Magical Midlife Challenge, page 29
“Think it through, Sebastian. Think it through.”
A flare of light on metal caught his eye. And then, just beyond, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Edgar!
The vampire slunk through little pockets and last-second openings in the rolling crowd of enemy fighters, ripping out necks or stomachs as he passed. He was somehow ignored by almost everyone until their neck was in his mouth. He was ten feet away from Jessie and closing the distance rapidly; he’d clearly seen her in peril and was aiming to get to her.
And then Sebastian thought he must be dreaming.
The moisture in his eyes overflowed, and fresh tears followed.
Nessa followed right behind Edgar! Bent low as though hiding or using him as a shield, she remained right on his heels. If he missed an enemy, she fired off a spell to keep them put or give them a little shock before she finished the job with her knives. The captain was staying in the shadows even in broad daylight and in the middle of a battle. The perfect savior.
“Yes, Nessa,” Sebastian said with renewed hope, more tears streaming down his cheeks. “We expect everything. We are family. I know how to work with family.”
He sent a different sort of spell her way, withering the people around Edgar and Nessa but not killing them. Nessa noticed immediately; it was a signal they had. A call for help.
She tilted her face up, finding him immediately, then held up a knife, her version of a nod. And then he was slinging spells her way. Hard spells. Powerful, blistering spells.
She continued to follow Edgar toward Jessie. As she did so, she darted left and right, catching his spells and expertly deflecting them. It was a special spell he’d devised for her. He used their friendship and mage connection to prop her up as a mirror of sorts. Through her efforts, he could obtain the accuracy of aim that was lost to him at this distance. Through her, he could actually help Jessie.
And then Jessie dropped just far enough for one of the enemy to jump up and grab her.
TWENTY-EIGHT
A hand closed over my ankle. A strong arm dragged me down until I was flung onto the ground. The breath left me for a moment, and then a heavy body smothered me to keep me put.
“Now I’ve gotcha,” a harsh voice said in my ear. It increased in volume. “Block ’em off so a team can get her out of here. Let the mages know we’ll need to mask our trail from the animals.”
“They seem to be trapped,” came the reply.
“They’re never trapped for long. Give us cover!”
I struggled in his hold, fear and panic gripping me. Rage and terror bled through the bonds from Austin, and his roar seemed like it was everywhere at once, shaking the ground, rattling my heart, infusing me. I’m coming, it said. Hold on, I’m coming!
The voice was back in my ear. “Thought you could use your filthy animals to keep you safe, huh?” He spat on my face. “You’re nothing but a filthy animal yourself. A pretty little beastie, but a beastie all the same.”
The roar came again, all around me now, all through me, calling me. Begging me to seek that darkness within and become one with my gargoyle. To finally find that balance and fight my way out.
“Where we at, Hank?” the voice near my ear called. “Hank!”
“Hank is currently indisposed,” Edgar said from somewhere close.
My jailor was suddenly ripped away, and his fingernails scraped across my rough gargoyle skin.
“He tasted delicious, though,” Edgar said, and I could just see him grab someone by the throat with his hand and rip it clean out. “He probably ate a lot of candy. I love a good candy-soaked blood source.”
“Hey, Jessie,” Nessa said from just behind him, strain in her voice. She smiled down at me before stepping over and straddling my prone body. “Ouch. That wing looks like it— Crap, Edgar!”
A puff of insects zoomed in on Nessa’s left before materializing into Edgar. He launched himself face-first at the neck of someone reaching for Nessa.
“What the—” was all the man got out before his eyes rolled back in his head, and the vampire let him slide to the ground.
“Close one,” Nessa said, her face closed down in concentration. She held knives up but didn’t seem to be using them. A glowing red orb grew between her fists and then shot out, slamming into two people pushing in. They screamed and fell away. A new orb, yellow this time, immediately took the place of the first.
I hadn’t thought she’d had much power, but she certainly seemed to have plenty now.
