I blinked away tears. My twin brother got into his car and drove away, while the woman and two children headed back inside.

“Mack,” Corrigan began.

I looked back at him. “I have to go.”

“Mack, wait.”

I shook my head and wrenched the door handle. “I need to be on my own.”

And then I was outside and running.

Chapter Twenty Four

Several hours later I was standing in a darkened street staring up at a familiar looking building. Corrigan had tried to contact me with his Voice several times, but I had shut him out. I’d make it up to him later. It was probably better he didn’t know what I was about to do.

I touched my stomach very lightly. “I know this is do what I say, not do what I do, but this is not something I want to catch you ever even thinking about. It’s a bad thing. The capacity for evil resides in all of us and what I’m about to do could well be considered evil. So don’t you dare try anything like this yourself.”

I looked back at the house. I knew I wasn’t exterminating their entire species. I knew there would still be some left over who weren’t there this night. Some who may well want to come after me for this. But I had decided there were no more choices to make. Not now. I’d just have to hope it was enough to make damn fucking sure they were too scared to ever try to really come near me or mine again. I thought briefly of Aubrey. He probably wouldn’t have been too happy but he’d have understood. In a way it was revenge for him as well as protection for my family. Then I closed my eyes and thought of dragon.

Fire and blood and anger mixed up inside me. The pain of transformation was fleeting, as if giving a blessing to my decision. I opened my eyes, a red haze clouding my vision as if all I could see was a fine mist of blood. And there would be fucking blood spilt this night. My little match hovered in my mind. I considered it for a second, then blew it out. I wouldn’t be needing it.

*

When I arrived at Alcazon, it was still possible to hear the clanging sirens of the fire engines. I completely ignored them, heading straight up to the restaurant and the now very familiar private room at the back. Everyone was already there. Alex and Balud were sitting together at the far end. Good. That meant there had been some progress made on the weapons. Several of the council members were already in deep discussion.

“Do we know whether it was Endor or not?”

I sat myself down and jerked my head towards the attending waiter, and asked him for a glass of milk. I could feel Corrigan watching me, but I didn’t look his way.

“It doesn’t make sense that it was him. We know he’s going after Air next, not Fire.”

“And he would need to attack a fire based creature, not just kill them with fire. But who else could it have been?”

A silence descended around the room. Several heads slowly swiveled in my direction. A tall glass was carefully placed in front of me with beads of condensation already forming around it. I leaned over and picked it, taking a sip and idly watching the waiter depart.

“The vampires were attacked this night, Miss Smith. Rather catastrophically.”

“Indeed,” I murmured.

“Their numbers have been decimated.”

I caught a drip on the edge of the glass just before it fell onto the table.

“That is a shame.”

“Crazy psycho bitch,” someone hissed.

There were several intakes of breath. I merely smiled.

“So,” I said, putting down the milk and looking around, “do we have an entry point into Dorchadas or not, then?”

The Arch-Mage stepped in. “We’ve worked out a way. There are indeed some considerable wards in place to prevent strangers from wandering in, but we think we’ve come up with a way to stop that from happening. Having the Fae has helped enormously.”

Beltran nodded. “We can combine our magic with the mages and focus it in such a way that when they open the portal, there won’t be so much as a flicker of attention drawn to it.”

“Excellent.” I turned to Alex and Balud. “Have you made any progress on the palladium?”

The mage looked remarkably unhappy. I had the feeling it wasn’t to do with the fact everyone was pretty much convinced I’d just nuked two dozen vamps out of existence.

“We have.”

“And?” I prompted.

“Dude,” he said, shaking his head, “we were idiots.”

Balud cleared his throat. “It appears I made an error. The document I found suggesting palladium was harmful to necromancers was actually a translation. And it seems not a very good one.”

I’d been right all along. I sighed. “Let me guess – there should be an article in front of palladium. It’s the Palladium. Not palladium.”

The pair of them nodded.

Fucking hell. Three tiny letters had spelled out our failure at Loch Ness.

“So the Palladium isn’t as useless as we’d thought,” I said. “The question is how does it work?”

Everyone stared at me.

“It’s a statue. A tiny wooden statue. It’s hardly a fucking machine gun. What are we supposed to do? Hit Endor over the head with it and then he’ll collapse and die?”

