Logan blinked, her vision adjusting so that she could take it in. It was Dominic, long and lean, still dressed in the dark clothes and leather he’d worn earlier that night. His eyes were shut. There was a small bleeding gash in his left cheek, and another in his bottom lip. A red-brown bruise was beginning to form on the right side of his chin. Red blotches that looked like strangulation marks had been etched across his throat. His clothes were torn in places, further evidence of massive struggle.
She wanted to run to him, press her fingers to his throat, and check for a pulse. She wanted to lift his head and cradle it – just know that he was okay. But Sam stood between her and the boy she loved.
The boy I love?
She shoved the thought aside and asked, “Is he alive?” Her voice was thin, her throat tight, but she got the words out.
“Of course,” Sam told her. “He isn’t much of a bargaining chip dead.”
Relief washed over Logan, but it was tempered by worry that he wouldn’t remain that way for long – and by anger that he’d been so abused in the first place. “You could always lie,” she said coldly.
Sam gave her a raised brow. “Really, Logan. Do I seem to you the kind of man who would tell such a bold faced lie?”
No, she had to admit. Samhain was an ancient god, as old as life itself. A lie for him would be much more complex. It would be a work of art.
He sighed then, as if suddenly very tired. “I can’t understand why you still fight me. You’re a bright girl. Is it so hard for you to see that I can give you anything you could wish for?”
“That’s just it, Sam,” said Logan. “You can’t.”
Sam’s gaze narrowed thoughtfully. She felt those red eyes cut through her, slice right into her soul like laser beams.
She licked her lips and went on. “What I want is for my life to have less pain in it,” she told him. “My life, Sam. That means living.”
She expected him to laugh then, like some apathetic antagonist who thinks his opponent is a naïve child. But he didn’t. Instead, his expression became strange and unfamiliar. It was hard enough imagining one of Dominic’s friends as Samhain. It was harder now that the slightest traces of Sam’s malign spirit seemed to digress, leaving Nathan’s features softer. The red glow in his eyes diminished until they pulsed weakly.
“You only think you want to live,” he told her softly. “What you actually crave is peace. It’s only that life is all you’ve known, so you can’t imagine a peace of any other kind.”
Logan said nothing; something in his words struck a chord.
He seemed to know this, and he continued, moving toward her along the tracks. “We grow accustomed to what is around us. We’re used to it. We think it’s all that there is, all that there was meant to be. We attach ourselves to it through blood or proximity. But mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers – separate them from day one and they never miss one another. The blood actually means nothing. Knowledge is everything, familiarity is what counts. We’re afraid to lose it. We’re afraid of change.” He smiled and shook his head. “But change can be good, Logan.” He took another step. “It can be very, very good.”
She stepped back and he stopped, his smile disappearing and his eyes flashing with emotion.
“What are you going to do with the others?” she asked, changing the subject. He’d gotten inside of her with his little speech. He’d touched on something very uncomfortable and she didn’t want to dwell on it. She couldn’t afford to, not right now, with Dominic sprawled unconscious across the tracks.
She’d fulfilled her end of the bargain. And if the fact that Sam had taken Katelyn out of the picture was any indication, he clearly had enough power to kill her now. This was the end. It was a numbing realization and one she had not even come close to fully digesting. “What will you do with him?” she asked, gesturing toward Dom’s sleeping form.
“Nothing,” said Sam. He stepped off the tracks, his boots crunching the gravel ominously. “I have what I want.”
A train’s whistle sliced through the night. Logan gasped and jumped off the tracks when they began to vibrate.
“The train, on the other hand, is going to slice him to ribbons.” Sam said.
Chapter Twenty-Five
A light cut through the darkness down the tracks. It seemed to appear out of nowhere. It was a locomotive headlight. She’d seen it many times; she was fond of watching the train come and go whenever she could find the time, and a train’s headlight was always on, day or night. The whistle blew a second time.
