Master of the Night (20 page)

He must have been holding back before. This time he opened himself, gave himself, surrendered to the thrust of her power the same way she'd just surrendered to the bite of his fangs. They flowed together.

And she could taste her own blood in her mouth, feel the clamp of her sex around…something that had never been there before.

His cock.

She could feel his cock wrapped inside the slick fist of her cunt. She could feel how her body felt against his, so small and soft and female.

And she felt
him
. His mind. His spirit. The age and strength and vampire nature that was simultaneously so alien and so familiar. Fear rose in her, bringing with it an instinct to break the connection.

“No,”
he said in her mind.
“Stay with me. Be part of me. Let me be part of you.”

It took an effort not to throw herself out of the link, but she fought down the instinct and instead wrapped herself around him. At the same time he drew her closer, letting her feel all the love she'd seen in his eyes.

Trust me,
he said in a velvet mental demand.
I'd cut off my own arm before I'd ever hurt you.

And he meant every word. He loved her, just as she loved him. They belonged together.

With a silent click the Truebond snapped home.

 

For a long
time after that, they lay still, neither wanting to move as they listened to the double thump of their mutual heartbeat. Their new mental connection glittered psychically between them, a bond neither had any desire to break.

Finally Erin spoke. “This is amazing.”

And odd. She could hear her own voice with Reece's ears. Because his hearing was so much more sensitive than hers, the sound carried a resonance it never had for her.

“Damn,” he said dreamily, staring at the ceiling. “Look at the sparks. So that's what you see when you stare at nothing.”

Erin knew he was referring to the Mageverse energies she'd slowly ceased to notice. She laughed. “Welcome to my acid trip.”

“Do something.”

He wanted to feel what it was like to work magic. She smiled and concentrated. An ostrich feather appeared in her hand, and she danced it across his ribs. And giggled at the sensation she felt through the link.

Reece grabbed her wrist. They both stopped dead, feeling her feel his grip. “Oh,” Erin said, “this is going to take getting used to.”

“Yeah.” Reece's tone turned grim. “Too bad we don't have the time to do it.” He'd heard footsteps out in the hall.

A moment later knuckles hit the closed door in a sharp rap. “Hey, Reece,” Lance called. “You finished in there? Morgana and Grace said to tell you the spell's ready.”

“Would it have killed them to give us a little more time?” Erin grumbled. With an impatient gesture she dressed them both in the jeans, T-shirts, and running shoes they'd worn before.

But when they went to open the door, they found Lance dressed in glowing plate armor that had been heavily engraved with runes of protection. A scabbarded long sword hung at his hip.

“Damn.” She eyed him up and down. “Haven't you people ever heard of Smith & Wesson?”

Lance's grim expression lightened into a grim smile. “You don't kill something like Geirolf with a gun. And by now he's probably turned his human flunkies into something just as tough.”

“Has somebody had another vision?”

Lance's smile flashed. “Arthur watched CNN. The top story is that the Death Cult compounds have all mysteriously emptied out. Thousands of people disappeared overnight.”

“Which means—” Reece began grimly.

“—Geirolf has either killed them all or transformed them into a magical army. Morgana said he's sure as hell shielding something. Either way, it's not good.”

“Should I—” Erin broke off. “Never mind. Human sacrifices don't wear armor, do they?”

“Judging from Grace's vision,” Reece drawled, “we're not even going to get to wear clothes.”

“Have I mentioned this sucks?”

He laughed and caught her hand. “Actually, I've noticed that myself.”

“That's pretty well the universal conclusion.” Lance wiggled two fingers in a come-along gesture. “And we're not making it any better standing around here. Come along, children.”

As they followed his armored back down the hall, Erin asked, “I don't suppose anybody actually had a vision that this is going to work and we're all going to live happily ever after?”

He looked over his shoulder. “'Fraid not.”

She sighed. “Didn't think so.”

 

To save Erin
the power expenditure of creating a gate, they walked to the central square she'd seen when they arrived. But now the streets were full of grim-faced people dressed in the same intricate armor Lance wore. Moonlight glinted off gleaming silver and gem-encrusted weapons. It seemed every breath Erin took was choked with magic, and Reece's senses were swamped with the enchanted blood-scent of vampire, Majae, and Sidhe.

