Lightbringer (Silverlight Book 4)

by Laken Cane

  I placed the wand in her lap and glanced at Al, but I didn’t ask him if she was okay—obviously she was not.

  Her eyes were unfocused, her nose was bleeding copiously, and the fingers of her right hand—her wand-holding hand—were bent at odd angles.

  The place was filling up with supernaturals and the ground was being trampled and muddied, but no one cared. There was no crime scene to preserve, no evidence to gather, no chain of command to worry over.

  At least, that was what everyone thought until the new police captain—Wendy Knight—showed up and started shouting orders.

  Apparently, she believed an investigation would be opened, and that there was a chance the executioners would be prosecuted for what they’d done.

  That was what she said. She stood with Crawford at her side and yelled those things, as if they might somehow be believed, as if the shattered supernaturals might somehow care.

  She had a lot of good intentions, and someday, perhaps, she’d make some changes.

  I believed she would.

  But that night, there was simply fear, violence, and the suffering of nonhumans.

  “Trinity?”

  I turned to find a short, dark-haired woman behind me, her hands clasped at her throat, her face so bloodless I was afraid she would pass out. I recognized her as one of the nannies who worked for Angus.

  “Marie,” I said. “Isn’t it?”

  She nodded. “I was with them when it happened.”

  I took her arm and led her toward Crawford and Captain Knight. They’d need an accounting of the events.

  I introduced her, and Crawford and the new captain peered down at her. “Can you tell us exactly what happened?” Knight asked. “Were any of the children hurt?”

  Supernatural healers—a doctor and two nurses, were calmly walking the area, assessing for damage, checking the children, and talking quietly amongst themselves.

  The night’s trauma was nothing new to them.

  “They didn’t come to hurt children,” Marie said. “And the man who took Natalie promised he would keep her safe.”

  I swayed and Crawford shot a hand out to steady me. “Took Natalie,” I repeated. “What the fuck do you mean, took Natalie?”

  “I thought you all knew,” she whispered. “The executioner said he was going to call and inform the mayor of his demands.” She buried her face in her hands. “Angus is going to…he’s just going to…”

  But she couldn’t finish her sentence. Angus was going to do a lot of things. He was going to break down, he was going to kill, he was going to feel the darkest terror of his life.

  Shit. Little Natalie.

  “Trinity!”

  Harlan, Angus’s son, rushed toward me. He had two small kids with him—not Angus’s—and they clung to his hands, not making a sound.

  “Harlan,” I said. “What happened to Natalie?”

  “I couldn’t stop them,” he said. He’d found a pair of pants a size too big for him, but the rest of his body was bare and smeared with bloodstains. He’d shifted during the attack, had tried his best to protect the others.

  He wouldn’t have had a chance.

  I wrapped my arm around his shoulders. “It’s not your fault.”

  He burst into tears, but the little ones with him clasped hands and stared solemnly, quietly.

  “My father trusted me,” he said, finally, as Crawford stood with his phone to his ear, listening to voicemails, hoping, perhaps, to find one from Darkness. “I let them hurt Derry, and I let the wolf take the baby. I’m fucking useless.”

  His despair was huge. He stood there, uncertain and agonized and guilty, and I didn’t know what to do to help him.

  Marie took his arm. “You protected us all as best you could,” she told him. “You did everything you could and more. You didn’t let them do anything.”

  “Harlan,” I said. “What do you mean the wolf took Natalie?”

  “He came in,” Harlan said, as Marie nodded. “He was different. I asked him what was wrong, but he said nothing, he just wanted to check on us.” He clenched his fists. “He asked specifically for Natalie, said he heard she was sick.”

  We stood there and listened as he told us that he’d pointed Natalie out to the wolf, said she was fine, not sick at all…

  The attack had been sudden, quick, and brutal. The wolf had grabbed Natalie. She hadn’t made a sound, just lay quietly in his arms as he’d sprinted back to the exit.

  “I shifted and followed,” Harlan said. “There were four of them fighting Jade and her guards. He killed them. Almost killed Jade. The wolf gave Nat to the big one.”

