Saeed stared in horror as his worst nightmare played out in front of him. The entire scene seemed to unfold in double time, while Saeed moved in slow motion, unable to stop Cerys from extracting Rin’s soul and thereby sacrificing her life in the process.
The light went out of her eyes as their gazes met for the barest moment. Her full, petal-pink lips curled at the corners and then parted on a breath as she collapsed to the floor.
Pain unlike anything he’d ever felt ripped through Saeed. A haze of anguish settled over him and his rage burned with such intensity that the tenuous grip he’d held on his sanity snapped. If Cerys died, not a single soul within these walls would survive the night. Saeed would make them all pay. Every last one of them.
He fought like a vengeful spirit.
Nothing and no one stood in his way as he rushed through the dwindling crowd of money-hungry attackers and Rin’s own loyal bodyguards as Saeed closed the distance between them. Desperation fueled every swing of his arm, every cut, parry, and jab. Each foe who sought to take him down fell beneath Saeed’s blade until nothing stood between him and Cerys. She lay lifeless beside Rin’s shuddering body and Saeed let out another tortured roar.
The mage had been considerably weakened. Cerys hadn’t just stolen his soul, she’d obliterated it. Rin brought his gaze up and it reflected every ounce of anger and hatred Saeed felt. The static charge of magic thickened the air, compressing his lungs until he found it difficult to take a deep breath. An empty, gaping wound had opened in Saeed’s chest, and the pain of it was more than he could bear. The desire to kill Rin, to run his daggers through his black heart, almost stole his focus from Cerys. He was consumed with the need for vengeance to the point that nothing else mattered …
“Don’t let that need consume you, vampire.” Saeed started at the sound of Gregor’s deep, rumbling voice. He bucked his chin to the right. “Let your friend deal with him. We have more important matters to address.”
Saeed turned to find that Fallon had made his way through the fray. He headed straight for Rin and some small measure of good sense cleared the haze of unchecked rage from his mind. His attention went to Gregor once again. The male stood, calmly observing, his arms folded across his wide chest. Was this some trick? The berserker was actually trying to help him? Did his motive really matter? Cerys was dying and Saeed was running out of time.
“I can bring your soul back, Rin.” Chills danced over Saeed’s skin as Fallon conjured an illusion of Cerys to speak to the still shocked mage. “All you have to do is tell me where you keep your stolen souls. I can use them to bring yours back. You know how these bargains work. It’s a simple trade…”
Saeed gave his head a violent shake as he forced his attention away from the illusion. He couldn’t let that false representation of her distract him. Instead, he needed to heed Gregor’s words and let Fallon deal with Rin while he dealt with Cerys. He didn’t care why Gregor wanted her saved. They shared in a common goal and that made him—however temporarily—Saeed’s ally.
The daggers fell from his grasp as Saeed went to his knees beside Cerys. He gathered her limp, lifeless body in his arms and swallowed down a tortured sob as he pulled her against him. The helplessness that overtook him was more than he could bear. Everything about her was a mystery, from her unimaginable power to the toll it took on her seemingly fragile body.
“It is a wound that will never heal.” Gregor took several steps closer and Saeed’s hackles rose. “Watching your mate die while there is nothing you can do to save her.”
Perhaps it was Gregor’s intention to kill Saeed with grief? To watch with perverted satisfaction as he lost his mate, much like Gregor had lost his so many centuries ago. The illusion of Cerys still spoke to Rin to his right, entreating him to reveal his secrets in order to save his soul. Rin had watched her destroy it. Would Fallon be able to capitalize on Rin’s hopelessness to convince him to take the bait? Did any of it matter if, after all they’d been through, Cerys died anyway?
Saeed bit into his wrist. Cerys was convinced his blood had done little to help her in regaining strength but he had to do something. She was his mate. His. The connection between them went beyond their souls. It transcended time, space, and the natural order. If his blood couldn’t help her, what was the point of any of it? He tilted her head back and let the crimson drops fall onto her tongue as he said a silent prayer to any god that might listen that she be spared.
For the second time in twenty four hours, Saeed faced the possibility that he might not be able to save her. And again, he knew that he wouldn’t survive the loss. “Drink, Cerys.” He spoke low to her ear in a pleading tone as though that would somehow change things. “Please.”
