Livvy felt buoyant as well. Though Blanca clawed at the white ground, her front paws lifted. Livvy spread the circle of her hands out further. More shamans were gathered in the torrent of wind, and the quake abruptly stopped. The empty space around Livvy grew, the surface of the freshly scoured snow sparkling. Though Blanca managed to settle back down, Livvy sensed a growing vacuum above her. Her hair lifted. Her toes barely touched the ground. Livvy thrust her hands outward, as far as she could reach.
As though their tethers had been cut, the shamans who’d been caught in the whirlwind pinwheeled outward. They mowed into other shamans, bowling them over. Livvy dropped her hands and landed on the ground. In the hushed silence that settled over them, groans intruded. Brad was still cowering, but Valentin stood up from his crouch.
“Looks like we’re too late,” someone said behind her.
Before she even spun around, Livvy knew who it had to be.
“Right on time,” Livvy said. Behind Dominique were Alvina, Ursula, Wan-li and Nicole. Behind them were another twenty shamans. “But,” Livvy continued. “I don’t have the Stone.”
Dominique’s wry smile vanished. “How much time do you need?” she asked.
“As much as you can give me,” Livvy answered.
Though the shamans noticed the white mountain lion and must have realized she had two spirit helpers, there was no time to ask about it. Only one thing mattered.
“Where is the Stone?” Wan-li asked.
Livvy pointedly looked at Brad, who had managed to stand with Valentin’s help.
“I’m about to find out,” Livvy said.
Ursula stepped away from them and moved to Livvy’s right. Between two cupped hands in front of her chest, a small ball of flame erupted and grew. “Follow me,” she muttered to a handful of shamans behind her. As though she were pushing a medicine ball, Ursula thrust outward and sent the fireball flying. It exploded only ten feet from her as it collided with another.
“Time,” Livvy said to the shamans that remained. “As much as you can give me.” Wan-li nodded and zoomed off to the left. Livvy caught Alvina’s eye as the older shaman winked at her. Thunder rattled the air all around them.
“But how are we–” Nicole began.
“Stay with me,” Dominique said, grabbing Nicole’s arm as she ran.
For the first time, Livvy was alone with Brad and Valentin. Though the icy stare from the older shaman didn’t surprise her, the wild look on Brad’s did. His hands were raised to her.
“No,” Livvy said quickly. “Brad, don’t–”
“Cold!” he yelled.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
SIDIROV DIDN’T DARE venture out, even with an umbrella. From the shelter of the roof access at the top of the stairwell, he stared through the pouring rain. They’d had to take the stairs because the electricity was out. In fact, none of the electronics worked. Not even cell phones.
“The witch,” he snarled under his breath.
A lightning bolt had landed directly on his beautiful sign. Only melted glass and metal remained, still sizzling. If not for the torrential downpour, there would have been a fire.
Lightning flashed, blinding him, and the thunderclap that boomed just behind it let him know the storm was on top of them. Sidirov slammed the door closed.
“Enough,” he yelled as he started down the stairs. “Enough!”
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
ONLY WHEN COLIN lurched through the door with Min did SK realize he’d left it open.
“SK!” they yelled simultaneously.
Even though he was facing them, he nearly jumped out of his skin. Both of them drenched, Colin’s panicked face and Min’s grimace as she clutched the baby said everything.
“What are you doing here?” SK yelled, jumping up and racing around Liv’s feet. The room was getting crowded.
“I need Livvy,” Min gasped, grabbing on to him as well.
“She’s been saying that since the contractions started,” Colin said, breathing hard.
“Gods, Min,” SK said. “Contractions?” She needed a doctor–now. No way should she be having contractions. “You shouldn’t even be up.”
But with SK and Colin’s help, Min was steadily approaching Livvy. Single-minded, head down, she was not going to be denied.
“Livvy,” she breathed, and then she groaned as both hands flew to her stomach.
“Help me get her down,” SK said, struggling with her weight.
