Sacrifice Me: The Complete Season One (40 page)

I closed my eyes and turned away. He was right,
but I had been on the edge of losing control ever since Franki's
mother took her through that doorway. Anger and fear boiled just
beneath the surface of my resolve. I wasn't used to caring this much
for someone. I didn't know how to deal with it when they were in
danger. All I wanted to do was tear apart the demon responsible.

Silas rubbed a hand across his jaw. “Where
is she now?”

“I'm not certain,” I said, a lump
forming in my throat. “I think he's taken her to his castle. We
don't have much time.”

“A ritual like that would take several hours
to prepare,” he said. “Maybe days, if we're lucky. I hope
your friend is strong, because the type of preparations he'll have to
put her through will be painful, to say the least.”

I swallowed, the feeling of loss and fear in my
heart foreign to me. I had lost many friends in my lifetime, but
Franki was so much more to me than a friend. After last night, I
realized just how much I had begun to care for her. I couldn't lose
her now. I wouldn't.

“I have to get her back,” I said.

Silas studied me. “You care for this girl,”
he said.

I moved toward him again, lifting my lips in a
snarl. “She's not just a girl, Silas. She's your half-sister.
And up until about a week ago, she had no idea our world even
existed. Now she's probably being tortured in the Devil's dungeons.”
I cleared my throat and took a deep breath, stepping away. “We
can't let him go through with whatever he's got planned. He and
Solomon tried to destroy this world once. What's to stop them from
trying again?”

Silas shook his head. “We are,” he
said. “We're going to stop them.”

I let out the breath I'd been holding since I
first stepped through his door. He was going to help me, and I was
going to need him. It would take great power to even get close enough
to the Devil's ritual room, much less defeat him and stop him from
killing Franki.

“There are others,” Silas said. “Some
of our Brotherhood have been meeting in secret for a while,
discussing taking control away from the Devil. He's grown too
power-hungry lately, going too far with his killing. His actions have
put us all in danger of being discovered.”

“Gather anyone you think is on our side, but
be careful. We can't afford to have anyone betray us and warn the
Devil that we're coming,” I said. My jaw tensed as I thought of
Franki all alone in his dungeons. “I want to catch him by
surprise. And I want to rip him apart with my bare hands when I do.”

“There are eight or nine I know we can
trust, with no doubts,” he said. “I'll call a meeting and
fill them in on what's happened.”

“Thank you,” I said. “Meet at my
house at midnight. There will be others there. Some human witches.
Make sure everyone is well fed before they arrive.”

He nodded. “And what about you? Will you
feed?”

Hunger echoed in my empty stomach. The need for
blood haunted my dreams, but I had fought long and hard for the
ability to survive without it. I hated what being a vampire had come
to mean. I hated what it had done to the demon I used to be.

But Silas had a point. I needed all my strength if
I was going to fight the Devil.

I walked to the door of his study. “I'll
figure something out,” I said. “Don't be late.”

I hurried through the hall of doorways. I needed
to get back to my own home in the mountains. At best, I had twelve
hours until everyone started to arrive. That was barely enough time
to extract the ingredients I'd need from the stones, much less create
the potions I wanted for tonight's battle.

For the past seventy years, I'd refused to feed
from humans, developing stronger and stronger potions to enhance my
powers here in the human world.

But Silas was right. Nothing would bring me the
strength I needed tonight like a real meal.

I shook the thought from my mind. I couldn't hunt.
Not after all this time. That would mean trading an innocent witch's
life for a chance at saving Franki. It wasn't right or fair.

As much as I wanted to get Franki back, I wouldn't
sacrifice an innocent to increase my power. There were other ways.

There were some who were not so innocent.

I did a quick check of the house to make sure none
of the devil's guards had gotten inside or set traps. I cast a spell
near the entrance that would give access to Harper when she arrived.
Silas and the others of the Brotherhood were already allowed to
enter. All that was left to do was focus on the potions.

