by J. L. Myers
Ty nodded past my shoulder at the thick, iron bars. “This is what you need to see.”
Without squinting, I refocused along the dark hall that led from the left of Ty’s cell. Empty cells lined the opposing walls and a door ended the hallway.
With a rattle I felt Ty’s warmth closing in behind me. The heat of his breath brushed against my neck as he spoke. “There’s always one guard straight outside the door at all times. Posts change every four hours. On the dot.”
“Then we only have to incapacitate one guard. That should be easy—”
“No. There’s more,” Ty interrupted, his voice deep and commanding. “Look above the doorway.”
Above the door was a mechanical box. On its face a small red light blinked at me. “Dammit. Video surveillance?”
“Yes,” Ty breathed. His hand squeezed mine then let go before the voltage could reach him. “From what I’ve overheard, there’s a command center. I’m pretty sure it’s manned twenty-four/seven.”
“Okay,” I said with a nod. “What else?”
Ty spun me around to face him, expression set and solemn. “There’s a print register at the door, and I’m guessing at every locked door down to this point. It’s the only way to gain access. So, you know what you’re going to have to do?”
Marcus had already let us in on that little hiccup. I nodded again and half smiled. “A truce has been struck. They’ve already agreed to help.”
“You’re serious?” Ty brows arched. “Great, good. I mean, this could actually work.” He then lifted his shackled wrists up between us. “I need you to remember the symbols.”
I frowned. “Why?”
“They prevent the chains from being broken.” Ty dropped his wrists as if they were weighted by concrete cinder blocks. “I’ve seen the symbols in a book of Vanessa’s. She might have something we can use to break them. Another symbol or something.”
Ty sounded far from certain. But I needed to think positive. I needed to believe that no matter what obstacles were thrown at us, we would find a way to save Ty.
“We’re going there in the afternoon to stock up on weapons and whatever we can use to get you out. I’ll show her the symbols.” I went to lift Ty’s dropped chin with my hand before stopping myself. I sighed. Not being able to touch him killed me. But it was better than hurting him. “Ty, we will find a way to break them. We’ll get out of this, I promise. I won’t let you die.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I stood by one of Vanessa’s workbenches, checking out all the bubbling potions in multi-sized beakers. As I bent to examine a purple liquid with vapor rising off its surface, my elbow bumped a rack of test tubes. A single drop of red liquid splashed from a tube, burning a small, sizzling hole through the bench top.
I backed away and turned my attention to Dorian across the basement at the weaponry wall. He raised a brand new, one-of-a-kind crossbow to eye level. The weapon was fitted with a removable CO2 cartridge, and rather than taking arrows that needed to be nocked, it took a canister of bolts. It was also covered in alchemist marks that boosted the firing speed to lightning fast. Dorian was a natural, and after practicing all morning with it, the confident look in his flirtatious eyes said so. “Reckon I could sneak this one in?”
Vanessa pursed her lips, looking cheeky. Then she snatched the bow from his grasp and pulled a lever. The cartridge and canister dislodged and the crossbow’s arms folded back, rendering the weapon into a neat, concealable rectangle. With a smile she handed the weapon back. “If you can figure out how to reassemble it, you can keep it.” She picked up and flung a canister of bolts at him. “Oh, and these are better. Silver-coated bolts.”
Not needing any further encouragement, Dorian began to fiddle with the device, all the while giving her cheeky glances.
Kendrick nudged me. “Give them some privacy.”
I humphed but couldn’t look away. Watching them in the past I’d suspected something was going on. Now there was no question. So during Dorian’s disappearances and late beach walks, he’d been catching up with Vanessa. The look on his face now stopped the warning brewing on my lips. He was smitten. Still, despite their budding relationship, we had things to do. We still had so many bases to cover, and after spending the day training and practicing to control my voltage, it was almost sundown. At best our time was limited. “Dorian, that’s enough playing. We’re here for a reason.”
“Right,” Vanessa said, back to being all work. “More weapons.” She crossed the room and pressed the silver button that began the loud rattling of chains. Then the eight foot long section of the wall spun on its axis.
