He nodded as he pulled me closer so slowly, I knew he was giving me time for an out. But did I want it?
Alex wrapped his arms around me and held me to his chest. Different than before. I held him too, my hands splayed on his upper back as I breathed him in, like I’d been dreaming I would for the last three years.
He kissed the side of my head and pressed his face against mine. “I know. I see it when you look at him. But I had your heart first.”
6
I should’ve pushed Alex away. Said no. Hell, I should have done something to uphold what I had with Mac. But I didn’t, a part of me refused to let go of the man in front of me.
I could tell everyone else that he was like a brother to me, that he was family. But my heart knew differently. And apparently so did his.
Those golden eyes snared me, and my heart raced as I stared up at him, no more words, no more denials. He understood me like no one else. He’d been with me through some of the worst parts of my life, and some of the best.
He was my past, and I knew I should let him go. That the past should stay in the past. And I couldn’t turn away from him, not now, not in that moment. But could he be my future? His hands swept up to cup my face and my legs shook as his head tipped toward mine.
A thunderous boom ripped through the air, spinning me around.
The sound vibrated through my feet, and up into my body. I took a step back, but Alex held onto my hand.
“What the hell was that?” he asked.
“Nothing good,” I said as I dropped his hand and took off running toward the caravan. Shit, shit, shit! This was what I got for letting my guard down, for letting myself be distracted.
Alex caught up quickly, his long legs covering the distance between us in no time.
“How far out did we walk?” he asked.
“A mile, maybe a little more,” I said. Ahead of us, an unnatural orange glow lit up the darkness. And the first rattle of guns going off. I ran harder as I reached for my connection to Oka and Mac.
They were fine, and relief flowed from me to them and back again.
Stefan was the only word that came through from them.
“Mother fucker,” I snarled as I ran head first into the thick of it.
Bodies, screaming, fighting, the whole place was lit up like some kind of mental carnival.
Stefan and his goons were like ants on the caravan, crawling everywhere, laughing as they broke things and took what they wanted. The shifters were doing what they could to keep them back, but the Breakers had guns. Guns that worked against supernaturals.
“What can you do?” Alex asked as he slid to a stop beside me.
“Not much,” I said. Did he really still expect me to save them all? Maybe he thought I was exaggerating the bracelets. I shook my head. I couldn’t think about it now. I needed to get the caravan moving.
“Richard,” I shouted, searching for him among the screams and running bodies. Someone crashed into my shoulder, and I didn’t recognize them. One of Stefan’s goons.
“Well, well. What have we here?” the man said as he rounded on me, licking his lips. Stringy blond hair fell across his face, pock-marked and scarred. “You’re a pretty thing, aren’t you? I think I’ll be taking you home with Calvin.”
“Not on your life,” Mac said as he bounded out of nowhere in his polar bear form. The man screamed and tried to back up, but Mac was having none of it. He roared and reared up on his back feet, swung with a front paw and snapped the man’s neck with a single blow.
He dropped to the ground and turned to me. “You okay?”
I nodded as I put a hand on him, right behind his head. “We’ve got to get everyone out of here.”
Oka ran up in her tiger form. “We’re losing. Bad. This is worse than the zombies. At least the zombies had to be close range. Stefan has men surrounding us, taking us down if we try to escape the circle.”
“Fuck.” I twisted around, trying to get a feel for the fight. Circled, we had to punch our way through. Gods be damned, they had to have followed after Alex and Jasmine to have found us so fast.
Oka was right, there were men in trees, and farther out just picking our people off if they ranged too close. Which meant they didn’t really want to kill us, just take us as . . . what, slaves?
“Oka, Mac, round our people up to the center of the caravan, away from the edges.”
Oka and Mac nodded and took off toward the worst of the fight. “Don’t die,” I yelled after them, but neither responded.
I turned to Alex. “Go with them, please.”
He nodded once, and took off, stripping his shirt and shifting in two strides. The large black wolf was gone in a flash, dodging around people to get close to Mac and Oka.
The darkness curled through me, rubbing itself against my skin like an animal marking its territory. Now is the time. Your people are dying. We can save them. You can save them. Embrace me, and it’s done. Stefan is done, forever.
“Quiet, you,” I said through clenched teeth. I didn’t trust the darkness and had a pretty good idea of what the consequences of using it were.
And that was the rub. I might be able to do something, but after my fight with Madeline I was still recovering.
Because you will not submit your will, child. Submit to me, embrace me and we could move mountains.
I hesitated, considering it, wanting so badly to just rip off the bindings on my arms and let loose on Stefan and his group. But with so many lives surrounding us, how was I to know the black magic wouldn’t take one of our own just as easily as one of the enemies? The darkness was indiscriminate, and in the past, I’d been able to get my people clear first, keeping them safe as I’d battled for their lives. Which meant that was what I had to do.
I set out, searching for Richard in the chaos. “Get to the center of the group!” I yelled at three shifters. “Get everyone there!” They nodded and ran to do as I asked.
I finally found Richard trying to put out a fire on one of their biggest tents, a heavy wool blanket in his hand, beating at the still-flaming material. A for effort, F for futile.
