Wrath: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 2 (17 page)

“Maddy?” he asked, confused. Shock was setting in.

“Clay!” I screamed. “Aiden, get Hellion.”

Aiden stared at the dying dragon. Clay’s heels dug into the floor and he arched his back, his body recognizing what his conscious mind couldn’t grasp.

“Get Hellion, you malignant asshole!” I screamed. “Move!”

Aiden started, and it was like he came back to life. He dropped his sword before vomiting all over the floor. I crouched over Clay, trying to protect him from the splatter. Aiden righted himself but didn’t move to get help.

“Forgive me,” I whispered. “Oh, Clay, I’m so sorry.”

We sat there for a few minutes staring at each other while Aiden blocked the door and did nothing.
Nothing.

Clay’s wound was bleeding less, his skin cooling, and I knew we were minutes away from death. Then he surprised me.

“Kiss me, Maddy.”

I bent toward Clay and made the softest contact with his lips and he opened his mouth, kissing me gently. His lips were turning blue, his eyes going glassy. My salty tears wet our joined lips, and he tried to lick them away. I sobbed. His breathing changed, becoming intermittent as his heart fought to hold on. His last breath eased into my mouth. He was gone.

Aiden crossed the floor and shoved the gun under my jaw, lifting me painfully to my feet with the muzzle.

“I fucking hate you,” I spat. “You could have saved him.”

“Don’t put that off on me, bitch. Your knife, your kill.” He shoved me with his free hand, and I stumbled forward. He snatched the short sword off the floor as we headed for the door. “Stay in front of me, no fast movements. You’re leaving with Bahlin. No discussions.”

“You’re too late,” I said, my own shock beginning to settle over me like miasma. “Hellion proposed tonight.” What the what? Where had that come from?

“Same event, different groom,” Aiden said cryptically.

I went icy cold. “If your brother thinks I’ll marry him now, he’s delusional.” My feet felt like lead as I navigated the stairs. I was almost to the bottom when I saw Hellion lying on the floor in a small pool of blood.

“No!” I darted forward, sliding toward my second body in less than five minutes. Scrambling, I felt for his pulse. It was there but thready. I looked up and found Bahlin standing over us, a gun in his hand.

“You should have just come to me, Maddy. It would have saved his life.”

“Not just his,” I snapped.

Bahlin looked around and realized Clay was missing. “Where’s Clay, Aiden?”

“She killed him,” Aiden said, his voice rough, and I realized then he was trying not to cry.

“I’m not leaving with you, Bahlin. You threw me over for your guilt and then you treated me like offal tonight. What in heaven’s name makes you believe I would marry you?”

He stood proud and arrogant and never more lethally beautiful. “You were the one who convinced me to damn the prophecy and make what we wanted out of our lives. I want you, Maddy, more than he does.” He gestured toward Hellion with his gun and shoved him with the toe of his boot. “I’m giving you an out here, Maddy. Come with me and let’s fix what’s broken. We’ll go away, sort things out—”

“Wanting and loving aren’t the same, Bahlin,” I said, and I laid a soft hand on Hellion’s. I pulled my T-shirt off and pressed it to Hellion’s shoulder wound. “I’m not like your treasure, something you obtain, possess or own.”

Hellion’s eyes fluttered open, and he had a hard time focusing on me. “Don’t go. Please.”

My choice was made. I glared at Bahlin. “Leave,” I snapped, my voice like the crack of a whip. Hellion winced and I stroked his head. “I need to take care of him. If he dies, I swear on my own life I will hunt you down and…”

Bahlin stood there watching me care for the man in my arms. Turning on his heel, he let out a screech I recognized as dragonish. Men emerged from the shadows and followed him to the front door. Aiden, however, stood there.

“Get out. And…take Clay’s body home.” I choked on my tears. “Shift on the way out the window if you have to, but don’t bring him through here. Go.”

Bahlin wasn’t out of the house before I heard another groan from behind the sofa.

“Stay still, Hellion,” I whispered. “I’m right here.” I crawled around the corner of the sofa and gasped.

Darius lay on the floor, his right arm partially severed at the shoulder, a puddle of dark blood under him. He lifted his head, and his brown eyes took on an amethyst edge. “I’ve got to have blood to heal this before sunrise,” he gasped, “and you’re going to need help to gather the people to save Hellion.”

