Tyson joined in. “Yep, especially since we know there’s no way to kill him yet.”
“I feel stronger,” Jacob said. “The elements respond almost without any expulsion of power. The fire burns more intensely in my chest.”
Braxton shifted at my side. “Same. My beast is stronger, my urges too. Joining together has heightened our natural supernatural abilities. We’re evolving. Hopefully the strength is enough to help with the coming battle.”
“You know, I didn’t think much on it, but I haven’t had blood for days,” Maximus said. “And I’m not as weakened as I normally would be.”
The vampire members of our supernatural world were not bound by most of the lore of their kind, but the drinking of blood was one thing that humans did get right. For some reason vampires had a very high blood cell turnover. Blood cell death took about sixty days for most of us, but for vamps it was twenty. The rapid regeneration was too much for their bodies to maintain, so a little help was required. This regeneration did allow them to be resistant to injury, as rapid as a bullet, and a plethora of other coolness. So it wasn’t a bad tradeoff.
“Speaking of quads, we ran into the Four while we were looking for you.” Jacob said this all casual-like, the same way he might have said he’d had some eggs for breakfast, or punched a dude in the face.
Meanwhile my mouth was hanging open and a sort of red haze had descended across my vision. I’d like to think I was mature enough to accept some of what the Four had done. They’d had a job to do, and the way they treated marked was not personal, but reality was I hated their ugly, robo-cop asses, hated them enough that if Jacob had said they were dead, their heads stuck on spikes and mounted around the borders of Stratford as decoration, I’d be okay with that. I’d even ask for photos so I could put them up on my wall.
Jacob, noticing my expression, hurried along. “We had no real choice, Jessa. We need their help. We reached a tentative agreement: if the king teams up with the marked, the Four will fight with us. They can use their energy to hold dragon marked at bay, giving us a shot to take out the king.”
Maximus snorted. “Yep, we reached this agreement right after Braxton smashed two of them in the face. A little payback for when they tried to take you from Stratford. FYI their calling power does not work on dragons.”
I tilted my head back to see Braxton. He was focused on our surroundings, no expression across his face, but there was that look in his eye. He didn’t like the Four any more than I did, and trusted them even less. He wouldn’t be letting his guard down.
I freaking hated that they’d made this deal, but there wasn’t much I could do about it now. I had to focus on finding some sort of weapon to defeat the king. This was the key to bringing control back to the supernatural world, to making sure that supes like the Four never came into our lives again.
I focused on our surroundings. Rose had said the answers were here, but where? Would a weapon or god just jump out at us, or would we need to search? From her tone I’d certainly expected a level of danger on this island, but so far there was nothing scary.
Of course, just like the last time I’d thought shit in Faerie, the damn land decided to bring it to life. A rumble rocked the ground beneath our feet. My dragon and wolf jumped to attention as electricity filled the air. Holy freaking ogre balls. Damn my random thoughts. The next time I thought of something here, it would be cake shops and naked Braxton.
The peachy sky darkened and we were looking at a world of twilight. A sense of danger filtered through to us and we closed ranks. Before any of us could react, a schism split the grassy land, opening a massive crater beneath our feet, so fast and wide that there was no way for us to avoid the fall. The five of us plunged straight down into whatever waited below.
Chapter 9
The space we fell through was not large enough for Braxton or me to call on our dragons. We’d definitely kill the other quads by dragon-bulk-into-rocks. But we might also all die by plunging into the ground below, so … hard choices. The darkness of this chasm, beneath the beautiful island, was all encompassing, no way to know what we were heading for, or how long until we were pancakes. Braxton was close by and I knew he’d be tapping into dragon sight, trying to see if there was enough space to shift and grab us all. He would only need a few seconds to save us all.
The air started to cool as the space between the rocky walls narrowed. Maximus was plastered to my front, Braxton was at my back, both of them probably trying to keep me safe. I mean, I did love me some Compass sandwich, but these circumstances kind of sucked the big one.
My dragon roared, sensing something below, but before I could freak out, iciness encased my legs as we plunged into a dark watery abyss. In the last second before going under, I managed to take a massive breath.
Confession time: I hate swimming when I can’t see what’s in the water. The deep darkness hides many a thing. We dropped for a long time through the blackness, the water eventually slowing our descent. I kicked out, forcing my body back to the surface. It was hard not to lose my direction. It was so dark that if I turned myself around, I’d find myself swimming to my death.
The boys were close by. I could feel their ripples of energy, and thankfully one of them – Tyson I’d guess, because Jacob’s fire was not going to work down here – produced a magic light that filtered through the water.
I was starting to get a little lightheaded. Lack of oxygen would become a problem sooner or later. Strong bands gripped my biceps and I jerked before realizing it was Braxton. He made a few military style gestures at me, trying to tell me something but I had no idea what it was, eventually he just held me close and powered upwards. Swirls of water churned below us – Jacob was using his affinity for water to speed our trajectory. The pressure around me started to lessen.