“Went to the Judicial? Why would you do that?” Ric wanted to roar out his rage, shout long and loud until the walls around him tumbled to the ground. His brother had taken The Bond to protect him? For what? Barrett had promised to give up everything, had volunteered to pay the price for his transgressions. Would never again be able to make a decision freely if Ric went through with his plans. Why had Barrett done such a thing? No part of Ric’s plan was illegal. “I didn’t ask you to. I would never ask you to.”
“What choice did I have? After I found out what you were doing, that you’d made a pact with Ysgawyn—”
“To save our people!” Ric hollered. “To spare them the agony of the Second Death. Why should that be against the law? We’ve sought other ways, spent eons searching for a medical cure, but there is none. Magic is the only answer. And if turning to magic is illegal, then the law has bound us, kept our people from the cure they deserve.”
“It’s not the magic that the law forbids. It’s the end results that would bring judgment to you. Your plan to save our people will ultimately cost the lives of a whole race of Immortals,” Barrett explained in a cool voice. “And so many more if that mage is able to complete the spell harnessing the power of the Fury. Forget about the mage for a minute and the disaster he could bring to the Immortals and the humans both. You can’t save one race by destroying another.”
“But why would I be held responsible for another man’s actions? I didn’t know what he was going to do with the relics. He didn’t tell me. I only knew the price for the spell I needed was the shield and spear. I thought no mage could use them—”
“It doesn’t matter. Whether you knew or not, the guilt would be yours.” Barrett knelt next to Ric and looked at him with pleading eyes. He unfastened each of Ric’s wrists, then ankles. “Please. Complete the spell with Margaret. The relics must be destroyed to bring our people and the lamiae back to harmony, and keep Ysgawyn from completing his spell. It’s the only way.” He took Margaret’s hand and pulled until she was on her knees next to Ric.
Hundreds of years of searching had led to this moment, to a decision so difficult and complex. How could he possibly sort through it all in the space of a heartbeat? Ric knew the agony of watching his brother sentenced to death by the Supreme Immortal Council would likely destroy him. He’d probably not survive to see the freeing of his people from the bonds of the Second Death.
Still, there was Sophie. And her friend. Maybe he couldn’t save a race but he could save a single human being. But were there unknown risks involved in that quest too? He had no idea what was involved in the freeing spell. Would that cause more innocent deaths? Would his brother still be forced to pay with his life? Ric’s gaze zigzagged between Barrett and Margaret. Was one human life worth the risk?
Barrett stood and took several steps back until he was out of the circle. Margaret pressed gently on Ric’s shoulders until he was sitting up on his bent elbows. She traced a circle on his chest and chanted the first lines of the spell. “No,” Ric interrupted before she’d completed the first verse. A flare of guilt and anger shot through his spirit as scalding fury pulsed through his veins. He pushed on Margaret’s shoulder. Forced her away from him. “I can’t. Sophie…”
“She has made her own choice. There is nothing you can do for her now.” Barrett motioned toward the wall behind him. The Guardian blew a stream of air at the wall and a tiny pinpoint of light glowed in the center, then spread out until the entire wall looked like it was consumed by fire. The flame flared for several seconds, then dimmed, leaving a transparent circle in the center.
“Sophie?” Ric said on a gasp. “Sophie!”
She didn’t hear him but he could see her. As clear as if she were right next to him. She was lying on a bed. Her glossy hair was fanned out about her head. Her spine was arched, her breasts pushed high into the air. His mouth watered. His body ached to feel her beneath him.
Why couldn’t he be there with her right now? All their worries gone. Their loved ones safe. Why couldn’t those be her fingers stroking his stomach, making the muscles tighten?
Sophie’s face turned to the side facing him. She stared blindly for a moment, obviously unable to see him. Then she blinked her eyes and shuttered them closed. Peace touched each of her features. Her lovely lips pursed, the corners lifted into a shadow of a smile.
