But this changed everything for her.
“Don’t worry, Laura.” Dorian twisted the wheel and pressed his foot harder on the pedal. “We’ll take care of that. First, we’ve just got to make sure no one else dies tonight.”
“Right.” She nodded. “Let’s focus on what we know. After hearing their plan, Fane decides it would amuse him to compel the blood mages to drink some vampire elixir. Probably because they’d end up making a fool of themselves. Instead, they end up dead a block or two away.”
“As asshole as the drink thing is, I’m inclined to believe him,” Dorian said. “It’s the kind of thing that Fane would do.”
“Me too,” I said. “Though that leaves things really up in the air. If he didn’t kill them, who did? The wounds look werewolf in nature, but I think we’ve ruled that one out. Could be a demon that’s gone corporeal without us knowing, but that seems strangely random. Why would a demon be methodically going after blood mages? I think whoever it is has to be connected to this whole slayer plan.”
“It’s most likely another vampire.” Dorian’s frown was punctuated by the flash of passing headlights. “Fane said he’d planned on sharing the news with Christian this weekend, which would mean no other vampire knows about the plan yet. That said, he could have been lying to protect someone.”
Frowning, I rested my chin on the seat in front of me, staring out at the dark night. “So, a vampire got wind of it, and now he’s taking them out one at a time. Why the claw marks? Why not drink their blood?”
“Maybe he or she is trying to throw us off the scent.” Laura shrugged. “If we’re going around chasing werewolves and demons, we’ll never turn our attention on the vampires.”
“Speaking of demons…” Dorian slammed his foot on the brakes. I jerked forward, the seatbelt clinching tight around my body. The car swerved sideways and slid to a stop as the sound of screeching tires filled the air.
In the middle of the road, a demon stood on the center white line, its large veiny wings flapping high in the air. A tornado of wind swarmed around the car with every beat, the demon’s body thick and corded with black and twisting muscle. My mouth went dry as I stared up at the creature. It looked a hell of a lot different than the smoky shadows I was used to. This one looked pretty fucking solid.
“This is not good.” Heart clanging in my chest, I leaned forward to get a better look. The demon was bigger in its solid form, too. I’d never quite noticed how expansive they were when they moved through the air like dark and stormy clouds. “Looks like Belzus was right.”
“At least we found it?” Laura shuddered when the demon let out a roar that shook the ground beneath our feet. On the right side of the road, screaming humans spilled from a twenty-four hour pizza place. The demon turned toward them, reaching out a knotted hand to pluck one from the crowd.
Dorian shot out of the car without a word, his eyes focused on the fleeing humans.
“Dorian!” My heart lurched into my throat, and I jumped out of the car to chase after him. Just as I began to run, a car door slammed from behind me. It was Laura, joining me in my rush to help Dorian. With my heart torn in two directions, I slowed and turned her way.
She held up a hand and shook her head, her eyes flickering with fierce heat. “Don’t you dare tell me to get back in the fucking car. I’m coming with you. I’m helping. And that’s final.”
I hesitated, but then nodded. “Do your best damage, my friend.”
We turned toward the demon and raced toward it. With my eyes locked on Dorian’s body, I blocked out the sounds of screaming, of running, of sirens blazing in the distance. All I could focus on was my partner. I knew what Dorian was going to do. Despite what the fae had told us, he would try to destroy the demon with his own venom. He needed to try. I knew that as well as I knew that the moon rose in the sky every night. It was just the kind of vampire he was.
No, it was the kind of person he was.
“Dorian, stop!” I cried out as my feet pounded the pavement. The demon loomed higher and higher until it appeared as tall as the buildings themselves. “It won’t work!”
He was half a football field down the road, but he heard me. His feet paused on the pavement as he half-turned my way. With a slight smile on his lips, he held up his hand in a wave, as if to say goodbye. My heart pulsed with pain, and I threw myself forward, determined to stop him from sacrificing himself this way.
