Shadow's Fall (40 page)

Oh, God. Oh, no …

“Faith,” she said softly. “Faith, I’m so sorry.”

There was no one else guarding the Second. Miranda knew, as soon as she saw what had been done to Faith, that there was no need to guard her.

Faith heard her voice and lifted her head. Her skin was greenish and sweat poured down her face; whatever Jeremy had shot her full of had to be toxic, and her body was trying to burn it off, but without fresh blood she couldn’t heal, not as weak as she was. And even if she did, if Jeremy had done to her what he had to Monroe and force-fed her a
charge, even if he didn’t set off the explosive, the damage to her body could be catastrophic.

Miranda was at her side in seconds. “It’s all right,” she said, putting a reassuring hand on Faith’s face. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

Faith could barely speak. “You … have to get out,” she said in a broken whisper. “He’s going to …”

“No, he’s not,” Miranda insisted. She started examining the chains that held Faith upright against the containers of gasoline, and the wires threaded through them. Did they connect the detonator to the fuel, or were they just there to send a signal? “Faith, I’m not going to let him kill you. We’re here to save you—do you hear me? Nobody’s dying tonight except Hayes and his buddies.”

“You don’t … understand …”

“Save your strength,” Miranda told her. “You’re going to need it once we get you out of here …”

“You can’t,” Faith said. “If you move me, he’ll know, and he’ll set off the charge. Please … just go, before it’s too late.”

“I’m not leaving you here, damn it!”

Faith shook her head weakly. “You have to go. Get the Stone away from here, before …”

“The Stone doesn’t matter, Faith. They can’t do the ritual—Deven killed them all. The Stone is useless. Now, hold still while I—”

“Listen to me.”

Miranda stopped and met her eyes. “Faith …”

Faith’s eyes were full of tears. “He has the ritual. Lydia gave it to him,” she said. “He’s on the roof. All he needs is the Stone and you brought it right to him.”

Her gaze lifted for a second, and Miranda saw the horror in her face just before she heard the click.

A second later, the first crossbow bolt hit Miranda’s back.

The Queen lurched forward, dazed by the sudden impact, and by the next … and the next …

She looked into Faith’s eyes again and held them as she
sank to her knees. A fourth bolt and a fifth punched into her back, all of them missing her heart, but each one sending pain coursing through her, overwhelming her senses, draining her strength.

“This isn’t your fault,” Miranda whispered. “It’s not your fault, Faith.”

The room was fading from her eyes, but Miranda held on to Faith’s gaze as long as she could, trying without words to give the Second what little comfort she could.

She heard someone behind her say, “Sire, we have her.”

And that was all.

David didn’t have time to assess the situation as he Misted onto the roof. The second his feet hit the ground, one of the enemy vampires was already on him; he threw himself into the fight and threw the other vampire to the ground, drawing his sword and spinning to meet the next attacker.

Within two minutes he had killed all four of them. He shoved the last one’s body aside and turned, blade ready, to meet the only other vampire on the roof … the Signet who had been waiting for him.

He blinked.

At the center of the roof, an altar had been erected out of discarded bricks and a piece of flat stone. There were two candles, one black and one red; several sheets of yellowed paper with diagrams and text written on them …

… and a hammer.

“I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.”

David turned his head slightly to look at the fair-haired vampire. “No, we haven’t.”

He stepped toward David and gave a slight bow. “Jeremy Hayes … Prime of Australia.”

David nodded. “David Solomon, Prime of the Southern United States.”

Jeremy smiled slightly and walked back behind the altar, where he took a silver lighter from his pocket and set about lighting the candles. “I had a devil of a time figuring
out where to set this up that the wind wouldn’t blow them out,” he said idly. “The parchment made it clear, however: We had to be outdoors beneath the new moon.”

David let out his breath slowly, eyes moving down to the texts in front of Jeremy. “The Awakening ritual?”

A nod. “It has to be performed by a Signet. I think originally the idea was that the chosen Prime would do the ritual and sacrifice himself willingly. It really is a shame … I imagine when your boyfriend finds out he slaughtered the Order for nothing, he’s going to feel terrible. As I understand it, Eladra was very fond of him.”

“Eladra?”

