He allowed her to pull him forward, but he’d only taken a step when a snarl to his right brought his head around. He’d been prepared for another twisted creature, but instead something hard, like the flat side of stone board, hit his temple. A flicker of light sparks danced over his vision, and his body fell, refusing to hold him up anymore.
Stieg looked at the notes before him, all written in his cramped handwriting, notating each and every experiment. Who they were, how long they lasted, and what was done with them. He’d argued against planting the girl’s body in Voda’s garden, but the Chairman was insistent.
Xander. Damn him.
He wanted to talk again to Marika, but didn’t dare. The phone call had been quick and brief. His son was with Mina, obviously helping her. To what end? Voda was gone. If the security team were to be believed, Xander helped the escape. He couldn’t accept this.
His son was not a traitor.
The rattle of metal bars from the next room, a lab, made him look up. The three Darks caged in there were young, but not young enough. They were too close to adulthood. If the subjects finished growing, the experiments didn’t take right, which was why the Dark world was filled with monsters. They’d exiled their mistakes. Still, they could be siphoned from. Their energy and blood fed the Mage’s dissolute leader and, if Stieg wanted to admit it, himself.
He was going to hell for this; the certainty came to him as sure as the knowledge of his own name. Murmuring a spell to secure the notes, he shut the notebook. His meeting with the Chairman would occur shortly.
Another meeting. Another failure.
Rolling his head on his shoulders in an impromptu stretch, he stopped when he felt the sting of another teleporting through his wards.
“Leonid,” Stieg greeted the imposing figure that stood in the center of his office. Weariness made his joints creak. He’d siphoned from one of the subjects earlier in the day, but it lacked the energizing power of an Elemental.
“Explain again how your son is loyal to our people?” the Chairman began, not greeting him. Energy roiled round the Mage like shadows did around Darks. His voice, friendly enough, held an edge to it. Dark eyes regarded him with a predatory stare.
“You heard,” Stieg stalled. There were too many sycophants desperate for power and willing to do anything to get into the good graces of the Chairman. Of course someone was going to reveal his son’s disappearance. He didn’t want to discuss this until he knew for sure. He didn’t want to bring up his own doubts.
“Of course I heard.” The larger man walked to the desk and picked up one of the spelled notebooks. “I also heard he was in the company of a Dark.”
Damn Mina.
Stieg didn’t answer. Anything he said would sound like he was hiding something. He watched as Leonid broke the spell on the notebook and opened it. He flipped the pages; the small, slapping sounds of the paper were loud in the silent office. The rattling in the next room had ceased. They must’ve sensed the Chairman’s presence.
“Do you know who told me?” Again that falsely pleasant tone.
“No,” Stieg answered equally calm.
“Your wife.” The Chairman’s rough features twisted into a frown as he slammed the book shut and dropped it on the desk. “Disappointments. All of it.” He looked up at Stieg, who’d long ago learned to keep his face smooth of any expression. He didn’t deny, explain, or defend. No sense in it—the man was already annoyed, and it looked like he wanted to take out his temper on him. What Stieg hadn’t expected was his wife’s informing Leonid of Xander’s actions. This wasn’t like her, but then again, she’d do anything to get Mina away from their son.
“She’s a good woman. I can rely on her.” The Chairman’s eyes narrowed. “But you, I am not so sure anymore.”
“I’ve already given one son to you,” Stieg shot back, unable to keep silent. “If that isn’t proof enough, I don’t know what is.” He sold his soul those many years ago and deserved every bit of hell that came of it. The excuse of it was all in an effort to save his race was becoming thin and brittle. “I expect Xander will return on his own. He always has.”
“Let us hope he does.” The smile the Chairman gave him was cool.
As he spoke, there was a thickening of shadows in the room. He stopped, and as Stieg began to murmur a spell to prevent the Dark from entering, the Chairman held up a hand.
“No. Let this one through,” he said. “I’ve told her to come here.”
