by Kat Simons
“Okay, I have a plan,” Cary whispered. “You let me protect you, and we’ll dodge into the middle of all those scary creatures, scoop Jon up, and run away. Very fast.”
“Some of those ‘scary creatures’ are going to attack you and ignore me if we do that,” he pointed out. “You’ll be vulnerable.”
“I’ll be rushing to protect Jon.”
“They aren’t attacking Jon. They’re using him, but he came with them of his own free will. He’s doing the job Holland gave him. He’s not in danger here. You are.”
“He’s just a kid, Deacon. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
“We need a better plan.”
“I’m open to suggestions. Do you want to risk Jon being successful in calling whatever the hell it is he’s calling? It’ll be something strong, and probably scary, and then I’ll have to protect stupid dragon shifters and whatever the hell else is in there from this scary thing.”
“Why would you have to protect Holland’s soldiers?”
She scowled and rolled her eyes. “Because it’s what I do. I never said I liked the job, did I? Seem to recall mentioning being tricked into it.” When she heard a soft, suspicious sound from behind her, she turned to glare. “Are you laughing?”
“Of course not.”
But even in the dark, she could see his grin. “We’ll talk about that later,” she said. “Now—”
Movement from trees to their left caught her attention. She strained to see into the darkness beyond the storm lamps. The sound of something scraping over dried twigs and pine needles made her skin prickle. The hissing sound made the hair on her nap stand up. Beside her, Deacon growled so quietly it was hard to hear.
What the…?
And then from the trees emerged a creature Cary had assumed was a legend. Its long, scale-covered body slithered along the uneven ground, its forked tongue flickering out, tasting the air as it wound toward Jon. The huge snake’s movements were sharp and jerky, like the dragon’s had been. Cary spared the dragon a quick glance. He seemed completely in control again.
“Jon’s powers are focused on the Naga now,” Deacon said, answering her unspoken question. “His call isn’t tugging at all of us anymore.”
“A Naga?” she breathed. “It’s really a Naga?”
The mythical snake people from India were so elusive, Jaxer told her that most thought them extinct. Others claimed the Nagas’ underground cities remained, but the Nagas themselves rarely mixed with outsiders. Their cities existed in a realm just offset from this dimension, similar to the way Faery existed in another part of time and space. This helped protected the Nagas and made their cities impossible to find. Without being led to an entrance, where the city linked with this realm, no one could get to them.
For a heartbeat, Cary was tempted to believe the slithering, blue-green creature was nothing more than an ordinary snake. But even as she watched, the Naga’s head rose, its body following in a swaying motion. It continued to rise, higher and higher until only the last foot of its tail remained on the ground. The rest of the long, slim body undulated in the air, its black eyes focused on Jon.
Then it started to shift. The snake body contorted and twisted until arms and legs appeared. The body turned and thrashed, emerging as a female human form beneath a snake’s head. Finally, the head followed, finishing the full transformation.
When the change was complete, a stunning woman stood at the edge of the clearing. Her hair was dark and thick, hanging down to her knees. Her skin was also a deep shade of brown over bones that looked fine and delicate in the harsh light from the storm lamps. Her face was angular, her eyes dark. A large red ruby rested between her arched brows. She seemed completely unaware of her nudity as she stood before the gaping crowd. Her gaze was for the boy who’d called her and for him alone.
“Now what?” Jon asked. His voice was ragged and gravelly, and he swayed on his feet again even as he stared back at the Naga.
“Ask her how we enter the city, Jonathon,” Holland said.
“But I thought you wanted to talk to her?”
“I do. But first I must have the city’s location. Then I will try to reason with my lady love.”
Cary had to bite back a growl. Lady love, my ass.
Bits and pieces of that strange conversation with Holland over lunch came floating back to her. When he’d claimed a man would do a lot for love. Holland was certainly staring at the Naga with a kind of coiled intensity. But if this was the extent he would go to, forcing the woman to come to him against her will, Cary didn’t think Holland’s feelings qualified as love.
