No Rest for the Wicked (36 page)

“I know where the blade is,” Kaderin said. “Below the cable bolt on that wall. Fifteen feet

down, forty degrees to the left.” Tears tracked from her eyes. “There’s a cave under an

overhang—I could only see it from here.”

“Don’t do this! Ah, God, please!... Don’t—”

“Come back for me. So I can go back for them.”

Eyes riveted to his, she let go. The serpent snatched her down.

The fire consumed her.

38

T he lights of Val Hall flared sharply, then guttered out.

Lightning slashed the sky, and thunder rattled the darkened manor so hard the old house

groaned violently. Myst dropped to her knees just as Nïx’s eyes went wild and her hands

fisted in her hair. Emma wept.

When Regin shrieked, the windows burst, spewing shards, until even the wraiths fled. As

though a bomb had hit, glass shattered in a radius outward from the manor, again and

again, in successive waves for miles.

The Lore creatures in the city and swamps trembled in fear and knew of only one thing

that could provoke the Valkyrie like this.

They’d felt the death of one of their own.

Dead. Sebastian knew she was dead, felt it in his entire body.

He loved her. Not compulsion. Love so strong it humbled him.

He stared down into the pit long after. How long could an immortal live in that flame?

How much pain did she suffer?

What did she mean, “go back for them?”

A sudden dream washed over him. Kaderin was sprinting down a hill that was covered in

bodies. He heard her ragged breaths and the warning shrieks from other Valkyrie. He

experienced her roiling panic.

She fought past vampires, with dirty red eyes and grotesque snarls, desperate to get to...

her sisters.

Sebastian was still caught by his trapped arm—the one he hadn’t been able to sever in

time—but he fell to his knees just as Kaderin had done on that battlefield all those ages

ago when she witnessed her blood sisters being butchered. The shock was like a physical

strike, leveling her. She heard her sisters’ heads hit the stony ground. She saw the

vampire—the one she’d just spared—dealing the blows...

When she shrieked, it was so loud her own ears bled. The young vampire Sebastian had

seen her torturing in the dream had beheaded her sisters. Now that he’d felt her rage, her

loss and guilt, he wished she’d shown even less mercy, wished he could have joined her in

her retribution.

“So I can go back for them,” she’d told him. Them. Triplets. Her blood sisters. She had

lost them both in the space of minutes. That’s what this entire ordeal had been about. Not

mercenary, not ego. She wanted her family back. My God, she has trusted me with all

their lives. She trusted that he could win the prize for her.

And that the key could work.

Sebastian had never dared to believe that one could go back in time. Now that belief was

Create PDF
files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (
http://www.novapdf.com
) the only thing he had. He had to get her back. He could win this cursed thing and go back

for her. Just as she’d planned.

She’d just died.

She’d just fucking died.

He couldn’t see the cave she’d spoken of, but he’d trace blind into the rock if he had to.

Need to lose the arm first.

Just as he decided to use his teeth, he heard footsteps.

MacRieve appeared. He studied the scene, his wasted face darkening. “What’s happened

here?”

Only then did Sebastian notice how much blood he’d lost from his arm. He suspected the

brachial artery had been cut. Once the pressure of the boulder was removed, he’d lose

more in a rush. Black spots already clouded his eyes. Did he have enough blood to lose his

arm completely?

The Lykae could move the boulder. “A quake. Rocks,” Sebastian told him, not daring to

utter that Kaderin was gone, even if he hadn’t been set on using the Lykae.

“Where’s the Valkyrie?” the Lykae asked. “She ought to be here—not you.”

“I’m here in her stead.”

MacRieve began scanning farther into the chamber.

“You can’t reach the prize,” Sebastian told him. “It’s across the lava, and the cable

snapped.”

As Sebastian had expected, he surveyed the pit, then said, “I could free you to trace me

across. Then... an open contest to take it.”

Don’t look too eager. “I could double-cross you.”

MacRieve narrowed his one eye. “No’ if I’ve got a hold of your good arm.”

