Tommy swallowed hard. ‘Thank you, Leo.’
Leo smiled, his obsidian Marks shifting in moon’s light. ‘You’re welcome.’ He crushed the bullet, turned and glowered at the man and flattened his gun like crushing a tin can. ‘You should run,’ he advised the man, who gladly took his advice and bolted in the other direction. They continued upstairs, now at a run. Tommy stopped shaking the building in fear it would collapse with Hella inside, but now, she should know they were here to save her. If she was still alive.
Hella clutched a broken windowsill, hoping the building wasn’t about to fall down around her, and she would be plunged to her death, never to be found amongst the rubble. Tommy, stop. I’m up here. She wanted to call out, but could barely hear her own thoughts above the crunching and shuddering of the bricks and breaking windows.
‘I’m coming to find you, bitch!’ a male voice yelled out, low and murderous. Dimitri. Apparently, he held a grudge for her shooting his knee out.
I could have killed you, but I only injured you, she thought resentfully. Hella clambered to her feet. ‘James!’ she called, smoke and dust choking her, making her eyes water. ‘Alexa!’ She stumbled through debris, away from Dimitri’s voice. Through one hallway after another she searched for her friends, moving away from the angry human. Then she realised numbly why her moving was so slow. A metal bar, broken off something, had been plunged into her leg during the chaos of Tommy’s earthquake. She gagged at the sight of her blood staining her jeans, dripping down, past her knee.
Now Dimitri might catch her. As she rounded a corner, a gunshot went off, and a bullet whistled past her head. She whimpered, limping faster. Then she heard Henry’s voice follow, shouting for Dimitri to stand down, but he seemed to be beyond taking orders. Apparently it was personal now.
Hella rushed to what she thought looked like emergency exit stairs and opened the door in a flurry then yelped when someone ran directly into her, pushing the metal bar deeper into her leg. She screamed, trying to run away, sure it was more members of The Force who would likely shoot her. Then someone grabbed her by the shoulders.
‘Hella, it’s us!’ Harrow looked into her eyes, then pulled her into a hug. She screamed louder, the metal digging into her skin, hitting bone.
Harrow shimmered and pulled back. ‘Oh, Hella. I’m sorry. Leo?’
A man she had never seen before stepped forward, closed the door behind Hella and set a gentle hand on her shoulder. ‘Hella, my name is Leo, I’m a warlock, and I’m here to help you, okay?’
Tears in her eyes, she nodded. Leo made significant eye contact with Tommy and Harrow who silently held her shoulders, then her hands.
‘Be quiet,’ Tommy warned.
Hella frowned, unsure what he meant, until the metal bar in her leg wrenched itself free, seemingly of its own accord, and she tried to scream again, but Harrow held a firm hand over her mouth.
‘Sorry,’ Harrow murmured. ‘There are people looking for you, you need to be quiet.’ The tears fell down her cheeks, but she nodded, then Harrow removed his hand.
‘I need to find my friends,’ she whispered in the quiet stairwell.
‘We saw them, they’re out. They’re okay. We need to go,’ Harrow told her in an uncharacteristically soft, reassuring voice. Gently, he pulled her into a hug again. ‘Thank you, Leo,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘Come on, little witch. We need to get out of here.’ Together, they helped her on her injured leg and led her down the stairs and out of the building.
‘That was you, wasn’t it? The earthquake?’ Hella murmured to Tommy, who was on one side of her.
‘I wanted you to know we were here for you,’ he responded, a little colour appearing in his cheeks.
‘Remy insisted you were fine, but being abducted and held against your will is not our definition of fine,’ Harrow seethed from her other side. Together, the boys half-helped, half-carried her down the stairs, Leo in the lead to stop anyone who tried to harm them.
‘What kind of warlock is he?’ she asked quietly, not wanting her voice to carry.
‘Mettalum,’ Harrow whispered back. ‘They’re not common. And Leo is stronger than most. They control metal.’
Tommy smirked. ‘Very handy when humans try to shoot you,’ he added gratefully.
They rounded the corner, out of the stairwell, and into the cool evening air. Hella took a grateful breath, her first fresh oxygen in days. It made her stomach twist in resentment.
