The Necromancer's Betrayal (The Final Formula Series, Book 2.5) (13 page)

Fury filled James along with her power, but his anger wasn’t directed at her.

“Very good.” Neil smiled then turned toward the door. “I want you both next door. Make it happen, Elysia.”

A muscle flexed in her jaw, but she started walking. “James, come with me.”

Her power flowed into him once more, and he fell in step beside her. She glanced up, her white eyes confused and angry.

“The powder is called Perfect Assistant Dust,” James said.

Neil snorted from a few yards ahead of them. “Amelia really needs to come up with better names for her potions.”

James ignored him. “The powder leaves you open to suggestion, not unlike necromantic compulsion. Neil stole it from Addie.”

Elysia looked up, her expression puzzled.

“Addie’s my friend. She’s also a master alchemist. After I kill Neil, I’ll take you to her. She’ll fix you.”

Neil chuckled. “She’ll need my blood to do it.”

James glared at the man’s back. “I’ll take her a sample.”

Neil gave him a flat stare over his shoulder. “We’ll see, grim.” He pushed open the door to the lab and disappeared inside, completely confident they would follow.

James sighed. His confidence was warranted.

Elysia’s hand slipped into his, and James glanced down.

“I hope you can get that sample.” Cool anger burned in her eyes. Hand in hand, they walked into the lab. The door thumped closed behind them, and James skidded to a halt. Neil wasn’t the only person in the room.

“Damn, you move fast, little brother.” Brian Huntsman, the youngest of his three older brothers, rose from a crouch in the center of the room. Neil’s visit to the PIA made sense now. That’s where James’s brothers were imprisoned. Had Neil freed George and Henry, too?

“You look surprised to see me,” Brian said. He held an empty blood vial, and at his feet, he had drawn a symbol James found all too familiar.

“What are you doing?” James asked, his voice not much more than a whisper. Blood had been smeared in a wide circle around Brian’s feet. Lit candles flickered at regular intervals beside the blood. A summoning circle like the one he and Rowan had encountered at that haunted crematorium.

“The necromancer freed me from that PIA hellhole you had us throw in.” Brian glared at him. “He promised to give me powers like yours.”

“In exchange for?”

“A blood oath—to serve him. I gave it willingly.” Brian grinned.

“You believed him?”

“Elysia,” Neil cut in. “Remove James’s collar and command him to change.” Neil offered her a key.

She took the key, then turned to face James, her brow wrinkled.

“Move away before you tell me to change,” he warned her.

She reached up to grip the collar and slipped the key inside. The lock snapped open, and a moment later, the collar slid from his neck.

The world came alive around him, and James drew a deep breath.

Elysia stepped back. “Change.”

James didn’t mind this command. He was already changing. He dropped to all fours and lifted his lips to give Neil a snarl. Unfortunately, that was all he could do. Elysia’s earlier command that he do nothing unless she ordered it still held him in check.

Neil smiled, then turned to offer Brian another vial. “Drink this, then recite the incantation.”

Brian nodded and pulled the cap from the vial. “Will I be able to do that?” He jerked his chin toward James.

“That is my hope.”

Brian grinned and downed the potion. He coughed to clear his throat. “Better than the shit Addie gave us.”

“I’d imagine so.” Neil moved over to stand beside Elysia. He turned to face Brian and crossed his arms, the movement exposing his tattoos. “Go ahead.”

Brian gave James a triumphant grin, then began to speak. The words sounded like mangled Latin. What was Neil up to?

Elysia twined her fingers in James’s fur, her grip growing tighter the more Brian spoke.

Brian bent and touched his fingers to the circle drawn in blood. “Ancestor, hear me.” He lifted his bloody fingers to his mouth and smeared his lips, finishing with a lick. His hazel eyes took on a faint green glow as his body absorbed the power of James’s blood. “I call you from the void, Gavin Huntsman.”

James pricked his ears forward, a growl bubbling up when Gavin appeared within the circle with Brian.

Elysia gasped.

Nice job, necromancer.
Gavin snarled the words. He stepped up behind Brian and wrapped both arms around him. The circle was technically a chunk of the dead realm superimposed in the mortal plane. The alignment gave Gavin’s spirit form a physical manifestation.

“What are you doing?” Brian asked at the same time Neil leaned over to mumble in Elysia’s ear.

She gave a cry and pressed both hands to her mouth.

Neil gripped her wrists and pulled her hands down. “Say it.”

