Something icy scored across my back, right over the place where my viper was tattooed, and the creature in Grey’s grip broke apart, dissipating into the air. The energy he’d been draining from my viper cut off suddenly and his back arched as though something was fighting to tear its way out of his body.
I sucked in a deep breath as the agony subsided momentarily and a blur of movement darted past me.
Grey stumbled backwards as Sofia landed a kick into his abdomen. She glanced over her winged shoulder, the feathers dragging on the ground from the injury she’d sustained.
“How?” The word croaked past my chapped lips.
“Takes more than a bolt to the chest to kill me,” she said. “Hurts like a son-of-a-bitch, but you’d have to hit me in the heart to make it stick.”
I wanted to ask her where her heart was if it wasn’t in her chest, but Grey screamed and my attention was suddenly focused entirely on him.
He was on his knees, scrabbling at his chest as though struggling to gouge out the energy rolling beneath his skin. The creature in the sea was beginning to break apart, large chunks of it snapping off to drop into the waves below. Carmine’s frantic screams drew my attention and I watched as she raced toward it as though she alone could prevent it from dying. One of the tentacles that hadn’t turned to stone caught her, wrapping around her waist and jerking her off the cliff. It sucked her down until nothing was left of the Elder God’s body but the churning waves far beneath the cliff ledge.
“We have to close the rift,” Sofia said, eyeing Grey warily as though at any second he would leap to his feet and conjure the beast once more. “Any ideas?”
I nodded. I had one. Grey was the lock and I was still the key. The energy I’d used to unlock the rift had all but dissipated. It was a long shot, but it was one I was willing to take. We’d opened the portal and together we could close it.
Crossing the grass to Grey, I dropped down next to him, catching his face in my hands so that he was forced to look into my eyes.
“You can hear me, I know you can.”
Recognition instantly flared in his dark gaze. It was marred by pain but it was enough.
“We can close this, Grey, we can do this together, but you have to trust me.”
He nodded, gritting his teeth as his skin rippled with the energy barely contained inside.
I grabbed my whip from where it still trailed from his left hand, and winding it quickly around my own, I pressed my palm to his. The energy coursing through him pulsed against my skin, seeking entry, hunting for a chance to escape.
Some of the pain he was feeling seeped into me and I turned to Sofia. “Want to give me one of those stakes now?”
“See,” she said, “I knew you were going to need them.”
I nodded, biting my lip hard enough to draw blood. As though it could sense what we were about to do, the energy ratcheted up several notches, stealing my breath and causing my vision to swim.
“When I give you the signal,” I said finally, “I want you to drive it through my hand…” I hesitated as I met Grey’s eyes. “Through both of our hands.”
There was silence from Sofia until I looked up at her. “Can you do that?”
She rolled her eyes. “If you asked me to run it through both of your chests, I could do it… I might quibble about it not being long enough, but I’d still give it a shot.”
Ignoring her, I turned my attention back to Grey. His eyes were a little clearer now that I shared at least some of the pain caused by the power flowing through him.
“Jenna—”
I cut him off. “Later.”
He tried to smile but it was more of a grimace.
“Now.” As soon as I said the word, I leaned in and kissed him, my mouth finding his easily as Sofia punched the stake through the centre of our hands.
The pain rocked me as the stake pierced my hand, our blood mingling to seal the rift that had been unlocked inside Grey. I clung to him, lacing my fingers through his. I swayed against him and he wrapped his free hand around my back drawing me closer so there was nothing between our bodies.
My skin felt icy as the power receded and Grey broke the kiss first, pressing his forehead to mine as he drew in a ragged breath.
“It’s gone,” I said quietly.
“It’s gone.” He echoed, the relief in his voice palpable.
“I don’t mean to break up this beautiful reunion,” Sofia said, “but how are we supposed to explain all of this…”
I winced as I pulled away from Grey. He tugged the stake free of our hands and a wave of dizziness almost sent me crashing to the ground. I barely managed to stay on my feet as I turned to look at where Sofia gestured.
The abbey, which had already been a ruin, looked worse. Large chunks of the earth had been churned up and walls which had stood for centuries now lay in heaps of rubble.
In the early light of dawn, people were beginning to stagger out of the mess, bloodied, bruised, and more than a little dazed, but they were the lucky ones. Far too many of the humans had died, so many casualties would demand a price be paid.
No one would care that we’d prevented the death of so many more. Questions would be asked, and I wasn’t sure if we had sufficient answers to cover it all.
“Alex…” I whispered his name and spun to face the cliff face, but the Elder God was gone. “Fuck!” I swore vehemently. I’d sworn I would get the blood of the Elder God, bring it back so they could create an antidote.
