Free Bound to Me by Jocelynn Drake Page B

his apprentice somewhere within the city. It didn’t take me long to finally stumble upon a large house not far from the park where I could sense both the warlock and his young apprentice. I had a suspicion that neither were actually expecting to see me considering I had fallen back into Sadira’s hands. I was hoping to use that little bit of surprise to my advantage when I had no other edge to cling to when it came to facing down a powerful warlock.
    Standing on the street outside the rambling house, I scanned it one last time before walking up the stairs. Inside I felt the faint pulse of power that was unique to nightwalkers. Artus was holding a nightwalker hostage in the cellar. The nightwalker was extremely weak, but still alive. Hope bloomed in my chest for the first time since leaving Sadira’s castle. Valerio might still be alive. He had been the only other nightwalker within the city and it made sense that he might be the one that Artus could be holding.
    Wrapping that hope up in my clenched fist, I mounted the stairs and kicked in the front doors. Candles flickered around the empty hallway while oil lamps burned steadily. I was sorely tempted to force the lamps to explode in flames, coating the rugs and walls with oily fire, but I held my temper. I would need a safe route out of the house if I was going to save Valerio. Besides, I needed to save my energy for the warlock.
    “You should never have come here,” echoed an empty voice as I stepped farther into the hallway. Behind me, the double doors slammed shut and locked.
    “I am here for Valerio,” I said as I marched through the seemingly empty house, following the nightwalker energy signature that I could sense. After jerking open several doors at the back of the house, I finally located one that hid a set of stairs leading beneath the first floor. Darkness swallowed up the stairs, looking as if I was plunging down into the bowels of Hell itself. I didn’t hesitate. I was finally getting close to Valerio. He needed me.
    The cellar was largely empty. A single oil lamp burned on a table in the far corner, revealing a clutter of items that had been shoved into jars for safekeeping until they were needed for spells. Stone columns ran down the center of the large room, holding up the old house. Near the back of the room, I found Valerio tied to a chair. He was slumped forward with his lovely hair obscuring his face. Blood soaked into his shirt as the wooden stake still protruded from his chest, just below where his heart rested. He had hung on through the day and was barely clinging to life now as blood leaked from his chest. Valerio desperately needed to feed if he was to survive the night.
    Artus stepped out from behind Valerio’s chair, frowning at me, while his apprentice leaned against the wall near the oil lamp with his arms folded over his chest. His expression was blank, giving me no indication as to what he felt about the events that were about to unfold before him. There was obviously no love between him and his master, but I doubted that there was enough animosity to benefit me.
    “You shouldn’t have come,” Artus said in a low voice.
    “You have something that belongs to me,” I replied, pushing the words out through clenched teeth.
    “Leave here. Return to Sadira and I will release this one as he is.”
    “It’s too late for that. Sadira has lost her hold on me. Jabari and the coven have ordered your death for what you have done to my people and I will follow through on their command.”
    “Then I guess both of you will die,” he said smoothly. As he took a step toward me, Artus gave Valerio’s chair a hard shove, knocking it off balance so that he was falling forward. I surged forward in a flash, grabbing Valerio by the shoulders before he could crash to the floor, driving the stake further into his chest. At the same time, Artus plunged a knife in my back as I knelt on the ground with my hands full. I screamed in pain and in rage as I