Alec picked up the woman with surprising gentleness. Taking care to keep the open end of the snorkel above the surface, he set her in the tub.
Enough liquid was displaced to spill over onto the earthen floor, but the muddy mess would have to wait.
Salvador hovered at the woman’s feet with his magnifying glass. Eventually, the black threads began to shrink, but the process was excruciatingly slow.
“I wish there were a more efficient way to deliver the liquid,” he muttered.
“We can take out the snorkel,” Alec suggested before he zipped in front of Sal.
Salvador blinked as the vampire appeared, his enthusiastic grin just inches away.
“Never mind, I have a better idea,” Alec said.
“What is it?” Salvador asked, drawing back slightly. They had known each other for years, but seeing a vampire excited was always a touch unnerving.
Alec didn’t answer. Instead, he knelt, grabbing a fistful of wet dirt. Lifting the women’s hand, he smeared it with mud.
Salvador glanced down. There was now a big gouge in his dirt floor. “I hope you don’t need much more of that.” He didn’t want to spend all night packing the floor back down.
“Actually, we will,” Alec said triumphantly. “Look!”
Salvador leaned closer. The skin under the wet dirt appeared smooth. He rubbed the mud off, exposing the now-pristine skin. “They’re gone. How did you…” He trailed off, scratching his head. “How the hell did that work?”
Alec waved the woman’s hand around. “Well, she’s Earth, isn’t she? Stands to reason that actual soil would help conduct the healing properties.”
“It does?” Introducing dirt into the equation went against everything Sal had ever learned about hygiene in healing and spellcraft, but he supposed he should have known. Why would normal rules apply in this case?
He put his hands on the edge of the tub, staring at the woman. The tendrils around her face weren’t disappearing any faster than the rest, but the fraction revealed was enough for him to get a good look at her for the first time. The lines of her face were so pure…almost ascetic. Their combination of strength and delicacy was arresting.
She’s really quite beautiful. But even in sleep, Gia was intimidating.
“Well, I guess we have to turn this into a mud bath.”
“I’m on it.”
Salvador reached out to stay his hand. “Do you think we could use the soil from outside?”
The altar had disappeared the moment they brought the tub inside, so there was no longer an extra pile of dirt in the waiting room. And the last thing he needed was a giant hole in his floor.
Alec’s lip quirked up. “Oh. Of course.”
In a flash, he headed outside, taking the empty buckets with him.
Salvador looked back down at the woman. “If this works, try not to wake up swinging,” he whispered.
A few hours later, the tendrils were nearly gone. Everywhere he and Alec scraped the dirt off, her skin was clear. But the woman still hadn’t woken.
Elementals were renowned for their ability to withstand almost any trauma, so her body recovered faster than Salvador would have guessed. Gia breathed on her own, and her heartbeat was strong. Physically, she was fine. He and Alec were at a loss for her continued coma.
It took Salvador a long time to figure out the cause—several days, in fact. Then, one morning at sunrise, it hit him.
Gia’s problem wasn’t physical. It was spiritual. Her body had healed, but her soul wasn’t there.
It was gone.
5
Salvador prepped yet another healing ritual. It was probably pointless—the last two hadn’t done any good. But he had to keep trying. According to Alec and the remaining Elementals, the fate of the world might depend on it.
“What do you do when the soul is gone?” Alec asked, gazing at Gia. She was lying on Salvador’s bed now, dressed in a simple pair of shorts and a tank top. “Where does the soul go?”
“You know I don’t have those answers,” his mate answered, pacing in front of the bed.
Diana had returned from her hunt a few hours ago. Alec had sent for her the moment Salvador had diagnosed the reason for Gia’s continued coma. The others were still out scouring the globe for their perpetrator, but from the Fire Elemental’s sour expression, he gathered it wasn’t going well.
This John character must have serious mojo, he thought as he ground the herbs he needed. If the man could successfully hide from these women, then he had to have uncharted magical ability. Sure, Salvador had heard of the odd witch who’d successfully evaded one or more Elemental before, but never for this long.
Salvador supposed it was only a matter of time before the culprit was run to ground. Until then, though, he wanted to keep his head down around Diana, who was angry enough to heat the room around them without the benefit of the fireplace against the far wall.
Alec made that difficult with his frequent comments and questions. “I thought you said her soul would come back on its own?”
Salvador froze as Diana cocked her head in his direction. “I said it should—at least, I think so. Normally, when the soul is forced from a body, it’s because of a shock or sudden trauma. From what I’ve been able to piece together, it hovers near the body. When that trauma passes, it takes up residence again, almost automatically.”
Unless the body died. Then the soul moved on—permanently. But he knew better than to say so aloud.
“And what if the soul doesn’t come back on its own?” Diana asked.
“Then it means it wasn’t nearby…perhaps it wandered away.”
“Can you call it back?”
Salvador winced. “If there’s a way, I don’t know how. Calling a living soul isn’t like communicating with ghosts. I have no idea how to go about it.”
“Then what are you doing?” she asked, gesturing to the candles and assorted accoutrements.
“I’m just trying to make her body as appealing as possible.”
