“Barry, if you untie me, I can get us out of here. Both of us. You don’t have to live like this anymore.”
He smiled weakly. “I can’t leave. This is where I belong. This is my purpose.”
“Untie me. Set me free.”
He shook his head. “Can’t. Malvern told me not to.”
“Then bring me something sharp so I can do it myself.”
Barry closed his eyes tight and rubbed his temples. “I need you to be quiet now. I can’t help you. Malvern will be awake in three hours. You can take it up with him.”
Rowan leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She reached out, trying to follow the magical bond between her and Harriet, the one forged when she’d fed the Traveller her tooth and saved her life. But the more she tried, the more drained she became. Her bindings, it seemed, had stolen even that from her.
She cursed. “Can you at least untie my ankles? I have to use the bucket.”
Barry stood and hooked his hand under her arm to help her out of the chair. “No. But I can help you hop.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ember Fields was somewhere near Inwood based on the direction Djorji was driving. Nick sat in the back of the black sedan between Tobias and Gabriel, feeling awkward and uncomfortable. Not only was the back seat crowded with him sitting shoulder to shoulder with Rowan’s brothers, he was in the unenviable position of them knowing he’d slept with their sister, thanks to Harriet. Either one of them could snap him like a twig. Harriet seemed to be enjoying his discomfort from her roomy seat beside Djorji.
Relief flooded him when the car stopped and the door opened, a waft of cool air breezing through the sedan’s interior. He hurried across the seat and out of the car. But when Djorji drove away, he found himself staring at a slender alley between a veterinarian’s office and an apartment building. Unless Ember Fields was the name of Harriet’s apartment, this was not the place.
“Stay close,” Harriet said, “and follow my instructions.”
She shuffled into the alley and toward a scrawny tree whose feeble and crooked trunk thrust, seemingly by force of will alone, through a section of concrete that cracked and buckled over the roots. The branches drooped, but then how could it get enough sun or water here, squeezed between two buildings?
Harriet paused before the tree and waited until the three of them were huddled around her. “Good,” she said. “Hands on my shoulders please.”
They obliged, although there were plenty of shifting eyes and darting glances. She raised her hand and placed it on the tree trunk.
Once, when he was sixteen, Nick had gone on a date with a girl to Coney Island. He’d saved for weeks to have the money to go. Hadn’t ever been before. She’d chosen a ride that spun him in every direction—he couldn’t remember the name, only that it was horrifying for a first-time amusement park goer. When the ride stopped and they’d walked down the exit ramp, he threw up right between her feet.
He felt the same now. The alley spun, the force of motion drawing him backward so that he needed to grip Harriet’s shoulder tighter to hold on. His stomach dropped. Thankfully, he wasn’t the only one. Tobias groaned and Gabriel made a noise that sounded like a growl. Seconds ticked by as the surrounding buildings blurred into nothing but shapes and colors. And then the movement slowed. When they finally stopped spinning, Nick couldn’t believe his eyes. Harriet’s hand wasn’t resting on a sapling struggling for the light but on a gigantic oak tree. She removed her hand and wiped her palms against each other.
“Wasn’t that fun?” Harriet said. “It never gets old.”
Nick took a deep breath to settle his stomach and looked around. All the buildings were gone. In their place were wagons painted in bright colors with wisps of smoke curling from the chimneys. Brightly dressed people came and went from the doors: men, women, and laughing children. Older children danced around a central fire while one played a guitar and sang for them. Others listened, eating some sort of stew from tin bowls.
“Come, my vardo is over there. My gift to you will be ready.” Harriet pointed to a particularly large wagon painted red and purple with a green tin roof and a round chimney that spat perfect curls of blue smoke.
“What is this place?” Gabriel asked. His voice was firm, and Nick got a sense he didn’t trust Harriet at that moment.
