This process was infinitely easier than our back alley faux kidnappings. I’d kicked back and zoned out, sure we had this shit in the bag.
Until the last of the seven witches appeared.
The hulking form peeled away from the darkness, one limb at a time.
Aldric, with his sharp knife glinting at his hip.
Dom dropped her head, still holding the vial steady for Yulian but clearly with a need to hide. “Why me?”
“Not happy to see the old boyfriend? This makes sense, you know,” I said, feeling more smug than necessary. “Of course he’s an asshole. He’s never been laid.”
“And thank fuck for that,” Dom added, glaring at the advancing witch.
“Aw, but it’s so sweet how your blood and his blood will come together for the good of the spell…”
“I loathe you,” Dom replied.
Aldric’s eyebrow twitched, but his sightless eyes remained trained on the distance. He passed into the circle where the sixth witch was being blooded.
Dom’s lips thinned into an annoyed line, but she held the vial steady as the sixth girl’s blood filled the glass container.
At least he’s spelled, I thought, leaning comfortably against the wall. Though even a spelled bull in a china shop would cause the owners anxiety.
As the sixth witch left the circle, Aldric faced Yulian and held out his hand. Yulian sliced expertly across the man’s finger.
And all hell broke loose.
21
Aldric roared, his voice echoing in the underground tunnel. He hit Yulian’s hand, and the knife flew into the darkness. One meaty palm raked across the altar, sending magical tools and vials of blood flying.
I launched myself at the circle, aiming for the brute’s back. Magic crackled across my skin as if I’d leapt into a sea of living, breathing energy, then I slammed face-first into a solid wall.
The barrier. I wasn’t a bespelled witch.
As I fell backwards, ears ringing from the impact, Dom kicked Aldric in the head. Her boot connected with his skull in a dull thwack that gave me way too much pleasure. Been there, done that, son.
Aldric hit the floor and skidded over the concrete just enough for his head and shoulders to pass the barrier. He took out several candles, and flames latched on to his hair.
I jumped, grabbing him by his shirt and yanking him from the circle.
His reaction to me felt too automatic. He whirled on me with a punch, but he was clumsy and off-balance.
Like a zombie.
Unable to find his center, Aldric sprawled to the floor. His hair was now entirely engulfed with flames, but he didn’t react to the heat or pain.
I ripped off my jacket and kneeled over him, intent on smothering the flames on his head before he turned into a human barbecue. Asshole or not, nobody deserved the pain of burning to death.
Before I could throw my jacket over him, his big hands wrapped around my neck. Flames flickered in his eyes. The skin around his face was blistering. His grip tightened, blocking my airway.
I struck his face, aiming for the floor beneath him.
He didn’t even react as blood spurted from his nose.
Through the fire burning him, the broken nose I’d just given him, he made no sound. He was still bespelled, but something had screwed him up and made him lose his mind.
My vision danced from the lack of air. I shoved my fingers in his eyes, up his nose, anything to loosen his grip before I passed out.
Then Dom kicked him in the head again.
The force of the blow rolled both of us, but it loosened his grip on my neck enough for me to gasp in cool, life-giving air. I followed the roll to my knees and scrambled away from the witch. I needed the chance to stand and be prepared for his emotionless attack.
Dom followed through with another kick, snapping his head back.
I unsheathed my dagger, ready to skewer the asshole if I had to. Before I could do anything, a brilliant green light erupted from Aldric’s hands. The blast hit Dom in her midsection, and she slid twenty feet across the platform, disappearing over the edge onto the tracks.
The force knocked me off my feet, and I tumbled ass over teakettle. I came to rest on my hands and knees, disoriented but unharmed. I’d lost my dagger in the chaos, and my brain had been jostled a bit. By the time I shook off the vertigo and focused on Aldric, he was advancing on Yulian.
I launched to my feet and sprinted across the platform. Aldric must have heard me or sensed me coming, because he whipped around and lifted a hand, another blast of green energy knocking me off my feet.
