EIGHTEEN
It felt as if her skull was being crushed in a red-hot vise. Instinctively Erin threw her will against the mystical energy, trying to hold it at bay with the skills Llyr had taught her.
“You’re fighting us, child!” Morgana cried. She heard the witch’s voice only dimly through the roar of power. “Let it in!”
“Let go, Erin,” Reece said in her mind. “I’ve got you.”
Swearing silently she dropped her instinctive resistance. Simultaneously she saw Llyr and Grace fall to the ground, rendered unconscious as their power surged into her.
A bolt of energy seared into her side, and she screamed, her voice blending with Reece’s bellow. Another snapped into her left eye as a third crackled along her skin.
Then there were too many to count, dancing electrical crackles burning in waves across her body. The pressure grew inside her head, howling like some demonic blizzard.
“Reece!” she screamed, terrified.
“I’m here. Baby, I’m here.” She felt his warm presence trying to absorb the pain. “You’re not alone.”
The crackling discharge ended as the spell vanished completely within her. Erin dropped to her knees like a marionette with cut strings, panting, sweating.
For a moment she was aware of thousands of faces watching her as the crowd stared in frozen, wide-eyed silence. A strong male hand caught her shoulder. She looked up to see Reece standing over her, his face pale. She tried, tremulously, to smile, opening her mouth to reassure him.
The fire leaped in her mind, roaring up like an atomic firestorm.
Erin bent double with a startled shriek of agony. Suddenly it felt as though the magic was ripping her body apart, running amok between her very cells.
In that first terrified instant she realized if she didn’t get control, it would utterly destroy her. Instinctively she snapped upright, flung both arms at the sky, and let the magic pour. The sky detonated in brilliant colors over her head, not as simple fireworks, but with the deafening rolling booms of howitzer blasts. The ground shook under her knees. Screams rang out around her as the crowd dived for the ground. She wished fleetingly she could soothe their terror, but she had to wrestle the power under control first.
Blast after blast tore across the sky, comets of energy shooting from horizon to horizon. The explosions were deafening.
“Jesu!” The thought rang clearly in Morgana’s mind, as easy for Erin to read as a newspaper headline. “We’ve created a monster. She’ll destroy us all!”
And the witch wasn’t the only one who was afraid. Erin could feel the same thought taking root in other minds, a wave of fear spreading through the crowd that could too easily turn it into a mob.
Maddened by the searing pain burning inside her, she snarled. I did this for them, and now they dare turn on me!
She could wipe them all out with a thought. All she had to do was redirect the energy she was aiming skyward, and…
“Erin.” A voice cut through the searing heat, cool, deep, and soothing.
“Reece?”
“It’s overwhelming you, love. You can’t let it. Fight it. Control it. Let me help.”
He’s right, she realized suddenly. I’m losing it. I’ve got to…
But even as she fought for calm, she heard Morgana reaching out to Guinevere for the power to kill her, knowing it would take both elder Majae to do the job.
Bitch, Erin thought, furious.
“Morgana, no!” Over the babble of mental voices, over the rolling reverberations of magical explosions, Lancelot’s voice rose in a desperate bellow. The knight crouched beside his unconscious wife, cradling her in his arms as he glared at the witch. “Killing Erin will kill Grace and Llyr—and we’ll have no chance at all against Geirolf!” Erin wasn’t surprised he’d sensed Morgana’s intentions. He knew her well.
“If we don’t act now,” Morgana shouted back over the blasts, “Geirolf will be the least of our worries!”
“Remember Grace’s vision—Reece will help her regain control. Give them a minute! Reece, dammit!”
“Listen to him,” her lover said, his thoughts a soothing counterpoint to the burning madness in her mind. “Let me help. You can’t do it alone, Erin.”
But she’d always done it alone. Always.
“Not this time. Trust me.”
The energy seemed to blaze just below the surface of her skin. Shaking, burning, she felt as if she were about to split open and spill fire everywhere.
Reece could help her.
She needed him. Needed that cool, immortal steadiness. Frantically she threw herself open and reached for him along the Truebond.
He came surging in like a bracing rain pouring over a forest fire. Erin gasped in relief as he wrapped her in his strength, in the power that came from centuries of life.