“Richard,” I grabbed his arm and pulled him back, “get everyone to the center of the group. I’m going to make an opening and you need to be ready to go. Now.”
He hesitated and I squeezed his arm hard. “Go, or Stefan will take out every last one of those fighting, keep the women for himself, but not before he skins the kids alive. Got it?”
Richard’s eyes turned hard. “I’ll kill him with my bare hands.”
“Right-O.” I pushed him toward the center of the group. “Hold onto that anger. You’ll need it.”
We nodded to each other, and he took off shouting orders, loading people into the trucks and pushing everyone to the center away from the snipers.
The kids had been stuffed into the Humvee, three sets of wide eyes watching the fight, and a fourth that was Marley. As I ran by, Chris sat at the wheel, her eyes hard. At least, I knew she wouldn’t slow down once they were going.
The rest of our people scrambled to safety at the center of the caravan.
Or what I thought was safety.
I found Crimson among those still fighting at the edges and pulled her back by the arm. She spun with a snarl until she saw it was me.
“Pamela, how are we getting out of this? It’s bad.”
“I know,” I said. “I want half the shifters with you, holding Stefan off once I make an opening. The other half with the rest of the caravan, keeping them safe.” She nodded once and shouted her own orders. Just for one moment, I thought we’d be okay. We had a plan. We could get out of this. Stefan would escape alive too, but it would have to be enough for today. We needed our lives more than we needed to end him.
The caravan solidified in the center of our camp, everyone right where I’d put them. Like a batch of sitting ducks, ready to be roasted for dinner.
A flash of new movement, like flames that moved on their own spun me to the side. A runner.
Then another. And another. And another. I lost count of how many there were, but they all had bottles with flaming wicks sticking out the top. And they were all unified in their goal.
They ran straight toward our supply truck.
“Crimson, take them out!” I shouted as I loosed my curved blades and ran for the closest fire bug to me.
He didn’t pay attention to me, clearly thinking he could outrun me. But I was on him fast, and snapped a foot under him, tripping him easily. The bottle went flying, and while I had my eyes on it, he grabbed hold of my cloak and dragged me down to the ground with him.
“Fancy yourself a hero, eh?” he asked as he pulled me closer to him. Half his teeth were missing, and he smiled grotesquely at me while he yanked on my cloak, tangling my arms.
“Off of me now, you frog-faced fuck-up. Couldn’t even light a fire, eh?” Perhaps mocking him wasn’t the best idea, but I couldn’t hold it in.
His eyes narrowed. “Why, you salty bitch.” He spit on my face and then leaned in to lick it off. “Ah, yeah, I’m going to like the taste of you, I think.”
The first lick had caught me off guard. He craned his neck and stuck out his tongue a second time.
Idiot. My right hand came free as he leaned in and I snapped my blade up and slashed it across his throat, all the way to the spine. Blood gushed out all over my chest, and his tongue stayed out of his mouth. He blinked and then the weight of his unsupported head rolled it to the side.
He gave me a wonderful opening to relieve him of his head in one clean sweep of my crescent-shaped blade. I turned my head to the side and pushed his now-lifeless body from me.
I got to my feet. My efforts on the ground had given the other runners time. Crimson and another shifter were hot on the trail of two other bombers, but three more got through our people.
“Get clear,” I yelled at those near the truck and the driver. They scrambled away as I ran toward the truck, trying to think of something I could do.
In desperation, I reached out for my mother’s magic and it coursed through me, laughing.
And gave me nothing. New rules, little girl. You do what I want, or I will not help you.
“Fucking whore!” I screamed, and people turned to me. It all came down to one thing.
The runners were too fast, and I was too slow in my decision.
They launched their homemade bombs at the truck in tandem, as if they’d done it before. The flaming bottles tumbled end over end through the air, and all three of them landed on the bed of the truck, right on top of the tarp covering our supplies.
“Shit. Put it out!” I yelled, but people were still scrambling to get away. What I wouldn’t give to have a connection to my water element right then. I balled my fists in anger, and the darkness cooed to me again.
It won’t take much to end this and save your people. These humans are nothing but toys for you. Cast them aside like the playthings they are, and we will move on, stronger together. All you have to do is let me be a part of you.
Well, that was new.
I released an angry breath and ignored the seductive voice. All I could do was keep moving forward.
But despite all our efforts, the truck was engulfed in flames before I got within twenty feet of it. Flames licked down the side, heading for the gas tank.
Heat rolled off it.
I turned to the front of the caravan. What if I could get to the snipers? What if I could use my little connection with spirit to put them to sleep?
The flames let out some pops, and the smell of gasoline and magic filled the air. Shit, that whole thing was going to blow.
“Get away,” I yelled at the people who’d come to try and help me put out the flames. “Get clear.”
As if the fire took my warning as its cue, the truck exploded spectacularly, sending me ass over teakettle through the air a good ten feet.
I landed flat on my back, the wind completely knocked out of me. I struggled to bring the world around me into focus, gasping for air, fighting to see where I’d landed. A huge furry white leg came into view and then the fur was gone and Mac was at my side on two legs, clothes on.
