EJ spun, evaluating the scene in an instant.
Angie was safe beneath thehedge. Staff at the ready facing the bot. Angie’s magic—harps, woodwinds, clashing cymbals—echoed down the street, all heard by only him.
Nyoka was behind the bot, clothed in green. One hand bandaged. Fully vamped out. Her wide black pupils glowed orange-green, the EEB’s energies sounding of boulders crashing down a mountain, falling trees, the crackle of flames. In an instant she was gone, hidden beneath hershadowworking.
EEB attack has not begun. Time available.
He spun to the bot. It was mostly debris. Metal, split and twisted, its outer skin torn, its frame exposed and smoking. Tracks ripped. Its payload looked intact from the side but its top had taken a direct hit. The composite null material was rolled inward.
Stasis cannot last.He whipped his head back to the apartment.
Peg had managed to move closer, but Villetti’s containment vessel was still too far away to collect all the demon energies.
He needed that staff. Except he couldn’t use it. Only Ange could activate it.
Which meant he’d have to take on a demon-possessed vampire-witch with his own magic.
Even in Delta Mode, his magic levels measured at half of Angie’s.
The only good thing—Walter had said Nyoka wasn’t a warrior so her weapons and armor would be inferior to his. Her magic and her demon, however, would more than make up for any lack. EJ caught the first whiff of brimstone. She was close.
Stasis is falling,his Delta awareness warned him.
Evaluation complete.
Gliding too fast for observers to see, he slipped around the little red car. Holstered his weapon. Pulled a set of palillos and a shortsword with a wooden hilt. Gathered himself. Took two running steps. Threw himself over the car in a hands-free somersaulting leap. In midair, he sang a singlewyrd. “Bruciare!”
As he came down, his sword glowed a superheated red. He stabbed into Nyoka’sshadowshield.
Heated steel and silver pierced hershield. It fell.
Fire slashed down her arm. She dodged to the side. Screaming.
EJ landed.
Nyoka hit him. Her good hand in an upward thrust to his nose.
He hadn’t been expecting a physical attack. He went down. Landed on one knee. Hard.
Nyoka swiveled to Angie. A blade in her hand.
Angie dropped herhedge. Lifted her staff and pressed the trigger to begin collecting EEBs. Defenseless.
EJ lunged from his low position. His elbow rammed into the ice. The heated blade sliced through the vampire-witch’s Achilles tendon. Cut through her flesh about three inches too high.Above the perfect disabling strike. He landed on his knees, sliding on the ice. Hand rotating, he sliced up, at the back of her knee. The stench of burned vampire smoked into the air.
She wailed and jumped. One-legged. Injured. Not able to pop away, limping, yet still fast.
Silver-burned vampire flesh and brimstone scorched his nose.
A foot away, Angie stood, her staff high. Small demons swept into the air toward her. Into the tip of the staff.
His elbow was bruised, knees injured. That could wait. EJ made it to his feet. He had seen what Villetti had done to steady Angie, his hands over hers, her spine against his chest. That wasn’t what she needed now. He stood behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders. He felt an instant of surprise. His big sister was shorter than he was.
A demon wail rose on the air. Angie’s entire body quivered beneath his hands.
Still in Delta Mode, EJ pulled up the old memories of the night Angie had twined their magics together to save their parents. He had been a toddler. She had been working on instinct, handling raw power. She had used their magic and her angel’s magic to create something more, something other witches couldn’t access except in a full-coven circle, and often not even then. Raw magic, raw energies, fromelsewhere.
Mind like a spearpoint, he sank-rushed-dropped into that memory.
