by LJ Swallow
"You think they followed us?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "I don't know. We alerted somebody, but this is different. Whoever is close by walked out the front of the estate."
"Close by?" I ask.
"Close enough. I'll scout. I'm less likely to be seen."
I wrap my arms around myself as Tobias blends into the silent shadows. Ash hugs me to him again and I rest my face against his jacket.
"What happened to you?" He tips my chin and brushes his thumb across my lips. "They sent a photo of you bleeding. Are you hurt?"
"No." His eyes narrow in suspicion. "Honestly, I'm fine."
"And Tobias?" He glances into the trees.
"He's fine too." I tiptoe and place my lips on Ash's to silence him. "Talk later." But how much do I say?
I tense, ready to defend myself as Tobias reappears. He rubs his temples. "This isn't good. Really not good. Gabriella is with Andrei and Jamie."
"What?" I half-shriek. "His mother? What's she doing?"
"I only saw from a distance. Nobody is hurt badly, as far as I can see. She's talking to Andrei and holding a book."
"Like she wanted," says Ash through gritted teeth. "The Blackwood grimoire and Andrei in exchange for you."
"That's what they asked for?" I ask and Ash nods. "But that doesn't need to happen. You found a different option and I’m here. Andrei must know that," I protest.
Tobias massages his temples and I sense his exhaustion. “If Andrei gives the book to his mother, we're screwed. Gabriella will hand the grimoire over and create a new bond between the powerful witch and vampire anti-Confederacy families. She'll build a new trust between the vampire and witch element."
"Andrei wouldn't do that!" I'm seconds away from plunging into the trees but my common sense tugs me back. I lost against Anastasia; I'll have no chance against Gabriella. "What next?"
I reach out for Tobias's thoughts and find nothing.
"We need to do something before one or both of them die," I say urgently. "Show me where they are."
Tobias blinks. "No. We've only just escaped one mess."
I thin my lips. "I'm the reason they're here. We help. I'm not arguing about this."
Ash mumbles something while I lock my defiant gaze with Tobias's. He knows I'm right, but I know the reason for his hesitancy. "I'm strong enough to help, Tobias."
I catch a flash of a thought. I don't think I am.
"Tobias," I urge. "Now."
He blows air into his cheeks. "Okay. Ash, follow at a distance. Maeve and I will move forward."
I wait for him to reach out for my hand as he leads us into the shadows he blended into earlier, but Tobias buries them in his pockets. We pad through the trees and I pick up Gabriella's aura within a few metres. Anastasia and Nikolai's were a black cloud; this is thick and as I move forward, it suffocates as if I'm drowning in tar. I falter.
How can we take her on?
Tobias snatches my arm and pulls me towards him, placing his fingers to his lips then pointing ahead. I peer in the direction Tobias indicates. Gabriella has Andrei trapped between herself and a tree, and in her right hand she holds the grimoire. Her voice is angry; Andrei's responses are too quiet to hear.
I sweep my gaze around the surroundings. Two other people are here—Jamie, lying on the ground with a man standing beside him with his arms crossed, like an obedient servant as he watches Gabriella and Andrei. My veins fill with cold fear when Jamie doesn't move or fight back.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
MAEVE
”Jamie is alive," whispers Tobias.
"Are you sure?"
He nods.
The leaves in the branches above rustle and I look up to the tree canopies, ready for an attack. Nobody.
"Maeve? How delightful to see you again." My heart practically jumps out of my chest as Gabriella, in a fur-lined black coat, appears centimetres away from touching me. Her angry expression mars the beauty and pulls her closer to the monster she is.
Tobias seizes my hand and tugs me back, snapping me out of my reverie.
She tips her chin and looks at him. "Oh my, Tobias is here too. What an eventful evening." Gabriella snatches me from Tobias's hold and drags me from the trees into the open.
"Look, my sweet. Maeve is here." Gabriella shoves me towards Andrei. "I'll gain extra favour for bringing her back, with you and the book."
Andrei's strained face meets mine and he straightens, eyes filling with panic. I want to reach out to him. Tell him we'll be okay. But will we?
