by Kresley Cole
"I need both of those times . . . for her." Suddenly, the vampire's wasted arm shot up. Impossible-- The blade rose as if by its own accord and struck viciously.
Blood spurted from Bowe's wrist; searing pain erupted as his severed hand dropped. Freed from the whip, the vampire traced the distance across the pit, decisively out of Bowe's reach.
Bowe sank to his knees, staring dumbly at the blood streaming from his body. How? He gaped at his lost hand, still clenching the whip handle. How had that blade risen?
I've . . . lost? His body shuddered violently at the realization. "I will fucking kill you for this, vampire!" he roared.
Bowe had lost. He wouldn't be able to go back and save Mariah--save her from himself.
He'd lost her. Again.
"I will eat your goddamned heart!" But the vampire was already gone, leaving Bowe trapped in a cavern of fire where immortals went to die.
6
Jump, Mariketa! I'll catch you."
Mari crawled on her belly inch by inch among the rancid corpses of the incubi slumbering all around her. In the last two weeks, this was the closest that she'd made it to the edge of their lair without waking them.
The night of the first attack, one had dragged her into the shadows, then lifted her into the air by her ankles, feet over her head, though she'd kicked and thrashed to be free. As the incubus had flown ever upward, her body had swung loosely like a rag doll. When her head had knocked against a shelf of carved stone, blackness dotted her vision. She'd awakened here on this ledge, somewhere high in the tomb.
Almost there. When she raised herself up on her elbows, she shook so wildly her head bobbed. You can do this, Mari. One elbow in front of the other. Finally . . . finally, she reached the edge--and barely stifled a gasp. She'd known she was high up, but didn't realize it was this bad. They were at least a hundred feet in the air.
Heights. Just ducky.
When Tera saw Mari peeking over the side, she politely turned up her lantern. Though the other immortals could see in the dark to varying degrees, Mari couldn't, not yet. "Mariketa, are you okay?"
Mari nodded weakly.
"Come, then. I promise I'll catch you," Rydstrom said once more in his deep baritone voice.
During the days, Mari had heard the five of them debating plans of defense or arguing about their escape, and she'd learned their voices and personalities. She liked Rydstrom the best, and not just because he was so stalwart and handsome. For the most part, he was coolheaded, especially for a rage demon, and remained rational even as hour upon hour lagged by.
Yet Cade seemed to be able to provoke him as no other, and the brothers sometimes fought in the heat of the day. "Still acting like a king!" Cade had snapped. "But you're not. No longer."
Rydstrom had answered, "And whose fault is that, brother?"
The two had, in fact, entered the Hie for the means to reclaim their kingdom--lost because of some act by Cade.
As for the archers, Tera was indeed sister to the hotheaded Tierney. And Mari suspected the pretty, brunette elf was also an object of great interest to the second male archer, Hild. Hild was normally silent, but when he spoke the others listened. Mari hadn't discovered if those three had had a specific agenda in entering.
"Come on, Mari! Rydstrom won't let you fall," Cade said, and the others nodded with encouragement. "Just jump!"
Yeah, I'll get right on that. Ge-fucking-ronimo, bitches.
Her expression must have betrayed her thoughts because Tera asked, "If you can't jump, then can you work any magick?"
Over the last two weeks on this ledge, each failed attempt had angered the incubi and drained her even more. She couldn't even produce illumination to break up the inky blackness surrounding her.
Mari shook her head. She was simply too weak. She drew away, collapsing onto her back. She wasn't a puss in most circumstances, but she'd been born and raised in an area situated below sea level. She'd never even seen a mountain in person until she'd flown in white-knuckled awe over the Guatemalan countryside with its volcano silhouettes and jungle-covered peaks.
Kiddie Ferris wheels could wig her out--diving from the height of nearly half a football field wasn't forthcoming.
Oddly enough, she had gotten past her other great phobia--the very unwitchly one of large insects. Once she'd become too weary to continue swatting them away, they'd crawled over her in abandon, and she'd simply grown accustomed to them with repeated exposure. If they didn't bite her, she wouldn't bite them. . . .
