by Tessa Cole
With a snarl, he strode to the far side of the large room to the reception hall’s wide main doors.
The pale glow from the half dozen magical fae orbs hovering at the ceiling flashed off of something metal, and Mavis with her gold and silver necklaces, bracelets, and chain headpiece sauntered through the entrance.
“You’ve been paid, witch,” Balwyrdan said.
“But I didn’t tell you everything, and now you know my information is good.” Mavis flashed him a cocky smile and walked her fingers down the front of his chest. “For double, I can give you the dragon.”
She could what—?
Realization cut through my whirling thoughts and the fear churning in my gut hardened and heated into anger. Mavis had betrayed us. She’d told Balwyrdan where we were— or rather from the sounds of it, where I would be. She was responsible for my fear and pain and now she was back to give Titus up and get more money. Had she even bothered to ask what Balwyrdan wanted with Titus? Which was a stupid question. She clearly didn’t care.
“For double, hunh?” Balwyrdan asked, his voice lowering and turning sensual.
Now I really had to escape. I had to warn Cassius. Without a doubt, Balwyrdan would take Mavis up on her offer, and she’d tell him what Titus now looked like.
I yanked my gaze away from them and glanced around the room. I wasn’t sure how many men Balwyrdan had, but of the dozen in the room, the only one closest to me — fifteen feet away — was staring out the large bank of windows along the back wall that surprisingly still had glass in them. Beyond, lay a sloping field of grass and weeds with clusters of trees and bushes shrouded in darkness.
No one was watching me.
This was my chance.
I slowly rolled to my knees, trying to be as quiet as possible. My body screamed in pain and my pulse raced. Please don’t look my way. Oh God, please.
“I should be charging you triple,” Mavis purred. “But that faekin thinks he can keep sending angels and JP agents to my shop. I want you to teach him a lesson.”
I shifted to bring one knee up but Mavis’s gaze flickered to me, and I froze, my gaze locking with hers. There wasn’t a hint of remorse in her eyes.
My heart thudded and each rapid breath sliced agony through my chest. Did she know I was trying to escape? Would she alert Balwyrdan?
Her smile deepened and she turned her attention back to Balwyrdan. “I want you to make the faekin suffer. Something it seems you’re quite good at.”
I brought my knee up, ready to stand, and searched the room for my quickest escape route.
There. A door. A few feet past the guard at the windows. I didn’t know if it was unlocked, but if I could get outside, I could release my wings and fly away.
No. Bad idea. Balwyrdan would see me and suffocate me—
My thoughts stuttered. He didn’t even need to see me. The moment he realized I was gone, he’d use the leash spell to kill me or bring me back.
Why hadn’t I thought of that?
Because I was in shock and pain and still reeling from the beating I’d taken.
All I wanted was to be strong and in control, but I wasn’t.
For a second, I contemplated what my chances were that I’d be able to find Cassius and warn him before Balwyrdan suffocated me. He was still walking into a trap. Even if I died, perhaps I could save them.
Except would Balwyrdan be able to sense if I moved farther away from him, just like I knew when I’d moved too far away from Titus? How far would I be able to go?
“I usually don’t hire my services out,” Balwyrdan said, “but I may make an exception for you. How do you know the faekin will show up with the beast?”
Mavis gave a sensual shrug. “There’s a chance he won’t.”
“Then you’d be losing out on one third of your payment.”
My throat tightened. There wasn’t anything I could do to survive this or even help the guys except uselessly pray Balwyrdan didn’t kill me before Cassius came for me.
“Oh, I can think of a few ways to get that one third.” She pushed her pelvis against Balwyrdan’s and stroked her palms across his pecks.
More tears rolled down my cheeks.
It didn’t matter what I wanted. I had no control. I never did.
“And what makes you think I’d take you up on your offer?” He slid his hand to her back. “What makes you think I’d even pay double for something I already have?”
“But you don’t have the dragon.” Mavis tried to pull away, but Balwyrdan tightened his grip, crushing her against him. “He still has my concealment charm and glamour on him.”
