Nick cleared his throat and leaned against the doorjamb. “Silver won’t hurt anyone riding the lines, but death magick will. We could end up passing the mark on to innocents, not getting rid of it.”
“There has to be something we can do,” Rho said. They had to try. This was Hail Mary time.
Jess wandered over to her kit on the nightstand and ran her fingers across the top of the bottles. She stood quietly in the corner before she spoke. “I—I don’t know what to do. The magick is too advanced, even for me.”
Rho paced the room, anger and frustration rolling off of her in waves. She didn’t understand magick or how to manipulate it, despite somehow throwing green fire around a field. And Lord only knew what fucked-up anomaly had taken place for that to happen.
She couldn’t fix this on her own. They had to do something. They couldn’t leave him there to die. She owed him so much more than that. He’d saved her life. He’d brought her to Jess and pulled the silver out of her body and fed her to keep her alive. He’d probably had to fight with his sister to get her to do it.
This whole thing was her fault. If she’d done like he’d asked, he wouldn’t be lying in that bed right now. Guilt pressed hard against her conscience as she tried to work out a plan in her mind. There had to be some way to take the mark from him and—
That was it.
“Do the spell,” Rho said.
Jess frowned. “What?”
“The translocation spell. The one you did on me.”
Jess shook her head. “I told you, that won’t work. I can’t cast the spell into the lines.”
“Then don’t. Didn’t you say you could displace it?”
“Well, yeah but—”
“Then do that.”
Jess threw her hands up in the air. “We have to have some place to put it. We can’t just—”
“Me,” Rho said with steely resolve. “Translocate the death mark to me.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nick’s brows furrowed as he stared at her. “You can’t be serious.”
Rho met his eyes, a sense of calm pouring over her. “I’m dead serious.”
“No, you’ll be seriously dead.” Jess stepped forward, shaking her head. “You can’t ask me to kill you.”
Rho switched her stare to Eldon’s youngest sister. “I never did. I just asked you to move the mark.”
“I’m sorry, maybe you didn’t hear me. That’s a death mark. Taking that on could be suicide,” Jess said.
Rho lifted a shoulder. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.” She’d take the mark if it meant Eldon could get up from that bed again and live a happy, long life. She’d take it gladly.
Nick turned away from them and ran both hands through his hair. “I can’t allow this.”
As if it was up for debate. “Why not?”
He spun back around. “Eldon would never want this. Do you think he could live with your death on his conscience?”
“And you think I want to live with his death on my conscience?” Rho pointed a finger at the bed. “You heard his sister. I’m the whole reason he’s in that damn bed!”
“You couldn’t know—” Nick started.
“I’m not even alive,” Rho said softly. “For all we know, the spell may have no effect on me.”
His answering silence either meant she was right, or he wasn’t sure. Either way, neither was a good enough reason to stop what she was about to do.
Nick blew out a deep breath. “Still—”
“Eldon has a family to protect.” Rho wheeled around and motioned toward Eldon’s sisters. “Jess and Adelle need him. I don’t have those obligations.”
Adelle frowned. “What about your coven?”
Rho waved a hand dismissively. “They’d just as soon see me dead.”
“Aren’t they your family?” Adelle asked.
“Family, yes.” Rho shook her head. “But they’re not my blood. Not like you two are for him. I can’t allow him to die and leave you alone because of something I did.”
No one said anything for a moment.
“You would do this?” Jess’s voice cracked, the sound a mixture of disbelief and hope. “For him?”
Adelle rubbed her hands over tired eyes. “No, we can’t ask that from you.”
“You didn’t ask,” Rho said. “I volunteered. My choice, not yours.”
Jess moved her hand to her throat and stared at Rho. “Adelle’s right. I’d be the one doing the translocation spell. He’d be furious with me.”
“Yeah, and I bet you’ll be happy he’s alive and angry at you instead of six feet under,” Rho said.
Jess stood quietly for a moment, eyeing her sister. The tears welling up in her eyes smelled like fresh rain, and Rho had to look away from her.
“I can’t believe you’re willing to do this,” Jess whispered.
“Eldon made sacrifices for me. I’ll do the same for him,” Rho answered, not taking her eyes from the window over the bed.
Adelle stepped forward, setting a gentle hand on Rho’s shoulder. “We’ll find a way to remove the mark.”
Rho gave her a small smile. “I know you’ll try.” She wouldn’t dare get her hopes up on that one, though. The term death located before the word magick didn’t sound too promising. “How much time do we have?”
Jess glanced at her brother. “There’s no telling. I can’t trace fae magick very well, and the queen—yeah, she’s really strong.” She nodded and met Rho’s eyes. “But we should do it soon.”
Rho nodded. “Then do it now.”
“Are you—you’re sure? Right now?” Jess asked.
There was no turning back from this decision. Even if she could, she wouldn’t. Eldon had so much more to live for than she did. If he were gone, his family would suffer for it, and she wouldn’t let that happen if she could prevent it.
Time was of the essence. “Waiting can only make things worse.”
