The Unhallowed (Book Five in the Witch Hunter Saga)

by Nicole R. Taylor

  As Izzy disappeared with the men, she turned to Tristan, commanding him to make sure they were alone. They’d literally caused quite a stir in the otherwise serene countryside and didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention. Especially not when she felt so terrible.

  Sighing, she leaned against the standing stone behind her and calmed her thoughts. They finally had a short reprieve so they could catch their breath and find a way to end the Unhallowed for good.

  At least something had gone right today.

  Chapter 20

  Gabby lingered within the stone circle, the darkness almost absolute.

  Raising her hands, she flicked a small spark from her fingertips and ignited what was left of the torches the Unhallowed had used in their ritual. Without the other elements of their tainted magic, they were just big sticks.

  Light flooded the circle, and Gabby began her search, feeling out the remains of their spell work. Her fingertips brushed the Blood Stone where they’d found Nye, and it was here she felt the ragged edges of the tether they’d used to bind him to the ley lines. She didn’t know this magic, but one thing she did understand was it had been agony for her friend.

  There was another surprise for the night. Admitting Nye was her friend. Duty and honor to Regulus had driven her to stay and help the spy take her lover’s place as leader of the London vampires, but somehow, the cocky vampire had grown on her…and it had nothing to do with Izzy’s feelings for the guy.

  Even if Nye wasn’t part of the equation, the Unhallowed were a problem. A witch problem, which made it her jurisdiction.

  Gabby didn’t need the power of a coven behind her to fight a power like this…she was her own coven. She was as strong as ten matriarchs combined. No, she was a lone wolf in her world. Her mind would be enough.

  “Nothin’ stirs,” Tristan said, emerging from the darkness. “If you intend to commune with the ley lines, you’re safe to do so. I will watch over you until you return.”

  She nodded and settled beside the Blood Stone, crossing her legs and placing her palms against the earth. The soil was churned up with footprints and splashes of Nye’s blood, but it wouldn’t matter. The earth was all around.

  It was in the sky, the wind, the soil, the water, and the plants that grew within it. It was even inside the humans and animals that lived upon it. Everywhere she looked, there was a piece of the earth she was tasked with protecting in the Celestine’s stead. Communing with it was second nature to all witches, but she’d never considered delving into the ley lines themselves. She hadn’t even thought it was something she could do…but a lot of things had changed her mind about what was possible.

  Gabby slipped through the veil without resistance, the air shimmering around her and dissolving into the ice that told her she was in the spirit realm. The current of the ley line was all around pulling her in different directions—neither up nor down, left or right—all laws of gravity ceasing to be.

  The Unhallowed had linked themselves to this place by tapping into its energy. Theoretically, she should be able to reach inside their memories and sift through them. They’d left rather abruptly and had no time to cover their tracks. If she were lucky, she’d be able to find out their end game…and a way to stop them for good. Fingers crossed.

  Reaching out with her mind, Gabby let her earth sense meld with the ley line stream. Almost instantly, she was sucked under, spiraling out of control. She tried to struggle as panic began to overcome her. If she drowned in the earth’s energy, where would she end up? There was no way of telling.

  Gabby spun out of control and gasped as everything stopped, and a warm light lit up a strange room in front of her. Before her, a fire popped merrily in the hearth, her skirts heavy and coarse against her legs as she knelt before someone…a woman in matching clothing. She was older than Gabby—perhaps forty or fifty. Her curly hair was streaked with gray and pulled back into a severe braid, and her lips were pinched, giving away her irritation.

  She stared up at the woman and blinked hard. Whose body had the witch spirits dumped her into?

  “We would have discovered your duplicity soon enough,” the woman said with an air of disappointment. “You are chosen, Eleanor. You will lead us out of the darkness and into a brighter future. All you have to do is lure your vampire lover into the woods and carve the rune into his flesh.”

