Time enough?
He was about to find out.
Keeping a death grip on the rapidly dying Gaius, as well as maintaining his hold on Nefri, he braced himself for their abrupt return to the warehouse.
He would never, ever get used to traveling through space like a damned Jinn.
His feet had barely hit the floor when he sensed Styx rushing forward.
“Santiago.”
“Wait.” He dropped Gaius so he could hold out a warning hand. “She’s being controlled by the spirit.”
“Good,” the Anasso growled. “I’ve been waiting for the bastard.”
On cue Nefri ripped her fangs from his throat, whirling to face the towering vampire.
“So. At last I meet the great Anasso,” Nefri mocked, her power beginning to fill the air. “The King of All Vampires.”
Styx moved backward, drawing Nefri away. Santiago sank to the floor, the blood dripping from his wounds as his flesh slowly knit back together.
“An empty title,” Styx said, his voice taunting. “Almost as empty as that of god.”
An eerie laugh fell from Nefri’s lips. “Shall I demonstrate how wrong you are?”
Styx braced himself for the coming attack. “Roke, don’t let her get past the door,” he commanded. “And Santiago . . .”
“I’ll guard the windows.”
Santiago began to rise to his feet when Gaius grabbed his hand.
“My son . . . wait.”
Santiago hid a grimace, knowing his former sire had only minutes left. “What do you want?”
Shaking from the effort, he grabbed the medallion and with the last of his strength, he broke the chain that held it around his neck. “Here.”
Santiago flinched from the medallion that had been tainted by the Dark Lord. The small piece of metal had caused untold misery. “Keep it,” he growled.
“No . . .” Gaius grimaced, his rotting face a gruesome mockery of the handsome, vital vampire he’d been just weeks ago. “You must destroy it.”
He was right.
Even if the Dark Lord was dead and they managed to destroy the spirit that was their latest threat, the medallion symbolized evil.
It couldn’t be allowed to remain in the world.
Santiago reluctantly took the medallion. “I’ll make sure it’s destroyed.”
“Thank you. I—”
“Don’t,” Santiago interrupted. He would never be able to fully forgive this man for his betrayals. Not when he’d nearly destroyed the world with his selfish needs. But a part of him now at least understood what would drive a man to such extremes. “I will remember my sire as the man who took me into his lair and gave me a home,” he said in a low voice. “The man who taught me the meaning of family.”
“Son . . . my son . . .” A shattered moan of relief hissed past Gaius’s lips before the light died from his eyes and he was allowed to escape the slow, painful decay.
Rising to his feet as Gaius turned to ash, Santiago slipped the medallion into his pocket, determined to honor his sire’s last request.
Then he turned just in time to witness Nefri sending a blast of power toward Styx.
The very air sizzled before the power smacked into Styx with enough force to send him flying into the far wall. The entire building shook from the impact, broken plaster cascading down on their heads.
“You truly can’t think you can beat me,” Nefri said in genuine incredulity. “I created you.”
Styx pulled himself from the rubble, dusting the clinging bits of cement from his leather pants. “What makes you think I need to beat you?”
“Why else would Santiago so cleverly force me back here?” With a sharp thrust of her hand, Nefri’s power again sent Styx crashing into the wall.
Santiago cursed, knowing that the violent collision with the wall had to be cracking bones and puncturing inner organs. The Anasso, however, refused to betray the slightest hint of vulnerability as he surged upright, allowing his own powers to knock Nefri backward.
“Because we have a gift for you,” Styx drawled. “We’ve removed the protective spells around the book.”
“No.” Nefri hissed, her body growing rigid as the spirit belatedly realized the danger. “I won’t be trapped. Not again.”
Styx smiled. “Not your choice.”
“Fool.”
With a screech that nearly busted Santiago’s eardrum, Nefri launched herself toward Styx, her power exploding through the room to send them tumbling to the floor.
