Yanking open the rusty iron handles, they pulled on the squealing metal hinges of the barn door until they moved outward, and then dashed inside. Slamming them closed behind them, Mercer swung the metal bolt through the latch and sank against it. Looking around trying to size up their surroundings, they both froze.
“Well, well, well…look what the dogs dragged in.”
Chapter 16
The voice was imperious and female, and the lilac eyes were all too familiar. She was standing at what must have been the front of an old sawmill, judging by the rusty machinery on display. There were lots of steel girders and rollers where the wood would have been shunted along, and a wicked looking circular blade that would have been used for slicing the lumber. Several worktops dotted the surrounding space for smaller cutting projects, and an array of rotting tools and materials decorated the floor. It was obvious that the place had not been used for some time.
Wrapping her skirts around her, Kalliope began to walk towards them. Both she and Mercer took a step back unthinkingly, coming up hard against the solid wood doors. Laughter filled the air.
“The pair of you are pathetic. Just look at the state of you.” Kalliope cast her eyes over them, up and down, though they spent considerably more time on Mercer’s frame than on Lainey’s. “One simple spell is all that’s required to get you out of this mess, Lainey. One simple spell…but then you have no idea how to perform magic, do you? The bright lights of yesterday were just a fluke it seems.”
Kalliope began to pace from one side of the barn to the other as she voiced her thoughts aloud. “I’ve been watching you for a long time, Lainey. If there was anyone that could defeat me, it would be you or so I’ve been told.” Her eyes danced with enjoyment. “You have no idea how much I’ve laughed in the last couple of days, watching your antics. The biggest threat you pose to me is if I break a fingernail and you decide to make it all better.” Her pacing stopped, but she continued her journey forward making Mercer shift uncomfortably beside Lainey as her eyes focused on him.
Stopping to stand in front of the vampire, the witch ran her hands along his battered arms and poked at one of the shallow wounds in his leg with her pointed shoe. He winced sharply. Smiling evilly, she whispered, “Kiss me, Mercer, and I’ll make it all better.”
“I’d rather die,” he bit out through gritted teeth and judging by the look upon his face, there was no word of a lie.
“We may be putting that little statement to the test in a moment, darling. I can’t help but wonder if you’re telling the truth. I think you’re just a big boy who’s unable to admit his feelings for me.” Straightening out the neckline of his sweater, she patted him upon the chest before slipping both hands downwards to burrow up inside his sweater.
“Get off me,” he barked, and his hands came out to shove her away but with a few words and a flick of her fingers, he found himself held fast against the wall.
“Hmm, I think we’ll keep you mute for the time being,” she purred, and Lainey was well aware that everything the witch did and said was for her benefit. Kalliope was playing with them. Trying to make her jealous, she guessed—another trigger to cross of her list.
Much as her hands itched to try to test her non-existent magic, she wisely kept them by her sides. Kalliope’s laughter would be unbearable. Besides, Mercer was a big boy. He could handle a pair of hands on his abs, distasteful as they might be. She needed to keep a calm head and make sure she didn’t do anything stupid. Trying to murder Kalliope with her fists was tempting, but unlikely to produce substantial results.
Watching the pair through narrowed eyes, she eventually stuck both of her arms between them, bravely eyeballing Kalliope. “What are we doing here? You want this, right?” Lainey waggled the serum in her hands, and smiled. “If you want the vampire, you can sort that out after we’ve traded secrets.”
Kalliope pulled back but only a step. She stared at Lainey and laughed. Reaching past Lainey, she ran her hand along Mercer’s face, which looked like he’d also happily murder her given half a chance. “And why on earth would I give you anything? You pose no threat to me. You don’t have the faintest idea of how to use your God given talents, do you? You’re the most pathetic excuse for a witch I’ve ever seen.”
