Chapter 6 #2
Rose was still trapped somewhere inside that green hell.
She was a born vampire, stronger than most, but I couldn't shake the image of those thorns finding their mark, draining the life from her the way they'd tried to drain mine.
We had to get her out. Rose was a Nightshade witch, and without her power, defeating Marsha would be nearly impossible.
Tinker Bell opened the book and flipped through the pages with maddening deliberation, as if she were testing my patience on purpose.
It took everything I had not to scream at her to hurry up and find the damn spell. Every second that ticked by meant Joy could be suffering—or worse. A wild thought struck me like lightning. I stopped pacing abruptly. “Is there a spell in there that can open the portal to the Elder Dimension?”
She paused, her jaw tightening briefly before she continued with forced calm. “The problem with using a spell to open the portal without knowing exactly where she is—you could end up anywhere. You’d never find her.”
Something cold and lethal shifted inside me. I’d heard enough horror stories from Keir Rankin—fragments of nightmares about a place where the rules meant nothing and even the strongest predators became prey to forces they couldn’t understand. How could Joy survive?
My jaw locked, and my fangs pressed against my lips as the predator in me reacted to the threat. “I’d find her. I could find Joy anywhere.”
Tinker Bell’s expression hardened, her earlier patience evaporating.
“The Elder Dimension works differently than our world, Enzo.” Her tone sharpened.
“She could be gone before you even find her. Our best chance of finding her is to force Marsha to tell us what Ari’s plan is.
We might then be able to pinpoint where she is. ”
Angelo clasped my arm. “I know it sucks to be patient—believe me I know—but if you want to find her, we’ve got to do it right.”
I wanted to shrug off his hand, to ignore his logic and charge headfirst into whatever hell awaited. But the rational part of my mind—the part that had kept me alive for centuries—knew he was right. I hated that he was right.
Tinker Bell stopped flicking through the pages. “Found it, but we need ingredients.” She scanned the list, and her shoulders slumped. “Most of them are easy to find and I have them, except one.”
My stomach tightened. “What ingredient?”
Tinker Bell met my gaze. “Unseelie Royal Blood.”
Angelo flashed Keir a curious look. “Why didn’t you go to the Hollows and retrieve Prince Killian’s blood? That would have been simpler than sending a man into the Underworld.”
Keir narrowed his eyes. “Because he looks at me as a traitor and wouldn’t have given it to me. Besides, Stefan Gabor and I aren’t on speaking terms at this time.”
“I’ll go to the Hollows and force Killian to give it to me,” I growled.
“You can’t,” Tinker Bell said. “He has to offer it to you freely.”
Obviously she wasn’t schooled in the art of torture. Everyone broke eventually. Everyone could be persuaded.
She picked a stone up from the ground, examining its rough surface. “According to the spell, you need a blood stone.”
She raised the stone above her head, her voice taking on an otherworldly resonance that seemed to echo from somewhere deep within her chest. “Sanguis libere datus, petra receptum faciat. By will freely given, let stone become vessel.”
The air around the stone shimmered with heat distortion as ancient magic responded to her words. The rough gray rock began to transform, its surface smoothing and darkening until it resembled polished obsidian. A faint red glow pulsed within its depths, like a heartbeat made visible.
She lowered her arms, the transformed stone still pulsing with that eerie red light. “Place this in his palm. The stone will take his freely given blood, and when it’s done, the entire stone will turn dark red. But if he doesn’t give it freely, the stone will turn bright orange.”
Killian would never cooperate. Not freely, not willingly. He hated me, hated vampires, and helping us rescue Joy? He’d laugh in my face. Or worse, he’d see this as leverage—a way to make demands, extract promises I couldn’t keep. “How the hell am I going to do that?”
“We have to give him an incentive.” Angelo shrugged. His gaze focused on me. “How much does he love his mate, Kara?”
I was willing to do anything to rescue Joy—even this. Threatening someone’s mate went against every instinct I had, crossed a line I’d always respected. But Joy was out there, trapped, possibly dying. What choice did I have? “I guess we’ll find out.”
The words were out before I could stop them, but even as I spoke, I knew what we were contemplating. Angelo’s methods weren’t pretty, but Kara wasn’t some innocent bystander. She was locked up in the Hollows for a reason.
Serenity’s face paled. “Angelo, no. You can’t be serious.”
He didn’t flinch. “But I am. You have to choose. Joy or Kara.”
“That’s not fair.” Her voice broke. She looked away, jaw working as she struggled with the decision. Finally she met Angelo’s eyes, pain written across her features. “I don’t like this. Using someone’s mate as leverage—it’s wrong. But if I have to choose...” She swallowed hard. “Joy.”
I dragged my hand through my hair. “I know it’s not fair, Serenity. But we’re out of options. You can heal her no matter what happens. But we have to get past those vines and into the Elder Dimension. It’s the only way to rescue Joy.”
“We need to move now.” Angelo pulled out his phone. “Pascal, have my jet ready. We’ll bring them back here. Dimitri, you’ll come with us.”
Tinker Bell handed the blood stone to Angelo. “You’ll find out immediately whether he’s lying.”
If Killian lied, he’d regret it.
Dimitri cracked his knuckles, his eyes fixed on the cathedral. “Let’s go get this royal blood and tear down those vines. Valentin’s waited long enough.”
The pieces were falling into place. Soon we’d have Prince Killian’s blood, the spell would work, and I’d tear through those vines to reach Joy. Nothing else mattered.