• • • • •
Though Brad had raised his hands quickly, the tiny but telltale delay in the attack had given Livvy time to turn. She spun in place and put her back to the onslaught of ice crystals.
“Brad,” she screamed. “Stop!”
As Livvy crouched, Blanca ducked down in front of her, ears laid back. The cold bit into Livvy’s shoulders. Her hair flew past her in the freezing breeze. It blasted the back of her neck. But she hadn’t come here to hurt Brad. It was the last thing she wanted to do. Blanca crept closer; her blue eyes only slits. The temperature was rapidly dropping.
“Brad!” Livvy screamed again, but it was no use.
She waited one more second, then took a deep breath. The time had come. But as she stood, the Underworld flickered.
No! Not now!
The entire scene faded into a grainy, static white that Livvy recognized. The ground and everything around her had become translucent. Although Blanca hunkered down in front of her, the giant cat had become grainy as well. Though Livvy reached out to her, the touch of her fur was nebulous and indistinct. Below Livvy’s shoes, the rough pattern of carpet showed through. In a burst of bright, hissing luminescence, the apartment popped into existence around her. There were Brad and Valentin with their goggles on. There was her own body lying at her feet and–
“No,” Livvy muttered. Min!
Livvy sat down in her own transparent midsection, lay back, and closed her eyes.
• • • • •
“Colin,” SK said, “call 911.”
They both crouched on either side of Min, but Colin didn’t respond. Min was in agony.
“Colin!” SK yelled. Colin finally looked up. “911!”
Min cried out, a long and plaintive wail. “Nooo!” she screamed.
The contractions were coming too close together. The baby was on its way. But Lightning Shaman or no, the baby was too small to survive.
“Do it!” SK yelled.
“I…” Colin reached to his back pocket. “I don’t have my phone!”
SK reached to his, but as he did, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Behind him, Liv’s body was glowing a staticky white.
“What the…” Colin said under his breath.
SK yanked the phone from his back pocket and thrust it at Colin. “911!” he yelled.
Liv’s goggles popped and hissed. No sooner had they dropped through her translucent body and hit the floor, than she sat up and looked at him. Like a pale version of herself, SK stared into her light green eyes. But it was only for an instant as she looked past him to Min. The air in the room crackled and thunder boomed outside. Rain lashed the window in the kitchen with a sudden furor.
“The phone is dead!” Colin yelled, but his huge eyes were riveted to Liv.
“Let me see her,” Liv said, crowding close.
SK scooted back, but as he did, a blast of icy wind sliced into them. It blew past Liv and threatened to take the skin off SK’s face. As he put his back to it, he realized Min was being hit. However Liv was managing to straddle worlds, the Multiverse had come with her–and it was cold there. He saw her turn and look behind her.
Already wet from the rain, frost was forming on Min’s nightgown, and then on her hands as she tried to cover the baby. Without thinking, he and Liv closed ranks, trying to shield Min. She convulsed with another contraction as the wind howled mercilessly around them.
“She can’t have the baby!” SK yelled to Liv.
“It’s not up to us!” Liv yelled back.
Livvy put her hand on Min’s stomach, and Min drew up her knees.
SK tried to press tight against Liv, but the wind was too much. His right ear was ringing with freezing pain. His back felt like solid ice. And try as he might, it was getting to Min. Cold spread through him, sharp and painful. His body shuddered violently.
“It has to stop!” SK yelled through thick and numbing lips.
Liv didn’t seem to be affected. Even so, she nodded. Her white hair whipped in the gale, and as she stood, SK hunkered low over Min. Colin covered her head with his torso.
“Stop,” Livvy said. Though he couldn’t see whom she talked to, she was facing someone. “Valentin!” she yelled. “Stop!”
