by Sierra Cross
“It’s okay, witch,” Asher said. “You’ll live. It’ll take a minute for your brain to reset.”
“En dar.” My words were nothing but gibberish. My head bobbed toward the doors. I was trying to tell him I needed to be in there. Inside that gym.
“Shit.” He must have understood my plea. “I suppose I’ll never hear the end of it if I leave you out here.” Strong, lean arms wrapped under my shoulders and lifted me awkwardly to my feet.
I felt my body coming back under my control bit by bit as Asher carried me through the doors. The gym was too still—a very shaky standoff. The vamps and Matt stood in a semicircle in front of the red wall the young witches had thrown—this time they were all standing just inside of the barrier. Given the winter cold, it was odd to see the young witches all in T-shirts. They’d piled their heavy coats on the bleachers. Perhaps they found it too hard to fight in them? Tenebris—the amulet around his neck no longer glowing—stood in the center, next to Callie.
“Sorry, witch.” Asher set me down just inside the gym. “End of the line on this trolley.” He leaned down and kissed the side of my head, called his magic to his hands, and charged into the fray.
Propped up against the gym wall, I only had a view of the back of our crew hovering in a ring around the enemy, waiting for an opening to attack. None of the young witches were diverting their energy by forming firebolts—they were all sending their magic into Tenebris. The Caedis was a lightning rod of power. It radiated from within and without. He was gearing up to do something big.
And lying in a heap at their feet was Liv.
Even from here I could see the burn of dark magic across her shoulder, where the Splinter had blasted her. I thought of Hayden, who still bore the mark of his former lover’s Splinter. Would Liv’s wound ever heal?
“Fireworks, girls!” Tenebris bellowed. The young witches all lunged forth and dropped to one knee, sending a ring of arcing energy up the red wall like electricity moving in Frankenstein’s lab. As the coil reached the top, it exploded into the air like…well, exactly like fireworks. Shards of fire, crimson and chartreuse, rained down everywhere. I did my best to bat them away, but since my arms weren’t quite working yet, some of the embers found their way to my skin. I sucked in a breath through gritted teeth.
Asher doubled back to the wall, where I was still recouping my strength.
“I’m okay,” I said, “Stay in the battle.”
He nodded, smacking embers away from his face, and turned back. “Mind the flaming bits. They smart.”
I felt a surge of magic rock the gym like a volcano popping its top. Whatever Tenebris was amassing this power for was about to happen. We had to make our move. Bonaventura must’ve sensed it too. En masse, the vampires rushed the red barrier, only to sizzle and bounce off.
Fat red embers landed on the bleachers, burning black circles in the wood. The coat pile became a bonfire. Smoke alarms blared, and the sprinklers came on, soaking us. Vampires were furiously batting away embers. Matt had fiery cinders dinging off his blades. What did Tenebris have to gain from burning down the gym? Nothing, except that vampires were known to be cautious around fire…
“They’re trying to distract us!” I yelled, but I was too far away for those at the front to hear me. “They’re about to spellbead out.”
Silly girl. Tenebris was inside my head again. Fuck. There hasn’t been a spellbead made that’s strong enough to transport all of us. He was right. So maybe they weren’t going anywhere? I tried to ignore his voice, to logic my way past the tug of his signature and figure out what he was doing, but my thoughts wouldn’t obey. My brain felt like mush, as did my muscles. The young witch’s blast had taken so much out of me, I couldn’t muster the strength to push him out. I clenched my eyes shut to stem the incursion, but the images rolled into my mind anyway. Still frames of images flickered before my eyes, like I was watching a film running at the wrong speed. Then I was immersed in the alternate reality.
Warm sand between my toes. I was lying on a beach, a tropical breeze rippling the lengths of my flowing white gown. A masculine hand ran up my thigh and caressed my hip. I looked over to see Tenebris in his Leonard skinsuit, eyelids heavy with lust. His long, manicured fingers swept across my swollen belly. Swollen belly? I felt a flutter…from inside me? A baby. “Together, we will reign for millennia,” he said. His lips pressed into the nape of my neck—the same spot where Matt had kissed me. “With me at your side, you won’t even miss the guardian.”
