Welsh Road (The Depravity Chronicles) (22 page)

Nina planned on
using stealing and manipulating that magic for her own purposes. Unless someone
managed to figure out what Nina was going to do, all of them would die and Nina
would be invincible.

* * * * * *

2

Nina had never
been a fan of vampires. There were other, less animalistic ways of achieving
immortality. Of course, immortality itself was a bit of a misnomer. In her many
centuries of walking the earth, Nina had yet to meet a
true
immortal.
That is, someone or something that was impossible to kill. All vessels were
mortal.

In a few hours,
that was all about to change, provided that everything went according to plan.
She knew all too well that the best laid plans…

“Sister, it is
good to see you,” Keenan said.

“You as well,”
Nina lied. She couldn’t give two shits about seeing him. The only reason he was
even there was to offer backup if she needed it, as well as patrolling the
property. But of all the dirty swine that Nina had ever encountered, Keenan was
the least offensive and most trustworthy.

“How long has it
been?” Keenan asked, grinning. He seemed genuinely thrilled to be reunited with
his sister.

“Oh, my,” Nina
said, scratching her chin to make it look like she actually cared enough to
give his question some thought. “It has been … a while.”

“If I am not
mistaken, it was on the battlefield at Antietam. The bloodiest day of America’s
civil war. What a feast we had!”

Nina nodded,
though she had no memory of ever having been in the state of Maryland in the 19
^th
century. Then again, keeping track of such things over the course of time
became a most tedious undertaking. Keenan’s memory was not exactly stellar
either, not to mention the fact that he tended to embellish stories to make himself
look better.

“So you can
imagine my delight when you phoned me and asked for our help,” he said.

“I thought your
coven was much larger than the four of you,” Nina said, irritated that he had
lied about his numbers.

“Oh, they’re
around,” Keenan said with a smirk. That did not do much to help her confidence.

“Around?”

“Here and
there,” Keenan said, obviously refusing to directly answer her question. He
picked up on her frustration and quickly attempted to dissuade her from lashing
out. “There are nine of us.”

“That doesn’t
sound like your average vampire coven,” Nina said. In truth, Nina hadn’t the
slightest idea what the “average” number of vampires was in any given coven.
She also didn’t care.

Keenan shrugged.
“This is Micah, my number two. This is Natalia, his wife of four hundred
years.”

“What’s your
secret to a happy marriage?” Nina asked, more to amuse herself than any other
reason.

“Making kills
together,” Natalia said almost giddily.

“And this is
Ezra. We call him The General.”

“Oh, well, hello
everyone,” Nina said, feigning hospitality.

“The other five,
who you’ll meet a little later, are securing the perimeters of the property.
We’ll know ahead of time when someone is close.” Keenan’s face beamed with
pride.

Nina wanted to
wipe the brightness from Keenan’s face. How could he be so stupid? She didn’t
need a fucking vampire to tell her when someone was near. She could already
feel that Jena and company were closing in on the farmhouse. Right on time.
Right on schedule. So she just let Keenan bask in his naïve assumption that she
needed him to keep guard of the grounds.

“You did make
sure to tell them that no one is to be harmed, correct?” Nina asked.

Keenan’s facial
expression gave him away. It lasted only a fraction of a second, but Nina could
see the doubt. “They will not harm anyone unless threatened.”

“Well,
considering the fact that they should not be approaching my guests, I would
think it is safe to assume that any bloodshed will occur
inside
this
house, and only when I command it.”

“Of course,
sister,” Keenan said, but she wasn’t convinced.

Micah and
Natalia walked up to the altar, unable to resist its pull.

“What is this?”
Natalia asked. Her Italian accent was quite thick, which oddly complimented
Micah’s even thicker Israeli accent.

“I assume you
already know it’s an altar,” Nina said.

“Of course,”
Micah said. “But there is something – how do I say this? –
diabolical
about it.”

