Gena Showalter - Intertwined 02 (29 page)

She gripped his shoulders and shook him. “What's going on, Tucker? What do you have to warn me about?”

“Just…give me a minute.” His eyes remained closed. “Please. I didn't think I'd ever get you alone again, but here you are. Here I am. And it's better than I could have imagined.”

He radiated such bliss, she couldn't deny him. So she stood there, silent, shaking with the force of her curiosity and dread. One minute passed, two. Three, four. An eternity.

Finally, blessedly, his eyes opened. He frowned. “I shouldn't be here,” he said. “He'll probably punish me.” He laughed without humor. “Probably? He'll destroy me, no question.”

“Who, Tucker? Talk to me!”

He licked his cracked lips. “I've come this far. I might as well just tell you, right? It's…” A beam of sunlight hit his face, illuminating the dark circles under his eyes, making him look like the living dead. “It's…Vlad.” His voice dipped into a tortured whisper.

“Vlad?” Her brow crinkled in confusion. “Vlad's dead.”

He shook his head. “Not anymore. He's very much alive. He called me while I was in the hospital.”

“Like, on the phone?”

“No. Inside my head. He called me, and I went to him. I couldn't stop myself. He's underground, in a crypt behind the vampire mansion.”

“Tucker, I—”

“No. Listen. He wanted me to watch Aden, to report what he was doing. And I—I did. Have. Will. He's angry right now, Mary Ann. Very, very angry, and all of that anger is directed at Aden for daring to take his throne.” Tucker's gaze darkened. “I don't know what Vlad will do to him, and I don't know what he'll command me to do, but you should know that I'll do it, whatever it is. I won't be able to help myself.”

“This is—this is—”

“True.”

The implications of this were vast. Too vast. Too frightening. And, she thought, almost more than her already fragile state of mind could bear. “You have to tell the others what's going on. They'll—”

“No. No.” He jerked from her hold, backing away. “I won't go near them. Not while they can see me, at least.”

“Tucker, please. They won't hurt you.” She wouldn't let them. “You have to tell them everything Vlad has said
to you. Everything he's asked you to do and everything you've told him.”

“No.” He gave another shake of his head. “You don't understand. When I'm with you, I feel good. Normal. Happy. I can control myself. But when I'm with the others, I…can't. I do bad things.”

“I'll be with you. I won't leave your side. I swear!”

“Doesn't matter. Not when you're with them.”

“Tucker. Please.”

“I'm sorry, Mary Ann. So sorry. Consider yourself warned.” He turned on his heel and ran off as fast as his feet would carry him.

A
DEN STOOD IN FRONT OF THE
witch. She was sitting in the same chair as before, only she'd scooted herself across the room as she'd screamed about a drainer. She wore a blindfold, but this one was a different color than the one she'd worn before. Had she managed to destroy the other one? Why else would someone switch them?

Her ties were different, too. Had she tried to escape? Almost succeeded?

She was paler than before, her skin almost…yellow. Her cheeks were more hollowed. There was a brittle quality to her hair now, as though the strands had lost their shine and had dried into hay. Before she'd hummed with power. Now…not so much. She could have been a human.

The wolves had been caring for her, feeding her, that kind of thing. But she had to be uncomfortable. Miserable, actually. And he felt bad about that. He really did. He didn't like that she was suffering, bored, stiff,
uncertain, scared, but more than that, he didn't like that his friends could die because of her and her kind.

“I'm not here to hurt you,” he told her gently. “I'm not going to drain you of anything.”

Her panting breaths echoed between them. “You're the Summoner.” Even her voice was different. Weaker. Raspier.

“Yes.” If only he could tame witches with the same ease he tamed flesh-hungry beasts, none of this would have been necessary. “What are you so afraid of being drained of?”

Don't engage her,
Elijah instructed.
Just do your job
.

“Your blood?” he found himself adding.

Good going
. Dryly uttered.

“As if you don't know someone among you can and has—”

Riley entered the small room and propped himself against the closed door, snarling, “Quiet, witch. We gave you a chance to share. You refused. Now, you can deal with whatever's done to you.”

Caleb, highly agitated since seeing the witch in such a weakened condition, prowled through Aden's head, huffing, puffing, and now growling at the wolf.
She can talk if she wants to talk! Aden, man, you can't leave her like that. You have to save her
.

What's with you?
Julian asked.
Save her?

Look at her. She's sick. She needs help. I know I helped come up with our current plan, but that was before I saw her like this.

“We'll save her,” Aden muttered. “After.”
So let's get this done
. He glanced up. Victoria stood across from him, behind the witch. “Ready?” he mouthed.

She nodded, expression tight with nerves.

