That . . .
Her desperate thoughts were interrupted as Gaius abruptly turned back toward her.
“They began with thirteen,” he said as he answered her question. “The numbers varied over the centuries.”
“You kept track of them?”
He smiled with a cruel pleasure. “Most of them were kind enough to remain together in the same coven, so when the Dark Lord began to thin the barriers between dimensions I was able to nudge my children into getting rid of them.”
She knew. The minute he spoke the words she knew that he meant the coven that she’d seen so gruesomely murdered in the photo.
And he spoke of the massacre as if they were mere bugs being squashed.
Blessed goddess.
Her hand shifted to press against her stomach, trying to stifle the churning nausea.
“They were slaughtered,” she said in a raw voice.
The . . . Gaius-creature shook his head. “All but one.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “My mother.”
The strange glow in his eyes flared, but prepared for his anger, Sally was rattled when instead it was her own simmering anger and fear that was stoked higher.
As if Gaius was capable of draining the emotions from her.
“I couldn’t have known she had left the coven,” he complained. “But when the spell remained intact I realized there must be one left.”
She quivered, trying to regain control of her emotions. Now, more than ever, she needed a clear mind.
“Two left,” she absently corrected.
That horrifying smile returned. “No. Only one. Now.”
Profound shock gripped her, crushing any grief she might have felt.
She simply couldn’t accept a world without the woman who had given birth to her.
“You killed my mother?” she rasped.
“Gaius was kind enough to perform the deed on our way to his lair in Louisiana,” the creature murmured, speaking of Gaius as if he were a separate being.
She shook her head.
Dead.
“I . . . I can’t believe it.”
Gaius dismissed her distress with a wave of his hand. “Once again I was to be disappointed, but I was growing stronger every day. So long as the book remained hidden it couldn’t do any harm.” Gaius reached over to trail an icy finger down her cheek, tracing the path of her unconscious tears. “But then it called you here.”
With a shudder of revulsion she took a hasty step backward, forcing her fogged mind to concentrate on the danger standing directly in front of her.
She would work through her grief and regret for her mother if she managed to survive the night.
Something that was looking increasingly unlikely.
“Called me?” she shook her head. “No, I came because I wanted Gaius out of the house.”
“If it hadn’t been that, it would have drawn you here by some other means,” he assured her. “It felt my presence. It would have done whatever was necessary to get into your hands.”
She glanced toward the hole in the wall where she could feel the steady pulse of the black spell.
A spell that had caused the death of thirteen witches, including her mother. And was now her supposed legacy.
“Why?” She turned back to the creepy, glowing eyes. “What’s in the book?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he countered, clearly unwilling to reveal the truth of the book. “Once you’re dead the book will be destroyed once and for all.”
Sally braced herself, muttering an attack spell beneath her breath. She didn’t believe it would actually damage the vampire, or whatever the hell was controlling him, but it was all she had.
Then, even as she felt a massive power beginning to build in the room, Gaius was suddenly turning toward the door, his hiss of annoyance scraping over Sally’s raw nerves.
“I warned you, Santiago,” he growled, seeming to forget Sally. “Now Nefri will pay for your arrogance.”
Chapter 27
Santiago didn’t do helpless.
After he’d been pulled out of the Gladiator pits beneath Barcelona, he’d sworn that he’d never again be in a position where he was at the mercy of another.
A mistake, of course.
He should have known that the minute he’d made that bitter pledge, it would curse him. Life was nothing if not perverse, and what could be more destined to force him to face his worst nightmare than declaring it could never happen again?
Now he stood next to Nefri, his muscles quivering as he battled his urge to charge across the floor of the warehouse and rip off Gaius’s head.
He told himself he was biding his time.
That was why he’d agreed to kidnap the witch despite his grand pronouncement he would never, ever betray his brothers. And why he was standing here like a damned mannequin while the bastard revealed the truth of his reason for traveling to the warehouse.