The Ruby Blade Read online

  A few days later—I still wasn’t doing very well at marking time in the windowless cell that I called home—Raj returned. He tossed me socks, shoes, and a jacket.

  “Put these on,” he commanded. “We’re going to find the gate.”

  I put on the socks and shoes and almost shuddered in pleasure at having something warm on my feet. I put on the coat and then stood. Raj held out a pair of cuffs.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I said.

  He didn’t answer and didn’t lower the cuffs. I sighed and held out my arms. He cuffed me, and I stifled the groan of pain. Being tattooed and bereft of my magic made me even more sensitive to iron than I’d been before.

  “Sorry,” he said silently.

  “Go fuck yourself,” I replied in the same way.

  His expression tightened, and I was delighted that I was getting to him a little bit.

  “You always get to me more than a little bit.” His whisper wound its way through my head. I did not reply and just tried to find a headspace where the pain wasn’t so bad.

  He led me out of my cell and through the winding corridors of Marie’s damp underground dungeon. Considering the underground location in a town below sea level, I was mildly impressed that she managed to keep them as dry as they were.

  We were finally free of the dungeon and then the house. I didn’t recognize where we’d come out, but since I’d only been in New Orleans for approximately four hours before being imprisoned that wasn’t surprising. The only thing I did know is that we weren’t anywhere near Congo Square in the Louis Armstrong Park.

  “I wish I was showing you this city under better circumstances,” Raj said.

  “This is certainly not the way I dreamed it,” I said. I wished, and not for the first time, that sarcasm wasn’t so close to lying. This would be the perfect opportunity to unleash some.

  “It will work out,” Raj said.

  “For you,” I replied.

  He sighed and didn’t push it. I was assuming that had something to do with the possibility of eavesdropping witches reporting to the Fae that served Medb.

  I looked around and tried to pinpoint the pull of the gate. I couldn’t. “You said once that you thought we’d end up here because there was a place in New Orleans that exuded the same kind of energy as the St. Louis gate?” I asked.

  Raj nodded but didn’t answer. If he was sulking, I was going to stab him with a wooden stake.

  “It won’t kill me,” he said.

  “I know, but it will hurt like hell.”

  He chuckled but didn’t offer up anything else.

  “Could you maybe take me there?” I prompted.

  “Yes.”

  We didn’t move.

  “For the love of all things holy, Raj. Take me to the motherfucking place you think the gate site is,” I exploded.

  “Say please.”

  “Go fuck yourself,” I said to him for the second time in less than an hour.

  “That’s not a satisfactory option,” he said.

  “Well, you’re not getting into my bed,” I answered.

  “You’ll change your mind.”

  “You are an arrogant ass-bucket.”

  “I didn’t do anything that wasn’t necessary.”

  “I hope that fucking sword was worth it,” I spat at him.

  He looked at me. “I told you I’d do anything to get it back.”

  I sighed and deflated. “You did. I guess I just didn’t believe you. I let my personal feelings get in the way of what you—and everyone else—was telling me.”

  He reached out and brushed my cheek. “Eleanor, my sweet, I still want you very much.”

  “I don’t want you, anymore, though. I’m sure you had your reasons, and they might even be good ones, but this isn’t a forgivable offense.”

  “I need to accompany you to the next gate and to whatever happens afterwards at Midsummer.”

  “I know. But you will not be sharing my bed or my heart.”

  “I will explain.”

  “It won’t matter. I’ve been tortured. Kept cold. Nearly starved.”

  “They feed you twice a day!” Raj said.

  “That’s not the point,” I shot back. “And have you ever seen me eat? I eat more than a fourteen-year-old boy in a growth spurt.”

  He looked at me. “You have lost weight. I will ask Marie to have you fed more.”

  “That’s very generous.” We walked in silence, and I felt the gate energy grow stronger. I looked around.

  “It’s close,” I said.

  “When you see where we’re going, you’ll understand.”

  We walked for well over an hour with the pull of the gate growing steadily stronger. I confirmed once with Raj that we were headed in the right direction, but other than that, avoided speaking to him.

  The neighborhoods we walked through started off as affluent but run down and quickly progressed to just plain old run down. Every once in a while, we’d go through a slightly more middle-class looking neighborhood, but we were pretty far from the mansion, decrepit and abandoned looking as it was, that’d we started from.

  “I need to sit down for a bit,” I said after my feet started to rebel against the shoes that were not quite the right size.

  “We’ve only been walking for 90 minutes,” Raj said. “You have more stamina than that.”

  I lost my temper. “Listen, asshole. I was locked in a dungeon for weeks, I’m half-starved, and my feet hurt from being cold. There’s only so much fitness I can maintain when chained in a cell. My magic has slowed to a trickle, and I’m pissed off. And hungry. Did I mention hungry?” I felt my fingertips and toes start to warm from the heat of my anger. It surprised me so much I lost my train of thought. I pushed and felt the bonds leashing me start to crumble at the edges. What had Raj said? Something about needing a tetanus shot? Why would my tattoo make me need a tetanus shot?

  “We’re almost there,” Raj interrupted my silent musings. “It’s only a few more blocks. Can you make it?”