Knowing he wanted entrance to the Naga city also strongly argued against love as a motivational factor here.
“How do we get to the city?” Jon asked the woman.
Her head jerked from side to side, but her gaze remained firmly on his. Finally, she said, “Follow the path I have left.”
Her voice sounded hollow and monotone, any personality washed away beneath the force of her compulsion.
“Where is the entrance?” Jon asked.
“Two miles from here,” she said.
“And when we reached the entrance?” Holland urged.
“How do we get into the city?” Jon asked.
A tear trickled down the woman’s smooth cheek. She bit her bottom lip. Even from a distance, Cary could see blood drip over her narrow chin. The woman’s hands clenched and unclenched and her body trembled visibly.
“She’s fighting Jon’s power,” Deacon murmured.
“This has gone on long enough.” Outrage nearly choked Cary. The poor woman. Well, now she definitely had someone to protect, and she intended to do it.
She was going to box Jon’s ears for this.
As quietly as her human feet would carry her, she eased around the edge of the tree line so she would be closer to the Naga. She stopped suddenly when Deacon’s hand landed on her shoulder.
He leaned in close to her ear and whispered, “I have to come in from the opposite direction. The breeze is carrying my scent to the other shifters. The werewolf there in particular. The one closest to us.”
Cary looked at Holland’s little army again. One man seemed to be darting glances in their direction. “Won’t he smell me, too?”
“He’ll recognize you as human and not consider you a threat.”
Oh good. “Be careful,” she said. “I’ll meet you in the middle.”
Because she could, because in that moment she needed to, she pressed a brief, hard kiss on his lips. Then she moved off again, stepping with care over the dry pine needles.
30
As Cary moved, she kept darting glances at the Naga. Holland had moved closer to her and was caressing her cheek, wiping away a tear. His voice was too low to hear, even in the silent forest, but tears continued to stream down the woman’s face. Her gaze remained locked with Jon’s, but her lips were pressed firmly shut. Still fighting the compulsion. Strong woman.
Cary had an awful feeling the only reason the woman could fight, though, was because Jonathon was exhausted. He’d dropped to his knees and was still swaying under the effort to control her. Scary to think how much power that kid had. When he trained it fully, when he got through puberty and gained the full extent of his powers, Jonathon Webber would be a force to reckon with. She only hoped, by that time, he’d have decided to be one of the good guys.
At that moment, though, Cary was damned glad not to be a shapeshifter.
Through the dark, Holland’s voice reached her. She was close enough now to hear even his quite words. “Nira, my love, please don’t struggle. It’s pointless to fight me, now. I don’t like seeing you hurt.”
“Bastard,” she hissed, then clamped her mouth shut again.
“I still love you, Nira. I want you for my queen. I always have.”
Through her teeth, she said, “I will not give you my city.”
“Please,” Jon said, his voice so rough it sounded an octave deeper. “Just tell him what he
wants.”
She shook her head, but her gaze remained locked to the boy’s.
Cary got as near to the woman as she could while still inside the tree cover. She took a deep breath, spared a quick glance at Holland’s soldiers—several were staring in her direction and frowning now—and charged forward with all the speed she could muster. Since she was rushing to protect someone, the speed was significant for a human.
She knocked the Naga to the ground, covering the woman’s body as a flash of fire shot over her head. Damned dragon shifter.
She looked into the Naga’s wide eyes. “Are you okay?”
The woman nodded, and Cary had a sharp déjà vu memory of rescuing Jonathon from the dragon’s flames. She smiled at the woman, Nira, and Nira smiled back, though her mouth quivered with the effort.
When the fire died down, Cary looked up, her skin tingling in the aftermath of the attack. The dragon lay in a steaming heap, blood welling from the hole in his chest. Eew. So much for Holland not being able to kill him.
“Such lack of self-control,” Holland said into the silence. He turned to stare down at her. “Ms. Redmond. Fancy meeting you here.”
