The thought hadn’t even circled through her mind and Erika came flying out of the crowded room, before the blonde woman at her side could even react.
“ I’m here! I’m fine!” the girl said, curling up against her side, wrapping her arms around Leandra’s waist and snuggling against her.”I know Agnes did a poof on ya, but I was just zap…and here I was. Plopped right down next to Malachi, too—and he yelped.”
“I did not,” a dark, accented voice snapped.
“Did too,” Erika said, grinning. “I wasn’t supposed to tell.”
“Children these days have no sense of honor.”
That voice sent shivers down Leandra’s spine—foreboding, fear…hunger…but mostly fear. Slowly, as he came around the room and into her line of view, she lifted her head and stared into his gaze. Watching his eyes, she waited. Over her head, he met Agnes’ eyes and Leandra felt the unheard conversation taking place. “I could not care less that she fell into the wrong group,” Malachi said silkily. Lowering his eyes to her face, he said, “What I want to know is where my friends are now. What good is your ass to me now? Have you any worth to us?”
But before she could answer, his eyes went vague and blank, and he turned around and left the room.
“She says they are just raising energy,” Eli murmured, staring into the darkness. In the back of his mind, he was painfully aware of the voice of another—Malachi had always been able to speak to him and distance was no obstacle.
“They are doing just that. But they plan on doing it through very nasty means, old boy. Blood sacrifice.”
Fear and fury slammed into Eli. “That doesn’t make sense...Lori said she saw something, picked it up somehow. They wanted to convert Jonathan—”
“More like the evil bitch in charge just wanted to fuck him before she killed him. Or while. I don’t know. Or maybe she thought to kill the kid once she had Jonathan there, thinking that would break him. But they need blood, powerful blood...and they want his. It’s not his body they want. It’s his blood, and that little witch of yours probably knew it.”
“She knew,” Eli muttered.
Whatever else he might have said was interrupted by the burst of magick as Lori reappeared. But it was unlike anything he had seen from her before. Her magick had always been quiet. Subtle. This was anything but.
In front of her, held by her magick, was a massive wolf. A still one—quiet, unmoving—but breathing.
Threading her fingers briefly through his fur, she whispered, “My heart, always.” Then she let his body drift to the ground.
As she knelt beside him, she locked eyes with Eli, then Sarel. She placed her palms flat on the ground.”Stay,” she whispered eerily. “Until my word or death releases them…”
“Lori, no.”
Sarel fell to her knees to try to counter the simple earthspell, but it was too late. The earth here knew Lori’s blood, Lori’s magick—that Sarel couldn’t hope to copy. As Sarel tipped her head back and opened herself to her own magick, they watched as Lori turned away. A second later, she was gone.
Jonathan felt her go. The little witch had tricked him.
The wolf was trying, desperately, to work past the sleep spell she had thrown on him in the cave.
But it wasn’t going to be easy.
And even then, the final spell, the earthspell…only two things would unlock that.
Little fool…why?
Malachi exploded through the door, his eyes blazing with flames of blue.”Our little witch, the sweet innocent Healer that the lot of you think is so bloody innocent, so fucking helpless, has gone and sacrificed herself so she can kill the Scythe. And the fools, the bloody braggarts are no smarter than their arrogant predecessors. So she’ll likely be able to do it…but she’ll die in the winning of it.”
He had grief written in his eyes as he knelt in front of Agnes, taking her face in his hands.”That girl is going to die. They’re working serious blood magick and she knows it and plans to stop them. She doesn’t care if it means she has to die.”
Agnes stared at him, her face grim. “We need to stop her.”
“We can’t,” he said gently, reaching out and catching her arm before she could let her magick tear her away. If he was any less than who he was, she could have just taken them both, but Malachi had enough strength in him to fight her magick. “Whatever they want to raise that kind of power for...we can’t let them do it. And she’s already got the best plan for stopping them.”
“Let me go, Malachi,” she said.