He knew exactly who he was, who she was. Looking into the mirror of his soul, she remembered herself, remembered the strength she had.
Overhead, the explosions stopped.
Erin opened eyes she didn’t even remember closing. Her face felt hot, tracked by cold tears. She took a deep, shuddering breath and looked around.
Pale faces stared at her. It seemed everyone in the square was hugging the pavement for dear life.
Reece got stiffly to his feet. “It’s all right,” he called, though his voice cracked. “She’s all right. We’ve got it.”
“Jesus, man,” Lance said, drawing his wife protectively close, “it took you long enough!”
The close call cost them another half hour as everyone recovered. Reece attached himself firmly to Erin’s side, sensing the crowd’s wary mood. He couldn’t really blame them.
He knew he’d never forget the sight of his lover on her knees, her entire body blazing like a star, her hair streaming away from her face as if a violent wind poured from her head, blasting power into the sky. Reece had seen aboveground atomic tests that hadn’t been that violent. It was a testament to her amazing control that she hadn’t killed anyone.
Now Erin looked almost bloodless, she was so pale. Standing hunched, she refused to look at anyone, her shame so acute he could almost taste it in his own mouth.
It was only when Arthur approached them that she lifted her head. Reece could feel the effort it cost her to meet the former High King’s gaze. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It almost got away from me.”
Arthur gave her a long, searching look. “Have you got control now?” When she nodded, he lifted a dark brow at Reece.
“She just needed to adjust,” Reece said honestly. “That enchantment packed a hell of a lot of power. Anybody would have had trouble with it.”
“But can you work the spell on Geirolf?” Morgana demanded as she stalked toward them. Her mouth was pulled into a tight line. Reece could almost smell the doubt in her. “If you can’t, tell us now.”
Erin met the witch’s gaze head-on, tilting up her chin. Reece knew she was still angry over the Maja’s narrowly diverted plan to kill her. “I can do it,” she gritted.
“You’d better,” Lancelot said, stopping beside them. The team of healers walked on toward the castle, the comatose Llyr and Grace floating between them. Reece knew Lance and several other Magekind and Sidhe would remain behind to protect the two during the coming battle.
“If you can’t,” the knight continued, his gaze cold with warning, “the woman I love is dead. And if that happens, you’d better pray Geirolf gets to you before I do.”
“I’ll protect her, Lance,” Reece said. “You have my word on it. You’ll get her back.”
Lance nodded shortly and strode off after his wife.
“Now,” Arthur said, turning to Guinevere, “I need to look like Llyr.”
Erin was barely aware of the final preparations the others were making. All her concentration was focused on her own task.
For this to work, she had to appear powerless and defeated, despite the Mageverse energies roiling inside her. She had to tamp it all down, control it. Hide it. If Geirolf caught the slightest whiff of those forces, the trap would fail, and she, Reece, and all of Magekind would pay the price.
Erin was damned if that would happen. She had no intention of screwing this up, particularly after coming so close to blowing it all.
She’d been so sure she could handle it. She’d always prided herself on being the strong one, the one in control. The one who’d never hesitated to go through any door, no matter what waited on the other side.
Erin had even learned to deal with her own Mageverse energies easily enough, once Llyr had shown her the trick of it. That had made her arrogant, despite Grace’s warning of the insanity she courted.
And look what had happened. If it hadn’t been for Reece, she’d have destroyed them all.
Idiot.
“You’re not an idiot, Erin,” he said in her mind. “Anybody would have had trouble with that much power, even Morgana herself. Not that she’d admit it.”
“Yeah, well, if I’m not careful, Demon Boy will take one look and see me lit up like a Christmas tree, and then we’re screwed.” She hesitated, then blew out a deep breath. “I need to hide it. Can you help me?”
Erin could feel the warmth of his smile in her mind. “Always.”
The vampire was staring at Janieda from just beyond the walls of the energy cage, his eyes wide and fixed, pupils shrunk to pinpricks. His face had a yellow, waxy pallor, with deep shadows scored under eyes and hollow cheeks. His once-gleaming blond hair had gone lank and unkempt. Every few minutes he licked his fangs hungrily with a pointed, pale pink tongue.
