Left for Undead (27 page)

“Colonel Madison, sir, we have to get Sasha Trudeau on
the line. We’ve got local authorities blowing up our phones. Over a hundred and
fifty civilians have been abducted since about oh four hundred hours. The base
is still going crazy from what we saw last night and we still don’t have any
clearer answer for the Joint Chiefs this morning than we did last night.”

“Tell the local law enforcement to stand down,
Commander,” Colonel Madison said, wiping the sleep deprivation and tension away
from his face. He stared at Captain Davis, totally understanding the
commander’s quiet panic. “Sometimes Trudeau has to go dark in order to bring us
back valuable intel. If a hundred and fifty of New Orleans’ citizens have
disappeared, the last thing we want to do is get them slaughtered by a misstep.”

Esmeralda slumped forward suddenly as Amy’s eyes flew
open, glowing red. Amy quickly released Esmeralda’s hands as Garth held up the
semi-conscious psychic. Slowly, Amy’s jaw cracked, thickening, contorting as
Were Leopard fangs lengthened in her mouth. Digging into the table, Amy’s claws
scored the crystal, and her voice bottomed out in a demonic rasp.

“Who dares to look into my past dealings with the
underworld?” Amy growled.

“We do!” Garth shouted, leveling his wand at Amy as
Bradley took over the task of keeping Esmeralda upright.

“By what right?” Amy replied, smiling as she looked
around the room.

“By the right of the Fae,” Garth said, holding the
demon within his ancient gaze.

“One would have thought you had learned by now,” the
voice from within Amy replied, snarling. “One pair of eyes was not enough of a
loss?”

“You do not frighten us, demon,” Silver Hawk said,
entering the fray and making Amy’s head pivot. “You cannot enter a silver aura.
But now we know that you live.”

“Yesssss. ,” Amy said, and then laughed a
horrible, screeching cackle.

“Which means you cut a side deal,” Sasha said, making
the demon completely revolve Amy’s head to look at her.

Hunter caught Shogun by the arm to hold him back as
Sasha engaged Lady Jung Suk’s evil spirit.

“Oh, how fortunate for me,” the thing inside Amy said,
and then she spun to lunge at Sasha.

A quickly thrown plume of shamanic white sage and
silver shavings left Silver Hawk’s hands as Hunter body-blocked Sasha. Garth
threw up a silver shield between Sasha and Hunter and the now-screeching demon.

“I thought you’d brought me an innocent,” Amy said,
growling, as she returned to the table, chuckling under her breath.

“That’s it—I want Sasha out of this room,” Hunter
said, panicked. “Right now, séance is over!”

“Too late,” Lady Jung Suk cooed, making lewd tongue
gestures at Hunter.

“Oh, just let her come on out of Amy’s body,” Sasha
said, sneering. “I wouldn’t leave this room if you tried to drag me out by my
hair.”

“She doesn’t know, does she, wolf?”

Sasha gave Hunter a look, but his eyes went from Amy’s
misshapen body to his grandfather.

“You promised me she’d be protected.”

Silver Hawk nodded. “She is. This is just the demon
trying to find your soft spot.”

“And I found it, Hunter..   How do you know
these old men are right? What if I get inside Sasha and—”

“No!” Hunter shouted, transforming into his wolf and
baring fangs at Amy.

“What are you doing, Brother!” Shogun said,
body-blocking Hunter from Amy’s body. “Come back to your human!”

“Grandson, come back,” Silver Hawk said, slowly moving
Shogun aside. He blew a plume of shamanic powder on Hunter and waited. “It is
the way of the demon to divide and conquer and to get two brothers to battle
while she slips from the room.”

Hunter transformed instantly and quickly returned to
the circle holding Sasha, but Silver Hawk was too close to Amy’s body. She
pounced on him, deeply raking his back; however, the old man simply flipped her
and pressed her face to the floor on one of the sacred symbols.

