Matt swallowed hard but rolled the window down a couple more inches. Enough for Jed to pass through one of our handmade clover crosses on a suede string. He started to balk when he saw the cross, but Jed wasn't having any of it.
"If we had a pentagram with a cross on it, I still wouldn't give it to you, because it would only take care of half the problem." He tossed the cross through the narrow opening. "Things aren't always what they seem. But if you wear that, you'll have a better shot at surviving the day." And then he walked away. Really, he had done all he could. The rest was up to Matt.
I watched as he hesitated for a minute, glanced again at all of us, and slipped the cross around his neck. But I was really shocked when he opened the door and followed Jed back to us.
He was nervous, but he was there. "Okay, so I don't know what's going on. But it appears to involve my son, so I'm in."
"If he wants to get himself killed, so be it. I've waited long enough. I'm going to get my granddaughter," Rose said. And she actually made it three steps before Taz caught up to her. Even with her cane, the rabbit could be fast when she needed to be.
"We're going, Rose, we're going," Taz said.
Okay, we were making a move against the forces of Faerie and Hell. Nothing that I hadn't done before. I figured that made me the expert here, so I decided to take charge. Luckily, they all realized it too.
"If we are up against Titania, she'll be well guarded. Me and the other guards here will scout out the area and take care of any sentries she has posted." I turned to Elmer. "You make sure everyone is wearing a crucifix before they take one step from this spot." He nodded, and I turned to Taz. "I'm Linked with Lily and I'll let you know if anything changes—by phone. I don't want you disrupting that Link." She nodded too. "Set your phone to vibrate so the noise won't alert them."
I glanced at Matt but didn't say anything further. Taz had used her Find too, so she'd know that Lily was in fur form. Mr. Davis might start to wonder why we were risking so much to rescue a rabbit, but that was his problem.
"Rose, you brought a decoy?"
She nodded.
"Good. Get it ready. Once the area is secure, we'll have to move fast."
"Shaylee, MacDougal, keep an eye out for Titania. See if you can get a lock on her. And watch out for a portal, she's opened one to the rift. The other end could be around here." Finally, I turned to the kitsune. "Cin, I'd like you to stay here. Protect them, all right?" She knew I meant pop them out if things got too bad. I didn't have to spell it out for her.
She wasn't happy, but she nodded. The guards and I split up in groups of two. We could cover ground faster that way.
In the space of ten minutes, we had taken out two faerie sentries. Neither of which would be a problem any longer. We weren't in the mood to take chances. But there was no sign of Titania anywhere. Good and bad both, if you ask me, but I guess I was just spoiling for a fight.
Finally, the coast was as clear as we could make it, so we all met up back at the cars.
"There is a small woodshed up ahead. Two doors and two windows, just like what Lily is seeing. I'm guessing that's where she is. No other buildings in the immediate area."
"That's where she is then." Taz glanced at Matt. Yeah, we were all getting pretty tired of having to watch what we said around him. "Any sign of the coven members? The ones... not right?"
It seemed Matt had had enough of our double-speak. "Just exactly what do you mean when you say not right?"
Surprisingly, it was Elmer that answered. "They mean those possessed by the evil souls sent from Hell," he said. Simple as that really.
"Are you saying our kids might be possessed?" I was glad we were outside of hearing distance from the shed and had already dealt with the sentries. His voice wasn't exactly quiet.
"That's exactly what I'm saying," Elmer agreed.
Well, at least one kid was possessed, the other was spelled into a rabbit. Actually, now that I thought about it, the fur form was actually a good thing. Why spell someone into a locked fur form if they were possessed with one of your evil spirits?
Lily must have some damn fine faith. Although I did wish that Rose had allowed her to get one of the clover tattoos. She might be needing one right about now.
"From what we are sensing from Lily, I don't think she is possessed. Instead, she has been spelled."
Matt swallowed. "Spelled?” His voice shook a bit. “This Titania you spoke of?" he asked.
Elmer nodded. "A very powerful being, Titania. Much more than just a witch. Without a doubt, the absolute most powerful High Priestess ever born."
Quinn's father seemed to be having trouble breathing. Good. He had the correct grasp of the situation finally. I looked at Elmer with new respect. He was doing Dunwood proud.
"Let's move," I said, "before she decides to show up."
Chapter 21
We made our way the last little distance, keeping to the trees. Finally, the little shed was in sight. After a short pause, I started forward again, but Mac and Shaylee stopped me.
"It isn't right," Shaylee said.
"Not right at all," MacDougal agreed.
I just looked at them. When they left it at that, I actually had to ask. "What isn't right?" I mean, I know it seemed to be going too easy, but I thought just maybe Titania had underestimated who she was up against. After all, she'd done it before.
"There's really bad energy here," Shaylee said, sniffing the air. "Titania has worked a spell around that building."
MacDougal nodded. "And from the scent of it, a nasty one at that. Probably fatal to all who cross."
I drew my blade. "Can it be broken by steel?" Most Faerie spells could be.
Mac just shook his head. "I don't think so with this one." He looked over at Shaylee doubtfully. "Can you make out the spell? What is it warding against? Or rather who?"
