He said nothing, his amused glance morphing into a reproachful stare, but she wasn’t going to stop.
She moved forward a little in her seat, leaning toward him. “Three, I’m going to wait until we’re in a very public place one day, when you least expect it…and then I’m going to tell you I’m not wearing any underwear…and talk dirty to you until you have to drag me off into a broom cupboard.”
He sighed and leaned his head on a hand, massaging his forehead. “Kimi…”
She ran a light finger over her lips, watching his eyes following the movement. She was beginning to enjoy herself. “Four, I’d like to go somewhere hot…Spain, maybe, or Italy, and I’m going to find us a secluded beach and lie in the sun naked and rub myself with lotion all over, and I mean all over…until I find myself very, very relaxed, if you know what I mean…and you can watch, if you like.” She looked down, then back up at him coyly.
His eyes were growing steadily hotter. “Perhaps you should stop there…”
She ignored him. “Five, which has elements of four really, but I don’t think you’re going to mind…I’m going to buy a DVD recorder and set it filming…while I pleasure myself…maybe with that vibrating item you mentioned in your list…something for you to watch if I’m ever away and you need to…you know.” The thought of him satisfying himself while watching her doing something so wicked made her nipples tighten.
He glanced down at her tight T-shirt, well aware how turned on she was. Slowly he looked back up at her. He was breathing fast, his eyes glittering. “Kimi, seriously…”
She ran a finger slowly down from the hollow at the base of her throat to her cleavage. “Six, I thought I’d tell you—in great detail—about the time at school when I went away to camp, and a friend—who was blonde and quite busty, by the way—and I decided we’d…experiment…”
He grabbed her wrist. She stopped, watching him as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, concentrating to calm himself. She let a small smile curve her lips. After a while, he opened his eyes and looked at her, giving her a hot, warning glare. “You little temptress, I very nearly embarrassed myself there.”
She burst out laughing. “Serves you right after what you did to me the other night.”
“Even so…you don’t know what torture it’s been the last few days, being around you and not being able to touch you.” He looked pained, and she felt a wave of compassion for him. Keeping apart had been difficult for them both, but in his current restless state, with all the excess energy he was trying to keep contained ready for the invasion, he must be suffering more than she was.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “Really. That wasn’t fair.”
He let out a big sigh. A little sulkily, he said, “Number six—was that a true story?”
She smiled. “Well I’ll let you think about that and keep you guessing for a while before I tell you the rest. Something to look forward to, when all the bad guys are gone.”
He huffed a sigh and turned in his seat, starting the engine. “That’s it—I need to kick some serious ass.”
Her heart started to pound in her chest. “It’s time?”
“I don’t care. If I stay here I’m going to end up taking you roughly in the back seat and risking some serious injury with the gearstick, so I think it best if we get going.” He revved the engine, waited for the wipers to clear the screen, then turned the car around and headed down the drive.
Her smile fading, she glanced out into the darkness, shivering in the cold. As they entered the grounds, nerves cramped her stomach and she felt vaguely sick. “Oh God, I think I’m going to throw up.”
“That’s the dark energy pooling,” he said. He pulled up to the security barrier and lowered his window, resting his hand over the box. Nothing happened. “Uh-oh.”
“What’s happened?”
“Someone’s turned off the fence. That’s not good.” He raised his window and cut the headlights. He glanced over at her. “Are you switched on?”
“Not yet.” She opened her portal. Immediately the night flooded with colour. She gasped. The air was thick with a dark grey smoke that swirled and undulated as if filled with snakes. “What the…”
He nodded. “It’s definitely going to happen tonight.” He pulled up at the bottom of the drive where it circled the standing stone in the middle. Cars filled the road.
She stared at all the vehicles. “What’s going on?”
“They’ve called everyone in from the local covens,” he said. “They’re prepared, anyway.” He smiled at her. “You ready?”
She took a deep breath. “Let’s do it.”
