“How many times do I have to say it? I don’t know any Drainer. I don’t even know what a Drainer is, unless you mean a vampire drinking until every drop is gone, but that didn’t happen, so again. No Drainer.” He wanted to kick his own ass for not asking Victoria for details. “And the wolf and the vampire mean you no harm, then or now. Tell them, Jennifer. You weren’t forced to feed anyone.”
“Enough,” Marie snapped. “So they didn’t drink from her. This time. We are still drugs to them, and addicts can never be trusted. Now. Silence, human. Sisters, let us move him to a more…private location.”
A second later, their chants filled the air. He tried to reason with them; they ignored him. And then it didn’t matter. His world began to spin, dancing to a beat he didn’t recognize. Spinning, spinning, colors whirling together, darkening, that dark consuming him, blinding him, tossing him around as if he were stuck in a washing machine. The souls were shouting, and those continued shouts were deafening.
Then, suddenly, he stilled. The souls quieted.
Pinpricks of white grew among the black, and colors soon followed. His feet were still rooted in place, but he was now in new surroundings. He was inside a…cave? The walls around him were comprised of dirt, orange-colored stones and clay. Somewhere nearby was a waterfall. He could hear the urgent rush and crash of water, the air cold and damp.
The witches, still circling him, dropped their arms to their sides and perched atop boulders. All but one, that is. Marie approached him, a perfumed cloud accompanying her. Caleb purred his approval.
Without a word, Marie claimed his hands and raised them above his head. Aden wanted to grab his daggers. He didn’t. He needed their cooperation, not their fury. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Taking precautions.”
As she spoke, something cool and soft wrapped around his wrists. Frowning, he looked up. Ivy had sprouted from the cave’s ceiling, descended and bound him. His molars gnashed together as he tried to jerk free. The vine held steady.
“We draw our powers from Mother Earth,” she explained. “You’re lucky you’re warded, otherwise we’d do a lot worse to you.” She laughed when his expression tightened. “Oh, yes. I know without looking what you’re protected against. We all do. We can feel the power of the wards.” She backed away and sat on a boulder like the others.
“So what do you plan to do with me?”
“Your actions will determine that.”
“Come on. Help me out here. What actions? What do you want from me?” Aden’s gaze roved over them, stopping only when one of them—the only one left standing, the only one wearing a black robe—walked from a shadowed corner and pushed away her hood. Another blonde, though this one wasn’t a witch.
Her face was beauty personified. Her skin glowed as if it had been dipped in a honey pot, and her eyes gleamed like liquid ebony. With only a look, she lured, entranced, made him ache to do whatever she wanted. Not that he’d succumb.
“Hello, Aden,” Ms. Brendal said smoothly.
He hadn’t noticed her in the circle before. Which meant she had been waiting here. Waiting to pounce. “Dr. Hennessy,” he said, his jaw so clenched the words barely escaped. “I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’d rather not lie. I know how you hate it.”
Her pupils flared briefly. “So you knew I was not who I pretended to be. How?”
“Why don’t you invade my head again and find out?”
She traced her tongue over her straight, white teeth. “I looked through your mind, yes, but all I encountered was a sea of noise. Voices and more voices, one stacked upon the other, talking about the silliest things. Things I cared nothing about. But I could find no evidence of my brother, Mr. Thomas. Where is he, Aden? I know that you know.”
Now’s your chance, Elijah said. Bargain.
Wait. What? Bargain with what? Caleb demanded.
Aden knew. “Convince the witches to call a meeting to order,” he said, “and I’ll tell you.”
Brendal eyed each of the witches. Each of them shook her head no.
“Aden,” she said, her voice no longer smooth. “You will not fare well if I’m angered.”
He shrugged as best he could with his arms in the air. “Why? You’ll morph into a giant green monster?”
Breath hissed between her lips. “I figured you would prove stubborn. However, you have underestimated me. I’m leaving, but don’t shed too many tears, for I will return. With your friends.”
A clear threat. He wanted to shout at her. He wanted to fight his bonds. He did neither. Displays of emotion in any battle meant defeat. Isn’t that what he’d taught Mary Ann? And in this battle, the most important of his life, he needed any edge he could get. If he threw a fit now, he would lose what little bargaining power he had.
“Have you anything else to say to me?” Brendal asked.
“Yeah. Good luck with your search.”
“Very well.” She stepped backward, her narrowed gaze locked on him, and disappeared from view, there one moment, gone the next.
She’d entered that other plane, he supposed. To capture—perhaps torture—his friends. They can take care of themselves, he assured himself.
Let me take over, Caleb pleaded. Let me talk to the witches for you.
Oh, no. Aden could allow the souls to assume control of his body. They couldn’t do it without his permission, and he’d once given permission to Eve. That’s how she’d spent the last day of her “life” with her daughter. But Caleb was too concerned with the witches. He might place their welfare about Victoria’s, above Mary Ann’s and Riley’s, and that Aden couldn’t allow.
“Call the meeting to order,” he said, ignoring the soul, “and I’ll answer anything you want. Don’t, and I’ll answer nothing.”
Aden, please, Caleb persisted.
