Blood Sacrifice (36 page)

Time ticked slowly, minutes stretching into forever as I watched the life draining from the small old man. He’d lived several human life-spans, alone, outside of society, caring for a church no one attended. A part-fey human—someone like me, like Adam—had cursed him, caused him to live this unnatural life, yet he still had the humanity to do this—give his life, give his blood to save me from having to condemn others. He took the choice from me, took my burden and gave himself. I couldn’t understand this. Couldn’t know how he’d made this decision. But I knew that for the rest of my many, many centuries, I’d never forget him.

Thunder sounded in the distance. I looked up. Clouds scudded across the sky, hiding the moon. I realized that the wetness I was feeling on my face was no longer just my tears. It had begun to rain.

Fray Antonio slumped to one side. I pulled away from Tucker and rushed forward.

“Father,” I said as I gently scooped an arm under his shoulders and held him up.

He smiled, his eyes fluttering closed. “It is raining.”

“It is,” I said, inanely.

One breath. Then a second. “All is well, then?”

I had to strain to hear him. “Yes.”

“Good.” His eyes opened and he stared into mine. “You must care for them all now,” he said. “It is up to you.”

I nodded. “I will.”

He closed his eyes again. “I am at peace.”

With a rattling breath, he was gone.

“The past cannot be cured.”

—Elizabeth I

B
efore I could wipe away my tears, I heard him. “So you think you figured it out, dear cousin.” Gideon’s smarmy voice made me clench my fists tighter.

“Did I not?” I tossed the words to him as casually as I could, considering the fact that I was standing in the rain, facing my once lover, now enemy.

Gideon laughed, a shrill mad sound. He’d lost it. Power slid to madness as he cackled. What was next, lunatic ranting? He threw his hands out, shrieking a spell.

I fell, rolling instinctively, then back on my feet with a shield spell surrounding me. My hands splashed bloody water as I extended my arms, whispering the mage fire out of my body. It sizzled away from me in direct line toward Gideon. A blink and he was gone, hiding behind some sort of dis-illusion, a notice-me-not stronger than I’d ever seen. I crouched behind a tombstone to
Listen
. There, to my right and forward about two dozen paces. I closed my eyes and focused, calling forth more
magick. A quick toss over the stone and I rolled to my left, behind another marker.

“Bitch!” Gideon yelled. I felt the magick slice open his flesh. Arm perhaps? Too bad, nothing fatal. “You think you’ve won? You think the land belongs to you now? I was once able to open the door to Faery. I will do it again.”

A flash to my right. Another spell gone awry. He still didn’t know where exactly I was. Damn it, where was my cavalry, anyway? Though my vampires couldn’t cross the newly consecrated ground, Tucker most certainly could. Maybe he was sneaking in under wolf guise. Gideon might could shapeshift since he theoretically had all the Talents, as I did, but he didn’t grow up in a house full of them. I had, and I’d learned from the best.

“Still silent, my former love?” Gideon continued to taunt me. “Did you not understand the meaning of the Challenge? Was it too difficult for you?”

I ignored him. His voice hadn’t moved, which meant he hadn’t. Not much with the battle strategy this one.

Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me “Thanks, bro,” I whispered.

“Not a problem.” The quiet voice came from behind me. I turned my head to nod. There he was, crouched at the stone behind me, still in human form. He’d not spoken loud enough for Gideon to hear him over his own ranting.

I nodded and turned back toward Gideon. He really had lost it.

“Come on out, Keira,” he said. “This is no fun without you. I want to show you. To show you how I’ve won.”

“Not biting, Cousin,” I yelled past a rumble of thunder. “You want to talk, then talk.”

Another twisted laugh. Tucker slid next to me, now fully nude. “Want me to shift?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. I’m not sure what he’s up to.”

“The priest wasn’t enough,” Gideon ranted. “You think he fulfilled the Geas? Oh yes, he brought the rain, well, goody for him.” Sounds of splashing made me peek around the left side of the stone. Nope, Gideon was just kicking water, but not moving anywhere closer.

“What the—?” Tucker whispered.

I shrugged. “He’s gone batshit haywire full-on McRanty pants crazy.”

