Page 92 of Birthright

I held the bubble in my mind and turned around to try to find him. He wasn’t in the crowd that was now loud with arguments and words of encouragement and condemnation.

I concentrated even more on what was happening in my mind. It was taking a great deal of power to hold back the surge of magic trying to invade. I felt blood seeping out of my wound now. My efforts were making me sweat. Holding the spell to keep Feldema pinned to the tree, holding the bubble against Nessum’s prodding, and the blood loss were all wearing on me quickly.

I looked at Feldema. She was bleeding in the same spot I was. Bleeding hard.

I felt for my wound and the blood running over my hip and down my thigh. She wouldn’t be bleeding too if I weren’t dying. I saw Jordan. Cliona was holding him back and when I looked at him, he dropped to his knees.

I was not going to let them down.

I needed Nessum out in the open. I took a deep breath, feeling the pain of it in my side. I held my hand over the wound and reached the other toward the ley and found it close to the trees. I walked directly into the line.

The pain from the wound subsided. I felt the touch of another unfamiliar magic on my skin, silky and gentle. I had never felt such a soft touch of magic. It wasn’t Nessum’s, Feldema’s, or mine. I kept my body in the ley line, gaining strength from it.

I followed the trail of the new magic to the crowd. The aura matched one of the Unseelie Court Elves in attendance. Elfin magic. That’s why I didn’t recognize it. He was producing a glamour.

I used the extra strength of the ley to break the link of the spell from the Elf, watching his face as it snapped and broke. He stumbled and fell backward. One of the guards reached him before he could make his way from the crowd. The blood slowed to a trickle at my side. I wasn’t dying and neither was Feldema. The glamour was made to distract.

Nessum’s magic was still trying to find a way into my mind. He needed something from inside my head. I couldn’t imagine what. Why not face me and fight? Why not just take Feldema and run to another realm? The strain of fighting his probing was wearing on me. In my mind, I pictured myself grabbing that line of power still prodding at me and yanking on it like a rope.

Nessum appeared just in front of me. The surprise of the gathered beings echoed in a communal inhale of the cool night air.

“Nessum!” Feldema screeched as he turned to me. He held out his hand and I found my feet moving, my body rocking forward, dragging me out of the ley. Nessum was controlling my feet, moving me away from the power of the line. I fought to keep each foot in place, watching his calm, beautiful face. Those eyes. Joy and love filled my being, pulled me toward him. I was lost in his sparkling, perfect Vampire eyes. It was the thrall. If I kept the eye contact, I would be lost to him.

I managed a blink then fought to hold my eyes closed. The sounds of the crowd echoed through my ears as the pull of Nessum’s power was shattered. I looked down, keeping my eyes from his as I worked back into the line. But my head started to rise just as my feet had started to move. I shut my eyes to block the effect of those eyes before we made direct contact. I felt the magic of the ley line leave me. It hurt to be pulled away from the magic and it left me with a popping sound that echoed through the forest.

“Nessum,” Feldema pleaded again with weariness. “Why haven’t you come for me? Why did you leave me to rot in that cell?” She was sobbing hard. I opened my eyes and looked at her face, at the tears streaming down her cheeks. Love, disappointment, and grief all showed in her eyes as she sobbed.

He turned and stepped toward her, his magic not releasing me in the least. “It appears I chose the wrong sister.” His tone was smug and uncaring as he glanced toward me and then turned his attention back to the crying Witch tied to the tree.

“But…I love you! You love me! You promised we would be together forever. You promised!” Her utter loyalty and loss reverberated in the air. Her body hung limp with her pain.

“Pity, too,” he said, running a finger along the side of one of her breasts. She tried to arch into his touch through the bindings.

I felt the presence of two more Vampires moving close from the forest. They emerged and stood to my sides, just behind me. I could just make them out in my peripheral vision. I saw Cliona and Tynan stiffen. They wouldn’t dare move while Nessum was there. Jordan had returned to his feet and stood stiff. No one could help me. The Dark Angel was too powerful.

Nessum swung his gaze from Feldema and back to me. His features were so perfect, so beautiful. Alabaster skin covered a perfect bone structure, long golden hair graced his shoulders. He wore a Roman-style tunic with golden trim and a belt that held a small dagger only. I closed my eyes quickly so as not to get caught up in his beauty. His charm could move me against my will.

“I made the same mistake most of the Kith had, my love.” He was still talking to Feldema. “Little Miss Mary’s human blood didn’t weaken her as we all thought.”

“But Nessum! I did everything you asked. I took no others. I gave you powers and asked for nothing in return. Please, Nessum!” She frantic. I opened my eyes and let her loose from her wisteria bindings. She ran at him and draped herself in his arms.

He gave me a disgusted look and waved his hand, and she was flung right back to the tree, again surrounded by the vines. At least I had let go of the spell holding her and only had to concentrate on blocking him from my mind. His power was still there, still probing for a way in.

“What is it you’re looking for in there, Nessum?” I tried not to betray the fear that was filling me.

“Weakness, Keena. We all have one. You found mine. I’m looking for yours.” He stepped to my right, still trying to probe.

I was being drained. My body felt as if the very blood was being slowly drained from it. A bead of sweat ran down my back and my knees were getting weak. “What do you want with me, with Feldema?”

“Power.”

I kept my eyes down but my chin was still held up by his magic. “You have more power than anyone here. Why more?” I was fighting to keep standing.

He stepped behind me. His two Vamps, who were behind him. “It appears to me that you have great power. You are standing to fight me, are you not?”

I didn’t know how to answer. I caught him out of the corner of my eye on the left as he started back around. His feet were so close to a circle I had drawn in practice weeks before. I could see the outline of it in the grass…

Could I close him in it? I looked forward, desperate not to draw it to his attention. It was only a slight disturbance in the grass but I wasn’t taking any chances.