"I changed my mind. I'm not leaving with you," says Andrei in a low voice. "Drag me into the Blackwood estate if you want, but I won't ever help you."
With each word and each moment, my spirits drop further. We're out of the Blackwood estate, but we haven't escaped.
Gabriella's steady breath ruffles the side of my hair and I tense against her touching me again. "Tell my son what you saw in your vision, Maeve," she purrs. "Tell him what he'll do to you."
"That wasn't a vision," I say through gritted teeth. "You put those images in my head."
She scoffs and a metallic smell on her breath joins her cloying scent. "I didn’t need to. Andrei is my son. My image. Look at him. He isn’t a Tepes.”
“I am,” he snaps.
“My sweet, your emotions will never overthrow your true nature."
"What did you see in a vision, Maeve?" he asks hoarsely, ignoring her.
"Nothing. I didn’t have a vision. Gabriella planted the images."
She moves around to face me, blocking Andrei from view, and strokes my cheek, lips pursed. "Do you honestly believe that?"
My thumping heart grows louder, now a greater temptation to each vampire around us, and I struggle to calm myself.
"Don't fret, Maeve. I've fed. Didn’t you enjoy the gathering? You’re leaving so soon." She flashes me a smile and touches my temples with two fingers. Her hand flies to her mouth as she looks between Tobias and me. "Oh my."
Tobias remains still, keeping his distance from us and close to Jamie. I don't look around but hear his voice. What did she see?
I don't know.
We're in stalemate, the Dominion leader toying with me and screwing with Andrei's head.
"I kill you, don't I?" Andrei says and shrinks back.
“Precisely why you should accompany me,” purrs Gabriella.
I desperately shake my head and reach out. "Andrei. It's not true. Don't go with her."
"Keep her safe, my sweet," says Gabriella as she strokes Andrei's hair from his face. "Come with me and Maeve can return to the Blackwoods. They’ll protect her."
"I'm not safe if you take me back to the Blackwoods," I retort.
"Of course you are, stupid child! You're already closer to the family, aren't you?"
Fear jerks my limbs as she mouths Poor Nikolai at me.
She smiles slyly at my shock and Andrei's confusion, then sighs as she indicates Jamie. "I’m not sure what to do with that one, though."
I turn to where he lies face down on the floor with Ash standing guard between him and the amused Leon. Ash pulls himself tall. "Don't touch him."
"Excuse me, little shifter boy, did you speak?"
Ash glowers and Tobias places a hand on his arm. “Stay quiet."
Frustration bubbles through Ash, who steps closer to Jamie; Leon leans forward and runs his tongue along his teeth before snickering.
I’m going to distract her.
I blink as Tobias speaks in my mind. Is that why he’s stayed silent? Because he’s weighing up what to do?
“Let the kids go,” he says to Gabriella in an even tone.
She arches a shaped brow. “I won’t let Maeve or Andrei go.”
Tobias closes the space between him and Gabriella. Their height matches and they lock gazes. “Let them all go.”
Her mouth twitches into a smile, her attention fully on him. “Really, Tobias? Are you going to fight me?”
As Gabriella speaks to Tobias, something
lands at my feet and I look down. The grimoire. In a reflex move, I kick the book behind me just as Andrei runs towards the distracted Gabriella. He slams into her back in an attempt to knock her forward.
She barely staggers and spins around, one arm shooting out to seize him around the neck. He chokes and drags his fingernails down her hands, desperately trying to loosen her grip.
"Look at the sky, child,” she whispers. “Consider your next move."
I tip my head up, stomach lurching. What could be up there ready to attack? Orange streaks the clouds on the distant horizon, but there's nothing else in the sky.
Daybreak.
"Leave Andrei alone. Let us go." My plea sounds pathetic when shouted at the powerful vampire and her lips purse in amusement. Andrei continues to choke, and we're stuck as hard as we were when Anastasia held us in place with magic.
A frustrated Tobias says something in an urgent tone to Ash, as Leon is distracted gleefully watching Gabriella's action. I watch as Ash quietly backs away into the trees. Gabriella turns as she detects the movement but Ash already disappeared.
