Chapter 5
A foul stenchflooded Mae’s nostrils when they emerged on the landing outside Vlad’s apartment. Relief shot through her.
She couldn’t sense the incubus or his familiar.
A violent burst of magic brushed against her cores just as Nikolai reached for the door handle, its taste as familiar as her own. She grabbed the sorcerer’s arm and yanked him aside a second before the door exploded outward and crashed into the opposite wall.
The giant hellboar that had smashed into it left a bloodied trail as it slid to the floor, golden sparks sizzling inside the six-inch crater in its chest. The red light in the monster’s eyes faded.
Mae’s stomach roiled when the creature’s dead form collapsed into inky threads that vanished with a hiss of corruption.
“What the hell?!” Nikolai mumbled.
A scream came from inside the apartment. “Enrique, no!”
The chilling power of Anya’s Illusion Sorcery drenched the air.
Mae scowled. “Let’s go!”
The inside of Vlad’s penthouse looked like a bomb had gone off. Broken glass and debris crunched beneath their feet as they closed in on the sounds of the battle. Mae’s heart lurched when they came in sight of the living area.
Cortes stood in the middle of the floor, his eyes and those of his bird familiar Popo blazing with a fierce light as he braced against the bull-like monster towering over them. The sword in his right hand sparked against the beast’s wicked horns while blood dripped from a nasty wound on his flank and soaked into his suit.
The muscles and tendons in his left arm bulged where he hung on grimly to the whip he was using to stop a hellwolf from shredding Anya to pieces, the bright cord raising the sickening stink of burning flesh as it scorched the creature’s hind leg.
The wolf snarled and snapped its jaws inches from the witch, heedless of the pain, claws scraping deep grooves in the floor.
Blue flames flickered around Anya and her Harpy Eagle Sable, their magic focused on the dozen hellbeasts that had surrounded her and Cortes. The witch’s left cheek and forehead bore shallow cuts and she was favoring her right leg. Though most of the creatures had frozen in their tracks under the spell Anya had unleashed, the hellbull and the hellwolf seemed immune to it.
Magic surged through Mae’s veins. Half a dozen Devour spells burst into life above her hands. She blinked.
Black and ivory flickered within Devour, the threads intertwining with the crimson light of her demonic power.
Fire resonated across her bond with Brimstone, distracting her. The demon fox shook himself out into his nine-tailed form, the red aura that surrounded him making the air tremble.
It too was tainted with darkness and light.
Mae’s throat tightened on a sudden wave of dread. Is that white magic and—black magic combined?!
Na Ri’s presence rose inside her. Focus, Mae!
Mae clenched her jaw. She’s right. I’ll worry about that later!
She hurled the Devour spheres at the hellbull just as Nikolai cast Hell Flare upon the wolf. The monsters screeched under their attack. The sounds pierced Mae’s ears and shattered what remained of the windows.
Brimstone brought the hellbull to the ground. He pressed a powerful paw against its chest, sank his fangs into its neck, and ripped it open with a savage growl. A crimson tide gushed out of the monster’s torn vessels, the ripples washing against Cortes’s expensive shoes before they bubbled down into obsidian threads that dispersed into nothingness.
The corpse of the hellwolf similarly disappeared inside the deadly firestorm that had engulfed it, the spear stuck in its heart clattering onto the floor.
Mae and Nikolai exchanged a tense glance.
There was no doubt about it. Whatever this was, it stank of Vedran’s magic.
“Thanks!” Cortes panted.
Popo flapped his wings gratefully on the sorcerer’s shoulder.
They turned to face the monsters Anya had immobilized.
“Let’s clean this up,” Mae said coldly.
It took them a handful of minutes to dispose of the remaining creatures. Anya sagged when the last one vanished in a fading pool of corruption. The pale fire in her pupils faded. She crumpled to the ground, violent shudders racking her body. Sable crooned worriedly in the witch’s lap.
Cortes fell to his knees beside them, unheeding of his wound. “Anya!”
“I’m okay,” she mumbled numbly as he took her in his arms.
She gripped his shirt and pressed her face into his chest. Tears seeped from under her eyelids as she squeezed them shut.