Diana raised a brow. He flushed. “I meant healthy. I’m trying to make sure her body as healthy as possible to make it a more tempting receptacle.”
“A receptacle?” That one raised brow was insanely intimidating.
He fidgeted, but managed to nod. “For lack of a better word…”
“Where would her soul have gone?” Alec had whipped out a notebook and was jotting something down, presumably a list. “Wouldn’t Gia stay close by? She had too much experience of the supernatural to just wander away like a confused human soul might. I have to believe she would have a touch more self-awareness than the average person.”
Salvador set down the bowl he held. “Most people who get displaced don’t remember their out-of-body experiences once they’re back in their body—not beyond the standard I-was-hovering-over-my-body scenario. Perhaps the trauma was so massive it blasted Gia far away, and she’s working her way back? That’s just a guess, of course. We’re in uncharted territory here.”
Diana pressed her legs against the bed. “I don’t feel her in the aether at all. I can’t say for certain if I should or anything, but this feels wrong.”
“Can’t you go search for her?” Alec asked.
Diana frowned.
“I mean spiritually,” he clarified. “Don’t you have an astral-projection spell?”
She shook her head. “It’s not really our thing. We can go formless when we travel in our medium, but we don’t go running around bumping into displaced souls while we’re there. It’s a separate space.”
“Do you think you can try?” Salvador asked. “I mean, I can keep doing my healing rituals over and over, but it won’t do any good until her soul returns.”
The Fire Elemental seemed uncomfortable, but she nodded. “I’ll try.”
And she did. But she failed…repeatedly. When she came back, so did Logan and Serin. No Elemental was capable of astral projection. They were too tied to their medium. Whenever they attempted to dissociate from
their bodies, they automatically changed into their element—air, water, or fire.
That last had been enough of a hazard Sal had asked them to conduct their trials outside the clinic, but it didn’t seem to matter where they did it. The Elementals appeared to be hard-wired to stay out of the astral plane.
After her last failed attempt, the Water Elemental kicked a boulder in his garden. Instead of breaking her toes—as one would normally expect—the stone shattered, blasted into smithereens.
The display of strength was startling. Ducking his head, Salvador contemplated making himself scarce, but his pride wouldn’t let him retreat.
Serin wrapped her arms around her midsection. She was quiet for what felt like forever. Logan and Diana didn’t say a word when she eventually whirled around and pointed at him.
“What is it?” Salvador asked.
“You,” Serin said. “You’re a witch. That means you have the ability to astral project.”
She hurried over, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Consider yourself drafted. We’re going to send you to find Gia.”
6
Gia knelt in the rubble, cleaning the blood off the sword she’d just captured. The demon it had belonged to was a few feet away. Well, his legs were. The rest of Mammon’s body was in a ditch.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed the demon’s severed legs over the edge, watched as they slid down the dirt incline. Killing the demon who had pulled her into this pit should have been satisfying, but the small bit of revenge wasn’t going to get her out of here.
Her memories of John’s assault were vague. She knew he had rigged the sprinkler system of his lab to douse her with poison, but everything was blank after that. You’re not supposed to remember, she reminded herself.
She was dead.
Grief welled in her chest. Gia had failed to stop John. The bastard had outwitted her. Now, she had passed into the other plane, leaving her sisters to deal with the mess John had made.
Unfortunately, Gia’s numerous years of service hadn’t guaranteed her a rosy afterlife. At the moment of her death, she had seen her body collapse in the basement, then there had been a swirling storm of color that had given way to darkness. When she opened her eyes, she had been here, surrounded by demons.
It had taken her a split second to get her bearings. The demons were only a few steps away, their weapons out and ready. Seven had set upon her—one whom she’d recognized. Not Mammon himself, but one of his lieutenants. That was when she knew exactly where she was.
Somehow, Gia had been pulled to hell.
Technically, there were a few places that could lay claim to that name. Currently, she was in the one she considered the worst—Sheol. The inhabitants had no love for their land either. That was why they were constantly trying to escape. Their hatred for those who sent them back here was beyond calculation.
And they waited for her now.
But Gia had served the Mother for centuries. It wasn’t Gia’s first time on the wrong side of an ambush. Many had tried to cut her down—many had failed.
Soon, Gia learned one benefit of being in hell. In Sheol, there was no distinction between body and spirit. Her Earth talent didn’t work here, but she was still strong, still fast. And she had trained for this…
That first battle had been short, bloody, and hard. They tried to overwhelm her with strength in numbers, but, in Sheol, the rules were different. In their natural forms, demons were bigger than the lighter, faster humans they possessed on Earth. Thankfully, they were also slower. Plus, it helped Mammon’s acolytes weren’t too bright. Inevitably, each charged her like enraged bulls, their fighting techniques rudimentary. Even the better trained didn’t know not to telegraph their next move as they fought.
Once it was over, Gia had won a slew of weapons. She stashed the majority before tracking the lone survivor to Mammon’s castle. Gia knew too much about strategy to lay siege to it alone, but she didn’t need to. Instead, she followed the example of her distant cousins, the Indian tribes of the Great Plains.
Her Counting Coup campaign was designed to infuriate the demon prince.
