by J. L. Myers
A distinct warning went off, like a switch that couldn’t be unflicked. I knew what was about to come. I jerked out of Ty’s hungry embrace. Too late. Current flowed like a dead line instantly reconnected to live power, racing to every inch of my flesh. It crackled, breaking free to shoot into every point that Ty’s flesh connected with mine.
As if in fast-forward, Ty hands flung from my body and he flew back through the air. He connected with a cracking thud against an invisible wall that flickered and changed. Now back inside Ty’s dank cell, he fell to the rotting cot. A squeal of protest cried out as the metal frame warped and he tumbled to the stone ground.
I rushed forward, pulling back my hands as fresh waves of blue lightning shot from my fingers. “Oh my God. Ty.”
Ty groaned and with great effort levered his body up. His blood’s strong aroma poisoned the dank air, making my fangs ache. Voices taunted me to taste him, but I locked them down. Then I gasped, lungs squeezing at the sudden gush of air. Any and all hunger was forgotten.
Ty was still getting to his feet, but I could already see the damage I’d somehow caused. The flaming torches beyond the cell’s bars highlighted them as if on display. His face was a mosaic of amber, purple, blue, and black bruises. A gash ran from his top lip down to his bottom lip. It was thick and deep, but somehow it was already scabbed over. A second semi-healed gash ran across one side of his forehead. Even more gruesome and fresh cuts painted his chest with raw scarlet stripes beneath his slashed shirt. The pants he wore were dirty and torn. Below them his knees were shredded almost to the bone. And his toes and fingernails… I swallowed the urge to heave. They were gnarled and cracked. Like he had been using them to scrape a way out of this stone prison.
“I—I did this?”
Ty stumbled and doubled over, catching his breath. Then he straightened, drawing in a slow lungful of air. When he let it out he appeared so drained that I could hardly believe he was standing upright. “No. I didn’t want you to see. I tried to hide it. But the shock…”
Sharp focus knocked my own breath from my lungs. It wasn’t my sudden electric shock that had caused these physical injuries. It was the guards, either of their own volition and hate for lycans. Or under the order of a higher power that was intent on inflicting torture to get the information they desired. “They did this to you?”
When Ty forced a weak smile, his lip split. Fresh blood oozed from the cut. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”
Like hell it wasn’t. I clenched my teeth to keep from screaming. “If that’s true, then why aren’t you healing?”
Ty sighed again and dropped onto the mangled cot behind him. As if keeping up the charade of stability now that his cover had blown was just too much work. “Caius paid me a visit. I tried to resist, but the guards had just flogged me and I was weak. Once they left, he drugged me. The liquid was thick and black. It stunk like only one thing I’ve ever smelled before.”
“Damned blood,” I whispered. Ty’s injuries on the boat when he’d come so close to dying crowded my mind. I fought the need to shudder. “That’s why you’re not regenerating.” Without even a glimmer of hesitation I bit into wrist, fangs and teeth tearing flesh. The wound bled freely and I held it up to Ty’s lips. “Here, take my vein.”
Ty slouched further down on the cot. “It won’t work.”
I stared at him then at my wrist. “What do you mean? It has to.”
“It’s a dream, remember?” Ty’s dulling gold eyes were filled with even more exhaustion than a moment ago. “It’s not real.”
I gaped at him in disbelief. Minutes ago I had shocked him with electric current and sent him flying into the wall of his cell. “But I shocked you. I felt it. And I know you didn’t fly across this shit hole on your own accord. How do you explain that?”
Ty took my hand and I almost pulled away, fearing I’d shock him again. But there was nothing. No tingles. No blue light. Just two people holding hands. Had shocking Ty temporarily snuffed my electric power?
“Amelia,” Ty said. His voice was so unwavering and certain that I peered down into his eyes that showed no ability to gleam with the gold that I longed to see. “Your lightning power may not be restricted by space…” He sighed, as though speaking were a hard task. “But the physical limits of your flesh and blood are.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“Mom, stop fussing.” I fidgeted in the white lace and silk-layered gown as she pinned miniature black orchids to my braided hair.
