“Amber Morgan. I’m here to see Madeline,” I said. The sense of deja-vu that washed over me was almost enough to make me regret ever having spoken.
“Sign the book,” the Hell spawn said, shoving a huge leather-bound tome toward me.
One of the names on the same page caught my eye and I sucked in a deep breath through my teeth. Nudging Nic, I pointed to Darcey’s name, and he shot me a questioning glance.
I picked up the pen and the spines along the length of it dug into my fingers, drawing blood. It dripped down into the nib and I could practically feel the crimson droplet quivering on the end of the pen as it waited for my decision.
The last time I’d been here, I hadn’t signed my name. My mother had always taught me that there was power in a name, and there was power in blood, and combing them together, well, that was when things tended to get complicated. But what did I have to lose? Nic came in and out of here and he signed his name all the time…. What was the worst that could happen?
Dipping the pen toward the book, I signed my name with a flourish and watched as the blood soaked into the thick paper and then quickly disappeared.
The red glow faded and the faint buzz of electric lights met my ears seconds before they flickered on overhead, the harsh white light hurting my eyes.
The Hell spawn called Flora sat up and stared at me as though seeing me for the first time.
“You,” she said, recognition flickering in her dark eyes. The pupils quickly swallowed the rest of her eyes, leaving only darkness in its wake.
“I don’t want any trouble, I just want to speak to Madeline,” I said, raising my hands in mock surrender.
“I told you the last time lowly witches do not give orders; they take them….” She lifted her fingers to her lips, her talons extending beyond the length of her human nails. She licked them one by one, watching me carefully from beneath the veil of midnight hair that fell across her eyes. “I can still remember how you taste, witch-bitch…” she said, and hopped up onto the counter.
“Flora, don’t do this,” Nic warned, his voice low and menacing.
“Stay out of this, Hunter. You’re not exactly in good standing here, so if you want to keep both legs, I suggest you back up and let me enjoy my meal,” Flora said. Her voice had turned gravelly.
“You know I can’t let you do that,” he said with a dramatic sigh. He pulled a long, wickedly curved hunting knife from the back of his jacket.
“You bring a toy to a fight with a demon? I hadn’t thought you were that stupid,” she said, and launched herself from the top of the desk.
I side-stepped her, but she wasn’t really aiming for me. It seemed Nic had pissed her off enough that she planned on teaching him a lesson first before dealing with me.
She collided with him, her talons outstretched, but he easily dodged her blows and brought the blade up, sinking it into her stomach before he jerked it up higher.
Flora stumbled away from him and peered down at the wound that on anyone else would have been fatal. Dipping her fingers into her chest, she trailed around the smoking knife wound and then lifted them free and licked the blood clean. Sulphur filled the air, its eggy scent making me want to gag as her black blood dripped onto the carpet.
“Where’d you get the toy, lover?” she asked. The sudden softness of her voice filled me with dread.
“From someone who knows how to get rid of Hell Spawn that cause problems,” Nic said, blood beginning to soak through the top of his shirt where her claws had caught him after all.
“And do you know how to deal with Hell Spawn?” she asked taking a threatening step forward, followed by another.
Nic moved with her, always keeping the same distance between them.
My gaze was so focused on Nic and his injuries that when Flora spun toward me, her taloned hands locking around my neck as she drove me back into the wall, I didn’t even have the sense to move.
“Let her go,” Nic said, but I could hear the waver of fear in his voice.
Keeping her grip on me, Flora tugged me away from the wall and slid in behind me, using my body as a shield. I could still feel her talons sliding against my skin and the first trickle of warm blood dribbled down my neck as her fingers spasmed against me.
“I told you to stay out of this, Hunter, but you didn’t listen. Really, I shouldn’t expect anything else from your sort; you always interfere, unable to mind your own business…. The last hunter I ate tried to get between me and my food then, too….”
I tried to keep my body loose; if I stiffened or gave any sign that her words bothered me then I would lose, and that wasn’t something I could afford. Not when she was the type of creature who could rip my head off without so much as breaking a sweat.
Flora’s nails dug into me again, this time deliberately, and I felt the trickle of my blood increase. “Just one little taste and then I’ll get down to taking out the trash,” she said, her voice sounding a lot more serpentine than it had moments before.
I felt rather than saw her long, forked tongue as it slid over my skin, the tips brushing against the tiny pin-pricks she’d made in my neck. I squirmed without thinking.
Flora hissed, the sound taking me by surprise before she shoved me away. Stumbling, I caught myself before my body betrayed me and landed me on my face on the floor. Glancing over my shoulder, I watched Flora clawing at her own mouth; the smell of sulphur was back.
“What are you?” she asked, her serpentine voice filled with pain as she continued to claw at the blisters that covered her tongue.
“As far as you’re concerned, I’m just a lowly witch-bitch,” I said, straightening up and watching her reaction with interest.
“You taste of demon … unclean…” she said before slicing away a chunk of her own tongue with her talons.
Nic crossed the room, his speed catching me unawares. I’d always thought that only the monsters could move like that. He grabbed Flora’s neck, and jerked the blade up into her chest once more.
