Witch Fury

THIRTY

THE SENSATION OF STEFAN’S THROAT SQUEEZING between Theo’s hands was pleasing. Especially since the action stopped such phrases like, “Bai has taken Sarafina to Eudae.” Those were words he never wanted to hear and could not believe were true.

Stefan’s eyes bulged and he scrabbled at Theo’s forearms, under far too much duress to even consider calling fire. Theo was armed with plenty of earth charms that countered fire, anyway. In the paper-rock-scissors game of elemental magick, strong earth magick usually won out over flame.

They were somewhere near the Conservatory. In the foyer, the Atrika and the Duskoff were still in battle with the Coven witches. The blue ball was still shooting off sparks of power-stealing magick. Even this far into the building Theo had to dodge them from time to time.

His primary concern was making sure Stefan didn’t live through the day.

“Too bad you sent away your pet demon, isn’t it, Stefan?” Theo growled. “Looks like you need someone to protect you from me.” Two huge hands landed on his shoulders and pulled him backward. Theo landed on his side, hard, while Stefan coughed and choked. Looking up, Theo had a half a second to see an Atrika standing over him before he had to roll to the side to avoid a blast of demon magick.

Guess he’d spoken too soon.

“Kill. . him,” Stefan gasped, holding his throat and staring at Theo with razor-slit eyes.

Theo bolted, grabbing his sword from the floor and whirling to face his demonic adversary, a hulking blond Atrika who looked like he enjoyed bone crunching as one of his hobbies.

The Atrika rushed him, gathering power, and Theo moved to the right, dodging a blast and cutting upward with his blade. He hit his objective, the demon’s thigh. The wound popped and snapped. Acidic blood dripped while the creature roared in pain. Apparently, this one hadn’t taken the caplium that would partially protect him from copper. That was cocky of the daaeman and very good news for Theo.

The daaeman recovered fast, though, and lunged at him, catching Theo around the waist with a roar and whirling him around to crash into the wall. A hard wave of pain slammed through Theo’s body. The demon’s acidic blood dripped onto Theo’s thigh and made him bellow. Burning agony sank deep into his skin.

Gripping the sword’s handle tightly, he brought it up and slammed it into the side of the demon’s head. The Atrika released him and turned away, staggering. Theo slumped to the floor for a moment, then forced himself back up to fight again.

Magick rose fast and hard and Theo moved to the side, avoiding the bolt that followed. It burned a hole in the wall right where he’d been standing a moment before.

Theo turned and slashed with his blade, only narrowly missing the head of the daaeman. Before Theo could even take another breath, the daaeman hefted him up with two hands and held him over his head like he weighed nothing.

Stefan sprawled on the steps with a grin on his face as the Atrika tried to snap Theo in two like a dry branch. Theo’s spine cracked and he bellowed from the sharp wave of pain.

Gods, Sarafina. He should have told her how he felt about her when he had the chance.

Then the thought was gone, replaced by a red haze of pain as the Atrika broke him in half.

* * *

BAI CAUGHT HER IN THE WOODS. HE FELL ON TOP OF her, rolling her into the leaves underneath a tall pine tree. The needles stuck into her skin, but it was only a breath of annoyance compared to the enraged, red-eyed Atrika pinning her down.

How could she possibly hope to defeat a being that had the capacity to bend space and time? She didn’t have a prayer.

Pushing that negative thought from her mind with a healthy dose of rage, she fought him like she imagined any bar brawler would do — throwing punches, kicking, screaming. She figured she was pretty safe. After all, he wasn’t going to damage his future children’s mother, right?

His hands clamped down on her upper arms and his huge body weighted hers into stillness. “Stop.” He growled. “Don’t force me to do something I will regret.” “You couldn’t do anything worse than taking me from my world and forcing yourself on me, Bai. That’s worse than death for me!” “I could kill the one you claim to love. I could do it while you watched.” He bared his teeth. “It would give me pleasure.” She went absolutely motionless. “You leave him alone.” The words came out thin and shuddering with terror. They sounded as weak as she felt.

“If that’s what it takes to break you, I will do it.” He growled again, leaning in close to her face. She wanted to gag from the stench of his breath — rotted meat — but bit it back with effort. “Because I do intend to break you.” She struggled against him to no avail. The man outweighed her by an entire person. “Bastard.” It was pathetic, but it was all she could do. Her stomach had turned to a wad of frozen dough.

