Forbidden (The Preternaturals) (22 page)

The werewolves had been using the demon dimensional portals to get out of
Cary Town’s police state, so they could run and hunt in Golatha Falls, Georgia, outside of
Anthony’s reach and watch. It was a small town with a lot of forest and mountains and no vampires to
speak of, which suited the wolves just fine.

“Again, who is they?” Hadrian said, by this point not caring he’d been
caught zoning out.

“Magic users,” Cain said. “They’re systematically banding together and
taking over places where Anthony set up infrastructure to mimic Cary Town.”

“Which means it’s weak enough to take over but strong enough to be useful
to the new guard. Great job, Anthony,” Hadrian said. It wasn’t as if his feelings on Anthony’s
special brand of dictatorial ambitions hadn’t previously been made known.

Anthony growled but continued. “It’s not the infrastructure, as much as
you would like to believe. It’s like you warned us. The angels are joining forces with the magic
users to help them do these takeovers, and it’s no secret angels don’t have any major weaknesses that we
know about. They want to flush us all out and then band together to do God only knows what. But it won’t
be good.”

The werewolf spoke again. “They’ve already flushed the vampires out
of New Orleans and Atlanta, and I’ve been getting rumors through my company that therians are
disappearing. Some long time donors at our facilities aren’t showing up. We think the magic users are taking
them outright for their blood’s magic.”

“Which brings us to Tam,” Anthony said, turning to the witch. “What do you have for me?
Can we stop the angels?”

All eyes turned to the blonde with the pixie cut sitting next to Cain.

“I met with my coven and spoke with a couple of other elders I know I
can trust who haven’t taken sides in this yet. They think it’s possible to sever the link between this
plane and Heaven, closing all portals and forcing the angels back into Heaven. But the ritual will
be big, ugly, and we have to cross lines I don’t know if any of you are prepared to cross.” She paused a
second and then said, “Well, except maybe Anthony. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t
have
lines.”

“Thank you for that commentary and vote of confidence,” the vampire king
said. But he didn’t contradict her assessment, and they all knew it was true. “What must be done?”

“I’m still working on creating the spell, but it’ll take blood from
every species involved, including a full angel. And we’ll have to kill.”

“Innocents?” Cole asked.

Tam looked at the table, “Yes.”

“What happens to them?” the werewolf asked.

“They’ll go to the judgment room like normal. It’s not that no being will
ever be able to go to Heaven, it’s that no one from Heaven will be able to get here directly like they’re
walking across the street. They’ll be able to reincarnate, but Heaven won’t be able to throw
any more demons or guardians down. And angels will be banned from crossing into this dimension.”

“W-what are the consequences?” Angeline asked.

Everyone stopped and looked at her. It was the first thing she’d said since
the meeting started.

“M-magic has consequences. T-there is a price,” she said.

“Besides us killing some people?” Tam said. “Anyone who is a true immortal: demons,
guardians, and demon mates won’t be affected. Anything that can die, if you do die, you’ll be very screwed when
you get to Heaven. I imagine there will be serious retribution. So if
you can die, you might want to think about not volunteering to be in the ritual.”

“I can’t die,” Cole said. “I’m tied to Jane.” Jane was a human, turned werewolf’s mate,
turned demon. The werewolf mate part had tied Cole to her in a more immortal way when she’d died and
been made into a demon. It was complicated.

“But vampires can die,” Tam said, glancing at Anthony.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” the vampire king said. “Anything else?”

“If we successfully sever the dimensions, any actual help that was making
the world a better place from the angels, won’t be here anymore.
Demons and guardians will be able to get into churches. And crosses
and holy water won’t make any difference to vampires. Any magic
user whose magic is anchored in angelic power or the church will lose
their ability to do magic. So the exorcism ritual that priests use,
for example, will no longer have any effect. We’re talking about
large-scale changes, and even if we think we understand the
consequences, I can promise you that we don’t. And some of them
won’t work in our favor.”

Tam should know. She’d once been involved in a ritual to make herself
immortal that had taken on some rather unpleasant consequences before
she’d become Cain’s mate. Hadrian noticed when Cain reached over
and squeezed her hand. She didn’t want to do this, but if what
Anthony said was true, they didn’t have a choice. If they couldn’t
eliminate the angels, they would lose, without question.

“Any objections, impassioned pleas, moral outrage?” Anthony asked.

