We slid down a few more feet while I gathered myself. Much as I hated talking about this, I suddenly wanted O’Shea to know completely and irrevocably that it wasn’t me who’d killed Berget. But I wasn’t going to analyze why it was important to me, as my fingers brushed along the back of his neck.

“There are some people who have blood pulsing through them that is . . . ““I tried to find the right word. “Exotic and tantalizing to the supernaturals who drink blood to live.”

He kept shifting us lower, but still managed to sound as if we were just going for a walk in the park. “You mean like vampires?”

I nodded, though he couldn’t see it. “Yes, and daywalkers, and a slew of other creatures too. I found out after she went missing that Berget had that kind of blood. It sings to the supernaturals, almost demands to be taken in a way. I don’t fully understand because it’s not something that’s a part of me, nor is it a common occurrence. What I know is there are very few people with this kind of blood who make it to adulthood. Very few.” And that was the hardest truth about my job as a Tracker. So few of the children were brought home to their families alive.

“So what took her?”

“A pair of vampires.” I thought about Doran, how he’d wanted a taste of my blood, and I shivered. Although I had no doubt my blood was tasty, I never would have made it to where I was now if I’d carried the same blood as Berget. I’d have been stolen and drained years ago.

“So these vampires took your sister and you couldn’t stop them?” His words sliced through me as if it had been only moments since Berget had been killed instead of years.

“I was young and had no training; I didn’t know I was a Tracker. It was after Berget went missing that my abilities awakened.” And that was the crux of it. If she hadn’t been killed, I wouldn’t be able to help these other kids. Yet, I’d give them all up to have her back in my life, to have had a family that was whole and not shattered into pieces. It was also a line Giselle had drilled into me as she’d trained me and Milly. I couldn’t change the past, but I had to use what it had given me in order to keep Berget’s death from being wasted.

Tears traced down my face in the pitch-black darkness, and even though O’Shea kept asking me questions, I couldn’t answer them. Not that it mattered anyway. I couldn’t change the past, and it was India’s life that now lay in the balance.

22

The bottom of the mineshaft was lit, the walls studded with sconces filled with a brilliant purple and red flame.

“What the hell is that?” O’Shea’s voice was hushed as he unhooked from the harness.

“Witchlight. It’ll last until the maker of it is killed or chooses to extinguish the light for some reason.” I pulled out a sword and scanned the area, flicking the flashlight on even though there was plenty of light. The mine itself was good size, tall enough that I couldn’t see the ceiling and wider than a four lane highway. Unfortunately, I could just imagine all the nasty creatures needing so much room to maneuver.

First, we had to find the actual crossing point to make it to the other side of the veil. I glanced over to O’Shea, then handed him the other sword. “Here, you’d better take this.”

He took a few practice swings; his form was pretty good. In fact, his last swipe was a move only some who trained with blades would know. I frowned at him, and he shrugged.

“I started to take lessons once I realized you only carried knives and swords. Figured I might have to fight you one day.”

Damn, his foresight was going to serve me well. Even if he’d only learned so he could kick my ass. For some reason, the thought made me smile.

There were three options as to which direction to take, but only one tunnel was lit with Witchlight. I pointed with my sword. “Follow the freaky purple light.”

O’Shea followed me, letting me lead without an argument. Which was good, all things considered. We needed to be quiet, subtle, and ideally break in and out with India without being noticed. If I could have crossed my fingers I would have, but as it was, I kept my hopes high and my eyes wide open.

From a distance, I picked up the sounds of voices—arguing voices carrying through the cavern as though they were much closer than they actually were.

“You said we could be together this way,” a woman said, her voice cracking. “I left my family’s Coven for you!”

“It’s temporary. We have to see how this Coven operates. Stop being so f**king whiny. It’s your goddamned fault we got kicked out of the circle and stuck on guard duty. Stupid bitch.” Her male companion snapped at her.

“Nice guy.” I muttered.

There was nowhere to hide, so we stepped back behind the slight curve we’d just come around. Again, I didn’t need to say anything, O’Shea just followed my lead. Maybe he wasn’t Milly, but he did seem to have some redeeming points.

