For the briefest second, I felt desperately sorry for her.
“Well, this is quite a sight, isn’t it?” The voice made me whip my head toward the séance room with surprise. Raina, hunched over, emerged from the adjoining room, holding on to the walls as she went as if she hadn’t gotten her strength fully back.
Weak or not, the witch who’d kidnapped me and tied me up in her dungeon earlier today was a sight for sore eyes.
“Thought you’d never wake up,” I said tightly. “But I’m glad you did.”
“I can help,” she muttered.
“You sure about that?”
“I can try.”
“No, stay back,” Heather hissed. “She’s my grandmother. This is my fight now.”
“Sarah,” Thierry hissed from nearby. I turned to see him, alarmed by how pale and translucent he was. “Stay back.”
“Thierry, what are you—”
“Don’t worry about me.”
Heather took a step toward her grandmother.
“I don’t want to kill you,” Rose said, a muscle in her cheek twitching. “Truly, I don’t. But I can’t let you stop this. I can make you forget. I can make you forget all of this, including your own magic. It’s for the best.”
The forgetting spell—the same one Raina used on a lesser level for the vampires she bled to maintain her immortality. Miranda didn’t have that level of power, which was why she’d had to kill the vampires she bled. But Rose was as powerful as an alpha right now, with all that master vampire blood swirling around inside her—her thermometer heated up to maximum. She could do it.
In fact, she could make all of us forget if she wanted to.
“You won’t forget I’m your grandmother, dear, but you’ll forget everything else. And no one will ever keep me from Malik. No one.”
Raina groaned. “She’s another witch after you, Malik? This is getting absolutely ridiculous.”
I noticed that the two had locked gazes, the witch hunter ghost’s attention drawn away from the old woman from the moment Raina entered the room.
He looked at her the way he had at the edge of the forest more than three hundred years ago. As if she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“It could have been different, Raina,” he said, his voice hoarse now. “I wanted it to be. Do it, Rose. Raina’s power has been drained. She can’t stop you right now. Take away your granddaughter’s memories if you wish to save her life, and then we’ll deal with the others.”
“Yes, my love.”
“Give this up, Malik,” Raina warned. “I won’t ask again.”
His gaze hardened. “Don’t you know me by now? I never give up.”
Then the floor began to tremble and shake as if there were an earthquake rolling through town.
“Are you doing this?” I asked Raina.
She shook her head, her expression growing worried. “No.”
Rose’s sparkly magic solidified before her in the shape of an arrow.
Heather stood there, her wild red hair the same color as her eyes. Despite everything, she looked calm. Focused. “I can’t believe you kept this magic from me my whole life. I can’t forgive you for that.”
“What’s done is done.” Rose sent the arrow hurtling toward Heather.
Just as the arrow would have hit Heather, the air all around her rippled. The arrow bounced off this shielding and flew backward toward Rose, where it hit her squarely in her chest and disappeared. Gold light emanated from her chest, crawling up along the line of her throat, over her jaw, and up her cheeks until her entire head glowed with sparkling golden light.
She gasped, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she slumped down to the floor only feet from where Todd also lay unconscious.
All of this happened in seconds.
Heather’s eyes, still red and scary, suddenly lost their serenity. “Oh, my God. Is she dead? Did I kill her?”
Raina moved toward the witch on the ground, crouching down to check the pulse at the old woman’s throat. “She’s still alive.”
“I’m glad you stopped her. She was out of control.” Malik addressed Heather. “Your power is incredible, much greater than anything I’ve ever seen before.”
Heather regarded him with a withering look. “Back off, jerk. This is all your fault.”
“Oh, Malik,” Raina whispered. She shook her head. “How far you’ve fallen.”
He turned to face her, and their eyes locked. “Without you I’m nothing, my love.”
Her harsh expression wavered and I saw that wistfulness in her eyes.
