Forged by Fire: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Blood and Magic Book 6)

by Danielle Annett

  White-hot anger surged through me. She took an involuntary step back.

  “Use your abilities against me again and she dies. I’ve also set the tank on a timer. It will fill up in the next fifteen minutes on its own unless I re-enter my code and complete the eye scan when the timer sounds. If you kill me, you won’t get her out before that happens.”

  My nostrils flared. Why was she doing this? What could she possibly want from me after everything she’d already put me through?

  “Get to the point then. You want something. What is it? What do you want in exchange for her safety and freedom?”

  My mother considered me and I fought the urge to fidget or beg. Neither would do me any good. After several long seconds, she seemed to come to some sort of decision.

  Two men appeared in the room seemingly from out of thin air. Shit. They’d ported in.

  “I want what I’ve wanted from the beginning. You, human, as you should have been from the day you were born.”

  “I am human.” I seethed, but beneath my anger, fear coursed through me. A cold stab in the pit of my stomach.

  Not again. I couldn’t let her do this to me. My throat dried up and I fought the urge to beg. Anything but that.

  “Don’t be ignorant.” She waved her hands at the two men flanking her, and they approached me cautiously, as though I were a rabid animal.

  This was the fight I’d been waiting for.

  Before I could give my brain a chance to second-guess itself, I struck out. I flung a fire-coated blade into the chest of the first assailant and gripped the shoes of the second with my telekinesis, jerking them out from beneath him.

  A smile spread across my face as he fell backward, landing on his ass, hard.

  “You should know by now I don’t like being touched.”

  My mother considered me for a moment, and then she turned to the switchboard again, her hand hovering over the button.

  “Wait!” Shit. She was going to kill Melody.

  “Why? You’ve proven you can’t be trusted. You’re an ungrateful, spoiled,brat with no regard for—”

  “Ungrateful?” I spat the word. “What exactly should I be thanking you for, Mother? You kidnapped my friend. You’re torturing her. You want to torture me!”

  Her fists curled at her sides. “Do you have any idea what I am offering you? A life without the burden of—”

  “My abilities are not a burden. They make me who I am!”

  “They make you an abomination!”

  I staggered back at her words and flicked a glance at the two telekinetics standing beside her. The first leaned heavily against the wall, my blood coated dragger now resting in his palm and hate filling his gaze.

  The other stood beside him, angry but otherwise unfazed. I looked for their reaction to my mother’s words.

  If she thought I was an abomination, then the same could be said of them, but neither looked surprised or bothered by her omission. What was wrong with them? Were they so brainwashed they didn’t see her utter hatred for psykers? For anyone who was different?

  I breathed heavily through my mouth. Think, Aria. Think.

  I didn’t have a lot of options here. I was confident I had a fifty-fifty chance of taking down the two TKs in front of me. They likely had more training, but I was properly motivated.

  I could kill my mother. Take her out of the equation first and see how they responded to her death.

  But that still left the issue of Melody. With my mother dead, I’d have no way to drain the carbon tetrachloride, and if her body was already failing, then time was of the essence.

  There was also the fifteen-minute window to take into consideration.

  How much time had already passed?

  But if I could find Dia, maybe she could port Melody out in time. I didn’t know how long it would take to break through the tank she was in and I didn’t know if a port could be executed in the fluid.

  The glass looked to be several inches thick. Was it ballistic grade like the windows? Could a shifter break through it if I couldn’t find Dia in time?

  But then Tweedledee and Tweedledum wouldn’t let my mother’s death go unchecked. How long would it take to bring them down, assuming I could?

  I didn’t know and didn’t think I could risk it.

  A quick glance at Melody showed her eyes already closing, her head shaking as she struggled to remain conscious. If she passed out, she would drown. The water was barely below her chin. If she lost control of herself, she’d faceplant in the liquid.

  “What do I have to do?” I bit out the words and tasted bile in my mouth.