As she lay there, staring up blankly into the dark, the incubi began to stir once more.
Starved for centuries but unable to die, these beings truly were the living dead. They were maddened from their never-ending captivity and deprivation, yet they retained their brutal strength.
Soon they would rise and continue their nightly attacks on the five below--striving to stamp out the immortals as if they were foreign, thieving trespassers who'd broken into the incubi's home, intending to steal their precious sacrificial headdresses.
And what of her? She'd feared they would try more "unnatural crimes," but so far, other than sinking their teeth or claws into her legs to drag her out of their way, or forcing her to eat and drink things she couldn't even contemplate without retching, the incubi had kept their hands off her.
It wasn't time for a swan dive just yet.
Though she couldn't communicate with them--if they opened the yawning blackness of their mouths, nothing came out but screams or worms--Mari somehow comprehended things about them, like what they expected from her.
They kept her alive, because they wanted to die.
Once beautiful demons, born to seduce sexual energy from females, they'd been rendered into monsters.
And Mari had realized that they knew they were.
On that ledge in the blackness, she'd truly recognized for the first time in her life that some creatures who went bump in the night might hate that they did.
The incubi had sensed great power in her, and believed she could destroy them, but if she could speak their language, she'd tell them they had the wrong girl. Mari was what was known as an underachiever, which even an underachiever knew was sociology code for "overfailer."
She was famous in the Lore for the simple fact that one day she might be worth being famous. All hype--no substance. That was Mari.
Everyone in the covens expected her to do something epic and always kept an eye on her. They wanted her to be worth "awaiting." Even other factions in the Lore monitored her with anticipation because, while most witches possessed the strengths of one, two, or very rarely, three of the five castes of witches, Mari was the only witch ever to possess the strengths of all of them.
In theory, Mari was a witch warrior, healer, conjurer, seeress, and an enchantress.
A potential perfect storm of badassness.
In reality, Mari had lost her college scholarship, couldn't manage even the simplest spells, and kept blowing things up. She couldn't even balance her checkbook.
Had competing in the Hie been a shaking her raised fist, I'll show you attempt at redemption? Well . . . yes.
Now she was paying for it. The incubi could never free her--not when they themselves were prisoners for eternity. If her coven hadn't scryed her by now, they never would. The jungles around the tomb were teeming with humans, guerilla armies, but they fought and shot all around the temple without ever attempting to enter. How ironic. They had no idea what battle erupted inside each night.
And Mari knew the werewolf would never return. How could she have desired someone so cruel that he would leave them all to wither away here? Some in the Lore whispered that, at heart, the Lykae were nothing more than ravening beasts from nightmares.
Bowen MacRieve must be. Why else wouldn't he come? Or at least send someone?
Perhaps he was already dead from her spell. If he somehow still lived by the time she got out of this, she was going to kill him. She didn't know how she'd do it, just that it would be slow.
When the incubi began to rise all around her, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to lose herself in dreams of making the Lykae pay.
*
Bowe sat propped against the scalding wall of the cavern, cradling his arm. Though barely able to remain upright, he was determined not to give in to the temptation to lie down.
Through the haze of agonizing heat, he stared at the Fyre Dragan slithering back and forth through the lava, waiting for him.
When sweat dripped into Bowe's remaining eye, he moved to wipe it away, but his hand was gone. He knew it was, endured the pain constantly, and still he tried to use it.
The beast that lived inside him desperately wanted to live, but as for Bowe himself, he could take a bloody hint. For over two weeks, he'd been trapped, unable to discover a way out or a way across the pit. He'd never anticipated that this cavern would end without another exit.
If he couldn't escape, as an immortal he could waste away here, never dying, becoming a shadow of himself. And Bowe knew no one was coming for him. Not even resourceful Lachlain, his cousin and king, could find this place. The coordinates here were known only in esoteric corners of the Lore--or by the vampire, and Sebastian Wroth would probably relish knowing Bowe suffered.
