Bound to Me (7 page)

CHAPTER EIGHT

V
alerio kept one hand tightly wrapped around my elbow as I attempted to march straight into the Main Hall of the coven. After watching Valerio struggle with feeding for more than an hour and knowing the cause was likely just a game to Jabari, I was ready for a little spilled blood. I also didn’t appreciate being in the middle of a power struggle between Sadira and Jabari. I was not a toy to be fought over.

Dark clouds churned overhead and the trees that lined the narrow path toward the Main Hall swayed as the wind picked up. In the distance, I could hear the lagoon slapping hard against the side of the island, as the wind whipped the water into a frothing frenzy. The night was chilly despite being in the tight grip of spring, but I paid it little heed.

“Get a hold of your temper,
cara
,” Valerio warned.

“After you were nearly killed? I think not.”

His hand once again tightened on my elbow, forcing me to slow my gait to a leisurely stroll. “I should have been more careful.”

“If this was about me, you shouldn’t have been there at all.”

“Sending me was the only sure way they had to get you to go to Madrid. You would never have willingly gone alone. Everyone knows of your hatred for Sadira. If this was a game of Jabari’s, then they needed me as the bait.”

His words didn’t help to calm my temper. Valerio was not bait. He was my lover, my friend, my companion, my compatriot in arms.

As we rounded the last turn in the path, we found Jabari standing alone outside of the Main Hall, waiting for us. I had no doubt that the Ancient knew my thoughts and was hoping to have this conversation away from the rest of the court and the coven. I knew he was doing me a favor by trying to keep this private. A scene in front of the coven would definitely result in a harsh beating, if not my death. For now, I was a favored pet of the Ancient and apparently he was not ready to be rid of me.

“Welcome back,” Jabari began, throwing out his arms to us. “I trust that the problem in Madrid has been taken care of.”

“Yes, I killed the warlock that you hired to kill our people,” I snarled as I came to a halt several feet away from the nightwalker. Valerio retained his tight hold on me, seeming to fear that I would attack Jabari. I was seething with anger, but I was not yet insane. I knew that Jabari could rip me apart in a heartbeat.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t you dare lie to me!” I screamed, finally jerking my elbow free from Valerio’s grasp. My companion took a step backward, putting some space between him and the fight that was brewing. He may have cared for me, but he would not step between us, should I invoke Jabari’s anger.

“Careful, my desert flower.” Jabari’s warning in a low voice, sent a chill across my skin, but I ignored it. He had a price to pay for what both Valerio and I suffered.

“Sadira told me everything,” I snarled, taking a step closer to him. “She told me how this was just a game between the two of you to see who actually possessed control over me. Nightwalkers were killed in the name of a stupid contest of wills. Valerio was nearly killed. You put me back into Sadira’s hands, a place I swore I would never go again. For what?”

“You are a powerful asset, Mira,” Jabari said. “I had to be sure of where your allegiances lie.”

“Allegiance? This wasn’t about allegiance. This was about control. I’m not your puppet to be played with.”

Jabari lunged toward me faster than I could possibly react. His large hand wrapped around my slender throat and he pulled me close so that my breasts brushed against his flowing white robes. His black eyes narrowed on me while I grabbed his hand with both of mine. I didn’t struggle or try to loosen his grip, but simply waited for him to make his first move.

“I’m afraid, my dearest, that you are my puppet,” he whispered in a soft, soothing voice. “But none of this matters. You chose correctly. Now I know that I do not have to worry about Sadira’s hold over you. You belong exclusively to me.”

“Sadira has no hold over me.”

“She has more power over you than you realize, but now is not the time for such things. None of this matters any longer because you won’t remember any of it.”

Panic struck like a fist to my stomach. I tried to struggle against Jabari’s hold on my throat, but he was too strong. Yet in this case, his strength made no difference. I felt his presence in my thoughts a second later and my entire body went completely stiff. I couldn’t move no matter how hard I tried. Plunging deep into my thoughts, I tried to push Jabari out but he was too powerful. I could feel him manipulating my memories about our trip to Madrid. My thoughts about Sadira grew hazy and fragmented.

Blackness crowded around my eyes and I felt my knees buckle beneath me so that I was being held up by Jabari’s hand around my neck. I mentally tried to swim against the darkness, but it continued to swamp me, dragging me down until consciousness slipped from my grasp. The last thing I heard was Jabari telling Valerio to get me away from Venice. And then there was nothing.