“No!” Logan sprang forward, her only thought now that she needed to somehow get Dominic’s unconscious body off the tracks.
She knew Sam would try to stop her. She was expecting it when he moved to block her path. What she wasn’t expecting was the second body that came out of nowhere and slammed into Sam – into Nathan McCay – from the side.
Logan came to a hasty halt, eyes wide, thoroughly confused as the two men went rolling end over end in the ground beside the train tracks. The night swallowed their features, but sounds of struggle emanated clearly.
Who had attacked him? What had attacked him? No human could take Samhain, not in his vampire form.
The pebbles on the sides of the tracks now vibrated, skipped and hopped. The whistle blew a third time, and Logan shook herself, rushing toward Dominic once more.
The light was brighter. The train was so close now, she could hear the chsh-chsh-chsh of the engine, and the metal screeching against metal. She could feel the heat of the massive steel beast closing in on them, its breath like iron on fire.
“Dom!” she said as she dropped to her knees in the dirt beside him. Not bothering to be gentle, she grasped his upper arms, feeling the muscle beneath the leather of his jacket. “Dominic! Wake up!” she called, and began to shake him. He was hard to move. He was heavy and unwieldy, and for a moment, she feared he was in some kind of coma.
But as the train blew its warning whistle a fourth time, Dominic’s brow furrowed, and his green eyes blinked slowly open.
“Dom! We have to move you! The train’s coming!” she cried, though it was ultimately unnecessary. Dominic could see the train for himself as his head turned and his eyes focused, and comprehension dawned on his handsome, bruised features.
With some effort, he sat up and got his legs underneath him. Logan maintained a fist in the sleeve of his jacket as the two of them hurled themselves from the tracks mere moments before the whistle blew a fifth time and the world shook and metal screamed past them at the speed of sound.
A fury of hot wind whipped at their faces, hair and clothes, throwing dust in their eyes. Logan shielded her face with her hands, turned away from the tracks, and waited a few seconds. Then she lowered her hands and tried to get her bearings.
Dominic was a few feet away, bent at the waist, his hands on his knees. He appeared to be trying to catch his breath. He swayed a little, no doubt attempting to regain his balance and generally recover from the unconsciousness he’d just pulled himself out of. Logan looked up toward the dark line of night a few feet beyond him where she’d seen Sam and whoever attacked him disappear. There was no sign of either of them. All she could hear was the train, its engine chug-chugging past, its metal wheels scraping against the steel rungs of the tracks.
But she wasn’t so shortsighted that she couldn’t see this for what it was. It was an opportunity to run away. She may never know who or what had given her this moment by attacking Sam, but she wasn’t going to waste it.
With that in mind, Logan straightened, moved toward Dominic. “Let’s go!”
He looked up. His eyes were a little unfocused. He was still under the influence of whatever abuse Sam had put him through. “Logan?”
“Yes, Dom!” she looked behind her and then beyond them, trying with all of her might to pierce the darkness and see what lay around them. The train was never a really long one; it should be coming to an end any second now, and the two of them could get past the tracks and
try to find the car. Maybe – hopefully – Sam hadn’t taken her far from it and Katelyn.
She looked back at Dominic. His normally strong form looked rather shaken. He was more pale than normal, and his green eyes had a bluish tint to them, like the color of a troubled sea. It occurred to her that he might be bleeding internally. Who knew what Sam had done to him? He might need to go back to the hospital.
But right now, they needed to run.
“We have to get out of here!” she told him, trying to be heard over the roar of the locomotive. “Right now!”
He seemed to digest what she said, and his beautiful eyes focused a little more. Finally, he nodded.
The last car of the train rumbled past, and a wall of quiet followed ominously after it. Logan didn’t hesitate. She broke into a run, knowing that Dominic would be right beside her. Together, they hopped the tracks and raced into the moonlit unknown.
