In the Company of Witches

“Most of the cuts and bruises are from where she fought her,” Mikhael said. His eyes never left Raina, though he marked every wound that Ramona discovered.



“She’s in much better shape than I expected,” Ramona said. The gentle witch had been thorough and proficient, though slow tears hadn’t stopped rolling down her face throughout. Ruby knew Ramona was an emotional sponge, unable to withhold strong feelings when she had them. It just added to her appeal, because her quiet grief expressed it for all of them.



“The burns on her throat and breast will scar, but they’ll never vanish. Unless she conceals them with magic.”



Ruby stroked Raina’s hair away from her drawn face. “Yeah, fat chance of that. She’ll wear it as a badge of honor. I kicked a phase demon’s ass uptown and back.” She glanced at Mikhael. “With help.”



“No. The honor is hers. She was locked in combat with her when we arrived. She would have died killing her, but I have no doubt she would have done it.” His onyx gaze flicked up to Ramona. “She is truly all right?”



Ramona nodded. “I’m going to give her a sleeping tonic to put her under pretty deep for the next twenty-four hours or so. While she’s out, we’ll clean out the cuts, tape up the ones that need that, and be sure she has no broken bones or internal bleeding. The succubus blood is resilient. Good healing properties. It will strengthen the human side.”



“Very well.” He rose from Raina’s side. Ruby shifted as he leaned over her unconscious friend, cupping her face, his thumb sliding over the throat burn. He put his mouth on Raina’s, a press of contact, and she heard his murmur as he allowed room enough to speak the words against her lips. “I will be back in only a few moments, witch. Behave yourself.”



Raina’s lashes fluttered. She wasn’t awake enough to respond, but Ruby saw her gaze meet Mikhael’s, and that was answer enough. Though she was still bemused and uncertain about the difference between this male and the cruel lover she’d experienced many months before when her life was plunged in darkness, she couldn’t deny what she saw in Raina’s gaze, something she’d never seen there before. Trust…need. Something that had the origins of love in it, the kind of love that was growing stronger between Ruby and Derek every day.



Turning on his heel, Mikhael strode from the room. Glancing at a bemused Ramona, Ruby nodded, followed him. In the living room, Mikhael had stopped in front of Cathair. Passing his hand over the bird without touching him, he registered the condition, the fading life energy. He looked over his shoulder at Derek, standing near. Nodded. Then he disappeared.



“Where is he going?” Ruby moved to Derek’s side. “Does he have to go back to the Underworld? He said he’d return in just a moment.”



“Step back.” Derek drew her to the wall a blink before Mikhael returned. And he wasn’t alone.



He tossed his bundle to the floor, a dazed-looking thirtysomething male with shifty eyes and an aura so decayed and foul, Ruby knew instantly what he was. A drug dealer. He wore the bling that attracted young people to him, and she sensed the stench of his product. He’d also killed. She saw it in his eyes, because it was something any witch with enhanced senses could detect. She’d known Derek had taken lives when she met him, but the justice that pervaded his soul essence had told her the difference right away. What was in Ramona’s house was something cold-blooded, something that took life without remorse, and profited on the misery and addiction of others.



“Mikhael—” She started forward, but Derek restrained her with a firm hand.



“Stay at my side.” His jaw was tight, as if he didn’t entirely approve of what Mikhael was doing, but he wasn’t going to interfere. Something had shifted between them in rescuing Raina. A different understanding of each other. Since she herself had learned that there was a decided difference between Dark and evil in the past months, she stayed put, watching, though not without a measure of trepidation.



The male looked wildly around him. “What the fuck—”



Mikhael spoke several flat words in a language Ruby didn’t recognize. Life vanished out of the human’s gaze so immediately she would have missed it if she blinked. He dropped to the floor like a stone, nose and forehead first, the head toppling to the right so his cheek and lips pouched out in a lopsided way.



Spellwork usually required chants or tools. However, from working with Derek, she already knew a good sorcerer could accomplish it without either of those things. Now Mikhael stretched out his hand, eyes lasered on the dead drug dealer. He was poised in the manner of a pitcher watching for a line drive to come right at him, only he wasn’t planning to duck. She caught the flash, the bluish light of the soul energy, and before it could escape, Mikhael spoke another sharp word. It sizzled across the room, telling her why Derek had held her back. It was like the expulsion of a flamethrower, blinding her and leaving a streaked impression in the air in its wake.



Mikhael held the soul energy in his palm, then placed the two fingers of his other hand in its midst. Twisting them, almost like he was mixing, he hummed a single syllable.