Gia started small, with the guards who patrolled Mammon’s fortress, working up the chain of command to the prince’s top lieutenants. She didn’t kill anyone, but she sowed discontent until the order in the citadel was in shambles. Soon, the prince was enraged enough to leave his castle to deal with her himself. Once that happened, she did what she did best…and then had to repeat the act as the handful of remaining warriors came out of the woodwork to avenge their master.
Now what? Gia lifted the sword the prince had used, examining it closely. “Hmm…” She sniffed. Elven made, it was impervious to curses and spells. How had the demon prince come across such a treasure here?
The story was probably long and depressing. In her opinion, anyway, and Gia didn’t need to dwell on the negative right now. But she was definitely hanging onto the sword.
At least I’ll have a weapon that won’t fall apart around here. Demon blood was corrosive to normal metal. She’d had to toss most of the arms she’d confiscated in her first round of skirmishes. Besides, the grip on this sword was almost comfortable, like it had been made for her.
She held the blade up, admiring the preternatural gleam. “You like me better than your former owner, don’t you?”
The sword caught the dim light of the sky, as if it were winking at her. “Yeah, I know you do.”
A throat cleared, sounding scratchy. The tiny demon who had been steadily inching toward her had finally decided to announce himself. “Excuse me, Your Highness?”
Her sword at the ready, she stayed her hand, waiting for the trick. Would he sprout horns and double in size? Maybe unhinge his jaw like a giant python in a misguided attempt to eat her?
“Err, excuse me, Most Exalted One,” the wiry demon continued, panting. “Please don’t remove my head from my shoulders. I am no threat to you. I am only here to serve.”
Gia cocked her head when his bow deepened. He certainly didn’t look dangerous, but she had learned the hard way the greatest dangers sometimes came in the most benign packages.
“Serve me how?” she suspiciously asked.
Bowing and scraping, he stuttered, “H-however you wish. Would you like to start with a tour of your castle?”
Gia blinked. “My what?”
The little demon waved at the distant stronghold. “According to the law of the land, that is yours now. It became so when you slew the old master.”
“Is that so?” Gia murmured, sheathing the sword in the scabbard on her back.
She raised a brow, studying the skyline. The castle was the only structure in sight. “Well, I guess you better show it to me.”
The demon broke into a grin that made Gia want to cringe in sympathy. With another genuflection, he turned, indicating she should follow.
It wasn’t as if she had a better option, so she did.
7
When the vampire sliced into Salvador’s palm with a silver blade, he tried not to wince.
“Should you even be able to hold that?” Salvador asked. Vampires were supposed to be allergic to silver. “Or is it yet another benefit to being mated to an Elemental?”
Alec leaned in, putting his hand over a collection bowl. “No, the resistance comes from being a Daywalker.”
Unlike others of his kind, Alec had the ability to walk in full daylight, something even the elders of the Vampire Council were unable to do. Salvador wasn’t clear on how Alec had managed the feat, but knew it had involved an elaborate ritual.
The bottom of the bowl was now covered in blood. “I hope this isn’t making you hungry,” Salvador muttered.
The vampire smirked. “I’ve fed, thanks.”
Salvador peered behind him. The three Elementals were having a conference at the edge of the jungle. “And how does your mate react to your diet? The Fire Elemental doesn’t strike me as the understanding type.”
Vampire feeding was a notorio
usly sensual event.
“It doesn’t bother her anymore.”
“Seriously?”
“She’s learned to enjoy it.”
Salvador’s eyes widened. “Oh. You feed from her?” he whispered, gesturing in shock at his own neck.
He couldn’t speak from experience, but it was common knowledge that a vampire feeding was euphoric for the vamp and donor.
“I do if I can’t hit a blood bank, but I don’t need one very often. Her blood isn’t like anyone else’s. Even a minute amount can sustain me—even energize me—for days. Now that I’ve stopped combusting every time she shares with me, it’s great,” Alec said, wrapping Salvador’s palm with one of the poultices he kept on hand for minor wounds.
“You combusted?” How was Alec even alive? Vampires were extremely flammable. For most, all it took was one spark before boom—that was all She wrote.
Alec reached for the bottle of quicksilver, adding a few drops to Salvador’s blood. “Just my hands, actually. It stopped after a while. Being mates affords some protection. I travel in Diana’s medium now.”
“So, in addition to being able to walk in daylight, you can’t be burned by fire and you’re impervious to silver. If the Seven families were to find out about you, they would freak the fuck out,” Salvador hissed.
Normally, Salvador didn’t swear. In this case, though, he felt it was appropriate. The Seven families were the oldest and most powerful witch clans. His family—the Delavordos—were the most notorious. However, that didn’t mean the others were any less dangerous. Salvador couldn’t imagine the news that a Daywalker roamed the Earth would go over well with them. Not if they learned he was also impervious to fire and silver.
Alec smiled. “You don’t have to be concerned about me. I can take care of myself. And as emasculating as it sounds—if anyone came after me, my girlfriend would kick their ass.”
Salvador laughed, but the mirth quickly subsided. A pang of sharp emotion passed through him, but it was only his old companion—envy.
The Elementals Collection Page 88