Page 79

“I know about seduction!”It was sharp, and Mircea’s eyes flashed amber bright in the darkness for an instant.“What do you think blood does to vampires?How do you think it feels, that first draw, that firsttaste?Not of the blood itself but of what’s in it?Life energy, the same thing that Cassie wields with such power, but can’t control.She just proved as much—”

“She proved shecan!She got us out—”

“And before that?You saw her; we all did.She loved the fight every bit as much as her mother, but she’s not her mother.And even if she was, the gods fell to its seduction, too, didn’t they?Not one of them failed to be corrupted—”

“Careful.”Pritkin was on his feet now, his jaw tight.“Cassie isn’t like them—”

“Not now,” Mircea agreed, squeezing my hand before letting it go.“But as I understand it, Jonas and Rosier’s plan is for the magic workers and demons to create distractions all over Las Vegas.Confusing the gods and forcing them to scatter on wild goose chases while we slip through the city to the current Pythia.”

“Yes, to keep Cassie from having to absorb any more corrupted magic—”

“It wasn’t corrupted,” I said quietly and caught Mircea’s eye.And saw a terrible kind of understanding.Yeah, he got it.

Of course, he did.

The gods had made vampires to feed similarly to how they did.It was a pale reflection, as vamps couldn’t absorb the amount of energy a god did, but it was enough for them to live and for him to understand.And to get angry on my behalf.

“Do you know,” he interrupted Pritkin, who had continued talking, “why new vampires are kept locked away by their families?Sometimes for months, sometimes for years?”

“What?”Pritkin said, as that must have seemed like a non-sequitur.

It wasn’t.

“There are any number of reasons.But one of the most serious is the unfortunate fact that some can’t handle that amount of power.Humans became aware of us for that reason.Some of the newly turned went on a mad tear, always ravenous, never satisfied, and littered bodies in their wake as a result.”

“Cassie isn’t a vampire!”

“No, but she feeds like one, and a new one at that, when she needs to feed more like one of you.Or like your father, a demon lord of immense power—”

Pritkin scoffed.“Is that what he told you?”

“Oh, not when you knew him,” Mircea agreed.“Back before the fall of this world, he was nothing so grand.But now...did you not talk to him?Did he not tell you?”

“Tell me what?”Pritkin snapped.“Whatever lies he concocted—”

“Oh, they’re not lies.The gods’ return was unexpected and caught the council off guard.Most fell in the immediate aftermath, and the remaining few scattered to raise their armies.They were pursued, of course, and hunted down one by one.The one called Adramelech was the last, and I hear he put up quite a fight.

“It wasn’t enough.”

“Adra is gone?”I asked, feeling my stomach fall.He was the most powerful being I knew, other than the gods.If he had fallen...

What chance did we have?

“Yes, but he was clever,” Mircea said.“When they found him, the gods discovered him to be less tasty than anticipated.He had transferred much of his power elsewhere and to the last person they would have ever expected.The one who is now leading the council, or what’s left of it.”

“That’s impossible!”Pritkin said.“My father—”

“Leads the Demon High Council, whether you choose to believe it or not.And he leads it well, from all I’ve heard.”

“And did he tell you that?”Pritkin asked with a sneer.

“Many people have, through the years,” Mircea said evenly.“And he’s still alive, isn’t he?”

“Yes, probably from hiding!”

“In part, no doubt.We all have since the Fall.But he isn’t hiding now, even though Earth is a perilous place for him to be.I received the impression that he has been holding on all these years, waiting for your return, as we all were.Those who believed…”

“And what do you believe?”I asked him.“Mircea, what do you expect me todo?Ever since we got here, I’ve been struggling just to survive, and that was before I stupidly announced to the gods that I’ve returned.They all know it now, Zeus included, or if he doesn’t, it won’t be long.And I’m no closer to Rhea than I ever was!And you said you understand why I can’t go to Vegas—”