“And Selene lived. She knew you took the cross with you. When she woke up… or grew her head back or whatever she did, why didn’t she come after you?” I asked. Revenge would be logical. “That’s a powerful weapon for her to walk away from.”
“She did come and the Queen lied to her and said it was now in her possession, which it was, through me. But to pacify Selene, she agreed to never reveal its existence or what had happened between us. If the power of the cross became known, others would seek to steal it, and in turn it could wind up being used against Selene once again. She has many enemies, so she backed off.”
“How long ago was all this?”
“Three hundred and fifty years ago.”
“And you’ve waited patiently all this time for a chance to give her a true death?” I concluded. Revenge was high on the bucket list for supernaturals. When you lived an eternity, no slight was too small.
“Oui.” Naomi smiled. “I’ve yearned for it.”
“That’s a long time to wait.” I walked toward the tree where Tyler had staked the winged devil. “Now all we have to do is figure out how to get past these evil things. If Selene knows you’re leading us, which she undoubtedly does”—every Sect had well-placed spies, and if Selene knew the Queen had her trinket, she would have people she bribed on the inside—“she will anticipate you’ve brought her prized possession and she will be awaiting her own revenge. It could have been her motivation to sell part of her soul for more protection and increase her boundary line, which will cost her in both energy and power reserves. She wants what you have.”
Naomi followed me to the tree, while Eamon stayed rooted where he was, still glowering. “This place in the mountains is new to us,” she said. “We have never visited here before. But her habits will be hard ones to break. We will expect some of her favorite defenses. Her mind is twisted, but she has likely convinced herself you are not stronger than she is, yet she is betting you will succeed in making it to her lair. She is always at war with herself. Killing your mate, however, will not be as satisfactory if you are not there to witness it.”
I gave Naomi an appraising look. “Cocky, deranged, overly self-assured, and masochistic all make her weak, and give us a definite advantage. But there’s no way we can get to her if we don’t get rid of these little freaks.” I peered at the squirming devil. Tyler had pinned it by the wings. It struggled sluggishly, its beady eyes glowing like a banked fire. But the worst was its gaping snout, filled with hundreds of needlelike teeth, which were currently dripping yellow goo all over the ground. Very slowly it lifted its talons and flexed them at me. It had one long thumb and one larger appendage, like the last three fingers of a hand, only melded together. Each of the fingery things boasted long nasty-looking blades. Like Eamon had said, they resembled thin razors for easy slicing. “How did Eamon know they had razor blades for fingers?”
“Selene has always coveted them,” Naomi answered. “She had statues and carvings of them adorning her walls. She called them her pets, all while lamenting the cost of ownership was too high. She vowed she would own them someday.”
“No pet I know costs a chunk of your soul.”
“True,” Naomi said. “But when you are as powerful as she, one covets what they can’t have. Selene convinced herself if she could raise an army of them, she would rule the supernatural world. There are not many things that can bring us down as easily or as quickly as these.” She shuddered, rubbing her arms. “They are vile creatures.”
“They multiplied,” Tyler said, coming over to join us. His tone was even, the fight gone. “When Danny killed a few, more popped up in their place.” I smiled at my brother as he ran a tired hand over his face. I knew it took a lot for him to back off, and I was grateful he was willing.
Naomi nodded gamely. “Only the amount negotiated can be summoned from the Underworld at one time. When one is killed in this world, another materializes to take its place. It goes back to the Underworld to regenerate. They cannot find true death on this plane.”
“If Selene wanted to amass a huge army of these things”—I stifled a gag thinking about how awful that would be—“how much would she have to pay?”
“She would belong to the Underworld for all eternity. If she did that, she would control an untold amount of them and the world would be a very bleak place.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. “It’s a good thing she’s too narcissistic to give up her life in total. What do you think her payment is for this many?” I asked curiously.
“I would expect it to be a millennium of servitude; nothing less,” Naomi said. “Payable once she perishes on this plane.”