“The High Priestess. Ex–High Priestess, now. You know … I’ve been loved, in my life, but I don’t think anyone’s ever been devoted to me enough to kill twenty-eight people. That alone makes me wish that you and I could have been allies.”

David raised an eyebrow. “I doubt that, given how much you seem to enjoy blowing up my allies.”

Jeremy smiled. “I had to see for myself if Lydia’s theory about the connection among all of you was true. I had no intention of harming Janousek or his Queen—I merely set up the circumstances and then monitored his phone calls to see how all of you reacted. Knowing Lydia was right made all of this a little easier.”

David started to move toward him, but just then he felt something—
pain
, and not his own. Three stories below, he felt Miranda being shot, this time by wooden bolts. He gasped, the world swimming around him, and held on to consciousness by sheer force of will. She was hurt; she was hurt and needed him—

“Stay where you are,” Jeremy instructed. “She’s alive. And she’ll stay that way if you obey me. Try anything and both of you die.”

A moment later the door to the stairwell opened, and three of the enemy vampires dragged something heavy out onto the roof.

One of the men hauled Miranda up at stakepoint. She
was half-conscious, blood running down both of her legs from the wooden shafts still sticking out of her back. As they got her to her feet, she woke up enough to struggle and snarled at the men holding her, writhing as hard as she could to win free of them.

“I would hold still if I were you, my Lady,” Jeremy said. He lifted his hand, which held a cell phone. “One touch from me and the charge goes off.”

Miranda froze, wide-eyed. “No.”

“What’s going on?” David demanded.

Miranda was the one who answered. “Faith’s been turned into a detonator, like Monroe,” she said. “She’s strapped to fifty gallons of gasoline on the first floor.”

“Look, this doesn’t have to end badly,” Jeremy said calmly. “If the Queen holds still, I won’t kill Faith. If you hold still, I won’t kill the Queen. Let’s be civilized here.”

David cast his eyes around the roof, looking for a solution—if he Misted to Miranda, Jeremy would set off the charge; if he went after Jeremy, the vampires would stake Miranda. There had to be something else. To buy time, he asked, “If you’re a Prime, where’s your Signet?”

Jeremy sighed. “McMannis is wearing it, of course.”

“Then why is it lit up? If you’re the Prime, it would go dark on him.”

“Technology,” Jeremy replied, shaking his head. “Did you know there have been two recorded instances of someone attempting to fake a Signet? In both, the crime was discovered because the rightful Prime came to claim his place. But if you were to, say, take a Signet from a Prime, and somehow rig it to glow, and then got rid of the true Prime, and had allies ready to swear you were the Signet’s bearer … how would anyone know? It’s not as if the Council works together or is connected in any way. Someone could rule a territory for years before anyone noticed.”

David nodded. “Hart and McMannis deposed you.”

Now, Jeremy smiled regretfully, coming forward once again. “I had the Signet around my neck for all of ten minutes before they made their move. And now Hart has the
one thing that matters more to me than any of this … and as long as he has her, I am in his service. Lydia and the Order were going to help me destroy Hart, and McMannis, well … he’s just Hart’s hand puppet. Without Hart to back him, he would be easy to deal with, and I could regain my rightful place.”

“Lydia’s dead,” Miranda ground out.

“I know. But that doesn’t change anything. The help she promised me is waiting for me in New York. As soon as I’ve fulfilled my part of the bargain, they’ll fulfill theirs.”

“We can help you,” Miranda said. “You don’t have to do any of this—we can help you take Hart down.”

“I’m afraid I can’t take that chance,” Jeremy replied. “I’ve already risked enough for the two of you.”

“What do you mean?” David asked.

“As far as Hart knows, I’m killing you both right now.”

“But you aren’t.”

“No,” Jeremy answered, coming to stand in front of David again. “You, my Lord, get to live.”

He reached up and took hold of David’s Signet, flipping it over.

Jeremy’s eyebrows shot up. “Or perhaps not.”

“Looking for this?” Miranda asked, lifting her chin so her Signet fell forward slightly. “Lydia gave it to me, not David.”

Hayes actually chuckled. “Poetic,” he said. “I like it.”

“What does the Stone really do?” David asked.

