Mother May I (Knight Games Book 4)

by Genevieve Jack

There was a flash, and a silver arrow pierced her chest.

  Chapter 24

  Protective Instincts

  “Elana!” I caught the witch before she hit the floor. Based on the position of the arrow, I prayed it had missed her heart, but her shallow breaths indicated it was implanted in her lung.

  Metal pinged against metal as Polina shielded us from arrows with a stretch of iron she must have created from the country decor. “This isn’t going to hold,” she yelled.

  With a puff of breath, I blew the door closed. The windows shattered, and we both hit the floor on either side of Elana.

  “The arrow is poisoned with goblin blood. This could kill her, Grateful!” Polina yelled.

  “Hold them back!” I said. “I’m a nurse.”

  She gave me a strange look, obviously questioning the relevance of my announcement, but did as I requested. Every piece of metal in the room melted and oozed into place to seal off the windows. The attack didn’t ebb. Pings of metal on metal were joined by chopping at the walls and pounding on the doors. There were even footsteps on the roof, although I hoped the blazing fire in the hearth would keep those intruders at bay.

  I tore Elana’s shirt away from the wound. Black veins had formed around the entry point and spread from the source, her flesh ashen with the effects of the poison. I grabbed the shaft of the arrow, then retracted my hand when it burned my palm like acid. I wiped the goblin blood on my billowy shirt, then used the extra material to grab the arrow again and yank it out. There was blood and air and a weak scream from Elana. I tore off a section of my shirt and applied pressure to her wound.

  “We need to get her to water so she can heal herself,” I said.

  “Downstairs.” Polina scrambled to her feet and helped me lift Elana. We moved toward the back of the house, hoping the staircase was there. Elana couldn’t help us. The poison had spread up her neck, and she was sputtering blood, her eyes glazed over. Polina tried a door in the wall. “Closet. Fuck!” she said. We continued down the hall.

  “Do you hear that?” I asked, pausing.

  “Hear what?”

  “Exactly. The pounding has stopped. Do you think they gave up?”

  “No way.”

  Grateful, help me shift. Rick’s urgent plea came through our connection. Fuck, the goblins must have reached them. I closed my eyes and reached for his beast, tugging it forward until I could feel him complete the transition.

  “Grateful! What the hell? Why did you stop?” Polina screamed.

  I started toward the next door. We didn’t make it. The rumble of a sliding mountain made us drop Elana. I’m not proud we dropped her, but with the house shaking and the thunder of sliding rocks, mud, and earth, there was nothing else we could do but hold on. The rumble and shake was a freight train, a jet taking off, loud and deep and coming for us.

  “Avalanche!” I yelled.

  Polina’s eyes darted around the room. “We’re in a wood house,” she murmured. “Grateful, it’s wood!”

  With a flick of Tabetha’s wand, I willed the logs to shift and close around us until we were housed inside a giant box. The protective response occurred just in time. We plunged into total darkness and screamed as the house slid away, us along for the ride. Locked inside, we tumbled, banging heads and being thrown into the walls as the house presumably came apart around us.

  “If we roll into the river, we’ll drown,” Polina wailed.

  I tried to steady myself on the wall, and my hand came away muddy. Concentrating, I strengthened and tightened the wood around us, willing it to branch and anchor us to the shore.

  We came to a slow stop, but the slop of wet mud continued above us. I had to be careful not to light our shelter on fire, but I needed to see if Elana was okay. Softly, I blew into my hand and conjured a small flame to assess the damage.

  Polina huddled in the corner, arms protectively covering her head, on the opposite side of Elana, who was now entirely gray. I reached for Elana’s neck to check her pulse. When my fingers made contact, her flesh shattered and she disintegrated into a pile of ash near my toes.

  I gulped a breath of air and shook Polina’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  She lowered her arms, and her eyes fluttered open. “What just happened, Grateful?”

  Overwhelmed, all I could do was shake my head and look toward the ceiling that bowed and dripped mud. My mind fought what I knew was true. We’d been buried alive.

