by Alyssa Day
“Ven?” Erin’s whisper floated through the darkness to him. “Would you like some light?”
He gave himself a mental smack for not thinking of it earlier. “Yeah, that would be nice. A little witch light to illuminate the path. Can you conjure up just a flashlight-sized ball?”
She sighed. “We’re going to have to discuss all of these misconceptions you seem to have about witches at some point, you realize that, right?”
“Add it to the list,” he muttered. A light flared behind him, and then a fist-sized ball of light bounced over his shoulder through the air until it floated about five paces in front of him. “Thanks, Erin. That helps a lot. My head couldn’t take much more self-inflicted pounding.”
“How far have we walked?” she asked.
“One hundred and sixty-four steps,” he answered automatically.
“You’re counting the steps?”
“It’s good to know the direction and length of any escape routes.”
Silence for several more steps.
“Okay, that’s a good point. Maybe when I give you lessons in ‘witch,’ you can give me lessons in ‘warrior.’”
He nodded, grimly amused. “Sure. Add—”
“It to the list,” she finished for him. “That’s getting to be quite a list.”
“Works for me, since I’m planning—” The faint scratching sound alerted him before his eyes could find its source. “Erin, shield!”
Ven bent his knees into a fighting stance and raised his sword. The scratching turned into the scrambling of claws on rock, and it was coming from overhead. “We’ve got company, and I’m guessing vamp,” he called out. “Watch out from the roof.”
A hissing sound and foul smell like noxious air escaping a tire was his only warning before two vamps attacked him from above. He twisted and plunged his sword into the neck of one of them as the other smashed a fist into the side of his head, bouncing his poor abused skull off yet another wall.
He swore a blue streak in Atlantean as he wrenched his sword sideways and down, crudely but effectively slicing the head of vamp number one from its body. Vamp number two hissed at the sight, then leapt at Ven. He pulled his sword up into the ready position, but before the vamp ever made it to him, a bolt of sizzling energy zapped it right in the middle of its forehead. The silvery-blue energy shot through all the vamp’s limbs and into its skull, illuminating it from inside like a bizarre, anatomically correct piece of modern art. Bloodsuckers by Damien Hirst.
Then it exploded into a pile of smoking slime, and he barely jumped back out of the way in time to avoid getting splattered with decomposing vamp.
“Hey! If you’re going to use the Wilding to explode vamps, I’m entirely in agreement with that plan. But give a man a chance to get out of the line of fire, so to speak,” he said, turning to face Erin.
She stood, mouth hanging open, with her hands still raised. As he watched her, she slowly blinked once, then finally lowered her hands. “What? That was…oh, wow. Wow. What just happened? Did I really do that? I had no idea…”
As her voice trailed off, he shot a glance farther down the descending tunnel, to see if more vamps or maybe a few shifters were hot on their buddies’ trail. Her witch light, amazingly, still hung in the air. “We need to get going. I have a feeling that those vamps may have been reacting to you busting through their warding, which means more will be on the way when they don’t come back and report.”
He carefully studied her for signs of shock, but other than the slightly stunned expression in her eyes, she seemed fine. More than fine, considering the fierce look of joy that slowly lit up her face. “I exploded a vampire, Ven. I called the Wilding and exploded a vampire. Do you know what that means?”
“I should be careful never to get on your bad side?”
She ignored his feeble attempt at humor and raised her arms until a silvery-blue translucent glow covered her entire body. “I can destroy them, Ven. I can destroy them all.”
He grabbed her arms, noticing and filing away the slight zap of electrical shock that sizzled up his hands to his shoulders from touching her. “You’re not invulnerable, Erin, and a master vamp has defenses and powers these baby vamps never dreamed of. Also, if you throw some kind of shock wave, you run the risk of harming your sister. So, yeah, it’s great that you’re Super Wilding Witch now. But be careful.”
