Summon (27 page)

Rolling my eyes, I moved past, impatient to get
moving.

He caught my upper arm and pulled me close. “I
thirst.”

I jerked free. “Go find a rat. The sewers have
plenty to spare.” I inhaled then gagged. “At least that’s how it smells.”

Tomas’ nostrils flared. He peered into the deserted
street we’d travel to head deeper into the city to Cael’s Coven, brow furrowing
in distaste. “It does smell unpleasant.”

“Surprised?”

He glanced at me, solemn. “This is not normal. Only
corpses stink this bad.”

“The temperature’s dropping. If we’re lucky we’ll
get a nice blanket of snow covering everything. Even rain would be an
improvement. Wash away some of the stench.”

Tomas rubbed what mud he could from his body
without success. “There is a river that runs through the city. It’s not clean,
but at least I would not be covered in dirt.”

Kneeling, I placed my hand on the ground and
burrowed my fingers into the soil. It felt grainy, but I sensed a well of fresh
water beneath us, and I tugged the current off course. A spring bubbled through
the soil. I grabbed a few rocks in arm’s reach and piled them together. The
water ran clean down the sides.

Tomas’ hand landed on mine. Eyes soft, his lips
curved. “Handy trick.”

I slipped my hand from under his. “Breandan taught
me.”

The smile lightening his heavy brow died. Tomas
busied himself washing, his expressions changeful and fleeting. “You’re sad.”

Eyes downcast, I brushed my hands off on my thighs.
“I miss him.”

Finished dressing, Tomas studied me before leaning
to grab my chin. “Don’t hold onto what he said in anger.”

I stared into his disturbed eyes, and saw he
intended only to be a friend in that moment. Relieved to be able to talk about
it, my lip wobbled. “He meant it. Every single word, he meant.”

“He’ll forgive you.”

“He won’t.” I winced at the pain that knowledge
unearthed. “But that’s okay. As soon as I convince Cael to come home I’m going
back to him.”

Gaze piercing, Tomas swallowed throatily eyeing my
mouth. “You have options.”

“He won’t come after me.”

He stared and his pupils dilated. His grip on my
chin tightened, and his thumb softly brushed across my cheek. “You have other
options.”

Hearing a sensual invitation deepen his voice, and
catching his head lowering, lips parting, I placed a firm hand on his chest and
pushed.

“You don’t think I’m worthy of you.”

My hand slid from his chest to pat his shoulder.
“I’m not meant for you.”

Nodding stiffly, Tomas released my jaw and
straightened. He held out a palm to help me rise. “Let’s get this over with.”

I accepted his offered hand, and we travelled
deeper into the city, wordlessly agreeing to be swift and silent.

I expected the vampires to stalk us as they had on
my precious visits, but there was silence. It was difficult for me to sense
vampires because they were dead in one sense and reanimated in another. They
gave off no aura. Yet if I concentrated I perceived spaces where nothing
existed.

Spots that were too dense or too cold gave vampires
away even in the darkness.

This time we were utterly alone.

Tension rolling from him, Tomas often glanced my
way, but kept his thoughts to himself when I assiduously ignored his longing
stares.

The city landscape was grim and the street
arrangement intricate, but I headed in a straight shot for Cael’s Wyld. It
wasn’t tricky to find amidst the maze-like destruction. I followed the sounds
of death and screaming.

“Rae,” Tomas murmured.

Body rigid with tension, he gripped my waist to
stop me from entering the domed building and peered at it warily.

A chilly pulsation of magic barred entry, the
eroded doorway warded by witchcraft. Worry over being injured trying to evade
it would’ve sent me into a tizzy before. Feeling its strength with a touch of
my own energy, I concluded getting past it would require a trifling expend of
power. The ward was leftovers by the Coven not conjured by a loa.

“Don’t be afraid,” I said. “The ward will fall
before harming either of us.”

Black-eyed, Tomas’ nostrils flared, and his fangs
dropped. “Not that.”

