Prince of Power (18 page)

Wizards masquerading as police officers were roughing up groggy, tired residents. Their focus, it seemed, was the women's wing. Or rather, the children.

“Turn around,” one officer barked at a frightened little girl with wide, blue eyes.

A quick look at the child's neck and the officer moved on. Tyra's hand went to the back of her neck. They were looking for that birthmark. The females. Anton's father had said he'd ignored the females before now, and Siddoh had once voiced a suspicion that the wizards recruited their offspring very young. Until now, she hadn't realized exactly what that might mean.

She had to get these guys out of there.

Not really bothering with whether or not she bumped into a fake police officer, she ran the gauntlet of the women's hall until she reached the exit at the far end of the hall. There was a playground just outside the door for use during the day, though at night the door was kept closed and there was an alarm set.

When she reached the door, Tyra uncloaked herself and let out a shrill whistle guaranteed to draw the attention of every person in the place. “Down here, boys.”

Sure enough, almost every wizard looked up from their harassment duties, startled to see her in their midst. And anyone who might have missed the whistle looked up when she backed against the push bar for the exit doors and a piercing bell sounded. “Yep. Vampire alert, guys. Everyone out to the playground who wants to fight me.” At first, only a few of the troglodytes stepped forward, so she added, “What, afraid to fight a girl?”

That did it. That
always
did it.

No sooner had she hit the pavement of the basketball court than a dozen or so poorly trained wizard ninjas in even worse-fitting cop uniforms were filing out of the building like lemmings on their way to jump off the cliff. And she was ready; fireballs charged and standing by. She could hold them off until backup arrived, no problem.

A child's scream came from across the playground.

The split second of inattention cost Tyra dearly, and next thing she knew the swarm was too close for comfort. And the source of the scream was clear. On the far end of the blacktop, next to the swing set, was little Selena. Who was still screaming. Lisa, her mother, lay on the ground. Clearly the woman wouldn't be getting up soon.

“Oh no.” Tyra started toward Selena, but someone—one of the larger Cro-Magnon wizards—landed a punch right under her eye.

Tyra had a lot of fighting experience, but there were too many enemies on the shelter playground to handle easily. She spun on the blacktop but the hit she'd taken had landed on that special spot right on her cheekbone. Her head swam. Pain exploded behind her eye, and the swelling obscured her vision immediately.

It wasn't a big deal. As soon as she could feed, that would heal. A wave of sadness washed over her even as she cracked two wizards in the kneecaps. Where did things stand with Anton?

One
problem
at
a
time, Ty
.

A wizard grabbed from behind, and she held tight to his arms as she walked up the front of another wizard who had approached from the front. She smashed her size-ten boots in the second wizard's face before flipping back over the first one and kicking him between the legs. He went down hard on a faded hopscotch design, red faced and sputtering, “Bitch.”

Sure. They were trying to
kill
her, but she was the bitch.

“Miss Tyra!”

She
had
to get to Selena, who was still crouched on the far end of the playground by her mother's body. “Selena, stay right there. Do you hear me?”

Tyra couldn't hear an answer and could only pray that the little girl did indeed get the message. And shit, the shouting from the girl had gotten one of the wizard's attention. One of the smarter ones had broken from the pack. Tyra stopped fighting back and stood still. “Okay, fine, guys. You win.”

Hardly any of them were smart enough to stop and wonder why she'd done that. As soon as they closed in, she went invisible and teleported outside of the cluster, dropping a bundle of fireballs in her wake. There was a lot of screaming and rolling around and “what the fucks” as they tried to put each other out. That'd keep 'em busy for a while.

Poor Selena. The girl was terrified and gripping her mother's limp arm for dear life. Tears stung Tyra's eyes. She was within arm's reach of the girl when the frigid wind stirred, and there was Anton's father. The Master. He appeared behind Selena too quickly for Tyra to react, and while his stance was casual, his grip on those small shoulders was firm and unyielding.

