by Cate Corvin
“He still possesses a small part of himself.” Dominic kept his voice to a low murmur, his mouth close to my ear and hidden from Gilt’s view. “Either that, or your thrall-marks kept him together.”
“The Hands took Cad. We might be able to get through to him.”
But he’d looked so inhuman. It was hard to believe he’d held back from blooding himself in a frenzy when the raw desire to do so had been plainly written all over his face.
I met Gilt’s gaze across the room and raised a hand. We were fine, mostly untouched by the vampires. I ran my hand through Roman’s fur as he panted, grumbling to himself.
Unsmiling, she inclined her head and led Carmen away.
The Cinder siblings slipped away, huddling shoulder to shoulder, and Daphne sank to her knees.
“This is so fucked,” she whispered. She was struggling to hold herself together, wiping away tears with the back of her hand.
Blood dripped in the silence.
Yeah, it was pretty fucked.
Chapter 11
Dominic
I cursed myself a hundred times for leaving her alone. Even with the wolves at her side, we knew all too well how easily a misstep could be made here. It took a single moment of inattention and something with teeth would bite down hard.
All I could see was the damage wrought by one vampire. Locke had ripped into Roman, but the gash would heal easily enough thanks to the therianthrope’s inherent healing abilities.
Cadogan Brand alone had killed a teacher, several students and gravely injured another. I had no doubt that if he wasn’t dead yet, he’d be wishing he was soon enough.
I knocked on Lucrezia’s bedroom door and she answered. The skin under her eyes was lavender, standing out against the paleness of her shock.
Roman was growling at his brother. “I’m not a fucking invalid.”
Lucrezia put her hands on her hips. “You’re staying right there until we’re sure the venom didn’t take.”
The likelihood of his turning was slim to none. Turning vampire usually involved taking a heavy dose of the vampire sire’s blood.
But this was not the time to split hairs. The twins were only tolerant of my presence around Lucrezia so long as she wanted me here.
“We’re not going after Locke tonight,” Shane said with a scowl. “All plans are off until you’re healed.”
“Seriously. Don’t hold back on my account,” Roman said, his voice strained. “I’ll be fine.”
“Sorry, Roman.” Lucrezia sounded genuinely apologetic. “We need both of you if we want Locke back. He’s too strong for both of us, and I don’t want to risk burning him.” She held out her hands like they were weapons in themselves.
“Locke can wait a night,” I interjected, sensing another wave of anger from Roman. It never felt good to be the odd one out when you wanted to take act on your rage. I knew that from far too much experience. “I broke the spells on Professor White’s chest.”
It had become a pet project of mine since I’d torn out Lucrezia’s heart. She was right. I’d fucked up by keeping everything to myself, not realizing that my inability to communicate only blinded me to everyone else. What was once my strength was now a weakness.
If there was one thing I could do to make it up to her, it was to save something, or someone, close to her heart. I’d long had my suspicions about Professor White’s true motivations in working for Cimmerian.
Part of it was due to greed, I knew that much. Mallory was willing to finance plenty of his botanical experiments as long as they benefited her. From the notes on top of his belongings, I’d deduced that the magic-binding charm was an invention of his.
But nestled on top of his encrypted journals was a wax-sealed letter addressed to Holly Cold, with a glittering black stone. A single rune was carved into its surface.
“What did you find?” Lucrezia’s expression was torn between hope and trepidation.
I touched the letter in my pocket and the lump of the runestone next to it. “White’s will, leaving his possessions and safe passage to Whitefawn to Holly Cold.”
Her eyes widened. “We can get her out of Waverly?”
“Tonight. He left her a runestone keyed to Whitefawn’s gates. As soon as she’s on their property, she’s protected by his will.”
Lucrezia let out a long, low breath, her hands clenched at her sides.
“It’s up to you, Lucrezia.”
She glanced back at Roman, who nodded enthusiastically despite the wound on his leg. “Get Holly to Whitefawn. I’ll be good by tomorrow, and then we can find your vamp.” He was clearly raring to go after Locke himself. “Take your sweet time. All the time you need. I’ll be right here, putting myself back together again.”
