On Midnight Wings tms-5 Page 36
In a hallway gleaming with faint red light, a fallen angel with black wings and short, ginger locks lounges upon a throne composed of dead and stiffening bodies . . .
The night burns, the sky on fire from horizon to horizon . . .
Dante Baptiste uncoils from a bloodied tile floor, his pale, breathtaking face smeared with blood, his eyes dark wells of madness, loss, and simmering rage . . .
A tattoo of a running black wolf inked beneath a desperate green eye . . .
Pale blue flames explode out from around the Great Destroyer’s lean body in transforming tongues of cool fire. His kohl-rimmed eyes open as his song rakes the burning night . . .
A sign emblazoned with the words: Doucet-Bainbridge Sanitarium; Fallen sigils painted in blood upon glass . . .
I have promises to keep, Dante whispers, blood trickling from one nostril. Then puts out the world’s light.
Not knowing if the ground would ever stop shaking, Renata ordered her driver to take the youngest members of her household to Doucet-Bainbridge. As for herself and her older children—she rose into the humid air, spiraling upward.
ANHREFNCATHL AND THOUSANDS OF wybrcathl summoned Leviathan from her decade long sleep. The sea boiled and bubbled with warbled information. But one piece she held close, a priceless pearl: the creawdwr was the Nightbringer’s son.
Leviathan rose like a mountain from the deepest chasm of the Atlantic, an ocean of endless folds rippling across the sky.
Do you have any children?
No.
Best you keep it that way. For I shall claim your firstborn as my own—to kill or to love, as I deem fit.
She had a promise to keep.
HEATHER DROPPED TO HER knees beside Dante’s convulsing body, coughing as smoke and flames crept into the corridor. Her skin tightened in the heat, felt fevered. Ever widening wheels of blue and black light spun out from around Dante, sinking through the floor and cycling through the ceiling, transforming everything they touched. Black ivy beaded with tiny sapphire blue eyes blinking in the acrid smoke draped the walls.
Ceiling tiles fell as the earthquake continued its violent, apparently endless motion—and Heather suspected that the earthquake would end when Dante’s seizure did. The floor shuddered, tiles rippling as though suddenly fluid. Cracks zigzagged through the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. Gleaming wasps flitted out of the cracks. The air vibrated with their droning.
My kingdom for a syringe full of morphine to ease my prince into Sleep.
“Time to go,” Lucien said. “I’ll carry Dante—but not you or we run the risk of him changing you as well.”
Coughing, Heather shook her head. Smoke stung her eyes. “You don’t need to risk it either. Not yet. Let me try to reach him through the blood link.”
Lucien studied the buckling ceiling. “Hurry.”
Heather nodded and closed her eyes.
PAIN AND WHITE LIGHT pinwheeled through Dante’s mind as reality wheeled and circled and wheeled again. Electricity spasmed through every muscle. Splintered memories shifted together, forming pictures that broke his heart. Voices whispered and demanded, wasps droned and burrowed and he’s fucking had enough, enough, ENOUGH.
The pinwheels slowed as the image of a beautiful red-haired woman flared behind his eyes, an image that smelled of sage and lilacs in the rain, a fragrant midnight garden.
It’s quiet when I’m with you.
I’ll help you stop it forever.
We’re in this together, face-to-face and back-to-back.
I trust you.
Don’t.
As lost as I get, I will find you, Heather. Always.
Dante reached back, pouring himself through the blood link and forging a new bond as he did. The blue-white star of Heather’s presence suddenly appeared, burning bright and unobstructed at the bruised center of his mind, radiating a cool, white light. Silence poured in, hushing the noise, quieting the internal storm.
His convulsions stopped.
Dante opened his eyes.
Grasping his hand, Heather helped him up to his feet. He touched his forehead to hers, his hands on her hips, trying hard not to think of what he’d almost done to her, the gun against her temple, his finger on the trigger. “J’su ici, catin,” he whispered, throat tight. “J’su ici.”
“And you found me,” she whispered back. “Like you promised.”
“Always.”
“We need to go,” Lucien said. “And we need someplace safe from—”
A subsonic bellow blasted through the air, hitting the sanitarium like a fertilizer bomb. Dante wrapped himself and his wings around Heather as the building collapsed in a roar of stone and screeching metal. Waves of midnight water doused the fire.
Leviathan descended.
52
A DARK PATH
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
LLYGAID COMPOUND
VON DECIDED THAT HE preferred getting his neck broken to being interrogated. Worse, he wasn’t even being questioned by the filidh.
“I suggest you start talking,” Galiana said. She sat in one of the Bards’s great chairs, the tops of each carved into stag horns. “Otherwise it will be one of the mortals who will pay the price.”
On his knees, hands cuffed behind his back, Von slid a sidelong glance at Merri. Her stiff posture and frozen expression spoke volumes. She had no idea her mère de sang had been using her. Silver was beside Merri, also on his knees, also cuffed.
Jack, Thibodaux, and Annie had been stashed elsewhere. But Von had been assured all three were safe and unharmed. He didn’t know if he believed that.
Dammit. They’d all be safe if I’da nixed the rescue plan.
Von drew in a deep breath of smoky air fragrant with myrrh. He remembered the feel of the charcoal sketch beneath his fingers, remembered the image it bore and the penciled-in title—Secrets. Felt precious time slipping away.
