The Seduced

by Cheyenne McCray

  The warlock brought her to her feet again, held her beneath her armpits, and she was able to keep pressure off her ankle. His dark eyes had an unnatural red glow about them.

  “Soon you will not feel any pain, Copper.” Darkwolf adjusted her so that she had her weight on her good foot and so that he could hold her with one hand. With his other he pushed from her face the sweaty hair that had escaped her braid.

  He looked human—not like the evil warlock he was. His eyes no longer gleamed that awful red, and instead were dark, almost black. He pressed his lips to her forehead and drew back. “Know that your sister will be safe with me, and your blood will allow us to release the door to Underworld—already Silver’s blood has opened it a fraction.”

  Darkwolf smiled, his eyes glowing red again, and he no longer looked human. It chilled her to her gut as he brought his hand to the eye lying against his chest.

  Red light bled from between his fingers as he continued. “Balor’s body will be freed to join his essence bound in this eye. His wife, Ceithlenn, will be able to walk the shores of our world as she once did, and Balor will rule again.”

  Copper swallowed. Even that slight movement hurt her aching body. She glanced down at the double circles and saw Silver had been freed and her body was being tossed none too gently to the side by Junga. Silver’s head lolled so that one cheek was on the smooth stone of the cavern floor, her body lifeless.

  “Be careful with the witch.” Darkwolf’s eyes glowed redder yet. “If you injure Silver, there will be great consequences.”

  Copper’s heart beat faster and fear rode her in waves as she looked back to the warlock. “What’s wrong with her? Why is she so still?”

  He gave a slight shrug of one shoulder and the red in his eyes dulled a bit. “She’s drugged. Long enough to bleed you and open that door.”

  Copper’s mind raced. With her wand she could throw up a shield around herself, but without it—

  She focused on her hands, felt some warmth at her fingertips and imagined shielding herself with her magic.

  Darkwolf laughed and her eyes locked with his. The pressure of his grip on her increased. “You have no power without your wand, Copper Ashcroft. I can read it in your mind, feel it in your thoughts.”

  Copper reacted, too fast for thought.

  With all her might she slammed her fist into his nose. She heard the crack of bone followed by a gush of blood.

  Darkwolf gave a cry of rage and pain. Blood flowed over his mouth, down his chin, to his black shirt. He slapped her so hard he flung her body from his and she landed hard in the center of the circle.

  Copper cried out as her body struck stone and her ankle wrenched yet again. Despite every bit of pain, she willed herself to sit up, willed her hand magic to work, but only the faintest golden glow came from her fingers and her body wouldn’t move.

  Sara stood at Copper’s feet. The pretty witch looked normal for a moment, like the friend she had once been to Copper. But then her lips twisted into an evil smirk.

  Copper’s eyes widened as the former witch raised her foot. With a satisfied smile, Sara slammed her shoe onto Copper’s broken ankle.

  Copper shrieked.

  She’d never felt such excruciating pain. It flooded every nerve ending in her body. It forced a flood of tears from her eyes and cries for mercy from her lips.

  “Stop, Sara!” she begged. “Please stop. Please.”

  Sara responded by grinding her foot onto Copper’s ankle.

  The agony was so great she saw spots before her eyes. Black spots. Red spots. Black spots.

  Then blessed nothingness as Copper slipped into the depths of darkness and she felt no more.

  25

  Tiernan didn’t wait for the rest of the D’Danann to cross from the transference point. Once he and Hawk were in the meadow, he immediately strode around the rock outcropping to the Drow door. With Riona still on his shoulder he stomped on the damned door five times.

  “I will guide the others,” Riona said before she fluttered off Tiernan’s shoulder to the place the other D’Danann warriors would be appearing.

  Tiernan and Hawk remained silent. Birds chirping and insect hums were drowned out as the Drow door opened with an annoying grating sound.

  As Tiernan stepped down the Drow stairs, his eyes easily adjusted to the darkness, which was one of the abilities of the Tuatha D’Danann.

