Wicked Magic (30 page)
Authors: Cheyenne McCray
“Host bodies.” Silver rubbed her arms with her hands as if she had chill bumps. “No doubt the demons will be in the stands, posing as spectators.”
Rhiannon slowly nodded. “They could already have infiltrated stadium security. They could attack us at any time.”
Jake raked his hand through his short hair, ruffling it. “We'll have to handle this without informing security. They're not going to be happy about it.”
“None of us like any of this.” Rhiannon clenched her hands into fists. “What about the public's reaction to finding out that an evil goddess bitch from Underworld is responsible, if she's successful?”
“They'd laugh the local law enforcement out of the city if we come out with that kind of statement.” Jake shook his head. “People won't believe it until the city is overrun with demonsâwhich is exactly what's going to happen if we don't take Ceithlenn down.”
Rhiannon twisted her gold-and-onyx ring. “They could even think
we
are terrorists when we try to stop her, if we're not successful.”
we
are terrorists when we try to stop her, if we're not successful.”
“We'd better get it right the first time,” Jake said with a determined expression.”
Sweat rolled down the side of Rhiannon's face during the trip to the stadium. It was cramped in the PSF truckâone of several that were on their way to the baseball park. The witches and their familiarsâall of the animals had been temporarily protected by glamoursâstayed together because they believed they worked better as a team. Their goal was to get to Ceithlenn while the others fought off any attacks. They had no doubt the goddess wouldn't be alone.
Jake had worked out their covert operation with select friends in the SFPD and other law enforcement agencies, trying to keep things undercover best as possible so that they'd have backup that wouldn't be blocked by a Fomorii in a host body in a position of power. Rhiannon hoped none of Jake's contacts were now demons.
After what happened at the theater, the mere mention of a potential attack would have every law enforcement agency scrambling if they spread the word everywhere. But what could they do against the goddess? At least Rhiannon's team was prepared to fight, and protected against getting their souls sucked dry.
Rhiannon flexed her hands, ready for a spellfire attack, and Spirit gave a meow from where he sat on her lap. She
concentrated on her magic, still feeling infused with power from the earlier ritual. Spirit's magic enhanced her own, but she worried about the familiar being in the middle of the battle. But they could use their familiars' strengths and magical powers.
concentrated on her magic, still feeling infused with power from the earlier ritual. Spirit's magic enhanced her own, but she worried about the familiar being in the middle of the battle. But they could use their familiars' strengths and magical powers.
The public, of course, had no idea what had truly happened to the people in the theater, or those on the tour bus. The taste of fear in the city was strong and grew more so as each day progressed. Everyone continued to wonder what had shriveled the bodies so badly their families and friends would never be able to recognize their remains? The only thing that had identified most were forms of ID in their possessions.
Already a rally for sometime during the week had been organized, and talk shows and news programs around the world were speculating over what was now being called the Movie Theater Massacre. Speculation on news radio and on television was that it must have been a biochemical terrorist attack using some kind of virus or gas even though HAZMAT had found no airborne threat.
Only the PSF, the witches, and the D'Danann knew the truth of it.
Everyone in the truck was quiet. The PSF officers were armed to the teeth, from the rifles they carried to weapons belts. The belts held extra magazines containing the special bullets Jake had shown her, as well as knives, handguns, and other things she wasn't sure about.
The PSF officers also wore riot gear and along with their protective clothing, they wore Kevlar vests, kneepads, and gloves. The witches wore as much protection as the PSF officers with the exception of the gloves.
They arrived at the stadium about fifteen minutes before the scheduled start of the game. The unmarked PSF trucks each backed up to one of seven side entrances around the ballpark that the public didn't have access to. With the truck doors opened directly into the entrances, the witches, familiars, and officers were able to unload into the stadium and make their way to their stations. Rhiannon clutched Spirit close to her chest.
Every time Rhiannon passed a security guard or other stadium employee, she couldn't help but wonder if the person was actually a demon in a host body. Unfortunately, when in their host bodies, they couldn't be scented. They just smelled like the person's body that they inhabited.
