A warm, happy feeling sparked inside of me when I saw that one of the aides was my sister Bella. It had been far too long since we’d hung out. Unfortunately, I feared we wouldn’t have much time to chat.
Harker indicated the table where the vampires sat. “These are the leaders of two vampire houses in New York: House Vermillion and House Snowfire.”
From the way they were sitting on far ends of the same table, the two vampires didn’t get along all that well. Vermillion was the house that was good at reforming rogue vampires. I didn’t know much about Snowfire, but the name sounded familiar.
“And the shifters have sent Stash.” He looked at Stash sitting alone at the shifter table. “Is that your first or last name?”
“It’s my only name.”
“These are the leaders of the supernatural groups with members who’ve been affected by the contagion.” Harker looked from me to them. “You are all going to figure this out. Together. Your assets have been frozen until you do.”
On that cheerful note, he left the room, closing the door behind him.
None of the supernatural leaders looked happy to be here. I sure wasn’t happy about the mess Harker had dumped in my lap either. But maybe some of them knew something that would help us solve this problem. If only I could find a way to make these bickering supernatural leaders work together. They were already arguing. Angry accusations flew across the room.
I sighed and considered the representatives the supernaturals of New York had sent me.
The witches had sent a coven leader, one of the heads of the university. He was a witch of great power, positioned well within the witch community. That told me the witches took this threat very seriously.
Constantine Wildman’s aides were dressed in tight corsets and little ballet skirts. They didn’t have computers or other gadgets on them. He’d obviously brought them along to serve as human props, to make him look good. Poor Bella. She was too smart to be wasted like this.
The elementals had sent the four elemental leaders. They were arguing amongst themselves; they obviously didn’t trust one another. I guessed that was why they’d all come. They wanted to keep an eye on one another.
Stash stood from his seat and walked over to me. He must have noticed how lost I looked.
“Good to see you, Leda. Sorry it had to be under these circumstances,” he said.
“What are you doing here?”
“Same as the others. Representing my kind in this collaborative effort.”
“I thought you had no connections to the New York City packs.”
“I don’t, but shifters don’t get along well with other packs. The city packs are divided. They couldn’t decide on a representative, so they sent me as a neutral party. Ironic, isn’t it? They have to count on the person they’d rejected.”
“I’m surprised you agreed to come.”
He shrugged. “They paid me enough.”
My gaze panned across the room of bickering supernaturals. “They couldn’t pay me enough to deal with them.”
“That’s the great thing about being a soldier in the Legion of Angels. You don’t get to say no.” He patted me on the shoulder, then took his seat again.
I frowned at the leaders of the supernatural world. They were so petty, fighting their own kind, fighting other supernatural kinds. I’d been right the first time. Harker was definitely punishing me.
I put my fingers in my mouth and whistled.
That got their attention. They all stopped and stared at me. The vampires had their hands over their ears. Well, it looked like I’d found a new weapon against them.
“You all know why we are here,” I addressed the crowd.
The Snowfire vampire pointed his skinny finger at the Vermillion vampire. “Because one of his vampires killed two Legion soldiers. That’s what he gets for taking in stray vampires and not watching them properly.”
“We take special care to watch all rogue vampires,” the Vermillion vampire replied calmly.
“Then explain last night’s massacre.”
“That was not a wild vampire.”
“So that was one of your regular vampires?” The Snowfire leader clicked his tongue in disapproval.
“We were not the only ones hit by this.” The Vermillion vampire pointed at the elementals. “This infection started with them.”
The elementals shouted back. Soon, everyone in the room was shouting.
I clenched my teeth. How was I going to get these bickering supernatural leaders to work together when they couldn’t even last five seconds without getting into a fight?
18 Witches and Angels
After spending several hours cooped up with the illustrious leaders of the supernatural world, I dismissed the meeting for lunch. They’d spent the whole morning fighting. I left the room, feeling more exhausted than I did after a day of hard training. Politics were definitely not for me.
Bella and I walked together to the canteen. I had never before looked forward to lunch as much as I did right now. It wasn’t about the food. It was about getting away from those bickering, childish supernatural rulers.
Spending a few minutes with my sister was the icing on the cake. She was the only bright spot in this whole mess of a situation.
Demeter was packed. It seemed everyone had gotten hungry at the same time today. Claudia and Basanti were sitting with their initiates, who looked as exhausted as I felt.
“They look so…scared,” I commented to Bella. “That was me not so long ago, caught in a fight for my life. A fight I wasn’t sure I would win.”
“And how does it look from the other side now that you’re older and wiser?” she asked me.
“I’m not out of the woods yet. In fact, I feel like I’m going in deeper and deeper.”
She looped her arm with mine. “It’s always darkest right before dawn.”
“See, that’s why I love you so much, Bella. You see only the beauty in the world.” I glanced at the initiates. “Some things are different from the other side. Nero never sat with us. Harker sometimes did back then. He wouldn’t do it now. Angels have to keep their distance, you know. To be unattainable. They are as close as most people get to a god.” I looked across the room. Nero sat at the head table next to Harker. “Don’t tell Nero I compared him to a god. It’s not good for his ego.”
“As always, your secrets are safe with me.”
Pasta was on the menu today. It smelled great, but when I took a bite, I hardly tasted it. My mind was too distracted.
“What does Constantine Wildman know about this situation?” I asked Bella.
“I don’t know. He doesn’t share anything with us.” She poked at her pasta. “When I was chosen to be one of only two aides on an important assignment, I thought he was choosing the best witches. But I’m starting to think now that he just wanted eye candy.”
“Well, you are the prettiest witch I know.”
“Silent eye candy,” she added. “He’s encouraged us to smile and never to speak. Or to think too much. He says thinking will only give us wrinkles.”
“Well, isn’t he a tool.”
“If he knows anything about what’s going on, he certainly hasn’t told us.”
“Constantine Wildman is a misogynous pig, but he’s a brilliant witch,” Marina Kane said as she joined us at our table.
Bella gave her friend’s hand a squeeze. “How are you holding up here?”
Just a short while ago, Marina had attended the New York University of Witchcraft with Bella. But the Legion’s Interrogators had manipulated her into joining our ranks. It was either that or her coven and everyone in it would be disgraced. She’d sacrificed her future for theirs.
“No one ever said joining the Legion of Angels was easy,” Marina said. “Well, joining is easy. It’s surviving that’s hard.”