“Slow down. We’ll head out there. We just wanted to do a little research on this spirit. We aren’t sure how to stop it.” I frowned. “What else is wrong, Chase? It’s not like you to be so panicked over a routine monster fight.”
His shoulders slumping, he dropped into the chair behind his desk. “What’s wrong is this: Do you know the name Brandon Rigal?”
Delilah let out a loud cough. “Yeah, he’s that big muckety-muck lawyer who defends the members of the Freedom’s Angels and the Guardian Watchdogs when they get busted.”
The Freedom’s Angels and the Guardian Watchdogs were two incredibly nasty hate-groups out to oust the Supe Community from Seattle. They had spread to other cities as well. At first the Angels were talk-only, but once the Guardian Watchdogs got involved, and with the Brotherhood of the Earth-Born backing them, now they were all violent. It wasn’t a far step from shouting vile slogans to acting on the rhetoric.
“The wedding just happens to be that of Rigal’s daughter. If the troll disrupts his little princess’s precious nuptials, Rigal will do everything he can to rile up the Freedom’s Angels and the Guardian Watchdogs. Not only that, he’ll drag the FH-CSI through the mud.”
Crap. That put a whole new spin on the night. We had to stop that troll spirit before he lay waste to the nuptials.
“Delilah, look up the troll on the computers. Menolly and I will head out…oh damn it, we can’t. We only brought your Jeep.” We had started out on the hunt for fish and chips, and later, we had planned to go clubbing. We hadn’t counted on a fight. I turned to Chase. “Can Menolly and I ride with your people?”
Chase nodded. “Hurry, though. They’re ready to head out. Delilah—you can use the computer in Yugi’s office. He’ll help you with anything you need.” As we headed out the door, he called after us, “I don’t care how you do it. Just get that troll or we’ll all pay the price.”
MARQUETTE AND BROOKS were partners and they had already left, so Menolly and I crammed ourselves into the backseat of Fry’s patrol car. Fry was lean and tall, and as tough as they came. When she barked, the others jumped. A regular Rottweiler, Chase had said.
She glanced in the back seat as we buckled ourselves in. “Don’t touch the guns and don’t spill anything on the seat. Especially blood.”
I glanced at Menolly, suppressing a laugh. “We aren’t in the habit of grabbing guns, and I guarantee you, Menolly won’t be using me as a juice box.”
“Fine. Hold on. I’m cranking on the siren.” And with that, the siren let out a loud alarm and we lurched out of the parking lot, gaining speed as the drivers ahead of us gave way.
Menolly stared out into the night. “You realize that by the end of this month, we won’t be doing this anymore. Not like this, anyway.”
My mood plunged to gloom within seconds. “I know. I don’t want to think about it.”
“You’d better start thinking about it, because Litha’s coming up in a couple weeks and then…” She didn’t finish. She didn’t have to.
I didn’t answer. There was nothing to say. Within two weeks, I’d be moving myself and my husbands out to Talamh Lonrach Oll, where I would take the crown as the Queen of Dusk and Twilight over the Sovereign Fae Nation.
MY NAME IS Camille Sepharial D’Artigo and together with my sisters, Menolly and Delilah, I came over from Otherworld a few years back. Our mother, Maria D’Artigo, was human, and our father, Sephreh ob Tanu, full-blooded Fae. They met and fell in love when he was on assignment over Earthside. He swept her off to Otherworld and they had us. Shortly after Menolly was born, Mother died from a fall off of a horse. Our father never quite recovered from her death, and we lost him a few months back.
I’m the oldest, and I’m a Moon Witch and High Priestess. And in two weeks, I’ll take the throne as the Queen of Dusk and Twilight. I stand between worlds—between Otherworld and Earthside. Between light and dark. I’m married to three gorgeous men: Smoky—a dragon shifter, Morio—a youkai kitsune, and Trillian, a Svartan—one of the dark and charming Fae. They get along, mostly, and they are the loves of my lives.
Delilah, the second-born, is a two-faced werecat, able to shift into both a long-haired golden tabby, and a black panther. She’s a Death Maiden, serving the Autumn Lord, and she’s engaged to Shade, half–shadow dragon and half-Stradolan. Someday, she’s destined to bear the child of the Autumn Lord with Shade acting as his proxy. Being the mother of an Elemental Lord—or Lady—seems a daunting prospect, but she’s down with it. Delilah’s very maternal.
