I stood up and faced him from inside my doorway. Salt and pepper hair, distinctively Japanese features, exceptional height. His camel hair coat caught a spray of powder from the snow and flapped in the breeze that chilled me to the bone.
“I’ve recently learned Seraphina is your niece,” I said, lowering my chin and narrowing my eyes.
His thin lips pulled back. “Yes. I believe you’ve already met.”
Seraphina wiggled her leather-gloved fingers, her fitted wool coat undulating against her legs in the winter chill. “Nice to see you again, Grateful, especially considering I don’t have to eat your cooking.”
I squared my shoulders and drew Nightshade from her sheath. The blade glowed blue although I could barely tell in the daylight. “Then, may I presume you are uncle Kai?” I was pleased with myself for remembering what Seraphina had said about her family.
Mr. Nekomata nodded. “I am Kai.”
“Good. I always like to know someone’s name before I kill them. Any next of kin I should notify after I slay both of you?”
He cracked his neck, then turned his chin slowly toward the woods across the street from the house. Monstrous creatures stepped out from between the trees. Even from a distance I could make out sharp teeth and claws on hairy cat-shaped bodies the size of saber-toothed tigers, all with forked tails—the nekomata in their shifted forms. Kai had brought an army. “These are my kin.”
I muttered a curse my brain tossed out for me like a life vest. Kai bent slightly at the waist, as if a minor discomfort had washed through him. Any sign of distress was gone in an instant. He loosed a patronizing laugh. Why couldn’t the solstice happen at midnight? I was my weakest during daylight hours.
“Looks like there will be a meal today after all,” Seraphina said. “And you’re the main course.”
The nekomata closed in. I could see them clearly now: long tawny fur, black stripes, and spots over their flank, and a long, cougar-style snout that would undoubtedly lock on to you and never let go.
“Join us, Witch, or die,” Seraphina demanded.
“You say ‘die’ like it’s a big deal or something. I’ve died lots of times, bitch, and you’re not worthy of a repeat.” With a sneer, I kicked the silver bowl inside and slammed the door, locking it behind me. I looked down at the contents of the bowl. Orange. The yolk had permeated my blood; the expiration date on my enchantment had officially come to pass.
Chapter 26
Solstice
Nightshade in hand, I bolted up the stairs. My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Chloe, would have been very disappointed as the razor sharp length of bone in my hand was much worse than running with scissors. Behind me, the nekomata pounded on the door, hurrying my feet. I ducked into my room sending out mental vibes with everything I had, calling Rick and Poe to me for help.
The raven flew full speed toward the glass and I popped open the window just in time to let the streak of feathers inside.
“They’ve surrounded the house!” Poe squawked.
“No shit. Where’s Rick? Did you see him coming?”
Poe shook his head. “He wasn’t anywhere. Maybe inside the house?”
“You tried the door?”
“Briefly. I knocked. He didn’t answer.”
“Crap. I knew he was angry, but I didn’t think he’d completely give up on me.”
“What’s he angry about?”
“No time, Poe. We’ve got to stop Kai and Seraphina.”
“How do you plan to do that?”
I poked my tongue into my cheek and fiddled with Nightshade’s hilt. “I’m going to run Kai through with my blade and send him to Hell.”
“And the rest of the nekomata?”
With a huff that lowered my shoulders and blew back his feathers, I said, “I’m going to kill as many as I can before I die.”
We stared at each other until the pounding on the door was joined with an ominous crack. I suspected it was the wood beginning to split. I repositioned Nightshade and moved for the door.
“May I make a suggestion?” Poe interrupted. “A self-protection spell might keep you alive a few minutes longer. Some magical armor or accelerated healing might be in order.”
Two bounding steps and the kiss I planted on the raven’s head made him cringe away from my grip.
“Control yourself, woman!”
“You’re the best, Poe.”
“Make haste, dear witch, or we are nekomata fodder.”
I tore my phone from my pocket, trying to ignore the time (11:38 - shit!) and started searching my Book of Light app. No healing spells; I hadn’t made it to “H” yet. But there was one for armor under “A”, and best of all it was a simple incantation using Nightshade as a magical amplifier.
