Huntress

by Christine Warren, Marjorie Liu, Caitlin Kittredge, Jenna Maclaine

  He looked at me like he didn’t believe me, but he let me go. In a daze I walked down the stairs and entered the library. Shutting the door behind me, I leaned against it and closed my eyes. All I could see was Michael scrawling those words above our bed. I love thee not. I love thee not. I love thee not.

  “Stop it,” I said to myself. “It’s not Michael. It’s the demon. Michael loves me. He always has and he always will. I am the other half of his soul and he is the other half of mine.”

  It was something he said to me often. I had to remember that.

  Crossing the room, I cleared the scattered books off the big table and retrieved a map of London from the bookshelf. I unrolled it and used four silver candlesticks to hold down the corners. The map was old, but it would do. I didn’t even bother to take my coat off. This shouldn’t take long.

  I placed the ring on its side at the edge of the map, and then I laid my palms flat on the oak table and took a deep breath. Spellcasting wasn’t easy for me, but location spells were fairly simple. Clearing my head as well as I was able, I thought of what I wanted. The ring would tell me where Barbara was. If Sebastian had anything to do with summoning this demon, she was part of it too. I centered myself and called up my magic.

  “Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, that I won’t find where you abide,” I called out.

  The ring began to move, rolling across the map to the north. It stopped just inside the city but it didn’t fall, which meant that she was still moving. I pulled up a chair and waited. After what seemed like hours, the ring finally tipped on its side and lay still, coming to rest on the other side of Whitechapel, near Shadwell. That made sense in regard to the human murders. He would want to hunt in an area near his base, yet not in his own backyard.

  I slipped the ring into my pocket and exited the library just as Grady was coming down the stairs, carrying a bucket of pinkish water.

  “Grady, is your carriage still out front?” I asked.

  “It should be,” he replied. “Jensen knows to take the horses around the block if they get restless, but I told him to wait for me.”

  “Good, come with me,” I said and started for the door.

  He set the bucket on the floor and looked uncertainly over his shoulder. “Don’t you think we should tell the others?”

  Justine would happily go with me, but Devlin would never approve of what I was about to do. Somewhere in the back of my mind that thought set off warning bells. I was going to do something that was probably foolish. If it had been anyone else’s idea, I would have been the first to object. But that demon had been in control of Michael’s body for nearly twenty-four hours and I had to know that he was all right. I wasn’t ready to fight him yet, but I had to see his face.

  I opened the front door and turned back to Grady. “It’s easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission,” I said.

  “But not necessarily wiser,” Grady mumbled.

  THIRTEEN

  The area of London where the ring led me was filled with brothels, pubs, and opium dens. It was dark, dirty, and dangerous. No respectable person would ever walk these streets. It was exactly the sort of place I would expect to find a woman like Barbara. I reached up and knocked on the roof of the carriage, and it rolled to a stop.

  “Do you know which building?” Grady asked as we got out.

  “No,” I replied. “But it will be somewhere in this block.”

  We walked in silence for a while, until I caught sight of a man crossing the street at the end of the block. I grabbed Grady’s arm and pushed him back against the building. Flattening my back to the wall, I watched. The man wore a long coat and a hat pulled down low over his eyes, but it was definitely Michael. I knew it by the way he walked, the way he moved. Even at a distance I would know him anywhere.

  He didn’t seem to sense our presence, so Grady and I slowly followed. At the corner, I stopped and peered around the edge of the building. The road was long and narrow, cramped with shops and tenements, and littered with refuse. Barbara stood outside the door to one of the shops, feeding on a human. She held the man with his arms pulled behind his back as her teeth pierced his throat. I knew she hadn’t bothered to bespell him because he was struggling to pull free of her.

  I heard Michael’s voice say something to her, but I couldn’t hear what it was. She looked up, blood staining her full lips, and smiled. Then, with such practiced ease that I jerked back in surprise, she snapped the neck of the man she had been feeding from. It wasn’t often that someone committed an executable offense right in front of me. When you were the executioner they tended not to do that.

