I slapped him across the back of the head as I ran passed him. Sedgrave’s eyes widened as he watched me continue. This distracted him enough, and his sun attack on Emma ended. I kept my forward momentum up and slammed into his stomach with all my might. I must have hit him wrong, because as I slammed into him, I felt a horrible pain in my chest.
We toppled to the ground. I used that moment to grab his hair and slam his head into the pavement. He must have done something to me, because I felt a sharp pain in my own head. With some sort of power-wave, he flung me off of him. I flew a few feet back, landing in the squishy grass of the capitol lawn.
I would have simply run back to him, but I was too busy dodging the downswing of one of his mounted warriors. I rolled away. Her horse side-stepped and sputtered in anger. This gave me the half second I needed to climb to my feet. Before she could get her steed under control, I ran to her side, grabbed her arm, gagged at the slimy feeling of her damp, clammy skin, and yanked her off her horse. Though she was stronger than a human, I was stronger still. I forced her sword arm around until she brought her own blade to her stomach and slammed it down. She skewered herself.
I left her to die and ran back to the action. The wizards were doing their best. Lauren and Edith were flinging fire, lightning, and wind at our foes, occasionally detaching them from a fierce grapple with one of our numbers. Thus far, I hadn’t seen any of the warriors alight with mystical fire. Helen knelt a few feet behind the other wizards. She looked like she was praying. I just hoped it was a useful prayer.
Josh was dodging attacks from one of the women, though from the looks of it, she had gotten him in the shoulder at least once. Emma was still on the ground, Nik was having a staring contest with Sedgrave, and Mikhail was fighting two mounted warriors at once. It was like watching Yoda fight with a lightsaber in the prequels—nothing but a blur of motion.
There were two women trying to get at Helen, but Lauren and Edith were keeping them busy. I ran toward the last mounted warrior, who was sneaking around the side of the battle to attack Helen from behind. I raced behind her horse, jumped, and landed on the animal’s rump, much like they do in corny, samurai movies. The woman had barely noticed me before I took a firm hold on her chin and snapped her neck. She toppled off the horse. I scooted forward into the saddle and grabbed the reins.
The last time I rode a horse, it had been on a trail ride on a camping trip when I was eleven. I assumed riding a warhorse wasn’t that different. I was wrong.
I had to pull on the reins twice before I got the animal to turn back to the battle. With a lot of struggling, I got the animal pointed at Sedgrave, who was still trying to win the staring contest with Nik. My guess was the warlock was trying to bend Nik to his will, and Nik was fighting it.
I kicked the horse a few times until it seemed to be at top speed. We barreled into Sedgrave, effectively knocking him to the ground. The horse must have lost its footing, because I found myself falling painfully to the ground. This gave Nik a chance do something more than just stare at the warlock. He pulled an impressive dagger from a sheath on his belt and drove it into Sedgrave’s gut.
I screamed!
I’m not sure how, but my cry of pain brought everyone to a standstill. I struggled to prop myself up on my elbow to look down at my gut. It was already covered in dark red blood. I turned to look at Sedgrave and his stomach wound.
The warlock had already clamped his hand over the wound in an effort to keep his life-blood from escaping. To my surprise, Governor McMorris rushed to Sedgrave’s side, despite our nearness, and began applying pressure on the wound. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.
“I need an ambulance at the capitol building.”
“Robbers,” whispered Sedgrave.
“Some robbers stabbed my intern. This is Governor McMorris.”
Nik ignored them as he crawled to my side. He scooped me up in his arms and bolted to the SUVs. “Retreat,” he ordered unnecessarily. Everyone was already running away.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Once again, Nik carried me into the seethe. I was starting to get rather tired of this. One of these days I intended to walk in under my own strength, even if my legs had been chewed off by a thousand fire-breathing ants.
