She turned her head and the headless figure of her mother stood behind her, hand tightening painfully on her shoulder. Kallie opened her mouth to scream, but the sound died a quick and painful death as she was back-handed hard and went flying backward. She landed hard on the carpeted floor and her mother’s gold Celtic cross dangled from her neck and glittered in the light from the moon peeking in through the curtains.
Hand closed around her throat. “I’m taking you to hell with me.”
She did scream this time.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sienna stepped into the bedroom to find Kallie screaming and thrashing on the bedroom floor. She hurried to her, picking up malicious energy, but there was nothing in the room. The wards were still in place. What she felt was coming from Kallie’s dream.
Someone was using dream magic to get to her. “Kalllie.” Sienna knelt down next to her and Kallie’s hand landed across her face as her mate struggled to escape whatever had a hold of her in the dream. “Kallie, wake up, baby!”
Kallie’s eyes opened. Her stare was wild and terror-filled as she clutched at Sienna’s arm.
“Kal, it’s okay, darlin.” Sienna stroked her cheek. “I’ve got you.”
“My mother,” she said in a small voice.
“It was the necromancer messing with you,” Sienna said, gathering her close. “If your mother hadn’t warded this part of the house so well, that thing would be in here with you.”
Kallie shook as she clung to Sienna. “Sienna, something might go wrong tomorrow.”
“Count on it.”
* * * *
The next morning Kallie wished for more coffee as she dragged herself out to the garage, shoulders slumped. Her mood was a little overcast like the day and a trip to the police station was definitely not what she wanted. She hadn’t slept well even with her mate curled around her. She hadn’t been afraid of someone getting in, she’d been afraid of today. She knew trouble was coming as sure as the weatherman had been certain of clearing skies by noon.
She stopped in mid-stride as the feeling of being watched triggered uneasiness in her stomach. She started to back up and fingers brushed over the back of her neck and they weren’t her lover’s.
Her heart pounded hard as she turned to stare into the dark eyes of a man she’d known was trouble when she saw him in her kitchen a few days ago. His thin lips quirked in a cruel smile that had her attempting to escaped, but his fingers curled around her arm and held her fast.
“What are you doing here, Dizzy?” she asked, trying not to sound panicked. However, she was on the verge of doing just that.
“We knew there would be one moment when your butch wouldn’t be watching,” Dizzy said. “Your mother did a great job of warding the house, but her biggest mistake was leaving the houses open to the workers.” He shook his head, giving her a chiding look. “Dumb bitch. Besides that, we had a ward breaker working nearly all night to come up with the right powder to neutralize the barrier. All I had to do was shake it over the threshold.”
“Sienna is on her way out,” she said with a heap of bravado even though common sense told her this wasn’t like in the kitchen. He wasn’t here alone.
He laughed and she would have thought him handsome if he wasn’t trying to lead her to her death.
“She won’t get too far since we were able to get into the Victorian while everyone was showering. We engaged the guard dogs, so no one’s coming to your rescue.”
* * * *
Sienna’s spiky arms pulled tight around the head of the man who’d invaded her home. How dare the dumbasses not even think to bring heavy mortal artillery instead of Glocks and Bowie knives? Were they the stupidest hunters in the pack?
“Bitch!” he snarled. Only a second later, she used the tough spikes of her spider arm to puncture his throat. She drove the spikes through as his eyes widened. He was gasping for air with fear leaking from him. His stinger waved uselessly and he shifted into his human scorpion form. She released him and did a half turn as he quickly evaded her with green blood staining the floor.
Her arm curled around his scorpion neck and snapped it with vicious force. The tail thrashed about and another one of her spider arms curved around it as it waved toward Kami’s back. She broke it with a loud crunch. He shifted back into human form, and she let him drop lifeless to the floor.
“Sting that,” she muttered and turned with a determined and purposeful stride toward the garage. The elders had said the protections on the house had been successfully released, giving the intruders full access to the house. Tas and Peta, along with the rest of her dominant coven sisters were defending the original section of house from attack there.
The sheriff had been given a heads up, but she wasn’t counting on him getting here before the party was over.
* * * *
“Why are you doing this?” she demanded, trying to keep her cool as he urged her to the garage door which slid gracefully up, ushering in a cool breeze.
“The spear and the wand are going to make me, my cousin, and Lima very wealthy,” he told her. “The scorpion’s willing to pay ten million since we agreed to come in and get you where his people have failed. Small price to pay to save his pathetically fucked up race, don’t you think? You should be happy that your life is going to save a race of killers that will no doubt overrun this fucking town once they’re healed in thanks for your good deed.” He laughed again and she shrank from him. “Plus the other crystals are healing crystals that some witches and shifters will pay millions to get their hands on. Can you imagine being damn near immortal?”
“What are you talking about?” she demanded carefully.
“Those crystals can heal nearly anything except a decapitated head.” He laughed and wiggled his brows.
“You bastard.” She spat at him, and he laughed as the saliva hit his shirt.
“Too bad you weren’t born with venom,” he taunted. “Mutant.”
“I don’t know where the crystals are,” she snapped.
