by Joey W. Hill
Raina knew how powerful each of her sisters were, and she herself was. Yet her own magic was something she felt in her gut, much as Mikhael had just implied. She had formidable, learned skills, but nothing like Ruby. Ruby had a grasp of the tenets of magic Raina would never have.
Even knowing that, watching Ruby do the complicated work with such incredible skill and swiftness that it seemed deceptively effortless, was awe-inspiring.
Raina closed her eyes so she could see more clearly what was happening on another plane. Marcie’s life force was fading so frighteningly fast, perhaps seconds left to go. Silas hadn’t been exaggerating. The broken souls were like razor blades, shredding her life energy. Ruby’s magic, a strong, clear magenta light, moved over them with purpose, found the piece that was important, touched it. Raina heard her murmuring the words, her voice growing in strength. Then her gut feeling told her it was time to lend Ruby additional reinforcement.
She joined in, echoing the words, adding to the magical layering. Mikhael followed, his deep timbre vibrating through her where their bodies touched.
Something had happened with Ben. Hopefully something good. Because now Derek joined them. Male and female voices blended, overlapped, rose and fell.
Derek knelt behind his wife, his large frame sheltering her, hands landing on her shoulders like Mikhael’s on Raina’s, gripping. Raina tensed, worried he might tear her away, interrupt her. Derek’s sense of right and wrong had the most indelible lines in the sand, on the Light side of things.
She needn’t have worried. Love was a force that existed on both sides of the line, so that often the lines didn’t matter. Only the love did. He wrapped his arms around Ruby. Though this magic work had to have Ruby’s sole signature, he could give her strength to do it. Raina saw his Light energy pour into Ruby. It had been a long night. Her voice, which had been faltering under the strain, strengthened once more.
Raina turned all her senses toward Marcie, except her eyes. She closed them again, so she could better see what was happening with the girl, find that flickering flame that was her struggling life force.
The hold of those despairing souls was loosening. Whereas the one Ruby was focusing upon grew tendrils that burrowed into Marcie. They went into her blood stream, into the beat of her heart, the breath in her lungs. Into every organ and system. A small cry wrested from her throat, and her arms came up, but not to push Ruby away. Marcie cradled her own body in her arms, but it wasn’t her body she was holding. It was the pain and essence of one young boy, one who’d become the remarkable, dangerous man she loved beyond all others.
As she accepted it, that fading light flickered…and went out.
Chapter Twenty
“Marcie. Marcella. Brat, if you do not answer me, you will wish you were dead. If you think I won’t come drag you out of Heaven by your hair, you are seriously mistaken. Talk to me.”
She was so exhausted, she had no strength. There were nights Ben had taken all the strength from her, with orgasms and pain, and more pain and orgasms, until she couldn’t walk. He’d carry her to their gigantic garden tub, and they’d lie there in the heated water. His breath would be on her brow, her lips, and he’d slowly bring her back to life and strength again. He took it away, he gave it back. It was what her Master did, because he owned her, everything she was.
Which meant, no matter how exhausted she was, she needed to obey.
The effort of that small movement was like the agony of one more stomach crunch when she’d pushed her workout well beyond the level of insanity. Or Crossfit. Which were two words that meant the same thing, according to Ben. She couldn’t do it. But she was trying, enough that he apparently noticed a flutter of her lashes, the grimace of effort on her face.
“There you are. You damn well better answer me.”
“Y-yes…sir.” Her voice didn’t sound like her. It was small, weak. But it was enough.
She was lifted like a balloon and then lowered again. It took her a minute to realize the movement had been caused by the giant inhalation of breath Ben had drawn into his lungs. She was in his arms, his lap, her upper body lying against him the way she lay against him in their big tub. He’d known. He’d known the best way to bring her back to the familiar, the comforting. He knew all her triggers, and how to ground her after pressing them.
They weren’t in their tub at home, though they were sitting in water, a shallow, mucky amount of it. The smell of the river and wet roofing material was in her nose. As her eyelids cracked at last, she saw the sky, with silver gray and smoke colored tracks against it. It was dawn.