  He did not expect the torches to flicker to life, and in that he was not disappointed. His boots made no sounds as he progressed. Hawk and soon the other D’Danann followed him just as silently. He communicated briefly with them in mind-speak then didn’t need to say anything further.

  When he reached the enormous round chamber, he expected to see guards, but found none awaiting them. He strode across the great room to Garran’s chamber, and again found nothing but darkness.

  “Where is Copper?” Tiernan’s gut tightened as he rested his hand on his sword and stepped back into the huge hall.

  Hawk made a low growling noise. His features constantly twisted into an expression of fury and of fear for his mate. “By the gods, we must find her and Silver.”

  By then all the D’Danann warriors had gathered around them. Thirteen had made the trip to this part of Otherworld, counting Tiernan, Hawk, Keir, and Urien.

  Remember the battle with the giant, floated through Tiernan’s mind in the Great Guardian’s voice.

  “This way,” Tiernan commanded as he drew his sword and headed toward the passageway that led to the mine where he and the Drow had battled the giant.

  In the short tunnel, with his night vision, he examined the dirt floor for signs of Copper. He easily spotted a pair of prints made from shoes such as Copper wore, on top of boot prints made by the Dark Elves.

  Satisfied he now headed in the right direction, Tiernan continued until he made his way out of the tunnel and onto the pathway that led deep into the pit mine of the Drow. With his keen scouting abilities, he noticed where Copper had skidded and then continued on down the path.

  “As I suspected, she has gone after the Drow—fool witch.” Tiernan moved away from Hawk and the other D’Danann and began to shift. He unfurled his great wings and he flapped them once before leaping from the ledge and soaring down into the pit.

  The mine’s cool air swept his hair from his shoulders and slid over his wings. He easily reached the center of the pit and the enormous hole, clearly the location where the giant had torn through the ground to reach the Dark Elves.

  Next to a rock were Copper’s backpack and her jacket. His heart stuttered at the sight. Why had she left her belongings? Had she fallen into the hole?

  After sheathing his sword, Tiernan looked into the black depths. It was deep. So deep he could barely make out the bottom.

  If Copper had fallen…

  He raised his head, and scanned the dirt and rock surrounding the hole. His heart began to pound harder as he saw Copper’s shoe prints where her feet had met dirt, and handprints where she had clung to handholds. He furrowed his brow as his gaze swept the area that she moved across.

  “What was she doing?” he said aloud. And then he saw something that made his blood chill. Beside a boulder her shoe prints slid off the ledge.

  Copper had fallen.

  “Godsdamn.” Tiernan threw himself into the hole, feathers sleeked back, and arrowed into the darkness. “Wait for my instructions” he called back over his shoulder.

  With his night vision, he saw the bottom and that Copper was nowhere in sight. Before he hit, he unfurled his wings, and brought himself to a soft landing.

  Tiernan crouched and examined the dirt around him. Copper had landed on her backside, and the deep indentation indicated she had also landed on her wand. And was that the tip imprinted in an awkward position? Had it broken? At the thought of her losing one of her defenses, Tiernan’s blood chilled.

  He could make out where she had fallen back and where her head had struck dirt, and even the imprint of her braid. The
re was a little scuffling, as if she had crossed her legs at the ankles and had sat before getting up and starting down the tunnel.

  “Clear,” Tiernan shouted, and moved out of the way so that his brethren could follow.

  While the other D’Danann silently flew down the huge tunnel, Tiernan walked along the passageway, following Copper’s prints for a few feet. The tunnel was large enough to fly in. He spread his wings and flew as fast as he could through the darkness.

  When they reached a massive chamber he came to a light landing at its opening and heard his brethren touch down behind him. By the markings on the walls, the enormous prints on the dirt floor, and the huge shield and club, this place belonged to the giants.

  “How did such creatures make it into Otherworld?” Hawk asked, obviously noting what Tiernan had.

  “I have no doubt the Dark Elves have been delving too far below the surface,” Tiernan said.