It wasn’t easy to allow this. Stieg didn’t like Darks entering his sanctum. He couldn’t prevent the Chairman from appearing—a product of his own choices. Only Mina knew how to circumvent his wards, a little trick he’d never appreciated. Stieg let the energy dissipate from the spell he summoned as he endured the sting of his wards being breached, making his skin burn.
A woman emerged from the shadows dragging two Darks, boys by the look of them. She wore a torn and stained black leather jacket, pants, and scuffed boots. Her hair was matted into dreads, but it was her eyes that gave her away. Black with no sclera.
Elspeth.
“Leonid,” she greeted the Chairman with a flat voice devoid of emotion. Never a warm woman, in the last few months she’d become closer to the monster Stieg always viewed her to be.
“As you asked, I brought you multiple-birthed children.” She shoved the two boys toward the Chairman. “Use them well. I won’t have access to the upper caverns to get more for some time.”
The two boys were small for their age, gray-skinned with light-colored hair and colorless eyes. They were upper cavern Darks, those who could pass in the human world. They appeared anywhere from eight to ten years old. Stieg couldn’t help the jolt of hope at the sight. Twins. The children didn’t move or say much. Elspeth probably consumed most of their emotions to keep them docile for now. The feelings would return, and by the time it happened, they’d be secured.
“Will this work for you?” the Chairman said as he turned to him.
They were young enough, not quite at puberty. “Yes,” Steig said. “I haven’t seen a multiple birth among any of our races in a long time.” He looked up at Elspeth. “They’re not a human mix?”
She gave him a cool stare before she answered. “No. They were born to a mated pair of upper-cavern Darklings.”
He didn’t ask how she got them. They were Darks. Beasts in his mind. Even Mina, whom he had great affection for, he did not consider on the same level as Mages or Elementals.
“Very good. Maybe next time you won’t fuck up a simple job I give you,” the Chairman said as he leaned against the desk to look at the Dark woman. “You had one job to do—contain my errant niece—and you failed.”
Stieg watched the exchange, uneasy. The Chairman could’ve been a Dark, his tone was so flat and chilling. A part of him became alarmed he’d set up Mina, not because she deserved anything, but because the reaction this death would cause.
“She proved slippery,” Elspeth acknowledged. “I underestimated the magic she can use. But I have the bone eaters tracking her. I know where she is now.” She turned her inhuman gaze on Stieg. “Just as I know where your son is.”
He straightened, a lump of dread coalescing in the pit of his stomach, as if he’d swallowed rocks. He didn’t dare show it, but by her knowing gaze, she knew what he felt. Bitch.
“Where?” The question slipped out even when he didn’t want it to. Stieg knew the answer before she spoke, because where else would she have seen him?
“With Cazacul.” Her cold voice didn’t change inflection as she told them. “My attempt to take the upper caverns failed.”
“I am not surprised. For someone who has no emotion of her own, your drive for power clouds your judgment.” The Chairman was unsympathetic.
Coming from a man who killed children to stay stronger than the rest of his race, this was a rich observation indeed. Stieg didn’t bother to point out the discrepancy. No matter what, his sense of self-preservation was finely honed.
“
At least you brought something we can work with,” he continued, using one foot to prod the silent boys. “So, how does my misbegotten brother have one of my more powerful Mages?”
How Leonid despised he had a brother who turned Dark. They’d both been experimented on as children, their parents seeking to make their powers stronger. Stieg had found the documentation of their genetic manipulation when he began researching for the Chairman. At first the experiment was thought a success, but the oldest twin, Stefan, succumbed to the shadows later than most children; he’d been eight. His removal from the family freed Leonid to move upward. It was thought Stefan would die among the misbegotten; many did when they were cast out. Stieg supposed having a Dark brother was a constant reminder he’d been the second-born son, not the first. He’d known Leonid long enough to realize he didn’t want to be second to anyone.
“He came with Mina in the middle of a battle. He used a spell to kill some of my trackers. I used the opportunity to get you your Darks.” She traced the flat of one finger along the edge of her long sharp nail. “I may have lost this battle, but I am not done with Cazacul.” Her eyes turned to the Chairman. “Our agreement still stands.”
