Now Tobias arched a black brow. “Do you really think that Chan will listen? The man is like a dog with a bone. He will not stop. Not until he completes his mission.”
“Chan is many things. Aye, bloody stubborn is definitely one of them. But he is not stupid. We will make him see.”
KELSEY MIGHT HAVE ARGUED THAT. HER HEAD WAS pounding, her mouth felt dry as cotton, and the weakness had only gotten worse. Glaring at Chan and Dawn through slitted eyes, she hoped neither of them could see how horrible she felt. It was a false hope, though, at least with Dawn.
The other witch knew exactly how Kelsey felt. Her eyes lingered on Kelsey’s neck. Kelsey had to resist the urge to touch her neck. She knew Mal’s bite had long since healed completely over. Vampire saliva sped up the healing process miraculously. Still, a witch wouldn’t necessarily have to see the bite marks to know it had happened, not when Kelsey was still showing signs of low blood volume.
Then there was the fact that Kelsey still smelled like Malachi.
She doubted it had escaped either of the Selects’ notice, but Chan didn’t look as concerned as Dawn did. Just went to show that Dawn was the smarter one.
Dawn also sure as hell knew her magicks. They’d come on her when she was sleeping and in her weakened state, Kelsey had made an easy target for Dawn’s containment spell. She couldn’t use magick to bust her way free. At least not until she got her strength back.
And she was no longer on Brendain lands. She’d know if she was. While at Brendain, a part of a witch’s training was helping to add to the shields that protected the school. Her magicks. Her energy. She could have tapped into that to restore her energy, and she had planned on doing that, after she’d gotten some rest.
But now it was too late; she was cut off.
Knowing that, and knowing that she was in a place nearly as secure as Brendain, Kelsey had an idea she knew exactly where she was.
From time to time, the ferals who were brought before the Council numbered too great. Too many for the dungeons they had. More than two hundreds years ago, the Council had decided to build another secure place to keep prisoners should the need arise.
It was also an excellent place for training the psychically gifted. Outside stimuli were dulled, and internal forces were contained without the spelled walls. With a secure prison built into its lowest levels, Hartford was a stronghold. The little-known manor was located in the New Forest, and it had nearly as much magick poured into it as Brendain did.
If she had been at full power, Kelsey knew she could have gotten out. The magick of Hartford hadn’t been intended to hold a Hunter—just ferals. Breaking through the spells Dawn had wrapped around her would take considerable energy and skill, but Kelsey could have done it.
If she had the internal resources.
As it was now, she would have to wait to be found.
Malachi would find her. She knew it in her gut. But she wasn’t exactly sure what Chan had planned and had no idea how much time she had before he acted on his plans.
Hoping there was a possibility that he could be reasoned with, she asked, “You realize how foolish you’re being?”
“You were the fool. Why did you sacrifice everything for her? She has killed. She has blood on her hands. Evil in her soul.”
Arching a brow, Kelsey looked into Chan’s almond-shaped eyes. “You never even spoke to her, Chan.”
That didn’t seem to concern him. Calmly, he replied, “She was charged and found guilty before the Council.”
“Yes. And then I spoke with her.” Kelsey kept her voice level, staring into Chan’s eyes, hoping like hell the man had some small bit of common sense buried under that stoic exterior.
A small smile curled his lips, and he murmured, “Must have been a riveting conversation. I hope it is worth what it will cost you.”
Dawn was leaning against the wall, staring at the two of them with worried eyes. “Chan—”
Chan cut her off, staring at her with cold eyes. “Silence, Dawn. We do not suffer traitors.”
Kelsey asked quietly, “And will you suffer Malachi when he comes after you if you do so much as lift a hand to me? You’re already in a world of trouble with him.”
“I will handle that when I must. But I will not shirk my duty for fear of Malachi. For fear of anybody.”
That soft, steady voice was one of the most terrifying things she had ever heard. Leaning back in her chair, she lowered her hands to her lap, hiding them under the table. Hopefully, he hadn’t noticed their trembling. “And you’ll make her suffer as well?” Kelsey asked with a look at Dawn. “You brought her into this because you needed her help. Should she have to face the Council, once they understand what has happened?”
