Darkness Avenged (Guardians of Eternity #10)(92)

At the moment, he wasn’t sure any of them were going to get out of the cellar alive.

Or sane.

“A spell book,” Gaius said, a throb of frustration beginning to beat in the air. “It’s being protected by black magic. We need to destroy it.”

Santiago didn’t have to pretend his confusion. This was why he was lured to Wisconsin? Because of a book?

“I have no immunity to black magic,” he said with a frown. “Neither does Tonya.”

There was another unnerving flicker of the spirit as Gaius tilted back his head, seeming to be spreading his powers far beyond the cramped cellar. “There’s a witch,” he said.

Santiago struggled against an instinctive urge to reach for his sword. Cristo. His skin was suddenly crawling with the promise of pain. Like he was standing in the eye of a hurricane, just waiting for disaster.

“There are a lot of witches,” he pointed out. Carefully.

“Only one who can break the spell.”

Santiago grimaced. Only one? So was that good news or bad?

Impossible to say.

“What does that have to do with me?”

“She’s in the lair of the Anasso.”

“The Anasso?” Santiago made a sound of disbelief. “Styx is protecting a witch?”

“Sally, Sally, Sally.” Gaius slowly smiled, his eyes once again distant. “She thought she could double-cross me, stupid witch. But she’s made it all so much easier.”

Santiago lowered his brows, wondering if Gaius was referring to the witch who had once been his fellow servant of the Dark Lord.

She must have been desperate if she approached the King of Vampires.

“I still don’t understand what you want from me.”

Gaius studied him with growing impatience. “I want you to get her.”

“From Styx’s lair?”

“Sí.”

Santiago paused, sending a covert glance toward Tonya, who had shifted as far as possible from Gaius, her arms wrapped around her drawn up knees.

A noose was tightening around his neck and he didn’t have a damned clue how to escape.

“Why not you?”

Gaius’s mocking smile was so familiar that it caught Santiago off guard. Who was in control? Gaius or the spirit?

Or was it perhaps a strange combination of the two?

“I’m not precisely beloved among vampires.”

“Traitors are rarely beloved among any species,” Santiago couldn’t resist reminding him.

Gaius narrowed his gaze. “Soon you will understand.”

Santiago hissed at the sudden promise of violence that brushed over him. “Is that a threat?”

“I would prefer not to use threats.” Gaius reached down to pick up the forgotten dagger, his nonchalance not fooling Santiago for a minute. “All I need you to do is get the witch away from the Anasso’s lair. A simple enough task.”

Right. Sneaking into a lair with a higher grade security system than the Pentagon, not to mention a dozen of the most powerful demons on earth, to snatch a witch who was presumably hiding from the spirit. Yep. Simple as pie.

“Why don’t you use your . . .” He shuddered, forced to recall the creepy sight of walking into the cellar to see himself bent over poor Tonya. “Talent to shape-shift and just become me?”

Gaius smoothly turned to throw the dagger at the doorjamb, proving that for all his fragile appearance he maintained his impressive strength as the blade sunk hilt deep into the wood.

“Styx is already aware of my talent,” he snarled. “He would realize the minute I appeared without your scent that it was me.”

Santiago lowered his gaze to the gold amulet that hung around Gaius’s neck. He could feel the noose tightening with every passing second.

He might not know why Gaius was so anxious to get his hands on this mysterious book, or why it had to be Sally the Witch to do the destroying, but he sure as hell knew it couldn’t be for anything good.

Which meant he had to find a way to stop him.

“Then why not use your medallion?” he hedged. “That’s how you captured Tonya, isn’t it?”

The tightening of Gaius’s lips proved the vampire had already tried to penetrate Styx’s house. “The lair is protected by a spell that prevents portals from being created inside the house,” he grudgingly admitted. “I need you.”

With a regretful glance toward Tonya, Santiago squared his shoulders and spread his feet in preparation for battle.

“No.”

Gaius frowned at the blunt refusal. “My son, don’t be a fool.”

“There’s nothing foolish in loyalty. I will never betray my clan.”

Gaius flinched, then the shame on his gaunt face was replaced by a cunning that sent a chill down Santiago’s spine.

The creature was once again in control.

“So easy to say when there’s no cost to that loyalty,” he purred, lifting his hand as if pointing to something above them.

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s see how deep your loyalty runs.”

Santiago shifted backward, sensing a sudden flow of fury, although it seemed oddly muted. As if it was being funneled away from him.

Half expecting the ceiling to fall on his head, Santiago instead heard the front door to the lair being wrenched off its hinges followed by the unmistakable blast of Nefri’s power.