Cold Blooded (26 page)

I batted the ghosts away with my hand in irritation. “The ghosts are telling me we have to move. One last thing—do you think my father can cross the barrier to get to us?”

She shook her head. “No, I do not believe so.”

I inclined my head at her. “Then the barrier comes down. Our decision is made.”

“
Oui.
We must take it down,” she agreed. “For your father’s sake.”

I started to crawl through the hole. “Naomi, do you still have your cross?” The Lunar Goddess’s trinket was very valuable. There was hope in my voice, even though I knew the answer already.

Her voice was dark. “
Non.
It was Valdov’s most favored who carried me to the crypt. They wrapped me in silver chains and I could not break free. They took it from me before they bound me to the Strigoi.”

I wasn’t sure how much Naomi knew or suspected about Valdov. “I think Valdov may be a spy,” I told her as I followed the tunnel to the right on my hands and knees. “And he likely had something to do with your brother’s relationship with Selene all these years. I also believe that if the Queen confronts him, he will use the cross against her and kill her if he can. He’s likely been waiting for such an opportunity for years.”

“I know nothing of this. Valdov and I do not interact,” she said. “If my brother had told me he was still in contact with Selene, I would’ve killed him.” Her voice turned cold. “But I do not doubt Valdov’s prowess or his ability to do such things in the least. He has always been hungry for power. There has always been gossip, of course, but nothing of any substance. If this happens and he kills our Queen, it will be devastating to the Sect. We cannot let him succeed. He will bring ruination to all the vampires, as he is not strong enough to rule.”

“I agree,” I said. “And I’ll do my best to stop it from happening. But in order to do
anything
we have to get out of these godforsaken tunnels.” I was resenting my time spent underground in a big way. I ducked my head as the tunnel narrowed. It was clear no one had used this one in a long time, and anyone who did had been sneaking around. This was not a main artery. “By the way,” I added, “was the Strigoi supposed to wake up? Is that what they intended when they siphoned off your blood?”

I couldn’t imagine they wanted to unleash a Screamer. It seemed ridiculously extreme.

“Wake up?” Naomi balked. “Of course not! As the Strigoi feeds, we are bound to it fiercely. It is one of only a few ways to keep a strong vampire immobile. It’s called a Vassalage, as we are its servants until the binding is broken and the blood is drained.”

“Well”—I cleared my throat—“the one bound to you was well on its way to becoming corporeal.”

A small gasp came from behind me. “That is very dangerous indeed. I have only seen one Strigoi come to life and it was a truly horrid sight. They eat a living thing from the inside out to gain a new life, but it’s only a temporary one. Once it inhabits a vampire’s body, it cannot feed properly, so it will eventually die as the host body dries out. But its instinct is to tear others apart in its frenzy to stay alive. It is very strong and almost impossible to defeat.”

“That sounds perfect,” I muttered as I continued to claw my way through the dirt tube. “I pray it didn’t have enough blood to come to life. That would be one too many things to worry about right now.”

19

The tunnel turned uphill abruptly. We climbed up the incline to yet another trapdoor. This place was a maze of secret hatches. This had to be the end of my underground road, because I was done. More than finished. It was time to emerge and make contact with Rourke. He would be in a borderline frenzy right now. I hoped all the boys had made progress on the outside. It would be nice to have some good news.

“Okay, we’re here. What do I do now?” I asked the ghosts.

“Enter.”

“You must go up.”

“You will find it there.”

“What is
it
exactly?” I grumbled. “The last time you said
it
,
it
was a half-formed Screamer.” I glanced down at Naomi. We were in such a small space it was difficult to see her. “Do you have any idea where we are?”

“By the scent and magic, I’d say we are beneath the Reliquary.”

“We’re under a church?” I lifted my nose and inhaled around the edges of the door. I caught a trace of candle wax and lots of dust, along with the buzz of magic. “Why do vamps have a chapel on the grounds?”

“Yes, the Reliquary,” a ghost voice filtered in my ear.

“It is the key.”

“Must break the barrier.”

“
Non
,” Naomi answered. “Not a chapel, but a shrine. It is where we hold our most scared objects. It is said to be cursed and all vampires stay well away from it. The magic here is old. My bones ache with it even now.”

Naomi was right. The magic had begun to filter into my skin, but didn’t threaten me directly. The floor above us hummed with it. “Do you think this is where the ward is fueled?” I asked. “It feels strong enough.”

“Yes.” A ghostly response hit my ear first.

“The barrier begins here.”

“I do not know,” Naomi confessed. “But it would make some sense. Vampires do not venture to this place. It is said that Vlad’s possessions still carry his essence and any who touch them will go insane.”

“Vlad, huh?” He had been a powerful Vampire King long ago, but had been dead for centuries. There could be only one great ruler of vampires at a time, and Eudoxia was the supreme Queen now. “If your Queen fueled that rumor, she was smart. Now nobody comes near her ward or her priceless artifacts on threat of possession.” From what I knew about strong wards, they were almost always grounded to something solid—the more powerful that something was, the longer it held and the harder it was to break.

I placed one finger tentatively on the underside of the trapdoor.

Energy tingled into the tip, but it wasn’t anything major. Maybe threats of curses had managed to keep this place untouched. “This door doesn’t feel spelled,” I told Naomi. “Kind of like the mausoleum you were just in. They must have put up a perimeter spell around the outside but didn’t bother to include the inside. I’m going to push it open and see what I can find. If all looks good, follow me.”

“Okay,” she said. “But be careful. Even if there is no curse, I have heard that some of the relics have … a presence. Or it is said.”

“I don’t know much about your vampire history, but a roomful of Vlad the Impaler’s trinkets is a little on the Dracula side, but if he was your King, it makes some sense his things would hold residual power. I’m not planning on touching anything I don’t have to, so don’t worry.”

