Chapter 17

Hell's stars, it's dark. Pitch dark, which makes me think we should have done this during the day. When she was sleeping, still recovering. After a whole day's rest, especially if she managed to find a supply of blood to restore her, she could be back to fighting fit.

And though Lucien is strong, I'm not sure he's stronger than her.

"How old are you?" I ask as we dart through the shadows. Thornfield moves so fucking quickly, Kim and I can hardly keep up with him.

"Older than you," he snaps.

"Older than Zephyra?"

"Yes." Thornfield's jaw twitches.

"You two have history."

"So do you," he replies.

"Care to share?" I put my arm out to stop him and look across the street. We're almost at the train tracks. We considered taking another entrance into the fairground, but then realized it was pointless. If she's watching, she'll be watching from all angles. If not, we might as well just barrel in and take our chances.

"I do not." Thornfield darts across the road in a blur of movement, leaving Kim and I in the dust.

"I'll never get used to that," Kim mutters.

"You're'a demon hunter. Shouldn't you be…?"

"Vampires aren't demons. At least, in theory they're not." Kim puts his hands into his pockets. He looks too casual for someone who's about to fight a vampire. But I get the feeling it's just nerves making him act this way.

She almost killed him.

He escaped with his life, but barely. And now he's voluntarily returning to the scene of the crime.

"You don't have to do this, you know." I put my hand on his shoulder to show him I'm serious.

Kim almost shrugs it off. His jaw tenses. "She has a hold over all of us. She's evil. She can't be allowed to live, and after what I did, I need to be a part of bringing her down. I need the closure."

"I understand that." Instinctively, my hand goes to my neck and I touch the veins she's opened more times than I can count. I wonder, briefly, whether something in my muscle memory will prevent me from actually ending her when I get the chance.

But then I figure, if I can't do it, Lucien will.

"Where was she when you last saw her?" Thornfield asks for the hundredth time.

"In the tunnels. Below the collapsed ceiling. I doubt she'll still be there. She'll be stronger now, perhaps she'll have retreated."

"Or moved on completely," I mutter.

Thornfield stops. We've reached the fairground. He sniffs the air, like a dog, then walks slowly toward the giant, gaping chasm in the ground. "No," he says. "She's still here. I'd know that scent anywhere."

He doesn't hesitate, doesn't tell us to be careful or follow him. We don't even really have a plan except… fight. That's the plan.

Without a word, he jumps down into the hole, landing flat on his feet like a cat jumping down from a roof.

Kim and I clamber down beside him.

"She was there." Kim points to a spot in the corner. There is blood on the floor. "Right there."

"Whose blood is that?" I ask Thornfield.

He stoops down and swipes his finger through it, bringing a bolt of nausea to my throat. "Not hers. Human." He looks at Kim. "But not his. Seems they found themselves a snack."

He gestures to the trail leading back toward the tunnels. "And took him back to the nest to play…"

We follow the droplets. They lead us into the darker parts of the tunnel, where my eyes strain to see and my footsteps echo loudly on the concrete.

"Can you tread a little softer?" Thornfield snaps.

"I'm a bigger man than you, Thornfield. Not as easy for me to tread softly."

Kim bites back a laugh. He doesn't like Thornfield any more than I do.

Suddenly, he stops. "The trail." He bends down, searching the ground in front of him. "It's gone."

"What does that mean?" Kim asks, reaching into his pocket for the knife he brought – his only defence against a nest of vampires. Not necessarily a smart move, and I'm beginning to think the guy actually has a death wish.

"It means…" Thornfield stands then points to a door. "They stopped dragging the human and carried them – in there."

"The room where they tried to drain Nova." My entire body coils with anger. My muscles twitch, and my fists bunch closed at my sides as I remember the look on her face when she was strapped to that chair, and the way Zephyra…

I close my eyes, inhale sharply, and try not to let my powers make the ground start shaking. We've had a ceiling collapse once, we don't need it to happen again. This time, we need to end Zephyra once and for all. No doubt. No chance of her surviving.

