by Sierra Cross
The day ticked by. The scent of cheeseburgers, and I’m sure O positive, still hung in the empty lab. The lights had automatically dimmed hours ago. It was clear no techs were coming back in tonight. A stomach growled.
“Forgive me,” Asher said with mock humor. “My stomach is digesting itself.”
I couldn’t stop the wave of guilt that washed over me. At least I’d had dinner. If only my magic worked, I could send the meal cups to my coven mates. Hell, if my magic worked I could flip these locks and get the hell of this demonic stronghold.
There was nothing I could do for them. If Ambrose had heard me, he would have been here by now. I flopped back on my hard mattress in frustration and instantly regretted it, sure it would result in new bruises. I quieted my racing thoughts and searched the radio waves of my mind for the Director’s slow-moving thread. Nothing. It was just gone.
Without a rescue, how much longer could my coven survive? Bethany surely wouldn’t make it through tomorrow. Hot tears ran down my face. God, right when I’d finally found where I belonged. Who I belonged with.
Suddenly it hit me. Maybe I couldn’t bring any comfort to Griffin or Asher or Liv, but I could do something for Matt. And for myself. I could let Matt know the depth of emotion I felt for him.
Tears ran onto my neck and I didn’t bother wiping them away. I opened up my Dominion Gene radio and found Matt’s thread. The pulse of his signature called to me like a homing beacon. I dialed in and slipped into the vision.
The dark rich wood of the cabin made the room feel close, but not crowded. Matt stood warming his hands by the crackling fire. “Alexandra.” He turned to face me, his dark eyes smiling. “I was hoping you’d come back.”
“Matt, are you really okay with this? I know I’m just barging into your brain…” As much as I longed to be near him, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t overstepping. I put my hand on his shoulder. “If you want me to go—”
My words were lost as his lips crushed mine. His thick fingers tangled in my hair, pulling me even closer.
The heat between us bloomed, and blood rushed in my ears. All my senses were instantly on fire. His hand smoothed its way down my arm and slipped around my waist to rest at the small of my back.
In my logical mind, I knew all of this wasn’t real. Matt’s physical body and mine were separated by iron bars. But the heat from the fireplace warmed my skin, and as Matt’s hand pressed my hips to his, I felt his need matching my own. A small cry of desire bubbled up and left me before I could register what was happening. “I need you, Matt. I need you...in every way a person can be needed.” I wouldn’t let anything—be it from heaven or hell—stop me now. To shield us, I pulled the walls up around this radio-wave reality, as Charice had done in our training sessions.
“I’m sorry.” Matt’s voice was a low growl in my ear that sent tremors up from my core.
“Sorry? You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
“I wasted so much time. As if guardian vows meant anything. From the moment you pulled me back into this realm, I knew. Knew it was you and only you—”
This time my kiss swallowed his words. But this was about more than my physical need for him. “Wait.”
“Don’t you think there’s been enough waiting.” His stubble brushed my earlobe, sending heat through my body.
“First I have to tell you something.” I cupped his chin in my hand and turned his face up to mine. “I love you. With all my heart, I love you.”
He let out a sweet low chuckle. “I’ve loved you since that first night in the cave. When you careened off the wall to kill a demon and saved my life. Brave. Reckless. And the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.”
I pressed my chest into his. He groaned as he lifted me off my feet and gently laid me in the nest of soft blankets before the fire. He slid his body over me, his knee spreading my legs as he placed his hips right above mine. He rocked into me in a rhythm that made my breath catch. His rough fingers worked the buttons of my shirt enough to let his hand in. His palm moved along my rib cage around my back to the clasp of my bra. I couldn’t breathe. Anticipation filled my every synapse as his mouth delighted my senses. His lips tugged, teeth teasing my sensitive skin. Oh my god, I was going to explode.
“I don’t know how long we have.” An idea came to me. If this wasn’t reality, I would use that to my advantage. Closing my eyes, I imagined my skin against Matt’s, and when I opened them again, we were both naked.
