An Apocalyptic Need (18 page)

He’d experienced a similar type of poison before, in the wood of the dead lands once Edwige and her familiar had invaded it. Their taint had stained everything within a mile radius, turning the smallest natural object into a thing of terrifying portent.

In that moment Grimm realized that whatever stalked Cari was nearby.

He dug in, running faster.

And fool that he was, he’d ensured that Cari was all alone.

~AN~

She twitched and moaned under the dream, or vision, whatever it was. The creature whose mind she shared searched epochs and geographies, each moment taking him farther into a madness that had him dispersing a greasy kind of evil everywhere he went. Dealing death and horrible mutilation.

She felt his frustration in the heavy twitching of her limbs, in the twisting roil at the center of her belly.

He wanted.

He needed.

He hungered.

His manic thought processes were at times hard to follow. At times impossible. But one thing shone clearly through.

He hunted.

Someone was in danger.

She believed it was someone close to her. Someone she should have known but had never met. From the twisted thoughts spinning a black and prickly web in the creature’s mind, she learned that this person was the final step in a long-planned return to power and strength. She would complete the process that had already begun but had been ruthlessly interrupted.

Power to power. Power to death.

Half-mad, demented thought processes repeated the chant as the creature searched over time and space. Endless stars in a black and unending void gave way to wooden sailing ships, which gave way to the moist, unfettered environs of a primitive Earth with creatures as big as space ships lumbering heavily across the land. The dead lands spun past, she recognized those, but he didn’t linger there, he moved restlessly on, to a place where life was simple and pure…where streets were dirt and laws were few.

Excitement surged as he grew closer.
He’d thought her gone, but she never left. Her presence had been masked from him.

Fear pounded in her chest. Terror moistened her brow. She felt herself being yanked from the dream, her mind trying to hold on…attempting to cleave to the knowledge that would help a stranger who wasn’t a stranger from succumbing to a horrific fate.

But it was no use. The quarry had been spotted.

The raven lifted its wings and screamed, its strident call a beacon to draw a terrible fate to an unsuspecting victim.

Another heart pounded as fear took hold…

Yeira surged upward with a scream on her lips. “No!”

Audi was kneeling next to her, a worried look on his handsome face. “Yeira, what’s wrong? Was it a dream?”

She shook her head, the hand that scrubbed her face shaking so violently she clenched her fingers tight and shoved it to her lap. She was breathing hard, her chest rising and falling with a panic that made no sense. “I don’t know. It was…” She looked up into his concerned face, her lips trembling with fear. She hated the weakness, tried to shove it away. “Something’s coming.”

Audie pulled her close, wrapping strong arms around her and tucking her into a broad chest. “You’re okay, honey. Nothing’s coming.”

She shook her head. The sour touch of the dream still lingered, sliding over her nerves like icy goo. “It’s not me.” When he frowned she stopped, uncertain how to explain. “I feel as if there’s someone out there. Someone who needs me.” She shook her head, unable to put the feeling into words.

Audie sat down beside her, pulling her close. Around them, the crash and roar of the ocean was a constant reminder that they were cut off from the rest of the worlds, in an epoch and place that existed in isolation.

They had traveled to Authority Headquarters to warn the Huntsman about what they’d discovered. The
Morte Stellam
was coming.

Despite their best efforts, it had blasted its way through the reborn and Authority ships and was mere hours away from Headquarters. The rogues had been working with someone powerful enough to overcome the elemental energy protecting the ships and the magic users within. Combined with knowledge of the Authority’s internal workings the rogues provided, they’d already destroyed hundreds of reborn nests across the twenty worlds. What few remained, Yeira had sent to a safe place that only she knew.

Audie hadn’t even allowed her to tell
him
where they’d gone.

All that remained was for the Sorceri to accept the fight from the rogues and whatever secret weapon the belly of the
Stellam
carried. The Huntsman had called the Sorceri from across the twenty worlds to gather at Headquarters.

They expected the
Stellam
at any moment.

As the days and hours passed, Yeira had become more and more fretful and nervous. She’d tried to hide it from Audie but he was much too intuitive, especially where she was concerned, to miss it.

Unfortunately, he’d been as helpless as Yeira to do anything about it.

Yeira pushed to her feet and started to pace the small, stark quarters they’d been given. The thin rug beneath her feet did nothing to soften the cold, stone floor and the pads of her feet were sore from her constant pacing. “I don’t know how to explain it but I feel as if someone is in trouble and I need to help.”

Audie watched her pace, his broad face inscrutable. “A nest of reborn?”

She shook her head. “No. It’s somebody who’s important to me.” She looked at him, feeling foolish. “But I don’t know why they’re important.”

Audie frowned. “Could you grab anything from the dream? A magic signature we could follow?”

She shook her head but fell to pacing again. It was a thought. “Maybe if I could bring the vision back I could grab hold of something.”

Audie was silent for a moment and then pushed to his feet. “I think I can do you one better than that.” He pulled her into his arms again to stop her pacing. “I can use a power word.”

She looked up at him, hope surging. “You think that would work?”

He shrugged. “We can try.”

She ran a finger over the stubble on his wide jaw. “But it will weaken you and, with the attack coming…”

He lowered his lips to hers, cutting off her words and any capacity she might have had to think.

When he broke the kiss he smiled. “I’ll be fine. And whatever this is, the timing is suspect. I have a feeling it’s all tied together. Maybe the best contribution we can make to the fight is following up on this vision of yours.”