All around me, cars screeched to a halt. Humans poured from their cars and screamed in fear. Windows crashed and doors slammed open in the buildings rising high on either side of the road. Everyone was getting the hell out of here. Everyone except for us.
I jerked to a stop and dug the bone chalk from my pocket, muttering under my breath as my hands shook so hard I could barely draw the rune. The symbol for Ward. With one hand closed tight into a fist, the other grabbed my dagger. I clenched my jaws as I lifted my hand to cast the spell. The bone magic fought against me. More so now that I was intoxicated by fear. It refused to cooperate like it had that day in the crypt, like whatever power I’d been drawing from was no longer there.
The orange wards rippled and shook, but they finally broke free of my hand, hurtling toward the demon that loomed high over Dorian’s head. Just as my partner reached the creature, the orange balls surrounded the dark form, trapping it in the middle of the street.
Dorian dove forward and sunk his teeth into the demon’s leg. It screeched, thrashing its head back and forth. The wards trembled, snapping sharp pain through my hand. My whole body shook as I tried to hold them tight. The wards flickered and popped, and for a painful second, they disappeared altogether until they flamed back around the demon.
And then Dorian jumped away from the demon, pulling his fangs back into his mouth. The three of us stood there motionless, watching and waiting and hoping for the venom to take hold, hoping that Christian Dogaru had been wrong and Nosferatu fangs weren’t needed after all.
But then the demon dropped back its head and bellowed so loud that all the glass in the buildings around us shattered in a single burst. Shards rained down on the pavement, and clouds rolled across the sky. The demon puffed out its chest, rippling its wings. With its eyes locked on my face, it slammed against my wards so hard and so fast that my magic shattered into pieces to join the broken glass.
I stumbled backward, the demon’s harsh power rocking through my body. The rune on my hand ached, like it had been burned in a fire. For a moment, everything in the world slowed to a stop. The demon stared down at Dorian, and Dorian stared right back up at the demon.
Heart in my throat, I began to move my feet just a second too late.
The demon wrapped its hand around Dorian’s body and let out a roar that shook the earth. Everything stopped. Nothing in the street moved an inch. And then half a second later, the demon went up in smoke.
“Dorian!” I screamed, racing after him, my hair streaming behind me. Tears pricked my eyes, and fire danced in my stomach. I could save him. I could get to him. But the road was empty, and the demon was gone.
And it had taken Dorian with it.
Chapter 23
“Zoe, he’s gone.” Laura placed a soft hand on my back and sunk onto the pavement beside me. “The cops are coming. We should probably get out of here. I’m not sure we can answer the kind of questions they’re going to ask, and we don’t have the time to try. Descent closes in less than an hour.”
Tears stinging my eyes, I nodded. Laura was right, but I could barely focus on the present, too caught up in the moment that Dorian had been snatched away. The demon had taken him from us, back into a realm where we could never go. Not unless I opened myself up to the dark power within me.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I answered it without looking at the screen. “Hello?” My voice sounded empty, numb.
“Zoe Bennett?” The voice was frantic on the other end. Scared. He sounded slightly familiar, but I couldn’t place him, not with the fog in my brain. “It’s Sea
n. We met earlier tonight. I’m calling you because—” He let out a choked sob. “There’s been another murder at my club. I found the body when I went outside for a smoke break. Please. Please make this stop.”
In a robotic voice, I told the man to stay put while I called the council to fill them in on the news. We had protocols for this kind of situation. Since my partner had been targeted, I had to take the night to catch my breath. Another Enforcer team would go to Descent to take care of the situation there while a second team would come clean up the demon’s mess. And I’d have to add another victim’s name to the killer’s hit list. I closed my eyes as the grief overwhelmed me.
“Nathan? What are you doing here?” My feet slowed on the stairs leading up to my apartment. Nathan Whitman sat on the top step, his head hanging heavy in his hands. He glanced up when he heard my voice, his puffy, purple-ringed eyes highlighting just how little sleep he’d gotten in the past few days. Nathan looked like he was in far worse shape than I was right now. And that was saying something because I had a hole inside my body, one that was the size of my heart.
