by Dianna Love
Whoa. Was Evalle hearing this right? Had Nadina boxed herself into a corner? “Let me get this straight. If I open a bolthole and drag Storm through it–” Evalle paused at the mental image of Storm’s jaws locking on that arm and ripping it off. “Hanhau shuts down Mitnal and you’re stuck here with the crazy demon ruler?”
Nadina’s hair shot straight out away from her head and she kept muttering. “He’ll make me do ... I cannot let Hanhau ... He’ll give me to all the demons... No, no...”
Evalle couldn’t wish that misery on someone more deserving, but Storm still needed this witch to get his soul back. Dammit. “Look, Nadina, just work with me to get us out of here–” While Evalle was trying to figure out how to take Storm out then come back to bring Nadina out, the crazy witch flipped a gear into nuclear insanity.
Nadina’s wild gaze slammed into Evalle’s. “You cannot have him.”
“I’m not leaving him here. He’s going with me.”
“Hanhau will make me pay.” Nadina shouted, “If I cannot have Storm, you will not either, and you’re not leaving me here to suffer Hanhau.”
That threat had barely registered in Evalle’s brain when Nadina turned on Storm who roared at the witch doctor, but he clearly couldn’t attack his master.
Nadina didn’t have that problem. She pointed at Storm and spewed a string of words that Evalle had no chance of comprehending as bloody stripes whipped across storm’s skin. Evalle dug out the hair in her pocket and waved it at Nadina who looked at it for all of a second and flicked a flame from her fingertips that caught the hair on fire. The hair on Nadina’s head started to flame at the same time, but Nadina swiped her hand over it to squelch the blaze.
Evalle slung the rest of the burning ponytail away.
The possibility of being left here as Hanhau’s bitch had just trumped the oath Nadina had given Evalle.
Adrianna had been partly correct in thinking the penalty Nadina would pay for breaking her oath with Evalle only mattered if Nadina left this place.
What she’d missed was that Nadina had to be sane enough to realize she was breaking the oath. Evalle watched as Nadina’s model-beautiful face began to age before her eyes.
Storm went up on his hind legs, falling back as as blood poured from the wounds Nadina continued to inflict.
Evalle threw a kinetic blast at Nadina, slamming the witch doctor up against the wall. Nadina turned on her, bony fingers raised with nails narrowing into sharp points. She howled and raked her spiked nails from top to bottom.
White-hot pain sliced down Evalle’s chest and arms.
Storm rolled to his feet, dropped low and shoved up hard, but was he going for Evalle or Nadina?
The witch whipped a hand in Storm’s direction, snapping bones in his legs. He fell to the floor in a heap, howling with pain and anger.
Evalle shoved up a wall of power to give her the sixty seconds she needed to shift her body into something that could defend him. Her jeans and vintage shirt ripped everywhere as she released her beast that grew four times her size, extending her arms that filled the room with blue-green feathers over the wings and body of a gryphon. Adrenaline rushed the change. Her head warped and twisted into the golden head of an eagle and the lower half of her body flowed into that of lion.
She rose up on her haunches, spreading her wings and curling the talons on her front feet.
Nadina’s mouth gaped open in horror.
Now who was the biggest bitch in the room?
Confidence gone and only a mindless monster left in the place of Nadina, she tossed off her cloak and called out, “Storm, protect your master!”
Storm pushed up on one front leg that had already healed, then he straightened the second one. Massive muscle bunched and moved beneath the glistening black coat. He looked at Evalle’s gryphon form and shook his head as if not sure what he was seeing.
But he was healing fast and ready to fight. Red burned in his eyes. He roared in reply to Nadina’s call for help then swung that deadly gaze at Evalle.
Her stomach fell.
Please don’t fight me, Storm. Don’t make me hurt you.
If she didn’t fight him, demon or not, deep down she had to believe he’d never survive killing her. Of course, that would only happen if he ever recognized her again.
When he lunged at her, she caught him with her claws, fighting him off and getting gouged as badly as she had to be hurting him.
Her worst nightmare had come true.
Storm had turned into a demon and attacked her.
Nadina jumped into the fray, using her majik to stab Storm, driving his rage over the top. He clawed at Evalle over and over until Evalle shot a blast of fire at Nadina that singed what was left of the witch doctor’s medusa-looking hair.
Storm bit down on Evalle’s paw then yanked his head back with blood dripping from his lips.
His eyes still glowed, but shock widened them.
Had he recognized her blood? Did he know she was his mate?
The emerald that had done nothing in all this time, now hummed with energy in Evalle’s chest and shone brightly through the gryphon feathers. Her heart thumped a crazy jig.
She tossed Storm away as carefully as she could and he landed on all fours, spinning to take in her then Nadina.
The witch doctor ordered him, “Kill her. Now!”
Storm just stood there, confused and panting.
Evalle had been so intent on Storm, watching for a sign of recognition that she had failed to keep an eye on Nadina.
Nadina shoved one hand of long, pointy nails at Evalle whose gryphon arched up, swinging back and forth with her wings flapping. Evalle clawed at the air to make whatever was stabbing her over and over stop.
