I resisted the urge to punch him in the shoulder or something equally futile. “Wei is...he's awesome.”
Zane nodded. “My brother is both honorable and loyal. There is no better person in the world. But I do not think that you love him.”
The ground was soggy beneath my boots, and my steps were so hard that I was leaving deep grooves in my wake that filled with murky, foul smelling water but that's not why I wrinkled my nose. “What would you know?”
“I watched you, Lorena. I watched you with him every night that I could. More than you realize. I can be a shadow after all. I saw how you two interacted with one another. There is a great deal of lust there. You two can hardly keep your hands to yourselves. It's why he was stolen away. The Order couldn't trust you to wait to fall in love before you,” he paused before saying, “enjoyed him.”
The blush that rushed to my cheeks was enough to make my head feel light. “First and foremost, the fact that you saw us get...handsy with one another is nothing short of creepy. Just throwing that out there. And secondly, I can love someone and lust after them. They aren't mutually exclusive. Would I be on this quest to get him back if I didn't love him?”
He smirked. “The average person? No. They wouldn't. They would talk themselves out of it a thousand times before they got to their destination. But you have a broad streak of resolve, Lorena. I think it could have been Vlad himself locked up by the Order and you still would have gone after him because you cannot let those around you suffer.” He shook his head. “That's kindness, not love. Love is trust, respect, and friendship all rolled up into one.”
I frowned. Was he right? Maybe a little. But not about Wei. I loved Wei. I was sure of that. I trusted him. He was easy to trust. And I had respected him from day two.
“I care about him,” I finally said. ”I trust him.”
He nodded. “You might. But that's not love. He loves you but that's not the same.”
Whatever I might have said next was interrupted by Dora giving a shout of glee. “Hah! Here he is, here he is. I knew I had not lost him.” She started humming again, her spindly hips swishing as she approached what looked like three willow trees woven together. The swamp water was exceptionally low here, and the ground was merely wet rather than soggy. The long slender branches wrapped around what looked, at first, like a cocoon. She tugged at them until they slithered apart to reveal what looked like a long, smoky white crystal with a man trapped inside.
He was an older man, old enough to be my grandfather. His hair had more salt than pepper and was thin enough that it was nearly lost in the bright white of crystal that entrapped him.
“Who is he?” I asked.
“Marco,” she said fondly running a hand over the face of the crystal as if she could touch the man beneath. “We were friends once, you know, dear friends. He came to see me. Foolish of him. He got caught up in a spell anyway.” She gave the crystal a pat. “Well, he's all yours.”
“Once you free him he is.”
She frowned. “Was that part of the bargain?”
“Yes,” I said. “Yes, it is. You said you'd give me someone who could help me learn.”
She gave a bark of laughter. “Well I'm giving him to you. I can't free him. I never said that I would.”
“Hey now-”
Her face was filled with an emotion I couldn't place. There was a brightness to her eyes that I didn't understand. It looked similar to a dog's look, when their favorite person picked up their favorite play toy, but I was not her favorite, and she was wasn't a dog. She moved to the very top of the mound we all stood on. Her feet so light she barely displaced the grass. What the heck was she even made of?
Zane was suddenly in front of me. His skin had gone darker, taking on the hint of shadow. “Stay back.”
I took a step away. “What are we supposed to do with him?”
She waved her hand flippantly. “I don't care. Just leave, leave and keep your end of the bargain, let me go. Free me.”
I shook my head. “I can't use him like that. Not trapped in a crystal.”
Her eyes twinkled and went wide with mock shock. “You would break our bargain.”
“You broke it first, you lured me here under false pretenses. I can't do anything with that.” I waved my hand the length of the crystal. “You lied to me.”
Her eyes took on a lethal shine and a ripple of fear swam through me. “I do not lie,” she repeated herself, “not once had a lie ever left my lips. What reason would I have for that when the truth is terrible enough?”
A mighty howl broke through the everlasting night. Goosebumps erupted on my flesh, making my skin itch. I took another step back. I got the feeling that something was very, very wrong.
“Lorena, run,” Zane said it so softly at first, so flatly that I couldn't make sense of the word. “Lorena!”
“Come to me my love! My Green Man! I've brought something good for you to eat.” She sang it like a nursery rhyme, continuing to waggle her nonexistent hips.
My legs prepared to run but I couldn't make them do it. They felt almost hot with the desire to move but I was frozen in place. Another howl ripped through the night and I couldn't move an eyelash, much less my legs.
The barely soggy ground spread apart. The trees shifted as if to make way for what was coming from beneath. Zane shoved at my shoulder and I knew I should be running but fear kept me pinned in place.
A massive shape made of mossy green fur crawled out from the ground. Muck and branches clung to its body as two clawed paws heaved an enormous bulk up. It was a massive shape, and after my eyes adjusted to the fear pounding behind them I realized that this was where the smell of wet dog was coming from. The beast was decidedly lupine, with a long nose and paw-like hands and feet, but the body had a man's shape, and when it finally stood it stood on two legs, not four. His eyes, black as obsidian, stared down at us and it began to drool.
