Cursed To Death

Assault rifles squeezed off rounds. Shogun and his men dodged bullets by seeking the alleys. Then suddenly the choppers’ blades ceased whirling; ice covered them, the outer skin of the choppers froze over, and men plummeted to the ground.

The results were horrific; the explosion catastrophic. They had to get the fight out of the city limits. Law enforcement vehicles were everywhere and they were sitting ducks.

“Let Kiagehul go!” a female Unseelie screeched as she materialized for a second and pointed at Sasha. “Your humans die if he dies. Fair exchange is no robbery!”

Sasha and Hunter looked at each other. Vamps were obviously in this now, after the lair bust earlier in the day.

“The blood clubs!” Sasha shouted. Dodging traffic, she mounted a roof through a shadow and grabbed a Fae archer’s arm. “They want the prisoner and are using humans as hostages. Fall back and take it to the blood clubs. That ought to get the Vampires to force the Unseelie to come to court and bring a cease-fire. Since they want to play hard-ball, let’s do the same damned thing!”

Hunter ran ahead of the pack as Sasha doubled back for her men.

“Listen to me, Woods,” she said, ducking down behind a Dumpster in back of the building. “I want you and Fisher out of this hot zone now!”

“But-”

“No buts,” she said, eyeing him and Fisher hard. “You’ve done your part. I want you to guard ’Rissa and Doc. This is go

“Oh, shit,” Woods said, leaning back against the building.

“Yeah, oh, shit. That’s why I want you guys to have plausible deniability, if this doesn’t end up right.”

“But we’re not big on leaving your ass out in a firestorm, Cap,” Fisher said.

“I love you guys, too-but right now, cover your asses and make sure the rest of the team at Tulane doesn’t come under attack. Use the iron shells and the rowan as well as silver. Vamps and Unseelie could be working as a unit… plus there’s something else out there that I can’t see.”

She didn’t have time to argue with them, it was a direct order. Fall back. “Where’s the grenade launcher?”

Fisher and Woods gave her wide smiles.

“In the van we came in, across the street,” Fisher said, seeming much improved.

Sasha was in and out. The Dumpsters cast a shadow; there was nothing but shadows inside the van. Full metal jacket-she was locked and loaded. So the Vampires wanted to allow their Unseelie buddies to use i

“Kill another i

She slid into another shadow, but not before she saw Shogun in her peripheral vision. He and his men were decimating fleeing Vampires that came out of the inferno like rats jumping off a sinking ship.

Insanity had her in its grip; she walked in the front door of the baron’s casino, a semiautomatic in each hand, hit anything with fangs point-blank, and was out. Wolves came in right behind her, savaging anything that dared to move.

Overturning crypts, she sent a message that the next time it would be daylight. She, Hunter, and Shogun came together at the edge of the swamp with Fae archers. Sir Rodney’s men had captured eight Unseelie and one Vampire.

“Dead or alive?” Sir Rodney asked his men.

“Dead,” his captain of the guards said, taking Sasha’s gun out of her hand and pulling the trigger hard twice toward the Vampire prisoner’s head. His men let go as embers exploded. “In the morning, we torch all their graves.”

“Truce!” a disembodied voice called out. “This is a matter for the courts to decide!”

“Good, you bloody bastards!” Sir Rodney shouted. “Court is in less than an hour!”

This was a very different session than she’d attended before. This time there were no neutral parties. Order of the Dragon security forces were clearly vexed with the Vampires and Unseelie; Fae archers had hair-trigger tempers, having just lost a man. Wolves were united, except for the very small minority faction that still had allegiances to the Buchanan clan. Mythics and Flame of the Phoenix members were so traumatized by the carnage that even they wanted blood. Then there were the Vampires-who were flanked by the Unseelie Fae.

Yeah, this time was wild. Sasha looked around at the tense groups waiting for the UCE’s pillared hall to rise out of the swamp and for the emergency session to be called to order. Everything was out of control. She had no way to know how many i

The blind, old crone that always presided over the trials came out with her bewitched ledger and pen, which looked more like a wand than a writing instrument. She set the book of records in the air aloft and flung the pen at it so that the pen hovered above the book.

“There is no stenographer, save the book. It records only that which is truth. The normal recorder is too traumatized to attend… She is of the Mer-a Siren crier of the deep-and even she will not be party to this travesty.”

The crone’s voice sounded like fingernails on a blackboard and all the wolves in attendance cringed until she was done speaking. She pointed to the gavel and it immediately stood on its handle and spun around, wildly shrieking.

“All rise… Court is in session! The book shall be the judge, the record ca

The large, dusty tome that appeared as though it were covered with ancient black serpent skin creaked open with a thud in the air, flipped several of its moldy pages to a clean page, and then waited as the pen poised itself above it.

“We have a very serious complaint,” the crone murmured. “A capital offense that could and has caused war to break out even in front of humans.” She turned toward the back of the court and pointed with a gnarled, arthritic finger. “Bring in the prisoner!”

Wolves howled and Shogun and his men escorted the slight figure down the aisle bound in iron and reeking of rowan. Fae drew back and covered their noses and mouths with cloths and forest leaves, but their eyes hardened and their jeers rang out as a sickly-looking Kiagehul passed their grandstands. A growl crawled up Sasha’s and Hunter’s throats; this was the man who had nearly wiped out their entire family. Vampires curled their lips, showing fangs, insulted by the open hostility exhibited by the Seelie in court.

But the aisle suddenly became ice slicked as a frigid blast dropped the temperature by forty degrees and caused frost to cover the boxes and chairs. Sir Rodney turned from where he sat with Sasha and Hunter in the front box on the right and all eyes followed his as Queen Blatand of Hecate strode down the aisle.

This new threat absorbed Sasha’s complete focus for a moment. The queen had the most fragile features she had ever seen. If she weren’t so evil, one might have called her beautiful. She had large, amazingly clear, pale blue eyes. Her eyebrows were a perfect arch of platinum hair that nearly matched her skin as though she were albino. Set against her huge, questioning eyes was a delicate dusting of white lashes. She had a tiny button nose and a cherub’s mouth, interestingly hued a deep blue that caused such a contrast against her skin that Sasha had to stare. Her small breasts were the perfect teacup size, pushed up in an elegant, old-world, beaded gown, her entire tiny torso and wasp waist held firmly by unforgiving corset stays.