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“Oh yeah, that would be lovely,” she said. “Okay, get behind somebody and shelter yourself. I brought the horn, so I’ll give them one hell of a blast.” She thrust her hand in a side pocket that she’d had specially made in her skirt and pulled out the horn of the Black Beast. The crystal spire gleamed, sparkling with the gold and silver threads that wove ribbons through the polished spike. “Oh yeah, babe, get ready to rumble.”
It occurred to me that my sister was starting to enjoy these battles a little more than was good for her, but hey—what could I say? I liked a good bloodletting myself. In fact, as I watched the others prepare, it occurred to me that no matter what happened, we’d never go back to our prior lives. We could never again be who we were before landing here, Earthside. If we won peace, would there be a place for us? Or would we have to retreat, to find other battles in other places where we were needed?
Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I looked up at Smoky, who opened his trench wide. “Step inside,” he said with a lecherous grin. I stepped back, but he merely laughed. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’m not making advances. Get inside my coat, and I’ll protect you from the light.”
Camille snorted. “Get thee hence, wench. My husband is offering protection. I advise you take it.”
“Hence wench? You making a bad SCA video for You-Tube?”
“Don’t knock the Society for Creative Anachronism. They have great clothes.” She stuck her tongue out at me. “Just do it.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I stared up at the overgrown lizard and shook my head. But slide into the protection of Smoky’s immaculate white trench coat, I did. He enclosed me in his arms, and I stood there, muffled from the world, my nostrils filled with the scent of his musk.
He really was a heady piece of ass, but he was also pompous and given to bouts of jealousy that I would never put up with. Camille bore it with a smile, and he indulged her more than he’d ever indulge anybody else. I decided not to bite him for the “Don’t flatter yourself ” comment.
“Yo, you freak-assed squids! Get your butts over here and put up a good fight.”
As I stood there in the dark shadow of his protection, I heard Camille and winced. Why did she have to grab their attention? Why couldn’t she just let loose and be done with it? There was a sudden flurry of movement—I could sense it even within the confines of Smoky’s trench coat—and then a loud crash, like thunder.
A brilliant flash that almost blinded me, even through the heavy white material, and a howling gust of wind whipped by. Without thinking, I buried my head in Smoky’s chest and felt him wrap his arms around me as he grunted with satisfaction.
“That’s my girl,” he whispered, and I realized he was talking about Camille. The light flared and then died, and he opened his coat. I stepped away and flashed him a half-assed smile. He gave me a quick nod, then turned his attention to Camille. “Are you all right, love?”
She laughed, her hair streaming in the astral wind that the flare of light had produced. “Oh, I’m better than all right,” she said, and I realized she was high on the adrenaline rush of the magic that had lashed through her from the horn. “Roz, is the trace working?”
He closed his eyes and held out his hands. “It’s working.” With a sudden rush, he motioned for us. “We’ve got to book. They’re on their way home, and we don’t want to lose them.” With a rush he was off, running like the wind.
Smoky and Vanzir were hot on his heels. Camille grabbed my hand, and we, too, were racing through the mists. Running on the astral was a whole new ball game. We were all fast in the physical world, but here, we sailed.
Camille quickly caught up to and passed Smoky and Vanzir, letting go of me so I could keep pace with them as she poured on the speed, matching Rozurial step for step. My jaw dropped as the ground passed beneath my feet. How the hell was she running so fast?
Of course! The Hunt! Camille was used to racing through the skies with the Moon Mother every month. She knew how to traverse the realm, even if she couldn’t haul her ass over to it by herself. Under the full Moon, her goddess yanked her out onto the astral.
As the pair disappeared into the distance, Smoky grimaced. “We have to keep up. We can’t let them get there alone, without backup.”
“I can manage their speed, but you two might have trouble,” Vanzir said.
“Not if I’m flying,” Smoky said, and without warning, he shifted into his dragon self. As he unfolded into the gigantic beast he really was, I careened to the right to avoid being smacked around by his wings.
Without missing a beat, Smoky said, “Hop on.” His milky white body undulated like a snake in the astral breeze.
I swallowed a brief flash of fear. He was huge. It was easy to forget just how intimidating he could be in his natural form.
“Come on, love,” Vanzir said with a snort, grabbing me as he leapt onto Smoky’s back. He yanked me aboard, in front of him, and wrapped his arms around my waist.
Smoky let out a low chuckle as his wings caught the updraft of the breeze, and we were suddenly aloft, soaring faster than I could imagine going. I’d never ridden on the back of a dragon. Hell, I’d never been in an airplane, either. Smoky could outfly my Jaguar any day.
As I stared down at the swirling mist that covered the astral plane, it struck me as absurd. Here I was, a vampire, riding on the back of my brother-in-law, a dragon, with a demon holding onto my waist, in pursuit of some whacked-out squid who slurped up people’s life energy. I broke out laughing, but then the laughter died away as I remembered Delilah, locked up in the panic room to protect her, and the growing body count from the Karsetii.>“Anything else we need to know?” Chase asked.
“Yeah.” I grinned. “This is your lucky day, Chase. While we’re tossing problems into the ring, we just came from Harold Young’s house. For starters, two of the boys are into gang rape via Z-fen. And second, I suspect Harold and his cronies of killing Sabele. He’s a fucking lunatic, and he’s dangerous. I recognize the predator nature, and he’s got it big-time.”
“He’s also tied in with the Demonkin, somehow. I’m not sure what the connection is, but his energy reeks of it.” Camille frowned.
“Yeah. And considering the sleazy way he put the make on Camille—”
“What did you say?” Smoky slowly swiveled his head my way, and all I could see was angry dragon, not the man who sat calmly in the chair.
I struggled to keep from laughing as Roz shrank away.
