“What is that?”
“The last of the dragon bone. Don’t worry. I’ve given it a good sharpen. It’ll go in nice and quick, and then it’ll be over. I even gave it a little coating of your blood.”
Where had he gotten hold of my blood?
He cocked his head. “When you cut your finger, remember?”
My eyes grew hot as anger replaced the chill of betrayal. My dragon stirred and expanded. Whatever he’d given me was wearing off. Thank god. Dragon skin wasn’t going to work on this occasion. He had dragon bone. I needed her to take over—to come out and stop him. My vision misted and I blinked back the tears. Letting her out meant killing Banner … He’d been my friend … He was sick, not just physically but mentally. He needed help. If only there was some other way out of this—some way to get free without hurting him. Power trickled through my limbs as the dragon shook herself awake. The familiar red tinge of her takeover edged my vision. No other way to be safe.
“Whoa!” Banner dropped to his knees by me, retrieving something from his pocket.
A syringe.
No.
My dragon roared with fury and my skin tingled as scales erupted up my legs and across my arms. Yes, now. Please. But then the cold pinch of the needle pierced the unprotected flesh behind my ear. My fingers burned as talons burst from beneath my nails. It was still happening. His drug wasn’t working.
“Fuck!” Banner scrambled back.
The dragon roared in triumph, her cry an echo that reverberated into the ether. I bucked and the ropes holding me prisoner snapped. Rolling onto all fours I faced him.
“Run, Banner. I won’t be in control when she—”
The heat in my limbs began to ebb. What was happening? The power began to dissipate. The drug was doing its thing.
Banner moved closer. “Your concern for my welfare is touching. I’m sorry, Carmella. I really am.”
He pushed me onto the ground as the drug began to leaden my limbs. I was going to die. Tears leaked from my eyes, and his face wavered above me as he raised the bone knife high in the air above my heart.
They say your life flashes before your eyes right before you die, but in that moment there was nothing but sheer unbridled terror.
The splinter and crack of wood had Banner’s head whipping up.
“Don’t move!”
I knew that voice. Melody. Thank god.
“Drop the weapon and move away from the woman,” Melody said.
I craned my neck as she strode into the chamber, her gun trained on Banner. Her unit spilled in after her, along with someone else.
Henna.
Henna made a move toward me. The edges of my vision darkened as I battled the drug in my system, desperate to stay awake.
“Stay where you are, Miss Ajagar.” Melody said.
“Mr. Banner, slowly lower your weapon now.”
Banner looked down at me and then back up at the gun-toting woman.
“Trust me,” Melody said. “A bullet is much faster than a knife.”
His lips curled in a wicked smile. “How about we test that theory?”
The knife came rushing toward me, and then something was crushing me to the ground. A gunshot, a scream, and Henna’s eyes staring into mine from her position lying over my chest.
“Henna. What did you do? Henna?”
Her breath was erratic and rapid. “Take care of him … see him … Mother would be proud.” She exhaled long and slow and then lay still.
She was dead. Gone. He’d killed her. My rage was like a forest fire, incinerating the drug in my bloodstream, freeing my limbs to sit up and cradle my friend.
Banner lay a few feet to my left, his chest blooming with blood. The shadows covering him receded as the room was filled with light. The orb was glowing brighter and brighter by the second.
“What the fuck is going on?” one of the alpha patrol asked.
Melody grasped me under the armpits and hauled me up. “No. Henna.” I wasn’t leaving without my friend.
“Drake, grab the dead girl.”
I wanted to slap her. This wasn’t a dead body it was my friend!
“That thing is gonna blow. We need to get out of here now!” someone else said.
Melody shoved me toward the door and we were off. Drake was right behind us, with Henna slung over his shoulders.
The orb was going to blow. What would happen to the souls? We ran up the tunnel and slammed out of a door right into the cinema room. The earth shook and the world was filled with intense bright light. We hit the ground, hands over our heads.
And then it was over.
