The rigidity of his shoulders relaxed enough for me to notice. “You snatched the knife away and stood in their way.” He glanced at me with eyes that held more sadness than anger. “They outweighed you by a hundred pounds, yet they cowered before you. An eighteen-year-old girl with as much grace as she had nerve. It was a sight to see.”
I pulled my shirt away from my neck, still suffering a sense of strangulation. “And when that group of religious zealots sprayed you in the face with fae silver, who cared for you?”
A shadow of a smile broke his frightening mask. “You read Shakespeare to me until my eyes healed.”
“Yes, and I hate Shakespeare, I’ll have you know. I also peeled the burned flesh from you while you swore at me, I might add, or you’d have been scarred for life if your skin had healed around the silver.” Nobody else had been able to get near the raging vampire lord that night, not even his own people, but he’d calmed at my voice, surrendered to my touch. It was the first time the two of us connected in the strange way we sometimes did, when I caught a glimpse of the man he might have been without the curse. “Now tell me—as someone who’s gone to so much trouble for you and your people, why would I hurt you this way?”
The smile faded as fast as it had appeared. “That’s what I need to know before I kill you.” A pop sounded, and he vanished.
It took minutes for the fear-induced stars to leave my eyes. I glanced down at my bare arms and found them covered in crusted blood. My clothes, too, hair, and my bare feet. Dom’s blood. The grief finally overcame me, slammed into my chest like a storm surge upon an unsuspecting ship. I collapsed onto the bench and held my stomach, shaking with the effort of holding myself together. Letting my power erupt would feel so soothing, so good, but I couldn’t. Ever.
Every muscle in my body tightened into a painful knot. Dom had been an innocent, little more than a boy in a man’s body, and he was mine to protect. His grandmother exuded a stern sort of kindness that had become a substitute for Mum’s mothering. How could I have wounded her this way? He was all she had left in the world, having lost her son, Dom’s father, from cancer years before. I’d shattered her world.
Whatever had happened after I passed out had given Isaac what he needed to kill me. My black chariot would be along for me sooner than I thought.
When my tears ran dry, leaving me with a stuffed head that continued to throb, I stared in numb disbelief at my prison cell, most likely the last room I’d ever see. He’d taken everything: my daggers, my wallet, my keys, even my dignity, leaving nothing but a stained bucket as a toilet and a wet rag to wash myself with.
I’d never been inside the hive, nor did I know the location of the entrance. Nobody but Isaac and his people knew, according to him. By the look and old voice of the surrounding stone, the building was ancient, so it wasn’t in downtown Ironhill. If it wouldn’t have endangered Amun and the rest, I’d have made myself an exit in the rock. But if I broke out, Isaac would figure out what I was and hunt me down, along with the last of my people.
A glint of green on the far side of the room caught my attention. Sniffling, I pushed myself to my feet and peered through the bars. A vampire lay on a table on the far side of the rectangular space with its ribs yawing open like the others I’d found. The handle of my elven dagger protruded from the edge of the wound. A closer inspection of her face and stringy blonde hair brought recognition.
Marina.
I covered my mouth, my gorge rising. So young, innocent. Now she was dead. After all her heartache to save her mother from losing a daughter to cancer, the serial killer had taken her, anyway. Marina was the “she” Isaac had meant. He thought I’d killed Marina and Dominic. The water witch murdered them, covered me in their blood, and put my dagger in the body, but why? Who hated both Isaac and me enough to do such a horrific thing? I had to work it out before Isaac returned, or more of his people would die.
Time ticked by unaccounted for. With no window or watch, I had no way of telling how long I’d been there, or even what time of day it was. At least my jinn spirit had ceased its constant assault on my steadfast control and festered in the background, waiting to claim me later.
