Night Huntress 06 - Eternal Kiss of Darkness (40 page)

Radjedef. Mencheres intended to remove that obstacle.

“I smell Radjedef here,” a voice he hadn’t expected stated from the room outside theirs. “Something else, too. Old, and… familiar.”

“Veritas,” Mencheres said, surprise coloring his tone.

“She caught a ride with us,” Cat announced, her brows rising as she came into the room and saw Vlad nailing the guards into the wall.

Vlad paused to give her a slanted smile. “I’d welcome you with a fond embrace, Cat, but as you can see, I’m a little busy. Bones, feel free to make use of the remaining knives on those three guards.”

“At a time like this, you must miss your long wooden poles,” Bones noted as he began to gather up knives, giving a cold glare to the guards who were waiting in the corner.

Vlad grunted. “Do I ever.”

“Brought something for you,” Cat said to Kira, holding out a shopping bag. “Didn’t think they’d keep you fed while they had you.”

Mencheres gave Cat a grateful look as Kira opened it to reveal several sealed bags of blood inside. She’d flatly refused to feed from any of the humans held captive, saying they’d suffered enough. Now he didn’t have to take her to the hotel that bordered the ruins for Kira to slake her burning hunger on unsuspecting guests.

“Thank you,” she said to Cat. Then she turned her attention to Veritas, who scanned the room with silent thoroughness.

“You smell Radje. His guards can verify that they were ordered by him to kidnap me. I can sure attest to Radje holding me here against my will, and he didn’t tell any of the Guardians about it. Is that enough proof that he’s gone rogue?” she asked in an unflinching tone.

“For me it is.” Veritas approached the guards, giving them a critical evaluation. Then she turned around, sniffing again, her brow furrowed. “But for the rest of the council, some of whom are close friends with Radjedef, it is only circumstantial evidence backed up by questionable witness statements.”

“You can’t be
serious
,” Kira began.

“Even if the council were satisfied, I would still go to Radje,” Mencheres interrupted her angry response. He brushed her cheek. “Not only for evidence. For recompense.”

Cat’s nose wrinkled as she sniffed lightly near him. “Not to be rude, but what is that smell? It’s like you bathed in dead bodies or something.”

“I noticed it, too,” Kira said. Her gaze clouded. “It worried me.”

Vlad kept securing the guards, his face carefully blank. Bones raised a brow at Mencheres, waiting. He said nothing, but Veritas’s gaze narrowed. She strode over to him, inhaling deeply near his chest, then as close to his head as she could reach without floating.

“Exactly
how
did you know where Kira was?” Veritas demanded.

“From a vision,” Mencheres replied. That was part of the truth. Just not the entirety of it.

“I knew you could push past that block in your mind,” Kira murmured, giving his waist a squeeze.

Veritas inhaled again, then she stepped back, her sea-green gaze turning hard.

“You smell of
Aken
.”

Vlad muttered a curse. Cat and Kira asked, “Who’s that?” at the same time. Mencheres said nothing, holding Veritas’s stare.

She recognized the lord of the underworld’s scent. There was only one way Veritas would be able to do that—if she’d previously summoned Aken herself.

It seemed he’d not been the only one Tenoch had shared the secrets of that ritual with. He and Veritas were at a stalemate. Summoning the ferryman was an act of black magic and a breach of vampire law. If she confronted Mencheres about his crime, she would have to confess her own.

“Now you know the other reason why I must go to Radje,” Mencheres said evenly.

Veritas acknowledged their impasse with an inclination of her head. “I do. I wasn’t always a Guardian.” Then her gaze hardened again. “You must hurry. The ferryman does not tarry, and his boat never leaves empty.”

“What are you two talking about?” Kira asked.

He kissed the top of her head. “I shall tell you when I return.”

Cat cleared her throat. “I know I’m missing a ton of subtext here, but I understand ‘hurry.’ The three of us came in on one of my uncle’s new jets. You know that the government has access to the fastest planes available, so if you’re in a rush, you can take my ride. You’ll have to squeeze into the weapons area, so it’s not comfy, but it’s quick.”

