Bingo. The situation was officially worse.
Chapter Fourteen
With so little time to plan, it was amazing we had any plan at all before time was up. Logan had stopped laughing when I telepathically yelled at him to get his butt out of the kitchen.
He and the other shifters had left first to find concealment for a ground attack. Their freshly donned clothing had been tossed left and right as they headed for the stairs. The elves were dispatched next, all nine of them, and took off running up the stairs with their bows in hand. Most of them also carried swords. Roughly two dozen dwarves were donning armor while genially arguing about whose axe was the best axe ever.
“I’ll take care of the children.” Maggie had donned armor too. She had a short sword suited to her height, and a nasty looking, spiked mace. She patted Tasha’s forearm. “I’ll lose my own life before I let anything happen to them.”
Tasha’s fear for Josh’s safety spun around her like an invisible fog. But she smiled, nodded, and said, “I hope it doesn’t come to that, but thank you.”
“We have to go.” I hated to remind her. Watching Josh hug his mom, and seeing her face crumple before she hid it against his shoulder, I thought, I am never, ever having a kid.
She had control of her expression when she pulled back. “Listen to Maggie. Do exactly what she tells you to.”
“I will, Mom. You be careful.” He smiled at her, but fear had enlarged his pupils, turning his eyes darker.
Nope, never ever having a kid. I couldn’t imagine going through what they were. It was bad enough with the people I already cared about.
Tasha moved to stand beside me, and looked down to take my hand. Josh shot me a look, and I responded telepathically. She’ll be okay. Promise.
I hoped I wasn’t lying to him as I teleported us aboveground. It had stopped raining or sleeting, whichever the weather had chosen last. The AI was the behind the darkness, awful weather, and changes to the terrain. It was confused and didn’t know who it was supposed to obey, with the dark elf master it had thought dead returning.
Basically, it was having a nervous breakdown.
The ground was iced over. I didn’t see any prints to indicate it’d been that way when the others had left the tree. A good thing, or the dark elf would be able to easily find them.
“There he is.” Tasha’s whisper turned my eyes skyward. “What do you want me to do?”
We’d had an all-to-brief discussion about our abilities. I knew she had more than average, though once again, not as many as I did. Balanced out by the fact that she could turn into a wolf. Yeah, I was feeling a teensy bit jealous about that. It really was a cool ability.
“We have to take out the drake first. Concentrate on shielding the elves. I’ll knock the drake around as much as I can while they fill it full of arrows.” We had a plan for the dark elf too, but needed him on the ground for it. “Okay?”
“Okay.” She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin.
I watched the drake fly closer. “Oh, and shield us as necessary. Turning into a crispy critter is on my Top Ten list of Ways Not to Die.”
That yanked a nervous laugh out of her. Grinning, I waited for the drake and its rider to get close enough. It did within seconds, diving toward the ground. The dark elf was clad in silver armor from head to toe. The drake opened its mouth, flames beginning to erupt, and Tasha slipped her hand into mine, possibly seeking comfort and support. She didn’t need to touch people to shield them.
I thickened a large section of air at a slant about six feet in front of the drake’s gaping jaws. The gout of flame struck first, flaring back into its face, and then its nose smashed into the barrier, and slipped downward.
I may have giggled as its neck bowed and its chest crashed into its head. “Ouch. That hurt.”
It also rocked the dark elf forward, and the front of his armored head bounced off the drake’s bowed neck. I winced, having experienced a similar meeting with a horse’s neck once. He flopped backward and didn’t immediately try to sit up. The drake’s wings flashed forward, its hind legs kicking and tail flailing. It squealed like a giant pig and began flapping its wings.
“Doesn’t seem to know how to fly backwards,” Tasha said, her voice now rock-steady.
“Nope. Pity, huh? Oh, but hey. You just gave me an idea.” I manipulated my block of thick air, shoving it toward the drake. It strained, trying to free itself, but I began pushing my block upward too. “How long do you think?”
“Not long.”
She was right. The drake continued squealing, while its rider finally began struggling upright. He pointed a gloved hand at us.
“Better...”
A pale, greenish half-bubble popped into view around us a second before splinters exploded from the tree’s trunk. It was a huge tree, and some of those splinters were large enough to spit us for roasting over an open fire.
I cackled. “Good job. Let’s get that bird down.”
Whatever the dark elf magicked up to throw at us—his second attempt was a rain of rocks as large as my head—bounced harmlessly off her shield. I concentrated on my air block, forcing the drake up and back, until its wings went limp and it began to fall.
