Vesik 04 - This Broken World (18 page)

Foster laughed at my grumbling.

“That seemed like an awfully short council,” I said. “They didn’t even discuss attack plans or defenses or anything.”

Foster glided to my shoulder and leaned into my ear. “That was not the council, Damian. That was Glenn showing off his allies to the dissenters in the Court. Claiming Levi as an ally was a bold move. Everyone in that room is aware of the mass destruction he has caused throughout history. The real council, the Concilium Belli you won’t see, will include only Glenn’s oldest allies. They, in turn, will pass the orders down the line.”

My eyes widened. “Fucking hell he’s tricky.”

“You have no idea.”

We turned another corner. The next hall was a dead end with an open doorway and a thin veil hanging across it.

“Ah, my quarters,” I said, unable to keep a regal inflection from my voice.

Foster laughed. “It’s good to have you here, Damian. I hope you don’t lose your humor in this place.” He hovered in front of the door as he spoke. “It can be a dark place without friends.”

“You coming in?” I asked as I pulled the veil aside.

He shook his head. “I have to attend to the … follow-up meeting.”

I nodded. “Well said.”

“I’ll tell you everything I learn. For now, keep your head down.”

Foster glided down the hall, disappearing around the corner we’d just come from.

I pushed the veil to the side and then let it fall as I entered the room. My footsteps didn’t echo as much inside. It was a bit more homey, I suppose. Certainly it was more homey than the halls had been. I walked to the dresser and ran my fingers over the Magrasnetto inlays on my staff.

What was Glenn going to do? It seemed he had a lot of support, but there were some outspoken dissenters in the Concilium Belli as well. I had a feeling they were like cockroaches. For every one that made itself known, there was an ocean of them hiding in the walls.

Footsteps sounded as someone walked through the veil behind me. I left my staff where it was and turned to find Nixie. As soon as she cleared the veil, the fabric became an endless waterfall. It pooled on the floor, then flowed back up the door frame only to fall back to the stone once more.

Nixie’s face was angled downward slightly and she wore a grin like nothing I’d ever seen. Absolutely wicked.

“It’s been almost a year,” she said as she came closer, pulling the elaborate pattern of braids out of her hair. She turned around and lifted her hair. “Unzip me, would you?”

“It’s a real dress?” I asked, surprised she hadn’t conjured one instead of wearing actual fabric. The salty smell of the ocean hit me as she got closer.

“Yes, we always wear them for these damned councils.”

The zipper ran all the way down to the small of her back. She turned around and stared at me. “Off.” She pulled on my shirt.

I grinned and pulled the vampire skull off, leaving a white t-shirt beneath it.

Her hands oozed under my shirt, becoming translucent before she moved her arms out, shredded the shirt, and tossed me onto the bed. She shuffled her shoulders out of the dress and all of our talking stopped. She held her hand out to one side and the lights in the room dimmed.

I kicked my shoes off and fumbled with my belt, finally shaking my jeans off my ankles as she finished strutting up to the bed. Her nipples were pale and tight. Her hair was still pulled up slightly, leaving her smooth, pale waist exposed.

“Oh, yes,” she said, leaning down and wrapping her mouth around my erection. Her lips made a popping sound as she raised her head and repeated the motion. She went back to moving her head up and down with a firm grip on my shaft, and I flopped onto my back.

I groaned, and then stared as her weight began to shift. Nixie’s body grew translucent. She flowed up onto the bed and covered my mouth before becoming solid again, her mouth never losing its rhythm. She tasted salty and sweet and I leaned into her as her groans joined my own.

She stopped and slid forward, casting a glance over her shoulder. “I’m on top. You can be on top next time.”

“Okay.” I was quite agreeable.

She spun around and locked her mouth on mine. Her tongue was soft and warm, and everything I’d been missing for almost a year. She hovered above my erection, taunting me by brushing her warmth against my own.

Nixie leaned down to kiss me again. Her soft tongue became more and more demanding as she lowered herself onto me. I started to wrap my arms around her, but she pinned them to the bed. Her body appeared eerily still as she pressed her lips against mine, but the parts she wanted to move continued to shift and undulate.

