It had been mine. I could still remember the day I’d bought it with the last of my pocket money. With a smile, I crossed the room and dropped down onto the clean bed, all my intentions of getting into the shower forgotten as soon as my head hit the pillow and darkness closed over me.
Chapter 27
Cold air rushed against my skin as I ran, the uneven ground beneath my feet making it harder to stay on my feet.
“You can run, Amber, but I will find you. And until I do, then this is on your head…” Fionn’s voice echoed through the trees. Sucking in a deep breath, I picked up my pace and moved faster.
The ground disappeared beneath me sharply and I stumbled over the edge of the ravine, my momentum carrying me forward and down. Tumbling down the sharp decline, my hands scrabbled at the soft dirt, but it was no use.
When I hit the bottom, pain radiated through me as my body made impact with the uneven surface.
I lay there, breathing hard and staring up into the night sky. The moon was barely a silver sliver that hung above me.
Wrinkling my nose, I stopped breathing through my nostrils and sucked a breath in through my mouth. Something really didn’t smell right and I lifted my hand out of the wet, sticky substance I was lying in.
My hand was dark and something thick and wet dripped down my wrist.
“Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic.” I repeated the words over and over out loud like a mantra. Panicking wasn’t going to help; it never did. In fact, it had this terrible quality of making situations worse.
Lifting myself up, I tried not to touch anything else nearby. Pushing onto my feet, I shook off as much of the thick globs of wet chunks as I could, holding my breath as a piece of it slid down the back of my neck and dripped onto my back.
I would not scream.
Looking out over the rest of the pit, I quickly changed my mind, the scream gathering in my core and finally ripping from my throat as I stared at the unseeing eyes of Fionn’s latest victims. I screamed again and his laughter filled my head.
Jerking awake, I stared around at my unfamiliar surroundings and tried to choke back the scream that was attempting to crawl out through my throat.
“Amber!” Nic said, bursting in through the door, his body framed by the light from the hall.
Simply seeing him was enough to bring my tears and when he crossed the room and gathered me into his arms, I sobbed like a small child. Shame welled within me. What had happened to me? Why was I constantly so bloody emotional? It made me feel weak and that wasn’t something I ever wanted to feel.
“It was just a dream,” Nic said, stroking his hands down over my hair.
“I don’t think it was,” I said, dread crawling into the pit of my stomach. I knew it wouldn’t budge.
“You’re safe here with me,” he said. “Of course it was a dream.”
“I know I’m with you, but what I saw—I think it was real…. He’s killed again, Nic. I need to stop him.”
Nic’s hands stilled against me and he pulled back until he could see my face. “Why is it always so important for you to be the one to ride to the rescue? It’s nearly gotten you killed more times than I can count and I’ve only known you a few months.”
His words stung and I extricated myself from his grip. I didn’t do any of the things I did by choice. Well, not really, anyway. What did he expect me to do? Simply sit back and allow a monster like Fionn to continue to kill, all because there was a risk of him killing me?
“You know I do it because I have to. If I don’t, who will?”
“I don’t know, Amber, maybe any of the other Elite officers you work with?”
“It’s me he wants; he will keep killing until he can have me, have my power….”
Nic nodded and buried his face in his hands. “I know that, and I want him dead … I want him dead for taking you, for attacking you, for even daring to look at you and think he could claim you for himself….” Nic’s words bordered on possessive and I felt my spine stiffen a little.
I knew what it was to care for someone, but not to the point where I wouldn’t allow them to live their lives because I was afraid of the consequences. “Nic, what happened when I was gone?” I asked, my voice dropping low.
Fear wrapped itself around my insides as I watched him turn away from me. There was something he wasn’t telling me, a secret he wasn’t telling me, and I knew instinctively that whatever it was, the answer was not going to be a pleasant one.
“I can’t,” he said, refusing to meet my gaze.
“Tell me—you can tell me anything, remember?”
“Not this…. You won’t understand….”
The fear wrapped itself tighter around my heart, constricting my chest until it was almost impossible to breathe. “I’ll understand if you explain it to me….”
He turned on me then, anger draining the colour from his face, and I watched the colour bleed from his eyes. The white spread until he looked as though his eyes had rolled into the back of his head, but I knew the truth.
“Nic, what did you do?” I asked, reaching out toward him.
The demon mark on my shoulder flared to life and I flinched as it burned away the magic his power was threatening to call up within me. I’d gone through something similar with Jason and the demon mark had protected me then, too.
Nic lunged, pinning me to the bed beneath his weight as his white-eyed gaze searched. I knew what he was looking for, and as long as I had the demon mark, he wouldn’t find the magic that coiled in my centre.
He slammed his hand down onto the centre of my chest and I cried out, pain radiating through my core.
“Nic, please…” I said, staring up into his blank eyed stare.
Jason had mentioned something about needing to stay away from those he’d cared about when he’d first joined with the Saga Venatione.
My words seemed to have their desired effect and Nic threw himself away from me, cowering in the corner of the room as he rocked back and forth, his arms wrapped tightly around his body.
