BROKEN BLADE (33 page)

His arms fell away and I put distance between us, following that alien music.

The vase.

“Know where it is?” Justin asked.

“Down.” I swallowed and searched the area. The feel of vampire was still strong enough to make my skin crawl. And somehow, I knew where they were. We had to go down. Into the basement. Surrounded…trapped…

My gut crawled.

I squeezed the blade and forced myself to ignore the sound of the silence in the back of my mind.

The music grew louder.

“What am I hearing?” Doyle asked.

If I’d had the brain cells to spare, I might have been surprised that he felt it. The magic was strong, almost overpowering, but I wouldn’t have expected a shifter to
hear
the power of it.

I didn’t have the brain cells, though, and I was trying hard not to focus on anything but the steps that unwound in front of me.

And…her.

I looked at Justin.

Sometime in between one heartbeat and the next, she’d arrived.

Maybe the magic of the vase had blunted her presence.

Maybe the magic of the witches had made it harder to feel her.

Maybe the battle had blinded us to her.

I just didn’t know.

But she was here.

And if luck would play out the way it always did…she would be down
there
…

“You truly are a clever, silly girl.”

I rounded the final curve and stopped, my back pressed to the wall.

We hadn’t yet seen the humans and now I knew why.

They lay in a neat little pile, like puppies.

Around them was a wall of vampires, all of the ones that remained, I suspected.

Every single one of them had more than a century behind them. The look in their eyes was something bright and blank and…avid.

“The lights are on but nobody’s home,” I said, wondering if anybody would realize what I was talking about.

Justin grunted.

“I can just turn the room into an oven,” Tate said.

“No. Humans.” I stared at the people for a long moment and then shifted my attention to Pandora. “If you already found the vase, why did you need me?”

“Because I
hadn’t
found it.” She smiled, her voice bright and cheerful, like a teacher encouraging a young child as she fought her way through a problem. And her eyes glinted with promises of pain. “That was why I needed
you
. I’m tired…this body is tired. I could only reach so far and why should I extend myself if I could let somebody else do the work?”

She smiled at me and then moved away from the gathered knot of vampires, lifting her arms and turning in a circle. “I can feel it now…it calls me. Don’t you hear it?”

Bat-shit crazy bitch.

Her head whipped around and she stared at me. “You annoy me, Kit. Don’t push your luck or I’ll just kill you now and be done with it.”

She turned her back on me and strode across the room. “Kill her keepers but leave the girl alive. She might be of use yet.”

Well.

That was stupid.

I didn’t have time to panic as vampires lunged for me.

I didn’t have time to scream.

I didn’t have time to
think
.

Just move.

* * * *

Their blood was a stain on my skin and still there were more.

In the air, Pandora’s voice was a mocking laugh. I fought with my back pressed to Justin’s, his magic an extra shield around us.

More specifically…around Tate.

Her cockiness had gotten her in trouble and the only reason she was alive was because Doyle had ripped the vampire who’d been feeding on her in two. Literally. Justin had slapped a magic-charged fielding dressing on her jugular but she was unconscious.

At least she was alive.

Paddy was alive.

Torrance wasn’t.

He’d used that freaky ass power of wood to impale several vampires, but one of them, even as he was driving the wood into the vampire’s heart, the vampire had impaled
himself
…on Torrance.

The two lay locked together in a grim, obscene embrace, the image forever smeared across my memory.

Silver slashed out. Blood sprayed across my lips and I wanted to wipe it off but I didn’t dare. Two of the vampires had been strong enough to power through Justin’s shields. They’d almost gotten Tate.

The strongest one tried to shove through again and I swung. At the same time, something attacked Justin’s wards and he bellowed—the sound cut off abruptly. His wards flickered—died.

Justin—

Hands grabbed me.

Panic screamed inside me and without realizing it, I drew Death and swung.

He met undead flesh and cleaved through it, and in the back of my mind, over my panic, I felt his near-orgasmic pleasure.

