by Billi Jean
The flush drained from her cheeks and her arm fell to her side.
“Aye, and worse, Agni is now chained to some witch, unable to aid them,” Moon interjected.
“How do you know that?” he demanded, at the same time as Trouble said, “What?”
Moon shrugged and looked away but muttered something about peeking in on him. “Look it’s not important but I know time is running out. We go now, or we get there too late, got it? Is this all you brought with you? Your sword and you?”
Trouble jerked back like Bethany had spat in front of her instead of questioning her skills. “Do I need more?”
“Yeah, a coven full of witches and warlocks would be good. Rage utilises the dark magic in addition to several mages and witches he has under his control—both living and dead. That means he’s—”
“One powerful piece of shit, but not impossible to kill, right?” Trouble winked and drew her long blades. Like Samantha and Star, she had twin swords, which she had fashioned into two parts of a whole. Both fitted into her sheath and when separate could slice the head off an immortal like a knife through warm butter.
“He’s not our mission. Getting Sorcha, Alex and Agni out, is,” Markee said. His instincts warned that more would kill them and not in a nice, easy way. “We go in, get them and get out. Moon understands this, see that you do as well.”
Both women turned to look at him, but he pulled his own sword, letting the feel of the leather hilt reassure him that his way was the right choice. His wolf agreed and flashed through his system, lending him strength.
Moon nodded first and after only a second more, Trouble agreed as well. “I have Torque, Beauty, Tabithia and Aeros on it. They should be here within minutes.”
“We don’t have minutes,” Moon warned.
Markee agreed. His wolf paced, clearly anxious. From Moon’s concerned look, he gathered she felt the same.
“Well, fuck all. We go in, grab and go, then. I’ll call the posse off. Sweet.” With a very unsettling smile, Trouble laughed. “Can you shift yet, Bethany?”
“Gladly, Circerran,” Moon said in a sickly sweet voice better reserved for small children and ancients.
He held in the laugh at the dig and watched as Trouble huffed.
“Fine, then, hold on to one of us, pup, and get that sword ready. Make for the top of Braeriach. You know the place, Moon?” Trouble demanded.
Moon took hold of his hand with a strong, sure grip. He squeezed her fingers reassuringly. She glanced at him and a soft smile filtered over her face, but anxiety shown in her eyes, making him settle his own wolf to a manageable level.
They had little time, he knew. Alex, Sorcha and Agni were in trouble. His wolf whined, agreeing that his pack mate faced too much danger alone.
Would they get there in time though, he worried as the warm hotel room disappeared, replaced by the cold darkness of Moon’s shift through space.
* * * *
Alex caught hold of Sorcha’s cold fingers and pressed her back to the rocks, soothing her with a quick kiss to her temple. Things were going to get worse, he could tell. His wolf practically flooded him with strength, but under the power, Alex sensed worry and that caused his own to skyrocket.
“Agni, how can you break that spell?”
“I can’t. Not on my own. When she does something evil, then I can. No one evil can hold me for long, but her spell will be tight until she shows her true self. Right now though, I’m more of a liability than any aid.”
The statement surprised Alex and he snorted. “Hell, you still have your fists don’t you? Use them.”
“He’s tied to a witch, Alex,” Sorcha said with some heat.
But Agni’s shoulders went back. “I can still fight. Get your power up, I sense mages with this bunch,” Agni warned.
Sorcha shoved gently at him. “Move off me, Alex. He’s right. Trust me now, and try to remember who just saved your butt.”
He kissed her with more passion than he should be feeling at a time like this, but inside he felt like this might be his last time, his last chance to have her close. “I love you, Sorcha. Get hurt and I will still paddle your ass.”
The shocked expression on her face would have been comical if what sounded like a troop of the enemy wasn’t closing in on them. She suddenly squealed and hugged him tight, kissing his face all over and making him feel like he could conquer the world.
“I love you too, Alex. So much, so very, very much.”
Her choked whisper did odd things to his chest and he struggled with too many emotions at one time.
