Destiny
smiled. “You’ll learn.”
“No
way am…” Bettina pulsed a warning down their bond, Charisse dove and
rolled to the side just as the last remaining vamp minion touched down right
behind where she’d been standing a split second before.
The
creature clacked a series of rapid fire, unintelligible words in his Queen’s
direction.
“Honestly.”
Destiny rolled her silver eyes. “Whine, whine, whine. Good minions…
so hard to find, so easy to subjugate but unfortunately, there’s no off switch…
hmmm, unless I start ripping out tongues.” Destiny giggled; a chilling,
high pitched sound. “Grab the girl Gustave.” Destiny instructed
with an imperious tone, frowning when Gustave did nothing but stand there
glaring at his Queen. “I said grab the girl Gustave.”
“Oh
no, I think tearing out those eardrums has just come back to bite you on your
flat ass Destiny.” Charisse laughed and then gulped, damn, somehow she’d
managed to draw Gustave’s attention her way. And there was a light in his
eyes that was definitely lustful but way more blood-orientated than she was
used to. Shit, she ducked and rolled once more as Gustave leapt for her,
his claws entangling in her pony-tail, bringing her to an abrupt halt.
“Shit.”
Nate sat up fast, almost unseating Destiny.
“Don’t
worry about it Lover, let him have his fun. I can always find a late
night snack elsewhere.”
Nate
pulled back a fist and punched the vampire Queen right in the mouth, breaking
several of her teeth, gouging jagged gashes across his knuckles.
Destiny
slashed her claws out in reflex, leaving four furrows across the side of Nate’s
throat and cheek as she leapt up an away from him. Coming down to land
like a cat, crouched and ready a few feet away. Spitting out blood and
teeth fragments Destiny glared at Nate who was now standing, watching her
closely as she wiped away the black blood dripping down her chin. “The
wedding is officially off Lover, we’re skipping straight to your funeral.
Lucky for me I look so good in black.”
Nate
palmed the knife he kept in his boot, diving straight at her, tackling her as
hard as he could so the trajectory sent them slamming into the minion
struggling to get his chompers into Cyd’s pale throat. The four of them
scattered like bowling pins, hitting the rock hard.
Except
when they came up for air, Nate quickly realised he’d managed to make the
situation worse, not better.
Destiny now
had Cyd in a tight choke hold, a triumphant look in her eyes that terrified
him. Fuck, he had to save Cyd, if anything happened to her… no, he
refused to think down that path.
Destiny
laughed, casually spitting out a few more teeth fragments. “Hasn’t this
just turned out nicely? Gustave…” She kicked out with her sharp
pointed boot, catching the minion as he loped past her, practically on all
fours, the minion’s focus on the blood welling from Nate’s various cuts and
gashes. Gustave hit the ground again hard, panting but staying in place,
thanks to the boot Destiny slammed down on top of his head.
“Gustave.” Destiny yelled loudly and then hissed a sigh as her deaf
minion continued to struggle. Rolling her eyes, Destiny applied more pressure.
“I’m thinking of putting this one down on my to-do list as a mercy
killing. Too stupid to live and so far too annoying to die. Why
don’t you finish the job for me Nate whilst I entertain myself with your
girlfriend here. She is your girlfriend right?” Destiny shook Cyd
hard enough to make her head whip back and forth.
“Yes.”
Nate grit out from between clenched teeth to keep from saying anything else
that might antagonise Destiny into separating Cyd’s lovely head from her
shoulders.
“I
thought so. You’re a man of action and all I was getting was words… it just
wasn’t ringing true for me pet. Drop the knife Lover.”
Nate
unclenched his fist, letting his only weapon fall to the sand at his feet.
“Now
he chooses to be obedient. Men are so exasperating sometimes.
Gustave…” Destiny smiled, moonlight glinting off her jagged and broken teeth
for a moment. “And you can stay here and have some fun whilst I have a
play date of my own with Cyd… toodles Lover.”
“No!”
Nate yelled the word loudly as Destiny soared into the air, taking Cyd with
her… shit, no… no! It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Curses
spewed from his mouth as he watched them disappear into the night sky.
Maat,
he needed to follow them, but how? He scowled at the remaining minion,
who he was pretty sure wasn’t Gustave, not that a name mattered, as the vamp
scrabbled to his feet.
Without eardrums
there would be no point in questioning not-Gustave on where his Queen might
have absconded with Cyd. Now the dagger-clawed minion with bloodlust in
its crazed, almost clear eyes was just an impediment to him getting to Cyd as
fast as possible.
