Witch Fury

TWENTY-EIGHT

“COME ON, BABY, WE GOTTA GO.” HE PULLED SARAFINA to her feet, shielding her body from the scattershot and made his way toward one of the corridors. The rest of the Coven had also figured out the score and were doing the same thing, trying to dodge the magickal shrapnel.

They found no refuge in the corridor. The bolts from the daaeman magick found them there, too, ricocheting off the walls and sparking on the floor and ceiling. Theo and Sarafina were too busy dodging the bolts to even think about raising power.

And the Atrika were coming.

To his left, Miranda, a fire witch, took a stand, raising power to fight the Atrika who were charging her like a freight train. A shot of the blue daaeman shit hit her straight in the chest and the flare of power she’d poofed into existence fizzled like a candle doused by a tidal wave.

Miranda gasped in shock and fell against the wall, grasping her seat with both hands, a look of utter despair transforming her features to shocked ashen gray. The Atrika who’d been gunning for her before simply passed her by. She wasn’t a threat anymore.

“Theo!” Miranda yelled, her eyes wide. “Get out of here. Get out!” What an awesome idea.

“Come on,” said Sarafina, seeing an opening in the throng. They were all edged into the corridor like cows ready for slaughter.

“Watch out!” Miranda yelled.

A bolt of daaeman magick sailed toward them. He and Sarafina leapt apart, each going in different directions to avoid the projectile. This was like some fucked-up, deadly dodgeball game.

When Theo rolled back to his feet, Sarafina had been swallowed up in the crowd and was nowhere to be found.

SARAFINA STRUGGLED BACK TO HER FEET AND IMMEDIATELY had to duck to avoid another bolt of blue. The damn bullets of despair didn’t always explode harmlessly on the wall or floor; sometimes they bounced and changed direction, aiming for another witch.

All around her people were being hit. The sounds of grieving met her ears and tightened her chest and stomach in empathy. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose her power, not after she’d just found it.

It wasn’t going to happen to her, goddamn it.

She looked up from her place on the floor and couldn’t see Theo anywhere. Their only chance was to get out of the Coven, away from the spell that Stefan had unleashed. She glanced past the throng in the foyer and saw that the Atrika and warlocks were guarding the exit. Of course. They’d probably been ordered by Stefan to hem everyone in, the better to hit them with the alien magick.

Near her Annie was hit in the shoulder by a bolt of blue. The diminutive brunette spun from the impact and then sank to the floor, hands covering her face and keening in grief.

“Annie!” Sarafina cried out, crawling toward her.

Annie either didn’t hear her, or was too in shock to answer. She remained on her knees, face hidden in her hands. Sarafina couldn’t get to her in the throng and could only catch a glimpse of her from around the panicking witches.

Moments later, in absolute horror, Sarafina watched Annie calmly stand up and put herself in the way of an Atrika barreling toward her. It looked like a pure act of suicide.

“Annie, no!” Sarafina lunged toward her from her kneeling position on the floor, but to no avail. The Atrika just ripped out Annie’s throat as he went past and her lifeless body collapsed.

Just like that.

Numb at the sight of the once vibrant witch on the floor, eyes sightless and her blood pooling on the marble, Sarafina rested against the wall behind her for a moment and closed her eyes in anguish. Somewhere in the distance she heard things crashing above the din of terrified witches on the verge of losing all they held dear.

Things crashing. Yes. Somewhere out there Claire and Mira were kicking some demon ass with air magick.

Again she scanned the throng for Theo but couldn’t find him. In the foyer, her gaze seized on Thomas, Isabelle, and Micah. The three were trying to get to Stefan, who still controlled the magick blue ball of death.

Stefan.

Sarafina scrambled to a crouching position and made her way toward him. Their best hope was to take Stefan out and stop the alien magick filling the Coven. Then they’d have to deal with the Atrika, which was another issue.

Just as she reached Thomas, Isabelle, and Micah, a shot of blue came streaming right toward Thomas. Sarafina paused in mid-crouch, her breath catching in her throat.

