The feelings increase threefold when the outline of a dog emerges from the trees. If that’s a fucking werewolf, I swear to fucking—it trots toward the house, slipping right over the warding, which means it’s a regular coyote, not a werewolf. Letting out a breath, I rub my forehead, feeling the headache come back.
I straighten up and turn to go back to bed and feel that familiar yet very uncomfortable twinge in my abdomen again. Closing my eyes, I put both hands on my stomach, feeling Elena moving around. There’s no way around it. The stress is getting to me, and I have to accept that I’m not as invincible as I once was.
Usually, I’m balanced. Half witch. Half angel. But right now, with this little life growing inside of me, I’m more human than ever, and I need to accept that…and the fact that it also makes me more vulnerable than ever.
There’s nothing the demons want more than to get their hands on me, and what better time than right now?
Chapter 34
“Hey, guys!” I open the front door all the way and let my friends in the house.
“Are you supposed to be up like this?” Kristy asks, using her feet to kick her shoes off. She’s carrying a cheesecake and it looks delicious.
“Yes, and I’m supposed to get up and walk around every hour or so while I’m awake,” I tell her. It’s been a while since I was put on modified bedrest, and I’ve spent the entire time in the house. It hasn’t been quite as boring as I thought, but I really took small things for granted, like going to the grocery store when I run out of cranberry juice.
Lucas went for me after sunset, and had to FaceTime me to make sure he got what I wanted. Next time, I’ll make the list much more specific for my non-food-eating husband.
“But you are taking it easy?” Naomi questions.
“I am.” I shut the door behind them and wave my hand over it, sealing it with magic. It’s a bit of a habit now to seal everything up, just to be safe. “Lucas has made sure of it.”
“I think it’s sweet how much he worries,” Nicole says.
“It is,” I say as we head into the kitchen. “But I’m more than ready to get back to normal in six days.” My friends all exchange glances.
“Six days?” Kristy questions. “That’s a very specific time frame.”
“Really?” I shrug and keep walking but realize now one is following me. “What?”
“Callie,” Kristy starts. “The new moon is in six days. It’s not a good idea for you to partake in the spell. It’s a protection spell, and we can do it without you, I promise.”
“I agree,” Lucas calls from somewhere inside the house, having heard her talking.
I wave my hand, dismissing him. “I’m feeling much better now,” I tell them. “I’ve been getting plenty of sleep, drinking lots of water, and keeping my stress levels down.”
“Then we should keep it that way,” Naomi quips.
“I know,” I agree. “But I’ll be here for backup.”
“Fine,” Kristy says, knowing me. “Backup, but the entire council is getting together for the spell, plus the three of us. We will cast it just fine.”
“I’m sure you will,” I say. “Really. I know you guys can. I’m worried about interference, and who better to keep the demons away than your hellfire-summoning friend?”
“You mean our pregnant hellfire-summoning friend,” Nicole corrects. “We’re going to cast a protective circle around ourselves. It’s going to be just fine.”
“I know,” I say with a sigh and then shake my head. “Let’s eat and talk about demons later.”
“Sounds good.” Kristy nudges me with her elbow and continues into the kitchen. I invited my friends over for dinner, and went with spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and a salad. Not the fanciest of meals, but it was easy and I’m trying to stay off my feet for extended periods of time.
“What’s going on with the baby shower?” Kristy asks. “Did you officially cancel it?”
“No, Eliza just about cried when I told her we should move it back a few weeks, so it’s still tentatively on, assuming the world doesn’t end. If it does, I suppose it doesn’t matter if we still have caterers lined up.” I get the pasta sauce from the warming drawer and bring it to the table. My friends help me get everything out and onto the table.
The subject is changed from demons, and we talk and laugh throughout dinner, which was so needed. We take our cheesecake into the living room, setting our plates on the coffee table as we continue to eat and talk. Lucas joins us, bringing up two bottles of wine for my friends to enjoy. I use magic to open the bottle and pour everyone but myself and Lucas a glass.