“And when I first came to you, I asked you for the dragon,” Balwyrdan hissed.
He grabbed the long knife from the hip sheathe of the man beside him and plunged the blade into Mavis’s heart.
Oh, my God!
Mavis screamed and tried to shove out of Balwyrdan’s grip, but he held tight, capturing her against his body, and twisted the blade, driving it in all the way to the hilt.
My magic rushed into my hands and locked onto the woman responsible for my suffering, turning my fear and rage to frustration.
“You said you couldn’t give me the dragon,” Balwyrdan said.
Mavis gasped, her eyes wide.
I gritted my teeth and fought the building pressure to move my battered body across the room.
I was not going to save her. Saving her would take all my strength, and I wasn’t going to make that mistake again. Just because I couldn’t run, didn’t mean I couldn’t try to hold out until help arrived. It was the only thing I had left in my control.
God, I couldn’t even control my own magic.
Balwyrdan yanked out the knife and slammed it back into her chest, drawing another scream. “And now you say you can give me the dragon.”
A part of me hated how selfish I was. I had the power to save her and I’d picked me over her. But picking me also picked Cassius, Sebastian, Titus, and Hawk. Wasting my power on someone who’d betrayed us, whose greed was the reason she’d been mortally wounded meant not having the power to save one of the guys, and that was unacceptable.
My power burned up my forearms and heaved at my soul.
Save her.
No. Not at the expense of the guys.
Mavis weakly struggled to break free and clawed at Balwyrdan’s hand, her mouth opening and closing on gasped words too quiet for me to hear on the other side of the room.
“You think I’ll just accept your lie and pay you again?” he demanded, yanking out the blade and plunging it back in. “What made you think I was the kind of man who would play that game?”
Save her.
The pressure burned past my elbows and squeezed my chest. It heaved me up and I threw myself forward, curling into a ball and pressing my forehead to the floor to keep from moving.
She’s dying. Try. I had to at least try.
No. I won’t save her. Please. I can’t.
My power surged and impossibly, a thin thread, just enough to assess injuries, connected with Mavis even though I wasn’t touching her. I could feel her life force draining from her, pooling in her blood at Balwyrdan’s feet. The pressure to go to her, heal her, screamed through me and my body struggled against my will to sit up.
Go. Save her.
Mavis screamed again, and the sharp burst of being stabbed shot through my connection to her. I wasn’t touching her. I wasn’t even looking at her. I shouldn’t have been able to feel her pain or her life force. But it was there, inside me, overwhelming me, snapping, and writhing, desperate to stay alight, begging me to use the power I’d been born with to save her.
Another scream and slice of pain, and Mavis’s life force stuttered, flared, and went out.
The fiery pressure inside me vanished, replaced with the trembling ache of backlash. I tried to bite back a sob, but it escaped anyway. Frustrating useless tears leaked from my eyes. I was never going to be in control. If I wasn’t someone’s prisoner, or trapped by
my mating brand, I’d still be a slave to my power.
“I told you to run,” a quiet, emotionless voice said.
My heart leaped into my throat and I jerked my head up to face the demon-vampire, the sudden movement sending agony screaming through me.
He crouched beside me, his handsome sculpted features just as emotionless as his voice, but his fangs were fully extended and his hellfire angry red pinpricks in his black eyes, revealing a wild hunger — the kind a predator had for its prey. His attention dipped to a cut on my cheek and he swallowed, the muscles in his throat flexing with the movement.
My breath picked up, making my pulse pound faster, which I was sure only made me look like a more appealing meal. It was against the law for a vampire to feed on someone without his or her consent, and with the plethora of humans more than willing to experience the euphoria of a vampire’s bite and legalized blood houses, very few broke that law. But I doubted this vampire, given how emotionless he’d been when he’d decapitated that man in Lincoln, cared about laws.
Balwyrdan kicked Mavis’s lifeless body, now lying on the floor with the knife still in her chest, and glared at the man beside him. “Get rid of this.”
