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But the human did not shut it. “No, I don’t think I will,” he said pleasantly. “And you should know that I’ve taken precautions. If I were to suffer some…unfortunate accident…on the way home, you would not outlast the week.”
Unlike his servant, the vamp didn’t noticeably react, other than to roll his eyes. Nor did his power even flare. He’d expected the accusation.
“Right. Sure.” He flung out a hand. “I’m guilty as all hell. Only—if I got the resources to kill off fifty guys—fifty fucking good guys— in a couple days, why haven’t I taken over by now? Why am I even talking to you? I should be sitting at home, with a glass in my hand and a smirk on my face, waiting for my supermen to come tell me they plucked off another bunch of the competition. But do you see me at home? Do you see a drink in my hand?”
“Then why did you ask us here?” the second vamp demanded. “I almost didn’t come.”
“But you did. Why?”
“Because we got a problem.”
“And that’s why I called you here. ’Cause I noticed something about those deaths. Not a single one was somebody into narcotics or magic or weapons or ordinary shit. No. They were all in our line of work. So I wanna know”—his glance went around the small circle—“which one of you losers brought in something he shouldn’t have?”
The room exploded for a moment in violent outbursts of color and sound and recriminations. But I was no longer listening. I was watching one of the fey.
Occasionally, a tendril of someone’s power would rub up against that of another’s and spark in the air, like the words their masters were exchanging. One of the tendrils curling off a male fey rose a little higher than the rest, like a twist of smoke escaping from a fire, if smoke glowed from the inside. It could have been random, but I didn’t think so. I stepped back, back, back, as it rose, silent, ominous, searching.
It did
not find me.
But something else did.
“You do not listen very well.”
The words were mild, unthreatening. But they were also something else that wasn’t. They were in my head.
I spun away, kicked out and somersaulted backward, barely missing the searching tendril in the process. But barely is good enough. And landing steadily on the pitted metal beam was better, knife in hand and coming up—
And slicing only air.
I looked around, confused, because someone had been there. And still was, for the next instant, the knife was plucked from my grasp—from behind. I spun again, and this time, I saw…
Something new.
That was rare enough to make me pause, if only for a split second. But that was all it took. The edge of my own knife found its way under my chin, denting the skin over the jugular as it pushed up, forcing my head back with it.
“And I am not in the habit of repeating myself.” A rich masculine voice echoed in my mind as I absorbed the sight of a creature made of light.
Hovering in midair.
It was why I had not seen him. I had been looking for someone behind me, balanced on the narrow beam as I had been, because people did not walk on air. But then, people did not burn silver bright against the night, either, like a fallen star. It was so intense he may as well have been invisible, because I could not look directly at him. But I did not think it would have helped.
I had never known anything to give off power like that.
“I understand your Senate’s interest in these creatures,” he told me. “But your habit of interfering in my affairs is becoming…annoying. It must stop.”
I heard the words, but they barely registered. I was too busy trying to retain my balance against the waves of energy rippling over my skin. It felt like a consul. It felt like the end of the world. And then he moved closer and it grabbed me, coiling around me like a vise.
And I Screamed, putting all my power behind it.
The creature fell away, spiraling to the ground like a wounded bird, and I grabbed the beam, barely able to avoid following him. I teetered there for a long moment, breathing harshly, strangely light-headed and terribly weak. I hated feeling weak.
I was also beginning to hate new experiences, but they were becoming…fairly…normal.…
The dizziness in my head was going to reach my limbs soon enough, so I jumped, giving myself time to find the ground my own way. It was farther than I should have risked, but a vampire broke my fall. He didn’t complain, being as unconscious as the rest of them.
And as the light being lying crumpled on the floor, not five yards away.
