Blessed by a Demon’s Mark (28 page)
Could he?
“You will not be able to harm me,” Adrian said. He sounded satisfied, which frightened me more. There usually was never any emotion in his voice.
“And while you might be able to make my life hell, you won’t. If you go after my weres, after Davin, I will be forced to bring in those you care about. If you leave me and mine alone, I will let Jonathan and the Luna Cult live. I will not add them to my ranks. I will not go after your other friends.”
I couldn’t help but think that this was where having friends got me. Everyone was using Jonathan against me, whether we were friends or not.
A tear slid from the corner of my eye. I managed a strangled, “Fuck you,” but it took all the effort I had to squeeze that little bit out.
Adrian’s voice didn’t change in the slightest as he continued. “As much as I would love to take that as an offer, I will not. You will eventually come to see things my way and the prospect will not be so . . . sickening for you. I will wait for that day.”
He took a deep breath and looked through the glass of the syringe. “This will not only keep you down throughout the process, but it will knock you out. I cannot risk having you find a way to interrupt the ritual. I regret having to do this, but it is necessary for both our sakes.”
The syringe dropped below eye level and I felt a pinch in my arm. Heat swarmed through my body, leaving me breathless.
“Thankfully, I do not need you awake for this,” Adrian said. “Swearing the Oath is a magic process, involving blood, as you well know. No words are needed, though they are often spoken.” He rested a hand on my cheek. It was rough and calloused. “I will speak them for you.”
I tried to jerk away from his touch, but even the thought made me tired. Black dots swam in and out of my vision, and my stomach flipped a few times.
“When you wake, we will be bound.” He leaned close, whispered in my ear. “And you will discover I have given you another gift, one so valuable you will know how much I desire you.” His lips brushed my earlobe.
I screamed inside, thrashed in my mental cage. My lips barely moved; no sound was uttered from my throat.
The light flickered above me, once, twice, and on the third, my consciousness flared out, leaving me easy prey to the monsters all around me.
30
Pain brought me screaming awake. My hand immediately went to my throat. I could feel the slice of the blade as it bit into my skin, could almost hear the mad laughter of the woman as she left me to bleed out.
My fingers were wet, but not from blood. The pain wasn’t coming from my throat at all.
I reached down and felt the hilt of a knife sticking out of my thigh. I groaned as I grasped it and yanked hard. It came free with some difficulty, and it was all I could do to keep from screaming again. Blood oozed down my leg, onto the soft snow beneath me.
I started shivering, confused. Where the hell was I?
I looked around, trying to get my bearings. There were trees all around me, familiar trees. It took only a quick glance to realize I was in the woods near my house.
It hurt to swallow as I took that in. Adrian had brought me most of the way home. That meant he had to know where I lived. After all this time thinking I was being careful, he’d discovered where I lived. That meant not only does the Cult know, but now Adrian and most likely Baset, if she was to be believed.
A weight at my chest told me my shoulder holster was back in place. I checked the gun and found it to be still loaded. I hadn’t counted my shots from earlier, so I wasn’t sure if all the bullets were there or if Adrian had taken some for himself. My belt was back around my waist and my coat lay on the ground. I’d been using it as a pillow.
I stood and shook my coat off before throwing it over my shoulders. My leg throbbed and my head swam, forcing me to lean up against a tree for a few seconds before I could start walking. There was blood on the ground from where I’d bled, but it wasn’t much. I couldn’t have been there long.
I turned the knife over in my hand and it finally sank in what I was holding. I stared at it incomprehensively for a moment, unsure I was willing to believe what I saw.
The blade had my blood on it, but I could still see the silver beneath.
And it had been in my leg.
And you will discover I have given you another gift . . .
I dropped the knife as if it had burned me. I checked my belt and sure enough, one of my knives was missing.
This couldn’t be right. Adrian and his wolves were immune to silver. He wouldn’t have given that to me.
Or would he?
I drew my other knife and looked it over. It was definitely mine, not some fake. I drew it down my palm, cutting deep into the flesh.
It hurt like hell, but I didn’t collapse from silver poisoning.
