The Gathering

by Jennifer Ashley

  He sounded moderately sane, but Hunter knew better than to relax, to believe the worst was over. Hunter held on to Tain as he felt life magic at last begin to trickle through the dark madness that wrapped them in chains of fire.

  Had the pain lessened? For a few seconds, Hunter wasn’t sure. Then he began to hope, and then to fear the hope would be false. This was what Tain had gone through, he realized—hoping for release and the hope dying—every day for seven hundred years.

  After a longer time, Hunter decided the pain really had receded the smallest bit, the Immortals’ healing magic trickling through to soothe hurt, as Adrian had known it would, the clever bastard.

  Hunter also realized the pain would never completely go away. Tain had been so ruined inside that the scars would remain in all of them forever.

  Hunter found himself no longer screaming. He lay on his side, his body bending in half as he continued to hold Tain’s hand to his abdomen, and his own to Darius’s neck. Darius was a tangle of tattooed limbs but he never lost hold of Kalen, nor Kalen of Adrian, and so on around the circle.

  Tain opened his eyes, the terrible light in them gone. He raised his head and looked at Hunter the same way he’d done on mornings a thousand years ago, when he and Hunter had awakened together Goddess-knew-where with hell-pounding hangovers and no memory of how they’d got there.

  “Hell,” he croaked.

  Hunter gave him a faint smile that hurt his mouth. “Hey, little bro. Welcome back.”

  Darkness cut through as Kehksut homed in on them with attention as sharp as a knife. The white light of their circle wavered and dimmed.

  Kehksut didn’t pounce, however—perhaps the demon still didn’t believe Tain could ever break free of his hold. Or, a more worrying idea, Kehksut didn’t care. Which meant Kehksut didn’t believe they could prevail, even all five of them together. Which meant they were in deep shit.

  Hunter eased his hand from Tain’s wrist, his fingers cramped and aching. Darius and Kalen lay on their sides, Kalen curled in on himself. Adrian was on his hands and knees, his eyes empty and tired.

  Tain’s surcoat had reverted from whole and pristine to the blood-stained and torn garment he’d worn on the battlefield with the Unseelies seven hundred years ago. He’d been wearing it when Hunter and Darius had watched him stride back to the castle as though he’d had somewhere important to go.

  Tain looked down at the surcoat in disgust and ripped it from his body, then he heaved off linked mail and the stained tunic beneath it. He stood up, naked, his body whole, the scars the demon had left faded to pink and white lines.

  “Uh, you might want to keep the chain mail,” Hunter said. “We’re in the middle of a battle with a bunch of nasties, if you hadn’t noticed.”

  Tain snarled. “I can’t stand it touching me. Not ever again.” He studied Hunter lying at his feet. “You know, you look like shit.”

  Hunter started to laugh. The laughter hurt, grating him from inside out. Beside him Darius unfolded shakily to his feet and put his arm around Tain. “Welcome back, runt.”

  Adrian hauled himself up beside Tain, unashamedly gathering his brother into his arms. “It’s all right, kid,” he said.

  Kalen rested his arm on Hunter’s shoulder, leaning on him. His face was creased with pain, but for once his eyes looked almost light.

  “We’ll let you make it up to us,” Kalen said, and Hunter and Darius laughed.

  “Don’t listen to them; they’re assholes,” Adrian said. He buried his face in Tain’s hair and held him tight.

  Leda sensed the change even as she swiped the knife Ricco had given her up at another demon who had her pinned. The white light receded from the five Immortals, revealing Darius, Hunter, and Kalen helping each other up, and Tain with his head on Adrian’s shoulder. Because all five warriors were naked, they made a rather delectable picture.

  Despite Kehksut’s attention on them, Leda’s heart lightened. Whatever spell the Immortals had worked had been successful. They’d rescued Tain. They were five again.

  With a huge ancient demon with more power than Leda had ever seen after them. This battle was not over.

  Kehksut opened his mouth and roared out another wave of death magic. The darkness of it struck the werewolves, Valerian, and Mac, weakening the already weak life-magic creatures.

  The maw of death magic began to suck the life magic from the world still faster. The Immortals were weak and disoriented, and the demon knew he had to finish before they regained their strength.

