Ollie, Ollie Hex 'n Free (22 page)

My legs moved independently of me or my wants. I should have fucking killed the witch. Instead I now moved silently through the castle toward the dungeon. The witch had better kill me because as soon as she released me that was exactly what I was going to do to her.

Turn left,
her voice rang through my thoughts and my body obeyed. I slipped into the dark stairwell that led down to the dungeon. A guard stepped in front of me. Recognition flickered in his eyes.

I growled her command, “Get out of my way.”

The guard’s hand drifted toward his weapon. “Stand down, vampire.”

She lashed out with my arms that knew what to do even without her command. A moment later hot liquid dripped from my fist as my hand squeezed the chunk of throat it had ripped out. The guard fell to the floor with sputtering gurgles as I stepped over him and dropped my chunk of his neck. I had one goal, release Monique.

Before I made it to her cell, two more guards fell at my feet. I clenched the cold, iron bars of the cell door and yanked. Had I been in control of my own body I would have laughed. Vampires were strong, but we couldn’t rip doors from prison cells.

“You’re too late,” the witch inside the cell said. “I’m of no use to you anymore.”

“You still have a function.” Jessica’s frustration grew within me as my head turned toward one of the fallen guards. I squatted down next to his body and felt for keys.

Footsteps stopped on the stairs above, undoubtedly having found the body. No more noise followed which meant someone was definitely coming. If either witch realized it too, they made no indication for my hands kept searching for the key and Monique watched silently. “You did not get the fortuna,” my voice said.

“I didn’t expect the witch. We could still get her.”

I shook my head. “It is too late. The child comes now and the ritual must be performed.”

A strong emotion crossed Monique’s face, but she didn’t speak. She tilted her head to the side, dark hair falling over her shoulder as she watched the jerky movements of my arms because I continued to resist every command Jessica made. “You have taken over the vampire. I told you, you should have done it sooner.”

And I would kill her second.

“It is no matter. I have him now.” She gave up searching the two bodies closest to the cell. “Which guard has the keys?”

“I do,” a voice said behind me. At Jessica’s command I stood and turned toward Frost, pulling out a dagger. “We are not your enemy, necromancer. You are one of us.”

Frost absorbed the situation fast. “Actually, I’m one of them.” She nodded to me. “Release the vampire. He will never get into that cell.”

“If you want him, come and take him.” Jessica held my arms out wide. Frost didn’t move toward me at all. “Very well.” My right hand jabbed the knife into my stomach up to the hilt on the left side. Pain washed over me and I sank to the floor as she twisted the knife with my own hand.

Frost yanked the blade from my abdomen and pressed her hand to the wound. I sucked in a breath. “Selene,” I choked out. “She’s doing this to get to Selene.”

Frost barely glanced up. “How?”

My hand lashed out, hitting the petite woman across the face, sending her careening into the stone wall. My fingers found the knife again.

“No,” Frost said, tackling me from the side even as blood ran from the corner of her mouth. Her fist hit my wound, clearing my head with a new round of pain. “You have to fight her,” she gasped.

“I am.” Even as we spoke I could feel the wound closing as if I were feeding, because that was exactly what I was doing—feeding from Selene. “You can overpower her,” I said.

Frost struggled the knife from my grip and rolled out of my reach. “I can’t. I’ve never done necromancy.”

“It’s innate. You can.”

Her nearly white eyes looked up at me, one side of her face already swelling and bruised. “I don’t want to accept it.”

Kill the necromancer.

I knew exactly what Frost was talking about, but we didn’t have time for this shit. My fingers and legs twitched. “She wants to possess Selene’s child. She’s weakening her through me. You can stop this.”

Kill her. Kill her now.

I lurched forward, unable to stop myself any longer. Selene’s pain and need wrenched through me. I was killing her. My fingers curled around Frost’s neck, tightening until her eyes bulged. Her feet slapped against the floor as Jessica chanted in my mind to kill the necromancer. Frost’s fingers uselessly clawed my face—but then she caught my head in her hands and her darkly rimmed pale eyes became my world.

