He shook his head. “The Shadow Lands are dark but they’re only Hell’s doorstep. The Abyss…it’s the real thing. No witch or warlock dares go there—it’s almost impossible to get back. But this witch…” He shook his head. “She’s either very brave or really damn stupid.”
“I don’t care what she is, just make sure your circle holds until I do the spell.” Celeste glared at him.
“If you’d stop showboating around and get on with it, this wouldn’t be an issue,” he growled at her.
“I’m going to. But these things have to be done in a certain way.” Celeste lifted her chin regally and strode over to Taylor. Shaking back the long white sleeves of her robe, she raised the long silver dagger above her head. Moonlight glittered along the blade and I felt my heart clench in my chest.
“Don’t…fucking…touch her,” I growled. I had a hard time getting the words out—my mouth wasn’t shaped right for speaking anymore. Little by little the beast was pushing his way forward.
“I’ll do more than touch her,” Celeste taunted, running just the tip of the silver dagger down Taylor’s tear-streaked cheek. “I’ll drain her, wolf—right in front of your eyes. Look at it this way—at least you got a chance to say goodbye.”
“Say the spell,” the guy with the strangely blurred face shouted. “Say it now, Celeste—no more stalling!”
“Fine,” she huffed. Obviously she was pissed about not being able to put on more of a show. Once a drama queen, always a drama queen, I guess. She turned to Taylor and gripped the dagger high above her head.
“Beneath the moon this sacred hour
I come to take this female’s power
To walk in day and eat the meat
Gained through breeding scarlet heat.
Let it wash me in a flood
Bought and paid by stolen blood
When the last red drop I drain
No more in dark must I remain.
Her soul I claim, her powers see
Let them enter into me
The moon must heal, sun’s curse abate
By blood and silver, change my fate
So Mote it be.”
On the last word, Celeste plunged the dagger down and made a long vicious slice across the right side of Taylor’s throat. Then she leaned forward, clamped her mouth to the wound and began to drink.
“Taylor!” I roared. “NO!”
At the same time I heard the warlock scream, “They’re coming! The barrier is coming down—I can’t hold it!”
I knew that Corbin was on the way—that I should try and hold out and let him kill Celeste so I could rescue Taylor. But I couldn’t hold back anymore. Seeing the woman I loved wounded and possibly dying stripped away the last of my self-control. I roared and thrashed against the chains as I felt myself begin to change.
“Easy, big boy!” LeeAnn pulled on the chain around my throat but she couldn’t control me. My brands burned, the old and the new alike shooting pain and change and rage through my entire system. The beast had been held off long enough—too long—and now he was coming out.
My vision became a wash of pure, bloody scarlet and then I knew no more.
Chapter Twenty-seven—Taylor
I saw him change.
Celeste’s mouth was clamped to my throat, draining my blood, taking my life, but all I could see was Victor. All I could do was watch as the beast inside him took over completely.
His eyes, which had been red before, changed even more. The scarlet pupils seemed to spread, covering the whites, taking up the entire eye like an animal’s. As I watched, the last scrap of humanity leaked away, leaving nothing human behind.
Coarse black hair sprouted all over his body until it covered him like a pelt and his mouth and nose became long and pointed, turning into a wolf’s muzzle. But though his head changed, his body didn’t follow…not the way I expected it to, anyway. He didn’t turn all the way into a wolf. Instead, he grew bigger, more massive, more muscular as his clothes burst at the seams and fell away from him. He grew until I swore he stood nine feet tall, his head blotting out the moon.
I stared in terror and fascination at what he had become—a monster out of a fairy tale told to frighten children at night. A beast from mythology. A man with the head of a wolf and the appetites of an animal.
As Victor’s size increased, his strength did too. He snapped the chains that held him to the thick metal stake with a guttural, animal roar. The vampires and weres that were Celeste’s minions backed away slowly. All except for Tozer—he took one look at the transformed Victor and ran away as fast as he could. Only LeeAnn and Celeste weren’t leaving—Celeste because she was too busy draining me and LeeAnn because she was plainly still determined to take Victor down herself.