“RUN!” Zane cried, shoving me hard again.
I ran. Something broke inside of me and I ran blindly into the swamp, disrupting frogs and snakes as I went. Maahes launched himself after me. Water splashed around my boots and I fell at least twice that I could remember. It was probably more. I didn't care. It wasn't just that the creature looked so inhuman, it had been the look of hunger in its eyes when it looked at me and Zane, as if we were the top shelf kibble.
When I fell the third time, I chanced a look over my shoulder. I expected to see Zane right behind me, but he wasn't. He hadn't followed me at all. I blinked my confusion. Where was he? What was he doing? A brief touch to the magical line between us told me that he had stayed behind, he was going to fight the beast.
I should let him fight it. I should run. These were my first thoughts, but I shook them away. Zane wouldn't be in this place if it hadn't been for me. I wasn't going to leave him behind now. I just didn't have that in me.
I turned and charged back across the wild path I had made. When I got to the triple tree clearing, Zane was pinned to the ground by the Green Man and Dora was kneeling over him, drawing her claws down Zane's chest, opening him up like he was a package. His skin split. His head thrown back like in a silent scream. Why wasn't he turning into mist? Her eyes were bright with pleasure. She lifted one hand, coated in Zane's blood, and brought it to the creature’s lips. The beast licked it off with dog like delight.
Ew. Gross. Not cool. What was wrong with these people? Okay, scratch that, I knew what was wrong. They were all kinds of magically screwed up. Well that ended right now.
“Hey!” I cried out. “Back off my vampire!”
I shoved my magic into Zane like a fist. It was easier this time, as if my magic knew him. It spilled through him, over him, into him. With one mighty shove of obsidian the Green Man went tumbling across the clearing, landing in the swamp with a wet slap.
Dora whirled on me, her teeth drawn back to reveal brown and yellow teeth inside of her mouth. “How dare you!”
“Woman, you started this!” I snapped back.
But she wasn't listening. Instead she launched herself at me, her willowy body slammed into me with more strength than I would have given her credit for. I didn't care. I tumbled with her to the ground, my robes tangling around my legs. She tried to hit me, but the magic that lived in the fabric flared and all she got in was a muted slap. My cheek would grow red, but nothing more. She tried again, her clawed hand nearly shimmering with magic but the same thing happened.
While she was busy glaring at me I shoved my hand into one of the pouches. I came up with a fistful of salt. Salt was the great magic compensator. It was the base to our acid. I threw it in her face and she howled. I rolled, tumbling her off me. She grabbed my leg and jerked, and I slid across the ground.
My training with Wei kicked in. My muscles responded to her attempts to stroke at me before my brain could follow what was happening. I went to some cool place in my head where I was almost watching us fight rather than being a part of it. My arms blocked, my fists struck and I used her strength against her. I could hear Zane fighting in the background, but I couldn't pay attention to it. I had my own battle to win.
Dora shrieked at me, that brittle branch against branch sound echoed in my ears, but it sounded far more human than it had before. I looked at her, and all the places where the salt had brushed were fleshy. She had been pretty once, I realized, with dainty feminine features and sun-tanned skin. Her hair was golden brown, not green, and rich with curls. She swept out at me, but her arm was still broken with Zane's earlier attack and it was nothing. The other one was flesh. It slapped against me, but she didn't have the same training I did. I blocked it.
“Free him!” I grabbed her flesh
“I can't!” she growled.
“Bull.” I grabbed her by her now human hair. “You made an entire dream world. There is no way you can't free one witch from magic.”
She hissed at me, scrapped a hand down my arm. But in the end, we both knew I had won.
“Call off your beast and free the mage.” I gave her a shake.
She spoke in a language I didn't know, but it sounded vaguely Celtic in nature. I didn't know enough of any form of Gaelic to say which it might have been, but the Green Man came to a halt, turning to face his mistress with disappointed eyes. Zane sagged to the ground. He looked tired. He felt tired.
“I do not know if I can do what you ask.”
“Well you are going to try.” I said, refusing to release her. I understood Zane's resistance to letting her go earlier.
She hesitated. “It will take time.”
“We are in a pocket dimension,” I said, recalling what she'd told me earlier about having all the time in the world when in such a space. “We've got nothing but time.”
~~
Zane was pretty badly injured. He managed to fumble his way to Dora's hut, carrying the big crystalline witch in his arms, but I had to steadily feed him magic to do it. If I was being honest with myself, something I didn't like to do, I wasn't going to be able to keep it up. My magic was like a well, and it was starting to run dry.
We arrived at a hut, barely more than a shack, in the middle of nowhere. It had a single room and a sagging roof. One side of the hut was taking up by a large cooking area, complete with a big cauldron hanging on a swinging arm over a long cold fire. A small bed took up the other side of the room, piled high with patchwork quilts. The whole place smelled like herbs and must.
