by Sarah Piper
“But what about when you’re in a human vessel? Aren’t you limited by Liam’s human perceptions?”
“Yes, that does… complicate things.”
I thought about how many times he’d traveled back and forth to the material plane, constantly changing forms from his natural state to his human vessel. About how many times he’d endured that confusion and complication… just for me.
“You can stay in your Death form,” I said. “I don’t mind.”
“Perhaps not.” Liam frowned, brushing a tangled curl behind my ear. “But you don’t look at me the same way.”
“I… I never meant to disappoint you,” I said.
“Oh, Gray. You haven’t disappointed me.” He stroked my cheek with his thumb. “You couldn’t.”
“Then why are you looking at me like that?” I whispered, lowering my eyes. I couldn’t handle the intensity in his gaze. The scrutiny. He could see my soul, my heart, and he was making me feel things I didn’t want to feel right now. Not while I was trapped here, facing down an eternity alone.
“There’s no coming back from this, Gray,” he said gently. “You risked everything. You… you sacrificed… everything.”
“So you keep reminding me.”
“I just meant…” He slid a finger under my chin and tipped my face up, forcing me to meet his eyes again. “It takes courage and selflessness to do what you’ve done. You must never forget that.”
My heart swelled at his kindness. He was so real in that moment—a touch of compassion in an otherwise deathly place. His warmth, his eyes, the shy smile playing on his lips… Looking at him reminded me what it felt like to miss something. To miss someone.
“Will you find the others?” I asked. “And tell them about the prison? Asher is working on getting Haley and the others out.” I told him about the things we’d endured there, and the parts of Jonathan’s crazy plans we were able to put together from his ranting monologues.
“I will go to them, and I will tell them everything,” he said when I finished. “But I don’t understand—how was the incubus able to overcome the blood-born devil’s trap? Surely you didn’t remove his soul again?”
My cheeks flamed at the memory. “I… he was… healed. Sort of magically. Energetically.”
“Magically energetically?”
“We didn’t have much time,” I said.
“But incubuses require—” Liam cut off suddenly, clearing his throat. “Ah. I see. I’m, um, well, it’s good that you were there to… He’s very lucky to have a friend… Okay.” He cleared his throat again, then glanced up, taking a breath of night air. Clouds were moving in now, darkening the lavender sky to a deep slate.
“It’s going to rain,” he said, a hint of alarm tingeing his voice. “You need to take shelter. There’s a cave system ahead—hopefully, it will still be there when we reach it.”
“And if it isn’t?”
Liam glanced up at the clouds. “Then I’m afraid we’re in serious trouble.”
Eleven
Gray
The rain began as a gentle mist that floated down from the sky, descending on us like a gossamer curtain.
“Take this,” Liam said, and I turned to find him unbuttoning his flannel. He shucked out of it and handed it over. “Put it over your head, and don’t look up at the rain. Try your best not to take deep breaths.”
“What are you talking about? It’s just—”
“Take it, Gray. Do it now.”
I reached for the shirt, trying not to ogle his bare chest, his well-defined arms, the way his abs bunched as he leaned closer. There was a small tattoo peeking out over his hip bone that looked a bit like a… a pineapple, maybe? Before I could confirm, he motioned again for me to cover up, and I indulged him, draping the flannel over my head and letting the sleeves hang down over my shoulders.
His scent was all around me, a mixture of ocean and sunshine and a deep, ancient earthiness that called to something just as ancient inside me. My magic responded, too, unleashing a curl of heat low in my belly.
Or maybe that wasn’t my magic at all. Maybe it was just my body’s response to someone who was starting to feel less like a strange, otherworldly being and more like a friend. More like a man.
We picked up the pace, Liam taking the lead, but the rain picked up, too. It was pleasant at first, cool and refreshing, but it quickly turned sharp and icy, stinging me even through the flannel.
Suddenly my chest felt tight, and I coughed hard into my hand. My fingers came away splattered with blood.
