Chapter 14

You know, if you're going to be captured and stuffed into a cage, I hope that the cage is as nice as the one that I got thrown into—or at least isn't any worse.

If I'm being honest, I've got to say at least the vampire See-You-Next-Tuesday, had some class and a fair bit of decorating sense in her stupid head.

But let me back this story up a little…

I had, only a few hours before, been in Crash's arms. Fulfilling at least a couple of the fantasies that had been crowding my mind since I'd met him. Naked, sweaty, heavy breathing, super fun fantasies.

Of course, nothing can go quite that easily for me.

I'd heard a voice calling to me and felt a pull that I can only describe as hypnotic, a voice I couldn't deny.

Well, that got me into a mess. The voice had belonged to Evangeline, the vampire bitch who wanted to cast the spell that would wake all the undead and turn them into vampires. Definitely not a friend.

She'd snagged me with some help from Remy the traitor, and now here I was. Separated from my friends. Separated from Crash.

Locked in an oversized, twenty-by-twenty-foot cage.

There was a king-sized bed, which was seriously overkill considering it was just me in here. The bedding was a double-stuffed duvet, covered in a dark blue crushed velvet that kind of wrapped around me like a giant marshmallow when I flopped onto it, which I'd done when I'd first arrived, stumbled back and fell onto the bed. Three layers of pillows graced the top, and the sheer white canopy over top hid the fact that there was nothing but rock above my head.

The bars of my cage had been shined to a serious smoothness that any good exotic dancer (yes, stripper is the other word, but I'm trying to be PC, people, I'm sick to death of getting emails) would appreciate.

There was a plush, black rug across the floor that my bare feet sunk into, almost as thick as the bedding. My boots had been taken, as had all my fighting leathers. Like, I'd literally arrived and my clothes had been switched out. Magic, I'm guessing. All I had on me was an ankle length, dark red dress that was bound up under my bust. Very old school.

My left wrist had been wrapped heavily. The break throbbed where Evangeline had snapped it, but that was my only injury.

Despite the creature comforts, I couldn't relax. I couldn't eat the food that was sitting on the tray on the floor at my feet. It smelled good, but the pastries had nothing on Eric's baking. At least that was what I was telling myself. Truth was, fear had eaten away my appetite.

This was the worst situation I'd been in…ever.

I couldn't help but pace the cage. Which is how I knew it was twenty by twenty. It was also how I knew that there didn't appear to be a door anywhere. Not a single hinge or door handle. It was as if the bars had been grown out of the rock floor and up and into the rock ceiling.

Which had to mean magic had created the bars, and that meant only magic would get me out. I trailed my fingers across the bars as if that would tell me just what kind of magic would destroy them.

But there was no moment of clarity. No moment of aha! They felt like smooth steel bars, nothing more.

My cage wasn't the only one in the cave. Ivan the Red was in a cage parked next to mine. We shared one wall of bars. His cage was equally as sumptuous, and he seemed much more accepting of his fate. Then again, he'd been trapped for a long time in the demon fae realm before this, so maybe being caged was something you got used to? It was possible.

He slept in his bed, soundless and still as could be, not even visible under his mountain of marshmallow fluff bedding.

I didn't know how long I'd been there. Time seemed warped to me. I couldn't sleep, could barely stop moving. My mind just wouldn't accept what had happened. Instead, it just kept replaying scenes in my head like a broken VHS.

It was so unfair that Crash and I had finally gotten together after everything, after I'd gone to hell for him, only to be torn apart again so soon.

Like some weird bad joke that made no sense, and I wasn't laughing.

I banged my head lightly against the bars.

"Ma chère, do not hurt yourself. You are a prize still to Evangeline." Remy's voice was soft, as if he gave a single shit about me.

I hadn't heard him come into the room; the bastard was a quiet ducker when he wanted to be. He stood now at the base of the stairs that led up and out of this place—wherever it was.

