He gave a sad nod. “As terrible as the fae is, I can’t bring myself to be angry about something that brought us together. If he hadn’t interfered, we might never have met.”
I sucked in a sharp breath as my heart squeezed tight in my chest. It was next to impossible to get the next words out, but there was something I’d been wanting to say for awhile. “Meeting you just might be the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Dorian.”
“Oh, Zoe.” His hand moved from my collarbone to wrap around the back of my neck. He pulled me closer and closer until my chin pressed into his chest. His deep eyes flickered across my face with such an intensity that I was sure I couldn’t breathe. A low growl erupted from his throat as he lowered his mouth to meet mine.
The kiss was electric. His lips moved against mine in a hurried frenzy as if he’d been thinking of this moment almost as much as I had. I pressed my chest against his, my fingers splayed across his rippling muscles. Every cell in my body ached for him. I wanted him. I needed him. Part of my soul was within him and part of his was within me. As the kiss deepened, something strange roared to life inside me, something I’d only felt a handful of times. The desire to taste him. His blood. And for him to taste mine.
The murmur of voices broke through my lust, and it took all my self control to pull myself away, my chest heaving with belabored breaths.
“Our timing is perfect once again,” Dorian said with a sigh as he pulled a hand down his face. “As eager as I am to slam you up against the wall and rip your clothes off, I don’t think now is the right time for that. Unfortunately.”
Disappointment churned through me, even though I knew he was right. We were prisoners trapped by dangerous rebels. Somehow, though, that only intensified the allure of my attraction for him. Not to mention the fact he’d said he wanted to rip my clothes off. My entire body seemed to sing in response.
“Let’s just put a pin in it. Again,” I said, trying my best not to show just how disappointed I truly was.
Dorian’s throat emitted another soft growl, and the grip around my neck tightened. His eyes sparked with fire, churning the desire in my gut. “The pin isn’t going to be in it for long, Zoe. I’m done playing around. I want you. All of you. And as soon as I have a chance, I’m finally going to take you to my bed.”
Shivers coursed through my body and heat flooded my face. His intensity was overwhelming, and all I could focus on was him. Goddess, how I wanted him to do what he said. We’d been back and forth so many times—and for so long—that I wasn’t sure how much more of it I could take. The thought of finally being with him sent my heartbeat trembling. What if I didn’t measure up to what he’d been imagining? I was a twenty-one-year-old girl who’d never been with a man in her life while Dorian was this magical creature who had lived over a hundred years.
How could I ever compare to that?
“In the meantime,” Dorian said, “we’ll scope out this rebel base and get out of here as soon as we can. And then we’ll go to the Sun Coven, because we need to know what’s on that paper. I have a feeling it ties into everything we’ve been through so far.”
Chapter 8
After what felt like days, the floor shifted beneath our feet. The bar shuddered to a stop, braking so hard that a nearby keg tipped sideways and clattered to the floor. As it rolled toward us, Gigi bent down and grabbed the container by the thick handle.
“We’ll be taking this with us,” she said, smiling as she flicked her curtain of hair over her shoulder.
“You’d better pay for that,” I said. “Or else the boss will take it out of my paycheck.”
“Oh, you won’t have to worry about that,” Gigi said as she hoisted the keg into her arms. “We stole the whole fucking bar, remember?”
“Right. How could I forget?” I gave her a wry smile. “Can’t you just put the bar back where it was when you’re done doing whatever the hell it is you’re doing?”
“We could.” Ryker leaned in and flashed me a smile. “But we won’t.”
The rebels escorted us out of the stock room and toward the front door of the bar. I braced myself for what would come next. Not only did we have zero clue what we were about to walk into, I had a feeling that stepping outside would be jarring, to say the least. There would be no soft hum of Boston traffic, no skinny alley around the corner, no bright signs lighting up the dark streets.
Instead, my eyes were met by pure darkness, and my ears heard nothing but the whistle of the wind.
