“Of course.”
“And I want to talk to him in private.”
“I don’t see any reason why your requests should be denied. After all, Elliot is in no condition to cause me worry.” I swallowed and bit the inside of my cheek to keep from saying something she’d make me regret.
Dionysia curled her finger in a come here motion and led me down a hall. The cranberry wallpaper was alight with the flames of at least a dozen candelabra. She made no attempt at small chat and for that I was grateful. I had to think.
How the hell am I going to get out of here?
The bite on my neck throbbed with each step I took and the claw marks Fawne had left on my throat were getting itchy. If I turned into a werewolf I was going to roast and toast her. My attention returned to the vampire in front of me and the impossible situation I was in made me want to release all my built up frustration. If I could just use my magic on Dionysia, but the hallway twisted and turned until I didn’t know which way I’d come.
I’ve got to be the best girlfriend of all time.
“Mr. Ambrose is inside being…entertained by and old friend.”
Not wanting her to elaborate on just what kind of entertainment vamps would go for, I turned the knob. I walked right into a six vampires. Any uncertainty that they could be something else disappeared when the three closest to the doorway smiled. All eyes were riveted to my face, but whether they looked with hunger, amusement, or annoyance, I couldn’t tell.
“Uh, hi,” I said.
The brunette girl closest to me tilted her head like a curious cat. I guess that made me the canary.
“Hello. I’m Gretchen” she said, breaking up her little meeting when she took a step towards me, her hand extended. The very human gesture lost its effect when I saw Elliot sprawled at her feet.
The suit jacket he always wore was gone, his dress shirt torn open to reveal deep cuts and burn marks on his chest. His lip was bloodied and split, his eyes swollen and violet purple.
“I thought the burns were apropos,” Gretchen said. “After all, he fell for a fireshifter.” I dug my nails into my palms that were itching to fry her.
“If you like burns so much, I could give you some,” I said.
“Don’t get snotty with me, little girl. He only likes you because he thinks you can free him from his servitude to his master. He has girls coming after him for centuries, but ignores them all. Then the most powerful witch to come along in an era shows up and he’s, all of the sudden, Mr. Romantic.” Something about her struck me, she sounded awfully bitter.
“Jealous?” I asked. She made a move for me, but Dionysia grabbed her by the neck and threw her through the doorway.
“Out, all of you,” Dionysia ordered. The five remaining vampires filed out of the room one of them winking at me on his way out the door. “Ascher you have three minutes. Savian will come to get you for the ceremony when it’s time.” I didn’t ask what ceremony she was talking about because I didn’t plan to be here when Savian showed.
I waited until Dionysia closed the door and Elliot and I were alone. When I was sure we were, I slipped the powder compact out of my back pocket and flipped it open, revealing a small mirror.
“Elliot?” He strained to sit up, his eyes squinted shut with the blood. Gently slapping the sides of his face made him focus on me and he tried to smile.
“Elizabeth?” I smoothed his hair back from his forehead, running my fingers through his curls.
“No, it’s Ascher. Elliot, I’m going to get us out of here.” Pulling the small compact mirror out of my back pocket, I dumped communion wafers on a small side table and held the mirror so that Elliot could see it.
“I wouldn’t recommend angering Dionysia. She can be quite a bloodsucker.” I crouched in front of Elliot, putting as much of him behind me as I could. Savian smiled at me, a beast and his prey.
“Elizabeth, I’ve always loved you. Always,” Elliot said.
“Shhh, Elliot. Shhh.”
“He’s not talking to you,” Savian said. “He’s talking to Elizabeth, his long-lost love. You’re the very image of her. If you were born in a different time, you could have been twin sisters.” When I didn’t reply Savian continued. “And since we’re on the topic of sisters, tell me…is Gemma very serious with this Matthew?” Savian said his name like it was something distasteful.
“Yes. They’re getting married in June.” I turned my back to Savian. “Elliot, wake up. We have to go.”
“Because I really believe she could do much better, be with a much more powerful being.”
“What? Like you?” Savian held his arms out in an elegant shrug.
“Perhaps.”
“Elizabeth?” I clenched my jaw.
“Fine, whatever, Elliot. I’m Elizabeth. We have to get out of here, quick.” I showed him the mirror and he touched it, creating a portal that spun out of the small circle and formed a swirling mist in front of us. Savian made a move towards us and I held my hand up, ready to launch a fireball. He held his hands in surrender.
“Calm yourself. I’ve decided to allow for your escape as long as you promise to give Gemma something for me.” He held out a small velvet-wrapped package.
“Fine, whatever. Throw it here.” Savian tossed it to me.
“It’s an enchanted necklace. It will allow her to better control when she shape-shifts and do so more quickly when need be.”
“And you’re just going to let us go?” I asked. Savian shrugged again. Elliot was grasping the table, pulling himself to his feet on wobbly legs. He wrapped his arms around me and moved towards the portal.
“Send Gemma my regards.”
“She sends hers,” I said, giving him a one-fingered salute. The door behind him banged open and I had just enough time to see Dionysia back-hand him across the room when the portal began to close. “Faster, Elliot. Close it! She’s coming!” Dionysia leapt towards the portal as Elliot and I began to spin away, being carried wherever it was it would take us.
Chapter Thirty Eight
GEMMA
I scented the air, my tongue curling as I yawned at my lack of things to chase. I could almost taste Ascher’s scent on the air and someone else’s, a boy’s. Stretching my back, I lay down in the haze. I would only sleep for a moment. I just needed one good hour of…
“Oh my God! Elliot,” Ascher’s voice was faint, but the panic in it was unmistakable. And then I scented something that had me running at a lope, fresh blood.