By the grumbling of my stomach, I had to guess a day or two had passed at least, during which two bottles of water had appeared during my brief moments of sleep. Tears fell often as I lay on the hard bench and tried to think my way out of the death trap I’d stepped into, and to find a way of dealing with knowing Dominic would never again crunch chips in my ear. He would no longer have Sunday dinners with his grandmother. He would not find his dream job of working for one of the largest video game designers on the west coast. I’d taken his life from him. Not directly, but close enough his loss seared itself onto my psyche.
Of all whom I could have been worrying about, Benny came to the forefront. I always left a stash of pellets and hay in his enclosure, but it wouldn’t last forever. I missed my little pig. And my ebony stone, which was missing along with the rest of my belongings.
“I saw myself in you.” Isaac’s voice drew my mind back to the present. He stood next to Marina with his back to me, his hand stroking over her hair as he spoke softly. “In need of a firm hand, too busy worrying about the past to dream of the future. I spent two centuries like this, drained and withered. That wasn’t to be your fate, you silly girl. Why did you run from me?”
My God, he loved her, loved her as a father would love a daughter. If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I’d never have believed him capable of such tenderness. Perhaps the sentiment he’d expressed about Daniel at the precinct had been genuine after all.
I moved to the bars and wrapped my fingers around them, having a desire for contact, even of the vampire sort. “Did you ever tell her how much you cared for her?”
His voice came from behind me, having zapped there when I’d blinked. “How many times do I have to tell you? Doona try to paint human feelings on me, Ms. Hudson. Every loss of power is a blow to the hive.”
I whirled about, ramming my rear into the bars. Isaac sat on the bench, his head hanging forward, his face shrouded by his wavy hair. Had I been mistaken about his posture and the grief in his whispers? All of it had vanished to leave him the brooding beast I knew well. I wondered if he hadn’t meant me to hear him. Or perhaps I was looking for humanity that simply wasn’t within him.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said.
“Doona say another word.” His tone snapped like a whip.
While the adrenaline waned, I ordered my thoughts. “I’ve been thinking of ways to prove what I say is true.”
He raised his chin and stared at me with tired black eyes. “And?”
“There’s a voicemail on my machine from the woman who took Dominic. If you listen, you’d at least know that part is true. She lured me there with the intention of setting the scene as you found it. I knew it was a trap, but she’d made it so nobody could help me, and I wouldn’t leave Dominic at her mercy, or I’d never have been able to live with myself.”
I considered telling him about the water samples or the possibility of her blood in the pool water, but if she turned out to be jinn, it would only result in further bloodshed. “And Harper said flooding caused the accidents last night. There must be police reports detailing them and Dom’s apartment, also flooded and trashed. And if I killed Marina and Dom, then how did I end up unconscious? You must know this doesn’t add up.” At his silence, my anger tumbled out. “Or maybe you’re just looking for an excuse to kill me. You’ve always hated me, I just don’t know why.”
He was suddenly on his feet. His fist smashed into the stone, punching a hole a foot deep. “I said I would kill you, not that I wanted to.” He cursed at the ceiling. “The council demands I end you immediately given the evidence.”
I stared at him for seconds, trying and failing to make sense out of him. “Then why haven’t you?” It wasn’t like Isaac to hesitate, especially with permission from the vampire nation’s highest authority.
; Isaac’s deadly stare pressed upon me like a thousand needles. “You must give me something concrete. Let me take your mind.”
“No.”
He came at me like a huffing bull and clamped his hands around the bars on either side of my head, trapping me against them. “If you’re not guilty, what is so terrible a secret you’d give your life for it?” He pounded the iron with the heel of his hand, his cool breath sending shivers along the left side of my face and throat. “Dammit, lass, do you want to die?”
Fear must have been messing with my hearing, because yet again those human emotions seemed to be tumbling out of his mouth. Since when did he care what happened to me?
I released a shuddering breath. “There’s more at stake here than just me. You must give me a chance to prove my innocence, or I’ll die anyway, along with others who don’t deserve it.”
Stillness settled over him, as if he’d shut down his body to consider my words. Half suffocating and half comforted by his solid weight, I remained motionless so I wouldn’t draw a strike from his fangs hovering so near.
