Entangled (Beauty Never Dies Chronicles Book 2)

by J. L. Weil

  “A little warning next time would be nice,” I shot back. I did my best to ignore the tingles radiating within me.

  A lazy half smile was on his face. “You liked it. Admit it.”

  His warm breath teased my face as he leaned down, bringing our mouths closer, and the tips of our noses brushed.

  Now was not exactly the time to be thinking about kissing Dash, but I really, really wanted his lips pressed to mine. I was insane. The Night’s Guard was hunting us and, like Blink said, all I could think about was sucking face with Dash.

  He turned his head so our lips aligned without our noses getting in the way. I held my breath in anticipation. Right as our lips were about to touch, Dash reacted.

  His body twisted, his arms raised, and he threw a knife that was suddenly in his hand.

  Where had that come from?

  The blade sunk into a guard’s thigh, and he went down like a paper sack.

  “Your timing really sucks.” Dash stood up, his feet eating up the ground to reach the groaning guard. He threw a punch to his nose, knocking the guard out cold. “Don’t you know the bro code? Never interfere when a dude’s about to kiss a pretty girl.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Is he always this impressed with himself?” Blink asked.

  “Always,” I replied.

  “You’re not done yet, Slayer. When have you ever known the Night’s Guard to send only one soldier?”

  Blink was right. A tall and broad man with olive skin covered in tattoos stepped out of the brush. His hair was buzzed so close to his skull that it was hard to distinguish the color. He had no weapon in his hand, but that meant nothing nowadays. Often the ones who didn’t need weapons were deadlier, Dash being the exception. I also noticed he wasn’t wearing the standard blue uniform, instead this guy looked like he had just left a biker bar.

  Dash took one look at the guard and crooked his finger at him. “Let’s see what you’ve got, Harley.”

  “I’m going to kill you,” Harley growled.

  Dash stepped in front of me, becoming a dangerous obstacle. “I can get behind that thought process.”

  “Um, I thought the Institute wanted us alive,” I mumbled.

  A tight smiled pulled at his lips. “This guy is making it personal.”

  Wonderful. My fingers grabbed on to the hilt of my dagger as Harley took the first swing directly at Dash’s face. Dash was wicked fast. He sidestepped Harley’s fist and pivoted, planting his foot into the small of Harley’s back, who stumbled a step or two but recovered quickly.

  I decided it was a good time to make what was becoming my signature move. Hurling a bolt of lightning at Harley, I waited for the spear of energy to hit its mark. Imagine my surprise when it pinged off his skin like he was made of rubber.

  For the love of—

  Harley threw back his head and laughed.

  “That was funny?” Dash asked. “Then you’re going to find this hilarious.” He lunged forward, slamming his blade into the guard’s chest.

  “You’re right. That was hilarious.” Harley swung out, catching Dash on the side of his face with enough force to send him sailing into the air.

  Dash lifted his head, spitting blood on the ground. “Well, that’s never happened before.”

  My mouth dropped open.

  This was bad in epic proportions.

  Dash and the guard wasted no time going at each other. Fists flying. Dodging. Dipping. Kicking the crap out of each other. He deliberately pushed me out of the fight and made certain the guard concentrated solely on him. “Why don’t you take your smug, condescending face back to whatever hellhole you crawled out of?”

  “I’ll take you with me first,” the guard promised.

  Nothing we did seemed to penetrate this dude’s skin. It was inhuman, as many of the Institute’s lackeys were. Dash was keeping him occupied, but for how long? He was bound to get tired. I thought about giving him a break and drew Harley’s focus to me, regretting it the moment he started stomping straight at me. In a moment of sheer panic, I blanked. All my training at the Institute flew out the window. Dash screamed my name as I caught a glint of something shiny in Harley’s hand. It was Dash’s dagger. He must have dropped it after getting backhanded. “You want a piece of me, doll?”

  “Do I ever.” No one hit the guy I was in love with. I didn’t care how thick his skin was. Everyone had a weakness, and I was determined to find his. Thrusting out my leg a second before he had a chance to swipe at me with the knife, I hit him in the stomach. The guard exhaled roughly but stayed on his feet.