  Eleanor! This must be the events leading up to the moment Nye killed her original human form, but what did the woman mean about using his flesh? Why was Nye so important to their cause? He was just a regular vampire…wasn’t he? This must be an important moment if the earth was forcing her to witness it.

  “As you command, mother,” she heard Eleanor say as if she was speaking the words herself. “It shall be done.”

  “The Unhallowed will rejoice,” the woman said, smiling widely. “You will bear the fruit of our salvation.”

  This was getting weird. Bearing fruit and salvation had an ominous tone to it, and it had nothing to do with being flung back to the Middle Ages.

  The scene shifted, and she glanced back over her shoulder at the man who followed her through the wood. Nye. He smiled, his expression full of love. Snow had begun to fall around them, the flakes beginning to flutter thicker and faster, coating the earth white as they walked.

  When they reached a clearing, Eleanor dropped his hand and pushed Nye back against a tree, pressing her lips against his. Gross! Gabby had no control over what was happening and had to ride it out as the pair began to get really into it. How was she going to look Nye in the eye and not puke now?

  He kissed Eleanor/Gabby with all the passion he could muster, sliding his tongue against hers. Gabby felt the magic rising in her as Nye lost himself in the kiss, and she shoved him back, twisting her power around his throat and squeezing.

  Gagging, the vampire stumbled, clutching at his neck. “What have you done?”

  “The Unhallowed will suffer your presence no longer,” she declared, pushing him again, and he fell backward into the snow as her will wove through his body, slowing his movements.

  Eleanor straddled him, pulled out the blade she’d stashed underneath her cloak—the blade her mother had given her to carry out her destiny—and pressed it against his forehead.

  As the metal cut into the flesh of his forehead, he hissed at her, but she ignored his pitiful moaning and continued carving the rune into his skin.

  “Such an unfortunate life,” she crooned as she worked her magic. “So much pain. I will take it away. I will deliver you, Nye. I promise.”

  She began to speak in the strange language of the witches, and the symbol she’d cut into his forehead began to do its work, binding his soul.

  “Eleanor—”

  She/Gabby was so intent on her work she didn’t sense the moment when a hand fisted in her hair and dragged her off Nye’s body. The spell was severed before it could be completed, and she cried out in rage. No!

  Staring up at her assailant, her mouth dropped open.

  Regulus!

  With his hand fisted in her hair, he forced her to the ground, snow soaking her knees. He was too strong, and struggling only made the Roman twist her hair more painfully.

  It wasn’t the Regulus Gabby had known. This was Regulus four hundred years in the past…long before she was even born. Despite being stuffed into Eleanor’s memories, she felt a desperate longing at the sight of her dead love. He didn’t know it was her, he wasn’t really here, but he was so close… His presence had torn her soul away from Eleanor—the vision had become more lifelike than she’d realized—and she was a witness once more.

  “You know what you need to do, brother,” he said to Nye. With his free hand, he drew a sword and offered it to the vampire, hilt first.

  Nye stood and took the sword, his gaze meeting hers. He was hesitating…

  “The love you feel is false,” Regulus said. “End her and you will end your misery.”

  Gabby felt the air began to thicken as Eleanor reached f
or her power…and Nye didn’t falter. He raised the sword and struck with all his strength.

  The next thing Eleanor saw after Nye had severed her head from her body was the world Gabby now stood in. The spirit realm. She felt the tug of the ley line, a different line…and only one this time. Voices began to carry on the current rushing past her as her life slipped away. Something had bid Eleanor’s spirit to stay after her death. The Unhallowed? Most likely, which would mean there had been wraiths in the coven for longer than four hundred years. Did they consider the darker spirit energy as their birthright?

  The voices became louder, crooning their lament to Eleanor.

  We will find it. We want it. It will be ours. We will have it. It is our birthright. We will have our destiny. The Keeping Place awaits…

  The whispers were everywhere, whipping around her like specters. She whirled, trying to grasp hold of the voices, but they were slippery and ran through her fingers like ash.

