The Dark

by Cheyenne McCray

  “Jeez, Cassia.” Jake dragged his fingers through his hair again. “A virgin.”

  She spoke in a hoarse voice. “I have no choice but to mate with an Elvin male of pure blood within a certain window of time, or I will not ascend into my full powers, or my Guardianship.” A ball of emotion formed in her throat at the magnitude of what her choices meant. “And I am told the balance between Otherworlds could be tipped if I don’t complete the task.”

  And I will die, she added silently in her mind, the thought terrifying and surreal.

  “What a freaking guilt trip they’ve put you on.” Jake turned his back to her for a moment before whirling to face her.

  “Why an Elvin man of pure blood? Why can’t a male of some other race be trained?” His features hardened as he glanced out the window, then to her again. “More of that prejudice I experienced when Kellyn took me for a little stroll?”

  Cassia frowned. “No, I believe it is because only an Elvin male of pure stock has magic strong enough to protect himself, to survive my transition.”

  “Uh-huh.” Jake started to look pissed. “I’ll just bet.”

  “Why do you care so much?” Cassia whispered, tingles of hope rising within her. Did Jake actually care for her? “What does it matter to you?”

  “Ah, hell.” He rubbed his temples before looking at her and nearing her again. “I’d hoped you and I—that we might get to know each other better. A lot better.”

  Cassia’s whole body went up in flames. “You did?”

  He nodded. “Still do.”

  Shock coursed through her as he drew her into his embrace and brought her head to his shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him, relaxing into his strength. Her mind spun with the thought that he did want her, that he was attracted to her like she was to him.

  She wanted Jake and no one but him. The thought of lying with any other man caused tears to burn at the backs of her eyes.

  For a long moment he just held her before he said, “But screwing with your powers, with the balance of Otherworlds, that’s pretty heavy.” He let out a low sigh. “I imagine that means Otherworld will always be your home.”

  Cassia couldn’t answer him. Over the years she had thought ascending was what she desired more than anything in any of the Otherworlds. Right now she didn’t know what she wanted. But she had responsibilities, regardless.

  She managed to keep her eyes dry before stepping out of his embrace. “Your question regarding my ascension and transition was the first you asked. What else do you have to say?”

  “I, uh.” Jake suddenly looked uncomfortable, like his clothes were too tight. “I’ve been dating another woman for the past year. I shouldn’t have kissed you until—”

  Fury caused her to shake. This time brilliant light shot from her, filling the room. The entire bed crashed to the floor and feathers spurted into the air.

  Cassia balled her hand into a fist. She punched Jake in the jaw so hard his face snapped to the side and her knuckles stung. “I can’t believe you kissed me while you’re dating another woman!”

  He rubbed his jaw as he turned back to her. “There’s no excuse.”

  “You’re goddess-blessed right there isn’t.” She sucked in her breath and worked to calm herself down as she thought she heard more wood splinter.

  She made the anger lessen until it just simmered beneath the surface. “I shouldn’t have let you, knowing I am to go to Daire. I’m not promised to him, as in marriage—or a committed relationship like yours—but he will take me through the transition.”

  “Cassia,” Jake said softly. “When we get back, I’ll—”

  A flash of a vision hit Cassia so hard she stumbled and Jake caught her by the shoulders. She barely saw him as images fired through her brain.

  Rain pounding on Union Square in front of the St. Francis Hotel with such power she could barely see. Lightning split the sky and thunder slammed into her mind.

  Funnels whipped out of the storm. Countless funnels racing across the square.

  Stormcutters!

  They closed in on members of the Alliance. Many funnels stopped and the Stormcutters drew ice daggers.

  Slaughter.

  Cassia almost screamed as she saw blood splatter and people drop to the ground. Bodies littering the grass and concrete. Members of the Alliance and Stormcutters, too.

  “We have to go back. Now.” Cassia gripped Jake’s arms as she said the words out loud to him, and in her mind to Kael.

