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WE FILED UPSTAIRS TO shower while Roderick and a couple of shifters prepared food and beverages. Dejected and tired, we trudged into the dining room to find a huge meal waiting for us. Elbowing my way through the crowd, I filled a plate high with bacon, steak, fries and runny eggs. I added a bit of potato salad to balance it out, then chose a seat and began eating.
Quin knew better than to try to talk business while we were focused on our food. The three human hunters ate with grim determination, shooting mistrustful looks at the supernatural creatures that surrounded them.
“What are we going to do with them?” Jake asked Quin too quietly for them to overhear him.
She regarded the trio, then flicked a look at Mirra. “Wipe their memories of us and send them on their way,” she suggested. “Three humans won’t be of much help and they’ll only get themselves killed.”
Harley sensed we were talking about him and gave us a sharp look. Any urge to flirt with me had died the moment he’d learned what I was. I couldn’t really blame him and felt no anger or hurt. I was a monster and he’d never had a chance with me. I’d already been claimed by Connor even before he’d marked me.
After our meal, Mirra drew the three hunters aside. Twisting her pendant so color bled into it, she put them beneath her spell and murmured instructions. Their heads nodded woodenly as she told them to forget they’d ever met us.
Quin cocked an eyebrow at Rudy and the leprechaun sighed. “What am I?” he grumbled. “Your little teleporting boy?”
“Something like that,” Jake said with a grin. “Now, do your duty and get rid of them for us, will you?”
With a click of his tiny fingers, Rudy sent the humans back home to the States. “Now that they’re gone, maybe we can focus on finding a solution to our problems.”
“Speaking of which,” Roderick said, drawing our attention to him. “There have been some developments while you were gone.”
“Such as?” Quin asked.
“I’ve been keeping my eye on the news,” the Archivist replied. “The witch and her Dread Wraiths completely wiped out the town in Russia as well as the authorities who turned up to assist them.”
“That’s not much of a surprise,” Blair pointed out. “We expected that to happen.”
“Yes, but we didn’t expect to hear about a horde of monsters invading several towns near where the Dark was unleashed in the Czech Republic,” Roderick said primly. “I think they’re Harrow’s creations. Now that the witch is making herself known, the druids are carving out their territory.”
Quin pinched the bridge of her nose for a few moments. “Does anyone have any ideas of how to stop the witch, the demon and the druid?” Silence was her only answer. “I thought not,” she murmured to herself.
“Dragon blood is the key,” Jake mused. “We needed it to weaken the witch. Viper had the only source of blood, but that’s gone now.”
“I can’t believe she ate the heart,” I said incredulously.
Rudy shook his head in disbelief. “God only knows what it will do to her.”
I rubbed my chest where I could feel the dragon blood coiled inside me. If there was a way to use it against Morgwen, I’d do it. But it had merged with me and it wasn’t something that could be extracted easily.
“Are we sure there aren’t any dragons left on Earth?” Lilly asked. I hated to admit it, but she was disappointingly normal now that she was no longer obsessed with my mate.
“If there was, Von Hades would have found it long ago,” Quin replied.
“Can anything else be substituted for it?” Blair queried.
“I’ll check,” I said and summoned Greta’s Grimoire. As I suspected, it knew the spell that Spencer intended to use on Morgwen. The pages fluttered to a stop and I scanned the incantation. It was long, involved a lot of ingredients and would take every scrap of power I possessed to get it to work. It was the most powerful blood magic I’d ever seen and it was almost beyond my abilities to cast. “Only dragon blood will work,” I confirmed. “It’s the only substance that will be strong enough to counter the death magic that binds the reaper to the witch.”
“We can’t fight the witch and her Dread Wraiths, but we can at least stop Harrow from staking out his territory in the Czech Republic,” Connor said.
“We’ll need help,” Jake added, eyeing our small army. “What are the chances the other clans will join us?”
“They’ll want in on this war,” Blair replied.
“We’ll make some calls,” Jean promised. She and her mate reached for their cell phones and began calling the leaders of the other clans.
“A few hundred or more true shapeshifters will be great, but it won’t be enough,” Jake said to Quin. “Do you have any other shifter packs who might agree to assist us?”
“I know a few who might be crazy enough to join the party,” she replied. “I’ll contact them and see if they can spread the word.”
“I’m going to let the ghosts out of the cell,” I said to Connor. There wasn’t much we could do while waiting for the calls to be made. He nodded, leaving me to traverse to the lower level on my own.
It was strangely lonely walking down the long, dark hallway to the cell at the far end. As always, the chalk circle was intact again. Every time we sent the phantoms to the cell, the spell to lock them in became active again. I swiped my finger over the circle and the lock clicked. I swung the door open to see three contrite spirits waiting for me in trepidation.
“I didn’t mean what I said,” Brandi blurted. “You’re not useless, Ari. You’re awesome.”
I kept my expression stern, just now remembering the insults they’d thrown at me. I’d sadly grown used to their nastiness when they became evil. “Well?” I said to the other two. “What do you have to say for yourselves?”
“Sorry?” Jonah said lamely. “You know how horrible we get when we go to the dark side.”
“Really, you should be used to it by now,” Winston blustered, but twirled one end of his moustache nervously.
Breaking into a snigger, I let them off the hook. “Don’t worry about it,” I told them. “I’ve heard far worse insults. You’re free to leave the cell.”
The moment I gave them permission to leave, Brandi was pulled towards Quin. Her magical leash didn’t stretch far enough for her to stay with us.
“What did we miss?” Jonah asked as we made our way down the hall to the Archives. I filled them in on the scuffle with Viper and what Roderick had told us.
“So, we’re screwed,” Jonah summed up when I was done. “We don’t have any dragon blood, which means the witch can’t be defeated.”
“There’s still the spell that will encase her and her sidekick in a forcefield,” I reminded him. It was designed to block all magical abilities like troll magic did to leprechauns.
“Do you really think you’ll be able to use it against her?” Winston asked. “Her Dread Wraiths won’t give you the chance to get close enough. They’ll touch you with their bony fingers and end your life.”
“That will not happen while she is bound to me,” Greg said, coming forward so we could see him. “My mistress and I are entwined now. Death will not claim her.”
His hand was permanently welded to my shoulder, which was a damning sign that he was telling the truth. “I’m becoming just like her,” I whispered in horror. Neither of the ghosts refuted my words. How could they when they both knew it was true?