  What was Eleanor meant to do that day? What was she trying to do now, tonight, with Nye? If the stone circle wasn’t the Keeping Place, then where was it?

  Gabby!

  The unknown voice practically slapped her in the face with its warning, and her eyes snapped open. She was back in the physical world, her stomach rolling at the sudden shift in planes. Her gaze collided with Tristan, who was standing over her with a look of anger plastered on his face. His eyes were swirling, turning black as he allowed his vampirism to override his human compassion.

  She scrambled backward with a gasp, her back hitting the Blood Stone. This wasn’t him. He’d never…unless something had happened the night Eleanor attacked him.

  She’d bewitched Tristan!

  It explained a great deal about the sudden removal of the barrier around the mansion. She must’ve compelled the knight to kill Nye’s witch and lure Isobel outside where she could get to her. What an epic bitch.

  “Tristan, listen to me,” she said, holding her hand up, readying herself to unleash her power on the vampire. “You’re under Eleanor’s spell. This isn’t you. I know it isn’t you. You’d never hurt me or any of your friends.”

  “You don’t know me, Gabby,” he said, his eyes beginning to change as he let his fangs grow in. “We’re in this because of circumstance. Nothin’ more.”

  “Then why hurt me? What’s that got to do with circumstance?”

  He faltered for a split second before advancing again. “I have to kill you,” he said. “You’re a problem. You’re in the way.”

  “Don’t make me hurt you,” she declared, feeling her power rise. “Back off.”

  “It will be over before you even feel anythin’”

  “What do they want, Tristan?” she asked, stalling him. “What do the Unhallowed want with Nye?”

  He faltered, his brow creasing. “Don’t you know?” He raised his hand and began outlining a shape on his forehead with the tip of his finger. When he reached the star, he smiled as he traced each point.

  “Resurrection?” Gabby asked with a gasp. “What’s Nye got to do with that?”

  Tristan had stopped listening and bared his fangs. She had to strike now before it was too late.

  As the knight lunged, she unleashed her power, throwing everything she had left against the thousand-year-old vampire. His body came to a halt mere inches from her face, his eyes wide with shock, and she twisted her hand around. His neck snapped with an audible crack, and he fell to the ground before her, dead to the world.

  Holy hell!

  Her heart hammered in her chest as she pressed her back against the Blood Stone, the night stretching out around the lonely scene. A witch cowering against an ancient slab of bluestone with a temporarily dead vampire at her feet.

  She had to get out of here. He’d wake soon enough and still be under Eleanor’s spell. The wraith wasn’t dead, so her poison would remain until Gabby removed it. She had to get him back to the mansion.

  Pushing to her feet, she grasped his ankles and began dragging Tristan from the stone circle. Her muscles were going to hate her in the morning.

  Chapter 21

  Dawn was lightening the horizon when Gabby finally parked the car in the mansion’s garage.

  Pulling out her cell phone, she dialed Alex’s number, and he answered almost immediately.

  “Gabby?” came his voice. “Where are you?”

  “Alex,” she said, her hands trembling. “I need you to help me with Tristan. I’m in the garage.”

  “What happened?” came his fevered reply.

  “Tristan… He was compelled by Eleanor…”

  “Are you… Is he…”

  “He’ll be fine,” she said, glancing at his comatose body in the back seat. “But he’s currently unconscious…and I don’t have super strength. Truthfully, I’m beat.”

  “Stay where you are,” he said. “I’m on my way down.”

  When Alex appeared, she was surprised when he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “Those were some epic skills you showed off tonight.”

  “Yeah. I’m just tired, I guess. Is Nye awake yet?” she asked as Alex let her go so he could open the back door to retrieve Tristan.

  “Not yet. Izzy is with him now. His chest is healing, but it’s weird…” He dragged the comatose vampire out and hauled him over his shoulder like a bag of potting mix. You could take the gardener out of the garden…

  “What’s weird?”

  “It should’ve healed by now,” Alex went on as they moved into the mansion. “The rune that crazy wraith sliced into him…Izzy’s worried.”

