Hot Blooded (Jessica McClain)

chapter 23





Selene’s shriek was satisfying, but hearing her hit the ground with an ooof was priceless. I wasted no time. I headed straight for Rourke, my wolf pushing us forward fast. Selene hadn’t expected Eamon to land in her lap, but I’d thrown him with more speed than even I knew I had. It would occupy her for a few precious seconds while I tried to free my mate.

“Get off of me,” she snarled, tossing Eamon off her in one fierce kick. He smashed against a far wall.

I shimmied up the cavern wall in a blur, using my claws and speed. Once Selene was done with Eamon, she would track me, but I hoped I made myself a hard target. I neared the alcove at the top and ducked into it, running along the top. If I could lower him down and take the pins out, he could regenerate enough to heal those wounds. He had to. I eyed the chains as I ran. They were silver. It was going to burn like hell, but it didn’t matter.

I launched myself in the air, leaping the distance onto the chains.

Rocks above my head exploded with incredible force. “Get away from him,” Selene shouted. “You cannot save him! He’s under my spell and the chains are enchanted. He will never wake for you.” I kept moving. “Stop!” There was a delicious hint of desperation in her voice.

The moment the silver touched my fingertips the skin on my hand sizzled. I transferred my grip to the inside of my arm, blocked by my shirt, and slid down the length, leaving a trail of blood in my wake. My wolf channeled energy to me as I went. I barely felt the pain. “You never intended to kill him,” I said to Selene with confidence as I landed on the bottom of his boots. “Why would you kill him when you can keep him all to yourself once I’m gone?”

Her scream told me everything. “You know nothing, mongrel! I will kill you both! Just watch me.” She fired a spell, but it went wild, hitting the rocks five feet to my left.

The moment my body had touched his, it responded on its own.

Mine.

Vibrations of need rang through me. My wolf had been so right. I’d kept this emotion from myself, trying to protect something inside so it didn’t break. They’d been locked away in a private place in my mind, because emotions this intense were dangerous. Even now I tried to block them, or they would overwhelm me completely.

She hadn’t lied. The chains were heavily spelled. Her power lashed at my body. We have to break the spell. Can you get a read on it? My wolf snarled. The red of the spell had begun to enter my skin. We have to hurry.

“You will both die.” Instead of firing a new spell, Selene flew at us in a rage, her porcelain features taking on an edge, making her look like a devil doll. I worked overtime to hack at the spell in the chains, but it wasn’t going to break that quickly. I grasped the chains with my hands to steady myself, my fingers bleeding, and kicked toward her as she came at us. But she spun upward, avoiding my strike.

She was behind me before I could register the direction change.

The only warning I had was a single scream just as a spell crashed into my back. I was on the ground before I knew I had fallen, breath completely gone from my body. My wolf was frantic, yipping and snapping at the red lines as they entered my mind, urging me to move and get back to Rourke. I’m trying. Get the spell first.

Selene’s voice rang from above, and I cracked open an eye.

“Well, that was easy. I told you—you are no match for me.” She stood on Rourke’s boots, where I had just been. Fury surged through me. Get away from him.

She’d hit us with the same death spell, but she didn’t know I’d already defeated it. My vision was momentarily red, but no lines etched across my mind. Golden light quickly formed a halo in my mind and all the red that had struck me was pushed outward before it could take hold.

“Are you dead yet, wench, or do you need more?” There was curiosity in her voice, likely because I hadn’t started convulsing.

I lay still, my eyes cracked slightly open, trying to play opossum and figure out my next move. Rourke needed me now. There was movement up to the right. Eamon. He had quietly freed his sister from the netting, likely regretting his betrayal by now, especially in light of his lover wanting him dead. Selene was too focused on me and I needed to keep it that way. But before I could start pretending to convulse, another spell hit me fully in the chest.

“Why aren’t you dead yet?” she snarled. “There is no way you can survive that spell.”

I didn’t have to fake anything. My body jumped, ringing with energy anew as red washed over me again, pushing and prodding into my shield, enough to make me quiver and moan. It might be too much this time, I gasped. My wolf chuffed at me, as my body vibrated and rocked with her spell. Once again, there was a haze of red, but no lines.