Oh, God. . no. Not the head of the Coven.

“Thomas!” Micah lunged toward his cousin, knocking him to the side and out of the way of the bolt. It hit Micah in the side.

Micah rolled on the marble floor of the foyer, holding the center of his chest, his face contorted in agony.

“Micah!” Thomas grabbed Micah by the shirt and yanked his cousin toward him on the floor, Isabelle coming down on the other side of him.

Sarafina reached them just in time to see Micah staring up with wide, glazed eyes. “Oh, my Gods, it’s gone. I’m empty inside.” Sarafina looked up at Stefan who stood with the spinning, spitting ball of light above his head, looking down at the scene with a smile on his face.

Her jaw clenched in a surge of rage, she stood and threw a huge volley of white-hot fire at him, only to have her blast blocked by an Atrika. One bat of the huge daaeman paw and it evaporated into the air as if it had never been.

Stefan fixed his gaze on her, his lip curling in disdain. Without Stefan even lifting a finger, a shot of blue came right at her forehead. Sarafina ducked as the bolt whizzed past her, hit the floor, and ricocheted into a nearby witch. She closed her eyes for a brief moment as a sob clenched her gut, listening to the witch’s cry of anguish.

Isabelle stood near Micah’s side and pulled a lot of magick fast and hard. Water coursed from the pipes, down the hallway, everywhere and anywhere she could call it from.

The other water witches in the foyer caught on fast and called water, too. Soon Sarafina lay in an inch of it, then another inch. Rising fast, the water all made for Stefan, forming a conical wave around him and his Atrika bodyguards, who had difficulty staving it off.

Even better, the contingent of daaeman guards were now distracted and busy.

Seeing an opening, Claire, Mira, Thomas, and Sarafina all mounted an attack. They tossed all they could at the now struggling and preoccupied Atrika. Sarafina caught one in the side of the head with a burst of fire that sent him reeling back, howling.

The water coursed in, soaking Stefan’s shoes, and began to rise fast. It was already up to Sarafina’s calves. Most likely the water witches had tapped the water pipes, the streams in the Conservatory, and the Coven’s pool. She could smell a note of chlorine underneath the heavy scent of elemental and daaeman magick.

Thomas lobbed an earth charm at Stefan, which made Sarafina’s ears ring from the power. The charm made it past the Atrika and hit Stefan full in the chest, sending the warlock careening backward to slide on his back in the water.

Now out of Stefan’s control, the ball floated up into the center of the foyer, near the chandelier. It continued to emit daaeman magick, but judging from the swear words coming from Stefan’s mouth the warlock had lost complete power over it. Now it hung like a deadly daaeman disco ball near the ceiling. It was sure making the witches dance all right.

Something growled to the left of her and Sarafina turned her head to see Bai pushing witches out of his way to get to her.

Okay, time to go.

She pushed into the throng and tried her best to disappear. The last thing she needed was for Bai to jump right next to her in the crowd and take her away. He could do it so easily. Her only chance was to stay as far from him as she could and not allow him to touch her.

Weaving in and out and back and forth, all the while dodging blue bolts, she forced her way to the back of the crowd, where more Atrika and warlocks stood trying to guard the exits and keep all the witches in the vicinity of the daaeman magick. Water sloshed around her calves here, too. She could feel a current and she was working against it. The water witches were still calling it toward Stefan.

Sarafina ducked into a room off the corridor. Water streamed in after her and it was a struggle to get the door closed again. She found herself in a storage room filled with cleaning supplies.

Channeling fire, she shot a burst of it at the wall separating this room from the next. It created a ragged, smoking hole she could climb through. With some luck, she could just go around the guards.

Drastic times called for drastic measures.

THEO CALLED FOR SARAFINA AGAIN. WHERE THE fuck had the woman gone? He dodged a bolt and it smashed into the water at his feet, apparently dissipating on contact.