Mencheres mulled her offer. He preferred to stay away from anything to do with human governments, but he was running short on time. “I have a plane, but it needs fuel.”

Cat smiled. “Mine doesn’t—and did I mention it was
fast
?”

T
he Bank of America building towered imperially over the rest of the skyscrapers in the Atlanta cityscape. Lights reflected off the gold-plated steel girders that crisscrossed in an open lattice design to form, of all things, a gleaming pyramid at the top. Mencheres stood on the roof of the nearby Symphony Tower, staring up at the thousand-foot skyscraper. How fitting that Radje chose this place. Their enmity had started on the sands of the Giza Plateau; but it would end here, inside the gleaming pyramid built not by ancient Pharaohs, but human industry.

He flew the other few hundred feet and landed on the exterior of the spire, sliding between the girders into its domed interior. Lights from the buildings below him paled against the dramatic golden glow that infused this metal cobweb of space. From this height, wind snatched at his clothes and hair as Mencheres spotted his old enemy standing on a beam forty feet above him, his back to Mencheres, looking out over the city spread below him.

“Do you remember when the tallest building was Khufu’s pyramid?” Radje said, not turning around. “It took thousands of men and dozens of vampires to construct it. I used to sit at the top and look out over the people, marveling at how much smaller they appeared from that great height. Now look. The mortals make structures that dwarf Khufu’s most magnificent accomplishment, and they erect them in under a year. How the world has changed.”

Mencheres looked not at the dozens of impressive buildings Radje gestured to but at the man who’d been in his life since his birth. When Tenoch killed himself, Radjedef became the last person who’d known Mencheres since before he was a vampire. He and Radje were the last of the Fourth Dynasty Pharaohs still living. Pity Radje’s insatiable jealousy and lust for power had brought them to this.

“The world has changed, true, and the past is buried under more than the sands of time,” Mencheres replied. “I am content to let it rest there.”

And he was. The weight he’d carried while focusing on his former sins had accomplished nothing except to burden him and endanger his people. That weight had even broken his power, shattering his visions and ultimately his will to live.

No more. He’d made mistakes—yes, many—but those he could not change. His future was yet unwritten, however. As Kira had proven, there was more to it than just oblivion, no matter how his despair had tricked him into believing nothing but darkness lay ahead.

“Menkaure,” Radjedef said, turning around to face him. “It is time to finish this.”

“Yes,” he replied steadily, thinking back on the thousands of years of bitterness, blood, and strife between them. “More than time.”

Mencheres jumped onto a beam across from Radje. The next gust of wind carried a hint of decay and magic mixed with the Law Guardian’s scent instead of just the normal odors from the city. Mencheres inhaled even as Radje’s mouth curled into an arch smile.

“You came alone as agreed, but I take no chances that you’ve surrendered so easily.”

Mencheres let out a short laugh. Radje had coated himself with a spell of grave essence, the one thing that would negate Mencheres’s telekinesis against him. Radje was cautious to the end, but it wouldn’t be enough.

“Your concern flatters me, uncle,” he said lightly.

Radje’s gaze raked over him, calculating and expectant. “You’re not the only one Tenoch taught the dark arts to. Now, take off your clothes. Then throw them over the side of the building.”

Mencheres made a derisive sound as he began to strip off his shoes, trousers, and shirt. When he was naked, he threw everything over the side after a glance ensured no one was below. The clothes wouldn’t injure any humans; the shoes would, from this height.

“You thought I would wear a wire? That is a human trick, Radje.”

“Turn around,” Radjedef said shortly.

Mencheres did, showing his back and stifling his scorn as he felt Radjedef roughly handle his hair, looking for any electronic devices.

“You know that vampires cannot hide wires beneath their skin. Are you content that I have no means to record anything spoken between us?”

Radjedef considered him, the wind whipping the tight braids of his hair as he inhaled to pick up Mencheres’s scent. “You smell impatient, Menkaure. Are you really this eager to die?”