With
a roar he charged the minion, leaning down low he shouldered not-Gustave up off
the ground. Charging towards the centre of Bettina he lifted and
body-tossed the vamp down hard… right onto the embedded crowbar. There
wasn’t even time for not-Gustave to hiss as the steel punctured his heart and
he disappeared in a cloud of dust.
Nate
didn’t pause to admire his handiwork; he was already running fast for the edge
of the rock, once there he dove off Bettina and struck out for shore at a
furious pace. One thought and one thought only in his head… Cyd had to be
safe, she just had to be.
Chapter
Nineteen
Twenty
minutes later Nate was pacing the old, creaking floorboards in the living room
of Kaleidoscope Folly. For what felt like the hundredth time, he turned
to head towards the conservatory, where Destiny’s daytime minions were being
questioned. For what felt like the hundredth time, Vaughn, Captain of
Maat’s warrior guard and his friend, blocked his path.
“Drum
and Hadleigh will get the information we need. You need to calm down,
focus.”
Nate
fought the urge to strangle his friend. Logically he knew Vaughn was right,
emotionally he wanted to rip, tear and sunder. “I just feel so fucking
helpless. We should be out there doing more.”
“The
Sanctuary enforcers are searching every abandoned and empty property in a ten
mile radius. Dash and Flynn are in the air searching further out
still. Marcus is looking at the satellite feeds and Rafe is getting air,
sea and land transport organised. As soon as we know a direction, we’ll
move.”
Vaughn studied Nate
intently. “Are you ready?”
Nate’s
head snapped around, a scowl on his face. “What the fuck do you mean by that?”
Vaughn’s
gold eyes were blank and shuttered. “You have no weapons, your clothes
are torn, your boots ruined by seawater. Instead of gearing up for the
fight you’re pacing. Is that in anyway useful? Helpful?”
“You!”
Nate pointed his finger at his commander. “Don’t get to judge me. I
was there when Hadleigh was bleeding out. You were manic and completely
unreasonable.”
“No,
I was fighting for her. Willing to go to any lengths, but if saving her
had involved leaving her, then that’s what I would have done. So I ask
again Nate, what could you be doing right now to save Charisse?”
“Fuck
you.” He said the words without any real heat. Turning he strode
fast for the stairs. “Call me as soon as they have the location.”
Upstairs
in the master suite he did his best to ignore the sight of the bed with its
still rumpled sheets, a harsh reminder of what he and Cyd had shared together
earlier in the day. Not going there Nate, he reminded himself.
Dumping
his ragged t-shirt, damp trousers and slimy boots in a pile, he slammed into
the bathroom. In record shower time he was back in the main bedroom,
pulling on fresh clothes and boots. He’d just finished tying his boot
laces when the Goddess Maat appeared, standing by the fireplace, examining the
tile that had previously been covered by plasterwork.
“Hello
Tootsie-Roll, like what you’re doing with the place.”
It
took all of Nate’s willpower not to rail and beg his Goddess for help in
finding Cyd. Maat was notoriously unhelpful, you wanted something, the
last thing she’d do was provide any useful information. Instead he let
out a slow deep breath, watching intently as she moved around the room.
Dressed in pale blue yoga fitted pants and matching long-sleeve top, she looked
like a well preserved woman in her fifties, smooth, line-free dark skin, with
long black hair she wore back in an habitual plait and a teasing ‘I know
something you don’t’ smile that constantly graced her lips. Only her
eyes, currently the colour of sand dunes under the light of a full moon, gave a
sign of her otherworldliness.
“Maat.”
He nodded his head in solemn greeting.
“So
serious Cocoa Puff. Problem?”
Nate
just continued to stare at her. She was a Goddess. She wouldn’t be
here if she didn’t know exactly what was going on.
Maat
beamed a smile his way. “You can’t blame me Fairy Floss, and you
certainly shouldn’t be blaming yourself.” Maat halted by the window to
glance out at the ink black night ocean.
“A very interesting woman… your Cyd, and a Siren, I haven’t come across
a Siren in centuries. Is her voice as lovely as myth would have it?”
It
was easier for Nate to shrug than open his mouth. If he did that, he was
afraid of what words might spew out in anger.
Maat’s
smile grew ever so slightly wider. “Did she lure you in with her song
Krispy Kreme?”
“No.”
Nate ground out the word. “Did you do something to my hearing so I would
be immune to her?”
“Interfere?
Me?” Maat’s pupils began to swirl like sand devils. “You are the
same as the day I made you, perfect in every way. And from where I’m
standing, you hardly appear to be immune to the girl. Do you know much
about the legends of the Sirens?”