“Don’t worry, Jessie,” Edgar said, stabbing his finger through someone’s eye. “Did you see that move? I think of you every time I do it. Anyway, Sir Steele is coming. He’s almost here.”
“Yeah, we’re just playing for time”—Nessa’s face closed down in concentration again as another glowing orb materialized between her hands—“in the number-one most dangerous place in this whole field.”
“Oh, well, I don’t know about—” The last of Edgar’s words were muffled as he clamped down on someone’s neck.
An enemy trooper shoved Nessa from behind. The orb she had zipped out to the right, splashing across a couple people. Their screaming was cut off quickly.
She turned and stabbed the man who’d pushed her, but by the time he was out of the way, three more had shoved in to remove her.
“What’s all this?” a man with thin black hair said, incredibly cool under pressure.
“Edgar,” Nessa said, her voice wavering. She shot a spell forward as I struggled to get up and my wing twisted painfully beneath me.
Bald Guy took the blast with gritted teeth. His eyes flared hot, and a disgusting smile curved his lips. “Pretty little thing.” He snatched forward, grabbing her throat. “I think I’ll keep you.”
She slashed with a knife, aiming for center mass. She should’ve known she would never reach, not with the difference in their arm spans. If she’d had training, she would’ve aimed for the arm or wrist holding her.
I curled in my wing, struggling to roll over. Gargoyles weren’t great on the ground like this. Wings got in the way.
Austin was closer now, so close, but moving slowly. They’d obviously doubled their efforts to block him off. They were trying to stand between him and me so as to get me out of there. I doubted these guys cared about fallen soldiers.
Nessa was ripped away with a choking yell, and someone else dove on top of me. He rolled over to offer me up, and another grabbed me. I was hauled closer to a blond-haired man with a large overbite, my wings and arms pinned. A crowd moved around me, securing me in.
“Let’s go, let’s go, hurry!” an enemy shouted. “We’ve got cover.”
I had to shift and fight. I could do more spells without my hands in my human form because I could speak the words. Hell, I could move in my human form, unhindered by these dang wings.
Before I could commit, I was ripped to the right. A fist smashed down on my head. Another dug into my ribs. The pain was minimal but wouldn’t be in my human form. This might be a wait-and-see situation—let them carry me out, act docile, and then light them up. I was running out of options.
I closed my eyes to still the panic and focused on the moment. On my magic. On Austin working closer. He wouldn’t give up on me. Even if I were taken, he wouldn’t give up. He’d come for me. I wouldn’t be able to stop him.
Another person pushed in close.
“I got her upper half, you take the lower,” my captor said. “These things are strong—the males are, at least. Two should be enough for a female. Keep a close eye, though.”
“Got her. Here we go, run her out,” the guy that grabbed my feet said.
They started to move, jostled around as their cover closed in tightly.
“What are you doing with her?” the guy at my head said.
I opened my eyes to find Nessa draped over a wide shoulder. Bald Man glanced at the man who spoke. “Taking her. Spoils of war. She’ll be mighty fun to play with.”
My stomach twisted for what he’d do to her. For what they’d do to me. I struggled within my captors’ grasp, desperate to break free, to use my hands.
“Whoops, here she goes. Hold her!” the guy at my feet said.
Nessa’s hands hung limply down Bald Man’s back as they jogged, knives gone. Her head, upside down, shook slowly.
“This isn’t going to end well for you, my friend,” she said, making no move to struggle. “Maybe it’ll be fun for a while, but in the end, you’ll think back to this exact moment and wish you’d made an entirely different decision.”
There was such confidence in her words, such promise, such laughter, that I couldn’t help stilling for a moment. If she held even an ounce of fear, she didn’t show it.
“That right, lovely?” He laughed at her. “I think it’ll be very fun for a while. Until I tire of you. Then I’ll give you to the others to use.”
A roar of rage from Austin followed our plight.
Another sounded, surprisingly close, an anguished cry of vehemence.
