I snorted with derision, not believing it to be true.
“The crows are dying Eliria, this world needs death, surely you can see that?”
“I know that!” I snapped again. “I'm not an idiot William. I just can't get past the feeling that you are walking into a trap.”
His eyes darkened as he looked at me, his grip tightened slightly. “Anton is not one to cause issue Eliria, he would not seek an untimely death nor to trap anyone. Whatever fears you have of his intention you should cast them aside. There is no malice in his request.”
My eyes darted to Marty who had been subtly trying to get my attention. She had moved to where William couldn't see her and was nodding with an odd look, one that I couldn't figure. Her hands were doing a little wave motion and her head was nodding to William. Was she saying that I should let him go? This woman was crazy.
“Fine.” I sighed.
William narrowed his eyes at me, instantly Marty was doing some kind of stretching motion with her fingers. We really needed to work our hand signals out.
“I am not impressed in the slightest.” I added. “I think you are being foolish, chasing after something that might be a few dead crows and nothing more.”
He chuckled and wrapped his arms around me, hugging me hard. Marty looked relieved, rolling her eyes at me.
“How long are you going to be and no feeding off pretty women, you hear me?”
“Of course, provided you don't feed off pretty men.”
Nick let out a strangled scoff noise, I looked at him as I giggled.
“Are you alright there?”
“Pretty men.” He scoffed again.
William opened the door, waiting for all of us to pass.
“Right, we are good to go. Augustus are you coming with us?”
“Unfortunately I am waiting for word from my second in command about a minor issue back home. I can come down after that if you like.”
Typical. Another mark against your name Augustus Valerii.
“No need old friend.” William laughed lightly. “In fact, I would appreciate it if you kept an eye on things here.”
He squeezed me tight against his body, his arm stretched over my shoulder with his hand firmly attached to my shoulder. My heart was sinking, he wanted Augustus to stay… here, with us. Can I scream no in a dramatic fashion? No, sorry. No over the top drama for Eliria.
“It would comfort me to know that there are three sets of eyes watching my mischievous Eliria.”
Bastard my mind hissed.
“Of course, I would be honoured.” He smiled at me.
I think my heart just dropped into the pit of my stomach.
“Excellent, it's all settled then. Anton, if you don't mind I'd rather change into clothes that are more appropriate.”
“Not at all.” He waived his hand dismissively.
I followed William into the bedroom, closing the door gently though I wanted to slam it with fury.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I hissed low. “Do you not trust me? Why do I have to have him as a babysitter?”
“Because my love, I know you.”
He grinned at me as he sauntered back to the door, pulling me into his arms. “I know that you will have some hair brained scheme cooked up within seconds of me leaving. You think that I don't know of the mime and her odd hand gestures behind my back?”
William laughed hard as he pulled me back out, looking at me with a crazy grin. “She was telling you to agree with me so that I would leave, then when you went to the extreme and agreed too quickly, she was telling you to play it up a bit more. Well done by the way, if I didn't know her better, you could have had me fooled.”
He walked into the dressing room leaving me completely stunned. This was a vampire that was hard to beat but I was never one to give up. Not when I knew something was wrong.
I leaned on the door frame watching William tying up his hiking boots. It had to be the most casual clothes I had ever seen him in aside from the time I caught him in his bed clothes in the corridor. Long cargo pants and a plain shirt, a thin hooded jacket and nothing more.
“Is it day time or night time?”
“Up there, it's dusk, in limbo it's eternal twilight. Never completely night or day, so you needn't fear the sun on my behalf.”
“Uh-huh.” I said dryly. “What about feeding? Can't imagine Anton would be too impressed if you drained one of his birds.”
William grinned as he got up from the chair, kissing me on the cheek.
“You'd be surprised at how ingenious my kind are.”
He rummaged through one of the draws and showed me a long narrow packet that looked like a stick of dried meat.
“Oh that's just gross.” I sneered. “Is that dried blood?”
Nothing was said as he smirked, stuffing his pockets full of them.
“Ugh, clean your teeth before you kiss me thanks.”
“Aww.” He pouted. “It's exactly the same as what I normally have and as a bonus, you can rest assured that I won't be sticking my fangs into any pretty girls.”
I huffed, rolling my eyes. “Good, live off them then.”
“Sadly that is not possible. It is only to provide sustenance in an emergency, this is not nearly sufficient to maintain a life long term. No beating heart.” He kissed me again and smugly walked past me and out of the room.
Chapter Fifty-three
I hated watching William walk away with the thought that it was a trap booming through my mind. I also hated the fact that I was being watched because William didn't trust that I wouldn't hatch some crazy scheme. Okay, so he was completely right about that one but I still had the right to be angry. Angry because he knows you too well my mind chuckled. Augustus was on the phone pacing back and forth in the study, the door was open and we could hear a heated discussion going on. He really was having problems back home. I suppose I should be grateful after all, he was here protecting me when he probably wanted to be there dealing with whatever it was. Marty and Nick were on the lounge with me, listening to the argument.
“Do you think he's walking into a trap?” I whispered.
