From Fear to Eternity

by Michelle Rowen

  “That’s strange,” I said. “You didn’t miss a step anywhere along the line, did you?”

  She looked at me, her eyes narrowing. “Of course I didn’t.”

  “Don’t be so sure. You know what they say—if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”

  As if on cue, Jack walked into the room.

  I looked at him with alarm. “What are you doing here?”

  Tasha began to laugh. “Oh, this is quite a twist, but it doesn’t matter. Look at him. He’s barely holding himself together. Burning his body won’t be necessary. I already feel myself powering up.”

  Sebastien had risen to his feet and began to approach her. With a flick of her wrist, she sent him sailing backward again.

  “Stay down,” she told him. “Or you’ll be begging to go back into your tomb.”

  “You’re the one.” Any humor or confusion had left Jack’s face. “You tried to kill me.”

  “Thought I did a pretty good job, actually. One slice. Off with your head. It reminded me of a miniseries I did, playing a French revolutionary.”

  “The Affairs of Madame Baudin,” I said, nodding. “I still think you’re evil incarnate, but I’ve seen that miniseries, like, eight times. So good.”

  “Thank you.” She then swept her gaze over Jack’s torso. “Your marks have faded to nearly nothing. You have no magic left within you. Do you think you have any chance to defeat me?”

  “That I still exist is enough to defeat a thief and a murderer like you.” He straightened his back, standing tall, his chin raised. “Do it, Sarah. Send me back.”

  Did he realize what he was asking for? “Jack, no . . .”

  “My magic will leave her and fully return to me once I go back to my prison. It’s the only way we can fix this.”

  Wild guess here—he finally had his memories back, if not all his magic. He knew what he was asking for. It was the exact opposite of what he’d wanted.

  He was willing to sacrifice himself to stop Tasha. To save all of us.

  Tasha gasped with surprise as I pulled the amulet out of the handy pocket of my dress.

  “Oh, did I forget to mention I found it earlier?” I swung it from its chain. “Sorry about that.”

  “Where was it?” she demanded.

  “Let’s just say . . .” I paused for emphasis. “The butler hid it.”

  “Thierry, take it away from her,” Tasha snarled. “Now.”

  Thierry took a step toward me, but not another one. His entire frame shook with the effort it took to resist her spell.

  “Thierry!” she shouted. “Do as I say!”

  “To quote a favorite phrase of my beautiful wife, who believed in me when no one else would,” he growled, “bite me.”

  “Fine. You’re dead, too. You will all die”—she looked at the clock—“in twenty seconds . . .”

  “Sarah.” Jack’s tone held both pain and courage. “Do it now. There’s no time to waste.”

  He drew closer to me and his eyes turned green to match the amulet.

  Proximity seemed to make all the difference. The closer he was to it, the more it controlled him.

  Everything in life came down to control. Who controls what. And who. And why.

  But control was a fleeting thing. You might have it one moment, but lose it the next. While you had it, you had to use it.

  Or choose not to.

  I took a step back from Jack.

  “Not yet,” I said, shaking my head. I had to wait just a little longer and hope another solution would present itself. It always did, right? I couldn’t put Jack back in that prison; I couldn’t do it. There had to be another answer.

  Tasha could be wrong about what she believed would happen.

  Theme of the night. What we believe in and what we’re willing to sacrifice to defend those beliefs. Our lives, our freedom . . . but not someone else’s.

  “Sarah, what are you doing?” Jack demanded. “It’s now or—”

  “Three, two, one.” Tasha counted down and sighed with relief. “It’s dawn.”

  “—never,” Jack finished.

  Her tattoos darkened and solidified before my eyes as the remainder of Jack’s faded away to nothing.

  “The power is mine. All the magic of the Jacquerra Amulet belongs to me. Thank you all for your help.” Tasha sounded like she was giving another rehearsed Oscar speech.

  She’d won and we’d lost.

  I’d made the wrong choice. Instead of damning Jack by putting him back into the amulet, I’d just put everyone at risk—here in the mansion and beyond. I’d failed because I’d clung to my beliefs. Whatever happened now was entirely my fault, and I had no idea what to do next . . .

  A glass of water appeared out of thin air in my hand. I looked at it, frowning.

  “Sarah, your dress . . .” Thierry said.

  I glanced down at myself. My previously red dress was now a lovely forest green.

  “What the . . . ?”

  From the ceiling, or what seemed like the ceiling, Veronique’s book fell and landed hard on the floor right in front of Tasha.

  “The magic was delayed,” I whispered.

  The wishes I’d made earlier had just been granted. One for water, one for the color of my dress.

  Two out of three.

  I exchanged a tense look with Thierry.

  “What is going on?” Tasha demanded.

  I was the owner of the amulet. I hadn’t meant to win it in the auction, but it was mine in a universal sense. My wishes were finally coming true.

  And I had one more to go.

  “Here, catch.” I tossed the amulet at Tasha. She caught it automatically.

  “Giving up?” She clutched it, smiling, as if she’d just won a valuable prize at the state fair. “I think that’s a very good idea.”

  I shook my head. “Obviously, you don’t know me very well. I don’t give up. Not even when I probably should.”