“Zoe. Laura.” He sighed as he stood. “Thank god. I was starting to worry you didn’t live here anymore.”
“I live here.” Frowning, I strode up the rest of the stairs and drank in the sight of him. Hair stuck out in all directions and dirt splattered across his skin, he’d clearly just spent the night in wolf form. “What’s wrong?”
“Can I speak to you?” His eyes flicked to Laura. “Alone? And do you have any food? Shifting makes me so hungry it hurts.”
“Of course,” I said with a nod. “Come on in.”
Once inside, I led Nathan into the kitchen while Laura went to the back room to check on Grams. I grabbed some frozen chicken from the freezer and got it boiling on the stove before sitting down in the chair across from him. His unexpected arrival gave me something to do, something that didn’t involve agonizing over the moments before Dorian had been taken by a demon. I kept going over it in my head. Replaying the scene until I came to one conclusion and one conclusion only. If I’d used my shadow magic, Dorian would probably still be here with us right now.
“What’s going on?” I asked, doing my best to give Nathan my full attention.
“Juno is in the hospital.” His voice cracked on the last word.
With a gasp, I pressed my hand against my mouth. No wonder Nathan looked rough. Not only had he spent the entire evening as a werewolf, but he’d hurt his girlfriend. My heart ached for him. Juno obviously meant a lot to him, and they’d grown so close over the past few months. He’d never be able to forgive himself if something terrible happened to her. And I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself either. Because that was why Nathan had wanted the ring, and Dorian and I had kept it in our possession until we knew exactly what we wanted to do with it. If we’d given it to Nathan, this never would have happened.
“The doctors don’t seem to know what to do,” he said as his eyes filled with unshed tears. “So, I was hoping you might have an answer. Some spell. Something at all that might heal her.”
I shook my head. “Oh, Nathan. I’m so sorry this has happened. Please don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t help it. New werewolves have trouble controlling their rage.”
Nathan’s eyes clouded over as he shifted away, staring at me as if I were a stranger. “You think I did this? You think I hurt her?”
I blinked. “No. Well, that’s not true. Yes, I did think that, but now I see I was clearly wrong. I just assumed when you said she was in the hospital that—”
“That the dangerous werewolf did it.” With a frustrated sigh, he pushed up from the chair and stalked to the window, his back tense and his neck tight. “Of course you did. Your vampire lover has probably been telling you all kinds of stories about the evil wolves, right? Well, none of that’s true, Zoe. I would never hurt anyone. Not when I’m in this form and not when I’m in wolf form.”
“No, you’re right. You wouldn’t,” I said quietly, a shock of pain shooting through my heart at the mention of Dorian. “I’m sorry. I know what a great person you are. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions, but it’s been a rough night. Tell me what happened, Nathan. I’ll do my best to help Juno however I can.”
“Juno went back into her shop,” Nathan said through gritted teeth as he continued to stare out the window. “Those demons attacked her. I was in wolf form and halfway across the city when I got this strange sensation that something was wrong. So, I ran there to help as fast as I could. But I was too late. The demons were already gone, and she was unconscious on the floor of her shop.”
“Shit.” I stood then and began pacing across the linoleum floor. “Gone as in no longer in the shop? As in they’re now somewhere else in the city?”
“I assume so. The doors were wide open, and the demons were nowhere to be found.” Nathan turned to me, his face hard and his eyes cold, though the anger didn’t seem directed at me even if I probably deserved it. “This gift I’ve been given, it did nothing when it counted the most. All I could do was howl when I found her. What good am I if that’s all I can do when someone I love gets hurt?”
My heart squeezed tight, his words hitting home.
“Don’t blame yourself. This isn’t your fault,” I said, crossing the room to join him by the window. “But can I ask you something? You called it a gift. Is that really how you see your werewolf nature?”
