We were so dead, we needed a new word for it.
“What is the meaning of this?” asked Engel. His voice was threatening and dark, but they had nothing on the pitch color his eyes had taken.
“He has feelings for her,” said Arianna. “He’s protecting her.”
Our entire plan just went to shit, taking my whole life right along with it. And it was all because of her.
I didn’t think. I just lunged at her.
14. HELL IN A HANDBAG
My body slammed into Arianna like a concrete wall, knocking her to the ground as easy as snapping a twig in two. Adrenaline and sheer rage had taken over inside of me, driving me forward without consciousness or forethought. My brain clicked off as I pounded her face with my fist, wailing on her like she was the only thing standing in the way of my freedom. And in a way she was. This was all her fault. After all the work we’d done, all the feedings and torture I endured to get to this point, it was all erased with one witchy grab of my hand.
Screams broke out behind us as the human girls ran for cover. Feet and furniture scurried and screeched as Engel’s men moved in on Dominic. All of it barely registered though. All I could focus on was drawing as much blood from Arianna’s face as possible. Someone had to pay for this and it might as well have been her.
Arms came around me from behind, yanking me back from my target. Spinning in a haze of vengeance, I turned my attack on Anita, knocking her several feet back from me. She smacked her butt onto the floor and bounced, her red locks falling in messy piles in front of her eyes.
She was back on her feet in a blink, and I dove at her again, knocking her head back as I wailed on her face. There was no way I was ever going to get out of this place now, but I was going to take as many of them down with me as I could.
“Rusum versum,” said Anita, and suddenly, without her touching me, I was flying backwards through the air.
I landed on the floor with a thud, cracking my head back against the hard tile.
“Ortum flammae,” shouted Annabelle from the other side of the room.
Flames shot up around me, flexing and stretching towards the ceiling, licking at my skin and caging me in like a wild animal. Covering my face, I tried to jump through the flames, but the flaming prison moved right along with me. After several failed attempts, I stopped, forced to give up at the sickening smell of my own burning flesh.
My eyes scanned the room for Dominic, praying he had fared better than I had. My heart seized as I spotted him on the other side of the room—on the ground, covering his face as a stampede of Rev’s kicked his motionless body.
“Dominic!”
Engel stood up calmly as though all hell hadn’t just broken loose in his great hall. “That’s enough,” he said to his men.
One by one, they stepped back from Dominic, though they didn’t move very far. They were ready to give him another round if he dared move an inch.
“On your feet,” ordered Engel as he walked by Arianna who was having her wounds checked by Anita and Annabelle.
Baldy leaned down and grabbed Dominic’s arm, pulling him up to his feet. Engel was closing in on him and I knew what was coming. I’d already watched him decapitate Damon with no more effort that an arm swipe for a lot less than what Dominic had done.
“Any last words?”
“I can explain,” said Dominic, holding his hand out to halt him.
“This should be good.” His lips were pressed in a thin, white line. “You have ten seconds.”
I swallowed the vomit rising at the back of my throat.
“I did it to help you, boss,” said Dominic, shaking his other arm loose from Baldy. “As a backup.”
“A backup?”
“My Anakim bloodlines are stronger than yours. When I saw the bond wasn’t working, I thought it best to give it a try myself. For you.” It was a lie meant to save our asses.
Engel paused for a moment, thinking it over. “I don’t believe you. Kill him,” he said, ticking his chin at Baldy.
“No!” I screamed and immediately tried fighting my way through the flames. As painful as moving was, I managed to get close enough to one of the sisters to pull her into the flaming pit with me.
“I swear to God, I will burn her alive,” I said, squeezing the back of Arianna’s neck as I bobbed her head in and out of the fire.
“Flammae descensum,” said Annabelle, and the flames immediately died down around me.
“Well done, child,” smiled Engel, calmly walking towards me as four of his men surrounded me and my hostage. “You have a lot more grit than I’ve given you credit for.”
“Let him go, or I’ll snap her neck right here.”
There was a beat of silence that seemed to go on for an eternity.
“All this to protect him?” asked Engel, visibly perplexed by it. “A vampire?”
I didn’t answer. He was trying to dig out information, to unravel my insides and use them against me.
“Let him go.”
“And if I do?” he asked, standing dangerously close to me. “What will I get in return?”
“I’m not giving you the Amulet. I’ll die before I ever hand it over to you.”
“Yes, it certainly looks as though it’s going to be that way, doesn’t it?” He glanced back at the red-head.
“We don’t need it,” said Anita, her green eyes glowering at me. “We can do the ritual with the Amulet around her neck. There’s a chance she might burn alive, but I think that’s a win-win for everyone.”
Shit.
Shit!
“Venite, sorore!” shouted Annabelle, her palms face up and splayed in the air.
Arianna’s body yanked free from my grip and skidded across the room to her waiting sisters. As much as I hated them, as much as I wanted to gouge their eyes out of their heads, I was impressed. They had some serious magic in them.
Glancing left, I grabbed the Rev beside me by his larynx and spun him into me to take her place.
“Go right ahead,” said Engel. “He’s replaceable.”
Stupid dime-a-dozen Revs!