His body was wracked, his will gone. He should step down into the fire. Struggling to live on under these circumstances seemed even more cowardly than ending it.
Hell, for nearly two centuries, his clan had been expecting him to step down in some way.
I'd wanted oblivion. This would be the way to get it.
But he'd vowed revenge against that vampire. And he longed to make the witch pay for his unbearable defeat. As far as he was concerned, she'd ensured he lost the competition. The Valkyrie and vampire had only capitalized on weaknesses Mariketa had provided.
Bowe suspected she and the other five had long since escaped the tomb; now he was the one trapped. He consoled himself by recalling the nasty surprise they'd been in for. Before he'd left he'd destroyed not only their vehicles but their CBs and sat-phones as well.
Yet stranding the witch in the jungle wasn't nearly enough retribution for what she'd done. He'd failed. Because of her.
He felt like he'd lost Mariah all over again. He'd allowed himself to have a glimmer of hope, to envision his mate back by his side. And he'd been smug about winning.
Until Mariketa had cast her spells over him. . . .
The bloody witch invaded his thoughts. He would try to remember Mariah and instead would see glimpses of stormy gray eyes and red lips. He hated the witch for that, hated that he couldn't picture his mate's face. When he slept, he dreamed only of Mariketa.
Bowe had been untrue to his mate in thought--and deed.
The fire serpent roared, as if impatient for Bowe to make up his mind. After several attempts, Bowe managed to rise, swaying at the precipice of the pit.
End it now. It was cowardly to live on.
He felt an unexpected flare of guilt. Mariketa lives still. . . .
Why in the hell would he be concerned about his enemy?
Recognition hammered home. When he'd been gazing into her eyes, he'd known she was enthralling him. But he hadn't known how deeply she'd done it or how permanently.
He wasn't suffering the effects of only one spell.
Bowe worried for her as if she was his mate. He dreamed of her as if she was. He thought of her as his--because she'd forced him to with one of her disgusting hexes.
Perhaps that bloody witch should learn to be careful what she wished for.
He knew his expression was pure evil when he took a step back from the edge.
7
The lack of sunlight and real food had begun to take its toll. Mari was getting sicker, was even now beset with fever.
Rydstrom and the others continued to encourage her to jump. Maybe if the five were asking her to swim across a crocodile-infested river or walk a low tightrope over a bed of swords, she could make herself do it, but not heights.
Ignoring them was becoming easier as each day she grew more delirious. Sometimes she would find herself smiling or crying blindly in the dark as she thought of her friends or her home.
In a feverish haze, she pictured Andoain, her coven's estate just outside of New Orleans. She'd never thought she'd miss the creepy place so badly, but now she'd give anything to go back.
To most, Andoain looked like a millionaire's stately fortress, adorned with colorful landscaping that attracted butterflies. The wrought-iron fencing surrounding the entire property was painted glossy black, perfectly matching the shutters. Apple trees--either laden with fruit or dotted with blossoms--grew in profusion.
Without the estate's glamour, however, the structure was a decrepit old manor complete with snakes coiling along the rotting railings. The apple trees remained, but for every one butterfly in the glamour, multiple spiders and frogs lived in bliss. Reed-filled puddles dotted the property, bubbling up odorous fumes.
Deep within the groaning manor, her disparate room was wallpapered pink, with lace curtains and her cheerleading pom-poms on the floor. A spell at her doorway kept out anything shorter than the coven's obligatory black cats and dogs.
But Andoain hadn't always been her home. For most of her childhood, Mari had lived with her fey mother, Jillian, in a bright, modest beach cottage on the Gulf Coast. They'd been content there, just the two of them, since Mari's warlock dad had abandoned them with nothing but a jolly promise to be back soon.
Yet on Mari's twelfth birthday, Jillian had packed up their cottage and had taken her to Andoain. There she'd opened her arms wide and pronounced it Mari's "new home." Rendered slack-jawed, Mari had run in the opposite direction faster than even her most hell-bent pursuits of ice-cream trucks.