Matt looked down with surprise, then a sly smile spread across his face. “You’re going to have to teach me that trick.”
His lips and teeth scraped along my neck. He moved his fingers to my core with a sensation that nearly sent me over the edge. Too much and not enough all at the same time.
I pushed at his shoulders and rolled him under me in one swift move. I wasn’t sure if it was need or the altered reality that gave me the strength to move this beast of a man. But I was hovering on top of him, unable to hold back. I sank down, and as we joined, all my thoughts evaporated, replaced with ecstasy.
I’d done this before, been with a man. But this was unlike any experience I’d ever had. In the past, I’d closed my eyes and lost myself to sensation. But in this moment I couldn’t take my eyes off Matt. I wanted to remember every second, sear this moment into my memory. I couldn’t help but wonder, would we live past tomorrow?
Would this be our only chance to be together?
As our bodies moved, driven by long-neglected need, the look we shared forged a connection so deep it pierced my soul. Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. My heart was bursting with a new joy.
Thoughts, emotions, sensations fused, overwhelming my senses. More, closer. Pleasure so intense it felt like it would stop my heart. In this moment we were truly one.
A sea of need and desire exploded into an ocean of perfection. He rolled on top of me. Urgency was driving us together. Our fingers twined at last as we found our release.
He collapsed next to me and drew me close. I would never get enough of this man. My tongue flicked across his shoulder as the world started to rock…but not in a good way.
The cabin’s log walls bent and swayed and the entire construct shook. I felt a tug, like a hand pulling on my collar. In my ecstasy I’d let the shield fall. Someone or something was reaching in, grabbing at me.
Before I could shake it off I was ripped away from Matt. Kind of like a spellbead ride, I sailed above a misty nebula of energy, stomach plummeting with every soar and dip. Until with a pop my flight through astral space ended, as abruptly as it had begun.
I “landed” in a world of pink. Pale pink walls surrounded me. Hand-painted unicorns adorned the accent wall in front of me. Each magical beast must have been enchanted with just a drop of magic, because their heads could turn and nod and their silver-white coats shimmered.
“They painted the room for me when I was six.” Bethany was sitting on a twin bed, looking at me with more sadness in her eyes than any child should know. “I didn’t have the heart to tell them I’d outgrown it.”
“How am I here?” My thoughts swam, trying to adjust from moving so abruptly. “How’d you get into my brain?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice so small and quiet. “I’ve been floating in a white nothingness. Looking for a way out. A way to break through all the blankness.” Blankness. That sounded like the Void, the realm that all magicborn souls passed through when they died. She couldn’t be dying. They were making it their mission to keep her alive. Had something about her medically induced coma allowed her to access this place? “And then I felt a door...that’s the only way I can describe it. It was a door to you, I guess.”
“Sweetie, we’re here for you.” I sat on the bed next to her and took her hand. “We’re gonna figure this out. Get you out of here.” Even as I said the words I didn’t believe them.
A single tear ran down her cheek. “I need you to tell my mom and dad I love them. Tell them it was me that broke the lamp. I didn’t mean
to. And I’m really sorry—”
“Don’t talk like that.” I knew no matter what a medical team did, if a person gave up the will to live it was hopeless.
“I’m too tired. I can’t fight it anymore. I feel myself...being absorbed by the nothingness.”
“No, kid. I’ve seen the fight in you. I know—”
The pink walls burst into a billion molecules and the world disintegrated into dust.
I was in the dimly lit lab. My body lay freezing on the hard foam mattress. And there was a new heaviness in my heart. I yelled across the room at her lifeless form, hoping my words would somehow reach her. “Bethany! No! Don’t give up…” Sobs clouded my voice.
“Alexandra, she’s fine,” Matt tried to assure me.
“No! She’s not.” I composed myself so I could form a sentence. “Bethany’s letting go. No way she’ll survive the harvest procedure.”
“You can’t know that,” Liv said. “We have to have faith—”
“She’s already in the Void! I spoke to her through my Dominion Gene.”
