The Unforgiven (29 page)

The three wore black collars identical to the ones Artur had seen on the two sons of Dusek in the palace above. So, three more sons of Vaclav Dusek. How many more were there? How many offspring had the bastard spawned?

Artur knew the alchemist had somehow found a way to extend his life past the maximum one hundred twenty years allotted to a Watcher. Artur didn’t know exactly how old Dusek was, but it was clear that he had been building his magic for centuries. Azazel’s heir spawned sons, enslaved them, and somehow increased his lifespan by adding their life essences to his own. Now he collected slaves of rival clans as well.

The power he was harvesting from these unfortunate rival adepts must be nearly endless. For the first time Artur truly understood the confidence behind his enemy’s arrogant challenge of Clan Samyaza. With his stolen magic, Dusek could wipe out his ancestral foes in one vicious swipe. Artur and his kin couldn’t hope to stand against him.

The knowledge churned Artur’s stomach like a rancid meal. It was obvious now that Artur and his kin were alive only because the alchemist had chosen to draw out the fight. He didn’t want a quick victory; he apparently preferred to play with his victims, as a cat plays with an injured mouse before devouring it whole. But at any time Dusek might grow tired of the game and make his final move to consign Artur’s heritage to Oblivion.

The sickening scene below illuminated Artur’s impotence. He could do nothing for the wretched captives and yet he could not look away. Dusek’s sons were slaves, too, but they seemed of a much higher order than the other captives. Or perhaps their present sport was due to their sire’s absence.

One son tormented a chained male. The second applied a whip to the back of a female whom the third son approached. Her red hair was matted and dirty, her naked body covered with welts and bruises. Her chains forced her to kneel. Even so, she didn’t cower. Arthur could well imagine the filth the bastard would soon demand of her. Her chin lifted nonetheless.

The magic of the room was a deadening pall that Artur couldn’t pierce, though he tried. He couldn’t so much as read the source of the individual prisoners’ magic. Which captive was his kin? Was the Clan Samyaza slave here or suffering elsewhere in this hellish dungeon? Slow, impotent rage expanded in Artur’s gut. It seared every cell of his body, scoured the corners of his cold heart. The organ was left raw and bleeding as fresh horrors unfolded before him.

There was nothing he could do. Nothing at all except wait for Dusek’s next move.

“
Here,” Ezreth said. “Now.
”

He came down on top of Lilith, hurting her, pressing her into the ground. Trapping her with one broad leg thrown over both of hers, Ezreth shoved her robes up to her waist. His nostrils flared as he looked his fill. A sharp rock dug into Lilith’s spine.

“
Stop,” she gasped. Her arms flailed but her fierce struggle moved him not at all.

“
Fight me if you wish,” he said. “I do not mind.
”

She watched with numb despair as he unbelted his robe and drew
it aside. His shaft emerged, engorged and eager. She tried again to turn him away.

“
If you do this foul thing, you will regret it. Father will
—”

“
He will give you to me.” The crimson aura about his head and shoulders blazed. One implacable knee forced itself between her legs.

“
No.” Her fingers dug into the dirt on either side of her body. “He will not. He will . . .
”

Her hand struck something warm. The amulet. The Seed of Life, centered by the bloodstone. She had all but forgotten it. In another heartbeat her brother would be inside her body; there was no time to think, no time to plan. Her fingers clenched on her only hope.

Dark sparks flew down her arm. The gold ignited in her hand. Blue flames burst from her skin, and she thrust the amulet between their bodies. Heat erupted. Light flashed.

Ezreth jerked back with a cry. “What—?
”

The force of the explosion whipped Lilith’s head backward. Her skull struck stone. Red lights danced in her vision and her recent meal surged up her gullet.

She struggled to rise. Grasping the stone wall encircling the well, she dragged herself to her feet. She had to get away before Ezreth realized she was hurt
—

One desperate glance toward her brother stilled her flight. Ezreth would not pursue her, not ever again. He was dead.

Thinking was an effort. It was as if someone had thrown a dirty blanket over his brain.

Cade cracked an eye. He lay on the bed, on his stomach. The space beside him was empty. Cold. Sounds of movement drifted from the outer room, and his nostrils twitched at the aroma of coffee overlaid with the savory scent of freshly roasted meat. The last alarmed him.

