Bewitched, Blooded and Bewildered (29 page)

“Are you all right?” Dannaher asked.

I pointed at the propeller with a trembling hand. He grabbed the piece of debris and then pushed against the shield, and it shattered and rained ice down on us. The dragon—dragons—had landed, and were causing teeth-snapping, tail-lashing havoc.

“She’s stable now. Get her out of here,” I ordered.

“Thank you.” He reached for her, and I grabbed his arm.

“FYI, if you break her heart, Lex’ll kill you.”

“So noted.” Dr. Dannaher returned my sword, picked Marie up and vanished into the darkness. I wouldn’t worry about him taking shortcuts through the shadow realm, because it seemed like most of the demons were here at the moment. Smelled like it too, and the stench made my eyes water. It hadn’t stunk like this in the shadow realm. There, it had reminded me of 3 a.m. in January, when the subzero temperature is so cold you can’t smell anything because your nose is frozen and about to fall off, so I assumed the brimstone smell came from the actual use of the demon magic.

Lex should still be nearby. My heart kicked into overdrive as I eyed the flaming helicopter wreckage. Had he been near it? I couldn’t remember. I started in that direction—even if he wasn’t there, someone might need healing. The witch and alchemist healing brigade wasn’t due to arrive until after the battle, because they couldn’t contribute much to the fight portion of it.

I put up my shields and made my way toward the fire, but I didn’t make it far. A wave of demons appeared, and I stumbled backward. Two or three I could probably handle, but this was over a dozen. Several oily shadows broke off from the group and rushed the nearest dragon. It roared, beating its great wings and sending shadows flying, but the demons kept coming. How much trouble would I be in if I got a dragon killed? Dragons were on the magical-creatures-endangered-species list for a reason. They weren’t exactly making more of them.

Before I could ponder further, the rest of the demons rushed me. My shields kept me from being bowled over and torn to pieces, but it was a near thing. I hacked and slashed, lunged and parried, all while shouting the words to banish the bastards back to hell—many F-bombs were dropped during the banishing. No matter how many demons I dropped, I didn’t make a dent in their numbers. They kept coming, and my shields began to crack.

“Titania! This way!”

I turned and spotted Patience Roberts. She waved for me to follow her, and I hauled ass after her. It couldn’t hurt to be at the side of a demon expert. The gleam of a glowing silver spear distracted me from chasing Patience, and I changed direction. Lex was looming over Harrison, who knelt on the dirt, his shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Don’t kill him!” I shouted in warning.

Lex turned at the sound of my voice, and relief filled his expression. I tackle-hugged him, and he held me tight. “I wasn’t going to kill him,” he said. “I’m keeping an eye on him.”

“Good.” It wouldn’t help our magician unity if Lex friendly-fired Harrison to death.

“What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be observing,” Lex said.

“I got shot out of the tree. It was a bad idea anyway. We’re in this fight together or not at all,” I announced bravely. At least now I could shield both of us, and that made me feel better. “Oh, Marie’s okay. Dr. Dannaher evac’d her. She took four to the chest, but I healed her. Hell, I took one to the chest too. It knocked me out of the tree. Hey, thanks for loaning me the vest.” I glanced at Harrison, and he looked awful and exhausted. His clothing was riddled with bullet holes—that had to be a terrifying sight for the hunters—they’d shot him and he’d kept on coming. “Are you okay?”

He paused, as though pondering the answer. “I’m not in imminent danger. I need to feed.”

“Sorry, not volunteering,” I replied.

Before he could argue with me, Patience appeared at my side. She grabbed my shoulder and almost wrenched my arm from its socket as she hauled me a few feet away.

“Patience! What are you doing?” Lex snapped.

“I’m calling in her favor,” she said.

I frowned. “What? Now?”

“Yes, now. Drop the sword and gimme your right hand.”

I eyed her with suspicion as I stabbed the blade into the ground next to me. Patience grabbed my hand and flipped it palm side up, and pulled a dagger from her belt.

“Whoa!” I shouted.