Leon moves to follow Ash. "Stay here, Leon. Kill the witch."
"No!" I shout and move to block Jamie from him. Leon backhands me and I sprawl on the ground, breath knocked from me as I slam into the earth.
“Leave Jamie alone,” snarls Tobias. “You gain nothing from killing the witch.”
“I do,” she says softly. “Pleasure. You of all people should understand that.”
The words are barely from her mouth before Gabriella is thrown backwards and loses her grip on Andrei. Her back hits the tree behind and her legs crumple from under her. Gabriella’s hair falls forward, obscuring her face as she holds either side of her head.
“You sealed the witch boy’s fate by attacking me, Tobias.” The guttural voice sounds nothing like Gabriella did moments ago, and her hair moves away from a face contorted into a horrific mask of evil, the whites of her eyes red, the irises and pupils both black.
This is my first time encountering a hemia vampire set to kill, and an instinctive fear unlike anything I’ve felt before spreads from my chest to my stomach and limbs, freezing me in place.
“Just fucking kill him!” she snarls at Leon then narrows her eyes at Tobias. “As for you...” She grabs Tobias and lifts him like a mother picking up a child, and throws him to the ground close to me.
Obediently, Leon drags the unconscious Jamie from the ground and cradles the back of his head. Time slips into slow motion as the vampire's mouth curves into a malevolent grin before he opens his mouth. Somebody screams as the vampire holds Jamie's neck to his face and the world swirls away from me.
My body jerks the way I do sometimes at night when I'm halfway between sleep and waking, and a metallic taste fills my mouth. There's a heaviness in my mind, my thoughts dampened by a dark thirst, and the world looks different.
The scream was me, and I'm not Maeve.
Chapter Thirty
MAEVE
Aware of a weight in my arms, I look down. Jamie. His head lolls back and blood spills from a wound in his neck. I force the body I'm occupying to hold both hands over the gash in Jamie’s neck. To stop feeding.
I’m Leon.
I can take over minds to influence somebody's actions, but this creature has little mind to control. The nauseated horror that overcame me as I watched events is washed away by the primal side of the vampire I'm locked into.
How can I fight instinct with thought?
All I want is to taste the blood.
My mouth filled with blood once in the past—as a child I skidded across muddy grass on my bike and slammed my face on the handlebars. I knocked my teeth into my lip and remember looking in horror at the blood pouring from my mouth.
This blood tastes different. There's an added something, almost as if I can taste, feel, and smell at the same time and it's exhilarating. I’m not only in a vampire’s mind, but I'm also in his body and experiencing his response to witch blood. A laugh in my head taunts me as I struggle to pull away from the inbuilt blood lust in this creature's head. This is harder than I thought.
Leon projects an image in his mind. One of Jamie bleeding out on the floor as he laps the blood. He shares the zinging pleasure he's had from past kills and my hands shake where I hold them over Jamie's wound.
A weakened Tobias elbows Leon—me—out of the way and I lift my hands to my face, staring at his blood covering them. The body I'm in is too overwhelmed by a primal urge that I can’t control and the desire for more blood builds.
"Maeve. Leave his mind," urges Tobias.
The creature I'm inside wants to push Tobias aside and continue drinking and I'm facing my hardest battle yet. I struggle to stand and move this vampire away from Jamie's spilling blood—to let Tobias take over. I focus on my love for Jamie in a desperate hope this will override the creature clawing against my humanity and tempting me to kill my friend.
I've saved Jamie's life once. He can't die. If this was his time, I would've seen his death at Leon’s hands in a vision.
Wouldn't I?
"Ash!" yells Tobias as he holds a hand over Jamie's neck. He closes his eyes and holds his other arm across his face, looking away.
I'm vaguely aware of others joining the scene as I force Leon to stagger to his feet and walk backwards. Every step I influence him to make, he counteracts, drawn back by Jamie’s blood. The Maeve I left is slumped on the floor and I see Ash hesitate between helping Jamie and going to me.
"Help Jamie, not Maeve. She's fine," snaps Tobias.