“No.”
She jerked against him, but her bones were frail from age and even as strong as she’d been in her youth, she couldn’t match a vampire. “Damn it, Mal!”
“They can’t be allowed to succeed, Nessa,” he said gently.
He had thought he had already lost all of his self-respect.
How sad to realize he had been wrong.
Lifting his gaze, he met the amber eyes of the young witch Agnes had presented them with.
“I would think that a vampire as old as you would have lost so many people that one more witch would not matter,” she said, a bitter smile. On her face. “It seems that I’m wrong all over the place today.”
Malachi opened his mouth to snarl at her.
But before he could, she was gone.
And he was left cursing himself for being a fool.
Should have known the little bitch was a bloody flyer.
Chapter Eleven
As Leandra came to rest on the land, she felt the touch of another witch on her earth. It was a powerful, healing touch, a good one, feeling much like her own, the magick meshing with hers, overlying it.
Laying one palm down, she listened to the whisper of the spell…until my death or word releases them…
“Breaking my own spells, you little witch,” she muttered.
Flexing her hand, letting her fingers dig into the earth, she whispered, “Not her death, but her need…”
The ground trembled as the two witch’s spells battled. But Leandra had been there so long, battling the ill effects the bad magick had on land. Even though she hadn’t understood why the land was taking ill, she had battled.
She thought she understood a bit now, though. The Scythe—the people she had lived with, worked with, lived for—were wrong, living against nature, and the land didn’t like it.
With a brief sigh, she stood straight, feeling the wind whipping her braids around her shoulders as magick exploded through her. Before her heart could beat three more times, she was within the great chamber. Hiding within one of the recessed alcoves, retreating deep, her eyes locked on the center dais. Mistress waited with Marick, bound and struggling, staring at her with disbelieving eyes.
She so hated failure.
But there was also Jennifer, a young witchling they had brought in just a year ago, only twelve years old. Staring all around with wide, scared eyes, confusion written all over her face as she struggled against the two men who held her. Leandra withdrew further, whispering a silencing spell as she waited for the red-haired Healer to show herself.
It wouldn’t do for anybody to notice her now.
She had a feeling that it wasn’t Jennifer they’d wanted up on that platform. It would have been her and Jonathan, Leandra thought. Or perhaps Jonathan and the girl.
But she couldn’t be seen. Not now.
Lori didn’t make her unknown audience wait long.
The sight of another child down there sickened her. A child. Erika’s age. What kind of monsters were these people? Her heart tore open as she studied the child. Her eyes wheeling around in terrified circles as she struggled against the men who held her.
Damn it. I don’t have the time!
They had been fucking the day away. That and cutting into their own flesh.
The scents of so many frenzied copulating bodies, and so much spilled blood. First, one started to notice her…then another…then a few more. One man tried to grab her and drag her into an already
crowded ménage a quatre. Purring roughly, he slid his hands down to cup her ass, “You waste time, bebè, wearing the clothes. Veins ici, let me have a taste.”
“Taste this,” she said sweetly. Slamming her hand against his chest, she released a bit of the illness she had felt from the land—the cold, barren impotent wasteland sinking into him, into his healthy, hungry body and changing it.
The shrieks of horror from his partners were joyful music to her ears as she continued her walk to the dais.
But it was no longer an unnoticed walk.
A blonde woman sat curled in the lap of a black-haired inherent who was driving his fingers into her pussy as they watched Lori approach. Lori felt a blush stain her cheeks as the woman shuddered and whimpered in climax. She was licking her lips like a satisfied cat as Lori leaped onto the dais.
“I don’t know you, witch. You’re a foolish thing, entering my territory. And on such a bad day—you’ll be lucky if you only end up fucked within an inch of your life.”
She had such a sweet, innocent voice, Lori mused.
Innocent, sweet voice. Evil in her eyes.
