by Billi Jean
“Uh, trust me, I hate it too. Gah, what is that smell?”
“It’s going to get worse.”
“Yeah, thanks for that but”—she broke off when her knee snagged another painful rock—“move faster. We need to fetch and carry the hell out of here.”
Aeros rumbled a deep laugh, but gripped her forearm tightly to halt her again. “Stay close, Tabithia. Let me take whatever waits, then we can find the godhead.”
Her eyes watered from the overwhelming odour. Aeros sounded indifferent, but she gagged when it filled her mouth with nasty. The end loomed ahead of them like a lighter patch of darkness in the otherwise dim, almost black world they moved through. If only there was a no-smell spell. She giggled but caught herself and swallowed the sound before the captain heard her.
One low whisper and her illumination spell slowly filled the darkness. Aeros laid his hand on her shoulder, squeezing once. She knew the gesture was simply a reminder to follow his orders, but she still got a tiny thrill out of his big hand on her.
The passage began to ease slowly downward, forcing them into an awkward position, but the decline was helpful in speeding things up. She didn’t want to face whatever was down there while jammed in tight in a dirt tunnel.
She only hoped she could find an alternative way out of this mess once they had Dare. Once she had Dare. The thought sucked.
She pressed her fingers to the warm rock along the left and suddenly felt the edge. She stepped cautiously forward and still met nothing. Immediately she stopped and reached back to squeeze Aeros by the hand. To her surprise, he threaded his fingers through hers firmly.
“We’re at the end of the tunnel. I’ll flood the space with light, maybe blind the thing, but close your eyes tight at first or we will be as well.”
"Right, on the count of three," Aeros whispered, trusting her so completely she felt a surge of guilt hit her chest.
"Right, you count," she managed to choke out past the stupid lump in her throat.
"One, two," he squeezed her hand once more and let her go and whispered, "three."
Now the real fun began, or the real pain—she wasn’t sure. She drew her power around her like a cloak. With her spell, she illuminated the space in front of them with enough brightness that anything living down below would hopefully be blinded. After a few seconds she grabbed Aeros’ hand again and squeezed. She dimmed her light back to normal and glimpsed a huge cave littered with bones and what looked like sheepskins, but nothing else. Dropping down the two feet to the cave floor, she quickly positioned herself with her back against the wall and watched Aeros practically launch himself from the tunnel like a cannonball.
He took just an instant to survey the cave, but she’d bet her true name he’d memorised every inch of the creature’s den.
At least the smell made sense now. Fresh carcasses of sheep and some other nasty beasts were piled up against the far wall, flies buzzing angrily around them. Where the hell did the creature get sheep?
“This is not good.”
Aeros backed up next to her and gripped her upper arm and squeezed. His strength reassured her. He looked invincible. Dressed in his dark fatigues, his machete out, he looked like some Greek god come down to earth to fight in a twenty-first century battle.
Oh, yeah, he nearly was.
The machete just added to the barbaric look of him.
A deep, grotesque growl brought her focus back. Aeros broadened his stance and positioned himself in front of her.
She sidestepped so they were next to each other and immediately wished she hadn’t.
Facing them was a creature the size of a medium bear, with yellow, reptilian spines rising from its back like a spiked mane. The beast lowered its broad head and a long tail like a cat’s rose straight up behind it. In fact, the animal looked a hell of a lot like a scalded cat. An immensely pissed off, ugly-as-hell scalded cat with a bear’s head and a reptile’s eyes and spines.
Holy Three protect them. What was it?
Fangs yellowed with age and red with fresh blood reminded her of a vampire’s two sharp canines, but bigger, way bigger. Red eyes, bright and glowing, watched them, reflecting a cunning intelligence she just knew was sizing them up.
“Holy Hecate.”
“Get back, Tabithia.”
She sidestepped to give Aeros more room, but prepared herself for the battle. Where in all this was Dare?