Two hours later, I walk my friends to the front door. “Let me know when you’re casting the spell,” I say. “And I’ll watch like a creep from my attic window.”
“As long as you stay there,” Kristy tells me. “I want you to keep being a creep for another three months.”
“I do too,” I admit ruefully. “Love you, guys.”
“Love you too.” Kristy gives me a hug. “Oh! Was that the baby moving? I felt her against me.”
“Yeah, she’s going crazy right now. I think she liked your cheesecake.”
“Hah, well, thanks, girl. I’ll make you some when you’re old enough.” She holds her hand out and looks up, waiting until I give her the go-ahead to touch my stomach. I nod and she puts her hand against me. “Oh wow, she is going crazy in there! Does it feel weird? I imagine it feels so weird.”
“Yeah, it’s weird, but I also like it.”
“You make such a cute pregnant mama,” Kristy tells me. “I hope I look as good as you when I’m six months pregnant.”
“I feel huge.”
“You’re all belly, and it’s adorable.” Kristy smiles, hugs me once more as we say goodbye, and goes down the porch steps to her car. I close the door, re-seal it, and go into the kitchen to start putting dishes away.
Lucas is in the kitchen, heating up a pot of water on the stove to warm up a bag of blood. He has a grimace on his face that will stay there the whole time. I don’t really know what to equate the bagged blood to, but I suppose it’s a bit like stale cereal or burnt popcorn. Technically, it’s edible, but it doesn’t taste good.
"I cannot wait until this baby is born and I can have wine again." I rest my hand on my stomach and enviously look at the empty wine glasses on the counter. With all the shit that's been going on, an entire bottle of wine sounds good right now.
"After the baby is born?" Lucas questions. "I thought you were breastfeeding."
"Fine. I can't wait until this baby is born plus like three months so I can have wine again," I say, rolling my eyes.
“Three months? The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding for two years."
I turn my head, smiling sweetly at my vampire lover. "You know what else the World Health Organization recommends? The best way to avoid a silver-tipped stake through your heart is to not give your pregnant wife unsolicited advice."
Lucas just looks at me, unamused, and sticks his finger in the water, testing the temperature.
“You can take a bite of me for dessert,” I say, meaning it literally and sexually. Though with Lucas, they usually go hand-in-hand. Lucas has only drank from me a handful of times over the last few weeks, not wanting to take too much blood away from Elena.
“Just a taste,” he says, and I’m glad he’s willing to do even that. “I didn’t mean to listen, but you are rather loud. Your friends are right, Callie, leave the spellcasting to them. They’re not fighting demons. They’re casting a protection spell. It will be fine, and once the sun comes up the morning after the new moon, we’ll know it worked.”
“I know,” I agree. “I’ll let them cast the protection spell.” But if demons do come…I’m not going to sit here and do nothing while my friends get ripped apart.
Chapter 35
“Should I bring you a chair and some water?”
I turn, not sure if Lucas is trying to be catty or not. I’m in the
attic, looking out at the woods. It’s the night of the new moon, and the spell is going to be cast soon. I’ve been on pins and needles all night, and I wish more than anything I could be there, helping my friends or just being there for moral support if anything else.
“That would be nice,” I say back. “And a blanket. It’s cold up here.” The attic is mostly untouched, other than being cleaned with some moldy floorboards replaced and the drywall patched around a window. We did have a bathroom added up here, which my six-month-pregnant bladder appreciates. I’ve been up here for two hours already, compelled to watch the woods for signs of anything.
I can’t see the location of the door from my window, but I have a pretty good vantage point up here, three stories from the ground. I’ve sent Binx and Freya out to patrol the woods, and Pandora is up here keeping me company. Scarlet hung out with us for a while but got bored and left about an hour ago.
Lucas returns with a chair from the dining room, a blanket, and a glass of water. I wrap the blanket around myself and sit, knowing I’m going to stand up and look out the window again in just a minute.