We crouched against the rough cut wall. The cool water dripping down the sides slipped along my arm to drop off the edge of my hand, which gripped my sword. I motioned slightly to O’Shea. He was to go high, I’d go low. The barest flicker of his eyelids told me he understood.

Flowing green robes spun into view and I struck hard and fast, the borrowed blade slicing through the flesh of the female Coven member’s stomach and pinning her to the ground. I heard a grunt above me to see O’Shea dispatch the other Coven member, a man dressed in a red silk shirt and black pants that had been stuffed into tall boots.

The woman whimpered and lifted her hands—I knew a spell prep when I saw it. Dropping to my knees, I straddled her chest and pinned her hands above her head. “Hold these for me, would you?” I turned to look over my shoulder. O’Shea’s face was grim, but he nodded and stepped around us to put his hands over the woman’s wrists.

I ignored O’Shea’s frown. “Where is the entrance?” ’’

She shook her head. “I can’t tell you.”

I let out a sigh. “Your man is dead and you’re going to follow in his nasty-ass footsteps if you don’t tell us how to get across the veil. Now where’s the entrance?”

She blinked large blue eyes up at me, as if she could con me into letting her go with a few bats of her eyelashes—no doubt, it had worked for her in the past. Reaching down, I pulled the sword out of her stomach and she let out a gasp. Before she could say anything, O’Shea’s hand clamped over her mouth. I didn’t know whether to be happy or freaked out that he knew what was going to happen. Steeling myself, I pulled a short knife from my boot and jammed it into the wound, pushing until I could feel the resistance of one of her internal organs, a kidney by the location of it. “Tell me now where the entrance is.” I banked on the notion she wasn’t accustomed to torture.

She struggled, her eyes full of fear and pain. I had a hard time feeling bad for her when I thought of how many kids this Coven had stolen. No, I wouldn’t feel bad. I forced myself to push harder, popping through the organ’s walls, until her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out.

“Now what?” O’Shea’s eyes bored into mine.

I refused to look away. “We wait for her to come around, and then ask again. We need the exact entrance or we’ll walk right past it.” I wasn’t yet ready to explain what crossing the veil entailed. Nor did I want to try and explain that he probably couldn’t cross with me and would be left behind.

It took longer than I wanted, and each passing minute brought us closer to facing down another member of the Coven, one that wouldn’t necessarily be so easy to take down or be taken by surprise. We’d lucked out that these two were having a lover’s quarrel.

Another minute passed and she came around, though she tried to hide it. I leaned forward and whispered into her ear. “Unless you want me to puncture and scramble each piece of the rather necessary equipment your body contains, I suggest you tell us where the entrance is.” She nodded, her face white and shocky with blood loss. My stomach turned and I fought with the nausea rising in me. The warmth of her blood on my hands, the pulse of life I could feel because my hand was partially inside of her. Not a good time to want to puke. I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, the pain helping me steer my thoughts away from what I was doing.

Her whisper was just loud enough to be heard over the thrumming of my own blood as it filled my ears.

“The break in the rock. That’s the entrance.” Her eyes flicked toward the way she and her lover had come. “You’re the Tracker.”

I nodded. She took a breath and smiled up at me. “They will kill you.”

I shrugged and smiled back at her, knowing the smile was anything but nice. “Everybody says that.”

Rolling her onto her stomach, we used the belt her boyfriend was wearing to tie her up and placed her around the corner where we’d hid, gagging her mouth for good measure.

“That’s all it takes to deal with a witch?”

O’Shea’s question made me want to laugh out loud, but I contained it. “Weak ones are incapable of doing magic without their hands.” I wiped the blood off my own hands using her skirt. Her head lolled and she groaned, but it was the best she could do. I shrugged off the guilt and turned toward the direction of the crossing.

Again, O’Shea followed me, and I wondered at his willingness to let me lead. A quick look over my shoulder showed him gripping his sword lightly, his eyes never resting in one area for too long.

Three more corners through the Witchlight tunnels and the crack in the wall was right in front of us. It didn’t glow, and in fact, looked a lot like all the other cracks we’d passed, except it was wide enough we could have walked in shoulder to shoulder without bumping the walls—and the Witchlight didn’t penetrate it. That was the clincher.

“This is it.” Now came the really hard part. Making him stay behind without having him throw a fit and without having to explain what crossing the veil meant.