No Rest for the Wicked (33 page)

must be slumming.”

“Speaking of slumming, where’s your vampire?” Cindey asked. “The nymphs said they

heard him forsake you. I didn’t think that was even possible.”

“Do I look like I care?” She’d always enjoyed asking that question, since she knew the

answer was invariably no—

“Yes, Kaderin, you do.” Cindey sounded amazed by this fact.

Kaderin casually hissed at her, hoping to cover her dismay, because it was true that she’d

been vampire-free for forty-eight hours. Sebastian hadn’t called, he hadn’t traced to her,

and she felt like a nailed-and-bailed idiot.

Good money said she’d... come on too strong?

Yes, he’d said things, expressed sentiments and promises when she’d been kissing him.

But how much weight could she put on those words? He’d been out of his mind with

pleasure.

How could she not be his favorite girl at the time?

And really, what had they settled? Other than that the interlude was most definitely,

unequivocally supposed to be meaningless sex? And exactly why had she been so adamant

about that?

She had absolutely refused to call Myst to ask about Sebastian. That stance had lasted

about six hours before she broke down. But Myst and Nikolai hadn’t seen him or heard

from him at all in two days.

Third major turnoff? Not calling. Especially after a gymnastic round of immortal sex.

Giving in to her insecurities in this new situation was better than the alternative:

acknowledging that he would be here—unless he was injured. Or worse.

She figured that since her emotions were still so changeable, she might as well try them all

on like new coats. And she liked the look and feel of angry and indignant so much better

than worried and fearful.

None of this mattered. Once she went back for her sisters, none of this would have been.

She had to remember that.

Since the morning she’d left him the letter—and left her prize behind—she’d competed at

three tasks. At each one, she’d had the misfortune of meeting up with Lucindeya and

Bowen.

Bowen remained gruesomely injured from the minefield, showing no regeneration

whatsoever. He was still missing an eye and the skin over half his forehead. Blood had

been seeping from the wound at his side, soaking his cambric shirt. The young witch’s

curse was not to be shaken.

Kaderin almost felt sorry for him—the way she’d feel sorry for a mindless wolf caught in

the teeth of a spring trap. She’d freed them before, and they always appeared bewildered,

eyes wild, having no idea why they’d been chosen to feel such pain or how to end it.

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) Bowen reminded her of exactly that. But, in the end, the wolves always snarled and

snapped, and though he was cursed, Bowen was still a force to be reckoned with in the

competition.

She’d slogged through a quicksand jungle to retrieve a jade pentacle. She’d thought she

was so fast and had believed she had a chance against Bowen because he was still injured.

But he’d flown over the untamed terrain as if renewed. He’d dusted her to that prize,

leaving her panting and robbed of points.

He’d scrutinized her, even took a menacing step toward her. Then, as if he’d made a

weighty decision, he’d turned from her.

In Egypt , Kaderin had answered a riddle of staggering complexity that left the Sphinx—

and the Lykae and the siren—wondering how she’d done it. Secretly, she’d wondered

herself. She’d earned the single golden scarab for ten points and had narrowed the gap on

Bowen and taken a slim lead over Cindey.

But just last night in China , Bowen had been the first to the sole Urn of the Eight

Immortals, leaving her and Cindey completely out for all the effort to get there. He’d

reached his eighty-seven points, securing his spot in the finals.

Kaderin had seventy-four points. Cindey had seventy-two.

It hadn’t escaped Kaderin’s notice that she was thirteen points shy of the finals—the exact

value of the prize she’d relinquished.

Today, the instructions were to swim out ten miles until a whirlpool portal appeared and

brought them down to the prize—Amphitrite’s tear, a bead said to heal any wound.

As twilight crept closer, competitors continued to line the beach. These entrants would be

new ones—the veterans would have taken one look at this task, an eleven-pointer, and

known some catch awaited them. Kaderin’s first clue what that catch might be occurred

when she’d spied cows’ heads bobbing in the water just off the shore.

And that was before she even saw the first fin.

With a quick jog down the beach, she found a rivulet flowing steadily into the ocean,

carrying the heads. Far upriver, a meatpacking plant must be churning out the refuse.

“Sharks!” Cindey cried when Kaderin returned. “Bloody sharks.” She faced Kaderin.

“You going in?”

“Might. You?”

“If you do, I won’t have much choice, will I?” Cindey snapped.

The Lore beings and low creatures had taken great pains to get here, lured by the idea of a

healing agent, and likely were wondering why the older ones weren’t getting into the

water. Then they spotted the fins, too. Not one of them talked of swimming. But Kaderin

was in a desperate position.

She’d given up that damn box. Silly, silly Valkyrie.

“Screw this,” she muttered, yanking off her sword.

“Kaderin’s going to do it!” someone whispered. Others pointed.

Shrugging from her pack and jacket, she collected her sword, slinging the strap over her

shoulder. She backed down the strand of beach and took off in a sprint, diving at the last

possible moment, gaining yards out into the sea.

With smooth, even strokes, she swam freely through the sharks. This isn’t so bad. Ten

miles was nothing. If she wasn’t bleeding or thrashing about, she should be fine—

An aggressive bump nearly knocked the breath from her. Ignore it. Swim.

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) Another purposeful knock.

In seconds, the sea was teeming with them, making it impossible to swim without hitting

one with each kick. She knew no one had ever seen or documented anything like this. The

meatpacking plant was, in essence, running a shark farm on the side.

Her sword would be useless in the water.

One shark was worse than the others, the bull of them all, giving her yet another violent

shove—

Teeth sank into her thigh. She shrieked with pain, shoving her fingers at the flesh around

the rows of teeth, prying the jaws apart.

