Ancient Enemy

by Reus, Katie

  But the fact that she’d been able to handle a finding spell of this magnitude by herself and ripped the magic dome down by herself in seconds told him she was a power to be reckoned with. Especially if she ended up mating with that dragon—she would have a much longer life span and even longer to grow into her powers. He also had a hell of a lot to discuss with Rhys too, but that was for another day.

  King knew he should’ve pushed for more information about why Lachlan’s brother was in New Orleans but he trusted the other Alpha and his mate Star not to steer him wrong. He still did.

  As he and his team of trackers neared the end of the block, he held up a hand then circled with his finger. He hated doing an infiltration in the middle of the day but they were all wolves and this couldn’t wait. They should be able to sneak in better than any black ops team with their skills, and they would be going inside in human form. At least to breach the doors and windows. Then he would see what happened.

  He scented that elusive dark magic on the air and steeled himself. His sword practically hummed behind him, ready for battle. It was vibrating with all sorts of wild energy after sparring with Aurora. He still needed to ask her about her magic, about what those lightning bolts had done to him and his sword. Because he still felt like he could take on an army by himself. Good thing too, since they were about to go up against a bunch of powerful beings.

  There were a couple humans jogging past as he and his wolves strode down the street. He stopped in front of a pair of college-age girls and held up a hand.

  The fear that rolled off them didn’t exactly surprise him. He had that effect on humans now that he was out as a shifter and in charge of the city. Hell, he’d had that effect before.

  “You guys live on this street?” he asked.

  The one on the left nodded. “I do. That’s my family’s house.” She pointed to the right.

  “Get inside and stay inside. Call any human neighbors you have and tell them to do the same. Now.”

  The girl nodded and they both hurried toward the house.

  But he stopped them when something occurred to him. “That gray house with the black shutters.” He gave the address. “Do you know who owns it?”

  The girl frowned. “No one lives there.”

  Well, that wasn’t true, but that meant the home was definitely spelled to make it appear as if no one was living there. At least no one would be calling the owners of that home. “Go. Work quickly.”

  The two of them raced off, their sneakers pounding against the pavement as he hurried back to the sidewalk. The feel of the magic grew stronger and darker the closer he got to the edge of the bushes surrounding the house. His wolf shook it off, but he still didn’t like being this close to darkness.

  He withdrew his sword, knowing he was going to have to tear through another wall of magic and give away the element of surprise. There was no way around it, however.

  “In seven seconds, I’m ripping through the wall,” he said through their earpieces. “As soon as it’s down, infiltrate. Anyone involved in this dies. Lethal force is approved.” Hell, it was encouraged at this point. “Try to keep one alive for questioning, but not at the risk to your own life.” If they did manage to keep one of them alive, they wouldn’t be for long. He was the judge and jury right now and these murderers had broken every species’ laws.

  There were murmurs of agreement as he stepped out from behind the privacy hedges. Sword out, he strode straight down the driveway toward the house.

  The sword vibrated then screamed as he made contact with the invisible wall. Waves of energy spiderwebbed out, revealing the magic veil. He shoved his sword deeper.

  The dome shimmered and rattled, red sparks of magic shooting everywhere.

  He gritted his teeth as he shoved inward hard and ripped up. The second he did, his sword split the dome.

  For one long moment, time seemed suspended as everything froze. Then the spiderweb shot out in all directions, a loud crack rending the air. The dome burst, magic shattering everywhere like glass.

  On instinct he braced himself for impact but the glass disappeared into nothing instead of shattering all over him.

  And that was when he saw what truly lay behind the dome. It was the same as the other house. Life had been sucked out of everything—the grass, the trees, even the brick was no longer the bright gray it had been, but dull and flaking.

  Without pause, he raced straight for the nearest side door. At this point, the element of surprise would be mostly gone. As he reached the door, he slammed his boot against it.

  It flew open, ricocheting off the wall as he stalked into what turned out to be a kitchen.

  He heard breaking glass and doors being kicked open elsewhere as he faced off with a woman who was at the stove, teapot in hand. Her eyes widened when she saw him, her irises flashing black. She let out a scream and lifted her hands as if to throw a spell at him but he dove forward, lightning fast, sword at the ready, and cut her head off.

  He didn’t stick around as her head flew through the air, blood arcing everywhere. He was already moving toward the attached hallway, his wolf senses picking up on moans of pain. He reached a doorway in a long hallway at the same time Delphine did. Her wolf was in her eyes, her canines and claws already descended. Ari was right behind her.

  Whoever was in charge had to know they were here by now. He kicked the door in and saw four short stairs descending into what had likely been a game room at one time given the paint on the far wall.

  Instead of jumping down the stairs and around the wall blocking them, he tapped his sword against the wall once, sending tendrils of magic spiraling down the staircase. He wasn’t sure where he got his magical powers from but they’d always been a part of him, just like his wolf was. His mom had always told him he was special, but had never given him any more than that.

  Screams started and he knew his magic was working—searching out the darkness and destroying it.

  He started forward, jumping down the stairs in one leap.

