Revealed in Fire by K.F. Breene
Eight
“Hello, Reagan.”He smiled that flawless smile. “So nice to see you again.”
“The pleasure is all yours.” I stopped in front of him. “What brings you to a shifter bar? Wait, lemme guess. Me?”
“Jimmy,” Trixie called, perched at the end of the bar on the counter. Shifters were slowly getting to their feet, eyes on the newcomer.
“I apologize.” Vlad glanced at Trixie. “The merman is currently indisposed. He wasn’t planning on letting me in.” He clucked his tongue. “Very rude. I’m afraid I had to force the issue.”
“You realize how incredibly stupid that is, right?” I asked, tucking the parchment into my pouch and pulling out a casing containing a concealing spell. I’d throw it in front of the bar and have a nice little time with this meddling vampire. He no longer scared me, not in the least.
“John, Kim, get the humans out,” Trixie barked.
Vlad’s smile reminded me of a sharpened blade. “I’ve learned some things in the Underworld—”
“You weren’t in the Underworld, Vlad,” I cut in. “You were loitering around the Edges. You have no idea what it’s like down there.”
He nodded as confused patrons were shuffled toward the door. “True. Let me rephrase. I’ve learned some things from the powerful demons that reside in the Underworld. Some defenses. Some offenses…”
He let the threat linger.
I matched his sly smile. This clown had no idea. He hadn’t even hit up the more treacherous places along the Edges—the places Darius and I had been forced to go through to get around him. He didn’t know what kind of power existed in the airless inner reaches of the kingdom. He certainly didn’t know what sort of training I’d been doing. Darius was plenty strong, and he’d stopped being able to combat my more robust magic. I was no match for Lucifer yet, but I was more than capable of dealing with an elder vampire of Vlad’s caliber.
Something I was about to show him.
I waited for the last of the humans to leave. I didn’t miss the sense of anticipation in Vlad’s velvety brown peepers. A squat shifter built like a brick house grabbed the door to close it. I closed a fist and let my magic swell. Claws elongated from Vlad’s hands.
A hand caught the door. It swung back in with enough force to make the shifter stagger backward. The smallest of wrinkles marred Vlad’s perfect face, but he didn’t turn around. I got the feeling he didn’t want to take his eyes off me. Wise.
Darius strutted through the door wearing a pristine suit with gold cuff links and shoes polished to a mirror shine, his hair a stylish sort of messy. His broad shoulders swayed with his elegant movements as he passed Vlad and stopped beside me, his gaze roaming my face for just a moment before he turned and slipped his fingers into mine, making me drop the casing. Not the best approach for fighting—
Ah. That was the point. He didn’t want me to publicly spank Vlad. How annoying.
“Vlad, good to see you again,” Darius said, ever polite.
“Darius.” Vlad inclined his head just a little. His gaze flicked to our entwined fingers. “It seems you’ve made a choice.”
Another form came through the door, robust and burly. Roger was on the scene. One of the shifters in the bar sucked in a startled breath, and everyone went unnaturally still. The guy was a celebrity for the shifters.
His gaze lingered on me and then swept the bar as he turned and took up a position on my other side, facing Vlad.
Vlad’s eyes narrowed. “Mr. Nevin. How quaint. Tell me, do you ever take a break from your honorable duty?”
“My pack will stand with Reagan Somerset,” Roger said, his tone rough and low. “We will stand with Lucifer’s heir, against Lucifer himself, if need be. Against you.”
More gasps this time. He’d just stolen my thunder, the jerk.
Vlad’s eyebrow ticked upward, and his eyes sparkled as his gaze shot back to Darius. “Think very carefully, old friend,” he said softly. “You are aligning yourself with shifters…against your faction. It’s been a long life, Darius, and you’ve navigated wars, feuds, and political upheaval. You’ve always played the odds, just like I taught you. How do you think this choice is going to play out for you? Tensions are high between the elves and Lucifer, just like they were before, only this time the other magical creatures are restless and ready for change. They’ve been brutalized by the elves for far too long. The time is ripe to step in and create a better play for vampires within the Realm. With Lucifer’s help, we can claim control of our destiny. I understand the closeness that comes with a bond, but you must be rational about this. She is not worth your eternal demise. Think.”
“The elves have taken too much power for themselves, that is true. The dynamic must be shifted so we can restore balance,” Darius said, his tone low so his voice wouldn’t carry. I tried not to flinch and stare at him. I had no idea he’d been thinking along those lines. “We do need a better setup within the Realm. But helping Lucifer tear it all down isn’t the right way. It won’t put us in power, it’ll put him in power and us at his mercy. Your ambition has blinded you. You are walking a dangerous path, and it will lead to your destruction.”
Vlad stepped forward, and now I could barely hear his words. His gaze picked up intensity. “You do not want to stand against me, old friend. There are forces in play that you can’t even imagine.”
