Reading Online Novel

A Kiss of Blood(38)



Micah took her hand and pulled her in front of him to work his own personal magic. "Welcome back, Jillian," he said after several moments. "I'm afraid this isn't going to last long. Probably not much more than an hour."

Quinn nodded. "Then I'll have to be back in an hour."

As Micah reached for the doorknob, Quinn turned to go, and Arturo curled his hand around her shoulder from behind.

"Someday you will trust me implicitly, bella."

"I hope you're right, Vampire."

As it was, she trusted him far more than she'd ever thought possible given what he was. And what he'd done. But trust had never been something she gave easily. To anyone.

Quinn followed Arturo the short distance to the second pantry, slipping inside, while Arturo grabbed the torch, and Micah ran interference, distracting the only vampire close enough to see them.

The moment Arturo followed her into the pantry, Quinn opened the door to the dungeon and started down. Quietly, she led the way back to Vintry's cell.

This time, the old fae was sitting up, waiting for them, his eyes bright and excited. At the sight of them, he rose slowly, painfully, to his feet, a smile stretched across his face.

"The Healer and the Snake." But as he neared the bars, he frowned. "You've still not found the key?"

Quinn shook her head. "We haven't been able to look for it."

Vintry waved it away. "No matter." He reached a bony hand between the bars and grabbed Arturo's wrist. His eyes widened. "You're no vampire."

"I assure you, I am."

"You're warm."

Arturo nodded, a funny look sliding over his face as he glanced at her. "I've been kissing the sorceress."

Vintry made a comical and charming expression of surprise, then began to cackle. "Of course, of course." As his laughter died, he eyed Arturo seriously. "You were born to this world for a purpose. A purpose you must not forsake. The Healer needs you. And you her. Cleave one to the other, or all will be lost."

Quinn frowned at his words, but there was no time to ask questions. Not now.

Vintry reached for Quinn's hand, then set it on top of Arturo's when she gave it to him. "Hold her," he ordered Arturo.

After only a moment's hesitation, Arturo stepped behind Quinn, wrapping his arms around her and pressing his cheek to her hair. "How's this?"

Vintry nodded. "Fine. Better." He thrust both of his hands through the bars. "Take my hands, sorceress. Be quick. I've not much time."

Quinn did as he commanded, sliding her hands into his warm, bent ones.

The ancient fae closed his eyes. "Blackstone and Levenach, as you said," he murmured. "Honor. Good, good. Strong. Binding. Healing. You have great power within you, sorceress. Power that Cristoff will desire once he discovers you possess it." One eye opened, and he squinted at her. "You must not allow him to get it."

Arturo pulled her closer. "Cristoff will never touch her again."

Vintry turned that one eye on him, staring at him long and hard. "Untrue."

Quinn jerked.

Arturo's arm tightened. "I vow it," he snarled.

"Yes, yes, yes. It is you who needs her power, Snake. You who needs it." The old fae just closed his eyes again.

Quinn stared at him. Could he really see the future? Did he know that Cristoff would ultimately catch her? Dear God, was that really going to be her fate? She'd known it was likely from the moment she'd agreed to return to Vamp City. Still, she wouldn't change anything, not if it saved Zack.

"My brother," she began. "Is he somehow tied to my magic?"

"No. I sense nothing like that. Just the curse strangling your Blackstone magic."

"Then why is he suffering magic sickness?" she murmured.

"Don't know. I cannot tell you without seeing him for myself. Too late now."

Arturo's chin brushed her hair. "He'll be fine once you renew the magic of Vamp City."

For at least ten minutes they stood like that, Vintry silent, his eyes closed, holding her hands. Finally, he began to frown. "It is tangled, too tangled. I cannot free one from the other. Not entirely. The curse must be broken for that. Break the curse, and you will have the power you were born to, sorceress."

"But the curse can't be broken."

That eye opened again, squinting at her. "Aye, it can. Destroy Escalla. So long as Escalla exists, the curse lives."

Now it was Quinn's turn to frown. "Escalla? You mean Cristoff's sword?" She'd seen that jewel-hilted blade when Arturo first handed her over to that monster. Cristoff had taken her into his study, pulled the sword from a special case, and laid it in her hands. Then declared she had weak magic.

