Fine, so maybe she isn’t intending to sabotage our chance at getting an amulet. “How hard is it to make one of those things?”
“If you have the ingredients and the power required, a week or so. It takes time. Which is why we need to hope Nalina has one in our artifact vault.”
If only Azazel had been able to tap a coven directly, he’d have known about the fact they kept a vault filled with spelled shit. Shit too dangerous to have out in the open, and shit too old to be left lying about. But even as outlier contact, it seems he isn’t buddy enough with the covens to have a point of entry. Thank goodness for Vi.
I sit back and cross my legs. “The bloodwitch we saw last time we needed an amulet wanted blood, semen, and pain.”
Her eyes grow wide. “You saw a bloodwitch?” I can see her brain working. “That house we went to in Rue Mort…That was the bloodwitch’s house, wasn’t it.”
“Yeah, she’s dead.”
She frowns. “Why is this amulet so important? Why is it so important for Fee to hide who she is?”
“I can’t tell you that, Vi. I’m sorry. I would if I could.”
She nods. “I believe you. But the things the bloodwitch demanded were her price for doing the job. The actual amulet is created using the power of miasma and a few other ingredients. Miasma is only accessed by a collective. It’s impossible to harness if you aren’t bonded to a coven. Bloodwitches are exiled, cut off from the collective, and so they use other methods of forging a link between them and the miasma.”
But I use miasma all the time. How am I doing it? No. My gut warns me not to tell her this. She has no idea I’m a witch either. But I’m realizing now that might be for the best. I’m obviously an anomaly of some sort. But I do need to know more.
“What is miasma?”
“The best way to describe it is earth energy. It’s power given off by the earth itself. It’s in the air and in the ground and in the elements. Witches usually have an affinity to an element, some to two, and it’s through their affinity that they access miasma. But only when they are bonded to a coven. Otherwise, their affinity is just that, an affinity allowing them to do minor spells.”
“What’s your affinity?”
She grins. “Fire.” She clicks her fingers, and a flame appears in her hand.
It goes from orange to blue. I can fucking feel the heat.
“Bloody hell!”
“Fifteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit. That’s how hot I can burn. Not even bone survives that.”
“Wow.”
“Not too many witches have the Bone Flame.”
“Is that what they call it?”
She nods.
“Well, I best remember not to piss you off then.”
She laughs. “Oh, God, no. Unsanctioned use of the Bone Flame is punishable by exile. Trust me. This baby will only be used on coven orders.”
Her phone rings and she glances at the caller ID. “It’s Nalina.”
Oh, shit. Please be good news. Please be good news.
“Hello, Nalina…Can you do it?”
Chapter Eight
Fee
Thank God Hunter didn’t decide to strip and go Loup. I don’t think my Loup would have been able to handle it. As if my loins weren’t already on fire with need. Loins? Fucking hell, what was wrong with me?
The lake was up ahead, spread out like an icy sheet of glass. It wasn’t cold enough to have frozen the water yet, but it wasn’t far off. Beyond the lake was neat woodland built for strolls, webbed with winding paths, nooks, and benches for people to stop and enjoy nature.
I’d been here before as a young teen with Aunt Lara. We’d brought a picnic. Memories of a simpler time assaulted me, but the clawing nostalgia for those times didn’t come. I was happy with who I was now. Happy with my role.
Not so happy about having to be here with Hunter, though.
“Vamps,” one of Hunter’s Loup said. “I can smell them. Smells…off.”
Hunter stopped by a fountain and sniffed the air. “They definitely came this way.”
We were also out in the open. But there was nothing to be done about that. All the pathways leading to the woodland were on open ground with neatly clipped lawns, fountains, and climbing frames for children. But the moon was hiding behind cloud cover, lending us the shadows to move through. We blended into the night in our dark clothes while up above my reapers flew silent and deadly.
My comm lit up.
Utility tunnel a quarter-mile into the woodland. Bear east.
Bingo. It had to be what we were looking for.
“What is it?” Hunter asked.
I showed him the message, and then we fell into a jog toward the bridge that spanned the huge lake.
Hunter kept pace with me even though he could possibly outrun me. He was taller, with longer legs, and yes, that didn’t mean he had speed, but my Loup felt it. Knew it.
