Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #29)(97)

“She means it, sister.”

“I can feel her sincerity vibrating like some kind of devoted puppy.” Rodina sounded disgusted.

“If you want Anita to value you more, comments like that aren’t the way to go,” Nathaniel said.

“And what happened to you down on your knees contrite that you left me when I needed you most?” I asked.

Rodina made a harsh sound deep in her throat like she couldn’t decide if she was going to spit on me or scream. “I feel the pull to be your Bride, but you have left us half done like you and Jean-Claude have left everything else.”

“Ma petite, the sun will rise, and I would like to have a plan before that happens.”

“Okay, do we have to worry about Deimos once the sun comes up, or does he die at dawn like most vampires?” I asked.

“He did.”

“It was one reason that he would not serve our dark queen,” Jake said. “He hadn’t expected to lose the ability to move around during daylight.”

“Does he burn in sunlight?” I asked.

“We never saw him in burn in sunlight, because he would go to the back of his cave when he felt dawn coming,” Ru said.

“Sunlight doesn’t help us if he explodes into Greek fire,” Edward said.

“Good point,” I said. I looked at Rodina and Ru. “Okay, you’re up. Tell us how you attacked him back in ye olden days.”

“It’s not pronounced ‘yee,’ the y sounds like a th, like in the,” Rodina said.

“I was making a joke, but okay, thanks for clearing that up. Now tell us about you going up against Deimos.”

“Our dark queen put pieces of herself inside the three of us,” Ru said.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

He looked at his sister, and she said, “How do we explain her to you as she was then?”

“She was at the height of her powers then,” Jake said. “As frightening as you found her, Anita, it was nothing to what she was then.”

I tried to process that; my stomach went tight at the thought of facing her when she’d been even more terrifying. “Well, that’s fucking scary.”

“You would not have prevailed against her if she had not been diminished by the traitors among us.” She glared at Jake.

“Yes, I betrayed her, and I would do it again.”

“If I was not bound by Anita’s emotions I would kill you where you stand.”

“You would try; remember I helped train you.”

“I hate you for what you did.”

“I understand.”

“Enough,” Jean-Claude said. “We do not need to understand how the Mother of All Darkness put a piece of herself inside the three of you since no vampire alive today can duplicate it. Just tell us what happened.”

“Seven of us were sent to kill him,” Ru said.

“I knew of only four, why were three not listed with them?” Jake asked.

“We did many things off the books, as they say,” Rodina said.

Jean-Claude said, “No more interruptions, please, Jake; I want at least the beginnings of a plan before dawn.”

Jake just nodded, not bothering with any reply. Smart, I’d at least have apologized.

“The four were sent to approach him from the front of his cave, but we came over the hill at his back,” Rodina said.

“We were in half-human form,” Ru added.

“We could not see the battle, but we heard him make the noise that was always a precursor to him spewing his deadly fire. The four in front were outfitted with hardened leather to drape over them. We know that they hid under them, because Drakon spit fire, then bragged that their puny shelters would not save them from his wrath. We leapt on him while he watched them burn, I to the right, Rodrigo to the left, and Ru at the monster’s back.”

“Forgive me, but I must ask if the placement was important to the spell?” Jake said.

“It was,” Ru said.

Rodina continued, “We needed to surround him as much as safely possible so that his larger form was enveloped in the magic. The four in front threw off the burning leather sheets and scattered, because he thought they had used up their shield against his greatest weapon and that his next spout would destroy them, but our claws scored his flesh from three sides simultaneously and for that night they were her claws, filled with her power and magic. He screamed and whirled toward me as I landed on the ground at his feet. I heard the rumble as his body formed the Greek fire, but I was not there when we heard the click and he spewed the fire. It burned and melted the small trees on that side of the cave mouth, but I was safely behind him with Ru.”

“He turned around toward us,” Ru said. “If he’d looked to the other side first he might have caught a glimpse of us running into the forest on the other side.”

“If he didn’t have his fire we could have had him chasing his tail,” Rodina said, “but he was too dangerous to play such games with.”

“The others were shooting arrows into him, to cover our escape,” Ru said.

Rodina added, “If it were possible to fill him full of enough arrows all at once it might kill him, but the number of archers needed to do that when they had to shoot one arrow at a time . . .” She shook her head. “The first archers would hit their mark, but he would use his fire on the rest, those not horribly injured or dead would run, and no one would blame them.”