Cin Craven - Wages of Sin Part 25

"Go up to bed and sleep well," she whispered.

The man shuffled off up the back stairs as if he were walking in his sleep.

"You thought I was going to kill him," Kali said.

I shrugged. What could I say? My momentary guilt for thinking that she had intended to kill him when she had only been covering up the wounds I'd inflicted was lost when I remembered who and what she was. She hadn't done it out of mercy or pity. She'd done it because we had to spend one more day at the inn and she didn't want a mob of villagers with torches dragging us out into the daylight. Come to think of it, I wasn't sure if a mob would have really bothered her. She'd probably only done it because ma.s.sacring an entire village would take too much time.

I moved back behind the counter and collected my bag of candles and herbs. Before I could reach for the spell, Kali picked it up and slipped it back into the pocket of her cloak. I laid money on the counter, making it four times what the supplies were worth, not that it would ease my conscience.

"Let's get out of here," I said. "You need to feed and then I need to get back to the inn and charge the herbs and go over the spell again."

"Then by all means, let us return to the inn. I don't need to feed. Sebastian and I have something arranged for later," she said, cryptically.

I really didn't want to know what it was so I smiled and nodded and led the way back to the inn.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

I stopped at my door. Philip of the dead eyes didn't move an inch, blocking my way quite effectively. I turned to look at Kali. She smiled in an odd sort of way.

"Come to my room," she practically purred.

I took a step back. "No," I said, "I need to work on the spell."

She c.o.c.ked her head to one side. "But you don't have it."

I shrugged. "You seem reluctant to give it to me so I thought I'd write it out from memory."

"Can you do that?"

"Most of it."

"Well, that won't do. Come to my room for a few moments and I'll give you the spell. You may take it with you when you go," she said, as if she were bestowing a great boon.

I wasn't stupid and neither was she; there was no way she was giving me the only copy of that spell. I followed her to her door, unwilling to point out to her that the spell was in her pocket and she could just give it to me in the hall. Something was off. She was tense, not anxious but excited. She practically floated through the door.

I followed her in, my eyes taking a few precious seconds to adjust to the dim candlelight. It was long enough for her to shut the door behind me. I whirled around but she wasn't paying any attention to me, she was looking over my shoulder and smiling.

Turning slowly back around, I realized that I was in deep trouble. I also figured out what that little "something" was that she and Sebastian had arranged.

Sebastian was on his knees in the middle of the bed, his face shadowed in profile. He was stark naked, pale and possessing quite a bit more muscle than I would have thought was under those dandy's clothes. On her hands and knees in front of him was the plump blonde barmaid from downstairs. Sebastian's eyes rose slowly to mine, raking over my entire body, as he moved in and out of her.

Her eyes were glazed over, not bespelled because he wasn't old enough for that yet, but drugged perhaps. Still, she looked like she was enjoying herself. I took a step back toward the door.

"Not so fast," Kali said. "Stay a while."

"No, really," I stammered, trying to look anywhere but at that bed. "I'll give you some privacy."

Kali grabbed a handful of my hair and tossed me a few feet from the door.

"I said stay," she commanded and turned back to the bed, breathing in a deep breath. "Ah, Sebastian, look what you've brought me. Just what I needed."

Her black velvet cloak fell to the floor and I was astonished to see that she was naked beneath it. The whole time we had been out together she hadn't had a st.i.tch on! She stalked toward the bed, hips swaying seductively. She was like some wild, beautiful, exotic jungle creature; you knew it would probably eat your face off but you couldn't do anything but stand and stare. Her dusky skin seemed to glow from the inside as she sat on the bed, leaning over to stoke the girl's b.r.e.a.s.t.s as they rocked gently back and forth with each of Sebastian's long strokes. Kali quivered and I didn't think it was necessarily in l.u.s.t.

"What kind of demon were you?" I asked. It was like drawing the attention of a coiled cobra but I couldn't stop the words.

Kali smiled, her eyes watching me as she ran her tongue up the side of the girl's throat. "Succubus," she purred and gently drew the blonde's earlobe into her mouth, as if to emphasize the point.

Succubus, a demon that a.s.sumed female form and fed off of s.e.x. No wonder she'd gone to so much trouble to keep that body.

And no wonder her power was so much stronger than a normal vampire's. She was siphoning energy by feeding off of s.e.x. That explained a lot of things, most especially how Devlin came to be her prisoner. I wondered if he knew what she was.

