Good As Dead (Dying To Meet You Book 1) (20 page)

Lainey closed her eyes and tried her hardest to push him away. “No. No, you can’t ask me to do this.”

“Please, Lainey. If our situations were reversed, know that I would do this for you.” His eyes pleaded with hers and she knew that she could not deny him his request, though she knew she would regret her weakness later. There was one small ray of light though. Magic was required to complete a successful binding and there was little chance of that happening from her fingers.

Staring at the ceiling for a moment, she bit her lip hard before promising him what little she could. “Fine.” She sighed heavily. “You can take my blood, Mercer, and I’ll try to perform the spell but you know as well as I do that my magic is nearly non-existent. I very much doubt I’ll be able to complete the binding but you have my word I’ll give it all I’ve got, and then some.” Never before had she hoped her magic wouldn’t work.

They tried four different attempts at the binding spell. No flicker of magic appeared, and the desolation in Mercer’s eyes was almost worse than having denied him the farce of the pairing in the first place. He kept insisting she try again when she failed.

“One more time, Lainey.”

In the end, it was she, who put a final stop to the awful mess. She had given all she could. It wasn’t enough.

Dream Weave

Clutching a small vial of clear liquid in her delicate hands, Lainey was running. With her lungs burning and her hands frozen into tight fists, each pound of her footsteps against the concrete beneath her sent a jarring thud through her body. They had been up before the first rays of dawn and overnight, the world had turned into a cold and vicious place.

It was Kalliope’s doing. Somehow, she had managed to get inside their heads and now held them trapped within a
dream weave
. Dressed from head to toe in black with sneakers on their feet, she had attired them for speed and agility which was jolly decent of her, since the things she kept throwing at them as they raced along her chosen path were nothing short of hideous.

The realm that they now found themselves in was dark, hostile and full of hidden nasties. The landscape was continuously changing, the hazards were constant, and nothing was quite as it seemed.

Mercer was a constant presence inside her head barking commands, which she had to obey immediately, such as jump left, step right, lie flat, or stand still. It was only through his acute senses that they had managed to stay alive this long. The logical part of Lainey’s brain told her that this was only a simulation, and that nothing inside it was real but her emotions told a different story. The pain was real, the fear was sharp, and Kalliope was far more powerful than either of them had realised. It was a given that she could get inside Mercer’s head after they had shared blood, but she shouldn’t have been able to control Lainey too. Her ability to manipulate, both of them, so easily was not just frightening it was downright terrifying.

“Stop!” Mercer’s voice barked the command with a little more urgency than the last time he had said it, and Lainey skidded to a halt.

The loamy dirt track they had been running along was now a sheer cliff face and it was crumbling beneath her feet. Feeling her body suddenly become weightless, it was with horror that she found herself dropping like a stone into a chasm of foaming white water beneath her, laced with large jagged grey rocks. A hand enclosed itself around her wrist and she felt herself yanked forcibly upwards and back. There was no time to stand still for the terrain all around them was collapsing. Mercer flung her into his arms, and then with a burst of vampiric speed he outran the decaying forest only to find them now at the mouth of a raging river, which had burst its banks. The earth below had turned into knee-deep mud and with each step forward, they sank deeper into the boggy ground.

Mercer tightened his grip around Lainey’s body looking over his shoulder for another route, but there was no going back. The disintegration continued behind them and if they stayed where they were, they would be falling into nothingness inside of five minutes. The path ahead looked no less uncertain, with their only options being trapped in mud or drowning in water. Frantically looking from left to right and gaining no answers, he looked helplessly at Lainey. “Can she kill us inside here?”

Mercer had to wait for his answer for just then the swell of the swollen river sucked them free of the mud, and they were swept away on the tide. Tightening his grip, he tried his best to keep both of their heads above water. Everywhere was a swirling mass of churning white foam, and its hiss was deadly.

“Don’t know,” choked Lainey as a mouthful of salt water flooded her mouth. Bobbing up again into the spray, she yelled, “Still trying to figure this out.”

Her fist closed tightly around the vial she held and she wondered if she would break it but thankfully, it held firm.

“You and me both,” spat Mercer as he twisted his body around, making sure it was his back and not Lainey’s that slammed into a large slab of granite. The stone jutted out with fierce angry edges and it tore into his flesh, but he didn’t make a murmur.

“You’re hurt,” shrieked Lainey, who watched the smear of blood upon the rock before it sailed quickly out of view.

