“We’ll see you there.”

  I gathered an unconscious Jessie into my arms, mindful of the wound on her shoulder, and made the jump.

  We materialized in the cool interior of the van. Thank goodness.

  “Cora? What the fuck?” Lauris clambered into the back of the van. “Shit. Oh, that looks bad.”

  Yeah, the wound was deep, exposing flesh and muscle.

  “What happened?”

  “Bad shit.”

  “But it’s over?”

  My heart sank. “No. I think it’s only just beginning.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Sloane

  “How is she?” Cora asks.

  I don’t let her into the quarters; instead I block the door with my body, then step out, closing it behind me. I can’t have her scent in the room. Yeah, I can fucking smell her evocative aroma. A concoction that’s uniquely her with undertones of vanilla.

  I want to eat her.

  Shit. I want to eat her.

  My gums ache and I duck my head to compose myself. When I look up, there’s no mistaking the hurt on her face. It takes everything I have not to apologize, but I manage it. The past few hours, the fight, the exertion have put a strain on me. I’m exhausted, my will weakened. I don’t trust myself around her right now.

  I keep my expression neutral and businesslike. “She’s healing. It’ll be a few days, but she’ll be fine.”

  “She saved my life.”

  I need her to go away. “I know.”

  “I tried to jump out of the way, but my power failed.”

  Her guilt is a sharp, acrid tang beneath her luscious scent. “It’s not your fault. Go home. Rest.”

  She licks her delectable full lips, lips I’m desperate to taste again.

  For a moment she looks torn and then she gets that little frown on her forehead, the determined look that comes with the slight jutting of her bottom lip that’s not quite a pout but close enough.

  “I get what you’re doing, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” she says.

  She has no clue how hard it is for me not to bridge the distance between us and crush her to me. My impulses are out of whack, everything is heightened, and Cora…Cora is like a fucking beacon begging to be lit.

  “You need to go now. There’s nothing to do here. I’ll update you by text.”

  “Text?” She sucks on her bottom lip, shaking her head. “Dammit, Sloane.” She takes a step toward me. “I care about you.”

  Her cornflower blues darken as they skip across my face and zero in on my mouth. My heart stops for a moment, then my pulse charges. Heat floods me, and before I can think, I’ve hauled her into my arms and claimed her mouth. She makes a sound of surprise that inflames me further, and the dark thing inside me rises to the surface.

  I devour her, shoving her against the wall and holding her there with my body as I take what I need. I’m drowning in her, blood rushing in my head and shattering coherent thought.

  Blood.

  I hear it beneath her skin.

  Pumping, hot and potent.

  My mouth aches and throbs as she makes a sound of protest.

  Shit. I have to release her.

  Nectar floods my tongue. Coppery and delicious.

  Her blood.

  The dark thing inside me swells, pressing against my skin and plunging between my thighs in a desperate ache. It fills my belly with a clawing hunger.

  My mouth feels strange. Oh, fuck. Fangs. I pull back, but my hands refuse to release her.

  “Sloane…you need to calm down,” Cora says.

  She’s soft and warm, writhing against me, pushing at my shoulders. My head is dizzy, breath coming quicker. I hold her to the wall easily and press my nose to her neck, inhaling the fragrance beneath her skin. Her artery pulses and jumps beneath my tongue and I taste her fear.

  “Sloane. You can fight this.”

  My gums ache, my soul aches. I need. I need this. I have to—

  “NO!” I shove her away and press my forehead to the wall, palms splayed against the plaster either side of me as if I can anchor myself there by sheer force of will.

  But right now, my will is weak. “Go. Get away from me. Now, dammit.” My voice isn’t my own. It’s rough, deep, and bestial.

  A door opens and then something is shoved in front of my nose. Plastic and coppery.

  Blood.

  “Drink it,” Poppy orders.

  I tear into the bag, taking great gulps, part of me aware of how gross this is but the other not giving a damn because it’s working. The dark thing is fading. I can think. I can…Oh, shit.

  I stare blearily at Poppy. “Cora?”

  Poppy shakes her head, her eyes dull. “She’s gone.”

  Fuck.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Cora

  Wren sat on my lap, peering out the window as the world rushed by. Tor drove, his steely gaze on the road ahead, one hand resting loosely, almost casually, on the steering wheel, the other on my thigh.

  Leif was knocked out in the backseat with Rune.

  It was a long trip to the coast but a much needed one. This was Rune’s suggestion, and a fabulous one. I needed to get away. Away from the responsibilities, the waiting for bad news, away from Sloane and what could have been.

  I closed my eyes, seeing her face, fanged and unfamiliar in its bloodlust. She’d wanted to drink me, but she’d stopped. I couldn’t even imagine how much willpower that must have taken.

  It was my fault. She’d asked me to leave, told me what she needed, but I’d pushed anyway. An apology didn’t seem enough, but it was all I had to give. I’d do it face to face, but with enough distance between us to make things comfortable for her. I wouldn’t test her again, and what could have been, what should have been, would have to be buried.

  I breathed away the disappointment and pain. There would be none of that this weekend.

  This weekend was a vacation.

