Death Bringer (Soul Justice) (24 page)

She plunged deeper and relayed Adam’s agreement to aid the Fae king in his vendetta against his son, his satisfaction at the ending of the trial and his conviction that he and his fellow sect members would finally be strong enough to overthrow not only Death Bringer, but also his entire family.

“Ah, the Soul Sucker finds the truth.” The older queen’s voice sounded far away. “Adam
is
guilty. He truly wished to destroy us all.”

A flash of bright, bitter anger seared Ella’s senses, and she flinched as she saw the moment Adam had stolen her face. He hadn’t reckoned on her coming after Vadim or expected the depth of power a bond between a dark Fae prince and a human empath would deliver. His hatred of her was a clear, shining blade.

“That’s enough, Soul Sucker.”

She was shivering. She turned her face into the comfort of Vadim’s shoulder.

“You don’t need to exhaust yourself. He is already doomed for his treasonable thoughts.” He stroked her hair. “My parents are arguing again. My mother believes my father should be executed alongside Adam.”

“No!” She gripped his arm. “That’s—” She turned back to Adam, who was now smiling at her. “That’s what he wants!”

“Why?” She addressed Adam directly. “Why do you want the king in particular to die?”

Beside her, Vadim had gone still. “What is it, Ella?”

She reached through the net again and sought Adam’s skin. Something wasn’t right. He was puzzling her, his walls ever shifting, his true personality hidden behind...

She opened her eyes.

“Who is he, Morosov?”

The row behind them was growing louder as the Fae took sides.

“What do you mean?”

“
Think.
” She felt him open his mind to hers while she kept the link to Adam wide. “Adam’s not his real name, is it?”

* * *

An abyss yawned at Vadim’s feet, and he pulled Ella roughly away from Adam.

“Tell me something before you die.”

A superior smile lightened his opponent’s all-too-familiar features. “Why would I tell you anything? Can’t you use your human pet to force the information out of me?”

“I could.” His hands clenched into fists. “But this is between us. It always has been. Why is that?”

Adam shrugged. “You’re supposed to be the most powerful being in Otherworld. You work it out.”

“You always hated that, didn’t you? That I had all the power, that I was the chosen one. Is that why you took over the sect?”

“The sect welcomed me. They appreciated my powers.”

“I’m sure they did. If you die, will my mate get her face back?”

“How would I know? I’ve been alive for almost as long as you have. I’m supposed to be immortal. Why would I bother to find out about the effect my death has on others?”

“Then free her from the spell.”

He fake-sighed. “I can’t do that when I’m trapped. My powers aren’t working.”

Ella touched his arm. “I don’t care about my face, Morosov. Don’t let him go free.”

“How noble,” Adam sneered. “But it isn’t really about you either, is it, Soul Sucker?”

Her fingers sank into Vadim’s flesh. “He wants you, right?”

He nodded, his gaze not leaving the other male’s as he sorted through a myriad of memories and impressions and tried to blend them with Adam’s pilfered thoughts.

Behind him, he was aware of his father moving toward him. He intentionally raised his voice.

“You wear my brother Ciaran’s face.”

“So?”

“When I first saw you in San Francisco, I said that you were a fraud, because my brother was already dead.”

“Because you’d killed him, and things Death Bringer kills never survive.”

“That’s what I believed.” Vadim drew in a slow breath. “It appears I was wrong.”

“What?” His father’s jarring voice bellowed in his ear. “Are you suggesting this is really Ciaran? How ridiculous is that? Good God! Death Bringer, will you do
anything
to bring this family down?”

Vadim kept his gaze on the prisoner. “Is that why he helped you?”

Adam blinked very slowly. “That’s for me to know and for you to find out.”

“I can do that for you, Morosov,” Ella said softly. “All I have to do is touch him again.” She looked up at him. “This is what he was hiding. He didn’t really want my face, he wanted you back.”

“For revenge.”

“Even though you obviously didn’t kill him after all. Was he always jealous of you?”

“Of course. My father professed to love him the most yet spent most of his time training me—his personal weapon.”

“That isn’t true.” Adam practically spat out the words. “I always knew I was loved, while you were hated and feared.”

“But you were willing to do anything to get power like mine, weren’t you?”

“I did what anyone faced with an impossible situation would do.”