Together they opened the doors and got out. The rain soaked them within seconds. Damien wore his big black coat, and he turned the collar up, holding out his hand as Kimi ran around the car to grasp it, following him as he ran up the road. She wore a black rain jacket with a hood, but her jeans soon clung to her legs, and her face grew wet from the driving rain.
They reached the steps. Seeing him signal to her, she cast a new spell he had taught her: a glamour, watching him do the same, the air shimmering around them, shielding them from prying eyes. She could still see him vaguely, as you might be able to see a glass left out in the rain on a dark night, and she took his hand again, reassured by his warm touch. They ran up to the front door. It was half open, light spilling out and turning the rain to drops of gold.
There were two people on guard at the top of the steps, but they didn’t even blink as she and Damien slipped by them. He opened the door quietly, pulling her into the foyer behind him.
There were people everywhere. Kimi saw several faces she’d met during her time there, as well as many new ones. From the noise that emanated from the Great Hall, she could hear that there were many people waiting in there too.
Damien walked toward the library, pulling her with him. Together they slipped through the half-open door.
Inside, Robert, Rose, and Max stood in front of the fire, talking. There were a few other people there. Her portal open, Kimi examined their auras. She could sense immediately that they were powerful witches and warlocks. These must be the leaders of some of the other covens, she thought.
Damien paused, looking over at his father. Robert held a drink, looking at Rose as she spoke earnestly to him, but at that moment he frowned, turned, and looked across the room straight in their direction. He’d sensed them, she realised, probably recognising his son’s energy. Damien squeezed her hand. Together they lowered their glamour, causing the people standing nearby to gasp as they shimmered into life.
Everyone turned to look at them. Kimi sucked in a breath as two of the strangers raised their hands defensively, spells forming in the air, but Rose passed her hand in an arc, instantly dismissing them, causing the curling energy to fall to the floor in a scatter of silver dust.
Robert strode over to them, stopping just before them. Kimi could see that he was torn between wanting to shout at his son and wanting to hug him.
Damien shook his head, scatting drops of water across the carpet. “Dad.” He bristled with energy and met his father’s gaze openly.
Robert stared at him and studied his son’s aura. “You’ve got your powers back,” he said softly.
“A hundred and ten percent,” said Damien, eyes gleaming.
“How…?”
“Kimi pleaded to the Higher Powers.” He squeezed her hand. “She must have batted her eyelashes, because Herne gave in.”
Robert’s gaze rested on her. His expression was unreadable. Kimi returned it equally. He didn’t look pleased, she thought. Why so? Was he jealous that the one person who could challenge him had returned to full power? Or was it something more than that?
“It’s good to see you back,” said Rose with something like relief, and Max nodded his agreement.
“Thanks.” Damien went to say something else, but as one, the three other Elders glanced over to the door. Damien and Kimi turned to see who it was.
Margaret
stood there, staring at them, eyes wide. “What are you doing here?” she whispered.
“Thought you might need a hand,” said Damien. “I’m guessing the invasion’s tonight, right?”
She, too, studied his aura. “I don’t believe it.”
“I’m sure you don’t,” he said. “Thought you’d got rid of me, didn’t you?”
Her cheeks coloured. “I thought you’d accepted your fate,” she said icily. “I should have guessed you’d find a way around it.”
“Having my powers removed was not my fate,” he snapped, and his aura swirled with red. “What happened with the power grid was not my and Kimi’s fault. Someone plugged us into the Deep Network, forcing us to blow. And I’ve got a funny feeling I know who it was.”
Margaret gasped. Rose strode forward to stand between them. “You can’t just march in here and accuse people,” she snapped. “Especially when you are still in disgrace for your outrageous behaviour.”
“Oh, give me a break,” yelled Damien. “Stop acting like we’re still in the fifteenth century. I’ve never come close to breaking my oath and you all know it. Kimi wasn’t just another student. I love her, and I’m not going to apologise for that.”
