Page 11 of Shadow's End

Dear God … she killed her own people.Belle’s mental tones were filled with horror.No wonder Lucille is quaking in her boots.

While there was a part of me sympathetic to Lucille’s terror, she’d willingly become a bloodsucker’s blood bank and had to be aware of the damn dangers that came with that.

“The attack on your feeders isn’t what I came here to warn you about,” I said.

She raised an eyebrow, the movement almost languid. Overfeeding did have that effect … I shoved the thought away.I didnotneed it or the resulting images that teased mind and imagination. My stomach remained really unstable, and it wouldn’t take much for me to start puking.

“Then what did you come here for?”

“Marie stepped into a dream. She gave me a message to give to you.”

She straightened as the shadows rolled through her eyes again. “What message?”

“That you have twenty-four hours to meet her at the court of justice, or she will kill Roger and come after you.”

“There is no justice in her court. There never has been. She is also well aware I am her equal in magic, and all of this is nothing more than a means of ensuring she has the upper hand.”

“Is that why—at least in the dream—I saw him staked with white ash?”

The black flooded her eyes again. “She has him staked? That would certainly explain my recent … hungers. He is drawing more from me to fight the deadly infection that comes with such piercing.”

“Is it survivable?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Of course.” The reply was curt. “He is not a vampire, just the creature of one. Staking him will never kill him, even if his heart is pierced, but he will continue to draw more from me as the infection grows. You must find him before I am forced to completely cut him off.”

I frowned. “It’s going to take more than twenty-four hours to search every glade in this reservation, Maelle.”

“Then use the other gifts you have in your possession.”

“You told me they would be useless—that he would read as an extension of you.”

“That is neither here nor there. I wish you to at least try.”

By wish, she means demand,Belle said dryly.

No doubt about that. To Maelle, I added, “Then I will need something of his to use. Something closely connected to him.”

She immediately pulled a gold ring off the small finger on her left hand and held it out to me. I didn’t take it. “It needs to be his, not yours.”

“He is me. You can use this to find an echo of my presence.”

Which was exactly what Aiden had said earlier. The man understood more about my gifts and how they worked than I’d given him credit for.

That’s to be expected, given just how often said gifts have been employed under his very watchful eye over the last year, Belle said, mental tones dry.I’m just hoping that Monty’s declaration that these two will be the last of the big bads to come into the reservation comes to pass. All of us deserve a goddamn break.

And how often have you warned me about tempting fate with comments like that?

Difference is, I didn’t say it out loud. Thoughts are perfectly safe.

Maelle waved the ring at me, the movement impatient. I held my breath and stepped forward, not wanting to inhale the scent of blood and meat that hung like a pall around her. It was bad enough from a distance, but the closer you got…

I pulled an old tissue from my pocket, folded it several times, then gingerly plucked the ring from her grip, being extra careful not to touch her hand. My shields were holding against the raw emotion she was still broadcasting, but a direct touch might well blow them apart.

Even through the layers of tissues, I felt the life within the ring. Her presence dominated, but there very definitely was a distant echo. Whether I’d be able to trace it was another matter entirely—and a question I couldn’t answer until I opened the gates holding my psychometry in check.

I moved back to stand beside Belle and released the breath I’d been holding. Though to be honest, the air quality was only fractionally better here.

“Are you sensing anything?” Maelle asked, voice sharp.

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