  Damn.

  The bastard moved fast for someone so big. Lifting his hand into the air, he arched the knife straight at me. Oh my God. He was going to kill me.

  Dash was suddenly in front of me, throwing himself into the line of fire. I blinked, wondering what trick he had up his sleeve, but as the blade plunged straight into his gut, it became clear his ploy wasn’t to stop the guard but to take the hit for me.

  No! No! No!

  Shock shot through his silver eyes, and a cold, hard reality settled inside me. Dash was injured.

  My brain clicked off. The sight of his blood caused something inside me to snap. The air pressure drastically changed. The wind picked up to frightening speeds. A series of lightning spears crackled across the sky one after another, building the electrical current surrounding me. The pressure caused my hair to float up, swirling around my face as the air reached uncomfortable levels of heat.

  Harley took a wise step back, but he was a fool if he thought I would let him get away, not after what he had just done. The energy inside me expanded to a point where I might burst, and in a way, I did.

  A sudden flash of brightness erupted from my fingers as bright as the sun—a solar flare. I’d done some pretty remarkable things with my new abilities, but this took the cake. The flare hit the guard, burning him alive within seconds. The sounds of his screams echoed in my ears, and I felt no remorse.

  Harley was toast. Literally. His skin was charred, and the smell in the air made my stomach churn. I had done that. I had barbequed a man.

  That was one very wicked geomagnetic storm.

  “God, that was hot. Remind me not to get on your bad side,” Dash groaned, clutching his wound. His back hit a tree trunk as he leaned on it for support.

  I rushed to him. “Don’t you dare die on me! Do you hear me?”

  “The whole forest can hear you. You’re yelling.”

  I took one look at the blood pooling on his shirt and the waterworks came flooding. Tears streamed like a river down my face. What was I supposed to do? I had to save him, but how? I didn’t have healing powers. We were hours from Hurst—the only town I knew in the area—and while I bawled like a baby, Dash was bleeding all over the ground.

  In the distance, a shrilling squawk sounded. Blink dove down from the sky, wings spread, as he flew to the ground beside me. “The world must be going to shit if the Slayer has fallen.”

  “Blink,” I sobbed. “What do I do?”

  “Why are you looking at me? I’m just a freaking bird.”

  We both knew Blink was anything but just a bird, and now was not the time for him to take an attitude with me. “He can’t die.”

  Blink sighed. “Suffering a little wouldn’t hurt him.”

  “Blink! If you can help, you must.”

  The bird’s feet pranced over the ground. “Fine, but you might be surprised by what I am capable of.”

  “So you can save him?” I demanded as my hopes soared.

  “Why you want to, I’m not sure, but I guess we’ll find out.” A fine shimmer of gold dust completely covered the bird’s body—wings and all. He angled his head left and then right as the cloud of dust expanded, thickening and swirling so fast it began to blur the bird’s image.

  Panic rose up inside me until …

  The black bird disappeared, and in its place stood a man with midnight hair and golden eyes identical to Blink’s.


  I was knee deep in stunned city.

  Holy crap. Am I really seeing this? Blink is a man?

  Absolutely insane. And he wasn’t just any man. He was Ryker.

  The Night’s Guard stood where the bird had hovered—fully grown without feathers or a beak and utterly naked.

  “Oh, my God. What the hell is going on? Where are your clothes?” I forced my eyes to stay above his shoulders, but damn…

  “I might be an exceptionally large bird at times, but there really isn’t a place under my feathers to keep a change of clothes. And shifting pretty much destroys them, so I didn’t see the point in wearing any.”

  Way too much information. “Check Dash’s pack. He might have something you can throw on, because I can’t have you running around in all your glory.”

  “You think I’m glorious?”

  “Ryker! I need your help, not your inflated ego.”

  He riled through Dash’s bag and I heard him wrestling on some clothes. Striding forward, Ryker knelt down beside me. I was completely freaked out and scared for Dash’s life, but my mind still remembered who Ryker worked for. “Don’t you dare touch him!” Power flooded my veins, shimmering in the air surrounding Dash and me.

