Witchling

As he poured water over the wound, I gritted my teeth, promising myself I wouldn't scream. When he dried it and sprinkled on the antibiotic powder, I decided to forget my dignity.

"Great Mother, are you trying to torture me?"

"Breathe, breathe," he said, stroking the palm of my hand with one finger. As his flesh met mine, I began to lose track of the pain, and when he ran his fingers up my wrist, I had totally lost track of it, instead following the silken movements of his skin grazing my own.

"That's right, just follow my voice, breathe out the pain, feel only pleasure." His gaze met mine, and I wanted to jump him then and there. It was only with difficulty that I pulled my attention away.

"Feel better?" he asked, a smile playing on the corners of his lips, and the warm glow of his body receded back out of my aura.

I looked around the room. Delilah and Chase were watching me, and I wondered if they knew just how close I'd come to having an orgasm right there in the kitchen. Morio had been using his powers of mekuramashi on me.

"You should bottle that and sell it," I said hoarsely. "I'd buy a whole case."

"Only too happy to help. I'll help more, later." His voice was low enough so that only I could hear.

I swallowed hard, thinking that when we were done with Luke, there was only one sure way to relieve the tension we were under. "When we have the time," I said, and he leaned over and placed a light kiss on my lips.

Just then, Menolly returned. "Wisteria's locked up and the key is safe with me." She held it up for us to see, then slid it into her pocket. "Now, what about Luke?"

What about Luke, indeed?

"I guess there's no putting it off." I motioned to the living room, and we gathered around the fireplace. "If this works like it did with the harpy, then we're in trouble."

Delilah pulled out her long knife. Guns wouldn't work on Luke, unless we happened to have an AK-47, and that wasn't even in Chase's arsenal. Menolly extended her nails. Morio closed his eyes, and I could feel the energy rise around him as he summoned his magic. And Chase pulled a weapon out of his jacket, one I'd never seen him wield. A steel pair of nunchakus. I gave him a questioning look.

He smiled. "I do have a background in defense other than just pulling a trigger, Camille. Trust me, I know how to use these. You said bullets won't be effective against a demon of Luke's caliber, and somehow, I don't think bitch-slapping him will do any good, will it?"

I laughed. "Chase, you're all right. Okay, we're ready. I just wish Trillian was here with us—we could use his talents. Let's see," I said, looking around. "I need my scrying bowl, along with a bottle of clear spring water."

"I'll get it," Delilah said, taking the stairs two at a time.

"Anything I can do?" Chase asked, looking around the room. "Need any furniture moved or anything?"

"Thanks. I'd normally light candles, but Luke is a creature of fire, and if he shows up in the living room, I don't want any flames going. He could use them in his attack and burn down the house just that much easier." I frowned, looking around as I tried to assess what we might need. "I know. You can get the fire extinguisher from the kitchen. We could probably blind him with it. At least temporarily." The truth was, I had no idea what effect the foam would have on a demon, but it couldn't hurt to try.

Chase trotted into the kitchen and brought back the extinguisher. As he set it down next to me, I caught his hand in mine.

"Chase, I hope you and Delilah enjoy what you've found together—for however long it lasts," I said, keeping my voice low. For all I knew, Menolly and Morio were both listening in. All of us had better hearing than an FBH, but Chase didn't have to know that.

"I've been pretty snide to you over the months," I continued. "But Delilah likes you, and you seem to have lost your fear of being around her."

His eyes glimmered. "I know I've been a pain in your side since we met. You're just so… I don't know. Vital? Alive? But the other night when Delilah and I were working together alone, something just happened. I've never looked at her before like that, but without you around, I could see her for who she is."

I wanted to tell him he had no idea who she really was, that he'd barely scratched the surface. And I'd be right. But I also knew that was for him to discover, and for Delilah to reveal.

"Just remember, she's half-Sidhe. And the Sidhe may look human, but we're not." His expression told me I was about to overstep my bounds, so I cleared my throat and changed the subject.

