Team Changes by Erin R Flynn

3

The people close to me clearly knew something was going on with how distracted I was. I brushed it off and reminded them they pushed me to take better care of myself, so they should be happy when I did.

But really, I needed the sleep and to fuel up for what I was about to do.

I almost knocked on James’s door because staying there before the wedding had been some of the best sleep I’d gotten ever.

Instead, I asked Cerdic to stay the whole night with me. He was undoubtedly going to be upset with me after he found out and probably more than the others because it involved his twin.

He gave me a worried look before agreeing and added he was proud of me for asking for what I needed instead of always being so selfless.

I was fairly sure that was going to bite me in the ass later. Then again, I wasn’t doing anything selfish so… Maybe not?

Either way, I was undoubtedly going to be spanked.

I got two nights of ridiculously good sleep and a lot of naps with my lazy cat knights. I ate a lot of what I needed and somehow, Vitor or Petre managed to keep anyone from taking the fighter jets to kill corrupted, so I didn’t have any ghosts to deal with.

Or someone did. Maybe it just happened that way?

I doubted it. Someone made it happen, but it could have been any of them worrying about me and wanting me to rest more. Hey, that worked for me.

But that was all I got because Aether gave me a warning before I woke with the sun like normal. It had to be now since Bahati was going to push over the first domino tomorrow.

One of the many shitty parts of the plan was when we had to go. We basically had to leave at eight at night because that would be three in the morning in Nigeria.

And we had to swim an ocean again. That had not been fun the first time since I wasn’t doing the swimming, but basically holding onto Vitor and treating him like a water horse or something. That wasn’t super awkward or anything.

Even worse was I had let go and fallen off several times. In my defense, the force of the water when they moved that fast was unreal. Certainly not something I’d recommend.

Ever.

And I still didn’t know how to swim. Luckily, it was really obvious when I wasn’t with him anymore, and he immediately scooped me back up again.

They also came up with a way to improve my simply holding on and praying. Vitor found a harness he could wear, and I would strap in. He said it was for skydiving, but it would work for our purposes. Also, he wasn’t going to go full-out.

And he was going to slow way down every little bit. Basically, all I had to do was hold my breath and trust him. I’d get the chance to take in more air when he slowed down before we went again.

It was also going to slow us down, so we planned to leave a bit earlier.

Sneaking out and managing this was not going to be easy. I had to lie—there was no other way.

And work up a sort of comedy of errors. I told the men in my life I was going to have a night with my female knights that we were keeping it quiet so no one crashed like before. I promised to bring my guards, leaving out it was Vitor and Petre again because that would draw suspicion.

Then I told my knights I was going to sneak off for a hot night with one of my guys since we needed the alone time. That might have seemed weird, but if they knew I was fine and nothing was going on, they tended to crash or do their own thing in their rooms. It might have sounded boring, but we did a lot constantly, and everyone needed to catch up on sleep during the apocalypse.

Everyone.

But I knew Moon was working in Salt Lake City on several things and Branko was helping out in New Orleans, so neither of them would be visible and people assume it was one of them.

Or both.

Vitor and Petre handled getting everything together and hiding it so we could pick it up on the way. We needed changes of clothes after the ocean and watertight bags to bring them in. They had weapons, but I wanted my short katanas as well. It made sense since I was going to have to wing it some and didn’t have much of a plan on how to kill her.

Sure, I wanted to do the same thing I did with Safie, use my electricity power and drink her down, but lots didn’t go to plan. Like ever, especially in the apocalypse. Hell, I was fairly sure the apocalypse was seriously not what anyone had planned.

Acting like nothing was going on and I was sneaking off to kill someone was ridiculously hard, especially when Cerdic was coming back as we were heading out. He was so sweet the way he gave me a kiss and told me to have too much fun because I needed it.

In a way, that actually worked really well as advice for what I was going to do but seriously not how he meant it. He was really, really going to be upset with me when he found out.

It still needed to be done, and after weeks of stressing and trying to figure it all out, this was the only way I could see things being resolved without anyone dying.

Well, other than Bahati. She would hopefully die, and painfully.

Racing to the ocean was nothing. I was used to that. Next came the hard part and why we’d left a bit earlier than originally planned. It was smarter to give us more time in case there was a problem and wait if need be, instead of risk getting there later than we should and her coven was awake. I knew most vampires and courts tended to keep to vampires being night owls, but my coven didn’t.

And they barely needed any sleep, so when Vitor and Petre agreed that the window was sometime between three and five in the morning, I believed them. They said most kitchens were up and working for the day by six, so any of the nobles would have what they needed, and they doubted that changed in the apocalypse.

Maybe they got up earlier because everything was more difficult now.

Fair enough.