Letting my air block dissolve, I grinned. The elves stepped out from around trees and began firing away. A lot of the arrows bounced off, but some found soft marks in the drake’s underside before it realized it was free. Panicked wing flapping began, slowing its descent, but it still hit the ground hard. Hard enough to break one of its back legs with a loud snap.
It screamed a long, high note of pure agony, and I felt awful even though it’d been hunting and eating people. Probably the other animals in the realm too. Imagining it ripping into the baby unicorns I’d seen, I scowled while forcing my guilt and pity away.
The dark elf hopped up to stand on its back, and leaped clear just before the drake began thrashing wildly. It kept screaming, but I wasn’t going to be able to anything about that.
We were the targets for its master. He strode toward us, flinging red bolts of magical energy left and right without looking. He didn’t seem to notice they sizzled off of more pale green shields. I squeezed Tasha’s hand. “You’re bad ass!”
Behind our oncoming, potential doom, the shifters streamed out of the trees and leaped onto the drake. They managed to pin one wing, and I spotted Logan’s large, dark shape as he began climbing. I even knew what he intended to do. He was the largest shifter, he was going to try and break the drake’s neck.
The elves shifted to shooting at the dark elf. He flicked aside most of their arrows with waves of one hand. The rest bounced off his armor, making a clear point on how useful armor would be. He halted about ten feet from us, his head tilting as he studied Tasha’s shield. Kept flicking one hand, deflecting arrows like a boss while deciding on how he’d attack us next.
I heard the clanking as the dwarves came up the stairs behind us, and called on my pyrokinetic ability. Something dark swirled into being around our enemy before the flames engulfed his figure.
By the time I let them die, the dwarves had him surrounded. He dropped the oily looking shield and immediately took several axe whacks. He staggered, but didn’t go down and the strikes barely dented his armor. Not one of the dwarves was tall enough to draw a bead on his neck.
“Well, crap.” We’d hoped the dwarf attack would take him down. Doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.
The drake’s screams stopped, and a loud roar sounded. Logan had achieved his goal. I knew the shifters would be joining the dwarves and elves since our plan to take him down wasn’t working out so well.
About then, the dark elf grabbed one dwarf by the throat, lifted him—or maybe her, they weren’t all men—off his feet before yanking his axe away. He tossed the dwarf aside as though he didn’t weigh more than a baseball, and swung the axe up, over his head.
I knew what the elf was about to do but Tasha was quicker. She formed a shield around his intended tar
get and the axe bounced off it, inches from another dwarf’s head. I sent a focused telekinetic blast and struck the dark elf full in his helmeted face.
He staggered backward, but didn’t go down.
“What the hell? He’s like a friggin’ robot.” Before I could shoot another blast at his head, he began laying about him with the stolen axe. Dwarves ducked and moved, but some took solid hits. Tasha tried to shield them, but the dark elf was working too quickly. The shifters had reached them and were making a circle, waiting for a clear opportunity to attack him. “We’re going to have to pull out the big guns.”
“Okay.” Her voice was strained. I knew that strain, having felt it before, and was starting to feel the edge of it myself. “What are the big guns?”
“He’s encased in metal. I’m going to fry him, so we need to get everyone back.” I didn’t ask her to help tell everyone. She was still trying to shield dwarves.
Everyone needs to get the hell away from him now! I was already opening the door in my mental maze. Some of the wolves darted toward the downed dwarves, grabbing their hands or arms in order to drag them clear. A few of the dwarves still around the dark elf were able to break free without getting struck, and ran clear. But seven or eight of them were stuck, unable to escape the blows he rained down on them.
They moved together, forcing him to concentrate on a smaller area, and from behind, Logan crouched and leaped. The remaining dwarves rapidly scattered as the dark elf went down under my boyfriend’s tiger weight. “Well hot damn, someone finally managed to knock him down.”
Logan was off in a flash, running with the last dwarves, and it was my turn. “Here we go.”
I raised both arms, palms outward, and blue lightning began crawling down my arms. The dark elf was climbing to his feet. His head snapped up just as I unleased the full force of my electrokinesis, and I spotted a thin stream of blood spilling from the front of his helm. Logan had hurt him.
No one expects squashing by tiger my boyfriend said.
Or lightning from a person. My stream of electricity struck the dark elf, lifting him to his feet and sending him in a jittering dance. Smoke wafted from the joints in his armor.
It wasn’t pretty, or fast, but it was effective. I just wasn’t expecting him to explode at all, much less in a spectacular fashion.
Tasha and I both threw up when gory chunks of fried dark elf splattered all over her shield.