  A half circle of six witches stood at the ready, one of them screaming under the onslaught of the magical assault from his sword. But the others were standing strong, feet shoulder-width apart and hands out as if ready to do battle.

  Behind them naked vampires and humans alike lay in a circle of blood, moaning in agony. It was clear they were pinned to the ground by some sort of magical force. He digested everything within seconds as he strode forward. “Release them,” he growled, his wolf in his throat and definitely in his gaze.

  The woman in the middle, a stunning redhead, threw her head back and laughed. Then she lifted her hands and threw a ball of red-hot fire at King. He didn’t think, just reacted on instinct and training. He lifted his sword and swung at the magic. Instead of absorbing it, his sword repelled it straight back at her chest.

  The ball of fire slammed into her, tossing her back a few feet as a giant hole created by her own fire ate away at her from the inside out.

  Her eyes opened in horror as a raw scream tore from her throat.

  It died immediately as the spell consumed her body within mere moments.

  The sharp stench of fear rolled off the other witches as he raced at them, his wolves doing the same.

  He stabbed the nearest one, and the magic from his sword shoved inside her, bursting in all directions as it destroyed her.

  Meanwhile his wolves simply attacked, going straight for the witches’ throats.

  It wasn’t a battle, it was a massacre, with his side prevailing. By the time they were done, all the witches lay in pools of blood, and the one he’d killed first didn’t exist at all anymore. Her body had turned to ash.

  He knew the moment the spell had been broken on the humans and vampires because one of the vampires sat up, breathing hard as she looked at the carnage.

  “Thank you,” she rasped out.

  King knelt in front of her, holding out his hands to help her stand.

  His wolves shifted back to human form and
started helping everyone else.

  “How many witches are there?” he demanded of the female vamp.

  “Maybe one or two more. They’re not all here,” she said, looking around at the bodies. “One of them went upstairs to get tea. She likes to drink it while she torments us.”

  “She’s dead.”

  The vampire’s eyes flashed bright amber before returning to brown. “Good.”

  “We’re here to help you. You’re part of Ingrid’s coven, right? Dahlia?” He recognized her from the file Ingrid had given him, but wanted to confirm.

  She nodded. Then she tightened her jaw, and he could see that she held back her emotions. “Yes. They were draining us for immortality. Us and humans. They were going to move on to wolves next. Or they thought they were. They talked about attacking dragons.” She laughed bitterly. “Foolish witches. They thought if they gained enough power from our blood, they’d be able to go after wolves.”

  “You don’t have to talk about this now,” he said, even though he needed the information.

  “Yes I do.” Dahlia wrapped her arms around herself and he cursed at his own stupidity.

  He tugged off his shirt and handed it to her. Vampires didn’t often care about nudity, the same as shifters, but she’d had her freedom taken from her, had been tortured, and would likely be feeling vulnerable. He hated that he didn’t have clothing for all of them.

  “Thanks,” she murmured as she eased it on over her already healing body. The cuts all looked shallow, definitely superficial. The witches must have been taking their time draining this bunch.

  His wolves were caring for the rest of the others in the room, but this female was cognizant and didn’t mind sharing information. Information he needed to make sure this was the end of this shit.

  He motioned to his wolves to get the others upstairs as he continued talking to her. “What was their end game?”

  “To take over New Orleans.”

  “They said that?”

  “Not directly to me or anything. But they didn’t try to hide what they were doing. I heard them talking amongst each other. They wanted to bring in other covens, to grow stronger. Well, a couple of them did, but some of the others disagreed. Said that some of the covens wouldn’t practice dark magic. They were right—I know some witches who would cut off their own arm before getting into this shit.”

  Like Dallas. “How did they kidnap you?” He needed to know how these people had been targeted. Looking around the nearly empty basement, his gaze stopped on a few folding chairs leaning against a wall. He grabbed one and motioned for her to sit down.

  She did, practically collapsing on the chair, and he pushed back his guilt. He needed these answers while everything was fresh in her mind. Because if there was still another threat out there, there might be more people to save.

  “Who is the leader?” he pressed.

  “Honestly I’m not sure. The redhead that you killed—that sword thing was badass by the way—she did most of the talking directly to us. And she was the one who lured a lot of us away. She had a certain kind of magic where she could create an illusion, I guess. Make you see what you wanted to see.”

  “Like a shape-shifter?”

  “Kind of. The magic didn’t last that long. Probably because it took a lot of energy, I’m guessing. I don’t know enough about witches. But the majority of us, she took by looking like either our romantic partners or luring some of us in with the intention of hooking up with our ideal mate.” There was self-loathing in the female’s voice as she ran a trembling hand over her pixie haircut. “It’s how she got me. I’ve got a thing for leggy blondes.”

  “She’s dead now. She can’t hurt you. And I want to have you looked over by a healer. So let’s get out of here. I’ll have more questions, but this has been a huge help for now.”

  “Thank you,” the female rasped out, emotion finally starting to crack through. “Seriously. We wouldn’t have lasted through the night. They were taunting us, slowly draining our blood. It didn’t matter how much we fought it, we were never getting out of that spell.”

