Chapter Eighteen
Ten minutes later, the fog blew apart around the roof’s entryway, revealing Remy. He was shirtless, with something like soot darkening his chest and face, and the look in his eyes made Brendan’s guards back up a step.
Remy grabbed my elbow and propelled me through the gargoyles. The fog faded, revealing that lantern-lit path surrounded by exotic flowers. Remy said nothing until we were back inside his non-magic hotel. Then he swung me to face him.
“How did you know my locating spell was blocked?”
“Brendan told me, and before you dismiss that, he does remember random things now. He also said my blood could unclog the spell, and I believe that, because you’re fanatical about no one finding out what’s in me or they’d fight to use the Beast for themselves.
They wouldn’t do that unless it could be used, so Brendan’s right about my blood, isn’t he? ”
I was almost panting by the time I was done. I hadn’t dared to even draw another breath before I got that all out. Remy’s darkening expression made me believe every word of it, too.
“It’s too dangerous,” he bit out.
I grabbed his arms. “Fuck the danger. You think I’d let monsters terrorize a child if I could stop it? I know what that’s like. I’ll never recover from it, so save your warnings!”
He grabbed me as well. “You will care when creatures you didn’t know existed snarl over your bound, captive body. I want to save Ellie, too, but if you do this, and people discover what you are because of it, you’ll be hunted the rest of your life!”
Memory slammed into me. Trees like towering torches above me … smoke burning my lungs until I collapsed, gasping for breath …
I shuddered.
Remy’s grip loosened. Now his hands caressed instead of bruised. “This isn’t your fight. I will find Ellie. I haven’t exhausted all my options yet.”
“I’m sure you will find her.” My voice was harsh from memories I hadn’t been braced for. No wonder my mind still blocked out most of those images. “But I’m your best hope of finding Ellie alive.”
I met his gaze, letting him see how serious I was.
“I know what running for my life feels like. It’s hell, but I did it once, and I can do it again.
Ellie still has a chance to be a normal little girl.
I lost that chance over eleven years ago.
I can never get it back, but I can help stop it from happening to Ellie, so use my damn blood already to save her. ”
Remy’s stare made my eyes burn in a way that reminded me of that long-ago smoke, but I didn’t look away.
“Do it,” I said softly. “You know you want to, or you’d have already dragged me back to that other roof.”
A sound escaped him. Its effect rolled over me like the ominous interlude that existed between the thunder and the next flash of lightning.
“You will do exactly what I say,” he finally gritted out.
I nodded. In this instance, I would.
“And it will hurt,” he added.
I pointed at my chin. “This is my shocked face,” I said with a bad attempt at humor.
His teeth flashed in something too harsh to be a grin. “All right, Raine. Follow me.”
The last time I’d stepped off this elevator into the dusty space that made up the foundations of Remy’s normal hotel, he’d tried to ensnare me in a magical trap. This time, I willingly walked into whatever mystical mayhem he had in store for me.
Mandal was down here, too. He was also shirtless, and I saw that his right arm was a prosthetic below the elbow.
Was that why he always wore gloves? To conceal his artificial right hand?
Those slashes on Mandal’s chest were worse that I’d thought, too.
He stood in front of a large black kettle, and his eyes widened when he saw me behind Remy.
“Aw, hell,” Mandal muttered. “You’re really doing this?”
Had Mandal also known that my blood could possibly unblock the spell? It made sense. Mandal was the only other person aside from Remy and Brendan who knew what was inside me.
“She insisted.” Two words that spoke volumes about Remy’s mood, but I was here, so he agreed this was Ellie’s best chance.
Mandal caught my glance at his prosthetic.
“An enemy tried to negate my Siphon abilities by slicing off my hands. He only got one before I grabbed him with the other and made him regret it.” Then he tapped the lip of the kettle with what I’d just realized was a large, curved knife stained with blood.
I eyed the cuts on Mandal’s chest, noticing what I’d missed before. “You lied. There was no jittery, knife-happy employee. You cut your own chest up.”
Now Mandal tapped the knife against his oak-hard chest. “Blood increases a spell’s power. I’m a Siphon, so my blood is extra potent. But it still wasn’t enough.”
“Nor was mine,” Remy added in a dark tone. “And it should have been more than sufficient.”
I glanced at Remy’s chest. Nothing marred it except the soot-like substances. That’s right, his healing abilities would’ve gotten rid of any cuts he’d made on himself.
This will hurt, he’d warned me.
Now I knew why. A needle and an IV line might have been my preferred method, but I’d do whatever it took.
I shrugged out of my robe. I had a tank top and pajama pants beneath it. No bra because I’d been asleep in bed when Mandal got me. Eh, well. How could I know that I’d be doing a bloody version of show-and-tell before the night was through?
Remy stilled my hands when I started to pull my tank top off. “Wait. It’s not that simple.”
Of course it wasn’t. When was it ever?
Mandal stepped back from the kettle. Remy motioned me toward it. I went, belatedly realizing that it resembled a large witch’s cauldron. That’s what Remy was using to mix together the ingredients for his spell? Some myths really were true.
