Maybe I could sleep.
Kit…
I twitched at the whisper in the back of my mind. Most of the odd whispers had faded with the delirium. Now wasn’t the time to let them come back. I had to get myself back on track. Focused.
Tomorrow I had what might possibly be the most hellish thing of my life before me.
I had to make Jude think he had me cowed while I began to plan my way out of here. I just had to get far enough away to find somebody who’d let me call the house of witches. Or Justin. One of them would surely help me.
That was all I needed. I had to keep up my strength long enough to do that.
Wake up!
It was a scream in my head. Louder than normal. I twisted away from it, huddling in on myself and moaning. The dreams…I’d actually almost had a pleasant dream.
Damon…
His hand touched my face and although he wasn’t talking, I could see something in his eyes that looked like…love. He looked at me like he still cared and that meant I was dreaming of everything back before this nightmare had started.
Back before I’d tried to actually do something worthy of him.
I didn’t want to leave this dream for the misery of my life. Instead, I rolled toward him and found a little bit of comfort in the warmth of his presence. It wasn’t real comfort because this was just a dream. But if a dream was all I’d have, then I’d take it.
You need to wake up, the voice whispered in my head. Pleading and desperate. It’s too hard to track you like this.
Grumbling, I shoved my face deeper against my dream Damon’s chest. Nobody was trying to track me. Not after this much time.
So why did I have to—
Something smashed into the door and it shattered in front of my face.
Jolting upright, I rolled into a crouch, tensed and ready to fight. No, I can’t—
The voice screeched at me from the very back of my mind. Had to play nice and calm and stupid and broken.
But it was so hard when I saw Evangeline standing there. Then she shot out a hand and fisted it in my hair, jerking me to my feet. “Hello, stupid little bitch.”
I saw a hundred times I could have done something.
Kicked her feet out from under her. Snapped her wrist. As she dragged me down the steps, I could have shifted my weight and sent us both hurtling down them. It would have hurt us both, but I was fine with that outcome.
Instead, I just lay there, limp as a sack of grain, my scalp on fire from the grip she had.
Once we reached what looked like the great hall, she shoved me into the middle of the floor and stared at me, laughing. “Oh, this is just lovely, Kit,” she said, clapping her hands. “He did break you. I knew he would.”
With my face buried against the floor, I lay there. I hated. I planned.
All I had to do was get away. Evangeline wasn’t one of the Assembly’s dignitaries and she wouldn’t be protected for her actions. Jude would burn for this—they wouldn’t kill him, I didn’t think, but there would be punishments. Evangeline, though. Her life was mine.
If I could just get away.
I heard her coming and instinct screamed. Move, move, move—
Instead, I kept still. Even when she drove the pointy toe of one small foot right into my gut. Grab it, trap it, take her down— my mind screamed.
I didn’t.
I took it.
Whatever I had to do. Because I was going to get away from Jude. It was a burning, certain knowledge. I didn’t know how. I didn’t know when. But I’d get away from here.
Keeping my face blank, I stared up at Evangeline. The look on her face was one that might have been disgruntlement. “I can’t say this is quite as much fun as I’d hoped,” she muttered. “You won’t even scream.”
You don’t have what it takes to make me scream, bitch.
She stared back at me, that haughty expression on her face. But after a moment, it flickered and then she curled her nose and waved a hand. “Come on, you lazy bastards. He wanted her bathed and it will take all afternoon as filthy as she is.”
Moments later, I was being dragged toward the doors.
“You need to be bathed but you’re too fucking filthy to grace the master’s bathing chambers. We’ll do what we can with you outside first.”
The doors opened and the brutal punch of the frigid air knocked a gasp out of me. The shock of the cold bit into my skin and for a moment, I couldn’t even breathe.
Snow swirled all around me, blinded me.
