The knife pressed against my throat. The demon's poison burned my flesh.
"Stop!" I screamed. "Stop it now!"
To my utter shock, he removed the knife.
"What are you doing?" Durga snapped. "How dare you listen to a Turn-blood over your own mistress!"
"I ... must ... obey ... her," the demon managed between clenched teeth. "She ... has ... your ... magic."
Whoa. Wait. Her magic? Oh my God. I had gotten her power.
Wide-eyed, Durga stared at me. I wasn't gonna give her the opportunity to do me in. Of course, she was a little busy holding off my would-be rescuers.
"Let me go, Andhaka," I demanded.
He dropped me like a stone. Ji-mo-ney! It was working!
"Give me the knife."
He handed the silver dagger to me, his eyes filled with hatred.
"Stop obeying that Turn-blood," Durga screeched.
Power pulsed through me. It was as though an electrical switch had been flipped. I felt as if I were outside of my own body, observing a more powerful, ancient vampire.
I pressed the knife against Durga's throat. "How do you like it?"
"Mistress!"
I pointed at Andhaka without looking at him. "Go to hell. Never return."
Durga's skin started to burn, but her eyes showed no fear. She was too much of an Ancient to reveal such a human emotion. "You've banished my favorite slave," she said softly. "For that, you will pay."
She jerked away from me. Before I could stop her, she sparkled away. Damn Ancients and their disappearing acts.
Gabriel reached me first. He yanked the knife out of my hand and tossed it away. He held me tightly, pressing kisses into my hair.
For a long moment, no one said anything.
Patrick was the first to break the eerie silence. "We should all get to the compound."
Gabriel and I parted, holding hands as we turned to face the others.
"Even us outlaws?" asked Arin.
Patrick nodded.
"It's safer for us here," said Arin. "Prophecy or not, most vampires and lycans do not welcome us."
"Patsy?"
I knew what Patrick was asking. It was time for me to go to the compound. My son was there. As much as Zerina hated those who ran this town and who ruled the vampires, she'd done the best thing for Wilson. I owed her.
"Patricia." Gabriel imbued my name with anguish, with regret. I felt an answering pain in my own heart, but I quelled it. I wouldn't fall into this trap again. He needed me? Well, I didn't need him. I didn't need anyone. I'd learned the hard way how to stand on my own two feet.
Gabriel released my hand and I moved away from him. Anguish shimmered in his eyes. My life had been ripped apart all over again, but this time there was no rebuilding it from the ashes.
"Please," he murmured. "Please."
Y'know, for a second there I almost caved. I actually entertained the idea of throwing myself into Gabriel's arms and telling Patrick to take a flying leap. See, that's what is so bad about lust. It makes you do stupid things.
"I can't stay here, Gabriel. I can't accept ... that I'm part of some prophecy. That I'm destined to be with you. I run my own life." Because I was a coward, I whirled around and walked to Patrick.
He sheathed his swords. I accepted his embrace and put my head against his shoulder, refusing to look back. He wrapped his arms around me.
Having your atoms dissembled and rearranged was a strange sensation. Y'know how when your leg falls asleep and you get that heavy prickling sensation? It's like that, only a thousand times worse.
The minute we arrived wherever it was, I nearly fell over. We were in the main section of the new Broken Heart library, which was located in the compound. My first impression was endless shelves filled with lots of books. We were near a long wooden table obviously used for studying. Chairs were scattered around it randomly and books lay in careless stacks across its surface.
"Where's my son?" I croaked.
"Mom!" He bolted down the aisle and I opened my arms to him. Wilson grabbed me and held me tightly. My shirt got wet with his tears, and man alive, I wanted to cry, too. Instead, I let Wilson weep for the both of us.
"I'm glad you're okay," he said. "I thought he was going to kill you."
"I'm okay," I said. "I'll never abandon you, Wil. Never."
He nodded. "I know, Mom."
"Wil, honey," said Jessica gently, "we need to talk to your mom."
Wilson stopped hugging me, but as he turned around to face Jess, he shook his head. "No. I'm not leaving."
"Just for a little while," she said. "I'll take you to where the other kids are staying. Tamara's there."
The mention of Tamara got Wilson's interest. He had a sorta crush on her, even though she had a vampire-hunting boyfriend named Durriken. He only popped into town every now and again, though.
"Mom?"
I nodded to him. "You go on now. I'll see you soon."
He kissed my cheek, his eyes filled with apologies I knew he couldn't say. It was okay, though. We'd hit a turning point in our relationship. I guess I could thank Gabriel for that blessing.
I looked at the others who waited around the table. Jessica had taken Wilson to the other kids, which left Patrick and Ruadan. His expression was grim. He pointed to a chair. "We need to talk."
