Immortal Vengeance (Flames 0f The Sea Book 3)

by Nadia Heaton

  Tristan proved as much by showing up in Lisette’s room barely an hour after Mirabelle told them to get some rest.

  “Lis?”

  “Come in, Tristan.”

  Lisette had already checked the room for listening devices, and found it mercifully clear.

  Tristan got straight to the point. “What’s the plan?”

  “What makes you think there’s a plan?”

  “Um, I’m your sister and I know you? Come on, I can help.”

  Lisette, Fleur and Bethany had already agreed that they didn’t want to get Tristan involved unless it was absolutely necessary, but they may need her power, whether they liked it or not.

  “You have to understand something first. If this goes wrong, anyone involved could be held liable for betraying the coven. You know how that goes, Tristan. Are you sure? You don’t have any investments in vampires. You can still let this pass you by.”

  “Of course I have investments in vampires – my three sisters are each in love with one! I’m sure, Lis, I want to help.”

  “Ok, but understand, Fleur and I are going to be doing the main part of the fighting.”

  “Agreed. You’re both stronger than I am, anyway. How can I help?”

  “Mostly, we need you to distract Mirabelle. I won’t let you know the details, that way she can’t get them out of you with a truth spell. Basically, we’re going to step out for a few hours. Just make sure she doesn’t look for us, and when she goes to bed, make sure she sleeps deeply.”

  “Most of that requires magic…”

  “You’ll have it. We’re working on it.”

  Tristan nodded slowly. “Beth could also help me with Mirabelle.”

  “No, we need her for something else. This is all going down tonight.”

  “I’d better get going, then. So far I’ve managed to keep my mouth shut, but if she starts to look like she’s even thinking about any of you, I can engage her in an argument about some of her crazier beliefs. That’ll keep her busy for a while.”

  “Just be careful you don’t go too far, or she’ll put a hushing spell on you too.”

  “I’ll watch what I say. Good luck.”

  Lisette gave Tristan a quick hug before letting her go. She’d done some pretty scary things in her life, but attacking her own coven leader was another level of crazy, even for a witch in love with a vampire.

  She pushed thoughts of Nobu out of her head for now. She could deal with all that later. For now, Lisette had to make sure that Nobu had a future free of battling witches for his very survival.

  It was much later that night, when everyone else was asleep, that their plan was finally brought into action. Fleur cast a muffling charm on their surroundings, so that their small movements wouldn’t wake Mirabelle. Tristan was sharing a room with her, probably to keep an eye on her, though Lisette had no idea what excuse her sister would have given for it.

  Bethany shuffled in, weighed down by the huge bucket of water. Lisette had already cast a spell to give them heightened vision in the dark. She could see Mirabelle sleeping. Tristan was doing a fairly good impression of sleeping, her breathing slow and even.

  Lisette knew at once when Mirabelle woke. Mirabelle looked first to Tristan. Sensing her gaze, Tristan opened her eyes, staring at their aunt in the darkness.

  Mirabelle realized something was wrong at once, but she didn’t have time to react. Bethany heaved the bucket over her head, spilling the salt water out directly over Mirabelle, who shrieked and tried to swerve away from the water, but there wasn’t time.

  The salt water never hit. Fleur shouted a spell, causing it to spin around Mirabelle in a tornado of water, so close that she couldn’t even move her hands enough to cast a spell.

  “How dare you! Release me at –” Her words cut off abruptly as Lisette cast a hushing spell, feeling a sense of justice, after the same thing had been done to her just earlier today.

  “Now, Tristan.” She stepped back, allowing Tristan space. Tristan started the spell, and Lisette added her power to it. It would bind Mirabelle’s magic, at least temporarily. Mirabelle’s eyes flared in anger, but she couldn’t move or speak.

  “Now you listen to me.” Lisette turned on the light so that Mirabelle could see them. She wanted her aunt to see just how serious all four of them were about this. “Your hatred of vampires is unfounded and irrational. It will bring us all to ruin, and we cannot allow that. Now, here’s how this is going to go. You’re going to tell all of the other witches here that you need to take the submarine to Europe on a test run.

