Intoxicating Magic (33 page)

I was directly over him, ready to descend, when a shout came from the second story of the farmhouse.

“Asher, look out!” It was Grace, standing on a small upper balcony, and to my extreme horror, she was holding Carrie upright by the neck. My friend had passed out… or worse.

“Carrie!” I cried and switched course, intending to do whatever I could to help her. But then Talia appeared right behind them and sank her teeth into Grace’s pristine white neck. Carrie crumpled to the deck as Grace let out an inhuman howl and tried to buck Talia off.

“Rhoswen!” Asher growled below me.

Shit! My element of surprise was completely blown. Everything in me screamed to go after Carrie, to help her. I moved toward the balcony and blinked when Talisen appeared behind the two fighting vamps. He dropped to his knees and pulled Carrie to him. His eyes met mine for one agonizing second, and then he jerked his head, indicating I should go finish what I’d started.

Asher. He was mine.

I glanced down at the son of a bitch, and with cold determination, I flew right at him.

It was a suicide mission. Asher was waiting for me, his expression full of bloodlust. He would kill me. It was written all over him. I only hoped I weakened him enough that someone else could take him down.

My world narrowed to only Asher, taking in his nondescript features. He had a medium build, light-brown, short hair, a round face—no real distinguishable traits. There was nothing about him that said vampire lord or evil leader of a misguided cause. No wonder he’d flown under the radar for centuries. Nothing about him was memorable.

But he’d messed with the wrong fae this time around. No one hurts my loved ones and gets away with it.

“Yes. That’s it,” Asher said, inflecting false charm into his English accent. “Come to me, Willow Rhoswen. Meet the same fate as your misguided brother.” There was glee in his dull brown eyes.

With those words, he confirmed what I’d known all along—he’d killed Beau, not Allcot.

“Go to hell, Asher!” I cried and dove for him, my hands stretched out in front of me. All I needed was contact, and I’d do my worst. I was a about a foot from him when he leaped up, grabbing my ankle. Heat and fire shot through my leg, straight to my heart, and I lost all control and tumbled forward.

“Stupid fa— Oomph!” A loud growl cut him off, just before Asher was tackled by my giant wolf.

The three of us landed in a pile in the middle of the yard, Link on top of Asher, savagely going after his neck. There was blood everywhere. Link’s muzzle was covered with it, his teeth flashing with more determination than I’d ever seen.

I’d landed about a foot away and scrambled to my knees, my gut churning when Asher reached out and wrapped both hands around Link’s neck. It would only take a second before he crushed Link into pieces.

“No!” I flung myself at them, both hands grabbing one of Asher’s arms. My world turned into a fiery inferno of pain. I welcomed it. Willfully I took in the red-hot agony of a thousand knives carving me up from the inside out. With every bit of vampire life I stole from Asher, I was one step closer to ending him forever.

“Let go!” Asher demanded and tried to shake me off, but I dug my nails in, holding on harder.

I kept my brother Beau, Beau Jr., Carrie, and Tal all in the forefront of my mind, clinging to their memories while I did what I had to for those I loved most. This was for them. For everyone else who’d ever suffered at the hands of the twisted, self-appointed savior of humans. He was no better than the gangbangers who killed for territory or rogue vampires who ate whomever they liked just because they could.

Asher wanted to stop daywalkers because he believed there would be too much of a power shift and humans would suffer. But in my limited experience, daywalkers became more sympathetic to humans. Even Asher. Who was to say if they were all daywalkers, had a part of their humanity back, that there wouldn’t be less conflict, not more?

It didn’t matter. Not to me. Not then. All I wanted to do was keep those around me safe.

Asher’s energy flowed into me, raw and unbearable, but I shut my mind down. His death would be the beginning of a new chapter. One that didn’t include a war focused around my nephew. As long as Beau Jr. had the opportunity for a seminormal life, it would all be worth it. I’d give up any life I had for him. For my brother.

