“Well, I can see we have your attention now.” The rebel didn’t smile. Instead, he merely flicked his fingers at the bag. “There’s no reason to make this difficult. None of us want that. Regardless of what you’ve heard about us, we’re not horrible people. If we can avoid casualties, we will. All we wanted was to get those Blood Coven Enforcers out of the bar. There was no reason to kill them. And as far as I can see, there’s no reason to kill you either. So, please don’t give us a reason to. Hand over the bag.”
All my breath and defiance whooshed from my throat in a violent exhale. Gritting my teeth, I finally glanced at my best friend. The rebel had her knife pressed hard against Laura’s neck, and the skin had begun to turn a terrifying shade of red. I didn’t know if this guy was bluffing or if he’d really go through with murder because of a bag, but I knew I couldn’t gamble Laura’s life like that.
With a defeated sigh, I threw the bag into his arms. “Fine, asshole. But you’re wasting your time. You aren’t finding your weapon in there.”
His eyes flashed. “How do you know we’re looking for a weapon?”
“Maybe I’m psychic,” I said.
Gigi rolled her eyes and glared at me. “She probably overheard us talking about it before she came charging in for the whiskey earlier.”
“What’s this?” Ryker asked, pulling a blank sheet of paper from the pile. Glancing over it, he frowned. “Why do you have one of these? And how? You’re not a member of the Sun Coven.”
“What does that have to do with the Sun Coven? It’s just a blank piece of paper.”
He let out a chuckle and shook his head. “So, you’ve been walking around with this paper without any idea what it is. Lucky you didn’t use it to make a grocery list.”
Gigi shifted closer to scan the page. “You can tell it’s from the Sun Coven because it has a small mark in the upper left corner. If you’d never seen it before or if you weren’t looking for it, I can see how you might have missed it.” She pointed a long fingernail at the mark, which was small enough to be a speck of dirt.
“What’s written on it is undoubtably valuable and potentially important, but I’ll let you keep it. It isn’t what we’re looking for.” Ryker slid the paper back on top of the pile and placed it inside my bag. “Besides, one does not just stumble upon a Blade Book. You’re meant to have this, for whatever reason that might be.”
“I’m sorry, but I really don’t understand,” I said. “There’s nothing written on that sheet of paper.”
“Have you really never heard of the Blade Books? Our eyes can’t see the text in this form,” Gigi said. “The only way to read it is to use the light of the Witch’s Blade, which is located in the underground tunnels beneath the Sun Coven’s base. Unfortunately, you won’t be going there for awhile.”
Ryker tossed my bag into my arms and moved onto Ben’s pockets. Lowering my voice, I turned to Dorian. “Have you ever heard of this before?”
He nodded. “I’ve never seen one of the Books myself or I would have recognized it when we first started going through Wagner’s collection. Gigi and Ryker are right. Whatever is on there is important, especially if Wagner got ahold if it somehow. We need to know what it says.”
Chapter 7
After the rebels had searched every nook and cranny of both our belongings and the stock room, they finally shuffled out to discuss their evil plans while drinking the whiskey I’d so carelessly left behind. One rebel remained with us, and his approach to standing guard consisted of another one of those dumb walls that surrounded the entire perimeter of the room. So, no more sneaking out for us.
Dorian grabbed my elbow and pulled me to a far corner where we could chat in private—or as private as we could get in the situation. His eyes scanned my face, and my stomach tipped over a dozen times. Some strange thread tugged me closer to him, a feeling that was always there in the back of my mind. I was drawn to him like I’d never been drawn to anyone else, as if some sort of magical force existed between us.
“Are you okay?” he asked in a low voice, glancing over his shoulder at the rebel guard. “I’m so sorry we dragged you into this mess.”
“Of course I’m okay. I’ve experienced way worse than some gatecrashing rebels at this point.” Tipping back my head, I stared up at him and smiled. “Besides, you didn’t drag me into anything. If I were to point the blame on anyone, it would be Belzus.”