The world was as silent as a tomb.
I sat up to see Henna’s body flung on the ground, twisted at an odd angle, her unseeing eyes staring at me almost accusingly.
“Henna …” I crawled over to her, pulled her into my arms, and let the damn burst.
24
They’d found a pile of ashes where Banner’s body had been. The orb was nothing but a shell. The souls were gone. Paimon had his answers and our world was safe from invasion, but my friend was dead.
I slugged from the bottle of tequila. Two days. It had been two days, and Vritra refused to answer my calls. Shaitan Enterprises was in lockdown, in mourning, and I hadn’t been invited.
This was my fault. If I’d paid attention I may have picked up on the clues. If I hadn’t been so quick to trust Banner and condemn everyone else, this could have been avoided. I couldn’t face anyone. Not Honey, not Urvashi, and not Victor. And Vritra … What the fuck was I going to say to him even if I did manage to get an audience?
The tech team had decrypted the x-eyes and seen Banner kill Shukra. He’d wanted us to believe we had our man. To lull us into a false sense of security and buy time to finish his plan, and he’d almost succeeded. When Melody had been unsuccessful getting hold of me she’d called around and managed to get a hold of Henna who’d told her I was with Banner, and the rest … well it was history, or at least it should be, except whatever had happened in that underground chamber … my gut told me it wasn’t over. But tonight was for drinking tequila and raising shot glass after shot glass to the woman who’d saved my life.
Someone hammered on the door.
“Fuck off!” I took another slug
The door flew open and Mira strode in, pig tails bobbing. She kicked the door shut and flung herself on the sofa beside me before making a grab for the bottle.
I yanked it out of her reach. “Piss off and get your own.”
She glared at me, her eyes glistening with moisture.
What the fuck? Was she about to bawl?
“Here.” I handed her the bottle. “No need to get so emotional.”
She put it to her lips, tipped back her head, and glugged it down, all the way down to the last drop.
“Dammit, Mira! I needed that.”
She wiped her mouth. “Yeah, so did I.”
“What happened to you?”
“Paimon just fired me.”
“What?”
Mira’s bottom lip wobbled. “I’ve been his s-s—”
“Sidekick?”
She threw a lethal look my way. “Sentinal forever. He was my lord. And now, because of her, he’s set me aside.”
Her? “Alara?”
“Yes, Alara. That bitch makes demands and he scrambles about to make them happen. Apparently I make her feel uncomfortable.”
I stared at her unblinkingly.
“What? It’s my job to have Paimon’s back, not to make his bitches feel comfortable.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“So what now? You get another position as a sentinel elsewhere?”
She swallowed. “That’s not how it works. Once you’ve been claimed by a lord you’re useless to another.” She sniffed. “I’m useless and fucking homeless.”
He’d abandoned her for his betrothed, a woman he was marrying for political reason. He’d thrown out a loyal sentinel for Alara? Indignation on her behalf, resent
ment toward Alara, and anger at Paimon mingled in my chest.
“Fuck him. Fuck her. And fuck that. You can stay with me until we get you sorted.”
She turned to look at me, her eyes widening? “You mean it?”
“Damn straight I mean it.”
“Maybe I can be your sentinel, unofficially of course?”
“Whoa. Hold up. I don’t need a sentinel, but maybe … maybe we can be friends.”
She blinked rapidly as if processing the proposition and examining the concept. “Friends.”
“Yes. You know. We hang out. Go out together. Share stories, secrets, that kind of thing?”
He face lit up in comprehension. “And if someone threatens you, I kill them.”
I dropped my head into my hands. Okay, maybe this was a discussion best handled when sober. I grabbed a twenty from my purse. “Why don’t you go grab us a bite to eat and then we can have a proper gossip.”
She bounced up.
“Oh, and if you’re going to be staying with me for a while, you might want to look a little older?”
She grinned, that wicked gleam back in her eyes. Her body blurred and morphed until she was standing before me in the body of a hot twenty something dude.
