I had no answer to that. Zorah and Rans had kept their word about informing me of their findings as they investigated the plane and the people who’d been on it. However, those findings had been frustratingly ambiguous and unhelpful. Zorah sensed something ‘not of the human realm’ on the plane itself, but there was nothing concrete enough to suggest where Jace might have been taken.
Other airline employees who’d been working that day exhibited odd inconsistencies in their memory or behavior... but it was nothing the two vampires could pin down or overcome with their hypnotic powers.
Leonides called and texted on a couple of occasions to check on me, though he was vague about what, exactly, he was doing back in St. Louis. I got the impression he was trying to set up some kind of a trap for Teague, but no details were forthcoming.
Edward was a patient though exacting taskmaster. I might have come to resent his stubbornly upbeat and encouraging demeanor, but anyone who made coffee as delicious as his got an automatic pass from me on a lot of things. If he was secretly an evil minion, he did a hell of a good job hiding the fact.
“Next step,” he said. “Practice feeling elementally triggering emotions without allowing that power to escape into the physical world. There might, after all, come a day when you wish to experience the desire for bloody, protracted revenge without simultaneously freezing any water that happens to be nearby into ice. Or... to experience the mystery emotion that triggers your abilities with fire, for instance.”
Crap. I was so busted, wasn’t I?
At this point, all I could do was try not to react outwardly, while being silently thankful for Edward’s deeply ingrained old world courtesy. It meant he was unlikely to pursue details of the fact that lust made me set things on fire, since I was obviously reluctant to discuss the subject.
“Makes sense,” I replied, absolutely deadpan. “How do I do that, then?”
We were standing next to the picnic table in the cabin’s back yard area. He settled himself on the end of one of the benches, and gestured for me to do the same on the opposite side. Since my control over my powers had grown, it was no longer necessary to hike into the wilderness for lessons related to water and earth—only for air, since that seemed to be my most destructive ability.
“I believe it will be easiest to start with your pendant,” he said. “You’ve become adept at focusing through the crystal to concentrate your intention. To neutralize that same magic, you’ll need to focus it through the crystal... and back into your own body.”
I frowned, trying to picture it. “I didn’t know magic bent that way.” Which was possibly a ridiculous thing to say, but so far I’d been picturing my power as a beam of light going through a prism, not something that could twist and turn corners on its own.
Edward raised a mildly amused eyebrow. “It will, if you picture a mirror forming on the inside of the garnet to bounce it back to you.”
Understanding dawned, and I made an exaggerated ‘oh’ shape with my lips. He smiled, deepening the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.
“As with so many things related to magic, it’s all in the way you look at things,” he said.
We started with earth, since that was my weakest area anyway. It took more than a dozen attempts of calling up sad memories before I was no longer tossing up little plumes of dirt each time tears pricked at my eyes.
“I’m not sure if I’m starting to get it, or if I’m just getting numb to memories of our family dog dying when I was eleven,” I told Edward, dashing wetness from my cheeks.
He gestured to the pitcher of water he’d brought out with us. “Try testing it with that, my dear. I do believe you’re catching on, though.”
It was true that I found rage—both cold and hot—alarmingly easy to come by these days. I focused on the pitcher with my eyes, and on my pendant with my mind, trying to replicate the feeling of a reflective surface coating the interior facets of the rough stone.
Richard’s face swum before my mind’s eye. ‘I just know it’s better than you trying to play Scooby-Doo with a bunch of... of... freaks!’
Steam rose from the pitcher. I sighed, and imagined the mirror inside the pendant growing thicker. Shinier. This time, the water rippled slightly, but remained liquid.
“Better!” Edward approved. “Now, perhaps you should try to—” He cut himself off mid-sentence. His spine snapped straight, his gaze going unfocused as he tilted his head like a bird. “Oh, dear.”
I tensed, the few days of relative peace having done little for my raging case of paranoia and hyper-alertness. “What? Edward, what is it?”
But Edward was already rising to stand on creaky knees, his hand closing around my upper arm as he urged me to do the same. “I’m so sorry, my dear, but we appear to have unexpected company approaching—an alarming amount of it, in fact.”
I glanced around, a bit wildly, not having heard or seen anything. “I don’t... how do you know that?”
“Magical tripwires. I set them in the woods around the perimeter of the cabin, and across the driveway, as well. Nothing fancy, I fear—just a silent alarm system. But whoever’s approaching didn’t enter the property using the main road. And I find that distinctly worrying.”
My heart sped up. In the clusterfuck that was my life now, there was little question that whoever it was had motives more threatening than wanting to sell us Avon products or talk to us about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
“What do we do?” I asked, hoping that someone who’d thought far enough ahead to set magical alarms around the place might also have some insight into strategy now that they’d been tripped.
Edward swept an incisive gaze over the cabin, the clear, grassy area where we were standing, and the woods beyond. His demeanor changed, the affable, elderly butler becoming something sharper. More focused.
“We shouldn’t return to the house,” he said, his tone grim but steady. “I don’t want us to be pinned down. Follow me. We just need to find a place where we can stay out of sight for a few moments while I summon Nigellus.”
