Iram lifted his head again. Stars burst behind his eyes as his skull slammed to the floor. He got hold of the larger man’s head. Pressed his thumbs to his eyes.
Something rammed into Iram, throwing him clear of Duncan. Whatever it was got his hand, too. He cupped it close, glancing down. The whole back of his hand had been burned, the skin red and blistering. One of the witches must’ve blasted Iram. He glanced at the shadowy area behind him where Iram had disappeared, but nothing moved.
The whole room had erupted into a kill-or-be-killed brawl. Kat mouthed, “Sorry,” before a Council member tackled her. Leopold still stood against the wall, still watching.
A growl came from the shadows behind him.
Shit.
He swung around as massive black paws swiped at him, knocking him back to the ground. A large black bear lumbered closer.
Duncan back-peddled across the floor, putting distance between him and Iram. His mind raced through his kindred, searching for the right fit.
Ah, yes. White fur engulfed him as he took on the form of a polar bear.
Iram roared.
Duncan charged. Both reared on their hind legs, paws slashing, claws tearing. They toppled on their sides, each vying for a dominant position.
Iram gained the top position, his claws sinking into Duncan’s shoulder.
But he outweighed Iram in this form. He was taller, stronger and far more determined. He shook off Iram and attacked again, this time settling his claws into his neck and ripping flesh and fur.
The large wound forced Iram to shift back to daemon form. Duncan swiped again with one of his massive paws, leaving deep lacerations across Iram’s chest. One last blow proved too much. Iram dissolved to ash.
He shifted back into his true form in time to see Leo squeeze through a hole that had been blown into the wall.
Fucking coven.
*****
Mated daemons had always been the bane of Leopold’s existence. They’d do anything, even kill themselves, trying to protect the other. The Watchers had tricked him into sending the Original’s mate to her. And now the Watcher inside Crowley had insisted that he be here in his true form. The bastard had known Sinclair would come for his mate. Brilliant.
Leopold hid in the shadows, waiting for Duncan. The big dunce wouldn’t stop until he’d found his mate and he had no chance at taking Duncan on himself. Not one-on-one.
Misha, another Council member, darted past with the red-headed witch in close pursuit.
Leopold unleashed his talent on the witch, letting the tendrils of his talent settle around her like a mantle, searching for her desire. Most desired fame, love, wealth, or sex. They were easy illusions to project. The witch’s desire took shape into a tall, muscled male. Sandy-blond curly hair formed over a youthful face.
The doppelgänger turned and Leopold stepped back, shaking his head as he peered into Julius Crowley’s face.
Impossible.
His mind raced. What had they called the witch? Her name was Kat; Katherine? Was she Katherine the Great?
After all these years the two of them were still causing problems and trying to oust him. He met the-Crowley-double’s gaze. “Transform her. Then destroy her.” It was the only way to ensure she never reincarnated again.
Now for Duncan, the simple-minded fool. Should he project Trina’s image? Make him think he’d found her? No. Mated or not, he knew how to twist Sinclair into knots. He needed him rattled. Distracted.
*****
Trina followed Adia down another corridor. The place was like a damned maze. Old. Dark. Winding. She glanced into each room as they passed, half-expecting something to jump out.
“We’re almost there, Gasan.”
“Wait.” She backed up a couple paces. Surely, she hadn’t seen what she thought she’d seen.
There. Kat was pinned up against the wall by a male. His mouth on her neck. A blade in his hand.
She ran straight into the room. “Get off her!” She ripped him away from Kat and jumped on him. Slammed her fist down onto his face.
Adia shouted, “Look out!”
She glanced up as Adia rammed a wrought-iron candleholder down on his head with enough force to split his skull. She did it again. And again. And—
“Stop!” Her stomach rolled as she crawled off him. His skull was crushed. “That’s him. Crowley.” After everything they’d gone through . . . that was it? He was dead?
Adia threw the candlestick to the floor. “Don’t think so. Leopold can project his enemy’s deepest desires in order to distract them.”
