Page 42 of Cry of Blood and Joy (French Quarter Vampire Enforcer #2)

Chapter Forty

Enzo

The soft click of heels on hardwood announced Elena’s arrival before she appeared in the doorway, carrying an ornate silver tray laden with refreshments.

The elderly housekeeper moved with practiced grace despite her age, balancing a crystal pitcher filled with deep crimson Chosen Blood, an expensive bottle of bordeaux, and an array of crystal glasses that caught the chandelier’s light like liquid fire.

“ Mon Dieu , I think we all need some refreshment,” Elena said in her warm French accent, her kind eyes taking in the assembled group with maternal concern.

She set the tray down on the antique coffee table, the crystal singing softly as it touched the polished wood.

“Maybe Chosen Blood will help the prince remember better. He looks so pale, poor thing.”

The rich, metallic scent of the blood immediately filled the air—clean and pure, nothing like the grisly stench of violence that usually surrounded my work.

Serenity smiled gratefully at the housekeeper, her eyes warm with appreciation. “Thank you, Elena. Rocco and Steve need something first.” Her healing had taken its toll on her, and she gestured with a shaking hand toward the two recovering men.

“ Oui , of course.” Elena moved with efficient kindness, quickly filling two crystal goblets with the dark crimson liquid.

The blood caught the light as she poured, creating swirling patterns that were almost hypnotic.

She handed the first goblet to Rocco, whose fingers were still trembling slightly from the aftereffects of the spell, then moved to Steve, who looked pale and weary despite Serenity’s healing touch.

Rocco accepted the glass with both hands to steady it, his fingers wrapping around the crystal like a lifeline.

He brought it to his lips and drained it in several deep swallows, his throat working as the rich nourishment flowed through his system.

Almost immediately, color began to return to his ashen cheeks, and the glassy look faded from his dark eyes.

Maybe the Chosen Blood would clear his mind. I found myself holding my breath, watching for any sign that his memories were becoming sharper, clearer. I needed him to remember everything.

He took a deep, steadying breath, setting the empty goblet down with a soft clink that seemed unnaturally loud in the tense silence.

“Now I remember,” he said, his voice clearer and more focused than it had been since awakening.

His gaze found mine. “Boudreaux claimed you killed her. Said you spoke with her at Sweet Babes.” He paused, his brow furrowing as he accessed the recovered information. “Gloria Stenson, I think her name was.”

Gloria Stenson. I remembered her—young, blonde, working the club scene.

The memory flooded back with crystal clarity—Gloria’s nervous energy, the way she’d chain-smoked while spilling information about the trafficking ring, how grateful she’d seemed when I’d promised to put an end to it.

And now she was dead, burned to ash, and I was being framed for her murder.

Someone was setting me up, and they’d chosen their timing perfectly.

FuckFuckFuckFuck

I slammed my fist into my palm with explosive force, the loud crack sounding like a car backfiring. Rose and Alice both flinched. The familiar heat of rage built up in my chest like molten steel. “Damn it. She’s the one who told me where Maximo was holding Joy and the other girls.”

“That’s not all,” Rocco continued. He set down his empty goblet with trembling fingers, the crystal chiming softly against the silver tray. “Maximo’s body was completely burned just like Gloria’s. No flesh on his bones either. A witness claims you’re responsible for both murders.”

Burned? That didn’t make any sense at all. I drained people then left them a dried up corpse. There was no fire, no burning. Was there an arsonist running around the city? Someone who liked to play with fire and was pinning their kills onto me?

I narrowed my eyes, feeling my fangs extend as predatory instincts kicked in. “What witness?” The question came out as a low growl that made the crystal glasses on the tray vibrate slightly.

Rocco pressed his palms against his temples, his face contorting with frustration as he tried to access memories that remained stubbornly out of reach. “I don’t know. Everything went blank after that.”

“That’s when the spell was cast on you,” Keir observed with clinical detachment. “Do you think it was Detective Flanagan who cast it?”

“No.” Rocco shook his head definitively, his dark hair falling across his forehead.

“Everything went fuzzy when Captain Boudreaux arrived. Before that, my mind was clear.” He rubbed his forehead again, as if trying to massage away the lingering effects of magical manipulation.