“Vampires,” Gregor said with unmasked disgust. “So arrogant. You think your blood is some magic elixir. A potion that will cure anything. How does that superiority serve you now, Saeed?”
Gregor threw his own inability to save his mate in Saeed’s face. It was as cruel a wound as a silver stake through his heart. The pain of it tore through him, eviscerating muscle as it stabbed at his chest. It was a humbling reminder that no being in this world was infallible. Life was precious and delicate whether one lived for sixty or six hundred years. The superiority of his supernatural existence meant nothing in this moment, and it was a cruelty for Gregor to remind him of it.
“Ian! We found it!”
Saeed looked up as two more berserkers entered the club. They crossed to the VIP section and one of them tossed something at Gregor. A flash of glowing light flew through the air over his head. Gregor reached up and swiped it out of the air, to cradle the light in his palm. His eyes met Saeed’s, a calculating grin lit his angular face. “Your blood might not save her vampire,” Gregor said. “But this will.”
A sense of urgency rose up in Saeed to overtake the grief that threatened to swallow him whole. “What is that?” he demanded. “Damn you, berserker! Tell me!”
Gregor held the bottle aloft and examined its contents with an expression of fascination. “This?” he asked innocently. He held the bottle toward Saeed in his outstretched hand. “It’s your mate’s soul.”
How? Had Gregor been searching for Cerys’s soul all along? He’d managed to deceive them all, working his own angle while he pitted them against each other. “Give it to me!” Saeed reached out for the bottle.
Gregor pulled his arm back. “It’s not going to be that easy, vampire. It’s time you and I struck a bargain of our own.”
Bastard. Gods, Saeed was so fucking sick of the agendas and machinations of users and exploiters. He might as well be making a deal with the devil. If Mikhail ever found out what happened here tonight, Saeed would be considered a traitor and the vampire king would likely run a stake through his heart. Gregor offered Saeed the only glimmer of hope that remained. He had no option but to bow to the berserker’s will. Like all of Rin’s victims, Saeed was about to eagerly agree to anything in order to get what he needed. He would become beholden to his race’s greatest enemy.
“What’s your price, slayer?” Like it mattered. Saeed would agree to anything.
A wide smile spread across Gregor’s lips. “Take her home to Los Angeles. That’s all I want in return.”
“Bullshit.” The word burst from Saeed’s lips. It couldn’t be that simple.
Gregor laughed and it made Saeed want to tear the bastard’s throat out. “Unlike Rin, I’m a male of my word. This deal struck between us isn’t an offer of peace or clemency. If I give you her soul, you must agree to take her to L.A. no later than two sunrises from now. Promise me that, and I’ll ask nothing further of you.”
“Why? For what purpose?” What was Gregor hiding?
“The why is none of your fucking business.” Gregor’s native accent intensified with his anger. Black bled into the whites of his eyes and Saeed got a glimpse of the beast who’d nearly eradicated his kind. “Do you want to save her or not?”
“Yes.” Saeed would do anything to save her. Including betrayal. “I agree to your terms. Shall I give you a blood oath?”
Gregor scoffed. “I want none of your vampire troths. I know you’ll keep your word.”
He tossed the bottle carelessly into the air. Saeed’s stomach rocketed up into his throat as he scooped it out of the air. He cradled the bottle to his chest before pulling it away to inspect its contents.
Starlight sparkled in the ancient vessel. The same starlight that dusted Cerys’s skin and shone in her light eyes. It pulsed in the low light, illuminating her motionless body still cradled against him. Saeed didn’t doubt it was Cerys’s soul confined inside. He recognized it in an instant.
Saeed broke the wax seal as he pulled the stopper from the bottle. Tendrils of light spilled out of the bottle, twisting and turning in a graceful dance as they covered Cerys’s body like a delicate spider’s web glistening in early morning sunlight. The light permeated her skin, sinking below the surface and renewing the otherworldly glow that made her appear as though covered in a layer of stardust. Cerys drew in a sharp, gasping breath and her back arched.
As he’d promised, Cerys’s soul was returned.