I stuck both hands through the bars in his general direction and flipped him off. Both fingers, even though my left wrist complained, that's how mad I was—Jaysus, I was mad enough that I kept my mouth shut. Because I knew that if I started screaming at him, I might not stop. I might just scream until they killed me just to shut me up.

Based on her absence, Evangeline was sleeping or off causing other mischief, and it was just me and Remy awake.

Lucky me.

"Come, don't be like that. We shared some good times." He purred as he drew closer.

I shook my middle fingers at him, wishing I had something better to throw in his face. I pulled back as he drew close. The last thing I wanted was him touching me.

I took several steps back, and he leaned into the bars, dangling his hands inside of my cage.

"You mean when you drugged me you limp dick? That's the only way I would have gone even that far with you. I thought the drink tasted funny, but I guess I didn't figure on you needing to drug women to get them naked." Anger snapped through me, burning off some of the lingering regrets I had.

He shrugged. "Even then, you wouldn't put out as they say. Your ties to the blacksmith held you back from committing to anyone else. Amusing. Because I can see by your face that you think he'll come for you. He won't. I know him. You are expendable now. Too much of a liability. He has his people to protect. His fae kingdom."

I took a few more steps back. "You don't know him."

"Oh, ma chère, but I do. You see, we go way back he and I. Way back. I knew Karissa. He left her when she became…oh, what was the phrase? Too much. She expected too much of him. You are the same, Bree. Too much trouble. Too much effort."

His words were meant to wound deeply, and I damn well knew it.

I made myself lift my chin even though he'd tried to pull up raw, old beliefs about myself that I hadn't fully expunged. I could still feel Crash's body against mine, could still feel his lips trailing over my skin, setting me on fire. I closed my eyes and focused on that feeling. Let myself hang onto his words.

I would raze the world for you.

I believed him, not the snake who'd betrayed me.

I took a slow breath. "He will come for me."

"I am counting on it. As I said earlier. Remy and I disagree on this, but I want Crash here."

Hervoice snapped my eyes open.

Evangeline sauntered into the room. She wore a slip of a dress that was very much sheer, giving evidence of the coolness of the room. We resembled each other enough that it was like watching myself walk around practically naked, and while I was no prude, I didn't like the idea of Remy or Ivan getting an eyeful of my mirror image. I mean, she was a more refined version of me, her cheekbones sharper, her breasts perkier, her skin smoother. Eyes meaner.

I wrinkled my nose. "You shouldn't walk around like that. You'll end up poking someone's eye out with those things."

Her smile didn't falter. "You think to draw my anger out, but you cannot."

I laughed. "Is that a challenge? I think I'd be able to get under your skin pretty easily."

Her head tipped sideways, long strawberry-gold curls sliding over her shoulder. "You are not afraid? I am surprised. I thought you'd have more sense. I am the strongest of all vampires, Breena. You should be quaking before me, begging for mercy."

I was afraid. Talking back was my knee-jerk to being terrified. So I went for the kill—or what I hoped was the kill. "Well, you know how Robert is, he prefers his women bold and sassy, without fear."

She laughed, which stole some of my hope of getting to her. "Robert does not concern me anymore. His life is tied to mine, but that is his curse to bear. If he'd loved me, he'd have joined me. Instead, he tried to kill me, and thus his life as he knew it ended. You see, love is not strong enough to save anything. Death still comes for us all."

Damn, so much for that striking a chord.

I didn't know her, and it wasn't like Robert had done a lot of talking about his ex-wife. You could only interpret the word ‘friend' so many ways, and the handful of times he'd appeared to me as a human, I hadn't wasted time talking about our former relationships. So I accepted that Robert smack talk was probably a dead-end. "So what now? You've got me in a cage and dressed me up like you. Going to try the old swapper-roo? Try to make my friends think I'm you and then get them to kill me?"

Her eyes shot to mine, and I laughed at the apparent confirmation.