Before Jeremy could answer, a voice erupted from David’s com:
“Sire, we’ve breached the building—what are your orders?”

David looked from Jeremy to Miranda, to the altar, back to Miranda. The Queen was too weak to Mist. She was still bleeding. If his Elite tried to free Faith or come to the Pair’s aid, Jeremy would blow the building and anyone caught down there would burn. Whatever happened, David wasn’t going to let anyone else die tonight.

He lifted his arm slowly, making it clear to Jeremy he wasn’t going for a weapon, and said into his com, “Execute
General Order Omega-Five,” he said, broadcasting to the entire Elite. “I repeat: General Order Omega-Five. Retreat and abandon the mission. Regroup and await further orders.”

Abruptly, the sounds of fighting down below stopped.
“But, Sire—”
the lieutenant began.

“That’s an order,” David snapped. “Situation unrecoverable.” Then, with equal care, he pressed his index finger against his com, holding it there until it accepted his fingerprint and beeped. He spoke into it one more time: “Contingency Seven.”

Another beep: command recognized.

Miles and miles away, the servers and network at the Haven would begin to shut down, the server room itself sealing to deny access to any invaders. Every computer, com, and phone connected to the Haven went instantly into lockdown mode—limited communication only on the network, no access to the programming code, no access to the sensor grid. The entire thing would be shut down in five minutes.

David lowered his arm, still staring at Jeremy, who waited patiently until he was done. The building was silent, the battle over. The Elite had run.

“Now,” David said, “let her go, and you and I will discuss this.”

“There’s really nothing to discuss,” Jeremy said. “She wears the Stone; it’s all been decided. Fate’s a strange thing, isn’t it? Even with everyone conspiring to either save or destroy you, things unfolded exactly as they were foretold. I suspect Lydia thought she was saving you by giving the Stone to the Queen—if she had read the ritual, she would have known that whoever wears the Stone is the one who survives.”

David lowered his eyes, afraid to look at Miranda. As soon as he did, she would see what he knew, what he had known, somehow, the minute Jeremy had introduced himself. Queens might have the gift of precognition, but Primes had the gift of knowing when they had been outmaneuvered.

“Let her go,” he said again.

Jeremy looked down at David’s Signet, then held out his hand. “She’ll live. I give you my word.”

“What is he talking about?” Miranda asked. “David, tell me what’s—”

He didn’t answer her but reached up and removed his Signet and handed it to Jeremy.

Jeremy took the Signet to the altar. He caught the eye of one of his guards and nodded.

David made the mistake of looking at the Queen as they started to drag her away. The minute their eyes met, she began to scream.

“No!
No!
Not without me!
Not without me!
”

David shut his eyes tightly, wishing he could do the same with his ears. She was still screaming all the way down the stairs and probably would keep right on until she could fight her way free. He knew she would—she would fight like a lion, whether Faith died or not, to save him—but he also knew that by the time she got away from them, as weak as she was, it would be too late.

“You’re quite a remarkable man,” Jeremy was saying. He laid the Signet on the altar and picked up the parchment. “Most Primes would never risk death to rescue a subordinate—not even a Second. They would have let Faith die and considered her a casualty of war. Of course … if it came down to a choice, a Prime would let his own Queen die a thousand times if it meant he could save himself.”

David smiled. “You and I are not most Primes, are we?”

“No.” Jeremy inclined his head toward the door. “She’ll be held nearby until we’re done here.”

“And Faith?”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry … it must appear to Hart that both you and your Queen perished in the explosion. That’s a lot harder without a bomb.”

“She’ll come for you,” David said. “You know she will.”

Jeremy bowed his head over the altar and said quietly, “I hope she can.”

As soon as his head was down, David reached out and
seized the parchment with his mind; he jerked it off the altar and forced the edges of the paper into the candle flames. The paper was so old that the entire sheaf went up at once.

Jeremy didn’t react quite like David expected him to. He watched the paper burn until it had fallen to ash and fluttered down onto the altar, and sighed.

“Smart move,” Jeremy said. “Without the text, the incantation can’t be performed, and without the incantation performed, the Stone can’t be activated.” He smiled. “Unfortunately for you I did that part already. There’s only one step left to complete the ritual.”