Chapter Twelve #2
Knowing Walter had understood, and that he was now safe, EJ played the opening lines to “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” originally by John Denver.
All the vamps facing them, including Asshat, dropped to the floor, sound asleep.
It was a joke created in Section Seven, that sleepy-time working, because vamps slept in the daylight, when the sun shone. The working was targeted just to vamps.
But the soft humming of dangerous magic continued from somewhere deep in the clan home, a single note rising in volume.
Air-witch working. The first note of a concussive attack working.
EJ stepped in front of his sister and blew a second note.
His version of a wyrd magic sound-protection hedge, inside his sister’s hedge.
Instantly the three of them were enclosed in a bubble of dead silence, trapping air and sound.
If the concussive working got past Angie’s ward, it would dissipate when it touched his.
Walter pulled off his ear protection. “What?” His voice was dead-sounding too, as if they stood in a sound booth in an audio production studio.
“Air witch on the premises.” EJ blew the note again, strengthening the sound-protection hedge. He began counting down the seconds of protection he had just given them.
“Pretty,” Angie said of his working. “Lots of lights. Some bright. Some dark. Are you hearing Konstantin’s magic?”
“We never had much on him,” EJ said, his eyes following the motions of the humans in the entry. They were stepping back. That wasn’t good. That meant whatever was coming was more deadly than guns and knives. “He was dead, so why bother. And I haven’t had a lot of time tonight. Been busy, you know?”
“Okay,” Angie said. She took a breath and let it out slowly; the breath was a gathering, a building of power.
The notes of her magic wrapped into his hedge, increasing, growing stronger.
It wasn’t anything she could hear as she merged their energies, because Angie saw magic as light.
But to him it was the opening to a sonata.
A low muted G, sliding into a G sharp, into an A, the enharmonic notes sounding as if she played them on a baby grand in a massive auditorium as she wove her magics with his.
Behind them, icy air blew in through the open doors, but didn’t touch them inside the sound hedge.
Nothing did. Nothing could. But such magic came with costs.
While this defensive working kept out all sound, it also kept out all air exchange.
They’d run out of oxygen soon, even with Walter not breathing.
EJ blew another note to add strength to their shield.
It wasn’t created to last long—two minutes max—and as the air inside the hedge had already been activated in the working, there wasn’t a lot of power left to bolster it.
He wasn’t adding any of his personal reservoir of power to it.
He was saving his life force. Saving Delta. Hoping neither would be needed.
Outside the sound hedge, the vamps were coming to. Someone had activated a wake-up working. Someone with power and skills, or at least someone able to use amulets to great effect.
His battlefield reflexes had already kicked in and his body insisted he do something. Now. He slipped into Theta Mode; Delta waited, tranquil and motionless, ready to merge and build his power.
His impatience soothed, settled beneath the surface of the dark lake of his soul where his control rested.
Where his life began and ended. He breathed slowly.
“Move forward or retreat?” he asked as Marrazzo sat up, shaking his head.
“We have a few seconds to decide, before the hedge falls and we’re exposed to the attack working that’s humming in the background. ”
“Look,” Angie said.
A woman walked through the retreating humans, toward the entry.
He had expected Konstantin or Willim. Not…
this. She was tall, full-hipped, dark-haired, with golden brown skin and sea-green eyes.
Sensuous, as if pleasure beat through her veins instead of blood.
Rings glinted on her fingers. Emeralds, a ruby.
Except for the jewels, she was naked and perfect as a marble statue.
There wasn’t a blemish on her. She wore mesmerism like a second skin.
Vamp. That was his first clue, but it didn’t click until she raised her arm. And witch.
“Possessed. Castanets,” Walter whispered, so softly EJ might have missed it. The vamp slapped his ear protectors back in place.
The naked woman threw something at them. It hit Angie’s hedge.
In the same instant, EJ powered his own hedge with a last-ditch note.
He heard his sister’s magic crack as the shield shattered and rebounded into her. The energies of her hedge hit her body. In slow motion, Angie started to fall.
A whole second later, forever in a battle, the attack working blasted through his sound hedge.
Walter popped away, toward the witch, faster than EJ’s eyes could follow.
