NINETEEN

EIGHTEEN

I CAME BACK to myself slowly, barely aware of the world around me and the passage of time. Next to me a shadow morphed and coalesced, settling by my side as if to keep watch.

I felt no sense of danger, despite some unspoken knowledge that if the shadow wanted it could rip my newly formed self into so many pieces there would be no putting me back together.

It wrapped around me, stroking, comforting.

The person I was drifted out of reach. Every time I grasped for it, the memories and knowledge shredded.

Pain was my companion. That and the shadowy blot that kept me company.

My mind was exposed. Vulnerable.

Everything felt raw and abraded, like a sandblaster had been taken to my psyche.

It was that thought that finally brought me back to awareness.

I opened my eyes to the same ceiling I"d been staring at before I took my little trip, filled with the sense that I was no longer alone.

"Ah, she"s still a statue," Astrid observed with disappointment.

The air stirred.

It wasn"t entirely a surprise when the twins grinned down at me, crooning together. "Time"s up, little toy."

My gaze flicked past them to the shadow crouching right next to my spider friend"s web. What are you going to do, it seemed to ask me.

I didn"t know, and that was a problem.

My thinking was both crystal clear and dispassionate, stimuli from the world around me seeming to come at a distance.

The worry I should have felt at the twins' return was missing.

Enough of myself remained to know that wasn't normal.

My mind was reacting the way my body would if it suffered catastrophic injury, shutting down the affected areas so the rest of me could function.

Only in this case, it was the emotions associated with survival. People think not feeling fear is the answer in a dangerous situation.

It"s not.

Fear makes you sharper. Quicker. Pain lets you know you"re still alive.

Without it, you take stupid chances and get yourself killed.

Right now, I felt no fear. No rage or anger. No sadness or betrayal.

I was numb. A passive observer in life as the shadow waited above.

I knew that it was the tiniest piece of that immense being I"d only brushed the merest part of myself against.

Despite that, the shadow contained power that could cripple anyone who came into contact with it. Enough to break my prison and destroy the group arranged around me.

It didn"t because it was waiting for something.

What?

"Let"s get this over with," Astrid was saying.

There was a brief pause.

"What? You agreed to this, Callie. I"m simply moving this along," Astrid said defensively. "You heard what Owen said. High Fae were spotted nosing around one of the old portals."

Uh oh. Trouble in paradise. There were cracks in the united facade of these Scattered. Not surprising given they were mercenaries, more accustomed to acting alone than as a team.

It wasn"t always that way,a disembodied voice whispered in my ear.

No, not a voice. Not precisely.

I just knew it, the same way I knew harpies would steal anything shiny, even if it was nothing but shimmery glass, and pixies could get drunk off honey.

Breandan"s gaze slid to the right as if he"d just heard something interesting. Baran shot him a glance that said be careful.

They were hoping it was Arlan the Scattered had spotted, I realized.

It seemed I wasn"t the only one hoping for a rescue.

Perhaps I could make these two allies if they didn"t turn me into a mindless puppet by accident.

Without saying anything else, the twins linked hands, a web of power emanating between them as they concentrated.

Ah, I saw what they were doing.

Knowledge of the purpose behind the working drifted through my mind. If the spell had been a book, I"d just gained a reading comprehension level that was off the charts.

It was an intricate thing they wove, containing a genius that was easy to overlook. It was meant to jump start my own abilities in eating away at the stone encasing me. The tradeoff being that I"d be permanently tied to the two of them.

Forget the compulsion Niamh had managed to place on Liam, this would be damn near unbreakable short of death. Even then, I wasn"t sure death would free me.

The chain wasn"t entirely by their will, either.

Magic of this level and nature, tended to carry unexpected costs. The chain extended into the ether. If allowed to take hold, it would tie my soul to theirs.

I was starting to see why Arlan kept them around.

In terms of sheer power, Arlan was more powerful, but I didn"t think even he could have done what they were attempting.

Certainly, none of the Scattered could. This took special training, and an ability to work seamlessly with the other. It spoke of a trust so implicit that nothing could break it.

The twins finished their working, pulling away from each other at long last. There, hovering above my chest, their working curled in on itself, the channels of power creating an intriguing ball. The magic never stopped circulated.

Its flow was spell binding. I itched to touch and play.

If I hadn"t been paralyzed, I would have reached out, nudged the curly line at the end into something new. To twist and shape it into something of my own making.

The magic ball lowered. Its magic splashed against my stone. Irritating nudges grabbed my attention as it tried to burrow through. It slid off, unable to gain purchase.

Little specks from the failed spell clung to me in my mind"s eye, useless without the framework that had fueled it.

