Chapter 24
Chapter 24
T he demon bowed over Tuesday, inspected her face and smoothed the hair away from her eyes. “The vampire did it,” he said in amazement. “He broke the curse.”
“The Final Days?” she murmured weakly.
“Well, that, too. I think. We won’t know until we go topside and see if all the tourists are flambéed, eh? But, Tuesday, the curse you’ve carried for centuries—it’s gone. Didn’t you feel it? I certainly did.”
She slapped a palm to her chest, where the sigil had burned so viciously she’d felt as though her insides would sizzle. “But...”
“A true love willing to die for you.” Gazariel spoke the means to breaking the spell. “He sacrificed for you, witch. And I am also clean now. That damn curse is completely erased!”
“But that means... Ethan!” She shoved out of Gazariel’s arms and scrambled toward the circle, where CJ now stood over the fallen vampire. The dark witch stepped out and jumped across the stream to inspect the dais.
The vampire was lying on his back, arms splayed, eyes wide, his mouth open and the blood continuing to pour from his carotid. Tuesday slapped her palm to the open wound. Blood spurted. She summoned a healing incantation, but it sputtered and merely sprinkled over Ethan’s neck. She’d depleted her magic to stop the Final Days.
“CJ, help me! I have to stop the bleeding or he’ll die.”
The dark witch returned to the circle, which was no longer necessary to keep closed, and kneeled beside her. “I think he’s already dead.”
“No!” She took the dark witch’s hand and pressed it over the wound on Ethan’s neck. “Recite the blessing for a vampire’s everlasting life.”
They did so together while the demon stalked around them, observing. Such a blessing was a powerful invocation that a witch could perform for a vampire, granting him immortality that even a stake or beheading would find difficult to overcome. It was rarely used. And only the most powerful witches could summon such a thing.
After minutes of desperate chanting CJ tugged his hand away from Ethan’s neck. “It’s not working. We’ve both depleted our magic. If anything might work—he needs blood. That’s a vampire’s best hope for survival.”
“Then he’ll have it.” Tuesday searched for the athame and found it tucked under Ethan’s leg. Without a second thought, she drew it across her wrist and pressed it to Ethan’s mouth. “Come on, Ethan! Don’t leave me now!”
He didn’t move, so she had to press her wrist tight against his mouth. He didn’t swallow.
“Sit him upright,” CJ directed Gazariel. “Help me!”
“I’m rather of the mind to get the hell out of here,” the demon said.
Tuesday hissed at the demon. “I saved you from being consigned to Daemonia. You will help. Now!”
Begrudgingly, Gazariel helped CJ set Ethan upright so the blood would flow down his throat. It took a while, but after a few minutes Tuesday saw his Adam’s apple pulse. He had swallowed. And she was growing distinctly weaker. She’d expelled so much magic that even a little blood loss was not going to keep her upright for long.
Her eyelids fluttered.
“You can’t do this,” CJ said. “We need another donor.”
“You,” Gazariel said to the dark witch.
CJ tapped a tattoo on his neck. “Can’t. I’m warded against vamps. If he drinks my blood it’ll kill him for sure.”
“He’s warded against demons, too,” Gazariel said with a nod toward Ethan’s throat.
“We need the vampiress. Go get her!” Tuesday commanded the demon.
“Seriously?”
Tuesday wanted to argue with the obstinate demon, but it was all she could do to keep her eyelids open and her focus on Ethan. He was swallowing now, and that was a good sign.
But with a flutter of her eyelids, she passed out.
* * *
Tuesday came to and the first thing she saw was her vampire lover embracing his ex-wife. He held Anyx’s slender body to his chest and gripped her head to hold it aside as he supped at her neck. His hand caressed her breast where the thin black sheath had slid aside to expose the nipple, and she moaned in ecstasy. And Ethan increased his efforts, drinking from her. Taking from her. Enjoying her. Rubbing her nipple to give her pleasure.
That was not a life-saving moment. It was a graphic display of sexual desire.
Backing away on the limestone floor, Tuesday’s back hit a wall. Someone grasped her hand and helped her to stand. “You okay?”
“No,” she said to CJ. And she wasn’t. Her head felt as if someone was stirring her brains with a spatula. And her chest might explode if she did not—“I need air. I have to get out of here. Now.”