He heaved himself to his feet. Every muscle protested. He stumbled to the door and found the kitchen littered with the remnants of a blood meal. A slab of charred flesh lay on the table, red juices flowing from a deep cut. The meat had been freshly slaughtered; the fragrance of life hadn’t completely left it.

Maddie was in the room, though not at the table. She’d put off her Nephilim form and resumed a human guise. She stood by the counter, half turned away, sipping espresso from a white demitasse. She was nude from the waist up. A simple skirt in a delicately flowered pattern flowed over her long legs to mid-calf. She must have found the garment in a drawer.

She held the saucer in her right hand; her left rested against her thigh. The slope of her bare breast and the enticing peak of her nipple drew Cade’s eye. It was a heartbreakingly beautiful pose.

And deceiving. No stain marred her skin, but the bloody mess on the table spoke for itself. Maddie had wasted no time in feeding her Nephilim cravings. In killing for blood.

He’d slept through the rampage. How could he have done such a thing? It was inexcusable. He should have been at her side, teaching her how to quell her blood craving. Cade thought of the cattle he’d seen dotting the fields on the slope behind the cottage and hoped like hell Maddie hadn’t gone hunting for human prey. He dragged a hand through his hair and tried to remember the last moments before he’d lost consciousness. Unease snaked through his gut. Something didn’t feel right. What the hell had happened?

The strong black scent of Maddie’s espresso curled from her cup to his nostrils. The odor jarred him into action and he started across the room. Two steps later he halted, suddenly aware he was naked.

Maddie placed the cup and saucer on the counter and turned
to him, unsmiling. Her eyes glowed softly red. A second flash of crimson light, lower down, caught his eye. Maddie wore Lilith’s amulet strung on a leather cord between her breasts.

Cade’s eyes shot to the corner where he’d left the thing. His snake lay motionless, its tattoo body no more than lines of ink staining the tiled floor. His stomach turned. Cade strode toward her, cursing.

“Blast it, Maddie. What have you—?”

She held up a hand. “No, Cade. Stay where you are.”

He jerked to a stop even before his conscious mind recognized her tone of absolute command. Once halted, his feet felt like stone blocks. He couldn’t lift either heel or toe off the floor. Understanding rushed him like a suffocating storm.

Maddie’s gaze raked over his nakedness. He wanted to retreat, to cover himself but wasn’t able. He had no choice in his actions, he realized with dawning horror. He was compelled to perform whatever act Maddie commanded.
He
was the slave. She was his master.

“Put on some pants.”

His body pivoted toward the bedroom. He grunted and threw all his strength into resistance. His effort was futile, as he knew it would be. His mind was not his own:
she
was there, present in every cell and synapse. Each command he attempted to give his body slipped like water between spread fingers. His will was no longer his own. He existed only to serve her.

His sense of betrayal was sharp. She’d done to him what he’d intended to do to her, because he’d pulled back at the last moment and offered her freedom. He’d given her that choice, and she had taken it. In his arrogance, he’d thought she wanted the same thing he did—love, as equals. Now he’d learned how wrong he’d been. His trust in her had been entirely misplaced.

He should have known a descendant of Azazel’s line would spurn such a gift. Hadn’t he sensed that Maddie’s basic nature was that of a warrior? He should have anticipated this brutal turning of the tables. Instead, blinded by human emotion, blinded by
love
, he’d ignored the warning signs. From trust and love, he’d set her free. She, in turn, had seized the opportunity he’d handed her and used his faith to enslave him. His weakness had doomed his clan.

He snatched his jeans from the floor and jerked them on. There was only one thing he couldn’t understand. How had Maddie managed to steal his spell? It shouldn’t have been possible. Her magic was new and raw. It was incredible she’d even realized what he was doing. How could she have twisted his magic against him so quickly and easily? Cade hadn’t even been aware that she’d done it. The answer had to lie with the cursed Watcher relic. The disc must have guided Maddie in claiming her power over him.

