Master and Apprentice (33 page)

Oh,
hell
no. Not this scion. Apparently she had forced Calvin to perform the fertility spell, but I wasn’t about to touch her long enough to find out.

“Ian, don’t …” Tory stirred and tried to get off the ground. I could finally see enough to put together what had happened. The shotgun had exploded in his hands and turned him into a shrapnel pincushion. “Don’t trust her.”

“I do not,” Ian snapped. “Not for a moment.”

Footsteps approached. Vaelyn stopped right beside me. “Do you have another choice, Gahiji-an? We’re offering everything you want. Take it.”

A wave of emotion hit me like a hurricane. Anguish and fury and desperation all at once. Ian, longing to believe he could have Akila back, painfully aware he had a better shot at destroying Vaelyn with a blade of grass.

I drew a harsh breath and slammed every bit of my consciousness against the healing point. New heat flared through my body, but this time it was pure magic. Charred skin smoothed and fleshed itself out. Frozen joints relaxed. Screaming pain calmed to mere agony.

Through it, I felt something strange. Small spots of pressure on the ground around me. I could sense where everyone was standing—and I felt the other scions. A dozen of them, positioned in a loose circle around the yard. Shit. She hadn’t been lying about that.

My tongue didn’t fill my whole mouth anymore. I forced it to move. “No.” I sounded like I’d swallowed a cheese grater, but at least it was a discernible word. “Fuck you. Not happening.”

“Oh, yes. He’ll do very well,” Vaelyn said. “Be reasonable now, child. One simple act, and you and your kin will never hear from us again.”

“Bullshit.” I pushed up a few inches and fell. Swore, tried again. Finally I propped up on one elbow and rested there to heave in a little oxygen. “You …”

The thought that arrested me closed my throat and almost gave it away before I could try what might be the dumbest idea ever conceived. I had to get close enough to draw her blood. Sex guaranteed that I’d be really damned close.

“You want a kid,” I said slowly. “With me.”

“Yes. Nothing more than that.”

I hauled in and gained a knee. Every motion sent knives through my blood. I paused again, panting, and stared at the ground. “You’ll leave us alone?
All
of you?”

“You have our word.”

I managed to lift my head and meet Vaelyn’s eyes. “All right,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

If the shock was any thicker, I could’ve used it to fix the Berlin Wall.

Tory glared, and Ian’s jaw hung somewhere around his knees. Even Calvin stared openmouthed at me, as if I’d just spit on a stack of Bibles. Mercy was the only one unaffected. She sat on the ground next to Zephyr, her gaze fixed on a point in the distance. I suspected she’d stopped trying to participate in reality for a while. Couldn’t blame her for that.

“Interesting.” Vaelyn subjected me to a long stare. “We expected greater resistance.”

“It’s like you said. What choice do we have?” I kept my features neutral and worked to keep up the healing process. It was going a lot slower than I’d hoped. “I do want something from you first, though.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What?”

“A snare spell.” I tried to gesture, to indicate the whole area, but my arms were on a union coffee break. “I don’t want anyone to be able to surprise anyone else.” I would’ve asked for disarmament too, but she’d probably insist on the same from us. And I couldn’t let her see what I had in my pockets.

She nodded. “A reasonable request. We will grant it.” She backed away a few steps and raised a hand.
“Sukkayati,”
she said, and waved the extended arm in a slow circle. At the border of the clearing, the scions popped into view one by one as she gestured. I recognized Kit, and Billy.

And Lynus. Who still looked like he’d hit thirty-something overnight, and held a speargun pointed directly at Ian’s head.

“Now, then.” Vaelyn smiled, but there was no warmth or
welcome in it. “What shall we do to ensure your cooperation?”

I probably should’ve known she wouldn’t make this easy. “You have my word, just like I have yours,” I said. “I don’t know what else I can give you.” The heat from the power I was using to heal kept rising. Sweat drenched me, soaked my clothes and plastered my hair to my skull. But I could almost move. I stayed on my knees and looked as weak as possible.

“Are you crazy, Donatti?” Tory struggled to his feet, but didn’t come any closer. “She’ll kill you! She’s not going to turn anyone over to us. We’re outpowered and outnumbered. You’re just going to—”

“Hold your tongue, boy. Let the thief make his own decision.” There was something lethal in Ian’s tone, an edge that demanded obedience. He knew what I was going to try. I’d thank him later for playing along, if there was a later.

