René touched my arm and then motioned me to the left. I nodded. While I had no idea what spell was being cast, I knew for a fact I simply didn’t have the magical know-how to deal with the caster, and I certainly didn’t have the time to dissect and nullify his or her spell.
I padded silently forward, keeping my back to the wall. There were three doors leading off the hall, two on the left, one on the right, before it opened up into what looked to be a recreational room. Two of the doors were locked; the third opened into a large room that contained several mattresses and a couple of rolled-up sleeping bags. There was no sign that either had been used recently.
I continued on. From up ahead came the caress of magic and the stomp of heavy boots. I doubted it was Lanie moving around; aside from the fact she didn’t seem to be the work boot wearing type, whoever paced up ahead stepped heavily. I suspected it was either Luke or the second man who’d been at the apartment.
I drew a knife, the threads of my leash weaving lightly around my fingers. I hoped like hell I didn’t have to use the blade, even as instinct whispered that was false hope.
The echo of magic coming from up ahead abruptly surged; a heartbeat later, there was a soft, somewhat muffled whimper.
Ginny again.
The desire to get in there and rescue her was so damn strong that my pace briefly increased. I forced myself to slow again and crossed over to the other side of the hall to scan the left side of the room.
No magic, no sign of anyone else, and no gentle pulse of life running through the air.
Everything lay to the right. Ginny, the heavy-footed man, and the growing intensity of whatever spell was being crafted. It was tempting, so damn tempting, to rush out there, but until I had a good grasp of the situation, doing so could just make things worse.
After a quick look at the hall behind me to ensure nothing and nobody was trying to sneak up, I carefully placed my bag down, then dropped to my belly and dragged the black jacket’s hood up to cover my vibrant hair. Then, as prepared as I could be, I crawled forward the last few inches and peered cautiously out.
Ginny was naked, bound, and lying within a circle within a triangle of black spell stones. The air above her pulsed and writhed, framing claws that were becoming more solid with every beat of magic. Pacing the boundary of the circle was the second man from the apartment. Magic trailed lightly after him, and while I wasn’t entirely sure what sort of spell it was, it did have the markers of some sort of shield. Perhaps he was protecting himself from a certain scarlet-haired energy thief....
There was no sign of Luke or Lanie. In some respects, that was good, because it at least meant I only had one powerful witch to deal with.
Conversely, it also meant René had two.
I wriggled back, then rose and took a deep breath to calm the instinctive rise of fear. It didn’t help. It never did. But then, fear was also a great speed booster....
I bolted into the main room and unleashed the repelling spell at the big man. It hit him just as he turned to face me and swept him off his feet, shoving him back through the nearest window. As glass shattered and he disappeared out into the silver gloom, his magic surged. I instinctively slashed at the incoming spell with the blade; light flared down its fuller as it sliced through the magic, and broken threads rained to the floor either side of me.
I didn’t stop, didn’t cast another spell. I just kept running toward Ginny, my gaze on the magic and the creature forming life above her. I couldn’t physically stop the spell, given it was obviously being cast from the other end of the house and I needed to see its threads to have any hope of voiding or subverting it, but if I could break the alignment of the stones, it should be enough to at least corrupt the spell. Many witches, light or dark, anchored their spells to stones as a secondary means of protection to ensure if things did go wrong—if someone, either accidentally or on purpose, moved a stone out of alignment—the spell would shatter rather than escape and cause god only knew what harm.
Magic flared behind me again. I had no idea what the spell was and no intention of stopping. I couldn’t. The claws had almost fully formed; any minute now, they would slash down and gut Ginny.
The back of my spine prickled with the awareness of approaching danger. The big man had cast his spell, and whatever the fuck it was, it was closing in fast. I threw myself forward and down, hitting the polished floor with a pain-filled grunt and sliding forward several feet. The magic skimmed over the top of my head, though it wasn’t a spell, as such, but a thread-wrapped blade similar to the ones I carried. It hit the shield protecting the spell stones and slid away to the right before being reeled back in by its creator. I had seconds, if that, to stop the demon.
But the slide had brought me within arm’s reach of the spell stones. I swept the knife at the nearest one, the blade flaring brightly as it cut through the protective magic and hit the stone with an oddly resoundingthunk, knocking it out of alignment. It was enough to tear the spell apart and shred the still-forming demon.
As its scream echoed, I twisted around and saw the big man throw his knife. I flung up a hand, a hastily created shield flaring from my fingertips. It was never going to be strong enough to stop it, but it did at least slow its force. I rolled from under its trajectory, clambered half upright, and threw my own knife. He laughed and dodged, but as the knife flew past him, I jerked on the leash, spun the blade around, then drove it deep into the back of his right thigh. As he howled, I twisted it sideways and swept it to the right, severing the muscles and nerves in his leg. Then I leashed it in place, ensuring he couldn’t easily remove it, and released my hold on it. He lunged at me, but his leg collapsed underneath him, and he went down hard. Fragments of the magic that had followed his movements fell all around him like rain, and rather oddly, he seemed to be deflating with them.
I had no time—and no desire—to figure out why. I quickly created another leash spell and wrapped it around his body, pressing his arms close to his sides, then repeated the process with his legs. With the silver blade lodged in his flesh, he wouldn’t be able to cast any sort of spell, but the last thing I wanted was him up and physically rampaging.
Once he was secured, I twisted around and scrambled toward Ginny. She was pale and shivering, and she was gagged with what looked like a damn T-shirt. The wire binding her wrists and ankles was thin and tight, but it was the thick streaks of red climbing up her forearms and her legs that worried me, because it meant the wire was at least silver coated.
They’d known what she was and had been ready for her.
It also meant that my magic wouldn’t work, nor would my other knife, as silver was a relatively soft metal, and I had no idea if it would be able to cut through wire. I’d have to release her the old-fashioned way, and I had to hurry, because the magic coming from the other end of the house was now so fierce the hairs on my arms were standing on end. A battle royale was happening, and I desperately wanted to go down there and help.
Even if Iwasthe weakest witch here.
I found the ends of the wire binding her ankles, hurriedly untwisted them, and then unwrapped the wire from her flesh. Her skin was raw and swollen underneath it, but it hadn’t broken her skin, which at least meant the poisoning wouldn’t yet be in her blood. I threw the wire away, then repeated the process for her wrists before finally taking the gag off and helping her sit up.
“Luke and another two men are here,” she gasped. “I have no idea where Monica is. We need to track?—”
“Ineed to track her. You need to be still until help gets here, or you’ll make the silver poisoning worse.” I dug a bottle of holy water out of my handbag and handed it to her. While it was generally used against demons, a witch working in some werewolf reservation down in Victoria had discovered it helped heal magic or demon-based wounds. The Society hadn’t gone as far as recommending we carry a bottle, but maybe after today, I would be.
“You can’t tackle all of them alone?—”
“I’m not. René and Atticus are both here, but I need to go help them.” I paused. “Was Lanie here at all?”
