Damien (27 page)

“I have long been in agreement with that. Each of us uses our own resources in the effort, but rarely do we consider joining them in a permanent effort to capture her once and for all. She is mad. You can see it in her eyes and feel it with every ounce of your being. Mad and evil are the worst of combinations.”

“Add to it intelligence and great power and you have the reason why she has slipped through our fingers time and again.”

“I believe she is the larger threat,” Damien said as he paced slowly across the Great Room of the castle of the Demon King. “If we split amongst ourselves searching for her, and then split again our focus between her and the magic-users, we weaken ourselves and leave ourselves terribly vulnerable. I think this is why we have been failing to stop her all of this time. She has crossed over, taking on dual cultures, and now has twice the access to power because of it. We too must combine cultures.”

Damien paused to look at the circle of Nightwalker leaders sitting around him, listening intently as he voiced his opinion. The gathering was unprecedented. Every known Nightwalker species in the world was represented, and it had only take twenty-four hours to gather them.

Then again, it had taken thousands of years.

There was Siena and Elijah, Queen and Consort of the Lycanthropes; Noah, King of all Demons; Hawk, a Mistral Bard, and Windsong the Mistral Siren, who were among the eldest and most respected of their kind; Isabella, the first of the Druids to emerge from dormancy; and, much to everyone’s surprise, Malaya and Tristan, the two High Chancellors of the Shadowdwellers.

Though the Shadowdwellers were often extended overtures of peace and social invitation, Damien could not recall them ever responding before. They were the reason why the room was so dim, only the fire in the fireplace and a few selectively placed candles set about. Their sensitivity to light of any kind was well known. They were the most singular curiosity of all the visiting dignitaries. They were a striking, medium-skinned people, their features a breathtaking combination of Middle Eastern exotic and American Indian strength. Both of them had capes of straight black hair that gleamed like polished onyx and stunning eyes to match.

To Syreena, they had a level of sophistication in their air that she had not been expecting. The male moved with the same careless grace that Damien always did. He wore long, loose clothing over a surprisingly fit and tall body structure. She could tell he was lean and athletic for a purpose, that he had been specifically crafted for flexibility and speed of movement. She did not know how she knew, but she felt it with every instinct she owned.

The female also was built with long grace, like a prima ballerina whose figure was cut to accent the length of her legs, arms, and neck. She was adorned in the simple elegance of a black sari with black embroidery, in addition to a snug, midriff-baring shirt of a blue so dark it almost matched Damien’s eyes. There were simple pieces of gold jewelry that included a thin ring around her pinkie, a superfine chain holding an onyx pendant around her neck, and a delicate piercing through her nose that led back to a matching clasp in her ear with a gentle sweep of an even thinner chain. The arc of that chain accented the lower curve of her highly defined cheek, and heavy lines of kohl enhanced the frames of both her eyes in such a way that they seemed to leap out with penetrating beauty.

They were nothing like Syreena had expected in both looks and manners. Perhaps this unexpected aura of culture and class was what allowed them to position themselves for the mischief they were reputable for, but she could not imagine how anyone could have all of the appearance of something, and none of the actuality. That was probably naïve of her, she thought as she looked back to the man who was going to be counting on her wisdom in the coming future. She could not afford the luxury of such naïveté.

“We too must combine cultures,” Damien repeated softly as he thought out loud before them. “Not just one or two, but all of them. Every Nightwalker here is now in danger from Ruth’s plotting, I am convinced of it. She has attacked Demon, Druid, and Lycanthrope already and now has been seen in Mistral territory.”

“And yesterday she struck Vampire territory.”

Damien and every dignitary in the room turned toward Jasmine when she made the damning statement. The Prince was immediately concerned. He had thought her safe at their home. He could tell by her appearance, however, that her safety had been in question.

“Jasmine, what happened?”

Damien ignored the others in the room and hurried over to her. She looked like she was ready to pass out. It was a state of weakness Damien was not used to seeing in her and it was enough to rattle him. He immediately began to search her for any other signs of damage.