Fighting against pulses of frigid energy that threatened to crush him, Santiago forced himself back to his feet. Step by painful step he inched forward, his heart clenched with fear as Styx struggled to hold off the vampire lost in her bloodlust.
Nefri went for his neck, her fangs instead sinking into the Anasso’s forearm, which he raised to block her. His other hand shot out, gripping her lower face as he prepared to crush her jaws.
“Styx,” Santiago called. “Don’t hurt her.”
The king turned his head to regard him with a furious disbelief. “Are you kidding me?”
“If you damage Nefri the creature will simply take control of you, then we’ll never stop it,” he warned.
Nefri’s power was off the charts.
Styx, however, had gained a connection to thousands of vampires who called him their Anasso. If the spirit’s infection could be transferred through his bond to his people . . . mierda.
Perhaps following his line of reasoning, Styx strained to contain the rabid vampire trying to chew her way through his arm, shifting his attention to Roke and the witch, who were kneeling next to the safe.
“Sally,” he commanded.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m coming.”
The pretty witch wrinkled her nose as she rose to her feet, reaching into the safe to pull out a book.
Or at least, he thought it was a book.
There was a hazy, insubstantial quality to it, as if it weren’t entirely solid.
Typical.
Was anything what it seemed to be anymore?
Carefully she walked forward, an anxious Roke hovering next to her.
It was only as the witch neared Nefri that Santiago realized the fierce power that had been pulsing through the room had abruptly diminished.
Was Nefri so consumed by her bloodlust that the spirit had lost control of her?
Or was the approaching book draining its powers?
He had his answer when Nefri abruptly turned, her mouth bloody and her eyes glowing.
“No,” she snarled, headed straight for the witch.
With a roar, Roke was shoving Sally behind him and meeting Nefri’s charge.
“Dammit,” Styx muttered, diving forward to grab Nefri with his one good arm. His other was a mangled mess. “Santiago, help me.”
Santiago instantly moved to wrap his arms around Nefri, realizing it was going to be impossible to convince Roke not to do his best to kill Nefri.
The male vampire’s mate was in danger.
There was nothing he wouldn’t do to protect her.
Just as there was nothing he wouldn’t do to protect Nefri.
Trapping her arms against her slender body while Styx looped his arm around her waist, they pulled her away from the infuriated Roke.
It was a struggle, but the fact that they’d managed to contain Nefri at all was yet another sign that the spirit’s resources were being rapidly drained.
“Sally, finish this,” Styx commanded between clenched teeth.
The witch tried to step past her bristling mate only to be halted when he grabbed her arm and growled low in his throat.
“Roke,” she murmured, her expression pleading. “You have to let me go.”
He bared his fangs, any sanity lost beneath the primitive instinct to protect his mate. “No.”
“We have to end this now,” she said softly.
“She’s right,” a female voice said as a jolt of electric energy penetrated, and then smothered, the power surging from the vampires.
No one had to turn to know who had so unexpectedly crashed the party.
Siljar was the only one who could make such a spectacular entrance and overwhelm even the most dominant vampires.
Slowly the tiny demon moved to stand at Sally’s side, her black almond eyes unblinking and her heart-shaped face somber. Wearing her traditional white robe and her silver hair pulled into a braid, she had the regal bearing of a queen.
“Let her go, vampire,” she commanded.
“Shit.”
With a glare that should have made the Oracle spontaneously combust, Roke grudgingly released his hold on the witch. Even lost in primordial instincts, a demon understood there was no fighting one of the Commission.
“I’ll be fine.” Lifting her hand, Sally gently touched his cheek before turning back to Nefri with a bleak resolution.
As expected, Nefri went wild as the witch moved forward.
Styx cursed, grunting as one of Nefri’s arms came free so she could rake her claws down his face.
“Dammit, Santiago, hold on to her.”
Santiago’s knee shattered beneath the impact of Nefri’s kick, and a rib cracked from the swinging elbow.