by K. A. Tucker
“Who are you?” a commanding voice shouted. I glanced back up to see a middle-aged woman in black leather staring at me, flames dancing on each of her fingers. A witch.
Veronique, the voice said and I realized that it had come from my mouth. But it wasn’t me; I wasn’t Veronique, I was Evangeline. Where is Sofie? the voice—Veronique—asked tentatively, unsure of her English.
Cold sweat broke out over my body. My confusion grew—what had devastated the atrium, and how was this voice that wasn’t my voice speaking? One of the smoldering heaps on the ground caught my attention. A hand. The heaps were bodies. Oh God . . . My wide eyes drifted over all the little flaming piles, too numerous to count, until one caught my attention. It hadn’t fully burned, and the face was angled toward me, dead violet eyes staring in my direction. Fiona.
I screamed.
13. Lying in Wait
The jungle seemed more dense than I remembered from my last trip here four years earlier, to negotiate the deal with the tribe. It hadn’t been a pleasant exchange—not surprising. They were deceptive, repulsive creatures, programmed by the Fates to hate my kind, both witches and vampires. Even with some level of affinity to me for creating them, it didn’t take long for the chief to threaten to touch me because he didn’t like my “vampire smell.” I was alone then. Now I was bringing four vampires with me.
As we ran through the jungle at breakneck speed, ferns and other foliage whipping our faces, I felt the telltale signs of the tribe’s proximity. The magical purple helixes floating within my body began breaking apart and fizzling out. Soon there was not one thread I could grasp. I felt naked without my magic. I hated it.
“We’re close?” Mage asked, discomfort tingeing her voice. Whatever sorceress’s magic she had must have vanished as well.
“Fire. That way,” Caden called, nodding to the north, just as a whiff of burning deadwood hit me. I instantly veered in that direction to lead the way, but Mage grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “I’ll go first. I’m faster than you.” She was gone before I could respond, Caden on her heels. Bishop, Amelie, and I took off in pursuit, tearing soundlessly through the jungle.
In minutes we cleared the jungle undergrowth at the edge of the tribe’s village—a collection of simple huts. They were guarded by a dozen tigers, already aware of our presence. Beyond them, the tribe circled a giant pyre, hands linked, chanting in that shrill, nails-on-chalkboard screech. The sound of it, of their mysterious black magic, sent shivers down my spine.
My eyes immediately zeroed in on the fire—on the structure above it. On the platform where a blonde girl knelt, her body engulfed in flames, surrounded by a brilliant blue light. I heard her screams.
Mage grabbed my arm a split second before I would have plowed through the line of tigers and lethal bodies to rescue Evangeline. Her vise-like grip stalled me. “Think, Sofie,” she warned. “You’ll certainly die if you go in there, and we don’t know what they’re doing yet. She’s not burning.”
But it was too late. I’d lost all ability to think when I spotted Evangeline up there, screaming in terror, her slender, frail body enveloped in flames. If I needed to breathe, I don’t think I was capable, anxiety so tightened my chest. She wasn’t burning, as Mage said. But what were they doing to her? What would their magic do to her? My blood ran cold with the fear of that unknown, my brain concocting all kinds of horrible scenarios. Would she turn into one of them?
“Let’s not run haphazardly into this,” Mage counseled. “Viggo and Mortimer don’t have her yet.”
I nodded slowly, peering over to see Bishop and Amelie with their hands on Caden’s shoulders, restraining him. Thank God Bishop had buried his grief long enough to be of some use to us. I felt Mage’s grip on my arm loosen slightly, but not completely.
Mercifully, Evangeline had stopped screaming. I looked back out at the horrific scene before us—and noticed the horde of tigers concentrating on another side of the jungle, guarding the spot as if someone lay hidden within. I’m sure someone did. Two someones.
Viggo and Mortimer were here.
14. Freedom
I barely noticed that the flames had disappeared from my body or that the furious drumbeat and the chanting had fallen silent, I was so overwhelmed by the terrifyingly realistic image of Fiona’s dead eyes. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. The atrium was fine, Veronique was in her statue until Sofie released her, Caden and my friends were safe.
