Rage: A New Adult Urban Fantasy (Spelldrift: Coven of Fire Book 3)

by Sierra Cross

  She was telling me to use the power of my Dominion Gene. Marley said I had the gift. I could do it, I could wrest my aunt’s powers. Invite my aunt’s dark magic into my body. I’d never used the gene’s power intentionally—and the two times I’d used it instinctively it had overpowered me. But in theory I could try.

  “Don’t you dare,” Liv yelled. “Dark witch, remember?”

  Matt gave a slight shake of his head. But I was out of options.

  “Fuck,” Asher said, unable to contain his frustration. “Just, fuck.”

  I propped myself up on my elbow. If I took my aunt’s magic in too deeply, it could be forever entwined with my own. I could be permanently scarred. Tears staining her face, Aunt Jenn’s eyes implored me. Using what little range of motion she had, my aunt mouthed, Wrest my magic.

  Bonaventura looked up at me…hopeful? Against the odds, he was still fighting off death’s grip. Did he know what my aunt was asking? Was he looking to me to save him? The gale force pushed Liv back a foot. We were losing ground. “What choice do we have?” I shouted into the gale.

  Asher let out a guttural groan that I took as assent. Liv nodded.

  Aunt Jenn remained tethered on that dais. The storm raged around me. Liv struggled to stay standing.

  I tried to remember the bits of information I’d read about in my mother’s tome. But it was too loud to think; the ancient words jumbled in my head. I closed my eyes to shut out the mad battle that was whipping around me. Diving inside myself, I found silence like the peace at the bottom of a deep pool. It was the seat of my power. I could visualize it, a glowing golden globe of energy. I fumbled to find a way to turn on the magnet at my center. It evaded me, but I persisted. Somehow I caught hold of it with my mind and like flipping a switch I activated the power. I was ready to draw the power into me. I just had to zero in on it.

  I returned my focus to my body and emerged back into the cacophony of magic and violence raging around me. I stepped beyond my coven bond to face the full storm of it head on. Green, gold, red, blue, the swirl of energy, impossible to separate. I forced my brain to concentrate on red, one thread in particular. I felt my aunt in it. The crimson power was bunched and tied around her. But no lock could keep me from this. I willed it to me. A river of red rushed at me. Would it taint me forever? Was this all part of some sick plan of hers, to turn me at least?

  Didn’t matter, this was our only hope.

  In my mind’s eye, I imagined a door opening and let the flow of red enter my sphere of magic, heading toward my seat of power.

  A surge of dark power entered me with a cutting stinging pain, like swallowing razor blades. The pain was so great I thought my aunt had just killed me. My eyes sprang open, and I saw her mouthing, Stop fighting it! She was right, fighting would only exhaust me. But I didn’t want this to be a part of me. I didn’t want it to control me like Tenebris’ magic did. More than the pain, I was afraid of being hijacked.

  But if I didn’t take that risk, we lost now.

  I jumped off a fifty-foot high dive into the sea of dark magic that was swimming through me. And the knives turned to batteries. I was energized. Hopping to my feet, I pooled all my magic into our coven bond and shot it back out again. This time it was supercharged. My magic wasn’t red or a diluted melded orange. My gold magic stayed gold, and there was a separate stream of red flowing through me. Asher tucked in tight on my left side, Liv followed suit tucking in on my right. Together we formed a wall of magic, blasting a firehose of power at the green fog, slicing a hole right through it. The Caedis battled back, but it was fruitless, we were too powerful. As the Caedis failed, the magic of her lassos faded to glowing green pieces and dissolved. Matt stumbled forward, taking a knee to regroup. My aunt looked on, spent. A small smile formed on her lips and she collapsed to the floor.

  With a loud boom, the two competing spell mists burst into nothingness. And the silence that followed was overwhelming.

  We’d done it. We’d beat Alana back. Matt leapt off the dais and made his way toward us As he backed through the crowd, he raised his arms and tried to pool his magic with ours, but the Caedis’s lasso had weakened him. Only a small stream of golden-blue power emanated from his fingertips. Luckily, I still had the augmented power flowing through me.

