I got up and he slid into my spot on the couch. The coven watched as I walked out the front door without a jacket and walked into the middle of the yard, dropped to my knees, and prayed. I prayed to our goddess to keep our friend safe. We'd lost too many already. Candace was one that could never be replaced.
"All of you are precious to me."
Shivers ran down my arms as I recognized the voice, the voice that had spoken to me from my body. I couldn't open my eyes. My fear keeping them shut. I could feel her all around me.
"They are to me, too. How do I save the one?" The tears began rolling down my cheeks and the sobs crawled from my chest. "I can't lose her."
"Do what is right, that is all you can. Remember that death is not the end. The fae child knows this and is not afraid."
"There is no way to save her?" My chest froze and I couldn't breathe past the lump in my throat.
"That, I did not say. The possibilities are endless. When the moment comes, you will know what needs to be done. Have faith, not in me, but in yourself, child. I chose you and have placed my faith in you."
Eyes still closed, I nodded. "Thank thee, Lady."
Her lips touched the invisible mark on my forehead, the mark she had put there with those same lips, warm and cold, hard and soft. Fingers slipped through my hair, pulling it from my face and a moment later she was gone, leaving me shivering in the cold.
But she had left me with something else. Determination.
I pulled my knees from the muck the melting snow had left in the yard, standing and turning to see my family in the window. I went back inside. Not one of them spoke as they all knelt on the floor.
"I need four volunteers. Two women and two men."
Josie was the first to stand, as did Alista. Poor Alista, who had come all this way to set a trap and put herself in danger. Jimmy and Dennis stood just after. I gave them a small smile. They'd told the battalion chief a friend had been kidnapped, a tale he could corroborate with the chief of police if he needed.
I had the bait, now the trap needed to be set.
We rushed, gathering what we could and making due without. I'd vainly attempted to wake Yuki. Sunset was still too far away and even knocking on the stone window of the bedroom hadn't done any good. Those were their tombs and they were dead to the world. I would not bust down the door. Ever.
The garage was the stage.
When we were complete, I walked outside and pulled down all the wards and shields myself, inviting the rogues to come and play.
CHAPTER 20
I waited in front of the garage door by myself, trusting everybody not to move. Josie, bandaged, stood in the front window watching me and hoping. The first of them peeked from the woods on the side of the house opposite from where I stood. I did nothing to spook him, no movement, not even a breath.
He nodded across the way and another stepped out from the side closest to me, raised his hand, and let a blast of sparks fly into the air above us. I wondered who he had signaled when the white van skidded to a stop in front of the house, rocking before the side door slid open with a screech of metal. Six more rogues poured out of the van, taking up positions in front of the house, arms out, ready to cast.
Then I saw her, kneeling in the van and bound in rope. Candace with a knife to her throat. One last heavily hooded rogue sat on a milk crate beside her. The insurance.
"You have them, yes?" His voice practically echoed from the van. He had to have been using magic to make himself heard without shouting. His voice dripped with a heavy accent. At least I could understand him. I knew one of them spoke English. The note was proof of that.
"Yes. Behind this door." I shouted so he could hear.
"Covered, da?" Panic seeped into his voice. He didn't want his precious treasures turning to dust if the door opened.
"Yes. I covered them with wool."
"Let me see."
Instead of opening the door, I held up my phone. "Look."
He nodded to the rogue closest to me. He scrambled over, fearful I was going to attack him, and grabbed the phone from my hand. He looked at it and ran it to the figure in the van.
He reached out a clawed hand and took it from him, holding it in front of the hood covering his head. Whatever he'd been at one time, he wasn't a witch anymore. His claws were proof of that. The feasibility of my plan became shrouded in doubt.
Fuck.
He tucked my phone into his pocket. I'd written it off as a loss the moment I'd given it up.
"Bring them to me."
"Not until you let her go."
He snarled under the hood and it slithered over my skin like an oily serpent. I fought the urge to rub my arms.
