Chapter 20

There was only one person who could pull the strings I needed to get me the mystical help we required, but he wasn’t always the easiest man to get ahold of. Not unless I rocked up to his mansion and banged on his door, that is. Yeah, I’d done that the first time we met and experienced a significant pulse jump at the silver fox that opened the door to me.

Lorenzo was one of the most powerful mageri in the city and a member of the consortium—the secret group of mageri that ran city affairs. No one knew their identities, but I’d gotten close to Lorenzo, close enough for him to share his secret. We could have been closer…maybe…The chemistry was there but…Yeah, being ordained sucked sometimes.

The last time we met, I’d been running an errand for my buddy Nyx, one I didn’t get to finish before the Order called in a transfer, but he’d given me his number. A secret number that not many had.

I dialed it now as we drove toward the carriage stables.

The phone rang several times before he answered.

“Hello?” He sounded wary, and it hit me that he’d given me his number, but I’d never given him mine.

“Lorenzo, it’s Orina.”

A beat of silence followed before he spoke. “It’s good to hear your voice, Miss Lighthart. How is the transfer treating you?” His honey tone made my cheeks hot. But then, Lorenzo always had an effect on me.

“Well, I’m in Dracul territory and?—”

“What?” His tone sharpened. “One moment.” There was a rustling and then, “Please tell me you’re not the chosen watcher.”

“You know about the rising?”

He exhaled. “Orina, this is dangerous. You’re in danger.”

Edwin shot me a pointed look before focusing on the road ahead.

I shook my head. “I know. I can handle it.”

Tension saturated the line for several seconds. “I don’t doubt your capabilities, but I can’t help but worry.”

“Aw, it gives me the warm fuzzies to know you care.”

There was another beat of silence. “Of course I care, Orina. You’re perceptive enough to have picked up on that fact.”

My throat was suddenly dry, words failing me, because this was something we’d never discussed. Never spoke of. It was merely…there.

He sighed, the sound a whisper in my ear. “What can I do to help you, Orina?”

I smiled into the phone, appreciating how he’d put us back on track. “I need someone with a little mystical mojo. There are some cold cases, missing persons, well, supernaturals really, and I need help solving the cases. The forensic trails are contaminated…gone…” I sighed. “I need magic.”

“I see. You want me to cut through some red tape and get somebody approved for temporary residence?”

“Yeah, or you could come help us yourself…” Why had I said that?

He chuckled softly, the sound smooth like melted butter. “Believe me, Orina, if I could get away, I’d be on your doorstep before dawn.”

I caught Merry’s eyebrow wiggle in the rearview mirror. Maybe I should have waited till we got back to the chapter house to make this call because we were totally flirting, and there was a familiar fizz of attraction even over the damn phone.

I cleared my throat, putting my professional hat back on. “Any faeblood, half-blood, or mageri with tracking ability will do. We have a half-blood fae on staff here, but her ability is for healing.”

“I’ll make some calls and get back to you, now that I have your number.”

“Before you go, have you heard from Nyx? Is everything okay?” He hesitated, and dread gripped my nape. “Lorenzo?”

“There was an incident, and we’ve been forced to put up wards between Morningstar and the mainland.”

I sat up straighter. “Shit. What happened?”

The road ahead was choked with traffic, and Edwin cursed softly before taking a side street.

“That’s classified for now,” Lorenzo said, “but have no doubt, if there is something to report about Nyx, then I will be in touch. For now, no news is good news.”

“Have you spoken to Quinn?”

“Yes, she’s aware. Now all we can do is wait.”

Nyx could handle herself. She’d be fine. She had to be. “Thanks, Lorenzo. Really.”

“Anytime. I’ll be in touch soon. Stay safe.”

I ended the call to silence that lasted about ten seconds before Merry broke it. “Did you two date?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Merry asked.

She wasn’t ordained. She didn’t know the rules, but the others did, and we couldn’t tell her.