Despite his dramatic metamorphosis, she was still hanging on grimly, trying to control him by the thick silver chain wrapped around his neck. When he snapped his other restraints and stood free of the pole, she yelled his name.
“Victor—no!” She yanked hard on the chain, trying to bring him to heel like an owner forcing a reluctant dog to behave.
It was a bad idea.
The beast Victor had become turned toward her, moving with frightening speed for a creature so large. The thick muscles of his chest and arms flexed with raw power and that was all it took—the silver chain around his neck popped like a string.
Still LeeAnn wouldn’t quit. Either she had a death wish, or she was incredibly arrogant.
“No,” she shouted, shaking the broken chain at him. “Bad! Get down! Bow to your Alpha! You’re mine, Victor—mine. Bow to me now or—”
Victor simply swatted her away like a fly. The backhand sweep of his massive hand sent her flying right at me. I would have ducked but Celeste had me locked in place and all I could do was watch.
LeeAnn’s head connected with the thick roots of the tree right at my feet. I gasped behind the gag at the impact—a wet, sickening thud. It was the sound of an overripe melon being split open.
She was lying at my left side and Celeste was feeding from my right so I was able to look down enough to see what had happened to her. LeeAnn had landed at my feet, her naked body limp as a rag doll’s. She might have survived the impact but one of the tree’s roots was poking crookedly out like an old witch’s gnarled finger. Looking down I saw that it had pierced LeeAnn’s right eye. Her other eye had rolled up to stare sightlessly at the night sky and blood trickled from her nose and mouth. Dead.
I barely had time to take in LeeAnn’s demise, though, because the beast was already coming toward me. I moaned and struggled but Celeste still held me tightly, her mouth locked on my throat.
“Hold still,” she muttered, between swallows of my blood. “No point struggling now, my dear. As soon as I drain the last drop of your blood, your powers will be m—”
She never got to finish her sentence. A huge, heavy hand reached down and dragged her off of me. I felt an instant of relief when her mouth left my throat but my wound was still bleeding freely, the blood flowing down my neck. I had no way to stem the tide and even if I had, I was mesmerized by the scene playing out before me.
Celeste was finally looking at Victor—at the beast he had become—and I could see the terror and disbelief on her face.
“No,” she breathed as he lifted her, his scarlet animal eyes glaring into hers. “No, it can’t be. The curse—it’s not true. It’s all superstition and nonsense!”
Victor raised her higher and growled, deep in his throat. Celeste screamed and tried to break his grip but she couldn’t get free. She looked like a doll in his massive hands, a tiny blonde doll that kicked and shrieked as he brought her closer and closer to his gaping jaws.
“Get back! Get away!” Celeste reached out with one hand and clawed at his eyes. She got the side of his face instead—the side she’d so recently branded.
Victor’s beast snarled in pain and anger. He grabbed her arm and I heard a low popping sound as her shoulder disconnected from the socket.
Then he simply yanked the arm off, like a hungry man twisting off a chicken drumstick.
Celeste shrieked in mingled pain and disbelief, staring at the bloody socket where her arm had been. I understood her confusion—Victor shouldn’t have been able to tear her apart like this. She was a three-star vampire—one of the strongest beings on the planet. But clearly the beast inside him was stronger.
“You can’t do this to me!” she screamed, lashing out with her other arm and baring her fangs. “I have lived for centuries and soon I will have the power to—”
The beast’s jaws opened wide and I saw teeth as long as my hand glitter in the moonlight. He clamped down hard and bit into the slender white column of her throat.
Celeste shrieked again, a high, terrified sound that ended abruptly in a dull, crunching—the bones of her neck being crushed, I realized. As I watched, the beast’s jaws met completely and I saw that he had bitten clean through her throat and spinal column. Her eyes were still wide with horror as her head toppled off and rolled to the ground at his feet.
