The Necromancer's Betrayal (The Final Formula Series, Book 2.5) (15 page)

The eyes rose as she did, ending up well above her head.

“You’re bleeding,” a voice rasped in the darkness. Gavin.

“I cut my hand,” she whispered, her heart pounding so hard she couldn’t hear his tread as he closed the distance between them.

“Yes, it’s fresh, smeared between here and the chair.” His hand encircled her wrist. He didn’t fumble around, clearly able to see in total darkness.

“Please get me out of here.”

“You are the master’s.”

He pulled her hand away from where she had clenched it at her waist, his strength unbreakable. He pried her fingers open with his other hand.

“I don’t like the dark. Please?” She hated to beg, but he was a way out.

He lifted her hand. Hot breath across her palm followed by the rough wetness of his tongue. He growled, and every hair on her body stood up.

“Take me out of here.” She gasped as his too sharp teeth bit into the heel of her hand.

“Soon,” he snarled, then pressed her against the wall. Still sucking on her hand, he moved his body against hers, and she realized he was naked.

Chapter
16

J
ames pressed his cheek against the cold metal surface, trying to get his hand a little further through the space between the wall and the tray he lay on. But it was no use. His fingers didn’t even reach the bottom of the drawer. The key had rattled to a stop right beneath him, so tantalizingly close.

He lay there, panting, trying to think of some way to get to the key. He had nothing to work with. Not a stitch of clothing. Nothing except the collar that was the problem in the first place.

A sense of anxiety had set in during the last few minutes. He couldn’t explain it, but he knew Elysia was in trouble. He gripped the edge of the tray, rocking it from side to side in an attempt to knock it off track and widen the gap.

Something crashed in the room outside his drawer. Had Neil returned? He had to get that key.

Without warning, light flooded his drawer and he froze. A gasp. “You are here.” The tray rolled out and James stared up in shocked silence. It was the girl from the convenience store. “Elysia asked me to free you.” She gave him a tentative smile. “I’m Kari.”

“James.” He rolled onto his side and tumbled off the drawer, getting a gasp from her. He landed on his hands and knees at her feet.

“You don’t look so good.”

“I’m bleeding out.” James pushed himself to his feet and reached into the drawer for the key. It took a bit of fumbling before he gripped it in his fist.

“What’s that?”

“The key to my collar.” He slid down the wall, his back thumping across the mortuary drawers until he sat on the cold tile. He fumbled with the lock, trying to insert the key.

Kari squatted beside him. “Do you want me to—”

“Stay away. My blood is toxic. One drop is lethal.”

“I’m already dead,” she whispered.

“It’ll still banish your soul from the mortal plane.”

She pulled back her hand. “Oh.”

A bit more fumbling, and he finally got the lock open. He tossed the collar aside.

“Move back,” he said.

Once Kari was clear, he slid into his other form.

“Good God,” she whispered. “I didn’t imagine it.”

James barely heard her words, momentarily lost in the joy of being whole. He pulled open the portal and tensed to spring. He would soul track Elysia and find where Neil had taken her. He didn’t like the way Gavin stared at her.

“Stop!”

James heard Kari gasp as familiar power slammed into him. He turned with a snarl.

Doug stood inside the door. “Don’t move. Either of you.” Doug gave Kari a frown before turning back to James. “Change.”

Another powerful compulsion, and James was once more human. A wave of dizziness washed over him, and he braced a hand against the floor to steady himself. He had lost a lot of blood. This form wasn’t the best choice at the moment.

“What’s going on? And who the hell is this?” Doug stopped before them, waving a hand at Kari.

James ignored the question. “Neil has Elysia. He left me here to bleed out and—”

“Elysia? She was here?”

“You’re not listening. Neil took her. Let me change. I can soul track her—”

“You’ll remain as you are.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Kari spoke up.

“Who are you?”

“Kari. Kari Anderson.”

“That’s who you were. Who Made you?”

“Elysia.”

Doug snapped his open mouth closed. “You’re the lich from the hospital.”

“Yes.”

James!

James came to his feet. “I need to go. Now!”

“Hell’s blood.” Doug gave him a glare. “Calm your—”

James leapt across the space between them. He caught Doug by the shoulders and slammed him against the mortuary drawers before he could finish the command. Doug’s head smacked the door with a hollow thump.

