Tooth and Claw (The Harry Russo Diaries Book 2) (19 page)

“N-n-now see here.” Bellemare coughed out the words. “That’s
mine.” He straightened, facing Navarre. I had to give the guy some credit.
The dude had balls confronting Navarre after nearly having the life squeezed
out of him a second before.

Navarre turned an icy glare to Bellemare, who also had the
brains to shut up. “Go.” He waved his hand at the doctor dismissively.
“Scurry off before I change my mind.”

With a gasp of relief, the doctor turned and hurried towards
the door, the door where Nash and I were hiding. We flattened ourselves up
against the wall and waited for her to pass, hoping she wouldn’t give us away.
She flinched as she stepped out into the hallway, but a finger to Nash’s lips
silenced her.

“Oh yes,” Navarre’s voice purred, “I almost forgot about our
audience. Do come in and join us.

Nash and I froze at Navarre’s words. A chill ran down my
spine.

“Come, come. I know you are out there. Detective Nash, I
believe? I have so looked forward to meeting you.”

Before I could even think about what I was doing, I found
myself walking through the door. Nash followed close behind me. I had no
control over my actions. I was under a compulsion, a puppet and Navarre was
pulling the strings. Nash must have been experiencing the same thing because I
could hear his laboured breathing as he tried to fight against the pull of
Navarre’s command.

“My, my, my, what do we have here? I wasn’t expecting you.”
Navarre took a step towards me. I was frozen in place, my katana held out in
front of me, but unable to move. He examined me from head to toe and then
waved his finger at me. “You won’t be needing that. Put it away.”

At his command, I slid my katana home in its scabbard. My
arms fell uselessly to my sides. “Very nice.” Navarre took another step
towards me, close enough to reach out with his finger, tucking it under my chin
to tip it up so our eyes met. “Lovely.” He took a deep breath, a devilish
smile creeping over his face. “Oh my. This is wonderful indeed.”

A growling sound began to emanate from Nash. I looked at
him from the corner of my eye, the only part of me I could move. He was
visibly straining against Navarre’s compulsion, trying to break free.

“Why Detective Nash, this is such a lovely surprise. I
thought I had lost the opportunity to hunt you down, now that my contract has
expired, but here you are and with your
mate
no less. How fortuitous!”
There was that damn word again. Mate! If I could have thrown Nash a dirty
look, I would have.

The growling beside me got louder. Navarre frowned. “Bad
wolf.” He pinched his fingers together again only this time it was Nash that
started to choke and gasp.

I had to do something. He was going to kill Nash. I closed
my eyes and focused on my breathing, trying to remember anything I could about
Fae magic and compulsion spells. I recited a cleansing spell in my head trying
clean the compulsion out of my mind. Nash’s gasping was becoming more
sporadic. I fought against Navarre’s control to turn my head to look at Nash,
but I was only able to move it an inch.

“S-s-s-top!” I gritted the word out through clenched teeth,
but it was enough of a confidence booster that I was able to shake a little
more of the compulsion off. I turned my head fully to look at Nash. His face
was red, his eyes beginning to bulge. “Stop it, you’re cheating!” My voice was
high pitched with fear.

Navarre released his grip on Nash and he sucked in air
loudly. “My, you are a surprise.” He turned back to face me.
“And more than the bit of fluff you appear to be.” He stroked his chin as if
in thought. “What did you mean, I was cheating?” He waved a hand at me. “You
are free to speak.” I felt a small wave flow over me and realized that I would
be able to speak with no effort.

“Exactly what I said. You’re supposed to be some great
hunter, but you use magic to weaken and subdue your prey. Some great hunter
you are. You’re like the coward that goes off into the woods with an AK-47 and
shoots some poor bear that’s been lured to a baiting station. He’s not a
hunter and neither are you.” I gave him my best look of contempt.

“I do not
cheat
!” Navarre looked incensed. He
narrowed his eyes and raised his hand threatening to cut off my air.

“Oh yeah, big bad
Elf
doesn’t like to hear the truth
so you’re just going to kill me now too. What’s the matter Eliassander?
Afraid you won’t win in a fair fight?”

Navarre pinched his fingers together, a look of pure anger
on his face. I felt my throat constrict. It was if all the air was sucked out
of my body and I immediately began to struggle to breathe in more. My heart
pounded frantically in my chest. I wanted to claw at my throat, but my arms remained
frozen at my sides. My vision began to blur. I could hear snarling and
growling but could no longer make sense of what was going on. And then
suddenly, I could breathe again. The air rushed into my lungs. I sucked it in
and out, panting.