“You belong to me now, so I can take you by force under the law.” He cradled my face in his hands as he would a fragile egg, forcing it in line with his as he had at the precinct.
I clamped my eyes shut. The gentleness he exuded, contrasting with his violent nature, disturbed me on a primal level.
“It would hurt, but you’ll heal in time.”
“Don’t do this. Please, Isaac.”
“Open your eyes, lass.” His voice had changed, though I couldn’t pinpoint how. It reached inside of me like a promise of home, a gentle caress, a loving kiss to lull and comfort me as I slept in his arms.
I suddenly wanted to be close to him more than anything.
My breathing slowed. The knots in my muscles untied themselves as they did under Rachel’s vocal spell. Even the pain in my face from where it had connected with the wall at the pool vanished. Knowing down deep I shouldn’t listen to him, my lids lifted at his command, while my soul screamed at me to stop.
He held me rapt for agonizing minutes while I drowned in the inky black of his eyes, then stepped away without so much as a press against my mind. “Give me the password to enter your home so I can listen to the message.”
Released from his hold, awareness crept back to me. I shook until whimpers spilled from my lips. So close. All he had to do was push, and the door of my mind would have swung open to him. My darkest nightmare, and I’d almost lived it.
Under any other circumstance, I’d have asked him why he’d stopped, but I wouldn’t question my good fortune. He was within his right to kill me if the council ordered it, but he hadn’t. Some part of him must have believed me, or at least wanted to.
If I survived, I could always move or find another way to seal him out of my home if he abused his welcome—warlock passwords were a onetime deal on a home, and once a vampire had been inside of a place, they were almost impossible to keep out afterward.
“The password is ‘unity for all’ in Latin. Omnes ad unum.”
Turbulence swayed me as he blinked out of existence and left me alone again. If I’d had the energy, I’d have cried some more over the tension of our interaction and the shred of hope he’d given me.
With nothing left to do but wait, I lay down and closed my eyes, wishing for a miracle. He wanted to believe me, and when Isaac wanted something, he usually found a way. Even if it didn’t save me, it might keep my reputation intact so Blake’s business wouldn’t suffer. My cause couldn’t die with me. Amun and the rest needed the world’s acceptance, no matter how long it took to achieve. Even if I wasn’t there to watch it happen.
Chapter Eighteen
Hours later, the long silence broke with the eruption of enraged voices. “Our business arrangement gives you no right to meddle in hive affairs.” Isaac stood nose-to-nose with Amun.
“This is wrong and you know it.” Amun shoved a finger toward the vampire. “Have you lost every shred of your humanity that you can’t see it?”
“Amun?” I pressed my face to the bars. “What are you doing here?”
“Trying to talk reason into madness,” he said, turning to me. His features fell from taut to slack. “Is that really you?”
I glanced down at the filth of me. “Pretty sight, isn’t it?” My tone still sounded nasally because of the swelling in my nose.
“This is supposed to be your friend, who has stuck her neck out for you on countless occasions by your own admission.” Amun gestured toward me. “And you keep her in this squalor? Even a blind man could tell she’s hurt. I know you’re capable of healing, yet you left her like this? You’re despicable.”
When Isaac said nothing, only continued to stare down his straight nose at him, Amun came toward me.
“No closer,” Isaac said.
Amun halted and looked me over. “Are you hurt as badly as I think you are?”
“I think my nose might be broken, and I have a headache, but nothing else a shower and a meal won’t cure.”
Fingers snarled into his curls, he shut his eyes, a slight tremor coursing down his body.
I looked past him to Isaac. “So you heard the message?”
Mouth set in a grim line, he shook his head. “I found no answering machine, only a broken phone cable. And you left your tap running. Your pig was quite perturbed at being stranded on your bed.”
Oh, Benny, the poor wee thing. I fought the urge to scream my frustration. “You better not have hurt him, and I didn’t leave my tap on, Isaac. Wait, how long have I been here? Wouldn’t Rhoda have already noticed the water?”
