22. Chapter 22
Chapter twenty-two
LUCA
Outside the new gaping hole in the house where the windows used to be, the graveyard came alive. Mounds of dirt shifted and shuddered until something broke through.
I’d intended to kill two birds with one stone, giving myself an escape route and drawing Mars after me at the same time. No doubt he’d be coming for me, but my plan had a pretty big flaw.
Outside, dozens of dead creatures started crawling free from the dirt, slowly heading my way. If Mars found me now, I’d be surrounded. Though there was no reason to believe there weren’t more obstacles no matter where I ran, the only thing I could do was run the other way. And that was where I ran into Mars. Or rather, he ran me into the wall with the force of a battering ram.
Witch or mage, he should have been no match for a vampire’s strength, but he must have used a spell for a burst of speed and power. My back slammed into the wall, sending plaster raining down on top of me as I crumpled to my knees. It was a damn good thing I didn’t need to breathe because there was no air entering my lungs for a good while. I’d be lucky if he hadn’t cracked every one of my ribs.
“Who the fuck are you?” he demanded. “Here for the girl? It’s too late for her, but don’t worry, you’ll see her again soon.”
He grabbed my collar and started dragging me in the direction of the spell circle and thanks to the pain radiating through my chest, he succeeded for the first few steps before I got my feet under me.
The second I had some leverage, I grabbed his arm and threw him into the same wall he’d already smashed. Mars fell to the ground with a weak cough but got right back to his feet. When he smiled, a trickle of blood formed at the corner of his lips, but he seemed unharmed otherwise.
I hadn’t been trying to kill him with that throw, but it had been hard enough to cause some damage to a human body. He must have some kind of barrier or protection spell. Great.
“We know you’re here now. Take the woman and leave Eastbend,” I tried.
It was too much to hope he’d give up on saving Cassandra, but our first priority was protecting this town from his ambitions.
“As long as I kill you, it shouldn’t be a problem,” he countered.
“Do you think I’m the only one who knows? It would be pretty stupid to not call for backup the second I saw what’s going on here, wouldn’t it?”
His glare sharpened when he realized Cassandra might in trouble. “Then I’ll kill you quickly so I can deal with them. You’ve only sentenced them to death. And once I add you to my collection, I won’t be the one fighting anyone else that comes, you will.”
“Resurrecting the dead is forbidden magic. The council will come after you. Leave now before it’s too late.”
Mars’s smile turned evil. “That hardly counts as resurrection, they’re mere puppets. Barely a shadow of themselves remains. As for the council, they’re only interested in protecting their own power. Do you know what they do when they come across a being that matches their strength? They recruit them. It's only those who refuse to lend their power to the council's that face opposition. The council is not benevolent or just, that is simply what you tell yourselves to feel better about all the insignificant lives they’ve snuffed out without a second thought.
“Only an idiot would think the council is here to protect you. They are not a weapon you can wield to threaten me. The only thing that matters in this world is power. The council understands that, and so do I. Why would you think they’ll side with a town full of misfits and nobodies over the most powerful archmage this world has ever seen?”
His grin widened when I faltered. I’d only meant to scare him into leaving, but nothing he said was a lie. We knew that the council wasn’t benevolent, that wasn’t news, but I truly never considered that they might side with evil in the end.
I rushed forward to attack him, only to be stopped by the undead that found their way in while I’d hesitated. The bodies surrounded me, grabbing and pulling, tugging me toward the spell circle. The one in front of me wore a hooded cloak and a pentacle charm hung from her neck. The spell had preserved her body somewhat, but there was no hiding that she’d been dead a long time. She must have been one of the Eastbend witches he’d killed all those years ago.
Just like the dead we’d fought when Levi was taken, these things were strong, but slow. Their biggest advantage was numbers. Every time I broke free and killed them, several more had already grabbed on and were slowly inching me toward the spell room.