Dorian scowled. “What do you think he’s playing at anyway?”
“This is just what he does,” I said with a sigh. “He’s been pulling my puppet strings ever since I met him. There’s obviously some master reason for his actions, but I wish he’d just tell it to me straight instead of trying to manipulate me into certain situations. It’s getting pretty fucking old to be totally honest. He could make the argument that I would have gotten my shadow mark eventually anyway, but this?”
Dorian rested his hand across my neck, and his thumb stroked my fake bone coven mark. My skin broke into goosebumps, a bright jolt of electricity going through my body. “Yeah, but would you have sought him out in order to get the fake mark? Or would you have made a different decision, one that would have led you elsewhere?”
“You’re asking if I would have come clean,” I said softly. For a moment, I considered his question. When I’d gotten my shadow mark, I’d been pretty frantic and even Grams had warned me in her own way. At the time, she’d been so sick, and she’d needed me in order to survive. I never would have left her, and I would have done whatever it took to stay in Boston, which is why I went for the illusion in the first place. But maybe if I hadn’t known it was an option, I would have made a different choice. Maybe I would have fled.
“I don’t know, Dorian,” I whispered, staring up into his dark and stormy eyes. “If Belzus hadn’t told me about the illusion to hide my mark, I don’t know how I could have stayed here.”
He gave a sad nod. “As terrible as the fae is, I can’t bring myself to be angry about something that brought us together. If he hadn’t interfered, we might never have met.”
I sucked in a sharp breath as my heart squeezed tight in my chest. It was next to impossible to get the next words out, but there was something I’d been wanting to say for awhile. “Meeting you just might be the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Dorian.”
“Oh, Zoe.” His hand moved from my collarbone to wrap around the back of my neck. He pulled me closer and closer until my chin pressed into his chest. His deep eyes flickered across my face with such an intensity that I was sure I couldn’t breathe. A low growl erupted from his throat as he lowered his mouth to meet mine.
The kiss was electric. His lips moved against mine in a hurried frenzy as if he’d been thinking of this moment almost as much as I had. I pressed my chest against his, my fingers splayed across his rippling muscles. Every cell in my body ached for him. I wanted him. I needed him. Part of my soul was within him and part of his was within me. As the kiss deepened, something strange roared to life inside me, something I’d only felt a handful of times. The desire to taste him. His blood. And for him to taste mine.
The murmur of voices broke through my lust, and it took all my self control to pull myself away, my chest heaving with belabored breaths.
“Our timing is perfect once again,” Dorian said with a sigh as he pulled a hand down his face. “As eager as I am to slam you up against the wall and rip your clothes off, I don’t think now is the right time for that. Unfortunately.”
Disappointment churned through me, even though I knew he was right. We were prisoners trapped by dangerous rebels. Somehow, though, that only intensified the allure of my attraction for him. Not to mention the fact he’d said he wanted to rip my clothes off. My entire body seemed to sing in response.
“Let’s just put a pin in it. Again,” I said, trying my best not to show just how disappointed I truly was.
Dorian’s throat emitted another soft growl, and the grip around my neck tightened. His eyes sparked with fire, chu
rning the desire in my gut. “The pin isn’t going to be in it for long, Zoe. I’m done playing around. I want you. All of you. And as soon as I have a chance, I’m finally going to take you to my bed.”
Shivers coursed through my body and heat flooded my face. His intensity was overwhelming, and all I could focus on was him. Goddess, how I wanted him to do what he said. We’d been back and forth so many times—and for so long—that I wasn’t sure how much more of it I could take. The thought of finally being with him sent my heartbeat trembling. What if I didn’t measure up to what he’d been imagining? I was a twenty-one-year-old girl who’d never been with a man in her life while Dorian was this magical creature who had lived over a hundred years.
How could I ever compare to that?
“In the meantime,” Dorian said, “we’ll scope out this rebel base and get out of here as soon as we can. And then we’ll go to the Sun Coven, because we need to know what’s on that paper. I have a feeling it ties into everything we’ve been through so far.”