  Aside from the Immortals, Valerian and Mac were the most powerful fighters they had. Leda plunged her knife through the attacking demon and shoved it aside, then she began to crawl toward Valerian. She tried to raise a protective shield around herself, but the drain of life magic made it too difficult to conjure much more than a weak blue light.

  Valerian in his dragon shape lay on his side, helpless, with Sabina as a wolf nudging him with her nose. Mukasa was with her, also trying to rouse the dragon.

  “Christine,” Leda called to the closest witch.

  Christine staggered to Leda, the black-haired young woman haggard and exhausted.

  “Help me with Valerian,” Leda said when Christine reached her. “We might be able to keep him from dying if we help him change back to human form and get him inside the house, where it’s shielded.”

  Christine pushed her hair from her face. “Are you kidding? I couldn’t help a butterfly right now.”

  “We can do it if we pool our magic. What about Lexi? She might help us create a morphing field.”

  Christine scanned the grounds for the black wolf. “I think she’s lost the ability to do any magic right now.”

  “It’s worth a try. Get her, and Amber too. And Mac. We need him.”

  Christine gave Leda a dark look, but limped away, making for Lexi. Kehksut was more interested in the Immortals, who were still holding themselves up on each other, and ignored the witches.

  Leda found Amber and helped her over to Valerian. Amber had blood on her face, her shirt torn, but her eyes blazed anger. Mac fought on, but he saw them waving him over and redoubled his effort to break free of the two demons and hellhound he fought.

  Christine rounded up the black wolf that was Lexi, then Amber and Leda began marking a circle that would encompass the four of them, the dragon, Sabina, and Mukasa, who would not move. Mac finished off the demons, kicked away the hellhound, and came loping over, grinning as though having a good time. He dove inside their circle just before they closed it.

  “Hang on, love.” Mac again produced his guitar out of thin air, its strings crackling and humming with sparkles of magic. “I’ve been working on something.”

  “Are you going to serenade us?” Christine asked, a little testily.

  Mac laughed, a golden sound in all the darkness. “Not quite.”

  Leda clung to Amber’s and Christine’s hands as they threw their magic into the middle of the circle. The pooled life magic didn’t amount to much more than any of them could raise on their own at the best of times, but it was better than nothing. Leda just hoped it would be enough.

  Leda reached heavenward with her senses, snaking past the dense blackness that blotted out the sky, until she found the merest breath of fresh air, a stray gasp from the strong winds of the Pacific. She pulled it through the clearing, sending the wind chimes on Amber’s porch dancing. At the same time, silver tones spilled from Mac’s guitar, chords and melodic runs that wound through Leda’s magic like white-hot fire. It was beautiful and heady, and both peaceful and exciting at the same time.

  She gazed at Mac in astonishment, and Mac the teenager, overlaid with the power of Mac the demigod, grinned at her.

  He winked. “Been working on it a while. One big powerful musical spell. Take whatever you need from it.”

  Leda shot him a grateful smile, then gathered the white magic to her and let it flow into the circle. The other two witches did the same, building power that was euphoric.

>   Outside the circle the demons fought on against the werewolves and humans who had come to help. Ricco or Septimus must have sent out a contingent of vampires, because they joined the fray, fighting the demons, keeping them away from the witches.

  Leda raised her hands. “Mother Goddess restore your children,” she shouted, and Amber and Christine repeated the plea.

  Leda felt Lexi’s magic mixing with theirs, Lexi still a werewolf. But Lexi’s witch self was drawing her fire magic and morph magic from deep within to share among them. The morph field strengthened, and Lexi changed from her wolf shape back into a tall woman with wolf-gray eyes.

  “Oh, nice one,” Mac said, looking her over appreciatively. He earned a growl from Lexi’s throat, which didn’t stop his cocky smile.

  The morph field touched Sabina, who shifted into her blond, tawny-eyed human self and blinked at them tiredly from where she lay next to Valerian. Then Valerian shimmered and at last became a broad-shouldered man. His eyelids fluttered, then he put one hand to his head and groaned.