  Kael used his magic to open the bedroom door and rushed to Cassia’s side. She gripped the fur on his neck.

  She didn’t give either male a chance to respond as she took them through the transference to the Earth Otherworld.

  9

  San Francisco

  * * *

  Jake, Cassia, and Kael arrived on a marble landing, just above a set of stairs, under cover and out of the storm. Cassia released Jake and stepped away. His blood ran hot and charged through him as he tried to orient himself.

  Sheets of rain, along with thick gray fog, obscured his vision. Shouts and screams arrowed through the rain and fog, along with sounds of weapons firing and the crack of thunder. Through the fog Jake saw varying colored sparks of witch magic.

  Bitter, musty smells told him the Stormcutters were there, too, in the fog and rain.

  In a quick scan, Jake saw that Cassia had transported them directly to the right side of a hotel entrance with three sets of blue-carpeted stairs leading down to the sidewalk. The St. Francis Hotel in Union Square.

  Jake focused on the direction the noise came from. On the other side of Powell Street, in the middle of the Union Square piazza, around the monument crowned with the goddess Victory.

  He reached for his Glock. Damnit! Not there—it had been left in that meadow. Instead he drew his dagger as he turned to speak to Cassia and Kael—

  Cassia and her wolf both vanished.

  In the next moment brilliant light exploded in the center of Union Square, cutting through rain and fog and glinting on the sharp metal of his jagged-edged dagger.

  Cassia.

  Somehow he knew she was responsible for what was happening in the center of the square. Even though he’d been close to unconsciousness, he knew she’d done something similar when she saved him in Golden Gate Park.

  Kael’s howl echoed through the storm.

  Jake started to take the first step down the right staircase, ready to charge forward, into the middle of the battle.

  Something to his left caught his eye and he pulled back just in time.

  His heart tripped.

  Darkwolf. With Elizabeth-Junga at his side.

  The warlock-god stood just above another blue-carpeted staircase, this one on the opposite side of the hotel entrance, directly across from Jake. Elizabeth watched the battle with an amused expression.

  Jake wanted to knock that smug look right off the demon-woman’s face and kill the murdering bitch. Almost as badly as he wanted to eliminate Darkwolf.

  The thick tan-and-white marble columns between Jake and the duo, along with the fact that Darkwolf was obviously focused on the battle, were probably the only reasons Jake, Cassia, and Kael hadn’t been noticed.

  Thank God.

  Jake stayed hidden behind the smooth marble column closest to him. He gripped his dagger tighter in his fist and set his jaw.

  Every primal urge within Jake urged him to charge the seven-foot-tall warlock-god, take him down, and drive the dagger into the asshole’s heart.

  “I’m going to kill that sonofabitch.” Jake’s rumbled words were lost in the intensity of the storm.

  “What the fuck?” Darkwolf shouted over the noise as he raised his hands, staring at the brilliant white light.

  “The Elvin witch,” Junga shouted back.

  Fury twisted Darkwolf’s features as he shielded his eyes with his hand. Like Jake, Darkwolf flinched from the nearly blinding white light exploding in the square.

  Explosion after explosion
after explosion.

  Darkwolf tipped his face up and howled as he raised his hands. More swirling black and gray fog-like magic emanated from Darkwolf’s palms. Faster and faster it fed the storm with what looked like a shitload of his power. Lightning shattered the sky and more thunder rumbled over the noise in the square.

  Jake’s heart hammered harder and sweat broke out on his forehead. The black fog grew so thick in the square that he could no longer see anything beyond the hotel steps. Not even the rain.

  The Alliance was fighting blind.

  * * *

  Cassia’s intuition had told her where to transport Jake before she entered the battle. As soon as they arrived at the hotel, she released her grip on Jake and transferred herself and Kael into the center of the battle.

  At first the rain pounded down so powerfully that she couldn’t see. It only took a moment to get a grasp on the situation.

  The Alliance was down to a handful of witches and PSF officers, and a fair-sized group of Marines. The few D’Danann fought from the air, beheading men who appeared out of the water funnels.

