Chapter Eight

Dimitri stood firm on the hill of rubble that was his Court’s throne room and stared at the witch before him. Her small flame of Void power gave her away—not that she was trying to hide what she was.

Demon-touched.

A human, once, who had discovered the forbidden ways of calling upon the Void so she could contract with the beasts that lived in that eternally cold place. No longer human, now. Not in any of the ways that mattered. She’d have incredible healing, speed, and strength like a vampire, but she’d also have the intelligence, experience, and aggression of the demon she contracted with.

And if Dimitri was very unlucky, she was powerful enough to manifest that demon here in the Shade.

Dimitri didn’t know anyone who had survived direct contact with a demon. His Sire hadn’t survived indirect contact.

Dimitri remembered clearly now the ice-purple flames that had engulfed his Sire’s eyes. Void power. Demon power.

And the witch responsible had hung around to finish the job.

If Dimitri had any suspicions a witch was responsible, he would have never come back here. The only good witch was a dead one, and the only way to survive one was to not be around.

But the attack, the destruction of the castle; there were quite a few hours where his blood frenzy coated everything in a red wash of uncontrollable hunger. He hadn’t remembered…

And now Nico was going to pay the price.

He let Nico go as his human staggered away awkwardly, sliding on stone, trying not to stumble. The noise of him wayfinding echoed and clattered absurdly. If they survived this, Dimitri needed to teach him more than just how to cultivate power.

Dimitri resisted the urge to turn and help. To check on Nico’s progress. He couldn’t risk taking his eyes off the witch for even half a second. She stood still, with the voidlight in her hand and a smirk trailing on her face. Like it amused her to allow Dimitri and Nico this time to panic and scramble for plans. Like she could wipe them across the stones when she chose and no decisions they made would change that.

Her demon made her arrogant.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

He was stalling. She knew it. But if she was willing to play with her food, Dimitri could try to take advantage.

Her eyes flicked from Nico behind him up to his. “Loiola,” she said with a faint French accent. It still echoed with the Void, but it always would as long as a demon lived in her skin.

“And the name of your demon?”

She tilted her head, like Dimitri had become a curiosity. “What do you know about demons?”

“Not much,” he admitted. “Just that one had to make a deal with you so you could borrow its power.”

“It’s my power!” She hissed. Her eyes flashed purple and her hair billowed like a breeze had come through. There was no breeze. Her hand flexed on the flame, like she was considering throwing it.

Dimitri flicked one hand up in supplication. “Right, my mistake. You’ve tamed a demon, then. Not the other way around.”

Her eyes and hair settled back down. “That’s right. It’s called Fr-nzy. Its power flows through me, now.”

There was a hitch in her voice where the demon’s name was concerned. Dimitri didn’t know enough about demons to understand if that was a translation problem or some other strangeness. He was unfortunately limited on his demon knowledge.

“You killed my Sire, I take it.” He made a light gesture at the ruins around them.

“It was simple,” she admitted. “You vampires are all the same, slaves to your need for power no matter where it comes from. No matter who might control it.” She glanced at the bodies around them with a casual disinterest. “The rest of your nest of vermin collapsed by themselves, starved of their master’s energy. You on the other hand…” She tilted her head again. “You didn’t die. You and that little fledgling. You must have overcome your insanity and sired a new vampire.”

“The opportunity arose,” Dimitri hedged.

“Yes,” she sneered. “Opportunistic rats, all of you. Breeding rapidly across every plane of existence. I’m enjoying this assignment to eliminate you in person, I must say.”

Dimitri lifted an eyebrow. “You’re taking orders from someone else?”

The witch’s hand curled on her purple fire and she pointed at Dimitri. He got the feeling the time for chitchat was coming to an end. “No one you need to worry about. Don’t borrow trouble above your station, baby Sire. I’m plenty enough for you.”

Dimitri stretched his hands out and ducked his head in a little bow. “Of course, my apologies.”

“Don’t think groveling will save you, bloodsucker!” She launched purple fire like a flamethrower from her hand, but instead of a wave of heat, it crystalized through the air in a torrent of brutal cold. Not just the chill of an icy wind, but the total cold of the Void. Absolute zero.

Even a glancing hit could do incredible damage. Dimitri didn’t want to discover just how much.

He dove to one side and used the rubble as a shield. Her ice-fire washed over the rock, spreading frost anywhere it touched. He could feel the cold creeping through the air around him.

Dimitri didn’t know the first thing about fighting a witch. Was she faster than him? Stronger? Could she manifest that fire anywhere or did she have to touch him?

These were not questions to have in the middle of a fight!

Dimitri ducked around the rock and feinted toward her, pushing himself as fast as possible across the treacherous ground. He swerved away without trying to strike and hid again behind another collapsing pile of rock. She only flinched at his approach after he’d disengaged.

Either he was faster, or she was very smart about hiding it.

He decided that was worth the risk.

Dimitri lunged after her from the side, claws at the ready. Her leather tunic turned the worst of his strike for her heart, but his follow-up sank into her throat. He ripped himself free and spun away again, too wary of her fire to finish the job.

