“The elves sit in conference right now to bring their souls back. We can’t let them do it!” Nina thundered. “They’re trying to kill our masters! He walked into the sun!” she cried in pain. “He walked into the sun and now I am alone!”
Her anguish raged out, connecting with every living vampire there. They knew what it was to be alone. They feared it. The urge to rise up was almost unbearable. Felix had given her the strength of the undead and the passion of the living. No wonder Ivy loved her.
“My God,” I whispered, jolted from her charisma when someone bumped me. “Jenks, is Edden here?” We had to get Nina to shut up, even if I agreed with her. The vampires were going to storm the dewar if this continued.
“Yeah.” Jenks landed on my shoulder. “He’s over by the curb. Where the horses are?”
I looked over the heads to where the mounted police usually hung out. Sure enough, there were two very unhappy horses, an FIB van, and a bunch of FIB guys clustered around something. A plan to get the people out of here, maybe.
“How am I going to get over there?” I muttered, gaze roving over the square. The huge vid screen was now showing the Cincy arena. The wind down there was intense, blowing the newscaster’s hair everywhere as the dewar began to break up and people began to leave. My breath came easier. Maybe they were evacuating before the crowd decided elves were on a par with biogeneticists and lynched them all. Maybe the vampires were trying to get rid of the elves . . . So far, only Felix had died, and he’d been on his way out already.
“It’s God’s will they die!” the zealot was screaming, a harsh contrast to Nina’s powerful anguish. “It’s penance for the atrocities they have perpetrated! Let them be judged!”
Jenks’s dust was a beacon as he hovered over me, looking for the easiest path to the curb. “Ah, Rache? Is that your mom?”
Oh God. I shoved someone, trying to see. My fear redoubled as I spotted her standing on a planter, hand in a fist as she shouted and gestured, calling someone a prejudiced prick and religious hypocrite zealot all in one breath. She looked fantastic in her outrage, and I almost lost sight of her when the crowd shifted. “Mom!” I shouted, then grunted when I got an elbow in the gut from some faceless woman. “Mom!”
She heard me. Somehow she heard me over the noise and confusion. She turned, her face still alight with the fire of battling injustice. Clearly this was where I’d gotten it from, and without even a glance at the stage, she fought her way off the planter and to me.
“Mom, what are you doing here?” I said when she finally got close.
“Oh, you ruined your funeral!” she moaned, giving me a quick hug.
She was okay, and I hugged her back. “Mom. We have to get out of here,” I said, not believing she was worried about my funeral.
“No matter,” she said, beaming as she shoved someone to get a smidgen more room. “The band crapped out on me anyway. Isn’t it a marvelous day for a protest?”
Wincing, I held her shoulder so no one would force us apart. Marvelous wasn’t exactly the word I’d use. Nina was on the bullhorn again. Some were listening raptly, others—mostly human by the look of it—were booing. I could tell who were the living vampires not only because of the way they reacted to Nina but because they looked terrified. It was starting to slide from a mob to a riot. “Jenks? Find Ivy. My car is on Vine.”
He darted off, making me envy his wings. My heart pounded. “Mom, we have to go.”
But she was watching the stage as Nina exclaimed, “If there’s one thing the living have learned, it’s that what you want most will kill you. It’s our time to protect them. We can’t allow the elves to bring back their souls!”
My mom wiped an eye. “It reminds me of the Turn,” she said, smiling. “But it smells a hell of a lot better. No one decaying in the alleys.”
I elbowed someone out of the way so we could start for the street. “Mom, where’s Donald?”
“He went to get me a coffee. It takes him a while. People recognize him, and he always stops and talks. It’s a pain in the ass sometimes.”
Visions of tomorrow’s headlines began swimming before me. Stomach tight, I began to inch her to the curb. She jerked me to a stop with a hug. “I’m so proud of you, sweetheart. I’ve been watching Nina, and I think she’s perfect for Ivy. It wouldn’t take much to change your funeral into a wedding for them.”
“Mom!” I said as I disentangled myself. “We have to get out of here!”
“I’m just saying she’s smart, attractive, and has more determination than you. Look at her. Magnificent! She’s so entrenched in her belief. It makes me want to protect the beastly things myself.”
“We have to go,” I said again, then jumped when my phone vibrated.
“Go!” she exclaimed, face flushed and eager. “It’s just getting started!”
She turned to the stage, arm pumping in the air as I let go of her to fish my phone out. It was Trent, but I’d never be able to hear him. Just glad he was alive, I flipped the phone open. “Trent? You okay?” I shouted, hand over one ear as the zealot with the mic pointed at the TV and proclaimed that now they would know the true purity of the soul.
Clearly something had shifted at the dewar, and I turned to the TV, showing the riverfront with lots of blond men and women coming out of the stadium now instead of one or two as before.
“Rachel?” Trent’s voice came, tiny and small. “I’m fine. Where are you?”
“I’m looking for Ivy. I’m at the square with my mom and Jenks!” I shouted. On the screen, a reporter I recognized elbowed a CNN reporter out of the way to get in front of Landon. “Nina’s rallying the vampires to stop the elves from returning the undead souls. Trent, you have to get out of there.”
“I’m going right now,” Trent said, but I never would’ve understood it if I hadn’t heard him whisper in my ear before. “You have to leave the square. Now!”
But the reporter had gotten Landon to stop, and the crowd quieted enough to hear her say, “Sa’han Landon, Sa’han Landon, can you comment on the sudden disappearance of the undead souls with the rising sun? Have the elves agreed on a course of action to bring them back?”
Her voice was echoing between the buildings, and the sound of the crowd diminished even more, punctuated by the occasional shout.