"Come on, that's the oldest trick in the book. Don't you watch cartoons? Movies? Please. That won't work. My boobs do not look that good, and most of my friends have—unfortunately for them—seen me naked."

"And what would you do to convince them?" she asked softly, her words wrapping around me like they wanted to dig into my brain.

I rolled my eyes to break the contact. "That won't work either. Take your vampire charm elsewhere."

"The darkest moon is coming in seven days. That is what we wait for. Then we will raise my children. You will be the one to do it, Bree. You will bring them into this world, and I will rule them, and then you yourself will die. As is befitting a sacrifice to bring my children into the land of the living."

Her word choice and usage was a bit odd, but I tracked that up to her age as a vampire.

I raised an eyebrow. "And just how are you going to do that? I mean…you can't force me to do anything. I think we've already covered that."

She walked over to Ivan's cage where he snored lightly.

"Not even if I had one of your dear friends? If their life depended on you doing what I wished?" She looked over her shoulder at me. "You see? I know you, Bree. You are as easy to read as any children's book. You will never fight for yourself. You might fight to save the world, but you will always fight for those you love first and foremost. So predictable."

My heart plummeted.

That's why they wanted Crash to come for me. So they could capture him. Use him against me to force me… "Just how exactly am I supposed to raise the dead vampires? I mean, I've never done anything like that before, you know that, right? And I'm not a witch, despite who my grandmother is. I am not even a demon-infested anything."

"Do not tell her." Remy spoke gently to Evangeline. "She is far cleverer than she lets on. The southern charm will have you thinking she is foolish, but she is not."

"Phaw. She is going nowhere, Remy. She is ours now." She spun and crossed her arms, pressing her chest up against the sheer material. "Have you not wondered about the spell? It is a clever twist of the words. Tell me what you know of it."

"You mean the one to raise the army of vampires?"

"Say it, if you know it?" Her taunt suggested I was a vapid human with a poor memory. Fine. It would cost me nothing to recite the spell, and perhaps it would jog my memory.

I shrugged and opened my mouth to speak, but then clamped it shut. The words of the spell whipped through my head.

Words that had power. Words that invoked this close to the darkest night…what would happen?

"Of demon skin and angel wing

Of stolen cross and healing spring

Blood of a ghost, and an unmarked grave

Soul of a witch, and a siren's cave.

Bound swiftly neath the darkest night

Those of the blood shall have their sight

Of death and power, of magic and pain

That which comes shall find those slain

Raised anew and given life

A warning once, this call is strife

One last line to lock this spell

A soul whose blood has tasted hell.

Thus shall the ambrosia be brewed and given life to death."

Yeah, hard pass. A spell had to have three things. Intent. I shook my head and forced a smile to my lips. "You know, maybe I am too old? I feel like my memory just blanked out on me. I can't remember that spell."

Evangeline smiled, though her eyes darkened. "Ah, so you understand then—I will have to force you to speak the spell, in order for it to happen. You do know that the Dark Council had asked the Blacksmith to create the cauldron for this, yes? To help them perfect the vessel that the spell would be unlocked within?"

I had known that. Crash had been forced to create a few things by the Dark Council in the time that I'd known him. I shrugged, choosing not to fully commit to this part of the conversation.

Evangeline began to pace in front of my cage. "You see, everyone thinks that they know and understand the spell. But bringing forth my children is far more complicated than just raising the dead. That is why the yellow fever—the first plague—got so out of control. Joseph did not understand the spell. He used the ingredients incorrectly. It was cast incorrectly." She lifted her hands to the ceiling as if addressing a large group. It looked like this was a position she truly enjoyed. A place of power and instruction. Too bad her audience was so small and surly. "Some of the items…how could a cauldron possibly contain the soul of a witch? Or a soul that has tasted hell? They are not tangible, Bree. Some of the items are tangible of course. Blood of a ghost—the blood of your friend, the bigfoot, has been on your hands more than once."

My frown deepened. "I haven't injured him."

"No? He hasn't gotten a cut in the kitchen that you helped wrap?"