He met his gaze. “Give me my proof that Kira lives, and let us be done with this business between us.”

Radje took out his mobile phone, dialing. Mencheres waited, thinking how he’d hated to wash all traces of Kira’s scent away before he met Radjedef, but it had been necessary. Any hint of her, Veritas, Radje’s guards, or the ferryman would alert the Law Guardian to his defeat, and Mencheres didn’t want him to know of it. Not yet.

Kira.
Yes, he smelled impatient. He’d been too long without her. Even before that fateful morning at the warehouse, a part of him hungered for her. The same part that recognized her when they met, then later tormented Mencheres when he’d tried to forget about her.

“Shade, bring the phone to the prisoner. Force her to speak into it,” Radje said curtly when his guard answered.

After several seconds, Mencheres could hear Shade tell Kira to speak, then Radje held the phone out, and her lovely voice flowed over the line to him even with the whirling winds. “Mencheres?”

“I am here,” he said, meeting Radjedef’s callously expectant gaze.

“I love you. Now, put Radje back on the phone.”

Radje’s brows rose, but he held the phone closer to his ear. “What?”

“Veritas is here,” Kira said clearly. Radjedef’s eyes widened. “There’s an open position for an Enforcer since you killed Josephus,” she went on. “Veritas said the training takes centuries, but I’m going for it. The vampire world can always use another good cop—”

Radje
dropped the phone and leapt off the side of the building. Mencheres followed, his telekinesis unable to stop Radje, but his speed unhindered by the grave essence coating his enemy like an invisible shield. He caught him right before the Law Guardian slammed through the wall of the next building. Mencheres whipped them both upward, but even as he did, Radje twisted in his grip to face him. Fire erupted in Mencheres’s belly in the next instant. That fire spread in a brutal arc upward, but he didn’t loosen his grasp, even as he felt Radje rip his silver knife higher. He was almost there. Almost…

Mencheres flung Radje at the golden steel beams of the faux pyramid. Metal tore as the Law Guardian’s body hurtled through it, ripping a hole inside the glowingly intricate structure. Mencheres flew through it, yanking the knife out of his stomach, to blast into Radje just as his uncle was about to leap out the side again. The two of them rolled in midair inside the spire, breaking more steel around them with their struggle.

Radje landed a ruthless knee in Mencheres’s still-healing stomach, doubling him over, but again, he didn’t let go. He drove Radje backward toward the object his uncle couldn’t see—a bent steel beam sticking jaggedly out from the hole Radje’s body had torn through the structure.

Radje screamed as that beam impaled him through the sternum. He tried to fling himself off, but Mencheres held him in a merciless grip. His eyes met the Law Guardian’s for a second that seemed frozen in time before Mencheres ripped off several more gold-plated beams with his power, sending those hurtling into Radje’s body.

The bespelled grave essence only worked on the wearer to negate his telekinesis. Radje had neglected to coat this structure in addition to his body.

More howls came from Radje as those ragged steel spears slammed home, pinning his arms, legs, chest, and stomach. Mencheres twisted them with another thought, curling the metal around Radje and through him, holding him in an unbreakable meld of steel and his strength. The glowing lights from the building shone on the Law Guardian’s face as his blood turned the gold-leafed beams red around him, more blood dripping onto the floor almost fifty feet below.

Even with Radje’s shouts, the wind whipping from different directions, and the noise from the city around them, Mencheres heard Kira’s voice below them. She was screaming his name out from the cell phone Radje had dropped in his attempt to flee.

He sent a strand of his power downward, curling it around the phone to float it up to his hand. At the same time, he ripped off another steel beam, sending this one straight into Radje’s throat. Gurgles replaced the Law Guardian’s hate-filled screams, his voice barely audible over the keening of the wind.

“I am here,” Mencheres said into the phone, interrupting Kira’s frantic shouting.

“Thank God!” she gasped. “I could hear screams, but I couldn’t tell if they were yours or his…”