  Congealed and drying blood lay thick and heavy on the floor of the chamber, and arrows littered the dirt. He saw Copper’s shoe prints cross the great room, and then they appeared smudged, as if she had run. A pair of giant footprints followed hers, sometimes stomping them out entirely.

  Tiernan flapped his wings and darted across the chamber, following Copper’s shoe prints to another large tunnel, and then he resumed flying. Most often the giant’s prints obliterated Copper’s, but at times he saw hers.

  Long before he reached it, he caught the smell of rotting garbage. He hurried even faster until he reached the giant that lay sprawled on the dirt floor of the passageway—motionless, stiff. Dead.

  Tiernan landed, folded back his wings, and held his hand up to indicate to his comrades that they should halt. “Wait here.”

  The tunnel was still large enough for him to fly, and his wings carried him from the feet to the head of the giant. He touched down just inches from its matted, mosslike hair.

  Its eyes were open, its expression frozen into one of excruciating pain. Its face had swollen so that its head looked three times larger than that of the giant he and the Drow had slain.

  That was when he noticed the red marks all over the giant’s face. “Bee stings,” he said aloud. “It had to have been Zephyr.” The giant had likely been allergic to bee stings and had died from them.

  “Clear.” Tiernan motioned for the other warriors to follow and continued down the passageway.

  He hadn’t gone far when he heard a distressed buzzing. Puzzled, he halted and listened. He followed the sound until he came to a large spiderweb.

  The buzzing was louder now, and as his gaze raked the web, he saw a honeybee caught in its strands. There was no reason for a honeybee to be down below the surface. It had to be Zephyr.

  “Halt.” Tiernan held up his hand again to indicate the others were to wait for his orders.

  “Hello, old man,” Tiernan murmured, turning his attention to the bee. “How did you get yourself into this mess?”

  Zephyr gave an angry yet urgent buzz. A movement just to the side caught Tiernan’s attention and he saw a very large, very wicked-looking spider headed toward the bee.

  It was one of the most poisonous spiders known to Otherworld, a spider that even wasps and bees feared.

  With a quick movement of his hand and a flick of his wrist, Tiernan had the spider pinned to the wall with his dagger. The creature waggled its legs against its own web as poisonous green fluid drained from its body. After a few moments the creature went still.

  Not one to take a chance that the fluid might burn through his scabbard, Tiernan plucked the blade free of the spider, knelt, and wiped each side of the metal on the dirt floor, making sure the poison had been cleared from the blade. When he finished, he rose, wiped the blade on his leather breeches, and sheathed it again.

  Zephyr gave a buzzing sound like a sigh and Tiernan almost smiled before he realized that Copper was without her familiar and he was certain her wand had broken.

  Trusting the bee wouldn’t sting him, he lifted his fingers to the web and worked to free Zephyr. The sticky web stuck to his hands, and even as his urgency increased to help the familiar, that urgency also rose at the thought that this was holding him back from reaching Copper.

  Finally the bee was separated from the web. Bits still clung to his tiny body, but he was able to climb onto Tiernan’s hand and then fly to his shoulder. He moved slowly, as if exhausted, giving a tired buzz when he landed.

  “You will be fine once you catch your breath.” Tiernan turned back toward the direction that Copper had gone and motioned for the other warriors to follow. “Now we have to find that fool witch.”

  In the darkness he could see Copper had still been running, probably to put as much distance as possible between her and the giant. He followed at a jog and saw by the look of her footprints that she had come to a stop, and then begun a slow walk.

  His gut lurched when he saw something that Copper obviously hadn’t—a hole in the middle of the tunnel’s floor. “Damnation!” With the warriors behind him, he hurried to the hole. Her footprints disappeared, only the heel of one shoe catching the edge.

  Tiernan knelt beside the hole, judging its width and its depth. He could see the bottom—a far drop—but no sign of Copper. It hopefully meant she was still alive and moving.

  “Too narrow to fly.” Hawk knelt beside Tiernan.

  He nodded and looked at his comrade. “We can jump.”