When they arrived at their stations, Rhiannon gripped Spirit tight to her. Chaos, Sydney's Doberman, sat quietly at her side. He had a Doberman's protective instincts and would viciously attack when his mistress was faced with danger. He was just a goof when not in a serious situation.
Rhiannon had a good vantage point as they waited against the walls of entrances that led onto the field. The players were warming up but her heart chilled to think any of them could be murdered by Ceithlenn. That any single person here could be taken by the goddess.
She glanced up at the sky and saw some D'Danann circling over the stadium. Others would be perched strategically throughout the ballpark. As long as their wings were exposed they could remain invisible to human sight if they chose to. Unfortunately, like the witches when they pulled glamours, the D'Danann stayed visible to magical beings, including the Fomorii.
She held one hand to that place on her breastbone where Ceithlenn's magic had struck her. It felt only slightly sensitive to the touch beneath her T-shirt and Kevlar vest. The wound was healing quickly due to the fact she was a witch.
A wiggling in Rhiannon's jacket made her jump. When Galia's little face peeked out of Rhiannon's pocket, she almost bopped the Faerie on her head for scaring her. Spirit, who was still in Rhiannon's arms, hissed and batted at Galia with his paw, but she ducked.
“I didn't even know you were here,” Rhiannon whispered.
“I sipped the potion.” Galia looked up at Rhiannon and edged far out of Spirit's reach to the opposite end of the pocket. “Everyone fights. Including me.”
“Of course.” Rhiannon peered back at the ball field before looking at Galia again. “I just didn't know you were in my pocket. Like I said before, it isn't fair to ask you to stay
behind when the rest of us insist we have the right to kick that goddess's ass.”
behind when the rest of us insist we have the right to kick that goddess's ass.”
“Exactly.” Galia climbed out of Rhiannon's pocket and flew up to her shoulder. The Faerie was wearing her skintight black fighting outfit.
The PSF officer next to Rhiannon blinked and squinted at Galia. “Is she a Faerie?”
Galia fluttered her pink wings, spilling pink dust and hints of lilac. She snorted at him. “I am most certainly not a demon.”
Rhiannon turned her attention back to the field. It was an unusually warm San Francisco day and it caused her skin to tingle, which only reminded her of her father and her failure to get the Drow to help them.
Only a few clouds streaked the cerulean blue sky. The scent of freshly mowed grass carried on a light breeze, along with the plastic and metallic smells of the weaponry and clothing the PSF officers wore and carried. Rhiannon almost wished for one of their ballistic shields, but she knew it would hamper her magic, and she could throw up a spellshield whenever she needed itâas long as she wasn't caught off guard.
Her breathing rate picked up as she waited. Waited for a sign. Waited for Ceithlenn.
A popular rock singer sang the national anthem and Rhiannon automatically stood straighter with her hand over her heart. Her gaze roved the stadium. She wanted to cry at the thought of all of these people being taken away from their families, their friends. Age, raceânone of that would matter to Ceithlenn. She would take every soul she could.
We have to stop her! We have to!
Team pennants waved in the crowd. The State of California flag snapped in the breeze next to the American flag. People were shouting, whistling. A huge Trinitron flashed pictures of people in the crowds and the spectators would cheer when they saw themselves on the big screen. Vendors walked up and down aisles selling popcorn, peanuts, hot dogs, ice cream, and cotton candy. Even from where she was standing, Rhiannon could smell it all.
The governor of California walked out onto the field to make the first pitch. Rhiannon's heart nearly stopped beating.
Not her, too!
Rhiannon held her breath from the time the governor pitched the ball until she left the field with the roar of the crowd following in her wake.
By the time all the players from both teams were on the field, Rhiannon was trembling. This was
so
wrong. Dear Anu, this was wrong. None of this should be happening.
so
wrong. Dear Anu, this was wrong. None of this should be happening.
The Giants' pitcher finished conferencing with the coach and the catcher and started to make his way to his position.