“Duquesne, hold her other hand, this is gonna hurt.”

I tried to tug free, but she had a damn strong grip. Patience sliced my palm open and I screamed. Lex took my left hand as she yanked me to my knees and pressed my bleeding palm against a circle of sigils carved into the ground. Cold dirt ground into my skin as she shouted the words to a spell, something Latin and ominous, and then white-hot fire burned through my veins. I screamed again, this time loud enough to qualify for a slasher film, and my entire body spasmed as magic ripped through me like a bolt of lightning. The sigils lit up like Christmas lights and a loud hum vibrated through the dirt. The noise built to a screech and a ring of white energy shot out from it, knocking everybody flat on their backs.

An unholy chorus of wails echoed throughout the clearing as I stared up at the night sky, and then for a moment everything was silent. It quickly passed as the sounds of battle started again, but I knew the tide had turned. No more demons for the Prometheans—they’d all been sent back to hell.

Groaning, I sat up and glared at Patience, who was still laid out flat. “You’re a real bitch, you know that?”

She snorted. “Sorry, needed witch blood. Gives that extra punch to a purity spell. It worked. You’re fine. I’d say mission accomplished.”

There was something inherently wrong with my blood aiding in a purity spell, but I couldn’t argue with results. I surveyed our surroundings and frowned at the nearby body of a shapeshifter who’d been riddled with bullets. “Yeah. We win. So you and me are even now?”

“We are. Your hubby’s not.”

“Good to know,” Lex said.

He picked himself up, helped me to my feet, and drew me into his arms. Relieved, I leaned into his embrace. My entire body was heavy, and I felt stuffy, as though I had a nasty flu. I started to ask Patience if I needed to be worried about side effects, but then Faust appeared and pounced on her. He held her close, and my jaw dropped.

“I’m fine, babe,” she said. Her voice was muffled by being pressed against his jacket, and he stroked her hair.

“
Babe?
” I repeated. Did the summoner queen just call the shadowspawn faerie
babe?
No, clearly I was hallucinating. Faust turned to me, and I realized with a jolt that he was worried. Deeply concerned about Patience Roberts’ welfare. Lord and Lady…did they shop for mirrored glasses together?

“Are you all right, Catherine?” he asked.

“Umm. More or less.” I looked up at Lex, who just shook his head in bemusement. “Are you okay?” I asked him.

“Fine, sugar.”

“What about the vampire king?” I asked.

That earned an irritated groan from Harrison’s direction, proving that he was still among the unliving. He’d been laid out by the magical blast, but he still had enough energy to flip me off, and I snickered.

“I will return for Zachary after I see to Miss Roberts,” Faust announced.

He and Patience vanished, and I sensed a running theme for this battle. The tough chicks were dropping like flies. Marie and Patience were two of our A-team magicians, and they were hurt. The B-team was probably screwed. At least the gunshots became fewer and farther between, which I hoped meant we were winning.

I looked up at Lex. “Is it safe to call in phase two now?”

“Yeah. Call Portia.”

I called out for my cousin, and she appeared next to us, bloodier than before. Horrified, I shook my head. “What is this—I don’t even—I don’t want to know. Just start phase two.”

“Okay. James and Thomas did well, didn’t they?” she asked, smiling.

“Who?”

“The dragons,” she replied.

“Oh, them. Yes. Are they badly hurt?” I asked.

“Not severely. They’ll be all right.”

She vanished before I could request that she send someone for Harrison to snack on. He continued to look miserable as he forced himself to sit up, and I actually felt sorry for him. “You’re the one who insisted Anthony stay at home,” I pointed out.

Zach scowled. “And I stand by that decision. He wasn’t ready for a fight like this.”

“But now you have no one to
nom
.” He blinked at me, and I clarified, “No one to drink from. And you can’t bite me. Aside from the obvious Lex-will-punch-you-in-the-face problem, Patience got to me first.” I held up my bloody, dirt-covered hand as evidence, and it only added to the vampire’s tantrum expression.