Tory shut up. But his expression said he’d slit Ian’s throat if he could. And mine.

Vaelyn paced a few steps, stopped, and sent me a speculative look. “There is little you can do,” she said. “Still, we can’t have you attempting anything … noble. A paralysis spell won’t do. We will need some parts of you working, won’t we?”

“Ergh.” A mental shudder worked through me. “Yeah,” I said, trying not to sound like I was about to puke. “Guess we will.”

“And we can’t kill the prince or the Bahari brat—until we find their tethers. However.” She looked at Mercy, and a smile oozed across her face. “The woman is another matter.”

Calvin beat me to the protest. Only he did it in djinn, explosively, with a lot of nasty words that didn’t have English equivalents.

“You have nothing to fear, Khalyn, so long as the mongoose performs as he’s told.” She made a beckoning gesture, and two
of the older scions broke from the circle and headed toward us. “And this will ensure you remain on our side, won’t it?”

“Vaelyn, I swear …”

The two scions reached Mercy. She blinked up at them and said, “What? Ain’t you never seen a beauty mark before?”

“Look here, Luke. It’s the coon lady,” one of them said. “Even uglier up close, ain’t she?”

The other one, Luke, grunted. Each of them grabbed an arm and hauled her to her feet.

Mercy smiled sweetly at the one who’d spoken. “Got somethin’ on your face there, sunshine.”

His brow furrowed. “What?”

“My fist.”

In the space of a breath, she jerked out of Luke’s grip and clocked the guy a teeth-rattling blow to the chin. His head snapped to the side, his eyes rolled to white, but he didn’t fall. So Mercy kicked him square in the junk. He crumpled like a wet towel.

I couldn’t help it. I laughed—deep from the gut, an action that hurt every inch of my battered body. Damn, did she ever remind me of Jazz. I clutched my ribs and bent almost double, gasping, aware that I had to stop before I caused more damage.

Vaelyn launched a spell in a guttural voice. That sobered me. For a few seconds I couldn’t breathe, until I saw it was only a lockdown. Luke grabbed the motionless Mercy and hooked his arms through hers to wrench them behind her. “Really, Luke,” Vaelyn said with a sneer. “Can you not handle one ordinary female? Shall I have one of the others help?”

“Got her,” Luke grunted.

“See that it stays that way.” She returned her attention to me. “Now then, thief. The arrangements are quite simple. Once we have finished, we will release all of you. But if you
should attempt anything foolish, the woman will be injured. She will not die immediately. It will give you the opportunity to rectify any mistakes, and possibly save her.”

“Sounds great,” I muttered. At least the laughing fit had accomplished something. With my arms folded, I could get at the inside zipper of my jacket without drawing attention. I hoped. I worked it open slowly, concealing the movement with a couple of weak coughs and twitches. “So, should we get a room, or what?”

“No.” She licked her lips. “Remove your clothing.”

I froze, stared at her. “Come again?”

“You heard me.” She flashed a predatory expression. “We will do this here, with witnesses. You will be far less likely to change your mind this way.”

I swallowed hard. This wasn’t in the plan. “Um. Can you say performance anxiety? Because I seriously doubt I’m gonna be able to get it up with all these assholes watching.”

“We have ways to ensure your … preparedness.”

“Terrific. You planning to cast a Viagra spell on me?”

“A what?”

“Forget it.” I managed to slide a hand in my pocket, and gripped the handle of the twins’ tether. “Look, I’m not exactly in the best shape here—”

“Undress. Now.”

Her tone said I’d run out of stalling time. I was as healed as I was going to get, and if I didn’t try this now, I’d never have the chance. “Okay,” I said. “I’m doing it. Give me a second.” I reached my free hand back like I was going for a shoe. My throat felt like I’d eaten a sandbox, and my spine crawled with tics and shivers. If I fucked this up, and Mercy died, I didn’t think I’d be able to live with myself. Of course, Calvin would probably kill me, so I wouldn’t have to.

I drew a deep breath.
Make it fast, Donatti.
The first waves of heat seeped into me as I tapped the earth, sought out Mercy, and undid the lockdown spell on her. She’d have to be able to get away or this wouldn’t work. I heard her give a little gasp. And now I really had to move.