  Cassia’s stomach wanted to revolt at the sight of so many bodies littering the piazza, and from the coppery smell of blood and the sour smell the Stormcutters gave off.

  Heated fury boiled through her like white, liquid fire.

  A funnel spun directly toward her. In a split second, Cassia judged how many Stormcutters she could take down without hurting anyone else that might be in the way.

  Just as the first one reached her, she crouched and released the white fire of her magic. “Eat this!”

  The fire blasted into the first Stormcutter, evaporating the water and destroying the man within, charring him to ash. She took out five more Stormcutters in one large explosion.

  From the corner of her eye she saw those around her cut their attention to her briefly before going back to battle. Like her, they didn’t have time to think about anything beyond the next foe they had to face. But they all still had shocked expressions, especially her Coven sisters.

  “I will tear these creatures to pieces,” Kael growled in Cassia’s mind.

  Kael howled before lunging for a Stormcutter who had appeared. The wolf clamped his jaws around the man’s jugular and ripped his throat out. The man dropped and Kael went after the next Stormcutter that appeared. More blood spattered Kael’s white coat as he took down another man.

  Cassia searched around her with a quick sweep of her gaze that brushed over every spark of magic that erupted from each witch.

  Alyssa. Over there, Mackenzie. Silver beside Copper. Hannah fighting near Sydney and Rhiannon.

  As she fought, Cassia counted all seven D’Anu witches in a split second. The witches had captured about twenty naked Stormcutters within magical shields, the men within them obviously unable to function once they were cut off from the storm.

  Excellent thinking.

  The shielded men were scattered all around the witches.

  It had to be wearing her Coven sisters down to be forced to maintain so many shields.

  “To your right,” Keir shouted to another D’Danann as they fought from the air alongside other winged Fae warriors.

  Cassia blasted a stormcutter as she whirled to look in the direction Keir had indicated.

  The D’Danann whom Keir had shouted to spun in midair and sliced the head from a Stormcutter’s shoulders.

  A few D’Danann dove for the shielded men. The witches let up on the shields a flash before the winged Fae warriors beheaded the Stormcutters.

  A measure of relief allowed Cassia to not worry so much about the witches’ powers. As long as they had help, they could continue to contain Stormcutters within shield bubbles.

  She had assessed the battle in a matter of seconds.

  Cassia continued to fight, her powers almost automatic.

  Thank the goddess Marines are here. The Marines were putting up a good fight, but it twisted her gut to see the bodies of so many slumped on the square.

  Only a dozen or more PSF officers in raid gear battled with guns, knives, and the specially designed demon Tasers they’d used on the Fomorii before the demons had been sent back to Underworld.

  “Manning—coming hard from your left,” Fredrickson cried over the storm at the same time he took aim at a Stormcutter’s heart.

  Too many of the PSF officers were down, wounded or dead. Without the benefit of magic it was far more difficult for them to battle and survive.

  Cassia crouched and aimed for another group of funnels coming toward a line of PSF officers. Cassia let the force of her magic and her anger fire through her like a blowtorch, and she ripped apart eight more Stormcutters.

  Not enough.

  Anger fueling her, making her stronger, Cassia worked her way through the melee, taking out Stormcutter after Stormcutter, with explosion after explosion of her white fire.

  The charred ashes of the Stormcutters quickly soaked into the grass or washed away from the concrete parts of the piazza with the force of the rain.

  The air began to grow thicker with rain and fog.

  Goddess bless.

  Cassia couldn’t see but a few feet in front of her anymore and could only eliminate a Stormcutter or two at a time without endangering any members of the Alliance.

  More screams, shrieks, and cries rent the air. Who were the cries coming from? Dear Anu, let it be the Stormcutters.

  Cassia had fired at two more funnels when a chill scrabbled up her spine. She whirled to see a Stormcutter driving his dagger straight for her.

  Oh, goddess.

