Killing Time (29 page)

“This is not looking good for our side,” I muttered.

Up and down the street, vampires were locked in battle, snarling and snapping at one another. It was impossible to tell who fought for Philippe and who opposed him, which made their having to dodge slayer bullets and crossbow bolts all the more harrowing. When the brunette fell with a hole where her heart once was, had we just lost an enemy? Or a potential ally? When, moments later, a dreadlocked male dropped, should we have cursed…or shouted with joy?

So great was the battling vampires’ strength, so titanic their struggles, their high-speed fights left incredible destruction in their wake. Wrought-iron fences lay twisted and flat on the ground, a fire hydrant spewed a geyser of water, parked cars were overturned and partially crushed, their alarms adding to the hellish cacophony.

Suddenly, four vampires appeared out of nowhere and charged the mansion. Even from a distance, their immense power slammed into my senses like a high-voltage charge. Blinking in astonishment, I met Koda’s wide gaze. I had only limited experience with immortals, but never had I felt such incalculable strength. Judging by Koda’s expression, neither had he.

One of the vampires, a red-haired female with Celtic tattoos around her throat and on her biceps, smashed through the mansion’s heavy oak front door like she was brushing aside tissue paper. As the four disappeared inside, I figured the real action was about to begin and took off after the vampires. So eager was I in my charge, I forgot about the ongoing battle, barely avoiding catching a crossbow bolt through the chest—the damn slayers were trying to kill anything that moved and wasn’t wearing a uniform. As we ran, Koda scooped a rifle off the ground, no doubt deciding it would be more use to him than it’d been to the dead slayer who’d dropped it.

I grabbed Koda’s hand and shaded, barking at the bitterns to protect themselves, and we made it onto the porch unperforated. Seeing bullets and bolts zip through your body, even when it’s insubstantial, is still a disturbing visual and not one I cared to repeat. Judging by the tightness around Koda’s eyes and the near-panic I sensed from the bitterns, they all shared my fervent opinion.

Crossing the enormous threshold, I was just beginning to wonder how we’d find Philippe in such a vast place, when the answer presented itself. Frozen in an odd tableau was the vampire himself, held pinned to the floor by three of his kind. The red-haired female stood over him, wiping her blood-stained mouth with the back of one hand.

The defeated Philippe had his head thrown back, revealing the gaping bite-sized wound in his throat that was healing as I watched. It took me a second to process the sounds he was making, though, they were so at odds with his current situation.

The madman was howling with laughter.

Signaling to the bitterns to stay shaded and keep quiet, I shared an uneasy look with Koda.

When the paroxysms finally faded enough for speech, Philippe spluttered, “Siobhan, you truly kicked my ass. Well done! I never dreamed the Ancients would send you after me when I threw down my televised gauntlet.”

Standing over him, the redhead’s pretty face was contorted by contempt. Her Irish lilt added a musical component to her angry words. “I believe you said ‘there is no fucking you, there is only me.’”

“You Ancients never did have any flair.” If having his arms and legs spread by Siobhan’s companions to their most extreme positions was the least bit uncomfortable, he gave no sign of it. “I’ve always thought you were lovely, you know. Why don’t we be friends? The kind with fringe bene—”

With no warning, the female kicked Philippe in the mouth, effectively silencing him. “Pretty enough you are, but I don’t do loonies. And Philippe, m’dear, you’re off-the-feckin’ wall insane.”

Spitting blood, he cackled, “You may be right. I may be crazy. But it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for.”

“Billy Joel lyrics? Really?” Growling a command to the vampires restraining Philippe, she watched as they got the laughing immortal to his feet. She snapped a round-house kick to his belly, smiling unpleasantly when he sagged against the hard hands holding him.

“Temper, temper,” he wheezed, head hanging. “Ow, by the way.”

Grabbing a handful of his chin-length chestnut hair, she cranked his head back to look at her. “Philippe de Lénclos, by order of the Ancients, I charge you with the highest treason. For violation of every single one of our edicts, for exposing our kind to the public, for violating our thousand-year treaty with the Church, for setting their slayers on our own brethren—”

“And a partridge in a pear tree,” he sang, grinning hugely.

She smashed her fist across his face, the sharp
crack
reverberating through the immense foyer.

