Midnight's Kiss

Seventeen

The woods that blanketed much of Marin County were some of the most beautiful in the world. Populated with massive redwoods and rich in land magic, the forest floor was dark and shaded enough so that the Vampyres in the group could pull off their hoods and walk in safety.

Julian stayed by Melly’s side so he could spend as much time as he could with her. Like him, she wore fitted body armor and weapons. Despite carrying what he knew must be a good forty pounds in extra weight, she moved easily and with grace. She had braided her hair and rolled it into a tight bun at the base of her neck. It emphasized the graceful arch of her neck and the elegant bone structure of her face.

Much of the time, Melly greeted the world with a good-humored smile and a twinkle. Experienced at being in the public eye, she knew how to work the red carpet for movie premieres, and she made it easy for people to believe in her movie starlet persona.

Now as he looked at her, there could be no doubt — she was every bit Tatiana Aindris’s daughter and the Light Fae heir.

They didn’t have time to talk. Julian led them through the woods at a punishing pace. No matter how fast they deployed, every moment in a battle seemed to take forever, and he was all too conscious of what might be happening inside Evenfall.

Xavier’s people joined them a few at a time. Led by Xavier’s head of security, Raoul, the advance scout confirmed that while troops dotted the land close to Evenfall’s walls, there was no sign of Dominic’s forces this far into the woods.

Xavier himself had insisted on coming along. While Julian had forbade him from volunteering to go into battle, as he pointed out, accompanying the group through the woods was something else entirely, and Julian hadn’t the heart to stop him. He had a challenging time keeping up with the rest of the force, but he did so with grim determination, and Tess never left his side.

Finally they reached the area that Julian had been looking for, a broken patch of high, rocky ground covered with moss and ferns.

He said telepathically to Melly, This entrance has been secret ever since the castle was originally built. You can only use something like this effectively once.

She looked around the area, her expression curious. If there’s any time to blow a secret, this is it.

He nodded, turned to face the others and ordered, “Come in close.”

The troops drew near, keeping their attention on his face.

He told them, “I have only one objective. I’m not going to let them take Evenfall. If I have to napalm the inside of those walls, I’m going to do it. That means we need to split into two groups. One will be with me. We’ll be on the offensive. Another group needs to focus on evacuating noncombatants.”

Melly said, “I’ll lead that team. I’ll take ten of my people to work on the evacuation.” Her gaze told him she wasn’t happy about the two of them splitting up, but she accepted the need for it.

His attention shifted to Shane. He said telepathically to the other man, As soon as Melly’s presence becomes known, she could become a target again. Justine kidnapped her for a reason.

The Light Fae captain replied, The Queen’s orders are that I’m to do anything Melly says, except leave her side. Today my goal in life is to make sure that the Light Fae heir remains safe.

Relief lifted a weight off his shoulders. He told the other man, That’s more than acceptable to me.

Aloud, he said to the group, “This tunnel leads to my suite. The passage is narrow, so my team will go first. Once we get inside, we’re not going to wait, so the strongest fighters in the second team need to follow directly afterward.”

The last person he looked at was Xavier, who told him, “Tess and I will come to the suite. Even if the cables were cut, the internal network might be operational. If it is, we’ll be able to assess where the fighting is and communicate with people in the IT area.” His mouth tightened. “If that’s acceptable to you.”

He considered the younger Vampyre with a narrowed gaze. Xavier was pushing right up to the edge of Julian’s orders, but the reality was, not only would the suite be heavily protected, it shouldn’t become the focus of any of the fighting. And Xavier and Tess could potentially do a lot of good from that position.

He said, “Excellent.”

Turning to the broken, rocky rise, he located the door hidden deep underneath years of moss and ferns, and heaved it open.

Then, despite the fact they had forty witnesses, he stepped to Melly and pulled her close for a hard, deep kiss.

Honey, I’m going to war, he said in her head. So put out, will you?

