Consume (The Devoured Series) (22 page)

"Yes," she laughed and held up her wrist. There was a ring of…smoke around her wrist. "I'm bonded to an Elf. An Elf who hates for me to be late." She smiled as she turned to go and yelled back us. "Magenta hates to be kept waiting, too!"

"Don't, Eli," Finn said immediately. "You know they'll mark you when you go in."

"I don't care about some marking," Eli said as he stared at the door.

"You should! It's permanent!"

"Don't. Care." He looked at Enoch. "You don't have to come."

"Oh, I'm coming. I didn't come this far to turn back at the good part."

"You'll be marked," Eli threw Finn's argument at Enoch.

"So we'll match," Enoch said and marched up the stairs. "I'll even go first."

"Stop!" Finn barked and ran a hand through his hair. "This is your last chance, Eli."

"For what?" Eli said suspiciously.

"To save your soul," he growled. "We’ll find another way to get rid of the bond without marking yourself for all to see as a traitor!"

"She is my soul," Eli said as he looked down at me. He tugged me gently and placed me in front of him, in between Enoch and himself. He whispered into my ear. "Don't be frightened. They are on our side, but it may take some getting used to."

Enoch knocked on the door and it opened immediately to reveal another girl. She looked at them silently. When we stayed silent as well, she cocked her brow. Eli lifted his wrist to show her the barbed string. She gasped slightly and moved aside. "Come on. Quick."

When we crossed the threshold, I felt a slice of pain in my palm. Eli and Enoch hissed, too, and we all looked down to see blood on our palms. Eli glared at her.

She sighed long and loud. "You know there's a marking to enter. The house will take its sacrifice. You are one of us now, for better or worse. Come."

We entered and I tried to ignore the stares of the people as we walked through the old house. My headache was getting worse by the second, and Eli started to notice my squint. "Love?"

"I'm ok," I answered and rubbed my forehead. There was a couple giggling near the fireplace, who stopped once they saw us. Three Devourers were watching with heated interest from the back wall, one with a girl in his lap. Another couple coming down the hall moved out of the way. The kitchen table had several people there eating what looked to be turkey sandwiches. The girl I'd spoken to at the arena, Bridgette, was there with her…Devourer! He put his arm around her protectively and watched us go cautiously.

The girl who answered the door spoke to us again. "I assume you're here to see Magenta?"

"You assume correctly," Enoch answered. "What is Magenta doing at a rebel camp?"

"There's only one reason I can think of why a bonded Devourer would need a Soothsayer," she said casually and turned to us at the bottom of the stairs. She reached out for my hand. I looked at Eli and he nodded reluctantly. She looked closely at my hand in the dimly lit house and nodded. "How long have you been sick?"

My eyes went wide. Eli jerked me behind him keeping an arm around me. "What do you know? You better start talking!"

"I know nothing, but I have eyes and she looks terrible, no offense. And your blood on your hand…"

I lifted my hand to look at it. My palm was stained with streaks of red and steaks of blue. I jerked my hand behind me. I leaned my head against Eli's back. I felt my blood rushing and pounding behind my eyes. I was getting worse and there was nothing to stop it. Eli turned and scooped me up in his arms.

"Take us to Magenta," he ordered.

She nodded once and lifted her arm to the stairs as she moved aside. Eli made quick work of the steps and went to the only door that there was. Enoch opened it and it led to another set of stairs. He took them two at a time. Eli followed at a steadier pace for my benefit. He kissed my hair and said it would be ok.

"Magenta?" Enoch called out. "We need a word, madam."

"That you do," a grave and crackled voice called out. Eli set my feet down gently, but held me to him.

"Madam," he said gently. "We come offering anything you wish, if you'll tell us what we need to do. My bond mate is sick."

"The kind of sick that can't be fixed just-like-that, I'm afraid," she answered. She was sitting on a couch, the middle sunken in and dingy. Her dress was old fashioned and the blue faded. She was old and her fingers were crippled by arthritis. I wasn't sure how, but I could tell she'd once been very beautiful.

She gestured for us to sit across from her and turned the lamp on next to her with a wave of her fingers. I tried not to gawk as we settled on the opposite couch. Cavuto perched himself on the lamp top, basking in the fake UV rays.

The walls were lined with old desks and bookcases, with bottles of herbs and…things.

"Now," she started and smiled a toothless smile. "You bonded him to you, did ya now, girl?"

"Yes, ma'am…uh, madam."

She laughed and then turned serious. "That's strike one."

Eli leaned forward. "What do you mean?"

"I get to ask the questions, not you," she muttered and turned back to me. Her gaze roamed me and she settled on my eyes. "One bonded green, one Devourer purple." She tsked. "Quite a pickle you got yo'selves in."

I nodded as she continued to stare at me.

"And just what is it you think I can do for you?"

Eli answered. "We want a cure."

"Or the bond to be removed," Enoch supplied. "Whatever releases her from the sickness."

She laughed. "Now you know I can't be removing no bonds. You know better 'an that."