The drive to the seethe had been a mad dash, due to the fact my wound wasn’t closing fast enough. I felt bad for whichever human got stuck with cleaning that SUV. Even now, I was leaving a trail of large drops of blood down the hallway.
Jim, bless him, was already opening the door to Mikhail’s office. I wasn’t sure how he knew exactly when we would be arriving, but he was always prepared with just what we needed. Maybe there was an app for that.
Sitting on the floor next to the couch was a large cooler. Jim flipped the lid and pulled out a blood bag for me. He then turned to Emma who was lying on the floor, her body still covered in blisters and charred skin from Sedgrave’s sunlight spell. Jim handed her a bag and placed a second one next to her head.
“What about the humans you insisted I have?” I asked as the others filed into the office.
“You’ve fed on them too recently, especially for people not used to feeding a vampire,” explained a tired Mikhail. “Blood bags will have to do.”
I didn’t argue. I would much rather feed from a blood bag than a human. I slurped the red liquid down as fast as I could while Nik gently placed me on the couch and began to inspect my wound. Jim had another bag for me open and ready when I was finished with my first. I noticed Mikhail and Josh were also feeding. After Jim handed me my third bag, he turned to the humans and began offering them food, coffee, or alcohol. Lauren took a tea—earl gray—but the others refused his service.
It was a few minutes, and a lot of blood, before anyone was willing or able to talk.
“So that didn’t go according to plan,” murmured Josh over the edge of his second bag.
I noticed most of the group shook their heads. I felt Josh’s declaration was a rather large understatement. I looked down to see Nik examining my wound again. It was healing, but still much slower than we would have expected, especially considering the amount of blood I had just consumed. No doubt the delay was due to the extremely unusual way I had obtained it.
Before anyone could say anything more, the door creaked open and Samuel slipped in.
“That was faster than I was expecting,” he said. Then he looked around at our faces. “Did you get him?”
“No. We ran into a number of difficulties.”
“Such as?”
“First of all, he didn’t follow Emma, as planned. He attacked her right away,” said Mikhail.
Helen was already sitting next to Emma, examining her wounds. The wizard had helped me heal when Sedgrave used the same spell on me. She would be Emma’s best bet to heal quickly.
“We ran to Emma’s aid, but we discovered the governor’s security teams were actually Valkyries,” said Mikhail.
“What? I’ve seen them with the governor on T.V., they are men,” said Samuel.
“Somehow Sedgrave found a way to hide their true selves.”
“You mean those women on the horses? I thought they were just fae using a glamor,” I said as I tried to sit up to join the conversation, but Nik pushed me back into the fluffy cushions of the couch.
“No, they’re not fae. They’re something else entirely. I’ve never seen them use a glamor before. That’s why their involvement took us so completely by surprise,” explained Mikhail.
“So you ran when you discovered they were Valkyries?” There was no derision or judgment in Samuel’s voice, as though he himself would have run once he learned their true identity.
“No, we stayed and fought. It wasn’t until Nik stabbed Sedgrave that we ran.” Mikhail poured himself a glass of dark liquor from the table beside the couch.
“I don’t get it.”
“When Nik stabbed Sedgrave, Ashley’s stomach opened up, as though she had received the wound, too,” explained Mikhail.
“Her life force is what is keeping him here?” Samuel asked.
The room was silent, no one willing to put the obvious answer into words.
“Shit,” I snapped. It wasn’t just that I was terrified and angry; I hoped my sudden exclamation might break the tension building between our small group of allies. Everyone turned to look at me. “I think we all sort of saw this coming. No reason to get our knickers in a twist over something we can’t help.”
As I expected, Lauren chuckled half-heartedly. It was something.
“Ashley, we’ll figure this out. I promise,” said Nik.
Unsurprisingly, Josh was the next to reassure me. “We’re not gonna let anything happen to you.”
“They’re right, Ashley,” added Mikhail.
I was about to run screaming from the room when the door burst open, and Periphetes traipsed in, attention for no one in the room, but Mikhail.