“Die, mongrel,” Selene called as I moaned again. “Once you die your mate will grow to love me once more.”

“Never.” His voice hadn’t been above a whisper.

My body stilled.

My heart began to race like a greyhound. My mate’s voice boiled through me, triggering more responses. Mine. My anger blasted a new stream of power into my golden shields and Selene’s lingering red disintegrated around me like ash. My hands healed in an instant. My wolf snarled and spat, urging me to rise and rip the witch apart.

Instead of moving at her urging, I stayed motionless.

“You are mine!” Selene shook the chains holding Rourke. “Your mate is dying. Do you hear me? Once she is gone there will be no other standing in our way.”

“Not… yours,” Rourke ground out. “Never yours.”

I tried to send Rourke a mental missive. I had no idea if mates were connected internally. Rourke, please, you have to listen to me and play along. I’m not dead. I’m right here. Selene’s spells don’t work on me. Tell her you love her, for chrissake! Anything to make her cut you down. My wolf sprang in my mind at that idea. I ignored her.

“You’ve always been delusional,” he whispered to Selene. “Just kill me now. I won’t live without her.”

Stubborn man. We move now, I told my wolf. Selene is focused on Rourke; it’s time to act.

But before I could spring, there was a breeze as Selene’s black thigh-high boots landed on the ground beside me. “Can you see this, Cat?” She pulled the foot of her pointy boot back and kicked me high in the side. I bit my tongue, but acted like I was still in the throes of her spell. “See that? She’s almost dead.” Pain raced through my side. The bitch had broken my ribs. “There’s nothing that can stop my death spell, not even your whore. She’s never coming back—”

I lunged upward. “Wrong, Selene,” I said as I grabbed hold of her legs and pulled. She went down. I rolled on top. “I’m not dead yet,” I snarled. She struggled to wriggle out from under me, muttering a spell under her breath. My physical size was much bigger than hers. No wonder she always chose to vanish. “No more spells.” I whipped my fist back and smashed it into her face. She screamed. I had effectively stopped her spell midsentence.

“You biiiiitch!” She squirmed under me. Her head was damaged from the blow, but her body was healing it at an alarming rate. Damn, goddesses.

“No, Selene, you’re the bitch,” I snarled. “And this is for harming my mate.” I smashed my fist into the other side of her head, extremely satisfied when her eyes rolled back into their sockets and she did a little convulsion of her own. “And this is for hurting my new friend.” I slashed my claws down the front of her chest, raking it open, leaving deep furrows in her cream skin. “Do you hear me? Now you’re the one who’s going to die, Selene!”

“Jessica,” Rourke moaned. His chains rattled as he rocked in agitation. “Please… get away from here.”

At the sound of his voice I jumped off of Selene and ran without thought. I leapt, catching the wall, pivoting my foot off the rocks and landed on his chains again. I slid down to him in half a second, the feel of him electrifying me. “I’m not leaving you,” I growled. The pain he had to be enduring must be unfathomable. “I’m never leaving you, so get that through your thick skull. We leave this place together, or not at all.” My wolf howled her agreement, clacking her jaws happily.

I forced myself to glance down the length of his abused body as I pushed my power into the spelled chains once again. It was hard to process how he was even functioning in this state. His lungs filled with air, quivering as they fought to keep working. “Hold on,” I murmured as I scanned the domed roof for coupling hooks where the chains should be attached. There were none.

The chains hung in the air attached to nothing.

If we pour enough power into the spell, I think we can break it. Then we jump before he falls and catch him. It was risky because of the shape he was in, but I had nothing better.

I shot power into the connection as Selene gasped in a big breath and moaned on the ground. No more time.

“Jessica, please… go,” Rourke said on a small breath. He was getting weaker, struggling to stay awake. He was fighting whatever Selene had done to him, but I could feel his power leaking out. So strong. He must have broken one of her spells when he’d heard my voice. “I want you to… live. Please… Jess…”

“Rourke, listen to me.” I lined my voice with as much power as I could. “I’m staying here and we’re going to make it through. I’m going to break this chain and catch you at the bottom.” Movement caught my eye. Eamon again. We can use Eamon. He stood at the edge of the alcove, his sister’s lifeless body in his arms. She was free of the awful netting, but covered in dried blood. “Eamon,” I shouted frantically. “You have to help us! If you do, you will be free of any vow you owe me or your sister, even though you deserve death for your betrayal.” As Naomi’s protector, I had the right to waive a debt. But if he complied I would deal with that separately. I changed the tone of my voice to appeal to him. “Please help us. We’re running out of time.”