Kimi caught her breath. She saw the look of surprise on the Elders’ faces and realised they’d had no idea how she and Damien felt about each other. They’d thought it was just a fling.
Damien hadn’t finished yet. “I know technically I broke the oath and that’s why I lost my powers, but the Goddess herself returned them to me after Kimi pleaded my case, and if she can see her way to forgive us both, I don’t see why you can’t.” His skin glittered with golden sparkles. Kimi stared at it. She hadn’t seen anything like it before. He was emanating so much energy she was surprised they weren’t all catching alight.
Robert glanced at Margaret, then back at his son. “All right, you’ve made your point. That still doesn’t excuse you walking in here and accusing Margaret of setting you up.”
Damien looked across at his once-mentor. Kimi saw his hesitation. “I’m not accusing anyone,” he said softly. “But someone was responsible for what happened to me, and I’m going to find out whom.”
“Are you saying it’s someone at The Crux?” Rose asked, but Kimi only half heard her. Something was distracting her, tugging at her concentration like a child trying to attract attention. She glanced at the window, frowning. Something was happening outside. What was it?
Leaving Damien’s side, she wandered over to the window. There was a light in the road, by all the cars. The thick grey smoke she’d seen in the air earlier swirled and contorted, sparks flying around the drive. At the top of the steps, she could just see the two people standing on guard beginning to notice what was happening.
“I think something’s going on,” she said to the room in general, but they were all in the middle of a heated discussion, and nobody heard her. Quietly, she left the room and crossed the foyer to the door, slipping outside.
“What is it?” she asked the man nearest to her, who was staring at the swirling smoke.
“I’ve no idea,” he said, “but it ain’t good.”
“No…” She started to walk down the steps, the heavy rain immediately soaking her hair where she’d forgotten to put up her hood.
“Wait… I don’t think you should go down there…”
“Go and get Damien,” she said absently over her shoulder. She continued walking down the stairs. Something was drawing her. It was almost…humming. She frowned, walking closer. She crossed the path and then stopped in front of the central mound.
The sound came from the standing stone.
The air swirled around her, grey and thick and filled with scarlet spirals. Her heart pounded, but she couldn’t move. She stared at the stone. It was the first time she’d examined it up close. It was engraved with ancient runes, and the symbols now glowed with white light.
In her head, she heard the Goddess’s voice. “My Secret,” whispered the Lady. “It is time for you to fulfil your destiny.”
Suddenly a terrible sound filled the air, as if someone had taken hold of the very fabric of reality and torn it in two. Before Kimi, a great black rent appeared in front of her, the veil splitting apart with the weight of the enemy behind it.
Kimi gasped as, through the tear, a hundred snarling demons poured through.
Chapter Twenty-Five
In the library, tempers were wearing thin. The atmosphere was decidedly frosty. The other coven leaders had tactfully withdrawn from the room, leaving the five Elders standing facing each other.
“You yourself said we had a saboteur,” Damien told his father.
“I know,” Robert said shortly. “That doesn’t mean it was one of us.”
“It had to be someone who knows how to lower the perimeter fence. That means it’s an Elder.”
“Not necessarily,” Rose pointed out. “There are any number of ways that someone else could have found out how to do it. You can’t throw accusations around like this.”
“The Deep Network couldn’t be accessed by just anyone,” Damien said heatedly. “It had to be someone with extraordinary powers—that makes it one of us.”
“We only have your word that was what happened,” Max said. “How do we know it wasn’t your inability to control the surge that caused you to overload?”
Damien just looked at him. Max shrugged. “I’m just saying.”
Margaret glared at her protégé. “I think you’ve got a damn nerve coming back here pointing the finger at us, at me!” There was a sudden glimmer in her eyes and, with shock, Damien realised it was tears. “How could you, Damien? After all I’ve done for you?”