  “They were using some pretty heavy magic,” Gabby said. “Dark stuff. It could just be taking time to work out of his system.”

  “I hope so,” he grumbled. “My sister says she loves him. And I warned him if he hurt her again… I will kill him, Gabby. If he does anything to hurt a hair on Izzy’s head, I’ll rip his off.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” she replied. “But save it as a last resort, huh?”

  Alex didn’t complain further and carried the unconscious Tristan upstairs to the knight’s room with Gabby in tow. Looked like she’d have to pay Nye a visit too before she could finally fall into bed.

  When she stepped into Tristan’s room, she raised an eyebrow at the scene before her. She hadn’t seen his room before, and she was certain no one ever had. It was sparsely furnished, the bed simple and the walls free of any adornment. The vampire was a strange one, loyal and devout to whatever cause he was fighting for. As Alex set him down on the bed, she wondered if all of this was an extension of his lingering humanity. From what she’d heard Tristan had spent most of his life marching across Europe and what were now Turkey and the Middle East on the Crusades. Which one, she wasn’t sure since there had been several.

  “Can you do this now?” Alex asked as she sat beside the knight. “You look like you need a good sleep.”

  “I have to do this now,” she replied. “If he wakes up and is still under Eleanor’s control, then we’d just have another mess to deal with. Besides, he’s a good guy. He doesn’t deserve to be used like this.”

  He stood beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder. “What happened out there?”

  “Lots of things. Tristan tried to attack me, so I must be close to figuring out the Unhallowed’s endgame.”

  “He attacked you?”

  “Give me some credit, Alex,” she said with a tired smile. “I did break his neck with a flick of the wrist.”

  “Badass,” he said with a grin.

  Shaking her head, she turned her attention to Tristan. Focusing her power, she delved into the vampire’s mind. Technically, he was dead, or in a really weird form of stasis, so she was able to unravel Eleanor’s compulsion with little to no effort on her part. If he had been conscious, he would’ve fought back at the intrusion, making it annoying as hell in her current condition.

  Opening her eyes, she sighed, her body beginning to trembl
e as her power reached its ultimate limit.

  “He should be okay, but he’ll need to be watched,” she declared, her bones aching something fierce. “We need to get one of Nye’s Six here.”

  “Nye’s Six?” Alex asked.

  “Reed,” she replied. “Get Reed and I’ll invite him in. Nye and Tristan seemed to trust the guy, and right now, we need help.” They were stretched thin when all of them were in commission, and now that Nye and Tristan were both down, she was it.

  “I have Nye’s cell,” he said. “Izzy found it in her room before. I’ll arrange for this Reed guy to come as soon as he can.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You sure you’re okay?”

  She nodded and pushed to her feet. “I’ve been through worse. An extra hour on my feet won’t hurt me.”

  Leaving Alex to arrange Reed’s arrival, she shuffled through the mansion to Isobel’s room. Knowing her friend, she would’ve commanded her brother to take the vampire there. It’s what she would’ve done if it were Regulus. A familiar place where she could protect the man she loved.

  As she hauled herself up the stairs to the other wing of the house, she felt a pang of longing for the dead Roman. How she wished he were here. If anyone knew what to do with unabashed certainty, it was Regulus, but all Gabby had right now was the hope that some of his ruthlessness had rubbed off on her. She’d need it in the final showdown with the Unhallowed.

  Eleanor was going down, one way or another.

  Isobel sat on her bed with Nye’s hand firmly wedged in hers.

  She studied the vampire’s face while he lay dead, healing from his self-inflicted stab wound to the heart. He was still and serene, his hand icy in hers. She hadn’t realized exactly how cold his body was compared to hers. They’d touched before, kissed even, but she’d been too wrapped up in her feelings to take note.

  She memorized each line of his face, including his scar, and started to become concerned with how long he’d been out. It’d been several hours since they’d returned from the stone circle, and while Nye’s chest had almost healed, he was still some place faraway.