Her hands finally slid off my arms and, no longer restrained, my hands found their way to her ass. I pulled her in as close as I could. Her tempo increased as she raised her butt slightly, slamming herself against me with more and more urgency. She purred, and it was a sound I’d missed so much.

Her thrusts grew more frantic and I matched her pace until I felt her begin to tighten.

“Not our bed to cleanup,” I said between breaths as her movements shook the mattress beneath us.

She grinned and instantly her body became moist and supple, as slick as her sex. Her lips were soaking wet, salty, and her liquid warmth surrounded me, enfolding us both. Her breath hitched as her body spasmed, and I joined her in ecstasy.

“Oh, gods, you need to move here,” Nixie said into my chest. She started to roll off me, but I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight. She buried her face in my neck and sighed.

“You know anyone who’s renting?”

She laughed and slapped my shoulder. “Smart ass.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“D
id you know there was a hot tub in the room?” Nixie asked.

“I saw the bath in the corner.” I toweled my hair off. “I try not to take too much at face value here.”

“Smart.” She closed her eyes and her flesh was suddenly covered in skintight blue jeans and a black t-shirt to match my own.

I frowned. “You are
much
less naked.”

“Glad you noticed.” She began rooting through the dress she’d left on the floor. She made a happy sound and then hopped onto the bed. “I have something for you.”

“Really?” I asked as I placed the towel on its rack. I crawled up onto the drier side of the bed beside her and crossed my legs.

“It’s just an old book,” she said with a serious expression. “You may not be interested.”

“ ‘Old book’ may be the only phrase that can distract me from my other favorite phrase.”

“The chimichanga is done?” she said with a sideways smirk.

I smacked my lips. “Uh huh, and who’s the smart ass now? Though I occasionally indulge in the changas, they don’t have much to do with a naked Nixie.”

She laughed, the dim light catching her crystalline eyes as she smacked my arm.

“Now you’re just trying to kiss my ass.”

I waggled my eyebrows.

She narrowed her eyes and handed me a thin, green book. I thought it was leather, but the texture felt odd as I took it from her hands.

“What?” I asked as I stared at the volume and then read the name aloud.
“The Deathspeaker, Leviticus Aureas, and the Fall of Atlantis.
What is this?”

She cocked her head to the side and gave me a blank, wide-eyed stare. “Why, it’s the story of the deathspeaker, Leviticus Aureas and the fall of Atlantis.” She then proceeded to blink several times.

I laughed and turned the book over in my hands.

“It is one witch’s account of what happened. There are only three copies in existence that I am aware of.”

“Deathspeaker,” I said as I ran my hand over the name on the cover. “Why deathspeaker? Why don’t they call us necromancers?”

“You’re not just a necromancer, Damian.”

The Old Man’s words played back in my mind, ‘Welcome to godhood, brother.’ I stared at the book and frowned.

“There are a few races that still refer to all necromancers as deathspeakers,” Nixie said. “In the time of Atlantis, deathspeaker was the name we gave to the sons of Anubis.”

“Azzazoth called me a deathspeaker. How could he have known what I was?”

“Your bloodlines, if I had to guess.”

I laughed. “A demon with a knack for genealogy? That seems … unlikely.”

Nixie shook her head. “Ask Zola about Ronwe. Demons are obsessed with genealogy. It’s how they predict when the arch demons will be born and reborn.”

“Damn.” I fanned the pages of the book. It had that old, gloriously musty smell.

I smiled at Nixie, her crystalline eyes catching the dancing candlelight. “Thank you for this.” I held the book up.

She leaned forward on her elbows and kissed me. “I’m glad you like it.”

My eyes trailed back to the book. “It’s amazing, Nixie. Really. Did you ever see Atlantis?”

“Oh yes, I lived there for a time.”

“You
lived
there?” I said.

She nodded and rolled onto her stomach, propping a pillow beneath her chin. “It was a beautiful place. Tragic that it was destroyed in the war.”

“The Old Man was really there.”

She nodded. “Levi fought against Ezekiel at Atlantis. Might have killed him too if Levi hadn’t been so busy trying to save the humans and their knowledge.”

“What?” I said. “He could have killed Ezekiel?”