“What?”
“It’s his talent.” Adia pointed at Crowley. “That thing didn’t fight us. Didn’t know it should. It was created for one purpose.” She motioned behind her. “To distract her.”
Kat was slumped on the floor, her neck splayed wide, blood pooling between her breasts.
“Kat!” She ran over, knelt down and covered her neck with her hand. “Will she transform?”
“If she doesn’t bleed out first.” Adia pressed her lips into a thin line, glanced toward the door. “Stay here. I’ll find blood.”
*****
Duncan entered the corridor. Where had the bloody bastard run off to?
Three-quarters of the way down the hall a little lad came into view. A wall sconce flickered, lighting his mop of blond hair.
The lad turned his direction. Smiled. Waved. Disappeared through a door.
Recognition slammed through him. “Charlie?” He meant to call out the question, but his name came out a broken whisper.
Spurned into motion by the emptiness of the hallway, he ran to the door he’d seen the lad go in. He slowed as he neared, fearing the harshness of disappointment but needing to know. Taking a steadying breath, he entered the room.
The little boy grinned. “Hi, Papa.”
Charlie. Duncan fell to his knees.
Crystal-blue eyes stared back above a pert nose sprinkled with fairy kisses. His full mouth curved up into a welcoming smile.
“Is that you?” He half expected his hand to go right through the lad, but baby-fine silky hair greeted him. “How?”
“Been waiting, Papa.”
The child propelled himself toward Duncan, wrapping his chubby limbs around him. He inhaled but Charlie no longer smelled of dirt and puppies. He’d always loved that about Charlie—that he smelled of the outdoors.
Shaking himself from his stupor, he engulfed his son in a bear hug. He kept touching him, stroking his soft hair and reassuring himself Charlie was indeed a physical being.
His son. All this time Charlie had been here? Unchanged? He didn’t have a heartbeat. But he didn’t sound older. If he’d been around all this time, wouldn’t he have aged on the inside like Harry?
And how? He’d seen their flat. The blood smeared over the walls as if someone had tried painting the place in it. As soon as he’d opened the door, the scent of decay had rolled over him, twisting his stomach. Flies had clung to the walls, bred in the festering remains of an uneaten dinner still sitting out on the table. He’d never questioned if they’d survived.
But his boy was here. Holding him. “Where you been, Papa?”
“I’m sorry, Charlie. I didn’t know. Let me look at ya.” He pulled away, touched the lad’s chubby cheeks. Ran his hands down his little arms. He could barely see him. Everything blurred. A shaky laugh burst from him and he wiped the tears from his eyes. “My God, I can’t believe this.”
The lad peered over Duncan’s shoulder. “Look, Mummy.”
Every muscle in his body tensed. Gertie? He supposed if Charlie had survived, she could’ve have, too.
He gathered his son close and rose to his feet. He wouldn’t allow her to belittle him in front of the lad. Not anymore.
*****
Trina had sat there with Kat for so long, she started to doubt whether Adia would return. She had both hands covering the wound in Kat’s neck, but she lay too still. Too quiet. She couldn’t feel a pulse anymore,
but if she was transforming, she wouldn’t have a heart anymore, right? She wouldn’t be like her and Lilith. She’d be a true vampire. She’d lose her Magic over time and gain the same talent that had been used to transform her.
Footsteps ran down the hall toward them and she tensed.
Adia burst into the room, four bags of blood clutched in her arms. She motioned “Come here” as she came closer. “There’s fighting. The Council and others. We should try to get farther away before she wakes.”
Duncan.
Adia helped her get Kat up and together they carried her down the hall.
“Are the doors still blocked?”
“Yes.” Adia stumbled. Righted herself. “Sorry. I will take us to the control room. We can barricade ourselves inside, if need be.”
That sounded like a good plan. The noise of battle drew closer. Shouting. Fists pounding skin. Furniture crashing and skidding across the floors.
“Here. This is it.”
The door stood open. They went inside.