The beast threw her lifeless, still twitching body down like a discarded toy. Her blood ran down his chin as he threw back his head and bayed at the moon, a long, low, ululating howl filled with grief and pain and rage and most of all, bloodlust. The sound cut through me like a knife—it turned my bones to water and made me cold inside.
And then the beast lowered his head and came for me.
“Victor,” I whispered as the bloody jaws loomed in my vision. “Victor, please…please don’t.”
It was one thing to be sucked dry, drained to the point of death as Celeste had intended to do to me. That was an unpleasant ending, to be sure. But it was still preferable to being torn limb from limb by the man I loved. I was chained to the tree, though—there was nothing I could do to stop him.
Blood loss and fear made me lightheaded and dizzy as he pushed his face toward mine. I closed my eyes and tried to brace myself as I felt his hot breath on the side of my bleeding neck. Oh God, this was it—he was going to bite off my head, just as he had done to Celeste. I could almost feel those dagger-like teeth sinking into my flesh, snapping my bones like twigs…
Except that wasn’t what I felt at all.
Instead of sharp white teeth, I felt his tongue. Hot and wet and infinitely gentle, he was licking my wound. Not like an animal tasting food it wants to eat—but almost like a pet that wants to give comfort to the one it loves.
“Victor?” I whispered, daring to open my eyes and look up at him. His eyes were still red but they seemed gentler now—filled with sorrow instead of rage. He made a soft sound at the back of his throat and licked me again.
Somehow, I understood what he was trying to do. He was trying to heal me—to seal my wound as I had done for him on multiple occasions when I fed from him. But it wouldn’t work. He didn’t have the natural healing ability I did, and though his mouth on me was soothing rather than painful, I could still feel the blood trickling from my wound and down my neck. The whole front of my white gown was red with it now and though it was barely a minute since Celeste had cut my throat, I was already beginning to fade.
“Victor,” I whispered as my eyelids began to flutter closed. “Love you so much. Sorry…sorry about everything. So sorry…”
“Get him off her,” shouted a voice behind me—Addison’s voice. “He’s killing her!”
“Stop!” I recognized that voice as well—it was Corbin. “Stay back, Addison, your gun is no good in this case. Let me handle it.”
“That thing will rip you apart, just like it did Celeste,” Addison said. I wished I could see her but the beast’s huge, hairy shoulder was in my way. I couldn’t see anything but him.
“Wait,” a third voice said—Gwendolyn. “Don’t try to kill it—I don’t think it’s hurting her.”
“Not hurting her?” Addison demanded. “Just look—she’s covered in blood and that thing is hungry!”
“If it was that hungry it would have stopped to eat Celeste or that other dead body over there.” Gwendolyn was probably pointing to LeeAnn’s lifeless corpse.
“The witch is right. I think he’s trying to help her,” Corbin said. “But if we don’t get to her soon…”
“Her life force is fading,” Gwendolyn said. “We need to get her down from that tree so I can work on her.”
“Let me talk to him,” Corbin said. I thought I heard Addison protest again but then Corbin’s voice got closer. “Victor,” he said, “I know you are in there somewhere and I know you can hear me. This form you are in, I believe that it cares for Taylor as you do yourself. Therefore you must contain it and step away so we can get to her.”
The beast growled low in his throat.
“No one will harm her,” Corbin said in a soft, coaxing voice. “I swear it, Victor, we only wish to help.”
“I can barely feel her anymore,” Gwendolyn said, and for some reason, it sounded like she was talking from far away. “She’s fading…”
“Victor, please.” It was Addison’s voice this time. “If you love Taylor then you have to let us get to her. She’s dying. We have to get her away from the tree so Gwendolyn can help her.”
There was a snuffling sound and then the beast’s jaws moved away. I felt his cold, wet nose sniffing along one of my arms and then I felt a jerk and a tug. Suddenly, my right arm was free—he had bitten through the chains!
I tried to lift my arm but it felt too heavy and my head felt too light. Victor’s beast bit through the other chains as well, setting me free. Then he howled again, long and low and mournful. I could have been wrong but it seemed like there was a question in that howl.
