“Hugh?” Ussier asked as a large, black man appeared at the back of the room. He was bald, his face etched in what looked like a permanent scowl.
“Hey, my friend, this is your game.” Hugh looked around at the gathering. “But personally I’m inclined to agree with Alette for once.”
“Deke?”
A grizzled older man came through the front door wearing a Harley cap, and a pool stick twirled in his hands. “I will stand by whatever you decide, Ussier. However, I cannot stand frigging effet’ snob bastards.” Deke growled, taking in Roland’s elegant apparel. “No offense, Kris.”
“None taken, Deke,” I replied, smiling as Jacob straightened, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction.
Ussier held out his hand and a young girl pattered up to him, slipping her hand in his. She looked to be no older than twelve, though Kristair knew the appearance was a lie. “Lisabeth?”
“You like dragging things out too much, Ghedi,” she muttered, fixing a steely glare on Roland and his entourage. A few of them stepped back. “You already know my feelings on the matter, so just get on with it.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ussier replied, with a twinkle in his eyes. “You heard her, Artemise.”
“Wait a minute here,” Roland began furiously. Lisabeth made a slight gesture and he stopped, his jaw working though no sound came out. Roland looked around wildly as another man stepped out of the wall and came to stand next to Alette, studying those gathered. There was a merry look to his features though his eyes were grave at the moment. He carried a cane and leaned against it. There was a resemblance between Alette and Artemise that marked them as kin.
“Justice must be served, Ussier, and we’ve heard and seen enough over the past weeks to know their guilt. Spare that one though,” Artemise said thoughtfully, pointing the tip of his cane in Tony’s direction. “We need someone to carry the sentence back to their Council. He’s only a baby and a pawn in this whole debacle.”
Ussier nodded and focused his attention on Tony, whose eyes were wide with terror. “What’s your name?”
Tony swallowed, glancing at Jacob and Steve. “Tony… sir,” he said faintly.
Jacob opened his mouth to interrupt, worry battling against lingering anger. I squeezed his hand. “This is Ussier’s city. Like it or not, Tony is one of us now and subject to our rules.”
Jacob’s jaw tightened and he glared at a brunette woman holding onto Tony’s arm. “Tony, I want you to watch the sentence being carried out and bring news of what happened here back to Rome with this message.” Ussier’s voice grew as cold as his eyes. “Any Syndicate member who comes into my city or anywhere within a five-hundred-mile radius is going to find their life immediately forfeit.”
Roland stood there, waving his arms about, still trying to speak. The vampires holding onto Jacob and Steve were looking around at my companions, shifting from foot to foot.
I took the distraction Ussier and his friends provided, and walked over to Jacob, resisting the urge to bolt. The couple holding him shrank back and released him. I caught my lover as he slumped. Jacob’s head fell back and he stared up at me, his hands digging into my arms. “I want to go home, Kristair. I don’t wanna see this.”
“Whatever you wish,” I whispered, sliding my hand through his hair.
If I had been paying more attention to my surroundings, instead of trying to reassure Jacob, I might have sensed, or possibly seen, Roland’s sudden movement. Or how the muzzle of his gun flashed as it went off. But there was no omen, sound, or warning of Roland’s malicious intent.
Shots rang out. The concussion against the air echoed along the expansiveness of the warehouse’s corrugated steel walls.
Jacob jerked. His muscles shuddered and then stiffened from the shock of the impact. His blue eyes flew open wide as his brain realized what had just occurred. A sharp cry of pain escaped the rictus of his lips. Our hearts spasmed at the recognition of what was to come.
“Jacob!” I stared in horror at the red blossoming over his shirt, quickly overtaking the earlier, smaller stains.
Chaos ensued around me. I had a vague impression of shouts and fighting erupting around us, but I was focused entirely on Jacob as I eased him to the floor. He suddenly appeared so young to me; young and terrified.
“Kristair? I can’t feel my legs.”
