Bewitched, Bothered, and Bitten Page 21

  Dear Goddess, he took the prophecy literally. Had none of his advisors explained to him that prophecy must be deciphered? It was rarely as straightforward as that. Foretelling of the future was meant to bring enlightenment and prevent irreparable mistakes from being made. If they were basic instructions, then the profound understanding brought by the riddles in prophecy would be missed. One was supposed to reflect upon the words, look deeper than their superficial meaning.

  I cleared my throat, still trying to sound timid. “What if I’m not the witch? I don’t think I can be what you need or want.”

  Cornelius’ eyes changed. They hardened into two chips of blue glass. “Then I suppose I’ll have no use for you after all.”

  In other words, I would be a dead woman.

  I closed my eyes and prayed to the Goddess that I would either escape my binding spell or Finn and Conner would arrive with the cavalry before it was too late.

  When I finished, I lifted my lids and gazed levelly at the soul eater and warlock in front of me. “Tell me more.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  At my words, a satisfied grin spread across The Slayer’s face, but Dante watched me with hooded, suspicious eyes. Neither of them gave any indication they would free the rest of my body from the spell, so I took that to mean that they still didn’t trust me.

  I waited for one of them to speak, cautiously pushing back at the binding spell, looking for weakness. It was difficult to maintain focus on the two vampires in front of me while using magic right beneath their noses.

  Before Cornelius could continue, I cleared my throat. “Pardon me, but would it be possible for you to release me from the binding?”

  He considered me momentarily. “I’m afraid that I can’t, Kerry. I’m not entirely convinced that you are on our side.”

  I licked my lips. “Okay, I understand your concern, but I’m very uncomfortable and Sharon injured my wrist before we came here. Is there any way you can move me into a seated position?”

  Though I could tell he wanted to say no, he wanted to convince me of his benevolence. Denying a simple request wouldn’t exactly make him look like a good guy. The Slayer looked to Dante, who nodded slowly. “Very well,” Cornelius sighed. “Dante would you please get Kerry a chair?”

  The warlock did as he asked, walking around behind me to position the chair. I only hoped that my baggy sweatshirt covered the bulge of my phone in my back pocket.

  Apparently, it did, because Dante recited the incantation and my body relaxed. I knew that they would be expecting me to make my move to escape in the next few seconds. Though I wanted to, I knew it would be suicide. Instead, I focused on the momentary weakness in the spell, poking and prodding with magic, stretching the parameters a bit.

  The warlock pulled me down into the chair and my limbs became heavy again. I concentrated on moving my knee after he repeated the spell and it shifted slightly. I was gradually regaining control over my body, despite the binding.

  My cell phone was a hard lump against my backside. I wanted to shift so that it wasn’t digging into my flesh, but I couldn’t. It would give me away.

  I tilted my head back to look up at Cornelius. “Thank you.”

  He nodded.

  Suddenly, Dante’s head came up as though he heard a loud noise. If he did, he was the only one. My skin tingled as magic shimmered in the air and I realized what had happened. One of the warlock’s protection wards had been broken. I felt the corners of my mouth twitch. Finn and Conner must have found me.

  His head snapped around, his black eyes narrowing on me. “Where is it?” he asked.

  I widened my eyes and tried to look innocent. “What?”

  He snarled. “The charm, amulet, whatever they used to track you.”

  “I don’t have anything like that.” I knew he would believe it was the truth because, technically, I wasn’t lying. I didn’t have a charm or amulet to help them locate me. All I had was my cell phone. Perhaps if Dante thought more like a modern witch than an archaic one, he would have checked.

  Cornelius glided toward the door. “You stay here with Kerry. I’ll take care of our unexpected guests.”

  I tried to ignore the slimy fingers of fear that trailed down my spine. Finn wasn’t weak or inexperienced and I knew he and Conner would have brought men. Cornelius left the room, silence in his wake.

