by Patti Larsen
Ameline jerked free of him. “Fool, weakling. Don’t you see? None of this matters.” She glared at me. “None of it. It’s just the first step, one small step that would have made my job easier. I don’t need you anymore.”
“What are you up to, Ameline?” I kept my tone light, knowing it would piss her off. “It seems like your little alliance here is falling apart. And the witches who supported you aren’t exactly up to your standards.”
She glared down at Darin who still groveled beside her. “Inferior,” she snarled before her face schooled back to blank ice. “But they don’t matter either. Not while I continue to gather those to me with the vision and foresight to use the power we were destined to wield.”
Blood magic. Had to be. My heart clenched as I stopped to take a breath.
“You’re creating a coven,” I said as the understanding of her real purpose dawned. “A blood coven.”
Ameline laughed then, harsh and grating, not her usual tinkle of pretty false joy. “Very good, Sydlynn,” she said. “I see I’ve underestimated you again. A pity. But yes, you’re correct. These,” she waved at Darin and the witches who waited for her orders, “are my first members. But I have more, don’t you see?” Madness tinted her eyes red as the blood magic she’d been using rose to the surface. “Many more, everywhere. The movement is growing. Soon I will be strong enough to take on the Council.”
“And after them?” I wanted to brush off the whole world domination thing, but she was just scary enough in that moment I really believed she would do it.
Ameline shrugged. “Things are about to change,” she said.
I had to stop her. And now that her vampire supporters seemed to be backing down, we had a better chance of doing so. Hopefully.
But attacking Ameline took a back seat when the door at the top of the basement stairs slammed open and Mia leaped down them, her magic propelling her forward while she shrieked like a woman possessed.
Right. At. Ameline.
***
Chapter Thirty Seven
I thought she might do it, succeed at killing Ameline, save me the trouble, but the moment Mia came close to her hated rival, red energy flared. My friend impacted the barrier, her lavender family magic zinging against the blood power, throwing her back toward me.
Toward us.
Sunny caught her, eased her to the ground, a little stunned, but unharmed. I was certain if she wasn’t a coven leader, if she didn’t have all the family magic at her disposal, Mia would be charcoal. Instead she staggered to her feet, eyes blazing with insanity.
“Give him BACK!”
For a moment I couldn’t believe what I’d heard. Him? Ameline was about to try to take over the world and Mia was focused on Rupe? Until I understood her state, the importance she’d placed on him, on the guy she knew as Blood, probably the first person she’d ever met who loved her and didn’t judge her or try to make her be someone she wasn’t. To Mia, Rupe was a lifeline, her reason for being.
Which meant we were in big trouble. Because from the look on his face, the way he rejected Mia with everything about him, told me as weak as she was, she was about to be crushed.
“I’m with the woman of my dreams,” Rupe said. “Strong, beautiful.” He looked up at Ameline with a smile and she smiled back. “Not some weak girl who doesn’t know who she is.” Rupe snorted, disdain clear on his face. “You really thought I could ever love you?”
Mia’s face crumpled and I was reaching for her, to hold her up, when her family magic flared around her, rage consuming her face so quickly I worried she’d finally shattered her mind.
“TRAITOR!” Something flickered behind Ameline’s right shoulder even as Mia dissolved into a shrieking, ineffectual mess.
I knew that flicker. Called it out with my magic until Alison was full form, floating behind my enemy.
More betrayal, then. Her eyes were still black, but from the unhappy twist to her mouth a part of the girl I knew still remained.
Ameline glanced over her shoulder at Alison before laughing at me. “Ah yes,” she said. “Your little echo.”
Now I knew who had been feeding Alison’s jealousy, who drove her to steal the vampire essence from me. The “she” Alison talked about. And I also knew now Ameline had known exactly where I was at all times, her spy following me everywhere.
The weight of that betrayal wasn’t as heavy as it could have been. Not while I still struggled with my guilt.
Charlotte grumbled next to me. “I still can’t smell her,” she said. “Why can’t I smell her?”
A very good question. “Yes, Ameline,” I said, “why is that? It’s been driving poor Charlotte here crazy not knowing. New perfume?”
Her answering smile was dry. “Simple,” she said, “I’m the furthest along the hybrid path. Maybe I was right before when I assumed you were stupid, Sydlynn.”
Feel her. The vampire inside me whispered, soft and subtle, but I heard her, loud and clear. And without warning, sent her toward Ameline, the vampire power penetrating the blood magic as though it didn’t exist.
Well now. Wasn’t that interesting? No more so than the feeling of Ameline, the coldness penetrating her expression and diving deep inside her.
Oh. My. Swearword.
“What have you done?” My words came out in a whisper as the vampire inside me stirred at last.
Ameline ran one hand down her own arm as if enjoying her own touch. “I’ve made myself perfect.”
Witch, yes. And vampire. The power all wound together inside her. But she didn’t have access to the essence I had. Instead, she’d stolen power from vampires and absorbed it into herself.
I could feel the energy devouring her, even as her witch magic healed her, forming a battling symbiosis, a never-ending war for her soul.
She’d mentioned making a meal of Rupe. She hadn’t meant eating his flesh.