She turned to glance at Arturo, to question his previous statement that only the one who'd uttered the curse could break it. The Black Wizard who was long dead.

But he only shrugged as if he, too, were hearing this for the first time. And maybe he was. Besides, what difference did it make? If she could save Vamp City with her Blackstone magic, she and Zack were getting the hell out of here and never coming back. She had no need for magic in Australia. Or New Zealand.

All she'd ever wanted to be was normal.

Vintry opened his eyes. "I'll set free as much of your Blackstone magic as I can, girl, but it's not going to come easily. Or silently."

Quinn narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?"

But he closed his eyes again and didn't answer for another several minutes. Finally, he opened both eyes and dropped her hands. "It is done. Hold on to your hat, girl, your magic is about to explode."

"What?"

"You have a few minutes. Maybe an hour. Now go!"

"What do you mean, explode?"

Arturo grabbed her arm. "We have to get out of here. Now."

As he started to pull her down the hall, Quinn called back, "Thank you, Vintry!"

"Cleave one to the other. Only together will you prevail!"

Quinn ran for the stairs, Arturo close behind with the torch. At the top, she eased open the door, then slipped into the pantry, the vampire close behind. Arturo strode into the hallway, replacing the torch, then grabbed her hand. And dropped it as if it had burned him.

"Come," he said in his best slave master's voice, remembering himself as he strode into the kitchen, presumably to steal away through the back door.

But they'd taken only a couple of steps when a voice sounded behind them.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

Quinn didn't have to turn around to know who'd spoken. She recognized the voice.

Fabian.

At the sound of Fabian's voice, Quinn dropped her gaze, fast, aware that if her eyes weren't glowing yet, they might start at any moment. She had no idea what Vintry meant by her magic's exploding, but whatever he meant, it couldn't be good. Not in a place like this.

She could feel the energy beginning to flow beneath her skin, not burning like usual but building, like steam looking for a way out.

Arturo spun around, his manner take charge and colonel-like. "The sorceress has vanished. We are looking for her."

"My men will search for her." Fabian's tone was sharp with annoyance and possessed more than a hint of cunning. The balance of power between the two of them had just shifted back into his hands, and he knew it.

Cold fingers curled around Quinn's arm. Fabian's fingers. "While they search, you two will join me. And feed me." He jerked Quinn off her feet, yanking her against him, palming her breast through her shirt. "This time, however, I will join you. I will have my cock inside of her."

Fabian gripped her face tight, forcing her to look at him. She tensed for his shock, terrified her eyes had begun to glow-that the Slava, Jillian's, eyes had begun to glow. But his expression revealed nothing but hard satisfaction.

"If my touch is going to make you sick, slave, then I'll tape your mouth closed. Which would be a shame. Your mouth is just one of the things I want to fuck."

She had to struggle not to spit in his face. All of a sudden, she began to shake as the energy built inside of her far more quickly and violently than it ever had before. A strange sensation began to bubble beneath her flesh, as if the skin were about to fly off her bones. As if she were about to explode.

The floor beneath her feet began to shake.

Shit, shit, shit.

The first blast sent them all flying a good fifteen feet. Fabian pulled her with him as he flew, and she landed on top of him, knocking the breath out of herself. She slammed her eyes closed in case they were glowing and thanked whatever guardian angel looked out for sorceresses that Fabian had been holding on to her, or she might have been the only one left standing, which would have certainly given her away. As it was, all of them had been thrown to the ground-Arturo and Fabian's guards, as well as several Slavas.

Fabian surged to his feet vampire-fast.

"The fae," he muttered. "He's dead."

Quinn blinked. He thought the blast had been Vintry's doing? She remembered someone's saying something about a death wind.

Easing to her feet with her eyes all but closed, Quinn waited for Arturo to find her. But the pressure inside her was building all over again, much faster than before. The second blast erupted with no warning. Again, the vampires flew. This time, however, Quinn was prepared and dropped to her knees. Maybe she'd just stay there.

Strong arms gathered her close. Arturo's voice rang out close behind her. "That fae is going to bring the house crashing down!" She could hear the hypnotic persuasion weaving through his words. "Run!"