“Better?” she said in her new deep masculine voice.
“And preferably female.”
“Spoilsport.” She shifted again, this time into her Caro form. “See you in a few.”
I flopped back onto the bed. So much for taking a time out. Henna’s face flashed before my eyes. Her final words. Her final wish. I owed her my life. I owed her everything.
The phone rang and I answered.
“Carmella, dear.”
“Aunt. Where are you? It’s been over a week.”
“I found your mother.”
“You did. And, what did she say?”
“Honey. I’ll be with you in a couple of days and I’ll tell you everything then.”
“Seriously? You’re going to make me wait?”
“Oh dear. I shouldn’t have phoned. Silly mistake.”
“Aunt!”
“It’s really not news to be delivered over the phone.”
“How about I be the judge of that?”
She took a shuddering breath. “Honey. Your mother … well, she’s not your biological mother.”
Her words rang in my ears.
“Carmella, are you there, are you listening to me?”
Where was the shock and horror? Had I somehow always known? Sensed it, maybe? “Yes. Yes I’m here. Does she know who my real mother is?”
“No dear. Do you remember when you went for blood tests when you were thirteen? You’d been having dizzy spells and your mother was concerned.”
“I remember.”
“Well the blood tests proved that you couldn’t be hers.”
“Is that way she just stopped loving me?”
“Oh honey, I really should be there with you.”
“No. Tell me what she said. I need to know.”
“She told me she went to the Mayfair Mansion where she’d given birth. She demanded to speak to the High Witch and she got her answers.”
“And?”
“That’s it. She couldn’t tell me anymore.”
“What do you mean she couldn’t tell you anything more.”
“I mean she physically could not speak the words.”
“A witch’s oath.”
“Yes. Carmella. You need to be wary. The Mayfair High Witch cannot be trusted. We don’t know if she played a hand in this, or how much of a part she played. She could be dangerous.”
“She could be the one that bound my powers in the first place.”
“Listen to me, dear. Let it go. You’re alive and you’re safe and you have a life. So they cut you off from the skein, so what? You don’t need it. Don’t be defined by power, sweetheart. Just, live your life as you.”
“Thank you.”
We said our goodbyes.
She was right. I didn’t have to be defined by the power that coursed through my veins. The power should be defined by who I already was, and yeah I was totally cool with that. But I wasn’t cool with letting this slide. I wasn’t cool with not knowing where I truly came from or why I hadn’t been allowed to be raised by my biological mother, or why my powers had been bound. Banner had revealed that it wasn’t me that had opened the doorway to release the Daayan, so that couldn’t be why my power had been bound as a child. The only explanation was that someone had been trying to hide me. But the question was from who, and why?
There was only one person who might have the answer to all these questions.
The High Witch.
Friend or foe, it wasn’t clear, so I wasn’t going to go in guns blazing. No. It was time to play the long game.
The door slammed open and Mira strode in with a bag of food and a bottle of tequila.
Playing the long game would require stamina. Stamina and a clear head. Taking the tequila off her, I stood and padded over to the kitchen.
“What are you doing?” Mira asked.
I unscrewed the lid and poured the whole thing down the sink. “Pulling my shit together, that’s what.”
I was asura, whether they liked it or not, and one of ours was dead. My friend was fucking dead. There was no hiding from that fact. No running away. Henna had asked me for something and I was going to deliver, even if I had to smash down their bloody doors to get inside.
_____
What the heck was I thinking? There was no smashing down these doors, not without turning full dragon. I contemplated it for a millisecond and discarded the idea. Wait, the buzzer—which had been dead the day before—was lit up. Did that mean someone was monitoring it? Pulse racing, I hit call. The intercom buzzed, and buzzed, then buzzed some more.
Come on! There had to be someone about.
“Hello?” A male voice answered. Possibly Rajan?
“It’s Carmella Hunter. I need to come in.”
“About fucking time.”