Thierry whispered to me, loud enough for only me to hear. “I don’t trust her. If she chooses to help him, they’ll need more vampire blood. You’re the only one in town now. My body”—he glanced over at it—“it’s too weak from the previous bleedings. My blood will also be weak right now. Raina would need it to be as strong as possible in order for Malik to survive the transference. They’ll kill you.”
I shook my head, determined to stay. “He can’t have your body.”
“Sarah, look at her. Despite everything, she still loves him. All this time, it’s never changed. Can’t you see?”
I gazed into his gray eyes. “I do see. I see more than you think I do. Raina still loves him, I agree. But she’s changed over the years. He hasn’t. I thought he had, but he hasn’t. He’s nothing like you.”
He searched my face. “I don’t understand.”
“Change is everything. People are capable of changing, no matter who they are and what they might have done in the past. But they have to want to change. They have to want to be better.”
I glanced toward Heather, now crouched beside Todd again. She held his hand in hers and sent a worried look in my direction. Owen stood by the staircase, eyeing all of us with distrust and uncertainty. Rose lay unconscious next to the couch.
And Raina and Malik faced each other as if the rest of us didn’t exist.
“It was real between us,” she said, her voice quiet. “I know it was.”
“It was. The others . . .” He frowned. “You wouldn’t help me. I thought you would change your mind eventually, but you never did. I was forced to look elsewhere.”
“You seduced them.”
“As much as I could with words and promises.”
“Women enjoy both.”
“So did you. Once. And you once loved me.”
Her eyes glistened. “I still do.”
Malik took a step closer to her. His form shimmered in the semidarkness of the room. “Push away your uncertainty, your guilt over past misdeeds. Help me live again right here, right now. We can begin a new life together, just the two of us. In my heart it was always you, nobody else. You know that, don’t you?”
“I know,” she whispered.
“I love you, Raina.”
“And I love you.” She took a step back from him. “I release the spell I put on you once, so very long ago. I release it and I release you from the bonds that hold your spirit here in Salem.”
I watched her, ignoring the sick, sinking feeling I had.
“Sarah . . . ,” Thierry growled, “go now.”
I shook my head. “Just wait.”
Malik jolted forward as if an unseen hand had pushed him. “Excellent, Raina. I’m pleased Casey did not drain you of all your magic. Do the transference spell quickly. My ties to the mortal world are now tenuous at best.”
“I release you,” she said again, her eyes turning red and her hands stretching out to her sides, palms up. Fresh, pure magic charged the room. “I release you, Jonathan Malik, the man I have loved for more than three centuries. I have learned much in this time, but you have not. You are evil and you continue to hurt those who are innocent. You’ve never stopped.” Her expression remained fierce. “I release you to the judgment that has awaited you all these years.”
“Raina!” Malik roared, the reality of what was happening now hitting him. “Don’t do this!”
“It’s
done.” She dropped her hands back to her sides. A tear slipped down her cheek. “I’m sorry. Good-bye, my love.”
Flames began to lick at Malik’s ankles. He stared down at them as if in shock, then sent a dark glare toward her. “Stop this!”
“I can’t.”
“Damn you!” He yelled it this time, his voice a resonating boom through the entire inn, one that echoed off the walls. The flames rose to cover his entire body, and a moment later, he disappeared in a flash of fire and rage.
Raina staggered backward and fell to the ground, sobbing.
“See?” I whispered to Thierry, the tightness in my chest finally easing off. I would have hated like hell to have been wrong. But I knew it. I knew it! “She’d changed, but she finally realized Malik hadn’t. I saw it in her eyes . . . I felt it in my gut. And I believed it.”
“You are so much wiser than I give you credit for.”
There was something in his tone that made me turn away from the raven-haired witch to meet his eyes. But I could barely see him anymore, only a ghostly outline.
“Oh God, no . . . Thierry . . .” Panic gripped my heart with a clawed hand. “Raina! Do something! Malik fed on Thierry’s energy. He’s nearly gone!”
