Cold Blooded

for innocence and she played him well. She was shrewd in the ways of men long before Vlad found her. Her father had … made her life very difficult, and Vlad paid the ultimate price for his actions.”

I made a face.

Eudoxia’s father was Ivan the Terrible and her maker had been Vlad the Impaler. Another pinch of grudging respect surfaced for Eudoxia that I knew I shouldn’t harbor. But she was a true survivor on so many levels. It was hard to quantify that kind of strength and impossible not to respect it.

It was clear she had won her title of Queen of the Vampires.

I pushed the trapdoor upward.

It met with resistance. I repositioned and came at it with my shoulder. I gave it a hard jerk and there was a popping noise as a latch gave way. Once it was free, the door opened slowly like a drawbridge.

Mustiness hit my senses immediately. Old, stale air filled the tunnel.

The ghosts were agitated and excited. They breezed back and forth over my face creating a dusty current. I coughed.

“Must go.”

“The time draws near.”

“Grab the relic.”

“I’m going, I’m going,” I muttered. Naomi quirked her head, but nodded, understanding.

I drew my body into the room cautiously. This building had skylights, so it was brighter than the tunnel. But they were weathered and dirty, caked with grime both inside and out. The sun barely shone through, but it was a welcome addition to my dark underground day.

Once I was in, I glanced around in surprise.

Instead of all the prized possessions being laid out lovingly under glass in shrinelike condition, it looked as though everything had all been dumped on the floor haphazardly. It was like one giant junk box.

There were old, dusty cloths draped over things in some areas, and in other places piles of crap had accumulated in no particular order, like someone might sort them later. If they ever got around to it.

“This is it?” I chuckled. “The feared Reliquary? It looks like a church basement garage sale.” The trapdoor was situated in the middle of the room. Nothing had zapped me or came to life, which was stellar. I made a slow turn, testing the magic in the room. There were a few pulses from some of the items, but the major power current seemed to flow freely in a circle around me. “Naomi,” I called. “I think it’s okay to come in. I’m not getting a read on anything too intense.”

Naomi poked her head through the trapdoor. “The power creeps along my skin, but you are right—it is not threatening me either. Still, be careful, Ma Reine. It could be a trap.”

“Why do you think all these artifacts are piled up like this?” I asked, pacing to the inner edge of the circle. “Wouldn’t your most prized possessions be, I don’t know, better taken care of? I don’t think they’re cursed. Nothing in here feels threatening. That must have been an old wives’ tale.” I reached over to touch what looked to be a jeweled crown of some kind. “Let’s find out.”

The moment my hand almost connected with it, an arc of static electricity shot into my finger.

“Jeez!” I yanked my hand away. The power had stung me and I hadn’t even touched the damn thing. “Did you see that? A mini lightning bolt just shot out of that crown.” I turned in a full circle. I hadn’t recognized the configuration of all the junk before now.

“What is it?” Naomi asked.

“Your Queen is tricky,” I said. “Look at how all these things are laid out. They look haphazard, but they’re all connected.” The items ran in a full circle around us. The junk was acting like a giant conduit, and we were standing right in the middle of it. “Don’t touch anything,” I cautioned Naomi. “I’m pretty sure this is what’s fueling the barrier.”

“Find the saber,” a whisper shot by my ear. It was the voice of the only ghost who had stayed with me in the mausoleum.

“What saber?” I asked. Naomi glanced at me. “One of the ghosts is telling me to find some kind of a sword.”

We both looked around, but it was hard to see over the heaps of junk.

“The Kilij. The master’s sword.”

“You must break the circuit.”

“It lies on the outside.”

“Outside the circle?” I asked. Instead of answering, invisible hands guided me to the right. Lying just in front of the biggest stack of junk was a single curved sword stuck halfway into the floor. It looked as though it was rooted so deeply it ran through the thick marble floor into the earth below. “The sword must be grounding the electricity. That’s why we only feel a low hum of power in this room.” The massive flow of energy conducted by these relics was being fed into the ground through the saber.

I glanced around the room again.

The Reliquary was circular and the piles of relics were placed in a circle, albeit a haphazard one, and circles held power. I turned to Naomi. “This ward must have been started centuries ago, and to keep it fueled the Queen has tossed powerful things on it. If I can break it, it’s going to take everything I have.”

“Must hurry.”

“The situation grows dire.”

“Pull the saber and all will change.”

“I believe, now that we are here, it needs to be done, Ma Reine,” Naomi said. “We have happened upon this place to grant your father entrance, and when this is all over, we must be able to exit. Once this barrier comes down, I believe everything will change. And things must change. This marks the beginning.” Her voice was firm.

That sounded a little more ominous than I would’ve liked. “I know I have to do this, but whatever we do here will set the next events in motion. Are we sure this is the right choice?” That was the big, hairy question. I blew out a breath. It felt right to be here for so many reasons. I needed to talk to my team; my father was in danger; I’d made a deal with the spirits. My wolf growled. What do you think? She flashed an image of us pulling the sword out of the ground. How do you know? She snapped her jaw.

I had to trust her.

It was the only instinct I had to follow, and so far she’d been right about most things supernatural.

“I believe it is the correct choice, Ma Reine,” Naomi said.

Ghostly hands prodded me toward the Kilij. “I’m going,” I said. Once in front of it, I waved my hands above the pile. “There’s no current in the air above this stuff. I’m going to jump over it and try to free the saber from the other side.”

“Be careful,” Naomi said. “Do not touch anything but the sword.”

“Believe me, I won’t.” I took a small step back and leapt over the artifacts, landing cleanly on the other side. I walked over and lowered myself to the ground next to the Kilij, which was a beautifully curved saber with an exquisitely detailed handle. Once we grab on, all the juice is going to pump through us. We are going to need to ground ourselves so we don’t fry. She flashed a picture of us standing on the circle of relics right before I grabbed on to the saber. Perfect. Like a bird on a wire, but even if we do that, the current that rips through us is going to be massive. We have to brace ourselves. She flashed her teeth. Excuse me if you were born ready. I wasn’t. Some of us are still in the newborn stage and others have to be a bit more patient.

I tossed a look over my shoulder at Naomi. “If I fry, tell Rourke I’ll make my way back. Somehow.”

Ready? My wolf barked right as a massive amount of adrenaline raced through me, morphing me into my Lycan form. I lofted myself into the air, landing on the circle, my hands simultaneously clasping the hilt.

When my hands connected, I screamed “Mother Mary!” as pure white energy coursed through my body like I’d been hit by the biggest concentration of power in the world. My hands stung with it. The hilt was so hot it felt like my fingers were wrapped around a stove. We have to stay on the circle or we die. Electricity sped through me, rocking my brain, but thankfully flowed back into the relics as quickly as it raced through me.