by Cynthia Eden
“The only thing I could do! Dammit, listen—”
Wind whipped through the room. Too much wind. Too strong. Not her wind. Not her magic. Because Valerie’s magic had been bound.
In a blink, Devon was there. Standing right beside Calliope’s body. He had a smirk on his face as his gaze fell to the bracelets circling Valerie’s wrists. “Excellent job, assassin. I knew I could count on you.”
No, no, this wasn’t happening.
She spun to face Griffin. Valerie glared at him as betrayal raged and twisted inside of her. “Why did you do this?”
“Valerie—” Torment flashed on his face.
“Because I hired him,” Devon announced. “Because he had to get past your guard. Because you had to trust someone, and with your track record, I knew it had to be a lover. You only let your lovers close. Close enough to kill.”
Griffin shook his head. “I couldn’t let you try to bring her back, Valerie. I was protecting—”
“Protecting the shifters,” Devon cut in. “Because they are what matters most to him. Not some deranged witch. And, don’t worry, Griffin, I’ll stick to our deal. As soon as she’s dead, I’ll make sure the bond is severed. You’ll stay sane, and you’ll be able to find your real mate.”
Behind Griffin, she saw Carmichael struggle to rise. Blood poured from the wounds on his body. Wounds made by Griffin’s claws.
Devon snapped his fingers, and Valerie was at his side. Because he could work magic. He wasn’t bound. “I’ve missed you,” Devon whispered in her ear.
Griffin lunged forward.
Devon snapped his fingers again.
Griffin seemed to slam into an invisible wall. “What in the fuck?” His fist pounded against that wall. “Valerie!”
She had to blink away tears. “Do you know what you’ve done?’
Griffin’s eyes were desperate. “Valerie!”
Griffin had put the binding bracelets on her. Only Griffin would be able to take them off. And she doubted that Devon would ever let him get close enough to do that. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “You killed me.”
Giant, scaled wings burst from Griffin’s back. “Valerie!”
“Say good-bye,” Devon murmured.
Her gaze fell to Calliope’s body. So still. A perfect statue. Statue! Valerie knew this poison. Hadn’t she deliberately fashioned her blood to create a similar, paralyzing impact on vamps? And she’d gotten the inspiration for that poison from a very specific source. “Get Stefan!” Valerie yelled. “Carmichael, Stefan can help—”
The condo disappeared. Calliope’s body disappeared. Griffin disappeared.
Her whole life disappeared.
***
“Valerie!” Griffin’s bellow had cracks racing across the ceiling. One moment, Valerie was there, staring at him with her eyes too big and dark, with her skin a stark white, and the next, she was just gone.
“What did you do?” Carmichael’s grim voice demanded.
Griffin couldn’t move. He felt rooted to the spot. Valerie had just been there. She’d been standing right there.
“What did you do?”
“She was burning. The room was burning around her. I…I had to stop her.” He’d been choking on fear. “She almost died on me hours before. I wasn’t going to lose her.” The damn bracelets had been in his pocket. He’d fought off Carmichael. Grabbed Valerie and—
“You sonofabitch. You were working with Devon?”
Griffin spun around to face Carmichael. “No. He…shit, he gave me the bracelets but—”
“You bound her magic. Do you know what that does to a witch? She’s helpless. Human. Devon can do anything he wants to her. And guess what he’s going to want to do?” Carmichael scooped Calliope into his arms. “He’s going to kill her. Hell, she’s probably already dead.”
The fuck she was.
Carmichael turned for the door, holding his witch carefully in his arms. “I’m going for Stefan. I recognize his name. I met him at Daybreak shortly after you kicked my ass out of our home. Maybe he can help Calliope.”
She’s probably already dead.
More cracks spread across the ceiling. His heartbeat seemed to thunder in his ears. He’d been so desperate. Fire had been shooting from Valerie’s fingers, from her whole body, and he’d seen claw marks slice open her back. She hadn’t even seemed to be aware that something had been ripping her open. She’d kept chanting, her voice getting weaker and weaker, and he’d just wanted to protect her.