T
he night felt old and weary when I awoke buried under thick covers in a soft bed. I stared up at the ice blue canopy over my head, waiting for the shaking to stop. My last memories were of being held captive by Jabari as he pillaged my memories for his own purposes. But even that memory was starting to grow dim as time passed. I knew that before the sun rose I would not remember the encounter in front of the Main Hall. I wondered if this was the first time Jabari had manipulated my memories, but the sharp twist in my stomach told me that it was not the first and would not be the last.

As the trembling stopped, I threw off the blankets and sat up in bed. Looking around the room, some of the tension eased from my frame. I was in one of the bedrooms in Valerio’s home in Milan, one of the few places that I felt safe. We moved about too often for me to feel as if his place in Milan was a home, but I knew that I was safe for now as we had put some distance between us and the coven.

Looking down, I found that I was dressed in a white nightgown that brushed the floor. The material was so sheer than I might as well have been wearing nothing at all. A gentle breeze slipped through the room, rustling my nightgown before dancing out the open double doors. It was then that I finally sensed Valerio standing on the balcony. Joining him outside, he turned his head toward me and graced me with a sad sort of smile. He knew everything and would remember everything, but he would never be permitted to utter a word to me or it would mean his life. He carried a heavy secret, one of many relating to me, I was sure.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” I murmured.

Valerio extended one arm toward me and I walked into his embrace, loving the feel of being pressed against his strong chest. He had changed clothes and all evidence of his injury and trouble in Madrid had been wiped away, but I could feel the tension in his frame.

“I thought you would want somewhere quiet to recover from our trip,” he replied before pressing a kiss to my forehead.

“Why did he do it?” I whispered in a broken voice. “How could Jabari not trust me?”

“What do you mean,
cara
?”

I lifted my head to look him directly in the eye. “I remember, Valerio, though it is fading fast. It was just a game between Jabari and Sadira for control over me. How many died for their amusement? You nearly died because they needed to strengthen their control over me.”

“I’m sorry,
cara mia
,” he said. Lifting one hand to my cheek, he swept away a tear that was streaking down my face.

“How many times have they done this?”

Valerio said nothing, but his expression grew grimmer. The knot in my stomach tightened, making me feel sick as I wondered how much more I didn’t remember because of Jabari.

“Am I nothing more than a weapon to them?” I continued.

“You forget who you are, Mira. You are the Fire Starter. You are the ultimate weapon among our kind. The nightwalker that holds your allegiance holds power over all of our people. Jabari cannot afford to lose his control over you to anyone, even Sadira.”

“Is that why you are so eager for my company?”

Valerio smiled at me, his thumb caressing my cheekbone. “Having the Fire Starter at my side does afford me a feeling of security,” he admitted. “However, Jabari is keeping a close watch on our arrangement. He will kill me if he thinks there is a chance of me coming between your loyalties to him.”

“Then you’re taking a risk by being with me.”

“Cara
, you are worth the risk. I need your laughter and your warm spirit next to me as the nights drift past.”

“I’m not just another weapon?”

“No, you are my love.”

A lump grew in my throat as I stared up at him. It was the first time either of us had uttered that word in such a way over the past several decades of traveling together. I had never allowed myself to wonder how deep Valerio’s feelings ran for me. I couldn’t allow myself such thoughts for fear of questioning my own feelings for him. We always had a silent agreement that we were not to dwell on the serious, but just enjoy each moment and each amusement as they came to us.

Valerio’s hand dropped from my cheek and dipped into his pocket. The arm wrapped around my back moved and he gently took my left hand in his hand. I looked down as he slid a silver band over my ring finger. Waves were etched into the ring, flowing around the band like the waves of the ocean. Forever and unending.

“You are bound to me,” he said softly. His voice danced around me, wrapping me in a sweet embrace. “Not because I am your maker. Not because I have a power to control you. You are bound to me by love. Time will pass and we will drift apart, as all of our kind finally does, but we will forever have our hearts bound to each other by a deep love and respect. Jabari will never have the power to erase that memory or break that bond.”

Leaning into him, I tightly wrapped my arms around his neck and laid my head on his shoulder, snuggling as close as possible. Already my memories of speaking to Sadira were so foggy that I felt myself letting go of them. The last of the tension eased from my body and I closed my eyes. I wasn’t sure what Valerio was talking about with Jabari, as I doubted the Ancient would ever have reason to come between Valerio and me, but it didn’t matter. I knew that Valerio used me at times for his own amusement, but there were deeper emotions now tying us together.

“Let’s go inside,” I murmured against his neck, my lips brushing against his flesh. “I want to show you how much I love you.”

Valerio bent down and scooped me up in his arms. As he carried me back inside to the bed, I looked up and found him smiling at me. And all was right in my world.

If you enjoyed Jocelynn Drake’s Dark Days series,

read on for a sneak peek at her next book,

ANGEL’S INK,

the first in The Asylum Tales series,

coming in October 2012!