  Ursula would call me when she had news about my sample, and if the witches needed me, I was a jump away—provided my powers didn’t glitch—but right now, I didn’t want to think about all the shit that could go wrong. I wanted to take this trip with the guys. A normal trip, in a car, on a road, having to stop to pee and fuel up.

  This was a journey I needed.

  We’d left at dawn and it was almost midday.

  “Roll the window down,” Tor said.

  “What?”

  He threw a smile my way. “Go on.”

  “Wren can do it.” He pressed the button and the glass slid down. The air hit, cold and fresh, and…Wait, what was that smell? “Is that…is that the sea?” I sat up straighter, fighting with Wren to stick my head out the window.

  Tor chuckled. “We’re almost there.”

  I turned away from the window, twisting in my seat and leaning into the back to prod Leif and Rune. “Wake up! We’re almost there.”

  Leif snort-snored loudly and sat up, eyes wide. “What? Where?”

  “We’re almost there!” Wren squealed.

  Leif’s crimson locks were artfully mussed, face soft from sleep. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “I fell asleep.”

  God, he looked adorable.

  Rune cracked open an eye. I can smell the sea.

  We locked gazes for a moment and my heart fluttered. We were going to the coast, to the place where Rune and I met in our dreams. The guys owned a clifftop retreat there, and I couldn’t wait to see it.

  Tor turned off the road onto a smaller track and the scent of the sea intensified. The road wound up, the air grew colder, the sky heavy and gray, but it didn’t matter; there was a strange, wild beauty about being this high up, of having the world so far below. It was like being in the clouds. Like flying.

  The road twisted to the left onto a narrow track bordered by a metal fence and shrubs. And then a house came into view. White-washed walls and neat sash windows hung with pretty green shutters greeted us. Trees rose up on either side of the cottage, as if sheltering it.

  Gravel crunched beneath tires as we drove up and parked on the drive.

  “Honey, I’m home!” Leif called out.

  Doors opened and slammed as we climbed out of the car.

  “This is our home away from home, Cora,” Tor said, coming to stand beside me. “We spent many summers here growing up.”

  “And now it’s yours too,” Leif said.

  A sense of peace washed over me. The first sense of complete calm in forever.

  The cabin and house back at Grimswood were home, but they were also linked to all the shit that had gone down over the past few weeks, but this place…This place could be a haven from it all.

  This place could be my happy place.

  My sexy blood-red, Victorian-style, lace-up kitten-heel boots left the ground as Leif lifted me off my feet and Wren let out a yelp, clinging to me like a chimp.

  “Tor, get the door,” Leif ordered. “Let’s carry our mate over the threshold.”

  The rooms here were smaller, the beds too. There’d be no sharing for us while we stayed here, but that was okay too.

  A little space would be nice.

  I loved the guys, but I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have the bed to myself.

  The smell of Carbonara sauce drifted into my room as I quickly pulled on fresh clothes. The bath here was an epic claw-footed thing, and I’d spent way too long in it. My fingers were wrinkly, but I didn’t even care.

  So worth it.

  My phone buzzed urgently on the bedside table.

  Ursula, maybe?

  I grabbed it and my heart leapt at the name on the caller ID. “Fee?”

  “Hey, babe!”

  I sank onto the edge of the bed. “How are you?”

  “I should be asking you that question. Conah filled me in on the shit that’s been going down over there. Fucking Lilith and her secrets. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here to help. I’m so sorry about what happened. Conah said those vamps almost killed you?”

  “They kinda did, but then Loke sent me back.”

  “Loke?”

  I filled her in on what happened in Barrow and what had happened since. “So now Sloane’s an almost vamp, I have no clue what the hell this entity thing did to me, and I’m hiding out on the coast with the guys, cos fuck, I deserve a break.”

  “Damn right you do,” Fee agreed. “You earned it, babe.”

  It was so good to hear her voice, and nostalgia tightened my throat. “I fucking miss you.”

  “I miss you too…” Fee said softly. “I really, really do.”

  “We need to meet up.” The urge was sudden and urgent. “I’ll come to Necro in a week or so. We can go shopping. Go dancing. Just be us for a weekend.”

  “Yes! I love that idea.”

  We lapsed into silence, probably both thinking the same thing, that no plans could be certain because the big bad waited for no vacation. Danger could rear its head at any moment. Fee could get called back to the Underealm and I could end up in a tussle with the Order or some new threat.

  We were no longer masters of our own destiny.

  “You could come the weekend before Christmas?” Fee suggested.

  It would be the first Christmas we’d be spending apart. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

  Someone called Fee’s name. “Shit, I gotta go, but text me and let me know when you’re coming. We can have an early Christmas dinner. It would be good for our guys to meet.”

  Shit…I’d be taking my guys…I mean, they could totally come with me. It was just for a weekend.

  Excitement and nerves bubbled in my belly. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  “Love you, babe. Speak soon.”

  “Love you too.”

  I hung up and tucked the phone into my pocket just as it buzzed again. I answered with a grin. “What did you forget, Fee?”

  “Cora, it’s Ursula.”

  My pulse lurched. “You have the results.”

  “I do.” Her tone told me it wasn’t great news.

