Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
R aphael took her to earth but turned mulish about taking her to her cabin.
“For your own safety,” he said, looking at her with those melty gold eyes.
Bianca didn’t have the capacity to fight, so she nodded and trudged upstairs to the living level of the theatre.
Dee and Eddie looked up from where they were sitting at the kitchen table, mugs cradled in their hands.
“Hi.” Bianca didn’t feel like chatting but didn’t see how it could be avoided when she was going to crash with them.
Eddie and Dee studied her.
“You okay?” Dee asked after a pause.
“No.” She was so not okay. “But can we not talk about it?”
Not talk about how she’d fallen for another fuckwit who only thought about themselves. Not get into how she’d given herself to another shithead who only saw her as a means to an end.
Eddie nodded and stood. “Sure. We’ll get you some tea.”
“Thanks, but I don’t want any tea.” She wanted to go home, to her home, and crawl into her own bed and pull the covers over her head and stay there until she didn’t hurt so much.
“You’ll want this tea,” Dee said with a wink. “Did you find Lucifer?”
“Yup.” His name sent a pang through her. He who shall henceforth have no name but shithead. Or HWSHHNNBS—call her crazy but it didn’t have a ring to it. Shithead worked.
Eddie put a mug in front of her. “Is that something we’re not going to talk about?”
Bianca nodded, took a sip, and coughed as strong spirits seared her throat. “You’re drinking.” She checked the clock. “At eleven a.m.”
“I don’t get drunk anymore.” Eddie shrugged. “Nephilim thing.”
“And I’m keeping her company.” Dee clinked her mug against Bianca’s. “Nobody should day drink alone.”
“Why are we day drinking?” Assuming they didn’t have a shithead situation of their own, talking about someone else’s crappy morning was better than talking about hers.
Eddie shrugged. “Seemed like the thing to do. End of days and all that.”
Made sense to Bianca. She sipped. It was basically whisky with a smidge of tea, but it warmed her from throat to gullet, and if she drank enough, it might anesthetize her.
They drank in silence until Eddie said, “Can I ask what you’re going to do now?”
“Seems like you just did.” Bianca patted her backpack. “I’m going to do the tracking spell and find Leona.”
“Good.” Dee pushed her mug away. “What do you need?”
Feeling like she’d missed something vital, Bianca stared at her.
“Looks like Lucifer is a no show.” Dee got to her feet. “And we promised those children we’d get their mother back.”
“Just like that.” The instant support brought her perilously close to tears.
Eddie put all three mugs in the sink. “Just like that. What do you need?”
During the flight back with Raphael, thinking about the spell had kept her mind off Luc—shithead. “I don’t think we should do it here.” She gestured the theatre around them. “I’ve never done this spell before, and I don’t want to place Emma and Ethan in any more danger.”
Dee blinked at her and crossed her arms. “What kind of danger? Like the blowing up kind?”
“No.” Bianca had to laugh. “At least, I don’t think so. The spell tracks, but to do that, it connects the wielder with the subject.” Magic was unpredictable, and she didn’t have her coven with her. “I want to be away from the children when I establish that connection.”
It took some discussion, but it was finally agreed that Sophia, Daniel, and Dee would stay at the theatre. Eddie and Shade would take Bianca to her cabin and provide the power boost. Raphael must have said something, because nobody asked her about shithead.
It was midafternoon by the time they arrived at Bianca’s house. It looked the same, which was strange, because Bianca felt like she’d changed so much since the night they’d brought Lucifer here. Her home’s familiarity wrapped around her like a snuggly blanket. They’d swung past Leona’s to collect a personal object, and Bianca had Leona’s hairbrush in the bag with the grimoire.
True spellwork didn’t rely on candles, or herbs, or crystals, but the ritual of placing these objects centered Bianca as she set up at her kitchen table.
She cleared negative energy from the room and placed anchoring crystals in a grid around her, Shade, and Eddie.
With keen eyes, Shade watched her work. “How can we help?”
“If you could open your power to me,” Bianca said as she lit candles. “Then I can use your power for an extra push.”
Shade nodded, his eyes glowing silver. The wash of his lust power made her want to purr and rub up against him, but she forced herself to focus.
Eddie’s power felt different. Where Shade’s oozed like honey, Eddie’s was sharp and clear like a gemstone.
“Let’s get this done,” Shade said. “I want you two back at the theatre as soon as possible.”
Bianca opened the grimoire to the tracking spell. She placed Leona’s crystal on the age yellowed tome and channeled into it. The rush of power from Eddie and Shade was like a tsunami, and it took Bianca a moment to control the storm.
Then she locked her power stream on the crystal and spoke the incantation.
Her vision went black, her ears popped, and she could hear nothing but her breathing and the rapid thump of her heart.
She floated in a dark, blue-tinted vacuum. A tug at her solar plexus made her gasp. The dark streamed past her and the pull inside her strengthened.
She hit a barrier and was repelled.
Bianca drew on Eddie and Shade.
