Summon (7 page)

Unconsciousness was a death knell in my city.

I slid down. Legs sprawled, I kneaded my shoulder,
and grimaced when the gaping perforation in my chest finished healing in a
fiery surge of pain.

The thrust of that self-righteous fairy’s sword had
neatly gutted me. It took precious time to regenerate my ruptured organs, and
longer still to filter the poisoning effects of iron from my system.

Another weakness stemmed from my cursed fairy
blood.

Telling the truth was a defect I managed well
enough. Words were easy to twist – when I bothered to.

Iron was deadly to a fairy. Pureblooded fae cut
with it needed a powerful healer to help recover from its effects. I needed no
help, merely time to recuperate, and a brief bask in sunlight surrounded by
nature. Not that I’d admit that to anyone. I rejected my fairy heritage
outright, despised it, but that weakness needed its relevant cure.

I just wanted my family to love me.

Flashes of what happened intruded on my thoughts.
Tired as I was, my mind recycled the events trying to understand something I
intentionally misunderstood. I ignored the feeling my last memory of Rae provoked.
Is she truly gone?
The Wyld stood so
that must mean she damned the overwhelming flow of magics I’d poured into the
atmosphere.
I just wanted….
Frustrated,
I shook my head. ….
My family….
Lies
could not pass my lips, but I was convinced those filthy words spilled forth in
a moment of insanity. ….
Love me
. Rae
had stared at me with genuine pain for my suffering. Stroked me. Clutched me
closer in her soft arms as my blood flowed hotly, and the bitter cold groped at
my feeble limbs.
Tears had fallen from
her eyes, crystal droplets raining upon my forehead like gentle kisses.

She couldn’t have cared as she said. None of them
did.

“No one does,” I muttered. “I have only myself.”

That’s how it had been as a child, how it was as a
man, and how it would be until I decided to die.

“I’m glad she’s….” My throat locked, and I retched.
Eyes closing for a short time, I cursed. I shouldn’t care that she suffered yet
I did. “I’m not glad she’s gone, but I’m relieved an end to my vengeance is in
sight.” My eyes opened weighted by pain. “Because I’m tired.”

One more fairy had to die, the Warrior who should
have been a brother to me.

I opened my palm and magics crackled between my
unfurling fingertips. Lit the darkness entombing me in welcome. Its greatest
champion was home, and it sought to nurture the blackened heart festering
inside my chest.

I snatched at the air and curled my fingers into a
fist. Eyes heavy-lidded, the corner of my mouth curved. My power returned.
Slowly. Poured from the Source like an empty glass filling with water.

Satisfied I’d soon be returned to normal, I turned
my attention to my crowded mind. Confusion was an uncomfortable thing. I
disliked the doubts encroaching upon my peaceful hatred.

My people had fled.

After my defeat, they scattered from the fairy Wyld
like leaves on the wind. Idiots. They should have returned to the city instead
of allowing the interfering fools that followed my sister to terrorize them
senseless.

What if
Lochlann destroyed them as I journeyed here?

Pondering the likelihood of that troubling
complication, I discarded the thought. For certain, a fair number perished, but
some must have escaped to safety.

Vampires were nothing if not survivors.

And my vampires were driven by the keen bite of
hunger. The fear of what
I’d
do to
them should they displease me, notwithstanding.

I needed to find the Queen.

She could draw out the remainder of her followers
left behind to defend home. They lurked inside earthen hovels hidden throughout
the city. I hadn’t the time to personally convene them, nor did I want to waste
my refuelling magics on such tasks.

I need my
strength to locate what remains of my Coven.

That is
in
theory
the Vampire Queen could help me rally her underlings. If she was
lucid when I called to her.

What a
damned big ‘if’.

Gwendolyn was quite insane, more so after the loss
of her consort.

I’d been loath to leave a powerful ally behind, but
she was too crazy, a hindrance, and it made sense to keep someone under thumb
guarding home.

Lurching onto my feet, I wandered deeper into the
city, trying to remember the location of the vampire Nest. Used to shifting
location at will using magics, it felt like an age since I used my feet to
travel to a destination.

The patter of feet echoed down the street behind
me.

A vampire would never be so heavy-footed.

I slinked to the side and wove a reflective glamour
to blend unto the rutted brick I splayed against. Breathing shallow to calm my
heart, and reduce my body temperature, I waited for whatever hunted me to pass.

Familiar magical signatures tickled my senses a
scant second before they sprinted into view.

I extinguished the blistering heat I’d prepared to
shower upon my unsuspecting prey.

Naomi and her Siblings ran as if death stalked not
a pace behind.

Larissa, a witch of mediocre power, but strong
alchemy was snatched into the shadows. Her cloak billowed in a silken cloud
then rushed back as she disappeared.

Her dying shrieks spurred the others to run faster.

Unbelievable,
the Coven is
hunted by vampires
in
my
city
.
Are they so crushed by defeat at the Wyld
they’ve forgotten the natural order of things?

A vampire crept past my hiding place, a look of
intense hunger giving a thorny edge to his features. Lanky frame clad simply in
threadbare jeans, his feet made no noise as they lifted and settled on the
frosty ground. Shadows tugged close to his flesh. Cloaked him more fully than
the sleet.

The meandering pace he used for the hunt ignited my
ire.

He
toyed
with them.

And he wasn’t the only one. More than a dozen
vampires followed my Children. Picking them off as if they were nothing.

Filthy
parasites.

Fury bubbled my blood and heat raced through my
veins shooting power into my fingertips. I drew enough of the Source to burn a
weaker man into ash.