"Okay, I'll want the coffee table in front of the armchair and—here comes Delilah with the bowl."

Delilah bounded into the room, my scrying bowl in one hand and in the other, a bottle of water that came from the Tygerian River back in Otherworld.

The Tygerian Well was a holy spring that bubbled up from a place high in the mountains. It flowed so quickly and so fast that it had become a river. The water and well were continually blessed by a group of priests who lived far up the slopes of Mount Tygera in an ancient monastery. The Order of the Crystal Dagger was one of the oldest spiritual brotherhoods in Otherworld, and the monks were as reclusive as they were deadly. However, they had no objection to people using the blessed water, as long as no one harmed or defiled the river, the monastery, or the mountain.

I poured the water into the bowl and set it on the table, waiting a moment for the ripples to settle. A few sparkles of light played on the surface. I motioned for everyone to be seated. "When I start, please be quiet. If Luke comes rampaging through some gateway from hell, then you'll be the first to attack because it will take me a moment to break out of trance. Are you ready?"

Everybody nodded.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes. Since I didn't have anything that had belonged to Luke, I'd have to use a variation of the location spell. I lowered myself into the whirl of energy, and liquid silver raced through my veins as I formed a question in my mind.

"Where is the demon Lucianopoloneelisunekonekari? Where is he, right now?" I opened my eyes and looked into the water. After a moment, a mist began to form above the surface, spiraling like a DNA helix. Miniature tornadoes swept across the bowl as the mist bubbled, growing to form an oval frame above the table. Within the frame, a dizzying parade of Faerie fire danced.

I slowly stood, my body quivering. While I'd cast this spell a few times before, I'd never seen this sort of response and wasn't sure what to expect. Should I yell for everybody to run for the hills, or would I finally be able to say I'd performed a magnificent feat of magic and make my mentor proud?

Five seconds passed, then ten, then half a minute. Still the mist coiled, mirroring the oval of lights. Just as I was about to write it off to a pretty show and nothing more, the Faerie fire began to coalesce. A scene formed, remarkably like a television screen, but we weren't watching Leno or Letterman.

A house rose in the near distance, and I immediately recognized it as our own house, looming large under the full moon. Thick clouds built, threatening to cover the sky. A copse of cedar and fir and birch ringed the backyard, and a bird feeder hung on one of the larger firs that buttressed the dirt path that led from the fence surrounding the house down to the tree line.

I snapped my fingers. "Bingo, we're seeing the house from within the woods. Out back." Even as I spoke, a surge of anger raced through me and then passed on—it had to be Luke. He was out there, somewhere.

"I know what's going on! Rather than showing us where he is, the spell is showing us what he's seeing." Excited, I dropped my focus, and the mist immediately dissipated. "He's out back in the woods."

"He's hiding in the cedar grove," Delilah added. "And I know exactly where he's at. You know the path that leads down to Birchwater Pond? That's the trail. I recognize that bird feeder." A guilty look flashed over her face, and I had the feeling she'd been prowling around that woods in cat form. She caught my expression and grinned. Yep, the cat ate the canary all right.

"We're going out to meet him," I said. "I don't want him getting close enough to destroy our home."

"Forget the house. I don't want him destroying us," Menolly muttered. She flexed her back, arching lightly. "All right, shall we take the rumble to him?"

Resigned to our impending doom, I nodded. "Let's get moving."

We were about to head out when the doorbell rang. I cautiously peeked through the peephole. Surely Bad Ass Luke wouldn't come ringing the bell like some Avon lady? Startled, I yanked open the door.

"What the—?"

Smoky broke out in a wide and toothy grin. "I thought you could use a little help," he said. "I had a feeling something was going down, so I'm offering my services."

Speechless, I stared at the dragon. Man. Dragon-man? His gaze never left my own as I ushered him through the door and into the living room.

* * *

CHAPTER 19

"What the hell are you doing here?" I finally found my voice.

"Ah, Camille," he said. "Lovely to see you, too."