The harness did help, but it was not fun. Petre got me secured in, and then I had to hold my breath as long as I could and just endure it. It was fairly grueling, and I was glad that we did leave earlier even if we didn’t have delays.

I was going to need some time to recover from that.

Sure enough, when we reached the beach in Morocco, I just laid there for several minutes after I was out of the harness.

“You okay?” Petre worried.

“Let’s not make a habit of doing that,” I grumbled. “Thank you for being gentler but shit, I really hate that. Fighter jets next time or something.”

“Well, hopefully, you won’t have to sneak in and take out any more princesses,” he comforted.

“Remember this moment as the one Petre tempted fate and Erebus to make them all come after you,” Vitor drawled.

I smothered a giggle but then it came out, waving them off when they gave me worried looks. “I just had a mental image of a picture of Him I saw in one of the mythology books turning to another god and saying to hold His beer.”

“You are a very interesting woman,” Vitor commented, sounding amused. “We made good time, so you can rest a bit but not much. The corrupted don’t hang out at shores because they hate water, but some have already sensed you and are heading for us.”

“I’m such a damn beacon,” I sighed, but glad at least I had a bit before I had to move.

Except then I got nervous about what I had to do and just wanted to get it over with. I felt my heart race in my throat, and then my vision wasn’t dark simply because it was night.

No, I was hyperventilating again like before the wedding.

Fuck.

“You will do this because you have to,” Vitor whispered as he moved in front of me. He cupped my face in his hands and made me look at him. “You will be the victor because you are on the side of what Aether would want and bringing goodness to the world.” He waited until I let out a slow breath. “And we will not let you fail because we believe in you and stand with you, My Princess.”

“No, we won’t,” Petre agreed. “Especially not after seeing your fear about doing this. You clearly aren’t power-hungry or trying to take over the world.”

I snorted. “People had to talk me into starting my coven. I only agreed after I realized it was the only way we could stay safe, or a court like Nora’s would lock me into something I didn’t understand.”

“Then let’s go keep that dream alive and protect the people you love,” Vitor said, holding out his hand to me as he stood. His eyes held all the certainty in the world, and that was exactly what I needed in that moment.

“I got this,” I whispered, trying to project the same assuredness but missing the mark. Still, I reached out my hand to him.

He ignored it and pulled me to my feet. They both gave me firm nods, and then we moved on to the next part of our plan. We changed into what we’d brought and got our weapons together. It was best to leave everything behind so we didn’t risk it getting in the way but also so it could dry and was ready for us if we had to race out of there.

Vitor had to carry me there since Petre had the cloaking gift and needed to focus to cover all of us. Well, at the speeds we were going in at.

And it made me realize he would have been the perfect person to nab me and anyone else if Safie had ordered him to. He could have done it easily if she had known about his power.

It really made me appreciate how Vitor handled things even if it had upset me. I got lucky he’d stopped and learned about me enough to try and help me and his coven.

I leaned in and kissed his cheek in thanks, shocking him, but he didn’t ask. We had to stay focused.

Vitor nodded at Petre and we took off. I assumed it was to check he was ready and they were setting the same pace. I barely had time to consider it before we stopped. I knew we weren’t going right to the coven since it took me a little bit to recover from traveling like that and we could be seen if we weren’t careful.

It gave me a chance to see the coven from a distance. It was dark, but my night vision was getting better and better the more my power grew and I took better care of myself as a vampire. I caught glimpses of what looked like parts of an older castle and other structures. It looked like they made it seem as if they had built new into what was there to update and made it work.

But in reality, it was a pretty smart way to hide they were living in a castle in modern day. The plan was a bit ruined by everything being taken back to the time before electricity. They had torches and firepits going for light and to help the guards who were probably keeping watch.

Vitor tapped me when I got lost in the scenery.

I nodded I was ready and then we were off again. My chest got tight thinking of the time I’d snuck into Fort Knox with Jaxon and all the Mission Impossible jokes. He was going to be so upset at me for not letting him join in this time too.

I could deal with that because it kept them out of this and safe. Vitor and Petre had confirmed this coven was teeming with seriously old vampires and everything my coven of shifters and younger nobles couldn’t handle. The other option was to bomb the whole fucking coven, and I wasn’t going to going to risk the innocent.

Enough of them had died because of the apocalypse.

I held on tighter as they started hopping walls and climbing the sides of buildings like superheroes. We stopped once we were on a roof hanging towards the middle of the compound and main coven building that would obviously be where Bahati stayed. I saw Petre’s lips barely moving and realized he was talking to Vitor at a level I couldn’t hear.

Vitor pressed his lips to my ear and barely made any sound as he spoke. “We shouldn’t wait. Coming earlier was smart as the vast majority of the coven are sleeping. We only sense enough people to account for guards, and several rooms are awake doing adult activities. The rest sleep or quietly occupied.” He waited until I nodded. “Are you ready?”