“Blood,” Liam said without turning around. “We’ve wandered into one of the least hospitable worlds of the Shadowrealm. When it’s not raining acid, it’s raining glass. You’re breathing it in right now. It’s attacking your lung tissue.”
“But it’s barely sprinkling!”
“Imagine what a downpour will do. Keep moving. Don’t look up.”
We walked on for another five minutes, the rain gathering strength, scraping my shoulders and the tops of my feet. Blood ran in rivulets down Liam’s bare back, but he refused to take his shirt back.
“Just keep moving,” he said. “I see the cave ahead. Quickly!”
No sooner had we cleared the boulder field and entered the mouth of the cave did the downpour begin in earnest. From the safety of our shelter, I watched open-mouthed as thousands of glass needles pelted the ground we’d just vacated, shattering into powder on impact.
It sounded like the tinkling of tiny bells.
It was terrifyingly beautiful.
Another cough rattled through my lungs, tearing up my throat on the way out.
“That will pass, as long as you don’t go back out in the rain.” Liam put a hand on my shoulder, gently guiding me away from the mouth and into a large chamber deeper inside. It was close enough to the cave entrance that it still held a bit of light—just enough to make out Liam’s silhouette. It was warmer than I expected, and the air smelled homey rather than dank.
When he crouched down to light a fire, I realized why.
This cave was someone’s home—or it had been. There was a fire pit in the center, now glowing brightly, and several animal-skin rugs arranged around it.
“It’s not a five-star resort,” Liam said, rising up to his feet and dusting off his hands. “But you’ll be safe in here until I get back.”
“Luckily I’m not a five-star resort kind of girl.” I smiled, handing back his shirt. “Besides, it’s kind of cozy. Plenty of room for a sectional and a flat screen, if you’re ever in the mood to redecorate.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.” Liam laughed. The firelight caught in his eyes, and I wanted him to stay, more than anything. To keep laughing like that. To keep looking at me like that.
But after a beat, his smile faded. He reached for my hands, his thumbs brushing gently across my knuckles. The same sparks I’d felt before skittered across my skin.
“Is there anything else you need for the night?” he asked, his voice low and husky. God, if this had been any other situation, I might’ve thought he wanted to… to kiss me. But that was impossible. He was Death. Death didn’t just go around kissing people. Did he?
“Gray?”
“No! I mean, I… I don’t suppose you have any food?” I asked hopefully.
Liam shook his head. “Your body doesn’t actually need food here. Or water. Your brain is still adjusting to that reality, but once it does, you won’t feel hungry or tired anymore.”
Disappointment settled into that gaping hole in my stomach where the food should’ve been. I liked feeling hungry and tired. Hungry and tired were temporary problems. Human problems.
If my brain stopped feeling those things, what was next? How long before I lost all traces of my humanity.
Sensing my distress, Liam frowned and cupped my face, his touch warm and gentle. In that same low, husky voice, he said, “I will do what I can to protect you here, Gray.”
I nodded, grateful. “But is that… allowed?”
Liam considered me for a long moment. At least, it felt like a long moment, standing in the spotlight of his intense gaze, holding my breath in anticipation of all the reasons why he couldn’t interfere with the natural order, how I’d already caused enough trouble, how he’d already broken all the rules.
His thumb brushed across my cheek. When he finally answered, his voice was no more than a whisper.
“No,” he said simply. “It isn’t.”
I was trapped in his eyes, losing myself in their depths, in the gentle touch of his hand on my cheek. The fire crackled behind us, soft orange light dancing with the shadows on the cave walls, the tinkling glass rain falling outside. In that moment, it seemed like we’d hit the pause button on all the craziness of the situation, and in here, it was just us, warm and close and safe.
If I stretch up on my tiptoes just a little bit, our lips will touch…
“Gray, I…” Liam let out a soft sigh, his gaze sweeping down to my lips. He seemed to be stuck there, maybe contemplating the same thing I was contemplating.
