Ember's Kiss (34 page)

“Sounds like Chen,” Niall said quietly, and the
Pyr
nodded.

“Okay,” Liz said, glad she could solve half of the problem. Maybe if she helped Brandon to secure his freedom, he could somehow help her pass her test. She'd worry about that later. “I can see how to make this work. I need a few things, including a secluded beach.”

“There's one a couple of miles away from here,” Brandon said. “It doesn't have easy access from the highway or a good surfing break, so it's always quiet.”

“Good. Let's be there at noon.” She pointed at the
Pyr
. “You need a plan of what to do when Chen turns up. How are you going to destroy him?” Liz felt their determination and again had the sense of being part of a caring and powerful community.

“He's drunk the Elixir,” Erik said. “He won't go down easily.”

“We've seen that before,” Sloane agreed, and the
Pyr
began to confer in old-speak.

At least Liz assumed that was what they were doing, because there was no reason for there to be thunder on such a clear day.

She turned the page on the notepad and started to make a list of supplies. The women leaned over her shoulder, watching her write, each one claiming an item on Liz's list, then departing to find it.

This could work.

At noon, they were on the beach. Brandon watched Liz direct the others, admiring her confidence and knowledge. She had sketched a large circle in the sand and conferred with Erik about its dimensions. She wanted to ensure that the
Pyr
had room to fight in dragon form, but the larger the protective circle, the weaker its barrier would be.

Then she used the compass to identify and mark the cardinal compass points. She planted a hurricane
lantern at each one. There was a big candle in each lantern; the glass ensured that it couldn't blow out easily.

She considered the sky worriedly. There were a number of small clouds floating across the expanse of blue, and the wind was light. The waves on the ocean were small and regular, the surface beyond the break as smooth as glass. It should have been a perfect day, but Brandon had a feeling that something was brewing.

Was he just sensitive to Liz's magic?

She turned to the
Pyr
with resolve. “Can you change shape? I need to see you to decide where you should be.”

There was a brilliant shimmer of pale blue light; then four dragons stood on the beach with them. Liz considered each of them in turn, then beckoned the massive pewter and ebony dragon that was Erik. “North for you,” she said, and Erik moved into position. “You with him,” Liz instructed Eileen. “Stay inside the mark where the circle will be, and once it's cast, do not step out of it.”

“Got it,” Eileen said. Liz handed her a matchbook. Zoë stood with her mother and watched with wide eyes.

“East for you,” Liz said to Niall. Brandon wondered whether there was a rationale to her choices or whether she was working instinctively. Niall—amethyst and silver in dragon form—and Rox and their two infant sons took the eastern cardinal point, and, once again, Liz gave the mate a matchbook.

Rox kicked off her black platform shoes, leaving them outside the circle. She was wearing two baby carriers, so one child was in front and one in the back. It worked only because the babies were small, since Rox was petite herself. It wouldn't work in a few months.

They had talked about keeping the children somewhere else, somewhere safe, but there was no safer place, according to Liz, than inside the circle. Their fathers had been vehement that they wanted to personally defend their families. The children were all awake and even the infants appeared to be avidly interested. Brandon wondered whether they could sense the anticipation of the others.

“West,” Liz said to Sloane, and he did as he was bidden, his tourmaline scales gleaming in the sunlight.

“And south,” Liz said to Quinn. He was sapphire and steel in dragon form, more muscular than any of the other
Pyr
. He took his place, Sara beside him, one boy in a baby carrier and the other standing in front of his father with shining eyes.

Garrett. The older boy was named Garrett. He lifted his hands as if he were a dragon and clawed at the air, baring his teeth and pretending to fight. Sara tousled his hair.

“Tails coiled inside the circle,” Liz instructed, and the
Pyr
slid their tails across the sand. They each had their tails unfurled to the left, which gave the circle a scaled perimeter.

She smiled approval, then beckoned to Brandon. “Stay in human form,” she said. “It will make you look weaker.”

