Something Wanton (Mystics & Mayhem) (31 page)

Nathan grunted as I dug my elbow in harder and loosened his hold enough for me to wiggle free.  I barely caught the sheet in time to keep from flashing the entire room as I made my bid for freedom.  I didn’t miss the disappointed look in Zan’s eyes—or Tyler’s.

“So I insulted Evil Mini Me,” I growled, glaring at all three of them as I adjusted my sheet so it would stay put.  When they all gazed back at me with incredulous looks, I wanted to scream.  “What?  He started it!”

“Do you want to explain, or should I?” Nathan asked Tyler, arching one perfect eyebrow.

“This one’s all yours.  You brought her here,” Tyler said, gesturing toward me and dropping onto the sofa in a graceful sprawl.

I hadn’t even noticed that sofa.  It was the exact same shade of beige as the wall and the carpet, making it almost invisible.  I gave him a disgruntled look, a little jealous of his comfy position, and he grinned back.

“What is
wrong
with you three?” I demanded, propping my hands on my hips while being careful not to dislodge my sheet.  “Seriously, why are you so scared of that little ankle biter?”

“Lower your voice!” Nathan hissed, taking a step toward me with a look in his eyes that said he was
seriously considering gagging me for real.  I stepped back, giving him an I-wouldn’t-if-I-were-you look, and he stopped and rammed his hands through his hair instead.  “Em, what do you know about the Mafia?”

All I knew about the Mafia was what I saw on television, the same as everybody else.  They were the bad guys, the guys who
arranged for people to ‘swim with the fishies’.  What did the Mafia have to do with Skippy the Teenage Vampire?

“Vampires have their own version of the Mafia known as the Nosferatu,” Nathan said softly, answering my unspoken question.  “They make the human version of the Mafia look like a bunch of saints in comparison.”  When he saw I still didn’t get it, he sighed again.  “You just got on the wrong side of the vampire equivalent of the God
father, Em.”

At first I just stared at him, then I started laughing.  He had to be kidding.  That snot-nosed little brat was a vampire Mob boss?  Yeah, and I was Snow White. 

I looked around the room, expecting everyone to be smirking at Nathan’s little joke.  But apparently I was the only one who was amused.  In fact, they all suddenly looked entirely too serious, even Zan.

“You’re joking, right?” I asked, my laughter dying as quickly as it had started.  “You mean to tell me that Skippy is a vampire
kingpin
?”

“Yes, baby, he is.”  Nathan’s expression was strained, his arms tensed at his sides.  “Size is no indication of power, Em.  You should know that better than anyone else.  Skipper has more connections than God.  He’s made people disappear for a lot less than what you said today.  And that’s not the worst part.”

It got worse?  Worse than pissing off the vampire Mob king?  What could be worse than that?

“He can make you…do things,” Nathan said, really softly, like he was trying to find a way to break something to me gently.

“Things?”

“He can turn you into a puppet on a string,” Zan said, giving it to me straight.  “He’s one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet, Firecracker.  He can read your mind, rewrite your past, even take control of your mind and use you for whatever purpose strikes his fancy.  He can make you turn on your best friend, or even kill yourself.  And all without touching you.  Hell, he doesn’t even have to be in the same room with you.  That could be
really
bad now that you’re—”

His voice died as a low growl began to rumble in Nathan’s chest, growing louder and louder by the second.  Zan flicked an apologetic glance at him, and I followed his gaze to find Nathan staring back at him stonily.  There was more they weren’t telling me, and, for the first time in my life, I really didn’t want to know.

Which, of course, is why I asked.

“Now that I’m what?” I asked in a small voice. 

For a long time, no one said a word.  Then, with a soft sigh, Nathan turned me around to face him.  There was something sad in his eyes when he spoke, something that touched me way down deep, in a place I hadn’t been sure was even there anymore to be touched.

“The goddess you were born to be,” Nathan whispered, reaching out to touch my cheek.  “You just became the most powerful witch on the planet, Em.”