“Don’t you see your powers as a gift?” he asked with a shrug. “I know you think it’s different, but it isn’t. It’s the same thing.”
“I don’t see them that way, actually.” Frowning, I bit my bottom lip. “My powers are much more dangerous than most. They’re not a gift. They’re a curse, and they absolutely terrify me. What if I end up hurting someone I care about because of them?”
“You can’t think of it that way,” Nathan said. “Your power is part of who you are, just like the wolf is part of who I am. The only way to coexist with these aspects of ourselves is to embrace them. Otherwise, they boil under the surface and wait for the right moment to explode. Embracing them means that we’re in control.”
Sighing, I sagged against the window and stared out at the streets. “Maybe that works for wolves, but I don’t know how well that would work for me.”
“Try it, Zoe,” Nathan said. “My only regret is that I wished I’d embraced my wolf nature earlier. If so, I might be faster, stronger. And I might have been able to get to Juno in time. Instead, it was too little too late.”
“Oh, Nathan. I’m so sorry this has happened.” Sighing, I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed tight. “If a demon attacked her and she’s still alive, then you weren’t too late. I know a way we can heal her, but we’re going to need Laura’s help, too. Is that okay?”
Nathan nodded, and I grabbed Laura from Grams’s room. When she joined us in the kitchen, I filled her in on what had happened, as well as my crazy plan for saving Juno.
“Depending on how badly she’s hurt from the demon attack, she might be healed by vampire blood,” I said, watching Laura’s eyes when I made the suggestion.
“True,” Laura said with a frown. “But Dorian has been taken.”
I flinched, but plowed forward with my plan. “I wasn’t referring to Dorian. There are other vampires we know. Or at least that one of us knows.”
Laura stared at me for a moment before realization dawned in her eyes. She shook her head, the long strands of her hair flipping across her shoulders. “You mean Anastasia?”
“You said you’ve become friendly with her,” I said.
“Yeah, but…” Laura glanced at Nathan, her eyes drinking in the state of him. “You know what? You’re right. I’ll call her. She owes me after the way she drank my blood at Slayerville.”
Laura made the call, and strangely enough, Anastasia agreed. Feeding Juno her blood might not make a huge difference in the long-term, but it was worth a shot. If she was unconscious in the hospital because of a demon attack, we didn�
�t have much time to waste. And a vampire’s blood was the only sure thing I knew that healed.
“Okay,” Laura said with a nod as she hung up the phone. “She’ll meet Nathan at the hospital, and she’ll do what she can to heal Juno.”
“And just to be on the safe side, bring her back here, Nathan. I’ll take a look and make sure she doesn’t need additional healing,” I added. “Both of you can stay as long as you need for her to recover.”
Nathan’s face had begun to fill with color again, now that there was hope for his girlfriend to survive. He clutched my hand, his eyes saying more than words could. “What about you two? Aren’t you coming with me?”
Pain flickered through my heart, Dorian’s face springing into my mind. “I can’t. We have some demons we need to destroy.”
“Grams.” I took her hand in mine and kissed her knuckles. “I don’t know what to do. I need help.”
Waking Grams was something I never wanted to do. She looked so peaceful like this, so at odds with the rest of the world. After a few moments, she cracked open her eyes and stared up at me, a light smile lifting her lips. “Oh, Zoe, dear. You look so very worried. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Everything is wrong.” I started at the beginning, spilling everything out until I couldn’t speak anymore. The story was long and winding, twisted and scary. I’d wanted so badly to keep her out of all this, but I couldn’t anymore. I needed help. And she was the only person with knowledge of shadow magic that I knew I could trust.
“I was worried the demons might be regaining their strength after what that Vincent man did. Even though he’s gone, his actions weakened the veil,” she said, shifting so that she sat up higher on her pillows. She patted my hand and gave me a sad smile. “What ever happened to that other warlock involved? The professor one? Could he be causing some damage, too?”
Witch's Storm (The Bone Coven Chronicles Book 2) Page 16