I watched in fascinated horror as Kali maneuvered herself beneath the barmaid's planted hands. She was quite a bit taller than the girl which put her generous b.r.e.a.s.t.s flush with the girl's face. The barmaid bent down to take one of Kali's dusky nipples into her mouth, tugging gently and then harder. Kali moaned and planted her feet solidly on the mattress, lifting her hips until her dark curls brushed against the blonde's.

Sebastian never took his eyes from me. His pupils were enormous, making his eyes bleed black. He pulled out of the girl, his member long and wet. She moaned and moved back a little, as if her body were searching for him. He did look down then. He slipped his thumb deeply into her, at the same time plunging three long fingers into Kali's waiting slickness. The two women before him cried out in pleasure. He turned again to me, stoking himself with his free hand, sweat running in rivulets down his chest.

"Come here," he said firmly.

"No," I whispered and then more forcefully, "no!"

It was too much to ask me to stand there and watch that. I'd never even heard of anything like this. I turned and ran to the door, Kali's voice stopping me just as I reached it. Pain ripped through me like razor blades in my brain as she shouted for me to stop. I did so, leaning my palms and my forehead against the cool wood of the door. I moved through the pain, grasping the door k.n.o.b and nearly crying when I found it locked. Had she been able to lock it from across the room? Or had I just not noticed that she'd locked it behind me when we came in?

"Do as he asks," she commanded coolly.

"No," I said. "You cannot make me. You'll have to kill me first and you won't do that because you need me."

"I have given you more free rein than I have anyone else in centuries... witch." She spat the word at me and my bones began to ache from the power she was emanating. "Now, this time, you will do as I tell you."

"I won't do that," I repeated.

"You will do it or I will go next door and kill those two humans you seem so fond of."

"You're going to kill them tomorrow night anyway," I stated, carefully removing any sort of emotion from my voice.

She laughed. "Yes, but if you don't do as I say right now then Sebastian and I will rape the woman and make you and the husband watch. Now. Come. Here."

I turned slowly, my eyes blazing with a mixture of hatred and fear. I walked across the room, sweating, shaking. When I was close enough, Sebastian reached out and grabbed my wrist, jerking me onto my knees on the bed. I struggled until I could feel the bones of my wrist grind together under his fingers.

"You have no idea how long I've waited to have you on your knees," he growled. "Now, get down and open that pretty mouth of yours."

"What?" I asked, confused.

Kali laughed, a sound of true pleasure. "Oh Sebastian, I think perhaps you should start slower." There was a sly smile on her face as her hands roamed over the girl's body.

"Fine," he said, pulling me toward him until I was flush against his side.

As his fingers moved furiously in and out of both women, his free hand grasped mine, placing it on his swollen shaft. I cringed; it was slick with her juices. He curled my fingers around himself, placing his hand over mine. We both stroked, the rhythm keeping pace with his other hand. He squeezed and loosened, teaching me what he wanted. Moisture grew on the tip of him and he ran my palm over it, spreading it down the hard length of him. He moved my hand between his legs, gently rolling his sac between my fingers. G.o.ddess, I would have crushed him if I hadn't thought that Kali would kill me for disrupting her sport, or perhaps carry out her threat against Amelia as punishment.

I closed my eyes, nearly choking on bile as he moved against my hand in a frenzied pace. Kali and the barmaid were making soft, mewling sounds. Suddenly Sebastian grunted and jerked away from me. Grasping the blonde's hips he drove into her in one hard motion, threw back his head and shouted. The blonde screamed and Kali gave a throaty groan, sinking her teeth deep into the girl's neck. The three of them spasmed together in a wave of pain and pleasure. Sebastian's hand shot out, grabbing my hair and pulling my face toward his. Before I knew what he intended he pressed his lips to mine and the power that was coursing through the three of them spilled into me as well.

It was comfort, like chocolate and whiskey and warm sheets. It was power, like calling the elements and feeling the enormous strength of nature rushing through your body. It was l.u.s.t, like watching Michael across a room and then suddenly having his hands on me, his lips against my bare skin. It was all that and much, much more. And underneath it was something dark and evil and laced with tainted blood.