I had to work at keeping my mouth shut because I could see the exact moment that Eric had slipped with a knife and nicked his finger. An inconsequential moment in life, and I'd helped him wrap it.

His blood had been on my hands. Literally.

"Yes, I see by your face you know that his blood has touched you. Every item in the spell has passed through your hands, Breena O'Rylee, granddaughter of the greatest witch Savannah has ever known. You are not a witch, but you have the soul of one. As you are also one whose soul has tasted hell."

Her words were ringing inside my head.

Siren's cave. Corb had given his heart to me.

I'd drunk from the healing spring.

I'd touched a demon's skin.

Run my fingers through the ashes of an angel's wings.

The fairy cross had been in my hands too.

I looked at her. "The unmarked grave. It doesn't fit."

Her laughter echoed through the room, waking Ivan with a startled grunt.

But I couldn't look at my fellow prisoner. My gaze was pinned to the vampire.

"You will die in an unmarked grave, Breena," she said, her voice curling around the words. "And when you rise, you will hold the power to raise my children. Your blood shall spill, and it shall be the perfect ambrosia."

Her words slammed into me.

I was the cauldron.

I was where the spell would be woven, created, and spread over the world.

"And if you don't do it nicely?" Remy said. "I have a few ways to make sure you'll do as you're told. Well, at least two."

He snapped his fingers.

Two bodies were yanked forward from the shadows of the stairs, clutching one another.

I sank to my knees, mind racing as I tried to find a way around this. Bridgette stared up at me, her eyes wide and full of tears. And clinging to her was Feish. My friend who'd seen me through thick and thin. Her lips trembled, but she was quiet, very much unlike her.

If Remy could just yank my friends whenever he wanted to, from wherever they were…

"His power is somewhat limited," Evangeline said. "He struggled to drag the fish woman here. She bit him as did the little one."

"You see?" Remy stepped forward. "Their lives depend on you behaving, Bree."

"Don't listen to them!" Bridgette yelled. "You fight, Bree, you fight them! It is better that we all die than for them to get what they want!"

Feish was shaking hard, and I could see she wanted to say something. But she'd been a prisoner before, a prisoner of Karissa's. Which meant she knew this game better than any of us.

And right then, there was nothing I could do to save either of them.

"Bree, what you must understand is that I am not the Dark Council. I will not be negotiated with…and I am not unwilling to shed blood. And I've always believed in showing rather than telling." Evangeline turned and nodded at Remy.

"Son. Don't." Ivan growled from his cage. "You won't have any chance of going back if you?—"

Remy's face hardened as he lifted a sword off the table from behind him.

"No!" I screamed the word, but even then, I knew it would not stop him. He swung the blade toward my two friends.

Feish closed her eyes, as if she'd known this was going to happen.

Bridgette screamed as he struck, driving the tip of the sword through her back and out of her chest. Her scream burbled into nothing as she sunk to her knees, her eyes locked on mine. Her skin paling as the blood slid away from her.

I couldn't look away. "I'm here, Bridgette," I whispered. "I'm here." It was all I could do.

Feish tried to hold her up. Tried to keep her from sliding to the ground.

Bridgette reached for me. "Fight. Bree. Fight. Promise."

Those were her last words as she fell forward, held up only by Remy's grip on his sword, Feish's fingers slipping off her, slick with blood.

Remy pulled the blade free, and Bridgette fell all the way to the ground, her body still. "Do you understand the severity of this now? You will do as you are told when the time comes, or I will kill your other friend. And then I will bring another of your friends, and I will kill that one. And if it means I must kill them all, then so be it." He turned the blade over and rested it on Feish's neck, Bridgette's blood sliding down her shoulder and sinking into her shirt.

I looked from Feish to Evangeline. Because even though Remy was wielding the sword, he was not the one in control here.

The struggle to say two words was harder than I'd ever thought it could be. But there would be no talking my way out of this one.

"I understand."