Yeira bit her lip, thinking. Finally she nodded. “Okay. I agree. It’s too much of a coincidence. Let’s do it.”

“Now?”

She slid her fingers into the neckline of his shirt, caressing the firm warmth of his skin. “Yes. I feel like I’m already too late. I don’t want to wait any longer.”

~AN~

A harsh call beyond the cabin’s walls ripped Cari back to consciousness. Her gaze swept the cabin and, for a moment, she couldn’t remember how she’d gotten there or why she was lying on the floor.

Then memory returned.

Groaning, Cari pushed to her feet. Her arms and legs were heavy, the muscles sore, but at least they were working again. She frowned as she remembered how Grimm’s protective webbing had attacked her. Was it possible he’d warded it that strongly? Would he do that to her?

She dismissed the thought immediately. Something must have changed the warding. Something he hadn’t anticipated.

The raven’s husky call broke the silence again and Cari shivered, gooseflesh rising along her arms. Rubbing them, she blew out all the candles in the room and moved to the window, taking care not to touch the glass or wall around the frame. Pulling the rough cotton away from the window, Cari scanned the night beyond the glass.

She couldn’t see anything.

The landscape was shrouded in pure darkness. Not a sliver of moonlight or soft glow of stars lit a single blade of grass.

It was an unnatural dark.

The shadowed form of a large, half-dead tree swayed in the breeze, drawing Cari’s gaze upward.

There!
In the topmost branches, a raven’s distinctive form rose from the leafless length. The massive bird sat so still, its black gaze fixed on the cabin.

Power to power. Power to death.

The words filtered through her memory, dredged up from some dark, unrecognized place outside her own mind. Cari had no idea what they meant. But their existence made her shudder.

The wind surged, nudging the dead branch and making it dance as the raven lifted its midnight wings.

Something slammed into the door and Cari jumped, shrieking before she could stop herself. The door trembled under another blow and dust filtered down on her head from the trestles above.

Cari’s fingertips stung and she lifted her hands, frowning at the spit and sizzle of silver light on their tips. Magic? But she was a limited mage. She had no unique magic.

Even as she had the thought something powerful surged within her. Fire boiled in her belly, spreading outward to warm the muscles in her arms and legs. The energy spread like lava through her veins, bringing a scream of agony to her throat.

Cari clamped down on the scream, gritting her teeth as the rabid energy boiled inside her.

The door rocked again, seeming to bow inward on its frame, and then blasted into wood dust that sprayed the room. Tiny splinters, propelled on the front edge of an immense energy, pierced her skin and embedded themselves into everything around Cari. When the dust cleared a single, lone figure stood beyond the door, dusty white robes swirling around pale ankles and wrists.

A thick mane of golden hair danced around a hooded face, the ends ragged and unhealthy. And on one bony shoulder, the raven sat, its round, ebony gaze locked on Cari.

She stepped back into the shadows, feeling them slide over her like a soothing wash. The raven’s head tipped and its beak came open, casting the bird’s strident voice into the silence.

The air heated upon that cry. It pressed against her, pulling air from her lungs. Cari coughed, clutching her throat. The energy she’d held at her fingertips died, sizzling away as she struggled to breathe the magic-drenched air.

“Allow me inside, girl.”

She recognized the voice. It was the wizard from the dungeons below the witches’s lair.

She shook her head, pulling the shadows around her shoulders like a cloak. “Go away. Haven’t you done enough harm?”

Thin, dry lips spread in a mean little smile. “Enough? I haven’t even begun, witch. Or should I call you hunter?” He cocked his head, his features obscured by the drape of the tattered hood. “Have you an equal mix of both? I think that is what makes you so formidable. Power to power.”

Cari looked around for a weapon she could use but there was nothing. Nothing except the greasy energy boiling in her belly. She shuddered against the thought of using that.

“I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. I’ve done nothing to you. Go away and leave me alone.”

“No, you are correct. You have done nothing to me. But your sister has. And because of her machinations I am forced to use your virgin powers to heal.” The head dipped. “Are you aware that power unused over time grows in strength?”

Cari frowned. She’d thought she had no powers, except the ability to read energy in others and determine how to meet it. But something he’d done in that dungeon had broken her open inside. Something dark and deadly had shown its ugly face to her. And something powerful chomped at the bit for release. “If what you say is true, you’d better go before I decide to use the energy you unleashed.”

He laughed. “You have no more idea how to use your exceptional power than my familiar knows how to sing in the space opera.” He twitched the shoulder holding the raven and the bird lifted its wings, squawking with irritation.

Cari concentrated on loosening her grip on the energy roiling in her belly. For a brief, horrifying moment she thought she would lose control. But she gritted her teeth against the surge and forced it into a narrow trickle, which she allowed to slide toward her hands.

The power still ran hot, but it was a comfortable heat, easily absorbed. “You’ve already underestimated me once, wizard. Do you think you should do that again?”

The small form standing in the dirt beyond the door stiffened. “I did underestimate you, girl. I also overestimated the commitment of my apprentice. I will not do that again.”

Cari played with the feel of the power in her hands, letting it slide free in increments. She concentrated on pulling the darkness toward her because she’d learned it comforted as it obscured.

The figure beyond the door started and stepped forward, the hood dropping from his head.

A birdlike, angular face peered into the cabin, eyes narrowed. “What are you doing?”

Cari smiled. She moved sideways and his gaze did not move with her.