Drooling blood even as his shattered jaw reshaped itself and healed, he said in a stage whisper, “It breaks my heart into a billion ice-cold pieces, hearing you talk like the other Ancients. You’re better than that.”

“Pray to whatever demon you worship that Abasi can figure out how to put a stop to the carnage. ’Tis the best you can hope for. It’ll mean the difference between an eternity of suffering before he rips out your heart or just a couple hundred years.”

“O Abasi, O Great One, Oldest of All Vampires! Think if I kiss his uptight ass he’ll…” Philippe tilted his head as if considering the options. “On second thought, it is
Abasi
we’re talking about.”

“You are the worst kind of fool.”

Philippe spat a wad of bloody phlegm on the white marble floor. Wiggling his healed jaw back and forth, he grinned broadly. “Know this, Siobhan and tell it to your puppet masters. No matter what any of you do, no matter what ridiculous lengths you go to, no matter how many new treaties you try to negotiate,
my goals have already been fulfilled.
”

Quivering with rage, she smashed her fist into his face again, re-breaking his jaw. “Explain!”

It seemed the harder she hit him, the wilder his laughter. “All you had to do was ask!” He gave her a seductive, smoldering look. His words started out slurred but became clear as his incredible vampiric ability to heal mended splintered bone. “Consider my television premiere. It lasted, what? All of ten minutes? Then consider what our brethren have accomplished since. What they are, in fact, doing tonight in cities all across America.”

Koda wrapped his arm around my waist as I went rigid with horror—New Orleans wasn’t the only city under siege? Looking up at him, I scowled when he held a finger to his lips. Seriously? He thought I would give away our presence? Which one of us was the skilled assassin, anyway?

Seeing my expression, he flashed a quick smile, but his eyes remained haunted.

Her Irish lilt thickening, Siobhan snarled at Philippe, “Ye blithering eejit! Ye’ve brought destruction to our kind and to the mortals, as well. Worse, ye allied wi’ that bastard Reiden and gave him a toehold on the mortal plane! Which is also
our
plane, ye Bombay shitehawk! Will ye no’ be satisfied ’til ye’ve destroyed us all? Can ye not see that the fae
want
vampires killin’ each other? They
want
the slayers after us, too! And if the humans’ military forces take an active role which—after tonight—they most certainly will, what d’ye suppose will be the result? Open warfare between vampires and humans! Which also suits Reiden’s purposes. It’ll cull millions of mortals, all across the planet. Mortals who not only nourish our kind, but by sheer dent of their numbers, hold the fae at bay! How could ye not have thought about any of this? Are ye truly that daft?”

For the briefest second, a look of uncertainty flared in Philippe’s eyes.

She made a sharp noise in disbelief. “Reiden has only to remain on his own plane, untouchable since we canna shift, and wait for us all to kill each other. When the earth is saturated with both mortal and immortal blood, there’ll be no one left to oppose the clatty bastard.” The expression on Siobhan’s face chilled my blood, since it was the first time I’d ever seen a vampire look genuinely terrified. “Ye’ve been most masterfully manipulated, Philippe. And ye’ve killed us all, along w’ yerself. Ye just do no’ know it yet.”

This seemed as good a time as any to make my presence known. I released Koda’s hand and unshaded, stepping forward a few feet. This left the two of us visible while the bitterns remained hidden. Smiling my most winning smile, I held my hands loose by my sides. “There may still be a chance to head off the worst of it. I have a proposition—”

Okay, so surprising a roomful of agitated vampires probably wasn’t the smartest thing I’d ever done, judging by how swiftly one of the males went for my throat. To my dismay, this left only two immortals holding Philippe. Given how slippery the bastard had proven time and again to be, I’d’ve felt better if he’d been at the bottom of a vampire scrum.

The redhead snarled at Koda as she gathered herself to leap. He snarled back and shouldered the slayer’s rifle. The unmistakable
click
of the safety being thumbed off froze the vampire’s attack midstep. “I wouldn’t,” Koda said, his voice mostly growl.

Trying to hurry things along and hoping to make the point that I could stand here all night—which, of course, I couldn’t but they didn’t need to know that—I allowed my outline to remain visible as the enraged vampire lunged and struck and snapped his long fangs through my misty form.

