Witch's Wrath (Blood And Magick #3)(53)
When I saw her start running, I ran also, throwing myself around him without giving it a second thought. Marie came at me with her sharp, pointed nails extended, and when she was within striking distance, she threw back her arm and brought it down on me. I shut my eyes hard, but Marie screamed and hissed as her hand struck an invisible shield with the power to burn her undead flesh.
I opened my eyes again to find her cradling not her hand, but the stump on her arm where her hand should have been. A cloud of ash had dispersed into the air, and it swirled around me now like a dust devil. She stared at her blackened wrist, then turned her eyes on me, and in them I could see my own death—this woman would kill me if given even the smallest chance.
“You bitch!” she yelled, sheer disbelief on her face.
I drew myself up and stared at her. “You came to a peaceful place and you tried to murder innocent people,” I said, “You deserve far worse.”
“Innocent?” she scoffed, “Remy. Innocent? Did you forget what he did? How this whole thing started? Of course not, because you weren’t there. I was. I know what happened. I suffered at the hand of Remy’s great purge. Entire families of vampires burned, and you think I’m the monster here.”
“You are a monster, and a stupid monster at that,” I said, pointing to where Tamara lay. “You let her convince you she was going to give you something you wanted in return for your help with her quest, but even an idiot can see your goals and hers don’t line up. Now, I’m going to give you a chance.”
“A chance?”
“You aren’t going to kill me. You can’t kill me, and you know that. But I’m also not going to kill you, because I don’t want to. I believe in second chances, so I’d like to offer you a choice.”
Marie folded her arms in front of her chest. “This should be good.”
“You can leave New Orleans, or you can stay here. But, if you choose to stay, you will abide by the rules I set, and you will not harm another witch, vampire, or human so long as you remain. If you do, you and all of your supporters will be cast out.”
“That doesn’t sound as good as the deal we had with her.”
“Deal? What deal? She would have killed you and the rest of your people as soon as she was done.”
“Please, she was so busy with you she didn’t have a clue what we were doing.”
My stomach twisted into a knot as the first sign of panic pinched my gut. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean, that while she was so consumed with her plot to take Remy out of the picture, we were busy following ours. Preparing.”
Marie made a move to the left, and I stepped to the right, getting a little closer to Jared, just in case she tried something I wasn’t excepting. “If you aren’t going to stay under my terms, then you’re going to leave. And if you won’t leave peacefully, we’ll force you out.”
“I find that difficult to believe. Especially considering that by the end of the month, we’ll outnumber you.”
My heart started pumping again to a beat driven by fear, and I became intimately aware of the alarming fact that Marie could hear it—she could literally hear how I had reacted to what she said, and I could do nothing to change that. I swallowed, clenched my hand into a fist, and willed a soft breeze to enter the room. My hair picked up, as did Marie’s. That caught her attention, but I still didn’t have words to throw at her, and the words were what mattered.
The corners of Marie’s lips tugged into a smile. “Remy started the rebellion that led to the massacre of many vampires,” she said. “Now he’s dead, but you’re standing in the way of the natural order of things, which makes you the next person who has to die. And you’re right—I can’t kill you right now. But you can’t have your guard up all the time, and when there are enough vampires roaming the streets, hunting, and feeding, and killing, you’ll be so preoccupied with trying to root them out, blind spots will begin to appear. And I’ll be there, ready to take your life.”
“Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can walk all over us. We’re stronger than you think, and we will fight you to the last.”
“Maybe, but we can make new vampires far more easily than you can make new witches.”
My breathing began to turn short and punctuated. “Get out,” I said, “Get out of my house.”
“Gladly,” Marie said, turning. “Oh, and give Jean Luc my regards. Tell him we’ll be seeing each other soon.”
Marie made her exit through the ballroom side door, and the other vampires followed like a silent congregation. I threw myself to my knees and checked for Jared’s pulse. It was there, but it was weak. Tears stung my eyes as I ran my fingers through his hair, kissing the side of his head. I needed Nicole; she would be able to heal him, but I still didn’t have a phone, and his phone was upstairs in the bedroom.
My eyes turned on Tamara, who lay on her side against a wall. Not wanting to waste another moment and risk Jared suffering any permanent damage, I stood and walked right over to where she was. I prodded her shoulder with my foot, and Tamara stirred, then sprang her eyes open and looked around the room wildly. She scrambled when she saw me, bucking her legs and feet, dragging herself to a sitting position against the wall.
She threw her hand up toward me, and I grasped it with magick and pinned it to the wall with a thud that induced a pained shriek to spill out of her.