There were people around them. It took her a moment to place them. Raina…Mikhael. Her gaze lingered on the Dark Guardian as she remembered. He’d called to her, the way a Master would, commanding her to hold on. Derek, another Master, had the kind of stern but compassionate look that Jon sometimes did. He was looking at Ruby. Ruby.
She tried to struggle up, and was rewarded with another shriek of agony from every muscle fiber. The witch was the color of gray paste, and appeared to be unconscious in Derek’s arms. “What…she needs help…”
“She’s fine,” Derek said. His brusque tone matched the tight concern on his face, though the way he stroked his wife’s hair with his large, capable fingers showed only comfort, reassurance. No urgency. “She’s well. It took a lot out of her to bring you back. It will take her some time to recharge. Just as it will for you.” His gaze turned to Mikhael. “We need to go back to the hotel before we’re noticed here.”
It told her she’d regained consciousness in the immediate aftermath of everything that had happened. Details were a little cloudy, but since she was soaked, and her backside was still immersed in water, that came back first. The storm surge.
Her gaze shifted outward, over the roof’s edge of the warehouse where they were assembled. Her grip tightened on Ben’s forearm, banded strong beneath her breasts. “Oh shit.”
For once, Ben didn’t get after her for cursing. Never mind the man would curse like a sailor with the least amount of prompting, though he tried not to do it front of her, or any woman. Still, Ben was honest about it when it happened. The swear jar they kept at the house was full enough to pay for a year of college tuition.
Or to make a sizeable donation for storm cleanup.
Riverfront windows were shattered, buildings were caved in. The concession stands on the docks near the shopping mall were piles of kindling or gone entirely. There was a trolley car lying in the street on its side, companionably bumping against one of the ferry boats that normally took NOLA tourists and residents across the river to Algiers Point.
The river had receded within normal boundaries—on the extreme high tide full moon side—but there was standing water everywhere, including on this rooftop. Her gaze slid to the Aquarium and held. The picturesque glass cylinder on top possessed a grid of jagged toothed openings.
“A lot of physical damage,” Raina said. “But nothing that can’t be rebuilt. Just a sudden storm surge that will cause some excitement on the news, create a lot of clean-up, and be forgotten in a few months. The ley line was only mildly disrupted, so we avoided the catastrophe an earthquake would have caused. Though it was a near thing.”
Her exotic green and gold eyes had a fierce light to them, like a tigress who’d just had a particularly nasty encounter with another tigress and was checking the status of one of her cubs. Which brought back another thought.
“Elagra…”
“Barely alive, but nothing but an empty shell.”
Mikhael’s mouth tightened fractionally, and Raina shook her head. “If I pay for it, I pay for it. You know nothing else would have assured Marcie’s survival and freed those souls.”
Derek’s expression was equally grave, but he put a hand on Mikhael’s shoulder, an unexpected reassurance. “We deal with it later,” the Light Guardian said.
Anger flashed through Raina’s gaze, increasing that fierce tigress look. Yet when she began to speak, obvious
ly to lash out, Mikhael’s sharp look made her hold her tongue, barely. Marcie expected Mikhael was one of the few who could accomplish that miracle, but she knew that look herself, pretty well.
She wasn’t sure what the issue was, but she wanted to defuse the tension. Because well, this was a victory, right? Her man was holding her, and they were all alive. “They’re just mad because we took her out.” Her voice was still pathetically weak, but gained a hair’s width more strength as she used it, looking at Raina. “All we needed was girl power. Right?”
Raina summoned a smile, as Marcie had hoped. The witch’s hand, curled into a fist on Marcie’s leg, loosened, her fingers stroking. “You can fight at my side any day.”
“Not during my lifetime,” Ben said.
At last Marcie found the strength to drop her head back so she could see him. His hair and the rest of him were as wet as she was. He was dirty and bloody, his shirt gone. Though he held her firmly, she noticed that beneath the determination was an exhaustion likely as deep as her own.