I’m sorry, Corbin,
her voice sounded in my head as she slammed my forehead down against hers. She held our heads together. Slowly my fingers eased their grip. Frost sucked in air, coughing and sputtering, then knocked me to the side, off of her.

I could hardly move, and as I stared up at the stone ceiling I could feel my life slipping away. But it wasn’t my life though. It was hers. Selene’s life hung in the balance. “I need to feed.”

Frost gave a wet cough in response, not sitting up either.

The castle trembled around us. It was happening now.

I forced myself to my feet and left the necromancer where she was. I had no idea what she had done to us, but whatever it was, the other witch was gone. Stumbling up the stairs, I fell against the hard marble at the top. Pain like I had never known spread through me as the room violently shook. Paintings crashed to the ground, glass shattered all around, and chunks of materials fell from the ceiling. Selene was going to bring the entire building down on all of us.

Footsteps ran through the room to my left, then stopped and headed my way.

“Corbin,” Katrina said breathlessly. “Are you hurt?” She reached for me.

“Don’t touch him,” Frost said, finally making it up the stairs. “I drained enough of his life he will have to feed no matter who it is.”

“But Selene?” Leslie said, joining them.

“If you want to help Selene, we have to stop Jessica now,” Frost shouted over the constant rumble of the castle being torn apart. “She’s doing her spell now.”

“Where is she?” Katrina asked.

“Outside,” I said. Finally getting my feet back under me, I moved as far away from the witches as I could. They were too alive, too tempting to resist, and ran directly into Lily, the fortuna. I clutched her to my chest, unable to hold back any longer, and kissed her with the intensity of my need. She stopped struggling almost immediately and her mouth opened in response to the tip of my tongue tracing the seam of her lips.

Two sets of hands dragged me away from her, but she waved her hand in the air dismissively and came back to me. The hands released me as she pressed her body against mine from bottom to top. Her lips were firm and demanding against mine. I was all too happy to comply. The harder I pulled against her life force, the more insistent her body became against mine.

The shaking around us stopped and everything settled into unnatural silence, just as someone hit me from the side, knocking me away from Lily. I looked up at Sy. His eyes burned as he stepped between the two of us.

The fortuna had given me enough life that my thoughts were coming clearer now. I didn’t want to fight him. I didn’t want to fight any of them if it would hurt Selene more. I took off for the stairs, taking them two at a time toward Selene’s bedroom.

The guards blocking the door came at me and I could hear Sy on my heels. Moving as fast as I could, I knocked the guards out of the way and lurched open the door I knew she lay behind, slamming it closed behind me. The echo carried through room, but neither Selene or Cheney moved even an inch on the bed.

I was too late.

Leslie and I took off for the front door, Frost hobbling along behind us, an arm clutched to her ribs. She was hurt, bleeding and bruised. Jessica was going to eat us alive.

“I’ll take Jess,” I said. Anyone could see Frost wasn’t going to be up for it.

“No. I have it,” she said. “I can do it alone.” She handed me and Leslie a knife. “The two of you need to keep whatever is with her away from me.”

“The whole point of having a coven is you don’t have to do any of this alone,” Leslie said, taking the knife.

The room stopped shaking and everything went still. A sinking feeling crashed into me. Oh shit. That probably wasn’t good. A loud knock sounded on the front door and echoed through the castle.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

“Little pig, little pig, let me come in,” Jessica called from the other side of the door.

I backed away, thinking of spells that might help. “You got your gloves on Frost?”

“Yes,” she said tersely.

I nodded. “Might want to take them off.”

“Then I’ll huff and puff and blow the door in.” The front door launched across the room as Jessica, eyes black, came through the opening with at least twenty of her goons. They all looked exactly the same, at least 6’6 and 350 pounds of pure muscle. Where was she getting these people?

Frost stayed where she was, shook out her hands, then began chanting the spell to take Jess’s magic with a slow steady pace. Leslie and I charged forward, trying to put some distance between us and her. Five elven guards joined us in the line, but kept a clear path for Frost to do her thing.