Nick shrugged and Marty nodded. She leaned over and reached into my pocket, pulling the leather cuffs out. With hastened speed she quickly tied them to me.
“He will be in limbo by now, he will assume that is the reason for the dragons going dormant, it is common occurrence when entering limbo. If you want to wake them, you need to tap on the shield three times for each dragon. You can wake them separately if you want, you don't need to wake them together. Handy to know if you want to know what he's up to but remain unseen by him.”
Her eyes darted to the open door, Augustus was still pacing back and forth. “It can also act like a homing beacon, regardless of whether he is awake or asleep, unconscious, dead or alive, it will find him and lead you to him. Wake the dragon and tap the shield three times again. Watch his movements, if William is awake and moving, the dragons head will point to him. Even if he is pacing around your wrist, he will move in the direction nearest to William's location. If William is asleep or unconscious you won't be able to rouse the dragon but you can use the vines.”
She quickly untied the left cuff, showing the dragon was already dormant. In recent days the leaves and flowers had begun to appear. Even though William had not settled the claim, the vines had started to indicate that we were lovers.
“The leaves will blow in the wind toward him. If there is no wind, blow on it, watch.”
She blew onto my wrist and the leaves moved against the wind which didn't seem possible.
“That means he is that way. Understand?”
I nodded as she quickly did up the cuff again and turned to Nick. “Take her, I'll keep him occupied.”
“How?” He frowned. “He will want to know where we are, he will search for us.”
Marty shrugged. “I'll tell him that you've gone to the grand oak room and I didn't feel like going. Go before he comes out and stops you.�
��
Nick stood to his feet and I was about to move to the door when something suddenly struck me.
“Wait a moment.”
I raced back into the room, rummaging through the draw in the dressing room, retrieving all of the blood sticks.
“Gross.” I muttered and fled the room.
We slipped out of the room without Augustus noticing, Nick led me through a maze of corridors, stating that we couldn't use the main entrance into limbo as it would be watched. After ten minutes of scurrying through darkened hallways and little rooms of nothing, we came across an old fire place. It was small and looking like it had seen better days. Nick tried to push on it but it wouldn't budge.
“Damn it.” He snarled. “They've locked all of the doors. We are going to have to go external my lovely.”
He stood to his feet and looked at the leather cuffs. “I am glad that your mother is so distrusting of my species, we are going to need the dragon to be dormant so William doesn't know we are following him. It's bad enough that we are going to be thrown way off course by going outside.”
Nick took my hand and dragged me out of the room, through more corridors and up a set of stairs, eventually making it to the car park. Beside the doorway into the car park there was a counter, Nick leaned on it and smiled at the pretty woman behind it.
“Evening Darla, I was going to show Eliria my mad skills on my bike but then I remembered it's still at the house. You don't happen to have a spare one lying around by any chance?”
She twisted her face with a sly grin, shaking her head. “Nick you are the devil in disguise. Where were you last night?”
“Oh uh, William had important family stuff going on. Sorry for ditchin' ya, I will totally make it up to you when we get back, okay?”
She rolled her eyes and opened the door. “I'm going for a walk to the bathroom, don't you go stealing the third key from the right hand side for the orange sports motorcycle near the door, okay? And don't be touching any of the helmets or jackets in there either.” She looked at him with a smile. “Shut the door on the way out.”
Nick drooled over her curves as she walked away, almost letting the door slam shut. He quickly went in and grabbed all that we needed, pushing me out the door. I knew there would always be a sense of urgency with this but Nick seemed like he was really panicking.
“She's pretty.”
I grinned at him as he climbed onto the bike. He nodded as he put the helmet on, waiting for me to climb on behind him. Taking a deep breath I did it, I put the helmet on and ventured into the unknown, embracing the idea of being on a motorcycle. I could only hope that his 'mad skills' was obeying the road rules and not going too fast. Nick grabbed my arms and pulled them around his waist, turning on the ignition it rumbled into life. My feet were hanging like two lanky fools until I figured out where they were supposed to go. We made it into the cool air of the evening without being stopped, part one of the mission was done with success. Now we just had to find somewhere close that we could use to access limbo. Nick was speeding through the trees along the gravel track, turning out onto the road with barely a moment to look for oncoming traffic. Not that there was any, it seemed to be rather void of life. We were on the open road now, breezing along in the shadow of the tall trees. It didn't seem to bother Nick that it was right on dusk, occasionally there would be a flicker of the sun through the trees, the bright orange shining brilliantly. I could see it was affecting him though, his hands were bare and if the sun caught the skin it made a little dent that smouldered darkly. The moments were far too brief to cause any real problems. His body seemed to replenish itself quickly. The wind was whipping over us, brutal in its coldness, my hands were feeling like ice. I heard Nick chuckle when I moved my hands into his pockets, finding a small amount of warmth in there. We hadn't discussed where we were going, I figured that Nick would go to the closest access point that he knew would be safe which by the layout of the land that passed us by, we were going back to the house.
