by Callie Rose
That was it. Caution flew to the wind. “Oh my God, are you serious right now? You fucking knocked me out, you dweeb!”
“Shut the fuck up, we’re here,” he growled. He tossed me to the floor and pinned me down with one boulder-heavy hand. He twisted a thick wire around my hands and feet with the other, then tied it behind my back so I was arched uncomfortably. We were in a small stone room. I could sense the weight of the castle over us, more oppressive than it had been in the basement. We were farther below ground, I’d bet anything on it.
“Where are we?”
He squinted at me. “I probably shouldn’t tell you.”
I focused, pushing past my fear and anger and the massive headache throbbing in my time to my heartbeat. Persuasion. Throw every fucking thing you have at him, Pipes.
“Come on, Owen, you know you want to tell me everything. Come on. Tell me what a genius you are. I’ll be so impressed.” The words tasted like bile, but I got them out.
It worked. He puffed up and started blabbing. “We’re in the bowels of the castle. The sub-sub-basement. You didn’t even know they had a sub-basement, did you? Well, they do. They’ve cut this stupid school so far down into the mountains, they could have given us all our own rooms.”
Water dripped from somewhere in the distance, and I bit my lip to keep from arguing with him. I couldn’t imagine keeping dorms down here would have been particularly pleasant.
“Why are we here?”
“To finish what I started,” he said proudly. “The magic of this school is anchored to the earth. Ha! You’d think with all the snow around here, they would’ve harnessed ice power. Can’t dispel it if it keeps coming, can you? But they’re all idiots. It’s been so hard, Piper. Can you imagine being a genius surrounded by pleebs for months on end? No, I guess you couldn’t.”
He’d let the stone armor melt away and was moving around the room like a twitchy ferret, rifling through small objects on carved shelves. I wasn’t about to wait around to find out what new horror he was going to unleash on the school.
I summoned up another wave of persuasion, wishing I’d had a goddamn orgy with my men this morning. I could’ve used the extra power.
Plus, I really might not ever see them again.
That thought caused an ache in my heart so intense I almost cried out. I shoved it away to focus back on my captor, concentrating as hard as I could.
“Owen, you’re so amazing. But you need some help. Let me free so I can help you. We’ll find all the things you’re looking for, and then you and I can finally be together. You just have to let me out first.”
Owen paused, then moved a few steps toward me. I couldn’t see his eyes in the dim light, but he was moving like he was spellbound.
“Good, come closer,” I murmured. “Just get me out and all of your dreams will come true. I’ll give you a kiss for being such a good soldier for Gavriel.”
He was touching the wires now, and I could see his eyes. He was under my spell, but he wasn’t untying me. He was just kneeling in front of me with his hand on the wires, staring off into space.
“Come on, Owen.” It was getting harder to keep the panic out of my voice, to maintain the smooth pull of the persuasion. “These wires are hurting me. You don’t want to hurt me, do you? You want my help.”
That was a mistake. His dazed look twisted into one of disgust, and he pushed away from me.
“You bitch! Keep your filthy tongue to yourself. Nobody needs your help, you hear me? I don’t need anything from you. You made your choice when you bonded with those freaks. You had your chance and you lost it. Fuck off.” Finally doing what he would’ve done in the first place if he wasn’t an idiot, he ripped bits of cloth off of his tunic and stuffed them in his ears. He turned his back on me and kept searching for whatever it was he wanted.
Goddammit. His stupid oversight had given me a chance, but now that he’d realized what I was up to, he’d taken away my best weapon.
“Owen,” I said, leaning toward him as much as I could.
Nothing.
My persuasion couldn’t reach him with his ears blocked, and it pissed me off. I tried shouting, but that didn’t work. Persuasion was a fragile spell. Shouting broke it. I tried projecting psychically, but I hadn’t done real well in that class. Class! Shit! I was missing the finals. Not that it mattered, I realized. Owen was going to kill me anyway.
Think, Piper. Persuasion won’t work, so what’s left?
Shape shifting. Fuck, will that even work?
