Chapter 448: Mad Men
The temptation to just leave, run, get the hell out of there was so powerful I was shocked at my own lack of courage. Mind you, I'd been through a lot, thanks, what with having no contact with my magic and almost being burned alive and all. But it wasn't like me to cut and run.
Time to slice myself off a little piece of slack. I drew one deep breath after another while Demetrius forced chunks of stone into the sorcerer's mouths, the rock seeping outward like Charlotte's gag, more of the concrete slices forming bonds at ankle and wrist. I could hear him whispering, muttering to himself, while the two men groaned before falling totally silent.
"Would kill them," Demetrius said softly to me as he turned and smiled the expression of a happy child, "but Belaisle will do much worse."
I was all for that.
"Need to go." He grabbed my hand, started to tug on me, leading me to the stairs. "Out, out, out."
Our hustle to the kitchen helped me burn off my panic, shook me loose of the fear I'd almost succumbed to. Enough that when he tried to steer me toward the door I resisted, pulled back, though my heart longed for the fading day outside.
"The others," I whispered. "We have to take them with us."
Demetrius grumbled. "Out," he said.
"Yes," I said. "With the others."
He was going to fight me on this, I could tell by the way his face scrunched up, his eyes spitting flames of amber.
"Fix you," I said. "When we save the others."
That got me what I wanted. Demetrius snarled at me, but bobbed a nod and darted for the interior door.
He was going to get us caught.
I really needed to practice what I preached and learn to be more trusting. He was a sorcerer after all, no matter the health of his twisted mind. Once again he led me, cautiously but quickly, through the mansion until we were winding our way up the spiral stairs to the second floor. The house was oddly quiet and I could only imagine Belaisle had his people out and about, doing their dirty duty, undermining the fabric of magic use on our plane.
My imagination was running away with me.
I didn't even recognize the door, but Demetrius had no problems choosing the correct one. He unsealed it with a touch and, within moments, we were back inside my prison, Owen gaping at us while Charlotte's wolf eyes faded to human. I gaped at them, trying to understand why Owen was sitting on her where she lay, almost to the door, gouges cut out of the carpet under the heels of her boots.
"She went after you," Owen said with what sounded like apology in his voice. "I tried to stop her, but she's really strong."
I crouched next to her, holding out my hand to Owen. "The crystal." He dropped it in my palm before I spun on Demetrius. "You want me to fix you?" I thrust the stone at him. "Fix this first."
He turned sideways, away from me, eyes darting all over the room. "I made it," he said, "for you."
"You made sure I couldn't use it," I snapped back, so far down the end of my rope I'd be strangling him with the remains any second now. "Undo whatever you did or our deal is off."
Demetrius lunged for it, took it in his hand, eyes full of sorrow. "Needed to be sure," he said. "Needed to be fixed first." He squeezed it in his fist, the blue light dancing between his fingers before he handed it back to me with so much anguish in his face I knew he'd done as I asked. The moment the crystal touched my skin he buried his face in his hands and sobbed.
Didn't matter. I wasn't paying him any attention. Not while my demon suddenly howled to life, Shaylee screeching at the top of her lungs, the vampire essence surging outward and into the crystal.
Whole. I was whole. What are you doing? I reached for the magic my vampire core was giving up, but she buffeted me aside.
What is necessary, she sent. You used to trust me. Don't let that faith waver now.
Trust again. I felt along the edges of her, how she wasn't reduced, not in the least, by what she'd done.
But the crystal now pulsed with life, the magic of the maji, humming happily in my hand with dog-like adoration.
I reached for Charlotte and her bonds, pressing the crystal to her gag, tried to sever the magic holding her captive. But no matter what I told the crystal heart thudding away in my hand, it didn't understand. It tried, even cried gemstone tears inside its shell, a tiny soul wanting to do what I asked.
I just didn't know what to tell it.
"Owen." I pressed the stone into his hand, gritting my teeth against the inevitable loss letting go of the crystal meant for me. "You try. I'm getting nowhere."
Horrible, horrible emptiness. My hand spasmed as I released the crystal, the blankness returning. And now I had an extra burden. It felt as though I'd let another life leave me. Like I needed even more identities but no, this was different. My vampire created another vampire, a life, one I was now responsible for.
Lovely.
Owen seemed tense, unhappy, but he moved to do as I asked. His eyes flew wide as the crystal pulsed in his hand. "Incredible," he said. "All this power." His gaze met mine. "You scare me sometimes, Syd, you know that?"
I didn't get to respond. Demetrius hissed at us, turning to grab my arm.
Owen looked up in shock as the door began to unseal. He had just enough time to shove the crystal into his pocket-no, I needed it!-and push me toward the crazy man before the last of the seal died away. Demetrius shoved me under the bed as I heard the door handle snick.
"You're next." A new voice. I couldn't see anything.
"I'm coming." Owen.
"Leave my brother alone." Trill was back. Good to know. I wanted to risk a peek, go after Owen for the crystal and access to my power, but Charlotte was still bound and I needed her fully operational if I was going to take on the sorcerers.
I heard Trill grunt and the door bang shut, the hiss of magic as it sealed up again. Demetrius squirmed his way free, me pushing him out of the way, to find Trill staring at the door with clenched fists at her sides.
"Free her." I pointed at Charlotte, dragging Demetrius forward, hands shaking in shock at the loss of my power again. "Owen has the crystal so you're all I've got."
He bobbed his head and went to work while Trill turned to face me.
"You're all right." Her voice was dull, washed out. "He said he killed you."
"I had help." I pointed at Demetrius. Owen might not have been able to break the hold on the metal gag and bonds, but the wily old sorcerer didn't seem to have the same problem. I watched in sick fascination as Charlotte's gag began to dissolve, retreating, falling away as powder from all three points until my bodywere was on her hands and knees, coughing up the last of the goop as it rained down in flakes the moment it touched air.
"We don't have much time." I knew Belaisle would soon start to wonder where Bruno and Emil were.
"He wouldn't let me talk to Nona." Trill wrung her hands together, tone still dead and lost. "I begged him but he laughed at me."
There wasn't much I could say.
"What if she's dead?" A wail crept into the girl's voice. "Because of me? And now we're in their custody because I let them manipulate me over her and she's already dead?"
I reached for her, but not just out of sympathy. She had to pull it together if we were going to escape. But it wasn't my touch that calmed her down.
Charlotte hacked up the last of the gag and fixed the girl with a glare, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand as she crouched, eyes flashing to wolf and back again. "What if they never had her in the first place?"
Trill froze and, to be honest, I did too.
Oh, hell no.
"I don't smell the woman you speak of," my bodywere said, climbing to her feet, flexing her hands as if they pained her. Which I imagined they did, considering how tight her bonds were. "Her scent clung to you when you first arrived, fading with time. But that smell, it's nowhere in this house."
"I heard Nona's voice." Trill's eyes pleaded with Charlotte behind her glasses.
"Voices can be faked," I said as gently as I could.
"No one of your bloodline has been near this house," Charlotte growled with absolute certainty. "Your grandmother was never here."
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