  “Just tell me.”

  “I’m not sure what to tell you, Cor. The results show a mutagen.”

  “Which means what?”

  “Your DNA is being altered.”

  “The clawed hand kinda gave that away, but into what?”

  “I don’t know, but…”

  For fucksake. “Just spit it out, Urs. You know I hate the softly, softly approach.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. Okay, your tulpa nature is a distinct mystical signature. It’s in the sample we hold under an anonymous code, and it was in the sample I took off you at Lumiers, except now that signature is almost gone.”

  “Wait, what? What do you mean?”

  “The mutagen unraveled it.”

  “Unraveled my tulpa signature? What does that mean?”

  “Being a tulpa is your nature, just like being a witch is mine, but your nature is being unmade. You’re being unmade, and we have no clue what you’re going to become.”

  Anger was a starburst in my chest. “You don’t know? You mean I waited all this time to be told you don’t know?”

  “Cora, listen to me. We need more rigorous testing. You’ll need to come in.”

  “Yeah? And how will you keep my identity a secret then?”

  “I won’t be able to. I’m gonna be honest with you. If you do this, if you come in and be tested and we find something…undesirable, then I won’t be able to protect you.”

  “But you think it’s worth coming in.”

  “I know that your very makeup is being rewritten, and if it were me, I’d want to know exactly what I was becoming.”

  My power fritz, the clawed hand and the eerie eyes…These were all indicators of what was to come. My pulse raced. How would it affect the seal? How would it affect my relationship with the guys and Jasper?

  Nausea gripped me. “I need to think.”

  “Of course.”

  I hung up, pulled on boots and a jacket, and headed out.

  The sun was setting, a low orange orb dipping below the horizon, when I found the spot.

  I’d recognize it anywhere, except this time there was no Rune waiting to greet me. This was real. Not a dream. This was our place.

  I pulled my jacket closer about me to ward off the chill, looking out at the sea, bathed in orange and red hues as far as the eye could see. If I waited a little, I’d be able to see it under the moonlight.

  The guys and Wren had been in the kitchen, laughing and joking as they prepared our evening meal. I probably should have told them I was going for a walk, but one of them would have insisted on coming with and I needed to be alone. I wasn’t ready to talk about the results or the uncertainty. I didn’t want to ruin the next couple of days with shitty news.

  I just needed a moment to process and be pissed, then I’d let it go and head back and forget about it until the trip was over, because…Because this could be my last trip with the guys as me.

  Cora.

  Tulpa.

  Anchor.

  When we got back, Anna would need to be told, and there was no escaping the testing. We’d need to know because this wasn’t just about me. It was about the fate of humanity.

  But this weekend.

  This weekend would be mine.

  My nape prickled and then the shuffle of boots registered behind me.

  I whirled to find a man standing a few meters away. He smiled, and the scar on his cheek bunched.

  “Hello, little anchor.” He grinned.

  Oh, fuck. It was him, the warlock who’d burned me.

  “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to loiter on a cliff edge?” His tone was conversational, adding to his general creep factor. “One slip and it’s bye-bye.”

  The cliff edge was several meters behind me and railed off, so I was safe. Still, a shiver of foreboding ran up my spine.

  I allowed power to infuse my limbs, ready to make a jump. But first I needed to know. “How did you find me?”

  “A special skill of mine. Once I brand my prey, there is no escape.”

  Shit, the burn. Had that been a tracker of some kind?

  My body tingled as I prepared to make the jump. But then the power died, leaving me cold and empty.

  No.

  Not now. Not here.

  The warlock brought up his hands and his energy slammed into me, throwing me off my feet and into the air. I landed with a painful crunch that knocked the wind out of my lungs, but there was no time to assess my injuries. I tried to jump again.

  Nothing.

  He strolled toward me, relaxed and confident. “You know, the plan was to get rid of The Elites, but fancy our surprise to find the anchor in their midst. I take you out and it’s game over for you witches and a nice promotion for me.”

  I scrambled back and checked myself, glancing behind me to find the railing less than a meter away.

  Shit, I needed to get around him somehow. Come on, power, come on. I reached for the connection to my guys, grabbing at the threads, but they slipped through my fingers, ethereal and distant. No. No, this couldn’t be happening.

  Tears of frustration stung my eyes. I was defenseless against him.

  His hand lit up in crimson fire.

  “Time to die, little anchor.”

  There was only one thing left to do. I opened my mouth and screamed, “Jasper!”

  JASPER

  “Listen, you pathetic excuse for a blood witch, if you don’t tell me what I need to know, then I’ll rip out your throat.” I smile coolly across the table at the witch in question.

  To give her credit, she barely blinks before picking up her tankard and draining the contents.

  “You can try, but I’ll have you ejected from this place before you can lay a finger on me.”

  “I don’t need to touch you to tear out your throat.”

  Ah, finally a flash of fear in those pretty gray eyes.

  “Look, I can’t help you. I can help your anchor help you, and she knows this, but there’s nothing I can do for you directly.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because she’s the only thing standing between you and the abyss. You do this without her and you risk being lost forever. Is that what you want?”

 

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