Chapter 20
20
H ere you go, for anyone who skipped. The sex was amazing. Great ideas for you and yours. Maybe mark chapter 19 for that…
I lay in the sweat and rain-soaked bed, Crash’s arms around me, more content than I’d ever been in my entire life.
The night was nearly over, and the sun was kissing the edge of the horizon like a sleepy lover. I let my eyes wander over Crash’s chest, down past his tattoo. I smiled and sat up, my muscles pleasantly sore from the multiple rounds we’d had. My smile widened.
It was going to be a good day.
Bree.
I sat up and looked around, sure that someone had just called my name. A tiny bit of worry trickled through me. Someone in theory could be in the graveyard—hidden from humans yes, but not supernaturals. And it wasn’t like I was lacking in enemies.
Slipping out of the bed, I bent and pulled my hip bag out. My leathers were stuffed down at the bottom, and I had to reach my arm in shoulder deep to find them.
“Bree?” Crash mumbled my name, but he wasn’t the one who’d spoken before.
“I’m here. Just getting dressed.” I tugged on my pants, but I had no idea where my panties had gone. I did find my bra flung over the top bough arching over the bed. I snatched it down and strapped the girls in, pulled on the rest of my clothes, then strapped my thigh sheath on.
Nancy immediately started in on me. “I think I heard you screaming. It was good then?”
Crash rolled to a sitting position and pointed at the blade. “You going to tell me what happened there?”
“To be fair, it wasn’t my idea,” I said. “I agreed to carry Toltza’s shadow. But he got scared I was going to get killed, so he jumped into the blade.”
Crash pulled a face. “Yeah, that’s totally normal.”
“I’m telling you,” Nancy said. “It happens. I know other demon-infested weapons. It’s an easy place to jump when the person you’re possessing is about to die. Then someone else picks up the weapon and boom, new body.”
“Only you’re stuck now,” I pointed out.
“Well, semantics. At least I’m not stuck in hell,” Nancy said.
Crash stood and snapped his fingers on his left hand. The bed disappeared and he picked up his clothes, pulling his jeans on first. “I’ll second that, at least we’re not in hell.”
I grinned.
Bree. Help me.
I spun, looking around the graveyard. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Crash asked.
“I didn’t hear nothing,” Nancy said. “You losing your marbles already?”
Bree!
I flinched, the sound of the woman’s voice incredibly loud in my head, frantic, full of fear. I started toward it, feeling a pull. “I hear a woman. She’s calling me.”
“Bree, are you okay?” Crash grabbed my hand, but I pulled away from him, picking up speed.
Yes, hurry! Bree, you must hurry!
I felt the tug of something familiar, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. What was it? Who was calling me?
The voice kept pulling me forward, Crash following and trying to stop me.
And then I saw her.
Her dress was old-fashioned but new. Like it had been freshly made and she’d slipped it on for a revival of the 1800s. Her strawberry hair was piled high, but it was long enough that curls still spilled down her back. I stopped right behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey.”
She turned and I might have been looking into a mirror, if my mirror had a much prettier version of me. Her smile was soft and sad, and every feature on her was delicate, like a painter had taken extra time with each part of her face. “Hello, Breena. I’ve waited so very long to meet you.”
That accent that was there, I couldn’t place it. Southern? English? A bit of both almost. “Who are you?”
“Can’t you guess?” Her head tipped to the side, blue eyes wide with innocence. “No? You didn’t wonder why he was so willing to help you, from the minute he laid eyes on you? I think he believed you were my reincarnation, to be sure.”
“Bree!” Crash bellowed my name. I turned to see him on his knees, Roderick behind him with a sword to his throat.
I stared, shocked. “No. Roderick! What are you doing?”
“I have no choice, I am so very sorry,” Roderick shook his head. “I…have no choice but to obey her.”
I turned slowly to face the woman who looked so much like me. “Evangeline.”
She gave me a slow curtsey. “That is correct. Robert didn’t tell you about me, did he? He didn’t tell you that he tried to kill me. He’s not the man you think he is, Breena O’Rylee.”
Whatever shock was in me fled. This woman—I didn’t care if she was Robert’s beloved—had ordered Roderick to put a knife to Crash. I yanked Nancy free of his sheath and lunged at Evangeline.
She moved so fast it was as if she had never stood in front of me. Like a snake, she struck, grabbing me from behind, snapping my wrist, forcing me to drop my knife.
I screamed and Crash roared. “Kill him,” Evangeline said.
“NO!” I fought her, thrashing and kicking, finally flinging her off my body. I don’t even know how I found it in me—I just knew I couldn’t lose him again.
Wrist flopping, I ran toward Crash and Roderick. With what was left of my power, pitifully small as it probably was, I pushed a command into my words to Roderick. “Take that sword off him, now!”
He dropped the sword.
Crash spun and tackled him.
A hand clamped on my neck from behind and then I was being jerked through…something. A doorway of some kind?
We were no longer in the graveyard, Crash and Roderick were nowhere to be seen. The room was beautiful, decorated to the nines in thick rugs, elaborate furniture. It smelled musty though, old. Across from us were several cells—yes, as in jail cells. But there was no distinguishing feature of where we were.
“Good boy, Remy,” Evangeline said. “Timing was perfect as usual.”
I looked up to see Remy standing on the other side of the portal. His eyes were not downcast, he was not helping because he had to—he wanted to help her.
“My love.” He bent and kissed Evangeline, a smile on his lips. “Well done.”
She shot a look at me, her eyes crinkling. “You see? It was easy for him, to pretend you were me. Made it so you believed him when he said he cared.” Evangeline laughed as she tossed me into a cell and slammed the door shut. “I got the idea from Robert. Seeing how taken he was with you.”
I had no idea where we were. No idea where she’d taken me. My wrist was broken, my magic drained. I took a step back. In a cell across from me, a figure emerged. “Ivan.”
“Aye. My son betrayed me. Again.” He thumped the cage with a big fist, then let out a low hiss. “Iron. I cannot do a thing to escape it.”
If I were to take a guess, I’d say we were in a castle somewhere, but I wasn’t sure. There was no natural light coming through any windows.
Evangeline drew close to the bars of my cage. “Silly girl. You think you know what’s going on, but you don’t. It matters not. You’ll be useful, a part of the spell that will raise my children once and for all. Sunlight will no longer be a bane to our existence. We will rule this world.” She smiled wide, flashing a set of fangs that were unmistakable.
Oh shit.
“My friends will stop you,” I said. “Crash will come for me.”
Her smile widened. “I’m counting on it.