Page 16 of Between Bloode and Death (Between the Shadows #5)

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

Val wanted to kick the arrogant vampire by the time they reached his laboratory.

The ease with which Khent maneuvered her was embarrassing. Especially because she couldn’t stop noticing how nicely they fit together and how oddly good he smelled. Like a mix of ash and incense peppered with power over the dead.

Sandalwood and spice, and nothing else nice. Dumbass, keep your eyes off his broad chest and full lips and try to act with some dignity! Her inner self felt no shame in pointing out her own stupidity.

“Get off, fanger,” she grumbled again, not pleased when he smirked and hugged her tighter, letting her feel all that strength.

“Nice catch there.” A large male with pointed ears, pitch-black skin, and long white hair up in a man bun met them in the basement. He cocked his head and studied her. “What are you?”

“Human.”

“Necromancer,” Khent added. “Mine. Back off, Onvyr.”

Onvyr, an obvious dark elf, grinned. His lavender eyes were pretty, his entire face handsome, his body strong. This was no mage but a warrior fae. He should have been carrying a bow or sword. Perhaps a staff.

Before Grizz had whisked her away from the bazaar yesterday, she’d seen dark elves with the hell-threader. They had looked much like this guy.

“Hi, human necromancer. I’m Onvyr.” He held out a hand, ignoring Khent.

“I’m Valentine Darkmore.” Val finally pulled free from Khent, but only because he let her. She glared at him over her shoulder before taking Onvyr’s hand. “Hi.”

The large fae smiled, and she caught sight of small fangs. She’d seen a lot of creatures at the bazaar and through her travels. The fae typically kept to themselves. This one looked so far from human, he fascinated her.

She’d never piloted a dead dark elf before. To her shock, a burst of power shot from her hand and caressed his energy.

He froze for a moment.

Val yanked her hand away, buzzing with a foreign vigor she knew to be Onvyr’s life essence. She’d never pulled like that. Sure, she tasted life essence, but only when she meant to take the life of someone. Like she had with Aisha a few days ago.

“I’m so sorry.” Val didn’t know what had come over her. She prized control, having lived with it her entire life. To lose it now, and in front of Khent, was beyond embarrassing.

Onvyr smiled. “No problem. It was just a little tingly.” He looked her up and down and nodded. “Frey-Frey told me to watch out for you.”

“What?”

Khent frowned. “Who?”

“One of my friends.” Onvyr turned. “Nice meeting you, Valentine Darkmore. I have to go kill something.”

“Wait. What?” Khent started to follow him then stopped, turned around, and ushered Val into a large room filled with exam tables and shelves along the walls filled with all kinds of materials.

But it was the bodies of a few vampires on the tables near her that felt like home.

“Oh. These are fresh.”

He watched her approach, his eyes narrowed. “You still sense them?”

“Yes. You don’t?”

He shook his head. “Vampires don’t have souls.”

She scoffed. “Yes, they do.” She looked at him. “You do.”

“You can feel that?” Khent looked intrigued.

“Not exactly. I just meant it’s common knowledge that everything alive has a soul.”

“Ah, but my kind are not alive. Not in the traditional sense.”

“That’s incorrect. You’re alive. You just function differently.”

“Oh?” Khent crossed his arms over his chest and studied her.

She felt like a student having to prove her thesis to her professor.

Despite knowing Khent might be much older than her, Val knew more about death than anyone she’d ever met…

with the exception of Vladimir. And she’d only met him that one time, back when he’d tried to kill her family. So technically, not a real meeting.

“I know what death is. I can’t reach everything I encounter, simply because some things aren’t alive. Zombies, mummies, wendigos, the odd ghoul.”

“Yes, yes. I know all that. Vampires don’t fall into those categories, yet they aren’t able to be resurrected.” He frowned. “Not usually.”

“Well, I haven’t seen any resurrected myself, but that doesn’t mean that’s not possible.”

“Fine. Kill me and bring me back.”

“Are you insane? Not that I wouldn’t like to, but if I hurt you, your kin would skin me.”

“Probably. But what’s life without a little risk?” He held out his hand. “Go on. You touched a part of Onvyr. Touch me.”

“Just don’t be mad if I take you over.” Now thinking about what a boon it would be to take Khent and use him for her own means, she crossed to him and took his hand in hers, aware of how much smaller she was in comparison.

Val closed her eyes and felt with that part of herself that her parents insisted she hide, that part that sensed more than normal necromancers. She let it out of the careful container within and enfolded Khent inside her. Or at least, she tried to.

She frowned, eyes still closed, seeing him for the presence he projected, that essence of the reaper that made up who and what Khent was. A spiritual meeting that stymied her.

She blinked her eyes open but still saw the darkness overlying Khent’s physical form, like a demonic entity smiling down at her, deep with a thready blackness, two bright red lights where his eyes would be.

“I told you so.”

“Shut up.” She clenched his hand tighter and let her inner power out, swirling over him, studying the alien feel of him. All that influence tucked away when it could be hers.

“You feel surprisingly…” His thick voice tapered off, and she saw the moment he grew aware of the danger.

A danger no one could ever know she possessed.

Val was a powerful necromancer. But whatever she’d tapped into didn’t want to go back to slumbering deep inside her.

And that scared her even more than Khent’s sinister scowl.

Shoving her entire being back under the protective aura of what she considered her normal human glamour, Val yanked her hand away and stepped back. “Fine. I’m scared. Happy now?”