His previously charming smile was one hundred percent sinister. “It's time to go, Miss Tyra. I doubt you'll want little Selena here to leave without you.”

Selena's eyes were wide and questioning. Tyra glanced around, looking down at Selena's mother, who was clearly in poor shape, and then back to the wizard's grip on Selena. There was no option here, and Tyra knew that.

She reached forward and took hold of the girl's hand. “I'm so sorry, sweetheart,” she said.

***

They were a sad pair, but working together, Anton and Xander managed to stagger in the direction of the main road.

“I appreciate the help. I think we need to get the hell outta here before I get a nasty sunburn.”

Anton shrugged out of his leather jacket and handed it to Xander. “Here, throw this over your head.”

The vampire snorted. “That's awfully undignified.”

“Huh. Well…” He pressed a finger to the back of Xander's forearm; it left a white spot on his skin that was already turning pink. “Would you rather be undignified, or would you rather go up in flames?”

“Shit.” Xander searched his pockets and located a pair of gloves. “Alright, let's hurry. This'll only work for so long.”

The sky was getting lighter, and neither of them was exactly in peak physical condition. Xander's phone buzzed insistently from Anton's pocket. He'd borrowed it to call Thad and let him know what was going on. Sure enough, it was Thad again.

“What's the status?”

“We're traveling along Route 9 as fast as we can, but Xander is already starting to burn, I'm afraid.”

“Where are you along Route 9? Do you see any signs?”

Anton scanned through the trees. “I see a gas station less than a quarter mile up the road and a sign for Route 29, I think.”

“Jimmy's Shell station. Get there. Fast.” Thad ended the call.

“Shit, okay. Not much of a talker, that king of yours.” Anton hooked an arm under Xander to help steady the big, drooping, near-deadweight. “Let's move, my friend. We've been given orders.”

Xander groaned. Anton wasn't sure exactly what sun exposure did to a vampire, but it was clearly already happening. That Xander had recently been blasted in the head couldn't have helped matters.

“Okay, Xander, the gas station with the yellow signs up there. There's an overhang with shade, and I'm guessing Thad has some sort of plan for getting us back to your home. So just focus on that sign and go as fast as you can. You hear me?”

“Right,” Xander mumbled. “I hear ya.” The vampire was sweating, and they were going to have to cross the road where there were no trees for cover.

“Let's go,” Anton said. He shouldered Xander's weight and pushed him as fast as he could. The sooner they got there, the better.

“I swear, you had better not hurt that girl.” Tyra shook with rage.

They were back in the strange, dank sanctum where Anton's father had brought Tyra before. Cold room, stone walls. Cement floor. Was this honestly where Anton had grown up? The thought only made her angrier.

“I would like to see you try. I'll grant you, it would be a good fight and I have been at a loss all these years for a worthy adversary. But as I have explained, I am of your father's generation and have amassed powers over the centuries that you cannot imagine. The chances are slim that you would be able to beat me.”

She smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. “I'd bet your skills are rusty, though. As far as I know, this is the first time in a while that any vampire has seen you. I guess I should feel special.”

He laughed heartily, and the sound bounced around the walls of the large stone room. “Ah, and you are. I have explained this to you. So, I suspect, is she.” He inclined his chin toward Selena, who was curled asleep in a corner.

Children had amazing coping skills that way. When they had too much to handle, they simply shut down. Tyra prayed that Selena's mother was okay, but she hadn't looked good.

The wizard stood close to her now. Close enough to reach out and grab. To do a leg sweep and knock him off balance.

“Let me put it to you this way, Tyra. I've figured out something that I should have figured out long ago. And I am a smart enough man to admit when I have made a mistake. All these centuries, I assumed the males were stronger. The female offspring were ignored and eventually perished on their own, or… they were cast off.”

Horrible.

“And because of me you've decided otherwise?”