  The morphing magic of both Sabina and Valerian strengthened the field, mixing with Mac’s music to be intensely powerful. Before Leda could withdraw the magic, it touched Mukasa. The lion’s eyes widened in surprise as his body began to stretch, his tail shrinking to nothing, his ears growing smaller and moving downward on his now-human head.

  After a few moments, a large man with shaggy golden hair, body tight like a wrestler’s, glared at them with tawny eyes.

  “Owwww . . . Thhhhisssss . . . hurrttss.”

  “Oops,” Christine said.

  “Mukasa?” Leda blinked.

  The man worked his jaw as though unused to the sounds coming out of it. “My naaaame is Muuuuukasssa.” He scanned the clearing. “Where issss my friend?”

  His golden gaze lighted on the five Immortals, still barely able to stand, while Kehksut watched them, building himself into something terrible. Mukasa gave a snarl and started off in their direction.

  Leda grabbed for him. “Wait, Mukasa, don’t break the circle . . .”

  Too late. The blue field shimmered and dissolved as the lion-man loped away, stumbling a little until he got the hang of running on two legs.

  Mac took his fingers from the guitar strings, and the magic flowed swiftly back into the instrument. “Someone had better go after him,” he said.

  Leda shoved Sabina and Valerian in the opposite direction, toward the house, which rippled a little in the darkness, its shield holding for now. “Mac, get Valerian inside to recoup. He’s our best fighter; we need him well.”

  “Can’t do it, love,” Mac said, looking even more tired than before. “You need me and my sweet music here.”

  Leda conceded this, and Sabina and Valerian limped toward the house together, met halfway by Pearl who’d dodged demons to bring them blankets.

  Mukasa had almost reached the gathering of Immortals, fixed on Hunter. Kehksut swung around and shot a bolt of death magic at him. Hunter caught the bolt on his sword, which was flaming, but the impact hit him hard. Mukasa let out a loud lion growl from human lips, turning to defend Hunter with his hands curled to claws.

  Almost contemptuously, Kehksut shot another bolt at Mukasa, this one striking the big man in the side. Mukasa went down. Hunter leapt over his body and went after Kehksut, but one more flick of Kehksut’s fingers before he turned away sent Hunter back again. The other four Immortals started to come to his aid, but they moved slowly, still recovering. They didn’t stand a chance against Kehksut, not yet.

  “Five witches,” Leda yelled. “We need Samantha!”

  Samantha had recovered from her fall and was fighting hard, standing back to back with Ricco and slashing out with a knife.

  Mac raced to help them, holding his guitar carefully by its neck, and pushed Samantha toward Leda. “Go,” he cried.

  Without word, the four witches joined hands and ran toward Hunter and Mukasa. Leda grabbed Samantha in passing, dragging her along.

  “Five witches,” Leda yelled at Hunter, reaching him.

  Hunter looked up at her, his face haggard. “What about them?”

  “I don’t know! I thought you’d figured it out by now.”

  “I thought when Tain was restored to us, everything would be better.” He glared at Adrian, who shrugged and shook his head. Amber had gone to Adrian and now stood in the circle of his arm.

  “It is better,” Leda said. “I’m still alive and so are you.”

  “Good point.” Hunter snaked one arm around Leda and pulled her against him for a kiss. Nothing much wrong with his physical strength.

  “I think I understand,” Tain said behind Hunter.

  The red-haired warrior stood the same height as Hunter and was a little broader of shoulder. Now that the madness had left him, Leda could see that he was as attractive as the rest of them, with eyes blue as a clear lake. He had a faint curve to his lips that made him look as though he could turn a devastating smile on a lucky woman at any time.

  “My,” Samantha said appreciatively to Leda. “He cleans up nice.”

  “We need the five goddesses,” Tain said.

  “They’re not here,” Samantha answered, making a show of looking around at the attacking demons and the life-magic defenders. “In case you haven’t noticed, not much goddess action in this grove.”

  Tain’s gaze moved to her. “You are still defiant.”

  “You remember that, do you?”

  “I remember everything.”

  The two shared a look, Samantha’s dark eyes meeting his blue ones.

  “The witches will represent the goddesses,” Tain said. “Five Immortals, five witches, five goddesses. You will understand.”

