Pure Requiem - Aja James Page 0,60

the only anchor in my shitty world.

“So, no, I don’t think she’ll be expecting you. Not as a serious threat that can take her down.”

I look back to Sophia.

“Three, your precious Dalair is there.”

She snaps her eyes to me, wide with attention.

And that’s all it takes, folks. Just a mention of her One True Love and she’s putty in my hands.

“She’s likely plying his tortured body with more experiments, maybe even trying to inject fragments of her soul into him.”

She jerks as if someone stabbed her with a sword right through the heart. She feels Dalair’s torment viscerally.

The bastard.

“I’m pretty sure she hasn’t done it yet. She’s lost quite a bit of her soul turning soldiers for her army over the millennia of her existence. It’s probably why she’s entirely insane. It’s also why she needs her Frankenstein lab assistant so much. If you haven’t guessed by now, the traitor is Wan’er, Rain’s ex-handmaiden.”

The open-mouthed shock on Sophia’s face reveals that she hasn’t, in fact, guessed it.

I shake my head at the Pure Ones’ stupidity and innocence.

“What would you do without me?” I deplore rhetorically. “If it makes you feel any better, I have no idea why she’s helping Medusa. What her agenda might be. Just never underestimate her. In some ways, I think she’s even more dangerous. If for no other reason than her unpredictability.”

“She’s making more soldiers,” Tal speaks quietly. “Monstrous creations. And using our…materials to do it.”

“You got that right, General,” I concur. “Which brings me to the fourth and perhaps most important reason you should launch an offensive now. Medusa has access to military weapons projects. Using human science for her nefarious ends.”

I say this more to appeal to the Pure Ones’ sense of honor and protectiveness than anything else. Only when they sacrifice themselves for the good of others do they act.

Ugh. I’m embarrassed to be biologically related to these misguided martyrs.

Yet, I’m proud at the same time. It’s a disorienting combination, to say the least.

“She’s already figured out how to splice animal, human and Immortal genes together. Most of her experiments fail, but enough of them succeed that her army is growing impossibly powerful and vast. At some point, she won’t care that humans outnumber Immortal Kinds millions to one. And then, good luck to us all. Imagine a world ruled by Medusa.”

We all ponder this post-apocalyptic horror silently for some time.

Finally, Sophia rises to her feet.

“Let’s get this done.”

The queen has spoken.

Next, we plan.

Chapter Thirteen: Darkness

*TAL*

Only a few of us embark on the mission.

Inanna, Gabriel, Cloud, Valerius, Ishtar and I.

And the only non-warrior in our group—Erebu.

In anticipation of a potential attack on the Shield while the most seasoned warriors are away, Aella and Tristan escorted the rest of the Dozen, including Sophia, to seek temporary refuge at the New England vampires’ Cove, under the guise of engaging in fierce negotiations with the publicly ambivalent Dark King, Ramses.

Jade, the former Dark Queen, with Sophia’s alignment, managed to secure the aid of three of the Chosen warriors from the king’s personal guard in this mission. I understand that the Pure Ones’ Seer and Scribe, Eveline, who has been gone from the Shield since Sophia’s sojourn to the Middle East, also helped.

We expect the following reinforcements: the Chosen’s Commander, Maximus, who can transform into a giant Siberian tiger, his Mate Ariel, who can turn into a giant black panther, and Rhys, who also possesses an animal spirit that can turn him into a giant golden eagle. The Chosen warriors will rendezvous with us at the target site, coming from a separate direction.

I do not know these Dark warriors, but I trust in Jade and Sophia. Never could I have imagined that Pure and Dark Ones would fight on the same side, against a common foe.

The times have certainly changed. People, too, can change. I feel more hope than I ever felt across the entirety of my existence that better days are ahead.

If we survive this night.

Time was of the essence once Erebu gave us the plot. Because he has fragments of Medusa’s soul within him, just as he can sense her movements and sometimes intentions, he expects that she can also sense his. We cannot risk giving her time to prepare, so a few hours after the Dozen crafted the attack plan, we set out in separate armored vehicles just after sunset.

The drive takes less than four hours at the speed we’re going. It will take another hour to hike through the mountains to Medusa’s lair—an