I skidded to a stop on my back, the ceiling swirling above me. Where was this power when he’d tried to take me out in my hospital bed? He’d come armed with a knife and brute strength then, and I remembered Zia saying he wasn’t much of a witch. But here he was, called by Yulian’s magic and wielding a super-human power I didn’t understand.
I struggled to my feet this time, not bouncing back as quickly. My head spun from a number of visits with the concrete. I stumbled, nearly face-planting before I found my footing. I caught sight of my dagger in my periphery. Yes. I swiped the blade off the concrete and headed for the magic circle.
Aldric deflected a spell from Yulian and shoved the old man to the concrete. Then he lifted a glowing hand as if to finish Yulian off.
Not on my watch. I couldn’t enter the stupid circle, but my knife could.
I sent the dagger flying. I couldn’t pretend to be some kind of knife-throwing ninja, so even though I aimed for his back, the knife fell a little short.
And sank firmly into the asshole’s ass.
Aldric roared. He reached behind and ripped the dagger from his skin, then tossed it aside, whirling on me. So much rage twisted his face that he barely looked like the self-assured bro I’d encountered in the underground.
I didn’t have another weapon on me. I missed my bow and arrow, and I’d be damned if I would go another day without a replacement. Until then, I looked around for something heavy to throw.
A guttural language ripped from the witch. He held his arms in the air, screaming the foreign words as if they hurt him.
“What is he doing?” I barked at Yulian.
The old man got to his feet. “I don’t know. Nothing good, I would venture to guess.”
Yulian passed through the circle, accompanied by a pop that I guessed indicated his circle was broken. “It sounds like… Well, to be honest, it sounds like a demon tongue.”
Aldric continued his distorted chanting. A wind had begun to pick up around him, and the ground shook beneath our feet.
I widened my stance as the shaking intensified. “Using a demon tongue rarely leads to happy things, right?”
“I would say it never leads to happy things, Gadreel.” Yulian shoved me in the direction of the train tracks. “Run.”
We raced away from Aldric and whatever demon spell he was working. We both hit the edge of the platform at a run and leaped into darkness.
I hit the tracks on my feet, and my ankle rolled, sending me to my ass.
A brilliant crack split the air. Not my ankle, thank fuck, but something much, much larger.
Debris flew all around us. Chunks of concrete rained from above, and a dust cloud mushroomed over the edge of the platform.
I rolled up like a hard-shelled bug, using my arms to protect my head from the deluge of rock.
“What happened?” I yelled over the noise.
Yulian was crouched beside me, his own head tucked between his knees. “It’s quite possible he opened a portal to hell.”
“Oh, that’s lovely.” I grimaced as a small rock managed to get between my arms and strike the back of my head.
Dom army-crawled to my side as the last of the debris hit the ground. “We have to kill him and throw him in the portal.”
I gaped at her. “The fuck you mean we have to kill him? He’s not a demon!”
“He may not be a demon, but he’s still a threat to the Circ
le,” Dom snapped.
“She’s right, Gadreel,” Yulian added sadly. “If the young witch has truly opened a portal to Hell, only his life’s blood can close it.”
“What idiot opens a portal to hell that can’t be closed unless he dies?”
“An idiot who isn’t operating under his own recognizance,” Yulian said.
“You think he’s being manipulated?”
He inclined his head. “I would say the probability of that is high. The question remains by whom?”
I stood up, brushing my hands together to clean them of grit. My ankle hurt like a bitch from where I’d rolled it. “Every time I think this situation couldn’t get worse, something happens to fuck up my blissful ignorance. And now I have to kill a human being. As if being a fallen angel isn’t bad enough.”
Dom stood and eyed me with her hands on her hips. “Get off your high horse and let’s do some dirty work for the good of humanity. Make decisions for the common good and all that hero shit.” She leapt to grab the edge of the platform, then swung her long leg over the top, finally clambering to her feet like a professional.