She burst out laughing against his mouth. Throwing her arms around his neck, she kissed him back with all the passion and enthusiasm he could have hoped for, and much more than he had expected in front of their audience.

After spending so many years in the army, he had no shame.

What he had forgotten was, after her years of acting in front of cameras, she had no shame either.

Melly hadn’t realized how hard it would be for her to step into the tunnels.

After all, this wasn’t the same place where Justine had committed her atrocities. Melly was no longer imprisoned. There were no ferals, no piles of corpses, no would-be rapists. A team of experienced, deadly soldiers surrounded her and Julian, and everybody carried a flashlight, so the tunnel would be well lit for yards around.

None of those details made any difference. As soon as it was her turn to step below, the walls closed in on her, and she nearly hyperventilated.

Julian had already gone ahead. Shane gripped her elbow, his gaze concerned. “Are you all right?”

I’m dealing with a touch of PTSD, she told him telepathically, unwilling to admit it out loud in front of so many witnesses. The tunnels where Justine held us… Shane, it was bad. After this, I don’t know if I’ll be able to tolerate even living in a house that has a basement.

His face tightened in sympathy. Whispering something under his breath, a golden, calming energy spread out from his hand and enveloped her. While doing nothing to affect her reflexes or judgment, the spell loosened the tight band around her chest.

Does that help? he asked.

Giving him a grateful look, she nodded.

Others were waiting for her to go underground so they could follow behind. She plunged in, with Shane at her heels.

The tunnel was very long, perhaps as much as a quarter of a mile. It dipped down then gradually angled up again, until it came to rough steps hewn in stone.

They climbed for a long time. She imagined the staircase cutting up through the hill on which Evenfall sprawled. It would need to ascend past the lower levels in the castle to reach Julian’s suite.

The trek seemed to take forever when suddenly she arrived. Stepping out of the narrow staircase, she looked around.

She remembered Julian’s suite as spacious yet streamlined, with large landscape paintings from European Old Masters and only enough furniture to make the living space comfortable.

Because of the artwork, the lack of windows had never bothered her before, but now she frowned. The castle had been built long before the technology for automatic shutters existed. While there were plenty of guest suites along the outer walls, the entire core of Evenfall was like this suite, window free and utterly secure from sunlight, with hallways running throughout the castle like a honeycomb, interconnecting everything.

The suite no longer felt spacious to her, but all the soldiers crowding the rooms might be influencing her perspective. The air felt electric with adrenaline. Energy jumped underneath her skin.

Julian and the rest of his group had already disappeared. A small part of her tried to panic. She might never see him again. Ruthlessly, she squashed it. She had seen firsthand what he could do when he had fought the ferals. He would win this fight.

Tess and Xavier were the last of the group to arrive. They strode immediately to the office area. Tess threw herself in front of Julian’s computer.

Two Nightkind guards in black uniform stood just inside the suite’s carved double doors, watching everyone with undisguised relief. One of them was a Vampyre unfamiliar to Melly, but the other was a ghoul whom she recognized.

She strode to him. “Herman?”

The ghoul fixed large, dark eyes on her. The long, downward lines of his gray face shifted into something that approximated a smile.

“Mum,” he said. “You is a sight for sore eyes, you is.”

“How are you?”

“Trootfully, mum, I seen better days,” he told her.

Shane joined them. At that, he turned to face her and raised one eyebrow.

Telepathically, she said to him, I love ghouls. They’re the Eeyores of the Elder Races. He might have said the same thing on a perfectly wonderful day when the Nightkind demesne wasn’t imploding and there was no attempted coup.

Aloud, she asked the ghoul, “You’ve been guarding the suite?”

“Yes, mum,” said Herman. “King’s suite always haz a guard. Usually we stands outside no matter what, but shit happened dis morning. Mr. Dominic wanted in. We say no way, cuz he ain’t no king of ours. Then we scarper inside, and we bin stuck here ever since.” The ghoul rubbed the back of his bald head with long, skeletal fingers. “Whatta surprise when Mr. King himself walks outta that wall.”

