“If you happen to see my sword, let me know,” I said to Drake.
He nodded, and as one, we sprung out of our crouches and onto the roof.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Without the fog, the night sky was clear, though it had been raining all day. The surrounding buildings were a well-lit background. Though not many seemed to be residences, I imagined the police would be alerted to our disturbance soon, if they hadn’t been already.
So, yeah. Clear night.
So clear I had no problem seeing Sienna standing on the far side of the parking lot with her foot on Kandy’s chest and the demons on either side of her. And yeah, she had my katana.
“I see your sword,” Drake said, not a hint of humor in his tone.
“Yeah, me too.”
Mory climbed out of the rubble behind us. I could taste her toasted marshmallow magic gathering behind me.
“Is Rusty here?” I asked.
Mory nodded.
“Would he like to come out to play?” We needed all hands on deck, including the ghost of Mory’s brother who had a special hate for Sienna — seeing as how she murdered him. Rusty wasn’t exactly an innocent himself. But then, none of us were anymore. Again, thanks to Sienna.
“She figured out how to counter him,” Mory whispered.
That made sense. Even Sienna couldn’t put up with being constantly attacked by the spectral energy of her ex-boyfriend for long. A boyfriend she’d killed and drained of magic.
“She’s using large amounts of magic tonight. If Rusty bides his time, I imagine he’ll find an opening.”
Mory nodded and set her jaw in determination.
Sienna was grand standing, spinning the sword around with her wrist. Everything was a show with my sister. Hey, I liked a great presentation as much as anyone, but she took it way too far.
Drake and I stepped closer. In two swift movements, we had halved the distance between us and Sienna. Mory stayed behind.
I wasn’t sure at first that Kandy was breathing, but her magic bloomed and then twisted around her. She transformed back into her human form and curled into a ball at Sienna’s feet. She looked worse than before with her cuts, bruises, and torn clothing, but I knew the transformation was a way her magic helped to heal her.
Sienna looked startled to see us suddenly so close. She laid the tip of my sword on Kandy’s neck.
Drake casually reached underneath the bumper of a smashed car — my ass was indented into its hood — and pushed it out of his way, opening up the field before and around us.
Sienna’s eyes widened. She laughed like a little girl getting an unexpected gift.
“If you clap your hands, you’ll find this knife in your throat,” I said. I raised the sacrificial knife before me as if ready to throw. I was bluffing, though. The knife’s balance was totally off. The accuracy of a throw would be chancy, and then I’d be weaponless.
The demons pawed at the ground and snorted. I had no idea how Sienna was controlling them — technically, I was holding the knife — but I wasn’t sure how she’d constructed the spell in the first place.
“Three against two, Jade,” Sienna said. “I’d watch your mouth and start begging.”
“You always were terrible at math, sister,” I said.
Sienna started to sneer, but her retort was cut off by Kett rising — all red-eyed and fanged — out of the darkness behind her and latching onto her neck.
Damn it! I’d told him not to bite her. Some sort of spell exploded around them — the dark magic buffeted me as I charged forward — and they tumbled sideways.
The demons shook their heads like dogs shaking off water. Then they fell on Kandy.
Drake and I attacked as one, drop kicking different demons. Drake’s sword flashed and his demon shrieked. I rounded on mine, but the damn thing scampered away and flung itself at the wrestling mess that was Sienna and Kett.
Sienna had dropped my sword by Kandy. I reached for it as Kett managed to fling the demon off his back and over my head. His back was scored with claw marks that instantly healed. Unfortunately, in order to toss the demon, Kett had removed his teeth from Sienna’s neck, giving her just enough time to fling out a spell. They were situated in the middle of the rest of us, and Sienna somehow managed to cast in all directions at once. Her trusty fireblood spell hit me, Kett, Mory, Drake, and Kandy, but unfortunately not the demons.
Pain seared through my brain, but I knew this spell. Though Sienna was stronger than ever, it didn’t bring me to my knees. It did, however, cripple Kett. Kandy was probably lucky she was already passed out.
