An Apocalyptic Need (16 page)

They’d kept up an easy banter along the road leading from town, but Miller had become increasingly tense over the last mile or so, his bristled jaw flexing beneath the shadow of his hat.

“Why don’t you tell me what to expect in there, sheriff?”

Miller turned to him, his gaze unreadable in the dark. “All Hell to break loose. That’s what you should expect.”

Grimm frowned. “Can you be a bit more specific?”

Shaking his head, Miller pulled his pistol free of the holster. “I wish I could, son.” He started off. “Step light and be ready for anything.”

Grimm would have preferred a little more in the way of information, but he’d dealt with witches before and he was pretty sure he could deal with anything they threw at him. First rule of thumb was, if trekking through enemy territory when visibility is low, don’t line up like ducks in a shooting range.

Grimm stepped off the path and followed several feet behind and to the side of Miller. He summoned his guide magics and sent them out to assess the force of his enemy in the woods ahead. The magic swirled away from him through the trees, mostly shielded from the sheriff, whose heavy boots were surprisingly light along the path. Only the occasional soft crackle of dried leaves or thin snap of a small branch gave the big lawman away.

Grimm’s guide energy found a source of dark power and he followed it to a spot deep within the woods, a dozen feet off the path. He pulled the energy back and coalesced it over his palm, using it to see the witch his vision couldn’t locate.

A dark spot in the night suddenly shifted and Grimm launched his power at the location just as a sizzling ball of energy flew his way. The two magics met in the middle and held. Grimm stepped forward, pushing the witch’s energy back with his guide magics and twisting it like a corkscrew to drive a hole in the spitting red witch’s fire. The driving force of his magic weakened the witch fire to the point that the witch who’d been wielding it gave out with a cry and took Grimm’s energy right in the chest. The man fell back with a short bark of pain and collapsed to the ground.

Yellow lightning speared downward, sizzling through the sleeve of Grimm’s shirt and hitting the ground an inch from his boot. He spun sideways and sent his energy skyward, ripping leaves from the tree above him that fluttered downward as the figure in black scampered easily along the dense branch and used the thick, twisted trunk of the tree as cover.

More lightning sizzled toward Grimm. He dove behind the closest tree and the deadly energy seared into his arm, burning like molten lava. Grimm gritted his teeth against the pain, moving silently away from the spot where lightning continued to land. The small tree was obliterated and fire crept along its branches.

Grimm used the resulting flame and smoke to disorient his attacker. When the figure slipped along the branch, leaving the protection of the trunk in an effort to see where Grimm had gone, he fired at her, sending her tumbling off the branch with a high-pitched scream.

The scream ended abruptly as she hit the ground.

The terrain rumbled. At first he thought he was feeling the concussive force of the witch’s landing. But he immediately rejected that idea as the ground beneath his feet shuddered and rolled, slamming him to the ground. Grimm climbed to his knees amid flying energy that speared the terrain around him, sending dirt skyward.

He tried to stand but the ground rolled like a wave in the ocean, throwing him onto his back again. Witch fire slashed across the top of his shoulder and burned the flesh at the side of his throat. He rolled sideways, attempting to climb to his feet again.

Something wrapped around his leg, dragging him off the ground and he was suddenly hanging upside down in midair, lightning flying all around him. All he could do was throw his weight, swaying from side to side and spinning in an effort to make himself a harder target.

Still, agony found him in the form of burning fire, each strike melting his flesh and sending the blazing misery deeper, until his very bones felt as if they were on fire.

A shot rang out and another dark form slipped downward, hitting the ground without a sound. Grimm saw movement in a tree a dozen yards away and he fired toward it, felling another witch.

The vine that had grabbed his ankle tightened until he screamed in pain, certain the thing was going to pinch his foot right off.

Lightning sizzled downward but it was no longer directed at him. As it hit the base of a young tree near the path, Sheriff Miller’s tall form was illuminated for just a second. Light flared as he fired his pistol and a sharp cry told Grimm he’d scored another hit.

But the witches weren’t done with the good sheriff.

Another vine snaked downward and Grimm screamed a warning at Miller. “Look out above you!”

Miller’s head snapped up and he fired at the vine, but the enemy took advantage of his lack of attention and sent deadly energy swirling toward him. Grimm had no choice but to use his guide magics to stop the witch fire.

He speared the red stream of energy in the center and then twisted his wrist to send it sizzling backward, igniting the witch who’d fired it. The woman’s screams filled the night as her robes caught fire and she fell, shrieking to the ground, where her screaming slowly died under the consuming flames.

Miller slipped his pistol into its holster and walked toward Grimm. He stopped a few feet away, pushing his hat back on his head and looking up at him. “You just gonna hang around up there all day and let me do all the work?”

Grimm shook his head, realizing he needn’t have worried about the sheriff of Dodge Town getting spooked by a little magic energy, and sent a cutting stream into the vine holding him. He slammed painfully to the ground and took the sheriff’s offered hand.

“Let’s go get your wife, Forbes. I have a bad feeling about this. I’ve never seen this many witches before. Something big is going on in these woods tonight.”

~AN~

Yeira!
The name hit Cari’s consciousness like an explosion. She had a sister? Impossible, the creature was lying to her. He had to be.

But why would he lie? He planned to kill her anyway. And he believed her blood had something special in it… The thought gave her energy. If her blood was special, she sure as hell wasn’t going to just lie there and let him kill her.

Concentrating hard, Cari thought of Grimm. He would come for her. She suddenly knew that without a doubt. And he would most likely die. There were too many of the witches…too much power throbbing through that wood.

She could feel the echo of it pulsing against her skin. Beyond the icy cavern where she lay…beyond the walls of the cabin above. Energy was being pulled from the dark forest…old energy… malevolent energy.