Chapter Fifteen
I laughed as my hair streamed back and my vision blurred, even though I had a death grip on the dark mane of my mount. You didn’t tell me they could run so fast.
You didn’t bother to ask. You were on him before I could blink Logan replied.
It was Monday morning, and we weren’t going to make it into work. Mr. Whitehaven okayed the extension of our weekend after hearing the explanation. Tasha and I were receiving our reward for our parts in getting Talledon Sanctuary back to normal: A ride on a mated pair of willing unicorns.
The only purple pair in the herd. My face was going to fall off from smiling. We’d even been allowed to talk to the colts—both unicorn babies were male—and they’d allowed us to stroke their fuzzy hides.
Amazingly, no one but the bad guys had died from the showdown. A few of the dwarves were injured, but none badly enough to lose a limb. They were a tough people and took pride in their scars.
Once the dark elf died, the AI stopped melting down and asked for instructions. Maggie and Cressley had been more than happy to provide them. Their realm wasn’t completely back to normal yet, but they’d been able to restore the guest areas, their village, and the main building. For some reason, the parking lot hadn’t been touched, so no one’s vehicles were damaged.
My mount began to slow down. I didn’t mind that my ride was coming to an end, just awed one had happened at all. Tasha’s mare tossed her head as the unicorns slowed to a trot and then a walk. “That was incredible.”
“It was,” she agreed.
My next sentence was blurted out. “We should keep in touch.”
“I’d like that, Cordi. We made a good team.”
“Yeah, we did. And I was thinking, we have some teenagers in our clan I could introduce Josh to. I know a teenaged witch too; she’s living with my mom.” I combed my fingers through my unicorn’s mane. “I mean I don’t want to be pushy. You guys are new in town though.”
“It’ll be good for him to make some friends here. He’s been spending too much time on his computer and games.” Tasha directed my attention ahead, where Logan and Rourke waited. They were talking. “Those two are already thick as thieves. If we’re going to keep up with them, we should be too.”
“I agree.” We smiled at each other.
After trading numbers and addresses, Logan and I waved as our new friends drove off in Tasha’s little wagon. “I really like them.”
“I do too. Good thing, since I told Rourke Mr. Whitehaven’s hiring.” He grinned and hugged me when I squealed. “I thought there was a chance you’d like that idea.”
“It’d be awesome!” I kissed him. “You have the bestest ideas.”
“You had a good one, yourself. Something about a bathtub?”
“Hey, Cordi. May I talk to you for a sec?” It was Nick.
I closed my eyes, opened them, and looked at Logan. “This will just take a minute.”
“Okay. I’m going to watch in case you punch him again.” He released me with a wink.
I walked over to Nick. “Yes?”
He looked down and shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. “I’ve been thinking.”
I swallowed the sigh that rose and prepared for another scene. “Nick...”
“Wait. I want to apologize.”
Wasn’t expecting that. “You do?”
He looked up. “Yeah. I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting. Being pushy about us getting back together.”
Damn. “Apology accepted.”
“I still love you, but after this,” he freed one hand to wave it. “Well, I understand a lot better what you meant about me not being the right guy for you. I wish I was, but I’m not. You and Logan just kind of, I don’t know, fit together.”
I glanced over my shoulder. Logan was leaning on the car, looking at the trees to give us privacy. Or the semblance of it, since he could probably hear every word. “Yeah, we do.”
“If you love someone, you’re supposed to want to see them happy, and I do want to see you happy. I’m sorry I was such an ass, looking through your phone and stuff.” He fidgeted, picking at the edge of his pocket. “I won’t bother you anymore, but I’m hoping if we run into each other around town, it’s okay to say hi and maybe catch up a little?”
“Absolutely.” I stepped forward and hugged him. “It’s not just people you love, it’s people you care about. I want to see you happy too. I hope you find someone who helps make that happen.”
“Thank you. I guess I’d better go find my brother.” He took a half-step back, and smiled. “See you around.”
“Yeah, see you around.” I watched him turn and walk away before turning myself. Walking back to the car, I smiled as Logan stopped pretending to be fascinated by the trees and looked over his shoulder.
We did just kind of fit together, he and I.
And that did make me happy.
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Also by Gayla Drummond
After the Fall
Tria's Tale
Hunter's Edge
Discord Jones
Arcane Solutions
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Just Like Magic
(Discord Jones 6.5)
Moon Children
Dark Cravings
Dark Souls
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Watch for more at Gayla Drummond’s site.
About the Author
A puppy rescuer and equine slave who loves to write and entertain people. She writes scifi, urban fantasy, and other things.
Read more at Gayla Drummond’s site.
Just Like Magic Page 9