Remembering the rage, loss, and madness simmering in Dante’s sending—I ain’t playing your game, Papa—Von realized that the time for secrets was over. Too much was at stake.
Forgive me, little brother.
In a low voice, he started speaking, holding nothing back.
“CREAWDWR,” GALIANA BREATHED, BOTH wonder and worry chiseling her dark face. “A vampire Maker. But a damaged one.”
“He just needs time to heal,” Von said. “And I need to get to him, move him somewhere safe. Somewhere quiet. And I need to go now. We all do.”
“I have a private jet,” Galiana mused. “We could be in Baton Rouge in a little over an hour.”
The floor started shaking. A chair toppled over. Light fixtures swayed.
“Outside!” someone yelled.
Von jumped to his feet and ran, dodging falling furniture and broken lightbulbs on his way out the front door. He raced down the steps and onto the lawn, then looked up. His mouth dried. His vision—if that’s what it was—was coming true.
An aurora borealis of fire danced across the southern sky. The ground shuddered, then quieted once more. The Great Destroyer had awakened. Von’s heart sank. Dante had chosen a path. A dark one.
Galiana stared at the sky in horror. “What does it mean?” she whispered.
“We’re going to need that plane,” Von said. “Now.”
Hold on, little brother. Hold on.
About the author
ADRIAN PHOENIX is the critically acclaimed author of The Maker’s Song series: A Rush of Wings, In the Blood, Beneath the Skin, Etched in Bone, and On Midnight Wings. She is also the author of Black Dust Mambo and Black Heart Loa, a new series featuring hoodoo apprentice Kallie Rivière. She has published stories in several magazines and anthologies. She lives in Oregon (with three cats, of course), but travels to New Orleans, the city of her heart, whenever possible.
BOOKS BY ADRIAN PHOENIX
The Maker’s Song Series
A Rush of Wings
In the Blood
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br /> Beneath the Skin
Etched in Bone
On Midnight Wings
The Hoodoo Series
Black Dust Mambo
Black Heart Loa
Praise for Adrian Phoenix and The Maker’s Song series
“The Maker’s Song has a raw and complex storyline, incredible world building, and characters with multiple layers. Adrian Phoenix has developed Dante into someone who feels real, with flaws, faults and little quirks. . . . A must-read series for paranormal and urban fantasy fans.”
—Paranormal Romance Addict
ETCHED IN BONE
“Edgy, fast paced and tantalizingly addictive, this is without a doubt the best novel in this amazingly enjoyable series to date.”
—Black Lagoon Reviews
“There are not enough words to describe how much I love this series, or just how emotional this series truly is. Each book is better than the last.”
—VampChix
“The intensity starts off with a bang and ends with the same sizzling impact! . . . This is one series that I will never miss a page of.”
—Fresh Fiction
“Darkly haunting and impressively imaginative.”
—Night Owl Reviews
BENEATH THE SKIN
“Adrian Phoenix has done it again! Complex, lyrical, and beautifully written . . . another unique and compulsive page-turner.”
—Jenna Black, acclaimed author of Dark Descendant
“This violent, wrenching tale is something special.”
—Affaire de Coeur
“Lush, sexy, and thrilling . . . darkly addictive.”
—Jeaniene Frost, New York Times bestselling author
“This darkly dramatic tale is one wild ride in a series that only promises to get better.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Another world comprised of both shimmering beauty and tactile violence. . . . Fusing and melding the worlds of angels, vampires, and mortals into a story where appearances hide greater truths ensures an engrossing and matchless reading experience.”
—Bitten by Books
IN THE BLOOD
“Phoenix trips the dark fantastic in this wild, bloody sequel. . . . She keeps the plot thick and the tension high.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Filled with twisting plots, shadowy government agencies, conspiracies, and betrayals . . . this dark urban fantasy is not only action-packed from beginning to end, but at its core, it is also a story of hope and love.”
—ParaNormal Romance
“The atmosphere is dark, and treachery abounds, making this story white-knuckle reading in the extreme.”
—RT Book Reviews
A RUSH OF WINGS
“Hard-charging action sequences, steamy sex scenes, and a surprising government conspiracy make this debut engrossingly fun.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Phoenix’s lively debut has it all. . . . Phoenix alternates romantic homages to gothdom and steamy blood-drinking threesomes with enough terse, fast-paced thriller scenes to satisfy even the most jaded fan.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Phoenix’s gritty and original characters are instantly engaging, and the rapid pace keeps you glued to the pages.”
—RT Book Reviews
“A thrilling tale of lust and murder that will keep you turning the pages to see what happens next.”
—Gothic Beauty
“A complex, layered story filled with twists and turns . . . a dark, rich treat you won’t soon forget.”
—Romance Reviews Today
“This one pulled me in from the first page. Heather and Dante are among those rare characters readers so often look for and seldom find.”
—Barb Hendee, New York Times bestselling author
“A fast-paced ride, its New Orleans setting appropriately rich and gothic, its characters both real and surprising.”
—Kristine Kathryn Rusch, New York Times bestselling author
Pocket Books
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Adrian Phoenix
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Pocket Books paperback edition October 2013
POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Cover illustration by Craig White
ISBN 978-1-4516-4534-7
ISBN 978-1-4516-4536-1 (ebook)
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