“Get out!” I grunted, trying to tap into my reserve of magic. “Get out, get out of my mind, demon.” But it didn’t work. I was still on the beach, staring down at my swollen belly. But wait, demons and witches couldn’t make babies together. This whole sick scenario was impossible. Just a way for him to fuck with me. My muscles shaking with the effort I was exerting, I focused my thoughts back on the Wellspring gym.
I felt the gaping whoosh of Tenebris’s exit, and I was alone in my head. But it was he who’d slammed the connection shut, not me. Why?
“Killshot. Two o’clock,” Tenebris barked, pointing at Matt. His eyes remained fixed on me, a wolfish smile on his face.
Paige, the blond snowball hurling girl, leapt to a standing position just outside the barrier and fired a shard of red magic from her wrist like Spider-Man. Matt was too busy deflecting fire to see it coming. I lurched forward, but my limbs moved like they were stuck in molasses. Making me trip over my own feet. As I toppled to the gym floor, I saw Griffin push Matt out of the way of the blast, taking the hit himself. The vampire’s body flew toward the barrier. Rather than letting Griffin sizzle against the wall of red energy and bounce off, Tenebris reached through and grabbed hold of his wrist. In a swift motion, the Caedis yanked the vampire’s huge, flailing body through the barrier.
I clawed to a tentative standing position and hobbled between two hulking vampires, pushing my way to the front. At the sound of thundering footsteps, I turned to see a dozen black clad Fidei pouring into the gym, weapons raised. They froze at the spectacle before them. So much for the cavalry coming to our rescue.
“Nunc exeatis!” Tenebris bellowed at the top of his lungs, his outstretched arms reaching for the heavens. Wind whipped with the roar of a freight train. My hair smacked against my face, and I struggled to remain on my feet. The floor rumbled, the windows shattered. A green light like a flash bomb flared and they disappeared. Tenebris. Callie. Liv. The young witches. Gone in a blink. And they’d taken Griffin with them.
The Fidei took a stutter-step forward and went nowhere. Apparently, what to do when over a dozen people vanished before their eyes wasn’t in their playbook.
Bonaventura surged forward. In one leap he stood where the barrier had been. He threw his head back and unleashed an eardrum-disintegrating yell.
Why kidnap Griffin?
The answer came to me in a flash. Blood. He needed vampire blood to reactivate the amulet.
I stood between Matt and Asher. The aftermath of the spell rained down around us. Sparkling green dust swirled in the flying debris. Grey chunks of ash that were lighter than air slowly floated to the ground. The vampire closed his mouth, pulled his suit back into place, and lunged right at me.
Chapter Seven
Matt blocked my body before Bonaventura could reach me. I braced for them to collide, but instead, I heard the clink of glass hitting the gym floor. A puff of white smoke engulfed what was left of my coven.
Asher had thrown a spellbead.
Next thing I knew, we were on that ethereal magic carpet ride, sailing above the snow-covered forest. On the long ribbon of highway, a TMBC news van sped towards the school. Asher steered with an expert hand…until we reached our motel. He rushed the landing, and we fell back to earth in a heap in our room at the Timberlands. I could smell carpet cleaner.
“Cool escape plan, man.” Matt sat up and rubbed his shoulder. “He’ll never think to look for us here.”
“We’re not hiding, watchdog,” Asher
said. “Merely giving the vampire a moment to…process his emotions.” Asher stood and feigned dusting himself off. “You’re welcome for saving your asses. Seems like—”
“Alix wouldn’t have needed saving if you hadn’t dragged her into the battle!”
“Really, that’s what you want to argue about now?” Asher was indignant.
“She was practically comatose,” Matt growled. “She had no business being in that room!”
“Again I ask you, have you met our fearless leader? She would’ve castrated me if I’d left her in that lobby—”
“Enough!” God, the two of them bickered like an old married couple. “Asher’s right, leaving me behind would’ve been worse than death. But that’s not our immediate problem—” I was cut off by the door to our room being ripped off its hinges. Bonaventura flung it like a playing card. I heard it scrape across the pavement, then multiple car alarms blared.