Stefan had lost control of the daaeman magick, but that only meant the ball was shooting off randomly. It was almost as bad as having Stefan direct the thing. The only positive was that now the warlocks were being hit, too.

Fighting the crowd that was working its way to the back of the foyer and the corridors leading away from it, Theo pushed his way forward toward Stefan. If he knew Sarafina, she would have gone for the source of the problem rather than running from it.

Theo came upon Isabelle kneeling in the water with Micah half in her lap, her wet hair sticking to her face. Theo went down on his knees beside Micah. “Are you hit?” “His magick is gone,” said Isabelle. “Completely gone.” “Oh, fuck.”

Soaked, Micah looked up at him with haunted, blank eyes. “Find me a sword,” he ground out. Rage transformed his face, made his expression tight. “Theo, find me a sword!” he repeated, louder his time.

There was a brutal cast to the scholar’s face that Theo had never seen on him before. It was an expression he was more used to seeing reflected in the mirror.

Right now, Theo could deny Micah nothing. He’d find the man a sword.

Theo glanced toward the corridor leading off to the opposite side of the stairway. An Atrika blocked the end of the hallway, but he could get into the room. There might, with luck, be some weapons in there.

“I’ll be right back,” Theo said and rose, sloshing through the water and picking his way past fallen witches to make it there, keeping an eye out for stray bolts of the blue demon magick.

After breaking the locked door down, he found only three swords within and managed to get them back through the crowd without the Atrika noticing. He gave one to Isabelle and one to Micah. Micah caressed the hilt with a finger, looking nothing like the happy-go-lucky geek Theo knew. Micah wanted to spill blood and Theo hoped he’d get his chance.

“You see Sarafina anywhere?” he asked Isabelle. Everyone had to shout over the din of battle, grieving, screaming, and rushing water.

“She was here, Theo, but then she took off like the devil was chasing her.” She pointed toward the back of the foyer, at the other corridor.

Maybe not the devil, but Theo was guessing it was somebody just as bad.

Theo melted back into the crowd in the direction Isabelle had pointed in. He had to find her.

SARAFINA EDGED HER WAY DOWN THE CORRIDOR. This part of the Coven was dry, at least. All the water was being directed to the front part of the building.

Some of the Coven witches had also managed to make their way past and were convening, trying to devise a way to mount an effective attack against Stefan and the invading Atrika from the opposite direction.

She was just trying to get away from Bai.

Her best bet was to get out of the Coven completely and keep moving. Having lost Theo in the foyer, she knew she was alone now. Against Bai that made her chances slim to none.

On the lower floor of the Coven, she turned a corner and headed toward the Conservatory, past the doors of the ballroom. There was an exit leading out onto the sprawling lawn from the back of the Conservatory if her memory served her. After her narrow escape from Bai down this very corridor, she’d memorized every part of the building so she’d never get trapped again.

Stefan’s hand clamped over her mouth and he dragged her kicking back into the recessed doorway of the ballroom. God, she hated this room! She bit his hand, tasted blood, and he released her.

How the hell had the bastard traveled from the foyer to this part of the Coven so fast? Her blood went cold as she realized there was only one way.

There was an Atrika here, too.

Sarafina spun, raising power, but a big, black-haired, dark-skinned Atrika simply snuffed out the fire before it could reach him.

“Are you always going to need someone to fight your battles for you, Stefan?” She clucked her tongue. “So sad.” He gave a loose shrug of one shoulder. Such a French gesture. “They’re useful. I don’t disregard the tools at my disposal.” Sarafina shifted her gaze to the dark-skinned Atrika. “So you’re a tool, huh?” The lips of the daaeman curled back in a thin growl. “I thought the Atrika breed had more pride.” The Atrika turned his attention to Stefan, his eyes flashing red.

Stefan gave an unsure sidelong glance at his demon-on-a-leash, looking like he wondered if the Atrika might break his chain.