  I glanced at Dante, but he was staring at the wall, his eyes unfocused as though he were looking off into the distance. While he seemed distracted, I concentrated on flexing my power, trying to shrug off the spell. I squirmed in my seat, my limbs still heavy, but now under my control.

  The floor shook slightly, bringing the warlock out of his trance. His dark eyes fixed on me. “You do realize that you can’t win, don’t you?”

  “Pardon?”

  He smiled coldly. “You may have fooled Cornelius for the moment, or at least given him the hope that you can be swayed, but I understand you better than you think, Kerry. A few kind words and playing to your resentment and love toward your father won’t change your mind about your loyalties. Especially after we killed your friend, Saundra, and the High Priestess.” His eyes gleamed. “I really must get the spell you used to hide your location. It was very effective. Otherwise, we would have been having this conversation last night over the dead body of your lover.”

  I gritted my teeth, desperately wanting to choke the life out of the smug bastard, but I couldn’t give away the fact that the binding spell was weakening. Still, I filed away that information for later. Finn would be relieved to know that the location of his home had not been compromised. “You couldn’t find me? Are your powers so weak?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at him. “Perhaps that’s why The Slayer wants me….to replace you.”

  “You’ll never abandon your coven. You’re too pure at heart. My master doesn’t understand that because your father wasn’t difficult to turn, especially after he got a taste of the dark.” He cocked his head to the side, reminding me of a bird of prey eyeballing its next meal. “I don’t see that in you. Even after you took the lives of my men, you didn’t seem as affected as your father was after he took his first life.”

  I would bite my tongue in half before I admitted to Dante how tempted I had been by the enjoyment I felt after the death of his minions. I’d fought the shadow of my father’s descent into darkness my entire life, with the coven and with myself. I might have felt satisfaction at defending myself and my home from invasion, but I didn’t seek out that feeling again. I didn’t crave it or even wonder if I would ever feel it again.

  Cornelius had been correct in one thing; the world was rarely black or white. Even the purest of hearts held a kernel of weakness, a fatal flaw. Be it envy, greed, or pride, any witch was susceptible.

  Dante came closer to the chair where I was seated. “Perhaps I should just kill you now and save my master the trouble of trying to talk you into joining us when you obviously have no intention of doing so.”

  I tried one more time to play innocent. “I don’t know what you’re-”

  He snapped his fingers in my face and I stopped speaking. I kept my eyes lowered, using my eyelashes to hide the fact that I wanted to grab those fingers and break them.

  Dante squatted down in front of me. “You and I both know you will never give in.”

  I heard the door open and looked up. My eyes widened in shock when I saw Janice March slip into the room.

  The warlock stood and turned. “Ah, the daughter of the traitor. Have you come to join your mother?”

  Even I could see the sheer terror in Janice’s eyes and I knew she had come to help me, not her mother. I realized that this was the reason she wanted to speak to me after Belinda’s funeral ritual.

  She squared her shoulders and tried to project confidence. “No. I’m here for my High Priestess.”

  “Then you’ll join your mother in death,” Dante replied.

  I could see that the words affected Janice like a physical blow. Without warning,
she lashed out at the warlock.

  He laughed and deflected the spell. “You know you’ll lose, yet you attempt to fight anyway. Perhaps I’ll keep your suffering to a minimum before you die.”

  Knowing he was about to hit Janice with something nasty, I pulled power from somewhere deep within me and practically shoved it into her. Dante lifted a hand and his voice rang out in a single word incantation. Miraculously, my wild effort to protect Janice worked.

  Her head fell back and she shrieked as I funneled a massive amount of magic into her body, murmuring a protection spell as I did so. Dante’s attack manifested into an explosion of light when it hit Janice.

  When he understood why his strike was ineffective, the warlock turned on me. I didn’t have long. Desperate, I pulled back the power I’d thrown at Janice and began to fight the binding spell in earnest.

  Staring into the burning black eyes of the vampire, I saw my death. I had waited too long and now I was out of time.