The vampire’s body filled the doorframe, but he didn’t enter the room. He must have run the whole way because he couldn’t have gotten back that fast in a car. I’d never seen him this disheveled before. His hair was ruffled, his suit pulled in odd directions, tie bloused at the neck. But every muscle in his body moved with a forced calm. I got the feeling we were in the eye of the hurricane.
“This is entirely your fault, Miss Hill.” His voice was eerily quiet. “You are reckless and impetuous and a danger to the community at large—”
“Whoa, I know things went pear-shaped back there, but—”
“You know nothing! Because of you, my son is gone!” His voice reached that decibel level that felt like a knife in my ear. But he gathered his control again. “You are fired from this investigation and will leave Michigan immediately. You will head back to Seattle. Do the only job you are tasked with—maintain the wards. I am firmly convinced that’s all you’re good for. If you inadvertently stumble on information regarding this Caedis, you will notify me immediately. If I even think you are trying to interfere with my operation, I’ll tear the skin from your body and paint myself with your blood.”
His operation? Did he not notice the Fidei troops, useless as they’d been? Pretty soon the Wellspring scandal would be plastered all over the news. His annoyance with me would be the least of his concerns.
Asher tried to cut in. “Listen, I understand—”
“You and your coven continue to draw breath at my discretion.” Bonaventura didn’t even acknowledge the warlock’s attempt to mediate. He smiled tightly, and a chill snaked down my back. This was way worse than his angry face. “If you think I’m some bureaucrat that’s just trying to scare you, think again.” A laugh that sounded like metal scraping on metal filled the room. “For centuries before you were born I ravaged the earth and killed without conscience.” There was no remorse in his words. “I wake up every morning and need to find a reason to remain civilized. Most days I find it in my children. You are an argument in the opposite direction. And at this moment, I would be happy to indulge the feral side of my nature.”
He stalked out of the room, calling over his shoulder, “Leave, now!”
Tails between our legs, we boarded the Alaska Airlines 747 and headed to our assigned row.
Asher pushed passed me and slid into the window seat. “You’re the smallest,” he said. “Only makes sense that you take the middle.” Slightly different than his attitude on our trip to Tennessee, back when he’d been nursing a huge crush on me, but whatever. He curled up against the side of the plane and closed his eyes before I could argue.
Not that I would have. I didn’t mind taking the middle seat, not when Matt was in the aisle seat next to me. Lifting the arm rest between us, I burrowed into my guardian’s chest. The rough stubble of his chin scraped across my cheek in the most delightful of ways. His woodsy scent filled my senses, making me wish I could cause the other two hundred people on this flight to vanish by magic.
Unfortunately, that image made me think of Tenebris disappearing to god knew where with the witches and my coven sisters. I copied Asher and closed my eyes, praying for the oblivion of sleep, but my eyes popped right back open again.
Matt kissed the top of my head. “It’s going to be all right, Alexandra.” Damn him and his uncanny ability to read my emotional state. “You’ll see.” His hand wrapped around my shoulder and slipped down my ribs.
The heat from his fingertips instantly caused a rise in my own temperature. I playfully bit his earlobe. He groaned softly. A sound that lit me up like Christmas tree.
I let out a sigh of exasperation. “I can’t sleep and I can’t have what I really want.”
“Know the feeling.” He chuckled. “Sooner or later that is gonna happen. Otherwise, I think we both just might implode.”
I leaned over and kissed his neck, the tip of my tongue flicking along his skin like it had a mind of its own.
“I have an idea.” He pulled out his phone. “Why don’t we distract ourselves with a little TV?”
“Gah, spoilsport.”
Without opening his eyes, Asher said. “I for one would be grateful if the vixen had a distraction.”
Me, a vixen? I guessed Matt brought out a side of me no one ever had. “Whatever. TV it is.”
Matt went through the steps to get the onboard Internet and opened the enchanted app.
“Hey, let’s turn on TMBC and see what they’re reporting on the academy,” I said. “I want to make sure no one else was hurt.”