And then there’s Menolly. Menolly started out as a jian-tu. She could climb walls, ropes, trees with abandon. She could make it across cavern roofs, until the day she fell off into a nest of vampires. Dredge, one of the most dangerous vamps in history, caught her and the result wasn’t pretty. He tortured her and then, at the last, when she could hold out no longer, he forcibly turned her and sent her home to destroy her family. I managed to lure her into our safe room and lock her in. A year of rehabilitation taught her to control her impulses, but she continually battles her inner predator. Menolly’s married to a gorgeous werepuma named Nerissa, and to Roman, prince of the Vampire Nation. They make an odd little trio, but somehow, it works.
The three of us are as different as light and dark. I have hair the color of raven wings, and violet eyes that flash silver when I work my magic. At five-seven, I have big boobs and ample hips and a narrow waist, and while I work out now so I can keep up in a fight, I’m a gurly girl and I’ll always be. Delilah’s six-one, athletic and lean, with short blond hair in a Euro-cut, and about the only time we can force her into a dress is during special occasions. And Menolly is petite, barely five-one. Her hair is the color of burnished copper hair and hangs to her lower back in long thin braids, dappled with beads.
Our mixed blood causes havoc. Our powers fritz out at the most inconvenient times. That wasn’t exactly a big selling point to our bosses at the OIA—the Otherworld Intelligence Agency—and although we worked our asses off, we were never exemplary employees. Between our lapses, and my run-in with a supervisor who got pissed when I wouldn’t blow him, we were shipped over Earthside on what was ostensibly a sabbatical. Things went downhill fast.
We arrived Earthside thinking our stay would be all fun and games. A real chance to explore our mother’s homeworld. We ended up at the frontlines of a demonic war and trust me, saving two worlds, one monster at a time, isn’t easy. We’ve been to hell and back in this war, and until we find the last spirit seal and forever bind all nine away from Shadow Wing—the leader of the Sub-Realms—there will always be the chance that he’ll take control of the portals, force them open, and raze both Earthside and Otherworld. We’re battle weary and we’ve lost too many friends to this war. We just want to finish it and be done, because trust me, war wounds run deep, and we’re all scarred with injuries that are mostly unseen, but always present.
WE WERE ALMOST to Golden Gardens Park when Fry suddenly veered off the road, onto the shoulder. She leaned across the passenger seat, squinting out the window. To the right was a swath of grass, and a large wall leading up to a street that ran parallel with ours. The wall was covered with ivy.
“I thought I saw something big and fast out there,” she said. “Is this creature invisible?”
I glanced at Menolly. “I don’t know if it can fully turn invisible, but I’d say it could camouflage itself against a background of greenery.”
“Come on. Let’s go take a look. Hand me the shotgun, please.” She held out her hand.
I stared at the gun, not wanting to touch it. There was enough iron in that gun to burn my hands if I accidentally touched any part that wasn’t wood.
“Just do it—oh.” She stopped, looking at my face. “You’re half-Fae. Iron thing, right?”
“Right.”
Menolly grabbed the gun, letting out a faint curse as her finger grazed the barrel. She carefully lifted it over the seat. Her fingers were blistered when Fry t
ook the gun from her, but they began to heal up quickly. Vampires healed faster than most people realized, which meant she could touch iron and—while it still hurt—it wouldn’t incapacitate her.
I frowned. “That gun won’t do a thing against this creature. We’re fighting a spirit. Even if you have silver bullets, it’s not going to make a difference.”
“Then what do you suggest I use?” Fry really didn’t sound happy. She gazed down at the gun, then back at the window. “He’s out there—see?”
I plastered my face against the window. Sure enough, I could see his faint form against the wall, blending into the ivy. “Come on, Menolly. We’ll go on foot from here. Fry, why don’t you drive ahead and try to keep people from scattering. If we can keep him from making it to the park, then maybe we can pull this off without the wedding guests ever knowing what’s going on. Tell them…oh, tell them you’re chasing a couple burglary subjects or something that won’t cause a panic.”
