Grabbing her shoulder, he drove the short knife up into her chest, Mia’s spine bowing beneath the force of his blow. He withdrew the blade and she dropped onto him, her knees buckling beneath her as her hands slid away from his face.
I could feel her heart stutter and stop, my own clenching in my chest as I ran to catch her before she hit the cold floor.
“You idiot, Mia, I had a plan…” I didn’t, really, but Father Matthew wouldn’t have gotten far once I knew she was safe.
Instead….
Her eyes stared, unseeing, up at the low vaulted ceiling, her lips parted in surprise, but there was nothing left within her. Her skin was warm, but it wouldn’t last. The spark that had made her Mia, her very soul, was gone.
Closing my eyes, a ragged sob tore from my mouth as I cradled her body against my own and sank to the floor. I’d screwed up in the past, but never like this. I should have saved her; it had been my job to keep her safe and instead I’d gotten her killed. She’d been braver than I would ever stand a chance of being.
The sound of metal scraping on the stone floor had my eyes springing open and I stared at Father Matthew as he backed slowly toward the door. He’d dropped the knife, the metal scratching on the floor as he’d brushed it with his foot. Glancing down at the blade, I could see the small trail of Mia’s blood smeared on the ground.
“I didn’t have a choice,” he said, raising his hands in surrender as my eyes met his.
“There’s always a choice,” I said, raising my hand. My magic flowed through me and the door snapped shut behind him with a resounding bang.
Father Matthew’s eyes went wide, filling with the darkness of his demonic side, and he snarled in my direction, but I didn’t care. He didn’t frighten me.
Power built within me, a heat I wasn’t used to when I used my magic. I felt it spread from me down into Mia; everywhere her body touched mine I could feel sparks rising from my skin, hopping from me to her.
“What are you doing?” he asked, panic lacing his words. Closing my eyes, I could taste his fear on my tongue and I wanted more.
Opening my eyes once more, I stared up at him and I let my magic flow. It spread through the room, filling it up the way water flows into a void.
I felt his heartbeat as though it were my own and I wrapped my magic around it. His demonic half resisted but it was no match, and I drank him down as though he was nothing more than a cool drink of lemonade on a warm summer’s day.
Father Matthew dropped to his knees, his hands clawing at his chest, and it brought a smile to my lips. If he thought he could rid himself of my power then he was far more stupid than I’d first thought.
He turned and crawled towards the door, his hands scratching at the wood uselessly, seeking a way to escape from me and the magic that was slowly eating him alive.
His hands dropped to the floor and I felt his heart beginning to falter.
“Please, don’t do this … I didn’t mean to kill her….” His words came in little heaving gasps and I knew he was suffocating beneath the weight of my magic.
“And the others you killed, were they accidents, too?”
“I didn’t…” he lied, his demonic nature incapable of ever telling the truth.
“I know what you are. I know you’re a born demon—one human parent taken by a demon and used to spawn something as despicable as you….”
The stories I’d read about what some of the pure demons did to their chosen mates sickened me. A child born of a terrible sin committed upon the flesh of an innocent. They were abominations and simply thinking about it fuelled my power with rage.
“You think I’m an abomination; what of you? What of your kind and the things you will do to this Earth … this place was better when your kind were wiped out…” he spluttered, his face changing colour as he tried and failed to suck in enough air.
I forced my power into him, holding his heart and forcing it to fall still, once and for all.
His life bubbled within my grasp and without thinking, I glanced down into Mia’s face. Her blood had soaked out around the hole in her pale pink sweater.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Magic breathed through me, scalding my insides as it took everything I’d stolen from Father Matthew and poured it down into Mia. I felt the second her heart restarted, the damage slowly repairing.
Heat spread through my core and up into my chest. From there, it spread to my face and into my head as I imagined Mia happy and free, complete, body and soul, no part of her left untouched by the magic I pushed into her.
The heat became almost suffocating as the demon mark flared on my shoulder and swallowed the demon essence I’d taken in from Father Matthew. The heat became an inferno and I cried out, my body convulsing before the darkness threatening the edges of my vision swamped me.
Chapter 23
I didn’t pass out, despite wishing I would. Pain bloomed in my head but the heat slowly subsided, leaving me exhausted and as weak as a kitten. Something wet and warm trickled from my nose and even the effort of lifting my hand seemed like too much.
Brushing my fingers against my face, they came away wet, the crimson stain surprising me. It wasn’t pleasant, but at least it meant I was alive.
“Amber…” Mia said, her voice hoarse and broken.
I jerked, surprise sending my heart into overdrive as I dropped my gaze to her face. She looked up at me, but her eyes were different; the spark that only existed within a living human was back and she blinked back tears that started to fill her eyes.
“You’re alive?” I said, more to myself than Mia.
She pushed up and lifted her hands to her chest and the blood soaked hole in her jumper.
“How?” she asked, pulling her jumper up to reveal her pink bra and the small pink scar that sat between her breasts. It looked newly healed and, in a way, it was. “I was dead…” she said, glancing back up at me with a mixture of fear and wonderment in her eyes. “What did you do?”
