by Leia King
“Fine. Good luck on the hunt tonight. I hope, for your sake, that she can keep human blood down.”
“Me too,” Luca said worriedly. “Me too.”
8
“Ryan!” Marella exclaimed happily as she opened the door to find him standing there, leaning against the wall. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen you.”
“Hey,” he said as she stepped aside to let him in. She watched him look her over for a moment and raise his eyebrows. “Wow, your pregnancy is really moving along, huh?”
“Yes,” she said excitedly, rubbing her baby bump. “We don’t think it’ll be long now.” She saw Ryan’s smile fade. She reasoned that he was probably thinking of Cora’s pregnancy. It had been the fastest pregnancy in history.
“Is he here?” he asked, fiddling with his sunglasses that were shielding his eyes from view.
“He’s just taking a shower.” She gestured to the kitchen over on the far side of the open-concept room. “I was about to make something to eat. Come, I’ll make you whatever you want.”
He managed a small smile and shook his head. “No, thanks. I’m not hungry.”
“You can’t keep going on just scotch alone,” Nathanial’s deep voice rumbled from the bedroom. He appeared a moment later, fully dressed in black slacks and a navy-blue shirt, completely dry. The advantages of practicing magic. He didn’t have to do things the slow, mundane way.
“You can smell it?” Ryan asked.
“More so than your wolf scent,” Nathanial confirmed as he approached him.
“We’re not due at court today, so it doesn’t matter.”
Marella eyed Nathanial pointedly. She saw him hesitate for a moment, before, thankfully, deciding to let Ryan’s comment slide. He folded his arms across his chest and asked Ryan, “What do you need?”
Ryan proceeded to tell him about a meeting between him, Luca and Kristoff.
Nathanial didn’t say anything for several moments as he considered Ryan’s request and Marella watched his brow furrow, knowing he was silently weighing up his options.
“I need my son back, Nathanial,” Ryan pressed.
Nathanial nodded his understanding. “Trust me, I know, Ryan. What Kristoff has told you about Spiritomb makes sense. It explains why neither Marella, Michael, Shaye, nor I have been able to locate Orion. But you do not know Kristoff like I do.”
“I don’t care about any of that. I will do whatever I need to get my son back. Whatever damned deal I have to make, I’ll make it, Nathanial.”
Nathanial gripped his shoulders firmly. “I know. That is why I am here.”
“What? To stop me?”
“No. To protect you and, by extension, all of us. I will speak with Kristoff myself.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Your temper will not help,” Nathanial warned.
“I’ll keep it in check.”
Nathanial studied him. “All right. We have an agreement,” he said as he released his shoulders and stepped back.
“When?” Ryan asked.
“I know you are anxious. We will go now.” Nathanial glanced at Marella. “Angel?”
“Yes, I will be fine, my darling.”
He smiled at her in that sexy way of his that did things to her and then he turned back to Ryan. “Lose the stake and then we’ll go.”
Ryan raised his eyebrows in surprise. “How did you know?”
“I’m just that good.”
Ryan chuckled and handed him the stake. He watched, his eyes widening in surprise as Nathanial crushed it into dust with his bare hand. “Impressive.”
“Of course,” Nathanial said, smirking.
Marella shook her head with disapproval. “Nathanial,” she chastised him. “There’s confidence and then there’s arrogance.”
“Please, angel, we both know you enjoy my arrogance.”
“She’s my aunt, Nathanial,” Ryan said, clearly catching the sexual innuendo.
Marella chuckled.
Nathanial grinned at her.
And then he stepped forward and said to Ryan, “Let’s go before I reveal too much.”
“Before?” Ryan complained as he followed Nathanial to the door.
9
The moment Ryan and Nathanial turned onto the street that housed Kristoff’s club, something caught Ryan’s attention.
He stopped in his tracks, scenting the air, trying to ascertain what he was sensing.
“What is it, Ryan?”
“I must be drunker than I’d realized. I thought I was smelling Cora.” He shook his head vigorously. “Impossible. She’s a vampire now. I shouldn’t be able to smell her like I could before.”
“It may not be as impossible as you think.”
Ryan’s gaze snapped to his. “What?”
“Luca is here too.”
Both of them turned abruptly to their right. A second later, Cora stumbled through the door of a bar. Luca emerged after her and reached for her hurriedly, holding her with one hand around her waist and the other holding her hair back as she hunched forward and vomited blood all over the street.
“That’s a vampire bar,” Nathanial told Ryan. “Vampires frequent it to feed on willing humans.”
“The sex-for-blood thing.”
“Yes, although I doubt very much that Luca would have held up his end of the deal, not with Cora. He would have compelled their victim instead.”
Luca looked up, sensing their presence.
“She fed off an impure human?” Nathanial asked as he and Ryan joined them.
“No. The owner checks for drugs in their system before he lets them in. She’s rejecting regular human blood.”
“Excuse me?”
“And vampire blood. The only blood that she can keep down is mine.”
Ryan growled low in his throat. His growl escalated as he watched Cora stand up, wipe her mouth, and then bury her face in Luca’s chest as she sobbed.