An empty smile curled Lori’s lips.”I’m not too worried about that.” Blinking slowly, she skimmed her gaze over the calming crowd. Oh, they were still busily fucking, but less screaming and moaning. More sighs, more were just holding still against their partners as they stared with blank, curious eyes at Lori. Trying to determine her place, what she meant to them.
“I bet you are the one who took one of my offerings. I must have an offering,” the woman said, poking her lip out.
Arching a brow, Lori said, “Does that ‘poor me, she took my toy’ act really work?”
Red flags of rage appeared high on her cheeks. Lashing out with an angry hand, she hissed at Lori in Latin before settling back against the man, and wrapping her hand around his thick, heavy dick.
Lori felt the swipe of her magick, and only smiled as it barely even rippled her shields. Chuckling, she said, “It’s going to take more than that.”
Lori braced herself for the more.
Jonathan exploded out of the furred hide, into his human skin, with a furious roar. Grabbing Sarel’s arms, he leaned down nose-to-nose and snarled, “Break the damn spell, Sarel!”
“I can’t,” she whispered softly. Her eyes, glassy with shock and tear-bright, met his.”I’ve been trying. I’ve got the warrior magicks. But the spells, the earth magicks—it looks like Lori has me beat. I had no fucking clue.”
Jonathan felt her body wilt in his hands as Eli moved up behind her, wrapping his arms around his wife’s waist. “Lori somehow knew what was being planned, Jonathan. She tricked you, and us as well. Lori is inside, alone. And we are stuck out here.”
Jonathan felt his throat close up. “She is going to collapse the cave. From the inside.”
“Hello, wolf.”
That voice—Jonathan’s head whipped up and he searched all around, though there was nobody else there with them. That voice, though. He had heard it. And this wasn’t the first time. The first time he’d heard it had been only weeks ago, when he had taken that slice in his side.”This is for my Mistress, wolf. Your pretty hide is what the lady wants, not your death.”
Eli’s eyes were narrowed, the rim of gold flickering. Both he and Sarel had heard it as well.
“Just how brave are you, though? Will you walk into that cave, knowing you’re pretty damn certain to die, I wonder?”
“What do you want, you evil bitch?” Jonathan hissed as his fangs broke through his gums, his rage calling to the wolf, his control in tatters.
“Your strength, your speed. I’m a channeler. I need a conduit. I can’t do it alone. But if you help me, I can save her.”
“It’s a bloody trick,” Elijah rasped, reaching out as Jonathan started to turn.”As your Master, I refuse to allow it. Bad enough we lose Lori—”
“I can’t lose her,” Jonathan snarled, grabbing Elijah’s silk shirt, whirling and slamming the centuries-old vampire into a tree. The great oak shuddered under the impact. “She is my life. She’s everything. If I lose her, I might as well die, too. So if this is a trick, it doesn’t matter.”
He was gone, shifting to full wolven form in heartbeats, running so fast, Eli could hardly track him with his eyes. Jonathan leaped through the protective spell like it wasn’t even there, but when Eli he tried to follow, Lori’s shield spell stopped him.
Sarel pounded against it with her fist. “The witch changed the spell. I can feel it. She changed it somehow.” Swearing, she slammed her fist into the shield again and again before stopping, resting her hands against the unseen wall as she slid to her knees.
Eli curled up behind her, wrapping his large, golden body around his wife’s still frame.”Take heart, love. Perhaps there is hope. Jonathan is the luckiest bastard I’ve ever known in my life,” he murmured.
A channeler…how very odd…
Her other secret. The reason Leandra never seemed to fail, never seemed to tire, was because she always had a vast reserve of energy. Or so it seemed. Rarely did she rely on her energy reserves. She could always find energy from the land around her, or from her victims, the thugs she hunted and preyed upon on her own.
She had also siphoned energy from those in Scythe who were unworthy and unfit for the cause. Men like Marick…though she should have drained them all dry, including herself.
