He nodded and looked at Macey. “Will you stay here in case she comes back?”
“Of course.”
“If you hear from Luke…”
She nodded. “He’ll understand.”
“Wait.” Snow darted behind the counter and took a cookie from the display case. “Eat this. For clarity.”
He looked at the blue-frosted question mark and shook his head. “I know exactly what I need to do.”
She held it toward him. “Rain said that if you can convince yourself the tulpa isn’t real, it won’t be able to hurt you. This will help. Trust me.”
Last time he ate a magic cookie, he lost his wolf. He cut his gaze between the cookie and Snow and clenched his teeth. Without the ability to shift, he’d need all the help he could get. He shoved it into his mouth and chewed. A tingling sensation spread across his tongue and down his throat as he swallowed.
Snow grabbed one for herself and followed him to his bike. He tossed her a helmet. She put it on and climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “We’ll find her.”
God, he hoped so.
Rain exited the highway and parked behind a cypress tree. With the cover of night and the dense forest, no one would notice her car in the trees until morning, and hopefully she’d be out of here before sunrise.
She climbed out of her car and clicked the door shut before peering into the trees. The blue moon hung high in the sky, casting the swampy forest in a silvery glow. Spanish moss wept from the branches of towering cypress trees, and a bullfrog croaked in the distance. The dank scent of rotting foliage hung in the thick, wet air, and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she caught sight of a shadow bounding through the trees.
Hopefully it was the tulpa and not a werewolf. She shook her head. Did she really hope the monster lurking in the trees was the slave of the man who lured her out here to kill her? According to Chase, Isaac and his tulpa weren’t the only predators in the swamp she needed to worry about tonight.
She crept deeper into the trees, carefully placing each step to avoid slipping and breaking an ankle. Her shoes squished in the mud as if she walked on a wet sponge, the ground becoming soggier the deeper she ventured into the woods.
Her heart thrummed. Was Chase already dead? Had Isaac called her into the swamp to watch him bury the man she loved before he killed her too? She couldn’t think that way. Not if she wanted to stand a chance against Isaac.
A rustling in the brush sounded off to her right, and she jerked her head toward the noise. The shadow rushed her, knocking her into a tree before darting off to the left. Her arm scraped against the bark with stinging pain, but she caught a glimpse of the dull-gray aura before the tulpa disappeared into the darkness.
She leaned her back against the tree and tried to calm her breathing. What was she thinking coming out here alone? Without her magic, she’d have to rely on strength and wit to outsmart the man who’d spent seven years planning his revenge. She’d rushed out here with no plan. No idea how to stop him.
Slipping her hand into her shoulder bag, she gripped the knife handle and tiptoed in the direction the shadow had run. Maybe she could reason with Isaac. Maybe she could convince him to…what? Let Chase go? Forgive her for sending him to a fate worse than death?
She stepped around a thick tree trunk, and her breath caught in her throat. Isaac stood in the clearing, his spine straight, the skin that clung to his bones filled out as if there were muscle beneath, the lifeless body lying at his feet evidence he’d fed.
Her heart stopped for a moment, but the form was too small to be male. He’d drained a woman, using her life energy to rebuild his own body, gaining temporary access to whatever magic she possessed.
“Rain, you’re just in time.” Isaac smiled as the tulpa scooped the woman from the ground and tossed her body into the murky water.
“Where is Chase?” She tightened her grip on the knife in her bag.
Isaac laughed. “I’ve changed my mind about your boyfriend. I’m going to kill you first, so you can leave this world knowing that even your death couldn’t save the ones you love from suffering.”
Her lungs tightened until she could hardly breathe. “Why hurt them? It’s me you want.”
He tilted his head. “Because hurting them hurts you, my love.”