Yet big as the crowd was, it was almost eerily silent, with none of the rumble of conversation one would normally hear in a group of such size.

As nervous sweat began to snake down her spine, Erin reached out and grabbed Reece's hand. He squeezed her fingers comfortingly as they worked their way through the press of magical humanity. It was easier than it should have been; when people turned and saw them, they nodded respectfully and stepped aside.

“Damn,” Reece said to Lance, “it looks as if all Magekind is here.”

“They are,” Lance told him, “along with most of the Cachamwri Sidhe. Arthur and Llyr decided we need every sword we can muster.”

Erin licked her dry lips and tightened her sweating grip on Reece's hand. He smiled at her, his green eyes glittering brighter than the gems in Lance's sword.
“We'll be fine,”
he told her through the Truebond.

Seasoned warrior that he was, he'd fallen into the deep, deadly stillness he always felt before a battle. For Erin's part, she almost vibrated with the same blend of adrenalin and tension she remembered from the days she'd kicked down doors with the FBI.
“My stomach's knotted like macramé,”
she told him.

“Wait until the fight starts. You'll steady down then.”

They stepped into the central square and instantly became the focus for thousands of eyes. The crowd stood in a great ring around them, leaving the center free.

Morgana stood there with Grace, Llyr, Arthur, and a blond woman Reece recognized as Guinevere, Arthur's Truebonded wife. Like everyone else, they wore armor. Erin focused on the massive jeweled sword at Arthur's hip, wondering if it was the legendary Excalibur.

“Yes,” Reece murmured in her ear.

She threw him a glance. “I'm going to have to get used to the mind-reading thing.” But come to think of it, it could come in handy in a fight…

He grinned. “It could, at that.”

“Show off.”

Arthur stepped to the center of the square and lifted his mailed hands. The crowd, already silent, instantly focused its attention on him. Erin could see why. He wasn't a tall man, but something about him, some aura of power and authority, instantly riveted the attention.

“Tonight the Magekind faces the greatest threat we've seen in millennia,” Arthur said, his deep voice rolling over the square, amplified by his wife's magic so that every person could hear him as clearly as if he stood next to them. “In this hour of peril we of the High Council are deeply grateful to King Llyr Aleyn Galatyn and the Cachamwri Sidhe for standing shoulder to shoulder with us.”

Llyr inclined his head in a royal bow, one king to another. The face within his open visor was as stern and handsome as a Renaissance warrior angel.

“And we also owe our thanks to Reece, our American Champion, and Erin Grayson, newly Truebonded, who have agreed to serve as bait in our trap.” The former High King extended a hand toward them. Reece bowed. Erin followed suit, stiff, uncomfortable, and miserably aware of her jeans and T-shirt in the face of this magnificently armored assembly.

“They will take a great risk for us today,” Arthur continued, “putting themselves into the hands of the alien Geirolf with neither armor nor helm to protect them. The threat will be no less real for King Llyr and Grace du Lac, who will lend their strength to this spell, and who risk losing their lives should it fail.” He lifted his beautiful voice until it rang. “We must be ready to take advantage of the opening their courage will give us. We must strike hard, without hesitation or mercy, to destroy this threat against us, against the Sidhe, against all Humankind. Or we will all surely fall.”

Arthur paused, letting the seriousness of the situation sink home. Then he smiled. “Yet I have no doubt, my friends, that we will prove ourselves worthy of this challenge, as we have met so many others. For Avalon!” He pumped his mailed fist upward.

“For Avalon!” the crowd roared back.

“For Cachamwri!”

Erin added her bellow to Llyr's as the crowd howled the name.

“And for Earth!”

This time the mass shout was echoed by a thousand glittering explosions overhead as the Majae in the crowd detonated magical bursts in the sky.

When the echoes finally faded, Morgana stepped to the top point of the intricate triangular glyph inscribed in the stones of the square. Llyr and Grace moved to the other points of the triangle as she looked at Reece and Erin. “Come.”

Erin's heart began to pound hard as Reece led her forward. Her fingers gripped his so hard, her knuckles turned white. His hand was cool and steady in hers as they stepped between the three sorcerers into the center of the glyph.

The silence was so complete it seemed to ring. No one coughed, no one scraped a foot on the pavement.