  The remaining magicborn in the room looked battle fatigued. The less injured were trying to carry the more gravely injured out of the courtroom, where I hoped medic witches were waiting to treat them. I couldn’t tell how many of Alana’s Neqs remained, but there were some red uniforms among the fallen. We had to have made a big dent in her army. We could capture Alana, bring her down, and get her to the Demongate.

  I circled my hand over my head to my coven to head forward and surround her. But before they could move, Alana tossed a handful of small globes, slightly larger than spellbeads. It happened so fast, my eyes barely tracked the motion. The glowing green balls beelined toward us as if they had a mission. Moving in perfect unison, they landed in an exact circle around us and ignited into a web of chartreuse flames, forming a crisscross cage of translucent fire around us, trapping us where we stood.

  It didn’t just hold us in…it was compressing us, forcing us closer together. My magic was tamped down, my breath caught in my lungs. I was fighting gravity to remain on my feet. I lost the fight and fell to my knees. Good thing, because the net was getting smaller. My hair singed before I could get out of the way of the contracting web. Liv fell on her back. Matt and Asher took a knee.

  I pushed what magic I had left against the web that confined us. It wasn’t enough to break it, but it was enough to stop its contracting. The dregs of my aunt’s red magic flowed from me, razor blades cutting me on the way out. Liv and Matt groaned in pain as I drew from our shared well of coven power. Asher, having already used up insane amounts of magic today, began to dry heave. Still I pushed with what I could scrabble together.

  Not a dent. Damn.

  I’d reached the bottom of my reserves. My coven had nothing left. My aunt lay passed out. She had no magic left to send me anyway. I channeled what little power I had into keeping the net from closing in on us, but how many more seconds could I keep this up?

  Bonaventura, his body so close to the net it was singed like a bug caught in a zapper. He was barely holding on, but managed one word, “Drink.” A wet and disgusting command that came to me through his blood-stained teeth.

  I looked at Asher. The net was pressed against his skin, burning him, branding him. My hold on the net was slipping. Was this the way we’d die? Liv’s eyes fluttered and then she passed out. “What do I do?” I asked Matt. Pain had painted his face, drawn it tight. With the strength he had left, he shifted his position to block me from Alana’s view.

  Bile rose in my throat. My stomach seized…and I made my decision. Whether my body liked it or not, I would drink. Bonaventura leaned into the green fire web. His skin seared and healed, over and over, his open neck pressed right against our cage. My lips met his cool skin. I fought the urge to wretch as I pressed my lips to his neck and tasted his blood. The flavor of raw meat, old copper, sweet tang, all exploded across my tongue as the viscous liquid slid down my throat. My lips formed a suction where the artery still pumped. The thick liquid hit my stomach and my body fought to expel it. No, I wouldn’t let that happen. A massive surge of energy exploded in my head. A power plant had taken up residence and pumped out nuclear-strength wattage.

  The vampire’s pulse fluttered under my lips. I was taking too much. Forcibly, I broke the seal. My whole body throbbing with unfathomable power. I erupted to standing. Green knives of pain sliced through me. Asher screamed as I continued, my blood dripping down on him. But my tissue knit back together as quickly as it was carved. Oh my god. I was invincible. A war cry rang out from my soul and ripped the chartreuse web to smithereens. My body burned and healed just like Bonaventura’s had done.

  I felt like I was partaking of every party drug on earth. The muscles of my magic were pumped, bulg
ing. The room was too bright, my senses too piqued. The world was too slow for my brain.

  Freed from the net, Liv drew in greedy breaths. Asher’s body collapsed in relief. Matt lay on his back struggling to take in air.

  Blood still poured from Bonaventura’s wounds. I bent down and pressed the skin of his neck back together as I drew my tongue across the gash. It began to knit instantly.

  My coven was spent. I was going to have to take Alana on my own. My gaze met the Caedis’s, and she looked back at me with what looked like respect, for the first time. That’s right, bitch, I’m coming for you. I leaped up, and gravity itself seemed to yield. Feeling like I was operating a superhero avatar instead of my body, I sailed right at her.