“For now.” A glance at his watch and the Chairman stood. He was thicker around the middle than his brother, but he still held the same aura of menace as he looked at Elspeth, who stood unfazed. “If you want to head the Darks, you know the price. It hasn’t changed.”
Stieg didn’t have to ask to know. If the Chairman wanted to land a crippling blow to his brother, killing Mina would do it. The Dark lord adored the child since the moment of her birth, his only connection to the woman who bore her. Destroying Mina would have a domino effect—killing the Elemental Laurie Hudson because of the blood-tie between them. Bonded with Mikhail Petrov, the two were currently the most powerful Elementals in North America. Two enemies felled by the death of one Dark; no wonder the Chairman conspired with Elspeth. But she better be aware, once Cazacul and Petrov were out of the way, that she would be the next mark.
“What about my son?” Stieg didn’t care about their agreement. His only surviving son was at the hands of their enemies. He knew what the Darks were capable of, because he knew what he would do. “If they kill him—”
“He wouldn’t dare,” the Chairman cut him off. “He’ll drain the boy—his blood and energy will fuel him—but his best option is to use him as hostage. I’ve got more of his people in my dungeons to use as collateral.”
“Draining my son? A Mage?” Stieg stepped from behind his desk toward his old friend. “Leonid, that is—”
“Fitting punishment for his betrayal.” The Chairman straightened his white silk shirt. “He’s lucky I don’t have him executed. But you’ll have more than enough time to exact your vengeance.” He cut his eyes at the emotionless Dark. “You will bring me Petrov’s cousin.” She didn’t respond, indifferent to his contemptuous tone. “No matter how estranged the bastard Russian is from Alexei, he is his last blood relative and the perfect tool to use as leverage. He’ll work with us against my brother if he doesn’t want his cousin coming back to him one piece at a time.” He nodded to Elspeth. “Get this done. I have another meeting.” Then he turned his head to Stieg, who stared back at him, furious at the man’s attitude. “Make some headway with these Darks, because soon our old friendship won’t mean much.”
In a moment, the Chairman was gone, leaving Stieg alone with the Dark children and Elspeth, who gave him a sharp-toothed smile.
“Perhaps I’ll have an opportunity to sample Mage blood after all.” And with that she stepped back into the shadows and disappeared as the children began to weep.
It was too late to go back now.
Xander’s shoulders felt pulled, a tightness bordering on pain from being held too long in one position. The discomfort matched the thumping agony in his head. He tried to move but found nothing responded to his commands, except lifting his head.
Shards of glass stabbed his skull. Perhaps movement was premature.
His eyes refused to open. He was aware of noise, a familiar voice talking in short rapid sentences. Urgency filled the words he couldn’t understand. He fought to focus, but images danced around him like fireflies, bright but hard to capture.
After a moment, he managed to open his eyes to dim light. Everything blurred, and even small movement made his stomach lurch uncomfortably. He blinked.
What the hell had hit him?
“Awake yet, Mage?” a rough voice asked. It took him a moment to register.
Ah. He should’ve known.
“Cazacul.” He tried for cool and unaffected. It came out more of a croak. Shit. Stefan Tepes, known as “Cazacul”—the Cossack—was the leader of the Darks and as unforgiving a bastard as the Chairman. Feeling was slow to return, and he became aware his hands were numb. He fought the nausea as he turned his head to stare into the merciless midnight gaze of his captor.
“I’ve never taken you for a fool, Fjordson.” Hard hands squeezed his face as the Dark forced him to look at him. “But look at you. Insane or stupid. Doesn’t matter now. You’re in my home.” He let go of him with a snort of disgust.
“I’ll be happy to leave.” Xander was pleased to hear his voice had strengthened, and with this knowledge, he realized he hung by his hands. Twisting his head upward, he found his fingers pink and swollen, bound by thick iron attached to chains imbedded into the wall. His feet didn’t touch the ground so his hands took the brunt of his bodyweight. He shouldn’t have looked. Knowing increased the sensation of pressure along his arms, across his shoulders, and down his neck. His muscles were over-stretched rubber bands about to snap back, but frozen in place, a constant tug of impotence on his psyche. Fabulous. This shit wasn’t going to get any better.