She staggered under the hit. Her blood curtained downward over her chest for several heartbeats. Then with a flash of purple, the injury had been sealed and her face twisted in an inhuman snarl.

Her voice dropped an octave. Her eyes glowed. “Pathetic. You can’t kill me while I’m in this vessel and I won’t allow it to die. But please, struggle until I snuff out your life. Your attempts are entertaining. Such futility. Such desperation…” She sucked in a breath like she was savoring the taste of something. “I’m going to relish breaking every bone in your body.”

Dimitri struggled, as requested. He tested the range of her attacks and learned the fire always started in her hands, but she could throw it, control it in the air, and even keep it burning out of sight. Her demon, Fr-nzy, also healed any strike he managed to land with a flash of purple fire.

One thing Dimitri did know, was a demon never ran out of power. A vampire had to collect it from blood, but the demons somehow pulled it straight from the Void.

Whittling Loiola down until she ran out of juice just wasn’t an option, and the longer Dimitri fought, the less power he had available to draw on.

The witch was playing with him. He’d realized that from the start. And maybe she hadn’t realized Dimitri was learning from their exchanges. Or if she did, she didn’t care. She was that confident in her success.

But Dimitri wasn’t going to wear himself down to nothing for her pleasure. A wild idea had occurred to him.

Nico was going to hate him for it, but at least his Sire would be alive to hate him.

Dimitri approached the witch from behind, darting in close at top speed. But instead of going for a hard strike at her heart or throat, he reached with both hands to grab her arm. She ducked, expecting claws in her face. She stilled in surprise when Dimitri grabbed her wrist and upper arm instead.

There was no time for her to retaliate. He didn’t even give her a chance to be puzzled. He grabbed and stepped through the Shade. He fell backward in that familiar drop of the world.

And they both reappeared in center of an intact vampire Court. Half a hundred vampires surrounding them stilled as Dimitri and Loiola broke apart. She spun in a tight circle to get her bearings, noting the number of vampires arrayed around them, then snapped both her hands out and lit up with purple fire. “Bow before your new demon master, rats.”

Dimitri ran. He knew this Court almost as well as his own. It was built like a keep, with the throne room at one end towering over the encircling wings. The center was exposed to the open Shade, paved with thin, decorative stone, and a flexible meeting place for a large number of vampires. He’d been here before, on negotiation and diplomacy trips between his Court and this one. They had been, by turns, an ally and a rival, occupying that strange position of fellowship one’s enemies gain by virtue of living alongside you for six hundred years.

They wouldn’t thank him for dropping a demon among them. But they’d certainly make a good distraction.

Dimitri darted for the exit. The closing point where the wings of the keep met at a portcullis. Someone had released the chains holding it open and the heavy wrought iron plummeted from above. Dimitri wasn’t sure he would make it.

He had to move through a vampire that stepped in his way. The defender bared his fangs, but Dimitri wasn’t here to fight and he simply shoved his way past the minor threat and didn’t look back.

The second vampire met a less pleasant fate. She came in from one side, claws up, forcing Dimitri to grapple her to the ground. His roll included a vicious thrust of his claws into her heart, clawing it out of her cage on instinct. It incapacitated her completely. Dimitri rolled onto his feet and kept running, throwing the heart to one side. If she was lucky, someone would stick it back in later.

But that second attack had been enough to slow him down. The portcullis was falling. Even if he slid on one hip, he wouldn’t be able to sneak through.

No matter. A portcullis was a heavy bit of iron, but it was a weave, not a solid door. Full of holes. Dimitri gathered himself. And just as the gate skimmed past his nose, he threw himself into mist.

And slammed face-first into the wrought iron with incredible commitment.

His head rang like a gong. He staggered backward, then onto his ass, blinking at the double-vision of the gate.

He was stunned long enough for a Court vampire to skid to a stop beside him, gasping with laughter. The vampire put a hand on Dimitri’s shoulder and wheezed, “Oh my god, your face. You should have seen yourself.”

Another vampire arrived and mocked running into the gate and staggering away as they both laughed.

“Oh, shit, that was so good. What in the Shade were you thinking?” The vampire yanked on his shoulder so Dimitri would stand, and had to wipe a tear from his eyes. “Fuck, I’m never going to see anything else that funny in my life.”

Dimitri scowled. He’d been thinking he was an eight-fang vampire with the power to discorporate at will. Just poof into mist and reform on the other side of the gate. He’d been thinking of getting back to Nico.

The two Court vampires took each of his arms and turned him around to face judgment. They’d take him to their Sire, where he’d probably be killed. He could continue to fight, but the cluster of vampires around him rapidly increased as the fighting in the courtyard grabbed the attention of the rest of the Court in residence.

And Dimitri was only a two-fang now. He had to consider other strategies.

His only consolation was Loiola had also been subdued, her hands cuffed behind her her back to restrict her void-born power.

He smirked at her as they were both lead to the throne room.

She spat at him.

Dimitri laughed.