Darkness Bred (Chimney Rock)

by Stella Cameron

  Elin could hardly believe she had just heard a vampire cede authority to another species.

  “We find him,” Sean said. “Before he finds a way to go after everyone on Whidbey.”

  They kept climbing. After three more caverns of the dead, Saul and Sean stopped checking. They went upward silently and swiftly. Elin paused every few steps and looked back nervously. A scream echoed and it wasn’t far enough away for Elin’s comfort.

  The men halted.

  “Is that The One in a rage?” Sean said. “Or is it one of his victims?”

  The next scream rose to a roar, then a strangled gurgle. The sickening noise ended abruptly but loud and ragged breathing whirled around the tunnel like a tornado.

  Sean carried on more slowly, looking past each bend before continuing. When he motioned for Saul to wait, Elin zipped around both of them. They might think she was useless, but sometimes the small and insignificant could accomplish amazing feats—like pushing crazy men into their own bubbling craters.

  The man she loved might want to get to the bottom of a mystery, but if she could get rid of the cause of the mystery, the mystery would go away and they could get on with their lives.

  Elin shuddered. A delicious, sensual shudder. She could just be with Sean and keep teaching him her wiles.

  Disgraceful, Elin. Behave yourself. This is life or death here.

  There it was, in the middle of a large cave, the steaming crater. But it was much smaller than she had expected, perhaps a foot and a half in diameter. She lifted her upper lip in a silent hiss. Quite big enough for a man to fall into. Including the stooped, man-shaped creature gasping against a wall where he tore at empty air. His frustration over his experiments must have swelled into his great screams.

  Elin realized Sean and Saul were still hanging back, deciding on their next move. She needed to work quickly to have any hope of averting what could be a disaster for the three of them.

  A sound stopped her. Every nerve on alert, she stepped backward. Two people slumped against the wall, pinned there by manacles. They were conscious and pulled against their restraints with ineffectual tugs that suggested they had all but given up hope. A man and a woman and both young. They looked alike and she wondered if they were brother and sister.

  The One staggered to the center of the area around the small crater. The sounds he made resembled death rattles but Elin didn’t fool herself she could be that lucky.

  This monster railed aloud against what he considered injustice against him. He twisted his body and shook his fists heavenward. “They think they’ve got the best of me,” he shouted suddenly and clearly, rearing up and bellowing. “All they’ve done is ensure their end will be horrific.” He stared at his captives and Elin respected the stony expressions they kept on their faces.

  He spun in her direction, cloaked in flowing scarlet that swung free from his shoulders in many layers. His head and face, completely exposed, lacked hair or distinct features.

  Trying to be brave, Elin sat on her haunches and waited, and stared, looking for the means and opportunity to upset this crazed thing. As she watched, he continued to throw himself from rocky wall to rocky wall, but something changed.

  His face melted into shapelessness and re-formed several times. He was a shapeshifter.

  Back and forth he morphed.

  And Elin continued to wait for her opportunity. She sensed movement behind her and had to hang on to her concentration.

  Their unwilling host stopped moving. He stared at his captives from the one eye he possessed in that second and took a key from his robes.

  A long, heavy swath of white hair appeared on his skull and he stroked it with one hand, the delicate fingers of which were encrusted with rings, each one set with a glittering gem.

  “Leave them alone.” Sean’s voice cut through Elin and she felt her heart drop. “Move away.”

  The One grew still again before he turned slowly toward Sean, who stood where Elin could see him. He moved and she gasped. So fast Elin couldn’t actually see the man, Sean wrenched the chains that held the captives free of the wall. “Go,” he told the couple. “Run. You’ll be given instructions.”

  That must have meant that Saul would tell them how to get out and probably to hide when they did.

  “Stop,” The One shouted. “I need them. Don’t you understand, I have to…” His voice faded away. The scarlet robe lost some of its flamboyance and hung in subdued folds. All form left the man’s face except for two holes that showed a dark gleaming deep inside. His eyes, Elin assumed.

