Blood Lust

  Myst studied his beautiful face. She knew without asking that Bas had discovered the Mave’s security measures when he was trying to plant some sort of spy equipment. His life as a mercenary meant he was branded an outlaw by Valhalla. He would want to know if they were plotting to hunt him down.

  “Great,” she muttered, even as she admired the Mave’s efforts to protect her people.

  Myst didn’t doubt for a second that the humans were constantly attempting to probe through the outer dome that protected Valhalla, as well as sending in visitors with equipment intended to spy on the high-bloods.

  “What about Molly?” Bas asked, his voice hard with concern.

  Myst pressed her fingers to her temple, her head aching from her efforts to touch her daughter’s mind.

  “She was in the nursery, but now I can’t connect with her,” she said. “It feels like our bond is muffled.”

  “Damn.” Bas swung his legs over the edge of the bed, a layer of sweat coating his face as it twisted with pain.

  Myst grabbed his shoulder, ridiculously trying to prevent him from rising to his feet.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Obviously something happened.” Bas shoved himself upright, grabbing the bar at the foot of the bed to keep from pitching forward. “We need to get out of here.”

  She moved to stand directly in front of him. Not that she was going to be able to stop him from falling on his face, if he continued to be stubborn. He was way too heavy for her to keep upright.

  She pointed out the obvious. “You can barely stand.”

  His jaw clenched. “I’m fine.”

  “Bas.”

  Her plea to get him back into bed was forgotten as Bas abruptly reached to wrap an arm around her waist, jerking her behind him as the door was shoved open.

  It happened so quickly, Myst didn’t have a chance to stop Bas from playing the hero as the Mave and the Tagos stepped into the room.

  Suddenly the heat was smothering as the two Sentinels glared at each other, the aggression prickling between them.

  “What the hell is going on?” Bas growled.

  Wolfe had instinctively shifted to place himself between Lana and Bas, missing the powerful witch’s expression of exasperation.

  “Easy, assassin,” the leader of the Sentinels warned.

  Stepping around the bristling male, Lana took command of the situation.

  “We need to speak,” she informed them, her gaze narrowing as she took in Bas’s pallor. “You should sit before you fall.”

  Bas squared his shoulders. “No.”

  “Always so stubborn,” the Mave muttered.

  Myst rolled her eyes. That had to be the understatement of the century.

  Gently, Myst smoothed a hand down his back, offering a silent encouragement.

  “Please, Bas,” she said in soft tones.

  There was a tense pause, before Bas grudgingly moved to perch on the edge of the mattress.

  “Fine, I’m sitting,” he snarled, his gaze latched onto Lana’s carefully expressionless face. “Now explain why we were locked in this room.”

  Wolfe clenched his hands, but it was Lana who answered the sharp question.

  “The leader of the Brotherhood managed to escape from her cell.”

  Bas muttered a curse, his attention shifting to the rigid Tagos.

  “A human escaped your infamous dungeons?” he rasped. “Sloppy.”

  Lana grabbed Wolfe’s arm, almost as if she feared he might leap across the floor to smash his fist into Bas’s taunting face.

  She probably wasn’t wrong.

  Both males were on edge and ready for violence. It would take very little excuse for them to start pounding the crap out of each other.

  “She had a hidden weapon that knocked out the electricity and disabled the guards,” Lana explained.

  Bas returned his attention to the Mave, his expression grim.

  “We have to get Myst out of here,” he warned.

  Lana shook her head. “It’s too late.”

  “Too late?” Bas snapped his brows together. “What does that mean?”

  “Stella used the tunnels to reach the upper floors of Valhalla,” the Mave admitted.

  Myst tensed. The leader of the Brotherhood was on the loose. Perhaps even headed in this direction.

  God. She’d known it was a risk to return to Valhalla. Especially once she realized the Brotherhood was being held prisoner in the dungeons.

