Blood Tithe (The Lost Cove Darklings Book 2)

by Bekah Harris

  “Those have to be the largest boots I’ve ever seen,” Ardan remarked. “It’s a wonder you can lift your feet.”

  “In the human realm, we have a very specific name for these kind of boots,” Felicity informed him. “They’re all leather, thick soled, and steel toed.”

  “Do tell,” Ardan said. “I’m dying to know.”

  “Shit kickers,” Felicity said. “Because you can kick the shit out of anything, and it won’t hurt your feet.”

  “Extraordinary,” he said. “I’ll have Nan order me a pair through the World Wide Web.”

  Felicity laughed. He sounded like a grandpa.

  “If the two of you are quite finished, we’re getting close,” Tristen said, as they topped the ridge. Then, he turned his head to glance at Nan. “Are you okay back there, Lucinda?”

  Nan was breathing hard behind them but keeping up, using a walking stick to help her along. Tristen valiantly offered his arm. Though it was totally out of character for her iron-jawed grandmother, Nan accepted. Then, again, she probably couldn’t refuse. Felicity didn’t miss Ardan’s jovial smile.

  “If I didn’t know you better, I would think you’re trying to antagonize Tristen,” Felicity said to him.

  “Don’t you mean Prince Tristen? You seem to be on awfully familiar terms with him.”

  Tristen glared at him. “It is none of your affair who the Mage is familiar with.”

  “Interesting,” Ardan said. “I had assumed the Mage, like the Magi, were not allowed to be on familiar terms with anyone. Careful, young Prince, someone might think it’s you.”

  “Will you please shut up,” Felicity said to Ardan, taking Tristen’s hand and squeezing it. “He’s goading you.”

  Tension rolled from Tristen as they topped the ridge and began their journey downward to the hidden realm. He was still furious but didn’t give voice to it, which was wise. He was almost acting jealous or something. Which was totally ridiculous. Ardan was old, like middle-aged old. He was a baby by Fae standards, but Felicity had been raised in the human realm. Ardan should be preparing for a mid-life crisis or something. Besides, he was taken. Like seriously taken, so in all likelihood, Ardan was just trying to get Tristen to admit he had feelings for Felicity.

  Which had become totally complicated once she’d gone full trollop and invited him to sink his fangs into her throat.

  And why was she even thinking about that right now? They needed to rip a hole in the wards and find Raven. And Dante.

  “There it is,” Nan said.

  It had to be nearly midnight by the time they reached the wards. The moon would be full in another day or two, and it cast a gorgeous pale glow through the canopy of trees. The wards undulated like watery ripples in the light, silvery blue with the power that moved them. Steeling herself, Felicity took the lead, hurrying down the hill toward the illuminated barrier.

  “Careful,” Tristen warned, trying to catch up to her.

  “I’m not going to do anything stupid,” Felicity snapped. “I think I’ve learned my lesson, don’t you?”

  Nan lagged behind, breathing heavily as she took up the rear. She leaned on her walking stick, holding a single finger up as she caught her breath.

  “Did the magic feel hot or cold?” Nan asked Felicity.

  “Definitely hot. It lit my ass on fire before electrocuting me.”

  “Winter Cold is what we need,” Nan said. “Felicity, you’ll need your blue magic, but you’ll need to tap into the powers of Winter, as well. With Ardan’s Winter Magic and your access to Winter elements, you should be able to keep the heat at bay. Now, Tristen’s blood should be enough to calm the barrier magic, while Ardan uses the Unseelie dark to rip the veil.”

  “That’s it?” Felicity asked. “Because that didn’t sound complicated. At all.”

  “How many times have I told you about making your smartass comments before a working?” Nan fussed. “This is going to be difficult enough without negative energy.”

  “I, for one, appreciate your snark,” Ardan said.

  Ignoring him, Nan approached Tristen. “Your Highness, if you’re willing, I think your blood will be the binding element. I don’t know that for certain, but I suspect Kyla’s royal blood is how she and Conlan are gaining entry. He’s always with her whenever they’re spotted near the forest.”

