by Jodi Redford
Defeated and miserable, she slumped against the slick limestone, drawing her knees into her chest. Strange, terrifying shadows danced along the surrounding walls. She slammed her eyes shut in an effort to block them out. A scratching noise approached, and she flinched, convinced that the shadows were coming to devour her. Something cold and wet licked her face, and she shrieked.
Soft fur brushed her cheek. She opened her eyes and stared into Logan’s gleaming irises. Unable to stop it, she let a sob escape. He licked her again, her tears falling victim to the gentle persuasion of his tongue.
“You were supposed to go.”
He gave a low woof that she swore sounded argumentative, and she sighed. “And you call me stubborn.”
Butting against her, he curled into a ball and snuggled his head in the crook of her shoulder. His ear tickled her nose, but she didn’t mind. Just having him close offered a comfort sorely lacking in this place. Tunneling her fingers through his thick, silky fur, she looked up and noticed the soft glow of those odd lights she’d noticed earlier. “You can’t stay. There’s no place for you here,” she repeated.
Logan gave another forlorn whine, and the lights overhead dimmed. Her eyelids heavy, she drifted off to sleep.
He awoke with a jerk, the memory of Clarissa’s softness pressed against his wolf form slowly melting into the reality of her lifeless body resting next to him. His heart pounding erratically, he stroked his thumb across her lips. They were colder than before. But she was alive. Both here and in that other world that was filled with darkness and death.
He would bring her back. Now that his wolf had tracked its mate, there would be no stopping him. He kissed her before climbing from the bed. He’d fallen asleep in his jeans. Rather than changing into the sweatpants that Fiona had produced for him last night, he walked downstairs as is. Everyone was gathered in the kitchen, including Tanner and Sarah.
“I’ve found her. That fucking monster is keeping her chained up like a prisoner.”
Clarissa’s coven sisters gaped at him. Constance was the first to speak. “Wait a minute. You saw her? How is that even possible?”
“I was hoping you could tell me,” he admitted. “One minute I was asleep, the next I was inside my wolf, racing through freaky land to catch up with Clarissa’s scent.”
Fiona chewed on her thumbnail, her expression thoughtful. “Your wolf is convinced Clarissa is your mate?”
He nodded, and Fiona and Constance exchanged a look before Fiona finally glanced back at him. “That’s got to be the key. Enough of a bond has been established to link you astrally, granting you admittance in this creature’s realm.” Fiona took a deep breath, her lip quivering. “H-how is she?”
“Scared, obviously. But our Clarissa is one tough nut to crack. She has the strength to fight this thing. And we’re gonna help her.”
Everyone started talking at once. Amongst all the commotion, Tanner lurched to his feet and strode toward Logan. Anxiety rode every inch of the kid’s features. “It took her, didn’t it?”
Logan blinked, taken aback. Tanner started pacing, his hands shoving through his cropped-short hair. “She didn’t tell me it was taking her so soon. I—I thought…shit.”
A gasp shot from Sarah. “Tanner Joe Montgomery. You know better than to cuss in front of a roomful of ladies.”
At the moment, Logan didn’t give two shits if Tanner swore a blue streak. It was the rest of the startling revelation coming from the kid’s mouth that had him interested. “What do you mean she told you?” Why the hell would Clarissa confide in a total stranger when she hadn’t peeped a word to her coven sisters? To him?
Tanner slid a cautious glance in his mother’s direction. It became clear to Logan that the boy was unlikely to say much more in front of her, for some reason. Clamping onto the kid’s shoulder, he prodded him toward the hallway. Once they were safely out of earshot of the women, he backed Tanner against the wall, leveling him with a steely look. “Spill.”
“Th-the thing also tried to contract my soul. I would have done it, too, if she hadn’t stopped me.”
Shit. He dropped his hand from Tanner’s shoulder. He eyed the kid’s ashen pallor, suddenly realizing that a possible source of insider information had just fallen into his lap. “What do you know about this thing that has Clarissa?”