Navarre stood in front of me with a smug smile. “I am not
an
elf
.” The look of disgust on his face told me everything I needed to
know about what he thought about the term, which is exactly why I had used it.
“I am afraid of nothing.” He turned his back on me and stalked across the room
to Bellemare. He spun on his heel and looked at me again. “And I will show
you, but first, first I have a little business to take care of.” He turned
back to Bellemare.

Bellemare, who had been frozen in place much like Nash and
me, looked like he had been hoping Navarre had forgotten about him and his hope
bubble had just burst. “You cannot harm me.” He raised his chin up
haughtily. “You are bound by the covenant.”

Before I could stop myself, the words tumbled out of my
mouth. “What the hell are you two going on about? Bargains? Covenants?”

Nash sucked in a breath. Since I was still able to move my
head, I dared a glance at him. He rolled his eyes at me. Luckily, he still
seemed unable to speak or I’m sure I would have heard what he thought of my big
mouth.

“Well, how rude of me.” Navarre shook his head in mock
distress. “Perhaps you have not formally met.” He waved his hand at
Bellemare. “Allow me to introduce to you my great-many-greats-grandson Douglas
Marshal Louis
Elian
Bellemare.” He paced closer to Bellemare and looked
at him with a sneer. “I’m afraid the bloodline isn’t quite what it used to
be. Too many generations of mortal blood muddying things up, you see.” He
cocked his head. “But he is the oldest of his generation carrying
my name
and so he holds the key.”

I couldn’t help myself, my curiosity piqued. “What key?”

“Why the key to call me forth from Underhill of course.”
Navarre looked at me like I was an idiot for not knowing.

“I’m afraid I don’t know that one.” I attempted to shrug,
but found my shoulders didn’t work.

Navarre let out an impatient sigh. “Well, it really isn’t
my job to educate you. What are they teaching you mortals now-a-days?” He
waved a hand at Bellemare. “You tell her.”

“Prince Eliassander has been bound to Underhill and
forbidden residence here in our realm,” Bellemare said, his voice monotone.
“He can only cross to this world when called by blood and only once every ten
years. If called by blood and a covenant struck, he may remain on this plane
each day between the hours of sunset and sunrise for one moon’s cycle.”
Bellemare attempted to stand a little straighter, his pride becoming evident.
“I discovered the secret of my family’s heritage just over a decade ago. I was
the first of my line to do so in generations.”

Beside me, Nash growled. If Bellemare had called Navarre
forth ten years ago then he was responsible for the death of Nash’s father at
Navarre’s hands.

“Yes,” Navarre added thoughtfully, oblivious to Nash’s anger,
“I truly thought the knowledge had finally been lost and that I would be stuck
Underhill the rest of my days, my vengeance incomplete.” He inclined his head
thoughtfully. “For that at least, my great-many-greats-grandson, I feel a modicum
of gratitude.” He stepped closer to Bellemare and brushed a hand across the
old man’s cheek. “Which is why I will let you leave this place with your
precious
elixir
.” Bellemare’s eyes lit up at the thought. Navarre raised
his eyebrows pensively. “Do you accept? Will you allow me to give you this
and set you free as a means to fulfill the covenant?”

I shook my head. It was a trick. The Fae could be just
like vampires, twisting words and finding loopholes. “No!” I turned my head
to face Bellemare. “Don’t…”

With a flick of his hand, Navarre cut off my words. “You,
my lovely, stay out of it.” He turned to leer at me and then turned back to
Bellemare. “Well mortal, what do you say?”

“Yes!” Bellemare’s face was full of hope. “Yes, I accept.
Now give me my elixir and let me leave this place.”

“Your wish is my command. I believe that’s how your mortal saying goes.”
Navarre’s smile was full of pleasant malice. He flicked the cap off
the syringe with his thumb and grabbed Bellemare’s bare arm.

“Wait!” Bellemare’s hope was ripped away by terror. “What
are you doing? You can’t – “

“Oh, but I can. You agreed to carry the elixir out with
you. I am simply giving it to you to carry.” Navarre laughed and pushed the
syringe into Bellemare’s arm.