I closed my eyes and concentrated on being small. Smaller than the loop of wire. But the wire, being of the magical variety, simply shrank with me. Fine. Big, then. I tried to reverse course, morphing back to my regular size and shape, but the wires cut into my flesh, burning through to what felt like bone. I bit my teeth against a scream and shrank down again. Fabulous. Now I wasn’t just trapped, I was trapped in a body the size of a toddler.
I lay on the cold floor trying to think. I had tools, I knew I did. I had people, but they wouldn’t hear me scream down here.
“Oh my God, I’m an idiot,” I muttered to myself. “They don’t have to hear me scream.”
Keeping my mouth shut, I projected my terror and frustration as loudly as I could, sending it along the invisible lines of my connection to each of the men. I was broadcasting like a beacon, screaming mentally for my guys. Jayce could practically read my mind. Xero always felt me when I walked into a room. The other two were the wild cards, but I called to them too. I needed them all to get me out of this.
For several long moments, it felt like mentally screaming into an empty void. But then…
There.
There!
I could feel them. Their energy. It was very faint but getting stronger. Jayce was worried. Xero was quietly panicking. Kingston was annoyed and frightened. Kai was furious.
Good. Be ragey, vampire. Kick his ass.
Closer and closer they came, and I could feel their whole journey. I lost track of what Owen was doing, but it didn’t seem to matter. Ah, a moment of surprise from all four of them. They’d discovered the sub-basement.
I felt a rush of intrigue as they found the sub-sub-basement. Jayce’s heart was beating wildly. I hadn’t known before that he was claustrophobic, but it made sense. Kai was utterly in his element down here in the dark. I pushed out a warning that they should change, gear up into their demonic forms.
They hesitated, and I clenched my fists in frustration. This connection between us was crazy-powerful, and it might just save my life, but it wasn’t exactly as simple as having a conversation with words. I pushed harder.
When they did as I said, it was like a beam of light into my brain. They were pure demon, purely connected. That much power almost made me want to try breaking through the bonds wrapped around me again, but I suppressed the impulse. I couldn’t afford more injuries, not if what I thought was about to happen actually happened.
I could hear their footsteps now, in the hallway outside the room. The click-click of hellhound claws, the skittering golden slide of dragon on stone, the heavy footfalls of a pure demon. Kai didn’t make a sound. I opened my eyes to check on Owen. He was facing the wall with the shelves, his back to the door. He paused long enough to smirk at me. I just glared, still projecting my beacon to my men, guiding them to us.
When they smashed through the door, they caught him completely off-guard.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Owen was still in his lanky, spindly human form when Xero barreled into him from behind. Owen’s head bounced off of the wall in front of him, which would have knocked any human unconscious, but the guy just spun around, shifting as he went. He was just barely off-balance from cracking his skull against the wall, but it was enough. Kingston flew in from the side, knocking Owen to the floor inches away from my head.
Kai moved like a shadow, leaping over Owen to grab me. He rolled away with me and struggled with the wire while the others fought. Xero was slamming flaming fist
The wire fell away. I grabbed Kai and pulled him close. “His ears,” I whispered. “Get the cotton out of his ears!”
Kai nodded and swept away in a flash, scaling Owen’s back. Owen roared and arched backward, tossing Kai into the wall. The vampire crumpled, stunned.
“His head!” I screamed at Kingston. “Light up his head!”
Kingston shook his head. He was curled around the ceiling, claws hooked into the rough walls. Dragon shifters could adjust their size in dragon form, and he was currently about as big as a horse. But still, the room wasn’t large enough for his flame. He’d cook us all, damn it.
“Xero! Jayce! Draw Owen out into the hall!”
The two men made a show of retreating, as if Owen was pushing them back. He laughed—at least, I thought that was what it was; it sounded like gravel in a lawnmower—and busted through the wall after them. Kingston followed in a flash. I went to Kai. His breathing was shallow and there was a nasty gash on his head. Panicking, I pressed my lips hard to his. It did nothing.
