by Arthur, Keri
“And Belle?”
“Was taken.”
Even though I already knew that, her confirmation hit like a blow to my gut. I sucked in air and tried to restrain the urge to scream and rant and rage. It wouldn’t help the situation; it wouldn’t even make me feel any better.
“How? From what she said, your accommodation center isn’t directly under Émigré and was even better protected than the night club.”
“All of which is true, and I can only presume she used one of my customers to get inside information. There’s no other way she could have gotten in and out with such ease.” Her dark gaze glimmered. “I want revenge.”
She wanted Clayton’s death. And she wanted it done slowly, wanted him pulled apart piece by tiny piece, wanted him screaming in agony as she bathed in his innards and consumed his blood…
I shuddered and shut the insights down. “You can’t. You promised the council to take no life within the reservation.”
“My promise was conditional on not being attacked. I did warn that I would retaliate to protect me and mine.” She paused. “I will, however, take him beyond the reservation’s boundaries before I kill him.”
And make sure he suffered in the meantime. I briefly closed my eyes. Clayton had to pay for the damage he’d done and the lives he’d taken, but allowing Maelle to take her revenge was little more than condoning his murder.
And yet, did I really have any other choice? I rather suspected that if I didn’t play by her rules, she’d simply bind me and find him without my help.
The only reason she was even here was the fact that she’d given her word to keep Belle safe—and she had to see that through before she made any move on Clayton.
The front door opened before I could reply, and the bell chimed merrily; it was a jarring sound in the uneasy, threatening atmosphere.
Monty stepped into the room and closed the door. “What the fuck happened over at Émigré? Is Belle—”
He stopped abruptly, his eyes going wide. “Jesus fucking Christ, you’re a vampire.” His gaze came to me, and understanding swept his expression. “And you knew.”
“Yes, but I was sworn to secrecy.”
“Does the council know?”
“Yes, but not the rangers.” I returned my gaze to Maelle. “Were you able to unleash any sort of tracking spell when he hit Roger?”
“No. He took Roger out when my attention was diverted by the first explosion. The second took out my aerie. Only my magic and my escape tunnel saved me.”
“A vampire capable of dark magic,” Monty muttered. “Just what we need.”
“In this case, it just might be,” I said. “I’m not sure the four of us will be able—”
“There is no need for the other two witches,” Maelle said in a voice that suggested she wanted no arguments. “There’s no need for even this one. You and I will track down your ex, and then I will take him.”
“Maelle, he’s obviously aware what you’re capable—”
“He’s barely tasted a fraction of what I can do,” she cut in softly. “I underestimated him once. I will not make the same mistake again.”
Dark wisps of evil spun around her, speaking not only of the strength of her magic but the utter darkness of it. The heretic witch we’d dealt with a few months ago had been squeaky clean in comparison.
I shivered—and I knew I wasn’t the only one. Monty’s fear ran across my senses like sand.
“Even so,” he said, his voice showing little sign of his deep unease, “as reservation witch, I at least need to be present to—”
“No,” she cut in again, “you don’t. And you won’t.”
“That really isn’t wise, given you’ll need witnesses for whatever action the council might—”
“They fully understood what they let into the reservation. They will take no action against me, as long as I hold to my promise.” Her gaze returned to mine, and my stomach flip-flopped. “Contact Clayton. Arrange a meeting.”
I got out my phone. I didn’t dare do otherwise, even though I doubted Clayton would be using the same phone or phone number. He might have firmly stepped into insanity’s grasp, but even he’d be aware he could very easily be tracked through his phone.
The call rang out. I shoved it away and said, “He’ll ring me when he’s got his trap set.”
“Then I will wait here until he does.”
Like I needed that on top of everything else. I thrust a hand through my tangled hair and glanced at Monty. “You want a drink?”
“A coffee would be great.”
“Maelle?”
“I daresay you don’t stock what I need right now.” Her gaze fell onto Monty. “And I dare not take from the unwilling.”
“And I’m very unwilling.” He took a long detour around her and followed me to the counter.
I made his coffee, then, after taking a couple of painkillers, mixed up a very large revitalization potion. I was going to need all the strength I could get to make it through this night.
One hour crawled by, then two. I didn’t change clothes and I didn’t grab a shower. I just paced, as did Monty. Maelle didn’t twitch; I doubt she even breathed. She simply stood in the middle of the café, her arms crossed and her aura a shimmering curtain of angry purple-black.
It was close to three in the morning when my phone finally rang. I tugged it out of my pocket and glanced at the screen. It wasn’t a number I knew, but I knew who it was anyway.
“Wait,” Monty said urgently and got out his phone. “Put it on speaker, and I’ll record the conversation. It’ll work as evidence for the High Witch Council.”
“He won’t live to be judged by the witch council,” Maelle noted softly.
“While that may be true,” Monty said, “We nevertheless need to protect our asses, given they will want answers as to what happened to him.”
He quickly hit the record button and then gave me a nod. I pressed the answer button but didn’t get the chance to say anything.
