by R D Martin
"No. Stop!" a voice screamed from inside the fire. "What are you doing?"
It was the first thing he'd said since entering the room, but it was as much a sign to her as if he'd been waving a white flag.
Easing back on the power she fed the flame, she lowered its top edge away from the ceiling, leaving a black ring behind as a souvenir of its visit. She wondered how much it would cost to replace the stonework she'd just destroyed. Bella let the spinning flame lower until his head came into view and gasped.
She'd thought to keep him trapped in the circle of fire, but hadn't considered what would happen to him in the center of the flame. He was a vampire, and if he had the chance, he would kill her without thinking. She'd made the circle wide on purpose, trying to keep him from being turned into a pile of ash, but her magic must have had other ideas.
His arms were still over his head where he'd tried to protect his face from the heat, but while his flesh could repair itself, the cloth couldn't. Fire still licked at the bits and pieces of his sleeve where the material had melted into his flesh. His oiled hair must have gone up like a torch, because it was completely gone, leaving a reddened and raw scalp behind. The flesh beneath pulsed and moved as it worked to repair the damage. In a few hours he would look like nothing had ever happened, but now he looked like an undercooked slab of bacon. She let the fire drop a little more even as she fought to keep her stomach from rebelling.
"What, what do you want?" he croaked through chapped lips. The pale skin of his face cracked as he spoke, as though made of the thinnest rice paper. The cracks healed almost instantly, but that didn't make the sight any less gruesome. He was panting and had a wild look in his eyes. As a vampire, he was more than likely responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people, but this may have been the first time he'd ever had to stare death in the face since turning, and it scared him.
"Why…" She paused and took a breath. The stench of his burned flesh and clothes hit her like a freight train, and it was all she could do to keep her face straight. She needed to be strong now. Later was a different story, but for now, weakness was as much her enemy as the vampire. "Why are you trying to frame me?"
"What are you talking about, witch? No one's trying to frame you. But you're in serious trouble now. Attacking—"
"Don't lie to me." She lifted her hand, and the flame rose. The vampire screeched, trying to back away from the flames in front of him, only to jerk away from the flames behind.
"I'm not—" The flames roared higher again and this time Bella kept them in place a little longer before letting them drop. The vampire's face now went beyond looking sunburned as black flecks of burnt skin fell off. Bella shuddered.
"Lie again and I will turn you to ash where you stand." Her own words surprised her with their coldness.
"I swear, witch. I will get out of this and—" The flaming circle the vampire stood in shifted, contracting to become a smaller and much hotter prison. "Stop. Stop!"
"I will stop when you answer my questions."
"But I'm telling you"—the circle closed a little more—"Wait! Okay, I'll talk. I'll talk."
The tension weighing on Bella's shoulders eased the smallest fraction, and she expanded the fire circle. Even though she was an Elemental Witch, maintaining control over such a wild element wasn't easy.
"So talk. Why were you following me? Why did you try to set me up? Who murdered the Algonde?"
"I don't know who murdered her. No. Honestly, I don't," he said, lifting his hands as she scowled at him.
"Then how did you know she'd been murdered?"
"Someone," he said, licking his lips. The burned skin flecked off, showing unblemished white beneath. "Someone found a note slipped under Lord Darius's door."
"That's ridiculous. If you didn't kill her, then who did? And why were you following me?"
"I… that is, I wasn't." He stuttered over his words and Bella felt a spark in her center flare as hot as the flame she controlled.
Squinting at the vampire, she raised her hands. Maybe being cooked a little more would make him talk. The vampire shrank in on itself, trying to avoid what it knew was coming, and yelled out.
"Lord Darius. Lord Darius told me to follow you."
Bella paused. Why would the head of the Vampire Council send his flunky to follow her around? That didn't make sense. "Why, then? Why did he send you?"
"I was supposed to keep an eye on you and report back. He said I was… I was…"
"Was what? What were you supposed to do?"
"I was…"
"What?"
"I was supposed to keep you safe," he shouted. "I was supposed to keep you safe." The last came out almost as a whisper.
"Why? What were you supposed to keep me safe from?"
Silence, broken only by the crackle of her fire, stretched. She was about to demand her answer again when he spoke.
"The Imperium. The lord asked me to keep you safe from the Imperium."
"Why would he do that?"
"He said there was a threat, something to do with the Representative and you. He wanted me to keep an eye on you in case something happened."
"What was the threat? Who made it?"
"I don't know who." He hung his head and drooped like a warm wax candle. "I don't know. He just said to watch you, and I did."
"Then what was the threat?"
"He, Lord Darius, said the Imperium thought you were doing the same thing your father was doing."
Her father? What about her father? Since she'd arrived, it was like she'd been walking in his shadow. What did they know about him that she didn't? What had he done?
"Bella! Someone's coming," Cat hissed from his perch on the top of the wardrobe. It had been the safest place for him with the magic she had set up, and if she needed the help, it was the perfect spot to attack from. She turned her head enough to listen but kept her eyes on the vampire. She heard nothing, but his hearing was better than hers. Unless she wanted to fight whatever was on its way, her time was up and she needed to get out of there.
