Before I could react, she was on top of me, pulling me into a hug. “You come visit us, you hear? I’ll feed you haggis, show you the sights, and I promise to try and not be too big a bitch.”
She had tears in her eyes, and suddenly I did, too.
“Only if I can skip the haggis,” I said. “Take care. Give my love to my grandmother.”
“Will do.” She climbed the stairs into the plane. As soon as the door closed, the engines revved up, and the plane began to move.
We stuck around until it became airborne, then walked back to my car.
“Do you do windshield repair?” I asked.
“Nope,” Aleks answered. “I just break things.”
“I’m hungry,” Kirsten said. “I assume the Riverside Inn is out of the question.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, too many demons. The neighborhood has gone to hell from what I hear.”
“There’s a great place in Ellicott City,” Aleks suggested. Old Ellicott City was a neighborhood about ten miles west of the airport. “Eastern European cuisine and great beer.”
“You’re on,” I said.
Perhaps I should have taken to the air again, but I didn’t. We were on the onramp from the airport to the freeway going west when the bomb went off, sending the car cartwheeling end over end. I barely had time to realize that Aleks had shielded us when we began bouncing off the roadway and down an embankment to a stop.
“Everyone all right?” Aleks asked.
“I think so,” I said.
“Yeah,” Kirsten said from the back seat.
My door was hanging open, in a crumpled sort of way, and I was hanging in the restraining harness. I drew my Raider as I released the harness and tumbled out of the car into the ditch.
“Don’t move!” The order came from above me. Standing on the side of the road were several soldiers in Akiyama uniforms and Karl Rudolf.
“You have caused us far more trouble than you’re worth,” Rudolf said.
Without warning, the soldiers fired their automatic weapons, spraying bullets at us. Thankfully, Aleks continued to maintain the shield that covered us all.
Rudolf shook his head. “That won’t save you.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kirsten sketch a rune and start to chant. I started to feel a little weak and broke out in a sweat. I glanced at Aleks and saw he was also sweating. The temperature was barely above freezing.
Kirsten sketched another rune and chanted another spell. The weakness I was feeling spread, and my head began to spin. Rudolf stood above us, not moving, not making a sound, just staring at us.
Kirsten sketched a third rune and said a Word. I stumbled and fell on my butt. Aleks was leaning against the car, and he didn’t look too good.
Whatever was happening, it didn’t get worse. All I could do was stare up at Rudolf. Hydromancer. Somewhere in my fuzzy brain, I realized he was pulling all the water out of my body. He was going to turn me into one of those mummies I’d seen at Tina Stewart’s house. And if Aleks dropped his shield so I could shoot the bastard, the soldiers would shoot us.
“No,” Rudolf whispered. Then louder, “No. No! NO!” he stumbled backwards sweat pouring off him. He fell, writhing to the ground. The Akiyama soldiers stared at him.
And as soon as they took their eyes off us, a blazing scythe of energy poured from Alek’s hand, cutting the three soldiers down.
“Here, drink this,” Kirsten said, kneeling down beside me. It wasn’t a potion, but a bottle of water. Nothing ever tasted so good. I chugged the whole thing.
She rose and went to Aleks, handing him a bottle as well.
“What happened?” Aleks asked.
Kirsten shrugged. “I guess you can’t shield from his magik, or at least from that spell. I cast a reverse-magik spell. It turned his own magik back on him.”
I managed to climb out of the ditch. The three soldiers hadn’t bled, even though each of them had been cut completely in half. A desiccated mummy wearing Karl Rudolf’s clothes lay with them.
“Now I’m really hungry,” Kirsten said. “Do we have to wait around for the cops and a wrecker, or can we just call a taxi?”
Chapter 50
The week after I packed Karolyn Moncrieff and her son off to Scotland, intelligence filtered out of the Waste that a new demon lord had come across the Rift and taken control of the Metroplex. That, the rumor went, was why the demons had stopped fighting. The alliance Akiyama had with Ashvial was finished. The new lord was more interested in consolidating his rule than in sacrificing his minions to human mages.
I had no idea if the rumors were true. I heard three different versions of the story from three different vampires.
What I did know was that no new fighting had occurred. Life, to a certain extent, was getting back to normal. Construction crews—many of them with mages—were starting to clean up the debris and wreckage. Stores and restaurants that hadn’t been destroyed were reopening. Trucks delivered food to restaurants and grocery stores. Kids went back to school.
Courtney was still surrounded and isolated at Findlay House. Her children and grandchild were in her archenemy’s care, and she was afraid even to leave the Findlay estate. Akiyama still held the Port of Wilmington. They had taken huge casualties at a massive cost. Humans hated the Magi more than ever, and the Coven Council was calling for representation on the Magi Council. Or at least a sharing of power.
Kirsten reopened her shop, and Aleks asked me to think about moving in with him. Considering that Mychal Novak was practically living at my house with Kirsten, she probably wouldn’t notice if I did.
I was on my way over to her shop after work when a demon stepped out of a doorway and confronted me. Tall, even taller than my grandfather, he had a face that was dominated by horns that grew out of his forehead and swept to the side and back, curling like a mountain sheep’s. His skin was red, which often indicated a fire demon, but not always. He was dressed in a tailored purple suit, and his grin showed teeth that could easily tear the flesh from my bones.
“Danica James,” he said, his voice a rumbling growl. “I am Besevial. You have something that belongs to me.”
“I don’t think so, but what is it?” I placed my hand on my Raider, prepared to draw.
“An avatar of Akashrian.”
“I don’t know who or what that is.”
His eyes narrowed and he leaned closer. “Take care, daughter of Lucas James. You play with the fires of hell.”
And then he was gone. Besevial. That was the name of the rumored new demon lord. And I had a very bad feeling I knew who Akashrian was as well.
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Books by BR Kingsolver
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The Rift Chronicles
Magitek
War Song
Rosie O’Grady’s Paranormal Bar and Grill
Shadow Hunter
Night Stalker
Dark Dancer
Well of Magic
Knights Magica
The Dark Streets Series
Gods and Demons
Dragon’s Egg
Witches’ Brew
The Chameleon Assassin Series
Chameleon Assassin
Chameleon Uncovered
Chameleon’s Challenge
Chameleon’s Death Dance
Diamonds and Blood
The Telepathic Clans Saga
The Succubus Gift
Succubus Unleashed
Broken Dolls
Succubus Rising
Succubus Ascendant
> Other books
I’ll Sing for my Dinner
Trust
Short Stories in Anthologies
Here, Kitty Kitty
Bellator
War Song (The Rift Chronicles Book 2) Page 29