  Thank the gods, the D’Danann had the ability to jump great distances without injury. Tiernan boosted himself into the hole and dropped. When he reached the floor of the small tunnel he landed in a crouch, bracing himself with one hand in the dirt.

  He quickly scanned the ground and saw Copper had been injured. By the way she moved through the tunnel, he could see she traveled with a limp while favoring one leg.

  “Damnation.” It was bad enough she was down here alone, without her familiar, and her wand was probably damaged. But now she was injured, as well.

  Zephyr gave an angry buzz and shot down the passageway ahead of Tiernan.

  Copper blinked, unable to focus for a few long seconds. Stalactites glowing like red rubies came into view. Confusion slipped through her mind for only a fraction of a moment before she remembered all that had happened.

  How long had she been unconscious?

  Her ankle screamed with pain, making the aches in her body feel like nothing in comparison. To no surprise she was spread-eagle on the stone floor as her sister had been.

  She tugged her arms even though she knew she’d be bound. She tried her good leg and it had been secured, as well. She didn’t dare test her bad ankle.

  She felt weak, beyond the pain. Light-headed. As if her life force were being drained from her.

  She glanced at first one wrist, then the other. Both had small slits in them, and her blood dribbled into the runes as Silver’s had. From what she could see by slightly raising her head the blood was moving along more freely now, filling the interlocked runes.

  Her vision went hazy again. She blinked. Then blinked once more. Her face was turned so that she saw her sister sprawled where she’d been left before Copper had passed out. But hadn’t she been lying in a different position? Could she have moved on her own?

  Grimacing from the pain, Copper turned her head to the other side, looked toward the door, and squinted. The red light grew even brighter. The door had opened a fraction more. She couldn’t have been unconscious for long.

  To the side of the door stood Darkwolf, with Balor’s glowing eye around his neck.

  Sara had her hands on her hips and her back to Copper as she stared at the door.

  On Darkwolf’s other side squatted the large blue beast that Copper knew to be Junga in her demon form. Apparently she had shifted while Copper was out cold. Junga also had her back to Copper.

  Copper kept her eyes shuttered, not wanting them to know she was awake if they looked at her. Not that it mattered. How was she going to get out of this mess?

  “Slice
her wrists more so that blood spills from her body faster,” came Junga’s rough demon voice. She cut her gaze to Copper who went completely still. “We need the Balor-damned door open, now.”

  “I don’t like repeating myself.” Darkwolf scowled at her before they both turned their attention back to the door. “Balor insists this must be done slowly, or we will fail.”

  Hopelessness flooded Copper, a feeling she didn’t like at all. She turned her head in the other direction and saw Silver still lying on her side—only her position had changed again. A low moan came from her sister. Copper’s heart rate picked up. Silver was waking.

  A scraping sound brought Copper’s attention back to the door. Blessed goddess. It was opening wider.

  Not wide enough to let anything through, but now growls and snorts came through the crack along with a rank stench like rotting meat.

  Then barking and growling—as if the hounds of Underworld snarled at the door.

  Could it be? The hounds? She prayed not.

  Blood continued to trickle from the cuts at her wrists. Copper fought to keep tension from her body. Tensing up would only cause the blood to flow faster. She took a deep breath, tried to focus, tried to come up with a plan.

  She almost laughed. Sure, a plan. Spread-eagle in the middle of a sacrificial circle, bound, blood being squeezed from her body. Where was the cavalry when she needed it?

  If only her Coven had been able to join her. If only the D’Danann hadn’t been blocked from traveling to Otherworld, as well. If only the Paranormal Special Forces could travel worlds and be effective against Underworld beings.

  The scrape of stone grated her ears as the door opened another fraction. The pounding of her heart doubled.

  She looked to her wrists and raised her head as best she could to see the flow of blood remained steady as it filled the runes, blood snaking from one line to the next

  “Soon,” Darkwolf said in a voice unlike his own, a voice so deep and evil that it resonated through the room. It was as if the voice were being channeled through him, as if Balor himself spoke through the warlock.