Blade Song (34 page)

“I’ve been dodging arrows all afternoon and a woman I liked is dead because of you, Jude. Stop the bullshit.”

He sighed and shook his head. “Kit, all you had to do was come to me and all of this could have been avoided.”

“You can’t expect me to believe you set all of this up just to get to me?”

He laughed. “Of course not. This…” He shrugged and glanced around. “It’s a game. A pastime. Those fools weren’t supposed to take the Alpha’s boy, but they did. I would have handled it myself, made sure he was returned, had I known. Then you barreled in and…” He shrugged once more. “Why didn’t you just leave, Kit? You had what you needed. Nothing more to worry about.”

“The Assembly will take you out for this.”

“No.” He smiled. “The games will end and nothing can be traced back to me.” His fangs flashed as he murmured, “And for that matter, for all you know, I’m fucking with your head—you bitch so often about how I like to do it. Maybe this is just another headfuck, Kit. You don’t know, do you?”

“Yes, I do.”

He took a step, liquid and gliding. Rising my sword, I said, “Stop.”

His laugh was warm and sweet, wrapping around me and if I hadn’t already experienced his poison, I might have been tempted.

“You know that thing won’t stop me,” he murmured. His eyes started to glow. “Although it’s possible you could just tease the hunger if you cut me. Then again, it might anger me. It’s a risk either way.”

I stared at him.

Cracking my left wrist, I listened to the song in my head. Louder, louder—

Call me
—

I banished the sword and hoped.

Only a heartbeat later, the bow was in my right hand, an arrow in my left. I took aim and watched it fly.

Jude was still laughing.

He saw it coming, though, and moved—I’d been counting on that and shot off center. “Stupid, Kit,” he whispered, flinging the arrow down. “And bad aim—”

The next one was in his chest.

“I don’t miss, Jude.”

I said it on the fly, speeding down the path and praying hard.

The arrows weren’t silver tipped.

But they
were
wooden. It had gone through his heart. He was old enough that it wouldn’t kill him, but I had a few minutes. He’d have to be careful pulling it out or he’d damage himself and that would take him longer to heal. It had bought me a few minutes, far more than a fiberglass weapon could

It wasn’t much. But a few minutes was still a few minutes and the car was close.

The second I saw the car, I sent the bow to her place in the trunk and pulled my keys out. There was no time to fight with my pack so I just shrugged it off as I ran and let it fall.

I dove behind the wheel just as I heard a furious wail and felt the blanket of cold as it struck the air.

He’d gotten it out.

I punched the car into reverse and sped out.

There were cop cars everywhere, but I was just going to have to hope and pray I could get away from them and get to the witches’ house. My cell phone sat in the cup holder and I fumbled for it.

I saw something in the rearview mirror. A pale form. Cutting through the sky.

Older vampires were a bitch. They could fly.

Scrambling for the phone, I saw I’d had calls. A lot of them. I hit the recent ones I’d made, calling Es. An unfamiliar witch answered, but at the sound of my voice, she immediately came on the phone.

“Kit, thank goodness. We have problems—”

“Listen to me, damn it. It’s Jude and there are cops
everywhere
. If you have any contacts, please tell them not to pull me over—we’ll both be dead if they try.”

She barked out an order. “I’ll send word, but I can’t promise. Kit, Damon is on his way.”

“He won’t make it in time.” I glanced at the mirror, saw the form swooping closer. I’d survived pain before. I could do it again. “I can get through this as long as Jude doesn’t kill me. Maybe I shouldn’t have shot—”

My car went airborne.

I swore and opened the door. It went flying in one direction even as I lunged out, but I never hit the ground.

Steel arms came around me.

“That was very, very foolish, Kit. I never wanted to hurt you until now,” Jude rasped as we hurtled toward the ground.

“Funny, you trying to drown me in my dreams wasn’t a good sign of that.” I spat in his face.

He squeezed so hard I felt my ribs crack. He sat me down and I stumbled away from him, popping my wrist. Nope, I decided as my hand heated. I didn’t regret shooting him. I was going to do it again, the second I had a chance. Enough wood in his heart might destroy him.