He smiled again. “Exactly so. It turns out, there aren't many females for the reasons I've explained, but when your…” he looked Tyra up and down in a way that made her suppress a shiver, “impressive roster of talents came to my attention and when I realized that you carried wizard blood, I knew that you and the other female wizard children might indeed be the key.”

“And you already know where my allegiance lies.” She leaned in close enough that she could smell a stale smokiness on his breath. She reached for a knife, but damn, she must have lost it in the fight on a playground. “So what's your master plan, Master?”

“Ah.” Neither of them backed down. She sure as hell wasn't going to. “Simple enough.” Silence.

She waited, almost certain she could hear the
Jeopardy
theme music playing in her head. He wanted her to ask, and she was just as determined not to. Still, something dangerous lay on the periphery of her senses. Something more than the “mere” fact that she and Selena were in a viper's den with no clear means of escape. Because she would lay good money that letting her go willingly wouldn't happen this time. The first time more than likely had only been some sort of illusory head game. The seconds stretched out, and finally she gave in.

“Okay. What's your simple plan?”

“I thought you'd never ask.” This time, she did roll her eyes. Evil asshole be damned.

“I want you to join me.”

“You've already said that. And I've already told you I won't.”

He continued as if he hadn't heard her. “And if you refuse, I will take your powers by force.”

“Over my dead body.”

“That's the idea, yes.” He nodded toward Selena. “And I will raise her and the others as my own and train them in our ways.”

Tyra clenched her fist. “She's a child.”

“Yes. Yes, exactly. Just a little older than Anton was when I took him from the foster home. Didn't work so well with him, but with most of the others, the conditioning has taken beautifully. And she's clearly an intelligent little girl. I have no doubt she will serve me very well. Particularly if it turns out she can absorb powers just as you are able to.”

The oily voice, the awful implications, hearing Anton's name—Tyra snapped. Everything in front of her was red, and the echoed screams seemed to come from her own mouth. She struck blindly and met with air.

Amused laughter met her ears. “Maybe you won't be such a worthy adversary after all, Tyra. Is that the best you can do?” She whirled in the direction of the voice, but nobody was there.

Okay, so this guy could do invisible too. But she knew how to work that. She and Siddoh had fought together enough times. She focused, waited for her vision to grow accustomed to the dim light, and listened. There it was. The subtlest ripple of the shadows to her right. She aimed her gaze left, as if confused about where he was.

“Maybe you're right,” she said. The fireball in her left hand was hidden by her body. “Maybe I should just give up now.” She released the fireball and was gratified by a grunt of pain and a flare of fire as the Master's robes caught.

***

Thankfully, the gas station was still closed. Anton had just hauled Xander into the shade of an overhang around the back of a long-overdue-to-be-cleaned Dumpster when the SUV pulled into the station.

“Careened” was probably a more appropriate word.

The cloud of dust that kicked up and the wild skid of the vehicle weren't half as alarming as the tiny blonde girl who jumped out of the driver's seat, waving a thick wool blanket.

“Here. Throw this over him, and then shove him the hell back there as fast as you can.”

Smart enough to have a better knowledge of physics than Anton did, the girl had placed another blanket on the seat and used that to help slide Xander's body across to the other side. Xander was still conscious but clearly physically weak. His skin was red and peeling.

The girl jumped in, pulled the world's fastest three-point turn, and barreled down Route 9 like their lives depended on it. Which, of course, they actually did.

Xander groaned, and Anton placed a hand on his blanked-covered body. “Try not to move, buddy. You need to conserve your strength.”

Buddy. Anton couldn't help but wonder whether any of these vampires would really be his friend by the time the fallout from this situation had taken place. For that matter, would he even have his life? Would he have Tyra? And if he was still alive but without Tyra, would he have much of a life at all?

He stared for a moment at the gentle rise and fall of the blue wool blanket under which Xander lay. Xander
was
still alive, wasn't he?

