Page 55 of Dark Reckoning
“I guess you do need to know,” Sage said as he watched me.
I felt the heat intensify, but it wasn't blistering. Instead, it was more of a comfort, like cozying up to a roaring fire in the coolness of the room. I slipped my fingers into the fire and my initial reaction, my instinct, was to jerk back. I looked at my fingers and they were unharmed. Again, I stuck them back into the fire. I had to bend over a little as the flames were starting to die down as they consumed the corpse. The fire was warm, that was it. No pain, no burning, nothing.
I barked out a laugh that was a mixture of wonderment and relief. “Mon Dieu!” I held my hand in the fire turning it this way and that as the flames caressed my skin. “This is remarkable.”
“Yeah, I bet,” Sage said. “You just better make sure vampires behave themselves as you promised.”
“Meaning?” I looked at him, a warning in my glare.
“Listen, I don't really give a fuck what vampires do as long as they don't fuck with me or what's mine. But the reason Adrian agreed to help you sever the line was the story you pitched him about vampires not killing innocent humans under your control. You need to make sure you keep your word, especially now that vampires are even harder to kill with you being immune to fire.”
“All of the vampires are linked to me,” I said and pulled my hand back. “And I always keep my word.”
Sage nodded, so I figured my response was good enough for him. “We need to check to see if that emperor is dead.”
“I believe so. Like I said, I can feel every vampire linked to me,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, and you felt that after I performed the spell, but Galen was still alive. I just want to make sure those motherfuckers are dead,” Sage said.
I nodded. “I see.” It was important. The emperors were all over five thousand years old, and if they were alive, I would still be in danger. I would check on Emperor Martin, as he would be the truth revealed. He wasn't going anywhere thanks to Adrian's spell, so I decided to clean up first.
***
Sage, Nakago, Adrian, and I stood over the lifeless body of Emperor Martin. The corpse looked to be a shriveled husk, gray and brittle. I'd only met the man a few times in my five centuries, so there was no love lost. I was relieved he was dead—him and the others. The less threat to my life there was, the better. So much had happened in the last twenty-four hours, I hadn't even had a chance to enjoy any of my victories.
“Yeah, that motherfucker is dead,” Sage said.
“So, we managed to avoid one crisis, now we have to worry about the next one,” Adrian said, then hugged himself. “I guess we don't need this barrier spell I put on the room.”
He said a chant and I felt a spark—not as intense as before—flow through me. It made me grunt from the sensation, but that was it.
“This room is free now?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes, now anyone can enter.”
“You both have done amazing things tonight,” I praised.
“Well, Kakashi did his part. We can't take all of the credit. He knew how to perform the spell, we didn't,” Sage said. “And it might have taken too long to figure out a spell that could have, so there's that.”
I nodded. “Is there any news about the current events?” I asked since I'd been indisposed for a while.
“There's buzz all on the news about monsters attacking people,” Adrian explained.
Sage cocked an eyebrow. “Is there video proof or just people talking?”
“Video proof. It's all over social media and even the news,” Nakago stated. “People are at the point now where they don't know if it's a real threat or a hoax.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out his cell phone. A few seconds later, he was showing us a video of chaos erupting inside a nightclub as hundreds of people were being attacked by multiple monsters. We didn't yet have a name for the things that were causing so much drama. I snatched the phone from Nakago to really get a closer examination as it was my first time seeing what they looked like.
“Putain de merde,they are hideous,” I said under my breath as I watched the camera footage from the club's security showing how viciously those things attacked. It was one thing to see them from afar, and another up close. There must have been a little over a dozen of them, but in a matter of minutes, hundreds lay dead. Then the footage continued to show some of the dead rising again and they joined in to feast on other dead bodies and screaming victims. I clicked another video to see an attack that took place in London and the anchorwoman was still confused about whether it was a hoax or something we should all fear. In any case, the public had been warned to stay safe inside their homes.
Of course, I wondered just how safe they could be inside their homes from supernatural beings who most likely didn't need to be invited in. We never did unless you had a barrier. They were all doomed if Adrian, Sage, and the other Council members couldn't stop it. Hell, not just them... we all were.
I ran my fingers through my hair and returned the cell to Nakago. “How can you stop that?” I asked my mages.
“Fuck if I know,” Sage said.
“According to the Council, this isn't the first time a Dark God has breached our realm. So, we do have a plan. We're just looking for one that won’t kill us and probably millions more in the process,” Adrian stated.
“What is the Council doing to prevent this hysteria?” I asked.
