My heart sank, I opened my mouth to protest but his gaze hardened. There would be no reprieve from my fate. It was my time to die, but how could I go without knowing for sure if we won?
“Why did I rise so high?”
He blinked in surprise at my question and then his lips lifted in a smile. “Because your soul is pure, Carmella.”
“Like, purer than the usual souls?”
“It is exceptional, yes.”
“Then as an exceptional soul may I ask for a bonus?”
His lips twitched. “You may ask, but I do not promise to grant it.”
I licked my lips nervously. “I want to go back, just for a day or two. Just until the fight is over. I need to be on that battlefield, and I need to say goodbye to my loved ones once it’s over. Will you grant me this?”
Yama turned away, his finger stroking his bottom lip in thought. He was considering it, and I couldn’t breathe for anticipation.
My reaper stepped forward and my chest seized in panic. He was going to stonewall me.
“Lord Yama,” he said. “May I speak?”
Yama turned back to us. “Of course, Kunil.”
“I have waited a long time for ascension, and I am honored that my final retrieval was such a pure soul. I could only hope to lead such a moral life. It would be my honor to return her to her body.”
Yama smiled and the room lit up. “Very well, Carmella. I grant you forty-eight hours of life. I will ride alongside your people in this war, and when it is over, you will ride back to the Underworld with me.”
It was a bittersweet victory, but a victory nonetheless. I nodded, blinking back hot tears of relief and sorrow. “Thank you.”
The boys waved goodbye as my reaper took my hand. “Are you ready to return?” he asked.
“Yes. I’m ready.”
Yama crossed his arms over his broad chest and then the gray mist obscured him from view. It obscured everything.
11
I tore back into the world of the living with a gasp.
“Carmella! Oh, thank god, Carmella!” Vritra yanked me into his arms and rocked me back and forth. “You came back.”
He was warm and solid and here. A bittersweet emotion I didn’t understand expanded inside me. My throat tightened, and I squeezed him back then pressed my lips to the side of his face, again and again.
“Why are you crying?” he asked.
I touched my face, fingers coming away wet.
Vritra wiped away my tears. “You’re back. You’re safe.”
Had it worked? “Did I die?”
Vritra froze and then slowly pulled back. “You don’t remember?”
There had been something. A bridge… “There was a bridge. I remember a gray bridge.”
“Yes,” The rogue reaper said. “The passage to the judgment chamber.”
So I had died.
“What else?” Vritra asked. “What happened? Did you speak to Yama? Is he going to help us?”
There had been something…something… A weight sat on my chest—a boulder of sorrow, but why? The more I strained, the farther the knowledge floated. My mind was a mist-filled space saturated with one emotion, grief.
“Carmella?” Vritra’s prompt was soft.
“I don’t know. I can’t remember.” And then a dam inside me burst, and a sob tore from my throat. My body shook, and huge gasping rasps assaulted my frame.
Vritra scooped me up into his arms, and smoothed my hair. “It’s all right. It doesn’t matter. We’re going to be all right.”
Then why did it feel like, now more than ever, time was running out.
***
This was sleep. Not death, and yet it felt like being inside a coffin. The darkness was complete and suffocating, pressing down on me with obsidian fingers, probing and prodding as if searching for weakness.
“Go away. Leave me alone.”
“But I want to see. I need to see. Who are you? Where are you? You belong to me.”
Malachi.
No. Not now when I was drained from a sojourn to the underworld. I needed to wake up. I needed to run.
“Change is coming, my child. A purge of evil. A clean slate. And we can write history together. I will keep you by my side. Teach you all it is you need to know. One body, two minds. We will shape a new future and you will be my legacy.”
He wanted my body. He needed me, his perfect host. The witches were supposed to summon him. Had they done it yet? No. He wouldn’t be here otherwise, trying to get to me. Fingers slid around my throat.
“Oh, my. I have you now. Glorious specimen.”
No! No, no, no. My asura power pushed against him, heating my veins and cocooning me. But it wasn’t enough. There were cracks in my armor. I was tired and weak, and unable to fend him off, and the darkness was retreating. He would see me and he’d know.
And then it was all right, because Vritra’s power was entwining with mine. Completing me, embracing me and tugging me from Malachi’s grasp.
I opened my eyes and stared into ember.
“What just happened?” he asked. “What was that?”
I sat up, wiping perspiration from my brow. My vest was stuck to my chest and the sheets felt tacky against my skin. “Malachi. He was so close. He almost had me.” I turned to look at him. “I need to call the high witch. They need to do that spell to bind him now. I can feel him breathing down my neck.”
Vritra passed me my phone.
Elora answered immediately. “Carmella? Thank goodness you’re all right. Garnet just told me what you did. It was a huge risk.” She sounded out of breath and irate.
“I know. But it was a necessary one.”
“He should have told me. We should have assessed the risk together.”
A male voice rumbled in the background, probably Garnet defending his actions.
“I asked him not to say anything, okay. It was my decision and it didn’t affect the skein.”
