The Fallen One (Sons of the Dark Mother, Book One) (40 page)

Constantine had been taunting her
for several hours, and she was beginning to question her sanity for
deciding to come here. So far he had kept Morgi around, but nothing
in his demeanor said that he would follow through on what they had
hoped to gain when she had come here.

He didn’t do anything else to
her—only taunted her. He seemed to get some kind of enjoyment out
of getting her to lose her temper—so she kept up her usual smiles
instead.

That seemed to irritate him. And
right now she could do nothing more but fight him with her
wits.

She gave Constantine the best look
of boredom she could muster. But he only laughed at her. He circled
her, again, as she struggled against the ropes with which he had
tied her.

When he wasn’t here, he left her
alone for hours at a time. He didn’t even leave a guard around so
she could ask for a drink of water. Mia had no idea why he had
brought her here, but she had lost all hope that he was actually
going to try to turn her.

Instead he had brought an old
witch, and right now that witch was busy setting a circle around
her that left Mia breathless. She had no idea if the sisters were
capable of this type of power, but she did know that if
she
could sense it,
there was little doubt about how powerful the witch really
was.

If she hadn’t realized that before,
she knew it now by the look in Morgi’s eyes. Constantine didn’t
always let her come around, but he’d allowed her come today and
right now she was busy watching the old witch work.

Constantine had seemed happy to see
her when she’d brought Mia to him—Morgi that is—though he had
looked a bit disappointed that he hadn’t captured Mia himself.
Morgi had brought Mia to Constantine as a prize, telling him that
she had heard he was after the girl, and she had wanted to make
things up to him since they had fought when they’d last been
together.

It didn’t take Mia long to realize
that these two had a
very
unusual love/hate relationship. In fact, it
appeared that Morgi had been trying to take Constantine down for
many years. Mia had no idea why he trusted her at all, but it was
equally clear that Constantine was much too arrogant to take her,
or anyone else, for that matter, as a serious threat.

Not that Morgi hadn’t done him some
serious damage in the past; in fact, the first day she’d brought
Mia there, Constantine had spoken of a time far in the past, when
he’d first had laid eyes upon her. He’d said that he had loved her
even then.

And then, he had said that he had
since forgiven her for interrupting the other changes he’d had in
mind for the Bible.

This confused the heck out of
Mia.

She knew that humans believed the
Bible was written by men, but inspired by God. Mia found the
human’s beliefs, regarding the Bible, confusing.

But—from the sounds of
it—Constantine had somehow… influenced some of the things that were
written there.

Mia had known he was old—but she
was amazed to realize—just
how
old.

He had also mentioned a time when
Morgi had nearly beheaded him, but he had somehow narrowly escaped
her. Yet—he seemed to have forgiven her that too.

He seemed to have more of a
respect
for her—than to
hold any contempt for her. In fact, it seemed to Mia that the
closer that Morgi had come to killing him—the more he loved her for
it.

Talk about having it bad for a
woman.

They were busy talking now, while
Morgi watched the old witch.

Constantine knew why Morgi watched
her, because he laughed and reminded her. “Don’t get any ideas, my
red-headed vixen. I almost had you beheaded once already,” he
warned.

Morgi laughed and shrugged. “I
underestimated you that day. I won’t make that same mistake
again.”

This only seemed to amuse the old
vamp. “Come love,” he said, taking her arm. “We have much time to
make up for.”

And although Morgi gave him a dark
look, she didn’t stop him from leading her from the
room.

Mia frowned as she watched them
leave. Why he didn’t realize Morgi was up to something in bringing
Mia to him, she didn’t know. Or perhaps he did suspect her—and that
was why he had not tried to
turn
Mia.

Or perhaps—the knowing was
something Morgi banked upon.

Constantine had turned, just before
they reached the door and watched with some glee as the old witch
worked. And then he had announced, “Do not fret; I have a special
plan for you—my little beauty.” He had smiled then. “One that I
could not have planned better myself, one that my beauty, here,
brought to me—when she brought me—you.” Stepping close to the
circle, his eyes had darkened then, and his fangs extended. “I will
turn you—and then, I will leave you within a circle, like the one
you sit within here now, where the Sisters of Three will get to
watch you turn.” He raised a silver brow. “Feel the power of the
circle? Of course you do. And so will they. They will watch you
turn—and there will not be a single thing they can do to stop
it.”

And with that—he’d led Morgi from
the room.

Leaving Mia behind—a prisoner of
the circle.

The men were waiting at Second
Chances when they finally got the word that Constantine’s armies
were on the move. It had been several weeks of waiting—but they had
heard down the pipeline that a large army of Constantine’s men were
converging on the city.

Now they understood why there had
been a delay. He’d been waiting for a number of rogue factions—not
only from outlying towns and cities, but also from
other countries
—to
arrive to join him. Some of the factions had come from as far away
as England, Scotland, and Australia.

This was a war Constantine
intended to win.

He had big plans for the humans
once he won this war, and Dracon’s men were starting to hear rumors
about some of them. Constantine’s plans were fraught with greed and
control, as well as expressing desire to be seen as a god, but it
was obvious that the battles themselves were his primary
objective.

He seemed to enjoy the battle,
itself, more than his need to dominate every person on every plane.
But from what they had heard, he wasn’t above wanting that
too.