"How long before this works?" Travis asked in a brisk voice.

The twins were quiet for several seconds, frowning down at me like they knew something was wrong.

Perhaps they sensed the traces the failed spell had left behind before it dissipated.

"Something is wrong," Baran murmured. At least I thought it was Baran. The dimples in his smile always seemed a hair deeper than Breandan"s and his eyes were a shade lighter. You had to be looking to notice, but stuck like this I had nothing better to do.

"What do you mean?" Callie asked.

The captain moved into view, his eyes razor sharp as he observed us.

Breandan shook his head, not opening his eyes as that frown deepened. "The spell isn"t working."

Astrid giggled. "Someone is in trouble."

"I thought you said you could do this," Travis protested.

"They can," Owen said. A beat passed. "Right?"

Their eyes opened. They stared at each other, having an entire silent conversation in the span of seconds.

"Normally, yes," Baran said.

Breandan seemed bemused. "This has never happened to us. Failure. It is a most interesting feeling."

"I told you reversing a medusa"s serpent kiss would be no easy matter," Callie said.

"You"re much too arrogant, Callie. This wouldn"t be necessary if you hadn"t been so careless," Astrid pointed out.

Embarrassment flooded the room. Somehow, I knew its source was Callie. How strange that I could feel and see the emotion now that the rest of my senses were cut off.

I had to wonder if this was a new manifestation of my magic sight.

"No one is more unhappy about this than me," Callie said with a bite. "If I could reverse it I would, but she bit me. My power has already merged with hers. There"s no way for me to undo it."

"Which is why we brought in the twins," Don said, playing the voice of reason.

The room was saturated in a half dozen different emotions, making me struggle to decipher which belonged to who.

The twins were easy. They were happy they"d failed. Pleasure at thwarting the others filled them, along with a playful mischievousness.

Callie tasted of regret.

The others weren"t so clear cut.

I caught anger and impatience. Underneath it all, deceit. But whose?

"I"m sure they can do this. They simply need to try again," Don continued.

"Or else their use will be at an end." Fierce satisfaction was in Travis"s voice, as if he relished what he planned to do to them if they failed.

"So very grumpy," Baran murmured.

"I"m growing weary of your needling," Travis said. "Finish or I"ll sharpen my power on you. So much time in the human world has made me rusty."

The threat seemed to work as the twins bent over their task again.

"I suspect the problem lies in the fact our magic isn"t piercing her barrier." Breandan looked me over, an intelligence in his gaze I hadn"t expected. "It"s like there"s a null space between our magic and hers."

"Is that important?" Callie asked.

"Only if we want to be able to reverse this." Vexation crouched behind Baran"s eyes. He didn"t like this, but he hadn"t yet figured out a way around it.

"Why?" Callie asked.

"Because they"re using their magic to force hers to act," Travis said, sounding bored.

Breandan had stopped paying attention to them. He bent closer, his expression excited as he crooned, "Oooh, how did you learn to do that?"

If I could have smiled at him, I would have. Seemed someone had started paying attention.

Baran frowned, his expression clearing seconds later as he realized the same thing Breandan had.

Gotcha, I thought at them, satisfaction fraying the numbness around my emotions.

"What?" Callie asked.

"She"s the one preventing our magic from merging with her," Baran said.

Confusion followed by interest chased through my senses.

"How is that possible? She has zero background with magic," Travis said. "Until now, she"s blundered through with dumb luck."

Breandan ignored him, his face coming closer. "You should know we like a challenge. You"ve just made us even more eager to break your little shell."

"What will emerge from the chrysalis?" Baran asked, his fingers trailing over my cheek. "A beautiful butterfly or a plain insect?"

If he kept touching me, he was going to find out.

A dull sensation registered where he was touching me. I almost dismissed it until I felt the ghostly touch of Breandan"s hands, faint, but there nonetheless.

The stone prison was weakening, I realized.

How? What changed?

This time instead of trying to "see" what held me prisoner, I focused on feeling the magic.

Every time before when I"d tried to undo a working, I"d envisioned the magic as threads or a web. Not the case this time. Every time I tried, the mental image slid away. No matter how much I grasped for it, it refused to solidify.

Frustration hummed through me.

Settle,the same odd knowledge from before told me. I was looking for something that wasn"t there, inflicting my own perception on reality. With power of this nature, that wouldn"t work.

I had to be willing to see what was there, versus what I wanted.

No easy task. Humans constantly evaluated the world through their own lens. It was second nature. Everything we experienced or learned, every emotion, all of it went into shaping the world as we perceived it.

It was why it was impossible for two people to see the world in the exact same way.

