Wining Celeste (Book 4) Jacobs Broken Mercenaries

chapter 9

Celeste

If he gets dental with me, I’ll kill him myself. Even if it means I go down, too, I won’t become a meal. Wherever he’s taken me, it’s still on earth, thank God, but far off the grid. Ewe, it’s a cave. How typical. I feel the earth between my toes as I push off the ground into an upright position. What an idiot my power is stronger in nature. Even with my hands tied behind my back, I can still conjure a total mass of spells. 
“Ah, you 're awake. Before you get too excited and try something stupid. You should know I have your sister, and if anything should happen to me, she’s dead.”
My breath catches in my throat as my heart beats out of my chest; drowning my ears with deafening thumps. I couldn’t have heard him right, or he’s lying. Cael told me Lucifer has her, angels can’t lie, and I paid a substantial debt to get that information. It’s true, it has to be.
“You’re lying.” It’s a statement, not an accusation, and he treats it as such.
“Really then, how do you explain this?”
His voice is laced with amusement as he pulls a tablet off his desk, placing it in front of me. Breaking eye contact, I look down at the screen. She’s there, my beautiful baby sister. I hardly recognize her under the filth. Her cheek bones seem to protrude, no doubt from lack of sustainability. Hot tears stream down my cheeks as I fight for control. A metal collar is wrapped around her neck, connected to a heavy chain like an animal. Power surges through my body, lighting liquid energy under my skin.
“You fucking pathetic fuck! I’ll kill you for this!” 
He smiles at the threat and I puke on the ground, sick to my stomach. A cold sweat breaks my skin as my mind races for a solution. I have to fight tooth and nail for calm. Nothing ever works right when you’re not in control. I repeat this over and over until I can breathe steady.
“Impressive. I can see why you 're valued among the witches.”
His approval has my stomach acid threatening to make an appearance. I shudder, forcing it back down.
“Let’s get on with it. What do you want?” 
His expression is devious I get the feeling my sister is just the tip of the iceberg. The depth of his evil is vast I can feel it. 
“Just a couple of spells, nothing you can’t handle. Perform them then you can reunite with your sister.”
Amber… the thought of her cause’s tears too well. I have to save her. Whatever it takes… he knows I will, he’s got me at his mercy. If I kill him, I’ll never find her, or by the time I do, she’ll be dead. That’s even if I could. I’m sensing some pretty intense power coming off him. Not to mention strength. Vampires have it tenfold.
“Tell me what you want and I’ll list off the supplies.”
He smiles politely the expression looks inhuman on so many levels.
“I need you to throw a couple of illusion spells and revive an old friend of mine... Lakusta.”
My eyes bulge out of their sockets... he wants me to bring back a depraved millennium old bloodthirsty lunatic who nearly ended the world in his short reign on earth. Fuck no! Even if I didn’t care, I don’t do black magic, and that’s as black as it gets. If I did do it, it would change me forever. It could very well kill me.
“You’re crazy.” I mutter in disbelief.
“I can’t do that kind of magic... even if I could, I would never plague the earth with a sociopath like Lakusta.”
I flinch at his abrupt laughter; the depraved sound sends chills up my spine. He gets down to my level, grasping the hair at the base of my head. His breath smells of blood, making me cringe.
“You can and you will! If you don’t, I’ll starve your sister to death, making it as painful as humanly possible.”
He throws my head back and I fall to my hands beneath him. What am I going to do? My brain goes into overdrive as I try to find a way out of this. I need to buy some time, but how? The list! Some of the things I need are actually hard to find and I wouldn’t be lying. That should give me enough time to find a way out of this, or at the very least, how to botch the spell without being obvious.
“Okay... I’ll do it, but I want your word you’ll let us go free.” 
I know his word is worthless, but he doesn’t know, I know. Oh, God. There’s that sickening grin. I hold back a gag at his bloodstained teeth.
“Of course, you can trust me, Celeste.”
Sure, I’ll get right on that. 
I jot down the supplies on a piece of paper and request food, water, and my phone while he’s away. I get the water with a promise that someone will be by with food. As for the phone, he laughs at the suggestion. It was worth a shot. Now all I have to do is figure out how to trick a trickster while keeping my nose clean of black magic. If he sees through it, Amber and I are as good as dead.