“Where the hell are we?” I asked as we stepped out into crisp, clean air shot through with a sweet and floral scent. Tall, thick figures rose high before me, blotting out a clear, star-studded night sky. Clearly, we were in the wilderness somewhere, surrounded by rows upon rows of impossibly tall trees, their thick branches weighed down by a dusting of snow.
“I’m afraid that information is classified,” Ryker said.
“Classified,” Anastasia shot out with a harsh laugh. “You guys might think you’re big stuff with your weird-ass travelling spells and secret base, but you’re not the CIA, for fuck’s sake.”
“We don’t have to be the CIA to understand that telling prisoners where our base is located would be a pretty dumbass thing to do. Not to mention, it would mean we could never let you go.”
The rebels led us down a long dirt path until we came to a clearing where a cluster of log buildings were surrounded by row upon row of tents. Ryker ushered us toward the nearest building and led us inside where a strange collection of mages, vampires, and werewolves were waiting for us. As it turned out, the rebels were full of more than just witches and warlocks.
The fire crackled as we settled onto the floor, the orange light casting dancing shadows on the walls. Despite the fact that these mages had taken their inspiration from the bedtime stories, they were quickly turning out to be a far cry from the warlocks in those stories. The only thing giving away the fact we were prisoners instead of guests in some homey cabin were the two mages with swords who stood on either side of the wooden door.
“Right.” Ryker clapped his hands and settled into a stiff, high-backed chair facing the rest of the room. “Let’s start this meeting with some introductions. We have Dorian, Ben, and Zoe who are all members of the Bone Coven. We have Anastasia who is a Daywalker and member of the Dogaru Clan. And finally, we have Laura who has a Blood Coven mark but has claimed allegiance to the Bone Coven.”
A murmur went through the room at his last words.
A girl in the front, with fiery red hair and freckles, leaned forward. She couldn’t be any older than sixteen. “You switched your allegiance?”
“Well, no, not really,” Laura said, glancing at me when she frowned. “I grew up surrounded by the Bone Coven. I’ve lived in Boston all my life, and it’s where I want to be. Getting a different mark didn’t mean I wanted to leave my home.”
“I’m surprised they let you do that,” another rebel murmured, eyebrows furrowed. “They don’t tend to deviate from their rules.”
“Zoe can be very persuasive.”
And yet, they really hadn’t needed much convincing.
“Look, I know the covens aren’t perfect, but they’re not so uncompromising that they’d send Laura away from her home. She was an unofficial member of the coven before, and they weren’t just going to kick her out. They were more than happy when they found out her mark was blood and not bone.”
“Oh, I’m sure they were,” someone said with a sharp laugh.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Laura asked with a frown.
“Listen, let’s take a step back, everyone. We can get into all of this later.” Ryker gave a nod to the girl beside him. “Continuing our introductions. On this side, we have Willow, a former member of the Sun Coven. On her left, there’s Jack, a former member of the Blood Coven. Over here, we’ve got Anders and Alex, brothers who were formerly bone mages while just behind them we have our resident werewolf, Kai. I don’t like to call us a council, but that’s ef
fectively what we are. We oversee the entire place here, which is now about fifty mages in total along with about ten or so Daywalkers and wolves.”
“Fifty?” I widened my eyes. “How the hell did you get fifty witches and warlocks to give up their covens?”
“Because most of them are from the Sun Coven.” His lips turned into a grim smile, but the meaning was lost on me if there was one.
“You’re going to need to elaborate,” Dorian said from his spot by my side. Our legs brushed when he moved. If he were anyone else, it would almost be too close, the way his body kind of blocked mine from the rebels before us. It was almost as if he felt the need to hover like a protective cocoon around me. Despite the circumstances, a soothing warmth flamed in my belly.
“So,” Ryker said with a frown. “I take it none of you know what’s been going on this past week.”