  I wondered if he was just being an asshole—again—or if we were being followed.

  “Follow me, and I’ll get you there in less than ten minutes.” Okay. We were being followed.

  I tried to think about things other than tetanus. The gate pull was very strong, and I was almost positive it was helping dissolve the barriers that were placed on me. Suddenly Raj picked me up and flew forward. We were standing just outside a crossroads of two large, abandoned streets. The waning moon was still three-quarters full, and the area around us was glowing white in its light. I wiggled out of Raj’s grasp and did a slow circle. “Are those all cemeteries?” I asked.

  “Yes, there are about a dozen that converge right here,” he answered. “Is this the spot?”

  “Yes.”

  “Great.” He picked me up and flew with me back in the direction in which we’d come. I wondered why we hadn’t just come this way in the first place. Would’ve been faster and easier on my feet.

  “I wanted to spend time with you—and I wasn’t sure if you’d let me close enough to pick you up.”

  “Fair point.”

  As we were flying, he said to me, “Someone was behind us, and I didn’t want them to realize how powerful the gate magic is to you.”

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I asked.

  “Not until we’re out of the city.”

  “Why’d you do it?” I asked. “Why’d you hand over the recipe for my binding to everyone who was around, including Marie, a bunch of witches, and the emissaries of Medb?”

  “I wanted my sword back,” his mental voice was cold, and I shivered reflexively.

  I dropped the subject. There would be time enough to interrogate him after this was all over. Perhaps I would interrogate him with my silver knives if I ever got them back.

  “I have all your weapons.”

  “Will Florence really be kept from the gate opening? I’ve never worked with Petrina and am worried abou
t not getting the weir set up correctly. I don’t want to flood the city with more energy than they can handle.”

  “Petrina watched very closely and is positive that she can duplicate Florence’s efforts. Plus, they’ve met a few times to discuss the finer details of the magical workings.”

  “It’s not her ability I’m concerned about. It’s my ability to work with her. It’s a joint effort. Plus, it will be noon,” I suddenly remembered.

  Raj cursed. “I’ll talk to Marie. She may allow Florence to accompany you or may just decide that New Orleans can take it. There’s no air traffic for you to take down here.”

  “I’m going into this hampered. Who knows what effect the magic will have on the city when I am not at full strength?”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he said. He started flying down, and I guessed that we were back to my prison. All of a sudden Raj stopped moving in mid-air. My stomach had been committed to the downward motion, however, and kept going for a few seconds after I stopped moving.

  “What the fuck, Raj?” I said as I tried to regain my equilibrium.

  “There are a lot of life forms down there,” he said.

  “Life forms? What does that even mean? It sounds like something from a cheesy sci-fi flick.”

  “They’re too cold to be alive, but they don’t seem vampiric,” he further clarified.

  “How many?”

  “Dozens, maybe close to a hundred.”

  “Are they attacking?” I asked, trying to twist around to see what he was seeing.

  “No, but they don’t seem friendly.”

  “Maybe it’s zombies,” I suggested. “This is Marie Laveau that we’re talking about. Even Wikipedia says she’s the Voodoo Queen.”

  “She doesn’t raise zombies,” Raj snapped. “There’s no such thing as…” his voice trailed off and he sunk a little lower.

  “Ghouls,” he said. “An army of ghouls.”

  “Marie creates ghouls, doesn’t she?” I asked. “Didn’t Vlad come to her for a ghoulfriend once?” Despite the seriousness of the situation, I couldn’t help but grin. I was still punny.

  Raj didn’t crack a smile, though, which just pushed him even a few more notches towards the number one spot on my shit list. “The question is, are they attacking or defending? And if they’re defending, what are they defending against?”

  He landed outside the periphery of the ghouls but kept his arms around me in case we needed to take off quickly. Or at least that’s what he said. I had my doubts. Since I had no desire to become the brain course of an all-you-can-eat ghoul buffet, I didn’t argue.

  The ghouls were unmoving and paid us little heed even though they saw us.

  “Defending, then,” Raj said. “They obviously recognize us as not a threat.”

  “What should we do?” I whispered before realizing that I’d automatically assumed that if the ghouls were defending Marie, they were on my side. That was only true if Marie was also on my side, and I wasn’t sure that was the case.

  “I should return you to the mansion and try to find out what the threat is.”

  “Or you should help me find a weapon and allow me to fight.”

  “You’re tired and weak, and you have no magic,” he said. “You would be a hindrance and not an asset.”

  I wanted to argue, but he spoke truth. Also, since I wasn’t sure whose side I was on, I could understand him not wanting to arm me and release me into the fray.

  Raj picked me up again and flew over the ghoul lines and landed at the front door of the mansion. He walked in without knocking and stalked into the room that I’d originally met Marie in. She was lounging on her throne of skulls and looked completely relaxed.

  If I hadn’t been looking right at Raj’s face—courtesy of the awkward position I was in in his arms—I would’ve missed the subtle quirk of his eyebrow. I looked towards Marie, and although she barely moved a muscle, there was a minute expression change. I looked back at Raj and then towards Marie. They were conversing silently and with only almost imperceptible expression changes to give them away. It was like watching the world’s most boring chess match.