She told them, “We’re going to start evacuating noncombatants. Don’t let anybody through those doors if they aren’t with us, do you understand?”

Herman’s Vampyre partner said, “Yes, ma’am. The King told us what you would be doing and ordered us to help. We’ll keep watch for you.”

She glanced through the open doorway to the office area where Tess and Xavier were focused on the computer screen.

She told Shane, “Julian and his group will have gone down and north, toward the parking garage. The IT area is down there. I don’t know where the munitions area is, but it has to be somewhere close to that.”

He raised his eyebrows. “I thought the parking areas were aboveground.”

“Those are the public parking areas. The garage is for private use, for Nightkind officials only. Julian took me through there a couple of times when we drove in.” She paused. “We’re going to go in the opposite direction — toward the public meeting halls. We’ll do a sweep for people, and bring them back here. Anybody who might be barricaded in their rooms should be safe enough for now. Maybe by then, Tess will have some news for us.”

Shane turned to their troops. “You heard the orders. Let’s move out.”

As Melly regarded her team, they drew weapons, their expressions calm and deadly.

Every one of them was Light Fae.

“Hold,” she ordered.

Those closest to the door jerked to a halt. As one, they all turned to her. Pivoting, she strode into the office area.

When Xavier and Tess glanced up, she said, “We made a mistake. We sent some of the Light Fae troops to help Julian, but we didn’t retain any Nightkind troops for my team. I can’t take a Light Fae force out there and expect people to follow us to evacuate. They’re going to be confused and scared. They won’t be thinking rationally. For all they might know, they could believe we’ve invaded.”

Comprehension flashed on their faces. Rubbing his face, Xavier swore in Spanish. He said to Tess, “I have to go with them.”

Tess’s gaze flared with alarm. “Julian ordered you not to go into battle.”

“If it comes to a fight, I’ll have to stay out of it,” he said grimly.

Tess clenched her teeth. “But what if you’re attacked?”

Xavier’s voice gentled. “Remember querida, Julian left me an out. I’m free to defend myself if I need to. I simply can’t choose to go into battle voluntarily.”

“You shouldn’t have to defend yourself.” Tess gripped his wrist. “I should come with you. It’s the whole reason I’ve been training so hard these last few months.”

“I understand your frustration, but you can’t come.” He shook his head. “You have work here we need for you to do.”

Hoping to offer reassurance, Melly told her, “I’ll make sure he stays with me, in the core of the group.”

The struggle in Tess’s eyes was palpable. She whispered, “Keep him safe.”

Melly’s heart went out to the other woman. As difficult as it had been for her to see Julian go into battle, the feeling for Tess right now must be a thousand times worse. “I promise you, we will.”

Xavier bent to kiss Tess. The emotion between them was so deep and evident, Melly felt like she was witnessing something meant to be private. Turning away, she went back to her team waiting by the suite entrance.

Xavier joined them. The frustration and tenderness Melly had witnessed so briefly had vanished. He looked sharp-eyed, collected and calm.

He gave her a small smile. “Let’s go save some people, shall we?”

She turned to her team. “Now, we can go.”

They headed out. Melly, Xavier and Shane led the way, flanked on either side by guards. Moving quickly and quietly, on high alert, they swept through ominously empty hallways until they reached the castle’s great hall.

Unlike the Nightkind council chambers and meeting rooms, which were areas designed for smaller, more private assemblies, the great hall was a large space used for public gatherings. The design was classically simple and grand. The hall had a high vaulted ceiling, huge support columns, and a golden marble floor.

As they drew close, the sound of arguing voices echoed off the walls. Slowing, Melly, Xavier and Shane eased up to look into the large space. Four Vampyres wearing the black uniform of the Nightkind guard stood in a semicircle around a group of people who huddled back against one wall.

Swearing internally, Melly did a quick head count — there were over thirty in the group of prisoners. Most of them were Vampyres, but some were human, and a few were ghouls.