Then the three began to chant, Llyr's deep voice twining with the lighter, higher ones of the two Majae. Erin braced her shaking knees and faced Morgana as the witch's eyes went black, magical explosions bursting in their depths.

Suddenly three shimmering curtains of energy appeared around Erin and Reece, springing into being between the sorcerers along the lines of the glyph. As she watched, the energy triangle began to shrink inward toward them, glowing brighter, Mageverse forces writhing more violently with every millimeter it contracted.

Erin caught her breath, feeling the pressure growing against her mind. Despite her battle to remain calm, pure terror rolled through her veins.

She tightened her grip on Reece's hand as the walls of force grew closer. The instant before they touched her, she shouted into the link, “Reece! I love you!”

“I love you, Erin!” he roared back.

With a crackle, the walls of force converged.

It felt as
if her skull was being crushed in a red-hot vise. Instinctively Erin threw her will against the mystical energy, trying to hold it at bay with the skills Llyr had taught her.

“You're fighting us, child!” Morgana cried. She heard the witch's voice only dimly through the roar of power. “Let it in!”

“Let go, Erin,”
Reece said in her mind.
“I've got you.”

Swearing silently she dropped her instinctive resistance. Simultaneously she saw Llyr and Grace fall to the ground, rendered unconscious as their power surged into her.

A bolt of energy seared into her side, and she screamed, her voice blending with Reece's bellow. Another snapped into her left eye as a third crackled along her skin.

Then there were too many to count, dancing electrical crackles burning in waves across her body. The pressure grew inside her head, howling like some demonic blizzard.

“Reece!” she screamed, terrified.

“I'm here. Baby, I'm here.”
She felt his warm presence trying to absorb the pain.
“You're not alone.”

The crackling discharge ended as the spell vanished completely within her. Erin dropped to her knees like a marionette with cut strings, panting, sweating.

For a moment she was aware of thousands of faces watching her as the crowd stared in frozen, wide-eyed silence. A strong male hand caught her shoulder. She looked up to see Reece standing over her, his face pale. She tried, tremulously, to smile, opening her mouth to reassure him.

The fire leaped in her mind, roaring up like an atomic firestorm.

Erin bent double with a startled shriek of agony. Suddenly it felt as though the magic was ripping her body apart, running amok between her very cells.

In that first terrified instant she realized if she didn't get control, it would utterly destroy her. Instinctively she snapped upright, flung both arms at the sky, and let the magic pour. The sky detonated in brilliant colors over her head, not as simple fireworks, but with the deafening rolling booms of howitzer blasts. The ground shook under her knees. Screams rang out around her as the crowd dived for the ground. She wished fleetingly she could soothe their terror, but she had to wrestle the power under control first.

Blast after blast tore across the sky, comets of energy shooting from horizon to horizon. The explosions were deafening.

“Jesu!”
The thought rang clearly in Morgana's mind, as easy for Erin to read as a newspaper headline.
“We've created a monster. She'll destroy us all!”

And the witch wasn't the only one who was afraid. Erin could feel the same thought taking root in other minds, a wave of fear spreading through the crowd that could too easily turn it into a mob.

Maddened by the searing pain burning inside her, she snarled.
I did this for them, and now they dare turn on me!

She could wipe them all out with a thought. All she had to do was redirect the energy she was aiming skyward, and…

“Erin.”
A voice cut through the searing heat, cool, deep, and soothing.

“Reece?”

“It's overwhelming you, love. You can't let it. Fight it. Control it. Let me help.”

He's right,
she realized suddenly.
I'm losing it. I've got to…

But even as she fought for calm, she heard Morgana reaching out to Guinevere for the power to kill her, knowing it would take both elder Majae to do the job.

Bitch,
Erin thought, furious.

“Morgana, no!” Over the babble of mental voices, over the rolling reverberations of magical explosions, Lancelot's voice rose in a desperate bellow. The knight crouched beside his unconscious wife, cradling her in his arms as he glared at the witch. “Killing Erin will kill Grace and Llyr—and we'll have no chance at all against Geirolf!” Erin wasn't surprised he'd sensed Morgana's intentions. He knew her well.

“If we don't act now,” Morgana shouted back over the blasts, “Geirolf will be the least of our worries!”

