Broken Heart 03 Because Your Vampire Said So by Michele Bardsley Page B

the only one who noticed the stench. And he had the Taint.”
    Everyone in the room stared at me. Oh, hell. Why had I opened my big mouth? Now, wait a minute. If the smell was attached to the ugly spirit, then it made sense that I was the only one who’d noticed it.
    “She had a nasty ghost pet,” I offered. “Maybe that thing was what stank to high heaven.”
    “What did it look like?” asked Arin.
    “A big black spot with two white marble-looking eyes.”
    “Definitely not a ghost.” Arin walked to the desk and started digging through a pile of books. “I didn’t realize you also had the ability to see demon spirits.”
    “Me, either.” I didn’t want to see demons. Hell, I didn’t want to see ghosts. I couldn’t help but think about how I’d touched Durga—and maybe that was why I saw the demon hanging around Lia. Then I’d touched Lia and almost set Patrick’s hair on fire.
    “The demon attacking the Turn-bloods is Durga’s pet,” I said. “We had a run-in earlier.”
    “Koschei’s recruited one more Ancient to his cause,” said Zerina. She sounded utterly delighted at the prospect. It made me wonder what sins the Ancients had committed against her.
    “If that’s so,” said Arin gravely, “we are in for a bigger battle than I feared.”

Chapter 12
    I pulled out of Gabriel’s grip, then walked to a nearby couch and dropped into it. “I feel like I’ve been cast in an episode of Supernatural.”
    “We have a lot to explain,” said Arin. He had abandoned his search for whatever demon-related information he’d wanted.
    “Why don’t you start with the prophecy and go from there?” I asked.
    I wasn’t sure how to feel. I was really good at shoving down my emotions, but the information being lobbed at me was hard to bury. I needed to sort it all out before I did anything. Like freak the fuck out.
    “If Hua Mu Lan has her way, everything in Broken Heart will be toast,” said Terran. “Father, I think we should help the Consortium. If Koschei wins, he will”—her gaze slid to me— “make sure the prophecy never comes true.”
    “If it’s a prophecy, doesn’t that sorta mean there’s no getting around it?” I asked.
    “Free will often interferes with the forecasts of seers,” said Arin, smiling. “But this prediction seems on course. However, we would be wise not to underestimate Koschei’s powers.”
    “Or Lia’s.” I wondered what else in Broken Heart had gotten fried thanks to Miss Magnolia Blossom.
    Terran planted her butt on the couch next to me. “Koschei can be a very convincing man. Chances are good he’s recruited a number of powerful vampires to his side.”
    Most vampires could bend the wills of humans, but it wasn’t the same as having the mind power to control others. Vampires from the Family Koschei could make you think you were in Hawaii when you were really sitting on a glacier.
    Arin pulled out a single sheet of paper from a messy stack. He returned to us and sat on the edge of the fountain.
    “ ‘A vampire queen shall come forth from the place of broken hearts. The seven powers of the Ancients will be hers to command,’ “ read Arin. “ ‘She shall bind with the outcast, and with this union, she will save the dual-natured. With her consort, she will rule vampires and lycanthropes as one.’ “
    “None of that says a damned thing about me.”
    “Astria Vedere’s prediction is one in a long line of predictions about the vampires and lycans, “ said Terran. “They even predicted that you and your friends would be turned into vampires. ‘Eleven will Turn; one will burn.’ “
    Okay, that was scary. Eleven of us single parents had been Turned. I thought about poor Charlene, who’d been Turned with the rest of us. She was the mistress of Jessica’s late husband and the mother of Rich, Jr. Rich, Sr., had died because Charlene messed with his car, which led to his fatal accident. She’d burned, all right. She sat on Rich’s grave until the