“Come on, Kai, how do I help you?”
I needed to go help the others. Flashes of fire and vicious snarls pummeled my ears, but I couldn’t just leave him there. I held his head in my lap and stroked his face, swearing when my thumb left a streak of blood across his cheek.
“We’re kicking all kinds of ass,” I muttered bitterly. As I pulled my hand away, a drop of blood from the deep cut in my wrist landed on the corner of his mouth. I tried to wipe it away, but he suddenly turned his head and pressed his lips to my wrist.
“Shit. I’m a fucking idiot.”
My heart slammed hard against my ribs, but I supported the back of his head with my other hand, holding my wrist up to his mouth to give him access to my blood. The wounds themselves hurt like hell, but having Kai drink from me… didn’t.
It felt strange, empowering, and humbling at the same time—like I was giving something, but taking something too.
Was this what it felt like to the men when my succubus powers drew strength from them?
I couldn’t look away from his lips on my wrist, the way his throat worked as he drank, the way he clung to me with possessive hunger. I let him drink until his eyes fluttered open, barely noticing the strength fading from my own body as he took his fill.
His gaze snapped into focus, and he pushed away from me, horrified. A wave of dizziness washed over me as I rose up to my knees.
Okay, now I feel it. The hit to the head, the cuts on my wrists, the blood loss—they were all starting to catch up to me.
“Kiss me,” I whispered. There was no persuasion in my voice. It wasn’t a demand. It was a plea.
He did, briefly. Just enough to get me up, like the smell of coffee in the morning. I could taste my own blood on his tongue, and it sent a strange jolt of fear-laced pleasure straight to my core. But we both stepped back quickly, back on our feet in an instant and ready to rejoin the fray.
I was halfway to the door when his voice stopped me.
“Piper.” The single word came out in a low rasp.
“We’ll talk about it later,” I said, shaking off whatever had just happened between us. Whatever had just changed between us. “Owen’s trying to kill people out there.”
Kai’s eyes widened, and he moved so fast he nearly beat me out into the hallway. Kingston had his position, ready to unleash his flame. Perfect. Now the other two just needed to get the fuck out of the way.
“Move!” I bellowed, sprinting forward.
They plastered themselves to the walls, and Kingston fired. Owen’s head disappeared in a fountain of flame, and his howl shook the walls. Xero moved in, following the fiery breath with fists of flame, cracking Owen’s rocky skin. Jayce’s demonic teeth pierced through Owen’s flesh somehow, and his hellhound ripped this way and that, trying to shake Owen to pieces. Owen flailed, striking out blindly. He nearly crushed Jayce under one of his massive fists.
Two embers fell from Owen’s ears.
Persuasion, Pipes. Come on. You’re up.
“Owen! Stop!”
It barely worked. He was too angry, too panicked, to let himself be persuaded. And to be fair, I’d practically yelled the words—I was having a hard time suppressing my own adrenaline and panic. But it rattled Owen’s resolve just enough that his fist landed in the floor directly in front of Kai instead of putting Kai through the floor. Kingston blasted him with fire again, then Xero flew headlong into the rock demon’s chest, knocking him flat.
Owen’s damaged head cracked as it hit the stone. Xero threw another punch at his face, making the downed man’s head bounce. A thick black puddle was beginning to form beneath him, but he was still twitching. Kingston pushed Xero away with his tail and lit up the stone demon’s body. The flame roared like an inferno. Red-hot, then blue, then white. Hot enough to make Owen’s skin glow red, along with the stones around us. The red color grew lighter and lighter, shifting to a brilliant, yellow-white. Smoke filled the chamber but was sucked away through an opening somewhere behind us.
Kingston finally stopped with a choking cough. Owen’s body continued to burn. To melt. His bulky form took up the width of the hallway, cutting Kingston off from the rest of us. Nausea struck at the pit of my stomach, and my vision began to blacken. I realized just before I fell that I was still bleeding profusely from my wrists and ankles, that I probably had a concussion, and that I’d donated probably a lot more than I should have to Kai. Too much to be healed by our one quick kiss.
