Witch's Fury (The Bone Coven Chronicles Book 4) Read online

  “Ah, but they might have seen a fake signal,” he said, pointing across the grounds to a light I hadn’t spotted until now. My focus had been too much on Wagner’s face. “And when they reach it, they’ll find themselves surrounded by a dozen or so demons. They’re unlikely to survive, but even if they do, they’ll be held up for a long, long while. So. It finally looks like it’s just you and me, Zoe. I admit, I should have gone this route from the beginning. If you want to do something right, you have to do it yourself, though the look on your face when you saw your murderous grandmother is one I’ll never forget.”

  “Fuck you,” I hissed through clenched teeth.

  “I suppose that means you aren’t going to give me a kiss hello,” he said with a smile as he pulled his dagger from his belt. “Shall we get on with this then? I’ll even give you time to get your weapon ready so it can be a fair fight.” He dropped back his head and laughed. “Though I don’t know how fair it’ll be with your meager shadow powers against my full set. You don’t stand a chance up against someone who can wield sun, bone, blood, and shadow at once.”

  Narrowing my eyes, I grabbed my blade and squeezed tight. “You sure do talk a lot of shit for someone who supposedly doesn’t need to. Give it your best, asshole, because it’ll be the last fight of your life.”

  Wagner’s smile widened as he curled his palm into a fist, but before he could cast a spell, I launched my body at his. I slammed hard into his chest, knocking him from his feet. He fell onto the ground. With a grunt, I used my knees to pin his arms to the ground, forcing his spell to launch in the wrong direction. He cursed under his breath as his blade clattered across the stones. Rain poured into my eyes, and as I swiped the water out of my lashes to clear my vision, Wagner threw his body weight sideways. It knocked me off of him, and I rolled across the cold, wet ground.

  My hand found his dagger before he did. Now, armed with two, I jumped to my feet and danced back. He lurched toward me, but I sidestepped him just in time. Growling, he narrowed his eyes and lowered his body into a crouch. I mimicked his movements, holding up each blade and bracing myself for his next move.

  A little voice inside my head rose up. Whispers filled my brain. He was unarmed, though I could tell he was mentally flipping through the offensive spells he knew. Now would be the perfect time to attack, to shove his blade into his heart just as he’d asked my grandmother to do to me. I could kill him before he killed anyone else. Destroy the mage. Or else he will destroy you. But something inside me hesitated. The plan had been to trap him and take him in for questioning and find out exactly how many demons he’d let through the veil.

  He won’t tell you, the voices continued to whisper. Or, if he does, they’ll all be lies. Another trap to trick you into.

  The voices were right. Killing him meant destroying all the demons he’d summoned into the world. It would be doing everyone a favor, especially my friends who had walked straight toward danger.

  “You’re thinking about killing me,” he said with a knowing smile. “Despite your best intentions, you still suffer from your shadow nature. You’ll never be like those mages you’re trying to rule.”

  “I’m not trying to rule them,” I said, narrowing my eyes and stalking toward him with both weapons held tight in my fists. “I’m trying to save them. From you. And you wouldn’t be the first asshole mage I was willing to kill.”

  In a flash, I’d swung the weapons at his chest. He danced back but stumbled as his feet slipped on the wet grass. Eyes wide, he tried to scuttle back, but I planted a foot on either side of his head, trapping him underneath me.

  “Looks like you lost,” I said with a smile.

  But just as I lowered the blade toward his throat, Ivan Wagner melted into the shadowy darkness of the night. His body disappeared.

  Chapter 16

  “Dorian! Laura!” I cried out as my feet pounded the wet earth. From somewhere in the darkness, a scream filled the night. Heart hammering, I flew across the rain-drenched hills, frantically searching for my friends. Through the thick rain, I finally spotted them in the distance. They were surrounded by several demons who were flapping their wings against Laura’s stream of blood magic. She stood there on the hill with her hair billowing behind her, shooting bright red power from open palms.