Chapter Thirty Nine
ASCHER
“Foolish servant!” Dionysia had somehow followed us into Daray’s time realm and she was super-pissed. Elliot dove away from me, coming up twenty feet away, and waving his arms in the air like one of those goofy things you see at car dealerships.
“She already went home, Di. I suggest you do the same,” Elliot said.
“I should have had Savian kill you with the others, but I convinced him of the novelty of your little trick. Too bad your time-shifter capabilities can’t help you now.” I didn’t see Dionysia move, the only thing I saw was a blur of movement and then Elliot was gone, having fallen. I twisted my position until I was flat on my belly and felt something sharp dig into my hip. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the wooden stake Gemma had given me and promised myself I’d give her a big kiss if I got out of here. Rising from the fog, I gripped the stake in my hand like that white-faced guy from Halloween who never talks, but always stabs, and crossed my fingers that all that time I’d spent watching Buffy reruns was about to pay off. Elliot had Dionysia by the neck and was shaking her like a rag-doll. She kicked him in the chest in a nice roundhouse move and barred her fangs at him.
“You’ll die…” Dionysia said. I ran at her, the stake held tightly in my grip. She spun around to ward off my attack which gave me better access to her chest. I managed to stab her in the chest, but the stake buried itself only halfway into her heart. I wished I could’ve said something cool or quippy, but I only managed a tiny whimpe
r. Elliot kicked the stake farther into her torso before wrapping his arm around me. He lifted up his right hand, his forehead creasing in concentration.
“What are you doing?” A spiral appeared before us, black and sprinkled with silver specks. It was as if he’d opened up a portal into outer space.
“Sending her somewhere far away. It won’t hold her forever, but it’ll keep her imprisoned for awhile. I have to go with…”
“What!”
“I need to keep her there for as long as possible. She’s a member of the House of the Blackthorne. You can’t kill them as easily as the others.”
“But…how long will you be gone?”
“I don’t know for certain. I…I love you so much, Ascher.” The tears that had been on the verge of falling were now leaving warm, salty trails down my cheeks.
I tried to speak, but I was crying so hard I could barely breathe.
Why? Why did he have to leave?
Why did one of the few good things in my life have to go away. It had always been like this, whether it was with friends, pets, whatever. They all eventually went away.
Elliot tilted my chin and kissed me on the lips. When I opened my eyes, he was gone. I fell to my knees, sobbing and covered my face with my hands. I’d only been alone for a moment when I felt something spiky and rough wipe across my cheeks. Gasping for air, I recoiled and let out a little scream, but it was only Gemma. She rubbed herself along my side, stopping in front of me to put her big paws on my knees before head-butting me again. The absurdity of it made the tears stop and then I was smiling, only the small tremors and shudders any indication that the boy I was in love with had just left me and might never come back.
***
It took a long time to find the filmy portal that led to my bedroom. When we finally found it, Gemma shifted back into human form and was in dire need of some pajamas. She stepped through the mirror first, plucking my robe from the peg on the back of my bedroom door and tying it in a hurry. She helped me step out of the mirror, because I was tipsy for some reason. I’d been feeling weird. Well, weird for a girl who could shoot fire out of her palms.
“Promise you won’t freak if I tell you something?” The expression on her face gave me pause.
“Oh God, Gemma. What’d you do?”
“Nothing, I just performed a little spell to increase your powers and…”
“You what!” Flames shot out of my palms and towards the mirror, blasting it into pieces. My attention went to the huge scorch marks on the carpet. “What’d you do to my room?” My bedroom door was thrown open and mom stood in the doorway, breathing hard and clutching a baseball bat in her hands.
“Are you okay? What was that noise?”
“Yeah, we’re fine,” Gemma said.
“Oh no! Your Grandma’s mirror! What happened to it?”
“It broke.” Mom sniffed the air and looked at us, her eyes narrowing.
“Wait a minute. I think I know what’s going on here. You girls haven’t been smoking in here, have you?” Gemma coughed back a laugh.
“No, Mom. It’s just Ascher. Her fingers must still be smoking. She’s a fireshifter you know?”
“Gemma!”
“Yep, she just got back from the Mirror-zone where she’s been secretly visiting her boyfriend. And I’ve been moonlighting as a vampire slayer…”
“And I got bit by a werewolf tonight and I have to call up the witches and let them know I still have no idea what the Prince of the Warlocks is up to,” I added. Mom took a deep breath.
“Ask a silly question…” she said. “Don’t touch the glass. I’ll go get the kitchen gloves and the vacuum. When we were sure she was out of hearing range, we fell back on my bed, laughing hard.
“What was that part about being bit by a werewolf?”
“Yeah, about that. We may need to invest in a silver muzzle before the next full moon.”
EPILOGUE
“Prince Valerian, the girl has been bitten by a werewolf. Our sources tell us it was the Alpha’s son.”
“Will she turn?” Daray asked, the amethyst color of his irises flaming with reigned in rage.
“I’m not certain.”
“And what of the Elliot and Dionysia?”
“They haven’t been seen since the girl’s escape.”
“I see.”
“What’ll you have me do, sire?”
“Stay close to girl, guard her, but don’t interfere unless she’s in trouble. It’s very important you remain hidden. We can’t afford another incident like that at the club.”
“Yes, sire.” The boy turned to leave.
“Chase?”
“Yes sire?”
“If you ever kiss my future bride again, I will shift every power you’ve ever collected from you, and use them to destroy you.”
“Yes sire.” Chase smiled as he stepped out of the room and shut the door behind him. What the prince didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
Shadowshifter Page 10