Jess heaved a long sigh before nodding. “Okay then.”
“What do you need from me?” Rho asked.
Jess glanced at her brother again before surveying the room. “We should be able to do this with him in the bed.”
“And me?” Rho took in her surroundings, wondering how they planned on doing… whatever it was they were about to do.
“You’ll want to lie on the floor next to him,” Jess answered.
Rho raised a brow. The floor decision was probably a good one, especially if she was going to be in enough pain to lose her sense of balance. “That bad, huh?”
Jess paused for a moment then tilted her head. “Can you sense anything from him?”
“When? Right now?” Rho asked.
Jess nodded. “When you were hit with silver, Eldon could feel it through your… connection.”
He’d experienced her pain when she’d been stabbed? He hadn’t said a word about it. She shook her head. “I can’t feel him.” She tried to reach out to him with her mind, but his thoughts were an impenetrable wall.
“Damn.” Jess wandered over to a bag on the table and started pulling out jars. “Well, I’m not going to lie to you. This will probably hurt.”
She’d been stabbed with silver before. This couldn’t be worse than that. “I’m a big girl. I’ll deal.”
Nick cleared his throat. “You want us in here, Jess?”
Jess glanced at him, then her sister. “Adelle, you should probably go. Nick, you can stay and help me in case I need help moving or restraining Eldon. He’s too big for me to handle myself.”
Adelle didn’t argue, just stepped over to the bed and kissed her brother on the forehead, then turned and stalked silently out of the room.
Nick moved toward the bed and yanked the blanket from Eldon�
��s body. Rho stifled a gasp. He’d been stripped down to his boxers, a sheen of sweat beading up all over his skin. He was so pale.
Whatever this death magick did to his near-human body, surely her vampire strength would see her through it better. Vamps didn’t get sick or catch diseases. They healed almost instantly, with the exception of those rare instances where silver joined the party. She could be tough. And anything was better than watching him wither away slowly.
Nick draped the blanket over the chair, reminding Rho of the first time she’d seen this room. That was the chair Eldon had been sleeping in when she’d woken up, days after she’d taken a hit from a silver blade. That seemed like an eternity ago. They’d been through so much together in such a short time. No wonder their connection had grown strong so quickly.
Jess removed a small, unlit blue candle from her bag, along with an iron candleholder. “Let’s do this thing.”
“Okay.” Rho tried to steel herself and pretend she wasn’t about to sign her own death warrant. It was a little magick mark. No big deal. “You want me on the floor?”
“Yes.” Jess pointed to the far side of the bed. “Over there.”
Rho stepped over to the side of the bed and situated herself on the ground. Eldon’s arm hung limply off the edge of the mattress, and she fought the urge to touch him. She could only pray this worked.
Jess kneeled down beside her. “Thank you for doing this.” She glanced up at her brother before meeting Rho’s gaze. “I know I’ve been a little… bitchy to you. I’m not used to your kind. We were raised differently.”
“I know. Eldon told me.”
“I just… if this doesn’t work…” She swallowed hard. “I wanted to say thank you. For trying. It means a lot.”
Rho only managed a small nod as she stared up at Eldon’s youngest sister. Jess probably still wouldn’t be the president of the vampire fan club, but something changed between them in this moment. For the first time in this house, Rho felt accepted, a small comfort in an otherwise frightening situation.
She’d be lying to herself if she said she wasn’t scared, because she was. Especially considering no one actually knew what would happen to her—or Eldon—at the end of this.
But she would never regret trying.
A smile touched Jess’s lips as she rose and wandered over to her brother. She brushed her knuckle along his cheek before shaking her head and looking back down at Rho.
“Okay.” Jess ran a hand over the candle and it ignited instantly. “I’m going to circle the candle over his seven chakras. As I go, the sensation is going to intensify. You may feel it because of your connection to him.”
Rho nodded.
“But no matter what, I can’t stop once I start,” Jess continued. “So I’m going to ask you one last time. Are you sure you want to do this?”
Closing her eyes, Rho allowed the certainty to sink into her bones. She’d never been surer of anything in her life. “Positive. Do it.”
Jess nodded and moved forward, starting with the top of his head. “Sana. Centrum. Tueri.”
A sharp cramp instantly speared Rho at the top of her spine, right beneath her skull. She tried to remain still on the floor. They didn’t need any distractions. She briefly wished the magick movers used spells in English, so she could track what was going on, but then retracted the sentiment. She didn’t want to know.
Jess moved the candle to Eldon’s forehead. “Sana. Centrum. Tueri.”
Tendrils of pain spread from the base of her neck to her face, pummeling her brain with a massive tension headache. Damn, it was too bad pain meds didn’t do much for vampires. She could use something right about now.
Circling the candle and moving down the length of his body, Jess repeated the Latin phrases over and over. She’d warned Rho about the sensations, and now Rho could definitely feel what the healer was talking about. Her body was completely submerged under the weight of the magick in the room, as if a million hands were pressing against her skin.
She tried to focus on the sound of Jess’s voice. Lovely. Low.