“Come on you love birds, eye on the problem here, would ya?”
Sorcha wiped her wrist under her eyes and sniffed, sending his heart to aching all over again. Suddenly she froze and looked at him with too wide eyes.
“Alex! What are we doing? Turn, go up, up. There’s a gate, a gate up there!”
“What? Are you certain?” he demanded.
“Yes, of course I’m certain! I was running to it when I tossed you off that mountain! Go, turn, Agni, come on! Come on!” She looked so excited he couldn’t grumble at her for telling Agni she’d done such a thing.
“Lead then, we’ll make sure the back is clear, run, run,” he shouted.
She did, taking off at a fast clip upwards. He still felt the chill of warning but mixed with it now was hope. Could this end? Not until Rage lay dead, but for now, could it be over so easily? Behind him, as if in answer to his silent question he heard Agni grunt and fell into him.
“Go, go, run fool!” Agni groaned as if in pain and stumbled against the side of the tunnel.
“No! Alex, we can’t leave him!” Sorcha spun and from her hands green glowed and she struck out, the spell so powerful he felt it whiz by his head before it found its mark and the mountain shuddered. From behind them, he heard a shout followed by what sounded like half the rocks above them falling down. When the dust had settled, he barely had time to register that she’d closed off the pass before a slow, eerie black mist rose from the rubble.
“Shit! Go, go,” Agni shouted.
Alex shoved Agni behind him, and felt Sorcha step beside him.
“Oh, that is not good,” she muttered.
Her hands still glowed and her eyes showed that electric green he knew meant power surged through her, but as he turned, he caught a blow from invisible fists.
“Oh, shit that is so not good. Run, Agni, run damn it!”
Another invisible blow landed, this time knocking him sideways. Sorcha screamed something in a language he didn’t know and the black mist solidified into a massive demon tattooed in blue and green swirls.
“No!” Sorcha shouted.
Alex felt the demon fly over his head, directly towards Sorcha. She jerked her arms crossways over her head and spread her fingers. The demon hung above her. She murmured faster and faster in her ancient language. The demon struggled to reach her, snarling and swinging his head like a bull sighting red. Another black mist caught his eye, then another, each becoming more solid as the seconds ticked by.
“Hurry, witch! Kill the damn thing because more are on their way!” he urged.
“It’s not the demon, it’s Rage. Shit, shit, shit!” Something popped in the air, a sudden rush of heat surrounded them, and suddenly they were falling through the solid stone like water, and down, down, down to what he didn’t know. Sorcha tightened her fingers where they dug into his arm and some understanding passed over her face. Before he could stop her, she raised her hands and made a shoving motion. He found himself tossed upward and away from her. A freezing blast of snow hit his face. Comprehension slammed into him like a sucker punch to the gut.
She’d shifted him out of the trap to the top of Braeriach.
Agni suddenly burst from the side of the mountain with the witch slung over his shoulder. He dropped her hard on the snow and heaved out a breath, holding it when he spotted Alex.
“Shit, where is Sorcha?”
Fury, unlike any he’d ever
experienced before, overwhelmed Alex. Mixing with it was the certainty that Sorcha had saved his life—twice now—at the expense of what? Her own? He snarled and fisted his hands, nearly cracking his sword hilt under his grip.
“Easy, easy man, you can still reach her—”
He broke off, staring behind Alex.
Alex spun to come face to face with the last person he’d expected to see.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sorcha managed to land in a crouch, minimising the sudden impact with the ground. Immediately she shot out with her power, using an offensive move that she hoped would catch Rage by surprise. It did, but he muttered his own spell and tossed her hissing snake to the ground where it misted out. She ducked his counter attack and scanned the area even as she built another spell. This one was simple, yet affective. It hit his chest softly, like a piece of lint and slowly penetrated his chest while she shoved two direct hits at him. A blaze of lightning struck near his shoulder, which he dodged with a fling of his wrist. The lightning charged right back at her.
