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“Idiot! Put that thing away. You can’t kill most demons with guns. You should know that!” Vanzir strode up and yanked the gun out of Roz’s hand, tossing it on the ground.
“Vanzir’s right. We aren’t out to kill this one, anyway. It’s just going to go home to the mothership until we can take care of the main creature.” Camille let out a little growl. “I wish I could call on the lightning here, but it just doesn’t work the same as it does on the flip side. The best I can do without Morio is to use energy bolts. If he was here, we could try death magic.”
As she was talking, the big bruiser had started to cruise over our way, and now it lashed out with one of its tentacles, aiming directly for her head. There wasn’t time to warn her, so I just leapt, grabbing her by the shoulders and rolling to the ground with her. We landed hard in the thick of the mist as it swirled up to coil around us. Camille let out a loud “Oof” as we hit the ground, her skirts tangling around my legs. Ms. Demon of the Deep’s tentacle passed overhead without making contact.
As I scrambled to untangle myself from Camille’s voluminous yards of chiffon, Vanzir moved forward, his eyes shifting through a kaleidoscopic array.
He spread his arms high, and from the palms of his hands glistening threads appeared, billowing in the astral breeze. Vanzir let out a low belly laugh as the threads grew in length, shooting toward the Karsetii demon like a swarm of bizarre neon worms. The look on his face was freaky-ass scary, and for the first time, I realized how glad I was that he was on our side.
“Oh great gods, look at him.” Camille shuddered as I helped her up. “Can you see the threads?”
“Yeah,” I said. “What the fuck are they?”
“I’m not sure but they’re—holy hell, look at that. They’ve attached to the demon!” She backed up a step, her gaze riveted on the pair.
Vanzir’s threads—still connected to his palms—had made contact with the Karsetii. They were burrowing into the creature’s side just like the tentacles of the demon had burrowed into Delilah’s silver cord. He let his head hang back and a look of sheer bliss swept over his face. Not good bliss, but dark, wild, feral bliss that made me both want to touch that energy and yet run like hell.
“He’s feeding,” Camille whispered. “Vanzir’s a dream chaser. He feeds off dreams. He must be able to drain energy off astrally based creatures, as well.”
“Whatever he’s doing, it’s working.” Smoky pointed toward the Karsetii. “Look.”
The demon was fading right before our eyes. The aura around it began to dissipate, and without warning, it vanished with a pop. Vanzir stumbled, falling as the shock of disconnection hit him.
“Are you all right?” I hurried to his side, kneeling to make sure he was okay. “Are you hurt?”
He shook his head. “No.”
I extended a hand, and he stared at me for a moment, then accepted my help. As I pulled him to his feet, I caught a whiff of his scent. He looked on edge. “You sure you’re okay?”
He leaned close. “You know what the scent of blood does to you, girl? This is my form of blood. Draining energy intoxicates me. We all have our triggers, babe. This is mine.”
As he spoke, a wave of sexual tension burst through my shields, and I bit my lip as my fangs extended. He noticed and slowly licked his lips, a dangerous gleam filling his gaze.
I swallowed, trying to push back the thoughts starting to run through my head. I so did not need to get involved with a demon—at least not with a full-fledged bad-guy demon who was under our subjugation. But Vanzir held my attention, and with a slow smile that bordered on mockery, he blew me a kiss.
Turning my back on him, I strode over to where Camille and Smoky stood. “Let’s get the fuck out of here before that thing comes back.” Without another word, we crossed back to our home to see how Delilah was faring.
CHAPTER 13
Yssak was exactly where he’d been when we left. He watched impassively as we stepped out of the astral. Delilah was huddled on the sofa, awake and looking scared.
I hurried to her side. “We chased it away for now. We have to find the hive mother that’s spawning those beasts, though.”
She shuddered and let out a sigh. “Will it come back after me? I feel so incredibly tired.”
“What can we do?” I turned to the others. “Until we can find this thing, how do we protect her? It can break through the wards on the land. We can’t see it even when it can see us. The Karsetii could easily sneak an attack on her before we can stop it. And when it retreats to the astral—like it did this time—we’ll be helpless until we can get over there.”>“But if we send this one back to the hive, will Delilah be okay?” I didn’t care about the central motherfucker right now; I wanted my sister free from this freakshow.
Vanzir hesitated. “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “But we can try.”
“Then let’s figure out how to get over to the astral.” As I yanked off my jacket, Smoky and Rozurial bounded into the room, fresh from the Ionyc Sea. Without so much as a preamble, I motioned them over. “Come on, boys, we need to go into the astral, demon hunting.”
Smoky glanced at Delilah, then at me. “I can take two of you. Camille and Menolly, you come with me.”
Roz motioned to Vanzir. “I can probably get you safely across, where I wouldn’t chance it with the girls.”
“I can make it on my own, it just takes me longer than it does you or the dragon,” Vanzir said.
“We don’t have longer,” I said. “Go with Roz.”
