Dead and Kicking (15 page)

“I’m really not sure if that sounds
any better.” I frowned at Nash. “So your wolf is attracted to me, but not
you?”

Nash ran a hand through his hair,
mussing it up, which only made him look sexier.
“No, it’s not that. I do find you
attractive. And aggravating and stubborn
and –”

“Okay, okay. I get the picture.” I turned away from Nash.

Nash reached out and grabbed my arm,
spinning me back to face him. “No, I
don’t think you do.” He pulled me close
and looked down at me. He grasped my
chin, tilting my face up to his. “If I’ve come across as overbearing,
it’s because my wolf just wants to protect you.”

“I don’t need –”

The rest of my sentence was lost when
Nash’s mouth captured mine. His hand
slid down to the small of my back pulling me closer. My lips parted and his tongue found mine,
kissing me deeply. He was a great
kisser, teasing one minute, devouring my mouth the next. We pulled apart suddenly at the sound of a
knock on the door.

“You are summoned to the audience
chamber,” said a muffled voice.

We stood for a moment, breathless,
looking at one another. I wasn’t sure
what had just happened. Finally Nash held
out his arm and said, “Shall we?”

I took his arm and let him escort me
to whatever the hell was going to happen next.

It looked more like a cocktail party,
if a somewhat subdued one, than the lynch mob I wanted it to be. The audience chamber was over half-filled
with vampires and a smattering of werewolves.
I’m sure there were a few witches, although I couldn’t identify them
without truly scanning the crowd.
Everyone milled about, many with wine glasses in their hands, dressed in
their finery. It was a weird
juxtaposition to the crowd dancing somewhere above our heads in their Goth
regalia.

We entered through a side door,
rather than the double doors I was familiar with. The crowd parted to let us pass, the
werewolves being quicker to move out of Nash’s way than the vampires. Several of the male and some female vamps
stared at me appreciatively, but I didn’t let it go to my head. It was probably the dress or the fact that I
was the fresh meat at the party. Nash
was positively bristling, his protective alpha male kicking into overdrive, by
the time we neared the dais.

Salvador had been watching us from
the time we were about halfway across the room.
He inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement, but said nothing. Nash approached a familiar looking woman
surrounded by what could only be personal bodyguards. He gave her a peck on the cheek and she in
turn patted his cheek maternally. They
traded a few quiet comments that I didn’t catch, mainly because I didn’t think
it would be polite to eavesdrop. I
looked around the room while I waited and spotted Isaac. Like Nash, he was dressed in a formal,
excellently tailored dark suit. When our
eyes met, he nodded surreptitiously and then went back to casually leaning
against the wall.

“…and you look positively lovely this
evening, Angharad,” Eleanor said, drawing my attention back.

“Please, call me Harry,” my reply
automatic. “And thank you,” I added
uncomfortably.

“I know all this frippery must be
hard for you dear, with your friend missing,” Eleanor replied. I looked at Nash. Of course he would have told the Triad about
what we had discovered. “But the
conventions must be upheld.”

I was tempted to say something about
what I thought they should do with the conventions, when a familiar voice
called my name.

I looked around and spotted Tess
approaching. She wore her black, lace
top jumpsuit which made her legs look longer than they were. It was classy and elegant and she fit right
in with the rest of the crowd. I knew
she had chosen it though, because it would also be easy to fight in, if she
needed.

“Tess! What are you doing here?” I asked, giving her
a hug.

“I’m part of your bodyguard detail,”
she replied with a wink. “You look
amazing in that dress.”

I made a face at her. “I swear Salvador made this whole parley
thing up just so I’d have to wear the damn thing. I mean, a
parley
?
I didn’t realize that vampires held to the pirate code. I think they’ve watched
Pirates of the Caribbean
too many times.”

Tess and I snickered together causing
Nash to frown at us like a disapproving parent.
Unfortunately, it only made us giggle more. A waiter passed by with a tray of drinks and
I grabbed two, handing one to Tess.

“
Damn
to the depths whatever man thought of parley
,” I quoted. Tess and I had seen the movie a few times ourselves.

“
That
would be the French
,” Tess answered and we both burst into laughter. I raised my glass to Nash and his scowl, and
tossed back the wine, placing the empty glass on a passing waiter’s tray. Nash looked like he was about to say
something when the large double doors at the far end of the room swung open and
the crowd hushed.

The moment the man stepped into the
room, I was overwhelmed by what can only be described as a feeling of
evil. It would have staggered me, if I
hadn’t been prepared for it. Levy DiCastro strode into the audience chamber like he owned the
place, his disdain for everyone in the hall evident on his face. He was flanked by two large men walking
several paces behind him. Even from a
distance I could tell they were jacks by the black magic radiating off them. I wasn’t the only one disturbed by their
presence. The crowd began to murmur and
shift uncomfortably.

When he reached the front of the dais,
DiCastro stopped.
He stood straight and tilted his chin up with a sneer.

“Salvador,” he said.