He swung out a hand and I ducked. Not in time, though. I was fast, but the broken ribs slowed me and vampires were faster than I was on my best day. This definitely wasn’t it.

As I went rolling through the dirt, I called my blade. When he came at me, I shoved into his gut. He howled and I bit back a shriek as the bones in my arm snapped.
Not again
—

He flung the sword away and hauled me upright. “I’ll melt that thing down and make you a collar from it, you stupid bitch.”

“Try it.”

He let go and I swayed on my feet, gasping around the pain in my ribs, the pain in my arm.
Survive, damn it
. That’s what I had to do. But my stupid mouth was going to be a problem.

“You need to be silent,” Jude said quietly. “I never intended to harm you but when you attack, it enrages me.”

“Gee, I never noticed. You have control issues—too bad you’re a vamp. Docs have drugs for humans, but you’re just out of luck.”

He caught my face in one hand, cruel fingers digging into my flesh. “Little Kit…don’t you understand? You’re caught. Well and truly. It’s time for you to shut up and accept it.”

I closed my hand around his wrist and tried to shove him away.

The pale green of his eyes started to glow. Bleeding away until just a red fire gleamed.
Red hellfire
, I thought…

He grasped my wrist, jerking it up and staring.

Damon’s bite
—

“What the fuck is this—?”

I smiled at him. “It’s pretty much exactly what it looks like, Jude.”

Any answer he might have made was lost as a growl split the air. Jude shoved me backward as a giant beast, caught between man and cat, came leaping out of the night. I tried not to scream, but I couldn’t stop it. Black and red dots danced in front of me and then I was gone.

“…hold her steady—have to make this fast—”

I came to with a cry as something snapped in my arm.

“There, there…”

Es. Her voice. I knew that sound.

Other sounds, I struggled to place.

Voices. Snarling. Growling. Cursing.

Through a wash of pain, I stared up at her.

“What…?”

She touched my brow. “Just wait, get your breath. They’ll likely be done soon. They’re too evenly matched, considering they’re both wounded.”

“Who…?”

“I should have gutted you the first time I saw you. I’ll skin you, cat, when I’m done. Your pelt will grace the floors of my home.” That voice…Jude.

“You’re losing blood, leech. How much more can you lose?” Damon.

With a groan, I sat up, shuddering as the pain ripped through me.

Es sighed and stroked my head. “Stubborn girl. Be careful—I haven’t worked on your ribs yet.”

In the dim light, I could see them fighting. They’d go forever, I thought, if something didn’t stop them. It didn’t matter what Es said.

Something came in the form of the flashing silver lights of the Banner unit.

Disembodied voices washed over us, broadcast by a loud-speaker.

I also felt the ripple of protective magics settle in place, around me, the Banner cops and the witches around me. Es sniffed. “Really, as if I can’t care for myself,” she muttered. Then she lapsed into silence as a Banner cop started to speak.

“Jude Whittier. Alpha Damon Lee. Members of the Assembly, you are hereby under orders to cease and desist at once or face immediate action—sanctioned by the Assembly under Article Thirty-two A regarding Non-Human entities in a populated area, under emergency circumstances.”

I gulped.

Article 32A gave the Banner cops the right to blow them to high hell.

“Damon,” I whispered.

I don’t know if he heard me or if the Banner directive got through, but he shoved off Jude and stood.

Bleeding from more wounds than I could count, he shifted from one step to another and was human as he started towards us. “Desisting,” he barked out. Then he looked back at Jude. “Keep the fuck away from what’s mine, leech.”

Jude flowed up from the ground, paler than normal, his eyes still glittering and red. “Mine first, cat. I’ll challenge that with your Alpha…and she’ll acknowledge it. She won’t risk my wrath over a paltry little half-human.”

“Hey,” I snapped. “I don’t belong to you, jackass.”

Jude ignored me.

Damon didn’t, though. An odd little smile curved his lips as he paused, staring at me. Then he stopped and turned. “You didn’t hear them as they were talking, did you, leech? They said
Alpha
. Annette died today. You want to challenge my right? Take it up to the Assembly…and they’ve got different ideas on that antiquated idea. Ask Es here, but I suspect they’ll tell you to get fucked.”