“I came as soon as I had something to share. I have it on good authority that Winter is working for Sedgrave, too.”
“Does Summer know this?” I asked from where I lounged on the couch next to Nik.
Periphetes looked down at me, noticing there were others in the room for the first time. He knelt beside me.
“What happened?” he asked as he shifted a small piece of my shirt to see the mostly healed wound.
We spent the next few minutes sharing with him what we had just discussed with Samuel. Once again, we all lapsed into dismal silence. I had no doubt the others were thinking the same thing as I was: How do we kill our enemy if I am so deeply connected to him? Would his death mean my death?
“So you know Winter is working for Segrave, too?” I asked, trying to pull all of us away from the cheerful topic of my death.
Periphetes nodded. “I doubt they know Summer is working for him as well.”
“You didn’t tell them?” Mikhail asked.
“No. I am Winter by birth, not inclination. I am tired of the constant warring between the courts and will have nothing to do with their feud.”
“How will they feel when they hear Summer is working for him, too?” asked Josh.
“Not well, I would suspect. They view Sedgrave as their tool, rather than them being subservient to him. They will not be happy to hear their minion is playing both sides,” explained Periphetes.
“You think we could get them to agree to a peace treaty?” Mikhail asked.
“It would be difficult, but not impossible. It depends on your argument.”
“How ‘bout the fact Sedgrave double crossed them both!” I suggested as I sat up, despite Nik’s restraining hand. The wound was finally healed sufficiently for movement.
“Why is Winter working with him? Summer hopes to use his power to overthrow Winter, what does Winter want from him?” asked Mikhail as he took another sip of his drink. The questions sounded rhetorical, as though he didn’t expect anyone to have an actual answer.
“I would guess Winter wants what Summer wants: to have complete control over the area. To enslave Summer, and the wolves, and the seethes. Fae are power-hungry beasts,” added Periphetes, fully willing to admit to his own weakness.
“Then we need to use their power-hungry tendencies to our advantage,” I said. “Point out that Sedgrave is taking power from them, not giving it to them. Make them see him as a threat to their goal, rather than an aid.”
This short speech left me breathless, and I reclined back into the cushions. Why was I so tired? This wound shouldn’t leave me so exhausted, especially now that it was healed.
“When did you get so smart?” asked Mikhail with a smirk.
I stuck my tongue out at him without sitting up again.
“I agree with Ashley,” he continued, ignoring my lack of manners. “Periphetes, will you approach Orythyia and see if she would be open to a peaceful meeting between the courts.”
“Who will talk with Summer?” asked Periphetes.
“We have a connection. Ask Orythia to meet tomorrow night at the empty car lot in the Auto Mall.”
Periphetes nodded once before exiting in a rush of cold air. With his departure, I felt the temperature in the room climb and noticed the humans rubbing their hands together.
“Nik, help Ashley down to her room. I’ll get Emma settled. Helen, do you have something that can help her?”
“Yes, at my house. I’ll return as soon as I can.”
“Thank you,” said Mikhail, before lifting the unconscious Emma into his arms.
I felt a stab of guilt run through me. I had hated Emma ever since I met her, for good reason mind you, and yet here she was, badly hurt because of me. In that moment, I made a resolution to try to be nicer to her. I didn’t expect much success, but I would at least try.
My musings were interrupted when Nik slipped his arms under me and lifted me off the couch.
Oh crap! Being alone with Nik was the last thing I wanted.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t breathe the whole way down to my lower-level room, and I’m pretty sure Nik noticed. We reached my room, where Tereus was happily napping. Nik set me on the bed, just a hair rougher than I had expected.
“Tereus, could you give us a moment?”
The cat blinked a few times, gave a mighty yawn, and turned to look at me. “Do you want me to stay?”
YES! my mind screamed. Instead I shook my head. Nik would insist on talking whether Tereus was there, or not. My horny, male cat being absent would make it just a tiny bit less awkward.
