Page 62 of Cry of Blood and Joy
I drained the glass of Chosen Blood that Elena offered me. I would need to be at full strength when I went into the bayou.
“No, it shouldn’t.” Keir put his hands behind his back, winter air seeming to swirl around him as his power responded to the tension in the room. He tilted his head. “I hear sirens in the distance.”
I strained my enhanced hearing and caught it—the faint wail of approaching squad cars, still blocks away but closing fast. Fury blazed through me, my control slipping away from me.
“We need to not only rescue Joy,” Keir continued, “but we must also figure out who is wielding this fire magic and eliminate them. This threat could endanger all of us—vampire, Unseelie, and human alike.”
“We need a plan.” Angelo began pacing the length of the Persian rug, his expensive Italian leather shoes making soft whispers against the intricate weave. “I suggest some of us stay here to ward off the police. Steve, Dimitri, Rocco, Rose, Serenity—you all need to stay here with Elena.”
“Nice try.” Serenity rose from her position beside Steve, blue eyes flashing with determination that had helped her cope with Angelo’s possessive ways. “You need me. If anyone getswounded, I’m the only one who can heal them fast enough to matter.”
Angelo’s jaw tightened, the muscle jumping beneath his olive skin as conflicting emotions warred across his angular features. “I don’t want you anywhere near?—”
She silenced him by crossing the room with fluid grace and pressing her lips to his in a brief but tender kiss. Angelo’s rigid posture softened slightly at her touch. “I’ll stay close to you,” she whispered against his mouth, her small hands coming up to frame his face.
“I’m not staying either,” Rose declared with fierce determination, rising from the leather couch. She set her goblet of Chosen Blood down on the mahogany end table with enough force to make the crystal ring like a bell. Dark crimson droplets splashed against the polished wood. “They have Valentin. I’m not sitting here playing defense while my mate walks into an ambush.”
“Just try keeping me back, vampire king,” Dimitri drawled from his position on the sofa, that familiar sardonic smile playing at the corners of his mouth despite the pallor that still clung to his features. “You know how I get when family’s involved. Particularly the dramatic, self-sacrificing kind of involved.”
Gianna’s grip tightened on his hand. “Dimitri, you’re still weak from what Enzo did to you.” I could see genuine fear flickering in her dark eyes.
I winced at her condemning words.
She slid his hair off his face. “You were barely conscious an hour ago.”
Dimitri’s expression shifted, the playful mask slipping to reveal something harder, more primal underneath. “He’s my brother, love,” he said simply. His free hand came up to gently touch her cheek, thumb brushing away a tear she probably didn’trealize had fallen. “And you know me well enough to know that’s not a negotiable point.” He turned that intense focus toward the rest of the room. “Besides, someone from the Santi family needs to be here to charm the nice officers when they come knocking. You have that whole ‘innocent Italian princess’ thing down to an art form.”
The distant wail of sirens was getting closer now, maybe six blocks away and closing fast. The sound sent panic racing through me even as it sharpened my focus to a razor’s edge. Debating was going to leave us all in the hangman’s noose.
“I suggest you fight about it later,” Keir said with that infuriating Unseelie composure; the subtle tension in his shoulders suggested even the Unseelie king was feeling the pressure. The sirens were close enough now that I could distinguish individual vehicles—at least four squad cars, maybe more. “The police will be here any minute.” He turned his gaze toward Lorcan, who stood like a pale sentinel near the French doors. “The harpies should be outside now. Tell the driver to go back to Court of Thorns and wait for further instructions.”
I was already moving before he finished speaking, my body operating on pure instinct as adrenaline flooded my system. Sirens screamed even louder. I headed for the back door, boot clicking against the hardwood with urgency. Every muscle in my body was poised for action, decades of enforcer training kicking in as I prepared to disappear into the night.
Footsteps echoed behind me—Rose’s determined stride and Alice’s lighter, more hesitant gait. Their desperation matched my own—Rose fearing for Valentin, me for Joy. Rose was practically vibrating with energy, her need to save Valentin radiating off her so strongly that even my vampire senses could detect it.
The back door opened with a soft whoosh, and the pre-dawn air brushed over my face. The humid atmosphere was thick withthe scent of jasmine and an underlying darkness—the oily smell of the nearby river mixed with urban decay. Gray light was beginning to creep across the horizon, illuminating the sky in pale streaks that warned about the approaching sunrise. I could hear the police cars getting closer, their sirens now loud enough to make my enhanced hearing ache.
I let the transformation take hold. Bones cracked and reformed with wet, organic sounds as my body collapsed in on itself, muscles and sinew rearranging with the familiar sensation of controlled falling. My vision shifted as my human form dissolved into something smaller, lighter, built for speed and stealth.
As a bat, I launched myself into the humid morning air, wings cutting through the thick atmosphere with powerful strokes. The world below took on that strange, echolocation-enhanced clarity that came with this form—every obstacle outlined in sound and shadow.
Just as my feet left the ground, police cars screeched to a halt in front of Crescent Manor, their red and blue lights bathing the elegant facade in garish, strobing colors that competed with the rising dawn. The harsh squeal of brakes and slam of car doors shattered the morning quiet.
The harpies were exactly where Keir had said they’d be—perched on the slanted roof of the carriage house like grotesque gargoyles, their leathery wings folded against their humanoid bodies. Their eyes glowed yellow in the growing light, and the smell of sulfur and old feathers wafted from their direction.
As soon as Keir, Nyx, and Lorcan emerged from the house, moving with that supernatural grace that made them seem to glide rather than walk, the harpies struck. They swooped down with lethal grace, talons extending to grasp the Unseelie royalty before launching skyward with powerful wingbeats that stirred up whirlwinds of dust and debris.
Shouts erupted from the ground below—harsh human voices filled with confusion and alarm as the police caught glimpses of something impossible disappearing into the morning sky.
Hang on, Joy,I thought fiercely as I banked toward the bayou, my heart thundering with determination and desperate love.I’m coming, and I’m bringing an army with me.
The wind whistled past me as I flew toward whatever hell Ari had planned for us, but I was ready. I would free her and leave a bloodbath for anyone who tried to stop me.
Chapter Forty-One
Joy
I woke with a violent start, pain hammering between my temples as loud voices crashed through the fog of exhausted sleep. The harsh sounds echoed off the cathedral’s crumbling walls, bouncing around the hollow sanctuary like trapped birds.
