Tall, Dark & Apocalyptic (16 page)

He could have smacked her upside the head. He could have pummeled her skull with a rock. Neither action could have stunned her more. Stars sparked before her eyes from the shock. For a moment she thought she might pass out. “Lead…” She cleared her throat. “Lead
you
? Are you mad?”

The sand at her feet swirled and the air thickened, heralding an arrival from the void. She turned to Grimm, her cheeks flushed with angry heat, “We’re not done with this conversation, Reborn.”

He smiled, inclining his head in acquiescence. “Your wish and all that.”

Yeira didn’t hear him. A shape was forming in the swirling air. A familiar form. And her breath stalled in her lungs at the sight.

Audie stepped from the void and stopped, his sexy dark blue gaze sliding over her. Blood ran from his temple and one side of his neck looked like it had suffered a terrible sunburn. He was covered in dirt, his clothes torn and dirty, and his long, black hair was matted with blood.

He looked delicious.

“Are you all right?” she asked him.

“Never been better. You?” His eyes were filled with heat as they took in her disheveled state. Yeira realized she probably looked like a woman who’d been rolling around naked in a pile of leaves. Her cheeks heated and she threw Grimm a quick glance, wondering if he’d noticed.

His crooked grin told her he had.

Audie frowned, his gaze snapping. “What do you know of the dark one’s apprentice?” He asked Grimm.

“Joris?” Yeira interrupted, frowning. “Why do you ask?”

“I just passed him in the void. He was heading for the dead lands. Can he best the witch?”

Yeira shook her head. “Doubtful. He’s strong. He knows her tricks. But she’s saturated with death magics.” Yeira crossed her arms over her chest, a sudden chill sliding over her. “Tell you the truth, after seeing her in action again, I’m not sure anybody can beat her.”

“
You
can.”

Audie and Yeira looked at Grimm.

“Not alone, she won’t.”

Reacting to Audie’s hostile tone, Grimm lifted an eyebrow. “No, not alone, of course. But Yeira has what we need to defeat the dark one.”

“What do you mean, has what you need?” Audie asked.

Distracted, wondering about Joris going after Edwige, she was only half listening. But when their words finally penetrated, she glanced up and her gaze caught Grimm’s. “He means because she’s my birth mother.”

Audie’s jaw tightened and Yeira couldn’t stop the quick spike of pain from his reaction. “Yes, I’m a monster too, Kord.”

He frowned. “Don’t presume to read my mind, woman. I wasn’t thinking that.”

Grimm stepped forward as if to ward off the budding argument. “Yeira carries Edwige’s blood in her veins. But more importantly, she carries the witch’s magic.”

Audie blinked, his gaze sliding to Yeira. “Is this true?”

Yeira shrugged, wanting to punch the other reborn in his big mouth. “I might have some energy, but it’s completely out of my control.”

“Some?” Audie looked at Grimm. “You didn’t see what I just saw, Grimm. That…
thing
…back there is no longer even slightly human. Edwige’s just a giant funnel for massive evil. Yeira can’t go up against her with fledgling magics.”

Grimm shook his head. “I agree. But I’m not suggesting that. I’m speaking about her usefulness as a resource. He turned to Yeira, his expression filled with hope. “For a potion.”

Yeira tried to wrap her mind around what he was telling her. “Potion? Tell me you don’t think to poison her?” She shook her head. “Edwige can smell poison through Ebon.”

“Not poison,” Grimm told them, growing more excited by the minute. “Antipodal magic.”

With a start, Yeira realized Grimm might be on to something. “Of course,” she breathed.

“Yeira?”

She looked into Audie’s questioning gaze. “Simply put, they mean to use my blood to create a potion that will enhance her weaknesses and curtail her strengths.”

He frowned. “Is that possible?”

“Yes. If we have a strong enough witch to create the potion.” She turned a questioning gaze to Grimm.

“Joris will do it.”

