He stared at her expectantly. Licking her suddenly dry lips, she calmed the tremors running through her body. “I love you, too, Shade. Always.”
She was telling the truth, and it hurt. He wasn’t in love with her. He wasn’t even with her. He thought she was Hope. He had made love to Hope.
He fell asleep with a serene smile on his lips.
Torrey slid from beneath the covers and retrieved her clothes. She hid her tears under the spray of the shower.
The water brought a connection to the earth. Energy flowed through her, a drug whose pull she couldn’t resist. Since she had begun using her powers, thanks to Shade’s teachings, her connection to earth and water had increased exponentially. Slipping into the euphoria, she let herself be swept away from this world and the mess that was her life.
Caiden knelt in front of a fire, feeding it a steady diet of kindling. The fire provided the only light. Dank smells permeated the tight space. Torrey could feel the closeness of the walls nearby. The damp air and the smoke from the fire made it difficult to breathe.
In the light from the fire, she made out a blocky table covered with jars and littered with pieces of plant life.
Torrey drew her black cloak tightly around her body, protecting herself from the toxins in the air. They were in a cave. “Caiden, that fire is going to smother us. There’s no ventilation for the smoke.”
He chuckled lightly. “I am not mortal. Nothing can kill me except you. And you, my dear Daughter, are in a shower far from here. Your spirit cannot suffocate.”
Turning away from the fire, he stood and held a hand to Torrey. She took it, letting his spirit sink into hers. “Shade is dying.”
They settled on the floor in front of the fire. He kept her hand in his.
Caiden’s head cocked to the side. “You need to save him.”
“I love him.” The simple statement summed up her problem so well. She loved Shade. She loved Riley. How could she do right by both of them?
He nodded knowingly. “You were meant to love him.”
Spurred by a breaking heart and more than a little desperation, she snapped at Caiden. “I’m not Hope. He loves Hope. How can you sit there and say something like that? I want to know what you know, Caiden. Tell me how to save him. Tell me how to make this right.”
His eyes softened. “I’m sorry, Torment, but I only know what you know. You created me. You charged me with my tasks. I love you. I love all of my Daughters without condition and without reserve. I would do anything for you, but I only know what you know.”
She blinked at him. The convoluted logic was beginning to make sense to her. At one point, all of the Daughters of Circe must have been together. She must have worked with her sisters to create the cycle of rebirth that kept her coming back from the dead. Somewhere along the line, they must have created Caiden.
Then she caught the incongruity. “But if you only know what I know, then how did you know about the Daughters of Circe and all that stuff, but I didn’t?” She studied his dark brown eyes closely, peering into him in a way she hadn’t known possible.
“There is a blankness in you,” he said.
The moment he voiced the thought, she knew with her whole heart and soul, it was true. There was something inside her that had blocked her powers and her innate knowledge of who and what she was. Shade had unlocked that door, but it was up to her to explore the cavern.
“It’s magical,” he said. “Somebody did this to you.”
Now she understood what he meant about knowing only what she knew. He spoke thoughts surfacing in her mind. Frank. Frank did this to her. He probably cast this spell on her when she was a defenseless infant. He hated Caiden. He hated Torrey.
“My mom didn’t fight with Frank, did she?” she asked. There was no need to clarify. Caiden was part of her consciousness, part of her very being.
Caiden grinned. “A trick of the light. It was necessary.”
“A charm.” Torrey smiled regretfully. Frank spent his entire adult life thinking Hillary had loved another man. It was a cruel trick, and Torrey was as responsible for it as Caiden. Now she saw the harm of simple charms. She saw the responsibility that all Daughters of Circe carried.
Caiden stood. “You must work to erase the blankness, Torrey. What you don’t know can kill you.”
Sensing her time with him was done, Torrey stood. “I have to save Shade.”
Caiden’s smile was tragic. “Yes. You do.”
Cold, sharp shards of water pummeled her skin. Hastily, she shut off the tap and snatched a towel from the rack. She checked on Shade before she went down to have breakfast.