  Michael entered the building and Barbara followed him, dragging the body of her victim behind her. Slowly I walked down the street, Grady following me. When I reached the solid, windowless metal door they had used, I paused and placed my hand on it, listening. I could hear muffled human voices from within, but no sound of Barbara or Michael.

  As quietly as possible, I pushed the door open. When I didn’t sense any vampires in the immediate area, I walked inside. The large, dimly lit room was crammed with rows of cots, nearly all of which were occupied by a human man or woman. Insensible, they lay there, either unconscious or muttering words that had no meaning except in their clouded minds. I wrinkled my nose. Barbara’s victim had been dumped unceremoniously just inside the door, and the entire place reeked of unwashed bodies and opium.

  “What is this place?” I asked Grady.

  “It’s an opium nest,” he replied. “Vampires purchase the opium and the humans come here for the drug.”

  “And then the vampires feed from them,” I said.

  He shrugged. “Human blood laced with opium is quite a sensation, they say. The High King has declared opium nests to be illegal, but it’s hard to put a stop to them. You close one down and they just reopen another elsewhere.”

  I looked around, noting a door at the opposite end of the room. “I’ll be back shortly. You stay here in case any vampires decide to drop by for dinner. I’m sure, as a known warden, you won’t have any problem deterring them from coming in. I don’t want to worry about the possibility that one of these opium-laced vamps might be loyal to Barbara or that demon and alert them to my presence.”

  “Cin?” Grady asked. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

  Not remotely, I thought. All I knew was that the man I loved was in this building. The demon might be in possession of his body, but Michael was somewhere inside, trapped. It was reckless and irresponsible, I realized that, but I was drawn to him like a moth to the flame. I just needed to know that his body, at least, was unharmed.

  There was a dark hallway beyond the door. Empty rooms opened off either side of the hall, but it was the big metal door at the end that beckoned me. Cautiously I crept up to it and listened.

  “I have not fulfilled the terms of my summoning,” Michael’s voice said, and I stifled a sigh of relief that he was all right.

  I should have left then, but Barbara’s next words stopped me.

  “He doesn’t care about that,” Barbara insisted. “All he wants is her dead. He says you’re to kill her tonight.”

  Michael sighed. “I grow weary of this conversation.”

  There was a rustling of fabric and then Barbara said, low and throaty, “Then perhaps there are other ways I can convince you. I do love the feel of this body.”

  Before I was even aware of what I was doing I’d thrown open the steel door and strode into the room. Barbara was standing with her thin body pressed against my husband’s. She turned her head in surprise and then smiled.

  “My, isn’t this convenient?” she said.

  Michael was wearing the same clothes he’d had on the night before, but his shirt was open and the talisman gleamed against his skin. Barbara’s hands moved inside his shirt, boldly caressing the rigid muscles of his chest. I wanted to grab her by the hair and slam her face into the wall. I did neither of those things, though. I just stood there, realizing too late
what a stupid thing I’d just done. Michael cocked his head to one side.

  “The females of your species seem to be unusually attracted to this form,” he said.

  That was an understatement. Michael had the face of an angel and a body many women would walk through hell to possess. And Barbara was about to get the opportunity to put that to the test if she didn’t get her hands off of him. Unfortunately for her, she was as stupid as she looked. Instead of stepping away, she turned and pulled his head down to hers for a kiss.

  Michael’s eyes watched me as she ground her lips against his before her tongue slid inside. I felt the tears well up in my eyes and my stomach rolled in revulsion. Michael pulled away from her, still watching my face.

  “Oh, look,” Barbara said. “She’s jealous.”

  He inhaled deeply, as if he could scent what I was feeling. “No,” he said. “That isn’t jealousy. That is raw hatred.”

  Barbara’s eyes went from him to me. I caught her gaze and let her see every bit of the white-hot anger that was boiling inside me.

  “You will die for that,” I said, barely recognizing my own voice, it was laced with so much violence. “And for killing the human. But mostly for that.”

  Under the weight of my icy glare, she backed away from Michael.

