Page 60 of Queen of Darkness
Must have been to keep curious humans out.
“Everyone ready?” Aaron asked. “This is going to take us to the outskirts of Madrigal itself. We’ll come out behind a building. Alexi and Pieter will scale the building and secure guidelines for the rest of us to follow. Once there, we should have a decent enough view to see what our path forward will be. Got it?”
There were no questions. We’d already gone over this. Aaron was just rehashing it to be certain.
As was his way, Aaron took the lead. Fred came up behind him, and the others fell in line, sandwiching me halfway through to keep me sheltered. I wasn’t carrying a gun. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I had no experience with one, and as Aaron had vehemently told me when I’d asked for one once, now wasnotthe time to learn.
He had promised to teach me. If we survived.
We will survive, I told myself, banishing the offending thought to oblivion.
“All right, let’s do this,” Aaron said, lifting the securing arm that kept the doors closed and hauling it open.
Then, he raced through the opening and disappeared into thin air. The bin's interior was full of junk, but as we followed Aaron through, we never made it. As we crossed the perimeter of the bin, we abruptly crossed over and emerged into the vampire’s realm, just as planned.
The bright bone-white light that infused every aspect of the realm tore at my eyes. I hissed, blinking furiously. I needed my eyesight back, fast. There was no time to waste. We were in the belly of the beast, and one wrong move could set us back, or worse, doom us all to a horrible death.
The last thing I needed was to be blinded by sunlight.
Nearby, Aaron and Fred were wrestling guards to the ground. I started as a loudcrackheralded the death of one of the guards, his spine severed thanks to Fred wrenching his head around. Aaron took longer, but he made less noise as his arm squeezed like a vise around the guard's throat, blocking oxygen and blood supply, before finally crushing his trachea.
The body flopped for a few seconds longer, then was still. Aaron let it go, getting to his feet, his distaste for the death clear for all to see. I knew he hated killing his own kind when they were just following orders, but we had no choice.
That’s why we have to do this. So that such orders stop being issued.
Alexi and Pieter had already ascended the side of the building, and moments later, a pair of ropes dropped down.
“Up you go,” Aaron said, motioning for me to take one of them.
“Don’t be long,” I said and grabbed the thick rope, hauling myself up.
I walked up the side of the building, the motion only possible thanks to the extra strength from being both a shifter and a vampire. I could never have managed such a climb otherwise. Even then, I was nearing my limits by the time I reached the top. I made a mental note to work on that some more. The other vamps were barely breathing hard.
We crouched low, letting the lip of the flat roof obscure us as best we could. Half the team moved to the very edge and lay down, staying entirely out of sight while Aaron and I surveyed our path through the city.
To the palace itself. Whereshewould be.
“Uh, are you seeing this?” I asked, staring at the sight before me in dismay.
Our plan wasn’t going to work. It couldn’t.
The boulevards were choked with vampires. I’d neverseensuch a teeming mass of them before. Huge columns of them marched along the wider streets, while patrols walked or jogged through smaller passages. Elsewhere, civilian vampires were organizing themselves into groups.
“She’s mobilizing the entire damn city,” Aaron breathed. “Just to stop us.”
“Are we sure it’s that? Could she be going after Hades in strength?”
“It’s possible,” Aaron said. “But what would she do if she beat him? The demons will come back eventually as more people from our walk of life die. Hades can’t be killed while he’s in his own realm, at least not by her. So, what would it accomplish?”
“I’m not sure,” I confessed. “I was really hoping there was another reason to it, that’s all. If this is all for us …”
“Then, we’re screwed. There’s no way we’re getting through all this.”
Even many of the rooftops had groups of vampires on them. None had spotted us yet, concealed as we were by the lip that ran around the edge. But finding a way to the palace wasn’t going to be possible. Not through allthat.
I lay down on the roof, removing myself from sight.
“Well,fuck,” I said.
