Graves.
My heart tripped inside my chest as grief threatened to overtake my mind. Shaking, I turned in a slow circle, willing this vision to be anything but true. Dorian couldn’t be dead. He just couldn’t be. He was stronger than anyone else I knew. A vampire. An immortal. It would take a hell of a lot to destroy him completely. Even a single demon would struggle to consume his entire life-force this quickly.
But wait. I frowned, glancing around me at the centuries-old headstones. If the demon had killed Dorian, why would he have ended up six feet under? Who would have buried him? And here? This was Belzus’s cemetery. I recognized the pathway where I stood. It led to the crypt where this entire thing had started.
Demons didn’t bury the dead. They simply tossed the bodies and moved on. And besides, all these plots were full. They had been for years.
With quiet steps, I moved past the headstones and stood in front of the crypt. I gazed up at its stone exterior, feeling a prickle of alarm in the back of my neck. Yep, I’d definitely come to the right place. I pressed my ear against the door and listened, despite my every urge to rush into the crypt without a moment’s hesitation. All was quiet within. Either the demon wasn’t there or it was lurking in wait. Bracing myself, I pushed open the heavy door and eased inside.
It was empty.
Frowning, I glanced around. The spell had led me straight here. Dorian had to be somewhere nearby, and this was the only place that made sense. Unless he really had been buried. Unless he really was dead. Unless I really was too late to save him.
Heart squeezing tight, I scanned the small space, willing my mind to latch onto something that would lead me to my partner. There had to be a hint. Something. Anything. But there wasn’t. The room held nothing but the stone-lidded coffin, perched on a short pedestal with a lid that was crooked and cracked.
“Wait a minute,” I mumbled underneath my breath as I stepped closer to the ancient coffin. I brushed my hand across the surface and stared at my palm. No dust. No dirt whatsoever. And I swore the lid hadn’t been cracked the last time we’d come here.
Belzus’s words rang in my ears. Guardian of the graves. If I removed this lid, would I find it empty? Had a skeleton risen from its resting place and walked out of the crypt? Demons, vampires, werewolves, and fae. All of those were supernaturals that I could deal with, regardless of how much of a pain in the ass they could be sometimes. But the walking dead? Yeah, no.
That was taking things to a whole other level.
Fear flickered in my heart as I pushed hard against the stone lid. It barely budged an inch despite my best efforts to shift it sideways. My muscles ached, and the rough stone of the lid scraped my hands. Wiping sweat off my brow, I stepped back. I’d never be able to get the damn thing open, not with the strength in my arms—or the lack thereof.
Unless…
My dagger was in the sheath strapped around my waist despite the fact I was only here in mind. With a deep breath, I slid it into my hands, steel singing against steel. I had no idea if this would work. For one, this wasn’t my physical form, and two…well, I didn’t know what kind of spells I could cast. All I could focus on was Grams’s words. She’d told me one important thing about my power, the only thing I had to believe in right now. If I opened myself up to the depths of my magic, it would know what to do without me asking.
It was a risk—calling on it this way. So freely and openly. If I wasn’t careful, it could use me to do its own bidding. It could draw out my darkness and cast it upon the world. It could make me destroy anyone and anything it wanted.
But I wouldn’t let it control me. Not this time.
Taking a deep breath, I dropped back my head and let my power consume my body. My hands flew out toward the coffin lid, and dark strands of smoke surged from my fingers. It swirled through the crypt, knocking against every stone wall and slamming into the coffin. Darkness edged into my mind, but I gritted my teeth to push it aside, focusing on Dorian’s stormy eyes and his strong and angular face. The way he touched my neck. The way his lips tasted when he drank my blood.
And then suddenly, the magic stopped, leaving behind billowing clouds of swirling smoke. As the shadows cleared, I could see the lid had fallen to the ground, now cracked in two from where it had crashed onto the concrete. My heart beat out a heavy rhythm in my chest. I was almost afraid to look inside the coffin. Would I find Dorian inside? And if I did, would he be dead?
