Darkness & Discovery (The Bespelled Trilogy #2) (27 page)

Jin
muttered, “This is cool,” before beginning again. He went on and on for about
twenty minutes. And then without warning, a bright flash of light shot through
the room, slamming into Bryn’s lifeless body.

Bryn
sat up abruptly and exclaimed, “Sweet Mother of God that was a rush!”

“You’re
back!” Augustine exclaimed, then grabbed Bryn’s face between his palms and
planted a big kiss on his lips.

“Nice
to see you too, mate,” Bryn grinned when Augustine let him up for air.

“Oh
man. I didn’t need to see that,” Mikey muttered, blushing embarrassedly.

Augustine
seemed to remember a few key facts about his relationship with Bryn then,
namely that they weren’t in one, and stepped back from the warlock quickly with
a mumbled apology.

Bryn,
who now had a big red bloody handprint on each cheek, looked around the room
and said, “Hello all.” His gaze stopped on Jin and he stuck out his hand. “Jin
Cheng, I presume.”

“Um,
hi. Sorry about the time I tried to knock your house down,” Jin said
embarrassedly as they shook hands.

“This
more than makes up for it, mate,” Bryn said cheerfully. “Say, do you know you
look about sixty?”

“Yeah.
I tried to make myself look older so I could gamble, and kind of overshot. Now I’m
stuck,” Jin explained. “Oh, and this is my brother Mikey. He’s stuck, too, only
he didn’t overshoot quite as far as I did.”

Bryn
barely flicked his wrist, and a pair of skinny, slightly awkward teens replaced
the middle-aged men. “Wow, thanks. You have to show me how to do that,” Jin
said.

“I
kind of told the brothers that you might be willing to teach them how to
control their power,” I said as I went over to the sink and washed my bloody
hands. Joey and Alastair followed suit.

“I’ve
thought all along that the Warlocks Cheng would benefit from my instruction,”
Bryn said as he plucked the oxygen tube out of his nose. He then felt for the
bundle of tubes and wires disappearing under the neck of his hospital gown,
grabbed them in his fist, and yanked them all out at once. I flinched and
looked away. An alarm started to go off and he silenced it with a tiny gesture.

“Are
you ok, Bryn?” I asked with concern, risking a peek at him after a moment.

“Yeah,
never better,” he said, swinging his legs off the bed. “I feel like I’ve slept
for a week and had a gallon of coffee.” He hopped onto the floor, then reached
behind himself to clutch the hospital gown shut. “A bit breezy back there.
Anyone seen my clothes?”

“Are
you sure you should be up and moving around?” Joey asked. “You were almost dead
all of five minutes ago.”

“Ach,
I’m fine. And I need to get out of here. I absolutely despise hospitals, they
give me the willies.”

Augustine
washed up quickly, then laid some clothes on the bed as he said, “Let’s give
Bryn some privacy,” before leading the way into the hall. And when he shut the
door behind us, he said, “I’m going to take off. Please keep an eye on Bryn for
me, will you?”

“Why
are you leaving?” Alastair asked.

 “Because
I just made a total and complete ass of myself, and I’m not going to stick
around and embarrass myself further,” he admitted. He turned and started to
retreat down the hallway, and bounced off thin air like he’d hit a brick wall,
landing hard on his back.

Behind
us, Bryn chuckled and said, “You’ve always been such a drama queen, Augie.” We
all turned to look at him. He was dressed in his immaculate grey suit again, adjusting
his tie. He’d washed his face and hands and combed his hair (all in about ten
seconds) and looked like his old self again, right down to the mischievous
sparkle in his dark eyes.

He
walked over to Augustine and held a hand out to him, and hoisted him up off the
floor. “So, you kissed me. So what? It’s a well-known fact that I’m completely
irresistible, so who can blame you? Now come on, let’s go hail a cab. Because you
know what I need after a literal out-of-body experience? An offensively huge
steak, one that would positively
horrify
any vegetarians in the vicinity.”

