by Zandria West
‘If it’s money you’re after –’ he starts.
‘Out. All of you. Hands where I can see them.’ Her gun is now trained on Grayson’s head. If she pulled the trigger now, there’s no way that she’d miss.
I pull out of Reuben’s hold and wriggle free. I can’t leave Grayson out there alone. ‘Open the door,’ I say. ‘Do what she says.’
Reuben narrows his eyes but opens the door. He climbs out first, a little awkwardly because the car is so small and he’s so big, then I follow. Alex climbs out the other side, dusting himself down before raising his hands, and Gabriel emerges last of all.
‘So, you’re what all this fuss is about,’ the girl says curiously, striding towards me. I freeze, and feel the guys moving in closer to surround me. The girl laughs. ‘Jesus, relax fellas, I’m not going to hurt your precious cargo. I’m… what would you call it… Lana’s welcome party.’
I raise an eyebrow. ‘Welcome party?’
‘Your mama sent me.’
My mouth goes suddenly dry. I hear what the girl says but I’m not able to process it. My vision of my mother does not include her being the sort of person who would send a gun-wielding psychopath to randomly kill three people as some kind of bloody welcoming committee to greet me.
‘I thought we were meeting at the convent?’ Gabriel says.
‘Change of plans. The driver was too risky. No way of knowing that one of your enemies hadn’t paid him off to deliver you to them.’
‘So you killed him?’ I say, sick outrage rising in my gut. ‘Because you couldn’t be sure?’
The girl shrugs. ‘Better safe than sorry, no?’
‘And the soldiers?’
She lets out a hard laugh, then clears her throat and spits on the ground. ‘Scum. Insects. The world is better without them, believe me. As is the case for most males,’ she says, casting a hard glance at the men surrounding me. I step forward protectively.
‘What are you suggesting?’ I narrow my eyes, anger growing inside me, humming through my blood, burning in my signs. Nobody can threaten my men without dealing with me. As the anger builds, I feel my magic shift and unfurl, like something newly waking.
‘Lana,’ Alex says urgently. I only vaguely register his hand on my arm. I can feel the snake growing, trying to shake free of my skin, ready to attack. I look down and I actually see it moving, its scales glistening and shifting under my skin. The shock startles the magic from me, like I’m shaking myself free of a strange dream.
The girl holsters her gun and raises her arms in a gesture of peace.
‘My apologies. We have made a bad start. My name is Irena.’ She reaches a hand for me to shake. I grit my teeth but accept it. She’s armed and unstable and has just killed three people in front of us, but apparently my mother sent her. Even though my magic doesn’t like her, basic politeness is probably a sensible approach.
‘Lana,’ I say.
‘Come, Lana. Your Mama’s waiting for you.’
25
ALEX
I don’t know who the hell this commando chick is who’s killed our driver and basically taken us hostage, but to be honest, I’m kind of impressed by her style.
Sure, we could overpower her if we wanted to. She’s got a gun but we’ve got a fucking hard-arse werewolf, and a pumped up mage, and Grayson, who looks like he could just about freeze all living matter with a single glance. But Lana’s necklace says we’re all cool, and the girl knew enough to convince Gabriel she was legit. For the purposes of expediency and to avoid any further bloodshed we’re just following along, letting her wave her little gun around a bit so she feels like she’s in charge. People like that.
All the blood that was spilled in the car made me hungry though, and as I walk a few steps behind Lana I can’t help but study the creamy length of her neck. The small red marks from where my teeth punctured her skin earlier are still visible. I can feel the steady rhythm of her pulse. My cock is straining in my pants at the thought of Lana’s blood on my tongue, her incredible body all mine to enjoy... Lana glances back at me and gives me a cautious look. My god, I have a fucking terrible sense of timing. Now’s not the time. Not for either kind of hunger.