Salvador hadn’t moved when DiCastro first made his appearance, but instead had
remained sitting nonchalantly, relaxed in his seat. When DiCastro
addressed him, he slowly sat up, his eyes glittering a
deadly black.

“You dare bring those abominations
here?” Salvador didn’t raise his voice,
he didn’t need to. Everyone in the room
could feel the power dripping from his words.

DiCastro remained arrogantly unaffected.
He shrugged and replied, “I am allowed by the rules to bring two
supporters.” He smiled and scanned the crowd
as he continued on, “And we all know how much vampires like their rules.”

Salvador waved his hand
impatiently. “Yes, yes. Let us get on with this shall we?”

“Certainly,” DiCastro
replied.

If he said anything else, I didn’t
hear it because I found myself doubled over in pain. Tess grabbed my arm and hissed my name.

“Harry, what's going on?” Nash was suddenly at my side, a look of concern on his face.

“Something is wrong. Oh, shit.
Something is very wrong.” My head
throbbed and my stomach felt like it was going to reject the wine I had just drank. I looked over
at DiCastro who was still verbally sparring with
Salvador. I couldn’t pinpoint the source
of what was making me feel this way. I
scanned the crowd and saw a concerned Isaac making his way over to me.

There was a commotion at the entrance
to the hall and someone began to shout that there were zombies outside the
club. I could hear Salvador’s voice over
the crowd.

“…broken the truce. Your life is forfeit.”

DiCastro answered with contempt. “Truce? I have no
need of a truce. I have what I came
for.”

Before I could wonder what he was
talking about, a new sensation overcame me.
This time it was coming from the bracelet on my wrist. It had begun to pulse and glow. “No! No, no, no!” I shouted, pulling at the
crystal bracelet, trying to pry it off my wrist. “Get it off, get it off!”

“What is it?” Tess’s face was full of concern. She looked at the glowing bracelet in shock.

“Magic. It’s magic.” I continued to try and wrench the bracelet
off my wrist. “It’s a translocation
spell. It’s been activated.”

“Oh my God!” Tess grabbed at the
bracelet trying to tear it from my wrist.

Nash looked at us as we struggled to
remove the bracelet then turned and with a roar, launched himself at DiCastro. I had just
a moment to see him storm through the crowd as DiCastro
winked out of existence with a laugh.
There was a sharp pull on my wrist and the room went out of focus. I shouted at Tess, “The bracelet. It was Simeen.” There was a sensation like the floor dropping
out of the room and then nothing.
Everything went black.

Falling.

A cold floor.

Voices.

I struggled to open my eyes but they
refused to stay open, the light too bright for my senses, the pain too
great. Voices were murmuring,
disturbingly familiar voices. I battled
against the fog to try and stay awake.

“You did it!” a voice cried out
triumphantly.

“Of course I did. Just as well since you failed to deliver on
your end,” a second voice replied with disdain.

“My love, I’m sorry. I….”

“I don’t need excuses. Take her to the infirmary and secure her
there,” ordered the second voice, that I now realized was DiCastro’s.

Two sets of rough hands grabbed my
arms and hauled me up between them, but I was unable to support my own weight,
my knees buckling. I still wasn’t able
to keep my eyes open against the glare of the lights, the pain like daggers
stabbing my brain. The forced
translocation was taking its toll. My
stomach lurched and the wine I drank earlier threatened to make a reappearance.
Falling to my knees, I retched the contents of my stomach on the feet of
one of my captors, earning a curse and kick to the head and then all was
mercifully dark again.

***

“Wakey, wakey.” A hand slapped my
face. “Harry, wake up.”

I opened my eyes cautiously,
squinting at the lights, but thankfully the pain was gone. I blinked a few times, the room slowly coming
into focus. I was on a gurney of some sort,
my head partly raised in a semi-reclined position.
My arms were secured to the rails of the gurney with plastic zip ties.

“There you are,” a familiar voice
said. “Here, drink this.” Holly stepped into view holding a bottle with
a straw to my mouth. I automatically
took a sip, tasting chocolate protein shake, before the surprise kicked in.

“Holly! You’re here.
You’re okay.”

“Of course I’m fine. I’m exactly where I want to be.” Holly smirked and held the straw to my face
again. “Now drink this and regain your
strength. We need you in top shape.”

“What?” My mind reeled as it processed what Holly had
just said. “Holly?”

“Poor little Harry. What’s the matter? The great wunderkind can’t figure it
out?” She looked at me with contempt.

“I don’t understand. What’s happened Holly? What has DiCastro
done to you?”

“Done to me? He hasn’t done anything to me, at least
nothing I didn’t want him to do. This is
my choice. I chose to follow him. Levy is going to be the greatest power the
world has ever seen and I will be right there by his side.”

I shook my head in denial as what
Holly said soaked in. Holly was working
with DiCastro?
I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

“Deny it all you want Harry, that is after all what you’re best at, denial. You live every day denying your true self,
your gift. You’re a necromancer for
fuck’s sake. You could have been a
powerful force here in Riverton, but instead you fritter it away finding lost
jewelry and making sure poor, dead Aunt Sue’s cat gets fed.”