“Not just weapons,” I said, freezing Vanessa who had pulled a large black duffel bag from under the stainless steel bench. “There are other obstacles we need help with.”
“Like what?” Vanessa dropped the bag with a clank.
“They have Ty in chains,” Kendrick said. “Each link is engraved with these symbols.” He fished into his pocket and retrieved a piece of paper with a set of symbols drawn in thick marker.
“They’re binding symbols,” Vanessa said. “The first weakens the flesh of anything it touches. The second makes the chains unbreakable. And the third prevents a lycan or werewolf from being able to shift into wolf form.”
“But they can be broken, right?” I moved in closer, cooling the new static coursing through my body.
Vanessa looked resigned. “No. They can’t. They’re unbreakable. Only a key with an opposing symbol can unlock the cuffs.”
Unbreakable. The word was final but not without wiggle room, I hoped.
“You think?” Kendrick asked.
Dorian and Vanessa perked up, turning their full attention on us as I nodded. “You said the second symbol made the chains unbreakable?”
Vanessa frowned with annoyance. “Yeah, so?”
“So,” I hedged. “We won’t break them. Well not at first.” I strode across the room and carefully lifted the test tube filled with the thin, red liquid. The need to spark warmed my veins but I held it back. “We’ll burn the symbols off.”
For the first time ever, Vanessa seemed impressed. “You know,” she said thoughtfully. “That could work.”
Dorian smiled as we walked over, still holding the disassembled bow. “Who would have guessed that you were the smart one?”
“Ha, very funny,” I said, minding not to spill the liquid again as I jabbed an elbow into his ribs.
Behind us, Kendrick had begun shoveling an arsenal of stakes, blades, and canisters into the duffel bag. “Now on to the marks…”
“Marks?” Vanessa questioned with amusement. “And what marks could I possible give to a group of vampires?”
“Well,” I said. “You can create a mark that repels compulsion. But can you create one that boosts its effects?”
Vanessa went to her workbench and sighed. She popped the locks on a thick, dusty book and held it against her chest. “All the marks I know are in this book. Every page is imprinted on my memory.” She sighed again. “But there isn’t any mark that can boost a vampire’s compulsion ability. It would go against everything we try to prevent.”
There was a creak and Vanessa’s grandfather appeared, hobbling down the rickety wooden stairs. One hand clutched the wonky railing while the other curled tight around a small thick-bound book. “My granddaughter is right,” Mr. Aquinas said. “Such a marking would go against everything we as alchemists dedicate our lives to. But you are also wrong, Vanessa.”
She ran to his side as he met the concrete landing, and strung a supporting arm around his free elbow. After a few pain-filled steps he paused, holding open the book to a page near the back. The pages were stained and wrinkled like they had been drench in tea then dried in the sun. Centering the left page was a large symbol that had been hand drawn with charcoal. It was an eye, perfectly symmetrical with a pupil that had eaten away the iris, and whites that were struck by a dozen tiny, delicate sparks.
“This mark will boost any living vampire’
s ability to compel, as much as ten-fold. Though it only lasts for about forty-eight hours, if you’re lucky.” He looked to Vanessa. “Would you like me to administer the marks?”
“No, Grandfather. I can do this.” Vanessa took him by the arm again and began leading him back to the stairs. “Besides, you look like you need a rest.”
Mr. Aquinas’s rebuttal was gruff as she helped him clamber up the stairs. “I may be old, granddaughter, but I’m not dead.”
After five minutes of stuffing more weaponry into the duffel bag, Vanessa reemerged, bounding down the creaky stairs. She dug into a drawer below the workbench before placing a glass jar filled with a glittering gold liquid on its top. A menacing tool followed that resembled a medieval tattoo gun with various markings etched into the metal casing. “Who’s first?”
“Is that a real tattoo gun?” Dorian, looking apprehensive and excited all at the same time, sidled up beside her.