The girl directs us down a steep path that leads into a heavily forested ravine. It’s hot and sticky and the air smells ripe, like it’s tainted by too much decaying plant matter. There’s only room for single file and the girl goes last, Gabriel leading the way. I’ve never been anywhere like this jungle before. It’s lush and green and damp as Lana’s panties were when I pulled them off her in the hotel room. Damn it I just can’t keep my mind straight. It’s like a disease. Even the stinking jungle makes me think about fucking her.
Like she’s reading my mind, Lana slows a little so I’m walking directly behind her.
‘You doing okay?’ she asks, turning to me with a smile.
‘Fine.’
‘Did the blood…?’ she lets the question trail off.
Has she been reading my mind?
She clears her throat. ‘It started when the demons took me prisoner. It got stronger after we finished the binding, and then when we had sex it, well it kind of… amplified…’
I gawp. ‘You’re serious?’
She shrugs. ‘I share some of your powers. That’s part of what the binding is for, isn’t it? You’ve spent enough time spying on my thoughts, now I get to do a little eavesdropping of my own.’
‘Well fuck,’ I say, frowning. My thoughts are so goddamn dirty where Lana’s concerned. I don’t want her to get the impression that I can’t think of anything but sex, even if technically that might be true right at the moment.
She laughs. ‘No shame, remember? Goes both ways, Alex.’
She reaches back and touches my hand, just for a second. The contact causes a cascade of energy to rush through me, like someone just lit a sparkler inside my chest.
‘What do you think of Irena?’ Lana asks more quietly, her voice serious. ‘Can we trust her?’
‘I think she keeps a pretty impressive beauty regime for someone who lives in the fucking jungle,’ I say.
‘Does she have any magic? I haven’t been able to sense any yet.’
My eyes flick forward to where Gabriel is making his way carefully down the slope.
‘I’m not the best person to ask about that, angel. You’d have a better sense of it than me. Gabe would probably be able to tell for sure.’
‘My amulet isn’t warm, but that just means no immediate danger. It doesn’t mean that she won’t try and kill us when we get to where we’re going.’
‘Useless bloody piece of costume jewellery,’ I say, cracking a half-smile as her hand reaches up for the amulet protectively.
‘Hey, it does its best…’
‘So far as I can tell,’ I say, ‘the girl’s told us the truth. She’s working for your mother. She’s taking us to her. We should have expected something like this would happen, really. A witch as powerful as Graciela is supposed to be, who’s been successfully hiding out from everyone her entire life, isn’t going to have made it that long without learning to take precautions.’
‘The boulder just below,’ Irena calls down from above us, ‘stop when you get there.’
Gabriel looks up and exchanges a glance with me. I don’t need any more than that to know what he means. Be ready. Which, of course, I am. I’m not resting my trust in Lana’s amulet or even my own instincts. We’re in the middle of nowhere being led at gun-point to an unknown destination. However I might try to seem to Lana, I am feeling far from fucking relaxed.
I see Gabe slow to a halt. The wary look on his face is replaced by a sudden expression of curiosity.
‘A Vahrstone? I’m surprised to see one of these on this side of the Barrier…’
There’s a clear, level area beside the boulder where Gabe is waiting, so we all huddle around to look at the stone he’s so excited about. It just looks like a regular old rock to me, but what would I know?
‘I don’t k
now what it’s called. I just know how it works,’ Irena says, striding forward. She places her palm on the stone, closes her eyes and mutters a few words under her breath. I feel a shiver move through me, the feeling of magic swirling and building in the air, and then there’s a rumbling and the ground shifts beneath our feet. Irena leans down and with a loud grunt heaves the stone up to reveal a dark passageway beneath it.
‘In we go,’ she says cheerily.
‘Do we have to?’ Lana says, looking down at it and suddenly growing paler.
‘What’s the matter, princess. Afraid of the dark?’ Irena raises an eyebrow at her.
‘I just…’ Lana swallows. ‘Bad things have happened to me in dark places recently.’
I feel a sudden rush of concern. I’ve been so consumed with my lust for her that I’ve almost forgotten how recently it is that Lana was held prisoner, at the mercy of the fucking demon guards, suffering god-knows-what with no hope of escape.