“I don’t want to stand against you, correct,” Darius responded, “but you are wrong. Reagan is worth my eternal demise. If that means I must pit myself against my maker, so be it. If it means I must once again join forces with the shifters, fine. I will not lose her—not to Lucifer, not to the elves, and certainly not to death or captivity.”
Vlad stared for a very long moment, and although his exterior remained smooth and glossy, his eyes revealed a sort of viciousness that raised my small hairs. Darius held the stare without comment. Moments ticked by.
“I will try to spare you,” Vlad finally said. “She will be lost, however. It cannot be helped.”
He spun and took off, so fast that it was hard to identify the details. The door slammed behind him.
Darius turned to me, anger burning just below the surface. I had every suspicion it was because I had left the ward without telling him.
“I would ask that you do not engage any vampires.” His tone was even and calm, but he didn’t fool me. “I need you to let me handle them.”
“So…if they threaten me…” I lifted my eyebrows.
“Play defense, do not kill, and extract yourself from the situation. That is within your power.”
I squinted at him. That was no fun. I could finally reveal my power, and now I wasn’t supposed to use it?
If you wish to fight me on this, you will do it away from the shifters, Darius thought. The vampires and shifters will not want to work together again. The conflict between us is old and bitter, even if it was begun by the elves. You and I will need to play mediators, and for that, I need you to withstand your desire for violence.
He made good points, and it didn’t improve my mood.
“Fine,” I ground out.
A few of Roger’s wayward thoughts surfaced in my mind. Cahal had taught him how to shield his thoughts when we were out on the island, and I was also suppressing them, but the enormity of the situation was bearing down on him. I felt his urgent need to get his people moving.
“So…” I pulled my hand from Darius’s. “What’s next?”
“Karen is waiting for us at the Bankses’ house,” Roger said, stepping further away. “Romulus and Charity are en route. Their plane landed, and they’ve all been picked up. They should get there soon after we do.”
“You’re really teaming up with vampires?” someone at the back of the bar asked.
Roger turned and speared the skinny guy with terrible taste in fashion with a commanding stare. Shut up.
That thought came through loud and clear, to both me and the kid. Everyone around Skinny Guy edged away from him, actively trying not to catch any of his stupid,leaving him standing there in the middle of an empty bubble of space.
“The Red Prophet was originally supposed to meet us there,” Roger said, jerking his head. Darius put out his hand, and I took it, taking his hint that we should be walking and talking. The three of us headed out the door. “She’s gone missing again.”
“Oh, she has?” I asked, seeing Darius’s black town car waiting by the curb. Jimmy sat off to the side, leaning against the building wall, a couple of people attending him. Vlad hadn’t killed him, thank God. “She slept at my place last night, and she was there when I left. She’s probably just out terrorizing the neighborhood.”
“Romulus suspects she is on hallucinogens.” Roger stopped at the curb as Darius opened my door for me.
A middle-aged woman passing by caught sight of Roger, swayed into her friend, cackled, and said, “Well, hell-ooo,Mr. Muscle Man.” Her friend shushed her. “He’s hot, though, right? I’d jump on.” They both cackled this time, ambling away. The hurricanes had clearly gotten on top of them.
Roger continued as if he hadn’t heard her. He probably got that a lot. “She apparently likes acid a great deal. It seems to help with her Sight, more so than the hallucinogens in the Flush. They think it’s the chemical nature of it. They don’t have anything like it in the Flush. Don’t worry, though. It doesn’t affect her like it does humans.”
“Uh…” I put up my finger. “Are you sure about that? Have you seen how she carries on?”
A slight squinting of Roger’s eyes was the only indication he gave me that he agreed.
“She’ll make it there,” I said. “She wants to meet her nemesis.”
“Yes.” The word rode Roger’s sigh. “You’re probably right. We’ve heard a lot about the nemesis situation.”
“We’ll meet you there.” Darius ushered me into the car and then slid in beside me.
“You’re not going to offer him a ride?” I asked as Moss glanced at us in the rearview mirror. Assured we were in and ready, with a second to spare to flash me a routine scowl, he got underway.
“Our relationship will always be fragile, at best,” Darius said. “He would not accept a ride from me, just as I would not accept one from him.”
Silence drifted over us, filled with expectation.
“You’re mad, aren’t you?” I asked in a small voice, because I did love making his life hell, but I preferred to stop just shy of making him angry. Given he was incredibly hard to piss off, and often took my crazy in stride, that usually wasn’t too hard.
“I had hoped you would wait for me within the ward so Vlad wouldn’t see an opportunity to act.” His even voice didn’t fool me, especially since I could feel the rolling anger through the bond. “I had hoped to continue making plans without expressly relaying my intentions to the vampires. Challenging him like I did—in front of shifters, no less—will make things…complicated. Our various positions are no longer a gray area. However…” He clasped his hands in his lap. “I would be foolish to assume you would suddenly take your situation seriously when you never have before. Wishful thinking on my part. My anger, such as it is, is not justified.”
We’d still have hard, angry sex later on, immediately followed by sweet, loving make-up sex. They were both equally amazing.