He remembered seeing her react that way to his touches, his kisses. Only this time it was another man whispering in her ear, gliding his hands up her cotton-sheathed thighs.
Julian stood beside her running his hand up her leg. Her stomach. Her breast. He knelt on the bed and lowered his head to kiss her.
For a moment, Ric simply shook his head in disbelief. “It’s a trick. Sophie would never—”
“It’s no trick.” Barrett motioned toward the Ancient One. “You see? They’re performing the binding ritual.”
Ric looked again, saw the shimmering, translucent rope in Julian’s fist. “No.” For the third time in the past hour, white-hot rage blasted through his body. Why would Sophie bind herself to another Immortal? It made no sense. Surely she wasn’t doing it just to get the spear and shield? She wouldn’t do something so foolish. So dangerous.
“She’s not binding herself. She’s binding you,” Barrett said.
Ric shook his head. “No!” He couldn’t believe that. Wouldn’t believe it. Sophie wouldn’t bind him for eternity just to be able to destroy one lamia. She loved him. She trusted him to help her. He knew it; he’d felt her love and faith, had heard her thoughts whispering through his soul like a soft breeze through a forest.
They’d tricked her somehow. That had to be it. But goddess help him, if it wasn’t a trick, he needed to stop her before she completed the ritual.
“The human is no longer your concern,” Margaret said, sounding impatient. “She has chosen another path. You never completed the Joining with her.” She traced a long, slick path up his stomach with her tongue. “It’s time. We need to complete the abolition spell. We must destroy the spear and shield. Now.”
“This is what you’ve wanted all along, isn’t it,” he growled, glaring at her with such hatred his mouth burned with acid. “That’s why you told us about the Guardian. You wanted us to find the relics, to get this far so you would be able to convince Barrett that the shield and spear had to be destroyed. That way none of your people will ever again face the threat of death.”
“Perhaps.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. It’s no longer safe with the Guardian. If you give the spear and shield to Ysgawyn, your brother will pay the price with his death. And untold millions will pay when the mage summons the Fury. You can forget about helping Sophie’s friend too. You don’t know the price to be paid for using the relics to destroy my sister. Do you really wish to risk your brother’s life? Or Sophie’s?”
“You must complete the spell,” Barrett echoed.
Margaret smiled triumphantly. “You have no other choice.”
This time Ric didn’t hold back. He roared, releasing the frustration, anger, and powerlessness boiling and churning inside like hot magma deep in the belly of the earth.
Chapter 17
“No. This is wrong. I can’t go through with it.” Sophie shoved Julian’s head away seconds before it found its target—her mouth. “I love Ric.”
“Which is why you must continue,” the dark-haired Ancient One explained for the umpteenth time. She was getting really tired of hearing his explanation. For some reason, it wasn’t making any sense to her. She loved Ric. Ric loved her. Ric was in danger. So she had to do the nasty with this strange—albeit attractive—man to save him? How was that again? Maybe it was the shock of nearly being torn apart by those hounds from hell, but her brain wasn’t able to wrap itself around that concept.
Didn’t these Immortal people use any form of logic?
Feeling very…dirty, she sat up and wrapped the sheet around herself. “Sorry, bud. But I’m not buying your line. I ha
ve a feeling you could explain it to me another thousand times and I still wouldn’t get it. I see no way that sleeping with you will save Ric from death or eternal damnation or whatever. Sex is just…sex. It doesn’t have any power to save people. I’m sure a number of people wish it did. Just think how powerful a porn star would be—”
“You must believe me,” he said, looking damn earnest. “I wouldn’t lie to you. For the Immortals, the act of sex is the greatest source of power. It enables us to complete spells. Binding spells to keep people from doing things we don’t wish them to. Abolition spells to destroy certain items—”
“Sounds like a pile of cow dung to me. And if sex is such a source of power, like you say, why didn’t Ric perform any spells while we…you know?”