I step forward to comfort her, but before I get there Grayson is standing beside her. He takes both her hands and looks into her eyes, that cold, unwavering gaze not thawing. I don’t know how she can stand it, but weirdly I actually see her exhale, her shoulders lowering as though she’s letting go of the fear that she feels.
‘You can do this,’ I hear him whisper to her. ‘You are the strongest person I know. You’ve been through so much. This is nothing.’
She nods, biting her lower lip. I watch as Grayson tucks one long strand of her brilliant blue hair behind her ear and then runs his fingertips adoringly down her cheek. For a moment, the jealousy I feel is almost unbearable. They have a connection, I can see it as clear as a pimple on a sixteen-year-old boy’s butt. I’d fucking kill Grayson before I’d watch him touch her. But he saved her. I might never have seen Lana again if it hadn’t been for Grayson. He’s given up his home and his destiny for her. I try to swallow my feelings, dull them down to a bitter murmur rather than a murderous roar.
‘This is all very sweet, but I don’t know how long the spell will hold, and if we don’t make it through, we have to wait another twenty-four hours before the door will open again. So if you don’t want to enjoy a restful night out here with the leeches, scorpions, mosquitoes and jaguars, I’d suggest you move.’ Irena has a hand on her hip and is watching Lana and Grayson with open scorn.
‘Lana,’ Gabriel says gently. ‘I think the magic wants you to enter first.’
‘Right. Of course it does,’ Lana sighs, rolling her eyes.
She walks to the edge, puts a hand on the boulder for balance, and steps down into the darkness.
26
LANA
Ugh, another tunnel.
Once we climb the half a dozen steps down, Irena says a few words and the stone lowers back to cover the entrance, blocking out every last hint of daylight and cutting us off entirely from the outside world.
Gabriel murmurs something warlocky. I feel a shifting sensation in the air, then a half a dozen little lights flicker into life all around us.
‘Pretty,’ Irena laughs, ‘but unnecessary.’
She flicks a switch and a moment later, the tunnel is flooded with harsh white light from rows of fluorescents along the tunnel roof.
‘Well that’s quite ruined the atmosphere,’ Alex says.
‘Keep moving. It’s a long way still to camp.’
We begin walking again. The tunnel is wider now than the path was on the mountain, and the slope is gentler, thank god. I find myself walking with Alex on one side and Reuben on the other. Gabriel paces ahead of us, falling into step with Irena, and Grayson follows behind as though he’s taking point.
The tunnel itself appears to be carved into solid rock, the walls and floor are smooth, dark and almost glossy in appearance.
‘What is this place?’ I breathe. I don’t want to draw attention to our presence here by making too much noise.
‘It’s a secret entryway to the temple complex,’ Irena calls back, apparently unconcerned by the eerie surroundings. ‘Dug by hand by slaves thousands of years ago. Hundreds of people died just in this stretch alone. The lighting system is new, of course. Your mother’s initiative.’
I shiver. For a moment I imagine I can sense the spirits of all those poor, dead slaves, still inhabiting the dark corners of the tunnel. Then I notice that there are markings on the wall, so faint that I would have easily missed them. I slow to a stop and study them more closely. A lot of it looks like meaningless scribble, so much so that I’m not sure whether it was made by a human hand or whether it’s some function of weather and time wearing away at the rock. But some are definitely man-made. I see one symbol that’s repeated over and over, scraped into the stone. It’s a crisp, complex geometrical shape that reminds me of a snow-crystal, though why there’d be snow crystals here in this steaming jungle I have no idea. I stare at it. The shape is so familiar, but I just can’t think from where. My father used to have piles and piles of papers recording the ancient occult images decorating the temple complexes he studied. Of course, by the end of his career he took photos of them with a digital camera, but he still found that drawing them was helpful. He told me once that he found the act of tracing the symbols helped him make connections and triggered memories and insights. It was how he made sense of things.
I follow the shape with my finger, and a moment later I let out a gasp.