"Give them or dead she is."
"Compromise. I'll open the door but stand my ground. You let her go and I walk away. Their lives aren't worth the life of my daughter." I hoped he bought it.
The hood shifted as he looked down at Candace and then back up at me, chuckling. "Kin. Good." He pulled the blade to her throat and I watched as she winced, the blade creating an indent on her flesh, but not cutting in. Yet. "Da. Open the door."
I pulled the opener out of my pocket and held it above me, pressing the button. The motor whirred to life as the screw slowly lifted the heavy wooden door. He leaned forward and stared until the four bodies draped in heavy woolen black blankets came into view.
The hood tilted as he stared in uncertainty. "Proof."
I sighed, trying my best to look inconvenienced. It wasn't as hard as I would have thought. I'd been inconvenienced quite a few times over the past month. I had plenty of practice to nail the look.
I turned around and marched over to the body closest to me. I stood to the side and slowly peeled back the blanket, revealing the naked foot of one of the "vampires" lying in the bed while I whispered, "Deataigh."
Smoke began to pour from the flesh and I quickly covered the foot before releasing the spell. I waved my hand in front of my face to clear my vision. I even coughed a little for effect.
"Others?"
"I assumed you meant alone. My friend is there in the window." I turned and pointed at Josie. She stared inside the van at the bound Candace, nearly pounding on the glass.
"Good. Nogalini viņu."
This should be the part where the trade goes sour and I show my resolve…
The rogue closest to me rushed forward to grab me, the words of a spell on his lips. His temple exploded as the shot from the rifle bored through his skull, dropping him like a stone on the driveway.
"I'm sorry, I meant to say me, her, and my friend with the well concealed rifle in case you tried to be a dick."
The other rogues looked at each other and then toward Chief, concealed somewhere in the trees.
Laughter erupted inside the van as the knife bobbed perilously against Candace's skin. If he didn't reign in his chuckles, he was going to accidentally slice her open.
He waved at the rogue who had delivered the cell phone. One handed, he picked Candace up by her bindings and gave her to him, along with the knife, before sitting down on the milk crate and putting his elbows on his knees to watch the exchange.
The rogue holding Candace walked forward, holding her against his chest with one arm and the knife in the other. I put my hands down by my sides and waited patiently for him to bring her to me. When he got closer than he liked, he stopped, setting her slowly to the ground. I held my breath as he brought the knife to the rope around her ankles and quickly sawed through it, allowing her to walk.
"Candace, come here, honey." Walk, baby. Just walk.
She took one step and I reached out my hand. As soon as my fingers touched her, I pulled her to my chest and hugged her, backing us up slowly away from the garage.
"Nest tos!"
The rogues slowly walked forward. One step for each one of mine, eyes on the trees watching for danger. I stopped at the edge of the property, looking as innocent as I could. That should have been their first warning. I concentrated on p
icturing the cell phone in the bad guy's pocket and the cleverly placed combustion spell I had layered on the battery… "Pléascadh."
The explosion was bigger than I expected from a cell phone. I remembered the headline news from a couple of years ago, banning people from travelling with a certain model. Any phone could be a bomb with the right spell. The concussion blew him from his egg crate into the back door of the van. I think it might have blown a good portion of his leg off, too.
I pushed Candace toward the back of the house, where Josie was running to meet her and get her to safety. The four "vampires" sat up in their beds and began casting incendiary explosions on the front lawn, causing the shotgun shells we'd placed tip-up in the ground to explode. Most didn't go off, but the few that did were spectacular. I watched as one of the rogues was shredded and another completely lost his arm. The repeated rapid-fire spells caused enough confusion and harm to the shielded rogues that the rest of my coven was able to walk forward on the roof where they'd been hiding and barrage them with binding spells. The rogues quickly became bound, gagged, and dropped to the ground.
We'd done it. And saved Candace.