“Homemade.” Vanessa plugged the gun’s chord into the socket on the top corner of the bench and flicked the trigger. The machine made a terrible, ear-drumming noise, more jackhammer than needle-pointed gun. “What did you expect?” she asked, turning the contraption off. “A magical feather that painted pretty gold lines on your flesh?”
“Well kinda,” I replied, unable to help myself. With all the ability these marks could bestow? I had expected the process to be a little more magical than mechanical.
Vanessa laughed while Kendrick smiled. “She’s an alchemist, Amelia. Not a witch.”
“You’re right about that,” Vanessa chimed, seeming to appreciate the distinction. “We don’t work hocus pocus. We challenge the limitations of physical substances.”
At Dorian’s and my dumb look she explained. “We experiment with any and all substances, manipulating their essence until we reach the outcome we desire. There is no magic involved in what we do, just good hard work, patience, and above all, science. We are the centuries old scientists who didn’t cave to modern beliefs. We don’t accept that something can’t be done just because someone else says so. We challenge the rules and create new ones.”
“So what’s in the gold liquid?” I asked.
Vanessa smiled, a wry and self-important smile. “If I told you that,” she said with a wink. “I’d have to kill you.” Without preamble she unscrewed the top from the jar and pulled up a stool. “So, who’s first?”
Dorian and Kendrick received their marks with manly control, keeping the cursing to a minimum while their faces strained. There was a mark to boost their ability to compel and also repel compulsion. One increased their physical strength and speed. Another sped up the healing process.
Now it was my turn. I slid onto the stool and removed my tank top to expose my left shoulder, flinging my hair forward to clear the space. This would be a real test of my control—being in pain while trying not to send sparks firing into that horrible-looking device.
“Ready?” Vanessa slapped on rubber gloves for good measure.
She had already fired up the gun, and its malicious drumming sent waves of panic through me. I forced myself to remain motionless, focusing all my attention on keeping the electricity at bay while biting my lip. “As I’ll ever be.”
Without any further invitation, the gun’s needle tips bit into my flesh in a repetitive and scraping fashion. My teeth, clamped over my bottom lip, released. The tension in my body retreated. The feel of having five needles pierce my skin wasn’t the agony I had psyched myself into expecting. It was more like tiny pinches that almost tickled more than anything, healing numbing my skin before pain could take over.
Vanessa took a sharp breath behind me. Then I felt her go over the same spot again, and again, and again. Dorian and Kendrick edged closer. Through the bond I saw through Kendrick’s eyes. He was peering over Vanessa at my exposed shoulder, hidden behind the enormous gun still drumming away into my flesh.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, itching to turn and see what the problem was.
Then the gun snapped off. The stool spun around, putting me face to face with Vanessa who was flustered and perspiring. She blew a thick, curly strand of hair from her face. “The tattoo,” she said, looking both frustrated and confused at the same time. “It’s kinda…disappearing.”
My hand flung over my shoulder and my neck craned. I zeroed in on the reddened, irritated flesh across the back of my shoulder. “How is that possible?”
Kendrick moved behind me and ran a light thumb across the raw but healing and totally unmarked flesh. Not a single spark erupted at his touch. “Well I’m not sure about this, but Marcus and I were taught about some of the practices in alchemy at the Armaya. And…”
“Only someone who is one hundred percent alive,” Vanessa interrupted, “can be marked.”
It felt like the world had suddenly stopped spinning and I had stepped right into the epicenter of an alternate universe. I’m part dead? In total contradiction my heart drummed with the anxiety that streamed through my veins. I raised a sweating palm to my chest as if making sure the heart palpitations were real. They were real. The feel was so strong and forceful against my flattened hand. “But I am alive.”
Vanessa pursed her lips, while Kendrick’s thoughts whirled at one hundred miles a minute. His thoughts were too jumbled and incoherent to make sense of. In the drowning silence he spluttered, “The silver potion Caius poisoned you with. It contained damned blood.”
“And the damned are dead,” I added.
But before I could fall back on that explanation, Dorian said something to bring it all crashing back down. “No. It’s not possible.”
Vanessa was flicking through books, but shot a curious glance at my brother. “What do you mean?”
