In the Company of Witches

MIKHAEL CHARGED FORWARD. AS HE DID, HE SNATCHED the soulkeeper from its perch, shattering the protections that held it with a sweep of fire that incinerated the nearest minion trying to rush him. These four had stronger protections, greater strength, but something far greater than Erica’s magic, or even the combined magic of the entire Underworld, was fueling him. Mikhael didn’t even pause. He snarled the words and became an agent of destruction, obliterating the next demon as he ran through him, the fire spell emanating from his very flesh.



As he emerged on the other side of it, the female demon spun toward him, pulling that steel from her hand. He launched himself over the abyss. She shrieked, began to dissipate—fuck, a phase demon—but he was faster. He might not have ever faced one, but a Dark Guardian was indoctrinated into the lore of past battles fought by his kind. He plunged into her mind, plunged so deep she shrieked. Ripping out her real name, the one that called out the unique nature of her phasing so she couldn’t hide from him, he bellowed it so it vibrated through the chamber.



She was caught in half illusion, half reality, but it was all he needed. With a vicious snarl, he impaled her on the soulkeeper, shoving it through her abdomen and activating its magic with the old language.



He called it straight from Lucifer’s throat, that connection all Dark Guardians had with their liege lord. Somewhere deep in the Underworld, the dark angel spread his wings and thundered out the words. They resonated up through all the walls of the Underworld, into every cavern, every shadow, the depths of every mud pit, shimmering through every flickering flame. The Well exploded with gouts of fire.



Every creature that inhabited the Underworld quaked in frozen dread, for though Mikhael knew a different side of Lucifer, most creatures down here had good reason to fear the ruler of this world, as well as the legionnaires like Mikhael who served him.



Erica screamed her terror as those words gripped her. She struggled against him, her magic swelling from her in one last desperate attempt. His wings burst into flame, his flesh igniting, but Min hadn’t known how right her tarot reading was. Explorer of Fire. He was a creature of the Underworld, a being of fire, and it couldn’t harm him now. Nothing was making him let go until it was done. Nothing except one. He was counting the seconds since Raina had dropped. Five…four…three…two…



The demon gasped, her body going limp, a husk, and the soulkeeper glowed with its prize. He yanked it free, throwing her body to the lip of the abyss, leaving it hanging there like a rag doll. “Derek!”



The Light Guardian spun, an elegant follow-through as he decapitated the last of the four minions. His expression was as fierce as Mikhael’s. Damn, he’d actually missed the Boy Scout all these decades. Thank the Goddess there was no time to let the I-love-you-man sentiment overcome him.



He tossed the soulkeeper toward the sorcerer. Derek would catch it. Mikhael was already diving, streaking down into the fiery depths of the abyss.



IT WAS A LONG WAY DOWN, SO PROTRACTED RAINA HAD a surreal, fleeting thought of Journey to the Center of the Earth. The lackluster remake with the otherwise totally hot and appealing Brendan Fraser, the scene where he and his companions fell into the center of the earth. The fall took so long that eventually they stopped screaming and assumed casual, couch-lounging positions, even holding conversations. She wasn’t entirely there, because unlike them, she could see what was at the end of her fall. Instead, she had time to think about the scientific principles that said the body would reach terminal velocity in so many seconds, but apparently that was for full-blooded humans, since she seemed to be staying fully conscious. The rate of her descent made it difficult to breathe, though.



She’d tried to summon some magic to slow her fall, and it had helped, but within thirty seconds it fizzled and she resumed the same rushing rate. She’d used all her energy holding on to the phase demon, and there was no time to recharge.



So she held on to the one magic she had, which had nothing to do with spells or charms. She’d told him she trusted him, and meant it. Even when her bones would turn to ash, she would trust him.



Then she’d haunt him for the rest of his life for not catching her. For giving her the utterly stupid order to let go.



She yelped as a gout of flame shot out just below her. She passed through it, and several others. They seared her flesh, but didn’t burn, because she fell through too fast. She tried to maneuver her body toward the walls, thinking she could grab on to a rocky protrusion, and instead ended up cutting her hand badly, bouncing against the rocks like a pinball until she spun back to the center. Salamanders of flame passed through her fingertips, catching in her hair like pretty ribbons.



Falling, spinning, dropping toward the fires of the Underworld, the destruction of the body, leaving only the soul. It was getting closer, and now her heart thundered up in her throat again. It felt like a heart attack, like being on a roller coaster where she could tell the track was going to end and she would be launched into space…



But she trusted him. Damn it, it makes no sense, but I do. I trust you, Mikhael.



