Bloodfire (Blood Destiny) (32 page)

Now I felt angry.
 
Was he insinuating that I’d deliberately
excused myself so that the keep could be attacked?
 
“If I’d had a choice, I would have been
here, my
lord
.” I placed heavy
sarcastic emphasis on the word.
 
“I
would not have abandoned my pack.
 
And I think that between the terrametus and the ispolin, I’ve proven my
loyalty.
 
I was stupid and I didn’t
look where I was going but if you’re trying to suggest that I’m some kind of
traitor…”

“And yet, even with the ispolin, you still
didn’t shift, when you could have.”

“And you know my reasons for that.”
 
At least my pack knew my reasons for
that, anyway.

He glowered at me with the threat of
violence contained within the stance of his body.
   
“I’d compel you to tell me
everything, Miss Mackenzie, and yet I wonder if it would work after, as you
say, what happened with the terrametus.”

Oh what a tangled web we weave.
 
I opened my palms to him, in a marked
display of submission.
 
He seemed to
be getting closer and closer to the truth.
 
But once I got inside the portal, then it wouldn’t matter.
 
Because either I’d kill Iabartu or she’d
kill me.
 
And in killing her, her
portal would close and I wouldn’t be able to return.
 
Fucking Corrigan and his clever eyes,
and the fucking Brethren with their all too obvious air of superiority, would
never find out I was human. Despite Alex’s clever assertions to the contrary, I
knew I felt human.
 
I couldn’t for
the life of me really contemplate being anything else.
 
There was the bloodfire, sure, but I
didn’t really have any special skills that I’d not gained through hard work and
years of training.
 
Wanting to be a
shifter wouldn’t make me one.
 
And,
anyway, being human would not stop me from redeeming myself and getting revenge
for John, Julia, and everyone else.
 

The shifter, probably the doctor, who’d
been crouched down by Julia interrupted us.
 
“My Lord Corrigan, we need to move her
inside.
  
I will try my best to
heal her but she may be too far gone.”

I felt ill and briefly shut my eyes before
forcing them open again.
 
Corrigan
nodded briskly and looked at me.
 
“The keep’s perimeter needs to be repaired.
 
You will make sure that it is.
 
And then you had better get that taken
care of.”
 
He looked pointedly at
the bite marks from Tom.
 
Although
blood still dripped from them, soaking into the dishtowel, I didn’t feel any
pain.
 
Not physical pain, anyway.

I motioned acquiescence and fixed my
attention on Julia.
 
“Anything she
needs,” I said to the doctor, “anything at all,
tell
me.”

Corrigan growled at me, but the doctor
nodded in sympathy.
 
I hitched my
backpack on my shoulder and went inside.

Chapter
Twenty One

I couldn’t shake the image of Julia’s
broken body from my mind.
 
I wasn’t
sure if I could cope if she died as well as John.
 
Oily nausea rolled through the pit of my
belly; I only just made it to the bathroom in the time to retch up the meager
contents of my stomach.

Splashing cold water on my face, I stared
miserably at my pale reflection in the little mirror.
 
I was supposed to help protect my
pack.
 
Instead, as long as the
Brethren were around, my presence endangered them.
 
Not only that, but when they really
needed me I hadn’t been here.
 
No
wonder Corrigan had looked ready to murder me.
 
If I could stick to my
plan, and get inside the portal, then I’d just have to hope that I could make
things right.

I walked back out into the hall and made
my way to the front door.
 
Pragmatically speaking, fixing the entrance seemed to be the best way to
secure the keep.
 
Not least because if
we didn’t then anyone who came knocking, such as the local postman first thing
tomorrow morning, would immediately think that some kind of massacre had taken
place.
 
Which it actually
had.
 
Iabartu was
kicking our butts.

Johannes joined me, shaking his head
sadly.
 
“Sad days these, lass, sad
days.”
 
He was carrying a
toolbox which
I took from him.

“What’s happening, J?
 
I don’t understand why we keep being
targeted.”

“Aye,” he said heavily.
 
“We have summat that someone wants.
 
Trouble is, we dinna know what.”

I thought about that, and what I’d
uncovered so far.
 
Was this related
somehow to the Draco Wyr that Craw had mentioned?
 
But then, I could pretty much lay my
hand on my heart and attest to the fact that we were not hiding any dragons
anywhere.
 
We weren’t concealing
anything, other than that we were a bunch of shapeshifters.
 
Perhaps Iabartu had something against
the were
.
 
But
then that didn’t make any sense because why would she target us in
isolation?
 
Why not go straight to
the heart of the shifters and aim for the Brethren in London?
 
Strategically it was a stupid move.

Johannes moved the door back into position
and held it, whilst I clambered up on a ladder and started to connect the hinges
back into place.
 
It was awkward
getting this done with a dishtowel wrapped round my arm, but not
impossible.
 
I pulled out a heavy
iron nail.
 
If only I’d had this in
my pocket a few hours ago.
 
I pushed
it into the hinge bracket and began hammering, imagining that it was Iabartu’s
face that I was hitting.
 
I just
couldn’t think of anything that we had that a demi-god would so desperately
want.
 