After a few strides, Dom took point, leading her through the underbrush and hills much more efficiently than she could. Maybe it was a guy thing. Or maybe he’d done this before? Either way, she didn’t complain, since he was taking them further away from Sam with every running step, and for that she was grateful.
Eventually, a sound cut through the darkness, distant at first, but growing louder with each passing second. It was a horn.
This time it was a car horn. It was honking furiously.
Dominic seemed to hear it as well, because he steered them toward it, following as instinctively as she would have. The honking became more distinct, and it was clear that the person doing the honking was frantic.
“Katelyn!” Logan exclaimed as they cut through a final clearing to find headlights shining dimly up ahead.
“Logan!” Katelyn called back. “Logan! Where are you?”
Logan couldn’t see her yet. She didn’t bother replying; she just ran. The headlights of the Beetle weren’t very bright. They seemed to be facing the opposite direction. But they illuminated the grounds around them and were enough to guide her and Dominic.
At last, she could see the curves of the Volkswagen, and Katelyn could hear their footsteps. She turned to face them as they ran up to the car.
“Get in!” Dominic commanded. “And give me the keys!”
Katelyn didn’t hesitate. She tossed the car key to Dominic, he caught it in mid-air, and the two girls piled as quickly into the car as they could manage.
Logan cursed herself for not keeping her own vehicle gassed up. The Beetle only had front doors, and it was a tight squeeze getting one person into the backseat in a hurry. Logan ducked low and slid into the back, pulling the passenger seat back so Katelyn could get in next.
No one said anything in their rush; the frantic timeliness of the moment was all too apparent. They were escaping. That was decidedly clear.
Dominic had no sooner slammed his door shut than started the car and was pulling it out of the clearing in a spray of gravel and dust. The headlights illuminated the road Logan and Katelyn had left earlier. Dom straightened the car out, took the bump as quickly as the Volkswagen could manage, and steered them back down the road toward town.
“Where did you go?” Katelyn asked, turning in her seat to glare at Logan over the head rest. “You just freaking vanished on me!”
“Sam teleported me or something!” Logan replied.
“Son of a bitch,” Dominic spat.
Katelyn’s glare became a wide-eyed look of astonishment. She turned back around in her seat and slid into it. “Crap,” she muttered. “If he can do that, what the hell else can he do?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
There was nothing to see beyond the glass of the back window. No matter how Logan strained, her vision couldn’t pierce the darkness and dust they were leaving in their wake. She kept thinking about her unseen savior, the man who had taken Sam down long enough to allow her and Dominic time to get away. It couldn’t have been Mr. Lehrer. If it was, then where was Meagan? And Lehrer was human, anyway. Sam could definitely hold his own against a mortal.
Logan finally gave up and turned around to face the front again. Dominic sat behind the steering wheel, silent and staring straight ahead. Beside him in the passenger seat, Katelyn glanced furtively at them both, but kept quiet.
“Where are we going?” Logan asked.
Dominic didn’t answer at first. She wondered if he hadn’t heard her, but then he licked his lips, and said, “I don’t’ know.” He hesitated. “Sam said something about not being able to touch you because of a spell Meagan and Mr. Lehrer cast for you.” He turned and settled his green-blue eyes on her. It really was strange how they’d changed a little. “Do you know what he was talking about?”
Logan frowned. “No.” She shook her head. Something nasty occurred to her. “Is that why he….” Beat you up? She thought. Was Sam trying to get an answer out of Dominic that Dom just didn’t have?
Dominic held her gaze for a second more and then returned his attention to the road. But the look had been hard enough that it cut right through her. Guilt pressed in on her chest and stung the backs of her eyes. She felt a weight over her cheekbones, that strange, heavy feeling one got just before they had to cry. She clenched her teeth together and took a deep breath in through her nose.
Concentrate. What spell was Sam referring to? What spell?! He didn’t mention anything when I met him next to the tracks…..
And speaking of Lehrer and Meagan – where were they right now? She was positive that hadn’t been them back by the train, but she hadn’t been able to contact them, and neither had Katelyn.