“Why do you both owe favors to Patience Roberts?” Zach asked. His green eyes were narrow as he peered up at us, and I swallowed hard.
Oops.
Guess he’d heard that.

“Umm…”

“Not your business. Magician unity and all,” Lex said. Good answer.

“Right. Just ignore it. Anyway, I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like crap. I say it’s high time we blow this popsicle stand.”

Lex and Zach agreed with me. It was too bad Lex and I didn’t have a home to go to, but the guesthouse of the vampire mansion would have to do for now. I called for Portia again and waited for our turn to be ported out of the battlefield.

Chapter Eighteen

“No. We’re not naming our child Beauregard. End of discussion,” I said.

“There have been several Beauregards in the Duquesne family,” Lex argued. “My great-great-uncle was one, and he was a very well-respected guardian.”

“He didn’t happen to fight in the war of northern aggression, did he?” I asked. Lex scowled, and I pointed at him. “See? No way. We’re going to pick a nice, normal name. Like Robert. Or Brian.”

Lex’s expression darkened at the mention of Brian, and I mentally kicked myself.
Whoops.
Dr. Brian Dannaher wasn’t on Lex’s list of favorite people at the moment, but Lex needed to get over that. Marie really liked him, and though I doubted she’d be planning on marrying a chronicler, they were definitely a couple for the time being, and she was spending most of her time the past few days at his place instead of at the guesthouse. Not that I could blame her for using any excuse to avoid staying at the vampire mansion. I didn’t want to stay here either.

I picked up the “big-book-o’baby-names” Portia had acquired and paged through it for other ideas.

“Zachary’s a nice name,” Faust suggested from behind us. I craned my neck to peer at him from my spot on the ugly couch. I couldn’t complain that he popped in on us too often in the guesthouse because he’d done it when we lived at Lex’s place too.

“Yeah, that’ll never happen either. We’re talking a future guardian, not a future spoiled billionaire.”

“I heard that,” Zach said as he entered the room. Bubba and Cesár growled at him like good guard dogs.

Lex sighed. “You promised to ring the bell before entering.”

“Portia let me in,” he replied.

“Portia!” I snapped. She blinked into the room, all innocent and adorable. “Don’t let the vampire in the house unless we tell you to.”

“But he has news,” she protested.

We all turned our attention to Zach to hear said news, and he took a seat in the ugly chair that matched the ugly couch. It was entirely unfair that I’d gone from Lex’s testosterone palace to Zach’s guesthouse that had been decorated by
Antiques Roadshow
rejects. It was a floral nightmare up in here.

“My necromancer colleagues and I have finished interrogating the last of the hunters. We were unable to determine the location of the hunters’ base. I did speak with Miss Williams—over the phone, don’t panic. She believes that we’ve put a great dent in their human numbers. But Ms. Roberts has noticed a severe increase in local demon activity. She’s put in a few calls to bring in reinforcements, but for now she is the only one maintaining the wards.”

“How bad is that?” I asked.

“Very,” Zach replied.

Great…at least it was quiet here at the vampire mansion. I never thought I’d feel safer being surrounded by paparazzi, but there was a strange comfort in being monitored by the media whenever we left the grounds. The hunters couldn’t grab us because TMZ would notice. The reporters were having a hell of a time figuring out who we were, and that was amusing. They decided that Lex was either a model, actor or personal trainer, which I found hilarious. Apparently I looked like a secretary. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“Heard back from your reporter friend yet?” I asked.

“Yes. I had to be a bit more…persuasive in my argument, but soon the straights will be seeing the bogeyman in every shadow. There will be increased police presence, curfews—the paranoid works.”

“Good. What’s our next move?” Lex asked.

I shook my head and pointed at Zach. “No, what’s his next move,” I corrected.

Zach quirked a blond brow at me. “You’re putting me in charge?”

“No, we’re still in charge. You’re going to be our man in the trenches. It’s time for you to stop being Bruce Wayne and start being Batman. Gotham’s burning. Go save it.” I folded my arms across my chest, and Lex snorted.