The Immortal Queen Tsubame: Ascension (19 page)

She got up and started to leave, but Devdan stood up and reached out to grab her arm and pull her back.

“Sorry,” he said quickly resisting the urge to cringe at the way she glowered at him. It didn’t used to be like that. Usually she was cowering from his anger or coldness. When did it become the other way around? Where did all his anger and wariness of her disappear to in the last few months? “I wasn’t trying to be an ass. Just what are you doing here? Not in the hotel room, but here in Algeria with Tsubame trying to help me.”

MaLeila didn’t immediately respond, dark brown eyes darting away from him, trying to find a place to land that was anywhere other than his face before landing on his face again finally.

“Because you’re my… friend?” MaLeila said as though she were trying out the word and it didn’t quite fit. He silently agreed with her. Something about it didn’t sound right. But Devdan also didn’t think there was a word that could accurately describe what they had been. More than siblings or close friends. Less than lovers, but certainly close to it.

“You were my friend…” she amended, trailing off once again before rolling her eyes and said, “You were something to me. And we both did a lot of stupid shit that got in the way of whatever it was. But regardless, it meant something and I wasn’t going to let you be killed or defeated while I could have done something to help.”

She looked like she wanted to say more, but then she shook head and decided against it, instead slipping her arm out of his grip and reaching to grab the hand in her own. She squeezed it lightly, avoiding his gaze again and saying much more with her actions than she ever could have said with her mouth, yet still he was unable to figure out what she meant.

She let go of his hand and looked back at him. “Anyway, I only wanted to know about Bastet. Sorry for bothering you.”

That said, she hurried across the room and left. After the heavy door closed behind her, Adina came out the room, staring after where MaLeila had gone. Devdan did the same. Both stared at the door for a long time before Adina finally spoke.

“So that’s her,” she stated.

“What about her?”

Adina didn’t reply and only made her way back into the bedroom. Devdan followed behind her shortly, glad that she hadn’t answered because he wasn’t sure he was ready to hear it.

19

Total regime changes in countries was messy business, and MaLeila was suddenly glad the thought of ruling anyone hadn’t crossed her mind until Tsubame made her entrance. Because it wasn’t just about ruling people and telling them what to do. It was about taking control of the economy. It was about making sure they had farmland and ways to grow food. It was about making sure the majority of people had homes and jobs and that those that didn’t had access to at least basic human necessities. It was about making sure people had access to education. It was about infrastructure, entertainment, recording history and important events, and a large number of other things that MaLeila had never thought twice about, which was why MaLeila was glad Tsubame was there to guide them. It certainly showed that the woman was much more intelligent than she ever let on.

However, no matter how intelligent they knew the woman was, no matter how much experience she had, everyone gave her a sideways look when she suggested that Devdan undo the loop and let the U.N. forces from the embassy try to storm the hotel. Tsubame ignored them, looking at a bunch of large maps of Algeria pinned all over the restaurant they were using as a meeting place. The maps showed different aspects of the country. One was of the geography. Another of the infrastructure. Another showing the economy and a bunch of others MaLeila wouldn’t be able to read on her own.

“You know how you take a country?” Tsubame asked. “You don’t show them that you can destroy them. That’s asinine. Not only does it make the people angry at you, it also leaves you having to rebuild from the ground up. You take a country by showing them that while it’s certainly possible for you to destroy them, you would choose to protect them instead. That you have not only the desire, but the ability to look out for their needs and be unafraid to do what needs to be done in their defense regardless of who thinks you’re wrong for it. If you prove that, the people will eat right out of your hand and practically worship you. People are like a woman and leaders and conquerors are like the men vying for that woman’s adoration. And one of the easiest ways for a man to impress a woman is to show her his strength, that not even death would stop him from protecting her.”

Tsubame then turned to Devdan and said, “Ready to show the Algerian people, particularly their dissatisfied youth, that you can protect and defend them?”

MaLeila followed Tsubame’s gaze to Devdan, who was sitting in the corner of the room with his arms crossed. He nodded his head once, jaw set in determination. And while she was sure everyone else in the room still had their doubts, MaLeila was absolutely certain that by the time all this was over, the U.N. forces would be defeated and Devdan would be leading a revolution in a country that wasn’t even his homeland. Or maybe it was. Who knew where the man’s roots could be traced back to? Regardless, MaLeila had never seen Devdan as the leader type. The type to always defend and protect, but never a leader. Then again, Tsubame had determined that was what qualified him to begin with.