“I’m sorry.” And he was. He hated for Caleb to want something this much and not get it. He hated for Caleb to beg.
Focus, Aden, Julian said.
Yes. He blinked, blanking his mind. The witches had removed their hoods, and each was watching him curiously.
“You have souls trapped inside your head,” Marie said.
“Yes, I have souls inside my head.” He’d already admitted as much. Denying it now would serve no purpose.
“And once, you asked me if I’d ever known a man who could possess other bodies. Someone who died sixteen years ago. Is he, this body-possessor, one of the souls?”
Aden! Tell her! She might have known me. She could tell me about my past.
Guilt washed through him. He ignored it. He had to stay on course. “Call this meeting to order, and I’ll tell you.”
She grinned without humor. “I don’t wish to know that badly.”
Wh-what? Caleb sputtered with his affront.
“I’m willing to bet we can extract the souls and give them bodies of their own.” Marie tapped a fingertip to her chin. “That way, he can answer all our questions himself.”
Aden tried to hide his alarm. “And where would you get these bodies?”
“People die all the time. If you reanimate a fresh corpse with a new soul…”
“How? It was the body that died, not the soul. The soul simply moved on.” That he knew. “Reanimating a body isn’t the same as healing a body.” Right? “Which means a new soul won’t be able to make a lifeless corpse work.”
“Magic can do many things,” was all she said.
Yes, Caleb rushed out. Yes. Let her try.
No, Elijah and Julian said in unison.
It wouldn’t be that easy, Elijah added. It never is. There will be a catch, I promise you.
Caleb growled his frustration.
“If you can sense my wards,” Aden said, “you know my mind cannot be manipulated. Therefore, the souls’ minds cannot be manipulated.” Could they?
One of her brows arched, making her the picture of superiority. “I don’t need your cooperation. Just his.”
She was bluffing. She had to be bluff
ing.
Uncomfortable, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Blood had already rushed out of his arms, and now his hands were cold, his shoulders tingling. “If you can do such a thing, why haven’t you? Why are you just sitting there?”
The brow fell back into place, creating a smooth line. “We have more important things to do at the moment.”
Yep. She’d been bluffing.
“Your résumé is growing,” she said suddenly, as if they were seated across from each other at a job interview.
He’d play along. “What do you mean?”
“First vampire king, now beast slayer.”
How had she heard about that? “I didn’t slay them.”
“Tamer, then. Beast tamer.” The very nickname Caleb had suggested. “How did you do that?”
So she could defeat them herself? “Call this meeting to order and I’ll tell you.” His answer would be, “I don’t know,” because that was the truth, but she didn’t need to know that yet.
“You want to save your friends?” Jennifer piped in. “Fine. Renounce your claim to the vampire throne, and give us a blood vow that you’ll remain with us, serving and aiding us.”
Do it, Caleb said.
No, Elijah and Julian repeated in unison.
“Sorry.” Serving and aiding them would require hurting the vampires; he knew it with every fiber of his being. Otherwise, he would have said yes without hesitation.
“Then you don’t care about the others, the cursed, as much as we thought,” Marie said.
“Not true,” he gritted out. “I care about them more than you realized. If I gave you what you wanted, would you give me a blood oath not to ever hurt the vampires or the wolves?”
“No. Of course not. None of us would.”
The other witches laughed at him for daring to suggest such a thing, Jennifer the loudest among them.
“If you won’t aid us, Aden, that means you will work against us, aiding them. If that’s the case, you will never walk out of this cave.”
So they would kill him, too, was what she was saying. Before she could make the threat outright, he switched gears. If he could soften her, just a little, he could gain the upper hand. Maybe.
“The soul, the one who could possess other bodies,” Aden began. “What was he to you? To any of you?”
Caleb went eerily silent, waiting.
Marie shrugged, but a vulnerable gleam lit her eyes. “He was…everything and nothing,” she said, then gave an angry shake of her head. “And now,” she added, standing, “we will leave you. We have reached a stalemate, and you need time to think. And perhaps you should consider the fact that I could have and should have killed your friend Mary Ann days ago, but I didn’t. I let her go. For you. I have regretted the action ever since, and my sense of mercy has been depleted. The more you resist us, the less I want you happy.”
Wait. What? “You never wanted me happy. Now call the meeting to order,” he demanded, panic blooming.
The others pushed to their feet.
“As you left me bound,” Jennifer said, “we leave you bound. Maybe the isolation will loosen your tongue.”
“I demand that you stay! I demand you call the meeting to order!”
One by one, they strode from the cave, silent. Jennifer watched him until the last possible second. Marie stopped at the dark, yawning mouth and looked back at him over her shoulder. “When the clock strikes midnight, your friends die. I am sorry, I truly am, but there are always casualties during war. You know what you have to do to save them.” With that, she, too, left him.
Over and over he screamed for her to call the meeting to order; over and over he pleaded, even though he was alone, his voice echoing off the cavern walls, mocking him. He screamed until he was hoarse, jerking at the ivy until blood ran.
The vine never gave, and the witches never returned.
TWENTY-NINE
ANOTHER SUMMONS.
