An Apocalyptic Need (15 page)

Two men dressed in black robes pulled Cari out of the carriage when it stopped and dragged her to a halt before a low-slung log cabin. Behind the cabin’s small windows an orange light flickered and flashed as shadows moved within.

She looked into Scarlett’s smiling face and felt fear, like icy claws scraping down her spine. “Where am I? What do you want from me?”

Scarlett’s eyes seemed to spark, catching the red glint of the dying sun so that she looked, for just a moment, like something wrought from the environs of Hell. “You’ll find out soon enough, mage. But first we need to deal with your lover.”

It took Cari a moment to understand whom Scarlett was talking about. When she did, she let her surprise show. “You mean Grimm? He’s not my lover. I barely know him.”

Scarlett laughed. “Yet even now he flies to your rescue.”

Cari’s heart thumped harder. Hope sparred with fear for Grimm. “I doubt it. He has nothing to do with this…whatever it is. Leave him be.”

Scarlett’s gaze slid past Cari. A soft footfall scuffed the ground behind her and she half turned as someone moved out of the shadows, slipping a hand around her upper arm. “Your vassal put himself in the middle of this, captain. The minute he dragged you off the
Stellam
with him.”

Alcott!

Cari tried to jerk her arm from his grip. “I should have known you were behind this,
lieutenant
! What exactly do you want? I’m off the
Stellam
. If you want control of the ship you have it.”

He dragged her close and nuzzled her throat, his lips trailing wetly down the side of her neck.

Cari shuddered with revulsion and fought against his grip.

“You don’t get it do you? I don’t really care about the
Stellam
, captain. I only care about what she carries in her womb. My only interest is the effect she will have on
The Authority
when the contents of her belly are dumped over it.” He laughed, biting her throat hard enough to draw blood and then licking the stinging spot. “And you’ll be the one they look for when it happens, lovely Cari. You were the captain of the ship that will take the almighty
Authority
down.” He rubbed himself against her, proving that his lustful attentions were more than an act.

Cari gritted her teeth and forced herself not to react. Bullies like Alcott fed on the fear of others. She was determined not to give him that satisfaction.

Instead she looked at Scarlett. “What’s your part in this? And if you’re planning on framing me for whatever the
Stellam
will do, why am I here?”

Scarlett spread lips the color of her name and shook her head. “I’m merely an intermediary. My master wishes to speak with you,” she responded, motioning toward the cabin.

The two robed men who’d pulled her from the carriage grabbed her again, dragging her toward the rough-sided building. Cari’s heart thundered as dread filled her. The flash and slide of the unnatural looking light behind the windows made her flesh crawl.

Her fear spiked to new levels when the door opened and a pale woman with tangled black hair and blood dripping down her chin stared at them with vacant eyes. The woman didn’t move aside until Scarlett shoved her out of the way. “Prepare the master’s evening meal, Gladys. He’ll be hungry after attending to business.”

Gladys’s dress was threadbare and torn, her bare feet black with filth beneath a dirty, ragged hem. She stared at Cari with those empty eyes, never blinking, as if she were in a trance. But at Scarlett’s command she turned slowly away, moving stiffly toward a door at the far end of the sprawling cabin.

Fire crackled in the fireplace centered on the opposite wall, a huge, black pot bubbling with something that smelled faintly rancid atop its blaze. Occasionally the contents of the pot would spark and flare, spitting the black tinged with orange flame that Cari had seen dancing behind the windows. Despite the fire, the room felt unnaturally cold, chilled by evil.

Scarlett preceded them to an open doorway and descended steps carved of rock that were precarious with slime. The robed men shoved her after Scarlett and fell into single file behind her. The staircase was too narrow to accommodate more than one person at a time. Though she tried to step carefully in the low light, Cari’s feet slipped out from under her and she tumbled down the greasy steps, nearly colliding with Scarlett before she caught herself on a metal rod attached to the wall.

