Infernal Bonds (10 page)

“You’re with this hellhound?”

I smiled. “He’s mine, yes.”

Both hunters’ eyes fell on the thin silver band around Lysander’s throat, and they passed questioning looks between each other before Viktor said, “You collared it? You managed to claim it?”

“I did. Any more stupid questions?” I said in as bored a tone as I could muster.
 

Matyas sputtered, “It’s not possible.”

Elise cut in, “It clearly is. Now. Stop wasting time and tell us, have the shades made any mention of a hellmouth? Have any of the covens shown signs of infernal interference?”

Their eyes hardened.
 

Viktor said, “No. The shades have eluded us. The covens won’t speak to us, thanks to that bitch.”

Lysander bristled and bared his teeth. Viktor and Matyas both took a step back; I smiled. Maybe the hound would have some uses after all.
 

Quin held up his hands and looked between the two groups.
 

He said calmly to the hunters, “There have been rumours about the second hound’s plans to open a hellmouth.”

Matyas shook his head and said, “That’s not possible.”

I smiled sweetly and said, “It seems that a lot of impossible things are occurring as of late.”

His nostrils flared, but he bit back his words and looked at Quin. “I am not a witch. I do not know of such things. You have your hound, the other is your problem. We’ll collect the bounty from the shades.”

“You’re not going to make any effort to try and stop a hellmouth being opened?” I growled.

Viktor shrugged, the others made non-committal noises.
 

With that, Matyas nodded to Viktor and they walked away. Lysander bristled next to me, but remained still and quiet. Elise shook her head.
 

“That could have gone better,” she said softly.

“They’re pathetic fools,” I spat.

“It’s an age-old argument, Evie,” Quin said.

I paced around a small circle.
 

“There is more to being a hunter than keeping the supernals in line. We have a duty to protect the city,” I growled.

“Not everyone agrees,” Quin said.

“Then they’re wrong,” I snapped.

Quin shook his head and sighed.
 

“We’re on your side, Evie,” Elise said.

“How can they shrug off this situation? How can they walk away from this in good conscience?” I asked.

“They believe that duty falls to the priests and priestesses,” Elise said.

I muttered curses under my breath. “They’re fools, nothing more than mercenaries.”
 

“This isn’t helping things, Evie,” Quin said.

I narrowed my eyes at him. He grinned at me, that infuriating grin that made me melt no matter how foul my mood.

He said to Lysander, “Lysander, what can you tell us about this other hound and its plans?”

The hound looked at me, I gestured for him to answer Quin. “He was... rather devoted to our master. He can’t do it alone, though, he’ll require some local help.”

I hadn’t managed to speak to any of the covens since I’d killed Serena; as the hunters had said, they were too scared of me. The fae wouldn’t be of any use. I paced up and down the path. Quin returned to questioning Lysander about his experiences in the infernal realm.
 

“What sort of local help?” Quin asked.

Lysander curled his lip and growled, “Witches. Strong witches.”

“Well, that’s specific,” I said.

The hound glared at me.
 

“Is there nothing else?” Quin said.

“I was told nothing. I was supposed to be nothing more than muscle. It was offensive. I am a marrok, and he put me beneath that whimpering pup. Our old master gave me no details, nothing more than to do as I was told and spill the blood that pup told me to,” Lysander growled.
 

I’d heard enough. I started walking off down the path. Elise’s hand settled on my arm, bringing me to a stop.
 

“Come with me back to my church, we’ll speak to my lady and ask for guidance.” Her voice was soft, and it calmed me somewhat.
 

I paused, looking into her silver eyes. “Could the hound pull this off? Could it really open a hellmouth?”

She held my eye contact. “With the right help, yes.”

 
I looked over to Lysander and Quin. Lysander had tucked his hands in the pockets of his jeans; laughter danced along his lips, Quin was grinning and talking animatedly. He was in his element.
 

Elise hooked her arm through mine. “Leave them to follow their own trail, we’ll meet them later.”

I allowed her to lead me off to her church; a break and some answers would do me a lot of good.
 

I couldn’t organise my thoughts; they fluttered and entangled themselves around each other, leaving me with a sense of dread and nothing much more. The angels on the architecture caught my eye more than usual; perhaps they would aid us against the potential new threat. They stood tall and proud, gazing out from balconies and spires, watching over the city. The tram made its way up the hill, the driver clearly in a rush as he hit the brakes coming into the stop. Everyone glared at the back of the driver’s cabin when they almost fell into each other; Elise and I braced ourselves against the back of the plastic seats in front of us.
 

The cobble-stoned street was empty, barring one lost-looking tourist who paused to look at the signposts at the cross-road. Elise’s pace increased, pulling me along to her church; her usual calm and peace were shrivelling and revealing something darker. She breathed a sigh of relief as we stepped into her sanctuary; she wasted no time in kneeling before the white altar. I remained back in the shadows giving her room and space to do what she needed to do. I couldn’t help but trace my mind around Lysander’s presence at the back of it. I had so much left to learn. Everything had been turned on its head over the past couple of weeks.
 

Elise was still knelt before her altar when I heard the scratching and scrabbling. I didn’t dare disturb her in her sacred time. As quietly as I could manage, I crept out to the front door, thinking it a stray dog that she fed or something equally charitable. I opened the large wooden door to see a wild-eyed man. Claws protruded from his fingertips, and his eyes kept shifting between blue and amber. A throwing knife fell into my hand. I hadn’t even realised I’d done it.
 

