Part 4 (1/2)
Today would have been her fourteenth birthday.
The little girl's name had been Lori. Lori...a sweet, red- headed little girl, wide eyed and innocent. Kelsey shook her head. Such a child had alighted on the Council's doorstep just a few years ago, wrapped in Eli's arms.
The vampire had been reeking of blood and violence, his eyes full anguish and pain as he turned the child over to Kelsey, a.s.suring her that the little one's memory of the night was gone.
Kelsey had wished she could do the same for Eli but he had left in silence before she could even offer a shoulder.
A gifted child, another witch, one who would be a Healer.
The child had often asked of her sister...Sarel.
Sarel, the angry powerful young witch who was killing Eli.
A tangled path had led her to Eli's door.
Sarel had arrived only hours after her father had killed her mother, before he had turned on his own child. The child hadn't been killed though. Her father had died viciously, his throat ripped wide open, his blood painting the floor red instead of feeding Eli. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d's body had been pummeled and beaten and broken, a more brutal, and deadly version of what he had often done to his wife and kids.
It hadn't been one of Eli's cleaner kills.
Standing enraged before the lifeless woman who had let her children be beaten, his emotions, his helplessness apparent as he held the tiny, underfed nine year old in his arms while she sobbed and cried.
Eli had resorted to mind control to soothe the child, erasing her memories of that night and taking her away.
Sarel had strong, untrained psychic skills, not just the witchcraft. The hunter had left too much of himself, let himself feel too much rage. He hadn't just attacked and killed-Eli had fought, wanting to feel bones break under his hands, wanting to feel skin tear and blood flow. And he had let his own blood be spilled as he allowed the man to fight-as he let the perverted b.a.s.t.a.r.d think he would win before he killed him.
Sarel had locked on the scent of his blood, his rage, convincing herself she was tracking a killer. That was how Sarel had found him. Tracking the path of emotions, the line of blood and rage, going without any knowledge of his looks or his name, for more than four years, she had tracked him.
Between the blood and the emotion, she was led across the country to Eli. It had taken years, but she had followed the trail of righteous death, not seeing it for what it was, and had landed here. Every unexplained death, every near bloodless corpse pulled her closer. She hadn't heard, or if she had-she had ignored-the stories of abuse and neglect and crime that surrounded the supposed victims.
Having arrived here nearly a year ago she had hidden behind the guise of glamour while she watched Eli, while she planned, while she researched.
While she grieved.
Sarel thought Eli had killed her baby sister, the baby sister who was alive and well at Excelsior, learning the ways of Healing, being a happy child, being a witch, being free.
”Oh, sweetheart, aren't you in for a rude awakening,”
Kelsey murmured. Under her breath, she murmured the words to a spell of entrapment, one to hold the other witch helpless, both magically and physically, until Kelsey or Kelsey's death, released it. Not that what she was going do was going to kill her, but it was definitely going to hurt.
Lifting her head, she looked at her audience of two. At some point, one of them had sent the others from the room, so there was n.o.body but Declan and Tori, the unconscious witch, and the dying vampire. Baldly, Kelsey said, ”Eli's running out of time. He'll die unless she feeds him, and does it willingly, within in the next few hours. I don't think we have the time to talk some sense into her.”
Declan had been standing behind Tori, his arms wrapped around her waist, holding her against his naked body, his chin resting atop her blacks curls. But at Kelsey's words he spun away and started to pace the confines of the room, his hands flexing and relaxing.
From time to time, the bones in his body would start to s.h.i.+ft and power would shudder through the room as he battled the wolf that raged to be free.
Tori caught him as he pa.s.sed by her, stroking her hands soothingly down his arms before turning back to Kelsey. ”So what do we do?” she asked calmly.
”We can't do anything, but I can. However, I won't be worth much afterward. I've put a spell on her, so she can't run, and she can't fight in any way. That way, in case this doesn't work, she can't turn on you while I'm out.”
”Out doing what?” Declan asked.
”Pa.s.sed out. Out cold. Unconscious,” Kelsey said, a small smile tugging at her mouth. ”This is definitely not going to be one of the smartest things I've ever done.”
With that she turned and moved to Eli's side.
”I need her on the bed,” Kelsey said as she crawled across the bed to kneel in the middle by Eli's p.r.o.ne form. She could feel him, still there, but growing weaker. The pain that was ripping through him was enough to make her nauseated, but she had to clamp down and s.h.i.+eld against what he was suffering now.
It was the suffering from his past she needed, his emotions, his need for justice, his loneliness. Declan tossed Sarel down carelessly before turning back to his stalking. ”If I fail, I know you will kill her,” Kelsey said softly. ”But she didn't do this because she is evil. She isn't. She's misled. But she's also dangerous. Kill her, but do it fast, and do it clean. And-politely, if you can.
She's suffered enough.”
”Suffered?” Declan rasped, his voice a painfully deep growl, his eyes glowing neon green and swirling with his anger. ”Suffered?”
”Yes. She's suffered. As one member of the Council to another, I charge you with this. Do not toy with her. Do not be cruel. She may escape if you do. And you know we can't risk that. But I know that she deserves better.”
Declan's words were cut off by Tori. Her blue eyes were glittering and gleaming with the tears she still held back but she promised in a rough, husky voice, ”If you fail, I will make certain she dies quickly and cleanly, Kelsey. I promise.”
Declan made a rude sound behind her and started to mutter under his breath as he resumed his pacing.
Kelsey idly wondered if there would be furrows in the wood from his pacing by the time this was over.
Turning she placed one hand on Eli's chest, dropped her s.h.i.+elds and called the magic. Placing the other hand on Sarel's chest her head fell back and the tips of her long braids brushed the linens.
Magic pulsed hot and thick through her veins as she chanted under her breath, heat swirling and filling the air around her until it felt too thick to breathe. Light built and built and built and then exploded in a blinding flash.
Tori flung an arm over her eyes and cried out in shock as the light exploded like a bomb without smoke or fire.
Through watery, hazy eyes she searched the room.
Kelsey wasn't there.
”Where'd she go?” Declan asked. ”I can't see her.” Then he lifted his head, and flared his nostrils, dragging air in. ”But I can still smell her. It's like she's...inside them.”
Sarel felt the alien presence battering at her sense of self but she was too f.u.c.king weak to fight it. It spilled in, flooded her, filled and then drained out, taking her anger and her guilt with it, leaving her hollow.
A soft, gentle voice said, ”He isn't what you think or who you think. You saw him with the witch sight, saw the warrior. That is who he is.”
”f.u.c.k you.”
The woman laughed. Her voice stroked over Sarel, soothing a thousand pains, healing small hurts as she said, ”He's a good man. Didn't your father deserve to die?”
”My sister didn't.”
”No. The child didn't deserve to die. And she's not dead. But you won't believe that. So I'm going to show you.”
The hollowness inside Sarel was suddenly flooded.
That night-it was like she was there again. The blond, achingly beautiful vampire had kicked open the door only seconds after Sarel's father had pumped her mother full of lead, while he stared at sweet little Lori with hot, hungry eyes. Lori was crying and screaming and covered in her mother's blood.