Evangeline looked back at me and smiled. “Have you ever been to the Canadian Rockies, Kit? Jude loves it here. It’s so serene. So lovely and private…not a soul around for days.” A disturbing smile curved her lips and she added, “You could run for hours and not see a single soul. Another soul. There are no roads in or out. The fastest way in is by helicopter. The closest town is a human one and they don’t welcome NHs of any kind. They shoot on sight.”
Trapped—
As they dragged me through the fat, fluffy piles of snow, the hard, heavy reality of what she’d said hit me.
You could run for hours…
Even if I got away, how in the hell was I to reach anybody who’d give me aid?
The answer was simple.
I wouldn’t.
I found myself recalling what the guard had said, just days ago. Your only chance at escaping him is by dying. And he won’t let that happen.
* * * * *
Frigid water, dumped in a metal tub, was Evangeline’s idea of bathing properly.
It was awful and painful, but I’d actually withstood that awful sort of torture before and it wasn’t anything that would kill me. Wouldn’t even harm me really. Stern stuff, us aneira warriors, even the half-breeds.
My hands were icy little sticks but I kept moving, kept moving everything. Eyes. Hands. Feet. Legs. And my mind…most importantly, my mind.
Canadian Rockies. He hadn’t just dragged me out of the state, he’d dragged me out of the fucking country.
I caught a glimpse of the sprawling vista just beyond the courtyard. Rugged mountains. Very rugged. He’d built the damn house right on a mountain face. My heart stuttered.
Kit…get ready. It’s almost time—
Almost time, I thought. It was odd. That weird delirium was returning, even though I wasn’t suffering from lack of water or food. Maybe it was the cold. Or desperation.
Your only chance at escaping him is by dying…
From the corner of my eye, I studied the guard. Two weapons. Small handgun, discharged single shot ammo. And…I had to bite back a bitter smile. An assault rifle. A classic, too. An HK G36. It would take down just about anything that got in front of me…even Jude.
And this was where they’d messed up. Thinking I was so broken, they could put a weapon like that close to me and not expect me to use it.
Maybe I couldn’t get out of here.
But if my only other chance was through a more permanent method?
If that was the choice, at least it was mine to make.
I climbed out of the bath and started toward the house.
Evangeline swore and shoved a towel at me. “Are you so stupid that you’d track water into the master’s house?” she sniped.
I caught the towel, pretended to fumble, letting my teeth chatter.
“Madam,” one of the guards said quietly. “She’s half-frozen.”
Evangeline sneered and gestured to me. “Then one of you help her. I’m not touching the little monster.”
As the man came near me, part of me felt some guilt. He’d shown a bit of kindness there. But I had to get away.
And this was my only chance.
As he came near, I dropped the towel, and stammered out, “Suh-suh-sorry…” watching Evangeline from the corner of my eye. She was staring toward the house. The other guard was watching the perimeter. A grim look was on his face. He reached up to tap the earpiece he wore, turning his head away from me.
As my guard
stooped to pick up my towel, I slammed my fist into the back of his head. He went sprawling and I swiped the first gun and leveled it on Evangeline. A quick death wasn’t what she deserved, but I had no time now. None at all.
Her head exploded in a mist of red.
I shifted to the other guard and unloaded on him before he’d even saw that I’d moved.
Some humans are fast.
Humans bonded or enslaved to a vampire are faster. But I leave them in the dust, even if I’m starved and tired and wishing I’m dead. I caught his weapon and jerked it free as he started to topple to the ground and then I was running.
One person fired and I heard another screech. “Don’t fire! If you kill her, we’re all dead!”
Perfect.
It made it that much easier to get away.
The snow was a stinging blast against my skin as I hurtled across the courtyard and everything blurred by me. The brightness of it stung my sensitive eyes and it took a moment to even get my bearings, but I didn’t have to search for what I needed. There was a yawning chasm less than a quarter a mile ahead and from what I could see, the drop was steep enough that it would likely shatter even my sturdy physique.
I’m made from solid stock. But I’m not made like a vampire or a were. I’m not immortal.