  “Charlotte, calm down. I’m not going to hurt him … or you for that matter.” His brows slammed together as he came in contact with my invisible barrier. “Look, I get that you have no reason to trust me, but if we don’t get him help now, he is going to bleed out.”

  And that was the very last thing in this world I wanted. If saving Dash meant the Institute got what it desired, what choice did I have? I couldn’t live without him.

  Chapter Twenty

  “If you betray me, I’ll have your head, shifter,” I threatened. The only thing preventing me from electrocuting Ryker where he stood was I remembered how he had been one of the only Night’s Guards who sincerely had been nice to me, and he had been a big reason I’d been able to escape the Institute.

  “I might surprise us both, but we must hurry. There is a healer in the marshes. If we can get him there before he bleeds out, the Slayer just might stand a chance.” He waited for me to make a decision.

  “If you betray me, I’ll have your head, shifter,” I threatened. The only thing preventing me from electrocuting Ryker where he stood was I remembered how he had been one of the only Night’s Guards who sincerely had been nice to me, and he had been a big reason I’d been able to escape the Institute. I dropped he shield praying he could really save Dash.

  Ryker tore off the sleeve of his shirt, pressing it into the wound on Dash’s belly. “Keep pressure on it,” he instructed Dash.

  Dash nodded, fighting to stay upright. He was in pain. I could see it lining his forehead.

  I turned back to Ryker. “The Misty Marshes? That is very close to the edge of the Heights, isn’t it?” From what I’d learned about the far edges of the Heights, it was dangerous territory. Get too close to where the mist still lingered and you risked exposure. The toxic vapor had been given years to fester, becoming more potent.

  Ryker nodded. “But she is our best shot. Help me get him up.”

  “Freckles, he’s right,” Dash wheezed. It pained Dash in more than one way to admit it.

  I was desperate. I would do anything to save him, including trusting a member of the Night’s Guard. “Fine, but I will make good on my threat if you double-cross us. And then later, you and I are going to talk about how long you’ve been spying on me.” Together, Ryker and I lifted Dash up, draping his arms over our shoulders for support.

  Hobbling down the path, we went farther into the woods. Giant oak trees swathed in moss and vines surrounded us on all sides as we drew closer to the marsh. Creatures scurried behind bushes and tree trunks as we came through.

  “How much farther do we have to go?” I asked, worried that Dash might be losing too much blood. The cotton strip was soaked crimson, and he was becoming fatigued.

  “Less than a mile,” Ryker breathed.

  Dread settled like rocks in the pit of my stomach. It seemed so far. “Can she be trusted?”

  “Celeste?” Ryker responded. “Can anyone really be trusted?”

  I glanced at Dash in concern. His coloring was starting to wash out. “Yeah. Dash can be.”

  Ryker snorted. “Or love has made you blind.”

  “And blind loyalty to an organization like the Institute is better?” I countered.

  “I’m not much of a follower.”

  “Me neither,” I grumbled.

  “I hope he knows how lucky he is to have you.”

  “He does,” Dash groaned.

  I hushed him. “Don’t talk. You need to save your strength.”

  “Well, I can’t very well sit by while bird man tries to make a move on my girl,” Dash huffed.

  I rolled my eyes at the same time my heart fluttered in my chest.

  After what felt like hours, we reached the Misty Marsh just as a light drizzle started to fall, making the marshland blurry and mysterious. We came upon a bubbling pond the color of tar, and the air thickened with humidity, making it hard to breathe. A heaviness settled into my chest, an unpleasant feeling.

  Dash stumbled, and I knew he was fighting to stay conscious. I was about to ask if we were almost there, like a persistent, whining two year old, but through the dense fog, a shape took form.

  It was a quaint cottage nestled between two massive trees that reminded me of weeping willows. Although I could tell someone had made an effort to fix up the home, there was still evidence of the mist that hadn’t been erased.