“You said Caius pretty much drained all but a few drops of your blood, the blood he had been poisoning. And then,” he continued, ignoring my dumbfounded look, “you drank Kendrick’s blood. Vampire blood that can kill off damned blood and its poison.”
Dorian’s explanation brought me back to the moment I had forced Ty to drink from me after being slashed to ribbons by the damned vampire on the cruise. I could so clearly remember my total fear when I realized that Ty wasn’t healing. The damned hadn’t managed to bite him, but Ty had still ingested a fair amount of their disgusting, dead blood. Feeding him my blood had allowed him to heal.
My brother remained quiet, waiting for me to piece it all together. “Kendrick’s blood cleansed what was left of my own, removing any remnants of the poison. There isn’t any damned blood left in me.”
“So, it can’t be damned blood that is making it impossible for Vanessa to mark you,” Kendrick added.
Vanessa’s eyes brightened like she’d had a light bulb idea. She slammed shut the book she’d had her nose buried in. “Caius’s poison worked on a cellular level—it’s in your DNA.”
~
Later that night I fell asleep to meet Ty in his promised dreamscape. And I couldn’t wait. With tomorrow’s ceremony and breakout plan, this would be our last time together before all hell broke loose. And I wasn’t about to let hours of practice go to waste.
When my eyelids lifted I was in Ty’s cell. His face lit up and he came forward, lifting his arms to embrace me. Then they came down and he sighed. “It’s so good to see you.”
Those simple words coupled by defeat said he wanted to do so much more than that.
Ignoring the putrid space and the danger to come, I smiled and held up my hands to show off their innocence. Then I placed them on his chest, loving the feel of his hot flesh through the thin material of his shirt. Ty looked wary, but didn’t step back. “I think I can control the sparks.” I pressed slightly parted lips to his collarbone, breathing him in. “See.”
A gentle rumble vibrated Ty’s chest as he dipped his head. “I’ve missed this,” he said against my lips. “You have no idea how much.”
Nerves for tomorrow built inside me along with unrestrainable desire that would never be fulfilled if tomorrow went horrib
ly wrong. Time wasn’t on our side.
I took Ty’s bottom lip between my teeth, fangs pressing down, then let go after a playful nip. “I don’t want to wait anymore. I want to be with you, Ty. I’m ready. I’m so, so ready.”
“Amelia.” The way he spoke my name caressed every inch of my body, and I shivered. “I do too. More than anything.” He inched back, emotion saddening his eyes. “But it’s not real. You know it’s not.”
I shook my head and my hair fell over my shoulders. Tension began to build within me. “I don’t care. I won’t let another thing get between us. I want this.” Self-doubt colored my thoughts for a second. After everything, was Ty reluctant to take our relationship to the next level? To physically join our bodies in an act that could never be undone or forgotten? My heart grew heavy. “Don’t you?”
“Amelia, I want you. Every single part of you. I’ve never wanted anything more in my entire life. But…”
There was no other invitation I needed. In a flash I reared on my toes and cut off his words, pressing my lips with abandon against his. “No buts. Just kiss me.”
Ty flinched, then the tension tightening his body melted. His lips pressed harder against mine and he groaned, a pained and needy sound. His arm circled my waist, drawing me against the curve of his chest. A perfect fit. His free hand curled around my neck, pinning me close.
Around us the dingy cell warped and faded, replaced in a flash by a gentle fall of water that dusted over us. It was the softest, purest waterfall I could ever imagine, reminding me of our real encounter not so long ago. Yet here the gentle mist felt like the caress of angel wings over my skin.
Electric current streamed through me, growing wilder and more intense and erratic. Each kiss against my lips, cheek, jaw, and neck pushed me closer to the edge. But I held it back, wanting more, needing more.
Ty’s hands found my waist and began to rise, caressing, exploring. My skin came alive under his fingertips, every touch sending an electric spark through my veins. My own hands lowered with intent, gliding down his shirt and over the ripples of his chest then abs. Then they met the smooth muscles that ran below the barrier of his pants. Ty flinched again, growling into my mouth.