The chamber exploded with the fight, sending a statue to the ground with a mighty crash. She hit it with a spell and pieces of marble whizzed at the mage’s head. He swung his hand to the right and the pieces fell to the floor.
“Enough! I will win and when I do, you will suffer before I drain you. Your wolf will die and everyone you care for will beg for death!”
Sorcha laughed, trying hard not to let his threat scare her. It freaked her out, but she wasn’t going to let him know that.
“Oh, sorry, is that supposed to make me give up? You’ll have to try harder, asshole. Try bribing next time, at least you’d show some intelligence.” She baited him, buying time while the childlike spell worked its way to his throat. Soon his air would cut off for at least a minute, possibly two, then she’d take the nearest exit out of here.
“I’ve gained a bit more experience since last we met, dumbass.”
His face darkened, turning a wonderful scarlet under his ghastly tattoos. “Bitch, you think you can distract me? I’m more powerful than anything you’ve ever face—”
She snorted and shot out a spell that drove him back two steps before he straightened. “Really? I kinda thought you’d weakened, you know, with age? I mean, I’m not some youngling any longer, Rage. I’m a woman—one you’re going to learn never to cross again.”
She sent two more quick bolts of lightning at him and deflected a blow that might have killed her had she been younger. Rage’s spells protected him from big blasts of her power, aiding in ways she could never compete with, but her spells held his attention while she moved methodically closer towards the only exit in the room—a long, low window. The doors were bound to lead to another room or tunnel, but the window would gain her freedom.
“Your fight is as pathetic and useless now as your sister and mother’s were before. This time, I won’t let you die so easily witch.”
Anger shot higher in her breast, but she kept it down. There was no way to save her mother and lost sister now. But maybe, just maybe there was a way to find out what he’d done with them. “Right, my mother and sister probably wiped the floor with you before you what? Ran from them?”
“I killed them, just like I did you,” he snarled.
“Your men killed me, not you, Rage. Why is that? Why didn’t you do the job yourself?” she asked, eyeing his hips with a knowing grin. “Can’t get your dangly parts rise to the occasion?”
If he’d been angry before, he was enraged now. Steam practically zipped from him and along his torso, the disgusting tattoos appeared to twist in pain.
She flung a spell at him and he snarled when it snapped in his face, leaving a satisfying welt across his cheek. It didn’t slow him. He shoved his robed arms upward, revealing more of his tattooed arms and summoned something with a spell she barely heard. The hairs along her neck rose and instead of staying to see just what evil he’d called, she made a dive for the window, and tucking her arms to her side, hit the stained glass sideways. The blow hit harder than she’d imagined it would, but the glass broke and with a gasp, she was free falling.
Icy air exploded around her and she settled her panic. She formed the image of the raven, fixing each feather firmly until she had it solidly fixed in her consciousness, then she shifted to the bird of her goddess.
Wind suddenly caught on her wings and with a cry of freedom, she spiralled down the side of the mountain then back up.
Alex. He would be pissed off, possibly charging back in to fetch her. Reaching him was all she could do—and fast. The chill air caught in her lungs, but before she could panic too badly she spotted Alex, then Agni and the witch. Back winging to slow down so she could land she settled near them and slowly eased her form until she dropped behind Alex with barely a stumble.
Alex spun and stared at her with such anger that she stepped backwards, nearly landing on her ass when her foot slipped on ice. He reached out, hauled her close and, before she could do more than cry out in fright, sank his fangs into her shoulder where he’d always nipped lightly at her before.
This time his bite was deep, much deeper, and the growl coming from him made her heart flutter and her body grew weak with desire. He tightened his arms to the point of pain and with a deeper rumble, his bite grew possessive. Shockingly, her body answered and she climaxed. Heat flooded her. Wave after wave crashed around her, making her body clench. Suddenly she felt something more, and realised Alex fought his own pleasure. With another low toned growl, he broke off his bite, licked the spot and after only a second met her eyes with a look that she felt all the way to her soul.
“You’re mine now, witch. Never forget it again,” he told her breathlessly.