The vamp-witch’s notes battered EJ with the clash of a thousand clanging bells.
They stole his breath. Ripped at his energies, at the still, dark pool of his magic.
His heart bucked and tripped and stuttered.
Pain like a truck parked on his chest. Heart-attack working…
His legs buckled and he dropped beside Angie. Shoved a healing amulet over his heart. Another over hers. He managed a single breath. Blew a note for a repel working and a protection working—two hesitant, breathless notes that wavered on the air. A hedge that wouldn’t keep a gnat out…
Angie rolled over. Teeth clenched and lips pulled back in a rictus of pain and fury.
His sister was pissed. As long as she was angry, she would be okay.
For a few seconds they were safe beneath his ward, but once it fell, he’d have to open another one, leaving them exposed and helpless for a second. Maybe two.
EJ blew the note again. His heart pain decreased as the healing amulet did its job.
He removed another amulet, tucked it into one of Angie’s pockets, and pulled the null cloak tight across her, to give her time to get over the energy shock wave.
His sister had been hit with her own energy rebound and with the heart-attack working, two attacks in seconds.
Walter, to his right, was surrounded by newly awakened fangheads, his swords slashing, flashing in the lights.
The naked witch was kneeling off to the side. Eyes on Walter. Eyes flooding with darkness. Possessed, Walter had said. A witch-vamp with a demon. She took a breath to speak a wyrd of power.
Demon wyrd.
He was too far away for the castanets to work.
At a thought, Delta opened within him. EJ rose, his workings falling away, a hollow rattling like Ping-Pong balls bouncing.
Both hands on the flute, he blew the first notes of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It was the strongest assault working he had on him.
Between notes, he threw three musical keys at the naked woman.
All were assault workings, explosions of light and noise, a flash-bang of pure energy. Blinding to a vampire.
The witch fell back on her very pretty butt.
He played the second measure, directed solely at her, as he approached. Step by step.
The witch shook her head. The demon light in her eyes glowed, not hiding, not pretending to be anything but what it was.
She tried to speak.
EJ snapped his fingers, activating a muzzle working, sealing the woman’s lips.
The tendons in her neck stood out sharply as she tried to force the wyrd out between her lips. Couldn’t. She started to shake, as her magic hovered on the tip of her trapped tongue. Trapped by his music and his amulets. He began the third measure.
Walter’s battle had divided into two groups. One vamp still against Walter, two now taking on Angie. The vamps had thrown off the effects of his sleepy-time.
He knelt beside the naked witch. Continuing a single note, EJ dropped one hand from the flute and slapped a Section Seven null-head-cuff over the witch’s gorgeous head.
It snapped into place with a subdued, minor note.
Her eyes rolled back. She went limp. He pocketed the flute and secured her arms with silver.
Pulled a set of castanets. Clicked them once, setting them for a delayed activation so he could be away and not be caught in the time alteration.
He placed them on her chest between her perfect breasts. Damn. Succubus.
He looked to make certain no one was around him.
Turned to see his sister. In an instant, taking her in.
He had never watched her fight for her life.
He had a feeling he wasn’t watching that now.
He was watching her play with the vamps.
And was certain of it when he heard her laugh, crazy pleasure in the tone. She was having fun. Which was scary.
He glanced at Walter. There was a dead vampire at his feet. Another had taken her place in the battle. More were coming.
Their bodyguard fought with deadly dispatch.
Lunge, block, lunge, cut. Step inside, block, block.
Cage of death circling sword. Cut. The enemy vamp fell in a silent spray of blood.
Her throat cut. Not dead, but no way to scream.
Before she hit the floor, Walter turned the strike and revolved his hand. With a backhand arc, he took her head.
Between the two cuts, he stabbed a third opponent with the shortsword. As the man fell back, Walter spun and took his head too. So fast it was almost impossible to follow.
EJ whipped his gaze around the room. Back to Walter.
Walter shook blood from his sword, taking in the room. Meeting EJ’s eyes in a fast evaluation before moving on to Angie. He didn’t react, so EJ figured he’d been right. Angie was playing with them. But why?
And then Asshat stepped into view.