by Sierra Cross
I didn’t care. No way I’d turn around.
As we pushed through the jungle, Tenebris’s voice boomed in my head. “Run. Run fast. Because I want you to see this. I want to be in your head as your last shred of hope withers and dies. To feel the weight of your heart as you realize that your life will never be your own. Run, little wretch.”
Ignore him, I told my wildly thumping heart. He was more than likely just fucking with me.
“Come on!” Daria shouted. “Through here!”
We ate up the terrain in front of us, moving faster than I’d ever thought our battered bodies could. Cresting a hill, Daria stopped and pointed to the docks. Five large boats were moored, ripe for the taking.
From this vantage point, I could see only two guards on the dock. A slew of men were walking into the jungle. By the time we got to the docks, no matter how much noise we made, they’d never be able to make it back in time to stop us from taking a boat.
“Oh thank god, thank god.” Liv’s ragged whisper bordered on hysteria.
“Let’s go!” Daria yelled. My feet moved under me, but not forward.
I watched as a swarm of green lightning lit up the sky and exploded, shaking the earth beneath us. Bits of boat and dock and men floated up into the air and rained back into the sea.
The breath rushed from my lungs, and I collapsed to my knees.
Yes, Tenebris cackled in my head, his voice thick with anticipation. Oh yes, this is how I will take you. On your knees.
I scrambled to my feet and began running in the opposite direction. Into the jungle.
Chapter Seventeen
My mind was a blur. Dazed. Only semi-aware of every slogging step forward I took through the dense brush. I wouldn’t let myself process our situation.
As the sun started to set, the jungle grew darker. In the distance, I heard hounds baying. Liv turned and caught my eye. There was an odd echo in their barks. These weren’t ordinary dogs on our trail. Was it some dark magic at work, or Fidei gene splicing? Either way, I had no intention of ever coming face-to-face with those hounds.
His vampiric sight unhampered by the gathering darkness, Griffin led the way carrying Callie—who was still mercifully passed out. Matt and I brought up the rear, Matt clutching Bethany’s motionless body to him as he plowed forward. Liv, Daria, and Asher trudged ahead of us. For once our warlock had nothing snarky to say. None of us had any words at all.
We circled back, doubling over our scent, and hiked in streams trying to throw them off. But the howling was always in the distance.
“It’s like they know exactly where we are,” Matt said. “Why don’t they advance on us?”
Asher shrugged. “Tenebris likes to play with his food?”
“Yep, the warlock nailed it,” Daria said. “In other words, we’re fucked beyond belief. Don’t suppose anyone’s carrying cyanide pills?” she added hopefully.
“We’re not killing ourselves.” Liv’s voice was resolute. “We just have to get out of range of whatever he’s using to track us.”
“We’re on an island, for fricksakes,” Daria said. “Where can we go?”
Damn it, I’d been doing such a good job censoring that very thought. Panic set in. It was only a matter of time before they caught up with us. Did we go down fighting? Could I stand to watch Bethany be tortured by the doctors again, or Callie be tortured by Callista? Maybe Daria was onto something, dark as it sounded.
Maybe we should take ourselves out.
No, it wouldn’t come to that. We were the Coven of Fire. We wouldn’t let it. There had to be a way, right?
I was so distracted by my grim thoughts I ran right into a small branch. Leaves batted my face, tearing more flesh from my cheeks. And then thawump.
Matt collapsed in a heap, rolling at the last second so he didn’t crush Bethany. Matt, my rock, my guardian, had fallen. Our crew came to a screeching halt.
“I’m okay,” Matt grunted, trying to brush off what just happened as if it were nothing. “Let’s keep going.”
But he was far from okay. Through the coven bond, I felt his exhaustion. We’d all pushed ourselves past our breaking point. Even the vampire seemed to have little energy left.
The terrain shifted, leading us up a hill. Some irrationally hopeful part of me piped up with suggestions. Maybe there’d be some caves in the hillside? We could hide out, recoup our strength. Try to figure out what to do next.
