A Bond of Blood (A Shade of Vampire #9)(22)

She pushed the door open and we entered a comfortably furnished apartment. She led us along the hallway and through a number of rooms. We stopped once we reached a study.

Derek and I stood by the entrance, watching as she made her way to a table in a corner. She drew up a chair and sat down.

“What do you want with us?” I asked, fighting to steady my breathing.

“I want,” she said, her voice dangerously low, “to teach you a lesson for wandering around without my authority.”

Derek and I barely had time to realize what hit us. An excruciating pain exploded in the base of my spine and spread throughout my nervous system. I collapsed, and Derek landed next to me a moment later. The agony blinded me. I couldn’t even find the strength to open my eyes. My limbs shook, teeth chattering. My brain felt like it was on fire, as though it might explode against my skull.

Each second that the agony lasted, I prayed that Anna’s fate hadn’t been as painful.

Chapter 20: Ben

Rose’s disappearance sent tremors through the island. When she didn’t return that night and still hadn’t returned by the morning, I’d suspected that I might find her in the lighthouse again. But she wasn’t there.

Griffin had no idea where she was. He’d claimed that she hadn’t visited him that night. Nobody had seen her—it turned out that I’d been the last one to lay eyes on her.

I could only assume that she had sneaked onto the submarine without Eli or Adelle knowing. The timing of her sudden departure, the way she’d lied to me about going to see Gavin, everything pointed to this.

Of course, Corrine was hysterical. I cursed my sister beneath my breath for leaving the island without me. If things had been uncomfortable before, they were now ten times worse.

It felt like being stuck in a pot of simmering water, slowly boiling alive from worry. Sleepless night turned into day, hours passing in a blur. I was unable to concentrate on anything. I ended up pacing up and down along the shores of the island, looking out to sea as if I would see the shadow of their submarines beneath the water. But I never did.

I returned to Corrine’s chambers in the Sanctuary. She was sitting at the table with her head in her hands, poring over a large black book. She looked up as I entered and slammed the book shut.

“What are you doing?” I asked, eyeing her trembling hands. Ignoring my question, she stood up and shoved the book into her bookcase. “What’s that?”

Her bottom lip quivered as she looked at me. I thought she was about to answer my question, but then she shook her head. I walked over to her and clutched her shoulders. She brushed me away. “I need some rest, Ben. Leave me alone.”

Reluctantly, I cast one last glare at her before acquiescing.

Without bothering to ask permission, I shut myself in the spare bedroom next to Corrine’s. I too hadn’t slept for two straight nights, but I didn’t want to return to the penthouse that evening. I wanted to keep an eye on the witch. Something was up with her, and if there was even the slightest chance that whatever she was hiding from me had something to do with the disappearances, I was going to get to the bottom of it.

* * *

Soon after midnight, I sat up in bed. I left the room and crept along the corridor, stopping outside Corrine’s door. I placed my ear against it. She was talking. Her voice was low, monotonous.

Through the thick wood it was hard to make out her words. It wasn’t clear whether she was talking to herself, perhaps in her sleep, or to someone else possibly in the room with her.

I pushed the door open. I winced as it creaked, expecting Corrine to come to the door. But when she continued to talk, I slipped into the room. My eyes fell on the bed.

She lay beneath the covers, her eyes shut. She continued to mutter to herself. Her face was contorted in pain and her head rolled from side to side. I crept closer, straining my ears, but I couldn’t make sense of her words.

I stood at the foot of her bed and stared down at her. “Corrine?” I whispered.

She continued muttering for several minutes. Maybe she’s just having a nightmare.

I was about to turn and leave when her eyes shot wide open. She began lifting her head off the pillow and throwing it back. Slowly at first and then more violently. Her breathing grew heavier and she began chanting a single word over and over. At first it was indistinct, like the rest of her mutterings, but the syllables became distinct.

“Mikau,” she said, her brows furrowed. “Mikau.”

“What?”

“No!” she shrieked.

My jaw dropped as she began to levitate above the bed. Her body lay flat as she lifted off the mattress, the covers sliding off her. She floated in the air toward me. I ducked as she passed over me. Once she was about a foot away from the table, she fell to the floor.

Even after her fall, she didn’t seem to wake up. She scrambled to her feet and ran to her book case. She threw open the glass doors so forcefully one of them shattered, and her hands fell upon the black book I’d seen her reading earlier. She staggered back over to the table and slammed it down. She drew up a chair and picked up a pen. I hurried over and looked over her shoulder.

Her fingers flipped through the pages so fast, their contents were a blur. She stopped finally about a quarter of the way through the book. That was when I realized what it was. An atlas.

Her finger began tracing a map. I leant down closer as her pen hovered over a black circle that was obviously hand-drawn. It was so thick, she must have traced over it with ink at least a dozen times.