Between them, she could feel invisible bonds tightening, binding them together so closely she dug her fingers into his shirt, ripping it partway open in her need. Alex firmed his hold and his buttery yellow eyes flashed browner then sparkled again with his wolf. She leaned in and nuzzled his jaw, then with a low moan, bit him on the chest right where she’d marked him before. He groaned as he did when he orgasmed and she felt him surge hotter and harder against her stomach.
“Sweet goddess, lass.”
“Alex! You’ve bonded me.”
“Aye, don’t ever leave me like that again. Now stop before I embarrass myself in front of the demon.”
“Oh, Alex.”
“Shh, lass, I’ll make this up to you, for now, let’s break free from this mage, eh?”
“Shit, you two need to stop, now!” Agni growled. “This plan just got worse, man, you’d best get your ass under control.”
“I love you, Alex,” she murmured, kissing the spot where she’d broken the tough skin on his chest. He shuddered and tightened his hands on her ass.
“Aye, lass, I love you as well.” He raised his head, squinted at the mountain, then at her. “Where is this gate?”
“The gate won’t help you now, wolf.”
“Sonofabitch, won’t you give up already!” Agni shouted, trying to tackle Rage off the side of the mountain. The mage merely snapped his wrist and Agni flew sideways hitting the side of the mountain with a muffled, horrid sound. He fell and didn’t move.
“Alex!”
“Shh, we won’t leave him. Give me time, then hit the mage with one of those fire spells.”
“Alex, that won’t do a thing. He’s unbelievably strong and I might have pissed him off…”
“It will buy me time.”
“The demon will take some taming I see.” Rage seemed to dismiss Agni and turned to her with such hatred her breath stalled. “But you won’t.”
“Back down, Rage. You have no right to her, and I’m not letting you have her.”
She bit her lip at Alex’s brave words and grimaced. She gathered her power, silently willing this spell to cut through Rage’s formidable protections. They couldn’t leave Agni here and she couldn’t get close enough to reach him. Even if she could, even she wasn’t strong enough to sh
ift him, the witch and Alex.
“I don’t have to back down, wolf. I think I don’t have to do more than promise her your safe passage to get her to walk willingly to me.”
“Fuck you. I wouldn’t walk willingly to you if you held my sister in your arms.”
His brow rose and the way it pulled his tattoos caused his face to turn into an even more gruesome mask.
“Now, sweet, hit him now!”
“Well, how do you like that, I thought I mattered to you more than that sister,” Trouble suddenly called behind her.
Alex growled. She shot out her fire spell and watched as her mate hit Rage hard enough to knock him backwards towards the edge of the mountain.
Moon shot by her, her slim form intent on Agni, Markee a step behind her, sword drawn, but her concentration centred on Alex wrestling with the mage. Trouble abruptly hugged her and, with a wink, dived at the mage’s other side, slapping him with a stinging spell and toppling him off his feet.
Sorcha forced another fire spell at him, careful of Alex and her sister and saw the spell latch on to his cloak. Rage merely grunted and swung his arm out, connecting with Alex who dropped to a knee. She rushed to his side and pulled him to his feet, urging him up and away as Trouble broke free from Rage as well.
Her sister swung her blades and the mage’s cloak fell open, falling to his feet and revealing the disgusting faces of his tattoos over his muscular chest.
“You’ll pay for that, wolf!” he screamed. Spittle and blood flew.
Trouble sneered and hit him with her swords. Rage caught her blades with a magical one, causing sparks to erupt where their blades screeched along each other. Trouble hissed, and kicked out at Rage, breaking away and dancing backwards.
She felt Alex’s muscles tense to rush him again. She shoved him down, and latched onto Trouble’s shirt, dragging her down as well as Rage hit them with a truly massive fire spell. Sorcha’s shield held, but fire erupted around them as the spell hit and ricocheted off her protections. Alex swore and tightened his arm around her shoulders. Trouble jumped to her feet, spitting out snow.