The pressure in the room lifted.
Rho opened her eyes and shot a glance at Jess, who was still hard at work over her brother’s body. Was that it? Was it over? Had the mark moved? Jess traveled from her brother’s side over to Rho without a word, crouching on the ground beside her. She extended a hand and laid a gentle finger on the inside of Rho’s forearm.
Piercing agony speared through her right arm, traveling like a bullet into her chest. Oh God, this was worse than the silver. She tried to stay still and stare at the ceiling, but Nick caught her panicked stare.
“You okay over there, Rho?” Nick asked.
She gave him a weak nod and clenched her right arm with her left hand, watching as Jess left her side and returned to her brother. The pain intensified, and she lifted her hand to get a better look.
Sweet Jesus.
The skin on her forearm rippled as if something were inside, trying to escape the confines of her flesh. Her eyes shot to Nick’s.
Eldon’s back lifted from the bed as he began to thrash. Nick dove to his side and pressed his weight against Eldon to keep him from flipping onto the ground. Pinning Eldon to the mattress, he nodded to Jess to keep moving. She was near his feet, tears streaming down her cheeks as Latin fell from her lips.
“Sana. Centrum. Tueri.”
Cool air blew along Rho’s skin, a stark contrast from the burning pain focused in her arm. It was happening. She could feel death gripping her heart, looking for a place to attach itself.
“She’s almost done,” Nick said, his voice strained as Eldon flailed beneath him.
Rho tried to keep calm, shoving the blazing pain aside. The more she fought this, the longer it might take for her body to accept the mark. Eldon didn’t have that kind of time.
Nick bore down his entire weight on the bed, the mattress dipping as he pressed Eldon against it with everything he could. “One more.”
One more pass, and this would be over.
“Sana.”
Closing her eyes, Rho tried to welcome the magick into her body. She wanted this. She was vampire. She could handle it.
“Centrum.”
Eldon was going to be so angry with her if he lived. He was entirely too proud to let a female take his burden, but she didn’t care. As long as he lived through this, everything would be worth it. He could yell at her all day long if he wanted to.
“Tueri!” Jess shouted as the candle extinguished itself.
Fire blazed through Rho’s arm, sending her into convulsions. She couldn’t control her body as she jerked against the floor, the pain spiraling from her arm through her chest.
Strong, warm arms wrapped around her body, holding her close as she flopped helplessly. The rumbling sound of low words spoken in a foreign tongue rattled around her head, somehow easing the pain radiating from her body.
Several minutes passed as she rocked back and forth in that vice grip. Hell, it could have been hours. Finally, her body stopped trembling and her arms fell still.
“Rho?” the male voice said. The same male who’d found her in that field and helped her save—
“Eldon!” She shot up and pressed away from his arms. “Where’s Eldon?”
The arms pulled her in again, the smell of oranges and cinnamon thick in her nose. Nick. That was Nick. “He’s in the bed, sleeping.”
“Did it work?” Rho murmured as she tried to blink the world into focus. “The transfer? Did it work?”
Jess’s face appeared suddenly before her, her expression both fearful and relieved. “Yeah, it did.” She lifted Rho’s forearm up.
Rho gasped. Branded on the inside of her forearm was a massive green X, extending from her elbow to her wrist. A circle with a line drawn thro
ugh the center was positioned to the north of where the lines intersected and created a V.
“That’s the mark,” Jess said, reaching a hand out.
Rho flinched as Eldon’s sister touched the mark gently. “What is it?”
Nick released his hold on her but didn’t move far. “The X is a fae marking. It shows that you owe something. And that circle-line combo is a theta.”
“Like the Greek letter?” Rho asked.
“Thanatos, actually.” Jess dropped her hand and met Rho’s eyes. “That’s the mark of death.”
“You owe the fae your life now.” Nick frowned as he glared at the mark. “And they can collect it at any time.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Rho stared at the mark on her arm, wondering when her skin became the official parchment for magick spells. She loved her tats and everything, but damn. Every time she came-to lately, she had another magick mark on her skin.
And somehow, it left her feeling violated. Like she’d been tatted while passed out drunk.
Only she didn’t regret this one. Not even a little bit.
The sun had risen shortly after the death mark had been transferred. Sleep had come at her so hard, she hadn’t had time to change out of her clothes before she’d passed out. Between battling with magick, thinking Eldon was dead, and taking on a death mark, she’d been exhausted.
She yanked the cover off her body and leaned up before surveying the room. Jess had offered her a bed, but she’d opted to sleep on the floor beside Eldon’s bed. Just in case.
Pushing herself off the floor, she tried to ignore the aching in her body. Surprisingly, she didn’t feel all that bad. A few sore muscles from yesterday, sure, but she didn’t feel like she was going to die.
She glanced over at the bed. Relief struck her instantly.
Eldon’s breathing was deep and even, the sheen of sweat on his body gone. Just before Rho had conked out, his sister had tucked him in and given him a syringe of something she said would help him sleep. He looked so peaceful.
Magick Marked (The DarqRealm Series) Page 27