The other's dropped to the ground from the roof, using their magic to slow them down. Dwight, Jason, and Jimmy had offered to dispatch any that remained alive and they held true to their word. They would never trouble us again.
I walked toward the van to check on the asshole who caused all this. Peeking my head in through the door. I screamed as a clawed hand shot out and grabbed me by the throat, dragging me into the darkness of the van.
He forgot his English, cursing at me in whatever language was his native. I endured the hissing and spittle, but when I saw his face I screamed. He was the stuff of nightmares. Long fangs protruded from his mouth and slit pupils nearly burned me in hatred as his forked tongue hung limply from the side of his mouth. Long pointed ears rose above his matted black hair, lightening into scales before becoming pale white flesh. Just from the touch of the skin on his hand I could feel four beings within him fighting for dominance.
He'd been a witch once. Until he came across a vampire in his village in Latvia. Wanting more power, he experimented, using his magic and the vampire's blood to change him. Then he came across a smok in some caverns in the mountains. At first, he thought it was just an extraordinary long snake until it turned into a dragon. He hired the witches with him today to help catch it. It died in the capture, but he still used its blood. Dead blood that mingled with the necromancy of the vampire blood already flowing through his veins. Many years later, he came across the elven maiden. She had been so sweet as he experimented with her. But her blood had been too pure and drove the three creatures living in his body insane.
"You're a monster," I managed to croak.
"Da," he hissed as his fangs tore into my neck. He needed my blood to heal, but in feeding, he'd exposed his head. The thunder of the Chief's sidearm blasted through the inside of the metal box I'd been trapped in a split second after his forehead exploded against the metal doors behind him.
I probably would have screamed if I weren't already dying from the poison burning through my flesh.
CHAPTER 21
"You did well, daughter. I could not have been more proud."
I glanced up at the loving face of the goddess standing over me, smiled, and inhaled the sweet scent of the flowers all around me. The sun warmed the hill I'd been nestled upon. "Not that well. I did die at the end."
"True, but death is only the beginning. I told you that."
I nodded, heartened by her kind words. "I'll miss them, though."
"Not for long."
I sat up in a panic. "No. They can't die! We worked so hard to save her, all of them. They were supposed to be happy."
She chuckled, sending the motes of sunlight playing on my arms dancing. "Silly, child. They're not dying, you're going back. Ten witches are fervently working to save you. It looks like it is working now that the vampires have drained the poison from your veins."
"Oh, good. I wanted to go back. I'm not ready yet."
"I know. You have much to do."
"Will I do it? Will my work pay off?"
"That depends on you. Don't give up and you will see it through."
"I will, my lady." I bowed my head and when I lifted it, I was sitting up in the middle of the garage, gasping for breath and wishing I was still dead. Until I saw the faces of everyone around me. Josie was a sobbing mess. With every wracking wail, my chest hurt a little more. Candace was holding her, tears running down her red cheeks. Jimmy, my poor Jimmy, had to be restrained by Dennis, he looked like he was going to kill something. Everyone else was crying and on their knees, not wanting to lose another high priestess again. And then their was Chief…
"Thank fuck," Chief said and dropped to the floor beside my bed. "Lady, damn it, Dot. Will you stop doing that?" He sounded angry, but I could hear the fear in his voice. He'd already lost one woman he loved and had been forced to face the possibility of losing another.
"What?"
"Dying!"
"I'll try. No promises."
"What the hell was that thing?" Jimmy asked as Dennis let him go, color returning to his pale complexion.
"I saw it. I saw it all. He was a corruption. You wouldn't believe the evil things he did." I shuddered with his memories still oozing through my head. I don't know how I saw it, but I think it had something to do with the goddess. She might have showed me as a warning. Not that I'd ever eat a snake, vampire, or elf.
"He smelled like an elf," Candace said, still stroking Josie's hair.
"You okay, sweetie?"
She nodded, but still looked pale.
"Am I okay?" I asked everyone. They all gave me a look.
