Anthony went back to the transparency. “I’ve called a summit for tomorrow evening with some of the top faction leaders and the local preternatural council to discuss how we can proceed and replicate what’s been done in Cary Town. Cole, even though you’ve been officially banished, we’d like you there. This concerns the pack, too. You’ll formally apologize, and I’ll graciously pardon you.”
The werewolf growled. “Absolutely not. I’m here because of the danger The Cycler poses to our way of life. I’m not on board with using it as a springboard to solidify your power base.”
Anthony’s eyes flashed red. “That isn’t what this is about!”
“Like hell it’s not!” Cole slammed a fist on the table and stood. “Count me out of the rest of this charade. You all can deal with this mess on your own. Jane. Let’s go.”
Jane stood to follow her mate out, while the others at the table argued amongst themselves. Anthony was still yelling at Cole to try to bring him back to his side.
“Guys…” It was Anthony’s human mate. Charlee had tried to stay out of most of it.
No one heard her.
“Guys!” she screamed.
Everyone stopped. Anthony’s blind ambition turned immediately to concern. In Hadrian’s opinion, if they wanted to take Anthony down, all they needed to do was kidnap Charlee. But he’d met Jack long before he’d known about Charlee.
“My water just broke.”
Jane rushed to her side and helped her get up from the table.
“Jane…” Cole said, his tone warning.
The demon’s eyes glowed dangerously red. “No. I’m staying with my friend until she has her baby. I don’t care what our issues with Anthony are.”
“I don’t want you alone with a bunch of vampires,” he said.
“I can handle myself.”
Suddenly the meeting had turned from an initiation of Anthony’s police state to a single-minded focus on bringing an abomination into the world. The vampire king kept his most trusted guards around his mate constantly. And no matter how much he tried, Hadrian was kept at arm’s length where Charlee was concerned. He suspected Anthony was power-mad anyway, but his child was what drove him to diabolical greatness. Jack’s plans drove the vampire king even harder.
Cain spoke up. “While you all play nursemaid to the human mate, I’m going to do something useful. Anthony, can we assume a war soon if we fail to find Jack in time?”
Anthony had been leading Charlee toward the penthouse door to get her inside and comfortable. “Yes. And there is no guarantee we’ll win. Especially as unorganized as we continue to be.”
Their disorganization was a matter of opinion.
“Then I’ll go talk to the angels and see if we can get more muscle behind us. The warrior class loves a good brawl. This could upset the balance enough to garner their involvement.”
As the meeting dispersed into chaos, Hadrian slipped out to check on Dayne’s progress with the blood.
***
Cain was irritated when he reached the lobby of Heaven. Of course Anthony would use this to benefit his personal agenda. The demon had seen it coming a mile away. Half-breeds were so unoriginal. How Cain had allowed himself to get dragged into all this, he’d never know. With the demon abilities to be noncorporeal, use thrall, move things through telekinesis, shapeshift into nearly anything, and go invisible, they could operate as usual even if the world fell into total chaos and the magic users and humans overcame the preternaturals. They’d just have to be more careful.
It wasn’t as if the humans could follow him into his dimension. But he didn’t trust witches and their ilk. If he’d learned anything in his thousands of years of existence, it was that there was no end to the creativity that could be employed by a magic user to reach their ends. If the dimensional portals could sense a demon and let them pass through, was there any reason similar things couldn’t be created in the human world that would identify demons for what they were and keep them out? They’d suffer and starve in that case.
But if this thing went badly, the entire demon race could end up sealed in glass jars and lined up on shelves in some superwitch’s basement. Their numbers weren’t impressive, certainly not compared with human armies, magic users, or the other preternatural factions. Cain had no intention of ending up that way for all eternity.
The demon marched up to the reception desk. “Are you aware of the war that may be brewing on earth?”
“Um... I’m just the receptionist. I’m not privy to...”
He leaned over the counter, moving into her personal bubble. His voice came out low and deadly. “Then go find somebody useful.”
She shot out of her chair and scurried behind the gold gates. Several minutes later, an unfathomably beautiful male angel came out. It was one of the warrior angels. Created, not elevated. Cain wasn’t particularly into men, maybe it was because food and sex were so intertwined for him, and he could only feed from human females. But he could appreciate the art of a perfect physical form, whatever gender it happened to be in. Thousands of years of existence made the idea of homophobia quaint.
