Authors: Penelope Fletcher
“
You shouldn’t be here,”
she muttered.
I arched my eyebrow at this. “What the
hell are you doing here, Ana?” I narrowed my eyes. “I know you live
in the upper dwells, but you’re off track to be at
Temple.”
She untangled herself from the
branches caught in her clothes, and stomped up to me. She
hesitantly brushed her fingertips over the Temple wall and
shuddered. “I was following the pull of black magic. Believe me
when I say I’m more surprised to see you here.” She pursued her
lips and spread her hands out in front of her. “I’m here because
someone is working a spell. Powerful.”
“
Someone you know?” I
questioned, curious.
Her eyes flickered, unfocused, and she
grimaced. “Possibly, but superior practioners of witchcraft don’t
leave a signature in their castings, and the amount of power being
thrown here is immense.” She shrugged and her hand dropped. “Old
members of my Coven had this much power.” She focused on me
abruptly and her hand lifted once more to feel the air, but this
time around me. “You reek of death and your futures are hazy to my
Sight. What have you been doing?”
I remembered the blessing ceremony
with a quiver of revulsion. “You don’t want to know.” Pushing the
hair out of my face I raked my top teeth over my bottom lip
thoughtfully. “Uh, I never realized you belonged to a
Coven.”
“
I don’t,” she said
smoothly. “I used to, of course, but I left. Didn’t I tell you
this?”
I jerked my shoulders not bothered.
“Maybe.”
“
So you’re here for …
shifters … I thought for sure you would carry on for Devlin when
you reached this far. What happened to the grim–” She looked
troubled and rubbed her temples focusing. “It’s so strange…. I
can’t see him anymore. His path is no longer entangled with yours.
He’s just … gone.” She shot a puzzled look at me.
“
What does that
mean?”
She gave me an irritated look. “We’ve
had this discussion before. I can’t tell you reasons why. Only what
is and what isn’t. I don’t like repeating myself.”
“
Helpful,” I said dryly.
“Maybe Breandan will know.”
“
Whatever. I’m not here to
toss theories around with you. I’m here to–” She stopped and cocked
her head, staring through me.
I rolled my eyes down to look at her
and my brows furrowed. “You’re here to….” I clapped my hands in
front of her face.
She twitched then her head snapped to
the tunnel opening. “I came to stop the witchcraft, but since
you’re here….” Ana backed up, shaking her head. “The vampire is
down there.” She took another step back. “I shouldn’t have
come.”
“
Stay,” I begged and
listened to the sounds down in the tunnel. A strangled yell cut off
mid way. Soft grunts were almost drowned out by half bellowed cries
of terror. When she took yet another step I pinned her with a
glare. “You say there is witchcraft here and I don’t know if I will
be able to handle it on my own without Breandan.” I took in a deep
breath. “So please stay with me.”
The noise down the tunnel got louder.
I listened carefully to the sound of many people coming toward us
at speed. I could hear Lex’s fluid footfalls, her two separate feet
almost indistinguishable. Ro’s heavier singular thuds were a few
paces behind. I could also hear what may be claws scraping along
the floor. Paws?
Yellow eyes glinted in the gloom
before a cougar burst out the tunnel opening a moment later,
sailing overhead. Amelia. She turned to scream at us in triumph,
blood-stained jaw opened wide to show four dagger-like canines
curving inward.
Nimah tumbled out behind her sister.
“Oh,” she said dryly. “You again.”
Lex glided into view next and her
chest was drenched with blood. Gasping, I stared at her. She
roughly swiped the back of her hand across her mouth, wiped her
other hand down her front, but it just made matters worse,
especially when she sucked a bloodied finger into her mouth and
groaned, “Mmmm.”
Ro staggered out the tunnel next,
looking bewildered, a pale goblin-child attached to his back. “Not
so easy this time,” he grumbled. Blood ran down his temple and his
movement was sluggish.
“
Where is Tomas?” I asked
and stepped forward into the mouth of the tunnel then stopped. All
the walls closed in around me and I gasped, stumbled back. I
couldn’t go in there … I couldn’t. “Tomas,” I called and my voice
echoed down into the dank dark.
