Blood and Madness Read online

  How did I feel about her?

  Damn.

  I had no idea.

  It was so messed up that it made my feelings for Azlin seem easy to understand.

  Hell, Brynn had forced me to tame and dominate her, just to survive when she tried to kill me. I could still feel her Basilisk gaze ripping into my memories… and eliminating them.

  Shivering mentally, I stopped and just waited to see what Brynn would do this time. My wife always had a plan. She made the chess masters who thought dozens of moves in advance look like children.

  “So be it,” Candace murmured, as she spread her arms wide and cast her magic outwards. It rippled through Brynn caressing her body. Then, it moved past her to the plants that covered the rooftop and sides of the building.

  Snaps and crackles erupted around my startled wife, as the plants began to grow and slither towards her. Before she could react, several of the vines wrapped around Brynn’s legs and lifted her up off of the rooftop, flipping her over, so she hung upside down.

  Shrieking, Brynn tried to free herself, but all she ended up accomplishing was becoming even more entwined and bound by the vines.

  Why wasn’t she using her magic? Brynn should be able to free herself easily.

  The vines carried my struggling wife over to the remains of a metal structure behind the tied up women. The vines flipped and manipulated Brynn, hanging her right side up from the metal beams, so she was dangling like a fly in a spider’s webs.

  Brynn looked beautiful but terrified. The vines had ripped her nightgown away, exposing her long torso and full breasts. My wife easily had the longest legs of all my wives. When I saw them restrained and wrapped in vines, my mind grew excited, even though I was only a ghost who could watch, but not touch.

  Brynn’s long brown hair twisted in a sudden gust of wind, billowing around her, as I realized that I wasn’t in her body anymore, looking out through her eyes. Instead, I was where she had stood when the vines grabbed her.

  Holding up my hands, I was shocked. I could see through them.

  I was a ghost.

  Had I died?

  Candace rolled up her sleeves and advanced on the first sacrifice, drawing my attention to her. The drugged-up woman stared at my wife’s abductor without understanding. Their eyes were glazed over and lost in a dream that had to be better than their reality.

  Without any thought, Candace gripped the first captive’s chin and sliced her throat, cutting deep. Blood sprayed out of the wound, drenching Candace in blood. Instead of grimacing, Candace smiled and licked her bloody lips. Leaning back, she moaned and quivered as power washed over her.

  Magic roared out of the sacrifice’s body.

  Virgin blood. The scent was undeniable. Candace had just murdered a woman that had to be much younger than I thought.

  They were only girls on the edges of womanhood. They had never tasted the kiss of a man or felt his length inside of them.

  I felt my mother’s humanity snarl in my brain, screaming with revulsion.

  But, my Goblin father’s thoughts were just annoyed. Beautiful women were meant to grow old enough to breed and fuck. Killing them like this… was wasteful and foolish.

  Licking her lips again, Candace glanced up at Brynn who was still struggling.

  “You will be mine… again,” Candace hissed.

  Then, she began the ritual.

  Mumbling too softly, she began to sway and chant. Dark green and black threads of power rose up around her, twisting and turning in the wind like snakes.

  Laughing and almost dancing, Candace turned and grabbed the second girl’s chin.

  More blood was spilled.

  Power began to throb on top of the rooftop.

  Screaming with insanity, Candace gestured to the growing number of black and green snakes that looked more like mist. They flowed up the metal structure and wrapped around Brynn.

  “No,” I groaned.

  Reaching for my magic, I found nothing.

  My body was either too far away, or I was magically exhausted.

  Frustrated, all I could do was watch, as Candace’s magic began to loop and coil around Brynn.

  My wife’s eyes grew wide with fright.

  Then… she said my name.

  Just once.

  The third sacrifice’s neck was slit. An explosion of power thrust my spirit back, away from Candace and Brynn. No matter how much I fought, I couldn’t get closer.

  From the edge of the building, I felt the snakes constrict around Brynn’s flesh. Shrieking in agony, she opened her mouth wide.

  And, an ebony serpent crawled into her mouth.

  Choking and gagging, Brynn struggled and pulled on her restraints, but the snake just went in deeper.

  “No!” I hollered. “Leave her alone!”

  But, no one heard the words of a ghost. I was simply an errant breeze to be ignored.

  Shutting my eyes, I reached out through our bond, trying to strengthen Brynn. Her mind was frantic. She didn’t have a master plan, I realized with despair.

