“What’s wrong?” Anna hardly ever called her and the whispering worried her.
“They’re going after your vampire.”
Yeah, no crap.
The background noise died away and her voice was at a more normal volume when she said, “They don’t want you to know. They’re afraid you’ll interfere.”
“Who’s they?”
“The Agency. Ben. I don’t know exactly.”
She smiled. They certainly knew her well. “What happened?”
She heard nothing but Anna breathing.
“Tell me, Anna. I need to know.” She needed the information, but she didn’t want it. Didn’t want to know whatever horrific thing the demon had done in the guise of her mate. An image of Nathaniel pinned to the wall flashed through her brain. It couldn’t be any worse than that.
Finally, she sighed. “He crucified someone in front of St. Gabriel’s on Fourth.” She said the words quickly as if that would lessen the blow. “He’s turned. I’m sorry.”
Juliana ran a hand through her hair. Of all the horrible things she’d been imagining, crucifixion hadn’t even made the list. “I need to talk to Jeremiah.”
“He’ll be furious if he knows I called. They’re looking for you.”
“It’s important.” Silence answered her. “Please.”
She sighed again. “This better be worth it.”
The pounding continued on the front door, but she ignored it. Without a code, they weren’t getting in without a ward breaker. A couple of them probably. Thomas rarely used only one type of magic to protect his property.
Noise blossomed in the background on the phone again. After a moment, Jeremiah got on. “Hello?”
“It’s me,” she told him. “Do not yell at Anna. It’s good she called. There’s something you need to know.” She didn’t add that he should have been the one to call her. That he was her friend. That she was more important than a job he didn’t much like anyway. She wanted to say all of those things but she didn’t. They could argue about it later. Now she just needed him to listen.
He said nothing for a beat and the noise dropped away again. “She told me she was calling the boys. I should have known.”
“Listen to me. Thomas hasn’t turned.”
He interrupted before she could explain further. “I know you have some misplaced—”
“He’s demon-ridden,” she said over the top of him.
“What?”
“He’s the host.”
“Are you sure?”
“Would I say it if I wasn’t?” she asked.
“Maybe you’re just trying to buy him some time.”
The insinuation stung. Not so much that she’d lie but that she’d lie to him. “Is that really what you think?”
“No. But Ben will.” His voice had an edge to it. She wondered what conversations he’d had with their boss about her and Thomas.
“I don’t give a crap if he believes me or not. You’ve got to try. If those agents are going up against him armed only for vamps, people are going to get killed.” They would anyway, but at least this way maybe a few more would live. And he was right. She was hoping this would give Thomas some time. That the agents would be too scared to face him. That they’d do their best to avoid him.
“It may already be too late for that,” he said and hung up without explaining what he meant. She could only assume he referred to the agents on the doorstep. She put her phone away and looked for Michael. He was gone.
The pounding ceased, but there were still voices on the other side of the door. She headed to the library, drawn back to that mysterious door and whatever it was Thomas didn’t want her to see. A light shone from the opening. She stood at the top of the stairs and looked into the basement. Her mouth went dry as moans drifted up from somewhere below. Moans from more than one person. She could see nothing past the stairs, as they were enclosed and veered off to the right at the bottom.
She shifted her grip on her gun and kept her back to the wall as she edged down the stairs. She said a silent prayer that Michael wasn’t one of the moaners. Her heart pounded in her chest and blood rushed through her ears making it harder to hear. At the bottom she peered around the corner. She sucked in a deep breath. So much blood. So many bodies. No demon-ridden vampire.
Michael stood in the middle of the floor, surrounded by carnage. She didn’t come any farther into the room. The bodies scattered about were vampires. Mostly. Several were still alive and she didn’t relish the idea of becoming a meal. Mixed in with the blood were bursts of ash and clumps of flesh. Dead vampires. It was impossible to tell how many.
Her eyes swept the room. She forced herself to look past the devastation. Breath vacated her lungs as she realized where she was. “Is this a dungeon?”
Michael turned to face her, his mouth tight. He nodded once.
“Like a real dungeon?”
He nodded again, his face pale, sweat beading his brow.
Her mate had a real, working dungeon beneath his house. And from the looks of the victims scattered throughout the room, he knew how to use every instrument of torture in his possession. Somehow, this didn’t surprise her as much as it probably should.
She took in the extent of the damage. One vampire lay strapped to a surgical table in the middle of the room. Her lip curled as she realized pieces of him were missing. Her eyes searched them out of their own accord. There. A finger. Below the table, another. An ear lay by itself against the wall.
She pulled her gaze away, moved on to the next tableau. Two vampires hung from shackles along the wall. They appeared unhurt but they weren’t moving. Another one was on what she thought was a rack. There was also one in the iron maiden if the pool of blood below it was any indication. Three or four more lay in heaps on the floor, too bloody to immediately see what was wrong with them. And she wasn’t getting any closer to investigate.
Michael looked worse for every second he spent in the room.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine.” He closed his eyes, then hurried past her up the stairs. She took one last look over her shoulder before following him up. So much devastation and it all came back to her. One way or another that demon was focused on her and all those poor fools had just gotten caught in the middle.
Michael slumped in a chair beside the fireplace, his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. He looked up when she stepped into the room. “I called the Council. They’re sending a delegation to clean up.”
“How are they going to get past the agents out front?” she asked. The Council had a lot of pull but there was no way the Agency would let them in while its own representatives stayed outside.
He smiled. “The same way we are.”
A blue glow lit the room as a portal opened beside her.
Her surprise must have shown on her face because Michael laughed. “Did you think the Agency were the only ones to employ portal mages?”
She’d never really given it much thought. Portal mages were prohibitively expensive for most people to hire, particularly on a permanent basis. That would be no obstacle for the vampires.
The Agency wouldn’t be able to come in the same way. The wards protected the whole house and prohibited unauthorized entry by any means. The Council was apparently authorized. Of course, it was probably against Council edict to ban them from any coven property. The fact that she didn’t want the Council involved in this had nothing to do with anything but her personal prejudice. They had yet to do her any favors. And when they acted like they were, it usually came back around to screw her in some way.
Several vampires came through the portal and, at Michael’s indication, they headed down the stairs to the dungeon. The last figure through was a tall, thin woman of Spanish descent. Her dark hair fell in waves down her back framing her heart-shaped face. The sharpness of her features was the only thing that kept her from being stunning.