The barrier popped, and another heartbeat filled the silence. It was a disconcerting counter rhythm to her heartbeat.
Shapes coalesced out of the dark. Two human shapes.
One of them was Leona. The other was Ashe.
Ashe was talking to Leona, but his voice was muffled.
Relief that Leona was alive flooded Bianca.
Leona didn’t look well. Her skin was ashy and dull, and her cheekbones jutted blade sharp in her thinner face.
Leona stiffened and looked around.
Ashe’s mouth moved as he spoke. His words echoed down a tunnel to Bianca. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” Leona said. “Go away.”
Ashe grimaced. “I am going away. I have to do something, and then I’ll be back.”
“I don’t care,” Leona said in a flat, hollow voice.
“Witch,” a voice boomed in Bianca’s mind, so loud she cried out. “How nice of you to join us.”
Oily satisfaction seeped down the connection.
Leona and Ashe were holding their heads as if they experienced the voice too.
“Bianca!” Eddie cried. “Break the connection.”
“And my Nephilim,” the voice said.
“Bianca,” Shade yelled. “Break it.”
Bianca tried to retreat.
An iron grip fastened around her mind. “Ah no, witch. Not leaving so soon, are you?”
“Bianca.” Leona gasped. “Get away from here.”
She was trying. Bianca struggled against the being who had her in an implacable hold. It felt so other, a jumbled mix of demonic and human and something else, something ancient and alien. So much power too. Not even the hell princes’ power was this vast.
She was aware of hands on her body, shaking her, trying to help her.
“So strong in your magic,” the being said. “You will be mine.”
Leona sobbed. “Get away, Bianca.”
Ashe’s face was frozen in a rictus of pain.
Bianca grappled with the force, her magic scrabbling against the indefatigable strength like fingernails against steel. Her head felt like it might explode. Her breath sawed in and out her mouth.
“You will be mine, witch,” the being said. “You and the third.” Its laughter ricocheted through her mind, lacerating her brain. “I will have all three, and I will have you.”
Another power source joined Eddie and Shade, and then a fourth. Bianca snatched for it.
The grip on her mind weakened.
Bianca managed to wriggle part of the connection loose.
The being roared with rage. “It’s too late. I will have the three, and I can’t be stopped.”
Bianca lurched free of the connection, and her magic recoiled like a whip.
She had a glimpse of her kitchen table, and then everything went black.
* * *
Lucifer caught Bianca before she hit the floor. Fury nearly burned through his skin. “What the fuck were you doing?” he yelled at Shade.
“Like you care.” Shade was holding an ashen Eddie. “You left.”
Lucifer had certainly tried to leave. He hadn’t lasted a day and had come through the hell gates five minutes before Shade’s panicked call had reached Sophia.
Bianca was so pale and limp in his arms. He checked for a heartbeat, and his own heart only started again as he detected the thready murmur. She was alive.
He strode through to her bedroom with her. Wrapping her in her quilt, he cradled her against his chest.
They’d almost fucking lost her. He’d almost lost her.
Shade and Eddie hadn’t been strong enough to break the connection between Bianca and whatever had held her captive on the spirit plane.
Lucifer was shaking, and he tightened his grip on Bianca.
“What was that?” Raphael looked grim as he spoke to Shade.
“No fucking idea.” Shade hustled Eddie to the door. “But I’m not waiting here to find out if that thing can find us here physically.”
Lucifer and Raphael had arrived at Bianca’s cabin and merged their power with Eddie and Shade’s. It had been enough for Bianca to break free, but Lucifer didn’t want the credit for saving her. He didn’t deserve it. He should have been here before she cast the spell.
“We need to get her safe,” his voice was hoarse. Inside, he felt raw and exposed. He’d almost fucking lost her. There would be time for questions and recriminations later. After he’d gotten her safe.
“Will she be okay?” Eddie peered at Bianca in his arms.
Raphael locked up Bianca’s house and joined them.
“Yes,” Lucifer said, because he wouldn’t allow her not to be.
Shade drove, and Lucifer counted Bianca’s inhalations and exhalations.
“What was that?” Raphael asked from beside him.
They’d all experienced that thing that had latched on to Bianca’s magic.
“It wasn’t Ashe,” Shade said.
Linked with Bianca, they’d all seen and heard what she had.
Eddie’s voice shook. “I think we’ve just met the one Ashe called master.”
“I certainly fucking hope so.” Shade shook his head. “Because if that’s not the master, then we’re in even deeper shit than any of us imagined.”
“She can’t stay on this plane,” Raphael said. “It knows where she is, and it will come for her.”
“Where?” Lucifer snapped. “Hell isn’t much safer.”
Raphael hummed. “Heaven.”
“What?” Shade glanced at him.
“Heaven.” Raphael’s voice firmed as he warmed to his idea. “We move all the witches there. It’ll be easier to protect them while we hunt that thing down.”
Lucifer didn’t like the idea, but it made sense. The full angelic hosts could look after his haglette until he found the thing that had tried to take her from him.