I needed to get down to my lab in the basement of
the large mansion. I'd built this home into the side of the mountain
for two reasons. One was that there was no road leading to the house.
It was literally carved into the rock by magic, inaccessible by cars
or any other normal human transportation, except maybe a helicopter,
or in extreme cases, snowboard.

My second reason for building the house here was
that this particular section of the Alps had pockets of iron and
copper, useful base metals for many of my potions. Deep inside the
mountain, veins of gold and silver also ran through the stone. Very
few even knew it existed because of how difficult and expensive it
would be to mine. But as a demon, I had access to tools and resources
most humans did not. I was able to extract gold from the tiniest of
deposits without as much as a hammer.

I built my lab several floors down from the main
house and deep into the rock, where it would be easier to access the
minerals and stone I needed.

The elevator leading down into the basement was
hidden behind the main staircase. I stepped inside and pressed the
only button. When the doors opened, I sucked in a startled breath.
Movement caught my eye and I lifted my hands, ready to fight. But as
she turned, my heart filled with sadness and worry.

“Azure, oh my god, are you okay?” I
crossed to her, taking her face in my hands. I moved her head from
side-to-side, surveying the damage.

Her left eye was bruised and black. A gash ran
along her cheekbone, a scab already formed across it. Her bottom lip
was split and cracked. Bruises wrapped around her neck. The Devil's
vamps had really done a number on her.

“I'm fine,” she said. “It's
nothing that won't heal in a couple of days. But Rend, I heard from
Marco.”

The quiver in her voice stopped me cold. “What's
happened?”

“The Devil's got Lyla and Misty and Shay.”

“What?” My heart tightened in my
chest. “How?”

“Lyla left Marco's house to go meet the
other girls and bring them back to where she was hiding and Fallon
cornered them,” she said. “We have to go after them.”

“That's what I'm preparing to do,” I
said.

She looked up, her eyes meeting mine in that
familiar expression of hope mixed with terrible sorrow. I took my
hand from her and backed away, guilt churning my stomach.

I cleared my throat. “Azure, the Devil has
Franki, too,” I said.

She looked away, her eyes closed as she took
several deep breaths.

“I was hoping you'd come back to Venom after
you heard about what happened in Paris,” she said. “But
when you didn't, I knew you were with her.”

She turned and walked around a large table that
held a maze of glass tubes and beakers and other equipment. She ran
her hand along the glass.

“I used to love coming down here to watch
you work in the early days.”

I swallowed and held my breath. I knew this was
coming eventually, but this was the worst possible time for it.

Or, maybe, it was exactly the right time. Maybe,
after what happened last night between Franki and me, this was the
way this conversation was always meant to go.

“My whole life, I grew up around magic,”
she said. “But I had never seen anyone do what you do down
here, taking solid stone and gems and metal and turning them to
liquid and powder. The way you combine these seemingly powerless
elements into these incredibly powerful potions and elixirs. It's
like poetry or art.”

“Azure—”

“Just let me say what I need to say.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, her
tears shone like diamonds. She laughed and looked up toward the
ceiling, blinking fast to keep them from falling. “I swore I
was going to be strong and not cry, but I can't seem to help myself.”

I took a step toward her, but she held up a hand.

“I have loved you for so long, I don't even
remember what it's like not to want you,” she said. “I
wanted to tell you from that first day you brought me down here,
almost seventy years ago. I watched you work and knew that you were
the only one for me. I knew I could never love anyone else.”

I looked down at the floor and shifted my weight
from one foot to the other. I guess I always knew Azure felt more for
me than what I felt for her, but she'd never put words to it. She'd
never once pushed or demanded anything of me. But I knew the sadness
in her eyes. I knew the longing.

“The thing is, though, I had convinced
myself that the reason you didn't love me back was because you
couldn't love anyone,” she said. “I told myself that I
was content to be working there by your side, making Venom what it
was. Being a part of your life was all I needed. But then, this girl
walks in and you...”

