Witch Heart

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Adam's body coiled tightly with grief. It bubbled up from him like a toxic thing. Disbelief made him shake his head, his expression twist in anguish. Had he been too late?

He put his lips to hers, but her flesh was warm, living. Her breath hit his mouth like the sweetest, most expensive wine made into air. Not dead. He chanted it in his mind. Not dead. Not dead. Not dead.

He'd reached her in time.

In his panic, he'd forgotten the venom and the paralysis. The abducted witches in the cargo van had looked like this, too. Tevan and Kai had simply bitten her to keep her pliant and unmoving. The venom would wear off and she'd be fine.

Thomas came up on his side and yelled, "Get her out of here."

He didn't have to say it twice.

Adam tightened his arms around Claire and held her close to his body as he ran through the falling debris dripping from the ceiling, loosened by demon magick and on fire from his rage. His boots pounded on the stairs to the first floor and he carried her through the central lobby and out the front doors.

He didn't stop until they were far into the woods, away from the structure. If he could, he would have run for miles — anything to get Claire away.

He collapsed into a grassy patch, held Claire to his chest, and, breathing heavily, lifted his head to the sky. The waning sunlight, the soft twilight breeze, and the birdsong coming from the treetops seemed so odd considering where they'd just been. Nothing beyond the walls of the hospital hinted at the hellish battle now being waged in its industrial bowels.

He lowered his head and kissed her temple. He smelled like soot, but he'd managed to keep her free of it. "They're never getting you back, Claire," he murmured. "I have you now and I'm never letting go."

After a moment she stirred a little, her arm twitching first and then a leg. Slowly, she regained her ability to move, though not well. That would take some time. "Adam," she whispered in a labored voice. "Houses, I'm… so happy to see you." She winced, as though pained greatly by the mere effort to form words.

"Don't try and talk, Claire." He rocked her back and forth. "Just rest, okay?"

Fingers gripped his sleeve. "They never got it." She smiled.

"I know." That was clear enough by how frustrated the demons had been.

"You arrived just in time, Adam," she rasped. "They were so angry. If you'd come any later…" She trailed off and swallowed hard.

Coldness seeped through his bones at her words, freezing him motionless for a moment. "Don't talk, Claire. Please. We're going to get you safe, to a hospital—"

"No! No more hospitals. I hate them." Her voice was as strident as she could manage. "Okay." She smiled and rested her head against his chest. "Now I'll stop talking."

Adam hap made a promise he wasn't sure he could keep.

He watched Claire limp across the room and hand Micah a piece of paper. She leaned over and talked to him softly, while Adam drummed his fingertips on a desktop, deep in thought.

Back at the hospital, he'd told her that he would never let demons take her again. Gods, what a stupid thing to say. At any time Tevan or Kai could just pop in and jump her like they did at the gas station.

Quick. Easy. Painless… at least for them.

There was no safe place for him to take her, no place to hide. Not even the depths of Gribben, the best warded building on earth, could stop the demons.

But, apparently, lots of witches could.

Even though Adam had been the only one able to punch through the demon wards at the hospital through the sheer weight of his will and emotion, the witches had managed to beat the demons back… even with limited power.

There had been some injuries, but no deaths and the demons had jumped out of there once they realized how outnumbered they'd been.

Thomas said that Adam's magickal display had gone a long way in wearing the Atrika down. Thomas had been a little in awe of the whole thing — how Adam had busted the warding and managed to make the demons retreat with his fire magick alone. Adam hadn't even drawn his copper sword. His power had been enough.

Adam only cared that he'd been able to do enough to pry Claire loose from their claws. He hadn't been too late.

It had been a victory for the Coven and they'd celebrated all the way back home to Chicago. The battle had raised the spirits of the Coven as a whole, something they needed after the demoralizing destruction of Micah's lab and the abduction and murder of the witches sent as backup to Minnesota. The Coven was locked in a battle like they'd never known in the history of their record keeping.

The warlocks had nothing on the demons.

Gods help them all if the Duskoff and the Atrika ever decided to ally.

Yes, the victory was sweet, but they all knew it was temporary. As they'd returned to the Coven and walked back into the extensive damage still being repaired from the recent attack, the lessening of their spirits had been palpable. The demons were stunned for the moment, sure, but they weren't defeated… not by a long shot. And they'd be back.

For Claire.

They needed a miracle.

Micah stood and gave Adam a wary look. It made guilt twinge through him. He knew he wasn't Mr. Good Spirits these days and he'd been especially hard on Micah. "We have a surefire way to remove the elium."

Adam bolted to his feet. "What?" Hadn't he just been wishing for a miracle? But why didn't Micah seem happier about it? Standing beside him, Claire looked a little gray.

"So, what's the catch?" asked Thomas from across the room. "I can tell there is one."

