by J. N. Colon
Mila, however, didn’t seem all that worried as a slow smile pried apart her blood-red lips. “I was wondering when the witch was going to show herself.” She pulled a phone out of her pocket, tapping on the screen before laying it on a rolling cart lined with sharp tools for cutting into bodies.
My muscles tightened. Had she just called upon the rest of her crew prowling the premises?
“I sensed you loitering in the hall a few minutes ago,” she said.
I cursed myself from now until next Samhain. Mila was older than I thought if she could sense my powers. I should have thrown up a shield the moment my foot crossed the threshold of the funeral home.
Barely using my magic for the last six months had softened my wits. Ellexia would be so disappointed to see me slipping.
Mila seductively ran her fingers over her collarbone and down to her bare midriff as she studied Caleb. “You, little prince, I felt you walk in not long after her. You look like a good time.”
I couldn’t stop the scoff from slipping out.
Mila motioned her crimson fingernail between us. “Are you two together?” Her low, husky laugh made the hairs on my nape stand at attention. “A witch and the fae prince of the Unseelie Court. How very Shakespearean.”
Caleb cracked his neck and took another step toward Mila, his gaze flickering to the unconscious and bound humans lying in the corner. “Enough small talk. You’re either going to surrender and come with us, or we’ll force you to.”
Rick pushed off the wall. “Surrender for what, faerie? You’re in our territory.”
Mila lifted her hand. “It’s all right, Rick. These two are about to realize how out of place they really are.” She whistled, and more than a dozen vampires zipped in, trapping us inside the stark, suffocating room.
Ice bled through my veins, chilling my body. Son of a bitch. Red eyes gleamed everywhere. My hand twitched for the stake in my jacket. I really didn’t like these odds.
Caleb smirked. “You obviously know who I am. Attacking us will only make things worse for you and your friends.”
The sinister twist to Mila’s lips had alarms screaming in my head. “I don’t intend on killing you, prince.” She ticked her head in my direction. “Just her.”
The air stirred behind me moments before a rigid hand tangled in my hair and yanked my head aside to expose my neck.
“You’re going to be the tastiest thing I’ve ever had.” Rick’s gruff whisper—full of thirst and bloodlust—puckered my flesh.
Caleb whipped around and reached for me, his fae magic permeating the room, but three vampires rushed him at once. He growled and threw them off with a gust of wind.
Hard fangs pressed into my throat as my gasp sliced through the room.
Once again, my life was on the line, and those terrible killing powers bypassed everything else. The death raker was always ready, a willing murderer lying in wait.
My fingers latched onto Rick’s arm as hot agony ripped into my neck, but the pain only spurred my gift of death faster. Within seconds, the vampire was fading. A couple of Rick’s memories whipped through my mind too fast to follow, like a movie reel speeding off the projection stand.
And then his life disintegrated. His immortality meant nothing to my death touch.
An invisible fist punched my gut. I’d never drained someone that fast.
The panicked realization snapped the embalming room back into focus. I shoved Rick to the floor, and not a second too late, as he began to liquify. Blood bubbled and oozed, flowing toward the drain in the center of the room.
Killing vampires was a messy business.
Acid curdled my stomach, and it wasn’t just the revolting state of thirsty Rick. I’d let loose the death raker and killed again.
My eyes lifted, finding Caleb watching me with an unreadable expression. The vampires that had attacked him were knocked unconscious but still alive. The entire room had gone still.
I wiped the blood from my neck, wincing at the sore bite. Damn bloodsucker. “What’s everyone staring at? Haven’t you ever seen a witch kill a vampire?”
“Well, I didn’t know you were that kind of witch.” Mila had moved to the other side of the room, putting an examination table laden with sharp scalpels between us. Her cheeks appeared paler than a few minutes ago. “That changes things, doesn’t it?”
Caleb reluctantly peeled his gaze off me. “Now, surrender or—”
“Kill her!” Mila ordered.