“Shhh, mo chroí,” I replied, trying to access the damage. I could sense him weakening rapidly, much too fast. The ordeal he’d been through had already taken such a toll on his body. Black blood bubbled to his lips, forming an ominous froth. I wiped it away, panic spiking. Did that mean his lungs had been hit or his liver?
Jacob’s eyes were glassy, his breath shallow, skin waxen. I was losing him.
Absolute fury roared through me. This wasn’t supposed to happen to him. Not Jacob. I smoothed his hair back, seeing the air around me shudder in reaction to my emotions. I could fix him. I could do anything. It would only require a thought.
My mind raced. That was how I managed all my other abilities, right? Thought through how it could be done until thought became action, reality. The whisperers reached out and grabbed a hold of my mind with firm, unshakable grips, jerking me out of my musings.
“NO, NOT NOW!” I shouted, fighting their hold, centering my concentration on Jacob, who was trembling in my arms.
If they took a hold of me now he would die. I wouldn’t be able to stop it, and I could save him. I knew it now with absolute certainty as everything clicked into place. Thought would become reality. I just needed to be free from my own fate for one more moment.
“It’s too late for the boy; his outcome has already been decided,” they chorused.
Jacob’s presence, the sensation of him in my arms, started to fade as their strength increased and I felt myself somehow beginning to tear away.
“You’ve denied your own path for too long. You belong to us now.”
“Kristair… KRISTAIR!”
The sound of Jacob’s frantic voice allowed me to claw my way free, though the effort took almost all of my strength. The room spun around in dizzying circles as I squinted my eyes, forcing myself to focus on my lover.
“I won’t leave now.” I snarled to my invisible attackers. “Not until I know he is safe.”
I wouldn’t be able to hold them off for long. Not anymore; my time was well and truly up. I had run out of options. But that didn’t mean Jacob’s had to be as well. “I’m here, mo chroí.”
I pulled him closer, wrapping my arms around him one last time. Somehow I could read all the damage done to his body, bullets had shattered his spine, torn through vital organs. Sensing my resolve, the whisperers withdrew, though they were still hovering in the background, ready to take me as soon as I gave them an opening. Jacob’s mind was a haze of confusion, terror, and pain.
“I… I… make me like you, Kristair. I can’t feel my legs. I don’t want to be paralyzed… and I….”
I shook my head. “You’re not going to die, mo chroí. I won’t let you.” I looked down into his cloudy blue eyes. “Tá mo chroí istigh ionat.” I pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I love you, Jacob.”
“Wha… what?” Jacob replied, as I laid him back on the ground. His hands grabbed a hold of me though there was no strength left in them.
I placed my fingertips on his forehead and captured one of his hands, holding it to my face as I leaned low over him. “Trust me, Jacob. I will always be with you in whatever way I can.”
I started to chant softly under my breath, concentrating on weaving the spell I’d left unfinished in January. I stared down into Jacob’s eyes, willing thought to become reality. And as my soul began its transfer I sensed the sudden disconcertion of my tormentors.
Take that, fuckers, was my last thought as they pounced and ripped my mind away. But it was too late. My strength and vitality had already poured into Jacob’s body.
Chapter 36
SOMETHING WAS horribly wrong, but I couldn’t figure it out. I knew I had be
en shot and that I was dying. It should have scared me more than it did. Dying, I mean, or being paralyzed. But Kristair said to trust him and I couldn’t not trust him. He would do everything within his power to save me. Besides, I hurt too damned much to worry about it.
Kristair was speaking and his words made no sense. Sounds of violence swirled around us in a terrible song. My fingers twitched against Kristair’s cheek as his eyes blazed. The world around us fell away as we became lost in each other.
Memories flooded through me. I found myself caught up in a tidal wave as Kristair’s life flashed by me like a movie caught in super fast-forward. Experiences and knowledge that far outstripped anything I could have ever imagined became a part of my own psyche. My mind reeled. Light dimmed and I started to pass out from the sheer weight of my lover’s presence. My body convulsed and the sudden renewed agony of my abused body brought me back to the present.
“Kristair!”
It was too much, too fast. His dark eyes were focused inward. He was still speaking in that strange language, which seemed familiar.