“I’ll heal.” He flicked his wet hair out of his face and managed to get a firmer hold on Lainey, holding her higher in an attempt to make sure that she could breathe. Navigating between whirlpools and pressure waves, he began scanning the area for an escape route. There was definite urgency to his calculated movements. The water was only a few degrees above zero and if they stayed in there for any length of time, Lainey knew she would begin to suffer from hypothermia. When the next outcropping of grey rocks came into view, he was ready for them. “Hold on to my neck, Lainey, and whatever you do don’t let go.”

Doing as he asked, she watched as his hands made a lunge for the biggest rock, and with a vice-like grip, he scrambled on top of it. With a burst of speed and an impossible leap, he managed to jump the three metres needed to reach the other side of the bank. Both landing safely, they now found themselves nearly up to their necks in mud. Wading with forceful jerky movements, he carried them forward until the ground beneath them hardened and the roar of the river faded into the background. Struggling on and covered in dirt and grime, Lainey managed to gather enough air to speak.

“Do you think maybe you should carry this?” She waved her vial in the air, which was now almost unrecognisable, pretty much like the pair of them.

“No.” His voice was terse. “I think that may be the only reason she hasn’t killed you already. Kalliope wants that serum. There are probably two reasons she’s placed us in here. One is to exhaust us so that we will be of little threat to her when we finally confront her, and the other is to find out the trigger to your magic. If she can do that, she can localise your perceived threat. By the looks of things, she’s guessing it is shock, fear, or perhaps adrenaline.”

“Of course…she must have seen what happened last night. I’m hardly dangerous though. That’s the first and only time I’ve ever managed anything remotely resembling magic but then she probably doesn’t know that.”

Struggling to keep up with Mercer’s breakneck pace, they took off through an overgrown cornfield, battling to forge themselves a way through the tightly knitted stems. The stalks bit sharply into the flesh of their arms and legs but their slowing down was not an option. They knew exactly what lay behind them.

“How do we get out of this, Lainey? Any ideas?”

Lainey was wondering exactly the same thing herself, and she was still clueless as to the answer. “I think we’re stuck in here until we end up dead or Kalliope gets bored and decides that she probably doesn’t have much to fear by facing us. That’s my best guess.”

Mercer grunted. Pushing her behind his frame so that he took the brunt of the damage from the corn, they continued for a few minutes in silence until he turned around with another question. “Do you
really
think we can die in this place?”

Lainey shrugged wishing she knew for sure. “You’re probably safe. As for me, I’m ninety-nine per cent positive that she can’t kill me here, but I still don’t like the odds.”

“Me either.” Mercer’s head snapped back around in front of him. There were several low growls coming from up ahead, and they didn’t sound friendly. “Wolves,” he whispered. “What fucking next?”

Grabbing Lainey protectively in his arms, he carried her up high until they were clear of the field and facing a pack of white wolves, which must have numbered more than twenty in total. Each was snarling with its teeth bared. Behind them was a series of dilapidated buildings with corrugated iron roofs and smashed glass windows. It looked like an abandoned warehouse and if they could just get inside, there was a chance it might offer them some shelter.

“Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to walk very slowly and see if they let us pass. If they attack, I’m going to run bloody fast for that building up ahead and we’ll try to get up as high as we can so they can’t hurt us.”

Lainey disliked that plan. Judging by the feral look on their faces and the unkempt, ragged state of their fur, these wolves were hungry. Their emaciated bodies confirmed this, and anything in Kalliope’s weave was bound to be nasty.

“Don’t bother with walking,” she said. “Normal rules do not apply here. I’ll get on your back, and you sprint as fast as you can for the building. If we can barricade the door once we’re inside, we’ll do that and if not then we’ll try to head for higher ground.”

Mercer considered her request and then shook his head. “If we walk slowly, there’s a chance that the pack will remain where they are. If there’s a possibility we can get through with our limbs intact, we should at least try it. I will need to feed if I expend much more energy.”

“No.” Lainey shook her own head in response, and she understood Mercer’s exhaustion, but knew she was right in this. “Everything Kalliope does here, she does for a reason. She’s trying to exhaust, terrorise, and incite a response from us. I don’t think there’s any way we can manipulate the outcome of her little tests and since there is no going back, we can only move forwards.”