“Because he cannot. Wissenschafts possess no powers of magic. They are beings of science. Logic and natural law. To complete any spell, he would need another, either a human or an Immortal, to join with him.”
“So, bring him in. I’ll make love to him and cast the spell.”
“It won’t work. You can’t bind the one you’re performing the spell with.”
“And binding him will stop him from what? Helping me destroy the snakewoman who’s feasting on my friend?”
“No. He never intended on helping you do that.”
“Bullshit. You’re lying. Just like you lied about trying to kill Ric in the hotel room.” Sophie stood and shoved Julius Caesar aside, heading for the door. Before she pulled it open, he caught her by the waist and hauled her backward until her back was pressed against all six-foot-something, 250 pounds of frustrated vampire. It was an intimidating place to be, especially with his seven-incher poking her in the backside. “Let me go.”
“I’m not lying now and I wasn’t lying then. I won’t let you go until I have a chance to show you something.”
“Buddy, I’ve seen everything you have, and although I’m impressed, I’m not that impressed. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to leave, get these scratches and bites cleaned up before I get rabies.”
His laughter made his belly bounce against her spine. “You can’t catch rabies from those dogs.”
“Who’s to say?” She struggled to break free from his hold, but like Ric, the man had the strength of a hundred men. She was growing to dislike the Immortals. The whole lot of them. Nothing but trouble. Bullies. Liars.
“Ric doesn’t have to know who performed the binding spell,” he whispered in her ear. “I would tell no one.”
She shook her head, scrunched her shoulder up to block her ear. “No way. I hate secrets. I haven’t lied to Ric and I don’t want to start now. Especially about something so important.”
“That’s very honorable, considering how many lies he’s told you, how many secrets he’s kept,” Julian challenged.
“There were reasons, I’m sure. He’ll explain when the time’s right.”
“This way,” he said, pulling on her arm. “I should’ve shown you this an hour ago.” He opened the door, letting a second man inside, a very tall, very strong-looking man with deep auburn hair, then forced her to turn around.
The red-haired man walked by her like she wasn’t even in the room and blew a stream of air at the wall. It went up instantly, consumed by a deep red flame. That was some trick, the most impressive illusion she’d ever seen in person.
Or so she thought.
When a transparent circle formed in the wall’s center revealing a scene right out of her worst nightmare, her heart stopped. Again.
“Ric?” she whispered, alternately staring and blinking, trying to determine whether what she saw was real—God, she hoped not!—or some kind of illusion.
“He can’t hear you,” the red-haired man said.
She ran closer, flattened her palm on the wall. It felt cool to the touch, smooth, just like a regular, everyday, drywall type of wall. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the scene before her. Ric was lying on a concrete floor, nude. Margaret was next to him, running her hands up and down his torso, her head thrown back, her long hair brushing against her bare rear end. Ric had one hand on her hip. Small white marks surrounded his fingertips.
Sophie shook her head. “This is a trick. A mean one, too. He would never…” Her eyes burned. Her stomach rushed up into her throat. “He would never get naked with her. Not if he had a choice in the matter!”
“He’s performing a spell,” Julian explained, pointing at Margaret’s face. “See? You can’t hear her but you can see her mouth moving.”
“No.” This couldn’t be real. “You’re lying.”
“I can’t lie. She’s performing an abolition spell, to destroy the shield and spear.”
“Why? That makes no sense. He was looking for them too. He wouldn’t want them destroyed.” Or would he? Was that why he’d been searching for them in the first place?
“He’s destroying them because he doesn’t want you to kill the lamia.”
“He can’t do that. My friend will die and he knows how much that’ll hurt me. He promised to help me. Why would he want to stop me now?”
“Are you so sure he ever wanted to help you?”
No. I’m not sure of anything anymore. “Yes. Maybe it’s Margaret. Has she put him under some kind of spell? I’ve seen how powerful those lamia things are.”
As Sophie watched, confused, angry, hurt, Ric pushed Margaret away from him, and looking mildly annoyed, Margaret walked out of the room.