Vampires rushed in my direction. I threw my hands up as electric violet strands crackled over them and tossed the undead creatures away. A hand gripped my jacket, wrenching me back as a gale-force wind roared through the room. Medical instruments flew, impaling vampires and cabinets.
“Stay close!” Caleb yelled over the storm.
Like I had a choice when he manhandled me. This was all his fault. If he hadn’t marched in here like a macho asshole, we could have called for backup, and I wouldn’t have used my death powers to kill someone.
Dark fury ravaged my body. The toxic high from killing Rick soaked through my muscles, and I couldn’t stop from lashing out.
I pushed Caleb off, yanked the stake out of my jacket, and collided with a vampire. The pointy end of my weapon sank into her chest with ease. I stepped back and threw up a shield as she exploded into a crimson ball of goo.
This time my insides remained steady. I cracked my neck, salivating for another death.
“Damn it!” Caleb hissed, staking a vampire of his own and ducking as the undead guy burst. “You’re supposed to stay with me. They’re trying to kill you.”
With the flick of my hand, I sent a vampire into a wall, shattering the pristine tile.
It wasn’t pristine anymore, not with blood covering it.
“I can take care of myself,” I growled when Caleb began fighting his way back to me. Like I needed his help, of all people.
Piercing screams from the corner of the room sliced through the chaos. Two humans had awoken, clutching their shocked faces as they witnessed the supernatural horrors unfolding.
My head angled to the side. The two guys didn’t look much older than the girl Rick tried to bite, late teens or maybe early twenties.
Another vampire lunged at me, all fangs and ruby-red eyes. I lifted the stake and jammed it into her chest, breaking bones on the way to her undead heart. She gasped as her veins blackened with death, and her entire frame shook. I pushed her off and threw up a barrier before she popped like a water balloon full of blood and gore.
This place would be covered in vampire bits by the end of the night.
A battle cry rattled the objects strewn on the floor, and Mila slammed me into a stainless steel cabinet. Ringing exploded in my ears while sharp pains tore into my back. My stake fell, rolling across the filthy tiles and disappearing under an overturned table.
For shit’s sake. Did she have to hit so hard? Getting rammed by a train would have felt better.
A cough wheezed out of my lungs as she released me, and I dropped to my knees, my hands smearing across the thick layer of carnage.
The vixen vampire curled her iron fingers in the collar of my jacket. “You’re going to pay for ruining my night and killing my employees.” She lifted me like I weighed five pounds, the tips of my boots dragging over the stained floor.
My head still spun from the hard hit, and a fog swirled over my thoughts. Someone screamed my name.
“I’ve always liked the taste of killers the best.” Mila’s fangs emerged full force, larger than any I’d ever seen.
Holy shit. How old was she?
Like a cobra, she darted toward my neck. And I didn’t hesitate, even though the price of this kill would be steep. Mila was old and powerful. This wouldn’t leave me undamaged.
Her fangs scraped the unmarred side of my neck as my hand lifted, pressing onto her cheek. My power lashed first and rendered her frozen.
A hiss left her mouth as she jerked, trying and failing to fight the lethal conne
ction. A wall of protection erected in my mind, but her life drained so fast, the images would have been a blur anyway.
As she died, I fell to my feet, stumbling into the wall. Mila’s dead body dropped with a wet splat against the blood-stained tiles. She slowly withered into a dried pile of flesh.
She must have been ancient if she didn’t combust or ooze like most vampires.
The room melted out of focus as the high of draining her life radiated through my core. Tears and laughter threatened to emerge at the same time. I clutched my head, wishing for the thrill to go away, all the while craving more.
Fingers too warm to belong to a vampire pried my hands away. I blinked as Caleb came into focus, blood splattering his cheeks and dripping from his shoulders. I didn’t want to know what I looked like. His lips moved, but I couldn’t understand his words.
I swallowed hard and leaned off the wall, grabbing his shoulders for support. The remaining vampires had fled, leaving the two of us with the five cowering humans in the corner.
