“I will ask Dunstan when the potion will wear off. Then you will summon him.”
Elysia glanced down at the tattered robe that still cushioned Bella’s empty skull. She had no doubt that Alexander could ultimately force her to do anything he wanted.
“While we wait,” he continued, “I will teach him how to Make.”
“Don’t hurt Doug,” she whispered.
His attention returned to her. A moment’s study, then he ran a cold finger along her jaw, pressing harder when he encountered the bruises he had made earlier. “And if I spare him, you will summon the grim?”
“When I am able.”
He reached up and ran a strand of her hair between his fingers, drawing it around her face. “You have her eyes.” His tone was soft, wondering.
Her heart thumped against her breastbone. This side of him scared her more than the vicious one he had just shown her. Perhaps it was the manic changeability of his moods.
“Aren’t you going to ask whose?” He smiled.
“Whose?”
“Isabelle.” He ran his fingers along her hair again. “But you have the Nelson coloring just like her daughter did.”
Elysia swallowed. Even Ian had mistaken her for Matilda when they first met.
Alexander cupped her chin again, but he wasn’t rough this time. Elysia decided she preferred the rough handling when he leaned down and pressed his cold lips to hers.
She froze, more shocked than anything. Then his icy tongue slid between her lips, and she pulled back with a gasp.
He watched her, his gaze drifting to her throat before his hand followed. He pressed his fingers against the pulse point. “Your heart is racing. You have a thing for the dead, don’t you?”
“Not the way you seem to think.”
“Your lover is a dead man.”
“He’s a grim. His body is as alive as mine.”
Alexander frowned. She thought he might get angry, but he abruptly rose to his feet and started for the door.
“What about Doug?” she called after him. “You’re not going to Make him, right?”
Alexander didn’t answer her.
Chapter 14
J
ames held the vial up to the light, studying the pale blue liquid. It was perfectly homogeneous, no layers or particles marred the first potion he had ever prepared entirely on his own. It looked good, but the true test would be whether it worked.
“You can’t think like that,” he muttered. “Alchemists don’t doubt themselves.”
He sighed. It would have been nice if Addie or Ian had been around to help him brew it, but according to Rowan, they were out looking for him. Which explained why the disassembled compass was no longer lying on Ian’s workbench. Unfortunately, Addie’s cell phone was on the counter upstairs, charging.
With no way to reach Addie or Ian, James had decided to brew the necromancy solvent himself. He had Addie’s notes, and though they would have been indecipherable to most, he had seen enough of her notebooks to know how to read her shorthand.
Setting the potion aside, he picked up one of Addie’s foam-lined vial cases. She used them to transport her more volatile potions, like the Fire Hazard potion she made with the essence of Rowan’s power. That was one you wouldn’t want to drop in an inconvenient place. It would burn through anything—or anyone. His potion wasn’t dangerous like that, but he would have to get it through the portal. He had to shape shift to travel, and anything in contact with him when he changed form would vanish, so he would have to toss the potion into the portal, then back out into the mortal world.
A knock sounded at the back door, and he turned to look, letting the hound rise to the surface to check the knocker’s soul. It was Era.
Another sigh escaped before he could help himself. Era had been one of his closest friends until Elysia came along. Era refused to believe that Elysia regretted binding him, so he and Era hadn’t spoken much over the last month.
He was debating whether to open the door at all when he heard a key in the lock, and a moment later, the door opened. It looked like his decision was made for him.
Era’s footfalls sounded in the hall, preceding her into the lab. She saw him and pulled up short. “Where’s Addie?”
“Out looking for me.”
Era lifted a brow, a hint of her old humor on her face. “Are you missing?”
“I was.” He turned back to the workbench and pressed the vial into the case.
“What’s going on?” Era moved closer.
He glanced over. Rowan was bad about keeping her in the dark. James knew he was trying to protect her, but that excuse never worked with Era.
“Talk, James.”
And she complained about Elysia giving him commands. “Elysia went to Alexander last night.” He adjusted the vial within its case. “Long story short, she got away and only lost a finger in the ordeal. But I can’t bring her here until I break the necromancy he used on her. So I—”
“She lost a finger?”
“She refused to summon me. He left the finger where he knew I would find it.”
“Oh God. And you went, right? You got her away from him?”
“Something like that. Look, I’ll give you the whole story later. She’s waiting in the land of the dead, and even she can’t stay there long. I’ve wasted enough time brewing this potion.”
“
You
brewed a potion.”
He shrugged. “If Addie comes back, tell her I might need some necromancy solvent, and the Final Formula.”
“The Final Formula?”
“To regenerate the finger.”
“Oh. Right.”