Gabriella breaks her fascinated silence as she claps her hands. "Leon. If you can't finish the job, we leave. Much as I’m enjoying watching, this is taking far too long.” She sneers at someone behind me. “Now I have more cretins to deal with. Don’t any of you dare touch me, or I’ll rip all your throats open. I really don’t want to spoil my clothes, so please be sensible.”
Leon salivates at the thought and the taste of blood sharpens my senses again. But something bothers him. The dawn light creeps into the grey clouds as the sun begins to ascend the horizon. Leon pictures burns on his arm and remembers the agony from last time the sun touched him.
Andrei's face is clearer, and he stares between my body on the floor and the bleeding Jamie. I can't read him the same as usual, but the anguish on his face hurts and almost distracts me from the grip on Leon’s body.
"You said you would let him live!" Andrei yells at his mother and lashes out.
She blocks his blow with one hand, and he winces as she digs her sharp nails into his skin. “Now you have a choice. Come with us to the estate, or I predict you'll start to burn in approximately three minutes. You’ll wish you were dead after ten."
Andrei hesitates and drags a trembling hand through his hair. If my heart weren't this black, it would ache for him.
For Andrei. For Jamie. For all of us.
The mocking laughter in my head fades as I focus on controlling this monstrosity’s body. I unsteadily move away from Jamie, fighting the vampire attempting to pull me down again.
How strong am I as Leon? In his mind, I see him with Gabriella, but I’m not a servant or a bodyguard. I’m her consort. If this is who Leon is to Gabriella, he’s powerful.
I'm powerful.
A new scream enters my mind— his— and I shake my head as he attempts to blind my vision.
Focus.
I turn to Gabriella and wipe at Jamie’s blood smearing my mouth. She's sneering at Andrei, the grimoire tightly clutched in one hand. The only way I can capture the whole of Leon is to switch off from everything happening to my friends, and summon all his power.
But if I attack Gabriella, she’ll kill the body I’m in. What would that do to my mind? Would I die too?
But this is our only chance against her.
I dash towards Gabriella in a split-second and wrap my hand around her thick black hair. She slaps back at me in disgust. "Leon."
Digging deep, I pull out
the strength this body contains, ignoring that some of this strength comes from Jamie’s blood, and knock her backwards with a slap to the face. She rights herself in a second and retaliates.
“Someone take over helping Jamie,” urges Tobias from behind me. “I need to help Andrei.”
Gabriella’s shock allows me to lash out at her again. I take her in a chokehold, my body humming with the power the blood has given me. She can’t move, screaming out at the vampire assaulting her.
She attempts to attack my mind but my barrier against her is impenetrable as the witch blood fortifies the defence. “Release me or I will kill you,” she rasps.
Leon’s fear spikes and he screams out, disorientating me. He’s her consort. He loves her and he knows I’m forcing him to his death.
The early light of the new day grows around us and I pray that Tobias has moved Andrei—that Ash and the others tend to Jamie.
Please don’t let him die.
The fury runs through me and I reach out for Gabriella’s hair, yanking her head down and pulling her to face me. Her nails rake my face but I don’t care about the pain. Something stings the back of my hand and my scalp tingles uncomfortably. She sneers. “I’m too strong to burn, but you will, Maeve.”
I lose my grip on Leon as she speaks to him as me.
Gabriella knows.
She takes advantage of my distraction and the stinging on my neck makes the pain on my hand a tickle. Teeth rip at my flesh and Leon desperately fights me and Gabriella as she continues to attack me.
I’m wracked by pain from the growing daylight and the assault and can’t fight back. Leon’s voice pleads with me to stop, begs me not to meet this fate.
The daylight won’t kill him.
This will be torture.
And that gives me as big a thrill as the blood I taste in my mouth.
“Maeve! Get out of his head!”
Tobias’s voice is distant as I endure the pain. If I leave now, will he save himself? Stop his attack on Gabriella?
I don’t have time to think beyond that as my brain freezes and I’m suddenly nowhere, looking down on the scene. Alarm replaces the agony as I witness everything as if looking down on a movie.