“You are the most important thing in the world to me.”
She pointed behind me and growled, “Do they know that?”
I opened my mouth then shut it. She spun on her toes and ran up the stairs. I’d done it again. She’d just given me the chance to defend her and I stared at her. “Emersyn, please.”
“Mrs. English!” Stedman yelled. “Ma’am you are not permitted up here!”
We all turned to find our butler chasing a middle-aged woman across our living room. Behind him was another man, taller and a bit less in shape. I frowned and moved to block my parents from any kind of attack.
“Stedman? What is going on?” My mother said in her low, stern voice. “Who is this?”
“Please, please, Major English, please.” The woman cried, fresh tears poured down her round cheeks. “Please. You have to help us.”
My mother’s scowl vanished. “What happened?”
Stedman slid into the foyer after her, slightly out of breath. “I am sorry, Mrs. English. She found my staircase—”
“It’s okay, Steds,” I stepped forward and held my hand up. My butler never did anything wrong, and this woman was clearly in duress. I walked up to her and wished Hunter was there to calm her down. I put my hand on her shoulder and pushed my magic out. Red mist seeped over her shoulder and into her curly brown hair. “Take a deep breath, then tell us what’s wrong.”
It wasn’t my place to ask the questions when a Major and Minor were there – wait. Yes it is. I was in The Coven now. My Mark was superior to their Coven-appointed role. I literally out ranked my parents. That epiphany brought a poorly timed smile to my face, but I shook it off.
The woman took deep breaths between sobs.
“Our daughter is missing,” the man said as he walked up behind what I assumed was his wife. “She is ten—”
“A demon took her!” She cried.
Her husband sighed. “It wasn’t a demon, dear—”
“I saw it with my own eyes!” She screamed at him. “It was big and black, and had bright glowing red eyes.”
“You’ve had too much wine this evening, love.” He squeezed her shoulder. “Demons don’t fly.”
I frowned. “Yes, actually they do.”
“Fly?” My mother stepped up beside me. “Maria, I am listening. What else did you see that makes you believe it was a demon?”
“She was on our terrace—”
“Which floor do you live on?” My father asked.
“Thirtieth.” Maria’s husband shrugged. “We’re not the best at discipline, our Sofia has snuck out of the house through the terrace before. There’s a back staircase —”
“I heard her scream, Tony!” Maria shrieked. Her face was red and puffy. “I ran to the terrace just in time to see the demon fly off.”
My pulse kicked into overdrive. Tony may not have believed her but I did without a shadow of a doubt. “Then what happened?”
Maria closed her eyes and shook her head. “I called out her name and she screamed for me as it flew away with her. Then…then…then I looked down and saw the blood on the terrace.”
“How long ago did this happen?”
I gasped and spun at the sound of Emersyn’s voice. She was about ten feet behind us but moving closer. Her golden eyes looked like liquid gold and glowed with the rage I knew was boiling inside. She didn’t look at me, or my parents, she simply walked up to the distraught couple.
Maria sniffled. “I- I don’t know. I panicked and came here.”
“Twenty-eight minutes,” Tony said with a low voice. He tightened his grip on his wife. “I didn’t see what she saw, I doubt it was a demon—”
“You’re wrong,” Emersyn cut him off.
My mother narrowed her eyes. “Emersyn, this is a professional matter. It is mine and Sebastien’s jobs to handle these situations—”
“And you’re failing already,” Emersyn snapped. “We’ve wasted too much time. This is The Coven’s job now.”
My jaw dropped. Heat rushed through my body. I’d never seen this side of her but I liked it so far.
Emersyn turned back to Maria and Tony and her eyes softened a little. “I am sorry for my shortness, but we need to act. Where do you live? Did you see which direction the demon flew in?”
Tony’s face turned sheet white. Maria clapped her hand over her mouth as a waterfall of tears burst free. She pointed to her left then swung her arm to point behind her.
“They live on Fifth Avenue, too,” Amelia said from behind us. “Sofia is my friend. Their terrace overlooks Central Park like ours.”
