Sad? He turned her toward him, hunting for traces that she’d already been compromised. “Elena, whatever might be left of the Iron Queen’s essence has been locked up for thousands of years. Maybe it’s sadness, or maybe it’s something far worse.”
“Or it’s not. Not anymore. Something is different.”
“How long has she been in your head?” When Elena didn’t answer right away, he took a guess. “You heard her in the chamber under the Wolf’s Den, didn’t you? When you were thrown across the room?”
“Haven’t you wondered why they picked me?”
He snapped up his pants and tugged them on. “That’s not an answer.” Not even close.
“Yes, she’s been in my head. I’ve seen…” She took a few steps away and then threw her hands up in the air. “I’m not even sure what I’ve seen. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Iron Brotherhood picked me. What if I was always part of their plan and they simply used you to get me? They saw a connection between us and knew you could get close to me.”
Gods, if he’d thought things had been spinning out of control over the last few days, then now they felt ready to detonate in his face. “It doesn’t matter.”
“And if you’re wrong? What if she can help us? All of us?”
“Help the ones you couldn’t save?” He still wasn’t sure what she meant by that earlier. “What did you mean when you said you wouldn’t have to lose another one?”
Elena glanced away, her expression unreadable.
“Whatever she’s promising you, you know there’s always a price. She’s Fae. There’s always more to it with the Fae.”
“And I’m half Fae.”
“And that means the iron could kill you. We can’t risk it.”
“You were certainly willing to risk my life up until now.”
The dig had the intended effect, and the guilt that chewed at him wasn’t as much as he undoubtedly deserved, but no way was he willing to take that kind of chance with her. Not now.
She jerked her pants on, continuing. “You were prepared to hand me over without even knowing what they were going to do to me. How is this any different?”
“I was an idiot for one. And you didn’t see the look on your face when you were near that box.”
“It takes me a moment to adjust. Being near her is like being at the center of a storm. I can feel her all around me, but she’s not trying to hurt me.”
“Since you’re so in touch with it,” he said purposely, determined to remind her they were dealing with an object and not a live being, “can you sense it now? Is it close?”
She cocked her head. “Not that close.”
“Not close enough to influence you?” he pushed.
She rolled her eyes, but shook her head.
Nothing on her face betrayed any magical influence or an ability to tap into the ancient magic. “You’re absolutely sure?”
“I don’t feel her. I promise,” she added when he regarded her skeptically.
“Good.” He pivoted away and then spun back to her.
She raised her arm, blocking the strike he should have been able to land. “What kind of game are you playing now, Barkley?”
He wished like hell he knew. The one thing he did know—very few immortals like Elena learned to defend themselves with any other means besides magic. Not only had she blocked him, but she’d also put him on his ass earlier.
He assumed the crown had somehow fueled her strength. But now… “If you’re not under the influence of the crown’s magic, then how did you fight me off earlier without your magic?”
Elena blew out a breath, an emotion crossing her face that he’d never witnessed before. Uncertainty.
“Elena,” he began, then froze.
Blood. The coppery scent drifted on the air. A thump followed by a muffled grunt of pain set the wolf on edge.
He faced the door. “Something’s wrong.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
What now?
Elena had had her fill of surprises, but at least she and Vaughn were communicating, even if they weren’t in agreement about the crown.
She knew he wasn’t wrong to distrust the ancient Fae object, yet she also knew there was a reason she gravitated toward it, an instinct she couldn’t pin down that stemmed from something far deeper than a craving for more power.
Vaughn took a marginal step in front of her. Even if he knew she was the Shadow’s Angel, a confession she’d been moments from sharing, he would have put himself in front of her anyway.
“Move!” He shouted, slamming into her a second before the door splintered.
The shockwave blasted through the room, sending tables skidding across the floor and bookshelves topping. It would have knocked them off the feet if Vaughn hadn’t already put them on the ground.
He raised his head, chunks of wood and shredded books fluttering around them. “Up!”
She was already halfway to her feet by the time he gave the order.
Three assailants. Two in the hall, one approaching the doorway. More voices echoed further away.
While she couldn’t hear as well as the wolf, she knew they weren’t facing the best odds with her magic still restricted and Vaughn recovering from his injuries.
“Promise me you won’t touch the crown,” he hissed.
“I don’t even know where it is.”
“We need—”
The short bookcase closest to them burst apart. Vaughn grabbed her hand and pulled her in the opposite direction. They moved along the wall, turning down a small corridor that led to a series of study rooms long abandoned.
“Shit,” Vaughn cursed, turning her in the other direction to avoid being cornered.
They only made it a few more steps before a large immortal stepped in front of them.
With long black hair, no shirt and mutated-looking muscles rippling beneath an olive green skin, he offered them a menacing grin. He carried an axe already coated with blood.
Dare’s?
Anger surged within her, her magic lashing against the brand from within. Vaughn came to the same conclusion within moments of her, a vicious snarl tearing from his chest.
“It’s probably a bit of a stretch to think he’s a friend of yours, huh?”
