He nodded. “Agreed. Two favors now, and another nine should Killian ever come after you again or in any way cause problems in Midgard. As you laid out, the favors will go to Cora, and if she isn’t available, Aaron, Nathan, or Apollonius.”
“Killian is your son. The demon standing behind you.” Yeah, I was covering all my bases. Demons fuck you over with odd definitions sometimes. I wanted to be sure we were talking about the asshole demon over the Celrau.
Xaephan nodded again, realized I wasn’t going to accept that, and bit out an aggravated, “Yes.”
“Deal. Now go.”
The second the word was out of my mouth, he and Killian were gone.
Fuck me.
I checked my phone and saw that I had a whole fifty seconds to spare.
I opened the portal and smiled at Zeta. “It’s just me. Cora’s otherwise occupied. Is everything okay there?”
Her evergreen eyebrows drew together. “I smell Sulphur. Brimstone. Demon.”
“Yeah. I had to handle a bit of an issue before I could open the portal. Things aren’t going so well with the battle. Is everything okay there?”
One of the guards stepped forward and bowed. “A few attempted incursions, Your Majesty. All were easily handled. If your life is in danger, we’re honor bound to protect you, no matter the realm you’re in.”
I shook my head. “No way can I pull away the soldiers intended to protect my people. Your job is to protect the castle and its inhabitants. I need to hold the portal with intention. We’ll talk again in a few minutes.”
When we’d done this at noon, I hadn’t felt much of anything, but partway through this time, it was as if the earth shifted. I felt the balance swing from evil to good. Okay, maybe that’s more dramatic than it should be, but imagine the ying-yang symbol had the dark side bigger than the white side, and it self-corrected somehow. Or that some humongous scales somewhere shifted balance so the side with more weight suddenly had less, and everything moved.
The shift of power only gave me more confidence, which let me pour more energy into the portal. I imagined it anchored in Alfheim and Midgard, and imagined only good energy holding it open, and balancing it when it closed. It seemed no time at all until my phone vibrated in my pocket to let me know time was up. I walked into Alfheim, hugged Zeta, and then returned to Midgard without saying anything. No words had been necessary. Something had worked, this time.
I was certain that I’d flash back to the river’s edge and discover our side was suddenly winning, but if anything, it looked like we were in even more trouble. With a shake of my head, I flashed to the Chickamauga Battlefield, took Gabby and Horse to the RTMC’s compound, made sure Horse was ready for battle, and flashed him so he was fighting with his brothers in the storm. The lions had protected Duke and Randall while they held the portal open, and most of the rest of the MC was battling as a unit twenty yards away, holding part of an outer perimeter to keep the twin werewolves safe.
Next, I went to Nathan and Jess. They’d planned to walk to the road when they left the portal. They were waiting for me, soaked to the bone, but they didn’t seem to mind. I took them to Tyson and Kane, who were battling near the pier. As tempting as it was to stay and fight, I had a job to do, so I flashed to McClellan Island. It took three trips to get everyone there to the fight, and then I flashed to Bash and Angelica.
“Did you feel it?” Angelica asked me. She looked like a wet warrior goddess, as if the raging storm gave her power and bestowed beauty upon her. I was pretty sure I just looked like a wet ragamuffin.
“I did. Are you going into battle, or do you want me to take you to the MC’s compound?”
She looked at Bash and then back to me with a roll of her eyes. “I’m a guard at the compound. I need to go back there.”
I took her to the woods in the compound and waited until she was safely in the clubhouse, took Bash to his brothers, and then flashed to the northernmost point to get Isaac and Harrison, but they weren’t there. I tried to flash to them individually, but I couldn’t get a handle on them. Had they been taken to Faerie? Were they alive? What the fuck?
I couldn’t spend any more time on them, though. I needed to get back to the fight. The imperators could theoretically take care of themselves, but I worried. Harrison had been overtaken by a powerful wizard and enslaved. They were incredible fighters, but they weren’t invincible.
