Ruled by Tainted Blood Read online

  Lingering from Cember or something else?

  Taint stench grew then faded.

  Ignis followed, still itching to vent his spleen while waiting for the next train. A strange graffiti tag marked the foot of another stairway. The stylized goblin’s head resembled a badly depicted house elf. Symbols rode a silver headband across the cocked head: a bag of gold coins and scales—typical of a Goblin Market; a birdcage; and a triangle composed of three smaller shards or possibly daggers. The bubble depicted around the head made less sense. Tiny marks shaded the bubble into a sphere. Violet and green goop graphically clung to its exterior.

  That’s pretty intricate. How’d they get this painted without getting caught?

  Ignis cradled his face.

  Glamour, you idiot, hence the taint.

  He took a picture. The sound of an arriving train called to him. He hurried back to the platform, arriving as the doors closed. Plunging an arm between closing doors triggered a safety buzzer. The doors reopened. He claimed a seat and drew out his headphones before the train lurched forward. The new Sanderson audiobook filled his ears, taking Ignis into foreign battlegrounds as MARTA whisked him through the city toward his Camaro.

  Caelum

  Caelum surveyed the carnage around his motorcycle. The dwarfish figures bled pools onto the parking bay floor, revitalizing the blood-red of their vests and berets. They’d ambushed him when he stopped to replenish empty clips en route to headquarters.

  He’d barely parked when the redcaps assaulted him—his second ambush that night. He piled their footman picks and Freddy Kruger gauntlets nearly to the top of his rear tire.

  He headed over to the closet where he kept jugs of water, envying Quayla’s more efficient methods of clean up.

  “What’s going on—oh my God!” the woman shrieked.

  Caelum whirled around and bolted in the direction of her scream. He threw his hand her direction, wind sweeping around her cry in an attempt to muffle her scream.

  Probably too little too late like those first gunshots.

  He bent wind around her, sweeping air from her lungs’ reach. She gulped like a landed fish, grabbing at her throat. Almost a full minute later, her eyes rolled back. Her body followed suit.

  Caelum’s essence propelled him to double speed. A feet first slide caught her head moments before she hit concrete. Her head slammed a little too close to home, but he shook off the pain and lifted her from the ground. Wind fed and starved her, keeping her momentarily out while he rushed her to the stairwell.

  Damn but it’d be nice to have Glamour sometimes.

  Caelum laid her down and beckoned air to her lungs. She stirred almost at once. “What happen? Oh, God, dead bodies. There were dead bodies.”

  Caelum smiled. “I may not look my best, but I assure you I’m not dead.”

  “I saw...what happened?”

  “You fainted, hit your head pretty hard.” He flashed her a charming grin. “It would be my pleasure to escort the lady to a doctor.”

  “No, we need to call the police.”

  “For a little bump on the head?” Caelum asked.

  A man’s voice boomed deeper in the parking bay. “What the—hell, yes! I’m going to be rich!”

  “Shit. It’d be so much easier being a faerie sometimes.” Caelum pulled a small white feather from his back pocket.

  The woman shrieked again as the down glowed to life.

  “Vilicangelus, Vilicangelus, Vilicangelus,” Caelum watched her staggering retreat transform into a shrieking sprint. “We’re going to need some rewrites.”

  2: Cleaning Up

  Ignis

  The bus slowed toward the stop nearest his death. Ignis chaffed as another car pulling out of a parking lot held up the bus, but the bus driver wouldn’t open the door until he’d parked inside the stop’s painted boundaries. Ignis bolted the moment the door hissed open, bowling over an alpha Barbie too engrossed in her phone to pay attention to those around her.

  Ignis didn’t apologize.

  He turned up the street and sprinted for all the unaugmented speed his body was worth. Vitae’s Mercedes parked behind his own Camaro, but Ignis didn’t hear any battle sounds.

  Could Dolumii have killed Vitae and Summus too?

  A scent of fire and charcoal wafted from the church ruins. Taint lingered on the wind. He inhaled deeper.

  It doesn’t seem as strong as before, but they hid it sufficiently the first time to ambush me.

  He eyed the church.

  Blood burned through his veins. The long trip had calmed his fury, but it lurked near the surface ready for his call. He wanted to charge in like a hot head.