I snapped the Rev’s neck and let him fall to the ground at my feet. There was no point in carrying around a hostage that no one cared to save. Snapping his neck wouldn’t kill him, but he’d be out for a while and that was better than nothing.
I retook my fighting position, letting him know that I was willing to take out as many of them as I had to.
“We can do this the easy way, child, or we can do this the bloody way,” said Engel, nodding back to Dominic.
Baldy positioned the blade across Dominic’s neck. All he had to do was swipe one way or the other and Dominic would be a goner. My only hope was that he still had enough of my blood inside of him to save him, but that wouldn’t last forever and I wasn’t willing to take that risk.
“Don’t. Please.” My voice came out soft, hopeless. Left with no other choice, I dropped my fists.
The two Rev’s behind me quickly grabbed my upper arms and yanked me backwards. There was a cracking noise, like splintering bone, but the sound and pain of it barely registered. I was too screwed to notice.
Engel’s mouth hooked into a smile, brimming with pride as though he’d just won the war. And maybe he did. He’d figured out my weak spot, my Achilles heel, and he was going to use it against me every chance he got.
They always did.
“Boss?” said Baldy, gesturing to Dominic as he waited for Engel’s command. He hadn’t lowered his weapon yet and he looked as though he was itching to test out the blade.
“It appears as though we’re going to have use for him after all,” said Engel, his wicked smile stretching into a grin. “Bring him.”
Baldy snapped Dominic’s neck.
“No!” I screamed as Dominic’s unresponsive body sank to the ground.
A heavily tattooed Rev stepped to the front of the pack and lifted Dominic up into his brawny arms before stringing him over his shoulder like a human backpack.
I tried to scream again, to warn them of what I’d do if they hurt him again, but they promptly clonked me on the back of the head with something hard.
For a moment, I saw pretty little stars glittering in front of my eyes, and then nothing else.
15. THE UPRISING
I had no idea where Engel was taking me, but by the time I came to, I knew we were outside, even with the burlap bag fastened over my head. I could feel the wet grass under my feet, hear the whistling of the wind in my ears as the familiar scent of pine perfumed the space around me.
Tiny drops of rain peppered my arms like memories from a life I once lived, baptizing me all over again with its purity. It had been so long since I’d felt the rain; so long since I’d tasted the flavors it stirred up in the air.
I wanted to revel in it, to bask in its beauty, but I was quickly yanked back to reality as a swarm of murderous Rev’s dragged me along the wetlands against my will.
We walked the length of a football field before the soft grass turned to brushwood and muddy dirt. It felt as though we had entered the forest or some kind of wooden area, but that was all I could put together.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, wanting to place their voices—their proximity to me.
“Shut up,” answered Baldy as he continued to drag me through the dirt.
From a distance, I could hear faint whispering coming from the sisters. They were talking, plotting—probably going over the little black-magic spell that was going to bring vampires out of the shadows and end my life.
“Dominic?” I called out his name to see if he was still with me.
No response.
That either meant he hadn’t yet come back from his Revenant timeout, or worse, he wasn’t here with us at all.
“I swear to God, if you hurt him, I’ll kill each and every one of you. Starting with you three bitches in the front!” I shouted out the last part to make sure they’d heard me.
“I’d like to see you try!” yelled Annabelle, but Anita quickly reprimanded her.
Apparently, we weren’t on speaking terms anymore.
We finally came to a stop after another hundred or so painful steps through the rocky wilderness. The ground below me had changed again, this time from brushwood and overgrowth to tightly packed earth; possibly a clearing.
The bag came off.
My eyelids fluttered as I tried to adjust my eyes to the night’s light, searching frantically for Dominic through the thinned down crowd of enemy faces.
I spotted him only a few feet away from me and my heart wrenched. He was still out cold, but at least he was here. I tried to pull away from my captors to go to him, to bring him back to life, but they quickly pulled me back.
“Uh, uh, uh. Not so fast,” warned Engel, moving in closer as his dark eyes rested on me. “You aren’t here for him, child. You’re here for me now.”
Like hell I was.
“Welcome to The Uprising,” he said as he spread his arms wide and invited me to take it all in.
I had been too busy trying to fight off the Rev’s behind me to notice where we were. My gaze shifted over his shoulder to the cobblestone steps leading down to an excavated slab of rock in the ground. There were strange markings carved into the bordering wall, making it clear this was some kind of ritual site.
“What the hell is that?” I asked, my eyes rounding out as I stared down into the pit. The ground was reflecting back to me under the full moon as though it were made of glass and not rock. There was something entirely unnatural about it and it made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle with fear.
“Ortum flammae!”
On Annabelle’s incantation, flames sprang up and touched the pitch-black sky, blazing an unholy path to the massive pit that I instinctively knew was meant for my bloody end.
Engel nodded to Baldy beside me and he immediately sprang forward, dragging me forward towards the steps.
I dug my heels into the ground and pushed back as hard as I could.
“There’s no use in fighting this, child. You’re only making it harder on yourself,” beamed Engel from the clearing.
That may have been true, but I fought anyway.