She knew what she needed to do. A Calling spell was required. She was going to rip apart his library and meditate under her tree until she found the knowledge she needed. One way or another, she was going to save Shade, and Soren was going to pay for this with his life.
Chapter 15
A thorough search of Shade’s library revealed nothing. She ransacked every room in his house, throwing it into more disarray than it had been when she arrived. The day melted away. Exhausted, she killed the lights downstairs and went to inspect Shade’s room. In a box under a mountain of neatly folded clothes, she stumbled upon something familiar.
It was a beaded necklace. Each of the large wooden beads came from a different variety of tree. With little doubt, Torrey was able to identify each kind of wood—oak, mahogany, maple, white pine, and redwood. She counted thirteen in all.
The pattern echoed with smaller beads on each side, completing the circle. Fine lines were etched into the highly polished wood, too small to see with her human eyes. Lightly, she caressed the etchings on the white pine. This was her tree. This was her necklace.
How did Shade come to have something so closely tied to her essence?
On the bed, he stirred, throwing a restless arm over his head. His mouth twisted with pain. Drifting closer, Torrey drew her hand over his forehead. If his body temperature rose any more, he was going to burst into flame. She didn’t care if fire was his element or not, immolation wasn’t survivable.
In her hand, the bead glowed, illuminating the details of the picture with startling clarity.
Some of the blankness disappeared. Power surged through Torrey. Shade’s fire fed her. Spreading her palm over his sweaty forehead, she called the poison from his body. He writhed, dislodging the sheet covering his body and her hand from his head. A deep, disturbing moan issued from his chest.
She waited for him to calm before trying again.
This time, she reached for his shoulder. Words popped into her head, revealing themselves in the vast void with which Frank had cursed her. She said them, unaware of the syllables falling from her tongue. She concentrated on the meaning, on the feelings flowing through her body, and on the man who owned her heart.
He thrashed violently, smacking her away with one swipe of his powerful hand.
Shocked, Torrey snatched her hand back. Didn’t he know she was trying to help him? Her hand encircled her wrist, rubbing where he had hit her. The skin was red and swollen. Blood rushed to the surface, pooling purple under her skin. It was going to be a nasty bruise.
She refused to give up. What did one little bruise mean when his life was at stake? He had calmed again. She leaned down to press a kiss against his forehead. “Let me do this, Shade. Let me heal you. Let me give you this one thing.”
Not surprisingly, he didn’t respond. She smoothed his black hair away from his face, craving that moment when color returned to his skin and he no longer resembled the undead.
Throwing back her shoulders, she moved down, away from his arms. His feet were tangled in the sheet that no longer covered his magnificent, long body. She chose to rest her hand on his thigh. She calculated minimal damage should he lash out at her again, which she now expected.
She took a deep breath and let energy flow from her to him. The words came automatically. The poison moved. Wolf bane. How could his own brother do this to him? I
f he wasn’t such a powerful werewolf, Shade would be dead by now.
He thrashed, but she managed to hang on. The poison flowed, but only from the place where she touched him. He kicked at her, but she moved out of the way, neatly avoiding those powerful appendages.
Hairs sprouted on his chest. He arched, lifting his body from the bed. Torrey concentrated frantically, desperately hating that she had to hurt him this way. His teeth elongated, as did his hands. She chanted the words faster and faster. If he changed now, he would kill her. In his feverish state, instinct would take over and the wolf would kill the witch, his natural enemy.
She moved her hand up his thigh, concentrating on the portion of his body underneath. White-hot pain seared her side. Something knocked into the back of her head, and everything went black.
When Torrey woke, bright sunlight streamed into the room. She felt as if she’d been in a car accident. Every single molecule of her body screamed with pain.
It took several minutes to orient herself to her situation. She was on the floor across the room from Shade’s bed. The oak planks beneath her body were cool and hard. Groaning, she planted her palms against the floor and pushed her torso up to lean against the dresser at her back.
