Chapter 23
Quinn
Somehow the darkened coastline looked eerier now that I knew what sorts of plots were being carried out under the cover of night. I rested my hands on my crossbow where it was lying across my lap in the back of the car and willed my pulse not to thunder quite so loudly.
“So, your spy said the leviathan sent some minions off on fishing duty?” I asked.
Rollick nodded from the seat ahead of me, where he was driving as usual. “Something like that. I warned the associates I’ve been able to call on not to get too close to any unusual activity, because we don’t want to tip off the villainous duo that we’ve noticed. A small group of the minions were messing around on an isolated spot farther down the coast from the rift, pulling something out of the water.”
“It would make sense that a being that powerful might send someone else off to catch his favorite food,” Crag rumbled from beside me.
Lance huffed in the front passenger seat. “He and his buddy are too busy making their tricksy plans. We can let him starve.”
Rollick gave him an amused look. “We’re not going out there to put an end to the fishing. If he trusts these lackeys enough to handle his food, it’s possible one or more of them has seen or heard things about his larger plans. We catch one, interrogate it, and if that one isn’t useful, we move on to the next.”
“I’d rather see the both of them starve,” Lance muttered, propping his legs up on the dashboard.
“At least we shouldn’t have to worry about anyone using sorcery on you during this mission,” I said. “Since the bosses will be busy with other things.” A small comfort.
Rollick veered onto a side road and parked out of view of the highway like he had when we’d observed the rift last night. As we got out of the car, Torrent materialized next to us, having ridden along in the shadows since there wasn’t a whole lot of room for five in the car, especially when one of those was Crag. I didn’t think the tentacled man minded the excuse not to hold his often painful physical form when he didn’t need to.
He”d been listening to all of our conversation, of course. “Any thoughts on what being we should aim to capture first?” he asked. “Are there any that we have reason to believe might be closer to their masters than the others?”
Rollick made a face. “Unfortunately no. The head honchos themselves have managed to stay mostly out of public eye. I say we grab whoever’s most easily available and work from there.” He glanced at me. “You’re staying here—with Lance, so you have a little backup. You’ll be too noticeable tramping around over there, and we won’t really need your skills until we’ve caught our first prisoner and need to convince them to talk.”
I hadn’t really thought that part through. It made sense for me to hang back when I couldn’t merge with the shadows like the men, but I couldn’t help grimacing at him. “So, I don’t get to be anything other than a sorcerer for this mission, then.”
Rollick’s lips curved into a smirk that was unusually soft around the edges. “I think we all know you’re much more than just a sorcerer—sweet, reluctant, or otherwise.”
His smile sent a quiver of heat over my skin. I didn’t totally know how to react to him after the intimacy we’d shared this morning. It was too fresh, and I wasn’t even sure how he felt about it now that all was said and done. But this wasn’t exactly the time to hash it out.
“Fine,” I muttered, and brandished my crossbow. “But if any beings come sneaking around this way like last time, I’m taking them on.”
Lance leaned close to nuzzle my hair with a much easier familiarity. “And I’ll be here to help you.”
Rollick took the two of us in with a twinge of emotion I couldn’t quite decipher, though I thought I sensed a little jealousy in it. He didn’t say anything, only stepped closer for just long enough to cup my jaw and press a quick kiss to my lips. My heart skipped a beat, and then he was stepping away, motioning to the other two men.
Crag shot me a concerned glance, and I waved him off. With the dragon shifter watching my back, I didn’t think the gargoyle had anything to worry about. Torrent tipped his head to me, and then all three vanished into the darkness.
My human eyes couldn’t make out much in the landscape around us, where a narrow road cut through a field with two more rolling hills on either side. We’d parked as far as possible from the sparse lampposts, and even the nearest of those cast small pools of light that barely extended beyond the shoulder of the road. Tonight was more overcast than yesterday, clouds blotting out the stars and all but the faintly glowing edge of the moon.
Lance shifted into dragon form to prowl around me and then sprang back up into his human-like body, flexing his arms. “Let’s hope they catch a talkative beastie quickly,” he murmured. “We should be part of the fun.”
I nudged him with bemused fondness. “I wouldn’t call this expedition fun.”
He grinned at me. “Anything can be fun if you take the right approach. For example, while we’re waiting, I could?—”
He’d just started to trail his claws down my arm when he froze, his gaze darting away from me to search the darkness. I tensed automatically. “What?”
His tongue flicked over his lips. The lean muscles in his shoulders flexed. “There’s something?—”
In one massive surge, the darkness around us came alive. A wave of monstrous bodies hurtled down the slopes on either side of the road, rushing straight toward us.
A squeak of startled shock burst from my lips. As Lance snarled and leapt back into dragon form, I yanked my crossbow up.
