by Hazel Hunter
“Piers and Kieran were snatched from the ground and the air. There was no scent left behind. Did you do that?”
Silently, the monster pointed at one of the demons beside him. This one unlimbered wings that looked broken and tattered. Hailey wondered if such a thing could even get into the air, but when she saw the enormous twitching muscles across the demon’s chest, she realized that it could do so easily. That was another mystery solved.
“Who are you?”
There was a long silence. Then to Hailey’s horror, the demon raised a slow hand and started tearing at its own face. She cried out in shock as the blood flowed down, but when the demon spoke next, it was with a voice that was almost painfully human.
“I am Colonel Thomas Wyecomb of the Magus Corps,” he rasped. “I was captured by that Templar and infected with a demon.”
Kieran stepped forward, reaching for the colonel with one hand. Wyecomb waved him back with a swipe and a growl.
“No, don’t touch me. I’m possessed by this demon, and it has put its roots down deep in me. The Templar bound it to me, and now we are one.”
Kieran looked sickened.
“What can we do to heal you? What can be done to pull the demon away?”
Wyecomb made a dark and gurgling sound that Hailey had to strain to recognize as a laugh.
“There’s nothing you can do for us. All you can do is to destroy us. We are all members of the Magus Corps, and we have all fallen. Better to be remembered as a fallen Corps man rather than a monster.”
“I can’t do that,” Kieran protested. “I was sent to find you, to find all of you.”
Wyecomb’s eye, a vivid hazel, peered out of the wreck of his face.
“Then you’re a member of the Magus Corps as well?”
“Yes. I am Major Kieran McCallen.”
“This will be easy then. As a member of your brotherhood, I charge you with the final mercy that you can visit upon us. There is a room just outside this chamber with weapons in it. Find something that will take off our heads and give us peace.”
“I can’t! Don’t ask me to do that.”
“I am not asking you, I am ordering you, Major!” Wyecomb’s voice came out as a roar. He lunged at Kieran, arms out to crush him.
“Stop!” Hailey cried. As before, he stumbled to a halt.
Wyecomb turned his eye to Hailey. Under that maddened, pained gaze, she felt a hot spike of pity and grief.
“You could keep us as we are, ma’am,” Wyecomb said, his voice almost pleasant. “You could do it with that little toy that you’ve got in your hands. You could keep us still until the Magus Corps sends more men out here. What I will tell you is that they will find nothing more than what I have told you. We are dead, and if we continue as we are, we are damned.”
Hailey found herself nodding. She turned to Kieran, her eyes wide and beseeching. For a moment, she thought that he wouldn’t relent. Finally, he nodded, his face like a granite mask. There was something deadened about him in that moment, something so defeated.
“Yes. I’ll do it.”
He started for the room, but then Piers stepped forward.
“Wait. Before we let these men go to their last rest, we can take their names. They will not be forgotten. They will be remembered as the heroes that they were.”
This caused a stir in the beings in front of them.
Wyecomb stood up straight.
“Colonel Thomas Wyecomb of the Magus Corps. Born 1709. No last words.”
Almost as if by clockwork, the second stood forward.
“Second Lieutenant James Orris of the Magus Corps. Born 1890. No last words.”
“Captain Royce Martel of the Magus Corps. Born 1534. Tell my brother Stephan that he is a fine man and excellent officer.”
The last stood up, but though he moved his mouth, he could not speak. He tried, making several deep groaning noises. When he realized that he would not be able to speak, he stood with his head hanging and his sides heaving. Finally, he reached somewhere into his tattered ragged clothing and withdrew something small and dark. He pressed it into Hailey’s hand.
She stared at it in confusion. Though it was battered and bent, she could see that it was a pin featuring a pair of interlocked iron pentacles.
“It’s the insignia of a lieutenant commander,” Kieran said. “It’s enough.”
But it would never be enough, Hailey realized with a pang. These were four men who had their lives taken from them. Then those lives were used to harm others. If she thought about it for too long, she would break down and weep. Instead she tucked the insignia into one of the inner pockets of her cold weather gear for safekeeping. When Kieran returned with an enormous ax, she kept her face immobile.
Wyecomb knelt first. As Kieran lifted the ax, Wyecomb whispered thank you. Kieran was strong and fast. It was over in a heartbeat.
Hailey could feel hot tears streaming down her face. When Piers took her hand in his, she squeezed it as tight as she could, but she didn’t look away.
Orris was next, followed by Martel. Kieran was flecked with dark blood, but he was impassive as he did his cruel, merciful work.
Slowly, the last knelt, the nameless, the man who couldn’t even die with his past respected.
As Kieran raised the ax one last time, Hailey realized that there was something wrong. She couldn’t explain what it was. It was a nameless dread that rose up from the core of her being. This last man was different, the one who couldn’t speak. She put out her hand to stop Kieran, but it was too late. The ax came down, the head hit the floor, but the body did not fall.
Three humans and a wolf stood frozen as the headless body rose up from the ground. They couldn’t speak as a strange and sibilant laughter filled the room.
“Oh, but I am dead, and I am dead, what a terrible day this is!”