She stared at him, remote and unyielding, reminding him again of the Goddess she’d become at the Nereid Temple. “Lead on, Lord Vengeance,” she said in a voice that was subtly deeper and vaster than her own. “Your concerns are noted.”
Not knowing what else to do, sure that an army of shifters and vamps was swarming up the tunnel toward them at that very moment, Ven did as she asked and led on. His concerns might be noted, he thought. But they damn sure weren’t relieved. He could finally admit that he’d fallen in love with a witch. But he wasn’t at all prepared to be in love with a goddess.
Chapter 30
Erin followed Ven down farther and farther into the dark heart of the mountain, feeling oddly as though she were no longer alone in her own skin. She was more—was other. She sensed the presence of the Nereid Goddess, who would serve as midwife to the birth of Erin’s true gem singer Gift.
She wasn’t sure how she knew this to be true, but didn’t question the knowledge. She followed Ven, who would defend her to the ninth level of hell, and walked with the Goddess, who would help her to become, fully, who she was meant to be.
She floated on the rubysong that now sang only to her, and not to the others, and gazed at stone walls turned red by the shining brilliance of the Nereid’s Heart. Suddenly she heard its song with lyrics—words that spoke directly to her:
Come to me, gem singer. Sing me free of this rock prison. Sing me to my home.
The part of her mind that was pure Erin was amused at the idea. What was the protocol for talking to an inanimate hunk of rock?
The part of her filled with the Goddess serenely responded. “We come, blessed ruby. Lead the way.” Somehow the size and shape of the Goddess had filled her so that there was no room left for fear or uncertainty.
Ahead of her, Ven glanced back at her, hesitating, as if he wanted to ask her a question. Or shake some sense into her, knowing Ven. But she narrowed her eyes in warning and shook her head, so he began grumbling under his breath again and kept walking.
Trapped between an Atlantean who cared for her and a Goddess who wanted to use her, Erin focused on the only things that mattered: she had to find the Nereid’s Heart, she had to rescue her sister, and she had to save Riley and the baby—somehow getting through who knew how many vampires and shape-shifters to do it.
She called to the Wilding and gloried in its instant response. Oh, yes, she was going to have no problems at all.
Headquarters, Circle of Light
Alaric paced circles around the pallets of still-healing shifters in the great room of the building. Justice or Ven should have communicated with him in some way by now. Something had gone wrong.
Quinn might be in danger.
Quinn might be in danger.
Coming to a decision, he strode rapidly through the rooms until he found Christophe, drinking coffee in the kitchen and talking to one of the witches.
“Christophe, a word.”
The warrior excused himself and immediately followed Alaric into the corridor.
“I must leave now. You will be in charge of guarding those in this building until I return.”
Christophe inclined his head. “As you wish, Alaric. Are you returning to Atlantis?”
Alaric could tell from the warrior’s wary expression that his eyes were radiating the power he channeled. “No. I go to Mount Rainier.”
Ven smelled the wolves before he ever saw them. The dark passage had been steadily brightening for several paces, and the smell of wolf crossed with something stronger thickened in the air. He stopped and held out a hand to Erin, not sure if she’d even accept the reassurance
. He was relieved when she placed her small hand in his, but her fingers were icy cold. He glanced at her and saw that even more of her warmth had drained away, leaving her eyes an icy silver-blue, almost the exact color of the power she’d channeled to heal Riley.
“Are you still in there, Erin?”
She slowly turned her gaze up to meet his, but he couldn’t see anything of Erin in her eyes. “We are well, Ven. The ruby calls me, so strongly. We’re almost there, now.” Her voice was still different—wrong. But there was at least something of his Erin left in her voice.
Ven had seen Alaric go dark and scary many, many times over the centuries, and the priest always came back from it. He had to trust that Erin would do the same.
“We’re here,” he said quietly. “It’s going to be game on from here on in. Are you ready?”