Storm took one step, then another, but he was headed for Nadina with an unholy look in his jaguar eyes.
As he leaped, Nadina howled a curse at him and her other hand turned into a blade that plunged into his chest.
Evalle screamed, a loud wrenching sound that was half eagle and half woman. She flapped her wings hard, driving her down to the witch whose majik was still ripping into Evalle.
Nadina paid no attention to Evalle, focused only on killing Storm.
Evalle grabbed the witch doctor’s head in her ginormous beak and ripped it off, flinging the bloody ball against a wall.
The pain in Evalle’s chest eased. She landed on the cave floor and tottered to keep her balance.
A headless body flopped to the ground.
Realization of what she’d done slammed Evalle in her chest.
No, no, no!
Even with Storm dead, he and his father still had no souls. They had no way to rest forever. Evalle wanted to kill that witch all over again.
The jaguar stirred, jerking Evalle’s attention to him.
Storm?
But he couldn’t hear her telepathically.
Relief and misery battled in her heart. He was still alive, but she’d killed Nadina.
Snapping out of his daze, Storm’s gaze whipped over to Nadina’s head that still rocked back and forth where it had landed. The foul smell of blood filled the air instead of her nasty licorice scent.
He swung his attention back to take in Evalle standing over Nadina’s lifeless body and the jaguar let loose a long sound so forlorn and painful Evalle couldn’t breathe.
She’d just killed the last hope he had of ever getting his soul back and, in that moment, he might not recognize her but he understood the loss.
A chorus of howling out in the large room answered Storm.
Okay, that just screwed any odds for a clean escape.
Bad news flash number two? With Nadina dead, Evalle had no cloaking and no idea if she could definitely open a bolthole on her own. Did she have to go back out in the middle of that open area to do it?
That was not happening.
Then there was the problem of trying to get a demon jaguar out of here, one that had survived attacks for the last two days in this place and current
ly had his head lowered, snarling and panting viciously.
She gambled and changed back to human in a rush, which she found out quickly was not the way to do it. Her body twisted and snapped, forcing muscles to wind back into smaller, tighter shapes and bones to shorten. She fought for breath and squeezed her eyes to stop any chance of tears. She had only seconds to get through to Storm, who still eyed her with murder glaring in his eyes.
Snatching the robe off Nadina, Evalle yanked it on and tied the string as she talked. “Listen to me Storm. I’m sorry about Nadina.”
The growling picked up volume and his lips lifted to expose razor-sharp fangs.
Not the best time to discuss the witch doctor.
Evalle moved ahead. “I know you’re in there. Come back with me. I think I can open the bolthole. You may not like me right now, but you hate Hanhau. You can’t stay here.”
Howling was racing toward them.
Storm stalked her, moving slowly forward, one paw at a time.
Had killing Nadina snapped the last thread he’d held on his humanity?
“Please, Storm. Come back with me.”
He took another step.
The screaming demons were close to his den. The first one raced in and launched itself. Before Evalle could raise her hand to deflect the attack, Storm shot up, meeting the threat in mid-air. They fell into a tangle of snarls and clawing. Two more demons came through the narrow passage.
She ground her teeth against the pain and forced herself into battle form that raised the cartilage along her arms and powered up her body. Lifting her hands, she was ready.
But there was no way out of here if she couldn’t open that bolthole.
First she had to stop the demon running at her. He stood upright and spikes stuck out of his head like a horned Mohawk that continued down his spine. With no reason to hold back now, she unleashed her kinetics and blasted him against the wall, crushing his skull. The second demon was the bear with the wild hog head. Sharp tusks jutted out eighteen inches beyond the thing’s snout.
The eyes of this thing and the demon she’d killed were brilliant red. Like mega wattage.
Had Hanhau just super-charged his herd?
Evalle caught the tusks and dropped down, hanging from them so they didn’t spear her. She held on as the thing shook her back and forth. One of his clawed paws struck out at her side and gouged a wound.
She could only keep this up for so long before her strength would give out, especially after changing into a gryphon and back so fast.
Her arms were quivering.
Let go and try to use kinetics against him?
He’d stomp her first then stab her with a tusk.
Her shoulders were dropping closer to the floor. The minute she hit, the demon would know he had her.
A flash of black jumped on top of the beast’s back. Jaguar jaws clamped the hog’s neck and ripped once, then again. The hog beast’s wild eyes rolled, searching for what attacked it. It screamed and jumped around trying to shake that black jaguar off, but Storm held on, taking the demon to the ground.
Evalle scrambled to keep from getting trampled.
Thankfully, it fell sideways or it would’ve crushed her. She staggered to her feet, wiping sweat out of her eyes in spite of the frosted breaths rolling off her tongue.
Where were the other demons?
Not that she was inviting them in, but why weren’t they swarming?
When the hog took its last breath, Storm stood on top of it, roaring over and over, louder each time until the walls shook.
Now she got it.
They were terrified of Storm.
These three had thought they’d heard Storm being attacked and come to finish him off. What had Hanhau promised them if they were successful?
A demon treat?