Breathing was painful. Her entire left side was on fire. Looking down, she saw blood soaking through the tatters of cloth that were stuck to her skin. He’d scratched her with his claws. Torrey bit her lip. There was no time to worry about whether he’d sentenced her to a slow death or whether he’d just given her some nasty scars. Even she knew witches couldn’t become wolves.
Gathering what was left of her strength, she forced her body to rise. She stumbled to the bathroom, using the walls to support her weight.
Water would restore her. Water would give her the strength she needed. It might even take her to Caiden. Maybe more answers would show up in her brain.
She didn’t bother stripping naked to shower. Her shirt needed to be wet, or else it would rip away her skin. As the warm water flowed over her body, she waited for strength to return, for Caiden to appear.
Except that she got wet, nothing happened.
Torrey sank down to sit in the tub, rested her forehead on her knees, and cried. She was too weak to try again. The water made her aware of every inch of her body. The egg-sized swelling on the back of her skull was from hitting the corner of the dresser. It was the injury that knocked her unconscious for an entire night. This was definitely a concussion. She hoped her skull wasn’t fractured as well.
Her wrist was a mottled mass of purples and blues. As she finally gathered the courage to peel away her wet clothes, she saw the deep gashes marring her left side just below the ribs.
Gingerly, she tested the bones that shielded her heart. They were bruised, but not broken.
When the water turned cold, she reluctantly gave up. She was exhausted. The water hadn’t done a thing except to clean her wound.
Using the mirror, she assessed the damage. Bruised wrist. Bruised ribs. One ugly shiner on her right cheekbone from where she’d hit the floor. A large swelling on the back of her head. Various lighter bruises on her back and on her right side.
All of that paled in comparison to the four parallel gashes on her left side. She needed stitches and some replacement skin. Torrey wasn’t sure she had enough skin there to knit together.
Rummaging through Shade’s bathroom cabinets produced gauze and tape. A wolf wouldn’t need antiseptic. They were impervious to most infections, and they would heal much too quickly to invest in bandages.
She did the best she could, dragged herself to her bed, and passed out.
* * * *
Time passed. Whenever she woke, she forced herself to go to the kitchen and eat something. She brought water and broth to Shade, but he never regained consciousness.
A nearly full moon floated on clouds in the sky. Torrey sat under her tree, clutching the black cloak from Caiden around her shoulders. It was a magical item. She wore the beads around her neck, and she leaned carefully against the trunk of her white pine.
She had never been a quick healer. Though her head felt better and she hadn’t passed out in two days, she battled nausea that would rise from nowhere to torment her.
Closing her eyes, she concentrated her energy on the white pine. After several moments she could feel the pith. Nutrients whizzed past cells. She reached out to grab something, but it wasn’t the right kind of sustenance. She followed the flow to the roots, checking to see if the damage she caused was repairing.
A low growl jerked her from her trance. If she had the energy, she might have leapt to her feet or at least leaned forward. Slowly, her eyelids rose. Tiffany stood before her, the blond goddess with her three faithful lieutenants.
“I warned you, witch.”
Torrey’s eyes shifted to peer behind the foursome. “You came alone.”
She shifted, tossing her long mane of hair over her shoulder. “Soren is fully aware you are staying with Shade. When he wants you, he will come for you.”
Torrey didn’t have time to play games with Tiffany. At another time, she might have loved some verbal sparring. Besides that, the she-wolf hadn’t followed through on her promise to bring Riley. “He poisoned Shade with wolf bane. I tried to heal him, but I couldn’t. I need your help. That’s why I’m here. I didn’t know how else to find you.”
“Wolf bane?” Tiffany’s jaw dropped. Behind her, two of her three men gasped. “This is a serious charge.”
“I need you to bring him here,” Torrey said. “I can’t lift him.”
One of the lieutenants stepped forward. With their bronze skin, dark hair, and dark eyes, the trio so closely resembled one another that they must have been brothers. “Why would we bring him to you? Why should we trust you not to kill him?”