“Well, Sienna will find them if she wants you back alive, then again I don’t think they’ll be giving you back.”
Anger raced through her. How dare he do this? How dare he break trust with Sienna and the town by working against them with an outsider?
“She will hunt you and kill you,” she snapped. The closer they got to the door, the more she struggled, and he shook her.
“Don’t make me hurt you,” he said in a hard warning tone. “The scorpion wants that honor for himself. Let’s go.”
“No.” She screamed and kicked him in his shin, and he struck her across the face. Kallie gasped as the crack of his hand sent pain bursting through her cheekbone. Her eyes watered as he dragged her toward the door.
“Hurry the hell up,” another man ordered from outside the garage. “We don’t have time to dick around.”
“Quit!” he ordered hostilely as Kallie drove her elbow into his side as hard as she could. He jerked her around and wrapped his fingers around her throat and squeezed hard, cutting off her airways as he lifted her off her feet and looked into her eyes.
Her breath came in hard pants, and she struggled trying to kick out.
He laughed and grimaced as her foot connected with his hard inner thigh, just missing his balls, and he set her on the ground. He gave her a hard shove right into the waiting arms of the man outside the garage. At the same time, she saw a van pull stealthily into the driveway.
“No.” Her cry fell weakly from her lips.
“Shut up,” he snarled.
She screamed silently and the sound projected outward onto the mental plane.
Chapter Twenty-Two
With cold eyes, Sienna shifted into the microform of the red-and-black-spotted box-lady as the two men reacted to the clairaudient scream projected from Kallie’s mind. The noise was deafening but had little effect on her as she crawled out of the partially open door and scurried quickly toward the retreating figures.
Sienna cast a web on the garage door
and swung high in the air and glided straight for the man who’d shoved her mate. She landed on his neck and stretched out her very long spiky arms and legs as if attempting to hold onto him, simultaneously lowering her head. She bit him with relish, knowing the venom that would pump through his system would kill him a little slower which would give her time to kick his ass. He let out a curse and reached back to smack her. As he did, she leaped off him and shifted back into her human form. She punched him in the back and partially shifted, spider arms waving at her sides.
She was going to kill the son of a bitch as well as his boss. There would be no place he could hide for attempting to snatch her mate from her own home.
“Bitch!” he snarled as he whipped around. “Get the butterfly out of here!”
“No, you don’t.” Kami flew out of nowhere in her microform. She quickly shifted into human form and attacked the man holding Kallie.
Sienna became more enraged as the spider’s black arm scraped across her jaw, causing her to wince in pain. He was a golden-brown rocker spider with sharp spindly protrusions on his spider arms. But his legs and arms were shorter than hers. He hit her hard across the face with a fist, and she stumbled back with pain exploding through her jaw. She screeched as he followed, and she used one of her four arms to strike him back.
She kicked him between the legs, her foot connecting hard with his cock and balls before snaking one of her spider arms around his neck and then another. He grunted, striking out at her.
“Who are you working for, Dizzy?” she asked softly as she used two more of her spider arms to wrap around his body, holding his arms down at his sides. “You know you’re going to die, and you know it’s going to hurt.”
“That’s why I’m not telling you a thing,” he snapped at her. “So kill me, butch.”
She grimaced. “Okay, I’ll just go to Draden for all the answers I need.”
“Go ahead,” he snapped. “He doesn’t know a thing about it.”
“Maggie left me a note telling me all about Lima and Draden, but she didn’t know about you. So I guess I’m going to send Tas and Peta to pay Lima a visit. I doubt if either of them will be as nice to her as you were to Kallie.”
“Max Sherra,” he said. “He’s staying at the hotel.”
“Lima is going to die for her betrayal of Maggie and so is Draden,” she whispered and then gave his neck a hard jerk and it snapped.
* * * *
Kallie struggled hard as adrenaline pumped through her fast and furious. She tugged against the hold of the scorpion trying to pull her into the van. Her movements were frantic and nearly uncoordinated in her urgency.
“No.” She struck out and the heel of her hand connected with his nose, and when he grunted she tugged as his tail came forward to sting her. Her eyes widened as fear assailed her in nauseating waves. She had the butterfly quickness of healing but she would never heal before the poison attacked her nervous system and poisoned her blood. She just didn’t recover from toxic scorpion stings the way checkerspots did.
She dodged the first strike, but the second—the stinger landed in her shoulder, and she screamed from the pain of it. She used her free hand to rake at his eyes and he cried out and released her. She stumbled and the momentum carried her back into her mate’s arms with a hard thud. She grunted.
“Shit!” the scorpion in the truck cried. “Go. Damn it. Get us out of here.”
Sienna growled as the van peeled away. They were not going to get far. Some of the men of her coven were out there waiting.
“Sia, he stung me,” Kallie said breathing hard. “It hurts.”
“Shh, sweet,” Sienna murmured as she backed toward the house while Kami finished her prey off with lethal flourish. “You will be fine.”
“He’s toxic, I saw the red markings on his tail.”
“I promise.” She hurried her inside.
“Sheriff is picking up the retreaters,” MJ said as his cousin moved into the garage past him.