We were in one of the rooms behind the second story balcony, readying for the evening’s ceremony. In this room everything was pristine white. The walls, carpet, chiffon draped bed, massive dresser, and draping curtains. This room was supposed to be mine after the ceremony. A room I desperately wanted to escape from so I could rescue Ty.
The ticking from the white, wall-hung clock pressed in on me. “I don’t see why all this is necessary.”
“It is necessary.” Mom peered over my shoulder at our refection in the gold-framed cheval mirror. Her hands came up to squeeze my shoulders and I channeled the lightning down to my fingertips. Her expression was a mask of resolution. Yet her eyes glistened with the promise of tears. A betrayal that showed how much she wished I’d chosen differently. How much she wanted to protect me even though I was the Oracle. “To all vampires, especially royals, your ability proves that our struggles to do what’s right haven’t been in vain.” She pinned another two lilies to my hair and with a slight nudge twirled me to face her. “Sweetheart, are you ready to take your place as our true Oracle?”
Feeling like I’d swallowed a brick, I tugged at the dress’s high neckline. I wanted to say no, of course I’m not ready. I’m nobody. A turned vampire. Not important or worthy. But knowing what we had to accomplish by using this situation kept my true feelings masked. Instead I said, “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. Though I’d like a minute alone.” I opened the white-painted door for Mom to step outside. “Tell The Council I’m on my way.”
With a slow nod and a tight-lipped smile, she glided away and I eased the door shut. An audible creak pricked my ears. I flew to the night blackened, pitched window as it slid up and open. An agile girl swung through the opening to land feet first before me.
“Could you be more noisy?”
“Bloody guard city out there. I was trying to get in without being seen.” Marika threw me a small vial tinged with red. “Don’t see Ty’s fascination. You taste like shit.”
Ignoring the jab at having to drink my blood to sneak onto council grounds, I frowned. She had on leather knee-high boots, a pair of tight-fitting black shorts, and a busty, aqua tank. “What the hell are you wearing? I said black, concealing clothes. Not ‘look at me I’m a skank’ clothes. What if someone saw you?”
Marika sneered, moving forward so that our faces were inches apart. “You are not in charge here. And I am not your pawn to boss around. I am here to rescue Ty. It’s entirely your fault that he’s facing death. No one else’s.” A pointed finger came up and jabbed my collarbone. “You made him fall in love with you.” She jabbed again. “You made it impossible for him to stay away when you put yourself in danger.” And again. “So if you don’t want me—and by me I mean me and Troy—to back out of your life-threatening play, show a little damn respect.”
Every part of me was rearing to lunge at this poor substitute for a lifeline and belt out my frustration. But I couldn’t. We needed their help. Doing this without them wasn’t an option. More than that, I knew she was right. Guilt lit within me and swelled. If it weren’t for me, Ty would never have been in this mess.
With great effort I put a lid on my guilt and rising irritation. Because in spite of the risk to her own life, Marika was still on board. I swallowed back the spike of acid in my throat. When the plan had been made to involve the wolves to save Ty, my initial vision had made sense. Caius hadn’t been calling me a traitor. He’d been calling Marika one. Hesitating to drink the blood-filled chalice during the ceremony was proo
f enough.
“Fine, thank you. Just remember what’s at stake.”
Marika flashed her wicked-long canines. “I won’t let Ty down.”
I began to unbutton the beads down my back. “Let’s get this over with.”
We both stripped and I handed over my ceremonial dress. Thank God I’d packed black jeans, a tank, Vans, and my hoodie from home, all in black, or I’d be donning Marika’s nightclub getup. In minutes we stood before each other. Marika was now stuffed into my slim-line coronation dress and I was incognito in full black. “Now what?” I asked.
Without preamble Marika stepped forward and clasped my forearm. Unable to hold back any longer, sparks flew through the connection. I went to pull away as Marika grimaced, but she yanked me back and held tight. “No. It’ll be more accurate this way.”