Yeira’s stomach twisted with alarm. “Joris?” She took a step back. “He tried to kill me for my blood. I’m not letting him near me with a boline.”

Audie frowned. “What the hell are you doing working with the witch’s apprentice, Grimm?”

Grimm’s face darkened under a flush. Two lines appeared between his black brows. “It’s a long story—a discussion we definitely need to have.” He threw Audie a guilty look. “I’ve done some things, Kord…” Grimm scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “I’m not proud. But we needed Joris’s help to end the dark witch and I did the only thing I could think of to get it.”

Audie held Grimm’s gaze a long moment, his jaw tightening as he realized Grimm must have been the “traitor” who’d brought the reborn to Sorceri Headquarters. “You
will
answer for those things, Grimm. At the right time and place.”

The other man nodded, turning to Yeira. “I agree that Joris shouldn’t be allowed near you. He won’t draw the blood…I will.”

“If you touch her with a blade you’ll die,” Audie stated softly.

Grimm jerked in surprise, his gaze turning wary as it locked onto Audie’s. “Then you can gather it, Kord.” He looked at Yeira. “Or she can take her own blood. I don’t care who harvests it. I just need it to be done. And quickly. The witch grows stronger by the minute and she’s close to discovering our plan.” He glanced at Yeira before continuing. “If she figures out we mean to use Yeira against her…”

“Yeira will be in great danger,” Audie finished, frowning.

“You can’t trust Joris, Grimm,” Yeira told him.

“Not in the long run, no. He’ll need to be exterminated too. But right now he shares a common goal with us, Yeira. And he’s the only reborn who has the power to do this.”

“If he’s gone after the witch, I’m sure he’s dead by now.” Audie offered.

“He wasn’t going after the witch,” Grimm told them. “He’s gone after the raven.”

Yeira’s eyes widened. “Ebon? Oh my god, if he kills Ebon…”

“Edwige will feel it.” Grimm finished for her. “Eventually.”

“If you kill her familiar she’s going to go completely off the rails. Nobody will be able to contain her then.”

“I agree, we’ll have to move fast. She won’t know what hit her at first…” Grimm frowned.

“I don’t understand,” Yeira said.

“Joris is going to rebirth the raven, infusing the death magics with the potion he makes from your blood.”

Audie had been looking back and forth between them, thinking them crazy, but suddenly he grew interested. “If I’m not mistaken, a witch is tied to her familiar at a cellular level.”

Yeira nodded. “That’s right. A weakened familiar is a weakened witch.”

He frowned. “But killing the raven won’t kill her?”

“No. Upon its death the familiar’s powers all flow to the witch, so she’ll be temporarily stronger.”

Audie swiped a hand over his mouth, feeling ill. “Stronger than what I witnessed? Lord save us.”

“Yes,” Grimm agreed. “But as soon as Ebon is reborn with the antipodal potion in his veins, her power will start to falter. If we move quickly enough, she might not know for sure that we’ve tampered with the bird.”

“How quickly can it be done?”

Grimm glanced at Yeira. “Joris thinks it will take him a day. Two at most.”

Audie nodded. “I like this plan, it doesn’t require anyone to take the witch on directly.”

“Well, at least not until she’s much weaker than she is now,” Grimm agreed.

“Okay, let’s get started then,” Yeira said. “Do you have a boline on you?”

Grimm’s handsome, brown face turned slightly gray. “I’m afraid it isn’t that easy.”

Audie narrowed his eyes and stepped closer to Yeira. “What aren’t you telling us, Hunter?”

Grimm sighed. “The blood process is a bit…tricky.”

“Tricky how?”

“I’m afraid we’ll need a
lot
of your blood to make the potion.”

Yeira sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to do this.”

Audie wasn’t quite so easily convinced. “How much is a lot?”

The other hunter grimaced. “Pretty much all of it.”

Yeira peered at him across the space between tables. “Are you sure about this, Hunter?”