Her smile turned nasty. Slowly drawing a black-handled steel Athamé dagger from her belt, she let the edges glint slowly in the light before holding it up to Mercer’s neck. “I can kill him in one of two ways, Lainey. I can sever his spinal cord, from which there is no return for a vampire, or I can flood him with magic. It doesn’t really matter what I do with him, although boiling his blood would probably be my preference, the point is… I could kill him in two seconds flat. Actually, I’m beginning to think he’s outlived his usefulness.” She pressed the sharpened dagger tight to his throat and a line of blood appeared. “How does it feel…to be utterly helpless, Lainey? I’m about to kill your protector and there is not a thing you can do to stop me.”
As if to confirm her words, the air bubbled around them and the room darkened. She began chanting and the dagger’s blade turned from silver to a fiercely glowing purple. Mercer’s eyes bulged inside his sockets, but he managed to whisper one word inside Lainey’s head before he lost his feet from under him. “No.”
Something pulsed through Lainey’s fingers but in the time it took her to process the feeling, Kalliope’s blade had already pierced his body. Faced with a moment of indecision, she found she was already too late, watching with shock as Mercer’s legs fell to the dirt floor. One part watched with sickened fascination as each of his limbs failed at once, shaking and flailing uncontrollably. His eyes immediately turned red and his screams of agony nearly brought the roof off. The other part of her went into overdrive. Revenge. She wanted nothing more than to rip Kalliope to pieces, lots of tiny little unrecognisable pieces that could never be put together again. Mercer’s one word echoed in her head, calming and halting her from what she knew was nothing more than a hallucination, no matter how real it seemed. Forcing her body to move, she dropped towards the floor and wrapped her healing hands around his shoulders. Magic was still an unknown quantity in her case, but at least she knew the power her hands could give.
Though he tried to shake his head telling not to do it, she paid no heed to his request. She didn’t care if she was too tired to fight another battle. If it meant she was about to go straight to her death, so be it. Lainey could not watch another being suffer in this manner, if she possessed the power to stop it.
Immediately bright white healing light pulsed through his body as she desperately tried to flush out the poison Kalliope had left with her knife. Working from top to bottom, as fast as she could, she began to remove the burning acid that was eating him alive. She had no idea if the power of her hands would be enough to save him, but she couldn’t sit there and do nothing. He had to live. He had to live. He. Had. To. Live.
As the life slowly drained out of Mercer’s body and nothing but the whites of his eyes were showing despite her desperate attempts to revive him, all Lainey would remember was the sound of Kalliope’s laughter penetrating deep inside her aching heartbroken head.
Preparing To Meet Death
One moment Mercer was on the floor in front of her dying and in the next, the world had tilted on its axis. The dream weave completely disappeared. Lainey had no idea how she knew this, but she trusted her instincts. They were on a new playing field, and this one had a different set of rules.
Looking around her, she found rough-hewn walls of stone, guttering lanterns, and aged timber floorboards beneath her. She was somewhere above the sea. The spaces between the slats of wood revealed moving water, and the white crests of small waves could be seen rocking to, and fro. Mercer was nowhere in sight. After a brief inspection, she found herself dressed in the same clothes she’d picked out that morning—a pair of black leggings and a thick woollen sweater. Finding herself clean, as if the dream weave had been nothing but a figment of her imagination, her gaze
immediately trailed towards her right hand. The serum. Thank God, she still held it tightly within her fingers for it might be the only bargaining tool she had, if she wanted to get out of here alive.
A flutter of urgency beat at her brain compelling her into action. Mercer. Kalliope would waste no time in taking his blood and binding her to him. Her vampire army would then be complete. Shit. She might already be too late.
Sprinting forwards, Lainey did not make the mistake of looking downwards. She focused her gaze straight ahead, and though her legs felt like lead and her heart was ready to explode, she willed herself onwards. This was important. For Mercer, this was worse than life or death. This was forever.
Hoping that she was travelling in the right direction, she forced herself to keep going using her arms against the walls to propel her when her legs began to falter. The glow of the lamps began to blur in her eyes and her vision became a distorted haze of wood, stone, and light, all spinning together. Stumbling, she pushed herself harder. Up ahead were two great big stone doors, carefully carved into the cliff’s edge, and she heard voices emanating from within. She prayed that one of them would be Mercer’s.
