Chapter 15

Beli’s scales shimmered beneath us, reflecting an almost ethereal glow as we soared through the sky. The dragon’s breath ripped open a portal, swirling with hues of indigo and emerald. We plunged through it, gravity giving way to chaos, until solid ground greeted us harshly. My knees buckled under the impact, but I caught my balance just in time to see familiar surroundings.

“Where the hell is he?” I demanded. The wizard’s sanctuary was eerily silent and cold. My new found warm-bloodedness made me a lot more sensitive to temperature. One of a thousand adjustments I’d have to get used to in time.

Sebastian dusted himself off and adjusted his coat. “He can’t have gone far. Did the dragon bring us back to when we’d left?”

“Seconds later,” Annabelle confirmed, clutching Beli now transformed into a dagger. “He’s here somewhere.”

“Maybe,” I conceded, irritation bubbling beneath my skin. “He’s a wizard, remember. And the power he knows... as old as he is... there’s no telling what he can do. Teleportation isn’t off the table.”

“Which means he could be anywhere,” Pauli added.

“Shit,” I muttered, surveying the room. “Why would he leave us here with all these statues?”

The terracotta warriors loomed around us, their eyes glowing that sickly green that also filled the eyes of my possessed friends. That the light still shone in the statues, though, was a good thing. It meant that the souls of the emperor’s warriors hadn’t fully integrated with their vampire bodies. My friends could still be saved.

“We still can’t destroy them,” Sebastian said. “He knows as much. Leaving them here isn’t a risk.”

“The wizard doesn’t know that I can stop him,” I said. “Maybe he’s out there somewhere looking for us? Maybe he didn’t realize that Annabelle’s portal took us to the Otherworld.”

Donnie shrugged. “As good a theory as any.”

I sighed. “I can’t even sense Mel’s presence anymore. My progenies aren’t… mine anymore. Didn’t think about that when we made this decision.

“Not the end of the world,” Sebastian said. “I don’t usually have a supernatural tether to the monsters I hunt. And I always find them. Eventually.”

“Mercy,” Annabelle interjected, glancing at me with those penetrating eyes of hers. “Do you know what the spell is that you’re supposed to use? If we encounter Anqi? Baron Samedi said you’d know.”

I nodded sharply. “I know what to do.”

I didn’t have the words—or the time—to explain how I knew. I didn’t tell them about the dream. It didn’t matter. Useless information that we could discuss later—if we survived this shitshow. To talk about it now would only waste time. What mattered is if we found that damn wizard, I could take him.

“First, we find Anqi Sheng,” I continued. “Once we deal with him, we should be able to destroy the statues.” I locked eyes with each member of our ragtag team. “Finding the wizard is the priority, not fighting possessed vampires.”

“Right,” Annabelle said, twirling Beli in her right hand. “Let’s get this bastard.”

“Just remember,” I added, my tone colder than ice, “Anqi Sheng has outsmarted death itself. Don’t underestimate him for a second.”

“Follow me,” Sebastian said. “This isn’t the first dungeon hunt I’ve been on. Won’t be the last.”

If I were still a vampire, I might have protested and taken point myself. But I wasn’t. I had to keep in mind my newfound vulnerabilities as a human and not rush in headstrong per usual.

I wasn’t a shark anymore. Or maybe I was. But I needed to stay in my element. I think that was the point of what Nico told me in my dream.

If I stuck to my strengths now… as a witch… even as a human…

That was the key. Make the enemy fight me in my environment, on my playing field. Where I had the advantage.

How many hours until sunrise? I didn’t know. But I couldn’t guarantee that we had that much time before the ghosts integrated with my friends’ bodies. Even so, I didn’t want to burn them to death. I didn’t want to encounter them at all.

The only way to get the upper-hand in this fight was to avoid the possessed vampires and find Anqi Sheng again. Beat him, and we win.

I was his kryptonite now. Even if I was mere food to the vampires. Food that could cast spells and would fight like hell—but food, no less.

“Stay close,” Sebastian whispered. He led us through the maze-like corridors of the underground Chinatown. The air was thick with the scent of mildew, stone, and something else. Something foul. Probably the accumulation of several decades of body odor, sewage, and whatever else.

I’d overlooked the scent before, as a vampire, when the smell of blood took front and center. Now it was just the common human stink that dominated my olfactory senses.

“He’s got to be here somewhere,” I muttered, more to myself than anyone else. “If we can just—“

“Shhh,” Sebastian hissed, holding up a hand. He crouched low, peering into the shadows ahead. “We’re not alone.”

“Who is it?” I asked, my heart pounding. That was new.

“Can’t tell,” Sebastian replied, his words wrapped in tension. “But something’s moving.”