I worried to go back there, I feared that the mercenary might still be at the fence even though my mother said she was going to deal with him. I feared that there might be a whole lot more waiting for us but there was no one. It was like a ghost town as we drove down the street. The glow of the street lights pooled their soft yellow light in large circles on the black road, we passed the empty houses that seemed to be a lot more creepy of a night time. Nick slowed at the gates, crawling along until they opened enough for us to pass. He moved us past the house completely, taking us to the far end and turning the corner. I hadn't been out here, this was all new to me. The side of his house had a small but wide metal door that he pulled up beside, tapping a code into the key pad beside it. I frowned at the piece of technology, surely this had to have electricity.
“How?” I sounded a little muffled, forgetting I was still wearing a helmet.
Nick took his helmet off as the door opened. “It's the only thing that he's had put in and it runs off solar, up there.”
I looked up to the roof and saw the edge of the panels just before he moved us into the darkness of the room beyond the door. The candles in the room came to life, filling the small space with a flood of light. I jumped a little when the door behind us clunked shut, Nick climbed off the bike and helped me off it.
“Ever been on a bike?” He grinned.
I took off the helmet dumping it beside Nicks as I shook my head. “Awesome. Did you enjoy it?”
“It was okay I guess.”
“Pssh, okay. You are crazy girl.”
We wandered through the darkness, it was eerily quiet and felt like we were trespassing in someone else's house. The house that had once frightened me seemed like it was far less scarier than I had thought. Crazily, it felt like home. We were at the fire place in the parlour in less than a minute, Nick pressed his hand to the stone and pushed on it, moving it with ease.
“Good to know that all the gates aren't locked.” He mumbled.
I stared at the void, it was a merciless black that made me think a hand was going to reach out and drag me in. Nick put his hand on my shoulder and made me scream with fright.
“Sorry.” He chuckled. “I forget you're a scaredy cat.”
“Shut up.”
He squeezed my shoulder, looking deep into my eyes. This was about as serious as Nick got which had me worried.
“No matter what, you can trust me. I promise that I am on your side, William is too. But beyond the safety of this house, many things can alter. Things won't always be as they seem. We need a trust word, if I cannot speak then look into my eyes to see my emotions. The eyes are the windows to the soul Eliria, there is no chant that can stop them from speaking what the mind thinks.”
Nick leaned into my ear and whispered dog, when I frowned at him he put his fingers on my lips. “One syllable word, it may be the only chance you get.”
Over and over I told myself that I was doing this in case something went wrong for William, that we were the hidden secret that might just save his life if there was something sinister going on. I could only pray that I was wrong about it, that the sickening feeling that I was getting in the depths of my stomach was wrong. Nick took my hand and pulled me into the black despite my reluctance. I was quietly freaking out.
Chapter Fifty-four
Nick was complaining that his arm was about to drop off from the lack of circulation, inferring that my grip was far too tight for his liking. But still it was said with a tone of humour, meaning he didn't really care. The darkness of the in between area was engulfing and never ending. At first it was scary, I was never a fan of the dark and walking through absolute pitch black was like all my nightmares rolled into one. There was nothing in front of us, nothing to step onto, nothing to grab hold of. Pure never ending black. I couldn't even see Nick, if it wasn't for my crushing grip on his arm, I wouldn't know where he was. It would have been likely that I would have lost him within seconds of stepping into the darkness. His breathing was calming, his
jokes eased my mind but when he offered to tell scary stories, I poked him in the ribs. Much to his disgust of course. Nothing like a scary story to frighten the life out of you when you are in a completely freaky nowhere land, right? Of course!
“You know, the bogey man could be right beside you and you would never know.”
I could hear the little snigger under his breath, the bastard was determined to leave a yellow trail behind us, courtesy of me no doubt. No bread crumbs for our trail, just one freaked out Eliria.
“Yeah.” I grumbled. “And he won't shut up about himself either. Thinks he's God's gift to women. I might rename him inch worm.”
“Ouch girlie, ouch. Don't listen to Marty, she's just jealous she can't get something so meaty.”
I scoffed as I laughed at him, yet again our conversation had reverted to Nick Junior.
“She's your sister Nick, somehow I don't think she wants your meaty, maybe she doesn't want anyone's meaty.”
“Sick of her stealing my women.” He grumbled.
I laughed again, his complaining was relaxing even if I couldn't see him. “Ahh sibling rivalry. I can honestly say I don't envy you.”
Something cracked, a deep sound that echoed around us. Nick sighed and out of nowhere a long red line appeared before us. “About time.” He grumbled. “You are such a scaredy cat.”
“What?” I sneered not that there was much point.
“You have to be relaxed in this area otherwise the door won't open. I knew ol' Nick Junior would have you distracted and stop thinking about your fear of the dark.”
The line widened, the light from limbo flooded into the darkness and filling it with a hazy red hue. Nick was smiling at me, a wide crazy grin as he held open one side of the line.
“Could you not have just told me?” I snapped.
“Doesn't work like that. Would you have calmed down? No. distraction is the key and any time you want to talk about little Nick for distraction is fine by me. Might even let you play with him if you are a good girl.”
Deadly Beasts (The Curse of the Rose Book 1) Page 35