  Brynn had been bluffing.

  Choking, my wife stopped breathing. The ghost snake was now buried in her throat, almost completely blocking the airway.

  Brynn could feel its tongue flickering inside of her lungs.

  “Brynn!” I moaned.

  I could feel her suffocating. The only air that she was getting was brief, shallow gasps as the creature slid in further, turning to mist in her lungs.

  “Surūvāta Karūyā!” Candace screamed.

  Bolts of electricity erupted out of the bitch’s fingers. They traveled up, through the mist and into Brynn.

  Brynn’s heart stopped.

  “No!” I screamed, flailing against Candace’s power.

  But, I couldn’t fight it, any more than Brynn could.

  Sobbed, I collapsed to my knees, as I felt Brynn’s mind spasm. Random thoughts and emotions flittered through her thoughts.

  She was thinking about the first time she kissed me in her own shape.

  Brynn remembered the feel of the scruff on my cheeks and the rasp of my tongue in her mouth.

  The smell of her baby, as she held her for the first time.

  And, how it felt to swallow my brother’s soul… whole.

  I shook, not wanting to know that.

  Then, Brynn remembered Candace’s mouth in hers. The dainty, softness of her lover’s tongue as it twinned around her own.

  Candace was immune to Brynn’s glare and venom.

  Ex-lovers usually are.

  Dammit.

  Brynn blinked once.

  Then, she looked up at the sky and stopped moving.

  “Mājhē prēma Badala,” Candace decreed.

  The snakes turned into mist. They began to reek of mold and humidity, smelling like a greenhouse that had been long forgotten. The tendrils of magic slipped their evil fingers around, and into my wife’s pussy, ears, eyes, and ass.

  Brynn’s last thought was of Pannikar, and how she would never climb the Grand Staircase and sit on the Burning Throne.

  Immortality was lost.

  Then, I felt my bond to Brynn snap.

  - 16 -

  I woke up screaming. My mind pulsed with the worst headache of my life. The sigil that had connected me to Brynn was shrieking like a siren and spinning out of control, smashing against the other bubbles with wild abandon.

  “Bazal!” I heard both Azlin and Taesa scream, as I turned over and clawed at the ground.

  I couldn’t think and answer them.

  My mind was screaming for Brynn.

  I missed our connection.

  Her soft skin.

  How she over thought everything.

  Her hair in my face as we made love.

  The smell of her while she lay against me.

  I couldn’t think or feel anything else.

  “Control your mind!” Azlin screamed. It sounded like it was far away. At the other end of eternity.

  Why?

&nbs
p; Why should I control my thoughts?

  Brynn was dead.

  Nothing mattered.

  Then, random images began invading my mind.

  Pictures of the other girls.

  Taesa.

  Azlin.

  Mary.

  And, Hana.

  That last image made something in my heart, snap.

  Fuck.

  I needed to live… for them. But, I was lying to myself.

  I needed to live for her.

  Growling, I forced myself to concentrate on the wayward sigil. Grabbing ahold of it, I let it spin and shake, but I kept it from slamming into all the other ones.

  The markings on it were turning to dust.

  The bond was supposed to be forever, unbreakable, and eternal.

  But Candace had severed it.

  Brynn had been dead, but that bitch who had cut our line had been doing something when it broke. Was she bringing Brynn back as hers?

  “You will be mine.”

  Candace’s words rotated around in my head, pounding all reason to ashes.

  How could she do that if she murdered her?

  Somehow, she must be bringing Brynn back.

  But… Not as mine.

  Fuck! I hissed, as anger poured through my mind.

  I was going to kill that bitch.

  Growling, I opened my eyes and moaned, “She took Brynn.”

  “How?” Taesa demanded.

  “Someone named Candace killed three young girls,” I gasped, fighting to stay in control of my mind. “Then she invaded Brynn’s body.”

  “She snapped the cord,” Azlin interjected.

  The ex-malignant hugged me. “You were lucky to survive. The backlash should have killed you.”

  “Did your blood help?” Taesa asked Azlin.

  Azlin shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Is Brynn dead?” I said.

  Azlin instantly said, “Yes.”

  There wasn’t a question at all in her mind.

  “Dammit,” I hissed. But, the ritual hadn’t been finished yet.

  Candace was planning something.

  I just had to find out what.

  And, then… I’d kill her.

  Both of the women held me, while the cold of the eternal Darkness swirled around us.