Her jaw clenched, and the nails of her empty hand dug into her palm. “Don’t call me that. You never loved me. You loved my magic.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I was infatuated with you from the moment I saw you, but you weren’t the slightest bit interested in me. You were too focused on your goals. Opening your bakery. Gaining your place on the national council. I wasn’t skilled enough to cast a love spell; you know how hard those are to create. An obsession spell, though…” He stepped toward her, clutching his back as if the movement caused him pain. “It wasn’t an easy task, but it worked.” He laughed again. “Boy, did it work.”
The tulpa hovered next to her, inching closer, making her palms sweat. It’s not real. It can’t hurt me.
The shadow swiped a fist toward her face, and its hand turned to mist, disintegrating around her head and reforming behind her. She swallowed the bile creeping up the back of her throat.
Isaac narrowed his eyes, and the tulpa grabbed her bag, twisting it around her shoulder and pinning her arm behind her back. She held in a groan as sharp pain shot through her arm. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
“He can still manipulate objects, whether you believe in him or not.” The tulpa used her bag to throw her to the ground.
She landed on the same shoulder, and another wave of pain shot through her body. Using her hands, she pushed into a sitting position. “Let’s talk about this, Isaac. You don’t need to hurt anyone else.”
“We could have talked about it when you caught me draining you…before you tried to kill me. Now, it’s too late.”
“I wasn’t trying to kill you. I was trying to make the one you loved most hate you. How was I supposed to know you loved your power more than anything? I never would have done it if I hadn’t been under your spell.”
“We aren’t so different, you know?” He took another step toward her and grimaced as he clutched his hip. “You loved your power more than anything too. You didn’t have time for love until I made you make time.”
“That wasn’t love.” She crab-walked backward until her shoulder smacked a tree.
“Obviously not.”
Using the trunk for support, she pushed to her feet. “We’ve both suffered.”
“You call your little curse suffering?” He spat out a dry laugh.
“I can fix this. The council…they sent me a spell to break the curse. If I get my powers back, I can undo the spell I put on you. We can both be free.”
He paused, rubbing the raw skin on his jaw. Confliction clouded his eyes, his brow furrowing as he contemplated her offer. The tulpa reached into her bag, yanking out the butcher knife, and Isaac’s gaze hardened. “We can both be free? Is that why you brought a knife?” The tulpa pressed the tip against the base of her throat.
She swallowed, and the sharp point pierced a shallow layer of skin. “It was a precaution,” she dared to whisper.
“The council may think you’ve served your punishment, but I’ll watch you burn in hell for what you’ve done.”
With the blade pressed against her neck, she couldn’t convince her mind the shadow wasn’t real. It grabbed her arm, wrenching it behind her back, and forced her to her knees.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The sight of Rain on her knees with a knife to her throat sent Chase’s heart into overdrive, and he charged toward Isaac, barreling into him and knocking his boney body to the ground.
His concentration broken, Isaac’s control of the tulpa slipped, and Snow dragged Rain away from the shadow. Chase drew his arm back to slug the bastard in the face, but the tulpa hurled the knife, jabbing it into his back.
Searing pain spread
through his muscles, and he staggered to his feet, reaching behind, barely grasping the handle and yanking it from his back. His head spun. Blood gushed from the wound, and the muffled sound of Rain’s scream reached his ears before his knees gave out.
Isaac scrambled into a sitting position, clutching his arm and grinding his teeth so hard that blood dripped from the corners of his mouth.
Gripping the knife, Chase advanced on the sadistic witch. The tulpa charged, knocking him to the ground again. The impact knocked the breath from his lungs, and electric pain shot from his wound through his chest. The edges of his vision darkened, and nausea churned in his stomach.
“It’s not real, Chase,” Rain called.
He squinted through his tears to find Snow clutching her arm, holding her back.
“It can’t hurt you without a weapon,” she said. “Use the magic from the cookie.”
The shadow sat on his chest, a two-hundred-pound weight crushing his ribcage. “I don’t believe in you.” Chase closed his eyes and focused his mind. The magic from Snow’s spell tingled behind his forehead, bringing his thoughts into crisp focus. “You’re a figment of this sick bastard’s imagination.” The weight of the shadow lifted, and Chase stood, passing through it like a mist.