“Forced a confrontation between us? Used your twin sister as bait?” Vadim fought to control his voice.

“She loved me. She was willing to help me in any way she could.”

“That’s not love,” Ella said. “That’s stupid.”

“I regret having to lend you my sister’s face, Soul Sucker. You are not worthy to wear it.”

“Strange, it doesn’t bother me in the least.”

Adam sighed elaborately. “It amuses me to know that my brother will have to live with it for the rest of his unnatural life.”

Vadim drew Adam’s attention away from his mate, who looked ready to do him harm. “Did you kill her?”

“Who, Nia? No, she was weak. She couldn’t live with the idea that she’d betrayed you by pretending I’d died in your attack. She was more than willing to listen to my suggestion and take her own life.”

“Is that what gave you the idea for your little game, then?” Ella asked. “To take her face as a trophy?”

“Yes, Soul Sucker, how astute of you to notice.” He snarled. “I obviously underestimated your intelligence.”

“Most of us do.” Vadim recovered his veneer of calm. “So if we assume that you follow the sect’s usual rule of three, and that you wanted my face next, whom did you choose to complete the pattern?” Adam’s gaze flicked momentarily to Vadim’s right. “Ah, you wanted
Father’s
face, because once you had his, no one would remember you as Ciaran, and you could move on with your plan to control the whole of Otherworld.”

“
What?
”

In his desire to get up close and personal with the captive, the Fae king tried to push past Vadim, who put out an arm to hold him back.

“He intended to kill you. Didn’t you get that?”

“That’s impossible! I—” The king suddenly broke off as if aware that his estranged spouse and mother-in-law were regarding him suspiciously. “It’s not true.”

“Why would I lie?” Adam said. “I’m not expecting to come out of this encounter alive, are you?”

Blustering, the Fae king turned to survey his audience. “The man is mad. He obviously wants to implicate as many of us in his crimes as possible. Perhaps Death Bringer was right in the first instance, and Adam was trying to annihilate our whole family. Isn’t that rather more important?”

“Nice try, Fergal.” Ella pretended to clap. “And, by the way, that was my idea, not Morosov’s.”

Vadim reached out and took her hand. He half turned to face his family. “For once I’ll agree with my father that the state of the realm is rather more important than the state of his conscience. What do you want me to do about ‘Adam’?”

He couldn’t call that monster by his brother’s name. From what he’d sensed in the other’s mind, all vestiges of humanity had been leached from his soul over the intervening years. Adam cared for no one and thrived on power, hatred and vengeance.

His grandmother raised her chin. “What do
you
wish to do with him, Death Bringer?”

Vadim went still. Beside him, Ella squeezed his hand hard.

“It’s okay about my face, it really is. I don’t care if you execute him. He’s done enough harm in his lifetime even for an immortal Fae.”

Vadim stared at his brother for a long quiet moment and then raised his hand.

* * *

Ella wanted to close her eyes, but she owed it to her mate to watch to the end. She couldn’t let him destroy himself again. Didn’t his family understand the terrible burden he’d carried with him for
centuries?

“Morosov...”

“No!”

A bolt of the Fae king’s magic shot between her and Vadim, releasing Adam from his bonds. With an exultant cry, he rose above the ground and grabbed for Ella.

“Get off me, you idiot!”

Vadim rose too, his huge wings unfolding, claws out, fangs extended.

“Let her go!”

Twenty feet up in the air, Adam held her out in front of him, and her legs dangled like a doll’s. “Father, kill her!”

She looked down at the Fae king’s face. The wound on her shoulder started to throb like fire.

“Don’t be stupid!” she shouted. “If you kill me, Morosov will kill you and Adam will have won
everything!
”

“She’s right.” Despite his aggressive stance, Vadim’s voice was eerily calm. “Now release her, Adam. This is between us. It always has been.”

She glared at Vadim. “Don’t you dare fight him! That’s what he wants! Why are all you Fae so
dumb
sometimes?”

She tried to turn to see Adam’s face, and he was smiling. The door to the hall crashed open. Beyond it was the long corridor leading to the trophy room. Was he intending to gather his trophies on the way out, or did he intend to destroy everything?

His trophies...

She looked from him back to Vadim and then at the Fae king.