Eamon spat, “I will never help you. I am grateful you will meet your end here.” His eyes cut to Selene on the ground. She sputtered and moved her legs. Goddammit. “I never should have come back here.”

“Eamon.” I pinpointed Selene’s spell on the chains and my wolf threw all the power she could into it. “Once your Queen finds out you’re a traitor, that you’ve spent the last few centuries helping Selene, your life is forfeit. Help me now and I will make sure you live. I swear it on my life.”

“I don’t need anything from you,” Eamon sneered. “We will go far from here and my sister will be well again, away from you, away from your dirty mind tricks. We will survive on our own just as we have done before.”

“I highly doubt it.” Strands of my power snaked their way into the chains. The spell weakened by the second. I was going to have to jump soon. Hold on, baby. “Eamon,” I called. “You’re forgetting your sister swore an oath to me and—unlike you—she’s someone who will honor it to her dying breath. How long before she leaves you and comes back to avenge my death? She’s going to be furious with you. Fix it by helping me now. You have a chance to make yourself worthy.”

“I don’t answer to you!” Eamon screamed, his emotions ragged and raw. He moved to the precipice, still holding his sister. Feelings were clearly not something he was used to dealing with. “I will never help you.”

Selene rose to a sitting position, her face almost completely healed. “That’s right, my darling,” she purred, her head swiveling toward Eamon. “You won’t help her, but you will help me. I was foolish before, remiss in not rewarding you for bringing your sister to me, mon chéri, please forgive me.” She stood easily, her black leather corset flapping open where I’d slashed it with my claws. “Come here and remind me of our love. It’s been too long and I have forgotten. Come, Eamon, remind me of our wedded bliss, the love we once shared together.”

Wedded?

Eamon paused, confused once again, his face considering. His expression betrayed how badly he wanted what she was saying to be true. Pain and stark need etched across his features in a tide of longing. I so didn’t want to feel any pity for him. Shit. He never had a chance. “Eamon, you have to be kidding me. Wake up!” I snarled. “She’s going to eat you up and spit you out. Are you really that stupid?” He didn’t so much as blink in my direction. I pushed more power into the chain, my wolf snapping and growling, flooding us with more adrenaline. She was laser-focused on the task of freeing our mate.

Eamon made his decision, glaring at me from across the cavern. The candlelight made his bone-white face flicker in the shadows ominously. Naomi hadn’t twitched so much as a pinky finger. I prayed she’d wake up soon. I didn’t think she was dead. Selene would want to play with her, making sure she endured multiple tortures, before she finally gave her true death. He turned and gently set Naomi down behind him, tucked into the corner.

Once he turned back, he stared at Selene, waiting for his orders. He’d made up his mind. Selene knew it too. He was hers. He’d always been hers in a twisted, tormented way. “That’s right, mon chéri,” she purred. “Come fight with me and I will reward you. We will go back to the beautiful place we had before, just you and I.”

She was good.

And I was disgusted.

The chains quivered. My power had wrapped itself around the spell, smothering and choking it. We’re almost there. My wolf barked. “Eamon!” I yelled, trying to snap his attention back to me. “You’re a fool and I’m going to make sure you regret your choices. All of them.”

Selene stalked across the floor, her fingers dancing with red. “Sic the bad wolf, Eamon,” she said. “Do it for me and we will be lovers again.”

Eamon lofted himself from the ledge, right at the same time the spell holding the chain snapped.

Rourke fell, but I was already in motion, one step ahead.

A split second before my mate landed in my arms, a voice hit my consciousness.

Jess, we’re here. Sorry we took so long. My brother’s voice flooded my mind like a Welcome Day parade. We ran into complications getting though this maze and I had to change back to human. One of the boulders near the far side of the room lurched forward as I wrapped my arms around my mate, the force pummeling me to the ground.

Then another voice rang through the room, loud and angry.

“What the hell is going on in here, Hannon? Looks like you could use a little help.”