He said, “Please. Help me. I heard this was a safe haven.”

His claws dug into the door as his legs buckled beneath him. Without thinking, I pulled his arm around my shoulders and helped him into the church. He went down onto all fours; his face began to extend, but it never made it past a slight deformity. Thick coarse hair sprouted down his spine, agony echoing through his growls and cries; there was nothing I could do. He fell over onto his side panting, his eyes never settling on one thing for more than half a second at a time. Elise walked over to him, her mouth in a small tight line, her eyes dark. She knelt at his side; I stepped back, giving them room.
 

Her voice was soft, yet stern. “Who did this?”

The man, the abomination, swallowed hard and looked at her. His eyes finally focused. He moved his mouth as though feeling out the new shape of his jaw before he tried to speak.
 

“There was so much pain, so much blood. The women, they appeared from nowhere. I woke up in blood. I woke up like this. What am I? What did they...?”

He growled and began convulsing, screaming with pain as his ribs broke and reset again and again. His body was trying to shift, but it wasn’t able to. Someone had made him something between a human and a lycan. A botched experiment, or some form of twisted torture. Elise stroked his hair tenderly and whispered soothing words in a language I didn’t understand. After a few minutes of his muscles tearing and resetting, he calmed and settled again. Panting and dripping with sweat, he gripped onto Elise’s hand and looked into her eyes.
 

“Please.”

His voice was barely above a whisper; the single word hung in the air.
 

Elise said calmly, “Evie... do the kind thing.”

Her eyes never left the face of the man; he couldn’t have been more than thirty. He had his whole life ahead of him, yet his eyes had already taken on a mildly glassy quality. He had given in. Whoever had done that to him, had stolen his life.
 

I knelt down next to him, his eyes never leaving Elise’s calm face as she continued to stroke his hair. Her elegant fingers ran through his thick hair as though he were a little boy that she was staying with through a mild fever. His body tensed, preparing to try and shift again. His back began to arch, his face started to twist and contort with pain. I slit his throat before he could have known what was happening. He died with a small smile on his face; I hoped that he found peace. Elise gently placed his hand on his chest and closed his eyes before she stood, her hands balled into fists.
 

“I don’t know who did this, but they will pay. They are playing with things that are far above them, they are ruining lives.”

I was a little taken aback by the passion and fury she exhibited. I hadn’t seen so much emotion from her since we were young. It vanished in the blink of an eye. Her calm visage replaced the anger. We had already buried one abomination behind her church, no words needed to be spoken to understand that this one would receive the same respect. They were beginning to become a regular occurrence in the city. The first had appeared out of nowhere when I was trying to find Quin after the coven had kidnapped him. Since then, two had shown up at Elise’s church. Both had died at her feet.

Lysander had pressed against the back of my mind while Elise conducted the burial rites; his concern was almost palpable. I did my best to push him away, to mentally wrap his corner of my mind in black fabric and keep him out. Once the abomination had been suitably buried and respected, Elise led me through to her living area and made white tea; it was an hour before she finally spoke.
 

“My lady has confirmed that the second hound could open a hellmouth. He would require a great number of sacrifices, and some help, but it can be done. This all appears to have been planned ahead, therefore we can assume he has some help at least. That means we need to move quickly, he could have the hellmouth open within two weeks.”

The news hit me like a freight train. Part of me had assumed Lysander was full of shit, that perhaps his master had hoped, but nothing would come of it. The confirmation from the moon goddess was an entirely different thing.
 

“Are the abominations related?”

Her lip curled but she looked down and away, calming herself, before she said, “Not directly. Someone is trying to play at being a god, but we must focus on the more pressing matter.”

I squeezed her hand gently, looking for comfort from her as much as trying to offer it.
 

“This isn’t quite what I expected, when I became a priestess. Was that so naive of me?” she said quietly, a tear tumbling down her cheek.
 

I pulled her close, her small frame fitting between my arms with ease. I didn’t know what to say to her, there were no words of comfort. We were facing a disaster unlike anything before, false platitudes would only make things worse. She pulled back from me a little. I brushed away her tears with my thumb. She looked to delicate and fragile, her white hair tousled and falling around her porcelain face. I wanted so badly to offer her support and strength as she had done for me so many times before.

Taking a deep breath, she formed a smile and said firmly, “We will win this. Whatever it is.”

I smiled back at her, trying to find some courage and faith. “We will.”

I hoped that I’d find the strength and information I needed to believe my own words. And quickly.

Exhaustion had sunk into my bones and consumed my thoughts; the sun had already set by the time I growled at the sticky lock on the front door. Two voices came from within my home, two male voices. I opened the door and shrugged off my leather jacket before I recognised the second one. Lysander.
 

Quin grinned at me from the far side of the room. “Lysander’s moving in, isn’t that awesome?”

I stopped dead in my tracks. I must have misheard him. My dear brother wouldn’t have been so stupid, so foolish, as to allow his curiosity to override his sense like that. Lysander walked over to me, a slight sway to his hips, a playful smile on his lips.
 

“Where else was I to live? You’re my mistress, you have certain... obligations to look after me.”

I looked past him to Quin; the grin remained plastered on his face.
 

I smiled sweetly at Lysander. “We’ll get you a nice kennel and put it in the front garden area.”

His lips quivered, threatening to break into a broader smile. Those bright blue eyes sparkled with merriment. I hated him.