Chapter Three
Kilian fell to oneknee as the magic threw him out of the blinding whiteness and deposited him on a tile floor. Anger surged and seethed and threatened to strip his control, dark emotions feeding his magic. He snarled at the witch, fangs exposed.
She lifted a hand as if that would placate him. “If you choose—”
Kilian backhanded her. Her small body spun away and slammed into a wall, but she rebounded much more quickly than any human. She crouched, one hand on the ground and her second lifted toward Kilian, but instead of casting a spell she stood slowly. “If you choose to return to your unit, I will arrange transportation. This appeared the fastest method for reintroducing you to Stephen.” She projected calming feelings, but they slid off Kilian without touching his fury.
“Don't toy with me, witch.” Silas had once promised the Army that Kilian could control his instincts, but ever since that night with the witch... with Barrett... he had struggled. A shoulder shove in the mess line made rage swell, so this situation strained his limited patience.
“I assure you, I simply took an opportunity, especially since I needed to get back to my land. However, I am quite serious about returning you to that base if you are determined to get yourself killed in a friendly-fire accident. Personally, I would consider that a terrible waste of a valuable resource. Would you like to meet Stephen?” She continued to project calm magically. The attempt to manipulate only infuriated Kilian more. When he snarled at her again, the spell evaporated, leaving him to control his emotions himself.
Kilian unclenched his fists. He knew the whites of his eyes had to be blazing red, but he forced his hyper-focused predator’s instincts aside so he could study his surroundings. The tile floors and bare walls screamed government installation and lowest bidder, but there was a stillness in the air that felt alien. Even the fluorescent lights illuminating the windowless walls lacked the distinctive buzz Kilian expected. It was as if noise and magic and life itself were somehow muted.
“Where are we?”
“My base.”
Kilian snarled at the woman.
She didn’t flinch. “I will not give you details unless you accept the transfer and promotion. However, I will say that we are within the Arctic Circle.”
Kilian’s anger was growing dangerous. He braced a hand against the white wall and wrestled his emotions back under control. He felt so off-balance that he couldn’t construct a logical response. Ever since that last mission, he had struggled with self-control. Forcing his logical mind to the forefront, he asked, “How?” Certainly there were witches with portal spells, but no one who could transport over that kind of distance.
“Because this is my home,” she said as she made a grand gesture towards the barren walls.
“You're a land-bound witch?” Those were few and far between, but as Kilian understood it, they struggled to leave the land they pledged themselves to. Books suggested that a land witch felt magic pulling like an ever-tightening rubber band that threatened to cut off all circulation until they returned home. The land held their magic and they were a conduit for it.
She nodded.
That explained her ability to teleport back to her land, but it didn’t explain how she had traveled to Virginia. She traveled a long way from her land to see him, which made him uncomfortable. He didn’t trust her, and this trick with the transport did not help.
She walked over to a pair of double doors and opened them. Soldiers in black T-shirts and BDUs moved through the halls with purpose. A few glanced into the room, their eyes settling on Kilian, which was not surprising given that he was the unknown quantity here. Kilian was a striking man. He could say that without arrogance. He had inherited storm-blue eyes and his height from his father and dark hair from his mother. And his desire to earn a spot on a coveted special forces team meant that he had pushed his body to its limits. Since he was a vampire, his muscles could lose strength, but he would never lose his muscular form or grow a gray hair.
He commanded a room. More than that, soldiers tended to assess every new person who appeared. Every time he had transferred to a new base, he had been the object of great curiosity, even before becoming a Judas vamp. Back then, he had been a curiosity as the rare human who had managed to qualify for a unit dealing with supernatural crime. After... well, the story of his first team generally reached his new duty station before he did.
“You needed additional information to make a decision,” she continued, “and I was unwilling to endlessly debate the issue, especially since being so far from my land placed a certain magical and physical strain on my body. Are you coming?”
Kilian wanted to refuse her invitation on principle. However, if she was telling the truth, if Stephen was losing his battle against the demon, this is what Kilian had trained for—to protect people against supernatural threats when they couldn’t protect themselves.