She fought his hold, but she’d been far too distracted by whatever my blood had done to her mouth that she hadn’t seen him move. He held her tight and dug the blade in deeper, twisting it hard enough that the sound of metal scraping bone grated on my ears.
Flora’s hands scrabbled at his shoulders but her talons were gone, the darkness in her eyes receding as the knife went to work. Her body jerked once and then twice before I noticed the flames beginning to lick up around the handle on Nic’s blade.
“Let her go,” I said, moving toward him as the fire seemed to taste his skin.
“I can’t,” he said through gritted teeth.
“She’s gone, Nic, let her go,” I said, grabbing his arm. A jolt of power travelled up through his body and out through the place where I touched him.
Gasping, I released my hold on him and watched as he shoved Flora back against the desk. She slumped and then the flames that seemed to be devouring her from the inside spread to the outside through her mouth and eyes. It burned with an intensity of heat that only a true blue flame can, and she crumbled to the ground in a pile of burnt ash.
Nic’s hands shook, the blade still held in a firm grip, but I could see his hand, reddened and burned from whatever had burned Flora up from the inside.
“Why didn’t you just let her go?” I asked, hesitantly reaching out toward him.
“Because if he did, she would have killed him…” Madeline said from somewhere behind me.
I spun around to face her; her body was half concealed in the dark corner of the reception area. I was certain she hadn’t been there before now, and as she stepped out into the light, I could feel her power beginning to fill up the confined space like water filling a tank.
“You could have stopped her,” I said.
Madeline shook her head and smiled. “Why do that when this is far more amusing?” she asked.
Nic grunted with pain behind me and I glanced back to see huge pure breed demons. One of them had a punishing hold on Ni
c, forcing him to the ground beneath the weight of its grip. The other eyed me before taking a step forward and reaching out with its pitted and cracked black hands.
“Touch me with that and prepare to lose it,” I said. My words had their desired effect and the demon paused for a moment, its smouldering red eyes watching me carefully as though I’d just done something it found infinitely interesting.
“Enough joking around—take them,” Madeline said. The command in her voice held just enough power to cause the demon to jerk forward as though her words had pushed it into action. And maybe they had. Maybe that was how it worked when you were in servitude to something like Madeline.
Its rough stone-like fingers brushed my shoulder and I ducked beneath its touch, skipping just out of its reach. The beast followed me, its movements surprisingly limber and graceful for something so huge.
“Stop fooling around,” Madeline said impatiently, and I felt her power lash out.
The beast roared, the sound tearing at my eardrums as it lunged and caught me in its grip.
I could feel the connection between her and the creature; her magic wrapped around it like a thick, black net. A thick, black net that I could cut through if I so wished to.
The thought hit me like a freight train, and without thinking about it, I reached out with both hands and planted them either side of the beast’s head. It jerked in my grip as though I’d scalded it with my touch and then it fell still.
“Mine,” I said.
It seemed stupidly simple and yet I could feel my power travelling down through my arms and into the creature’s body.
Its spine bowed backward, the grip it had on me momentarily tightening as it crushed me beneath its punishing hold. The black net of power Madeline had over it crumbled away, leaving behind a link that connected the creature to me.
“What have you done?” Madeline demanded, staring at me with her strange violet and red eyes.
“He’s mine; they’re all mine if I so wish it….” My voice wasn’t really my own; the hollow intonation of power that surrounded each word came from somewhere deep inside.
“No!” Madeline howled, and the room exploded in a white light bright enough to make the room disappear in a flash.
Pain seared through me, heat and fear crushing me beneath its weight, and then I felt the world around me begin to burn.
Chapter 20
I screamed and beat at the invisible flames that ate at my skin and flesh. Was this how it had felt for the Shadow Sorcerers of old when the Saga Venatione had caught up to them?
Madeline’s laughter pierced through the bubble of agony that surrounded me and I jerked my head up to stare at her. Her gaze met mine and I felt my stomach churn with fear.
“He truly was yours,” she said then and the bubble burst.
Blinking hard, I ran my hands down over my still-whole and intact skin. I wasn’t burning; the world around me was, as it had always been, and … I glanced over in Nic’s direction; he seemed to be fine.
The smell of sulphur and burned flesh tickled my nose and I glanced down at the smouldering pile of ash that lay in the scorched ruin of the carpet.
Tears blurred my vision as I lifted my defiant gaze to Madeline’s face once more.
“You killed it” I said.
“You stole him from me. If I could not use him, then I didn’t see a need for him to remain here any longer.”
Anger boiled in my veins and it took every ounce of strength I had left to remain where I was and not launch myself across the floor toward her. It would be so easy to wipe the smirk from her face. Or at least that was what the voice in the back of my head told me. However, I’d seen what she was capable of, felt the suffering the demon had endured. If she were capable of something like that, then I would be nothing more than an inconvenience, a buzzing gnat that needed to be crushed.
He was a demon.
Rationally, I knew and understood this, and yet I couldn’t shake the ache in my chest. He had been mine. I had owned him; every evil molecule that had held him together had been for me and she had ripped it apart.