An answering snarl and the sound of
boots scraping along the floor echoed from the passageway. Tomas
appeared from the gloom a moment later, his movement silent and
deadly. He dragged a Cleric by the throat behind him, legs flailing
as he scratched at Tomas’ hand.
A gust of wind blew the Clerics
crimson hood back, and my stomach rolled. “Jono?”
This boy – who a mere few days ago was
my fellow Disciple – started at his name and gazed up at me. Taking
in my tail, wings, he sneered before his eyes bulged. Tomas’ grip
on his throat tightened as he lifted him one handed high into the
air and stared in his face, daring him to sneer again.
Overcoming my shock, I placed my hand
on Tomas’s cold arm. “Don’t kill him. We’ve gotten what we came
for, so just drop him, and let’s get out of here.”
My vampire’s eyes blackened out, the
darkness of his pupils spilling over to stain the whites. His fangs
shot down and buried into Jono’s neck.
Covering my mouth with my hand tears
welled in my eyes and I shook my head.
Lex crouched and made a keening noise,
slapping at Jono’s spasaming body. When Tomas was done he threw the
twitching body at her. She half caught him and fell, rolling out of
sight behind some shrubbery. Then the tearing and guzzling sounds
started. Jono screamed, but it was cut off by a sickening crunch.
Squelching, and greedy murmurs of appreciation came before a
sucking noise that drifted over the sound of my horrified gasps.
The wet sound of flesh tearing had my stomach rolling.
I plugged my nose and ears at the
horrible smells and sounds.
Ro looked ill. Bashing the back of his
head with his palm, he shook his head. Swallowing hard his hazel
eyes fell to the floor.
Lex stumbled out of the bushes, her
chalk white skin soaked in blood. Looking between Ro and me
guiltily, she tried to wipe away most of it, her expression
pleading. Again in her attempts to clean up she smeared more gore
over herself. Most upsetting was the faint rosiness of her skin and
the relaxed set of her shoulders … the look of fulfillment on her
face.
Tomas watched me blankly then his gaze
switched to Ana. He regarded her dispassionately for a while then
looked away his mouth pressed into a thin line. The witch looked
horrified, and seemed to have shrunken in on herself. She turned
her wide eyes to me and opened her mouth to speak.
The klaxon blared.
My hands flew to my ears, as did
Nimah’s and Tomas’. Amelia grumbled and rubbed her head into her
twin’s legs, irritated. The alarm was bloody loud, and I was not
the only one squinting in pain.
“
We can’t leave. Breandan
is coming,” I yelled.
Ana shot a cautious look at Tomas then
shook her head. “Rae, whatever is happening inside those walls is
one of the foulest things I’ve ever felt. We should not be here.
Trust me. Breandan won’t come here if he can feel you’re
gone.”
“
But he knows the Clerics
took me, and he knows that I wouldn’t leave without the shifters.
He’s coming here.”
“
The bond–”
“
It’s fuzzy. I can’t
pinpoint him like I usually can the pressure is too great. It’s
like trying to grasp a single drop of rain in a downpour. I just
know it’s the same for him. He can’t feel where I am just the
direction, and he’ll pass straight through whatever danger is
lurking inside Temple. I can’t risk not being here. What if he
needs me and my power?”
She pressed the heels of her palms to
her eye sockets. “Rae….”
“
I agree with the witch,”
Tomas said. “We should not linger.”
“
We’re staying,” I said
loudly with finality, resisting the urge to stomp my foot. “He’s
coming here. I can’t leave.” I don’t think they understood
physically I could not leave. It hurt to even think about going in
any direction that was not toward him. “Besides, if something bad
is happening we have to help the Disciples.”
“
The same people who would
hunt you down and put a bullet in you?” Ro pointed out
angrily.
I sent him a cold look. “They’re not
all like that and you know it. You’re not like that.”
His chest puffed out. “I’m Vodoun, not
the same thing.”
