Page 43 of Between Bloode and Death (Between the Shadows #5)

CHAPTER

FORTY-TWO

Val watched Talon shift and disappear around the house with the others.

Good. With him and the others winging their way to the bazaar, where the rest of the crew should have been waiting, they’d be safe enough until their major battle with Vladimir.

In the garage, she readied several of her dead to wake, just in case she needed to use them. She still didn’t know why Khent thought her way of commanding the dead a big deal. She’d always fused a piece of herself to them.

Human magic users weren’t like mages. Necromancers, sorcerers, and most witches had to sacrifice or use power outside of themselves to do magic. Only magir could call upon some mystical source from within.

She glanced at Khent, curious. How did vampires command the dead? Bemused to see him staring at her so intently when they had a pretty big danger facing them, she turned her attention back to the new vampire and his Bloode Witch.

She and Talon had studied the Night Bloode for a while before getting Riley to owe them a favor.

Duncan, the revenant, stood before them now.

The fastest of all his clan, deadly, and vastly more intelligent than any enemy had a right to be.

His affability bothered her. This vampire was all smiles while cutting your head off.

Khent didn’t seem alarmed to see him. Then again, he looked a little distracted.

“Focus,” she murmured, more to herself than to him.

“On that?” Khent nodded toward MEC and his vampire buddy and snorted. “Why? He won’t do much but talk us to death while his mate flashes around unimpressive witchy magic.”

“Hey.” Macy called up a ball of fire, holding the flaming red mass in one hand.

“This is serious, Khent. She’s a necromancer, and we’ve got a host of dead bodies all over the place lately.

The bazaar is currently crawling with death magic.

” Macy turned that glare on Valentine. “You’ll need to come with us, Ms. Darkmore. ”

“Bite me.”

Duncan bit back a grin.

Khent laughed, which seemed to surprise Duncan and Macy, as well as half of the MEC agents.

Grizz landed in front of them in silence, shocking most of MEC.

“You really have a nice touch with your gargoyle,” Khent said.

“Thanks.” Val smiled at him.

Then she noticed the flutter of black smoke at his back. He saw her looking and shrugged. “It’s necessary.”

Whatever he needed was his business.

“What in the five hells is that?” Duncan said, staring at Khent’s darkening wings.

Val ignored him. “We need to go deal with Vladimir.” At the bazaar—where the shifters had gone to meet up with rest of the crew.

Not good. Worried about Talon and their makeshift family, even if the shifters did still fear her, she wanted to get MEC out of the way so she could help the others. “Did you know about trouble at the bazaar?”

Khent shook his head. “With all that’s been happening with Morpheus, I admit I’ve been lax about reality.”

“Hey, we’re talking here. Us and you,” Macy said, pointing from her team to Val and Khent, her wary gaze circling to Grizz.

“Lovely gargoyle,” Duncan murmured, his British accent adding a sophistication to the handsome predator. “I fancy I could take him.”

“May I, Val?” Grizz asked in a low rumble.

Everyone on the MEC side seemed to freeze.

“Not yet, Grizz.”

“Is he dead or alive?” Cho asked. “I’m really confused.”

“Clearly he’s dead.” Duncan cocked his head. “I think.”

Macy waved her fiery hand around. “It doesn’t matter. Look, Ms. Darkmore. We can’t have necromancers running amok in the city. We all know what happens when your kind is off the leash.”

“Your fear and ignorance are not my problem.” Val crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ve been railroaded by you magir my entire life. My existence is perfectly valid. I’m not the one causing problems in the city. That would be Spectre.”

“He’s a necromancer?” Macy frowned. “I thought he was a sorcerer.”

“No,” Cho, her demon buddy said, his power clear in his red eyes and ruddy skin. “That was Sebastian Castle, remember? He’s dead now.”

“Oh, is he?” Macy glared at Khent.

Val hated to admit it, but the striking witch felt powerful. She had height and curves Val had often longed for herself. She also had a hunky vampire mate who let her take the lead.

Glancing back at Khent, who saw her looking and crossed his own arms over his chest, mirroring Val, Val wondered how far he’d let Val lead him. If he’d let her take charge. Though to be fair, he hadn’t ordered her to stop talking or leave. That was something.

“Sorcerer, necromancer. Who cares? We have things to do.” He shrugged one shoulder, and Mila took off.

Grizz remained, prepared to fight if he had to.

Val didn’t want him injured, having intended for him to fight Vladimir’s minions with her. This mess with MEC had come at a bad time. “Look, Bloode Witch, you—”

“My name is Macy. I’m not here to give you a hard time. But we have protocols for a reason. We—”

Val stopped her right there. “What you have is a necromancer who intends to take over the city. Not me. Spectre. He’s teaming up with a demon god from Irkalla.”

