by Ann Gimpel
Colleen cupped a hand over her mouth. “Jenna.”
“Be right there,” sounded from upstairs. Footsteps clattered down the risers.
He waited until they were all together. “Jenna and Roz. You’ll show up at the front door and tell whoever answers you’ve rethought their demon problem and are back to help.”
Roz cracked a feral smile. “That part shouldn’t be a problem. They’ll even believe us.”
“Especially after we tell them we sensed a demon leaving their building,” Jenna added. “And we want to talk with as many of them as we can, to see if anyone had run-ins with it.”
“We would have gone after it without stopping to talk with them first,” Roz went on, “except we wanted to reassure them. Just in case the demon had done harm.”
“Excellent.” Colleen knit her fingers together, hands in front of her. “While you’ve got a bunch of them busy in the front hall, Duncan, Bubba, and I will teleport into Mathilde’s room, kill her, and leave.”
“These are the possible weak spots.” Duncan counted on his fingers. “One. They may not allow Jenna and Roz in. I’m sure the Irichna let Mathilde know what happened here. Plus, she must know we obliterated the black magic she stuffed into Bubba.”
“We can still divert them with some level of conversation,” Jenna said.
“Two.” Duncan raised another finger. “Mathilde may have some sort of direct conduit to the Irichna. If she does, she’ll summon them to protect her. They’ll dance to her tune because they want all of you dead.”
“That would be a pretty big problem,” Colleen said. “Even if we kill Mathilde, we’d be stuck with God-knows-how-many demons.”
“Do you suppose the Unseelie would help out again?” Roz asked.
“Even if they would,” Duncan replied, “they’re just not reliable enough. They were wonderful last night, but that doesn’t mean they’d bring the same level of enthusiasm to the next confrontation, even if the same pair showed up, which is scarcely a given.”
Colleen blew out a tense-sounding breath. “We can’t control all the variables, but what else is new? We don’t have that luxury when we go after the Irichna. We’ll just have to play some of this by ear.”
“You can always call us telepathically if you have more than one demon to deal with,” Roz said.
After Duncan’s experience channeling arcane magic, he was fairly certain he’d be able to knock out at least one demon. “We’ll manage,” he said with a terse set to his mouth. “We’ve got to do something, before Mathilde spreads her poison farther. Hopefully, she hasn’t already.” He took a breath. “I haven’t wanted to say anything, but it’s possible some of the witches at Coven Central have been seduced by whatever she offered. We need to slam that door before Mathilde gathers more witches to help the Irichna.”
“I want to kill her,” Bubba insisted.
Colleen dropped a hand on his shoulder. “You will mind me. You will remain either within my warding, or one I set around you. Are we clear on that?”
“No.” He set his shoulders stubbornly. “Make me a cat once we’re there. Lots of cats live in that house. The witches will never know I’m not one of them.”
Colleen shook her head. “Too risky.”
Duncan stepped into the breach. “It’s not all that bad an idea—”
“Whose side are you on?” Colleen sounded outraged. She made a grab for the changeling and lifted him into her arms.
He writhed, but stopped shy of kicking her. “Put me down. I’m not your child. You only think of me that way.” She gave him an odd look and set him on the floor.
“I’m on our side,” Duncan said. “Bubba is correct. Mathilde won’t be paying much attention to a cat. I don’t think she saw Bubba in cat form last time we were there, and even if she did it’s unlikely she made the connection, unless she actually saw him shift.”
“She didn’t,” Bubba said.
“Why do you want to be a cat?” Colleen asked. Her forehead furrowed in worry; small lines formed around her mouth.
“I can leap onto her and bite through the big blood vessels in her neck.”
“You could,” Duncan said, “but she’ll be trying to funnel magic to kill you.”
“Your job will be to make sure she doesn’t.” Bubba sidled over to Colleen. “If I’m skilled enough to help you herd demons into Hell, I’m good enough to help with Mathilde. Demons are much more dangerous than she is.”