My finger squeezed the trigger once, twice, three times, hitting targets because it was almost impossible not to with so many racing toward us all together. Those bodies crumpled, but the dozens of others dashed onward.
Lance whipped along their front lines, slashing through as many as he could reach with his claws and flares of roaring dragon fire. But the ring of protection he was forming around me contracted no matter how swiftly he flung himself onward.
I fumbled with the bolts in my messenger bag, snatching a few up and shoving them into the crossbow with all the speed I could summon. Even as I clicked them into place, my pulse thudded with a rapidly growing sense of futility. I wasn’t sure I had enough bolts in my bag to take even half of these creatures down, whether I could load and fire fast enough or not.
We hadn’t expected a horde to come down on us. How had they found us here? Why were so many lurking out here by what was supposed to be just a fishing spot?
Did the other men have any clue this was happening, or were they still investigating the supposed fishers on the coastline, totally unaware?
My instinct had been to stay quiet, but that thought jarred a panicked, wordless yell from my throat. I didn’t know if we could get out of this if they didn’t come back and join the fray on our side.
But I couldn’t count on my other men hearing me or being close enough to help. I shot three more bolts into the oncoming horde and gasped for breath. I had to dodge to the side when one creature slashed at my thigh, its claws snagging on the fabric of my shorts in the instant before Lance pounced on it and tore its head off with his jaws. He hurtled onward, but more of the beasts were closing in.
I pushed my back against the side of the car for some minor sort of shelter. It’d be no good getting inside where the creatures could easily leap in after me through the shadows and I’d have no room to maneuver. Adrenaline thrummed through my body—and woke up the other sort of energy lodged in my heart.
I focused on the crackling sense of power with a jolt of hope. Willing it to sizzle up my throat and into my voice, I opened my mouth and shouted out a string of syllables in the language of sorcery.
The idea was to tell them to back off. To stand down and cower before us. But all through the onrushing crowd, I sensed the energy I cast out crashing into barriers like the one I’d felt on the being Rollick had snatched on the mountainside in Oregon.
Most of these creatures weren’t here of their own free will. They had their masters’ sorcery driving them onward.
I fired a few more bolts into the horde and let my voice ring out again, more forcefully than before. I had to break the hold on them. I had to shatter the sorcery that already gripped them. Even if I couldn’t bend their wills with my own magic at the same time, they might not want to take up this battle if they had the choice anyway.
The power of my words rippled through the mass of creatures in a wave. I felt with tingling pricks across my skin as one hold and another snapped. But as even several of the beasts veered away and a spark of triumph lit inside me, one large creature lunged at me just after Lance had whipped by.
I hadn’t been able to reload yet. I smacked the panther-like thing in the muzzle with the crossbow, but it was already shoving me to the ground. Its curved talons raked through my abdomen, slicing my shirt, the lower threads of my vest, and right into my flesh with a spike of agony.
I cried out with nothing in my voice but pain now. Lance ripped the thing off me and smacked its head right off its shoulders, but when I pressed my hand to my side, wetness pulsed against it. I was bleeding—gushing blood.
The dragon shifter kicked a few more fiends out of the way and dipped his head toward me. I jerked my hand out of the way just in time for him to send a blast of his fiery breath over my torso.
In his haste, Lance hadn’t been able to work as carefully as usual. The heat stung badly enough to force another whimper from my lips. He must have sealed some of the wound, but I could still feel blood trickling over my skin and soaking into the rest of my shirt.
My entire abdomen blared with pain. I could hardly breathe.
Lance snarled in frustration, whirling to savage a few more creatures who’d leapt in at us. A lithe humanoid figure sprang onto the hood of the car, and he swung toward her with a threatening growl.
She held up her hands, the image of her doubling before my wavering vision. “I’m not going to hurt her. I want to help.” She looked down at me. “Thank you for severing their spell. The beings that had me under their control want you destroyed by whatever means necessary. They see you as nothing but a threat now. Stay away from them if you want to live.”
With that warning, she fled into the shadows. I clamped my hand to my side, too dizzy with agony to fully process her words, and groaned. Even if I wanted to follow her advice, I had the sinking suspicion it might be too late.
There was a shriek, and a tentacle lashed into view, slamming several creatures head over heels. A huge, stony body landed beside me with a heavy thump. Crag stared down at me, his eyes blazing with fury and horror.
“Get her out of here!” Rollick’s voice rasped from somewhere nearby.
The gargoyle didn’t hesitate. He swept me up in his bulging arms, his muscles flinching at my hiss of pain, and launched himself into the air. As the ground fell away, the dizziness swelled right through my brain, and my mind fell away into a blackness even deeper than the night.