The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, ringing through the chamber and echoing until Hailey thought that she would go mad. The thing’s mocking tone was shrill and unnatural, like aluminum being torn apart.
“What are you?” Hailey said from between numb lips.
“Oh did I not tell you, child? I am dead, I am dead, your man has killed me. But just because I am passed on does not mean that I lack power. Just because I am dead does not mean that I will leave you in peace, yes?”
The body’s misshapen legs raised up one after the other, stomping in the pooled blood on the floor. After a moment, Hailey realized that it was dancing.
“Oh, but I have so little, so little time left, so what shall I do with it? Shall I make you kill each other? Shall I force you on each other?”
Hailey felt her stomach turn as she realized that this thing, even though it was dying, could do that.
“No! No. Do what you want to me, please, but let these two go,” she said.
The thing turned to her, or at least it turned its body to her.
“Let them go? Why what a good idea. I will find a lovely place, a safe place for them, and then I will let them go. Clever girl, smart girl, strong girl, I will let them go.”
The demon’s final words rose up into a shriek. It was a demon’s death curse, its final breath of malevolence before it was forced to exit the world. Hailey’s hands were finally free so she could plant them over her ears. The sound whipped around the room as if it were a sandstorm. Somewhere, the wolf was howling. Piers and Kieran were screaming.
Then, mercifully and terribly, everything was quiet. Hailey had fallen on the ground, curled up to protect herself from the demon’s cries. Now she could stand up and look around.
The wolf was staggering to his feet, shaking his head and whining, but both Piers and Kieran were laid out on their backs. She dashed to Kieran first. He had stood the closest to the demon. To her relief, he still breathed, but his skin was waxen. A dull, dark liquid dripped out of his nose and his ears. When she tried to rouse him, screaming and finally slapping his face, he lay as still as a cast-off doll. Piers was the same, blood coming
from his nose and his ears, and the same dead feeling.
Hailey slumped to the floor between them, numbed and afraid. She had lost the ability to think or move.
The wolf approached her, but then he flowed into his man shape. She didn’t protest when he lifted her in his arms as tenderly as he would a child. She closed her eyes and let the darkness take her.
CHAPTER NINE
HAILEY WOKE UP feeling as though she had been beaten with a sack of rocks. Every part of her hurt. Everything in her felt broken. Then she remembered the past twenty-four hours. She thought that her head would break apart.
When she looked to her left, she saw a stone window beyond which was deep forest. She could see the ruined iron gate that she’d passed through with the wolf. The wall under the window was lined with glass cabinets. To her right was a long row of beds. Directly next to her was Piers. Beyond him was Kieran. To her grief, they lay as the dead, pale and still. She realized that she was in some kind of infirmary. She staggered out of bed to stand between them, resting her hands on their chests. She didn’t know what she was going to do.
The door behind her opened, and the man who had been a wolf came in. He bore a tray with roasted meat on it. The scent of it turned her stomach. He must have seen the look on her face.
“You have to eat,” he said.
Already lightheaded, she knew he was right. But she could hardly take her eyes from Piers and Kieran. It didn’t feel right eating, when they couldn’t, when they–
“You can’t help them by starving,” the man said. He sat on the bed beyond Kieran, and laid the platter on it. “Come.”
Mechanically, she did as he said. She sat, took a drumstick of the roasted rabbit, and ate. As she did, she realized he was watching her intently.
“What is it?” she asked, her voice dull.
“There’s something about you,” he said quietly. “There’s a scent on you. One that I know but I can’t remember.”
Something about the way he spoke finally turned a key in her memory. She remembered lying in bed, curled up with Liona. Liona had had two lovers. One, Gaius, had stood beside her when she built up the covens. The other had gone to start the organization that would become the Magus Corps. He had been lost to time. He had disappeared centuries ago.
“Lucius?” she whispered, her eyes wide.
Saying the name wrought an immediate change in the man. His dark eyes went wide. He shuddered as if he was in pain. Suddenly he stood to loom over her, his face dark and confused. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides.
“What is that name?” he said, his voice dropped down to a wolfish growl. “What does that name mean?”
“It’s an old name,” she said softly, trying to keep her voice low and level.
This was a man who the Templars had broken, and when he’d escaped, little remained of the man that Liona knew. Hailey knew that there was as much beast in him as man, but the beast had helped her. She had to remember that.
“What does it mean? Why…why does it hurt?”
“It was your name,” she continued. “You are Lucius Magnus, a legatus of Rome.”
He growled at her, lashing out blindly with one arm. The plate of meat clattered to the floor as Hailey stood. Some very ancient and primal part of her wanted to run and hide, to put something between herself and what this man was. But she held her ground. This was what he needed to hear, whether he knew it or not.
“You fell in love with a girl named Liona, and when your family was kidnapped, you both went looking for them.”
“You’re lying,” he snarled.
He put up an arm as if he would fend off the words that she was saying. She was relentless.
“You were both banished from Rome, and in Gaul, you met a sorcerer named Gaius. He joined your quest, and then you lost her.”
“Liona…we lost her. She was taken.” His voice was wondering. “We tore that town apart looking for her.”