“So if we can kill her body long enough, the demons will come pick her up? It’s not a perfect plan, but it makes her disappear for a mighty long time.”
Naomi bit her lip. Her fangs were retracted so all that showed were straight, white teeth. “Yes, true death would be optimal, of course, but I would be satisfied seeing her in the demons’ hands for a millennia. They will undoubtedly torture her repeatedly and painfully, as she will do nothing for them willingly. It would be just punishment.”
“So how do we get by the devils?” I asked. We needed to start moving or nobody was going to get to do anything to Selene. My wolf gnashed her teeth. I agreed. This was taking too long.
Naomi shook her head. “It will be difficult.”
“Can they attack during daylight?” Tyler asked.
She shrugged. “I would assume so.”
“It seems they work properly only inside Selene’s boundary,” Tyler said. “Here they seem… off. This one is still moving slowly and it can’t possibly be affected by the spell any longer.”
“Boundaries would be in their agreement.” Naomi nodded. “Demons have very strict rules they must abide by on this plane, and a group such as this could kill a human town in a blink of an eye. They need bite a human only once to make them die in unspeakable ways. There would be precautions put in place.” Naomi peered closely at the devil. “I am surprised she did not save these until last, but likely she has trouble controlling them.” The thing hissed at her, its eyes flaming violent orange for a moment.
“But once we get by these things, we’re in for more surprises, right?” Danny said, coming up behind us. “This can’t be her only line of defense.”
I glanced over my shoulder at him, happy to see he was almost healed. All the gashes had closed and were on their way to fully mending. “Glad to see you’re up, Danny. If you can heal from these things, then we can find a way to defeat them. We just have to put our brains together and figure it out.”
Tyler stood next to me, but Eamon had refused to join the conversation. He was still angry. I was surprised he hadn’t just flown off, but risking his sister’s anger for the second time today must not be worth it.
“If the witch’s spells worked even temporarily,” Tyler said. “We could try and mix up the spells and find a way to blanket them across the group.”
“Yes, but a temporary fix will only send them after us once they wake,” I said. “That would trap us in her boundary with no shelter. We need to find a way to corral them, if not kill them permanently. Once we end Selene, they should pop back to the Underworld for good, since they can only reside in a domain she controls, right?”
Naomi nodded.
“Why don’t you freeze them?” a voice said from behind us. I turned slowly to see Ray, still perched on a log, looking tired. His face was drawn, but he looked determined.
“What did you say?” I asked.
“Use the cooler. You have enough dry ice to freeze a herd of cattle, and they don’t seem to work here in the trees. Lure them in here and freeze the bastards.”
“That has possibilities.” I pondered. “I see you’re still thinking like a detective, despite all the brain trauma you think you’ve endured. I’m impressed, Ray.”
“They are diminished here for some reason,” Tyler agreed. “The cooler might hold them if they stay al
ive. If they pop back to the Underworld once they freeze solid, we’re out of luck. It will be a tricky balance to keep them alive but contained. But it’s a possibility.”
“The reason they are over here has been puzzling me,” Naomi said. “They should not be able to exist at all once they cross over Selene’s boundary. Once across they should be immediately forced back to the Underworld. They are not in her control here. Yet they are alive, but cannot truly function. It should not be so.”
“I did sense a strange power signature by the boundary,” I said, heading to the separation point of the trees and the clearing. “I was surprised you crossed it, Naomi. It felt menacing and it was definitely not Selene’s magic.”
“I felt no foreign power signature. If I had, I would have stepped back.” Naomi followed me, her face pulled down in a frown. “Eamon is the sensor. I am the tracker.” She turned to her brother. “Did you sense other magics here?”
Eamon walked briskly to us, unclenching and reclenching his fists. He had let Naomi say her piece, but he was clearly beyond his limits of tolerance. “No. There is nothing here. She is mistaken. I can sense nothing, even now.”