I went to the Harrison Islands to make sure Ryan didn’t need me. He’d told me he’d go through Olympus to get to the fight, but I wanted to be sure. When I didn’t see him, I focused on Cora and finally went to her.
Chapter 18
Cora was beyond exhausted. I’d known it and had been pushing energy at her, but she was physically and mentally exhausted, and only sleep and food and time would fix it.
She didn’t have the luxury of any of that, though. I was fresh, so I moved in front of her to give her at least a few minutes to catch her breath. She only took about thirty seconds of it, though, and then she was beside me with her sword flying again. I manifested the sword she likes and handed it to her, and our energies joined when she accepted it.
I’d already been fighting with my light staff, and I focused on my opponents — half demons and Celrau, fighting side-by-side. I wondered if the Celrau had turned any other half-demons, but I couldn’t spare the brain power to consider the ramifications if they had.
I could feel when a pack wolf died — it didn’t matter if they were from ours, Randall’s, Patrick’s, or one of the smaller packs who’d come to help. I was pretty sure that wasn’t the way it was supposed to work, but my morale dropped a little with each death, whether I knew them or not.
It wasn’t until I felt Kane get injured badly enough he had to change that I understood this was more about my power as Harlequin than about my connection to the pack through Cora. I felt the pack more, but I was feeling all of the shifters, good and bad.
I also realized a group of heavy hitters were keeping the velociraptors and honey badgers away from the rest of us, but they were getting their asses kicked and might not be able to hold them back much longer. I grabbed Cora’s arm and flashed us to the roof of the pool house. This state park is relatively small. There’s a boat ramp about three hundred yards downriver from a large fisherman’s pier, which is about four hundred yards downriver from a pavilion and the trailhead area. Another small peninsula holds several woodland trails that most of Chattanooga doesn’t know about, so it’s a peaceful spot to hike. In the other direction, up the hill, away from the river, there’s a huge swimming pool. No fighting was happening up here, and we had a nice view of most of the battle below us. There was also some fighting happening on a wooded hillside to our left, but I wasn’t focused on it. The lightning was screwing with my night vision, but I could see better than I expected to.
I sent feelers out to see if I could feel the Alfheim portal, since Randall and Duke had been sent here to hold it open, and I was surprised to feel nine portals, all to different worlds. I could sense which was Faerie, Alfheim, Helheim, and Olympus. I could also feel lots of souls waiting to come through three of the portals.
“We aren’t going to win this way,” I told Cora. “I can feel the shifters, even the ones that aren’t on our side. How can we use that?” Even wet and exhausted, she was beautiful, and had the same Warrior Goddess look going that Angelica had. Was that a wolf thing? The ability to look as if the rain just made them even more beautiful?
We were connected, so I tried to open up that area of my consciousness, to give her access.
“Fuck.” She said it so softly, I almost didn’t hear. She touched her ear. “Control. Let Aaron know Kirsten’s about to flash to him and bring him to me. We have information he needs to know.”
A few seconds later, she nodded to me, and I flashed to Aaron, grabbed his arm, and took him to the roof.
“Kirsten can feel every damned shifter. Ours and theirs,” Cora told him the second we arrived. “She can also feel all ni
ne portals, and she knows there are still hundreds, maybe thousands, of people lined up waiting to come through as the people here die. They’re tiring us out before they implement something big. We aren’t going to win this way.”
He slid his bloody sword into his scabbard and sat on the roof. Even the dragon was tired.
“I know. I’ll kill our people too if I turn to dragon and burn the place down with my fire. I’m not coming up with any other options.”
“I’ve broken a portal before,” I reminded them, “and I wasn’t as strong then. I can try to do it to the three they’re coming through.”
He shook his head. “These nine portals are linked. The backlash from destroying one would be catastrophic across all nine. The portal you broke had only recently been opened. These nine have been here long before the white man arrived and claimed the land.”
Sacred land is often made into parks. Human consciousness knows it needs to be protected, even if they don’t know why.
