Page 13 of Resurgence of the Pack

‘The duel will commence, in five, four, three, two, one—’ One of the Red Guard dropped a white handkerchief onto the ground.

I had expected my grandfather to draw the duel out in order to showcase his fighting skills as well as his flames, but clearly he wasn’t in the mood; he wanted to shock and to kill. It was a reminder not to get on his bad side.

Markith phased out of the shadows next to Grandy, a blade in his hand, but before he could take a single step forward he exploded into flames. There was no slow ponderous fireball rolling towards him that he could duck and avoid; instead Grandy simply set him on fire. Markith’s body was consumed by the inferno, and his scream was immediate and piercing.

I had seen fire elementals’ flames many times before; sometimes they burned with a fierce and destructive heat but sometimes their flames were illusory and didn’t even kick out real heat. The living flare was like that: it was a torture curse so that your skinfeltlike it was cracking and peeling, like it was bubbling and bursting – but it wasn’t. The fire looked and felt real enough, but it did no damage to the skin. The pain was very real, though, and it was that which led to many people’s deaths. They would leap froma window of a tall building to make it stop: it was called ‘the living flare’s mercy’.

What Grandy did was the very opposite of the living flare, it was the embodiment of a fire elemental’s powers. The fire he – and Terrance – summoned to Markith washot, truly hot, and it made me step back. Even from a distance I could see Markith’s skin really was bubbling and blackening as he was broiled alive. I swallowed down bile.

It is a shame he will turn to dust,Esme said grumpily.He would make a fine meal, and I am hungry.

Esme!I shuddered but then my stomach gave a faint rumble. Dammit, wewerehungry.

What? It is not cannibalism if he is not the same species as you. You were very clear about that when you explained it with your flip chart. He is a vampyr. He is different. It is fine.

I pressed my eyes closed, partly out of exasperation with Esme and partly so I didn’t have to watch Markith burn.

Grandy had been right: there was no chance of any healing spit saving Markith, and his pain was too great for him to phase into the shadows and out into a river or a hospital.

Instead he just burned. And screamed.

Chapter 7

It was a relief when Markith exploded into ash. Voltaire grunted and the Red Guard took a step back as if to leave. ‘Wait!’ I ordered sharply.

Voltaire’s eyes narrowed. ‘You are not my Queen to order me so,’ he said harshly.

‘I may not beyourQueen but I amaQueen, so show me some damned respect.’ I spat the last word.

His jaw worked, then he dismissed the others with a jerk of his head. They faded into the shadows and Voltaire faced me alone. ‘What?’ he snarled. ‘What are you going to do? Take my free will away from me again?’

He definitely wasn’t a fan of mine, and after the stunt he’d pulled with Abberdon the feeling was mutual.He’dbeen the one to persuade Abberdon to challenge me and I wouldn’t forget that betrayal. Voltaire was a snake in the grass.

It was time for my own snarl. ‘Isavedyou, you ungrateful asshat!’

His lips flattened but he didn’t deny it. ‘What do you want?’

We were back to business. ‘The blackmail material you took from Mark Oates. Have you managed to crack it yet?’ I asked boldly, my smirk implying that I thought it was beyond him. From what little I knew of the man, a suggestion that he couldn’t do something might well make him prove that he could.

‘It is no concern of yours.’

My eyes narrowed. ‘It iseveryconcern of mine. I now suspect both Larsden and Ramsay of being part of the Black Tourney.’

‘And you wish me to arrest them for you?’ he asked, still disdainful like he thought I couldn’t do my job properly.

‘No, of course not. They’re already dead.’ I waved my hand casually as if I’d masterminded their doom instead of being the one who was scrambling around trying to solve the mystery of their deaths.

Voltaire couldn’t prevent the look of surprise that dashed across his face. He hadn’t thought me capable of killing, which was surprising since he must surely have known the outcome from the various challenges I’d faced, Abberdon’s included.

Whilst he was taken aback, I pressed my advantage. ‘I want to know who their compatriots are. I am … invested in shutting down the Black Tourney.’

‘Our sources suggest that it has only run once without Ghost at the helm,’ Voltaire admitted grudgingly. ‘I do not believe it attracted the numbers it requires to be a profitable venture. It may well die a death on its own without further intervention from us.’

‘Perhaps – but that being the case, I still want to know the names on those computer drives.’

Voltaire grimaced. ‘As do I.’ He paused, clearly wrestling with himself; finally he added, ‘Of the three we took, two had viruses that destroyed the evidence before we could analyse it. Understandably our tech expert is moving slowly with the third.’

I frowned. ‘That doesn’t make sense. Mark wasn’t a very techy guy – frankly, he was a neanderthal. And those drives were his backup – hewantedthem to be found and used.’

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