Audie’s gaze followed the Healer around the room, his hand resting on the hilt of his knife. “I have no problem giving you my blood. But are you sure about the gnome? He doesn’t seem all that concerned about the outcome of this procedure.”

She glanced across the room. The strange little creature was standing on his stool at the large, wooden basin he used as a sink. He held a big spoon in one hand and was stirring something in a giant black pot, his whole body moving with the circular motion. His long, bare feet hung over the sides of the stool and his robes flowed over them, trailing past the top rung. Two, fat, hairy toes stuck out from under the robes.

The gnome’s pointed hat sat on the counter while he worked and the tangled strands of his gray hair were twisted into a messy braid that fell to the floor.

Yeira smiled. “I’ve known him since I was a child. He won’t let anything happen to us.”

Audie snorted. “I’m glad to hear he’ll keep
you
safe.”

She looked at him, smiling. “He’ll keep you safe too, Kord.”

The hunter snorted again, clearly not believing her.

“He will. He knows I care for you.” Yeira’s lips slammed closed and color flooded her cheeks. It was clear that she’d shared more of her feelings than she’d intended. “I mean, you’re very important to this battle.”

Audie held her gaze for a minute and then reached across the foot of space between them, clasping her cold hand in his warm one. He squeezed it gently.

“We begin,” the Healer announced. He bounced toward them, his long feet slapping against the wood floor. The gnome carried a small, wooden bowl between his hands. His spidery fingers were twined around the bowl, holding it firmly. Even so, some of the contents splashed out as he climbed the stool beside Yeira’s table, sizzling and spitting as it hit the floor.

The smell of burning wood wafted upward from the spill.

“Drink.” The gnome held the bowl out to Yeira.

Audie’s hand tightened on his knife and he tried to sit up, momentarily forgetting he was strapped down. He tugged at the thick, leather strap around his chest. “What devilry is this, gnome? You’d feed her acid?”

The little creature slid a round, black gaze in Audie’s direction. “Acid? No. This will enhance the magics in her blood, making it more resilient.”

Yeira fixed her bright blue gaze on him and Audie felt her censure. “He knows what he’s doing, Kord.”

God help them Audie didn’t believe her. “I’m holding you personally responsible for her safety, gnome.”

The little creature fixed him with a speculative look but said nothing.

“Let’s start,” Yeira told the gnome, placing one of her hands over his.

The Healer held the bowl to her lips and she drank. Yeira shuddered as the contents of the bowl slid past her lips and her muscles tightened. A moment later she pushed the bowl away and laid back, her eyes wild and her fingers twitching.

When she started to writhe and moan in obvious pain, the gnome laid a spidery hand over her face and she immediately calmed.

Then he climbed down and brought the bowl to Audie. He stood beside the tall, metal table Audie was stretched out on and looked up at him. “You’ll drink the potion too.”

“Not a chance.”

“You lack the courage of the woman?”

Anger blossomed in Audie’s chest. His mind formed around the increasingly pleasant thought of cutting through the leather strap holding him to the table and removing the gnome’s nasty little head from his repulsive little body.

The creature stood there, holding the bowl and wearing a smug smile.

“All right,” Audie ground out through gritted teeth. “Give it to me.”

The gnome lifted the bowl, his hands barely reaching to the top of the table. Not for the first time, Audie wondered why the creature made all of his accoutrements so high when he, himself, was so low.

The bowl was surprisingly light in his hand. Audie lifted his head, peering into it, and saw only a swirl of silvery mist. The stench, however, had more than enough weight. He swallowed bile.

“I wish only to help.”

Audie looked down at the seemingly placid creature. The little gnome had twined his long fingers before him and stood waiting.

The softly spoken declaration made Audie feel like a bully. He nodded and quickly drained off the contents of the bowl.

It hit his gut like the acid he’d expected, burning his insides like fire and sending his belly into painful spasms. Audie dropped the bowl and fell backward, his body so rigid under the pain he thought the gnome had turned him to stone.