"There is." Micah cast another uncertain glance at Adam, like Adam was about to jump across the room and rip his throat out. Adam forced himself to relax his body and facial muscles a little. "And it's a doozy. There's a slight side effect."

"A side effect?" Adam's voice sounded gritty in the cool air of the library. "What kind of side effect?"

Claire had been looking at the polished wood floor. She raised her gaze to his. "It will strip me of all my magick, not just the elium. It will, essentially, leave me a non-magickal."

The room went silent.

"It's like surgery." Micah gestured with his hands and avoided catching Adam's gaze. "It's like surgery to remove a tumor. Thing is, in this case, the tumor" — Micah made air quotes—"has inexorably attached itself to another organ, in this case, the seat of Claire's magick. In order to get the tumor, we have to remove everything."

Adam ran a hand over his face. Fuck, he was tired. "Gods."

Thomas shifted and stood. "What happens to the elium in this scenario, Micah? Does the core of her magick stay intertwined with it?"

Micah shook his head of shaggy brown hair. "Got me. I've never tried anything like this before. I mean, there are spells that will let us make small adjustments to the flow of a witch's power, but this is like a complete… complete…"

"Amputation," Claire finished for him, her voice dull and dead-sounding.

Micah looked sick. He swallowed hard and continued. "Something like that. In any case, I'm not sure what elemental magick does once it's removed from a witch. The elium is different. It's demon magick, first of all, and was designed in a sort of self-contained ball that can be moved from demon to demon—"

"We're all demon at the heart of us," Thomas cut in gruffly.

"Yeah, but our magick isn't demon magick. Not completely. Our magick is born more purely from the elements than theirs is. That's why Claire carrying the elium was never a good idea. It reacted to her elemental magick by adhering to it."

"Wait a minute." Adam walked toward Micah and Micah took a step back. "Relax, already. I'm sorry I lost my temper with you during the last spell, I really am. Will you chill now? I'm not going to hurt you."

"As long as I don't hurt Claire."

"You got it. That's my trigger, Micah."

Micah touched his throat. "Yeah, okay. If I can, I won't trip it."

"When Claire pulled magick on the demons here in the Coven, it was different — explosive. It felt, smelled, and tasted like demon magick to me, just on a subtler scale. Claire told me she did it by pulling all the threads of the elements together. What if demon magick and elemental magick aren't so different, after all? What if there's another way?"

Micah rubbed his chin. "It's something to look into."

"We don't have time," Thomas put in. "If we intend to save Claire's life, we have to act now. Tevan and Kai could show up here at any moment and take her back."

"They'll kill me right away next time," Claire added. "They tried every other way to take the elium and nothing worked. Now they'll try to take the elium as I die. They're willing to risk it."

"That's why we need to act now," Thomas answered.

She chewed her lower lip. "It is possible that when Rue was tweaking my magick, he had a goal in mind. Maybe he was trying to transform my elemental magick into demon magick."

Thomas shook his head. "I don't understand why this is relevant."

Micah turned and walked away, apparently deep in thought. "What they're saying is that perhaps the special brand of magick that Claire possesses isn't that far from demon magick. Perhaps there's a way to push her magick that extra inch, make it truly behave like demon magick. Maybe that way the elium won't react by adhering to her seat and we can extract it without taking away all of Claire's power."

Thomas shifted impatiently. "And how long would it take to figure that out?"

Micah turned to Thomas. "I have no idea, but we have some time."

Adam met Claire's gaze. She'd crossed her arms over her chest protectively, as though the thought of losing her magick was worse than death. "What do you mean?"

"The spell that will extract all the magick from Claire will take a couple days to cook."

Adam blinked and shifted his gaze to Micah, who looked nervous. "Two days? We've got to hope the Atrika don't come after her for two whole days?"

"There's nothing I can do about it, Adam. These spells, especially the ones using blood magick, have to be cooked under very specific circumstances."

Adam and Thomas asked in unison with strident voices, "Blood magick?"

"Yeah, uh…" Micah swallowed hard. "Claire's blood."

Adam laughed harshly and pushed a hand through his hair. "You know, Micah, I might take back my previous statement about not hurting you."

Claire stepped toward him with a staying hand extended. "It's not much blood, Adam. Just a pint or two."

He stared at her.

She laid her hand on his chest and looked up into his eyes. "It's the only way. We do this spell, I get rid of my magick… and I live." She paused. "I get to stay with you."

Adam covered her hand with his and held her gaze. Fuck. He loved her so much.

Thomas cleared his throat. "Look, this is Claire's call. This is up to her."

Claire held his gaze a moment longer, then turned to Micah. "We can look into this, but only up until it comes time to perform the spell. If we don't have an alterative by then, we take it… all." Her voice broke on the last word.