As the firing currents dulled to tiny sparks, a distinct crack echoed around the square, white room. Marika’s clasp on my hand tightened, manicured nails digging into my flesh as her ribs buckled and shrunk. Her face twisted, every muscle along her arms and neck twitching. Her height shot an inch taller with another crack. Then her expression, a mask of agony, warped with the smaller breaks of facial bones. Her paling complexion stretched as her cheekbones grew sharper and her chin became more pronounced. The length of her black hair faded to golden blond, growing down to the small of her back. With a final all over body quake her head lifted, and her irises—now a silver-blue that I could never confuse—gazed into mine.
Marika checked herself out in the cheval mirror, rearranging the dress’s bodice to fit her new, less curvy figure. “How do I look?”
I shuddered at the memory of her imprinted with my likeness beneath Ty’s sex-ready body and hungry lips. The day of that auction had been one of the worst of my life. Besides the day my uncle had tried to kill me. Now I could fully understand how this mirror copy had fooled Ty.
I shrugged and took my spark-shielding gloves from the dresser and pulled them on, covering their length with my hoodie’s sleeves. “It’s flawless.” I began pulling the pinned flowers from my hair. “It just needs one little touch.”
~
Beneath the shadowed shelter of a moss-draping oak tree, I scanned my surroundings. Guards, ten in total, positioned at even intervals along the east wall of the council building. Five on the ground with swords sheathed at their backs and guns holstered at their sides. Five sniper shooters at each top level window.
Getting past them even in my comfy Vans hadn’t been easy, but somehow I made it.
Now all that stood between me and access to the back door—and the corridors that would lead to Ty—were two guards who paced from either end to meet in the center. The door was shielded from view of the other guards. But that wouldn’t make getting in any easier.
The plan had been to use Caius’s likeness to talk our way inside, leaving Dorian’s compulsion as a way to erase our passing. But now neither of those would work. Not with the latest obstacle that was panning left to right and blinking with a red light. Mounted on both the east and west corner of the brick exterior were surveillance cameras.
There was also surveillance inside the main hall, watching over the ceremony. It would now be underway, with the entire Royal Council present along with the real Caius.
A gentle rustle of tree leaves above me drew my eye. Dorian was perched on a lower branch with his arm outstretched. “Get up here.”
I took his hand and allowed him to hoist me up to his level. On a higher and thicker branch, a perfectly suited and formidable figure sat. Troy, ready to take Caius’s appearance. He peered around the secluding tree trunk, frowning at the back door. “You didn’t mention anything about cameras outside, leech.”
“And their guards are all connected through hand-held radios,” Dorian added in a hushed whisper. “They do a verbal security check every fifteen minutes of every guard stationed outside.”
“So we need to get inside without being caught on camera,” I said, thinking out loud. “When’s the next security check?”
“About five minutes,” Troy answered, attaching a silencer to his gun before holstering it to his belt. “And they’re always on the dot.”
Thoughts of any and all ways to get through this first obstacle inundated my thoughts. Troy and Dorian both looked to me as if I had all the answers. A whirlwind of stupid suggestions flooded my thoughts. Knock out the two guards. Smash the cameras. Don’t get caught.
We were all fast, Dorian and Troy especially after the marks Vanessa had given them to boost their speed and strength. But what would happen when the next security check came? If the guards were unconscious, there would be no one to complete it. And worse, if they came to, the head of security would be alerted and all The Council’s armed power would come after us.
I slumped against the curved trunk and sighed. As if heaven sent, a critical piece of information pulsed through my ears. The cameras run on a separate circuit to the rest of the building, Kendrick said.
Like a light bulb going off in my brain, my muse finally kicked in. I can short out the cameras.
But you’ll only have three minutes max to get in before the main guard reboots the power box.
I lifted my chin. “I can take out the cameras, but we still need to get in without being remembered. And talking our way in will take too long.”
“We’re packed and ready to go.” Dorian patted the backpack at his shoulder with excitement. He glanced at Troy. “You know what to do.”