“You should go to bed, my love,” Lucas says and puts his hands on my shoulders. I’m tired, and going to bed sounds nice, but there is no way I’m going to put my butt in my nice comfy bed while my friends’ lives could be on the line.
“After the spell is cast.”
“Okay,” he says, surprising me a bit by not arguing. He always goes out of his way to make me happy, but he’s done it more lately than ever. It makes my heart so freaking full to see him doting on me—while annoying me at the same time—but all he wants is for Elena to keep growing. He’s so excited to be a father and being able to give him this after sixteen hundred years of thinking it would never happen is a feeling I can’t even describe.
He checks his watch. “They’ll be starting in just a few minutes.”
“I better go to the bathroom in that case,” I say and take a final drink, set my glass down, and hurry to the bathroom. Lucas is standing, looking out the window when I come back. He puts his arm around me, knowing it’s hard for me to stay on the sidelines like this.
“Even though you’re not involved in your normal way, this is possible because of you. If it weren't for you, the covens wouldn’t have gotten together and cast the spell. Because of you, the world is getting a chance to keep spinning the way it always has.”
“I still feel so useless,” I admit.
“You’re far from useless.” His hand goes to my stomach. “You’re growing a person, Callie. Our person. That’s pretty fucking incredible.”
I look up at Lucas’s handsome face and think about how far we’ve come since the day we met. He’s still the same ruthless killer he was then, not thinking twice before ripping someone’s heart out or throwing them in a deep grave, eight feet down. But his love for me knows no bounds, and each and every day we’re together surprises me more and more that someone like him could love someone like me.
“I suppose it—”
“Shhh,” Lucas interrupts, looking out the window. “There’s something out there.”
A second later, Pandora shadows through the yard and into the house.
“What is it?” I ask, but I already know. There are demons in the woods. “We have to go!”
“I’ll go, you stay,” he tells me and hurries downstairs. I follow after him, calling for Scarlet and my familiars. Binx and Freya are still in the woods, fighting off the demons. I can sense him now, and they are letting me know there are at least a dozen demons, surrounding my coven. I shove my feet into my boots and grab my jacket, running into the yard with Lucas.
“Stay here,” he says when we get to the edge of the warding. “I’ll handle it.” He puts his hand on my stomach and kisses me. “Please, my love, stay here.”
I suck in a shaky breath, rest my hands on my stomach and nod. “Okay.” He kisses me again and takes off. “Go with him,” I tell my Pandora, but keep Scarlet at my side. My nerves prickle and my heart is racing.
“One, two, three, four, five…” I start counting out loud, telling myself I can’t panic until I get to one hundred. “…seventy-four, seventy-five, seventy—” I cut off when a high-pitched scream echoes through the otherwise-silent night.
“Okay, we have to go,” I tell Scarlet, and hook my fingers under her collar, ready to take it off if need be. She pulls me along, guiding me to exactly where the spell is being cast. Tabatha, Evander, Kristy, the twins, Ruby, and several members of the coven’s council are gathered, in the middle of casting the protection spell.
“Hold on,” Tabatha calls to everyone. “The circle isn’t complete yet!”
They can’t stop now, not when everyone needs to cast this spell together, making a chain. If one person stops, it’s like breaking a link and the spell won’t hold. Binx shadows around them, keeping them safe. I can sense Pandora and Freya in the woods, chasing after demons. Lucas is with them and has already gotten two.
“Invoco luna mitte lucis. Defendat. Solem dico. Mitte lucem tuam et. Defendat. Invocabo elementum. Commodare nos in tua potestate. Defendat,” everyone in the circle chants, and I can feel the energy of the spell humming through the ground, sinking into the Ley line. We’re so close! The spell is almost complete.
Scarlet growls, and two demons emerge from the woods. One goes right for the witches, and Binx heads him off.
“Hey, fuckface!” I conjure a bright white energy ball and toss it into the air. The demon looks up, blinded by the light.