  The two young people dashed to the entrance and out of sight. The One didn’t spare them a glance. Instead he concentrated on Sean and then, to Elin’s horror, at the exact spot where she sat. He began to rock gently back and forth and made a soft, satisfied sound.

  “I am saved,” he said fatuously. “How kind for both of you to come to me. I know it couldn’t have been an easy task to find me. Look at you. How sweet. I had heard you two were becoming very close. I didn’t believe it. How could I be so fortunate. Everything I want in one place.”

  Sean looked sideways. He saw her, too. Elin bowed her head to curl up even smaller—and watched her waist-length black hair fall forward. “No,” she whispered and stared at Sean. “This has to be Tarhazian. She’s found a way to interfere even with—”

  “Even with the fae powers she helped you develop?” The One’s voice echoed as if he were hollow. “She has taken away your shapeshifting—and your invisibility. How delicious. I must find a way to thank the Fae Queen. We three will have everything. We will have everything you need and I will have everything I want. With you in my care I cannot fail.

  “Did you know I can draw strength from your kind, werehound? We have a symbiosis more rare than you can know. And this little fae? Her heart grows again the moment the one she already has starts to leave her body. Her liver, her kidneys, her lungs, every part of her will grow back for me to enjoy again. I will have to be more delicate in my removal techniques but it will still be so much easier than all this time wasted on hunting food, or having my slaves hunt for food. They are so inept.”

  Elin rubbed her very real arms and felt sick. She had become visible in her human form. Skillywidden had been whipped away.

  Softly; twisting, twisting, she felt something against the palm of her right hand. The wand had not become visible and it was reminding her of its presence.

  She could sense that Sean was about to attack. Trying to stop him was out of the question, but if he understood an unspoken message and acted on it, perhaps she could help him.

  Quickly, she slid the wand against his fingers. Sean would feel but not see the stubby piece of wood. When he glanced at her, their eyes met and she saw understanding dawn.

  His fingers closed on the wand and he prepared to rush The One.

  So quickly, Elin thought she must be imagining it, the red-robed being changed shape. He swelled larger and black hair appeared that reached his ears in a curved, blunt helmet shape. His wide mouth was an almost lipless gash and he didn’t take his dark eyes from Sean. “Finally,” he said. “It has been a long time, but I have you now.”

  “Aldo,” Sean said. “Damn you.”

  Saul burst into the cave. “What the hell’s happening?” The sight of the other man stopped him.

  Aldo laughed, delighted.

  “I met him here on The Island,” Saul said. “But I thought The One was up here.”

  “He was,” Sean said. “Aldo is also The One.”

  Aldo shuddered, his features seemed to run downward, and in seconds The One appeared again.

  “You absorbed Aldo?” Sean said with awe in his voice. “He’s part of you.”

  “I needed his strength,” The One said. “Such as it is. He is of use to me. But he came here for my help, Sean. He was looking for you because you can renew him. How useful that would be to me. He told me that your touch and your approval can make him whole. So we know what must be done.”

>   “I hope this thing has a mind of its own.” As if it were a baton, Sean clutched the short, thick wand in his clenched fist. “Magic isn’t my field.” He rushed The One, raising his arm as he went, ready to strike.

  Elin held her breath. She had been amazed when the wand responded to her wish that the big stone be moved from the mouth of the tunnel.

  “You’re gone, sick beast. Deviant.” Sean took hold of the scarlet robes and beat the sorcerer vampire’s head. “Go.”

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Saul cried. “What good is that going to do against him?”

  “Sean has the wand,” Elin said, swallowing painfully. “It’s still invisible.”

  Saul gaped. He took a step closer to Sean and stopped. “My God. It doesn’t look as if invisibility takes anything away from its strength,” Saul said. “Powerful ally to have—if you know how to use it, I suppose.”

  Sean clung to a handful of scarlet fabric that trailed, limp and empty, from his fingers. “Damn it to hell, I’ve lost him,” he muttered. “He could be anywhere but he’s gone from here, just gone.”