  There was no other way. Not one that I could see, at least. Maybe if Inarus or Dia were here, one of them would be able to port her out in time, but I couldn’t. The risk of me severing her body in two was too high.

  I’d only ever executed a port once, and the circumstances had been extreme. I hadn’t even been consciously aware of what I was doing and I hadn’t tried executing a port since.

  “Hunter, Adams, get her ready.”

  This time when the two men approached, I didn’t react. The first—Hunter—grabbed me none too gently by my left arm and steered me toward the metal table beside Melody’s tank. The table I’d missed when I’d first walked in. Panic washed over me and I fought to shove it done.

  No. No. No. I closed my eyes and fought back a wave of tears.

  I followed him, my legs suddenly hollow.

  Adams reached for my other arm, and together they positioned me over the table and forcefully pushed me back. My mind screamed at me to get up. To fight back. But one look at Mel told me I couldn’t.

  I sucked in a shuddering breath. Her life was worth more than mine. There was a chance I would survive this. I wouldn’t be me. But I could survive it. I had to believe that.

  Metal bindings clamped over my wrists and I fought the wave of nausea that rolled through me at the thought of what was coming next.

  My mother drew closer. She brushed a stray lock of hair away from my face. “Shhhh…. It will be over soon.”

  I blinked furiously, refusing to give her my tears.

  “I hate you,” I told her.

  She jerked back as though I’d hit her but she didn’t release me.

  Declan’s roar filled my ears but I didn’t know if the sound was real or just a figment of my imagination. Either way, my mother looked unconcerned.

  “You never loved me, did you?” A needle bit through the sensitive skin of my forearm. Then another. I didn’t need to look to know they were somehow connecting me to Melody. That the IVs in her arms would feed into mine.

  My mother had done this before. But with a vampire instead of a Harpy. The healing properties in vampire’s blood were supposed to keep me alive, but I’d felt my life slipping through my fingers as my abilities had been torn out of me.

  If it hadn’t been for Inarus and Declan’s rescue …

  “You were my greatest love.” Her voice was whisper soft.

  I snorted. She’d never loved me. My mother wasn’t capable of the word.

  “Is that why you keep trying to kill me?” I asked, my eyes still clamped tight.

  “That’s why I keep trying to save you. One day you’ll understand. The love of a mother is—”

  My eyes snapped open as a thunderous roar filled the building.

  I smiled.

  Declan was inside.

  18

  I smiled and watched as fear washed over my mother’s face. I relished it.

  “How—” Shaking the thought away, she waved toward one of the two telekinetics. Given my prone position, I wasn’t sure which, but it didn’t matter.

  “Delay the shifter. If you can, get a lock on him and drop him on another continent.”

  I sucked in a breath. No.

  “Don’t touch him!” I shouted.

  She tightened my restraints and then swept my hair away from my face, her hand lingering on my cheek.

  “You will forgive me. One
day.” She wore the patient expression of a mother trying to explain something to an irate toddler. It drove me mad.

  I cursed her. Every vile name I could think of rolled off my tongue. “I hate you. I will never forgive you. Mark my words, you will regret this. You are the worst mother in the history of mothers!”

  She didn’t respond.

  I bucked against my restraints, a sense of urgency consuming me. Chaos erupted outside the room but I could only hear the single roar of my mate. He’d come in alone. Why? Where were the others? Where was his backup?

  “Let’s begin.”

  Red blood trailed through the IV. Melody’s blood. I flicked my gaze toward her. She was still standing. The liquid just beneath her chin but she was pale. So pale.

  “Mel. Mel, just hang on.”

  I struggled against my restraints some more. “Don’t do this.”

  Fire burned my veins and my vision blurred at the edges. I choked on a silent sob, my back arching off the cool table. Pain speared through my veins, lighting me on fire from the inside out.

  “Don’t fight it. Let it go and it will all be over.” My mother’s voice was almost pleading. For a moment I could almost believe she cared.

