by Cecy Robson
Shayna converts the toothpicks into needles. They leave her hands faster than I can blink, clearing a path through the crowd herding Johnny closer toward the exit. Men and women rush by me, clutching their faces and trying to pull them out. I whirl out of their way, not wanting any part of them. It’s a disturbing sight and damn effective, the pain Shayna inflicts just enough to distract them from their quest and break Johnny’s spell.
I try to reduce the amount of lightning I release, but it’s damn hard to concentrate on lessening my power amidst the escalating chaos surrounding us.
Bellows erupt and bits of ceiling rain down when the weres slam the giant grizzly into the base of the stage. They’re trying to keep the shifter away from the humans. Except the humans are everywhere.
And so are the neophytes.
Black smoke appears in swirl and a woman in dark robes materializes, her long staff aimed at Shayna.
I light her up with a siphon of flames, the intensity so strong sparks spray against the mob clustered around Johnny. It doesn’t do much damage, just enough to snag their attention and snap them free of Johnny’s hold.
I race around the burning witch, fighting against the panicked and shrieking people now trying to escape. Something hard hits me in the back of the head, knocking me down. I cut my hand on something sharp. Blood drips from my palm as I try to push up on my knees.
My nose is bleeding, too. I’m not sure why. Something doesn’t feel right and I can’t see well, my vision is fading in and out.
A foot connects with my face, the impact tossing me back to the floor. Blood pours out of my mouth and nose. I try to rise and put one foot under me when something else bangs into my shoulder.
People are everywhere. They ram me, kicking and trampling me. I curl inward, cocooning myself in my fire. It’s just enough to keep people off me and gives me a moment to gather my senses. I’m hurt and my stomach churns with nausea.
Except I can’t just fucking lay here.
I force myself to my feet, my stomach lurching when I push forward. Shayna is battling it out with another neophyte, dodging her curses as she reaches for her dagger. She flings her blade, puncturing the neophyte’s skull. I’m almost to them when the witch I set on fire grabs me, her eyes fierce and her skin only partially burned.
She yanks me to her, her fingers digging into my throat. “We will kill you,” she spits out, ignoring the swirls of my blue and white flames crisscrossing like ribbons across her face. “All of you.”
My fire has no effect on me and it’s only barely touching her. The protection wards around her body are strong and her hands are killing me. I gasp, choking as she clamps down.
Oh, and Sparky doesn’t like that one bit.
My right hand shoots out, snatching her by the throat and lifting her off the ground. I feel her neck crunch beneath my grasp as my fire builds and anger consumes me. She trembles, releasing me to smack at my hand. As I watch, the protection wards she built around herself break down. Her skin sizzles, crackling off in pieces.
“Burn, bitch,” I tell her. “Burn.”
Like a missal ignited in blue and white flames, my arm launches her. She soars into the second tier, the impact splitting the first few rows and caving in the second level.
Yet it’s Johnny who screams.
I stagger, the dizziness and pain I feel making it hard to keep my feet. Someone runs into me, then another someone, the collection of howls, shrieks, and sounds of destruction across the arena disorienting me further.
“Taran!”
I fall into Gemini’s arms. He cradles me and moves fast. I shiver as cold air strikes my face, the agony stabbing through my veins dulling and confusing my thoughts.
Behind us, something wails in torment and vicious growls erupt. Flesh tears and death fills the night. I think a wolf is dead, but then Gemini yells, “Take him down, now.”
I want to ask him what’s happening, but I struggle to form words. My body grows colder as my pain tucks the rest of the world away from me. I make out some words and sounds. Except I can’t see anything, my vision completely blurred.
“We have to kill Johnny,” I manage. “And Misha has to stay away.”
I try to tell him that Johnny is the one who’ll hurt our babies, that he’s sacrificing his fans to save himself, and plans to sacrifice Misha. It’s why Johnny wanted the weres to guard him, their magic makes them heartier tributes, and why he requested Misha to retrieve him. As the strongest vampire, Misha was the ultimate prize Johnny needed.