A scream ripped down the line, a scream that was high-pitched and filled with pain. A fist grabbed my heart and squeezed tight, making it difficult to breathe, to think.
Belle.
It was Belle.
Chapter Fifteen
Her scream cut off as abruptly as it had started, but the ensuing silence was worse. The fist around my heart squeezed tighter, and for a moment, everything went black. My spell hadn’t protected her… not fully.
“If you kill her,” I said, my voice flat but full of repressed violence, “any hold you have on me will die. I will kill you.”
Clayton’s chuckle rolled down the line. It was a low, deep, and utterly confident sound. “You both know you will do no such thing, because the death of your familiar will rip out your heart and kill your mind. You will be little more than a flesh shell—one that will be mine to do with as I wish.”
And what he wished was what he’d always wished—me bearing him children.
I swallowed heavily as the memories of rough hands rose but couldn’t prevent the shudder that ran through me. I said, as evenly as I could, “You vowed not to take any retaliatory action, Clayton, and this—”
His sharp snort cut me off. “I said what I had to say to appease your father. The leash has been removed from me, Elizabeth, but I’m afraid you’ll not be so lucky. I want you here within the hour, otherwise your familiar’s suffering will continue.”
Fear surged anew, but once again I ruthlessly thrust it down. What he wanted—what he needed—was me reacting blindly. If we were to have any hope of survival, I had to remain rational and aware.
“Where do you want to meet, Clayton?”
He gave me an address and then said, “No one is to accompany you. The perimeter is monitored—the minute I see—or feel—the presence of anyone else—be they witch or ranger—I’ll kill her. If I sense any of your tricks—if I so much as sense a glimmer of wild magic—I’ll kill her.”
As if to emphasize this point, Belle sc
reamed again. I closed my eyes against the sting of tears and fury. If there was one good thing about our psychic lines being down, it was the fact that the backwash of her pain and terror wasn’t immobilizing me. But it also meant she couldn’t reach out and grab my energy to keep hers going.
She might not last the hour… not if that scream was anything to go by. I pushed the ugly thought aside and hung up. Clayton would keep her alive until I was at least in that house with him, if for no other reason than the fact he’d want to drink in my reaction when she died.
“According to Google, that house is a short-term rental.” Monty glanced at Maelle. “That means you can enter without invitation, doesn’t it?”
“Indeed it does.”
“And Clayton’s magic?” I asked. “Will you be able to get past it without activating it?”
Her smile held no humor and far too many teeth. The vampire was anticipating her kill. “But of course. You will keep him occupied, I will save your familiar, and then you will walk away and leave him to me.”
“I’m not sure it’ll be that easy, Maelle—”
“Just as I underestimated him, he underestimates you. This reservation’s power is with you, young woman. Remember that.”
I could hardly forget, given my body and head still ached from my efforts at Émigré. I glanced at Monty. “Have you any idea what the range of the recording device Ruby and Jenna gave us is?”
“I believe about half a kilometer in an open area. Reception will depend on whether he’s using a jammer again, though.”
“Fingers crossed that he isn’t.”
Not that it really mattered if he did, because the council would undoubtedly send Ruby and Jenna back down here to mentally wheedle out the full details from all of us. Of course, if they did that, then Maelle was in trouble. Clayton might have gone rogue, but he was still one of them; they wouldn’t appreciate any sort of vigilante action, especially from a vampire capable of dark magic. Her actions would out her, but I had no doubt she was aware of that and didn’t particularly care.
I returned my gaze to her. “You’ll have to remain silent if you don’t want your presence recorded.”
“My presence will not remain a secret for long, and we’re both aware of that,” she said, “But I do not need to converse. I just need to bathe in his blood and dine on his agony.”
“Thanks for those images,” Monty muttered.
Maelle’s smile flashed. It remained altogether too toothy. I swallowed heavily and headed to the reading room to grab my gear. Monty trailed in after me. “I really don’t like the idea of you going in alone.”
“It’s not like we have any other choice. You heard him, Monty—he’ll kill her the minute he senses another witch.”
“I know but—” He stopped and thrust a hand through his hair. “All this time we’ve been going on about how we’re all one big family, and how we’ll all back you up, no matter what he did. It’s all been for naught. In the end, it’ll just be you and him.”
“Me, him, and one motherfucking scary vampire.”
The smile that touched his lips was fleeting. “True, but even so, I don’t like it.”
“I’m not exactly thrilled either.” I reached for my backpack and then walked across to the storage boxes hidden behind the bookcase. “But it was always destined to end with just the two of us, Monty. I might have spent close to thirteen years hoping it would be otherwise, but fate isn’t often circumvented.”
“Unfortunately, in this case.” His voice held a frustrated edge. “The first thing he’ll do is take your phone and that pack from you.”
“Undoubtedly, but he also might think it strange if I don’t come armed.” I opened the nearest storage units, retrieved the opal pendant, and slung it over my neck. Then I picked up the small box of holy water and held it out. “Use these on whatever wounds Belle has.”
He accepted them with a nod. “Have you got any regular weaponry? Like a gun?”
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t know how to use it even if I did.”
