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WE WATCHED THE COMPASS in tense silence, waiting for it to give us a sign that Roderick had left the safety of the restricted area. Winston’s eyes were glued to it. As a ghost, he didn’t need to blink. After a few minutes, the compass swung from left to right. “Go,” Connor ordered and the phantom obediently vanished.
Only a few moments passed before Winston returned with Roderick in tow. “Got him,” he said in profound satisfaction.
Tall and thin with a shock of dark curly hair, the Archivist wore one of his usual brown tweed suits, but it was horribly wrinkled. His watery blue eyes went wide with fright at suddenly being relocated. Seeing he was surrounded by the Hunter Elite, he fumbled for his cell phone.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Mirra said and plucked it from his hand.
“I have to let Spencer know where you are,” Roderick said, forehead wrinkling in a frown. “I don’t have a choice.”
“Aye, you do, lad,” Rudy said. He slid off his chair and sauntered over to him. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out one of the rings that I’d ensorcelled. “Hold his hand steady,” he said. “This is going to sting a bit.”
Connor and Quin grabbed hold of the Archivist when he tried to run. The leprechaun waited for Quin to hold Roderick’s hand out, then slipped a ring onto his finger. It magically grew to fit him and the Archivist went rigid when it was in place. Face turning red, he opened his mouth to scream, but the pain faded before he could voice it.
“How are you feeling, son?” Winston asked anxiously.
Looking around in a daze, Roderick straightened his spine when he was released. Smoothing his rumpled jacket, he collapsed onto a chair. “It was horrible,” he said in a hoarse voice. “Von Hades forced me to drink his blood and turned me into his thrall.”
“You searched our mansion while we were hunting the Dark?” Quin asked, arching a pale eyebrow.
Ashamed by his actions, Roderick looked away and nodded. “He ordered me to tell him everything and I spilled your secrets, leaving nothing out. He knows about the unicorn blood and your plan to break free of him. He told me to search for the flask and to bring it to him.”
“You mean this flask?” I asked and took it out of my pocket.
No longer controlled by the demon, he looked at it briefly and nodded. “He will be very displeased once he discovers you’ve kidnapped me.” Seeing the clan of shifters for the first time, he gulped. “Are you going to kill me?”
“Of course not,” Winston said. “We didn’t kidnap you, we’ve rescued you.” It was obvious by his baffled expression that the Archivist didn’t quite get it.
“I’m going to break his hold over all of us,” I said. “Including you.” Putting his hands over his face, Roderick began to weep in relief.
Winston manifested enough to pat him on the shoulder. “Come on, young man. Let’s get you some tea and biscuits, shall we?” He whisked the Archivist upstairs to the kitchen so he could have some privacy while he got a hold of himself again.
“Is there any chance Von Hades will find us here?” Blair asked uneasily.
“I’ve set the cameras on a repetitive loop, so the place looks vacant,” Quin said. “He won’t know we’re here unless he sends someone to check the building in person.” It was such a backwater, seldom used Archives that we hoped it wouldn’t occur to him that we’d sought shelter here.
“He could probably get someone to cast the locating spell on us,” I pointed out. “I wouldn’t put it past him to have kept some strands of our hair.”
“Even if our enemies manage to get in here, we have the means to leave before we’re invaded,” Quin reminded us and pointed at the phantoms and the leprechaun. The ghosts could use the veil to whisk us away and Rudy could teleport us all in a heartbeat. I could also open a rift if I had to.
“Now that the gang is all here, I’d better cast the spell,” I said.
“How much power is it going to take?” Jake asked.
“A lot,” I replied truthfully. “It’ll probably drain me completely.”
“I’ll escort you to the conjuring chamber,” he offered. I motioned for everyone else to remain behind, knowing he wanted to speak to me in private. Connor wasn’t happy, but he trusted the half-fae hunter to look out for me.
We took the long, dark hallway to the conjuring room. Jake looked around, then stared at the sconces that held torches ready to be set alight. They burst into flames, making me start. “Did you do that?” I asked.
Jake shrugged and smiled a little. “I guess so. I was thinking some light could make the room a little less dismal, then the torches caught fire.”
“It’s going to be very interesting to see what talents you have locked away inside you.”
He tugged on a lock of my hair like he used to do when I’d first come to live with him. “You know why I came with you,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
“You want to give me some of your blood.”
“Yeah, darlin’. You’re going to need a boost, or you’ll be wrung out. None of us know how the demon is going to react once you all break free from being his thralls. We might need you to be in top working condition.”
I saw the logic of his decision, but I was still reluctant to drink from him. “Fairy blood is almost too powerful for me to handle,” I hedged.
“We’ll just have to make sure you don’t drink too much this time,” he replied.
Heaving a sigh of capitulation, I stopped trying to worm my way out of it. “Don’t let me take more than three swallows. The fourth one is always a doozy.”
“Will do, sweetheart,” he said with a chuckle, then offered me his wrist.
It was less intimate than drinking from his neck and I grasped hold of his arm. My fangs descended and I bit into his vein. Even before I swallowed, a tingle started inside my mouth. It spread through me as his sweet, heavenly blood entered my system. His blood had changed after I’d unlocked his potential. He felt much closer to a full blood fairy now. I wanted to drain him dry and suck his very essence into myself, but fought the evil urge. The combination of vampirism, dark magic and demonic essence inside me made it much harder for me to remain one of the good guys.
Managing to pull away after three swallows, I wiped my mouth with my sleeve. Looking into Jake’s dark blue eyes, I was sent spiraling into a vision. I saw an army of floating creatures in black garments with deep cowls and bony chests marching on a town with Morgwen in the lead. The vision shifted to a cave where a portal was opening up. Glowing silver eyes appeared as creatures that didn’t belong here came through the doorway. It shifted again to a dark, forbidding mountain range that lurked in the distance in a realm that wasn’t ours. Doom hovered over it, warning me to stay away.
“What did you see, honey?” Jake asked as my vision cleared.
It was already growing fuzzy, but one thing had stood out. “The witch and her Dread Wraiths are going to attack a town tonight.”
“Then you’d better get cracking on that spell. We have a job to do.” With a supportive squeeze of my arm, he left the room.
“It’s just you and me now, Greg,” I said.
The reaper came forward until he was visible. Now that we were bound by flesh, his body was with me all the time rather than just his consciousness. “I will watch over you and alert the others if anything goes wrong,” he intoned in his hollow voice.
“Thanks,” I replied, then called Greta’s Grimoire to me with a thought. The book appeared on the desk open to the page with the spell I needed. “This is it, Ari,” I murmured. “If you muck this up, we’ll all be screwed.”
It wasn’t much of a pep talk, but it was enough to incite me to begin.