Duncan waited. He’d horned in enough, perhaps more than he should have from the stiff set of Colleen’s shoulders. She knelt and looked the changeling in the eye. “Maybe it’s just that I’m still shaken from what happened yesterday. I know you want to be part of this, and not just hide behind a ward. And I understand why.” She inhaled sharply. “I’ll change you before we leave.”
“Thanks, Colleen.” His dark eyes shone. “I won’t let you down.”
“Just don’t die, goddammit,” she hissed, and got to her feet.
“Why does he need your magic to shift to a cat, but he can shift to other forms to fight demons?” Duncan asked.
“I borrow power from the demons.” Bubba looked proud of himself. “They’re easy to tap into, because I have some demon blood.”
“Technically,” Colleen said thoughtfully, “what you have in spades is earth magic. Demons have a bit of it too. It’s not exactly the same as having demon blood.”
“Can we hold the philosophical discussion until later?” Roz summoned magic. The air shimmered with it. “Let’s go. If we’re lucky, we’ll be back here in time for dinner.”
“Sure you’re okay teleporting you and Jenna?” Colleen asked.
“Yes. It’s Jenna who can’t teleport worth a shit.”
Jenna rolled her eyes. “Thanks. I’ve been practicing. I even think I can help.” The two witches glittered, faded, and vanished.
If they weren’t back in time for dinner, something would have gone horribly wrong, but Duncan didn’t say that. Instead, he pulled magic, enveloped Colleen and Bubba—who’d morphed into a cat—and moved them to a wooded glen behind the Witches’ Northwest’s building. They’d decided to come out there and magically case the place to try to pinpoint Mathilde’s location, before putting their plan into motion.
Jenna and Roz were using tree energy to shield their presence. “Good idea,” Duncan whispered to Colleen. “Take the changeling and join them. I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?” She kept her voice very low.
“To figure out where Mathilde is. I can do it faster than any of you since my magic is different.” He waited for her to argue with him, but she tightened her hold on Bubba and moved deeper into the shadows, near the other witches.
Duncan muted his power and draped himself with invisibility. Having different magic was both blessing and curse in that he’d stick out like a sore thumb if anyone were looking. There’s the ticket. Maybe no one will be. Mathilde was narcissistic enough, it would probably never occur to her to watch her back. She’d assume Colleen would complain to Coven Central, and for some reason she had them in her back pocket. He wondered again why the other witches literally let her get away with murder. Maybe she’s threatened to sic the Irichna on them…
He sent subtle threads of magic up and outward, circling the house and searching for demon taint. He wasn’t disappointed. Demon miasma was concentrated at the far end of the top floor. Near as he could tell, it was very close to the room he’d met with the witches and been questioned. The stench had been quashed by some sort of spell, but it was obvious enough to him. Maybe not to the witches who lived there and had accommodated to its presence.
He balled his hands into fists and reined his anger in. Bubba had been vocal about wanting to kill Mathilde, but Duncan wanted to rip her limb from limb with his bare hands for the pain she’d caused Colleen. Maybe we’ll both get our wish. In the interest of being thorough, he did a cursory search of the rest of the house. Most of the witches were on the main fl
oor. He supposed it could be time for a midday meal, which would work in their favor if it meant Mathilde was alone.
They hadn’t discussed how to deal with any other witches who might serve as Mathilde’s bodyguards, mainly because he figured they’d switch allegiance in a heartbeat once their mistress summoned up a demon—unless they’d already been turned. He and the witches had tightened up the flaws in their plan, but like Colleen had said, they couldn’t control every unknown. Duncan hastened back to the others and told them what he’d found.
“No time like the present,” Roz said. She and Jenna headed for the front steps.
Duncan drew power to teleport himself, Colleen, and Bubba to the west end of the top floor. He stabilized warding about them as soon as their molecules settled. As a precaution, they’d decided on maintaining silence, since there was a chance Mathilde—or the demons—could intercept even shielded mind speech.
Bubba mewed softly; Colleen set him down. He scented the air and padded to a closed door. Duncan nodded grimly. The changeling was sharp. He’d picked the right place. Colleen quirked a brow and pointed. He gave her a thumbs up and sent magic to blow the lock. He and Colleen stepped through the open door.