I shook my head. I wasn’t sure what I’d done. I’d felt Father Matthew’s life, dragged it out of him, but what had happened then … it wasn’t possible. People didn’t just come back from the dead, not without some serious magic drawing them back, and I certainly hadn’t used any spells….
“What’s the last thing you remember?” I asked, pushing up against the cold wall.
“I remember telling you we couldn’t let him go and then….” Mia dropped her head and stared down at her hands. “I let him feel everything,” she whispered.
“And then he stabbed you,” I said, finishing the sentence for her. Her death had been instantaneous; the angle and force the half-breed Father Matthew had forced the blade into her heart had been enough to stop it dead.
Mia glanced back over her shoulder at Father Matthew’s prone body pressed up against the doors.
“Did you do that?”
Nodding, I tried to focus on the pain radiating through my body. I felt like someone had hit me with a truck before reversing over me for good measure. Clearly, it was a side effect of bringing someone back from the dead.
The handle of the door rattled, causing us both to jump. If Father Matthew had friends, then we were in big trouble.
Mia cast a glance in my direction, naked fear in her eyes. “Please tell me that’s your back-up,” she said.
“I’m not the one who can read other people’s feelings. Whoever is outside that door … well, I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting them,” I said, cringing, as I forced my body to respond.
I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
Mia closed her eyes and her shoulders dropped suddenly as the tension left her body.
“They’re friendly,” she said with a wide smile before she pushed up onto her feet.
Watching her carefully, I studied the serenity that seemed to fill her face. What exactly had happened to her? She’d just died, and yet she was the calmest I’d ever seen her.
The door burst open, and Nic pres
sed his shoulder against it as he shoved Father Matthew’s body back out of the way.
His worried gaze searched the room, finally coming to rest on me. The intensity in his gaze sent a wave of heat flooding through my body and I fought the urge to squirm. What was it about him that turned me so badly upside down?
“Amber, what happened?” he asked, crossing the room, his strong arms wrapping around my shoulders as he helped me to sit up a little straighter.
“I could ask you the same thing. I thought you needed to head Jason off at the pass,” I said, gritting my teeth as my body protested over the movement.
“He did.” Jason’s voice sent the tension in my body ricocheting upward.
“He understands, Amber. You needed to get over here to help Mia…” Nic said, his eyes desperately trying to communicate with me, but my brain was mush, which made picking up on his signals almost impossible.
“You do know you’re an idiot?” Jason said, crossing to where Father Matthew lay.
“Yeah, because you’re…” Nic’s grip on my arm tightened in warning and I bit my tongue. Whatever was going on, apparently I needed to keep my mouth shut and just let it all play out.
“Rushing in here without proper back-up could have gotten you and your friend killed,” Jason said as he rolled Father Matthew’s body over.
“I didn’t exactly have a choice. I couldn’t wait for Jon to see sense and let me explain.”
“I guess that was my fault. I didn’t let him on my little discovery of your demon mark. He jumped to conclusions after the occurrences in your apartment.”
I didn’t speak; it seemed pointless, and I’d obviously lost all of my marbles during the fight with Father Matthew. Perhaps the blow to my head was worse than I’d first anticipated because there was no way Jason, a witch hunter, was standing in front of me, explaining away everything that had happened.
“Once I reassured him there was nothing to be concerned about, at least not yet anyway, he came to the conclusion that he was mistaken.”
My mouth dropped open. The thought of Jon admitting he was mistaken, well, it was too good to be true, and I simply couldn’t wrap my head around it.
“I think the appropriate response in this instance is to thank me…” Jason said, his smug smile causing my blood to boil.
He was toying with me—I could see it in his eyes. He wasn’t convinced by my innocence, but clearly he was going to give me the rope to hang myself. All I needed to do was stay one step ahead of him.
“Thanks,” I said, climbing to my feet.
“We’ll need to get you both down the station to ask you a few questions. We need a full statement of what happened here … and I’ll need to do an examination of your friend,” Jason said, his gaze levelling on Mia.
Her hand wrapped around mine and she didn’t need to tell me what she was feeling; I could feel it. Images jumbled in my brain, fear coating my tongue, thick enough that I would never be able to brush my teeth enough times to scrape it away.
Don’t trust him. It didn’t come to me as words but more a collection of feelings that amounted to the same thing.
I shot a glance in Mia’s direction and she smiled at me. She really was different; it wasn’t just her demeanour that had changed, apparently. She now had the ability to communicate mind to mind.
“No problem,” I said with a wide smile.
If we were going to play games, then I needed to get on board with a plan. Without one, he would trip me up—I just needed to make one mistake and he would have me. At all costs, I needed to make sure that didn’t happen.
Victoria appeared in the doorway, her dark hair swinging around her shoulders as she stepped into the room. Her gaze probed mine and I kept my smile fixed in place.
“Good, you’re not dead,” she said, her bluntness expelling the tension rippling through my muscles as I burst out laughing.
“I’m glad you didn’t die either,” I said, when I finally caught my breath once more.