  He didn’t.

  Two others had been dispatched out to this site. Vitae’s Mercedes confirmed their arrival.

  Ignis resisted calling out to them in case his killers lay in wait. He drew out his hilt and approached the cars.

  The Mercedes was empty.

  He pushed essence into his hilt. He didn’t manifest a weapon, but readied one like priming a flint lock. He opened the Camaro’s passenger side door and whispered to the bronze angel statue.

  “Anima?”

  “Shield Ignis, please report your status.”

  “I’m at the site of the ambush but haven’t entered yet. Vitae’s car is here, but I don’t see anyone.”

  “Summuseraphi just arrived, delayed by a call to assist Caelum with a quick rewrite,” Anima said.

  “And Vitae?”

  “The Shieldheart slew himself in an attempt to defend our sanctum from incursion.”

  Flashfire shot through Ignis. “What? Who attacked our Shield?”

  “Knight Dolumii and Knight Gherrian,” Anima said.

  “Our Shield is under attack and Summuseraphi attended to a re-write instead?”

  Is he really that young? Divine should have more sense.

  Ignis sprinted around and leapt into his car. “I’m on my way.”

  “We still have Veil breaches in progress. You’re needed to quell the incursions and then instructed to gather your nest and bring it to headquarters,” Anima said.

  “Understood.”

  “Understood as in you need the address to the closest breach, or understood, but you will ignore your instructions...again?”

  “Our Shield is under attack and Aquaylae is there too weak to defend herself. The rest of the city can burn down again for all I care.” Ignis took a turn at twice the safe speed, his fire department light flashing the same color as his temper “I want a piece of Dolumii. We can deal with the breaches once our Shield is safe.”

  “Shield Aquaylae didn’t leave many pieces of appreciable size,” Anima said.

  Ignis slammed the brakes and swerved around a wafer too important to let an emergency vehicle through an intersection first.

  “Dolumii’s dead? What about Gherrian?”

  “All invaders have fled or been dispatched,” Anima said.

  Ignis slammed a fist into his dashboard, dented plastic melting.

  Not sure if I should congratulate Aquaylae or be cross with her.

  His voice came out a growl. “Where do you need me?”

  Anima provided him an address. A few hard turns had him running the right direction.

  Ignis

  Ignis stepped off the elevator into their sanctum. Palpable tension and doubly-thick taint slammed him back. Memory replaced missing items and traced structural damage around the foyer and up the stairs. Signs and experience described a pitched battle originating in the upper level, descending the stairs and eventually ending in Vitae’s bedroom.

  We’ve been assaulted, and I was the initial distraction.

  Fair-haired and handsome Caelum stood in the bedroom entrance. Blood stained a bedraggled corporate suit and concern rumpled Caelum’s normal breezy, devil-may-care expression.

  Ignis joined him.

  “It’s like the Joker exploded, Iggy.”

  Ignis chuckled at a jest not far from truth. Vitae’s gen
tlemanly décor had been shredded. Dried green and violet blood painted every surface. Faerie bone and armor fragments pockmarked walls and even some of Vitae’s hardwood furniture.

  “Aquaylae and Vitae?” Ignis asked.

  “Vitae and Summuseraphi haven’t yet returned from meeting with the Courts,” Anima said.

  “Quayla’s in what’s left of the greenhouse,” Caelum faced Ignis more fully. “It’s bad, Iggy. She should be True Dead.”

  Ignis’s inner flame suddenly banked. “You’re not making sense. Her egg—”

  “Shattered,” Caelum said. “The others were taken.”

  Ignis surveyed the carnage with new eyes. Vitae’s nest was half full. Considering the Shieldheart’s fastidiousness, the level meant Vitae died more than once.

  “Where are the rest of the Knight Dolumii’s remains?” Ignis asked. “He took something I need back.”

  “Vitae took both knights’ swords with him,” Anima said. “The rest is as you see it.”

  Ignis cursed and mounted the stairs. He hesitated at the top, assessing the carnage. Rippling plastic sheets replaced yard after yard of glass, trying to keep in the air conditioning. Terrance stepped out of Aquaylae’s bedroom, the stolid Moor’s dark face bent and grim.

