Chapter 9
They regroupedwith Brimstone and Tarang and turned to the last giant. The monster seemed oblivious to their presence, his attention focused on destroying Contain with Vedran’s magic. Mae narrowed her eyes.
The spell was starting to wear thin.
Looks like it has a five-minute limit in the face of that bastard’s magic.
It will be stronger with the power of three, Na Ri reassured her.
Her first incarnation made a suggestion that made Mae blink.
“We should try and keep that one alive.”
Vlad lowered his brows. “Why?”
“Because Na Ri thinks he might prove to be our ticket to Vedran’s location.” The savage aura around Mae thickened. “Can you guys distract him for a couple of minutes?”
Vlad nodded.
“Of course, my witch,” Brimstone snarled.
Tarang bared his teeth on a threatening growl.
Mae rose inside Levitate while they charged the giant. The monster ignored their attacks, Vlad’s blades and Brimstone and Tarang’s claws and fangs barely scratching his flesh.
Damnit! Is that one made of rock?!
An angry sound rumbled out of Brimstone.
Goosebumps broke out on Mae’s arms with her next breath. A fire was building deep inside her belly. She pressed a hand to her stomach before cutting her eyes jerkily to her familiar. It was coming from their bond.
Scarlet boiled in Brimstone’s eyes. His body swelled an instant before he opened his jaws. Mae’s eyes rounded at the sight of the incandescent, rotating sphere of crimson and black magic that exploded into life inside his mouth. It grew exponentially.
“Holy—” she mumbled.
“—fuck,” Vlad said hoarsely.
Na Ri startled. Oh.I never thought he would be able to manifest our father’s Wrath in this realm!
Mae swallowed. “Wrath?! Also, since when can Brimstone do spells?!”
The giant finally sensed danger. His pupils flared at the sight of the spinning orb growing inside the demon fox’s mouth.
He dove to the side just as Brimstone fired the spell.
Wrathmissed the monster by a whisker, glanced off Contain, and punched a hole straight through the wall. The resulting explosion shook the building and filled the room with dust and debris.
Mae coughed and covered her mouth and nose with an arm, her pulse racing. Car alarms sounded faintly. The air slowly cleared.
She joined Vlad as he peered around the edge of the sizzling, ten-foot-wide, jagged opening. A mess of fused concrete and glowing hot metal was visible within it.
The spell hadn’t just smashed straight through the autopsy lab and the outer wall of the hospital. It had carved a tunnel inside its foundations and beneath the main road. Water gushed from broken pipes and cooled the sizzling, exposed steelwork of some kind of structure in the distance.
“Isn’t that the underground parking lot where I left the Bentley?” the incubus asked leadenly.
Mae turned and squinted at Brimstone. “How about you warn us next time you want to use that spell?”
The demon fox avoided her accusing stare.
Everyone tensed as the giant stirred.
Magic flashed through Mae’s veins. Black static tinged with crimson danced around her body.
“Ice Fortress!”
The spell formed instantly, trapping the monster in a thick, glittering prison laced with the white runes of Ran Soyun’s magic. He fell backward slowly, his face frozen in an expression of surprise. The building trembled when he landed on the floor.
Mae scaled his body and slammed her hand on the ice above his stomach. “Sever!”
The giant shuddered. A tiny crack appeared in Ice Fortress.
Mae gritted her teeth. Vedran’s magic was countering her attempt to break his hold on the monster’s soul.
“Oh yeah? Let’s see you resist this, asshole!” she growled. “REVERSE!”
For a moment, nothing happened. The corruption wrapped around the creature’s soul orb finally trembled before exploding into inky tendrils that vanished with a hiss. The giant stilled.
Mae jumped to the ground and retracted Ice Fortress.
Vlad stiffened. “Should you really?—?!”
“It’s okay. He won’t hurt us.”
The giant stirred and sat up groggily, his movements sluggish. He looked around with a confused expression, only to blanch when he saw the bodies of his fallen comrades. His eyes bulged at the sight of Brimstone.
The monster whimpered in fear and crawled hastily onto his hands and knees before bowing his head to the ground before the demon fox, his body trembling.
Mae and Vlad stared.
