Sin's Dark Caress (24 page)

48

Darkness Awakens

M
cManus opened his eyes, or at least tried to. His head felt heavy and his face ached. The taste of blood filled his mouth and several of his ribs felt like they could be broken. The darkness pressed in, compounding his disorientation as he tried to gain a sense of where they held him. The aching pull on his shoulders stiffened as he attempted to move again. He realized he was tied up on some cold floor, and he could hear chanting somewhere nearby.

Be still,
Sagen's voice said in his head.
Don't let them know you are awake yet
.

He didn't need to see to know where he was. Beside the presence of the dragon, the mix of sulfur and decay told him this was Sagen's cavern.

How many are there?

Too many
.

Can't you destroy them or something
?

No.
Sagen's reply was definite and final.

It suddenly all came back to him, making him dizzy.

He'd been halfway through dialing Corey O'Shea's number when he heard a strangled cry to his right and found Astrid leaning over the backseat, holding a curved knife to Mary's throat.

“Thank you, Detective McManus, for helping me escape,” Astrid said in a cold voice. “Now pull over the car or I'll kill her.”

When he pulled the car over, she sliced the blade deep and Mary's blood flowed. She'd killed the girl anyway.

Astrid Hilden had done it all. How could he have been so stupid? A groan passed between his lips before he could bite it off.

“He's awake,” a deep male voice said.

The chanting broke off.

“About time.” Astrid's voice no longer carried any trace fear or insecurity. “Remove the blindfold.”

“I don't know why you blindfolded him in the first place. He was already out cold,” another woman said.

So, at least one man and two women.

“You have no appreciation for theatrics, Ursula,” Astrid said. “You never did.”

Ursula?
Where had he heard that name before?

The tightness loosened and dropped from his eyes, but he still had trouble opening them. Finally, he was able to crack one eyelid a little.

Two burly men stood nearby. Obviously muscle for hire. As soon as he saw the woman he assumed was Ursula, he knew where he'd seen her before.

“You killed you sister,” he croaked. “How could you leave her little girl orphaned like that?”

“That's your fault.” She looked down at him sourly. “It was supposed to be Amy when she turned sixteen, but you forced our hand and we had to act sooner. Besides, Lucinda found us, so one sister was a good as another.”

Pain stabbed through his eye as an inhuman scream cut the air. But the pain wasn't his. It was Sagen. They had bound the dragon in silver chains that crackled with ice blue energy. Astrid pulled the sword imbued with the same energy from Sagen's eye. The pain seared through to the back of McManus's skull as the black blood oozed from the dragon's now empty socket.

Silver tears slipped from Sagen's remaining eye, and Ursula captured them in a large glass vessel. Astrid drew back the sword and plunged it deep in Sagen's side. McManus's cry mingled with the creature's as pain stabbed under his ribs.

He gasped, trying to drag oxygen back into his burning lungs while his heart struggled to keep beating. McManus felt his own tears wetting his cheeks as he watched the dragon's remaining eye turn to him in pain. Again Astrid plunged the sword into the dragon, this time lower. The pain seared McManus's stomach.

She handed the sword to Ursula.

“And you killed your own daughter?” McManus said to Astrid.

Ursula nodded to one of the guards, who delivered a heavy blow to his gut with the definite crunch of a rib snapping. “You dare to address the Alto?”

He laughed through the pain, which was difficult given his lack of air.

Astrid's humorless smile never reached her cold eyes. “My child fulfilled the sole purpose for which I gave birth to her. It was always her destiny to be sacrificed to the Dark Lords. We have all made such sacrifices.”

He looked at the faces of all the witches, burning them into his brain so he'd know who to kill once he got free. A dark-skinned man would be related to the girl who was killed in the voodoo shop. The others he could only guess.

Broken ribs screamed as he craned to see, but he ignored the pain. “They've all killed their blood for this. Why?”

An infant cried, and a soothing voice crooned softly as one of the witches picked up a tiny newborn from a baby carrier by the pool.

