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And then he pulled away. I couldn’t tell if he’d felt the same desire as I had, but he raked his gaze slowly over my body, then settled on my face again. “I have a task for you. You are to journey back to your homeland—to the forest of Darkynwyrd—and there you must search for the panther’s fang.”
Panther’s fang? Darkynwyrd? I frowned. This wasn’t sounding so much fun after all. Darkynwyrd was a feral woodland back in Otherworld, where not-so-nice creatures made their home. It wasn’t on my list of must-see places.
“What’s the panther’s fang?”
Hi’ran gave me a soft smile. “Panteris phir. An herb endemic to the forest there. You will bring it home with you and plant it in your garden. Tend to it, nurture it, and once a month, under the new moon, make a cup of tea from it and drink it. This will aid you in controlling your shifts into panther form as the herb builds up in your system.” He backed away. “Do this before the next new moon. And remember, Delilah. You are bound to me. You are the first of my living emissaries.”
With that, he vanished, and I found myself standing among the others. They were in the midst of fighting the venidemons, and suddenly Camille, who had been relegated to standing beside the door, shouted, “She’s back to herself!”
I was about to say something when a buzzing echoed on my right. I swung around to find myself facing a full-grown venidemon. It was hovering near my face, and I saw its abdomen curve under, its stinger ready to jab as it aimed for my chest.
Holy crap—maybe Hi’ran had eliminated the shade, but apparently he trusted we could take care of the venidemons ourselves. Time to rumble.
I snatched up my dagger and, with a loud shout, brought it down, cleaving into the rapidly approaching tail end of the venidemon. The damned sucker was tough. I couldn’t slice clean through, but the gash sent the blowfly hurtling toward the floor. It let out a piercing shriek, and I stabbed it, like a kid pinning butterflies to a display table. One down, but a glance around showed me there were plenty more for the counting. I whirled just in time to take on another.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as the others left a trail of muck and guts as they fought their way through the demons’ nests.
Smoky was making tracks through a nest of larvae, swiping with his talons at the wriggling maggots. As he sliced through them, they wailed, keening so loudly I wondered if they could be heard up on the street.
The second venidemon darted back and forth, trying to get the jump on me. Irritated, I tossed my dagger from hand to hand.
“Come on, sucker, come and get me!”
Apparently, venidemons didn’t take much to goad, because it changed tactics and made a beeline straight for my side. Instinct won out, and rather than swing with my dagger, my right foot shot into the air, meeting the big bug in the face. It bounced back, but I could tell it wasn’t hurt—merely stunned. I lunged for it with my dagger and met the creature square in the midsection. It went down like a fly facing a can of Raid.
“Delilah, give me a hand!”
I glanced over my shoulder to see Morio fighting off two full-size venidemons struggling to get past him to Camille. She was trying to draw down energy; by now I could tell the look on her face when she was invoking the Moon Mother. But it looked like her pain was preventing her from focusing.
“Incoming on your left,” I shouted over the roar of the fight and the shrieks as the blowflies and their larvae bit the dust one by one. I took on the venidemon aiming for his left side, and he turned his attention to the one on the right. We finished them off in good time.
“How many more can there be?” Camille asked, giving up on the spell. She looked miserable, and I wished to hell she’d just back out of the room and play it safe outside.
I motioned toward the rest of the room. “Still too many.”
Vanzir was battling it out with a nest of the half-grown bugs. They fell left and right as he waded in, eyes blazing, striking double-handed with a pair of serrated steel daggers that he’d unsheathed from his boots. He smashed the smallest of the venidemons under his heels, grinding them to a pulp.
Roz was fighting a trio of full-grown bugs that were trying to guard a nest of larvae. While he was holding them at bay, it was obvious we were on the losing end of the battle.
I raced over to Smoky. He’d just finished off the last of the larvae in the nest he’d been fighting. “We have to do something. There are still too many—”
He gave one quick look around the room and nodded. “Get everybody out of here. I’ll take care of it. But you have to head upstairs immediately and get out of the house. Do you understand me?” As I nodded and started toward Roz, he grabbed me by the wrist. “And you damned well make sure your sister is safe. Hear me?”
I stared up into those glacial eyes and froze. Camille was as good as bought and sold. I could see it in his face. Smoky owned her. And while I had no doubt he loved my sister, there was also little doubt that anyone he didn’t approve of would go down screaming if they hurt her.
“Let go of me, Smoky. You know I’ll protect her, you idiot.” I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. I couldn’t let him cow me down. Camille wouldn’t put up with it, and Menolly sure didn’t. I wasn’t about to, either.
He let go. “Of course I know that. Now move. I’ll put a stop to this mess.”
I raced over to Roz and grabbed his arm. “Come on.” He didn’t question me, just turned and followed, dodging to avoid the venidemons now swarming toward us. Vanzir saw me run past and with a quick look at Smoky, joined us. Morio was already guiding Camille down the hall toward the stairs. As we passed the room with the portal, I glanced in and saw glowing eyes peering from out of the swirling vortex, but we didn’t have time to stop. Whatever Smoky had planned was going to be good, I thought. Good and probably explosive, considering who he was. Or what, rather.
We weren’t disappointed. We’d just reached the top of the stairs when the floor began to roll in waves under our feet. The house shook like we were on Earthquake Alley. We were, actually—the whole area was geologically unstable, and there were volcanoes aplenty around to prove it—but I knew this wasn’t an actual temblor. A dragon quake, yes.
“Head for the door,” Morio yelled over the sound of the freight train that was our deliciously gorgeous dragon hunk.
As he swept Camille into his arms—she was stumbling now, the pain and the quake threw her off balance—I wondered just how far Smoky was going to go. It felt like he was ready to pull the rafters down.
Roz and Vanzir brought up the rear, making sure we were all on the front lawn. Roz pushed Vanzir toward us, then raced back up to the front door. “I’m going back to help him.”
