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Her scream cut off as abruptly as it had started, but the ensuing silence was worse. The fist around my heart squeezed tighter, and for a moment, everything went black. My spell hadn’t protected her… not fully.
“If you kill her,” I said, my voice flat but full of repressed violence, “any hold you have on me will die. I will kill you.”
Clayton’s chuckle rolled down the line. It was a low, deep, and utterly confident sound. “You both know you will do no such thing, because the death of your familiar will rip out your heart and kill your mind. You will be little more than a flesh shell—one that will be mine to do with as I wish.”
And what he wished was what he’d always wished—me bearing him children.
I swallowed heavily as the memories of rough hands rose but couldn’t prevent the shudder that ran through me. I said, as evenly as I could, “You vowed not to take any retaliatory action, Clayton, and this—”
His sharp snort cut me off. “I said what I had to say to appease your father. The leash has been removed from me, Elizabeth, but I’m afraid you’ll not be so lucky. I want you here within the hour, otherwise your familiar’s suffering will continue.”
Fear surged anew, but once again I ruthlessly thrust it down. What he wanted—what he needed—was me reacting blindly. If we were to have any hope of survival, I had to remain rational and aware.
“Where do you want to meet, Clayton?”
He gave me an address and then said, “No one is to accompany you. The perimeter is monitored—the minute I see—or feel—the presence of anyone else—be they witch or ranger—I’ll kill her. If I sense any of your tricks—if I so much as sense a glimmer of wild magic—I’ll kill her.”
As if to emphasize this point, Belle screamed again. I closed my eyes against the sting of tears and fury. If there was one good thing about our psychic lines being down, it was the fact that the backwash of her pain and terror wasn’t immobilizing me. But it also meant she couldn’t reach out and grab my energy to keep hers going.
She might not last the hour… not if that scream was anything to go by. I pushed the ugly thought aside and hung up. Clayton would keep her alive until I was at lea
st in that house with him, if for no other reason than the fact he’d want to drink in my reaction when she died.
“According to Google, that house is a short-term rental.” Monty glanced at Maelle. “That means you can enter without invitation, doesn’t it?”
“Indeed it does.”
“And Clayton’s magic?” I asked. “Will you be able to get past it without activating it?”
Her smile held no humor and far too many teeth. The vampire was anticipating her kill. “But of course. You will keep him occupied, I will save your familiar, and then you will walk away and leave him to me.”
“I’m not sure it’ll be that easy, Maelle—”
“Just as I underestimated him, he underestimates you. This reservation’s power is with you, young woman. Remember that.”
I could hardly forget, given my body and head still ached from my efforts at Émigré. I glanced at Monty. “Have you any idea what the range of the recording device Ruby and Jenna gave us is?”
“I believe about half a kilometer in an open area. Reception will depend on whether he’s using a jammer again, though.”
“Fingers crossed that he isn’t.”
Not that it really mattered if he did, because the council would undoubtedly send Ruby and Jenna back down here to mentally wheedle out the full details from all of us. Of course, if they did that, then Maelle was in trouble. Clayton might have gone rogue, but he was still one of them; they wouldn’t appreciate any sort of vigilante action, especially from a vampire capable of dark magic. Her actions would out her, but I had no doubt she was aware of that and didn’t particularly care.
I returned my gaze to her. “You’ll have to remain silent if you don’t want your presence recorded.”
“My presence will not remain a secret for long, and we’re both aware of that,” she said, “But I do not need to converse. I just need to bathe in his blood and dine on his agony.”
“Thanks for those images,” Monty muttered.
Maelle’s smile flashed. It remained altogether too toothy. I swallowed heavily and headed to the reading room to grab my gear. Monty trailed in after me. “I really don’t like the idea of you going in alone.”
“It’s not like we have any other choice. You heard him, Monty—he’ll kill her the minute he senses another witch.”
“I know but—” He stopped and thrust a hand through his hair. “All this time we’ve been going on about how we’re all one big family, and how we’ll all back you up, no matter what he did. It’s all been for naught. In the end, it’ll just be you and him.”
“Me, him, and one motherfucking scary vampire.”
The smile that touched his lips was fleeting. “True, but even so, I don’t like it.”
