“Look out!”
The alarm from Damien came not a moment too soon. They’d just rounded a bend in the passageway when something from above attacked Damien. Beth made a move to assist him, but Grace knocked her back against the wall. Another shadowy creature came sailing down from above, this one setting its sights on Grace. With both Grace and Damien fighting unknown assailants, that left Beth and her brass candlestick to fend off the dark shadow slithering her way. She could scarcely make out what it was, but the darker shade on the ceiling was most certainly moving toward her.
Beth readied her weapon and stood her ground, wishing she knew how the others fared. She didn’t dare take her eyes off the inky movement on the ceiling, though, and prayed both held their own. The air around her grew thick and moist though oddly chilled. She forced her mind to a calm place, ignoring her now-jittery nerves, and swung just as the thing launched itself at her. Remarkably, the candlestick sailed right through whatever it was, as if it were made of smoke not substance.
Damn it.
A sudden, searing pain struck her side as the dark mass swirled about her. She heard shouts but not what they screamed, just the distinct sounds of stress. Panic set in at the sound of Grace in distress and Damien’s battle growls, but she didn’t dare take the time to even look, not until she knew where the inkblot from hell had gone. Her heart pounded and blood whooshed through her ears as terror struck her. The mass seemed to be taunting her, provoking her to sheer madness as she swung wildly about.
From deep within the madness something snapped. A peaceful calm swept through her, leaving in its path a powerful feeling. Everything around her appeared outlined in a bright blue. She pulled energy from the light, absorbed as much of it as she could. Centered her entire being on the power it contained. Without forethought, she blasted the mass as well as the entire passageway with a blinding white light that shot from her hands.
• • •
Moss felt the blast, as did the butthead. The walls shook and crumbled around them as small pebbles shook loose from the cave’s ceiling. Dynamite? Who the hell would be blasting in an unsecured cave system?
“Marcus, Gregor, go investigate.”
Two shadows lifted themselves from the cave’s wall and took on human form. He wasn’t sure if they were ghost, zombie, or other. They were more mist than flesh and were like nothing he’d ever seen.
“Impressive, aren’t they?” Though he refused to ask, Moss hoped Octavia’s son would choose to explain. “There were created much like you were. I, however, enhanced their abilities by creating them as more of a swamp gas than actual creature. Essentially, I’ve created creatures with few known foes. They have no real enemies, natural or otherwise, to speak of.”
Moss saw a strange orb form, stopping to hover behind Demetrius. Moments later it turned into a more misty like substance before taking a decidedly, human shape. Moss didn’t look away from Demetrius, instead he watched from his peripheral vision. He suspected Octavia had arrived and was curious as to what Mommy Dearest would think about her darling son’s deceitful plans.
“Abominations are what they are.”
“Mother, how kind of you to join us.” Demetrius kept his tone cool, but Moss caught his startled look before schooling his expression and facing his Mother.
“Demetrius, I demand to know what you have done this instant.”
So, Demetrius, was it? Good to know.
“Mother, you’ve outlived your usefulness, and the others have grown impatient with your dalliances.”
“Have they? And you, my own son, have chosen to side with them?”
“I understand their points clearly and agree. You have been nothing but a disgrace to our society. You are a whore, and your time has passed. I have requested your life be spared on the condition that you vacate the area and cease any and all magic.”
“How thoughtful of you, but I believe you underestimate my attentions where you are concerned. I may have reluctantly carried you, but you have been nothing but a reminder of a lapse in judgment.”
Moss could sense the air changing around them. The molecules became charged, and though he had nowhere to go, he braced for the attack. Marcus and Gregor still stood frozen in place. Neither had moved an inch, though Demetrius had issued the command to investigate.
Demetrius began to shimmer, alternating between solid form and mist. Octavia, too, began flickering as the air grew thicker by the moment.
Sparks seem to radiate from both as their forms wavered in and out. The storm was coming, and Moss had no way to shelter from it. He thanked the heavens Beth and the others were safely away from the impending battle.
A scraping drew his attention to the trap door he’d been dragged through, and Moss was horrified when the wall opened to reveal Damien carrying Beth’s still form through the door.
“Stay back! Things are about to get bad,” Moss roared.
Damien quickly shielded his charge from the blast of the two powerful entities colliding.
• • •
“Damn it, put me down. I may not know exactly what I did, but I know it was bad-assed. It just startled me for a moment.” Beth twisted and wiggled until finally Damien lost his grip and set her back on her feet. Grace dashed through next, whirling her around until they were face to face.
