Revenant (20 page)

I chewed on my lip, wondering where to
go from here. I wanted more than anything to have Luke by my side, but was I
going to risk Dean’s life to get what I wanted? If Gage found the spell to
transfer Luke to another
body, then
there
was a chance we could find it on our own. I remembered Dean saying that once we
made it out, he could access old books through his guild…maybe they were the
same books Gage was using for his research.

Dean was useless to Gage, but I didn’t
believe for a moment that he would just let Dean go. “So we all have to leave.
We head out before the ritual. The spell will happen during the witching hour.
We can go before they do it. We’ll try to
escape
…
We’ll take our chances.”

Wendy simply watched me, her eyes wide.
“But the hellhounds—”

I interrupted her hastily as a thought
popped into my head, “Don’t worry about that yet. I have an idea.”

I
have
power
over spirits. The demon I
released
made
the hellhounds…
In theory,
I should have some power over them,
too
.

I hoped with all my heart that my
theory was true
, because soon we would be heading
out to meet those creatures. And if I couldn’t stop them when they came out to
face us, they would tear us to pieces.

Or worse—they
would consume our souls.

* * *

A few hours after
sunrise, Dean wandered into the house looking cheerful. He came over and sat
down in the chair next to me.

“How’d you sleep?” he asked.

He had to notice the deep, dark bags
under my eyes. I hadn’t gone back to sleep after
the nightmare.
Instead I’d spent the night trying to come up with a
way of getting us out of this place in one piece. “Not well.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I spied a
dark marking on his forearm. “What’s that?” I asked, pointing to what looked
like a strange symbol painted in black smudges.

He looked down at his arm. “Just dirt.”
He started to wipe the smudge away.

“Don’t,” I protested, reaching out with
my injured hand to stop him.

“Colina.” He grasped my hand and looked
down at the cut on my palm. “What did you do to your hand?” he asked, concern
filling his face.

The cut wasn’t deep and had stopped bleeding.
“I cut myself on broken glass,” I explained. I tried to tug my hand away,
feeling like an idiot. “It was a just a stupid accident.”

He gave the cut a good look, turning my
hand over in his. “It could get infected. You need someone to look at it.”

“No!” I pulled my hand violently back.

Dean’s eyes widened at my reaction.

I stammered, trying to explain myself. “It
isn’t—it’s not a deep cut. It stopped bleeding last night. As long as I
keep it clean, it will be fine,” I said, feeling foolish at my reaction. Truthfully,
I didn’t know if I could face the Scottish healer again. The look of pity and
sadness in his face when he’d looked at me was almost more than I could bear.

Dean was watching me closely.

I forced a smile. “
Really,
I’m okay.” I pointed back to the
smudges on his arm. “That looks like a symbol of some kind. I think I’ve seen it
somewhere before.”

“You think so?” He squinted at his arm,
then laughed. “Colina,
it’s
just dirt.”

“No, it’s not…” It was
definitely
something I had seen before.
I remembered watching Mildred pull out runes and lay them
on my bed back at the asylum.
She’d been giving me a lesson on
runology
, telling me what each of the symbols
meant. And then another memory surfaced—the reading Wendy had done for
me.

I was sure I was looking at a rune
symbol.

I got out of my chair and leaned over
Dean. “It’s not dirt. These are rune symbols.” I looked around for Wendy. I
hadn’t seen her since our talk last night in the kitchen.

“You think so?” he said, looking at his
arm.

I nodded my head. “Have you seen
Mildred?”

“Funny you should ask. I talked with her
this morning.” He stared off into the distance, and when he looked back at me
his eyes were unfocused. “Oh… How strange. I can’t seem to remember what she
wanted to talk to me about.”

I grabbed his
arm
and felt a tingle of electricity. A shiver went down my back.
What did that crazy old woman do to him
?

The door leading outside opened abruptly.
Wendy and Jacob strolled
in
. Wendy had a
bunch of wildflowers in her hand and a few tucked into her dark hair, and she
was smiling. Her expression changed the moment she set eyes on us. I watched
her face
close up
before she stopped and
then looked down at the floor. “Hi,” she whispered.

Jacob lifted a hand in greeting.

I wondered where they’d been. Was Wendy
in the habit of taking early morning walks with Jacob? How close
had the two of them become
?

“Jacob was just…helping me get some
water,” Wendy said, still not meeting my eyes.

The excuse would have worked if either
of them had a bucket in their hands, but I wasn’t going to be the one to point
out the obvious.

The two walked into the kitchen. A few
minutes later Jacob walked out, looking a tad breathless. When he looked my way,
I could have sworn I saw him blush. He gave us another wave and headed back out
the door.

“What was that about?” Dean asked
quietly.

“I think they’re a couple.”

Dean’s eyes swung from the kitchen to
the back door. “You’re
kidding
me.”

“I wish I was.” Dean looked straight at
me,
and I found myself searching for
words. “Dean… There’s something you should know.”
How do I go about telling him Gage thinks he’s disposable
? “Gage is
doing another ritual.”

Alarm showed on Dean’s
face as
he looked over to the kitchen. “Another
demon possession?”

“No. He
found
a spell that can transfer Luke into another body.”

Dean stood
up,
excitement filling his eyes. “Do you think it could work?”

“Gage seems to think it will.” I
watched Dean and wondered what was going through his mind. Dean and Luke were
not friends. Dean made it clear that if Luke ever planned to try and take him
over completely, he would protect himself.

