Angie leaned forward,knowing, fingers fluttering.
Delta Wave unfolded around him. EJ breathed deeply, pushing the box of donuts away. He focused on his sister.
“He didn’t die, did he?” Angie said.
“No. Though the records say otherwise, he is very much undead. But the interesting part is, Terenzio’s human mother’s name was Villetti,” Alex said, “making the founder of the Marrazzo blood line Leandro Villetti’s great, great, several more greats, grandfather.”
“We should have known this,” Walter stated, his voice cold.
“I screwed up,” Alex said. “When records showed Terenzio true-dead, I didn’t think he mattered. My bad. That one step back up the bloodline changed a lot. There are rumors—unverified—that Angie’s Villetti tracked down Terenzio Villetti-Marrazzo, during the first year of the Witch War. Those same rumors say he killed the vampire, but we don’t have records, just whispers.”
“So we don’t know what Villetti was up to in the war,” EJ said.
Angie leaned forward and touched Walter’s shoulder. Softly she said, “Walter. Which two other vampires did Nyoka leave you for? Before the war? Before she was possessed?”
His face like stone, Walter said, “In 1934, she joined the blood family of Frederick the First, of the House of Hesse. She was with two of his. That was all I knew.”
“Hang on. I’m getting more, now that I have that name, Frederick of Hesse,” Alex said.
Sleet peppered the car. Snow fell with it, icy and crystalline. The windshield wipers pushed it from side to side, keeping the forward view clear.
Alex said, “Okay. Frederick was turned in 1725 not long after he ascended the throne of Sweden. He had no children ofthe body, but the vampire kingdom he built was immense. In the 1930s, Prince Oleg, one of the Rus witches, was Frederick’s vampire scion, making Oleg and Konstantin part of Frederick’s empire. Another of his scions in the thirties, was the Blood Master of Clan of Marrazzo. Terenzio Villetti-Marrazzo.”
“Son of a witch,” Angie cursed.
“Yeah,” Alex said. “Prewar accounts suggest Oleg wanted Nyoka to leave Frederick. She refused. So there was bad blood there. It’s a little too coincidental to our current situation.”
Walter, his face like stone in motion, said, “There is no coincidence. There is only vengeance. And ancient, cold vengeance is the very finest kind.”
“Nyoka?” EJ asked.
“I will not allow escape again. If Nyoka or Konstantin are in my presence I will kill them.” He looked at Angie. “You should always have your staff near to capture the demon that lives within her.” He looked at EJ. “And if she does not capture the succubus, you will need to have demon rounds at hand to destroy me and capture the succubus. Are. We. Clear?”
“Perfectly,” EJ said. Softer, Angie echoed his promise.
Angie
It had taken hours to get the fourth-floor space ready for the security team’s temporary quarters. It was just after dawn, and I was so tired even my hair hurt as I entered my apartment.
I fed the cats, dumped the auto–litter box, placed all my amulets including the tiara on the charging stone, and climbed into the shower. The heat setting at 105 scorched my skin, melted the kinks out of my muscles, and washed away the blood that somehow had gotten in my red braid. I let my hairfree, leaned against the icy tile walls as the scalding water pelted me, and breathed in the steam. Closed my eyes. When I was heated like a lobster, I shut off the shower, dressed in warm layers, and settled on my sofa.
I didn’t have my Aunt Jane’s ability to sense the people who were blood-sworn to her, but I had a very slight connection to some people—EJ from when I tangled our magic together to keep us safe when we were kids, and Walter from the time he healed me with his blood. Not that they knew that. I had learned at an early age to keep my mouth shut and my secrets close.
Reaching out through the wards, up the lines of thehedgethat protected The Firm and the apartments, I searched for EJ and Walter. They were close enough for me to sense them, which meant inside safe, not doing something stupid. I checked the location of their unicoms.
Walter was in his lair. Walter was old enough to stay awake in the day if he needed. When I was a kid, vampires regained their souls, and many of the curses that had been a part of the blood-drinkers’ lives had begun to dissipate. Now they could worship on holy ground if they were believers. They could enter churches, mosques, temples of any religion that would allow them entrance, and not go up in flames. Some could see a hint of sun without starting to scorch. I wondered if he had a steel shutter open to catch a hint of cloudy day.
EJ was pacing his balcony, likely doing his own post-op debrief and cataloging all tonight’s mistakes. Londyn. Losing their client to a Kogot. Getting trapped by a demon and needing me to get him free. Not seeking intel on Asshat’s home.
Londyn had betrayed him. EJ thought he couldn’t be hurt if he didn’t form anything more than casual friendships. That had bitten him on the ass. Then I led him into danger in my self-righteous fury. He had saved me, that time, but I knew which part EJ would focus on. The failure-at-Londyn’s part.
Maybe worse, from EJ’s point of view, six of the queen’s personal guard had been dumped on us, proving we weren’t enough.
With a tap of my finger I activated the invisi-keyboard on the kitchen wall, opened my wall screen, pulled up the exterior cameras, and watched the guards making rounds, one patrolling the building, one on the roof in the worsening snowstorm, and a drone in the air. In this weather, guards couldn’t stay out long, and drones couldn’t stay aloft long. Deicing equipment was heavy and drained the batteries fast. But the woman on the roof, Sarah Spieth, aka Grizz, was the leader of the queen’s second guard unit—just under Koun’s Queen’s Unit—and she seemed to be having fun operating delicate equipment in the wind and snowfall.
With another finger tap, I opened a floor plan to see glowing lights, indicating the guards’ tracker wristbands. The four still inside were in the fourth floor gym/laundry room/practice room/party room/guard unit HQ. Walter and I had set up cots in a line, away from the windowed walls, and had ordered in food supplies. When the unit arrived, they had seemed happy with their quarters. And why not? As away missions were concerned this place was posh. They had a wall screen with dedicated sports channels, baking channels, and weapons and hunting channels. They had an ice bath, a hot-soaking-tub, a whirlpool, a locker room, bathrooms with showers, a sauna, online delivery from multiple restaurants and chefs in the city, and plenty of space to beat each other up. They had whooped when they saw their quarters. It was like heaven to a queen’s guard, and they had solved their own lack of privacy by unfolding portable,ultra-thin, sound-reducing barriers, each bed cordoned off for sleeping.
I tapped off the screen and walked to the invisi-windows, watching snow fall and swirl in boisterous winds. A sense of safety and peace welled up in me at the sight. Snow was rare these days, and the soft enveloping whiteness gave me a feeling of false, but pleasant safety, like a blanket fort with dancing fairy lights from childhood.