Emersyn’s eyes widened. Then to my surprise, she looked to me. “Central Park. Lots of coverage. We need to go. Now.”
I nodded and jogged over to the elevator. “Amelia, stay here with Stedman,” I yelled over my shoulder and pushed my magic out.
The elevator opened in front of us and the four of us piled in. Emersyn wasted no time, she had those five-inch heels off before the elevator had dropped three floors. My father took his suit jacket and tie off and hung them over the railing. I unbuttoned my sleeves and rolled them up to my elbows, then undid the top few buttons of my collar. I wished I had my dagger. It sat nice and pretty on my nightstand right where I didn’t need it.
My mother pressed her phone to her ear. “Marshall, we have a situation. Maria and Tony Lorenzo’s daughter was taken off their terrace by a demon — yes, I know how that sounds but Maria insists. We are on our way to Central Park to try and find her.”
I know how that sounds? I wasn’t sure what that meant. It sounded exactly as Maria said it. My mother was always cool and collected but I hadn’t expected her to not believe someone. Marshall Davenport perhaps, but not my mother.
Emersyn bounced on the balls of her bare feet and watched the dial above the doors to watch the floor numbers decrease. Butterflies danced in my stomach – and not the good kind. Half an hour was a long time in the world of demons. If it wanted to kill her for a meal then we were most definitely too late. My cousin Henley’s face with red eyes flashed in my mind and I shuddered.
Please don’t let us be too late.
Chapter Sixteen
DEACON
I’d been crazy about Emersyn since the moment I met her but as I raced down the sidewalk next to her I knew I’d fallen off the deep end.
I was completely in love with her.
She probably hated me, she’d been one foot out the door just waiting for Tegan to portal over and pick her up. Yet the moment she heard a demon attacked she’d pushed all of that aside. And man, she was tough. It couldn’t have been more than forty degrees outside and she was barefoot and wearing a flimsy silky crop top with a good portion of her stomach out. But it didn’t slow her down for a second. She charged forward like her life depended on it.
We had just crossed 79th street where the Lorenzo’s lived when Emersyn suddenly slid to a stop. I frowned but stopped, then scurried the few feet back to her. She grabbed my elbow, narrowed her eyes, and sniffed. I cocked my head to the side and took a deep breath – then gasped.
“Demon blood,” we both said at the same time.
There was no mistaking that sickly sweet maple syrup scent. Breakfast was eternally ruined. She looked up at the buildings towering over us. I turned and stared into the shadows of Central Park right behind her.
“It could be anywhere in there,” my mother whispered as she stared into the park with me. “We could spend days in there and not find anything.”
I glanced down at my mother and found, to my surprise, she was also barefoot. It occurred to me then that I’d never seen my mother in action. I always assumed she had other people do the physical stuff – like my father.
“There’s no blood on the street,” my father said with a clipped tone. He held up a little tool in his hand that I’d seen a million times but never asked what it was. “When demons snatch their dinner they don’t usually wait. There should be blood on the street or in nearby trees. This is a blood dete
ctor, there isn’t any here. Something isn’t right.”
My mother cursed and turned to me. “I’ve never seen a flying demon in person—”
“I have,” Emersyn and I said at the same time again.
Emersyn looked to me with a wild sort of light in her eyes that reminded me way too much of Tegan. “We need to draw it out.”
My father scoffed. “Marshall is coming with backup, we should wait.”
“Sofia might not be able to,” my mother whispered.
“But I’m the only one with a weapon.”
My gaze went straight to Emersyn. No, he’s not. Those pretty bracelets on her wrists were rigged with magic from Tegan herself. All Em had to do was twirl her wrists and her flames would answer. All I needed to do was set her loose…without burning all of Central Park down. I narrowed my eyes and looked up at the tree branches hanging over our heads. Autumn was just settling in so the leaves had yet to fall. Which meant they had the unfair playing advantage. These demons with wings didn’t mess around.
My mother moved closer to the wall running along the edge of the park. “We still don’t even know where it went or if it’s even still here.”
“You don’t…” Emersyn closed her eyes and held her palms up. The air around her pulsed with energy as her magic shot out of her in a cloud of black smoke. “But I do.”