Nina clapped her
hands together, cackling. “Indeed, friend of my brother! Indeed.”

“Master Keenan
has been very tight lipped about tonight’s festivities,” Natalia complained.
“Would you care to enlighten us?”

“No,” Nina said
matter-of-factly. When she realized that they had taken offense to her one word
answer and the terse tone in her voice, she quickly added an excuse. “It is for
your own safety, of course.”

Micah and
Natalia both snorted at the idea that they needed protection of any kind.

“Do not
underestimate my sister’s capacity for destruction,” Keenan said. “I myself do
not know the intricacies of her ceremony.”

That seemed to
be enough to assuage their discomfort with knowing next to nothing about what
this night had in store for them. Ezra, The General, simply grunted a few times
as he stood gazing out the bay window.

“Does he speak?”
Nina asked, nodding toward the General.

“He is a man of
few words,” Keenan said. “That is most likely because he has no tongue.”

“How
intriguing!” Nina exclaimed. The General grunted, but smirked. Nina immediately
took a liking to him. She despised small talk and whiners. Even if the General
wanted to bitch about everything, there wasn’t much he could do about it but
write it down. Or sign. Nina decided to listen to his thoughts, which were even
darker than she had anticipated. This made him that much more fabulous.

“So, how did you
become a vampire?” Natalia asked Nina.

“I’m sorry?”
Nina said flatly. It took every ounce of self-control not to rip that bitch’s
head off.

“Holy shit!”
Keenan cried, laughing heartily. “My sister is
not
one of us.” He looked
at Nina, grinning wildly. “You took that in stride, sister. I know you have no
love loss for our kind.”

“I have no
problem with vampires,” Nina lied. She knew that Keenan was well aware of her
distaste for these nasty bloodsuckers, but she wasn’t about to piss off her
rental soldiers.

“Well if you’re
not a vampire, then what are you?” Micah asked.

Nina was
surprised that Keenan had not said more about the nature of their relationship.
After all, it was Nina that had sired her brother. She seriously doubted that
these simpletons could understand how a non-vampire could create vampires with
her blood and some Old Magic.

“You didn’t tell
them?” Nina asked her brother.

“It is not my
story to tell,” he responded. “And, quite frankly, I am still not 100% sure
that
I
actually know what the hell you are.” Everyone laughed, even The
General.

“That is a tale
for another time,” Nina said. She turned to her brother. “Your spies are
falling short of the mark.”

“Why do you say
that?” Keenan asked.

“Because my
guests are drawing near.”

“How can you
tell?” Micah asked, impressed by Nina’s senses and instincts. “Vampires have
exceptional hearing, and I do not hear any footsteps approaching.”

“I am not using
my “natural” senses,” Nina said, using air quotes to emphasize
natural
.
“Their unique electrical energies arrive long before your heightened sense of
hearing can detect them.”

“You simply
must
teach me about these energies,” Natalia insisted.

“Of course,”
Nina promised, though she had no intention of keeping it. The mere thought of a
vampire having such abilities made her cringe.

BOOM! BOOM!

POW! POW!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT

SWISH!

“Fuck!” Nina
screamed, adrenaline and magic pumping through her veins. She took a brief
moment to gather her thoughts before unleashing her fury. “If one of your coven
bitches so much as harms a hair on one of my guests, there will be blood. And
if Jena is killed, then I will
end
your coven.”

RAT-A-TAT-TAT

The General
grunted. Micah and Natalia took a step toward Nina. Keenan stood between his
underlings and his sister. “Calm yourselves. Nina poses no threat to you. She
has been preparing for this night longer than you’ve been in existence. We must
not derail her plans by unnecessary violence.”

Nina appreciated
her brother’s capacity for diplomacy in severe situations. Nina nodded
apologetically. She thought it would be wise to offer a bit more penance, but
she just couldn’t juggle her anger at the vampires outside, her disdain for
vampires in general, and her anxiety that something might go wrong before the
ritual even began.