With that, Menolly and I hopped out of the car. Fry hesitated a moment, then put the gun down and took off toward the park, which was about a quarter mile down the road.
Menolly and I headed for the stone wall covered in ivy. I had left my shoes in the car, for easier running, and as we passed over a gravel spit, my toes protested. Of course, I had to find the sharpest pieces of gravel around. I hopped across to the grass and wiped off the pebbles that were stuck to the bottoms of my feet.
“What do we do when we get there?” Menolly asked.
I kept my eye on the hulking spirit. Turned out troll spirits were as big as their bodies, which were huge. The smallest troll I had ever seen was ten feet tall, and that was a youngster. Troll parents didn’t let their young go wandering until they were large enough to look out for themselves. But trolls weren’t just tall. They were bulky and muscled and scary as hell.
“At least we aren’t facing a dubba-troll. Two heads are definitely not better than one.” I paused, trying to keep track of where the troll spirit had gone. Then I saw him, up ahead, still on his way to the park. “There he is. Why he’s determined to go to the park, I don’t know.”
“Neither do I, but let’s get a move on. I’m going on ahead. You come as fast as you can.” Menolly sped up. She could move in a blur, like most vampires, and before long she was keeping pace with the troll. The next moment, she was in front of him and ready to try to dropkick him backward. As her foot hit his stomach, it went right through him and she landed in a heap on the grass. The troll didn’t even look back.
“What the hell? Now he’s not corporeal?”
My phone rang as I jogged over to where Menolly had fallen. She was up and chasing him again. I stopped, leaning over to breathe, and glanced at Caller ID. Delilah. I punched the TALK button and tried to keep from panting into the phone.
“Yeah? Talk fast.”
Delilah snorted. “With as many workouts as your husbands give you, I’m surprised you aren’t a champion sprinter. Anyway, I found reference on the GoGargoyle search engine to a particular spirit that seems to be endemic to Earthside. Apparently, some trolls and ogres who stayed behind near the Snohomish area began to fade over the years and they’ve wandered around to the Seattle area. They aren’t true spirits, but faded shells of the creatures they once were. They’ve become a form of wight, though they aren’t necessarily evil by nature anymore. Some dimwit dubbed them ‘vrolls’—vapor and troll mixed—and it stuck. So we’re facing a vroll. Apparently, they’ve lost their sense to hunt, and they’re more like a wild animal who doesn’t understand what’s happened. Poor things are just afraid, from what the reports say.”
“What’s he looking for? How can we stop them?”
“Vrolls are looking for one thing: shelter and a place to hide, where they eventually will fade away into nothing. But when they’re riled or forcibly shoved out of their hiding spots, they turn violent. Then the only thing you can do is either find a new place for the creature to slumber, or put it out of its misery. There’s no reasoning with them. What’s left is pure instinct and drive for self-preservation.” She paused, then added, “It’s really kind of sad, isn’t it?”
I bit my lip. Sad was the word, all right. But even though the vroll was a sorry creature, we couldn’t let it attack a wedding. Especially a wedding being thrown by one of Seattle’s most vocal hate-mongers.
“How do we destroy it?”
Delilah let out a sigh. “You have to drain it of its life force. Menolly can’t. There’s no blood there to drain. But magick will work. We need Vanzir.”
Vanzir could drain energy. The demon had, at one time, been forcibly bound to us, but he proved his mettle and now was a good friend as well as an ally. He was a dream-chaser demon and he had the ability to feed off both the dreams and life force of others.
“Can you call him? We’re at the park and I’m trying to catch up to Menolly and the vroll.”
“I already did. He’s on the way. Smoky’s bringing him through the Ionyc Sea. He’s stopping here to pick me up first. We’ll be there within a couple of minutes. Oh, by the way, apparently vrolls are attracted to sparkly things.” She hung up.
I shoved my phone in my pocket—thank gods for skirts with pockets. Smoky—my dragon-shifter husband—could travel through the currents of energy that separated the Ionyc Lands and kept them from colliding. The non-corporeal dimensions—the etheric, astral, and spirit realms—all formed the Ionyc Lands, and to get to them, one had to either have the ability to shift over or to travel through the great sea of energy.