“James,” she whispered, choking on a sob. “Rip out your brother’s soul.”

James yelped as her power slammed into him. He could no more ignore the command than he could ignore the need to draw his next breath.

Brian’s eyes went wide, and Gavin pulled back his lips in a ghastly impersonation of a smile.

James sprang forward.

Chapter
14

E
lysia opened her mouth to command James to stop, but the sound died in her throat, unable to escape. She lunged after him, desperate to stop him.

Neil caught her by the upper arm, jerking her back to his side. “Don’t interfere.”

She could do nothing but watch as James leapt into the air, clearing the bloody circle drawn on the floor. As had happened at the convenience store, James didn’t collide with his intended target; he vanished into him. But this time was different. The monster vanished as well, as James’s brother slumped to the floor.

“Command James to heel,” Neil said, his grip on her arm so tight it hurt. Was he afraid now that James was no longer in sight?

“James, heel,” she whispered, not sure how much good it would do.

Toenails clicked on the tile, and he was suddenly beside her. He staggered, his shoulder bumping her hip before he collapsed at her feet.

Neil released her, and she dropped to her knees beside James. She ran her hands over the fur of his back, and mentally pleaded for his forgiveness.

James’s brother lay unmoving in the circle. Without her magic, Elysia wasn’t sure if he was dead. But James’s reaction made it clear that he was.

Neil picked up one of the flickering candles and tipped it on its side until the flame touched the circle of blood. A whoosh, and the circle ignited in a flash of green flame. Before Elysia could do more than gasp, the flames were gone.

“Did it work?” Neil remained in his crouch on the circle’s perimeter.

James’s brother turned his head, and Elysia’s mouth dropped open.

“The blood is too thin,” he rasped. His eyes flickered open, revealing irises of glowing red.

Elysia pressed a hand to her mouth. The monster had had glowing red eyes.

“Hang on. I have a solution.” Neil rose to his feet, turning toward Elysia. “Command James to change and take his brother next door. I want him on one table, his brother on the other. Make it happen, Elysia.”

The words were out of her mouth before Elysia could even wonder what Neil was up to. This must be what it felt like to James when a necro took control of him. God, it was such a violation. If she got him out of this, she would never give him a command again.

James obeyed without even glancing in her direction. Tears rolled down her cheeks as he gathered his brother in his arms and left the room.

Neil busied himself transferring a variety of supplies from the countertop to his cart.

Elysia glanced around in search of something, anything she could do to stop this. Though there was nothing to be done for James’s brother, Neil clearly wasn’t finished. And she was quickly learning that whatever Neil intended wouldn’t be good.

While Neil had his back to her, Elysia took the opportunity to take several steps to her right, closer to the counter that ran through the center of the room. An assortment of lab equipment and reagent bottles lined the surface, and she entertained the notion of throwing something at him. The change in position gave her a view along the other side of the counter, and she stopped in surprise. Kari lay sprawled on the tile floor at the far end of the room.

Elysia hurried along the back of the counter and dropped to her knees beside her, but the girl’s cool skin and silent heart told her nothing. She touched Kari’s cheek, then jerked her hand away when the girl’s eyes rotated toward her.

Neil stepped around the end of the counter.

“What have you done to her?” Elysia gripped Kari’s hand.

“Your affection for your creation is… disturbing,” Neil said with a smile. “But fear not. I’ve only denied her the ability to move. It’s nearly impossible to knock the dead insensate.” He returned to his cart and began pushing it toward the door. “Come along.”

Given no choice, Elysia did as commanded.

Elysia could do nothing but watch as Neil checked the blood bag he had rigged for James’s brother—or what had been James’s brother. For what felt like the hundredth time, Elysia wished she had her power back. From where she sat on her stool, she could see the rise and fall of his chest, but that didn’t mean he lived. James’s chest also rose and fell, an observation that gave her some comfort. The bag of blood had come from him, and he bled still.

With gloved hands, Neil adjusted the IV he had inserted into the brother’s arm. Satisfied, he selected a penlight from his cart and checked his pupils. It seemed Neil had had some medical training. From her experience, most members of the Nelson family had.

“You said that James doesn’t heal, that he could bleed out unless he changes,” Elysia reminded Neil.

“That is correct.” Neil didn’t look up from what he was doing. “Grim physiology is fascinating. I’d love to study it more.”