Shaylee closed her eyes and worked her fingers like the magicians did on television when they were weaving a spell. I guess it worked the same way when you were trying to read one too.
After a minute, she opened her eyes. They looked incredibly sad as they turned to me. "I'm sorry, Steele. I tested every single one of our energies against the spell. None of us can travel through it without harm. The queen has been too thorough. It guards against any form of Fae but the queen herself, and any form of human as well, Benandanti and Kitsune included." She hung her head. "I'm so sorry."
"The queen?" Matt screeched. "That Titania? Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit..." Oh. So, he was really on board now. I saw him clutch the cross with the frozen clover. Yes, he got it.
There was a burst of furry motion, and then Rebel woofed as he raced after his two pups who were heading full speed for the shed's door. Shaylee's eyes got wide as she watched. "The dogs..."
There was a single flair as they passed through the spell, but then they were on the other side, and still running. They had made it.
Smiling, I started to strip down, but Shaylee stopped me. "It wouldn't work, Steele, even as a wolf, you are still too human to pass." She smiled after the dogs. "They, on the other hand, have never been human, have they?"
All we could do was watch as Rebel and his two wonderful pups reached the door. Reb was smarter than any living dog, but I just couldn't see how even he could pick a lock with paws. But then I'd underestimated just how cocky the queen could be.
Even as Rebel drew himself back to throw his body against the door, Benni leaped up and grabbed the doorknob in his mouth. With a twist of his head, the door swung open.
And they were in.
As I was still linked to Lily, I saw them enter through the front door, and felt another huge surge of relief from Lily’s Link. If there had been any doubt about us being in the right place, it was gone now.
Seconds later, the three dogs came running out of the small cabin, a rabbit frantically hopping beside them. I slammed the thought to stop into the Link with all my might.
Lily hesitated—I could tell she wanted to ignore my order�
��but at least, in the end, she stopped. Inches from the spell that would have obliterated her.
“How do we get her out?” Rose asked, her eyes locked on Lily. I was guessing she was asking Shaylee, but there was really no way to tell.
The trouble was, Shaylee had no more of a clue how to get Lily past the spelled barrier than we did. Lucky for Lily, Rebel was a tiny bit ahead of us all once again.
Reb opened his huge maw and picked Lily up in his mouth. She was a very small bunny, but even so, he couldn’t quite close his jaws around her. It wasn’t enough.
He sat and looked at us, whining. Then he stood, backed up from the spell line, and before we could stop him, he took a running start for the cursed border. Just before hitting it, he ducked his head as close to his body as he could and literally rolled through the barrier. A part of his furry body covering Lily on all sides.
Rose was the first to reach them, and we could tell from her dropped shoulders that Lily had made it through unharmed.
I spared a glance at Matt. He was staring in horror at Lily’s little bunny form. Then I remembered that we had told him that she had been spelled by the queen. No doubt that explained to him why she was a rabbit instead of a teenage girl. That would work well for us. It wouldn’t do to let the Benandanti secret fall into the hands of witches. Even if they were good ones.
While the rabbits were doing their reunion thing, I worked with Rebel and the pups to get the decoy bunny into the cabin. They had knocked the cage down from its stand, and they didn’t have the manual dexterity to replace it or get the rabbit locked inside it.
They did, however, manage to get the bunny into the cabin and close the door behind them. Hopefully, that would be enough. If Titania thought she still had Lily behind a spelled wall, it could buy them all some time.
Time was a commodity we very sorely needed.
I COULD TELL LILY WASN’T very happy about it, but the first thing Rose did was put her into the decoy bunny’s cage. It wasn’t the Link that told me this, as Lily had already disconnected it. But there wasn’t a doubt in my mind from her furry little body language.
The rabbits were going to have a serious heart to heart talk about all this. Soon. Of course, first, we had to restore Lily to a form that could actually talk. That, I had no clue how to do.
Once we got back to Rose’s house, and we had cleared the men folk from the room, Shaylee had me try touching my blade gently against her. Nothing.
“Well,” Shaylee said. “That leaves us only one alternative.”
Lily’s nose twitched. I had to hide my smile. I was pretty sure what that alternative was, but Shaylee was going to let the teenager stew for a minute or two thinking up possible scenarios. It was mean, yes, but then we had all just been put through a lot of worry by the girl.
Finally, Shaylee relented. “She’ll have to be immersed in water.”
Rose closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Okay, so I hadn’t really thought about the fact that Rose would be running through those scenarios too. Obviously, from her expression, neither had Shaylee.
The older rabbit pinched the bridge of her nose. “That will do it?”
Shaylee lifted one shoulder. “It should. Steel will work on most spells, but water will usually break a spell even if steel won’t.”
“Then why couldn’t we have just doused the border back there with water and all of us go in?” Taz asked.
“Because you have to totally immerse the entire spell by water at the same time,” I answered quietly. “It would have taken a flash flood of some magnitude to have cleared the spell back there.”
Taz nodded and looked down at Lily. “Looks like it’s shower time girl.”
Shaylee shook her head. They still weren’t getting it. “We need to run a bath. She has to be totally dunked all at once for this to have any chance of working.”