“… holding us here for hours without any kind of explanation,” a Vampyre woman said icily. She stood at the forefront of the group and looked furious. “I demand to speak to Dominic.”

“As I’ve already told you, Dominic is busy at the moment,” one of the guards snapped. “He’ll come as soon as he can. Then you’ll get all the explanations you want. Until then, you’re all staying right here.”

Melly recognized the woman. Her name was Annis, and she was a member of the Nightkind council. Melly exchanged a frown with Xavier and Shane.

Keeping his voice so soft it was a bare thread of sound, Shane whispered, “That guard speaking — who is it?”

“His name is Benet,” Xavier replied just as quietly. His gaze had turned hard until his eyes glittered like bottle glass. “He’s a captain who has apparently made some very unwise decisions. His three companions are from his unit. There’s supposed to be another council member in residence, Leopold, but I don’t see him in this group.”

“He could be in his suite,” Melly whispered. “If he is, he’s probably being held there. Dominic and Justine would be working to control and suppress movement. They wouldn’t want council members wandering about and possibly taking matters into their own hands.”

“Agreed,” said Xavier. “Neither Leopold nor Annis are warriors, but they have enough authority that people would listen to what they said.”

Shane nudged Melly’s arm. “I think I can take care of this without any of the prisoners being hurt. May I?”

She raised her eyebrows. “By all means, knock yourself out.”

He hesitated and his eyes narrowed. “It necessitates stretching the Queen’s orders a wee bit thin, so be sure you don’t get hurt while I’m busy, you hear?”

Impatiently, she waved that away. “I’ll be fine. Do it.”

He closed his eyes, and a shimmer of magic rippled over his body. Suddenly Dominic stood in front of them, his scarred, handsome face cold and assessing. He asked Xavier, “Will this do?”

Staring, Xavier nodded. “You’ve nailed him exactly.”

Melly stared too. She had heard of this kind of illusion spell before, but they were rare. They took a great deal of Power and training, and they were extremely difficult to maintain. They were risky too, as a strong wave of disbelief could dispel them.

She hissed, “Shane Mac Carthaigh, don’t you dare get yourself shot, because I’m not going to be the one to tell Mom.”

“This will only take a few minutes,” said Shane/Dominic. He gave her a faint, reassuring smile. “Be ready to follow up.”

He strode into the hall, conquering the distance to the group in a long, arrogant stride, while he held his semiautomatic in a loose, relaxed position at his side.

“Will you look at that,” Xavier muttered. “He even moves like Dominic. How did he learn to do that?”

She whispered, “Shane watches everybody and everything. He could probably impersonate any one of the Nightkind council if he had to.”

Xavier gave her a sidelong glance. He looked extremely thoughtful. “Good to know.”

In the great hall, the four Nightkind guards, along with their hostages, all turned to Shane/Dominic.

“Benet,” said Shane/Dominic as he approached. “Send your men to help keep guard over Leopold. You stay with me.”

Everything Melly had ever heard about illusion spells unfolded now like a textbook case.

People tend to see what they’re expecting to see, what fits the stories they know. They believe the evidence of their eyes, because it takes far too much effort for the brain to question every bit of information it accumulates. The more outlandish the illusion, the more difficult and fragile the spell became.

Shane was a clever, very dangerous man. This illusion apparently fit with the stories in the guards’ minds.

“Yes, sir,” said Benet. He snapped his fingers at the other three guards. “Go.”

They shouldered their weapons and headed toward Melly, Xavier and the Light Fae guard. Whirling at the same time, Melly and Xavier waved the Light Fae back. They retreated back down the hallway several yards, weapons trained on the open space in front of them.

Moments later the three Nightkind guards walked around the corner. As they came face-to-face with ten soldiers pointing guns at them, they froze. One by one they raised their hands in a universal gesture of surrender.

From the great hall, a single shot rang out.

In the split second that followed, while the hostages in the great hall screamed or exclaimed, Xavier raised his gun and double-tapped each Nightkind guard in the head. They vanished into dust, their weapons clattering to the floor.