“You smell blood?” I inhaled and caught the
metallic tang he scented.

“It’s human. Wait here and I’ll go look.”

I shook him off. “We go together.

A swift intake of breath snapped our heads around.

Tomas moved with unearthly speed and plunged into
the shadows. He re-appeared dragging a male vampire by the scruff of the neck.

“Raj.” He let the vampire go and slapped him upside
the head.

“Gah.” Rubbing his head, the vampire paled, an
unpleasant look on his dusky complexion. “I ain’t doin’ nothin’.”

Tomas gave him a tap on the cheek, exasperated. “I
almost tore your head off. Why aren’t you safely tucked inside the Nest?”

“Not safe.”

“Your Sire isn’t protecting you?” Tomas’ question
was met with silence. “You
still
haven’t chosen your Sire? Why didn’t the Queen force you to? Who shows you what
it means to be vampire?”

“No one.” Raj hugged his scrawny chest, bony
shoulders hovering at his ears. “The Queen’s not there, and the old ones are
mean. I don’t wanna be anythin’ like ‘em.” He perked up. “Daphne comin’ with
ya? I liked her. She can be my Sire. Do ya think she would?”

Tomas hook his head. “Where’s Gwen?”

“Sleepin’ with Malice at the Coven Wyld.” Raj
blinked then ruddy colour bloomed across his cheekbones. “Ah, I mean–”

Tomas’ hand landed on his shoulder. “It’s fine.” He
studied Raj closely. “Your skin is warm, and you blush. You’re being fed.
Regularly.” Tomas sniffed. “With human blood. Is the prey alive? I’m hungry.”

“What ya smell ain’t my doin’.” Raj pointed to the
doorway. “That crazy female’s killin’ dem witches.”

“Who’s feeding you?” I asked.

“Cael. Well, it’s Naomi’s vein. She lets me drink
‘cause he tells her to.”

Tomas and I shared a look. “Are there strangers in
the Wyld?”

Trembling, Raj nodded. “Dem Loa.”

“Cael’s a prisoner?” I asked, my throat tight.

Raj bobbed then shook his head. Shrugged. “I
dunno.”

“Does Gwen still answer to the Coven Father?” Tomas
asked.

“Um….” Raj scratched his head. “Dunno. Maybe.”

A fractured conversation later, I concluded though
Raj meant well he barely knew his left from his right and the chance of him
accurately accounting for what happened inside Cael’s Wyld was zilch. One
moment Cael was a prisoner then the next he drank with Malice. His witches were
murdered, but also paid tribute to Malice for protection.

“We didn’t come to fight,” I told Tomas, smiling at
the young vampire in thanks for his help. “We’re here for Cael.” I thought of
Gwendolyn and tossed a look at Tomas. “And anybody else willing to leave.”

“We can sneak in unseen. Raj knows a way.”

Beaming, the vampire preened and straightened from
a stoop to a mere hunch. “I do. Very secret.”

“Pointless, they know I’m here.” I cringed. “I can
feel them. They must feel me.”

“Is there anything I need to know?” Tomas searched
my face. “What do you need me to do?”

“Do?”

He shook me gently. “You make no sense. I’m here
with you and I don’t know why. We’re going to face your enemy, just us two, and
you have no plan? Why did you bring me and leave Breandan?”

“I have a plan.” I strode through the seemingly
unguarded doorway, discomforted at the mention of Breandan and his absence.
“You don’t need to know it.”

Standing inside the murky passageway a figure
waited for me.

The beaming smile died as fast as it flashed across
my face. It wasn’t Roland staring back at me with dark purple irises that
shimmered with power. “Hai.”

“You forgot. You thought I was him.” The loa leaned
against the wall, arms crossed, head bowed. “A friend?”

Roland and I tolerated each other because of Lex,
but as we’d learnt more about each other’s hidden natures true friendship
blossomed.

I suffered the pain of his loss.

Keenly.

Anger tightened my features. “Towards the end he
was.”

The loa sighed. “Dangerous inside. Sure you wish to
enter?”

