Nightstorm (Nightwraith Book 3)

by Gaja J. Kos

  Half an hour later, I was still sitting in one of Sam’s many worn armchairs, drinking what was probably my tenth cup of coffee today, and listening to the alluring rustle of paper as the Invincible Samuan rummaged through her books.

  Despite my hopes, she hadn’t recognized the ritual itself once I’d shown her the photos, but she did know right off the bat what the black stone signified. Allegiance to Zirnitra. The dragon god of sorcery.

  Sadly, neither of us had the faintest idea what a group of demon-sucking career criminals wanted with an ages-old—and irrefutably dead—deity. It didn’t make sense. When Kolovrat, the realm alternate to ours and home of all the warlocks and witches, had fallen several centuries ago, Zirnitra perished right along with it. Not to mention that aside from maybe sounding cool to someone who wasn’t an integral part of the supernatural community, the god wasn’t all that interesting. Just a leaf from history, really, swept away by time.

  “Or not,” Sam said, making me realize I said that last part out loud.

  The disgusting lack of sleep was obviously starting to show.

  “I found your ritual.” She walked over, a heavy leather-bound book in her hands. “Supposedly, each sacrifice of seven virgins at once brings you closer to receiving Zirnitra’s ultimate gift. A pure tendril of his power, forever yours to use as you will.”

  I frowned. “But that’s impossible.”

  “I would have once thought Lena falling in love was impossible,” she said smugly and perched her butt on the armrest, “but I clearly got that proven wrong.”

  My cheeks heated. “You see the bond?”

  “I see your desire for it, and it’s bringing the magic to the surface.” She waved a hand through the air when I arched an eyebrow, her furrowed expression utterly endearing. “You demons are funny, you know that? All that talk about fate and compatibility and whatnot, but it’s you who, in the end, control the bond. And, Lena, if it’s giving you trouble, then you’re the one hoping for it.”

  I opened my mouth, but no words got out. Could Sam be right and it was actually the force of my desires that fueled all the shit between me and Caz? Was I committing treason over myself? Sabotaging myself, even?

  Well, shit.

  “Go on.” She nudged me with her elbow. “Go to him. The bond won’t snap into place unless you want it, but the hornier you get, the harder it’ll be to control. So…” A smile touched her lips. “Leave the nightmares to me. I’ll get back to you when I have something more than the creeps’ desire for an ancient deity’s mojo. And may I suggest that you use this gifted time as inventively as you can.”

  Sam’s words were still resonating in my head when I steered the car off the main road and deeper into the sleepy calm of Kranjska Gora. I felt a slight headache coming on from the peculiar blend of death and desire raging within me, made even worse by the exhaustion that had begun to catch up with me. Somehow, that night at Moondance seemed ages ago, and while I wouldn’t mind a bit of incubus love, all I really wanted to do was curl up next to Caz and fall asleep in his arms.

  I sighed and forced myself to find some focus.

  The case. Caz. My own indecision. It was all one big mess I had no idea how to crawl out of with my sanity intact.

  I drove forward, weaving through the empty streets, and instinctively released my magic to test for any surprises lurking in the dark. My fingers curved around the wheel, my heart pounding faster.

  I pulled aside and breathed heavily, making certain that what I was sensing wasn’t just a figment of my imagination. When the essence of something demonic, interwoven with human flesh, refused to subside, I killed the engine and ran out of the car.

  My muscles burned as I jumped over low fences and scurried across mowed lawns, making a beeline for Caz’s house. The presence ruffling the strands of my magic grew stronger by the second, until, finally, I saw them with my eyes, too.

  Several dark figures were lurking in the shadows.

  And they were closing in on Caz’s place.

  Chapter 14

  I didn’t have my gear with me, which was more than a little unfortunate since I didn’t know just how strong the demonic essence had made the warped hitmen. But I was still the Shadow Queen’s daughter, and I certainly didn’t gain my bounty hunting reputation by relying on gadgets.

