Page 61 of The Darkest Night

She hadn’t detected any magic or danger when Dickson and Calvarro had visited her yesterday. She decided to overlook Vlad’s words for now and recalled the creature who had possessed Antonovich.

“Yes. But not in the way the cops think there is.”

This time, Vlad’s smile was genuine. “You would be right. And, before you ask, Antonovich died at the hands of one of my men.”

Though Mae had begun to suspect that was the case, she still drew a sharp breath.

Bryony pinched her lips together. “Should you really be confessing to a crime in front of so many witnesses?”

For some reason, Mae sensed she was more upset about the fact that he’d admitted to ordering the murder of a man in a roomful of people than the act itself.

Vlad shrugged, nonchalant. “Antonovich was possessed by a powerful demon under the direct control of the Sorcerer King. He had lost his humanity a long while back.” He gazed at Mae. “The reason I was tailing him was to find out just how many of those demons had infiltratedOniks.”

A sour taste filled Mae’s mouth. “Is that why he didn’t die as easily as the other demons I killed that night? Because the Sorcerer King was controlling him?”

“Correct.” Vlad’s expression turned brooding. “He’s a new kind of demon. One I haven’t encountered before.” He grimaced. “One that’s a serious pain in the ass to kill.”

“You’re telling me,” Mae muttered. “I literally had to cut his head off.”

“His demon went dormant after we shot him.” Vlad eyed her pensively. “Your awakening must have roused him.”

Bryony shifted in her chair, her eyes dark with unease.

“You’re saying this man was directly controlled by the Sorcerer King and was almost impossible to kill as a consequence?”

“Yes,” Vlad said curtly.

Mae chewed her lip. “Is that why theBlack Devilschose to overlookOniksfor so long, even though they’ve been operating in your territory? Because of the Sorcerer King’s involvement with them?”

Vlad dipped his chin. “Indeed. I warned our group not to interfere with them lightly when I detected they were under the protection of powerful black magic. I was tracking Antonovich’s movements the night he died. Unfortunately, somebody got in my way and I ended up having to take…extreme measures.”

The strange slug Mae had extracted from Antonovich’s brain flashed through her mind. “The bullet I found in his head. I’ve never seen anything like it before.” She hesitated. “Was it…imbued with magic?”

Vlad smiled faintly. “You really do surprise me, my queen. I didn’t think you’d connect the dots so fast.” He rubbed his jaw. “Yes, that bullet and the gun my sniper used were infused with magic. It was the only way Antonovich was going to stay down once we shot him. Now, if you don’t mind, it’s my turn to ask questions. What did you find when you examined his body?”

Mae pursed her lips. “What makes you think I found something?”

“Because of the transcript of the audio recording from the autopsy.”

Mae’s eyes widened. “What? But I thought everything in the lab got trashed by the demons who invaded the hospital!”

“Your notes were already saved on the offsite server before they destroyed the computer,” Vlad said with a dismissive wave. “It’s why the cops and the FBI are sniffing around you. They don’t know anything about your awakening or that you’re the Witch Queen, but they sure as hell are interested in why Antonovich’s body vanished from that lab.”

Chapter 30

Nikolai observedVlad’s confident face with a frown. It seemed clear the mobster knew more about his father’s dealings in New York than Nikolai's own informants. He’d had no idea about the Dark Council’s involvement with a new Russian crime gang in the city or that Vedran had placed fiends he could control amongst them until the mobster had revealed this just now. He wondered if Oscar was in on the Sorcerer King’s plans.

A chill danced down his spine.

What are they trying to do? I thought their main purpose in New York was to capture Mae before her awakening.

“It was an enlarged pineal gland,” Mae admitted reluctantly.

Nikolai blinked slowly.Pineal gland?

“It’s an endocrine gland found in the midbrain,” she explained at their blank stares. “It produces melatonin, the hormone that controls our sleep cycle, and is thought to regulate the pituitary in some way. Its functions have long eluded science.”

“Isn’t the pineal gland where Descartes thought the human soul lived?” Vlad said curiously.

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