“The Void? She’s just a kid.” I knew how horrible it had been for Matt, trapped in that nothingness for ten years. Was he flashing back to that hellish experience? Matt gripped his cage door and started yanking. The metal rattled. His muscles clenched as his efforts became a frenzy. He unleashed a guttural roar and thrashed futilely against the unyielding bars.
“The bars won’t give,” Griffin said coolly. “Trust me. I’ve ripped my fingers off trying to get out of here.”
I was sure the vampire was not being metaphorical.
“Matt, stop,” I begged. “Please.” Matt was going to do some serious damage to himself if he didn’t stop—and unlike a vampire, his body wouldn’t grow new fingers. I could see a stream of blood running down his wrist. “Matt!”
“Oy! Jackass.” Asher slammed up against the cell wall that was right next to Matt. “Dismembering yourself won’t help her.” The sudden jolt of sound caught Matt’s attention, and he flung himself against the back wall of his cell with a frustrated groan.
Liv was sobbing.
I was so focused on Matt that I didn’t see Asher press his hand up to the bars on his cell until it was too late to stop him.
The warlock’s tattoos moved in the truncated swipe back and forth that he’d used in Callista’s torture chamber.
“Asher, it’ll kill you!” Liv screamed. I remembered the Splinter’s warning, that using his Chimerian magic would burn him from the inside out. But he didn’t stop.
Asher’s hands looked like they were fused with the metal. There was no flow to his magic, it was like banging a head against a brick wall. The warlock’s face was beet-red, contorted with pain and effort. He’d pulled his coveralls open revealing the rest of his tattoos. Sweat bled over his face and torso. His jaw was clenched, arms trembling in agony.
“Asher, stop,” I begged him.
His eyes rolled back in his head. He looked like he was on the verge of going into convulsions.
The skin on his hands melted into the metal. A raw moan escaped him. How was he bearing that much pain? And then the metal began to bend. The door warped and the pin loosened from the lock. The crate sprang open, and he heaved his body to the floor. Crawling on his gnarled fingers, fighting through the pain, Asher reached over and unlocked Matt’s cage, then collapsed to the floor, panting and drenched in sweat. His ruined fingers looked like raw meat. The warlock’s drained body could take him no further.
Matt exploded from his crate and leaned over Asher’s prone form.
The warlock shook his head. “Heal Bethany,” he gasped out. His ragged breaths sounded like his lungs were giving up.
Matt gave Asher a solemn nod. Then he flipped the lock on Liv’s cell. “Let everyone out,” he told her, and rushed to the table where Bethany’s still body was strapped down. “It’s got to be close to morning. They’re going to start coming in.” Matt stretched his hand over Bethany and aimed a shimmer of gold magic directly into her heart.
Snapping into action, Liv walked across the lab and flipped open Griffin’s cell. Then mine.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” I said. “Can we just pull out the IVs?”
Griffin was rifling through storage cabinets. He looked paler than usual and I remembered he hadn’t eaten in a while.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Need a weapon,” the vampire grunted and grabbed a metal desk. He ripped it apart like it was a tinker toy—though I sensed he was dipping into his energy reserves to do it. He took one table leg and gripped it like a club. “Is your magic returning?” he asked me.
“Yes.” It was starting to pulse inside me. Like a muscle that’d had circulation cut off for too long, it felt achy and half-numb at first. Then it prickled back to life with a pins-and-needles sensation. But if anyone was to hit that little green cube of the escape deterrent? We’d be hosed.
Liv bent over Asher, running her hand along his brow. “You crazy warlock, what are we going to do with you?”
Asher was bracing against the pain. His mouth moved like he was trying to say something, but no words came out.
I peeked out into the hall. It was a ghost town. But I was sure our activity wouldn’t go unnoticed for long.
Griffin took two brooding steps in Asher’s direction.
“Back off vamp.” I leapt in front of his massive frame—a move that awoke every pain sensor in my body. “He’s not on the menu.”