I inhaled deeply praying for patience.
“They’re worth saving,” I argued vehemently. “We can’t abandon
them.”
Ana’s hands flew up in the air.
“Perfect timing for you to grow a backbone,” she spat
sarcastically. “Really, just perfect. What do you have in
mind?”
“
Well, uh, it would be
useful to know what kind of spell was being cast.”
“
It feels like a summoning.
The power here is being fed from afar and poured into someone,” she
paused, “or lots of someone’s. That would explain why the
reverberation is so vast.” She made a frustrated noise. “Why isn’t
clear. Why are the witches looking down here now? It’s like they’re
looking for something.”
“
Or someone,” Tomas
murmured.
Despite their seeming dislike of each
other they shared an alarmed look. Then all eyes turned to
me.
“
They know,” Ana whispered.
“Somehow the witches know about you, and where you are. It’s the
only thing that makes sense.” She turned to Tomas accusingly. “What
have you done?”
“
Nothing,” he hissed
back.
I held up both my palms. “Well, this
isn’t my fault. The only witch I’ve been near is you Ana, and why
blame Tomas for this? He’s been down here the whole
time.”
Ana lifted her chin. “Do not presume
to know everything about him, Rae.”
“
Don’t push me, witch,”
Tomas snarled.
Ro took a bracing breath then held out
his hand to Lex who grabbed onto it and pressed it to her face. He
grimaced, but did not pull away. “Listen, we need to move. We be
exposed here and they will search the wall perimeter and the
prisons. The Clerics we killed will be found in a few minutes at
best.” He looked at me pointedly. “You know how it works,
Rae.”
I kind of yelped an agreement at him,
my emotions suddenly clutching my airways in a vice like grip. My
head snapped round in the direction of the siren call, and I
gasped, trembled.
“
Rae?” Ana called over the
klaxon sounding worried.
I breathed out and flushed. My skin
felt too small for my body, tight. I ran a hand over my lower
stomach, letting my fingers slowly brush the soft fabric. My
breaths increased until I panted. I pushed my hair back and
remembered the feeling of Breandan running his hands through my
hair.
Amelia’s nose lifted and she sniffed
the air a few times. Her eyes roamed before they settled on me and
she purred.
Nimah stuck her nose up and sniffed
too then she watched me strangely. “I thought only my kind had
mating cycles … but she smells like she’s in heat.”
Hearing this, my hands dropped to my
sides and my mouth swung open, but my attention was diverted yet
again. My heart pounded and my knees shook. My wings uncoiled. My
tail wound round my legs, sliding up and down. I whimpered and my
eyelids drooped as I focused on the tingly buzz that drew
closer.
“
Rae,” Ana said slowly, her
eyes unfocused. “Is Breandan coming? Can you feel him through the
bond?”
I nodded weakly, sighing at his name.
“He’s coming.” The irresistible tug had my whole body swinging to
the direction he was coming from.
“
What’s wrong with her?”
Nimah asked. “She’s more twitchy than usual.”
“
Her lack of awareness is a
side effect of the bond,” Ana explained. “She and Breandan are two
halves of a whole. As they draw closer the urge to touch each other
will increase until they, well, crash together and blow up. He’s
coming for her and she can sense him. That level of emotion must be
distracting.”
I swear, just thinking of Breandan’s
body beneath my hands had heat pooling low in my belly. Had I been
in my normal frame of mind I would have been shamed by my body’s
reaction. I felt sensitive, like the air merely brushing my skin
would cause me to– I swallowed loudly.
“
Is this normal?” I shook
my hands, trying to physically shake the feeling off my fingertips.
“It feels like I’ll combust unless he’s…. I want him, right now.
Here on the ground and I’ll–” Cutting off I blushed
furiously.
“
Please go on,” Nimah said
dryly, clearly enjoying the spectacle I was making of
myself.
Ro snickered, Lex looked perplexed,
and Ana’s cheeks were pink – she could not meet my eye.
Tomas, stood silently taking this all
in, looked supremely pissed off.