Nobody answered. I stared around the room. “Well, will somebody fucking find out?”

Several heads bobbed up and down vigorously. Maybe they were afraid I’d set them on fire too. It turns out I was a monster after all; I just needed to have my priorities changed.

“Okay. I need one representative each from the mages, shifters and faeries.” I nodded to each one in turn. “We’ll enter Dorchadas within the hour.”

Corrigan folded his arms across his chest. “You can’t go.”

I gave him an irritated look. “I’ll be fine.”

“No, absolutely not.” He shook his head implacably.

“Mackenzie…”

I was excruciatingly aware of everyone following our little byplay. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

I understood his reasons for demanding my non-participation, which meant I was staying calm. That didn’t mean I accepted his point of view though. I was pregnant, not helpless.

“We’re not going to attack, or do anything that will give away our presence,” I said gently. “We’re just to do a bit of information gathering. Hence only four people will enter. We can keep a low profile if there are less of us.”

“Spying!” Alex interjected. “Cool! If I go along can I get a watch that shoots tranquiliser darts? Or maybe a fountain pen disguised as a gun?”

I raised my eyebrows at him. “You want to come along?”

He shrugged. “I’m not the best person in a fight, Mack Attack, I’ll be the first to admit that. But I’m great at keeping hidden and, besides, if Aubrey can step up to the plate then so can I.”

“I’m happy for Mage Florides to volunteer himself,” the Arch-Mage interjected.

Corrigan stood up. “I will be representing the Brethren.”

Of course. I gazed up at him with a mixture of gratitude and exasperation.

“I’m a werepanther. My fur is darker than anyone else’s so I’ll be better placed to conceal myself in shadows.” He jerked his head at me. “Your red hair makes you a target. You should stay behind. It’s just common sense.”

I growled at him. “I will wear a fucking hat.”

The Summer Queen rose also. She clearly wasn’t enjoying my banter with the Lord Alpha. “Lord Sol will attend in the name of the Fae.”

Corrigan scowled.

“Great.” I checked my watch. “Set up the portal. We’ll go in thirty minutes.”

I drained the rest of my milk. I needed to splash some water on my face to freshen up. Hopefully I could borrow some deodorant or perfume from someone too. The smell of bonfire still clung to my nostrils and I was fairly certain my clothes reeked of baked vamp.

*

Thirty minutes later, the four of us stood together, ready to broach the Otherworldly barrier to Endor’s realm. Alex was hopping from one foot to the other. I wondered whether he was regretting volunteering. He gave me a quick tense smile when he caught me looking at him, and continued jumping around. I hoped he wasn’t going to end up being a liability.

Solus hooked his arm through mine. “This is simply wonderful. The two of us together, in the dark.” He sent me an arch look and a saucy wink. “Why anything could happen.”

I could almost see the hackles rising on the back of Corrigan’s neck. I pointedly re-directed Solus.

“Have you managed to get a date yet with your Celtic student?”

He suddenly deflated. “No. She has thus far remained immune to my quite considerable charms.”

“Imagine that,” I murmured.

“It’s a war of attrition, dragonlette. She’ll agree eventually. It’s meant to be.”

The Fae was obviously aware of Corrigan watching us closely because he abruptly flipped back to flirting. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “How do you feel about a threesome?”

I was saved from answering by the crackle in the air, signifying that the portal to Dorchadas was open. Instead of the usual pretty purple flickers in the air, however, these were darker. Nausea rose up through me. I touched my stomach almost unconsciously in some pathetic attempt to prepare myself. Prepare us, I amended silently.

Solus went through first, followed by Alex, with me, then Corrigan bringing up the rear. As soon as I was through, I retched. It was an effort not to groan aloud, but I managed, just, to keep quiet. When I straightened back up, Corrigan was watching me with disapproval.

Alex held something out in his palm.

“What’s that?” I kept my voice low and quiet, unsure whether there was anyone around who might hear us.

“Breath mint.” When I narrowed my eyes at him, he grinned slightly. “I was in Russia with you, remember?”

“You were in Russia? When?”

I rolled my eyes at Corrigan. He may have been speaking in a whisper, but his annoyance was still obvious. “For fuck’s sake. You’re going to need to stop doing the whole protective thing. Platonic relationship, remember? And even if it wasn’t, I think I’ve proven I can take care of myself.”