If Parker had ever been human, he wasn’t anymore.
Janieda watched him from behind her wings and tried not to move. Moving seemed to excite him.
What was worse, the room was full of monsters just like him. A restless mob of them, snarling and snapping at each other like wolves. She suspected they’d have been fighting among themselves if they hadn’t been so afraid of Geirolf’s ugly temper.
“Silence!” the demon roared from his throne a few feet away. He’d abandoned his human disguise in favor of the devil form he wore when he wanted to terrify. Janieda wondered what he really looked like, assuming he had any physical form at all. “The Sidhe king wishes to speak!”
Every vampire in the room fell into a reptilian stillness. Janieda bit back a moan. What was Llyr thinking of, to deal with these creatures?
A glowing orb appeared in the air, flared bright, and faded to reveal Llyr’s familiar face. “I have them,” he said. “I’ve stripped the witch of her powers. They’re ready for you. Where’s Janieda?”
“Llyr!” Janeida cried, then cringed as Parker bared his fangs at her with a warning hiss.
“I will transport her to you after I have them.” Geirolf smiled, all terrifying teeth. “With all due respect, Your Majesty—I find I do not trust you.”
“And I should trust you?”
“You have no choice,” the demon said coolly. “I can always find another Magekind couple, but there’s only one Janieda.”
Llyr snarled. “Very well, damn you. I’ll send them to you. But I expect you to keep your word!”
Janieda stared at his image, going still. That didn’t sound like her lover. Oh, the voice and face were right, but there was something subtly off about him. Was he under some kind of spell? Uneasily she remembered her vision of him lying helpless while Geirolf laughed.
What was going on?
“Send them now, then, if you expect to see your lover again,” the alien commanded, his voice sharp with contempt.
“And where, may I ask, am I supposed to send them?” the king demanded. “You’ve shielded so well, I have no idea where you are.”
Janieda scarcely dared to breathe. Had they set a trap for the demon?
Geirolf did not seem worried about the possibility. He made a bored gesture. “There. Send them.”
A gate opened before him as he lounged on his throne. Reece and the girl stumbled through it, shoved by rough hands. Both were bound in shimmering lines of magical force. Erin seemed shrunken, her power stripped away, her face pale as milk, her eyes rimmed white with terror. Janieda felt a twinge of pity.
The crowd of vampires surged closer with a rumbling mass growl of hunger. Even Parker forgot his fascination with Janieda in favor of larger prey.
The young Maja cringed back against her vampire lover, who bared his fangs at them like a wolf.
“Patience, children!” Geirolf purred, rising endlessly to his cloven hooves. “You’ll get all the blood you want in a moment.” He flashed gleaming saber teeth. “My spell will strip the Magekind of their powers and kill them so slowly you’ll have plenty of time to feed.”
The vampires arrested their half charge, grumbling.
Janieda had seen enough. She lifted her voice in a shout. “You have your sacrifices! Now return me to my Liege.”
Geirolf threw her a dismissive look. “I think not. I’ve got another spell in mind for you, one that will come as a very ugly surprise to your lover.” Bitterly unsurprised, Janieda watched as he gestured, replacing his throne with a broad stone altar big enough for two. “Now.”
Light flared. When it faded, Reece and Erin were stretched out across the altar, naked, still bound in magic.
And there was a snaking dagger in each of Geirolf’s clawed hands.
Erin lay still on the cold stone of the altar, concentrating every bit of acting skill she’d ever learned undercover on projecting an air of terrified defeat.
Inside, she burned.
Hiding the power of the death spell meant bottling it up, letting it sear her mind. Without Reece’s strength of will reinforcing her own, she could never have held it. Even with him, she had to battle her instinct to send it boiling out.
But she didn’t dare. Morgana had warned her she had to wait until Geirolf launched his own spell, or the effect would be blunted and he would survive.
“Just a little longer,” Reece said in her mind, his mental voice warm and soothing. “Hold on, baby.”
Somehow she managed to keep the pain off her face as the demon stepped to the head of the altar and smirked down at them. “And you thought you could beat me,” he said with a nasty smirk. “All that effort, and you still ended up just where I intended. Helpless, naked, and shortly, dead.”