  No time for magic. Instead Cassia dropped to her knees, clasped her fists together, and swung at the back of the man’s knees. He collapsed, giving Cassia enough time to use her magic to toast the goddessforsaken bastard.

  She didn’t take time to savor any of her victories. She turned to take out two more Stormcutters coming at her from the front.

  “Princess!” Kael cried in her mind, and she saw a third closing in on her side, fast.

  She ducked before all three Stormcutters converged on her.

  Kael wrapped his jaws around one man’s neck and snapped it.

  Cassia rolled to the side, onto her knees, and let loose a blast of fire that toasted the other two men.

  “Thank you!” Cassia shouted to Kael, but he was already downing another Stormcutter.

  The storm made everything almost too dark to see, and her heart pounded like crazy. She created a ball of spellfire with her magic, and she caught flashes of magic spheres floating in the fog.

  Cassia’s own spellfire ball was far more brilliant. It settled above her shoulder, allowing her to see enough to burn each Stormcutter that came near her to a crisp. The force of her fire kept most of the rain from actually reaching her.

  But she couldn’t see any of the other members of the Alliance anymore. It was too chaotic, too frightening.

  Shots, screams. Kael’s haunting howls after a round of kills.

  Just as she killed another Stormcutter, she found herself circled by at least ten of them. As if they had come just for her.

  Well, bring it on.

  As the men dove for her, Cassia transferred just outside the circle of men.

  She released her magic in a blinding flash of white followed by an enormous explosion as she obliterated the Stormcutters.

  * * *

  As the warlock-god darkened the sky, Jake weighed his options.

  His body vibrated with fury at what Darkwolf was doing to the members of the Alliance. His PSF team and the Marines were taking the brunt of the battle because they didn’t have magic on their side like the witches, D’Danann, and Drow.

  Damn, but the Drow couldn’t be out now because, no matter how dark the warlock-god had made it, the moment he let up on the storm the sun would be out and, even if it was foggy, would be enough to fry the Drow. There was no question that the Dark Elves had to stay below ground during the day.

  Jake looked at the warlock-god.
He couldn’t charge Darkwolf and tackle him because the warlock was too magically powerful. It might take only a flick of Darkwolf’s finger and Jake could be dead.

  I’ve got to take the bastard down.

  And I’ve got to do it now.

  Jake squeezed the grip of the dagger in his hand. He looked around the column at Darkwolf before he glanced at the weapon.

  Focus. He clenched his jaws and relaxed the muscles in his right arm the best he could.

  He tossed the dagger in his hand so that he held it by the blade. He raised the weapon just over his head and aimed for Darkwolf’s heart.

  Jake flicked his wrist

  The dagger somersaulted through the air.

  Slow motion.

  The knife flipped over and over and over—

  The blade buried itself in the vicinity of Darkwolf’s heart.

  Take that, sonofabitch.

  Darkwolf shouted and dropped to his knees.

  Confusion seemed to cloud his thoughts as he looked down at the dagger and blood began soaking his T-shirt.

  The storm and fog began to clear.

  Jake didn’t give the warlock-god a chance to react. He bolted the few steps from behind his column to where Darkwolf knelt. Jake launched himself at Darkwolf, tackling him and flinging them both down the stairs.

  Pain splintered Jake’s head when his skull struck one of the marble steps as they rolled down the short flight.

  Jake landed on top, and straddled Darkwolf’s massive chest. The dagger had apparently been knocked out when they tumbled down the stairs.

  The warlock-god had nearly a foot on Jake’s six-six and Jake knew he was in for a hell of a fight—if Darkwolf didn’t kill him with his magic.

  Instinct and years of special ops training kicked in and Jake rammed his right fist into the wound over Darkwolf’s heart. He followed immediately with an uppercut to Darkwolf’s nose.

  Blood spurted onto Darkwolf’s face. He looked dazed with pain, yet furious at the same time.

  A purple wave of magic slammed into Jake. He shouted as the force flung him into the street, several feet away.

  Shit.