Bursting into the chamber was the not the brightest idea Lainey had ever had for she was immediately seized by two big burly cavemen and found the cold barrel of a gun pressed to the side of her head. Struggling wasn’t really an option, so she didn’t bother but her eyes scanned the contents of the room frantically. They’d obviously been waiting for her. As they adjusted their grip, she found thick meaty fingers digging into the soft skin of her forearms.
“Aren’t you lot supposed to be armed with ceremonial swords or something?” she bit out through a tense jaw.
“Nay, that went out in the 1900s, lass. Besides, ye need something a wee bit quicker when messing about with witches.” Lainey hadn’t actually expected a response and certainly not one with a Scottish brogue at that. Before she had time to wonder how they’d managed to traverse several hundred miles in under a day, bigger, and far more important, things caught her attention.
As they marched, or more accurately dragged her into the middle of the stone cavern, her gaze travelled up high to where hundreds of pieces of stained glass had been fashioned into a huge circular window, which was filtering through the last dying rays of the sun. Prisms of light spilled onto the stone floor beneath them creating intricate patterns of reds, purples, greens, and blues. Amid the patterns was an upside down pentagon, and several other symbols she did not recognise. When her eyes finished marvelling at the carefully created mosaic of light, they drifted towards the expanse of water in front her. It was a lake, which was a beautiful jade green in colour and perfectly still. The water was so clear every detail showed through perfectly. Underwater tunnels and brilliantly coloured fish riddled the lake, and judging by the expanse of tunnels it ran deep.
“Do you fancy a swim, little witch?”
Lainey’s head snapped up at the sound of Kalliope’s voice but before she could lay her eyes on the witch, a ball of dazzling violet energy landed on the lake electrifying the surface. Sparks fizzed and popped, and the beautiful calming green turned into an effervescent, swirling purple.
“Nice of you to join us, sweetie,” Kalliope’s voice carried across the water.
Across the lake on a raised dais sat the witch…and the vampire who had nearly chewed her neck off not more than a week ago. His glowing blue eyes were smiling at her, sending a chill over her for it was the cold merciless smile of impending doom.
The first time Lainey had laid eyes on him, she had been certain he would kill her. Due in part to her own foolish carelessness, after all doing the grocery shopping at ten at night was never a good move and doing it alone in a practically empty store hadn’t been one of her smartest ideas either. The vampire had been waiting for her. As soon as she had packed her bulging carrier bags into the back of the car and turned around, he’d appeared. His body had been inches away from hers and though she’d opened her mouth to scream her lungs dry, when he sank his fangs into her neck all sound had disappeared. The haze of pleasure had overtaken her body and all sensible thought had left. She’d been nothing more than a disposable meal ticket. The casual callous look he wore had spoken volumes, and whilst she’d had no time to prepare for death, she knew with a certainty that it was coming.
Except it hadn’t, for no sooner had he plunged his fangs into her neck and taken a couple of hearty pulls of her blood then he had pulled away, yelling viciously to himself in a language she had not understood. Thumping his fist against the roof of her car and leaving an impressive dent, he had stormed off into the night leaving her shuddering and bewildered. Lainey had driven home in fear of her life and so worried that she’d forgotten the groceries, which were left to rot in the back of the car until the next morning.
Suddenly it all made sense. “Kalliope stopped you. She wanted the serum and she needed me alive.”
The corner of his lip twitched. “Yes. Others wanted you dead immediately and I had been sent to dispose of you, but Kalliope presented me with a far more lucrative and rewarding option. You, Miss Hargreaves, are our ticket to great things. Money, power, an army of loyal supporters, and I believe that’s only the beginning isn’t it, darling?” His hand reached for Kalliope’s across the metal throne-like chairs they had seated themselves in, and she grasped it tightly and petted his arm.
“Only the tip of the iceberg, my dear.” Her voice was slow and syrupy, and it was clear she had the vampire firmly under her command though he didn’t appear to be aware of it.