I fell, expecting to feel the rattle of stones against my wounded head—but I felt Kai’s arms wrap around me instead. He kissed me hard, giving me more than he had in the room. I opened my eyes in time to see Jayce shimmer back into his human form. He kissed me as well. Xero didn’t even bother to change. His eyes glittered black in his mottled blue-black skin, his reddish horns rose high above his head, but his kiss was like a fucking angel’s.
Kingston flew over the flaming heap and shifted as he landed, making it look like he poured a human-shaped drink from a dragon-sized pitcher. He smoothed away the blood on my wrists as the wounds knitted closed and kissed my wrists directly, then my mouth. I let myself sink into their touch, the combined power of their energy, which supported me on all sides.
Ever so slowly, I came back to myself, fully charged.
When I could stand on my own, the men stepped back a fraction—no longer holding me up, but not letting go of me either. Silently, the five of us looked over at the smoldering mass.
“We did it,” I said numbly.
I’d never been party to taking a life before. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. But we hadn’t had a choice. Owen would’ve killed us if he’d gotten the chance. Besides, he’d been the mole, the one sabotaging the school since the very beginning. We’d done a public service, right?
“We survived,” Kai said firmly, still gripping my waist. “We did what we had to do.”
“Besides,” Jayce said a little breathlessly. His blond hair was almost black with soot and ash. “The guy was a douchebag.”
“He tried to kill you, Piper,” Xero rumbled, and even the fire demon, the gentlest of my men, had a spark of fury in his eyes as he spoke.
The others nodded, and I sank deeper into their embrace, letting go of the flames of guilt that tried to lick at my heart.
Owen had tried to kill me. He’d tried to take down the school. He’d tried to kill my men.
And I could never let that happen.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“What was he doing down here?” Kingston asked as we all began to shake ourselves out of the post-battle haze.
I shook my head, gazing down at the smoldering body. “I don’t know. He was behind all of it, though. The sprites, everything. He was sabotaging the school’s defenses, I think.”
“There’s no way he managed it,” Xero said. “There’s so much magic protecting this place. He couldn’t possibly have taken all of it down.”
“We stopped him before he could,” Jayce said confidently. “It’s finals, right? So this was his last shot. He didn’t finish before we got there—he was still working on it when we busted in, right, Xero?”
“He was definitely doing something,” Xero agreed.
“There you go, then.” I let out a relieved breath. “Holy shit. We saved the fucking school.”
“Hell yeah, we did!” Jayce high-fived me. Xero grinned, such a rare expression on him that it seemed to light up the whole corridor. Kingston tried to look blasé, but he was clearly proud of himself.
“Couldn’t have done that without you, Dragon Man,” I told him earnestly. Then my brow furrowed. “Now… does anybody remember how to get out of here?”
“This way,” Kai said quietly. He looked worried, but he was always less demonstrative than the others. The part he’d played in our success would hit him later, and he’d celebrate with the rest of us. I was sure of it.
Then, suddenly, I wasn’t.
As we climbed the stairs to the sub-basement, a feeling of indescribable dread fell over me. The others felt it too. Xero’s mouth flattened into a thin line. Jayce started walking faster, urging us all forward.
“Sorry, guys. Claustrophobia’s a bitch. If I don’t see the sun in the next ten minutes, I’m gonna lose my shit.”
“I understand that, brother. This way.” Kai slapped Jayce on the shoulder and picked up the pace, leading us through the maze of narrow, low-ceilinged corridors. Jayce was starting to panic.
“It’s all good, man,” Xero told him reassuringly. “You’re gonna make it.”
“Yeah.” I tried to keep my tone light. “It’s not like we’re trapped underground or anything.”
But that prickle of dread wouldn’t leave my spine. Something was very wrong, and it wasn’t just Jayce who felt it. Kingston’s eyes were glowing red, like he was ready to spring back into his dragon form at any moment. Tension rose as we started climbing the stairs into the main basement. Then all of us, without saying a word, started to run.
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