Recoiling, Melly stared at Xavier’s hard expression.

He said, “Once a traitor, always a traitor.”

The Nightkind was Xavier’s demesne too. She didn’t question his right to execute the soldiers. It wasn’t her place to do so. Turning, she ran into the great hall, followed by the rest of her team.

Benet had disappeared, and so had the Dominic illusion. In his place, Shane stood with his hands up, his gun pointing to the ceiling. He was speaking calmly as he tried to deescalate the group’s panic.

Melly didn’t bother trying to talk over the hostages’ noisy reactions. Instead, she raced straight to Annis. The Vampyre gave her a wild-eyed look. “Melisande? What on earth are you doing here?”

Melly told the other woman, “I’m glad to see you’re all right, Annis. Evenfall isn’t secured, so we don’t have time for extensive explanations. Julian’s battling Dominic and Justine, and we’re here to help you get to safety. Get your people under control and follow me.”

Melly gestured her team back while Annis and Xavier worked to calm down the group. In short order, they headed back down the hallway toward Julian’s suite.

Annis joined Melly, Xavier and Shane. Melly told her, “We’re going to send you down a tunnel. There’s no real shelter at the other end — the tunnel lets out into the woods — but it’s shaded enough that it’s safe for Vampyres, and it’s a good distance from Evenfall. It’s the most safety we can offer you on such short notice.”

“It will do,” Annis said. She was a tall, spare woman who looked to be in her late forties, with straight black hair, stern features and gray eyes. “I want to know if we’ll be able to get cell reception.”

“I tried when we were out earlier,” Xavier told her. “It’s patchy, but if you search around, you might be able to make a connection.”

“I’ll keep trying until I get word out.” Annis’s jaw set in a determined line. She sounded outraged. “People need to know what’s going on in here.”

“You should tell everybody you can,” Xavier said to her, his tone solicitous. “In fact, our next objective will be to free Leopold too, so he can help you.”

Behind her back, his dry gaze met Melly’s. Before the hour was out, she knew the entire council would be informed, and she was willing to bet they would all descend upon Evenfall within the next few hours.

“Good,” Annis said viciously.

They reached the outside of Julian’s suite. Rapping on the doors, Xavier called out. Herman and his partner let the group in. As soon as everyone had stepped inside, they slammed and bolted the doors again.

If the suite had felt crowded before, now it was positively cramped. The Light Fae guard showed the former prisoners the opening in Julian’s bedroom wall that led to the tunnel staircase, and one by one, they began to leave.

Melly blocked out the noise. She followed Xavier as he pushed his way through the crowd, and Shane joined them. When they reached the office area, Tess stood so fast, she knocked the chair back. She and Xavier came together in a tight clench.

Tess pulled back almost immediately. “Gavin didn’t disconnect the server from Evenfall’s internal network,” she told them. Her face and voice were full of some kind of emotion that Melly didn’t know how to identify. She met Melly’s gaze. “He and I have been talking, and I have a visual feed from several cameras. I have to warn you, the feeds are hard to watch. I saw everything that happened in the great hall.”

For Melly, everything else fell away. She rushed to kneel in front of the computer and gripped the edge of the desk with both hands. Xavier, Tess and Shane joined her.

At first, Melly struggled to sort all the information. There were six camera feeds on the screen, and all of them showed different scenes.

The bottom right camera feed focused on Gavin and two other people. They huddled together, their expressions tense. The scene behind them looked like a typical busy office, with cubicles, workstations and electronics parts laid out on a nearby table. The trio appeared to be looking right out Julian’s computer screen.

Gavin’s voice sounded clearly over Julian’s speakers. “Xavier, there you are — thank the gods.”

Xavier said something in reply. Melly didn’t pay attention. She tuned out their conversation as she searched the other camera feeds. The two others in the bottom row of images were of main thoroughfares in the castle. One was of the great hall, now standing silent and empty.