Wrangling me down to the last step, Baldy and another Rev each grabbed an arm and tossed me forward onto the hell-rock. They discarded me as easily as laying a body to rest. Only I wasn’t a body. I was alive and well, and I damn-well intended on staying that way.
The minute they let go of my arms, I kicked off the ground and ran for the steps, but was thwarted by some sort of invisible barrier that smacked me right in the face.
“What the—” I rammed my hands into the open air in front of me and immediately felt the strange pushback.
Something was holding me down there. Something I couldn’t see with my naked, non-witchy eye. Panicking, I bolted to the opposite side to see if I could climb out of the hole, but the same force pushed me back.
My eyes shot up to Dominic as the sisters walked around the pit, readying themselves to start the show, but he still wasn’t moving. He was out cold. On Annabelle’s word, the fire spread down into the pit, lassoing itself around me as it forced me into its tight grip.
This isn’t happening right now!
I was literally about to get fried by a couple of demented witches and Dominic was probably going to sleep through the whole thing.
“Dominic!” I yelled out his name into the open air, desperate to wake him.
Nothing.
Annabelle, Anita, and Arianna took their places around the pit. With their arms outstretched, they joined hands as the hellish flames shot even higher into the sky, taunting the Heaven’s above us with their nefarious intentions.
“Stop! You don’t know what you’re doing!” I shouted up at them. “Stop this while you still can!”
Neither one acknowledged me. Instead, they began chanting softly, singing in ancient tongues I didn’t understand.
The flames danced around me, licking out at my skin as they laughed in the face of my despair. I swung out at them fruitlessly, trying to push the flames away from me, but it only made the fire rage stronger.
“Don’t do this! Please!” I covered my face as the flames lashed out at me. It was as though the fire was alive and it was openly playing for Hell’s team.
My pleas went unanswered.
They continued to sing in unison, their voices blending together into a demonic song from another time and place. A place that was never meant to see the light of day again.
The louder they chanted, the hotter my skin became, burning until it became unbearable. The Amulet lit up against my chest, glowing wildly at their charmed words and searing my skin from its contact.
I wasn’t sure why it was lighting up, but I knew it wasn’t anything good.
It never was.
I reached up and tried to pull the necklace off my neck, but it wouldn’t budge. Every time I grabbed it, the necklace grew hotter, scorching me until it felt as though it were burning a hole right through my flesh.
A flash of thunder exploded in the sky as the rain began falling down on us in sheets. I prayed it would put out the flaming fires around me—prayed it would quell the heat that was now smothering me—but the downpour didn’t even make a dent. Nothing was going to stop them, not even the angry tears of Heaven.
A loud scuffle broke out in the clearing above me and my eyes immediately zipped to Dominic. He had finally come to and was fighting off his captors with a vengeance. His fists were swinging through the air with methodical velocity and his eyes were black with determination.
I felt a glimmer of hope ignite in my heart, but I didn’t let myself own it. Too much had gone wrong already and I couldn’t afford to let in any more disappointment.
“Dominic! Down here!”
Our eyes met for the briefest of seconds. He nodded and then bent forward, p
ulling Baldy over his shoulder and slamming him down onto the ground. Twisting to his right, he grabbed another Rev and snapped his neck. I’d never seen him look so strong or move so fast. He truly was a Dark Angel.
My Dark Angel.
As soon as he’d eliminated the imminent threats around him, I watched as he shifted into his wolf form and barreled through the last two Revs towards me. He was something to behold; a complicated masterpiece at its finest hour.
Unfortunately, he was a day late and a dollar short.
He slammed into the invisible wall around the pit before tumbling back down onto the ground. Whimpering, he jumped back on his paws as two more Revs immediately rushed him, forcing him to fight for his life again.
My eyes moved to Engel. He wasn’t paying attention to any of it. His focus was on me and the sisters. On making sure the spell was taken to the very end.
“Sanguine!” yelled Annabelle amidst the buzz of incessant chanting.
Engel pulled out a knife and slit his wrist as he rushed down the steps towards me. Stopping at the edge of the fire, he raised his hand and squeezed it into a fist, letting his blood pour from the open wound and into the flames.
The flames responded with vigor, standing and bowing before him as they devoured his offering.
“Do it,” he yelled to the sisters. “Do it now!”
A new level of panic tore through my body as the slab of rock began to tremble below me. I instinctively knew they were nearing the end of whatever the hell they were trying to do, and when they were done, everything was going to be different. Everything was going to be worse.
Dread filled the pit of my stomach as I wondered if I was going to make it out of this hole alive. If I was ever going to see Trace again. This couldn’t be how it all ended. This couldn’t be how I ended.
I refused to let it be this way.
I refused to let this be my dying of the light.
Fighting for my life—for my very next breath, I began thrashing my arms through the air, desperate to somehow break through the invisible barrier holding me hostage. Every time I wailed on it, it responded with a gust of fire that was meant to burn my limbs and flesh and hope. But I wouldn’t let it burn me down, I wouldn’t let it stop me; despite my scorching skin; despite the voices telling me this was a losing battle. I fought back with everything I had, with everything I didn’t have, and with everything I longed to become one day.
Iniquitous: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Marked Book 3) Page 10