The bond I’d shared with him was still there, fluttering like a thread in the wind. Could I bring it back? I pushed a little magic down the line into what remained of the bond and screamed once more, my knees buckling and driving me to the floor.
“You’re strong, Amber Morgan, but you are untrained. You give too much of yourself and to take the demon from me was too high a price to pay so soon after expending so much of your physical energy. To stay on the path of the untrained will see you dead, sooner rather than later…” Madeline said, her voice quiet and contemplative as she stared down at me. There was no pity and no hostility in her voice anymore, and part of me wondered what it was I’d done to evoke such bland curiosity.
“You came here to ask me something, so ask,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.
Pain ebbed and flowed within me but it was manageable and I clenched my hands into fists at my sides giving me something else to focus on. “The Master of the Hunt, the one who controls beasts….”
At the mere mention of his name, Madeline’s face paled even more than I’d thought possible. “What do you know of Him?” she asked, her voice cracking over the word him.
“I know he’s here committing murders, bringing the Hunt into the human realm….”
Madeline shook her head. “That’s impossible. He cannot do that; no one possesses that type of power anymore. The Fae have lost much of what they were….” She trailed off and stared into the distance.
“Madeline, what if he could bring the Hunt here? How do I stop him?”
My question was enough to snap her out of wherever her mind had taken her and her gaze met mine once more.
“You cannot stop Him; you are too weak, untrained, and He’s old and powerful. The only ones who might stand against him rule the Faerie Courts; it is their power and theirs alone that can bring the Hunt peace.”
“Great,” I muttered as I pushed back onto my unsteady feet.
“He’s trying to take Amber’s will,” Nic piped up, and I shot him a sideways glance. The last thing I needed Madeline to know was that my will could be tampered with.
“Then He has indeed regained His power….” Madeline swallowed hard and crossed the space between us between one heart beat and the next—one second, she was on the other side of the room, and the next, she was standing in front of me, close enough that I could make out the intricate, glittering stitched detail of the red gown she wore. Every time she breathed, the threads sparkled and the light reflected off the scales down one side of her neck.
“Many years ago, the Shadow Sorcerers were fair game for the Fae. We could feed upon your energies, and with the destruction of the Sorcerers so, too, the Fae lost some of their power. If He gains control of you, it will make Him unstoppable….” Madeline paused and I could see the promise of my death in her eyes.
“If you kill me here and now, you will lose all hope of ever controlling my power for yourself,” I said.
“I would not kill you, Amber; alive, you have value, but I will warn you that the only thing that’s stopping Him from claiming you is the mark you wear upon your shoulder. That, and the wish to only ever do good that lives in your heart….”
Her words didn’t make a whole lot of sense. How could a sense of right and wrong protect me from someone who wanted to swallow my will whole? The demon mark I could understand; I didn’t belong to the Fae. Of course, I didn’t belong to the demon either, but if I was going to chose one or the other, I was going to go with the demon—at least it hadn’t tried to completely steal my will … yet, anyway.
“Now, you,” Madeline said, spinning away toward Nic. “A life for a life, little Hunter….”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said. “She attacked him; it was self-defence.”
“Silence,” Madeline said. Opening my mouth to speak, the words refused to come out, and I could feel the gag across my mou
th as though she’d slapped her hand across it.
She approached him slowly and Nic straightened up despite the demon’s weight pressing him down. “I loved Flora like she was one of my own,” Madeline said, her voice quiet and thoughtful.
“She attacked me. She was going to attack Amber,” Nic said.
“Flora was following orders; you didn’t need to kill her. She would have stopped.”
I shook my head and imagined the gag peeling away but it was no use; it remained firmly in place and my words bounced uselessly against it.
“No, she wouldn’t have, and deep down, Madeline, you know that. You know what Hell Spawn are like. They’re unreliable and always hungry; she’d have ripped us both apart and you would have killed her anyway….”
Madeline gave him an unhappy look as though she honestly understood what he was saying. The expression remained even when she produced a long black dagger from the side of her skirt. Where she’d been hiding it, I couldn’t tell, but I knew without touching it that it was incredibly sharp. I’d been on the receiving end of one of those blades when the Master of the Hunt had cut my neck with one just like it.
Crossing the space, I dove between Nic and the blade but found myself right back where I’d started. I moved again and the room seemed to move with me, allowing me to run as fast as I could without ever leaving the spot I was standing in.
“I liked you,” Madeline said, addressing Nic as she pressed the blade over his heart.
I fought to call my magic forth but Madeline hadn’t been lying when she’d said I’d given too much of myself to take the demon from her. My power felt weak and pathetic, sparking and spluttering inside me as it struggled to respond to my commands.
It hurt to call it and what I did manage to draw from my centre wasn’t enough stop Madeline—but perhaps all I needed was a distraction.
No. Madeline’s voice echoed in my head and I stumbled back a couple of steps.
She pressed the blade a little harder against Nic, the tip of the blade drawing a drop of blood that hung on the end of the knife like a glittering ruby. When the knife drank down the blood, I blinked hard and scrubbed my hands across my eyes in an attempt to clear my vision.
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