“We both know I’m not as popular as you are,” Vaughn said.
The exchange seemed to give the troll a moment’s pause, which was long enough.
Vaughn darted forward, dodging the troll’s axe at the last second. The curved blade bit into the shelf where Vaughn’s midsection had been a millisecond before that, snagging on the twisted metal.
Vaughn buried his fist in the creature’s thick neck. Elena ducked, slipping beneath the troll’s guard, and dropping to the floor to deliver a sharp kick to his kneecap.
The breeze from the troll’s axe whistled a little too close to her head but kept her moving. They needed to get to Dare. Vaughn was right on her heels, pivoting to grab the shelf and yank it down on the troll.
It barely slowed him down.
Power brewed inside her, her tracings vanishing and reappearing on her skin. Fire ate into her chest, but she didn’t let go of the power straining for her.
A burst of blue flame ignited in her palm as the troll knocked the shelving aside. She released it before the troll even saw it coming.
His mottled body shot into the far wall, the plaster crumbling around him as he slumped to the floor.
“It only stunned him,” she said.
“You’re amazing,” was Vaughn’s only response before he grabbed her hand and hauled her after him.
They backtracked toward the door that had been blown apart. She stood out in the open while Vaughn waited.
The first moron through the door didn’t see her wolf until it was too late. Vaughn snapped the other immortal’s neck, putting them on a more even playing field.
They’d be long gone before the Fae on the floor healed enough to regain consciousness. Two down…
A blur
of movement from the right.
Elena sidestepped but wasn’t fast enough. A knife sliced her side before embedding in the wall behind her. Only a graze.
Vaughn snatched the blade from the wall, firing it back at the lithe female dressed all in black. The blade sank into her thigh.
With little more than a grimace, she yanked it free and at the same time drawing another knife from a sheath strapped to her hip. The goth immortal eyed the two of them, fingers clenched around the matching blades.
Wasn’t she cute? Elena grabbed the shelf, releasing another burst of magic. A trail of blue shot along the edge of the shelf, leaping like a sideways bolt of lightning for the next closest object.
This time the other immortal cried out. She dropped one of her blades, but kept hold of the other, waving it tauntingly in front of Vaughn.
Elena staggered, the pain in her chest making her vision swim. She couldn’t pass out now. She gritted her teeth, her tracings reappearing on her skin as she lost sight of Vaughn and their attacker, the goth retreating beyond Elena’s field of vision.
Find me, Elena.
Elena mentally turned from the voice in her head, focusing on moving. Her feet tripped over each other, her body on the edge of burnout.
“Easy.” Vaughn slid an arm around her.
Blood ran down his shoulder from a fresh gash. “You should see the other guy,” he said before she could ask if he was okay, a dark satisfaction lacing his words.
By the time they reached the hall some of her balance had returned, except for the fifty-pound weights she seemed to be dragging behind her.
She made Vaughn let go of her. If he continued to hold her it would put them at a disadvantage. “I’m good,” she insisted, hoping like hell he didn’t see the way she floundered for the wall when he turned his head.
Sweat dampened her skin, the biting ache where the glyph sat on her chest worse than ever. Still, she managed to keep up with Vaughn as they made their way back downstairs.
The front door remained closed and intact.
Vaughn paused, then turned toward the small kitchen area. If Dare was here, they needed to find him and get some distance between them and the library before the troll and the goth got back on their feet.
You need me.
The voice pulled at her from the opposite direction, but she stayed with Vaughn. Maybe she could handle the crown, but if she couldn’t, she would need someone there to hold her in check. Ditching Vaughn now to go look for the crown would do more harm than good, of that she had no doubt.
First Dare, then the crown.
She came to a standstill behind Vaughn. The wraith stood in the middle of the kitchen area, his lower half a swirl of writhing shadows.
Vaughn growled, the wolf as close to the surface as Elena had ever witnessed.
The wraith held up his hands. “I didn’t attack him.”
Vaughn didn’t take his eyes off the wraith. “Dare?”
“Yeah,” came a pained wheeze. The pup’s eyes flickered open, and Elena felt some of the tension ease. “Wasn’t Erec,” he said after another long moment.
“I’m not here for your witch,” the wraith tacked on.
“If you want to hurt my feelings witch isn’t going to cut it.” By sheer will she walked the few feet into the room without falling on her face.
Vaughn crossed the room toward Dare only to freeze halfway there. “Piper?” He cocked his head, scanning the room completely before zeroing in the wraith all over again. He shot forward. “Where the hell is my sister?”
The wraith embraced his phantom form, slipping through the claws that would have caught the former knight around the neck. And then he was gone.
Vaughn snarled and bolted from the room in pursuit of the wraith.
Wobbly but hanging on, Elena sank to the floor where Dare lay on his side, one arm curled protectively around his middle.
She didn’t need to see the wound to know it was bad. The floor was covered in blood.
“They took the crown.”
“We’ll worry about that later. You should be a giant paperweight by now.” It was the only way he’d heal.
“Had to talk to him first.”