“It was like fog rolling in the moment he walked through the door.”

Angelo met my gaze across the room, his dark eyes loaded with understanding and anger. Flanagan had crossed Angelo, accusing him of murdering the girls and leaving their bodies discarded throughout the French Quarter. Angelo was never that sloppy.

“When Flanagan was here with Louis DuPont a few months ago, I remember DuPont saying something about someone in the police department pulling their strings.” He went perfectly still, his hands loose at his sides.

“I thought it was someone in Maximo’s organization at the time. Perhaps it was Boudreaux?”

If Boudreaux was dirty, if he was working with Ari or whoever was orchestrating this nightmare, then the entire NOPD could be compromised. They weren’t just framing me for murder—they were systematically cutting off every avenue of help I might have.

“It would make sense that the police will be here soon looking for Enzo.” Keir said as his pale fingers drummed silently against his thigh. “I don’t believe this fire starter is human. I believe Ari has someone powerful in his organization performing these murders.”

I could hear my own heartbeat thundering in my ears. Calm. That’s what I needed to project, even though rage was clawing at my chest like a caged animal desperate for release. “Marsha?” Her name came out as barely more than a growl.

“It would make sense,” Keir agreed with a slight nod, his eyes never leaving my face.

“For whatever reason, they’re systematically setting you up, making it difficult for you to get to her.

Ari must have her for some purpose, a purpose we don’t know why yet.

My guess is that this fire starter will be waiting for you at St. Louis Cathedral in the bayou.

” His expression grew more grave, winter-pale features sharpening with concern.

“We don’t know how powerful this fire magic truly is.

Obviously, it can incinerate humans completely—reduce them to ash and bone—but we don’t know what it could do to one of us. ”

I slammed my fist against the nearest wall with enough force to crack the expensive plaster, dust raining down like snow as the impact reverberated through the room.

Several crystal glasses on Elena’s tray chimed in sympathy with the vibration.

“That’s not going to make me stay away from the bayou,” I snarled through gritted teeth. “Joy needs me.”

The scent of my own blood filled the air as my knuckles split from the impact, but I barely noticed the pain.

I drained the glass of Chosen Blood that Elena offered me. I would need to be at full strength when I went into the bayou.

“No, it shouldn’t.” Keir put his hands behind his back, winter air seeming to swirl around him as his power responded to the tension in the room. He tilted his head. “I hear sirens in the distance.”

I strained my enhanced hearing and caught it—the faint wail of approaching squad cars, still blocks away but closing fast. Fury blazed through me, my control slipping away from me.

“We need to not only rescue Joy,” Keir continued, “but we must also figure out who is wielding this fire magic and eliminate them. This threat could endanger all of us—vampire, Unseelie, and human alike.”

“We need a plan.” Angelo began pacing the length of the Persian rug, his expensive Italian leather shoes making soft whispers against the intricate weave. “I suggest some of us stay here to ward off the police. Steve, Dimitri, Rocco, Rose, Serenity—you all need to stay here with Elena.”

“Nice try.” Serenity rose from her position beside Steve, blue eyes flashing with determination that had helped her cope with Angelo’s possessive ways. “You need me. If anyone gets wounded, I’m the only one who can heal them fast enough to matter.”

Angelo’s jaw tightened, the muscle jumping beneath his olive skin as conflicting emotions warred across his angular features. “I don’t want you anywhere near?—”

She silenced him by crossing the room with fluid grace and pressing her lips to his in a brief but tender kiss. Angelo’s rigid posture softened slightly at her touch. “I’ll stay close to you,” she whispered against his mouth, her small hands coming up to frame his face.

“I’m not staying either,” Rose declared with fierce determination, rising from the leather couch.

She set her goblet of Chosen Blood down on the mahogany end table with enough force to make the crystal ring like a bell.

Dark crimson droplets splashed against the polished wood.

“They have Valentin. I’m not sitting here playing defense while my mate walks into an ambush. ”

“Just try keeping me back, vampire king,” Dimitri drawled from his position on the sofa, that familiar sardonic smile playing at the corners of his mouth despite the pallor that still clung to his features.

“You know how I get when family’s involved.

