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The energy flickered faster and faster. Morio and Camille looked like feral creatures, their eyes gleaming in the night. Camille’s violet eyes were almost silver, and Morio’s were a glowing topaz, and the wind whipped her cape and his kimono into a frenzy. This wind wasn’t coming from Smoky or the air around us, but from the magic itself. The wheel of light began to keen, wailing louder as they pushed it forward.
The spirits paused, as if they were uncertain, and then one tentatively dove forward toward the pair. The moment it came in contact with the whirling blades of energy, it flared, screamed, and was gone.
Camille laughed, wild and throaty, and Morio joined in. They were enjoying the hunt, reveling in the energy that whipped around them. The spirits tried to withdraw, but they wouldn’t allow it. They drove forward faster, herding the ghosts, and then Shade was there to meet the spirits with his flames.
That was when I realized that Shade’s purple flames ran on the same wavelength as Morio and Camille’s magic.
Together they boxed in the spirits between them, and before the ghostly figures could head to the sides in an attempt to get away, they pushed their magic together, taking our enemies from both sides. The carnage was an energetic gorefest. Sparks flew as the spirits exploded, and the screams that filled the air hurt even my ears, they were so sharp and pained and full of fury.
And then, we were standing there, alone, with not a body in sight except for the guards, who were still terribly dead. I stared at them, then glanced back at Camille and Morio, whose eyes were still glimmering even though they’d lowered their ring of energy.
Shade was still in his dragon form and Camille stared up at him, a look of awe on her face. Morio grinned at him and I had this weird feeling that the three of them were in some secret club the rest of us couldn’t access.
A noise through the trees startled me, and I whirled around as Delilah came rushing down the path. She skidded to a halt, staring openmouthed up at Shade. I froze, waiting for her cue.
But instead of panicking, she began to laugh and rushed over to his side. He towered above her, though he was only about two-thirds Smoky’s size. As she walked around him, marveling at his form, my sister—who only a year ago would probably have run shrieking—reached out and began to touch the bones of her lover’s body.
Roz cleared his throat. “You win.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think she’d be so delighted. I give up,” I whispered under my breath. “I have no clue of what to expect next.”
“The unexpected, love. The unexpected.” Roz was shaking his head, leaning against a nearby tree.
I was about to answer him when my phone rang. Yugi was on the line.
“Menolly?”
“Yes. What’s going down? Did you find out anything?”
“Yeah. A Corpse Talker will come to your house. But, and this is the interesting catch, she’ll only allow Shade to bring her through the Ionyc Seas. Not Smoky. If you want her there, you’d better hurry. And Chase said he’s on his way back to your place.”
“Yeah, I doubt that will be a problem. Call you back in a moment.” As I hung up and turned back to the others, it occurred to me that we were in for a long, terrible fight. If Gulakah was truly back in town, and this was an example of what he was bringing with him, I wondered if there was any way we could defeat the next onslaught.
But all I said was, “Shade, get your ass down to the Faerie-Human Crime Scene Investigation’s headquarters now. You need to bring back a Corpse Talker stat. Because I need to head inside in forty-five or fifty minutes. And I want to be here when she talks to the dead.”
The next moment, Shade was back to his usual form, and then gone with barely a word. I looked at Delilah. “So what do you think of your boyfriend now?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Fiancé. And he’s cute. Like a living fossil. I think I should nickname him Spot when he’s in his natural form. In honor of the Munsters’ pet dragon.”
And with that, I dropped to the ground, laughing until my stomach hurt.
Chapter 5
Delilah went back to the house to check on everybody there while the rest of us speculated over what kind of spirits the ghosts could have been.
A sour tang rang through the air—the scent of overturned soil and mold and fungus. I glanced at Morio. His eyes were still glowing, and a sudden hunger ran through me. We’d formed a bond, an unasked-for, unwanted one. He’d been given a transfusion of my blood to save his life. Ever since then, we’d been pulled toward one another, though I was dealing with it a lot more easily than he was. Camille knew about it, and while she wasn’t thrilled, she tried to ignore it.
His gaze latched onto mine and he licked his lips, his long, black nails digging into his hands as he made a fist. I could feel the slow breath as his chest rose and fell, and the sound of his pulsing blood stirred my hunger. I turned, pulling myself away, before I did something we’d all regret.
“I need to feed,” I whispered. “I need to drink deep.” I had bottled blood in the refrigerator, but the thought of it sounded gross. I wanted hot blood, fresh, spurting from the vein onto my tongue. I wanted Roman here with me, but there wasn’t time to call him.
Roz was suddenly beside me, pulling me off to one side. He pressed me against one of the trees. “I know what you need. You can drink from me. I can handle it.”
“I don’t drink from friends.”
“And you don’t want to drink from your sister’s husband, either. Menolly, listen to me.” He forced me to focus on his face. The usually serene good-natured look he wore was replaced by an intensity I couldn’t ignore. “I’m a demon—an incubus. You know I can handle it. You can drink from me and I doubt if you can do anything worse than leave a hickey.”
“But…you know I’m pledged to Nerissa and consort to Roman—” I’d fucked Roz once, but though it had been fun and good, it wasn’t meant to be a long-term thing. I knew it in my heart.