Micah nodded. "I think that's the best course of action."

"I agree," answered Thomas.

"It's late." Micah walked to the door. "And we're all exhausted. Let's pick this up tomorrow morning. I'll start preparations to cook the surgery spell."

Claire nodded as Adam pulled her into the circle of his arms. "See you tomorrow morning."

Thomas gave them a little smile as he also left.

Claire turned in his arms and Adam kissed her. "Let's go upstairs and get some rest. Are you hungry?"

"Starving."

They'd barely eaten or slept since they'd returned from Tennessee. They'd been working nonstop on a way to extract the elium. Too bad the end result sucked so bad.

On their way to his apartment, they stopped in the kitchen and picked up some sliced apples, grapes, cheese, and other various goodies, along with some wine and a couple glasses. Adam tucked it all in a basket he found in one of the cabinets.

They could have cooked a real, hot meal there in the kitchen, but they both were in agreement — they wanted to be alone for a while.

Once they reached his place, he set the basket on the nightstand in his bedroom. A picnic with Claire in bed sounded good to him, never mind the crumbs.

"My last meal?" Claire asked, sliding her shirt over her head.

He turned to her. "Please don't say that."

She finished undressing and slipped a short cotton nightgown over her head. They got into bed together and Adam pulled her close.

They didn't know when the demons would show up, which meant they needed to savor every single moment together.

"I love you, Claire."

She stiffened in his arms and then relaxed. Kissing his chest, she mumbled. "I think I knew that when you came charging after the Atrika all on your own, armed with nothing but aeamon fire magick… through demon wards, no less." She laughed softly. "But it's nice to hear."

He rolled her beneath him and kissed her. "Then I'll say it again. I love you, Claire."

"I love you, too."

Adam closed his eyes and let the words wash over him, through him. They lightened him. He accepted those words as he accepted the love he felt for her and they lifted something heavy from him.

After a few moments of holding her, enjoying the scent of her skin and the weight of her against him, he pulled the basket onto the bed. "Want something to eat?"

She nodded and they made a meal of bread with butter and fruit. For dessert, he laid a napkin on the bed and spread a few apple slices and some cheese on it. Then he picked up a slice of cheese, laid it on the apple and brought it to her mouth.

Her soft red lips closed over the end and she bit. Adam's couldn't help it, his cock hardened at the sight.

Claire chewed a bit, closed her eyes for a moment, then chewed some more. "Oh, that's good," she whispered after she'd swallowed. "Tart and sweet, creamy and crunchy. Yum."

Yum. That's for sure.

"I have something to make it even better." He reached over, took a bottle of wine from the basket and poured it into a glass for them to share.

"Wine?" she asked as she took the glass. "I've heard about this."

"Take a sip."

She did. "It's interesting. Not Coca-Cola."

"No." He took the glass from her and took a drink. "It's normally not my thing. Give me a beer instead of wine any day and I'd be happy. Thomas keeps a nice wine stock, so I'm told. Wine's more his thing than mine."

"So, if you're not crazy about wine, why did you take a bottle for us?"

"I took it so you could taste it, Claire."

"I think I like it."

"Thought you might. Thomas tells me you need to develop a taste for it." He raised an eyebrow. "Kind of like me."

She gave a soft laugh. "I really didn't have a problem developing a taste for you, Adam." She took another drink, deeper this time. Wine ran down her chin and dripped to her chest.

Adam dipped his head and lapped it up, taking care to slowly lick her skin until she squirmed beneath him and moaned. He checked to see if her nipples were hard under the cotton of her nightgown and they were — two precious, pink points on her breasts. He pulled the neckline of her gown down low, then dropped his head and kissed both of them.

Claire sighed and almost dumped the glass of wine on the bed. Chuckling, he eased it from her fingers and removed the napkin with the rest of the cheese and apple.

She pulled the nightgown over her head, then settled back to watch him with heavy eyelids, like a warm and satisfied cat. The blankets were pushed down to her waist, revealing her soft breasts with their kissable pink, erect nipples.

He descended on her like she was the main course. Adam pushed the offending blankets the rest of the way off and pulled her beneath him, running his hand over her shapely thigh and the contour of her waist. "Damn, I could live off the feel of your skin alone, Claire. It could sustain me for life."

She sighed and tangled her fingers through his hair. "Let's try. Forget about all this and run away. We can live in the woods in a little log cabin and never see anyone again. Just you and me. That's all we'd need."

Adam groaned and nipped at her stomach. "That sounds good."

"No more demons. No more elium. No more Rue."

"Heaven." He moved down between her thighs, letting his tongue skate over her smooth skin. When he reached her clit and licked, she jumped a little and moaned. "Never mind," he murmured. "This is heaven."