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
THEY WERE HOPELESSLY outnumbered, and Dominique knew it. Though her squad had taken the Siberian shamans by surprise, the advantage hadn’t lasted long. As Ursula, Wan-li and Alvina led the newcomers, they managed to keep the attackers at bay. Fireballs, speed attacks, and pressure waves exploded all around them. But she and Nicole were still in the clear, in the center of her crew. But the circle around them was growing steadily tighter and the Siberians sensed that the kill was near. In the distance, Livvy was still with the two other shamans.
What is taking so long?
Dominique frantically surveyed the terrain. The stunt she’d pulled before had been just that–not something she could use against an army. She needed something huge–something with water. But everything was frozen.
“We can escape through the lake if I paint it!” Nicole yelled.
“No!” Dominique yelled back. “Not yet!”
“But–”
Dominique spun on her. “I said not yet!”
“Then what?” Nicole screamed.
Dominique didn’t know. In another life she’d have rained down icicles. This Underworld would have been perfect. And shamans would die in the hundreds. She’d sworn that life off. Given Livvy her word. Dominique surveyed the terrain: mountains, lake, forest, and glacier. There had to be another way.
Wait. The lake! Dominique craned her neck to see the frozen river that fed it.
“That’s it,” she muttered, grinning.
“Come on!” she said to Nicole and grabbed her arm. Then she dragged her into the melee.
Nwa was instantly with her. The raven dove at the ground, snatched up a snake, and flung it away. It dove at a nearby shaman, forcing her back.
In the confusion, the Siberian shamans were a muddled mess. They chased after Wan-li as she and her tiger took high speed runs at the periphery of the throng, knocking some down and scattering tight clusters. Alvina was letting them get close before pulsing them with a pressure wave that sent them flying in disarray. But as soon as the one group was sent reeling, another took its place.
“What are you doing?” Nicole screamed.
“Paint!” Dominique yelled.
Ursula darted around them and stopped a fireball only a few feet away.
“Paint what?” Nicole yelled.
“The other side of the river,” Dominique yelled pointing. “Hurry!”
As Nicole set about her task, Dominique pointed to the sky over the forest. “Rain!” she said.
Nicole swabbed the air frantically with her brush, and the painting began to take shape. Nwa cawed up above as a pressure wave knocked Dominique off her feet. Nicole was sailing with her and the brush went flying.
“No!” Dominique yelled, but her collision with the ground cut off more.
Though she tried to roll, the weight on her back was enormous. But she managed to lift her head in time to see three shamans piled on Nicole and another landing a glancing kick off her forehead.
Rage unlike anything Dominique had ever known welled up inside. No one does that to my sister. “Get off me!” she bellowed. She pushed herself off the ground, lifting who knows how many shamans.
She kicked and elbowed anything that was close. She thrashed like a wild woman, grabbing anything in sight as she got to her knees. She kicked out with a vicious leg sweep and toppled two shamans nearby. Someone grabbed her, but she gripped their arm and launched them over her shoulder as she stood. Without looking back, she ran for Nicole, still pinned on the ground.
Dominique threw herself at the shaman who’d kicked Nicole. The woman hadn’t even seen her coming. Dominique’s head landed in the shaman’s midsection, launching her backwards. Though Dominique wanted to kick the living daylights out of her, she spun and grabbed the shaman at the top of the Siberian dog pile. One by one, she grabbed them, twisted their arms and wrists until she heard them break and then shoved them away.
“Nicole!” she screamed. “Nicole!”
Nicole lay face down in the snow. Dominique yanked her to her knees as Nicole gasped for air.
“Oh gods,” Dominique breathed just as someone laid a hand on her back.
Though Dominique let Nicole go and spun, the paintbrush appeared in front of her face. Ursula thrust it at her. As Dominique grabbed it, Ursula was moving to fend of the next attacker.
“Let’s go!” Dominique yelled. She jammed the brush into Nicole’s hand, pulled her to her feet and back to the half-finished painting. “Do it!” she ordered.
Though dazed, Nicole automatically painted. Back and forth, up and down. The other side of the river took shape. Dominique didn’t know where the other team members were, but she couldn’t wait.
