Chapter 4

I headed to the throne room to await Annabelle’s arrival. I’d almost forgotten that I’d trashed the place. Its once pristine walls were now marred by the remnants of my earlier outburst. I stood amidst the wreckage, nursing the throbbing in my temples. I was about to send Annabelle a text asking her what was taking so long when the air shimmered with an explosion of rainbow light.

Pauli’s signature entrance. He was draped over Annabelle’s neck like a feather boa—but without the feathers. He was the real thing. Just as glamorous (in his own mind) and twice as creepy.

“What the hell happened here?” Annabelle furrowed her brow as she took in the splintered wood and scattered cushions. “Was there a fight?”

“Yeah,” I snorted. “The sofa got lippy. I kicked its ass.”

“Dayum bitch!” Pauli snickered, his scales glinting in the dim light. “The couch spends its entire existence getting nothing but ass. One ass after the next. It gives you a little lip and you tear it apart?”

“Damn straight.” I huffed.

“You show that lippy couch who’s boss! Make an example out of it so the other couches know and learn to take that ass like a champ!”

“Did that.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Now, are we going to figure out how to save my friends and end this shit or what?”

Annabelle’s expression softened slightly, but her eyes remained sharp. “Ghost possession is a tricky thing. Most of the time, if a ghost possesses a human, the host has to consent to allow the invading spirit to take the reins.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not the same in this situation,” I said, pacing the room. “Mel, Juliet, Muggs—they wouldn’t consent. The ghosts forced their way into them. Took over straight away.”

“That’s troubling.” Annabelle’s face darkened. “It could be because vampires don’t have souls. Baron Samedi holds your souls from the moment you’re turned. For most of your kind, at least, that’s how it works. Without a soul, the vampire’s spirit that owns the body is at a disadvantage to the invading ghosts. That might be why these ghosts are seeking vampires to possess rather than humans.”

“Fang-fucking-tastic,” I muttered under my breath. Pauli hissed sympathetically from his perch on Annabelle’s neck.

“There’s also a chance,” Annabelle continued, her tone skeptical, “that once the blood moon ends—since it’s a lunar eclipse, it shouldn’t last long—that this will pass.”

“You really think that’s likely?” I asked. “Because in my experience, when something nasty goes to lengths like this, it isn’t so they can take a joy ride for a couple hours, then go back to where they came from.”

“I don’t think it’s likely,” she said bluntly. “It’s more likely that the blood moon triggered some kind of ancient magic that revived the spirits. And now that they’re here, blood moon or not, they’re here to stay.”

“We have to assume the worst then—that this isn’t just going to pass.”

“Agreed,” Annabelle replied.

“Juliet’s ghost mentioned something about an emperor,” I said, my mind racing. “The ghost said they were targeting vampires, so they knew what they were doing before they came back. It’s not much, but it’s something.”

“Emperor?” Annabelle shook her head, her expression thoughtful but dubious. “Do you know how many empires have risen and fallen over the millennia?”

“True, but if these spirits are all connected to this emperor somehow, and they had an agenda to go after vampires, it must mean they didn’t resurrect at random.” I paused, considering. “Someone orchestrated this with the intention of bringing back a particular emperor’s spirit and other ghosts loyal to him.”

“Sounds like a dick,” Pauli interjected, his forked tongue flickering out as he spoke. “Can we narrow down which emperor we’re talkin’ about? Maybe it’s Caligula! I hear he was all kinds of fun!”

I cocked an eyebrow. “The one who married his sister? The same Caligula who commissioned virgins to swim naked in his pool and nibble at his junk as he swam by?”

“Male virgins!” Pauli nodded. “Like I said. All kinds of fun!”

I took a deep breath. It took every ounce of restraint I had to resist the urge to punch Pauli in the face. He could be entertaining in small doses—when you hadn’t just had everyone you care about get possessed by ancient ghosts.

“It could be anyone, not necessarily a Roman emperor,” Annabelle said, snapping her fingers as if she’d had a sudden revelation. “But we can find out. We need to capture at least one of your friends and bring them back. Get them to talk.”

“Capture and interrogate my friends?” I snapped. “These ghosts will not tell us what we want to know without a little torture. My friends are still in there, somewhere.”

“You’re right,” Annabelle said with a nod. “Whenever I gave Isabelle the reins, I could see, hear, and feel everything she did. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. This won’t be easy for them. But what if the roles were reversed? Would you rather let some invasive spirit take over your existence, or want your friends to do whatever it takes to free you? Even if it meant... pain?”

I sighed. “Fine. But torture is a last option.”

“Don’t see the problem,” Pauli added. “You are vampires. You can heal from damn near anything.”

“Pain is still pain!” I shouted. “There’s a reason they call it torture. I can’t do that to Juliet, or Mel… not even Muggs or Antoine.”

“Leave the torture to me,” Pauli said. “I know how to make torture fun for the whole family!”

I grunted. I didn’t know how to respond to something like that? I knew that leather, chains, and nipple clamps were a part of Pauli’s regular Friday-night repertoire, but the whole ‘fun for the whole family’ comment… what the fuck?

“Whatever,” I relented. “But if we’re going to do this, we need to get to it fast. Because even if we capture one of them, and even if we learn the emperor’s identity, that doesn’t mean history has any record of the dark magic said emperor might have used relative to a blood moon and his return in the 21st century.”

“Fair point,” Annabelle said, her eyes narrowing as she considered the stakes. “But unless you have a better idea, we’re running out of time.”

“Do you?” I shot back. “Have a better idea?”

Annabelle took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I could start stabbing people with Beli and see what happens.”

“Absolutely not!” I screamed. “We don’t know what would happen. You’d send my friends to vampire hell with no way back!”

“Plan A, then?” Annabelle tilted her head, an amused glint in her eyes.

“It could be a colossal waste of time,” I said. “But you’re right. Any other options we have at our disposal involve… experimentation. I like that even less.”

Annabelle popped her knuckles. “And lest you forget, Mercy, we have until sunrise before this gets a lot more difficult. They’ll have to take cover during the day and your movements will be likewise limited.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ve been a vampire longer than you’ve been alive several times over, Annabelle. I know how it works.”

“Just saying,” Annabelle said with a nod. “We can waste what time we have talking about it or we can go catch ourselves a possessed vampire.”