  “Take the coven!” she commanded. I was almost to her when the demon hoard bombarded my coven. I turned to see green fire reigning down on them. How could I save them and stop Alana?

  The vampire blood had also strengthened my magic. I threw a wave of deflection, but I didn’t realize my own power it was moving too fast, its power too sharp. It would take out my coven along with Neqs that were blasting them. I called it back. Like a boomerang it flew straight back at me with amazing speed. I ducked. Alana leaped sideways, but my magic ripped through her arm, severing it just above the wrist and slicing into her ribs. The Caedis let out a scream of agony and flew against the carved wood of the bench. Like a limp noodle, she slid to the floor, leaving a blood trail on the wood. The blood was so thick and dark I was sure the magic had ripped through the body’s liver.

  No! That was not the killing blow I meant to send.

  Another wave of Neqs surrounded my coven. Where were they all coming from? Callie stepped between me and Alana. I could hear my coven’s howls of pain.

  I could either stop whatever Callie was about to do or save my coven.

  I chose my coven.

  Leaping back across the room, I began to wail on the Neqs that were attacking my coven mates. Something snapped in my brain. I grabbed at the closest Neq and picked up its massive body. It was as light as a paper doll in my grasp. I ripped, shaking and screaming, showering myself in blood and guts. I couldn’t stop myself. I grabbed another. I was blind fury surging forward. I was death.

  Even as I was the bringer of death, I was aware that the Splinter had picked up Alana and hurled a spellbead at the ground. They vanished in a cloud of smoke.

  Hands were on my body. Big hands, their touch electric. A voice was calling me back. Calling me to be human again. I spun, my hands quaking with vengeance. I lifted the massive body.

  “Alexandra. Put me down.” The voice was calm. I knew this voice. This man. Matt.

  My brain cleared. I was holding my guardian above my head and my muscles didn’t balk. What was I? Goo dripped into my eyes. What had I done?

  I set Matt down. Tremors took over my body, my body rocked so hard I was sure bones would break. Everything slowed. Blurs rushed past me. Matt’s arms held me tight, he was whispering in my ear words that made no sense but calmed me nonetheless. In my peripheral vision, to my relief, I could see medic witches tending to the fallen. Fidei officers were arresting dark witches. Fidei custodians clearing the dust piles. The battle was over.

  A chill had settled in my bones, but heat danced on my skin. My heart hammered in my chest, but my breath was slow and measured. I struggled to concentrate as sensations warred in my body. A crisp authoritative female voice floated over me. Larch. This was her office, framed certificates and family photos on the wall. My gaze landed on a smiling picture of Larch and another woman posing in hiking clothes, the Olympic rainforest moss-draped trees behind them. That other woman looked so familiar...it was Kat, the agent Matt had saved in the alley. This was Larch’s family. Maybe Matt had done Larch a greater favor than we realized.

  Larch was questioning us, notebook and recorder on the table. The coup had failed, but its aftermath was just beginning. Who was in on it? Were they plotting another attack?

  Sitting across from me, Liv and Asher were slowly recouping strength. Matt sat at my side, his hand squeezing my knee as if he had no plans to ever let it go. I stared down at the bits of demon guts that speckled my arms, covered my hands.

  “Alix, here, let me…” My aunt brushed them off like lint. She’d come to and was sitting on my left. The only reason she was sitting here, free, was because of her deft team of legal minds. She was living proof that money and power were the key to escaping any bind. Yet something about sharing her magic had made me feel a tiny bit closer to her. I hated to admit it, but I was kinda glad she wasn’t being carted off to prison.

  “Miss Hill.” Larch’s prim voice cut through my inner haze. “Are you quite all right?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” I was not in the same zip code as all right. But like a drunk teenager trying to pass as sober in front of my parents, I knew enough to fake it as best I could. Besides, drinking vampire blood was liable to get me in a hell of a lot more trouble than sneaking vodka from the liquor cabinet.

  My body felt so right, I knew it had to be wrong. I held onto the only thing that would ground me. Matt.

  “The Caedis known as Alana is…” Larch shook her head. “Current surveillance shows she’s just gone. No energy signature to follow. No nothing. My people are on it. But I’m hoping you have some intel that might assist in the search.”