Frowning, she stared at the vampire. The fear in his face shifted to rage, and his bloodshot eyes began turning deep red. Bella's stomach clenched. If she wanted to get out of here, she had to deal with him, and he knew it the same way a rat cornered by a cat understood its fate. And like the rat, he would not give up without a fight.
"What was he doing? My father, what was he doing?"
"Why would I tell you? You're going to kill me anyway."
Her hands clenched. She didn't have time for this. "Tell me and you might live. Don't, and you'll definitely die." She concentrated on the ring of fire, making it shrink around him while the flames grew higher. Her eyes locked on his and it became a test of will to see who would break first.
"Go ahead. Burn me. I'll survive, but the Nation will find you. They will hunt you down no matter where you hide, and when they do, they'll—"
"Do nothing," Cat interrupted as he jumped from his perch on the wardrobe to the dresser. "They'll do nothing because they won't even be looking for you. You don't understand, do you?"
"I understand the witch will pay for this."
"Then you understand nothing. This is Bella Flores, and she is her father's daughter. She can burn you to ash, then turn the ash to dust. You think death is the only thing you have to worry about?" The smile on the familiar's face widened. "She will steal your soul before she destroys you, store it in a gem, and bring it out to play with when she's bored. Your body will be gone, but you will still spend all of eternity burning, being torn apart atom by atom. And when she isn't playing with you, I will be. There's a reason cats are called the guardians of the dead."
Cat's speech was delivered so deadpan Bella wasn't sure how to argue with it. What was that all about? She could burn him, but what Cat was talking about, that was beyond anything she'd ever be able to do. She was about to set the record straight when the vampire lurched. She'd been paying too much attention to Cat and not enough to the fire. Bit
ing her bottom lip, she pushed against the dancing flame, widening the circle again, though not as much as before.
"You'll, you'll let me live if I tell you?" His voice trembled with such a level of fear she'd have thought he believed Cat's rubbish.
She nodded, trying to keep the disbelief from her face. "Tell me now.” How had Cat done it? A few words and this vampire was tripping over himself to tell her when her threats of burning him alive had done nothing. "Why does the Imperium want me dead? Did they attack the Finder? Why is Darius so interested in keeping me safe?"
"I, I don't know everything. All I know is the Imperium thinks you're trying to finish the work your father started."
"What was that? What was he involved with?"
"If I tell you, Darius will kill me."
"If you don't, she'll kill you," Cat responded. "In fact, Bella, kill him now. He's just wasting our time and I'm getting bored."
"No, wait." The vampire's hands shot up like he was praying to the gods. "He was trying a spell, something they're afraid of. I heard Darius say it was supposed to cut them off from magic."
"Cut them off from magic? How? Is that even possible?"
"Bella, we have to go."
She glared at Cat, not sure if she should yell at him or listen. She was so close. All her answers were right here, and she just needed time to get them. But the way his tail twitched and jerked told her he was nervous about something. He didn't have many tells, but that was one she recognized. Her chest tightened in frustration, but if he was actually that nervous, it was time to go.
Turning back to the kneeling vampire, she began mumbling beneath her breath. Power built up with every syllable and she formed the magic, molding it to do her bidding. Sweat started beading on her forehead. She'd been holding her grip on her fire for so long, something it fought against like a tiger in a trap, that casting magic she didn't have to control was almost child's play in comparison.
The floor beneath the vampire changed, softening as the flagstone turned to sand once again. He'd escaped the last time she tried the spell, but this time he wasn't going anywhere. His bloodshot eyes widened as he sank.
"Wait. What are you doing? You promised you wouldn't hurt me."
"No," she said through gritted teeth. "I promised I'd leave you alive. I never promised you'd be comfortable." As his form sank, she pushed more power into the spell. She was nearing her limit, but she couldn't stop. It was like pushing a boulder up a hill covered in grease.
The vampire was up to his waist in sand, struggling against being devoured by the churning grains, before she let the fire die out. If there wasn't enough purchase for him to push himself out of the sand, there wouldn't be any way for him to attack and the fire was draining her fast.
His yells and screams echoed about the room, bouncing off walls spelled to muffle sound, but each one still cut through her. He alternated between threatening and pleading, but she ignored it. As his head disappeared beneath the sand, cutting off his cries, she almost wept for the silence. The idea for this trap hadn't even been hers. She'd gotten it from listening to Darius, and if she got out of here alive, she promised herself she'd tell someone where to find the buried bloodsucker. When the last of him disappeared, a hand still grasping at the air as though he was expecting salvation at any second, she was almost ready to pass out. One final tweak of the spell and the sand hardened back to stone, leaving a surface as smooth as polished glass. Even the ring of charred stone on the floor was gone. The one burned into the ceiling remained, but there was nothing she could do about it.
Cutting off the flow of magic, she fell to her own knees. She was bruised, battered, and beaten, and on top of all that, she'd exhausted her internal supply of magic. She could try to access the magic mists if she needed, but after losing so much time yesterday—had it been just yesterday?—she wasn't sure if she dared. She didn't even notice Cat leaping from the dresser to the floor, meandering over to her as though they had all the time in the world. It was his purring, vibrating against her leg and running up her body, that made her notice.