I looked around for any other volunteers, but I was the only hale person in shouting distance. I could hear groans from the hallway too.

“Can you stop it from hurting and make it damned fast?” I asked, crawling closer to him and shooting one last look at Hellion, who was still breathing.

“Oh, yeah. It won’t hurt a bit, flower, so long as you relax and let me in your mind. Can you lie beside me? That’s it,” he said, encouraging me to lay my neck nearly over his mouth. I supported his head and took two deep breaths. I felt the strangest sensation come over me, but instead of riding it, I fought it. His fangs pierced the skin, and I grunted in pain. It burned ferociously, and I had to draw him closer to keep from dropping him altogether. He took several long draws before pulling away. He sliced his finger on his fang and rubbed it over the twin wounds, presumably to heal it.

I stood up and, woozy, immediately sank back to the floor. I crawled back around the couch only to feel myself lifted. Darius had picked me up with his good arm and moved me toward Hellion.

Hellion’s eyes were closed and his breathing was too shallow. He’d turned gray in the short minutes since I’d left him.

“No, no, no,” I chanted, struggling toward him.

His eyes fluttered open but they couldn’t focus.

“Help him, please just…don’t let him die, Darius.” Tears clogged my throat and made it hard to breathe.

Darius came to my side immediately and looked Hellion over. “The only thing I know to do is get a coven member or change him.” He raced down the hall and came back with Conor in his arms. The man had a broken leg but looked otherwise untouched.

“Hellion,” he gasped, the pain and longing in that one word holding more anguish than that of a mere friend. Conor was in love with the Coven Master. “Put me down beside him. Maddy, do you have a dirk?”

I nodded. “In our room.”

Darius raced off and was back before I could have made it to the top of the stairs. He handed me the dirk, still stained with Clay’s blood.

I remembered what Hellion had once said to me, “
It’s an arcane piece of magic…
”

“Heal him, and I’ll grant you anything you ask of me,” I pleaded.

“Anything?” Conor asked as he ripped Hellion’s shirt away. Hellion didn’t make a sound.

“My word of honor. You don’t leave me, Hellion. Do you hear me? You stay.
You. Stay.
” I held his hand and wondered how I’d gone from foreplay to death in under thirty minutes. Conor started to slice his hand and I shouted, “No!” I held my hand out and he looked at me. “Do it.”

He cut my palm deep and I grunted in pain, but Darius was suddenly there, supporting my shoulders. Conor placed the blade on Hellion’s stomach and began drawing the runes in my blood. Hellion’s skin was cooling.

“Hurry,” I ground out.

Conor got to the last rune and hesitated.

“Do it—now!” I shouted.

He finished the last rune and for a moment nothing happened. I began to sob. “Tyr! Odin! Don’t do this to me.”

Hellion’s body shook once, hard, and Conor scooted back, eyes going wide as the runes sank into the skin of Hellion’s bare stomach. Hellion arched his back and screamed, his fingers scrabbling against the wood floor, looking for purchase. I started to reach out but Darius shoved me roughly aside.

“He’ll break your hands, Madeleine,” he said. He grabbed Hellion’s hands and pulled them above his head. “Efein!” Another vampire darted into the room, a huge gash still healing across his stomach. “Across his legs, man.”

Hellion was thrashing about, bellowing in pain. Tears coursed down his temples and I cried with him, knowing how badly it hurt to come back from a date with death. It felt like it went on for ages when, in all likelihood, it was under ninety seconds. Then it was over. He lay there trembling like a flame in a breeze. His eyes opened and sought mine, relaxing only when he found me.

“No more of that,” I whispered, leaning forward to kiss him softly. His voice was raw, and all he could do was nod weakly. I crawled to Conor and, taking his face between my hands, I kissed him tenderly and briefly on the lips. “Anything.”

He nodded, never breaking eye contact with me. “Anything.”

“Darius.” I turned to the vampires still kneeling by Hellion. “Will you and Efein—nice to meet you, by the way, though circumstances couldn’t be much worse—please carry Hellion up to a different room than ours? I need to see to Conor and see who else needs help.”