She grinned without humor. “I bet you’re just thrilled.”
“You could have had better timing,” he said. “This is a private matter between me and the lady I love.”
“Don’t give me that crap. You weren’t grilling her about her feelings a minute ago. You want her city. Even I know what the Naga cities are supposed to be like. Wealth beyond imagining. Power so mysterious even the myths won’t name its nature. Impossible to enter without a guide.”
“Yes. I do have an interest in this city.”
“Greedy bastard. You’re already rich.” She glanced at the dead dragon. “And powerful.”
“Not rich enough,” Holland said. “Never powerful enough. Not to prevent…” He tilted his head to one side. “With the wealth of a Naga city backing me, I can command legions.”
“Oh, that’s something I’m looking forward to.”
“Your sarcasm aside, Ms. Redmond, you’re meddling in a matter that doesn’t concern you. I will not be chained again. Especially by my own father. I need the city.” He sucked in a breath between his teeth. “But never mind. I believe I have enough information now to get there. Good thing, too.”
He glanced over his shoulder, and Cary followed his gaze. Jonathon lay in a crumbled heap on the ground, looking like a small, wounded animal just run over by a truck. His eyes were closed. And he didn’t seem to be breathing.
“No,” she whispered.
“Backlash, I imagine,” Holland said. “From your…shield? He was straining his powers to get this far. Poor boy. Shame. He’d have been quite a valuable force one day.”
Cary glanced at Nira. “Shift and leave, quickly. Go warn your city.” Then she scrambled to the fallen boy without waiting to see if the Naga followed her instructions. “Jonathon? Jon?” She sat on the ground and scooped him up into her lap. “Answer me, kid. Come on.” She shook him gently then pressed her fingers to his neck. Still had a pulse. She leaned close enough to feel his faint breath on her cheek. “That’s it, kid. You’re still alive. I just need you to wake up for me.”
“Why bother, Ms. Redmond? He’s as good as dead. You’ve killed him.”
“Shut up.” Cary glared at Holland. “You did this. You brought him here. If not for you, he’d be safe at home in his bed right now. Don’t you dare try to pass this off on me.”
But guilt still washed through her. She’d rushed Jon out of her house and her protection, she’d let him go and left him vulnerable. She should have called him. She should have gone to see him before he turned to the demon. Damn it, she was supposed to keep people safe.
“My powers didn’t kill him,” Holland murmured. “Yours did.”
“No, they didn’t.” She blinked back tears. “Come on, Jon. Wake up.” Where the hell was Deacon? She shook Jon’s inert body again. “Please, kid. Please.” When he groaned, she nearly choked on her relief. “That’s it. Open your eyes. Good boy.”
“I’m not a boy,” Jon said in a barely audible wheeze.
“No.” Cary grinned as his eyes fluttered and opened. Her throat was so tight she could barely speak. “No, you’re not a boy. But you are an idiot.”
He tried to smile, but the expression fell away. “I’m sorry, Cary. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. But I was, wasn’t I? That’s why you had to protect the Naga.”
“Yeah. But everything’s okay now.”
“Are you mad at me?”
She sputtered out a sound that might have been a laugh on a better day, when it wasn’t mixed with tears. “No. But your mom’s gonna be pissed.” She rocked him gently in her arms, fighting back the ill-timed urge to weep.
“We don’t have to tell her, do we?” Jon asked.
Cary snorted. “Maybe not all of it.”
A heavy sigh brought Cary’s attention back to Holland. And she realized Nira hadn’t left.
When she met Holland’s gaze again, he said, “I can control her now that she’s here. I just couldn’t get her out of the city.”
“Don’t do this, Holland,” Cary said. “You said you love her. Let her go.”
He smiled, a look that sent a chill down Cary’s spine. He flicked a glance at the soldiers, all those scary beasties surrounding them, pointed to her and Jonathon and said, “Kill them.”