“Just that its name is Seven, and it has about a bajillion fucking personalities.” Tanner slashed a quick look toward the kitchen, his cheeks taking on a guilty flush. “Uh, please don’t tell my ma I said the F word. She’d be running for the Palmolive.”
“What do you mean by personalities?”
Tanner shrugged. “Exactly how it sounds. The thing can appear one way one second and something else the other.”
His mind tracked back to the trucker and the doppelganger. He’d seen the creep walk off with them, along with four others he hadn’t been able to really make out in the fog crawling in off the fiery lake. And now that he thought about it, a couple of those personalities had been at that weird-ass mansion. If he understood Tanner right, all those creatures were the same thing?
He rubbed his jaw, his brain spinning. Hell, he’d never heard anything like it. Still, it didn’t necessarily surprise him. There was plenty of odd shit in the world, the majority of it existing outside the boundaries of most folks’ comprehension.
So basically, it boiled down to them having to battle not one son of a bitch, but several. Jesus. Mimicking Tanner’s earlier move, he rifled his fingers through his hair and burned a path in the hallway runner as he let the ramifications sink in. He returned his scrutiny to Tanner. “Is there anything at all you can remember about this Seven creature that might shed some light on what might kill it? Or at least what could be a weakness we could use against it?”
“Not really. It spent most of the time telling me all the things it could do for me. You know, to convince me to sign the contract. It was pretty damn persuasive too. I almost fell for it.” Shame tinted Tanner’s voice and clouded his eyes.
Remembering the similar expression Clarissa had worn while she’d admitted to her hidden envies, Logan squeezed the boy’s arm. “You can’t beat yourself up over it. None of us are infallible. It’s called being human.”
Tanner frowned. “Actually, that reminds me. I don’t think Seven holds any warm fuzzies where humans are concerned. In fact, I sorta get the feeling it pretty much thinks we’re scum.”
Logan scowled. “What a coincidence. ’Cause I feel the same way about it.”
He spent the rest of the day strategizing a plan. The way he saw it, there was only one option when it came to discovering the way to destroy Seven.
He’d have to go directly to the source.
A little covert spying in that other twilight world just might dig up the dirt that’d put a permanent end to that motherfucker. He’d have to be careful not to alert the creature to his presence, but that shouldn’t be too difficult. The hard part would be staying long enough within the dream state that allowed his wolf free rein over there. He’d only been with Clarissa’s soul roughly an hour. That wasn’t enough time to learn dick. He didn’t trust anything chemical, such as a sleeping pill. Pharmaceuticals tended to have an adverse affect on his shifting. Who knew if they’d produce a similar outcome in the REM state? Best not to risk it.
There was another option—one he’d never personally tried before. Hypnosis.
Kegan had once mentioned that Constance knew how to perform past-life regression, which utilized hypnosis. If she used the same technique on him, she might be able talk his wolf back into that other world and hold him there long enough to find out everything he could to annihilate the monster and bring Clarissa back, safe and sound.
Like anything else, there were risks involved. He’d be under the influence of another, giving him less control of his wolf. But he was racing against time here. Every hour lost took Clarissa deeper and deeper under the command of that fucking thing.
Leaving his mate’s bedsi
de, he went downstairs in search of Constance. God willing, his plan would work.
Chapter Twenty-Three
She didn’t know how long she slept before Envy came for her again. At first she panicked, thinking Logan was still curled beside her. But as awareness slowly crept within her drowsy brain, so did the chill of the limestone beneath her. Logan’s warmth was gone. As was he. Maybe he’d taken to heart her admonishment to stay away.
Envy sprung the shackle from her ankle and jerked her to her feet. “Come. I have a surprise for you.”
Her knees, stiff and aching from her uncomfortable bed on the hard stone, protested the rough treatment. She steadied herself before traipsing after Envy. Outside the cave, the sky remained cloaked in twilight. How could that be? She’d dozed for what’d seemed like forever. Surely dawn should have broken by now. Unless…
Perhaps this place was perpetually shrouded in darkness.
