Wicked Soul (Ancient Blood #1)(107)
Only, as I drove away from the shed and back out onto the road, it was so hard to keep my eyes open, and my vision kept blurring at the edges. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to focus on the road and my trembling hands to keep steady on the wheel.
I don’t know how long I drove for. Maybe half an hour. ne minute I was trying to ignore the sweat dripping from my forehead, because I knew if I took my hand off the wheel to wipe it away, I’d never straighten up the hearse again.
The next, everything went black, and then I was staring into the dashboard.
I blinked, trying to figure out why my shoulder and waist hurt so much, and why I had the oddest sensation of vertigo. It took me a little while to realize that the car was flipped on its side, and only the seatbelt kept me strapped in. I’d crashed the hearse, and I didn’t remember doing it.
“Shit,” I groaned, fumbling for the seatbelt’s release button. I found it, and fell to the floor—which was now the passenger-side window—in a graceless heap. Everything hurt, and my vision doubled as I gasped for air. But I had to keep moving. If they found the car with me still in it, they’d know I’d left him somewhere. And they’d find him.
A caw sounded from outside, and a shudder of terror went through me. I fought to get up, to get out, but my hands slipped on the seats as I tried to climb up them, and the world spun. Groaning, I slipped back down, cutting myself on broken glass. The pain lanced through my already aching body, and I hunched over and threw up. I didn’t have anything but bile in my stomach, and it hurt my throat.
A threatening snarl from right outside the hearse made me heave for breath, panic pulling on my brain to try to manage one last ditch effort to get out, but before I could, something big slammed into the side of the car, pushing it several several feet along the pavement with a screech of metal. I lurched to the side, falling over in my own sick and more broken glass. My vision darkened at the edges just as the car rocked again.
I fell into unconsciousness knowing I’d failed us both.
* * *
“…know he might just kill her, anyway. Do you really want to risk that?”
“Dammit, Carl, Pete was my mentor! My brother! And he was yours too. We don’t have enough time to find another witch, and she’s right there! He’ll be gone, forever, if we don’t use her! Is that what you want?”
I blinked to try and clear the spots dancing before my eyes. Everything was still dark, but it slowly dawned on me that it was more due to low lighting in wherever I’d been taken than it was my inability to see. There was a flicker of light just at the edge of my vision, almost as if someone had started a campfire, but from the hardness against my back and the lack of wind, I knew we were inside somewhere.
Everything hurt—my veins, my throat, my arms and hands. And I felt weak as a newborn kitten. When I tried to lift my arms, I could barely move my fingers, and it quickly became apparent that my hands had been tied behind my back.
“Of course not!” The first voice I’d heard upon waking spoke again, and I tried to locate the sound. As far as I could tell, they were over by the flickering fire. “But if we do it, and he kills her, do you really live the rest of your miserable existence with a chunk of your soul gone?”
“He might let her live. We lost so many last night, he’ll want to protect those of us who’re left,” the second guy said. He sounded desperate.
The first guy scoffed. “Yeah, I wouldn’t count on it. We let her escape with the vamp, let her put a fucking protection spell over wherever the fuck she’s hidden him. Once Zeth rises, heads are gonna roll. I doubt he’ll give two flying fucks about our dwindling numbers.”
“It’s his own goddamn fault! He said she was weak! If we’d have known and he’d given us a fucking heads up, we’d have strengthened the cell with magic. Fuck, the bitch killed three of us! And he made it sound as if she were just some fucking tarot reader!”
“She’s completely drained, though. Must’ve used a lot of her life essence to keep the vamp safe. Crazy cunt. She must be new to it, so maybe he didn’t know.” The first guy sighed. “Look, even if we tried, she’d likely not survive long enough for Pete’s soul to catch. I think she’s tapped out in the bad way.”
Pete’s soul? With horror, it finally dawned on me what they were talking about. Raven had told me once what skinwalkers did with witches they caught. They raped them to reincarnate fallen brothers. And the first guy I’d killed on the stairs… his name was Pete.
So that’s why they hadn’t killed me. They were debating whether or not to knock me up with their friend’s soul.
“I swear, if you try to rape me, I will end you.” It came out as a hoarse whisper, but it caught their attention.
Heavy footsteps came nearer, until two shadowy figures loomed over my in the dark corner they’d tossed me in.
“She’s awake,” the first voice said. I couldn’t see who it belonged to, and I didn’t much care either.
“Barely.” The other guy nudged me with a foot, and I groaned in pain. “If you really want to try, you better fucking hurry. The sun’s down—and once Zeth finds us, he’s not likely to let you get another shot in.”
The first guy grunted something I didn’t catch before he walked away. He came back moments later and knelt down. I tried to roll away from him, but my body was too heavy to respond. And then water dripped on my lips. I drank greedily, and he held my head up so I didn’t choke. It was gone before my thirst had been sated, but it was better than nothing.