  “I do not fear pain or blood,” Tristen said. “If it means figuring out who is behind this and making sure the humans of Lost Cove are safe, then it’s a small price to pay.”

  “Did anyone bring a dagger?” Felicity asked.

  “No need.” Tristen pulled his lips back to reveal the lethal points of his fangs.

  Without hesitation, he bit into his wrist. Nan took his arm with one hand and Felicity’s hand with her other. Then, she turned Tristen’s wrist downward, the blood dripping into Felicity’s palm.

  “Wipe that all over your hands,” Nan ordered.

  Felicity lathered her hands with Tristen’s blood, her stomach churning. The smell was coppery, like a handful of pennies, and she had to close her eyes as the warm liquid oozed between her fingers.

  Then, Nan did the same with Ardan.

  “So, what do we chant?” Felicity asked, trying not to look at her hands.

  “Chant?” Ardan raised his brows.

  Felicity looked to Nan in question before turning back to Ardan. “Any time Nan does a working, she chants. I do, as well.”

  Ardan laughed. “Humans.”

  “Felicity is not…” Tristen began.

  “I know, I know,” Ardan said. “But she was raised in the human realm. Fae magic does not require some absurd little rhyme. Our power comes from within, and we wield it with our minds. Only the Magi speak in riddles. Seelie and Unseelie magic does not require such theatrics.”

  “Okay, so how are we breaking these wards?”

  Ardan smiled, showing off a perfect set of white teeth that matched the rest of his glamour. “Do as I do, channeling Seelie magic and Winter elements.”

  Felicity stepped toward the wards, stopping beside him. Ardan placed his bloody palms against the wards. She did the same.

  “Now,” he said. “Use your magic while imagining a tear in the veil.”

  Felicity closed her eyes, heat surging through her skin, threatening to burn. She called upon the frigid air of Winter, imagining frost sparkling across the wards. Then, Seelie magic warmed in her chest, and she allowed it to flow through her palms, where it mingled with the power of Winter. As the frost covered the wards, she imagined a thin line hardening with the cold, as it gave way to ice. Little by little, the ice cracked, splintering the wards with thin weblike veins.

  “That’s it,” Nan said behind them. “It’s working. Just a bit more.”

  Felicity dared a glance at Ardan. To her surprise, thin ribbons of black smoke swirled from his back like tentacles. At the ends there were sharp teeth that bit into the wards. Coupled with the breaking ice she had cast, she detected a small rip in the barrier. When Ardan opened his eyes and saw it, he forced the teeth harder into the barrier and pulled down, creating a narrow opening just large enough for them to slip through, while Nan stayed behind and stood watch.

  “Hurry,” Ardan said, pulling the two sides apart.

  Fighting off a chill, Felicity stepped through wards.

  Chapter 24

  The first thing Felicity registered in the darkness was the large shadow of a structure several yards ahead. A metal building? A barn?

  Other than that, there was only open space surrounded on all sides by thick trees. The moon was round above the branches, illuminating empty fields. If there were vampires around, they were sleeping or inside the structure. Felicity knew that because the crickets were chirping, and every now and then, a bird rustled in the trees. Somewhere close by, an owl hooted in a low cry. Wildlife tended to go silent whenever there were Laltogs and vampires around. Soon enough, the nighttime sounds would give way to quiet once they detected Tristen’s presence.
/>   “Where are the guards?” Felicity whispered.

  Ardan and Tristen stopped beside her, scanning the area in search of the same thing Felicity sought. There was no way Kyla and Elder Conlan would leave a group of fledgling vampires unprotected.

  “Maybe they’re just that confident in their wards,” Ardan suggested.

  “But it would be the height of negligence,” Tristen said. “Wards aside, no one would be stupid enough to leave a hundred vampires unsupervised.”

  “I can’t argue with that,” Ardan said. “Where do you think they all are? The barn?”

  “I don’t know where else they could be,” Tristen whispered. “I don’t see any other structures.”

  “But aren’t vampires, like, nocturnal?” Felicity asked.

