That…echo…or whatever I thought I’d heard hadn’t come back. I was alone in my head, left alone to think, brood…panic. There had been moments up in the mountains, when I’d been trapped…I’d heard voices. Insanity had been a sweet dream for a while, then just another torment as delirium seemed to hover out of reach, but never consume me.
I didn’t want those voices coming back.
I didn’t want to lose myself again.
Not now. Just one of many things that would have to wait.
I’d dressed in close-fitting garb designed to hide my pale skin from the light, mask my scent. I couldn’t completely cover all sight, all traces of myself, but I had tricks up my sleeves. There was a thick, magic-based ointment that I’d slathered over my skin on the walk in and it had faded enough to not stand out.
Three miles earlier, I’d told Doyle to let me get in front: Five minutes, I’d told him. Then try to scent track me.
It had taken him another full five minutes to find me once I’d left the path.
His sense of smell was keener than a vampire’s, as long as I didn’t bleed. I didn’t plan on bleeding today.
The salve once it was absorbed by my skin was just a sort of olfactory chameleon. It worked with my body chemistry and the environment…and magic, of course, and let me blend my smell with everything around me. The spell wouldn’t last more than eight hours, but if I was in the Allerton compound longer than that, I wouldn’t need the spell. I’d need the little bag I’d grabbed from the floorboards under my bed. The little poison pill.
None of the witches would use the salve, but I figured they had their own ways of blending in.
The stuff made the skin burn and itch, a side effect of the magic—all magic comes with a price!—but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.
Doyle moved along at my side, cover from neck to foot in black. His hair, pale as mine, was covered under a skull cap. I approved. I offered him the salve, but he wasn’t interested.
I didn’t blame him—it made my nose and senses burn like hell and would be doubly hard on him. Hopefully, the kid could handle it if a bunch of vamps came after his ass.
He was a dominant shifter and fast as hell, but even Damon could go down if you threw enough vamps at him. Doyle wasn’t Damon.
He was just a kid.
“My intel says that Amadeus is out attending the opera tonight,” Justin said, his voice low as we skirted around the house. “Skeletal staff on hand. His stable of humans—thirty of them. He has a bigger group than that, but he takes half of his women with him whenever he travels. I can knock the remaining humans out without hurting them. Vamps on patrol, ten. More inside—feels like about another twenty. Varying ranges of power.”
I drew Death.
Justin gave it a narrow look.
“Who does he have on the outside?”
Justin squinted, assessing. He wasn’t looking with his eyes. Justin had an affinity for sensing an enemy, rather like I did, but his was more acute and he ramped it up with magic. “Fodder mostly.”
Stupid. Always good to have at least a few good men on the outside. The weak ones might do a good job at slowing us down, but it didn’t last long and with the right group, they could go down in no time.
Justin knew how to put the right group together.
“I take it he’s not expecting company.”
Justin flashed a grin. “Now, Kit…I’m not that out of practice.”
He glanced at Tate.
She moved to the front.
Hell opened up.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Getting inside the compound wasn’t hard. I don’t know if Amadeus was stupid or just arrogant, but when Justin said fodder, he was almost being kind. Damn near everybody on the outside had less than a few decades on them, and very few functioning brain cells, apparently.
Tate had most of them down, caught in the web of her fire and they died in moments.
Vampires didn’t really grow into their full strength until they saw at least a couple of centuries. Even the babies—those dead a few days—could make mincemeat out of humans, but if they wanted to do any real damage to other vampires or shapeshifters, or have any chance against a warrior witch, they needed to see a century or so pass. None of these would ever have the chance. I couldn’t even feel bad about it.
Closer to the house, I could sense the stronger ones and my skin crawled, my instincts screaming with the urge to run.
They’d retreated into the house and I could feel the chill of their anger dancing in the air. We’d have to go in there. I didn’t want to.
Justin had done his homework and he’d planned damn well for this. The second witch, Paddy—a man I vaguely knew from some other jobs—moved to stand next to me and I felt the cool kiss of his power against my flesh as he readied himself. “You and your furry friend need to get ready, Kit.” Paddy flashed me a smile.
I sank to the ground. “Doyle. Get down.”
A windstorm kicked up as Doyle hunkered down next to me. Paddy’s magic always made me think of rolling, green hills and stormy oceans. Right now, those rolling, green hills were being battered by an unseen wind and it slammed between Justin and Paddy, the two men protected by their magic. Tate stood a little farther away and I saw her clothes flapping around her, but she must have shielded herself against it as well, because that wind had the strength of an F-5 tornado behind it.
A focused F-5 tornado—and it slammed into the front wall of the Allerton compound, turning into nothing but rubble.
I slid Justin a look. I hope you know where in the hell that vase is.
He wasn’t looking at me, but he had a knowing grin on his face.
Although, really, would it be so bad if the damn thing was smashed into smithereens?
I just didn’t know.
But that was just one of those bridges I’d cross when I came to it. First, we had to find it.