Up until now, I hadn’t
examined in much detail what her motives might be, but perhaps if I could
understand why she was doing
this,
I’d have more
chance of understanding her.
 
Know
thy enemy.

“J, can you think of anything that we have
that someone would go to this trouble to get?”

He sighed.
 
“Nah.
 
There’s nothing that I ken of.
 
We dinna have onything locked away
because it’s too valuable to be seen by others.”

I paused.
 
Actually we did.
 
In John’s office there was that
magically sealed drawer that I’d been unable to open.
 
It was just possible that there was
something inside there that Iabartu was after.
 
I couldn’t think of any reason for why
John would have wanted to keep anything hidden away from the rest of the pack,
so whatever was in there must be important.
 

I knocked the nail into place.
 
I needed to get into that drawer.
 
Unfortunately I’d not seen Alex since I
returned and he would surely be my best bet for breaking through a ward.
 
Remembering the melted pen, I figured
that attacking it myself might not be best the idea.
 
But silver could work.
 
I needed to get some anyway for when I
went through the portal so I reckoned that there was no time like the
present.
 
Quickly finishing up the
door, I shouted down to Johannes to try closing it.
 
The heavy oak slammed shut into
place.
 
Perfect.
 
At least if Corrigan caught up with me
again I could prove that I’d been busy.

“I need to take care of a few things, J,” I
said to him as I climbed back down the ladder.

“Aye, lass,” he nodded, “you do tha’. ‘
n
’ make sure ye catch that fecker ‘n’ all.”

No prizes for guessing
who
that ‘fecker’ was.
 
At least someone
still had faith in me.
 

*

I had to make sure that none of the
Brethren saw me returning to the keep.
 
I was pretty sure that if I was caught shirking the orders that Corrigan
had given me,
then
they’d throw my sorry ass down the
disused well at the back of the keep and wipe their hands of me.
 
Before I did anything, however, I had to
find Julia.

As I was confident that she’d have been
taken to her own room, where she could be made the most comfortable, I headed
back inside the keep but avoided the main stairwell.
 
Off the great hall was a small door that
led to a staircase that had been used by servants in times gone past.
 
I reckoned that the Brethren wouldn’t
know about it yet – and even if they did, they’d have no cause to use
it.
 
Despite my gut feeling that I
wouldn’t bump into any of them along the way, I moved cautiously up the steps,
trying to be as silent as I possible could.
 
When I reached the third floor, where
Julia’s room was located, I carefully pushed open the door just a chink and
peered through.
 

I could just make out her room at the
other end of the corridor and voices coming from inside it.
 
I watched for a few moments and then
Corrigan and the doctor emerged.
 
The looks on both their faces were grave.
 
Swallowing hard, I waited till they had
headed to the main stairwell and begun to descend before I made a move.
 
There was one heart-stopping moment
where Corrigan seemed to pause and sniff the air, and I pushed myself back
against the wall and held my breath, praying that it wasn’t me he could smell,
but then he continued onward murmuring something inaudible.

Tiptoeing forward, feeling like a thief in
my own house, I made my way to her room and inside, gently closing the door behind
me.
 
Her pale broken body lay on the
bed, unconscious.
 
I didn’t have
much time before someone returned to check on her, but I had to do this.
 
I knelt down beside her prone form and
placed my hand on her arm.
 
Her skin
felt clammy to the touch and a wave of despondency ran through me.
 

“It’s all my fault, Julia,” I
whispered.
 
“The wichtlein said
so.
 
I don’t know why or how, but it
is.
 
And if,” my voice broke
slightly, “if I could have been here when you called then I could have saved
you.”
 
I gulped in air and tried to
swallow down the tears.
 
“I’ll make
it right though.
 
I promise I’ll
make it right.
 
Just stay strong until
I return.”
 
I smoothed a strand of
hair away from her brow and slowly stood up.
 
This was my battle now.
 
I was going to do what I should have
from the beginning.
 
I turned and
left, without looking back.

After leaving the third floor, I sneaked
up to the south garret where the silver weapons were kept, managing to avoid
any Brethren along the way.
 
The
door was kept locked, simply because of how dangerous silver was to shifters,
but everyone knew where the key was.
 
I reached up onto the dusty sill of the
door frame
and felt around.
 
My fingers found
it before too long and I managed to unlock it quickly.

Inside, the little room was spartan but
clean.
 
I pulled a bow off the wall
and tested its string.
 
It twanged
with a pleasing tautness so I slung it round my shoulder, then opened up a
battered chest and pulled out the silver tipped arrows.
 
There would be a limit to how many I could
realistically carry – and I still had to get out of the keep without any
of the Brethren spotting me – so I only took eight and stuffed them into
my backpack.
 
The
length
of the arrows were
such that it looked like it contained weapons.
 
As long as
no-one
asked me to open the bag though, I’d probably be okay.
 
Next I unhooked a small dirk from the
other wall and hefted it in my palms, feeling its weight.
 
It was perfectly balanced and would suit
me well.
 
It was light and easy to
carry so even if I found myself wandering around the portal’s other plane for
some length of time trying to find the bitch, then at least it wouldn’t weigh
me down.
 
I tested the blade gently against
my skin and made a small nick.
 
It
would cut through even the toughest hide.
 
Excellent.