Ten feet away and across from them, she spotted the chalice on a small shelf of rock, almost looking like it sat at the centre of an altar of bones and odd-looking designs. Designs painted on the rock with blood. Her head spun with the implications of what she saw. This creature wasn’t from this plane, not even from this world, she was guessing. Evil radiated from the spells covering the wall surrounding Dare. The spells would need to be broken before she could even hope to gain the chalice, let alone free Dare.
Eyes back on the dangerous creature, she nudged Aeros’ leg with her boot. He shot her an angry look, but followed her gaze to the chalice. His frown deepened at what he saw. He glanced down at her and nodded tightly.
“You can free her?”
“Yes.” She hoped.
“You free her. I will deal with the demon.”
Demon? She didn’t think so, but what did she know?
Aeros didn’t wait. He knocked the creature away with a powerful kick and turned, carefully positioned her so her back was to the wall, and turned to face the creature, his big body once again blocking her. Protecting her. He gave her a firm look over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes.
“Tabithia, do not—”
“Don’t say it! I swear, if you order me, I will never forgive you.”
He snapped his mouth shut like she’d shocked him with her screech—she probably had—and gave her an incredulous look. He opened his mouth to say more.
“Look out!”she yelled.
He spun in time to almost take the thing’s head off. Machete low, he kept the creature as far from her as he could while he manoeuvred the monster away from the chalice.
He was magnificent. Clearly, this man was created for battle. Every move he made seemed easy. His blade blurred. Jumping over a sheep’s corpse, he backtracked quickly and stabbed the creature twice in the gut. The thing reared up on its hind legs and roared at him. Disgusting spittle hung from its immense jaw as it shook its head almost directly in Aeros’ face. Aeros stood his ground and before the creature had even finished bellowing, Aeros stabbed it with his machete right in the throat. The monster staggered back with a whine but struck out at Aeros with a huge claw. Aeros ducked under its arm and jumped back from the next stroke of razor claws.
Upright, the monster stood taller than Aeros by at least three feet. With a nasty snarl, it drew back a paw the size of a dinner plate and swiped at Aeros again.
Seriously, Aeros was going to give her a heart attack. She looked for a way to help, but Aeros seemed to sense her thoughts and shifted in front of her again, exposing more of his side to the creature than she liked.
The creature attacked again, going at Aeros’ exposed side, head down and jaws snapping. Aeros lost his balance, catching himself with a shoulder to the side of the cave wall and barely avoiding having the monster bite his stomach out.
Enough of standing on the sidelines. Centring her mind, Tabithia reached for the jungle’s power. Strength surged through her, swelling with her fear to an impossible level. The pressure built. She clenched her jaw and drew more. This was no ordinary jungle animal. No animal could survive what Aeros was dishing out. She needed a spell to kill, and killing with magic wasn’t as easy as killing with her blades.
In front of her, Aeros went down on a knee in the goo and her concentration slipped. Her heart raced so badly it hurt, but with a boatload of cursing, he avoided another snarly attack by tossing the creature over his shoulder and onto its back.
Fighting for control of the power flooding her, Tabithia reached out and jerked him by the back of his T-shirt until
he stood. As soon as he reached his feet, she hit the beast with a spell hard enough to topple a herd of rhino.
The thing barely paused.
Shocked, she watched as it reached up with a big claw and swiped at its head—trying to clear away her spell she assumed. Tossing its head, it then tried to break their eardrums with an appalling roar. Immediately, it went after Aeros again.
“What the hell?” Tabithia used her flow to blast again, this time spelling a lightning strike to the chest.
Snarling, it flew backward and landed in a pile of fur near the wall where the chalice stood. Damn it! She wanted the monster away from the chalice, not nearer to it. Think, Tabithia, think!
One hard shake of its head, and it met her eyes. She swore it grew bigger as their gazes locked. A sickly light filled its eyes, turning them from red to a silvery pale.
Holy Bridget. Think, Tabithia. She focused on the chalice, and the bloody spells she sensed binding Dare to the altar. She hit again, this time with enough juice to knock out all the power in LA. At first nothing happened but, as she watched, the spells began to smoke, the blood the creature had used melting from the rock. The stench was almost worse than the massive amount of foulness filling the lair. She called wind and blew the nasty out and away. The creature shrieked, but she kept her spell on breaking the bindings around the chalice and didn’t glance away.
