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“Gulakah? Fuck. We can’t face him.” A wave of panic rose up inside. But we had to go in. We couldn’t let this go on, and we couldn’t just sit out here until the coast was clear. “Okay, what are we doing?”
Smoky and Shade looked at one another. “There’s room enough out there for us to shift into our dragon forms. The degas are strong, but not strong enough to hurt us when we’re as big as a house.”
“That’s only if we can lure them out. And what about Gulakah?” I looked at Vanzir. “You can’t latch onto him, now that you have your abilities back, can you?”
“I can try, but I won’t win. That much I guarantee you, and I’m sorry, but I’m just not feeling up to a suicide mission right now.” He turned to Shade. “You know the most about Gulakah. What do you know that will repel him?”
Shade shook his head. “I can’t think of much that I haven’t already told you. There has to be a way to defeat him, but I don’t know what it is.”
“We can’t defeat him,” Charlotine said, “but I can repel him. I can cast a powerful circle to keep out demons. Sorcerers use it for summoning, in order to protect ourselves during the rituals. We also have a variant for repelling the demons. The spell will last for about ten minutes, which will give us the leeway to destroy the gate and get out of here.”
“You’re sure you can repel him with that ritual? He’s a god, exiled from his home.” I knew Charlotine was powerful, but powerful enough to repel a god?
She gazed at me evenly. “I can do it, but it won’t hold for more than ten minutes. It might go for fifteen, but I’d have to be focusing on it, and you need me to disarm the gate.”
“What do we do?” I didn’t like being backup, but in this case, it was all about teamwork.
“You keep anything and everything away from me so I can do my job. Menolly, I need you with me. Up front. I may need some help. Let the others fight the demons that will be coming in.” And for the first time, she gave me a faint smile. “I work better with vamps.”
I looked at the others, who nodded their agreement. “I’ve got your back. So what’s first?”
“I set up the circle and you guys lead Gulakah out here.” She slid out to the clearing. Luckily, there was nobody out there, and she was able to reach an open area. She opened her pack and pulled out what looked like a bag of some powder. She began sprinkling it in a large circle around her. Shade noticed me squinting, trying to see what she was doing.
“Sulfur,” he whispered.
After the sulfur, she took out yet another bag and made yet another turn with it. I tried to see what it was, but in the darkness, with only faint flickering lights from within the cave to see by, it was impossible.
“What’s that?”
Shade inhaled slowly and grimaced. “Asafetida. Pungent as all get-out, and very useful in keeping baleful spirits at bay.”
The third time she cast the circle, I didn’t even have to ask. Shade volunteered the info. “Rock salt. She knows her stuff, all right.”
After she finished with scattering the sulfur, asafetida, and salt, Charlotine pulled out a dagger—double edged—that gleamed with a wicked blade. She cast a circle—that much I recognized from what Camille often did—and though I couldn’t hear what she was saying, I could feel the hairs on my arms raise. Then, she motioned for us to join her in the circle.
“All right. While we’re in here, someone has to go lead Gulakah out so I can finish the incantation. We’ll be protected from him while we’re inside the boundaries until I repel him out of here. After he vanishes—and if everything goes all right, he should—then we move out. Menolly guards my back, and you guys take on the degas and bhouts. The bhouts can’t get to Menolly and me, but the other demons…they can hurt us.”
“So who goes out to lead the Lord of Ghosts our way?” I would have volunteered, but I’d already promised Charlotine to be her backup.
Vanzir started to say something, but then Shade spoke up. “I’ll do it. He’ll recognize my energy as being from the Netherworld, and it may spur him on. The rest of you wait here.”
Smoky took his arm. “I’m full dragon; I’m less likely to be harmed if he goes on a rampage.”
“No. You have the household to protect. I’ll be all right. I can fade into the shadows and hide.” He leaped out of the circle and headed for the cave before Smoky could say another word.
Smoky glowered but said nothing. We waited…one minute…five…and then a low reverberation shook the ground. I tensed, moving behind Charlotine so I wouldn’t be in the way of her spell.
And then, in that point between then and now, Shade came rushing out, with a blur on his heels—Gulakah, in full pursuit. Nine feet tall, reptilian in nature, the Lord of Ghosts towered over everyone around him. Weaving tentacles emerged from his head to dart this way and that, like horrendous living dreadlocks. Matte-black eyes and razor-edged teeth marred the muzzle-like face, and his skin glimmered with a dirty green glow.
Terrified, I stood my ground, but watching the demon general-cum-god bear down on us was testing my limits.
Smoky tensed, and behind me, I heard Vanzir gulp.
Charlotine held out her hand. “Repel!”
Her voice shook the clearing as a crackle of flame lit up the night. Gulakah froze in his tracks, a look of rage on his face as the crazy snakes on his head writhed furiously. Then the flame blasted through the air, framing him with a halo of brilliant light as thunder cracked the air. Gulakah let out a roar and, in a single blink of an eye, vanished. Charlotine didn’t hesitate but leaped out of the circle and raced for the cave.
“Come on. We have to get inside and take care of the gate before he comes back!”
