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EVEN WITH A STEADY supply of blood, solid food, chocolate and coffee, I was wrung out by the time the sun began to sink from the sky. Deep underground, I couldn’t see the light fading, but my vampiric side instinctively knew when darkness was about to hold sway. I’d used up all the ingredients stored in the cupboard and Quin had sent some shifters out to get more.
Movement startled me, but it was just Rudy returning from his mysterious errand. He was perched on the table beside me wearing a morose expression. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I failed,” he said, rubbing his face with one hand wearily.
“Failed at what?”
“To convince my kin to help us.”
“Is that what you were doing? Trying to get the leprechauns involved?”
He nodded and crossed his arms. It was comical the way his short legs dangled far above the ground, but I wasn’t about to laugh at him. Not when he was so obviously depressed. “They’re too afraid of the witch to leave the safety of their hidey holes,” he told me. “They’re terrified she’ll send vampires or zombies after them again.”
“Ugh, zombies,” Brandi said as she drifted through the wall in time to overhear him. “Jonah told me the witch has vampires and the walking dead as her minions. Are we likely to be facing them?”
“Eventually,” I replied. “Once she sees our allies are protected from her wraiths, she’s bound to call on her other servants.” It was inevitable that the mistress of death would use everything she had at her disposal. “She ordered the vampires to band together and to increase their numbers before she went through the portal,” I added as the rest of our friends joined us. “There must be thousands more of them by now.”
“That’s a good point, girly,” Rudy said. “She must have some way of bringing them all to Russia where she’s concentrating her attacks,” the leprechaun added.
“I’m not so sure about that,” Jake said. “She ordered them to gather in the States for a reason.”
“Why there?” I asked.
“Because that’s where Von Hades has chosen to be his territory,” Quin said. “The demon staked his claim on West Virginia and has concentrated his interests there. He was the one who imprisoned her and he’s her main target. I’ll be willing to bet Rosethorn will be in her sights.”
“I guess that will work out for him then,” I mused. “Since he wants to draw her to one of the druidic woods.”
Rudy heaved a sigh and rubbed his face with both hands. “I’m way too tired for this,” he said crankily. He saw me looking at him speculatively and drew away slightly. “Do I even want to know what you’re thinking about?” he asked nervously.
“You’re not thinking about doing what I think you’re thinking about doing, are you?” Connor said.
“Probably,” I replied with a smirk. “I can give you a boost of energy,” I told the leprechaun. He’d worn himself out being our teleporting minion and he hadn’t regained his strength yet.
He looked me up and down doubtfully. “No offense, but you look about ready to fall over.”
“Should I do it?” I said to my mate as we left the conjuring room and headed for the Archives.
Connor had been on the receiving end of my energy boosts and put some thought into it before replying. “It’ll definitely help him,” he decided.
“Is this going to be dangerous?” Quin asked, knowing how easy it was for me to take too much and become overloaded.
“Not if I’m careful,” I replied, then reached out to the dozens of alphas and their seconds. Siphoning off a fraction of their energy, they didn’t even feel the theft, but I was suddenly bursting with energy. “Holy crap, I took too much!” I said in alarm.
Rudy tried to back away when I strode towards him, but Jake caught him by the shoulders and held him still. “Take it like a man,” the hunter said with a grin. “This won’t hurt a bit.”
Dropping to my knees in front of the leprechaun, I put my hands on his chest and poured the extra power into him. His forest green eyes went wide and he sucked in a breath. Jake yanked his hands away, but some of the power had spilled into him as well. While the leprechaun didn’t change, it had a different effect on the hunter. Every trace of weariness left him and I was stunned to see the fine laugh lines around his eyes were gone. I’d just shaved a few years off him and now he would struggle to appear to be in his thirties. I decided not to point that out to him just yet.
When I felt I could handle the energy levels, I switched off the transfer and took my hands away from Rudy’s chest. He was looking directly at me, but I had a feeling he wasn’t seeing me at all. For a few seconds, he stood stock still, then he gasped out the breath he’d been holding. Dancing a jig, he clapped his hands in glee. “Oh, girly, that was a rush! You can give me your energy any time!”
“Sheesh, have some dignity, dude,” Jonah said as he watched the little man dance.
“Dignity schmignity,” Rudy said rudely. “I’m so hopped up on power right now I could take on Morgwen myself.”
“Don’t say her name,” Winston reminded him in a hushed voice, looking around wildly. “It could draw her attention to us.” Rudy clapped a hand over his mouth, but his eyes twinkled with mischief.
“I think I might have given him too much,” I admitted, hoping he was going to be able to focus and not do anything that would cause us any trouble.
Quin strode to the center of the room and addressed the shifters. All wore belts of some kind that I’d crafted into spells. True shapeshifters, sirens and were-creatures, they quietened down to listen to what she had to say.
“I want to thank you all for agreeing to assist us,” Quin began, voice echoing throughout the room in the silence. “You’ve done well against Harrow’s hybrids, but this time we’ll be facing foes none of us have ever encountered before. These Dread Wraiths can torture or kill with one touch, but these belts should protect us.” She touched the rope she’d tied around her waist. Everyone wore one, including me.
“‘Should’ protect us?” someone muttered, but was quelled by glares from the others. He and his second stood apart from the others. Nearly seven feet tall and hugely muscled, both men were intimidating. From their sheer size, they had to be werebears. Rarer than other shifters, they were the worst when riled. From his accent, they were European rather than American.
“The wraiths are spirits and the spell repels attacks from ghosts,” Quin said with more patience than I’d expected considering she’d almost lost an arm to a rogue pack of werebears six decades ago. “I’m confident they’ll work.”
“If they’re ghosts, how do we kill them?” a werewolf asked.
“I doubt we can,” our boss replied.
“What do you need us to do?” Xavier asked.
“Hold back our foes so my team can stop Von Hades from using a mask to turn himself into a demi-god.”
Murmurs erupted at that news. They all knew who and what Spencer was by now. Learning the demon planned to turn himself into a deity didn’t fill them with joy.
“So, you want us to keep the wraiths busy and that’s it?” the alpha bear asked in a deep voice. His disappointment was evident in his crossed arms.
“You’re a witch,” one of the true shapeshifters said to me. I recognized her from the meeting we’d had here in the Scottish Archives a while back. “Don’t you know of a way to kill these wraiths?”
“They aren’t from this dimension,” I told her. “They aren’t like our ghosts. These things are more like a cross between spirits and Grim Reapers. Believe me, trying to kill a reaper isn’t something I want to attempt again.” I barely held in a shudder at the thought. It had taken dozens of ghosts to attempt to drain Greg and they’d ultimately failed.
“You have your orders,” Quin said. “Keep the wraiths, and any other enemies we might encounter distracted and buy us the time to do our jobs.”
Heads bowed in submission and even the true shapeshifters acknowledged her supremacy as she unconsciously let her power seep out again. They would obey her orders, but I just hoped our mad plan would work.