Sets of three. The blondes, the brunettes and the final set of Fae royalty that would never be completed....

“
Give me the dagger and give me your power.
”

“
Don’t be stupid.
”

“
Don’t argue with me!
I
think I know how to fix this!
”

“
Ella
...”

“
Please.
Trust me.
”

A second later, the blade was in her palm. Below her, the Fae king held up his hand, and the pain in her shoulder began to spread throughout her entire body. Without allowing herself to think any longer, she used Vadim’s immense strength to free her right hand and, turning, plunged the lethal blade into Adam’s throat. As he screamed, they started to fall. By the time they hit the floor, she was beyond feeling anything at all.

Chapter Sixteen

The moment Ella turned to strike Adam, Vadim lurched across the space and just managed to knock some of the power out of his father’s spell. Adam started screaming, blood gushing from his mouth, and fell, bringing Ella with him. Alighting beside them. Vadim picked his father up by the throat and shook him like a rat.

“What the fuck were you doing? If you’ve killed her, I’ll—”

A cool hand touched his arm. “I’ll see to her, my son.”

Vadim didn’t release his grip. “He still dies.”

“I wasn’t aiming at her, you fool! I had a clear shot at Adam!”

Vadim didn’t even deign to answer that; his attention all on his mate, who lay sprawled over Adam’s bloodied corpse. Blood oozed through her jacket from her left shoulder. His mother knelt in front of her and took her hand.

“She’s still alive.”

Vadim exhaled and loosened his death grip around his father’s neck a tiny fraction. “You are very lucky. Now she will be able to watch me kill you in person.”

“I didn’t intend to harm her. If I had, all I needed was to call in my mark. I was aiming at Adam!”

He bared his fangs an inch from his father’s face. “Release her from your mark
right now.
”

Sweat glistened on the king’s unlined forehead. “It is done. I swear it.”

Vadim dropped his father and went over to where Ella had fallen. His mother had disentangled her from Adam, and she lay on her back, her eyes closed, her battered backpack supporting her head.

“Will she be all right?”

“With your father’s influence now removed, I believe she will.” The queen hesitated. “She is a fine mate for you, my son.”

He sank down onto his haunches beside them and reached out a shaking hand to touch her unnaturally dark hair. His mother had already used magic to clean her obvious wounds and remove Adam’s blood. “I know. Even though I didn’t appreciate it at the time, you and grandmother picked well for me.”

“We knew our disapproval of the match would make you want it more fiercely.” She smiled and briefly patted his arm. “You must both come and visit us, often.”

“If that is your wish, and if Ella agrees.” He hesitated. “You no longer require my presence here in Otherworld?”

“I think you deserve a better life, don’t you?”

Ella muttered something, and Vadim’s gaze shot back to her. “Mother,
look.
”

As he watched, her face started to dissolve, the black hair and pale skin receding to reveal her usual fair hair and disgruntled features.

“How the hell did that happen?”

“Adam is dead. Perhaps his powers died with him.”

“I bloody hope so, after all that effort.” Ella mumbled.

“Soul Sucker.” Vadim took her in his arms and sat her in his lap. She leaned against his chest as if she belonged there. “You are alive.”

“Of course I am. I told you that you needed me, didn’t I?”

He drew her even closer against him. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“What, killed that monster?”

“You didn’t even know if he could die.”

“I was pretty sure that if the knife would work on you, it would work on anyone.”

“But it was my responsibility, not yours.”

“You aren’t just Death Bringer anymore, remember?” She put her hand on his cheek. “Don’t you think you’ve suffered enough?”

He swallowed hard as she held his gaze. Had anyone ever done that for him before? Taken on his burden? Killed for him? He didn’t think so.

He slowly exhaled. “I do not have the words to thank you.”

“That’s okay. I have that problem a lot.” She kissed his mouth. “How about we call it even?”

He wrapped his arms around her, buried his face in her neck and breathed in the strangely reassuring scents of Pop-Tarts and bubblegum.

“What’s going to happen now?”

She was already wriggling to get free and move on. With a sigh he released her.

“My mother is still insisting that my father hang for his part in this matter. So far, she hasn’t asked me to administer the final blow, but I’m sure it’s coming.”

“Can we leave?”

