Summon (8 page)

“It’s raining.” Her tone was as flat as her stare.
She stood at the top of the steps twisting her hand around a buckled railing.
“Tomas loved the rain.”

I snapped my fingers and pointed at the ground.
“Come here.”

With preternatural speed, she rushed to me. “
You look like her.
” She screamed in my
face, eyes wild, fangs bared. Digging her nails into her cheeks, she drew blood
that mingled with tears streaming from her lower eyelids. “
You smell like her. Your blood reeks.”
Shaking, she scrubbed her
hands over her neck and chest. “
I feel
your magic, and it burns like hers. Go away.”
She shoved me.
“Leave me in peace.
”

Batting away a swipe of her clawed fingers to my
face, I grabbed her neck and squeezed to silence her hysterical babbling.

A prickling sensation washed over my skin. I winced
as my ears picked up a low rumbling followed by a screeching high note.

Gwendolyn sobbed and clawed at my hand.

I shook her hard. “Quiet. Listen.”

She wailed louder.

“Shut up.” I slapped my other hand over her mouth.
“Can’t you feel it?” Her bloody tears wet my hand and ran down my forearm. I
dropped her in disgust. “You leak.”

Shaking my hand to rid myself of her foul bodily
fluids, I tried to focus on where the powerful hum of energy originated.

My mood darkened when my fairy nature made itself
known. My instincts riled, reacting to the advancing threat growing in potency
from all directions. “We’re under attack.”

CHAPTER SIX

Cael

What
should have been a panic inducing announcement was met with incoherent sobbing.

I glowered at the vampire blubbering in the dirt.
Curled into a ball on her side, she bashed her head on the ground in
self-flagellation.

Pathetic
creature.

“Up,” I snapped. “Fight or die. What approaches is
powerful.”

“She comes to kill us?” Gwendolyn hiccupped, her
white face slack and dazed. Tracks of red lined her sunken cheeks, and copper
ringlets hung damp across her temples and neck. She grinned. “The fairy who
stole my love returns to kill me.”

Grabbing her by the hair, I yanked until she stood
on wobbly legs. “When did you last feed?”

“Humans? She brought humans. I wish I sipped before
Raj snapped their necks, but she wanted to meet you.” Her eyes sharpened, and
her fangs ran out. “Has she brought food?”

“Raj killed them?”

“He’s soft.” She palpated her stomach, agitated.
“He doesn’t enjoy the suffering. Hunger will devour that weakness.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. The Queen was more
unhinged than usual, a worthless state in a fight. “What kind of demon did you
drain last?”

“Goblin. Nights ago.” Her head rolled about on her
shoulders as she giggled. “Endless night and darkness that drips in blood.”

“Needs must.” I ripped the leather cuff from my
wrist. Gritting my teeth, I pressed the fang-scarred tissue to her lips.
“Drink.”

She recoiled even as her bony hand clamped down on
my forearm and dragged it to her mouth. Her eyeteeth sank in, and she
shuddered. Mewled as she suckled like a babe to teat. Closing her eyes, she
swayed into me seeking to snuggle.

Her thin-armed embrace was unbearable.
This is the last time. After this no leech
will take from me.
I leaned back revolted by the whole affair.

Rancid memories burned like acid and left a bitter
taste in my mouth.
Cold, clammy hands paw
at my flesh.
I pleaded for mercy. Screaming.
My throat is raw from begging.
My existence an endless night of
fangs, red eyes, and blood. Iron chains.
Swollen
welts that sting encircle my wrists, ankles, and throat.
I can’t breathe
without pain. Tormented days spent suffering in a cell. When I had the energy
to lift my head, a strip of meshed window teased me with glimpses of sunlight.
Freedom. Something I’d never have
. Why am
I being punished? I don’t remember what I did to deserve this.

Overwhelmed, I hollered in pain and ripped away my
arm.

Salivating, Gwendolyn went black-eyed and stared
hungrily at my jugular.