She was fighting for her life now. With sodding sharks.

There came a brief thought that surely Sebastian would trace to her again and might find

her remains—if there were any.

Kaderin had believed she’d die a violent death, but she’d be damned if she’d be food. She

dove down, slashing out with her claws, biting them just as they sought to bite her.

Outrage filled her, and red covered her vision.

She sank her claws into the bull’s fin, yanked herself into it and bit down as hard as she

could. Blood darkened the water, red bubbles and streams everywhere. Impossibly, more

sharks came. She spit, then bit again.

I might actually die here. An immortal could die from a shark attack, if the head was

severed from the neck.

Another swipe of her claws connected down the sleek side of the bull, but she couldn’t

fight them all off.

She swam down, determined to hide in a reef. She could hold her breath for extended

periods of time.

And she couldn’t die of drowning. Just ask Furie.

Before she could escape, the bull latched on to her leg, thrashing as it propelled her back

into the fray.

Frantic slashing. Pain. When she clawed against the grain, the sharkskin abraded her

fingers, tore at her claws. Twisting bodies, the power in them...

She kicked up to the surface, gasping air to return—

One seized her other leg above the knee, forcing her down in erratic yanks. The water

swallowed her scream.

35

S ebastian jerked awake, then immediately collapsed back, wincing at the pain thundering

through his head.

He cracked open his eyes to a starry nighttime sky. A warm breeze brushed over him as he

lay unmoving on a stony riverbed. He eased up once more, struggling to determine where

he was, squinting as memories from the jungle bombarded him.

That fucking wolf had tossed him into a raging river. Each time Sebastian had been

dragged under was salvation from the sun, even as he sucked water into his lungs. After

what seemed like days, the water had finally calmed. With his skin burning in the light, and

his blood from a head injury gushing into his eye, he’d been sure he would die.

But he’d hauled himself to the shore—because he hungered for his future, with Kaderin in

it. Before he’d passed out, he’d made it into the brush until only his legs were exposed.

For the rest of the day, he’d burned, too weak even to move to avoid the pain.

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) How long had he been out? The entire day? He was thirsty, exhausted—

MacRieve threatened Kaderin. He bolted to his feet, tracing to her. When the dizziness hit

from standing and he rocked on his feet, he was already on a tropical beach somewhere

just at sunset.

Which meant he was now on the other side of the world. Again.

Dozens of competitors from the Lore gazed breathlessly out at the sea. Sebastian followed

their attention, and spied a churning in a darker ring of water. Shark fins sliced through the

water, then slipped back down.

Something was dying out there, and no one bothered to lend a—

A hand shot through the surface.

His stomach clenched. Kaderin.

An instant trace. Under the murky water with her. Impossible to see. Blood—hers—and

tissue, pieces of shark thick in the water. He struck out, fighting past the coil of sharks to

reach for her shoulders.

Missed her. One had her leg, twisting her from Sebastian’s grasp, yanking down in a

frenzy.

Sebastian fought with all the strength he had. He hit and connected, slicing his hands on

teeth, ignoring his own wounds, clearing a way to her.

His hand closed in a fist over her upper arm...

Fucking got her.

He traced back to the beach, tumbling to the ground, twisting her atop him so he didn’t

crush her.

She wasn’t breathing. He jerked up, flipping her to her side. She coughed, choking up

water. He rubbed her back as she spit into the sand. When she’d caught her breath, he

took her in his arms, rocking with her.

What if I didn’t wake when I did?

She’d be... dead. He shuddered. They couldn’t be parted again.

Even if he had to lock her away.

When he gently held her by the shoulders so he could see her eyes, she muttered, “You

look white as a ghost.”

“You were seconds away from being eaten alive!” he roared, his gut-wrenching fear for

her turning to fury in an instant. “Or drowning.”

“I did drown.” She frowned dazedly. “Twice, I think.”

“This displeases me. What if I hadn’t gotten here in time? What if I hadn’t been around to

save your life?”

“Don’t you get it?” she snapped. “For more than a millennium, I have won this contest

handily. Then you come along, forcing me to alter my strategy.” She sucked in a breath to

continue. “And to take risks that I wouldn’t have had to before. I wouldn’t have been

moved to this desperate an act if I hadn’t given up the box.”

“I didn’t want you to give it up.”

She eyed him. “Yes, Sebastian. You did.”

“Not if this was the alternative.” His voice was hoarse. “Do you know what it was like

seeing you in the middle of that? To watch you going down before I could even react? I

was watching you... die.” He smoothed back wet, sandy hair from her cheek. “What will

make you desist from this?”

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)

“Nothing,” she said, her expression obstinate. “Nothing on this earth will prevent me from

winning the prize.”

“Maybe your death would.”

“It’s been a long time coming.”

In a seething voice, he said, “Bride, you have a bit of shark on your chin.”

She wiped it off with the back of her arm, her mien defiant.

“You bit them?”

“They bit me first! And I didn’t have much of a choice.”

“You saw there were sharks, and you didn’t think to wait for me?”

“When you haven’t called? Wanna know the third major turnoff? Men who don’t call after

hitting it.”

Hitting it?

Her ire was clearly building. “I wasn’t going to wait for you when you’ve been a no-show

for two days. Last time we really talked, I recall you informing me that you were going to

forsake me. The first vampire to renounce his Bride. Blah, bluh, blah.”

“You must have known that I would come for you—Wait, you said two days?”

“Like I care, Sebastian, if you lost track of time—”

“I was in a jungle, slowly burning to death. Or I’d have been here.”

“Wh-what did you say?”

“I traced there to help you that morning. But the Scot slammed a shovel across my face,