I couldn’t very well let her march into the fray alone. I followed, climbing up with a little less grace but a little more strength. I stopped short, a sharp pain coursing through me.
This was familiar. The giant gaping hole in the ground, the portal that swirled like a whirlpool, lightning coming from inside as if the storm of the century were trying to come into our world.
I flashed back to the day I lost Catie and Gretchen. To the moment I watched demons spill from the portal in our garden to overrun our home. I fought. I fought harder than I’d ever fought, but it wasn’t good enough. Within minutes, the blood of my life’s greatest loves spilled across our front steps.
I watched the light dim in their eyes.
I couldn’t breathe. I was there, standing over my dead wife and child. I was there, watching them grow cold, ashen, watching them decay, watching them become skeletons covered in tight, leathery skin like the priest from whom we’d stolen a bone.
“Gad!”
Dom’s shriek ripped me from the vision. I blinked at the portal. Aldric stood over the swirling ground, his long blond hair waving wildly. He raised his arms to the ceiling and cackled.
I could see faces in the swirling vortex. Grasping claws and yellow eyes, waiting for the portal to fully open.
I raced after Dom, swiping my knife from the concrete on the way. I had a split second to pretend I knew anything about trajectory and speed and physics. Then I took a deep breath, said a prayer, and threw.
This time, the dagger didn’t fly low. It angled over the portal, end over end. I cringed at the fleshy thwack as it sank into Aldric’s chest.
22
The witch dropped his arms. His face contorted. The dead-eyed zombie was gone, and in its place stood a scared and confused man.
God dammit.
Dom, quicker and lighter on her feet than I was, sprinted around the gaping hole in the ground and shoved Aldric over the edge. The witch didn’t even scream as he pitched forward into hell.
The moment his body disappeared through the portal, the swirling magic sealed with an audible pop. No more demonic faces. No more claws.
I fell to my knees. My face felt cold, wet. I touched my cheeks, surprised to find tears.
“Gad? Are you okay?” Dom’s question came from far away.
I wanted to answer her. I tried to. But the words wouldn’t come. I couldn’t move my head, move my hands, move my eyes. Frozen in time and memories. Reliving Catie’s death, Gretchen’s death. More death, by killing Aldric to keep hell where it belonged.
But hell was here. It was always here.
I was death.
I barely registered Dom kneeling in front of me. Her cold hands cupped my face, bringing me to the surface. I focused on her sapphire eyes.
“Gad?”
“I’m okay.” The response came automatically, ingrained the way it was in most humans. “I’m okay” usually stood for a lot more than that.
“No, you’re not.” She kissed me. Not with the same sexual desperation we’d fallen into only hours before. A chaste, sweet meeting of lips, as if she could give me comfort with her kiss alone.
And maybe she could. I closed my eyes and sank into her arms, letting her hold me, letting her kiss me, letting her give me what I’d needed for so long.
Love.
Even death needed love.
As the kiss ended, Dom traced her fingers over my cheek. She gazed into my eyes. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
“Can I help?”
“I need a bow,” I said, latching on to the only other thought in my mind. “We just sent my knife to hell.”
“My knife, actually,” Dom pointed out, raising an eyebrow.
“Yours, mine, ours, whatever.”
The shattered concrete dust kicked up by the portal had settled, coating both of us in a thin layer of gray. I stood and offered a hand to Dom. Surprisingly, she accepted it.
“Look at us,” I said, grinning. “Growing as people. Me crying, you accepting a man’s help. It’s like a whole new world.”
“Shut up and go help my father.”
I gave the old man a boost off the tracks and steadied him as he caught his balance. I supported his weight as we joined Dom on the platform.
“Are you hurt?” Dom asked, looking over him as if she could see injuries under his robes.
“Minor injury,” Yulian assured her as he limped to a stop. “I’m much too ancient for all this death-defying action.”