Using the trunk of a tree for support, Isaac clambered to his feet. He stumbled forward, narrowing his eyes in concentration, and the tulpa lunged for Chase again.
It’s not really there. Chase stopped, closing his eyes briefly as the shadow passed through him yet again. He chuckled. “It’s you and me now, Isaac.”
Chase advanced on the witch, trying to ignore the searing pain ripping through his back. If his magic hadn’t been bound, he’d have healed by now. Instead, he could barely get enough air into his lungs, and stars danced before his eyes as he closed in on the man trying to hurt his fate-bound.
The snap of a tree limb breaking barely distracted him from his target. He raised the knife, and something hard smacked into his back, knocking the air from his already starving lungs. He went down, the knife slipping from his grip and landing somewhere in the mud. The tulpa lifted the branch to strike him again.
Rain screamed and charged toward them. She grabbed onto the branch, engaging in a tug-of-war with the imaginary being, giving Chase a chance to stumble to his feet. His head spun. The world tipped on its side and his stomach roiled, but he grabbed a branch to hold himself upright. It was time to end this.
Isaac leaned against a tree, his body too damaged to move, but his mind agile enough to control the tulpa as if it were an extension of him.
Where the hell was the knife?
“Chase.” Snow lifted her hand from the murky water and tossed him a two-foot-long icicle with a razor-sharp point. The intense cold stung his hand like dry ice, and a thin mist rose from the makeshift weapon like a magical aura.
Rain grunted as the tulpa spun around, pinning her between the branch and a tree. “Chase.” His name came out as a squeak as the shadow pressed the air from her lungs.
He paused, momentarily paralyzed as the primal need to save his fate-bound fought to control his movements. Instinct to hurl himself at the shadow propelled him forward, but the only way to stop this monster stood behind him.
He turned to Isaac and hurled the frozen spear at him, piercing his chest. The witch gasped, his eyes widening in disbelief before he crumpled to the ground.
A strangled gurgling sound emanated from Isaac’s throat as the tulpa dropped the branch, and it splattered in the mud. The entity reached for something on the ground and lunged for Chase.
The knife sank into his chest, an explosion of searing pain sending him to his knees.
“No!” Rain screamed and ran to him.
His vision tunneled, and he fell to his side and rolled onto his back. The tulpa rose behind Rain, lifting a branch above its head.
Chase gasped for breath to warn her, but he couldn’t suck in any air. The sound of Isaac’s hacking cough echoed in the night. Then it ceased. The tulpa dissolved, and the branch thudded to the ground.
Rain knelt by Chase’s side, her head throbbing as if her heart had leapt all the way up to her skull. This couldn’t be happening. Her mind reeled, a million thoughts ricocheting around in her brain, scrambling for coherence.
She put her hands on his chest. It barely rose and fell with his shallow breaths. “Oh, goddess, no. Chase? Talk to me, please. You’re going to be okay.”
“We need to get the knife out so he can heal.” Snow grasped the handle and ripped the blade from his chest, and the wet, sucking sound of metal leaving flesh made Rain’s stomach turn.
He groaned, his head rolling from side to side, his eyelids fluttering as blood gushed from the wound. Rain pressed her hands to the gash, trying to slow the flow, but blood pooled between her fingers, the deep-orange glow pulsing as his magic tried to break its bond.
“Why isn’t he healing?” Snow’s voice tipped with panic. “He’s a werewolf. He should be healing.”
Tears streamed down Rain’s face, her heart wrenching in her chest. “His magic is bound. He’s not going to heal. We need to get him to the hospital.”
“No.” His voice was barely audible as he put his hand on hers. “Take my blood. Break your curse.”
“My curse is the last thing I’m worried about. I’m calling an ambulance.” She fumbled for her phone and found it dead, the screen cracked, her distorted, tear-streaked reflection staring back at her from the blank surface. “Dammit!”
