True to my expectations, he continued. “You should be thankful we go through such measures to confirm these things,” he said. “You could have been without a childhood, had we chosen to just take you without any assurances.”
I swallowed, trying to bite back the words, but he’d found my Achilles heel. He’d touched on the thing I couldn’t not respond to. “You knew since I was a child? How?”
“Your parents, of course. They fled their own coven to keep you safe. Not that running away worked, since they ended up dying by my hand—”
“You bastard!” I lunged forward, forgetting about the gun that Tom held to my head. But Father James simply raised his hand and shouted a spell, and I froze mid-strike.
“Now, now, Brooke. Your parents made their choice. I might not have liked them much for hiding you from us, but surely you take some solace in knowing they died protecting you, died refusing to give up your location? We didn’t want to kill them, after all. We were just looking for you. A shadow, a child born of a witch and a fae. But of course they refused to give you up. Do you know we lost nearly a decade trying to find you after that?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry for the inconvenience.” I tried to sound caustic, but my voice was trembling too much with rage. He’d left my vocal chords unfrozen for some reason. “You sick motherfucker.”
“I have good taste, though,” he said lightly. “And killer instincts. I didn’t find you for another twelve years, but the moment I did, I was almost certain it was you. Even though Tom over here failed to get you to use magic in front of him, I knew you had it in you. I knew I could bring it out. And look—I did.” Father James laughed, shaking his head. “You followed the breadcrumb trail I laid out perfectly. The offer from the chief of the Salem, P.D. to let you join them for a stint. The drug-dealing accountant fae that led you to the supernatural underbelly of Salem and showed you what was possible. The shade I coerced into attacking you in the alley. The wraith I sent to your apartment. All you needed was someone to lead you in the right direction, to challenge you so that your confidence and power would grow. And just look at you now! The second you connected with your power, you flourished.”
He said this as if he was doing me a favor.
“Yeah, well, that’s great and all, but what the hell do you want from me?” My voice was steady despite the rage still burning in my chest. “What’s your big plan, now that you’ve got me where you want me?”
“It’s a long story, to be honest, but let me give you the…Cliff’s Notes?” He shrugged. “I’ve never understood you young people and your colloquialisms. In any case, hundreds of years of research have allowed me to unearth a spell that can erase the entire vampire gene pool from the Earth, but it’s a spell that requires immense, almost god-like power. By offering yourself up as a willing sacrifice, I can perform a ritual that will allow me to acquire such power.”
“Yer not serious!” Maddock exploded, speaking for the first time since he’d been dragged into the room. He struggled against his bonds, and one of the witches zapped him again. “The spell yer suggesting is—”
“Is what needs to be done,” Father James said coldly. “And if you speak again, I’ll have your tongue cut out.” The witches zapped Maddock again, and his jaw clenched hard, cutting off whatever response he would have made.
“What the hell is Maddock talking about?” I demanded. “Just what kind of spell are you trying to perform that requires my sacrifice?”
“Don’t concern yourself with the details,” Father James snapped. “Focus on the boy’s life—that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? And don’t think you’re not expendable,” he added with a glower. “If you don’t cooperate, I’ll kill you and the boy, and then I’ll hunt down another shadow. You might be rare, maybe even more powerful than most, but you’re not the only one who was born that way.”
I stared at him. So this was it. Either I died, or I died. Those were my choices.
And if I didn’t give myself up willingly, he would hunt down more of my…kind…and kill them, too, until one of them finally gave him what he wanted. Whatever that was.
“Well?” Father James demanded. He twirled the dagger in his right hand. “What’s it going to be, Brooke?”
I ground my teeth together in frustration. None of the choices Father James gave me were acceptable, but I couldn’t just come out and say that. I needed to buy a little more time, and I needed Father James’ spell to loosen on me so that I could defend myself.
But first things first.
