The presence of one of the fae warriors clearing his throat a breath away from their faces had the same effect as a bucket of icy water being dumped over them. Jumping apart, Sophie blushed furiously while Sylvain scowled at the offender.
The warrior cast his eyes down, although Sophie could swear she saw his lips twitch. “Apologies, your majesty, we tried to call you, but you were oblivious to everything but…” The warrior flicked his eyes towards Sophie who was blushing furiously.
“Don’t say a word of this to anyone,” he ordered them, purposefully ignoring their smirks as they obediently nodded. Regarding Sophie gently, he took her hand in his again, “Ma chérie,” the endearment came automatically, “my apologies. I’ve also never sent magick to non-fae before so had no idea that that would happen. I think I sent too much. Shall we try again?”
“You’re sure that’s what happened?” Sophie regarded him skeptically, “You sent too much magick?”
“Upon my honor,” Sylvain said gravely. He was glad he could maintain a façade of calm. Inside he was a shaking mess. It was more than combined magick that he'd felt. It was a bond - of the fae kind. He looked for the love that should accompany such a bond and couldn’t find it. The bond had undoubtedly been there though.
“You okay?” Sophie asked, interrupting his thoughts.
His eyes darted to his guards, then her. “Yes, I was surprised. That’s all.”
Sophie seriously doubted his nonchalance. She’d felt it too and feeling it made her heart ache all the more for the man. Fucking bonds and supernatural mates. Really, humans had it easy, they didn’t have any of this crap to contend with - just their own choices or stupidity - whatever shoe fit best.
Another warrior cleared his throat. This time it elicited chuckles and knowing grins all around. Not in the mood to be the butt of anyone’s joke, Sophie turned vamp red eyes on them. She wasn’t sure if it was because they perceived her as Sylvain’s girl or because she actually did scare them. Either way, she didn’t give a flying fuck at the moment. She was pissed off, wanted to find the girls, and then get the hell back to the plantation.
“Do it,” she barked at Sylvain.
She readied herself for the impact and was relieved when it didn’t hit her. The feeling of elation and invincibility was still there, but the scorching sexual need was gone. Ignoring her subconscious disappointment at that, she focused once again on finding the girls.
Sophie gasped. “Sylvain, can you see it?”
“Yes, ma chérie,” he responded, “I can."
When the group looked at the house, previously, all they had seen were odd and ends, pieces of junk and mile-high weeds surrounding the house. Now, those things were replaced by the visual of a basement with blackened windows. They approached the house, their feet walking through previously solid rubble as though it was little more than a misty figment of their imaginations.
Sophie stared at the ground in disbelief. “Wow. I hate admitting to being impressed by dark magick, but Ayden has some serious skills.”
Sylvain nodded his agreement, then ordered the warriors to do a perimeter check and look for openings. Sylvain rubbed a hand over his face; it had greyed progressively since he'd linked with her.
“We’ve found the witches,” Sophie touched a hand to his arm. “Pull your magick back in.”
“Not until we find the girls,” he stated firmly.
“You won’t be any use to us, if you keep this up,” Sophie argued. “At least let go once we find the entrance.”
“We don’t have time for this, Sophie,” Sylvain’s growled.
“Well then I don’t have to go in there,” she pointed at the house. “In fact, I’ll stand right here and wait until you give.”
Sylvain smirked, “You’d never do that. You’d never not save someone.”
“Really?” Sophie quirked a brow in challenge. “I can assure you, Sylvain that one of the lessons I learned from my time with you was to not always put others’ wishes first. You are of no use to me, the girls or your warriors in an unconscious state, so stop being such a fucking martyr.”
He grinned despite a keen need to shake some sense into her. Couldn’t she see he was trying to protect her? He had to admire her guts. “Okay,” he acquiesced.
The guards returned to let them know that there was no way into the basement from outside. Sylvain thanked them, and then looked at Sophie. “I’m hoping that if this was covered by an illusion spell that the entrance is in the house and covered by one also.”
“Why don’t you just blast it open?” Sophie asked, concerned by his pallor and consumed by the need to get the witches out.
“We don’t know exactly where they are in there and we might inadvertently hurt them if we blast anything. Or we could alert the vampires and if they have Ayden’s magick, they could leave with them. I know Anais said that the vamps are gone, but we can’t be sure as she got a second hand account from one of the girls. We still have to assume that it could be a trap.”
“Oh, of course,” Sophie responded feeling like an idiot and trailed behind him up the stairs.
The door to the basement was located off the kitchen where it usually was in most homes. Sophie shook her head at the irony. “If nothing, the past few incidences have taught me to not disregard what’s right in front of you.”
“Now that’s a lesson, I feel happy about,” Sylvain chirped, earning him a resounding thump against his arm.
“You promised,” Sophie reminded him.