“Fuck you!” Erin gritted, fighting the urge to smash the death spell right into that ugly face, too soon or not.
Reece, playing his part to the hilt, writhed in his magical bonds and cursed viciously.
The demon’s’s laughter reverberated between the temple’s black stone walls. “Poor Erin! So much for your revenge.” He tilted his horned head. “I wonder if your death will taste as delicious as sweet David’s.” Licking his black lips, he smiled. “Let’s find out.”
Geirolf lifted the knives in either hand, threw back his head, and began the chant, the words rolling in incomprehensible alien syllables. The magic began to dance over Erin’s skin in tiny hot pricks, like the legs of burning spiders.
“Wait,” Reece breathed in her mind.
Inside her, Morgana’s death spell boiled hotter, reacting to the demon’s ritual. She clamped down on it fiercely. The moment had to be just right.
“Waaaiit,” Reece said.
The pressure built behind her eyes, throbbed in her skull. The magic of Geirolf’s spell pricked harder, red-hot needles digging into her flesh.
“Auo rithc t’ch iaw g’evc ouir,” the demon chanted, and the needles became gouging dagger points. The vampires moaned with excitement, sensing her pain.
“Almost,” her lover said.
“K’ari auo t’ch cari tova.” Geirolf’s voice was growing louder, his eyes bright with anticipation for the deaths he would cause.
A stillness slid over her, a deadly, waiting silence. The pain drained away. She saw David’s eyes staring up at hers as he forced his service weapon beneath his chin.
“Ruret ai b’nar!” Geirolf roared, his massive shoulders flexing as he started to plunge both knives downward.
“Now!”
Erin sent the power blasting upward, snapping the bonds Morgana had created and driving the spell right toward the demon’s crimson eyes. She felt the energy wave bite into his death spell and twist it back on its owner. Geirolf cried out, black lips peeling away from his teeth as he realized what was happening. He threw his will against hers, trying to wrest the spell away from her. She felt the death force writhing, trying to break free. She knew it would kill her if it did, taking Llyr, Grace, and even Reece with her.
Gathering everything she had, Erin rammed the spell home into the demon’s skull. She felt his scream of agony in her soul.
He plunged his knives toward their hearts in one last attempt at the sacrifice that could save him. Erin had an instant to realize she was about to die….
Reece’s hands flashed upward, catching Geirolf’s wrists and stopping the blades an inch above their chests. He jack-knifed, smashing both bare feet through the demon’s skull. As the alien fell, Reece somersaulted onto the floor, jerking the knives from Geirolf’s lifeless hands. He landed in a combat crouch, a blade in either hand and a snarl on his face.
“No!” Parker roared. “Master!”
“Erin!” Reece shouted as the vampires surged toward the altar with a mass howl. Sweating, she flipped around on the altar and sent the last of her power toward the cathedral walls, blowing apart the wards that would have kept out the Magekind.
There was a thunderous double boom as the doors rammed open before the wave of Magi, Majae, and Sidhe that boiled through with howling battle cries. Geirolf’s vampires wheeled and ran to meet them.
But the acolytes nearest the altar kept coming, maddened by Geirolf’s death. “Kill the bitch!” roared the one in the lead, leaping on the stage and swinging his sword straight for Reece’s head.
Reece ducked, stepped inside the vampire’s guard, and drove the narrow blade of the knife through his opponent’s faceplate with one hand. With the other he grabbed the dying vampire’s great sword and spun away, planting himself in front of Erin as she lay dazed on the altar. His naked body gleamed with sweat and blood as he parried a savage blow to his head.
“I don’t suppose”—he drove the left-hand dagger he still held between his attacker’s ribs—“you could get me some armor?”
Erin focused on him and tried to work the spell. But despite the boom of magical explosions around her, she couldn’t see any of the familiar glitter of Mageverse energy. She swore and strained, but Reece remained stubbornly naked. “Jesus, Reece, it’s gone!”
“All right, don’t worry about it.” A swing of his sword sent somebody’s head flying. “Get up. We’ve got to get you out of here.”