“I
hate that trapped in an invisible box like a mime trick, Maddock,” Augustine
fumed.

“I
know you do. And that’s what makes it extra funny,” Bryn said with a big smile.
He looked at us over his shoulder and said with a wink, “Thanks mates, I
appreciate the assist. Jin, my number’s now in your phone. Let’s talk soon and
set up some meetings, I’d be happy to teach you what I know.” And to the rest
of us he said, “Ta kids, see you in a couple hours.” He linked arms with
Augustine and said to him as they took off down the hall, “There’s a steak
house in the Venetian I’ve been wanting to try. And I hear they make the best
martinis in Vegas.”

“No
more alcohol,” Augustine growled. “I mean it. If I see you touching liquor
again I will smack it out of your hand.”

“You
and what army?” Bryn wanted to know as they rounded the corner.

“Alright,
peeps,” Jin said. “Our work here is done. I should have asked Bryn to make me
look a little older so I could keep on gambling, but oh well.” He turned to his
brother and said, “You’ve been wanting to check out that roller coaster at the
top of the Stratosphere. How about we go do that?”

“About
time,” Mikey said.

“Um,
you’re forgetting one thing,” I said, tilting my head toward Alastair.

“Oh
yeah, my bad,” said Jin. He stepped forward and rested two fingers on Alastair’s
temple. I noticed that at some point, both he and his brother had used magic to
clean the blood off their hands. “Dude,” he said, “I’m sorry I did this to you.
It wasn’t cool. It’ll just take me a minute to remove this spell.” He closed
his eyes and concentrated, reaching out to his brother, who took his free hand.

I
chewed on my thumbnail and waited anxiously. All around us, hospital staff
flowed past like we were rocks in a stream, oblivious to our presence as they
went about their compelled business.

A
light sweat broke out on Jin’s upper lip, and he murmured, “Damn, this thing’s
a mess. I really didn’t know what I was doing when I cast this spell. Give me
just a second.” And he went back to concentrating, his brows knit above his
closed eyes.

About
two minutes later, Alastair gasped and stepped back, his eyes wide. “Did it
work?” I asked him, and he nodded.

“Ok,
we’re outta here,” Jin said. He handed me a thick embossed business card with
his name and number on it. “Take this, just in case you need to reach me.”

“Thanks.
Oh hey, Jin,” I called after him as he and his brother started to leave. He
turned toward me, and I said, “I meant what I said before. Call your brother Tyler,
ok? He’s worried about you.”

“Tyler’s
a dork.”

“Call
him anyway,” I urged.

“We’ll
see,” Jin said with a grin, and then he and his brother took off down the hall.

I
turned back to Alastair and asked, “You ok, Allie?”

He
shook his head no.

I
gestured toward Bryn’s room. “Come and sit down.”

But
Alastair remained where he was and murmured, “Oh God.”

“Allie,
should I run and get Jin? Did he mess something up?” Joey asked with concern.

But
Alastair again shook his head. He looked absolutely stricken.

“What’s
wrong, Alastair? What is it?” I asked, my voice rising in alarm.

And
he met my eyes and said, “I remember.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Your memories are
back?” I asked excitedly.

He
nodded, raising a hand to his mouth. “I remember…everything,” he whispered.

I
took a step toward him, and he stepped back from me. “Allie, what’s wrong?”

“Oh
God, Lu,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry. I should never have come near you. I
could have killed you.”

“No.
Allie, you’d never hurt me.”

He
met my gaze again. “I’m a monster. God, the things I’ve done.”

“This
is obviously a lot to handle, being hit with two centuries of history at once,”
I said. “You just need some time to process all of this.”

“I
need to go,” he said.

“What
do you mean? Go where?”

“I
don’t know. Away. Away from you, away from people. It’s…God, it’s so much worse
than I ever imagined,” he said, anguish in his eyes as he linked his fingers
together and pushed his hair back from his face. “
I’m
so much worse than
I ever imagined. You’re not safe around me. No one is.”

“Allie,
let’s go sit down,” I said.