“No, no, I am fine,” she said, though she took his arm for support. “Merely tired, as well as being in desperate need of a hunt. Luckily I ran into Horatio outside and did not have to sneak in. I honestly do not think I would have had it in me.”

“I take it you saw Ruth.”

Jasmine looked up at the Demon King after he addressed her. As usual, he got right to the point. She did not blame him. Ruth was by far the most serious kind of business.

“I just spent the better part of the night in her company. She arrived around eleven and left an hour after dawn. I believe her departure time was planned so she would be assured that I could not follow her.”

“Oh, my God,” the Druid Isabella exclaimed. Isabella knew firsthand what five minutes in Ruth’s company could do to a person. She couldn’t conceive what could be done to a body when it spent as much time in threat as Jasmine had just laid claim to.

But although there were a variety of such reactions going through those who knew Ruth best, the only one that made a real impact on Jasmine was Syreena’s. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that the Princess had gone pale, but other than that the Lycanthrope remained still and quiet.

If it had not been already too late, Jasmine might have had time to respect that quiet stoicism.

But it
was
too late.

None of them knew it, however.

At least, not yet.

“Jasmine, have a seat and explain this to us,” Damien encouraged her, looking her over yet again for signs of injury. He was puzzled. How could she have met with Ruth and escaped her relatively unharmed? He was grateful that she had, but he had seen what Ruth had done to Syreena with only a few hours of time on her hands. To spend nearly eight hours with Ruth and survive untouched? It was nothing short of miraculous.

“Let me start by saying that everything you told me about Ruth is basically a lie, Damien. At least, it is now,” she added when she saw his reactive expression. “She is ten times more powerful than you warned me about. She kept me imprisoned all of that time with nothing but the force of her mind. I have never felt anything like it. Everything I know, she now knows.” She looked to the Lycanthrope Queen. “That includes the location of the Library, I am afraid.”

“Sweet Goddess!
Jinaeri
! If it is as you say, she is woefully underprotected! There are only a few guards and whichever Nightwalkers are there…”

“That is why I rushed to your territory as fast as I could. You can relax, Siena,” Jasmine eased her, holding up a weary hand and gesturing back to her seat. “I found Anya, the General of your Elite army, and she is handling it. She is the one who told me where to find you all.” Jasmine looked up at Damien. “I do not know what happened after that. If Ruth can travel in daylight or teleport that entire distance, it is likely to be much too late.”

“There is nothing any of us can do about it now.” Elijah spoke up softly, his hand going to his wife’s shoulder and easing her back into her seat. “Ruth had the entire day to do her damage. I believe she is more than strong enough to fight off the lethargy that affects us during daytime, but she cannot possibly resist it for long. Let’s hope she waited until dusk to cause trouble. Either way, it’s already over by now.”

“Elijah, I cannot just sit here and—”

“Running pell-mell to the Library could very well be exactly what Ruth wants, Siena.” Elijah made her sharply aware of that, trying to keep his serious tone from sounding like he was scolding her. It would not be right to chastise her in such a way before so many dignitaries. “She let Jasmine go, relatively unharmed by the look of it, for a reason. That reason could be so that she raises an alarm that sends us all into one of her traps.”

“I do not understand.” Malaya spoke up for the first time. It had the impact of getting everyone’s immediate attention, especially Jasmine, who had not even taken note of their remarkable presence. “Forgive me,” the Shadowdweller apologized in an exotic, dulcet accent. “I do not mean to interrupt this thing of great importance. However, I do not understand why a Demon renegade is attacking Vampires. Or Lycanthropes, for that matter.”

Noah’s sigh was the beginning of the necessary response. “Malaya…that is a long story that involves the disjointed reasoning of a madwoman.”

“No, Noah, it does not.” Jasmine cleared her throat. “It is a mistake to think there is no method to Ruth’s madness. When she spoke to me, though there was that affectation of madness, her logic and her intellect were frighteningly intact. Maybe previously she boasted with half-empty threats, but now…now it is clear she has a plan of great depth and detail and she has been methodically carrying it out for some time.”