Holy hell, he’s going to kiss me…
“Liam, I—”
“I should go,” he said quickly, our words crashing into each other. “I, ah, I’m sorry, Gray. I hate to leave you alone here, but I need to get back to the material plane and find your people.”
I nodded, turning away from him and pretending to be interested in the fire. What the hell just happened? Had I actually been thinking about kissing Liam? Not just thinking about it, but… wanting it?
“No, you’re right,” I said, forcing conviction into my words. “You need to tell the guys everything I’ve told you about Jonathan and the prison. It’s crucial that they help Ash and the others.”
“Yes,” he said. “But what shall I tell them of you?”
“Tell them…” I closed my eyes, trying to picture each of their faces, trying to find the words to say goodbye. What could I say? That I loved them? That I appreciated everything they’d done for me? That I wished we’d had more time to get to know each other, to be together, to be a family?
That I was sorry?
Fuck that.
A surge of anger welled up inside, pushing outward against my skin as if it were a living thing trying to break out. Jonathan and his family had taken so much from me as a child, and now I was in the same predicament again, still trying to outrun him. Separated once again from the people I most cared about. Alone and powerless…
But… no. That was bullshit. I wasn’t an orphaned, powerless child on the run and afraid of my own magic anymore. I was a witch. Maybe I didn’t have full control of it yet, but everything inside me believed—no, knew—that I had power.
My anger burned away, leaving something much stronger in its wake: raw determination.
I turned back toward Liam. “You tell them I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
“Gray, I don’t think it’s wise to make that sort of statement when—”
“You told me if I banished a soul here against its will, my own soul would be trapped here eternally while my body rotted away on the material plane. But my body isn’t on earth. It’s here. And so is my magic.”
“That may be true, but you can’t just magic your way out of the Shadowrealm. That’s not how it works.”
“The fact that I manifested here proves we don’t actually know how it works.” I shook my head, dislodging a thought that had been quietly needling me ever since I’d seen the black forest by that lake, right before Jonathan attacked me. “Every time I’ve traveled to my own magic realm, I’ve encountered the black forest and the rune gate—the borderlands between my realm and the Shadowrealm. The gate was always leading me here.”
“But not for the purpose which ultimately vanquished you here.” Liam ran a hand through his hair, exasperated. “Gray, you were supposed to train as a Shadowborn, to learn how to harness magic from both realms and work with soul energy, both light and dark, in whichever capacity we ultimately determined best suited you. Instead, you condemned a soul here before his natural death, and now—”
“I know what I did, but that’s not the point. All I’m saying is a connection between realms doesn’t just break. I saw the black forest here—it vanished before I could get to it, but it was still here. Which means my realm is still accessible.”
“The Shadowrealm is endless and ever-shifting. You can’t possibly know if and when the forest will appear, or if your rune gate will even be in the same place. I understand your desire to find the loophole in this, Gray. I just don’t want you to—”
“To what, Liam? Hope? Well too bad. I am hoping. Hope is the most human thing about me right now, and I’m not giving it up, no matter how tough the odds are, no matter how crazy I sound. Hope is my life raft, and you can bet your ancient, all-powerful ass I’m clinging to that bitch until my very last breath. If the black forest doesn’t reappear, I’m just going to have to find another way to the rune gate. If that rune gate is a pile of rubble, I’m just going to have to make another one. So you go back to the material plane and you tell Emilio to have a hot batch of brownies ready for me, because as soon as I find the way out of this nightmare, I’m coming home.”
With no room for argument and nothing left to say, Liam nodded brusquely, then vanished, leaving his signature black feather floating in the air between us.
He was gone before I could be sure, but I swore I caught the hint of a smile on his lips.
Twelve
Ronan
“I smell a bloodsucker on the porch.” Elena handed me the last plate to dry and turned off the faucet, reaching for the towel on her shoulder. “Tell me he belongs to you or I’ll go out and behead him.”