Saeed slumped backward as a force pushed into his chest. He felt full to bursting as the emptiness that had consumed him was flooded and replaced with such a strong sense of self and completeness that it stole his breath. For all of his unwavering faith, the moment of his tethering still sent a momentary sensation of shock through his body. Cerys was his. His tethered mate. The one who’d anchored his soul. Finally, they’d been made whole.
Saeed looked up and his eyes met Gregor’s. Whole, but would they ever be truly free? Sooner or later, their uselessness would run out and when that happened, Gregor’s blind hatred and prejudice would remind him why Saeed—and possibly even Cerys—needed to die.
“Saeed,” Fallon said from behind him, “I know where the souls are being kept.”
Gregor smiled. “Looks like my work here is done. Gavin!” He called out to one of the berserkers in his group. “Take Rin.” Saeed’s jaw went slack. “What?” Gregor offered up an arrogant smirk. “You didn’t think I’d leave Seattle completely emptyhanded, did you?” His sadistic laughter echoed around him as the berserkers gathered Rin and headed for the door. “Take her back to L.A., Saeed,” Gregor said in parting. “Don’t make me regret my decision to let you live. For now.”
Cerys drew in a shuddering breath and Saeed’s chest swelled with emotion. She was alive. Her soul was intact, and their tether was secure. He just hoped all of it was worth the price he’d just paid.
* * *
Cerys took a punch to the chest that registered at about a +10 on the pain scale. Her lungs expanded with a gasp of breath that didn’t do much to assuage the pain that radiated from her solar plexus outward. Her back arched and her arms spread wide as she was flooded with a heat so intense that for a moment, she thought maybe someone might have chucked her on her funeral pyre a little prematurely. Brilliant white light encased her body and Cerys squeezed her eyes tightly shut. She turned her head to one side, but it didn’t do anything to shield her. Forget the funeral pyre. Someone had thrown her into the center of a nuclear bomb. A storm of hurricane proportions raged within her, so violent that she couldn’t hear anything but it’s untamed rage, and Cerys had no choice but to ride it out. She just wished she knew what she’d done to deserve this sort of horrible introduction to the afterlife …
Oh yeah. She’d spent the past couple thousand years helping Rin to destroy and enslave one poor soul after another. She guessed she really was getting what she deserved.
The storm began to wane as did the searing heat that coursed through her veins. The rush of wind in her ears abated to a soft whisper. Her body relaxed and the spasms that racked her muscles subsided. A sense of fullness swept in to replace the pain, as though Cerys had spent the entire day at an all-you-can-eat-buffet and glutted herself to her heart’s content. Gods, it felt good. On its heels, Cerys felt a joy so intense that it coaxed tears to stream from her tightly shut eyes to run in rivulets down her cheeks.
“Cerys.”
Saeed’s voice was like a beacon in a moonless night. The deep vibration and smooth timbre caused her chest to ache with an excess of emotion that filled her close to bursting. Love. She was in love with Saeed. And for the first time she didn’t simply know it. She actually felt it. In the center of her being. Her very core. Cerys felt her love for Saeed smack dab in the middle of her soul.
Cerys’s eyes flew open. She clutched at her chest as she tried to propel herself to sit. She was energized and much too weak all at once. As though her limbs had gone years without use and she was just getting used to her body again. She felt like a squatter in her own skin, the unfamiliar sensation of herself distracting and disconcerting. What in the hell had happened? How had it happened? Her breath caught in her chest as she rubbed once again at her sternum.
“Are we dead?”
It was the only explanation. She and Saeed had died together and the gods had seen fit to send them into the afterlife together. For having passed over … he looked a little worse for wear. Cerys reached up and cupped his cheek in her palm. Worry lined his handsome face and shone in his expressive midnight eyes. His black, curly hair was mussed as though he’d raked his fingers through it and blood stained his dark skin where he’d been injured and healed. If he looked this bad, she could only imagine what she looked like. Extracting and destroying Rin’s corrupt soul had to have drained her to the point that she looked like a zombie. And she’d seen some scary looking zombies.
“No.” Saeed’s response was half relieved laughter and half choked out sob. “We’re not dead.”
“Huh.” Saeed’s fingers threaded through her hair from the temple to the crown and a riot of pleasant chills broke out over her skin. “Then what in the hell happened?”