  --M--

  It took me hours to get my emotions under control.

  “I’m going to kill her,” I finally announced. Ripping Candace’s head from her body would make me feel better.

  “Or,” Azlin said.

  I glared at her.

  “You told us she thinks you’re dead,” she explained. “And, after breaking the cord, you should be dead.”

  “So what,” I snapped. “I still want to kill her.”

  “Candace is either the Lady of Plants or one of her top lieutenants,” Azlin observed. “Do you want to kill her, or steal your other two lovers away from her?”

  I went back and forth in my head.

  Which was more important?

  I wanted to kill Candace so bad that I could scream.

  But, saving Hana and Mary was equally as important. And, I needed to find out what happened to Brynn. Candace would be the only person who could tell me what the result of the ritual was.

  Fuck.

  Saving Hana and Mary was more important than killing Candace. Death was always an option… later.

  “Dammit,” I cursed.

  Azlin just held me, waiting for my decision.

  “We can work on killing Candace…” Azlin pointed out, “after we save your lovers and your father.”

  Shit. I had forgotten about my father.

  Sighing, I felt like hitting something. A deep, bubbling rage was pounding through my mind, as my emotions threatened to explode out of control again.

  “How am I supposed to get them out?” I asked. “I don’t even have any pants.”

  “Use your disguise spell,” she prompted.

  I looked at her blankly. “It’s gone,” I told her, wondering how she knew about it.

  “You cast it hundreds of times,” she prompted. “Recreate it from memory.”

  I thought about that.

  Then, I shut my eyes and studied the free sigils that I had available.

  Taesa’s had changed from translucent to a lite human brown. That shocked me enough that I almost stopped what I was doing to study it.

  How could she still have magic, if she wasn’t a Cailleach anymore?

  Mentally shrugging, I focused on the last available Goblin sigil that was mine no matter what. Carefully, I began inscribing the spell on it, from memory. Blister had made me use it hundreds, if not thousands of times.

  As I burned its pattern into the sphere, I realized that it was easier to remember than I thought. The spell circuit flowed from my fingers with apparent ease.

  When I finished, I heard Azlin’s voice in my head. “Change this, this, and that.”

  Scowling, I did as she decreed.

  “Good,” she murmured to me when I made the corrections. Somehow, she could see into my mind without the bond I had with the other women. It irritated me that I had no control over it, or understanding of how it worked.

  Not having control, really provoked the control freak in me.

  - 17 -

  “How are we going to find them?” I said, trying to think out loud. “Both Mary and Hana are unconscious.”

  “Focus on one of them,” Azlin answered. “Don’t try to see out of their eyes, just try to figure out which direction they are.”

  Taking a deep breath, I did as she directed. I had to admit, having a trained Mage with me was helpful.

  First, I focused on Mary.

  After a bit of trial and error, I determined that she was somewhere across the river, and a bit to the southeast.

  Hana was in the same direction.

  “They’re across the river,” I said. “Which is a problem. None of the old world bridges are operational, except one. At least, that was the situation twenty years ago, when I was living here.”

  Taesa and Azlin were sitting and holding hands, which was very distracting.

  “I have a problem,” Taesa said, sounding unhappy and more than a little worried.

  Azlin squeezed her hand. “What is it?” she asked.

  Taking a deep breath, Taesa said, “I don’t know how to be human. It feels like I’m maybe sixty percent Cailleach and forty percent human right now. But, the problem is, the more human I become, the harder it is to see.”

  Her skin was gaining more color and her hair as well. I had been excited about that, even though we had lost the ability to have two zombie warriors with us now.

  But, not being able to see in the Dark was a real issue. The sun only rose in the lands controlled by man.

  I could see in the Dark, and I assumed Azlin could as well since she was in an Elf’s body.

  But, Taesa was becoming human again.

  “Maybe my humanity will fade,” she said, sounding both hopeful and dreadful at the same time.

  Then, she added, “As a human, I’m useless.”

  Which was true.

  She couldn’t access any of her Cailleach abilities anymore. And worse yet, they seemed to be dissolving, at least the inscriptions did.

  If her bubbles went away, then I would lose all three of my new mana slots, which would be horrible.

  Hell, I had almost died attaining them.

  “You will hold my hand, and I will lead you,” Azlin said. But, when she looked at me, she looked worried. Our resources were dwindling quickly. Soon, we would be completely screwed.

  “What is wrong with the one bridge left?” Taesa asked.