Extending the blade in front of me, I spoke the incantation but the power flaked impotently around me. “This daylight is killing me!”
“Would you like me to help? Familiars are known to amplify magic.”
“Um, no, I’d rather be torn apart. Get over here!”
Poe circled the room and landed on my head, digging his talons into my scalp.
“Ow.”
“Trust me it will sharpen your focus. Say the incantation.”
“Alligo corpus meum impenitribility meorum mucro.” I pronounced each word distinctly. The magic obeyed. A swirl of darkness came from the corner of the room, circled my feet then bit into my skin. “Oh!” It slithered up my calves to my knees and continued north until I could feel the spell heavy in my eyelids. Poe jumped down to my shoulder and for the first time his claws didn’t hurt.
“Gives new meaning to growing a thick skin,” Poe quipped.
“Let’s do this thing.”
Below us the heavy sound of something barreling through the front door, spurred me into action. I raced for the stairs. Poe took flight, leading the way. The beast who’d broken down the door shook off the remnants of wood, glass, and hinges and headed for me with a growl. Thickly muscled shoulders narrowed to sinewy haunches, but I focused on the teeth and the clack of the monster’s claws with each step on the wooden stairs.
“Big mistake,” I said to the beast, narrowing my eyes and opening my arms to welcome his attack. “Haven’t you ever seen a horror movie? Never be the first to enter a haunted house.”
The thing leapt for me and I flattened to the stairs, stabbing rather than swinging my blade. I sliced into its neck. Paws the size of my head swiped at my shoulders and chest, while deep red blood, almost purple, gushed over me. Without the enchantment, I would have been shredded.
Ach-ach-achhh. The nekomata choked above me, drool dripping from its fangs and running down my cheek. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a second one enter the house. My only blessing was the shifted nekomata were so large they could only fit through the door one at a time. I placed both boots on Number One’s stomach and heaved. It toppled off of me, somersaulting down the stairs into the entering pack.
Poe was circling the head of Number Two, trying to distract the beast and slow the entrance of Three while I got to my feet. With one swipe of its paw, Two sent Poe flying into the dining room. I heard his body thump against the far wall. My hand found purchase behind my head, and I pushed, flipping up onto the middle stair and immediately flinging myself over the banister. I landed squarely on my feet in front of the advancing pack. Nightshade sang through the air, decapitating Two.
“Poe are you okay?” I yelled as Three clamored over the mountain of Two’s body to get to me. No answer. The beast charged. I waited until the last second, then executed a sideways aerial cartwheel, landing on my feet behind the kitchen island. The nekomata were big and brutal but not agile. In a wasted moment, while Three scrambled to change its trajectory, I buried Nightshade in its skull. There was no time to celebrate the kill.
Four thrashed at me over the top of the counter, crashing through the pots and pans hanging from the pot rack, like a freight train pulling into the station. A paw rebounded off my neck. Holy crow! My armor had
protected me from a certain torn jugular. The creature’s surprise at my durability bought me a precious second of time. I extracted my blade from Three and swiped it through the center of my attacker’s jaw. The nekomata stopped abruptly as if it had run out of batteries. I exhaled and the top of its head slid off onto the floor. The beast crumpled.
Poe chose that moment to swoop through the family room and onto the counter behind me. “I’m good!” he announced, stretching a wing that hung awkwardly from his body.
No time for a reunion. Five advanced through the door more cautiously, eyeing the bodies littering the foyer, the hallway, the living room, the kitchen. Lowering its head it stalked me, weaving right, then left, deciding how to best get around the island to reach me. It chose left. I leapt straight up in a leap that would have been impossible for a human, landing with a thump on top of the island. The beast pounced. I aimed for its heart but missed and sliced into its abdomen.
“Ahhh,” I yelled with the effort of rolling the creature through the air. Nightshade slipped from its flesh. The body landed with a bone cracking thump on its back on the wood floor. I hopped down from the island and positioned my blade over its heart. I paused as the body shivered, twisted, bones snapping and muscles stretching. When the nekomata had shifted, Seraphina stared up at me, hand gripping the wound in her side.