“No. Not at all.” He stared at her, and she had a bad feeling he was seeing what she’d done her best, for such a long time, to keep hidden.

Khent studied the small human, fascinated at what she had buried inside her.

When he’d first come to live with the Night Bloode and experienced firsthand what it felt like to be under the control of a Bloode Stone, the energy of an ancient god had overpowered him for the first time in his life.

Not that Khent hadn’t fought against strong opponents both physically and magically. But the Bloode Stone was all-consuming. He couldn’t ignore it even if he wanted to.

The same with Valentine. She wasn’t just a human or necromancer. He’d met others of her magical kind before. They felt human, looked human, and on another magical level, felt familiar, kin of a sort with death.

Yet Valentine vibrated with a buzz of something powerfully other. She presented a tantalizing puzzle he needed to unravel. More, she set his entire body ablaze with the need to copulate. Attraction, he understood. But this wanting for the female went beyond sexual need.

It was as if the energy inside her called to him, attracting negative to positive, yin to yang.

And in an odd way, like to like.

She looked scared now when before she hadn’t been more than appropriately terrified of Varu. He credited her for having intelligence and common sense. This new fear bothered him, though, and he didn’t understand why.

Putting aside this new anomaly, he promised himself to get to the bottom of this mystery she presented. Just after they figured out where and how to stop this Vladimir of the Void.

“We need to find your necromancer.”

She opened and closed her mouth, obviously confused. “What?”

“Void. Spectre. Whatever he prefers to call himself. We need to find him. You have had little luck with that, but you aren’t a vampire. We have resources you don’t.”

“I have my pets.”

“And I have mine.” He smiled as he called Mila back to him.

But the traitorous bird flew into his lab and moved straight to Valentine, perching on her shoulder.

“Oh, hello there.” Valentine’s soft smile worked its own spell. “You’re so pretty.” She scratched Mila’s neck and the side of her beak, which the bird particularly loved.

Without meaning to, Khent found himself liking the human more than he should.

Aware she was nothing but a tool to be used, he reminded himself to distance his feelings. Scholarly pursuits would come later. They had a task to do now.

Learning as much as they could about the necromancer.

Khent had a feeling Valentine hadn’t told them everything. But then, maybe she needed a better incentive than the ones she’d been given.

“Come with me,” he ordered then sent Mila back to the shifter house.

“What? Where?”

“I think we’ll have better luck talking to you and Talon at the same time. You did mention his pack was annihilated by Vladimir. He seems a few years older than you, so he might know more than you do about the enemy.”

“We don’t need Talon for that,” she protested. “I’ll tell you whatever you need to know.”

“Need? No. I don’t need to know. I want to know. And you’re not telling me everything.”

“I really am.” She glared at him, no longer intimidated.

He liked that much better. He had never found joy in taunting weak prey.

“Then I suggest—”

Onvyr burst through the doorway, breathing hard. “Khent, bring your human. A friend of mine found a bunch of dead magir and a demon out at Tiger Mountain killing people.”

“That’s not possible.” Khent was already moving, aware Valentine followed. “Demons can’t be resurrected.”

“Not necessarily,” she argued.

Onvyr kept Khent between himself and the necromancer, Khent noted with amusement. “Scared?”

The dusk elf nodded. “She’s freaky.”

“I heard that.”

“Sorry, but it’s true. I still like you, though. Just promise not to kill me and revive me or you’ll upset my sister.”

“And my patriarch,” Khent said dryly. “Aggravating Fara is the same as aggravating Varu, and he’ll kill you without a qualm. I promise.”

“I’m not trying to kill anyone. Except for you, you arrogant reaper.”

Onvyr grinned as the three of them raced into the garage.

Khent grabbed a set of keys from a key rack and pointed them toward the Land Rover.

“It’s so funny how it happens, isn’t it, Khent?”

Once inside the car, Khent stepped on the gas, heading toward Tiger Mountain, which would take them a good hour. “What’s that, Onvyr? And why are you coming with us anyway?”

Damn it. He’d hoped to stash the elf with Varu or Rolf.

“Rolf told me to stay with you. And that if I watched carefully, I’d see the magic before it happens.”

Valentine finished buckling up, sitting in the front seat next to Khent. “What magic?”

“The magic of love.” Onvyr laughed a little too hard to Khent’s way of thinking.

Valentine and he shared a grimace. Their gazes met before Khent stared once again at the road.

“This elf guy isn’t that funny,” Valentine said.

“No, he isn’t. But he’s not bad in a fight, and he can talk to animals.” High praise coming from a reaper of Khent’s caliber.

“Really? He can talk to animals?” Valentine turned to study Onvyr. “A natural-born gift or something he acquired from a spell or imbued object?”

“Does it matter?” Onvyr asked, wiping his eyes.

“Only if I kill you then make you my pet. A natural gift would be ideal. But an imbued talent might not transfer if you die.”

“Oh, but it can if you craft the right spell first,” Khent heard himself offering, not sure why.

Her astonishment, followed by a glowing smile filled with admiration, pleased him to no end. “Wow. Seriously? You’re good.”

“I know.”

“Teach it to me?”

“Hold on.” Onvyr sat back, as far away as he could get from the front seat. “No killing the dusk elf.”

“We’ll see.” Khent smirked at Onvyr in the rearview mirror, pleased when the elf didn’t look so amused anymore.

Khent met Valentine’s smile and gave her a slow wink, not sure why her blush made him think of sultry, naked nights and not the food source he should be fantasizing about.