My chest ached like a gaping hole had replaced my heart. I couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing him again. Taking a deep breath, I stepped up to the coffin and peered inside. A sharp, stabbing pain went through my gut. Even though I’d prepared myself for the worst, seeing Dorian’s lifeless form inside the stone coffin made me double over as if I’d been punched.
My hand pressed against his chest as tears streamed down my face. This couldn’t be real. Dorian Kostas, as much as he could drive me crazy at times, had become the best part of my life these past few months. He’d saved me in ways I couldn’t explain. Hell, I could barely understand it myself. Before he’d come barreling into my life, I’d been drifting, barely getting by every day. He’d woken me from my daze. He’d helped me find a purpose. He’d saved me from a life that was just an existence. Because of him, now I felt alive.
And he’d died because I didn’t have the balls to do whatever it took to save him in return.
As I stood over the coffin with sobs rocking my shoulders, something sharp and electric passed between his body and mine. Our bond. That strange cord that seemingly linked us no matter how much time had passed since we’d tasted each other’s blood.
But if I could still feel our bond, then did that mean what I thought it meant? Without a beating heart and breathing lungs, Dorian’s vampire curse would cause him to look dead even when he wasn’t. It would be an easy mistake to make. Our bond rippled once more, an intense energy that was impossible to ignore. Full of thoughts and emotions and pain.
He was alive.
Waves of relief flooded through me as I gripped his cold hand in mine. I needed to get him out of here. This looked and felt like the same curse that had been put on my grandmother, which meant I needed the blood of the mage who did this in order to reverse the spell. My shadow magic trembled in my gut at the realization that someone had done this to him. Another witch or warlock. They’d taken my partner from me and had put him in this grave. The darkness within me flamed, a black and burning fire that built into pure rage. Someone had cursed Dorian Kostas, and for that, they were going to fucking pay.
One step at a time though.
First I needed to get my partner out of this crypt.
A harsh and bitter wind swirled around me like a tornado, throwing me away from the coffin. I hit the wall with a loud crack, and all the air got knocked from my lungs. The demon roared as it appeared inside the crypt next to the coffin, rising high above me. My teeth chattered as I narrowed my eyes, aiming the dagger at the creature. My blade might not kill him, but since he was corporeal now, I could at least do some lasting damage.
It hissed and turned away from me, focusing its eyes on my partner’s unconscious form. Heart hammering hard in my chest, I rushed across the crypt with my blade flashing in the dark. But it was too little too late, once again. The demon wrapped its claw around Dorian’s arm, and then it blinked away.
Chapter 25
“I’ll just have to cast the spell again.” I paced across the uneven floorboards in Dorian’s small apartment, spinning on my heels every time I hit a wall. Laura watched from where she perched on his desk with a book dangling from her hands. “The demon can try blinking away as much as it wants, but I’ll just keep tracking it. Eventually, I’ll get to Dorian before it can.”
Laura twisted her hair into a ponytail and frowned. “I’m trying to find something in here on how to stop demons from teleporting, but I’m coming up empty.”
“Because it’s not teleporting.” I plopped into the recliner and stared up at the
ceiling, searching for answers I knew I wouldn’t find. “Not really, anyway. When it does that, it’s returning to its own world. Then, it can walk through the demon realm and come back through the veil somewhere else.”
The demon realm sat on top of the human realm. Two sides of the same coin, really. Any spot on earth would have the exact same coordinates of somewhere in the demon world. If a demon wanted to come through the veil at a particular location in our world, it had to find the right spot within the demon realm first. The creatures couldn’t just pop in and out and end up wherever they wanted unless it was planned.
“Right.” Laura snapped the book shut and picked up another. “But there still must be a way to stop it from doing that. Some kind of spell to hold the demon in place long enough for you to grab Dorian and get him out of there. What about your Grams? Would she know?”
I shook my head. “Grams never fought corporeal demons.”