Dawn licked her lips as Chan said, “The Select understand our duties, Kelsey. Better, it would seem, than the Council.”
Judging by the fear in Dawn’s eyes, Kelsey wasn’t so sure that the witch was completely behind Chan. That suspicion was confirmed when Dawn asked softly, “What do you mean, once they understand what has happened?”
But Chan didn’t let Kelsey respond. He moved between the two women and stared at Kelsey. His eyes were glowing now, hot with determination. “Dawn, you have done your part. You may go.”
“Go?” the younger witch sputtered. “Where? Just where in the hell am I supposed to go? You may be willing to face Malachi, but I am not.”
“Why are the two of you so certain Malachi will disapprove of the Select’s course of action?” Chan asked, his tone almost bored.
Lifting one shoulder in a shrug, Kelsey murmured, “He will come after me, Chan. It wouldn’t matter if I had been grabbed by the CIA, by the KKK, or by the exalted Select. Mal will come for me.” She knew it in her gut.
Dawn murmured, “He’s laid a claim on her, Chan. I can feel it. He will look for her. And I don’t wish to be the one standing between them.” She glanced at Kelsey, and then she pressed her lips together in a flat, thin line. She shook her head, the short, dark tresses of her hair floating around her head. “I will
not
be the one standing between them. Nor will I face the Council without her.”
Chan arched a brow. “Kelsey will not return to the Council. Our lands are not for traitors.”
Dawn glanced at Kelsey before she looked back at Chan. “That wasn’t what you told me. I was told we were going to find out what she knew about the prisoner. I had no idea you had plans to act as her judge and jury.”
The word
executioner
was left off, but Kelsey heard it all the same. Blowing out a soft breath, she said, “The Select acts under Council orders only, Chan. You took an oath on that.”
“I took another oath—one to protect and uphold the honor of the Council. That is exactly what I will do.”
Okay . . . I think this might be taking duty a little too far
, Kelsey decided as she stared in his flat, unyielding eyes.
A COLD CHILL RACED DOWN HIS SPINE. AT THE SAME time, Malachi felt the tightening in the air that signified some sort of magick working. It was gone abruptly, but it filled Malachi with foreboding.
Deep in his gut, he felt it. He knew.
Fangs dropped from their sheaths, and rage tightened his entire body. Looking up, he stared into Tobias’s eyes. The shifter was nearly as sensitive to magick as Malachi was, and he’d felt the passage of the magick as clearly as Malachi.
“What troubles you?” Tobias asked quietly.
“Kelsey.” The word felt as though it had been pulled from his throat, dragged over broken edges of glass.
A scowl darkened Tobias’s face, and he said, “That was not Kelsey’s magick.”
“No. It was the magick of somebody who will bring her harm.” For a moment that stretched out into forever, he stared at Tobias, and then he disappeared, re-forming in Kelsey’s room just seconds later.
Alone.
He stood there at the foot of the bed, staring at the rumpled sheets, smelling the lingering scent of their lovemaking and the fading scent of magick. Dawn. Dawn had been here.
But she hadn’t been alone.
There was another scent, and the tension knotting his muscles exploded into hot fury. The door burst open, and Tobias strode in. He froze as he recognized the soft, springlike scent that was Dawn’s and the unmistakable musk of vampire. “Chan,” Tobias murmured.
“Aye. If he has harmed her, he is worse than dead.”
Tearing his gaze from the shifter, he reached down and grabbed onto the sheets, bringing them to his nose. He breathed in the sweet, warm scent of Kelsey’s skin, using it to focus on her. From the moment he had met her, there had been an awareness of her, one that went straight down to his bones. It was something that eclipsed mere lust, mere hunger.
With blinding clarity, he finally knew.
Kelsey was more than just a woman he wanted until it was an obsession. She was more than just a woman he’d been dreaming of for centuries. She was his, completely and totally. His mate.
He should have known it right away, from the moment he had first seen Kelsey. Certainly, he should have realized it over the years that followed. He had not, for whatever reason.
But he knew now. Kelsey Cassidy was his mate, the one woman in all of time born just for him, and no creature on this earth could hide her from him, witch or no.