Damien opened his mouth to reply. But something made him stop. For a moment, he couldn’t think what it was. His eyes met his father’s. Robert frowned. Damien shivered, and it was only then, as he saw the answering movement in the other Midnight Shaman, that he realised what it was. “The veil is opening.”
Suddenly, several things happened at once. A man appeared in the doorway, saying, “Is Damien here? Someone said I should come and find him.”
At the same time, Damien realised Kimi wasn’t in the library. A cold knife of fear sliced through him. Even as he realised, the house alarm went off, the ear-piercingly loud ringing making them all jump.
At that exact moment, there was a blinding flash of light from the right side of the room. Before Damien could react, Margaret was moving. It wasn’t her who had cast the spell. But it was her who pushed in front of him, taking the full force of the firebolt in her chest.
“No!” Damien yelled, but she was already falling, the spell that Robert had cast at his son exploding within her in a bright shower of scarlet sparks.
Damien caught Margaret and lowered her to the ground. Another light flashed and he ducked instinctively, but the spell had come from Max, aimed at Robert, and he looked up to see his father already disappearing around the door.
Max joined him, kneeling at his side. He pressed his fingers to Margaret’s neck. “She’s still alive.”
“She saved my life,” Damien said, shocked to his very core.
Max nodded. “And now you’ve got to make her sacrifice count. Go, Damien. Go and stop him unleashing hell on earth out there.”
Rose pulled Damien to his feet. “Come on. Kimi’s out there alone.”
“Kimi?” Her name was enough to bring him to his senses. He marched to the door. There, he cast one last glance over his shoulder at Margaret. Max was lifting her onto the sofa.
“I’ll take care of her,” Max said. “Go.”
Damien nodded. With Rose, he ran across the foyer and out of the door.
The two of them stopped at the top of the steps and stared at the commotion in the front of the grounds. The rain hammered down, looking like sparks where the streetlamps illuminated it. The tear in the veil was visible immediately, the huge black rent oozing grey smoky air. Out of it crawled all manner of beasts and demons, spreading acr
oss the road and lawns like a disease.
From the house, the witches and warlocks spilled, and fights were breaking out all across The Crux. Damien searched the scene, cursing. His father had vanished. And where the hell was Kimi?
Suddenly he spotted her. She’d cast a glamour, although his shaman skills could see right through it, and she stood right near the standing stone, only feet away from the rift. His heart almost stopped. “What is she doing?” he whispered, seeing her form beginning to glow with a white light. She’d be visible soon, he thought, his mouth going dry.
“She’s channelling,” said Rose. “She’s trying to close the tear.” She glanced across at him. “Is she strong enough?”
“I don’t know…maybe.” His heart pounded.
“Go to her,” Rose said. She brushed his arm. “Cast your shield for the moment. I’ll try and find Robert.”
Damien nodded. He ran down the steps, sweeping his hand over his aura as he moved, turning the outer layer to a hard shell. He couldn’t cast through it, but equally nothing could enter it either. Several spells ricocheted off it harmlessly as he ran straight through the middle of the commotion to the standing stone.
He stood before Kimi. Her eyes were closed. She was completely soaked, but seemed oblivious to it. Her power was building, and her glamour was fading. The closest demon, a snarling vampire, turned to stare at them.
Reaching out, Damien took her pendant in his left hand. Resting his thumb on the central stone, he pushed it, and it clicked like a button.
Kimi gasped, her eyes flying open. He stepped back as an egg-shaped force field appeared around her. The vampire stopped abruptly in his tracks and turned, looking for an easier target.
“Damien?” she said, surprised to see him.
His eyes met hers, and he smiled. “Hello, sweetheart.”
“What did you just do?”
He indicated the pendant. “It’s a bound spell. Nothing will get through it, for a while anyway.”
She blinked several times. “The Goddess spoke to me. She told me it was time for me to fulfil my destiny. I think this is what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to close the rift.”
Midnight Shaman, Fire Witch Page 22