“Last I heard, the Sun Coven was the same as it always was. Minding its own business like Switzerland. You know, ignoring the demon threat like it’s not even there,” I said, my tone turning sharp despite myself. The Sun Coven was historically full of mages with bright smiles and good souls, but it had been impossible to ignore their silence in recent years.
We’d sent messages to them about the attacks in Boston, but they hadn’t sent any help. They’d never been part of the alliance, and they refused to ever join.
“We’ll grant you that ignoring the problem is a mistake,” Ryker said. “But remember, we’re not Sun Coven members here. Some of us are former Sun, but we also have former Blood and Bone.”
I glanced at Dorian. “No Shadows?”
“Having Shadows amongst our ranks wouldn’t really help our cause, would it?” Gigi said. “Besides, we’ve all heard the stories. A shadow mage wouldn’t want to help any of us. It’s just too bad we can’t have their powers without taking the corrupt soul that comes along with it.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Ben sent me a sharp look and placed a finger to his lip. He didn’t need to speak for me to understand what he meant. Don’t let the rebels know about your powers. A refrain that was getting more than a little old.
“Getting back to the subject, let’s talk about what happened two weeks ago. According to our sources, there was a bit of an altercation between your Enforcers and some Blood Hunter Coven members. Am I correct in this?” Ryker asked.
“That’s right. But what does that have to do with—”
He held up a hand. “And despite some deaths, the Blood Coven agreed to continue the alliance with the Bone Coven on one condition. Do you know what that condition is?”
I nibbled my lip and glanced to Dorian who shook his head. “We knew they came to an understanding, but I wasn’t brought in on that particular discussion. Ben?”
Ben sighed and held out his hands. “I’m afraid I was kept in the dark as well. They’ve been limiting my access after I helped you, Zoe.”
Which explained why none of us had heard anything about this top-secret deal that seemed so important to these rebels. We’d all been involved in the takedown of the splinter coven, and we’d all been sidelined in one way or another since it had happened. Except for Anastasia, who didn’t really count. She hadn’t been in on any coven business in the first place.
“Well, then you all are in for one hell of a story.” Ryker nodded to Jack, the member who had formerly worked for the Blood Coven.
“Ever since the war ended, my old coven has been trying to get the Sun Coven to join the alliance,” he began. “Three heads are better than one, so they say. There’s a particular spell that only sun mages can cast, and the Blood Coven wants to use it in combination with one of their own spells, as a way to fight against the Nosferatu.”
“Can’t the Sun Coven just help them with this spell without joining the alliance?”
Ben shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “Ah…”
Ryker shot him a look. “You know this part?”
“Unfortunately, I do.” Ben grimaced and met my gaze across the room. “The Sun Coven refused to help, even outside an alliance, because they fiercely oppose what the combined spell could do.” Dread pooled in my gut as I watched Ben swallow hard. “It’s essentially a way for them to create their own vampires.”
Dorian’s entire body jerked hard. “That doesn’t make any sense. For one, blood mages despise vampires, so why the hell would they want to make their own? For two, well, isn’t that what an Unbound is? A mage-created vampire?”
Dorian would know. A hundred years ago, Dorian was merely a warlock. Yet, he’d been cursed by the Shadows to live out the rest of his endless days as a hybrid. Half-warlock, half-vampire. And since it was a curse, he didn’t have the natural Daywalker blood running through his veins, which meant he suffered from weaknesses they didn’t.
“They tried that, but it wasn’t enough,” Jack said. “Unbounds aren’t strong enough to take on Nosferatu one-on-one, not unless they’re enhanced with magical abilities, like having warlock blood. There are so few blood mages left that they don’t want to go around cursing all their members.”
Ben nodded. “The combination spell, ah, well how do I say this?”
“They don’t want more Unbounds. They want to create Nosferatu,” Jack said quietly.
The room went brutally silent before erupting into a storm of questions. How? Why? And what in the name in ever-loving hell were they thinking?