No. She just wanted to drink his blood.
“The ways of the maji are diverse and complex,” Ameline hissed, white fire warring with red inside her eyes. “But they held themselves back, were creators of nothing. I am adapting myself to use what they could only fear to imagine. And this is just the beginning.”
I found myself shaking my head, horrified by what she was becoming. “This will kill you,” I said.
“I had wanted the virus you carry,” she went on as if I hadn’t spoken, “but these fools couldn’t deliver.”
Piotr scowled at her. “We’ve given you more than enough,” he said.
“I’ve taken what I deserve,” she snarled back. “And I’m not done yet.”
“Piotr,” Sunny said, voice quiet, “you must know now she’s mad. Yvette must be warned, this evil one destroyed.”
He hesitated, frown so deep it cast shadows in the creases of his face. “I shall consider it,” he said.
Ameline’s laugh was high-pitched. “Fools,” she said. “I’m stronger than you know. And growing more so by the day. You can’t stop me, not now.” She glared at me. “And when I kill you, Sydlynn, I will have that vampire power you carry inside you for my own.”
Never, she whispered in my head. I will destroy myself first.
Ameline jerked back on Rupe’s hair, pulling him closer. “And when I’m done with the vampires, I’ll go after the Sidhe next. Fill myself up with their magic until I am the queen of the earth itself.”
“And then Demonicon, I suppose.” The idea she could even consider taking on the entire demon plane was ludicrous.
Wasn’t it?
Ameline settled at last, though the madness never left her. “The power of the sorcerers will be my final conquest,” she said. “And then I will be unstoppable.”
Piotr didn’t seem as upset by her plans as I really thought he should have. And from the grim look on Sunny’s face, I knew she wasn’t holding her breath we might have allies in his blood clan.
“Now,” Ameline said, her power surging around her as she called up the red mingled with the white, a spinning co
lumn devouring the blue she siphoned from Darin and his witches, all of whom moaned and collapsed to the floor as she drained them, “we end this.”
I felt her shields reach out to block us off from the outside world. So it had been she who restored Darin’s shredded protections, she who warded the house. I had to be faster than her.
We definitely needed reinforcements.
And the first mind I thought of to reach for help was Quaid’s.
Though our connection was gone, I sent everything I had and it was more than enough. His momentary anger at me slamming into his mind vanished when I threw the picture of what I faced into his head and, just as Ameline’s wards sealed up and cut me off, I felt him running.
Toward me.
Cavalry called. Now all we had to do was survive until they arrived. Though I suddenly had doubts about any of our survival as Ameline spun and pointed at two young witches. Witches who died in a flood of blood from their torn out throats as two of the vampires showed their true loyalty and released the precious liquid she needed to feed her power.
***
Chapter Thirty Eight
I knew there was nothing I could do against so much blood magic, but no way was I giving up, not now, not ever.
My Sidhe power held her back as Ameline drew in the rush of magic suddenly available to her, flooding the basement with a mist of red stinging my eyes and skin and making my lungs ache. Shaylee cried out, tried to flee from the touch of the cloud as we all, my demon and Sidhe princess and I, realized what it was at the same moment—not just magic, but blood itself, infused with power and suspended and feeding Ameline with every single pinprick of it when it touched exposed skin or reached our lungs.
Which meant it was attacking everyone in the room. Yes, even the vampires themselves, Ameline’s so-called allies now crumpling with horrible cries, their skin seeming to weep red where the mist touched them. Piotr collapsed to the damp stone, one hand reaching for Sunny.
She, at least, wasn’t down for the count yet, thanks to my shielding, but I was weakening too fast, more and more of the mist reaching us, and I knew she only had seconds.
The door crashed open again, Uncle Frank and Liam storming their way downstairs. Liam’s Sidhe power bubbled outward, covering him and the two vampires as Sunny fell to her knees, both hands clutching her damaged face. He was just foreign enough, I could only guess, Ameline without access yet to Sidhe power, that Liam was able to hold off the mist while Uncle Frank sheltered Sunny. But I could also see the strain on his face and knew his barrier of protection was stretched to its limit.
Which meant Charlotte, Mia and I were on our own. Not that I expected much help from the damaged leader of the Dumont coven, not while she sat on the floor, sobbing and muttering to herself.
Shaylee’s power finally collapsed, her magic tied too closely to mine, making her vulnerable, leaving bigger gaps in my shields, gaps my demon struggled to fill, her amber power burning away some of the mist. It wasn’t until she howled her fury I felt not only the burn and sting of the mist, but the pull of it as well.
Ameline was feeding on me.
The bitch.
And there was nothing I could do to stop her. Not while my demon whimpered and did her best, my witch magic spiraling around me, the family power writhing in its own agony as Ameline pulled more and more free, feeding not only herself, but the very cloud of blood until I could barely see through it, just enough I knew she stood above me now, the outline of her vague, but her burning eyes gazing down on me as though she owned me.
“And now, Sydlynn Hayle,” she said in a voice that vibrated with so much power I knew I was done for, “I shall take what is mine, both the Dumont family magic and your own Hayle power, and you and the life forces inside you will feed me, grant me their unique magicks, until you die.”