Hoping it was enough to daze him, James sprang away, calling the hound.

“Stop!”

The command hit him so hard that James stumbled and fell against the nearest table. The bond tightened as Elysia cried out to him again. James whirled to face Doug. “She’s screaming.”

“What are you—”

“Elysia is screaming!”

“How do you know?”

“The bond. She screamed my name. Something’s wrong.” Another cry echoed through his mind, and he doubled over, clasping his head.

Doug’s expensive loafers came into view. “She’s cut off from her power. She can’t call you.”

James straightened. “If you love her at all, let me help her.”

Doug frowned, his expression uncertain. “I don’t trust you, dead man.” His eyes went white. “You will take me with you.”

“I’ll be traveling through the land of the dead.”

“I’m a necromancer. Death does not frighten me.”

James was tired of arguing with him. He needed to move. Now. “Step back.”

Doug didn’t look happy about it, but he obeyed.

“I’m going with you.” Kari stepped up beside Doug.

Doug opened his mouth to argue, but James cut him off. “I’ll open the portal. You two step through.”

“What about you?” Doug demanded.

“I’ll be right behind you.” James shifted forms and dropped to all fours.
Hang on, Elysia
. He opened the portal and Kari immediately stepped through.

Doug stepped up to the edge, squinting his eyes as he tried to see into the darkness.

Annoyed with the delay, James sprang. He butted into Doug, knocking him through the portal and followed, his form changing on its own. He landed in a crouch on two legs, one clawed hand braced against the soft ground. The portal winked closed behind him.

“Dear God.” Kari pressed a hand to her mouth, her wide eyes on James. The glow of her soul looked so mundane next to the brilliance of Doug’s.

“What the hell,” Doug whispered, his expression shocked as he stared at what James had become.

James rose to his full height, now a good foot taller than Doug. It was always a bit disconcerting to face a familiar figure in this form. The added height and the keenness of his senses made the experience surreal. He remembered the first time he held Addie while in this form. He had been so terrified he would hurt her.

My true form,
he explained. It was odd to be here without Gavin.

“I knew you would deceive me,” Doug said. “Take us back.”

James tensed, ready for the slam of Doug’s power, but it never came. James smiled, or tried to with a muzzle full of teeth.
Your power doesn’t work here, necromancer.
James remembered how he had once escaped Clarissa by coming here. Only Elysia and her soul bond could call him back.

“You intend to abandon me here.” Doug’s eyes narrowed.

Give it a rest
. James turned his attention outward.
Now be quiet and let me track her
.

“She’s here?”

Not necessarily
. James stepped away from them and took a deep breath. He thought of Elysia and the brilliant taste of her soul. There, a whiff of strawberries, and damp stone. Darkness, underground.
She’s still in the mortal plane.

Focused, he didn’t know if Kari or Doug spoke. James reached out and ripped open a portal. The space on the other side even darker than this place.

Jump through,
James commanded.

“But—” Doug didn’t get to finish his excuse when Elysia screamed, the sound of her voice echoing off the walls beyond the portal. A snarl answered her.

James shoved Doug and Kari through and jumped out after them. He landed on four paws, his back claws clacking against stone while his front paws landed on carpet. The room was without light, but the hound had no trouble seeing in the total darkness.

Elysia was in the far corner, though James sensed her more than saw her. His view was blocked by a naked man’s back, one he had seen many times before. Brian. No, Gavin.

James lifted his lips, but before the snarl could escape, the area was flooded with a bright bluish light. Doug had pulled out his cell phone.

“What the hell?” Doug whispered.

Gavin whirled to face him. A snarl twisted his blood-smeared mouth, and his crimson eyes were on full glow.

James shifted human, but Gavin was faster than he expected and cleared the space between him and Doug in a single leap, ebony claws glinting at his fingertips.

“Stop!” Doug shouted. His power slammed into James, freezing him as he became human, but it seemed to have no effect on Gavin.

Chuckling, Gavin lifted an arm to take a slash at Doug. Darkness swirled around his claws, and James stared in shock. Gavin’s claws weren’t an extension of the hellhound’s claws. These belonged to his true form. Claws that could rip the soul from a mortal body.

Suddenly Kari was there. She stepped in front of Doug, and Gavin’s slash took her across the upper chest. She screamed, then collapsed at his feet.