I headed to a break in the trees and peered downhill. Thick foliage dominated my view, and, far below it, white sands hugged by a sparkling blue sea. We were just up from the beach on the far side of the island. The mountain that housed the subterranean lab loomed in the distance, maybe ten miles away? I spun slowly, searching for any sign of shelter. Green embers still glowed on the beach where the dock had been.
Nothing. The rest was just beach and trees. And trees. And more trees…
And a passel of speedboats barreling straight toward the beach on this side of the island.
My eyes zeroed in on the sleek black boats.
Don’t get your hopes up, I warned myself. It could be just a batch of new-hires coming from the mainland. Techs. Guards. General lackeys.
If those boats didn’t slow or change course, they looked set to impact with the beach and break apart. At the last second, they executed a precision turn—like the Blue Angels of the sea—rooster tails just barely visible in the half light.
I stared ahead as a man in a black suit launched himself from the bow of the boat to the beach in single leap, never touching the water.
A thrill of hope coursed through my veins.
That was definitely not a man. It was a vampire.
“Griffin!” I yelled. “Looks like your family sent a search party.”
I never thought seeing a bunch of bloodsuckers could make me so happy.
The jungle was so dense we couldn’t find a way down to the beach. Within seconds, our initial excitement turned to frustration.
Liv called her magic, but it was a thin wisp of the fire she normally commanded. I couldn’t imagine it would bend a branch, much less make a hole in the jungle.
“I got this.” Griffin set Callie down. He stopped in front of a massive vine-covered tree that blocked our path. Letting out a grunt that Serena Williams would be proud of, he slammed into the tree. A crack sounded up its trunk, but it didn’t budge. He slammed into it again and again till with a resounding thud, the tree fell.
“You all go.” Griffin leaned against a boulder, his voice tight with pain. “I’ll bring her down in a minute.”
The hounds began baying again, closer now. No time to argue.
Liv helped Asher over the stump of the fallen tree, threading through the foliage next to the boulder and down the hill. Matt insisted that he didn’t need help, but Daria steadied him anyway as they made their way through.
I hesitated. Callie’s limp body lay on the ground at Griffin’s feet. I’d offer to carry her, but knew I couldn’t.
“Go,” Griffin snarled, and I went.
The hill was so steep I slid down most of it on my ass, bumping over rocks and roots.
My feet hit the beach, and I popped up to standing. The rest of my coven, Daria and Bethany were already being tended to by two of Bonaventura’s men. The vampires were checking their pulses, examining their pupils.
Bonaventura loomed in front of me. “Fucking it up as usual, eh, Miss Hill?”
“Ambrose, you have to listen. Tenebris is stronger—” Suddenly the howling of the hounds was at the top of the hill turned loud and intense. Snarling, snapping. Foliage shook.
“The hounds,” Liv shrieked.
I wouldn’t lose Callie now. I spun, grabbing onto the knotted roots as if they were a jungle gym, and hoisted myself back up the steep hillside.
“Get back here, witch!” Bonaventura yelled after me. I heard a clamor behind me. My coven was trying to follow me back up. “Restrain them!”
I felt my magic, sloppy and loose, bl
ooming all over my body. I didn’t look back.
At the top of the hill, a gruesome sight greeted me. Three huge hounds, slick shimmering fur glinting in the half light, had closed in on Griffin, who lay on the ground. He kept two at bay, kicking with his bare feet. A third had made its way to his arm, tearing chunks of flesh with razor-like teeth. Two more hounds were circling, trying to get in on the action.
So far they’d left Callie alone. Maybe because she was the Splinter’s host body?
“Over here, psycho mutts!” I pulled myself up over the lip and landed on my chin. That got the attention of the two circling dogs. They turned on me, jowls sporting three-inch long sharpened fangs, eyes glowing green. Massive jaws snapped, drool flying, as both dogs tried to get a piece of me. I threw a pair of firebolts, dusting one beast on impact. They weren’t dogs at all, but Nequam.
Griffin continued to kick furiously at his own attackers, sending one dog yelping into a tree. It shook off the hit and leapt at me. I threw a firebolt and dusted it midair.