I think I tell Gemini. My lips move, but I can’t be sure I actually speak.
He seems to understand. So does Emme.
Her light streams across my cooling skin, easing the pain and sharpening my vision back into focus. My shoulders jerk when something in my face snaps and my ribs fasten into place. Based on what seeps out, my nose was bashed in. I swipe at it irritably as Gemini wrenches me to my feet.
Like me, he’s covered with blood. All the wolves are, their dense fur coated in crimson. The shifter is dead. I catch sight of his naked human body lying across the field, beside a were who didn’t make it.
We’re far from the arena. I can see it from the edge of the forest where we stand. Blue and white flames eat through the roof and the left side is partially collapsed.
“What happened?” I say, stunned by how quickly my fire has overtaken the building.
“Your arm’s magic and Johnny’s clashed when you obliterated that witch.” Gemini swallows hard. “I think it knew you were dying and reacted in turn, destroying part of the building and attempting to kill him.”
“And did I?” I ask, thinking back to the way Johnny screamed.
“No. He’s more powerful than we ever gave him credit for.”
After robbing Destiny of her magic and life, of course he is.
I glance around. The humans are gone, but even from where we stand, I hear them sobbing. Somewhere along the highway, a shit-ton of paramedics and firetrucks blast their horns.
People are hurt, many of them dead. Not that we’re better off.
Another enormous shifter stalks forward, this one a panther, licking her blood-soaked chops as she trails an army of neophytes and Johnny’s skull warriors.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The neophytes chant as one, their dark magic building along with their spell.
“Where are our witches?” I ask, the vile magic coating my tongue with its filth.
“En route,” Gemini says, crouching as his twin wolf snarls at his side. “They’re not as quick as Genevieve or Ines.”
“Figures,” I mumble.
“We’re out of weres,” Gemini adds, his voice tight.
“Uh-huh,” I agree, my voice cracking as my inner heat gains momentum.
Gemini keeps his focus straight in front of him, growling when two wolves race ahead. They slam into an invisible barrier, writhing and whimpering in agony.
“What are you doing?” he yells when I start forward.
I frown, my gaze skipping from where he’s clasping me by the shoulder, back to his face. “The same thing I always do, baby. Getting ready to burn shit down.”
I whirl, a pipeline of spinning flames striking the witch in the center.
He detonates in chunks, that’s right, chunks. I was more careful with the amount of magic I used indoors. But we’re outside now, and no way are these bastards getting away with this.
The writhing wolves shake off their stupor, charging with Gemini and the remaining weres.
“Keep them off me,” I yell. “I’m going after Johnny. Emme, launch me!”
I stand tall, my left arm bent at my side and my right arm up a la Supergirl.
Emme stops running, glancing back at me. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, the nematodes are here to collect Johnny. We can’t let that happen.” I resume my Supergirl pose.
“They’re neophytes, Taran.”
I slap my hands down. “Like I give a shit, Emme.”
> She cuts me off with a very irritated throw.
Screw Supergirl. Once more I’m screaming, and flailing, and certain I’m going to die.
The one shoe I managed to hang onto flies off and I land in Gemini’s arms. Apparently, he “went long.”
“Put me down,” I insist.
“Not now,” he bites out.
I look behind us. The panther has left the fight and is gunning for us.
Gemini swears, grounding to a halt as a wall of skull warriors appear, blocking our path. He plants me down and from one leap to the next changes into his massive wolf form.
I don’t quite have my bearings when his fangs clamp down on a warrior’s head. He breaks through the skull, flinging the body toward the encroaching panther.
My feet are swept from under me when a warrior snatches me up by the waist. I scream, with rage and all the power boiling its way through me, forcing him to drop me when he bursts into flames.
I land on my knees, my fingers digging into the soil as the ancient magic that makes up my arm takes over and encases my body in an armor of flames.