‘We have to get you out of here,’ Leo said. For the first time, Hella really looked at him. She saw marks along his arms that seemed to shine in the building’s lights. They looked like black metal. His hair was black, greying at the temples. He looked kindly at her and she wondered how bad she looked. ‘Whose blood is that?’ he asked her softly, indicating her stained red hands.
‘My captor’s,’ she answered shortly. Leo’s eyes widened slightly, but he simply nodded and led them out into the dark. They took about a dozen steps into the open. Then were greeted with what seemed like an army of guns pointed at them.
‘Oh, shit,’ Harrow said beside her. His grip on her tightened, both protectively, she knew, and with worry. Tommy shifted so that he stood in front of them and Harrow took her weight.
‘Leo?’ Tommy asked hesitantly.
‘Some. Too many,’ he murmured back, away from the humans’ earshot.
Tommy shimmered, but then they trained their guns on him.
‘Don’t even think about it, Terra,’ a voice warned. The man who it belonged to stepped out in front of the rest.
‘That’s Henry,’ Hella told Tommy. ‘This is his place. That’s whose blood this is.’
To their surprise, Henry had the arrogance to step forward, past his armed forces, and toward Leo, to look at Hella. There was something glinting in his hand, and Hella recognised it as her athame, and her amulet. He held them out, as an offering. ‘We are not enemies,’ he declared.
‘That’s not very friendly,’ Harrow countered, staring down the barrels of over a dozen guns.
Henry walked slowly forward, his eyes only on Hella. ‘Hellora, these belong to you. Please accept them.’
Leo glanced at her, asking what she wanted to do. She shook her head, once. No. Don’t believe him.
Henry’s eyes were dark and deceitful. ‘That’s a shame, Hella. We could have been friends.’ Then he seemed to look behind them, and Hella turned, on her injured leg—painfully—and too late.
Dimitri had snuck up behind them, and he pulled his trigger. Harrow yelled out and fell to the ground on his hands and knees, a bullet in his own leg.
‘You fucking—’ he yelled out as Hella screamed, but Dimitri put another in his shoulder and Harrow’s eyes rolled in agony. Then another went off, this time from Henry’s side, and Leo’s face worked, trying to stop them—but it slid past Tommy’s shoulder, a graze, moved by Leo, but not enough.
‘Stop it!’ Hella yelled, her chakras burning in fury. ‘Leave them alone!’ Fire balled in her fists, making her hair glow. ‘Stop it, or I’ll burn you all,’ she warned, looking from Dimitri to Henry. Henry took her seriously, his eyes narrowed, measuring the outcome.
Leo watched Henry, waiting for his response.
And Dimitri put a bullet in Hella’s back. She heard Tommy, or Harrow, yell out for her as she tumbled to the ground, her fire fell away. ‘Filthy witch,’ Dimitri snarled down at her. The night faded from her vision. Pain blazed through her, and she could not move.
Then three women appeared at the edge of her vision. And chaos ensued once more.
Chapter Seventy-Five
Tessa
There was a lot of screaming, yelling and gunshots. Tessa was very, very afraid. Meele had a protective hand on her back as Tessa huddled into her. Then she blinked through the night. She could see everything. All the humans with their guns and bullets, shooting Harrow, then Tommy.
Then Hella. That must be her. The promised witch.
And they had killed her. Tessa realised with a horrible jolt that she could feel the witch’s pain. ‘Meele,’ she gasped out. ‘I can feel her. Hella.’
It wasn’t as though Tessa herself had been shot. But the same amount of pain radiated through Tessa’s body as Hella who was lying on the ground with a bullet in her back, piercing her spine.
Meele held her tighter. ‘Amara will get to her, don’t worry.’
Tessa’s eyes filled with tears. ‘She’s so angry, too. They’ve kept her locked up, and tried to kill her. I can feel it. Meele, what do I do? I have to help her.’ Tessa squirmed away from Meele, peering through the bushes to get a better look. A part of her wanted to run out into the fray and skid down on her knees to the witch she had never met before. But she didn’t. Tessa had enough sense to know she would only get herself killed.
Tessa realised that Hella was the only one she could feel. Her sister, Hunter, was out there, she could hear her panicked thoughts, but could not feel anything from her. Or the others. Hella was the only one so far. Meele held onto Tessa. A faithful comfort in the short time the faeries had known each other.