Saeed’s gaze left hers and darted upward. Cerys pushed herself up on one arm that felt about as stable as JELL-O, and followed his line of sight to where Ian Gregor stood, watching them. How in the hell were either of them still alive? The berserker’s eyes went inky black with tendrils that spread outward onto his skin. Just as quickly, the color faded and he gave Saeed a slight incline of his head. A silent moment passed before Gregor jerked his chin toward the door and six males fell into step behind him as they headed for the door. Cerys had been through the wringer, but she was sure there’d been a few less of them here earlier. What the hell…?
She didn’t have to be privy to what had happened to know Saeed and the berserker warlord had struck some sort of bargain.
“Saeed,” she said, fearful of his response. “What did you do?”
He turned his attention back to her and brushed the hair away from her face. “I returned your soul, like I promised I would.”
Of course he had. Because Cerys knew that Saeed would never make a promise to her and not keep it. The strange sensation at the center of her chest gave a slight twinge, not uncomfortable, but as though to alert her to its presence. She rubbed at her sternum and Saeed’s brow furrowed as he leaned in and put his forehead to hers.
“You feel it, don’t you?”
The physical contact, no matter how simple, felt so good. “Feel what?”
He let out a breath. “The tether.”
A sob lodged itself in Cerys’s throat. Through all of this, Saeed’s faith had been unflinching, while she’d doubted. The guilt of that doubt welled hot and thick in her throat. How could she possibly be worthy of him? It seemed impossible, and yet fate had seen its way clear to bind them together.
“Yes.”
Cerys pulled away. From the moment she’d laid eyes on Saeed she’d wanted a glimpse at his soul. Now that he’d been tethered, she didn’t have to imagine its colors. Her jaw hung slack. A hundred times more beautiful than she’d imagined it.
Brilliant. Vibrant. Dazzling like the Aurora Borealis with as many mesmerizing colors. The aura of Saeed’s soul was almost too lovely for Cerys to behold and still, she couldn’t force herself to look away.
“You were right.” Cerys uttered the words in a hoarse whisper. “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe.”
There wasn’t an ounce of hurt, anger, or disdain in Saeed’s expression. “Before you took Rin’s soul, you said you loved me.”
She had. And she’d meant it.
“We’re not done here.”
A voice intruded on their private moment and Saeed’s expression hardened. A trickle of anxiety entered Cerys’s bloodstream. She knew that voice. Had watched as Breanne’s consort fought at Saeed’s side. He’d been a busy vampire tonight, hadn’t he? Making deals with the bean sidhe and berserkers alike. Gods. Did Saeed have any idea what he’d gotten himself into? Who he was now obligated to?
“I gave you my word.” Saeed didn’t bother to shift his gaze from Cerys as he addressed Fallon. “I don’t plan to go back on it.”
Cerys tilted her head up toward Saeed’s. “You promised the return of Breanne’s soul in exchange for Fallon’s help. Is that it?”
Saeed gave a shallow nod of his head. He’d made a rash decision, one that would likely bite him in the ass. The bean sidhe were the coldest and most ruthless of the fae. The second Breanne’s soul was returned, Fallon would likely kill them both. If anything to prove to their enemies that they weren’t to be fucked with.
“Where’s Rin?” Cerys had yet to see him since she’d crushed his soul to dust. Having destroyed it, Rin would be nothing more than a shade. Neither living nor dead, a creature that lived between the realms for eternity. She’d condemned him to purgatory, weakened his magic, and stolen the essence of what made Rin, well, Rin. Saeed might have managed to get her soul back, but she doubted Rin would loosen his hold on the countless others he possessed. “He’ll never give you Breanne’s soul, Saeed.”
Saeed put his lips to her forehead. “He doesn’t have a choice. He is now the master of nothing and no one. Gregor took him and I doubt Rin will be seeing the light of day any time soon.”
There was so much wrong with what Saeed just said that Cerys couldn’t wrap her mind around it all. Gregor had taken Rin? And Saeed had let the vampires’ mortal enemy just walk right out of here with him? The alliance was so unlikely she wanted to laugh. “Rin will never tell Gregor where the souls are kept.”
“We already know where they are,” Saeed replied. “Fallon coaxed the location out of him.”
Day-um. Shit had gone down while she’d been checked out. Cerys had more than enough cause for worry. “Well then,” she replied. “I guess we have some work to do.”