Cade’s own arrogance was partly to blame for this predicament. He’d known the artifact was dangerous. Lethal. The archangels had wanted it destroyed. He’d seen the results of Maddie’s disturbing link with the thing, and he’d known what she was: Azazel’s own spawn. He hadn’t wanted to believe she would betray him, so he’d given himself over to protecting her, loving her, and even, at the end, releasing her from the slavery Artur had ordained. A fool’s mistake. His first loyalty should have been to his clan. He was a bloody idiot.

Maddie tilted her head. She looked into the space beyond him, a vertical line appearing between her eyebrows. It looked for all the world as if she were listening to something. But, to what? The disc strung around her neck? He watched her intently, trying to understand.

Her eyes refocused on his face. “Come.”

“Where are we going?”

She strode toward the door. He followed—he had no choice. He thought she might not answer his question, but as she reached the door she spoke without turning. “To the beach.”

“Why?”

“Enough questions.”

Teeth gritted, Cade trailed her out into a very dark night. The protections he’d set around the cottage before her crisis were gone. Stars hung low and brilliant in the sky. Man-made lights were scattered like glowing pearls along the rocky curve of the shoreline. But the air was fetid. The odors of blood and death slapped him like an open palm across the face.

He spied the remnants of a mutilated calf carcass a few yards to his left. Intense relief caused his shoulders to sag. The kill was not human: Maddie hadn’t yet crossed the line to total depravity. Though he wasn’t sure what he could do now to prevent it. Was there a way to turn her from the path she’d chosen? He didn’t know.

She halted mere steps from the edge of the cliff. Her eyes flashed red. Spreading her arms, she flung her head back. Her human body melted into her Nephilim form.

An unspoken command burned in his brain; she wanted him to do the same. Cade threw every ounce of his strength into resisting the compulsion to change. The effort left him sweating, breathless, and sapped of energy. And, in the end, defeated.

He changed. His human skin thickened into sparkling color. His hide felt as though it wrapped his bones and muscles too tightly. Everywhere he tingled.

He locked gazes with her. “Maddie. Don’t do this.”

Her chin lifted and she laughed. It was not a pleasant sound. “Don’t do what? Don’t force you, Cade? You hypocrite! This is just what you planned to do to me.”

He swallowed thickly. “I planned to possess you, yes. I admit that. But not like this. Not in anger. Not in hatred.”

“In
love
?” On her lips, the word sounded like the worst profanity.

“Yes,” he said. “In love.”

Silence followed. Then, “You make me sick.”

Cade found himself facedown on the ground, lungs devoid of air, mouth full of dirt. The impact that had sent him sprawling reverberated through his bones. He heaved up onto his hands and knees, spitting dust and blood. Pain knifed his chest as he struggled to draw breath.

“Get up,” she commanded.

He lurched to his feet. “Maddie! Please. Don’t. This isn’t you. It’s that thing around your neck. Your ancestors created that disc with blood magic. Don’t let yourself be snared by its evil. Resist it.”

The briefest uncertainty flickered in her eyes. Recognizing it, he pressed the slim advantage.

“You said once that you trusted me. I know I didn’t deserve it—not then. I intended to enslave you. But remember that when the moment came, I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want you like that, because I love you. I gave you your freedom because of that love. Please. Trust me enough now, love me enough, to do the same for me. Free me, and we’ll destroy the disc together.”

He thought he might have gotten through. For a long moment she remained silent. Then her head tilted and her eyes lost focus, as if she were hearing something else.

“Don’t listen to it,” he pleaded. “Don’t.”

Her gaze flicked back to him and her expression hardened. “You arrogant pig. You want my trust—my love—after all you’ve done? All you meant to do? Sorry, Cade. That’s just not going to happen.”

She showed him her back and unfurled her wings.

“Down the cliffs to the beach,” she said. “Now.”

Maddie remembered so much now. She remembered all of it: centuries—no,
millennia
—of magical heritage. And the oldest memory held the most power. Ezreth’s body, lying beside the Watcher well, his neck bent at the exact same angle Dr. Ben-Meir’s had been. The Seed of Life—Lilith’s creation, the repository of life-and-death powers—had killed both men. Maddie wasn’t sorry.

She leaped over the edge of the cliff into nothingness, an act that just yesterday would have been unthinkable. Now, buoyed by her newborn magic, guided by the exultant, whispering voice in her head, she knew she could do anything. Even fly.