A heavy bleakness anchored in her chest at the idea of never seeing the sun again or feeling its comforting rays.
“Look. Isn’t it wonderful?”
She lifted her head at Envy’s excited shout. An enormous fountain stood in the middle of the beach. It took her a moment to realize it was an exact replica of the one in Forsyth Park. Wispy figures were frolicking beneath its spray. She drew nearer, and the three individuals came into sharper focus—Jolene and the two Tatum girls. She recoiled in shock.
“Quite realistic, aren’t they? I spent all day working to get their likenesses perfect.”
She gaped at Envy, who seemed oblivious of her reaction. But then the sin turned toward her, its zealous glee intensifying. With sickening clarity, she determined the creature’s motive for resurrecting the painful scene. “Why do you crave torturing me this way?” She hated how small her voice sounded, like she’d been transformed back into that child who’d longed for her parents’ love and affection.
“Because it gives me great joy.” The voice did not come from Envy.
She pivoted, horror crashing over her as a massive, hideous beast rose from the depths of the lake. It resembled a giant squid, but with seven heads and huge, demonic red eyes.
Each of which just so happened to be pinned on her. She stumbled backward, nearly tripping on the sand. “Dear goddess, protect us all.”
A deep booming laugh thundered from the beast. It was then that she recalled where she’d heard the sound before. In her dream.
This was Seven. The core creature comprising the sins.
“Your goddess does not exist here. I am the creator of all. And the destroyer of many. Bow before me, you worthless human.”
If her legs weren’t already too frozen to move, she still would have refused the demand. The creature’s numerous mouths yawned open, revealing a plethora of razor-sharp teeth. “Bow.”
Before she could tell Seven what it could do with that request, Envy shoved at her shoulders, forcing her to her hands and knees, until the rough scrape of silica bit into her palms.
“That’s more like it.”
“I didn’t—” She broke off with a gasp, tears stinging her eyes as Envy’s talons dug into her scalp.
“Do not test the master,” Envy rasped warningly. “He is already angry that I allowed the wolf to live.”
Greed suddenly materialized near the fountain, its dark eyes full of disdain. “Yes, that was rather a stupid move on your part. You should have fed him to the master like the others.”
Nausea rolled in the pit of Clarissa’s gut. Her focus swerved from Seven to the lake teeming with oil and fire behind the beast. “You are the evil that lives in those waves. You’re consuming the souls.”
Greed rolled her eyes at Envy. “Honestly, what do you see in this one? She’s not even that bright.”
Ignoring the sin’s bitchy sarcasm, Clarissa stared at Seven. “What are you?”
Another of those terrible laughs shook from the creature. “Don’t you know? I’m the dark at the end of the tunnel.”
Logan glared at the small crowd of spectators who’d gathered in the bedroom. If it were up to him, he would have kicked most of them out. Particularly the damn guild members, who were no doubt sitting in on the hypnosis session just because they were pains in the asses who enjoyed sticking their noses in a man’s private business.
Constance finished anointing his forehead with her charmed oil concoction before placing her fingers over his eyelids, forcing them shut. “I want you to just concentrate on your breathing for a moment.” She talked him through the process, her voice a relaxing lullaby. “Feel yourself going deeper and deeper within yourself. Your wolf is there, waiting for you. Waiting to take you to Clarissa.”
A strange spiraling sensation overtook him, but rather than panic, he allowed the ebb and flow of the currents to buffet him through the swirling vortex.
Suddenly the spinning stopped and he was inside his wolf, crouched near the cave where he’d slept with Clarissa the previous night. Keeping low to the ground, he belly-crawled to the mouth of the structure, his preternatural eyesight giving him the added boost of being able to see if anyone was hiding in the dense shadows filling the cavern. It appeared to be empty.
He was about to dart toward the opposite end of the cave when a strangely familiar scent bombarded him. Though it possessed an unquestionably female bouquet, it wasn’t Clarissa. Whirling, he growled at the trespasser.
“Down, Cujo. It’s me. Willa.”