“Jasmine is correct,” Elijah added with dawning understanding. “We have been bumping into her accidentally over the past few months in the least expected places, at the least expected times, doing things we have no explanation for. However, if you put all of this together…”

“She is in search of something.” Syreena sighed softly. “We knew she was looking for the Library when we found it purely by luck after finding her in Lycanthrope territory doing what looked like an archaeological excavation.”

“The Black Tome. She was after that enormous black magic-user’s compendium in the Library,” Jasmine agreed. “She said it herself.”

“Which she very likely has by now! Sweet Goddess,” Syreena uttered with fear and outrage, “you were right, Noah, we should have burned it!”

“Mmm,” Noah speculated, his green-gray eyes flicking over to the distraught and horrified expression on Isabella’s face. She had been the one to argue against that, and no doubt she was feeling extremely guilty for it.

But Noah took immediate mercy on her. “We can do so now if we like,” he said calmly. “It is downstairs.”

“It’s where?”

That response and similar exclamations battered him from all around.

“In the Demon library,” he clarified. “Siena and I discussed it a long time ago and decided it should be in a much safer place once the Library was going to open. Especially because Ruth was sniffing about for it. I made haste to do so as soon as possible, especially after what happened to you, Syreena.”

“But I saw it there just a couple of days ago,” Jasmine argued.

“Of course you did. It would not be wise to tell frequent visitors to the Library what had happened to it, just in case Ruth found the place and started scanning their minds. I know my enemy, Jasmine. I replaced it with a black compendium exactly like it, except that one is full of”—he lifted one corner of his mouth in a grin—“I believe I will call them Demon limericks.”

Jasmine’s mouth fell open in surprise, Isabella gasped and choked on a laugh of relief, but most of all, the Shadowdwellers began to chuckle in earnest. Syreena looked at them, saw their dark eyes sparkling in ready delight and their white smiles flashing wildly. It was clear they were perfectly delighted by Noah’s mischief against his enemy. It was worthy of even their admiration.

“Well played. Well played indeed,” the male pronounced, his deep voice projecting his humor around the entire Great Hall. “So this Ruth has likely stolen a volume of naughty rhymes instead of the powerful book she intended.”

“I only hope she realizes it
after
she has absconded with it, and not before,” Noah said, his smile fading. “I would hate to think of her becoming angry and taking it out on those she might have left alive otherwise.”

“Elijah is right, Noah, you cannot change what Ruth has done or be responsible for what she will do from now until the time we find the way to stop her,” Damien said. “It is a waste of time and a destruction of very necessary morale to dwell on what we do not have the power to stop just now.”

“Meanwhile, the important thing is your actions managed to keep the cursed volume out of her hands,” Jasmine said thoughtfully. “She believes the use of it by herself and other Nightwalkers is the way it should be, that magic destroyed humans or faltered in their hands because they were too weak to manage it. She thinks Nightwalkers can manage it without losing control of it, without becoming evil.”

“Bullshit,” Elijah barked shortly. “Has she taken a whiff of herself lately? She smells like a garbage scow. That is the way all evil persons smell to us, especially those tainted by magic.”

“She is one of them now, so she does not notice it as we do,” Siena said.

“There is more,” Jasmine interjected quietly. “There is someone else.”

“Someone else?” Noah asked sharply, his head turning with a snap to look at her. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means that she told me, when she offered me a place in her growing party of mayhem makers, that she already has ‘a right-hand man’. It was clear what she meant. She has turned another Nightwalker to her perspective. I do not know who or how, but it sounded like a very serious development.”

“I should think so! Damn her straight to hell!” Elijah growled ferociously. “
Two
of them! And if she turns one, then she will be looking for others.”

“She will,” Jasmine agreed. “She realizes humans are too weak to defeat you, that she needs Nightwalkers on her side. Nightwalkers using magic that makes them more powerful. That is why she let me go, Damien. She wanted me to tell you this. She wanted you all to know you were no longer going to succeed at defeating her followers with such ease.”