She smiled and patted his cheek. “You’re young at heart. Unfortunately, after all that, we’re a witch short.”
Yulian gestured at the demolished circle. “The spell has been destroyed. Half my supplies appear to have fallen into hell.”
“What do we do?” I asked. “Wait until the next full moon? Will the blood keep?”
“That’s not necessary,” Dom said. “You guys clean up here. I’ll go back underground. The Asimovs have a teenage daughter. If she’s pure, she’ll donate. If she’s not, she’ll know someone who is.”
“What do we do about Aldric?” Yulian mused. “His family is bound to notice.”
Dom snorted. “His father is a power-hungry alcoholic. He won’t notice.” She tracked down her coat amidst the devastation and shrugged into it before adding, “I’ll see you back at the cathedral.”
After she left, Yulian and I did our best to clean up the disaster that had become of the subway. The portal had ripped a giant hole in the concrete that, thankfully, had a bottom. Many of Yulian’s magical tools had been destroyed, or as he had predicted, a few had disappeared entirely. But we were able to salvage some from the rubble.
“Why did that happen?” I finally asked when I couldn’t hold the question in any longer.
“I’m not entirely certain. I’ve considered a few theories, but to be quite honest, anything I say is conjecture because it shouldn’t have happened.”
“Enlighten me.”
“Ah. Well. I believe the most logical answer is that the spell called Aldric as it was meant to, but Aldric’s underlying character was able to fight through the spell. The boy was troubled. He’s caused a fair share of problems in the underground over the years. This could have been the manifestation of his inner demons, so to speak.”
“So…basically he was a bad guy.”
“We didn’t need magic to tell us that, Gadreel.”
“You intimated Aldric might have been manipulated,” I pressed. “Which doesn’t mesh with that theory.”
Yulian pursed his lips as he slipped an intact ceramic bowl from beneath a fallen slab. “Firstly, the theory Aldric was manipulated would assume someone knows what plans we’re enacting. Few people were privy to such information. By few, I mean only my most trusted comrades.”
Yulian wiped the dust off his hands with his robe. He adjusted his cr
escent moon glasses and caught my eye. “So we must assume the individual in question is a friend, and yet they sent a puppet to stop us. Which would indicate one thing.”
Stunned by the revelation, I put it in words. “A witch is against us.”
23
Sometime in the early hours before dawn, we returned to St. Basil’s and slipped silently up the cathedral stairs. Across the Square, the Kremlin remained dark and silent, not a demon in sight. Their debaucherous night of partying, gluttony, and casual human torture had come to an end, so it seemed.
As Yulian spelled the door behind us, I could tell his reserves had been depleted in the way his words slurred. He etched the sigil with a slow, unsteady hand before resting against the wall for a brief moment.
I slipped an arm around his back when he finally stood upright again. “I got you. We’ll take it slow.”
Dom waited for us in the interior hall, using a long stick to stoke the fire. She dropped the stick as we appeared and rushed to Yulian’s side.
“What happened?” she barked at me, shoving me out of the way.
“Dominika, contain yourself,” Yulian said, dutifully switching his weight from me to her. “I’m tired, girl. The spell took much energy from me.”
Appeased, Dom asked, “Did we lose any blood?”
“No.” I motioned to the bag in Yulian’s hand. “All vials accounted for.”
“Thank God for small miracles.”
“I’d say it’s a pretty big miracle, considering we destroyed a concrete substation,” I said.
“Well, the Asimovs were happy to help.” She brandished another vial. “Number seven.”
Yulian held out his bag, and she dropped the tube of blood inside. He hung the strap over his shoulder. “The full moon is this evening. Get some rest, as we’ll need to infiltrate the Kremlin immediately upon nightfall.”
“Yes, Father.”
I could barely manage an agreeing nod. Tonight was hard enough—I didn’t even want to think about what awaited us tomorrow.
The Shadows and Sorcery Collection Page 32