I had a ridiculous moment of panic upon realizing that all of my packed belongings were in my bedroom in the cabin. It was the same kind of irrational thinking that made people run deeper into a burning building to rescue a family photo, or something equally unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
“Move, Vonnie,” Edward said in a tone that brooked no resistance.
I tore myself free of my momentary paralysis, following him toward the nearest opening in the woods that could, at a stretch, be called a trail. Immediately, it struck me how ill-suited Edward would be to crashing through rough terrain with any kind of speed. That didn’t stop him from leaving the trail the moment a large enough opening through the thorny brush presented itself, though.
I followed, and as soon as the opening disappeared from sight behind us, I realized how easy it would be to get hopelessly lost out here. It was impossible to travel in a straight line with all of the tree trunks and scrub in the way. We were probably less than a hundred yards away from the cabin, and already I’d have been hard pressed to point toward it with any confidence.
“Should we be marking our trail as we go?” I whispered, flinching as a branch swatted me in the face.
Edward shook his head, easing through the thick undergrowth with more grace than I would have given him credit for.
“Whoever our visitors are, I’d prefer to make them work a bit harder than that to find us,” he answered in low tones as he ducked under an overhanging branch with a wince, his joints creaking. “Besides, it shouldn’t be necessary.”
A few minutes later, we came to a little washed-out gap in the lee of a massive oak, and Edward lifted a gnarled hand to call a halt. Twigs and leaves clung to his wool coat. To be fair, I was pretty sure I had half a dozen pieces of bramble bush stuck in my hair.
He paused for a moment, listening. I held my breath and did the same, certain I could hear people crashing around some distanc
e away.
“This will have to do,” he murmured, steadying himself against the massive tree trunk as he closed his eyes in concentration.
My pendant throbbed a warning against the base of my throat—the sign of magic being used around me. We just need to find a place where we can stay out of sight for a few moments while I summon Nigellus, he’d said—and that was presumably what he was doing now.
Several moments passed.
Nothing happened.
I bit my lip nervously, aware of the sounds of movement growing closer.
Edward opened his eyes, the deep wrinkles between his bushy brows etching even deeper. “Well, that’s certainly disappointing. I fear there may need to be a slight change of plans.”
I looked at him in consternation. “Oh, come on! Is the line busy or something?” I hissed, having been all-in with the plan for imminent demon extraction via teleportation... even if it did mean leaving all of my clothes and toiletries behind.
Edward caught his breath sharply and whisked me further into the shadow of the oak. I followed the direction of his gaze through the gaps in the trees. The sounds of rustling and branches snapping had gone quiet, for the most part. But as I watched, a figure dressed in black and holding some kind of angular rifle crept into view, following what must have been another trail as he moved perpendicular to us, perhaps fifty feet away. I caught a flash of white on the back of the guy’s shirt, like printed lettering. I couldn’t make it out from this far away, but the outfit looked an awful lot like—
“SWAT team,” Edward whispered. “Not the worst of all possible options, I suppose—but not the best, either.”
My eyes flew to him, though I kept my voice low. “Excuse me? What could be worse than a SWAT team coming after us with guns?”
“A flight of Fae warriors comes to mind,” Edward replied, barely audible. “We’ll need to get outside their perimeter.”
“Can we do something with magic?” I asked. “To sneak past them, I mean?”
That wasn’t anything I had a facility for, as far as I’d been able to determine... but I also wasn’t the demon-bound magic expert here.
“You read my mind,” Edward whispered, rummaging in his coat and coming up with a small pocketknife. “Forgive me, but I’ll need a small amount of your blood to rig up a misdirection spell that will cover the both of us.”
Blood magic. He’d touched on the subject during our hours of discussion over magical theory. It was several levels of complexity above the kind of stuff I was able to do, but again, Edward had advantages I didn’t, both in experience and in the form of his trusty remote demon Tesla battery.
Though the ‘trusty’ part was somewhat in question, after Nigellus’ notable failure in appearing to rescue us. I’ll wager I wasn’t the only one feeling that way, either—Edward’s face was drawn into taut lines of worry as he quickly unbuttoned the top three buttons of his neatly starched white shirt. Without ceremony, he drew the tiny blade across the base of his left thumb and clasped the handle between his teeth to free up both hands.
I watched with trepidation as he swiped up some of the welling blood with his forefinger, using it to draw an arcane symbol on his bony sternum. More rustling of branches and leaves heralded the imminent approach of another armed SWAT member on the nearby trail.
“Quickly,” Edward murmured, wiping the blade clean. He handed it to me, hilt first.
I steeled myself and nicked the base of my thumb as he’d done. He took the knife from me and pocketed it, before taking my hand in his and using the finger already stained with his blood to gather some of mine.
“I fear you’ll have to take my word that I can’t pass any blood-borne infection to you,” he said quietly.
“Least of my worries right now, Edward,” I replied.
I held still as he raised the red-coated finger to my forehead, where—if I understood it correctly—he’d be drawing the same symbol on me with our mixed blood, to enfold me inside the spell he was weaving.