Is that all?
I thought with a roll of my eyes.  That’s what all the tension was about?  Really, it wasn’t like I hadn’t been in worse situations. 

I could see Nathan, Tyler, and Zan were waiting for my reaction, so I shrugged.  I was powerful.  I got it.  I just didn’t think it was that big of a deal.  As long as
Skippy
didn’t know what I could do, there wasn’t anything to worry about.  Right?

“Great.  Perfect.  So, I’m some kind of
super witch for real now?”

I watched as three sets of eyes widened in surprise simultaneously.  For a second nobody said anything,
and then Nathan chuckled and pulled me back into his arms.  I laid my head against his chest and just let him hold me for a few minutes, enjoying being close to him again.

“That’s our girl,” Tyler muttered, laughing softly.  “Well, since Em doesn’t seem all that fazed by the news that she just became a magical deity, I think we should move on to more immediate matters.”

“Like what?” I asked, burrowing closer to Nathan.

That’s when I noticed something was off.  Nathan felt cool to me again.  Not cold, really, but cool the way he had when I was human.  He hadn’t felt like that the night before.  He had felt warm
, since his temperature had actually been a little higher than mine. 

Frowning, I glanced up at him and found him smiling down at me, his eyes heavy lidded and drowsy.  I recognized that look immediately.  It was the same look I always wore when I was close to Tyler.

“Nathan, am I
warm
?”I whispered, awed by the possibility.

“Yes, baby, you are,” he murmured, kissing the top of my head and holding me a little closer.  “It’s like holding bottled sunlight, holding you right now.”

I looked at the needle in my hand, thought about the nearly empty blood bag that had been pouring Tyler’s blood into my veins, and then turned to look at the donor.  Tyler’s warmth was intoxicating and that aura around him was addictive.  Nathan looked like he was both.  Tyler just smiled at me, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

“Okay,
what the hell am I
now
?” I grumbled.  “And no vague bullshit answers like goddess or deity.  I want details.  Now.”

“You’re a miracle.”  I was beginning to love Zan.  He gave me straight answers.  He didn’t beat around the bush or sugar coat things.  “You’re a bandraoi and a
darkling and a…”  His voice trailed off and his brow furrowed in confusion before he turned to Tyler.  “What’s that word again?”

“Nephilim,” Tyler said, watching me closely.  “That’s not the first bag of my blood you got, Em.  We almost lost you for real this time.  The wound wasn’t healing, and there was nothing Shea could do for you because you’re a darkling.  You were bleeding out.”

“Nephilim?” I repeated, still confused.

“You’re kind of part angel now, baby,” Nathan explained, watching me as closely as Tyler was for my reaction.

“I’m
not
going to grow a set of wings, am I?” I moaned, unable to stop myself.

“No, you’re not going to grow wings,” Tyler snorted, laughing.  “You wish you were that awesome.  But, you will be…different.”

“What does that mean?”  Different?  Oh right!  Because I wasn’t already a big enough freak with the glittery eyes and the blood witch powers.

“Well, you were already immortal, so that won’t be a big deal,” Tyler said, shrugging.

“If I had been human, would it have made me immortal?” I asked.

“A small amount of my blood would have healed you without making you immortal,” he explained, shaking his head.  “We gave you six pints, though.  I had to donate twice.  If I had given that much to a human they would have become a demigod.  Given that you’re a darkling, and the fact that you were already so powerful as a bandraoi, you’re going to have the kind of power that hasn’t been seen in millennia.  I can’t say exactly what new gifts you’ll develop, but I expect they’ll be spectacular.”

Great.  More spectacular ‘gifts’ I didn’t want and could have done without.  More gifts some asshole would probably hunt me for. You know, because I didn’t have enough of those to start with.

“So what you’re saying is you really don’t know
what
you’ve turned me into?” I asked, my voice hard.  “Is that what you’re telling me, Ty?”

“More or less,” he muttered, looking away from me uncomfortably.  “It’s not an exact science, Em.  We don’t usually give at the local blood bank, you know.  But…I couldn’t watch you die, beautiful.  I couldn’t.  I did what I had to do. It was the only way to save you, and I won’t apologize for it.”

