by J. N. Colon
“The witch having the dagger of Astrix doesn’t bode well for us either,” she snapped.
Crunching tires and squealing brakes echoed. Car doors opened.
“Queen Cyria, we’ve got the perimeter of the city lined with watchers.” The deep rumble of a demon voice swirled through the night. “We’ll know if she tries to leave.”
“Very well.”
Caleb’s finger still lay on my mouth, warming with every passing moment. His gaze lowered to mine, the iridescent sheen intensifying.
The air between us suddenly electrified, and like two magnets drawn together, the prince pressed into my body. His finger slowly lowered from my mouth, his thumb replacing it to trace my bottom lip.
Son of a witch, was he trying to drive me crazy?
Each stroke seared hotter, like touching the blazing points of a star. My pulse thundered so loudly he could probably hear it. The white glow in his eyes nearly eclipsed the mossy wintergreen.
“What are you doing?” My voice came out as a husky whisper.
Caleb’s head dipped forward, our breaths mingling. “Honestly, I have no fucking idea.”
We’d been through hell tonight, and we were still in danger out in the open like this in demon territory. But I couldn’t focus on anything other than the insanely hot fae trapping me in his heated stare.
Caleb’s nostrils flared, hard lines slashing his expression. “I should hate you.” His words were clipped, but something else still lingered in his voice. Desire maybe. “Witches ruined my life, and you’re one of the most dangerous ones I’ve ever met.”
My insides quivered—and not in fear. “Then hate me.”
“You make it sound so easy.” His other arm lifted above my head, aligning our bodies in the most delicious way. “When in reality, you’ve made that damn near impossible.”
My muscles had a mind of their own, and I found myself arching into the prince, tiny embers sparking everywhere. “Then what are you going to do about it?” I sure as hell knew what I wanted him to do.
A growl thundered through his chest. “Something we’re both going to regret.”
“Definitely.” My hands slowly roamed Caleb’s torso, feeling every dip and curve he had to offer. “But what’s one more regret in a long list of them?”
A smile that was both savage and sexy curled his lips before they crashed onto mine in a bruising, scorching kiss that could ignite a water-logged stack of wood.
Mirrored groans spilled between us as his tongue slipped into my mouth. A line of fire shot right through my center, punching my nether regions.
Yep. He definitely had a tongue ring.
I threw myself into him, every inch of the hard, muscled fae meeting my body. His hips moved against mine, promising all sorts of wicked things to come. He tasted like sugar and my darkest desires rolled into one intoxicating flavor.
Hell, I was already addicted.
Hot hands tore open my jacket, roughly finding their way beneath my shirt. I moaned as his fingers devoured my bare flesh while our tongues tangled. The beat of my heart roared, desperate and relentless.
An inferno of lust blazed inside. And it demanded total surrender to the fae prince. I’d let him take me right in this dirty alley.
That was how bad I wanted him.
Caleb’s leg forced my trembling knees apart, crushing his thigh against my heat. A gasp broke free, encouraging him more. His mouth trailed down my neck, sucking and biting with a ferocious intensity that stole every ounce of air from my lungs.
Screw air. Who needed to breathe while being ravaged like tomorrow didn’t exist?
“Caleb.” His name fell from my lips, a plea slicing through the fire. My hands wrapped around his firm ass, crushing his hips into mine until I felt the length of him.
His rough groan thundered through my core, ratcheting the heat a few more degrees. Caleb’s tongue licked a hot trail up my neck before slipping into my mouth again, driving me wild with each tantalizing stroke.
Our movements became frantic, frenzied even, as if the only thing that mattered was this burning desire entrapping us.
Something tugged at the back of my mind. Weren’t we supposed to be doing something? Something important involving—
All thoughts of anything but the Unseelie prince shattered as he flicked the button of my jeans open and yanked down the zipper. His fingers seared the sensitive skin beneath my underwear.
A blood-curdling scream suddenly ripped through the night.