“Yes, there is much to explain, and I swear I will later, but for now, know you too are quite powerful, and if you can pull from your inner magic again, do so now.”
“I would if I understood what I did in the first place.”
“You pulled from within and found your hibernating magic. It’s always been there, lying dormant, but you never needed it enough for it to fully awaken.”
She heard Grace’s words, but couldn’t concentrate after she took in Moss’s bloody form across the room. Shackled to the wall, he bore wounds indicating he’d borne the brunt of either Octavia’s or her opponent’s rage. His shoulder had a wide gash that clearly needed stitches, and two of his fingers were just dangling, broken.
Breaking from Grace’s hold, Beth dashed through the eruptions of clashing magic. Fire, falling rocks, and whatever the hell the misty shit was, sprang all around creating a freakish war zone. Beth raced oblivious of the dangers until she reached Moss’s side.
“Damn you, woman, do you realize what danger you just put yourself in?” Moss bellowed.
“Pfft. You damn well better be glad you’re hurt, or else that woman crack would land you another hurting.”
At the sounds of even more falling debris, Beth risked a glance over her shoulder and saw Damien and Grace battling the duo before them. It appeared the former enemies had decided to unite, even if for just the moment.
“Okay, I got Octavia but who the hell is he?” Beth pointed to the man now standing at Octavia’s right. A puny man, thin yet by all accounts muscular as he took on Damien. His slick, dark hair was laced with threads of silver, and had she not seen his squinty, beady eyes, might have described him as distinguished. But that pinched face of his left her with the lasting impression of a rodent.
“He is Demetrius, Octavia’s son.” As if he could read her thoughts, Moss growled low in his throat. “Free me so that I may join in the battle.”
“Remember, Moss, we haven’t found the book with the spells to undo the curse, so you cannot kill Octavia,” she reminded him as she sought the key to release the shackles.
“Move over a bit,” Grace yelled above the melee.
Beth turned to question but saw her aunt raise her hands in their direction and quickly moved aside as a white light whizzed past.
Sure as shit, Moss’s bindings fell open.
Before Beth could utter another word, Moss stormed into the middle of the fight, which now consisted of Damien, Demetrius, and the two misty creatures. That left Beth and Grace with Octavia, which sui
ted her just fine. The bitch was about to learn what bad was.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Well, well. We meet again.”
“Yes we do, but it will be the last time, I promise you that,” Grace seethed at her rival.
“Only time will tell. You’re not still pissed over that poor pitiful sap you called a fiancé, are you? I thought we settled that back at Damien’s? I did you a favor, remember?”
The taunt had been thrown, but thankfully Beth noted the absence of a counterstrike from her aunt. Not this time. Beth smiled, wondering if the sudden change had anything to do with the sexy hulk of a man currently straining to check on her.
Damien was busy fending off the misty things but continued to cast glances their way, making sure Grace remained safe and holding her own. Who knew they’d both find handsome, eligible men out in the swamps?
“He isn’t yours, young one, and he never will be.” Octavia spat through gritted teeth.
Beth whipped her head around at Octavia’s statement and took glee that the other woman carried an uncertainty about her now. She was unnerved by their presence and united powers. Hopefully they could keep her that way long enough to extract the cure for Moss and Damien and any other victims she’d left out in the swamp.
“You haven’t seen him trying to off me, now, have you?”
Octavia’s eyes shimmered an ominous, unnatural red. Beth loved seeing Octavia bristle as her barb about Moss landed. The real battle was about to begin. Closing her eyes to the chaos around, she rooted within until she found the place the power resided. She drew deep as Grace had instructed and called upon the magic once more.
When she opened her eyes, she was vaguely aware of their glow, a shimmery blue. Bright, blinding blue, and of Octavia’s sudden wariness.
Octavia raised an arm and threw out an arc of red light, blasting both Beth and Grace clear across the room. Before they could recover, another blazing bolt blasted from Octavia’s palm, and they nearly didn’t scramble fast enough. One after another, these strange arcs of lightning came, and Beth sensed her aunt’s growing exhaustion. She’d been tossing up fields, blocking as many of the arcs as she was able, and the power she expelled was taking its toll. Out of the corner of her eye, Beth saw Moss and Damien get the upper hand, but neither was in a position to help.
She squared off with the bitch and found the energies she’d called on waiting, building, ready.
