Weeping at the loss of magic both darker and brighter than anyone should ever possess, I knew I was a monster.
CHAPTER ONE
RUBY
The shouting woke me up. Again.
Since Peter and I’d arrived, each day had begun and ended the same way—with him fighting with Miko.
Groaning, I reached for a pillow and stuffed it against my ears. I’d slipped in before dawn, hoping I could still get an hour of sleep before anyone was up, but Peter’s voice had to be waking everyone in this wing of the estate. I’d never even heard Peter yell until all this mess with the fairy, not even when we were little. When Peter was angry, his mouth tightened up and he went silent.
Ruby anger flared once and obscured the bright green of my bond with my best friend, but I pushed it away. My trip to the desert had eased some of the tension that had been threatening to boil over. Still, I was tired and irritated by it all.
I wish he’d get over it. It’s not like Miko can take back letting her ex-boyfriend bite her.
I knew I wasn’t being fair. I was just as angry with Miko, but if Peter wasn’t going to break it off with her, then he needed to learn to live with it.
Sighing, I pushed the pillow off and sat up. Peter’s voice was quieter now, though that wasn’t necessarily a good sign. Holding my breath, I waited for the sound I’d begun to dread—the sound of Miko crying.
There was a hard rap on my door. Slipping off the bed and throwing on a robe, I went to the door and opened it. Daley stood on the other side. His sandy hair stood up in spikes and he was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. “You need to do something about this!” he demanded.
I felt shy and awkward only half-dressed in front of him. “I don’t know what I can do.”
He ran his hands through his hair, disarranging it even further. “Peter’s a good guy. He’s going to be an even better soldier. I understand how hard it is to forgive . . .” He broke off, a faint flush rising on the ridge of his cheekbone. “A Protector has to put his personal feelings aside and do his job. This thing with Miko is a distraction none of us can afford while we’re at war.”
Despite how his nearness made me tremble, the near constant simmering red at the base of my soul made my voice sharp. “We’re not at war! Arthur and Morgan le Fay haven’t even made a move yet. Maybe they never will.”
Daley’s eyes flickered with the lightning of his power. “We’re always at war. You know, it’s about time someone showed you the truth about what we do here. I’ve been waiting for Taliesin, but . . .” He broke off again, unwilling to say anything bad about the man who’d rescued him from madness and a life on the streets. Daley had come into his power without anyone to guide him and had accidentally killed his mother and step-father. He’d run away and was hiding in a crumbling old asylum where the electricity of his power attracted the ghosts of the former inmates. For her own reasons, the Seer of New York had sent Taliesin to find him.
“Get dressed and meet me in half an hour, but get Peter to shut up, will you—he’s upsetting Ty.” Daley walked away without waiting to see if I’d agreed or not. “And bring Excalibur,” he called over his shoulder.
Sighing, I slumped against the doorframe, acknowledging the faint echo of a heartbeat after my own, something felt more than heard. When Tynan became emotional, more of Mordred—the troubled and murderous young man he’d once been—found its way to the surface.
Apparently I’m not the only one who’s noticed.
After his mother Morgan le Fay stabbed him with Excalibur to awaken his Arthur, I’d created a complicated spell to take the place of his ruined heart. I wasn’t even sure how I’d managed it, even with Daley’s help. Still, as long as my heart kept beating, the magic kept Tynan alive. It tied me to him in uncomfortable ways.
Pulling the belt on my robe tighter, I marched down the hall. Peter wasn’t just my best friend, he was my bonded Protector, which meant he was my responsibility. I’d found out over the last few days that this had meaning to the people here. I was the daughter of Merlin, the Lord of the Grey Lands of Avalon. I was also the daughter of the earth witch Guinevere. Most importantly, I was the current guardian of the greatest totem of earth magic, Excalibur. Peter might be the very newest of the Protector recruits, but since he was mine, he had higher status than many who’d been training all their lives.
I knocked on Miko’s door. “Hey, guys. I know you’re in there. Let me in please.”