Her lips curved in a sultry smile that was so sexy it would have made him go up in flames if the circumstances were different, but merely fed his concerns as things stood.
“A better question, Lord Vengeance, would be if they are ready for us.”
The tiger coughed, a deep, barking sound that nearly scared the two shifters guarding them clear out of their fur. Justice would have laughed at the sight of them if he hadn’t still been pretending to be unconscious. He’d needed a distraction to take out the two of them, since he didn’t have his sword or any of his weapons on him except a dagger inserted into the heel and sole of his right boot. Tough to get to it in his current position, facedown on the side of a drugged tiger who was about to wake up any minute.
The sight of the tiger chewing Justice’s legs off would probably be a great distraction, but not exactly helpful to Justice’s cause.
“I think the tiger’s waking up,” one of the guards said. The stupid one. Justice recognized the voice. “Wonder if he’ll eat the guy. Bet he chokes on all that hair. What kind of color is blue for a man’s hair? Bet he’s some kind of gay guy.”
The other one snorted. “You’re an idiot. Plus, you’re always seeing gay guys around every corner. A person could begin to think you’re homophobic for a reason.”
Stupid got belligerent. “What does that mean? I ain’t no gay guy! I got a mate. A female mate.”
This was getting interesting. Justice hoped they started beating each other’s brains out before Jack woke up and turned him into Atlantean catnip.
“Oh, I was just kidding. Relax, you moron. I’m bored. I want to go see what they’re up to out there, not hang out here with these two. There’s no way the dose of Special K they took will wear off anytime soon. Wanna go sneak a peek?”
Justice tried to use his nonexistent psychic mind control powers. Yes, yes, go watch the vampire show. Leave the unconscious man and the unconscious kitty.
“No way, man. Calgoolie would have our balls for earrings, and I’m kinda partial to my balls,” said Stupid.
“There you go, talking about balls again. I’m telling you…nah. It’s too easy,” said the one with moderately more intelligence. “Look, we can hide behind that rock outcropping right next to the entrance. We’ll be close enough to check back in here every few seconds but still see the action.”
“Well…”
Yes, do it, do it, do it.
“All right. But only for a few minutes, or till they show any signs of waking up. I don’t think there’s anywhere far enough to hide from that vamp when he’s in a bad mood.”
They started moving away, apparently trying to be stealthy. For shifters, they were as stealthy as water buffalo, which at least gave Justice a big advantage. He’d know when they started to come back.
“Vampires are always in bad moods. I wish we’d never…” As their voices faded away down the tunnel, Justice whipped his head to the side, figuring that even if there were some silent guard who’d remained entirely still in order to fool him into moving, he’d rather face that than one second more of his face mashed into the side of a wet tiger.
He leapt to his feet, wincing as his bruised knees complained, then scrubbed tiger hair out of his nose and mouth. “Damn, Vengeance better appreciate this,” he growled.
A very familiar chuckle sounded quietly from the opening to the tunnel behind him, and he whirled around to see Ven standing there, sword at the ready. “I’m sure I’m going to appreciate it. A lot. I’m already appreciating the hell out of it. Especially the part where you’re covered with cat hair and lying around on a tiger pillow. Care to explain?”
Before Justice could respond, the booming sound of the unseen bell rang through the cave again and he clapped his hands over his ears. From behind Ven, he saw a woman enter the cave, her arms and face lifted rapturously up toward the ceiling. She looked familiar. Almost like Ven’s gem singer.
At that moment, the tolling of the bell ceased and the woman dropped her arms and stared at him, an eerie bluish silvery light glowing fiercely from her eyes. It was Erin. Erin and something else—or someone else—sharing her consciousness.
Justice froze, nearly paralyzed, suddenly overcome with a fierce wave of longing for her, for them, for the essence of the Nereid who was the female to the male of his Nereid half. Insanity and battle lust ripped through him with a slicing pain. He dropped into a crouch and snarled at Ven. “I will take her from you, Vengeance. I am done with watching you rule over territory that should be mine.”