  But she’d been desperate to save Bas. And equally desperate to see her daughter, so she’d used the psychic’s assurance that she needed to travel here to overcome her common sense.

  Now her impetuous stupidity might have put them all in danger.

  As if sensing her painful regret, Bas reached to grasp her hand, tightly squeezing her fingers.

  “It can’t be that difficult to find one human woman and return her to the dungeons,” he pointed out in harsh tones.

  Oddly Lana hesitated, sharing a glance with Wolfe before her gaze landed on Myst.

  “We have a general idea where she is.”

  Myst unconsciously stepped closer to Bas, an icy shiver shaking her body. She sensed that the prison escape was the least of the bad news.

  “Where?” she demanded.

  Lana held her troubled gaze. “Fifth floor.”

  Fifth floor? Still unfamiliar with the vast labyrinth of floors that were dug deep into the ground, Myst didn’t immediately make the connection.

  “That’s . . . oh my God.” She gave a cry of horror when she realized exactly why Lana had sought them out. It had nothing to do with Myst’s vision or the fear that the Brotherhood was about to get their hands on the mysterious weapon. “Molly.”

  “Shit.”

  With a flurry of movement, Bas was off the bed and charging toward the door. Halfway across the room, however, he was brought to a halt as Wolfe stepped in his path and wrapped his arms around him. There was a short, vicious struggle that might have ended with one of the males dead if Bas hadn’t been weakened from his injuries.

  As it was, Wolfe managed to get Bas pinned to the wall, using his forearm across his throat to keep him in place.

  Even then, Bas refused to concede defeat.

  “Get out of my way, Tagos,” he rasped.

  “Bas, wait.” Ignoring the very real potential for bloodshed, Lana moved to stand only inches from the males. Myst shook her head. Either the older woman was confident she could handle both Sentinels, or she had a death wish. “You need to hear what I have to say,” the Mave insisted, her gaze locked on Bas’s flushed face.

  Myst wrapped her arms around her waist, her heart refusing to beat as she desperately attempted to telepathically connect with her daughter. The little girl was alive. She was certain of that much.

  But a barrier remained between them.

  “Molly,” she breathed, her voice coming out as a croak. “Where is she?”

  Lana turned to send her a glance filled with unspoken sympathy. “She was with Stella.”

  “Release me,” Bas snarled even as Myst pressed an unsteady hand to her lips.

  The enemy had her baby girl.

  After all her efforts to keep her protected, her worst nightmares had come true.

  “Why haven’t you sent your Sentinels to get her?” she breathed.

  Without warning, the Mave was moving to grasp Myst’s hands, releasing a soothing burst of magic.

  “Before I explain, there’s something you need to know,” she said in low tones.

  Myst instinctively glanced toward Bas. She didn’t know what she was seeking from him. Perhaps reassurance that she could trust the Mave. Or just the knowledge that she wasn’t alone to face whatever the woman was about to tell her.

  Easily sensing her need, Bas shoved aside Wolfe, who finally released his hold on the assassin. Moving to stand at her side, Bas wrapped a protective arm around her waist.

  “What is it?” Myst at last asked, returning her attention to
the woman standing directly in front of her.

  “While you were gone we discovered that Molly possesses an”—the Mave halted, clearly considering her words—“interesting talent.”

  Bas stiffened at her side, his breath hissing between his clenched teeth.

  “A high-blood talent?” he asked.

  “Yes.” Lana kept her gaze locked on Myst’s pale face. “Calder believes she has the ability to ignite latent gifts.”

  Igniting gifts? Myst gave a baffled shake of her head. “What does that mean?”

  “She can create what we used to assume was spontaneous manifestation,” Lana clarified.

  Myst parted her lips to deny the outrageous claim. Molly might be receptive to telepathy, but otherwise she was a normal little girl. Certainly she’d never been capable of affecting other high-bloods....

  Except, she had, Myst abruptly realized.

  “Oh,” she breathed, trying to wrap her head around the possibility.