Contorting enough to unsheathe her syringe, she brought it up, slammed the needle deep into his side, and pushed the plunger down. Then she held her breath.

Please, let it work.

Bai laughed. “Vae Sarafina, do you think me stupid? I learned from my predecessor’s mistakes. I have taken enough caplium to protect me against even a direct injection of charmed copper.” Well, that was just great.

“I think it’s time we cement our relationship.” His face dipped toward hers.

In her mind that translated into. . well, a very bad thing. She couldn’t even think the word when it pertained to this being.

And it wasn’t happening.

She did what Theo had told her to never do. She yanked a huge hunk of power from her seat and exploded it between herself and Bai, using the technique Claire had taught her to get past a demon’s natural shields, while also protecting herself from the magickal backlash.

Fire arced, pushing Bai backward. The scent of burning daaeman flesh made her gag and this time she couldn’t suppress it. Groping for her sword, she pushed to her feet to run while she had a chance. She staggered, fell, caught herself one-handed in some dead leaves, and pushed back up. Her chest felt on fire.

Bai was rolling on his back, groaning as if in severe pain.

Pain arced through her, too. Staggering and falling to the ground for a second time, she gasped in agony, clutching her chest and crawling in the deadfall for a few moments before forcing herself to her feet. She’d just tossed everything she had on the table and it probably wouldn’t be enough.

Sarafina forced herself to run, even as her head swam. All she wanted in the world was to pass out, but passing out now would ensure her defeat. Gripping the sword, she ran into the woods, headed toward the road. It was late afternoon, still light outside. Maybe she could reach the road and flag down a car. Once she was in the company of a human, she might be safe.

Maybe.

Her shoes crunching on twigs and leaves as she raced toward her destination, she tried not to think about what might be happening back at the Coven. She tried not to think about what might be happening to Theo.

A sob escaped her. All she could do now was concentrate on escaping Bai. She had to take this moment by moment.

Just as she reached the small lane that led from the main part of the land to the road, she heard a whoosh, pop, behind her. Suddenly, Bai was there. He’d jumped from his last destination to here, probably figuring where she’d be headed. His face and arms were badly burned, the fabric of his shirt curled and melted. Yet she could see he was already healing.

The bastard.

He reached for her, but she swung her sword first. The tip of the blade sliced his throat. Acidic blood gushed, but it wasn’t a deep enough cut to send him down. All it did was piss him off.

Bai stood for a moment, stunned, his hand to his throat, blood seeping between his fingers. Then he fixed his gaze on her and growled low.

Sarafina stepped back and tripped on a fallen branch. Using the tip of the sword on the ground to maintain her balance, she continued backward. Bai advanced on her, power gathering around him like dark clouds.

Daaeman magick sizzled and sparked in the space around his body. Sarafina was certain it was enough to kill her where she stood. Perhaps he’d decided she was more trouble than she was worth.

The power exploded and Sarafina dove to the side, literally leaping into the air as though she thought she could fly. She came down hard on her side and rolled away from the daaeman, coming to her feet still gripping the sword. Thank God for all the training Theo had given her.

Every square centimeter of her body ached.

She’d missed the killing blast, but Bai still leapt on her. His blood dripped onto her chest and she screamed, fighting against him. It was like trying to beat up a brick wall. She gouged his eye, which fortunately was not a brick wall — it was soft, squishy, and vulnerable. Digging deep, she took advantage.

Bai yowled and pushed away from her. She sprang to her feet and swung the sword, cutting deeply into his side. The daaeman roared and backhanded her. Sarafina went sprawling to the ground again, pain exploding through her face.

The Atrika followed her, looking as though he intended to simply rip her apart and bypass magick completely.

Seeing an opportunity to end this right now, Sarafina angled her sword upward. Bai fell heavily against the tip, his momentum driving the hilt deeper into his body than Sarafina could have ever hoped to achieve on her own.

She let go of the handle as Bai rolled away from her, the sword still deeply embedded in him. He came to a rest on his side in the deadfall. His body twitched and shuddered, low moans coming from between his thin, white lips. Blood coursed from his wounds, making a dark and smoky puddle in the dirt.

