Still, a twitchy vampire was never a good thing.
He cleared his throat. “It’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
The words were empty advice, probably ones he should heed himself, but he didn’t know what else he could say. Rho had only been in his life for a few months. It wasn’t fair for her to leave this world so soon, especially when it was all his fault. If she hadn’t taken the mark, he’d be the one standing in the middle of that circle, not her.
Trinador’s focus was absolute, a stark reminder of both the gravity of the situation and what he stood to lose. She plucked five black candles from the box on the countertop and spaced them evenly in a circle surrounding Rho.
The five points of the imaginary pentagram stood proudly. Trinador kneeled down and brushed a hand over each one, whispering the spell to bring them to life. One by one, the wicks lit. When they all burned strong, she grabbed a handful of purified salt.
“I’m going to try to map the spell.” Trinador glanced around the circle at Rho’s feet and frowned. “This may not work. You need to know that.”
“I understand.” Rho stood in the center of the glowing candlelight, her chin lifted and her shoulders squared. Although somehow he knew the confidence was only a front.
He wished he could be inside her mind, just to root around and see how she was holding up. Always strong, never cowering in the face of a challenge. That was Rho. At least, that was what she’d allowed people to see.
Trinador paced slowly, sprinkling salt along the outer rim of the circle with each step. As the granules hit the flames, they flared and turned blue, the seal of the magick set. When the last candle flared, the flames grew taller, reaching upward like the tiny torch of a Bunsen burner.
Emulation wasn’t exactly a rare gift, but it could be a real challenge to control. He’d known a few people with the ability when he was in school, but Trinador was the only one he’d ever considered a master of the craft. To be able to identify and untangle a spell with any level of accuracy was truly a feat.
With a graceful move, Trinador fell to her knees outside the circle. She held up her hands.
“Wait,” Eldon interrupted. “Do the spell in English.”
Trinador dropped her hands.
“It’s okay—” Rho started.
He shot Rho a hard look, and she stopped talking. It wasn’t fair to ask her to put her life on the line without letting her know what was happening.
Trinador frowned. “It isn’t our tradition.”
“She has a right to know what you’re saying,” he said. Trinador had always been a traditionalist, adhering to the oldest codes of the magick movers. Her reverence for their craft was admirable.
She sat still for a moment before lifting a shoulder. “Fine. It shouldn’t change anything.” As she lifted her hands again, the blue flames burned even higher than before. “To this woman, a spell is bound. Let the spell now be unwound. In its stead, protection make. Show me now the spell to break.”
Trinador set her fingers down gently on the line of salt.
Her knees gave out and she collapsed to the ground. A seizure ripped through her body, forcing her back to arch from the ground.
“Eldon!” Rho shouted.
Trinador’s body twisted, contorting into an unnatural form. She gasped for air as she flopped against the tile floor, the muscles in her neck straining and her eyes rolling to the back of her head.
Rho’s fear-struck eyes met his. “What’s happening? Do something!”
He shook his head. “She’s in the middle of a reading.”
“This can’t be normal.”
“It is.” He’d seen her do this before, and every time he’d hated to watch. Emulation was a sloppy business. They’d have to wait for this to pass. “She’ll be done soon.”
Rho’s gaze bounced from him to Trinador, as if she were considering stopping the whole thing.
“Don’t move,” Eldon ordered. “You’ll hurt her if you move.”
Rho’s hands flexed into tight fists. She stared down at Trinador’s tiny body, the burning desire to help reading clearly in her face.
Touching Trinador right now would be akin to plugging a butter knife into a light socket. Trinador was running heavy magick, and Rho had no way of controlling the ley lines. Even if she could somehow siphon them.
Long moments passed before Trinador’s body finally fell still. Her stomach lay flat against the tile, her arms spread to the sides. When she opened her eyes, Eldon let out a sigh of relief.
“Trinador?” A nervous knot tightened in his stomach as she blinked the world into focus. “You okay?”
She nodded and slowly pushed herself up to her knees.
He fought the urge to run over to her. She’d still be a hot zone of energy until they finished. “Did you get it?”
“Yeah.” She grunted and lifted her hands again. “Rho, sit down.”
“You think you can undo it?” Eldon asked.
Rho lowered herself to the ground without a word, her face a mask of concern. Trinador nodded and positioned herself on the hard tile floor.
“She’s found the imprint of the spell.” Eldon directed his words to Rho and stared at him, unblinking. “Now she’s going to try and unbind you.”
“Now?” Rho asked.
“Yes, right now. While the spell is fresh in my mind.” Trinador lifted her hands again and squeezed her eyes shut. She sat completely still for several minutes, seeming to gather herself before she finally spoke. “To the owner, fix this thrall. Give her back her curse in all.”
The blue flames rose higher, and Rho’s gaze shot up to meet his. He kept his focus on her, trying to keep her calm. He’d never witnessed an actual unbinding so he wasn’t sure what to expect, but he couldn’t have Rho jumping out of the circle and accidently hurting Trinador. Even if things were awkward as hell, he didn’t want anyone hurt.
“To her soul return the power, pass it to her in this hour,” Trinador chanted.
