"A couple of more hours."
Lyon wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her hard against him, tugging her with him as he pushed past Vhyper. "Everyone in the war room. Now . I'll meet you there in five."
"Where are you taking her?" Vhyper demanded.
"I'm locking her up where she can't escape again. And where she'll be safe until we make a decision." Sliding his arm from around her waist, he took her hand and led her down the same narrow set of stairs he had on their way to the Pairing. The basement of the house.
But they passed the ritual room and crossed the wide gym to a mirror on the far side. With a press of his hand, the mirror opened to reveal a long, dimly lit hallway, both the walls and the floor, paved in stone.
The ceiling was high enough for Lyon to stand easily, but the passage itself was barely wide enough for the two of them to walk side by side. It reminded her of the dungeons of a castle.
Deep inside, she heard the growling and thrashing of an animal.
The passage opened onto a wide room filled, as Lyon had warned, with cages built into the walls. Cages separated by two feet of solid stone walls, each with a door made of thick massive steel bars.
Real torches hung on the walls outside the cages, the smoke darkening the air.
Wulfe's glowing eyes peered out from one of the doors, his fangs visible as he snarled.
A chill of foreboding snaked down her spine. "You're going to lock me up with him?"
"With him? No. But I'm putting you in one of the cages."
"Lyon" She didn't like it down here.
"It's for your safety, Kara. The discussion upstairs is going to get heated. With everyone already on the edge of control, more than one may go feral. Especially if you're in the room. I'm not sure I can protect you from them all, especially if I, too, lose control."
He opened one of the cages, ushered her inside, then followed her. He took her into his arms and kissed her thoroughly until she was soft and melting against him.
"I won't let them hurt you, little one." His eyes were earnest.
Kara shook her head. "Don't make me any more promises, Lyon."
His jaw tightened, but he nodded. He brushed her cheek with his knuckles, then retreated, locking her into a tiny cage, barely large enough for her to lie down in. He'd just turned away when the sounds of a commotion reached her ears.
"Dammit to hell," Lyon muttered.
She watched as Tighe and Paenther carried a struggling Vhyper between them, Hawke walking close behind.
"He lost it, Roar," Tighe said. "I don't think he's getting it back this time."
Lyon nodded. "Lock him up." He disappeared from her line of sight as they got a snarling, spitting Vhyper into the cage. The door slammed shut on him with a clang.
As he reappeared, Lyon met her gaze briefly, the weight of the world in his own amber depths. Then he turned away and followed the other three Ferals down the long hall that would lead them back into the house.
Anything could happen to her down here, and he'd never hear it. Never know.
In the cage next to hers she heard Wulfe thrashing and growling like a wild animal. She shivered, glad for the robe that covered her from head to foot but knowing it wouldn't do a thing for the fear that was freezing her soul. The fear that her own strange heritage was going to wind up dooming her. As she glanced down, preparing to sit as she waited for her sentence, a movement outside her cage caught her eye, then was gone before she could be certain she'd seen something.
When she heard the clink of metal and the squeak of thick door hinges, she knew she hadn't been mistaken.
Her heart began to hammer. One of the Ferals was loose.
It took no time for her to wonder who. A moment later, Vhyper stood before her own cage, a smile playing around his mouth. A chilling smile.
"Convenient how all I had to do was pretend to go a little crazy and they brought me right to you, little mate of mine."
Kara shrank back, until the wall pressed at her back. "What are you doing, Vhyper?"
"Why, Kara, what do you think? Lyon said you're not mine, but he was wrong. You are mine. All mine. And those dreams you've been having?" He smiled coldly. "They're about to come true."
A figure stepped beside him, draped in the dark robe that matched her own, the robe of her nightmares. From the darkness of the figure's hood, strange, copper-ringed eyes shone.
Mage eyes.
The gate of her cage swung open and Vhyper filled the doorway. A cruel smile twisted his mouth.
"Come, Kara."
"Lyon!"
Vhyper lunged for her, twisting her back against him as his hand slammed over her mouth. "Shut up, bitch. He'll find you soon enough, but with any luck, it will be too late."
Kara struggled against him, but his hold was like iron, and he was too strong. When she tried to kick at his shins, he lifted her like she weighed nothing, immobilizing her.