Bonnie. He had taken Bonnie to another place, and Marcie had thought she’d lost him. “How did you get back?” she managed. Despite the lack of strength in her arms, she managed to reach up and touch his mouth, his hard jaw.
“Ramona and Derek. Ruby. They drew me back, like a hot air balloon ride out of Oz. I’d have been here sooner, but Ramona kept me lying down for a few minutes. Something about all my molecules flying apart if I moved too soon.”
He was here. They’d figured out how to bring him back. She would love all of them forever for that.
She always felt closer to him than any other human being in the world, but maybe because of the aftermath of her near-death experience, she felt even closer, in a way hard to describe. It was as if she truly could feel his heart beat in her chest, his air in her lungs.
“Where did you go?” she whispered.
“To a good place.” His vivid green gaze rested on her face. She saw the lines of concern in his, as deep as those on Derek’s face. Her hand was shaking. He closed his hand around hers, steadied them both. “But not good enough to keep me there. That’s only where you are. But she’s safe. Bonnie’s safe. The place where she is…it has every magical creature you ever read about as a kid. And she flew, brat. I got to see her fly for the first time. She flew away, over miles and miles of purple ocean.”
"Who wouldn't want to live near a purple ocean?" Ramona said wistfully. For the first time, Marcie noticed her there, and wondered if she’d been elsewhere. Or if her brain was just now filling in some of the empty holes in the scenery around them.
“Indeed.” Silas stood behind her, his hand resting at her waist. He gazed around them with that look that said he was taking in a bunch of things they couldn’t see, but his tone, the glance he gave Ramona, said he was also very much in the here and now.
“If I remember the place correctly,” the chaos witch said, “there are caves on that beach. A couple giants already live there. They'll love her, think she's amazing. Probably try to talk her into letting them ride her."
“And get themselves eaten for their trouble,” Silas said dryly.
Marcie tried to chuckle, and shivered instead.
“You’re right. It’s time to get out of here,” Ben said to Mikhael and Derek. “She needs a hot bath, dry clothes.”
“We both do. One of our baths,” she sighed in agreement. “In that giant, amazing tub.”
A smile crossed Ben’s face when she tipped hers up to him again. “Home it is, brat.”
He gathered her up, lifted her as he rose. Though she couldn’t imagine the effort it must have taken him, he lifted her as he always did, as if he could carry her for miles without tiring. Derek likewise had scooped up Ruby. Marcie wished she would wake. Even though the behavior of the others said she’d be okay, Marcie still wanted to see evidence of the woman’s sharp hazel eyes, her serious smile, her compact, lean energy that emanated a full yard all around her.
Marcie wondered if it would all come back to her, everything that had happened in those minutes she seemed unable to find. She felt a million crazy things, a jumble she couldn’t parse into memories, thoughts. They were so close, though. She expected as she put some time and space between her and the trauma, it would come back. What she did remember was a strong mix of energies, and knew without asking that everyone on this rooftop had played some part in her and Ben still being alive.
Raina had delivered on the promise she’d made. For that and a lot of other reasons, Marcie would forever count her among her small but extraordinary group of female friends she trusted without question.
“I understand the desire to go home,” Mikhael said. “But it is best for us to stay together for a short time period.”
Marcie noticed Raina touching Mikhael’s arm, giving him a significant look. The Dark Guardian nodded imperceptibly as he continued.
“Magic use like Marcie just experienced can have some unexpected aftermath effects. It is best that she be where we can monitor her. At least for a day.”
Ben’s expression tightened, but Marcie squeezed his arm again. “The hotel has a giant tub, too,” she said.
He glanced down at her, and his gaze softened slightly. “I wasn’t going to disagree, brat,” he said. “Much as I want to be home, too, making sure you’re okay is more important.”
