Granted by the Beast: A Steamy Paranormal Romance Spin on Beauty and the Beast (Conduit Series Book 4)

by Rebecca Hamilton

  With his hand still in mine, Ramsey pressed his back against mine in a standard move meant to ensure that, between the two of us, we’d be able to see things coming and not be caught by surprise. Or, at least, see the shadows of things coming at us. I couldn’t see anything clearly in the darkness. We’d been practicing this for a year, though, and shadows would do just fine.

  “Why does he want Huntsman dead?” Ramsey asked over my shoulder.

  “Says he’s too powerful.” I narrowed my eyes, as if that might help me see through the darkness.

  Lifting my hand, I cast a silent spell meant to turn my fist into a beacon of light that we could use to see with. The spell worked, causing bright light to burst forth from me. But somehow, it did nothing to illuminate the warehouse around us. We were still stuck in darkness.

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Ramsey said. “Huntsman’s a damn good warrior, and that axe of his is impressive, but I wouldn’t call him powerful enough to set Shadow Elves on edge.” His hand tightened around mine. “And that won’t work. This isn’t regular darkness. It’s part of his spell. The isolation is only needed for the more personal illusions.”

  “Good thing we’re not isolated, then,” I said, nodding firmly. “I’ve got you. A little darkness never scared me.”

  “You won’t have him for long,” the Shadow Elf said from somewhere in the darkness, using a voice that sounded every bit as ominous as he looked in his natural form. Or her. I still didn’t know what it claimed as a gender.

  Just then, a tug pulled hard at my hand. I thought it was Ramsey at first, but I wasn’t being pulled toward him. I was being jerked away.

  “What the hell?” I tightened my grip on my partner’s hand. I’d already lost the love of my life. I wasn’t about to let anyone take someone else I cared about away from me.

  “He’s trying to separate us,” Ramsey said, panic filling his voice. “If he does that, we won’t stand a chance. We won’t be able to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s fake.”

  “I knew the difference,” I said as the force pulled my friend away from me again. I wasn’t trying to be cocky, but it was the truth.

  Once more, I latched onto Ramsey, though this time I only managed to get his hand with the tips of my fingers. His hands were clammy and mine were sweating. I could feel him slipping away, no matter how hard I held onto him.

  “If you knew the difference, it was because he wanted you to know the difference,” Ramsey said defiantly, snorting at the end for good measure. “He wanted to convince you it was in your best interest to kill Huntsman. Since you’re not going to—”

  The energy pulled at me again. This time, I couldn’t fight it. Ramsey’s hand slipped away, and I was left alone. I screamed as I lost him, but the scream was short-lived.

  When the lights flickered back on, Ramsey was floating in the air. He was frantically throwing his arms around as though he was swimming. His mouth was closed, and his cheeks were filled, as though he was holding his breath and trying to ge. The Shadow Elf floated beside him.

  “Do you want to know the most dangerous thing about fear, Charisse?” the Shadow Elf asked, bobbing around in the air, the warehouse rafters an uneasy backdrop behind his smokey black head.

  I felt something at its words. Something harsh and dangerous crossing through my mind. I kept my mouth shut, though. The most important thing I could do would be to listen and absorb everything the Shadow Elf had to say.

  “Fear’s powerful enough to actually kill you.”

  “You’re wrong,” I couldn’t help telling him.

  “Defiant, as always. Even in your dreams, my dear. You’re stubborn and bullheaded. But you’re not the same girl that you were when you first started this journey,” the Shadow Elf said. “The Charisse that first discovered the magic in our world, she would have run screaming from the situation that you’re in. You know the choice you have to make, girl. You’re going to have to pick one or the other. You’re stronger now than you’ve ever been before, and you’re strong enough to make the right choice.”

  The Shadow Elf was trying to be soothing, I could tell. That didn’t change the fact that I wanted to punch him in the face.