The scars on Rhiannon's cheek burned, pain spiked through her head, and her heart thrummed against her breastbone.
Ceithlenn materialized on the pitcher's mound.
A collective gasp rolled through the stadium when the flame-haired, red-eyed, bat-winged goddess became visible.
Pain screamed through Rhiannon's head and her heart beat in her throat as she readied herself to run onto the field as boos, jeers, and hoots came from the crowd. Ceithlenn looked like a Halloween reject.
“On my mark,” Jake said through the transmitters in their ears. Like a football quarterback throwing a pass to his receiver, he lobbed what he called a flash-bang. It arced through the air and landed in the grass only feet from the goddess.
Rhiannon closed her eyes and covered her ears with her hands just as the 170-decibel object, with intense flare, detonated. Jake had said it would temporarily blind and deafen anyone within close range and might buy them some much needed time.
Despite the fact she'd had her hands over her ears when the flash-bang exploded her ears rang and spots flashed in front of her eyes.
Her gaze immediately went to the goddess.
Ceithlenn was still standing there.
The goddess stretched out one of her hands and rotated on the mound. All of the players, coaches, batboys, and umpires froze in whatever positions they had ended up in as a result of the flash bang.
They looked like wax dummies out on the playing field.
“Dinner for my army.” Ceithlenn's voice echoed throughout the stadium as if she were speaking with a microphone. “And you all are dinner for my soul. Your sacrifices will bring my love back to me.”
A rumble of disbelief, anger, and fear traveled through the crowd.
“We'll give her an appetizer,” Jake growled through the earpiece. “Archer. RPG, go!”
A thunk and a hiss as the rocket-propelled grenade launcher sent one of its deadly missiles right at Ceithlenn.
A force field shimmered around the goddess as she whipped her gaze toward the oncoming danger.
The grenade hit the shield and explodedâand did nothing to the goddess.
She dropped her shield and pointed her fingers right at Jake and the witches. Rhiannon's heart jumped. She felt as if something was trying to suck her through some kind of vortex. But then she felt nothing.
The goddess screamed with fury on her face and turned back to the crowd that seemed confused. Rhiannon could almost hear their thoughts. Was this some kind of pregame show?
“Move, move, move!” Jake shouted in Rhiannon's earpiece. Spirit bounded from her arms as Rhiannon bolted from the entrance.
Ceithlenn spread her arms and her wings wide as she stared at the crowd.
PSF officers holding their ballistic shields charged onto the field, the witches right beside them with their familiars.
At the same time, countless people swarmed from the standsâ
And shifted into Fomorii as they bounded onto the field with shrieks and roars.
Rhiannon's gut churned. They had to get to Ceithlenn! Had to stop her!
But the pitcher's mound was far from all the entrances the PSF and witches were charging from.
And the Fomorii were so damn fast. They scampered, ran, boundedâso many different types of beasts. Red, orange, yellow, blue, green. Some had single eyes, others had many. The demons had anywhere from two to six arms and their bodies were all twisted and malformed. Their claws glinted in the sunlight.
They were tipped with iron.
The field smelled of smoke, sweat, burnt sugar, and the demons' rotten fish stench. And death. It already smelled of death.
Screams came from the now panicked crowd, but the sounds started to die away. Rhiannon glanced up into the stands. She could see the people closer to the field slump in their seats and wither as white, gray, and black puffs of smoke rushed to the goddess.
Other people higher up screamed and started to stampede from the building. Some escaped, but others froze in their places like mummies. The stands grew quieter and quieter. Still screams and shouts, but everything was gradually becoming silent.
Dear Anu, how had Ceithlenn done it so quickly?
“No!” Heat flushed Rhiannon and she gathered a huge spellfire ball while she bolted toward Ceithlenn. She dug into her gray magic and felt the power of Anu within.
Rhiannon stopped short as a demon landed in her path.
She flung the spellfire she was carrying at the Fomorii's face. The orange demon screeched as its head went up in flames. In the next second a sword sliced the head from the demon's body. Rhiannon met Keir's eyes and saw the intense, furious look on his face.