“I think he might be talking about the protection spell Meagan and Mr. Lehrer were going to cast for you. They talked about it at the library tonight,” Katelyn said.
Dominic and Logan stared at her, Dom intermittently as he was driving.
She shrugged defensively. “That’s all I know, I swear.”
“Mr. Lehrer would know more,” Logan said. With that thought, she pulled the cell out of her pocket and dialed the number she’d already tried close to twenty times that night. She knew he wouldn’t answer; it was instinctive at this point, and in fact, this time it went straight to voicemail as if the phone were turned off altogether. Lehrer’s voice came on, prompting Logan to leave a message. But she didn’t bother. Instead, she hung up and re-pocketed the phone.
“I still can’t get through to them.” She had no idea what this spell was all about.
“Southbridge and the ravine,” Dominic said suddenly.
Logan blinked. “What?”
He ran a hand through his black hair before replacing it on the steering wheel. It seemed to be an act of frustration, as if he couldn’t quite remember everything clearly. She wondered whether he had a concussion. Probably. That’s usually what it takes to knock someone out.
He most likely shouldn’t have been driving, but he’d seemed fairly adamant about getting the keys from Katelyn. Maybe it was a guy thing.
“Sam mentioned something about the ravine,” he said.
“If he mentioned Southbridge then maybe he’s talking about the ravine south of town?” Katelyn suggested helpfully.
Dom nodded. “Yes. He said it didn’t matter if I wasn’t going to cooperate because the bottle had been tossed into the ravine near Southbridge and once he had it,” his gaze cut to Logan in the rearview mirror. “He would have you.”
Logan considered that, trying to dissect it in order to make sense of it. “Bottle?” she eventually asked, feeling stupid.
Dominic shook his head and exhaled. “I don’t know. Some bottle that Lehrer put a spell in.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and swallowed so hard, she could see his throat work from behind. “He wanted to know the components, the words to the spell. Something like that. And when I couldn’t tell him anything, he said it didn’t matter. He would get the bottle out of the ravine.”
There was a moment of silence in which they all undoubtedly tried to understand what Dom was talking about.
�
��Well, then we need to get it before he does,” Katelyn said.
A beat passed. Logan sat back and peered out the side window. She wasn’t so sure about that. She was having mixed feelings about all of this. No one could get through to Lehrer and Meagan. Were they alive? Alec was already dead. Who else had Sam hurt because of her? Who else had he harmed because she wouldn’t simply just give in and give the Lord of the Dead what he wanted? She felt she was pulling the entire world down into the darkness with her.
And Dom? He’d been dragged through the dirt, perhaps seriously injured, and he literally hadn’t even touched her since she’d awoken him on the tracks. He seemed distant. He was in pain no doubt, and that would account for some of it. But he was angry too. She could feel that particular emotion emanating off of someone a mile away. She was so accustomed to it, she could now tell not only when someone was feeling it, but who it was directed at.
Dom was angry with her.
He had every right to be. She’d gotten him beaten to a pulp and his best friend killed. Whatever he’d told her about sticking together and fighting this through side by side when they were alone in the high school hall the other day… that had been in another time, in another world. And feelings changed. Trauma did that to people.
She would know.
“The ravine is to the left of us,” Katelyn said, leaning forward to peer at street signs and gauge their location.
Without a word, Dominic took the next left and drove down the dark road toward whatever lay ahead.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Dietrich Lehrer had always been of the mind that magic was a lot more like the Force from Star Wars than it was like anything you would find in a store on Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter universe.
In reality, magic truly was a part of each living being. Some people were capable of harnessing this magic, and others, in fact most people, were not.
It was the way in which the magic was harnessed that became the deciding factor in a magic user’s supernatural makeup. For Logan Wright, magic was that which flowed through her fingertips and was formed on paper. She was a bard.
Secretly Sam Page 11