Dragon's Storm (Legion Of Angels #4)(12)

“I won’t let that happen,” Nero promised her. “Damiel is coming back with me, whether he likes it or not.”

“I don’t think it will be that easy, Nero,” she replied. “If he came all the way out here, he’s not going to leave quietly. And if you fight him, there won’t be a single person in all six castles who doesn’t know he’s here.”

She had a point. When angels fought, they didn’t do it subtly. Nero and Damiel would probably blow up half of the castles on the mountainside.

“I will reason with him.”

Captain Somerset snorted. “Reason with an angel? Good luck with that.”

He shot her a hard look.

“You’re not the most reasonable person, Nero,” she told him. “And neither is Damiel Dragonsire.”

“Which is why I’m going to make sure we both get what we want. I’ll help him find Rhodes, we’ll interrogate the vampire, and then he will quietly return to his apartment.”

“Now that sounds like a reasonable plan,” Damiel said.

A second ago, there hadn’t been a soul in this hallway except for the three of us. Now, Damiel stood facing us, his pose reminiscent of Nero’s. The two angels faced each other, their eyes alight with fire—one blue, one green.

“So you agree?” I asked Damiel.

“To hunting down and interrogating the last person who saw my wife? With pleasure.” His words dripped dark intentions.

“There was another part to the deal,” Nero said with strained patience.

Damiel gave his hand a small, dismissive wave. “Yes, very well, Nero. I will return quietly to my gilded cage afterwards.”

“You might want to begin your quiet return to sanity by telling your fog to stop attacking Legion soldiers,” I said.

“I assure you, I am only hunting vampires. The fog probes their minds to find the location of Raven Rhodes.”

“And that requires killing them?” Captain Somerset asked with quiet skepticism.

“No, I just believe in keeping a clean workspace. The fog unfortunately isn’t all that intelligent. It would waste precious time probing the same vampires over and over again. That’s simply not an efficient use of time or magic.”

That was angel efficiency for you, brutally cold to the last drop.

“You did attack a Legion soldier,” I told him. “His arm is now covered in blisters.”

“Oh, him.” If Damiel weren’t an angel, I might have described his expression as sheepish. But I knew better than that. “I didn’t think you would mind if I gave Colonel Fireswift’s son a little scare, considering how his father’s been treating you.”

“You tried to cover Jace in poisonous fog to give him a ‘little scare’?” I said in disbelief.

“Yes.”

“Jace is my friend.”

“You are friends with the son of the man making your life a living hell?”

“It’s not his fault his father is a psychopath.”

“I see.” Damiel looked at his own son, his mouth twitching with mild amusement.

“Enough,” Nero told him. “Stop the fog. The Legion needs those vampires alive.”

“Very well.” Damiel blinked once. “It’s done. I’ve already located Rhodes anyway. He’s headed this way. Conveniently, so are your friends.”

The roar of gunfire echoed through the halls.

“Ah, they’ve found one another,” Damiel said casually. “Another group of vampires is coming up on your friends from behind.”

“Basanti,” Nero said.

“I’m on it,” Captain Somerset replied, running off down the hallway.

A few moments after she turned the corner, the gunfire died down.

“Whoa, you came out of nowhere,” Drake’s voice said.

“The vampires are still alive,” Jace said.

“We’ll pick them up later. There are more of them headed this way. Let’s go,” she said.

Their footsteps tapped off in the opposite direction from us. By the time we reached the vampires, they were moving to their feet. Nero raised his hands. A distortion crackled in the air, and then four pairs of handcuffs popped up over his shoulders, bobbing slowly up and down like buoys on the ocean. Flames ignited on the handcuffs. They shot toward the vampires so fast I couldn’t even track their flight. One moment the vampires were backing away, and the next the flaming handcuffs had them chained to iron hooks on the walls.

The vampires kicked their legs in hopeless panic, like fish caught on a fisherman’s hook. One of them pushed against her handcuffs, hissing in pain when the restraints bit back. The smell of burning flesh filled the tunnel. They all stopped struggling real fast.

Nero stepped up to the dangling vampires. “Which of you is Raven Rhodes?”

The vampires remained silent.

“You can answer me or a Legion Interrogator. I’m considerably more amiable.” Nero’s face was granite, his voice ice.

He was playing the bluff well. The Legion wasn’t looking for Raven Rhodes, not any more than they were looking for the rest of the rogue vampires.

“That’s Raven,” the female vampire pointed at one of her comrades.

Nero flicked his hand, and Raven fell to the ground.