She knew in that moment that Grimm had arrived and he was in serious danger.

Her pulse sparked and the dark energy swirling within her burst, sending warmth outward, along her limbs and into her failing mind. She held the strangely familiar energy close for a moment, enjoying the way her muscles swelled and firmed under its power.

She couldn’t allow the nasty shell of a man standing over her to take her power and use it against Yeira.

The evil creature turned away, moving toward the fire with his bowl of Cari’s blood. She closed her eyes, ripping silvery strands of binding power away and dragging her own energy through the cracks she created with her mind.

Slowly the power built beneath her skin, widening the crack within its bindings, until she felt a final
pop
and the magic burst free.

It hit her with the force of a train, slamming her back against the rock when she would have risen from it. Her eyes rolled back in her head and a wave of darkness swept her mind, threatening unconsciousness as her system was overwhelmed by the tsunami of unfocused energy.

But Cari gritted her teeth against the sudden terror the flood caused and quickly grabbed hold of it, coiling it into a burst that sparked on her fingertips. Her eyes shot open and went to the place where he’d siphoned her precious blood. The wound had healed under the force of her energy. Her gaze flew to the creature standing before the fire. He held Scarlett’s limp body by the throat, her dull gaze staring in Cari’s direction.

Blood coated his lips and trailed down his chin. Already Cari could see him regenerating. His patchy, brittle hair had thickened, turned golden and lay glossy on his shoulders. His deathlike complexion filled with moisture and regained its color.

Cari knew she couldn’t wait until he’d completely transformed. He was already powerful in his current state. She turned her arms and the straps holding her broke, falling to the floor. The restraints on her legs broke like paper as she swung her legs around and stood beside the stone altar. “What is your name?” Her voice hit the air with concussive force, creating a boom that shook the walls.

His gaze widened and he stepped backward, away from the energy that sizzled around her. But to her shock he smiled. “Why do you ask my name?”

Cari lifted her hands, energy spitting silver and blue between them. “I would know who I kill.”

The smile slipped away. He dropped Scarlett and lifted his hands, sending dual streams of deadly witch fire at Cari. But she spread her magic before her like a shield and his power pinged off hers, creating a small explosion at every touch.

She walked closer, hands outstretched, barely feeling the floor beneath her feet. Her hair drifted around her head, caught on a wave of electrical energy so strong it pulled loose objects into the air to dance around her.

The sorcerer gave up trying to impale her with his magic and glanced at the fire snapping on the hearth, lifting it into the air and sending it straight at her.

Cari felt its heat as it hit her shield, pain assaulting her where the unnatural sparks burned through her magic. She swung her hand and sent the fire spinning back toward him. The creature leapt into the air, surging twenty feet to the base of the stairs.

He smiled as he lifted his hands and flung a curtain of unnatural fire between them. Cari lowered her hands. “I am Joris. We will see each other again, sweet Cari. I’ll give your lover your regards when I see him in the wood.”

“No!” Cari tried to blast the wall of fire away as he laughed and started up the stairs. Her power had no effect on it. Cari’s gaze slid around the room, frantic to find something she could use. Her gaze landed on his bloody, discarded boline.

She lifted her hand and envisioned the blade leaving the ground. It lifted and flew toward her, hitting her palm with a stinging slap. Glancing toward the sizzling energy cutting her off from Joris, she realized what she needed to do. “Fire severs fire,” she chanted. “Metal severs flesh.”

The knife in her hand burst into flame and she flung it into the air. “Find that which is fire and flesh!”

The flaming blade flew from her hand and sliced through the magic wall, disappearing up the stairwell.

Above her head a pain-filled cry throbbed on the air. As if a switch had been turned off, the basement room cleared of fire and implements crashed to the ground around her.

All went uneasily, terrifyingly still.

Grimm knelt beside Miller, his hand covering a wound that bled slowly from between charred edges. The knife that had flown up the stairwell and embedded itself into the sheriff lay smoking on the stone floor beside them, its blade coated with blackened blood.

The stench of sulfur lay thick on the air, choking Miller as he grunted under the pain of his wound. “Lay still, sheriff. Fortunately the blade was hot so the wound is cauterized. The bleeding is already stopping.”

Miller rolled his eyes toward the nearby doorway. “Fortunately for whom, Forbes?” He shoved Grimm’s hand away and struggled to rise to his elbows, his gaze dark and haunted. “What the hell was that thing?”

After fighting their way through several more witches guarding the grounds and doorway, they’d thrown open the door to the sinister cabin just in time to see a greasy, black shadow fly through an interior door, it’s hellish stench wafting through the room ahead of it. Vaguely man-shaped, the thing twisted on the air and shot skyward as a flaming blade sizzled toward it. The evil looking specter disappeared up the chimney with a terrifying sound like a raven’s cry.

Unfortunately the blade it had evaded found the sheriff a heartbeat later, burning its way through his clothes and flesh like steel through melted butter.

Grimm offered the sheriff his hand. “It smells like grilled meat in here, Miller, but at least you won’t bleed to death.”

Grimacing, Miller let Grimm tug him to his feet.

They turned as soft footfalls sounded beyond the door where the shadow and the knife had emerged. Grimm lifted his palm, guide magics sizzling. Miller ripped his pistol from his holster.

A moment later Cari emerged, her pretty face as white as paper. She took one look at Grimm and seemed to deflate, her eyes rolling back in her head. He hurried to catch her before she hit the ground, scooping her into his arms. “Let’s go,” he told Miller.

Her lips were moving and Grimm struggled to hear what she was saying. As they ran, Miller moved around them with his pistol trained on the night.