Evalle looked around at the carnage. This was it. She had to convince Storm to leave now or it was never going to happen. Waiting for the most dangerous demon in Mitnal to finish warning off the rest against even thinking about attacking him, Evalle reached into the pocket of Nadina’s robe and dug for anything that the witch might have held onto that would open a bolthole.
Empty pockets. No majik wand or artifact to insure an exit route.
Storm quieted and turned to her, not a flicker of emotion anywhere in those eyes.
She’d gotten used to the yellow eyes on Storm’s jaguar, because he’d always been in there behind them. No sign of the man behind the glowing red gaze.
Licking her lips, she tried to swallow against her dry throat. “I’m going to try to open the bolthole. I want you to come with me. Please.”
Still no sign of acknowledgment.
Was Storm in there?
Evalle held her hands out to the side just as Nadina had and called up the words again, repeating them louder the second time. Energy sizzled and smoked then burst into an archway.
“It worked.” Maybe it was wearing the witch’s robe? Evalle laughed in surprise, but the sound had a hysterical edge. Much more of this and she’d need measurements for a straitjacket.
She’d just lowered her hands to drop the archway to the ground when power, serious power, exploded into the room.
Hanhau took one look at the bolthole archway and reached for Evalle.
Something hit her in the back, knocking her through the archway. She fell forward, going into a roll out of habit when fighting. A thousand tiny lightning bolts zapped her from every direction until she’d cleared the bolthole. Light flashed on black fur as Storm followed her through, and Evalle flopped on the ground, moaning.
Dark sky. Sliver of a moon peeking through tree branches. She glanced around. They’d made it. This was the Stone Mountain neighborhood. She could see the old frame house with the orbs a block away. Falling back on the ground, she drew in a breath of fresh air from her world.
Storm leaped over her and swung around, eyes full of death staring at her.
He snarled, tufts of hair rising along his neck and shoulders.
Not again.
Evalle thought about just letting him have at her. She was bleeding and tired, but when she rolled over to push up on her feet, Storm dropped onto the ground.
Thank goodness. Maybe being home would help.
A howling noise drew her around.
The bolthole was still open. She rattled off the words to slam it shut, but not before a demon leaped out.
Ears stuck out from his head and curled into short horns. His head, neck and shoulders were covered in orange scales. Long strands of gray hair hung from his waist almost to the ground, covering the bottom half of his body and not quite hiding his gender.
He looked like a demented hula dancer.
Evalle backed up a step, shoving one kinetic blast after another at the demon, but it kept coming at her.
Clearly, she was a quart low on kinetic energy.
She looked around and Storm was ... stretched out, licking his paws?
She might kill him herself. “Storm?”
He turned to her, took a long look, then went back to poking at his injuries.
That was the absolute last good nerve she had left.
She called up every ounce of power she could find and slammed the demon into an oak tree that had a broken limb sticking out like a pike. She impaled the demon on it. Red eyes dimmed until only yellow was left. His head drooped to one side, then his body ignited, burning until ashes drifted away.
Turning to Storm, she jabbed her hands to her hips and leaned down. “Thanks for nothing.”
Storm stood up and walked away.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
He swung that pair of red beacons at her and gave a gravelly growl.
Was that a warning not to cross him? Maybe.
She wasn’t sure how much he understood right now, but she had no doubt that he would not quickly forget who had killed Nadina. Storm had hunted that witch doctor for a long time. Nadina was the reason he’d come to the states and taken a job wit
h VIPER. Now it was all gone forever.
But Evalle couldn’t talk to him in this form.
She asked nicely, “Would you please shift back to human?”
His stare never altered. He made no effort to shift. Could he still shift? The only positive sign was that his body appeared to be healing quickly.
Hers, not so much.
She tried to call up her beast healing powers, but nothing more than a mild energy swirled inside her. She hadn’t wanted to admit that her powers were waning, but her Belador blood was losing drive. How screwed up was it that her Medb blood, the other half of her genetics, had to be keeping her on her feet right now? The longer they stood out here exposed in a city hunting demons, the worse her odds got. No way did she want to have to battle her own Belador friends to protect Storm, or the other way around.
Taking a look around, she was heartened to find she was only about a half mile from where she’d left his Land Cruiser. Maybe he’d shift once he was inside his house where things were familiar.
That was if she could get him to climb inside his vehicle and if he didn’t kill her first.
Chapter 24
Brina spun in the swirling gray mist. What was happening to her? She clutched a handful of hair and pulled, trying to yank some sanity into her mind. Why was she so confused?
One minute the Medb had been attacking Treoir and in the next she’d landed in this godforsaken place.
Okay, wait ... not exactly that quickly...
She released her hair and rubbed her temple where a headache throbbed viciously. She’d been in her sunroom. Horace, the old Belador she’d have never thought could be a traitor, had tossed Noirre majik on her and Lanna...
Where was Lanna?
Panic flooded Brina with a cold chill. “Lanna? Lanna!”
Now she recalled yelling at Lanna and accusing the child of being the enemy. What is wrong with me?
A very strained sound came through the mist that sounded like “here.”
Brina headed in what she hoped was the right direction. “Talk to me, Lanna. I can’t find you.”
“I am here,” came stronger this time. “You talk too so that I know you are not going wrong way.”