Petre moved closer when I shook my head and spoke in my other ear. “We are right above her rooms. She sleeps, and guards went by not long ago. We have a good window, My Princess. She has two stationed outside her exterior room, not her bedroom, and one of them is dozing. Now is the time. Have faith in yourself because we do.”

I nodded. I could do this, taking in a slow breath and letting it out the same. I tapped Vitor and gave them a thumbs-up. I was as ready as I was going to be, and I wasn’t going to waste the window of opportunity.

He held out his hand and started counting down with the visual.

And then it was game time.

We soundlessly dropped down on the balcony, and once Vitor set me on my feet, I walked right through the open door. I pushed the flowing curtains aside, and my gaze immediately landed on Bahati’s beautiful face, startled to see it in person instead of visions that rocked me and kept me from getting restful sleep.

Something about that movement—either the curtain moving against the fabric I was wearing or a noise from the curtains on the rod—must have been out of the ordinary because her eyes popped open. Or she had crazy good senses to know when someone was in the room even.

She blinked at me but then reacted, leaping out of bed and away from me, hitting something on the wall.

An alarm. It was a hidden panic alarm.

I smirked at her. “No electricity is a bitch, huh? Old habits die hard, and you’re hitting an alarm that has no juice to it.”

Her lips pressed together ever so slightly letting me know what her tell was. “The last time an idiot came to try and hurt me, it actually worked.” She stood up straight and moved to the end of the bed. “No matter. They were a real adversary. You are a child biting off more than you can chew, Inez.” She chuckled darkly. “Hell, this makes everything so much easier that you came to me.”

“Safie probably thought the same thing.” I shrugged, her goading not landing at all with me.

“Yes, but you brought the corrupted to do most of the work.” She held out her arms. “There are none here. You have to do it yourself.” She glanced past me at Vitor and Petre. “Unless you will use your guards to do what you can’t?” Tilting her head, she gave me a condescending look. “Are you not princess enough to take what you want yourself?”

I snorted. “Coming from the woman who would kill two teenagers of her coven to incite them to come after me, that is really rich.” I gave her my own condescending look when she slightly pressed her lips again. “But no, I’m here to do the job myself. They’re here to make sure you aren’t a chicken shit and flee.” I glanced at the alarm and made it clear I looked down on her for that.

I really didn’t. In truth, I made a mental note that I wanted the same alarm in my bedroom.

Hey, I was a baby vampire. It seemed only fair.

“I wouldn’t judge when you came to kill me in my sleep,” she snapped.

Petre snorted. “She wouldn’t have been able to do that. She would have woken you up so you had a chance.”

I sighed. “Yeah, probably, but she’s a monster just as bad as the corrupted. I don’t give them a fair chance to chomp on me before killing them.”

“Valid,” Vitor muttered. He cleared his throat when Bahati opened her mouth. “Don’t bother yelling or stalling. I have a barrier up. You’re not getting out of this.”

“You vile dogs,” she hissed. “I will treat you as such after I kill your princess.”

“They won’t be yours even if you do. They’re just my guards.” I gave her a hard look. “But I’m here to make sure you don’t ever get your hands on my husband. Cerdic is mine and you will not touch him. Ever.”

She snorted. “You cannot take me.”

“I think I can.” I pulled the katanas out, shrugging when she narrowed her eyes at me. “I’m a baby vampire. Yeah, I don’t care that I’m armed and you’re not. It levels the playing field.” I remembered something Vitor said about how Safie’s anger at my poking had overridden her sense at times.

Time to poke another princess until she snapped and did something stupid.

I snorted. “Well, then again, I’m Aether’s champion, so you really don’t have a chance.” I smiled brightly when she did a double take. “Oh, didn’t Ceawlin tell you? He knew that.”

“You lie,” she hissed.

“So did the princess you met with. Funny how she left that out, and that she heard all the stories and how many other courts fully believe I am.”

“There is no way you knew of our meeting,” she seethed. “No one was there.”

I shrugged. “You didn’t sense us now, but the truth is more fun. I know all of this because Aether sends me visions to keep me safe. She’s not a fan of yours given what you want to do and basically mapped out what I needed to know so I could come kill you.” I chuckled when her eyes went wide. “Still think this will be easy?”

“I cannot—” she started to say, but Vitor cleared his throat.

“Enough with the dialogue. She’s not worth you wasting your time, My Princess.”

And I shouldn’t waste our window. Right. Smart.

I moved closer to Bahati. “You want to make this easy and kneel? Beg for Aether’s forgiveness and mercy?”

Thick rage filled her eyes. “I beg of no one, not even Her if She would betray one of Her daughters.” And then she launched at me.