Tucker tried to resist. Tried with every bit of strength he possessed. But Vlad’s voice called to him—Come to me—and his feet moved forward before he realized he’d taken a single step.
He jumped from the roof of his mom and stepdad’s house, the impact jolting his entire body. He’d been watching his six-year-old brother play in the drizzling cold, nose wet, coat soaked, hands shivering as he talked to an invisible friend.
Twice Tucker had almost revealed himself. Both times, he’d convinced himself Ethan was better off without him and remained hidden. Now, as he strode away, he felt a hollow ache where his heart should have been. He would never go back, he decided. Ethan was all that was good, all that was right, with a bright future ahead. Tucker had never caused him anything but pain.
It was past time for a clean break.
The ache intensified. This is for the best.
Tucker blanked his mind as he ran out of the neighborhood and into town, where it seemed everyone he knew—or rather, once knew—was stuck in party mode. Some kids were driving around, throwing beer bottles at the buildings. Others were on the streets, dancing to a beat no one else could hear. Among them floated a beautiful woman, a woman with long blond hair and skin so fair it practically glowed.
She would look a kid in the eye, speak, and that kid would shake his head. She would speak again, then the kid’s shoulders would slump, head ducking, before he bent down and cleaned up the mess. The blonde would then move on to someone else.
Night had long since fallen. The myths about vampires and sunlight weren’t exactly true, he knew, since Victoria could stand outside all day without consequences. Vlad, though…would he burn to ash? A guy could hope.
Come to me…
Closer now, Tucker thought. With dread. With happiness. Vlad was no longer in his crypt. He was here, in town. Hidden.
Tucker rounded the corner of the local laundromat but saw only a cardboard box. He frowned. Still. He knew, as he always seemed to know, exactly where Vlad was. He bent down and peered inside. Yes, there was Vlad, a dead human flung over his lap, blood dripping down his chin.
Most of the king’s body was still charred, still black with deadened skin, but patches of pale, smooth flesh were visible.
“Next time you make me wait, you will be the one I feed from,” the king said calmly. “Do you understand?”
A tremor of fear moved through him, and his gaze returned to the dead man, whose neck was torn apart as if a wild animal had feasted. A painful way to die. Vlad had fed from him during that last visit, yes, but only briefly, and only as a warning. If that had been misery incarnate… He shuddered and each of his already scarred puncture wounds throbbed. “Yes. I understand.”
“Now. What more have you learned?”
“The witches have taken Aden.” Tucker had watched them suddenly appear around Aden. He could have helped. Maybe. Had wanted to help. Kind of. But he hadn’t allowed his concealing illusion to fade, his need to please Vlad still too strong to be denied. Even then.
Vlad laughed, a cackling sound that caused his body to hunch over in a spasm of coughing. When he calmed, his lips pulled back, sharp teeth red and gleaming. “Go to them, but do not let them know you are there.”
To the witches? “How will I find them? They vanished.”
“You can feel the pull of Aden, can you not? We all can.”
Reluctantly Tucker nodded. Truer words had never been spoken. First time he’d met Aden, he’d feared he was, well, attracted to the boy. As in turning gay. Even though he had always preferred girls. He’d wanted to be near the bastard, though Aden hadn’t calmed him like Mary Ann did. Aden stirred him up, though, and sometimes even made him want to be worse.
“Good. Now, for your most important task. You will kill Aden. You will stab him in the heart, as if he was a witch’s sacrifice.”
“I—I can’t.”
“You can. Listen closely, and I will tell you how…”
MARY ANN WAS SCARED. Very, very scared. Apparently, Aden had kidnapped the kidnapped witch, and no one
knew where they were. Yet. Victoria had told Riley what had happened, what Aden planned, and then teleported away before Riley could scream at her. Or tell her that her father was still alive. Where had the princess gone? To help Aden?
And God, how was she going to react to the news about her father? Mary Ann had never met the guy, and she was still reeling. After discovering the truth, she and Riley had searched the grounds but had found no sign of him.
Riley was distraught. Mary Ann had never seen him so upset. His new king—was Aden still his king now that Vlad was walking around?—and his princess had been—were—in danger, and he hadn’t protected them. At least he and his brothers could feel Aden tugging at them. Well, as long as Mary Ann was out of the way. When Mary Ann was with them, and Riley at her side, they could still feel the tug, but it was somewhat muted. So they were now on the hunt for Aden. Without her.
Mary Ann had thought to use the time searching for Victoria, but no. That idea had been quickly discarded. Where would she begin looking? She couldn’t go to the vampire mansion on her own and simply driving around town, which was all she could have done, wouldn’t have been productive.
So here she was. At home. Riley had driven her and dropped her off after giving her the quickest, most distracted of kisses. She’d spent the past hour with her dad, hugging him as she’d wanted and telling him how much she loved him. He’d laughed and joked with her, and it had seemed as if they’d gone back in time, before she’d found out about her mother. Victoria’s Voice Voodoo had worked its magic, because he never once interrogated her about where she’d been.
But her nervousness was growing with every minute that ticked by. Was Aden okay? Were Riley and Victoria okay? Was this her last night alive?
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