Yuri sat upright, waking from his daily coma. “Daloisha, where is Amelia?”
Nowhere I can find, her voice hissed in his head.
“And Alkirran?”
The underworld. Where he’s trapped. He wants free, and we need an escape.
“Why?”
Consuela is on the way with mages and her mate. Bring Alkirran to feast on your vampires. Let him loose.
“But we won’t find Amelia.”
His phone rang, and he picked it up. “Yes, Kaylean?”
“I think I know where Amelia has gone.” Her voice was eager as always.
“And where is that?”
“Declan O’Shea owns a home in Edenton. If he changed her, which it seems he must have, she would be there.”
“But I didn’t sense her when I was there,” he sneered.
“Behind wards. His children are druids. I understand one wards tattoos, the other jewelry. And they are some of the most skilled enchanters known in the area.”
“I’ll need you to meet me at the end of the tunnel in an hour.”
* * * *
Amelia watched Declan and everyone drive away. Then her parents showed up, followed by Delilah and Christian. She needed a distraction from her errant heart.
Clearly, she couldn’t trust the damned thing. First Brent, who refused to see a possibility between them. Then Yuri, who put a sadistic, murderous demon in her. She wanted to be sick.
Dad rushed up to her, wrapped his arms around her, and lifted her off her feet. “How you doing, pumpkin?”
She laughed softly. “Better with you all here.”
“Good, we’ll stay until they’re back, at least,” Mom promised.
She had to wonder what they told her parents. They probably had to say something to them.
Delilah took her hands. “You look good for being undead. How is it? Used to the blood yet?”
She really did laugh then. “Yeah, Dad convinced me I wouldn’t like being a wolf. I’d have to eat raw meat.” She shuddered. She didn’t like meat much to begin with.
* * * *
They met in the forest near the mansion Charlie Turow had owned. Consuela couldn’t feel Yuri. Instead she sensed another dozen vampires. There were at least that many of Robert’s people, both from the Enforcers and the DSF. Not to mention three Deathcallers and Declan.
Declan stood beside Consuela, a look of concern on his face. “If things get bloody?”
“I’ll deal,” she answered. Declan would help her if things got to be too much.
Erik nodded at Leo. “You understand the plan?”
He rolled his eyes. “Indeed. I may not have always been happy with the Council, but I’m here to help.”
“Didn’t mean to imply anything.”
One white brow arched. “Please don’t insult my intelligence. I may have a thick accent, but I do know I make most nervous.”
Erik managed a smile. “I’m nervous around anyone I haven’t worked with.” He glanced over his shoulder at some of the mages.
Leo chuckled. “Very well. Let’s do this.”
Brent pushed forward and caught Consuela’s arm. “Alkirran is here. Daloisha isn’t.”
“Which means neither is Yuri. This is a set-up.” She rubbed her arm. There were several restless spirits nearby, in the direction of the home.
“We still need to deal with the vampires here. Hopefully we can figure out where he’s going before he gets there. Until then, we need to put a stop to whatever they’re doing in there.”
Preston nodded. “Robert and I can see if we can track down Yuri.”
Consuela hopped up and swung herself over the wall. Erik and Declan joined her on the other side, followed by Brent.
She stood in her spot, frozen as she stared.
The glass doors were thrown open, blissful cries of vampires. They danced and drank blood. Bodies lay on the floor. Blood coated everything.
And in the center of the mess, Alkirran had been summoned. He stood over eight feet tall, scarlet skin, giant wings that faded to black at the tips, and horns curling out of his head.
The demon had been fully brought into the realm through sacrifice.
Brent stopped. “Bloody hell. I’m going to need you all to deal with the vampires, without killing them, because that damned beast doesn’t need another drop of blood. I’ll deal with the demon. But if Alkirran did that, there is a good chance Daloisha wants the same thing for herself, which means killing Yuri so she can have her own body. Unless she’s smart enough to realize no one would let her stay in this realm.”
Consuela pressed the tip of the blade into her palm and moved forward, whispering the words. Leo and Erik moved with her. The vampires fell still, blood streaked across bodies and clothes. Some weren’t dressed at all. Like it had been some great orgy in blood.
Several of the vampires were bleeding. She glanced back at Brent to make sure he’d noticed.
Alkirran screamed out, “My blood, you will not take it from me!”
They demon stepped through the paralyzed vampires, and human bodies, to walk toward them.
Brent moved past the Deathcallers, chanting his own magic.
The air rippled with creatures not of this world as they fluctuated between this plane and the next. They took hold of Alkirran, pulling him into the yard, away from the blood fest.
Brent cast the spell for a ring of protection, and Consuela caught his hand, chanting with him, to fortify the spell.
Alkirran slammed his hands against the dusky shield.
Leo touched Consuela, adding his magic. Then the mages joined in.
Erik rushed forward, pulling salt from the duffle bag at his side, and spread it as he moved around the circle. Brent walked forward, his magic rising up. The words were from some language Consuela had never heard. Old Arcane words that rumbled through the air, making her skin crawl.
Alkirran cried out in rage. The other spirits phased through the shield and latched onto Alkirran, and Brent’s words grew louder.
Consuela shuddered. That thing had been in her brother’s spirit for two centuries, warping him, controlling him. So many emotions rolled through her. Mostly guilt. Because no matter how she looked at it, everything leading up to this was her fault. There was no other explanation.
If she had been wise and sent her brother on, someone else would have wound up with the demon within.
“Are you crying for your brother, Consuela?”
She closed her eyes, wiping at her face.
“He wanted you even then. Before I entered his body, he wanted to make you his in a way a brother shouldn’t.”
Leo and Declan both placed hands on her shoulders. It didn’t stop the agony from flowing through her. She did her damnedest to tune out the monster.
“He wanted to spread you open and sink into your young body,” Alkirran murmured.
The ghosts from her past, the ones who used to talk to her before her brother’s ghost started to hang around, rose up around her, singing the song her mother used to sing to her. They drowned out everything, as she stood there, whispering the spell to keep the vampires inactive.