I waited a few seconds. Finally, the doorknob turned and the door opened a few inches. Stepping inside, I took in the scene. Miko lay on her bed like a wax doll, her black, translucent wings wrapped tightly around her.
When we first arrived in Las Vegas, I was shocked by the change in the girl. Staring down at her now, I wished with all my heart that the mischievous half-fairy dressed in combat boots and tutus would come back to us. The pale young woman in a white silk robe and jet-black hair pulled into a severe bun was a stranger.
“What happened?” I tried to keep the accusation out of my voice, but from the look on Peter’s face, I didn’t succeed.
“Nothing! We were . . . talking, then she just stopped. She said she was tired. She wrapped herself up in her wings and went to sleep. She didn’t even bother waiting for me to leave. She just closed her eyes as I didn’t exist for her anymore!” He clenched his fists.
I approached the bed then looked back up at Peter in shock. “She’s hardly breathing!” Miko’s face wasn’t just pale—there was actually a hint of bluish-black along the edges of it where her skin met her hair.
Peter unclenched his hands and ran them across his face. “She doesn’t breathe much, not anymore. I seem to be the only one who’s even noticed. Everyone’s too busy telling me to get over it to see what’s happening to her! Taliesin keeps saying she’ll be all right, but I don’t think he really knows.”
I brushed my fingers against the girl’s arm. Her flesh was icy cold. “What were you guys arguing about?”
He took a shuddering breath. “She’s been calling him.”
I didn’t need to ask who “he” was. “Did she say why?”
“She says I can’t help her, that no one here can.”
I gazed down at the girl; she was a dark sleeping beauty. “Maybe she’s right.”
There was silence and then Peter walked out of the room. I could feel just how much I’d hurt him, but maybe Miko’s ex-boyfriend could help her. No one else had been able to.
I touched her arm again; her skin wasn’t just cold, it was hard. Gathering a blanket from the end of the bed, I covered her with it. Maybe the ex-boyfriend wasn’t the only one who knew what it was like to change into something darker and more dangerous. I had to face the truth. I was a leanan sidhe, a thief of the very essence of the soul.
Call it what you like—give it a fancy name and wrap it up with a bow—but Miko and I are both just vampires.
Daley was waiting for me in the grand foyer, and I could tell by the ozone in the air that he’d passed impatience and was now approaching extreme irritation. I’d actually got a bit lost. When the others had referred to this place as a compound, I hadn’t really understood what they meant. It was hard to remember how impressed I’d been with the mansion Taliesin had rented in my home town. This place made it look like a shack in comparison.
Taliesin had to receive some sort of financial compensation for what he did because the Pim Ranch, as it was known locally, must have cost millions. Only ten minutes from the airport and fifteen from the Las Vegas Strip, the ranch sat on ten acres of unnaturally green lawn flanked by a small forest of palm trees.
Inside was the kind of luxury I’d never imagined, and I caught myself more than once thinking how Lacey McInnis would have loved it. There was a library, games room, gym and sauna, twenty car garage, indoor and outdoor pool, basketball court, tennis court, and a gourmet kitchen larger than the house I grew up in.
Not to mention an actual, honest to goodness, friggin’ ballroom, for crying out
loud!
Three other buildings dotted the gated property. A guest house and massive stable had been converted into residence-style quarters and training rooms for the Protectors. A slightly smaller building at the back of the property housed the paid staff who kept everything in spotless condition. Peter had told me they were all earth magicians of limited ability.
Most of the local Protectors had their own homes or apartments in the suburbs nearby. Those who lived throughout the world came to the ranch once a year to report to Taliesin, so if needed, the entire compound could be converted to house at least a couple of hundred of them.
As I approached the foyer, I avoided Daley’s stormy eyes by admiring the décor around me. The main palette was tan, gold, and cream, but colorful modern art hung on every spare stretch of wall. A circular gallery ran around the center of the second floor, looking down on the living room and foyer. Taliesin had a wing to himself on that floor. I’d caught a glimpse of him pacing the gallery one night when I couldn’t sleep and was wandering the house myself. I wasn’t sure what the other rooms up there were used for, but I guessed that some had been Rowan’s.