And I wasn’t planning on the fall to kill me.
There were guards chasing me now, but it didn’t matter. I just had to get there—
Memories chased me as well.
TJ and Goliath, sitting at the bar as they showed me how to pull drinks. You can hold a fucking blade but you can’t pour a beer? That’s shit, kid, TJ had groused. And Goliath had laughed. She don’t want to, TJ. But she’ll do.
Then TJ’s hand on my shoulder, years later. It’s time you try to do something else, Kitty. You ain’t made for hiding in a bar.
Justin, all fire and flash on the surface…and he’d made me realize I could come out of the shadows. Come on, Kitty-kitty. If you find that runner before I do, I’ll let you try to beat me up. You won’t win, though...I had. It was the night he kissed me the first time.
Colleen. Sitting at her daughter’s bedside as Mandy had breathed her last. The girl hadn’t died easily…but Colleen had looked at me with a thankful smile and held my hand, cried on my shoulder and whispered, Thank you…
There was even a flicker of a memory from Rana, one of my aunts. We could make a warrior of you yet, she’d remarked as she’d stared at the bow in my hands and shook her head with something like admiration in her eyes.
Memories, slamming into my mind…and then one nearly sent me to my knees.
Baby girl—
I stumbled to a halt as I reached the lip of the chasm. It was so far down, I couldn’t see the bottom for the blowing snow.
The wind howled, raging and furious.
“Don’t!”
I turned and looked at Jude’s men, creeping closer.
I barely felt anything as I lifted the HK. Their blood painted the ground red and I went back to staring at the drop. Slinging the weapon’s strap over my shoulder, I lifted the handgun and pressed it to my chin.
Shhh, it’s okay, baby girl. It’s okay…Damon. After the first time Jude had fucked me over. Damon had been there. Had saved me. Hot tears burned my face but I managed to smile a little as another memory flickered through my mind.
Reluctant humor in his eyes as he dragged me out of a drugstore after we’d narrowly avoided a run-in with those humans who’d helped hunt kids like Doyle. Come on. I’d rather not continue to lurk in the feminine hygiene area.
The look in his eyes the first time he’d marked me.
Good memories, I thought.
Not all of them were hurtful.
I needed to focus on those. They were more than I’d really ever expected when I’d broken free from my grandmother’s iron grasp.
I squeezed the trigger, felt it giving way.
“No!”
Shock had me easing up. That voice…familiar.
A trick. I wheeled my head around, searching for Jude. The fucker was awake and screwing with my head—that son of bitch loved to fuck with my head.
I saw his men creeping toward me, another wave of them and I lifted the HK, fired. Screams rose in the air and I realized I’d missed. I don’t miss—
But the tears…I gasped out past the knot in my throat. Hard to aim with them blinding me. I knuckled them away and fired again, taking down anybody still on their feet, then I lowered the HK and looked down at the handgun I carried in my left hand.
The way out. This was my way out.
I jammed the muzzle against my chin.
“Kitasa!”
Colleen—
Her voice was joined by a growling roar that had haunted my dreams.
I squeezed the trigger because I knew he wasn’t here—it didn’t matter that I felt a familiar warmth roll across my frozen skin in that very moment.
“A fucking trick.”
Now. Had to do it—
Silver slashed through the air. And the gun was just gone.
“No!” I screamed.
No…no…no…I had to get away, damn it. I had to.
I jammed my hands against my temple and then I lifted my head and stared at the chasm. It was deep. If I was lucky, it would kill me. I backed up a few steps and ran. Leaped.
For one lovely, wonderful moment, I was free.
But then something caught my waist.
Struggling and fighting, kicking, I tore at it. And I gave voice to the years worth of screams that I’d kept trapped inside.
Chapter Seventeen
“Kit!”
I slammed my fist outward and broke free. But I didn’t even make it two feet before something took me down. Heat blasted me. Heat—
It had been so long since I’d felt warm.
