Page 119 of Magic of the Damned

At our arrival, Madeline raised her head from the table where she’d been resting and glared at us. The Conventicle’s new vampire drew back his lips, exposing stained fangs. A naked man lay face down on the floor. I assumed he was a shifter. Totally comfortable with his naked form being exposed to the world, he lifted his head to look at us, then let it drop back to the floor. The claw mark on his back mended in such a dramatic fashion it looked cinematic. Across from them was another fatigued-looking group who divided their looks of contention between the royals and the shade.

“The other members of the Conventicle,” Dominic told me. There were a hundred and twenty members, but I’d only met the representatives.

Dominic took in the room and focused on Nailah and the other Seer who were on the far side of the room, sunk into opposite corners, their bodies in a static state and displaying their peculiar violet eyes and disfiguring grimaces.

“What do you see, Nailah?” Dominic asked.

“The same,” she whispered. Death of many people in this room. She eased closer to the dead shade, the bevel of her frown increasing. “If it was alive, I’d be able to read more from their kind.” The other Seer moved closer, his unenthusiastic expression unchanged from the first time I’d met him. His t-shirt revealed the brightly colored tats that formed sleeves on his arms. Nailah stopped at the shade. He continued toward me, inspecting me with a haunting interest.

“It’s her again,” he whispered. “She’s the reason we are going to die.” With a quick sleight of hand and unexpected flash of movement, he lunged at me with the blade he was suddenly wielding. My hands shot out for protection just as Dominic pushed me out of the way. Unable to get my footing, I stumbled back and fell.

Dominic grabbed the Seer. He wrenched the knife from his hand. The sound of bone breaking and the Seer’s wail of pain resounded in the room. The Seer crumpled to a heap on the floor, cradling his arm. A whimper escaped when he saw the fire erupt from Dominic’s hands.

“Dominic!” I shrieked. His eyes snapped in my direction, fury blazing in his eyes as his lips drew back into a sneer. Violence was a tinderbox in the room, waiting for him to ignite it and erupt everyone into a storm of violence and magic. I couldn’t let that happen. The infighting would surely give Peter the advantage.

“Please,” I said, noticing Dominic had returned to his plan of burning the man alive.

I crawled over to the Seer and ignored the anger he directed at me. If he was ever in a position to try again, he would. As much as I wanted to tell Dominic to finish him, my empathy wouldn’t let me. I was one person causing a great deal of chaos. The most pragmatic thing to do was to kill me. I wasn’t confident that if faced with the same dilemma, I wouldn’t try the same.

“Someone help him.” I looked to the royals who were defiant in their refusal. Madeline looked hesitant, perhaps from fear of retaliation from the royals, whose cold mien did nothing to dispel that concern.

“It’s okay,” I soothed, my words holding more confidence than I felt, especially with Helena sneering at me. I gave Dominic an entreating look, and he finally relaxed.

“Heal him,” he directed Madeline. “Know this is Luna’s wish, not mine. Any more attempts on Luna’s life will be severely punished. And I will ignore her unwise requests for mercy.”

Areleus and Helena attempted to stand in solidarity with Dominic, but their masks kept breaking, showing their contempt for me. The vampire hadn’t missed it as he moved toward the injured Seer.

I eased away as a battle-weary Madeline whispered a spell, her hand hovering over his arm. His pained grimace was replaced with a somnolent look of relief, but he continued to cradle his arm. The Seer’s injuries seemed to heal quickly after the vampire knelt next to him and bit into his own arm, breaking the skin and offering it to the Seer’s mouth. I allowed my attention to drift over the room in an attempt to keep the bile down at the sight of him drawing blood from the vampire’s arm. I wanted out of their world, and despite the benefits of knowing about the supernaturals, part of me wanted to unlearn and unsee everything.

“What have you done?” the harsh voice behind us demanded. The royals, Anand, the vampire, and the shifter didn’t seem surprised by the large group of people and six animals spilling into the room. I counted a panther, three wolves, a hyena, and… I couldn’t place the other animal.

“A dhole,” Anand whispered, startling me. His careful eye on the dhole was a clear sign to pay close attention to the predators who had just sauntered in. My protective instincts pushed me to focus on the menagerie of animals, but because all eyes were on the dhole, I suspected he was the most dangerous of them all. Behind them was another group of people. Madeline glared at them. Magic wielders.