Shane’s taut expression had smoothed as well. “I agree. We need Roman, and he can’t do it with half his leg missing. Lu can ride on my back.”
“I have a runestone keyed to my house.” The tiny chunk of stone that was always in my pocket was probably the most expensive thing I owned. Runestones were a tricky sort of magic to master. “We don’t need to walk.”
Shane’s blue eyes narrowed. He was still full of adrenaline mixed with the therianthropic rage, urging him to take on any threat in a fight.
Lucrezia got between us, touching the half-moon scar Shane’s teeth had left on her shoulder. I tamped down a faint twinge of jealousy that the twins would be able to mark her with the kind of deep magic that was inaccessible to me.
Unless I became a therianthrope, too.
“Let me go alone, Shane.” She touched his cheek, close enough to melt against him. The cold ice of his twilight eyes left me, focused entirely on her with a depth of devotion that was endless. “Locke might smell the blood and come back, and I have some things I need to talk to Dom about.”
His eyes flickered back up to me, just once. Just enough to let me know that while Lucrezia might have forgiven me, I had yet to earn his trust back.
I couldn’t blame him. In his shoes, I might feel much the same.
Lucrezia kissed him and broke away, threading her fingers through mine. “I’m ready.”
I cupped my personal runestone in my hand and closed my eyes, concentrating on the pull of my house, the matching stone binding it to this location-
The world lurched around us and Lu stumbled, almost walking right into Holly.
“Lu! Professor Steele?” Holly’s eyes were wide. She was wearing pink polka dot pajamas and had a glass of rosé, her sketchbook tucked under one arm.
Lu wrapped her arms around her friend. “I’m so fucking glad you aren’t at the school anymore,” she breathed.
“What happened?”
“Cadogan Brand is a vampire, Locke attacked Roman, and half the school died in one day.” Holly’s mouth fell open, but she didn’t say anything. “And Dominic found Professor White’s will.”
I slid the letter and runestone out of my pocket and handed it to her. Holly put her wine on the table with nerveless hands and opened it, scanning the brief, tersely worded last words of her mentor.
She blinked rapidly when she was done reading. “He was always so grouchy,” she said, but there was a tiny, rueful smile on her lips. “He even sounds like a grump when he writes. I hate to say it, but… I wish I’d drawn some of this. We could’ve had some forewarning.”
“I’m not trying to rush you, but I’d prefer you leave sooner rather than later,” Lucrezia said, an edge of tension to her voice. “Locke isn’t confined to Cimmerian’s grounds. I’m actually surprised he hasn’t come hunting in Waverly yet- he might not remember it while he’s mad, but that could change.”
“Of course I’m ready to go,” Holly said fervently. “I’ll go right now in my pajamas and blow the lid on this place!”
Lucrezia chewed her lower lip. “I wonder if that would work…” Her gaze flicked to me.
“It might be enough to put the Tribunal on edge, given that she’s an eyewitness of sorts.” I ignored the churn in my stomach
. If Holly’s testimony was enough to warrant their attention, I needed to find Simon before they interfered. “I’m not sure if Whitefawn has the money or political power to force their hand, but they have friends in other covens. You can spread the word.”
Holly nodded, fully alight now, and ran to grab her backpack.
Lucrezia wrapped her arms around herself, looking around the house that was half hers as well. If she wanted it.
“If Whitefawn listens to her, this could be over sooner than we think,” she said in a low voice. “But we know Gilt has friends outside these walls. How long before word gets back to her that someone on the outside is talking? If her hand is forced…” She took a breath, her eyes glittering, and looked up at me. “We need to be on guard from the moment Holly leaves Waverly and come up with a contingency plan in case one of us is taken.”
She could whitewash her words all she wanted, but the truth was that she was the only one Mallory and Albrecht Gilt wanted. We needed a contingency plan for what we’d do if she was taken.