Sebastian forced himself to hesitate, then said, “Do it.”

The Scot crossed to the boulder and shoved at it, seeming confounded when it didn’t

immediately go. He muttered something that sounded like “Bloody, goddamned witches.”

Putting his back into it, he asked, “Where exactly are you tracing us?”

Sebastian explained, “Below the cable, there’s a lava tube, a cave.”

“I doona see anything,” he gritted out.

“It’s there. You want the prize? Then you’re just going to have to trust a vampire—”

The boulder toppled over, and MacRieve grabbed his left arm. Sebastian gaped at what

remained of his right arm.

“That’s got tae hurt.” MacRieve sneered.

“Have you looked in the mirror lately?” Sebastian snapped.

“Aye.” He hauled Sebastian to his feet. “And I plan to kill you for that. After this

competition. Right now, I doona have all day.”

Sebastian just prevented himself from rocking on his feet. His sight was blurred. He

struggled to focus on the spot she’d described. Stay sane. Fuck, did she mean forty

degrees to my left?

MacRieve jostled him. “Are you even going to be able to do this—”

Sebastian traced...

Sweltering heat, steam, smoke. Solid ground beneath them. Made it. Flames with no

seeming source burned erratically, but Sebastian couldn’t see the blade.

Suddenly, the Scot dropped his hold on Sebastian, sprinting deeper into the cave, but

Create PDF
files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (
http://www.novapdf.com
) Sebastian traced blindly ahead. There, on a waist-high column of rock, lay the blade,

gleaming in the light of more fires and wet with steam.

Sebastian got there first, snatched it with his good hand, tensed to trace—

Like a shot, MacRieve lashed a whip, coiling the length around Sebastian’s wrist. He

yanked down, preventing him from tracing. “I’ll be taking that now.”

The bastard only had one whip. Sebastian simply transferred the blade to his right hand to

raise it. But that ruined arm hung lifeless.

“Canna quite make it to your heart, then?”

Sebastian bared his fangs savagely. “I’ll gut you before you get this.”

“That equals the life of my mate.”

“I’ve the same on my mind,” Sebastian bit out.

“The Valkyrie died?”

Sebastian shook his head. “Not for long.”

Bowen must have seen something in his expression. He had the advantage, and yet he

offered, “We could share it, vampire. The key works twice.”

Blood everywhere. Weak. Kaderin had asked something of him. Finally given him a

chance to help her... “I need both of those times for her.” Can’t raise my right arm over

my heart. My left arm is trapped. But the blade had powers MacRieve likely didn’t know

of.

According to Riora, it never missed.

The knife he held was nowhere near the Lykae’s whip hand, but Sebastian concentrated on

his intention to cut him at the wrist and made the merest motion toward the end, all he

could manage with that wasted arm.

Suddenly, his arm shot up. The blade rose as if of its own accord and flashed reflected

firelight as it struck.

Blood spurted. The Scot’s severed hand dropped. Freed from the whip, Sebastian traced

the distance across the pit.

“I will fucking kill you for this, vampire,” the Lykae bellowed with rage. “I will eat your

goddamned heart!”

Sebastian steeled himself for the jaunt to Riora’s temple. But he couldn’t leave. Leaving

made Kaderin’s death real. Stay sane. This key has to work.

From the now unseen cave: “Mark me. So help me God, I will hunt you and the Valkyrie

over the earth—”

Sebastian disappeared to the sound of the Lykae’s roar—not of pain but of loss.

When Sebastian returned to the temple, Riora greeted him once again with Scribe in tow.

“You have won, Sebastian. The first vampire to do so. Congratulations.”

“This is for her. Always for her.” His body wouldn’t stop shuddering.

“Then sign the book of winners, and take your prize.”

When Scribe handed him the book, he actually looked as though he respected Sebastian.

Kaderin’s dead. Sign the book. Stay sane.

He saw his Bride’s proud signature on every line above his own, so far back the lettering

had changed. Over time, her handwriting had become harder, more angular. Stay sane. He

signed his name with his left hand in shaking letters, stamping the page in blood.

