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“Why did he pass over your father?” I tipped his head up, gazing at the pulse beating under his neck. I was thirsty, terribly thirsty.
Harold swallowed. “My grandfather said my father was weak. He said I was strong enough to handle it, though.”
“Where did your great-grandfather get the spirit—the soul stone?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. But my uncle realized that it was more powerful than anybody thought. I don’t know how he knew. And then a year or so ago, we found out about Shadow Wing—”
I stiffened. We’d heard them invoke him. Here was our chance to find out what was going on. I poured on the glamour. “Who told you about Shadow Wing? Tell me everything.”
Harold choked on a sob then said, “We met a couple of drunken demons in a club downtown. They told us about the coming invasion. My grandfather sacrificed young women to the devil, but we decided that it might be better to offer them up to Shadow Wing in exchange for our lives when he broke through and took over. We figured we could live under his rule and maybe be part of his court. And it just seemed logical to offer Fae and elf women instead of humans. So my uncle learned to create a Demon Gate, and we used the soul stone to invoke Shadow Wing . . .”
“Yes, your uncle,” I said, frowning. “Your uncle was an idiot. You didn’t invoke Shadow Wing, you moron, you called in an astral demon who had no connection to the demon lord, and that is the only reason you’re still alive. Shadow Wing would have crunched your bones for lunch. Your uncle was a sloppy necromancer. Just who taught him his magic?”
With a faint lick of his lips, Harold said, “Rialto, a sorcerer originally from Italy. In exchange for my uncle’s daughter.”
I closed my eyes, trying to force back the bloodlust from overwhelming me. “He paid the man with his daughter?”
Harold nodded. “She’s twelve. Old enough.”
Old enough? I forced myself to take a long, deep breath and counted to twenty before I asked, “One last question. Does Rialto live in town?”
He gasped out a breathless “Yes” and gave me the address. And then I couldn’t take it anymore. I fell on him, savaging his throat with my fangs. There were no words that could stop me. Camille and Delilah knew it, and so did our friends. They didn’t even try.
I ripped at his flesh, making it hurt, making it as painful as I could, then lapped the blood quickly, forcefully, without offering him the sweet bliss of communion. He screamed, dying beneath my fangs. As I leaned back and squatted on my haunches, eyeing the other men with a perverse sense of pleasure, they took a collective step back.
Delilah started to say something, but Roz touched her arm and shook his head. She let out a long sigh and nodded.
I stood up after a moment, leaving the blood to stain my chin and the front of my shirt. I wanted them to fear me. I wanted them to piss their pants thinking I was coming for them next. One did—Duane. The stench of urine rose to attract my attention.
I walked up to him and smacked him full in the face, finishing the broken nose I’d started earlier. He moaned and began to cry, but it wasn’t enough, so I kneed him. Hard. He went down shrieking. If I was correct in the amount of force I’d used, he’d never father children. He’d never be able to even attempt it.
With a faint smile at the rest of them, I turned to Camille. “If you don’t get Chase over here, I’ll finish the rest of them off. I’d dearly love to, but I suppose we should give him his due.”
Camille looked at the men and shook her head. “They know too much. They know about Shadow Wing. We can’t let them talk. I don’t know what to do with them, to be honest.”
“Do we play judge, jury, and executioner? They were all party to the murders here. We’ve got rapists and sadists here, too. You can bet they would have watched the elf girl die without lifting a hand. I don’t know what the answer is. You want them taken care of, I’ll do it,” I said. “I can take them out without remorse.”
Delilah interrupted us. “Hand them over to Tanaquar. They were trying to summon Shadow Wing, so they’re our enemies. We found the spirit seal in their possession. Prisoners of war, I say. Even if the demon lord didn’t know they existed, they were trying to enlist in his army.”
I flashed her a brilliant smile. “You are a brilliant and wonderful woman, Kitten. What do we do about the house?”
Vanzir spoke up. “As I said, leave it to me. Once you seal the Demon Gate, I have friends who can help. The house will burn to the ground in a fire so fierce it will destroy any evidence left behind. So hot that it easily could have incinerated anybody caught in the flames. No one will ever know these boys are still alive.”
Camille nodded. “Let’s do it. Smoky can take me back to the house. We’ll fetch Wilbur and bring him here, while you get these men ready for transfer through the portal. I’ll run up to the Whispering Mirror while I’m at home to let the OIA know to expect incoming prisoners.”
“Sounds good. Go for it,” I said, thinking that this was one operation I was glad to mop up and get over with. I’d rather fight a Karsetii any day than humans who had gone so wrong, so bad. Somehow, it was easier to face demons when they looked like monsters rather than the boys next door.
While Camille and Smoky were gone, I sent Roz and Delilah upstairs to bring down anybody who might be hiding, and to lock the front door. To forestall a mutiny by our prisoners, we drugged them all with sleeping pills we found in one of their bedrooms. I sincerely hoped it was the last sound sleep they’d ever get. Delilah looked a little queasy after ransacking their bedrooms. She dumped a large tin of Z-fen on the ground at my feet and a number of homemade videotapes.
“Chase is going to want to see these. He won’t ask too many questions after he sees what the guys were doing here.” Her voice was a whisper, and I glanced in her eyes. She was close to shifting, but I sensed Panther was hanging out in her aura rather than Tabby.
“The girls?” I asked softly.
She nodded. “Yeah. They filmed their rituals. Bad. It’s really bad. Vanzir is right; this place needs to be burnt to rubble and then burn the ashes. There are a lot of ghosts walking these halls, Menolly. A lot of pain attached to this place. All the spirits down there—the women. Can we set them free, or will they haunt this land forever?”
“I don’t know. How could something this evil go on in secret for so many years? I don’t get why none of them ever let anything slip.”
Delilah sighed. “Mutual protection. War stories. It’s easier to keep a secret if you share it with your buddies and make them part of it. Everybody had something to lose, and none of them wanted to end up in jail or on death row.”