CHAPTER ONE

T
he hammer of a gun clicked as it was cocked back.

That small, distinct sound sent a shiver through me, despite the summer heat shimmering off the sidewalk. My heart skipped. I froze with my right foot on the bottom step leading up to the tattoo parlor—so close to sanctuary, and yet I didn’t have a chance. The front door was locked. I was trapped, hanging helpless in that second, waiting for the gunman behind me to finally speak or send a bullet screaming through the back of my head.

“You fucking lied to me, Gage!” snarled my assailant. The voice sounded familiar, but it wasn’t until I slowly turned around that I realized why my life was hanging by a thread. I had tattooed the man just a couple weeks ago and apparently he wasn’t pleased with the result.

Russell Dalton was a large, beefy man full of muscles and a layer of fat around his waist from too many Big Macs and not enough core exercises. He was loud, obnoxious, and cheap. In my opinion, he had got what he paid for, but then it looked like he wanted to take his anger and frustration out on my hide as he remained in the shadows of the alley beside the parlor.

“I never lied to you,” I replied calmly, holding my hands open and out to my sides to show that I didn’t have any weapons. In this world, you couldn’t be too careful. I resisted the urge to look up at the sky, knowing that it was not long after noon—hours away from when the hulking Bronx would be able to get to the tattoo parlor. Damn trolls and their weakness for sunlight. I was on my own for now, but then it was better that way. Just the two of us and no one watching.

“You promised me good luck,” Russell accused. “Since I got this damn tattoo, I was fired from my job, my car was stolen, and my wife wants a divorce. That ain’t good luck.”

“You paid me fifty bucks for a shamrock tattoo the size of a quarter on the bottom of your foot.” Balling my hands into fists, I let my foot fall from the step and turned around to fully face my attacker. “That was barely enough to cover the cost of the ink and my time and expertise, not to mention the leprechaun hair that I threw into the mix. Do you know how hard it is to get that shit?”

In all honesty, I had a contact at a popular beauty parlor across town and she was kind enough to grab up samples of hair for me at a price. It wasn’t that hard to get my hands on leprechaun hair. The only problem was that it so easily turned bad if you weren’t careful. Obviously, my stockpile had taken an unexpected turn. I made a mental note that if I used it again I needed to cut the spell with water from a spring snow melt or fuzz from a white rabbit to counter the negative energy from the leprechaun hair.

Unfortunately, this cheap-ass dirt bag hadn’t paid enough for me to take those kinds of precautions. Hell, he shouldn’t have gotten the leprechaun hair at that price, but I had been in generous mood. Sometimes I can be a real dumbass when it comes to my clients, but then my motto was that you get what you pay for.

“You have to fix it!” Russell snarled, ignoring my question. “You have to make everything right again!”

“And let me guess, you want this work done for free?” I sneered.

“Damn right it’s free! You’ve ruined my life!”

I took a step forward and to my surprise, Russell slid half a step backward into the alley. That worked for me. I didn’t want this on the street, should someone walk by. “If you want good luck, it comes with a price, and the kind of luck you’re looking for is extremely expensive. You blew through my front door demanding lottery-winning luck while waving fifty bucks in my face. You got what you paid for. Buyer beware, buddy.”

“You fucking asshole! You’re not the only tattoo artist in Low Town! I don’t need you!” he shouted, shaking the gun at me.

I took another step toward Russell, backing him farther into the alley. “Yeah, but I’m the best and that’s why you came to me instead of some broke-down backroom operation with dirty needles and shady ingredients.”

“You’re obviously not any better!”

I had had enough of this shit. Keeping my eyes locked on his, I let the gym bag on my right shoulder slide off and hit the ground with a heavy thud. As I expected, he jerked the gun toward the bag. Taking advantage of his distraction, I edged forward and slammed both of my hands into the hand gripping the gun, knocking the weapon to the ground. Still holding his right hand, I twisted it at an awkward angle while dropping to my knee, putting Russell on his back in the dirty cobblestone alley. Before he could get his wits about him, I slammed my elbow into his face with a smile, feeling his nose fracture beneath my forearm while the back of his head hammered into the brick-covered ground.

“Asshole,” I muttered. Standing, I dusted off my jeans and stepped back. “Don’t show your face around here again or I’ll tell the cops what kind of tattoo you really came in my shop for.”

Sucking in a deep, cleansing breath, I summoned up a smattering of energy that swirled around me, begging for my touch. I raised my left hand toward him and clenched my fist as if I were grabbing his shirt before throwing out my arm. Russell slid violently down the alley until his head clanged into the side of a dumpster.