“To return the rightful rulers to us. The world has grown overcrowded and chaotic, and the Dark Lords will bring back order.” Astrid's maniacal grin deepened.

She's totally and completely off her freaking rocker.

“The dragon's almost ready,” Ursula said.

“Excellent,” Astrid replied. “Prepare the vessels.”

As the others moved away, Astrid looked down on him. “I'll really have to thank Bianca Sin, before I kill her. I couldn't believe my luck when she turned up to rescue me. I mean the plan I had for my escape would probably have worked, but she gave me something even more precious. You. A dragon warrior, the perfect way to into Lord Sagen's lair.”

“Eat shit and die,” McManus ground out through gritted teeth. Not very original, but pain and his need for a fix were not exactly conducive to clever comebacks.

The witch ignored his attempted insult and smiled that evil smile he was really starting to hate. “Of course, that meant I had to sacrifice that odiously loyal Mary earlier than I'd planned. Her essence was to be a feast for the masters when they arrived. But since I have you, it was a price worth paying.”

Ursula returned dressed in a hooded white robe and carrying a swath of crimson fabric across her arms. Astrid's crazed violet eyes never left his face as the other woman held it up behind her.

“There is an added bonus to you being here,” she said, slipping her arms into the robe. “When the dragon breathes his last in the presence of a dragon warrior, it must trigger the release of the dragon spark. He could have died holding onto it if not for you. And now I'll make it mine.” Her eyes darkened and she took a step toward him.

“It's time, Alto,” one of the other witches said.

She glared at him, then spun to storm back to the pool. She looked every bit her mother's daughter in that moment. He lifted himself to his feet to get a better look.

They all extended small glass vials over the pool.

“Water of my blood,” they intoned.

Then Astrid picked up the glass container Ursula had used to collect Sagen's tears. “Water of the dragon.”

As Astrid poured the contents into the pond, the crystal clear water turned a milky swirling silver. Ursula picked up the sword and followed her mistress to the dragon's side. The blade was now blacker than the blackest obsidian, as if the dark dragon's blood had imbued the very metal itself. Astrid took the weapon, her manic gleam returning as she moved to the dragon's side and placed the tip carefully against the hide, then thrust.

McManus's chest seemed to explode as Lord Sagen's scream filled his mind and the cavern with a white-hot pain.

49

Enemy Mine

T
he VCU agents took Gayla and Marcus from the room, and Bianca leaned back in the chair.

“How could I have gotten it so wrong?” she said. McManus was missing and Mary dead because of her. Because she helped Astrid.

“All of us did.” Oberon put his hand on her shoulder. “I'm going to talk to Roberts, see if we can mobilize to find her.”

Suddenly, the dragon screamed and passed out, falling from her shoulder.

“Kedrax,” she cried, catching him before he hit the floor and drawing his unconscious little body to her chest. Though his heart beat strongly, it was a little too fast.

“Is he okay?” Cody asked.

“I don't know,” she replied in a near panic as she laid him down on the interview table.

The dragon's eyes opened slowly and he roused from his side, lifting his head to look at her with molten gold eyes. “Lord Sagen's in a lot of pain and McManus is there with him.”

Her heart stopped beating. “Is he alive?”

“Yes,” the dragon, said climbing unsteadily to his feet. “For now.”

He lives.
Her heart started again and she sighed and closed her eyes as relief flooded through her
.
“Lord Sagen!” she called.

Yes, witch.
Sagen's voice filled her head.
I'm here.

Kedrax's talons dug into her forearm on the table, though not hard enough to hurt. He'd heard the voice too.

“Can you bring us to you?” she asked.

No.
Sagen was silent for a moment.
I'm too weak
.

She closed her eyes and used her mind.
How's McManus?

He's alive but in bad shape
.

Is it Astrid? Are they there?

Yes, they used my own arrogant complacency against me,
the dragon said.
I didn't see the ruse until it was too late. They sent a man with a gun to kill me . . .