Between the twins and I- and Locke, if he came back to his right mind- the contingency plan was simple: go down there and take her back, come hell or high water.
Holly bounded down the stairs, her backpack slung over her shoulder, still wearing the polka dot pajamas. “I’m ready,” she said breathlessly. White’s letter was clutched in her hand.
I plucked the runestone from my pocket. “A moment, please.” I dropped the stone in Lucrezia’s hand first. “Feel the psychic signature coming from this; it’s keyed to Whitefawn. If the waystone is ever cleansed you’ll be able to feel for this specific coven among hundreds.”
She concentrated hard for a moment, rolling the runestone between her fingers, then handed it to Holly. “Got it. Good luck, Holly. I’ll write to you soon, okay?”
The young women hugged each other. Holly’s face scrunched up. “I’d tell you not to do anything rash, but…”
“But I’m going to as soon as you’re safe in Whitefawn? Yeah.”
Holly’s brown eyes landed on me. “Thanks for letting me stay here, Professor Steele. You saved my life. I won’t forget that, and I’ll make sure Whitefawn doesn’t either.”
“It was my pleasure, Miss Cold.” I regretted that I’d once thought her mind so fractured by her Sight that she’d never recover. It was getting out of that hellhole and having a loving friend who’d helped her.
It was yet another mark of guilt to add to my conscience. I’d been so blinded by my need to find and avenge Simon that I’d neglected the students who could be helped.
They finally broke apart. Holly clutched the runestone in white-knuckled hands. “Be safe, Lu,” she whispered, and squeezed her eyes shut, focusing on the call of the runestone.
A moment later she vanished, leaving nothing but a cloud of quickly-fading sparkles behind her.
Lucrezia exhaled and some of the tension left her shoulders. “She’s safe.” She said it like a mantra, running her hands over her eyes. “She’s really safe.”
I reached out to wrap my arms around her and she turned, burying her face against my chest. A whiff of jasmine shampoo drifted from her hair and my cock stiffened.
It was not the time to be getting turned on, no matter how good she smelled, or that she was now mine, free and clear, and Ivy had nothing on me anymore.
No matter that she wore the Steelblood ring now, the most permanent object of love I was able to give her.
She’d just watched an entire roomful of people get murdered, saw what her vampiric lover would be capable of if he lost himself, and said goodbye to a friend.
Everything about this was the wrong time.
But she wasn’t exactly making it easy to settle down. Her hands crept around my waist and she crushed herself closer, rubbing against me.
“Lucrezia… we should return-”
“No.” Her voice was muffled, the movement of her lips buzzing against my chest. “We’re going to stay right here for a moment. Roman needs to sleep, and I need to be alone with you for a little bit.”
My heart lurched a little. Even though she’d masterminded the blow against Ivy, I’d wondered if she’d truly forgiven me. “If that’s what you need, it’d be my pleasure to provide.”
“Upstairs.”
I opened my mouth to protest- gods, as much as I wanted her, I still had things to make up for before I made my desire for her clear in the bedroom- but she’d broken away and was dragging me by my collar before I realized she’d left my arms.
Lucrezia pushed me onto my bed and straddled my lap. “Twenty-four hours,” she said. She ran her fingers through my hair, looking me over like she was seeing me for the first time. “We’ve been engaged for twenty-four hours. Ivy will never screw you over again as long as I-”
I pressed a finger to her lips, but she grabbed my hand and kissed my palm, then her lips trailed over my knuckles. “Hers is the last name I want to hear right now.”
“I know.” She paused in kissing me, her gray eyes flashing warily. “Dominic. You know that I love you. I wouldn’t have put our lives on the line if I didn’t. You have every right to be angry with me for selling you out, and I’m sorry, too. I’ve made a hypocrite of myself.”
I had been angry, it was true. Now that Mallory definitively knew I was a Warden, the damage she could do...
But then, I’d done the same, and Lucrezia had become the collateral damage in ways I never could’ve imagined.