“There. See?” she said with mild triumph. “He pushed her away.” She held her breath as she watched to see what he’d do next.
Ric stood and turned to Barrett.
“Would you like to hear what they’re saying?” the red-haired man asked.
She briefly considered saying no but put that option out of her mind immediately. She wasn’t a coward. She’d already seen enough to shatter her heart into a million gazillion jagged, razor-sharp shards. Her insides were being ripped apart. What would eavesdropping on a conversation do to make things worse? She closed her eyes and nodded. “Yes.” She would finally know what kinds of secrets he’d been keeping from her.
The red-haired man muttered some gobbledygook and the wall shimmered again. Then as if a switch had been flipped, the sounds of the room beyond the wall filtered into the room in which she stood.
“You haven’t completed the spell.” That was Barrett, Ric’s brother. She knew she hadn’t liked him! Jerk! “You must complete the spell.”
“I…I will. I just need a minute.”
“I don’t understand why this is such a difficult decision,” Barrett insisted. “It wasn’t like you’d planned on actually helping her. You’ve always intended to follow your plan. You used her to help you find the spear. You knew a human would be more likely to find it than an Immortal.”
No!
Ric turned and stared blindly at the wall between them and for an instant she wondered if he could see her.
“Yeah. I know.” He dropped his head into his hands. “You’re right.”
“You lied to me?” she whispered. “You slept with me, and made promises and used me and lied to me and…and…I hate you,” she said on a sob. “Lying, secret-keeping, bloodsucking double-crosser.”
The transparent window closed in on itself, shutting out the sight of Ric’s guilty face, the sound of his voice. That was a good thing. She knew she couldn’t stomach another second looking at him.
“He lied to me,” she repeated, over and over, still unable to fully accept what she’d seen and heard.
“He’s going to complete the abolition spell to destroy the spear and shield unless you stop him first.”
“And we have to…to…you know to do that?” Her lip curled up in mild disgust. She’d never had a one-night fling with a stranger. Never even considered it. “Are you absolutely positive there isn’t another way? Could I give a drop of blood even?” she asked, recalling the time she’d donated some blood to Ric to save his life. “I mean, the sight of blood makes me all queasy
, but if it meant we wouldn’t have to…I can’t say it!…I’m willing to poke myself again. I don’t think I could…sex right now. Ugh. Nothing personal, of course.”
“Of course,” Julian looked genuinely solemn. “But I’m afraid there’s no other way.”
“Darn!”
“He’s going to destroy the relics.”
She wrapped her arms around herself, tried to stop the shaking that was rattling her teeth. “I know, I know.”
He held her shoulders gently, but even the small bit of contact was painful. She didn’t want him to touch her. Not anywhere. “Without the relics you have no chance of saving your friend.”
Sophie shrugged away from Julian, hating the feel of his hands on her. “I know!” She paced across the room, her mind clogged, her insides twisted and torn. She couldn’t think, couldn’t feel, couldn’t breathe. She needed room. Air.
Julian followed on her heels. “He has gotten worse, hasn’t he?”
Angry, she whirled around and glared at him. “Yes. But I wonder why you’re so willing to help me?”
“Because I had a friend once, many years ago. He was a human. Married Lisse, despite my pleas. She killed him, within months of their wedding. I was powerless to stop her then.” He visibly swallowed. “But I’m not powerless now. Together we can stop her.”
His confession cooled her storming emotions somewhat. “I’m sorry about your friend.”
He reached for her again, and this time, she let him touch her. He held her hands in his so very gently. “My friend’s been gone a long time and although a shadow of the pain remains at his loss, it’s not as bad as it once was. But for you, how much worse will that pain be knowing you had the chance to save him? The guilt for having been afraid to do what you could. What will that do to you?”
A Vampire Bundle: The Real Werewives of Vampire County, When Darkness Comes, Real Vamps Don't Drink O-Neg, & Hunted by the Others Page 82