“Vlad was the most powerful Vampire King of all time—that is, until he was defeated by our Queen. His possessions come from Romania and are said to hold his immortal wrath, and that upon his execution he swore his revenge and his soul was scattered among his treasures.”

That was a good story, but I was too shocked to move on. “Did you just say your
Queen
defeated Vlad the Impaler?” I asked. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Surprise spread over my features as I angled down to look at Naomi. “How could she defeat someone so much stronger? She had to have been newly made judging by her age now.”

She nodded solemnly. “
Oui
, she was very young. Vlad turned the tsar’s youngest daughter in hopes to rule Russia. But it is said he picked the wrong daughter. He mistook her youthful appearance for innocence and she played him well. She was shrewd in the ways of men long before Vlad found her. Her father had … made her life very difficult, and Vlad paid the ultimate price for his actions.”

I made a face.

Eudoxia’s father was Ivan the Terrible and her maker had been Vlad the Impaler. Another pinch of grudging respect surfaced for Eudoxia that I knew I shouldn’t harbor. But she was a true survivor on so many levels. It was hard to quantify that kind of strength and impossible not to respect it.

It was clear she had won her title of Queen of the Vampires.

I pushed the trapdoor upward.

It met with resistance. I repositioned and came at it with my shoulder. I gave it a hard jerk and there was a popping noise as a latch gave way. Once it was free, the door opened slowly like a drawbridge.

Mustiness hit my senses immediately. Old, stale air filled the tunnel.

The ghosts were agitated and excited. They breezed back and forth over my face creating a dusty current. I coughed.

“Must go.”

“The time draws near.”

“Grab the relic.”

“I’m going, I’m going,” I muttered. Naomi quirked her head, but nodded, understanding.

I drew my body into the room cautiously. This building had skylights, so it was brighter than the tunnel. But they were weathered and dirty, caked with grime both inside and out. The sun barely shone through, but it was a welcome addition to my dark underground day.

Once I was in, I glanced around in surprise.

Instead of all the prized possessions being laid out lovingly under glass in shrinelike condition, it looked as though everything had all been dumped on the floor haphazardly. It was like one giant junk box.

There were old, dusty cloths draped over things in some areas, and in other places piles of crap had accumulated in no particular order, like someone might sort them later. If they ever got around to it.

“This is it?” I chuckled. “The feared Reliquary? It looks like a church basement garage sale.” The trapdoor was situated in the middle of the room. Nothing had zapped me or came to life, which was stellar. I made a slow turn, testing the magic in the room. There were a few pulses from some of the items, but the major power current seemed to flow freely in a circle around me. “Naomi,” I called. “I think it’s okay to come in. I’m not getting a read on anything too intense.”

Naomi poked her head through the trapdoor. “The power creeps along my skin, but you are right—it is not threatening me either. Still, be careful,
Ma Reine
. It could be a trap.”

“Why do you think all these artifacts are piled up like this?” I asked, pacing to the inner edge of the circle. “Wouldn’t your most prized possessions be, I don’t know, better taken care of? I don’t think they’re cursed. Nothing in here feels threatening. That must have been an old wives’ tale.” I reached over to touch what looked to be a jeweled crown of some kind. “Let’s find out.”

The moment my hand almost connected with it, an arc of static electricity shot into my finger.

“Jeez!” I yanked my hand away. The power had stung me and I hadn’t even touched the damn thing. “Did you see that? A mini lightning bolt just shot out of that crown.” I turned in a full circle. I hadn’t recognized the configuration of all the junk before now.

“What is it?” Naomi asked.

“Your Queen is tricky,” I said. “Look at how all these things are laid out. They look haphazard, but they’re all connected.” The items ran in a full circle around us. The junk was acting like a giant conduit, and we were standing right in the middle of it. “Don’t touch anything,” I cautioned Naomi. “I’m pretty sure this is what’s fueling the barrier.”

“Find the saber,” a whisper shot by my ear. It was the voice of the only ghost who had stayed with me in the mausoleum.

“What saber?” I asked. Naomi glanced at me. “One of the ghosts is telling me to find some kind of a sword.”

We both looked around, but it was hard to see over the heaps of junk.

“The Kilij. The master’s sword.”

“You must break the circuit.”

“It lies on the outside.”

“Outside the circle?” I asked. Instead of answering, invisible hands guided me to the right. Lying just in front of the biggest stack of junk was a single curved sword stuck halfway into the floor. It looked as though it was rooted so deeply it ran through the thick marble floor into the earth below. “The sword must be grounding the electricity. That’s why we only feel a low hum of power in this room.” The massive flow of energy conducted by these relics was being fed into the ground through the saber.

I glanced around the room again.

The Reliquary was circular and the piles of relics were placed in a circle, albeit a haphazard one, and circles held power. I turned to Naomi. “This ward must have been started centuries ago, and to keep it fueled the Queen has tossed powerful things on it. If I can break it, it’s going to take everything I have.”

“Must hurry.”

“The situation grows dire.”

“Pull the saber and all will change.”

“I believe, now that we are here, it needs to be done,
Ma Reine
,” Naomi said. “We have happened upon this place to grant your father entrance, and when this is all over, we must be able to exit. Once this barrier comes down, I believe everything will change. And things must change. This marks the beginning.” Her voice was firm.

That sounded a little more ominous than I would’ve liked. “I know I have to do this, but whatever we do here will set the next events in motion. Are we sure this is the right choice?” That was the big, hairy question. I blew out a breath. It felt right to be here for so many reasons. I needed to talk to my team; my father was in danger; I’d made a deal with the spirits. My wolf growled.
What do you think?
She flashed an image of us pulling the sword out of the ground.
How do you know?
She snapped her jaw.