Shaking myself, I tried to figure out what the hell just happened. “What the f**k, Adam?” I demanded.
The concern on his face morphed into confusion. “What?”
“Why did you zap her?” I demanded.
He went still. “Sabina, I didn’t. Couldn’t get a clear shot.”
My mouth fell open. “Well, how in the hell did she just disappear, then?”
But then it hit me. She’d fed from Maisie. I squeezed my eyes shut. Beyond my horror that Lavinia had fed from her own flesh and blood, a new terror dawned. Now that my grandmother had Maisie’s powerful blood in her system, she’d be harder to kill than ever. Sure, she was a powerful vampire— maybe the most powerful— but now Maisie’s blood also gave her the ability to use magic.
But that wasn’t the worst of it. Normally, injecting some form of the forbidden fruit into a vampire’s bloodstream cancelled out their immortality and allowed them to be killed. Yet I’d been staked twice in the heart with applewood and lived. My mixed blood somehow protected me from the effects. That same mixed blood also flowed in Maisie’s veins. And now, Lavinia’s. Which meant my grandmother might now be unkillable by conventional means. If one considered applewood stakes or bullets filled with cider conventional.
Before I could fill Adam in on this black news, several humans surrounded us. Their expressions ranged from concerned to amazed. They stared for a few tense moments before a smattering of confused applause rippled through the group.
A balding man with a Nikon dangling around his neck held out his hand. A crumpled dollar bill dangled from his grip. I stared at him, dumbfounded.
“Wow, y’all are amazing,” he said. “I ain’t seen magic like that since that David Blane TV special.”
“How’d your friend disappear like that?” the guy’s friend asked.
I scowled at them and took Adam’s hand to stand. The necklace lay a couple of feet away like litter in the street. I went to grab it, but a dowdy woman in a New Orleans Saints sweatshirt picked it up first. I ripped it from her hands and barely managed not to hiss at her for daring to touch Maisie’s amulet. She scowled at me. “How rude!”
Dismissing her, I pushed my way through the crowd around Adam, ignoring questions and pats on the back. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Adam put his free hand around my arm and led me through the throng. As we went, he mumbled excuses and vague explanations to the crowd. But basically they all seemed to believe we belonged to some sort of magic troupe and that Lavinia was probably hiding in the bushes somewhere nearby. I would have found it amusing if I hadn’t been so busy freaking out.
As soon as we exited the square, Giguhl came up for air. His entire head— from his whiskers to his bald bat ears— was covered in white powder. He blinked the sugar from his eyes and looked from Adam to me. “Uh-oh, what’d I miss?”
“She wanted me to surrender,” I said. My legs felt wooden as we sped through the French Quarter. With so many humans around we couldn’t just flash out, so we walked fast enough to cover ground quickly but not so fast to raise attention. As I walked, my brain was filled with a tangle of thoughts— none of them positive.
“Fucking dirtnappers,” I ranted. “I should have just shot her and been done with it. But noooo. I had to worry about scaring the widdle humans. Stupid!”
Adam patted my arm. “Sabina, I know you’re upset. You have every right to be. But try to keep it down before one of the mortals you’re cursing hears you.”
“To hell with them!” I yelled.
A passing trio of mortals shot me nasty looks. I hissed at them. Not the most mature of reactions, but I was pretty screwed up. After all, it’s not every night a girl gets a chance to kill her nemesis and blows it.
Adam sighed. “Okay so she wanted you to surrender. What happened next?”
For some reason, I couldn’t stop shaking. I rubbed my arms and tried to remember. But before I could gather my thoughts, Giguhl snorted.
“She’s a real piece of work. Like you’d ever surrender.”
With her threats still echoing in my ears, I had to wonder if the possibility was really so far-fetched. After all, she’d promised to come after my friends until I surrendered. “Maybe I should have,” I said. Now that it was over and the shock was wearing off, new concerns cropped up like weeds. How long until Lavinia came after Adam and Giguhl? Had my refusal to cooperate pissed her off more? Would she take it out on Maisie now? Gods, what had I done?
Adam squeezed my arm and pulled me to a stop. “Absolutely you should not have surrendered. Don’t even go there.”
I rounded on him. “I have to go there, Adam. She all but promised she’d pick each of you off until I gave myself up.”
His chin went up. “Let her try to come after me.”