Conor pushed himself to sitting and leaned against one of the bookcases, staring at me as the vampires carried Hellion away. “You don’t worry they’ll make a meal of him?” he asked. I must have looked confused because he said, “The vampires. Hellion’s blood.
Our
blood.” He looked pointedly at my neck.

I slapped a hand over the puckered, healing skin. “Of course they won’t. Don’t be ridiculous. Darius and his people are allies, and if you’ve not figured that out after tonight, you’re warped. I’m guessing because you accepted my offer so quickly that there’s something in particular you wanted from me. If you’ll let me know now, I can begin working on it as soon as I know Hellion’s well.”

Conor narrowed his eyes and his gaze cooled radically. “I want you to leave.”

“Huh?” I asked stupidly.

“Leave, you stupid bitch. Go away. Immediately.”

I just stared at him like he was speaking in tongues. It took a minute for my synapses to start firing again. “No.”

“You said, and I quote, ‘My word of honor’,“ he snarled.

“Where is this coming from?” I pushed myself up so I towered over the slight man.

“You’re bad for him,” he said, holding firm. “He’s had nothing but heartache since you showed up. He tried to be a benign observer, helping you by giving you your family tree. Did you figure that out, oh mighty Niteclif?” He laughed once, a short and bitter sound I never would have equated to the quiet man. “No. You’re just a dumbass American with no right to be here beyond an obscure bloodline the prophecies herald as true. You’ve gone back and forth between him and Bahlin, and all you’ve managed is to hurt both of them and set two friends against each other.”

I wasn’t sure my mouth could fall any farther open. Was this all coming from the fact that he had feelings for Hellion or was there something more there? “I’m not leaving him,” I said. “Anything but that.”

“Then your honor is worth nothing.”

And there was the rub. What
was
my honor worth? Did it have a price tag? “No.” My voice was soft and pleading, a hair’s breadth from begging.
Anything but more heartache.
But by my pleading he knew he had me.

“Go now, and I won’t say anything to him. Stay and I’ll tell him I witnessed you and Bahlin together tonight after the fight.”

Shocked, I reached down and slapped him hard enough to crack his head against the wood of the bookshelf. “You son of a bitch,” I hissed. “I did no such thing.”

“Then it becomes my word against yours, doesn’t it? He’s known me longer, Niteclif. If I tell him in confidence, you won’t persuade him otherwise. Lying is the least of what I’m prepared to do to get you to leave.” He licked the split lip, delicately retrieving the trickle of blood with his tongue. He began to push himself up with his one good leg, using the wall for leverage.

“It’s really irrelevant, Conor,” said a furious voice just behind me, “since you just forfeited your life for hers.” Darius radiated malevolence. He stepped around me and kicked Conor’s broken leg.

The man screamed and collapsed back to the floor, clutching the knee above the broken shinbone. Fear had his eyes rolling in his head. “Niteclif! Mercy, Niteclif!”

Darius stepped on Conor’s leg and it snapped the rest of the way, making a sickening sound like dry kindling being broken for a fire.

My stomach heaved but I held. Flashes of the last few days began to pass by, and the pieces fell into place. Grabbing my dirk off the floor, I squatted down by Conor and said, “There’s no mercy, now or ever, for traitors, man.”

“I haven’t betrayed you. I swear it.”

“Lies aren’t becoming,” I said. “I couldn’t figure out how our position kept being compromised. First here, with Aiden, then in London with Bahlin, then here again with Bahlin and the blue weyr. You’re the only person Hellion told where we’d be. You first called Aiden, thinking Bahlin was dead. You were assuming the little brother would take over the Council seat, and you knew Aiden to be easily influenced. You invited him here so he could see if you were telling the truth about me being here with Hellion. When he came and told you Bahlin was alive, you offered to throw your support in with him. Anything to not have to watch Hellion fall in love with someone else.” I went to my knees beside him, Darius at my back. Truthfully, I’d forgotten about the vampire. Not necessarily a good move, but in this case I thought I could be forgiven. “Then you called Bahlin when we returned to London.” His eyes flared and I smiled. “How can I be sure? Because we never told Aiden where we were going. Bahlin came to the house and saw me in Hellion’s room retrieving my jacket. Was it you who sent the letter?”