Page 83 of Necromancers Don't Raise

He paused, glanced down at his arm where my bullet had burned him, then gave me a look with a slightly raised brow before he continued stalking towards Salina, still skewered and foaming at what was left of her mouth.

“You came to my city,” he said in a soft voice, but it went through me like a hurricane for all of that. “You killed my woman and drew first blood. I challenge you to a battle. To the death.”

She hissed and spat at him before her words came together in a swelling sound that hurt my ears. “Little Mercury thinks to challenge me, the mighty Salina of the Blood? You are weak. Soft. Leaving power you could take, because you’re afraid of a little taint. You could have been great, but you are nothing. You waited until your little pets weakened me before you could come against me. You?—”

Boom!

She screamed as her head went rolling across the ashy, broken pavement, the scream dying when it realized it wasn’t connected to her lungs. And those were my last silver shots.

Mercury pulled out his sword, the cankered nasty one, and started hacking at the vampire still pinned to a beam.

“You know,” he said, seemingly focused on his hack job as I approached cautiously. “I was going to do a proper mage battle for you, as you requested.”

I snorted and then collapsed against his back, wrapping my arms around him and hanging onto him, sure he could hold me up and hack apart a vampire at the same time. “I don’t want to see Salina with her shirt off. What happened to vampires being beautiful? She’s so hideous.”

He stopped hacking and then turned to gesture at Fiora, who was staying close to Mr. Good and my unconscious mother, like she didn’t know what else to do.

“Demon, if you summon flames that devour this vampire, I won’t kill you,” Mercury said to her, like it was a great favor.

She shook her head. “I can’t control it.” Was that remorse in her eyes for the fire that killed so many? Yes, it was.

Mercury’s voice was assuring. “I can. Summon the flames, and I will control them. Be useful even if you can’t be good. Otherwise, I will do terrible things to you that you can’t even imagine.” Assuring or threatening? That low voice was mesmerizing. That’s what it was.

She frowned and then wincing, put her hand on what was left of the headless vampire’s oozing chest. Demon flames leapt up, dark red fire hungry, desperate chaos that wanted to devour all life, all happiness, all good.

Mercury dropped the vampire’s head into the flames and they flared up, burning hotter and hotter until it went out assuddenly as it had started, leaving Salina the vampire nothing but ashes.

The blood vampires that weren’t ripped apart retreated, and Mercury’s undead followed them, slaughtering them as they went.

I inhaled sharply and then sat down amidst the zombie rats that streamed all around me, my ears buzzing, my lungs aching. I’d officially started breathing, which means I wasn’t undead anymore. I hated coming back to life. Undead wasn’t nearly so painful.

“Now what happened to her?” Fiora demanded, sounding hysterical.

Mercury ignored her as he picked me up in his arms and cradled me against his chest. “You promised that you’d wear the bracelet. You lied to me, fiancé. I was going to do an elaborate proposal with no shirt, but now, after you let yourself die, I’m taking you home without anything but this. Will you marry me, Nova? Why yes, Oswald, I’d be delighted. That’s done then. We’re going to our home. And we are going to sit on the couch and eat ice cream and watch television for at least a week. I let you die today, but that’s not going to happen again. We’re getting married the second we get off the couch. You lost your scheduling rights when you gave your protective bracelet to your own murderer. Do you think I can live without you? I can’t. Let’s be very clear about that right now, because you apparently can’t help yourself. If you die, I die.” He grumbled under his breath as he carried me out of the ashes and towards the car where Bones was waiting.

I pressed my eyes against his neck while my head pounded. “But my mom. She needs to go to the hospital. And Mr. Good needs to go back to jail before he strangles someone, and Fiora needs to go to jail to serve her time for murdering all thosepeople, and the dark sorcerer who made that construct needs to be fined and possibly jailed, and…”

He kissed me, cutting off my words and each and every drop of pain in that blissful connection. I should have stopped him, put my foot down, but I couldn’t feel my feet. And he was right. I had promised to wear the protection bracelet. And to think I’d missed out on an epic proposal just to save my murderer. I really was an idiot.

Chapter

Twenty-One

Mercury’s house was lit up, every window a golden beacon of warmth and happiness that made me ache to be safely inside, particularly with a certain tall, dark, diabolical necromancer who hadn’t let me go for a moment since he’d picked me up.

It was heaven to be nestled together on the couch with a carton of Neapolitan and two spoons. If only I didn’t have so many things to take care of, I could stay here forever. The tv show played in the background, but I couldn’t enjoy it, not when Vilus was such a poor imitation of the real thing.

“You’re still worrying,” he murmured, nosing my hair.

I sighed heavily. “No, it’s fine. I’m with you. That’s where I want to be. When are we getting married?” I asked.

He smoothed his hand down my arm. “That’s not what you were thinking about.”

“But you said that you didn’t want a long engagement.” I turned in his lap and ran my fingertips over his bare shoulders, watching goosebumps follow in the wake of my caress.

His eyes darkened and lips pursed. “I did say that. Are you seducing me?”

I sat up and smiled at him. “I have no idea how to seduce anyone, but I’m going to send Bones to the lingerie specialist in the goblin market and have her come up with something truly appropriate for seducing a dark sorcerer.”

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