Mae whirled around at the sound of breaking glass, her fingers spasming as she automatically sought Hellreaver. The fight drained out of her. She straightened.
Vlad and Tarang were crossing the floor, demonic power flickering around them and the black swords the incubus held. A muscle jumped in Vlad’s cheek as he observed the damage to his apartment.
“What the hell happened?!”
* * *
“We were ambushedafter we left the cartel compound,” Cortes said in a hard voice.
Nadia frowned, Sun Magic gleaming around her fingertips where she sat on the couch beside the sorcerer and healed his wounds. Roman watched on worriedly.
He’d accompanied the High Priestess when Nikolai had called the coven to ask for her help.
“There, all done.” Nadia lifted her hands off Cortes and turned to Anya. “You’re next.”
Vlad passed Cortes a glass of whiskey. The Colombian accepted it gratefully.
“You mean, those hellbeasts just turned up at your location?” Nikolai said sharply.
“Yes.” Anya winced when Nadia touched her leg. “We have no idea how they found us or what their intentions were.” A cynical laugh left her. “Apart from killing us, that is.”
Sable flew over from where she’d been perching on Tarang with Popo and nudged her witch’s arm with her large head. Anya released a shaky breath and stroked the Harpy Eagle gently.
Cortes gave Mae a troubled look. “I think they were after my magic.”
Anya’s eyes rounded. “What?”
A cold sweat broke out on Mae’s brow. She held the sorcerer’s gaze, the photographs of the bodies the New York coven had found flashing through her mind.
From Nikolai’s harrowed expression, he’d just had the same thought.
“That hellwolf tried to tear my stomach open, like it wanted to reach my core.” Cortes pressed a hand to his belly. “Soul Shield resisted the attack.”
“It was clever of you to suggest putting that spell inside us, oh former queen of my heart,” Popo said effusively.
Cortes narrowed his eyes at his familiar.
Mae chewed her lip. She’d placed Soul Shield around everyone’s core upon their return to the States. With Vedran and Barquiel still at large, both wounded and desperate, she’d feared what they might attempt to do to those she cared about.
Seems it was the right call, after all.
Indeed, Na Ri concurred.
“But—how did you end up here?” Vlad said, indicating his penthouse.
The members of the Black Devils clean-up crew he’d called were clearing up the wreckage and replacing the broken glass and damaged floorboards. Mae shivered as she recalled the cold efficiency with which they’d cleaned her apartment when she and Nikolai had been attacked by ghouls a few months back.
“I don’t know.” Cortes furrowed his brow. “One minute I was standing on the road with Anya and we were fighting those monsters, the next moment there was a flash of golden light all around us. When I opened my eyes, we were here.”
“A black-magic portal brought those monsters to the apartment seconds after we got here,” Anya said bitterly.
Nikolai scowled. A sour taste filled Mae’s mouth.
So, we were right. This was Vedran’s scheme.
Something that Cortes had just said made her draw a sharp breath.
“Wait.” Mae’s pulse quickened. “You said you saw a flash of golden light?!”
Cortes frowned. “Yes.”
My witch?Brimstone murmured quizzically.
Mae focused on Cortes’s core. It was Na Ri who felt it first.
Wonder filled her first incarnation’s voice. His magic. It’s…different.
“Did your body feel strange when it happened?” Mae asked Cortes tensely.
He stared. “Now that you mention it, yes. My stomach felt hot.”
Anya’s fraught gaze swung between Cortes and Mae. “What’s wrong?”
Mae rose and went over to Cortes, her heart thudding dully against her ribs. “I’m going to examine your core.”
Cortes grimaced. He was no doubt recalling the time she had analyzed his magic so she could incorporate it in the spell she’d created to counter Anya’s Illusion Sorcery.
Anya’s voice trembled. “Is something wrong with Enrique?”
The sorcerer had told the witch about his past and how Mae and Nikolai had fixed his once broken core.
“I’m not sure yet,” Mae replied guardedly.
Cortes braced himself when she pressed her hand against his stomach. He blinked.
“Oh. It doesn’t hurt.”
Mae closed her eyes and directed her attention toward the source of his magic. Her breath stuttered a few seconds later.
We were right! Na Ri exclaimed. His magic has evolved.