“What took you so long?” Daley didn’t wait for me to answer. “Is that what you’re wearing?”
I looked down at my jeans and leather jacket. “What’s wrong with it?”
He ignored the question. “Where’s Excalibur?”
I concentrated and the sword appeared in its scabbard on my hip. I’d jammed it through my belt, hoping the guard and pommel would keep it from slipping through. “There’s a spell on the scabbard. I just have to think about it and . . .”
“Yes, I gathered that,” Daley interrupted. “But how do you think you’re going to use it wearing it like that?”
Truthfully, I hadn’t really considered ever using Excalibur again after having to slit my wrists with it. Reminded of how I’d almost lost my life to rekindle the sword’s power, I pulled leather gloves out of the pocket of my jacket. Peter’s mom had given them to me and they were long enough to cover the pale scars on my wrists. When Daley’s eyes flickered down to the scars and then darted away, I knew Taliesin had filled him in on the precise details of what I’d done for Excalibur. Pride filled me with a complicated mix of colors and I placed the gloves down on a console table instead. I told myself I didn’t need to be ashamed of what I’d done to awaken Excalibur and that I certainly didn’t need to hide the evidence of it from anyone.
“Take off your jacket and the sword.” Daley’s command caused my colors to dissipate as I refocused on my surroundings. He’d picked up a leather harness from somewhere and was now holding it out impatiently. Shrugging out of my jacket, I put it and the sword in its scabbard on the table.
“Lift your arms.” Obeying, I held my arms out. With a sigh at what I could only guess was his interpretation of my own uselessness, Daley unbuckled my belt and unthreaded it from the loops in my jeans while I concentrated on subduing the inappropriate emotions his detached touch aroused. Seemingly unaware of my discomfort, he ran one strap around my waist, and the other across my chest and over the opposite shoulder to where it attached to the first. He indicated a wide loop on the strap at my waist and I picked up the scabbard and pushed it through.
When I turned experimentally, Excalibur stayed on my hip instead of flapping and banging against it. “That’s so much better! I can actually move with the thing on now.” I concentrated and the sword disappeared.
The corners of his mouth twitched into the barest of answering smiles as he made a few adjustments to the band over my chest. When his fingers brushed the bare skin above the neckline of my t-shirt, electricity danced over my collar bone and I couldn’t stop the involuntary gasp that escaped my lips. Daley went too still and the moment of ease between us was gone.
“I can do it,” I murmured, backing away. Every time I thought that Daley might have feelings for me, he made it clear that he couldn’t forgive me for sending the ghost of his girlfriend Melusine back to where it belonged. He only remembered the young woman he was going to ask to marry him. He’d conveniently forgotten the ghost-dragon who would have peeled the skin off my bones and then swallowed him whole without remorse.
I pulled my jacket back on. “Where are we going?”
But he’d already crossed the foyer into the coat room and didn’t answer until he returned wearing a battered-looking leather jacket of his own. Strangely, he was carrying a wooden sword in one hand. “We’re heading down to the Strip to check things out.”
I glanced at the bank of windows that stretched above the front door up to the second floor. The sky beyond was bright blue. “Do you normally see a lot of action during the day?”
“It’s dark enough inside a casino and not all evil things hide in the night. Pull out your sword.” He brandished his wooden one.
“What?”
“You heard me. Pull out Excalibur.”
“Why?”
He gestured with the practice sword impatiently. “Are you just going to drag it around all the time and never learn to use it? It’s got to be heavy. You need practice pulling it out and lifting it.”
I didn’t answer that Excalibur wasn’t really heavy at all. It had seemed to be when I first quickened it, but I could feel that the sword was now accommodating my muscle strength and height. Lifting it took almost no effort and I hardly ever tripped over it anymore.
Daley saluted me with the practice sword. “En garde.”
“OK,” I muttered. “En garde to you too.” I lifted Excalibur.
And Daley struck it so hard with the wooden sword that I went backwards and landed on my behind on the stone-tiled floor.