But the fear still gripped me, even as the tribesmen hooked their pronged poles to the platform and brought me down from my perch. In seconds I was at ground level beside the fire pit, still kneeling and unable to move. The tribeswomen flocked forward to surround me. One of them bent and reached toward me with her snakeskin-covered hands—toward my chest. Toward my pendant, still hanging around my neck.
I watched in a catatonic state as she cupped the pendant with both hands, then closed her fist over it. And then yanked on the chain.
I heard the snap as the clasp broke. My breath caught as I waited for the onslaught of agony that I’d felt the last time the chain broke. I was still waiting for it as the tribeswoman placed the pendant on my palm. She gave it a gentle pat and stepped away.
I looked down at the once-deadly black heart nestled in my palm, now harmless. Tears slid down my cheeks. The Death Tribe had freed me of my curse. I was finally free.
My first instinct was to thank the chief. Too wobbly-legged to stand, I crawled off the planks. Somehow I managed to push to my feet, the pendant clutched tightly in my grasp. I squinted through the dark, seeking the bright-feathered headdress. There it was, about fifteen feet away. But the chief’s attention was glued elsewhere—on the jungle. His men had lined up on either side of him, spears at the ready.
There was no need to be so on edge with Max . . . So who was out there? “Sofie?” I called hopefully, my voice trembling.
Feline snarls and roars erupted, tribesmen shouted. To my left, a tiger yelped in pain. My head whipped in that direction in time for me to see a body flying out of the darkness into the tribal throng, stabbing at them with multiple spears and scattering them before landing two feet away from me.
Rachel’s citrine snake eyes locked on me, glittering with hateful intentions.
15. Kamikaze
We watched in silence as they gently lowered the platform. I tried to see Evangeline’s face, but a crowd of women immediately swarmed in to surround her, blocking my view. “What are they doing to her?” I hissed.
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look like they’re trying to hurt her,” Mage said. “Besides, Viggo can’t get to her if they’re there, right?”
As usual, Mage had assessed the situation clearly. Between the circle of tribeswomen around Evangeline, the tigers, and the tribesmen armed and ready along the perimeter of the clearing, focused both on our end and the other, Viggo would consider it too risky to come through yet. He was insane, but not in the stupid, kamikaze way that was required to get to her.
“What do we do now?” Caden whispered.
I sighed. “I’m going in. They should be okay with me. Once I get to her, I can—” I stopped abruptly as my ears caught Evangeline calling my name. A second later I spotted long, raven-black hair flying through the air from the opposite end of the clearing, its owner sailing over the tribesmen and tigers, flinging spears in every direction. Several tribesmen went down, and a tiger yelped, wounded.
Rachel. Heading straight for Evangeline. And I couldn’t get to her in time.
16. Rachel’s Plan
Rachel didn’t say a word. She didn’t smile. She was on a mission. Grabbing me roughly, she spun, putting her back to the fire. With her arm around my neck in a deadly headlock, I became her shield. “Stay away or I snap her neck, you parasites!” she shrieked.
“Please!” a new voice cried out.
Unable to turn my head, I strained my eyes to the right. A slender, red-haired woman stepped into the clearing and moved toward the crowd of angry tribe
smen, her hands held up in surrender. Sofie! They parted enough to allow her past, closing in quickly behind her.
Sofie’s mint-green eyes fell on me for the first time since the day she sent me from the atrium into my safe haven. She had apologized to me then. Now I saw that same pleading, contrite look in her ghostly pale eyes. “Stand down!” she ordered, her voice confident. She turned her attention to the chief. “Let us come out from the shadows and no one else will get hurt. Otherwise, many more will die, I can promise you that.”
Let us come? My heart, pounding against my chest wall, skipped a beat. Who else was here?
The chief, kneeling over the fatally wounded tiger, paused as if weighing his options. Then he barked an order. Every tiger dropped to its belly in submission. The tribesmen followed suit, dropping to one knee.
Satisfied, Sofie sang out, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
Who was it?