For two days, her mother had remained with her there. Then she'd peeled Mari off her to leave her behind, bawling on the front porch. To go on sabbatical, to a secret druid island somewhere in Europe. Over the years, Mari had received sporadic letters, supposedly from her mother, but she suspected Elianna was actually penning them.
Without Elianna and her best friend, Carrow, the coven bad girl, Mari didn't think she would have made it past those first months she was abruptly immersed in nothing but witchery. Gods, she missed her friends now . . . .
Beautiful, raven-haired Carrow thought being a witch was the best thing in the world. Whenever other Lore creatures like the nymphs and satyrs turned their noses up at the "hex-hacks," Carrow would raise both her hands in the rock-on horns gesture and shout, "Double, double, toil and trouble, muthafuckas! You just got cursed!"
Then she actually would curse them.
Carrow was one of those rare three-caste witches, though she was mainly a warrior--with an incongruous specialty in love spells. Fierce Carrow was supposed to have entered the Hie with Mari, but then she got arrested at the last Mardi Gras for public indecency again. All poor Carrow had done was to invoke a little-known fashion rule--It's not streaking if you're wearing beads--but the covens had vowed earlier that they wouldn't fix her next offense for her.
Carrow was presently in County. Or probably out by now.
And Mari longed to see Elianna, who'd been the best substitute mother she could ever ask for. Though Elianna had received the gift of immortality from her witch mother, her father's humanity ensured she continued to age. Kindhearted, occasionally befuddled Elianna was over four hundred years old, and without her glamour, she looked every minute of it. She liked to joke that "all the exercise in the world can't help a sunbather."
Mari hoped they didn't worry about her too much--
"Mariketa, it's time." Rydstrom's voice carried up to her, cutting through her thoughts. "You need to do this now."
*
Bowe's sole eye slid open when he had the vaguest impression that he wasn't alone. That for the first time in weeks it was no longer only him and the serpent.
"Lachlain?" he rasped, blinking for focus.
"Aye, Bowe, it's me," his cousin sa
id as he knelt beside him, his gaze flickering over Bowe's injuries. Bowe knew he was shocked, but Lachlain hid it well and simply said, "I'm taking you home," then helped him to his feet.
Bowe's sense of smell was wrecked, nearly burned away in the heat and oppressive smoke, but he could still scent a vampire. He tore from Lachlain's grasp and lunged for the shadowy figure behind them.
Wroth, that cold bastard, simply traced to the side, sending Bowe reeling to the ground. All his medley of wounds reopened in a fresh wave of blood.
Lachlain reached for him once more. "Damn it, Bowe, do you wish to die? He's brought me here to retrieve you."
Bowe tried to break from Lachlain's iron grip. "He put me here!"
"I hold no ill will against you, Lykae," Wroth said in a measured tone.
"Because you fucking won!"
"This is so," the vampire answered easily.
"How?" Bowe spat the word. "How did you raise that blade?"
"It was blessed never to miss its mark," Wroth explained. "I had only to picture a target." The vampire wouldn't be calm like this if he'd lost Kaderin for good.
"You brought the Valkyrie back from the dead?"
"I did."
The key had worked! Bowe felt a flare of hope and swallowed before he asked, "Did you use it . . . both times?"
"Yes."
Bowe lowered his head. He couldn't hear this--that his enemy had managed to do what Bowe himself could not. The shame of his failure ate at him.
"We retrieved Kaderin's two blood sisters, who'd died long ago," Wroth said.
"Talk of this later," Lachlain said, eyeing the fire. "I see no reason to be here any longer." Bowe understood Lachlain's uneasiness. For over a hundred years, the Vampire Horde had tortured Lachlain in a never-ending fire. Each day he'd been burned alive but could never quite die. He'd only escaped recently, and merely being here must be excruciating for him.
That reminded Bowe . . . "Lachlain, how can you, of all people, trust this vampire?"
"He's no' of the Horde. And his brother did save Emma's life." Emma, Lachlain's beloved mate and queen, was a half-vampire, half-Valkyrie waif.