Disabling the shade had taken so much from her that she couldn’t put on her mask of arrogance and assurance. Another group of five floated in as if they rode on the wind. Undeniably vampires. Their appearance made me want to retract the many times I’d mocked the Broad Street Creatures of the Night. These stood out. Not just for their otherworldly movements and eyes that were pits of blackness. I tried to place what made them seem to exist in a time where things were very different. Despite being dressed in modern clothing, they seemed liked anachronisms. The royals were immortal; I knew they were older than they looked but it was never revealed in their actions or mannerisms.

Helena, Areleus, and even Dominic swathed themselves in their arrogance like a cocoon. The five vampires possessed the same air of haughtiness. If it were in their power, everyone but them would be wiped out from existence, leaving only a few for food. They bared crimson-tinted fangs, from recent feedings, I suspected.

Hostility swelled in the air. Reading the disdain, I assumed the room had just been taken over by the New Conventicle, the people who wanted to get rid of the existing power and take it for themselves. Adrenaline jetted through me. I wanted to be anywhere but in this room and in their line of sight. Their ferocity and confidence showed they would rule without fear of consequences. Being that inflexible left no room for exceptions—even for me. They had wanted me dead when they learned of my role in releasing the prisoners. From the cold looks that breezed in my direction, things hadn’t changed.

To win the game of survival, I needed to know the players and allies, the reasonable ones, the power players, and the threats. I was trying to figure that out from just looks. Not one member of the New Conventicle looked as if they could be reasoned with. Even the ones who didn’t glare at me with fierce disdain might not be reasonable, just deceptively quiet, storms waiting to demolish everything in their path. That was probably why cautious eyes kept going to the dhole. I made sure to put more distance between me and it.

I had met the reps of the Conventicle. Since the New Conventicle wasn’t official but a collection of enthusiastic supernaturals waiting to unseat the current group, there wasn’t a hierarchy. The differences between the groups were stark. The current Conventicle was politically driven and ruled by appearances. The New Conventicle didn’t suffer from such things. There was an off-putting hunger and brutishness to them, qualities that would work in their favor in a coup.

“Why are the shades here?” asked the tall, well-built witch. His pleasing carved features and winged cheeks were distorted by his scowl. Velvet sepia skin and chocolate-brown eyes belied his presence that bellowed he was a force to contend with. Those behind him presented a similar energy.

It was only a matter of time; they would be the new face of the Conventicle.

“They escaped,” Dominic said in a crisp tone.

“Samuel.” Another witch called to the witch marching in Dominic’s direction. Despite her neutral tone, it served as a warning.

His glower softened as he looked over his shoulder at the woman warning him. “He’s allowed the worst of our kind to escape, and if the rumors are true, he was imprisoned himself. Shades, whose housing was his domain, are now free in our world. We were attacked by three of them. With all our abilities combined we were only able to destroy one, and we lost seven of our own. I think fearing Dominic is neither warranted nor deserved.” He looked directly at Dominic. “Or allowing you to keep your job. You’ve failed. Why shouldn’t you be relieved of it?”

“Are you willing to sacrifice your life to try?” Dominic asked. Samuel kept a distance from him, his eyes sweeping over the room, clearly determining the best way to shield himself while exacting the harm he desperately wanted to inflict.

It didn’t go unnoticed by the royals. Claws were exposed and magic hummed. Madeline stood. Her features hardened, her hand moved into a defensive position, and her lips parted in readiness to perform rapid-fire spells. The shifters from the established Conventicle had changed. And I was surprised by the number of Conventicle vampires that I’d missed, who were now baring their fangs. Anand drew two blades that looked more dangerous than the ones I’d previously seen him with.

The Seer came to his feet then retreated toward the wall, his eyes glowing violet. Nailah’s eyes sparked violet that then disappeared. Annoyance flitted across her face. Shaking her head, she slowly moved to the center of the room, her comforting gentleness replaced by disdain and frustration. She demonstrated an admirable level of confidence standing in the middle of a barely suppressed violence-lust and brewing war.

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