Mathilde sat before a sewing machine, bright fabric spilling over her lap. She glanced up. “You could have knocked.”
“We could have,” Colleen agreed.
Duncan glanced about for Bubba, but didn’t see him. “Would you have let us in?” he asked.
Mathilde twisted her mouth into a grimace. “Probably. It’s nearly impossible to keep a determined magic wielder out.” She gave a little push and yards of fabric slithered to the ground in a shiny, multi-colored heap. The mistress of Witches’ Northwest flowed to her feet, hands at her sides, but Duncan felt the subtle shift when she began amassing power.
Colleen must have felt it too. “I wouldn’t if I were you,” she growled.
“Wouldn’t what, dear?” The magic swirling about Mathilde thickened.
“You’re opening a path for the Irichna.” Colleen raised her hands; power shot from them, forming a shell around Mathilde.
The crone rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. An acolyte could chew her way through that.” She stepped away from Colleen’s working. With dogged determination, Colleen lobbed more magic her way.
Duncan didn’t see any reason to tarry. The longer they did, the bigger the chance Mathilde could summon reinforcements. He tried to be subtle about gathering power. So long as Mathilde’s attention was focused on Colleen, there was the barest chance she might not notice, but the old witch’s head snapped about. “Oh no, you don’t,” she snarled.
Bubba streaked from somewhere behind Mathilde and jumped onto her back, digging his claws in deep. The witch shrieked and reached for the cat, but his jaws closed around the side of her neck. He bit deep and shook his head from side-to-side; blood geysered everywhere.
Mathilde chanted furiously. Colleen dove at her and slapped her across the face. She twisted the other witch’s arms behind her. Duncan heard bones snap and leaped into the fray. He wrapped Mathilde’s arms with magic so she couldn’t use her hands. It would truncate, but not eliminate, her ability to call for power.
Bubba, whose hold on the witch had been firm, suddenly jumped to the floor hissing and spitting. Blood continued to spurt from the hole in Mathilde’s neck, so the changeling must have punctured an artery, but she didn’t seem to be weakening. The cat yowled; his form glistened, taking on a liquid aspect. When it solidified, he was the same snake with arms Duncan remembered from when they’d chivvied the demon to Hell.
“Shit!” Colleen shouted. “Strengthen your wards. If Bubba could do that, Irichna have to be close.”
Duncan channeled magic as hard and fast as he could, until breath clotted in his throat and his heart pounded. It passed through Mathilde, without phasing her. “Danu’s tits!” Frustration tightened his muscles into knots. “Isn’t there something we can do to kill her before she lets them through?”
“Apparently not,” Colleen grunted through clenched teeth.
Bubba rose on his coils like a cobra, body shifting from side to side.
Duncan felt foul energy barreling toward them like a runaway train. Mathilde’s body made a hideous, wrenching sound and burst, showering them with blood, bone, and sinew. He wiped bloody debris out of his eyes, and cursed. Where Mathilde had stood, an Irichna leered at them. A second one popped out of the ether, followed by a third. This time, they all looked the same. Tall and thin, they were swathed in hooded black robes. Eerie yellow eyes smoldered with fiery rims. Skeletal hands, flesh barely covering bone, reached toward them hungrily.
“Fuck!” Duncan grabbed Colleen and tried to shove her behind him, but she wouldn’t cooperate.
One of the demons closed on Bubba, sneering, but the changeling held his ground, snake’s tongue whipping in and out of his wedge-shaped mouth.
“At least Mathilde won’t be a problem anymore,” Colleen muttered. “The shape she’s in, no one could resurrect what’s left.”
Footsteps pounded down the hallway. Jenna and Roz burst into the room, followed by as many witches as could cram their way inside.
Chapter Sixteen
Roz moved to one side of Colleen, Jenna the other, displacing Duncan. Colleen motioned Duncan behind her. He shook his head and moved to where he’d presumably have a direct line to channel killing power into the demons. His words clinched it. “Keep a path clear between me and them,” he growled.
“Good grief, what the fuck happened in here?” Jenna pointed at splintered bones and clumps of tissue.
