The Goblin King (8 page)

Rafael turned back toward her, his expression making it clear he meant to deal a final blow then and there.

But t
he shadows in the room grew longer. Within milliseconds, the torches extinguished, their fire leaving their ends to race up the walls as if by demonic influence. It made blazing trails that instantly became symbols, which choked out horrible smoke, filling the room with indistinct blackness. Again, within split seconds.

The lightning that had b
een racing along the walls rushed upward as well, pooling together at the apex of the cave’s ceiling. From there, it shot downward, striking Rafael D’Angelo square in the chest and sending him flying back into the wall to slam against it with such force, rocks broke loose around him and tumbled to the ground.

At the same time, Evie was wrapped in some kind of envelope of magic. Its blue incande
scence looked and felt like a blue moon cocoon around her. She held her breath, wanting to scream. Was this a good spell or bad?

There was no time to even consider what it might do before everything began to waver. She recognized the warping of time and space, felt the pull on her body and mind, saw the blending of colors and shapes. She closed her eyes, disoriented.
She was being transported. She wondered where she would end up and just who was transporting her.

Q
uite suddenly, she was stumbling forward, arms out, trying to catch her balance. The transport spell was over.

She felt speckles of sunlight on her arms and a few beams lightened the color of her eyelids.
Panic stirred within her. She’d been underground in Rafael’s caverns so long, she hadn’t cast a spell on herself to protect her body from the sun.

Her heart hammered. The
words of the spell were on her lips, and then she was being wrapped in hard, strong arms and pulled against an equally strong and hard chest.

“No need,” his deep voice reassured her.
Her husband’s scent immediately enveloped her: aftershave and soap and the smell of expensive material – always cut to precise measurements.

She felt a
protective spell already around her, shielding her Offspring body from the deadly rays of day. Evie opened her eyes, pressing her hands to Roman’s chest. The light hurt at first; she’d been in the dark for a while and that would sting even human eyes. But before long, she could make everything out clearly.

She was in a clearing in the redwood forest she’d come to feel was her home.
Dark brown soil compressed beneath her heels. Ferns and other healthy, large plants sprouted up here and there. Massive trunks pierced the earth and rose to the sky like pillars of heaven.

A gentle breeze brushed through branches far
, far overhead. The noonday sun glimmered through breaks in those branches, cascading down around dust motes and fallen leaves like pixie magic.

It was quiet, but they were not alone. The six members of Roman’s vampire court stood around the two of them, their expressions relieved and friendly, but their stances proving they were ready for any fight that might come hot on Evie’s tail.
Evie and Roman’s butler Jaxon was also there, as were Lily and Daniel Kane, Dannai Caige, and Lalura Chantelle.

“I don’t understand,” Evie whispered. “
How?
”

“Lily found you and I p
ulled you out,” said Philip Diego, the member of the court capable of transporting a body from anywhere in the world to his location. “With help, that is. Rafael’s anchoring spells on you were quite strong, but they were nothing to stand up to the will of his older brother.”

Evie was thoroughly baffled. She didn’t even know where to start with her questions. One second, they’d all been in the cave – the next, they were
here
. “But I saw you all down in the cavern!”

“Powerful i
llusions,” Roman explained gently. He glanced at Lily, who was wearing a bit of a blush. “Thanks to Lalura and the Seer, who happened to not only find
you
but foresee what Rafael’s plan was, we were able to turn everything back around on him.”

“Well, that’s the half of it anyway,” said Lily. “I knew it was a trap – everything from the attack during the meeting to Rafael D’Angelo taking you, Evie. But I wasn’t sure what they were after. Not until just now, anyway.”

Evie still felt confused. She was also very hungry. And not for food. It was greatly shortening what was left of he temper.

She found her gaze settling in on the pulse in Daniel Kane’s neck, and quickly avert
ed her gaze. She swallowed hard, hoping no one had noticed. She couldn’t help it. He was an alpha wolf, all power and muscle and vital strength, and she hadn’t fed in far too long. She
was
a vampire, after all. Nature could be a bitch.

It was making it difficult for her to think and put the puzzle pieces together. So she decided to do it aloud. Sometimes that helped.

“Let me see if I have this right,” she began. The others waited quietly and respectfully. She was a
queen
as well as a vampire. “Lily, you performed a spell to find me? I thought your visions only came to you when they felt like it?”

“Normally, that’s true,” Lily admitted. “But in this case,” she said as she glanced up at Roman and then over and the rest of the court and Lalura.
“In this case, I had a good deal of help.”

“With the combined power, L
ily was able to see
now
and see more than usual,” said Lalura, her ancient, scratchy voice cutting through the clearing like audible charisma. “She not only found you and the cavern as you were presently, but she saw what had transpired in the cavern prior to your arrival.”

“In other words, she saw Rafael scheming. And he wasn’
t scheming alone,” said Dannai.

“
No,” said Lily, her voice a little softer now that she was recalling her vision. “Kamon was there. He was…. It was like he was wrapped in bright, blinding light and I could barely make out his form. He was painful to look at.”

“He’s a
god,” said Lalura in her scratchy voice. “They’re the multiverse’s drama queens. Very big heads.” Lalura shook her own head and made her way to a nearby boulder. Once there, a few of the men took her arms and helped her to sit. Daniel set her cane to the side.