“You should probably call someone now,” I muttered, swaying on my feet.
Caleb used his air magic to drag a chair from the other corner and gingerly helped me into it. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m good.” Physically, I’d be fine after a shower and a bandage on my neck.
But mentally, I was wrecked. A familiar darkness slithered around my soul—one I hadn’t felt since leaving Illyria.
And with the death raker unchained, there was no telling what wicked things I might do.
Chapter 15
“What do you mean we don’t have enough evidence to make a case against the vampires?” My hands curled into tight fists in my lap to keep from slapping every single bottle of liquor off King Lachlan’s desk.
I’d thought this nightmare had finally ended.
Clearly, it was just beginning.
How could Lachlan deny their culpability after we spent the last ten minutes divulging every gory detail of that massacre?
Caleb anxiously shifted in the chair next to mine. “She’s right. What else would they be doing with the human captives? And we barely got out of there alive.”
“No thanks to you,” I muttered under my breath.
The prince’s glare melted the side of my face, but he didn’t respond.
Fae sentries had arrived to clean up the foul mess in the embalming room and then glamoured the humans before escorting them home. As it turned out, two of them weren’t even eighteen. How could those bastards abduct teenagers to carelessly murder?
After showering, Caleb and I reported to the king—who declared our word insufficient.
Lachlan sipped the golden concoction he’d been working on, grimacing. “We don’t have anything directly connecting a vampire to one of the murders, and while this is a solid, plausible theory, I need more before bringing this to the council members.” He gave a noncommittal shrug. “Until then, it’s all just conjecture.”
Tremors laced my body, and I clenched my teeth so hard Caleb flinched. I’d drained not one but two vampires with my lovely touch of death for nothing. My sanity and soul straddled a dangerous line all to be told it was hearsay.
Warm fingers touched my arm. “We’ll find a way to prove it,” Caleb said.
I bolted from the seat, my nostrils flaring as I delivered a scathing look in his direction. “Maybe if you hadn’t gone into that room like an arrogant cowboy from the Wild West, we wouldn’t have needed to kill all of those vampires.” I jabbed my finger into his shoulder. “I wouldn’t have drained the life out of Rick or that bitch Mila. We could have brought them in and had them confess to the whole thing. This stupid deal would be over, my friend would be safe, and I could go back to my life without ever having to see either of you again.”
Caleb jumped to his feet, eyes blazing. “What’s your problem? You’re the one who snuck off to investigate that lead by yourself in the first place. Mila already knew you were there before I showed up. Did you think she’d let you walk away or call for backup?”
Had I not been on a downward spiral, his words would have made sense. But I didn’t want sense when that darkness coiled around me. I wanted chaos.
“Everything will be fine, Thorn.” Lachlan’s calm tenor did nothing to defuse the searing fury coursing through my veins. “It’s been less than two weeks. I wouldn’t have expected you to find the guilty party that fast.”
A scream bubbled up my throat, begging to be released. This was the reason I ran from the grand witch, my mother, and the rest of the coven. No one understood what using these death powers did to me, or if they did realize the damage, they didn’t give a shit.
I snatched a half-empty bottle of vodka from Lachlan’s desk and chugged it until I couldn’t breathe. The liquor burned my throat like lava, washing away the urge to cry. I dragged my hand across my mouth. “Get your reckless son in check, or I’ll do this on my own.”
“You can’t cut me out of this.” The sudden force of Caleb’s elemental wind magic tossed strands of hair in his face.
I ignored him and marched toward the door. All he cared about was getting whatever his father promised him in exchange for finding the culprit. As I yanked on the handle, a gust of wind ripped it out of my hand and slammed the door shut so hard the entire room rattled. A crash echoed as something fell to the ground.
“Caleb!” Lachlan snarled, his gaze glued to the fallen portrait of the mysterious man who resembled the king.
The prince scoffed. “It’s just a stupid picture. I don’t think he minds.”