“Is there something you want to tell us, Brim?”
Brimstone sniffed. “He is only showing respect to a superior creature. My word used to be law among the giants in the Underworld.”
Vlad made a face. “So, you were a one-fox gang leader, huh?”
Yelling and banging reached them.
Nikolai and Roman were pounding on the inside of Contain, their expressions seething.
“You should just keep them in there,” Vlad suggested sourly as Mae hastily ended the spell.
Nikolai stormed across the lab. “I can’t believe you did that!”
Mae grimaced. “Look, it was?—”
“How could you, Mae?!” Roman interrupted angrily. “We’re strong enough to fight by your?—!”
He froze and sucked in air, horrified.
Nikolai had taken Mae in his arms and was kissing her passionately. She responded with equal vigor.
“You scared the life out of me,” the sorcerer mumbled against her lips when he finally ended their torrid kiss.
Remorse knotted Mae’s belly as she gazed into his eyes. “I’m sorry. I—I just couldn’t risk letting him take you again.”
She shuddered. A pained expression came over Nikolai. He hugged her tightly.
“How about you let her go?” Roman said sullenly.
“What’s it to you, kid?” Nikolai sneered over Mae’s head.
Roman turned to Vlad. “Help me out.”
“This isn’t some back-alley tussle,” the incubus said coolly. “She’s made her choice.”
Nikolai stared. Mae blinked. It was the first time Vlad had openly admitted to the sorcerer securing his position as her consort in public.
“That doesn’t mean she can’t choose a second one though,” Roman argued.
Mae sighed. He’s just as stubborn as Budimir and Ludmila.
Vlad arched an eyebrow. “If so, then that makes you my direct competition, doesn’t it?”
Roman swallowed before squaring his shoulders and glaring at the incubus. “Oh yeah? Bring it, old man.”
Crimson bloomed in Vlad’s eyes. “Don’t make me put you over my knee and spank you, brat.”
Mae disentangled herself from Nikolai. “How about everybody calm down?”
It was at this point that hospital security showed up.
* * *
“I can explain.”
Jared Dickson watched her woodenly before indicating the monster crouching meekly in a corner of what remained of the autopsy lab. “Explain that.”
Mae scratched her head awkwardly. “It’s a giant from the Underworld. Vedran sent him here.”
Vlad shrugged. “We didn’t really have a choice but to fight.”
“Yeah,” Roman murmured.
Jared cocked a thumb at the Fire Magic sorcerer. “Who’s this?”
“Budimir Volkov’s grandson,” Mae admitted nervously. “You know, the guy I told you we met in Prague.”
Nikolai maintained a tactful silence.
Jared’s brows met in an almighty scowl.
Mae fidgeted. “Have you heard from Alicia?”
“Don’t change the subject!” the Immortal detective snapped.
One of the other cops wandered over. “The chief just called. He’s asking us to arrange autopsies for these,” he glanced at one of the dead giants and shivered, “—creatures.”
Steve Hodge tensed where he’d been clearing up some of the mess in the lab and pretending not to listen in on their conversation. Mae’s boss had taken the appearance of a monster from Hell in his stride when he’d come in to assess the damage to the pathology department. Compared to the demon who had tried to disembowel him on the night Mae’s powers had first awakened, the giant looked like a cuddly teddy bear.
“I don’t think that’s going to help,” Jared said sourly. “And not a word about this to anyone,” he warned his associate. “The last thing this city needs is another alarmist report.” His eyes shrank to slits. “Whoever leaked that story to the press is going to wish they’d never been born.”
The Immortal cracked his knuckles. The cop flinched. Hodge swallowed.
The bodies the New York coven had discovered in the last twenty-four hours had finally made the news. Though the piece had broken out in the middle of the night, Mae was pretty certain the photographs that had been disclosed to the media would be all over the headlines by morning.
She swallowed a weary sigh. Mom’s gonna go apeshit when she finds out it involves the coven.
She won’t be pleased when she discovers what you intend to do next either, Brimstone observed.
Mae chewed her lip. With Alicia still MIA and Vedran’s efforts to consume powerful magic cores accelerating, she had no choice but to adopt plan C.
Let’s hope he agrees to do it.