"You have quite the scar where he bit you…" Jimmy said sadly.
"Let me see."
Josie leaned forward and took a picture with her phone before handing it to me. I glanced at the screen. The flesh around the wound had a green tinge to it. The actual wounds started at the top of my shoulder at the junction of my neck. When Chief shot him, the impact ripped the fangs down along my collar bone before they faded into two white lines. I shrugged. It could have been oh so much worse.
Battle wounds.
More like stupid wounds. You got bit because you were careless, stupid.
At least I had the sense to mentally berate myself. I had been stupid, thinking the creature was dead when I stuck my head in the door. I should have just set fire to the van to make sure and called it a day.
"Can we go home now? I feel gross."
"Can you even stand?" Chief sounded doubtful.
"If there's a shower involved, I could probably run right now." I rolled over and tried to sit up. It didn't work out so well. The after effects of the poison still lingering. "Okay, maybe not."
Yuki surprised me by kneeling in front of me. She bowed her head and smiled at me. "You were not joking when you said you are not like your mother. I just wanted to say thank you for saving us, once again."
"Team effort," I said, slowly reaching over and patting her head. "Thank all of you for getting the poison out of my system. If you and George stay, I hope this is the start of a long and prosperous friendship."
She nodded and stood. "Thank Yvette. She was the one who pulled the poison from you." She paused and looked around her. "Would you all please excuse us for a moment? I need to speak to your high priestess in private."
Everybody but Chief nodded, heading inside. He cocked an eyebrow at me. I nodded slowly so my head didn't spin. I doubted Yuki would be impressed if I puked on her shoes.
"Holler if you need me," Chief grumbled and headed inside.
Once the door leading to the house closed, Yuki leaned closer. "I would offer you blood to repay our debt."
"What?"
"The poison has been removed from your body, but it's effects remain. The damage was considerable. You will live, but not as strong as you were. I would like to give you my blood to
drink."
"You want to turn me into a vampire?"
She stifled a giggle. "No. It will merely heal you. Turning someone into one of us is a little more…complicated. I do not even think it would work on a witch. That abomination," she paused to point at the van, "is what I think would happen if we tried."
"Oh, good. I like the sun too much."
A sad look passed over her face. "There is much to give up to live forever."
"I'm sorry, Yuki."
She shook her head. "I do not regret being what I am. I was born a vampire. Some of us had it forced upon us. It is they who deserve our pity."
I nodded, even though I couldn't imagine being forced into a new life. I'd been born a witch. It was all I knew. Being human and then forced into the supernatural world on the whim of another would probably be pretty terrifying. Her comment about being born a vampire surprised me. I didn't know they could be born.
"I thank you for your offer, and I accept."
She brought her wrist to her mouth and pierced the flesh with her fangs. "Quickly, before it closes."
She brought her wrist to my lips, careful not to spill any blood on me, and pressed it to my lips.
Colors danced in front of my eyes the moment the first drop hit my tongue. I could smell sounds, hear the feel of her skin against my lips, and feel the scents swirling around us with my flesh as my senses became a jumbled miasma of experiences. I pulled the blood from the wound with my mouth as it it flowed into me and became part of me.
"Not too much, when you feel better, stop."
When the last dregs of weakness left me, I let go of her and fell back to the bed, afraid to move.
"I would have done that sooner, but I did not want to without your consent. That, and I doubt all of your coven would have approved."
"Thank you, Yuki."
"How do you feel?"
"Better, but afraid to move for different reasons." The blood had spread and was leaving me with warm tingling sensations everywhere. I remembered how it felt when Yvette had fed from me, I guess that feeling worked both ways. I laughed and rubbed my tummy. Feeding from Yuki hadn't been the sheer jolt of pleasure like being fed from, but it did feel great. Like the after moments of great sex. "Woah."
Second Blood: A Reverse Harem Tale (Lovin' the Coven Book 2) Page 18