My magic wasn’t as strong as hers. I was only the Devil but she was the Empress. One of the three most powerful in the entire Coven. I’d already tried pushing my magic out to sense for life, either demon or witch, but mine only worked close to me. Central Park was too big.
My mother spun with wide eyes and stared at Emersyn like she just sprouted three heads like a hydra.
“You can sense something in there?” My father adjusted his grip on his dagger and frowned. “Living?”
Emersyn nodded, her eyes still squeezed shut.
I took a deep breath. “Demon or witch?”
She frowned and cocked her head to the side. Her eyes flew open. “Both.”
My heart soared with hope for the first time since Maria arrived. She was alive. We had a chance. But there was no way we could defend ourselves with all these trees and a demon with wings. I squeezed Em’s elbow. “What would Tegan and Tenn do?”
“Use themselves as —” she gasped and her eyes lit up “bait. We need to lure it out.”
Yes. Yes, that’s crazy and suicidal. Totally a Tegan or Tenn move. “There’s an open field just a little ways inside the park.”
She turned to my parents. “Deacon and I are going to lure it to the open field. On my queue, you two find Sofia.”
My mother was still looking at her strange, like she was an alien herself. “What’s your queue?”
Emersyn rolled her wrists. “When you see fire in the sky.”
“Heather, call Marshall.” My father tossed his dagger to me. “You two be careful.”
“You, too.” I turned and sprinted into the park with his dagger gripped tightly in my right hand.
Emersyn’s bare feet barely made any sound as we ran, but I knew she was there by the heat in my chest. Neither of us spoke. There was too much and nothing to say. I led us down the paved pathway through the darkness of the park when an idea popped into my head.
“Em, give us some smoke coverage?”
She didn’t answer but I felt hot energy rush out of her. Smoke billowed out of the ground and lifted up into the trees. If we wanted to lure the demon out then we needed to let it know we were there, and then piss it off. I just prayed our idea worked.
By the time we made it to the great lawn the entire park was covered in fog. Humans would think it was a weird yet normal weather phenomena, but any witch looking on would see that it only hovered around the trees. We moved to the center of the big open field then stood back-to-back.
“Okay…” I squinted through Em’s fog to the tree line. “Now what? How do we lure it out? With my blood or something?”
“Unless you’ve got secret non-human abilities like those two, then no. Please not with your blood.” She took a deep, shaky breath and shuddered. She whispered, “I’ve seen enough of that for a lifetime.”
“You have another idea?”
“Sing.”
“Excuse me?”
“When we went on our quest to the Siren’s den Tennessee had Libby sing, to use their own magic against them.” Her back pressed against mine. “Use your magic and call for them.”
“You want me to sing?” Of all the things she could’ve suggested, that was not one I ever expected.
“Whistle a damn show tune then,” she snapped. “It worked for Libby!”
I opened my mouth then shut it again. She had a good point. Libby had been the Devil for a decade, she knew the ins and outs of this Card and the magic that came with it. In three months I’d gotten pretty good but I hated to admit I’d never considered singing my persuasion. But if there was ever a time to try, it was now.
Alright demons, come and get me. I took a deep breath then put lips together and whistled a song as loud as I could while pushing all of my magic into it.
Emersyn looked up at me with one eyebrow arched. “Give ‘em the old razzle dazzle?”
I shrugged. “I panicked?”
She said show tune. It was the first one that came to mind. Just then a dark object the size of a truck shot out of Em’s smoky fog and flew into the air. It squawked and flapped its wings. My stomach dropped. Those flappers had to be at least fifteen feet long – each. This thing was massive.
Emersyn turned wide eyes to me. “Razzle dazzle him!” She hissed.
Oh right. I sent my magic into the air and whistled the catchy show tune over and over. Come and get me. Come and get me. Come and get me.
Emersyn cursed and smacked me in the arm. “Stop! He’s dazzled, he’s dazzled!”
