Dance With Death

by Becca Vincenza

  “Balthazar,” I warned.

  He leaned forward, closing his eyes and flaring his nostrils. His tongue peeked out, unable to resist the temptation that was before him. Pulling back, I tried to stop him from licking the blood away. If rumors were correct about vampires, if they got as much as a drop of your blood, they could track you down anywhere you went. The thought terrified me because if we managed to find a way out of the contract, would he let me go?

  “Balthazar!”

  He growled at me but pulled away and took a couple steps back. “Go inside the club and wait for me. I need to calm down,” Balthazar instructed with a thick voice.

  I backed away from him, but like a wild animal, I never turned my back to him. Once I hit the edge of the building, I walked further down the alleyway until Balthazar disappeared from view. The burn from my brand had cooled to the point where I could ignore the tingle for a little longer.

  Expanding my senses once again, I felt the alluring draw of death. The scent, a dangerous waltz of death, tickled my nose and had me surging forward. I breathed it in deeper. Like a tether, it pulled me closer and closer. The alleyway opened to the other side of the road. I followed the pull farther down the street.

  Once there, the ghost I met at Ever’s club waited. He was fully clothed, thank goodness, but the haunted look in his eyes told me he was on the verge of losing it. I wondered what triggered him.

  “Hey,” I called out, not remembering if he’d given me his name the last time we spoke.

  “Him. He was there.”

  “You’re going to have to give me a little more than that.”

  “It was him.”

  Abel had the patience of a saint, but he took my share of it in the womb and left me with a very short fuse. Breathing in deeply, I noticed that the air around the ghost was thickening. The streetlamps across the road flickered in a way typically caused by supernatural forces. Whatever. It probably meant that whomever he saw triggered his undead anger.

  “Who’s him?” I tried again.

  “He did it. He bought me and the others.”

  Blood rushed in my ears, and my vision tunneled. Bought. He bought them. The ghosts we’d been trying to find were sold like cattle and murdered. While logic reminded me that humans still used slavery, it burned my insides. A rage I couldn’t control crashed over me like tumultuous waves against a stormy beach.

  Having just kissed a man who had essentially bought me, my heart shuddered for a moment. My lip twitched downwards. The ghost’s words hit me hard in a deep place that I’d tried to smother, so I could deal with it later. After. My magic crackled between my fingers. I felt just as in sync with it as before, but this time it was stronger. Much stronger.

  Pulsing a wave of my power outwards, I felt the corpses stir within a cemetery several miles away. Tantalized by the strength of my pull, tendrils of my powers flicked out, combined with more Control Lines than I’ve ever produced before. Wrapping around the ghost, my Control Lines captured him, and his gaze shot to me. The anger I felt flared through his undead eyes back at me.

  “Release me.”

  “Tell me everything.”

  His lips peeled back in a snarl, and his canines elongated and thickened. Shifter Curse Breakers were very rare, since most witches or mages didn’t want to deal with their kind. But they still existed. Someone was always getting pissed off with one family and cursing human children for a certain number of years. But once the curse was broken, the next shifter born was often born as an Alpha. One comparable to a werewolf Alpha.

  “They stole everything from me. Hunted me down with a wisp,” he snarled.

  Chapter 15

  “A wisp?” I questioned as I tightened my control around the ghost, my tattoo flaring as I borrowed Abel’s strength.

  My world felt as if it had tilted off its axis. Not Willow. Even as I tried to convince myself, I knew wisps weren’t exactly common. As I tried to right the thoughts spinning a million directions in my head, the shifter began to speak again.

  “I was an Alpha. Powerful, with a pack I had to leave behind. I don’t even know what became of them. But I vow to destroy those who took me away from my family.”

  I could relate to all his feelings, considering the situation in which I currently found myself. Anger pierced me, but more than that, helplessness fueled me. I didn’t yet know what was real, but all the facts pointed to Willow being the wisp who was helping this mysterious murderer. Or at least getting these Curse Breakers into a position to be killed.