My breath froze in my chest and I watched the sky for the tell-tale flash of lightning that would streak across seconds before the appearance of a guardian. I wasn’t supposed to be using magic, no matter how minute. And the guardians were itching for an excuse to put my ass in a sling. I didn’t need to push my luck, but Dalton got under my skin. I was an excellent tattoo artist and I didn’t need his kind of bad karma mucking up my business. After a couple seconds and no lightning bolt, I relaxed. For now, I remained under the radar and I intended to stay there.

A large hand appeared from out of nowhere and wrapped around my throat, picking me up and slamming me against the alley wall of the tattoo parlor. A sharp-featured face leaned close so that I could easily make out the silver eyes with a hint of green. Black hair flowed around his face, putting his features in dark shadow despite the bright sunlight.

“Gideon,” I choked out as I held onto his hand, trying to loosen his grip before I suffocated. “It’s been a long time.”

“Not long enough,” he said in a menacing voice as he raised his wand and dug it into my cheek.

My heart pounded in my chest far worse than when I was facing the barrel of Dalton’s gun. I’d always known I could stop a bullet, but I wasn’t prepared to stop any spell that this warlock was itching to throw in my direction. Apparently, someone
had
been watching. Fuck.

Gideon’s sneer turned into an evil grin. “You’ve been warned more than once that you have been forbidden to perform any of the magical arts. As I recall, you were the one that turned your back on us, saying that you didn’t need us or magic.”

Gritting my teeth, I pressed my hands into the wall behind me and kicked Gideon in the chest with both feet, shoving him violently away from me. I immediately erected a protective barrier as I slammed into the ground. A wicked flash of energy that shot from Gideon’s wand was deflected by the shield, briefly lighting up the alley.

“Before I left, the council agreed that I could use magic in acts of self-defense,” I shouted before Gideon could come up with another spell that would crash through my meager defensive shield. I had always been good at magic, but there was more to it than just being naturally attuned to the energies in the air. Being a powerful warlock took decades of study and I had stopped more than a few years ago. I didn’t stand much of a chance in a magic fight against a warlock like Gideon.

He picked himself up off the ground and dusted off his black pants and shirt. Gideon even took the time to shake out his cloak before turning to me. In this day and age, the cloak looked a little ridiculous, but I was no fool. That thing was woven with enough protective spells that the warlock wouldn’t be caught dead without it.

“I saw the fight,” Gideon said calmly. “The man was already down.”

“But not unconscious. I had to be sure that he wouldn’t follow me into my shop where I would still be alone and defenseless.”

“We all know you’re never defenseless.”

I shrugged, fighting back a smirk. “Relatively speaking.”

“You used magic when you were not permitted when dealing with this human. You broke your agreement. You’re coming with me.”

“Not today.” I shook my head as I dropped my protective shield and leaned against the wall so my shaking knees wouldn’t have to fully support my weight. “Bring me before the council and they will see that it was self-defense. An unarmed man against one with a gun. The council would be forced to find in my favor. Think about it, Gideon. I know you and everyone else in the Ivory Towers are eager to see me dead, but do you really want to waste the council’s time? They won’t look kindly on it.”

My only warning was a low, frustrated growl before he rushed across the alley and slammed my head against the wall. “I will let you go this time, renegade, but we are watching you. We will catch you eventually.”

“Try all you like.”

Gideon gave a little snort as he stepped away from me. “Why you’ve chosen to live among these useless flesh bags is beyond me.”

“That’s why,” I said in clipped tones. I refused to view humans as little more than chattel.

Gideon frowned at me one last time before he disappeared completely, heading back to the Towers, I was sure. Each continent was dotted with gleaming white towers made of white marble and granite that stretched above the clouds. These were the elusive Ivory Towers, their exact locations known only to the witches and warlocks that lived in them. And me. I knew where they were and had managed to escape with that knowledge, not that it was doing much good now.

Sliding down the grimy wall, I took a deep breath as I tried to slow my racing heart and my trembling hands. I had come too close that time. That self-defense argument was starting to run a little thin with the guardians and I had a dark suspicion that Mr. Dalton might have been given a little shove in my direction in hopes of pushing my buttons into using magic. It had worked. I didn’t like being threatened and I didn’t like when my abilities were questioned. Sometimes I had too much ego and not enough common sense.

If Gideon had his way, I would have been whisked away to the council in the Ivory Towers, found guilty, and executed all within an hour.

Pushing back to my feet, I paused for a second as I gazed down the alley and saw Dalton’s chest rise once with a heavy breath. Then I picked up the gun in one hand and my gym bag in the other. This neighborhood was getting more dangerous by the day.