Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters) (42 page)

“Just tell her,” a cousin said quietly to Sven.
 
“It’s obvious she doesn’t know.
 
If she knew, she’d be much less hesitant to hurt herself.”

“Shut your mouth,” Sven told him, in the most murderous tone I’d ever heard come out of my kindest brother’s mouth.
 
“If she knew, she’d fight us twice as hard, you imbecile.”

“I can hear everything you’re saying, you knuckleheads.
 
What are you talking about?”

Sven met my eyes, his panicked now.
 
“Please, dear sister.
 
Please just come with us.
 
Don’t get yourself harmed more than necessary.”

“Why are you helping them take us in?
 
If you don’t want me harmed, then just walk away.
 
The elders have gone insane.
 
I know you know that.
 
Villi was demented-”

His mouth tightened as he interrupted.
 
“Was?”

I smiled, savoring the moment.
 
“Oh, did I ruin the surprise?
 
We took his head and heart not long ago.
 
And left him to the tender mercy of a slayer.”
 
Sven shut his eyes at the revelation.
 
The rest of them just stared at me, shocked.

“And the hammer?
 
What have you done with the hammer?” Sven asked.

I shrugged.
 
“I musta lost it.
 
Oh well.”

Sven sighed heavily.
 
“That was very unwise.”
 

“Why are the Chinese dragons here?
 
What do they have to do with this?” I asked him.

He sent them a quick look.
 
“We’ve…temporarily allied ourselves with them.
 
They helped us to find you.”
 
Lynn started cursing at them, aiming her gun wildly.
 
They looked more comfortable than they should have, with a blind woman pointing a gun at them.
 
Bullets still hurt like hell, even if they couldn’t kill us.

I sent Drake a scathing look.
 
He met me with a blank stare.
 
I mouthed a few choice words at him.
 
Still no reaction.
 

One of the men with Drake spoke to him in chinese.
 
He just nodded, starting towards Lynn.
 
I stepped up beside her, smoothly sheathing my axe as I moved.
 
“I’m going to try something.
 
Don’t shoot me, k?” I said in a whisper.
 
I started moving before she could answer, picking her up, and running.
 
I grabbed a silent Sloan by the hand as I passed.
 
I closed my eyes, concentrating hard.
 
I never would have tried it on purpose if it hadn’t happened by accident just a day before.
 
Still, I was shocked when it worked a second time.
 
I hovered above the earth with little more than a thought.
 
Transforming was usually a long and arduous process, but apparently I’d found a loophole.
 
My wings of flame beat up torrents of wind as I fought hard to lift far off the ground.
 
The extra weight of two bodies didn’t help.

It didn’t last long, of course.
 
I’d had little hope that it would, but I couldn’t help trying.
 

The arm holding Sloan started shaking first.
 
My heart skipped a beat when I looked down and saw several fist width poles impaling her chest.
 
She was just staring at them, dazed.
 
My whole body started to shake, dropping slowly to the ground, against my will.

“Drop me, Jillian.
 
I can fend for myself down there.
 
It’s you they want.
 
I’ll hold them back to give you a lead.”

I sent her an incredulous glance.
 
“Fuck that,” I said, quoting her own favorite phrase back at her.
 
Sloan’s death on my conscience hurt my heart to even think about.
 
I only made it about fifty more feet, however, before the choice was taken from me.
 
The world went black as I felt myself dropping back to earth.
 

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

I Still Think You're A Bastard

SLOAN

I woke up with my chest on fire, and the certainty that I was done for.
 
I was lying on my back, every part of my body paralyzed except for my left arm.
 
Agonizingly, I fished around for my cell.
 
I was vaguely surprised when I actually found it.
 
They must have assumed I was dead to have left me a life line.
 
I punched in a number instinctively, before clearly thinking about it.
 
But as I struggled to lift the phone to my ear, I knew there was no one else I would have made my last call to.
 
I barely got the phone to my ear as a gravelly voice barked at the other end.
 
“What’s up, Sugar?”
 
Cam’s voice was curt.
 
“To what do I owe the honor of this call?”

My first attempts to speak came out as gasps.
 
I was assuming this was due to the gaping holes in my chest.
 
Druids could survive just about anything save a beheading, but being stabbed in the chest repeatedly with an object bigger than a fist could do it, too, if the heart was pierced.
 
I knew by the blood pounding out of me that mine was.
 
“Cam,” I gasped out.

His tone altered drastically.
 
“Sloan, what’s wrong?”
 
All of the normal antagonism was gone from his voice, replaced by something akin to panic.
 
We’d known each other for most of our long lives, and I’d never heard his voice like that.
 
“Tell me where you are.
 
I’m coming to get you.”

“It’s too late for me, Cam,” I finally got out.
 
“But you need to get a message to Dom for me.
 
I don’t have another call in me.”

“Shut the fuck up with that.
 
Tell me where you are.”

“Tell him that the Chinese dragons took Lynn, and the viking dragons took Jillian.
 
They were both in bad shape when I got taken out.
 
Call him right away please, but talk him out of doing anything crazy.
 
If you can.”

“Tell. Me. Where. You.
 
Are.”
 

“It’s no good, Cam.
 
They filled my chest with holes the size of my fist.
 
My heart’s spilling out of my shirt.
 
It’s a mortal wound.
 
This is the part where you get to tell me it’s my half-blood weakness that did me in.”