“Remember Grace's vision—Reece will help her regain control. Give them a minute! Reece, dammit!”

“Listen to him,”
her lover said, his thoughts a soothing counterpoint to the burning madness in her mind. “
Let me help. You can't do it alone, Erin.”

But she'd always done it alone. Always.

“Not this time. Trust me.”

The energy seemed to blaze just below the surface of her skin. Shaking, burning, she felt as if she were about to split open and spill fire everywhere.

Reece could help her.

She needed him. Needed that cool, immortal steadiness. Frantically she threw herself open and reached for him along the Truebond.

He came surging in like a bracing rain pouring over a forest fire. Erin gasped in relief as he wrapped her in his strength, in the power that came from centuries of life.

He knew exactly who he was, who she was. Looking into the mirror of his soul, she remembered herself, remembered the strength she had.

Overhead, the explosions stopped.

Erin opened eyes she didn't even remember closing. Her face felt hot, tracked by cold tears. She took a deep, shuddering breath and looked around.

Pale faces stared at her. It seemed everyone in the square was hugging the pavement for dear life.

Reece got stiffly to his feet. “It's all right,” he called, though his voice cracked. “She's all right. We've got it.”

“Jesus, man,” Lance said, drawing his wife protectively close, “it took you long enough!”

The close call cost them another half hour as everyone recovered. Reece attached himself firmly to Erin's side, sensing the crowd's wary mood. He couldn't really blame them.

He knew he'd never forget the sight of his lover on her knees, her entire body blazing like a star, her hair streaming away from her face as if a violent wind poured from her head, blasting power into the sky. Reece had seen aboveground atomic tests that hadn't been that violent. It was a testament to her amazing control that she hadn't killed anyone.

Now Erin looked almost bloodless, she was so pale. Standing hunched, she refused to look at anyone, her shame so acute he could almost taste it in his own mouth.

It was only when Arthur approached them that she lifted her head. Reece could feel the effort it cost her to meet the former High King's gaze. “I'm sorry,” she said. “It almost got away from me.”

Arthur gave her a long, searching look. “Have you got control now?” When she nodded, he lifted a dark brow at Reece.

“She just needed to adjust,” Reece said honestly. “That enchantment packed a hell of a lot of power. Anybody would have had trouble with it.”

“But can you work the spell on Geirolf?” Morgana demanded as she stalked toward them. Her mouth was pulled into a tight line. Reece could almost smell the doubt in her. “If you can't, tell us now.”

Erin met the witch's gaze head-on, tilting up her chin. Reece knew she was still angry over the Maja's narrowly diverted plan to kill her. “I can do it,” she gritted.

“You'd better,” Lancelot said, stopping beside them. The team of healers walked on toward the castle, the comatose Llyr and Grace floating between them. Reece knew Lance and several other Magekind and Sidhe would remain behind to protect the two during the coming battle.

“If you can't,” the knight continued, his gaze cold with warning, “the woman I love is dead. And if that happens, you'd better pray Geirolf gets to you before I do.”

“I'll protect her, Lance,” Reece said. “You have my word on it. You'll get her back.”

Lance nodded shortly and strode off after his wife.

“Now,” Arthur said, turning to Guinevere, “I need to look like Llyr.”

 

Erin was barely
aware of the final preparations the others were making. All her concentration was focused on her own task.

For this to work, she had to appear powerless and defeated, despite the Mageverse energies roiling inside her. She had to tamp it all down, control it. Hide it. If Geirolf caught the slightest whiff of those forces, the trap would fail, and she, Reece, and all of Magekind would pay the price.

Erin was damned if that would happen. She had no intention of screwing this up, particularly after coming so close to blowing it all.

She'd been so sure she could handle it. She'd always prided herself on being the strong one, the one in control. The one who'd never hesitated to go through any door, no matter what waited on the other side.

Erin had even learned to deal with her own Mageverse energies easily enough, once Llyr had shown her the trick of it. That had made her arrogant, despite Grace's warning of the insanity she courted.

And look what had happened. If it hadn't been for Reece, she'd have destroyed them all.

Idiot.

“You're not an idiot, Erin,”
he said in her mind.
“Anybody would have had trouble with that much power, even Morgana herself. Not that she'd admit it.”