“Maybe you should call Aiden—”
“He’s got a bombed building and multiple casualties up at Émigré to deal with. He can’t help us.”
“He could give us a damn gun.”
“And what good would that do—can you use one?”
“Anyone can pull a damn trigger, Liz.”
“You’re not going to be close enough to do so.”
“I know, but that doesn’t assuage my need to shoot the bastard multiple times and then dance all over his bleeding body.”
Despite the fear that sat like a weight deep in my stomach, a smile twitched my lips. “Who knew you had such a bloodthirsty streak.”
“Anyone who’s ever gone after someone I cared about certainly knows.” He glanced at his watch. “We’d better get going.”
I slung the pack over my shoulder and walked out. Maelle hadn’t moved. If not for the shifting, churning curtain of her aura, she could have been a statue.
Perhaps she was conserving her energy. Or perhaps she was pushing what energy she could spare across to Roger. I doubted she’d be able to make another thrall very easily, no matter how strong a dark witch she was.
I walked behind the counter to grab my keys. “We’ll have to take both vehicles—you’ll need to get Belle out of there the minute Maelle rescues her.”
“And leave you? No way—”
I swung around and said fiercely, “I can survive whatever he throws at me, but I won’t survive Belle dying. Do as I say, Monty.”
He threw up his hands. “Okay, okay.”
“Good. Maelle, you coming?”
She didn’t answer. She just turned and flowed toward me; death shone in her eyes, and her anticipation—her hunger—was so fierce it burned across my skin and left me breathless.
But as long as she played her part—as long as she saved Belle—then I could live with the outcome. Whatever it was.
It took us twenty-five minutes to reach the acreage outside Argyle. As I turned down the long dirt road that led up to the property situated on the top of the hill, my phone rang. It was Monty, not Clayton.
“I’ll stop here on the main road,” he said. “It should be close enough to pick up the pendant’s signal, but far enough away that he won’t sense me.”
“Okay. Keep safe.”
His laugh was short and sharp. “I’m not the one walking into a madman’s trap.”
“Maybe not, but given he is mad, don’t drop your guard. Especially when Maelle gets Belle out.”
“I know, I know. Just… be careful, and come back alive.”
“That’s the plan,” I said, and hung up.
“I’ll also depart your company here,” Maelle said. “It will take me at least ten minutes to construct the invisibility net, and probably another five to get through his barriers.” Her gaze came to mine, her eyes flat. Lifeless. “Can you last that long?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
She opened the door and disappeared into the scrub lining the side of the road. I undid my seat belt and leaned across to close the door. As I did, tiny moonlit threads encircled my wrist, pulsing with life, strength, and awareness.
Katie.
You are not alone, she said. We are with you.
“Which is the last thing I need—he’s already warned me against using the wild magic.”
I shoved the SUV back into gear and lightly pressed the accelerator, all but crawling forward. The longer I took to get up to the farmhouse, the less time I’d have to survive him.
He may sense a major wave of wild magic, but he will not sense this link.
“And how will that help?” Up ahead, lights glowed, a welcoming warmth that belied the darkness waiting within.
If you allow it, Gabe can come through and share his magical knowledge.
“Come through? As in, his spirit will leave the clearing and start sharing my body space?”
A mix of doubt and trepidation
filled my voice. Allowing spirits to share body space generally didn’t work out that well for those who weren’t strong spirit talkers. Gabe wouldn’t intentionally harm me—and he certainly wouldn’t attempt to oust my spirit and claim my body as his own—but there were certainly many other dangers. I didn’t have my link with Belle to fall back on, and such a merger took a serious toll on the body’s strength—a dangerous thing when mine was already way down.
It’s only a partial merger—he can never fully leave the clearing. He is irrevocably bound to the wellspring.
Meaning what he intended was something along the lines of what I did with Belle when I needed her to see through my eyes. “Even with Gabe’s knowledge, I’m not sure it’ll help counter Clayton’s power—”
You have more magical strength than you know, came Gabe’s comment. It may not have lived up to your parents’ expectations, but do you really think someone such as Clayton would have wanted the marriage if you were truly underpowered?
“If that’s true, why didn’t it show up when I was tested?”
I crawled around a corner and brought the SUV to a brief stop. The trees on either side of the road had fallen away, and the house on the hill was fully visible. It was a long ranch house style brick building with wraparound verandas and not a skerrick of shrubbery or trees around it to hinder a view that probably went for kilometers on a clear day. Even at night, it was the perfect spot for such a confrontation.
I suspect the presence of the wild magic in your DNA may have stymied your natural magic, Gabe said, but with puberty, those restraints began to fade. It would also explain why the spell that saved you from Clayton was infused with wild magic.
It made as much sense as any theory I’d come up with.
You only need to use your magic and Gabe’s knowledge to block whatever Clayton intends for however long it takes Maelle to rescue Belle came Katie’s comment. After that, you can deploy the wild magic.
But not to kill—and not just because that would have Maelle’s need for revenge twist onto me. A death-based act of revenge would irrevocably stain the wild magic.
“Fine,” I said. “What do I do?”