No creature on this earth would come between them, especially not some vampire who was too blinded by his sense of duty to realize he was about to commit a serious evil.
“CHAN, YOU CANNOT DO THIS. WE DO NOT HARM INNOCENTS, or the weak,” Dawn said, forcing her way in between Kelsey and the approaching vampire.
Kelsey rose slowly from the chair, staring at Chan apprehensively. Dawn was wasting her breath. Kelsey could see death in Chan’s dark, enigmatic eyes. Nothing Dawn said would change Chan’s mind.
Every second, though, that Dawn could delay Chan, it gave Malachi another moment to find her.
He would find her.
Just do it fast, okay, Mal?
Without her magick, Kelsey was no match against a vampire. She’d gotten lazy in her physical training, and she swore to herself that if she lived through this, that would never happen again.
Her eyes darted around the room, searching for any sort of weapon. There was very little. The table she’d sat at was wood, but Kelsey was just a little stronger than the average mortal woman. Could she break a chair? Do it in time to use it as a weapon?
Both Chan and Dawn were armed, but Chan would move far quicker than Kelsey could. The knife at Dawn’s waist might be of use, but that meant moving closer to Dawn.
And Chan. Distance was key right now.
“She is no innocent. She assisted a woman guilty of murder. For that alone, she is as guilty of the woman’s crimes as if she had committed them herself. And weak? She is a Hunter.”
“No, she is Council. Kelsey was always a better Healer, a better instructor. She’s never had to learn our ways. Without her magick, she is little more than mortal. That makes her helpless.”
Okay, now
that
stung a little, Kelsey decided, but she couldn’t exactly argue. She kept her mouth shut and continued to slowly inch back, circling around the room, refusing to back herself into a corner.
Chan continued to advance as Dawn added, “And she’s no fool. Whatever her reasons for assisting Morgan Wakefield, she
had
reasons. The least you owe her is to listen.”
“I owe nothing to traitors and oathbreakers.”
Icily, Kelsey said, “I’ve broken no oaths, vampire. If you are pissed because I got your quarry out from under your very nose, so be it. But I have broken no oaths.”
Chan reached up and pushed Dawn to the side. She tried to force her way in between them once more, and Kelsey hissed out a startled breath as the vampire swung out, backhanding Dawn. Dawn went flying through the air. She landed with a crash—and Kelsey thought she heard the crack of wood. But she didn’t dare take her eyes from Chan’s to look.
Instead, she circled toward the fallen witch, holding his gaze.
“You waste your time, Kelsey. Tell me where I can find the feral, and I will make this quick and painless.”
Narrowing her eyes, Kelsey said sweetly, “Thoughtful of you, considering you’re threatening a woman who isn’t just defense-less but also recovering from blood loss. What a brave warrior you are.”
His lids flickered. “This is not a battle. This is an execution. I do not owe you what I would owe an opponent in battle.”
“Wrong. If you think I’m just going to stand here and let you kill me, dead wrong. It will be a battle, maybe a short one, but it will be a battle. And if you think I’ll tell you a damn thing about that witch, you’re out of your skull.”
“Protecting a feral—and you think you deserve to live,” Chan said.
Dawn’s prone form appeared in the corner of Kelsey’s eye, surrounded by the remnants of the chair Kelsey had been sitting in. Her heel hit something.
Please be wood . . .
“Protecting a friend. Mark my words, come dawn, the order for that woman’s execution will be withdrawn, and not a Hunter alive will dare lay a hand on her.”
But Chan wasn’t hearing her. Judging by the intense look his eyes, he would know nothing until he’d spilled her blood. And it would appear he was tired of talk. The dark brown of his eyes began to glow, like fire glowing behind a shield of black glass, and the aura of fear came thundering out of him.
A smile curved her lips as it hit her and rolled away. “That won’t work on me, pal.”
Chan’s eyes flickered to Dawn. The slender, petite witch was slowly pushing up onto her hands and knees. Closing her hands around her head, Dawn groaned raggedly before looking up at Chan. “I can do nothing about her shields, Chan. Shielding is instinctive, a part of her. Like breathing. Only death will bring them down.”