Bloodcraft (33 page)

Pain rocked her to her core as she stared at his silent, handsome face, memorizing every last detail of it from the slope of his cheekbones to the rise of his upper lip and the straight arch of his brow. His eyes were storm gray, the black ring around them almost invisible. She lifted a hand and drew a finger across that unsmiling mouth. The poison would make her forget she knew, but for right now, she devoured everything about him.

“Will you tell Holly that I love her? And Leto … I don’t know where he is.” Something zinged in her conscious at the thought of the familiar. He’d been missing for weeks. She’d know if he were dead.
Wouldn’t she
? “Do you think that demon killed him?”

“No.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he’s here.”

She frowned, hot white lights appearing behind her eyelids. “Why can’t I sense him?”

“You’re weak, Tori,” Christian said. “But you need to hold on. Pan is cooperating and we will have a remedy in no time.”

She eyed him with a wan smile. “You never could lie to me.”

Christian grasped her shoulders, enfolding her into his arms. “Damn it, Tori, I need you to fight. Not give up. Heal yourself, do something.
Anything
.”

She inhaled his scent, sealing her lips to the cool skin of his neck. “Did you know that I loved you from the first moment I saw you? Love at first sight when you crashed into me at registration an eternity ago. No one else has ever made my heart scatter the way you do.” She parted her lips and tasted the sweetness of him, hearing his indrawn breath and feeling powerful. “I didn’t care that you were a vampire because I was already so far in love with you that it wouldn’t have mattered
what
you were. And when we were together, it felt so
right
. More right than anything. I’m so sorry for what I did and the things I said. If I could go back in time, I would. Forgive me?”

“Of course I forgive you.”

He turned his face then and she kissed him, settling her lips to his with single-minded purpose. Her mouth slanted sideways, drawing his tongue into her mouth and sucking on his lower lip. She wanted to remember the way he tasted, the velvety feel of his tongue rubbing against hers, the way his kiss made deep tremors shoot to her breasts and between her hips. Christian made her feel alive. He made her feel anchored to his strength. After an eternity, they broke apart. Victoria felt dizzy, but in a good way. Truth was, kissing him felt more normal than anything else had. Perhaps it was an after effect of Pan’s toxin, but the second her lips left his, the panic started to set in.

A sharp rap on the door interrupted them. Leto sauntered in, his gray coat looking patchy and worn. Victoria hardly recognized him. His green eyes lacked their usual luster and an odd darkness hung over him.

“I’ll give you two a minute and then you should get some rest,” Christian told her, pressing a kiss to her forehead before exiting the room. She wanted to tell him to stay, but she needed to talk to Leto alone.

Where have you been all these weeks?

He licked a paw and proceeded to wash his face as if she weren’t sitting in a bed dying.
Around
.

Around
? she repeated.
That’s all you have to say.

What do you want me to say?

Victoria narrowed her eyes at the feline. It looked like Leto, and sounded like him, but something didn’t strike right. “Who are you?” she whispered aloud.

Leto. Your familiar.
He loped to the side of the bed and peered up at her.
You really do not look good.
He
cocked his head to the side, his green eyes penetrating.
You know, there
is
something you can do.

“What’s that?” she asked, a foreboding filling the pit of her stomach. She knew even before he said the words what he was suggesting.

Invoke the blood magic.

“I cannot.” Her insides twisted in horror at his cavalier proposal.

You can.

Leto hopped up on the bed and Victoria fought an instinctive urge to recoil. Something about the cat seemed dangerous. It was
him
, but it wasn’t him. Her head ached with confusion. The toxin made it difficult to think clearly—perhaps it was that addling her brain and making her believe that Leto was the enemy.

Do you know the entire story of the Cruentus Curse, Victoria?

She recalled fragments from her conversation with the high priestess—that her blood was demon blood. The thought made her shiver. “Yes, Aliya told me.”

Your blood is very powerful.

“It’s evil.”

Evil is a state of consciousness. It is power, nothing more. And your blood belongs to me. Why do you think I went to such ends to see you this way? It was easy to convince the Janusite to concoct his poison.