“I don’t like it,” Dayne said. The sorcerer and his werecat had
remained quiet during the meeting, merely taking everything in.

“Me either,” Greta said. She always stood by her man.

“I’m not a great fan,” Cole added. “It sounds dark and messed up.”

“I k-know you don’t know me and d-don’t care what I think, but you
need to do it,” Angeline said.

“And why is that?” Anthony asked. He seemed genuinely curious.

“B-because I know what they do up there. I know what they’ll do to anyone who
doesn’t do exactly what they say at all times. They’ll turn this
place into a nightmare, but it will be a pretty and bright nightmare.
And they’ll torture anybody who doesn’t fall in line until it
stops amusing them. They will show no mercy even though they’ll
give lip service to it as if it defines them. Whatever the cost, you
don’t want that.”

“Maybe we can fight and win. What are the angel weaknesses?” Cole asked.

“We… I mean
they
get weaker if they haven’t been exposed to light
in a while, but Heaven is made of light. You wouldn’t be able to isolate them away from it long
enough to get an upper hand. Beyond that, there are no weaknesses. You can’t fight them. You won’t
win. The ritual to separate us is the only chance.”

Jane had been uncharacteristically quiet as well. “I agree with the
recovering angel. I was up there. It was a white cotton candy nightmare.” She turned to her mate.
“Cole, I know you make jokes about it, but it really is terrible. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

“All in favor?” Anthony asked.

Hadrian knew the vampire king didn’t care about who was on board and who
wasn’t. He only made a nod to caring about democracy. Angeline
raised her hand, as did Cain and Tam and Jane. Reluctantly the
werewolf raised his hand. Dayne and Greta didn’t raise their hands
and looked down at the table.

“Hadrian?” Anthony asked. “What about you?”

“I don’t care,” Hadrian said. He wasn’t fond of any plan that
Anthony would be involved with, though he was more for this than
against it if it would keep Angeline from the reach of Heaven.
Claim
her. Claim her. Claim her.
The demon chanted. Heaven couldn’t
do anything, then.

“What do we need?” Anthony asked the witch.

Tam pulled out a list she’d jotted down on a piece of notebook paper.
“I need a magic user. That will be me. I’m the only strong witch
I know that can’t die, so that’s me. A demon…”

“That’s me,” Cain said. “If you’re sure you don’t mind…”

“I don’t mind. Like I’d be jealous of a sacrifice. Please.”

“Don’t mind what?” Hadrian asked.

“We need one member of each preternatural species’ blood contributed to
the spell. We’ll need a human sacrifice for each species. The preternatural must kill the human
in the way their kind kills or does magic. For me it will be an incantation. For Cain it’ll be the way
he feeds, etc.”

Ah. That. Cain would have to have sex with some other woman. Hadrian couldn’t imagine
most mates being okay with that. Tam didn’t seem bothered, but then she had a point. Why would she be
jealous of a corpse? It wasn’t as if Cain and his chosen victim would carry on a
meaningful relationship during the course of the ritual.

“I can’t feed that way anymore,” Cain said. Since he’d taken a mate, Tam had become
his only working food source.

“But you can still kill that way,” she said.

The demon leader shrugged. “True enough. I just don’t get that bored.”

“Because I’m wildly exciting,” Tam said.

Cain smirked. “That’s it.”

“Are you sure we need sacrifices?” Cole asked, interrupting the banter
that was just making the rest of the group uncomfortable.

The werewolf seriously didn’t like it. He’d forbidden his pack from
hunting humans when they were in their wolf form. Once a wolf got the taste of human blood, they could
grow vicious and addicted to it. And Cole wasn’t down with moral compromises. He was high road or no
road.

Tam sighed. “Cole, I’m sure. This plane was created by gods and
angels. It took powerful creative energy, and it will take equally
powerful destructive energy to sever the link. I said this wouldn’t
be pretty or easy or moral. We’re in lesser or greater good
territory here. How bad will the consequences be to all of our people
if we don’t do this?” She continued down the list. “I’ll need
a therian of any breed.”

“I’ll do it,” Cole said.

Well, that was surprising, considering his general reluctance to the plan.

“Really?” Jane asked. “Are you sure?”

“I’m the only immortal therian I know. I won’t put that on someone else
who’ll die and have to face punishment for it.”

