Embrace the Magic (The Blood Rose Series Book 2) (24 page)

He grew edgier by the second. He needed to act, but Finn kept warning him to wait.

Another roll of images as the past rose up to torment him: Bodies everywhere, beyond the web holding the two warriors. Sweet Goddess, he could see women and children bloodied, drained, dead. Men as well. Realm-folk of all kind. A woman held her troll-babe in her arms, both dead.

He shouted into the air.

A hand clapped him hard on the shoulder. “Ethan!” Finn called sharply.

Ethan whirled, his mind encased with too much gore and his heart weighed down with guilt and pain. “They died here.”

“Who died here? Your family, you mean? Fuck, Ethan. What’s going on?”

“I have to help them.”

“Help, who?”

“My mother and father.”

Finn grabbed both his shoulders in his hands. “Look at me!”

Ethan stared hard at Finn. He focused harder. Finally, the images left and he pressed fingers against his eyes. “Sweet Goddess, I’m being tormented by the past.”

“Don’t think about it.”

He shook his head. He felt better. “Where’s Quinlan?”

“ETA 10 minutes. His Guard just reached the access point. He told us to hang tough.”

Ethan nodded. Movement from the web below drew his attention. One of his men struggled to escape, but the web tightened and he called out in anguish as the tendrils cut him.

Ethan made his decision. “At least I can do this. I can get them the hell out of there.”

He launched with Finn calling out. “No. It’s a trap. Ethan!”

He stopped before he reached the web. He knew enough not to touch the webbing, but that’s when a second layer released and the next thing he knew he was spun midair then pinned on his back, held in place by a top web.

He couldn’t move. Even the smallest shift of his body, sent tendrils up from the netting hooking him in tighter.

He’d never felt so helpless, which pissed him off. He balled his hands into fists, but now his hands were covered with tendrils that pulled and clawed at him, breaking skin and causing him to bleed.

He had to lie still, maybe the hardest thing in the world for him, to just stop. And do nothing.

Worse followed as he stared up at the ridge, where Finn stood with at least fifty of his Guardsmen because suddenly Ry appeared. But he wasn’t alone; he held Samantha in his arms. And if that wasn’t strange enough, somehow he was cloaked from view.

A stench reached him, of filth and decayed matter, a thick odor laced with fae magic.

Then he understood:
enthrallment. Fae enthrallment power, like nothing he’d ever known before.

She was here. The dark fae entity, the cause of all the trouble at the gorge. He understood several things at once, that she’d somehow gotten past all five of his Guards and that she was using Ry and intended to use Samantha to take control of Bergisson.

He watched Finn weave on his feet, then cover his face with his hands. The same thing happened to his entire Guard up and down the ridge.

Ry pierced Ethan’s mind telepathically.
It won’t be long now and I’ll take back what is mine.

Ethan tried to respond, to yell at Ry, to talk sense to him, but Ry cut the communication quickly.

He also attempted to reach Samantha, but he couldn’t path to her, couldn’t access her telepathy.

At the same time, images of the massacre returned and once more slammed through his mind. He knew he was being messed with, which helped him to understand at last what must have happened to Andrea, that the ancient fae had tormented her as well. Because what else could have prompted such a faithful woman to leave her home forever?

Ethan went very still inside and the images of forty years ago melted away, as though his own turmoil and bitterness had kept them there.

He was left with the difficult reality that he could have been wrong all this time about Samantha’s mother and what had really happened at Sweet Gorge that night. Until recently, he’d thought it had simply been a large, random Invictus attack that Andrea had seen in a dream but refused to report. She’d deserted Bergisson that night, leaving him to clean up the worst disaster his realm had ever experienced.

Guilt had covered him for decades, the sure knowledge that if he’d been more responsible, his family wouldn’t have died.

Now, tonight, in this moment, the truth rose to hit him harder still that Ry, along with a powerful enemy just barely making itself known to the Nine Realms, had planned and executed the massacre that night. Davido had been right after all: The sheer numbers would have overpowered him and he would have died as well.

