The Necromancer's Betrayal (The Final Formula Series, Book 2.5) (5 page)

Can you taste it still?
Gavin asked.
Life? True life?

Yes,
James whispered, though he really hadn’t meant to. He didn’t want Gavin to have any part of this, yet just the thought of the ambrosia that was Elysia’s blood had him in thrall.

Find her,
Gavin whispered, his tone low, urgent… excited.

James didn’t question how Gavin knew the one he sought was female. He probably thought he searched for Addie. But James had never tasted Addie’s blood in its pure form. Suddenly he wanted to.

Focus,
Gavin said.

James focused on Elysia, his body beginning to tingle with the anticipation of another taste. Then he felt her. She wasn’t far, but nowhere was far from here.

Careful
. Gavin’s voice was distant and growing fainter.
Do not let your desire rule you
.

James’s clawed feet thumped against the ground, and it wasn’t until that moment that he realized he had traveled. He opened his eyes and found the landscape unchanged. Gavin was gone, yet he wasn’t alone.

She was there, here, in the land of the dead. Her soul a beacon of light in this dark, featureless place. He took a step toward her, drawn by her light and the desire that still crackled across his nerves. The blood lust.

He took a step. Then another. The distance between them shrank.

She gasped and turned to face him, her pale eyes going wide.

James hesitated, suddenly consumed by the irrational urge to hide, to not let her see his nightmare form. But that made no sense. He should want to scare her, to force her to free him.

Stop
. A form James hadn’t noticed stepped between them. A cloaked woman, her features hidden, but with a soul almost as bright as Elysia’s.
Child, go
.

Elysia turned away. A gust of wind carrying her vibrancy, and she was gone.

She is not for you, demon
.

James eyed the figure before him. He had met the occasional spirit in this place, but all fled from him here. This woman was different.

She seemed to study him from within her hood. Another gust of cool air and she was gone, though unlike Elysia, he didn’t smell life, he scented cold stone and darkness.

His hackles rose.

Turning away, he followed Elysia, the ability coming more easily or perhaps it was the freshness of her scent. An instant later, he landed on four paws beside the old barn. The moon had risen above the trees and frost now coated the grass. Elysia lay curled on her side in the old leaves piled against the side of the barn.

James shifted human and knelt beside her. “Elysia?” The disturbing bond between them tightened.

“James,” she whispered. “Don’t leave me.”

The command hit him, and any chance of going to Addie dissolved. He bowed his head, but didn’t feel the anger he expected.

Elysia mumbled something else, but didn’t wake. Which made no sense. How could she travel to the land of the dead in her sleep? Or had she passed out upon her return?

He remembered the risk she had taken to Make the girl at the store, and her confusion afterward. Had the use of her magic harmed her?

Concerned, he gathered her in his arms and carried her to the car. Leaning the passenger seat back, he placed her inside, then covered her with his coat. He turned the vehicle on to let the heater run. She didn’t stir, and he chided himself for not asking for her grandmother’s address. What would he do if she didn’t wake up?

He closed the car door and shifted into the hellhound. He dealt with anxiety better in this form.

Chapter
6

E
lysia woke to morning sunlight streaming through the windshield. Her upper body was covered by a leather jacket that wasn’t her own. She sat up from the reclined passenger seat and groaned. Her neck was stiff and a muscle spasmed in her lower back. It said something about her exhaustion that she had been able to sleep like that. An empty Diet Coke bottle rolled around the floorboard when she shifted her feet, the noise loud in the silence. A man’s T-shirt and jeans lay on the driver’s seat.

Memories from the day before returned, and she rubbed her face, groaning again. She had bound a hellhound, created a lich, and made out with a dead guy. She could do an episode of Necromancers Gone Wild—if there were such a thing.

She opened the car door and climbed out into the cold morning air. So where was—then she saw him.

In the deep shadow at the base of the barn, unblinking green eyes watched her. The eyes, with their eerie glow, were all that was visible. The hellhound’s midnight fur vanished in the darkness. Odd that he chose to sleep as the hound. Then she remembered how she woke covered in his coat. Maybe he had been cold in only his shirtsleeves. But the kindness of the gesture didn’t relieve the uncomfortable feeling his stare elicited in her.

“Hey,” she called to him in an effort to hide her unease. “We need to get going.”

A pause, and he rose to his feet. He padded toward her without making a sound. Dear God, he was huge. More like a small pony than any breed of dog she knew.