The lusty bubble trapping us popped, and we jumped apart. My heart crashed into my ribs, and I shivered violently at the loss of Caleb’s heat.
“Did you hear that?” His lips were swollen and hair tousled from my fingers. As his gaze dipped to the waistband of my jeans, he released a slew of curses.
A vibrant flush swam across me. Son of a bitch. What the hell had we been about to do—and in a filthy alley no less?
Caleb quickly zipped my pants and fastened the button without meeting my eyes.
Was he as freaked out as I was?
Another shriek exploded in the city.
“I have a bad feeling.” Caleb peeled me off the wall and tugged me through the alley Cyria and her demons had vacated minutes ago.
We spilled onto the street, and every ounce of fire the fae prince had stoked to life was extinguished. Ice encased my lungs until I couldn’t draw in a breath.
The feral stumbling along the sidewalk dropped a lifeless woman onto the concrete, her blood staining the decayed flesh sagging from his face. He idly brushed at the dirt caking his ragged three-piece suit.
My brows slammed together. He could have crawled right out of his grave.
Like an invisible iron fist slamming into my gut, I stumbled back as the realization hit me hard. The putrid guy had just crawled out of his grave.
Helena not only brought to life the failed converts in the warehouse, but she changed every human that dagger murdered into a vicious feral.
And soon, dozens of them would flood the streets of Chicago, ravenous and ready to kill.
Chapter 29
Hungry crimson eyes landed on another scantily clad woman cowering beneath the torn awning of a derelict storefront. Growls curled out of the feral’s bloody mouth as he staggered toward his next victim.
How many more would fall prey to these monsters before the night ended?
Caleb yanked the sword from the holster on his back. “This just got a million times worse.” He took off across the street, dodging two cars that didn’t bother stopping to investigate the commotion.
In this part of Chicago at night, most wouldn’t.
The woman’s scream bounded down the cracked pavement, and she stumbled back, falling over a metal trash can. I rushed forward to help her up as the prince chopped the feral’s head off.
“Get inside and stay there.” I gave her a push toward the other ladies of the night huddled near a flickering light pole. “All of you. Now!”
They squealed and flew down the sidewalk in towering heels.
Damn. I’d bust my ass in those.
I turned back to Caleb as two more rotting ferals stumbled down the street. “They must be coming from Garden Cemetery.” The stretch of cheap burial plots was only a few blocks away.
How many humans had Cyria tried turning? And why hadn’t more people been reported murdered or missing?
Glamours probably.
My molars clenched so hard my teeth threatened to shatter. Damn that demon bitch. And the necromancer.
Caleb raised his sword and marched toward a salivating monster. Dozens could be crawling out of coffins, alleys, morgues, and even gutters.
A groan resonated, and the dead prostitute began to twitch on the sidewalk. She rolled over, her lids fluttering open to reveal searing ruby-red irises.
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!
“Caleb!” I took a few steps back as she crawled to her feet, snarling.
A string of curses echoed from the
fae prince. “The demons in the warehouse didn’t turn.”
I whipped my sword out and triggered the blade. “Maybe it only affects humans.” I sliced into her neck, her head hitting the concrete with a sickening splat. Foul, tar-like blood arced across the sidewalk.
Ugh.
Chicago would fall into chaos within hours if we didn’t do something. The human population could be decimated by the time we chopped off the head of every last feral.
Helena was the only one that could stop this. She had to end her spell.
Or die.
Caleb readied his sword to kill the other feral.
“Stop!” I shouted and closed the distance between us. Thankfully, the rest of the human vagrants and criminals had scattered.
The prince lowered his weapon and used his elemental air magic to flick the feral against a building. “What are you thinking?”
My body flushed being this close to him again. Shit. Had we really almost torn each other’s clothes off in the back of an alley a few minutes ago?