Don’t get me wrong, it was really great of Tyler to save my life.  But what had getting that much of a celestial being’s blood turned me into?  I felt like a chemistry experiment.

And what about the demon I shared my body with?  Somehow, I didn’t think she was going to be happy that I was now as much angel or nephilim or whatever as demon.  Was my body now literally a battleground for the war between good versus evil? 

I took a deep breath and decided not to panic.  So I would have another set of abilities to get used to.  I had been there before.  I talked to the dead.  I had faced demons. I had survived waking up a card-carrying member of Club Semi-Deceased.  Whatever Tyler’s blood did to me, I would just have to learn to work with it.

“Okay, moving on,” Zan grumbled, looking bored with the conversation.  “We have other things to take care of.  Em’s a big girl, she can deal.  If I had to guess, I’d say she always does.”

“Zan’s right,” I agreed, nodding and trying to pull out of Nathan’s grip.  He wouldn’t let me go, though, so I just turned in his arms until I could face everyone in the room.  “What time is it?  Hamilton only gave me until midnight to turn Ainsley over, and it has to be almost midnight now.  We need to plan a defense.”

“It’s a little after six, Em,” Nathan said quietly, giving me a sympathetic look.

“No, that can’t be right,” I told him, shaking my head.  “Tyler and I were at the pond at seven.  I know because I looked at the clock in Tyler’s Jeep when we got there.”

It was completely silent in the room for a few minutes.  They didn’t say a word.  I had learned over the past few months to interpret long, uncomfortable silences to mean the shit was about to hit the proverbial fan.  I looked at Tyler but he turned away quickly.  Nathan wouldn’t meet my eyes, either. 
With no other choice, I turned to the one person in the room I could count on to be brutally honest.

“It’s not a mistake,” Zan
said, wincing when I gasped in horror.  He didn’t really have to explain. I knew what he was trying to tell me.  But he went ahead and told me anyway.  “It’s a little after six in the morning, Firecracker.”

I started to say something, but then stopped.  What was there to say?  We had missed the deadline.  I had no doubt
Hamilton hadn’t been bluffing.  He wasn’t the type.  If the others hadn’t handed Ainsley over—and they damned well better not have—he had targeted every witch and vampire for miles around.  How many had died because of the hatred one man had for his own sister?  How many families, friends, were in mourning for those they loved?

The blood on their clothing was suddenly all I could see.  While they had been trying to save my life, others had died.  There was nothing I could have done, but that didn’t keep me from feeling the guilt for it.  Had Nathan even had time to warn them?  Had they been able to save any of them?

“Grams?” I whispered, choking back the sob working its way up to my throat.  There wasn’t time for that.  I could break down later, after I found out who I was grieving for.

“Was instrumental in saving most of the witches from
Hamilton and his goons,” Nathan said, holding me close.  “She and Ainsley are fine.  Hamilton made the mistake of targeting her first—and in person.  I don’t think he’ll be taking her on again anytime soon.  She retaliated and it got ugly.  She sent out the initial warning to the other witches in the area that their sanctuary had been breached, and then started hexing the hell out of everything that moved.”

It felt wrong, being happy when so many others had died.  But she was my Grams, the only family I had left.  I knew it was something I was going to have to face one day down the road, but I wasn’t ready to let her go yet.

“What about Kim and Blake and their families?” I asked, looking from one of them to the other.  “Is everybody okay?”

“Blake’s mother is a psychic, she saw them coming.”  That was Tyler.  His voice was low and hard and I thought I heard a catch in it, but it was gone before I could be sure.  “Blake’s parents and his brothers and sisters are safely hidden away
.  They’re fine.  So is Blake.”

I knew I was going to have to hear it, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask.  It had been too much to hope that everyone I loved would come through the carnage without a scratch.  Grams and Blake were fine, and Grams had taken care of Ainsley.  Nathan, Tyler, and Zan were all obviously in one piece.  That only left one person on this dirt clod of a planet that I cared about.