  “I don’t have to make a choice for you,” I shouted. The Shadow Elf was right, though. I wasn’t the same girl that had started this journey. I had power, and it was time that I showed it. “You’re a monster, and if you hurt either one of them, I won’t do a single thing for you. In fact, I’m sure that I can find a way to end your miserable existence.”

  A dark chuckling brought me up short, and the defiance and confidence that I’d felt only moments before quickly faded into reluctant fear. My hands were sweating, but the Shadow Elf didn’t need to know that. It didn’t need to know that I was afraid, but something about the way it was staring at me told me that my fear didn’t go unnoticed.

  “Your mage here is afraid of dark water. Since he was a child, he’s always been afraid he would meet his end struggling for air in the freezing depths of the ocean.” The creature’s teeth spread into a horrific smile. “Now, he believes he is, and that belief is enough to help end his life. You will kill the Huntsman. You’ll do it right now, or you’ll be forced to watch your mage here suffocate before your very eyes.”

  I had a decision to make, and I wasn’t sure that I could do it. I looked over at where Huntsman lay unconscious on the floor. He saved my life in Grimoult, when we were faced against almost impossible odds. Then, I turned to look at Ramsey who was suffocating on air. He’d been the only person I could trust since the day I lost Abram.

  How was I supposed to choose between them?

  My eyes darted between the two men who meant as much to me as they possible could, and I knew the choice was impossible.

  “Be quick, Charisse Bellamy,” the Shadow Elf said. “It doesn’t look like Ramsey has much time, and the clock is ticking.”

  Chapter 4

  My mind raced as I took stock of what was happening in front of me. Stupid Ramsey. If he’d have just stayed where he was, if only he wouldn’t have gone racing through town to make sure I was safe, then this wouldn’t be happening.

  I couldn’t let Ramsey die. Not after everything he’d done for me.

  Still, I wasn’t about to kill Huntsman just to stop it from happening. I wasn’t a murderer, and besides, Ramsey wasn’t the only man in this room who had been there for me. Huntsman had saved my life as well. He was a hero, and if this shadow monster thought Huntsman was powerful enough that he needed to be dead, then that told me everything I needed to know.

  “I will destroy you,” I said, keeping my voice as calm and serious as possible. “Make no mistake. If you do this, I’ll kill you. I’ll scatter your molecules so far across the vast reaches of space that they’ll never come back together.”

  The Shadow Elf laughed again, the unnerving tone sending cold shivers along my spine.

  “Do you think I fear death, Charisse Bellamy?” He turned his head as Ramsey struggled to breathe in the invisible bubble that was slowly drowning him. “When faced with what’s to come, death would be a welcome respite. I do what I do for this world, for the people I care about. I do what I do for you, even if you refuse to see it.”

  And that was it. As sure as I was standing here, that thing had just showed me it’s Achilles’ Heel. It cared about something, which meant it had something to lose. I knew more than most that having something to lose made you weak.

  For just a second, Abram’s face flashed in my mind, and I had to force it away.

  Energy crackled around my hands as I crafted a silent but complicated spell. It was the same spell I’d used on Ramsey during our last training session. The same one that left him debilitated for hours, unable to move for fear of the pain it would bring his body.

  Even as I cast the spell, I couldn’t help but smile at what I knew was going to happen to the Shadow Elf. If it was anything similar to what had happened to Ramsey, it would throw the mons
ter across the room and practically tear it to pieces.

  Thrusting my hands forward, I shot a ball of energy at the shadow thing. The creature flinched as my magic collided with it…

  ...but nothing else happened.

  There was no big reaction. There was no flying across the room. The elf didn’t even flinch as the energy sparked around his skin, seeming to sink into his flesh one layer at a time. Soon, all of the energy I had directed at him dissipated, and he was there with that same ridiculous smile on his face.

  “Looks like you’re already losing your juice,” the Shadow Elf said, glee pouring out of him like water from an open faucet.