I shattered the naughty images trying to distract me. “The necromancer is the only one who can end this spell. Maybe I can use one of these creatures to find her.” Acid curdled my stomach just thinking about latching onto a feral with my death powers.
Caleb studied me, his gaze so intense it had my pulse quaking. “How will connecting to something like him affect you?”
Was it possible he realized accessing my death raker powers could toss me into a cloud of darkness and destruction?
No one had ever cared enough to question it. They were all too enamored with what my abilities had to offer, no matter the consequences.
I choked back the lump of emotion trying to ooze up my throat. “Honestly, I have no idea, but what choice do we have?” I’d never be able to wash the blood from my hands if I let hundreds of people die.
The prince’s lips thinned to a tight white line before he finally nodded, reluctantly so. “Fine.”
He released a wave of power, and roots surged through the concrete, wrapping around the feral. They dragged him to the ground and pinned him securely to the sidewalk.
“That should hold him.” Caleb wiped a sheen of sweat off his forehead, but he barely seemed winded.
Had he really almost died earlier?
With a shaky breath, I kneeled on the concrete and lifted the feral’s shirt to display his rotting torso. I choked back the violent gag. It had to be skin to skin contact, and I sure as hell wasn’t getting anywhere near that thing’s mouth.
Caleb stood on the other side, clutching his sword tightly should anything happen. As soon as I laid my hand on the monster’s feverish flesh and my death powers connected with him, I was tossed into a chaotic world of shadows.
I had no sense of direction, no feeling of up from down or right from left. Like being locked in a sensitivity deprivation tank, my body had no stimuli to tell me I was even alive. Emptiness filled every space of my soul.
Nothing existed except the urge to fill that void—with more death.
I yanked my hand off and fell back, colliding with Caleb as he caught me. My head violently spun until I was close to emptying my guts all over the sidewalk.
“How bad was it?” Caleb’s husky voice glided over my ear as he held me in his arms on the ground. More cars zoomed by, none of them bothering to stop.
I sucked in a deep, shaky breath. “You don’t want to know.”
My powers had slowed the feral’s struggling, but I had no idea how long the weakness would last. He wasn’t a natural creature in any sense of the word.
“How are we going to find the necromancer, Caleb?” I pulled out of his embrace even as my insides screamed to return. “We’re running out of time. If every human they kill turns, there could be dozens upon dozens of those things by now.”
Caleb shifted so he sat beside me, a line developing between his eyebrows as he chewed on his bottom lip. “Why can’t we use the feral like a tracking device?” he asked. “Make it lead us to Helena.”
I rubbed my temples to ease the throbbing as I considered his words. The necromancer hadn’t performed any routine wakening spell, and the ferals were attached to her more so than any raised corpse.
“I could put a tracking rune on the feral and reverse the magic.” Caleb dragged his fingers through his hair, nodding more to himself than me. “With our powers combined, we could do it.”
When Caleb and I let our magic connect outside the summit meeting, some serious juice flowed between us.
I glanced around the deserted urban street that would be filled with monsters soon if we didn’t do something. “Let’s try it.”
“Give me a boost like you did at the summit.” He held out his palm, the ghost of a sly grin tugging at his mouth. “And don’t worry, I’m over my witch cooties now.”
After what happened in the alley, I’d think so.
Caleb’s warm hand engulfed mine, and I fought back a shiver. Just touching him had me coming alive again.
His lids lowered, those sooty black lashes creating half-moons on his cheeks, and he rested his other hand on the feral’s chest. My magic drove to the surface, reaching for Caleb’s as if it had always known him.
A gasp tumbled out of my mouth the same time he flinched. Energy flowed between us, vibrant, electric, and sizzling. I sank into the tingles radiating through my core. No spell or form of magic had ever encased me in this charged, intoxicating bubble before.
A bubble I shared with the fae prince of all people.
Caleb’s sigh sent even more crackles of magic over my spine. He leaned into me, his lips brushing the top of my head.