I jerked free of Sebastian and stumbled across the room, my head spinning, my stomach churning, my legs numb and tingly. I fell against the dressing table and leaned against it for a moment, my stomach heaving as if I would vomit. From the bed I could hear Kali begin to laugh. As I stood there with my hands braced and my head hanging down, I noticed that her discarded cloak was on the floor next to my feet. Reaching down, I fished the folded spell out of her pocket and ran to the door. To my surprise, it opened for me. I spilled from the room like a drunk from a tavern, the tangy smell of s.e.x clinging to me and Kali's mocking laughter chasing me down the hall.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The coach clattered along in the evening mist. I looked out the window, wondering if Michael was out there somewhere, watching over me. Had it been he that I'd felt watching me last night? I sighed to myself. I wanted this all to be over. I wanted to curl up in bed, safe in his arms. I rested my forehead on the coach wall.

The first thing I'd done when I returned to my room last night was ring for a bath. Thomas had been a complete gentleman and kept his back to the room as I'd soaked in the small copper tub behind an ancient, nearly transparent screen. I'd stayed there, shaking and scrubbing, until my skin was all wrinkly and the hot water had turned frigid. Amelia had brought me a towel which she had warmed by the fire and she brushed my hair and mothered me, though neither she nor Thomas had asked me what had happened. I think it was more because they really didn't want to know than out of any regard for my feelings.

The rest of the night and part of today I'd worked on the spells, trying to figure out how to incorporate the components of both so that I could change from one to the other in mid-spell without Kali realizing it and without jeopardizing the end result. I'd figured out everything except what I was going to do about Sebastian if I managed to trap Kali in one of those stones. I'd have to fight him, of course. The problem was that he had his sword and he had Philip, who may or may not take orders from him, and all I had was one of Justine's daggers hidden in my boot.

Laying my head back against the seat, I closed my eyes. Perhaps with enough magic I could hold him off until the reinforcements arrived. Perhaps.

A hand on my knee drew me bolt upright. Kali was leaning across the seat, her proper English dresses of the past few days now replaced with the houri's costume she'd worn on our first meeting. Of course, it wasn't the same skirt. That one had burned, I thought with no little satisfaction. The new one was deep red to match the rubies in her necklaces. We looked like a matched pair, she and I, all in black and red.

My hair hung loose in its natural scarlet waves down my back. Justine's thigh-high black boots and snug black breeches encased my legs. I wore my black cloak with the crimson lining which almost exactly matched the silk shirt under it. The shirt had little gathered pleats around a modest neckline and long, flowing sleeves caught at the wrists in a fall of crimson dyed lace. It fell in a whisper to the tops of my thighs. The shirt was the most modest of all of the clothes I'd taken from Justine and after last night I felt that I needed all the modesty I could get.

"Nervous, my priestess?" Kali purred, her hand gently squeezing my knee. The ends of her black hair brushed her nipples where they peeked through the many strands of wrought gold. "Perhaps when this is all over we can finish what we started last night?"

I thought of the blonde barmaid. Janet had been her name. She hadn't shown up for work this evening. The whole inn was rife with gossip that she'd run off with a lover. I knew who her lovers were and I wondered where they had hidden her body. I wondered if anyone would ever find her and give her a proper burial. I looked at Kali's hand on me, knowing that she and Sebastian had used that poor girl and then taken pleasure in killing her, and something inside me snapped.

I grabbed her wrist and threw her across the coach, landing on top of her in the far corner, my fingernails digging into her flesh. My other hand wrapped around her throat and squeezed.

"If you ever," I said, with tightly reined fury, "ever, try anything like that with me again I will cut your heart out, burn your body to ashes and mount you head over my fireplace. Do you understand?"

"You can die trying," she whispered.

"Then we'll both burn. I'm not afraid to die. Are you?"

She shuddered and her eyes went liquid black. Dear G.o.ddess, I realized, she's aroused by this! Smacking her head once against the wall, I released her and retreated to the opposite corner. Amelia regarded me with wide eyes. I'd just broken every one of my own rules: keep your head down, be inconspicuous, don't make her angry and you may live to see another dawn.

What the h.e.l.l, I thought, we were probably all going to die anyway.

If I'd had a stake I probably could have driven it though her heart as she stood transfixed, staring at the wonder that was Stonehenge. The strong, silent, stone sentinels rose majestically from the flat earth of Salisbury Plain, the light of the full moon gilding them a glowing silver. Kali cooed and ran her hands over the stones, walking around until she stood under one of the still- standing lintels. Stretching her hands out, she breathed deeply and threw her head back.