  “Just like you said you wanted him to be,” Elin said quietly. “We need some wand lessons.”

  chapter TWENTY-ONE

  Where did she come from?” Saul said, nodding at Elin. “Does she look a bit blurry around the edges?”

  “Tarhazian is still meddling with my talents,” Elin told him. “But I think her power over me is growing weaker. That’s what might make me look blurred.”

  Sean didn’t bother to answer Saul’s questions. His own mind raced, jumbling how badly he wanted to see her, to hold her, with disbelief that she’d taken such a risk in coming, a risk to all three of them.

  Saul said, “You followed us—or came with us. We knew you were there. We couldn’t risk going back in case you weren’t with us. Do you know how much danger you put yourself in?”

  Burying his face in Elin’s hair, Sean held her against him and ignored Saul.

  “Please take your time with this touching reunion,” Saul said. “Disaster hovers in every corner, but don’t let that interfere. Should I leave you alone here? Of course, if our creature returns, it could be a little uncomfortable for you. But what the hell, you’re broad-minded. Enjoy yourselves. I’ll see what I can do to get our survivors off The Island.”

  Elin rested her forehead on Sean’s chest. “We’d better go,” she whispered.

  An abrupt wave of anger caught Sean by surprise. “You’ve got that right. Can we rely on you not to do anything else to put all of us in danger?” The words were out before he could temper them.

  Pushing away, Elin looked first at Saul, then at Sean. “We don’t know what might have happened if I hadn’t been here,” she said. Her voice shook. “I didn’t come because I was sure it was the right thing to do, or because I was sure I could help. I couldn’t bear to have you come here and never return—and then never know what happened to you, Sean.”

  She made to leave but he caught her by the arm and wouldn’t let go even when she pulled against him.

  “You could have put an end to our efforts,” Saul said evenly.

  “But I didn’t. You didn’t have a plan to deal with that, that thing and neither did I—until we were up here. We’ve lost him but only because we aren’t practiced with the wand. And chances are we’ll get out of here in one piece and live to fight again. All my life I’ve been told what I should and shouldn’t do—when anyone bothered with me at all. I’m finished with that.”

  Saul withdrew behind his usual almost expressionless face. “Thank you for your efforts,” he told Elin formally.

  Moving his grip to her hand, Sean said, “You helped us, but you shouldn’t have come and you know it. It could have ended differently and it was only an outlandish chance that saved us all.”

  She raised her chin. “An outlandish chance we wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t come.” Tugging him, she led the way out of the cave and they sped ever faster until they reached the exit from the mountain.

  All the way down Sean had wrestled with what it would take to mend the rift between Elin and himself. He still didn’t know. And the nagging whisper that Tarhazian could have asked her to spy on the hounds kept bothering him. He didn’t think she had wanted to become visible when she had. Would she ever have admitted being with them if that hadn’t happened?

  Why would he doubt her now when it was the wand Sally had given her that saved the day? Only after Elin discovered she was visible as herself again, though…

  He collected himself. “Please let me look outside first.”

  Saul looked as if he would argue but turned his head aside instead.

  The top of Sean’s head barely cleared the rim of the hole before the former captives were upon him, watching him with hopeful eyes.

  Sean searched in all directions but detected no other signs of life. “Have you seen anyone else?” he asked the man.

  “Earlier,” he said. He looked nervous. “There was fighting between them but boats came from the river entrance into the mountain and took them away. Then we saw him.” His voice faded away.

  “Him?”

  “We thought you must be dead,” the woman said. She and the man were olive-skinned and dark-haired. Both could be French or Italian although there was no accent. The woman took a deep breath. “But we could only wait and see if you escaped.”

  “The One,” the woman said. “He appeared by the water. He was black-haired. Big and muscular. He looks like that when he’s strong. When he’s the white-haired creature, he seems weaker. He goes back and forth between the two appearances.”