Movement caught my eye, over his shoulder. A man in black stood framed in the section of the trail visible from our hiding place, his rifle pointed straight at us. I cried out in warning at the same instant a sharp crack broke the stillness of the forest. Edward jerked sideways with a startled grunt, his finger sliding away from the unfinished sigil on my brow as a plume of red erupted from his shoulder.
I screamed in surprise, a burst of unfocused power flowing out of me—enough to rattle the branches around me as I forgot every damned thing I’d learned over the course of the past few days. Edward’s back thumped against the bole of the oak beneath the onslaught of elemental magic, but to my everlasting relief, he remained upright.
When I looked back toward the shooter, it was to find him steadying himself in the wake of my ill-directed outburst, the muzzle of his high-powered weapon once more lifting to point at me. Only this time, Edward wasn’t standing in the way.
I could duck behind the oak—its trunk would be thick enough to stop bullets, I was pretty sure. But... then we’d be pinned down, while other SWAT team members could circle around and hem us in. Making a knee-jerk decision, I clasped my pendant and let my fear of being shot funnel through the crystal into as narrow a focus as I could manage.
Power blew through me, concentrated right at the gunman. I caught my breath, praying that my abilities still had enough strength to be effective despite the waning levels of vampire blood in my system.
Invisible force slammed the man backward against the tree behind him, which creaked beneath the force of the impact. He slid to the ground, unmoving.
My heart stuttered with a combination of relief and terror as I swung to face Edward. He was still bracing himself against the rough bark of the sturdy oak, but his face was an ugly, gray shade of pale. It was all I could do not to panic and immediately start fluttering over the wound blooming red across his shoulder.
I swallowed hard and tried to reach for practicality. “Edward! Can you finish the misdirection spell?”
He shook his head, his chest shuddering on each breath. “S-sorry, my dear. Not enough focus to spare for it right now. You n-need to get past their guard and head deeper into the woods. They’ll be focusing inward, toward the cabin.”
I grabbed the arm on his uninjured side and slung it across my shoulders. “You mean we need to get past their guard.”
He tugged weakly against my grip. “Vonnie. I’ll slow you down too much. You must take my word that there is quite literally nothing these men can do to me that will stick. I’m demon-bound.”
But I was already pulling him toward the trail the two SWAT members had been patrolling, in hopes of getting to the other side before any more of them followed the sound of gunfire and screaming.
“Yeah,” I told him, “and that’s exactly the point. You’re demon-bound. I’m not. If our ride shows up, I’d rather be with you than wandering around on my own. Now come on!”
He stopped fighting me, though his attempts to keep pace with me weren’t much more coordinated than his resistance had been.
“The fact that... he’s not here... already is... worrying,” he wheezed, between shuddering breaths.
“I kind of got that part, thanks,” I said through gritted teeth.
While Edward wasn’t heavy, and he was still able to walk... after a fashion—making progress through a forest without the benefit of a trail was challenging enough for one person. I was sure the poor old guy was getting slapped with branches and stumbling over roots just like I was, but there was no time to feel bad about any of it.
We burst onto the trail. Across from us, the unconscious gunman still lay in a tangle of limbs. I looked left and right, only to find more black clad figures approaching at a run from both directions, weapons held ready.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” I cursed, dragging Edward toward the closest thing I could see resembling an opening on the other side of the path.
I wasn’t sure how many more times I could use th
e magical explosion trick before I’d be too weak to haul my injured companion around. We had a bit of distance on the approaching men, so I opted for flight and possible concealment until there was no other choice but to turn and fight. If we could lose them in the trees and find a fallen trunk to hide under...
Then what? You can hang out there until Edward bleeds to death? I shook off the snide little voice, in favor of focusing on our footing and the rattling gasp of Edward’s breathing.
The ground was uneven, littered with stones and twisting roots. Thorny bushes snagged at our clothing, but the trees here were dense, and many of them had large trunks that would help conceal us. Behind us, I heard the sound of voices, echoing oddly through the woods. The words, “Through here—go, go, go!” filtered to me, signifying that the men had seen us leave the trail and were following.
I cast around for something that could hide us, even as I continued to drag Edward forward, deeper into the forest. Our attackers’ bulky rifles might slow them down a bit in the close confines of trees and brush, but not as much as Edward’s injury was slowing us down. Add to that the fact that we were leaving a trail of broken branches and footprints obvious enough for even a first-year Cub Scout to follow, and our situation was not looking good, to put it mildly.
My eyes lit on a monster of a downed tree, its roots exposed and grasping at the air. Cover, I thought. There was a space beneath the decaying trunk that might be large enough for two people to hide in, and piles of decaying leaves I could use to try and cover us. The dead tree had taken out a bunch of smaller trees when it went down, leaving an open area. I rushed across it, my back aching from supporting Edward’s weight.
We’d almost reached the questionable promise of shelter when the crackle of twigs breaking in front of us brought me stumbling to an abrupt halt. A figure stepped around the tangle of torn roots, blocking our path. Without thought, I channeled my fear of imminent death at the man before us, and let fly.
NINE
Vampire Bound: Book Two Page 6