"Such power. Can you feel it?" she whispered.

"Yes," I replied.

"When I rule this world I will restore this place to its former glory. The ground will run red with blood from the sacrifices we will perform here."

"Sacrifices to whom?" I asked, wondering what G.o.d Kali prayed to.

"Why to me, of course. It will be my temple."

She strode through the upright sa.r.s.en stones and into the inner circle as if it were already her temple. I followed behind, Sebastian and Philip coming after with Thomas and Amelia in tow. Sebastian smiled at me and winked, a promise in his eyes of things yet to come. I turned away from him and ran my hands down the legs of my breeches, as if I could wipe away the memory of last night.

"There," Kali said, pointing to two smaller upright stones inside the great horseshoe of trilithons around the altar stone.

Philip stood guard while Sebastian forced Thomas to his knees and tied him to the stone, then moved to do the same to Amelia.

Poor Amelia, who had been so stoic until then, started screaming and crying. The look on Thomas's face was pure torture. I turned my back as I set my bags of herbs, vials of oil and jar of salt water on the altar stone, trying to ignore her cries. I would do the best I could to save us all, but right now I needed to concentrate.

I measured my charged herbs and oils carefully into my little stone bowl: rose oil, dragon's blood, rosemary, rue. The little pouches that Mr. Pendergra.s.s had given me contained what looked like ash and I was grateful that I didn't know what they really were. The herbs I had brought were not the ones listed in Kali's spell but I didn't think that she knew rosemary from ragwort. At least I sincerely hoped she didn't. If she realized I was using the wrong herbs, we were all doomed.

I glanced up, cautiously, but she paid me little attention, much too occupied with walking around, gazing at the henge. When my herbs were ready I gathered my black candles and walked around the outside of the horseshoe, placing them on top of the smaller bluestones that ringed the inner trilithons. Kali followed me like a noisy shadow, her glittering jewels swaying and tinkling with each swing of her hips. She laid a hand on one of the bluestones and quickly stepped back from it, holding her hand against her chest.

"It's warm," she said, more of a question to me than the statement it was meant to be.

"Yes, strangely those are always warmer than the others," I replied and continued around, placing my candles where I could.

Something moved out on the Plain and I froze, turning my head to look out past the standing stones. There was a dark shape out there, low to the ground. As if it had felt my gaze on it, it stopped moving and blended into the mist and shadows. Could it be Michael? No, surely he and Devlin knew better than to come this close. There were no trees nearby, nothing to provide cover.

Besides, it had seemed too small to be a man. I watched as long as I thought I could without someone noticing but the shadow didn't move again so I walked back to the altar stone.

"Kali, I'm ready to start but I need Sebastian and Philip to move outside the circle."

"No," she said, "They have been loyal to me and deserve to be here when I regain my crown."

"They can see just as well from outside the circle," I argued.

"You have pushed me as far as you can for one night," she said through clenched teeth. "They stay. The matter is closed."

I hadn't thought I could get away with that but it had been worth a try. "Fine, but once the circle is cast no one can cross it. If anyone breaks the circle then the spell is ruined, understand?"

"No one will interfere," she a.s.sured me. "Proceed."

I took my jar of salt water and walked the perimeter of my circle, cleansing the area as I had when I'd done the spell to summon The Righteous. I walked it three times more, closing the circle, and then starting in the north I called the quarters. The candles blazed to life, just as they should, and I felt a small triumph that I'd been able to do it all without anyone else's help.

Perhaps it was just a matter of time or perhaps it had something to do with becoming a vampire, but I had felt more in control of the magic inside me since I had woken in Mr. Pendergra.s.s's attic. It didn't feel alien to me anymore; it felt like it was a part of me. I still had a great deal of work ahead of me, learning the extent of the power I possessed and how to harness it and control it, but tonight I felt strong. Of course, the full moon, the night of Samhain and the sacred stones lent me power beyond my imagining. As I walked back and stood upon the altar stone I could feel the power coursing through me. Magic had been performed here from time immemorial and the earth remembered. Power rose up from the ground below me, beating through me like a drum.

This was Samhain, the night when the veil between the living and the dead was the thinnest, the night when all those who had died during the year were finally able to cross over into the spirit world. Being both living and dead, I felt the charged atmosphere of this night more acutely than most. I stood there on the altar stone for a long time, soaking in the power and gathering my will.