Sarafina raised a brow. “Worried, Stefan? You should be. I wonder what the Atrika will do to you once you give them whatever leverage it is you’re using. It’s the elium, right?” Stefan turned his attention back to her. “Don’t make me shut you up.” Every word was a lash of a whip.

Oh, looked like she’d hit a nerve.

Stefan glanced at the Atrika. “Go back to the foyer. I don’t need you here. I can handle a witch like her with one hand tied behind my back.” The Atrika jumped away, leaving them alone.

Stefan stepped out into the corridor. “So many women of the Coven have offended me, Sarafina. Mira killed my father. Isabelle tried to kill me. Yet out of all of them, I think I’m most affronted by you. You’re the only one who never had a good reason for wronging me. Mira and Isabelle both had personal debts to settle, but you. . you’re just a flat-out bitch.” He took another step toward her. Sarafina’s stomach clenched, but she stood her ground. “You kidnapped me, Stefan. That’s pretty personal.” Sarafina pulled a thread of fire and held a small line of white-hot flame in her hand. It was useless, but it made her feel better.

Stefan glanced at the fire. “You’ve learned so much in such a short time. You’re wasted here.” She channeled fire into the palms of her hands and stood on the balls of her feet, ready to move. He circled her, an odd expression of pleasure on his face.

Sarafina tilted her head to the side and smiled a little, batting her lashes. “So does that mean you’ll take me back?” “No, my petal, you’re not mine to claim anymore.” The world went perfectly silent and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Sarafina’s skin prickled at the sudden flush of presence in the corridor. She knew the press of that particular existence in the air around her, on her soul. Pressing, taking. .

It was Bai.

“You will come with me now.” Bai’s voice was deep and even. He sounded satisfied, happy. Sarafina supposed he had no reason to feel otherwise. Apparently, the bad guys were winning and Bai had what he wanted. That would be her.

Slowly, she turned toward him. All six and a half feet of her future children’s father filled up the corridor behind her. The fire in her palms died.

Behind Bai, Sarafina saw Theo turn the corner and freeze. Their eyes met and held past the daaeman blocking the pathway between them.

“Sarafina.” Theo growled her name and then shouted it again as he began to run toward her. Power gathered in an arc from here to there.

The Atrika was about ten feet away. He disappeared and Sarafina ran toward Theo, her feet pounding madly on the carpet of the corridor. She knew what was coming next. It gathered like the doom of Armageddon at the back of her throat and behind her teeth — bitter fear of the inevitable.

Bai jumped in right in front of her. She screamed in terror. He reached out and touched her and she was gone, obliterated in every way that mattered.

GONE. SARAFINA WAS GONE.

Theo stood in the center of the corridor, seeing his worst nightmare come true. Bai had disappeared, reappeared, and then disappeared with Sarafina. Theo had been too far away to stop it.

He stood for a moment in cold, painful shock, then raised his gaze from the place where Sarafina had disappeared to the smirking warlock not far away. Sarafina had slipped through his fingers, but there was someone here to take all his aggression out on.

Gathering power, he ran toward him, intending to make him into a warlock mash. Stefan sent up a wall of white-hot fire. Theo countered, pulling earth right through the floor of the Coven to put out the flames. The walls shook and the floor moved in a wave that didn’t trip Theo up for a moment. He leapt over the smoldering ridge of earth and kept going.

On the other side, Stefan was just disappearing around the corner at the opposite end of the hallway. Theo pounded after him, his sword heavy in his hand. Rage and grief twisted inside him, but he couldn’t let it get the better of him. Instead, he used it, transforming it into speed and a deadly will to make Stefan pay.

Theo caught him on a staircase somewhere near the Conservatory. Pulling a charm, Theo used it to trip Stefan, who went sprawling on the steps. The warlock flipped and shot a wave of white-hot flame at Theo that he only narrowly managed to dodge.

“She’s gone.” Stefan snarled. “Bai’s taken her to Eudae. You’ll never get her back now.” “Then I’ve got nothing to lose, warlock.” Theo advanced on him. “You’d better start praying.”