Chapter 41
ISAAC
“Bollocks,” Ollie grumbled as I dragged him behind a car.
The poor guy’s brows were drawn together, confusion practically emanating from him.
“We’re getting out of here,” I told him, patting his arm.
He let out a long breath, a pair of fangs elongating from his canines.
“Whoa!” I cried.
His eyes widened as he felt the addition to his body. But the sun didn’t hurt him, no smoke or burns anywhere.
“What—”
The arrival of a shade cut him off.
“There you are!” the fucker roared.
I unleashed my sunshine, bringing the creature down before it could spin its shards at me.
Oh, goody. From one essence-stealing prick to another. The next thing would be Tony and the fae hag teaming up.
Ollie groaned, and I dropped my light. “Shit. Does it hurt?”
“It’s not fun,” he answered, fangs sliding away. “But only in the normal way.”
I grabbed his knees. “You weren’t dying?”
The coven wailed around me as the shades attacked and hissed. This would be a bloodbath.
“But they are,” he added, moving into a crouch.
“You’re not weakened?” I asked, worried out of my mind.
He shook his head, leaning one hand on the car. “Give me a minute, though.”
A body rolled across the road, hitting the curb close to the car. The man’s throat was torn out, blood gushing across the asphalt, flowing into a drain beside his head.
Shit.
“We’re coming for you, Sunshine One!” the shades cried.
Was that so?
“Wait here,” I told Ollie, breaking cover.
“Sputter!” Tony roared.
A bolt of white magic struck me in the chest. I fell onto my butt, spotting Tony hiding behind a car on the opposite side of the road, giving me away.
I rolled back into cover, trying to use my power.
It, well, sputtered. I shook my hands, sparks spitting but not igniting.
He’d infected me with his new magic yet again.
I wasn’t standing for this.
“Fucker!” I spat, rage my closest bedfellow again.
Ollie said something, but I didn’t hear him. The furious throbbing of my pulse thundered in my ears, the crimson mist falling like a veil. In that moment, I lived in vengeance. I only saw Tony, my soul thirsty for his end.
With a quick test of my bangle, which did work, I ran into the fray.
“Isaac! Wait!” Ollie called after me.
I ignored him, shutting my mind down to all concerns, to every single emotion. I latched onto the determination to exterminate my ex.
“Help us!” a man bellowed in my face before a shade grabbed him by the neck and snapped it.
The shade then turned its scarlet gaze to me.
“Freeze!” The spell only slowed the fuckhead down for a moment, giving me enough time to hide behind a blue car.
Ollie’s a vampire…my brain offered, breaking my momentum.
Nice of it to be so helpful. I wanted to hold onto my sanity, not get myself tangled up in this sticky web.
At least not out on the field.
My energy took another wobble as another thought hit me.
Help these witches? Seriously? After conspiring with Tony?
No way. Their right to my protection went down the toilet with the most rancid of shits.
Why should I do anything to save their lives?
Oh, what, because of my calling it meant I had to play the hero, saving everyone and anyone I could, no matter what?
I’d rather swallow battery acid than save these people.
Fuck them.
Let them scream.
I moved again, aiming for the shelter of another vehicle. A woman’s corpse dropped in front of me, her head almost cleaved off her neck. I jumped back, her blood everywhere. Seconds later, a man landed on top of her with holes in his chest.
“The Sun!” a chorus of shade voices called.
I hit the dirt as shards flew overhead, missing me by inches. Keeping low, I hurried to take shelter behind a different car.
You’re not getting a slice of me, I thought at the hag.
More screams, more death, and my sunshine still faulty. A sensation like heartburn took up residence in my chest, a clear sign of Tony’s bullshit.
Where was he?
I took a cursory glance from outside my shelter and spotted him between two red cars close to Blood House. He’d basically moved with me, the cheeky shit.
Unfortunately, there were four shades blocking a direct route to him, looming over the bodies of dead shimmer witches. It didn’t look like they were stealing their essence, but I couldn’t be sure.
Ugh. So much for being purely focused on Tony. Other thoughts were getting in, already distracting me. Like Ollie and how I’d like to go back to him right now and get him to safety.
Until my ex blew me a kiss.
Oh, this prick was going into one of my nets.
Using the vehicles for cover, I pushed harder, taking a big run to a green car three up from his hiding spot. Timing it perfectly between shard spins.
Almost got you… I smiled, my lust for revenge focusing again.
A man joined me, cracking his elbow on the car door, making me jump.
“Fuck me hard!” I bellowed.
“Save us, Sun! Save us!” He grabbed my arms, yanking me forward.
I punched him in the face. He turned as he fell, landing face-first on the sidewalk with a yucky crunch.
Good!
“The Sun will come!” a shade roared.
The car rocked from the impact of a storm of shards.
As I went to dash for it, so close to Tony, blue magic puffed to life in my hands, a riot of itches crawling in my palms. Familiar itches, like the time I developed my regular shade-killing power.
I turned my hands over, seeing a smaller blue sun drawing itself across my skin. A flicker of a gloriously sunny day blazed in my head, and I understood I’d once again developed a new solar ability.
For a sacred witch locked out of the celestial room where the real meaty goodies waited for me, these power increases warmed my soul. It was a sign of the goodness having my back, throwing me and Riley a bone while we waited for Preston to join us.
“The Sun!” the shades called as one.
After the next flurry of shards, I rolled out from cover and sprang to my feet, my palms facing forward.
Aching with a stinging burn, beams of blue magic burst from the new sun symbols, doing the laser thing, crisscrossing the street to take down every single shade.
The creatures roared in fright, trying to escape, but each one of them exploded, falling to the ground as shimmering white dust.
I lowered my hands when the last one fell, taking several deep breaths and listened the groans of survivors around me, their pleas pathetic.
I’d done it.
I’d destroyed them.
Now for—
Tony plunged a blade into my stomach, twisting it. My lungs paused, the surprise turning my limbs to concrete.
He pressed his forehead to mine. “I love you so much, but you need to get out of my way.” He crushed his lips to mine, then pulled back, yanking the blade out of me.
“Isaac!” Ollie boomed.
Able to move again, I touched where he’d stabbed me.
Blood flowed over my hands, turning them red in seconds, my lifeforce spilling across the asphalt.
Then the pain started, hot and unbearable, yet I couldn’t make a sound.
My throat closed for business, the rest of me struggling to comprehend this.
Stabbed…
Stabbed me…
He stabbed me.
World spinning, fringes of existence blurring. Tony jumping into a white car, the darn thing speeding away, tires screeching.
Footsteps. Pounding, pounding, pounding.
I collapsed, landing in his arms.
“O-Ollie?”
Blurry face above me. Blurry guy, the guy I liked.
But I was… I was going. Hurting. Dying. Unless my body could handle it.
Could it? Messy in there. Messy and hurting and so, so bloody.
“Hold on,” Ollie said, laying me down on the chilly ground.