  “The five of us will leave on it. We will go home, and keep you confined until we can figure out what to do with you. The submarine and diving suits will either be destroyed, or put somewhere hidden where you cant use them to cause damage.”

  Mirabelle’s face was going red with unmistakable anger. She shook her head, unable to speak.

  Lisette didn’t hesitate, keeping the grimace off her face and showing only a blank expression. With a quick spell, she splashed some of the salt water that Fleur still had rotating onto Mirabelle. It burned her arm, and Mirabelle flinched, only just managing not to move backward into the wall of salt water behind her.

  Lisette continued. “This isn’t a negotiation. If you don’t agree, we’re going to contact Jermaine and Savion, and tell them everything. We will make it clear to them that the only way to protect their kind is to destroy the volcano completely. Then witches will have no power at all, and thus no power to hurt them. Is that what you want?”

  Again, Mirabelle shook her head.

  “Now, if we release you, are you going to cooperate?”

  After a long, reluctant pause, she nodded.

  With a clap of her hands, Fleur caused the water to evaporate. Lisette lifted the hushing spell, but remained poised to cast it again if necessary.

  “You’ll never get away with this,” Mirabelle growled.

  No one paid any attention to this. “Here, sit down and write.” Bethany pushed a notepad into Mirabelle’s hands. “You will write a note to the witches here explaining why we left. They will likely be suspicious of us leaving in the middle of the night with no word, so you’d better think up a good explanation.”

  For a few minutes, there was silence except the sound of pen on paper. Finally, Mirabelle tossed the note onto the desk. “You girls don’t know what you’re doing. You’re going to regret this.”

  “We’ll risk it.” Lisette grabbed Mirabelle’s arm, pulling her up. “Let’s go.”

  They made it down to the submarine without running into anyone. They guards were probably all fretting over the magic block that Bethany had effectively smashed to bits. The submarine was exactly where they’d left it, and the five of them got on board.

  “You’ll be steering it. Sit down.” Lisette waited for Mirabelle to sit before conjuring some ropes and tying her to the chair. Fleur and Bethany were busy putting passwords on all communication systems, so that Mirabelle couldn’t call for help.

  “Tristan will stay here. If you need the bathroom, or anything to eat or drink, tell her. If you say anything else, she’s going to put a hushing spell on you.” Fleur paused to make sure that Mirabelle understood before going back to the communication systems.

  Lisette went to the next room and slumped down on a chair, relieved that the hard part was done. Now, they needed to get home and figure out how to deal with this mess.

  To say that it was a tense trip was a gross understatement. They had to put a hushing spell on Mirabelle at least once a day just so that they didn’t strangle her. By the time they were passing near the equator, Lisette was ready to kill someone. She took to spending her time at the glass windows, watching the ocean pass by.

  She understood why Bethany loved diving so much. It was beautiful. Lisette had seen pictures of fish and other sea life before, but that wasn’t the same as seeing it in person. Fleur and Tristan were taking the brunt of the magic work, keeping Mirabelle’s powers bound and silencing
her when necessary for everyone’s peace of mind. They didn’t ask her for help, leaving her to her thoughts.

  Lisette was at her normal spot in front of one of the windows when she saw a manta ray swimming by. Was it her imagination, or was it glowing?

  She leapt to her feet, pressing her hands against the glass. That didn’t look like a normal manta ray. It had to be a vampire, transformed. Was it Nobu? Lisette didn’t know how to tell; she had no idea what he looked like in his ray form.

  The ray approached the submarine, and Lisette found that she couldn’t keep her eyes off it. As she stared, something inside her clicked. She didn’t know how she knew this was Nobu, but it was. More than anything, Lisette wanted to be able to talk to him, to try to fix things between them.

  There was no way to communicate, though, not here, not now. She tried to put a lot of unsaid things into her gaze as she looked at him. She missed him and loved him, regardless of what he was. She would do everything she could to protect him from Mirabelle’s insane war on vampires.