Bellemare’s face froze in terror. For a moment, nothing
happened and relief began to show on his face. In the space of several more
heartbeats, a look of pure euphoria overcame him. “I- I- I can feel it! It’s
working!” Bellemare laughed with glee. I looked at Nash in surprise. He
never took his eyes off Bellemare and when a gasping sound of pure terror
erupted from Bellemare, Nash’s eyes grew wide. I swung my gaze back to
Bellemare and choked out a little shriek. His face was melting, his features
shifting and reforming. Blood began to drip from his nose and ears, even his
eyes. He let out a high pitched wail. His chest popped out, his ribs cracking
and reforming. His joints began to crack and snap as his bones lengthened and
then shortened. His entire body was morphing, but into what I didn’t know.
What I did know, was that it was extremely painful and Bellemare remained
conscious for most of it. What I also knew without a doubt, was that this was
how the two university students, Charles Mathers and Jonathan Turner, had died.
Finally, I could take no more and so I shut my eyes. I couldn’t shut my ears
though and Bellemare’s bones continued to snap and pop like a bowl of breakfast
cereal on steroids for several more excruciating minutes.

At last, the room fell silent. Navarre, who had watched the
entire show with a look of pure glee, brushed his hands together like he was
cleaning off some dust. He looked down at the broken, bleeding body of
Bellemare and said, “You are free to go.” He laughed and then turned his gaze
on Nash and me.

The sound of many feet running down the corridor brought me
a moment of relief from the terror I felt at Navarre’s gaze. The rest of the SRU
had found us. My hopes were immediately dashed though when Navarre frowned and
flicked his hand. The sounds suddenly became muffled and although I couldn’t
see anything, because it was behind me and I couldn’t turn my body, I could
feel the sizzling snap of a magical barrier falling into place.

“Well, that just won’t do,” Navarre said with a playful pout.
“I’m nowhere near done playing with you and I still have hours left until
sunrise.”

The muffled footsteps drew closer.

“Harry! Nash!” Tess’s voice sounded like it was coming
through water, far away and distorted.

“Harry!” Isaac’s voice, like Tess’s sounded distant.

“Well,” Navarre sounded annoyed. “We’ll just have to take
this party elsewhere.” He snapped his fingers and the world went black.

***

“Harry! Harry, wake up.” A hand brushed across my cheek.
“Harry, come on.” I pushed the hand away. I was having the worst dream.
Bellemare had been turned into a puddle of goo and...omigod it wasn’t a dream!
I sat up quickly pulling my arms up in a defensive pose only to find that my
left arm was trapped. I yanked my arm trying to pull myself loose. There was
a masculine grunt.

“Easy there, little minx.” Nash’s voice was a welcome rumble
to my ears. Large hands wrapped around my wrists pulling my arms down in front
of me. A warm familiar scent surrounded me as Nash leaned in towards me, his
head touching mine.

“Nash!” I turned in his arms to try and get a better look
at him. It was so dark; I could barely make out his features. “What’s going
on? Where are we?”

“I don’t know.” His hand cupped my chin forcing my head
up. Nash peered at my face in the dim light. “Are you okay? You’re not hurt
anywhere?”

“No…I…” I pulled on my arm again. “Something’s wrong with
my arm.”

There was a musical rattle and then suddenly I had more
movement in my arm. I held it up taking a closer look. My wrist was encased
in a solid gold cuff that appeared to have no latch or joins. It fit my wrist
snugly and there was no way I could slip it off over my hand. Attached to the
cuff was a gold chain made of large, chunky links. I grabbed the chain and
started to follow it, trying to find the end.

“Are you looking for this?” Nash pointed to his neck. He
was wearing a collar similar to my cuff. It was also attached to a chain of
thick gold links, the same chain that I was harnessed to.

“Navarre chained us together?” I reached out
to touch the collar around Nash’s neck. “Are you okay? It’s not too tight?”
I looked at him with concern.

“I’m fine. It’s charmed Fae gold. It will always fit
perfectly no matter who wears it.” He brushed a kiss across my forehead and
then rose to his feet. He held out his hand to me. “Come on. We need to
figure out what’s going on.”

I let Nash pull me to my feet. I bent to brush the dirt off
my pants and realized my long, leather duster was missing. A moment of panic
set in until I realized that my katana was still strapped to my back. “That
jerk stole my coat,” I grumbled and then giggled at the absurdity of what I had
said. After everything I had seen and been through, the fact that my coat was
missing was what pissed me off.