‘Gabriel, look at this,’ I call. I turn to see that Gabe’s already standing right behind me, staring in wonder. ‘It’s the sign, isn’t it?’ I say. ‘The same sign that we saw when we completed the binding spell. What the hell is it doing in this tunnel?’
‘Didn’t you know?’ Irena says, inserting herself abruptly between Gabriel and I. ‘The tunnel is part of the Greater Temple dedicated to Izushi. That’s her sign. Believers make the journey through the tunnels, touching the sign to invoke her blessing.’
‘Izushi? I haven’t heard of her before.’ I try to recall all the names that I heard my father recite. Deities are given different titles in different places, though many can be traced back to the same origin stories. The God of Light. The God of Darkness. The Goddess. Three that have spawned a multitude, my father always said. He loved studying the stories of the Gods and trying to understand how the stories had changed over time.
‘Izushi is a… local creation,’ Irena says, then shrugs. ‘I am not religious, so I don’t know much more than that, really.’
She begins to hurry along the tunnel again.
I can’t help but stare for a few more seconds until Gabriel’s hand on my arm reminds me that we need to move. It’s like the sign speaks to me. I’m sure that seeing it while the magic of the spell was being cast created a deep mental impression. But this feels like something deeper than that. The sign resonates within me, calls to the deepest parts of me, parts that I’m barely even aware of.
‘What does it mean?’ I ask Gabriel, as I try to keep pace with him.
‘I cannot say,’ he mutters darkly. ‘It is an omen of some kind, but of what…?’
I expect him to know. Of all of us, he always has the clearest idea of what is going on, having had centuries of schooling at the feet of the Great Witch, who also happened to be his mother. It disturbs me to see him looking as perplexed as I feel.
‘Have you heard of this Izushi that Irena mentioned?’ I ask, goosebumps prickling my skin. If Izushi is some kind of deity, as Irena seems to be suggesting, and this is her sign, then maybe the magic has bound me to her too? If so, it seems like something I should know about. I’ve seen enough of my father’s manuscripts to know that many of the gods worshipped in ancient times were temperamental and bloodthirsty and required things of their worshippers that would now be generally regarded as criminal and/or insane.
‘I am sure your mother will explain,’ Gabriel says, though the hint of worry that still presses at his features does nothing to reassure me. ‘It cannot be for no reason that she chose to make this her base…’
‘How do you
all feel about boats?’ Irena asks abruptly, turning to us.
‘Boats?’ Reuben says, frowning.
Alex crosses his arms suspiciously. ‘That depends. Are we talking big or small? What are the waves like? Is it possible for alternative travel arrangements to be made?’
‘I like boats,’ I say. ‘So long as they float.’
‘Great, because yours is waiting for you. Come, I leave you here. You will make this last portion of the journey alone.’
‘I would have thought I’d be happy to hear that. Weirdly, I’m not,’ Alex mutters.
A few steps on and I can see that we’ve reached the edge of the stone walkway after which there is a steep drop. A ladder lowers down to a swiftly flowing river that glitters in the darkness. A small dinghy is tied to the ladder. I don’t see oars or any way of steering it.
‘This entrance to the temple is only permitted to be used by those who have the blessing of Izushi. Which I don’t, apparently,’ Irena says, not looking the least bit disappointed. ‘Hopefully you all do. This is the final test. If you make it through the tunnel, you’ve passed.’
‘And if we don’t?’ Alex says, narrowing his eyes at her.
‘Then you haven’t,’ she shrugs.
‘And you think this is preferable to us traveling with that perfectly adequate driver who you shot in the fucking head?’ Alex’s voice is low but intense.
I feel the hum of his unease through our bond.
‘This is all as Graciela commanded,’ Irena says, meeting Alex’s gaze and holding it. ‘You too are a soldier, Alexander. I’m sure you know what it means to follow orders.’
Reuben snorts from behind me. ‘I could count on the fingers of one hand how many orders our vampire here has followed in the years I’ve known him.’
‘Enough,’ Gabriel says, stepping forward and turning to look at us all sternly. ‘If this is the last test, then we take it. Together.’