  “Not necessarily,” I said, feeling the connection between us set itself up as the magic I’d just pummeled the monster with took effect. “My powers aren’t weakening, you sadistic bastard.”

  What I hadn’t even thought about before I cast the spell was what had happened to Ramsey after I did it. That’s what I was waiting for. So, while I waited for him to realize what I’d done, I returned the creature’s smile.

  If a mass of black energy could make a facial expression, then the Shadow Elf’s eyebrows were pulling together, perhaps feeling from the inside the sensation of my magic curling around his insides and taking root.

  “It’s spreading,” I said, hoping he felt every bit of fear as I did in that moment. I wanted to remind him that I wasn’t the only one who might lose here. Plus, there was that little bit of New York in me that demanded that if I went down, I took him down with me.

  “What?” the Shadow Elf asked, and though I couldn’t tell for sure that his eyes had widened, the lilt in his voice spoke to intense confusion.

  No, more than confusion.

  Acceptance of the inevitable.

  He knew what was going on. He could feel the tendrils of my magic seeping into him and refusing to let go. He could sense my magical fingers wrapping themselves around his nonexistent windpipe and squeezing tightly. He knew what I had done, and he knew just how effective it was going to be. Especially because he could now see directly into my mind and the spell I’d cast.

  The blob of darkness began to twist. “You bitch!”

  Around me, visions played like hologragrams of my real life. My real past. Every moment that had ever pained me, brought into reality. Excruciating detail showed me exactly what my worst memories were.

  My father walking out, never to return.

  My mother dying of cancer.

  Abram.

  Each scene beckoned me, pulling me in three directions all at once. Although I knew it was a facade, the compulsion was still there to run to them, to try and keep the inevitable from happening in a way that would tear apart my existence.

  The Shadow Elf was playing dirty, there was no doubt about it. But I knew the one way to fight back against darkness. Hell, I’d spent the last year doing exactly that.

  I blasted more of my light at the creature, taking the pain of each milieu he’d presented me and focusing it into the energy I pushed outward. That’s right. I turned every memory that he was forcing me to relive into a weapon that I could use against him. I smiled again. This time it was at the strength that I had, and the power that I now carried. There was no way in hell that the creature in front of me stood a chance. Not when I wasn’t the same girl he figured I was.

  The creatures I went up against really did underestimate me, and I was definitely getting tired of it. That didn’t stop me from what came next.

  All my pain, all my grief, came rushing out of me in the form of white and gold sparks. My magic stabbed into the Shadow Elf like a thousand tiny needles, this time absorbing into his skin nearly the instant it touched.

  The painful vision he’d projected flickered out of existence, replaced with the knowledge that I’d already lived through them and I could face anything that was thrown at me. The Shadow Elf writhed back and forth, growling out more words, this time unintelligible, until finally he cemented into one solid form.

  Abram. Again.

  My energy hadn’t defeated it. Instead, my pain had told it all it needed to know. Of all the hurt in my life, it’d determined losing Abram was my greatest. Now, it was going to try and play off that weakness.

  The Shadow Elf threw his arms—Abram’s arms—out to his sides. “You need to stay away from me,” he said. “For good.”

  Just like before, it was a stab directly through my heart and into my soul.

  It was one of the last things Abram had said to me. Like the moment was replaying from my mind. I knew what he was doing, what he was trying to accomplish. That didn’t take away the pain, though.

  “Don’t come looking for me. And promise me one other thing.” The Shadow Elf, in Abram’s form, blinked hard. “Have a good life.”

  What was this creature playing at? I knew it wasn’t Abram. And replaying that scene didn’t make me afraid. It made me angry. Angrier than I’d been in almost a year. Now, though, I had power that I didn’t have when Abram walked away from me. I was different. I was more.

  I raised my hand to blast more energy at the dark creature, but before I could, his voice carried across the room.

  “I need you,” he said from Abram’s lips. “I never should have left. It’s not too late for us.”

  It was enough to give me pause. So badly, I wanted this vision to be true.