“Oh, yes.” Es smiled. “We will. Vampires can no longer claim ownership just because they laid a bite on somebody…especially when you didn’t explain all it entailed, Jude. Naughty, naughty, that. But I can always address it when I go to session next week.”

I barely heard her.

I was too busy staring at Damon.

The cool weight of Jude’s fury struck us, but seconds later, he was gone, launching himself into the air. The air lashed us with the speed of his departure and I batted at my hair as it flung itself into my eyes.

“Damon?”

I think I saw him smile at me. But then the pain in my lungs ripped through me again as I took a deep breath. Darkness rushed up at me.

Chapter Twenty Four

“It’s getting to be a pattern, healing you.”

I woke up in the healing hall. And once more, Es was by the bed. Damon was close by, although I couldn’t see him.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. No pain. Heaving out a sigh of relief, I murmured, “Oh, that’s lovely.”

“He shattered four of your ribs, child. And I do mean shattered. I had to work bone fragment from your lung tissue. If you’d been human, you might have died, silly girl. Whatever did you do to anger him so?”

Silly girl. Another person calling me silly. Although in this case….I popped one eye open and stared at Es. “I might have shot him through the heart with a wooden arrow.”

“Oh. That would do it, yes.” Her brow puckered and she looked around.

I followed the line of her gaze and saw Damon standing at the far end of the room, head bowed, arms crossed over his chest. He almost looked asleep, but I knew better.

“And here I thought you might have smoother sailing since Annette was dispatched. Jude will make just as bad an enemy, I fear,” she said quietly. Then she patted my arm. “You don’t do easy, do you?”

“Wouldn’t know it if it bit me on the ass.”

“Hmm.” She checked my arm one more time and then nodded to the table. “Drink the teas. I had to do a full healing whether you liked it or not. Between the damage on your lungs, your arm, your body was just too taxed for anything else. I’ll be off, but you call if you need me.”

I didn’t watch as she slipped away.

I couldn’t look at Damon, though, either.

“You killed Annette.”

His quiet sigh drifted through the room.

When he didn’t say anything, though, I looked up at him. “Why?”

“Not much choice.”

He blew out a breath and came my way, all caged, easy grace. Looking at him, I couldn’t even tell he’d been hurt. Faded denim clung to his legs and a black shirt stretched over his chest and arms, the sleeves rolled halfway up his arms. “I was heading into her chambers when Es sent me a text—something about some magic Kori had worked. She’d had one of her witches out there all morning and kept updating me, but the last message…” He paused and then looked at me. “One of the spells caught something from the guy we bought the bow from. There was vampire magic on him. And he was running scared. The vampires around her land aren’t going to be involved in what he was doing. I thought it was a stretch, but Jude seemed pretty damned determined to pull you off this job. Didn’t make sense—other people can do whatever he was wanting done, although I know you’ve got a rep for being a bulldog. I thought maybe that was the problem. You don’t let go. Plus…well, the reason I wanted to have you with me for Doyle was because you’ve got this uncanny way of figuring things out…”

He stopped, flexed his hands. “My gut told me I had to get back there. I walked into the lair and the first thing Annette did was attack. I was fine with that, expected it. Let her go for a few minutes and then begged leave. She wouldn’t. She went at me again, and again. I went to walk out and she called her seconds.” His hands flexed once more and a snarl rippled out of him. “Even if I wasn’t coming after you, I don’t like being a punching bag, although I take it when I need to. I heal and I can handle pain. But if I’d taken it yesterday, I wouldn’t have healed in time to get to you.”

I shuddered as I pictured that—I’d seen those kinds of beatings and felt furious as I imagined him just
taking
it. “And you call
me
a silly fool,” I muttered.

“Yeah.” A faint grin crooked his lips. “But I had reasons. Anyway…” He stared at me. “I almost didn’t make it anyway. The seconds were coming in and I told her I wasn’t doing this. She could either have her revenge on another day or she’d wished she’d let me walk.” His voice went flat, still and smooth as the surface of a mirror. “She laughed. The crazy bitch laughed. So I challenged her.”

Storms gathered in his eyes as he stared at me. “And now you don’t need to look at me and wonder if I’m one of those who stand by while somebody is tortured. It’s done, Kit.”