“This place, Ember Fields, was Rowan’s bonding gift to me. The fact that it is here and I am too means she’s still alive. Both this place and my body rely on her latent magic to exist. Our home has been here since 1887, when Mr. J. Hood Wright invited us to settle here to raise money for Manhattan Hospital. And we did. Lots of money. New Yorkers would come to us to have their fortunes told or play games, and we would donate a portion of our earnings to the cause. But in 1904 the first train came through and with it real estate speculation. We would have been forced to move on. That was the year Rowan saved me from tuberculosis, and when it was clear Ember Fields would get swallowed by the growing urban jungle that had spread across Manhattan, Rowan used her magic to create this slice.”
“Slice?”
“This place can’t be reached by any means but magic. Her scales protect the four corners and render us invisible and unreachable by anyone without Traveller blood. We come and go as we please, hidden in time. Rowan cut out a piece of the world, just for us.”
Nick’s chest sank. Rowan was no ordinary woman, and not just because she was a dragon. Sure, she sprouted wings on occasion, but she was also kind and generous to a fault, like no one he’d ever met. Without a doubt, she’d put herself in this position with Malvern to protect him. He had to save her. If he didn’t, he’d never forgive himself.
Harriet led them through the door at the front of her wagon, what she called a vardo, and Nick was immediately surrounded by the heady medicinal scent of herbs and dried flowers. There was a cauldron simmering on the cooktop of a potbellied stove inside, its silvery contents giving off the same blue smoke as he’d seen coming from the chimney. The scent triggered a memory, Rowan leaning over him, holding a vial to his lips.
“What is that, Harriet?” Nick asked.
“Forget-me potion. If you make someone drink this, they will forget what you tell them to forget. You can even replace their memory with another.”
Gabriel and Tobias filled the tiny space, although Nick could see they’d curled their shoulders forward to try to make themselves smaller in the tiny house.
“Are you saying that if we give this to the vampires, we can make them forget Rowan?” Gabriel asked.
“You can make them forget anything.”
Tobias beamed. “If we can wipe the coven’s minds, Sabrina might still be able to convince the Forebears that we don’t exist.”
“How much do we give our target?” Gabriel asked.
“Only a small vial, but the potion isn’t done brewing. You must wait. It will be ready by twilight.”
“Harriet, did you know Rowan used this potion on me?”
She clutched her pearls and busied herself with a teapot that was magically whistling at that precise moment. “The interesting thing about that is…” She trailed off, digging in her cupboard. She brought him a steaming cup of tea in a floral teacup with a small plate of biscuits that she set on a narrow table in front of the window. “Here you are, Mr. Grandstaff. You must keep your strength up. Cream and sugar?”
“Both.” He sat down on the window seat. “So, you were saying.”
“About what?”
“Did you know Rowan used your potion on me?”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t ask an old woman to speculate on the actions of her friend. I don’t know Rowan’s mind. I’m not her keeper. If you have questions for her, you’ll have to ask her yourself.”
Nick grunted.
Tobias and Gabriel glanced toward him in confusion.
“Your sister wiped my brain the first time I met her.”
“Oh.” Tobias cleared his throat. “I’m sure it was nothing personal.”
/> Nick nodded slowly.
“Mr. Grandstaff,” Harriet said. “Why don’t you lie down? It’s clear you haven’t slept all night, and you won’t be able to help Rowan if you’re exhausted.” She pointed out that the padded bench he was perched on was long enough to stretch out on.
“I agree,” Gabriel said. “We’re going need your help. Get some rest. Tobias and I will wait outside.” The giant man made his way out the door, the wagon swaying with his every step.
Harriet again pointed at the bench. “Please.”
He stretched out, his head landing on a blue satin pillow embroidered with a red dragon. It reminded him of Rowan.
Help Rowan. Save Rowan. Yes. He needed to do that. Because Nick needed to figure out what this was between them, and goddamn if he was going to let her get killed or stay captured before he got the chance. Frowning, he turned his back on Harriet and shut his eyes. He drifted off to the sound of laughing children.