  But the real Abram didn’t want to be found. If he wanted me, I would have found him by now. The real Abram was gone, and all I could do was move on. Move on and save the people I still had left. It was one of the only things that I could do that would honor what he’d left me with. After all, when I’d first met him, Abram had been determined to keep the people of New Haven safe.

  Even as I knew that, I lived every day with sharp regret for what I’d lost. Heartbreak would sneak up on me at the most unexpected times: while drinking a coffee and feeling the absence of having Abram to drink with; while in the shower, with nothing to distract me from the thoughts and heartache; sometimes even while hunting down the evil in this world, missing the man I had first learned about my powers with.

  Could I have done more to stop him from running away from me and what we had? Was there something more I could have said? I replayed that moment in my mind often; other times, it haunted me in dreams I’d rather not have.

  I swallowed around the pinch in my throat, willing the tears not to fall. It was done. Abram was gone. I hadn’t been able to stop him from leaving, and I hadn’t found him during the year that I’d been searching. Now I was dealing with this creature, and in this moment, that was the only thing I could allow through the wall around my heart.

  I walked over to the Shadow Elf, willing my power to spread through his body, regardless of the form he’d taken. “In case you haven’t fully grasped what’s happening here, let me make things clear,” I said as he crashed to the floor. “I’m connected to Ramsey. He’s my mage. That’s what’s up.”

  My connection to the power surged again, and the Shadow Elf grappled at his throat and looked at me with Abram’s eyes. “Charisse…” he choked out. “Stop. It’s me. I came back. I need your help. I’m trapped.”

  “Nice try, Shadow Douche. Here’s the thing. When I hit you with that energy blast, it wasn’t an offensive maneuver. I connected you to me, too. And, since we’re all one big happy family now, that leaves something open to me.”

  In my peripheral vision, Ramsey was turning blue, and I realized that I didn’t have time for all of this. My gut wrenched so hard I thought I would be sick. I needed to hurry. No way in hell was I going to lose another person I cared about to the evil of this world.

  “I might not be able to undo what you’re doing to Ramsey right now,” I said, “but I can duplicate it. I can send the effects of that right to you if you don’t stop it now.” I stepped closer again, leveling a stare down at the elf, and trying not to see the face of my truest love looking back up at me, filled with pain and despair. “So, let me ask you, you ridiculous, disgustin
g creature: how do you like the idea of suffocating?”

  The spell worked quickly, leaving my body and forcing its way around the Shadow Elf in a way that left even me impressed.

  The Shadow Elf couldn’t talk, of course. Perhaps in his normal state, he wouldn’t need oxygen. But my spell bound him to the same earthly rules of whatever form he took. If Abram would need oxygen to live—and he would—then so did the Shadow Elf.

  I hated to see Abram’s face in pain. There was a part of me, a big part, that wanted nothing more than to run to that man, scoop him up, and make all his pain go away no matter what it cost me.

  But this wasn’t Abram. Abram was off in the great wide somewhere, looking for a new life. Hopefully somewhere safe. Hopefully not going through what his doppleganger was going through now.

  The Shadow Elf slapped at the floor, shaking his head frantically.

  “If you’re not the bad guy, then you’ll have to prove it,” I said, my eyes moving quickly to Ramsey.

  The Shadow Elf snapped his fingers while he stared at me with rage in his eyes, and Ramsey was free. He fell hard against the floor and grunted before greedily gulping up a few precious breaths.

  I turned to the elf, snapped my fingers, and freed him like he’d just done for my friend. The Shadow Elf swallowed hard and looked up at me with furious eyes, and I could tell that he was contemplating how to get the upper hand.

  “Don’t even think of it,” I said, reading his intentions. If he thought he was going to exact revenge on me, he had another think coming. “I’ll put you right back where you were. Believe it.”

  To make my point, I snapped my fingers again, and the floor beneath the Shadow Elf dissolved. He sank into it, and then it solidified again, trapping him in place.