Chapter 20

My excitement at getting to spend some time with Nero again was overshadowed by the seriousness of the situation—and by the crowd of protestors and paparazzi waiting right outside the tape that blocked off the alley. We moved past the crowd, ignoring their questions. But Angel didn't ignore them. She snarled, causing a few of the people to take a step back. Considering that my cat was fast approaching the size of a small cheetah, their alarm was understandable.

Alec met us in the alley. "Nerissa's on her way," he said as we walked. "But I don't think there's anything she can do for the siren."

"Siren?" I repeated. "I thought there were multiple sirens."

"There are. There were. Most of them are already dead. Only one survived. And she's shaken."

"What happened to the sirens?" Nero asked him.

"They were prisoners of Dante Drummoyne's rogue vampires. The night the vampires died, the sirens attempted to escape. But the vampires weren't the only ones keeping the prisoners trapped. Drummoyne hired some shifter mercenaries to guard the nest during the day, while the vampires slept. The sirens tried to compel the shifters to let them go."

"And their magic backfired," I guessed.

"Yes," Alec confirmed. "The sirens' magic backfired. Instead of compelling the guards, they became compelled. They did whatever the guards said. The guards realized the power they had over the sirens and decided to have some fun with them. They commanded the sirens to do all kinds of tasks. Most of those tasks ended in a siren's death."

"Only four of us made it past the shifters and out of the vampires' nest," the siren spoke up.

She was crouched deep in her knees at the end of the alley, rocking back and forth on her feet. She held tightly to herself, as though afraid that she'd suddenly lose control over her own body and do something dangerous. Given what she'd seen happen to the other sirens, that fear wasn't unfounded.

"The other three didn't make it." She glanced at the dead bodies sprawled across the cobblestone street all around her. "They died from the injuries the shifters' game inflicted on them."

"But not you," Nero noted.

The siren didn't stop rocking back and forth, even as her body trembled from head to toe. "I saw what happened to the first of us who tried to compel the shifters. The others double-downed on magic. I chose not to use any at all. The shifters could not control me."

"How did you get past them?" I asked her.

"Eventually, after a few hours of playing with the others, making them do…grotesque things…" She cringed. "…two of the shifters went for a smoke outside. That left only two to watch us." She rocked faster, talked faster. "They were holding us in the kitchen. More toys there. They could make the other sirens stab themselves, set themselves on fire, hang themselves." She was rocking so fast, so uncontrollably. "I grabbed a frying pan and whacked the two shifters over the head." She was squeezing herself so tightly that her fingernails cut into her arms, drawing blood. "Then I gathered all the other shifters who were still alive, and I ran. One of the shifters outside saw us run and fired his gun at us." She tore open her jacket, revealing a bloody shirt. "I hardly even felt the bullet go through me." Madness danced in her eyes.

"I need to heal you," I told the siren gently.

Manic laughter poured out of her mouth.

"Ok." I took her hand, squeezing it. "You're safe now. No one is going to hurt you." I set my other hand on her bleeding abdomen and used my magic to start healing her wound.

I didn't make it far.

"You can't use magic!" she hissed. "It will kill you."

"Don't worry. I'm an angel."

"You don't understand." She grabbed both of my hands in hers. Terror widened her eyes. "We are all going to die."

"No." I set my glowing hand back on her bleeding stomach. "Because I'm going to stop this."

The siren shook her head. "It can't be stopped. None of us are safe anymore. Magic isn't safe anymore."

"It will be all right. See? I can use magic, and so I can fight this," I said.

I'd finished healing her body. Her mind, however, still lay in pieces. If only Ivy were here, maybe she could have calmed down the siren. But Ivy wasn't here. I'd sent her and Drake and Basanti away to Storm Castle to check on Leila.

The siren's hands lifted to my shoulders and she clutched me as tightly as she had held on to herself. "The fairies tried to help us too. "

"What fairies?"

"They found us here. They tried to heal us." Her voice stuttered. "They tried to heal us from this curse." The siren's eyelids slammed down. "I told them not to use their magic, but they were so sure they could save us."

"Where are the fairies?"

"When the curse got them, they tried to run." Tears pooled in her eyes. "But they couldn't run from what had already taken hold inside of them."

"Where are the fairies?" I asked her again.

The siren lifted up a shaking hand and pointed into an abandoned house. "There."

I jumped up and ran toward the house. Angel ran beside me. Nero had thrown open the door and was already inside. The first thing I saw when I entered were two dead fairies on the floor. I rushed forward.

Nero caught my wrist, stopping me in my tracks. "It's too late."

I shook my head in stubborn defiance. "Maybe I can save them."

Even as I said it, I knew it wasn't possible. The fairies' bodies were pale, lifeless, and completely covered in pox.

"Leda, they're gone."

"It can't be. Not again." I tried to free my hand, but he didn't give an inch. I stopped struggling long enough to glower at him. "Nero, let me go."

"No."

"I have to do something."

"Like what?"

"I don't know." A heavy sigh rocked my chest. "Something. I can't let any more people die. These fairies tried to save the sirens, and this is what happened to them." Desperation, anger, fear—they tore away the angel I was supposed to be, leaving only the raw, helpless person I really was. "They showed kindness, and they died!" Tears streamed down my cheeks. I had all this power, all this magic, and it didn't mean a damn thing. "It's just not fair!"