Briefly, the thought of our odd
relationship flitted through my mind. Luke told me long ago what he thought of
Dean—he didn’t like him, and he didn’t like us being close. I knew Dean
liked me, and was jealous of my feelings for Luke. But did Dean hate Luke?

The whole situation made me feel
confused and downright dizzy. I loved Luke, but I always felt Dean pulling at
my emotions. I couldn’t deny there was an attraction there—I’d kissed him
and found myself drawn to him—even though I tried to deny it. But what I
felt for Dean was nothing like I felt for Luke. I cared about Dean, and yes, I
was attracted to him against my better judgment. But Luke–the feelings I
had for him ran deeper than anything I’d ever felt before.

We’d
been
drawn
to each other at first glance. Some
kind of
bond had formed between us as we went through the trials.
Maybe that was it, the reason I knew Luke was the one—we had counted on
each other, relied on each other, looked to each other for strength during such
terrible times. Luke seemed to understand me. Accept me for who I was. He knew
the worst parts of me, and yet he still loved me.

I knew Dean cared about me, but Luke…I
had no doubt he would go to hell and back for me. And I for him. Luke had my
heart. Dean knew that, but he hadn’t stopped pursuing me.

Dean started to pace the floor. “Is the
ritual tonight?”

“Yes. But…” My words faltered.

Dean stopped in front of me, waiting.

It took me a few tries to get it out. “Gage—he
said—he mentioned a few times that he’s not fond of your…magic. Gage told
me he wants Luke and I to work for him, but…”

Dean frowned, and then understanding
filled his eyes. “But he doesn’t want me.”

I nodded my head.

“Does he plan to let me go?” His eyes
narrowed. “Colina—is he going to kill me?”

Is
he? Can I do anything to stop it?
I didn’t want Dean
to see how freaked out I was about the situation, so I did my best to hide my
emotions. I shrugged my shoulders and looked away.

“Wonderful. And I’m supposed to sit
around and wait to see which option ‘the big man’ chooses?” Dean demanded.

I met his gaze straight on. “No. I
think we should escape.” Dean’s eyes widened in surprise and I continued. “You
were
right.
We should try and get out of
here.”

“I thought you said it was too
dangerous.”

“It is,” I admitted. “I’m still not
sure if we can get past the hellhounds, but we have to try.” The image of those
creatures sitting out there waiting for us sent a shiver down my spine. In a
few
hours,
I would face them. And I would
have to try and find a way to overpower them before they destroyed us.

Dean was silent for a long time before
he asked, “When?”

“Before it gets dark. We have to go
before they come and take you away. We have to make a run for it before
sundown.” Dean started pacing again, and I kept talking. “It’s only the
hellhounds out there now. And I think I can use my magic to keep them from
killing us.” The creatures shrank back when the howls of my spirit pack floated
across the wind. My pack was a magical force to
be
reckoned
with, given to me as a gift from an old god.
I might not have any magic that could harm
the living, but so far my magic has been more than effective on the dead.

My words stopped him in his tracks. “You
really
think you can stop those
creatures?” The crazy old woman might be able to sooth the beasts, but I’d seen
firsthand what a hellhound was
capable of
.
During the fight with Macaven I had watched a hellhound set fire to one mage
and take a chunk out of another’s face. And even more terrifying—the same
beast had ripped the soul from a mage and eaten it.

“
Yes.
”
I said it with more assurance than I felt.
If
I’m wrong, we’ll all die
.

Dean rubbed his hands together and gave
me a wide smile. “I’ll be ready. Colina…
Don’t
worry.
We’ve gotten out of worse
situations.”

It was true—we had—but I
couldn’t help thinking that the last time we’d made an escape, there had been casualties.

* * *

A few hours later, my
high hopes for escaping before the ritual were squashed when Caleb strode into
the room.

He motioned for me to come over.

Why was he here? Lunch had been hours
ago. By the look of the sun in the
sky,
it was still early in the afternoon.

I got to my feet. As I turned to
approach Caleb, Dean put out a hand to stop me.

“What does he want?” Dean said under
his breath.

“I don’t know,” I whispered back.

If Caleb was there to take me away on
another one of Gage’s field trips, there wasn’t much I could do. I knew that if
I refused, Gage would make someone I care about pay for my insubordination.

Our whispering seemed to cause Caleb to
lose
patience,
and he strode across the
room. He stopped in front of Dean and gave me a hard look. “I’m not here for
you,
princess,
I’m here for your
boyfriend.”

“There are hours until
nightfall
,” I protested.

Caleb’s eyes narrowed. “Seems the boss
man wants lover boy here so he can get him ready for tonight’s ritual.”

I stepped in front of Dean protectively.
“You can’t take him.”

Caleb let out a laugh of surprise. “I
can’t take him? You
really
think you can
stop me?”

He’s
not afraid of me anymore, not since I couldn’t hurt him with my powers
.
If he wanted to take Dean, how could I stop him?
In the calmest voice
I could muster, I said, “I want to go with
him.”

“No can do,” Caleb answered.

Dean pushed me aside and took on a
defensive stance.

Caleb’s gaze swung to Dean. “I’m happy
to reenact our last wrestling match. Though I don’t think this
time
you’ll fare so well.”

Two men I had never seen before entered
the room. One of them held a pair of chains in his hands. Why were they taking
him hours before the ritual? What would take that long to prepare?