  Eventually, the ray fell behind the submarine, but it still looked to be following them. She was so busy staring after it that she didn’t notice when Bethany came up behind her.

  “Lis?”

  “Oh! You scared me, Beth. Is everything alright?”

  “For now, but Fleur and I are worried that Mirabelle is going to try something. We’ll be home tomorrow, and once we get her confined, she has next to no chance of getting out. If she wants to escape our control, she needs to act soon, and she knows it.”

  Lisette had been so caught up in her own thoughts that she hadn’t considered this. “That’s probably true, but I’m not sure what we can do about it. We have her tied up, and her powers bound. Other than being watchful, I don’t see any other precautions we can take.”

  “Fleur wants to send a message to dad. She’s sure that he’s on our side, and that once he learns the true extent of Mirabelle’s plans, he’ll help confine her. Tristan and I aren’t as confident. She’s his sister, after all.”

  “She’s our aunt, and we’re still her captors. I’m with Fleur, dad will help.”

  Bethany nodded. “I agreed to leave it up to you three – magic and covens are your area, not mine. If you think it’s best, then you go ahead. Just keep an eye on Mirabelle.”

  They all watched Mirabelle carefully, but once they finally docked, Lisette wasn’t the only one who wanted to get out of the sub. They’d been locked inside it for what felt like a lifetime. Leaving Mirabelle securely tied with Bethany guarding her, the three witch sisters headed up the ladder that led to the flat landing on top of the submarine.

  “Dad had better have prepared a safe place to keep her,” Fleur muttered. “That binding spell isn’t going to hold much longer.”

  Lisette felt a surge of guilt as she realized how little she’d done to help keep up the magic side of things. Yes, she’d been distracted by her thoughts of Nobu, but still, she should have tried harder to be there for her sisters.

  As they stepped out onto the slippery top of the sub, Lisette spotted Barrett waiting for them on the docks. He waved at them, smiling in relief.

  Lisette had just lifted her hand to wave back when everything went wrong.

  The submarine under her feet exploded outward. Mirabelle appeared, magic dancing from her fingertips as she ripped her way free. Tristan and Fleur were able to grab onto the rails, but Lisette’s flailing hands caught nothing.

  The last thing she heard as she hit the salt water was her father’s yell of horror.

  23

  It didn’t take Nobu long to catch up with the submarine. He was still learning how to use the ocean currents to his advantage while traveling, but it wasn’t as hard now as it had been at first.

  The submarine stopped, and he could hear voices as Lisette and her sisters emerged from the top. Still in his ray form, Nobu hovered close. He couldn’t stay away from Lisette, even if she didn’t want him. He needed to be sure she was ok, at the very least. Something was very off about this whole situation.

  He’d barely finished the thought when the submarine jerked with the force of an explosion. The next thing Nobu knew, a body fell into the water. It took a moment for him to make her out through all the bubbles: Lisette.

  She was burning before his eyes. The salt water was literally searing away her skin. Nobu reacted without thinking. He shifted to his human form without remembering to take a breath, but that didn’t matter. His chest already protesting, he swam to Lisette, grabbing her around the waist.

  He couldn’t seem to swim fast enough. Nobu hauled Lisette out of the water and onto the dock, frantically swiping at the water on her skin. She was barely recognizable.

  “No…” Nobu had seen photos of Lisette’s family, and he recognized Mirabelle as the one speaking. She looked to be in shock, staring at Lisette with wide eyes, trembling.

  Barrett threw himself down next to Nobu, pressing a trembling hand to Lisette’s neck. It told him what Nobu already knew. Her heart wasn’t beating.

  “She – she’s gone,” Barrett choked. Lisette’s sisters started to wail in anguish, but Barrett stood up, his eyes on Mirabelle. He started striding toward her, and she stumbled back. Nobu didn’t blame her. Barrett looked like he was going to kill her, but Mirabelle didn’t raise a hand to defend herself.