The angel was tan, quite natural for a place with no darkness ever. He had long blond hair that seemed to radiate the light of Heaven itself, a strong jaw, and light blue eyes—so light they seemed almost transparent.
He gave Cain a perfunctory once-over as if the demon were a shipment of something dreadfully boring. “Who let the riffraff up here?”
“As you know, nobody has to let me into the lobby.”
“Someone should change that rule.”
Cain rolled his eyes. “Are you aware of the war that may break out on earth?”
“Which one? There are always wars. Humans live to torture and kill each other. Surely you know that by now.”
“I think you know which war. The one that would include humans and magic users against preternaturals.”
The angel shrugged. “There have been rumblings.”
“Would you be willing to get involved if it became necessary?”
“Oh, I don’t think so. The man upstairs wouldn’t like it.”
Cain wondered if the Hebrew god actually resided in a tower at the top of some stairs. Nobody who knew the score referred to him as “God” or “His imperial Majesty” or anything else that seemed like a true sign of respect. It was always “the man upstairs.” It had been so for as long as he could remember. As far as he knew, the Hebrew god wasn’t crying himself to sleep over it—assuming gods slept.
“This could upset the balance that’s been created. It would be utter chaos.”
The angel laughed. “We don’t care. They destroy their world, and we’ll find somewhere else to place them.”
“You think the other gods will allow that? The man upstairs only has control of the one dimension and Heaven. I’m not even allowed to feed in the other dimensions, even though I can get there. The man upstairs has burned his bridges quite well. Is he prepared to apologize for driving the other gods off? Will he make a peace offering so we have other places to go?” Cain knew the angel had an opinion about it, but he’d never get it out of him. “What will you have to do if the world goes up in flames?”
“Don’t be so dramatic. It won’t be that bad.”
“We have no idea how it would be. Humans are fueled almost entirely by fear. They have enough technology now to destroy the world a hundred times over. Add magic users and preternaturals to that mix, and there’s no way to know what the state of the world will be, or if it will be in any state at all by the time it’s over. Does the man upstairs want to create a whole other planet and erase everyone’s memories? That seems like a lot of work to me. Since he doesn’t ever want to lift a finger for anything else...”
The angel’s eyes glowed bright blue—sending a gust of cold air at Cain. “Watch your tongue, demon. He’s still your sovereign.”
Cain laughed. “He gave up that right a long time ago. What can he do to me that he hasn’t already done? Hasn’t he made me a god as well? I may as well be the god of the earth, too, since I’m the only one who ever goes there, and I’m the only one who seems to give a shit about what happens to it. He’s like a child who has built a city of blocks and gotten bored and walked away.”
“Leave. Now. I can have your access to this area revoked.”
“Sure you can. If you change your mind and are in the mood for a fight, I’ll welcome you and yours into my dimension.”
“If we act, there will be consequences.”
“There always are. But sometimes it’s worth it.” Cain left the angel in the lobby. If they needed the warrior class, he’d come around. The demon was sure of it. He winked at the reception angel on his way out, and a blush crept up her neck.
***
Hadrian found an unlocked window and crawled into Dayne’s cottage. The wards he had weren’t up to snuff to keep a vampire away. Instead, it had drawn him like a beacon. It was only the fact that vamps preferred the city to the forest that kept the sorcerer and his little kitty therian safe.
An orange cat sat on the kitchen counter, green eyes intense, hissing at him, but there was no magic coming off it. Just an average house cat. Hadrian put a finger to his lips. “Shhhh,” he said. The cat glared but let him pass.
He crept down spiral stone stairs that got danker and darker as he went down. When he reached the bottom, he crouched by the door, looking through slats in the weathered wood. There was no need to get involved if Dayne couldn’t do the spell, but from the looks of things, he was doing it.
The sorcerer’s circle was set up, books and tools were out. The cute brunette with the short, choppy haircut stood to the side out of his way. It was anybody’s guess how long Dayne had been chanting, but his energy looked depleted. Good for Hadrian.
As the sorcerer continued to chant, a light emanated from the scroll, lighting up the room like a giant projector onto which images and dialogue appeared—like a movie composed of magic. Greta gasped. Dayne opened his eyes to see the spell had worked and what had instigated the gasp.