  My feet slowed for a moment as I watched her get to work. I’d been so wrapped up in my life that I hadn’t known just how much she’d been training. Her power took my breath away. And it was doing some damn good damage against the demons, at least enough to distract them from the approach by Anastasia and Dorian, who were both clutching a pair of Nosferatu fangs in their fists.

  Heart lurching, I began to run toward them. Their plan of attack was a good one, but there was a fatal flaw that none of them could see. Just behind the three demons that my friends were focusing on, another lurked behind a row of thick trees. It was watching and waiting to pounce, sizing up Dorian and Anastasia.

  “Wait!” I yelled when I was within shouting distance. Through our bond, I felt a flash of relief from Dorian. He must have been worried as hell when he’d thought he’d saw my signal only to find the castle grounds swarming with corporeal demons.

  He flicked his gaze my way and gave me a nod as if to say that everything was under control. But I knew it was anything but.

  I kept running. Rain splashed into my eyes, turning the fight ahead of me into blurry shapes.

  Gritting my teeth, I curled my hand into fists and aimed my magic toward the demon who lurked behind the trees. Black strands of electric fire shot from my palm, slamming into the night. Sparks flew in the air, though they were quickly doused by the drench of the storm clouds. The demon roared, but even in the thick of the rain, I could tell I hadn’t hit him. I’d missed. Calling on my powers, I threw out another shot, but the demon jumped sideways just in time before turning to charge straight at Laura.

  Choking out a cry of alarm, I threw my feet forward the last remaining feet before slamming into my friend’s side. We tumbled to the ground, elbows and knees knocking together. Dirt sprayed on my face as my hands fell into squishy mud. My head rang from the impact. But it didn’t matter. Laura was safe.

  “Zoe, what the fuck?” she shouted as she rolled out from under me and jumped to her feet. “We were in the middle of a strategic fight there. We almost had them!”

  “No, you didn’t,” I said, pointing up at the demon charging toward us. Its eyes were lit with dark fire, and its focus was right on Anastasia’s face. “These others were distracting you. And it is going to go for your girl.”

  Laura’s mouth dropped open as she stared across the hill at Anastasia. The demon was quickly closing in.

  “Anastasia!” Laura shouted. “Stop! Come back!”

  Anastasia twisted her head and frowned. She gave us a quick shake of the head, clearly not understanding. With a deep breath, I pushed myself up from the ground and threw myself her way. If I could just manage to move my feet fast enough, I could reach her before the demon did. I cast a quick glance at Dorian. He’d just stabbed one of the creatures with the fangs, and he was turning to the next, too caught up in the fight to realize that something was wrong.

  I reached Anastasia and threw myself in front of her when the demon leapt forward. My entire world seemed to slow as my gaze latched onto his dark and scaly hand. He held a sword. And it sliced right into my stomach. Pain exploded in my head, and I fell to the ground just as Dorian whirled toward the demon with a roar. He plunged the fangs deep into its skin, and in seconds, the creature was gone.

  “Zoe!” Dorian fell to his knees while Anastasia stood gaping at me, her face chalk white. “Oh my goddess, Zoe. How badly are you hurt?”

  Blinking at him, I frowned and then glanced down at my stomach where the weapon had sliced into my skin. There was no pain. Hell, there was barely a cut. It was like it hadn’t even happened. Or, like…I’d healed within seconds.

  Chapter 17

  “There’s something wrong with me,”
I said, squeezing my eyes tight. “Why didn’t that hurt? Why am I still alive?”

  Dorian shook his head, his eyes scanning my body. Something dark and strange twisted in his pupils, and I felt unease and dread through our bond. He clearly had something on his mind. Some suspicion. Some worry. And he didn’t want to speak it aloud.

  “What is it, Dorian?” I asked. “Just tell me.”

  “It’s nothing,” he said, turning away to reveal a tense, tight back full of rippling muscles. At least one good thing had happened in the past few hours. Dorian had lost his shirt.

  “It’s not nothing,” I said. “It’s like you keep telling me. I know how you’re feeling, remember? You can’t really hide much when I can practically read what you’re thinking.”