The panther reaches me, her large paw slapping me aside when her fangs fail to bite through my fire. I roll, the pain her strike causes combined with my accelerating magic scorching the earth and singeing a path across the field.
My body and the earth beneath me tremble. The same thing that happened in Egypt. My arm knows we’re in trouble and is reacting to the threat, feeding my flame with mystical kindling and an extra-large dose of otherworldly gasoline.
“Power,” I whisper, getting a high from the wickedly addicting heat coursing through me. “Give me, power.”
“Oh, shit,” Bren says behind me.
“Everyone run!” Gemini yells.
The absurd mix of mayhem and mysticism fusing within me peaks, and in one colossal moment it erupts, colliding against everything in the vicinity.
My head jerks up as a mushroom cloud of blue and white spreads along the sky, cloaking the atmosphere as far as I can see. The release should feel good and leave me begging for more. Yet as I find what looks like an ocean of fire eating away at the field, all I feel is out of control.
I stand and walk forward, the heat rising from my core creating ripples in the air as flaming skulls rain from the sky. I kick them out of my way when they land in front of me, my bare feet searing them and leaving marks. Their bodies are gone. Now they’re left to burn along with the barren wasteland the area has become.
I expected them to burst into color like all of Johnny’s tattoos. But these were different than the rest, maybe because he’s become so much more than he was.
My hands ball into fists as I think about everything he did. I know I’m moving toward him. I feel him. He’s no longer far away.
It’s only when I reach the skull of the panther that I stop, bending to lift it, just as I had lifted the other feline skull in my vision.
This isn’t my sister. It’s the shifter. My fire killed her as she shrank in size to return to her original human shell.
This time when I cry, it’s from relief. My sister doesn’t die. She’ll have her chance to have her babies. I drop the skull. Provided Johnny meets his own damn fate.
The knowledge gives me strength and propels me ahead, my quick steps turning into a sprint when I feel Johnny’s magic build.
I find him in the parking lot by a large Dodge Ram, clutching his belly as he shoves his way inside the cabin. Maybe I couldn’t destroy the skulls, but I did succeed in causing him a lot of pain.
Johnny yells to the fan trailing him to start the vehicle. The man, he doesn’t look good. His skin is horribly blistered and his face is smeared with soot. He teeters back and forth, struggling to reach the truck. He must have been trapped in the arena when it caught fire, along with everyone else trying to protect Johnny.
If the others look anything like this man, they didn’t make it. They died for Johnny, not that he’ll ever care.
His eyes widen when he sees me. He shuts the door and scrambles into the driver’s seat.
I launch a fireball from my arm, nailing the truck and sending it rolling across the lot. It crashes into the side of Johnny’s tour bus, igniting the image of his face on fire.
Legs kick at the splintered windshield, banging frantically against the glass. Something clasps my shoulder, brutally clamping down. I don’t turn around. I ignite, my body a conduit of flames that expand out.
I turn enough to see the last of Johnny’s skull warriors disintegrate to ash. But at the sound of breaking glass, my attention is all on Johnny.
He crawls out from the busted windshield, bleeding from the multitude of cuts raking his skin and holding tight to his stomach from the damage I did to his skulls.
Except I’m not done with him yet.
I charge after him, tackling him when he tries to run away. We fall hard against the asphalt where I proceed to beat the unholy shit out of him.
I’ll be the first one to admit that I can’t fight. But hell hath no fury like Taran Wird pissed off. I punch him in the head, kicking him repeatedly, and bringing down my elbow hard into his chest.
His hands snatch at the air, trying to catch my wrists as he yells at me to stop.
He gains the upper hand, rolling on top of me and pinning me in place. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he spits out. “Not you!”
My chest rises and falls in quick succession, my lungs desperate for air from all the energy I’ve expunged. “No, you just want to hurt my sister,” I grind out.
His features scrunch, his voice pained. “That’s not true. I would never hurt anyone you loved. The neophytes told me they’d leave you alone, that you and your family would get out in one piece.”