“You can’t kill me, Grateful,” she whined. “You’ll break your daddy’s heart.” Her strange green eyes locked onto mine.
“Didn’t he tell you? You’re not his type.” I leaped into the air, landing one boot on her chest the other on the floor, and sank my blade straight through her ribs, directly into her heart. She writhed beneath my boot for a moment, half shifting before the light in her eyes dulled. Her body went limp. I kicked it off my blade.
I turned to face the door but no more entered. “There were more than five, Poe. Where are the rest?” The sound of shattering glass below us answered my question. I bolted for the door to the basement, throwing it open with enough force for it to bounce off the far wall. I could hear a struggle and the sound of crunching glass under scampering feet.
“Do it!” Kai ordered.
When I reached the bottom, I came up short at what I saw. Soleil! Kai stood next to the pushed aside pool table at the base of the vault, one hand around the fairy’s long, graceful neck, the other gripping her hands behind her back. Her eyes flicked to mine for a split second before a lightning fast blast of energy threw me against the wall, knocking Nightshade from my hand. Before I’d known what hit me, Naill, Anna Bathory’s pet leprechaun, had straddled my chest, knees over my arms, and dagger pressed to my throat. “Don’t move a muscle, Hecate, or I will cut your throat out.”
“How are you here?” I blurted, eyes flashing to Kai and Soleil. “I thought nekomata hated vampires and you Naill, are definitely aligned with the vampires.” I made the revelation for Kai’s benefit, but he didn’t even flinch.
“You are blonde, aren’t you?” Naill said. “Why do you think Anna and I helped the nightmares escape the graveyard? The nekomata have to open the vault, and you are right, they hate vampires. Fortunately, the clan is known to blindly follow their leader. A little leprechaun magic and our vaporous friend ensured Kai would be sympathetic to our cause.”
“Kai’s possessed by a nightmare?”
“A nightmare that owes Anna a favor.”
“And expects a reward,” possessed Kai said, pushing Soleil by the neck toward the vault.
Naill nodded at Kai. “You must do it now. The Solstice is upon us. Her Majesty will have your head should you fail.”
Trapped under Naill’s knife, I searched the room for Poe.
“Looking for this?” Naill pointed at a sack to my right containing the thrashing form of a raven sized object. Fuck, I hated that ginger. How did his tiny legs move so fast? “Don’t get any ideas. He can’t break through the bag. It’s soaked in Helleborine.”
“Mr. Helleborine! You!”
Naill laughed wickedly.
“Don’t do it,” I begged Soleil and was rewarded with a stubby hand over my mouth.
Kai thrust her forward, and I watched his grip tighten around her neck, reddening the skin there. Soleil’s eye’s filled with tears. She was holding back, I could tell, but it was painful.
“Now, Kai!” Naill demanded.
The nekomata dug in harder, until Soleil’s neck began to bleed, but the blood was not red like human blood. Soleil’s blood was liquid sunshine, so bright I had to partially close my eyes as it dripped onto the stone vault and sizzled like acid.
Kai’s voice filled the space as he spoke the incantation, and Soleil glowed ever brighter under his assault. I closed my eyes fully and sent out my strongest plea yet for Rick’s help, but nothing came down our connection. Either he couldn’t hear me, or he wasn’t answering.
A mighty crack echoed through the room.
I opened my eyes to see the dusty, cobweb covered interior of a crypt exposed to Soleil’s light. Before I could react, Naill pounded the hilt of his dagger into my temple, so hard my teeth clanked together and my skull bounced against the tile floor with a resounding crack. I fought against the temptation to pass out, sure that the last of my armor enchantment had dissipated with the force of surviving the onslaught.
Unable to move, I watched Naill push Kai and Soleil aside and hop into the crypt, emerging a moment later with a book powerful enough to fill the space between us with a heavy, palpable dread. This wasn’t just a grimoire. The darkness leaching from it pushed Soleil’s light back inside her skin. The fairy moaned and listed to the side in Kai’s grip.