“Willow! That’s enough.” I recognized the feminine voice but couldn’t place it. Couldn’t even move. My hands were locked around the vampire’s arm as if they’d melded there. I saw nothing but red, felt nothing but pulsing agony. My body was starting to shut down. Commands from my brain no longer worked, and I imagined myself slowly fading away into a world of darkness. It would be better there. Cool. Peaceful. A place to finally rest.

A flash of light filtered through my haze, and then I was lying on the grass, staring up into the face of the vampire—no, fae—I’d met a few days earlier. Hunter.

“Willow?” he asked, concern in his voice. “Are you all right?”

I blinked and glanced to the side, finding Asher gaunt and unconscious. “We have to end him,” I croaked out.

“We will.” Phoebe came into view. They must have just arrived together. “We needed to get you and Link out of the way.”

“Do it. Now!” I cried in a panic, not lifting my head or moving any other part of my body. It was too painful. It felt as if fire ants where crawling beneath my skin. I was trembling and so hot I was certain I’d combust right there. They had to end Asher before he woke up and touched me and stole his energy back. Because I couldn’t contain it much longer. It was out of my control.

Phoebe nodded to Hunter and the pair of them disappeared from my field of vision. I turned my head, eyeing the source of all my angst for the past year. And deep in my soul, I knew I wanted to see his undead life end. Needed it on a purely base level in order to feel safe again.

And then my best friend and the fae who’d spent years as a vampire tracking Asher down did what no one else had been able to do. They raised their arms and together they cast a blinding red bolt of fire magic at Asher. His body bowed as the magical flames engulfed every inch of his skin. It crackled and popped like sap in a pinewood log. And then all at once, the fire magic exploded.

All that was left was ash.

I felt the hot streaks of tears on my temples. He was gone. Finally. Beau Jr. was safe. For now.

“Wil?” Phoebe dropped to her knees beside me. “You’re shaking. What do you want me to do?”

I stared up at her, not knowing what to say.

“Willow?”

I opened my mouth to tell her I need to unleash Asher’s energy, but it was eating me from the inside out and I couldn’t speak.

“Talisen!” Phoebe cried, glancing back at the house. “Hurry!”

I felt his footsteps in the yard before I saw him. His worried expression when he crouched down next to me only made the tears come faster.

I’m okay
, I tried to say, but still the words wouldn’t come out.

“She needs to release the vampire energy,” he said as he scooped me up into his arms and bounded into the house.

I curled into myself, barely able to stay conscious from the agony claiming my flesh. Each jostle, each footstep, each brush of skin on skin was pure hell. Even Tal’s normally cooling touch didn’t help. It only made things worse.

Finally he stopped and ever so gently laid me down on a bed. I was too far gone to even open my eyes. A hand covered mine, irritating the fire ants that were burrowing away beneath my skin.

“No!” I got out as I tried to steal my hand back. But the grip on it tightened.

“Here,” Tal said softly and pressed my hand to a cold, hard stone. “Release Asher’s energy. Do it now.”

The ants fled through my body, pooling in my palm. Heat and ice mixed at the connection of my hand to the stone. I could taste the release, but I wasn’t strong enough. The energy wouldn’t budge.

“Take a tiny bit of her energy into yourself, Wil,” Talisen said.

Her? Had he assigned gender to his stones? It didn’t matter. I was beyond caring. All I wanted was the energy gone. Pulling the will from deep in my gut, I connected to the stone and pulled.

White-hot streaks of life seared through me. I gasped, sucking in a startled breath. Tal’s stones never felt like that. It was then I realized I wasn’t taking energy from a stone. It was a vampire. A female one.

I turned my head, squinting to focus on the blond beauty beside me. Pandora. Oh, Goddess. She wasn’t moving. Someone had killed her.

The sight of Allcot’s consort and Nicola’s sister made me want to cry. She was one who’d always been nice to me. I didn’t want to see her dead. I forced myself to roll over and placed both my hands directly over her heart. Then I squeezed my eyes shut and willed the energy back into her. This time there wasn’t any barrier. Her energy, along with all of Asher’s, rushed into her so fast it made my head spin.