“Later,” Colleen gritted.”
“What can we do?” one of the witches standing just inside the room asked.
“Where’s Mathilde?” another asked, eyes shifting nervously as her gaze darted about the room. Colleen started to answer, but Roz saved her the trouble.
“Get iron manacles, chains, whatever you have,” Roz snapped, sidestepping the questions about Mathilde and the gore splattered on the walls and floor.
Duncan winced, probably at the mention of iron. Colleen set her mouth in a hard line. Nothing she could do about his sensitivity to metal. He’d have to suffer it being close to him, or come up with an equally potent tool against the Irichna. She glanced his way. “Do you need to leave?”
“I’ll manage.” He looked so determined, and so fierce, she wanted to wrap her arms around him, but now wasn’t the time.
Colleen tore her gaze from Duncan and looked from one demon to the next. They stared back at her implacably, easy in their bodies, apparently not the least bit worried about whatever puny magic she and her cronies might dish out.
Metal clanked and creaked from the doorway. Several witches tossed a collection of handcuffs, leg irons, and chains in front of Colleen. The demons drew back a couple of paces, hissing. “How’d you get the manacles on the one I escorted to Hell?” Colleen asked.
“We didn’t,” a male witch said.
“It was Mathilde,” another concurred. The demons snarled and snapped amongst themselves in a guttural language, apparently pissed Mathilde had sold one of them down the river.
“At least all that metal forms a temporary barrier,” Jenna muttered, shifting from foot to foot, her gaze never leaving the demons.
As if to prove her wrong, one of the Irichna leaped high into the air and dive-bombed her, cutting through the witch’s warding as if it weren’t there. Jenna shrieked. A hole opened from her shoulder down one arm; blood flowed freely as she grappled with the demon, trying to keep its mouth away from hers so it couldn’t suck her soul from her body.
Colleen hurled magic into the demon, but it didn’t even loosen its hold on Jenna. Desperation filled her, along with fury. She launched herself at the pair, intent on saving her friend. All hell broke loose. Magic flew every which way. Duncan looked absolutely green, probably from the pile of iron five feet from him, but his face was carved into resolute lines as he channeled power, presumably f
rom the source he’d tapped into at her house. It flowed through him and straight into one of the two demons still on the far side of the manacles.
Colleen shouted at Roz. “Keep the third one off my back while I help Jenna.”
“You got it.”
Colleen sent more power spinning into the demon atop Jenna from pointblank range. Bubba slithered over and attached himself to the creature’s back. He wrapped his four arms around the thing and cut into it with his pincer-like claws. Where he tore through skin, black ichor oozed. It smelled like a cross between road kill and sulfur. Colleen’s stomach curdled into a nauseated ball, but she swallowed down bile. There’d be time to throw up later—if there was a later. She snapped up a set of handcuffs and slapped them around the demon’s wrists while he grappled behind his back to displace the changeling. The Irichna bellowed in pain and outrage, its voice so eerie it iced her blood. She wondered if she’d ever be able to get warm again.
Bubba moved far faster than she would have thought possible, slithering beyond the range of the demon’s feet, which had turned into hooves with razor sharp edges. The Irichna surged to its feet, and in a double-jointed move that defied physiology, he swung his manacled arms over his head so they sat in front of his body.
At least Jenna was free. She stumbled to her feet, looking dazed. Blood still ran down her front. “Thanks. How the fuck will we corral the rest of him?”
“I haven’t got a clue.” Colleen glanced at Roz. “How are you doing?”
“Okay. Every once in a while he ups the ante, but so far, it’s been manageable. I think he’s waiting to see what happens with the other two. Dirty cocksucker!” She returned her full attention to the demon. “Bastard! Take that.” Power blazed from her hands, but the demon skinned bloodless lips back from yellowed teeth and laughed.
Colleen shifted her gaze to Duncan. Color had drained from his face, but the demon he’d been pouring magic into had developed an insubstantial, almost translucent, look. Duncan made a feral, grunting sound, pushed power hard, and the Irichna disappeared. She started to congratulate him, but he slid to the floor, barely breathing.