“I feel it. Right here.” I placed my hand near the bark of the closest tree and wiggled my fingers. “It’s a small pulse of some kind and it’s buzzing a warning. It jumps like a heartbeat in my veins. I have to be right next to it to get a current, but it’s here.” I glanced at Danny and Tyler. “Come over here and see if you can feel it.”
They moved to where I stood. Danny reached his hand into the space. “I can’t sense anything, but I can smell those little shites. Not everyone can feel residual power. I am someone who needs the beast in front of me to get a good read, but I trust you.”
“You are mistaken,” Eamon huffed. “Sensing is my gift and there is nothing here.” He put both hands up to the clearing and moved them around like a mime.
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you certain you don’t feel it, Eamon? You’re not just pretending you don’t because you missed it and sent your sister out to face her death? It’s strong enough to send the hairs on my arms up when I’m this close. It’s making my wolf agitated and wary as we speak.” My wolf had growled a warning the moment we had gotten close.
Eamon glared at me and took a bold step though the tree line. I read his reaction the moment he felt it.
The winged devils popped up immediately in front of him and he stepped back quickly, almost in a daze. “Yes,” he said. “I feel it, but only once my whole body absorbed it. It’s so faint you should not be able to sense it so clearly. This is not Selene’s signature.” He retreated back into the shelter of the trees, his mind clearly processing. “It’s a leftover current of the Underworld.”
“From the winged devils, or something stronger?” I asked impatiently, following him.
“Not from them at all. Some being from the Underworld was summoned here, or was powerful enough to come on its own. Its magic still lingers. That’s why the Camazotz can survive here. The power left here mimics the magic they have in their own realm. It’s not strong enough to fuel them, only enough to keep them breathing. Whatever came here, came purposefully to the precise edge of Selene’s border. What you’re feeling is not a spelled line, or a boundary line, but residual magic left by something extremely powerful.”
“Why would something so powerful sneak up to Selene’s boundary?” I asked. “I thought she was in cahoots with the demons? Why would they tiptoe around?”
“Who knows why demons do anything? Maybe it wanted to check up on its pets.” Eamon sniffed. “It was very careful to come just to the edge. But its magic is not only here.” He turned, his eyes searching through the forest. “When something this powerful comes into our world, it comes in a huge circle of power.” When we clearly weren’t following what he was saying, he looked at us like we were the dumbest kids in class. “You are familiar with Circles of Power, correct?”
I glanced at Tyler and Danny. “I know witches use circles when they perform certain magic,” I ventured. “And circular shapes have significance and can enhance power. The Circle of the Earth is the witches’ sacred symbol.” That’s what Marcy had told me anyway. Beyond that, I had no clue. The only circle wolves cared about was the moon, and Eamon wasn’t talking about the goddamn moon.
“This was no witches’ circle,” Eamon snapped. “This is a demon Circle of Power. Not only a demon, but most likely a Lord. It took a huge magnitude of power to leave this much residual magic—enough for the Camazotz to survive in it. This line here”—he pointed to the boundary he had just crossed—“is only part of a much larger circle. You must have driven through the other side—the metal in your car absorbing the brunt of it without your knowledge. It could be as large as fifty miles in diameter. We’ve been inside it since we’ve been on the mountain. But its edge rings with the strongest concentration of power, like the shock waves of an H-bomb pushing its entire energy straight outward. And even now the edges are only faint with it. You should not have been able to detect it without passing through.”
“It’s not faint to me,” I said, meeting his accusing glare with a glare of my own. “It pulses and sends my hackles up, even now. You can’t tell me that Selene doesn’t know it came to visit. If she poked her head out of her hidey-hole, she should be able to sense it. She’s a goddess. It can’t be that undercover.”