Ryker lifted his hands in the air to signal for the room to go quiet. “Needless to say, the Sun Coven said no. They refuse to believe the best solution is to create an army of dangerous demonic vampires. Which brings us to the here and now. The Blood Coven agreed to keep the alliance with the Bone Coven, if your Magister would help them force the sun mages to cooperate.”
“Force?” I whispered, dread pooling in my gut.
“They’ve put the Sun Coven base under siege. Together, they’ve created a barrier that keeps anyone out and everyone in. No one can cross the perimeter until the Sun Coven agrees to send a mage to cast the spell, which means they’re entirely cut off from food and water. They live in the middle of the desert. Without access to the outside world, they’re screwed.”
I shook my head, refusing to believe it. “The Bone Coven wouldn’t get involved in something like this. Magister Salvatore is a better man than that. There’s no way in hell he’d go along with—”
Ben sighed and dropped his head in his hands. “This does explain some things, Zoe. For example, why some Blood Coven Enforcers were in Boston today. Plus, a lot of our team is out of town right now. I didn’t think much of it before, but it all adds up. They must be guarding the perimeter.”
“Ben, you can’t possibly believe this,” I said. “Magister Salvatore? Agreeing to trap mages inside a barrier to create demonic vampires?”
“I believe it,” Anastasia quipped. She’d been silent so far this evening, and I’d pretty much forgotten she was there. “Your coven has played dirty before, Zoe. It was only a matter of time before they got in the mud again.”
“That was under Leon Dupont. Magister Salvatore has done nothing but try to serve his coven to the best of his ability.”
“He refused to take action against the splinter coven who was murdering my family.” She narrowed her eyes. “He’d do anything to protect the alliance. Even this. Hell, he probably wouldn’t mind a Nosferatu or two of his own.”
I looked to Dorian, desperate for some kind of reassurance that this couldn’t be right. He’d been nothing but one hundred percent loyal to the coven since I’d met him, despite many instances where he could have turned. But instead of defending our new Magister against it all, he merely gave me a sad frown.
“I’m afraid Ben might be correct,” he said. “Remember, the Daywalkers are no longer our allies, and I have personally heard the Magister worrying aloud about where this will lead. It very well may have driven him to making some less than optimal choices.”
Anastasia snorted. “Less than optimal? Your beloved Magister has agreed t
o create a task force full of Nosferatu who will probably eat you rather than serve you. You think I’m dangerous? Wait ’til you meet one of them.”
Chapter 9
After several more minutes of back and forth about the siege, Ben sighed and stood from his chair, rubbing his forehead. “This is all giving me a headache. Can I get some fresh air or are you trapping us inside?”
“You’re free to walk around the property, but Gigi here will accompany you to make sure you don’t get lost,” Ryker said before turning his attention back on me. “Any more questions, Zoe?”
“So, why are you telling us all of this?” I asked when Ben and Gigi disappeared outside. “Why take us as prisoners? Why do whatever it is you did to the bar?”
“Well, we took the bar because we think there’s something in it that we need,” Ryker said. “And as for you, I really did need you to be there in order for the spell to work. But now I have something else that I need you to do for me.”
“Well, the answer is no,” I said. “Look, I appreciate what you’re doing here, and I understand why, but forgive me for being skeptical. You came barging in, attacking us, holding your knives to my friend’s throat. If you’re looking for a weapon, then you’re obviously planning some kind of attack, and attacks are when innocent people get killed.”
“I think what Zoe is saying is that she’s loyal to our coven,” Dorian added. “And so am I. We aren’t going to agree to do something that would harm them.”
“We aren’t asking you to harm anybody,” Ryker said. “All we’re asking you to do is help the innocent members of the Sun Coven, who are only a few days away from running out of food and water. They have some canned food that can last a little while, but they weren’t prepared for something like this. Their cupboards aren’t full. Their water supply is running low.”
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