Doug stumbled backward, but his feet tangled with the edge of the rug, and he fell on his butt. His cell phone landed on the carpet with a thunk, but the light stayed on, illuminating the monster standing over him.

Gavin straightened and held up his hand. Iridescent shimmers clung to his claws. He flicked his hand and the shimmers flew free, coalescing into a glowing orb.

“Jesus,” Doug whispered.

The orb shot across the room and disappeared into Elysia’s chest. She doubled over with a grunt.

“Elysia?” James took a step toward her.

She straightened and, without a word, opened a portal and jumped through.

James pulled in a breath. He knew Elysia could open portals, but he had never seen her do it.

Gavin chuckled. “Now we hunt, little brother.” He ran back across the room, and right before he reached the wall, he slashed out with his claws and physically ripped open a new portal before jumping through.

James blinked. He hadn’t become the hellhound to open the portal. It seemed like Gavin’s true form had merged with Brian’s body.

“What was that?” Doug whispered.

“My fellow grim. Neil resurrected him with my blood.” James reached down and gripped the necromancer by the front of his shirt and jerked him to his feet. “Do not use your power around him. It only worked on me.” James glanced down at Kari’s still form. He didn’t need to touch her to know she was gone.

“But I felt his death,” Doug whispered. His cell phone, still lying on the carpet, winked out. Doug gasped.

James released him and stepped back to shift into the hellhound.

“James?” Doug sounded worried.

James ripped open the portal and jumped through, then reached back and caught it before it closed.

Get in here
.

Doug obeyed without comment.

Chapter
17

G
avin and Elysia weren’t anywhere in sight. James once again sent his awareness outward, sniffing, hunting. Excitement quivered within him, humming across his senses. The Hunt. This was what he was made for.

There. A whiff of strawberries. Close. She was still among the dead.

Without warning, James caught Doug’s upper arm. His claws bit through the fabric of Doug’s shirt, and the necromancer gasped—then shouted as James jumped. It was impossible to judge distance, but James didn’t think about it. He trusted his senses.

Doug’s shout cut out when they landed. James released him, and the necromancer fell to his knees.

Elysia stood a few yards away, her clothes torn from Gavin’s claws, and the perfume of her blood scenting the air in a way that had James strangling a groan.

Gavin stood before her, his form the mesh of human and hellhound James knew so well, but Gavin was no longer the emaciated shadow of a former grim. His black fur gleamed over muscle, a lot more muscle than James’s smaller form possessed.

Gavin glanced at him.
We have an obstacle, little brother.

Kari stood between Gavin and Elysia. She wore a brilliant gown that glowed almost as brightly as her skin. James didn’t understand why he had considered her glow dim before.

Elysia turned with a gasp, her wide white eyes settling on James.

It’s me,
he reassured her
.

“J-James?”

Gavin snarled. With eyes squinted against the brightness, he sprang forward, slashing at Kari’s glowing form.

Her image blurred, swirling into the glowing orb, and darted out of his path. When she stopped, her human shape reappeared.

I won’t let you hurt her,
she whispered.

Gavin growled and sprang again.

When Kari became the orb this time, she didn’t try to elude him. She streaked toward him and vanished into his chest, just as she had entered Elysia earlier.

Gavin snarled and spun in a circle, swiping at something James couldn’t see. Suddenly he stopped. He flexed his right hand, extending his claws. Then rammed them into his own chest.

James straightened, shocked by what Gavin had done.

Gavin pulled his claws free, the remnants of Kari’s glittering soul clinging to his fingers. He lifted his hand to his mouth and James tackled him. The impact took them to the ground, and Kari’s soul flew free, her shriveled orb winking pitifully.

“Kari, use me!” Elysia cried.

“Elysia, no!” Doug pushed himself to his feet.

Protect my son,
Kari whispered, her form fading.

“Always.” Elysia reached out a hand, but Doug caught her wrist and pulled her back.

Elysia jabbed an elbow at him, but it was already too late. Kari was gone.

James didn’t get to watch the rest as Gavin took a swipe at him. James jumped back, narrowly avoiding his claws. They were both on their feet an instant later.

Mine,
Gavin breathed, rabid eyes on Elysia.

James held his ground, positioning himself between her and Gavin.
No. Elysia belongs to me.
The words were out before James realized what he said. The bond surged to life, and he heard Elysia gasp.