For all the effort she’d put into making conversation with Barry, Rowan had gotten nowhere trying to convince him to release her from her bindings. She’d drifted to sleep a few times in the chair beside him, only to awake and try again to connect. She’d discovered that Barry had grown up in Oklahoma and wanted to be an astronaut before he’d been trafficked at the age of sixteen. The NAVAK coven had used the fact that Barry was gay and his parents were unaccepting of that to target him on social media. He’d thought he was meeting a boy his age who was also gay, and then he was nabbed by NAVAK, tattooed, and compelled to be their slave. He didn’t use those words. Rowan cringed as he made it sound like he was saved by the vampires, but she knew the truth. Poor Barry didn’t even know if his parents were alive or dead. He hadn’t been free in years.
Her stomach growled.
“Dinner should be here soon.”
Silently, she thanked the Mountain they planned to feed her. She needed to keep her strength up if she had any hope of freeing herself. Sure enough, a tray slid through the slot in the door a few minutes later.
He brought it over to her and removed the foil wrapping. “They sent enough for both of us.”
Rowan scowled. “Peanut butter sandwiches, chips, and apple juice.”
He was already burning through his first half sandwich. Rowan wondered how often he got anything but peanut butter. But she was too hungry to turn her nose up at the food. Carefully angling her bound hands, she chose a sandwich and took a bite. Grape jelly. It wasn’t bad.
She was on her second sandwich when a sound from one of the coffins made her stop everything and drop what was in her hands. “Barry, what time do the vampires wake?”
He licked a bit of jelly from his thumb. “Soon now. The sun is still up, so they can’t go outside, but they usually wake well before dusk. Malvern likes to eat someone before he starts his day.” He rubbed the marks on his neck like maybe they’d started to itch.
Another sound from the coffins, a body shifting against satin, reached her ears, and Rowan was on her bound feet and pressed against the wall.
Barry cleared his throat. “It’s better if you don’t fight it. Everything is easier if you just obey them.”
“Untie me, Barry. This is our chance. I swear to you I can get us out of this if you just untie me.” She pleaded with him in hushed tones, her eyes filling with tears. “It’s not your fault you’re here. You deserved love. You still deserve love. And if you allow me to get us out of here, you can come stay with me. I’ll get you back on your feet.”
He stared at her, all emotion draining from his face. The gleam went out of his eyes, emptiness filling in where the light went out. “I don’t want to leave,” he said so quietly she could hardly hear him.
The lid to Malvern’s coffin opened with a slow squeak, sending Rowan’s heart hammering in her chest. Her eyes darted around the room, but she’d inspected every inch of this place and there was no way out. Malvern’s bright blond head rose from the coffin and he turned to face her. She blinked and he was in front of her, his fingers stretching along her cheek and stroking behind her ear, behind her neck.
“There you are, my pet.” He pressed himself against her, and she became grateful for her bound wrists now sandwiched between their chests. At least she had that layer of distance between them. “We don’t have much time before the Forebears get here and try to take you away. I found you. I deserve you.” He leaned toward her ear, his breath smelling of blood. “You would be such a prize in my herd. I bet you fuck like a minx.”
She turned her face away from his in disgust and struggled against him, but with her limbs bound, there was nowhere to go. Malvern’s teeth extended, and she cried out as he bit the side of her throat. He drank deeply, the sounds of his swallowing filling her ears. Weakness overcame her. And then his hands were on her, turning her to face the wall, and the heavy length of him was pressed up against her ass.
“No. Please, please no.”
He pulled her hair to the side and licked up the side of her neck, preparing to bite her again. Her breath came in shallow, shaky jerks. She prayed to the goddess of the mountain for help.
“Let us have a turn,” a voice said from behind her.
She turned her head just enough to see the other vampires had woken up and were eyeing her like she was breakfast.
Malvern released an intimidating hiss. “No one touches her but me.”
Rowan had a moment to see a redheaded vamp sink his teeth into Barry’s thigh before Malvern swept his arm under her legs and caught her. The walls blurred as he raced her from the room and from the hungry gazes of the other vampires. He carried her up two flights of stairs and into a bedroom, this one with an actual human bed.