“Yes," Corbin said to the beast, who was looking at him inquisitively. “We will do our best for her. Go and run with the moon now—you have done all you can.”
Victor’s beast leaned toward me and licked my cheek once more—a goodbye kiss. I smelled the warm fur and musk scent that was at once and entirely Victor and saw the moonlight reflected in his scarlet eyes. Then he rushed away into the underbrush, nearly silent despite his huge bulk, and disappeared.
“Victor,” I muttered and tried to take a step to go after him, but my legs betrayed me. Now that I was free of the chains and there was nothing holding me up, I was so weak I couldn’t even stand.
“Catch her!” Addison gasped.
Corbin did and laid me gently on the ground. He and Addison and Gwendolyn all crowded around me, peering down anxiously into my face. They looked blurry to me, unreal. Addison had her palm pressed to my neck, trying to stop the flow of blood, which was now little more than a sluggish trickle. Everything was fading…black flowers were exploding in my vision, eating everything in their path.
“It’s too late,” Gwendolyn said. “She’s lost too much.”
“No, I won’t accept that.” Addison sounded like she was going to cry. “She can’t go—not now. She has to be all right…be all right…be all right…”
Her words seemed to echo in my head, following me down into the long, dark tunnel or hallway I suddenly found myself walking in.
“Taylor!” Addison might have been screaming but it sounded like a whisper. “Taylor, don’t go—come back!”
“Addison…darling…” Corbin’s deep voice sounded as though he was comforting her. “I’m sorry but it’s too late.”
“It’s not too late—heal her, Corbin! You can do it, you have the power.”
“I cannot. I can seal the wound but even if I do, she has no blood left. She has been drained dry—a fledgling vampire cannot survive under those circumstances.”
“Then I’ll feed her.” Addison’s voice was sounding fainter and fainter. “Her blood-bond with Victor is broken, right? So she can drink from anyone. Quick, Corbin—bite my wrist.”
I waited to hear his answer but the dark tunnel was suddenly silent. It was as though I had been listening to their conversation through a partly open door and someone had abruptly closed it. I looked down the corridor and saw a t
iny crack of light. Was that the way out?
I walked to the crack and put my eye to it. What I saw amazed me. There was a void—a vast, dark, black pit writhing with half-seen things. Things that were faceless and nameless, things with muscular, writhing coils and a bottomless hunger to devour every living thing.
The soft , whispering sound of the nameless things slithering over each other sent a cold chill down my back. I didn’t dare to look at them too long. Instead I cast my gaze across the void and saw a small lighted square. Inside it, no bigger than ants, were Gwendolyn, Addison, and Corbin. By listening very hard, I could just barely make out what they were saying.
“I’m sorry, Addison,” Corbin said. “But the spark of life in her has gone out. It’s too late.”
“No, it’s not.” Gwendolyn said, sounding grim. “There is a way. I can bring her back…I can go after her and get her.”
“What are you talking about?” He gave her a warning look. “You’ve already opened a door to the Abyss once, Gwendolyn. You don’t dare do it again.”
“I have to,” she said. “I’m the reason she’s dead in the first place. If I hadn’t broken that bond…”
“Yes, get her!” Addison grabbed her hand. “Please…please go get her!”
“I’m going. Just leave me alone and let me concentrate.” Her voice was sounding fainter and the little square of light was growing dimmer. I felt something pulling me away, some tug from deep within that wanted me to go, to travel the opposite direction down the long, dark hallway.
I left the crack and its view of the bottomless pit and its many monsters and turned away. Far down, at the other end of the tunnel, I saw another light. This one had a warm, golden glow that seemed to beckon to me. I took a step toward it and heard soft, sweet music. A gentle breeze blew out from it and curled around me, it was warm and delicious, filled with the scent of growing things and fresh baked bread, the scent of my grandmother’s favorite perfume…the smells of home. I took another step…and heard someone calling my name.