  If a good old beating was what they wanted, then I wouldn’t disappoint.

  Darkness wrapped around me like arms of a lover. The demonic shadows kept me concealed from sight as I prowled closer to the house, aiming for the thickest group of men I could spot.

  No one as much as flinched in my direction, which meant they were either weak energy-wise or hadn’t learned the depths of their powers yet. While I liked a brawl as much as the next demon, I was hoping on the former.

  My own power answered on the wings of my thoughts. I cradled it with phantom hands, lifting it from my core until it sizzled just beneath the surface of my skin, eager and hungry to have its way with the assholes.

  More than gladly, I granted it its wish.

  Ethereal vines erupted from my body, one for each of the seven fuckers. They cried out as one as spears of demon fire pierced their flesh, their anguish rising on the soft nightly currents for a glorious, glorious moment, before another roll of power radiated from my core and silenced them. Forever.

  Unfortunately, the calm didn’t last all that long.

  Gunshots exploded to my left within seconds. I threw myself on the ground, rolling sideways until I reached the cement flower beds separating Caz’s house from the neighbor’s. It wasn’t all that much as far as cover went, but I couldn’t afford to be picky.

  My body tucked in a tight ball, I sucked in a few quick breaths as bullets continued to soar past me. Some finished their vicious path embedded in the cement, bits of it sprinkling on my hair. I made my body even smaller and waited for the bastards to empty their clips.

  The sane thing to do would be to take the umbilical cord to my lair, then emerge behind them while they were still busy shooting holes in the flowers. An excellent choice under different circumstances, but as it was, it wouldn’t only take energy and time, but it would leave me blind.

  For all I knew, I just might manifest in front of a loaded barrel, should my new friends decide to move while I was away.

  So I stayed put, using the spare seconds to monitor the wide net of magic I’d cast earlier. It encompassed the entire perimeter, letting me read the men’s positions and maneuvers with ease. Unfortunately, the feedback wasn’t what I’d hoped for at all.

  Great. Just my fucking luck that they actually knew what they were doing.

  I ground my teeth. Not only were they closing in on me and cutting of any viable means of escape, but they appeared to be accumulating their own stolen powers, as well. The sole uplifting fact was that they didn’t pack nearly enough of a punch to summon demon fire or any other nasty surprise of the demonic variety, but the energy they carried inside would still make them next to impervious to my attacks. Fucking fantastic.

  It seemed those seven roasted assholes were the only break I was going to get tonight.

  Sighing, I focused not on the hitmen’s bodies, but the weapons aimed my way. If I could get rid of those, I’d get a leg up on them. Even with their superior numbers, there was no fucking way they could get me in a proper fistfight. It wasn’t bragging. Just the truth.

  I let loose a breath, the gunfire fading as I devoted the entirety of my mind to the power in my possession. Heat flooded the ethereal tendrils that whisked through the night, saturating the air until it boiled with the unnatural, demonic blaze. The bastards’ own energies would react and alert them to my plan if it touched their flesh, but it wasn’t them I was aiming for.

  I waited for a second longer to make sure my precision was absolute, then shoved every damned atom of my power into the metal. The magic filled up the barrels and infused the structure of the guns until they started to melt.

  Some of the hitmen yelped as t
he scalding metal slid down their fingers, but the majority of them were obviously too pumped up on demon essence to care despite the stench of scorched flesh that permeated the air.

  Right now, however, that suited me just fine. I had a whole lot of pent-up frustration I needed to vent, and as long as they couldn’t shoot at me… I grinned. No, there was definitely no question as to who would come up on top.

  The assholes might have some sort of military-grade training under their belts, and they might tower over me like the fucking mountains of muscle they were, but they sure as fuck didn’t have my fire.

  I ran from behind the chipped slab of cement and leaped through the air, kicking the first of the bastards square in the chest. He took down two of his buddies in his wake. I wasted no time sending a snare of power around their throats while their guard was down, severing them far more efficiently than any knife could.