  But who was killing them and why? Why wasn’t he naked like the other two? Had he spent more time as a ghost and managed to figure this afterlife-ness out?

  “Can you tell me who bought you?”

  An anguished look crossed the ghost’s features. “Not sure who bought me, but I know a little blondie touched my arm one day, and next thing I knew, my world went spinning. My pack screamed for me in my head, but there was nothing I could do for them. I was kept drugged and spelled up until the night of the auction.”

  “Can you tell me more about the blonde? How did you know she was a wisp?”

  The shifter gave me a half smile and released a breathy laugh, full of ill humor. “You know her, don’t you? Tell me, necro, how many wisps have you met in your life?”

  Pressing my lips together, I didn’t answer. Even if I was young in the eyes of most Mystics, I knew the chances of me meeting a wisp at all during my lifetime were slim to none. From what I gleaned from Willow, they lived in the forests of Scotland. When their powers were discovered by some power-hungry Mystics, they became even more reclusive.

  “Exactly,” the shifter ghost snarled. “That bitch sensed my powers and cast a sleeping spell on me. After that, I was placed into a holding cell before the auction. Whoever ran the fucking thing was a real piece of work, too. He kept the wisp next to him the whole time. When I was placed up on the chopping block, the wisp was there to verify to the buyers that I was a bona fide Curse Breaker. My line hadn’t been cursed long since my grandparents worked hard on finding a way out of the curse, but it was enough to rack up my price.”

  “Did you see any of the sellers?”

  The shifter laughed again. “First time on the job, little necro?” His nostrils flared as if he wanted to take in my scent. But even as he tried, the realization stole over his features. In death, he wouldn’t be able to scent the emotions or garner any information from me other than my words.

  “What’s wrong with my question?”

  “Maybe it’s bitter resentment that I’m dead, and my case is in your hands.”

  Using my powers, I twisted a bit more strength and control over the Alpha shifter. He snarled, and I gritted my teeth at the power behind his rising anger.

  “I’m trying to help you!”

  He closed his eyes, visibly trying to calm his anger, and continued, “For slave auctions like the one I was held at, the buyers don’t show up in person. That would be too dangerous, you see. They use decoys with phones who make the bids, or they video in with their side of the call blacked out. I don’t know who bought me, because after being purchased, they kept me sedated. It wasn’t until I woke up dead that I realized they had killed me.”

  I mulled over everything he said. A slave trade...an auction...and there were Curse Breakers involved. What was the end game? There were too many unanswered questions, and I knew he couldn’t give me the information I needed. But there was someone who could.

  I needed backup. And help.

  “Well, do you want to stick around here and hope my brother eventually comes out to help you, or do you want to follow me and get help from a group of professionals?”

  The choice seemed obvious enough for me. I spun on my heel and walked away from the ghost, giving him the choice to follow or not. I had his imprint, so I could call him to my side if need be, but I wanted him to help us voluntarily, so we could secure justice for his lost life.

  Balthazar was waiting for me at the other
entrance to the alleyway. As I approached, he stepped out of the shadows. “Anything interesting?” he asked, indicating to the area where I’d spoken with the ghost.

  “Interesting enough,” I answered unhelpfully. “Look—I’m going to head back.”

  “Please allow me to walk with you. This night has been a bit of a disaster, but it would be wrong of me not to escort you home,” Balthazar said.

  “That’s not necessary.” After talking with a ghost who was killed after being sold to someone, being close and friendly with my own slaver wasn’t exactly appealing. While I understood Balthazar and I were both pawns in the game, I was still bound to him against my will. I still had a lot to learn about my powers, but maybe one day I would be able to control him. Until then, he would have the advantage.

  “Yes, it is. The city is large and dangerous. It would be wrong of me not to take my deehire home.”

  I cringed at the title he gave me. “Do you truly want this?” I asked, unable to bite my tongue about it.

