Dark Queen (Jane Yellowrock #12)

The front door blew in with a crash. “NOPD! Freeze! Put down your weapons.”

I caught a glimpse of a body clearing the back fence in a single bound. Vamp. I dove out the window. “Jane!” Eli shouted. I dropped and landed on a car, caving in the roof but breaking my fall. I took off after the vamp, over the wall. I was halfway down the street when I heard a car start back at the house. It bashed through the gate and pulled away at speed. In the other direction, the running vamp was gone. “Crap. Crap, crap, crap, damn it, crap.” That wasn’t nearly strong enough. I had to go back inside and deal with a dead father. A traumatized family. I really needed to learn how to cuss properly.

I went in through the back door, noted that the vamp I’d staked was gone, relinquished my weapon to the SWAT OIC, and went on upstairs. The woman was holding her children and weeping; the children were wailing. Jodi was trying to calm them. SWAT officers were everywhere. I stood in the corner and listened until Jodi managed to calm the woman enough to ask questions. Only one answer was important to me.

“They kept asking us for the bottle. But Laurie left it for Leo Pellissier, in a place where his people would find it.”

“Why?” I asked, wondering if she’d give me confirmation about the contents of the letter Leo had received. “Trying to cover their bases?”

“No.” The woman looked up. Despite the blood on her face and the panicked children in her arms, she had dignity and poise that made me embarrassed for what I’d just said. “Laurie hoped Leo would figure it out and then rescue them. They didn’t change sides willingly. The emperor has held her daughter prisoner for decades. She’s on that damned boat in the gulf.” She smelled of the truth.

Beast thought at me, Kits are afraid. Jane should change to Beast so Beast can comfort them.

Not this time. Beast’s killing claws and teeth would frighten them.

Beast has big killing teeth, she agreed.

I turned and went down the stairs. Outside. And away from the fear and horror and the stench of blood and death. Texted Alex what had happened. We had lost our only lead into the lemon clan.



* * *



? ? ?

We had been home less than an hour when my cell sang out with the ringtone Alex had programmed for Leo, “Night of the Vampire” by Roky Erickson. I turned off the shower water, wrapped in a bath sheet that covered me from neck to knees, as if Leo could see me over the cell (which had never been set up with FaceTime just because of moments like this), and answered the call on the line about slipping in blood. It seemed appropriate. I said, “How may the Enforcer and the mistress of Clan Yellowrock assist the Master of the City?”

“Pack your bag,” Leo ordered. “You and the Youngers are needed at the house on Spitfire Island. All has been done that can be done without you. It is time to finalize security measures.” The call ended. I heard a cell ring upstairs, Leo calling the boys. He left little to chance these days.

I set the cell aside, facedown, and twisted my hair, letting the rinse water drain down the shower. I dressed in jeans and layers—a warm silk-knit tee, a tunic sweater, and a short denim jacket. Wool socks. A pair of iridescent green snakeskin Lucchese boots. It was warm for winter, but it was still winter.

I got out my larger gobag and a pack of plastic zip bags. I tossed in a gallon bag of toiletries, a quart bag full of makeup, mostly different kinds of red lipstick, but mascara and other stuff too. I packed a gallon bag of silver stakes, another gallon bag of ash wood stakes. One pair of dancing shoes. My most comfy combat boots. A hanging bag of dress clothes and the red and white leathers. Since I didn’t know the sleeping arrangements, I rolled up two pairs of sweats and put them in a plastic bag with undies and socks. T-shirts. An extra pair of jeans. Flops. I stood at the foot of the bed and studied the bag. It was nearly full. I had come to New Orleans with less than this.

From the top of the closet I pulled all the magical trinkets and magical weapons and stuffed them into the bag, including the Glob and le breloque, the gold laurel-leaf crown that had probably helped me become the Dark Queen. I added the robe that hung on the back of my bathroom door. I almost never used it, but the sleeping arrangements sounded like summer camp. I added my pillow. I had become addicted to high-quality pillows, mattresses, and linens. My life was out of control.

The gobag was too full of magic and undies for weapons, so I started a pile to the side. When I had stripped my room of everything that went bang, I sat on the gobag and got it zipped shut, but it was a near thing. I nearly stabbed myself with the stakes in a place that was totally inappropriate for traditional staking. I was still sitting on the bag when Eli’s scent swept under the door and he knocked. “Come in.”

He opened the door. “Orders from Leo.”

“I got them too. Ruined the end of a perfectly good shower.”

Eli studied the bag under my backside. “You got weapons in that?”

I could have told him about the magical stuff and the stakes, but when Eli asked that question, he meant things that go bang. “No.”

“Ammo?”

“No.”

“Fighting leathers?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “In the hanging bag.”

He frowned hard. “Do not tell me you packed girly stuff in that.”

“I did. I totally did. And I’m not ashamed.” Much. I let the teasing drift away. “Something I need to say. You are my brother. My second. You are the one I depend on most when my life is on the line.”

Eli’s eyes didn’t move from me, but I knew he had spotted the printed papers on my bedside table. “You’ve been studying the Vampira Carta and the Sangre Duello.”

“Not as much as I should have. But there’s this thing called La Danza de los Maestros de Sangre.”

“Dance of the Blood Masters.” A grin split Eli’s face. Not a happy grin. A bloodthirsty grin. The grin of a man who had just seen a move on the vamp chessboard that he had missed until now. “Babe.” His grin went wider. “Leo’s a sneaky bastard.”

“He assures me he was conceived on the legal side of the sheets. That was an important thing back then. But yeah. Loopholes are a good thing. And Leo was thinking ahead. Way ahead.”

“He couldn’t blood-bind you, and you could use witch amulets like a pro, so he promoted you.”

I gave a minuscule nod.

“And because he promoted you to Blood Master of your own clan, and to Dark Queen status, you can claim the dance.”

La Danza de los Maestros de Sangre was a specific way of fighting between Blood Masters. It was magic and weapons and no-holds-barred fighting—claws and teeth, guns and blades, silver stakes—like mixed martial arts and sword fighting and magic all at once. All together. I nodded.

“But you still packed like a girl?”

“I did. Makeup and a scrap of lace formal and everything. So he won’t expect La Danza de los Maestros de Sangre from me.”

Eli’s face went stiff and unyielding. “You’ll mess with time in La Danza.”

I nodded.

“You’ll get a headache. Stomachache.”

“That just means I’ll have to kill him and get back in time fast.”

Eli’s scowl went deeper, drawing down the lines on his mouth. I had won. And we now had four secret weapons in the Sangre Duello. Me in half-form, me as Clan Yellowrock Blood Master, me as Dark Queen, and La Danza.

“Eli,” I said softly. “Having the Sangre Duello on an island no one knows about means that any vamps who want to chase us down and interfere will have a harder time. And Uncle Sam’s ICE and other enforcement agencies will also have a harder time. Win-win.”

“Still doesn’t outweigh the dangers of you timewalking.” He walked away.

He had a point.

A moment later he reappeared in my doorway with his weapons gobag that was already half-full. “Don’t forget extra ammo for the Benelli.”





CHAPTER 14


    Then You Date Her