  “No,” Polina said softly, following my eyes. “The boys will come for us. They’ll dig us out. Maybe you can make the wood grow. Roots part earth. I might be able to find metal in the mud. Elana… oh poor Elana.”

  I met her eyes. “The boys can’t come for us. They’re fighting the goblins. I helped Rick shift.” I tapped my temple. “I can hear him in my head. The goblins are everywhere.”

  Polina sobbed and shook her head. “No… No… No…” She repeated the word softly, her pupils dilating with fear.

  “Polina, breathe with me.” I grabbed her arm and coaxed her through three deep breaths, trying not to worry about the amount of oxygen we had in this coffin of my creation. “We’re safe for now. If we can last until Rick kills the goblins, he’ll dig us out. It’s going to be okay.”

  As if mocking me, the wood above us groaned. I tried to strengthen it with Tabetha’s wand, but it wasn’t enough. Section by section, the ceiling began to split.

  “No, it’s not. It’s not going to be okay,” Polina whimpered, shaking her head.

  A splash of mud extinguished the fire in my palm, and with one last groan of effort, the wood around us gave way, and a wave of mud slammed into me.

  * * * * *

  I wish I could say that the impact of the mud knocked me out. It didn’t. I experienced the crushing sensation fully conscious, the weight pressing all the air from my lungs and the grit of it denuding my exposed skin. Once the initial impact was over, the real horror began. I was alone. Out of breath. In total darkness. In pain. And I was dying. I could feel my light slowly extinguishing under the pressure of what I perceived as the hand of the goddess on my bones. She had squashed me like a bug, and now I would die.

  It would not be an easy death. I succumbed to the temptation to breathe and sucked mud into my mouth. On the inside, the sickening snap of bones filled my head and my eyes… the pressure on my closed eyes was so intense I was sure they would pop. I was likely already blind.

  I tried to go gracefully—to will my soul from my body—terribly regretful of my abandonment of Rick and the hard-fought love we shared. The dying part was taking much too long. The pain owned me. It tortured me, and I was helpless to resist.

  Unable to breathe or barely think, I allowed myself to just… go.

  I thought I was hallucinating when a hand wiped over my face and scooped the mud from my mouth. A breath of stale air pushed into my lungs. I couldn’t see, but I felt myself sliding through a hole, my broken bones conforming to the tight surroundings in an unnatural and painful way.

  Into fresh air, I emerged like a worm from the earth. The waft of breeze blowing over my raw flesh was both heaven and hell. I coughed and breathed and was fully aware that I was blind and as good as dead.

  “You told me I cannot feed you my blood without your permission,” Julius’s voice said in my ear. “But your caretaker is not here, and I can feel you dying. Your soul slips from your body like the blood that pools around you. If you do not drink of me, you will die. Give me permission, Grateful. Trust me.”

  “Rick?” I asked. It was hardly a word. Just an exhale.

  “He’s shifted and is currently battling the goblins,” Julius said. “He cannot come to you. The distraction of you could mean the end of all of us.”

  “No.”

  I felt him curl up next to me like a dog. “I will obey your wishes, Hecate, but it saddens me to watch you die. This long life will feel more like death without your soul in it. You have been a light for this ancient vampire.” His breath was cold on my cheek.r />
  My next breath rattled, and icy fingers tugged at my soul.

  “Please. Your permission,” he said. “You are very near death.”

  Again, I tried to die with dignity. I willed my soul out of my broken body, but it would not go. Deep inside, I wanted to live. I wanted to live so badly I was willing to cheat or lie or try anything, even the thing I desperately did not want to do but was my only hope.

  “Yes,” I rasped. “Permission.”

  The tearing of flesh preceded a rush of blood into my mouth. It did not taste like Rick’s blood. It was not my personal ambrosia. Instead, it tasted like medicine, bitter and sour. It also worked like medicine. My eyes filled like balloons, and my vision came back in stages: light, objects, and then the crystal clear moon and stars above me. I swallowed again and felt my bones knit, my shoulders square. I could feel my legs again.

  Julius moaned. “Finish it.” He panted in my ear. By the pressure of his wrist in my mouth and the way he sweated and grimaced, I could tell this was not an enjoyable experience, but I needed more.