“The timing was off.”

We took a left onto a road with a river on one side and warehouses on the other. “Shit,” Edwin said. “I think this is a dead end.”

“Should have stayed on the main road,” Padma chided.

“Did you see the traffic?”

“Just turn around up ahead,” Padma instructed. “You can…”

“What is that?” Merry scooted forward in her seat, hands gripping the back of mine as she leaned forward to look through the windshield.

Mist billowed up off the ground ahead, spreading outward and upward.

Padma made a soft sound of distress.

“It’s okay.” Edwin put the van into reverse, peeling rubber away from the mist as it surged toward us.

“What is that?”

“Mullo,” Padma said, eyes wide, hand on her heart.

“I have no idea what that is.”

“Spectral suckers,” Edwin provided. He twisted the wheel, turning the van with a screech and taking us away from the mist back toward the main road.

We hit the residential street, and Padma relaxed in her seat.

“Mullo…” Merry frowned. “Did we ever…”

“No!” Padma and Edwin said in unison.

I’d never heard of this kind of vampire before. “Is it a new breed?”

“No,” Edwin said, eyes on the road. “It’s…old, and honestly nothing to worry about as long as we avoid their mist. They’re a Sangualex problem anyway.”

We hit traffic again, and I glanced at the dashboard clock. “Fuck. It’s almost six. The Exciatio starts at nine.”

Edwin flipped on the radio, and a nasal pitched voice informed us of an accident that was causing disruption.

“We need to find an alternate route,” he muttered.

“Oooh, what about Fiscome Way,” Merry said, “then down Filo Road? It should bring us close to Stable Road. We could park there and walk the rest of the way.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Edwin said.

Ten minutes later, we parked up on a side street and grabbed our gear for the twenty-minute walk to the carriage stable.

A shadow swooped overhead and landed on a nearby lamppost. A Raven, smaller than Pollux, sat staring at us.

“They’re everywhere,” Merry said. “Ignore them.”

We walked fast down a couple of residential streets, then across an industrial estate with boarded-up warehouses. Empty food packets rolled across the ground.

“I remember this area being much nicer,” Merry said.

“We’re almost there,” Edwin said. “Stable Road is just on the other side of the estate.”

My scalp tightened, and I scanned the shadows around us. “I don’t think we’re alone.”

“I think you’re right,” Padma said. “Just keep walking.”

“Three o’clock,” Edwin said, jaw tight.

“Nine,” Merry said.

And then a figure appeared right in front of us—wiry, gaunt, with deep-set eyes and sporting a tattered suit jacket, black pants, and suspiciously shiny shoes.

Back in the Fringe, I’d dealt with what we called sucker rats, vampires that lived underground and carried a disease that allowed them to turn humans with the saliva in their bite. They’d been the only kind of vampire the Order had allowed us to exterminate, and I’d since learned it was because the purebloods wanted them gone.

According to the dossier the Order provided, these suckers and several more breeds were mistakes—vampires made by the pureborn that went wrong—something altering in the blood to spawn an infection. There was treatment available now for humans who got bitten, but it only worked if taken within the first few hours of being infected, because even though Dracul law forbade turning a human without the proper authority and against their will, these mistakes didn’t care. Collectively, they were called scavengers, spreading vampirism to many undesirables.

But just like the born vamps, these suckers had hierarchies too. Above the sucker rats were the sewer suckers, slightly more intelligent, and despite their name, they didn’t live in sewers, choosing instead to hole up in abandoned buildings, buildings like the warehouse across from us.

And that’s the breed I was certain we were now surrounded by.

“Hello there, fair traveler,” the sewer rat said. “You seem to have stumbled into our territory, and you may not be aware that there is a toll to pay if you wish to pass.”

A toll? “Oh? And what is that?”

“The small matter of a little blood donation.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Nothing much, a pint or two between you.”