He snapped the lid closed. “Do me a favor?”
“Of course. Anything.”
“Hand this to me after I jump through the portal.” He walked around to the other side of the workbench.
“I wish I could go with you. I’m not as helpless as everyone thinks.”
“I don’t think that.” He pulled off his T-shirt and tossed it on the counter by the phone. “But Alexander is a lich; you can’t suffocate him.”
“How about if I pump enough air into his body to blow it apart?”
James looked up. “You can do that?”
Her amber eyes glinted. “Yes.”
“You’re scaring me, Er.”
She smiled.
“Now turn around.”
She rolled her eyes, but gave him her back. He shucked off the sweat pants, then tossed them on the counter by his T-shirt. An instant later, he was the hellhound. He pulled open the portal and jumped through.
Hand me the vial?
She picked up the case and stepped up to the threshold. “Now who’s the scary one?”
It’s still me—just with more hair.
She snorted.
I can’t reach out there,
he reminded her.
“But I can reach in?”
Yes. You could even step in here, but I couldn’t close the portal or take you anywhere.
“Huh.” She reached in.
He carefully took the case from her.
“Bring her back, James. Addie will fix her.”
I know. Thanks, Er.
She nodded and he let the portal go.
For an instant, James stood there, stunned. Era had told him to rescue Elysia. Perhaps there was hope for them all getting along after all.
He closed his eyes and imagined the taste of Elysia’s soul. The Hunt consumed him, and he gave himself over to instinct, springing across great expanses of the featureless plain in seconds. She was in the mortal world. What was she doing there?
He set the vial case at his feet and opened a portal. A familiar scene stretched before him. It was Neil’s lab in the basement of Xander’s funeral home. And bound to the same chair Addie had once been bound in, sat Elysia. No one else was in the room with her.
He kicked the case through the portal and Elysia turned toward the noise with a gasp. He snarled when he realized that she hadn’t sensed the portal opening. Neil must have stunted her again. He was going to eviscerate the little weasel.
James jumped through, landing on four paws a few feet from her chair.
“No,” she whispered. “Give Doug the solvent. Get him to freedom.”
James stumbled under the force of the compulsion.
“Alexander won’t kill me, but he’s going to Make Doug. Go!”
Opening the portal, James knocked the case through the opening and jumped in after it. Behind him, he felt another portal open, but he never saw who it was. He was already on his way to Doug.
He never held it against Elysia when she gave him a command. Usually it was an accident. But this was different. She had forced him to go rescue Doug when her own life was in danger. Yet worse than the annoyance of being forced to obey was the nagging doubt that rekindled. She was willing to put her own life at risk to save Doug. What did that mean?
His mind awash in anger and confusion, James jumped out into the crypt, the vial case clattering against the uneven floor ahead of him.
“Who’s there?” Doug’s muffled voice came from the sarcophagus only a few feet away.
James shifted human and walked over to it. Without answering, he gripped the edge of the lid and flipped it away. It rotated end-over-end in the air a couple of times before landing with an immense boom in the middle of the room.
“James.” Doug’s voice came out as a whisper, and he stopped to clear his throat. “Took you long enough.”
James was ready to snarl a response, but something about the way Doug’s voice wavered made it clear that the words were spoken in bravado. Doug had been terrified.
“We need to move,” James said instead, though the words were still little more than a snarl.
Doug didn’t seem to take issue, and quickly climbed from the sarcophagus.
The compulsion still riding him, James retrieved the vial case and popped it open. “Here. Take this.” He pulled out the vial he had intended to give Elysia.
“What is it?”
“Necromancy solvent. It should remove Alexander’s hold over you.”
“Thank God.” He took the vial and without hesitation, drank it down. He coughed a few times. “The taste could use some work.”
“Sorry about that. I was in a hurry.”
Doug had been eyeing the empty vial, but looked up. “What?”
“I couldn’t find Addie—or Ian—I brewed it.”
Doug continued to stare at him. “You’re really an alchemist?”
“An apprentice. Come, I must get you to freedom.” He prepared to change forms.
“You came here to rescue me?”
James hesitated. He didn’t want to say that he had come to Doug’s rescue on his own, but he didn’t want to admit whose idea it had been.
“Elysia commanded you to rescue me.” Doug’s mouth curled upward as he figured it out.
James ignored him and dropped to all fours, then pulled open the portal and jumped through.
Move your ass, necromancer.
Chuckling, Doug did as told.
Where shall I drop you? Anywhere on the mortal plane will fulfill my obligation. I would advise against anywhere you frequent.
“We’re going to get Elysia. She’s on the mortal plane.”
James curled his lip.
I will get her.