“He'll probably make me change forms, anyway, to show his power.”

“Maybe he can't, since his spell is weakened and so is he,” Sloane said.

Liz gave Brandon a look. “You could pretend that he's making you change. Give him a false sense of power.”

Brandon nodded agreement with that plan. “That puts surprise on our side. I like it.” She indicated the very center of the circle, positioning him to face the north. He met the steely gaze of Erik and knew that everyone understood how high the stakes were. “Is this going to work?” he asked Liz in an undertone.

“It should work,” she said. “I will summon him. He will come for the bait, which is you. The
Pyr
can surprise him, and everyone else will be safe within the circle.” She bit her lip. “Recognize that I'm trying to make him appear inside the circle. He won't be able to leave it, if everything goes according to plan, but he might be able to manifest elsewhere, since that's one of his powers.”

“He'd leave the same way he comes in,” Brandon said.

Liz nodded. “The idea is that you will all injure him badly enough that he can't do that.”

“He will have to be killed,” Erik said with resolve.

“No injury will be sufficient,” Sloane agreed.

“So we take him hard and fast,” Quinn said, then nodded. “I'm ready.”

“Use dragonsmoke,” Niall said. “If we can establish a conduit, we can sap him of his energy.”

“I say we build a dragonsmoke barrier as Liz casts her circle,” Erik said. “It takes time to build a fortified barrier.” At Liz's nod, the four older
Pyr
began to breathe slowly and steadily. Brandon knew Liz wouldn't be able to see the dragonsmoke they breathed, but she'd certainly feel how the air chilled.

“Stay inside the circle,” Liz reminded the women again. “Do not break the perimeter, no matter what happens.”

They nodded agreement, but Liz looked each one in the eye. Brandon understood that this was the vulnerability of the plan.

But there was no other choice. They had to try to defeat Chen while he was weak. Brandon watched Liz raise her hands to the sky and hoped this wasn't the way they parted forever.

She began to chant something in a language he didn't understand; then she picked up the bucket of salt she'd brought and began to cast the protective circle around them all.

One thing about rituals was that they were reassuring. Liz calmed down as she began to cast the circle. It was routine work, something she'd done a thousand times, and the familiar gestures and words built her confidence.

There was so much that was unpredictable about this spell. She didn't know this area well or have the familiarity with its vibrations she would have preferred. She didn't know nearly enough about dragons, either
Pyr
or
Slayer
, to be sure that she was covering the important possibilities. She wasn't sure that Chen was weakened enough that he could be defeated, and she feared that Brandon could be not just bait but also prey.

It didn't hurt to have five dragons with her, much less their own understanding of their nature. She hoped they could make decisions on the fly, and expected that Erik would be good at that.

She'd assigned each
Pyr
to a cardinal point on instinct, her choices based on the colors of their scales and any sense of conviction. She remembered Sloane saying that each
Pyr
had affinities to two elements and kept that in her mind as she chose.

Erik had been an obvious choice for the north, which was associated with both the colors black and silver. In Wiccan thinking, north was governed by earth. As leader of the
Pyr
, she guessed that Erik had a firm interest in the physical welfare of the other dragon shifters—his paternal tendency, after all, had brought him to Brandon and was manifesting in his protectiveness.

Sloane, as Apothecary of the
Pyr
, belonged in the west. She'd been uncertain of that for a moment, since west was governed by blue and Quinn was sapphire in dragon form. But Sloane had empathy and sympathy.
He'd need that to heal others, and that association with water was more important to Liz in making the assignment than the color of his scales.

Niall was an easier choice. East was associated with the element of air and the color white in Wiccan symbolism. Although Niall was amethyst and silver, there was something ethereal about him, something electric about his presence. Liz went with her gut and assumed he had a connection to the element of air.