Nessa was exactly right—I just had no clue how she’d known. I should’ve, but I hadn’t been paying attention to anyone else’s location but hers and Austin’s.
Now I did…and smiled.
A shiver of fear went through my captors right before a huge silverback gorilla burst through their ranks ahead of us. Two guys went flying. Guns were lifted to fire, but Broken Sue rushed forward, his big arms swinging. He grabbed two more guys and bashed them together before throwing them away. He rose onto his hind legs and beat his chest with his fists, roaring his challenge.
The enemy froze for a moment in fear. Wolves used the opportunity to dart in on all sides, sending the clustered group of mercenaries into chaos. And then he came. The biggest of them all. The alpha leading this organized strike.
I could barely see the huge maw coming down, aiming for the man at my head. Austin’s teeth fitted over the man’s cranium, crunching and ripping away. My body fell, caught by one of Austin’s huge paws and lowered quickly to the ground. He reached over me, snatching up the frozen man at my feet and ending him in a blink.
Broken Sue pushed forward again, smashing people out of his way, his focus solely on Nessa. A gun blast struck his chest, but he didn’t so much as flinch. He swung his mighty arm. It crunched the upper body of the gun bearer.
Austin pushed forward until he was standing over me, protecting me with his body. The wolves darted in, taking fire now. But so were the enemy. The guns weren’t meant for these close quarters, and their frail bodies couldn’t handle the blasts like the powerful shifters could.
Broken Sue reached Nessa with a snarl. Bald Man held on to her as he lifted his gun, probably not even thinking about the hand clutching her.
He should’ve.
The sight clearly enraged the gorilla. Broken Sue took another blast as he moved, spittle flying from his open mouth, showing his large canines. He slapped the gun away like it was nothing and grabbed Bald Man by the face. With a wrench, he ended the scuffle.
Bald Man tumbled to the ground, but not before Broken Sue quickly leaned in to grab the falling Nessa. He cradled her to his chest with one great arm as he used the other to quickly move him toward Austin. It was impossible not to think of King Kong. Once to Austin, he gently deposited Nessa on the ground next to me.
“Too bad he didn’t have the opportunity to prolong the grisly death, huh?” Nessa said to me, breathing heavy. She pushed herself up onto her hands and looked up at him. “Thank you, hero,” she said, and even through the laughter in her voice, I could tell she meant it with everything in her person.
He held her shimmering gaze for a moment before huffing and turning away. His job wasn’t done.
Neither was mine.
Austin and his shifters had cut a line to us, but there was no way they could’ve killed a whole battlefield of enemy to do it. If we weren’t surrounded now, we would be soon. And with me beneath him, he couldn’t fight as he needed to.
“I have to find the darkness,” I meant to say, but the words came out of my gargoyle maw a garbled mess. “I have to allow my gargoyle to rule.”
Nessa crawled closer to me, under the shadow and protection of Austin.
“How’s that wing? Gonna heal?” Her fingers danced over my wing’s edge. The hole was nearly mended now. All the time in the enemy’s hands was time my body had had to repair itself.
It was also time the enemy mages had to get out of their magical prison. Time was ticking.
“Looks good, pretty beastie.” She smiled at me, and her eyes flashed. “Let your mate unlock the power of the gargoyle, okay? Like Brochan did at that challenge, remember? We need it. Let Austin be your guide. Don’t be afraid. Sebastian said you’ve been afraid to really let go in training, but don’t be. You have friends and family waiting in the darkness for you.” She touched her chest lightly, then pointed up at Austin. “And Brochan and Sebastian and Niamh and probably Edgar. We’re all there. We all come and go as we please. Join us. We won’t let you wander too far, don’t worry. Come on in, the water’s fine.”
Austin grunted, and a shock of pain coursed through him. He turned, obviously careful to keep us under him, to combat a surge of people at his back.