He cursed fluently on his end.
 
“I’m going to wring your neck just as soon as I find you.
 
I have someone working on tracking you by your cell, but for the love of god, give me some kind of direction!”

“Shit, I don’t know.
 
We took a dirt road off the 215 somewhere west of town.
 
We went off road after that.
 
The tracks should be pretty clear from there.
 
I think I can make out the ruined car in the distance.
 
It’s north and west of me.
 
They tore it to pieces.”

“I’m on my way.
 
I’ll call Dom now.
 
Keep your phone in your hand, and don’t black out.”
 
He ordered.

“Easy for you to say.”

“Just hang in there, Sloan.
 
Just think of the shit you can give me if you survive.
 
It’ll be even better than that time you wiped the floor Siobhan.”

I grunted into the phone.
 
“Thanks for reminding me.
 
What a nice memory to think back on in my last moments.
 
In case I don’t get another chance to tell you, I still think you’re a bastard.”

He barked out a laugh.
 
“I know I am, sweetheart.
 
You can tell me that every day for the rest of our lives.
 
Just don’t die.”
 
If I hadn’t known better, I would have sworn that his voice was thick with tears.

“Cam-”
 
I felt the world going hazy.
 
“I always wanted to tell you that-”

“You can tell me when I get there, sweetheart.”

“I won’t make it that long.
 
I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry, Cam.
 
I’m sorry for everything.
 
And don’t ever call me sweetheart.”

“Baby, cut it out with the apologies.
 
I’ll be there in ten minutes, and I know you’ll regret apologizing to me as soon as you’re better.
 
I’m not above gloating at an injured woman.”
 
Strangely, I still heard those thick tears in his voice.
 
I was really losing it.

“I have so many-” the world went hazy, but I gripped onto consciousness to finish,
 
“regrets.
 
Goodbye, Cam.”

His gravelly voice raised to a panicked shout on the other end of the line as the world went black.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Infamous

I came to, fully aware that I’d been captured.
 
I was surprised, however, to find that I was not alone, though Sloan and my sister were conspicuously absent.

Two pairs of eyes tracked me warily as I sat up inside of a small cage.
 
The cage was positioned in a line of similar enclosures, set behind a huge dark red curtain, and hung so far off of the ground that I had no concept of how high I actually was.
 
Only two of the other strange human birdcages were occupied.
 
My gut twisted when I saw that the other prisoners were two very young teenage girls.

The girls clutched hands tightly across the space that separated their cages.
 
They were opposites in looks, but obviously had some close relationship, and were of a close age, perhaps twelve or thirteen years old.
 
It was obvious to me at a glance that neither was human, though I had no clue what they
actually
were.

The bolder of the two spoke first.
 
She had red and gold hair colored like no hair I’d seen before.
 
It looked more like trails of crimson and gold flame than actual hair, and tumbled down just past her shoulders.
 
Her bright golden eyes were piercing and accusatory.
 
“You-you’re one of them!
 
Don’t try to deny it!
 
We heard them talking about you when they thought we were asleep.
 
If you’re here to try to trick us, you can just forget it!”
 
Her young voice was defiant, but held an obvious tremor.

The other girl, a pale contrast to the girl beside her, made a soothing noise.
 
“Don’t get worked up, Nix.
 
It wouldn’t be good for either of us.
 
Whatever their latest trick is, we won’t let it affect us.
 
Remember, we resolved not to let them feed off of our rage and terror any longer.”
 
The girl spoke in a voice that could break any heart, the despair soft but prevalent, despite her bolstering speech.
 
As she finished speaking, she raised watery eyes to mine.
 
They were startling and lavender, and every bit as heartbreaking as her soft voice.
 
Her hair was white and looked soft like feathers.
 
It hung almost to her waist.
 
Her skin was palest alabaster and, combined with her white hair, seemed to create a white glow in the darkness around her.

Both girls wore thin white slips that didn’t cover nearly enough.
 
“How long have you two been held here?” I asked as my mind began, with dread, to connect the dots of their situation.

“Why would we tell one of
you
anything?” the one called Nix spit out.

“Well, if I was working with them, which I’m not, I would already know the answer to that.
 
So you have nothing to lose by telling me,” I said reasonably.

“Long enough,” Nix said.

“Too long,” the pale one stated.

“Care to elaborate?”
 
I raised a brow at them until they spoke again.

“Months,” the pale one said.

Nix followed with.
 
“Weeks for me.”

I clenched my eyes shut, rubbing my throbbing temples.
 
“So the red one is Nix.
 
What’s your name, white one?”

“Leona,” the heart-achingly soft voice answered me.

“Well, Leona, Nix, to answer your statement, yes, I am one of them.
 
That’s the bad news.
 
The good news is that I hate them as much as you do-”

“Impossible.”
 
Leona’s soft voice surprised me with it’s vehemence.
 

“And I’ll help you in any way that I can,” I continued.
 
“Oh, and I have some help on it’s way.”

“You look terrible,” Nix said softly.
 
“I doubt you could even help yourself.”

I couldn’t really argue with that.
 
I felt like crap, too, dirty and bloody and weary to the bone.
 
And oh yeah, like my skin was about to burst, my other form was so close to the surface.
 
It was an alarming development, to say the least.

“What are you two?
 
You’re obviously not related to each other, and of course you aren’t human.”