“Ryan, can you watch her for a moment?” Luca asked.
“What?”
“Watch her? I need to speak with my father.”
“I… fine,” Ryan said, stepping forward.
Luca pulled away and guided Cora to Ryan. When Ryan didn’t open his arms to receive her, Luca snarled at him. “Please, Ryan. It’s just for a few moments.”
“Fine.” He opened his arms with great reluctance. Cora rested her head against his chest and he hesitantly wrapped his arms around her as loosely as possible. “Hurry up,” he told Luca and Nathanial.
The two of them nodded and walked away around the corner out of Ryan’s earshot.
Ryan looked down at Cora nestled against him. For a brief moment, he was transported back to the time when he’d held her in his arms. But the woman he was holding now wasn’t her. She was a vampire. Vampire Cora. She might look like her and smell like her, for some strange reason, but it wasn’t her anymore. She was a demon now.
She pulled away after a few moments and looked up at him. He was startled by the sight of her big, blue eyes staring back at him. The last time he’d seen her, after she’d first woken up as a vampire, he’d only seen her demon eyes—black and devoid of sentiment. But now he was looking into the eyes he once knew.
They were gone in a flash, though, as she suddenly vamped-out.
Before he knew what was happening, she slammed him against the wall and sank her fangs into his neck.
He struggled against her and thrust both his hands into her chest, knocking her back.
She ran at him again.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he muttered under his breath, bracing himself as she attacked.
“If she’s draining your energy as she feeds from you and you’re seeing flashes of white light in her eyes, it may mean that the vampire transformation didn’t take hold as it normally does during a turning,” Nathanial told Luca.
“What does that mean?”
“It means there is a possibility that the sorceress part of her is transcending the vampire.”
Luca scoffed. “The power required to do that would be—”
“The very level of power that Cora had possessed prior to her death.”
“What are you saying? That the sorceress part of her is trying to force its way to the surface?”
“It would appear so. But we can’t be certain. This has never happened before.” Nathanial snarled as he said, “This is exactly why I objected to you turning her, Luca!”
“It was Ryan’s decision, father.”
“If you hadn’t suggested it, he never would have thought of it!”
“I didn’t want her to die. Marella said that her power had dissipated, aside from the fraction of her essence that remained, which I used to turn her.”
“It would seem that her power was just dormant at that time, but not truly gone. She is not like other sorceresses. She is more.” Nathanial calmed himself and said quietly, “You may have to prepare yourself, Luca. The time that you have spent with her up until now may be all you will have with her. If she transcends the vampire transformation, she will return to her old self and—”
“And Ryan will take her from me.”
“Yes.”
“And you won’t stop him?” Luca said, a whisper of hope in his voice that his father might help him.
Nathanial shook his head. “I cannot. She belongs with him, Luca. I am sorry. I truly am.”
Before Luca could respond, Nathanial reached for him and pulled him into an embrace.
“I will make it my mission to find you someone who can be yours.”
Ryan held Cora against him with one arm around her chest, confining her arms, and the other over her mouth to prevent her from biting him again. She struggled wildly like an animal. No, like a vampire.
“Luca!” he bellowed.
In a flash, both Luca and Nathanial stood before him.
“She bit you?” Nathanial asked as he saw the blood staining Ryan’s neck. Any puncture wounds that had possibly been there had now closed up on account of Cora’s powerful blood coursing through his veins.
“Yes, she fucking bit me!”
“Cora! Calm down!” Luca commanded.
Immediately, her struggles ceased. Ryan released her roughly, pushing her back aggressively. She stumbled and Luca was forced to rush forward with a burst of vampire speed to catch her before she fell. He glared at Ryan heatedly. “Was that really necessary?”
“Was it really necessary for her to take a bite out of my neck?”
“Did she reject your blood?” Nathanial asked.
Ryan’s gaze snapped to his. “What? No. She didn’t throw up or anything. If she had fucking thrown up on me, I would’ve ripped her head off by now.”
“This is Cora, Ryan,” Luca said as he pulled her against him protectively.
Ryan shook his head and eyed her with disgust. “No, it’s not. It’s something else.”
“It?” Luca repeated, full of rage. “How dare you?”
“How dare I? You never should’ve turned her! She’s not my wife! I hate this thing that you’ve made her into. Get rid of it or keep it the fuck away from me! Otherwise, the next time I see it, I’ll drive a stake through its heart!”
“You begged me to turn her!”
“You manipulated me when I was weak, you fuck! All so you could fuck her as much as you wanted without me doing a thing about it. You knew she’d be like this and you knew I wouldn’t want her this way!”
“Manipulated you? I explained the possible consequences, asshole!”
“Like fuck you did. I should kill you for this, that thing and you!”
“Ryan?” Cora’s soft voice spoke suddenly in his head. “Help me.”
Ryan shook his head vigorously. Shit, how drunk am I?
“What? What is it?” Nathanial asked, obviously seeing the perturbed look on his face.