"Bella," he said without pausing, "you need to get up. We have to go."
She nodded and pushed herself up. He was right. Staying here was madness, but she was so tired. Looking around, she spied her belt, still on top of the dresser where she'd put it. Picking it up, she made a loop and turned to face Cat. She wasn't eager to go back to the bone-chilling cold of the shadow world, but better that than the alternative.
Cat tilted his head and took a couple steps back. "What are you doing?"
"You said we have to go."
"I did, but I'm not a dog to be put on a leash."
"How else am I going to keep up with you in the shadow world?"
"What are you talking about?
"We've got to get out of here, right?"
"Of course, but there's a perfectly good door right there. Besides, wandering the shadows right now would not be a good idea, not since you killed a guardian, anyway."
"Then how are we going to get out of here? You said there's someone on the other side of that door."
"And they will not give us a single look." He paused, looking her up and down before continuing. "Well, they won't give me a single look. You they may. You look horrible. But they'll leave you alone, regardless."
"Oh, and what makes you think that?"
"I'm a cat."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"It means that I'm always right."
"That's not true."
"Of course it is. Now, are you going to stand there gaping or are we going to get out of here?"
Bella shook her head. Sometimes she thought Cat was the smartest being she knew. Other times, his ego alone was enough to make her want to strangle him. Still, she had nothing. If he had a plan, she was willing to listen.
She sighed and shrugged. "Okay, smart guy, what do we do? What's your grand plan for getting us out of here?"
"Simple. Open the door."
18
Bella grumbled and rubbed at the worst of the sore spots on her back and shoulders, though it was hard to tell one from another. Every inch of her body felt as though someone had stuffed her in a barrel and rolled it downhill. Nothing was broken, but that was small comfort.
Worse than her aching body was Cat's attitude. Not that he wasn't always smug, but he'd ratcheted up his smugness meter from its usual seven to somewhere closer to twelve. Before now, she'd always thought it stopped at ten. She sighed as she looked down at the purring familiar. He would hold this over her head for years.
It had been almost as easy as he'd said to escape the apartment. Her stomach had been in knots as she opened the door to reveal a larger chamber on the other side. Multiple unmatched sets of furniture were scattered around the room. Hovering light orbs were set on low, giving the room both a larger and darker feeling, but there was still enough light to see at least two separate groups of vampires.
As she stood in the doorway, outlined by the light behind her, Bella's heart jumped into her throat. Fighting one vampire had almost killed her, and now she faced half a dozen of them. Her pulse sped, and her throat felt as dry as a windswept desert.
Something pushed against the back of her leg and she realized Cat was trying to get her to move, but she was stuck, her body refusing to take a step either forward or back. What was she going to do? The next bump from her familiar hit her in the back of the legs. He must have taken a running jump because there was more force to it than she'd have thought possible for his size. Stumbling forward, she almost lost her balance but righted herself in time to hear the door click closed behind her.
Bella straightened herself and tried to play off the near tumble, though she realized she needn't have bothered. None of the vampires in the room even looked in her direction. Her heart still beat a staccato rhythm in her chest, but no one was attacking. They weren't even pausing in their conversation to look in her direction.
Cat mewed and started walkin
g toward the center of the room, between the two groups of monsters, as though he didn't have a care in the world. He is a cat, she thought as she swallowed the shout of warning threatening to escape her lips. He probably doesn't have any cares.
When nothing happened after her first step following the familiar's trail, she felt the tension in her shoulders ease. She wanted to run, to dash out as fast as her legs could carry her, but she had to settle for something only a little faster than a shuffle. As each step brought her closer, her legs felt like a hundred-pound weight had been attached to each one, and her stomach flipped as though in a competition.
She'd made her way between the two groups, ignoring the quizzical stare she got from a man dressed in entirely too much formal wear, when a voice louder than the rest broke through the muted conversation filling the room.
"You. Thrall. Attend me."
Bella froze. Was the voice aimed at her? Did they think she was a thrall? Should she run?
"Thrall, attend me, I said." The voice was louder now, tinged with annoyance at repeating itself.
Bella turned in place, looking for the source of the commands. Most of the vampires in the room were still ignoring her existence, with the exception of one who looked as though she'd been sucking on a lemon. Taking a deep breath, pushing down the fear surging through every vein, Bella shuffled toward the dour-faced woman.
Like every vampire, the woman had bloodshot eyes, smooth pale skin, and an ageless look that should have made her beautiful. However, her twisted features, as though she'd stepped in dog poo and refused to admit it, made her look less like a supermodel dressed in old-fashioned clothes and more like a schoolmarm about to discipline a wayward student. Even her hair was pulled back into a tight bun.
"What is wrong with you, thrall? When one of your betters calls, you come and don't waste time."
The vitriol in her voice was thick, but Bella still felt some muscles in her shoulders loosen. At least she'd chosen the right vampire to attend. And if the worst she got was a tongue-lashing from the horrible woman, she'd count herself lucky.