She was fast, incredibly fast… But clearly didn’t train or hadn’t been in a fight in a long time.

I, on the other hand, did train with my knights and with Cerdic who was around the same range, but faster. They were about the same age—or so he said—but he undoubtedly fought a hell of a lot more.

So I was able to cut her before she got to me. Not much, just a slice on her arm, but the shock on her face was priceless.

“Cerdic trains me all his slick moves,” I purred. “Fighting and naked ones. You never had him, right? That sucks for you.”

“I own his twin,” she snapped.

I shrugged. “They’re different people, and I don’t own Cerdic. I bet the sex is much hotter if they aren’t forced to give it to you on command.” I snorted just to drive it home I thought she was pathetic. “And you will not even see Cerdic again, much less touch him. You could never make him love you. He sees the vile pathetic beast you are and loves me. He loves me and not you.”

She snarled and threw her power at me somehow to cut me the way I’d seen others do. She smirked as she got my face with a deep gash.

“Did I hit a nerve, Bahati?” I taunted. “That’s such a cute power.” I went over to her bed and turned it into energy beads, going further and doing her dressers full of her belongings.

And then I turned them into wooden spikes all around her feet.

“Many can do that too,” she chuckled. “Oh no, you reformed wood. Yes, you are the best, Aether’s champion.” She gave an elegant snort just to drive home she didn’t believe it.

The spikes weren’t meant to be impressive.

Simply distract her. Dropping one of my katanas, I reached behind me for what else I had in my harness, grabbing the end and launching it at her like a lasso. I missed, completely missed getting it around her, but it landed at her feet.

The thin metal chain. I’d found several long—but not heavy—ones at a pet supply shop and thought it an interesting idea to add to my arsenal.

And perfect for Bahati after Petre and Vitor’s warning.

She blinked down at the chain and burst out laughing. “Oh, child, this isn’t even fair. You haven’t grown into your powers at all. And this chain might have been enough to tie you up, but this is nothing for me.” She bent down and picked it up, wiggling it almost to make me dance since I held the other end. “Would you like the handicap of me helping you like the pathetic bitch you are?”

I smirked at her, glad she would let down her guard to mock me if we were far enough apart. “I’m growing into my powers just fine.” I sent a massive charge of energy down the metal chain.

And metal was one of the best conductors of energy and super dangerous around lightning or unstable electricity. I mentally snorted, thinking that would be my superhero name if I had one. Yeah, Unstable Electricity would be a fitting one.

Her eyes went way too wide as her body spasmed in pain.

I was about to ask Vitor to destroy the spikes so I could get to her, but I didn’t want them interfering. They took the duel part of this so seriously—even if they ended up agreeing with me—that I didn’t want to make them upset. I sent more charge but then stopped for a moment, turning the wood back into energy beads before zapping her some more.

To the point I smelled smoke and her hair was falling out right in front of us.

Gross.

I strutted right over to her and snorted when I saw her hand practically melted around the chain. But she clearly couldn’t let go, the electricity coming through seizing up her joints and body. I fisted her hair, ignoring when most of it easily came out in my grip, and yanked her to me.

“Cutting me from across the room looks pretty damn pathetic now, doesn’t it, bitch?” My fangs came out and I sank them in her neck, drinking deeply. I chugged her down. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get it all like when I killed Safie, but I was stronger now.

And all the fucking stress of the situation had left me down on the tank and needing the pick-me-up of strong blood.

I lifted my head and glanced between them. “How much do I need to take so she can’t recover?”

Their shock was amusing, Vitor snapping out of it first. “You’re not killing her?”

“Not yet. I want to deal the killing blow when people can see it.” I gasped as her blood made the fire in me roar. “Answer fast.”

“Give us each a drink and we will handle it,” Petre said. He smiled at whatever was on my face. “You’ve won, Inez. You bested her by being smarter in a way we didn’t even think of. This isn’t cheating.”

Vitor snorted. “Not even close.” He hurried over to me and waited until I nodded, biting Bahati on the other side of her neck. He coughed and pulled away. “She tastes like sludge.”

“She is a princess of evil that we will not want,” Petre muttered as if that made any sense.

I guess it did if my blood sang to them. Maybe?

Being a vampire was complicated.

He took a drink and promised there was no way for her to recover unless she received a massive influx of blood. He scanned her and seemed impressed with something.

I opened my mouth to ask but instead whimpered as fire, no, lava, raced through my body. I had already dropped the chain, but I tossed my other katana down and hurried to get my harness off.

Vitor reached for me and I practically climbed him to get closer. I mashed my mouth to his and suddenly my pants were just gone. I didn’t feel them being taken off or feel the tug of ripping. He moved so fast he could strip me before I even felt it.

Sounded like fun.

Let the crazy of her blood begin.