I narrowed my eyes. Can’t see in the dark anymore. Another thing to check off on my list of abilities lost. But I did see the shadow, something or someone lurking between the buildings just ahead.

Then a flash of magic. Had to be the wizard.

I started to take off after the son of a bitch, but suddenly, the ground beneath us trembled. Dust cascaded from the ceiling, and the walls groaned ominously.

“That can’t be good,” Pauli said, doing his best impression of Captain Obvious.

“The damn wizard!” Annabelle shouted. “He’s trying to bury us alive in here!”

“Fan-fucking-tastic,” I growled. No more ‘fangs’ in my trademark expletive. For obvious and disappointing reasons. “Everyone, move! We have to catch that fucker before this place comes down around us!”

The ceiling started to crack, sending chunks of debris raining down. The sound was deafening, a cacophony of destruction that drowned out even our frantic breaths. The once-stable buildings of subterranean Chinatown began to crumble, their foundations giving way to the magically induced quake that the wizard cast over the place.

“Go, go, go!” I shouted, pushing Sebastian forward. “I just have to get a hand on that motherfucker and we can end this!”

“Not if we’re buried first!” Sebastian shot back, darting ahead as another chunk of ceiling crashed down behind us.

“Pauli!” Annabelle’s voice cut through the chaos. “Get everyone out of here! Take them back to Mercy’s underground!”

“On it!” Pauli responded with a wicked grin, his rainbow-colored scales shimmering as he shifted into snake form. He wrapped himself around Donnie first, who was looking more terrified by the second. In a flash of iridescent light, they vanished.

“Annabelle, your turn!” I barked, dodging a falling beam. “You get out of here. I’m going after the wizard!”

“Mercy! You have to come, too! We can rally outside. Come at him again. But you can’t survive if this place collapses on you. Not any more!”

“Take her, Pauli!” I insisted.

He didn’t question the order. I would not argue with Annabelle about the mission. All I needed was to get a hand on that asshole. His expiration date had long-since come due, and it was time to get rid of him once and for all.

“Sebastian, you’re up next!” I shouted, my eyes scanning for any sign of the wizard. But all I could see were collapsing structures and rising dust clouds.

“Be careful, Mercy,” Sebastian said before Pauli wrapped around him and whisked him away.

“Don’t worry about me,” I muttered, more to myself than anyone, because by the time I got my words out I was the only one who remained.

I caught another flash of light in the distance. I didn’t know what it was, but it was magic. The wizard was still there.

I took off running. Damn, I was slow! If I was still a vampire, I’d have caught up to him in a second. But now…

The floor beneath me buckled, throwing me off balance. I stumbled, barely catching myself before a fissure split open at my feet.

“Time to go, darling.” Pauli’s voice slithered into my ear, his snake form already coiling around me.

“Wait, not yet—“ I started, but then everything blurred into a kaleidoscope of colors as the teleportation spell took hold. The sensation was disorienting, more so now as a human. It was like being spun in a centrifuge that was mounted on a roller coaster. My stomach flipped, and my vision swam.

Nausea. And I hadn’t even had a proper human meal yet.

My feet landed hard on the cold stone floor of the Underground. I rubbed my eyes. We were near the elevators, down the hall from the security room. A short jaunt to my throne room.

“We need to get back there!” I insisted. “The wizard is still in whatever’s left of Chinatown.”

“You really think he’s not going to just teleport out of there like we did?” Annabelle asked.

I shook my head. “We don’t know what he can do. But we need to start where we last saw him if we’re going to catch him in time.”

“Not so fast.” I spun around to the sound of a familiar voice.

It was Juliet. She was out of her cell. Then Muggs stepped up behind her.

“Shit.”

“Pauli!” Annabelle shouted. “Now!”

But then a blast of magic. That damn snot-colored mana I’d seen so much of as of late. It came from another figure approaching us from further down the hall.

“No, no, no,” Mel said—rather the ghost who’d apparently re-claimed her as his host. “Bad snake. No magic for you.”

I turned away. I couldn’t let them see my eyes. If they knew I was mortal…

“What have we here?” Mel purred, her chilly hand touching my cheek. Sebastian came after her, but with a wave of her hand, he crashed into the wall.

“Beli!” Annabelle shouted.

“No, wait!” I screamed. She was going to hit Mel with that dagger. It would stop the emperor, but it would damn Mel, too!

“Enerva!“ I screamed, aiming my wand. It hit Annabelle, who fell to the ground totally immobile.

Emperor Asshole laughed. “Ah, Mercy. So soft…so sensitive…whatever have you done to yourself?”

I snorted. “Can’t take me now, bitch.”

The emperor smiled widely. “We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we?”

The next thing I knew, Mel’s fangs were in my neck.

So much for being human.