  Tristen and Ardan looked at her like she had just suggested the earth was flat. It was a legitimate question. Every vampire movie she had ever seen made it clear that vampires were creatures of the night.

  “That is a ridiculous myth that stems from the fact that Darklings have lived so long in Unseelie—which makes sense because it is the realm of perpetual night. But whether Laltogs are turned or born, the sun has no power over them.”

  That should make her feel better, since they weren’t necessarily about to be surrounded by wide-awake vampires. But there was something even more unsettling about the fact that they could just walk past anyone in broad daylight. Felicity was about to ask where the most likely location for guards could be when she noticed the eerie silence that settled over the entire area. Which meant nature was responding to Tristen—or Tristen was not the only Laltog in close proximity to the trees.

  She closed her eyes, taking a slow, deep breath in an effort to get her nerves under control. Tristen and Ardan noticed it, too, because they were suddenly crouched beside her, their eyes missing nothing. Tristen’s were now the color of blood, and Ardan’s were glowing a bright gold.

  A branch snapped nearby.

  Felicity’s breath seized in her chest, holding her in place.

  Suddenly, the trees rattled. Dark figures burst from the darkness, spreading leathery wings as they watched from hellish red eyes.

  Laltogs.

  Tristen hissed, fangs extending as he sped forward, blurring as he ran until Felicity could no longer make out any distinguishing features. Finally, though, wings burst from his back, covering his arms, and he took to the sky, diving and swooping to push the guards off course.

  Felicity and Ardan stood back to back, their eyes on the dark sky. Only the pale light of the moon illuminated the area, and though Fae had heightened hearing and senses of smell, she couldn’t see any better in the darkness than a human. And she was starting to flip out, especially when she felt the wind off the passing shadows. Gathering her magic in her chest, she pushed it outward until her entire body was glowing an incandescent blue that the Laltogs apparently didn’t like.

  “Perfect,” Ardan said. “Keep doing exactly what you’re doing, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

  Felicity continued to channel the power, as dark tendrils of Unseelie magic unfurled from Ardan’s body like jagged ribbons of shadow. Directing their path with his hands, the ribbons shot out, sinking their razor teeth into the Laltogs, coiling around them and jerking them to the ground. Inhuman cries filled the darkness, as the creatures writhed on the ground, reverting to their Fae forms. He struck out again and again, as Tristen corralled them from the sky.

  Finally, Felicity felt her energy waning, and she knew if she had any hope of getting Raven out of there, she needed to conserve her magic. She reigned her power back in, just as Tristen landed in a full crouch beside her. By the time he rose to his feet, he looked, once again, like Fae Tristen, though he was terrifying and dark and beautiful in the bat form the Laltogs took during battle.

  They didn’t get long to rest. Vampires that still looked completely human, other than their pale complexions, marched two at a time from the barn. These humans had been stolen from their lives and their happiness and turned into something they didn’t understand to serve someone else’s dark agenda. Felicity bent her knees and faced them, though it pained her to think of harming them. None of this was their fault.

  “Try not to kill them,” Ardan said. “They’ll be needed for questioning, so spare them unless it simply cannot be helped.”

  Felicity channeled the Seelie Magic in her palms, ready to blast them away if needed. But it was the elements that would prove less lethal and most effective. Raising her glowing hands in the air, she focused on the wind, imagining it bending and bowing the trees as it whipped in the direction of the fledgling vampires. Clouds gathered, blocking out the nearly full moon. Thunder rumbled overhead, and lightning flashed in the distance. The clouds grew heavier and heavier until rain poured from the sky. With one of her hands, she commanded the wind into an updraft, pushing the rain into the cooler air until it froze into gravel-sized pellets. She strengthened the wind until hail whistled through the air with all the force of a bullet, striking arms, legs, knees, feet.

  From one hand, Ardan launched razor-sharp icicles, aiming for the same non-lethal targets. From the other, he lashed out with Unseelie darkness that snapped like a multi-tailed whip, jerking vampires from their feet. Tristen stood in a guarded position in front of her, moving with her toward the barn—the most likely holding place for Raven and Dante. As the Vampire ranks multiplied, one or two slipped past the storm and fury of their magical assault, only to find Tristen waiting for them.