  “She’s well?” Ignis asked.

  “It took nearly more strength than I have to tear her away from the shards of her egg,” Terrance said. “She is as shattered. It would be well if her paramour were allowed to tend her.”

  “Vitae will never permit that,” Ignis said. “Besides, I thought you didn’t approve of dating wafers.”

  “I don’t, but she needs comfort right now, familiarity.”

  There is more you’re not saying. What about this wafer changes your mind, old brother?

  “I can supply the dashing good looks,’ Caelum said.

  Terrance sighed. “I fear even being her brothers all these years, we will not prove enough.”

  Ignis followed Terrance into the garden. Spiderweb cracks splintered thick glass protecting the garden. More plastic covering the small holes in the resilient panes expanded and contracted like lungs.

  Characteristic grime of the diminutive putti seemed to shadow the white marble archangel and his little attendants. The stone wasn’t dirty, but the violation of their sanctum sullied his impression nonetheless. Blood pinked the dry basin next to Terrance. A hitch caught Ignis’s throat. Nothing remained of Mare’s essence.

  Even centuries after her loss, even knowing all that time that she’d never return, even knowing Aquaylae had added her essence to refill what evaporation stole from the basin, losing the last bit of Mare hurt to rival the loss of Ignis’s heart.

  His putti drew Ignis’s eye. The empty alcove knotted his twisted guts into a Gordian knot.

  Gone. Taken, but by whom and for what purpose?

  Caelum’s expression hardened. “They violated our sanctum.”

  “Killed us and stole what’s precious,” Terrance said.

  Caelum’s voice fell to a whisper. “They nearly took Quayla from us too.”

  Cold blue fire shot through Ignis, but he stood as still as the statuesque angel on the fountain. “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” Caelum said. “After I dealt with the grendlings, a bunch of redcaps ambushed me.”

  “More Wyldfae,” Terrance said.

  “Grendlings, redcaps, a half ogre and efreet,” Ignis said. “Did they all work for Dolumii? Gherrian?”

  “Or were some of them random incursions exploiting the rest of the noise?” Caelum asked.

  Vitae exploded from nowhere, charging into Ignis’s face. “Salamander, not efreet. You’re our Pyri, a Phoenix of Flame. How can you not tell the difference?”

  Emerald lit Vitae’s brown eyes until they glowed like neon. Anger darkened his olive skin and Vitae’s centuries old Edwardian suit was in disarray. The furious phoenix hulked over Ignis’s new body despite little difference in size, but a fragility undercut Vitae’s bullying demeanor.

  Ignis narrowed his eyes, trying to understand what he was seeing. “I was mistaken, Vitae, nothing more.”

  Vitae shoved him. “You were lazy! Incompetent! You cost me lives. You practically handed them our eggs!”

  “Easy,” Caelum said. “They’re both shapeshifters. For all we know they imitated efreet to fool him.”

  “He should know the difference,” Vitae snapped.

  “Vitae, calm yourself,” Terrance said.

  “This Shield is a disgrace,” Vitae paced. “We’re not a laughing-stock anymore, it’s gone far beyond that now. Our Aquaylae’s shacked up with a wafer, paying more attention to her sex life than her nest. Our Ignis can’t tell the difference between salamander and efreet. Neither our Ignis nor Caelum can be bothered to ensure that our sentry net remains complete, and you...” Vitae narrowed his eyes at Terrance. “How is it you weren’t ambushed? Collusion?”

  Terrance’s lips pressed together until they all but disappeared.

  Ignis stepped between them. “That’s enough, Vitae.”

  Vitae rounded on him, gesturing toward the fountain. “Our eggs are gone.”

  “Which is not Terrance’s fault,” Ignis said.

  “Oh, no. It’s not his fault. It’s mine. I’m the Shieldheart. I let this disgrace happen, but no longer. You’re all ordered to relocate your nests back into our headquarters.”

  Caelum snorted. “Not hardly. You don’t rank any higher than the rest of us. Besides, what’s the big deal? We have a full Shield, we’ll just make more eggs.”

  Ignis shook his head. “We’re linked to them. The only egg we can remake is Quayla’s.”

  “Not until she is stronger,” Terrance said.