An energy expanded from Mikhael, an energy that pushed against the man-made structure around them. She felt the quiver in the walls, the floorboards. She didn’t get to see the rest, for Derek turned her, pressing her and their unborn child against his body, shielding them. An abrupt, searing heat washed over her skin, a flash like a nuclear blast stiffening her.



She knew what Mikhael had done. Once, she’d asked Derek if he had the ability to resurrect life. He’d said he did, but that it could be done for only very specific reasons, and there were always consequences. He couldn’t give her back their first baby.



It was hard, but she turned. Derek briefly met her gaze. She could tell he was wondering if he should have sent her from the room for this, shielding her from painful memories. She placed her hand on his face, showing him the shadows of that grief that would always be with her, but also the love she held for him, which made all of it bearable.



He closed his hand on hers, so that when she turned fully toward Mikhael, she was still leaning against him, drawing strength. She would gaze upon this as a witch, marveling at the magic. She wouldn’t allow herself to get trapped in the past. She’d done that once, and had learned her lesson.



The light in Mikhael’s hand now had a trace of red through it, like blood. There was a cut on his forearm where he’d charged the magic. She could tell he was no longer aware of any of them, wrapped up in the concentration required. Bending over Cathair, he poured that light into Cathair’s open beak so gently it made Ruby blink. The bird was weak, such that Mikhael had to cradle the head in three large fingers. The bird’s chest rose and fell, rose and fell. It stopped. One beat, two beats…three.



Cathair took a deep, shuddering breath. Then another. A less deep one after that, his heartbeat evening out, then accelerating gradually, headed toward a bird’s normal rate. His bright eye focused on Mikhael and they held that way, Mikhael obviously evaluating the bird’s recovery, his strength, so that when he finally pulled away, the bird was holding his own head up.



Mikhael stepped back, glanced at the empty body on the floor. It was gone in a blink, no evidence that it had been there other than some residue on the floor. He turned that to ash with another look, snapped his fingers, and even the ash disappeared.



Derek stepped to his side then, Ruby warily coming with him as they stared down at the spot. “Can you handle the cost of taking his soul?” Derek asked grimly.



“Offering to bear the burden, sorcerer?” Mikhael waved a hand before he could answer. “It’s a cost I’m prepared to pay. She loves the bird. More importantly, he loves her. He was willing to give his life for her.”



Derek nodded. Mikhael returned the gesture, then glanced at Ruby. His gaze stilled, measured. When he stepped closer, the memory of those wide shoulders, the powerful body, the things he’d torn from her in shame and pleasure at the darkest time of her life, came back to her, causing an unexpected tremor. She sensed Derek’s tension, his shift to her line of sight, reassuring her. Then Mikhael spoke.



“Meet my gaze, Ruby.”



“I don’t answer to you anymore.”



“No, you don’t. You found your proper Master. And you found yourself.” His voice lowered. “Meet my gaze, Ruby. Please.”



The please lifted her lashes, and she looked up into the dark eyes. She’d very rarely met his gaze, she realized, and she saw a lot there now, things she hadn’t expected.



He studied her a long moment. Derek didn’t speak, but she knew his attention was locked on the Dark Guardian. While violence between them wasn’t out of the question, different emotions were swirling in the air now. Mikhael lifted a hand, brushed a knuckle across her cheekbone. It instantly brought back their last meeting, when he’d struck her there, though his touch now was impossibly gentle.



“It was necessary,” Mikhael said at last. “But I regret it, nonetheless.”



Then he headed back into the room with Raina, leaving them to watch over Cathair.



Ruby let out a shaky breath. “I knew he was ruthless, but…” She shook her head. “You’re right. He’s absolutely made for her.”



TWENTY-FOUR HOURS LATER, RAINA SURFACED. SHE wanted to go home. Ramona said she was a little too fragile to transport magically again, so Ruby volunteered to take her in her van. Mikhael had said little to her, understanding she needed some time. But he was by her side, so close. Raina had felt him even while she slept.



Now he carried her out to the flower-painted vehicle, held her in his lap in the back as Derek and Ruby sat in front, Ruby driving the van along the winding road to Sweet Dreams. Raina felt the shadows of the ancient gray-beard trees pass over her face, alternating with the afternoon sun, and knew that fervent feeling that Dorothy had. There was no place like home. When she saw the house emerge, that ache in her throat nearly choked her.



She’d been trapped in Hell twice in her life, but both times, she’d ended up here. This was her sanctuary, just as Mikhael had said.