Thierry looked nowhere but into my eyes. There was no panic in his gaze, only regret. “I wanted more time with you.”
This was not happening. Not after we’d defeated the evil ghost and his witches. Not after I survived a fatal staking today. He wasn’t going to fade away. I wouldn’t let him. “No, Thierry! Don’t you even think about leaving me! You have to fight this!”
His jaw tensed. “I’m trying. I am. But he took it all, Sarah. He wanted to leave just enough so you’d witness me fade away completely.”
He flickered, disappearing for a horrible moment, before he reappeared.
“Somebody do something! Help him!” I was frantic by now. “Thierry! Focus on me. Just hold on a minute longer, okay?”
The slightest edge of a smile curled up the side of his mouth. “Never giving up, no matter how bad things get. You are incredible. I was so lucky—”
And then he was gone. Just gone—faded away into oblivion right before my eyes like a horrible switch had been flicked for the last time.
I trembled from head to foot, but I wasn’t crying or sobbing. Not yet. No, I was furious. This wasn’t how the story ended. Not for us. Not after everything we’d been through.
I whirled around and faced Raina, ready to destroy this town with my bare hands, alpha witches and all, if that’s what I needed to do to get him back. “I don’t care what you have to do—take my blood. Take as much of it as you need, but you have to get him back here. You have to heal him and make him whole, and then you need to put him back into his body.”
Tears still streaked down her face, but she moved closer to me and put her hand on my shoulder. “Sarah, calm down.”
I wrenched away from her and turned toward Heather. “There must still be some of Thierry’s blood left from before. You can do the time travel spell again. I can go back a little while, possess a body and stop Malik from draining him.”
Heather shook her head, her face pale. “I’m sorry, Sarah.”
I faced Raina again, but now the witch was blurry from my own tears. “I can’t lose him. Not like this. Please, you have to do something.”
“He was right about you. You don’t give up. Even when all is lost. You really love him, and he loves you.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I admire that. I envy that.”
“So do something!”
“I already did.”
I blinked. “What?”
She shrugged. “I might be having the worst day I’ve had in three centuries, but I’m not a total selfish bitch. Just so you know.”
It took me a moment to grasp what she was trying to tell me. “The spirit transference spell . . .”
“I know it by heart. So many times I nearly used it for Malik.” She exhaled shakily. “Thank God I never did. I feel it’s my one saving grace.”
My mouth was so dry I could barely speak. “Don’t even try messing with me, lady.”
“I’m not. However, whether it was successful”—Raina spread her hands—“that’s another matter. It’s possible I was too late to save him.”
My breath caught and held. “Now you’re really messing with me, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” Owen said from his viewpoint at the edge of the room. “She’s so messing with you.”
Without another word, I staggered over to where Thierry’s body lay on the floor by the stairs. I collapsed to my knees beside him and grabbed hold of his hands. They were cold, too cold.
“Thierry . . .” I stroked the dark hair back from his forehead. “Are you in there? Did she do it?”
I checked his pulse—he had one. It was very slow, but that was nothing new. Vampires had slower heartbeats than humans, and master vampires had even slower ones. But even a pulse didn’t necessarily mean his spirit had been returned.
But then his dark eyelashes began to flicker and his eyes opened. Storm gray eyes met mine.
“So,” he said softly, “yet again, I suggest you leave when there’s danger and you flatly refuse. I don’t know why I bother anymore. You’re truly the most stubborn woman I’ve known in my entire existence.”
Relief exploded from me like a volcano of fireworks on July the Fourth. I fell into his arms and kissed him hard and deep.
“I thought that was it,” I murmured against his lips. “I thought you were gone forever.”
“And I thought I was the pessimist in this marriage.”
I couldn’t help but smile as I held his face between my hands and inspected him for injury. He looked fine, wonderful, fantastic—if very pale from the blood loss. After a moment, I helped him to his feet. “Are you all right?”