Pain seared her shoulder as her weight jolted the arm holding her upright.

Scarlett ignored her plight and kept moving downward, into a musty, wormy smelling space that was even colder than the cabin above and more dimly lit. Only a pair of sconces, providing a meager, smoky flame apiece, served as lighting for the underground room.

A small fireplace also provided insubstantial light, its blue-red glow swallowed up in the murky darkness before it had gone three feet.

Someone stood before the fire. The dancing light illuminated a small figure whose skull was covered in patches of hair and a skeletal hand pushing a poker into a sparking log.

The sour-sweet stench of death and decay permeated the place and Cari instinctively looked around for something she could use as a weapon. She saw nothing useful. She was defenseless and terrified. Certain she was about to die.

But when the man before the fire turned around, Cari realized she had more worrying issues than death. The creature who stood in front of the fire smiled, his sunken cheeks cracked and peeling. The blood staining his skin looked like black veins in the low light.

He was small, skeletal and slightly stooped, as if something had beaten him down and left him for dead. Though he was apparently too stubborn to die. He looked to be a short step from death’s door. When he smiled, his teeth were stained and jagged, looking as if they’d been filed into points.

“We meet at last, Cari Pascale.”

Cari frowned. “I don’t know you.” She glanced around. “Why have you dragged me here?”

The smile slipped away. “All will become clear in time.” He turned back to the fire, stepping closer. He seemed oblivious that the hem of his robes swung dangerously near the flames. “You wouldn’t know me now…” His shoulders stiffened. “I was different once.” Silence stretched as Cari waited for the pitiful creature to continue. Finally he sighed, turning back to her. “I knew…know your father. You were a tiny babe when last I saw you.”

Cari’s pulse spiked and stars danced before her gaze. Her father? It wasn’t possible. “He’s dead.” She hated herself for the inflection lifting the end of her statement. She’d long ago accepted what the slugs at the government school told her. She thought she’d buried her hope beneath a sea of anger and loneliness long since. “But even if you knew him when he was alive, I don’t know what that has to do with me…now.”

The creature held her gaze, his thoughts hidden behind an emotionless façade. “I realize it’s a surprise, hearing that your father lives. But he isn’t the one I’m interested in.”

Cari’s knees softened beneath her. The nasty underground room faded away under a roaring in her head. “No. It can’t be true. He’s dead…” Because if he lived she’d have to admit that he’d abandoned her to years of inattention and coldness.
Could he be that cruel?

“I’m very sorry that you will have to die in her place.”

Cari blinked, her attention speared by his words. The roaring died as she shook off her despair in a bid for survival. “I what? Whose place?”

The creature frowned. “Pay attention, girl!” His voice boomed off the walls, vibrating under Cari’s skin. She took a step back, her fingers twitching. In that moment, she’d give anything to have mage powers.

“Your sister took much from me. It was her blood that turned me into the monster you see before you. I was lucky to survive at all. But I rose from the ashes and I am determined to regain my previous vigor.” He laughed shrilly and Cari barely suppressed a shudder. “It won’t be the first time I’ve risen from the dead.”

Cari backed away, her gaze flying around the room for some kind of weapon. “You’re mad. I don’t have a sister. You have me mixed up with someone else.”

The man signaled to the robed men standing in the shadows and they stepped forward, grabbing her arms.

Cari tried to fight them off but it was like a gnat trying to subdue an elephant.

The creature before the fire lifted a hand in a dismissive motion. “It doesn’t matter if you believe or understand. You are little more than cattle to me. Your blood is all I need.” He looked beyond Cari to Scarlett. “Strap her down and prepare for the ceremony.”

Cari screamed her rage as they wrenched her backward and kicked out, using everything she had in an attempt to get loose. None of it mattered.

In the end she found herself strapped to a large, flat rock the shadows had hidden from view. The flames in the fireplace danced blue and green but gave off no heat.

Under its spell, however, Cari felt herself growing drowsy.

