| |
––––––––
“I SEE THE RELIC,” QUIN reported. “It’s sitting on a pedestal in the center of the room with a yellow dome covering it.”
“We’re not alone,” Jake warned us and I felt multiple spells disintegrate as I followed him inside.
Men dressed in black tactical gear swarmed out from behind magical barriers that had hidden their presence from us. “Don’t move!” one of the humans shouted. His face was hard and his brown hair was cropped short. It was Langley, leader of the Alpha Team. “Put your hands up!” the hunter barked. “If any of you so much as twitch, we’ll riddle you with bullets.” Holstering our weapons, we complied with his order. They had itchy trigger fingers and we were completely surrounded.
Seeing a tall, cute guy with black hair, I nodded. “Hey, Harley.”
“Don’t speak to me, leech,” he said coldly, aiming his assault rifle at my face.
Connor stirred at the insult, but subsided at the look our boss gave him. “What now?” Quin asked. “Are you going to kill us all?” There was no concern in her tone. If anything, she sounded bored.
“We’ve been instructed to take you alive,” Langley said with a sneer. “If it was up to me, I’d shoot you all dead right now.”
Standing behind Jake, Mirra surreptitiously twisted her pendant until color bled into it. She unleashed her power, but the hunters merely stared at her without reacting. “Don’t bother to try to use your magic on us,” Langley said and pulled his sleeve back to show a bronze bracelet. “We’re immune to your charms, witch.”
“I’m the witch,” I told him. “She’s the siren.” Clearly, Spencer had made sure the bracelets were strong enough to resist her.
“Shut up!” he said and took two steps forward to smash the butt of his gun into my face.
Jake moved with frightening speed and grabbed hold of Langley by the throat. With a twist of his hands, he broke the human’s neck. The rage in his eyes was enough to make the rest of the Alpha Team flinch. “Open fire!” one of them shouted. So much for their orders to take us alive.
I raised a magical shield with barely a thought, encasing us all in a protective bubble. The noise was enough to make my ears ring and gun smoke filled the room. The barrage eventually petered out when the humans realized their weapons weren’t having any effect on us. “How are you still alive?” Harley asked in near despair.
“Magic,” I replied, twiddling my fingers mysteriously.
“I suppose you’re going to kill us now,” one of the other men said, striving to keep his voice even. He was probably the second in charge.
“Do you even know who you’re working for?” Mirra asked. She turned her power off since it was useless against their bracelets.
“You know we work for Von Hades,” Harley said with a hint of scorn.
“Yes, but do you know what he is?” she shot back. The men exchanged looks, but didn’t reply.
“He’s a demon,” I told them.
Harley sneered at me in disbelief. “As if I’d believe anything a filthy vampire said.”
“Oh, he’s a demon all right, boyo,” Rudy said as he pushed his way through to the front of our group. “Here, let me show you.”
He reached up, took the human’s hand and Harley flinched at the contact. His eyes flicked from side to side as if he was seeing a movie. His face went pale and sweat popped out onto his forehead. He staggered back a step when Rudy released him. “What are you?” he asked, wiping his hand on his pants as if he felt unclean after what he’d seen.
“I’m a leprechaun,” Rudy said proudly. “I’d say I’m pleased to meet you, but that would be a lie.”
“Look, we’re not here to kill anyone,” Jake told the men and sent a regretful look at Langley’s body. “But if you threaten any of us again, you’ll incur my wrath. That is not something you want to have directed at you. We’ve come here for the relic. You can try to stop us, but I guarantee you that will be the end result.” He pointed at the corpse that was staring blindly up at the ceiling.
Harley looked haunted as he was the first to move, shouldering his weapon. “I didn’t sign up for this,” he said. “I’m not going to continue to work for a monster.”
“What did you see?” one of the others asked.
“I saw a red-skinned, black-winged demon being drawn through a portal to Earth and turning to mist, then being pulled into the body of a human,” the hunter replied with a shudder. “The human looked a lot like Von Hades.”
That was enough to convince the rest of them to find employment elsewhere. They filed out through the door, giving us a wide berth.
I could still feel another spell inside the room. It was coming from the yellow case that surrounded the dragon heart. The stone pedestal was covered in the same runes the one in the Deadworld had sported.
Rudy walked over to the pedestal and studied the glyphs. “This is ancient magic. I’m not sure of its origins.”
“The witch uses these symbols,” I told him. “She instructed her vampires to show the assassins how to use them as well.”
“How did Spencer manage to use them?” Quin asked with a deep frown. “He doesn’t have Harrow here to set this spell up even if the butler could still cast magic.”
“He must have found someone else to cast it,” I said with a shrug. “I managed to break the dome with a weapon belonging to one of the guardians in the Deadworld, but I don’t have a scythe handy.”
Greg’s hand manifested in front of me. The wickedly sharp blade of his weapon reflected the light from the dome. “Allow me,” he intoned.
“Stand back, everyone,” I warned them. “Greg is going to bust the case open.” The two male ghosts were already drawing away, dragging the unconscious Alakay with them. Brandi followed them, taking a few steps backwards. My friends and allies retreated as well. I split my shield so it would protect them and also shelter me when the enchantment was destroyed.
At my nod, Greg stretched his body out until he hovered next to the pedestal. One hand was still connected to my shoulder, but he easily held his scythe with the other. Sweeping it sideways, the blade sliced through the pedestal, shorting out the runes. The dome fell to the ground and broke, releasing a wash of power that battered our shields.
Lying on the floor among the ruins of the case, the dragon heart oozed blood from crudely severed arteries. “Does anyone have something I can put it in?” I asked. Rudy pulled a sack out of thin air and tossed it to me. “Thanks,” I said with a nod. As green as his suit, it was waterproof on the inside, so the blood shouldn’t be able to leak out.
“We need to get out of here,” Blair said uneasily. His head turned from side to side as if he sensed something coming.
A powerful spell kicked in the moment I picked up the heart. The same barrier I’d destroyed to enter the room now encased the entire house. “Uh, oh,” I said, stuffing the heart into the bag. “I think we just became trapped.”
Rudy concentrated and tried to teleport us away. “Aye, we’re caught, girly,” he agreed. “It’s going to take more than a bit of vampire blood and essence to get us out of here this time.”
From somewhere below us, a howl rang out as the hellhounds were released. “Great,” Jonah complained. “Now we’re going to have hounds and gargoyles chasing us.”
“How the hell are we going to get out of here?” Brandi asked. “There has to be a way.”
“Through the kitchen!” Jonah and I said at the same time.
“It’s a portal that leads to Spencer’s other houses,” my bestie reminded everyone.
“It’s worth a shot,” Quin said and headed for the door. An almost invisible hound with glowing red eyes leaped at her before she could take a step outside. Her reflexes were excellent and she put a bullet in its chest. With a yelp, it faded away to nothingness in mid-leap.
“Did you kill it?” one of Blair’s men asked, gun held ready and searching the hallway.
“I don’t think so,” Quin replied. “I think it just retreated. It’ll probably heal and join the fight again soon.”
We filed into the hallway and I kept our shield around us. A gray stone gargoyle appeared at the end of the passageway, glaring at us with beady eyes. The mark on its left wing meant it was my nemesis. I fired a shot at it, but it dropped down so my bullet whizzed past its head and lodged in the wall. With a malevolent glower, it retreated back around the corner.
“Let’s move,” Quin ordered and began leading the way down the hallway.