She crouched next to me, fingers running through the cloud of blood, clearing a path through it so I could see her, smearing it over her lips, licking her fingers until her mouth dripped crimson.
Weak, unable to counter her, feeling Gram beating against the connection between us, blocked off by the power of Ameline’s blood magic, I refused to quit even though the world began to darken around the edges as unconsciousness threatened.
Until the vampire inside me roared to life with a surge of power. ENOUGH!
***
Chapter Thirty Nine
Ameline must have seen or felt the essence of the vampire wake inside me, because the draw on my power ended abruptly as her eyes flew very wide, mouth hanging open.
I have to admit I was more than a little shocked myself to find myself standing suddenly over her, even more that I didn’t have anything to do with the movements of my body. I’d had my demon take me over before, but this was different.
Very, very different.
“Listen to me, witch child,” the vampire said, reaching out with my hand to touch Ameline’s forehead. The moment she did, the mist collapsed, pattering to the floor in a rain of blood, soaking everything. But at least I could breathe.
Ameline rocked back on her heels, face slack as the vampire went on.
“What you are creating, what you seek and desire, can never be. The maji knew it. I was formed in an effort to do what you are attempting. They failed. The greatest powers of their kind failed.” She lashed out with white magic, knocking Ameline on her butt in the blood with a wet smack. “What makes you think you can do better?”
Ameline scrambled to her feet, a great effort on the slippery floor. But the vampire let her rise, watched her with a mix of anger and cold detachment, while I struggled to regain the power stolen from me.
But Ameline was still powerful, beyond me, and I could do nothing about it.
The vampire could.
I felt it, the draw of magic returning to me, the familiar feel I remembered from the night Ameline and the Dumont brothers attacked me, when the vampire essence stole her power and almost crippled her. This time the pull was much more powerful. Free of her prison, the vampire inside me had free rein. And she didn’t hesitate to return what belonged to me.
Ameline wailed, back pedaled, her hands flapping in front of her as though that could sever the touch of the vampire. But she didn’t need to touch my enemy, the initial contact was more than enough. I could almost see a huge rope stretching between us, like a power cable, feeding back from Ameline and into me.
Into us. Shaylee surged to full power, my demon roaring her joy and defiance while the vampire’s displeasure drove Ameline back and back until she stood among the ruin of her new coven.
But the vampire wasn’t done. She sent all the power out of Ameline, back into those she’d stolen from. The undead ones Ameline recruited quickly recovered, as did Darin and his witches, now shaking their heads and looking around as though she’d held them thrall.
Which she probably had. Even Simon slumped, head falling forward as if he’d been released.
Only then did I notice Jean Marc and Kristophe cowering in the corner, hidden all this time by vampires and other witches. They the vampire essence left empty.
Instead, she funneled their power to me. I resisted at first, the taint of their lavender magic almost too much. But once it reached me it purified, melding with the Hayle family magic until it was clean again.
“Your evil will not be allowed to continue.” The vampire wasn’t done. Ameline was now stripped again, to her core, but the vampire didn’t stop. I watched the girl’s face begin to whither and age, her hands shrinking and becoming lined and hollow. Ameline screamed as she touched her face, eyes full of terror and the most hate I’d ever seen.
I reached out to join the vampire in containing her. This had to end. But before I could complete the ward around her, Ameline spun, jerking a knife from her pocket, driving the blade into Darin’s neck.
Fresh blood magic surged outward, so powerful even the vampire essence was knocked backward. Ameline’s features were restored in a flash, but the hate remained as she shudd
ered and vanished in a cloud of red fire.
“My love!” Rupe’s wail drove a blade of its own through me. “Don’t leave me!”
There was no protecting him when the red power appeared again and carried him off.
“No!” Mia was finally aware, it seemed, falling forward, one hand in the blood, the other reaching for the vanished Rupe. She then collapsed, passed out, eyelids fluttering and I knew she’d never be the same.
The house upstairs was suddenly alive with thudding footsteps, shouting, witch magic. Distracted, I glanced away and back again, seeing Liam slump as he released the shield, catching one last flicker from a basement full of frightened witches and vampires.
To see Alison staring at her hands. Covered in blood. Lift them to her mouth.
Taste it.
Meet my gaze with her blacked out eyes. And laugh as her body flooded with life.
Only to disappear.
Oh crap.
That can’t be good. I spoke directly to the essence. She sighed, sinking back inside me and returning to her quiet, calm state.
No, she agreed. Though now I know I have chosen well, Sydlynn Hayle. In you.
There was that, at least.
A wall of Enforcers pounded their way down toward us, Quaid among them. He met my eyes, his full of fear for me. I raised my weary hand and saluted him.
“Still think I went looking for trouble?”
***
Chapter Forty
Mom’s face told me everything I needed to know. Sure, she’d been all official and supportive when the Enforcers were around, when the Council demanded an emergency meeting and we were presented as heroes, my friends and me. But now, hours later, in the wee dawn of an approaching new day with no one around to see it, she didn’t look happy.
Nope. Not happy at all.