I wove a force field to trap my Children and avoid
chasing them down.

Feeling the spike in temperature, the vampire
tensed as I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and slammed him into the
wall.

His eyes rounded and cleared of blackness when my
glamour dropped. Fangs receding into red gums, he went limp. The relaxation of
muscle meant my death grip on the fleshy tissue of his neck felt disgusting.
Pulpy and slimy, as if it was unable to find purchase on bone so floated
disembodied under the surface of his skin.

Thoroughly sickened, I let go.

He fell to his knees and hunched over, feebly
covering his head as if I’d strike him.

“Stupid creature. As if I’d waste time delivering a
blow. What would that achieve?”

“But the Queen says….”

I lowered my head. “Go on.”

“Nothin’.”

The innermost corners of my eyes narrowed.
Gwendolyn uses my name as justification to
beat her underlings? Not my concern, I despise them all.
“Your name?”

Peeking through layers of scraggly hair caked in
mud, and what stank like offal the vampire blinked. “Raj.”

My Children ceased jostling at the shield of energy
I’d conjured, realising I’d saved them.

They tripped over themselves to reach me.

Naomi led, shoving others from her path without a
care for their wellbeing though they were injured worse than her. “Father,” she
breathed. “You’re alive.”

“You doubted? Yet you did not cast a spell of
finding? How telling.”

She flinched.

I looked at Raj. “Where are your nesting grounds?”

The vampire gawked. “I can’t
tell
ya.”

“Stupid,” Naomi muttered.

I agreed, but making the creature aware of the fact
and subsequently annoyed wouldn’t help.

Scrambling onto his feet, he snarled at her. “My
gut feelin’ takes me home. I can’t give directions.”

“An instinctual preservation of the collective?
Fine.” I gestured to the street. “Show me.”

Despite his obvious fear, Raj frowned and jerked
his head side to side. “My Queen–”

“Answers to me,” I interrupted. “Save me the
trouble of a messy decapitation to scare the others watching from the rooftops.
One of which will gladly do what you stupidly refuse to keep their head and
neck joined.”

Raj struggled with the threat for longer than I
considered wise before making a throaty noise of agreement then scurrying down
the street.

I followed through the foul, malodorous,
rat-infested, gag-inducing pits he trudged through. His journey through the
secret bowls of the city rather than the open streets satisfied my caution he
led me true rather than into a trap.

Raj glanced over his shoulder irregularly to ensure
I kept up. Each time our gazes met, I laughed quietly at the pang of
disappointment flittering across his ashy face. My amusement disturbed him
more, and oh, that tickled me.

My Children squabbled behind and I made a vague
note to self to keep an eye on Naomi. Eva kept her obedient, but now my old
mentor was dead her power-hungry daughter would be troublesome.

I panted for fresh air when we emerged from a break
in the wall of the flooded building we passed through. I thankfully caught my
bearings, knowing I could find my way back to my Wyld unaided.

Trembling, Raj pointed a dirt-encrusted finger at
the stone building opposite. Head bowed, his gaze remained averted, giving me a
chance to study him without having to glower or intimidate.

He was younger than me.
Most demons that survived the Rupture are
. However, his youthfulness
was rooted deeper than physical appearance. I suppose he’d been roughly the
same age as Ana when biology caught up with him, and he turned.

I looked a handful of years older. The longevity of
my fairy blood served me well. My only tell was my eyes. Age rested heavy
there. Few could withstand the despair clouding the molten gold of my irises.

The gold colour was a family trait I know knew.

The years of my life bled into a lingering
procession of time.

As would this vampire’s.

The youthful innocence I glimpsed in him would
bleed dry through a thousand cuts masquerading as years of life.
Death and disappointment, that is all life
holds.
He’d do evil things. Partake in depraved acts that would shock and
terrify him to the point of denial or insanity.

Knowing this saddened me. Affected my cold heart in
a way that was uncomfortable.

Would life
be different if Conall saw purity within me? Had he given me a chance at birth
would he and Rae love me as they do each other?

Hatred and jealousy battered that train of thought
into dust. I glared at the vampire. “Are you thirsty?”

Startled, his gaze flashed to mine, wavered in fear
then darted to safer sights.

Irritated, I cuffed him upside the head. “Answer
me.”

Rubbing his ear, he scowled. “Yeah.”

“Did you not feed on my Children?”

His throat bobbed. “I’m a fledglin’. Turned less
than a year ago. The old ones are faster. Better at huntin’ stuff.” He jabbed a
thumb towards my Children. “Only seven of ‘em entered the city.” He turned the
thumb on himself, expression morose. “Guess who didn’t get a taste.”

A quick count of the auras standing next to me
revealed only two had fallen. “Drink from Naomi.”

“What,” she shrieked. “You can’t expect me to let
that leech–”

I held up a finger to silence her. I kept my gaze
on Raj. “Escort them back to the Coven Wyld then drink from Naomi until she is
woozy.” I loomed over him. “Nothing more. Take more than is your due and I will
end you. Understand?”

Craning his head back, Raj nodded, eyes darting
every which way to avoid locking with mine. “I g-get ya. Not a d–drop
more than ya said.”

Grimly satisfied Raj would destroy himself rather
than face my wrath I spun to my Children. “Go. Rest. I return directly.”

I left without another word, and blithely ignored
the panicked reservations shouted at my back. This failed crusade certainly
stirred them since they were bold enough to doubt me.

Faintly aware of the vampires watching me approach
the mainstay of their Nest, I called for Gwendolyn, waiting in the stone
courtyard for her shabby self to appear.