The hellfire in the demon-vampire’s eyes flared and he shifted closer to me.
I shivered, half in fear and half at his lifeless essence. I didn’t mind vampires, they were who they were, but they always felt wrong to me. Empty and cold. I couldn’t feel them like how I felt others, like they didn’t have a proper life force even though they still had a soul.
“Where is that beast?” Balwyrdan flicked his finger without even looking at me and the air around me vanished.
My body seized, my lung screaming for air, and darkness swirled through my vision. I collapsed forward, tears rolling down my cheeks, and my fear swelled. After this, Balwyrdan would yank me up by the hair and hit me again and again. No more. Please.
“I want a report from the men outside,” he said and my air returned.
I sucked in a ragged breath, shooting more agony through my chest, and squeezed my eyes shut. I had to shut myself away, had to endure this until help arrived.
But a cold hand grabbed my wrist and fear shattered my concentration.
“Please,” I begged, ashamed that the word had slipped out.
Something yanked against the rope binding my hands and the pressure keeping them back vanished.
My eyes flew open and I met the demon-vampire’s gaze. His hunger was gone, replaced with a hard, emotionless expression. He pressed something into my hand as someone outside the main door yelled, then he darted into the shadows behind me with his enhanced vampiric speed and disappeared.
My thoughts stuttered. He’d freed me… sort of.
But why even free my hands?
Orange-red light flashed somewhere beyond the bank of windows, and my heart skipped a beat. Had Cassius finally come? Please, let this be Cassius.
The men in the room all started running for the door.
“Hold your position,” Balwyrdan snapped still standing at the doorway.
The orange-red light flashed outside again and someone screamed.
I glanced at what the demon-vampire had given me. It was a small switchblade, the blade only a few inches long. It didn’t make any sense that he’d give me a weapon now when he’d tried to kill me in the ring park, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to use it. With my surgical knowledge, I might know the most effective places to cut, but I didn’t know how to fight. And since resisting my magic and refusing to save Mavis hadn’t resulted in a serious backlash, I still risked my magic locking onto whoever I cut.
“Let them walk into the traps.”
My pulse stuttered. Them? Traps? It wasn’t just Cassius who was coming to my rescue?
“Then I’ll kill everyone except the beast,” Balwyrdan said, striding toward me.
I shoved my hands behind my back, praying my skirt hid the knife. With my lack of experience, I’d only be able to get one strike. But if Balwyrdan was close enough that strike could kill him.
It would have to kill him. Fast.
It was the only way to prevent my power from wanting to save him.
And I was not going to save him. Taking his life would stain my soul — the act went against the very essence of my being — but if it meant saving Cassius and the other guys, I would pay the price, the consequences be damned.
Chapter 23
Amiah
Balwyrdan strode back to me and seized me by my hair. With a snarl, he yanked me to my feet, wrapped his arm across my chest, his hand capturing my throat, and jerked me tight against his body. “Looks like Mavis was right. You are valuable.”
My pulse pounded with fear and hope. Outside people yelled and screamed, but everyone was out of sight. All I could see were the bursts of orange-red light from Cassius’s fire. It cast long flickering shadows across the lawn in front of the windows of human-like shapes jerking and running in the throes of battle.
Someone roared, the sound filled with fury and pain, and for a second, I thought it was Titus. But it didn’t sound right. Not as deep as the roar I’d heard before. Which meant it had to have come from one of Balwyrdan’s shifters.
Please let it be one of Balwyrdan’s shifters and not Titus.
“Sounds like they even brought backup,” Balwyrdan chuckled. “Or was there always a bear or wolf in your little group?”
A ball of fire tossed a large gray wolf across the lawn into the thick trunk of a lone maple tree near the door where I’d originally hoped to escape. Flames caught in the dry grass and weeds and swept around the wolf, burning fur and flesh, before Cassius — still out of sight — sucked the fire back into his body, leaving a charred corpse without a hint of life force.