“I felt a shift when I was holding the portal open, as if our side now had an advantage. Can I use that feeling somehow? Maybe to take control of the shifters who are on the other side? I realize I’m grasping at straws, but there has to be a way to use this!”
He looked at me a few seconds, thinking. “I walked you through the tunnels between my basement and Abbott’s at least once, didn’t I?”
I nodded, and he smiled. “Take me there. Cora, too. We’re bringing supplies back with us. I know the area around the small waterfall is clear.”
I took him to the small waterfall, and then tried to keep up while he and Cora ran down the cave’s tunnel. They were stepping into a door when I came into a cavern. It looked like it’d been hidden. Interesting.
“These are military bombs, in a climate controlled room,” he told me. “Control is telling Nathan you’re about to show up and grab him so you can bring him to me. Go.”
I focused on Nathan, once again landed in the midst of a battle, and grabbed both Nathan and Jess, because I knew he wouldn’t leave her to fight without him. Never mind she’s the leader of her own pride.
“We’ll leave Cora and Jess here to guard the room,” Aaron said. He met my gaze. “Can you transport Nathan and me to the three portals with people lined up on the other side? I’ll hold the portal open, Nathan will toss the bomb in, and then I’ll close it and hold it closed for the thirty seconds we’ll need to be sure it’s gone off. You’ll flash us back here for another bomb, and then take us to the next portal.” He looked at Nathan. “You on board with this?”
“Absolutely.” Nathan turned to me. “Fight for your life during that thirty seconds. It’s bad around the portals, but you’re fresh, and I’m learning I need to trust you not to get yourself killed.”
“Thanks.” I turned to Cora. “We’ll be back.”
I took them to the woods behind the circle near the boat ramp, first. I had no idea where it led, only that it was a cold realm and had a whole helluva lot of people lined up and waiting to come to Midgard. Nathan hadn’t been kidding about the fighting, and he and I protected Aaron as best we could. I felt the bomb detonate on the other side, and grabbed them both and fled before one of us was killed.
“You were supposed to wait thirty seconds!” Aaron told me when we landed back in the cave. He was pissed and he wasn’t trying to hide it. “They can just open it and bring it to this realm, and blow our people up!”
I shook my head. “It went off. I felt it through the portal. Or, maybe I felt the portal take some damage on the other side? I can’t explain it, but the bomb went off.”
He blew out a breath. “Okay. It was set on twenty seconds, so you’re probably right. I was giving us the extra ten seconds in case the time difference affected the mechanism.”
I stared at him, unsure of how computer circuits might know time moved differently, but I supposed it was possible for them to count faster or slower. “I don’t know about that, but I know it detonated.”
He nodded. “I believe you. Second one, before word gets out to warn people of our intentions.”
This portal was in a little cavern. Okay, not so much a cavern as an overhang of rock, but it had all bad guys and no good guys, because it was off the beaten path of the main battle. I used my laser to mow them all down, since I didn’t have to worry about hitting our people. Aaron opened the portal while I kept my laser focused into the doorway. Nathan tossed it in from the side, so he didn’t get in the way of my weapon. I shut the laser down, Aaron closed the door, and Nathan and I faced outward. No one came to fight us. Everyone we hadn’t killed ran the other direction.
It was a good thing, because it took nearly two minutes for me to feel the bomb this time. Aaron had been right about the computer circuits being affected by the time in each realm.
We went back to Cora, got the third, and I took us to the playground near the river. This time, Nathan held onto Cora while Aaron grabbed Jess, and I took all five of us through.
There was nothing easy about this portal. The biggest part of the battle was happening here, and I wasn’t sure we’d make it through to the portal. I flashed us to the roof of the playground equipment and looked at the portal. It was bracketed by ancient trees, but there were younger trees around them, waiting to take hold of it when the larger trees fell. What had made the designers leave this little grove of trees? I didn’t have time for those kind of thoughts, so I brushed it to the side and told Aaron, “I can flash us to it, but those are velociraptors guarding it.”