The demon Kett threw had landed near Mory. It pulled its hind legs underneath it to leap on the necromancer, who was shuddering in pain despite wearing the necklace I’d made for her. The necklace obviously needed to be reinforced.
Drake stumbled, winded as the spell hit him. But he didn’t drop until the demon he’d cornered knocked him over, latching its massive maw onto the fledgling guardian’s shoulder.
I threw the sacrificial knife, and despite my misgivings about its balance, it skewered the demon as it leaped for Mory. In the same motion, I dove over Kandy and came up on two feet with my sword in hand.
The skewered demon stumbled sideways. Sienna — the veins in her face bulging with black magic — grabbed the sacrificial knife out of its head. It turned, confused now like a rabid dog, and leaped over Kett to latch onto Drake’s other shoulder. The fledgling dragon went down a second time. The three of them rolled, crashing through the few cars in the lot and pushing them aside like a wrecking ball.
Sienna flipped the knife in her hand. Blade down, she plunged it toward Kett. I dove, my katana extended to block Sienna’s thrust, but ended up face down across Kett’s chest. Sienna grabbed my hair and twisted me up onto my knees. I felt the sacrificial knife ghost across my throat, but then Sienna screamed and freed me.
Mory had buried my jade knife into Sienna’s thigh. My sister backhanded the necromancer across the face, and the fledgling flew back onto the concrete rubble at the top of the stairs. Her body, sickeningly limp, slammed down and was still.
I felt the shallow cut across my throat heal.
Sienna stumbled back and yanked the jade knife out of her thigh — quickly dropping it to the ground as it seared her hand. I gained my feet and brought my sword into play.
Sienna got the sacrificial knife up to block my first blow. She left herself open though, so I slammed a kick into her chest and she flew backward.
I stepped over Kett to stalk my sister, feeling him rise to his feet behind me. Sienna couldn’t maintain the fireblood spell and fight me.
My sister threw some malignant spell at me and I stepped sideways, feeling Kett mirror my movement. It barely touched me.
“It’s over,” I spat, stepping within striking distance.
“Not yet, sister,” Sienna said. Blood speckled her lower lip and chin, so she wasn’t invulnerable … yet. I was surprised to see it was red.
Then the two demons who’d been clawing Drake both hit me at once.
I lost track of Sienna with four sets of claws raking me from all directions. I was vaguely aware of Kett fighting alongside me. I threw an elbow and knocked one of the demons back, but felt something snap in my arm. I dropped the sword.
The other demon clawed me across the shoulders and I fell to my knees, rolled, and came up with the jade knife in my left hand — my right was still useless. I slit its throat. It stumbled. I stood.
Kett had the other demon cornered. I took another slash at my demon’s neck with my left hand and managed to drive it farther back.
In the blink of an eye, Sienna was before me with the sacrificial knife.
The demon latched onto my left shoulder. I tried to block with my right, but I wasn’t going to be fast enough.
Sienna thrust the knife toward my heart.
Kett appeared suddenly in front of me and took the blow.
Si
enna screamed in frustration.
I willed the jade knife into my right hand and slashed across my body to slice the demon’s neck for a third time. It shrieked and let me go.
Sienna shoved Kett away from her while keeping hold of the sacrificial knife.
Kett fell as if he was mortally wounded. Except that wasn’t possible, because he wasn’t mortal.
I reached for my sword where it lay at my feet.
Sienna started laughing. “Nice knife, Jade,” she said. “I’ll trade this for the stupid necromancer.”
I grasped the hilt of the katana and brought it around to finally lop off the demon’s head.
It crumbled into dust.
I was bleeding from multiple wounds. Though my arm was working, it ached like it was filled with molten lava. And Sienna was still freaking laughing.
The final demon — its head down to charge me — stepped between my sister and me. Sienna was obviously still controlling it.
