Blood Vengeance (7 page)

Chapter 8

Keira

Keira was openly sobbing by the time Luukas finally lost consciousness.

“Get it away from him!” she cried, afraid to retract her spell too soon lest the flames actually ignite him. He’d be a pile of ash before anyone could react. “Get it away from him!!” she screamed louder.

Leeha shot her a look, but motioned for Josiah to remove the flames from his face.

“But I didn’t even do his arms yet!” He whined.

A sound of disbelief burst from Keira, but she didn’t take her eyes from Luukas.

“Well, there’d really be no sense in it now, would there?” Leeha turned away, disgust at Luukas' lack of endurance written all over her face. “He’s lost consciousness.”

“I guess not,” he reluctantly agreed. With a sigh, Josiah pulled the torch away and took it back over to the holder on the wall where he’d found it.

Dropping the spell, Keira rushed over to Luukas’ deathly still form. Running her hands along his face, his chest, his legs, even squatting down to his booted feet, she checked him for any physical damage. But he seemed ok. Even his clothes were intact.

Thank the gods! Her spell had held.

She glanced over her shoulder to find Leeha’s eyes on her, a strange expression on her porcelain face.

Swiping at the tears running down her cheeks, she rose to her full height, and turned to face whatever her punishment would be for her part in all of this.

Leeha stared at her a moment longer.

“Wait outside, Josiah.”

She waited for him to close the door behind him before speaking again. “I returned here tonight to see how you two were faring together, which I see now was much better than I had anticipated; A mistake on my part. I also came to let you know that I will be receiving guests this evening, and so will not be able to visit with my Luukas while I am entertaining. But don’t worry; Josiah will be down to carry on here alone. No harm shall come to him while he is here by himself, witch, is that completely understood?”

She didn’t wait for a confirmation. “Also, I will need you to drop that cloaking spell tonight.”

Keira stared in disbelief. “You’re not going to punish me?”

“Are you not the least bit curious who my guests are?” Leeha smirked.

Her head was still reeling by everything that had just happened, what the hell did she care who was coming? Unless they were coming to rescue her and Luukas, which she highly doubted.

But ok
, she thought, not knowing what else to say,
I’ll bite
. “By all means, tell me. Who in their right mind would be coming to visit you?”

Leeha’s eyes lit up as she told her in a confiding tone. “A very handsome male. He reminds me a lot of my Luukas, only with blonde hair. And he’s bringing a friend with him. A
lady
friend.” Her brows lowered as she pouted. “I’m not sure what he sees in her, but my eyes in these mountains tell me he’s extremely protective of the girl.”

As Keira mulled that over, trying to figure out what the significance of these visitors could be, Leeha wandered towards the door to leave, adding as an afterthought, “Oh! Did I mention her name is Emma? And she looks quite a bit like…you.”

“What?” Keira shook her head in disbelief. “What did you just say?” It couldn’t be possible. It couldn’t be her sister. What the hell would she be doing here?

“Not quite so defiant now, are we?” The door slammed shut behind Leeha and Keira heard her giggling with Josiah as the lock slammed into place.

They’d left her there, in the cell, with one dead vampire, and another one who no doubt wished he were.

Keira stared at the door in a daze. Emma was coming here? It couldn’t be. How the hell would she have found this place? Thanks to her, they were cloaked, hidden from outsiders; A simple spell that most any witch could do. Anyone who happened to come upon it would see nothing but a snow-capped mountain like any other, without so much as a hint that anyone occupied it.

It was impossible that Emma could have found it.

Maybe the bitch was lying. Maybe this was her punishment! That had to be it. It was the only reasonable explanation. There was just no way in hell that her little sister could be anywhere near here. She was on the other side of the country in PA, and across the border. She didn’t even have a passport!

And
, Leeha had just shown her one of her sister’s many posters not long ago, the ones with the headline “Please help me find my sister, Keira.” She’d gloated over it. That couldn’t have been more than two weeks ago. How would Emma have been able to find her between then and now?

Again, she shook her head. She couldn’t have. There was just no way. This must be a trick; just another one of the head games that the bitch so enjoyed.

So why had she ordered her to remove the cloaking spell?

And who the hell was the male that was supposedly with her sister? She said he looked like Luukas…did she mean a vampire? Did a vampire find out where Luukas was and bring Emma with him? But why would he bring her along? A human?

Keira was at a loss. She didn’t know what to think, what to believe.

One thing she did know, however, was that the dead body on the floor was the end of her trading blood for Luukas. The other guards weren’t nearly as interested in her as this one was, and were much more afraid of Leeha.

And even if they hadn’t been before, they would be now, once the word about Blondie’s death got out.

Grabbing the body by the ankles, Keira attempted to drag it over closer to the door. She barely made it a foot before she fell on her ass with an “Oomph!” Three tries later, she’d managed to pull it a mere four feet or so, but at least it was farther away from Luukas and her stash corner.

She thought about trying to roll it onto her blanket and move it that way, but then what would she use for herself? She’d freeze to death down here, and she wouldn’t want to use it if it had his blood all over it.

The body would have to stay where it was.

Picking up her blanket, she shook the dirt off of it as best she could. Mind still reeling with Leeha’s departing words, she shuffled over to her corner and sank down with her back against the stone, pulling the thin wool around her body.

***

A howl shattered the stillness of the night, startling Keira awake, and she sat up with a start. Still half asleep and disoriented, she rubbed her eyes, and tried to get her bearings.