Get out—get out—get out!
I screamed at him.

He only laughed.

Fangs flashed at me and I raised the blade, drove him into that snarling mouth before the vampire realized the game had changed. He was dead a second later and I moved on. Another fell.

Their blood painted me now and dully, over the roar of my blood, I could hear Pandora. I heard her laughter…those bell-like tones. 
Ask not for whom the bell tolls…

Silver flashed out and closed around my wrist. Another strand caught the sword.

I jerked back and looked up as Justin rose from the floor, his clothes dripping with vampire blood. He barely managed to stay on his feet.

Doyle pounced, landing on four paws between us, opening his mouth to scream in fury at Justin.

Justin glared at him. “Not impressed. The sword is trying to take her over and she’s got a void in her mind right now—she’s vulnerable. You want to lose her to a devil blade like that, cat?”

The words were enough to make the giant tiger look unsure.

I swallowed and looked at the blade, threw it down. “Justin, I’m fine.”

He stared at me, his eyes hard. Then he nodded and turned to face Pandora. I followed the line of his sight and found myself staring. Pandora sat on the pile of humans, all of them unconscious. Unconscious, thank God, not dead. She sat on them like they were some sort of living, breathing throne. Next to her, lying almost negligently, was a vase…and it was a massive son of a bitch, too. Nearly two feet tall. She held it in place, one hand curled around what looked to be a curved, sweeping handle.

It was deceptively simple, black with images painted on the side. Images of monsters. Creatures of nightmares. The monsters that had broken me…and they surrounded a woman.

Pandora’s Box.

Doyle made a deep grumbling sound in his chest.

Justin tensed next to me.

Decision time.

* * * *

“Where is the girl?” she asked.

I blinked.

Instinctively, I flexed my hand and she started to laugh. “Oh, that’s so precious. Even with the bond broken, you still long to call it. And you have the stupid, silly blade
with
you…”

No. No, I didn’t.

I carried the leaf blade.

I breathed shallowly.

She knew so much. But maybe not as much as she thought.

A coy smile curved her lips as she watched me. “Where is the girl, Kitasa?”

“What girl?”

She reached down and stroked her hand down the flank of the one of the humans she used for her perch. “Don’t be a fool,
aneira
. You know which one.” She rose and it was all fluid grace and boneless movement. Nobody should be able to get off a pile of humans and look graceful, but she did it. “I sought you out because I
knew
it would all come together for you. My wolf told me the girl was seeking you.” She looked off to the side and fury exploded through me as Gio came slinking out of the shadows. He went to his knees and pressed his face to her leg.

That son of a bitch. Part of me realized she had compelled him, controlled him. And it didn’t matter. She stroked a hand down his hair and he watched her adoringly. The bastard had spied on me. Betrayed TJ. Betrayed all of us…and he was staring up at her like he wanted nothing more than to hump her leg. Pandora gave me an amused look. “He told me that you had this…softness for children. Then she came to you. I know my offspring, silly girl. I felt her there, and I knew. I knew it would all come together…for me. Because it’s your nature. That nasty, amazing luck.”

I felt like I’d been punched.

It must have shown on my face because she started to laugh again. “Don’t look so upset, Kit.” A smile curved her face. 
Come on…it’s no big deal!
  “I needed your help. And it’s only fair…all of the things I could give to
my
creatures and I could never quite duplicate something like that. How everything neatly falls into place for you?”

“
Neatly
?” I snarled, damn near choking on the world. “You think my
life
has neatly come together, you crazy bitch?” Fear took a back seat as she stood there, practically patting me on the head like a pup that had done a good job chasing down a bone.

“So touchy. You didn’t spend centuries
trapped
,” she said, ice dripping from her words. “
I
did. Centuries, Kitasa. I spent years trapped, my power fading away bit by bit, my body wasting away…then those fools take me from the witches…”

She shrugged and looked at her vase. “They didn’t even realize what they’d done. Once I was out of their spells, I was free to come and go, but they didn’t
get
that. They had their
own
witches…imbeciles, all of them, chanting over the vase, like they were trying to conjure up the devil. I waited until I was alone because it was time. I had to find my new vessel so I left.” She frowned, a line between her eyes. “The world…it’s become so big.”