“Let him go, please,” Mina’s voice broke their staring contest. The Dark’s eyes flicked to his gaze to at his daughter.
“Enough.” There was a bite to his voice, an edge making Mina flinch and Xander grind his teeth. “I’ve no more patience for your interference, Wilhelmina.” At the use of her full name, Mina clamped her mouth shut. “I’ve blocked the shadows from you. There will be no more wandering.”
“You can’t!” She put out her hands, but Cazacul shrugged her off. “I have to—”
“Silence,” Cazacul’s voice snarled, a low growl. “Your interference has escalated a war and brought us to the brink of one with the Elementals.”
Mina opened her mouth and shut it at a sharp gesture from her father.
“No. Don’t speak, fiica mea.” Cazacul spoke the Romanian words for my daughter in a tired voice, as if he didn’t want to deal with her any more. Xander could relate. “You are Petrov’s hostage, a position you volunteered for to seal the agreement I foolishly made with that Elemental. Now he wants you delivered to him. He’s well within his right.” He turned to look at Xander. “But before I give you up, I won’t waste this Mage.”
Xander kept silent. He wasn’t stupid enough to tell the man he wasn’t worth whatever price he had planned. The Dark didn’t know that he’d betrayed his kind by working with Mina.
God. He wanted to shut his eyes. To rest. The last spell he’d performed used everything he had. He needed sleep, food—neither which he’d be allowed here. To be fair, he’d do the same.
No, he corrected himself. I’d do worse.
“You won’t get anything from him.” Mina was trying another tactic. Xander’s eyes moved to her, and he tried to shake his head in warning. Which she ignored, damn it. “He’s turned his back on the Mage world. He’s on our side.”
“Mina.” Xander tried again to silence her with a look. When would he learn it never worked? The hell he was on Cazacul’s side! This blood-thirsty prick would as soon drain him dry than side with him. Hell, he’d rather be drained dry.
“Really,” Cazacul mocked. “The golden boy turning his back on his people? I don’t think so. I’ve got three young ones gone in the space of the week, two more missing today. Thi
s doesn’t include the four killed in the mall explosion. No, this one…” He gripped his face again to look into Xander’s eyes. “He’ll get a taste of his own people’s tactics. Oath-breakers aren’t tolerated here.”
“Papa…” The soft broken voice was so unlike Mina.
“Get out. I’ve had enough of you for now,” Cazacul ordered, not looking to see if she complied.
A rustle of sound around him and the scrape of a door opening made Xander realize they weren’t alone. Wonderful. An audience.
Xander knew the moment Mina left the room. The atmosphere around him became flat, two-dimensional. The ache between his shoulders increased. He tried to call up a spell, but the easiest one was beyond reach. A flash caught his eye, and he spied a wickedly curved knife in the Dark leader’s hand.
Ah hell.
“Stefan, you’re as cold as the unfeeling bitch you married.” Xander knew he was going to get hurt; he might as well make it worth the pain. Nothing like bringing up a sore subject for both of them: the Dark’s murderous wife, Elspeth. “You let her rip Mina to shreds, and now you’re finishing the job.” How did he know Mina would suffer because he was about to? The way he always did, by instinct and the faint wrenching somewhere near his heart of an emotion he pretended he didn’t have. Funny, as he hung here like a slab of half-rotted meat, he’d rather walk the darkest pits of the abyss than to see again the wounded pain in her eyes as she saw him dangling, awaiting a hell he couldn’t avoid.
Damn, he was pathetic.
“I don’t give a shit what you think about me and my wife.” The Dark leader said this as if it were something disgusting in his mouth. “It isn’t your concern what she’s done or to whom.” Cazacul’s voice took on an edge. “But my concern is you.”
Illumination Page 14