If he’d possessed the ability to speak, he was damn certain he would have cursed every word in the book at the young witch, right before demanding she tell him how the hell she’d ended up there.
“Yeah, I can tell from your expression that you’re pretty much wondering the same thing I am. Suffice to say, I have no damn clue what I’m doing here, either.” Willa hunkered close to the rock wall, her teeth chattering loud enough to rouse the entire mountainside.
Fuck. This wasn’t good at all. How was he supposed to gather intel on Seven and keep watch over Willa at the same time? He crowded her closer to the concealment of the cave and gave her a warning look, hoping she’d get the message. He took two careful steps forward. And immediately heard the swoosh-swoosh of her feet disturbing the sand behind him. Jerking his head around, he stared her down.
“No way, buster. Wherever your furry ass is going, I’m following. This place is too creepy to hang around by myself.”
Damn stubborn women. They were going to be the death of him. Literally.
Returning his focus to the path that snaked toward the shores of the lake in the distance, he snuffled the ground. Sure enough, Clarissa’s sweet scent mingled with the grains of sand. She’d been through here recently. After a quick glance to ensure Willa was still trailing close behind, he dashed in the direction of his mate. As they neared the lake, he could make out several figures standing on the beach.
But it was the massive beast rising from the waves that turned his blood to ice. What. The. Fuck. He detected Willa’s sharp intake of breath and prayed that she wasn’t about to scream. Or do anything else that would bring attention to them both and potentially put Clarissa in danger before he could reach her.
Giving Willa an unsubtle nudge, he galloped toward the cluster of boulders that bisected the beach and the sheer curtain of rock comprising the interior of the mountain. The shelter would provide them cover, but it was also close enough to the action that if that thing moved to attack Clarissa, he’d be on top of the bastard in an instant.
The sound of raised voices carried to him, and he cocked his ears forward.
“You humans always amuse me with your constant quests for eternal enlightenment, when clearly it’s always been the darkness that consumes you most.” The smug diatribe seemed to be coming from the ugly-ass beast. “One only has to watch those news programs your kind adore to see your obsession with tragedy. Killings and muggings. Kidnappings. War and disease. Day after day, you find more ways to destroy the light. And feed me.”
“No.” Clarissa shook her
head adamantly. “We’re not monsters like you.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. My pride corrupts your egos, even while my envy cripples your souls. I’m the gluttonous darkness that desires to smite all else. As you see, there’s a little piece of me in every single one of you. It’s time you fully recognize that.” The beast snapped its tentacles toward its psychotic henchmen, and the four creatures pounced on Clarissa.
Fear and rage exploding within him, Logan released a ferocious growl and leapt from concealment, sprinting to his mate’s aid.
The next several seconds were a terrifying blur as he attacked each of the creatures. He managed to fling two of them off Clarissa, and she struggled to escape the other pair. Willa came running from behind as three more of the creatures jumped into the fray. They dragged Clarissa into the lake, shoving her beneath the waves.
His anguished howl renting the air, he dove in after her. She resurfaced, choking on a mouthful of the oily water. He swam toward her, his legs paddling furiously, but just as he was almost upon her, a fierce wave tossed him skyward.
For one blinding moment, he was suspended.
The next second, he crashed back into his body. Gasping and trembling, he snapped his eyes open. Constance was leaning over him, her face deathly pale as a rush of anxious questions pelted from her mouth. Tuning them out, he pushed her away and vaulted to his feet, his gaze sweeping the crowded room for Willa. She was slumped against the wall, her expression dazed. He raced to her, catching her around the arms as she started to slide toward the floor. “What the hell happened?”
“I—I don’t know. One minute I was in the lake, and now I’m here. But I still feel Clarissa. She’s alive.”
Willa’s admission swamped him with relief and prompted a tidal wave of stunned demands around the room as everyone suddenly became aware that he hadn’t been the only one to take a trip to Freaky Island. Domino asked the question that seemed to be most prominently poised on everyone’s tongue, but with her own unique, domineering twist. “Willa, I demand to know how you ended up over there.”