From the jungle stepped two tall figures in custom suits. Viggo and Mortimer. Even in the depths of a tropical forest, they had found me. They approached slowly until they stood about thirty feet away from Sofie and from Rachel and me, the last point in a perfect triangle.
“Of course you’d bring that lunatic with you!” Sofie scoffed, earning a growl from Rachel that rumbled in my ear.
“And aren’t I glad that we did!” Viggo exclaimed, adding, “My darling Rachel, that maneuvering was fantastic! Your battle skills are top-notch.”
“I was highly motivated,” she purred, her grip on me tightening until I found it difficult to breathe.
“Hello, Evangeline,” Mortimer called. I hadn’t heard that booming voice in a month, and would gladly miss it for a thousand more. But he didn’t wait for my response, his attention quickly zoning in on my unadorned chest. “Where’s the necklace?” he demanded.
Three sets of brilliant irises bored into me, Sofie’s minty green ones wide with genuine surprise.
I swallowed, mustering as much courage as possible. “Here,” I answered in a quavering voice, holding up my arm. I let the pendant drop so it dangled from its chain in front of me. Sofie’s eyes almost bugged out of her head. “I don’t want it. You can—” I didn’t even finish offering it before a gust touched my cheek and the pendant disappeared from my grasp. Just like that.
“I don’t believe it!” Viggo exclaimed, staring down at the pendant now in his clutches. So quickly, so smoothly, I couldn’t even tell he had moved. That was that. They had what they needed from me. Was it enough to let me be?
It didn’t matter because now Rachel had me, and it wasn’t the pendant she cared about.
“Let her go, Rachel,” Sofie warned, her surprise quickly buried, her tone cutting.
“I don’t think so . . . Come near me and I’ll snap her neck, you puke-eyed witch!” Rachel shrieked, grabbing a fistful of my hair, so violently that she ripped several strands out at the root. “Tell him to come out. Only him,” she hissed at Sofie.
Him? Could it be . . . My pounding heart stopped altogether.
The crowd parted. A tall, lone figure stepped from the dark jungle, moving past the ring of tigers and tribesmen to glide toward me like a dream. Firelight caught the jade in his eyes.
Caden.
Suddenly it didn’t matter that Rachel’s claws dug into my flesh, ready to tear me to pieces. What mattered was what was going on in Caden’s mind. The fears and doubts that I had buried deep to survive in my exile exploded to the surface. Had he changed his mind about me? Had time and distance dulled his feelings? Did he ever truly care? For these few seconds as he approached, my hope hung from the edge of a cliff, seconds from either falling or being pulled to safety. I held my breath.
Our eyes locked. I saw Caden’s eyes. The stunning green eyes I remembered, the eyes I thought I had lost forever. In that one look, every ounce of doubt, every moment of fear, every horrific memory washed away. As if pulled by a magnet, my body yearned toward him, desperate to feel him close again.
Rachel yanked me back. “No, no, little girl. That’s far enough.” Her grip around my neck tightened. “Is there anything you want to say to your dear human?” she called out to Caden. “Last chance.” She said it so airily, as if she were offering the last bite of a cookie before she took it for herself. But she wasn’t offering a cookie. She was promising death. After all this, after all we had been through, after lifting the curse, Rachel would end me.
“We have bigger issues than petty revenge, Rachel,” Sofie called out softly. “We’re on the brink of a war.”
War? What did Sofie mean?
Rachel’s fingers dug into my neck like tiny daggers. “There’s always time for revenge.”
“She’s suffered enough.” Sofie’s tone was pleading, and her eyes brimmed with distress.
A vicious cackle in my ear tensed my shoulders. “She hasn’t even begun to suffer.”
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Caden shift his weight and flex his hands by his sides, as if ready to make a move. Unfortunately, so did Rachel. She pulled me even closer, until her body pressed up against my back, until we were like one. “Any sudden moves and I’ll snap her neck like a twig. You’ll never make it here fast enough to stop me,” she warned. Her arm loosened its grip and her hand slid to my chin to pull my head back until my neck was exposed. With her mouth grazing my ear, she whispered, “You thought you could outsmart me? Lie to me and get away with it? Say good-bye, little human.”
