Of Blood and Passion (26 page)

“He has to be around here somewhere,” Arturo growled.

Micah shrugged. “Where? For all we know, she’s already back in V.C.”

And it was possible. The magical tracker he’d put on Quinn weeks ago wasn’t working. He couldn’t even feel her emotions. From the moment Tassard changed her into the Black Wizard, Arturo had been unable to get any sense of her at all. It was as if she no longer existed, which was driving him insane.

“We’re already starting to smoke, Ax. We’ll be lucky to make it back to the Boundary Circle before we burn, as it is. Any more delay and we’ll have no choice but to go to ground. We’ll be stuck in D.C. for the entire day.”

Which was the last thing they could afford to do.

“All right.” The words stuck in his throat, but they had no choice and he knew it.

Together, they ran for the Boundary Circle, which was not, unfortunately, close by. It was going to be tight, and they’d be hurting by the time they reached it.

“Sooner or later that glamour will wear off, and when it does, Quinn will find her way back to Sakamoto’s,” Micah said.

Arturo glanced at him. “Assuming she has any idea where she is when she snaps out of it. I don’t know if she’s even aware of what’s happening. She might accidentally come through a sunbeam in a bad place.”

“A hundred things could go wrong and we both know it, Ax. But Quinn is smart. And she’s strong. She’ll make her way back to us one way or another.”

As long as that bastard wizard didn’t do something stupid while he was still in charge. Something that would get her killed.

Z
ack strode into the kitchen with Jason, dismayed to find Mukdalla standing at the counter, stirring something in a mixing bowl. She smiled when she saw them. “I’ll have pancakes ready in a few minutes.”

“I’m just going to make a sandwich,” Zack said. “I want to sit outside and watch the sky lighten. I still have trouble telling night from day around here. Jason said it’s because I’m spending too much time inside.” He hoped to hell the explanation made sense and that he wasn’t rambling. And that Mukdalla didn’t notice he was beginning to sweat.

With the need to reach Lily burning a hole in his gut, he grabbed the bread and ham and made himself two huge sandwiches, while Jason made himself one and filled a couple of water bottles. Getting away from Neo’s without someone stopping them was going to take a miracle. His pulse hammered at the certainty they were going to get caught, which of course they were if any of the fear feeding vampires came anywhere near him in this state. They’d know right off that something was up.

He handed the sandwiches to Jason who stuffed them in the leather satchel that hung across his body.

“How far are you going?” Mukdalla asked, a touch of suspicion in her voice. Or maybe not. Maybe he was just imagining it.

“Out by the stables,” Jason said. “We’ll get the best view out there.”

“Rinaldo’s on watch.”

Zack nodded. They might have to wait until the sun was all the way up and the vampires back inside before this could work. But he’d wait as long as he had to.

He led the way outside, the night air cold on his heated flesh. It was strange. Although he knew he was running a fever that should have long ago baked him alive, he didn’t really feel hot unless he was working out. He didn’t usually perspire, though he was doing it now, thanks to the nerves that were eating him alive.

Zack headed for the stables, trying to keep his stride to an ambling gait when all he really wanted to do was run. Beside him, Jason played it super cool, as if they really were just out to watch the sky lighten. Then again, a Marine ought to be good under pressure.

“Heading somewhere?” Rinaldo asked good-naturedly, appearing out of nowhere as vampires had the habit of doing. “Is something wrong, Zack?”

Dammit. It figured that Rinaldo would pick up on his nerves. Thinking fast, he said, “I’m not feeling great, Rinaldo. I don’t think I have much longer.” They kept treating him like some poor, pathetic dying martyr. He might as well use it to his advantage. “I’m tired of spending so much time inside. I wanted to see the sunrise and maybe just spend the morning out here.”

Rinaldo made a sound of sympathy that told him that maybe he hadn’t overplayed that too much. The vampire clasped his shoulder. “Let us know if you need anything. Either of you. I’m heading back in soon, but Sam’s on watch next.”

“Thanks, Rinaldo,” Zack said quietly, coughing for good measure. He watched the vampire slowly make his way around the house, then turned to Jason. “I should get an Oscar for that performance.”

Jason’s only response was to grunt.

“Let’s get the horses ready, Jase.”

“I’d rather wait until the sun comes up. Neither one of us will be able to see shit until the sky lightens.”

Zack’s limbs were about to go crazy with the need to get this over with, to get on the horses and go. But he knew Jason was right. They sat on the ground on the side of the barn away from the house, where they wouldn’t be seen…or their disappearance noticed. Zack thought about eating one of the sandwiches, but his stomach was in knots.

His foot tapped the ground, his hands keeping up a steady tattoo on his knees.

“Keep it together, Zack,” Jason said quietly. “Watch the sky. You do need to learn to tell when the sun comes up in the real world, especially now, when it makes such a difference to the vamps. There’s a slight glow when the sun first appears. You have to be watching to notice it.” Several minutes later he said, “There. Do you see that?”

Zack shook his head. “Let’s go.”

Jason snorted. “Fine. We need to get a bead on Sam first so that we can stay under his radar.”

Out of nowhere, the terrible, heavy lethargy swept through Zack again, wiping him out. He collapsed back against the wall, banging his head.

“Zack!” And then Jason was in his face. “I’m going to get help.”

“No.” Zack didn’t know where he found the strength, but he grabbed Jason’s wrist and held him fast. “No. Nothing’s changed.”

Jason stared at him, none of the thoughts flying through his head registering on his face. Probably because he already knew what Zack would say.

“If this happens when you’re riding, you’re going to fall off the horse.”