The kitchen wasn’t far in the other direction and fire might be the best option for dealing with the monsters he’d risen, but that would be a problem for a vampire as well. There were a lot of things I could survive now, fire wasn’t one of them.
Kier must have gotten Leanna out by now, and I was faster than anyone else here. If I could break free long enough to make it to the stove, maybe I could get out in time once they were distracted.
These creatures couldn’t be allowed to escape into Eastbend, and a fire would force Mars to focus on saving Cassandra instead of killing us. I just had to hope it didn’t kill her because I really didn’t want to meet this guy once that spell was no longer holding him back.
Decision made, I fought my way through the witches only to remember three steps in that the stove was powered by magic, not gas — and I’d already ripped apart the utility spells. But the fireplace mantle was filled with candles, many of them still lit. Changing directions, I let them drag me further into the room until the fireplace was in reach, before snagging a few candles and dropping a few more to the ground in the process.
Mars saw what I was doing and swung his arm, the force put out most of the candles and threw me into the wall again, but he was too late. Two of the witches I’d been fighting went up in flames, spreading the fire wherever they went as they continued to come after me. More and more witches caught fire as they pressed closer, and all I could do was try to avoid getting burned, shoving more of the non-burning monsters between us like shields. Even so, it was only a matter of time.
The fire spread, the heat and smoke becoming unbearable. Mars was furious and he’d stepped closer to deal with me himself when an arm wrapped around my waist from behind.
“This was your plan?” Keir hissed in my ear. “What would you have done if I hadn’t come back for you?”
I couldn’t answer. My body felt weightless in the dark before I blinked and we were on the other side of the room.
Mars stopped in his tracks and turned to face us again. His eyes narrowed on Sage before they lit with recognition.
The witch let out an angry laugh. “Is that where you went? I looked everywhere when you abandoned the old hag. Who would have thought they’d stuff you in a child? Rosemary was always so cunning.” His smile was downright evil. “How fortunate this encounter has been. I’ll be seeing you soon, demon.”
I snarled and tried to step forward, but the arm around my waist was like a steel band and it tightened as the room fell away again. The way out was like a series of still shots as we skipped from shadow to shadow, escaping the fire and the undead protecting the house.
As soon as Mars saw Sage, or rather Keir, he stopped trying to kill us and ran off toward Cassandra. The monsters he’d risen couldn’t keep up with Keir’s shadow jumping and he quickly left them behind. It wasn’t until we were outside running through toward the outer wards that I finally got the chance to yell at him.
“You were supposed to get Leanna and get out! Why the hell did you come back? Now he’s seen Sage and he knows you’re inside him!”
For as long as I’d known him, Sage had been rather unassuming. He was never obedient, and we’d clashed on several occasions, but I’d never once found him threatening, until now.
Intense rage flashed in Keir’s black eyes as he grabbed my shirt and tugged me down to his level. Sage was pretty small, but Keir gave off an aura that made him seem much bigger.
“That was your fault,” he snapped. “You were supposed to cut the lights and leave!”
“I tried! Breaking the ward on the house so I could get out triggered one of his traps and a bunch of dead witches came after me.”
“And your solution was using one of the few things that can kill you to fight them? You would be a pile of ash right now if I hadn’t stepped in.”
I liked to think I kept a cool head in difficult situations, but since I’d turned into a vampire, my emotions were a little more volatile and Keir’s anger felt almost contagious as I snarled right back in a tone I would never use with Sage.
“Then I’d be ash, but at least Sage would be safe! You made him a target when you came for me!”
Keir stared at me in disbelief. “You can’t be that stupid.”
That was not the response I was expecting and I was left fumbling for a response while Keir took the opportunity to finish dragging us outside the wards.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I finally spat, shuffling back a step, a little dizzy from all the bouncing around.