“Soon, hopefully. There are a few things I need to take care of here.” He hesitated. “Although obviously, you can leave whenever you want.”

She rubbed her left shoulder and looked away from him. “I’m okay to tag along with you for a while. This is still an open SBLE investigation, you know.”

He let her scramble out of his lap and went to stand himself.

“Hey, what about your arm? You’re bleeding.”

In his concern for her he’d totally forgotten about the wounds he’d suffered during the fight. “I’m fine. I should be able to fix it myself, now all the sect members are dead.”

“I could do it for you.”

“It’s okay, I think I can handle it.”

“You’re just worried I’ll blow your arm off.”

“Having seen the way you use my power, it had crossed my mind.” He let his palm hover over the wound and said the necessary words. Once the head of the arrow came free, the pain quickly eased. He wished it were that easy to control the pain in his heart.

“Your magic is extremely hard to manage. I completely blew up a troll the first time I used it.”

“That was probably quite messy.” He glanced over to where the arena had been and saw that someone had already tidied everything away. The room looked perfect and far removed from the violence that had erupted earlier and taken four lives...

“What’s wrong?”

“I was wondering where they’d put the bodies.”

“Let’s go and find out.”

She headed for the huge doors, and he followed her as meekly as a lamb.

* * *

Ella tried not to look up as Vadim walked alongside her, but he was being rather too quiet for her liking. Had she really offended him by stepping up and slaying Adam instead of letting him do it?

“Are you still mad at me for killing Adam?”

“No.”

He kept walking. It bugged her that she had to take the occasional skip to keep up.

“That’s it?”

“You did what was necessary, and for that you have my gratitude.”

“Oh. That’s okay, then.”

Maybe her emotional attachment to him had misled her into thinking he was more vulnerable than he truly was. He might only want to see the bodies to make sure his brother really was dead this time. She paused at the door to the trophy room, which stood open, the guards dismissed. Hopefully there were no black dragons lurking around either.

“Can we go and look in here?”

“Of course.”

He waited for her to walk past him into the vast room.

“I thought most of this stuff would’ve disappeared with the death of the sect.”

Vadim turned in a slow circle, taking it all in. “I suspect there are still other members. We just don’t know about them yet.”

“Good point.” She carried on through the room, heading for the back wall.

“What are you looking for?”

“My face.” She sighed. “I’m going to kind of miss it, and then there’s all that hassle of getting a new driver’s license, passport...”

“Ella—”

“Hey!” She spotted Brad Dailey’s face. “It worked!” She looked over her shoulder at Vadim. “Was Ciaran a blond version of you?”

“Yes.”

“I hoped so.” She whistled. “It was a bit of a risk, but I’m so glad I went for it.”

“For what?”

There was a hint of impatience back in his voice, which made her feel much happier. She moved out of the way so that he could see the three faces on the gold plinths.

“Adam’s replaced you.” Vadim said slowly. “Did you expect that to happen?”

“Well, I thought it might work. The only thing is, what happened to my face? I hope I didn’t end up on your brother. We definitely do need to check out those bodies.”

He caught her hand. “You chose to kill him because you
hoped
you’d exchange faces?”

“Yeah, I guessed there needed to be a group of three to spring the spell, and as the Fae Royal thing wasn’t going to happen and Brad and Ms. Phelps were already dead, I reckoned Adam needed one more victim. I still didn’t get my face back, but it did stop him adding me to his list of trophies.” She shrugged. “I bet he didn’t think he’d be the one doing the dying this time.”

“Why didn’t you share this theory with me?”

He was towering over her now, his beautiful blue eyes narrowed.

“I wasn’t quite sure which configuration was going to work. Originally I thought he wanted you, Nia and your father, but when that all changed, I substituted my own plan.”

“And didn’t tell me.”

Each word was spaced out and radiated fury. She gazed up at him and tried a smile. “You were rather stressed at the time. I didn’t want to worry you.”

“Stressed... And when,
exactly
did you come up with this idea that Adam was attempting to complete a hat trick of Fae royalty?”

“Dude, I told you that ages ago. When we were in that protected glen. When Adam had me up in the air back there, my theories kind of coalesced.”

“You mentioned only that you believed Adam wished to rule Otherworld.”