Dora stoked the fire, and the warm blaze pushed away the bad smells and the dank cold. She pushed food into my hands, and surprisingly it looked good. Sure, it was just bread, sausage, and cheese, but it wasn't covered in muck or mold which made it the most appealing thing that I had seen in the entire swamp.
“Eat,” she told me flatly. “I must gather herbs.”
“You are leaving?” I said, feeling automatically defensive. I didn't trust her to return.
“I do not have what I need at the hut, and your feet will not do well in my swamp. Rest, and I will return.”
Zane was too weak to argue, I was too tired to argue. I watched her go without saying anything else. I sighed. Some heroine I was. I needed to eat, sleep, and regain my energy. Real heroes just kept going even when things sucked. I failed. With that happy thought, I took a bite of bread I hoped wasn't poisoned or enchanted and plopped down on the bed. It was more comfortable than I would have expected.
Zane continued to stand in the doorway, looking like a pale shadow of himself. I scooted over and patted the spot next to me. It was apparently enough of a command that he flopped, face first, on the bed.
His nice clothes were ruined, and he was limp with exhaustion. I felt a wave of sympathy and patted his shoulder.
“I'd offer you some of the food, but vampires don't gain anything by eating.”
There was a long bout of silence. “I need blood.”
I paused. Then I took another bite and held my arm out to him. He turned his head towards the skin, then looked up at me with golden eyes.
“You would let me feed from you?”
I shrugged. “I have discovered that I have absolutely no problem with being a meal for bloodsuckers. Maybe other people do, but I don't mind. Besides, you are currently connected to me. The very least I can do is open up a vein for you.”
He gave me a look so blank of expression that I knew he was being careful. I could have pushed, with words or magic, but I decided not to. Instead I just gave him a smile. “Limited time offer, my friend.”
It wasn't the first time that I would feed a vampire, that honor went to Wei. I almost shivered at the memory of it. I don't know if it's me, or vampires, but being bitten felt really good. Like...two hours’ worth of hot and heavy make out session good.
“You are thinking of him again.” Zane's lips brushed against my inner wrist as he spoke. This time I did shiver.
“Sorry. Can't help it.”
“It's....it's alright.”
I gave Zane a look. But he wasn't looking up at me, He was looking at my arm. I had pale skin. Both of my parents are some form of European, so my skin is naturally fair. It didn't help anything that all of my hobbies were indoor hobbies. I never got much sun. You could follow the veins in my arm all the way up to my neck. Zane's eyes were doing that. I became very aware of how blue they looked beneath my skin. His brown fingers gently cupped my arm, one around my wrist, one just above my elbow. He laid a kiss against the flesh.
“Dude,” I said.
“Forgive me,” he whispered. “It has been a long time since a woman has offered her flesh to me.”
I raised my brow. “Connie doesn't....”
He shook his head slowly. “No, she does not.”
I wasn't sure why that made me feel good, but it did. Perfect Connie, so focused on her quest to screw me over that she wouldn't even offer her blood to the vampire who loved her. I tried to push that down. It wasn't fair to think it, but I did anyway. Oops.
His fangs slid out slowly, and they pricked against my skin. The graze made me gasp. He looked up at me, and his eyes were shimmering gold.
“You...like this...” he had to speak carefully around the fangs.
I took a deep breath. “Yeah, I do.”
This time it was him that shivered. I liked seeing him shiver. Jeez. What was wrong with me? Wasn't I in love with someone else? Didn't I love Wei? Of course, I did. I had to. Wei was perfect. I could trust him. I didn't trust Zane. I didn't even get along with Zane...right? Okay, not true. Right up until I realized he was a backstabber I had gotten along with him just fine.
He bit and I gasped, but he didn't pull away. The fullness of his lips was vivid against my skin as he drank me down. My fist clenched and unclenched as waves of pleasure shivered through my body. Parts of me that didn't get nearly enough attention tingled and I had to resist the urge to ask him to do more.
He drank from me. His eyes closed and he took deep swallows from my skin. The connection that existed between us blossomed and I could see exactly what else he want
ed to do. A blush surged to my cheeks as his thoughts invaded my own. Zane was...creative.
“Oh,” I gasped.
His eyes flashed open and he jerked suddenly away. Two lines of blood trickled down my wrist, but it wasn't as much as it could have been. I felt a little light headed, but I didn't think it was just the fault of blood loss.
“Forgive me,” he blurted out, his fangs still bright against his lips.
I shook my head. “Dude, you do not need to say you are sorry for that.”
He gave me a long look. “You don't...you aren't...upset?”
I laughed. “Why the heck would I be upset?”
His head tilted to the side. He was definitely feeling better. His color was better, not half so gray. His eyes didn't have the sunken and weary look anymore. I however, definitely needed to eat, and probably take a nap. Yeah, a nap was a fantastic idea.
House Of Vampires 3 (The Lorena Quinn Trilogy) Page 13