There was a stiff nod from Troy. Then they braced their feet against the trunk, ready to leap. The wood creaked under their weight.
Now it was my turn. I peeled off my gloves and focused on my last encounter with Ty. I saw with gut-turning clarity the bruises and the slashed flesh seeping with blood that wouldn’t clot and heal. Then I saw his resolve to let himself die in place of risking an escape. Rage at it all bubbled inside me, boiling my blood and turning it into an instant scalding steam that shot through my veins.
The two guards had met in the middle and stopped to exchange a few words. Now was the perfect time.
As I lifted my hands the blue sparks that had sizzled across my skin rushed to collect at my fingertips. A bolt split from both palms, striking out at each camera.
The two guards spun towards the quiet but distinct noise. In the same instant Dorian and Troy sprung from their positions. They both moved in a blur of speed, each restraining a guard up against the wall.
Dorian, with both hands working to stop the guard from lashing out, stared into the guard’s eyes. “Shut up and don’t move.” The guard’s expression fell slack. “You heard and saw nothing.”
Static cackled over the radios. ‘Control room. Cameras down. Check one.’ Checks began to ring out through the speaker. ‘Station one secure. Out. Station two secure…’
Shit. We hadn’t expected an instant security check.
Down the gravel path, Troy struggled to keep the second guard under control. He had one hand over the guy’s mouth to keep him quiet. Still with one free hand the guard lashed out with everything he had.
“Once we’re inside,” Dorian rushed on. “You will resume your post, and voice your security check.”
He released the guard and we ran at Troy. But it was too late. The guard managed to tug free his gun and unloaded a shot into Troy’s side. Troy knocked the gun to the ground and went to swing. Before he hit, I leapt onto his back, pulling at his punch-ready arm with all my might.
Dorian shot in front of Troy just in time, covering the guard’s mouth with his hand. “Stop fighting and don’t scream for help.” The guard’s flailing arms dropped to his sides and Dorian removed the cover over his mouth. “Tell me the code to access the back door.”
“Three, two, nine, six, eight, one,” he mumbled, eyes rolling like marbles.
More checks rang out over the radio. ‘Station ten secure, over…’
“We’re running out of time.” Troy continued to struggle against me, and damn was he
strong. In less than a second he’d have his arm back and would be bludgeoning the guard to a bloody pulp. “You can’t leave a mark,” I hissed. “It will only jeopardize Ty.” Feeling his fight subside I released his arms, shoved him to the door, and punched in the code.
“You heard and saw nothing,” Dorian said as the door clicked open. “Resume your post in three seconds.”
With that Dorian shot like a flash, swooping up Troy’s gun and entering the building after us. The door closed behind him with a distinct click of the lock. Then one of the guards completed the security check. A short burst of static followed, then the control guard’s voice. ‘Exiting post to reboot cameras. Repeat security check in three minutes.’
“Get it out!” Troy slammed back against the stone wall while something sizzled. He tore open his suit, exposing his chest and stomach.
I stood frozen before Troy, my stare locked on the bullet hole seeping sweet, delicious blood. With my fangs long and throbbing, I bit my tongue, hard. The taste of my own blood filled my mouth, but did nothing to cull my desire. The one thing that distracted my hunger was that sizzling. It was coming from the blood-gurgling hole in his side.
I tore my gaze away. The corridor was dark, scarcely lit by dim red bulbs. One marked the doorway and another sat above the bend ahead, which Dorian was striding toward.
Troy grunted, stealing my focus. Excruciation scrunched his hard face. But I couldn’t remove the bullet. If I did, the outcome was set. Already the images were toying with my mind. Me, nails puncturing his sides while I lapped up that shiny red torrent. “I—I can’t. You have to…”
With a glare, Troy shoved two fingers inside the hole and dug around. Then he cursed, ripping his prodding fingers free. Through the blood coating his digits the smell of singed flesh lifted in the air. “I can’t touch it. It’s charmed. Probably engraved with some anti-wolf and damned symbol. You have to get it out.”