“Hey!” I yelped.
His sword came down on the spot my leg had been only milliseconds before.
“Daley! What are you doing?”
He gestured for me to get up. “Do you think a kelpie, or a merrow, or a fachen will wait politely for you to recover before they rip your head off?”
“Well I don’t know what any of those things are, but I’m guessing the answer is no?” I stood gingerly. The real answer was Daley knocking Excalibur from my hands with a blow from the wooden sword. The earth talisman clanged loudly in protest as it bounced across the tiles.
“Again.”
It was a good half hour before Daley decided I would be able to pull Excalibur out of its sheath in a hurry without chopping a finger off. I even managed to counter a couple of strikes from his sword. I flushed orchid with a sense of accomplishment when he declared that even though I wouldn’t be able to stop anything larger than a pixie, it was a good start.
I liked the idea of us starting something.
Flexing my hand to get the stiffness out, I wasn’t really paying attention as we went outside until I noticed what he’d picked out for us to drive.
“Seriously?” I really was surprised. I’d been in Taliesin’s garage, which contained both a fuelling station and a car wash. Just about any of the multitude of luxury vehicles in it would have been more comfortable than the banged up, soccer mom minivan parked on the circular drive in front of us. Daley got in and I reluctantly followed.
“The point is to not draw attention to ourselves,” he said as he navigated the long driveway to the automatic gate and pulled out onto the main road.
“It’s Vegas. I don’t think a Mercedes or something would look out of place. Or anything with heated seats and a good sound system.”
“We’re hunters, not tourists. Besides, I like the roominess. You can pack a lot of things in the back. When we’re done in town, I want to stop at the mall before we come home.” As I continued to stare at him, he frowned. “What?”
“You surprise me, that’s all. I wouldn’t have guessed you were the shopping type.”
Turning the wheel, he glanced over. “Are you kidding? You know what day it is, right?”
It took me a moment. “Christmas Eve. I forgot.”
“Don’t you celebrate Christmas?”
I
shrugged. “Sort of. With Peter’s family. But Viviane never wanted anything to do with it. Peter and I opened presents with his parents before we left, so I guess I lost track of the days.” I was reminded of the last present Peter’s mom gave him—a picture of his aunt who’d also been a Protector before she disappeared. I hadn’t seen the photo since we arrived and wondered what Peter had done with it.
“Dad . . .” Daley paused and corrected himself. “Taliesin is neutral on religion, but Rowan always made a big deal out of Christmas.” Daley used the bard’s name in public as if he never forgot that their primary roles were commander and lieutenant rather than father and adopted son. “I want to get something good for Tynan for Christmas. The holidays are going to be hard for him without Rowan. They’ll be hard for all of us.”
I was touched by Daley’s desire to fill the void left by the kind druid, but thoughts of Tynan made me anxious. I was conflicted over the magic I’d created to replace the heart that Morgan le Fay had destroyed. Anxiety crept towards anger as thoughts of Morgan inevitably led to thoughts of her sister Viviane. My real mother had abandoned me. Viviane had hidden me from the knowledge of who and what I truly was. Taliesin only wanted to use me. Daley had rejected me when I practically threw myself at him. Even Thomas Redcap had demanded more than I knew how to give.
Before I knew it, anger turned to fury.
Red seared my sight, forcing me to close my eyes. I sensed a wild, passionate magic which harmonized with the hot colors whirling through me. I was suddenly hungry, so hungry for it. This magic was closer than the spell I’d sensed earlier. As I reached for the tantalizing shades of red, I began to perceive what they could help me do. I just had to reach out with the power I was born with and consume theirs.
“Stop it!”
I opened my eyes, not sure where I was or what I’d been doing. I was hot; as hot as if a bonfire was crackling on the dashboard of the van. With an inarticulate growl, Daley turned on the A/C and the heat began to dissipate. I glanced at him, trying to read the expression on his face. He looked annoyed, but not surprised.
Sword of Elements Series Boxed Set 2: Bound In Blue, Caught In Crimson & To Make A Witch Page 28