  “Do it,” Marie said aloud.

  “Your wish is my command,” Raj half-bowed over me.

  He turned and handed me to the minion that was coming towards us. I started to wiggle in protest, but the arms that closed around me were hard and immovable. Another fucking vampire.

  We stopped by the kitchen on our way back to my dungeon, and another servant followed us with a giant tray of food. That was, as far as I was concerned, the best part of today.

  “What’s going on?” I asked my iron giant.

  He didn’t respond.

  “I saw the ghouls. Is Marie under attack?”

  He looked down at me. “You will refer to her as ‘Majesty’ or ‘The Queen,’ or you will not refer to her at all,” he said. He had a soft, quiet voice that didn’t match his ginormous, hulk-like frame. That almost made it worse.

  “Or what?” I asked, before cursing myself silently for not being able to leave well enough alone.

  “Or the food that is following us will find somewhere else to go.”

  “As far as threats go, that’s weak,” I said. Dammit! Why was I challenging this guy? He was the biggest person I’d ever seen, and with his vampire strength, he could fold me into an origami swan and put me in his pocket without breaking a sweat.

  “Have it your way,” he shrugged. He turned and barked something in a language I didn’t recognize to the servant following us. I heard the scurrying sound of footsteps move further and further away.

  Dammit. I should learn to keep my big mouth shut.

  He set me on my feet and pulled out a key ring. I tried to dart away, but one beefy arm reached out and hooked me almost lazily. He pushed me into the wall and held me there with one hand while the other sorted through the keys slowly. Finally, he found the right key and opened my cell door. He shoved me in and locked the door behind me. I pulled off the shoes and jacket and climbed into my makeshift sleeping space in the corner of the room. If no one was going to feed me or share information with me, I might as well rest up. I didn’t have much energy, and the gate opening was going to take everything I had.

  I woke with a start when the door of my cell crashed open. “Get up quickly,” Florence said. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  I sat up and stared stupidly at her. “What are you doing?”

  “The mansion is under attack and Marie is losing. Get your shoes on and grab your jacket. We are leaving.”

  “What about the ghouls?”

  “I don’t know. Get going.”

  I stood up and pulled on the hiking boots, tying them hastily. Florence handed me the coat, and I put it on but didn’t zip it up. “Where are we going?”

  “Through the tunnels back to the cemetery where we originally came in.”

  “What about Raj?”

  “He’s fighting on the front lines. He’ll meet us later.”

  “Or maybe he’ll be killed.”

  Florence glanced over at me as she raced through the corridors. “Is that what you want?”

  I didn’t answer but instead decided to be impressed with how well Florence knew her way around.

  “It’s unlikely, anyway,” she continued, taking two left turns, and then opening the first door on the right. “He’s over a thousand years old; he’s not going to die in a battle like this.”

  “Everyone has to die sometime,” I said. “I’m sure Grigori didn’t think he was going to meet his end at the hands of a naked Fae who was only thirty-four.”

  “Do you really want Raj to die in this battle?” she asked again. Florence was trying to make a point, and I was going to obstinately miss it.

  I refused to answer. Florence yanked open a closet door and hustled me inside.

  “Are we going to hide in a closet?” I asked as she shut the door behind us, enveloping us in complete darkness.

  She didn’t an
swer. A second later, the soft sound of hands sliding over the wall echoed in the small room. She must have found what she was looking for because she knocked on the wall and it slid open.

  “Go in,” she said as she shoved me.

  I lost my footing and slipped and slid down the ramp, landing with a splash in about eight inches of smelly, mucky water.

  Florence hopped down gracefully beside me. “Sorry,” she said. She didn’t sound even remotely repentant.

  “Whatever. Let’s just get out of here.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  WE SLOSHED THROUGH the mucky water for what seemed like hours. I was tired, disgusted with my lack of fitness, and carrying such a wide range of emotions that I had no idea how to really feel.

  “So, you look well,” I finally said to Florence.

  “I’ve been treated better than you,” she said. “I’m a lesser threat.” I heard the bite in her voice and knew that pissed her off.

  “I think you’re scary,” I soothed her.

  “Thanks,” she said. “Do you need a break?”

  “You’re much more polite about that than Raj was,” I said, stopping to catch my breath. “He mocked me for my lack of stamina and then ordered an additional meal for me. An additional meal that I did not get, by the way.”

  We waded for a bit in silence, the darkness broken only by the periodic torches that were nearly stifling. I’d never been claustrophobic but was thinking about reconsidering my stance.

  “What’s the date?” I asked. I had no idea. The last time anyone had given me a sense of the passage of time was right after my tattoo, and it was the middle of Mardi Gras. I knew a few days had passed but had no idea how many.

  “It’s the eighteenth of March,” Florence said. “The equinox is in two days. Did you and Raj find the site?”

  “Yes, it’s on Canal Street at the convergence of countless cemeteries,” I said. “The equinox is at noon, so Raj and Petrina won’t be there. I don’t think Emma should go, either, even if she’s been impressive at the full moons.”