The mission was the first time in months that MaLeila wouldn’t be wearing some fine dress. Tsubame may be comfortable wearing her dresses for a fight, but MaLeila never would be, at least not any time soon. She opted for wearing a jumpsuit that fitted in the torso with slightly flowing sleeves and legs with flat boots and her hair wrapped in a tight bun that was held together by a dozen hair pins.

The next evening, a few hours or so before Devdan was to remove the loop, MaLeila made her way to where he was holed up in his suite. Dominik insisted on going with her, because while he couldn’t open portals, he was certainly skilled at other forms of dark magic that the Magic Council slightly frowned upon, but that certainly weren’t forbidden to dabble in or would have the council knocking on the Voss’ doors. When she arrived at the suite, she didn’t bother knocking. She simply used magic to fiddle with the locking mechanism. In hindsight, she probably should have knocked because as soon as she opened the door, she found Devdan and Adina, standing face to face. Devdan torso was bare and while Adina was decent, her hand was down the man’s pants, jerking at his dick.

The decent thing for MaLeila to do would have been to back out the room while profusely apologizing, but she must have been around Nika and Tsubame much too long and picked up their indifference towards walking into sexual situations. At least indifference in the sense that it wasn’t awkward. The tight squeezing of her chest, the instant narrowing of her eyes and downward tilt of her lips certainly told her that she wasn’t indifferent in all aspects. And for one brief moment, MaLeila wondered if this was how Devdan had felt when she first started dating Marcel, when he saw them kissing, when she rejected him when he kissed her even though it had been for good reason.

“I see we’re interrupting something,” Dominik said with a good-natured smirk.

“I suppose I should have knocked,” MaLeila said dryly right back, eyes not leaving Devdan and Adina though she had fixed her facial expression to one of amusement even though she wasn’t amused.

“No fucking duh, Sherlock,” Devdan growled, snatching Adina’s hand out his pants.

MaLeila smiled and decided to go the teasing route, hoping it would hide her simmering rage. She thought she was past this with Devdan.

“You’ll thank me later. It’s good for you, the pent up sexual frustration and not getting a release. I read in a book that MMA fighters do it all the time before matches so they’re forced to channel all that testosterone into their fighting,” MaLeila pointed out, making sure to focus on looking at Devdan’s face and not his obvious hard-on.

“What the fuck are you doing here anyway?” Devdan grumbled resignedly.

MaLeila took note that Adina didn’t look so forgiving, but was following the man’s lead. If Devdan wasn’t going to put her out, then she wasn’t going to try to either.

“I’m with you for the mission.”

“I though Tsubame had you with her on setting the mood.”

“Tsubame only said that so that you wouldn’t argue with me about it. Now you have no choice,” MaLeila said with a shrug.

Devdan crossed the room, obviously not embarrassed by the state MaLeila had walked in on him on. Frankly, MaLeila mused, it probably wasn’t the worst state she had seen him in over the years.

When Devdan reach her, he grabbed MaLeila’s arm and tried to pull her out the room as he said, “The fuck I don’t. I’ve got Adina as a backup. I don’t need your help.”

MaLeila stood her ground. “I know you’ve got Adina.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because unlike Adina, I don’t need to use magic to be in sync with you.”

Admittedly it was a jab at Adina, whose eyes widened at the revelation that MaLeila was aware of her power. MaLeila had instantly noticed the odd way emotions seemed to amplify around the woman. It had been subtle and MaLeila wouldn’t have noticed it at all if it weren’t for the way Devdan’s emotions had been fluctuating to different extremes and back again that first night, as though he was knowingly resisting someone else’s manipulation. And when she went to see him later that night, she felt the sensation, best described as feeling like someone was playing soothing music but there was no music to be heard. MaLeila resisted the manipulation then too. She may not be an empath like Adina, but even a child sorceress could sense fluctuations in emotions. Most people simply weren’t in tune enough or emotionally stable enough to sense the difference between unnatural fluctuations or compulsions and natural ones.

But not only was it a jab at Adina, it was a truth that even Devdan couldn’t deny, because he loosened his grip on her arm and stopped trying to pull her toward the door.

The times that Devdan risked his life for her, the times he protected her, were just the times that stood out to MaLeila; mostly because every time they had an opponent she was usually the target. But they were also a damn near unstoppable team, so in sync that they knew what the other would do before they did it. For a while, MaLeila thought it was Claude’s bind, but with distance, with time to figure out what had been real and what had been fabricated—not as much as MaLeila had originally thought—MaLeila figured that she should have had the same kind of sync with Bastet but they never did, not like she and Devdan naturally synced. Much of it had been proximity because usually they were both together when an opponent appeared during school hours or afterwards on the way home. A look across the classroom or the cafeteria or the gymnasium and they knew where and when to meet or, if there was no time for that, what to do to draw attention away from them or deter an opponent from acting with others around. But even before that, when they didn’t trust each other, when he was still somewhere between wanting to kill her and too curious to act out on it, they fell into a natural rhythm. And that was the kind of sync Devdan was going to need if they were going to successfully make him a leader.