Then I felt the life debt bond between Kett and me disintegrate. It took all my breath away. I stumbled. I twisted back to Kett, who was lying staring up at the night sky, not a hint of red in his eyes now.
Sienna glanced around the roof top. She casually ran her fingers over the ridges of the demon’s head as if she was petting a cat. She looked utterly satisfied.
“I’ll leave you to it, sister,” she said. Then she twirled the knife I’d made with blood magic — a knife powerful enough to kill a vampire who’d walked the earth for centuries. She grinned at me. “You give me such pretty presents. Maybe I’ll be lucky and you’ll make it out of here alive. I’d like more presents like this one.”
I stepped toward her. The demon reared up.
“Everyone is dying,” Sienna whispered as if it was a delightful secret. “I should know. I can feel it when it happens now.”
Then Rusty — the ghost of Mory’s brother — attacked her. His timing was getting better and better. Sienna shrieked and raised the knife against this invisible force, but knives were nothing to ghosts.
The demon snarled,but without direction from Sienna, it didn’t seem to know what to do.
If Rusty was in play then Mory was still alive.
I spun and brought the sword to the demon’s neck. It leaped up and over my blow — clearly, self preservation trumped all.
Behind it, Sienna stumbled back, her magic rolling up and around her as she somehow countered Rusty’s attack. Even so, his assault drove her back toward the broken railing where Kett had fallen off the roof earlier.
She fell.
Heedless of the demon somewhere behind me, I ran to the edge of the roof and peered over the broken railing. The ward had fallen. Sienna must have at least lost consciousness, then. But I couldn’t see my sister in the darkness pooled between the street lamps. Why weren’t they spaced closer?
Mory was sobbing. I didn’t want to acknowledge the devastation behind me. I had to finish it. I had to make sure that —
Dragon magic hit me like a blow to the head. I stumbled, turned, and fell to my knees by Kett’s prone form.
My brain scrambled, then refocused.
Suanmi the fire breather stepped out from the crumbled stairs.
“Suanmi,” I breathed. I didn’t know if the guardian had felt the presence of the demons in her territory, or if she’d simply tracked Drake here, but hope flooded my system, clearing my senses.
The elegant, refined French woman curled her lip at me and barked, “Drake, avec moi!”
The demon leaped for the guardian. Though only a quarter of its size, Suanmi caught it by the throat and breathed the words, “Meurt, rejeton du diable” into its ear. Assuming it had ears.
The demon disintegrated into dust. Suanmi, her nose crinkled, brushed it off her classic Chanel pant suit, with the pink-piping-edged jacket and all.
“Suanmi, please,” I cried. “My sister.”
The fire breather stalked toward me. “What have you done with Drake, half-blood?” she asked in her heavily-accented English.
The few cars that had been parked on the roof were crumbled together in the far corner of the lot. These shifted as Drake stumbled out from underneath them.
Suanmi sighed, just as I had taken to sighing at the fledgling. I whispered a silent prayer in thanks that the thirteen-year-old was on his feet.
“Sorry, guardian,” Drake said.
“Avec moi, Drake,” Suanmi said. Then she turned away.
“No!” I cried. “I need your help.”
Suanmi whirled on me, fierce and full of anger. Her magic hit me like a sledgehammer. My heart skipped a beat or two. “Clean up your own mess, Jade Godfrey,” she sneered. “And don’t come back before you do, or I will grant your wish and make all your troubles go away.”
“But guardian …” Drake protested.
Suanmi snagged him by the ear. He instantly quieted.
“Such petty disputes are beneath a guardian, Drake,” Suanmi said. “We shall discuss your punishment just as soon as we get out of London.”
Drake swallowed and nodded.
“See to your pets, half-blood. They are dying.” Suanmi’s smirk was refined and spiteful. It was amazing she could pack so much nuance into one expression. But then, she’d had a half-dozen centuries to practice.
Still holding Drake by the ear, the guardian of Western Europe spun away and stepped into the stairs.
“It was fun rescuing you, Mory,” Drake called over his shoulder.
Then they were gone.