Against me, I felt soft, warm fur…and a hard body. As massive, clawed hands closed my wrists, panic slammed into me and the animal Jude had tried to make me into finally broke free. I clawed, I bit, I fought with everything I had in me…but I couldn’t get free.
“—not helping, damn it—let—”
Voices rose.
Fell.
There was raging. I heard the voices, in some deep part of me, and I waited for the pain. I hadn’t gotten free. I’d be back in that cell again and the beatings would come, the rapes—
I screamed and huddled in on myself.
And then I was free.
The hands that had pinned me down were gone and I huddled alone in the snow.
“Kit.”
I flinched away from the sound of her voice.
It wasn’t her.
I’d hoped maybe she’d care enough, but Colleen wasn’t a fighter and she’d never come—
“Oh, Kit…I hate having to do this, but we can’t stay here like this…”
Hands caught me by the hair and tugged my head back and I found myself staring at an illusion. Colleen crouched in front of me, Justin kneeling at her side.
“Don’t,” I begged, hating the tears that rolled down my face. He’d broken me, damn it. That son of a bitch had broken me, but I just couldn’t do this. “Please don’t do this anymore. I’ll…I’ll stop. I’m done. I give up.”
I couldn’t take it to see the rest of my hopes smashed so brutally.
Colleen’s face—no—not her—the fake Colleen—her face crumpled and she looked down.
“Move over, Coll,” the not-Justin said.
I tried to pull away but I couldn’t. The hands holding me were just too strong. Whining low in my throat, I shrank in on myself as he laid a hand on my forehead, the other on my chest. “Kit…look at me—”
Magic slammed into me. Hot magic. Familiar magic—
It burned through me, clearing away the determined fog that had driven me the past few days. Survive the pain. Hold on. Survive the pain. At some point, Escape had replaced Survive the pain and hold on.
All of that muffling fog disappeared, and even the
fear faded enough for me to see past it.
See the man in front of me. Familiar green eyes, set in a face all but ravaged with grief and rage. A stocking cap covered his dreads and snowflakes clung to the dense, dark hair.
Justin—
Words rose in my throat, but I was almost afraid to let them out. Reaching up with a hand that shook, I brushed one of the snowflakes off. Against my fingers, I felt the familiar, nubby texture of his hair. Justin…
Somewhere off to the side, I heard a low, ragged growl, one that made me shudder, but I couldn’t look. I didn’t dare. Focusing on Justin’s green eyes, I poked at his dreads again, this time tugging on one. Real. He felt real.
“Justin,” I whispered thinly. “You…are you here?”
“Yeah, Kitty-kitty.” His hand shifted away from my breastbone to touch my cheek. He shot for a teasing smile, but it fell flat. I grabbed at his wrist, desperate. “Did you ever doubt it?”
“You’re here.” What strength I had left drained out of me, and I sagged to the ground. Justin crouched down with me, staying on eye level as I muttered again, “You’re here… you’re really here.”
“Yeah.” He reached out and caught my hands. “I have to ask one you thing, and you have to answer. Flat-out. It’s brutally important, Kitty-kitty.”
“You’re here,” I whispered again as I started to shiver. “You’re here.”
“Kit!” His voice was a slap in the air and I flinched.
Staring at him, dazed, I nodded. “Answer. Important.”
Behind me, just behind me, I heard a broken, ragged growl. Instinct drove me away from that sound, toward Justin. Gentle hands caught me and he murmured, “Shhh….shhhh. It’s okay.” The look in his eyes said anything but okay, though and he shot a look past my shoulder that scared me even more.
I flinched and pressed even closer to him. His arm came around me and he sighed. “It’s okay, Kit. I swear. You hear me?” He shrugged out of the black jacket he wore, wrapping it around my shoulders. “But I need that answer and I need it now. Did you willingly leave Florida and travel anywhere with Jude Whittier?”
Terror choked me. I wanted to cry. Scream. Beg. But Justin had come.
Night Blade (Colbana Files) Page 23