I was immune.
I didn’t know how long I stood there, just staring at the blood oozing from the cut. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I knew the knife was mine, knew it was pure demon-forged silver. There was no doubt in my mind that he hadn’t exchanged my weapons.
“Holy shit,” I said. Out of all the things I expected from him, this was the least likely. He’d just made me immune to silver. While that might not help in my everyday hunts, it would help me against those vamps who didn’t care about their own laws and used the illegal metal, not to mention those that would use my own weapons against me.
I sheathed my knife and picked up the one I had dropped. My blood still stained the blade, so I wiped it clean in the snow before sheathing it.
Numbly, I started walking. I trudged up the hill, using the trees for support. Each step hurt. I was still weak from the injection, and my head felt like someone had hit it with a hammer a few thousand times.
But I was alive. Adrian had kept his word in that regard. I could vaguely feel him behind me even now, miles and miles away. We were bound. I knew it without having to test it. I was sworn to him, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
I sagged against a tree as the realization set in. I was bound to Adrian. The Oath had worked without me being conscious for it.
But that wasn’t the worst of it. I was sure I would find a way out of the Oath eventually. I just needed to find a way for Adrian to die without me being the one to shoot him.
I couldn’t use Jonathan. If I told him what Adrian had done, he would surely go after him, he and Nathan both. And what then? It was unlikely the few wolves Jonathan had at his disposal would be enough to overcome Adrian and his weres.
I groaned. Now I wasn’t just bound to Baset, but Adrian as well. My life wasn’t my own anymore. They each had control over a part of me, had me in a situation where I was powerless against them.
I started walking again. I was leaving a trail of blood on the snow from the wound on my leg. Tearing out the knife had reopened the gash. It wouldn’t be hard for someone to follow the trail to the house.
But it really wouldn’t matter. If they didn’t follow the blood, they could follow my footprints. There was nothing I could do about it if someone was tailing me.
I sighed and kept plowing ahead, just wanting to be home. Ethan would be there, would try to make things better. I needed to assure him I was staying for good this time, that I wasn’t going to run off without him ever again.
Of course, thinking of Ethan made me think of his demon—another monster I was bound to. Hell, I was in so deep now, I might as well go all in and see if he could help me with the vamps and wolves trying to take control of my life.
It looked like all the lights in the house were on as I broke into the clearing. Without the trees for support, I nearly fell twice on my way to the back door. I could hardly breathe, but I don’t think it had anything to do with my injuries.
I nearly broke down before I made it inside. I collapsed against the glass door and ran my finger down the fingerprint reader, my entire body quivering from both the cold pelting me from the outside and the cold growing from within.
Before I could get the door open, Jeremy opened it from the inside. I fell into him, tears streaming down my face.
He just managed to catch me, using his one good arm to keep me propped up. Someone else closed the door behind us as he led me into the living room.
“She’s home,” he said as he dumped me onto the couch. I think he tried to be careful, but with only one arm, lowering someone down who was in no condition to help had to be awkward.
“Kat.” The voice seemed to come from a long way off. It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t Jeremy or Ethan. “Are you okay?”
I started to nod but shook my head instead. “I don’t know,” I said. My throat hurt and I winced with every word.
Jonathan was sitting on the edge of the couch. He brushed the hair out of my face. “Water,” he said.
Jeremy bolted from the room, and a moment later the faucet started up in the kitchen.
I took a shuddering breath and buried my face in my hands. What was I going to do? All my enemies weren’t trying to kill me anymore, they were trying to take me under their control, to force me to do their bidding. They threatened my friends if I didn’t comply. How was I to deal with that and not blame myself?
Give me personal threats any day. I could handle those. But when you started bringing those I cared about into the equation, things got complicated.
I hated complicated.
Jeremy returned with the water and pressed the glass into my hand. I drank it down, eyes watering as it burned its way down my throat. He took the glass as soon as I was done.
“Where’s Ethan?” I asked, looking around. Jeremy and Jonathan were the only ones in the room.
“Downstairs,” Jonathan said. “Nathan is with him.”