I felt utterly lost without the dragon magic I’d had by my side for the last three months.
“Jade.”
Mory was crying. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been kneeling there feeling sorry for myself.
I looked up. Mory had crawled to Kandy and was cradling the werewolf in her arms. The necromancer was bleeding badly from her forehead. Half her face was covered in her own blood.
I had to check on Kandy. I had to check on Kett.
“I don’t know any healing magic,” I whispered.
And Sienna. Sienna might be lying dead in the street below. I could still taste her blood-soaked earth magic, but it was mixed in with all the residual magic throughout the parking lot. I couldn’t pinpoint her location with my senses alone.
I pulled myself closer to Kett. The wound at his chest from the sacrificial knife hadn’t healed. This wound had severed the life debt bond between us. So, according to the magic of the bond, this blow would have killed me if Kett hadn’t stepped in. I couldn’t even begin to wrap my head around the idea that Kett might have sacrificed his immortal existence … for me.
Ribbons of charcoal — or ash, maybe — were spreading out from the wound. They ran slowly up Kett’s neck as I watched.
I reached out to touch his face, but then hesitated. Pushing through the shock that had obviously taken hold of my adrenal system, I switched hands. I hovered my left hand over Kett’s mouth and brought my jade knife up to slice my wrist.
“Stop!”
A woman’s scream was followed by a crushing blow to my shoulder. She knocked me sprawling over Kett and to the edge of the roof before I even laid eyes on her.
A woman as pale skinned as Kett stood crouched over him, baring her wickedly fanged teeth at me. Her fangs were at least an inch longer than Kett’s. Her eyes were not only filled with blood but swirling with magic. And her magic — a sharp, pungent peppermint — was almost an exact replica of Kett’s.
No. I had that backward. His magic was a duplicate of hers, and nowhere near as strong.
This was Kett’s maker, who also happened to be the Audrey Hepburn lookalike I’d seen on the street that afternoon.
I cradled my left arm in my right, as I staggered to my feet. “I think he’s dying,” I said. No. I pleaded. “I was just trying to feed —”
“Dragon blood,” Kett’s maker snapped. “If he isn’t already lost to me, he would have been.”
“I’m not … I don’t think …”
“That is obvious. Take your friends and go.”
“I can’t.”
“Now.” The power in her voice made me shiver, made me want to obey her unquestioningly.
“He’s my —”
“I swore not to touch you, Jade Godfrey.” She spat my name like it insulted her to even know it. “If he dies, I will suck the marrow from the werewolf’s and necromancer’s bones and make you watch. If he doesn’t die, you have eighteen hours left. After that, if you set even one foot in London, I will take everything from you.”
I believed her. I also believed, as wounded and depleted as I was, that I probably wouldn’t be able to stop her. She might manage to kill Mory or Kandy before I could get in her way.
So I left Kett.
I was doing that a lot. Leaving people who might be dead or dying, and saving those I could. I was doing it over and over and over.
I hefted Kandy over my shoulder, hoping Mory could walk just holding on to me, and ran for the stairs.
The werewolf was still breathing. Thank God. But I needed to get both her and Mory to a hospital, and then figure out later how to explain what had happened to the human authorities. I was already in epic shit with the Convocation and the Conclave, not to mention the sorcerer’s League. The shapeshifter Assembly would have my head if the hospital took blood samples, but I wasn’t going to let Kandy die if I could help it.
∞
I managed to get Kandy and Mory down to the ground floor without having our hearts ripped out by Kett’s maker. It was slow going, and I kept frantically glancing back. My dragon healing abilities had been seriously tested, and my right foot and left arm still didn’t feel fully under my control. Kandy was heavier than she looked, and Mory just stopped moving halfway down. I had to ferry both the werewolf and the fledgling necromancer one at a time for the last two flights of stairs.
I tucked them both inside the entrance ticket booth — Mory was still conscious but not speaking. Then I drew my jade knife and went to look for Sienna.
Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic Page 17