Remy stood on the opposite side of the kettle. I looked inside, but its interior was black and deep, so its contents were hidden. It smelled like strong herbal tea, though. And blood, of course.
“Watch me, Raine.”
Remy was using his drug-like voice again. Without thinking, I leaned toward him as delightful shivers raced across my skin.
“Is that necessary?” I asked a little sharply.
His stare hit me with the intensity of headlights, and I felt like a proverbial deer caught in their gleam. “Yes.”
That single word felt like falling into a vat of warm caramel. Decadent, but also impossible to escape.
“Watch me,” he repeated, using his finger to draw imaginary lines across his chest.
I stared, feeling mesmerized by the pattern. He did it a second time, and then a third, all while repeating “Watch me” in an increasingly richer tone, until my whole body nearly vibrated with bliss. God, if he didn’t stop, I might come soon.
“Now, you draw it,” he ordered.
I did, using my finger while still staring into his eyes. Once, twice … and then Remy nodded at Mandal.
Something cold and hard was pressed into my hand.
I drew the pattern a third time while Remy’s gaze held mine and his voice rumbled out encouragement that made the sharp burns fade into indistinct stings.
When I was finished, Remy was suddenly at my side, bending me over the kettle so my blood fell into it.
I felt the pain then. Hot and angry, like it was making up for lost time. I glanced down. My tank top was in shreds, and what remained of the purple fabric was splotched in scarlet.
“Did it work?” I gritted out.
Remy released me. I must have lost more blood than I realized, because I staggered. Mandal caught me as Remy began moving his hand over the kettle like he was stirring its contents with an invisible spoon.
“We’re about to find out,” Mandal said.
Dozens of thin, silvery strands began poking out of the kettle.
Those strands formed into a ropelike mass that rose up until it reached all the way to the ceiling.
Once there, the strands spread out, this time forming into intricate patterns that resembled a cityscape made of spiders’ webs …
until the strands abruptly dissipated with a suddenness that reminded me of when I’d leaned too far over my birthday candles as a child, and burned my bangs off before I could even shriek.
“Fuck,” Mandal snarled.
It hadn’t worked. I felt sick at the defeat, and braced myself against the kettle for support. Brendan was wrong. My blood wasn’t enough to unblock the spell. Dammit, we needed it to work, right now—
Water shot from the kettle like it had morphed into a firefighter’s hose on full blast. The stream went straight up again, but when it reached the ceiling without a drop falling back down, I realized it wasn’t water. It was more strands, now turbocharged and multiplying faster than I could see.
Remy glanced at my hands on the kettle and then my face. Something flickered across his expression I couldn’t name.
“Finally,” Mandal said with satisfaction.
More cityscape images formed from the strands, flashing like scenes from a movie on fast-forward. I couldn’t catch them all, but the last one showed Ellie, her little body scrunched into a corner as if she were trying to disappear into it, her face red and splotchy as she soundlessly cried.
“She’s alive!” I said in relief.
The images vanished, but that ropelike structure reaching into the ceiling remained. Remy’s expression was pure predator as he glanced at it. Then he strode over to me.
“I’m leaving to get her.”
“You know where she is?” I hadn’t been able to make much of anything useful except that last image of Ellie.
“Yes. The remaining strands will point the way.”
They acted like a magical GPS? No wonder Ellie’s kidnappers had tried so hard to block Remy’s spell. For once, I was glad I was infected. Bet you hadn’t counted on Beast blood, fuckers!
“I’m sorry for hurting you,” Remy continued.
I glanced at my bloody torso. “I barely felt it.”
His tight smile made me tense. “That’s not what I meant.”
His hands landed on either side of my head. I screamed at the instant, blasting pain. My head felt like it was caving in. He was crushing my skull! My God, he was killing me!
“I can’t give you my power in increments like I intended.” Each word seared more agony into me. “Not with the whole supernatural world soon realizing I have access to a Beast. You need complete control over it, right now.”
I only knew my head hadn’t split open because I was still screaming. The pain was so horrific, my mind fractured.
I was in the forest, every step tearing open the blisters on my feet. Smoke made it nearly impossible to see. Was I running away from the fire? Or had I gone the wrong way?
Several dark, furry things darted past me. I staggered after them. Maybe the animals knew a way out.
“Help!” I screamed. “Anyone! Please, help me!”
“Raine,” I barely heard Remy say. “It’s almost over.”
The smoke thickened, driving me to my knees. Heat scorched my back. Oh God, the fire was right here.
I tried to get up, and fell back down. I tried again, and collapsed, coughing. I couldn’t stand. I could barely breathe.
“Raine!”
Something slammed into me. Instead of the wall of fire from my nightmares, I saw Remy’s face. My head throbbed as if he’d beaten on it with a bat, but I no longer felt like I was being burned alive.
I tried to speak. Nothing came out. My vision swam, too, blurring Remy’s face. Soon, darkness overtook the sides of my vision, swallowing everything in a sea of black that was still better than the memory of being trapped in that wildfire.
“Mandal, see her back to the roof,” I heard through an encroaching roar in my ears. “Then follow me.”
“Right behind you,” Mandal might have said, but I wasn’t sure. Darkness had claimed me.