“It means you’re an idiot and a coward.” He stepped forward again, clutching at my shirt. “How long are you both going to pretend you don’t know how he feels about you? Sage is teetering on the edge after learning about everything that happened to him. He blames himself for the loss of the entire Blackwood coven. In order to save him, every powerful witch in the coven lost their magic, Rosemary lost me, and I…”
Keir trailed off, his eyes dropping to where his fist still crushed the fabric of my shirt in his grip. “He is struggling to find a reason why so many would be sacrificed to save him. He’s grasping at ways to make his existence worth the price those witches paid for his life. That is what led him here tonight.” Keir’s black eyes finally returned to my face, his anger burning away everything else. “What do you think it would have done to him to lose you too? To know that you sacrificed yourself as bait so he could escape?”
“You don’t just want to protect the body you’re stuck in,” I realized. “You care about Sage.”
Keir took another shaky step and it was only then that I realized how much he was struggling, how pale his face was, the way he breathed a little too heavily.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” I scooped him into my arms, ignoring the irritated glare he aimed my way.
“He’s impossible to deal with… when he’s upset,” Keir grumbled, using the last of his energy to deny my accusation as he went limp in my arms.
“Keir?”
I’d wondered how long the demon could take over and apparently he’d reached his limit. Or maybe it was all the jumping around that took it out of him. Either way, he’d exhausted himself to protect me and Sage. This wasn’t at all the way I’d expected things to turn out.
“Luca,” Silas called from up ahead where he stood outside the wards holding Leanna.
“Keir found you before he went back for me?” I asked.
Silas arched an eyebrow. “Is that the demon possessing Sage?”
Oops, I’d forgotten to tell Silas about that. “It is.”
“He appeared in front of me, dropped her in my arms and told me you’d be pissed if I ate her.”
I snorted. “Sage left a car around here somewhere. Let’s get them back and then we’ll figure out what to do about this mess.”
Silas looked at the burning building behind me. “I already called the wolves to deal with that, but a car sped away from the building moments ago, so it is likely whoever you were after has already escaped.”
“I figured as much, but there are still quite a few undead in there. Good thing the pack runs the fire department.”
“Were the hunters responsible for this?”
“I’m pretty sure it was hunters who were trying to take Ruby, but this house belonged to a witch. The sheriff arrested the hunters, so hopefully we’ll be able to get more answers.”
“The sheriff was here in Eastbend?”
“It’s a long story. Are you aware of a fight that broke out between the covens around twenty years ago?”
“Witches and vampires tend to keep to themselves, but I was vaguely aware of a power struggle.”
“It looks like the witch responsible has his sights set higher than the covens these days. We might have another problem on our hands.”
Silas glanced back at the burning house and surrounding graves. He didn’t need me to tell him Mars was using dark magic, its repulsive scent still lingered under the smell of the smoke. “The timing of this is not ideal. You expect he will return?”
“Mars let us go so he could save a dead witch he’s preserving, but he knows the demon he’s been looking for is in Sage now. Being raised as a human outside of Eastbend kept him off of the witch’s radar all this time, but he threw that away to save me. Bad timing or not, this is my fight now, too.”
The fire truck arrived at the house just as we found Sage’s car.
“Take these two back to the tavern,” Silas instructed. “I will meet up with the fire wolves and help check for any undead.”
“There’s no one at the tavern at this hour, I’ll just take them back to my house.”
“Luca, you need to call a meeting. You said it yourself, this is bigger than the covens this time. It involves Eastbend and no matter how much you want to, you can’t protect Sage on your own.”
Oof . Well if becoming a vampire didn’t kill my hero complex, those words should do it. He wasn’t wrong, but it was because it was the truth that it sucked hearing it. Sticking to Sage’s side every minute of the night was pointless if he was still vulnerable every minute of the day. It wasn’t like a vampire’s biggest weakness wasn’t common knowledge, which meant my protection amounted to nothing.
“Right. I’ll see you at the tavern.”
And I could only hope that Sage would forgive me for betraying his trust.