Matt hesitated. “What about that soap opera you and Liv watched, the one with the shifters?”
“First I want to see how the Tenebris manhunt’s going.”
Looking reluctant, Matt switched it to TMBC. They were indeed covering the attack on the Wellspring campus.
“Repeating the story from the top of the hour, over twelve girls have been abducted from the Wellspring Academy.” The blonde anchor spoke in a somber tone as images of the burned gym flashed behind her. “Eustace Weller, a dark warlock, had infiltrated the campus, becoming one of the school’s most popular deans…”
The talking head went on, but the words were lost to me. “Dark warlock? What the HELL?”
“You’re surprised?” Asher eyes snapped open and cocked his head. “Seriously? After all you’ve learned about the magicborn world, you didn’t see this coming?”
“See what coming?” I looked to Matt, but he just pinched his nose as if he wanted all of this to go away.
Asher swiped his hand like I was a simpleton. “No way they’re going to let it be publicly known there is an unregistered Caedis on the loose.”
“What?” Of course Asher was right, but my brain didn’t want to accept it.
“Too much at stake,” Matt said. “Fidei Global. They control all the information the public receives.”
“But all those witnesses—”
“No way anyone on the school grounds will say a word...if they even remember.” Asher shuddered. “I’ve heard rumors of whole cities having their memories altered with an elaborate spell.”
“And you two are both fine with this?” I asked.
“Not fine with it at all,” Matt countered. “But I am, well, used to it.”
“Things are the way they are,” Asher added.
I looked back at Matt’s phone, where the figurehead was disseminating Fidei propaganda. Leonard’s smarmy face filled the screen behind her. “Weller is currently at large,” the anchor said. “But Fidei forces have set up tripwire spells across the continent. They expect to have him in custody by the end of the week.”
End of the week? I wanted some of whatever the author of this story was smoking. No way the Fidei would be able to wrap this up so soon. All part of controlling the message, I guessed. So much for distraction. My heart was even heavier now.
Our flight landed at SeaTac in the early evening. We trudged through the terminal, exhausted. Bonaventura’s order to stand down felt like he’d ripped out a chunk of my heart. But his desire for a piece of my actual flesh left us with
few options.
Since Emma had to temporarily use her apartment to host some bigwig Fidei relatives from Wisconsin and none of us had the stomach to go back to Liv’s, the three of us hopped into a Lyft to head to Asher’s. In the car, I turned my phone on and saw the dozen angry texts from the Witches Assembly that I’d been actively ignoring. They’d been pissed when we took off without letting them inspect the wards. And now, we were being called in for a coven review—which meant they’d gone from being pissed to incensed.
Yay. Welcome home, I thought sardonically.
Did Bonaventura call them? Or did they come up with this idea all on their own? More to the point, did we deserve this even a little bit? Last week I’d have said no. But I honestly couldn’t tell anymore where I was screwing up and where I was getting screwed over. I tried to follow my gut. Tried to do the right thing, yet every step I made landed us deeper in the shit. And Liv and Griffin were now suffering because of it. While I was at it, I guessed I should add Masumi as the consequence of my great decision making too. Feeling despondent, I shut my phone back off.
“What was that?” Matt asked.
“Just the Witches Assembly.” I rolled my eyes. “Some stupid thing about a coven review.”
“Coven review?” Asher’s eyes went wide. “Shit. That’s serious.”
Damn it, I’d been counting on him to lighten the mood with a snarky putdown of the Assembly. Why was he always un-Asher-like at the wrong times?
“Yeah, my headache feels pretty serious, too,” I grumbled. Which was not a lie. But by the looks on my coven mates’ faces, we were going to the freakin’ PTA, as commanded.
Crap-tastic.
Hicks and her cohort Rogers were the only ones present for this dressing down. Matt, Asher, and I stood in a military at-ease stance in front of the two seated witches. Light filtering in through the elaborately curtained half-windows that lined the top of the walls were the only indication we were in the basement. The expansive office looked like a real estate company from the 1980s—though everything was brand spanking new. There was a huge conference table in the corner. Mauve walls, large floral prints on the throw pillow.
