"Why did you no' steal her back?" Bowe closed in on Rydstrom, ready to tear out his throat. "Because she's a witch?"
"You might be eaten up with that prejudice, but all I saw was a defenseless young mortal. I didn't succeed in stealing her back because they took her to their lair, over a hundred feet above us. And any time we tried to scale the walls - the inverted walls - they attacked with a viciousness I have seen in few battles in all my years."
"Then how the hell did you get her tonight?"
"Each day I tried to convince her to jump, but she's terrified of heights. Then, while the incubi slept this afternoon, she finally said she'd do it. It's as if she knew you were coming," he said, clearly thinking back. "I had just caught her and checked her over - she'd been sick - when they attacked again. You returned right as we were having our asses handed to us." Frowning at Bowe, he said, "You know, I'd been uneasy when I learned that Mariketa had cursed you, but now I see that if she hadn't, we'd still be in that hell."
"I didn't return only to have her spells removed," Bowe said. "More is at stake."
"What?"
"War. My faction, yours, the Valkyrie, the House of Witches. I've been given till the full moon to get her to call in and assure her coven that she's all right."
"You have a sat-phone in your pack?"
"Aye," Bowe answered. "That was smashed when the witch slammed me against that wall."
He shrugged. "I have one in our truck."
"No. No, you doona. I trashed your cars, CBs and phones."
Rydstrom narrowed his eyes. "Then you did anticipate that we would get free?"
Now Bowe shrugged.
"That will help with the others' anger."
"Doona give a damn about them. But for your sake, know that I was especially confident of your escaping since the witch led me to believe she could lift the stone as easily as she lifted me tonight."
Rydstrom glanced in her direction. "She has little control over her powers and was immediately weakened - they took her swiftly and violently. All the way up to their lair, they bashed her skull against the stones, knocking her unconscious." At Bowe's expression, he said, "If it's hard to hear, imagine how it felt seeing it happen and not being able to do a goddamned thing." He grew quiet, no doubt reliving the sight. Facing Bowe once more, he said, "Now, why don't you tell me why we can't take her back west?"
"How did you know?"
"Because you didn't simply carry her to your truck and drive away while I was pinned."
"I came past the armies on the way in. The conflict's exploded since I was last here."
"I see. Obviously, you lost the Hie. Who won?"
"The vampire."
"A vampire beat you? And a witch cursed you? Damn, Scot, seems you're having a -all month."
13
When Mari woke again, she squinted her eyes. She was in a cave? Yes, and Cade was just before her, putting wood on a new fire, his sword lying within easy reach.
She frowned to find he was shirtless, until she realized her head was on his bunched-up shirt. When the flames grew, shadows began to creep up the dusky walls. The light glinted off the wide gold band on his huge bicep and burnished his proud horns.
Mari had always found a demon's horns so pleasing. There were worse sights to wake up to.
As if he felt her eyes on him, he turned and gave her a grin. "Remind me not to piss you off, witch," he said, repeating his words from the first night in the tomb.
Hild, Tierney, and Tera entered then, their arms laden with green bananas and another kind of small, round fruit that smelled like melon.
"Look who's awake," Tera said, pushing her nut brown hair from her face. It was as matted and tangled as Mari knew hers was.
Chapter 8
Though the others were obviously strung out with exhaustion and hunger, they were typical immortals, shrugging off the past and looking forward, gamely getting back to their lives.
Would Mari ever possess that talent? She felt like she'd been caught in a twister and left spinning. "What happened?"
"You blew up the tomb, got snatched by the werewolf, then healed yourself," Tera answered.
Healed? Her injuries were gone, the dizziness and exhaustion she'd suffered for weeks... faded. She slowly eased herself up to sit against a dank wall. From tomb to cave she'd gone. And she now had to tick off ten hours till dawn before she could see the sun again.
She hugged her knees to her chest and tried to make sense of everything that had just happened. All she knew was that too much had.
Questions hammered at her. How had she blown up the entire tomb? Yes, demolition seemed to be her specialty, but the structure had been the size of a small stadium. Never before had she unleashed that kind of power.
She also contemplated if she would have continued killing MacRieve if Rydstrom hadn't stopped her. And did she want to try killing MacRieve a little again?
As she lifted a hand to her face and patted for injuries, she wondered how she had been completely restored from the damage over the last weeks. "Are you sure I healed myself?"
Tera nodded. "MacRieve said these vines covered you and that you were mended within them."
"Vines?"
"It all seemed very... Wicca-earthy."
Mari had never been able to heal herself before. She couldn't even rid herself of a hangover with four Advil and a prepaid magick wand.
Of course, she hadn't been able to see into the future before either. Yet just before dusk, she'd woken from a dead sleep, and somehow she'd known she had to get down. She'd finally taken that swan dive, because she'd known MacRieve had returned at last. But how?