“What did she say?” Ryan demanded, looking between Nathanial and Luca.
“She didn’t say anything,” Luca told him.
“What did you think she said?” Nathanial asked.
“What? Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
“We think the sorceress part of her might still be in there, Ryan. And the fact that she didn’t reject your blood just bolsters that theory. She can keep Luca’s down as well. Both of you have blood fused with mystical energy running through your veins. The sorceress part of her seems to be trying to draw on that.”
Ryan scoffed. “What? She’s a vampire. There’s no cure for that. Look, let’s get to Kristoff’s. My wife is dead, but my son isn’t. Finding him is the only thing that matters.”
“I will go alone. Go home.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re too riled up now. I can’t use you.”
Ryan breathed a heavy sigh. “Fine.”
Before Nathanial could say another word, Ryan stormed off. “Fuck this!” he yelled over his shoulder. “Fuck all of this shit!”
Nathanial watched him go. He knew exactly what Ryan had heard, because he had heard it too. She had called to him telepathically. The sorceress part of her.
It made sense now why she had bitten him. It had not been the vampire part of her urging her on as they had all suspected. It had been the sorceress.
She needed the energy of Ryan’s blood. The blood that she had given him. The most powerful blood in existence. She needed it to break free.
But Nathanial had seen for himself just moments ago that Ryan was not ready to believe that.
He could only hope that the sorceress part of Cora would try to connect with him again and make him see reason.
10
“Stop fidgeting!” Nathanial commanded.
He was holding Kristoff off the floor in his club office, his hand fisted in the scruff of his shirt, as he glared into his fiery, red eyes. He looked through them, delving into his very being, as he accessed his thoughts and true intentions.
“How shocking. You can be trusted in this instance.”
He released him and stepped back.
Kristoff adjusted his shirt and told him agitatedly, “I already told you as much, Nathanial.”
“I could not simply go by your word. I am sure you can understand, given your history with my ex-wife.”
“I regret teaching her black magic,” Kristoff said, slumping into his chair tiredly. “When I saw you walk in, I thought you’d come to kill me.”
“You have already suffered. Oriana sacrificed your wife.”
Kristoff nodded sadly. “I just want to protect my daughter now, Nathanial. Please understand that. My knowledge of Ryan’s son is the only leverage that I had.”
“I do understand. I have my own child and another on the way. But you will tell me now what you know about the Wolf King’s son. I need you for something else anyway.”
Kristoff cocked an eyebrow. “I’m intrigued.”
“Get to it, Kristoff!”
Kristoff adjusted his weight in his leather chair and leaned across the desk as he said, “As I’m sure Luca or Ryan reported, I implanted a magical tracker in his son. But that means nothing without something to latch onto it, in order to pull him out. Unfortunately, I don’t have the ability to do that as he is not my son.”
“You are saying that his parents have the ability to pull him out?”
“Yes. The bond between them must be restored, though. At that point, I can cast the spell that will allow them to retrieve him. You need to be aware that doing so will risk pulling Oriana out along with him.”
“If the bond can be restored, we will not have an issue with Oriana.”
Kristoff nodded his understanding. “Because to restore the bond, Cora must be restored to what she was before. A sorceress powerful enough to destroy Oriana.”
“Precisely.”
“The likelihood is slim, is it not?”
“Yes,” Nathanial admitted. Kristoff did not need to know more than that. And so he changed the subject by saying, “Agree to my next request and I will grant both you and
your daughter passage into the Dark Realm, along with my protection. Ryan shares another bond to a wolf. I believe it has been engineered with magic. Normally I would be able to say for certain, but this is beyond me.”
“Black magic then?”
“I want you to investigate. Find the source. I need confirmation that the bond has been falsified.”
“And then you want to break it?”
“If it is false, yes. Having Ryan pulled to another woman will not help to restore his bond with his wife. It was what caused this situation in the first place, the reason she sought her own death.”
“Just what Oriana had always planned,” Kristoff pointed out.
“The thought had crossed my mind too.”
“She may be a lot of things, Nathanial, but she is also a genius. If what you believe about this false bond is true then she would have pulled off an intricate plan indeed.”
“And she will pay the price for it.”
Nathanial saw Kristoff shudder at the look in his eyes. The promise of death.
“Make it hurt,” he said. “She killed my wife.”
“Be at the Dark Realm gates once you have your affairs in order. I will come to you.”
11
Ryan! Hear me! Help me! Ryan!
Ryan shot up in bed. His heart thundered in his chest and he glanced around his apartment anxiously, searching. He could feel her. The real her. His love.
“Cora?”
Ryan!
He hurried out of bed in such haste that he tripped and crashed to the floor. He jumped to his feet quickly and called out frantically, “Cora, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry for what I did! There was this connection to Jada that I couldn’t—”
Hush. We are beyond that now.
“But you died because of me!” he cried out, burying his face in his hands.
It wasn’t your fault. There’s a lot we didn’t know at the time.
“What does that mean?”
I’ll explain another time. I can’t maintain this communication for long, Ryan. I need your help.