Suddenly she felt a pop followed by a crack in the binding spell. The chalice toppled from the altar and hit the floor with a dull thud. Dare misted into the chamber, green eyes round, clearly more frightened then she should be. She was a witch, for crying out loud!
“Sonofabitch.” Aeros scanned Dare from head to toe and turned to meet her gaze. She could see when he realised exactly what a jerk his god was. His face darkened and his eyes narrowed, flickering back over Dare, then back to Tabithia as if gauging her reaction. His gaze was intense, mesmerising, as time seemed to slow down around them.
Would he try to stop her from saving Dare now he knew the godhead wasn’t simply a beaten-up chalice, but a prison to hold a woman?
She’d never see him again, would she? After this, she’d never know him. His tender looks, the way he seemed to always want to touch her, the low, gravelly murmur of his voice, the scent of his skin on hers, all which was impossible now. Now there were no more illusions, no darkness to hide in, only the truth.
“Don’t do it, Tabithia.”
“Tabithia! We have to go,” Dare yelled loud enough for the gods to hear her.
Aeros certainly did and shot her a warning glare.
Shit.
Focused on Tabithia, rather than the beast, Aeros took a hard blow to the side. Immediately, blood began oozing from five horizontal slashes along his torso.
“Aeros! Kill the creature already!”
“Don’t leave, Tabithia.” His measured tone brought her up short. They could be arguing over what to have for dinner for all the inflection he put into his voice. Men. They really were strange.
One look at the rough angles of his profile and she realised how hard he fought to remain under control. He cared if she left. He truly did. He didn’t care about Dare, or the chalice. He cared about her.
Dare tugged on her arm and snapped her sappy thoughts in two.
“You’ve broken the spells, Tabithia. We need to go.”
“I know, I know.” Tabithia waved Dare to one of the dark arches leading out of the mess they’d landed in, yelling to be heard over the creature’s roars. Aeros circled the beast, striking viciously, clearing the way for them.
They dodged for the opening, but at the archway she stalled. Dare hadn’t wasted time. She had already raced down the passage ahead of Tabithia.
Think, Tabithia, think.
She couldn’t leave like this. Aeros might get hurt.
And pigs might fly.
I can’t just go.
Dare slowed and glanced back. Seeing her standing still, the other witch stopped completely. Resting her hands on her knees breathlessly, she said, “What are you doing?”
“I have to help Aeros,” she whispered.
“What?”
In a stronger voice she said, “I have to help him. I can’t leave like this.”
“You can’t. Tabithia, listen to me.” Dare started jogging back towards her, but Tabithia ignored the other witch.
This was more than simply aiding Aeros. This creature threatened many within its domain. She’d bet her Ecosse it’d been brought here from another realm. Perhaps even forced here to stop its killing elsewhere. Wherever he was from, he didn’t belong to Earth. She felt the discord his existence caused. Quickly, thread by thread, she began a spell to ensure the creature never harmed another. Casting her hands up, she struck just as Dare gripped her shoulder and tried to jerk her around.
“Stop! Don’t use magic, Tabithia! Magic makes it stronger.”
Ah, goddess. Her spell hit, and as they watched, the beast grew bigger, clearly larger than before. Snarling at her, it snarled menacingly at her and took a step forward only to find Aeros in its face. Tabithia thought she saw something like greed in its eyes before it snapped its attention to Aeros. The two suddenly lunged at each other at the same time. Somehow Aeros managed to drive his shoulder into the creature’s stomach and toss him hard against the cave wall. The monster’s lion head made a sick sound hitting the rock and it slid downward, not moving.
Aeros rounded on her, sword still in his fist, breathless and sweating. He looked adorable.
“Sonofabitch, Tabithia, you need to get out of here.”
Hadn’t he just wanted her to stay? “I thought you wanted me to stay!” Immediately, she wanted to take the words back. She sounded too emotional. Too…something not like her. Whiny.
Aeros shot her a surprised look.