“Try it, vampire.” I straightened and covered my
wrist as it sluggishly healed. More scars. “See if I don’t sear the flesh from
your bones. Royals are replaceable.” My smile was cruel. “Remember what
happened to the last vampire monarch that crossed me.”

Her eyes slitted then cleared. “You’re back.” Her
voice was devoid of madness. Calm. She took an anxious step. “Did we win? Does
that cursed Wyld burn even now? Did you slaughter them all?
Tell me
.”

“We’re under attack,” I repeated.

Ignoring her questions was best. Impatience fuelled
her anger making her a deadlier predator for the fight to come.

“From who?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never felt anything like it.” I
paused. “This power is greater than mine.”

Considerably
greater, but she doesn’t need to know that.

“Where are my people? Gwendolyn asked. “Why haven’t
they returned with you?”

Brightness lightened the gloom in the distance. It
cast an eerie radiance across the rooftops and surrounding streets.

“Explanations are for later.” I squared my
shoulders and braced my legs. “Fight now.”

A crack of thunder rolled across the starry skies.
A miasma of purple smoke plunged from the heavens and gushed into the courtyard
to encircle us.

Disembodied laughter drifted from the roiling mass.

Gwendolyn and I retreated until we stood back to
back.

My arms rose defensively as I prepared to hurl a
warning sphere of magics at the intruders.

Gwendolyn snarled, her body shaking from the force
of it.
“
The
noise
?”

“
Wings
,
”
I muttered. “Hundreds of them.”

I glanced over my shoulder at the radiant ball swopping
over the rooftop then floating to the ground. Humming faintly, it hovered in
the air, pure energy sparking from its nebulous core.

The smell of earth and sunlight permeated the
beforehand dank space.

Grudgingly, I accepted the likelihood I was about to
die grew vast, and drew deeper on the Source. At the same time, I readied a
number of offensive spells to subdue multiple attackers. I’d fight. Protect
myself until nothing but the cooling cinders of my body remained. I’d never
stop defending myself.

If I don’t
whom else will?

Instincts raging, my ears pricked at a strange
noise. I snapped forward and scanned the buildings opposite with a critical
eye. I used the hypersensitive veil of my fairy sight to penetrate the deeper
shadows. The world became varying shades of electric blue, but still, I saw
nothing.

A black cloud of giant moths rushed around the
corner and filled the courtyard. Each swish of a palm-sized wing reverberated
until the flapping deafened me.

The moths coalesced into a red and black tornado
that tightened, and reformed as a lissom figure slinking towards me.

The red-eyed female had warm brown skin and a wild
cascade blonde hair. Tattoos glowed on her cheeks. She smiled, a toothy flash
that made my insides clench. The sum of her features was vaguely familiar, but
the expression on them alien.

What the
hell is she?

Ruthlessly dampening my shock, I hurled a ball of
icy fire. My aim was true. It struck her chest, and consumed her in riot
flames. With a sharp command, I froze the fire into jagged icicles.

The ice sculpture crackled in the warmer air,
glistening under the moonlight.

Quiet laughter puttered from the
amethyst
smoke as it crushed together. “Do you have such
a trick for a trickster?” From the smoke swaggered a dark-skinned male with
amused purple eyes. Runes of power were inked across his bare chest, and lower,
below his navel and above the waist of his tattered jeans between twin strips
of pelvic muscle.

“Cael!” Gwendolyn spun around and pointed at the
female I’d frozen, jaw dropping, eyes bulging.

I turned with a sense of dread.

The ice cracked then splinters shot in every
direction.

With a swoop of my arm, I conjured a wall of
warmth. The shards melted long before harming me, or Gwendolyn, now cowering at
my heels.

The female shook out her hair. Irritation marred
the harmony of her diamond-shaped face. “The beings of this time are tedious.”

With a flick of her wrist, I levitated ten feet
into the air, spread-eagled.