Riora handed him a metallic key. He gripped it so hard it dug into his palm. “Tell me this

Create PDF
files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (
http://www.novapdf.com
) works.”

“It works, Sebastian. Though you may end up cursing it.”

“How can you say that?”

“You know why Kaderin sought the key?” Riora asked.

He nodded slowly. “She wants her sisters back.”

“If you give her the second turn of the key, she will return for her sisters and never see

their deaths. She will be spared one thousand years of guilt and nothingness and instead

enjoy contentment with her family.”

“I want this!”

“Yet in this case, Kaderin will never be driven to journey out of her way to kill you. She

will have her sisters”—Riora’s eyes bored into his much as they had that first night—“but

you will not have her.”

He’d experienced Kaderin’s memories of their deaths, of collecting her sisters from the

battlefield. Burying their heads, their bodies, then clawing at her hair and skin.

If he could save her from that... to spare her a millennium of guilt?

As a mortal, he’d been a knight with no one to whom to pledge his sword. He’d claimed

Kaderin for his own, and that meant protecting all she held dear. He lowered his head.

“She will have her sisters.” The flames flared as if to punctuate his words.

“Very well. The key unlocks a door for approximately ten minutes. It allows you to go

back and to be in the same time as a previous self.”

“How will the key know where to open?”

“In the end, the key is a facilitator,” she explained. “You hold a tool of unspeakable

power, Sebastian. Hold it out in your palm, and it will know what you must have and act

to that end. But I warn you, if you get stuck in the past when the door closes, one version

of you will fade, ceasing to be.”

He saw Scribe in the background, his pale, waxen face showing his sorrow. He gave

Sebastian a nod of encouragement.

Riora murmured, “Bring her forward, vampire.”

He gave her a pained bow. “Goddess.”

39

K aderin made her way through the darkened tunnel.

She knew she was close to the Fyre Serpénte’s chamber, could hear the echoing space just

ahead. She also knew that if Bowen wasn’t already here, he’d be right behind her.

As would Sebastian.

Her ear twitched at a sound like a sucked-in breath. Not Bowen? She whirled around, and

her eyes narrowed with fury. Sebastian. “Get the hell away from me! Enough! I need this,

Bastian. I have to have it.”

She trailed off at her first close look at him. His arm was shattered, his face blistered on

one side. His shirt had been white but was now slashed and wet with crimson. Her lips

parted. What could have happened to him since he’d left her in chains?

Recalling that hardened her resolve. She was so close. She didn’t have time to ask. If he’d

had his way, she’d still be fettered to a bed.

But, gods, had she ever seen a being in such turmoil? His eyes were fully black and

seemed to glint with moisture. His hands shook. Blood dripped freely, though he seemed

unaware of it.

Create PDF
files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (
http://www.novapdf.com
)

“I thought you were gone,” he rasped. “Kaderin, we have to leave this place.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Take my hand.” He stretched out his left hand, palm up.

“Go to hell,” she snapped. “Conveniently, it’s located just up the tunnel.”

He rocked on his feet, and his head lolled forward. He was fighting to stay conscious?

As if fearing he soon wouldn’t be able to, he snatched her wrist—and traced her before

she could resist. He took her away from the prize, to Riora’s temple.

Kaderin shrieked in fury, the sound echoing throughout. The dome skylight began to

crack, the thick sound ominous, like a fracture splintering out over a frozen pond.

Sebastian cupped her face with one hand. “No, Katja. Ah, God, let me see you.”

“Have you lost your mind?” she cried, shoving him away. “How could you do this? I have

to get back! Bowen was right behind me—”

“Must tell you something.” He shook his head. His face was so pale.

“There’s no time!”

“The key has been won—”

“Bowen!” Lightning fired all around them. Tears filled her eyes. “He took it? No... no!”

she screamed, exploding the skylight.

With his good hand, Sebastian yanked her close, hunching over her, covering her with his