  “Safin?” I asked.

  “No,” Marie said. “The woman called him Edward or—”

  “Edgar,” I murmured.

  “Yes, that’s it. I’d followed Harlan out, and Edgar said he wouldn’t let any harm come to Natalie.” She buried her face in her hands and wept.

  “Poor kid,” I whispered. Angus’s baby. His last baby.

  “I tried to stop them,” Harlan whispered. “A lot of us did. We shifted, but when we went after them, we couldn’t do anything. They slipped away, and we couldn’t do anything but batter ourselves against the invisible walls they left behind.”

  “He’s a wizard,” Marie said, lifting her tearstained face. “Their leader. And he’s powerful.”

  “Why Natalie?” Captain Knight asked. “Was there a reason he took that particular child?”

  “Safin saw her at the way station,” I said.

  “And he wants to hurt Angus,” Crawford added grimly. “He sees Angus as…” He shook his head, unsure. “Competition, maybe.”

  Finally, one of the little kids broke the silence. “He’s mean,” she said. “That man.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “He’s mean.”

  The night was just beginning, and it was already shaping up to be the darkest one I’d seen for a long, long time.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  FATE

  “The wolf Safin captured led them here,” Clayton said.

  “I guess that was why they let me take him without a fight,” Alejandro said. “He had his orders.”

  Jamie Stone stood a few steps behind him, watching us, not saying a word. Mostly, he watched Alejandro.

  “Hey, Jamie,” I said.

  “Trinity.” He gave me a smile, and I couldn’t help but return it. The first time I’d seen that smile, I’d thought he’d been into me. But I couldn’t give him what Alejandro could. Jamie Stone was exactly where he needed to be.

  “What’s the plan?” Al asked.

  “Safin will offer an exchange,” Crawford said. “The child for the dragon.”

  I nodded. And if Rhys were there, he’d make the trade willingly.

  Crawford’s phone buzzed. “Safin,” he said. “You’ve gone too far.”

  He listened for a few minutes without saying another word, then finally, he murmured, “Do not hurt that little girl.” Then he cut the connection and looked at me. “It’s exactly as we thought. He wants you to bring the dragon to him. Says Natalie is in the care of some of his people, and they have orders to release her when he has you.”

  “We’ll figure it out, Captain.” Then I glanced at Captain Knight. “Sorry. Habit.”

  Leo stood a few yards away, his fists clenched, watching me. “When?” he asked.

  Crawford glanced at his watch. “Three a.m. He didn’t say why.”

  “It’s a powerful hour,” Jamie murmured. “He’ll be at his strongest.”

  “And he actually believes we’re going to stick to his fucking schedule.” Shane said. “The man is psychotic.”

  “He absolutely will hurt that child. We’ll do whatever he wants, if we can.” I looked around. The wolves had melted away—gone home to their pack, but they were going to have to answer some questions, and they would have to turn the traitor over to Angus.

  And Rhys…

  His absence was becoming more worrisome by the second. “Where is
he?” I muttered.

  “He should have been back by now,” Clayton told me, and there was something in his voice that made my stomach tighten.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked him. Then without waiting for him to answer, I rushed on. “Rhys wouldn’t run.”

  “Then where the hell is he?” Shane asked. “No one could take a dragon unless the dragon agreed to be taken.”

  I gestured at Amias. “Someone took a master vampire. Someone could take a dragon.”

  Amias narrowed his eyes, considering my words.

  “He was suppressed for so long,” Clayton said. “He lived with a need most people can’t conceive of. He finally gets his freedom and now an asshole shows up and demands he give it away.” He looked at me, his stare unwavering. “I might run.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I might, too. But Rhys wouldn’t.”

  But he wasn’t there.

  I ran my hand over my face, craving, for the first time since I’d turned, something besides blood in my system. “I could use a drink.”

  Alejandro slid a flask from his coat pocket. “Here you go.” At my look, he shrugged. “I once knew a vampire who could drink whiskey. Can’t hurt to try.”