  Michael took a step toward me, a curious expression on his face. “The thought of this body lying with another female brings you pain. It’s almost too bad I have no interest in fornication. I should like to see exactly how much that might torture you.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Some demons, such as incubi and succubi, gained their power through sex. This one fed off of pain and death. It didn’t seem to be a better trade, but at the moment I was grateful for it.

  “Kill her!” Barbara screeched. “Kill her now!”

  Michael turned sharply and hissed at her. “I told you, I have not fulfilled the terms of my summoning. I agreed to cause the Red Witch unimaginable pain and then to take her body. I cannot do the second until I’ve done the first.”

  “Sebastian releases you from your oath,” Barbara said. “Kill her!”

  Michael shook his head. “I do not know this man, Sebastian. My agreement was with the wizard who summoned me, and only he can renegotiate the terms. But he is dead now, the first of my kills.”

  “The wizard was your master and Sebastian was his,” she insisted. “You were brought here to steal her power for him. Sebastian paid the price of your summoning.”

  “Vampire,” Michael scolded. “I have no master. The wizard was a conduit, nothing more. I agreed to take her power. I did not agree to share it with anyone.”

  “Of course you did!” Barbara shouted, her frustration evident. “Why the bloody hell else would we summon you?”

  “I do not know,” the demon said, simply. “Perhaps you should have been clearer about the terms of our agreement.”

  As interesting as the conversation was, I decided to take advantage of the fact that they both seemed to have forgotten I was there and started slowly backing toward the door. I had just cleared the threshold when Barbara realized my intention.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” she said. “I’ll kill you myself if I have to.”

  She ran at me but I stood perfectly still and waited. When she was within reach I grabbed a handful of her tangled mass of hair and pulled her out into the hallway. With one foot I kicked the door closed behind us.

  “Lock,” I shouted, pushing my magic into the door. It was made to keep vampires out of the Ripper’s sanctuary. I was hoping it was strong enough to keep him in, at least until we could get back to the carriage.

  Barbara was fighting me, scratching and clawing, teeth snapping within inches of my face. I got a firm grip on her hair and slammed her head into the wall hard enough to daze her.

  “Cin!” Grady called out, interrupting the brief moment of pleasure I had taken in knocking the harlot senseless.

  The first loud bang came from the other side of the metal door, and I dragged Barbara down the hall and hurled her at Grady.

  “Get her out of here,” I said urgently. “And make sure she’s locked up where she can’t escape. We’ll need her later.”

  “What about you?” he asked.

  “I’m right behind you,” I assured him. “Now, go!”

  He grabbed Barbara by the wrist and pulled her after him. I turned and watched the steel door bend under the strain of Michael’s hammering. My magic wouldn’t hold the door once the hinges gave way. Whirling around, I ran after Grady. One more loud crack and the steel door hit the ground. I had just wound my way around the humans littering the outer room and reached the front door when a strong arm snaked around my waist.

  Michael pulled me back against his body and for a moment I relaxed, craving the feel of him against me.

  “I’m not finished with you yet,” he whispered and my body shuddered in response, even though my mind was screaming that this was not the man I loved.

  I cried out in frustration as he dragged me back down the hall. So many weapons at my disposal, and yet I couldn’t bring myself to hurt him. When we were once again inside his sanctuary, he threw me violently across the room. I collapsed onto the cot, narrowly missing the wall with my head.

  “Humans,” he said. “Vampires. There is little sport in either. I thought you would be a challenge. They said you had great power. The power of a god, they promised me. But I see no power here. This form,” he said, gesturing to himself, “it makes you weak.”

  “No,” I replied. “It makes me strong. His love is what makes life worthwhile.”

  “And I have taken that from you. Does it hurt?”

  “You can take his body, but you can’t take his love. The bond Michael and I share is eternal and nothing you can do will ever change that.”

  “Are you so certain?” he asked. Reaching down, he pulled one of Michael’s daggers from the inside of his boot. Holding it up, he looked at it. And then he looked at me. “How badly would I have to hurt you, I wonder, before you stopped looking at this body with tenderness? Why don’t we find out.”