I pushed up on the bed once more and stared at him. Seeing him like this, it hurt in ways I’d never imagined possible. What had driven him to it? What had made him think this would ever be a good idea? He knew what his brother was…. It just didn’t make any sense.
“Why?” I asked, my voice cracking over the word.
“Why what?” he said gruffly, his grip so tight on his body that I could see his knuckles beginning to turn white.
“Why did you join with them? Why become a Saga Venatione? You knew how dangerous it was….”
Nic laughed, a pained, bitter sound that hurt my ears. “I didn’t have a choice. He took you, I watched him take you through the fucking mirror, and there wasn’t a thing I could do to stop him … I couldn’t bring you back….”
“You did this because Fionn took me?”
“I did this because it was the only way I could make myself strong enough to find you, to hunt down the bastard that had taken you and make him pay.”
I stared at him in shock and surprise. What was I supposed to say to that? He’d done this terrible thing to himself, become something he abhorred, and all because of me. It wasn’t right, and it sure as heck wasn’t fair. But at the same time, there wasn’t a damn thing he or I could do about any of it. We would simply have to deal with it and get on with the cards we were dealt.
“It doesn’t matter, Nic. I don’t care about any of that … I care for you,” I said.
He shook his head and continued his steady rocking pace. “We both know that’s not true. What I am, what I’ve become—it’s a danger to you….”
“It doesn’t have to be,” I said, hating the desperate note that crept into my voice as I watched him slowly unravel before my eyes.
“I wanted you safe. That was all I asked for, and once I know you are, then I’ll leave…” he said so quietly I wasn’t sure if he was addressing me or convincing himself.
“I don’t want you to leave. I want
you with me,” I said, clenching my hands into the bedspread.
He looked up at me then and smiled sadly. “We don’t always get the things we want. And if my staying with you meant that I might one day hurt you or worse….” He trailed off.
“That’s not a choice you get to make for me, Nic.”
“I’m not making it for you, I’m making it for myself. If I was the reason you ended up hurt or worse … I couldn’t live with myself.”
He stopped his rocking and pushed up onto his feet once more and crossed to the door. “You should get some more sleep; morning will be here faster than you think, and if you’re planning on going back up against Fionn, then you’re going to need all the rest you can get.” He stepped out into the hall and pulled the door shut gently after him, leaving me to stare after him for the second time in one night.
Chapter 28
Sleep was the very last thing I wanted to do, so I climbed off the bed and headed for the shower. The bathroom was kitted out with plenty of fresh towels, soaps, shampoo, and conditioner. All the things I could possibly want and need to wash away the scent of Fionn.
Stepping under the hot spray, I let it coat my skin and closed my eyes against the water that crashed down over my head. There was everything in here except an answer on what exactly I was supposed to do about Nic.
For me, it felt like no length of time since we had lain in bed together, his warm body wrapped around mine. I could practically still feel his kisses on my skin. But for him, well—forty-five days was a long time, there was no denying it. What I couldn’t quite wrap my head around was why he hadn’t trusted me to come back to him. Why instantly go with the worst case possible?
Something more had happened to trigger him to take such drastic action and I would eventually get to the bottom of whatever it was that had caused it. When I did….
Turning the tap, I switched off the spray of water and stepped out onto the mat. The corner of my eye caught sight of the mirror and my heart froze in my chest. The steam had caused the glass to fog, just as it had been that day Fionn had reached out and grabbed me.
Stumbling from the room, I slammed the door after me and tried to breathe despite the hammering of my heart. It almost felt as though it planned on beating out through my chest and I clamped my hand over the spot.
The skin felt different, colder and rough. Glancing down, I lifted away my hand and stared in horror at Nic’s blackened hand print seared into my skin. It had been painful at the time, but not the type of pain that had caused me to think he might actually have marked me. But then, what I knew about Nic’s power could fill a very small pamphlet, and everything I did know had come from the grimoire that was back in King City.
With a sigh, I dropped down onto the edge of the bed. Everything was a giant mess and I hadn’t the first clue as to how I was supposed to fix it all. Worse than that, I didn’t even know if it could be fixed. Nic really would leave if I couldn’t come up with a compelling reason for him to stay, a reason to keep him that would still mean we were both safe.
The sound of someone knocking on the door had me wrapping the towel around my body a little tighter.
“Come in,” I said finally.
The door opened and my mom’s face appeared around the edge of it, an almost hesitant smile on her lips before she caught sight of me and sighed with relief.
“I didn’t know if you’d be awake or not and I didn’t want to wake you, but….” She trailed off, her expression changing as her eyes drifted to the black hand print on my chest. Her gaze flickered up and I knew the second she caught sight of the demon mark, her entire body stiffened and she pushed into the room.
“Jesus Christ, Amber, what is that?” she asked, crossing the room toward me. She reached out to the mark. The slight tremble in her fingers made me suddenly self-conscious and I shrugged away from her.