BOOM! BOOM!

POW!

“I’ll be back,”
Keenan promised. “I will make sure no blood is shed.” And just like that, he
was gone. Nina had to admit that there was at least one vampire characteristic
that she admired: they were amazingly fast.

The remaining
three vampires stared daggers at Nina, who was amused by their thoughts as she
read them. Each of them wanted to rough her up a bit, but they were terrified
of Keenan. Every once in a while, like this very moment, Nina was pleased to
have a brother. What pleased her more was that she had taught him about
leadership. He clearly understood that in order to be an effective ruler, you
had to embrace tyranny.

“What the…”
someone grunted from the floor near the altar.

“Oh, joy!” Nina
sang, dancing in figure eights around Nicholas. “My little man is waking up!”

“He smells
absolutely mouthwatering!” Natalia chirped. The General grunted in agreement.

“Not quite yet,”
Nina said. “But, as an apology for my earlier attitude, when we are finished
this evening, you can have this little piece of meat.”

“Well it sure as
hell beats a bouquet of I’m sorry flowers,” Natalia chuckled.

“It’s a deal
then,” Nina said, nodding and smiling. “But not until I say so, when he has
outlived his usefulness.”

“Understood,”
Natalia agreed, still licking her sharp incisors.

They stood in
uncomfortable silence for a while, until Nicholas climbed to his feet and had a
brief interaction with the vampires. Nina cut that as short as she could, but
she received some unexpected assistance when one of Keenan’s foot soldiers appeared
in the doorway.  

He searched
frantically for Keenan. Anxious about his leader’s absence, he turned to Micah.
“We’ve got a problem,” he stuttered, obviously terrified of any repercussions.

Nina could smell
blood, and then she noticed that this vampire had a considerable wound on the
side of his head. She decided to not comment about it. Soon enough, she would
know what had happened. She didn’t bother reading his mind.

“A problem?”
Keenan repeated harshly, appearing from the kitchen.

The soldier swallowed
hard. “Well, actually, there are a few of them.”

“Why am I not
surprised?” Nina groaned. She paused. “Well don’t just stand there, vampire.
Let’s do something about it!”

* * * * * *

3

Isabelle was
thankful that Jena had given her the necessary information so she could follow
her. If Jena actually believed that her mother would sit on the sidelines while
Jena fought an impossible battle, then she hadn’t been paying attention for the
last 17 years of her life.

Whenever
Isabelle had business to handle in Crimson Falls, she rarely traveled via Welsh
Road. Urban legends and folklore aside, Isabelle had tremendous difficulty
focusing on driving whenever she was on this road. Violent and disturbing
images would assault her, and today was no different. If anything, it was
worse. It was as if Welsh Road could sense her panic and was doing everything
it could to add to it.

This takes road
rage to a whole new level
, she thought to herself. Isabelle did not want to
dwell on the dark energy that was radiating from the pavement on the road. Any
witch who had even the slightest bit of power would be able to see it,
displacing the air above the road in waves. It reminded her of hot summer days,
when the sun’s relentless heat would practically cook the asphalt.

Isabelle cringed
as she passed a crime scene on her way to find Jena. There were several spirits
lingering at the edge of the road, staring into the woods. It seemed like they
were expecting someone – or something – to arrive. She knew that Jena was
somehow connected to the murders, though she wasn’t sure how. Isabelle couldn’t
help but feel like this was partly her fault. There had been signs that Jena’s
abilities were beginning to manifest, but Isabelle ignored them. She thought
she had prevented their ancestral magic from claiming Jena. But apparently her
attempts to redirect the Marsh Magic away from her daughter had failed
miserably. When Jena was just five years old, Isabelle had performed a ritual
to bind her magic. At the time it seemed the like best way to give her daughter
a normal life. But her attempt to protect her daughter may have had the
opposite effect: Jena’s life was now in danger.