Nash looked at me with concern. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” I rubbed a hand across my face and through my
hair. “I’m just tired.” I looked around the space. We appeared to be in an
old shed of some sort. “So what’s the deal?”

“I know you are awake in there.” Navarre’s voice boomed all
around us. I flinched at the sound. Nash’s hands on my shoulders tensed. “Come
out, come out. It’s time to play.” Navarre sounded pleased with himself. He
was having fun.

With a final squeeze of my arms, Nash turned and pushed open
the door to the shed. He grasped my hand, the gold chain hanging between us,
and stepped outside cautiously, keeping me sheltered behind his body. It
wasn’t much brighter outside. Judging from the moon, it must have been one or
two in the morning. I looked around quickly. We were in the middle of a small
clearing by a pond. From the looks of things, we were still on the property of
the cement factory. I could just see the outline of the main building in the
distance. I looked at Nash quickly and saw that he was considering the same
thing.

“The others,” I whispered. “They’ll be looking for us.”

“Don’t worry about your friends,” Navarre’s voice
interrupted my thoughts. “They haven’t been invited. Think of it as a more
intimate affair.”

A flash of light, like a flare, exploded above our heads.
It sparkled in the sky, highlighting an arc of glowing golden magic that flowed
over our heads and down to the horizon in the distance. We were under some
sort of magical dome.

“
Isaac?
” I thought as loud as I could, hoping to make
contact. Nothing. Navarre’s magic was interfering with our
connection.

“You wanted a fair test and you shall have it.” Navarre’s
voice was bouncing all around the clearing making it impossible to pinpoint his
location. “The rules are simple. Stay alive until dawn and you win.” His
laughter echoed all around us. Nash growled. “Now run!” Navarre’s voice
snapped like a clap of thunder.

There was a whooshing sound followed by a loud thunk, but I
was already on the ground, Nash on top of me. I looked back at the shed. A
large crossbow bolt quivered from where it was lodged in the door frame. I
looked at Nash, his bicep was scored with a long, bleeding cut.

“You’re hurt!”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it Harry.”

“But...”

“I’m fine.” Nash grabbed my chin and met my eyes with his.
“I’m fine, Harry.” I swallowed and nodded at him, unable to speak. “Okay,
good.” Nash smiled at me. “Now listen. We are going to get up and we are
going to run as fast as we can for the treeline behind me. Can you see it?” I
nodded again. “That’s good. You’re doing good Harry. Now get ready and run
as fast as you can. Okay?”

“Okay.” I gave him a look with more confidence than I felt.

Nash shifted his legs slightly and then grasped my
forearms. His body tensed and then he whispered, “Now!” as he leapt to his
feet, pulling me up with him. We launched ourselves across the clearing, hand
in hand, Navarre’s laughter chasing us the whole way. As we neared the
treeline, another bolt whizzed past, narrowly missing my hip to lodge deeply in
the tree in front of me. Nash yanked me to the side and then we continued to
run, zig-zagging through the trees, deeper into the woods.

We ran for ten or fifteen minutes, our path taking us in a jagged
pattern but generally heading east, away from the city. I was running as fast
as I could, but I’m sure Nash was barely breaking out of low speed. Finally,
my lungs burning, my legs numb, Nash pulled us to a stop behind a cluster of
large trees.

“Are you okay?” He looked at me in concern. The bastard
was barely even breathing heavily.

“I’m…fine…” I gasped out, bending over my legs, sucking
in air as fast as I could. “You...you...could at least...pretend...to be...slightly...winded you know.”
I panted and gave him a wry smile. I slowly straightened to
standing with a groan, trying to take slower, deeper breaths. I looked at his
shoulder where blood still seeped from the crossbolt cut and frowned. “You’re
still bleeding.” He shouldn’t have still been bleeding from that small cut.
It should have easily healed.

“He’s using silver coated bolts,” Nash said, confirming what
I had been thinking.

I grabbed the bottom of my t-shirt and tore off a long
strip. Against Nash’s protests, I cleaned the wound the best I could and then
wrapped the strip of fabric around his bicep. “At least it will keep you from
dripping blood and giving him something to follow.”

“Yeah, okay. Thanks Harry.” Nash pulled me up against his
chest, kissing my forehead. “We have to keep moving. Are you ready?”

I nodded. I really didn’t feel like moving. It felt safe
in Nash’s arms.