“Well, how was he going to achieve
that
unless he got rid of you and your father, who are both more powerful than he was?” She rolled her eyes. “Men are so dumb sometimes.”

His hand shot out and he pinned her to the wall. “So you were not trying to save me from having to kill Adam. You were merely carrying out your half-baked
theory
to get your
face back?
”

His tone was withering. She smiled into his storm-filled eyes. “Oh, no, I was trying to save you all right. The theory part was just a bonus.”

She held her breath, but instead of kissing her, he dropped his hand and turned away from her. She frowned at his broad back. Why wouldn’t he kiss her?

“We should go and check out the bodies.”

She pushed away from the wall. “Sure.”

He didn’t say a word as they walked down the endless hallways; his mind was closed to her as well, which was starting to tick her off. In the main hall, she spied Rossa in conversation with one of the gatekeepers.

“Hey!” She waved at him and he strolled over.

“You’re both alive! You look great now, Ella.” He grinned at the unsmiling Vadim. “It’s awesome that you beat all those guys. I knew you could do it.”

“What are you doing here?” Vadim’s question was distinctly uninviting.

“Your mother called me in to keep an eye on the place while everything’s up in the air.”

“She called you?”

“I have skills.” Rossa raised his eyebrows. “I also happened to be right here, so she didn’t have much choice. Were you looking for her?”

“No, we were wondering where they’d put all the bodies.”

“Oh, right. They’re in the place of worship, which is down this hall and then to the left.”

“Thanks.” Ella smiled at him. “And thanks for everything.”

Rossa preened. “It was nothing, babe. Anytime, for you.”

As they moved on, Vadim said something under his breath in Fae, but she chose to ignore it. After a moment he cleared his throat.

“He didn’t exactly do much, Ella.”

“He was very helpful to me when I first got here.”

“Because he’d been ordered to keep you safe.”

“I know that.” She kept her gaze on the hallway. “But he was
terribly
sweet about it, and he did help me get into this place.”

He resumed muttering in Fae.

It seemed to take forever to get to the chapel, or whatever it was called. The doors were gold and marked with a myriad of religious symbols from both the human realm and Otherworld. Inside, portraits of members of the sect lined the wood-paneled walls, the most prominent being one of Adam that hung over the ceremonial table at the front. About two hundred candles had been lit, and the waves of heat coming off them were extreme.

“Oh my, the cult of Adam. All bow down.”

He was blond in the picture and looked far too benevolent for her liking. To the side of the main altar was a row of four open coffins. Vadim had already moved toward them and stood looking down into the last one, his expression unreadable.

“Is that Adam?”

He nodded but didn’t take his gaze away. Ella went to join him.

“Well, that’s definitely not my face.” She angled her head to one side. “He would’ve looked odd with it anyway, and I don’t think I could’ve brought myself to try and take it off a corpse.” She shuddered.

Vadim turned away and checked out the other coffins, where Red, Baldy and Blondie had been laid out, all magically restored to their full beauty.

“What will happen to them now?”

“I believe there’s a vault beneath this space where sect members can choose to be buried. Unless there are new instructions from their families, I suspect the four of them will end up there.”

“And then maybe we can pull the whole place down around their ears?”

“Would you like that?”

“It would certainly make me feel safer about coming back here.”

“But it might enrage the remaining members of the sect, who are already going to be in disarray due to the demise of all four members of their council.”

“You’re no fun anymore. What’s wrong with a bit of vengeance?”

Even as she said it, she knew she’d erred. He turned away from her.

“I’m sorry. That was a stupid thing to say. You’ve probably had enough of death and vengeance to last you a lifetime, a Fae one at that.”

“Shall we go and find my parents?”

“If we must. Your father is really starting to get on my nerves.”

“Starting to? He has that effect on a lot of people.”

“And he’s up to his neck in this plot.”

He held the door open for her. “You’ll never prove it. My mother might get angry with him, but she doesn’t have the ability to take his power away.”

“Who does?”

He smiled then, but it was bleak. “I do.”

“But you won’t.”

“As you said, I’m no longer prepared to be Death Bringer.” He hesitated. “The ironic thing is, if Ciaran had asked me for my powers, I would’ve willingly handed them over to him.”

“But you couldn’t.” She poked him in the chest. “Why do you think they chose you rather than him in the first place?”