  I felt the master’s incomparable presence at my back. “It can hurt,” he disagreed. “It will burn like drinking the sun.”

  I took the flask and with Amias and Shane looking on hopefully, I put it to my lips, tilted it, and let whiskey pour into my mouth.

  Amias wasn’t wrong. It burned like fire all the way to my belly, but the pain began to ease almost immediately. The sloshing of alcohol in my shriveled stomach was uncomfortable and strange.

  I drank again.

  “Let me try,” Shane said.

  I handed him the flask. He held it to his mouth, gave a tentative sip, then spat it out immediately, muttering and fanning his lips. “Asshole,” he said. I didn’t know if he was talking to me, Al, or the whiskey.

  I grinned.

  “How was it?” Al asked me, smiling.

  “Not horrible. Kind of pleasant, actually. More because I could do it than—”

  Abruptly my stomach rebelled and began to expel the whiskey, and that shit hurt worse coming up than it did going down.

  I flew to the tree line, then stood heaving behind a particularly large oak. “God,” I cried, when I was finished. “That hurts.”

  I pulled the cold night air into my mouth, letting it soothe my abused insides. Then I went back to the men, took the flask from Al, and drank again.

  Crawford snorted and shook his head. Captain Knight watched him watching me, and there was something close to pity in her eyes. I wasn’t sure who she felt sorry for—him, or me.

  The whiskey burned more because of the rawness of my throat from the first attempt, but that time, it stayed down.

  “Maybe you could try food,” Leo suggested.

  I clutched my stomach. “No. Just the thought makes me sick.”

  Leo walked toward me, his tread purposeful and determined, his stare glued to mine.

  “Leo?” I held out my hand to him. “Are you sick?”

  His face was covered with a glossy sheen of sweat, his hands shook when he took mine, and his breathing was shallow.

  “Clayton,” I said. “Call the doctor over here.”

  “No,” Leo said, without taking his stare from mine. “I need to talk to you, Trinity. Alone.”

  “All right,” I agreed, concerned.

  I pulled him toward the trees. We slipped into the quiet woods and then I turned to him, frowning. “What’s on your mind?”

  He continued to stare at me, saying nothing.

  “Leo, you’re acting a little freaky. What’s up?”

  His chest swelled as he took a deep, deep breath. “I want to...” He swallowed, then soldiered on. “I want to offer myself to you. You’re going to face Darkness, and he’s going to take you. It’s my job to have your back. I’ll feed you, and…” He stared over my head. “And whatever else you need.”

  A slow, uncontrollable smile slid across my face. I hoped he wouldn’t think I was taking what he said lightly—I wasn’t. But he pleased the hell out of me.

  I ran my fingers over his arm. “I would love nothing more than to bring you officially into the group, Leo.” And unable not to, I added, “And you will finally be mine.”

  “And you will be mine.” His voice was fierce, for a second, and almost angry.

  I pushed my fingers under the hem of his shirt. “Absolutely,” I murmured. I remembered the inconceivable taste of him. The magic of him.

  Hunger washed over me, sudden and intense, and there was nothing in the world but Leo Trask, the half-giant. My cravings were about to be satisfied.

  He wasn’t wrong. I’d need him. I’d need his blood. I’d need his…

  Power, something whispered inside my mind. You will need his power.

  And I could not wait to take it.

  Clayton walked into the woods. “Trinity?”

  I ran my tongue over the points of my fangs. “We’ll be back in a few minutes,” I told him.

  His stare dropped to where my fingers disappeared under the hem of Leo’s shirt.

  Leo didn’t move, didn’t breathe, even, but I heard his throat click when he swallowed. “Trinity,” he said, finally. “I…”

  Amias joined Clayton and I sighed as the three men quietly stared at each other.

  Apparently, they were going to need a minute. I hoped not more than that, because I was so close to getting what I wanted, what I needed, and they were making me wait.

  I leaned against a tree and crossed my arms, tapping my toe impatiently.