Eamon appeared put out that he had to explain so much. “Demon Lords rarely venture into our realm if they don’t have to. They have adequate minions to fetch what they need. This one was careful not to alert Selene, but I agree, if she came close to the signature she would detect it. I’d say it was betting she wouldn’t take the time to notice.”
“Eamon,” Naomi scolded. “It is your job to sense magic and Otherness. Without that skill we stand no chance. You must be more diligent as we move forward or we will all die.”
Eamon had the decency to look a little abashed.
“Well,” I said. “At least we know why the winged beasties don’t pop out of existence once they crossed the boundary line. And we know there’s a finite number. Now all we have to do is trap them. Ray might have a nugget of a plan. If we can contain them in something, freeze them, and add one of Tally’s spells, we might have a chance to keep them out of our way long enough to fight Selene. So the question remains, how do we get them all over here to this side without dying in the process?”
Tyler ran a hand along the back of his neck. “The cooler is made of steel. I can go back and bring it here. Let’s try and see if the ice will freeze this one.” He nodded toward the one on the tree. “If that bugger can’t get out, we’ll go ahead with the plan. It’s not going to be easy, and the sun will be up in a few hours. We’re going to have to work fast.”
I gazed out into the clearing. There were no signs of them, but that meant nothing. The moment Eamon had put a toe out there, they’d come back. “Okay. Go get the cooler,” I agreed. Tyler took off immediately. I faced the rest of the group. “We’re likely going to have to stay here through the daylight hours anyway. Danny needs to recover, and I’m not going forward until we have a concrete plan in place. If this is what Selene has to offer from the beginning, we have to be ready.”
“Don’t worry about me.” Danny grinned. “I’m as good as new already.”
I snorted. “You just had your face ripped off. We can take a break. At the very least you need a change of clothes and a nap.” I glanced at the two vamps. “Let’s take this time to figure out what Selene might be using against us. I want to know what her favorite toys are and what magic she specializes in. If we can anticipate what’s to come, we’ll have a much better chance of fighting our way through her obstacles.”
“That may be true,” Naomi pondered. “But as you said before, Selene is not foolish and will know we are accompanying you. She will try to confuse us.”
“Old habits die hard,” I said. “In the end she’ll likely go back to her favorites. I want to narrow them down one by
one. We’ve seen she likes her pets. What else does she like?”
Naomi bit her lip. “She loves fire and her beloved whip. She is a brutal being, beyond anything you can imagine. Her lair is filled with hideous devices meant to torture and deliver lasting harm. She will desperately want to finish you off herself, or she will consider it a failure. But I believe you will be able to best whatever awaits.”
I raised my eyebrows. “So are you saying if I wanted to, I could best these Underworld beasties myself?”
“Whoa, whoa,” Danny interjected, sensing my mood. I wanted to get out of here, and speeding things up sounded like a good plan. “It’s my job to keep you safe, and I will chain you to a tree if you even entertain the thought of going out there.”
“Non.” Naomi shook her head. “He is right. They are something different. I am referring to her magic alone. I am over five hundred years old and have been through many trials in my long life, but I’ve never been incapacitated by anything before this day.” Her eyes grew angry. “She has sold her soul for power, but I will not allow Selene to win.” Naomi’s features started to give that telltale vampire shake, which could only lead to the wet putty look of horror.
I was not a fan of the vamp-out.
“Okay, then.” I clapped my hands together, trying to alleviate the emotional tension each of us was now carrying from the long ordeal with the devils. “Let’s focus on something else. Eamon, what’s Selene’s go-to spell?”
Eamon paled, which was a tough thing to do when your features were the color of ivory and bone. His lips thinned as he likely remembered something terrible. It was clear he didn’t want to answer, but finally managed, “The death spell is one of her favorites, meant to inflict as much pain as possible before it finally kills you. It has taken her many years to perfect it. But she has another. A spell that can plays tricks on your mind, convincing you that you’ve killed and tortured the ones most dear to you. It drives you slowly insane as she watches.”
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