Laura flipped through another book before tossing it onto the desk with a frustrated sigh. “This is useless. Absolutely nothing in here about this kind of thing. I mean, what was the demon even doing with Dorian? Why is it carrying him around and putting him in crypts?”
“I don’t know,” I sunk further into the chair and pressed my hands against my eyes, trying to block out the image of Dorian’s unconscious form. It had shaken me a lot harder than I could admit right now. I needed to be strong. For him. “It’s the strangest thing. The demon didn’t even try to attack me or anything. It just tried to get away. With Dorian.”
“You’re right. That’s pretty fucking weird.”
“It didn’t act like any demon I’ve ever heard about,” I said as Dorian’s words echoed in my mind. “But everything is so different these days, I shouldn’t feel so surprised. The world is turning out to be a lot different than we thought.”
“But why would a demon want to hold onto an Unbound vampire?” Laura asked.
I shrugged. “You’ve got me. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the demon acted like it was following orders or something, like a soldier guarding a prisoner. But that’s obviously ridiculous.”
“Following orders.” Laura gasped, and then shot up off the desk. She paced back and forth in front of me in hurried steps, her hand pressed tight against her chest. “Oh my goddess, Zoe. That has to be it.”
“Has to be what?” I jumped up from the chair, following her lead, even though I had no idea what the hell she was talking about.
“Why would a demon kidnap an Unbound vampire and then guard him?” Laura asked, her frown transforming into a smile. “It wouldn’t. Unless it was following orders of some kind.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “I thought we just went through this. Demons don’t follow orders. They don’t have a command structure like that. Even though a lot of things are turning out to be a lot different than we thought, this is one thing I’m certain of. These are demonic creatures that consume everything in sight. Not some sort of structured army with strategic capabilities.”
“That’s not what I mean.” She moved over to Dorian’s desk and shuffled through his research, pulling out a sheet of paper I’d long since forgotten. “If a demon is following commands, where would those commands be coming from? Not another demon. Someone else.”
Suddenly, a lightbulb sprang to life over my head, and Laura’s words finally made sense. “The demon is being controlled like when—”
“Like when Vincent bound demons to himself.” Laura held up the paper. The photocopy of the rune that would work the magic, the one that would bind a demon to a mage, the one that required a human sacrifice for it to be complete.
“But, Vincent is dead,” I whispered, not wanting to believe it. “And Ivan Wagner took a truth serum. He didn’t manage to bind any demons to himself before we caught him.”
“Even if Wagner didn’t, maybe someone else did.” Laura gave me a meaningful look. “And I bet he knows who.”
In all the months that Wagner had been tucked behind bars, I’d never once come to visit. I figured he probably didn’t want to look into the face of the person who helped capture him, and Dorian—the leader in our partnership—had taken on the task of questioning Wagner’s role in Vincent’s plans.
Now, with Dorian captured, I was the one in control. There were other Enforcers who could grill the man, of course, but this case was mine. And I was hell bent on being the one to crack it.
“So,” I said, perching on the desk in front of Wagner, who sat back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest, “you’re the infamous Ivan Wagner, Professor of Rare Books, Grimoire-Hunter, and Treasonous Bastard to Humanity.”
“Zoe Bennett.” He smiled, wrinkles stretching out from puffy eyes. With graying hair at the temples, he was one of the older generation of warlocks. There weren’t many of those left after the war, but he’d managed to make it through the battles unscathed. And now I was beginning to wonder how. “Took you long enough to stop by and say hello. How is your grandmother doing?”
Anger shot through my gut, but I pushed it aside. He wanted to get a rise out of me, and I refused to let him see it worked. When he’d been working with Vincent, Wagner had stalked the streets outside my apartment, watching and waiting for the moment Grams would be left alone. He’d helped Vincent curse her, and for that, I’d never forgive the man.
“She’s doing very well, thank you.” I sent back just as sweet a smile. “And how is prison life? Enjoying the solitary confinement?”