In an army crawl, I pulled myself forward for a better view. I recognized the corner of the tome as a shoulder blade. A human spine bound the pages. Slivers of bone framed the cover made from leathered human skin. I’d heard the pages were also made of skin, and the writing, not ink but blood. The book appeared to have a clasp or lock of some kind constructed of a human jaw and other, smaller bones.
Naill chuckled wickedly and held The Book of Flesh and Bone above his head like a prize.
“Let me see it,” Kai demanded, casting Soleil to the floor and reaching for what he wanted. “Give it to me.”
“Patience. The mistress will be here to open it at dusk.”
“Bathory had better remember our deal. The first spell must be used for me, then the book is yours.” A flash of black fog passed behind Kai’s irises.
“Of course, that is the deal. Soon you will have your own flesh and the mistress will have true immortality.”
Silently, I crawled forward, reaching for Nightshade. I pulled myself up on the pool table and Naill made a face like a cockroach just poked its head out of his macaroni salad.
“You’re Mr. Helleborine. You helped kill the last Hecate,” I stated dumbly, possessed by some unexplainable need for closure. “You and Anna were the ones helping Marcus from the outside. And now you’re trying to kill me again.”
Kai tilted his head and his eyes flicked to something behind me. I followed his gaze to see Naill grinning, his hand charged with green energy. Holy crow that little guy was fast!
“Fuck,” I mumbled before he zapped me with his magic and a bag slipped over my head, plunging me into darkness. Yeah, that protection enchantment was definitely done for, and probably, so was I.
Chapter 27
Ceremony
I came around but didn’t open my eyes. Better possessed-Kai didn’t know I was conscious. Cold, so cold. As I shivered, my back bounced against a rock hard surface. I was bound, hands, waist, and ankles. Damn, I was getting sick of waking up bound. Listening carefully, all I could make out was wind across my ear, the crackle of burning wood, and icy wet hitting my skin. I was outside, maybe freezing to death.
“Are you alive?” Soleil’s voice whispered.
I cracked my eyes open. The dim, winter sky above me dribbled tiny snowflakes that stung my eyes and cheeks. I blinked them away and turned my head to the left. Soleil
was tied to a tree a few feet away from me, and she looked like hell, as if someone had beaten her within an inch of her life, then smothered her in mud.
“Deep water mud dulls my power. I’d warm you but I can’t even muster a faint glow,” she said sadly.
With a ridiculous amount of effort, I strained my neck to look down my body. I was tied to a stone slab, about three feet off the ground. I couldn’t see much else except that we were in the woods somewhere. A small fire to my right barely nudged back the frosty weather, but because of my restraints, I couldn’t see beyond the topmost flicker of the flames.
I whispered to Soleil, “Can you see what I’m tied to? Is there any way for me to free myself?”
She shook her head. “You are bound to a stone altar. She plans to cut out your heart.” Her voice sounded hopeless, and a shiny gold tear cut through the mud on her cheek.
“My heart? Wha—can you see Nightshade?” I struggled against my restraints.
“Shhh.” Soleil warned me to calm down with stern eyes. “Your blade is resting on top of the tied bag that holds your bird, about fifteen feet to your left, guarded by a sleeping leprechaun.”
Shit. Think. Think. Think. Think. “Is there anyone else here at the moment?” I asked, trying to picture our surroundings.
Soleil swallowed and another star-bright tear carved down her face. “Your caretaker.”
“Rick? Where?” My head flip-flopped on the stone, the back of my skull aching from the effort.
“Shhh,” Soleil chastised again. “Above and behind you.”
I arched against the unforgiving ropes and tilted my head back as far is it would go. What I saw broke my heart. Rick was unconscious, imprisoned in a medieval metal cage that dangled from a tree branch at least twenty feet above the ground. Dried blood was caked on the bars, and even with my impaired vision, I could see long wounds striping his skin. What happened? Why hadn’t he shifted?
Rick? Rick? I tried to use our connection to wake him but got no response.
Kick The Candle (Knight Games) Page 19