  King simply nodded and helped her out of the seat, motioning that they should head up the stairs. “For the record, a witch helped me find you.” He knew that witches had taken them and he didn’t want all of them to hate Dallas’s kind because of a bad few. He himself had been guilty of lumping witches into the same category and he knew that shit needed to stop. Especially since witches were helping rebuild the whole world. “It’s just something you should know. She gave a lot of herself to find you guys.”

  “I’m not a bigot,” the female murmured, a pained half-smile on her face as she strode toward the stairs. “But thank you for telling me.”

  Her strides were fairly steady as she made her way up the stairs and he was grateful that his people had already called in healers and backup by the time he got out to the front yard. Ingrid was arriving at that time too, and the relief on her face when she saw her people was very real. “Dahlia, Benjamin!” she called out. Then she called out to others, beckoning all her vampires to her.

  He just hoped this was the end of it. That there weren’t more threats out there, other members of this evil coven still alive. He would hunt all of them down but he wanted this finished. He had enough rebuilding to deal with, and hunting down a bunch of rogue witches would only slow that down.

  People needed to start feeling a sense of normalcy again. It would be a new normal, but his city deserved it.

  And he was determined to make it happen.

  Chapter 27

  “You can stay with us while you heal,” Lola said as she sat next to Dallas at the table outside, wearing a slightly pouty expression. “We barely got to hang out and last night was so fun—and your friend Javi was so hot!”

  Dallas half-smiled, despite the exhaustion humming through her. Lola seemed to think every guy was hot. Rhys had left her sitting outside with Willow so he could go pack all of her stuff—and ordered her not to move from her spot. “Trust me, it’ll be better for me if I can go home.” She took a sip from the soothing peppermint tea infused with a whole lot of healing juice.

  “Well whatever you need, we can just go get it for you. We liked having you here,” Lola continued, and the others nodded.

  Bella reached out and laid the back of her hand on Dallas’s forehead and frowned. “I think you’re running a fever.”

  “Yeah, I think you should stay,” Harlow said, arms crossed over her chest.

  All their caring and concern was about to undo her. She was so weak right now and this was pushing her over the edge. “Seriously, guys, I’m going to start crying.”

  Brielle looked horrified at that thought. “Please don’t cry.”

  Harlow snorted. “Yeah, my twin can’t handle tears. It’s the quickest way to make her run from you.”

  Her twin elbowed her with a sharp jab to the side.

  The only reason Dallas was even still upright at all was because of the healing tea Thurman had given to Rhys. He’d also given her a couple spelled cookies—macadamia nut, thank you very much—that had not only tasted delicious but had given her an extra burst of energy as well. It was like she’d taken a bunch of super vitamins but she knew the crash was coming soon. And she needed to be on her own land when that happened. “You guys, I swear, I’ll come back with Willow soon. Maybe a week or so.”

  “Look, we like Willow,” Lola said. “Okay, we love her. But that’s not why we want you to stay. We like you. And we don’t like everybody.”

  The others nodded in agreement. Even Axel. Instead of the normal easygoing smile from him, he looked worried for her. She hadn’t looked in the mirror yet, but Dallas could imagine how pale she was right now. And her eyes were probably dull as well. It was what happened when she expended so much damn energy so quickly. And that finding spell had been insane, penetrating through layers and layers of dark magic to hit home.

  Lola glanced down at her phone when it dinged and her eyes widened s
lightly. “Holy shit, Aurora just texted me. King and his wolves hunted down those witches.”

  Dallas stirred in her seat, her gaze straying toward Rhys. He was walking out of the house now, bags in hand. She was so glad he’d made the choice to come with her instead of hunting down Catta. Even though she wanted him to get the closure he needed, she needed him right now. And he’d chosen to stay with her. That knowledge was almost too much to bear. Goddess, she was about to start crying just thinking about it.

  “What happened?” She turned back to Lola.

  Lola read from the screen. “There were half a dozen witches in a basement. They were draining the blood of vampires and humans. A couple humans didn’t make it, but almost everyone else is alive. Except the witches. Every single one of them died.”

  Relief coursed through Dallas at the news. She’d thought that she might sense it when Catta died, but she could barely feel her own magic right now. It was deep inside her, just a tiny spark flickering as her energy rejuvenated itself.

  “That’s great news,” she said, reaching out a hand for Rhys, who now stood by the side of her chair.

  He took her hand in his, linking their fingers together. “Ladies. Axel. I need to get Dallas home.”

  “It’s clear we can’t change your mind, but if you need anything let us know,” Lola said.

  “Rhys packed some cookies I made,” Bella said. “So don’t let him ‘forget’ to give them to you.”

  “Chocolate chip,” Rhys added. “And I promise I only ate one.”

  A smile tugging at her lips, Dallas forced herself to her feet. “Tell Aurora goodbye for us. But I’ll be back soon, I promise. I just need to be at home in order to heal better.”

  Everyone hugged her, and then everyone hugged Willow as well. Her sweet dragon soaked up all the love, dancing around everyone, but it was pretty clear that she was ready to go home as well.

  By the time Rhys had shifted, Willow was already in the air, ready to head out to adventure unknown. Any time Rhys flew, it seemed that Willow was ready to go with him.