The blonde glanced into the backseat. “Hi, I guess you're Anton. Very famous around the estate, for obvious reasons. I'm Alexia. You can call me Lexi, or Lex, or I sometimes even answer to ‘hey you.' I'm kind of the resident human, I guess. Anyway, I can't believe Thad actually let me come and get you, but it's a damn good thing he did. Oh. Shit.”

A robed wizard had stepped from the tree line on the edge of the road and had a handgun aimed squarely at their vehicle.

“Shit is right,” Anton murmured. The fucker actually had a gun? Anton had rarely fired a gun growing up. Master had focused primarily on training them to use their supernatural abilities. This was different.

“Bad guy, right?”

“Definitely a bad guy,” Anton confirmed.

“Okay, Anton,” Alexia breathed. “Might wanna keep your head down.” And the little blonde human, bless her soul, actually sped up. “OhGodohGodohGodohGodohGodohGod.”

The wizard hit the hood with a loud thunk, and a giant spiderweb cracked across the window of the SUV. Anton looked out the back window. The wizard was down for the count, but he didn't think it was wise to tell the girl that. “Well, he's hurt, but I don't think you did enough damage to kill him.”

“Oh, thank God.” Her forehead nearly hit the steering wheel before she seemed to recall that she was still driving a car—at what looked from Anton's vantage point to be a significant jump over the speed limit—down the winding country road. “I'm sorry. You probably think that's really lame. I know he probably would've killed us.”

“Not lame at all,” Anton murmured. He could still feel the hot skin and bulging veins of that dying wizard beneath his hands, and the memory turned his stomach. “But he absolutely would have. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. That doesn't make it easy.”

She didn't respond to that one, other than to nod her head silently.

They turned down a narrow access road, one that Anton would have missed entirely if he hadn't known it was there. After several hundred feet they turned again, this time down a single-lane gravel road that ended at… a stone-walled building of some kind. Some kind of dilapidated structure. What had probably once been a storage building for farm equipment, if he were throwing out guesses. It wasn't very barnlike. He wasn't sure what else it would be. Whatever it was, she was heading right toward it and going way, way too fast.

“Okay, I know what this looks like…” Her voice was shaky now. Nerves, probably. From hitting that wizard, or from the fact that they were about to ram a building at seventy miles per hour. “But I swear to God, it's all an illusion.” She giggled but didn't sound sure of herself. “Vampire magic, you know?”

No, he didn't know. He hoped to hell she was right. The building loomed closer.

Anton could make out the individual cinder blocks.

And the cracks in them.

“Oh, holy shit—”

He braced for impact.

The bright flash of light reached him even through his tightly shut eyes, but there was no crash. Amazingly, impossibly, unbelievably, there was no crash.

The vehicle coasted to a stop in front of a large barn. “See, I told you.”

He managed to pry his eyes all the way open. “You did tell me.”

“I know.” She tried to make her laugh sound offhanded, but it bordered on hysterical. “I wouldn't have believed me, either. It's a little trippy at first.”

“That's putting it mildly.” He could have sworn he was about to have a stroke.

She laughed again, eased the car into the barn, and jumped out, dialing her cell at the same time. “Hey there, we're back. Anton's getting him into the tunnel now.” She motioned to Anton and then gestured to a door cut into the floor next to the car. “Yeah. I'll tell him.” Once the vehicle was inside the barn, the click of a remote had closed the door.

She flipped the phone closed and sat on a nearby wooden bench. “Thad wants to talk to you for a sec. Tyra texted for backup from the shelter and then disappeared before anyone got there. Can you handle getting Xander down the stairs? Someone'll meet you at the bottom.”

Anton nodded. “You okay?”

She squinted. Her body was still. Oddly so, given the emotional roller coaster she must surely be feeling just now. She'd just run over a wizard, poor girl. Even he would have been a little freaked. “I will be.”

Something told Anton that was her answer for a lot of things, but there was no time to stick around to be sure. It was a sad statement that her having just run over a wizard on purpose—undoubtedly the first time she'd ever done such a thing—was too low on the list of immediate priorities for Anton to be able to help.