She wanted to say she was fine, but she really wasn’t sure she could. She was alive, and very sore, she knew that. But there was something else…it was as if her brain had been dismantled and put back together in a slightly wonky way, and her body likewise felt like it did when standing in the ocean all day, as if it was moving to a different rhythm, where she wouldn’t be entirely steady on land. There was a tingling everywhere, inside. Like a jar of bees had been let loose. They weren’t mad, angrily buzzing. It was more like when they came out in droves during the blooming season and were busy drifting from flower to flower.
In short, there was a lot happening in her head and with the rest of her. She wasn’t going to argue with Mikhael and Derek’s logic either, as much as she would like nothing better than a soak in their tub and a month-long nap in Ben’s arms in their king-sized bed. Their bedroom was done in lots of soft whites with slashes of black, and reminded her of being in a cloud.
“Silas and I have one issue to address,” Ramona said. “And then we’ll portal back to my home. But we’ll be close if you need us.”
The chaos witch’s expression was abruptly far less dreamy and amicable. Following her gaze, Marcie stiffened in Ben’s arms. She suddenly understood the import of Raina’s words.
Barely alive. But alive.
Elagra lay on the flat expanse of a utility box at the far end of the roof. Marcie expected they’d brought her there to keep an eye on her while assessing her own condition.
Raina had said she was a husk. While Marcie wasn’t sure what that meant, it likely had something to do with how the woman looked almost boneless, limbs slack, body at a twisted angle. She looked like a doll that had been dropped from the sky and had no animation to move herself into a more natural-looking position.
But she was still animated. As Marcie looked her way, she heard a low moan, saw the body twitch, turn over, slowly. Marcie didn’t want to see that face, not ever again, but when Elagra’s staring eyes rolled in their direction, Marcie felt a chill deep inside.
Empty husk was the right word for it. The golden hue of the eyes had turned dark, the unnaturally round eyes focused like a living corpse. The woman was still in there somewhere, hating, destructive, deep, deep inside, likely screaming to get out. But something else was holding her imprisoned in her subconscious. A determination to live, to spite all her enemies, to spit on those who would try to control her.
Her body was twitching now, a repetitive thing as she tried to push herself up. Blood was on her lips, and she licked it off.
“She’s rotten to the core, but hell and damnation, she has a powerful will,” Raina said. “No one else
would have lived through that.”
“I’ll take care of her,” Ramona said. “There’s a place to put her where she’ll do no more harm. She’ll get what she deserves in time.”
Her gaze met Mikhael’s. The Dark Guardian’s fathomless eyes flickered. Marcie expected that he already knew which room in hell Elagra would be assigned when she finally faced that final justice. It might be wrong of her, but she hoped it was the darkest, deepest hole they had available. Yet she couldn’t deny a twinge of compassion as she looked at the woman, and saw the soul trapped deep within her, desperate, driven by hate and a hunger for violence that would never be assuaged.
But then Marcie’s attention was caught by Silas. He wasn’t a chatterbox by any means, but now there was a palpable weight to his stillness, an expectant energy she didn’t understand until she lifted her gaze to Ben’s face.
“Will you take her?” he said to Mikhael. “I’ll catch up.”
“No.” Marcie tried to hold onto him, but she was too weak. Ben shifted her into Mikhael’s arms. He did lift one of her hands, kissed it, but before she could try to latch on, say the words trying to free themselves from her locked-up throat, he was already striding away. She struggled, but Raina’s hand was on her, stilling her. She noticed Derek and Mikhael had exchanged a look, and had matching impassive expressions.
She couldn’t control a lot of things, but she could control one, damn it.
“We wait for him,” Marcie said. She aimed that at Raina, and though she wanted to be fierce about it, the best she could manage in her current state was pleading, a desperate, adamant need for Raina to understand.
Raina met her gaze, nodded. She looked up at Mikhael. “We need to wait,” she said quietly.
Ramona had stepped close to Silas’s side, but this time she didn’t touch him. She merely stood there, silent, watching with the rest of them, as Silas drew his hood up, shadowing his face. The first flash of sunrise glimmered along the blade of his scythe, gripped in his long-fingered hand.
