The elementals had sent the four elemental leaders. They were arguing amongst themselves; they obviously didn’t trust one another. I guessed that was why they’d all come. They wanted to keep an eye on one another.

Stash stood from his seat and walked over to me. He must have noticed how lost I looked.

“Good to see you, Leda. Sorry it had to be under these circumstances,” he said.

“What are you doing here?”

“Same as the others. Representing my kind in this collaborative effort.”

“I thought you had no connections to the New York City packs.”

“I don’t, but shifters don’t get along well with other packs. The city packs are divided. They couldn’t decide on a representative, so they sent me as a neutral party. Ironic, isn’t it? They have to count on the person they’d rejected.”

“I’m surprised you agreed to come.”

He shrugged. “They paid me enough.”

My gaze panned across the room of bickering supernaturals. “They couldn’t pay me enough to deal with them.”

“That’s the great thing about being a soldier in the Legion of Angels. You don’t get to say no.” He patted me on the shoulder, then took his seat again.

I frowned at the leaders of the supernatural world. They were so petty, fighting their own kind, fighting other supernatural kinds. I’d been right the first time. Harker was definitely punishing me.

I put my fingers in my mouth and whistled.

That got their attention. They all stopped and stared at me. The vampires had their hands over their ears. Well, it looked like I’d found a new weapon against them.

“You all know why we are here,” I addressed the crowd.

The Snowfire vampire pointed his skinny finger at the Vermillion vampire. “Because one of his vampires killed two Legion soldiers. That’s what he gets for taking in stray vampires and not watching them properly.”

“We take special care to watch all rogue vampires,” the Vermillion vampire replied calmly.

“Then explain last night’s massacre.”

“That was not a wild vampire.”

“So that was one of your regular vampires?” The Snowfire leader clicked his tongue in disapproval.

“We were not the only ones hit by this.” The Vermillion vampire pointed at the elementals. “This infection started with them.”

The elementals shouted back. Soon, everyone in the room was shouting.

I clenched my teeth. How was I going to get these bickering supernatural leaders to work together when they couldn’t even last five seconds without getting into a fight?

18 Witches and Angels

After spending several hours cooped up with the illustrious leaders of the supernatural world, I dismissed the meeting for lunch. They’d spent the whole morning fighting. I left the room, feeling more exhausted than I did after a day of hard training. Politics were definitely not for me.

Bella and I walked together to the canteen. I had never before looked forward to lunch as much as I did right now. It wasn’t about the food. It was about getting away from those bickering, childish supernatural rulers.

Spending a few minutes with my sister was the icing on the cake. She was the only bright spot in this whole mess of a situation.

Demeter was packed. It seemed everyone had gotten hungry at the same time today. Claudia and Basanti were sitting with their initiates, who looked as exhausted as I felt.

“They look so…scared,” I commented to Bella. “That was me not so long ago, caught in a fight for my life. A fight I wasn’t sure I would win.”

“And how does it look from the other side now that you’re older and wiser?” she asked me.

“I’m not out of the woods yet. In fact, I feel like I’m going in deeper and deeper.”

She looped her arm with mine. “It’s always darkest right before dawn.”

“See, that’s why I love you so much, Bella. You see only the beauty in the world.” I glanced at the initiates. “Some things are different from the other side. Nero never sat with us. Harker sometimes did back then. He wouldn’t do it now. Angels have to keep their distance, you know. To be unattainable. They are as close as most people get to a god.” I looked across the room. Nero sat at the head table next to Harker. “Don’t tell Nero I compared him to a god. It’s not good for his ego.”

“As always, your secrets are safe with me.”

Pasta was on the menu today. It smelled great, but when I took a bite, I hardly tasted it. My mind was too distracted.

“What does Constantine Wildman know about this situation?” I asked Bella.

“I don’t know. He doesn’t share anything with us.” She poked at her pasta. “When I was chosen to be one of only two aides on an important assignment, I thought he was choosing the best witches. But I’m starting to think now that he just wanted eye candy.”

“Well, you are the prettiest witch I know.”

“Silent eye candy,” she added. “He’s encouraged us to smile and never to speak. Or to think too much. He says thinking will only give us wrinkles.”

“Well, isn’t he a tool.”

“If he knows anything about what’s going on, he certainly hasn’t told us.”

“Constantine Wildman is a misogynous pig, but he’s a brilliant witch,” Marina Kane said as she joined us at our table.

Bella gave her friend’s hand a squeeze. “How are you holding up here?”

Just a short while ago, Marina had attended the New York University of Witchcraft with Bella. But the Legion’s Interrogators had manipulated her into joining our ranks. It was either that or her coven and everyone in it would be disgraced. She’d sacrificed her future for theirs.

“No one ever said joining the Legion of Angels was easy,” Marina said. “Well, joining is easy. It’s surviving that’s hard.”

“I can’t believe they coerced you into enlisting.”

“Come on, Bella,” I said. “You’re smart. You know the Legion.”

My sister sighed. “You’re right. I can believe it.”

“I’ll be fine.” Marina leaned in, dipping her voice to a soft whisper. “I’ve heard about your problem.”

“As always, news travels fast at the Legion.”

“All of New York’s supernaturals are talking about it. They’re calling it Angel Fever,” she told me. “Because the affected supernaturals are gaining the abilities of angels.”

“They’re also gaining insanity,” I pointed out.

“Some people say it’s worth the price. And some think they could control it if they were infected.”

“They couldn’t,” I told her.

“You’re probably right,” agreed Marina. “There’s no hope of controlling this. But there are a lot of arrogant supernaturals. Word’s gotten out that the condition is contagious. Some people have begun to seek out the infected, trying to catch whatever it is they have.”

Harker would have loved that. How the hell did anyone find out so much about this disease? If that was even what it was.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the leaders who’ve come here know something about it,” Marina said. “Maybe one of them was responsible.”

None of the supernatural leaders had that kind of power. In fact, no one short of a deity had that kind of power. But then again, no one really understood everything about magic. So never say never. Centuries ago, no one thought monsters would overrun the lands as a war played out on Earth between gods and demons. Hell, people hadn’t even known magic existed back then.

“How do you know all of this?” I asked her.

“I might not be a witch anymore, but I still have connections. I hear things.”

She froze when she saw Harker walking toward us. Her heart might have even stopped when he sat down beside me. She must have never been this close to an angel before.

“If you’re interested, there’s a trick for getting an angel’s wings to come out,” I told her. “You touch them just between the shoulder blades and then…”

“Careful, Pandora,” Harker warned me. “Nero is watching. And if you flirt with me, he’ll tear my arm out of my socket.”