“But I promise, right here and now, that I will never lie to you again if you can promise me the same.” She cupped my face, searching my eyes for something. “We all belong together. Not Team Us and Dom On the Side. Together. No lies, no deception for each other.”
A giant hand squeezed my chest. If there was one thing I’d learned, it was that no one was worth trusting.
Simon Wicke had trusted his family to do right by him, and they’d sent him to die alone.
I’d trusted my family to do the right thing, and they’d swept it under the rug, like his life was worth nothing, a footnote in everyone else’s lives.
Then I’d gone to the Wardens, expecting to find like-minded people, witches and warlocks who were there to uphold justice and burn out corruption, but found that corruption festered in the deepest reaches of the Sanctum’s heart.
The only person I’d trusted all these years was myself. It was easier that way.
But it was a lonely, hard path, and now that I loved someone else, I couldn’t be solitary anymore. There was no point in loving someone if you only gave them a tiny fraction of yourself and hid the rest behind walls.
If anyone had proved worthy of trust, ready to fight tooth and nail for the right thing, it was Lucrezia, the wolves, and Locke.
“I promise that I will never lie to you again.” I leaned my forehead against hers, staring into those silvery-gray eyes flecked with bits of darkness like ash. “I will never deceive you… and if there is a deception, you will have a part in it.”
A faint smile touched her mouth. “Same. We’re better together than apart.”
“Team Us.” I kissed hard, sucking her lower lip between my teeth.
She growled, low in her throat, a sound that made me even harder. I slid my hands under her skirt, intending to grab her hips and flip her over, but she planted her palms against my chest and pushed me back.
Every fiber in my body grew tense. I’d never liked being the vulnerable one, in any situation- not even in bed. She crawled over me, unbuttoning the first two buttons of my shirt with shaky hands, then gave up on neatness and ripped the rest open.
I responded in kind and Lu shrugged her ruined blouse off.
She ran her fingertips over my face, over the thrumming pulse in my neck, and traced the ridges of my collarbone. I’d never let previous lovers be the ones in control. It wasn’t my nature.
But the look on her face was rapt as she leaned forward and kissed my throat, her lips so soft and warm every muscle in my body responded to her touch a
t once.
She gripped my wrists and pinned my hands at my sides. Lucrezia had the physical strength of her kitten; I could’ve broken her grip with no effort at all.
The effort lay in letting her take control, keeping my hands where she wanted them. My breath hitched as her warm tongue ran over my chest.
I forced myself to relax and be what she wanted. I already knew every inch of her; she wanted the same.
Her lips moved lower, her tongue tracing every line and ridge in my stomach with loving slowness, like a gourmand savoring dessert. My cock ached as she shifted backwards, putting her weight on my lap and pushing against the stiff shaft. Her long hair draped over my chest like a veil of pale silk, tickling my skin.
A tiny clink sounded as she unbuckled my belt and slid my trousers down over my hips. Shivers ran over me when her warm breath touched the sensitive skin of my cock. I couldn’t hold back a groan when she ran her tongue over me from base to tip, a long, slow glide that had my cock pulsing against her lips when she took me in her mouth.
I was hardly aware that I was gripping the sheets in my fists, keeping my hands precisely where she’d placed them even though I wanted to wind my fingers through her hair instead.
Lucrezia made a soft little hum of satisfaction, sliding her lips over me and back up again, torturing me with the gentlest of touches. She gripped the base of my cock and cupped my balls, heavy with desire for her, and it took everything I had to keep my hands off her.
The next time she ran her tongue over me she paused at the head, sucking the crown into her mouth and swirling her tongue over me like I was the most delicious thing she’d ever tasted.
I’d never seen stars before, but they burst behind my eyes. Every muscle in my body tensed and my hips jerked involuntarily, driving me into her mouth another inch.
She took me as far as she could and pulled back, running the tip of her tongue along the underside of my cock. I couldn’t take it anymore. The pressure in my balls was too fucking much. I’d explode in her mouth if she did that again.
Lu heard my rasping inhale and released me with a last flick of her tongue, then climbed back up in my lap.