As if to confirm her theory, the wolves began to advance forward displaying sets of black decaying teeth and dark pink gums. As the leader of the pack focused his attention on them, Mercer finally assented knowing there was no question the beasts were going to attack. They were clearly riled as if someone had set them onto them.

Putting her down gently, he waited for Lainey to position herself at his back, before hoisting her into the air. Grabbing both of her legs, he yelled, “Hold on tight.” Then he sprinted as fast as his legs could carry him.

It wasn’t fast enough though. As soon as the wolves detected motion, they began running towards them and though Mercer was quick, he didn’t have enough distance to accelerate to his top speed before the beasts were on them. They leapt at him from all angles, and he had no way in which to tear their jaws off his flesh because he was gripping her.

With one arm around his neck, Lainey tried her best to kick and hit their attackers as fiercely as she could but as one fell off, another would take its place. Their jaws stank, and the smell of fetid breath and decaying flesh made her skin crawl, but it was their eyes that scared her the most. They were piercing blue and had a crazed rabid look to them. The pack ripped and tore at Mercer’s legs, sinking their teeth into him but since he was moving so quickly they struggled to hang on, and one after another, they fell by the wayside. Finally, spinning around in a dizzying circle, he managed to send the remaining beasts flying before barging towards their refuge just a few metres away.

Yanking open the rusty iron handles, they pulled on the squealing metal hinges of the barn door until they moved outward, and then dashed inside. Slamming them closed behind them, Mercer swung the metal bolt through the latch and sank against it. Looking around trying to size up their surroundings, they both froze.

“Well, well, well…look what the dogs dragged in.”

Chapter 16

The voice was imperious and female, and the lilac eyes were all too familiar. She was standing at what must have been the front of an old sawmill, judging by the rusty machinery on display. There were lots of steel girders and rollers where the wood would have been shunted along, and a wicked looking circular blade that would have been used for slicing the lumber. Several worktops dotted the surrounding space for smaller cutting projects, and an array of rotting tools and materials decorated the floor. It was obvious that the place had not been used for some time.

Wrapping her skirts around her, Kalliope began to walk towards them. Both she and Mercer took a step back unthinkingly, coming up hard against the solid wood doors. Laughter filled the air.

“The pair of you are pathetic. Just look at the state of you.” Kalliope cast her eyes over them, up and down, though they spent considerably more time on Mercer’s frame than on Lainey’s. “One simple spell is all that’s required to get you out of this mess, Lainey. One simple spell…but then you have no idea how to perform magic, do you? The bright lights of yesterday were just a fluke it seems.”

Kalliope began to pace from one side of the barn to the other as she voiced her thoughts aloud. “I’ve been watching you for a long time, Lainey. If there was anyone that could defeat me, it would be you or so I’ve been told.” Her eyes danced with enjoyment. “You have no idea how much I’ve laughed in the last couple of days, watching your antics. The biggest threat you pose to me is if I break a fingernail and you decide to make it all better.” Her pacing stopped, but she continued her journey forward making Mercer shift uncomfortably beside Lainey as her eyes focused on him.

Stopping to stand in front of the vampire, the witch ran her hands along his battered arms and poked at one of the shallow wounds in his leg with her pointed shoe. He winced sharply. Smiling evilly, she whispered, “Kiss me, Mercer, and I’ll make it all better.”

“I’d rather die,” he bit out through gritted teeth and judging by the look upon his face, there was no word of a lie.

“We may be putting that little statement to the test in a moment, darling. I can’t help but wonder if you’re telling the truth. I think you’re just a big boy who’s unable to admit his feelings for me.” Straightening out the neckline of his sweater, she patted him upon the chest before slipping both hands downwards to burrow up inside his sweater.

“Get off me,” he barked, and his hands came out to shove her away but with a few words and a flick of her fingers, he found himself held fast against the wall.

“Hmm, I think we’ll keep you mute for the time being,” she purred, and Lainey was well aware that everything the witch did and said was for her benefit. Kalliope was playing with them. Trying to make her jealous, she guessed—another trigger to cross of her list.

Much as her hands itched to try to test her non-existent magic, she wisely kept them by her sides. Kalliope’s laughter would be unbearable. Besides, Mercer was a big boy. He could handle a pair of hands on his abs, distasteful as they might be. She needed to keep a calm head and make sure she didn’t do anything stupid. Trying to murder Kalliope with her fists was tempting, but unlikely to produce substantial results.