  Balthazar’s heated gaze dragged down my body, pausing at my curves and settling back onto my lips. I waited for a shiver of anticipation or even delight to be aroused from his perusal. At most, a slight warmth brushed my cheeks, but nothing that stroked an inferno. Then I remembered a touch that did, which caused my blush to deepen.

  “What is there not to want?” he answered smoothly. “As I get to know you more, you have a very desirable effect.”

  “Hmm, what every girl dreams of. Giving a guy a feeling of desirable effect.”

  “Twist my words if you must, but your lack of desire will not change the outcome.”

  That’s what you think. It was hard to think of Balthazar as the bad guy when he offered to walk me home and make sure I arrived safely. But with a ghost following close behind, it was easier to remember why I was going to such great lengths. Not only because I desired my freedom, but everything else that came with it. I wanted to catch the mastermind behind the plot to capture, purchase, and slaughter Curse Breakers.

  Abel was doing everything in his power to find a way out of my contract since I couldn’t do it without drawing the vampires’ attention. While he was busy helping me, I vowed I wouldn’t disappoint him.

  The short drive back to the apartment complex made me twitchy. Balthazar had insisted on calling a town car when I would have happily taken a cab or even caught the bus. Using a bus was always trickier since the apartment looked like an abandoned warehouse to human’s eyes.

  When we pulled up, Balthazar stepped outside to open my door, even though I was already halfway out of the car. “Thanks again for the ride. I’ll see you soon.”

  Balthazar gently circled my wrist with his hand and brushed his thumb over my pulse. I feared Nix wouldn’t approve of having uninvited Mystics so close to his headquarters. While there were others living there, and the building acted as the apartment building it portrayed, I felt as if the others were spies for Nix. People he trusted to be around sensitive information.

  “You will. Until we meet next, my deehire.”

  When Balthazar lifted my wrist to his lips and pressed a lingering kiss at my pulse, I smothered the urge to snatch my hand back from him. Instead, I smoothed my face into the best smile I could muster.

  “Until next time.” And because I lacked any sort of finesse or chill, I punched his shoulder lightly and retreated to the apartment complex without a glance back. I had no clue how to respond to him. He didn’t make my heart flutter, and the very real possibility of us living the rest of our lives together was daunting.

  “Shoulder punch. Not the way I would have gone.”

  I growled at the ghost still standing next to me. He had followed us into the town car and was fairly silent through the whole drive.

  “Who is he to you, anyways?” he asked curiously.

  “Real quick question for you before we get into the more personal stuff going on with me. What’s your name?”

  “Jason Montgomery.”

  “Jason Montgomery, can I call you Wolfie-boy?”

  He growled, although the sound lacked the fire it probably had when he was still alive. “Only if you want to join me in this hell.”

  “Did you just say Jason Montgomery?”

  Breaking up our bonding moment, Indigo stood right inside the door, staring at me. Now that we were away from the harsh streetlights, and even with the look of confusion and desperation on his face, I could tell Jason had been a looker in his former life. Maybe not a classic beauty with a sharp jawline covered with stubble and high cheekbones, but I bet this boy crushed quite a few hearts in his lifetime.

  “Um, yeah?”

  “The Alpha shifter who left his pack in disarray almost six months ago?”

  I looked over at Jason for confirmation. Instead, he gave me another haunted look, power swelling around him. To Indigo, it probably felt like the temperature had dropped a couple degrees.

  “Six months? You mean I’ve been dead for half a year?”

  “Well, maybe not dead, exactly. You could have been missing for that long and only recently died.”

  “That doesn’t make it any better.”

  “Sorry! Just trying to help.” I lifted my hands up in surrender.

  Jason glared at me, and I realized just how Alpha he was. That stare would give even a werewolf pause.

  “Stop with the helping. Got it,” I said, folding my arms over my chest and looking over at Indigo. His nostrils flared as he took in the scene before him. A myriad of emotions played over his features; some I could decipher, others that were a mystery.