  The white paint had turned a greenish gray, weathered and worn. No amount of bleach could brighten the cottage, but that didn’t detract from its charm. As we stepped up to the porch, I noticed floorboards had been replaced, looking out of place from the older, darker ones. Blooming flowers similar to lilies and roses perfumed the air just outside the two large windows flanking the front door.

  “We’re here,” I murmured to Dash. “Just hold on.”

  The door opened before Ryker had a chance to knock. A woman with beautiful shimmery silver hair appeared in the doorway. Her eyes were like polished aqua gemstones, bright and observant. It was hard to judge her age. She could have been twenty or forty. There was a youthfulness to her but, at the same time, a wisdom you could only get with age. “I’ve been waiting for you,” she said in a musical voice like a thousand harps. With a sweep of her arm, she gestured for us to come inside, bangles chiming together on her wrists.

  “Celeste.” Ryker tipped his head as we walked over the threshold into the enigmatic healer’s home.

  “Can you help him?” I asked once we had settled Dash onto the worn, yet clean, couch.

  Celeste quickly made an outward assessment, her gaze sweeping over Dash. “He’s burning up and has lost a lot of blood. The blade that pierced him had poison in it. I can smell it burning into his flesh, but he might stand a chance if his will to live is strong.”

  Pushing to her feet in haste, Celeste lit a stick that reminded me of incense, waving it over Dash’s body. “Help me get his shirt off.”

  “The girls are always saying that to me,” Dash muttered.

  “The fact that he is still lucid is a good sign. He is trying to fight off the infection attacking his body,” Celeste said.

  With impatient hands, Ryker jerked the end of Dash’s blood-soaked shirt over his head, leaving him bare-chested. Dash hissed as a bolt of pain clawed at his stomach.

  I sucked in a gasp. His skin around the wound had started to turn black.

  Celeste sat on the edge of the couch. She touched the bubbled and swollen skin around the wound, and Dash passed out. I told myself it was a good thing he was unconscious, but the sight of him looking so pale and too close to death filled me with raw fear.

  Ryker placed a hand on my shoulder, and I jumped. “We should give her space. Let her work.”

  I shook my head, dropping down beside Dash on the floor and taking his limp hand i
n mine. “I can’t leave him.”

  “She can stay,” Celeste said. “Her presence will be a positive energy for him to hold on to.”

  “Tell me what to do,” I demanded.

  “Just keep doing what you’re doing. The connection between you is powerful.” She pressed her hand over the wound. “The poison wants to spread; it’s deep, and I must draw it out.”

  I pressed my lips to his palm and whispered, “Don’t leave me.”

  His eyes were closed, his breathing labored, and for a split second, I thought maybe he had slipped away, but his chest rose and fell, his heart still beating. Tears pricked at my eyes, blurring my vision. The pain squeezing my heart was unspeakable. The world couldn’t be so cruel to take him from me after I had only just been given his heart, his love. It was unfair.

  Celeste’s eyes clouded, like the color of a lake after a storm when the sandy bottom is disrupted, mixing in with the water. “Cool as ice, I extinguish the fire and flood out the poison.” The veins in her arms slowly began to turn black as she drew out the poison, letting it seep into her own body. She shivered, cold sweat dotting her hairline, dripping alongside her cheek, but no matter the discomfort I could see Celeste was feeling, she didn’t stop, not until the wound was clear. Then she changed tactics, chanting words I didn’t understand. In another time and place, I would have been hypnotized by her and the quiet lull of her voice.

  Gently she eased back, weariness showing on her face. The wound closed and looked only like a nasty burn no larger than my fist. “It is up to him now,” Celeste said. “We’ll have our answer if he can make it through the night. He needs rest, as do I. Healing always comes at a price. It is the way of witchcraft.”

  Surprise leapt into my eyes. “You were a witch before?”

  “Aye, I practiced, but I wouldn’t say that I had true power, just a gift for nurturing plants and animals. Then after the mist, everything was different. I take on the pain and injury of others, my body somehow able to withstand the agony without harming me.”