  He crossed the room and I scooted back against the wall. My magic was useless against him as long as he wore the talisman, and I seriously doubted my ability to physically fight him and win.

  “Michael, I love you,” I cried. “I love you.”

  When he had nearly reached me he stumbled and fell to his knees in front of me. The knife dropped from his fingers and he raised his head. Strain was etched into his face, making his cheekbones stand out in sharp relief. His eyes, which had been so blank and emotionless since the demon had infected him, were filled with pain.

  “Run,” he said.

  “Michael?” I asked, unable to believe he was really here, in front of me.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, his voice ragged with the strain of fighting the demon for control. “If you love me, run.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, my voice harsh with unshed tears. I kissed him swiftly. “I promise I’ll save you.”

  He threw his head back and screamed, the muscles in his neck straining with the effort to hold the demon at bay. I grasped the gold talisman and jerked it off his neck.

  And then I ran.

  FOURTEEN

  Devlin and Justine were furious with me when we got back to the house, but there was no time to waste with recriminations and apologies. Dawn was still hours away and I had a feeling the demon would come for me tonight. He fed on pain and suffering, and Michael and I had denied him a meal. I did not believe that slight would go unpunished. I fingered the amulet in my coat pocket. I hoped he would come. I was ready now.

  Barbara was screaming and cursing, but we all ignored her. I shoved her toward Devlin and said, “Take her upstairs to Michael’s studio. Clear everything out of the room that you can. I need a large, empty space to do this. And arm yourselves. He’ll come and he may not be alone.”

  Barbara protested, but Devlin took one arm and Justine the
other and they simply lifted her off her feet and carried her up the stairs. I felt pity for the human she’d killed, but in reality it had been quite a stroke of luck. The instant she’d snapped his neck she’d signed her own death warrant. She would be the bait on my hook and I would carry no guilt over it.

  “What can we do?” Ginny asked, her innocent face lit up in eagerness.

  “I want you and Warren to go back to his shop and don’t come home until morning,” I said. “And for the love of Danu, stop and tell Will and Amy not to come to work tomorrow. There’s no telling what state this house is going to be in by the time we’re finished tonight.”

  “But I can help, Cin,” she protested. “Tell me what you need.”

  I took her hands in mine. “There will be no arguing about it this time. You will go. What I need is for you to be somewhere else so that I can do what I must and not worry about your safety. I can’t afford the distraction, Ginny.”

  “She’s right,” Warren said. “This is something best left to them to handle.”

  “Grady will see you safely to the shop,” I said, looking over Ginny’s shoulder to the warden.

  He nodded his assent. “Do you wish me to return after I’ve delivered them?” he asked.

  “I think that might be wise,” I said. “And perhaps you should bring the other wardens with you when you come. If you should find us all dead—” I paused, considering what advice I should give him. “To be honest with you, Grady, if we fail I don’t know what to tell you to do.”

  “Then you mustn’t fail,” he said. “I wish you luck.”

  I hugged Ginny and Warren goodbye, then made a quick list in my head of the things I would need. I found the cabinet where Ginny stored the candles and shoved as many as I could fit into an empty canvas bag. Then I rushed into the parlor and snatched the urn off the shelf, tucking it under my arm. On my way to the third floor where Michael’s painting studio was, I made a quick stop at my bedroom.

  I was happy to see that the wall had been scrubbed and the furniture rearranged. Depositing the urn and the candles on the bed, I took the amulet out of my coat pocket. Everything that was about to happen hinged on my being able to work my magic against the demon. Thank the gods that Michael had been strong enough to give me that one moment to take the necklace. It was indeed the same one I had taken off Sebastian all those years ago. In some dark corner of my soul I was pleased that he was so afraid of me that he’d kept the talisman for nearly a century. I placed it in my jewelry box for safekeeping and noticed that Ginny had returned the Craven Cross in my absence. I fastened the heavy piece around my neck, feeling a sense of comfort that it was back in my possession. Then I removed my coat and put my pistol back in the weapons chest. Gathering up the urn and the bag of candles, I sprinted up to the third floor.