Three vampires appeared beside us, and the next thing I knew, one of them was holding me, my back to his front, and his teeth were in my neck. Cora, Nathan, and Aaron were all frozen, with only their eyeballs moving.
I felt the vampire taking hold of my willpower, and I fought it with everything I had. Cora and I hadn’t been joined, and I reached out to her, hoping to join our energies. I managed it, but Griffin had her willpower and she couldn’t do anything.
At least now I knew who the three vampires were. Nero, Griffin, and Rinaldo.
And we were losing. I could feel the power-of-three between them — the same way Mordecai, Adonis, and I had joined to be twenty-seven times stronger. And now these three were uber powerful and we were their bitches.
And Nero’s teeth were still in my neck, my blood still going down his throat.
“Fuck. You.” Getting those words out took as much effort as lifting a car, but I managed it because I wasn’t giving in. I wasn’t.
My red-headed obstinate temper took hold, and I pulled energy from everything around me — trees, rocks, shapeshifters. I fed the energy to Cora and Nathan without problem, but it took a few seconds to figure out how to route it to Aaron. I managed it, though. Not enough for us to break loose, but enough for us to fight them.
I could tell the vampires were telepathing, but I didn’t know what they were saying. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, and my heart beat faster in my chest when two imperator crocs swam onto shore nearby in animal form. They shifted to Isaac and Harrison, then into warrior form, and Harrison stormed towards me, enraged. A velociraptor ran at him, and he picked it up, bit the head off, and tossed it to the side.
I felt Griffin trying to take them over, and remembered his animal was the crocodile. I pulled more energy in and shot a laser from my elbow — and hoped it hit him in the forehead because any lower and I risked hitting Cora, but I had to try.
Nero had me, Griffin had Cora and Nathan, and Rinaldo had Aaron. When I hit Griffin, Nathan used the opportunity to spin in his arms and rip his head off. He ripped at the brainstem area on both ends before tossing the body. Killing him broke their power-of-three, and the other two were dealing with the backlash of the loss. Aaron turned to kill Rinaldo, but the bastard is too fast and he escaped so quickly he was barely a blur. I turned to kill Nero, but he was gone before I could do the first thing to him.
“Shit!” I wanted blood and he was gone! Fuck!
I could feel blood at my ne
ck, and I closed my eyes and focused on healing the bite marks. I got the process started and opened my eyes. I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.
Harrison made it to us and stopped a few feet away. I pointed to the portal. “We need to open it and throw something through.”
Aaron still had the bomb in the satchel strapped to his back. The vampires hadn’t bothered to look to see what was in it, and he’d apparently kept it out of his thoughts so they didn’t learn of it that way, either.
Chapter 19
Little did we know what else had been happening. Griffin and Rinaldo had managed to imprison Katya when they’d rescued Nero from her. When they left her alone to finally join the battle, she’d managed to contact Kendra telepathically, since she was only a few roads over from the coterie house.
Kendra had been at the coterie house all day and night — the ‘spare’ who’d take control if Abbott was killed in battle, but she knew we were losing and she’d felt she had to do something. She’d talked to Angelica, who had her female wolf not-a-pack at the RTMC’s compound. The strongest of them had loaded up in an SUV along with Harmony. Thankfully, this was before Kendra had realized Katya was so close, so the women were already on their way when Katya managed to broadcast her situation.
Once Kendra had felt Katya in trouble, she’d called Moira to her, and the two vampires had met the female wolves at the house Rinaldo had taken over, and they’d gone in and rescued Katya.
Katerina Bernasconi is the historical Boudicca. The Roman army killed her husband, who was the King of what is now England, and she’d killed the man who’d taken his place and then established herself as Queen. In an age when royal women were nothing but arm candy and baby factories, Katya inspired and then led an army that killed eighty thousand Roman soldiers. As a vampire, she’d been married to Rinaldo, and he’d paid a rather large fortune to get out of the contract early. It’s said she once courted Caligula, but she was too bloodthirsty even for him.
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