“Actually? No. My accommodation could be better. Perhaps you could do something about that? A large room with a view of the city would work nicely.”
I barked out a harsh laugh. “Yeah, right. Like that’s going to happen.”
“Very well.” He shrugged. “Then, I won’t answer your questions about the demons who are being controlled by mages.”
Despite myself, I sat a bit straighter, my eyes boring holes into his skull. He hadn’t been briefed on why I’d requested an interview, and no visitors had been to see him since he’d been locked up. Which only meant one thing. He wasn’t bluffing. He did know something, but he wasn’t going to share unless I made his life here more comfortable.
And for the man who stalked my Grams, that was the last fucking thing I wanted to do.
Gritting my teeth, I continued to stare him down. “How do I know that you have anything useful to share?”
“Where’s your partner?” he asked, smiling when I narrowed my eyes. “Dorian Kostas, the vampire warlock who would sacrifice himself for a shadow witch.” When I flinched, Wagner’s slight smile stretched into a full-on Machiavellian grin. “That’s right. I know what you are. And so does everyone else in my coven.”
My heart lurched as I glanced toward the closed door leading into the hallway. Thank fuck this wasn’t like a real police station, with cameras and two-way mirrors. There was a microphone, but no one was out there listening to this interrogation. That I knew of. Otherwise, my entire illusion would be blown.
“Now, that I have your attention,” he continued, “I assume that if you’re here and he isn’t, everything is moving according to plan.”
“What plan?” I asked through gritted teeth.
He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Like I said, I want out of solitary. A better room, better food, better view. Some fresh air. Something to read. Basically, stop making my life so brutally miserable, and I’ll tell you what you need to know.”
My heart thumped hard as I stared at the man. With everything he’d said and everything that had happened, I wasn’t in the mood to bargain. My shadow magic rumbled within me, begging me to rip the man’s smug smile right off his face. Dangerous, the voice whispered. Evil, it said. Destroy the blood mage.
I blinked. Wait a minute. Ivan Wagner was a blood warlock, one of the only ones in the Boston area. The Blood Hunter Coven had said he was one of their members. Was this just a coincidence or were these bound demons somehow connected to the deaths of the mages
as well?
Professor Wagner’s smile widened at the look of realization that crossed my face, and as much as I wanted to punch that smugness right out of him, I had to know exactly what was going on here.
I stood. “Wait here.”
In the hallway, Ben Ackers, the council member who had gotten me the Enforcer job, was waiting for me. “Well? How’s it going in there?”
“You didn’t hear anything?” I swallowed hard and glanced at the table holding the recording equipment and a pair of headphones. If he’d been listening, I was screwed. Luckily, he just shook his head.
Speaking quietly and quickly, I filled him in on Wagner’s request for better accommodation. “As much as I hate to say it, we have to give it to him.” I started ticking things off on my fingers. “Not only will we get information on how to find Dorian but we’ll get important information about these demons. Hell, maybe even a way to stop them that doesn’t involve Nosferatu fangs. And I have a serious hunch that this will solve the blood mage serial killer problem. Or at least lead us to the murderer.”
“You think Wagner’s wrapped up in that case, too?” He frowned. “But how? He’s been locked away for months.”
“Obviously, he didn’t do it himself,” I said. “But I think he has information that can lead us to whoever did.”
“Right.” Ben cracked open the door and peered into the room before latching it quietly behind him. “The Magister isn’t going to like this, but I’ll go ahead and give it the green light. We’ll move Wagner to a room with a window, he’ll get a Kindle with some books on it, and we’ll let him make a phone call once a week.”
“And the fresh air?” I asked.
“Hell no. He can forget about having time outside,” Ben said. “Tell him he’ll be able to crack the window.”
With a nod, I turned back to the door, but Ben grabbed my elbow to stop me. My heart hammered against my chest. For a moment, I could swear he was going to tell me he’d overheard our discussion after all, that he knew the truth about my powers.
The Bone Coven Chronicles: The Complete Series Page 39