It was as close to happy relief that I wasn’t dead as I was ever going to get from her and, considering what she was capable of, I was willing to accept it for what it was.
“Can we make a pit stop for food before you drag me back down to Elite?” I asked, doing my best to look as harmless as possible.
Jason nodded and turned his back on us, his attention completely taken up by the body and the piles of ash on the floor.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I said, as I looped my arm around Nic’s waist and let him take my weight.
He gave me a surprised look, but it was quickly replaced by a wide smile as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and dragged me closer.
“You’re freezing,” he said, pressing his lips against my hair.
“That’s what you get when you bring someone back from the dead,” I whispered, cuddling closer so I could steal some of his body heat.
Nic jerked and his muscles tightened for a second, his expression almost comical as I shook my head at him.
“Later,” I said, as we passed Jason.
Jason’s gaze bored into my back, his hatred and fear prickling along my spine as we stepped out into the hall.
I definitely needed a game plan if I was going to go toe to toe with someone like Jason and come out of it with my life.
But that could wait until I’d at least eaten and regained some of my own strength.
Chapter 24
“And you’re sure there was no one else in the church? No other demons?” Jason asked, his eyes searching mine.
I leaned back in my chair and threw my hands up in the air. The fact that Jason had allowed my statement to be taken in Jon’s office and not the interview room told me just how far he was willing to go to give the appearance of not having a problem with me.
“Well, I’m as positive as I can be. They were the only ones I saw and, well,” I said with a shrug and a smile, “the other two were pretty stupid; anyone with a brain in their head will tell you that mixing blood and circles of power is a dangerous combination.”
“But you have no idea why it became so dangerous?” Jason probed further and I sighed.
“Look, you and I both know it probably had something to do with the mark on my shoulder. But outside of that, I really have no idea….” I trailed off as the sound of screaming cut through the air.
“What now?” I said, turning in my chair to peer out through the half-closed blinds that covered the glass between us and the rest of the office.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Jason said, and he pushed onto his feet as a body hurtled past the window and slammed into the wall.
I hopped to my feet, my body still a little unsteady despite my devouring three burgers and two plates of fries with a large chocolate milkshake to wash it all down. Under normal circumstances, eating like that would have left me in a food coma, but it seemed raising people from the dead turned me into the human equivalent of a bottomless pit.
Jason was out the door before I could even turn around; shouting and the sound of glass breaking filled the air, making the office seem more like a war zone than a workplace.
Stepping out onto the main floor, I scanned the room and my gaze fell on her. Lily stood at the opposite end of the room, a broad smile on her face as she flicked her wrist and sent another Elite officer hurtling through a wall.
Jason paused and I felt his power flex; it called my magic to the surface, and I grabbed the doorframe in an attempt to hold onto the part of myself that was in control. The demon mark surged, stealing my breath as its own power roared through my body, crushing my power beneath its darkness as surely as I could crush a bug beneath my boot.
Lily’s smile faltered as Jason’s power slammed into her, her eyes widening before her magic flooded to the surface. Throwing her head back, she screamed an ear-piercing, soul-shattering cry of agony before she raised her hands over her head and dropped to her knees.
Her irises had disappeared, swallowed beneath the green glow of her
power. She shuddered and convulsed, green sparks dancing through her dark hair and along her skin. I knew what it felt like, knew the power of having your magic dragged to the surface and exposed.
We were of the shadows and as such, our magic didn’t belong in the open. To have it so painfully exposed was excruciating.
“I’m not here to fight, I’m here to hand myself in,” she said, her voice hoarse with the echo of her power.
My heart came to a crashing halt. There had to be a mistake; it wasn’t possible that I’d heard her say what I thought she’d said….
“You submit to the power of the Saga Venatione, to the judgement that will ultimately be passed?” Jason said, pausing in front of her.
Lily nodded and dropped her head, her spine bowing as she dug her fingers into the floor. “I will not fight you, you do not need to do this,” she said painfully.
Jason’s power disappeared like someone switching off the lights. One moment it was there, determined to drag every ounce of magic out into the open, and the next it was gone.
I stumbled slightly, my knuckles turning white as I clung to the door. What was she doing? I’d thought her crazy, but not suicidal. It wasn’t possible that Lily would simply hand herself over without a plan in her mind first.
Jason moved around her. Drawing her hands behind her back, he slapped a pair of handcuffs over her wrists before dragging her back onto her feet.
“Let’s have a chat…” he said, pushing her ahead of him towards one of the warded interrogation rooms.
Lily held my gaze as she moved up the room. She passed me, and my stomach flipped as she winked in my direction. There was no doubting it—she was definitely up to something, and whatever it was, we would all pay the price for falling for her tricks.
Reaching out, I caught Jason’s arm, drawing him to a halt as he came level with me.
“She’s lying. She’s doing this for a reason. You can’t trust her,” I said.
Jason shook his head and smiled at me with a condescending look. “You let me worry about whether she’s telling the truth or not. Go home and get some rest—you’ll find your badge and gun at the front desk.”
Grim Rites Page 16