“The boy,” I said, sounding resigned. “Let him go. You’ve already got me here at gunpoint. You’ve got nothing to lose by letting him go—think of it as an act of good faith.”
Father James searched my gaze, and whatever he saw there must have satisfied him. “Fine. But you have to say the words first. You have to say, right here, right now, that you’re giving yourself up willingly to me. And you have to do it properly too, with names. Like a legal document.”
“No!” Maddock roared, but I refused to look at him. If I did, I was afraid I’d give into the desire to reassure him, and I couldn’t do that. This had to look convincing.
“Shut up, Tremaine,” I growled. Please, for the love of whoever is up there listening, trust me, Maddock. I took a deep breath, then said, “I, Brooke Chandler, willingly give myself up to Vincent Van Lucia of the Onyx Order.”
“There now, that wasn’t so hard, now was it?” A broad smile spread across Father James’s features, lighting him up. He gestured to Blondie. “Release the boy.”
Blondie lifted a hand and recited a spell. Jason screamed as the shackles flared, turning cherry hot, and he thrashed, trying to get away from the scalding heat. The shackles shattered abruptly, sending burning hot shrapnel flying, only narrowly missing where I stood. It happened so fast that Jason tumbled right off the table mid-thrash and cried out as he landed hard on the floor.
“Get up!” I shouted, and he struggled to his feet. “Get up, and get out of here!”
The kid gave me a wide-eyed look, full of guilt and fear. I glared at him fiercely, imparting threats of what would happen if he stayed without so much as opening my mouth, and he dashed out the door.
“Good riddance,” Father James said, pulling out a gun from inside his robe. He leveled the barrel at me, and sharp panic stabbed me in the chest. “But I’m not letting you get off that easy, Brooke. You’re going to suffer for all the trouble you put me through.”
He fired, and I screamed, bracing myself for the slug. But the shot didn’t hit me—instead it flew past me, and I heard a strange gurgling sound. Twisting my head around as best as the waning spell would allow me, I watched as Tom sank to his knees, clutching at the hole in his throat. Blood gushed from it, covering his clothes, his skin. And then he toppled face-first to the ground.
“No!” I shrieked, trying to get to him, but the spell held me fast, rooting me to the ground. Yes, Tom might have betrayed me, but I still loved him. Even the worst of betrayals couldn’t undo years of emotion. I wasn’t ready to let go of him yet, even if it was just the Tom I’d known then, and not the Tom he really was.
“You didn’t think I was going to shoot you, I hope?” Father James asked, almost conversationally. “That would hardly fit the terms of the ritual. No, I figured shooting Tom would cause you the greatest pain in the shortest amount of time, and since I’ve already waited decades, I think I’ve been patient long enough. Besides, after all of his failures, he was a dead man anyway.”
CHAPTER 28
“There now,” Father James said soothingly as he lifted me onto the table. “Now that you’ve got nothing left to fight for, why don’t you just relax? This will be over soon.”
“I may have said the words willingly, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be relaxed,” I snarled. I thrashed my head, tossing it this way and that as Father James began to remove my clothing, pulling off my blazer and unbuttoning my shirt. If I could move the rest of my body, I would have kic
ked his balls into his throat, but there was nothing for it.
“Stop this!” Maddock demanded, desperation and anger in his voice. “Father James…Vincent…whoever the bloody hell ye are. Stop this madness. Trade her for me!”
Father James’s fingers paused on the third button of my blouse, and he looked up at Maddock with interest. “You, a powerful fae lord, would sacrifice yourself for this woman?”
“I have far more power than she does,” Maddock said, and I was amazed at how much haughtiness he mustered into his words. “Surely ye can accomplish whatever spell yer trying to perform with me instead of her.”