I swallowed, tears now streaming down my cheeks.
“You’ll never get out of here alive if you kill her,” Caden warned. “You might have a chance if you don’t—”
Rachel giggled softly. “Who said I was going to kill her? But make one move toward us and I certainly will.”
“Rachel, you won’t—” Caden began.
She cut him off. “Come on! You’ve got front row seats to watch!”
Oh God. Watch what? Rachel ripping my teeth out, one by one? I felt faint, my legs weakening, but Rachel gave my body a swift jerk up as she continued talking.
“Then you’ll see me leave with her. If you don’t follow, you might see her again. Follow, and I’ll hand you her heart. Simple.”
She had it all planned out. She would do whatever she wanted to me—it no doubt involved torture in front of an audience—and then she’d escape. At that moment I dearly wished I would lose consciousness. But of course, it was one of those few times that I wouldn’t.
Her fingertip caressed my neck. “Why would I give her a quick death when I could drag it on for years?” she drawled. Another surge of panic tore through me. What did she mean?
Sharp pain rocketed through my body as Rachel’s teeth clamped onto my neck, the ferocity of the pressure making me sure she’d rip a chunk of flesh out. I gave a strangled gasp as the pressure intensified, my eyes catching the panic on Caden’s face. Sofie had dropped to her knees, her hands covering her mouth and nose, her green eyes wide with anxiety.
Rachel was drawing on my blood so fiercely that my limbs grew heavy in mere seconds, my energy draining away. Was that her plan? To bleed me dry? That didn’t make sense . . .
The pressure abated suddenly and a familiar burn began coursing through my limbs. It brought disturbing memories back from that first attack on Ratheus, when the blonde vampire had pumped venom into me. Rachel’s plan finally hit me. I can drag it out for years, she had said. She wanted to turn me so she could stalk and continuously torture me.
Suddenly, the situation didn’t seem so bleak. The pendant was off, the curse gone, and if I could get away from Rachel, I’d have what I wanted—to be with Caden forever. Sure, I’d have to deal with an eternal game of cat-and-mouse, but I’d have Sofie and Caden by my side to help fight her.
Just like that, I wasn’t afraid anymore. Rachel was giving me what I wanted. My mouth actually curved into a smile. Now, I welcomed the venom. I craved it. Rachel’s fangs in my neck wasn’t pain. It was bliss. Don’t worry, I tried to communicate as my eyes rolled lazily u
p to land on Caden. Everything will be okay.
On the brink of unconsciousness from the massive loss of blood, I was only faintly aware when Rachel retracted her fangs and released her grip on me, shoving me away from her as she let out a howl of agony. My legs immediately buckled, too weak to hold me up. I would have dropped to the ground, had it not been for strong arms swooping in to scoop me up. I felt my body sail away from the heat of the fire.
Rachel continued to scream, just as the blonde vampire had cried out before he was poisoned with his own venom, only Rachel’s screech was ten times worse. What was happening? Unable to summon the strength to move my head, I let it roll to the side to see Rachel. She was on her hands and knees, her face contorted, hateful, glowing eyes fixed on me. She opened her mouth to let out a skin-peeling scream just as Mortimer appeared beside her. Grabbing her by the throat with his powerful hands, he lifted her and launched her backward into the center of the pyre. Her shrill scream abruptly stopped as the flames enveloped her body.
A hand slipped behind my head and lifted it up, ever so gently. I found myself staring up at Caden, his face a mixture of happiness and confusion. No hideousness, no blood lust. Just the Caden I knew. My Caden. And then I lost consciousness.
When I came to, I was lying on a soft surface, staring up at a white ceiling, the sound of a loud engine humming in my ears.
“It’s about time,” a familiar male voice whispered in my ear.
I rolled my head toward it. Caden was lying beside me, his head propped on his arm, watching me intently. “Caden!” I croaked, and immediately began coughing, my throat parched.