Lalura took a deep breath, clos
ed her eyes a moment, and went on. “They somehow knew the court would plan to arrive together. It was Quinn Adams they were after.”

Evie’s eyes widened. “What?
Adams
? But why?”

“Take no offense, dear. Rafael has his sights set on you. But for Kamon, it’s the end game that matters.
Quinn Adams possesses a power they desperately covet. If they can copy
him
as they have managed to do with the 13 Kings, they will absorb his power as well.”

Evie thought about that, putting the pieces together.
Adams could merge with other people. With the power to merge, Rafael could become Roman – and control his every move. Ophelia could become Jaxon – and kill Roman as he slept. A Hunter could become Jesse Graves, the werewolf council Overseer.

The terrifying possibilities were endless. This was not a doppelganger, who could be found out with a spell or identified by the winged scarab
marking on their forehead. A merged individual would be the actual person you loved and trusted – turned against you.

“A
ll along, I was bait to get to Roman and his vampire court.”

Roman took her gently by the arms and turned her toward him. “
This time, perhaps. But we must believe my brother will come after you again. His hatred spurs him on.”

Evie gazed up at her husband. She thought
about what Rafael had shared with her, the story he’d told her about Iliandra D’Angelo’s death…. Roman had tied her to an altar and allowed the sun to bake her from the inside out.

The image shot through her mind, poisonous and unpleasant. She could feel the heat seep in through her skin and begin to boil her blood. She could feel her soul being ripped from the safe sanctity of the shadows and cast into the fires of day.

She could
feel
it. She’d always been too sensitive that way.

Evie gently pulled away from Roman
and looked down at the ground. She could sense Roman’s reluctance in letting her go.

“
I don’t think they’re coming after us just now,” said Dannai. “Lily? You sense anything?”

Lily shook her head.

“They can’t find us,” said Lalura. “We succeeded on that front as well.”

Evie looked from her to the others. They
must have taken every precaution in the book to pull off this stunt and get her out of Rafael’s grip. But a pain arced through her. She was up during the day, and she was starving.

“
I can’t thank you enough for your assistance,” Roman told the others. “However, I’m afraid you will all have to excuse us.” Roman reached out and pulled Evie tightly to him once more. His magic began to envelop them at once. “Evelynne is very tired and must be tended to.” He ended it with that, and a second transport spell wrapped around them both. As it did and the world blurred once more around them, Evie could swear that she could still feel the rays of the sun eating at her and sinking in deep.

P
rotection spell or not.

Chapter Nine

Damon gripped the sword tight in his hand and tried to think fast.

But the woman was providing one
hell
of a distraction.

“Just stay where you are and don’t try to run,” he said, his tone even and low. He moved toward them as he spoke, each measured step careful and quiet. “He won’t go after you if you don’t
run. The movement provokes his kind.” As it did so
many
predators.

The woman stared up at the g
oblin with bewildered eyes. Those eyes were so beautiful….

Damon mentally slapped himself.

“What….” Her voice trailed off, dry and cracking with fear. She swallowed and he watched her throat move. Her hands worked into fists and then un-flexed again as if she wasn’t sure what to do with them or what stance to take. “What
is
it?” she whispered.

The xenobe growled long and low, slowly releasing the menacing sound into the shadows of the alleyway.

“He’s a xenobe goblin,” Damon explained, knowing he bothered with the explanation only because of who she was. Who he knew her to be. Otherwise it wouldn’t matter.

The cat at the woman’s feet hissed.

“Now, now,” Damon said very softly as he continued to creep forward. “None of that, cat. You’ll only provoke him – and he’s bigger.”

The cat actually tilted its gray head a little and looked up at him.
Eyes like a glacier in the arctic reflected at him in the moonlight. Damon was struck with the odd sensation that he’d seen the cat before. Or that it was somehow more than a cat.

The woman chanced the quick
est glance in his direction, drawing his attention. Their eyes met.

Damon’s stomach churned, his heart hammered hard against the casing of his ribs, and any uncertainty that had remained about who the woman was flew out the window of his consciousness then and there.

“What’s your name?” he asked her without even meaning to.

The woman’s eyes widened even further, the gray
of their stark irises darkening from silver-lined clouds to charcoal thunderheads like a building storm. Any second now, he would see lightning cascade across them, he was certain.

And he couldn’t
blame her for looking at him like that, either. They were in a dark alley in the middle of the night, they were complete strangers, and they were facing off with a beast that as far as she was undoubtedly concerned, should not exist.

Pull yourself together
, he told himself.
Get the xenobe out of here. Come back for her later.

He ripped his gaze from hers
and concentrated. Magic boiled inside him, so thick and primordial, it almost hurt. It was like pushing lava sludge through his veins. Every inch of him warmed up with magma potential, and as he always did, he had to focus hard to keep it from leaking out.

His eyes burned. It was always his least favorite part of the power
he possessed. It felt like the power had been made for a bigger vessel, one without nerve endings perhaps. He knew the pain in his eyes meant they’d gone from green to orange-red and were now crackling and flickering like hellfire.

The world shifted into stark contrasts. It was a hunter’s view, breaking up the angles of the night and allowing him to watch his target more keenly.

Unfortunately, his eyes seemed to want to focus on the woman as if
she
were his target – and not the monster.

He wanted to know her name.
Desperately
. There was a lot of power in a name. He should know.