Father James laughed, a cold sound that sent a shiver vibrating along my spine. “You are powerful, Lord Tremaine, possibly the most powerful fae I’ve ever had here. And I will greatly enjoy siphoning every last drop of magic from you, which clearly I planned to do anyway. But the blood of these shadow folk is far more potent that any fae, which makes it invaluable—and in this case essential—in rituals requiring sacrificial magic. Ten fae as powerful as you could not replace her; if that were the case, we’d be done with this by now, yes, seeing the ease with which we’ve been collecting your kind? But you already knew that, didn’t you? That’s why you offered to trade your life for hers, because you knew it wouldn’t work.”
“You won’t get away with this,” Maddock growled, his brilliant green eyes glowing with hatred. “When the fae courts find out what you’ve done, they will come for you.”
Father James laughed again. “By the time they find out, it will be too late. I will be far too powerful for them to stop. They will merely be lambs headed for the slaughter, making my job easier. Believe me, I welcome that day. I’ll make sure to leave the door open.”
Maddock’s shoulders sagged, and my heart sank to my toes. Somehow, even though all sorts of horrible things had happened tonight, the sight of the mighty Maddock Tremaine slumping in defeat made me feel the worst. If he was reacting this way, then whatever Father James was about to do was unimaginably horrible.
And after I was gone, he was going to drain Maddock of his power, over and over and over again until greed pushed him into going too far and snuffing the very life from Maddock’s body altogether. Just like the phoukas crumpled in the corner.
Drain him of his power.
The words echoed in my head, and an idea came to me. I had no idea if this would work, and I forced my face to be utterly blank, not wanting Father James to suspect my plan. There was a good chance this wouldn’t work at all, especially considering that I’d never done anything like it in living memory. At this point, though, I had nothing left to lose. I needed to try.
Holding my breath, I sat perfectly still as Father James undressed me. He took his time with the buttons of my shirt, and I wanted to scream at the excruciatingly slow pace, but I forced myself to be patient. The shirt came off, leaving me in a support tank, and I didn’t have to pretend a shiver at the lascivious gleam that entered Father James’s eyes.
“It’s too bad we’re doing this under such circumstances, Brooke,” he said softly as he slowly slid the fabric up my abdomen. Disgust crawled through my veins as his fingers traveled up my bare skin, but I forced myself to hold it together. “If I didn’t have to kill you, I could spend some time enjoying you first.” His eyes darkened as he pulled up my top, revealing my breasts. “Although I don’t see why I can’t take a few minutes anyway, since you’ve made me wait this long already. What’s the harm? I’m in no rush, and you can’t move.”
Predictably, his hands clamped over my breasts, and that was my moment. I focused all my will at him, envisioning the power that pulsed within Father James’s blackened soul, and wished with all my heart and soul for that power to be mine. A rope of energy snaked out of me and into him, and Father James stiffened as it latched onto the source of his magic.
“You bitch!” he croaked.
Mentally, I yanked with my inner power as hard as I could. His magical energy came spilling out of him, a bright red glow that enveloped us, and the witches cried out. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw them rush forward, trying to help their master, but their clothing and hair caught fire, and they fell back. They would be a problem, but I blocked them out, making sure my attention remained glued to Father James.
I locked my gaze with Father James’s, absorbing the burning hatred and fear in his eyes as I absorbed his power. He was frozen in place, his hands still clamped on my breasts, and his fingers began to shrivel, gnarling up like the ancient man he really was. His face withered next, his skin becoming like paper, and his eyeballs shriveled away. Dried-up skin and flesh crumbled, and within minutes, even the bones of the hands that gripped my chest disintegrated, leaving me covered in a layer of absolutely revolting ash.
If the power Maddock had lent me before made me feel high, it was nothing compared to this. I felt like a goddess as pure energy radiated through my entire body, lighting up every single cell until I glowed, incandescent.
I rose from the table, the ash on my body evaporating, and took a single step toward the witches. They shrieked in horror, then turned tail and ran out of the room.
Flicking my hand in Maddock’s direction, I flung a tendril of power at him. It latched onto his magical bindings, reducing them to nothing. Satisfied he would be fine, I took a step toward the door, intending to hunt down the rest of the witches.