“It’s nothing; it doesn’t matter,” I said, sliding out of her reach.
“That does not look like nothing,” she said, carefully enunciating each of her words as she crossed her arms over her chest. “It looks like….” She trailed off.
“A demon mark?” I suggested helpfully.
With a shake of her head, she took another step forward. “It looks like the same tattoo your father had,” she said.
Her words sent a jolt of shock rocketing through me and I jerked back from her as though she’d burned me. “That’s not possible. I got the mark when I summoned a demon I couldn’t control,” I said shakily.
“I’m telling you, Amber, that mark is identical to one your father had. And I should know, I saw him naked often enough,” she said, her last statement making me cringe inwardly.
It wasn’t possible; it shouldn’t have been possible, and yet, I could see the truth in her face.
“Are you sure it’s identical?” I asked.
“Well, if you’d let me have a closer look, I could tell you,” she said, with a mixture of exasperation and concern.
I froze as she approached, holding perfectly still as her fingers brushed lightly across the mark. The mark did nothing; there was no spark of recognition, it just sat there on my skin like the tattoo she thought it was.
“It’s definitely the same. I remember the same pattern,” she said thoughtfully.
“But?”
“But yours is fresher, it feels new or….” She trailed off.
“Or what, Mom? You can’t make an announcement like that and then leave me hanging. It’s that sort of thing that leads to hysterics and the consumption of copious amounts of Ben and Jerry’s for breakfast,” I said, my poor attempt at humour the only way I knew how to lighten the mood.
“It just feels different—don’t ask me how or why, it just does,” she paused and stared at me. “Wait, you said it was a demon mark?”
The way she said “demon mark” made a small burst of laughter escape me. I’d forgotten how shocked by everything she could be. For a woman who was a powerful practicing witch—well, who had been a powerful practicing witch; I’d seen her send the demon who had killed my father back to Hell, after all—it still surprised me that she could be so shocked by such silly things.
“Yeah, I summoned a demon, lost control of him, and this,” I said, gesturing to the mark, “was the dazzling result.”
She pursed her lips and continued to study it. Her thoughtful contemplation made my skin itch and I wanted nothing more than to escape from her scrutiny.
“Hey, you came in here to tell me something before we were side-tracked?”
“Your boss, Graham, was on the phone. He said the local Gardaí could do with your help.”
“Did he say what they could do with my help for?”
“More bodies … a lot more bodies, by the sound of the news report this morning….”
The memory of my dream came flooding back to me in a wash of cold dread that had my skin breaking out in a clammy sweat. So much for having a shower.
“Just one small problem,” I said, glancing down at the towel still wrapped around me. “As much as I would love to help, I don’t think they’re going to let me get anywhere near the scene wearing only a towel.”
Mom smiled at me. “I’ve got you covered there,” she said, taking a sideways glance at the demon mark before she turned and strode from the room, leaving me to stare after her.
The thought of having an identical mark to my father left me reeling, but with the news that there were more bodies, well, I couldn’t exactly spend a lot of time focussing on it. Mysteriously identical tattoos could wait.
“I got you these,” she said, reappearing a moment later with a department store bag.
Taking it from her gratefully, I smiled. “Vision?” I asked.
“Common sense,” she said. “I knew what state you were taken in and, well, where exactly were you going to get the chance to pick something up to wear?”
Grinning, I nodded. “Practical thinker as always.”
Laughing, she turned and made her way to the d
oor. “I’ll leave you to get dressed. I’ve got the kettle on if you’re in the mood for tea before you go.”
The smiled died on my lips as I realised exactly what I’d be leaving to go and face. “Coffee. I need to be as alert as possible.”
Without a word, she left me to my bag of clothes and a headful of thoughts that refused to come together to form any kind of cohesive sense. One of these days, the answers would come to me easily, and when that happened, I wasn’t sure I’d know what to do with myself.
Chapter 29
Dressed in a black T-shirt and black jeans, travel cup of coffee in hand, I approached the crime scene tape carefully. Slowly picking my way through the bracken, I caught the eye of one particularly vigilant Garda.
“No civilians,” he said, the words tumbling over one another, the only hint that he was a local to Cork being the speed at which he spoke. “The scene is closed; we don’t want any gawkers.”
“Not a gawker. Your boss was speaking to mine, said I would swing by and see if the crime scenes matched what we’ve been seeing back in King City,” I said. I didn’t push. There was no point; either the chief had told him I was on my way or he hadn’t. But either way, I didn’t have my badge, and this definitely wasn’t my territory.
Not that that had ever stopped the Elite before. I’d heard of a case in France, a pack of werewolves fighting over territory had held a small town hostage; one of the New York Elite officers had been holidaying in the same region and had stepped in to bring the situation to a peaceful conclusion. In matters of preternatural affairs where a country didn’t have a dedicated force, the Elite could step in and claim jurisdiction.
The Garda watched me carefully and then finally lifted his radio to his mouth. “I’ve got a young one down here claiming she’s from Elite…” he said, and the radio crackled in response.
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