“Protect, Frost,” I called out.

The goons didn’t stop once they started their charge. A meaty fist flew at my face, moving fast.

With a yelp, I ducked, barely missing the swing. The magically powered goon moved past me and into battle with two elves, obviously headed directly toward Frost. I wasn’t a fighter, but there was no way I would let him distract her. Without thinking about it or what I would do once I was there, I leaped onto his back, clawing at his face.

The goon grabbed one of the elf guards by the neck. I stabbed the goon in the throat. His blood loosened my grip and he shook me off. I tumbled to the ground, but he let go of the elf who grabbed the knife and tore it the rest of the way through his neck. The goon fell and the elf helped me up.

“They regenerate,” I said, but it was too late. The goon grabbed the much smaller elf by the shoulder and threw him against the wall with a sickening crack.

We were outnumbered and outmatched. Jessica’s spells had already taken out one elf and the others were trying to fight the goons. The elves were faster, but the goons were huge and there were just so many of them. I thrust out my hand and hit one with a jolt of energy that would have knocked out a normal person. The goon barely reacted except to turn back toward me. Shit.

He grabbed me by the throat, crushing my airway as I struggled to get away. My vision swam—then the goon’s body jerked and his hand went limp. I gasped for air, bracing myself against my knees. The goon dropped to the floor and Sebastian stepped over him, twirling his bloody sword in his hands before slicing cleanly through the beast’s neck and decapitating him.

“Come back from that,” he muttered at the body, not taking his eyes off of it. When the body made no signs of regeneration he yelled, “Remove the heads.” He turned back to me, his face softening. “Are you okay?”

I nodded. “I’m fine,” I rasped.

“Duck,” he said.

I dropped to the floor as Sebastian took on another goon. Across the room, Sy had also joined in the mix, fighting with an intensity I had never witnessed from him as Leslie shot out spells that weren’t any more successful than mine.

“Leslie,” I shouted.

She glanced over at me and I pointed to Jessica. She frowned for a second then nodded. We both started shooting bolts of energy at her. They didn’t hit, but they slowed down her own spell casting.

“Sebastian, clear me a path to Frost,” I said.

He started toward her without question. His movements were still stiff and probably painful, but he fought through whatever he was feeling.

A new group stepped through the door and I spotted Lily in the center of about ten jinn. “Looks like you could use some help,” she said with a grin and a crossbow in her hands. The jinn entered the fray without hesitation as Lily stood back and took aim.

“Take their heads,” Sebastian yelled out as we moved forward.

Sy and Leslie met us at Frost who was still steadily chanting, but to no avail. Leslie and I stepped in beside her and said the spell with her as the battle around us melted away. Jessica’s eyes narrowed and she started toward us.

“You are not more powerful than me,” she shouted. “I have been waiting centuries for this.”

Her hands lifted and the words rumbled out of her. Her magic swayed me back, but I kept going. Kept saying the spell over and over again, a little faster each time until it finally happened, a little purple wisp started over her heart and floated toward us. We worked as one and spoke as one, faster and louder, pouring more and more energy into the spell until thousands of purple threads shot out of Jessica and she screamed, clutching at her chest. One by one the threads connected to each one of us until there was nothing but silence in the room.

When the threads thinned out to nothing, we finally stopped chanting. Jessica collapsed into a heap on the floor and all the goons vanished.

“Holy crap, we did it,” my voice rang out in the silence. “We really did it. I wanted to laugh or cry or maybe both. I wanted to tell Selene. “We won,” I looked over at Sebastian for confirmation.

He nodded, smiling. “You did.”

Frost had the widest grin I had ever seen. Leslie threw her arms around me. “We have to tell Selene. How is Selene?”

Sy was the only one not smiling. His eyes were liquid and focused up at a blank spot on the ceiling. Suddenly the dread I felt when the castle stopped shaking came back. I took two steps toward him. “Sy?”

He shook his head, a tear dripping down his cheek.

I looked back at Sebastian for confirmation. He stared at Sy, then took off running toward the hallway.