But the more I moved, the hotter the power seemed to burn inside me, and suddenly, it was too hot. Pain engulfed me, and it was like the power was turning on me, attacking the very fibers of my being.
“Brooke!” Maddock shouted as I dropped to my knees.
I couldn’t speak, couldn’t see anything except a haze of red, and I knew with terrifying certainty that the power was about to devour me. Even in death, Father James was still trying to kill me.
“Brooke!” Long fingers dug into my shoulders, directing my attention to the man crouching in front of me. Maddock’s leaf-green eyes bored into mine, anchoring me in the sea of pain, and I grabbed onto that lifeline and held on for all I was worth.
“Ye need to transfer some of your power to me!”
“Wh-what?” I croaked.
“Ye’ve taken in too much magic; it’s burning ye up. Ye need to get rid of it! It’s very similar to what ye did to Father James, ye just need to focus.”
It took longer than it should have for his words to sink in, but when they did, I nodded. Just like with Father James, I tossed out a rope of power, latching it onto what I could only describe as Maddock’s soul. But instead of pulling magic out of him, I pushed it into him.
Waves of energy flooded outward, and I pushed relentlessly, getting rid of as much as I could. It seemed like it took forever, but finally the pain began to abate, and the power sizzling through my veins returned to a more manageable level.
Panting, we both collapsed against the ground. I pulled my shirt down, covering myself, and closed my eyes. The magic humming inside me was still many times greater than what Maddock had given me earlier, but it was no longer debilitating.
Tilting my head to the side, I watched Maddock. His gaze was latched onto the ceiling, chest rising and falling rapidly. A faint red glow enveloped his body—he was clearly still absorbing the magic I’d given him.
“So,” I said when I’d gotten most of my breath back. “We’re even now, right?”
Maddock turned to face me, his eyebrows raised. “What?”
“You’ve been mad at me for like, half a century, because I stole a bunch of your magic. But now I’ve just given you a bunch of magic—about two thirds of what I’d taken from Father James.” And considering that I’d sensed magic from a variety of supernaturals within him, that was a lot. “So we’re even now, right?”
To my surprise, Maddock gave me a lopsided grin. “We might be, Detective,” he said quietly. “We might just be.”
I smiled back—the first real smile I’d cracked all day. I wanted to hold onto this moment. To this one feel-goo
d split-second in time.
But I had a feeling that killing Father James wasn’t going to end my problems. If the memory Maddock had shown me was any indication, Past Life Me had thought things were going to go downhill from here. I needed to prepare for that eventuality.
I just hoped to hell that I was wrong.
CHAPTER 29
After defeating Father James, clearing the rest of the house was a piece of cake. The witches were engaged in a full-out war with the other supernaturals, so Maddock simply used the ample power flowing through his veins to create a series of illusions that confused everyone and allowed the supernaturals to make a break for it. It pained me to watch so many vampires rush out into the night, wild and free, but there was no time to go after them—I needed to make sure Jason was safe.
“Go find the boy,” Maddock growled, not looking at me. He’d herded the witches together into the main hall and was performing some kind of spell that would trap them in an alternate dimension. “The last thing I want to find out is that after all this, he was killed.”
No kidding. Part of me wanted to stay and watch what Maddock was doing—the strange chanting and waving of his arms was changing the air, causing a variety of crisscrossing glowing blue lines to appear above us. But Maddock was right, so I tore my gaze away from the scene and left.
It didn’t take me as long as I’d feared to find Jason. He was huddled in a closet only a few rooms down from the one where I’d had my final showdown with Father James. When I slid the closet open, he jumped, raising his forearms over his head to ward me off.
“Jesus,” I muttered. He was still only dressed in that pair of boxers. I shrugged my blazer off, then held it out to him. “Come on, kid, let’s get you covered up a little. It’s freezing outside.”
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