There was beauty in that, but it also made my current task that much more difficult.

I centered myself, pushing away the external as I focused on the internal, suspecting that had been my problem before. I"d been looking for magic put on my outside, but it wasn"t.

Callie had as good as said as much.

I did this to myself. That meant I could undo it.

Somehow.

It meant going back into that state where I"d found the void, something only slightly more worrisome than staying here and letting the twins continue poking at me.

Their first attempt failed, but eventually they"d find a way through and I"d lose my choices. Any life I had before would be gone.

Unless I somehow managed to kill them. A pair of creatures that were probably older than this country. Yeah, good luck with that.

With a deep breath, I let go of my sense of self, allowing myself to drift. Only this time, I made sure to stay put, ignoring the pull to wander and explore.

I held still.

Slowly, painfully so—it felt like entire universes could have been birthed and died in the time it took me to sink into the power.

It drifted closer, shy, yet eager to please as it danced just out of reach.

Understanding came with it, sluggish as I finally grasped what should have been obvious all along.

No wonder I"d found myself a human statue seconds after gulping the medusa. Power brimmed in my essence. A supernova whose explosiveness had nowhere to go.

As vampires went, I was young. No more than an infant compared to the titans around me.

I didn't have the capacity to contain the same level of magic as a vampire who was centuries older.

When that power had started to turn on me, my system reacted, much like white blood cells would with the introduction of a virus.

If it hadn"t, the medusa"s power would have eaten through me, leaving nothing but carbon and atoms behind.

Maybe if I"d been a few centuries older, I would have suffered little effect. I wasn"t, and this was the price I would have to pay.

Good news was, the twins had been right. Even if I did nothing, eventually my system would use up the power and I"d revert to my flesh and blood self.

However, that could take a decade or two since there was still a lot of it swarming through my veins.

I didn"t have that kind of time. Even if the twins weren"t currently forcing the issue, I wouldn"t have been content to let myself sit useless for so long.

I needed free. Now.

I pushed to no effect. Yanking and shoving in the hopes something would make it budge. The strain threatened to send my only recently gathered thoughts scattering.

Nothing. No reaction from the magic suffusing my being.

What good was being able to see if I couldn"t bend the magic to my will?

Lifting the enchantment on Connor had been child"s play compared to this.

Viewing the problem like it was happening to someone else, I took another look inside, feeling for the differences in power.

Interestingly enough, the medusa"s power had already incorporated with my essence, seamlessly interweaving with my own power until it was impossible to tell where one began and the other left off.

Huh. I didn"t even know that was possible.

No wonder my attempts had been largely unsuccessful. I was treating the magic keeping me encased in stone as something external to my own power. When really, it had already made a nest for itself before circling and lying down for a good, long rest.

Lovely.

Pain sparked at the edge of my senses, courtesy of a blazing spear of pure power trying to breach my natural defenses.

Seemed the twins had thought of a new avenue of approach.

They simply couldn"t leave well enough alone, could they?

I gritted my teeth, throwing my will behind my magic as I resisted their intrusion with every scrap of my being. I"d come so far. The answer was within reach.

The spear eked closer by a millimeter. Pain rocketed through my psyche as it sought to burn out what didn"t belong.

Only problem—it was going to tear through me too, until I was nothing more than a vegetable. If I was lucky, I"d retain enough to be a puppet someone could sometimes play with.

That was if I didn"t die in the attempt.

Which was looking more and more likely.

The spear skated closer.

I gave more of myself to my shield. I wasn"t going to lose this.

A scrap of the power I"d stolen from Callie winked out of my mind"s eye. Not gone—simply dormant.

Hope flickered.

Defending myself was causing me to use up the power keeping me in stone.

As I watched, more and more scraps of the medusa"s power went dark.

Cautiously, I tried to direct the power, feed more and more of it to the flame. It was working.

As if in reward, my fingers and toes started to tingle—like they were coming back to life after a brush with frostbite.

Next were painful prickles, quickly followed by a searing pain so intense I nearly passed out.

Only once in my life had I gotten close to frostbite and this felt similar. An agony so fierce and deep it felt like someone had set fire to my body. The sluggish flow of blood as my extremities woke up was nearly as painful as it was welcome.

Unfortunately, it didn"t mean I was safe, as the spear continued to advance.

It hadn"t occurred to me that using up Callie"s magic would also leave me vulnerable. Without the power to fight its descent, the spear was going to breach my defenses.

How ironic would I be if I freed myself only to find myself enchained seconds later?

Yeah, no. I didn"t think so.

