bedeviled & beyond 07 - beset & bewildered (16 page)

I shook my head. “I can’t find you in the haze.”

The hands shook me again. “Darma, wake the hell up!”

My eyes popped open and I was looking into my sister’s worried face.

“Thank the Big Him. Finally! Here, let me help you up. We need to move.”

I blinked. The haze was gone. “Where are they?”

Astra got behind me and slid her hands under my arms, yanking me upright. My head spun and I had to grab hold of her for a moment as nausea flared. “Damn...” I swallowed hard. “What just happened?”

Astra held onto my arm as I tried to regain my balance. “I have no idea. But whatever it was, the experience is definitely going into my shitty day book.”

I opened my eyes and squinted at her. Astra’s clothes were torn and her face was covered in filth. Her auburn curls stood almost straight up from her head in spots. She looked like she’d gone several rounds with a super-demon. “Were those...?”

“Nightwhiffs? I think they were. And I didn’t get the feeling they were trying to kill us.” She grinned, her perfect teeth white behind the dirt smeared across her cheeks. “Check this out.” She lifted her hand and shot a power arrow that disintegrated a massive chunk of ice-painted rock across the passageway. I ducked as pieces of ice and rock flew around us. “How?”

She shook her head. “Didn’t you feel it? The magic?”

I thought back to the weird journey, remembering the bursts of energy sizzling against my skin. “Flashes of it. I thought it came from the Nightwhiffs.”

“It did, but it wasn’t random power, Darma. They sense the necromancer magic inside us.”

I frowned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

She sighed, clearly frustrated. “Don’t you remember? Aunt Deirdre could funnel energy from the dead. She taught me a little of it but to tell you the truth, I forgot about the ability until I ended up in Nerul’s godforsaken cave with the carpet made of human souls.”

My eyes went wide as I remembered. She’d torn a very powerful royal devil to pieces using that energy. “Aunt Deirdre...”

Astra put her hands on her hips and glared at me. “Snap out of it! We have work to do.”

Anger finally worked its way through the fog in my brain. “I am snapped! I was just trying to remember. I vaguely remember her trying to tell me something about that before father told her she couldn’t teach us anymore.”

Astra nodded. “You didn’t want to learn it anyway, but I did. So she continued to teach me. A little anyway. Then I forgot about it when she died.” Shoving a handful of messy auburn hair off her face, Astra fixed me with a determined gaze. “We’re going to use the energy the shadows gave us to save Slayer.”

I liked the sound of that, but there was no “we” in that plan. She was the one with the newly discovered magic. Not me. “You want me to hold your hair while you blast Morta?”

She curled her lip. “Don’t be stupid, Darma. Can’t you feel the power? It’s sizzling through you right now. I can see it in your aura. You’re lit up like a Christmas tree on the North Pole.”

I lifted my hand and looked at it, reaching for the core of my magic and giving it a gentle tug. Power shot out of my hand and slammed into the wall behind me, sheering off a chunk of my hair and burning the curve of my ear as it went.

“Shit!” Astra dove for the floor and I fell on my butt, hair smoking. “Good God in Heaven.”

Astra climbed to her feet. “Believe me now?”

Grimacing, I ran a fingertip over my damaged ear. I would have liked to heal it but wasn’t sure I could control my newfound energy. I might shear off the whole side of my head in the process. “This...death energy we’ve been gifted might actually have a shot at taking Morta down.”

My sister offered me her hand. “If you can stay on your feet long enough to kick her ass.”

I let her pull me off the floor again. “She won’t be expecting it. She thinks we can’t access our power.”

Astra frowned. “Don’t count too much on her being completely surprised. She’s going to recognize the electronic signature of our new energy. Those are her Nightwhiffs.”

“Okay. You’re right. But maybe we can mask it.”

“The aura hiding technique we’ve been working on?” She nodded. “That might work. Come on, we need to get going. Those spirits told me where she was holding Slayer and how long we have until the healing. It’s not long. And I have no idea how long I’ve been screwing around with you.” She took off running.

I lunged forward, falling into a run beside her. “I just have one question.”

She threw me a quick glance. “What?”

“Please tell me my hair isn’t sticking straight up in clumps like yours.”

She twisted her lips, her jaw tightening. Finally she glanced my way. “Well, it would be. If you hadn’t seared about five inches off the ends back there.”