Pandora sat straight up, knocking me to the side, and let out a loud gasp of her own. “What happened?”

“Pandora!” I heard Nicola cry, but it was Allcot who was beside her instantly, his arms cradling her against his chest.

His deep gray eyes met mine, his expression a combination of wonder and relief as he clutched his partner. His expression turned soft and vulnerable when Pandora’s arms went around him. “Thank the gods you’re okay,” he whispered into her ear, never taking his eyes off me.

I gave him a tiny smile, pleased to see he really did have a heart underneath all the power and arrogance.

He returned my smile with a grateful one of his own and mouthed,
Thank you
.

Chapter 32

The injuries and destruction were great. By the time I was functional enough to survey the damage, Allcot and his people had either eliminated or restrained all of Asher’s supporters. A group of us had gathered in a large den on the second floor.

Pandora, a new daywalker, was standing on the outside balcony, her face turned to the sun. Allcot stood just inside the room, keeping one eye on her and another on David. His neck wound was raw and puckered, but no longer bleeding. David was lying on a long couch, his leg elevated. He had a long, ugly gash from his hip to his knee.

“What happened?” I asked sitting in a chair next to him. Link, still in wolf form, lay down at my feet, keeping an eye on me.

“Vince. He was trying to take Beau Jr.” David moved to sit up, but I held up my hand, indicating that wasn’t necessary. His wound was ugly.

“He wasn’t successful,” I noted, glancing at Beau Jr. playing on a blanket in the middle of the room.

“No. He wasn’t.” David’s words were hard and full of contempt. “And he paid for it.”

I raised my eyebrows, curious what that meant.

David grimaced. “He’s ash now, courtesy of Hunter. We destroyed an entire room trying to kill each other. Finally, when both of us were losing so much blood and neither had much strength, Hunter arrived and ended him.”

David sounded pissed about that.

“And you wanted to be the one to do it?”

He shrugged. “Not necessarily. But I do like questioning my enemies before deciding to terminate their existence.”

Normally I’d balk at the idea of ending the life of anyone, including a vampire, but in this case, I held only gratitude for Hunter. These vampires would’ve never stopped until they got to Beau Jr. And that was unacceptable.

“It doesn’t matter,” Carrie said in a tired voice. “We got all the answers we needed.” She was sitting on the floor across from Beau, keeping a sharp eye on him. Bruises had blossomed around her neckline, but other than being exhausted, she appeared to be okay.

“And the answers are?” I glanced around the room. I’d been out of it for quite a while after I’d changed Pandora. Talisen had been with me for most of that time.

Hunter cleared his throat. “I guess I’ll start at the beginning.”

I nodded. “Seems like a good idea.”

He stood and started pacing. His dark hair was wet, as if he’d just gotten out of the shower, and there was an ugly scratch on the right side of his face. “You know your brother and I were friends in high school.”

“Yes, but you didn’t go to our school, did you?”

“No.” He ran a hand over his head. “I went to a private school that was integrated with fae and humans. I had a human girlfriend a couple of years older than me who’d been turned into a vamp.” He glanced at Talia, who was leaning against the far wall, staring at her feet.

“Talia?” I asked.

Her head snapped up. “Yes. It was me. I was turned against my will.”

My heart broke for her. It was one of life’s worst invasions, having your life stolen from you. I suppressed a shudder. “Was it Asher?”

“No,” she said quietly. “But he found me shortly after, and because of my anger at being turned, he used me for his cause—to protect humans from being harmed by vampires. From there I recruited Hunter and Beau.”

“Beau?” The question came out in a gasp. “He willingly worked for Asher?”

“Yes.” Her tone was apologetic. “Because he trusted me. The thing is, Asher had an unnatural interest in Beau, and I never knew why. Not until the night Asher killed me, or tried to, and left me where Beau would find me. It was a test to see if he could in fact turn vampires into daywalkers.”