  I swallowed again, and a severe itch crawled over my body. My skin felt too tight. In actuality, it was growing back, spreading over muscle and fascia. I was healing. After my last swallow, I knew I had to stop. Julius’s blood tasted good, and an unusual and unexpected longing for him caused me to linger, licking the open wound on his wrist.

  “Hold still,” he said, and I did. I could not disobey. His words seeped under my skin like magic. It was magic. I’d bound myself to him.

  I felt his lips on my neck and then a strike. It didn’t hurt. In fact, it reminded me of Rick’s bite, and I responded, stroking his hair and tracing around his ear. I lifted my hips against him.

  He stopped abruptly and backed away from me like I had the plague. Licking his lips, he seemed almost in pain as he pointed toward the hill in the distance. “Go find your caretaker, witch.”

  I rose from the ground, thrumming with power. It was more than physical health. Having Julius’s blood inside me was like being plugged into an eternal power source. I was one with the night, able to see in the darkness as if it were day. I was ancient and powerful. And I was going to find my caretaker and challenge my mother for her power. I felt along the base of my neck and grazed Nightshade’s muddy hilt, thankful she was still with me.

  Ready for war, I started in the direction Julius had pointed but paused and turned back to him when I remembered my friend. “Find Polina,” I commanded.

  He nodded and started to dig.

  I turned back toward the hill where the cabin used to be and broke into a run.

  Chapter 25

  Fight or Flight

  When I reached the top of the hill, I experienced Rick’s beast in all its glory. The dragon-like creature was covered in silver blood, arrows protruding from its leathery wings and sides. I’d never seen so many goblins in one place. As many as Rick had killed, and judging by the silver pieces and limbs scattering the area around him it was quite a few, there were a hundred or more circling him. I shivered as I made out a barbed silver chain they’d thrown around his neck and were anchoring to the earth. I drew Nightshade, ready to do battle.

  As I surveyed the combat from the cover of the tree line, I spotted two women overlooking the fray from a cliff of hardened earth that hadn’t given way like the rest of the mountain. Without Julius’s blood, I wouldn’t have seen them in detail in the dark, but our new bond gave me access to his abilities. My borrowed vampire vision allowed me to zoom in, to see what my human eyes would not, from the distance. What I saw chilled me to the bone.

  Bathory. I’d never forget the vampiress, from her voluptuous body to her wild black hair. She’d tried to cut out my heart once, to sacrifice me and kill my caretaker for a chance at a truly immortal, day-walking life. She’d failed and been captured and buried by Tabetha. But now she was free and apparently exacting her revenge on me and mine. Even more disturbing, she had help from a half-sister. The witch standing next to her was petite and Latina, with smooth dark brown hair tied into a low fold and large brown eyes that watched the battle below with an almost vacant expression. The earth witch Salome, I presumed.

  Only because of Julius’s blood could I make out the bite marks on the earth witch’s neck. Certainly Julius wasn’t the only vampire to know about the vampire/witch bond. Bathory was controlling this witch, and she had the goblins working for her too.

  I didn’t have time to analyze all the implications of this revelation. Rick was in danger, and I had no idea where Logan, Poe, or Hildegard had gone. Were they captured? Killed? I had a pretty good idea that Poe was alive. Our connection meant I’d know if he wasn’t. But the others?

  I drew my sword and charged into the fray. It was amazing to me how long it took for Bathory, Salome, and the goblins to notice me. The goblins were distracted with Rick and certainly Bathory was as well, but a witch knows the presence of another witch. She feels it in her gut. In the past, Nightshade’s magic had given me some amount of concealment from supernatural beings. That hadn’t applied to witches before, at least Tabetha hadn’t had any trouble sensing me. Perhaps Bathory’s control had made Salome less perceptive. Whatever the reason, as I plowed into the goblins, sending heads flying in every direction, I had the element of surprise on my side.