I twisted around and threw a lockdown at Luke. He went rigid, and Mercy slipped away from him. One step down. One giant, impossible leap to go.

Vaelyn’s mouth opened in silent surprise. The second of hesitation was enough. I lunged at her and brought her down, clamped a hand over her mouth. She glared at me, and I could practically read her mind.
You are a dead man.

Maybe. But I’d damn well bring as many of these assholes down with me as I could.

I produced the tether and plunged the blade into her throat with a grimace. Might as well make sure she couldn’t cast any spells for a few minutes—at least the ones that required words. Blood gurgled and spurted, splashing me and staining her robes. I figured that was plenty of hers. I pulled the dagger out, ready to add my blood to the mix and hopefully seal her inside forever.

Something wasn’t right. My gut lurched when I realized what it was. There were no glowing symbols on the knife. Not even a little glint of moonlight. No blood tell.

This wasn’t Vaelyn’s tether.

S
omething told me the only chance we had for surviving the next few minutes was to keep Mercy safe. And I had no time for secret plans. “Tory, get her in the house and protect her,” I shouted. “Right fucking now! And don’t let her back out, under any circumstances.”

I couldn’t tell whether he went for it or not, because right after I got the words out, the rest of our little party finally realized what I’d done.

The knife didn’t glow, but Vaelyn did. I stabbed at the light a few times, hoping to force her into expending more power. I didn’t get too many in before she finished transforming and wiggled free. Before I could give chase, the first gunshots cracked from the perimeter—and something rammed into me hard. It felt like I’d been smacked with an eighteen-wheeler, and then had a tank dropped on me. I landed facedown in the dirt and tried to figure out where I’d gotten hit.

But it wasn’t a bullet. It was Ian. He’d knocked me down, covered my body completely with his own. And the scions were still firing.

Shot after shot rang out. Not all of them found a target,
but I felt every bullet that ripped through Ian and sent him into jittering spasms. He didn’t even have time to scream. After five or six direct hits, he passed out, effectively jolting me from his head.

They kept shooting. His body jerked again, and again, mashing me farther into the ground. His blood drenched me. I clenched my jaw and resisted the urge to throw him off, to run at the bastards and tear them apart. Ian hadn’t saved me just so I could get my stupid ass blown away. I had to think, had to come up with something before Vaelyn managed to get back to her stubbornly not-captured self.

Through the sick pounding in my head, someone shouted a spell. I shuddered.
Too late, damn it, she’s back and she hasn’t lost an ounce of power …

A series of dry clicks echoed in the air. Some of the scions snarled curses. The gunfire stopped.

“Get up, apprentice.” The strained voice belonged to Calvin.

I struggled out from under Ian’s inert form, cringing at the wet crunching sounds his body made when it moved. I deliberately avoided looking at him when I got clear. Couldn’t bear to see the damage just yet. I scanned everywhere except the place where Ian lay. From what I could tell, Tory and Mercy had gotten inside. Even Zephyr must’ve taken the hint and run off somewhere.

Calvin had both hands wrapped tight around the neck of a huge black-and-red snake. The rest of the thing coiled around his legs, and it looked like it was squeezing hard. Light pulsed around the snake. Calvin clenched his jaw, and the glow faded. Somehow, he was keeping her from transforming.

“I can’t hold her long,” he said. “But I’ll keep her busy. You take care of them.” He jerked his head to indicate the scions.

“Right. No problem.” Some of them were still trying to unjam their weapons, but a few had started toward us. They didn’t look like they wanted to pat me on the back either. I glanced at the blade still in my hand. “Isn’t this your tether?”

“It is.” The Vaelyn-snake glowed again, and Calvin let out a grunt of effort. “She must have transferred herself to another tether without telling me. I don’t know … what, or where.” He gasped, swayed a little. “Thank you for saving Mercy.”

I nodded. “Let’s hope she stays saved.” “Yes. She can be a bit—”

Faint light washed through the snake. This time, it kept getting stronger. Calvin uttered something that sounded an awful lot like
shit.
“Stop them,” he said. “Please.”

“I will.”

He managed to kick free of the glowing coils and started dragging Vaelyn away. I tried to stop paying attention to them, to trust that he’d keep her occupied for a while. I had bigger problems.

Like Lynus. Who’d ditched the useless speargun, and advanced anyway, with an expression that said he’d tear me apart with his bare hands if he got close enough.