  “Too bad for you, then.”

  “Too bad for me. Too bad for you.”

  Tasha didn’t realize her eyes had turned a bright emerald green. She was full of djinn magic, therefore she reacted to the amulet the same way a real djinn would.

  I hoped like hell this worked. “I wish for Jack to be free of the Jacquerra Amulet and for Tasha Evans to take his place, since she obviously wants to be a djinn so much she’d try to steal its magic.”

  She gasped and dropped the amulet, scrambling back from it as if it had suddenly burst into flame. “You can’t wish for that!”

  “I think I can. I get three wishes and that was number three.” I stepped back from her until I felt Thierry behind me. “Be careful what you wish for, Tasha. You just might get it.”

  Already, her feet clad in the open-toed silver stilettos had turned to swirling green smoke. “No! Sebastien, do something. Help me!”

  “Help you?” Sebastien repeated. “Why? Isn’t this what you wanted? All the magic you can handle and true immortality? Got to say, it won’t be as much fun as you thought it would be, trapped inside a tiny place for all of eternity. I should know.”

  She stared down at herself with horror, now smoke from the waist down. “No, I don’t want this. Take it back! Take the wish back!”

  There wasn’t fear or sadness on her face, something that might have tweaked my sympathy a little, despite all the horrible things she was responsible for. There was only rage. Blame. Hate.

  Proof that she wasn’t that great of an actress after all.

  “I’ll be back and I will destroy you!” It was the last thing she screamed before turning fully to swirling green smoke. A moment later, all the smoke disappeared into the amulet.

  Thierry moved toward the amulet, snatched it up from the floor, and slipped it into his inner jacket pocket. “No, Ta
sha, you won’t be back.”

  I wasn’t quite ready to celebrate yet. “Thierry, you’re feeling . . . ?”

  He met my eyes. “Much better now, thank you.”

  My heart lifted. “So glad to hear that.”

  I grabbed his face and kissed him hard. He pulled me closer and kissed me back, and I felt him smile against my lips.

  “What would I do without you?” he asked.

  “Let’s find out the answer to that . . . never.”

  “A truly brilliant plan.”

  Veronique cleared her throat. I glanced at her over my shoulder and she gave me a pointed look. A “please stop kissing and untie us now” look.

  So we did just that. Using Frederic’s enchanted dagger that Thierry retrieved from his other pocket, but trying very hard not to cut anyone with it, he sliced through the bindings to free Veronique, Marcellus, and Melanie. They rubbed their raw wrists as the silver-infused ropes dropped away.

  Sebastien and Jack stayed off to the side, giving us space to move.

  “You all right?” I asked Melanie.

  She nodded, looking at Thierry with trepidation. “He grabbed me and tied me up. You sure he’s okay now?”

  I studied Thierry for a moment. “Still a five-point-five?”

  He considered this for a moment. “I’m down to a four. So, back at my normal level.”

  I cringed. “Your normal level is a four?”

  “A very manageable four, believe me.”

  I glanced at Melanie. “He’s fine.”

  “She wanted me to kill you,” Thierry told the three of them. “But she didn’t make it an order. I believe she wanted to do it herself once she came fully into her djinn powers. Let’s be grateful she’s now safely contained.”

  “You fooled her well,” Marcellus said to Thierry. “I’m very impressed.”

  “Don’t be. The spell worked. It was nearly impossible to resist her command.”

  “Then how did you manage it?”

  He gave me a sidelong look. “Someone convinced me tonight that I needed to believe in myself as fully as she did. And she was right. I assumed I had no true control over my thirst at its worst, but I always have. And to harm someone I care about was not acceptable to me on any level. Once I realized that and fought past the first part of the spell, it was possible to resist the second part.”

  “In other words”—I looked up at Thierry with pride—“she didn’t know who she was dealing with. A total badass master vampire.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Badass?”

  I nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, absolutely. The badassiest.”

  Sebastien had taken a seat on the unstained sofa and put his head in his hands.

  “That was a dangerous move,” Jack said to me as I met his gaze. “Did you know what you were doing?”

  “Honestly?” I grimaced. “No, not even slightly.”

  “She stole all of the Jacquerra Amulet’s magic from me.” He looked down at his arms, now bare of any tattoos. “It’s all gone.”

  My chest clenched at the thought that, in a weird way, Tasha had won. “I’m so sorry.”

  A grin spread over his face. “Don’t be. That magic was a curse from a vengeful coven of witches that’s been a heavy burden for well over a thousand years. I’m finally free, thanks to you.”

  Then it was good news. Hooray, magic-stealing evil actress! “So what are you now? Mortal?”

  “Well, no.” His grin widened. “I’ve always been more than that.”

  “Remember, Sarah, djinn are a form of demon,” Thierry explained. “A group of troublemakers imprisoned by that original coven of witches.”

  Jack nodded. “You know what they say—Hell hath no fury like a coven of witches scorned. But that was a long time ago.”

  “I hope so.” I poked him in his bare chest. “You better behave yourself, mister. And here’s a question for you. What exactly does ‘a form of demon’ mean?”