“Calling on the elements to kill an enemy is
senseless,” she scolded. “Hot blood flowing through your fingers, spattering
thickly over your face, dripping a flood onto your bare toes….” She gasped,
breathless with excitement. “That’s what makes a kill magnificent. Not showy
demonstrations of power.”

I couldn’t move my limbs.

My eyes swivelled, and I rolled them down to fix a
glare on my captor. I eased a fraction of her hold with a hard won flex of my
banked power.

Somehow she suppressed my magics. Locked it tightly
inside me.

I bit out, “Release me,” through stiff lips.

“Is that all you can manage?” She cocked her head.
“So weak? Perhaps you’re not the one I seek.” She turned her thoughtful gaze to
Gwendolyn.

The vampire gawked at the newcomers. Stunned as she
seemed, a gleam of anticipation cast a sly edge to her features. “Who are you
looking for?” Gwendolyn licked her lips, eyes darting to the side to keep track
of the male who circled her appreciably.

He lifted a lock of her hair and sniffed it.
Trailed his fingers across her waist then spanked her ass hard. “This one is
mine.”

“Curb your lust.” The female beckoned to the
vampire with a curl of the fingers. “We choose our pets later.”

Gwendolyn’s face blanked. Without pause, she
stumbled to the female and dropped to her knees, face upturned, and expression
rapturous.

The male snorted. “Like you waited to choose
yours?”

Tensing, the female pierced him with a scary look.
“Your meaning?”

They locked eyes. Leaned infinitesimally closer.
The mounting tension made it difficult to breathe the air was so laden with raw
energy.

Sensing dissension, I naturally began to plot.
If they fight it grants me an opportunity to
escape.
To my disappointment, the moment passed, and the burst of energy
eased.

Both strangers jerked as if freed from a
constricting hold.

I suspected there had been a silent battle fought,
the victor unknown.

“The fairy,” the male drawled, rolling his massive
shoulders as if weight lifted.

“He’s not fae anymore.” Sickly perspiration studded
the female’s brow. It was dabbed dry by the back of her hand. “Did you not feel
the turmoil bleeding from him? It disturbed the very air.” She dragged her
tongue over her bottom lip. “Divine. Virile. Magnificent.”

“In love.” The male crossed his arms and rocked
back on dusty heels. “There was darkness in him, but nothing compared to the
radiance of the light.”

She waved away his words. “He’ll make me a fine
consort. That silly twit will do something to set him off. With all that rage
exploding inside, fuelling dark desires he can’t possibly comprehend, he’ll
look for someway to cope. Then he’ll be mine.”

“We’ll see.”

“You have no faith in my charms. Is this body not
perfection?” Turning her attention to the prostrating figure at her feet, the
female pouted. “No, you’ll not do at all.”

An invisible hand swatted Gwendolyn across the
face.

Flying across the concrete the vampire Queen rolled
to a stop at the base of the crumbling staircase. Eyes wide with shock her head
was twisted backwards, the bones in her neck a grotesque protrusion.

The female looked at her blood-encrusted nails with
a moue. Frowned. “So breakable.”

Violet eyes smouldering the male spun on the female
to shove her chest. “I wanted her.”

“Quit bellyaching,
Ti Malis
.” On the intonation of his name, her voice deepened to a
guttural rasp.

She pushed back hard enough to dislocate his
shoulder.

Grunting, he yanked it into place. Rolled the joint
and flexed his fingers. “Bitch.”

“Imbecile. Her head is attached. She is vampire and
will heal.” Her fearsome gaze returned to me. “More importantly, she’s not the
one I seek. This cesspool,” she shuddered, “is crawling with nothing else but
vermin.”

In my periphery vision, I watched the whitish
radiance die.

My sensitive ears picked up the rustle of clothing,
and the shuffle of bare skin as the gritty floor abraded it. My nostrils flared
at zesty scent of the forest.