Him? Vaughn, she guessed. “It’ll have to wait.” Especially with that much blood pumping between his fingers and saturating his clothes.
“He needs to know it was my fault. I should have told him Piper joined the rebellion.”
“He’ll forgive you.” Assuming Vaughn’s sister came out of this unscathed. Assuming they all did.
“You are a horrible liar.”
“All the mortals I bluff at the casino would disagree with that assessment. And he won’t forgive you if you bleed out.”
“Erec… Her scent is all over him.”
The wraith smelled like Piper? Well that was an unexpected development, and certainly explained why Vaughn tore out of the room so fast…
Elena’s side tingled, and she checked the wound that seemed superficial earlier. A thin line of silver blazed within the puckered pink skin. Shit.
Dare clutched her hand. “You need to tell him the truth. He needs to know you’ll have his back.”
“Shut up and stop talking like you’re dying.” She listened for any signs of movement upstairs.
“Feels like it.”
“Best give up the Shadow game if you’re going to cry over a scratch like that.” A horrible, bleeding scratch that continued to cover the floor in a widening splash of crimson. “You need to go to stone. I’ve got his back,” she promised.
“Tell him, I’m sorry. I should have told him about Piper.”
“Should have told me what about Piper?” Vaughn returned a beat before a shimmer of color brightened the air, a white wolf staring up at her before he turned to stone.
Elena rocked back on her heels, managing to rise on her own. “The wraith?”
“Gone. We’ve got to go. Now.”
He caught her hand, pulling her from the room. Her knees trembled, then buckled.
Vaughn caught her before she hit the ground, giving her a glimpse of his own silver-laced wound.
So not good. She opened her mouth to tell him about the poison.
The wall to the right exploded, the impact knocking her back against the cupboards. She rolled to her knees and scrambled across the floor in what felt like slow motion. Her system was already compromised by whatever poison had coated the goth’s blades.
Somehow she made it to her feet, ducking under the hand that reached for her. It wasn’t Vaughn’s.
She pivoted and slammed her elbow into the newest assailant’s back. The bastard grunted and pitched forward.
Vaughn took him down from there. “There’s more of them coming. Get the hell out of here.”
She’d been waiting to leave him since the moment he’d strolled into her kitchen, dripping water all over her floor, and now she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
The compulsion to obey tightened into a painful knot where the brand darkened her skin. She ignored it.
Another immortal, a Fae, burst through the door leading to the kitchen. She’d seen him before somewhere.
“Damn it, Ivy.” Vaughn snapped. “Move your ass.”
Already weak, the harsh words forced her to take a few steps back and then she held her ground. If he hadn’t turned to deal with the first guy staggering to his feet as the Fae rushed them, she was pretty sure he would have strangled her.
Someone grabbed a handful of her hair, jerking her back. The troll.
“Finally,” a deep voice said from somewhere behind her.
A voice she’d heard before. Something sharp pierced her side, and she cried out.
A flash of heat spiraled out from her chest, constricting her lungs, each breath harder to draw than the last. The world swam in shades of fuzzy blue and green.
“Vaughn?” Her hand hit the wall and slid sideways. The rest of her followed and she hit the floor hard.
Miles away her wolf snarled,
ready to tear someone apart.
And then everything went dark.
***
Somewhere in the dark, a monster growled.
Elena squeezed her eyes shut, not interested in anything but sleep. If she kept sleeping, she could ignore whatever irritating beast had decided to channel a primordial rooster.
Something wet landed on her cheek, and she raised a hand to swat it away, her limbs sluggish. She just needed a few more minutes of sleep.
The monster roared again, and this time an equally menacing growl answered it. One practically next to her ear.
The growler licked her again.
“If you want to keep your tongue, I suggest you keep it between your slobbering jaws, Barkley.”
The wolf rewarded her with another lick. Taking it one step at a time, she managed to get her eyes open and the roll to her back. The ceiling of a cave greeted her, but that wasn’t the biggest surprise. Her chest burned with a fever that wouldn’t break, but beneath it, a pulse of magic beat steady and strong.
“We’re not in Kansas anymore, are we Toto?”
Avalon. Had to be. It explained why her magic felt so much closer, as if it was working to chew the very brand off her skin from the inside.
And fuck, it hurt.
A woman laughed, and Elena shot upright, scanning the room for the Iron Queen.
Only she and Vaughn were in the cramped cell with a dirt floor and a solid row of thick bars separating them from the rest of the prime dungeon real estate.
Next to her, the wolf sat back on its haunches, watching her carefully, head cocked.
“I don’t suppose you heard her, too?”
Another giggle. “Trust and slumber.”
Elena frowned at the voice, one that was definitely not in her head and sounded nothing like the Iron Queen.
The monster snarled again. So Elena wasn’t the only one who heard the other woman.
The wolf turned, hackles raised, but she stroked the animal’s side, running her fingers through the thick fur.
Forgetting the monster, the wolf pressed into her, his head sliding under her chin before he delivered another swipe of his tongue.
Primal Bounty_Pendragon Gargoyles Page 26