  “As I stated before, she and I were never allied.” For the umteenth time, Aunt Jenn repeated the line of bullshit I had no doubt was crafted by her legal counsel. “So I would have no insight into her plans. I was clearly a victim, just as much as the rest of the Council.”

  “Clearly,” Larch said without a trace of irony. I had to hand it to her, she was good at keeping her professional mask on. “What about you four?” she said, but she kept her eyes on Matt.

  “I have to be the one to put down that demon.” Matt’s gaze was steadfast. His strength seemed to be coming back to him.

  “If you have information, you need to tell us now.” Larch leaned forward in her chair. “Do you know the Caedis’s location?”

  “I have an idea,” Matt said. “She was injured. She can’t do anything without healing first.” The demon’s lair at Millennium Dynamics, I thought. “As I said in court, I’m the best shot at putting her down.”

  “This the Fidei’s jurisdiction. End of story.”

  “A big op just leaves more room for her to bolt,” Matt said. “This is personal. And that’s the way I’m going to take her out.”

  “You may be ROR,” Larch said, but there was no punch to her words. “But you are not on active duty. I can’t have you in the field.”

  “I think.” Asher ventured into negotiation mode. “That my coven just earned some goodwill here.”

  “You know Matt’s right,” Liv said. “He’s her Caedis Kryptonite. She’ll never stop wanting to turn him. You won’t get within a hundred yards of her, but he can walk right up and kill her. ”

  Larch leaned back, rubbing her neck as she considered our argument.

  Aunt Jenn sat quietly. I suspected she approved of our plan but was smart enough to know her saying so out loud wouldn’t help our cause.

  “This is the reason the Council agreed to release Matt,” I added. “No disrespect, but whether you give us permission or not, we’re doing this.”

  Larch hemmed for a moment, then nodded.

  We stood outside my car, looking more like a hospital ward than a deadly coven.

  Liv snatched the car keys out of my hand. “No driving for you, vampire girl. Where’re we headed?” she asked Matt.

  “They can’t get into the cave, our wards are too good,” Matt said with certainty. “They have to be at the portal room at Millennium Dynamics.”

  “That’s where Callie took Alana to heal, before,” I added.

  “Assuming Alana is there,” Asher said. “How the hell do you suggest we get her to the Demongate… alive?” It was an excellent question. If we killed the Caedis and its essence wasn’t within rea
ch of the Demongate, Alana’s soul would never be freed from the Void.

  “Well, let’s find her first,” Matt said, “and then figure it out as we go.” I blinked at him. Was my guardian, the consummate strategist, really okay with winging it? He seemed calm and collected, but I knew better. Freeing his mother, with almost nothing to go on, would be the most important battle of his life.

  As usual, we were hurtling toward our destiny with nothing more than a shadow of a plan.

  Chapter Twenty

  No sooner had we driven past the gates and into the Millennium Dynamics parking lot than I knew Matt was right. My enhanced senses picked up a swirl of stinging dark magic. Razor and barbed wire scraped across my skin, all with an undertone of prickling Neq energy.

  Aunt Jenn materialized at the base of the loading dock with her second-string minions by her side—a dozen burly Neqs, several dark witches, and a smattering of dark mages. After her security forces were decimated at the courthouse, I gathered this was all she had left.

  We were an unholy alliance. Everything about this joint venture was wrong.

  Down we marched, a force of salvation and revenge. Into the bowels of the earth, following the smell of sulfur that burned my nostrils. Sweat bloomed all over my body. My wardsuit was torn, and the protection power blinked in and out. It had held up well past the manufacturers’ promise—I reminded myself to send them a thank you note. But would it hold for any more blasts?

  A low chanting emanated from the basement, growing louder the closer we got. How many people, or demons, were down there? Were they performing a ritual?

  We turned a corner and firelight flickered off the stone walls, chanting echoing all around us as the tunnel narrowed. The doorway to the lair was right ahead of us.

  The walkway was too narrow for us all to rush through. Alana’s Neqs would pick us off before we got halfway into the chamber.