  He shook his head and sighed. “The reason I don’t want to say anything is because what I’m worried about is next to impossible. There’s no way it could happen, so there’s no way that I’m right. Hell, it’s against the rules of magic.”

  My heart thumped. “Just tell me, Dorian. Even if it can’t be real, I want to know what you’re worried about.”

  “Unbounds cannot make new vampires,” he said slowly, turning to face me. “Daywalkers cannot create them either. The only way to become a vampire is to be cursed, be born, or be turned by a Nosferatu. None of that applies to you, so there’s no reason to discuss the possibility. I’m a cursed warlock. A hybrid. I couldn’t turn you even if I tried.”

  My blood ran cold as the implication of his words sunk in. “Why mention it then?”

  “Because.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “You’re experiencing some of the early symptoms. Sleeplessness, hunger, and the biggest one—the ability to heal quickly from a fatal blow. Without my help. Without my blood. Now, our bond might explain some of that, but it definitely doesn’t explain that last part.”

  “And if you haven’t turned me, then…” My eyes widened, and I took a step back. “You think I’ve been cursed.”

  “Wagner could have cursed you,” he said. “But I don’t know why he would. It only makes you more dangerous to him and much more difficult to kill. And one thing is certain, he’s made it clear he wants you dead.”

  I sat hard on the sofa, the wind going out of my lungs. Could Dorian be right? Had I been cursed to become a vampire? If I had, then why didn’t I crave blood? Why was I still fine in daylight? Of course, I hadn’t stepped out into the sun the past few days. It had been cloudy in Scotland, and I’d only been in the Bone Coven headquarters when I’d been in the states during the day.

  “No, it’s impossible,” I said. “I have zero desire for blood.”

  “Is that really true though?” Dorian dug his teeth into his arm and pierced the skin, and then he held his wrist to my mouth. My tongue darted out to lick my lips, and I leaned forward as the desire to taste him took ahold of my body. Everything inside me yearned for him, to drink him up until there was nothing left. And when he pulled away, an intense ache shot through my core.

  “See?” he asked as his wound began to close up within seconds. “You were aching for a drink.”

  I shook my head, refusing to believe him. “Yeah, but I’ve always wanted to taste you, Dorian. Way back before we were even bonded and especially since then. Your blood doesn’t even taste like blood to me. It’s like a magical elixir that makes me feel alive.”

  His lips quirked before his expression turned serious again. “That might be true, but doesn’t it feel different now?”

  Shaking my head, I sighed. “I don’t know, Dorian. I honestly don’t know.”

  “I realize that we just got done fighting monsters, but we’re going to have to head back out for round two,” I said as our foursome gathered in the castle’s living room. “With Wagner wounded, he’s probably out of commission for a few days, so we can turn our focus onto collecting Nosferatu fangs.”

  “Unless he has a vampire on tap like you do,” Anastasia said as she glanced at Dorian. “Speaking of, your scent is more and more Dorian-like today. Have you been swapping blood again?”

  Frowning, I glanced at Dorian. Anastasia’s sense of smell was much stronger than his, and she’d be able to sniff out any change that was taking over my body. I had to hold out hope that we were both wrong and that everything happening was just remnants of our previous blood exchanges and the bond that was growing between us day by day. The alternative was too terrible to contemplate right now.

  “We’ve bonded,” Dorian said quietly.

  Anastasia’s eyes widened as she nodded. “That certainly explains a lot. How interesting. I didn’t think an Unbound had the ability to link his soul to another. Tell me more about your blood exchanges and your bond. Is it…” She waggled her eyebrows.

  “Let’s get back to the task at hand,” I said, pointing at the clock on the wall as heat filled my cheeks. “We have a bunch of mages back in Boston waiting for orders, and demon attacks are proliferating the news. We need to get these fangs and move on.”

  Dorian leaned forward and pressed a finger on the map spread out before us. “The fact we haven’t seen any Nosferatu on these castle grounds means that they’ve most likely given up patrolling this area. So, we need to spread out. This is the closest town, one that has historically had issues with vampires. It may be a long-shot. The Nosferatu like to stay on the move so that the Blood Coven doesn’t catch up to them, but there’s a strong chance that at least a few will be in the area. And with Zoe’s scent hanging in the breeze, we should be able to tempt them out of hiding.”