But Devon had been there. Devon had been waiting.
“A trap.” His voice was guttural. “Calliope was a trap. Devon wanted Valerie to find her, to try and bring her back.” Because when Valerie was weak and distracted, Devon could attack. “The fucking sonofabitch.”
Valerie’s flames had broken the glass in the condo. Shattered all of the windows. A black raven flew inside. Went right for Griffin’s eyes.
“Stop it!” He swatted away the bird. “I’m getting her back! I’m—”
The bird flew for the window, only to then circle and rush back at Griffin.
Her familiar. A very pissed familiar.
Carmichael was gone. He’d taken his witch out. Held tight to his dead witch. I should have held tight to my witch.
Griffin could feel his mind starting to splinter. Valerie had stared at him as if he’d betrayed her. He had. He’d been fucking desperate, and he’d betrayed the woman he loved. Fuck!
The raven came for his eyes once again. Griffin dodged, and the raven flew toward the window once more. This time, the raven cawed. Loud. Long. Desperate.
Griffin’s eyes widened. He keeps coming for my eyes…because the little bastard either hates me or there is something he wants me to see. “You know where he took her, don’t you?”
A caw. That had damn well better be bird for yes.
“Take me to Valerie. Now.”
The bird took to the sky. Griffin let his transformation sweep over him. It was dark outside. No moon hung in the cloud-filled sky, so maybe that would help. Maybe the humans below wouldn’t notice the enraged dragon flying across the night sky.
But even if they did notice, he didn’t give a damn. His mate was missing. His witch was gone. And if he had to tear apart the world in order to get her back, he would.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Another day, another dungeon.
Her luck was shit.
“If you want to kill me, you shouldn’t lock me up. That’s like…a fatal mistake.”
Devon glowered at her words. “If I had my way, I would have slit your throat right in front of your shifter.”
Well, wasn’t he the bloodthirsty one? “And I’m supposed to be bad?”
“Genevieve wants to make an example of you. The other witches need to see that the council is the highest authority. That there is no one stronger. Certainly not a witch on her own.”
“Ah…so that’s why you killed Hurst, Fiona, and Calliope. You figured if I had my own coven, I’d be too strong to stop. Even with these beauties.” She banged her bracelets together. “Probably right, by the way. My coven would have found a way to free me from these stupid bracelets.”
He laughed. “Hard for the dead to help you.”
Her lips curved. “Don’t be too sure.”
He stepped closer to the bars of her cell. “It didn’t have to be this way.”
She gave a disgusted sigh. “Okay, look, I’m in a dungeon, I’m really pissed at my shifter ex, and I am not in the mood to listen to some sob story about how everything could have been different. The whole world would have been different if I’d just—what? Not fallen in love with a human? Stayed in good witch line and followed orders?”
“Loved me.”
What?
“I was right in front of you, Valerie. And you never saw me.”
He was right in front of her then, separated only by the bars of her cell. She could see him perfectly.
Devon’s smile was pure evil. Damn him. “Guess
you see me now.” He held her gaze a moment longer. Then he vanished.
“Devon!” she screamed his name. “Get your sorry ass back here! Devon!”
But he didn’t appear. And she was trapped in some dank, dark dungeon. She could smell death and rot all around her. It was hell. Or, well, close to it. Valerie had the feeling she’d be seeing the real deal very soon. Like as soon as Genevieve managed to organize a public enough execution. With the bracelets around her wrist, would fire take Valerie out this time? She didn’t know, and she certainly didn’t want to find out in a terrible, burning way.
She was so fucked.
And the thing about this whole situation that sucked the most…her heart hurt.
Valerie rubbed her hand over her chest. It hurt.
Because Griffin had said he loved her. Then he’d locked binding bracelets around her wrists.
***
“Stefan!”
When he heard the roar of his name, Stefan stiffened. His gaze was on the sad remains of his club. Not much left of the place now. Because of one angry ass dragon. “We’re closed,” he snapped. Humans were still buzzing around the scene. Like they were going to do something with their official looking uniforms and their red fire trucks. “Get lost.”