Torrey’s eyes narrowed in derision. “I love Shade. I would never hurt him.”
Tiffany motioned him back. “If what you say is true, then you’ve had over a week to finish him off.”
Lumbering to her feet, Torrey swayed before stabilizing. They had to be able to smell her wound. It hadn’t stopped oozing blood and pus. “I’m in no condition to be a threat to you. Go to his house. He is in his bed. Bring him here. If I kill him, then you have my permission to kill me. I will not fight you.”
Tiffany waved her hand at the man who had questioned Torrey. “Marius, you stay here with the witch. If she makes one wrong move, kill her.” With one last, distrustful glare, she turned on heel. The other two werewolves followed her.
Torrey sank back to the ground and rested her back against her white pine. Marius stared at her, watching silently. Tiffany returned not more than fifteen minutes later. Her men carried an unconscious Shade wrapped in his sheet.
Again, she struggled to stand. “Lose the sheet. I need him to be touching the ground.”
Despite the frigid air temperature and the colder ground temperature, Tiffany didn’t argue. Perhaps she recognized Torrey’s anguish. “Do as she says.”
Marius cleared the area of rocks and sticks. The other two gently lowered Shade to the bare earth. His fevered, naked skin glistened in the moonlight, drawing strength from that orb that belonged exclusively to a werewolf.
“Light a fire.” Torrey pointed to a spot not far away. The warmth of the flames would reach them. Shade needed this element.
Marius rushed to obey. Torrey deduced he must be the lowest-ranking wolf in the pack. Being a fire creature had perks. Marius had a nice blaze going in no time.
“I need you to hold him down.”
Again, Marius followed the order. “At the shoulders?”
“Everywhere,” she said. “Shoulders, arms, legs, head, everything. He fights this.”
Tiffany and the others bent to do as she directed. “It is the nature of a wolf to fight a witch.”
“It wasn’t always so.” Torrey knew this without a shred of doubt. Or proof. Like magic and the Daughter of Circe thing, the knowledge simply appeared.
Opening her blanket caused a bit of a gasp from her onlookers. Torrey wore no clothes under the heavy garment. She knew she could only heal him where she touched him. This would guarantee maximum coverage.
“What happened to you?” This was from one of the lieutenants whose name she didn’t know. He didn’t bother to hide his shock.
Torrey didn’t bother looking down. “I told you he fought me.”
If they noted the wide, weeping bandage and wondered at its significance, they didn’t voice anything.
She arranged her body on top of his, spreading her arms and legs to rest on top of his. “Hold him tightly.”
With four powerful wolves holding Shade, keeping her perch on top of him still proved challenging. The second she began her magic, he fought with everything he had. His body writhed and bucked. Marius slipped an arm between them and used his awesome strength to hold down Shade’s midsection.
Closing her eyes, she concentrated the magic. Soon, she sensed the poison. Just like before, the words came to her tongue and fell out, whispered magic. The beads burned where they touched her neck.
The poison left his liver and heart and lungs to soak into the loamy soil underneath them both. She worked to heal the cells in his arms and legs.
“What is this travesty?”
Soren’s voice sounded from a distance, but it had never gone far, not really. It haunted her nightmares. Fire shot through her skull as he lifted her by the hair, ripping her from Shade’s body. She hung, limp in his grasp, unable to summon the strength to move her feet to where her weight would rest on them.
“My magic is almost gone.” The hate in her eyes pierced him, though he didn’t seem to notice. “Shade will live.”
He bared his teeth at her, the growl transforming his handsome face to something menacing. “But you will not.”
“No,” she agreed. “But you’ll get nothing from me. What I didn’t give to Shade, he took from me. I will die before the moon is full.”
At that, she ripped away the makeshift bandage covering her side. The four weeping gashes stood out in vivid contrast to her pale, sickly skin.
Zurlo, Michele - Torment [Daughters of Circe 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 16