The top three feeds showed different scenes of a battle. Or maybe they were different battles.

The left feed focused on an image of an industrial-sized, reinforced steel door. The door looked battered and scarred with scorch marks. Two people knelt on the floor on either side of the door, using blowtorches along the edges. Others surrounded them, facing outward with weapons poised.

The middle feed showed the giant underground parking lot, but instead of peaceful rows of parked vehicles, Vampyres fought and shot at each other. A few cars burned. Billows of black smoke made it difficult to see details, and when she could, several of the Vampyres moved so fast, they were blurs.

The third feed focused on a wide stone stairwell and more fighting. She caught sight of a few Light Fae guards, along with Julian’s salt-and-pepper hair and distinctive, powerful form in the middle of the undulating wave of people.

“These aren’t all the same place, are they?” She clenched her hands into fists. “That stairwell is the one that leads into the parking garage, right?”

“Yes,” Xavier said. He sounded as tense as she felt.

Someone took hold of her shoulder in a hard, steady grip. She jumped violently and whirled, but it was only Shane. His gaze was sober, even compassionate.

He said, “With your permission, I’ll put together a small team to send after councilman Leopold. Annis hasn’t left yet. Maybe she’ll agree to go with the team to convince Leopold it’s safe. Then they can evacuate together. You don’t need to be involved.”

“Good thinking. Thank you.”

She had already turned back to the battle scenes before his hand left her shoulder.

Xavier told her, “There are several layers of barriers that were built into the lower levels. The first set of locked doors is at the head of the stairwell, where Julian and his team are fighting right now.” He pointed to the feed on the battered door. “This is the munitions area. There’s a door on the other side of the garage that leads down a hallway to this place. Both of those doors are made of reinforced steel.”

“If this is a visual of the second door, you’re saying they’ve already broken through the first,” she said.

“Yes. Rocket launchers and other distance weapons are kept in there. If they break through and get into the munitions area, Julian will have no choice. He’ll have to retreat.”

Gavin leaned forward, until his worried face looked distorted in the feed, his forehead large and domelike. “Yolanthe and her group are just outside our doors. They were trapped, but now Julian’s attacking from the rear. Justine and Dominic have to deal with a fight on two sides now.”

Melly began to make sense of the feeds. Searching each scene, she muttered, “Where are they?”

Xavier knew exactly who she meant. He pointed to the top middle feed, showing the parking garage. “There’s Dominic.”

Despite the chaos of the battle, Dominic’s tall, athletic form, scarred features and blond hair were unmistakable. He wielded two swords with terrifying expertise. As Melly’s attention focused on him, he staked one Vampyre in the chest and slashed at another.

Xavier asked Tess, “Can we get sound on this feed?”

Tess leaned forward to tap on the keyboard. The tumultuous sounds of battle blared over the speakers, and quickly she adjusted the volume.

Melly barely noticed Shane’s return, even when he laid a hand on her shoulder again. Tension strung her muscles tight until her neck and shoulders ached.

An eddy of fast movement swirled through the battle. Suddenly Julian appeared, leaping over the heads of a cluster of fighters, sword in hand. While the feed was black and white, his fangs glinted long and wicked, and Melly knew his eyes would have turned hot red.

Landing, Julian moved toward Dominic, who focused on him and strode forward to engage.

Oh gods. Uselessly, she reached out to the screen. The blond Vampyre looked confident and lethal, while Julian was a juggernaut.

As they neared one another, Julian roared at him, “KNEEL!”

Even despite the physical distance and the all the noise from the rest of the battle, the savage Power in the command rocketed out of the speakers with such force, Xavier groaned and staggered.

All around Julian, every Vampyre fighter who heard the command reacted. Those visible in the feed slammed down onto his knees.

Except for Dominic.

He didn’t kneel.

But his forward momentum hitched for a critical moment.

Julian lunged into a blur and struck. Dominic’s blond head flew spinning from his shoulders, while his body froze in a posture of immense surprise before it vanished forever as it collapsed into dust.