He
turned to our companion. “Please keep her safe, Joey. Get out of this town, take
her someplace where no one will hurt her. She’s all that matters.” He met my
gaze and said, “I love you, Luna.”

In
the next instant, he was gone.

“No,”
I gasped, and spun toward my friend. “Joey, you have to go after him. You have
to stop him!”

But
Joey was shaking his head. “He told me to look after you, and that’s exactly
what I’m going to do.”

“If
you’re not going after him, I’ll go myself,” I exclaimed, and took off at a
sprint, down the hallway and down the stairs.

A
minute later, I burst into the dark hospital parking lot and yelled, “Allie,
come back! I love you!” I whirled around, looking in every direction, but the
parking lot was deserted. Alastair was gone. “Oh God,” I whispered.

“Now
that’s just pathetic,” a voice behind me said. “Your man dumps you, and you run
after him and beg him not to leave you? Where’s your dignity?”

I
spun toward the voice. A beautiful young woman with cascading blonde curls was
strolling toward me, her blue eyes cold, calculating.

“Who
are you?” I demanded.

“Oh,
I’m sorry,” she said. “We haven’t been properly introduced. My name’s Mrs.
Alastair Davies. But you can call me Elizabeth.”

Chapter Nineteen

“Elizabeth,” I murmured,
then looked over her shoulder for Joey.

“Your
playmate isn’t coming,” she said. “I asked a few friends to look after him for
me, and they were more than happy to help. Seems a lot of people want a piece
of that traitorous little vampire.” She smiled sweetly, revealing long, sharp
fangs. I turned on my heel and took off running.

She
was ahead of me moments later, laughing delightedly. “Really? You think you can
outrun a vampire? Are you
kidding
?”

We
were now around the far edge of the hospital, in a loading zone. I looked
around frantically, and realized I’d managed to isolate myself pretty
thoroughly. I mentally slapped my forehead, and then swooped down and pulled my
little snake knife out of my boot. “Back off, Elizabeth,” I said, pointing the
knife at her.

She
grinned at that. “Ah, so there’s more to the little girl than meets the eye. I
didn’t realize you were attuned to black magic. Is that what drew Alastair to
you in the first place? He does love a woman with a dark side.”

In
the next instant she kicked my hand so hard that I felt my wrist shatter, and I
cried out as the pain shot up my arm. I dropped the little knife, and it
immediately reappeared in my other hand. I tried to hold it up to ward her off,
and she grabbed that hand and wrenched it back so hard that I felt bones
snapping as I screamed. My knees buckled and I dropped to the ground, the pain
almost making me black out.

“You
know what’s
really
annoying?” she said conversationally as she pulled a
sword out of a sheath across her back and pointed it at my chest. “The fact
that my two-timing husband gave you my necklace. The nerve of that man!”

“You’re
not married anymore, Elizabeth,” I managed through the almost blinding wall of
pain, my broken hands collapsed uselessly against my legs.

“Of
course we are. I never agreed to that annulment! Alastair’s
my husband
,
and you’re wearing
my necklace
,” she growled, and lunged at me, pulling
it from around my neck.

She
stood back and gloated, holding the pendant up triumphantly. In the next
instant, her eyes went wide with surprise, and she started to fall. But before
she hit the ground, she crumpled and vanished, becoming nothing more than a bit
of dust that was quickly distributed in the breeze.

Joey
stood there holding the pendant in one hand and a long wooden stake in the
other as he said, “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce Elizabeth and
Alastair well and truly divorced.” He was battered, his clothes torn, his chin
and the front of his shirt blood soaked, but he was smiling.

Until
he looked at me.

“Oh
God, Lu.” He scrambled to my side, catching me as I fell over.

“Joey,”
I mumbled. It was hard to talk for some reason. Joey propped me up in his arms,
and took hold of something right in front of me. I looked down and saw
Elizabeth’s sword, sticking out of my chest. He had taken hold of the handle,
and pulled it out in a quick, fluid motion.