Lachlan’s fingers tightened on the glass so hard tiny cracks began to spiderweb across the surface. “Watch yourself.”
What was the deal with the guy in the picture? Was he some estranged uncle that escaped to Faerieland to get away from these two douchebags?
I shook my head and whipped the door open. Whoever it was, I didn’t give a damn.
“Would you stop walking?”
Of course the thick-headed prince had to follow.
He grabbed my arm as he caught up and whirled me around. “What’s wrong with you?” His nostrils flared, but as he studied me, some of the fury washed from his expression. “You seem—different.”
My bitter laugh bounced down the opulent corridor like the taunts of a dangerous ghost. “Meet the death raker. That’s who you and your father wanted, right?”
“What does that mean?” The prince dropped my arm as a line developed between his brows.
“Since the age of seven, I’ve been treated like a weapon and nothing else. Thorn Rosalee ceased to exist. All anyone ever sees is the death raker.” I finished the rest of the bottle and shoved it into his chest with a hollow thunk before storming down the hall.
Why did I have to go there? Why did I have to admit that much and to him?
“You can’t say something like that and then walk away,” Caleb called after me, a raw edge slicing his words. “Come back and talk to me. Thorn!”
My steps faltered as I turned the corner, breath hitching. Was this the first time he’d called me by my name?
I shook my head and buried the emotions deep inside. Those feelings were a weakness and nothing else.
My finger jabbed the call button for the elevator. The double doors opened, revealing an empty chamber. Thank the gods, because if I ran into someone like Miles, his hook nose would have definitely gotten demolished by my fist.
Once inside the elevator, my attention remained locked on my boots, unwilling to peer at my reflection. Thorn Rosalee wouldn’t be staring back.
The death raker would.
Pulsating music swam over me as I entered the nightclub. A wash of colorful lights flashed across the twisting vines, the mysterious woodland décor, and the mist looping between tables, couches, and along the dance floor. Several fae and a few other nightworlders spotted the crowd at Shade tonight, the iridescent lily stamps glittering on their hands while their life throbbed more vibrant than any human’s.
I roll
ed my shoulders, hating how much I could feel their presence now that my death powers floated so close to the surface.
A waitress in a gold bikini top sashayed by with a tray of cocktails balanced on her palm. I flicked my hand, stealing one of the drinks. Who cared if a human saw? They’d blame it on a trick of the light.
I brought the vibrant blue liquid to my mouth, wincing.
Damn fae wine. This little drink could knock me on my ass.
Oh well. Bottoms up.
The sweet flavor slithered down my throat like a slug covered in sugar, and I shuddered. Maybe the warring voices in my head—one urging me to be good while the other tempted me with bad things—would disappear.
I placed the empty glass on a table and squeezed onto the dance floor. The thumping music took control of my limbs as I swayed. My lids lowered, and I let the hypnotic beat take me away as if I didn’t have a care in the world, as if I was one of these rich humans who had nothing but money and lust on the brain.
I’d snuck away to clubs in Illyria and danced with male witches, but the moment they discovered I was Ellexia’s pet, they usually took off. The ones that stayed were daredevils, and I was a perilous adventure to conquer.
I was no adventure. I was a death wish.
“Hi, beautiful.” A charming voice melted through the crowd. “Can I dance with you?”
My lids fluttered open, and a handsome demon appeared, his blond curls and bright-blue eyes conflicting with the wicked creature lurking beneath. How many had fallen victim to those angelic looks?
I curled my fingers into his shirt and yanked him closer. Cinnamon and sandalwood swirled around him, colliding with the tang of magic in the air. “I’d love to dance.”
A smile hitched up his rosebud lips. “My name’s Link.”
I didn’t tell him my name. Instead, I leaned in, letting his body brush against mine as we moved to the throbbing tempo.
Normally, I wouldn’t be dancing with a demon. Hell, the last one I encountered ended up dead by my hand.
But I wanted to revel in the dark and dangerous tonight. Why not dance with it?