"There has to be something-"

"There's nothing," she barked and glared at him. "And if you came here just to free yo'self from the bond, you wasted a perfectly good Witch's stone to get here."

"No, madam," Eli placated. "We came just to see what could be done for Clara. She's been sick ever since…"

"Ever since she took your blood," Magenta supplied and smirked, her wrinkled face lifting.

Nineteen

"How would you know that?" Eli asked as I got up. I could no longer sit there on that couch so still. I walked to the bookcase and found a picture of her. The dress looked the same to me. I eyed her.

"She's got poisoned blood. Your blood, however she got it in her, is fighting her human blood to rule."

"We know all that," Eli said and growled in frustration. "We determined all that already. I want to know how to fix it."

"Can't be fixed." She smiled. "But have a nice trip back."

"You were very pretty, if I can say that," I told her as I examined the photo. Right next to it was a little clear box labeled 'Goblin's Teeth', but the teeth were huge and long. I felt myself frown.

"You may say it," she spouted, "but flattery will get you nowhere. Strike two." I felt my eyes widen in surprise. She apparently didn't like compliments. I went back to my seat beside Eli as he went on talking to her.

"Madam, I know you know something," he accused.

"You don't deserve a cure!" she accused back.

"Why do you say that?"

"Tell her," she said and looked at me. "Tell her the real reason you want to save her."

The breath stilled in my lungs. What did she mean? I looked at Eli. He seemed at a loss as he said, "I love her."

"That's not good enough."

"I love her!" he roared. "She bound herself to me and I want to save her."

"Tell her the truth!" she said just as loudly and waited.

He gulped and looked at me again. His eyes held something… It made me feel funny as I waited for something he obviously had to say. And then his guilt hit me and I held my sob back. Oh, no…

"I want to save her because…" Even though he was speaking to her, he never took his eyes off mine. "Because I'm a better man with her. Because I can't imagine going back to being who I was before I met her. Because I'm afraid…that I could be that monster again without her here loving me." He touched my cheek with the backs of his fingers. "I'm sorry, love, for being so selfish."

Selfish? I turned my glare to Magenta. She seemed amused, which put some fuel into my pissed-off meter. "How dare you?"

Eli took a swift breath in surprise of my comment. Magenta just kept smiling. "Clara," he chastised.

"How dare you judge the whys of our relationship," I kept going. "You want me to be angry at him for feeling that way? Well I don't. Isn't that what love is supposed to be? Completely consumed by someone to the point that even the thought of not being with them through eternity is agony? He loves me, I don't doubt that. And I love him. If I had to go back to my life before him…I can't imagine that hell."

"Is that really how you feel?" she asked after a pause.

"Yes."

"Strike three. I'm afraid I can't do a whole lot for you," she said and leaned forward. "Love is beautiful, keen, tenacious, willing, all consuming an' sacrificial. I see all of dat in ya both. But the problem is that the sacrifice of love sometimes costs us more than we pay."

"But…" I thought hard of a way to convince her. "If it's love you're looking for-"

"It's not." She leaned back and looked contemplative. "You got three strikes which means you're deserving. You sure are deserving of it, girl. But I'm sorry.
You've
sacrificed all there is.
You
have nothing left to give."

My throat caught on a sob. "So this is it for me?"

"You won't survive if the Devourer blood wins. I'm sorry."

"No," Eli voiced a tortured plea. "No, please, madam."

"It's out of my hands," she told us and looked at Eli long and hard. He eventually turned away from her and gripped me behind my neck to pull me to him. He shhed me as another sob broke through. His face was a picture of agony as he tried to soothe me.

Enoch cursed and stood. "That can't be the end of it."

She spoke in that same haunting tone, "There is nothing
you
can do either."

"Well…" He looked at Eli and I knew what was coming. I begged him silently not to say it, but he was an idiot. "The bond will break this way. At least she can go peacefully and you can be you again."

Eli put me aside gently and lunged for him. I put my head in my hands and refused to watch and Eli shoved Enoch to the wall. He growled all sorts of things in his brother's face before backing up. His eyes were wild as he looked at me and came to help me stand. "Come on, love. Let's go home."

I didn't want to, but I let him take me. The thought of Mrs. Ruth and Pastor trying to figure out what was wrong with me and watching me die was not an option.

I thought about that as Eli led me silently down the stairs. Bridgette was standing at the bottom of them, waiting with her mate and a whole group of others silently. It was as if they'd been expecting us to leave unhappy. She patted my arm as we passed.

Enoch followed behind, but was silent as well. My mind raced. We arrived back at The Wall entrance and Eli found the sliver. We went through, but he let it go just in time to stop Enoch. I heard him muttering as he opened it for himself.

We walked through the brush and moved the large branches from our way, and then we were on the bank again. It wasn't until we were there that I realized we left Cavuto.

"Cavuto," I said to Eli.

"He's fine where he is. It's better for him there anyway."

Then bright lights were suddenly shone on us from the trees. It hurt so bad that I screamed as I pressed my face into Eli's shirt front. My senses were still on high alert. It was dark here now, but we had company.