“It’s Monday night,” Amun said. “She doesn’t open on Mondays.”
It had only been a day? “And the police reports on the accidents?”
“Broken water main.” Isaac crossed his large arms, the pose mounding his impressive biceps. “That’s the official report, and they’re not willing to investigate further. When I looked for myself, I found nothing that would suggest foul play. Dominic’s apartment was spotless, too.”
Huffing, I paced my enclosure, hugging myself. “She’s thought of everything, like she’s inside my head, having my thoughts before I do. Every step is calculated and carefully laid out, as if she’s been planning it for months, thinking of every angle, every means I could use to prove my innocence so she can erase it along with me.” I stopped and settled my pleading stare on him. “What would you have me do from here, Isaac? Give me a chance to sort this out.”
“You canna leave this place.” “Ever” hung in the silence, unsaid.
“Then you may as well kill me now.” It came blurting out before I considered he might be unable to resist the offer.
He zapped into my cage. “Give me something to show the council, or you condemn yourself. Choose!”
“Do you believe me?” I studied his unreadable mask, hoping that somewhere deep inside he held onto a shred of goodness, that our friendship meant something to him, but as usual I found only blackness.
“Let me post bail,” Amun said, drawing nearer. “Whatever you want. My cars. My home. Anything.”
Isaac scoffed, his focus never wavering from me. “You mistake this for the pointless institution that is the human justice system. We doona do bail here.”
“Name your price.” Amun’s fingers curled around the bars.
“Stop this.” I strained my eyes to the left. “You can’t help me, Amun. This isn’t your fight.”
“You’re wrong.” His attention shifted to the vampire. “My life, then. If I don’t return her to you when you command, my life is yours.”
“No!” I screeched as Isaac tilted his head toward the other man. “Stop this, Amun. You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Evoke a blood trace on me if you must, but release her, and we’ll find whatever evidence you need for your council.” The deadly resolve emanating from Amun twisted my insides. It said he wouldn’t be swayed, but I had to try.
I drew as clo
se to him as the vampire would allow. “Don’t do this. I’ll figure it out as I always do.” When he wouldn’t look at me, I shouted, “I’m not a helpless little girl in need of a savior, Mr. Bassili! Leave here at once before I throw you out myself.”
Isaac’s gaze slid sideways to me, then found Amun again. “That’s the second time I’ve seen her stamp her foot when talking about you.”
Judging by Amun’s raised eyebrows, he didn’t know what to make of the vampire any more than I did. On anyone else, Isaac’s reaction might have been interpreted as jealousy.
“Tell him no this instant.” I leaned toward the hive lord. “Tell him to leave, or I swear to you I’ll …” What? Stone him to death? I had no weapons to use against him other than my wit and my voice.
Without sparing me a glance, he remained intent on the other jinn. “I’ll blood trace you both, at which time you’ll have exactly three days—the time already set for the trial your human laws demand—to untie the noose from her neck. You will not let her out of your sight for a moment. If she gets away from you, even for reasons she may deem noble, you’ll die before the dawn.”
A crackle broke the air, and he appeared outside the cell beyond my reach. “Agreed?”
“No!” I stamped my foot harder, the shock resonating up my leg from the jolt. A trickle of power escaped me, sparkled in the stone at my feet, amplified by my rising emotions. I coaxed it back within me and hoped Isaac hadn’t noticed.
He went still for a moment, shot me a glance, but went back to staring at Amun.
I resumed breathing. “I don’t agree.”
“You’re a ward of the hive, and I can do with you as I please,” Isaac said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Your permission is not required.”
I bit back a string of curses. “Then I forbid you to do this, Amun. Blood traces are irreversible. He’ll own you for the rest of your life whether we win or lose. Why would you do this? You barely know me, and I’ve jilted you for years.” I jabbed my finger toward the only visible door in the dungeon. “Walk away. I’ve already failed Dominic. I won’t risk you, too.”
Stone Chameleon (Ironhill Jinn #1) Page 17