Ven blinked, confusion clear on his face. “What did they do to you? What in the nine hells are you talking about?” He raised his sword, but it was a halfhearted gesture. The King’s Vengeance didn’t have the stomach to kill a fellow warrior.
A red haze of fury washed over Justice’s vision until Ven’s face appeared to be already covered with blood. Ven might not have the stomach for murder. Too bad for him that Justice did.
Erin spoke, but it was not entirely Erin’s voice that issued from her mouth. “You will stop this now, Nereid. The drugs in your system are influencing your judgment and bringing you perilously close to telling tales you cannot share.” She raised her arms again and spheres of pure power glowed in the palms of her hands.
Before Justice could launch himself, bare-handed, across the ground in a killing leap, she hurled one of the balls at him and it smacked him in the gut. The punch of it knocked him back, smashing him to the ground. Even as his head slammed into the stone floor, the healing silvery-blue light of her energy ball surrounded him and sank into him. Into his skin, into his blood.
Into the dark and empty space in his soul that had briefly seen in her a vision of home. The light washed color and song through and around him, and he gained a too-brief knowing of what it was to be a gem singer.
Then it was gone.
Blinking, Justice sat up and realized that he felt about a hundred times better. His headache was gone, the constant aching across his ribs where the vamp had slashed him was gone. Both wounds now felt as if they had never existed. He didn’t check underneath his bandages. He felt no need.
“You healed me,” he said to her. To them; the gem singer and the Goddess.
“We did,” she replied, still in that immense, musical voice. “And now we must find the Nereid’s Heart before its rubysong consumes me.”
He jumped to his feet and bowed to Ven, who stood there still looking confused. “My apologies, Lord Vengeance. I was…overcome.”
Ven just stared at him, then finally shrugged. “I don’t pretend to know what just happened, but we don’t have time for this now. We need to—”
But Justice never heard what Ven believed they needed to do. Because the two reluctant guards rounded the corner back to their post and stopped dead at the exact moment that Justice heard an angry roar. Five hundred pounds of tiger hit him in the back like a freight train, and he went down.
Chapter 31
Ven saw the expression on Justice’s face signal the approach of what smelled like wolf. He’d been standing a little to the right of the opening, out of the line of sight of anybody coming back into the cave. He leapt even farther out of
the way, holding up a warning hand to Erin to stay back. The thunderous tolling sound started up again and she got that dazed look on her face, but at least she stumbled back against the wall.
He turned to face the approaching shifters, so he had less than a split second of warning before Jack—all fangs and claws and pure, enraged muscle—attacked Justice. He couldn’t hear the snarling over the sound of the Nereid’s Heart, or whatever was making that enormous noise, but he could tell from the tiger’s wide-open jaws that there was definitely snarling going on.
He’d known they must have drugged or poisoned Jack to knock him out. What he hadn’t known was what effect the drugs might have on a ferocious weretiger.
Figured it wouldn’t be good.
He raised his sword and plunged it into the chest of the first shifter to hit the room. The Were had been moving fast enough that the impact drove Ven back a few paces. Before he could yank his sword out, Erin moved away from the relative safety of the shadows against the wall and headed for the fierce battle going on between Atlantean and tiger.
“Damnit, Erin, get back!” he shouted at her, not that she could hear anything but that damned ruby. This plan was fucked clear to the nine hells and back.
He had time to see Erin throw a shield around herself, and then the second shifter was on him. He abandoned his sword and went hand to hand, dropping to the ground and using one leg to sweep the Were’s legs out from under him. The man dropped hard to the ground, then snarled at Ven out of a rapidly lengthening muzzle. He was about to have a fully transformed werewolf to deal with, and he just wasn’t in the mood. Before the sparkling shimmers of transformation had fully dissipated, Ven balanced the silver and orichalcum dagger by its tip and then hurled it the short distance to his target.