Warmth crawled up my nape as a wave of drowsiness hit me. Or was this contentment? I wanted to melt into the fae prince until he soothed all the aches in my body and my soul. Being with him would take away every bad memory that scratched at my heart.
Whoa. Where the hell were the brakes on this broomstick? These were dangerous thoughts to have about someone who—when this mission ended—could return to being just another enemy.
The feral’s gravelly groan had my lids snapping open. The Unseelie prince lifted his hand from the creature as the tracking rune glowed a vibrant green through the dingy shirt. Magic soaked the air around us.
The spell was complete.
My gaze lifted to a pair of illuminated eyes barely inches from mine. Damn. That mouth was right there, close enough to kiss. As if reading my mind, Caleb leaned forward.
The feral chomped the air and shattered the moment.
Hellfire and Hecate. Had someone cast a lust spell? Because everything the prince did suddenly turned me on. He could snort like a pig, and I’d still swoon.
Caleb reined his powers in and released my hand. “If you connect with the tracker, you can use your witch magic to compel the feral to find Helena.” He climbed to his feet, pulling me with him. “Hopefully.”
Gods, please let this work.
The prince flicked his hand through the air, and the roots holding the feral captive detached from the ground and wrapped around his hands. Caleb jerked him to his feet and whispered something to the monster, a haze crawling over his rotting features.
“What did you do?” I asked, brushing the dirt from my jeans, not that it helped my appearance any.
Caleb tugged on the roots binding the creature’s wrists to make sure they were secure. “I put him in a trance. It won’t last long, so we better hurry.”
“We need to split up.” My words punched the electrified space between us.
Caleb whipped around, his harsh expression full of accusation. “You don’t want to work with me anymore?”
Had he asked me that a few days ago, my answer would have been hell no, I don’t. But now… The prince had gotten under my skin, and I couldn’t shake him.
“You need to get to your father and the sentries.” I twirled my hand around the street. “If I can’t find the necromancer, the ferals need to be killed fast before they consume the ci
ty.”
His shoulders remained tight, but he gave a sharp nod once he understood what was at stake. “Keep your sword ready in case he comes out of the trance.”
I reached for the creature, but Caleb blocked my path and grabbed my jacket, yanking me forward.
“Don’t die on me, Rose Thorn.” His warm breath spilled over my face and down my neck, making me shiver. The signature smirk melted over his mouth. “Not when I haven’t shown you a good time.”
He’d said those same words in the parking garage, but they held a little more weight after the scorching incident in the alley.
“You’re twisted.” I shoved him off, biting back a smile as my cheeks flamed.
He licked the hoop piercing on his bottom lip. “You like it.”
Unfortunately, he was right.
The humor evaporated as I grabbed the feral’s arm, trying not to choke on the aroma of rot and death. My magic joined with the fae rune glowing on his chest, instantly urging me down the street. “I think it’s working.”
“Be careful.” Caleb’s gruff tone couldn’t hide the slight tremble in his voice.
My gaze met those turbulent, wintergreen eyes, hopefully not for the last time. “I will.”
I turned and allowed the rune's magic to guide me through the dark city toward the necromancer.
If she didn’t break the spell, the only solution would be her death.
Chapter 30
Not a soul moved within Garfield Park Conservatory where the feral had guided me after a long trek through downtown Chicago. My trembling hand met the rough boulder masking the entrance to the Conclave’s underground tunnels.
The necromancer was escaping to Illyria.
And the moment she crossed over into the witch realm, Nightworld would be condemned.
A low growl resonated from the feral as he began to wake from Caleb’s trance. I lifted the sword and dispatched him, letting his body drop to the earth with a thud while his head rolled toward the lily pond.
Hopefully, no one decided to take a moonlit walk around the park tonight.
I laid my palm on the boulder, whispering the spell to release the lock. The ground vibrated, and the rock slowly slid to the side, revealing the set of stone stairs leading into the tunnels.