“What?” The floor disappeared from beneath her, and Victoria felt the terrible sensation of tumbling backward without anything to break her fall. She fought to catch her breath as Leto’s calm words made shivers erupt all over her. Leto—her protector—had been behind what had happened with Pan? “You made him do it? Why?”

He wasn’t too hard to convince.
He nodded.
And I knew that you would be the only one who could stop me.

Victoria gaped at him. She frowned, blinking as he drew closer, his weight making the mattress dip. He seemed bigger than she remembered. His fur was matted and almost gone in patches as if something had attacked and torn his hide. She met his eyes and shrank back at what shimmered there. Something rippled in the periphery of her eyesight, and for an instant, she had a vision of something large and hulking. Whatever this cat was, it wasn’t Leto. It was something else.

“Leto?”

One of my many names, yes.

“Who are you?” she whispered, but god help her, she already knew. The pieces fell together like building blocks of something monstrous—a possibility that drained the blood from her body and the breath from her lungs. It all stemmed from the one question he’d asked about whether she knew of the true story of the Cruentus Curse. “You’re the demon who took Thaia, the mother of the first Cruentus Curse witch.”

Something that looked like misery flashed in those dull green eyes staring steadily back at her.
Her
eyes … the ones she’d inherited from him. She felt sick to her stomach.

Cursed to walk this plane for eternity to watch over my progeny.
He bowed his head slightly.
And might I say, you are the most promising of them all.

“Where’s Leto? What have you done to him?”

I am Leto, but I am also me.

“How?” she breathed.

You see, I wondered the same thing at first. Bits of my own consciousness started returning after the torture spells your friend Gabriel performed, cracking through the curse that has bound me for millennia. Not what he intended, I assume, but fortunate for me nonetheless. Circe’s bonds grew weaker the more powerful I became.

“By taking innocent lives.”

Not all innocent and a necessary sacrifice.
He made a grimace, one that only looked odd on his cat face.
I only wish to return home.
With you, my daughter, at my side where you belong.

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

And how pray tell are you going to do that? You have no power and the curse will bend to me, its only true master. The boy’s poison was a brilliant touch; I’ll give him that. He has ambition.
Leto blinked.
Perhaps I shall spare him if the vampires don’t tear him to pieces.
He licked his lips at the prospect, making Victoria’s blood curdle. His stare returned to her.
Now do what you were born to do. Invoke the blood magic.

“No.”

He advanced toward her and Victoria drew her knees up as if to ward him off. She could barely move her own body, much less keep her thoughts straight. But she knew she had to stop him. If he made her summon the blood magic, there was no telling what it would do. It would take power wherever it could find it—which meant all the innocent witches in the temple or any life within a five-mile radius. Her blood would be ravenous. Uncontrollable.

The blood rushed in her veins as if sensing that freedom was imminent and Victoria gritted her teeth. Her strength came and went in waves. Leto lurched toward her and she cried out, kicking with all her might. She caught him in the belly, but he came at her again with a growl. This time, she caught him squarely in the face, and her vision started to blur as the demon took corporeal shape. Its red eyes focused on her, its scaly hide visible in the haze. Bile pooled in her throat.

“Don’t do this.”

I need to do this. Your blood must bend to me and it can only do so free of your control.

“It will kill people without conscience.”

Yes.

“Please,” she begged. “I don’t want to be responsible for genocide. I’d rather die.”

This is what you were born for, Victoria. You are a witch queen. Your destiny is to rule. These creatures mean nothing to you. All they covet is your power. You should have no loyalty to them—they will all betray you.

She thought of Christian. “Not all of them.”

Your vampire
? he scoffed, reading her thoughts.
He only keeps you close so that he will have you at his side and no one else’s.
The cat shot her a sly look.
He’s more powerful now because of you. Because of your blood. The blood magic is what made his powers appear.

“I gave him my blood to save him!”

Or perhaps that was what he wanted all along.

“No. He would never do that.”