I flinched. He knew my name? Not a good sign, not a good sign at all. "How did you—"

"Find out your name? It wasn't difficult. Titania and I had a little talk. She can be very verbose when she's lonely and drunk. She misses her Tom, so she was nipping at the nectar. She doesn't have the capability to hold her liquor the way she used to," he added. I couldn't tell whether he was laughing or not behind those glacial eyes.

Somehow Titania had known my name and so, of course, Smoky did, too. In fact, he probably knew all our names by now, but I was betting that he wouldn't abuse that knowledge. At least, not until Luke was well and truly out of the way. After that, we'd have to be cautious.

"You're going to help us kill Luke?"

"I suppose, though I've heard rumors that the demon who walks your woods out there is a bundle of laughs." Smoky snorted at my sharp glance. "Don't think I'm clueless as to what's going on. I won't be able to shift into my natural form inside the forest, only in a clearing. But I've got other tricks up my sleeve that you'll find useful."

After introducing him to Menolly, we headed out the back door. The moon was riding high in the sky, she was a sliver away from being full, and I could feel her pull on me. Delilah could, too; her form shivered and trembled as if she could barely keep herself together. She'd be okay tonight, but tomorrow would be another story. We had to finish this before morning.

The woodland that buttressed against our backyard was a good twenty-acre patch with a path leading down to Birchwater Pond. Overgrown, the thicket was mostly composed of cedar and fir, of birch and huckleberry and fern. Vine maples looped their way through the copse, and an oak stood sentinel here and there, but for the most part, the tangle was so dense that it was nigh to impossible to travel off the path.

"How far is that bird feeder along the path?" I asked. Luke couldn't be very far in to have been looking at our house. In fact, chances were, he was watching us approach right now. There wasn't much we could do about that, but every second that passed gave him that much more time to gather his strength.

"A few yards," Delilah said. "Not far. I hope he didn't slip around through the undergrowth with the idea that he could sneak in the house while we were out."

I frowned. I hadn't thought of that possibility. "We just have to hope and pray that Bad Ass isn't as smart as you are."

Closing my eyes for a brief moment, I searched the area for any sign of demonic activity. Bingo! Over near the gazebo. He wasn't in the woods anymore, and he was headed for the house. Turning direction, I broke into a sprint, yelling at the top of my lungs. No use trying to surprise him, but perhaps we could engage him before he got inside and tore the place to the ground.

The others, taken off guard, followed a beat behind me. I could hear the fall of their shoes on the wet grass as I neared the gazebo. And then Luke stepped out from behind the ornamental pagoda. I skidded to a halt, and Smoky bumped into me. I felt his hand on my ass but didn't have time to shake him off.

Bad Ass Luke was a misnomer. Bad Ass Luke brought to mind a drunken football player, or a hotheaded biker. But Lucianopoloneelisunekonekari was no human thug. Standing a good eight feet high, Luke might be human in shape and form, but all resemblance ended there. No simple demon, either. Hollow eyes reflected the fires of the nether realms, and his arms and legs were vein-shrouded and engorged, muscle-bound beyond any steroid dream. He wore no clothes, and that he was male was rock-hard obvious. It was also apparent that he was strong enough to rip the head off an ox. Poor Jocko hadn't stood a chance, so where did that leave us?

I froze, paralyzed by a vast flow of fear. Smoky broke away, and I wondered if he was going to cut and run, but then I saw that he was trying to gain some distance so he could transform into his dragon self.

Morio pushed his way around me, moving to the side as he stared at the hulk who was slowly striding our way.

"What do we do? Oh, Great Mother, how can we take down that beast? He's huge!" Delilah sounded on the verge of panic. She squeaked again when Luke opened his mouth, and a billow of gas emerged.

"Poison!" Morio said. "He can use poison—I can smell it from here. Do your best to get behind him, because you don't want him breathing on you!"

Holy mother of mountains. Just what we needed. Poison gas, and arms strong enough to crush us. I shook myself out of my paralysis and summoned the Moon Mother. ns class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">