“Help me!” she shouted over the fighting. “Together we can work toward getting to Ceithlenn.”
Keir gave a sharp nod. In almost perfect choreography, they fought off one demon and then another and another. Spirit did his part by jumping on the heads of attacking demons and clawing their eyes completely out just long enough for Rhiannon and Keir to do away with the beast.
Beside them, Jake took a two-fisted stance with his handgun
and with a single shot blew a mammoth hole in the chest of a Fomorii, obliterating its heart. No sooner had the beast crumbled to silt than Jake took down another demon.
and with a single shot blew a mammoth hole in the chest of a Fomorii, obliterating its heart. No sooner had the beast crumbled to silt than Jake took down another demon.
One Fomorii came at Jake from his back and Rhiannon flung a spellfire ball that caused its feet to fly out from under it. Jake whirled, planted his foot on the demon's chest, and fired at its heart with his handgun.
From behind their ballistic shields, other PSF officers fired off rounds of the special heart-seeking bullets at the Fomorii. Rhiannon saw one officer go down on his back when a demon pounced on his shield. It swiped its fierce claws at the downed man, but another officer shot the demon, wiping it out.
Other officers used the enhanced tasers, dropping some of the demons long enough to shoot them, or giving a D'Danann warrior time to behead the beast.
But there were so many Fomorii. As Rhiannon fought she saw PSF officers and D'Danann go down at the claws of demons. Blood splattered from the officers' bodies, and the D'Danann twinkled and vanished as their souls traveled to Summerland.
Rhiannon's heart sickened and her fury magnified. She put more and more of her gray magic into her spellfire balls as her determination grew to take down as many demons as she could.
Nearby, her Coven sisters flung spellfire balls and used magic ropes to bind and incapacitate demons. The air crackled with the power of their magic and different colors lit up the air like fireworks. Their familiars did what they could, adding strength to their mistresses' magic.
Chaos buried his teeth into the flesh of a demon's leg and Sydney bound the beast with her ropes of magic, allowing another D'Danann to take it out.
Hannah's falcon, Banshee, was using the same tactic as Spirit and going for the eyes.
As planned, all the witches were trying to work their way toward Ceithlenn. But the tremendous number of demons held them back.
D'Danann charged Ceithlenn from the air, but their swords bounced off some kind of invisible barrier. The D'Danann were the only beings able to get close enough to the goddess, yet they couldn't touch her.
A pink-and-black blur sped by Rhiannon, straight toward Ceithlenn.
“No!” Rhiannon shouted. The Faerie couldn't take on the goddess alone. “It's too dangerous, Galia!”
As soon as she reached the goddess, Galia started flinging pink bolts of lightning. The Faerie's magic actually pierced Ceithlenn's shield! The goddess's clothing burned every place a bolt struck and the leather seemed to melt against her skin. Galia's magic even tore holes in Ceithlenn's wings.
A look of intense fury crossed Ceithlenn's face. For a moment, souls stopped making their way toward her. In a movement so fast Rhiannon almost didn't see it, the goddess swung her hand. She slammed her magic at Galia, knocking the Faerie from the air.
Galia dropped to the ground and didn't move.
“Galia!” Fear followed by fury for her little friend rose up in Rhiannon's throat. She put so much of her gray magic in the next spellfire ball she gathered, she nearly blew up the closest demon's head before Keir could lop it off.
Spirit bounded toward Galia, arched his back, and took a protective stance over the Faerie's little body.
From the air, D'Danann sliced and hacked at demons with their swords. Metal clanked against the iron-tipped claws of the Fomorii. Blood splattered the field as D'Danann swords made contact with demon necks and chests.
PSF officers and D'Danann were covered with blood, too, some their own. Claw marks grazed arms, ripped through clothing. The officers' bodies were protected by their armor and helmets, but it wasn't enough. Flesh was flayed open and throats torn out.
There were so many demons. Every time one Fomorii dropped it was replaced by another.
And the people in the standsâno more screaming.