Nice to have that perk, he never lost his clothes like Alex. Yes, I know I was dazed, to be focusing on that when I should have been prepping to fight again.
“Pamela? Hey, stay with me. And yes, I’m more experienced than Alex, hence my clothes staying with me.” His voice was muffled and sounded far away, but I felt a hand on my shoulder, so I’d know he was right there. The concussion from the explosion had damaged my hearing.
Pain rocked through my head as things became clearer. The noise of the chaos around me came back, crisp as ever, and I groaned.
“Back in the battle, my witch,” Mac said, smiling at me.
I nodded and stood, turning toward the ones with the guns, and homemade bombs.
Mac was on one side, back to his polar bear form; Oka was on the other, looking at me with concern in her chartreuse tiger eyes. I shook my head at her and ran into the battle once more.
The explosion seemed to have been the catalyst Stefan was waiting for.
The whole attack was far more organized than I expected it to be, more than any attack we’d faced so far, and that was saying something. Stefan sent another wave of men loaded down with guns toward us. A big wave. If I thought we were surrounded before, it was nothing to what we were looking at now.
Where in the seven hells did he get so many people? So many men willing to fight and die for him? Because while we were losing people, so was he.
Bullets whizzed past my face as the three of us ran toward the battle. Alex joined our ranks and charged forward. I couldn’t help but notice Jasmine was nowhere to be found. Crimson, though, and a good number of shifters formed our own powerful wave against the humans. If we could manage to avoid being shot, we’d make short work of them.
Thing was, it was kinda hard to avoid it when they kept firing at us. Where had all their ammo come from? It felt like they had an impossibly unfair advantage. Something niggled at me, like it wanted to click into place, but I couldn’t focus on it with the chaos around us.
“East!” I yelled. That was our way out. We had to break the ranks there, or we were good and royally fucked.
Once we reached the human wall of gunfire, we were able to tip the scale just a little bit. Hand to hand, we were stronger, faster, meaner. But the guns picked us off more often than not. Bodies lay on the ground everywhere I looked, but there was a pattern to it.
The humans who’d been shot were all alive, non-life-threatening injuries. Nicked in the arms and legs mostly.
The shifters who were down were dead. But fewer of them because they were faster, deadlier than any human.
Stefan was killing our protectors, and injuring those he wanted to what . . . enslave?
Not while I was here.
I slipped through the ranks and rammed a blade into the belly of one of Stefan’s men. His eyes met mine an instant before Oka snagged him from the side, snapping his neck. Shocked, he’d been shocked.
Did others not fight back? A question for another time.
Around me, the shifters began to drop, some howling with pain, others silent in death. Panic clawed up my throat. We needed to end this.
I needed to end this.
You can. Give me what I want. Give me control.
My resolve weakened. I couldn’t sacrifice any more of those I’d sworn to protect, just to protect myself from this magic, could I?
Oka glanced at me, feeling my struggle. She shook her head, and I had my answer. No. Hang on a little longer. We’d do this. They were just humans. Keep them back long enough to let Richard and the others get away. To keep the kids safe. That’s all we had to do.
But it wasn’t that easy. It never was. The shards of what was left of my world were crushed into sand in an instant.
Pain that was not my own rocketed through my shoulder and stole my breath. Heat and blood, again not my own, but I felt it run
down my right arm as if it were. Mac had been hit.
“Mac,” I tried to scream his name, but nothing came out. I gasped for air, and Oka came to my side, standing over me, crouched and snarling.
“He’s alive,” she said. “He’s not dead.”
But it was enough for me. I’d had enough. I didn’t want to lose anyone else. The pain rippling through Mac was all I needed to let my guard down.
“I give,” I whispered.
The black magic in me delighted at its release, and poured out of me, dark fog seeping from my hands as I struggled to stand. An unnatural wind caught my cloak and blew it back behind me. I raised my hands and the fog spread thick and fast, chasing the gunmen as though it were a pack of hunting cats searching for prey.
Stefan’s men scattered the second they saw the fog. They retreated, as if they knew what it was, as if they knew what my death magic meant for them. Even humans could recognize death when it had their name on it, apparently.
“You’ll pay for this in blood, Stefan,” I whispered, and the voice that came out of me was not entirely my own. But I didn’t care. I was done with being weak, done with those I loved dying and hurting because I was afraid of the darkness.
The Breakers were quick, running back the way they’d come, but not quick enough.
I followed them, my hands out to the sides as I helped direct the magic. I snagged one of the men with a curl of the fog and laughed, delighted at my catch.
“So easy,” I said. I kept Mac’s pain close, wanting this man to feel it too. They’d been the cause of this. It was their fault. They deserved to suffer for it.
The blackness filled my mind as the mist poured into the man, like a kind of water torture, filling his mouth until he choked. I held him high above my head so the other men could see, so they could fear me. He couldn’t cry out, but tears poured from his eyes, and the darkness in me smiled. I smiled. His heart stopped, and I released him with a snap of my fingers. He dropped, face first to the ground, nothing more than a lifeless thud. A wheeze of a cry squeezed out of his dead lungs.
Caravan Witch (Questing Witch Book 2) Page 7