Why forty years had elapsed before a second attempt, he didn’t know, but he had a strong sense that this day had been developing for decades, waiting for the arrival of Samantha to give Ry sufficient power to take the prize he sought, with the help of course of the dark fae force.

Samantha.

His thoughts turned to her, as Ry once more smiled down at him, holding her close. What he waited for, Ethan didn’t know, but he felt sure some timing was at work, maybe an Invictus force that needed to be moved into place.

But Samantha, Andrea’s very own daughter, had been the biggest surprise of all. He’d spent barely three nights with her, yet somehow his life had been transformed completely into something he hadn’t even realized until this moment. At long last love had pierced the hard shell of his guilt and opened up a hope that he could have a better life, one in which a woman slept in his bed, listened to his thoughts as he listened to hers, worked through difficult issues, and in the end became something
more
together than each would have been separately.

How changed Samantha was as well, though maybe she didn’t see realize it. But from the first, he’d caught a glimpse of her solitary life, not much different from his, though each enjoyed their labors. She’d been alone and now she had a new heritage, new gifts, even a new family if she could embrace it.

He didn’t want this to be the end, for Samantha to be bound and enslaved to Ry for what would amount to centuries and he didn’t want to die, but here he was caught in a kind of netting that cut at him if he so much as half-flexed his pinkie-muscle.

New images rushed through his mind, of meeting Samantha for the first time, of making love to her in his bed and feeding from her vein -- Sweet Goddess, all the times he’d fed from her! -- then of anchoring her while she gathered strength from the crystals whether at the fae Guildhall or within his conservatory. He recalled how he’d experienced such a pure, healing energy flow through him as she accessed her faeness in a beautiful stream of violet-silver light. And she’d healed him of five decades of blood-starvation, of a curse he’d accepted when his mastyr-power had arrived all those years ago. Suffering, pain, and the weight of realm-responsibility had all been eased by Samantha.

Now Ry had her.

She’d slipped through Ethan’s grasp like water pouring through his fingers.

And as his ranks struggled beneath the mind-control of the dark fae presence.

But to add to the present horrors, suddenly Invictus wraith-pairs moved in from behind, hundreds of them, surrounding his men.

And Ethan couldn’t lift a finger to do anything about it.

He tried to reach either Finn or Samantha telepathically, but somehow Ry blocked these communications.

There seemed to be no way out.

And Ry threw his head back and laughed, a hateful victorious sound that forged a fire of revenge in Ethan’s veins.

*** *** ***

Samantha knew Ry would begin the bonding process soon and that he would do whatever it took to bind her to him right now, on the ridge of Sweet Gorge, with Ethan trapped below beside two of his men in some kind of strange netting. The stench of the dark fae presence reeked now, all along the ridge and down into the gorge.

She
was here, that which had the power right now to end Samantha’s freedom forever, to take Ethan’s life, to destroy the Bergisson Guard and to control Ry and therefore the future of the realm, maybe even of all Nine Realms.

How foolish she’d been to think that only her choice between Shreveport and Bergisson was at stake, when right now her freedom for what would become centuries would soon be lost as well as Ethan’s life.

Ry had wanted him dead for a long, long time. She could smell that stench on him as well, that he intended Ethan’s death, hopefully executing both her bondage and Ethan’s demise at the same time.

He’d drink from her while he bound her and because the fae entity still muddled Samantha’s mind, it seemed an impossible situation to her, that there was no way out. She would succumb to Ry, he would grow in sufficient power, and he’d slay Ethan.

Ethan.

A calmness came over her when she thought about him, all that they’d been through. Unless something miraculous happened, the life as she’d known it and the extraordinary experiences she’d shared with Ethan would end in the next few minutes.

Despair ran through her as a deep awareness rose that what had arrived in Club Prave in Shreveport wasn’t just a mastyr vampire looking to uphold the law of his realm, but a man she could love. How surprising, sudden, unexpected and unbelievable, but yes, love had come to her in the form of a vampire.