The doors buzzed followed by a soft click. They were open, and I was through.
Rajan met me in the foyer, his expression stormy. “You should have come sooner.”
“What? I did come. The doors were locked and the intercom thingy was dead. I called too, hundreds of times.”
“You could have used your access card to get in at any time,” he said.
I placed my hands on my hips. “I don’t have a damn access card. I gave it back, remember?”
“Oh.” His shoulders slumped. “That explains it. The asura have being going nuts. One half pissed at you for going AWOL, the other making excuses.”
“What about Vritra?” It was him I cared about the most. Had I just thought that?
Rajan blew out his cheeks and shook his head. “That’s the problem. Vritra has gone full dragon. We managed to get him locked up in the vault, but we can’t risk going in after him. It’s been two days. If he doesn’t shift back soon we may lose him to the dragon completely.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he may not be able to change back into his human form.”
“He knows this though, right? So why would he stay in dragon form, why … Oh …” He was running from his grief.
“He doesn’t have to face what’s happened in his dragon form,” Rajan confirmed. “In that form he can avoid the pain.”
“Well, someone needs to go down there and remind him. Someone needs to wake him up.”
Rajan smiled wryly. “Yeah, I was hoping you’d say that.”
“Me?” My voice was a squeak.”
He grimaced. “You’re the only other asura who can shift. If he attacks you can defend yourself.”
Great. “But I won’t be in control. I have no idea what will happen.”
“If we do nothing we’ll lose him.”
No. We couldn’t lose him. I’d do this, for Henna, for the asura, and for Vritra. “Take me to him.”
_____
The chamber was shrouded in darkness and the scent of jasmine lingered in the air. My stomach tightened in anxiety, but there was no going back now. I was here—walking into the dragon’s underground lair, knowing full well that he might rip me to shreds. I was the reason his daughter was dead. She’d given her life to save me. My stupid blindly trusting nature had killed his only offspring. I owed them this.
The gloom edged into amber light and a huge stone table came into view. The skeleton of a huge beast lay sprawled across the stone, the bone a buttery yellow in the amber light. Where was Vritra?
I felt his presence at my back before my dragon did, and then she was awake and vibrating with wariness. My body tensed, ready to flee, and every hair on my body stood to attention. The presence at my back wasn’t the Vritra I knew. It was wild and primal. It was the dragon.
His dragon heat enveloped me and hot breath blew across the top of my head.
“Vritra, I need to speak to you.” My voice trembled and I cleared my throat. “I can’t do that if you’re in dragon form.”
Shadows closed in and a gust of air threw my hair into my face as he rushed past—huge and fast and lethal.
“Vritra, please.”
Where was he? My dragon tentatively reached out with her power. Even she sensed the danger—the knife’s edge that Vritra walked.
The lights flickered and dimmed.
“Vritra?”
The shadows to my left shifted, and I turned my head to see two huge ember eyes watching me from the darkness. My stomach tightened in fear. He was huge, bigger than I’d imagined. He moved toward me, his head—a meter off the ground—was a ridged expanse of ebony scales. Obsidian … He was an obsidian dragon, and my heart lurched in yearning and awe, even as my knees quivered in fear. My fingers itched to reach out and touch him.
He wasn’t attacking. Not yet. Did he know who I was? Rajan had warned me he was out of his mind, and he may not recognize me, but he was watching me almost speculatively. He’d been in dragon form for over two days. He needed to shift back before he got stuck this way.
Mouth dry and heart slamming against my ribs, I took a tentative step toward him. He huffed, and hot air billowed out of his nostrils, searing my skin. I reached out and slowly, oh so fucking slowly, placed my hand on the space between those immense nostrils. Okay, I was doing this. Touching him, and he wasn’t attacking. The scales were dry and smooth. The urge to caress them swept through me, forcing me to clench my free hand to quash the impulse.
Defying Magick: an Urban Fantasy Novel (The Witch Blood Chronicles Book 2) Page 16