“They’re liars!” I scream at him. “And so are you!” My eyes burn with vicious tears. “Destiny told me, she’s saw it. Remember Destiny?” My gaze flickers to the tattoo of the serpent puncturing the heart. “She never did anything to you and you fucking murdered her!”
“It’s not murder, it’s survival!” Fluid pools in his mouth and he begins to sob. “I want to live, Taran. I want to be safe. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
He looks up at the inferno the area has become. “I didn’t choose to be a Fate, Taran. It chose me. All I’ve ever wanted was a normal life—to be a normal guy, not this freak.” He keeps his stare ahead. “But here I am, with vampires, weres, and witches all wanting me and none of them able to save me. It’s the reason I sent my messenger to find the one group of preternaturals who could.”
His messenger? My eyes widen. “The butterfly tat,” I say. “You set it free to find the shifters—God damn it, even after they killed your friends?”
“I didn’t want to, I had to. They’re the strongest, you said it yourself.” He grabs my shoulders, shaking me hard. “Can’t you see? This is my chance, Taran. My one chance to survive this shit.”
He’s playing at my sympathy. I know what it’s like to be weird and hated for it. I know what it’s like to beg God and the Powers that Be to give us a normal existence so we can have homes, and husbands, and babies. But that’s not our reality. For good or for bad, this is what we are.
Johnny breaks down. “I just want to live,” he tells me. “Just let me live.”
“No.”
My hand shoots out, my nails digging into the flesh of his chest. Johnny screams, spilling lava from his Mordor tat straight into my arm.
I expect pain, loads of it. Except all I feel is magic.
Like a volcano meeting a super nova of energy, our magic pummels each other, both ancient powers battling it out to see which bitch rules best.
The earth quakes beneath us, splitting the ground, but the Grim Reaper will golf with my decapitated head before I let Johnny go.
I clamp down on my teeth, scraping my nails further in. Through the smoke and our burning surroundings, I see Destiny, her image appearing in a strobe of scattered pictures.
Tye is on top of her, his lar
ge palms pressing into her chest as he performs CPR. He’s begging her not to leave, to come back to him, crying out that he can’t live without her.
My head spins from the diapason of energy streaming from my hand. Combine it with the heat surging around me, and relentless rumbles from the cracking earth, I can’t even focus.
The titillation of noise, power, and visuals is too much to take. I don’t know anything. What my magic is doing. What Johnny is doing to fight back. All I know is I can’t let go.
A fist comes down on my face. Then another.
I ignore the instinct to protect my head, keeping my hand in place and sinking my fingers deeper.
I think I’m losing when the visual of Destiny and Tye fades, becoming lighter. I make out things here and there: the wolves guarding her closing in, the one in front telling Tye to leave her, and how the wolf staggers back when Tye shrugs him off.
Tye’s compressions quicken. He’s not giving up on her, and I won’t either.
My nails pierce bone when the vision slips further away. “Burn, baby,” I gasp. “Burn.”
The next blow to my face stirs an additional spark inside me, causing it to intensify and gifting it with the incandescent glow and heat I need.
Like Velcro being ripped from its source, my fingers tear off Johnny’s skin.
Destiny screams.
And so does Johnny.
What happens next is hard to say. I’m no longer me. I’m one of many atoms in a bomb that goes boom.
I soar into the atmosphere, my limbs listless and weak, jolting when my back strikes a sharp rock and I roll down an incline raging with fire.
I don’t know how to stop. But my mate does. He appears, the brutal way he snatches hold of my arm, slapping me awake.
“Hang on,” he yells. “I have you.”
The earth is quaking, the remains of the burning arena falling away into the giant crater I’m currently dangling over.
“Oh, shit,” I say.
Gemini holds me with one hand, using the other and his bare feet to scale the side of the rumbling wall.
Chunks of dirt fall like hail, pelting our heads and crumbling against our faces. But I refuse to look down. No way in hell do I want any part of that inferno.