Bile burned my throat. It had happened so fast my magic hadn’t even had time to lock onto the man. At least the shifter’s death had been swift. But for Cassius to kill so quickly and violently…
Was this what it had been like for him during the war? No wonder he’d come back hard and icy.
Another scream tore me away from the horror of Cassius’s power.
Was that one of the guys? Please don’t let it be one of them. I couldn’t let any of them die. Not to save me. God, why had I wished for them to come for me? Surely they’d already figured out they were walking into a trap. Cassius had experience with these kinds of things, and Sebastian, while full of himself, was smart. They had to know. Please, let them know. I had to find a way to tell them. I couldn’t just stand there, helpless. There had to be something I could do.
Anything.
Please.
Blinding white light lit up the lawn outside and someone screamed in agony.
My heart leaped into my throat and Balwyrdan chuckled.
“I wonder which one of them walked into the trap.” He wrenched my head back to look me in the eyes, his gaze filled with the same dark pleasure he’d had when he hit me. “The new shifter? The faekin Mavis wanted tortured?”
A blast of fire race through the lawn in front of the windows, and a nauseating mix of relief, guilt, and dread churned in my gut.
Cassius was fine. Was Sebastian? Titus? Hawk?
“Well, the angel is still conscious.”
The strange roar that could have been Titus sounded.
“And so is the new shifter.”
Which left Sebastian and Hawk.
One of Balwyrdan’s men ran into sight at the far edge of the windows. Cassius’s fire whip snapped at him and he jerked out of reach, falling onto his butt. Two more men appeared, one wrenching out of the way as Hawk lunged at him, while the other swiped at Hawk. Hawk leaped to the side and the man’s claws narrowly missed his shoulder.
More fire flared just out of sight and someone screamed, then Titus lurched into view and tossed a charred body, the clothes still on fire, through the window on the far side of the room.
The glass shattered, sending shards skittering across the floor, and the corpse tumbled
all the way to the main door.
Titus’s gaze locked on me and with a snarl, he stormed through the opening. Hawk, Cassius, and — thank God! — Sebastian rushed in behind him.
They were alive. They’re all alive. And they were terrifying.
Sebastian, the least terrifying of them, without any blood on his clothes and a gray complexion, had a hard and calculating expression. Without a doubt, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill any of Balwyrdan’s men, and he probably already had.
Beside him, stood Titus, his hands and arms covered in blood up to his elbows and his T-shirt soaked with it.
Next was Hawk. Blood splattered his shirt as well, although not as much as Titus’s, and coated his hand holding a wickedly curved blade. He, too, looked ready to kill anyone who stood in his way.
But most terrifying of them all was Cassius. Molten fire dripped from arms and hands fully engulfed in flames, and the inferno raced along the top of his wings all the way to the tips. His body shook, and from the searing ferocious look in his eyes, he shook from a rage that was on the verge of slipping his control.
I’d never seen him so angry before. I hadn’t even known he was possible of such rage. Rescuing me this time wasn’t compelled by justice but by vengeance, and God help anyone who stood in his way.
Cassius took a step forward and blinding white light flashed around them. Dark thick strands burst from the ground, capturing them in a magical spider web. Hawk and Titus slashed at the strands, but more strands swept around their arms, immobilizing them.
Balwyrdan huffed. “That was too eas—”
Cassius yelled and his fire exploded into a massive fireball that ignited the web. Flames rushed through the strands sending ash to the floor and thick black smoke to the ceiling, freeing the guys without burning them, which was an extraordinary demonstration of Cassius’s control.
“Let her go,” Cassius said. He didn’t even offer to let Balwyrdan live, like I’d expected.
Balwyrdan’s men who’d been told to hold their position tensed, shooting nervous glances at each other and waiting for Balwyrdan’s command to attack.
“Hmm. Which one do you think is the beast?” Balwyrdan asked, his voice filled with dark mirth as if his spell hadn’t just been burned to a crisp. “I know he isn’t the angel or the faekin. It would be too obvious to make him a wolf, so my guess is the incubus.”