Yes, she was part-realm, that much was true, but somehow her heritage didn’t factor in at all. She loved Ethan, that he made her laugh, that he made love to her like a god, that he was kind and considerate, that he loved Bergisson, something Ry would never understand and never be able to do.

Ry wanted power and he wanted to rule, as a dictator would, with full control.

Ethan wanted his realm-folk safe. That was all. He wanted his people safe to make their livings, to fall in love, to create families and to build future generations for centuries to come.

Ry didn’t care if he brought all Nine Realms down to nothing, just so long as he was Mastyr of Bergisson.

In that moment, she made her decision, the one that had seemed so impossible a few hours ago, whether to remain in Bergisson or not, whether to take up a life as Ethan’s blood rose, or not, whether to engage with the powerful fae community or not.

She wanted to stay, in part because she now understood that the dark fae presence had ruined her mother’s life, had so troubled her mind, forcing images through her, that she’d been unable to cope with the visions, the blood and gore, the pain and anguish, so she had left her world behind and made a new life in Shreveport.

Now Samantha had come home, to take up what was rightfully hers if she wanted it.

And yet what stood in her way right now seemed unconquerable: A vampire without a conscience who had complete physical power over her.

But was there a way out, a way to possibly connect with Ethan?

After all they’d been through, surely, she could establish a connection and break the control that the dark fae entity had over Sweet Gorge.

But how?

One thing she did understand, the calmer she remained, the less muddled her mind was. If she struggled or tried to break free, it was as though these actions alone brought the dark force once more invading her mind and removing her ability to reason.

She therefore took deep breaths and waited.

She wouldn’t be able to do this alone. As calmly as she could, she opened her telepathic frequency to Ethan, but Ry entered her mind.
Can’t let you do that, sweetheart. You’re mine now.

She said nothing in response.

She waited.

A female voice intruded. “Now is the time, Ry. Take your prize and Bergisson will be yours.”

Ry pushed her hair away from her throat.
I’m going to make you mine, Samantha, right here on the ridge, in front of Ethan, the Goddess, and everyone else.

Unwilling to give him the satisfaction of her fear or to alert the fae entity to her clear mind, she remained very still, but every ounce of her spirit became focused solely on Ethan.

No more holding back with him.

Whatever he needed from her right now, was his for the taking. She met and held his gaze, hoping he could somehow intuit her intentions, her love, her willingness to do anything that was needed in this situation.

She mouthed the words, ‘For Bergisson’.

His brows lifted slightly, then a slight curve touched his lips.

Chapter Ten

Ethan’s heart swelled, a physical movement that the webbing couldn’t touch.

He loved Samantha, with all his heart. He knew that now, deep in his spirit, in the combined frequencies that made up his vampire nature. If he’d had any doubt before about her worth, or whether he should give himself to her fully, she had just washed them away as she mouthed ‘for Bergisson’.

She got him, she got his world, and she got her purpose in his realm and what he felt was joy, pure and simple.

He felt her calmness as well, a mirror of his own, that their current circumstances, each bound so heavily and unable to move, had quieted their respective thoughts and movements, given each time to think and to reassess.

Mostly, he knew she was with him, all the way.

Hope began a powerful journey back through his veins, rebuilding his determination to somehow find a way out of this deadly situation, but with new insights, primarily that he wasn’t alone in his command.

He shifted his gaze back to Ry, now holding Samantha closer.

Ry pathed Ethan again.
This is for you, Ethan, for taking what belonged to me. So now I’m taking what you desire and returning Bergisson to her rightful owner at the same time.

But Ethan didn’t respond. He remained very still, turning his attention solely to Samantha.

Ry drew his lips back, letting his fangs emerge fully, two wet, powerful points.

Ethan watched the fangs strike. His body reacted on instinct, a sharp jerk which much to his surprise caused the web, just for a split-second, to give way.

Startled, he looked around. Why hadn’t the web tightened instead? Cut him up?

What had changed.

Only one thing: Ry had pierced Samantha’s neck, which must have meant that once he shifted his attention to her, it broke a connection elsewhere.