  “Nothing worth worrying about. I mean, unless you’re a witch. We don’t get along with witches.”

  “You’re not going to turn evil, are you?”

  “I was never evil. Just misunderstood, kind of like a vampire.” Jack grabbed me and gave me a tight hug. “Thank you. Thank you so much for saving me. I won’t forget it.”

  “You’re very welcome.” He released me and I looked at him quizzically. “By the way, what’s your real name?”

  He waved his hand. “It’s kind of long and complicated. I think ‘Jack’ works for the next phase of my existence. I like it.”

  “It suits you.” I glanced toward Sebastien, who looked up at me sheepishly through his fingers.

  “I don’t know what to do now,” he said. “It was my fault. Everything. Everybody nearly died because . . . because . . .”

  I sat down next to him. “Because you trusted someone who didn’t deserve your trust. That doesn’t make you the bad guy, Sebastien. It makes you someone who has hope in his heart, even after everything you’ve been through.”

  He let out a long, shaky sigh. “I thought she loved me.”

  “Tasha only loved herself.”

  “I’m such a fool.” He stood up, raking his hands through his hair. Thierry drew closer and Sebastien flinched away from him. “And I don’t even know what to say to you.”

  Thierry shook his head. “You don’t have to say anything.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry I—”

  “No. Don’t. Let’s put the past behind us. The future lies ahead and it’s a clean slate for us both.” Thierry extended his hand.

  Sebastien looked at Thierry’s hand for a long moment before he finally clasped it in his. He nodded. “That sounds good to me.”

  “This is so wonderful.” Veronique came up to them, smiling broadly. “How it always should have been between you. We’re a family again.”

  Marcellus stood by, watching Veronique very carefully. “I still don’t understand my place in any of this.”

  That made two of us. And by the looks on Thierry’s and Sebastien’s faces, four of us.

  “Who am I?” Marcellus continued. “I believed I was Marcellus Rousseau, as I have been all of my life, but this strange place makes no sense to me. The way you are all dressed is very odd. And I can’t figure it out.”

  Veronique’s expression was pinched. “Oh, darling . . .”

  I heard a loud noise. Someone was yelling and banging on something. Hard.

  “What the hell is that?” Melanie exclaimed.

  “Some sort of warning signal that all Hell is about to break loose?” Sebastien said.

  I grimaced. “Um, no. Actually, that would be Atticus.”

  Time to face the most powerful vampire on the vampire council.

  Maybe Jack wouldn’t be the only one to lose his head tonight.

  Chapter 25

  Both Thierry and Veronique accompanied me to the room in which Atticus was trapped. I fished the key out of my bra and inserted it into the lock of the chest.

  “Atticus, you need to stay calm,” I told him.

  “And you need to let me out of here,” he snarled. “Immediately!”

  “Since you asked so nicely, okay.” I turned the key.

  He shoved the lid of the chest up and sprang out like a jack-in-the-box. His black hair was matted and sweaty, his face red, and his eyes wild.

  “You!” He wheeled around to face me. “I warned you what I’d do to you when I got out.”

  The man who’d threatened my life to get Thierry to work for the Ring again was an intimidating creep at the best of times. At the moment, I would allow it since I myself would have hated to be locked in a tiny chest for a couple of hours. “Yeah, well, you’ll feel better in a minute. I hope.”

  “De Bennicoeur, this woman is a detriment to you
r position with the Ring. She cannot continue to travel with you.”

  “Wrong.” Thierry stood solidly next to me, his arms crossed over his chest. “She most certainly will.”

  “She is a troublemaker and a liability.”

  “She is an asset and my wife, today and always. And you will speak to her with respect. I swear, Atticus, if you ever, ever threaten her in any way again or even look at her with anything less than respect, you will regret it.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  “You can take it however you like. You may have had me sign your contract, and I will hold true to that promise, but Sarah is now a part of that deal. A non-negotiable part.”

  Atticus continued to look outraged. “She trapped me in a chest!”

  “She saved your life.”

  Atticus blustered for a while longer, but finally calmed down enough to see logic. All this time he’d believed it was Thierry who’d killed the other elders. But earlier he’d heard Tasha’s confession with his own ears and couldn’t deny it.

  She was deceitful, wily, and completely sociopathic. And now she’d been magically contained within the Jacquerra Amulet.

  Thierry pulled the amulet out of his jacket pocket. “Take it.”

  He quickly explained what had happened with Tasha.

  Atticus eyed it skeptically. “You’re giving it to me without my having to take it.”

  “If you’d tried to take it, you would have failed,” Thierry said simply. “However, I acquired it on behalf of the Ring. Despite any personal issues with you, I’ve come to believe that you are fully committed to the goals of the council, even if your methods have often been questionable. I’m giving you this as an act of faith.”

  “You have faith in me?”

  “I didn’t. But Sarah believes in you.”

  Atticus looked at me with shock. “You do?”

  Believe in might be a bit of an overstatement, but I didn’t correct him. “I believe down deep that you want to help people, not hurt them. But you need to stop being a bully. Asking for what you want instead of making threats and intimidating people works much better and makes fewer enemies. Just a friendly observation.”