‘The others will help her, don’t worry. She’ll be okay,’ Meele told her quietly.
Tessa could feel the unending and roiling pain from the bullet. ‘I don’t know that she will.’
Chapter Seventy-Six
Hella
Hella astralled out of her body and watched on in pained shock as two women she did not recognise came to their aid. The third, all silver beauty, she did remember. Amara Sana. The other two started chanting, holding hands (a witch thing when casting a spell?) then, with Leo’s help, sent most of the humans—and their guns—flying across the dirt expanse. Two were even tossed into the side of the building with a satisfying yet still kind of horrible crunch. The two witches finished off the others, some of whom had started running away, while Amara rushed and knelt by Harrow, who waved her off.
‘Hella first, now,’ he ordered. Hella watched on with sorrow, looking down at Harrow and Tommy, bloody in the dirt.
Amara leaned down to Hella, who was face down on the ground, covered in a significant pool of red blood. Even in her astral form, Hella could feel it. The bullet, a great pressure in her back which made it hard to think of anything else. Then something seemed to click into place in her mind. Something twisted inside her and she exhaled in relief. It was not Amara, it was someone else.
The silver faerie set to work, and Hella was jolted back into her body in a great wave of agony and relief. She opened her eyes a short time later to see Harrow being healed, and Tommy punching the lights out of Dimitri, pinned to the ground. Leo appeared to be sitting squarely on Henry’s chest, twirling Hella’s athame and amulet carefully in his fingers. It might have been a comical sight, if Hella’d had her wits about her. She sat up, coughing a truly disgusting mixture of blood and dirt, leaving a rather foul taste in her mouth.
Amara looked down at her. ‘Are you okay? That must’ve hurt. A bullet in the back.’ She winced in sympathy. Hella nodded slowly. Even her leg was healed from where Leo had extracted the metal bar.
‘I’m good. Thank you.’ Hella put a hand on Harrow’s leg. ‘How’s he?’
Amara finished up. ‘He’s as stubborn as ever.’ She smiled.
‘I’m fine,’ Harrow said, causing a little dust storm as he scrambled over to her. He took her face in his hands. ‘Are you okay?’ he whispered. Her hair created a curtain between them, an illusion of intimate privacy.
‘I think so,’ she whispered, but her voice broke. He hugged her tightly. It was a rare moment in Hella’s life where she was not angry. Right now, she was just relieved her Harrow was okay, and so grateful that he had come for her. She wrapped her arms around him, too.
Tommy encased the writhing Dimitri in thick roots from the ground, trapping him in place. Tommy was covered in dirt from head to foot. He sauntered over, a little exhausted and still bleeding from his arm where a bullet had grazed him. Amara approached him next and he smiled at her healing touch. ‘Are you guys okay?’ Tommy called over to them. Hella thought she noticed a little redness in his cheeks, the only colour—apart from his orange hair—on his otherwise dirt-covered self.
Hella and Harrow nodded.
‘Hella, what would you like me to do with this one?’ Leo asked.
She got up, without bothering to brush herself off, and came over to the middle-aged warlock she had never met before today. She took back the athame, tucking it fondly into her belt, and reclasped her amulet around her neck, the familiar weight settling on her chest. She looked down at Henry’s face, frowning and indignant at his position of being sat upon.
‘Where’s your cane sword, Henry?’ Hella asked.
‘Is that what this is?’ Tommy asked, twirling it between his fingers. ‘It was on the ground. It looked sort of familiar.’
Hella took it from him. ‘That’s because my so-called guardian made it for him.’ The others exchanged murmurs of surprise. She heard Harrow swear colourfully.
Hella held the blade down to Henry, who had given up squirming under Leo’s bulk. ‘You kept me prisoner. I think it’s only fair the same be done to you.’ She looked at Tommy and Harrow. ‘What’s the chance you guys have a dungeon or something at your Warlock House?’
Tommy grinned. ‘Quite good, actually.’
Harrow smirked and came over to them. He wrapped an arm around Hella, then swiftly kicked Henry in the arm where Hella had cut him. Henry cried out, glaring.