  “Why can’t we make a second? What’s bad about having two of them as a failsafe?” Caelum said.

  “You see, an elf couldn’t have proven my point more elegantly.” Vitae shoved a finger into Caelum’s chest. “You’re centuries old and as ignorant as a new hatchling—you and that incompetent—”

  Anima’s voice inherited the anger in the air. “That ‘incompetent’ saved your life, Vitae. Quayla sacrificed herself to protect this Shield and she, not you, slew both Sidhe knights.”

  “Aquaylae!” Vitae roared. “Her name is Aquaylae and it was luck that she managed to ambush them after I’d injured then nigh unto death!”

  Caelum mouthed. “Nigh unto death?”

  “I won’t stand for this anymore. There will be order in this Shield!” Vitae said. “Since the rest of you lack the sense the Creator bestowed, I’ll provide it. You will relocate your nests into headquarters at once.”

  “Screw off, Vitae,” Caelum said. “You’re not Divine.”

  Emerald light pulsed around Vitae as he lunged toward Caelum.

  Ignis set a restraining hand on Vitae’s shoulder.

  Vitae slapped him away.

  “Anima, something is wrong with Vitae,” Ignis said. “Summon our Praefectus.”

  Vitae rounded on Ignis. “There’s nothing wrong with me a little of the respect you promised wouldn’t cure.”

  Terrance stepped up shoulder to shoulder with Ignis. “Then you will calm yourself, or I will call for Summus myself.”

  Vitae seethed, but his aura dampened.

  Ignis sighed, turning to Caelum. “Caelum, I would appreciate it if you would show Vitae the respect he is due.”

  “That’s a two-way street,” Caelum snarled.

  “As the younger, yours should be the first step,” Terrance said.

  “And Vitae is correct that you must attend to your studies better,” Ignis said.

  “How about the Cliff’s notes version?” Caelum said.

  Vitae threw his hands up.

  “The Bible speaks against a man serving two masters,” Terrance said. “To link two eggs would be to pull both mind and soul in opposite directions.”

  Caelum frowned. “Is that two directions or four?”

  “You’ll have plenty of time to construct under
standing once you’ve relocated,” Vitae said.

  “No way,” Caelum said. “I like where I live, besides it’s close to work.”

  “There will be no more work in the mortal world. You will focus exclusively on your duties to this Shield,” Vitae said.

  Caelum glanced at the other two. “You’re just going to stand there and put up with his megalomaniacal ranting?”

  “Anima, do we have any clues regarding the missing eggs?” Ignis asked.

  “Power loss disconnected me from the Sanctum’s systems, but we know mounted knights of both Seelie and Unseelie Courts invaded the sanctum,” Anima said.

  “Why doesn’t she have backup power?” Caelum asked. “You know we should get Dylan to check out the system and—”

  “No,” Vitae said. “That mortal is to have no further contact with us. I’ve requested he be rewritten.”

  “You what?!” Quayla’s voice cut across the garden. She stormed across the intervening space with all the grace of a newborn foal. She shoved Vitae with all her momentum.

  Ignis lurched forward, colliding with Terrance but both still managed to catch her.

  Vitae recovered. “You saw. Anima recorded. She assaulted me over a filthy wafer.”

  “Dylan is twice the man you are, you...you...dickless Vulcan!”

  Caelum laughed.

  “She’s ill,” Ignis said. “Too weak to be held accountable.”

  “I will not let you harm, Dylan,” Quayla said.

  “I demand a quorum,” Terrance said.

  Silence filled the garden, broken only by the sound of wind-rippled plastic.

  “No action may be taken against the mortal Dylan Snyder until decided by quorum,” Terrance said. “After Quayla’s been deemed strong enough for duty.”

  Ignis eased Aquaylae onto a bench. “We must focus on what’s important.”

  Quayla opened her mouth, but Ignis quieted her with a smile and finger to her lips.

  “Ignis is correct,” Terrance said. “Recovering the eggs must be our first priority.”

  A blinding blaze of light resolved into a phoenix then a winged man and finally the golden-haired youth that served as their new Praefectus. “Not entirely. We must also deal with the diplomatic ramifications of two Sidhe knights dying in our sanctum and the lingering demand for Quayla’s apology.”