  The pre-rifter Trinity would have thought I was being selfish and greedy and cold. She’d have been correct—but the post-rifter Trinity didn’t care.

  I shook with the need to possess the half-giant, and the men continued to watch each other without saying a word. Like there was all the time in the world.

  But I was done waiting.

  I walked to Leo, pressed my palm against the covered ridge of his enormous dick, and squeezed.

  “Men.” My voice was thick, my words impatient. “You’re welcome to join us.”

  Amias leaned forward to kiss me. “Next time. Gather all the power you can, my love. We’re going to need it.” Just before he melted into the shadows with Clayton, he turned back to face us. “There is no time for foreplay. Make it quick. When Angus arrives, there will be time only to kill.”

  “I’m sorry it has to be quick and dirty,” I told Leo. I pulled my sword off my back and leaned her against a tree. “I know you’d like some romance, but—”

  Then Leo shocked the hell out of me.

  He took over.

  I barely had time to gasp before he grabbed my throat, lifted me off my feet, and slammed me to the ground.

  “You had your hand on my cock,” he said. “Quick and dirty suits me just fine.”

  “Oh,” I whispered. “Good, then.”

  “I hope you’re prepared for some pain,” he murmured.

  Oh, he knew I liked a little pain. He knew.

  He also knew I wasn’t going to break.

  Leo knew a lot of things. I had been the one in the dark.

  Now that he’d made his decision, he was all in.

  And he was fierce.

  His greed exceeded mine, somehow.

  He ripped my boots and jeans off me. My bare, sensitive skin rubbed against the rough fabric of his clothing, somehow more stimulating than if he’d been naked. His big hands shoved up my shirt and covered my breasts, his tongue raided my mouth, and suddenly blood wasn’t the most delicious thing about the half-giant.

  “I’ve wanted to do this since the day I met you.” He muttered those words into my mouth and I swallowed them whole, hungry for anything he wanted to feed me.

  I pushed him to his side, then ripped my lips from his as I released his hard cock from its confines. It sprang free and my eager thoughts stuttered to a halt f
or a few seconds as I absorbed the enormity of the situation.

  Pun very much intended.

  “It’s like a fucking tree trunk,” I whispered.

  “Good thing you’re like a fucking vampire,” he whispered back, then shoved open my knees, flicked his thumb over my clit, and before I’d stopped moaning, he grabbed my knees, held them apart, and poised himself for entry. “Quick and dirty, yeah?”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. I was a mass of wet, throbbing need, but still, I was going to have some trouble taking him. Normal sized people weren’t meant for sex with half-giants.

  Once again, Leo shocked me.

  I braced for pain, and there was pain.

  He stretched me, his stare not leaving mine as he forced himself slowly and unhesitatingly into me, rocking his hips, driving himself deeper and deeper, and then, he conformed to me. He filled me up, and I felt him with every part of me. And it was hot.

  Literally.

  I stared down the length of my body, watching as he thrust into me, and it looked impossible. But it wasn’t.

  His stare was amused, but filled with heat, passion, and a hunger that would have matched the hunger in mine.

  “Magic,” I managed, then couldn’t speak again.

  Pleasure and pain. Fucking Leo was pleasure and pain, and it was exquisite.

  “Taste me,” he murmured. “Take my blood.”

  Oh.

  Oh God, yes.

  His blood filled my mouth, blood like nothing I’d ever tasted or imagined tasting, and finally, I lost control.

  As did he.

  He muttered something I didn’t understand and plunged into me hard and fast, and I thought I was breaking and reknitting and maybe I was dying, and it felt better than any other moment in my life.

  I could no longer tell the difference between pleasure and pain—it was simply one unending, excruciating, gorgeous sensation.

  Once before, I’d caught a glimpse of Leo’s bright soul. His perfect beauty. Only a glimpse. But now, that light shone from him, right there, and became part of me, engulfed me, bathed me.

  What started out as quick and dirty turned into something spiritual and magical and unimaginable as we became one and our powers combined, our bodies connected, and our fates intertwined.