  Aldo was part of The One and the duo was alive. They would be back because he, Sean, had only gotten rid of them temporarily. Sean recoiled from the memory of how The One’s features had morphed into Aldo. And that thing could show up anywhere, including Whidbey.

  The woman became agitated. “Huge wolves used to come to the cave—they could turn into men. They threatened him and said he owed them an equal share in whatever he found. Then one time he got mad. He touched one of them—just touched him—and he keeled over. The other ones dragged him away and they never came back.”

  “Brande’s pack,” Sean said quietly. “Sounds as if they got over their argument in time for a touching reunion today.”

  “The One told his servants—his army—they were useless and he sent them away.” The man’s voice got tighter and higher. “They didn’t come back either. He started screaming for them, ordering them to get back but they were gone.

  “He faints when he’s really angry, or goes into a sort of coma or something. But you can’t trust that to last. He can come right back most of the time. He was usually the dark one when he returned. It was as if the dark one always came when the other one fainted or looked sick.”

  “That’s who he was when the wolf men came,” the woman said, pointing at the beach. Saul joined them, a hand on Elin’s elbow. Sean wasn’t surprised when the couple’s attention settled on her. They had been too frightened to really see her in the crater cavern, but here with the prospect of safety ahead, they stared at her, open-mouthed.

  “I’m Elin,” she said.

  “Cassie,” the woman said. “This is my brother, David.”

  “We were all kidnapped,” Cassie said. “We come from New Orleans. The One said we were marked to die now, no matter what happens.”

  Sean raised his brows at Saul, who inclined his head and studied the darkening sky, then looked into the eastern distance. “We’ll be on Whidbey well before dark,” Sean said.

  “It’s getting dark now,” David said, an arm around his sister’s shoulders.

  “No problem,” Saul said. “But there’s a storm coming in so it’ll be a bumpy ride. Hold Elin, Sean. She’s light—we don’t want any losses.”

  “I can travel alone,” she said hotly. “I can travel as fast as you can. All I need is to know the direction.”

  “Hold her,” Saul said, ignoring Elin’s g
lare. “And put your hand on my shoulder. The rest of you, hand on the shoulder in front of you. Close your eyes against the wind.”

  “You never said you could travel,” Sean said, studying her expression, watching for a reaction. “You haven’t done it as far as I know.”

  She turned pink. “I do it all the time if I need to. I’m sure you’ve just forgotten.”

  “Are you sure Tarhazian hasn’t interfered with that, too?”

  He wondered what else Elin hadn’t told him about her powers.

  *

  Buffeted by wind and rain, the journey was blessedly short. Sean was surprised when they glided in to touch down on the beach in front of Niles and Leigh’s house—with the couple waiting for them.

  “You have a lot of explaining to do,” Niles said.

  Sean blinked into his friend’s all-seeing blue eyes and shook his head, gradually regaining his balance on the snow-covered beach in Chimney Rock Cove. “How did you know we were coming?” He turned to Saul. “Why did you decide to land us here?”

  Saul shrugged but Niles said, “Sally called and told us to wait for you here.”

  Because Saul had let her know they’d be there, unless it was Sally who was giving the orders and had told him where to land.

  “It’s snowing again,” Elin wailed. “I hate it.”

  “You’ll have your turn to talk later,” Niles snapped, turning to Sean. “How can I rely on you to share Team responsibilities when you don’t really give a damn?”

  Sean turned hot with anger. “Don’t speak to Elin like that. I haven’t done anything to threaten the Team and I’m the one making primary decisions, remember.”

  “I expect you to make sure we know where you are. You went silent on me. What if something had come up and I needed to leave Leigh at the same time as I needed to be with her? We can’t take anything for granted with this pregnancy. If she needs me, I’ll be with her, and you will stand in for me.”

  Sean held his voice down. “That’s what I’ve been doing. It’s what I’ll continue to do. I went because this Team needed someone to go. I knew you wouldn’t—and shouldn’t—do that now.”