Erin rolled off the altar, but her legs would no longer hold her weight. She fell to one knee and crouched there, panting as she tried to gather her strength. Well, she thought grimly, at least losing my powers didn’t kill me this time. Yet, anyway. Glancing up, she saw Janieda zip by overhead, freed of her cage.
Scanning the cathedral, Erin saw a thousand battles raging as Geirolf’s vampires battled Majae, Magi, and Sidhe. “How the hell are we going to get out of here?” she shouted at Reece. “The entire cast of Lord of the Rings is between us and the door!”
“You’re not, you little bitch. You’re going to die.”
Erin looked around wildly to see Parker rise from Geirolf’s body. She hadn’t even seen him approach it.
The demon’s corpse shimmered and disappeared into a glittering mist that poured into Parker’s body. He seemed to grow as she stared at him in disbelief, his armor going black and massive, his eyes burning red in his white face. Even as magic-blind as she was, she could see the power boiling off him. “What’d you do, you cannibal—eat your master?”
He bared his fangs. “And you’re next.” He started for Reece, who was fending off the clumsy attacks of three sword-welding acolytes. “After I gut your boyfriend.”
He drew back his sword, aiming right for her lover’s broad back.
Erin realized Reece wouldn’t be able to break free of his opponents in time to parry. “Reece!” she screamed.
Glowing armor shimmered into being around him the instant before the sword struck. The blade glanced off the gleaming metal with the ring of steel.
Parker cursed as Reece spun free of his opponents and lunged for him.
Startled, Erin looked around to see Janieda standing in front of the altar in full plate armor, a glowing sword held in a two-handed grip. She must have created Reece’s armor. “Oh, God, Janieda! Thank you!”
“You carry the scent of Llyr’s magic!” Janieda shouted over her shoulder as Reece’s erstwhile vampire opponents charged her. “What did you do?”
“Morgana linked us in a spell.”
The Sidhe swore and blocked a stroke at her head. “Then why are you on the ground, you fool? If you die, so does my Liege! Get up! I’ll transport us out of here!” A spark began to glow in the air as she started to open a gate.
“No, you won’t,” Parker snarled, throwing them a furious look as he and Reece surged against one another like bulls. The spark winked out.
Janieda cursed and braced herself to defend Erin as the three vampires closed on them.
Breathing hard, Reece circled with Parker. Between the hell-spell that had made him a vampire and the life force he’d absorbed from his dying master, the bastard had turned into Superman. It was all Reece could do to block the rain of savage sword strokes the turncoat rained on him.
From the corner of his eye, Reece saw the Majae and Magi engaging Geirolf’s vampire forces with ferocious swordwork and explosions of magic. Arthur battled in the middle of the pack, swinging Excalibur with single-minded savagery as he fought to get closer to the altar.
Unfortunately, their own magical armor helped protect the enemy from the full brunt of the Magekind attacks. Reece had hoped they’d break and run after Geirolf’s death, but all they seemed to care about was getting the Majae down and feeding on them.
And then there was Erin.
He could feel her, weakened from the power blast that had killed Geirolf. Janieda was defending her, but how long could one little Sidhe hold off three vampires?
He had to take Parker down.
Gritting his teeth, Reece drove at his enemy with hacking right-handed sword attacks while sending his dagger flicking in search of an opening.
But what Parker didn’t parry, his armor deflected. And his return attacks rattled Reece’s teeth.
“After I hack off your head,” Parker shouted over the screams of the dying, “I’m going to fuck your little girlfriend to death before I rip out her throat!”
“You’re not going to do anything except die!” Reece dropped his sword to parry a wild blow toward his thighs.
But the enemy’s sword wasn’t there. It’s a feint!
Too late. Something bit into his shoulder. Steel gave way, and a blade struck flesh.
Reece looked down to see Parker’s sword in his shoulder. Instinctively he spun free, biting back his cry of pain.
Parker grinned at him and charged.
Janieda deflected a sword blow aimed for her ribs, fear and frustration a sick knot in her stomach. Behind her, the Human had made it to her feet, but she was so weak and drained, it was all she could do to back away.
I won’t lose, the Sidhe chanted to herself. If I lose, he dies. I won’t lose. I won’t. Lose.