Continuing with his self-important bluster, the monster said, “I am one of the most powerful vampires in Europe, bar perhaps Mercer and Gaius but now that we are allied together, there is no one and nothing that can stop us. You were the only little blip on our horizon, Lainey, but you’ve proved yourself inconsequential. We had a moment in the forest, when you looked like you might have some meat on your bones but your little jaunt through the dream weave reassured us, we have nothing to fear from you. Kalliope is at the top of her craft and alas, you are way down at the bottom. So we’ll have that serum now and its recipe, and then you can go quietly into the sunset, little one.” Caressing the line of his cheekbone with a long fingernail while his tongue gently curled around his upper lip, in case she was in any doubt as to his meaning, he added. “Or noisily, for that matter, we don’t much care.”
Lainey felt her eyes narrow and she automatically hardened her stance, her feet moving to an a-frame position. Her fingers gripped the small glass tube of serum tightly and she uttered only a single word. “No.”
“No?” The vampire raised his eyebrows in an amused fashion and threaded the fingers of both hands together, clasping them in front of him. Turning to his cohort in crime, he smiled at Kalliope. “Then it’s over to you, my dear.”
Kalliope blinked once and then her lips began to move. The vial that Lainey held began to shake madly so she crushed her hand around it determined not to lose her prize. It was possibly the only bargaining chip she had left in the fight to get her and Mercer out of here, and she could not lose it.
Standing to her full height, Kalliope swung both of her hands upwards as her chants increased in volume. The lake in front of Lainey churned and bubbled, and steam began to rise from it. Then the vial inside her fist began to grow hot, so hot that it burned her skin. Shrieking from the pain, she let go of it and clutched at her wrist. The vial containing the serum sailed over her head safely across the lake and landed neatly in Kalliope’s palm. A long rectangular burn in an angry shade of red blistered upon Lainey’s skin. It throbbed and pulsed, forming a little heartbeat of its own and Lainey’s eyes began to fill with tears. She’d failed miserably.
“There, there. That wasn’t so bad, was it? Now it’s time to test the efficacy of your work.” Kalliope examined the tube in front of her and her eyes sparkled with malice. Returning her gaze to Lainey, she said, “So, now that I have what I need from you, I guess I can let
Matthieu finish the job I so rudely interrupted last week, or I can let you watch as I end Mercer’s so-called life. Which would you prefer? I’ll leave the choice up to you.”
Lainey’s hands shook as the full reality of what was happening crashed down upon her. She’d failed in every possible way. Would her death be preferable to watching the lights go out in Mercer’s eyes? Did she want to spend her last moments watching her vampire suffer? Watching the vampire she loved suffer. It was about time she admitted it to herself. They’d been through a lifetime of emotions in a little over two days. Why not love? Did she want to watch as another witch took that last little piece of her, stamping down on her heart as if it were nothing more than a used can of cola? She should choose death. Kalliope had already taken far too much from her. It was the kinder option.
“I want to watch.” Lainey had no idea who had spoken those words but they couldn’t have come from her, could they? Slapping her hands over her mouth, she wondered at her stupidity but the deed had been done. It looked like her last moments alive were going to feel somewhat akin to those of her ancestors burned at the stake—a veritable inferno of pain.
“I was hoping you’d say that.” Kalliope smiled at Matthieu. “I win the bet, sweetness. She’s not half as cowardly as you thought.” There might have been a tiny glimmer of respect in the witch’s eyes but it faded almost as soon as it appeared, only to be replaced with a heat that Lainey understood all too well. Desire.
One of the guards led Mercer onto the stage by a leash, and he was crawling on all fours. Stumbling was probably a better word, for they had beaten him black and blue. Not an inch of his body had been spared as they had set about breaking him. His left eye had swelled to such an extent that he couldn’t see out of it, and his nose had been broken. Judging by the way he tried to keep his mid-section still as he moved, they’d most likely damaged a couple of ribs as well. In addition, there were cuts, tears, oozing blood, and the whites of bones on display, which normally were tucked neatly inside skin. Lainey wished there and then that she had chosen death. She wanted to sink to her knees and pray for this to be over. She wanted oblivion, and she wanted it now.
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