Sylvain sighed then nodded, and pulled his magick from Sophie. Sophie felt the magick leave her, leaving a trail of cold as it moved on. It wasn’t uncomfortable or painful. It was like coming out of the warm sun to sit in the shade and have a slightly chilly breeze touch your skin. Sophie omitted an involuntary shudder as the last of it left her. She did a quick check and found that all was as it had been before they'd combined their magick.
“Do we need a spell or can you unlock it with your magick?” Sophie contemplated the ordinary white door.
Sylvain took a moment to contemplate the door, and then responded, “Done." As easy as that, the door to the basement swung open. It didn’t creak, and no monsters sprung out, it just opened.
“Oh,” exclaimed Sophie, who had been gearing up for some unknown surprise.
“It seems that Ayden was over-confident in his ability to shield the basement from intruders and didn’t strengthen the locking spell on the door - like humans that have security guards and laser beams in their yard, but leave the front door unlocked.”
“Or it’s a trap,” Sophie replied.
“Yes,” Sylvain nodded. “If it’s a trap, it would be better to wait for reinforcements. We can add to our power base if more witches and fae join us.”
“But we would have to wait,” Sophie stated.
“Yes,” Sylvain agreed. “And it will be dark soon, and then we won’t know if any vamps will rise or how many of them there will be.”
As Prince of Fae, Sylvain was powerful. His fae warriors were the type of men that made women feel safe and men feel insecure. They were just that dangerous. But, Ayden had already surprised them before and if it was a trap, they were really walking in blind. For all they knew, the basement could be a portal to a completely different realm. She knew that Sylvain hesitated because of her. He was still protecting her and while it should have pissed her off, it didn’t. She decided to not go there with him. The young witches were the priority at the moment, not her relationship with Sylvain. “So,” Sophie began, “our choices are go down there and deal with whatever it is and kick ass even if it is a trap, or wait it out, call for reinforcements that might be too late to save the girls, and put us more at risk should rising vamps make an appearance.”
“Yes,” Sylvain agreed. He had become uncharacteristically monosyllabic.
“Sylvain, cher,” Sophie’s eyes had become vamp red, her expression eager. “Let’s go kick some ass.”
Sylvain grinned in response, but
Sophie could have sworn she saw a flicker of concern cross his gorgeous face and she’d bet her next pair of Jimmy Choos that it was worry for her.
The stairs that greeted them, heading into the dark basement, were like any set of basement stairs you’ might find in an old farmhouse. It had a railing on one side and a wall on the other. The only distinguishing characteristic was the darkness. Sophie had only seen such blackness in the bayou night beyond the illumination offered by plantation homes. Fortunately, their supernatural abilities afforded them enhanced sight. Their uncanny stealth, too, was advantageous in their current situation - as by unspoken agreement they descended the stairs slowly, soundlessly. Sophie broke the silence first when her fingers brushed the wall next to her. Pain hit her and tore a cry from her throat. The wall had screamed at her when she touched it, breaking her shield. The many voices of young girls and women simultaneously flooded her mind. Pictures of them being thrown down the stairs, hitting their heads, limbs, and torsos against the wall and the wooden railing washed through her head. Sophie sunk down onto the stairs in a debilitating heap. Pain, fear, loss, and self-righteously defensive anger rendered her speechless as she relived the moments when the captives had entered this hell hole. It no longer resembled a typical basement staircase, but the entrance to a sinister house of horrors.
Just as suddenly as her fall, the basement broke out into screams, mingling with those in her head like a chaotic chorus of tortured souls. It was clear that they had found the captive witches. And courtesy of Sophie’s empath abilities, landed on her, making her feel like an elephant had just sat on her head. Though, struggling to stand up under the weight of witches’ past and present emotions, Sophie refused the hand Sylvain offered.
“No,” Sophie protested, her hair in disarray, eyes wild. “I can do this.”
Head darting back and forth between his men and Sophie, Sylvain watched grimly as Sophie struggled to gain control.
With her shield back in place and breathless from the exertion of her magick, Sophie shakily stood up and did a check of what was happening around her. The room was low, dark, and built for storage. Unlike other basements, it was what had been stored in it recently that had turned an innocent space into a psychopath’s wet dream. The basement smelled of feces, urine, and putrefied flesh. Mingling with the macabre bouquet was the smell of blood: fresh and stale.
Using their telepathic link, Sophie informed Sylvain, “There’s fresh blood.”
“You think the vamps have been here?” Sylvain asked.
“Could be,” Sophie replied as she followed him into the chaos. Bodies of dead witches carelessly littered the basement. The women who still lived were dirty, disheveled, and were desperately clawing and throwing themselves at the fae warriors.
“Why are they like this?” Sophie wondered aloud.
“Like animals?” offered Sylvain. “Treat people in that manner long enough and they start to believe it.”
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go help calm them down so we can get them to be witches again.”
Sophie walked straight towards the throng of witches just as Sylvain caught the wild shaking of one of the fae warrior’s heads. “Goddess!” exclaimed Sylvain, “they’re trying to eat us.” He remembered Conall’s many lectures to his coven of witches on taking care of themselves and on how the body was a vessel for their magick. Neglect the vessel and the body would turn on it.