Tereus proceeded to stretch out each muscle, taking his precious time, before hopping off the bed and leaving the room. I did my best to look at everything other than man standing in my room.
I knew I was avoiding the issue again, but I couldn’t help it. It was like my go-to reaction for awkward situations, and this was tipping the scale of “my worst nightmare.”
“Well?” I asked when he didn’t make the first move.
Nik was silent for another agonizing moment before speaking. “You’ve made it clear that our kiss meant nothing to you, but I’m here to tell you otherwise.”
“Oh, ‘cause my opinion on the subject means nothing?”
“That’s not what I said.”
“Sure sounded like it.”
“You’re putting words in my mouth, again.”
“Better than my tongue,” I said before I could censure myself. I glanced up at Nik for the first time to see his reaction to my epically stupid statement.
He looked… determined.
And suddenly I felt very nervous.
Nik reached down and lifted me off the bed until I was standing in front of him. He leaned down, his lips close enough to sense without actually touching mine. I wouldn’t have even had to rise up on my tip toes to close the distance; the slightest movement of my head would have sufficed.
I felt a heat rise up in me, making my palms sweat and my cheeks glow with an embarrassing blush. My lips tingled, begging me to close the distance. I felt my hands rise up, nearly touching his chest before I realized what I was about to do.
I instantly pulled back until I bumped into my nightstand. Maybe I was just horny like my cat? Another blush blended in with the last.
Nik smirked at me. “That’s what I thought.”
I gave him my dirtiest glare, which probably lost a lot effect due to the fact I was still breathing heavily and having to pin myself to my furniture to keep from molesting him.
“Not fair.”
“No. You saying there’s nothing going on here is ‘not fair’.”
I let out a gusty sigh, determined to reign myself in. “Nik, believe it or not, but women like sex too. Mind you, that doesn’t mean I want to jump in the sack with you. I’m just saying, maybe I’m a little lonely right now. Still doesn’t mean I’m head-over-heels in love with you.
Besides, there are a few things in my life that scream ‘don’t get in a relationship’.”
“You mean the fact you appear to be linked to Sedgrave?”
“Yeah. He needs to die. And I’m prepared to die with him, therefore why start something that will just end in tears?”
“Let me get this straight, you mean my tears,” Nik clarified with a smirk.
“Well, yeah. In this eventuality, I’d be dead.”
Nik took the one step necessary to close the distance between us. “That is a horrible excuse, and you know it.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat just in time to feel his lips press gently against mine. I held perfectly still, willing myself not to react to his touch. Clearly he wasn’t getting the message.
I was just starting to lean into the kiss when he pulled away and looked down at me.
“Game on,” he said before swinging gracefully out of the room.
Dammit!
Hadn’t I just told him I wasn’t interested in him? How did he construe interest from what I had just said? Was it simply the fact I had sorta leaned into his kiss.
Double dammit!
I was still standing against my nightstand, trying to figure out what had just happened, when I heard a tap on the door.
I took a deep breath, trying to shove my issues deep down where they wouldn’t show on my face, and opened the door.
Josh stood on the other side, Tereus sitting a few feet away, glaring at Josh’s back. I felt my stomach drop into my knees as I stared at my friend; my friend who was also romantically interested in me, though not quite as forceful.
He glanced around my room. “Nik already gone?”
I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t help it. Of course, Josh could smell Nik’s recent presence.
“Yes, he’s gone.”
“I thought you might need a little wind-down time,” he explained, holding up a DVD and a steaming bag of popcorn.
I felt my face break out into a giant smile. Even when Josh’s company seemed like the last thing I wanted, he showed up with a dumb movie and made it all better. His very presence was restful and safe.
“That’d be great. Your room?” I asked. It was a dumb question. I didn’t have a TV.
The Series that Just Plain Sucks: The Complete Trilogy Page 45