“Don’t be whispering about me, dear Keira,” Gideon said. “I can hear you. Is that your darling brother with you? Too bad the dead men can’t leave their perch now, but no, the priest took care of that. Funny, isn’t it. He gave up his life for you, yet his sacrifice only blocked the ability for your vampires to rejoin you. What will they do when I kill you, Keira, what then?”

With no warning, Gideon’s face appeared over the tombstone. I shrieked and rolled left, tossing a flash-bang at him. After counting to five, I opened my eyes. “Tucker? Where are you?” I couldn’t see him. The rain was heavier now, with flashes of lightning punctuating the rolling growl of thunder. A bark from my far right. I scrambled in a zigzag toward him, trying to avoid Gideon, who was blind and deaf from the flashbang, but yet throwing out curses and spells. In too little time he turned his head in my direction. Damn it, he’d tossed my spell as if it were no more than a Fourth of July sparkler.

“The land requires more lives,” Gideon said. “Not just the life of someone who gave themselves willingly, that was a possibility I’d planned for.” He cackled. “Don’t you want to hear? Don’t you want to understand?”

I pushed the wet hair from my face and stood figuring that if he was talking like this, he’d not be saying spells. “Okay, I’ll bite,” I said. “What in the name of all the hells are you talking about?”

“Hell, well, yes, it is Hell, isn’t it?” He vanished into the cave mouth.

Tucker slinked around the right, positioning himself nearer to the entrance. If Gideon emerged, he might could jump him. I motioned to him to get ready, as I sensed—“No, wait!” I cried as Gideon appeared, this time dragging Gigi with him, and behind her, Drystan. Both were bound with some sort of chain. I could see the glimmer of magick on each link. He’d captured them and somehow dragged the both of them back through the Between to here.

“What the—?” I stepped back, nearly tripping over a tombstone.

“Did you not wonder why all the wardspells?” Gideon sneered. “I had a sprite paint them. She’d never bound to you or to me, but she wanted to be mine. I promised her she could. Our dear matriarch went Below, to confront my dear mama-in-law. My father did the same. At that point it was too easy.”

“You don’t think I didn’t know that? After all, Angharad ended up disowning you, you idiot. Let them go and I’ll be lenient.” Okay, so I was totally full of shit right there, but I had no idea what to do. I wasn’t fluent in mediator speak.

Gideon laughed and shoved Gigi and Drystan in front of him. Crazy like a fox indeed. He wasn’t taking any chances now. If I let loose spells, I could very well injure them instead of Gideon. Tucker backed away, as well. Nothing he could do at this point without risking the others. “Angharad is a wicked queen, but not so stupid as to hold these two hostage. Oh no. I bespelled her when I found her. She never saw it coming.”

I caught my breath. He what? How? How could Gideon Kelly have power over a high queen more than two millennia old? Sure, I figured they’d battle, but honestly, I never imagined him being able to take Angharad on and win.

“She’s gone now,” he said. “I forced her out Above. Captured her spirit and ate it.”

Tucker stumbled, now in human form. I caught his gaze. We were up shit creek without even a boat, much less a paddle. I’d heard of spirit eaters, in legend, in song. They were fearsome creatures, a long-dead Talent bred out of Kelly. The last one had finally crossed over more than twelve centuries past. They could literally suck the life right out of you, taking your power, your anima, everything that made you, you. Had Gigi’s insane breeding experiment given rise to a Talent long since lost?

Gigi’s face grew hard as she listened to Gideon. I couldn’t catch her eye. She was too caught up in my cousin’s speech.

“Drystan was easier to catch,” Gideon said. “He still wanted to talk to me. Imagine that.”

“Gideon…”

“What, dear Cousin? Did you want to talk to me now?”

I wiped the rain from my face again, a fruitless task. “Why?”

“Why? You ask me that?” He forced Gigi and Drystan to sit on one of the boulders. “You who were mistreated in the Seelie Court, then forced Above, to live with Huw and those six dogs? You lived with
humans
, Keira,” he said, making the word “human” sounds like “maggot” or “disease.” They twisted you. You’re less now. You could have stayed with me. Done this together with me. Been my queen.”

“Done what? Kill? I’m not that sort of girl,” I said. Though I kind of was. I’d killed before, not that long ago, and had little remorse. Not out of desire to win something, but yes, in revenge. In self-defense.