Ah, how I needed this. A good brawl to expunge the pent-up tension that had been building up inside me the past few days.

“Why are you smiling?” he asked. “Why are you smiling like that?”

I ignored him, speaking to my team. “How many?”

“Eight.”

“Easy,” Padma said.

“Could be more in the building,” Merry pointed out.

“Yeah, probably, but this’ll leave a clear message,” Padma replied.

I dropped her a nod then turned back to the sewer rat. “You want a couple of pints of blood…” I drew my blessed blade and rolled my neck on my shoulders. “You best come and get it.”

His glaze flicked to my sword then to the others, and for a moment I thought he was going to back down. Disappointment hollowed out my chest, but the moment passed. He let out a screech, and his minions attacked.

Yes!

Damn, it felt good to swing my sword, to swipe and stab, and oooh, sewer rat blood. Ha, got your hand. Wait…was that hand growing back?

What the?—

Something hit me from behind, and Padma bellowed a warning too late. I hit the ground with my knees, then grabbed at the snarling maw yapping at my throat, snagged it by the hair, and hauled it over my shoulder.

It slammed into the ground, and I buried my sword in its face.

“They regenerate!” Edwin yelled. “The head. Aim for the head.”

My internal alarm bells went off a moment before Merry shouted.

“EFFFFING efff!”

“Fuck! Just say fuck!” Edwin yelled back.

I decapitated the last rat, then spun toward the warehouse, toward the hoard of sewer rats pouring out of it and running toward us.

“What was that about sending a message?” Edwin said dryly.

Crap. “Run!”

Boots pounded earth as we raced across the estate toward the road, toward civilization, but the sewer rats gained on us faster.

“We’re not gonna make it!” Padma cried.

She was right. “Then we fight.” I ground to a halt, turning toward the threat and bringing my sword out in a swipe parallel to the ground. “Come on!”

We were surrounded in seconds, fighting back-to-back, the only sound the thunk of blade on flesh and the snarl of ravenous vamps.

“Keep them back. Keep a distance.” I kicked out, knocking a rat away, then stabbing it in the head as it rushed back at me.

They were fast, but their intelligence was clouded by hunger, and they attacked again and again, teeth snapping, only to be cut down with short, fast jabs to vital arteries—forcing them to bleed. Forcing them to their knees.

But there were too many, and there was no way we’d be able to keep this up for much longer.

“We’ve got this!” Edwin cried. “We can?—”

He dropped out of sight suddenly.

“Edwin!” I lunged, grabbing his wrist before the rats could pull him into the fray.

He kicked out, then let out a bloodcurdling scream.

They were biting him. Fuck, they were biting him!

A red haze stole my vision, a growl rumbling up my throat as instinct took over, throwing me over his head at the beasts trying to devour him. For a moment I lost myself to the dark urge that lived deep inside me. Blade to the head. Blade to the throat. To the eye. Die, die, die.

“Orina! Come back! Orina!”

Blood hit my face, hot and rancid. Screams shattered the night—my scream, their screams. We all fucking scream. Swipe. Slash.

“Orina!”

I jolted back into the driver’s seat, surrounded by dead sewer rats with live ones closing in around me.

What the?—

They rushed me with raging snarls. My stomach dropped, adrenaline spiking to buckle my knees, but a moment later, I was airborne.

The beat of wings filled my head. “Godor has you now.”

No! “Take me back to the others. I have to save the others.”

“We save them. We save them all.”

I craned my neck in time to see a hoard of bat boys tearing the rats to shreds. Edwin was on his feet, supported by Padma and Merry as they made a break for the road.

“We need to help them. He’s been bitten, and we?—”

“No!” Godor snapped. “You go to Exciatio. Now.”

Rage bubbled up inside me. “Get off. Get off me!” I thrashed hard, desperate to be free. “Fuck your Exciatio. Fuck Ezekiel. My team needs—” Hot air hit me in the face. “Don’t you daaare…”