Twisting, screaming, Amy screeched out foul invectives
while Silver Hawk struggled with her, yelling for Shogun and the others to stay
back. Garth was instantly at Silver Hawk’s side, torturing the demon inside Amy
with silver-threaded white light until Amy collapsed and a long stream of black
smoke exited her nose.

Wizards immediately wrapped Amy’s, Sasha’s, and
Esmeralda’s bodies with silver cloaks as the black smoke ricocheted off the
walls, screaming.

“Cover all humans,” Garth ordered his men, tossing
cloaks at Clarissa and Doc, then to Winters and Bradley, who’d kept the demon
away from them with liberal plumes of brick dust and holy water.

The moment the demon headed toward Woods and Fisher,
Garth hit her with a fistful of silver dust and then tossed them a cloak.
Shogun went to Amy’s limp, scarred body as Hunter helped his badly ravaged
grandfather from the floor. But within the seconds of pandemonium in the room
the demon found host in Shogun’s body. She threw his head back and laughed,
turning his eyes red.

“Oh, now you have a problem, gentlemen,” she said,
speaking through Shogun’s vocal cords. “You forgot, he’s a Were, not a Shadow,
and owns no silver in his aura. I will live and always wanted this bastard dead.  
and his body is sooo much stronger than Amy’s. Go ahead and try to kill me.”

Shogun lunged at Hunter, but Garth caught him mid-air
in a silver mesh energy net with his wizards straining to hold it down. Shogun
twisted and yelled, the silver burning his Werewolf body.

“You’ll kill him!” Hunter shouted.

“Fight the beast within, Shogun,” Silver Hawk said
weakly. “Fight her and make her tell you her bargain. Look on the floor at your
wife and summon strength.”

Two voices yelled beneath the net: one Shogun’s, one
Lady Jung Suk’s.

“I will die for her, you evil bitch!” Shogun shouted.
“There is no pain too great for her. I will burn to death in silver and make my
brother hold the net—know that!”

“What was the deal?” Sasha said, coming to the net,
circling it. “I’ll hold the net. True love never dies. You can’t stay in there
long. The man will give his life for Amy. You know it; I know it.”

“The Erinyes!” the voice of Lady Jung Suk screeched as
burning flesh stung Sasha’s nose.

“What about the Erinyes, body stealer?” Hunter
shouted, holding the edge of the net as he stared into his brother’s eyes. “I
will allow my brother to die. Believe it. I am Shadow Wolf and I am no liar. I
know that is what Shogun is prepared to do.”

Shogun’s wails escalated. “Tell Amy I love her!”

“I will also hold the net,” Silver Hawk said, struggling
to touch a section of it. “I am an ancient Shadow. Feel my silver aura; know
that I will let one man die the way he so chooses to stop evil and to stop your
bargain with the beasts!”

“Tell us!” Sasha shouted, leveling the Uzi at Shogun’s
head. “And know that I will put this man out of his misery with you in his
body, because he’s my family and because Amy is his wife.”

“The spell of possession was my deal!” Lady Jung Suk’s
voice screeched. “The Erinyes were promised a virgin by Vlad, but I gave them
something better—Fae bodies, if killed by Vampire hands..   They want
the war, they shall have the war. Fae will die and the Erinyes, like me, will
be free!”

“Get that man out of the net!” Garth shouted, making
everyone pull back.

Shogun collapsed, unconscious, as the black smoke
poured out of his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, leaving a trail of black blood.

“The demon is weak,” Silver Hawk said, collapsing into
Hunter’s arms. “Finish her now.”

Garth and his wizards sent silver tracers from the
tips of their wands, gathering up the screaming smoke into a long silver tube
and then sending it crashing through the floor. Working quickly, they sealed
the floor with white light and then turned to the injured and Doc.

“All able hands, get them to our healing stations!”

