Page 94 of Mortal Blood
“Then let her go. You’ve got me. That’s what you wanted, right? You wanted me to come back here. I have. You don’t needher anymore, so just let her go.”
“I could do that, I suppose. But what would be in it for me?”
I swallowed bile and opened my mouth, but before I could get a sound out, Jax yanked my arm and pulled me a few steps away.
“Don’t,” he hissed.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“No,” Ling said, her voice low and quick, “but you were about to. Even Jax can see it.” She shot him a quick, teasing smile. “No offence.”
“None taken. I didn’t major in Cali. But it’s pretty obvious that’s what he wants you to do.”
“That doesn’t change anything,” I told them both. “I have to help her.”
“You don’t even know he’s got her!”
“Ling’s right—you only have his word. And the word of a leech? That’s not worth a whole hell of a lot.”
“Xenophobe.” But he was right, Ezekiel’s wordwasn’ttrustworthy. I whirled around. “I want to see her.”
“Again with the poor manners,” Ezekiel said, tutting his disapproval.
“They’re about to get a whole lot worse if you don’t let me see her right now. You might be old and powerful, but there are three of us.” A bookworm, a dhampir who couldn’t control her powers, and a shifter who’d recently been fed from—but he didn’t know any of that. “Do you really want to get into a fight over this? Because it seems to me like you should do a better job of picking your battles.”
Ezekiel curled his lip in a sneer as he looked between us, and I got the distinct impression that he knewexactlywhat we all were. His eyes lingered on Ling a moment longer, and then he dipped his chin.
“So be it. A gesture of good faith. But you’ll forgive me for taking precautions.”
He removed a charm—a small, pierced coin wrapped in red thread—from around his neck, and touched it briefly to the ground. I felt a wave of energy rush out from it, making the tiny hairs on my arms stand on end. Jax rolled out his shoulders, and Ling took a small step closer to him.
“What was that?” I asked.
“A simple sealing spell. It’s now impossible to enter or leave this place by anything other than esoteric means.”
“In English?”
“He means by portal,” Ling murmured in my ear.
“Indeed. I wouldn’t want you to get any ideas about running off with my leverage before we have a chance to speak. I seem to recall you have a penchant for running.”
“And you have a penchant for taking what isn’t yours. Shame you haven’t overcome that.”
“Humor,” he said, his brow furrowing. “Interesting.”
“Yeah, well I’m pretty sure I didn’t get it from you.”
“So it would seem.”
He touched the ring on his right hand and a small portal popped into existence, unlike any I’d seen before. It was smaller than most portals, and there was a strange sheen over the front of it. He put his arm through and I stared in shock. Either theman was a complete idiot—which I wasn’t willing to rule out right now—or this portal was different in more ways than one. And then I watched in amazement as he drew his arm backoutof the portal.
And then none of that mattered, because I saw what his hand was wrapped around.
“Mom!”
“Cali!”
I bit back a sob of relief. Her hair was disheveled, her face dirty and drawn, and her eyes wide…but she recognized me. Whatever this asshole had done, she’d managed to hang on to enough of herself to recognize me.