Carrying a single torch, the Mage led them deeper into the tunnels.
Kara could hardly breathe for the hand blocking her mouth and covering half her nose. Her heart thundered in her chest, her mind shimmering with a fear greater than any she'd known since she arrived here. Because deep in her soul, she knew this was the danger she'd feared all along.
They stopped before a wooden door that appeared to be nailed closed, but the Mage pulled lightly, and the door swung open.
The musty smell of damp earth slammed into her as Vhyper carried her down the long, narrow steps into what looked to be little more than an underground cave. The steps and walls were formed by stone. The floor was dirt. Smoke from the torch filled the fetid air.
As the light filled the shadowed spaces, she saw the place wasn't as empty as she'd believed. Fire pits formed a small circle, in the middle of which hung a long length of thick rope hanging from a pulley attached to the ceiling.
But it was the gleaming metal that caught her eye and sent the blood rushing from her head in a cold wash of terror.
Knives. Long, wicked-looking daggers lay in a perfect row along one wall.
Her nightmares.
Dear God, no.
Vhyper released her suddenly, dropping her to the ground like a bag of mulch. Kara caught herself with one hand, wincing at the pain that shot up her wrist. Before she could lever herself up, a yank of her robe had her tumbling back down. Unceremoniously, the robe was pulled off her.
Kara scrambled to her feet and tried to run, but Vhyper's hard arm caught around her middle and lifted her off her feet.
"Lyon!"
"He can't hear you, Radiant. And I'll not have you escaping. This is your night, you know. The fulfillment of your destiny. Maybe not the destiny Lyon's been filling your head with, but your destiny all the same."
He lifted her off her feet and carried her to the center of the circle, where he once moire dumped her on her face and followed her down with a knee crushing her back.
Tears sprang to her eyes. Even when Lyon was at his most furious, he'd treated her with some amount of care. But Vhyper showed her none. He wrenched her hands above her head and tied them together with the end of the rope lying on the ground.
The vivid horror of hanging from the ceiling in her nightmares came back to her in a rush. Terror stole her breath. The moment Vhyper's knee released her back, she leaped to her feet, desperate to keep that nightmare from coming true, but there was nowhere to run. Even as she tried, the rope went taut, jerking her to the middle of the circle.
Slowly the rope pulled at her hands and arms, lifting them until she was on her toes, stretching to the point of pain. And then the ground fell away beneath her until she was swinging freely in the air.
Sweat ran down her temples, her skin at once flushed and freezing as panic ripped at her pulse.
Her body swayed and turned until she could see the robed figure bending at the wall, lifting two daggers in its hands. Terror exploded behind Kara's eyes.
"Vhyper, please. Please don't do this."
"Ah, but I must, Radiant." His voice was calm and pleasant, without remorse. He slid a wide plastic vat beneath her swaying feet. "The good news is, we probably won't kill you." He smiled in a way that had her heart clawing to crawl out of her throat. "The bad news is, by the time we're finished with you, you'll wish death had been our only intent."
Vhyper took one of the knives from his assistant and came to stand before Kara, his eyes gleaming with a cold brightness that spoke of true evil.
"Vhyper, don't. Lyon will kill you for this."
Vhyper chuckled. "Perhaps. But you are the Mage, right? And I have been suffering from a lack of radiance." He shrugged. "Time will tell what our fearless leader makes of all this." His face turned hard. "But it changes nothing."
He lifted the pointed tip of his dagger and pressed it against her chest, piercing her flesh just above the neck of her nightgown.
She gasped at the lick of fiery pain. But before she could catch her breath from that first tiny, assault, he slid the blade downward in a single mind-ripping swipe, slicing a shallow furrow from her sternum to the top of her pubic bone.
A scream escaped her throat.
Vhyper laughed, then turned her around and drew a second line of pain down her back.
Warm blood began to trickle down her thighs.
"Vhyper," she gasped. " Don't ."
"Oh, but Radiant. I've barely begun." Two more scores across her shoulders, and the shreds of her nightgown fell away.
Her terror spiked.
"Get the others," Vhyper said. "Quickly."