  “Where have you been, Rowan?”

  “Training.” Sort of. Technically, I was brushing up on my detective skills. So not really a lie, just a stretch of the truth that would keep his sniffer from knowing the difference.

  “Where were you training?”

  “Here, there, all over the city, really,” I offered dismissively. “Can’t keep going to the same cemetery all the time, you know. While one grave keeper might be okay with me doing the Thriller dance with skeletal remains, not everyone appreciates it.”

  “What about just now, Rowan?”

  He was taking on an angry, annoyed tone he never had when we were kids. Idly, I wondered what was bringing it on now. Either way, he meant business, and it meant he would keep digging until he got answers.

  “Does it really matter? I have a new contact, and he has some very interesting information that I’m sure Nix would be interested in hearing.”

  “It matters to me,” Indigo retorted through clenched teeth. He stalked forward, and I tucked my wrist behind my back, wishing I had a moment to run to the bathroom to try and wipe away the scent of vampire. Chapstick, hopefully, masked most of the scent of Balthazar on my lips.

  “I don’t feel like this is something we need to figure out right this second.”

  “Where, Rowan?”

  Indigo was cornering me, and I hadn’t been paying enough attention. With my back to the wall and my wrist trapped behind me, I didn’t have anywhere to look but up into those dangerously blue eyes that knew too much. My heart pounded in my chest as the butterflies that were so silent with Balthazar fluttered around with wild abandon. Risking another peek up, his far-too-kissable lips beckoned me forward. This was how it felt so long ago. So right, so tempting that young, hormonal Rowan couldn’t resist. Hell, adult Rowan was having a hard time trying to resist.

  Indigo brushed his fingers over my cheeks. “I’ve missed you.”

  His words caused a deep ache in my heart, reminding me why I continued to resist. Why it was imperative to stop this before it even began. “You’re the one who left.”

  He closed his eyes as pain flickered over his face. “Do you think I don’t regret that every waking moment? Every time you push me away? If I could have taken you with me, I would have.”

  “But you didn’t, Indigo. And we all have to live with our decisions.”

  “Are you saying you’ve already made yo
urs? With the reek of that vampire on your skin?” Indigo bared his sharpened canines at me, his wolf lingering in his eyes.

  I shoved him, placing my hands directly on his chest. “Fuck you.”

  “Did you let him, just to get a couple more months free from your wedding?” Indigo spat.

  The air left my lungs as rage fueled my insides. I didn’t even feel my hand move until it struck him across the face. “Who I decide to fuck is my choice. Not yours to judge or comment on,” I seethed.

  “Yes, it is!” Indigo raged back.

  “Why?”

  Indigo opened his mouth to answer when the clacking of footsteps hit the tile.

  “Is there something wrong?” Nix asked with a level of calm neither one of us felt.

  Indigo took a measured step back and tried to school his features into an emotionless mask. “Rowan has some new information to share with us.”

  Nix nodded his head. “Indigo, go grab Cornelius and Kayana. I believe they will want to hear of this new development as well.” Nix indicated for me to follow him to his office, adding, “Rowan.”

  Dread pooled in my gut as I watched Indigo walk away. What was he about to say? Why was I still holding my breath to find out?

  Chapter 16

  I squirmed in my seat. Next to me, the ghost sighed heavily as he rolled his eyes. Across from me, a werewolf sat behind his desk with his hands steepled, and his elbows propped on the desk, watching me with a pensive gaze. I cracked my middle finger as I waited for him to speak.

  “Did I walk into a rom-com of some sorts? I thought you said you were going to help me find out who killed me, so I could have justice?” Jason said, Nix completely unaware of him.

  “Shut up,” I mumbled out of the corner of my mouth, refusing to look his way.

  “Excuse me?” Nix asked before settling back into his seat.

  “Nothing.” I wasn’t ready to reveal that I’d brought another ghost into his building, even though he had expressly forbidden me from doing it just a couple days prior.