I paused the recording, smiling at him.
“I…”
“Before the other elementals find out?” the Fire King repeated, his jaw clenched. “Now look what your secrets have cost us.”
Harker’s hard gaze fell on me. “You bugged his office without asking for my approval.”
“We’re beyond that now, don’t you think? This problem has escalated too far,” I pointed out. “A magical contagion has infected hundreds of supernaturals, including the Legion’s own soldiers, and you’re worried about procedure?”
Harker just shook his head slowly. He looked at the Sea King and said, “What do you know?”
“We’d noticed some changes in Serenity and in some other elementals before the Tsunami Incident,” the Sea King admitted.
The Tsunami Incident. That was what it was being called now.
“We locked away the others, but we didn’t get to her fast enough.” His gaze darted nervously between Harker and Nero. “I swear I don’t know anything else.”
“There’s no time for a thorough interrogation to see if he’s lying,” said Nero.
“My gut tells me he’s telling the truth,” I said.
“As does mine,” Nero agreed.
Harker turned to the other supernatural leaders. “What about the rest of you? Now is the time to come forward and confess your sins.”
“This is not our work,” the Vermillion vampire insisted. “We don’t wave our hands around and conjure spells.” He looked pointedly at the two elementals.
Fire erupted on the Fire King’s hands.
“Put out that fire,” Harker told him.
The Fire King continued to glare at the vampire through his orange flames.
Harker repeated his order.
“See what I’ve had to deal with?” I told him.
Harker ignored me. His hard eyes drew together, burning with wrath. “Put it out.”
I could see his siren’s magic working on the Fire King. The flames on the elemental’s hands went out.
“Now, sit down,” Harker told him.
The Fire King sat in one of Nerissa’s chairs. The other leaders followed suit, before Harker could turn his fury on them.
“Some of you have withheld information,” he said.
The vampire tried to speak, but Harker silenced him.
“Withholding that information from the Legion is what allowed this situation to blow up. The Legion’s Interrogators will sort it out later, after we’ve cleaned up this mess. We’re heading for the Black Plains now. We’re going to follow that army to its source. And you are all coming with us.”
“The Black Plains are no place for civilized people,” the Snowfire vampire protested.
“Coward,” Constantine Wildman chided him.
The vampire bared his fangs at the witch. “This is suicide. What is to stop the infection from getting us too? Then this will all be for nothing.”
“I have a potion to protect you against the effects of Angel Fever,” Nerissa said. “At least for a while.”
She didn’t tell them that the potion was made from my blood. I didn’t know if that would excite or repulse them, but I was glad she was keeping it a secret.
“The stronger your will, the longer this potion will help you resist the effects of Angel Fever,” she told them.
“That means the vampires won’t last long. They are such physical, savage creatures.” Constantine Wildman turned up his nose at them.
The Snowfire vampire launched himself at the witch. Harker froze him midair with a telekinetic wave.
The Fire King chose that fine moment to lose his mind. Fire flamed up on his hands. He swung his fiery fists, hitting the Snowfire vampire hard. Too hard for an elemental. Here we went again.
I looked at Nero, who nodded at me. I ran over to the cell holding Charlotte. Nero blasted the Fire King with a psychic burst. I slammed my hand against the controls, lowering the barrier just long enough for Nero’s magic to knock him into the cell. Then I pounded the button again, and the gold barrier zipped back up over the cell.
The Fire King jumped to his feet. He blasted the barrier with magic once, then he fell unconscious to the floor. I’d shot him with one of Nerissa’s magic tranquilizers on his way into the cell.
“You four will join us in our mission on the Black Plains,” Nero told the four remaining supernatural leaders.
Harker looked at Nerissa, Bella, and Marina. “You three stay here to work on a cure.”
“There’s no guarantee we will find one,” Nerissa told him.
“Just try your best,” Nero said. “Slow the spread as much as you can with your potions.” He looked at the rest of us. “Now let’s go hunt down whoever is controlling the swarm.”
I stood on the airship’s upper deck, looking down on the Black Plains. As the name suggested, the lands were black, scorched as though hellfire had rolled across them, burning everything in its path. Even centuries later, there was nothing left. Nothing but the twisted plants and savage beasts that now reigned supreme in these wild lands.
Even the air smelled like ash. I coughed. No matter how many times I visited this place, it just didn’t grow on me.
“You have lovely hair,” the Snowfire vampire commented, watching as the wind blew my hair across my face. He reached for it.
I blocked his hand. “You touch my hair, and I’ll cut off your hand.”
“You don’t have it in you, a sweet thing like you.”
I drew my sword and launched myself off the floor, slashing out with my blade. A small flying monster, about the size of a turkey, dropped dead to the deck. I plucked it off the wood planks and tossed it at the Snowfire vampire with a smirk. He caught the dead bird, speechless.
I leaned over to wipe the blood off his cheek. I’d nicked him just a smidgen. On purpose, of course.
“You have to watch your back out here in the wild lands,” I warned him. “There are monsters everywhere.”
His eyes grew wide. I wiped his blood off on his shirt, then walked away.
“Showing off in front of vampires?” Harker commented as he joined me at the edge of the deck.
“They are easily impressed by flashy moves.”
“And you managed to scratch him without seriously maiming him.”
“Well, I do have skills, you know.”
“You’ve improved.” Harker looked thoughtful.
“Do I detect a hint of approval in your tone?”
“Perhaps just a hint.” His eyes hardened as they panned across my body. “You’ve changed,” he repeated. “But you still have a long way to go if you want to hold your own with the angels.”
I leaned on the railing, lifting a brow at him. “Are you challenging me to a duel?”
“Are you accepting?”
“All right. When this is over. But I have to warn you, I fight dirty.”
Harker laughed. “Indeed.”
Nero came up behind us. “We’re here. Time to go.”
The supernaturals covered the lands beneath us. There were hundreds of them. The airship circled around them, flying over a small forest a few miles away. The plan was for us to drop down there and stealthily sneak up on the army.
Basanti pushed the vampires, witch, and elemental toward the edge of the deck. “Come on, time to go.” She spoke loudly, command ringing in her voice. It was the sort of voice used to train Legion soldiers.
“We’re not descending,” the Sea King observed.
“Of course not,” she told him. “We can’t land. The monsters feed on magic. They will tear the ship apart. It needs to stay up here.”
“Then how will we get up to the ship again?” the Sea King asked, panic straining his voice.
Basanti showed off her watch. “I have a remote to summon the ship back to us when we’re done.”
The Vermillion vampire glanced at her watch, calculation gleaming in his eyes. “And any of us can activate it?”