Ley line fire rose from the circle of salt, completely surrounding Rho. Rho pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, as if making herself smaller would keep her from touching the flames. Eldon could see her frightened face through the flickers of blue, her eyes focused on him like a lifeline. He held her stare, offering her whatever strength she could find there.
“Return to her this magick born, return it for her soul to mourn.”
Waves of energy cascaded from the circle, but he kept his focus. Rho was sitting in the epicenter of the storm. Fear and wonder flittered across her face as the blue flames spun faster.
“From this soul, remove the night.” Trinador’s voice was low, the blue fire beginning to rage as the binding started its release. “Bring this child back to the light.”
Blue light exploded in the tiny kitchen, and Trinador flew across the room, her back slamming into the wall near the table. The ley line fire vanished, the candles extinguishing themselves instantly.
Without a thought, Eldon rushed to Trinador’s side, leaving Rho frozen inside the circle.
“Is she okay? Was that normal?” Rho asked quietly.
No, this wasn’t normal. Movers with ley line gifts always controlled the fire—it never controlled them. Ever. Somehow Trinador had let the fire get away from her.
“Trinador?” He studied the woman’s crumpled form. “Are you okay?” With a gentle hand he patted her cheek.
And fell back on his ass.
Electric energy pulsed through his hand, the sensation mottled and impure. The lines shouldn’t feel like that. This wasn’t right at all.
“Eldon?” Rho’s voice rose, but he didn’t turn around.
He reached into his pocket and yanked out his cell phone. Punching the number from memory, he brought the speaker up to his ear. “Nick? I’m at Trinador’s. I need you to get your ass over here. Right now.”
Rho stood in the center of the circle, not sure if she should move but afraid to stay. The expression on Eld
on’s face told her everything she needed to know.
Something had gone wrong.
She glanced down at the inside of her forearm, a trickle of relief rushing through her chest at the sight of the massive green fae mark still staining her skin. She wanted desperately to get rid of the mark, but not at the expense of anyone else. Especially not Trinador, who’d only tried to help. She might be Eldon’s ex, but Rho’d never wish that on anyone.
A loud pop followed by a flash of light brought Rho’s attention to the doorway of the kitchen. Moments later, Nick rushed into the room. Thank God.
“Where is she?” Nick asked, his gaze darting around the room.
“Over here.” Eldon crouched on the ground beside Trinador but didn’t touch her.
Nick stepped closer then froze. “Oh…shit.”
Eldon’s gaze snapped up to meet his best friend’s. “What do you see?”
“Her aura.” Nick surveyed the air around Trinador. “It’s burned.”
“Burned?” Rho squinted to try and see what he was seeing. “What does that mean?”
With angry eyes, Nick turned his focus on Eldon. “What were you doing? Please tell me you didn’t ask her to emulate the death mark.”
Eldon’s lips tightened into two white slashes. That was exactly what he’d asked Trinador to do. And then they’d tried to unbind the spell.
“Why didn’t you call me? I thought you were just doing a consult,” Nick scolded.
“She said she could do it.” Eldon’s gaze traveled over Trinador’s limp body.
“You know better than to do this without backup. Bare minimum, you should have set a protection barrier around her,” Nick growled. “You could have killed her.”
Rho’s heart twisted in her chest. She didn’t have enough experience with magick to know how much truth that statement held, but judging by the fierceness in Nick’s expression, she’d be willing to bet Eldon had messed up badly. Whatever a protection barrier was, it sounded pretty damn important.
Trinador blinked her eyes open, her hazy stare focused on Nick as she mumbled, “We didn’t know what it would do. I accepted the risks.”
Eyes suddenly sad, Nick stood up and yanked Eldon to his feet.
“What the hell—” Eldon started.
Nick hauled him into the corner and pinned Eldon with a glower so furious, she wondered how it didn’t nail his ass in place. His voice was low, but Rho caught every word. “It’s not fair for you to play her affections against her. She helped because you asked her to. You put her in danger on purpose.”
“We didn’t know this would happen.” Eldon squared his shoulders against his friend.
“You knew it could. And you did it anyway. Without backup.”
“Like she said. She knew the risks.”
Nick’s hand held a fistful of Eldon’s shirt and he gave his best friend another shove. “This was an asshole move. Especially given your history.”
Especially given their history. As in, a history significant enough to piss off his best friend royally. Fricking awesome.
Nick released his hold on Eldon’s shirt before running both hands through his dusty blond hair. “I don’t know how to fix this.”
Eldon cast a glace back at Trinador. Her eyes were closed as her head rested against the wall. “I don’t think we can.”
“She’s going to have to wait for it to heal, if it heals at all. Maybe I can jump Jess over here so she can try to help, but I doubt she can do much.”
Rho cleared her throat. Both of the men craned their heads in her direction. “Can I step out of the circle now?” Because she really wanted to smack her boyfriend.
Nick snorted. “Spell’s over. You’re fine. Walk wherever you want.”
Eldon had done all of this on purpose. From the beginning, he’d known where they were going and exactly whom they were going to see. Without giving Rho any heads up, he’d marched her into his ex-girlfriend’s house and put that girl’s life in danger. Eldon wasn’t a magick novice, and clearly he could have done more to protect Trinador than he had.