Turning, she crept out of the chamber in the direction they had come. No one followed her blood-drained wobbling pace. CJ would stay behind and keep an eye on Ethan. She hadn’t recalled seeing either Gazariel or Savin in the chamber. Only the two ex-lovers entwined in a disgustingly sensual embrace.
Vampires did not have to hold their donors so...intimately. Taking blood could be functional and discreet. They couldn’t have been closer if they had climbed inside one another. She didn’t want to think about it. She wanted to erase that image from her brain.
Stumbling blindly forth, Tuesday entered a dark tunnel and summoned a glow of light on her palm. It sputtered. She was weak. She needed rest and to heal. To restore after the tremendous expulsion of magic and blood. She’d given Ethan her blood to save him.
But what had she saved him for? A grand reunion with his former wife.
Noticing the strong coppery smell from the old electrical wires that had greeted her upon descent into the catacombs, she knew the surface must be close and raced forward. And there by the old wood door that led into the bowels of the church above, stood Gazariel.
“I need to get out of here.” She pushed past the demon, but he gripped her wrists. She did not bleed anymore and stopping movement now brought the woozy dizziness up again. Standing still was impossible. Her world wobbled. Or did she?
“You’re weak, witch. You need rest.”
“I will. But I need air now!” She faltered.
Gazariel lifted her into his arms and carried her up and through the ancient church basement. It was well into the morning hours, so the church was closed to tourists and their exit was not observed.
Finally, fresh cold air smacked Tuesday’s face. It was still dark, yet the moon beamed across her face. As if blinded by a desert sun, Tuesday closed her eyes.
“Where should I take you?”
“Away from here,” she murmured, then passed out.
* * *
Ethan emerged from below Notre Dame and staggered across the street from the church to sit on the sidewalk before a closed souvenir shop. Behind him CJ filed out and stretched his arms. The book containing the Final Days code was tucked in his waistband. Savin was carrying up Anyx—whom CJ had bound with magic, though she was nearly drained of blood not only from him but from the spell. She may or may not survive. He didn’t care.
Tuesday and Gazariel had not been below when Ethan had finally ceased drinking from Anyx. He’d pulled away from her neck, swallowed the last hot gulp and had felt himself again. He’d touched death while lying in the circle. Hell, he must have briefly died. But Tuesday’s blood had lifted him from that abyss. He’d felt it trickle down his throat as if a cool, clean elixir. And yet, he’d held back from taking too much from her. He hadn’t been willing to take her life to save his own. Better to die than to take Tuesday along with him. She’d done nothing to deserve death. It had been he who had forced her into this nightmare.
When someone had dropped an unconscious Anyx before him, he’d dove in, knowing he could take enough blood from her—and not caring for the outcome. He’d fed on her viciously, yet the blood lust had spurred his desires. He hated that feeling, yet it had saved his life.
A heavy sweep of wings preceded the sudden appearance of Gazariel by his side. The demon kneeled beside Ethan, and gazed skyward. “Morning soon.”
“Where is she?” Ethan could only manage to whisper the question. He was exhausted. He needed rest to fully recover.
“She wanted to get away from you.”
Why would she...? And then he remembered seeing Tuesday shuffle across the chamber floor. The look in her eyes had not been of horror, but rather...betrayal. She’d watched him drink from Anyx. But she couldn’t have believed that meant anything to him beyond sustenance.
Of course she had. He had seen it plainly in her tearing blue gaze.
“I took her to the airport,” Gazariel said. “My witch is free of the curse. You broke the spell.”
“I—I did?”
Gazariel chuckled. “She never did tell you what would do it, did she?”
He shook his head.
“It’s something she has known since the day I placed the curse in her. A true love had to be willing to sacrifice his life for her. And...her true love did.” The demon winked.
“True love? But I thought...” Ethan blinked, sorting out the few details he’d learned about Tuesday’s dark curse. “If she couldn’t have love, then how...?”
“Oh, someone could fall in love with her. Just, the moment the guy realized it, or she did, then all goes to Beneath. Apparently, her true love realized how much he did love her only in that moment before it would have went to hell. You pulled through by the skin of your teeth. Good going, vampire.”
Gazariel stood. With a sweep of wings, he misted into black smoke and was gone.
Ethan closed his eyes. He was thankful Tuesday had been freed of the curse. And because of love?
“Yes.” He did love her. And perhaps he had only realized it that moment he’d dove to push her out of the circle so she would not die to stop the curse.
And now?
“I need to get to the airport.”