With a roar of agony, the vampire yanked the demon-dog off his arm, its teeth clinging to his flesh as he pulled it. One hand on its head and the other at its hips, he tore it in two. Its shrieks and howls fell silent. The final hound tore at Griffin’s leg. With a kick, he sent it flying into the air. I flung a firebolt, mustering the last of my power.
And we were surrounded by silence.
Because Griffin had to lug Callie down the hillside using his one good arm, I landed on the beach first. Bonaventura marched up and lifted me by my neck. My vision dimmed as I clawed at his iron grip. There was venom in his eyes. “I’ve had enough of your nonsense, witch. You will obey me. Get into the damn boat—”
And then he saw Griffin, gingerly setting Callie down on the sand.
Bonaventura released his hold, and I tumbled to the beach, panting to fill my lungs. Ambrose lunged forward and yanked his son into a rough hug. The younger man stood stiffly at first and then collapsed into his sire’s embrace. The older vampire’s shoulders shook. Was he actually…crying?
Wow. Actual depth of emotion. Just when I thought I’d figured them out, the vampires threw me a curveball.
Bonaventura’s two bodyguards, moving with preternatural speed and precision, loaded Callie and Bethany into one of the five boats. One of the guards, Sutter, volunteered to shepherd the injured back to San Blas. I was pretty sure Ambrose would have ordered him to do it even if he hadn’t spoken up. The acridness of Sutter’s coppery signature told me he was younger than the other vampires. He’d be less handy in the fight that was coming.
I turned to Asher. “You should go with them.” He tried to argue, but I was having none of it. “It’s not just that you’ve exhausted your magic. I know your ankle’s broken. Probably your right hand too.”
Asher looked miserable but walked over to board the boat full of wounded.
“You too, Griffin, no arguments,” Bonaventura said. Even with his vampiric healing, between the bloodletting and the hounds turning him into hamburger, Griffin was toast. He didn’t put up much of a protest against his father’s order.
I locked eyes with Matt, silently begging him to board the boat to safety. To healing. He was past running on reserves—his body was now eating into the muscle. But he met my gaze squarely. Shook his head.
I should have known he wouldn’t budge. You could take the man out of the guardians, but you couldn’t take the guardian out of the man.
Asher sat on the boat, cradling Callie’s head in his lap. I knew him well enough to decipher his look. He was pissed he was taking that ride, not fighting with us. But at least Callie was getting off this island. Asher would take her to Pillar, kill the Splinter, and save our sister...even if the rest of us never made it back alive.
Tenebris had sent a pack of demonic dogs after us. But why hadn’t he and his minions come for us themselves? Were they taking their time to plan a truly gruesome attack?
I nodded goodbye to Asher as the lone boat sped out of the harbor, hoping all my fears didn’t show on my face.
The boat vanished into the darkening horizon. Night was closing in around us. A warm breeze blew out of the jungle, contrasting with the humid coolness of the dark beach. Speaking in military terms they understood, Matt briefed the five remaining vampires—Ambrose, Wes, Hamner, and two more brawny vamps whose names I hadn’t learned. He told them all about the serum. The bloodletting. The spell to increase the amulet’s power a hundredfold. Being vampires, they took it in standard stoic manner...but none of their calm stillness rubbed off on me.
I felt like a single clenched muscle in the shape of a woman. Tenebris knew we were here—was probably watching us right now. Why didn’t he attack, already? What was he planning?
I couldn’t take the anticipation. I had to do something.
When Matt began to describe the layout of the lab, the deterrents in the facility and the jungle, I closed my eyes.
And focused inward.
One by one, I tuned out the sounds of the beach. The surf. Matt’s voice. Vampires’ feet pacing the sand. Daria snapping the clip in and out of her gun in some sort of nervous ritual. The buzzing became my sole focus, growing louder as it filled my head. The braid of sound-threads shimmered and pulsed in front of me, waiting to be teased apart.