  The unexpected deaths of the three created a gap in the others’ composure—just a small slip-up, but to me, it was like a whole fucking gate. I lashed out with a boot at the nearest one, the distinct crunch of a broken nose filling me with brilliant delight, then pummeled the second with a quick combination of my fists. The broken-nosed hitman tried to grab me from behind while I sparred with his friend, so I threw back my head and clipped him right across his bleeding injury.

  The man screamed—a high, screeching howl of pain that reverberated through the air—and before he knew it, a vine of demon fire cut through his weakened defenses, leaving nothing but a charred hole where his heart had once been. A low, throaty laugh escaped my lips. It was almost poetic.

  Adrenaline coursed through my veins as death and danger charged the night, just enough to give me a little boost while my mind remained the observant, tactical instrument I’d honed it into.

  So when the heartless body hit the ground and three more hitmen rushed me, I was more than ready for them.

  I ducked and turned, keeping my movements swift and unpredictable until their blows connected with one another far more often than me. One did manage to get me in the ribs, a nasty hit that sent air whizzing from my lungs. But it also pissed me off, and that was never a bad thing under such circumstances.

  I lunged at the offending bastard, twisting mid leap so that my feet came up before me. I caught the first man by the throat as I soared past. My arms snaked around him in a death grip just as my boots hit one standing a few steps behind him hard in the face.

  We all went down in a tight knot of limbs. Not wasting any time, I snapped the hitman’s neck, his body going limp in my arms, before feeding a nice little portion of demon fire down the throat of the other.

  The stench of an outhouse and burnt flesh rode the night with a vengeance. Nausea rose briefly, but I was already rolling across the ground, casting out vines of power to tangle with my pursuers’ feet. Some had the audacity to resist, drawing on their stolen strength.

  I killed off the weaker ones first, not even paying them much attention as my energy snuffed out their lives on its own. The rest…

  Well, a little late-night exercise didn’t sound all that bad. With my physical and metaphysical strength combined, the hitmen fell one after the other like soldiers slated for death.

  I slowed down when there was just one silhouette left.

  The man was built like a wrestler, with hair cropped short to the scalp and a glint in his eyes that showed no fear. Just satisfaction.

  Ugh. Fights and danger could be excellent aphrodisiacs, but getting off on seeing your buddies cross from this world into the next… I grimaced. Sick motherfucker.

  We circled around each other, taunting and daring, as if we didn’t know how this was going to end. He kept his gaze pinned on me, the arrogance wafting off him in heavy waves. I could see his desire to bleed me and feel my life fade beneath the touch of his fingers as clearly as the silver moon illuminating us from above.

  It would have been a good plan for him, sure. If the inevitable hadn’t happened.

  The asshole’s patience wore thin.

  I blocked his blow when he attacked, then knocked him back with an uppercut and rode the movement until I drove him to the ground. I straddled his hips, my fists connecting with his face, his ribs, his head, over and over again.

  “Tell me the location of your base.” Hit. Hit. Hit. “Where are you keeping the demon?” A rush of demon fire across his skin.

  Then rinse and repeat.

  But the man must have been even further gone than I’d thought, because he only laughed under my never-ending assault, blood bubbling from his lips and staining his chipped teeth. I hit him again for good measure, seriously regretting my lack of knives. He wouldn’t be laughing if I flayed his skin off, inch by slow inch.

  I reeled back my demon fire and brought my fist to his face, but the blow never connected.

  “Your boyfriend’s dying, bitch.” He chortled, spurting up more blood.

  It hit me then. Despite the commotion, despite the wailing of sirens in the distance, Caz hadn’t come out of the house. Shit.

  My fingers dug into the bastard’s throat. With a blaze of power, the hitman fell quiet, a manic smile still on his lips as death whisked away his rotten soul. Trepidation slithered down my spine and weakened my knees to the point where I was swaying. I shot up and ran for the house, throwing the door off the hinges. It hit the wall violently, the sound seeming to echo as I propelled myself through the rooms, hoping to feel Caz’s presence.