Particularly the dramatic, self-sacrificing kind of involved. ”

Gianna’s grip tightened on his hand. “Dimitri, you’re still weak from what Enzo did to you.” I could see genuine fear flickering in her dark eyes.

I winced at her condemning words.

She slid his hair off his face. “You were barely conscious an hour ago.”

Dimitri’s expression shifted, the playful mask slipping to reveal something harder, more primal underneath.

“He’s my brother, love,” he said simply.

His free hand came up to gently touch her cheek, thumb brushing away a tear she probably didn’t realize had fallen.

“And you know me well enough to know that’s not a negotiable point.

” He turned that intense focus toward the rest of the room.

“Besides, someone from the Santi family needs to be here to charm the nice officers when they come knocking. You have that whole ‘innocent Italian princess’ thing down to an art form.”

The distant wail of sirens was getting closer now, maybe six blocks away and closing fast. The sound sent panic racing through me even as it sharpened my focus to a razor’s edge. Debating was going to leave us all in the hangman’s noose.

“I suggest you fight about it later,” Keir said with that infuriating Unseelie composure; the subtle tension in his shoulders suggested even the Unseelie king was feeling the pressure.

The sirens were close enough now that I could distinguish individual vehicles—at least four squad cars, maybe more.

“The police will be here any minute.” He turned his gaze toward Lorcan, who stood like a pale sentinel near the French doors.

“The harpies should be outside now. Tell the driver to go back to Court of Thorns and wait for further instructions.”

I was already moving before he finished speaking, my body operating on pure instinct as adrenaline flooded my system.

Sirens screamed even louder. I headed for the back door, boot clicking against the hardwood with urgency.

Every muscle in my body was poised for action, decades of enforcer training kicking in as I prepared to disappear into the night.

Footsteps echoed behind me—Rose’s determined stride and Alice’s lighter, more hesitant gait.

Their desperation matched my own—Rose fearing for Valentin, me for Joy.

Rose was practically vibrating with energy, her need to save Valentin radiating off her so strongly that even my vampire senses could detect it.

The back door opened with a soft whoosh, and the pre-dawn air brushed over my face.

The humid atmosphere was thick with the scent of jasmine and an underlying darkness—the oily smell of the nearby river mixed with urban decay.

Gray light was beginning to creep across the horizon, illuminating the sky in pale streaks that warned about the approaching sunrise.

I could hear the police cars getting closer, their sirens now loud enough to make my enhanced hearing ache.

I let the transformation take hold. Bones cracked and reformed with wet, organic sounds as my body collapsed in on itself, muscles and sinew rearranging with the familiar sensation of controlled falling.

My vision shifted as my human form dissolved into something smaller, lighter, built for speed and stealth.

As a bat, I launched myself into the humid morning air, wings cutting through the thick atmosphere with powerful strokes. The world below took on that strange, echolocation-enhanced clarity that came with this form—every obstacle outlined in sound and shadow.

Just as my feet left the ground, police cars screeched to a halt in front of Crescent Manor, their red and blue lights bathing the elegant facade in garish, strobing colors that competed with the rising dawn. The harsh squeal of brakes and slam of car doors shattered the morning quiet.

The harpies were exactly where Keir had said they’d be—perched on the slanted roof of the carriage house like grotesque gargoyles, their leathery wings folded against their humanoid bodies.

Their eyes glowed yellow in the growing light, and the smell of sulfur and old feathers wafted from their direction.

As soon as Keir, Nyx, and Lorcan emerged from the house, moving with that supernatural grace that made them seem to glide rather than walk, the harpies struck.

They swooped down with lethal grace, talons extending to grasp the Unseelie royalty before launching skyward with powerful wingbeats that stirred up whirlwinds of dust and debris.

Shouts erupted from the ground below—harsh human voices filled with confusion and alarm as the police caught glimpses of something impossible disappearing into the morning sky.

Hang on, Joy, I thought fiercely as I banked toward the bayou, my heart thundering with determination and desperate love. I’m coming, and I’m bringing an army with me.

The wind whistled past me as I flew toward whatever hell Ari had planned for us, but I was ready. I would free her and leave a bloodbath for anyone who tried to stop me.