I went to rise but before I straightened up, Doyle yanked me down. A bent, twisted piece of metal came flying my way, moving faster than my eyes could track. A vampire lunged at me, his jaw elongated, mouth open and fangs extended. As I twisted out of the way, panic and adrenaline clashed through my veins.
A monster exploded from Doyle’s skin in the span of seconds—a bizarre looking creature, caught between a man and giant cat, his pelt orange and sliced with black stripes.
The cold, cloying stink of vampire blood filled the air as Doyle decided to remove the vampire’s head.
Expedient.
More of them flowed out of the house—I counted five as I pulled my swords, Death in one hand, the leaf blade from Damon in the other. I scented metal and magic on the air, over the stink of vamp blood. Panic continued to sing inside me. Next to me, silver flashed through the night.
“Kit.”
That was all Justin said, but I heard the warning.
If I panicked here, we were screwed.
I was screwed.
Yeah. I know that. I got that. Still, the metallic taste of fear threatened to choke me.
Couldn’t fail…
I will not falter.
I will not fail.
I wanted my other blade. I settled for gripping the other two tighter as I squared my shoulders. Fuck this. Fuck it all to hell and back. I could do this. I’d faced this and worse, and lived to tell about it.
From the corner of my eye, I saw one coming at me and I pivoted to face him. Instinct took over and Death drove into his heart.
The dark, awful magic of the blade took over and I heard his voice, that ugly, malevolent whisper in the back of my mind where all I wanted to hear was music. The song of my weapons. I’d rather have heard nothing.
Yes…give me more…
And he laughed as I yanked my blade back and swung, taking the stunned, weakened vampire’s head.
Of course I’d give him more.
He stole the fight out of any foe I faced.
How could I not use him?
* * * *
The pulverized thing under my feet had once been a vampire. As I crossed over, dully aware of the silver unwrapping from its body, I extended my senses.
“They aren’t all dead.”
“Be quiet,” Tate hissed.
I stared at her, the alien presence in my head strong, stronger than I liked. He didn’t like Tate much, either…but he made me think about reaching out and bringing the flat of my blade down across her head. Just to see the shock in her eyes before she went down.
A hand closed around my wrist.
Magic sparked up my arm.
I jerked away but before I could do anything more, Justin caught my face in his hands.
Dimly, I heard a tiger growl. The sword thought maybe it would be fun to…
No.
“Damn right, no,” Justin said, his green eyes glowing as he stared at me. “Kit, look at me. Focus.”
“We need to find the vase,” I said.
Find me more…
Why was this happening?
In the silence of my mind, his alien voice seemed so very, very loud.
“We’ll find the fucking vase.” Justin squeezed, his hands tangling in my hair. “But you have to push him back.”
Push him…
Find me more—
With a scream, I tore away from Justin and flung the blade down. I stared at the dark, ugly metal of the blade for a long moment and then shot Justin a glance.
“His call is stronger. What the hell?”
A look of distaste rolled across Justin features and I felt the ripple of his magic as he extended out. “He senses something is off. He’s pushing, trying your limits. You can’t let him in.”
I knew that. Eying the sword, I rubbed my hand against the leg of my pants and braced myself. I didn’t want to pick him up.
If I could, I would have left him lying there, but that wasn’t an option. Like the vase, he was a relic and you didn’t leave relics of power lying around. Breathing out through my teeth, I grabbed him and sheathed him, ignoring the ugly, insidious whispers in the back of my head. The prickling heat of shifter energy rolled across my skin and I looked up, saw Doyle staring at me. I reached down and grabbed the knife belt he’d lost when he shifted.
“If you’re going to carry blades, you need to find a way to do it so you can carry them while you shift,” I said, hurling the belt at him.
He caught it, still staring at me with worried eyes.
And to think, they’d all been worried about Doyle.
* * * *
I kept the leaf blade in my hand.
Encased in the muffling, enchanted leather of his sheath, Death couldn’t talk to me now. Or bewitch me or whatever in the hell he was trying to do. Possess me, maybe.
Utter devastation surrounded us, but the farther we got from the wall Paddy had taken out, the clearer our path became.
It was still quiet, though.
Too quiet.
I could feel the crawl of their presence.
All over me.
I knew they were there.
We’d killed a lot of them, but not all. And the ones that remained were the strongest.
I could all but feel them…
And something else.
Something alien and cold. I heard it in the back of my head, in my ears…in my gut.
As we moved deeper into the house, whatever it was, the call of it grew louder.
The good news, the louder that call became, the weaker Death’s got.
The bad news…this alien presence wasn’t any better.
“Justin?”
“Yeah. Me, too.”
Tate had a strained look on her face.
Happy-go-lucky Paddy didn’t look so happy or lucky just then. He looked like he wanted to call up the wind and wipe this entire house from the face of the earth.
And the other witch, a man by the name Torrance, was muttering under his breath. None of his words made sense until suddenly he shouted, “Wood!”
That made sense—sort of.