Chapter 8
After what felt like days, the floor shifted beneath our feet. The bar shuddered to a stop, braking so hard that a nearby keg tipped sideways and clattered to the floor. As it rolled toward us, Gigi bent down and grabbed the container by the thick handle.
“We’ll be taking this with us,” she said, smiling as she flicked her curtain of hair over her shoulder.
“You’d better pay for that,” I said. “Or else the boss will take it out of my paycheck.”
“Oh, you won’t have to worry about that,” Gigi said as she hoisted the keg into her arms. “We stole the whole fucking bar, remember?”
“Right. How could I forget?” I gave her a wry smile. “Can’t you just put the bar back where it was when you’re done doing whatever the hell it is you’re doing?”
“We could.” Ryker leaned in and flashed me a smile. “But we won’t.”
The rebels escorted us out of the stock room and toward the front door of the bar. I braced myself for what would come next. Not only did we have zero clue what we were about to walk into, I had a feeling that stepping outside would be jarring, to say the least. There would be no soft hum of Boston traffic, no skinny alley around the corner, no bright signs lighting up the dark streets.
Instead, my eyes were met by pure darkness, and my ears heard nothing but the whistle of the wind.
“Where the hell are we?” I asked as we stepped out into crisp, clean air shot through with a sweet and floral scent. Tall, thick figures rose high before me, blotting out a clear, star-studded night sky. Clearly, we were in the wilderness somewhere, surrounded by rows upon rows of impossibly tall trees, their thick branches weighed down by a dusting of snow.
“I’m afraid that information is classified,” Ryker said.
“Classified,” Anastasia shot out with a harsh laugh. “You guys might think you’re big stuff with your weird-ass travelling spells and secret base, but you’re not the CIA, for fuck’s sake.”
“We don’t have to be the CIA to understand that telling prisoners where our base is located would be a pretty dumbass thing to do. Not to mention, it would mean we could never let you go.”
The rebels led us down a long dirt path until we came to a clearing where a cluster of log buildings were surrounded by row upon row of tents. Ryker ushered us toward the nearest building and led us inside where a strange collection of mages, vampires, and werewolves were waiting for us. As it turned out, the rebels were full of more than just witches and warlocks.
The fire crackled as we settled onto the floor, the orange light casting dancing shadows on the walls. Despite the fact that these mages had taken their inspiration from the bedtime stories, they were quickly turning out to be a far cry from the warlocks in those stories. The only thing giving away the fact we were prisoners instead of guests in some homey cabin were the two mages with swords who stood on either side of the wooden door.
“Right.” Ryker clapped his hands and settled into a stiff, high-backed chair facing the rest of the room. “Let’s start this meeting with some introductions. We have Dorian, Ben, and Zoe who are all members of the Bone Coven. We have Anastasia who is a Daywalker and member of the Dogaru Clan. And finally, we have Laura who has a Blood Coven mark but has claimed allegiance to the Bone Coven.”
A murmur went through the room at his last words.
A girl in the front, with fiery red hair and freckles, leaned forward. She couldn’t be any older than sixteen. “You switched your allegiance?”
“Well, no, not really,” Laura said, glancing at me when she frowned. “I grew up surrounded by the Bone Coven. I’ve lived in Boston all my life, and it’s where I want to be. Getting a different mark didn’t mean I wanted to leave my home.”
“I’m surprised they let you do that,” another rebel murmured, eyebrows furrowed. “They don’t tend to deviate from their rules.”
“Zoe can be very persuasive.”
And yet, they really hadn’t needed much convincing.
“Look, I know the covens aren’t perfect, but they’re not so uncompromising that they’d send Laura away from her home. She was an unofficial member of the coven before, and they weren’t just going to kick her out. They were more than happy when they found out her mark was blood and not bone.”
“Oh, I’m sure they were,” someone said with a sharp laugh.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Laura asked with a frown.