Rose went in to run the bath water, and by the time she called us all in, the water had filled half the tub. More than deep enough to dunk the tiny bunny.
Taz had been holding Lily ever since she’d been released from the cage. None of us were letting her go without an explanation. My sister walked over to the edge of the tub and unceremoniously dumped Lily in.
I don’t know about the others, but I was definitely holding my breath. If this didn’t work, we were out of options.
We got lucky.
As soon as the tips of Lily’s ears went under water, she changed. Shortly after, she leapt from the tub and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around herself.
Really, what is it with humans of this realm and their body shyness?
Once covered, she finally turned and looked up into her grandmother’s eyes. And immediately turned back into a bunny.
What the hell?
At first, I thought the spell had somehow reattached itself, even though I’d never heard of that actually happening before. Then I caught a glimpse of the fire burning behind Rose’s eyes.
Lily turned into her fur form to avoid having to talk with her grandmother. Said a lot about Rose, that. A girl that is willing to take on Titania and yet turns into a rabbit at the sight of a very angry Rose.
“Would you please hand me my granddaughter, Taz?” Rose asked.
Lily looked around desperately, but Rose had closed the bathroom door behind us. There was nowhere for her to run. Or hop, as the case may be.
Rose lifted Lily up to where their eyes were on an even level. “Yes, I’m very angry with you. But we will deal with that later. Do you understand?”
Lily tilted her head in question. Obviously, she didn’t quite trust her grandmother’s words.
“We are Benandanti, Lily. It is our primary duty to protect our village, and you have had hands on experience with Titania and her witches, haven’t you?” For her part, Rose’s voice was steady. You could hear the emotion, but it was steady.
I was impressed. I’d expected yelling.
Lily’s tiny head nodded in agreement.
“Then you need to let us know right this minute what you have learned, so we can plan for her attack. Because she is planning an attack, isn’t she?”
Another nod and then major wriggling from the small creature in Rose’s hands. Taz took Lily from Rose and set her back on the floor. I had the towel ready and handed it to her the instant she shifted. I might not understand the body shyness, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t respect their right to it.
She wrapped the towel around herself once more and glanced back at Rose. True to her word, Rose remained silent. Waiting, along with the rest of us.
“Can I get dressed before we join the men?” Lily asked quietly.
Rose nodded. “I’ll bring you an outfit.” With a meaningful look at Taz that obviously said ‘don’t leave her alone for a second’, she left to retrieve an outfit.
A few minutes later we were all gathered in the living room. I noticed that the outfit Rose had selected was one from a few months ago. No black dress. It was pretty likely Lily wouldn’t be wearing those shapeless dresses any time soon.
Lily faced the pack with her shoulders squared. She glanced at me before starting, most likely hoping I’d help to support her with the age thing. I remembered our earlier conversation.
“Look, I know I messed up,” Lily started. “But you guys were all treating me like a child.” Her eyes flitted back towards me. “Steele was a royal guard when she was much younger than me. Yet all of you refuse to let me help when I know I can. I’m more than just a hacker.”
Rose took a deep breath, emotion dancing on her face. “I said we’d cover all that later, Lily. Right now, we need information. What did you learn?”
The girl puffed up. “Quite a bit, actually,” she said. “Like for instance that the portal is letting in demon souls to possess the witches.”
“We already know that,” Elmer said.
Lily’s bravado disappeared, and she stammered. “Y-You do?”
“Yes. But I am most curious as to whether or not you know where th
e new portal to the rift ends.”
Her brows furrowed. “There’s a new portal? When did that happen?”
“Most likely just after you were captured. Or perhaps just before.” Elmer paused. “Hard to say actually.”
“What do you know, Lily?” Rose asked. “Or did you just risk your life and my sanity to gain information we’ve already learned?”
Lily swallowed. “I know that I would have died tonight if you hadn’t rescued me.” Her voice was small, barely even there. “Titania was going to sacrifice me tonight to widen the rift enough to allow actual demons in. Not just their souls.”
“Do you know where that was to take place?” Jed asked.
She hesitated. “I think so, but I’m not sure. There’s a clearing deep in Morgan Monroe Forestry where Titania and her coven have been meeting.” She brightened just a bit. “I’ll bet that’s where the other portal is.”
Elmer looked interested. “And you can take us there?”
Lily nodded, then grimaced. “Yes. It’s where they took me.” She glanced at us. “Remember I was with something I trusted. But they’d already turned Quinn into... well, not himself.”
“Are you saying my son is possessed by a demon’s soul?”
Creator forgive me, but until he spoke, I’d totally forgotten that Quinn’s father was still with us. We’d tried to convince him to go home, but he wasn’t budging. Not until he found out where his son was. Couldn’t say that I blamed him really. After all, he didn’t know us, and we’d introduced him to some pretty freaky things today.
His eyes were wide open now. But at least he seemed to accept that we were the good guys here. That had to mean something.
I may have forgotten that Matt Davis was with us, but from Lily’s start at his words, she obviously hadn’t noticed him at all. But then most of the time she’d been with us, she’d been in fur form. A rabbit may have great eyesight, but when you’re inches from the ground, it’s still limited.
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