Warmth stole through me, starting at my forehead and working its way down through my body, taking the pain with it. I blinked with stunned realization as strength came back to my muscles. What the hell was happening?
Kristair blinked. His eyes refocused on mine and a faint smile of satisfaction touched his lips. There was a raging internal argument going on in his thoughts with that strange presence I’d sensed from time to time. His lips flickered in another smile as I grabbed him.
“Keep yourself out of trouble, mo chroí.” Warmth and love washed over me as his eyes closed and he whispered one final unrecognizable phrase.
Before I could answer, he shuddered and then fell across me. I winced from the sudden weight, but the pain had disappeared. I could move again.
“Kristair… Kristair?!” I pushed myself up and shook him. His mind was connected with my own and I heard the argument with the other presence heating up, though I couldn’t make out what the hell they were saying to each other.
Abruptly alien, unseen hands shoved me back from Kristair, tearing us apart. I fell back, my head bouncing off the floor so hard I couldn’t see past the spots in front of my eyes. My hands groped for Kristair, my fingertips slipping off the smooth fabric of his pants as he moved away.
“No… no….” I shook my head violently, clearing my vision. “Fucking stop it, Kristair. It ain’t funny.” He somehow blocked his thoughts and emotions from me.
Kristair was kneeling on the floor, his arms flung out to his sides, his head thrown back, mouth open in a silent scream. My heart lurched in my chest at the contortion of pain on his face.
I scrambled up, reaching for him, a terrible fear clawing my insides to shreds. “Somebody fucking help me!” There was a war going on in the room around me and I didn’t give a flying fuck. Something was attacking Kristair, and I couldn’t help him.
The connection between us snapped and I screamed again as an explosion of stabbing pain struck my temples. I clutched my skull, hunching down in on myself, unable to think, unable to breathe, as I rocked back and forth. A blazing, golden light blinded me, even through my eyes were closed. When the pain eased, I looked up, blinking at the intensity. The light was coming from inside Kristair, pouring out of him in a blinding halo.
The fighting stopped around us as everybody turned to watch.
For a brief moment, my gaze met Kristair’s and I didn’t recognize him anymore. Everything I knew about him was gone. Whoever this creature was, it was just a shell of the man I had known.
Someone was screaming. I realized it was me as I jumped up to yank him back from wherever he was going. As my hands touched the light, he disappeared.
Kristair was gone. I couldn’t sense him anymore. Ever since that night I’d first let him into my room, we’d always been connected in one way or another. Even when we’d blocked out our emotions, I had always been able to reach out and touch his presence, any time I wanted to. When I tried now, all I felt was a gaping hole where Kristair had been.
“No, no, no.” I jumped up, looking around wildly, clutching at my hair. “Kristair? KRISTAIR! Please no, please fucking god no.”
This wasn’t like the other times he’d disappeared. Though they had scared me, and I hadn’t been able to sense him, I’d still known instinctively that the connection was still there.
Never before had there been this all-consuming, aching emptiness. Never. I pressed my hand to my now-silent chest, doubling over in anguish. “NO!”
The golden nimbus in the room was gone. After a startled silence, the fighting started up again. I scanned the room, the ceiling, searching for the strange ripples, anything to indicate the whisperers still might be hanging around.
Hands grabbed my shoulders and I jolted, yanking back, and preparing to swing until I saw Steve’s worried face.
“Don’t touch me,” I snarled, my skin crawling.
“Jake, let me take a look at you.” Steve tried to sound stern, but the way his voice was shaking blew it. “You’ve been shot, for fuck’s sake. Calm down.”
“Calm down! CALM DOWN! HOW THE FUCK CAN YA ASK ME TO CALM DOWN? He’s….” I stopped pressing my lips together hard against another scream of pain and fury. I couldn’t say it.
I rose to my feet, avoiding Steve’s hands as he reached for me. God dammit, if he touched me again I was going to kill him. I couldn’t take it.
“I’m not hurt.” I clutched at my hair again. What the hell had Kristair done? What had it cost him? I was whole. There wasn’t even a twinge to mark where I had been shot, or all the places where I had been bitten.