‘What did you use to do that?’ Harrow inquired, peering down at the cut in his arm.
‘Glass,’ Hella said simply. ‘I didn’t have a weapon, so I broke the shower.’
Leo laughed aloud. ‘A fighter, aren’t you?’ He nodded approvingly.
Meele and a young girl came rushing over. ‘We need to get out of here. Something is about to happen,’ the tall faerie said, panicked.
Hella raised her brows. ‘What do you mean? Where did you guys come from?’
The girl answered. ‘The angels are about to attack, we have to go.’ Then she looked right at Hella, then to Meele. ‘She’s much better now.’ The girl informed Meele with a smile. She looked at Hella. ‘I’m Tessa, Hunter’s sister. She, and her girlfriend Lola, were part of your coven. Before the rest were killed.’
Hella looked behind her to where the two women sat, huddled together, and she realised the hand-holding was not a witch thing. She smiled, a little stunned that her coven had come for her. ‘Thank you,’ she said to both of them, not exactly knowing which was which. ‘And it’s nice to meet you, Tessa,’ Hella said, looking down at the shining indigo faerie. ‘Now, let’s go. Bring both of them.’ She nodded to Dimitri and Henry.
Leo chuckled, hauling Henry to his feet. ‘You really shouldn’t have locked up the promised witch, you doorknob.’ He chortled, dragging Henry along who struggled to keep up with Leo’s long strides, his feet half-caught in the dirt as he stumbled along. It was a satisfying image. Hella decided she liked Leo.
‘I’m beginning to realise that,’ Henry grumbled.
Meele put a hand on each of their prisoners, her eyes glazed golden. ‘Leo, you’re with me. Let’s take them. All of you need to get to the Cambion Den,’ Meele said, her voice urgent. Behind the golden haze, she must have seen something terrible. ‘Now, or a dozen of our kin will perish in angel fire.’
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Hella
Harrow held Hella’s hand gently, twining his fingers with hers. It was a warm, comfortable gesture. She squeezed his fingers lightly, letting him know it was okay. Together, they walked with Tommy, Hunter, Lola, Tessa and Amara and headed to the Cambion Den.
‘What exactly is a Cambion Den?’ Hella asked Harrow, who seemed to squirm just a little.
‘It’s kind of a shelter for our kind. For those of us who are’—he paused—‘otherwise unwanted, or lost.’
She leaned in to whisper to him. ‘Is tha
t where you stayed, when you left the Warlock House?’ His eyes were downcast, his long dark lashes curled on his thin, pale cheekbones. He nodded, not meeting her eye. Again, she squeezed his hand and the corner of his mouth pulled up into half a smile. The others trailed a little behind, Hunter and Tessa finally reunited.
Amara had insisted on coming in the event anyone needed healing. ‘But,’ she said, with a friendly twinkle in her silver eyes, ‘I hear you can heal too, promised one.’ She nudged Hella playfully.
‘Only by accident,’ Hella put in. ‘I don’t know how to.’
Tommy jogged to catch up. ‘I think that’s something you should practice,’ he smiled encouragingly.
‘Maybe you should leave her alone. We only just got her out of her jail, and now you’re telling her to train,’ Harrow snapped at him.
‘Guys, it’s fine,’ Hella said. ‘I will practice, but for now we have a very talented Sana.’ She smiled at Amara. ‘And that’s going to have to be enough. We need to hurry. Whoever is in that Den is in danger.’ Hunter, Lola and Tessa came up and nodded their agreement. The group made haste toward the Den, jogging the fifteen-minute walk. ‘The sun.’ Hella pointed. ‘It’s setting!’ The sky was painted in shades of deep blue and indigo.
The others looked at her strangely. ‘That’s nice?’ Hunter suggested.
‘No, it means the angels can come. Sunlight kills angels!’ Hella yelled out, running now.
‘Where the hell has that information been these past few centuries?’ Hunter snapped.
Harrow stayed very close by Hella’s side, she noticed, either because he had missed her, or because he was being protective, she couldn’t tell. She suspected both, and smiled. As they rounded the corner, following Harrow’s direction, they all breathed a sigh of relief when they came upon the Den, still and unharmed. Harrow rushed up to the front door, knocking loud and hard.
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