MaLeila guessed Devdan was thinking the same thing she was, because he let go of her arm and grumbled, “Fine. You can stay.”

MaLeila didn’t feel particularly smug that she had proven him right. If anything, she was bemused at the fact that they couldn’t seem to realize how in sync they were before when they spent nearly every waking moment with each other.

He didn’t talk to her anymore after that leaving her and Dominik to do little more than wait for both Adina and Devdan to come back decent. When they were back, Devdan looked like the Devdan she had known for years before, the black jeans, the white crewneck tank and his denim black jacket, his normally untamed thick black wavy pulled into a ponytail.

She met his eyes and MaLeila knew it was time, but there was something else in the man’s eyes, something that made MaLeila turn her gaze to Adina as she stood.

“You’re helping Tsubame. Away from most of the fighting,” Devdan said to her.

“That wasn’t part of the plan,” Adina said simply.

“I know it wasn’t. But you told me yourself that you aren’t a very powerful sorceress. You’d be better help to Tsubame.”

Adina didn’t argue, didn’t even scowl in disagreement on displeasure at the arrangement. Instead she nodded her head and left the room.

When she was gone, Dominik smirked and joked, “Must be some good dick. She didn’t even look like she wanted to argue with you.”

MaLeila shoved Dominik in the arm at the same time Devdan shot the man a glare. Then Devdan went out to the balcony. MaLeila followed, finding the man leaning against the railing with both hands looking out into the distance, ponytail blowing slightly in the wind. The way he was standing, the beautiful view of the city in the distance; it would be romantic if not for the forces surrounding the hotel and marring the view.

MaLeila stood next to Devdan, feeling the shift in distance and space as he undid the loop around the hotel. No sooner than he had undone the loop did the loose cloud settled just above the hotel and the surrounding area of a three or four mile radius suddenly begin drop even lower, slowly covering the area with a thick fog. As the fog was falling, Devdan jumped from the second story balcony, right in front of the forces, but rather than landing on the ground, he disappeared in the shadow of the balcony taking all the forces off guard, so off guard that when they moved forward past the point where the loop had previously kept them from advancing it was too late. Devdan was already among them… and all hell broke loose.

The sound of firearms rang through the grounds, now covered by fog which added to the confusion. Rather than using her physical eyes, because with the fog and confusion, she may as well have been blind, MaLeila tapped into her ethereal sight and jumped off the balcony, tucking into herself so that she rolled when she landed, until she was crouched on her feet, at which point she sprang into the chaos with Tsubame’s staff in hand. She found Devdan easily enough, his aura, as dark and calm as it was, a shining beacon in her magical sight. And just as easily she fell into the sync that she had reminded him of to persuade him to let her stay, and though Dominik didn’t fall into sync as easily, didn’t quite match their rhythm, he turned out to be an asset with his dark magic, one of the powers of which included draining away a person’s life force, a power that temporarily gave him access to their skillset which in the case of sorcerers included their magical skillset. Dominik hadn’t disclosed that power to MaLeila and she probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all if not for her ethereal sight. She mentally filed it away for later use.

To be honest, it wasn’t much of a battle as much as it was causing the forces to kill each in the chaos and confusion of trying to find their enemy, their rifles—made for long range attacks, killing or shooting three, four, and five people at one time—always missing their intended target. No. It wasn’t bullets and guns that MaLeila, Devdan, and Dominik had to worry about. It was the few powerful sorcerers and sorceresses sprinkled in the forces. Most of them weren’t used to close combat attacks though, being heavily reliant on their magic which could defeat their enemies before they even got close enough to attack them. Devdan appearing amongst them had thrown them off guard and almost immediately, he singled them out and began to start taking them out. That wasn’t to say that sorcerers were physically weak. Magic took a toll on the physical body and most sorcerers were more than capable of taking a multiple hard hits before it began to affect their performance. But with Devdan’s skill in both magic and close combat, combined with his sheer physical might and mental determination, most of their opponents stood no chance. It was like watch a master dancer and MaLeila had to force herself to focus on the fight and not watch Devdan in sheer awe, even though she’d seen him fight like this, beautiful and graceful while ruthless and dangerous, multiple times before.