“I don’t understand,” Steve said. “I saw him shoot you. You… you went…. There was so much fucking blood.”
Him. My head shot up and I looked wildly around the room. There were still little knots of fighting, though it was obvious Kristair’s friends were winning. All the bodies littering the floor belonged to the Syndicate.
Then I saw him. Roland Montrose. That’s what he’d called himself.
I hissed and lurched to my feet. The head of the Syndicate was fighting Hugh. Roland’s expression was desperate as he tried to backtrack and defend himself.
With an animal roar of absolute rage, I tackled him. At the last second, he turned astonished eyes toward me and then we tumbled to the floor. My fists rained a flurry of blows onto his face and chest.
Roland snarled and shoved me off him hard enough that I flew back into the wall. If there was any pain at my landing, I didn’t notice. I jumped up and attacked Roland again.
Hugh stepped back, watching the two of us struggle. He caught Steve’s arm as he ran up. “Let them have it out,” he said, his voice gravel against rocks.
Roland grabbed with hands I remembered being so damn strong and his teeth snapped near my jaw as he strained to reach me with his fangs. My fingers dug into his face, holding him back. The other man must have weakened Roland because somehow I found the strength within me to keep him off my throat.
Roland rolled, taking me with him and pinning me down. His fangs, sharp and gleaming, snapped closer, his face a mask of desperate anger and underlying fear. “I’m going to make you one of us,” he snarled. “Then you can spend the rest of eternity knowing what you lost.”
I roared, groping blindly for something, anything, I could use as a weapon. I felt the smooth wooden haft of a heavy and unwieldy object. My fingers tightened around it and I swung it as hard as I could at Roland’s temple. The sledge went wide of its mark at that awkward angle. It just nicked the top of his head, but the momentum was enough to knock him off me.
Both of us scrambled to our feet. I shifted my grip for better balance. “Just like baseball,” I whispered to myself, my hands tightening on the haft.
Roland sneered as he rushed me, his body hunched over to protect himself as much as possible. I swung with all of my strength and stepped to the side. The solid, merciless head caught Roland in the ribs wi
th a terrible sound of pummeled meat and splintering sticks. He flew back, landing hard on the ground, several feet away. Blood poured from the gaping hole in his side.
I walked slowly over to him, studying the broken ribs sticking out of his flesh through his shirt. I didn’t care. I didn’t fucking care. It didn’t even stir me at all. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought I should be screaming.
“Well, what do you know, fucker? I still have some of Kristair’s strength left in me after all.” I stopped next to where the head of the Syndicate lay cursing, struggling to sit up. The wound started to knit together. I kicked him in the side of the head and knocked him back down.
I lifted the hammer, glaring down at him, and tears sprang to my eyes. “You should’ve left us the fuck alone,” I snarled.
Roland raised his hand to defend himself as I brought the sledge down on his skull. The vampire’s body convulsed once before lying still. I stared down at the mess, the hammer dropping from nerveless fingers. There was nothing left of his head.
I had killed someone. The thought floated across my brain. I hesitated, and then turned away. Good. I didn’t feel sorry for what I’d done.
The rest of the room was quiet. Not a single Syndicate member was left standing. Bodies, blood, and even more unpleasant things were tossed on the floor and against the walls.
It was carnage. That’s a word Kristair would’ve used.
A small, cynical smile crossed my lips. This was a whole different world. Kristair’s friends could slaughter a room full of people and there wasn’t going to be one word about it in the newspapers tomorrow. No one would know about what happened. Or of my part in it. Or that Kristair was gone. No one would care. It seemed obscene to me.
Steve walked up to me, a hesitant look in his eyes as he studied me. I glared back at him, a terrible coldness clawing at my mind. “What?” I snapped.
He shook his head, his eyes sweeping over me and flinching. I looked at the spatters of blood and gray matter on my hands. I leaned down and wiped them on the T-shirt of one of the dead vamps. They didn’t need to worry about being clean.
Triquetra Page 29