“Stop,” Siobhan called after observing her guard’s ineffectual efforts. Her lilt remained thick, clear evidence of her roiling emotions. “I will hear this proposition.”

I allowed myself to solidify, but remained poised to shade again on an instant—fae were not the only supernaturals renowned for treachery.

Hissing when she saw my features, Siobhan drew breath to speak.

Before she could, I said wearily, “I’m not fae. Okay? Let’s just get that over with right now.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Wi’ yer silver eyes, I know well enough what you are, bittern.” Quickly, she warned her males not to bite me. “But that doesn’t mean we canna snap yer neck.”

Not taking well to threats, I bared my sharp teeth. “If you know my people’s history, then you have an inkling why I want Reiden dead. Your captive over there,” I tipped my head at Philippe, “holds the key.”

Staring at me with open curiosity, she crossed her arms. “Reiden and his ilk brought yer kind into being.”

I’d be damned if I’d explain myself to her. “Do you make a habit of questioning help when it’s offered?”

“When it comes from anythin’ touched by fae? Damn sure I do.”

Koda moved up to cover my flank and the two bitterns unshaded to stand at my other side. Which, of course, escalated Siobhan’s aggression and set her vampires poised to attack. Philippe, on the other hand, looked delighted.

An explosive blast erupted somewhere east of us—at my startled expression, Koda muttered something about a power station going up. The thunderous, rumbling reverberation rolled across New Orleans as every light I could see died and the city was swallowed by darkness. The tornado sirens’ eerie wail wound down to nothing, leaving my ears ringing with the sudden absence of noise. At some point since we got to the mansion, the church bells had stopped ringing—in all the excitement, I hadn’t really noticed. The inferno’s roar as it consumed the upper stories was more pronounced, although the place was so big, we weren’t in any immediate danger.

In addition to the gunfire and screams outside came the growing sound of a lot of people headed our way. I didn’t think it was another group of humans being herded to Philippe’s mansion—the voices rising above the tramp of a helluvalot of feet were not raised in terror.

They sounded angry. Very angry.

I saw from the others’ expression that they were just as leery of this new development as I was, so I got right to the point with Siobhan. “You care about your kind, so maybe you can understand that I want Reiden dead to protect my own people. There isn’t time to get into the hows and whys. But it all starts with killing Philippe.”

Her head came up. “Ah well, now we have a problem. While little would please me more than to stake this one meself, I’m under orders to return him to Abasi for punishment.”

“Abasi is your leader?”

“He is our eldest, aye.”

I thought for a second. “Okay, this can still work. If Philippe’s people know he’s been captured, they’ll abandon their posts guarding Reiden and the others….” My words faded as Siobhan shook her head.

“I’ll no’ broadcast the capture.” Her eyes flared with anger and her accent was so thick, I had to concentrate to understand. “I want all of his people. Every last damn one of ’em. If they know he’s been caught, they’ll all go into hidin’ and it’ll be that much harder to root the sods out.”

Forcing my tone to sound reasonable when all I wanted to do was shriek and curse the obstinate female, I crossed my arms over my chest to keep from reaching for my daggers. “Look. Not five minutes ago, you yourself described the threat Reiden poses. If he’s dead, that threat goes away. The supernaturals who support his goals now, including some of your own people, will give up in the absence of fae support and without Philippe to egg them on.”

“But there’s where we part ways, bittern,” Siobhan said, giving me a very unpleasant smile. “We’ve no intention of letting them give up and go away. We will root every last one of the bastards out and unleash vengeance on them of a kind even you canna comprehend.”

I breathed in and out like I’d run a punishing race. “You would refuse a chance at ending the war so that you can exact revenge on pawns rather than the bastard who started it all?”

Clearly not accustomed to having her decisions challenged, Siobhan growled a low warning. “What you propose would take a miracle to pull off. Sneakin’ onto the fae plane, somehow gettin’ into Reiden’s keep, past all his guards. Then not only fightin’ the man himself, but killin’ him, too.” She shook her head. “Nay. I’ll stick with a sure t’ing, that I will. I’ll deliver Philippe to Abasi, alive. No’ a word of it will be spoken of by any of my kind. So if I should hear tale o’ this anywhere outside this room, I’ll know its source.”