Doors To The Dead by Rae Else (simple ebook reader TXT) 📗

He mercilessly manifested her fear in her surroundings.

She tried to run from him, but he bricked up each of the doorways.

She tried to take to the wide staircase but it too became blocked.

Her breath accelerated and her sobs wracked her whole body, but she was as alone as she’d ever been. Cut off. Different.

‘You are different,’Theo whispered to her, his glittering eyes taking in the girlish spectre he’d reduced her to.

The girl in the black dress quivered before the bricked-up staircase.

She banged on the wall, her hollow cries echoing through the corridor.

Theo stooped down beside her. ‘You’re different, but you belong with me.’ He opened his arms to her.

The sobbing girl embraced him, melting away into the Night and Netherworld of Theo’s soul.

Lavender pervaded him. A rush of power swept through him as her essence melded with the rest of the sluagh horde.

Theo shed the tarpaulin from the spotlight in the garden, plugging it into the battery the band had left in the kitchen.

He imagined this would incur a lecture from Antony later about how it was meant for filming purposes, not mood-lighting. Theo settled himself on one of the crates, feeling like a Roman general surveying a sacked fort.

The wasted, weakened vines reminded him of the weeping child Donna had become. Best of all, as he thought of the Caledonian warrior with his blue war-paint from his childhood, only self-satisfaction travelled through him. He hadn’t claimed that warrior as a kid, but the pulsing power that prickled within his soul, ten-times, perhaps even a hundred times what each of the other tethered souls was, was a testament to his ability. His sluagh horde was beyond what any of his generation would possess.

His eyes glittered with expectation as he thought of his coven, imagining the rapt faces of the mages and witches at the induction ceremony as they contemplated his horde. Any work within the para world would be his for the taking. He could certainly reach out to the Remus Clan of shifters or the fae of the Unseelie Court if he wanted to work outside of the Enodia Coven.

As he sat glorying in his achievement, his thoughts turned to the future. Not the distant one, but to tonight. He could go up the Dolomites and catch the currents of the night to celebrate or go further afield. It had been a long time since he’d done anything as frivolous as portalling through the night to the Himalayas. He’d had some pretty amazing Astrology sessions up the range, and the idea of watching the unveiled stars with the future in mind was tempting. The next tethering would be a piece of cake with Donna’s soul. He looked forward to trying out her additional power.

Yet this anticipation died away and a mellower one claimed him. He could go back into Montepulciano, to the villa he’d rented and celebrate with Von. He opened a bottle of Chianti as the idea took root. He imagined Von’s admiring stare as he told her a censored version of tonight’s events. He started to roll around phrases in his head, searching for that poet’s tongue that she liked so much.

A celebratory fuck would be good too.

Feeling generous, he thought he’d invite the whole band. He pictured Von wandering around the airy hillside villa, her voice carrying lyrics as finely spun as the gossamer fabrics she favoured.

As he finished the second glass of wine, he wondered where she was?

He fished his phone out and realised it was already midnight. She hadn’t phoned. She said she’d ring after the set.

The sound of an engine caught his ear. He smiled. She’d probably insisted on driving straight back.

Can’t get enough of me.

Richie and Antony were the first out of the van as it pulled in. Von must be in the back with the kit. He grinned at them, offering Richie what was left of the bottle.

Richie only stared at him.

He laughed. ‘You already stoned?’

Antony stared at him too. This guy seriously needed a sense of humour transplant.

Von appeared out the back but… she wasn’t alone.

A burly guy in black gear and a military beret restrained her. She was gagged.

Her wide eyes stilled on Theo.

The huge guy restraining Von was a shifter. The square jaw and limbs like tree-trunks were a dead giveaway.

Theo’s heart quickened. The Triodia had found him.

This shifter would only be one of the soldiers belonging to a para squad. The Triodia liked to deploy their squads in four, depending on the target.

Three other soldiers, a mage, a witch, and a vamp filed out of the van.

‘Theodore of Enodia, you’re under arrest for tethering on Triodia soil,’ the witch said.

If it was only one para squad then maybe…

Theo’s sluagh scuttled along the parameters of the vineyard. His spirit sank as he identified the other shifters stalking through the trees, already in wolf form. Para squads. Plural.

He felt dazed. He was still holding the fucking wine. What was wrong with him? Ordinarily, he would have moved. The newly yoked sluagh was powerful, beyond what this witch and mage could manage. Donna was a power-house, hankering for a test drive. She would hit this squad and the pursuing shifters with their worst fears. So what if she was untested, unwielded yet. He’d get the hang of it.

The Tridoian witch looked back at the shifter restraining Von. That’s when he realised what was stopping him from making a move. Even if he got to the pond, to the Netherworld portal, and into the Between, there was no knowing what might happen to…

Von. His eyes wouldn’t leave her.

The witch nodded at the shifter restraining Von. He let her go.

Von darted towards him, wrenching off the gag. ‘They did something to Ricky and Antony.’ She clutched hold of his arm, turning around to eye her kidnappers warily.

The musicians, who continued to stare dumbly, must have already been glamoured by the vamp. It looked as if they’d been put into a trance, to ignore what was going on around them entirely,