“I thought the vase was
stolen
from you.”

She blinked. “It was. When I emerged, it was in this dull little gray room.” She flicked a hand as though she was brushing away the memory. “A dull grey room with a huge lock for a door, as though that would keep me in.”

Likely to keep others out
, I thought. A vault, probably. A walk-in sort in one of the Allerton homes in the city.

“But when I went back…the vase was gone. I hadn’t found the girl. I couldn’t find my vessel…”

She looked confused. Lost.

Poor thing.

“Let me get this straight,” I said slowly, tightening my grip on the sword and trying to decide if she’d die if I took her head. Probably. Most things needed a head to survive, right? Maybe even
all
things. “You hired
me
because you couldn’t figure out where they’d taken the damn thing after you climbed out of it.”

Pandora gave me another one of those inhuman stares. In the back of our souls, we all remember what it’s like to cringe and hide in the dark. We know what it’s like to be weak, to fear that dark.

Pandora
was
the dark.

“I think I tire of you,” she murmured. “I’ll find the girl myself. She’s of my blood, and carries the child of a cat, I already know that. If I must cut them all down to find her, I will. I have my vessel. I no longer need you.”

Justin’s magic flashed, hard and bright.

I bolstered my own shields although I didn’t know what good it would do.

Pandora turned her back on us, chuckling. “As if I’d waste my energy. Cat…kill them.”

Doyle growled.

Chapter Twenty-Six

His growl rolled around the room and sweat dripped down my back, icy and cold as I shifted my gaze to look at the tiger. He lay low to the ground, body tensed and ready, eyes glowing as he stared at Pandora.

She drew the vase down as though it weighed nothing.

“I said kill them!” she snapped.

“Kit,” Justin said, his voice ragged. “I have to—”

“No.”

I drew my gun.

Doyle lunged.

Justin’s wards screamed as the tiger fought his way through them and then Pandora’s scream joined them. “You stupid—”

Blood, the hot, iron scent of it, flooded the air. Shifter blood.
Wolf
blood.

Doyle took Gio down, his face buried in the werewolf’s neck and the smaller man struggled under Doyle’s weight, but he was outmatched in so many ways. Blood sprayed in an arc and I heard a heartbeat stutter, then falter, then end.

Pandora bellowed and lunged.

Doyle met her halfway.

Please don’t die
—

Leveling the Desert Eagle, I aimed at the vase. How nice of her. She’d set it up and all nice and steady—

I unloaded and watched as the bullets pounded into it.

One.

Two.

Three.

Charged ammo—but the vase was magic. Old magic and the first one didn’t penetrate.

Pandora shrieked and she threw Doyle off. More blood; this time it was Doyle’s. But she had blood dripping down the front of her body and my nose had caught the scent. It wasn’t cat’s blood. Talon claws raked her face and there was a gaping bite mark in her neck, already knitting itself together.

She bled.

That meant she could die.

She came for me and I shifted my focus.

Time slowed to a crawl as I took aim.

Es’s voice seemed to wrap around me.

She hasn’t been of our world all that long…she’s won’t
expect some of the tricks you might have up your sleeve
.

I pulled the trigger.

Pandora stumbled to a halt as the bullet ripped into and took away the top half of her skull.

I shoved my gun into the sheath and, without blinking, grabbed Death.

His scream of joy rang in my head as I spun and whirled, taking off what remained of her head.

The vase exploded.

* * * *

I wasn’t going to get sick.

As long as I didn’t think about the fact that I was covered with vampire blood and as long as I didn’t think about the fact that Death was still trying to whisper to me, his voice louder than ever.

“We need to move,” Justin said, his voice urgent. “Come on, Paddy. I know you’re tired, but we need—”