I took a breath. The air reeked of blood. Blood on the walls. Blood on the carpet. Beast-fast, I changed weapons again, holstering the smaller handgun, pulling the Benelli. Nothing attacked. Kojo and Thema dropped to my sides. Somehow Koun ended up in front. Dang vamp. “We need them alive,” I growled.
Koun grunted in disagreement. He wanted to fight to kill. With him in front, we moved slowly through the darkness.
* * *
* * *
The attacks came from all sides.
Silvers and grays and brilliant shades of greens. I whirled to the rear and fired the shotgun point-blank. The attacking vamp fell, the silver fléchette rounds ripping through her.
My new sword swung as if self-guided. Buried itself in a vamp’s shoulder. Cutting deep and down, at an angle toward the center, slicing arteries. Blood spewed. He fell. All the attackers were down. Once again, combat was over.
“I have two alive-ish here,” I said. “Make sure they survive.” I wiped my sword clean of blood on the clothing of a dead vamp. The blade came away just as bloody. I shook my head and sheathed the Benelli. “Save the humans,” I said.
Into my comms, I said, “Eli, Alex. Premises are secured.” I turned on a toe and raced back up the stairs.
In my comms, I heard Eli say, “Alex. I just found another batch of injured humans. We’re overwhelmed. We need medic.”
“Roger that, already called,” Alex said through the comms.
Medic meant human ambulances and human law enforcement. And since we hadn’t been invited here and had killed lots of people, that meant legal trouble, a weeks-long investigation. I initiated a conference call with Alex and Brandon Robere, in France. Brandon led my legal team. Holy crap. I had a legal team. I walked outside for privacy as the conference call initiated. As it went through, I watched the mess in the backyard. Lincoln called Kojo over for something, and the vamp turned his back. It was a vamp snub, one that said Kojo did not answer to Lincoln and that Lincoln wasn’t strong enough to make him do so. Something had happened between Shaddock and his guest, but that was something to deal with later.
When I had Alex and Brandon on the connection, I said, “Alex, will you provide my current location to Brandon Robere?”
“Got it. Done,” Alex said.
I never felt like talking all vamp-proper, but I sucked it up and did my job, recollecting and using some of the formality I had learned working for the Master of the City of NOLA. I said, “This is an official announcement from the Dark Queen of the Mithrans. This property, its dead and wounded, are hereby claimed as property of the Dark Queen, whose people suffered an attack while rescuing humans kidnapped by a group of rogue Naturaleza. Brandon, feel free to put in all the legalese and send it to me for my e-siggie if needed. Then you can put it under whatever pending, potential, or otherwise legal mumbo-jumbo wrangling you can cobble together. I’ll reimburse the owners for the loss of the property and provide a settlement for their heirs if they died here.”
“Yes, My Queen,” Brandon said. “I’ll contact the State Department and get our emissary on-site as quickly as possible.”
“I’m calling local law enforcement,” Alex said. “Tell everyone to put down their weapons.”
Brandon said, “If Koun is with you, get him to put your banner in the front yard. Brian and I will be home tomorrow, in New Orleans, for the wedding and to correlate the Mithran legalities for the coronation, so we will both be on hand to assist with any fallout.”
“And I’ll trace the financial trail and confiscate all monies used to finance whatever this was.”
I looked around at the dead in the backyard. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You two chat. I’m out.” I removed myself from the call. My ears were getting better. I heard sirens in the far distance.
Koun appeared at my side, having heard the conversation. Vamp hearing was even better than my half-form’s. “You should leave the premises before the humans arrive, My Queen.”
I made a noncommittal sound.
“I have placed your banner in the front yard.” Before the call. I got that. I hadn’t had to tell him. Koun was good at his job. “The media will arrive the moment word goes out that you are here and you have fought another battle. Your Consort should speak with the press and deal with the officials. And you should not be seen, My Queen. You are bloody and . . . not human.”
I tested my snout with big knobby fingers. Still mostly cat-faced. “Yeah. I might scare the babies. I’ll slip out in a bit.”
Koun followed me to the woman on the ground. Monique Giovanni was being held in the arms of one of our female vamps, was being fed and healed. I couldn’t remember the vamp’s name, but I said to her, “Stop feeding and healing this woman. She’s my enemy.”
The vamp didn’t stop. She didn’t even look up.
“Monique, if you take over the will or loyalty of my faithful servant, or try to take her from me, you’re dead meat.” I grinned and showed my fangs, which were really impressive, even by vamp standards. “You be a good little girl, and I’ll let someone heal you.”
She raised a hand as if to claw me or try to take me over. I snatched her hand and broke her wrist. That pain and the not-quite-healed gunshot wound should keep her busy and unable to concentrate enough to use her powers. Koun pulled the lethargic vamp away from Monique, lifted her into his arms, and carried her into the darkness.
Bruiser and another one of the vamps I sorta recognized stepped to my side, the vamp yanking Monique’s arms back. Bruiser was holding a pair of silver null cuffs, a device developed by law enforcement or the military or maybe witches working for both. The cuffs stopped witch prisoners from generating magical power, making them easy to transport or keep in prisons, and the latches were difficult to remove unless a prisoner could get hands up to them. The cuffs worked on were-creatures and other paras too, or so I heard. Bruiser slapped a pair on Monique’s wrists and twisted a second pair until they formed a headband. He locked them across Monique’s head and then secured her hands with regular handcuffs so she couldn’t get to the latches. She tried to bite the vamp who was restraining her, which for some reason, made me laugh out loud.
I was still laughing when Thema, Kojo, and Koun escorted me to my SUV, put me in the back seat with Kojo, and Koun drove us away from the approaching sirens. I looked back and saw my banner in the front yard of the massacre scene brought by my enemies. A small voice inside murmured, This will be the legacy of your war. Betrayal. Ambush. Murder. Death. I hadn’t designed the banner, but it was fitting that the banner was a bloodred background centered with a gold laurel-leaf crown, a pale whitish Glob, a feather, and a puma fang.
“Just freaking ducky,” I said aloud.
Thema, riding shotgun, swiveled in her seat and stared at me, her black eyes glistening in the dim interior lights. “Your people left you at home in your bed sleeping and went to hunt without you. They did not tell you they were going. They did not allow you to share in the glory of battle. I would behead them for such insults.”