That was fucking great.
“To kicking their asses,” I said, and held out my hand.
Marie didn’t move. “You know how to defeat them. Tell me.”
I wasn’t about to play coy when she’d just committed her entire species to this fight.
“Netherworld handcuffs,” I said, pulling my sleeve higher so Marie could see the supernatural restraints etched into my skin. “The Warden himself gave them to me. I put these on Morana and Ruaumoko, and they get a one-way ticket back to their prisons. As for Phanes . . . we’ll figure something out.”
She stared at me. “You had these, and didn’t use them on her when you could have.”
I let out a short laugh. “Regretting that a bit now, but you were emphatic that Morana was under your safe passage rule, so I didn’t. I don’t want war with your people. I never have.”
Marie finally took my hand, her grip strong and sure. “You should have shown me the real Veritas long before this. I don’t trust vampires, but I might one day trust you.”
“My queen!”
Jacques ran back into the living room, startling all of us.
“What is it?” Marie asked him.
His expression alone said that it was more bad news. I braced, and Ian’s arm tightened around me.
“Morana did not attack you and your residence alone. She froze the entire Garden District.”
I started to run for the door, but Ian hauled me back.
“Wait.”
His voice was so urgent that I stopped. “What?”
“Didn’t notice it before because I was too focused on you.” Ian lowered his voice as if someone outside this room might be listening. “Now, I’m certain of it. Someone else’s scent is here, and it wasn’t before when Ashael and I left.”
I sniffed, but all I smelled was ice, our scents, and Marie’s delicate, floral perfume that was light enough even for a vampire’s oversensitive nose.
“Phanes,” Ian suddenly spat.
I stiffened. I didn’t smell him, but my senses still felt off after being flash frozen, so I didn’t trust them over Ian’s.
“I still have to help those people,” I said.
“I’ll go,” Ashael replied. “My power over anything liquid-based is greater than yours, and I’m much faster, too.”
Both true, except for one large drawback. “You can’t get inside homes that you haven’t been invited into.”
“I back the banks that finance every loan in the district,” Marie said in crisp tone. “Therefore, technically, I own these houses. Ashael, I hereby invite you inside every home in this district. Go. Save all who can be saved.”
He bowed to Marie, gave me a look that said not to worry, and then vanished.
Ian’s arms relaxed around me. “Don’t fret. If they set a trap for you or Marie in one of those homes, Ashael can teleport out of it. If they’re watching, they won’t bother with him because they don’t yet realize they have a quarrel with him, too. Phanes doesn’t know that he’s your brother, remember?”
No, he didn’t. Ian was right that Ashael probably would pass unnoticed, whereas if Marie or I went and Morana and Phanes were waiting to ambush us, that would put more innocent people in danger. It was already horrible that some had been murdered in their sleep simply for living near Marie’s house when Morana dropped her deep freeze bomb. Ghouls and vampires could come back from being flash frozen. Humans couldn’t.
From Marie’s expression, she was thinking the same thing.
“I’m so sorry,” I said softly.
Marie gave a sharp nod.
“They will be avenged to the last drop of their blood. My only cause for thankfulness is that it’s the middle of the night, so there are no tourists. Also, it’s hurricane season and very hot, as that vile creature noted. Because of that, many of the nearby homes will be empty of mortals, since they prefer the safer, cooler months of fall, winter, and early spring.”
A slight comfort, but not enough. Marie wasn’t the only one who felt responsible for each death. And Phanes! Oh, how I wished I would have broken free from that ice shell before he and Morana fled. I would have ripped into both of them . . .
Wait. Phanes had been here.
I’d been so distraught over more innocent people dying, I hadn’t digested the implications of that, but I did now.
“That clever bitch,” I growled.
Ian raised a brow. Marie looked around as if to say, Who?
“Morana,” I said. “She went on and on about how she hadn’t forgiven Phanes for betraying her, and how he was with Ruaumoko and not her, but he didn’t accidently show up