Again the odd, out-of-body-like sensation zipped through her, making her feel as though she were witnessing things through someone else’s eyes. Only, unlike before, she felt the unmistakable power centering in her palms. Knew the power there awaited her command. Then she unleashed it. The power flew unchecked, and she pondered the idea of releasing such magic when she knew nothing about it. By then it was too late.
The power hit Octavia dead on, but also blew through the chamber. Only by a miracle did it not cause a cave-in.
When the dust and debris settled, Octavia lay dead on the floor and only Damien, Moss, and Grace remained.
The trio stared open-mouthed at Beth, and then everything around her spun. Darkness engulfed her.
• • •
When she came to, she was lying in her aunt’s bed with a cool washrag across her forehead. “What happened?” She croaked as Grace’s blurry face came into better view.
“We won the battle,” Grace answered with sheer pride in her expression.
“So Octavia and her crew are gone?”
“Unfortunately, Demetrius — her son — and his minions vanished, and we aren’t sure what happened to them. He was in the process of threatening Grace when the blast occurred,” Damien muttered, entering the room, obviously having overheard their conversation. Beth could tell he was clearly concerned about Demetrius and his lackey’s vanishing act.
“What do you mean he was threatening Grace?”
“Well, apparently Demetrius took a shine to Grace and was proceeding to tell me his quite graphic plans for her. I was setting him straight when I was interrupted.”
Beth caught a private glance between Damien and Grace — a flash of something protective from Damien and wistful from Grace. Though Beth would like to drill her aunt about what was happening between her and Damien, she decided it was more important to remember what had transpired before she’d passed out. To her horror, the image of Octavia’s bloody, lifeless body, sprawled in an unnatural angle gurgled to memory.
“Oh, my God. I killed her before we got the reversal spell.” Beth sat up, pulling her knees to her chest. The men must hate her. She’d blown their chance at returning to a normal life. After warning Moss not to kill her, she had. Oh, yeah, he would hate her. How could she have been so reckless? Her insides turned and tears burned, threatening to spill as she realized any future with her beloved Bog Man had died when Octavia had. Worse, though, she’d destroyed his future.
“Well, when one’s magic first comes to them, the power can be a bit unpredictable. Unstable, even. But in time and with practice, you will learn to harness the energy.”
“I ruined two lives and God only knows how many others by using it. I think it’s best if we forget I even found my magic.”
“What did you ruin?” a deep voice asked.
Grace rose after giving her niece a peck on the cheek and winked at Moss as she and Damien passed him on their way out. Beth and Moss needed to talk privately.
“Yours, Damien’s and countless others. Oh, Moss, I’m so damn sorry. I didn’t mean to kill her. She lashed out so quickly, and Grace was growing so weary from blocking and I just … just … unleashed without thinking.” It all came out as one long-winded ramble, and Moss chuckled, surprising her. He hadn’t cursed her or run from the room. Actually, he didn’t even appear cross with her.
“Quit beating yourself up. You did what you had to do, and I couldn’t be more proud.”
“But I lost your chance at becoming human again,” she reminded him, though she really didn’t want to.
“Maybe, maybe not. Who knows? The book may turn up eventually. More important to me than any cure is you.”
She stared at him, speechless.
“Your safety and happiness mean more to me than any possible cure. Why do you think I left you that night?”
“I kinda thought because I was a one-night stand.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her into his arms. “Far from it. I found everything I ever wanted in life when I found you. I feared keeping you with me here in the swamp would stifle that fiery spirit of yours. I couldn’t ask that of you. I love you too much for that, Beth.”
“Oh, hell, no. You better not think you’re going anywhere without me, buddy. You just dropped the L word, and it’s on now.”
• • •
Moss had hoped Beth would accept him as he was and would remain with him, but he hadn’t banked on it. Now, the little vixen crawled into his lap and aggressively turned his head for a kiss.
Maybe his little swamp flower had enough thorns to be happy in the swamps, or maybe she didn’t. But there was only one way they’d find out, he thought, scooping her into his arms as they headed for his cabin.
Yeah, the path to discovery would be a bit bumpy, but filled with unimaginably wicked nights.
About the Author
Author Bobbi Romans born and raised in the suburbs of D.C, now resides in the south with Prince Charming and her overly large, nutty family. Currently, Bobbi is hiding from her loud family in a closet as she taps away the next installment in the Swamp Magic series, Swamp Magic — Under the Full Moon. The story of Grace and her Armadillo shifter, Damien.
Look for updates and contests from Bobbi at her website www.bobbiromans.com or on Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/Bobbi-Romans or on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/BobbiRomans
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