“Save who?” the witch demanded. “Me? Well, that's not going to save
you
. Not after everything you've done.”

Aden! You wouldn't tolerate this kind of thing if your vampire girlfriend was the one tied up,
Caleb said, unwilling to give up.
Let the witch go. Now. Please.

Why do you care so much about this witch?
Elijah asked.
And really, even the others. From the time they approached us and cast their death spell, you've been as drawn to them as they are to Aden.

I don't know,
was the agonized reply.
I just know I don't want her hurting.

Aden suspected the witches were part of Caleb's past. Plus, this witch had stiffened when he'd mentioned a guy who could possess other bodies. “Maybe we can find out,” he said. After all, he kinda needed Caleb's cooperation for this. And he
had
promised to discover who the souls had been when they'd lived. He'd promised to help them with their final wish, to send them
on, even if he would miss them terribly, even if he now wanted to keep them. “When we're inside, we'll search for information about you.”

“Inside?” the witch asked, struggling against her bonds. “What are you planning? What the hell are you planning? If you hurt me, my sisters will hunt you down and curse you with pain, such terrible pain. They'll curse your family, too! Do you hear me?” Her chair rattled, bouncing up and down with her motions.

“I already told you, I'm not going to hurt you,” he said. But really, she'd already threatened to punish him no matter what happened, so her newest threat missed its mark.

I don't know about this,
Caleb said.
What if we change her past? What if that change destroys her?

“We'll be careful, but we have to do this. Tick-tock on the deadline, you know? There's no other way.”

A pause, then,
Fine
.
Do it. But don't injure her in any way
.

Aden took offense to that. “As if I would.” Not purposely. “You know me better than that.”

“Know you better than what?” the witch snapped.

Time to act. Reaching out, he removed her blindfold. She blinked against the bright light of the room, eyes watering, nose wrinkling, lips pursing. Aden cupped her chin and forced her attention on his face.

“Relax.” The moment their gazes met, Caleb took
over, Aden's body dissolving and slipping into the witch's. He expected pain, had braced himself against it, but there wasn't even a flicker of discomfort. Maybe, after everything that had happened to him, his pain threshold had increased. Or maybe Caleb was getting better at this. Maybe Caleb had done everything in his power to keep Aden from feeling pain because, if Aden had felt it, the witch also would have felt it the moment they linked to her, whether she was aware of the link or not.

Now seeing through her eyes, Aden took stock. His wrists and ankles were bruised and cut from tugging at the rope. His muscles were stiff. “Free me,” he told Riley. The oddity of speaking with someone else's voice always startled him.

A frowning Riley strode to him, claws sharpening, and slashed at the ties. Aden pulled his hands into his lap and massaged his wrists. When his feet were freed, he stood. His legs were so weak they almost collapsed, but he managed to walk around the room, increasing blood flow.

She wouldn't know he'd done this for her, but she would feel better.

“Thank you.” As he walked, he let his mind wander through hers, the world around him fading away. Unlike with Dr. Hennessy, he didn't see static. He saw—wait. There was that thought again. Static. He
must
have entered Dr. Hennessy's mind. Otherwise, he wouldn't keep
thinking about what had happened there. How long had he stayed? Why couldn't he recall?

Don't think about that now
.

Aden returned his attention to the witch. But unlike when he'd been in Shannon's mind, he didn't see scenes from her life. He saw…boxes? There were thousands of them, scattered across a sea of white, each boasting a thick silver lock.

He frowned as he clamped one of the locks between his fingers, and an electric shock tore through him, burning. “What would cause such a reaction?”

Wards,
Caleb said, and he'd never sounded more confident.
She has wards of her own. Her memories are in the boxes, and the boxes are warded against invaders.

“How do you know?” Aden asked.

Don't know. Just do.

Well, Aden needed inside them. Each ward could do only one thing, so what—or which—wards did she have and how, exactly, did they protect her mind? There was only one way to find out.

He searched the room until he found Riley, who was once again leaning against the door. “I need you to leave,” he said.

The wolf shook his head. “That would be—”

“The right thing to do,” he interrupted. “She's warded, so I can't reach her memories. Therefore we have to see
what wards she has, and I don't think she'd want a guy looking.”

Oh, no,
Caleb said.
You're not stripping her down
.

Usually, Caleb was the one begging for a peep show. “We'll work around her clothes, okay?”

“If I'm gone,” Riley said, “I won't be able to protect you.”

“Don't care. Go.” He pointed to the exit.

“Fine. But if she somehow realizes what you're doing and rips at
your
mind, I can't be blamed.” The shifter threw open the door, stomped out and kicked it shut behind him.

“If that happened, you wouldn't be able to help me anyway,” Aden called. “Victoria, you look the body over.”