“Beaumont?” Hell, it was still daylight. What was he doing here? I bolted for the front door and wrenched it open, the sight nearly knocking me on my ass.
Liam stood on the front porch in human form, looking like some kind of half-stoned, post-Grunge Ken doll. Darius was leaning against him, his arm draped over Liam’s shoulder, his feet barely touching the ground.
I couldn’t even tell if he was conscious.
I opened the door and gestured them inside just as Elena stepped into the foyer, still holding the towel.
“Madre Maria!” Elena gasped when she saw Liam, stumbling backward against the wall and pressing the towel to her heart. “You’re…”
“Not here for you,” Liam assured her. Then, to me, “It seems I’ve found your vampire.”
“I’m no one’s vampire,” Darius slurred. “I am a king. The king of blood and bones. Bones are… important.”
“Get him on the couch,” I said. “Elena, close all the blinds.”
I shouted for Emilio, who’d been in the back bedroom checking in with the Blackmoon Bay PD.
Liam laid Darius on the couch in the living room. The vampire was babbling and delirious, the skin on his hands and face black and blistering where it’d been scorched by the sun. He was wearing a black hoodie I’d left at the motel, but from the looks of things, it hadn’t offered much coverage.
“Did you find him like this?” I asked Liam.
“Yes. I sensed his dire situation the moment I materialized here, and located him in a garden shed about four miles away. I don’t know how long he’d been exposed to the sun before that. I brought him here posthaste.”
“What’s going on?” Emilio emerged from the hall, his face falling as he took in the scene. “Shit! What happened? Why isn’t he at the motel?”
“He hasn’t said a coherent word yet,” Liam said.
Emilio propped Darius’s head up with a pillow, wincing at the sight of his face. Angry black patches covered his cheeks and nose, the skin charred and cracked. His lips were a blistered mess. His chin and neck were stained a rusty brown that could only be one thing.
“Blood,” I said, wiping at it with my thumb.
“It’s…” Darius began to shiver uncontrollably, his teeth chattering, his fangs protruding and retracting on thei
r own.
He needed to heal. He needed nourishment. Now.
Without a second thought, I pushed up my sleeve and pressed my wrist to his mouth. Fresh or not, demon blood was never a vamp’s first choice, but it would have to do.
Darius clamped his mouth shut and turned his head away from the offering.
“Don’t be a dick,” I said. “Just hold your non-existent breath and pretend it’s one of those snooty French wines you love so much.”
I pressed harder, but he shoved my arm away—a gesture that took a hell of a lot of effort for a vampire with supposed superhuman strength.
“Can’t,” he said, his voice cracking. “Too… much.”
“Too much what?” Emilio knelt down next to me in front of the couch, his eyes full of concern.
I unzipped the sweatshirt. The once stark-white dress shirt underneath was soaked in blood.
“There’s our answer,” I said.
Shit. He’d fed on someone. Maybe even multiple someones. And it hadn’t been a clean job, either, which meant it wasn’t consensual.
That was bad news.
I shot Emilio a worried look. Before all hell broke loose with Gray last month, Darius and I hadn’t exactly been close—not for a long time. But I was pretty damn sure forced feedings weren’t his style. He had too much honor and dignity for that.
“Who was it?” I tried to ask Darius. “And why were you out in the sun?”
He tried to sit up, his eyes blazing as he grabbed my wrist. “Attacked by—” he began, but his words died, his eyelids drooping closed.
He’d finally passed out.
It was probably for the best. His body needed to shut down everything else so it could focus on healing. For bloodsuckers, sun poisoning wasn’t like knife wounds or broken bones. The effects of it could linger for days, and it required a lot more effort to undo the damage. The blood was a double-edged sword, too; he’d obviously fed recently, and fresh blood would help him heal faster. But too much of it would wreak havoc on his nervous system first.
