened.
Iris frowned. “You know . . . let me check something.” She stood and crossed to Vanzir, placing her hands on his shoulders and closing her eyes. After a few moments, she stood back, staring at him. “It’s gone. The soul binder is gone. ”
He hung his head again and crossed his arms. “Yeah, I know. It vanished when my powers vanished. I’m free of your Subjugation spel .”
“Why didn’t you tel me? I’ve been trying to defend you, to keep Delilah from kil ing you with her anger.” I pushed to my feet, staring at him from across the table. “Vanzir, what the fuck’s going on?”
“And what would you have done if I’d told you?” He stood and leaned across the table. A smug look clouded his face, but beneath it, I could see the hints of worry. “When your sister’s goddess stripped away my powers, the soul binder went with it. I’m free. But I’m stil here. After what happened with Camil e, I know it’s going to be hard to trust me again, but I’m stil here and I’m wil ing to stay and play by your rules.”
I gazed into his eyes. The whirling kaleidoscope flickered by, a never-ending parade of indescribable colors. “You’re stil wil ing to fight with us, even without your powers? Even though you aren’t bound to us?”
He nodded. “Even more so now. This is my choice. I owe it to Camil e for what I did to her. I owe it to you for the fact that you spared me. I may have kept the Demon Underground secret, but they’re al against Shadow Wing, so real y, did it harm you? Does it have anything to do with your war against the Unravel er?”
Delilah answered for me. “No. No, it doesn’t . . . but from now on, you be straight with us. We may not be able to put you under a death threat about it, but we can certainly kil you with our hands rather than our minds.”
Vanzir smiled then, dropping back into his chair and crossing one leg. “Puddy-tat, I would expect nothing less than that. I’m in, if the big lizard doesn’t tear me to shreds. Camil e . . .” A pained look crossed his face. “I’l always regret what I did, but some things cannot be undone. She and I knew that . . . at the end.”
The room was silent for a moment, then I slowly told them about everything that had happened with Morio and my blood, and how Wade and I had chased Charles through the tunnel and the explosion. By the time I was done, we were al exhausted.
“Camil e said she’l be home later today,” Iris said, clearing the teacups and saucers from the table. “Let’s hope things look up from here out.”
“Yeah,” I said, heading toward my lair. Delilah and Shade had retired to their rooms upstairs.
Vanzir was gone, out to the shed. “Iris, does it feel like things are fal ing apart to you?”
She shook her head, slowly. “No, dear, things are simply evolving. Rest. Let go of the day.
Tomorrow night things may seem brighter. Go now and sleep.”
And, taking her words as gospel, because I couldn’t afford not to, I obeyed.
CHAPTER 23
When I woke, I could hear the commotion al the way down in my lair. I threw back my covers, slipped into jeans and a blue turtleneck, pul ed on my boots, and headed upstairs. The noise didn’t sound like it was coming from the kitchen, so I took a chance and slipped through the hidden entrance to my nest. I was right. Whatever was going on was confined to the living room.
I raced in to find that Smoky had returned. For a moment I thought he was going after Vanzir, but the dream-chaser demon was nowhere in sight. Smoky was ranting, and Camil e and Tril ian were trying to calm him down.
“Hey, bro, good to see you. What the fuck’s al the commotion about? Where’s Roz?”
“Rozurial is resting.” The six-four dragon turned to me, and his eyes could have frozen my heart if it had been stil beating. “My father, that’s what the commotion is about.”
Camil e looked petrified. She gave me a slow shake of the head. “Hyto . . . he tried to kil Smoky’s mother and when the guards caught him and put a spel of banishment on him, the last thing he said was that he’s coming to punish the one responsible.”
“Meaning Camil e.” Smoky’s hair was up in arms, too, it seemed, the ankle-length tendrils coiling and snapping through the air like wild silver whips. His arms were around her shoulders, holding her to him. He wouldn’t even let Tril ian near her.
“My father wil die before he ever puts a single finger on my wife,” he said with a growl.
I’d never seen such a horrific look on his face, not even when Camil e was in danger from our enemies. His dragon energy swirled around him, a mist of white with silver sparkles, and he looked ten seconds away from transforming. Which would total y trash the house, if he did.
“He tried to kil my mother, and for that alone, he must die. But if he thinks he can touch my wife, I wil rip his throat out, I wil emasculate and eviscerate him, and then toss him over the highest mountain in the land.”
I blinked. He wasn’t kidding.
“Is your mother okay?”
Smoky gazed at me, his face a frozen sculpture. “She is. She is more powerful than Hyto, and she cast him down. My brothers and sisters wing-strapped him until help could arrive. Ever since she denied him in front of the Council, he’s apparently been planning her death. If he sets foot in the Dragon Reaches again, he wil be tortured and put to death.”
I glanced at Camil e, who was looking absolutely petrified. Nothing like being on a dragon’s shit list, that was for sure.
The thought of fighting dragons was certainly enough to cow me. “It must be a terrible sight, dragon against dragon.”
Smoky gave me a subtle nod. “It is a terrifying spectacle. An actual fight between dragons can ravage the country for miles around. Some young males who do not want to accept their place in the hierarchy bear scorch scars across their bel ies and backs for life.” He let out a long breath.