I swallowed and looked up as her voice trailed
off. The tears flowed down her cheeks, but she just wiped them away
and kept moving around the lab, as if she was remembering every night
we'd ever spent in here working.

“I consider myself a strong person,”
she said. “It takes a lot to break me, but the way you look at
her tears me apart. You love her, don't you?”

I breathed in, not knowing what she wanted me to
say. I couldn't deny it, but I didn't want to break her heart. Azure
was one of my best friends in the world.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “You
don't have to say it, Rend. I can see it there between you,”
she said. “I've known you for seventy-five years and could
never earn your love. She's known you for seven days and you're ready
to give up everything you've ever known to save her. Your club. Your
Brotherhood. Even your own life.”

“What do you want me to say?” I asked.
“I can't explain the way I feel about her any more than you
can. It just happened. A couple of weeks ago, if you had asked me if
I was capable of loving a woman, I would have laughed in your face
and told you love was not part of my destiny.”

“And now?”

“Now, I feel more alive than I have my whole
life,” I said, realizing the truth of my words for the first
time.

“And you never felt anything like that for
me? This whole time?”

I closed my eyes. Why was she forcing this on me
now? “I never meant to hurt you,” I said. “This had
nothing to do with you.”

She shrugged and gave me a sad half-smile. “That's
the problem,” she said. “Since the day my father
introduced us, everything in my life has revolved around you.”

“I never asked for that,” I said.

Azure lifted an eyebrow and wiped the last of her
tears from her face. “No, you didn't,” she said. “That's
the thing about love, though. You don't have to ask for the things
you need.”

She picked up a glass tube and twirled it around
in her fingers. With a swift motion, she smashed part of the tube
against the table. Confused, I watched as she lifted the broken glass
to her wrist.

My mouth fell open. “No. Azure, don't,”
I said. I shifted and flew to her side, but it was too late.

The cut was deep and blood flowed freely. She
raised the wound above a larger glass container and let the warm red
of her blood run into it.

I tore my t-shirt off and ripped it in two.
Quickly, I grabbed her wrist and wrapped the strip of fabric tightly
around her wound several times. I applied pressure and lowered her to
the floor.

Her eyes closed and she rested her head on my
chest.

“What were you thinking?” I asked.

She laughed, her eyes closed. “I just wanted
you to know that even though you're in love with her, nothing can
ever change the way I feel about you. All I've ever wanted is for you
to be happy, Rend. If she makes you happy, then I will do anything to
help you get her back.” Her voice grew sleepy and weak.

Just before she lost consciousness, her eyes
fluttered open for a moment and she smiled.

“Don't let me die.”

I checked Azure's bandage to make sure the worst
of the bleeding had stopped. I wanted to keep an eye on her, so I
pulled out an old cot I sometimes used when I was working in the lab
for days at a time. I made her as comfortable as I could and turned
back to my laboratory.

The glass full of her blood beckoned to me.

My hunger was decades old, gnawing at my insides.
I yearned for the taste of it in my mouth and the way its power
filled me up.

But now was not the time.

I moved the glass to the other side of the room
where its smell would be less potent, and forced myself to
concentrate on the potions. If I was lucky, Harper would bring at
least ten people with her. Silas said he thought he could recruit
eight or nine. Including me, that meant I could hope for twenty-one,
a significant number these days.

I got to work, drawing metals and minerals from
the earth. When I had several vials full of each ingredient, I began
mixing, crushing, and breaking down the raw elements. The work of it
kept my mind occupied, but Franki's face crept into my consciousness
at even intervals.

What had the Devil done with her? Where was she
right now? Was she still alive?

I sent up prayer after prayer.

Please hold on. Just give me time. I'm coming
for you. Hold on.

Once I had the raw
powders and liquids I needed, I moved on to transmuting. It was work
I had done countless times before. For me, my lab was my sanctuary
where I prayed to the gods of alchemy and earth. I both lost and
found myself in this room. Here, I had real power. Real control. When
the rest of the world made no sense, I could always come here to feel
centered.