Why was he staying by my side? “You can go ahead if you want.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
Warmth spread through me. Urgh, stupid fated mate shit. I picked up speed to get away from him, but he matched my pace and then we were racing, and for a moment euphoria filled my chest as the icy wind slapped my cheeks and brought tears to my eyes. For a moment, it was just me and Hunter, wild and free. A whoop was trapped in my throat. I glanced at him at the same time as he looked at me, and a stupid grin spread across my dumb face.
He matched it. And that fucking smile hit me in the chest like a sledgehammer.
No. Nope. This was what he wanted. He wanted camaraderie, and I wasn’t about to give it to him.
A cement arch was visible through the trees—the access to the utility tunnel. Reining in my unwanted buzz, I slowed my pace, pushing down the feelings of connection that were bubbling up inside me.
This was bad.
This was so fucking bad.
I wasn’t doing this with him. I wasn’t bonding and shit.
Hunter slowed down. “Why are you fighting this?”
“Because I don’t like you, Hunter.”
His lips compressed in a thin line. “You don’t fucking know me.”
“I know that you take shit that doesn’t belong to you. I know that you think you own the world, and I know that you take advantage of people. I know enough.”
His packmates joined us.
And then my reapers landed around us.
“We can continue this conversation later,” Hunter said.
I strode off toward the utility tunnel. “No, thanks. I’ll pass.”
The tunnel reeked of death, and we didn’t have to venture far to find out why. Hunter found a room filled with spare cabling and boxes of mechanical parts. There’d been a lock on it once, but it was busted now, and inside were a couple of dirty mattresses, a table and chairs, and two dead humans propped up in a corner with their heads touching as if they’d been engaged in a tête-tête before deciding to hit decompose on their conversation.
Hunter and I stepped into the room, followed by one of the Loup and Nox. There wasn’t room for anyone else. The Loup scanned the room, his hand over his nose and mouth to block the awful smell. Breathing through my mouth barely helped when the reek was this strong.
“This is old school,” Nox said. “One, maybe two vamps. The nests we’ve been seeing are larger and more organized.”
Nix snorted. “Seeing? The nests are always empty by the time we get there.”
“It was the same for the museum,” Hunter said. “My Loup went back for clean-up, and the vamp bodies were gone.”
Weird.
“The vamps who were here will be long gone,” Sariah said from the doorway. “No way would they stay here with that smell.”
“She’s right,” Hunter said. “Let’s get out of here. Victor, Ethan, clean up the bodies.”
The Loup in the room nodded, and another pushed his way passed Sariah, earning himself a glare.
“Let’s get out of here,” Hunter said.
He headed for the door, but a sixth sense kept me rooted to the spot. My scalp prickled, and my gaze was drawn to a vent high up in the wall then down to the chair shoved under it.
“Yeah, we should leave.” I caught Hunter’s arm.
He looked surprised that I was touching him, and there was no denying the magnetic pull between us. But fuck that for now.
I jerked my head up to the vent and mouthed vamp.
His brows flicked up, and then he crossed the room in a single stride, yanked the grill off the vent, and pulled the vamp out.
Bingo.
The skinny, fanged creature fell to the ground and curled up into a ball. “No, no. No, no. Please no. Please don’t hurt me.”
The dead-body reek paled in comparison to the vamp’s stench.
“Fuck.” Hunter put distance between himself and the vamp, taking me with him.
I didn’t resist his arm around my waist, telling myself I was too stunned by the disheveled stinky vamp, but the truth was I was enjoying the contact a little too much.
“Leave me. Leave me,” the vamp begged. “They don’t find me here. They come, but they don’t find me. They can’t smell me here.”
The dead bodies…He was keeping them on purpose to mask his scent…
From the expression on Hunter’s face, he’d come to the same conclusion. “Who’s after you? Who are you hiding from?” he demanded.
“The Nappers. They come, and then you’re gone. They come, and then you’re never seen again. They took my nest. They took them all, but I got away. I got out, and I hid. They won’t get me. They won’t.”
“The smell outside…” one of the Loup said. “I smelled vamps.”
“Are vamps after you?” Hunter asked.
The vamp raised his head, his face a mask of fear. “The Nappers. The Nappers are after me, aren’t you fucking listening?”
“Not anymore,” Hunter said. “Clean this up.”
“Wait—”
But Hunter was dragging me from the room, and the vamp’s cry was cut off.