The mountain was blessedly quiet on the way down. The winged devils were indeed all gone. Danny had used my blood on the one we’d captured while I was out in a fit of good thinking. The climb was going fairly slowly because we had a human in tow, which I tried not to bemoan too badly, since it was my own damn fault. Eamon had shown up right as we’d left, but had refused to hike. I had no idea if he’d witnessed the blood swap or not, and I wasn’t about to ask. Naomi walked with us, even though she could’ve flown. Everyone was quiet and pensive, thinking about what had happened and what the implications would be when we got home.
“Once we hit the gorge and cross over, we’ll be in Selene’s direct territory?” I asked Naomi, who was behind me.
“Oui,” Naomi said. “She controls the next mountain range.”
“I wonder why it’s so quiet. After the winged devils and Mahrac, I thought we’d be encountering something every second.”
“My guess is she cannot afford to control so many at one time,” Naomi said. “It takes massive power to keep such creatures in check. She has to pick and choose her best arsenal. We will encounter more of her roadblocks, but under the laws of the supernatural world, which even Selene isn’t above, she cannot risk unleashing a powerful supernatural on the human race. It’s different from what happened with the devils, which are bound by rules of the Underworld. Selene must tightly contain things of this world. She is allowed to defend what it is hers, but if whatever she employs brings disaster, the Coalition will come down on her fiercely, as they always have. After all these years she has learned to respect them.”
The Coalition was our oldest supernatural law Council.
From what I knew, it was made up of freakishly old, freakishly powerful supernaturals who determined things like whether we went into hiding or came out in the open. If you went against High Law, there was swift retribution. As far as I’d ever known, there hadn’t been a change of Old Law in centuries and the Coalition’s identities were never revealed. Not even my father knew who sat on the Coalition. In their view, he was considered a young leader, barely above their notice. If my father upheld the High Laws, he could go his entire lifetime and never come in contact with them.
In the last hundred years, it was rumored they’d all gone into “Stasis,” and they would remain that way until they felt—or were warned—of a major magical “disturbance” of some kind.
Waking them meant you were in deep shit.
The Coalition made me think of Rourke and how long he’d been alive. It was possible he knew who sat on the Council. “When Rourke bested Selene to escape,” I asked curiously, “were you there?” My wolf growled and clacked her jaws with the mention of Rourke. I know. I want him too. We’re going as fast as we can. He was perfect. Magnificent, strong, tall, blond, and tattooed. He was a warrior of old and he was mine. I missed his body and craved his mouth. He will be okay. We have to trust that. She won’t kill him until we are there to witness. She’s too sure of herself.
Naomi leapt over several large boulders, landing effortlessly. “No. We were gone by then. But details of that event did trickle into the vampire court. Over the years our Queen has hired your mercenary many times to do her bidding. She even tried to keep him under her control, but it proved impossible. He is too strong for anyone to manage. When Selene took a liking to him, it quickly turned into an obsession.” She gave me a half smile. “No one would come out and admit such a thing, but there is a grudging respect given to him by all vampires. They also fear him. The power he wields comes from a deep source. There are whispers that he might be a god or close to godhood now.”
A god? Achieving godhood was much different from how humans perceived it to be. In our world it was something earned. As supes aged, they gained great power. Over time their immortality became intertwined with every fiber of their being, making them truly immortal. Thus godlike and unstoppable, able to avoid a true death altogether.
But Rourke a god? I shook my head. Surely that would be something I would’ve picked up on. His power was immense, but being a god was an entirely new level. “I wonder why he allowed Selene to live instead of killing her while he had the chance?” I asked in a hollow voice, forcing my mind in a different direction as quickly as possible. Picturing them together made my nails morph into sharp points and a growl to creep up my diaphragm. “He must’ve had a very good reason for not finishing her off.”