"Yeah, that's exactly what I want to do." I dropped into the chair. "I take it that Koschei's causing hell again."
Patrick nodded. "You were right, Patsy. We set a trap. We let it be known the next Council meeting would be held here. We tried to get everyone into the compound." He looked at me with brows raised. I shrugged. "And we bulked up our security. We believed we had prepared for the worst."
"Apparently not," offered Lorcan as he joined us at the long table. His wife, Eva, was with him. She smiled at me and waved. I was glad to see her. She was nice to talk to, even though she liked to use ten-dollar words. Jessica rounded the bookshelf and took her place next to Patrick.
"Lia and Durga decided to go to the dark side," I said. "You didn't count on that."
"No," admitted Ruadan. "We didn't count on a lot of things."
"Do they have the Taint?" I asked.
Patrick looked confused and Lorcan horrified. He shared a look with his wife, then asked, "The Taint?"
"No," said Ruadan. "Impossible."
"Does it matter?" I pressed. "We have the cure, right?"
At one of the many meetings the Consortium liked to convene, they had announced that a cure was imminent, thanks to Lorcan using himself as a guinea pig. Then they'd never released it or said another word about it. Probably because of the shape-shifting side effects. But I wanted to hear the truth from my friends.
"Royal lycan blood from live donors kills the Taint," I said. Huh. I guess I had paid attention to Dr. Michaels' dry and uninteresting lecture.
"That's what we said, yes." Lorcan grimaced. He glanced at his father and Ruadan nodded sharply.
"Based on our results with Faustus, we believed we had the cure within our grasp. We've been trying to synthetically replicate the original blood donations, but we haven't been able to do so."
"Whatever cure you cooked up relies on the real blood," I surmised. Hey, not bad for a blonde, right? "And that means there's no way to make enough antidotes for all the Tainted vampires - at least not quickly."
Lorcan nodded. Ever since he and Eva hooked up, he'd ditched the all-black look and was more prone to smiling. Not that I spent all that much time with them. They liked books and getting into debates about word origins, which I found boring as hell.
"But there is also a side effect. A big one," he said. "It's why no one after Faustus was given the cure."
I already knew this part, thanks to Gabriel. Anger pulsed through me. I'd been lied to by these people. It made no never mind to me if hybrids existed. If Gabriel had been ostracized because he shared their condition, I understood his rage.
Lorcan stepped away from the table and into the aisle. Before my astonished gaze, his body started to change. His clothes ripped and fell away in tatters as his human form crumpled and elongated and sprouted fur. After a few minutes, I was staring at his new shape.
He was a lycanthrope.
I stared at him. "Yeah, that's a side effect, all right."
Lorcan barked his agreement, then padded down the aisle out of sight. My gaze went to Eva. She'd had the Taint, too, and been cured. She nodded. "I can do it, too. The ability manifests within two months of the blood transfusion. "
"You can see why we're reluctant to give the cure to every Tainted vampire," said Lorcan as he rounded the tall bookshelf and smiled. I was relieved to see him clothed again.
"There's a big difference when the blood is taken from live, royal lycans," said Ruadan. "Dead blood from any lycan caused the mutations. "
After the first crazy - and now dead - leader of the Wraiths had experimented on Tainted vampires, he'd created a creature caught between vampire and lycanthrope - a big, hairy monster that walked on two legs and still had the vampire disease.
"Well, if Lor and Eva can do it and nobody's trying to kill them," I said, "then why is Gabriel running for his life?" My gaze shifted to Patrick. "Why can't we offer him and his friends protection? "
"Those are excellent questions," said Eva. Her gaze bounced between the men. Lorcan flinched. Apparently, his wife had already brought up this concern. "Gabriel was born a lycan-vampire. He has the capabilities of lycanthropes and vampires, without the physiological repercussions."
"You mean they're not undead, but can still do what we can do?"
She nodded. "I've been researching it for months. Once I started shifting, I wanted to know everything I could."
"A stoirin," said Lorcan in a low voice. "We've already discussed this issue."
"No, I've talked about it and you stubbornly refuse to consider that I'm right." Eva glowered at him. I saw Eva's gaze on me. "What was Gabriel like?"
That was a loaded question I couldn't begin to answer. Handsome. Sexy. Murderous.
"I think the loup de sang may be the solution to the lycanthrope's fertility problems," she said.
"Eva - "
"No!" She moved away from her husband and walked to where I was sitting on the edge of the table. "Patsy's in this up to her neck. She deserves to know."
From the pile on the table, she chose a large, thick book and opened it. When she found the section she wanted, she pointed to the top of the elaborately decorated page.
Hell, I mostly read magazines, not having the patience or the attention span for a whole novel. This piece of literature seemed important (and short), so I leaned over and read it.