“Yeah, well, if I'm not careful, Demon Boy will take one look and see me lit up like a Christmas tree, and then we're screwed.”
She hesitated, then blew out a deep breath.
“I need to hide it. Can you help me?”

Erin could feel the warmth of his smile in her mind.
“Always.”

 

The vampire was
staring at Janieda from just beyond the walls of the energy cage, his eyes wide and fixed, pupils shrunk to pinpricks. His face had a yellow, waxy pallor, with deep shadows scored under eyes and hollow cheeks. His once-gleaming blond hair had gone lank and unkempt. Every few minutes he licked his fangs hungrily with a pointed, pale pink tongue.

If Parker had ever been human, he wasn't anymore.

Janieda watched him from behind her wings and tried not to move. Moving seemed to excite him.

What was worse, the room was full of monsters just like him. A restless mob of them, snarling and snapping at each other like wolves. She suspected they'd have been fighting among themselves if they hadn't been so afraid of Geirolf's ugly temper.

“Silence!” the demon roared from his throne a few feet away. He'd abandoned his human disguise in favor of the devil form he wore when he wanted to terrify. Janieda wondered what he really looked like, assuming he had any physical form at all. “The Sidhe king wishes to speak!”

Every vampire in the room fell into a reptilian stillness. Janieda bit back a moan. What was Llyr thinking of, to deal with these creatures?

A glowing orb appeared in the air, flared bright, and faded to reveal Llyr's familiar face. “I have them,” he said. “I've stripped the witch of her powers. They're ready for you. Where's Janieda?”

“Llyr!” Janeida cried, then cringed as Parker bared his fangs at her with a warning hiss.

“I will transport her to you after I have them.” Geirolf smiled, all terrifying teeth. “With all due respect, Your Majesty—I find I do not trust you.”

“And I should trust you?”

“You have no choice,” the demon said coolly. “I can always find another Magekind couple, but there's only one Janieda.”

Llyr snarled. “Very well, damn you. I'll send them to you. But I expect you to keep your word!”

Janieda stared at his image, going still. That didn't sound like her lover. Oh, the voice and face were right, but there was something subtly off about him. Was he under some kind of spell? Uneasily she remembered her vision of him lying helpless while Geirolf laughed.

What was going on?

“Send them now, then, if you expect to see your lover again,” the alien commanded, his voice sharp with contempt.

“And where, may I ask, am I supposed to send them?” the king demanded. “You've shielded so well, I have no idea where you are.”

Janieda scarcely dared to breathe. Had they set a trap for the demon?

Geirolf did not seem worried about the possibility. He made a bored gesture. “There. Send them.”

A gate opened before him as he lounged on his throne. Reece and the girl stumbled through it, shoved by rough hands. Both were bound in shimmering lines of magical force. Erin seemed shrunken, her power stripped away, her face pale as milk, her eyes rimmed white with terror. Janieda felt a twinge of pity.

The crowd of vampires surged closer with a rumbling mass growl of hunger. Even Parker forgot his fascination with Janieda in favor of larger prey.

The young Maja cringed back against her vampire lover, who bared his fangs at them like a wolf.

“Patience, children!” Geirolf purred, rising endlessly to his cloven hooves. “You'll get all the blood you want in a moment.” He flashed gleaming saber teeth. “My spell will strip the Magekind of their powers and kill them so slowly you'll have plenty of time to feed.”

The vampires arrested their half charge, grumbling.

Janieda had seen enough. She lifted her voice in a shout. “You have your sacrifices! Now return me to my Liege.”

Geirolf threw her a dismissive look. “I think not. I've got another spell in mind for you, one that will come as a very ugly surprise to your lover.” Bitterly unsurprised, Janieda watched as he gestured, replacing his throne with a broad stone altar big enough for two. “Now.”

Light flared. When it faded, Reece and Erin were stretched out across the altar, naked, still bound in magic.

And there was a snaking dagger in each of Geirolf's clawed hands.

 

Erin lay still
on the cold stone of the altar, concentrating every bit of acting skill she'd ever learned undercover on projecting an air of terrified defeat.

Inside, she burned.

Hiding the power of the death spell meant bottling it up, letting it sear her mind. Without Reece's strength of will reinforcing her own, she could never have held it. Even with him, she had to battle her instinct to send it boiling out.