She looked at Snow, who held a small bottle in her hand. “What are you doing?”
“He offered his blood, so I’m taking it. There won’t be another blue moon for two years.”
Why were they both so concerned with her curse? Her soulmate lay dying. Saving him was all that mattered.
Chase coughed, sending more blood oozing from his wound. Rain pressed harder on the gash. “I don’t care about my curse.” She couldn’t live without this man. He meant the world to her and spending a single second without him by her side would be unbearable.
“Take it, Rain.” His voice was raspy and strained. “Fate bound us together for a reason, and it wasn’t so I could die without helping you. I’m meant to break your curse.”
“No.” Hot tears stung her eyes. “Our hearts are bound because we’re meant to spend forever together.”
He gripped her hand. “Some forevers aren’t that long.”
A sob bubbled up from somewhere deep in her soul. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end. She should’ve been the one lying on the ground, bleeding out. She was the one who deserved to die.
Snow lifted his shirt and pressed the bottle to his side beneath a stream of blood. The first drop fell into the nearly-completed potion, and nothing happened. Then the second drop splashed into the liquid, and a burst of light filled the bottle with shimmering orange sparkles.
Chase’s eyes fluttered shut as Snow whispered the incantation.
Panic surged through Rain’s veins. “Chase?” She took his face in her hands. “Don’t die, Chase. I need you.”
His lids opened into slits. “I love you, Rain.”
“I love you too. Please don’t leave me.”
His eyes closed, and it felt as if the knife were driven into her own chest, filleting her heart into a million microscopic pieces.
Snow grasped her hand and closed her fingers around the bottle. “Take it, Rain. Don’t let this all be for nothing.”
She looked at the shimmering liquid in the glass. The cure for her curse. If she had the ability to heal, she’d down the potion in a heartbeat and use her powers to heal her werewolf. But she didn’t. Her magic was useless against the wound draining the life from the man she loved.
She sucked in a breath. She couldn’t heal Chase…but his wolf could.
Her heart was bound to his like a tether, their souls intertwined as if they were two parts of the same whole. Maybe…
She tugged on his chin, parting his lips and holding the bottle t
o his mouth.
“What are you doing?” Panic laced Snow’s voice. “The spell was written for you. It won’t work on anyone else.”
“It will work on him. Fate didn’t bind us together to rip us apart.” She poured the potion into his mouth. “Swallow it, baby.” She rubbed his throat, encouraging him to let the magic flow into his body. “Please. For me.”
Nothing happened. His chest stopped moving. The potion glowed deep-orange inside his mouth, but he didn’t swallow it.
Ice flooded her veins. “Chase?” She patted his cheek as a sickening nausea churned in her stomach, reaching up to tangle with the pieces of her shattered heart. “Swallow the potion, Chase.” She moved his jaw to close his mouth and tapped on his throat. “Swallow it, dammit.”
Snow grasped her shoulders. “He’s gone, sweetie. I’m so sorry.”
“No! He’s not gone.” She wrenched from her sister’s hold and threw herself on top of him. “He can’t be gone. He can’t!”
With tears flooding down her cheeks, she sat up and positioned her hands over his chest. Locking her elbows, she pushed down forcefully, sending blood spewing from his wound. She pushed again, willing his heart to beat.
“Rain, please.” Snow rested a hand on her shoulder. “You’re making it worse.”
“You’re. Not. Leaving. Me,” she said between chest compressions. Her entire body trembled. She couldn’t get enough air into her lungs. Collapsing on top of him, she sobbed into his shirt, fisting the material in her hands. He couldn’t be gone. Not after everything they’d been through. She squeezed her eyes shut as a gaping hole tore in her chest, hollowing her heart, ripping her world apart.
She gasped for breath and choked on a strangled sob. “No, Chase. Don’t leave me.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rain pressed her face into Chase’s chest and slid her hands to his cheeks. He couldn’t be gone. She refused to accept it.
Beneath a Blue Moon (Crescent City Wolf Pack Book 2) Page 24