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So much for my fantasy where she agreed without argument and toddled off to her nest. “I don’t want you to get hurt,” I insisted. “You’ve passed through the void once already, and . . .” I didn’t want to finish the sentence.
“It is no different than the risk you take,” she said with a pointed look.
Crap. She was using logic. I didn’t like that she was right. “You’re not at full strength.”
She set her jaw stubbornly. “I am not weakened to the point of jeopardizing the excursion,” she said. “The benefits far outweigh the risks.”
I knew when I was beaten. Exhaling, I wrapped her in a hug. “Okay. Fine. But I’ll be really pissed if you get hurt. Or worse.” Nope, still couldn’t say it.
She embraced me close. “Should you choose an irrational emotional response, it will not alter my opinion of you.”
I snorted, smiled. “I love you, too. So there.”
Chapter 23
Pellini was nice enough to let us use his truck with the comfy seats and the extended cab and all the bells and whistles. Damn nice since our alternatives were my puny car and the Malibu, which continued to have occasional operational issues.
Pre-ambush jitters had my heart pumping. I should be an old hand at this. I’d been eviscerated, sliced, and stabbed during previous engagements, but the common factor in every incident was a demonic lord. No demonic lords today, so my chances of losing large quantities of blood were slim, right?
Pellini drove a few hundred yards past the entrance to the nature center and turned onto a narrow dirt road through the woods. We bounced over ruts for close to a quarter mile before he pulled over and climbed out of the truck. He gestured to a break in the underbrush. “That game trail leads to the picnic area.”
The instant my feet touched the ground, I flinched. The arcane broadcast of the valve jarred through me—a wrongness like the kathunk-kathunk of a washing machine out of balance. Idris muttered a curse and took off down the trail.
“The valve’s unstable,” I said over my shoulder to Pellini as I started after Idris. “That’s far more urgent. Ambush has to take a back seat until we can fix it.”
Cypress trees draped with Spanish moss crowded close, and overhanging branches of willows and white oaks choked the trail. Bullfrogs croaked off to the right, and cicadas rasped their harsh songs all around. Nearly two hundred yards in, Eilahn seized my arm and dragged me to a stop. “Others are at the valve.”
Demon senses for the win. I hissed a warning to Idris then turned and motioned for Pellini to stop. “Someone’s already at the valve,” I whispered.
“Bad guys?” Pellini asked, breathing hard from the run.
“Well, it probably ain’t Girl Scouts.”
He let out a mock sigh of relief. “Good thing. Those little bitches are tough.”
I stifled a laugh and continued onward with caution. The valve instability rattled through me like a car shaking itself apart at high speed, and increased with every step we took. After another fifty feet, the trail opened up into a picnic area with a few weather-beaten tables and concrete barbecue pits. On the far side of the clearing, red-orange potency sprayed from the valve like water from a loose fire hose. Katashi and Tsuneo flanked the valve, both scrambling to stabilize it before it blew. Katashi worked the containment with fluid, sweeping movements. On the opposite side of the valve, Tsuneo sweated and worked the flows in more conventional ways, his too-pretty face contorted from extreme effort.
Idris’s lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarl. “Do you have your gun?” he asked, gaze riveted on the two enemy summoners.
“Of course,” Pellini and I answered at the same time.
“Wound them,” he ordered. “We’ll have them, and we can finish with the valve on our own.”
“I suppose you’d like me to shoot them in the legs?” Pellini replied with derision while I winced at the ignorance of Idris’s demand. “And be such a good shot that I miss the femur, pelvis, femoral artery, and anything else life-threatening?”
Idris sneered at Pellini. “I wasn’t expecting you to do anything. I was talking to Kara.” He pointedly shifted his attention to me in clear dismissal of Pellini. “Anything you can do to take them out from here?”
Pellini’s hands clenched into fists. Right now I wouldn’t blame him one bit if he popped Idris. Hell, I was tempted to do so on Pellini’s behalf.
“No,” I said flatly, “for all the reasons Pellini gave.” Katashi and Tsuneo weren’t aware of us yet, but only because they were engrossed in their efforts to prevent disaster. “There’s no way they’ll get that valve under control in time on their own, and we sure as shit can’t either.” Trusting Pellini to watch my back, I strode out of our concealment, ignoring Idris’s choked growl. “You need our help,” I called out, tone as firm and confident as I could make it.
Tsuneo’s head snapped up in surprise, but Katashi merely shifted to the far side of the valve.
“Agreed,” he said. I closed the distance at a jog, assessing. To my surprise and relief Idris moved into position beside me. I had no doubt he crushed the urge to throttle Katashi then and there only because we’d all be dead if the valve blew. Priorities.
Idris gathered potency as it spewed from the damaged valve, shaped and passed it to Katashi and Tsuneo, obviously very familiar with working with the two. I copied his technique then paused, fixated on the valve. Between one heartbeat and the next the entire structure leaped into focus like one of those Magic Eye pictures that became three-dimensional if you knew how to view it. I sank my consciousness through the surface chaos and down to the valve foundation. Subtle asymmetry and imperfections became apparent exactly as they had in Kadir’s simulator on the nexus and at the valve by my pond. I understood how the technique would augment the integrity of the valve and halt the cascade to disaster. Sure, Kadir was a complete nut job, but he was also fucking brilliant. Katashi’s method was a Band-Aid where Kadir’s was a cure.
With an unexpected rush of jubilation, I ignored the wild eruptions from the valve, concentrated on the foundation and shaped potency as I never had before. Imperfections stood out as clearly as ink blots on paper, and I filled, smoothed, and balanced as though second nature.