"No, it's not," Nero replied quietly. "But life is rarely fair."

"You think that's supposed to make me feel better?" I demanded. "Empty platitudes?!"

"I'm not finished." His eyes were as hard as granite. "Life is rarely fair. That's why we angels exist: to even the odds and protect humanity." His hand flashed out and snatched my other wrist. "To do that, we must be strong. And we can't ever give up." His arms wrapped around me, holding me to him.

And for one brief moment, my pain was gone. Nero had made himself my shield. He'd wrapped himself around me, and he wasn't letting anything through that might hurt me. I relaxed into him, holding him to me, resting my head on his chest, listening to his steady heart. Nero was my rock, my tether in all the world's madness. I needed him.

At the same time, it seemed as though we'd been apart for no time at all, and also like an unbearable eternity had passed since he'd held me like this. I felt like everything was all right between us again. Maybe it was horrible of me to find a moment of comfort in this graveyard, but I couldn't help it. I'd missed him so much.

"Nero." I glanced up at him.

"Leda." His voice was soft, even gentle.

I reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. "It's grown longer."

"Things have been busy. I haven't had time to cut it."

"Maybe you shouldn't."

"Cut it?"

I smiled. "You look so roguishly handsome this way."

His chest was pressed against mine, his heart beating in time to my own. "Maybe I won't."

"Cut it?"

"Yes."

"Yes, you'll cut it? Or yes, you'll take my advice?"

"Just yes, Leda." He dipped his mouth toward mine.

My breath caught in my throat.

But then he changed direction and pulled away from me. My shoulders sagged in disappointment.

"Am I interrupting something?" Nerissa asked.

I turned to find her standing in the open doorway to the dilapidated building. Seeing her here, I was hit with a foreboding feeling. Something bad was about to happen; I just knew it. Or maybe I was being paranoid. Because the last time Nerissa, Nero, and I had been in the same room together, everything had gone to hell.

I cleared my throat, then told Nerissa, "There are two dead fairies over there."

As she went to check them out, I glanced at Nero.

He looked up from the phone he'd pulled out of his jacket. "There have been two more incidents reported, each on the west coast."

"It's spreading beyond the Frontier." I shook myself back to the here and now. "Who was affected?"

"A telepath in hiding went insane because he could suddenly hear the thoughts of thousands of people but not filter anyone out," Nero said. "The other incident involved a pair of psychics. Their telekinetic blasts bounced back on them, smashing them through a brick wall. Most of the bones in their bodies were shattered. They are in critical condition, and the doctors says it's even odds whether they will survive the night."

"Five, six, seven, eight," Nerissa said, walking up to us.

I blinked in confusion. "What?"

"It's how dancers count down before starting their dance."

I'd never known Nerissa was a dancer. I guess there were a lot of things I didn't know about her. If the situation hadn't been so dire, I might have teased her for being a dancing doctor, but I didn't feel like jokes right now.

Neither did Nerissa apparently. "The countdown to disaster has begun," she said solemnly. "But will we be able to stop it?"

"We must do whatever is necessary to stop it," Nero declared. "This curse kills supernaturals when they access their magic. So as of now, no supernatural may use their magic until we've figured out how to stop this curse."

Nero was standing in for the First Angel right now while she was away, so he had the authority to issue this mandate. And it wasn't a bad idea either because a supernatural never knew when their magic might suddenly turn against them. The question was how the Earth's supernaturals would react to his command.

"Do you think supernaturals will obey?" I asked him.

"They will do as they're ordered."

I wished I had his confidence. No one had ever before told supernaturals not to use their magic, so I doubted they'd be pleased.

"What about the Magitech barriers?" I asked.

"The barriers aren't living beings, so they should be ok. But no witch can use their magic to repair them."

The Earth was completely dependent on supernaturals and their magic. If all of them suddenly stopped using their magic, that meant no witches to brew the potions people used and tech they needed. It meant no fairies to heal the injured. Water elementals could not fight fires. Earth elementals could not quell quakes and care for the growing of food and plants. And vampires could not drink blood anymore. If this stretched on too long, the vampires would grow so hungry that even the sensible ones would devolve into savage beasts.

Alec and a few others helped Nerissa load the surviving siren and all the bodies into the truck. When Nero, Angel, and I stepped out of the old house, the crowd was waiting. They were still all the way down the alley, behind the yellow tape, but there were a lot of them and their voices carried.

"People are dying everywhere!" shouted someone in a state of panic.

"You're angels!"

Cameras flashed.

"All powerful!"

Boots stomped.

"Chosen by the gods!"

"Champions of humanity!"

Their shouts echoed off the empty night sky.

"You can't let this happen!"

"You must do something to stop it!"

Nero rested his hand on my back, a silent signal to me that we had to go now. The crowd was obviously too riled up to listen to anything we had to say. Sure, we could compel everyone to calmness, but what would that accomplish? We couldn't compel everyone in the whole world. We shouldn't be fighting angry mobs; we had to fight the actual problem. So I grabbed Angel, then Nero and I spread our wings and we flew off.

"Return to your crystal castles and hide behind your gilded gates!" someone shouted.

I was pretty sure it was one of the incendiary reporters, determined to rile up the crowd some more.