“Shouldn’t you remove James’s collar?” Neil had forced her to place the collar back around James’s throat as soon as they returned to the room.

Neil glanced at her before turning back to what he was doing. “Do you really think it’s in the best interest of… anyone that the Deacon or the Flame Lord be given the power to command the grim?”

Elysia frowned. “The Flame Lord?”

“That’s who he works for.”

Neil’s comment about Doug’s father starting a war between Old Magic and New now made sense.

She glanced at James, but he didn’t respond. He stared at the ceiling, as he had for the last half hour. Had it hurt him that much to kill his brother? From what he had told her about his family, she couldn’t imagine him having any affection for them.

“So,” Elysia faced Neil, “you’re going to let him… cease to be?”

Neil didn’t answer. He finished adjusting the IV, then started the pump to transfer James’s blood into his brother.

“You’re taking the grim,” she said, as the horror of what he was really doing set in. “But in a form no one will recognize.”

“Brilliant, don’t you think?” Neil straightened and gave her a smile.

“I think I’ll refrain from saying what I really think.” Her words were glib, but her heart thumped a nervous beat. She had to get James free, but had no idea how. Neil had commanded her onto this stool, after forcing her to inhale another dose of that powder. She couldn’t leave the stool even if she knew what to do.

Neil chuckled at her comment and picked up something off his cart. The fluorescent light winked off the scalpel he held. Elysia tensed, afraid he was going to help James’s bleeding along, but Neil returned to James’s brother instead. With a callus indifference that suggested he had done this many times, he ran the scalpel across the tip of his left ring finger.

“Heart’s blood,” he told her.

“Superstition.” Blood was blood.

“Is it?” He returned the scalpel to the cart. “Something tells me you haven’t studied your necromancy as you should.”

“Because I’m not a monster like you?”

“Because your family has to throw themselves on the Deacon’s mercy. Had you been at the helm, things might have been different.”

She frowned. “Are you saying he would have respected us?”

“He wouldn’t have had the balls to open those new funeral parlors in your hometown. He would have feared you.”

“The Deacon. Fear me?”

“My dear Miss Mallory, there are only two necromancers alive right now with the ability to create a lich with the very power of their blood—and you are one of them.”

“The Deacon is the other?”

Neil smiled and returned to his grim-in-the-making. With his opposite hand, he opened the man’s mouth, then pushed his bleeding finger inside.

Elysia frowned. Now what was he up to? “What are you going to do with Kari?” she asked.

“Kari?”

“My companion.”

“Oh. You keep interesting company, Miss Mallory. Once this task is complete, I’ll call my uncle and tell him I found his problem. That should net me a few brownie points.”

“Why would you bother?”

“There are reasons. You—” Neil stopped and the thing that had been James’s brother growled. “No,” Neil said. He didn’t pull his finger from the man’s mouth. “You are mine, Gavin Huntsman. For as long as I live, you are mine. When my life ends, so does yours.”

The hairs on Elysia’s arms stood up. Neil had soul bound him, without removing his heart. He had used only the power of his blood.

“Not the Deacon, you,” she whispered.

Neil turned to face her, wiping his finger on his robe. “Indeed, Miss Mallory. We are heirs to the throne.”

“The throne? What throne? The only thing this power grants us is an early death.”

“That’s a bit shortsighted.”

Their conversation was cut short as the new grim snarled. “You soul bound me, necromancer.”

“Yes,” Neil confirmed. “I would think it a fair trade for getting you out of the land of shades.”

He opened his eyes, glowing red eyes, and glared at Neil. “And now I am destined to go back.” His accent was all wrong for a twenty-first century American.

“You seem to doubt that I can make myself immortal,” Neil said.

Elysia studied Neil. The guy hid it well, but when you got right down to it, he was as crazy as any stunted necromancer.

The man that had been James’s brother tried to sit up.

“Lie still,” Neil said.

His new grim growled and flopped back down.

“He obeys you?” Elysia asked. How did that work if Neil was stunted?

“I gave this body’s previous occupant a potion. A potion designed around the necromantic power in my blood. Clever, huh?”

Neil returned to his charge, leaving Elysia to worry in silence.

James turned his head, those vibrant green eyes meeting hers. Was it her imagination, or did they look a little glassy? Did he realize that she had damned him the moment she bound him?

Neil snapped on a pair of gloves, and to Elysia’s relief, began to remove the IVs from both James and his new charge. He sacked up the waste and headed for the door.