Watching the pair through narrowed eyes, she eventually stuck both of her arms between them, bravely eyeballing Kalliope. “What are we doing here? You want this, right?” Lainey waggled the serum in her hands, and smiled. “If you want the vampire, you can sort that out after we’ve traded secrets.”

Kalliope pulled back but only a step. She stared at Lainey and laughed. Reaching past Lainey, she ran her hand along Mercer’s face, which looked like he’d also happily murder her given half a chance. “And why on earth would I give you anything? You pose no threat to me. You don’t have the faintest idea of how to use your God given talents, do you? You’re the most pathetic excuse for a witch I’ve ever seen.”

Her smile turned nasty. Slowly drawing a black-handled steel Athamé dagger from her belt, she let the edges glint slowly in the light before holding it up to Mercer’s neck. “I can kill him in one of two ways, Lainey. I can sever his spinal cord, from which there is no return for a vampire, or I can flood him with magic. It doesn’t really matter what I do with him, although boiling his blood would probably be my preference, the point is… I could kill him in two seconds flat. Actually, I’m beginning to think he’s outlived his usefulness.” She pressed the sharpened dagger tight to his throat and a line of blood appeared. “How does it feel…to be utterly helpless, Lainey? I’m about to kill your protector and there is not a thing you can do to stop me.”

As if to confirm her words, the air bubbled around them and the room darkened. She began chanting and the dagger’s blade turned from silver to a fiercely glowing purple. Mercer’s eyes bulged inside his sockets, but he managed to whisper one word inside Lainey’s head before he lost his feet from under him. “No.”

Something pulsed through Lainey’s fingers but in the time it took her to process the feeling, Kalliope’s blade had already pierced his body. Faced with a moment of indecision, she found she was already too late, watching with shock as Mercer’s legs fell to the dirt floor. One part watched with sickened fascination as each of his limbs failed at once, shaking and flailing uncontrollably. His eyes immediately turned red and his screams of agony nearly brought the roof off. The other part of her went into overdrive.
Revenge
. She wanted nothing more than to rip Kalliope to pieces, lots of tiny little unrecognisable pieces that could never be put together again. Mercer’s one word echoed in her head, calming and halting her from what she knew was nothing more than a hallucination, no matter how real it seemed. Forcing her body to move, she dropped towards the floor and wrapped her healing hands around his shoulders. Magic was still an unknown quantity in her case, but at least she knew the power her hands could give.

Though he tried to shake his head telling not to do it, she paid no heed to his request. She didn’t care if she was too tired to fight another battle. If it meant she was about to go straight to her death, so be it. Lainey could not watch another being suffer in this manner, if she possessed the power to stop it.

Immediately bright white healing light pulsed through his body as she desperately tried to flush out the poison Kalliope had left with her knife. Working from top to bottom, as fast as she could, she began to remove the burning acid that was eating him alive. She had no idea if the power of her hands would be enough to save him, but she couldn’t sit there and do nothing. He had to live. He had to live.
He. Had. To. Live
.

As the life slowly drained out of Mercer’s body and nothing but the whites of his eyes were showing despite her desperate attempts to revive him, all Lainey would remember was the sound of Kalliope’s laughter penetrating deep inside her aching heartbroken head.

Preparing To Meet Death

One moment Mercer was on the floor in front of her dying and in the next, the world had tilted on its axis. The dream weave completely disappeared. Lainey had no idea how she knew this, but she trusted her instincts. They were on a new playing field, and this one had a different set of rules.

Looking around her, she found rough-hewn walls of stone, guttering lanterns, and aged timber floorboards beneath her. She was somewhere above the sea. The spaces between the slats of wood revealed moving water, and the white crests of small waves could be seen rocking to, and fro. Mercer was nowhere in sight. After a brief inspection, she found herself dressed in the same clothes she’d picked out that morning—a pair of black leggings and a thick woollen sweater. Finding herself clean, as if the dream weave had been nothing but a figment of her imagination, her gaze immediately trailed towards her right hand.
The serum
. Thank God, she still held it tightly within her fingers for it might be the only bargaining tool she had, if she wanted to get out of here alive.

A flutter of urgency beat at her brain compelling her into action.
Mercer
. Kalliope would waste no time in taking his blood and binding her to him. Her vampire army would then be complete.
Shit
. She might already be too late.

Sprinting forwards, Lainey did not make the mistake of looking downwards. She focused her gaze straight ahead, and though her legs felt like lead and her heart was ready to explode, she willed herself onwards. This was important. For Mercer, this was worse than life or death. This was forever.