Kara barely heard the sound of footsteps in the dirt above the pounding in her ears. But the sound of metal clanking together stopped her heart.
Tears trickled down her cheeks. Her fear spiraled.
Into her line of vision came the robed figures of her nightmares. Four stood where she could see them, but her ears told her there were more behind her. The hoods hid their faces from her frightened eyes.
"Vhyper, don't," she begged. "Please don't."
"Ah, but I must, Radiant. I must. Now!" he shouted suddenly.
All around her blades flashed. In a single, mind-shattering blaze of hot, white pain, they pierced her abdomen, clanking inside her as they pierced her like the spokes of a brutal wheel.
Her mind went blank, and all she could do was scream.
"We can't ascend a witch!" Paenther snarled, pacing the war room.
Lyon stood by the door, his back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. Other than the two already in cages, all his men were in this room. And all were staying here. He would take no chance on one deciding to take Kara's fate into his own hands.
"She's the Radiant," Tighe argued. "You saw her as clearly as I did, B.P. We need to ascend her. It could take months for another to come forth, and we don't have that kind of time. We'll all be as crazy as Wulfe and Vhyper by then."
"Tighe's right," Hawke said, seated at the oval conference table, his eyes thoughtful. "We've got to ascend her. But we've also got to protect ourselves from whatever power she acquires as a result. If she already has magic, goddess knows how strong she'll get."
Lyon had listened to the arguments for more than twenty minutes and still had no clearer picture of what he was going to do. Though everything inside him told him Kara was innocent of any malicious intent, he wasn't a fool. He couldn't discount the possibility that she had, utterly, bewitched him. Which meant his belief in her innocence could well have been manipulated.
Deep inside him, his beast growled and snarled, demanding he protect her. "We'll wait until the Shaman gets here." He pushed away from the wall and met Tighe's gaze. "I'll be downstairs."
Tighe nodded.
Paenther fell into step beside him. "I'll go with you."
Lyon glanced at his second. "Afraid I might free her?"
Paenther made a move of his head that was almost a shake, but not quite. "I just figure you could use some company."
Lyon gave a bark of what passed for laughter and gripped the other man's shoulder. Something he almost never did. But it felt right, somehow.
"I'm not going to let you kill her, B.P. If she has to be destroyed, I'll do it myself."
Paenther's head dipped once. "Agreed."
They descended the stairs, to the lower chambers in silence. Not until they opened the mirrored wall in the workout gym did the sounds of Wulfe's snarls reach his ears.
The prisons had long ago been soundproofed in case any enterprising humans tried to search the premises. Humans the Ferals preferred not to kill.
Another sound reached his ears. The sound of a distant scream.
. His blood went cold and he took off running. Rounding the final corner, his gaze flew to Kara's cell, searching for Kara. Please don't let those screams be hers . But her door was open, her cell empty.
In that single moment, he died a thousand deaths.
"Vhyper's gone," Paenther said.
The scream continued, a continuous siren of agony that killed him over and over. He forced himself to still and closed his eyes, sending his senses outward. Kara . He felt her close by. And yet not.
His heart thundered.
"The witch and Vhyper have escaped," Paenther said into his cell phone. "Leave Kougar on guard upstairs," Paenther snapped into the phone behind him. "Everyone else down here."
Below. He felt her below. Damnation . "He's broken into the dungeons!" He ran for the far passage and the long-sealed door.
The passage was long and winding and took an eternity to traverse as Kara's screams ended, then resumed at fevered pitch. What in the name of the goddess was he doing to her? He'd kill him. Kill him.
Finally, he came to the door. The wood sealing it shut appeared to still be in place. But when he gave a tug, the door moved easily in his hand.
The moment the door cracked open, he was blasted with a wall of such pain it nearly drove him to his knees.
He lunged forward, down the dark, dank stairwell that he'd believed sealed for centuries. Kara screamed again, the sound ripping through his gut and twisting his heart.
Dead snake. Dead snake. Dead snake.
A hundred scenarios danced through his head, a hundred horrors that Vhyper might have been visiting on her.
As he rounded the bend into the room, his mind froze. The bile tore to get out.
None of his imaginings came anywhere close.