I reach out and push the door open.

It creaks a little.

The room is pitch dark, so I cast an illumination spell.

As it grows lighter, the smell of Nova's blood hits my nostrils. It's still here, all over the floor. There is a growling sound from deep inside the room.

I move to the side of the bed.

Zephyra.

She is crouched on the floor, licking her palms. The marks that surround her show she has been sweeping her hands through the remains of Nova's blood, trying desperately to ingest even the smallest morsel of The Phoenix.

Lucien tuts at her. "How the mighty have fallen," he says. Her face is grotesque. Thornfield looks at her with disgust. "You're showing your age, Zephyra."

He tilts his head, examining her half-falling off face. The way the skin and muscle looks like it has melted from her skin.

"Fascinating," he breathes, then looks at me. "Is this what your phoenix can do?"

"She can do more than that," I snarl as we form a U-shape around Zephyra, pinning her in against the wall.

From the ground, she looks up at me. Her eyes flash black and inky. She bares her fangs. "You will not harm me, Ink Heart. You can't. You will never be rid of me."

I lurch forward but Thornfield stops me. "She's mine, seer. I have to end her. Not you."

"That is not what we discussed," I mutter.

Slowly, Zephyra rises up from the ground. She sucks her index finger into her mouth and says, "You know, I think I've tasted just enough of your beautiful Nova to give me the strength to kill the three of you."

Before she's moved an inch, Thornfield's hand is around her throat. He stares into her eyes and for a moment it looks like they're going to start fucking instead of fighting. But then she grabs him, spins him around, screams, and slams him hard against the wall.

He grins, throws her to the ground, and darts back, then takes off his jacket. He throws it to the floor like he's been anticipating this all day and intends to enjoy every second of it.

Kim and I step back, and I reach into my pocket for the stake I planned to drive into the correct side of her black, miserable chest.

I splay out my arms and reach, trying to find some vines, something beneath the earth that I can bring to the surface to end the fight, to snap her neck. But there is nothing. It is too far down, buried beneath the concrete, and the tunnels are too unstable. If I do anything to disrupt the earth, I risk bringing the whole lot down on our heads for the second time.

Zephyra and Thornfield circle each other like wild animals. Zephyra bares her fangs, and makes a gnashing, growling sound. "You think you can kill me?" she coos. "You created me, Lucien. You really think, when the time comes, you'll be able to end your own daughter? The daughter who would have been your wife if you had not betrayed her?"

Fuck, that sentence is a head spin.

Thornfield splays his fingers. Then they jump for one another. They meet in the air and tussle, grabbing each other, clawing at each other, then fall to the ground with a thud.

They roll over and over, and I'm not sure what the fuck Thornfield is playing at because he is losing this fight. He reaches for her neck, grabs hold of it. He's on top of her. She wraps her legs around his waist and squeezes tight. Her eyes sparkle, but her face is so fucking hideous it just makes her look like a monster.

The sound of feet in the tunnels makes me turn around. The door clatters open. Zephrya's vamps have come to save their queen.

I stand in front of Kim and draw myself taller. "Stay out of this, human," I growl, trying to latch onto the feeling of Nova's blood in my veins. My eyes go black. My teeth itch. I feel it, still there. I let the memory of the scent that hangs in the air enter my lungs. I breathe her in, and then I run for them.

No magic, just brute strength. I barrel toward them and knock three off their feet.

I drive the stake in into the heart of a woman who reminds me of Rev. Then another. I spin around and take out a third.

Kim hurls his knife at one and misses. Which is a shame because pure silver would have it writhing in agony on the floor.

Behind us, Thornfield and Zephyra continue to tear chunks out of each other, Literally. She sinks her jaws into his arm and rips off a chunk of muscle. It exposes the bone. He roars, but it starts to heal almost instantly.

She is on top of him again, tracing her finger down his chest, when she says, "I am going to rip off your head, Lucien. Just like I ripped off your brother's. Do you remember?"

A vamp comes for me, fangs gnashing, and I hurl it off, sending it clattering into the wall behind me. Brother. Fuck.