After a moment of weightlessness, her arms and face slapped against a black velvet coverlet. He gripped her ankles and flipped her over. Malvern’s terrifying visage hovered over her like a gargoyle, his eyes wild as if her blood had intoxicated him. His gaze raked down her body. She was still dressed in nothing but the red dress, and she felt naked under the thin material, not to mention filthy from her time in that dungeon where the vampires slept.
“Let me go, Malvern. Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. You’ll be sorry. If you hurt me, I will hurt you. I’ll find a way.”
“You are in no position to make threats.” He flopped on top of her, the full weight of his body pushing her down into the mattress. “Now, where were we?”
Chapter Thirty
Nick dreamed he was floating down a river in a canoe. A very uncomfortable canoe. A bumping, clinking canoe with two men in the canoe ahead of him arguing over where to turn. He came awake in the back of a cargo van to the smell of gun oil and ammunition.
“Gabriel, I’m telling you that was the turn!” Tobias yelled.
Nick sat up, rubbing the knot in his back that had formed from lying on the floor of the van. He got his bearings and stuck his head between the two dragon males, eyeing the setting sun and their surroundings.
“Yep, you passed it,” he said. “You wanted that unmarked lane a half mile back.”
Tobias scoffed. “I told you. You never listen to me.”
Gabriel pulled a U-ey and headed back toward the entrance.
“So, uh, was I unconscious this entire time?” Nick asked, trying to sound casual but feeling every bit inadequate between the two huge men.
Tobias chuckled. “Harriet drugged you. The old bird gave you some kind of tonic to make you sleep a ‘hero’s sleep.’ She told us to tell you that you may find your natural talents are accentuated tonight, but it will only last until the next time you sleep.”
Nick narrowed his eyes. “She drugged me. She fucking drugged me. I’ve been poisoned by grandma fashionista!”
“Grandma fashionista insisted on reading our palms,” Gabriel said. “Felt like I was back in New Orleans.”
“You didn’t let her, did you?” Nick scratched the back of his head. He was starting to feel weird, hyped up like he’d chugged a thirty-two-ounce espresso.
; “We didn’t want to be rude,” Tobias explained. “Besides, nothing she said made that much sense anyway.”
Nick shook his head. “Don’t tell me. Rowan told me never to let Harriet read my palm. She said she has a knack for causing self-fulfilling prophecies.”
“As a doctor, I feel compelled to inform you that palm reading is a bunch of hooey with no basis in science whatsoever,” Tobias said.
“Says the dragon who probably just carried me out of a magical land that can only be reached through a sapling in an alley.”
Tobias shrugged. “I was trying to be nice.”
Gabriel grunted. “Excuse my brother. He’s the compassionate one. It comes from his years of acting as a healer for humans in Chicago. I am not as nice. I will hand your ass to you on a platter if you don’t pull it together and help us get our sister back, no matter what our palms say.”
Nick nodded slowly, feeling every syllable of what Gabriel had said in his “oh shit!” sensor. Gabriel had turned down the unmarked road, and Nick motioned for him to slow down and pull off between the trees. They rolled to a stop, and he led them to the tree that overlooked the wall. The sun had started to set, but the level of security hadn’t lessened in the least. If anything, there were more humans patrolling the property. The place was absolutely buzzing with security uniforms.
“So what’s the plan?” Nick asked. “Where did you get all the firepower anyway?”
Gabriel shot him a dark look. “It’s better if you don’t know.”
“Okay. As a proud member of the NYPD, that makes me really uncomfortable.”
“You could be dead soon. Then you won’t be uncomfortable.” Gabriel handed him a bulletproof vest. The thing was loaded with magazines. More ammo than he’d seen in his lifetime.
Tobias raised a hand. “Hey now, we are not getting our sister’s mate killed before we even have a chance to razz her about how she mated a human.”
“About this mate thing…” Nick wanted to ask exactly what it meant. What had he signed up for? Clearly he had signed up. People didn’t rush forth into a heavily armed fortress knowing they could die for someone they weren’t completely sure about. But when he began to ask the question, the looks on her brothers’ faces gave him pause. Gabriel especially would doubtless be enraged by any indication that Nick hadn’t completely mated his sister. “I… I want to be the one to kill Malvern.”
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