Dizzy frowned and scratched his nose. “I have no idea. I can research and find out.”
“What about burying you behind a wall of all the shifters, vampires, and mages we can get on our side?” Callie asked. “If they come, we’ll tear them down.”
“Few vampires would stand against Vlad,” Darius said. “Shifters and mages would keep the lesser demons at bay, though it would be a stretch if they’re faced with a large host of the higher levels. But Lucifer?” Darius shook his head. “There are very few creatures on this earth that can kill an elder vampire one on one in hand-to-hand combat, and when Reagan is operating at the higher levels of her power, she is one of them. Lucifer would be mightier still. No, standing against him would not be an option. Another worry would be, if a large host of demons come to the surface, and the shifters—which represent the elves’ presence in the Brink—have to stand in their way, what will that mean in the grand scheme of things? Will it be the conflict that starts an incipient war between the magical species? A conflict that Vlad has been attempting to orchestrate.”
“Whoa. Can we just back up a second?” I held up my hands. “If Vlad is the one spreading the rumors, and the rumors are true, he must also know how detrimental this situation is to me. He’ll know why.”
“Yes. We have to assume he is privy to at least part of what you are.” Darius took a sip of his drink. “He has been unusually quiet of late, and it being so soon after Seattle, where he made known his interest in Reagan, only backing off after I’d told him I’d submitted the bonding paperwork—”
“You what?” Callie jumped in.
“He didn’t.” I dramatically shook my head. “He just said he did to get Vlad off my back. He really didn’t.” I sure hoped he hadn’t, at any rate. Because that was not going to happen.
“I’ve suspected he has secrets he is trying to keep from me,” Darius continued as though we hadn’t interrupted. “So the question is, what are his goals? He would’ve taken this to Lucifer himself if he had simply wanted the connection with your father.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know what to do, which is why he’s lobbing it at us?” I asked.
Silence filled the room, no answers to be had.
“Well, first things first—we need to make sure the rumors are true.” Dizzy knocked on the table. “Let’s get that warehouse fixed up, because we’re going to call a demon.”
Chapter Five
Two days later, enough time for the dual mages to research the right circle to use and, presumably, for the warehouse to be patched up, I parked in front of the warehouse next to Dizzy’s beater. Clearly the dual mages worried about my propensity to damage property when using my magic. Darius’s sleek sports car was parked half a mile away. If he’d just lower himself to driving the town car, something he never did when he didn’t bring a driver, he wouldn’t have to worry about damage.
I turned off the car and hung out for a second, weighed down by the rock I’d had in my gut the last two days. Something inside of me said this was legit. That Vlad wasn’t just blowing smoke to freak out the shifters. He’d witnessed some of the chaos in Seattle. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he’d followed me once or twice without us knowing. There had been plenty of opportunities for a savvy onlooker to get a glimpse of my special abilities. Being that he had a presence in the underworld, he’d have more pieces to the puzzle than anyone else. That was all someone like Vlad needed.
The question was, why was he indirectly warning me? Was it because he knew that the only way to keep this from escalating was to cut it out at the root, Agnon, and I was the only one who could get past the river to do it? Maybe he didn’t want Darius to know that he knew what I was for some reason.
When had my life gotten so complicated?
As soon as I’d hooked up with elders, that was when. They were so high maintenance.
I blew out a breath and leaned my head against the steering wheel. Cutting out the root was a tall order. While bounty hunting was sort of my thing, or at least it had been, normally I had breadcrumbs to help me find a mark.
Normally I knew my surroundings.
If I attempted this, I would be going into the underworld as probably the only thing resembling a human, full of latent magic (which could as easily turn me into a monster as save me), and with absolutely no clue as to where I was going. I might as well paint myself in neon and strut around with jazz hands. Hey, y’all, look at me!
This would be an extremely well-paying job, being that I’d get to keep my freedom, but some jobs were just too great. Too complex. I didn’t have the chops to complete it.
Realistically, though, what was the alternative? Let Darius hide me, like the mages had said? Try to learn my magic in time to combat my father and/or a host of extremely powerful demons?
I laughed sardonically, the sound jarring in the quiet car.
I’d been trying to master my fire magic most of my life, and I was still basically a novice. I couldn’t even access half of it. Using my powers together? Yeah, right.
Learning my magic, even with a teacher, would take years. Years! I probably didn’t even have months. The demons would come, regardless of whether my father knew about me or not, and Roger had already made it clear the shifters intended to amass in front of them. Dizzy and Callie would wade into the fray, trying to protect me, dragging a bunch of wide-eyed, blackmailed mages with them.
For what?
I was the heir. The only one in history who could survive the Dark Kingdom for eternity. The thing my father had been trying for since the beginning of time, or so rumor had it. I was a prize the demons would stop at nothing to obtain. They’d come in waves, first one sect, and then others. We might be able to fight off one wave, maybe a couple, but for something as valuable as me, they’d eventually overcome us. And they’d kill in large numbers to do it.
I’d be condemning the few friends I had, and a whole lot of innocent supernatural people with them.
To end up being taken anyway.
My laugh was louder this time. A few tears squeezed out.
“If I’m forced to meet my father, I will greet him by giving him a black eye. I absolutely will.” I yanked my keys out of the ignition, jerked at the handle, and kicked open my door. It moaned woefully.
Screw tears. That wasn’t my speed. Giving people hell, now that was my speed. If I had to go into the underworld, and things went sour, I’d give them Reagan Somerset’s famous how-de-doo!
But Dizzy was right: first things first. I needed to find out for sure if the rumors were even true.