But it was too late. The demon soared toward us, flapping its wings and shrieking. It looked like some horrible genetically modified dinosaur. And it was headed straight for us. It crossed over the field and swooped low. Emersyn cursed and shot two flaming streaks of fire into the air. I whistled my razzle dazzle a little more and those beady red eyes focused on me. Em’s fire slammed into its chest. The demon hissed in pain and flapped its wings to put it out, but he was no match for Emersyn.
She held her arms up and pumped rivers of fire at it, relentlessly and without mercy. Back behind it flashlights lit up all the trees as Marshall’s backup searched for Sofia. The demon wailed and dove for the ground…right in Emersyn’s direction. I threw all of my weight against her and tackled her to the ground. Except we were no match for the size of him. It slammed into the grass and sent wild tremors through the ground.
One second I laid on the ground the next I was flying through the air. I hit the ground with a thud and rolled a dozen times before I finally stopped. When I looked up Emersyn was ten feet away with her face in the dirt, trying to get up. The demon reared its head back and growled. It snapped its teeth in Em’s direction and missed by a hair. I leapt to my feet and tackled her to the ground just as its full-sized Dinosaur wing sliced through the air and slammed me right in the chest.
My breath left my in a rush and then my back crashed into the cold, hard dirt and slid. I swung my father’s dagger over and over, slicing the demon’s wing and pushing my magic out. Bright orange flames lit up the sky over my head. The demon hissed and spun around. I threw my hands up and sent my red lightning right into its gut. It roared and threw its head back as flames swallowed it whole.
I scrambled to my feet without breaking my lightning shots. Emersyn was no damsel in distress, she didn’t need saving. She climbed to her feet then swirled her hand in the air and every flame went out at once. The demon lay on the grass burned to a crisp. It didn’t move. Didn’t seem to be breathing. I didn’t feel its energy. Yet there it remained.
“It’s dead!”
I looked up and found an Ace standing by. Behind her my parents stood surrounded by a group
of adults on the edge of the big field. All of them stared at us with shocked faces. My father cradled a girl in his arms. Oh no. Sofia. I pushed my magic out but they were too far away. “Is she…?”
A cold wave brushed over me. “No. She’s alive, but weak.”
“I thought all demons vanished when we killed them?” That Ace woman asked.
I shrugged. “I thought so, too.”
Emersyn grabbed my phone out of my back pocket and dialed a number. She hit speaker phone and held it out so I could hear the ringing.
“You dead?” A deep, low, velvety voice said. Tennessee.
Em’s cheeks flushed pink. “Oh, hi, Tennessee— um, where’s Tegan?”
There was rustling and then, “Babe. Emersyn is on the phone.”
Tegan groaned and grumbled. “Is someone dead or dying?”
Emersyn rolled her eyes. “This flying demon is dead. Or at least I think so, though it hasn’t vanished.”
“Did it look like a dragon or pterodactyl?” Tenn’s voice was all gravely, like he wasn’t actually awake at all.
“Pterodactyl,” we both said at the same time.
Tenn cursed a long line of obscenities. Then he sighed. “Wonderful. Use salt and scotch.”
My eyebrows raised. “Salt and scotch?”
“Yeah,” he grumbled back.
“Guys, what the hell happened up there tonight? You okay?” Tegan said, her voice sounding clearer. There was shuffling then she said, “Do you need help? Anyone hurt? Talk to us.”
I scratched the back of my head and looked around the great lawn at the crowd of witches surrounding the area. Both Majors, both Minors, and handful of Aces or so. So basically everyone in New York appointed by The Coven. My father carried Sofia over to the woman I recognized as our Lead Healer but couldn’t recall her name. My mother was talking to everyone else, but she kept passing Em side glances.
Emersyn ignored it all and relayed the battle with the demon to her sister and Tennessee.
“I can’t wait to tell Royce.” Tegan laughed so hard she snorted. “You razzle dazzled a demon.”
I groaned. Royce. Great. I wasn’t going to hear the end of it. I shook my head and leaned closer to the phone. “Hey, Tenn, anything else you need us to do here?”
The Fire Witch (The Coven: Elemental Magic Book 7) Page 8