“I am.”

“Brave thing.”

“When I need to be.”

“Ti Malis is my name. Malice to this epoch.”

I nodded, respectful, sensing cosmic age in the
richness of his power’s magical signature. “I’m Rae.”

Malice held out his palm. “Come then.”

I took his hand and offered him a wobbly smile.
“You don’t seem so bad.”

As we walked, Tomas acting like my veritable
shadow, Malice waggled his eyebrows and placed his other hand on mine. “I enjoy
interesting females. Since glimpsing your uncanny beauty at the resurrection,
I’ve wanted to speak with you. To warn you.”

“Warn me?”

“I am neither good nor bad, but I find greater
pleasures in the light. Marinette delights in the darkness. The sinister
passions that linger where you cannot see excite her. Beware.”

“Ta,” I whispered so quietly I wasn’t sure he’d
heard me.

Malice halted before we emerged into the light and
kissed my palm. He grinned. “Such a shame.”

Taking a bracing breath, sparing a look of
encouragement for a chalk-white Tomas, I stepped into the Wyld after the loa.
And slammed to still. Repulsed. The Wyld had become nightmarish, but the
godling stood at its middle sent shivers of terror throughout the innermost
fibres of my being.

Sighing sweetly, Marinette raked her clawed
fingernails across a dying he-witch’s cheek. She wrapped both hands around his
trembling head and twisted, leisurely, drawing out the stomach-churning wrench
until I shuddered with each crunch and snap of cartilage and bone.

Laughing, delighted, she dropped the limp body, and
a pack of beasts fell upon it with otherworldly snarls and rough grunting.

Cael’s burning gold eyes lifted to meet mine. He
looked haunted. Trapped. Beneath these surface emotions, he appeared staggered
to see me. I watched his throat bob as he swallowed, and averted his gaze. His
fists loosened then disappeared behind his back as he widened his stance then
glared at me, cold and aggressive.

“Tomas!” Bright-eyed, Gwendolyn staggered forward,
arms outstretched.

Tomas remained motionless.

Malice moseyed past Marinette, ignored her
proffered hand, and gave Cael a strange look. Hooking an arm around the
emotional vampire’s waist, he sat under a tree and pulled Gwendolyn across his
lap.

Making no acknowledgment of my presence,
Marinette’s red eyes wandered over me. They fixed on a point past my shoulder
and waited. And waited. Her lips thinned in annoyance. “Where is he? I thought
your power masked his, but he’s not here.”

Resisting the urge to glance over my shoulder, my
brows lowered. “He?”

“Breandan,” Tomas murmured.

Marinette’s intense gaze met my stunned one then
twitched away as her clawed fingers gripped her waist, posture rigid.

Jealousy flared in an overpowering heat that
blanketed the world in smog rife with irrational suspicion. Magics zinged
across my skin, a sizzling charge that lifted the hair on my arms.

Ana had been adamant under no circumstances could
Breandan come with me to retrieve Cael. Now I understood why.
Had he shown the slightest interest in Marinette
I’d’ve gouged his eyes out then gone after her without any thought to how powerful
she and her fellow loa are.

Breandan became a brooding mess whenever Tomas was
mentioned or around.

I’d considered his possessiveness sweet but
unnecessary.

Staring at Marinette wearing the perfect, unscarred
body she was, watching her smile faintly thinking about
my
life mate, I revised that opinion.

Possessiveness
is damn necessary.

I spluttered, trying to think of some terrorizing
threat to warn her off, but merely managed an incoherent, “
Mine
.”

“Yours,” she said, “no longer.”

Rocking forward, I hissed.

“Focus,” Tomas breathed. He took hold of my wrist.
“Don’t let her get to you.”

Marinette’s stare switched from me to him. A
peculiar look widened her eyes. “Interesting how you keep the phantom close.”

All but panting, I breathed through my nose and
took deep breaths to calm my temper. I unclenched my talons. The dagger-like
points had broken the skin on my palm. “My kin asked me to.”