He nodded. “I’ll recover.”
“I won’t,” Owen said. “I mean, I’m thrilled that everything turned out okay, but look. I’m still dead.”
He didn’t seem furious or ready to wreak vengeance. He just looked depressed.
“I’m sorry, Owen,” I said, sadness for him darkening my sunbeam of joy.
“Well, there is Raina’s spell,” he said, his gaze thoughtful, “if we can find another suitable body . . .”
“No way.” Heather had just helped the recovering Todd to his feet. She kept her arm hooked through the shifter’s and leaned against him a little, as if they were both supporting each other now. “I’m sorry, Owen, but that can’t happen. You’d be doing exactly what my grandmother tried to do—steal a body, ruin a life. You have to see that that’s wrong, don’t you?”
Owen opened his mouth as if to argue and then closed it. “Yeah. You’re right, of course. It’s wrong. But this sucks.”
I felt horrible for him. Owen Harper might have been a womanizing opportunist, but he’d helped out when we’d needed him the most. And he hadn’t deserved getting killed in the first place.
“I’m sorry it had to end this way for you, Owen,” Thierry said.
Owen’s brows drew together. “Yeah, well, I’m sorry I tried to steal your body and have sex with your wife.”
Thierry’s jaw tensed. “Apology accepted.”
Owen regarded Thierry for a moment. “How do you deal with that bloodlust, anyway? It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.”
I tensed as I waited for his answer. I wasn’t sure, either, but now I had confirmation that it was a constant battle for him.
“Practice,” Thierry said. He didn’t elaborate.
Suddenly Rose stirred on the ground and opened her eyes.
“My goodness,” she murmured as she sat up. “I must have taken a spill. What on earth happened?”
“You don’t remember?” Heather asked, her voice tense.
“I’m not sure.” Rose looked at each of us in turn. “Did I do something wrong?”
All I saw in her eyes was confusion. The memory-erasing spell she??
?d tried to use on her granddaughter had backfired and hit her instead.
She was damn lucky it hadn’t been a death spell.
“The darkness in her is gone,” Raina said. “Whether you forgive her or not is up to you, Heather.”
“What about her magic?” Heather whispered.
“It’s all gone. She’s no threat to anyone anymore.”
“You took her magic,” Thierry said. “As Casey took some of yours. Didn’t you?”
Raina raised an eyebrow at my husband’s quick deduction. “Consider it payment for services rendered, vampire.”
Rose looked at all of us, bewildered. “I don’t understand a word of what any of you are saying.”
Rose had no more magic; she had no memory of her desire to help Malik. It was as if all the bad had been erased from her like writing on a chalkboard. Was it really that easy?
According to the sad look on Heather’s face, it wasn’t. This couldn’t simply be forgiven, years of holding her back from her rightful magic. Years of lies and deception.
That Rose had wanted to spare her granddaughter was the only check in the “good” column, in my opinion. Having her memories erased did not forgive her for what she’d done.
And I wasn’t the only one to think so.
“Unbelievable. So she kills me and she gets away with it. Just great,” Owen said, shaking his head. “So where do I go now? Can anybody answer me that?”
There was silence among us for a moment. Thierry reached down and took my hand in his, his expression grim.
Then there was a popping sound as Lorenzo’s head appeared, floating in midair in the middle of the circle we’d created.
“Oh, hello,” he said. “Where’s Owen Harper? Owen? Are you here?”
Owen blinked. “Um, hi?”
Lorenzo swiveled to face the other ghost, his cheery face falling as he swept his gaze over him. “You insulted my meatballs without tasting them and slept with both of my daughters.”
Owen winced. “Sorry?”
Lorenzo pursed his lips. “I forgive you! About the daughters, that is. The meatballs—I need more time. Being dead puts a lot of things in perspective. Anyway, I’ve been instructed to be your guide.”