This time when I came to Tenebris’s sharp, green thread, I grabbed onto it. I was hoping that, like Bonaventura, he’d be so focused on the present moment that he wouldn’t build a construct. Then I’d be able to see what kind of attack they were planning for us.
The soft blue light of monitors came into view. But there was no surveillance feed playing—Tenebris wasn’t in some security room watching us. These were heart monitors.
Six of them.
All displaying flat lines.
Oh god, this was not a construct. He was in the lab.
The Wellspring witches formed a ring around a surgical table. At the center of the ring was Tenebris, with Paige at his side. A half step back, two med techs—each with a syringe of blue serum—stood on either side of the Caedis. All the other techs and the doctor were on the outside of the ring looking in.
Six surgical tables had been pushed to the sides of the room.
And on each one lay a dead Mal.
They’d been killed to make the serum in those syringes.
Tenebris’s eyes were rapt on Paige. The young witch was lost, once again, in the trance of her spell, a small stone bowl of fire on the table in front of her. The other Wellspring witches chanted in rhythm with Paige’s recitation.
Dr. Jones cleared her throat. “The moment the ashes enter his mouth,” she said in a tense high voice, “administer the injections.”
Tenebris unclasped the chain from around his neck, opened the tiny filigree cage, and pulled out the relic. The witches’ chant became a frenzy. The fire was barely contained in its bowl.
No! We couldn’t let him do this. As my panic rose, Tenebris looked up from the festivities. His eyes locked on me, a cocky smile playing on his lips.
“Hello, Alix.” Had he known I was here all along? “How fitting that you should be here to witness this.”
I gaped back. No witty retort came to mind.
“After all, you were the beginning of this dream of siring witch-hybrids. Now we’re at beginning of your end. Full circle.”
He dropped the fragment of bone into the bowl. The fire exploded into black licks of flame reaching halfway to the ceiling. As quickly as it had grown, it crashed in on itself, shrinking to embers. Then nothing but glowing red ash.
Tenebris’s fingers sizzled as they made contact with the stone. He brought the miniature caldron to his mouth and knocked back the ash. A grimace of pain contorted his features, and the med techs plunged the syringes into his biceps.
The Caedis’s body quaked violently. Green light shot out of his eyes and the ends of his fingers. He looked like he was about to topple to the ground.
Without breaking the circle, two witches
reached out and—with more strength than their small arms seemed to possess—held him upright.
Two other witches stepped forward, red firebolts dancing on their fingers. The second the last of the serum entered the Caedis’s body, they aimed their blasts dead-center on the techs’ chests. The men’s screams filled the lab, along with the smell of burning flesh. Dr. Jones and her surviving staff looked petrified, but what had they been expecting? With Tenebris temporarily vulnerable, his minions would have been ordered to take no chances. Blank expressions on their faces, the young witches kept their red magic flowing until the two men fell and their bodies were reduced to ash.
I fell to my knees on the cold sand, my heart drumming in my chest. “He did it, did the spell,” I shouted. “He ingested the amulet. We’ve got to stop him now. Or we’ll never be able to.”
A hundredfold increase.
We couldn’t let him get off this island alive.
Chapter Eighteen
Bonaventura swore in Spanish under his breath. For the first time since I’d known him, he looked stunned. A long moment passed. Then, in classic vampire fashion, he looked up and began barking orders. “This is a battle to stop an unspeakable evil—before it’s too late. We have to put that Caedis down. Now. Or we risk our tomorrows.” He turned to his crew. “Wes, Hamner, approach from the southeast—”
“Wait,” Liv cut in. “I know we have to stop him. But what about all the innocents in that lab?”
“And the young witches from Wellspring,” I added. “We need to take them into custody—”
“No.” Bonaventura stepped forward so that we were nose-to-nose. His blue eyes were arctic. “It may offend your naive idealism, but those lost witches are a drop in the bucket. As are the prisoners.”
I looked at Liv and Matt in disbelief. Was I hearing this correctly? Did he have such little regard for innocent lives?
Daria was nodding along with his brutal logic. No surprise she’d be okay with it, seeing as how only hours ago she was working for a demon.