I pulled my arm from his grasp and prepared to drop the next bomb. “She’s fed from Maisie, Adam.”
His jaw clenched and his eyes went all cold and flinty.
“That’s how she flashed out earlier,” I continued, determined to drive the point home. “And if she’s capable of sinking fangs into her own granddaughter, do you really think she’d hesitate to take you out?”
He got in my face, his voice low. “Do you really believe I’d let you sacrifice yourself to that monster just to protect me?”
“Yeah,” Giguhl said, his head jutting up between us. “Enough with the crazy talk, Sabina.”
I pulled back and considered the two stubborn faces of my friends. Their loyalty meant a lot to me, but I’d do whatever I could to protect them. I also knew surrendering wasn’t a real option.
I blew out a breath and willed my stiff muscles to relax. “Okay, fine. No surrender. What now? Gods only know what she’s doing to Maisie at this very minute.” I felt like I was going to throw up as the possibilities paraded through my fatigued brain.
Before tonight it was easier to look at this mission as just that— a series of strategies toward a predetermined goal. But now? Now it was impossible to separate the mission from the dawning horror in my gut, the nagging worry about Maisie, the rage I felt toward my grandmother. And, knowing Lavinia, it would get worse before it got better.
If it got better.
“We need to talk to Orpheus,” I said. “It’s not too late to trade Tanith.”
Adam’s face went still. Like he was mentally maneuvering his way through a minefield. “Sabina,” he began slowly, “you need to take a deep breath and think.”
“I am thinking, Adam. I’m thinking that if we don’t act soon, Maisie will die. We have to get her out of there.”
Adam crossed his arms. “Orpheus made his stance clear. Lavinia must not know Tanith is alive. It would ruin any advantage the mages and fae have right now.”
I snorted. “I’m not so sure about that anymore.”
Adam grabbed my arm. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Guys,” Giguhl said. “Take a deep breath. We’re all on the same side here.”
Ignoring Giguhl, I pushed Adam away. “It means you seem more interested in staying in Orpheus’s good graces than in saving Maisie.”
His eyebrows slammed down. “Really? You want to go there right now? Because you know damned well Maisie is as much family to me as Rhea. In fact, considering you’ve only known her for about three weeks, you have less of a connection to her than Orpheus or me. Just because we have different ideas about how to save her doesn’t mean we care less.”
“I just find it interesting that your ideas also happen to be exactly what Orpheus told you to do.”
“For the record, my allegiance has always been to the Hekate Council,” he said. “I’m a Pythian Guard, remember? I swore to uphold the decisions of the Council in all things. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have my own brain, Sabina. And my logic tells me that in order to save Maisie and ensure the war ends, we keep the Tanith thing under our hats as long as possible. And not to be too blunt here, but if anyone’s motivations are questionable, they’re yours.”
Giguhl emitted a scandalized whistle.
I jerked toward Adam, forcing him to meet my glare. “Excuse me?”
“Please. You’ve made no secret of the fact you want Lavinia dead. Maisie getting kidnapped gives you the perfect excuse to pursue that goal with abandon.”
My voice went nuclear winter. “If all I care about is killing Lavinia Kane”— I pointed behind us in the general direction of Jackson Square— “why is she still breathing? If all I care about is killing her, why am I advocating trading Tanith, which would take away the opportunity for a showdown? And if all I care about is killing my grandmother, why would I bother taking any direction from the Queen or the Council? I’m a godsdamned assassin, Adam. Do you really think I couldn’t launch a covert operation to kill her on my own without the complications of partners or saving Maisie?”
When I finished speaking, Adam stood silent for a few moments. The air between us was so cold and tense it might as well have been frozen. The paper bag crinkled as Giguhl shifted uneasily and looked between us to see who’d strike first. Finally, Adam blew out a breath. “How does it feel?”
“What?” I barked.
“Having someone accuse you of being a blind idiot who’s only motivated by selfish interests.” He mercilessly held my gaze. “Doesn’t feel good, does it, Sabina?”
I swallowed that bitter pill with a grimace. “No.”
Giguhl stuck his head up between us. “Can we stop beating each other up long enough to remember that we all want the same thing? We’re a team, remember?”
Before I could answer the demon in the affirmative, Adam added, “This won’t be the last or worst surprise we’ll face from Lavinia.” He grabbed my hand. “We can’t let her screw with us. And we have to stop beating each other up every time we’re scared or angry.”