Zack shrugged. “Then I fall off the horse. Give me five minutes and I’ll be stronger than you, again. These…events…have been happening for the past couple of days. I just haven’t told anyone. I’ll be fine in a few minutes.” And then for how long? Because they were coming more and more often. He wouldn’t admit that to anyone else, but he couldn’t lie to himself. “I’ll be fine.”

He could tell it cost Jason to sit back down, but his friend did. And within a few minutes, thankfully, Zack felt as if his full strength had returned.

All of a sudden, the ground began to shake, violently.

Zack’s gaze swung to Jason. “Let’s go. They’ll never hear the horses over the rumbling.”

But Jason didn’t move.

“I feel fine, Jase.” As if to prove his point, he leaped to his feet, took Jason’s hand, and hauled him to his.

Zack held his breath, worried that Jason was going to refuse.

But finally his friend nodded. “Wait here while I find Sam.” Moments later, he returned. “He’s on the other side of the house, but won’t be for long. Can you ride bareback?”

“I’d ride a werewolf if it would get me to Lily.”

Jason threw him a look that was half amusement, half respect, and nodded. As one, they slipped into the stables, then swiftly led two horses out again. As they mounted and took off, Zack glanced back at Neo’s, at the sunbeam illuminating a small circle in the backyard that would keep the vampires in hiding. The ground continued to rumble, effectively disguising their hoofbeats. Until someone thought to check on them, they wouldn’t be missed.

They’d done it! A clean getaway.

But as Zack turned front again, and headed into the now light-dotted, vampire and werewolf infested darkness of Vamp City, he was slammed with a memory of his enslavement, of the beatings he’d taken, of the casual cruelty and murder he’d witnessed.

For a moment, he wondered if he should be celebrating this escape from safety. Because even if Lily was still alive, the chances that he and Jason would be able to find her, and get the three of them back to Neo’s in one piece, were slim to none.

For a brief moment, he wondered what in the hell he was thinking embarking on this mission without Quinn and her vampires at his back. Except they would never be at his back, that was the problem. They’d leave him behind.

No, he was doing the right thing. When he thought of Lily, of the shine of laughing intelligence in her beautiful eyes and the sweetness of her bright smile, he knew he’d happily take on every vampire in Vamp City if it meant the slightest chance of seeing her again.

Chapter 28

L
ook, grandfather, if you lift the curse it’s possible that a few Levenach heirs may come into their magic…if they have any. But it’s unlikely that many of Levenach’s bloodline have survived two millennia.

Quinn felt like she’d been arguing with a brick wall for the past half hour, to no avail. As dawn had broken, as the landscape had become fully visible to eyes that she suspected hadn’t seen very well in the dark, the ancient male had become more and more agitated. He’d finally stumbled into the backyard of a residential home and lowered himself to the ground beneath a huge maple tree.

Now he refused to budge. She wasn’t certain he could get himself back up if he wanted to.

Sooner or later, the transformation was going to wear off—she hoped. He’d be gone and she’d be free to walk back into Sakamoto’s garden the next time the sunbeams broke through. But if she didn’t get him to lift the curse before that happened, all of this would be for nothing.

She’d been trying to cajole him into lifting the curse since they got here, but he just sat beneath the tree, trembling, his heart pounding. If she hadn’t seen some of the truly vile things he’d done in his later years—like sending a thousand poisonous snakes to wipe out a village simply because the villagers had made too much noise during their midsummer’s revelry—she might actually feel sorry for him.

A few minutes ago, when the sun came up, her heart sank, because she knew Arturo had tried to find them. And failed. Hopefully he’d made it back to V.C. before dawn and wasn’t stuck on this side, waiting out the daylight.

They were running out of time and she was lacking ideas on how to motivate the old man.

The wizard lifted his arms suddenly and Quinn could see that the hair on his hands and wrists were standing on end.

You’re cold,
she said.

No. I feel energy covering my skin.

Mentally, Quinn’s eyes went wide. That always happened to her in the real world when the sunbeams broke through. Which meant…

The worlds are opening again, grandfather.
Praying for patience, she tried one more time, keeping her tone as quiet and gentle as she could.
Do you want to go home?

To her surprise, he answered without hesitation. “Yes. Send me home.”

I can do that. But you have to do exactly as I say.

“
Anything.”

Thank God.
First, you must break the curse.

“No.”

Damned stubborn old coot.

Fine. If you won’t help me, I’m not helping you. I’m going to return to my own body. You’re on your own here.

It was a bluff, of course. But maybe it would work.

“The vampires told me I had taken your body.”

She managed a laugh.
Do you look like a woman? Feel like one?

When he didn’t reply, she wasn’t certain what he was thinking. Had she confused him? Scared him, if only a little bit?

“You will not leave me here,” he said suddenly, his voice all command. But she heard the thread of fear. He was terrified.

Lift the curse.
That was the only thing that mattered at this point.

Again, silence descended upon them, but this time she had the upper hand. Because he’d admitted he wanted to go home.

“All right,” he said quietly, grudgingly.

Quinn did mental back flips, but kept her mind quiet, not wanting to lose any ground with him.

Sitting beneath the maple tree in the back yard of a residence in one of Washington, D.C.’s northwest neighborhoods, the Black Wizard—a male who’d lived millennia ago—began to chant a powerful spell. Quinn could feel the words wrapping around her mind, words in a language long extinct, yet words she nonetheless understood perfectly thanks to the links between their minds. Words of magic and power and the earth and sun. She saw herself in his mind’s eye as if he knew exactly what she looked like. And perhaps he did. He was definitely concentrating on her.

Somewhere in her own mind, she felt something fly free and give a great sigh of relief.

“It is done,” he murmured. “Now send me home.”

Happily.
Excitement raced through her at the thought that, even now, Zack might be healing, his temperature dropping.
You have to get back on your feet, grandfather. Quickly. We haven’t much time.