Paddy went to his knees and Justin grabbed me. I couldn’t even comprehend how fast he had me on the other side of the hall. Screams rose in the air as the earth ripped open right where we had been standing. My eyes tracked it, barely, as forms were swallowed up by that hole. Some were almost fast enough to get away, but Paddy’s magic slammed into them and drove them down. Into that hole.
Fire swarmed over it.
Tate was laughing.
Torrance snarled when I tried to pull away from Justin.
“Doyle, stay down!” Justin shouted.
Something whistled…
The fire winked out.
I blinked, stunned, as huge pieces of wood—chunks of timber, thick pieces of board came flying through the air—and arrowed down into that hole.
The stink of vampire blood rose thick in the air.
“Earth. Air. Fire. Magic,” I murmured, looking at each of the witches.
“You got it, kitty-kitty.” Justin smiled, the magic around him sparking hard and cold.
He’d brought a veritable army…masters of the elements and they were turning the vampires into nothing.
His arms fell away and I put distance between us, following that alien music.
The vase.
“Know where it is?” Justin asked.
“Down.” I swallowed and searched the area. The feel of vampire was still strong enough to make my skin crawl. And somehow, I knew where they were. We had to go down. Into the basement. Surrounded…trapped…
My gut crawled.
I squeezed the blade and forced myself to ignore the sound of the silence in the back of my mind.
The music grew louder.
“What am I hearing?” Doyle asked.
If I’d had the brain cells to spare, I might have been surprised that he felt it. The magic was strong, almost overpowering, but I wouldn’t have expected a shifter to hear the power of it.
I didn’t have the brain cells, though, and I was trying hard not to focus on anything but the steps that unwound in front of me.
And…her.
I looked at Justin.
Sometime in between one heartbeat and the next, she’d arrived.
Maybe the magic of the vase had blunted her presence.
Maybe the magic of the witches had made it harder to feel her.
Maybe the battle had blinded us to her.
I just didn’t know.
But she was here.
And if luck would play out the way it always did…she would be down there…
“You truly are a clever, silly girl.”
I rounded the final curve and stopped, my back pressed to the wall.
We hadn’t yet seen the humans and now I knew why.
They lay in a neat little pile, like puppies.
Around them was a wall of vampires, all of the ones that remained, I suspected.
Every single one of them had more than a century behind them. The look in their eyes was something bright and blank and…avid.
“The lights are on but nobody’s home,” I said, wondering if anybody would realize what I was talking about.
Justin grunted.
“I can just turn the room into an oven,” Tate said.
“No. Humans.” I stared at the people for a long moment and then shifted my attention to Pandora. “If you already found the vase, why did you need me?”
“Because I hadn’t found it.” She smiled, her voice bright and cheerful, like a teacher encouraging a young child as she fought her way through a problem. And her eyes glinted with promises of pain. “That was why I needed you. I’m tired…this body is tired. I could only reach so far and why should I extend myself if I could let somebody else do the work?”
She smiled at me and then moved away from the gathered knot of vampires, lifting her arms and turning in a circle. “I can feel it now…it calls me. Don’t you hear it?”
Bat-shit crazy bitch.
Her head whipped around and she st
ared at me. “You annoy me, Kit. Don’t push your luck or I’ll just kill you now and be done with it.”
She turned her back on me and strode across the room. “Kill her keepers but leave the girl alive. She might be of use yet.”
Well.
That was stupid.
I didn’t have time to panic as vampires lunged for me.
I didn’t have time to scream.
I didn’t have time to think.
Just move.
* * * *
Their blood was a stain on my skin and still there were more.
In the air, Pandora’s voice was a mocking laugh. I fought with my back pressed to Justin’s, his magic an extra shield around us.
More specifically…around Tate.
Her cockiness had gotten her in trouble and the only reason she was alive was because Doyle had ripped the vampire who’d been feeding on her in two. Literally. Justin had slapped a magic-charged fielding dressing on her jugular but she was unconscious.
At least she was alive.
Paddy was alive.
Torrance wasn’t.
He’d used that freaky ass power of wood to impale several vampires, but one of them, even as he was driving the wood into the vampire’s heart, the vampire had impaled himself…on Torrance.
The two lay locked together in a grim, obscene embrace, the image forever smeared across my memory.
Silver slashed out. Blood sprayed across my lips and I wanted to wipe it off but I didn’t dare. Two of the vampires had been strong enough to power through Justin’s shields. They’d almost gotten Tate.
The strongest one tried to shove through again and I swung. At the same time, something attacked Justin’s wards and he bellowed—the sound cut off abruptly. His wards flickered—died.
Justin—
Hands grabbed me.
Panic screamed inside me and without realizing it, I drew Death and swung.
He met undead flesh and cleaved through it, and in the back of my mind, over my panic, I felt his near-orgasmic pleasure.
Get out—get out—get out! I screamed at him.
He only laughed.
Fangs flashed at me and I raised the blade, drove him into that snarling mouth before the vampire realized the game had changed. He was dead a second later and I moved on. Another fell.
BROKEN BLADE Page 25