  “Basically, I’m bait,” I said.

  “Irresistible bait,” Dorian said with a slight smile. “The second they get a whiff of your shadow magic, there’ll be plenty of fangs to go around.”

  Instead of using my travel spell, Dorian pulled a Range Rover from his garage and drove it to the front double doors for the rest of us to pile inside. To have two exit strategies, he’d said. But I knew what it really meant. He wanted Anastasia and Laura to have a way back to the castle if the bait got caught—meaning, if the Nosferatu killed me. About fifteen minutes later, he parked the car on the edge of the town and cut the engine. Clouds rolled across the sky as the trees trembled in the wind, cold air seeping in through the cracks of the doors. Shivering, I hugged my arms around my body and leaned forward to look out the window. Cobblestone streets wound up and down rolling hills, surrounded on either side by houses with patched roofs. It was as if we’d stepped back in time.

  “The graveyard is down that street and around the corner,” Dorian said, cracking open the door. “We’ll walk from here. Let your scent fill the air.”

  The four of us fell silent as we stepped quietly along the dark streets. It was late—way after midnight here. This place was full of normal people, ones who slept when the sun went down. My chest ached as I glanced at the shuttered windows. As much as I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself and do something more important than sit on my ass all day, there was a part of me that wondered what a normal life felt like. It was something I didn’t think I’d ever know. For me, life had never been normal, and I couldn’t see how that would ever change. Not with the cards I’d been dealt.

  I glanced at Dorian. His face was backlit by the street-lamps, and the silhouette of him highlighted the strength of his shoulders and jaw. A sweet soft feeling filled my chest as I sucked in a deep breath through my nose. The scent of him was almost overwhelming—a spicy aroma that sang of magic and blood. He flicked his dark gaze my way, his eyes intense and full of shadows. It was a darkness that churned within me and now churned in him, and our bond snapped tight. My hand reached for his instinctively, like I needed to have my skin on his.

  “What’s going on?” he murmured as we fell a few steps behind Laura and Anastasia.

  “I feel different,” I said quietly. “You feel different.”

  “Are you scared?” he asked. “Of the Nosferatu? Last time we were here, they were hyper focused on you.”

  “N
o,” I said with almost a question mark in my voice. Because, strangely enough, I wasn’t scared at all. While the Nosferatu were strong, powerful, and deadly, and while they’d killed a mage right before my eyes, the thought of them didn’t bring on the terror I’d felt once before.

  “Well, you should be scared,” Anastasia’s voice drifted back to us. She’d heard us talking, of course. There was no being secretive when you were near a Daywalker with enhanced hearing. “Hell, even I’m a little worried, and I never worry.”

  A few moments later, we reached the cemetery. It wasn’t much different to the one Belzus called home. Ancient headstones dotted the hills, and several crypts were clustered near a row of thinning trees. The paths were dirt, disappearing into packed patchy grass. The cemetery itself was a square, surrounded by wrought-iron gates. Beyond them, small houses squatted in neat little rows. I took one look around before I decided that this was a terrible idea.

  “We’re not exactly in an isolated environment,” I said, pointing to the windows that overlooked the cemetery. Anyone inside would be close enough to see anything happening in this graveyard, and the vampires could be inside their homes within seconds if they decided they wanted a human snack.

  “The people in this town are aware of vampires,” Dorian said. “A lot of Scotland is, in fact. With the number of Nosferatu running around, it’s been impossible to keep their existence completely secret, especially in these smaller towns where words spread like wildfire. And this one in particular. They have several pubs Daywalkers have owned throughout the years. They’ve had back rooms for human blood bags. At times, the Nosferatu have tried to fight for control of their property, and the human population has been aware of it all.”

  “Really?” Laura arched an eyebrow. “Then, why the hell have we managed to keep magic so secretive in the states? It’s not like people don’t travel.”