  Another wave of pain wracked my body. It hurt. Like the last time, but somehow so much worse.

  “St..stop.”

  My body seized. Sweat beaded across my face. The temperature in the room was stifling. I knew from before that I needed to bury my psychokinetic powers as deep down as I could. I had to fight the urge to use them. Fight the impulse to bring them to the surface.

  It would only make them easier to steal.

  I needed to buy myself some time.

  I craned my neck, searching for the other man. He would be the one trying to rip my abilities out of me.

  I could barely breathe. God, it hurt. My chest constricted and I choked on my own breaths. Moisture leaked from my eyes. Dammit. I would not give her my tears.

  There. Positioned in the far corner, his face a mask of concentration.

  “It won’t work,” I shouted at him.

  For a moment his focus wavered and I was able to suck in a lungful of air. “Did she tell you the last man to try this died? Aiden died. I killed him. I’ll kill you too.”

  Nothing. Sonova—

  I screamed. I couldn’t hold it in. It was like I was being torn in two.

  I wasn’t going to be conscious much longer. My head pounded as though someone were digging a spike into my skull. Bile rose in my throat, and I turned my head to vomit over the side of the table. Then I felt it.

  Wisps of air leaked through my pores like tiny filaments, leaving me in invisible threads. I choked back yet another scream and mentally held on to the threads, only to have them slip through my fingers.

  No. Dammit no.

  It was like trying to hold water in the palms of my hands. Each time I thought I had them, they’d slip through my grasp.

  A part of me realized this wasn’t all of it. That somehow whatever he was pulling from me was either my telekinesis or my fire, but not both. But it didn’t matter. It still felt like dying.

  I forced myself to ride through the waves of pain in order to come up with a plan. Declan was close. I could hear him. Any second now, he would find his way inside.

  I closed my eyes and tried to suck in air.

  The taste of copper filled my mouth and a sudden emptiness poured into my chest. A gaping wound tore through my middle. The sense of loss was so complete it left me frozen, unable to breathe.

  I tried to grab on to the invisible threads but there was nothing there to hold on to. Gone. It was gone.

  Before I could dwell on the loss another tug at my center forced the air out of my lungs.

  “No!” I screamed. “No!”

  Fire poured out of me. I screamed again, my fury fueling the strength of my hold. I would not let her take this from me.

  Finding the threads of my pyrokinesis, I wrapped a mental hand around them and hung on with everything I had left. Tears fell freely from my eyes. Mine. My fire was mine. It was a part of me. I would not let it go.

  The air around me shimmered. I blinked rapidly, not believing who was in front of me.

  Inarus, dripping sweat staggered forward and crashed into the metal table. He pushed himself up and with a hand outstretched, reached toward the other psyker and pulled.

  I’d seen him do this before, but the shock of the still-pumping heart coated in blood within his grasp still shocked me.

  I didn’t need to look to know my mother’s lone henchman lay dead in his seat. The sudden relief of my fire settling back inside of me told me everything I needed to know.

  Inarus turned to me, pain etched into the lines on his face.

  I tried to steady my breaths. “What are you doing here?”

  He smiled. His mouth was filled with blood, his teeth a vivid red. Shit. He’d pushed himself too far. He was still recovering. He wasn’t supposed to be here.

  “Saving the day.” His knees buckled and he barely caught himself before his head crashed into the edge of the table.

  “Inarus, get up.” I angled my body toward him but my bindings gave me little room to work with.

  Head bowed, he sucked in a breath but didn’t move.

  Get up. Get up. Get up! We weren’t out of the woods yet.

  I spotted my mother behind him, a syringe in her hand as she cautiously crept forward.

  “You have to get up.” There was urgency in my voice. I didn’t know what was in that syringe but it couldn’t be good.

  Inarus’ blue-grey eyes met mine. “Tell me you’ll forgive me.”

  “What?” Maybe the expenditure of power was fogging his brain.