The walls shimmered with energy. A percussion like a sonic boom made them quake, made bits of shale fall from them. Like pipes bursting, more flame shot out of the sides. The sound hurt her ears, stole more of her breath, compressed her lungs. But a smile stretched across her face and she spread out her arms, embracing whatever would happen. He was coming for her. No matter what.



It was like hitting a brick wall. An extremely hot brick wall, the inside of a pizza oven. It drove the breath from her for real, so she was gasping and nothing was coming in or going out, giving her air-hunger panic. But his arms closed around her, body fully against hers. When he righted them, no longer the horizontal mattress she’d landed against, the abrupt halt, the mind-numbing jar to the bones, gave her that dizzy near-nausea feeling. But it was all right.



He’d caught her in his arms, was taking her back up. The touch of flame was still there, the oppressive heat all around, but the heat that was him, that was the good kind of heat.



She’d closed her eyes when she’d realized she was about to hit that pool of flame. Since opening her eyes required energy, it took time to crack open her lids and see his determined, fierce warrior’s face. A disgusting sort of slime was all over him, residue he was getting on her bare skin, but given the circumstances, and since it wasn’t crawling or wiggling, she was okay with it.



He glanced down at her, and she saw his eyes were all dark, the way they apparently got when he was pretty worked up over something. If he stayed around her any length of time, she’d get to see that unusual trait quite often. That was okay, too.



“I trust you,” she said. Though it came out a bare, rasping whisper, she hoped he understood it was as important and significant to her as a declaration of something even bigger.



He held her gaze with that fathomless one. “I love you,” he responded.



She fainted, mortifying herself.



21



RUBY STARTED UP FROM THE COUCH WHEN DEREK AND Mikhael materialized right in Ramona’s living room, Mikhael holding a naked and bloodstained Raina in his arms. Ramona came running in from the kitchen, where she’d been preparing another sedative potion for Cathair.



“She woke up long enough to protest. She told us to take her back to Sweet Dreams to check on things,” Derek said grimly.



Ruby wanted to be relieved, thinking it was evidence that Raina was all right, but she looked far too pale and out of it in the Dark Guardian’s arms. Of course, the one good thing about her being unconscious right now was they’d materialized in the room where Cathair was. The bird had worsened, and it had broken both her and Ramona’s hearts when they realized the familiar was holding on to his life spark for the chance of seeing his mistress once more.



Though he looked forbidding, Ruby laid a hand on Mikhael’s arm, drawing his attention to it. Turning with his precious cargo, Mikhael brought the unconscious Raina to the table where Ramona had the bird nested in soft towels. Towels spotted with blood. There was a bucket with more bloody pads on the floor. Mikhael met Ramona’s gaze and the witch shook her head. She’d made him comfortable. That was all she could do.



Cathair saw his witch. “Home,” he croaked, weakly.



“We brought her home. Thanks to you. She’s going to be okay.” Mikhael lowered her enough that Cathair didn’t have to lift his weakened head far to rub his beak across Raina’s ash- and blood-crusted cheek.



Raina turned her face into the bird’s feathers, her eyes still closed. “Go back to sleep, Cath,” she muttered. “Not time to get up yet. Still…early.”



The bird laid his head back down and Mikhael straightened, meeting Ramona’s gaze. “Back bedroom,” Ramona said thickly, swiping at the tears on her face. “You’re sure she’s all right? She looks…”



“It was a phase demon. She used torment spells on her, but the actual damage appears to be some bad cuts and burns, and exhaustion.” Derek supplied that information as Mikhael strode toward the bedroom without comment. When Ramona followed, the Light Guardian turned to his wife. Ruby moved into his arms.



“Li told me he’d handle things at the house. He figured you’d bring her here, and they wanted Cathair to have all the help possible. I’m glad you’re okay,” she said into his chest, inhaling the harrowing scents of blood and fire. His boots were burned. Now that Derek took her with him on most of his assignments, she hadn’t realized how it would tear her out of the frame, not being there to watch his back. After their baby was born, he wasn’t doing it again, even if she had to take on an arrogant Dark Guardian or Lucifer himself.



“Go help them. I’ll stay with Cathair.” Derek pressed a kiss into her hair. “Mikhael won’t want me in there with her naked like that.”



“It’s different with her. For him.”



“Yeah. It is. I’ll explain later. Go help your sisters.”



When Ruby arrived in the room, she and Ramona did a full inspection. Her lips tightened with anger, seeing and knowing what the phase demon had done to Raina. Torment spells. They would exhaust the body, traumatize it and snap the mind. Raina was strong, though. The strongest of the three of them. Ruby knew Ramona would agree with her on that.