EJ bounced over Walter. The guards danced back, out of his way. He landed on the floor between Walter and the guards.
Still rolling, he faced the doorway. Aimed. Fired three and three. Both vampires vanished. Probably popped away. But he hadn’t reactivated his AE headset. The concussive waves deafened him.
He landed. Stopped rolling. Found himself face up looking down the barrels of two weapons and feeling the prick of two blades, belly and throat, both stabs quickly halted. He didn’t think they had drawn blood. He’d know later.
EJ dropped his weapons and held his open palms at them. “Heeeeey, badass warrior queens. How are you?”
The two scowled at him, holstered and sheathed their weapons. Grizz tapped her comms and said, “Two wounded vamps in the building. Clear it. Check cams for exits.”
“Roger that,” was repeated by three voices.
“The only warrior queens I know are the Dark Queen and Deon,” Grizz said, referring to the queen’s chef. She strong-armed EJ upright. “And they’re badass enough for both of us.”
Boots said, “Get your ass shot, by us, and the queen will have our heads. How ’bout yelling ‘Friendly’ next time.”
EJ gave a battlefield smile, all teeth, as he came to his feet. “I had to shoot a good friend in the war. He shouted, ‘Friendly.’ He was demon-ridden. I barely got away with my life. May I suggest instead that you evaluate faster.”
Grizz’s eyebrows went up.
Boots said, “Humph.”
EJ found his balance and set Delta Mode aside, folded tight.
His knees buckled. He nearly hit the floor again. Grizz caught his weight. Without a word, she led him to the sofa.
A few seconds later, he found his usual sweet-kid façade and slid it back over him. EJ levered himself to sit upright and managed to stay that way. He leaned forward to see Walter up close. There was a soft sound of magic from his face. “Get Walter to my sister. She said we need to look at the vids from the queen’s event. She said we’re missing something.”
“No shi…kidding,” Boots said, changing the word. “First asshole in that door ffffuuu…messed up my boot.” She tilted her fancy boot to the light. There was a scratch along the toe. “I find that asshole and his head is gonna adorn the pike outside my door.”
EJ blew out a laugh and said, “You have a pike outside your door?”
Without a change in expression, Grizz turned her head tohim and said, “Doesn’t everyone?” It wasn’t exactly a question. She waved it away as if it was unimportant, adding, “It’s become a saying among some units in the queen’s guard.”
There was clearly more to it, but EJ didn’t ask.
Angie
I was so tired my ribs hurt with every breath. I had finally looked at my hands, turning them back and forth. They were dangerously frozen. White, bloodless. Numb and yet screaming with pain. Specks of black where the flesh had died and dried in the cold of the interdimensional energies I had been exposed to.
I scratched at a tag of skin curling up, crinkled and dead. Got a fingernail under it and tugged. A couple layers of skin sloughed off.Gross. But at least it doesn’t hurt worse. Yet.
I wrapped my hands in a room-temp towel that was packed with healing amulets and sprigs of Mama’s rosemary plant. It felt like putting my hands into a fire. EJ was studiously ignoring me. And he looked just dandy, no frostbite, no exhaustion, no nothing.
I remembered the way our magics had twisted and coiled together. The way his own magic had expanded, intensified with power, as if unfolding within us both, and sped, giving me power that wasn’t mine. Creepy. We’d have to talk about that, and also about the ley line below the apartment building. I hadn’t known it was there. I was pretty sure EJ hadn’t been aware of it either. But our family and coven had known. Why the hell hadn’t they told us about that unlimited reservoir? Except maybe they had. They had told us the wards collected and ran on passive magic. I hadn’t paid attention to that, not really. What better source for passive energy than a ley line?
My brother and I had stuff to work out, and when the easy stuff was hashed out—easy, ha!—there would be a discussion about the ley line and the fact that we had used the coven to obtain the ley line’s energy. We might still be free-ish. Or we might not.
I had left to marry a vampire, divorce a vampire, and killed people to get free. EJ had left high school and joined the war effort, returned, and was discharged. I had no idea what he did between discharge and showing up at my door one night. It was months after I killed people, when EJ walked into the empty building I had bought with my divorce settlement, and looked around at the construction. I had stood up, watching, tape measure and notepad in one hand, as he stood in the hallway between open metal studs, and ignored me.
Silent, hands in his pockets, appearing innocent and nonthreatening, he had walked around the building, going up and down stairs, checking out the structure and the changes I was making. Me. Alone. Without a coven or coven backing.
Later, he’d found me in The Firm’s office, sitting on the floor cross-legged, drawing out niches for electronics, storage—electrical and paper—furniture, and making notes on potential color schemes. Propping himself in the doorway, slouching, he watched. I didn’t look up. I had assumed he had come to try to talk me home. Just like my aunts and my parents and half of the queen’s dignitaries had done. He would get no encouragement from me.
Eventually he said, “Hi, sis.”
“Good morning, EJ,” I said, without looking at him.
I could hear the grin in his voice when he said, “Mama says you’re starting a business of your own, no coven, no family. I have no intention of being part of a coven, soooo…Wanna be black sheep together?”