She was hanging from a rope, naked and bleeding from no fewer than eight daggers protruding from her waist like a cruel, macabre belt. The blood ran down, coating her hips and legs, to pool in the dirt at her feet.
Standing behind her was Vhyper, his eyes glowing feral red, his snake's fangs elongated, a ninth blade in his hand.
Lyon lunged for him. " What have you done ?"
"She's a Mage witch!"
Lyon felt his claws slash outward. If he'd been able to do it, he'd have shifted and torn out the other man's throat. With a lunge, he tackled Vhyper, grabbing his knife hand and slamming it to the dirt floor as he shredded the man's throat with his claws. But Vhyper was damned near as strong as he was and, crazed or not, wasn't about to go down without a fight.
"Lyon!" Paenther's voice shouted behind him. "It's not Vhyper's fault. It's the lack of radiance."
Lyon heard the words, but his beast was beyond heeding them. He didn't care why Vhyper had attacked her. The only thing that mattered was that he had .
Never in his life had he fought to kill another Feral, but all he could see was death. His beast smelled it. He wanted it.
Interfering hands tore him away from his victim and he turned on them, attacking, slashing until the voices finally tore through his head.
"Lyon, get back in your skin!" Tighe's voice. "Kara needs you."
Kara.
The fight left him in a cold rush as if he'd been doused with ice water. He jerked free of Tighe and Paenther's hold and whirled, lunging for her. Then stopped.
Kara.
He wanted to cut her down and gather her close, but the knives.
Sweet goddess. He didn't know where to start.
Her pain was almost more than he could bear. But the terror he'd felt when he first opened that door was gone. She was safe. She knew she was safe.
"Lyon."
Vhyper had her hanging just above eye level. He stepped into the puddle of her blood and cupped her face with his hands, holding her shattered gaze. "I'm going to get you down, little one, but it's going to hurt. So I'm going to knock you out."
"Do it."
He slipped his finger to the base of her ear and pressed until she went limp. Then he pressed his left palm against her rib cage, grabbed the hilt of one of the knives with his right, and pulled. Even unconscious her body jerked, and the pain leaped until he feared the weight of it would crush him. One by one, he pulled the knives from her, praying over and over that the damage wasn't too great. That her body would heal from this brutal attack. It wasn't until the last knife slid free, that he realized the other wounds were continuing to bleed.
"She should be healing. She's not healing," he said to no one in particular.
Tighe stepped beside him and grabbed one of the knives off the floor. "Hold her while I cut her down."
Lyon gathered her against him, then swept her into his arms as the rope came free.
"The others are taking Vhyper back to the prison."
"Search him. He must have had a key on him when they put him in there. And add a chain this time."
Lyon stepped back from the puddle and knelt in the dirt, lifting Kara's torn waist to his mouth. She should have healed. If she couldn't do it herself, he had to do it for her. He closed his lips around the nearest wound and stroked the gash with his tongue. The taste of warm blood pleased his beast, but he knew better than to swallow much of it in his human form.
The blood kept coming. Denial flashed through his head and he leaped to his feet, cradling Kara against him. "I've got to get her help. She's not healing."
"Maybe she's not as immortal as we thought."
The thought made him go cold.
As he rushed up the stairs, he shouted orders. "Tell Hawke to keep someone down here on guard duty. Then meet me in the foyer and bring Jag and Paenther with you. We're taking Kara to the healer."
"You don't want me to have the healer come here?" Tighe asked.
"No. We can get her there faster. But I'm going to need help with the draden. Find out where Esmeria is, then call the Shaman and tell him to meet us there. I want to know what the hell is going on with Kara, and I want to know now."
Even an immortal couldn't bleed forever without her body eventually shutting down. And he didn't know what the hell Kara really was.
All he knew for certain was she needed help. And she needed it now.
CHAPTER 18
"It's not working. Even the stitches aren't holding," Esmeria said wretchedly, more than an hour later. The short-haired brunette sat on the lip of' the large, tiled bathtub where Lyon held Kara, her hands and white shirt soaked with Kara's blood. "It's almost as if she's under some kind of bleeding spell."