I yelped, my hand flying to the crunchy tips of my hair, and Astra accelerated, her laughter bouncing softly back to me as she ran.

~SC~

The prisons were several floors below Morta’s throne cavern. Where the upper levels had been damp and cold...grave-like...the level where Slayer was being held was bone chilling. Ice glazed the rough-cut walls and hung in icicles from the iron bars of the cells. The stone that formed the floor of the prison level was so cold it burned the soles of our feet right through our boots. I couldn’t imagine how miserable Slayer had to be. He’d been down there much longer than we had. “There!” I told Astra. “The last cell. Where the guards are focusing all their attention.”

Astra nodded. “We’ll get as close as we can. Then I’ll create some kind of diversion and you shift into the cell and grab him. Take him to the cavern where Dialle and Torre are. I’ll meet you there.”

I shook my head. “They aren’t in the cavern anymore. We were coming to find you when the Nightwhiffs grabbed me.”

Astra skimmed along the glossy wall, the shadows wrapping around her like a cloak. “Go there anyway. I’ll try to communicate with Dialle and tell him that’s where we’re going to make our stand.”

We’d talked about it as we ran toward Slayer. We’d decided the heavy presence of the left-behind souls in that room would give us the best chance of beating Morta.

We skulked along the passage, moving as quickly as possible and ducking into shallow niches cut into the walls where we could. We finally stopped a few cells up from Slayer’s. From where we hid I could just see Slayer standing before the bars, eyes closed as if he were meditating.

Four ghouls stood outside the cell, their backs to their prisoner as if they’d already dismissed him. Knowing Slayer as well as I did, that might just prove to be a fatal mistake. I reached carefully for the gifted energy and sent myself into a shift to the spot just behind Slayer.

In a blink I was there, his broad back shielding me from view of the guards.

He stiffened as soon as my feet touched ground, but didn’t turn. “You never cease to surprise me, Princess,” he murmured huskily.

An explosion lit up the passageway, illuminating the guard’s bony faces and dancing flames into their empty eyes. Quick as a wink all four ghouls had yanked their scythes from their sheaths and floated out of view, toward Astra’s diversion.

Slayer turned around and, before I could tell him what we had planned, dragged me into his arms and lowered his lips hungrily to mine. 

Need, fierce and sharp, slammed into me. Without conscious thought my hands lifted and slipped through the soft silk of his hair, sliding it between my fingers. He groaned huskily as I parted my lips, allowing his hot tongue through to tease mine. He tasted like sex and heat and I quickly lost myself in his fire. Sensation upon sensation swamped me. His woodsy scent filled my nostrils, spreading lust in my belly in an explosion that made my knees weak. His hard hands found the curve of my buttocks, pulling me against the thick ridge of hard flesh beneath his battle leather. His lips conquered mine, ravaging them with an intensity that pulled breath from my lungs and made my sexual core clench with hunger.

I moaned softly, running my fingers through the short black silk of his hair and holding him in the kiss. His kiss was everything I’d known it would be. Possessive, hungry and giving no quarter, it commanded the rampant lust that fueled it.

I would happily have stayed in the hard band of his arms for hours, exploring the delicious heat we seemed always able to create together at the slightest touch. But another explosion tore me from the daze of lust and I forced myself to step away, though lust still pounded blood through my veins, making it hard to breathe. “We need to go.”

He grasped my wrist as I reached for him. “I can’t.”

Frowning, I let irritation sweep through me, pushing a small measure of the raging lust back just enough to allow me to grasp coherent thought. “We don’t have time for this, Slayer...”

He cupped my cheek in a big hand, his thumb rubbing gently against my swollen lips. “Go and let Morta heal you, Princess. I’m where I need to be.”

“That’s ridiculous. Astra and I have a way to defeat her. But I need to get you to safety first.”

His smile was sad. “I’m glad. But you need to let her heal you first.” The hand on my face slipped down, encircled my throat. His black-flecked golden gaze turned intense. “Promise me you will, Darma. If I know you’ll be okay I can go happily to my death.”

I tried to jerk away from him. “Don’t be stupid. You’re not dying in this damn ice-laden mountain.”