“Yes, it was possible, though if he had seen the fight through to the end, most of the humans would have died on Atlantis. All of their knowledge would have been lost. You may learn some things about Levi he’d never tell you himself,” she said, gesturing at the book.

“He lost his chance at revenge to save people?”

“Yes. He may be a ruthless man to those who don’t know him, but there is more to Levi than you’d think.”

My mind churned through what I knew about the Old Man. I knew he could be benevolent, but he was one of the most ruthless warriors ever to walk the earth. I’d seen why when I’d touched his essence during the battle with Prosperine at Stones River. Now I realized that essence must have been the gravemaker elements within him. What Ezekiel had done to the Old Man’s family … The visions came back to me, vivid, violent, and terrible. The screams of his children would never leave me.

“What’s wrong?” Nixie asked.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. “You know what made the Old Man into what he is?”

She nodded, and her voice was sad as she said, “Yes.”

“I saw it, Nixie.” I met her eyes. “In the battle with Prosperine. I lived his memories like they were my own.” I could feel my eyes starting to burn as I remembered his daughter’s blood running down his back. The soldiers laughing as they violated her and finally discarded her like a ragdoll. “I felt him go insane, Nixie. I felt him lose everything he’d ever loved. I watched the darkness take him.”

She had her hand over her mouth, but I could still tell her lips were trembling. “He doesn’t tell anyone that story.” Her voice was quiet. “There were only four water witches with us when he told me. Just before the end of the war, when he killed our Queen. Damian,” she said as tears began to flow. “How much he loved his family …” she sniffed and rubbed at her eyes. “He wanted us to understand what we were doing, what happened to the families when we took away their fathers and mothers and children. It was then that I realized we murder people with so much to live for. His story changed me.”

I wrapped my arms around her as she cried.

“We killed so many …” she whispered as she squeezed my chest.

“Think of how many you’ve saved,” I said. “Think of Hugh. If Haka had died. If you hadn’t saved him, I don’t think Hugh would have continued on. Haka is Hugh’s world.”

“Honiahaka,” Nixie said, drawing out the name.

“Look at how many water witches stand behind you now. If it wasn’t for you, all of them would still be drowning commoners for fun.”

“The Queen will never let us live in peace. She wants us to return to the Dark Ages just as much as Hern.”

I frowned and looked into the mirror across the room. We looked small sitting on the huge bed, the four stone columns dwarfing us as I stared.

“Carter may be right,” I said. “Everything is changing.”

Nixie took a deep breath. “Did you ever hear from Mike?”

I leaned back and held a finger over my lips, just in case someone was listening. I reached into the concealed sheath until I found the hilt of the Splendorum Mortem.

I held it out in my hand as it siphoned and bent the ley lines around us and Nixie’s jaw dropped open. I slid it back into the sheath and the lines returned to normal.

“Yes, I heard from Mike.”

“We have a chance,” she said. “We have a chance.”

The room dimmed in my peripheral vision, and the darkness began to spin. At first I thought it was in the mirror, but it grew beyond the borders of that ancient glass. As I turned to look at it, I could see it was just a few feet past the edge of the bed.

A hulk of a man stepped through. His eyes glowed red and massive bronze antlers stretched toward the dim light of the ceiling.

I didn’t have the focus in my hand, but that didn’t stop me from summoning an aural blade. If our visitor didn’t know what it was, it might be of some leverage.

“Peace,” Glenn’s voice said as he lowered his arms. He twisted his wrist to one side and the vortex vanished without a sound.

“Glenn?” I asked.

The half of his face I could see wore a thin smile. He removed the helmet of antlers, and when he released it above his head, it dispersed into a black mist.

“Most would call me King here, but Glenn will do fine.” His voice didn’t have the earsplitting volume I was used to.

“The portal didn’t make a sound,” I said. “Usually it’s all thunder and calamity.”

Glenn crossed his arms and offered a sincere, if small, smile. “Are you asking a question? I believe you already have the answer.”

“It’s for show,” I said. “Out there in our world.”

He nodded. “A Fae who fears you is more likely to be loyal than a Fae who believes himself more powerful.”

Patterns within patterns within schemes. Trying to follow the ways of Faerie did nothing but give me a headache. I let the aural blade vanish in much the same way Glenn’s helmet had.