  Nothing.

  Swearing long and hard, I rushed upstairs. Flames burned uncontrollably at my fingertips as I kicked in door after door until, finally, I found Caz. He was lying in his bed, looking as if he’d fallen asleep.

  Only he wasn’t breathing.

  Chapter 15

  It felt as if I were split into three separate parts, each of them doing its own thing and making it infinitely harder to keep myself from breaking down.

  My body was numb, taking me towards the bed without any kind of rational command, the hairs on my arms standing on end, and a twitch running repeatedly down my spine. I supposed my mind did play a part in that, the jumbled mess of panic and fear sending echoes of impulses to course through my nervous system, but it didn’t feel like it. There was—there was nothing really there. Or perhaps there was too much.

  It was a miracle I was even still standing. I’d never experienced anything so paralyzing before—something that stretched the frozen mass of my being in so many directions I knew even one additional tug would rip me apart.

  But my magic did what my mind and body—what I—could not.

  It saturated the room without hesitation and seeped through Caz’s pores, invading his flesh. Thoroughly, yet with frightening speed, the altered power of the Kolduny searched every atom of his body and showed me the very bones of the intricate mechanism that was Caz’s life.

  Yet even as my mind eventually calmed and devoted itself to the flow of information, analyzing and comparing what I knew, I simply couldn’t tell what the bastards had done to him. It was some sort of spell; that much at least was evident through the residual touch of magic I sensed. But while I knew my way around wards and metaphysical weapons, this was well beyond my skill to unravel.

  The single consolation I could take lay in that faint heartbeat that reverberated through the ethereal vines and stirred a treacherous flicker of hope—treacherous, because the gentle beat was fading. I swallowed and wrapped my arms around Caz.

  I—I didn’t know how to save him.

  So I did the only thing I could.

  I blasted us into particles.

  My head was spinning by the time we reformed in Liva’s apartment. I hated letting Caz go from my embrace, hated losing the connection to that gentle heartbeat. But I lay him on the bed nonetheless, then rushed out into the living room, all the while praying to the gods Liva hadn’t moved the pendant she kept here. My magic reached the small, circular silver amulet before I even crossed the space. I sent a pulse of power through its co
re, hoping Liva was listening. Hoping she would hear it.

  It was all I had left.

  “What’s wrong?” My sister’s voice sounded at once.

  She’d evanesced right beside me, her cheeks flushed and eyes wide with concern. She must have felt my anguish embedded in the call, and at that moment, I couldn’t have been more grateful for her material empathy, feeding her the information I was unable to put into words.

  Shivering, I grabbed her hand and dragged her into the bedroom before those threads keeping me together unraveled for good. The calming essence of Liva’s magic swept through the room the instant we entered, brushing against my cheeks like phantom wind as she let go of my hand and leaned over his unconscious form. I didn’t as much as breathe as she placed a hand on Caz’s chest and closed her eyes. The moment seemed to last a lifetime, if not more.

  But when she finally looked up at me, her gaze was bright, a dash of a smile blooming in the corners of her lips. “He’ll be fine, Lena. He’ll be fine.”

  The floor slipped from beneath me. I landed in an undignified heap on the ground—and would have probably stayed there if Liva hadn’t pulled me up. My sister wrapped me in a fierce embrace, the warmth of her arms magnified as her magic reached out to mine and whispered its silent reassurance.

  “He’ll be all right.” She pressed a kiss to my temple. “I swear.”

  I stifled a sob and looked at her, still safe in her arms. “What—what was it?”

  “A nasty little bit of dark magic.”

  Before I could question her further, she led me to the bed and sat me down next to Caz’s outstretched form. His chest was moving once again, the beautiful rise and fall infusing me with such relief that tears started to stream down my cheeks.

  “I don’t know whether the spell was designed to only knock him out or kill him, but it would have done the latter if you hadn’t found him in time. It…” She waved a hand through the air, eyes narrowed. “It was almost like an overdose. But he’ll recover. I promise you that.”