  “Promise me. One day, swear you’ll forgive me.”

  I nodded. “Already forgiven. Now, get up!” I’d promise him the damn sun if it meant he’d get the hell up.

  Still on his knees he turned his head and before I could comprehend his actions my mother halted, a wide-eyed expression on her face before her blouse tore open and her heart exploded out of her chest.

  I blinked and watched in slow motion as her body crumbled.

  Unable to stop myself I cried out. “Mommmmm!”

  My vision blurred. The weight of what had just happened slammed into me. Grief I hadn’t thought possible overwhelmed me and I couldn’t breath. I couldn’t get air. I… I…

  No. This wasn’t happening. Tears made sight impossible but I didn’t care. She was dead. My mother was dead.

  She’d needed to die. Coming here today, I knew I would likely have to kill her, but I hadn’t realized how bad it would hurt.

  Fire erupted over my skin, evaporating my tears. I wanted to curl into a ball but I still couldn’t move.

  “I’m sorry. Aria. I’m so sorry.”

  Sobs wracked my entire body.

  “I know you don’t want to hear this. I know you won’t understand. But this was the only way. She needed to die for you to be safe. I needed to know you were safe before I—”

  His words were cut off but I didn’t care.

  I knew he was speaking to me but the weight of his words couldn’t penetrate the grief pouring out of me.

  Another voice. A tug at the mate bond. And then Declan came into my field of vision. He was angry. Snarls and growls erupted from his mouth but I couldn’t make out the words.

  My stomach twisted. My chest ripped wide. My mind fractured.

  And everything went black.

  19

  I woke up in my room, in my bed, surrounded by what should be the comforts of home, but the gaping hole in my chest reminded me of last nights events.

  Declan lay beside me, his emerald green gaze locked on mine, concern etched into his expression.

  “Hey,”

  I blinked several times as a fresh wave of grief washed over me and the world came to a crashing stop. I skidded through the memories of a woman I once knew. My throat ached. My heart pounded in my chest s
o loud I could hear the rhythmic thumping, a reminder her heart had been ripped free from her chest.

  She was gone. My mother was truly gone.

  “Shhh…” He pulled me into his arms and ran his hand over my hair. “It’s alright. Let it out. I’m right here.”

  And I did. I cried harder than I could ever remember doing. I grieved my mother’s death for the second time. I grieved for the woman she used to be. The woman who’d raised me and who not long ago had genuinely loved me. The way a daughter deserved to be loved.

  Memories cascaded over me. My mother brushing my hair. Cooking at the stove. Kissing my father before he left for work.

  I choked on another sob.

  Oh, God. Why did it hurt? I shouldn’t care. Not about her. She didn’t deserve my grief after everything she’d done.

  I curled into myself. I had no one left. No father. No mother. I was alone.

  “You’re not alone. You have me. You have the Pack. You’ll never be alone.”

  I must have voiced my thoughts aloud.

  I sniffed and lifted my head from Declan’s chest.

  With his thumb he swiped away my tears. “I love you. More than words could ever describe.”

  I nodded and squeezed his middle.

  He pulled me tighter against him and we stayed like that until my tears ran dry and my sobs softened to steady breaths.

  Exhaustion tugged at me and I fell asleep, cradled in the arms of my mate.

  When I next awoke, Declan was gone. I sat up in my bed and starred out at the light filtering through the window. It took me several moments to spot Melody perched in one of Declan’s worn leather armchairs.

  “Mel?”

  Her head swiveled and she set down the book she’d been reading before jumping from her seat and climbing into bed beside me.

  She gave me a fierce hug, her blue-black wings spread out behind her. “You look like shit,” she said into my shoulder.

  I pulled back and gave her a quick once over. “You don’t look so hot yourself.”

  She laughed and sat back. A heavy silence hung between us and before I could stop them, tears leaked from my eyes. It was like a dam had been broken and I couldn’t stop them from falling.