Momentary panic caused me to rise, but Jonathan pushed me gently back down. “They are in front of the fire, keeping warm. We didn’t want to crowd you.” He glanced down. “Are you hurt?” He touched my leg.
I hissed in pain and jerked back. “I’m fine,” I said. “It’ll heal.”
Jonathan nodded and just sat there, letting me collect my thoughts.
It wasn’t an easy task. I kept thinking of Adrian, of the Oath. Then Baset would cross my mind, quickly followed by Levi and Beligral. My life had become a mess in such a short amount of time.
“Ethan received a message,” Jonathan said after a little while.
I looked at him. Concern was written all over his face.
“What message?”
“He didn’t know what to think about it, so he had Jeremy call me. It’s why we are here.”
My mouth went dry again as Jonathan handed me a slip of paper. I took it from him with a trembling hand.
I stared at the flowing writing. Baset didn’t blame me for her man’s death, which was a relief, I supposed. But the fact that the message had reached me here meant she hadn’t been bluffing when she said she knew where I lived.
“Who’s Henri?” Jonathan said as I looked up from the slip of paper.
For a moment, I was confused. He’d met Henri, had heard me strike a deal with Countess Baset. How could he not know?
And then it hit me. He was protecting me. He hadn’t told anyone else what had happened that day. Jeremy didn’t know I’d promised to be Baset’s assassin. Nathan might not even know. Jonathan was giving me a chance to explain myself in front of Jeremy, allowing me to decide what to tell him.
“Someone I once knew,” I said. “It’s no longer a problem.” I bared my teeth in what I hoped to be a deadly smile.
Jonathan touched my hand and squeezed. I flinched back and forced myself off the couch. I couldn’t stand the thought of someone touching me.
“I need to shower,” I said. “Tell Nathan everything’s okay and he can go. I don’t need him here.”
Jonathan nodded.
I limped toward the stairs but stopped halfway there. I glanced back to Jeremy. “I’ll get your car tomorrow,” I said. “I had to leave it behind.” I didn’t want him going out in search of it. I really didn’t want anyone knowing where I’d been. That would lead to questions, questions I didn’t want to answer.
Without waiting for a reply, I headed for my bedroom. I didn’t like lying to him, not after how much the young wolf had tried to help me, but I felt I had no choice. To get him involved with my troubles would only cause him more pain. One lost arm was enough.
I paused just inside the bedroom. A plasma television hung from the wall, facing my bed. The remote sat on my nightstand. There was a big red bow wrapped around the TV and a smaller one on the remote.
I burst into tears, closing the door quickly so no one would hear me. I wasn’t sure if I was happy or miserable. I think I was a little of both.
I stripped and went to the bathroom to run a shower, blinded by my tears. It would be a long time before I would be able to look into Ethan’s face without feeling guilty. He was always so good to me and I’d run from him, left him behind.
I hated myself. I stepped into the shower and let the hot water scour me. The chill from the snow was gone, but the ice in my gut remained. No amount of heat would ever make it thaw. I just hoped it would get better with time.
It didn’t.
I struggled through the next few days, unsure whether or not some disaster would come knocking on my door. I kept expecting to hear that someone I knew had died, or would open the front door to find Adrian or Countess Baset standing there.
I stayed home, afraid that if I left, I’d cause something to happen. I didn’t even have to leave to get Jeremy’s car. Jonathan found it parked just outside Luna Cult territory. None of the cameras caught who had left it there. Even though I knew it had to have been Adrian or one of his wolves, I didn’t tell anyone else. They could keep wondering for all I cared.
Jonathan stopped by once during the week but didn’t stay long. I wasn’t in much of a mood to talk to him, or to anyone else for that matter. Ethan was concerned but did well to keep to himself.
As the weekend neared its end, I found myself nearly bouncing from the walls in agitation. I spent that Sunday night staring at the wall of my bedroom, dreading the following evening.
I didn’t tell anyone where I was going when Monday finally rolled around. I left at first dark, slipping out before Jeremy or Ethan had even roused themselves.
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