The dusk was fading. We had only a few moments before it was full-on night, and it would be harder than ever to see our goal. I shaded my eyes with my hands, trying to scan ahead to see where Menolly and the vroll were. The moon was rising, though nowhere near its zenith, but its light was enough to show me the silhouettes ahead. The park was only a few hundred yards beyond. Even from here, I could hear people shouting and laughing.
Fuck. We had to keep the creature out of their path until Vanzir got here. I sent a piercing whistle through the air. Menolly would recognize it. Sure enough, a few seconds and she appeared in a blur.
“What?”
I held up my phone. “Delilah called. Vanzir is on the way. He’s the one who can stop the vroll—it’s not really a spirit, but a faded troll. The only way to stop it is to drain its life force. The creature’s running scared and there’s no way to reason with it. He’s looking for a new place to hide, but if he can’t find it, in his panic he’ll just cause mayhem and havoc all over the place. We have to keep his attention until Vanzir and Smoky get here.”
“He didn’t blink an eye when I tried to smack him one. I went through him like water through a funnel. Something appears to be drawing him to the crowd. He can’t eat them, can he?” Menolly glanced around, then waved to our right. “If he’s looking for a place to hide, maybe the tunnel?”
I glanced over. There was a rounded archway in the wall that supported the street above, leading through to another wooded area. “Good thinking. We need to draw his attention over there somehow. If we can get him behind the wall, then maybe he’ll feel safer and calm down.” Then I had an idea. “Get him to look over toward me.” I took off for the wall.
Menolly nodded, veering off, shouting at the vroll. I raced over to the tunnel, which was pedestrian only, cursing as the gravel bit into my feet. But I ignored the pricks and jabs of the stones, instead focusing on the area in the center of the tunnel. I could create a bright sparkly ball of energy there, hopefully long enough for the vroll to notice it and come running.
Shouts and screams echoed behind me, and I whirled around, skidding to a stop beside the tunnel opening. Oh gods, the vroll had found the wedding, and with it, the silver balloons that were attached to every chair at the event. He was headed right toward the throng of invitees, just as the bride was walking down the aisle.
Chapter 2
“WHERE IS HE?” Smoky’s voice rumbled out from beh
ind me as he, Vanzir, and Delilah appeared, stepping out from the Ionyc Sea.
“Over there, about to cause havoc.” I waved toward the reception.
Smoky and Vanzir immediately took off sprinting. Delilah hung back.
We watched them go. I licked my lips. Smoky was one hunk of a dragon, all right, and he was all mine. Six-four, with ankle-length silver hair that moved on its own, he was tall, lean, and muscled. He dressed in white jeans, a long white duster, and a pale blue turtleneck.
Vanzir, on the other hand, was five-eleven, with a short platinum shag reminiscent of the late, great David Bowie. His eyes were mesmerizing. A continual kaleidoscope, they were a color beyond our perception. Vanzir was punk-chic, gaunt and lanky, and he was wearing a pair of ripped jeans and a black leather jacket over a Metallica T-shirt. Both men were scary strong, and both of them made better allies than enemies.
“I hope this works,” Delilah muttered.
“Whether it does or not, I think we’re screwed. The guests have noticed the vroll.” As much as I didn’t want to, I motioned for her to follow me and we headed over to the wedding ceremony that was quickly turning into a screaming mob. People were swarming, trying to escape. Trouble was, whoever had set up the chairs placed the rows too close together and the guests were having trouble getting out. They were tripping over each other, falling, and in one case, one man was using his folding wooden chair to beat off another man.
“Crap. We need to take control—” I stopped as Menolly raced into the crowd, shouting for order. Unfortunately, a few of them recognized her and began screaming.
“Vampire! Vampire!”
“We’re being attacked, run!”
“Oh my God, we’re going to die!”
Menolly was trying to make herself heard, but the screaming drowned out her voice. Smoky veered off from Vanzir to help her take control. Meanwhile, Vanzir continued directly toward the vroll, who had stopped, obviously distressed by the chaos and shouting. I stared at him, feeling sorry for the creature. He couldn’t help what he was. All he wanted was a quiet place to hide and finish fading away into the mists of time.