“Don’t be foolish. If something goes wrong, you can be taken. If your potion worked, Alexander has no power over me. He will fall prey to me.”
James did like the sound of that.
What if…
He hesitated, not wanting to give Doug any ammunition to use against him. But Elysia was more important.
What if the potion didn’t work? It’s the first one I ever brewed entirely on my own.
“Addie trained you, right?”
Yes. She also designed the formula.
Doug shrugged. “I don’t see the problem.”
James could name a few possibilities, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to elaborate and dig himself any deeper. After all, the potion might have worked.
Elysia is in the basement of your father’s funeral home.
Doug frowned. “What are they doing there?”
Neil is using the lab.
“Father had that dismantled.”
James glanced over.
Doug sighed. “Right. That’s what he told me. It turns out I was just a placeholder for my cousin.”
James could certainly relate to the disappointment family brought. But he didn’t want to find any common ground with Doug—or feel sorry for him.
You know the lay of the land. How do we do this?
Doug rubbed his chin, his fingers rasping a little against his unshaven skin. “You can’t open a portal—they’ll feel it instantly.”
Elysia won’t. I think the bastard stunted her again.
James was growling, but didn’t bother to stop.
“How did she command you to rescue me?”
The bond.
Doug didn’t look happy about that. “Who’s in the building with her?”
I don’t know. I didn’t look, but I can check.
“You can’t risk being taken. I would prefer he didn’t command you to rip out my soul.”
True. I hope to do that on my own at some point.
“Ha ha.”
I’ll walk the veil. No one will even know I’m there.
“Walk the veil? What does that mean?”
My soul is bound here, but my human body belongs to the mortal world. I can walk the line where the two meet, see into both worlds while being in neither.
Not wanting to answer any more questions, James stepped into the veil, no doubt vanishing from Doug’s sight as he dropped to all fours.
“I’m going to be really pissed if you leave me here.”
It’s roomier than the sarcophagus.
Doug actually jumped.
Besides, the hellhounds will get you before you starve to death.
“You’re not helping my concentration.”
Amused, James moved closer to the mortal plane, choosing the place where he had seen Elysia before. She still sat in the chair, her head bowed and blood coating her wrists around the cable ties binding her. James took a step forward, then he noticed Neil at the workbench. Neil was a necromancer now. He could command him.
“James!” Doug shouted. “There’s something here!”
Annoyed by the interruption, James jumped back into the land of the dead, his body morphing into its true form. He arrived at Doug’s side in time to watch a hellhound take him to the ground.
James snarled. Lashing out with one clawed hand, he knocked the creature aside.
He’s mine.
The hellhound pulled back its lips and snarled, but it didn’t advance on him.
An image formed in James’s mind: a blonde girl. For a moment, he thought it was Elysia, then realized that this girl’s eyes were blue and she was only in her teens. Bella, James concluded. This was her hellhound.
Another image, this one the glittering brilliance of a strong necromancer’s soul as it broke up and faded away. Fury and despair followed. The familiar mix of a Hunt denied. James resisted the urge to throw back his head and howl his shared despair at the black sky. Bella was gone.
“Are you…communicating with it?” Doug asked. He wrapped an arm around his stomach, sounding winded.
Her, and yes.
He glanced at Doug.
Are you okay?
“I don’t know. I feel weak.”
Did she bite or claw you?
“Clawed, yes. It burns.”
James sighed.
We need to return to the mortal world before this place kills you.
Doug frowned.
What? I’m the one putting myself at your mercy as soon as we return.
“That’s not true.”
James realized he believed him. Doug didn’t seem to be a man who would go back on his word. He seemed more…honorable than that.
Dear God, had he just called Doug honorable?
“Bring us out a few blocks from my father’s funeral home.”
James opened a portal onto a sidewalk in the afternoon gloom.
Doug took a step toward it, and the hellhound snarled.
Mine.
James said, adding a snarl of his own.
A new image filled his mind, this one of Elysia. He wasn’t sure what the hellhound meant by it.
Continue to watch over her, and I will bring you a treat.
James imagined Alexander, overlaying the image with the glittering brightness of his soul.
The hellhound gave him a single swish of her tail and vanished.
“What just happened?” Doug asked.
I offered Alexander’s soul in place of yours. It’s shinier, so she accepted.
“I’m not sure if I’m more relieved, shocked, or offended.”
You’re a necromancer. I’m going with offended.
James waved a hand at the open portal, and they both stepped through without further comment.
Doug’s movements were slow at first, but as his life force regenerated, he moved more quickly. James was almost trotting to keep up with him when they reached their destination. He was more pleased than he thought he should be to see the large funeral home that dominated the other houses on the block. Doug led him to a side door, but found it locked.