  He turned away abruptly and the other Immortals except Hunter went after him. Christine, Amber, and Lexi went with them, each attached to her Immortal. Samantha trailed behind them uncertainly.

  Mukasa started to come around, golden eyes blinking in the harsh light. “Hunterrrr.”

  “Rest easy my friend.” Hunter touched Mukasa’s shoulder, trickling some of his life magic into him. “You’ll be back in your right form in no time.”

  Mukasa gave Hunter an anguished look. “This body is . . . ugly.”

  Hunter laughed, a wonderful sound in the hell whirling around them. He hauled Leda to him, arm firmly around her waist, and took her with him to where his brothers and the other witches waited.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Kehksut watched the drama, vastly entertained. The Immortals still thought they could win, despite all evidence to the contrary. He couldn’t say the goddesses hadn’t tried with them. The brothers had almost succeeded, but not quite.

  Kehksut knew he’d lost Tain. He’d suspected he would, knowing that the Immortals and their witch lovers would eventually stumble upon the secret of freeing Tain. But it didn’t matter. Kehksut had sucked Tain dry, and now he was stronger than the five Immortals put together.

  What the little witches did in their rituals couldn’t touch him. The Immortals had weakened themselves saving their brother, and now they’d be easier to trap, a fact they did not yet understand.

  Kehksut knew the truth. Love didn’t mean strength—it meant weakness, vulnerability.

  He watched the Immortals form another circle, this time each standing behind the other, facing clockwise, each reaching to the middle of the circle with his right hand, their hands touching. Tain ended up facing Kehksut, and Kehksut’s former beloved sent him a look of pure hatred. Ah, well, Kehksut thought. It was fun while it lasted.

  Each Immortal stretched out his left hand and clasped that of a witch: Adrian to Amber, Darius to Lexi, Kalen to Christine, Hunter to Leda, Tain to Samantha. Five points of the star, five Immortals, five witches. How very intriguing.

  “So what do we do now?” Hunter yelled above the din of the battle. “The hokey pokey?”

  “What’s the hokey pokey?” Darius shouted back. “A spell?”

  “Something like that,” Lexi, the
werewolf-witch, answered.

  “We focus,” Leda said. “We concentrate on the pentacle as a whole, as you did when you saved Tain.”

  Kehksut watched, interested. He felt the life magic rising in the Immortal brothers, building in the contact of their hands. The magic flowed out through the witches, then connected between witch and witch. The witches raised a white sphere over them all, a thick concentration of pure life magic.

  Almost. Kehksut smiled. There was a flaw, a chink—two chinks. Samantha, being half demon opened a way, as did the death magic Leda had drunk into herself. The two small flaws gave him his chance. Poor fools.

  Kehksut let fly a blast of death magic. The dark snake of it slid in through Samantha and Leda and exploded the nice star-circle they’d created. Kehksut laughed in pure enjoyment as the witches cried out, and Immortals and women landed hard, scattered. He twined one tendril of magic around Samantha, the easiest to hold, as she was the darkest, and whisked her high into the air.

  Samantha beat at the rope of magic twined around her middle, struggling for breath. Kehksut enjoyed himself crushing her slowly, her life essence dying in a wash of magic and pain.

  “No!”

  The cry ripped from Tain’s throat. What faced Kehksut was a warrior wrapped in a blaze of white, his bronze swords gleaming fire. Kehksut broke the rope of death magic holding Samantha, and she fell, hitting the ground with a crunch of bone. Kalen and Christine, the closest, ran to her, but Kehksut was finished with her.

  Tain came for Kehksut. Hunter and Darius started to follow him, but Adrian, their leader, stopped them.

  Idiots. Kehksut blasted Tain with death magic. Tain fell, but climbed quickly to his feet, wiping blood from his face.

  “Do you understand nothing?” Tain shouted up at Kehksut. “You’ve lost.”

  “No, I have won,” Kehksut said calmly. “The life magic is almost gone. I have five Immortals in my power who will hold enough life magic in the world to keep it from draining altogether, to ensure that death magic can still exist. I never meant for you to die, my love, but for you to suffer for eternity. With your brothers.”