Sarafina also lay on the ground, her breathing coming fast and shallow. Pain had blossomed in her seat and was enhanced by the injuries from the fight — the acid burn, the bruises and cuts she’d sustained. There wasn’t a square inch on her that didn’t hurt, and blood — her own — had dripped onto her shirt and pants.

Her magick was tapped, gone. Her capacity to do physical battle was also gone. If Bai wasn’t dead, if he pulled a horror movie monster move and got up now, she was done for.

When Bai no longer made a move or any sound, she forced herself up onto her feet. Dragging herself to Bai, she saw that the copper blade was still stabbed through his gut. Blood caked the wound on his throat. His eyes were open, but unseeing.

Sarafina knew from Micah’s book that the Atrika would go into a coma if they were badly injured. It was how they healed severe wounds and regenerated. Was Bai in one of those healing comas now?

The only way to be totally sure he was dead was to cut off his head, but the sword was in the Atrika. She supposed she could go get one from the building. There were more in the basement.

God, she didn’t want to cut off his head. All she really wanted to do was pass out.

Her body protesting every moment, she walked back toward the building. She didn’t want to, but she had to. It was the only way to make sure he never came after her again. It was the only way to ensure she ever enjoyed another night’s sleep.

As she approached the building, she remembered the cave. When she’d been in it, she’d felt like something — someone — had been in there with her. At the time she’d thought it had been her imagination, and then Theo had shown up and she’d been distracted.

She went into the building and found another sword. On impulse, she grabbed a flashlight, too. She couldn’t produce so much as a flicker of fire right now.

On the way out, she turned toward the cave and stood, considering her options. Something about that place nagged at her.

The cave was not far from the building and she didn’t have enough energy to walk back to the daaeman, behead him, and then walk back.

What to do? Behead a demon or explore a cave? Decisions, decisions.

Knowing from Micah’s book that she had some time before Bai woke from his coma, if that’s what it was, she turned and walked toward the cave. It was probably nothing, but she needed to check it out — no matter how much she really didn’t want to go spelunking today.

She entered the cave and made her way into the recesses, taking a few turns here and there. There was only one way through as the passageways were just big enough for one adult witch.

The only good part about being in the nasty, damp cave was that if Bai came out of his coma thing prematurely, he wouldn’t be able to find her. The bad thing was that she half expected to stumble across a bear or some other wild animal in here, or worse — a pile of dead bodies or something. It was on Duskoff land, after all.

Finally, she reached a largish cavern-type room. Having freaked herself out by that time and finding nothing but rock inside, she turned around to leave. That’s when her light caught something up against one of the walls.

She stopped and turned, shining her flashlight on the object once more. It looked like. . a casket. Somebody’s coffin.

Oh, hell no.

Sarafina wavered on her feet for a moment. Her head was telling her to go have a closer look, but the rest of her body screamed at her to run away fast.

Her head won and she forced her body to obey.

She hadn’t come this far to not investigate the thing that had piqued her senses. Apparently, this is what she’d come in here for.

She inched closer and closer to the shiny black casket, hoping like hell the top wouldn’t open and a vampire or something wouldn’t pop out. Really, she’d expire where she stood.

As she grew closer, a humming sound reached her ears. Walking around to one side, she shined the flashlight at the back of the casket and saw electrical cords hooking the thing up and running straight into the stone wall.

Well, that was odd.

Frowning, she reached out and touched the brass handle on the side. Maybe it wasn’t a casket, after all. It was pretty big to be one, unless the person inside was a giant. Or. .

A daaeman.

An Ytrayi?

Rue.

The thought spurred her to push the top open. It wouldn’t budge. Then she saw the latches on the side. She undid the latches and cold steam poured from the edges of the top — like dry ice. Gathering her courage, after all, she’d killed an Atrika single-handedly — well, maybe — she pushed the lid the rest of the way open.

Inside lay a man. Easily seven feet tall, broad-shouldered, blond, with a chiseled, handsome face. It was a daaeman, all right. Sarafina would bet money she’d found Rue, the Ytrayi breed’s missing Cae.

With him, she’d found the elium.

The only problem was that both the daaeman and the elium were frozen solid.