Sofia avoided my gaze, choosing instead to stare down at the churned-up ground.
“Jenna.” Grey touched my arm gently as he spoke. He wrapped one of the heavy velvet curtains that had sat behind Carmine’s dais around my shoulders and it was only then I realised I’d begun to shiver. Every inch of my body ached as though I’d been run through a cement mixer, twice.
“I promised I would save him,” I said, facing Grey. “I let him down.”
“If he’s still alive, there’s still a chance,” Grey said softly. I met his gaze head on.
“I don’t understand…” I shook my head, feeling the first of many tears trembling on the edges of my lashes so that his bruised and bloodied face was a little blurred.
“I know Alex has been poisoned,” he said. “Emily was so pleased when she came back. I don’t think they knew I was listening in but…” He shrugged and grimaced as the movement jarred his body.
“It’s risky,” Sofia interjected.
“If it saves him, it’ll be worth it.”
“What will be worth it,” I said, sounding more than a little impatient.
“The power of the Elder God,” Grey said, “to put it none to delicately, was inside me. I felt him, felt it… If we give Alex my blood, it might just give him the edge he needs to fight it off. If not…”
“Look, it’s a shot,” I said. “If it works, then we get Alex back.”
Grey nodded but his expression was grim.
“We don’t even know if he survived the night.” Sofia’s voice was soft, almost gentle.
“You almost sound like you might care,” I said, giving her a sideways look.
Her lips stretched into a thin smile, and between one breath and the next she shifted back into her human form, her feathers fading back into her skin as though they’d never been there. Her face was the last thing to change, her features hardening. It was a subtle change, but it was enough to make her striking rather than achingly beautiful.
“Why do you do that?” I asked.
“What?”
“Make yourself less attractive. I mean you’re striking but by comparison to your true form…”
Her smile widened. “Because people don’t question me as much when I look like I might bite their head clean off their shoulders,” she said. “If I were beautiful, the men of Division 6 would think first and foremost with that small appendage that lives between their legs and less with the lump of jelly that lives between their ears. It’s easier to be feared than lusted after, an
d it makes my life run a hell of a lot smoother.”
The edge of her smile wilted a little. “Of course, I won’t ascend any higher in the ranks than this,” she said. “I’ve bitten off too many worms at the root and those in the upper reaches view me as too much of a threat.”
Grey had visibly paled beneath his tan and Sofia winked at him. “Don’t worry, little druid,” she said, “I know your worm is spoken for and this old bird has no intention of tangling with a viper.” She winked lasciviously, leaving us both to stare after her as she stalked away through the ruins. It wasn’t until she was a couple of feet away that it dawned on me that she was completely nude and she didn’t care one jot.
“We should go,” Grey said, as the sound of sirens cut the air. “If Alex is to stand any chance, time is of the essence.”
I didn’t argue with him and followed him toward the edge of the ruins. From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of my boots. I stuck my frozen feet into them, grateful for small mercies. The dress, however, was utterly ruined, and only two of the four silver clasps across the chest would stay shut, but it was at least something and that, coupled with the curtain wrapped around my shoulders, gave me some sense of modesty.
Running to catch up with Grey, I spotted the small curved blade Carmine had used to carve the symbols on our skin. Without thinking, I paused to pick it up. It prickled with energy that tickled my skin and I tucked it into the side of my boot, telling myself as I did so that it wasn’t the sort of thing I wanted to leave lying around for just anyone to find.
Chapter 40
Alex was barely clinging to life by the time we arrived at the hospital. It had taken more than a little persuasion and quite a lot of threats to make the doctor use Grey’s blood for a transfusion.
Part of me had thought they would just hook Grey up to Alex, but they’d insisted on taking his blood, one pint at a time and transfusing it into Alex over a period of hours and days.
Sitting next to the bed, I stared up at the ceiling. Despite three days having passed, I still felt like I’d been run through a mixer, my body was struggling to heal the scars from where Carmine had used the small knife to carve the symbols into my skin. I wasn’t sure why, but I figured it had a lot to do with the magic used. Not that I could ask her, the authorities seemed pretty convinced her body would wash up somewhere along the coast, but I wasn’t entirely sure. I’d convinced myself that the Elder God had taken her with him when he’d sank back into the sea.
The only evidence that he’d existed at all had been the three tentacles I’d managed to turn to stone which had snapped off. They lay now, at the bottom of the sea around the cliffs and would only be visible when the tide was particularly far out.
I twirled the curved ceremonial knife round and round in my hands, watching as the black blade glinted beneath the overhead lights.
“Jenna,” Alex said, his voice hoarse from disuse. “Where the hell am I?”