“But you’ll get a taste of human blood.”

He squeezed her hand. “I know. You’ll help me. I’ll be okay,
whatever we have to do until it’s out of my system.”

Jane wisely didn’t say another word about it.

Tam put a check mark on her list and continued. “And I need a guardian,
and an angel, and a vampire. We can use one of Anthony’s guardians.
We’ll have to kidnap an angel somehow. That leaves the vampire.”

“I’ll do it,” Anthony said.

Charlee had quietly opened the door and returned to the table with the baby,
the wolf pup on her heels. “No you won’t.”

“I’m the leader. It’s my responsibility.”

If Anthony was trying to get bonus ‘hey look at me, I’m
volunteering… I’m not a total asshole’ points, it might be too
late for that.

“And we have a child,” Charlee said. “No.”

Anthony growled but sighed and said, “Fine.”

Charlee, as the human
vampire queen
walked a fine line sometimes. She
usually deferred to her mate so as not to undermine his rule, but there were occasions when she
put her foot down.

Charlee passed the baby to Anthony, and he started making those ridiculous
faces at her. The baby cackled and clapped her hands together when he
made his eyes glow and fangs come out.

“Okay,” Tam said, making a note. “I’ll put a question mark there. But we
need a vampire and a guardian.”

“Angeline can be your guardian,” Anthony said, bouncing his daughter on his
hip.

“I’m not comfortable with that,” Tam said. “I don’t really know her,
and I’m not comfortable asking her to kill someone. Also, since all guardians are still part
angel, I’m worried she’ll get sucked into Stepford Heaven being that close to the ritual.”

Hadrian growled. There was no way he’d risk her getting too close and
ending up trapped back up there.

“Pick one of your guardians, Anthony. I know some of them are assassins.
And a few you’d like to get rid of,” Tam said.

“Assassins? Really, Tamara, I have no idea where you get that kind of talk,”
Anthony said.

“Just get one of them. That leaves vampire. If we’re not using Anthony,
we’ll still need to figure that one out.”

All eyes went to Hadrian.

“I don’t know why you’re all looking at me. I’m not doing it.”

“Such a team player,” Anthony said. “I thought you’d want to ensure
your guardian’s safety.”

Angeline sat silent with her hands clasped together, watching them as if they
fascinated her. In truth, Angeline’s safety was of far greater importance to him than he
could articulate. He wasn’t sure if his human side was on board, but the demon side had
latched onto her powerful blood and never wanted to let her go. But Hadrian’s demon
also refused to risk being parted from her.

“So if I don’t personally do it, it won’t get done? I find that hard
to believe,” Hadrian said.

Tam rushed to diffuse the situation. “I can use Hadrian and Angeline in
another capacity if they’re willing. It won’t involve bringing down Heaven’s wrath on them.
When we do this there will naturally be angels trying to stop us as well as some magic users who
have joined forces with the non-magical human population. I’ll need fighters for that. If they’re willing.”

Hadrian looked to Angeline. “Are you okay with that?”

“I-I can go as your guardian if you want me there.”

“What about the risk to Angeline with the portal?” Hadrian asked, still
not comfortable.

“We’ll make a big perimeter around the ritual space. It’ll only be a risk
to any guardian right next to it.”

Hadrian nodded and squeezed Angeline’s hand. “Okay,” he said.

“I’ll be sure to pick one I want to get rid of, then,” Anthony said.
“When are we doing this?”

“I’ve got a few more things to get together, but we need to do it soon, the
next full Moon. In three days.” Tam rifled through a duffel bag at her feet and pulled out an old scroll
and unrolled it on the table. “We’ll meet here just after sunset.” She pointed at a spot on a
map. “It’s about forty miles south of Cary Town and is one of the more well-traveled entry points for
angels into this dimension. If we’re severing all links, we need to use a powerful entry point if
we want to create a chain reaction.”

Tam passed around small cards with an address on it. “Here’s the
modern address. Put it in your GPS. Everyone bring whoever you have who will fight with us. We’ll be bringing
demons and magic users. Anthony, bring all the vampires, guardians, magic users, whatever
you’ve got. Cole… we need the wolves for this one. Dayne, if you
have any sorcerer buddies who haven’t joined the other side yet,
bring them. I’ll finish working on the ritual and meet individually
with everybody that will be in the ritual.”