  Growling with a feral sound that sent excited shivers racing up Felicity’s body, Tristen bared his fangs, dodging attacks and sinking his teeth into arms and legs. He ripped into flesh with his sharp nails and used his royal strength to fling the newborn creatures away from Felicity as if they were no more than insects.

  As Felicity raced toward the barn, careful not to lose her concentration on the continuing storm, she shot out with blue magic that stunned the vamps with an electric jolt. Tristen continued to bite and claw, kick and slam, never allowing the creatures to get within a foot of Felicity or Ardan.

  “Go!” he yelled, when Felicity was close enough to the barn to sprint for the door. “Ardan and I will hold them off!”

  She hesitated, wondering how they would ever defeat that many vampires, clumsy and ill-trained as most of them were. But if they fled without finding Raven and Dante, the entire mission would have been for nothing.

  She ran for the door.

  Bodies thudded to the ground all around her as Ardan and Tristen continued to clear her path. She didn’t slow down when she reached the side of the barn, opting instead to burst through the door, praying she would be safer inside.

  Once she had slammed the door behind her, Felicity took a moment to catch her breath, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. And by darkness, she meant the total absence of light. She could barely see her hand pass in front of her face, and if she wasn’t aware she was in a barn, she might have thought she was in a cave. Blowing out a breath, she forced energy to her palm, controlling it until it emanated a soft blue glow. While she had expected to burst into open space—as she would expect from a barn—she was in a narrow hallway with wooden walls on either side of her. Slowly, she crept along the dirt floor until she came to a series of doors. When she approached the first one, she pressed her ear to the wood and listened. Hearing nothing, she lifted the latch and peeked inside. Allowing the light to illuminate the room, she scanned shelves and shelves and shelves of...coolers. At a fledgling vampire camp, it didn’t take a genius to realize what would be inside. Closing the door behind her, she moved across the hall.

  Again, she pressed her ear to the door, this time hearing a whistling noise, as well as a pattering sound. Lifting the latch, she pushed open the door a fraction. Light from the overcast sky flooded inside the room, which was open to the outside. It looked as if it had been torn down or...something had knocked a hole in it. Wind whistled from the outside storm, hail plinking against the
wood before melting into the dirt floor.

  “What’s happening?” a voice whispered.

  “I don’t know.” Another voice.

  “Hello?” Felicity dared. “Raven?”

  She stepped inside the room, her hand still glowing. She followed the direction of the voice until her magic fell like a spotlight, illuminating her best friend. Raven was shackled and chained to the wall, her eyes squeezing tight against the bright glow of Felicity’s hands.

  “Shit!” Felicity said.

  Without hesitating or thinking, she rushed toward her friend.

  “Fee?” Raven whispered.

  “It’s me,” she answered. “I thought I’d never find you. Hold still. I’m going to break these cuffs. How did this happen?”

  “We followed Kyla and Conlan,” Raven said. “Obviously, we got caught.”

  Felicity smiled at Raven’s ability to deadpan, even in the direst situations. “By we, I assume you mean Dante? Is he in here?”

  “He was,” she whispered. “They took him.”

  “Who took him?”

  “The guards? I don’t know who they are, really, but Alice says they’re going to turn him.”

  “Alice?”

  “Alice and Campbell are here,” Raven said. “They took Campbell the same time they took Dante.”

  Bile rose in Felicity’s throat. Raven would never be the same, she’d never recover, if something were to happen to Dante. She had been devastated enough when she thought he had rejected her. If he became a vampire or worse, Felicity didn’t even want to contemplate that level of grief.

  “We’ll find him,” she whispered. “Campbell, too.”

  Then, she shone her light toward Alice. She recognized her from their Lit class, but barely. She stared down at the floor, her hair matted and tangled in knots. Her hands and feet were dirty, and she rocked back and forth.

  “How long has she been like this?” Felicity asked.

  “A couple hours after they took Dante and Campbell,” Raven said. “I think she just snapped.”