“I’m going to… use the facilities.” She hooked her thumb toward the trees and tried to ignore the heat in her cheeks. “You want to get dressed?”

Without so much as a blink, he turned toward the car.

When she returned, James was leaning against the front fender. He watched her approach with the same unblinking detachment as the hound. She wondered how much of him was human and how much was animal.

“You ready?” she asked, needing to fill the silence.

“Is that a rhetorical question?” He pulled open the passenger door and climbed inside.

She sighed and went to the driver’s side. He was back to sullen this morning. No, more likely he was pissed that she had made him kiss her against his will. She would be pissed, too.

She took a moment to adjust the seat and mirrors. “Damn,” she muttered, catching sight of her eyes in the rearview mirror. They were no longer white, but they weren’t brown either. More like sun-bleached khaki.

“What is it?” James sounded more bored than interested.

“My eyes. I’d rather Grams not know what I’ve been up to.”

He grunted, but couldn’t leave it at that. “You said as much before. Why?”

She adjusted the mirror to view the back glass and turned the key. “I swore I’d never be a practicing necromancer. I’ll get an I-told-you-so if she sees me like this.”

“It was my understanding that a necromancer cannot physically deny his or her magic.”

She gripped the wheel. “It’s possible, but it’s painful. So painful.” She cleared her throat. “Then there’s the threat of insanity.”

“Necros are known for crazy.”

She squeezed the wheel harder. He didn’t understand, and even if he did, he had no need to treat the topic with respect. Her actions last night had probably cemented any hatred he harbored for her kind. Yet for some reason, she didn’t want him to hate her.

“It’s true. Many do go insane. I’m not sure why some do, but I do know that denying your gift is the quickest route.” She stopped to take a breath. “My mother was clinically insane before her thirtieth birthday.”

“She was institutionalized?” His tone had softened, but she didn’t look over.

“Have you ever been in a sanitarium? That’s the last place you want to put a mentally unstable necromancer. The ghosts in that place.” She shivered. “Then there’s the morgue.”

He grunted.

She made herself release the wheel. “I don’t know why I told you that.” She rubbed her face. “Just a side effect of some troubling dreams, I guess.”

“What kind of dreams?” There was an intensity in his tone that made her glance over. He was watching her again with that unblinking focus.

“I have this recurring dream. It’s always the same. It’s dark, except for this dim red glow. And a woman. I know it’s the same woman, even though I never see her face. She tells me stories about my family’s past, or so she claims. My mother and grandmother. Sometimes, even further back.” She shook her head, suddenly self-conscious. “It sounds so stupid saying this out loud. I guess that’s why I’ve never told anyone.”

“And you had such a dream last night?” His interest surprised her.

“Last night was different. Last night we were interrupted by… a nightmare.”

“A nightmare?”

“A monster.” She shivered. “Never mind. The whole dream thing has left me in a funk.”

“I’m sorry.”

After his grumpy mood, she didn’t expect concern. “It was just a dream.” And now he probably thought she was nuts for going on about it. She dropped the car into drive and carefully drove through the ruts to the main road.

“Why don’t you want your grandmother to know your true strength?” James asked after they had ridden in silence for a few miles.

“She thinks I’m the one to bring the Family back to prominence. She probably wants me to challenge the Deacon for his seat.”

“The Deacon of Cincinnati?” James asked.

“He lives in Cincinnati. He’s actually over much of the Midwest.”

Another pause. “Do you have the power to challenge him?”

“I’ve never met him. But I kicked his son’s ass once, and rumor has it that they’re much alike.”

James fell silent, and Elysia decided to leave it at that. He had brought them pretty far last night, curious considering he had no idea where Grams lived. They were only twenty minutes away. She was almost home.

Elysia shut off the engine and stared at the three-story funeral home at the end of the cul-de-sac. In its day, the large stone house had been a mansion. Built over a century ago, the building had been the home of her first ancestor to settle in the area. A symbol of her family’s wealth and power. Now it was simply another old building falling into disrepair. It needed a new roof, and the trim and soffits could use a fresh coat of paint. Even so, it was a welcome sight, though foreboding at the same time. Elysia took a deep breath and released it.

“Have you seen your grandmother since you left?” James asked.