“A handgun couldn't harm a Great Dragon,” Kedrax said.

Precisely. The man was the weapon. The moment I bit into him, I felt the poison enter my system. So, when the witch turned up, I was helpless to stop them. They're preparing to open the . . .

Sagen went quiet. She could sense the pain he was in.

The little dragon trembled, out of fear or anger, she couldn't tell. In her case, it was definitely anger. She had to stop Astrid. She had to stop them all.

“What if I meet you partway? If I can get to the caverns below the subway? Will you have enough strength then?” she asked.

Maybe. They still have to prepare before they are ready to complete the ritual. But hurry.

“I'll get there as fast as I can,” she said, as Kedrax climbed on her shoulder.

Cody stood silently through the entire exchange, but as she picked up her keys, he placed his hand over hers and gently pried them from her shaking fingers. “I'll drive.”

T
he packed subway station buzzed with people crowding the platform. A train screeched to a halt and several sets of doors opened in perfect synchronization. Commuters swapped in and out of the cars, providing little actual relief to the press of bodies. Cody used his mojo to guide people out of the way and open a path to the tunnel at the far end. Just as Bianca reached the edge of the platform where the tunnel yawned ominously before her, Sagen's presence entered her head and the now familiar blinding white light overwhelmed her.

Whatever she expected to find when she got there, this wasn't it. Nothing could've prepared her for the sight of Sagen's massive body secured to the stone floor with large magic-imbued silver chains. His wings were tattered beyond flight, black dragon's blood oozing from dozens of wounds, and his hide so pale it was almost colorless. He lay half in darkness, looking beaten, both physically and emotionally.

Kedrax shifted on her shoulder as she glanced around for Cody, but it was only the two of them.

I couldn't bring your friend,
Sagen said in her mind.
I only have enough energy for defensive spells.

Two men stood near a mound of rags with their backs to her. She hit them with a quick knockout spell before they could turn and catch her. They both froze to the spot. No one would notice unless they looked too closely. She could hear chanting voices, but the dragon's body hid them from sight.

Sagen shifted, pain burning deep in his eye. Tears welled in hers as she lay against him, her body lifting with each labored breath as she listened to his dangerously slow heartbeat.

“What have they done to you?”

He lifted his head as much as the chains would allow, more black blood seeped through his jaws.

“He's dying,” Kedrax whispered.

I know.
“Don't move,” she cried softly, the tears flowing freely down her cheeks now. “Just lie still. Where's McManus?”

He's over there—
Sagen's breath stopped as he hitched
—by the men.

What she had mistaken for rags moved. She raced to his side and slid to her knees. His face was a mess, with one eye swollen shut, the other only half open. Dried blood crusted his puffy split lips, and his clothes were torn bloody rags.

“Be careful, they'll see you,” he croaked.

She looked over her shoulder at the group of robed witches standing in a circle, chanting. If they looked this way, she'd be undone.

You
are in
a concealment spell,
Sagen said.

That's why the guards hadn't sensed her either. Sagen protected her. He said he only had enough energy for defensive spells, and now she could see why. They'd taken an eye and almost killed him. How much of a toll was even the defensive spell taking? She had to save them. Both of them.

“Leave me,” McManus said in little more than a breath as she worked the knots. “Stop them.”

“I'll get you out of here first,” she whispered back.

“No! Save the kids.” His half open eye looked at her.

A baby's cry brought her attention back to five robed figures surrounding the pool, each now holding a naked baby. As they continued to chant, they pulled daggers from their robes. Bianca shot forward, drew all the energy she could through Kedrax and wove it into an energy ball.

“Blood of my blood,” they chanted.

Before she could work out how to hurl the thaumaturgic energy without harming them, the five witches nicked the babies' heels and held them over the strange silver gray pool. Each of the infants' faces screwed up, red and howling, as they kicked out their tiny legs. Blood from each baby fell into the pool, turning the water crimson.

If she fired now, she'd risk the children. “Let them go,” she screamed.