Hoping that she was travelling in the right direction, she forced herself to keep going using her arms against the walls to propel her when her legs began to falter. The glow of the lamps began to blur in her eyes and her vision became a distorted haze of wood, stone, and light, all spinning together. Stumbling, she pushed herself harder. Up ahead were two great big stone doors, carefully carved into the cliff’s edge, and she heard voices emanating from within. She prayed that one of them would be Mercer’s.

Bursting into the chamber was the not the brightest idea Lainey had ever had for she was immediately seized by two big burly cavemen and found the cold barrel of a gun pressed to the side of her head. Struggling wasn’t really an option, so she didn’t bother but her eyes scanned the contents of the room frantically. They’d obviously been waiting for her. As they adjusted their grip, she found thick meaty fingers digging into the soft skin of her forearms.

“Aren’t you lot supposed to be armed with ceremonial swords or something?” she bit out through a tense jaw.

“Nay, that went out in the 1900s, lass. Besides, ye need something a wee bit quicker when messing about with witches.” Lainey hadn’t actually expected a response and certainly not one with a Scottish brogue at that. Before she had time to wonder how they’d managed to traverse several hundred miles in under a day, bigger, and far more important, things caught her attention.

As they marched, or more accurately dragged her into the middle of the stone cavern, her gaze travelled up high to where hundreds of pieces of stained glass had been fashioned into a huge circular window, which was filtering through the last dying rays of the sun. Prisms of light spilled onto the stone floor beneath them creating intricate patterns of reds, purples, greens, and blues. Amid the patterns was an upside down pentagon, and several other symbols she did not recognise. When her eyes finished marvelling at the carefully created mosaic of light, they drifted towards the expanse of water in front her. It was a lake, which was a beautiful jade green in colour and perfectly still. The water was so clear every detail showed through perfectly. Underwater tunnels and brilliantly coloured fish riddled the lake, and judging by the expanse of tunnels it ran deep.

“Do you fancy a swim, little witch?”

Lainey’s head snapped up at the sound of Kalliope’s voice but before she could lay her eyes on the witch, a ball of dazzling violet energy landed on the lake electrifying the surface. Sparks fizzed and popped, and the beautiful calming green turned into an effervescent, swirling purple.

“Nice of you to join us, sweetie,” Kalliope’s voice carried across the water.

Across the lake on a raised dais sat the witch…and the vampire who had nearly chewed her neck off not more than a week ago. His glowing blue eyes were smiling at her, sending a chill over her for it was the cold merciless smile of impending doom.

The first time Lainey had laid eyes on him, she had been certain he would kill her. Due in part to her own foolish carelessness, after all doing the grocery shopping at ten at night was never a good move and doing it alone in a practically empty store hadn’t been one of her smartest ideas either. The vampire had been waiting for her. As soon as she had packed her bulging carrier bags into the back of the car and turned around, he’d appeared. His body had been inches away from hers and though she’d opened her mouth to scream her lungs dry, when he sank his fangs into her neck all sound had disappeared. The haze of pleasure had overtaken her body and all sensible thought had left. She’d been nothing more than a disposable meal ticket. The casual callous look he wore had spoken volumes, and whilst she’d had no time to prepare for death, she knew with a certainty that it was coming.

Except it hadn’t, for no sooner had he plunged his fangs into her neck and taken a couple of hearty pulls of her blood then he had pulled away, yelling viciously to himself in a language she had not understood. Thumping his fist against the roof of her car and leaving an impressive dent, he had stormed off into the night leaving her shuddering and bewildered. Lainey had driven home in fear of her life and so worried that she’d forgotten the groceries, which were left to rot in the back of the car until the next morning.

Suddenly it all made sense. “Kalliope stopped you. She wanted the serum and she needed me alive.”

The corner of his lip twitched. “Yes. Others wanted you dead immediately and I had been sent to dispose of you, but Kalliope presented me with a far more lucrative and rewarding option. You, Miss Hargreaves, are our ticket to great things. Money, power, an army of loyal supporters, and I believe that’s only the beginning isn’t it, darling?” His hand reached for Kalliope’s across the metal throne-like chairs they had seated themselves in, and she grasped it tightly and petted his arm.

“Only the tip of the iceberg, my dear.” Her voice was slow and syrupy, and it was clear she had the vampire firmly under her command though he didn’t appear to be aware of it.