Adia pointed to the far wall where keys of various sizes and shapes hung from a pegboard. They took two more steps in and froze as a big, blond male sitting at the controls came into view, his fingers flying over the keys as he watched various monitors.
“Harry?”
“Hey, Lopez.” His head lifted and he started to smile, but when his gaze found them, his whole body stiffened. “You.”
George bristled at the change in his mood.
Adia’s brows came together. “Do I know you?”
“You’re my originator.”
“Impossible.” She laughed. “I have specific tastes and while handsome, you don’t qualify.”
“I know your tastes, Adia.” His voice shook. He stood. “Every twisted nuance. I can assure you I did fit your requirements.”
Her nostrils flared. “Harry?”
Trina’s gaze darted between the two of them, dread souring her stomach. “You know each other.”
He glanced at his watch, pulled his blade, and when he lifted his face again, his lips had curled into an ugly sneer. His eyes blazed. “You’re never hurting anyone again. Tonight, you’re ash.”
Adia let go of Kat, sending Trina toppling to the ground from the other woman’s weight. Adia bolted out the door. Harry leapt over her and Kat and followed.
No, no, no! She’d trusted that bitch! She started to get up, but she couldn’t leave Kat, not when she could wake up at any moment. She needed Duncan. She needed her damned Magic.
Her gaze locked onto the pegboard of neatly labeled keys. She scanned over the board, touching this one and that one. Found a set that said: collars. Yes!
She bowed her head, reaching around to fit it to the lock. The collar came off.
Duncan was here somewhere. She closed her eyes and opened her mind. Let her consciousness follow the thread that linked her to Duncan. And as she did so, she discovered it was a familiar path. One she’d traveled before. One she almost knew by heart.
The connection wasn’t the best. She couldn’t quite make out his thoughts, but she saw what he was seeing.
A sweet little toe-head with bright blue eyes. And a woman. A beautiful one.
*****
“Gertie.” She was still as beautiful as ever. Too beautiful, maybe. She had the perfect face of one of those porcelain dolls Trina had talked about earlier. Each of her features symmetrical and dainty, which gave her a fragile, untouchable aura.
She smiled.
His eyes narrowed. He didn’t think her lips could curve in that direction.
“Duncan, my love, I’ve missed you.” She ran over and embraced him.
It was as though someone dumped a bucket of ice water on him.
None of this was real.
She wasn’t Gertie. Not even the Gertie from the night they first met. Gertie wasn’t sweet. She didn’t smile. She wouldn’t miss him. She’d never called him “My love.”
His eyes closed against the heartbreaking truth. This lad wasn’t Charlie.
It was a lie.
His arms tightened around the boy as if by sheer will he might make Charlie real. Maybe he should take what he could have. For a time, he stood frozen, thinking maybe this was enough.
Duncan, they’re not real. Leopold is a projector.
Trina. He closed his eyes for a moment and he felt his mate as if she stood right here with him.
Don’t trust them, baby. He’s coming for you.
He eased his grip on Charlie and instead held his knife a little tighter.
Duncan sucked in a much needed breath and forced a smile. “Step back, Gertie. Let me see ya, love.”
She’s not real!
Would she hear him if he thought back to her? I know, but I need him to show himself.
Gertie obeyed without question. Smiling.
He eyed the happy Gertie doppelgänger and gave the Charlie doppelgänger a squeeze before setting him down.
A boot scraped the stone floor behind him.
Duncan turned to find Leo sneaking up on him, knife in hand. “You miscalculated, Leo.”
“How so?”
Don’t turn your back on those two!
He backed away, trying to keep Leopold and the doppelgängers in sight.
“Gertie was a real bitch.” He nodded to the doppelgänger. “Always been convinced her face would shatter if her lips ever stretched into a smile.”
Charlie edged over and curved his arm around Duncan’s thigh, just like the real Charlie used to do. Jesus, Leopold was a bastard.
“She’s improved.” Leopold motioned to Gertie. “How’s that bad? You can have it all.”
“I already do.”
