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Salem stepped back, trying to keep from vomiting. Witches? Warlocks? The SPU, or at least Charlie, in league with the Shadow League or the vampires? What the bloody hell? Thoughts and images of Cullen filled her head. She reached up to trace the scar, the mark of the alpha who had marked and claimed her and who loved her.
Clinging to that love, she closed her eyes and reached down the link. He wasn’t there as solidly as she was used to feeling him, but the tiniest drift of his essence was present. Not even enough to glom onto. Knowing she was on her own, she began to take stock of what was available to her.
Sliding her hands into her pockets, she discovered she still had the razor when she inflicted a small cut on her own thumb. The other pocket, however, contained something far better suited to getting her out of her predicament—the Celestial Key.
CHAPTER 21
SALEM
Now, she just had to figure out how to use the key to get her out of this damn tower and back into Cullen’s arms. She had managed to figure out how to use the Celestial Key to find a location, but wondered if it might be used to act as a beacon. Even if it could, could it reach Cullen, and would he know how to use it to get to her?
‘Draw upon the power within you—the power you have always felt swirling within,” whispered her ancestress.
The old girl was daft. She’d never felt anything swirling within except the occasional indigestion that always seemed to occur after scarfing down a fajita burrito with extra cheese, salsa, and sour cream.
‘You are wrong. It is only now you are opening your mind to the power of what could be. The key is so much more than some glorified compass. In the right hands, it can be used to open multiple dimensions in time and space and allow you to walk in the realm of the hellhounds.’
“Hellhounds?” Salem repeated aloud.
‘Close your eyes; hold the sphere; focus on the stronghold of the Ghost Moon Pack and the alpha who rules there. Draw him to you. Be quick. You haven’t much time left.’
“Great. No pressure,” Salem grumbled, but did as she was told.
She pictured Cullen and the manor. She focused on being with him and showing him a beacon to find her. Slowly, the room around her seemed to go out-of-focus and lose cohesion somehow. The sphere in her hands began to glow and hum softly. As she concentrated on the sphere and on Cullen, the glow began to intensify and spread, engulfing her and spreading outward to encompass the room.
Just beyond the circle of intense light that had closed around her, a ripple began to appear, and beyond that a distorted image of Cullen, Colby, Shaw and a group of warriors. She could see Cullen’s attention being drawn toward her. The disturbance in the atmosphere must exist on his side as well—growing in strength even as she watched.
Behind her, she was aware of the door bursting open.
‘Go now. Step through the portal. Go to him,’ urged her ancestress.
A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that Frick, Frack, and Charlie were trying desperately to get to her. The glow of the room appeared to be acting like some kind of clinging fog that had them slogging through it. Taking a leap of faith, Salem stepped through the opening. There was a popping sensation and suddenly she was standing before Cullen, who threw his arms around her, giving her a hard kiss, before shoving her behind him and those who stood with him. As she whirled around, shouting erupted, and she spotted the warlocks, Charlie, and a small unit of fighters who Salem assumed were members of the Shadow League. They had managed to push through the ripple and enter Cullen’s stronghold.
CULLEN
Salem! His heart cried out. He’d feared she’d been taken from him and he might never find her, and then the walls of the study had begun to rumble and lose their solidity. When Salem had stepped out of what had seemed to be a distorted watery wall through which he’d seen her, he hauled her to him, giving her a hard kiss, and then shoved her into Colby’s arms. It wasn’t that the lynx-shifter wasn’t a good fighter, it was just that as wolves, they fought best as a pack.
Cullen had survived some strange things, and while this might be the strangest, he was not about to be beaten. Cullen howled the battle cry of his pack. As a unit, the swirling mist of color, thunder, and lightning surrounded them. As the mist cleared, Cullen, Shaw, and two of their warriors emerged as large arctic wolves, launching themselves at those who thought to take Salem from him and perhaps use her power to destroy what light was still left in the world. There was so much darkness, and it grew in strength and power with each passing year.
Those who had thought to snatch Salem back realized they were up against the power of well trained, wolf-shifter warriors. As the battle ensued, Cullen and his men met them blow for blow. Two men stood at the back, eyes closed and mumbling. One opened his eyes as if seized by some demon within. His voice raised in a bloodcurdling scream, and he raised his hand as if to throw some kind of dark energy at his men.
Before he could do so, a wooden stake sailed by him, spinning end over end until it pierced the warlock’s heart. He turned to see Salem with another stake in her hand.
“Warlock or demon, a stake through the heart does the trick.”
Cullen made a mental note to have Max make her more. He had a nasty suspicion that they would need them. He leapt past the other members of the Shadow League and lunged at the other warlock, grabbing him by the throat and ripping it out—the man’s guttural scream silenced before it had any effect.
Whirling around, Cullen leaped into the fray. Without the protection of the warlocks, the Shadow League’s fighters were quickly outmatched, even though they outnumbered his warriors. His attention and gaze were distracted as Salem’s boss, Charlie, managed to scoop up the Celestial Key, which made a high-pitched whine in protest. He was spinning it in his hands as if to somehow activate it.
As he watched, the Celestial Key’s alarm caught Salem’s attention. Another stake flashed by Cullen, hitting its mark deep in Charlie’s chest. Salem closed the distance between Charlie and herself. Scooping the sphere up, she began to dismantle and destroy it, grinding the parts under her heel and tossing the broken bits into the fire.
Crouching low, Cullen lunged at two warriors, managing to knock both of them down so that they were on the floor beneath his paws. He held them prisoner as he dispatched each by digging his teeth into their necks, biting down and severing their carotid arteries. He turned to see his warriors acquitting themselves in good fashion.
Cullen and the others noted the palpable effect the final destruction of the key had on the members of the Shadow League. A clear wave of frustration and anger seemed to roll through them, taking the fight out of them as the portal began to close. They’d wanted that key, and most likely Salem to wield it for them. With the destruction of the key, the rest of those who had come through the portal were easily dispatched.
Once the members of the League had been dealt with, Cullen shifted back to his human form, hugging Salem tightly to his chest, kissing her with a fierce passion and allowing that feeling to roll down the bonding link to her. He wanted her to feel the passion and love that he felt for her.
“Forget some ancient prophecy. You are my fated mate and will always be so,” he growled possessively. “And you,” he pointed at Colby, “were of no help at all.”