“Listen, let’s take a step back, everyone. We can get into all of this later.” Ryker gave a nod to the girl beside him. “Continuing our introductions. On this side, we have Willow, a former member of the Sun Coven. On her left, there’s Jack, a former member of the Blood Coven. Over here, we’ve got Anders and Alex, brothers who were formerly bone mages while just behind them we have our resident werewolf, Kai. I don’t like to call us a council, but that’s effectively what we are. We oversee the entire place here, which is now about fifty mages in total along with about ten or so Daywalkers and wolves.”
“Fifty?” I widened my eyes. “How the hell did you get fifty witches and warlocks to give up their covens?”
“Because most of them are from the Sun Coven.” His lips turned into a grim smile, but the meaning was lost on me if there was one.
“You’re going to need to elaborate,” Dorian said from his spot by my side. Our legs brushed when he moved. If he were anyone else, it would almost be too close, the way his body kind of blocked mine from the rebels before us. It was almost as if he felt the need to hover like a protective cocoon around me. Despite the circumstances, a soothing warmth flamed in my belly.
“So,” Ryker said with a frown. “I take it none of you know what’s been going on this past week.”
“Last I heard, the Sun Coven was the same as it always was. Minding its own business like Switzerland. You know, ignoring the demon threat like it’s not even there,” I said, my tone turning sharp despite myself. The Sun Coven was historically full of mages with bright smiles and good souls, but it had been impossible to ignore their silence in recent years.
We’d sent messages to them about the attacks in Boston, but they hadn’t sent any help. They’d never been part of the alliance, and they refused to ever join.
“We’ll grant you that ignoring the problem is a mistake,” Ryker said. “But remember, we’re not Sun Coven members here. Some of us are former Sun, but we also have former Blood and Bone.”
I glanced at Dorian. “No Shadows?”
“Having Shadows amongst our ranks wouldn’t really help our cause, would it?” Gigi said. “Besides, we’ve all heard the stories. A shadow mage wouldn’t want to help any of us. It’s just too bad we can’t have their powers without taking the corrupt soul that comes along with it.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Ben sent me a sharp look and placed a finger to his lip. He didn’t need to speak for me to understand what he meant. Don’t let the rebels know about your powers. A refrain that was getting more than a litt
le old.
“Getting back to the subject, let’s talk about what happened two weeks ago. According to our sources, there was a bit of an altercation between your Enforcers and some Blood Hunter Coven members. Am I correct in this?” Ryker asked.
“That’s right. But what does that have to do with—”
He held up a hand. “And despite some deaths, the Blood Coven agreed to continue the alliance with the Bone Coven on one condition. Do you know what that condition is?”
I nibbled my lip and glanced to Dorian who shook his head. “We knew they came to an understanding, but I wasn’t brought in on that particular discussion. Ben?”
Ben sighed and held out his hands. “I’m afraid I was kept in the dark as well. They’ve been limiting my access after I helped you, Zoe.”
Which explained why none of us had heard anything about this top-secret deal that seemed so important to these rebels. We’d all been involved in the takedown of the splinter coven, and we’d all been sidelined in one way or another since it had happened. Except for Anastasia, who didn’t really count. She hadn’t been in on any coven business in the first place.
“Well, then you all are in for one hell of a story.” Ryker nodded to Jack, the member who had formerly worked for the Blood Coven.
“Ever since the war ended, my old coven has been trying to get the Sun Coven to join the alliance,” he began. “Three heads are better than one, so they say. There’s a particular spell that only sun mages can cast, and the Blood Coven wants to use it in combination with one of their own spells, as a way to fight against the Nosferatu.”
“Can’t the Sun Coven just help them with this spell without joining the alliance?”
Ben shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “Ah…”
Ryker shot him a look. “You know this part?”
“Unfortunately, I do.” Ben grimaced and met my gaze across the room. “The Sun Coven refused to help, even outside an alliance, because they fiercely oppose what the combined spell could do.” Dread pooled in my gut as I watched Ben swallow hard. “It’s essentially a way for them to create their own vampires.”
The Bone Coven Chronicles: The Complete Series Page 46