“Yes. I didn’t leave on bad terms, exactly. But we had our differences.” That was putting it mildly, but he didn’t need to hear about all that. “At first, she gave me my space, probably thinking I’d get lonely and come home. But lately, she’s been calling more and more, trying to talk me into returning.”

“Do you?”

“I go home for Christmas and the occasional funeral.” Elysia rubbed her palms over her thighs.

“I thought your kind kept the loved ones shuffling around.”

“I avoid those funerals.”

He glanced over, and she saw his surprise before he hid it.

“I’m kidding—sort of.”

“Sort of? You have family members who would animate a loved one?”

“Yeah, well, I’m sure your family history is littered with fine, upstanding citizens.”

“Those that don’t trade their descendants’ souls, sure.”

It was her turn to glance over in surprise, but he was glaring out the windshield. “I’m sorry,” she said.

He looked up and their eyes met. “Me, too.”

She smiled. “Couple of screwed up individuals, aren’t we?”

“That’s a polite way to put it.”

She forced a laugh, but couldn’t sustain it.

“So, what happens when the prodigal daughter returns bearing the Holy Grail?” he asked.

“All hell breaks loose?”

“Guess it’s fortunate I don’t burn.”

“Yeah.” She returned her attention to the man sitting beside her. “You’re not evil or dangerous.” She had seen his compassion in that convenience store. And this morning, she had awakened covered by his coat while he stood guard in the cold.

“I like to think so.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry.”

He glanced over. “You’ll release me?”

“I don’t know how.” She offered him an apologetic shrug.

He slumped in his seat, resting his head against the back.

“But maybe Grams can tell me.”

“Then take me for herself.”

Elysia considered arguing in Grams’s defense, but suspected it would be pointless until James met her. “Let’s go ask her.”

“Ely!” Livie threw her arms around Elysia’s neck the moment she was through the door. The girl was actually taller than her now—which was strange. Livie had come to live with them when she was only four. She had followed sixteen-year-old Elysia everywhere. An annoyance at the time, but something Elysia missed now. She tried to stay in touch, but a phone call wasn’t the same thing as being here.

“Where have you been?” Livie continued. “Grams thought you would be in last night. We called your apartment, and Ernie said you left hours before. You’ve got to get a cell phone.”

“We had car trouble. I’m sorry to worry you.”

Livie’s attention had already shifted to James. “Oh, wow.” Her blue eyes flickered white, and she did a slow lap around him. “Damn, Ely. Great body.”

James’s eyes narrowed.

“He’s not a piece of meat, Olivia.” The use of her full name earned Elysia a frown. “Where’s Grams?”

“Last I saw, doing paperwork in the office.” Livie’s frown became an odd little smile. “She said to send you up when you got here.”

Elysia thanked her and led James from the room.

“I’m sorry about that,” she told him as soon as they were alone. “The girl’s boy crazy and—”

“She touched me.”

Elysia glanced over her shoulder. “What? I didn’t see her—”

“Not physically. Can another necro take me from you?”

“If I’m away, they might take temporary control, but I’ll feel it. I won’t let anyone—”

He captured her arm, pulling her to a stop. “In the wrong hands, I’m a weapon. A lethal one.”

“They won’t—”

“You can’t know what people will or will not do. And necros especially like the zombies they can create with me.”

Heat flooded her cheeks. “I was trying to take out the other gunman. I didn’t—”

“Not you. I’ve been taken by necros before.”

She stared at him. “How did you get away? Didn’t someone blood-bind you?” She didn’t see how anyone could hold onto him long otherwise.

“I had help. Friends. My point is, I can be used.”

“No. I won’t let that happen. You’re mine—until I can undo this and set you free,” she added the last in a whisper.

He glanced up the hall and his brow wrinkled. “If you figure out how, don’t do it here.”

She wanted to tell him he was wrong. He didn’t know these people like she did. But she didn’t want to get into that argument here. “All right. Come on. Let’s go see Grams.” She turned and headed up the stairs.

James cleared his throat as he fell in step beside her.

She glanced over at him. “That was a command, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Damn, I need to work on that.”

“Depends on the command.”

Her cheeks heated, but she forced herself to stop at the top of the steps and face him. “I owe you an apology. It was wrong to force you to kiss me. I was so out of it and…”

His dark brows rose when she stopped.

“Never mind. I’m sorry.” It felt like her cheeks had caught fire. “As I said, I’ll work on the command thing.” She turned and led him along the hall, aware of his eyes on her back.