Duncan perked up. “Oh?”

“Nergal will soon have his Staff of Blight back. With it, he’ll demolish everyone in the city before spreading pestilence and war across the world.”

Everyone around them froze as awareness of a new and pressing danger impacted.

Khent added, “We’ve been trying to stop this from happening. But now that you want to drag my mate into your tangle of idiocy and incompetence, you’re creating unnecessary problems I’m happy to solve for you.”

“Mate?” Duncan gaped and looked kind of cute, his fangs hanging out while he stared at Khent and Val. “You have a mate?”

“A human mate?” Macy asked, equally agog.

“Yes. She is more than acceptable. A superior human well acquainted with death.”

Val stared at Khent, aware of the pride in his voice that warmed her and turned all that gooey affection she had for the guy into something deeper. A strong bond between them becoming stronger.

One of the MEC enforcers rushed to Macy and whispered in her ear.

“What?” Macy glared at Val again. “Your necromancer is killing left and right while his undead take over Capitol Hill. In front of normal humans!”

“A right problem, eh?” Duncan grinned. “We haven’t had a good battle in a while. You coming, Khent?”

“Go on. Valentine and I have things to do here.”

“Duncan, I can’t just leave this—”

The vampire squeezed his mate in a hug. “Macy, she’s not the issue right now. Let’s go kill demons. You know I missed the battle the others had with Hanbi. Still irks me, to tell the truth.”

Khent waved for them to go. “Yes, yes. Irkalla is all the rage. Go kill some galla demons. Tell them I send greetings.”

“This isn’t over,” Macy warned.

Val wanted to kill her and revive her, but the challenging look on Duncan’s face told her to wait.

“Come on, Macy,” her demon friend said. “He’s using upir too.”

“Cho. Wait. There are dead vampires killing people? Shit. MEC, let’s move!”

The rest of MEC dove for their cars and lit out.

“I’ll meet you there.” Duncan kissed Macy and smiled. She smiled back.

Like an actual couple.

Val stared.

“Cho, back her up,” Duncan ordered.

Macy’s friend nodded.

“Fine, but hurry up, Duncan. And don’t get dead.” Macy glared at Val, who gave her the finger, which earned a low chuckle from Khent.

The witch and her buddy followed the others, leaving the premises in a cloud of dust.

Val didn’t know what to do.

Duncan approached.

Khent didn’t tense, so Val figured she didn’t need to worry.

“What’s going on?” Duncan asked. “We’ve been busy looking for the Bloode Stone.” He didn’t avert his gaze from Khent’s dark wings.

“I know.” Khent quickly summarized what they’d been dealing with.

“Bloody hell. Nergal sounds like a right prat.”

Aisha, where is the pack? Are they safe?

The witch replied, They are underground at the bazaar. We used the teleportation spell Talon had prepared. But there is danger here. A large being calling himself Ti-gí, the shining one.

“Oh, shit.”

The vampires stopped talking. Khent asked, “Valentine?”

“I need to go. Grizz will take me. Nergal’s champion is at the bazaar attacking the pack and everyone else.”

“Yet the necromancer is in the city attacking humans.” Duncan rubbed his chin. “An obvious diversion, but which one is the real battle?”

“Yeah, this feels off.” Val didn’t like it.

“It does.” Khent frowned. “I will come with you,” he told Val.

“Actually, since I’m going to the bazaar, would you check on Vladimir for me? If he’s still working with the corruption we felt before, he’s more a threat than Nergal’s guy.” I think.

“Hmm. True. Duncan and I will check him out then meet you at the bazaar.”

“Okay.” She turned to Grizz, but Khent stopped her.

To her shock, he kissed her soundly. And while he did, he poured something into her. A lot of death magic, oddly enough, and what felt like his…soul? Yet Khent had once mentioned that vampires didn’t have souls.

“Wh-what was that?”

“Affection, I believe.” He smiled, the vampire so beautiful it took her a moment to realize he was shifting in front of her.

In seconds, a huge eagle-owl had taken his place while next to him, a large raven waited.

“That was so sexy,” she gushed. “Just saying.”

Khent winked and flapped his wings, a powerful takeoff into the night sky with the raven on his tail.

She couldn’t help staring, having never seen Khent in any form but human. Well, and with those glorious black wings.

Val sighed. “Okay, Grizz. Let’s go help the others.” She hoped they were safe, worried more for Talon than the others. She had a bad feeling he wouldn’t be as careful as he should be.

Grizz lifted Val into his arms, and they shot into the sky.

Time to figure out what the enemy had planned and not turn into Nergal’s bitch in the process.