She must've been sleeping for a while. All of the torches except one had burned out, and lack of light caused shadows to leap along the walls like creepy puppets.

She’d felt so drained this morning. Literally. She’d barely remembered to undo the cloaking spell, before sinking back down into her corner to try and sleep. She must’ve slept through the entire day, dead body in the room and all.

Another howl sounded, closer this time, raising the hair on the back of her neck and goose bumps on her skin. She faintly heard a male voice shouting in answer from far within the labyrinth of cells.

There was someone else down here with them? She’d never heard anyone else in all the years they’d been here, and had always assumed they were the only “guests”.

Hearing a ruckus on the stairs, she jumped to her feet and ran to the door.

Dammit, the window was too high! She couldn’t see anything. Swinging around, her eyes landed on the dead vampire. He was beginning to disintegrate, but with the lack of sunshine down here, it was taking much longer than normal. She stomped on him a few times to see how solid he remained, and quickly decided he would do.

Adrenaline and fear flowing through her, she grabbed him by the ankles and dragged him close enough to the door so that she could step up onto his legs and see out the small window.

Just as she did, a body came hurtling through the air down the stairway, landing with a thud at the bottom. A gaping, bloody hole was all that remained of the guard’s throat. She barely caught a blur of what appeared to be a huge furry creature lunge down the stairs after it, leap over the body, and disappear down the hall away from her cell.

What in the hell was that?

A loud crash came seconds later. The beast must’ve burst through another door. And then all was quiet again.

She held her breath, listening carefully, but heard nothing, until…there! More howling from deep within the mountain.

Silence reigned again for long moments. Hanging on to the door for balance, Keira leaned away and looked back over her shoulder.

Luukas was beginning to rouse again.

She studied him a moment, trying to assess his state of mind after what he’d been through the night before, but she couldn’t really discern anything yet.

Turning back to the window, she let out a yelp as she found herself staring directly into a pair of glowing, green eyes.

Scrambling back away from the door, she stumbled over her own feet getting off of the dead vampire and landed hard on her backside in the dirt, those eyes at the door following her the entire time.

Once she was out of the way, the eerie green orbs zeroed in on Luukas. A low growl rumbled through the wooden door at the sight of him hanging there, and the eyes flew back to her, spearing her to the floor where she sat.

Keira shook her head frantically. “No! No! I didn’t do this! It wasn’t me! Well, it was, kind of…but I didn’t want to! She threatened me! Threatened my sister, Emma! I didn’t want to…” She was babbling, and had no idea if the thing outside the door could even understand what she was saying.

Her mouth snapped shut as the eyes suddenly dropped out of sight.

Sucking in a breath, Keira jumped to her feet. “Wait! Don’t leave us here! Please!” She didn’t know who, or what, was out there, but it couldn’t possibly be any worse than their current hostess. Plus, if she could just get out of this cell, there would be a chance to escape.

She’d just taken a step towards the door to call after them again, when the entire wooden structure came crashing in, landing on top of Blondie. She threw up her arms to protect her face from the flying debris, and when she lowered them, an exceptionally large, brown, wolf-type thing stood on all fours on top of the door.

More muscular and less hairy than a normal wolf, it appeared to be some type of wolf hybrid. And when it swung its head her way, she saw an awareness in its eyes unlike any other animal she’d ever met.

Holy shit
, she thought. A
werewolf.
She'd never actually seen one before.

“Duncan?” Luukas’ voice was barely audible.

Tearing her eyes from the wolf, she glanced over at Luukas. His eyes were feverish in their sunken sockets as he stared at it in disbelief.

The wolf paced over to him on its huge paws, and as it did, another appeared in the doorway. It was also brown, though a lighter shade, a bit shaggier, and nearly as large, but had eyes so dark they looked black. Unlike its friend, this one stayed where it was, and kept looking out into the hallway, like it was afraid to come into the cell. It whined softly at its companion.

I know how you feel
, Keira thought.

A cold nose nudging her shoulder made her jump. The first wolf was attempting to get her attention. Standing beside her, its huge head came up to her shoulder, and it was easily twice her size or more. She could ride the thing like a horse.

It nudged her again, harder this time, and looked up at Luukas’ chains, then back at her. It repeated the movement until Keira finally caught on.

“Oh! Of course!” She paused, “What about Leeha?”

It shook its large head.

Did that mean what she thought it meant? Was Leeha not a concern anymore? What had happened to her? Keira could only hope that she had finally met her end, thanks to these wolves.

But, what would that mean for Emma? She’d never get to her in time if Leeha’s contingency plan had gone into play. Not without help.

Deliberating, she looked back over at the vampire. If she were any kind of a good person at all, she would release him, and give him back his power. It’s what she’d been planning to do all along.

She still had no clue as to his state of mind, however. What if she did all that and he was bat shit crazy, and killed them all in a psychotic frenzy?

Well, it would be no more than she deserved, after everything she’d put him through. And maybe he wouldn’t be. Maybe, just maybe, he’d be so grateful that he would help her save her sister.

It was a long shot. More than a long shot. More like an impossible shot. But she had to try.

Closing her eyes, she began chanting the words that would undo the spell and give Luukas back his power. Her hair began to dance softly on her shoulders as she drew upon the earth’s elemental energy, and the air stirred around her. She slowly lifted her arms, inviting it into her, becoming a part of it.

Distantly, she heard the wolves whining as the air currents picked up force, and her chanting got louder and stronger. Tilting her head back, she opened herself up from within, allowing the Master vampire’s power to leave her and travel back to its rightful home.