“Ursula!” she yelled.
Ursula spared her a quick look as she fended shamans off from every direction. The ground began to shudder.
“Over here!” Dominique yelled, waving. She spotted Wan-li. “Wan-li! Over here!”
Though Wan-li didn’t acknowledge her, she changed course. Alvina was backing toward them. The rest of the crew was already close, the veterans buying them breathing room with steady counterattacks.
“Done!” Nicole yelled.
“Go!” Dominique ordered. She shoved Nicole through first, then the shamans nearest her. “Wan-li, Alvina, Ursula!” she yelled.
A piercing sound attack filled the air. The ground was erupting in small mounds. Wan-li sped through, followed by Alvina. Ursula, though, was fighting like a savage. In her camouflage bandana, she eagerly closed with the enemy. She gouged eyes, bent fingers, and jammed her foot into knees, anything to gain an advantage. Though Dominique wanted nothing better than to see her continue, there was no time. The beetles poured out of the little snow volcanoes. An earthquake began to shake the ground. A gale force wind whipped up white flurries.
“Ursula!” Dominique yelled, despite the sound attack. “Now!”
Ursula backed toward the painting, spun at the last second, and leaped through. Dominique followed on her heels. They landed on the other side of the river. Though Ursula sprawled in the snow, Dominique tucked into a roll and came up on her feet. Only fifty yards away, on the other side of the frozen ribbon of water, the large painting winked out. The Siberian shamans who tried to follow them through it simply jumped from one spot to another. The others, though, had already spotted them.
“What good does this do?” yelled one of the crew, panting.
“They’ll only cross the river!” said another, pointing.
But Dominique looked past the Siberians to the forest and the deluge that was still falling. Some of the new crew took a few steps back. Dominique grabbed the nearest one.
“Wait for it,” Dominique said, grinning.
The Siberian shamans didn’t hesitate. Like a wave of ants, they poured down the slope that led to the river. Though some slipped and fell on the ice, others began making their way across.
“We need to go!” said someone behind Dominique.
“Wait,” Dominique said. “Listen!”
In the distance, there was a roar. Though Nicole looked up at the sky, it wasn’t rain. Then they saw it.
“Gods!” breathed Ursula.
It was a wall of water moving so fast that it boiled a frothy white. It hurtled between the frozen
riverbanks, picking up speed. From the deluge in the forest, the water had flowed to its natural low point, seeking the lake.
Only now were the shamans on the ice aware that something approached. It was too late. Like a solid wall, it slammed into them. The roaring tide surged as the river banks constricted, just as Dominique knew it would. It hurtled toward the lake and gushed into it. The lake swirled furiously, absorbing the flow. The shamans who’d been swept away were being ejected from the Underworld.
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
THOUGH IT WAS Brad who aimed the bitter cold at her, Livvy ignored him. Behind him stood Valentin. On Brad’s other side was the bear. Agitated, it leaned one way and then the other as though it were stamping its feet. Blanca pushed against the wind to Livvy’s side, her tail twitching behind her. Just visible behind the trio, the lake shimmered blue in the distance as Dominique bought Livvy precious time.
“Valentin, stop or I’ll stop you both!” Livvy yelled. She raised a hand to the sky. “Lightning,” she said.
An enormous bolt landed with a crash on her upstretched hand. Purple sparks rained down from the connection and lit the snow of the Underworld with a glaring lavender glow. She pointed her other hand at the bear. Valentin’s mouth fell open.
“I know you don’t want this any more than I do,” Livvy said, “but I’ll do it if I have to.”
For a moment his gaze met hers. She glared at him as the bolt writhed in midair. Valentin blinked and the cold wind died.
“No!” Brad wailed.
“It’s no use, Brad,” Livvy said, dropping her hand as the lightning receded into the clouds. “I know the truth.”
Shaman, Lover, Warrior: An Urban Fantasy Thriller (Olivia Lawson Techno-Shaman Book 5) Page 23