She deflected a double attack with one sweep of her sword and kicked one of her opponents back with a snarl. She was about to drive her blade into the other when a savage blow snaked from nowhere, hitting so hard it tore the helm from her head. She thrust out blindly with all her strength and felt her sword sink home, driving through the enchanted steel of a chestplate. A death scream rang in her ears.
Something jarred her side. Janieda parried another sword-stroke, but a sensation of spreading cold and weight made her look down.
A blade was buried to the hilt in her side.
Janieda blinked down at it stupidly. How did that get there?
A blur, a howl, and she hit the ground on her back. A helmeted head loomed over hers. Instinctively she swung a fist, but the vampire didn’t even seem to notice as he slapped up his visor and dived for her unprotected neck. She screamed.
The last thing she heard before fangs sank in her neck was Erin’s furious shout. “Get the fuck away from me, you bloodsucking leech!”
I’ve lost, Janieda thought in dazed despair, catching her breath in a hiss of pain as she bucked in the vampire’s vise-tight grip. I’ve lost, and Llyr’s going to die with the Human.
Erin dragged herself backward as the third vampire stalked her. Smirking, he pulled off his helmet and threw it aside, baring yellowed fangs. His bloodshot eyes scanned her naked body, lingering on her breasts before fastening on her pulse. He pulled off his gauntlets and flexed his hands.
Panting, she backed away, knowing there was no way she could fight the son of a bitch off.
“Erin!” Reece’s mental voice rang in her mind. “I can lend you enough strength to fight him.”
She jolted in terror, knowing that if he diverted anything at all to her, Parker would rip out his throat. And he was in pain. Had he been hit? “No! Dammit, you need it to kill Parker!”
“Erin!” A third voice rang in her mind.
Janieda.
Automatically Erin glanced toward the little Sidhe and stared in horror. Janieda writhed in the grip of the second vampire, who had her down and was feeding on her. “Open to me,” the dying Sidhe demanded. “Let me save my Liege!”
Beyond her, Reece was hacking savagely at Parker, ignoring his own wound as he tried to take him down before the vampire got his hands on Erin. Erin opened her mouth to tell the fairy yes.
Before the word was out, her vampire stalker struck.
It was like being hit by a train as three hundred pounds of armored monster hit her, smashing her to her back on the ground.
Superhuman fingers closed around her bare breast in an agonizing grip. The vampire loomed over her, jerking her head back with the other hand. Rolling her eyes, Erin managed to meet Janieda’s gaze and drop the last of her mental shields. A link snapped into place between them.
“Save my king!” Janieda demanded, and poured her fading life force through it.
Erin convulsed as the power surged through her, hot and strengthening, jolting her own magical abilities back to life. Her vampire captor tightened his grip, trying to hold on to her as she convulsed.
Her gaze met his. She saw his eyes widen as he realized she was no longer helpless.
With a snarl, she shot a wave of energy directly into his eyes, searing him to ash. His empty armor rolled away as she surged to her feet, her own armor shimmering into being around her, a sword in her hands.
As she looked around at Reece, she saw him lift his great sword in both hands to hack down on Parker. Blood snaked from his armored shoulder.
The turncoat lifted his weapon for another parry.
With a thought Erin transformed Reece’s sword into a massive battle-ax. The blade chopped right through Parker’s lighter sword and buried itself into his chest, smashing the traitor to the floor.
“That’s better,” Erin said as the sword fell from Parker’s lax hand. Spotting the vampire rising from Janieda’s body, she whirled to hack off the thing’s head. As the vampire fell, she stalked toward Reece and Parker.
Her lover grinned at her. “Nice,” he said. “Very nice.”
“Don’t gloat…yet,” Parker hissed from the floor.
Erin saw his eyes begin to glow through his visor. Instinctively she raised her sword, only to feel the power wave roll over the room before she could strike.
Voices cursed, metal clanged and rattled. Erin looked around to see the Sidhe and Magekind staring at one another in bewilderment.
Their vampire opponents were gone.
A bubbling laugh drew Erin’s attention down to Parker. “Good luck…finding them all,” he choked out. “Wonder…how many they’ll kill?”
Reece took the sword from Erin’s hand and beheaded him with one blow.