With a herculean effort, I heaved the last of my power at the spear, feeling it shift back the barest bit. Taking advantage of the opening, I threw myself sideways, my attempted roll more of a flail.

I cleared the edge of the table, hitting the ground below hard enough to knock the breath out of me. I sucked in a deep breath as I blinked back the dark spots in my vision.

Oh my god, I could turn my head again.

The bliss. I"d never take that ability for granted again.

Just to prove I could, I did it again, rejoicing in the luxury of movement until the furor in the room gradually intruded.

One issue down, a dozen more to go.

I grabbed the edge of the table, using it to help me stand. A necessary precaution as my legs shook, threatening to send me back to the ground. I held tighter to the table, chancing a quick glance around.

The chamber looked like something out of a Keep. Maybe a little run down. Definitely in need of some TLC.

Despite that, it had a weighty presence, almost as if it had its own quirky personality. The furnishings were simple and had seen better days. They hearkened back to a time when royalty might have once roamed the halls.

Black stone formed the walls and most of the floors.

Travis stood across the table from me, his stance wide and his gaze assessing.

By his side, Callie looked at me with an expression approaching sorrow or grief. It was hard to tell which.

Next to her was Astrid. The Fae woman was shorter than Callie, her body that of a young girl on the cusp of puberty. Despite that she held an eerie beauty at odds with her lack of curves.

Unlike the last time I glimpsed her power, I didn"t have the urge to hide my face. She was as old as the rest, and every bit the predator.

Don moved near the door, sticking to the shadows. I only caught a faint stirring that told me his tentacles were out.

The last was a stranger. Owen. He could have been Jerry"s taller, wider cousin. He had thick, muscular legs and a chest broad enough that he could have given three people a bear hug at once.

Small tusks protruded from his lower jaw, making it seem like he had a bit of an under bite.

Pink colored glasses were perched on his nose. They matched the streak of pink in his hair. He tucked a hand in a pocket and studied me with the same level of interest as I gave him.

"This is unexpected," Breandan said, staring at me like I was an exotic species in a zoo.

I finally glanced down at the table where I had spent the last few hours. It was scorched, black marks radiating from the center.

"Pet, come here," Baran ordered.

My body felt slow and heavy, but that didn"t stop me from shooting the twins a victorious smile. "Nope."

Yes! I could speak. Tart rejoinders here I come, common sense be damned.

Something close to shock filled the faces of those around me.

Baran tried again. "Pet, you will obey."

"Even the vampires know better."

"We saved you. This shouldn"t be possible," Breandan said.

I leaned forward, nodding at the table where the residue of their magic still lingered. "Guess again, asshole."

Breandan"s eyes narrowed as his gaze dropped to the stone. "You managed to free yourself."

"Yup." My lips popped on the "p". I didn"t care if I sounded cocky.

Bring it on. The cockier the better.

Bluffing was an art form. Right now, it was all that was keeping me upright.

Whoever said false bravado couldn"t be useful?

I stiffened my legs, resisting the urge to collapse. These people were like piranhas. Any hint of blood and they"d be on me.

"How fortuitous," Breandan pouted.

"Do not fret, Twin. The next time we need to free a fair maiden, we"ll simply be quicker about it," Baran consoled him.

"That reminds me." Before I could think twice, I punched Breandan in the face, fierce satisfaction filling me.

His head snapped back. His lip was split, blood trickling from it.

The Jerry doppelganger laughed. "I think I like this one."

"That"s for using me as a bed," I told Breandan.

"Such violence when I was only being friendly." Breandan took the handkerchief his brother handed him, pressing it against his lip.

Punching him felt good, almost making the close call worth it.

Breandan made a show of touching his mouth, his motions slow as his finger smeared the blood over his lip. He fiddled with the wound almost as if he rejoiced in the pain.

All the while he watched me, his eyes predatory, a half smile on his lips.

On the other side of table, Baran"s face had gone blank.

"How rude, and here I thought we would be friends," Breandan said in a chiding tone.

Not likely.

The twins might not be on Travis"s side, but they weren"t on mine either. Any alliance we made would be temporary and against my better judgment. I"d have to treat them with the same caution I would an unexploded bomb.

"Maybe in the next life," I said.

"That can be arranged." Baran"s stare was hard, a darkness in it that hadn"t been there before.

Note to self, the twins took any physical violence against the other as a personal affront.

"How did you manage not to be ensnared?" Astrid asked.

I treated her question as rhetorical. No way was I going to reveal my secrets.

My gaze lifted, lingering on the shadow I could still see.

No one had reacted to it yet, and at least two people had looked directly at it.

I was right. I was the only one who could see it.

I wasn"t sure how I felt about that yet.