She took a sharp intake of breath. “You think I give a damn about the skein? I care about you, Carmella. You could have stayed dead.” Her voice rose an octave and then she blew out an exasperated breath. “It’s done now, but still. I wish you’d spoken direct to me.”
She’d been worried about me, like properly concerned, and why did that feel like a warm hug?
I cleared my throat. “Listen, you need to do the summoning now.”
She sighed. “We’ve tried but there just isn’t enough power.”
“What do you mean? I’m still connected to the skein. You still have access.”
“It’s not that. It turns out that the original thirteen used a cosmic energy source to summon Malachi. They drew power from a passing comet.”
Oh, man, was she saying…
“We’re going to need the power of the eclipse tomorrow for the summoning to work,” she said.
“That’s cutting it fine.”
“We have no other option.”
“Oh, man.”
“Carmella, has Malachi tried to reach out to you? To find you.”
“Yes. Every time I close my eyes.”
“Of course, your guard is down when you sleep. It is when you are weakest. I know this doesn’t help, but try and stay awake if you can.”
“Yeah, that really doesn’t help.” I hung up and threw the phone to the bottom of the bed. “I think I’m going to need coffee, and lots of it.”
***
Gita tightened the sash at my waist, and smoothed back my hair. “You look beautiful.”
“Thanks.” I turned this way and that before the full length mirror. The flowing silk robe clung to my every curve swishing against the floor around my bare feet. My eyes were still groggy from sleep, and the three hours I’d allowed myself hadn’t even put a dent in my exhaustion, probably due to Malachi’s interruption. I was still anchored to the skein, so still being tapped by that.
The vault was being prepared for the mating ceremony. The ritual that would give the asura the power they needed to
become an awesome fist. Just as well, because we couldn’t rely on Yama. I couldn’t remember anything but the bridge, and had no idea if I’d managed to speak to Yama or if he was coming. My mind was a blank. All we could do was hope that the message had been received.
“It is common to experience memory loss,” the rogue reaper had said.
“Well, thank you for advising us of that before stopping her heart.” Vritra hadn’t bothered to hold back on the sarcasm.
But, of course, it made sense that I wouldn’t recall it all. How many near death patients did? It was always bits and pieces, right? Like the bridge, and the sorrow. Why the sorrow? Had Yama said no? No. I’d have been pissed if he’d turned us down. It had to be something else. But as the minutes ticked by, the grief dissipated.
The broadcast would go out today and the evacuation would begin and tomorrow we’d know for sure if all our preparation had been enough. Once the mating was over, we’d be ready to fight.
If only we knew exactly how Malachi would choose to attack.
My phone buzzed and Gita stopped fiddling with my hair and handed it to me.
“Thanks, babe.”
I answered without checking the ID.
“So you made it,” Melody said.
“I can’t remember anything.”
“Shit. Yeah. Makes sense. We should have thought of that.”
“I should have called you as soon as I got back, but I was a mess.”
“No, it’s fine. Vritra gave me a ring. Look, you did what you could. We’re just going to have to do the best we can now.”
“How is Kev? Is everything good to go?”
“Yeah. We start airing the broadcast at four p.m. We need to make sure we reach everyone.”
“I’ll be at the office in a couple of hours.”
“Take your time.” There was a smile in her voice.
“Vritra told you, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, to be fair to the guy, he sounded shattered. I think it just slipped out. But we are so throwing you a proper wedding party when this is all over.”
Wedding. Of course being mated was like being married. Why hadn’t that occurred to me before? Oh, yes, probably because I’d been preoccupied by ten other things at the time.
Her confidence that we were definitely coming out of this on top was reenergizing.
“With dancing and champagne?” My stomach filled with butterflies. I was getting married.
“Of course.”
Suddenly, the simple silk gown took on a whole new meaning. Vritra was more than my mate. He was going to be my husband. Mine. A lance of darkness cut through my sunny thoughts, but it was gone too fast for me to grasp hold of and examine.
“Carmella? You still there?”
“Yes.”
Gita’s reflection made a wrap it up motion, and tapped its wrist.
“I have to dash now, babe. But I’ll be with you soon.” We said our goodbyes and hung up.
Gita clasped her hands together, her face alight with excitement. “Are you ready?”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “So bloody ready.”
***
The Vault was dimly lit and scented with incense. Asura stood, dressed in their finery, on either side of a pathway that had been created with strewn rose petals. So that was why I’d been asked to go barefoot. The flowers were silky soft against the soles of my feet as I slowly padded up the trail to meet Vritra. He stood by the plinth which housed the bones of his ancestor back-lit by candles. His handsome face was caressed by flame and shadow, and his ember eyes seemed to glow steadily in his tanned face. His jaw was tense, his body was tense but when he locked gazes with me, his chest rose and fell heavily and his shoulders relaxed. Had he been worried I wouldn’t come? Did he doubt how much I loved him? I’d show him every day just how damned much I loved him. That there was no way we were ever being torn apart again. A sharp stab of regret pricked at my heart. What the heck was wrong with me? It had to be a residue from my underworld jaunt.
And then Vritra’s hand was in mine, his warm calloused palm slipping over my sensitized flesh.