“But you found her again…”
“Yes, in Alexandria.” A shadow passed over his face. “They hurt her.”
“And she healed. And you found your family.”
“I…I…”
He jerked as if he had been struck with a whip. To Hailey’s shock, he fell to his knees with a wolf-like howl. He curled in on himself, trembling on the floor. Hailey knelt beside him even though she knew it was foolish. He was a powerful man, either in his wolf form or as he was. He could have killed her without thinking. But she wrapped her arms around his body just as she had when he was a wolf.
“She healed,” she whispered. “Her and her sister and your friend, all of them did. You stayed with them for a while, but there were other things you wanted. You are Lucius Magnus, and you are remembered. You founded an organization that would protect people for a thousand years and still does. You are Lucius.”
He shook until finally he went still. Hailey waited, her mind oddly calm. Minutes may have passed, but when he finally rose, there was a strength in him that hadn’t been there before. He stood up straight, and his eyes were sharper. She could see the legatus now, the officer who had commanded men, Liona’s lover, and the warlock who had helped to create the world she lived in.
“I am Lucius Magnus,” he said, his voice calm and strong. “I owe you a great debt of service, Hailey.”
Hailey smiled and stood up from the ground with him.
“You smelled Liona on me. She has missed you.”
“And I her. I’ll go to her as soon as I can, but first we must deal with your men.”
“What can be done?” she asked. “I lay abed for a long time when I was just wounded by a demon. This is worse.”
“The first and most obvious thing is to kill them.”
Hailey snarled at him before she knew what she was doing. He looked at her with a perfectly serious face.
“You need someone who can enter the world the demon cast them in to. You need someone who can bring them back out of it. Do you understand what that world is like?”
Hailey shivered, hugging herself tightly. She did. When she had been wounded by a demon herself, she had walked through endless halls in an empty castle. It felt like she had walked there forever, and she might have if Liona hadn’t appeared to bring her out.
“That was a powerful demon,” Lucius said. “It died laying a curse on these two. It would have sent them far deeper than what an average witch could do. It would have taken them to some place that was truly hellish.”
“Will they stay there forever?” she whispered.
“Until they die or until someone comes for them.” There was a subtle shake to Lucius’ voice. He was not as unaffected as he looked. There was something wolf-like about his impassivity, but she wondered if it was from all his long years at war as well.
“Liona could go for them.”
“She could. They are dying quickly though. You can see it if you look. They are dying with the demon’s taint on them.”
Hailey felt hopelessness yawn underneath her like a chasm. She could feel the weight of Lucius’s words. Then her mind latched on to one brief hope.
“Could I do it?”
Lucius frowned at her.
“You are not a dream walker,” he said. “I saw you change forms.”
“I’m many things,” she said, confidence reasserting itself in her voice. “All I know is that I will do anything to save them. I need them.”
Lucius nodded slowly, his eyes narrowed.
“It was a skill of Liona’s. Others might have it as well. You must be asleep to follow them. You must be able to find them in your dreams.”
“If all it takes is will and dreams to find them, I will.”
Lucius hesitated.
“This is not without risks,” he said finally. “Simply because you fall asleep to enter this world does not mean that you can leave it simply by waking up. If you venture too far into the realm that the demons call their own, you may become stuck there. You may become as trapped as they are.”<
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Hailey could remember the endless tunnels she had been lost in before Liona had found her. Her mind and spirit had been fading, even as her body died.
“I am willing to take that risk,” she said firmly.
Lucius looked at her and nodded.
“They have medicine here. I will go and see if there is anything that can help you sleep.”
As he went to rummage in the cabinets, she came to stand between Piers and Kieran. She touched their faces tenderly. She kissed their hands.
“Hold on,” she whispered. “Please hold on. That’s all you have to do, until I get there. We’ll win free of this. I love you. I love you so much.”
Lucius returned with a vial of clear liquid and a fresh syringe.
“Morphine,” he said. “It will send you off to a deep slumber. Are you sure you want to do this?”
Hailey lay back on her bed. Outside, dawn was breaking, filling the sky with light.
“I am,” she said, her voice thin but strong. “Please, help me.”
He came to stand over her, swabbing her arm with alcohol. She felt the sharp prick of the needle, and then the slow, milky languor that came over her body.
As she was overwhelmed by the drug, she thought of the arrow that Liona had shot for her before she left the Castle.
May I fly straight and true, and may I find what I seek. Piers, Kieran, please wait for me. I need you. I love you.
• • • • •
Hailey’s story continues in IMPRISONED: Castle Coven Book Five, available now.
For a sneak peak, turn the page.
Excerpt:
IMPRISONED
Castle Coven Book Five
Kieran started to say something, but then Piers squeezed him between the legs through his trousers. Kieran gasped, his hips bucking a little.
“You were already hard,” Piers commented. “I don’t think it would take that much before I got you to beg.”
Kieran swore helplessly at Piers, who only laughed. Hailey felt a hot blush on her cheeks as Piers deftly unfastened Kieran’s trouser, drawing his erection out fully. He pumped the other man’s cock almost lazily, in absolutely no hurry at all.