“No,
it took me a while to figure out what she was and it’s not exactly like I’ve
had a lot of free time lately to crack open a book.”
“It’s
said that Sirens are the early ancestors of the modern dugong. That their
song weaved a spell of enchantment so that sailors when spying a Siren would
see not the monstrous reality, but the woman of their heart’s desire, and be
unable to resist the lure.”
“Cyd
is not related to the dugong family.” Nate scoffed.
“Of
course not Soda Pop.” Maat chuckled softly. “But in every legend
there is always a small, sometimes infinitesimal, grain of truth.” She
stared at Nate pointedly.
Nate
bit back an exasperated sigh, dealing with Maat could be all the colours of
frustration but she never lied… outright, and she had a millennium of wisdom at
her fingertips. How she went about imparting that wisdom often made him
and his fellow warriors want to throttle her, but still, it always paid to
pause and work out what Maat was trying to say.
Okay,
so his innate power was to see hidden truths and from the sound of it, Sirens
were all about the camouflage… hold on, not the Sirens, the rocks.
Bettina used Cyd as her salesperson, to dazzle and lure the marks in. But
it wasn’t just a parasitic relationship as Cyd had stated, Bettina had been
clearly upset on Cyd’s behalf when he and Destiny had been tussling on the
ground? Bettina cared for Cyd… clung to Cyd, had been terrified for Cyd,
sending her a warning just before the last minion arrived so she could jump out
of the way.
Maybe
it wasn’t about feeding at all, maybe it was about Cyd. How had Bettina
survived before Cyd’s powers kicked in? How had she fed before Cyd?
If you were starving and a person turned up who could feed you, wouldn’t you
cling possessively to that person? Try to control them… do anything you
could to keep them coming back? The more Cyd struggled to assert her
independence, the deeper Bettina reflexively dug her claws in, scared she was
going to lose her.
One
way to keep Cyd all to herself was to repel anyone and everyone who might try
to take her away. Perhaps feeding off the men was a defensive move.
What had Cyd said? The victims were drained of emotion and the whole
episode took on a dream like quality. But he was different, he saw Cyd
for who she really was, maybe that’s why the day they’d danced, first met,
Bettina had wrapped a possessive tentacle around Cyd’s throat… same at the
house. Bettina was scared he was getting too close to Cyd and she was
protecting her property… her only friend, the only way she knew how.
Shit,
all these revelations were interesting but none of them were getting him any
closer to finding Cyd, to killing Destiny for once and for all.
He
knew his Goddess was all about the free will, that she could rarely interfere
directly but he couldn’t stop himself from asking. “Just tell me she’s
alive?”
Maat
cocked her head to the side for a moment. “Knowing the mad Queen as you
do… what do you think?”
Nate
took another deep breath, he did know Destiny and she never did things quickly
or painlessly if she could draw it out for maximum shits and evil
giggles. His shoulders relaxed slightly for the first time since Destiny
had absconded with Cyd. There was no doubt in his mind that she was
alive. “She’s alive.” He stated factually.
“I
think you’re right Candy Cane. The only thing that little deviant upstart
vampire Queen likes more than a toy to play with is…”
“…An
audience.” Nate finished his Goddess’s sentence. “So she wouldn’t
go far, she’d want me to find her and find her fast.” Nate snapped his
fingers;
of course
, there was only
one possible place they would be.
Grabbing
two swords he started running for the window, there was no time for saying
goodbye to his Goddess, stairs or long drawn out explanations for his Captain
and fellow warriors. He flipped in mid-air, landing well.
Sheathing the swords he raced around the
house to the driveway and jumped in the jeep waiting there. Thank Maat
for Rafe and his organisational skills. Tapping his earpiece he put a
call through to Vaughn.
“Did
you just jump out a first floor window?”
Nate
spun the jeep on to the road, spewing gravel in all directions, aiming the car
towards town. “Yes, look, I know where they are.”
“Where?”
“You
have to promise to give me a head start.”
“I
don’t have to promise you shit Nate, talk to me.” Vaughn snapped back.
“Listen,
Destiny is expecting me. Let me go in, be a distraction, once I’ve
managed to get between her and Cyd, you guys can come to the rescue.”
“Nate.”
“No.
Destiny is damaged in the head. If she’s cornered, she’ll hurt Cyd.
Maybe kill her as a diversion. This
way, I go in and give her what she wants… a chance at me.” Nate spun the
wheel left taking the corner a little too sharply, causing the tires to squeal.
There
was a pause on the comms as Vaughn considered the situation. “Fine, tell
me where they are and what you want us to do.”