“Valerie sent me.”
Now he did turn around, and Stefan felt relief sweep through him. “She’s alive? I knew she—” He was staring at a guy holding what looked to be a dead woman. A guy who’d visited his club before—a shifter. “Are you freaking insane?” He grabbed the fellow’s arm and shoved him—and his dead chick—into the nearby shadows. “Human cops are everywhere! And you’re going to bring me a dead woman? Go bury her and get the hell away from me.”
But the man didn’t move. Jaw locking, he gritted, “Valerie sent me to you. You can’t turn me away.”
Stefan’s nostrils flared. “You smell like shifter.” He’d noticed that during the guy’s first visit to Daybreak. The fellow smelled just like a too-familiar shifter. “Is the dragon with you?”
“No, I don’t know where my dumbass of a brother is. He betrayed Valerie and then—dammit, stop!”
One of Stefan’s snakes had just lunged for the fool. “Griffin betrayed Valerie?” He’d thought…no, he’d hoped the shifter loved her. Valerie needed someone to love her. She deserved for someone to love her.
Not that Stefan had ever made the mistake of telling her that.
“Griffin put some kind of magic bracelets on her wrists. She stopped being able to cast spells, and then that dick Devon took her away.”
Not good. Stefan’s snakes hissed. “One bite from a snake,” Stefan warned him, “and you’ll turn to stone. You won’t be able to breathe. Won’t be able to move. Your heart will stop. But you will feel everything that happens to you. My venom can take down anyone. It will take down you, your brother, it will—”
“A witch?” the shifter asked, voice tight. “Can it take down a witch?”
“Yes.” He’d use his snakes on Devon. He’d track the fool, let his snakes attack, and he’d free Valerie.
“I think…I think someone used it on Calliope.”
Calliope.
Finally, Stefan glanced at the witch in the man’s arms. Hellfire, it was Calliope. Lying as still as death. As stone. She was as beautiful as always, her hair long and thick, her skin a smooth ebony, her cheek bones high and sharp. But there was no life to Calliope. No spark.“I…didn’t do this.”
“No, someone fired a dart at her. One laced with poison.”
Someone had shot her with Medusa venom? Impossible. Yet…
“Can you heal her?”
He pulled the witch from the shifter’s arms. With a hiss, Stefan let his fangs slide out.
“Fuck, man, are those snake fangs in your mouth? And what is up with your eyes?”
If Medusa venom was holding Calliope immobile—frozen, not dead but not quite alive, either—then a bite from Stefan would wake her up. Only he could heal those who’d been poisoned by the venom of his snakes. He put his mouth to Calliope’s throat. Bit.
She moaned.
It had been Medusa venom that took her out. Oh, hell.
Calliope shivered. “Wh-where am I?”
Stefan lifted his head.
She blinked at him. “Stefan?” Her head turned. “Carmichael?” A smile came and went, lighting up her eyes. “You came back? I thought you weren’t, I thought—”
The one she’d just called Carmichael pulled her away from Stefan. The shifter held her as tight as he could. Stefan easily read the expressions crossing the face of the shifter called Carmichael. Relief. Love. Desperation.
He gave them a moment. After all, Stefan had a heart, even if legend said it was encased in stone. He tapped his foot, waited and then… “Ahem.”
Carmichael lifted his head.
Stefan smiled. “Hi. Remember me? The one who just saved the day?” Dammit. He almost sounded like Valerie. Her traits had rubbed off on him over the decades.
Calliope gave a weak laugh. “That sounds like something Valerie would say.”
Carmichael stiffened. And his expression went straight to—Sorrow.
Stefan tried to keep his snakes under control. “Where is my witch? Tell me everything again. Very slowly.”
“Devon has her,” Carmichael said, voice grim. “She…Valerie was trying to help Calliope. Trying to bring her back from the dead.”
“She wasn’t dead,” Stefan cut in. “Obviously. Just petrified. Big difference.”