“Okay then. We’re going to head south now. I want to try
and skirt back around and head towards the cement factory.” Nash gave my head
another nuzzle, breathing in my scent. He pushed me away so he could look down
at my face. “You have to promise me you will keep running, keep fighting no
matter what happens.” His voice was fierce. “Promise me, Harry.”

“Of course, I will. We will.” I grabbed his face and gave
him a fierce look back. “We’ll get through this together.”

Nash gave me a tight smile and then grabbed the front of my shirt, pulling me up against
his chest again, his lips crushing down on mine. The kiss was full of hunger and promise,
and over much too quickly as he grabbed my hand and set off. He
turned to head south, starting at a slow trot until I got my legs under me
again. The brush was thicker here and it made for slower going. Nash led the
way, directing me to follow behind, trying to keep the path we were cutting through
the bush as small and inconspicuous as possible.

The pace Nash set was much easier for me to maintain,
especially as we had to dodge, duck and jump over the brush and brambles. Nash
practically floated over the trail, with all his back woods experience. I, on
the other hand, imagined I was leaving as delicate a trail as a raging rhino.
If only we weren’t chained together, Nash would probably stand a chance.

“Stop it.” Nash’s voice was a low whisper.

“What?” I whispered back in surprise.

“I know what you’re thinking and I don’t like it.” He let
out a low growl.

“You couldn’t possibly know what I’m thinking,” I hissed
back at him.

“Little minx, I can feel your thoughts burning into me. You
are not holding me back. You’re holding me together.” Nash’s voice sounded
adamant. He squeezed my hand.

“How could you possibly know that’s what I was thinking?” I
frowned at his back and then stumbled over a tree root. Nash turned and caught
me in his arms before I could fall. “What did you do to me?” I looked at him
with trepidation. “Why does everyone keep saying I’m your mate?”

Nash huffed out a breath and ran a hand through his hair.
“Harry, this isn’t a good time.”

I let out a deep breath. “I know. Forget I asked.” I
pushed him away. “Let’s just keep moving.”

“Harry…” Nash reached out to me, but I shied away from his
touch. If he could feel what I was feeling, I’m sure he was getting a whole
lot of anger and confusion from me.

He turned with a grimace and started off again at a trot. We
carried on in silence, or rather Nash was silent. I continued to pant like an
elephant in labour and thrash through the underbrush. I don’t know how long we
had been going when I first noticed the hum. It was a low pitched vibration,
like the sound of a moth’s wings, only it was getting much louder.

“Do you hear that?”

“Yes, for some time now.” Nash grunted and slapped at his
neck. He pulled his hand away. It glistened with a small spot of blood.
“What the hell?”

“What’s wrong?” I glanced at Nash and saw the blood. “Did
something bite…Ow! Hey!” I suddenly felt like I had been stabbed between the
shoulder blades. The pain was sharp and quick and then gone. Out of the
corner of my eye, I thought I saw something flash past. “Look out!”

Nash ducked as something whizzed past his head. A feeling
like a sharp claw scraped across my bare arm. “Ouch!” I looked down. My arm
was scratched deep enough to bleed.

“Harry, are you okay?” Nash waved his hands at his head.
“What the...?”

I looked over at him. He looked like he was being
dive-bombed by tiny moths. Another sharp pain diverted my attention as blood
blossomed on my forearm. “Hey! Stop that!”

Nash’s hand flicked out and he grabbed something as it
flitted by. “What the hell is that?” He peered at the alien being caught
between his thumb and forefinger. The tiny creature was about three inches in
length and looked kind of like a blue moth on steroids, if moths had tiny heads
like people that is.

“It’s a pixie!” I couldn’t contain my surprise. As I spoke,
the tiny creature gathered his hands in a ball in front of his face like he was
about to blow into them. “Shit! Nash look out!” The pixie puffed a tiny
cloud of magical dust at Nash. I flung out my hand and pushed the pixie and
his dust away using my telekinesis. In my panic, I sort of overdid it and the
tiny being flew into a tree with a sickening crunch, falling lifeless to the
ground. “Oh no!” I hadn’t meant to kill the little thing.

“What's going on, Harry?”

“They’re pixies. Don’t let their dust get in your face or
you’ll be blind until sunrise.” I waved off two more of the dive bombing
little buggers. The humming had become much louder. I think killing one of
them had made them angry. I looked around. “Holy shit!” In the sky, a cloud
of pixies, hundreds of them, hovered above our heads. “We have to get the hell
out of here. Fast.”