And Quinn was in the south, the cardinal point governing fire, passion, and the color red. Although his scales were not red, he worked with fire routinely and there would be a lot of glowing red coals and iron in his life. That the Aztecs associated the southern direction with the color blue just gave more credence to Liz's choice.

The
Pyr
felt right to her in those places. She looked around at them, noting the vivid hue of their auras and the way the light crackled against the sky. The circle was already lit with flickering light.

Once the circle was cast, Liz welcomed the elements at each cardinal point of the compass. She noticed that the wind was gusting more with every passing moment. Erik was watching the sky, his dragon eyes glittering. The ocean was becoming choppier, too, the waves growing in size. She saw Brandon watching the surf, a frown on his brow. Liz could feel the power she was summoning and assumed the elements were responding to her call.

Once the perimeter was secured, she began the
beckoning chant. Brandon held the silver vial that Chen had given him days before, the one that had held the Dragon Bone Powder. At her nod, he held it in front of himself, the anchor to the spell she was casting. It had been Chen's possession, so it also had a link to the
Slayer
. Liz kept it fixed in her thoughts.

She began at the north and shuffled her feet in the sand, creating a trough that wound in a counterclockwise direction. She repeated the spell, and Eileen followed her, adding her voice to the chant and deepening the trough of the spiral. She guided Zoë to stay between the two of them.

Liz was reminded of the spiral dance she had done once at a Wiccan gathering. She reached back with her right hand and took Zoë's left hand, never breaking her chant. Eileen watched and ensured that the link was made the same way. Each of them would have their right hand back and their left hand forward.

Give with the left and receive with the right.
Liz heard her mother's instruction as if that woman was directly behind her. Liz would be the terminus of the energy they built—and she might need every scrap of it. Her heart skipped with trepidation.

At the western point, Sloane bowed his head as they passed, as if paying homage to the power Liz could already feel building.

When they passed the southern point, Sara stepped into the trough behind Eileen. Liz felt the tips of her hair illuminate as Sara's power was added to the line,
and she felt seared by the connection to their son Garrett. The boy was remarkably powerful, even at his young age. Quinn's eyes narrowed as if he understood what she was feeling, and Liz realized that he knew his son had an affinity to fire, too.

There were sparks dancing over Liz's skin by the time they passed the east and Rox joined their conga line. She, too, joined hands, and Liz caught her breath at the surge of energy she felt added to their line. These were powerful women, each in their own right, and Liz supposed she should have expected as much from the mates of dragon shifters.

The power was growing exponentially, making the hairs on her arms stand up. The auras of the
Pyr
were becoming brighter and radiating more broadly. The women chanted together, completing the first round of the circle, and Liz saw the approval in Erik's eyes. She turned inward, making the circle into a spiral, and raised her voice. The women became louder, too.

Black clouds were gathering overhead and the wind swirled around the outside of the circle. She was reminded of wind sprites that could dance in whirlwinds and hoped there were other spirits gathering to help them.

The women sang together with force, the
Pyr
joining the chorus. Liz felt the crackle of energy in the circle and she saw the flicker of flames around the perimeter. She felt the power continue to increase. The mark on her chest from her mother's pendant tingled. Her blood sizzled. Her skin shone. The Firedaughter
flame rolled over her and illuminated her, charging her every gesture with the element of fire. The inside of the circle was filled with a golden glow, a radiant orb of fire power.

Liz reached the middle of the circle and raised her left hand. The power the women had gathered ran through her body like an electrical current. Liz finished the chorus, then shouted the command to complete the spell, even as she lifted Brandon's hand and that silver vial toward the sky.

There was a crack of lightning, its jagged light slicing through the air. The lightning touched the end of the vial. She saw the silver vial light with white fire. She gaped at the image of her mother within the flame's dancing lights; then the auras of the
Pyr
were extinguished.

And everything happened very fast.

Thorolf was in bed in a flat in Bangkok. It was late, really late, and the city beyond the window was coming as close to silence as it ever did. He rolled over, reaching for Viv's warmth.