Immortals After Dark 04 - Wicked Deeds on a Winters Night

he was constantly reminded of how weak he’d grown, he was still confounded to be unable to move a single boulder. He muttered, “ Bloody, goddamned witches. ” Putting his back into it, he asked, “Where exactly are you tracing us?”
    “Below the cable, there’s a lava tube, another cavern.”
    “I doona see anything,” Bowe gritted out.
    “It’s there. You want the prize? Then you’re just going to have to trust a vampire—”
    The boulder toppled over. Before Wroth could trace, Bowe lunged to grab Wroth’s left arm, then whistled low at what remained of the vampire’s right—pulverized bone and severed sinews of muscle. “That’s got tae hurt,” he said with a sneer.
    “Have you looked in the mirror lately?” Wroth snapped.
    “Aye.” Bowe hauled him up. “And I plan to kill you for that. After this competition. Right now, I doona have all day.”
    The vampire seemed to just prevent himself from rocking on his feet. He blinked as though struggling to focus.
    Bowe jostled him. “Are you even going to be able to do this—”
    Without warning, the vampire traced.
    Instantly, they were in a new tunnel. Though Wroth looked disoriented, somehow he’d done it. The smoke and steam were thicker here and flames seemed to sprout from barren rock.
    Bowe caught sight of a reflection on the ceiling of the cave. He spied the source deeper within—a shining blade on a waist-high column of rock at the very end of the cavern. Bowe shot forward, sprinting for it. Wroth traced and got there first. He snatched the blade with his good hand and tensed to disappear.
    But Bowe had already freed his whip. With a crack, he had the length coiled around Wroth’s wrist and yanked down, preventing the vampire from tracing. “I’ll be takin’ that now.”
    Wroth transferred the blade to his right hand to raise it and claim the victory. But that ruined arm hung lifeless.
    “Canna quite make it to your heart, then?”
    The vampire bared his fangs. “I’ll gut you before you get this.”
    “That equals the life of my mate.”
    “I’ve the same on my mind,” Wroth bit out.
    “The Valkyrie died?” That was why Wroth was here instead of Kaderin?
    “Not for long.”
    The look in his eyes gave Bowe pause. He’d seen that level of unyielding determination in his own gaze in the mirror. “We could share it, vampire,” he said, disbelieving what he was offering—especially when he had the advantage. “The key works twice.”
    “I need both of those times... for her.” Suddenly, the vampire’s wasted arm shot up. Impossible—The blade rose as if by its own accord and struck viciously.
    Blood spurted from Bowe’s wrist; searing pain erupted as his severed hand dropped. Freed from the whip, the vampire traced the distance across the pit, decisively out of Bowe’s reach.
    Bowe sank to his knees, staring dumbly at the blood streaming from his body. How? He gaped at his lost hand, still clenching the whip handle. How had that blade risen?
    I’ve... lost ? His body shuddered violently at the realization. “I will fucking kill you for this, vampire!” he roared.
    Bowe had lost. He wouldn’t be able to go back and save Mariah— save her from himself .
    He’d lost her. Again.
    “ I will eat your goddamned heart! ” But the vampire was already gone, leaving Bowe trapped in a cavern of fire where immortals went to die.

6

    “Jump, Mariketa! I’ll catch you.”
    Mari crawled on her belly inch by inch among the rancid corpses of the incubi slumbering all around her. In the last two weeks, this was the closest that she’d made it to the edge of their lair without waking them.
    The night of the first attack, one had dragged her into the shadows, then lifted her into the air by her ankles, feet over her head, though she’d kicked and thrashed to be free. As the incubus had flown ever upward, her body had swung loosely like a rag doll. When her head had knocked against a shelf of carved stone, blackness dotted her vision. She’d awakened here on this ledge, somewhere high in the tomb.
    Almost there. When she raised herself up on her elbows, she shook so wildly her head bobbed. You can do this, Mari. One elbow in front of the other. Finally... finally, she reached the edge—and barely stifled a gasp. She’d known she was high up, but didn’t realize it was this bad. They were at least a hundred feet in the air.
    Heights. Just ducky.
    When Tera saw Mari peeking over the side, she politely turned up her