Tabatha looks at me, nostrils flaring, but directs her attention back to the spell. I promised I wouldn’t fight demons, and I’m not. My familiars are out there with Lucas, and I just happen to have a hellhound, who’s been dying to rip something—anything—to shreds.
The demon throws up a hand, shrinking my energy ball. Oh shit. These aren’t lower-level demons. They’re more dangerous than I thought, and it also means they’ve burned through their human bodies and there’s nothing left inside to save.
I slip my fingers under Scarlet’s collar and undo the buckle. “Go get ‘em, girl,” I tell her as she transforms into the terrifying hellhound she actually is. The demon looks at Scarlet, pausing for a second. Then he realizes she’s coming for him, and he takes off, but Scarlet is faster.
“I got you,” I tell my friends, picking up a stick and drawing a literal line in the dirt. I kneel down, putting my hand on the edge of the line. “I call upon the powers of light, keep us safe on this dark night.”
Another demon barrels forward, crashing into the line I’ve drawn. Lucas runs after him, grabbing him from behind and sinking his fangs into his neck, ripping away a chunk of flesh. He spits out the blood and shoves the demon to the ground.
“Keep chanting!” Tabatha instructs the group. Another demon comes running from the woods and Lucas goes after him, but the demon has powers we weren’t expecting. He claps his hands together, knocking my vampire back. Before I can conjure anything, Lucas is on his feet again, holding a broken tree branch from the forest floor. He shoves it in the demon’s chest and then grabs his head, spinning it clean around. I send an energy ball its way for good measure, making sure the demon can’t jump into another body.
“What happened to staying home?” Lucas asks, rushing to me.
“I heard screams and I couldn’t stay,” I tell him honestly. “But I’m not fighting. I’m just providing protection spells.”
He pulls me to him, too relieved right now that I’m okay to get upset, and kisses my forehead, getting the demon blood that’s on his lips on my skin. “Stay here,” he growls, anger and concern flashing in his eyes. Inching back, I step behind the line and hold my hands out, ready to fuel it if necessary.
Another demon rushes at us, moving fast, but Lucas is faster. He catches it by the throat, fangs ripping into its skin. He pulls his head back, and flesh and muscles snap and break, spraying blackened blood all over him. The demon slumps down, and Lucas spits out the blood.
> Letting out another growl, he looks around the woods, trying to sense for more.
“Invoco luna mitte lucis. Defendat. Solem dico. Mitte lucem tuam et. Defendat. Invocabo elementum. Commodare nos in tua potestate. Defendat,” the circle chants, words speeding up. ?Invoco luna mitte lucis. Defendat. Solem dico. Mitte lucem tuam et. Defendat. Invocabo elementum. Commodare nos in tua potestate. Defendat!”
“Now!” Tabatha tells them and I turn, seeing everyone take a silver dagger, raise it into the air, and then plunge it into the earth. There’s an unmistakable shudder that reverberates through the entire forest. I can feel the power of the Ley line surging through the ground, connecting us to the other covens. The air is electric, and for a few seconds, everything is still.
I’m holding my breath, watching and waiting. Pandora shadows back, shifting into her pretty calico cat form. She meows and rubs against my legs, wanting to be held and praised for going after demons. She’s my least combative familiar, preferring to make potions and help with spells instead.
Freya trots out of woods next, carrying a finger, which she proudly places at my feet, just like a real cat would with a mouse.
“Good girl,” I tell her, setting Pandora down so I can run my hand over Freya’s head. Binx and Scarlet come back next, and Binx is still in his shadow form. He still towers over Scarlet, even in her true form, and is just as frightening. Lucas brings me Scarlet’s collar and I clip it back into place, shifting her back into an Irish Wolfhound.
Everyone lets out a collective sigh of relief. The demons are gone, having been defeated, and the spell was cast at the same time all over the country.
“Did it work?” Kristy asks almost shyly.
“I believe it did,” Tabatha tells her. “I suppose there’s only one way to know.”
Reign of Night (The Thorne Hill Series Book 7) Page 27