“Yes.” She glided to him, as graceful as a ballet dancer.

Aden closed his eyes. One piece at a time, she moved the witch's clothing out of the way, searching. At first, her motions were quick and efficient. Then she slowed…slowed…lingered.

“I've never studied a witch this intently,” she said, voice heavy. “Usually I avoid them. I don't know why. Your scent…”

“Bad?”

“No.” She'd finished her search, but her grip tight
ened on his arms, holding him in place. “Good.
Soooo
good.”

He recognized that tone. It was the same one the councilmen had used just before flying at him and chomping at his veins.

Red alert,
Elijah suddenly announced.

“I know.” Aden opened his eyes and tugged from her. He rushed to the far end of the empty room. When she attempted to follow, he shook his head. “Stay there.”

Her eyes were glazed, her fangs longer than ever before. “Just one taste,” she pleaded. “I'll make it feel good. You'll like it.”

“Riley,” he called.

The wolf entered the room a second later. Clearly, he hadn't gone far. “Decide you needed me, after all?”

“We have a slight…problem.” Victoria had crouched, ready to leap.

“What—” Riley noticed and grabbed her by the waist, holding her in place. “Oh, no, you don't.” She struggled against him. “There are bags of blood in the other room. She'll feed and she'll be fine. We'll be back,” he said, and hefted her out the door.

Several minutes passed. Aden waited, wishing he could be the one to feed her, the one who calmed her. But he wasn't ready to leave the witch's body, and Victoria couldn't be allowed to drink from the witch. He remembered what she'd said about the allure of the witches,
how addicting their blood was, and he didn't like the thought of her strung out like a drug user.

When the pair finally returned, a subdued Victoria walked by Riley's side. He shut the door and stayed there, but she kept moving, careful to give Aden a wide berth. She perched against the far wall, her cheeks rosy with color.

“Sorry about that,” she muttered.

“Don't worry about it,” Aden said, just glad to see her clearheaded again. “Can you tell me what wards she possesses?”

Victoria nodded. “Her wards are tiny. Actually, I've never seen wards so small. I would think them ineffective, yet when you run your finger over them, you can feel their intense power.”

“How many does she have?”

“Nine. Two are purely cosmetic, preventing anyone from cursing her with ugliness. One is for the protection of her wards, so that no one can tattoo over them and ruin or change them.”

Smart witch. Though Riley had told him not many people chose to have that particular ward.

“One is to protect her from mortal injury, one to protect her from mental injury, which is probably what's hindering your progress. One to anchor her to this world, I guess so that she cannot be taken into another dimension by a fairy. One against goblin poison, one
to protect her against a lying male's seduction and one to prevent her from speaking secrets. Which means she couldn't have told us what we wanted to know, even if she'd wanted to.”

Riley fisted a handful of his hair, released the strands, then fisted them again. “We should have thought to look for wards before.”

True. “In our defense, we've had a lot to think about.”

“And we normally avoid witches,” Victoria said. “We've never willingly spent time with one. Why would we have known what to do?”

Good point. “Okay, so. She can't speak secrets, and her mind is protected from injury. I don't mean to harm her, but she can't know that. Even if she doesn't know I'm here, inside her, her mind probably recognizes me as foreign and therefore views me as a threat.”

“Can you hide yourself from her?” Riley asked.

“I don't know, but it's worth a shot.” Maybe if she were conscious, unaware of his presence, her mind would relax. Maybe those boxes would open up on their own. “Here, tie me back up.”

I don't like this,
Caleb said.

Aden didn't either, but there was no other way.

He plopped into the chair, stretching his arms behind his back and pressing his wrists together. In less
than a minute, Riley had him bound back up. Yep. Uncomfortable. Poor girl.

You swear you'll set her free after this?
Caleb asked on a trembling breath.

“Yes.” After this, they'd have no more need of her.

“Yes what?” Riley asked, then shook his head. “Never mind. You weren't talking to me.”

The wolf was learning. “Put the blindfold on me. And yes, this time I'm talking to you.”

Riley did as instructed, and suddenly darkness surrounded him.

“I'm going to try and fade to the back of her mind. Hopefully, she won't know I'm there. Try to keep her talking, distracted. And if she won't talk to you, you talk to her. Try to say things that prod her memories of the death curse.” She couldn't speak her secrets, but he would soon find out whether or not she could think them while someone listened.

“I need you to be quiet now,” he said, “and no, I'm not talking to you or Victoria.” He didn't want the witch to hear the souls. “Please.”

Fine,
Elijah said on a sigh.

Sure,
Julian said.

All right,
Caleb grumbled,
but only because I want her released
.