“Papa?” Jesus, the Charlie doppelgänger sounded so much like his son it made his chest seize.
You have to hurry, Dunc. Harry took off and I can’t leave Kat. She’s hurt.
Duncan forced himself to ignore the lad hanging onto his leg.
“You’re sure it’s not him?” Leopold’s gaze flicked to Charlie.
He damned near stopped breathing.
Leo shrugged. “Stab him and find out.” If a doppelgänger he wouldn’t fall to ash. But if he was real . . . .
Duncan’s gaze returned to the lad who looked so much like Charlie, then back to Leopold’s smug face.
Cold rage boiled through him. Never had he felt such unconditional animosity toward another being. “How ’bout I destroy you, and we’ll see if he sticks around.”
Out the corner of his eye, Duncan caught furtive movement from Gertie. He glanced over as she threw a blade in his direction.
I’ve got you, baby.
His hand lifted. Heat wound through his arm to his hand, like electricity shooting through him.
The knife changed course, crashing into a large, oval scrying mirror, shattering it. Glass still tinkled to the floor when he regained control and hurled his knife.
The blade went through a bit of flesh in her arm, pinning her to the wall.
Leopold gasped. “How?”
A little warning next time, Duchess? He flexed his fingers, trying to rid himself of the residual tingling. “How did you know what they looked like?”
Leopold didn’t reply, his gaze shifting between the knife in Gertie’s arm and the knife lying amid the broken glass.
The dumb shite would never figure it out.
He repeated his question.
“Had to be done.” Leopold’s gaze jerked to his. “Your loyalty would’ve been compromised. They’d have always come first.”
“That’s why you killed them?” Out of every explanation he’d imagined, this wasn’t anywhere on the list. “You said if I became a Guardian, you’d take care of them.”
“And I did. I went to that stinking hovel of yours and gave your boy his deepest desire—his father. Little lad didn’t even fight when my projection put its blade to his throat.”
Oh, God. He didn’t just kill them. Leopold projected him and killed them. No wonder everyone in his ol
d neighborhood thought he’d done it.
“Did you think you’d go to work every night and come home in the morning to play Daddy? You always were stupid.”
Duncan charged, knocking Leopold to the floor. He cocked his arm back and punched him. Again. Again. The skin on his knuckles split, leaving his hand throbbing.
The skin on Leo’s face split. Leo thrashed against him with weak, unpracticed blows.
“You’re a fucking cunt.” He raised his fist.
White hot fire lanced into Duncan’s back. Too late, he remembered Charlie.
He hadn’t been watching the lad. He scrambled up and turned.
Charlie stood there with wide, innocent eyes; the look of a youth caught with his hand in the cookie jar. His hands were empty but deep, midnight lacerations streaked his palms. Duncan’s attention flashed to Gertie still pinned to the wall with his knife, to the broken shards of mirror on the floor. Christ, if the lad had picked up the blade, Duncan would’ve been ash.
Leo scrambled to his feet. Disappeared through the door.
Duncan dove for Leopold’s blade. Before he could pursue, Leopold reappeared, arm lifted over his shoulder, his fingertips gripping the blade of a Guardian knife.
His arm cocked back even as Duncan did the same with Leo’s blade. They released their weapons at the same time.
Duncan’s hand stayed extended in front of him and that same sense of electricity coursed down his arms.
Leo’s blade went wide.
Duncan’s didn’t.
He got one last glimpse of Charlie before the boy dissolved into ash.
Go get your son, Dunc. He needs you. I need you.
*****
Images flashed through Duncan’s mind as he ran from the room. He paused in the hallway, trying to get his bearings—where he was, compared to where he needed to be.
He saw a woman from behind bars, dark skin, pale-brown eyes. She’d tricked Trina, made her think they were on the same side. They helped each other escape but when they’d reached the control room . . . .
Harry flashed in his vision. Those blue eyes widening. Narrowing. His whole face twisted into something ugly and vengeful.
The Shadow: The Original's Trilogy Page 31
