Part 30 (2/2)

She had broken every vow she had ever made. She was a killer, not just of vampires but also now of witches. Or whatever Estefan was in the end, she thought with a shudder.

Lune and Soleil marched right behind her. Once her best mates, now they were more like her lieutenants. And that makes me what, a general? She had a sudden fleeting taste of what it must have been like to be Eriko, or now Jenn. She hated it. She didn't want to lead. Many of the witches walking behind her would die in the coming battle.

Maybe all of them.

Maybe even her.

And yet all she could do was relive the guilt of killing Estefan over and over again. Even though he had deserved it. Even though he had given them-her-no other choice.

It was me. I made him bleed like that, she thought, though every other witch present had said that they had done the same thing.

She sighed. Holgar wouldn't take it as hard as she was taking it. He had killed before, and it didn't seem to bother him. Maybe it was because he was a werewolf. Maybe it was just that he wasn't a witch who had taken vows to harm none.

”What you thinking, witchy?” Jamie interrupted her thoughts.

She glanced at him. ”I was wondering how Holgar is faring,” she said after a minute.

Jamie c.o.c.ked his head. ”Truth? I'm not sure you know the full story on Holgar. Him killing his girl, y'know.”

”Girl?” Skye asked cautiously, heart stuttering for a moment.

”Yeah. Werewolf at the battle at Salamanca,” Jamie said. You know, his fiancee. She stayed with his old pack, and they made a treaty with Aurora. She fought us, and he had to kill her.”

Fiancee. Skye's head spun. Holgar had killed the woman he loved in that fight. She hadn't know that. And she hadn't been there for him afterward. She'd heard him speak often of a girl he had known back home, who had refused to see that joining with the vampires was wrong. Skye had had no idea they had actually been engaged.

Tears burned her eyes.

The war destroyed everyone and everything that was good and decent and beautiful. That had to end. And if it meant she had to march into h.e.l.l at the head of the coven trailing behind her, so be it.

She could rain fire as well as the next witch.

She blinked at the sudden ferocity of her thoughts. The idea of killing to protect or avenge Holgar seemed so much easier than killing to protect herself. She sighed. It was more proof of how Holgar had stolen her heart and made it his.

”You're doing this because you're jealous,” she said. ”Trying to drop this on me when you know it'll shatter me. It's beneath you, Jamie.”

He ducked his head. ”It is that,” he agreed. ”I'm sorry, Skye. Then again, it seems like there's not a one of us hasn't been b.u.g.g.e.red by this whole bleedin' mess.”

In her heart Skye agreed. The war had made monsters of them all. Look at Jamie, trying to diminish Holgar in her heart. But she couldn't deny that she was shaken by what he'd told her. She couldn't picture Holgar killing the girl he'd planned to marry.

They walked a while longer in silence. They pa.s.sed the landing for the commercial ferry that took pa.s.sengers to France. A large fis.h.i.+ng boat idled in a protected cove-their boat. It was time to say good-bye to England. When they landed in France, they'd catch a train.

Skye stiffened a moment later, though, when she realized that there were at least a dozen young people cl.u.s.tered near the landing, dressed in warm coats and jackets, watching them.

Her senses went on high alert. Gordon, the witch who had arranged the meeting at the landing, had a.s.sured them that the dock would be deserted, their pa.s.sage secret. Had something gone wrong?

The sun was still high in the sky, so the people couldn't be vampires. They could be minions, though, or mutated monsters. She swallowed hard. Or even werewolves or more Dark witches like Estefan.

”f.e.c.kin' h.e.l.l, what's this? A going-away party?” Jamie asked softly.

Skye shook her head. She called softly over her shoulder to Lune and Soleil. ”Keep your eyes out for trouble.”

They didn't answer, but she sensed a warming on her shoulders, as if phantom hands had touched her there. Her coven sisters understood. Rea.s.sured, she continued to stride forward, senses alert.

Beside her, Jamie eased a gun out of his satchel. It was the one that fired silver bullets. So he shared her fear that it could be werewolves waiting for them. Though the silver would drop a human or a witch just as fast as a regular bullet.

They came closer, and she saw one ginger-haired girl standing slightly apart, crossbows slung over her back and a quiver of bolts, like Robin Hood.

The girl turned, and Jamie raced forward with a shout.

Alarmed, Skye stared after him for a moment before running to catch up. What had he seen that had set him off? Her heart pounded, and she willed her mind to be calm. If there was magick to be done, better to do it when she had full control of herself.

A dozen paces from the girl, Jamie stopped short, and Skye nearly slammed into him. Gordon was standing a little ways from the girl. It was clear the two had been talking before Jamie and she had shown up.

”Kate! What the f.e.c.kin' h.e.l.l are you doing here?” Jamie demanded.

The girl crossed her arms defiantly. ”It's still a free country. It's the cities you have to watch out for.”

”Thought you didn't consort with witches,” Jamie snorted, nodding toward Gordon. Gordon gave a little wave.

The girl shrugged. ”They were good enough for you. Plus I figured the enemy of my enemy-”

”I heard you the first time you said that,” he said, cutting her off with a grin. ”Come here.”

The two embraced in a quick hug, and Jamie practically beamed at her. The girl was younger than he was, and Skye couldn't help but think that she was about the age Jamie's little sister would have been had she not been torn apart by werewolves.

The rest of Skye's coven was arriving, though, and she still had no answers.

”Umm, h.e.l.lo?” Skye said, quickly moving from bewildered to irritated.

Jamie made a face. ”Sorry. Skye, this is Kate, a la.s.s from the old country who can kick bleedin' Curser a.r.s.e all day long. Kate, this is Skye, my mate I was tellin' you 'bout.”

”You found her? Alive and not converted?” Kate said.

”See for yourself,” Jamie said, his grin growing bigger.

Kate gave Skye a once-over. ”Nice.”

”So, what are you doing here?” Skye asked, cutting straight to the point. There would be time enough later to hear how the two of them had met, and from the enthusiastic greeting she figured that was one story she didn't want to miss.

”Yeah, Kate?” Jamie echoed.

Gordon took that as his cue to join the conversation. He smiled. ”I knew Kate and her friends from an incident a few months back. I reached out to them and told them that if they wanted to help kick the vampires back into the shadows, they should meet some friends of mine.”

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