  Once again, Nightshade’s blue glow fizzled as I attacked. Goblin blood neutralized my magic. It didn’t matter. Julius’s blood made me faster and stronger, like a vampire. I wielded Nightshade as I might a normal sword, and I aimed for their jugulars. Arrows flew in my direction. I dodged them, or I swatted them away with Nightshade’s blade. One nicked my shoulder, but it didn’t burn like before. Julius had said vampires were immune to goblin poison. Perhaps I’d been afforded some amount of immunity from ingesting his blood.

  How long would it last? I didn’t know, but I planned to use it while it did. I plowed through the goblins, rounded my sword, and sliced the chain from Rick’s neck. Freed, the beast roared and attacked, scooping up goblins and crushing them between his teeth. He impaled more with his barbed tail and tore others apart with claws as sharp as scythes.

  Just when I thought we had the advantage, Bathory yelled, “End her!”

  The earth shook until I thought I might come apart at the seams. A schism erupted near my feet, and I shrieked as I tipped into the fiery split. But Rick was there, catching me in his talons and pumping his wings to fly me to safer ground. We landed across the chasm from the goblins just in time to see the earth witch topple over, despite Bathory’s prodding.

  Magic didn’t come free. It wasn’t endless. That’s why the witch hadn’t sensed me coming. Bathory had used her witch to exhaustion.

  “Bathory, we have unfinished business!” I started up the hill toward her, Nightshade again glowing blue. A hand from behind stopped me in my tracks.

  Julius. He’d arrived with Polina, both gritty and shredded. They looked like the walking dead, which in Julius’s case wasn’t far off.

  “She’s mine,” he said to me.

  “You again,” she hissed.

  “Me again.” Julius bared his fangs. “How many times do I have to tell you, you can’t have my coven, my territory, or my witch?”

  Bathory laughed wickedly. “All of it is rightfully mine, Julius. Now, I’ll have it back. All of it and more.” Bathory leaped from the hillside and tackled Julius.

  I dodged a silver arrow and bolted for Polina, who had taken shelter behind a spruce tree at the base of the hill.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her, checking her over. She was bloody and damaged. One of her eyeballs was milky white and most of her skin was gone. Her arms hung unevenly, and her leg twisted to the side.

  “Are you stupid? Of course not!” she snapped. “Never mind, I’m healing, but badly injured. It will take time. I cannot fight.”

  I parted the branches of the spruce. Rick’s beast had taken to the sky and was attacking goblins in quick swoops to avoid their arrows, but he was growing t
ired. I could feel his power waning. Yes, he was immortal, but he could be imprisoned or injured beyond the loss of his memory. “Rick can’t keep this up forever. What do I do? My magic won’t work against them, and I can’t kill them all.”

  “You must do the spell to challenge Hecate and you must do it now.”

  I spread my hands. “I can’t! We don’t have all the elements. Elana died. We don’t even have a water witch!”

  Polina grabbed my wrists. “Elana died at the hands of the witch at the top of that hill. That means Salome has access to the water element.”

  I shook my head. “When I killed Tabetha, I didn’t have her power until I accepted her grimoire.”

  “Elemental power isn’t created or destroyed; it just changes form. You had access to the power the moment you killed Tabetha. It would have stayed with you temporarily until another was called to rule her ward.” She pointed to the witch passed out on the hill. “If Salome is still alive, she has earth and water, and you have wood and wind.”

  “And you have metal,” I said, astounded. “We have them all.”

  She nodded, smiling weakly. “So, let’s go.”

  “But I don’t know the spell, and I don’t have my grimoire!”

  “There’s no formal spell, Grateful, only transfer of power. I’ll lend you my power, and you’ll have to take hers.”

  “How do I do that?”

  “You’re wasting time. Come on.” She grabbed my wrist and started limping for the hill, her right leg hanging as if it was disconnected from the joint. Rick, I need you. He broke from the goblins and landed clumsily by our side. I pushed her onto his back and climbed on behind her, plucking a silver arrow from his scales. They couldn’t completely pierce his armor, but several were embedded, and he was exhausted.

  “Almost there, darling. Get me to the witch.”

  With a rolling gallop, he took to the sky, landing next to Salome. The goblins shot at us, but the arrows couldn’t make it across the chasm. They immediately organized, climbing down, searching for a way to bridge across.