Rho didn’t care who he thought he was or what privileges he thought he could exercise. This was not okay. Not by a long shot.
She stomped over to Eldon and smacked him in the arm. Hard. She locked on to his captivating blue eyes as she spoke. “Nick, can you take her over to the couch in the living room to rest? I think Eldon and I need to have a little talk.”
Or a big one.
As if he could sense the trouble looming, Nick extended a hand over Trinador’s forehead. Soft blue light illuminated his palm, and he muttered quiet words in a foreign tongue. A moment later, the light vanished. He scooped her off the floor and carried her out of the room without another word.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Rho stuck her finger in the center of Eldon’s broad chest. “You can’t put other people in danger just to help me. I won’t allow it.”
“I told you. We didn’t know that would—”
“I don’t give a shit what you know. I do give a shit about your ex-girlfriend who’s laid out on a couch because she tried to help me.”
His eyes widened ever so slightly, and she gave him a nasty smile.
“What?” She tossed her hands up. “You didn’t think I’d notice the way she looked at you? You think I wouldn’t be able to feel that tension? I’ll bet you didn’t even tell her we were coming.”
No response.
“Well, you did sleep with her, didn’t you?” She knew the answer to her question. But for some reason she needed to hear him say it.
Still no response.
But didn’t his lack of response tell her everything she needed to know.
“I asked you a question, Eldon. Answer me.”
As her glare buried him further, he finally answered. “No, I didn’t tell her we were coming. And yes, we used to be together.” His brows furrowed as he grasped both her hands. “I only wanted to help you. I didn’t think about the implications to Trinador if she did this, and I should’ve called for backup.”
Rho fought to stay on her feet as his words filtered through her brain. Her chest burned, possessiveness taking over as the thoughts of Eldon and Trinador together pinballed in her brain. It wasn’t fair to be angry about things that had happened before her time. She just couldn’t help it.
Shit, she needed some air.
As she released his hands and turned toward the back door, his firm hand settled on her arm. “Rho?”
She jerked her arm from his hold. “I…give me a minute.”
He let her go, and she drifted over to the back door.
Man, she hadn’t even performed a blood-bonding ceremony yet and her reaction to Trinador was something for the books. Watching Eldon’s concern for her, no matter how merited, only made things worse. As grateful as Rho was for the help, she wanted to take that woman out in a way that would involve brass knuckles and a dagger.
How unfair was that? The girl hadn’t asked them to come here.
“You brought me to your ex-girlfriend’s house without telling either of us what you had planned.” Her voice carried into the window, but she knew he could hear her. The proximity of his body heat told her he’d taken a step closer. “And now she’s hurt because she tried to help me.”
A heavy sigh sounded behind her. “I know. That was a shitty thing to do.”
“Really shitty.” She turned around to face him but didn’t dare take a step toward him. Her thoughts battered around an unhealthy mix of anger, sadness, jealousy, and fear, none of which were helpful when combined with her lust for him.
Eldon broke the silence. “I hate to say this, but we need to get going.” He ran a hand through his thick, coffee-colored hair.
“You should send Jess to check on her.”
“I will.”
“Can Nick help her?”
“Auras are Nick’s specialty, not mine.” He glanced toward the living room. “I’ll have Nick stay here, and I’m going to call in Lukas
and Evette. They have some healing skills. Tim and Preshea are going to need our help soon.”
True. They still had a mission to accomplish, at least until the Council decided what to do with her. There were more Kamens out there that needed to be found.
She followed his gaze to the room where Trinador was resting. “This whole thing is such a cluster.”
“I know,” Eldon said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about her before. I guess I thought it would be weird.”
“Like having your ex perform unbinding spells on me is any less weird?” She stared down at her black boots, wishing they’d just walk her the hell out of here.
“Point taken. I should have told you.”
She shot him a level look. “Nick was right. That was an asshole move.” Still hot with anger, she strode past him toward the front of the house.
Rho paused by the front door before turning to find Trinador lying on the couch, Nick kneeling beside her to stroke her hair. “Is she awake?”
Nick nodded.
“Trinador?”
The girl’s eyes fluttered, but she didn’t turn her head.
Good enough. “I’m sorry we came here and asked you to do this. If I’d known it was such a risk to you, I never would have agreed to it.”
Nick glanced up and met Rho’s eyes then gave her a quick nod before turning his attention back to his patient.
Rho cleared her throat. “But thank you for doing what you did. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for you to agree to this, but you did it anyway. So…thanks. Thanks for trying.”
“You’re welcome.” Trinador’s voice was barely above a whisper.
Rho’s breath hitched at the absolution of Trinador’s words, especially because she didn’t deserve them. “Call me the minute she’s better, Nick. And thanks for coming to take care of her.”
With a quick wave goodbye, she marched out the front door.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
As Eldon drove the streets trying to find a parking space, his thoughts filled the silence. With only a couple of hours before daylight, they needed to get to the Sacré Coeur quickly if they planned on having enough time to drive all the way back to the flat. Jumping Rho through the lines still wasn’t an option.
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