“Good,” she muttered. “Get Tas.” She would have to leave her mate alone to heal. Even now her body was starting to go cold as the cocooning process was beginning to take place. Her butterfly would cover her in a hard shell while she healed, effectively taking her into a larvae state to regenerate as was the way of all butterflies seriously injured.
The stasis was the only way they could heal.
“What’s happening?” Kallie asked. “I feel so lightheaded. I can’t think.”
Sienna swept her into her arms as her legs buckled. Kami was moving quickly as MJ stared. “Get Tas and Peta!”
“Yeah, okay,” he murmured at the tension in her voice and the rage in her face. Kallie’s head rested on Sienna’s shoulder and her fingers contracted. Her breathing grew erratic as she gulped in gasps, and her golden skin paled. “Sia?”
“I’m here,” she said in a tone breaking with emotion. “F–focus on my eyes, honey.”
“Cold.” Her tone was weak. “I–I can’t see you that well.”
“Damn it,” Kami said as she pushed the bedroom door open for her a moment later. “Sienna, I’m sorry. I couldn’t get to her.”
“She’ll be fine in a few hours.” She laid Kallie on the bed and smoothed her fingers over her cheek. “Love you, baby,” she murmured.
“Hurts.” Kallie reached up to wipe a tear from Sienna’s cheek. “Don’t cry for me. Just get him.”
Seinna kissed her cool blue lips. Kallie’s eyes closed and her hand dropped onto her stomach.
Kami blew out a harsh breath. “Sienna—”
“Just guard her. Let no one other than my mother and the other elders near her.”
“Where are you going?” Kami asked.
“To the hotel to kill that scorpion and the rest of his goddamned crew,” she said in deadly calm.
Kami frowned. “My hotel?”
“Yep. What room is Max Sherra in?”
Her gaze flared. “He’s the one?” she exclaimed. “I should have known that rich bastard was up to something with his—”
“Fuck the dumb shit and tell me.”
“He took the whole fourth floor.” The words came out in a rush. “I wish I was coming to help you evict his ass.”
“Me, too, but I know you’ll keep her safe if they tricked us and hung back to move in once we move out.”
Kami nodded. “You know it.”
“What’s up, girl?” Tas demanded from the doorway.
Sienna turned to face her leggy friend and saw the cool blue eyes of the blonde Peta over Tas’s shoulder and the speck of blood on her cheek. Peta nodded to them.
“I guess somebody’s not getting a safe word,” Peta said with a dangerous gleam in her eyes. “I miss being an enforcer.”
Tas laughed. “Is she cocooning? I thought she was broken.” Tas stared in awe at the green leaf-like covering that was now Kallie.
“My woman’s not broken, bitch,” she snapped. “She’s perfect. “Now, let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The drive to the hotel was tense and the silver bark of the weeping lavender trees filled their view along with the old oaks and applewoods that were characteristic of this side of town. Older brick buildings stooped along the streets with the occasional cement building springing up with square caps lying flat.
The early morning traffic was heavy on the Friday morning as school kids waited for their buses and those heading off to work chugged along beneath the thick gray clouds squatting over the town, looking as if a squall line might blow in any second.
Sienna coordinated with their other coven sisters by phone, having three of dominants meet them a half mile from the hotel while the others stayed close to the house to help Kami in case of danger. Peta parked in Lavender Willow Park near the lake, which ran the length of town along the western side. The water was a little choppy and the clouds hung a little lower as they climbed out of Sienna’s truck.
The other three women descended the trees in their microforms and beca
me humans fully dressed.
“Hey.” Alexundria, a spider breed, was a leggy black female with chilly hazel eyes. “Your brother took Draden out this morning. He said the guy we’re looking for is Max Sherra.”
“Who called this shithead and told him Maggie had the stones?” Carleigh asked. She was a ladybug with eerie blue eyes.
“According to Draden, Sherra contacted the museum looking for Maggie. He wanted the crystals. He’d killed Maggie’s twin years ago. Lima convinced him to him here and he offered them millions if they could produce the items.”
“So, Lima set Maggie up,” Peta murmured.
“The sheriff put the word out last night that your girl had that spear,” Elaina, a butterfly, said in a grim tone. “Chandra said he was just trying to draw out the perp.”
“We knew he was going to do that,” Sienna said coldly. “Now let’s go get him.” She quickly explained the route they would take, and they shifted into their microforms and headed to the hotel.
Once at the hotel they entered through a service door which was opened by Kami’s manager.
“Sherra is upstairs, but he’s showing signs of moving out. Most of his team is still here. He started out with fifteen and now he’s down to ten. Two went out this morning and six are still here. Two are in the parking lot loading some bags into the SUV they showed up in last night.”
“Thanks, Kendra,” Sienna murmured. “Disappear.”
She gave a sharp nod and scurried away.
“Okay, girls, let’s get this done.” She pointed to Elaina and Alexundria. “You take the parking lot. We’ll take the rest.”
The two women shifted and headed back outside while Sienna and the remaining four women separated into two teams of two and headed up to the fourth floor. The hotel hallways were quiet as usual for this time of day. The housekeepers freshened rooms while the customers had breakfast, used the gym, or slept in.
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