Carmichael nodded. “One that Valerie eventually realized, but not before some crazy shit went down. Fire erupted from her, her skin was torn open as if invisible claws had sliced her—”
Yes, he’d seen that particular horror a time or two before. “She plays too hard with dark magic.”
“My brother, Griffin, he was there. He went insane when he saw her pain, and he put these gold bracelets around her wrists.”
Gold bracelets and a witch? Meant one thing… “He bound her?”
“Then Devon appeared. Did that witch vanishing thing and took her away, but not before Valerie told me to find you. I brought Calliope here as fast as I could.”
In and out. In and out. Stefan tried to breathe and not go ballistic. “Where is your bastard of a brother right now?”
“Last I saw, he’d shifted into a dragon and was chasing after…um, a raven.”
Stefan remembered a raven, one that had clung to the shoulder of Valerie’s young henchman right before she’d whisked him away so he could stay with trolls.
“My brother isn’t evil, so stop looking that way,” Carmichael snapped. “He’d said something about Valerie nearly dying on him already, because of some magic bullets—”
Calliope gave a quick gasp, then muttered, “Oh, shit. My bad.”
“So he might have overreacted with the bracelets,” Carmichael continued doggedly, “but you didn’t see the fire. Or the way her skin was sliced open. You didn’t—”
“I’ve seen it before.” And yeah, it was a nightmare to watch. His gaze darted to Calliope. “You know what Devon is going to do.”
Her eyes were huge. “Public example. He’ll want all of the other witches to see what happens when you try to overthrow the council.”
Exactly. “Put word out with your witch contacts.” He figured she had to have them. “Find out where the execution will take place.” He spun around, heading for his car. He’d get reinforcements. Call in his own allies to help.
But Carmichael jumped in his path. “How’d you heal Calliope?”
He should probably answer that. “She’d been injected with venom from my snakes. My bite counteracted the venom. Simple.”
“Devon is the one who injected her, right? I found a dart, like he’d shot it into her.”
Probably exactly what he’d done.
“But my question…” Carmichael rolled back his shoulders as Calliope crept closer. “If it was your venom, then how did Devon get it?”
Stefan glanced between the increasingly angry shifter and the frowning witch. “Medusa venom has long been used on witches.” He raised one brow. “It’s what was used on the witch who killed your parents. Haven’t you put the puzzle pieces together and realized the poisons are one and the same?”
Shock flashed on Carmichael’s face. Okay. Obviously, he was not the puzzle type. Squaring his shoulders, Stefan informed him, “I’m not the one who gave Devon poison. I haven’t given anyone so much as a drop of my blood since the day a band of vampires attacked me and tried to drain me.” Since he’d been a kid. “Want to know who sent those bastards after me way back when?”
“Devon,” Calliope answered.
He nodded. “So it stands to reason that one of them gave him the blood. I thought Valerie had killed them all, but one bloodsucker must have escaped. And knowing Devon as I do, I’m sure he’ll be using that poison on Valerie, too. Just in case the bracelets don’t work.”
Hope lit Carmichael’s eyes. “They might stop working?”
It was Calliope who answered. Carefully, she explained, “Valerie is the strongest witch I know. If anyone can break them, it would be her.”
She was the strongest witch Stefan had ever met. “So that’s why Devon will dose her. He’ll wait as long as possible because he doesn’t want the other witches to know he has the poison. That’s witch 101—never use Medusa venom on your own kind.”
“I didn’t know there was a witch 101,” Carmichael muttered.
“There is. I’ll give you lessons.” Calliope never glanced away from Stefan. “If the others realize he’s got the venom, they’ll turn on him.”
Stefan could see the plan spinning in her devious mind. He smiled at her. “I knew there was a reason Valerie liked you.”
“And you.” She inclined her head. “Tell me what you need.”
“First, get me the location of Valerie’s execution.” He’d already said that, and the woman showed no signs of getting the intel. She needed to hurry that shit up. “And second, I’m going to need you to bring in a few people for me.”