His plans could only bring about
the certain destruction of all. He seemed to have no use for
humans—other than as a source of food. He appeared to have no
respect for them as a life-form.

While still a human, Constantine
had been the Emperor of Rome and had tried to control an entire
people through the use of religion. As a supernatural power, he
sought to control the Earth on all planes, with brute force if
required—his goal was to become the all-powerful one of the Earth
itself.

Even the oldest factions of
vampires were appalled. What would the world become, with such a
power ruthlessly destroying everything in its wake? Had they not
learned that such greed would only bring the destruction of them
all?

Hadn’t they learned this from the
fall of Atlantis?

There the greed for power—the need
to have more and more control—had caused many of them to try to
steal the stone that sat at the heart of the Earth, renewing them
all, wanting it all to themselves. They hadn’t been content with
gaining the renewal; they had wanted to own the stone.

They had wanted to have it
all.

Hadn’t all of the races learned at
that time that, all too frequently, the quest to have it all only
brought forth the destruction of everything they sought?

Only balance could bring the joy
and happiness everyone sought.

And balance was never found in the
greedy coveting of more—and yet more—until everything good had been
used up and there was no more
good
left
.

Hadn’t the humans seen this with
the desire for more land, wealth, gold, control, and power? And
hadn’t they all watched and shook their heads over that
greed?

And yet, here was a power who, once
more, sought to have it all.

The Earth had tipped wildly out of
control on Her axis from the imbalance such greed had brought about
before in its quest for power. Only the hard work of all the
masters and Fae—only the combined love they had all had for Her as
they had pulled together as one, and combined their love and power
while they worked to hold the grid—had saved Her from complete
destruction.

The dark powers had been working
hard ever since to again try to gain control over Mother Earth.
Those who had worked so hard to prevent the destruction at the time
of Atlantis still worked hard now to prevent these beings from
gaining the control they sought. They could not allow the dark
power to prevail again. They had everything to lose.

Hadn’t the humans learned that one
man defending his home had the strength of ten men trying to invade
it?

They could not allow Constantine to
invade their home—or the home of the humans. It would only mean
certain and complete destruction of not just a way of life—but of
their beloved Mother Herself.

Jared had sent word that his men
were ready. Caesar had left right away to put his men in position,
where they would lay in wait for while the vampire hunters led
their prey to them. The vampire hunters were busy, at that very
moment, leading the fledgling vamps to the armies as bait. Roman
and Ophelia were set up deep within Boys’ Town. Roman had sent
Lucius through the doorway to the Queen of Darkness. The queen
herself would have to help him to return.

Dracon and Justice left to get the
vamp, Fae, and Jaguar armies into position. While they prepared the
armies, Jasmine was with them.

Conrad, and the guards who had been
located at his bar, had the hard part: waiting. The hub was too
important, as the center of all communication, to close it now that
the struggle had started. Conrad was itching to get in on the
fighting, but he knew that he must be patient.

And so—they all sat back to
wait.

Chapter
Forty-Six

War

It was just after three in the
morning
when Constantine sent a large wave
of fledgling vamps. They moved through the shadowy streets—their
shadows slithering before them as the moon caught them in her rays,
their shadows stark against the old brick buildings.

By all appearances, Constantine’s
people had been very busy during these weeks of waiting—turning
humans into large, fledgling armies. However, they still could not
outnumber the Jaguar, Fae and Ancient Vamp armies. For the ones who
had waited for so long for this strike to begin—winning this part
of the battle was almost like taking candy from a baby.

However, what Constantine’s
fledgling vamps lacked in numbers, they made up for with strength,
speed, and power. They hit fast and hard; however, the human
vampire hunters had been preparing and practicing for this moment
for weeks. None of them had become a vampire hunter due to a fluke.
Most of them had a good reason to hate vampires: most of them had
lost a family member or a friend, or someone else they
loved.

It was more two hours before Conrad
started to get word of the vampires’ attack on the city. The human
vampire hunters had set up guards to relay word of the hit as the
vampires moved farther and farther into the city. As they had
known, it was a good-sized group of vampires, but even at their
greatest, they were outnumbered three to one by Justice’s
armies.

The vampire hunters won a lot of
respect on this day from the supernatural armies. The stories
pouring in to Conrad, and told to the guards that had been left
behind to wait, were that the humans had been the fiercest fighters
out of all of them.

Conrad sent the runner, who had
come to inform them of how things were going, on his way. He smiled
and muttered that he wasn’t actually surprised, and then he nodded
and clapped one of the guards on the back.

“
They’re the ones defending their
homes,” he said, smiling. “They were the ones defending their
families—from a force who would destroy it all.” He picked out
several of his favorite shot glasses from where he had them
perfectly aligned on one of the taller shelves. He then poured all
of the men a drink—he even poured drinks for a couple humans that
were still there. “All through history, one man, defending his
home, has always been worth three who were invading—leaving a wake
of destruction—trying to steal it all.”

The humans looked confused. They
had only heard rumors regarding the current battles, but it sounded
like the right side was winning, and so they drank.

Conrad grinned. They would have
drunk anyway—
it was free booze.

The guards were busily nodding
their agreement to what Conrad had said. They were used to his
rants. He was much more emotional than the Jaguar People, but very
well-respected. None of them were sure
what
he was—though they all knew he
wasn’t human. No one seemed to know where exactly Conrad was
from.