  His hand lifted, appearing to move in slow motion, and I heard his voice boom like thunder. I braced for excruciating pain, which never came. In horror, I watched as Janice sprinted across the room and threw herself between us.

  I cried out when her body collapsed at my feet, my shock and rage giving me enough strength to finally break free of the binding spell. I flung out my hand and Dante was lifted off his feet and thrown across the room. As it had the night of the attack on my cottage, my power was responding to my wishes without verbal invocation. The magic pressed in on me, growing claws that raked across my skin. It was more power than I’d ever felt before.

  It seemed that Dante had found my breaking point. I no longer gave a damn about good and evil, right and wrong. All I cared about was destroying him. I wanted to remove all evidence of his existence from the face of the earth.

  I called up the power, relishing in the sharp pain it brought me. That pain meant death to the enemy.

  I watched in satisfaction as Dante’s eyes grew big as he felt the ebb and flow of magic emanating from me. Then I held up my hand, palm up, and curled my fingers into a fist, whispering words that I didn’t understand. It was a spell that I had heard only once before as I sat around a table with my mother and Belinda in my dreams.

  I smiled as Dante’s body decayed rapidly before my eyes, his skin thinning and turning dark before it cracked. His mouth opened in a silent scream before the flesh of his lips disappeared, leaving only a grinning skull behind. His bones disintegrated, leaving only a pile of dust where he once stood.

  I turned my hand so that my palm faced the floor and slowly spread my fingers. The dust of Dante’s remains seemed to melt into the floor, returning to the earth as nature required of all dead things.

  The power within me gloried in the destruction of my enemy and demanded to be released again. For one frightening moment, when I tried to call it back, the magic fought against my hold, reaching out, searching for another enemy to obliterate.

  Determined, I took control and commanded the magic to disperse. When it finally faded away, I released the breath I’d been holding. I needed to find Finn, but first, I had to check on Janice.

  I walked over to her crumpled body and crouched down. Placing my fingers at her neck, I waited, hoping I would feel at least a faint pulse. There was nothing. Just by touching her skin, I knew she was dead, but I still hesitated. Perhaps I could bring her back the way I had Ricki. I moved my hand to her chest, feeling for her heart, but I could sense that it was damaged beyond repair.

  I removed my hand. Though she had been hostile toward me for most of my life, Janice had given her life to save me.

  In that moment, I had an epiphany. While I could accept that every white witch could carry the seed of darkness, even those who weren’t perfect could perform the most selfless of sacrifices. It came down to their choices.

  I touched Janice’s forehead. “Thank you for saving me,” I whispered, half hoping she would open her eyes and answer me.

  I straightened and went to the door. I cracked it and looked out into the hallway. I opened it wider and looked quickly to the left and right. It was empty. I stepped out of the room and tried to get a better view of what was on each end of the hall. There seemed to be stairs to my right, so I pressed my back to the wall and crept toward them as silently as possible. I frequently glanced over my shoulder to be sure that no one was behind me.

  As I reached the top of the stairs, I peeked over the railing just as a man appeared below me. I froze until I realized that it was Finn.

  “Finn,” I whispered.

  His head twisted at the sound of my voice. “Thank the Goddess,” he murmured.

  I was already rounding the railing at the top of the stairs, moving as fast as possible, when he leapt up and landed on the steps in front of me. I didn’t hesitate before I threw myself into his body, wrapping my arms around his neck.

  “Are you all right?” he whispered in my ear. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

  I shook my head, my hair brushing his cheek. “I’m fine. I just want to go home.”

  Cradling me close, Finn answered, “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Thirty

  It seemed I missed one hell of a fight while I was dealing with Dante in the upstairs bedroom. From what I understood, my rescuers were surprised by the number of vampires on the premises. All their current intel suggested the Faction was a small group, but what they encountered on their way into the house was a great deal more than that. If they only knew.