Not the time for this, she thought sourly. Granted, if she ended up dead, she had a problem, but she couldn’t waste time with grief, guilt, regrets and all that shit.
Though she heard no sound, she knew when the wolf was at her heels. She pivoted swiftly, knife in hand, just as he was shifting, and reaching for her with a big hand.
Staring at her with fury and rage in his dark, bottomless eyes, he smelled of the woods, and man. A light shone about him that was so true, so crystal-bright, that Leandra wanted to weep. “Kill me if you want, but you won’t save her then,” she whispered simply. Then she held out her knife.
He backpedaled away from her and the blade, a look of disgust sliding through his eyes, across that golden face. The muscles in his chest and belly spasmed as he moved a hand in front of his face, shaking his head. “Keep your blade, witch. What do you want me for?”
“I need your hand.”
He lowered his lashes. “Literally?”
Leandra chuckled.”No. Flesh to mine…just your flesh to mine, werewolf. And then be ready to fight. This won’t go unnoticed.”
“And I’m here alone,” he muttered.
She smiled. “Not for long. Her need, not her death.”
Sarel fell forward as the wall of the spell disintegrated. Catching herself on her hands, she gasped as rocks dug into them. Her eyes narrowed and she rose to her feet. Elijah was already at the mouth of the cave.
“If she collapses it while we are in there…” Elijah murmured, looking back to her. “Will you please stay out here?”
“That is my baby sister in there. I thought once before that I had lost her. And I have a better than average chance of surviving a cave-in. Not as good as you, handsome, but better than average.”
“She means for this to kill an army of witches and weres—she’s not going to rely on just a cave-in. Lori knows better,” he said, turning to stroke his hands down her back. “Please.”
“I can’t. Don’t ask me,” she said, cupping his face. Pressing her lips to his, she sent a brief prayer heavenward, and then strode into the dark maw. Eli closed his eyes briefly.
And then he followed her, his eyes on the shining dark-red banner of her hair.
* * * * *
Jonathan felt the heat of the witch’s hand on his, and something rifling through him. And the wolf, rousing, raised his head, studying the intruder. Jonathan prepared to battle the wolf down—
But he only sighed at her presence, settling his muzzle on his paws as she siphoned the vast reserves a were held. “A wise witch would take better care, girl,” the wolf said lazily, his to
ngue lolling out.
Jonathan stiffened.
The woman only said, “Hush, you fool animal…want me leaving marks all over your bearer?”
“If I thought you were likely to do that, do you think I’d be letting you touch him at all?” the wolf asked.
The witch sighed as she reached up and cupped Jonathan’s face with her free hand—not staring at his face, but at his chest, as though she could see into his heart. “He hardly understands, you know. After all this time. He don’t know what to make of you and you don’t help him figure it out, either.”
“And do you think you understand me, child?”
“I understand a totem animal when I see one,” she said, smirking. “That’s a bit of what you are at least. I can even see your aura, all over him.”
With a shudder and a sigh, she took her hands away, flexing them. Blinking, she opened her eyes and stared up at Jonathan. “You all but breathe his power. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Jonathan stared into her glittering, gold eyes—into the face of the woman who had sliced him open and felt fine.”Are you the one who killed Brad?”
“No. But I did shoot the other one. He lived, to tell you about your child. I also organized the attack. If you want blood when this is done, it’s yours. But there’s no time now.”
Jonathan felt it as Eli and Sarel approached. Staring into her eyes, he said roughly, “If you don’t save her, you’re going to do so very badly.”
She smiled sardonically. “If I don’t save her, I’ll be dead anyway,” she said obliquely.
Jonathan was still staring at her as she winked out of sight.
Lori didn’t plan on taking abuse or showing any false bravado. Staring into the sweet, blue eyes of the woman who called herself Mistress, she started to gather the energy that supported the bedrock beneath her. It was already weakened. Somebody had been trying to slowly heal the land, and had been doing a good job of it, but too many others were undermining her.
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