A Meet of Tribes (A Shade of Vampire #45)(44)

They were talking when I came in but stopped as soon as they saw me—or heard me, in Draven’s case.

“We need to talk,” I said to Draven, my voice firm and sharp.

“Good morning to you, too, Serena.” His politeness had a tinge of sarcasm in it.

I felt my blood boil. I glanced at Anjani and Bijarki. They both had a look of sympathy, but their lips were sealed. Anjani gave me a half-smile, and I nodded in return before focusing my attention on Draven.

“I need an update here,” I replied. “It’s my brother and friends that you’re planning to use against Azazel, and I believe we all deserve to know what’s going on.”

“You don’t need to be so irritable,” Draven said, further infuriating me.

He had given me the cold shoulder all day yesterday, yet he was the one making it seem like I was overreacting.

The nerve of him.

“If you think I’m irritable now, wait until you continue to keep things from me,” I shot back. “I need to know what you’re planning. We all need to know what you’re planning. You can’t just shut yourself in here with Bijarki and Anjani and leave the rest of us out. That’s not how it works!”

“It’s not like you have any other choice now, do you?”

I leaned over to one side, enough to get a glimpse of his profile and the smirk on his face.

“Well, it’s not like you can force the Oracles to tell you anything if you keep acting like an ass now, can you?” I held my ground, my hands balled into fists at my sides.

“Ah, good to see you’re both back to your usual bickering selves,” Bijarki interjected with a grin. “You were getting along a little too well for my taste.”

I gave the incubus a look that spoke of a slow and painful death, and he put on an innocent expression and raised his hands in the air.

“So, updates?” I asked Draven.

He sighed, further adding to my irritation. As if I was the one being too annoying in this conversation!

“We haven’t fully decided on all the details yet, but we know we have to get Sverik out of Azazel’s dungeon,” he finally answered. “We can use him as leverage to draw out the smaller rogue groups of incubi and succubi that are left. They need motivation to join our alliance, and Sverik’s presence could help. He’s very popular among his kind and has been known to influence the outcomes of several campaigns long before Azazel rose to power.”

“Do you think he’d join us?” I asked.

“Given that we’d be the ones setting him free, he should. Besides, once he’s out of the dungeon, Azazel will brand him a traitor, and he will have no other choice. With the Oracles, the Red Tribe, the Dearghs, the Lamias, and hopefully at least some of the Sluaghs, we’d have enough of a solid base. Sverik would help supplement our forces. People tend to follow him.”

“Yeah, I heard he’s quite handsome,” I snorted, remembering Aida’s account of Kristos’ brother.

Draven was quiet for a minute, and despite the dim light in the study, I could see a muscle flexing in his firm jaw. The fire threw playful shadows on his face and, for a moment, I forgot I was mad at him.

“Ultimately, with Sverik on our side, Arid will be compelled to turn his troops against Azazel’s Destroyers when the time is right,” Draven continued.

I nodded, processing the information while my eyes focused on his profile and particularly his lips. Heat bloomed in my stomach, and I inhaled deeply, willing myself back to a cool and controlled state.

“So, what’s the plan, then? How do we get him out of the dungeon?” I asked.

“The trip there alone is potentially deadly. Too many eyes in the jungle, and too many miles between us and Azazel’s castle to make it there without a Destroyer ambush,” he replied. “From what we know now, the Dearghs travel through volcanoes, and there just so happens to be one still active a mile south of his castle. We need to explore this angle first and see if we can travel that way without being reduced to smoldering ashes.”

“Why can’t you flash us there like you did when you kidnapped us from the fae?”

He’d taken us from a different planet altogether using his magic, after all. What had changed?

“I can’t do that anymore,” Draven said, his tone warning me that he didn’t wish to explain any further.

“Well, why not?”

Another sigh left him, and I grinned on the inside, pleased to see I was still able to annoy him. He deserved it for being so cold and distant and patronizing all of a sudden.

“The spell I used to get you all here cannot be reproduced so easily. It requires a certain powder that can no longer be found in Eritopia. It’s ground from the bones of storm hounds, which are now extinct. I’d saved that last ounce for the possible scenario in which I’d have to rescue the Oracles from another planet,” he explained.

The thought chilled me. It meant we’d have to find some other means of getting home… assuming we ever got to that point.

“What about the trip we took to see the Daughters?” I asked. “What spell was that?”

“It only works to find the Daughters,” he replied. “I can’t just zap myself from point A to point B whenever I please, Serena. If I could, do you think I’d still be here, struggling to find allies in this fight against Azazel?”