  “You’ve noticed her ability?” Lana pressed.

  Myst gave a slow nod. “I gained telepathic abilities after I had her.”

  Bas tightened his arm around her waist, pressing her hard against his side.

  “What the fuck does this have to do with getting my daughter back?” he snapped.

  Wolfe took a step forward, but Lana halted any potential violence with a lift of her hand.

  “We suspect she caused a change in Stella,” she told Bas.

  Bas made a sound of impatience. “What sort of change?”

  “She had latent powers that we believe Molly managed to ignite.”

  Myst felt oddly numb as she studied the older woman’s perfect face. Maybe it was too many shocks. There did, after all, have to be a threshold a person could endure, right?

  “The leader of the Brotherhood is a high-blood?” she demanded, trying to wrap her mind around the thought that Molly had managed to turn their enemy into one of them.

  It might have been ironic if the situation wasn’t so horrifying.

  “We believe it’s possible,” Lana said, her words oddly hesitant.

  Bas made a sound of impatience. “What aren’t you telling us, Lana?”

  The Mave grimaced. “She’s a carrier.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Bas felt as if the air had been jerked from his lungs.

  Not at the knowledge that his daughter seemed to have a rare, unknown ability. That was something he’d have to deal with later.

  Instead, he concentrated on Lana’s suspicion that Stella had become a plague carrier.

  It’d been decades since he’d last heard of a carrier. Not since the former Mave had destroyed them during her crazed purge. Now he swiftly tried to recall what he knew.

  At the time he hadn’t paid much attention to them. The carriers were capable of controlling their powers, and the two he’d met were too ethical to use their magic to hurt others. But he seemed to recall that when their magic first manifested itself they could infect entire communities.

  Hell, he’d heard rumors they’d wiped out half the human population in the olden days.

  “Is she quarantined?” he demanded.

  Lana gave a slow nod. “Yes.”

  Something in her tone sent a shaft of fear through his heart.

  “How many were infected?”

  Lana’s pale face was hard with fury. Clearly the woman blamed herself for not being able to protect her people.

  “Two that we know of.”

  Two? Shit.

  Bas’s lips parted, but before he could ask the question that was twisting his gut with dread, Myst stepped out of the protective circle of his arms to directly face the Mave.

  “Molly?”

  “No,” Lana was swift to assure them. “The healers are able to track the diseases with their monitors and they’re certain she wasn’t infected.”

  Myst swayed, as if overwhelmed by relief. “Thank God,” she said in husky tones.

  Equally relieved, Bas reached out to tug Myst back against him. The female had endured one shock after another. It was a wonder she hadn’t collapsed.

  “Then where is she?”

  Lana grimaced. “Unfortunately, Stella broke the camera in the nursery before she disappeared,” she confessed. “Because of the spell we haven’t been able to search for them.”

  Bas scowled. He understood the necessity to contain Stella now that she was a carrier, but that didn’t explain why the hell they hadn’t gone in to rescue his daughter.

  “Explain,” he snapped.

  Lana carefully stepped in front of Wolfe, who looked ready to leap across the room and rip off his head. Not that he gave a shit.

  Actually, a part of him hoped the Tagos would attack. His savage frustration needed an outlet. Beating the crap out of Wolfe would help to ease his smoldering rage.

  A larger part, however, understood that a bloody brawl would only upset Myst. She had enough to worry about without him acting like a barbarian.

  Sensing the violence in the air, Lana sent both males a warning glare.

  “Once the magic has been activated it can’t be lowered until the threat has been eliminated,” she revealed.

  “Eliminated?” He leashed his primitive urges, instead calling on the brutal training he’d received as an assassin. Cold, resolute logic was the only thing that could save his daughter. “What does that mean?”

  Lana glanced toward Myst before meeting Bas’s demanding gaze. Shit. Obviously the Mave was worried that what she had to say was going to upset the younger female.