“Sophie,” Sylvain intruded the horror that had captured her mind. “They’ve been eating each other. That’s why we smell fresh blood.”
Sophie squashed down the urge to throw up. “The witches must have tried to use magick to escape,” Sophie sent back to him. “They’re depleted.” And to a witch, Sophie thought ruefully, that was bad news. She turned back towards the insanity and continued her path, straight for the witches.
“Sophie wait!” he called out, but she was already in the midst of the throng. Cursing, he followed suit.
Sylvain couldn’t spot Sophie or the fae, who seemed to have sunken into the mob of prisoners gone wild. Pushed to the ground, hands grabbed clothes away from his body and teeth from starving mouths left bruises along his torso. He stared into the feral eyes of one of the women as her head descended towards his face, ready to take a bite to satiate her hunger.
“Use force!” Sylvain ordered, using his magick to project his voice. “Detain by any means necessary.”
No longer barred by the instruction to bring the captives back to the hollow unharmed, the fae warriors began to fight back. The cannibalistic witches were no match for the fae warriors and were forcibly bound within minutes. The beautiful features of the warriors were marred by the distaste of having to strong-arm the women, even though they each sported bruises, scratches, and were missing chunks of flesh.
He searched the room for Sophie. She was holding her own against a pack of witches. He ran to her aid before they turned her into dinner. He forgot that they were victims too. All he could see was the danger they presented to Sophie. He grabbed one, then two, tranquilized them with a shot of magick and threw them to the side. He worked with Sophie to restrain the rest. One of the witches wiggled free from Sophie’s grasp and threw herself at her. Sylvain saw Sophie go down. The smell of vampire blood seemed to spark a glimmer of life within the tranquilized witches and they began to move. They began to move towards Sophie, dragging their bodies on the ground by their arms. They had one goal in mind – eating Sophie.
Sophie must have been injured, but recovered quickly enough to throw the witch off of her and began, again, helping Sylvain to bind the rest. The witches were pitiful, growling, and whining for food. Sylvain felt a lump form in his throat. No being deserved to be reduced to this. He swore to do what he could to either bring them back to humanity or kill them humanely if they could not be saved.
Once the last witch was bound, he scanned the basement for more and found it empty. Only then did he dare look at Sophie.
He stood a foot apart from her, running his eyes over her. “You’re hurt,” he said in concern.
Sophie shook her head, “No, I’m okay.” She lifted her shirt to show the scratch across her stomach. The healing powers of her vampire magick had already begun to heal it. “Within minutes there won’t be anything. I’ll be fine. I’m just a bit winded, but I’m otherwise unharmed.”
Sylvain resisted the urge to grab her, shake her, and kiss her all at once. “Good,” he nodded, relief sinking into his bones.
“Are you okay?” Sophie ventured.
“Yes,” Sylvain replied. Sophie noticed that he was back to his earlier monosyllabic replies. Sylvain turned to the warriors guarding the witches. “Let’s get them out of here and to the hollow.”
He offered Sophie a smile and a hand, “Let’s get out of here.”
Sophie smiled back and placed her hand in his. Maybe this would change things. Goddess knows they needed to take some time in order to talk things through.
“Not so fast,” an eerie voiced said from behind them.
Fuck, thought Sophie, the daylight was over, and the vampires had risen.
Sophie had a nanosecond to see the vampire’s face before his fist smashed into her cheek. Bone crunched and pain exploded on the side of her face, drawing a scream from her throat. Her head whipped first back, then forward when another blow met her. She’d had enough of the fucking abuse. Using the momentum from the vampire’s blow, she fell back, rolled, and grabbed the knife from the sheath strapped to her leg. She was ready for him when he charged her. She stayed on the ground, using her legs to dodge, and push past him on the outside of his legs. In the short moment, with his legs apart as he moved past her, she shoved her hand in between them and sliced the tendons above his heel. He immediately sagged to the ground. Adrenaline rushed through her propelling her to her feet. She flipped him around and with a deathly grip on the knife, staked him through the heart.
“Sophie, catch,” Sylvain, shouted. She saw him twirl an axe around in a circl
e. With the ease of centuries’ worth of experience, he effectively cut down the vamps that surrounded him. Then she watched as he tossed the axe to her. He’d already pulled the sword out of the sheath that was strapped to his back, when he called out, “take his head off. We can't be sure what these things are.”
Sophie glanced at the vamp. It was dead, but apparently, not dead enough for Sylvain. She shrugged and using her vampire strength, brought the axe down and watched its head roll away from its body.
The vampires surrounding Sylvain had caught onto the fact that she wasn’t a helpless female easily disposed of by one of them. She watched two leave the circle surrounding Sylvain and head towards her. She had a moment to appreciate the fae prince’s grace and strength as he wielded the sword and made the vampires dance around the blade. He was as menacing as he was beautiful.
Supernatural Seduction (Book 2 of the Coffin Girls Series) Page 19