"Then treat it like a bleeding spell," Lyon snapped. "There's got to be a way to break it." His own blood had long ago turned to ice, the moment he'd seen Kara hanging from that rope. A moment that was permanently carved into his brain. But the fact that the finest Therian healer that had ever lived couldn't knit these wounds was scaring the hell out of him.
He wouldn't lose her. He wouldn't lose her .
"She's part Mage, Untrained, I think," he told the healer, "Maybe she accidentally did this to herself. Or maybe this is my fault. I cut out her cantric."
Esmeria winced at his confession, but said nothing as she went back to work, shoving her hands beneath the blankets to lay her hands on Kara's wounds once more.
They'd made it to the Georgetown enclave without the draden finding them, but Kara wasn't healing, and her body was losing blood fast. Faster than her quickly healing body could make more. If this continued, her organs would start shutting down.
Lyon held Kara still as Esmeria worked. She lay tucked against him, beneath a warm layer of woolen blankets soaked with her blood, her skin white as death. He'd climbed into the dry tub with her the moment they'd arrived, not wanting to ruin any more carpets or furniture than necessary. Kara had to be losing a good pint every minute. Despite the blankets, she was shivering in his arms, and he was terrified that the spell, if that was what it was, would take her. That he'd caught Vhyper too late.
"How's she doing?"
Lyon looked up to find Tighe standing in the doorway. "We can't get this bleeding to stop."
Concern clouded his expression. "I'm sorry. Maybe the Shaman can help figure out what's wrong. He's just arrived, by the way."
As if on cue, Paenther stepped through the door, followed by the Shaman. Jag brought up the rear. One of the oldest of the Therians, the Shaman had been the victim of a Mage attack in his youth, and while he'd continued to age for a few more years, he'd ceased to grow or fully, physically, mature. He was taller than Kara, but not by much, and far shorter than other Therian males.
He wore his dark hair long and tied at his nape and still dressed in an old-world manner, with his black pants and ruffled white shirts. His thin face remained youthful, never having quite developed a full beard, nor the hard angles of a full-grown male. But the man had long since accepted what he was and often said a few inches of height was a small price to pay for the ability he'd acquired as a result. A talent for magic.
Though the man had a name, it was ancient and hard to pronounce. He'd long ago asked to simply be called the Shaman .
The three Ferals took up posts around the outer walls of the oversized bathroom while the Shaman came to sit on the side of the tub, opposite from where Esmeria continued to struggle against the constant flow of Kara's blood. His eyes were wary and guarded, reminding Lyon this man had as much reason to hate the Mage as Paenther did.
But as the Shaman stared at Kara, something shifted in his eyes, filling them with confusion. He reached out and placed his hand on her head, then slowly shook his own.
"She's not Mage." His eyes flicked up. "Why did you think she was Mage?"
It was moments before his words finally penetrated Lyon's stunned mind. "She had a cantric buried in her hip."
The Shaman's dark brows shot up. "A cantric." He closed his eyes and began to nod his head. "She's got echoes of a load of magic garbage inside her. Including a bleeding spell. Has she been around any Mage in the past few days?"
"She's been nowhere but Feral House."
"Any symptoms other than the bleeding?"
Lyon nodded. "She's been afraid. Terrified. And it's been getting worse. How long has she had that cantric?"
"Impossible to say. Maybe years. But the magic's new."
The Shaman watched her thoughtfully, then shot out a hand and laid it on top of Lyon's own head.
Lyon stifled the rumble in his throat and let the man work.
The Shaman stood and went to each of his warriors, one after the other, touching them thoughtfully.
"You're off. All of you."
"What do you mean off ?" Lyon demanded.
"Not bewitched, or anything like that, but off somehow. I suspect you have a dark charm in the house. A strong one. It would account for the oddness I'm feeling in you and for the strange fear your Radiant's been experiencing. That cantric acted as a magic catcher. Probably didn't bother her at all until she arrived at Feral House and came in contact with the charm. Whatever the dark charm was designed to do is probably going crazy inside her and may have triggered any number of old spells that cantric may have come in contact with long before it was ever put inside her. I don't feel it in her now. Did you take it out?"
"I did."
"Good." He looked thoughtful. "If she's been acting afraid, that might be the purpose of the dark charm. Have any of your men been experiencing similar symptoms?"