  If she was the one who had caused the explosion, then she deserved whatever Barrett did to her, as far as Nobu was concerned. He couldn’t think about them now, though. A small part of his mind kept track of those around him, his vampire senses working to keep him informed automatically, but Nobu’s mind was completely focused on Lisette.

  He couldn’t lose her.

  Even if she hated him for this afterward, he wasn’t going to let her die.

  Nobu bent down over Lisette, fastening his jaws over her throat. Mirabelle cried out and started toward him, but Barrett grabbed her, holding her away as Nobu bit into Lisette’s neck. He could feel his venom pumping into her veins. He only hoped that he hadn’t been too late.

  For several endless seconds, nothing happened.

  Then Lisette’s burned skin started healing. It came out smoother and paler than before. Her chest rose as she drew in a breath, and her eyes snapped open.

  “Lisette!” Nobu caressed her face, watching her eyes carefully. How would she react?

  She sat up, looking around, blinking in wonder. “Everything… I can see everything. And why is it so loud?”

  No one answered, and realization slowly dawned on her face. “You changed me, didn’t you?”

  “You were dead. I couldn’t lose you.” Nobu waited for the explosion of anger and disgust, but it didn’t come. Instead, Lisette grabbed him behind the neck and pulled him closer, kissing him passionately.

  Somewhere behind them, Mirabelle was screaming, mourning what had been done to her niece, but Nobu didn’t care. Lisette was alive, and she didn’t hate him. Right now, that was all that mattered.

  “I can feel it,” she murmured. “The power. You were right. It’s… it’s amazing.” Lisette grimaced slightly, swallowing several times.

  “You’re thirsty.” Nobu didn’t need to ask. He recognized the signs well, having become somewhat accustomed to them. “Come, I will show you how to feed. I saw some fish a little way back whose blood will make a nice first meal.”

  Lisette nodded, her fingertips sparking slightly. “I still have magic.” She glanced at her sisters and father, completely ignoring Mirabelle. She smiled at them, but didn’t speak. Fleur nodded to the water, giving her silent consent.

  “Come.” Nobu took Lisette’s hand and led her into the water. The people left behind on the dock seemed to be in shock, because they didn’t speak as Lisette followed him. This time, the water didn’t burn her.

  Nobu knew that they had a million things to talk about, but right now, getting Lisette fed was most important. Jermaine and Savion were waiting not far off shore. They would be able to help explain things to her
once they got back to the coven base.

  Of course, things would be different with Lisette. She was still a witch. Nobu didn’t know if there had ever been a witch-vampire hybrid before, but he didn’t believe so. They were certainly going to have their work cut out for them, but Nobu would stay by Lisette’s side every step of the way.

  “Imagine a manta ray,” he coached as the water came up to their necks. “Let your form shift.”

  Lisette’s face was set in concentration for a moment before her body shimmered, becoming gray, her arms changing to the undulating fins of a manta ray. Nobu did the same, the change almost natural to him by now.

  The two of them swam deeper, side by side. Nobu hadn’t yet mastered the art of communicating to other vampires while he was in this form.

  Jermaine and Savion swam up to them, leading the way to what Nobu assumed was the nearest school of fish. Lisette followed alongside them. She was just as beautiful in this form as she was in her human one. Had he been in human form, Nobu would have smiled.

  24

  Lisette wondered if there was any point spying on Teo at this time of night. Night was her new day, but Teo was still human, and thus was likely to be asleep. Still, she wanted to try. Nobu’s investigation had implicated Teo in Rashid’s attack on them in Spain, and Lisette was anxious to see what he was up to.

  Besides, she needed to see if she could still do the scrying spell. Lisette could still do most of the same magic she could before she turned into a vampire, but some of the spells had to be modified to work properly now. there had been some rather strange results.

  Fortunately, this one went off without a hitch. The mirror shimmered slightly and changed from a reflection of her own face to a view of a darkened room. As she’d expected, Teo was sleeping.

  Before Lisette could end the spell, someone started knocking insistently on the door. Teo groaned as he rolled out of bed, pulling the door open.

  “Rashid. You could have called to say you were coming.”