A low growl rumbled in Griffin’s throat and as if in reflex he raised his weapon. Then he let it fall on the floor. “I can help him.” His voice was low and steady. No sign of bloodlust.
I remembered the feeling of his father’s blood in my system. Power and strength and invincibility. It would help Asher, but... “You look like you don’t have any blood to spare.”
“Not with my blood.” Not waiting for a response, Griffin stepped around me, bent over Asher and picked him up like he was a paper doll. He set the warlock down on an empty surgical table. Asher’s breath was shallow with pain, but at least he was still breathing.
For such a big man, Griffin moved with amazing tenderness, taking Asher’s hand in his. “This’ll help,” he assured my coven mate. Gently, he brought Asher’s finger to his mouth and licked the gnarled mess. Asher screamed, but then his breathing deepened. I stared as the vampire’s saliva began to knit his wounds. The bones of Asher’s hand straightened and skin mended. The wounds were not completely healed, but I could see relief on Asher’s face.
Matt stepped back from Bethany’s surgical table and turned off her monitors. He pulled the IV from Bethany’s hand and loosened her restraints. Her body remained all too corpse-like, but her lips were no longer blue, and the dark circles under her eyes had lessened. Matt scooped up the tiny witch into his brawny arms.
“Let’s get out of here already,” Liv said.
“Does anyone know the way out?” I asked.
“There’s only one exit to the outside,” Liv said. “It’s on the southeast side, but they could shut the elevator down with us in it. I heard a tech saying she used the stairs to boost her step-count before her runs on the beach—”
The door to the lab opened, and Daria appeared pushing a breakfast cart. Shock swamped her features. “What the…”
Asher was leaning heavily on Liv. “Come with us, Daria. You don’t have to be a part of this.”
“Oh my god.” Her hand flew to her neck. But Griffin crossed the room in a single stride and yanked Daria’s lanyard off her before she could reach the deterrent cube.
With a shriek, she pushed the cart into him.
Anticipating what would happen next, I yelled, “Griffin, no! She can help us!” His undead senses must have registered my words and agreed because Daria’s heart remained in her chest.
Daria tried to catch her breath. “If you get back in your containments right now,” she said, surveying us all, “I won’t let them know you did this. And believe me,
that’s saving you a lot of pain.”
“Daria, come with us,” I said. Words assembled themselves in my head. I was about to make the most important plea of my life.
But it was a speech I never got to deliver.
The door swung open with enough force that it flew from its hinges and swiped Liv off her feet. The Splinter charged into the lab and immediately slapped her deterrent cube. I crumpled to the ground along with all my coven mates. With her Caedis speed matching the vampire’s, Callista pulled the baton from Daria’s holster and whacked Griffin’s shoulder. His body convulsed as my entire coven writhed on the floor.
“Y’all weren’t thinking of going anywhere?” Callista looked down and smiled as we quivered in pain. “I’d miss you too much if you left.”
Pain stole my breath. Liv’s head was banging convulsively on the floor. The Splinter laughed, then her head did the fast-forward thing it had done before, whipping back and forth with even more force than it had during our torture.
With a stilted movement, the Splinter hit the cube again, deactivating the deterrent. I felt my facial muscles unclench as the pain dialed down from an eleven to a four.
Was it possible Callie was getting stronger in there? Was she trying to gain some control?
Pillar had said Callie’s soul was pure light. That she’d fight the darkness every step of the way. My sister was trapped and suffering. But didn’t that mean there was still hope to save her?
“I’ll call in a security detail,” Daria said.
“No,” Callista said quickly. “We can mop this up.” Right, she wouldn’t want to give Tenebris another reason to think Splinters weren’t worth the trouble. Reaching down, she grabbed Griffin by his hair and dragged him to his cell. “Get the donor back onto the monitors.”
Daria moved swiftly, getting Bethany reconnected to her leads while Callista tossed Liv, Matt, and then me back into our cages.