Demon Leto hissed, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand at stiff attention.
I grow weary of this conversation. Invoke the blood or I shall do it for you.

Victoria set her lips and shook her head. She still had one weapon at her disposal. She opened her mouth, but the spell was lodged in her throat as if the blood, too, was against her. The shifting demon version of Leto eyed her, watching and grinning as she choked on her own breath. He extended his paw forward and raked a stinging path down her calf. Victoria’s entire body sagged backward as the blood welled along the four channels, its color blackly red and luminescent.

“No,” she whispered, feeling something dark and hot consume her insides. But it was too late. Blood magic suffused her veins, racing along her limbs like an inferno. She fought valiantly to control it, but it resisted and she was weak … so weak. The blood magic filled her to bursting, consuming her every conscious thought until all she could think about was her hunger. She’d told Christian once that she was the vampire, but she was wrong. She was something far worse.

Demon Leto prowled toward her and she didn’t have one iota of willpower left. He would teleport her away, where she’d be the cause of untold destruction, just as her ancestor Brigid had been. She’d taken her own life in an effort to subdue the blood magic, and Victoria vowed to find a way to do the same if push came to shove. Her fingers clawed the bed sheets, her body arching with brutal force as her blood fought Pan’s toxin. Once it was free, it would consume magic from every possible source. One thing she’d learned over the last year was that her blood would do anything—short of killing her—to survive.

Suddenly, with a strangled breath, she grasped the amulet Christian had placed at her throat. She didn’t stop to think of the cost, only that she had seconds before her own will was overpowered. The amulet’s magic slammed into her like a tangible force as she invoked its stored power.

“
Expello
!”

Shock hung over Leto’s features even as his shape started to crumble and wane as the banishment charm took hold. Victoria had no idea where she was sending him, only that she wanted him far away from her. She could barely hold on as it was. At the last minute, she focused on the château in Fontainebleau. It was the only safe place she could think of.

Victoria, what are you doing?

“What I should have done from the start.”

The amulet will not protect you from me.
The rest of his words faded as he disappeared from view. The last thing she saw were those green eyes delving deep into the marrow of her soul.

Victoria fell back onto the bed, drained. She took a deep breath and dragged herself to the side. She wasn’t finished. She forced her legs to bear the weight of her body, grinding her teeth together with such force that her entire skull ached. Pain was good. Pain meant that she was still in control. Pushing each foot one step in front of the other with the help of the amulet, she reached the door. Hundreds of dragging steps later, she reached the main receiving room. Two young witches rushed forward.

“No,” she rasped. “Don’t touch me.” They recoiled at the growl in her voice, but Victoria didn’t care. She wasn’t sure how much power was left in the amulet, but she didn’t trust herself not to drain the two of them to nothing. The scent of them was too appealing. She wanted to absorb every ounce of their magic. She licked her lips and focused. “Where? Aliya?”

One of the girls pointed toward two large doors and Victoria made her way across the room. Several other witches appeared, but they, too, gave her a wide berth. Victoria was aware of how she must look, dressed in bloodstained white nightclothes, black streaks coloring the length of one leg. She hoped it frightened them—they needed to run.

She drew a shuddering breath at the door before pushing it open. The sight that greeted her was a shock—all the leaders of the major otherworldly factions were convened in the massive hall. Vampires, witches, warlocks, werewolves . Christian stood at the front along with Aliya, Freyja, Angie, and others Victoria did not recognize. Lucian was there too, she noted with distaste, with the ever icy Lena at his side.

Their eyes converged on her as her will struggled to control the rampant desires of her blood. Coming here had been a mistake—there was so much power in this room that the feel of it drugged her senses, made her delirious. She slid along the cool, smooth wood, her mind collapsing onto itself with want. Digging her nails into her palms, she focused on the blossoming pain.

“Tori?” Christian was at her side in an instant. “What’s wrong? Why are you covered in—?” He pulled away, his nostrils flaring at the scent and sight of her blood. The other vampires in the room shifted, the tension skyrocketing.