“How long? How long Holly?” How long had she been a traitor in our midst?

“Two fucking
years!
Two years I’ve spent being your fucking babysitter while you planted
flowers and bean sprouts, and did nothing with your gift.” She began to pace around the room. “Don’t tell Harry about her gift,” she
mimicked in a squeaky voice. “Let her
come into her power on her own.”
Scowling, she threw the half empty bottle against the wall. “Harry, Harry, Harry! It was always about you Harry, the whole time
we were growing up. And you were
oblivious to it all, while everyone bent over backwards to make sure you were
happy with your head in the sand. I was
so sick of it. I couldn’t wait to get
away. Finally I did, four glorious weeks
away from you and Tess and your juvenile behaviour. And that’s when I met Levy.”

“When you were in Egypt on your
vacation,” I said, as the realization came to me.

“Yes, in Egypt.” Holly smiled, but it wasn’t the smile of the
Holly I once knew. It was a cold,
calculating smile. “Levy is brilliant. He had made an extraordinary discovery and
was making great plans. He just needed
access to a very strong power and when I told him I knew where to find the
first necromancer in generations, he was understandably grateful. We became lovers and now I will be more than
his Queen, I will be his Goddess when he becomes a God.” Holly’s face took on a fervent expression.

“Wow, you’ve totally lost it.” I deadpanned, shaking my head. She was definitely sounding a little cuckoo
for Cocoa Puffs.

Holly’s face became a cold mask of
hatred. “Joke all you want Harry. We’ll see how funny you think it is when Levy
plunges the Dagger of Asar into your heart and sucks
every last drop of your power from your lifeless body. He will become the most powerful necromancer
ever known; an unstoppable force, and I will be by his side. Maybe we’ll even fuck while standing over
your corpse.”

I blinked. Uh, okay, I so wasn’t expecting to hear
that. “You’re totally batshit crazy,” I said.
“I don’t care whose dagger you have, you can’t just kill me and steal my
gift. It doesn’t work that way.”

“It does if you have the Dagger of Asar, otherwise known as Osiris, and you know the ritual
Isis used to bring him back from Otherworld.
With the blood magic released by your death and the sacrifice of the
others, we will bring Osiris back to this plane and Levy will be his
avatar. He will become one with the god
and his powers will be boundless.
Nothing, not the Cimmerian or the Triad or the Conclave will stand in
his way.” Holly’s eyes glowed with an
intensity only seen in zealots and drug addicts jonesing for their next fix. How had she managed to hide the crazy from
Tess and me all this time?

I struggled with my bonds, the
plastic ties biting into my skin. I had
to get out of there. I knew that Nash
and Tess, not to mention Isaac and I’m sure the
Magister, would be looking for me. But
would they find me in time?

“And just when is this little love
fest supposed to take place?” I asked Holly.

“The moon will be new tomorrow. Tess and all her mutt buddies will be at
their weakest, but the God of Rebirth will be at his strongest.” Holly sneered at me. “No one is coming for you. Not even that stupid mutt detective who can’t
seem to help sniffing around you.” She
crossed the room to a small fridge and opened another protein shake. “Drink this or I’ll get someone to help pour
it down your throat. We wouldn’t want
you to pass out right before Levy kills you.”
She thrust the bottle at me.

Who was this person in front of me? I couldn’t reconcile her at all with the
Holly I thought I knew. Just the idea
that she had been plotting behind my back for all this time, I couldn’t bring myself to believe
it. It made me so angry. I could feel the anger boiling up inside of
me. When she reached across to hold the
straw to my lips, I managed to pull up on my hand with all my strength. The zip tie cut viciously into my wrist
before it broke open and I grabbed her arm in a crushing grip. I could feel her aura on the surface of her
skin. It tingled against my bare
hand. I imagined taking the energy from
her aura into myself, feeding my own. I
know it is what I had done unconsciously with Nash, but this was the first time
I had ever tried to do it on purpose.
Holly let out a frightened shriek and her aura pulsed. Tomas was right. Her fear was delicious. I drew more energy to myself, feeling my own
depleted stores replenishing. Holly
thrashed and screamed for help but she was no match for my power-boosted
strength. I could feel the life force leeching
out of her and I didn’t care. If I was
going to stand a snowflake’s chance in hell of getting out of there, I would need
all the energy I could get.

The door suddenly burst open
surprising me, as two of DiCastro’s goons ran in to
help. I let go of Holly’s wrist and she
fell to the floor cradling her arm. She
struggled to her feet looking a bit woozy and staggered across the room to a medical
chest.

“You bitch!” she screamed. She came back across the room, a syringe and
a bottle of clear liquid in her hand.
“Hold her still but don’t touch her with your bare hands.”

One of the men pulled a rather large
gun from underneath his coat and held it to my forehead. Needless to say I didn’t move. Holly measured a dose of something I was sure
would knock me out, then plunged the needle into my
neck. I screamed and then the lights
went out.