"Fear, no. But they've been going increasingly feral. I've had to lock up two of them."
"Definitely a dark charm, then. Probably with some kind of chaos spell. I see them from time to time, though I haven't heard of one strong enough to bother a houseful of Ferals in a long, long time." He rose. "I'll drive out there first thing in the morning and find that charm. Once I've taken a look at it, I'll be able to tell you more. In the meantime, I suggest you and your warriors each find a willing female and clear yourself of magic." He nodded at Kara. "Once she's healed, she's going to need a good sexual release, too." His eyes narrowed. "Full penetration. Nothing less is going to clean out that mess of magic inside her."
"There!" Esmeria cried. "I think no ." The healer pulled her bloody hands out from under the blanket and sat back with a sound of deep frustration. "I thought I'd stopped it."
"Don't give up, healer," Lyon growled. "I will not lose her!"
"I'll call you when I'm through," the Shaman said, and turned to go. "Stay away from the house until I've cleaned it, or you'll just be infected again."
Esmeria blew a strand of dark hair out of her eyes and leaned over the tub. Kara remained unconscious. Dammit, she should have woken by now. He could feel the strength leaking out of her at an alarming rate. Goddess help them, she wouldn't last another hour.
"Stay with me, Kara." His grip on her tightened.
Minutes later, Esmeria sat back, swearing. "Now that I'm treating the spell, I'm getting the flow to stop, but it keeps starting up again."
He had to do something. He would not let her die . Fear for her pounded through his blood.
"Tighe, I need your assistance."
"Anything, Roar."
Lyon leaned forward, sitting up straight. His heart thudded. "Next time Esmeria stops the bleeding, I'm going to try to heal one of those wounds again. I need you to brace Kara's head while I lift her waist to my mouth."
"All right."
Lyon looked to the healer. "Do it."
Esmeria pulled the blankets away, closed her eyes, and pressed her hands to Kara's wounds as she had before. Seconds later, the bleeding stopped.
"Now," Lyon said, and lifted Kara's too-light body to his mouth, closing his lips around the nearest wound. As he'd done before, deep in the dungeons of Feral House, he stroked the gash with his tongue. Working frantically, he felt the flesh knitting beneath his tongue. He was nearly done with the first of the gashes when the blood-bath resumed.
He pulled back and eyed the wound with knee-weakening relief. "It worked." Only a trickle of blood broke through. He wiped his chin and looked at Esmeria. "Whenever you're ready."
Paenther moved to the side of the tub and took the seat the Shaman had vacated. His hand fell heavily on Lyon's shoulder. Their gazes met for an instant, long enough for Lyon to know that the full force of Paenther's will was behind him.
One after another, Lyon healed the gashes ringing Kara's slender waist. He'd just started licking the last of the eight when he felt Kara stir, felt her fingers slide into the hair at the back of his head.
His body sagged with relief. Thank the goddess .
"Lyon" she breathed.
With shock, he felt the faint stirring of her passion. Relief flowed through him sharp enough to burn his eyes, tightening his chest until he thought it would crack. If he was able to awaken her passion, she was going to be fine.
"Hold on, Warrior," Esmeria said. "I need to take the stitches out of that last one." Stitches that had been useless.
Once the stitches were removed, Lyon lifted Kara's waist to this mouth once more, his arms shaking from the force of his emotions. He took exquisite pleasure healing this last of her wounds, feeling her own pleasure rise with every stroke of his tongue.
He squeezed his eyes closed against the burn of moisture, reveling in the rising strength of her life's energy, feeling the constriction around his heart ease with every tiny gasp that left her throat.
When her fingers fisted in his hair, and her body arched and trembled gently against his mouth, his beast purred with satisfaction. And a drop of moisture leaked from his eye.
Tighe whistled behind him. "Damn, Roar. I wish you'd teach me that trick."
He wiped his cheek and his chin on his bare shoulder as he lowered Kara onto his lap and cradled her precious body against him.
Kara reached for him, curling her arms around his neck, and melted against him, melting his heart.
"I'll take it from here, Warrior," Esmeria said. "I'll get her cleaned up and into bed."