Gideon huffed a laugh. “Yes, well, not a discussion I wish to get into now. I think it’s time to finish my job.”

“And that would be?”

“The land will be mine, all of it, when I release the bonds on these two.”

“How so?”

“The chains are life bonds,” he said, his face shining with the light of zealotry. “Angharad helped me bespell them, thinking she was going to form alliance with me through her daughter. She thought the chains were for you and Adam.”

I gripped the stone tight, ignoring the rough pain as it scraped my palms. I couldn’t toss a spell, however much I wanted to. Any spell near those charmed bonds and both Gigi and Drystan, immortals though they may be, could die. Their life energies, which were tied up in those chains, would simply disintegrate if any random magick as much as touched one link.

“So now what, Gideon?” I asked. “You kill them and
then what?” I kept him talking as Tucker slid behind me, low to the ground. Maybe, just maybe, if we worked it right…

“Then I shall rule. All lands beholden to them will come to me.”

“And me?” I challenged.

Gigi’s head raised at this, her eyes focused and flashing. She was trying to communicate something to me, only I didn’t have a clue. I couldn’t split my attention, couldn’t afford to take my eyes off Gideon. Her gaze cut to him, then to me. She nodded her head. All I could do was to go with my gut here and hope she could follow my lead.

Gideon’s eyes narrowed as he studied me. “You, my dear, I save for last. It will be a pleasure to see your own life’s blood nourishing this once parched dirt.” He motioned to the ground below him. “You will join the priest in death.”

“I’m not the only heir left alive,” I said. “Despite your well-laid plan. If Drystan dies, then Adam becomes King of the Unseelie Court. You’re plain shit out of luck, Cousin.”

“Bring it on,” Gideon growled. “Once I take their energy, your man will be no match for me. He will die the true death, as will any blood-bonded to you.” He ran a hand through his sopping hair. “There’s a spell for that, don’tcha know?”

I sprang, another flashbang again at my fingertips, both hands casting at Gideon’s face as I sent a silent plea to the powers that be to help me avoid the chains. At my movement, Gigi pulled Drystan with her to the side of the boulder and onto the ground behind it.

“Better to burn out, than to fade away…”

—Neil Young, “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)”

“O
ne,” I called as I ran forward, letting my magick tell me where I was. “Two, Three.” I was counting on my great-great-granny to hold onto my insane cousin long enough for me to get there and to keep her eyes shut while I was counting.

On “ten,” I jumped. Gigi’s feet pushed out, catching Gideon’s calves. As he stumbled, I snagged him, wrapping my arms around his arms and torso while binding him with my own version of a rope charm. “Bind tight now,” I whispered as the vine-like rope twisted around my cousin’s arms, hands, legs, neck. “Bind especially tight.” I let him go and watched as the rope slid across Gideon’s face, forcing his mouth open, digging into his tongue. I looked only long enough to know he couldn’t get free. Then I went to help Gigi and Drystan.

“There’s nothing you can do to help us,” Gigi said as Tucker joined me and we both hauled them to a sitting position back on the boulder. Drystan remained silent,
all the spark gone out of him. Their chains twinkled in the rain like little faery lights.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “We’ve neutralized him. He’ll take these off. I know it. He’s a coward at heart.”

Strangled sounds came from said coward. I didn’t even bother to turn around.

“Ah, dear child,” Gigi said with a wan smile. “I was foolish with that one. These chains cannot be broken, not even by him.”

“Wait, are you telling me—?”

Drystan’s broken voice tore my attention from Gigi. “My son was all too thorough, child. He created this spell so that anyone breaking the chains, even him, would end with the same result. The one breaking the chain would sap our spirits. We shall die.”

“No,” I said. “No and no and no. You are still alive. There is still a chance.”

With a soft whoosh, two bodies joined us, having leaped from above. Adam and Niko.

Tears were in Adam’s eyes as he cupped his father’s face in his palm. “I regret this, Father. More than I can say.”

Drystan nodded. “You will be a good king, my son.”

“Wait just a fucking minute,” I demanded. “No giving up allowed. I did not go through all of this to give the fuck up. And how the hell are you and your sidekick here able to be on this ground anyway? It’s consecrated again.”

Adam stroked his father’s hair and looked at me. “Running water,” he said. “Water breaks magick. At least temporarily insulates us.”