The creature handed Scarlett a small bowl. “Dribble this into the fire as you chant.” Scarlett nodded, casting Cari a final look of pity before moving to the fire and beginning to speak.

Cari fought the effects of whatever the fire was sending into the air, lifting her head and clenching her fists in an effort to break the restraints. But weakness crept up her legs, along with a biting chill that had her shivering uncontrollably.

A skeletal face appeared over her, the eyes black as coal and swirling with flames to match the unnatural blaze behind him. He held a huge, curved knife in one hand.

Cari’s mind was muzzy, her eyes drooping closed despite the terrified pounding of her heart against her ribs. She lifted her head, shaking it to clear her thoughts. She recognized the blade as a boline, a witch’s ritual knife.

He positioned the knife over the inside of her wrist. “Wait!”

The swirling black gaze lifted to hers.

“At least tell me about my sister. I don’t know her. I’d like to know her name before I die.”

Dry, flaky lips curved upward and when he opened his mouth she nearly gagged from the dead flesh smell of his breath. “Oh, but you do know her, Cari. You recently spent time together.”

Cari’s gaze slid to Scarlett but the creature laughed dismissively. The sound slithered around Cari, pebbling her skin into goose flesh.

“Not that minor witch, you fool. Do you think one such as her could best me?”

The broken strands of his hair stood away from his head, dancing on the air as a visible wave of anger flared around him like an aura.

Behind him, Scarlett’s voice faltered and her gaze darkened with fear. Her fist halted over the flame, a glittery powder slipping through and hitting the blaze with a flash of green fire.

He positioned the knife over the pale, tender skin of Cari’s wrist. “No. Your sister is a far more formidable witch. As well she should be. She was created by the same necromancer who created me.” His gaze took on a contemplative slant. “Or maybe enhanced would be a better word.” Shrugging, he sliced quickly and Cari bit back a cry as bright red blood oozed from the deep cut.

Something murky swirled under her ribs. Something sizzled and raged as her blood ran from her arm into a ceremonial bowl made of stone. Cari gritted her teeth as fire coiled and sizzled there, burning her from the inside. “Who is it?” she managed to gasp through the pain.

The creature’s eyes widened slightly as Cari’s voice throbbed around them, an entity all its own. “Ah, there it is. He bound your fire didn’t he, girl? It’s too bad you’ll never get it back in time.”

Darkness fluttered on the edges of her mind. A pleasant numbness covered most of her body. Even the life-stealing wound at her wrist was numb as Cari’s body gave out beneath his dark magics.

He began to chant, his words joining with Scarlett’s and filling the room with sinister tension that Cari could feel against her skin. Sulfurous smoke stung her eyes and nostrils. But Cari wasn’t ready to die. She had to know.

She tried to lift her head again, to demand a name. But her head was so heavy. She couldn’t bring it off the surface of the stone. Her voice came out in little more than a husky whisper. “Tell me…”

The creature blinked, turning to her with a perplexed frown. “I underestimated you, girl.” He smiled. “Your blood will do nicely I think.”

Cari finally closed her eyes as velvet black pulled her into its numbing embrace. Death summoned her in dulcet tones, drawing her ever closer.

“But you’re right,” the creature’s voice whispered into her ear. “It is fitting that you carry her name to your death. Because, you see, it is
she
not
I
who has killed you.”

Cari forced herself to focus, pushing death to arm’s length for just one more second so she could hear his words. Her eyelids fluttered.

Soft, fetid breath bathed her face and an icy touch tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Her name is Yeira.” He slipped a bony finger along her jawline. “She’s exquisite like you. And I will happily kill her as soon as you give me the restorative power flowing within your veins.”

Grimm tied his horse to a low-hanging branch, alongside Miller’s dappled gray stallion. The sheriff was standing a few feet away, peering down a narrow path that looked to have been beaten into the ground with heavy use. The other man shoved his hat back on his head and stared grimly toward the woods, his hand clutching the butt of his pistol.