Nothing. They were frozen by the power of Ceithlenn's magic and she quickly sucked the souls from one human after another.
Nothing. They were frozen by the power of Ceithlenn's magic and she quickly sucked the souls from one human after another.
Rhiannon flung spellfire after spellfire and Keir swung and sliced with his sword. Demon blood coated Rhiannon's and Keir's shirts and streaked their faces.
When Rhiannon missed the next demon, she had to drop and roll away from the beast as it lunged for her. Keir took the demon out and Rhiannon scrambled to her feet. Her breathing had become harsh and ragged and her arms sore from throwing spellfire balls. But the adrenaline pumping through her kept her going.
After battling two more demons, another beast got close enough to rake its claws across her chest, ripping her shirt. Thank Anu, the Kevlar vest protected her. Keir gave a mighty roar and lunged for the demon. He cut its heart out with a skillful movement.
But another demon came up from behind Keir and gouged its iron-tipped claws down his bare arm. Blood flowed. Rhiannon screamed and flung spellfire. Keir whirled and cut his sword through the air, decapitating the demon.
Dear Anu, don't let that wound have enough iron in it to hurt Keir!
Her heart nearly crumbled at the thought and she barely avoided dodging the claws of the next demon.
Her heart nearly crumbled at the thought and she barely avoided dodging the claws of the next demon.
While she continued to fight, Rhiannon noticed that Sydney and Hannah had each teamed up with a D'Danann warrior. They each used their magic ropes to bring a demon down. The D'Danann finished the Fomorii off, turning them into piles of silt.
Silver worked with Hawk and Copper with Tiernan. Silver not only had her magic, but used a pair of silver stiletto daggers as she fought. She had developed a knack for flipping the knives through the air and into a Fomorii's heart at the same time she flung a spellfire ball. The knives didn't kill the demons because they didn't destroy their hearts, but it slowed them down.
Copper had been the lead pitcher on the California Bears team at U. C. Berkeley during her undergrad years. Despite
her broken ankle, she maneuvered easily and fired off one spellfire ball after another with nearly perfect precision.
her broken ankle, she maneuvered easily and fired off one spellfire ball after another with nearly perfect precision.
Alyssa bit her lower lip as she flung spellfire balls and one of the D'Danann stayed by her side. When a Fomorii got too close, she would throw up a spellshield, protecting herself from attack. But Rhiannon saw Alyssa's clothing had been shredded and her arm was bleeding.
Rhiannon glanced toward the pitcher's mound after she took down another Fomorii.
Ceithlenn was still drawing souls from the crowded stadium. The goddess radiated power. The cloudy wisps came faster and faster to her, and her body soaked them in like a sponge.
A sick feeling weighted Rhiannon's belly, almost driving her to her knees. All those people. All those people! Men, women, children.
Everyone.
Rhiannon clenched her teeth. She threw everything she had into fighting the demons harder.
She and her Coven sisters had to get to Ceithlenn.
Keir roared, fury giving him even more strength.
His fear for Rhiannon mingled with admiration for the way she fought. She was a true warrior in every sense of the word.
Sweat streaked her cheeks, along with Fomorii blood. Her black cap had fallen off and her short auburn hair was wild about her face, her green eyes burning with fire.
Keir's fellow warriors fought from the air, using their advantage of speed and flight. Rhona and Tegan attacked Ceithlenn's shield time after time, as did Kirra and Sheridan. When they struck her shield the warriors were flung backward and had to catch themselves in mid-flight to keep from crashing to the ground. Yet they went after Ceithlenn again and again.
So many Fomorii and so few of the D'Danann, witches, and PSF. Godsdamn the Chieftains for not sending more aid!
When he saw two of his comrades go down, along with PSF officers, Keir's rage magnified and his strokes grew harder and faster.
Keir lopped off another demon's head, making way for yet more Fomorii. He ground his teeth and jabbed at the next demon. Whatever the case, Keir and their team
would
win this battle against the Fomorii.
would
win this battle against the Fomorii.
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