Chapter 57

Lynda tumbled through nothingness head over feet. She couldn't get her bearings or even see straight. A void surrounded her. A blackness that pressed on her skin like she was a bug fallen into a sticky sewer.

Her scream drowned in a vacuum before it left her mouth. She flailed her arms and legs to right herself or swim out of this blob. Her magic! Concentrating, she closed her eyes to try and forget that she tumbled into inky blackness. She needed to focus on her anger at Natasha tricking her. Just like Sofia had when she’d first met the Russian vampires.

But Lynda’s magic didn’t tingle along her skin like previously. Didn’t sizzle. Didn’t open. Nothing. It was like she was a regular human in this void. Where am I? Sure, she’d been pushed into a portal, but where was she now? It was like nowhere on Earth. As she tumbled, dizziness pressed against her skull. She had to figure out how to get out of here no matter how fast she fell into this bottomless blackness.

If she couldn’t use her power, how could she break free? And what about Pierre? He’d been injured and bleeding from what she could tell. Would he be able to follow her or even know where she’d gone? She didn’t even know where she was.

Despair choked her, threatened to swallow her whole. Here she could do nothing to save her men…she couldn’t even save herself.

A glimmer of light spun past her. Was that the way out?

Snarls snapped behind her. Razor-like teeth grazed her arm, and she screamed. She kicked and punched whatever she could to get away from them. More bit her. Her arms and legs throbbed.

The blackness coated her skin, making the bite marks burn. She hissed out a scream that was suffocated in the void. Despair latched onto her. Sucking her dry with every tug of the demons’ mouths.

And she wasn’t going to die here. She clenched her fists, ignoring the blasted demons. Her men needed her. They all deserved to live…and so did she. Damn it. She wanted to have children. Raise them along with Mihnea, Andrei, and Pierre. Be a better mother than hers had been.

Magic spurted along her flesh like a candle flame trying to catch. She concentrated on her loves and how they each completed a different part of her. That together with all three of them, she felt whole for the first time in her life.

The fiends biting her flesh hissed and backed into the nothingness around her. Relief flooded her. Now to get out of this sticky hell and back to her men.

Using all her strength, she concentrated on the witches’ castle. How it looked old and in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by snow and the scent of old stone and dirt. The ache of longing to see Andrei, Mihnea, and Pierre slammed into her. Taking her breath away. Would she ever see them again? All three of them had fought to protect her. And Pierre who had fought Dracula—or whoever for her—his forlorn look etched in her mind just before Natasha betrayed her and shoved her in this vile place.

Suddenly, glowing hands grabbed her arms, her legs, everywhere. These were different than the demons’ talons and seared her skin. Pain lanced through her like acid boiled her skin. She fought to get away, but the hands had no bodies or arms. Kicking one, she missed as her foot sailed into nothing. And their grip was unrelenting, burning her down to her marrow.

She clenched her teeth to keep from screaming. Her magic shrunk away from her no matter how she struggled to keep it. The pain overrode her. She twisted and kicked all the while the hands dragged her to a molten cauldron. Hot lava coated the insides. Several feet away, its heat pressed against her. She'd die if she fell in. But the hands continued to haul her toward the molten lava. To her death.

Well, if they wanted to exterminate her, then she was going to take as many of the bastards with her as she could. Her body trembled with pain from the bodiless hands but she collected her energy through gathering up her terror of losing her men. She concentrated on the ache spreading across her chest. Her magic hummed underneath her skin, feeling cold like ice-water in her veins, soothing the fire scorching her skin.

The hands on her arms and legs tightened. But she drew energy faster and faster as she sailed through the inky gloom to the lava core.

She plummeted toward its fiery depth. Her scream ripped from her throat replaced by liquid heat. What little power she had left, she blasted out of her body.

She fell onto a concrete floor instead. Her body trembled so hard her teeth chattered.

Dark shapes surrounded her, but she couldn't open her eyes more than slits. Couldn't even move or speak as she convulsed.

'Hurry, get her into chains before she recovers,” a female voice demanded.

Metal shackles clanked around her wrists and ankles. Her body was limp as she tried to focus, to stop them, but just drawing a breath took all her willpower.

And why did her mouth taste so rotten like spoiled eggs?

“I told you she was strong,” a man with a thick Russian accent said. “Just like my Ekaterina.”

“Now that she's restrained, I can help heal her from the travel through the vortex but you won't be able to draw her blood for thirteen hours.”

“Yes, yes.” The man sounded irritated.

Warm hands touched on either side of Lynda's face and she flinched.

“Shh... it's me,” Natasha's voice came into focus. “I'm just clearing the Underworld off you and healing your wounds.”

“T-traitor.” Lynda's tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. This woman had forced her to come here, shoved her through the hellish portal.

“No, I did what I had to do to save you.” Natasha's face softened. “If I'd left you there, you'd have been killed either by the rogue witches or Dracula.”

Dizziness and pain faded slightly until Lynda could sit up on her own. Her pulse still pounded in her ears. She was in a dungeon-like cell, chained to the floor.

Natasha, though she'd gone into the vortex with Lynda, appeared unfazed.

“Why weren't you affected like me?”

“You took the brunt of the travel, I just hitched a ride.”

Lynda gasped. “You were there? The whole time and you didn't lift a finger to help me?”

“Not exactly.” Natasha glanced away. “I figured you'd be able to make it through, so I used you as my ticket...a type of sacrifice for safe passage.”

“Bitch!” Lynda jerked toward the woman. Her hands raised to choke her, but she was only able to move them halfway up. “I trusted you.”

Then Boris chuckled behind Natasha and the half-vamp shrunk away. “Don't be too hard on her, lapochka.” He nodded to another Russian vamp who brought a tray of food and water forward, sitting it beside Lynda.

Everything snapped into focus as realization hit her. “All of this was your plan, wasn't it? You paid the witches to put Andrei in the magical coma and set the trap for me to spring on whatever vampire tried to help me. Then you and your clan attacked the witches searching for me because you knew at least two of my men were down.” But he must not have counted on Lynda bringing the building down, or being summoned by the witches.

“It took us a while to find you.” Boris nodded as he squatted in front of her. “But the witches weren't supposed to find Andrei.”

She sucked in a breath, her mind whirling. “The trap was for Dracula.”

“Such a smart girl, just like my cousin, Ekaterina.”

Was Boris responsible for it all? Had she laid the blame at Dracula's feet only to be fooled? Her stomach twisted and she folded her arms over her stomach as well as she could with the chains locked on her. “D-did you kill all those people to get to my data?”

“Of course,” he smirked, “couldn't let it fall into the wrong hands. The technology belongs to us...to Ekaterina’s kin, no one else.”

Shit! She'd been wrong this whole time and run to the enemy thinking he was a friend. She’d been a damn fool. Her stomach knotted. Had she been wrong about everything? But there were still missing pieces of the puzzle. “What about the tainted blood that turned on your bloodlust?”

“A test.” His smile broadened. “Something to ensure you would have compassion to cure us and link your magic to me.”

“What? What are you talking about?” The guy had to be insane. As soon as she got all her answers, she was bringing this place down and going to save her men. Yet the fact that she hadn’t been able to conjure a flicker of her power, sent nauseating doubt rolling through her. It’s probably from the nasty nightmare trip here, I’ll be fine.

He laughed. “Not so smart then, eh?”

Her bristle sent one of the leg chains clanking down.

“Now that I've fed from you, Natasha can complete a spell that won't allow your magic to hurt me or anyone under me or my protection.”

Her blood turned cold. Without her magic, she had no way to fight him.