His gaze filled with sadness. Even as the urgency of our situation in that cell tugged at me, making my pulse pound painfully with the need to move, I suddenly realized with a jolt why he was willing, even eager, to sacrifice himself. “It’s not your fault that Queen P gave Morta her son to save you, whatever her reasoning.”

He shook his head, his square, stubbled jaw tightening. “Don’t, Darma. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I know you. And I know how ruthlessly practical the dragon queens can be. I’m guessing she decided the queendom needed you and your protection more than she needed a son who could never claim the throne.”

I could tell by the fresh pain flashing through his gaze that my guess had hit the mark. “You can’t blame yourself for that, Slayer.”

“Don’t tell me how I should feel,” he said angrily, turning away. “Just go. Have your healing and walk away from this horrific place. If you can take down the necromancer all the better. But don’t look back, Darma. There’s nothing left for you here.”

Finally, anger got the best of me. I stepped around him and punched him in the shoulder. He stumbled backward, slamming against the bars. To my vast surprise he laughed. Rubbing his shoulder, Slayer straightened away from the bars and shook his head. “Like I said. You never fail to surprise me. Have a nice life, Princess.” He turned to the cell door and, before I could grab him and engage a shift, called out. “Guards! There’s a beautiful intruder in my cell.”

I sensed them coming before I saw them. The magic the Nightwhiffs had given me apparently allowed me to feel the auras of the death-dwelling creatures.

Slayer blocked the cell door with his big body, giving me a final, sad smile. “Take care of yourself, Darma.”

Tears slipped hotly down my cheeks. As the ghouls slammed the cell door open, I shook my head and engaged my shift, Slayer’s impossibly handsome face fixed forever in my memory as I left him behind. To face death alone and by his own choice.  

Suicide by necromancer.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Too Real to be Real

Dead...all dead,

Just me...left behind to mourn them.

I was despondent as I traveled back to the healing cavern. My bones hurt. I had no energy. All I wanted to do was curl up on the floor and brood. On some level I knew the depth of my emotional plunge wasn’t normal. I suspected something in Morta’s wards created fear and sadness even as it locked me into powerlessness by blocking my magic.

Despite that knowledge, I couldn’t seem to overcome the emotional lethargy. All I could think about was Slayer’s impending death.

When the world came back to me in all its dark and icy horribleness, I sagged against a nearby wall and worked to fight off tears. I was wallowing so hard in my pain that it took me a moment to notice the unnatural silence. The cavern was strangely quiet. Too quiet.

I lifted my head and jerked in surprise.

Morta stood several feet away, her tall form deathly still and her unusual face blank of expression. She stood with her hands clasped, seeming to study me with a smug smile. “Did you have a nice visit with your lover?”

I blinked at the word, realizing that the necromancer had been suffering under a misconception about Slayer and me. In that moment I realized it was why she’d taken him. She’d hoped to feed on my pain and fear even while she dined on Slayer’s bright soul.

I opened my lips to argue with her and stopped. It wouldn’t save Slayer. He was determined to die to save me. I couldn’t save him if he didn’t want to be saved. But I could keep her from savoring my pain.

Lifting my chin, I smiled. “I was glad of the chance to say goodbye. It’s not everyone who has someone who’s willing to die for them. I consider myself very lucky.”

The necromancer’s smile slid away. Though the nasty creature didn’t give away her thoughts by word or posture, her black aura swirled with anger.

I glanced quickly around the healing cavern, realizing with a start that it was full of ghouls. Despite the sheer numbers of them, I was guessing hundreds if not thousands, their silence was complete. It was disconcerting.

“Do you not wonder where your sister and her friends are?”

I blinked in surprise.

She laughed. “Do not think you can do anything in these environs without me knowing it. I am a puppet master and you are my puppets.” She swayed sideways, her long robes swinging slowly around her legs, and extended an arm to show me three bodies, face down on the floor.

I gasped, recognizing Astra and the two men. “What did you do to them?”

“Dead, my lovely. And oh so delicious too. I don’t think I’ve had such a fine meal before in my long, long life.” She cast a look of regret toward my sister as I fell quietly apart. “It is unfortunate, really. I would have preferred to savor the young queen. She had amazing abilities as a necromancer. I could have used her services to harvest my meals.” Shaking her head, the creature turned back to me. “I guess I’ll just have to keep you instead.”