Guards drew swords and then lowered them as Sasha
burst through the huge double doors of Sir Rodney’s war room led by Rupert. All
that had been seated at the round table were on their feet, their expectant
eyes on her.

“It’s a double cross,” Sasha said breathlessly. “Queen
Cerridwen was right. Lady Jung Suk entered into a stronger, secondary deal with
the demons—but the goal is to make the Vampires kill as many Fae as possible by
causing what seems like unprovoked Fae attacks. For every Fae killed, Seelie
and Unseelie alike, the Erinyes get to possess your bodies so they can roam
free of the pit.”

“And whot of the Vampires?” Muldane called out,
looking around at his countrymen.

“Pawns. Just pawns that the Erinyes could care less
about. If they can get the Vamps to do the slaughtering for them, then they
could care less how many graves the Fae open to the sun.”

“And where’s the rest of your team?” Sir Rodney said.
“And Hunter and Shogun, all the others?”

“There were a lot of injuries down in that magick
room,” Sasha said, and then raked her hair. “Silver Hawk was badly mauled.  
Amy and Esmeralda have internal injuries from being body inhabited.  
but the worst is Shogun. We had to silver net him to get the demon out of him.”

Queen Cerridwen began running with Sir Rodney, heading
for the healing room. Sasha was right behind them.

“Don’t worry, lassie!” a big redheaded Dragon rider
shouted behind them. “If our monarchs be on it, all will be well!”

“It is well into your daylight hours in your region,
Vlad,” Elder Kozlov said slowly, “and yet no attack by the Fae against your
strongholds.”

Elder Vlad opened his eyes within his darkened lair.
He hated intercontinental communication when the daylight was against him and
was sure that was why Elder Kozlov always delighted in such meetings.

“Your Eminence,” Elder Vlad murmured out loud, too
weary to force a mind-to-mind exchange. “The Fae have not attacked, simply
because we took human hostages from the surrounding towns to ensure they would
use restraint. One of their allies, the she-Shadow Sasha Trudeau is still
inexplicably wedded to the human condition—and the human military, as all my
earlier reports have shown. That is why I believe we have not yet been daylight
breached.”

“And you are sure this had nothing to do with the
Fae’s charges of us being manipulated by the Erinyes?”

“That is preposterous, Your Grace, a slap in our
faces. First the Fae break open six viceroys’ tombs and then feel our wrath,
and now it is the cause of Erinyes?”

“This is what they claim,” Elder Kozlov said in a
lethal tone. “They also assert that the only reason we are in this predicament
is your post-court collusion with one Lady Jung Suk, a demon.   hence
our debt that would have been cleared by the assassination in open court of
Baron Geoff Montague.”

“As I told you in our previous discussion just hours
ago, these claims by the Fae are their way of trying to negotiate surrender.
They have attacked us, thinking our Vampire forces were weakened by earlier
campaigns, only to discover that we own vast resources, and are now questioning
the wisdom of drawing us into battle.”

“That is a possibility,” Elder Kozlov said through a
long, wheezing inhale. “But before you attack the Fae and squander resources, I
want a meeting in the swamp with the Erinyes. If they have indeed made us to be
their serfs.   there will be hell to pay for any and all involved in
the chain of events that led to the Vampire Cartel losing face. If not, and if
this is a ruse by the crafty Fae, then they will be obliterated. To ensure
that, I have reconsidered your request and have sent troops poised in the
tunnels that are awaiting for darkness to fall in your land. They will take
your lead; you are their commander. Use them wisely, Vlad. I would hate to see Fae
troops felled only to fly up in your face as freed Erinyes. That would
disappoint me.”

“What are the Fae waiting for, Sister?” Alecto leaned
in as she stared into the black scrying bowl filled with human blood that her
sister held between her talons.

“I don’t know!” Megaera said with a frown. “They
should have been blowing the doors off mausoleums and storming mansions in
search of vaults by now. Yet they remain crouched in the swamps near the UCE
court.”