Thornfield's eyes flash. He reaches for her, and drags his nails down her gnarly arm.

She screams in pain.

He flips her over. He's on top of her. He puts his hands around her throat.

"You can't kill me, Lucien. There is no you without me. We are?—"

He snaps her neck.

Just like that.

She is gone.

The vamp I'm wrestling goes limp in my arms. I let go and it staggers backward, mouth hanging open. "You killed her," it mutters. "The queen is dead."

Lucien stands up, dragging Zephyra's lifeless body with him. He holds her by her the back of her neck, and she hangs there, motionless; a rodent in the clutches of a cat who's not done playing, even though the mouse is dead.

He strides forward.

The vampires, just three of them left now, back away.

"I'm not going to kill you," he says, eyes flashing with little red dots. "Do you know why?"

In unison, they shake their heads.

"I'm not going to kill you because I need you to remember who rules this city, and I need you to spread the word. It was never Zephyra. She was a pawn. She lived because I allowed her to live, and because I needed her. She may have called herself your queen but I am the king of this city. Do you understand?"

The ceiling shakes as his anger makes his voice roar. I back away, noticing that Kim has pressed himself up against the wall.

For the first time since we met, fear congeals in my veins.

Thornfield is an evil mother fucker.

He might come across as suave and logical, but he's a beast. No different from the others. Except older, stronger, more powerful.

He holds Zephyra in front of him, one hand tight around her throat. Her head lolls to the side.

He reaches out, and plunges his hand into her ribcage.

When he pulls out her heart, he turns slowly to look at the others.

He lets her body drop to the floor. As it hits the ground, it explodes. Blood, and strings of muscle, and sinew, and fragments of bone, splatter our faces, and our arms, and the floor, and the ceiling.

Thornfield is covered in blood. He licks his lips. "She tastes just how she used to," he says darkly. Then he brings her heart to his mouth, and sinks in his fangs.

He tears off a chunk, and swallows it whole.

"Now, who is your king?" He towers above the others. They are quaking, shivering, wringing their hands in front of them.

"You are."

"The Thornfields have always ruled this city," Lucien barks, holding out what's left of Zephyra's heart. To the redheaded vampire who looks too skinny to be standing upright, he says, "Eat."

She swallows hard. She is trembling. But she eats. She tears off a chunk and swallows it down.

In turn, he makes each of them do the same.

Then he turns to me. "Do you want a taste, seer?"

I shake my head, even though something deep inside me is tempted. To take the ultimate control back from the woman who tried to take my sanity.

"Hunter?" he asks Kim.

Kim's face is gray around the edges. He swallows hard. He pushes his glasses up his nose. But then he steps forward and opens his hand. "Give it to me."

My eyes widen. "Kim, think carefully before you…"

"Give it to me," he repeats.

Thornfield puts the heart into Kim's hand. There is barely any left. He raises it to his lips.

What the fuck has gotten into him? A human eating a vampire's heart? Is he trying to prove himself? Trying to lean into his identity instead of shy away from it? There are other ways…

I flinch as he sinks in his teeth. They are not pointed, not designed for tearing through raw muscle. It takes effort for him to pull free a chunk. He swallows it whole, his eyes wide, staring at Thornfield as he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

Holy fuck.

His eyes darken.

This demon hunter is not who I thought he was. He's not who he thought he was.

"Tastes like steak," he says. Then he turns to look at the other vampires, and suddenly I get it. He's proving himself to them. He wants his reputation to get around. He wants the demons of the city to know he's a bad ass mother fucker.

Well, respect to him.

He certainly earned it.

Thornfield steps through the carnage, pushes past the others, and disappears into the tunnels. Kim lingers for a moment, then tosses what's left of Zephyra's heart to the floor and follows Thornfield.

"If I were you, I'd leave this city," I say darkly, standing in the doorway and turning back to the vampires left inside. "Thornfield won't forget who you are or who you pledged your allegiance to. I'd run now, while you have the chance."