The creature lumbered to its feet, rising up from the floor. Across the space, she met Aeros’ dark gaze and saw him clench his jaw. He nodded sharply. “Stay back then, and don’t get fucking hurt.”
His words seemed to inflame the thing. One second it was swivelling its head from Tabithia to Aeros, the next it snarled, stood on its hind legs, and swiped at Aeros angrily, roaring so loud that dirt shook down on them.
Aeros jumped over the sheep carcasses and beat the beast back with stroke after stroke of his blade. Muscles straining, he fought the creature back gradually.
“What is that thing, Dare?”
“It’s a chupacabra-demon. Don’t let it touch you with its fangs. Its saliva will stun you, allowing it to take your blood. And it will drink you dry, sister.”
“Drink me dry?” Hecate, this was bad. She couldn’t leave Aeros like this. Not a chance. “Dare, I want you to head down that passage. Keep going until you hit daylight. If I don’t show up, start walking.”
“Leave you?” Dare frowned, eying the creature, then Tabithia as if she wanted to help.
“Your power is still bound, right?”
Dare nodded hesitantly. “I can use some of it…”
“Go, I will be fine. Go!”
Dare grimaced but nodded, glanced once at Aeros bear-wrestling the beast and dashed off quickly down the passage.
Good. Dare was out. Now to snag the chalice, hand it over and save Aeros. Saying a prayer to the Three, she drew her knife and moved in. If they could somehow cripple it, they could escape. “Aeros! Over here, you need to move him this way.”
Aeros didn’t seem to hear her, and she didn’t wait to see if he did, she simply moved in, striking low enough to hit the creature behind the knees and slicing deep at its tendons.
Roaring, it flung its head back, but didn’t appear to slow down.
Now what?
Aeros gave her a wild look and hissed his breath out when the creature wrapped a huge paw around his neck. A scream threatened to break free from her throat, but she shouted instead, “Don’t let it bite you, Aeros. It’s poison! Poison!”
She’d barely got the warning out before the thing shoved Aeros back and s
pun towards her. Faster than she could comprehend, a long, clawed paw ripped into her side, tearing her open from stomach to ribs as she jerked sideways.
Rage exploded behind her eyes as the pain erupted along her body. Still full of the jungle’s power, she called the wind, forcing the creature back, using the elements to get them free, but not hitting it directly with any of her power.
Aeros cursed, anger flickering in his eyes at her.
“Tabithia, get back!”
She centred her attention on him and saw by his angry scowl that she’d broken one of his ‘stay back and not get hurt’ rules.
“I told you not to get fucking hurt!” He looked at her with a worried frown, clearly upset by the blood oozing from her side. He said something else before jumping back into action, but she couldn’t hear him over the roaring.
Aeros tore into the creature with a vengeance, delivering blow after blow. But the beast didn’t slow down—it was only further enraged. She nearly screamed like Dare when it knocked Aeros down with a blow to the head. He caught himself and used his backward momentum to ram his blade into the creature when it followed him. The blow didn’t appear to harm the damn thing. It simply kept coming at Aeros.
Tabithia took a breath and dived for the creature’s throat. The throat was always the best bet in a fight. She didn’t expect the monster to beat her to the grab, though. It roared again, and she heard her eardrum pop at the sound before its foul, smelly body suffocated her.
Aeros cursed wildly. She struggled against what felt like fur-covered iron granite without making a dent. Holy Hecate, this gave a whole new meaning to bear hug.
Aeros took one look at the creature, dripping blood and snarling with Tabithia slung under its arm like a trophy, and felt his head explode. Something he’d never let happen before—losing his temper—happened now. He practically roared louder than the creature. Tabithia, so brilliant, so brave, harmed already, had come back for him and here she was, in danger.
Letting loose with a flurry of attacks, he sliced the beast deep enough that it fell to its knees. Roaring in pain, fangs bared, it still didn’t release Tabithia.
She fought it, kicking and screaming, hitting it with volleys of wind and rain. Still, the beast fought them. Gradually, it began to slow, until, with a muffled groan, it fell to its side and Tabithia scooted away from it, kicking it once with a tiny boot and a snarl when she broke free.