One of the asura stepped forward and gently raised our joined hands. He wrapped a red ribbon around our wrists and anointed our foreheads with something. I didn’t know what because Vritra was looking into my face, and I was falling into him, so fucking hard. My heart was pounding against my ribcage, the vibrations thrumming at the back of my throat.
Mine.
He was mine.
And then heat kissed my arm as a flame was applied to the ribbon and the asura began to chant, low and soft and urgent. I blinked in surprise as the ribbon writhed and, instead of burning to a crisp, it morphed into a golden rope. A collective sigh filled the room and something tugged at my solar plexus. The gathered let out a moan. And then there was a stunned silence. Vritra’s face broke into a grin. He grasped me around the waist, lifted me off my feet and swirled me around. The room broke into laughter and exclamations.
I couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled up inside me, and I didn’t want to. Throwing my head back, I let out a whoop of my own. He cupped the back of my head and pressed his lips to mine in a kiss that was a seal, a promise.
I pulled back. “Is it done?”
Vritra jerked his head toward the asura. “Look.”
Every single asura was glowing softly. They pointed at each other and laughed, held up their own arms to marvel at the sheen of light.
“It will abate in a few hours, but it means that the ceremony worked.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “We are one, Carmella. We are now a fist.” He turned to his warriors, his arm still wrapped around my waist, and raised a fist. “We are a fist!”
“Fist!” The asura raised their fists in the air and another whoop went up.
Vritra scooped me off my feet. “And now let’s eat, for tomorrow we go to war.”
He strode out of the room with me in his arms and the asura as an entourage.
***
An hour later my cheeks hurt from laughing and smiling so much. We’d retired to the training room which had been laid out for a mega feast. Soft music played in the background and the asura practiced their amped up skills with swords and awesome acrobatics, stopping now and then to fortify themselves with food. Jokes were being told, some so filthy I’d need to scrub my brain later, and unity was in the air. The power that Vritra and I shared was nothing in comparison to this collective power. It wrapped itself around me like a secure embrace. It was like coming home.
Home.
This was my home now and these asura, these magnificent warriors, were my family. I finally had a home of my own. I’d protect this with my life. Tomorrow, we would stop Malachi and his plan and we would return victorious.
Vritra’s hand slid across the small of my back as he leaned in to whisper in my ear. “What are you thinking?”
His touch brought new thoughts, hot carnal images that needed to be brought to life. I caught my bottom lip between my teeth. “I’m wondering how soon we can slip away to our room so I can have my wicked way with you.”
He nipped my lobe, sending a lance of need through me.
“We can go now.” His hand slipped down to cup my ass. “I want to fuck you right now.”
And now I was throbbing with the thought. I grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the exit.
We were almost at the doors when the air went still. My scalp pricked with static and then someone yelled in surprise. Vritra and I turned back into the room to find the asura on the defensive, because in the center of the room stood a band of djinn, and leading the group was a pale Alara.
12
My blood was instantly on the boil. How dare they come here? How dare they attack my home? A low snarl rumbled from my lips as my skin began to prickle with the beginnings of my armor.
“No,” Alara held up her hands. “We come in peace. Please. Carmella. We need your help.”
I pulled back on the snarl. “Speak quickly, and
believe me, if I don’t like what you say, we will kill you.”
My asura closed in on the djinn. I counted six djinn in total, all slightly battered and disheveled, but still, this could be a ploy, a trick to force us to let our guard down. They’d already taken out most of our yaksha army, and now they must have found out about the asura warriors and were trying to take us out.
Alara took a tentative step forward. “Please, Carmella. We need your help.” She sounded sincere.
“Speak.”
“There is dissention among our people with regards to the alliance with the cosmic gods. Many believe that he cannot be trusted and feel that he is merely using us and will turn on us once he has your world under control. But the majority are convinced that he will aid us in our own war when the time comes.”
“It didn’t stop you from murdering a bunch of yaksha did it?” I took a step closer. “How did you know about our meeting?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. We got the order and we came. Afterwards, after we returned, Paimon turned on the council. He was incensed, crazed by what we had been forced to do. Many rose up to join him, but the council couldn’t have open dissension and they sent guards to arrest the djinn standing with Paimon. There was a fight, many were hurt, arrested and probably locked up by now. Paimon held them off so some of us could get away.”
So, Paimon had finally stood up to the powers that be in his world, huh? Too little too late in my opinion. He’d tried to kill me while following orders. That was something I wasn’t ready to forgive.
“What do you want from us? A medal for finally doing the right thing?” I snorted. “Your world’s problems aren’t ours. We have our own shit to deal with. Go back to where you came from. There’s no help here for your kind.”
I turned away, done with her.
“I saved your life,” she said.
I paused with a hand on the door and closed my eyes. Yeah, she had.
“Paimon would have killed you. He would have done it to convince himself he was on the right path, that he could be the djinn the council wanted him to be. Killing you would have killed his conscience.”
Unleashing Magick: an Urban Fantasy Novel (The Witch Blood Chronicles Book 4) Page 9