Emotions roiled through the air, as easy to read as a book.

Baran"s anger held a sharp scent while Breandan seemed more fascinated than ever.

The rest of the Scattered were a medley of scents and colors.

Whatever I"d done with the shadow"s main body, it had revved up my magic sight in a big way.

Everything was richer. More detailed. Even my normal sight, letting me see the tiniest of imperfections in the room around me.

I was focused in a way I had never been before. Data and sensory input coming lightning fast and sorted in the same instant.

Impatience bloomed from the captain's direction. He wanted to get a move on.

This was all weird. So very weird. Helpful, though.

It would take a while to get used to this new facet of my abilities—if they remained.

"I imagine you have a lot of questions right now," the captain said.

His agreeable tone was at odds with the frustration I could see around him.

"You think, Travis?" The question held a wealth of betrayal and a heaping dose of righteous anger.

"I know you feel betrayed right now," he said calmly.

"That doesn"t even begin to cover half of it."

I mean, really? Betrayed? Let"s try infuriated. Hurt. Enraged. Then we"d be getting somewhere.

What I wouldn"t give to ruffle his perfect face. The punch I gave Breandan would be nothing in comparison.

"Brave little thing," Owen mused

I bared my fangs at him, letting out a sound that was a cross between the deep throated yowl of a feline and the hiss of a snake.

He merely arched an eyebrow. "Did you learn nothing from trying to bite, Callie?"

My fangs snicked up into my gums as I admitted he had a point.

Using our teeth to rip out the throats of our enemies was as instinctive as breathing.

Good thing for me that Nathan and Liam had been relentless in drilling other forms of defense and offense into my skull.

For now, I'd let the Jerry lookalike think I was weak and stupid. There would be plenty of time to teach him otherwise later.

"She"s more powerful than you," I said in a guttural voice.

Some of the arrogance leaked from his face as Don muffled a laugh.

Didn"t like that, did he? Good.

"You can't know that," he said.

I didn't answer, simply smiled.

A rumbling noise came from his chest.

"Enough," the captain barked.

The others fell silent.

Owen settled back, his lips thinning as he crossed forearms the size of my head over his chest.

I was surprised he obeyed. He seemed a little less civilized than the rest. He wasn"t the type to follow someone else"s lead unless he respected them or feared them.

Which did the captain inspire in him?

It hadn't escaped me that the captain was the de facto leader of this little operation—even if the rest of them didn"t realize it.

Take him out and the rest would fall to infighting.

When no one else spoke, his attention landed on me with the weight of a boulder. How had I never noticed that before?

He"d always contained a charisma that made officers, even several levels above him, stop and listen when he spoke.

I thought it was because he was good at his job. That he had that certain something that made him a leader of men.

Now, I saw it had more to do with the magic encasing him. I"d just been too blind to see it before.

"Who are you?" I asked.

The captain spread his hands. "Most have called us the Scattered throughout the ages."

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Yeah, I"d already guessed that.

He continued, his smile much pointier than I remembered. "An unfortunate name that references the fact we no longer have a realm or home to call our own."

Again, not telling me much more than I already had put together all on my lonesome while stuck in that statue.

"From what I hear, you"re nothing but mercenaries and assassins," I challenged.

"Don"t listen to every rumor you hear, girl," Owen rumbled

"So, none of you work as either of those things?" I sent an arch look at Callie and Don. Sure could have fooled me. That snatch-and-grab had been damn near professional.

Liam"s enforcers weren"t easily led astray, yet they"d separated us with little effort. I"d admire their technique if I wasn"t the victim.

"Many of us haven"t had a choice. It was either be something others feared or let them enslave and kill us," Callie said.

I grunted. She could call it whatever she wanted, that didn"t change what she did for a living—and all the gods help me, I was in their less than merciful grip.

"Why am I here?" I asked abruptly.

I didn"t really care who they were or why they did what they did, I simply needed to know how I"d gotten unlucky enough to draw their attention.

"Doesn"t beat around the bush," Owen said. "That"s refreshing."

I bit down hard on my response. It wouldn"t help matters.

"It"s a long story," the captain said.

"Simplify it."

"It has to do with your father." He left that tidbit out there, bait meant to draw me into their grasp.

The moments ticked by as I glared, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of winning this round. One side of his mouth quirked up in challenge.

I gave in. "Fine, tell me your damn story."

"To do that, I have to go back to the beginning." He lifted his hand, a ball of energy in it.

Owen shook his head, muttering under his breath as the others stepped back in unison, the twins joining them.

I scarcely had time to draw a breath for a question when that ball burst, leaving me blind and mute—

again.