  “If it was a high-blood we would evacuate Valhalla and have the carrier place themselves in a specialized cell that would contain them,” she at last said. “Then, they would be in a controlled environment to train to control their magic. Once we were certain they weren’t a threat to others, they would be able to leave their cell and resume their normal life.”

  Bas arched a brow. The reason he’d agreed to work with Lana years ago wasn’t just because she happened to be one of the most powerful witches ever born. She was also intelligent, rigidly disciplined, and a master chess player. Which meant she was always one step ahead of their enemies.

  It wasn’t like her to create such a vague emergency plan.

  “That was it?” he demanded in disbelief. “You throw them in a cell and hope for the best?”

  Her lips flattened, pinpricks of magic biting into his skin.

  “Since it seemed a fairly remote threat, I didn’t spend a great deal of time organizing what would happen once the spell was triggered.”

  Myst made a sound of impatience, her body trembling with the need to get to her daughter.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’ll go in. I’m not afraid—”

  Lana interrupted her words before Bas could insist that he was the one going in to get Molly.

  “It’s impossible,” the Mave said, her expression grim. “The carrier is capable of contaminating the entire area if her power isn’t kept contained.”

  Bas tightened his arm around Myst, silently offering her reassurance that he wasn’t going to let their daughter be sacrificed to save Valhalla.

  “Tough,” he growled, the word slicing through the air like the crack of a whip. “My daughter has already been used as a hostage once. I’m not letting it happen again. I don’t care who gets hurt.”

  Lana shook her head. “You don’t understand, Bas. No one can get past the spell,” she insisted. “Not even me.”

  He clenched his jaw, trying to ignore his growing sense of dread.

  “Bullshit.”

  Wolfe made a low sound of warning. Almost a growl, as if he truly was a wolf.

  Once again, however, it was Lana who took command of the situation, using her magic to try and ease the violence vibrating in the air.

  “It’s true,” she said, a genuine regret in her voice. “I wanted to make sure that no one could be forced to release the carrier. She could be used as a weapon if she fell into the wrong hands.”

>   Bas understood. How could he not? Anyone who managed to get their hands on a carrier could easily use them as a weapon of mass destruction.

  Moreover, he recognized what she wasn’t saying. Not only that Stella could be used as a weapon by someone else, but that if the overly ambitious woman realized her potential power, she might very well destroy a huge chunk of the human population.

  Bas, however, wasn’t thinking like a leader of his people.

  He didn’t give a shit about anyone or anything but saving his daughter.

  “So you intend to leave her trapped in there?” he snarled.

  Lana flinched, as if he’d wounded her with his accusation.

  “No, of course not.” She regained her composure, her chin tilted to an angle he easily recognized. It meant she was trying to make the best out of a very bad situation. “I said we can’t go in. But if Molly isn’t infected, she can come out.”

  Bas scowled. His daughter was amazing. A vivid, joyous creature who spread happiness to everyone she met.

  But she wasn’t a warrior.

  “Excellent,” he hissed. “Now maybe you can tell me how a four-year-old girl is going to get away from a grown woman who was ruthless enough to gain control of the Brotherhood?”

  This time Lana couldn’t halt Wolfe from moving to the center of the room, the force of his power slamming into Bas.

  Naturally Bas eased himself to stand in front of Myst, ready and willing for whatever the Tagos wanted to throw at him. The very air thickened, the floor trembling beneath their feet.

  “Enough, you two,” Lana abruptly snapped, stepping between them. “We can’t make a plan until we know more.” Her attention shifted to Myst. “Can you reach her telepathically?”

  Myst shoved him aside, directly facing the Mave. “No.” She wrapped her arms around her waist, her frustration etched on her pale face. “There’s some sort of barrier between us.”

  Lana hissed, clearly disappointed. “It must be the quarantine spell.”

  Bas swallowed his aggravated condemnation. There was no point in slinging blame.