Cary barely had time to register Holland’s order before a barrage of powers rained down on her. Fireballs, energy bolts, rocks and twigs swirling up from powerful spells, all pounded the air around her. She curved her body over Jon’s and squeezed her eyes shut against the glare of color and light. Sulfur and acid burned the air, singeing her sinuses.
She could feel the power, the strength of so many different magics beating against her skin, making her hair stand up and her pulse race. The strength of all that power was unlike anything she’d had to deal with before, and the pressure of holding it off built under her skin until she felt like her body would break apart. The usual tingles that coursed over her when protecting against magic turned into full blown pain, like her nerves were burning from the inside.
A sound beyond the racket of those spells echoed in her ears. It took her a minute to realize the sound was her, roaring against the attack. In her arms, she could feel Jonathon screaming, but she couldn’t hear him anymore.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the attack stopped.
Cary blinked in the sudden silence. Spots danced in front of her eyes, and every inch of her skin stung like she’d gotten a severe sunburn. She heaved in a breath over her raw throat and tried to swallow. Then she glanced down at Jon. His eyes were huge, his skin more pale than when he’d been unconscious.
“You hurt anywhere?” she asked.
“N-no.” He shook his head and glanced at the surrounding monsters. “But I nearly peed my pants.”
“Me, too,” she said, not joking.
She continued to keep her body wrapped around Jon’s as best she could while she studied the small army circling them. Most were breathing hard, some looked confused, a werewolf and two people she suspected were sorcerers looked really pissed. The wolf was growling and snarling. He wouldn’t hold out long before shifting.
Beyond the immediate circle, she saw a few bodies on the ground, a booted foot here, a sprawled hand there. No doubt backlash from her protections. She had a brief thought for whether it was their own power that had got them or the spells of one of the other attackers. It didn’t matter either way. Each body meant one less person trying to kill her.
In the darkness beyond the circle of monsters, she caught a glimpse of pale skin and a tall, skinny form moving into the trees. She gasped. Sheldon? But the person she thought she saw was lost in darkness and blocked by other monsters before she could be sure if she’d actually seen anyone at all.
Spots still interfered with her vision. Maybe it was just another skinny teenager and she’d o
nly imagined he looked like Sheldon. She sure as hell hoped so.
There were too many shadows dancing in the uneven light from the storm lamps for her to see the surrounding monsters clearly, and she didn’t trust her still blurry vision, but she didn’t need sight to feel the waves of menace rolling over her.
This situation was very very bad.
What the hell had happened to Deacon? And Jaxer for that matter? The faery was supposed to have met them but there’d been no sign of him when they arrived. Her heart clenched with a sudden terror—had they already been captured? Or worse?
The sound of clapping startled her back to her surroundings. All eyes turned to the demon. Holland stood over Nira, smiling at Cary. The expression made her stomach roll.
“Ms. Redmond,” he said. “I am impressed. And, unusually for me, surprised. You’re a Protector. I haven’t come across one of your kind in years.”
Cary’s heart rate tripled and suddenly she couldn’t breathe. Holland had been around a long time. If he knew her vulnerability, she was a dead woman.
But to kill her, he was going to have to let Jon and Nira go. Freely and with no intention of going after them once Cary was dead. Protector powers were a tricky thing—fortunately for her. Unfortunately, if anyone could get around her magic, Holland could.
Though by his admission, he hadn’t realized what she was before this. So he wasn’t likely the one who’d attacked her at Angie’s house. Or if he had ordered that attack, it wasn’t because he’d realized that Cary was a Protector. She wasn’t sure if that was good news or not. If Holland hadn’t been responsible for that attack, there was still someone beyond this group of monster who wanted her dead.
She’d have to deal with that later. If she survived this.
She kept her gaze locked on Holland’s, her body hunched over Jon, and waited. She refused to confirm or deny his assertion, but they both knew he’d uncovered her secret.
“The problem with Protectors,” Holland finally said in a low, quiet tone, “is that they spend all their energy protecting. They come to think they’re invincible. And no one is invincible, Ms. Redmond.”