A shiver rolled over me, and I slipped my hand onto his upper thigh, then pushed it further up until I felt the hard bulge. He was thinking along the same lines.
“I like when you talk yourself around,” I said, my voice husky.
“Hmm.” He moved his hands and let me rub, making no move to reciprocate. “The only salvageable outcome…is that you didn’t reveal how far you’ve come with your…magic…”
His eyes fluttered closed, and he opened his knees just a little, allowing me more access. He sighed as I sped up, completely unconcerned that there was someone else in the car. Vampires did not care, at all, about expressing their passions or desires in the presence of others. They had parties where they shared blood sources, sometimes at the same time. They turned people in groups. Sometimes they collected in a room, got naked, and just went for it. It was wild. I obviously wasn’t into that level of shenanigans—Darius and I had a different situation—but I’d learned that I was not bashful in the least. Clearly.
“We also made a statement in front of the…shifters…” He tensed, his breathing coming fast now. “Roger trusts that I will handle…the vampire aspect…of our situation. He knows me well…enough to—” He tensed, and then shuddered. Vampires could also handle business when they were in the throes of passion. That I didn’t love so much. He continued, “He knows me well enough to realize I’m the best hope we have.”
“And you think the elves need a come to Jesus moment?” I asked as we stopped in front of Callie and Dizzy’s house. “You actually want a war?”
“I would like to discuss the matter more thoroughly with Romulus, but from what I’ve seen, a war is inevitable. I don’t think the elves will take kindly to the warrior fae resuming their policing duties. Their power is currently mostly unchecked, and if they need to answer to the fae, they will lose a lot of their…less-than-reputable freedoms. The current ruling party will suppress anyone who tries to make that happen.” He pushed the car door open and got out, reaching for me. “I think so, at any rate.”
“Okay, but”—I scooted across the seat and got out of his way—“if you think the elves need to be overthrown, you’re talking about siding with Lucifer and Vlad.”
He gave me a look. “I think Lucifer’s main goal concerns finding the woman he saw in the Underworld. If he thinks the elves have played him false, and actually did have a role with her, he will rise up, I have no doubt. If he wins, I can see him turning the kingdom over to Vlad, but not as an equal. He will set the parameters, and he will maintain the guidelines. Vlad will be nothing but his steward. He is a fool for thinking otherwise.”
“Or maybe he thinks he can sit on the throne, or whatever, and weasel out from under Lucifer once he’s established.”
“As I said, a fool. Lucifer has been a ruler for a long time, and Vlad only thinks he rules our vampire faction. His ambition has grown too big. They are unevenly matched, and Vlad will be on the losing side. Vampires will be on the losing side, just like they clearly are with the elves.”
“So then…” I shook my head at him. I hated when he got going. His strategizing got dizzying. “How are we going to knock the elves down a peg while also keeping me from Lucifer while also protecting us from Vlad’s efforts?”
Darius paused at Callie and Dizzy’s door. “While also freeing up the Underworld so that vampires can relinquish their dependence on unicorns and humans and procreate naturally?”
“Yes. That too.”
A loud rumble vibrated up the street, and a souped-up blue Mustang pulled up to the curb. After a moment, the door opened and Roger stood. Alder, his beta, got out of the passenger side.
“The answer, I believe, lies in Miss Taylor’s quest. She sees herself, and the fae and the shifters, standing between two different armies. The images flip-flop. Vlad and Lucifer opposed her first, and then the elves. It seems she is in the middle. She is tasked with leading the army to instill order.”
“The fae and shifters against two huge armies?”
Roger slowed as he neared the porch steps, Alder behind him. He was clearly listening in, and given Darius didn’t start thinking his comments at me, he was fine with that. It was actually nice when they worked together, since it saved me from being stuck in the middle, but it was definitely weird.
“At first glance, yes, that would seem to be the case. But Vlad was correct when he spoke of the unrest in the Realm. I wonder how hard the elves’ forces will fight if they think there is a reasonable chance someone will, in essence, rescue them.”
“Not hard, probably. They’ll probably just get lost.”
“Precisely.”
“That’s not the situation with Lucifer and the vampires, though.”
“I will halve the vampire forces. I must. We all know we must keep our numbers up, so we will not rush to kill each other. If we block the other vampires—if I block Vlad—that will take him out of the equation. That leaves the demon forces.” He held my gaze for a long moment.
“I don’t have a merry band of demons at my back. I can’t take on all their forces.”
“You have Penny, and Penny has the mages. And you have the type of power demons are used to following, not fighting. That will cause confusion, which might be enough to give the mages an opening.”
“Right. Except Lucifer.”
He stared at me for another long, silent moment.
“I’m sensing I won’t like the answer to this riddle,” I said softly.
“You will handle Lucifer.”
I laughed to stop from throwing up. Then shook my head and opened the door. “You need to get a new plan, bub, because that one isn’t going to work. I’m a novice, he’s a master, and you’re an idiot. There’s no way I can go up against my dad and win.”
