Page 50 of Death God

I stood where I was as I tried to pump strength into my leaden legs. Dizziness wheeled in my head like a whirlwind, and I was afraid that if I moved, I might fall in front of my foes.

She can get juice from the living, one of my spirit allies voiced. We need to teach her.

Pip, Whitesong said with authority. We’re teaching you how to take energy from the land and the living into yourself.

I needed voltage now more than ever. I needed to be strong to protect my family. I’d never allow myself to be a liability to them. I hadn’t expected that encountering the dead would drain me so, and I hadn’t thought it was possible to establish a bridge to them on my first try. What had happened rattled me, and even after I’d cut the link, I could still feel them watching me with rapt attention, as they craved another connection to me.

Even with the cuffs on me? I asked.

The cuffs can’t bind your death power, Whitesong said. Use your newly found death power to draw the life force from the living into you, Pip. Don’t get greedy though and don’t take too much, or you’ll snuff them out before their time.

Warn me if I take too much. I shuddered when I thought of those days when I’d drained half of Marlowe’s court.

Now, reach for the earth. The spirits tutored me.

I took in a deep breath, letting my mind search and reach deep within the earth. Another world formed in my mind. I could feel power pulsing in the land, but this land was corrupted by black magic. I still connected to it, promising to right the wrong. Then the land showed me all the living in the castle, and they pulsed like numerous dots of light in the vast darkness. That was how Death saw the living—they were the prey beckoning in the dark.

Some souls were brighter than others. Some souls were weaker, and some were very strong. The dark witches’ and mages’ souls were tainted. In an instant, I’d become acquainted with them all.

Link to the living and breathe in their light, Whitesong whispered.

Part of me was fire, and part of me was blacker than the darkness.

My death’s threads came out of my darkness, reaching toward the bright souls. I inhaled in their light—not too much, though I wanted to suck them all in. Death wasn’t tender, yet I reined myself in, remembering those I loved among the living.

My monster swirled alive at the delightful feeding.

Instantly, my body felt lighter, the dizziness in my head and nausea in my stomach receding.

I withdrew the connection to the earth and the living. I’d taken a little from everyone. They wouldn’t miss too much but might feel a little tired. Nothing a good sleep wouldn’t fix.

Oh my gods, I was a death vampire.

What wouldn’t I do to protect the ones I loved? Crossing the gray line? I’d do it every single time.

How do you feel, Pip? My spirit allies returned to my cuffs. We were ready to go.

Spirited, I said. But why couldn’t I off the horseman of war if the cuffs can’t bind my death power?

He’s still stronger than you with the wolf alpha joining him, and he has bits of your death element in him from when he tried to absorb your essence for a century.

I threw up my hands in dismay, the cuffs zinging on my wrists. Then how the fuck can I defeat him?

Find the great power, the spirits said in unison.

CHAPTER 13

I strode toward my family briskly. The barrier had dissolved.

“Are you all right, Pip?” Sam hugged me tightly.

“Never better,” I said.

“Your eyes are glowing, Auntie Pip,” Jacob said. Dylan was carrying him.

“It’ll go away. Auntie Pip would never hurt you,” I said, opening my arms and taking him from Dylan. “Let’s get out of here and get you all settled with me.”

“Jacob is heavy,” Sam said. “And you didn’t look well a few minutes ago.”

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