  Somehow, in the heat of battle, Cornelius escaped. Though Finn had told Conner and Lex to go after him, they refused. There were too many adversaries and it was highly likely Finn would have been overwhelmed.

  Chloe and several of the pack wolves were with them. They retrieved the bodies of the two witches who died that night and we left the house as quickly as possible. The ride home was silent, and despite my relief to be safe, I was still tense because I knew that it wasn’t over. The night was just the first battle in the coming war.

  Finn wanted me to rest after the day I had, but I insisted on talking to the other members of the Council and Chloe and Calder. There were things they needed to know and actions to be taken.

  When we arrived back at Conner’s house, I was nearly tackled by my friends. Donna lifted me off my feet in a bear hug and Ivie, Ricki, and Shannon crowded around in a massive group embrace. They were talking all at once.

  “Girls! Stop talking so fast. You’re giving me a headache.”

  “This kidnapping bullshit has to stop. If it’s not the bad guys trying to scoop us up, it’s the good ones thinking they’re keeping us safe.”

  Though the day had been hellish, it seemed Donna could still make me laugh.

  Ivie pointed to Ricki and Shannon. “No kidnappings for either of you,” she stated firmly.

  Ricki’s smile was wan and her face pale when she answered. “Too late. I was kidnapped by a werewolf.”

  Shannon just shrugged. “I’ll do my best.”

  Calder appeared behind Ricki. “It’s time to go back downstairs, darlin’.”

  She rolled her eyes but let him support her weight as he guided her toward the door that led to the basement. I could see that the change was upon her, probably tonight or tomorrow morning. It was a bit odd that she seemed to be taking so long for the transition. Most of the bitten would change within twenty-four hours. It had already been two days for Ricki.

  Donna finally released me from her tight hug. “Conner said you need to ‘debrief’ or something equally spy-ish. I’ll bring you a cup of tea, okay?”

  “That sounds great.”

  She gestured for Shannon and Ivie to follow her and walked across the foyer toward the kitchen.

  Finn wrapped an arm around my waist and walked with me into the study. Though I insisted on sharing the information I discovered today, I wanted to get it done.

  * * *

  An hour later, I had shared all the information I’d gleaned from my time with the Factio
n. I began with the fact that Cornelius was a soul eater. Calder and Chloe required an explanation, but the vampire Council members became grim at the mention of the soul eaters. Though the werewolves hadn’t had experience with them, Finn and Lex were old enough to know what I was talking about. This knowledge changed a great deal about how we would need to approach future battles.

  I also told them that Cornelius was aware of the prophecy of the Five and that he seemed to understand what it meant, more so than we did. The fact that we were in the dark while our enemy was not didn’t bode well for the future. I needed to continue my research, though I still felt as though it was futile.

  It wasn’t until I told them about Cornelius’ crazy ideas about what the Faction would accomplish and how he intended to do so that Finn gave any outward sign of his anger. Donna had brought us tea and coffee earlier, and, when I mentioned Cornelius’ belief that he and I would birth the next generation of soul eaters, the mug he held in his hand cracked under his grip.

  Grimacing, he placed it on the tray. “Sorry.”

  Conner waved him off, his piercing blue eyes glued to me. “The Slayer specifically said he’d been recruiting for years?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Centuries actually.”

  Conner shook his head and paced in front of the fireplace like a large jungle cat prowling in a cage. “How could the Council be so unaware?” he muttered. I assumed it was mostly to himself because no one answered him.

  Still, I had an idea. “I don’t think that they were completely in the dark. I think that he has had his fingers in every pie for a long time. He spoke about the recruitment, his plans, as though he had been waiting patiently for years and every contingency was in place. He’s not worried in the slightest about the humans, which is frightening in itself. Vampires, witches, and werewolves may possess superior physical attributes, but we are outnumbered and outgunned. The Slayer isn’t just talking about establishing a relationship with the humans, but taking complete control. In order to accomplish his goals, Cornelius must have a great number of people to aid him and an excellent plan.”