Nessa scooted closer to me at first so as not to get stepped on, then looked that way. She looked behind her, then back at me. “I’ve got to go. I need to help, or we’re all gonna die. Well…the guys are. We might have a much worse fate. Find that gargoyle. Let’s make you the queen of this bitch, and then let’s go home and ride around in that carriage!” She nodded at me in encouragement before rolling out from under Austin. “Anyone seen a couple of very expensive, custom-made, and quite necessary knives?” she called before the crowd swallowed her up.
We expect everything.
I had to do this. I had to. I had to connect these two pieces of myself, past and present. I had to cement them with the ferocity Ivy House needed me to find.
I had to protect my people. It was my duty. A duty I coveted.
I reached out through the bonds to Austin, doing as Nessa had said. My magic roiled and surged within me, feeling the dangerous darkness of my mate. She was right—he’d found that darkness within him and was currently exploiting it. Our connection suddenly felt decadent and raw, utterly primal. It felt like exactly what awaited me if I sank into the dark depths of my magic. It felt like battle and wildness and bloodshed. I would follow him down and trust him to pull me back to safety again, no matter how long I was locked below.
“That is a mistake,” a familiar voice whispered. “If you trust him, he will betray you. He will be your demise.”
It took me a moment to locate the voice in my memory, but once I did, a wave of cold shivers washed over me. It was the voice I’d heard within Ivy House, the one that had been pushing me to take the magic. Tamara Ivy, I’d thought.
It had said, “Rely on no man, for it is he who will betray you. Set yourself free.”
If it were any other man, I’d hesitate for a moment. I’d contemplate her words. Trust was a risk, and I’d been burned a great many times in my life.
But this was Austin Steele. He’d earned my trust before he earned my love. He’d proven himself. If I couldn’t trust him, I couldn’t trust anyone, and that wasn’t freedom. That was a prison of fear, and it wasn’t how I would go through life.
If this was taking a chance, it was a chance I was willing to take. A demise I was willing to face.
I took a deep breath and let go. Let myself keep sliding deeper. Terror gripped me, but I continued, intent to do as Ivy House kept pushing me to do. As Austin had eventually had to do with his animal. I submitted to it, seeking the balance, following my mate into the twisted depths of our beasts.
The darkness overwhelmed me quickly, sucking me in. Magic pumped. Power slid around me. Still I sank, feeling Austin with me, all around me. Holding me and dragging me, deeper and deeper until I was no longer sure where my sense of self ended and the gargoyle began.
I mentally closed my eyes and released my holds on humanity. I released my past and my logic. I released my control.
His approval sang through the bonds. His pride. His sweet darkness.
And that was when I felt it—a sensation unlike any I’d ever experienced, like strolling through the decadent midnight wilderness. It was raw and twisted and volatile, yet somehow heavenly and serene. It was the darkness I’d feared, but there was light buried within it. Nature was comprised of both, after all—the deep night was always followed by a new dawn. A vicious killing fed a predator’s young, ensuring new life. Raging fires allowed for regrowth.
Death and rebirth.
Tamed savagery.
I’d felt a portion of this in the wood. The peace. The serenity.
And now, I would flip the coin and display the brutal savagery needed to protect my family.
As I embraced the feeling, power pumped through me, a glorious feeling.
My roar reverberated across the battlefield. Austin stood up on his back legs, matching it, letting me fly free.
I snapped out my wings, shedding swirls of pinkish-purple light. A glittery dust emanated from me, my magic taking a physical form and falling onto the ground before winking out.
My creature was beautiful. Time to show the enemy, and myself, that it was also vicious and fierce.
I was an Ivy House lady, damn it.
TWENTY-NINE
I flew into the air in a rush of power. My wing was almost completely mended, only tilting me a little. I worked a spell on impulse, one at the very top of my power scale, and delighted in how much easier it was to work now that I’d found this balance. When I let it loose, fire blistered through the ranks of the enemy, who were spread out all over now. Trampled grass ignited quickly, but with a tweak of the spell, the heat was sucked out and fire doused. The fire lingered on them, but it wasn’t hot enough to burn through their suits. I couldn’t match Cyra’s magic.