I dropped the knife and sprang onto my feet, my body protesting as I moved. Alex’s head was turned toward me, his skin was still ashy, but the lines had faded so much they were practically invisible now.
“You don’t know how good it is to hear you talking,” I said.
“I thought you hated me talking, said I spoke a lot of bollocks,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me in suspicion. “What’s going on, why do you look like shit?”
“That’s what you get for trying to put an Elder God back in its box,” I said.
He groaned and dropped back against the pillows. “I missed all the fun, didn’t I?”
“Slept through the whole thing,” I said.
“Wait,” he said, pushing upright again. “Why did I sleep through…” His face paled. “Emily, that witch, what did she give me?”
“Poison of an Elder God,” I said, noting the fear that crept into Alex’s eyes. “It’s fine, though, Grey was possessed by the Elder God and—”
“And I gave you some of my blood to help get you back on your feet,” Grey said, cutting across me.
I turned and smiled, seeing him leaning against the doorjamb. He took my smile as an invitation and stepped into the room.
“How did you survive that?” Alex asked, his eyes wide. “I mean, having one huge ego inside a body, is a struggle, but two! That’s impossible, right?”
“Ha, ha,” Grey said dryly.
I scooped the blade off the floor and started to tuck it back into the waistband of my jeans when Alex caught sight of it.
“Wait, what’s that?”
“This?” I held it up to the light, noting the disapproval in Grey’s eyes. “It’s the knife Carmine used to carve us up and—” I cut off. Alex hadn’t taken his eyes off the blade and I hadn’t thought it was possible, but he was even paler then before.
“Alex, what is it, what’s wrong?”
“That blade,” he said, his voice shaking. “It’s only for creating a window in the rift,” he said.
“We know,” Grey said. “I was the lock and she”––he gestured to me––“was the key. Very nearly ended everything.”
“That’s so cute,” Alex said, grimacing as he pushed up in the bed. “But that’s not strictly true. You weren’t the lock but the window. It allowed the Elder God to look into this realm, to prepare the breach and summon its body, but to break through it needed energy and lots of it. Typically, the energy created by the death of an immortal…” He turned his face toward me. “You would have done nicely,” he said.
“Right, I’m not sure I’m wrapping my head around all of this,” I said. “We sent that ugly bastard packing.”
Alex nodded. “Sure. But you said you gave me your blood, blood you’d assumed had come from the Elder God when you were possessed by him. But if you weren’t possessed by him at all, then your blood was just…”
“Shit,” Grey swore softly beneath his breath.
“What am I missing?” I glanced between the two men.
“Grey giving me his blood is a little like putting a band aid over a gunshot wound to the head and expecting it to keep the gooey bits inside.” He leaned back against his pillows. “Whichever way you look at it, I’m still a dead man walking unless we find ourselves the true blood of an Elder God. To be safe,” he said, “a heart would be a lot better.”
“And just where do we get one of those?” I couldn’t keep the frustration from my voice. I’d thought we’d won, I’d thought we’d beaten back the evil and slain the monster. Instead, we were back at bloody square one, only this time, Alex really would die and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
“I know where we can find the heart of an Elder God,” Grey said softly.
Alex and I turned to face him. “What did you say?”
“I know where we can find a heart.”
“Yeah, we heard that part,” Alex said, more than a little impatiently. “Where is it?”
“Dracula has it,” Grey said, meeting my gaze. “Carmine is a little talky when she’s busy cutting you up.” His expression shifted suddenly. I reached out to him but he shrugged away. It stung but I let it go, now was not the time to talk about what had happened when she had him. “The blade and heart come as a package deal. He bought them several centuries ago in an auction and never knew what to do with them until Carmine came along.”
“That’s great,” Alex said. “Everyone knows that twerp is a pushover.”
Grey shook his head. “I don’t think you understand, he’s been feeding from the heart for some time now. Carmine said he was the strongest vampire she’d ever met… He was the reason their forces were so great in Whitby. He went to London to meet with the council. With them at his back, and the power he’s amassed, getting to him or the heart won’t be so easy as just taking it.”
I turned away and looked out of the window, thoughts racing through my brain faster than I could comprehend them.
“Earth to Jenna.” Alex interrupted my thoughts. “Only those facing imminent death can stare dramatically out windo
ws.” He grinned at me, so typical of him to try and cover everything with humour.
I couldn’t let Alex die.
“So what do we do?” Grey asked.
I sucked in a deep breath and squared my shoulders. “It’s pretty obvious,” I said. “We’re going to figure out how to steal the heart of an Elder God.”
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Stakes and Stones Page 33