Ascension (25 page)

An apologetic smile touched her lips and she cupped Taig’s cheek. Awareness rippled through her. He had sensed her intent.

“No,” he said in a firm voice. “You can’t go there alone.”

Lealandra took one last look at him and said the incantation, one strong enough to penetrate the back path in Taig’s barrier. A black vortex opened and swallowed her. Only she didn’t go alone. Taig grabbed her arm and the current sucked him through with her. They landed hard in the expansive lobby of the coven building, creating a crater in the pale grey marble tiles. Taig cursed and pushed himself to his feet. Lealandra blushed when she realised that she should have at least done one thing before teleporting out of Taig’s apartment.

She should have put on clothes.

Taig pointedly raised an eyebrow.

“You wouldn’t let me face demons naked but it’s okay to drag my bare arse to a building full of witches?”

Lealandra clicked her fingers and a pair of black jeans and a black t-shirt materialised, covering him. A black corset and black trousers appeared on her, encasing her body. Another click and she was suddenly wearing a pair of black knee-high boots and Taig’s heavy army boots were on his feet.

“Better?” she said with a smile.

“Guns?” He looked hopeful and boyish, charming.

She pulled a face. Materialising clothes was one thing. Weaponry was a bit more difficult. It took time to make complicated mechanical items appear in their complete and working form.

A sudden leap in her power told her that it was time that she didn’t have. He would have to rely on good old-fashioned brute strength. It would be like the old days. Her with her magic and him with pure rage. Back when they had hunted together, he had often carried his guns but had rarely relied on them.

The sound of running feet rumbled through the building.

They were coming.

The room dimmed. Darkness flowed into her. A strong power. Gregori.

Lealandra grabbed Taig’s hand and opened the vortex again, teleporting them higher up in the building to a refectory. Closer. She held on to Taig and teleported again. A barrier near the top of the building forced her to set down on the floor below in a pale corridor close to the elevators.

“Problem?” Taig rolled his shoulders, a black look on his face.

His power was returning. It flowed around her, a light mist that caressed her skin. She nodded.

“I can’t teleport to the floor above.”

Taig smiled. It quickly turned into a grin. “I guess we know where he is then.”

Lealandra caught his wrist when he moved towards the emergency exit at the other end of the corridor.

“Wait.” She focused above them, trying to penetrate the barrier and see just how many witches were waiting for them.

Gregori couldn’t have everyone on his side. Some of them had to be against him, or didn’t know about this. She cursed. Gregori had probably told them that a demon had invaded their building. They would all be on the defensive. A lot of them had headed downstairs to greet her and Taig. At least she could hinder the lower level witches who couldn’t teleport.

Lealandra shifted her focus to the elevators and sent a wave of power that way. Her magic snaked through the gap in the elevator doors and moved into the shaft. She closed her eyes and felt the mechanics of the elevator, seeking out a way of stopping it. Her power moved down and became one with machine, running through the metal and into the electrics. A motion with her mind and all of the electrical wires snapped, leaving the elevators immobile. She released her hold on them and pressed her hand against her head.

Dealing with machinery always drained her and left a metallic taste in her mouth that reminded her of blood.

She glanced at Taig and her magic surged through her, demanding that she taste him and feed it. Not now. She pushed back against her power, hoping to subdue it, but it overwhelmed her. Her knees gave and she was in Taig’s arms, cradled against his body.

“You’re too weak for this,” Taig said and she smiled faintly.

Whispered words crawled around her mind. Her gaze fell to his arm. Just a little blood. It would quell the magic and help her keep it under control. It would make her stronger. Taig moved and surprised her by running a dark claw-like fingertip down his forearm. Blood instantly filled the short ragged line.

She licked her lips. A little blood.

He brought his arm to her mouth and she moaned when she tasted his blood. Her hands moved of their own accord, tightly grasping his arm and clutching it to her mouth. She suckled deeply. Hazy warmth filled her, suffusing every inch of her right down into her heart, and her magic calmed, the darkness of its demands drifting from her mind. As Taig’s blood became part of hers, her strength returned and she stopped drinking. She lay in Taig’s arms, looking up at him. How had she ever been foolish enough to leave him when he was everything that she needed?

Taig smiled at her, tender and full of affection, and she closed her eyes when he brushed his fingers down her cheek and then opened them again, wanting to see him.

“Come on, sweet cheeks, let’s go finish this.” He stood with her, lifting her off the ground and then setting her down on her feet.

Lealandra nodded and headed for the door to the stairs that would take her up to the next level. She climbed them, wary and searching with her magic, trying to discern where the barrier started. They were getting closer. Taig followed behind her, the strength of his power radiating through her and calming the turbulent maelstrom of nerves within her. She was glad that he had tagged along. She had hoped that he would, either by coming through the vortex with her or teleporting himself here.

The instant she sensed the barrier, she raised her hand, her palm facing the invisible wall. It bent under her will but didn’t break. Getting in wasn’t going to be easy. It would take time that she didn’t have. Gregori would be regaining his power by the second, getting stronger while she was getting weaker. The magic was pushing again, rising inside her as it began to take control. The ascension might not have started yet but it was coming. She needed to get this over with and get to her parents.

“Allow me.” Taig wrapped one strong arm around her waist. “Hold on.”

Lealandra did, unsure of what he was going to do. She clutched his shoulders and he pressed her close to his chest. Darkness swallowed her, pitch black and endless, and then she was back in the emergency stairwell.

On the other side of the barrier.

Taig released her and grinned. “Gregori needs to improve his security. Demons don’t move physically through things like witches do when they teleport.”

Lealandra didn’t want to ask exactly what plane a demon moved through when they were teleporting. The darkness she had seen wasn’t only an absence of light. It had a presence. It had felt as though it was the world between worlds, the one where evil spirits were born as shadows. Could Taig enter that realm so easily and without fear?

She shuddered and trudged on, not wanting to think about it. She stopped at the closed door for the nineteenth floor and reached out with her power to see what awaited her. Witches. Several of them and they were powerful. Gregori wasn’t alone. Two stood just the other side of the door and two near Gregori. The ones defending him were the supreme mages judging by the strength of their magic as hers briefly touched it. The two nearer the door were high-level witches. Nothing she couldn’t handle but they would prove a distraction and give the supreme mages and Gregori a chance to attack her and Taig.

Taig touched her arm. He motioned in the direction of the two weaker witches and then pointed at her. She waved a hand in Gregori’s direction and then at herself. Taig frowned. She hadn’t expected him to be happy about the prospect of her going after Gregori alone while he fought the weaker demons but she had to do it. Someone had to keep him busy while Taig evened the odds and she had to make sure that he didn’t regain his full strength. Taig pointed to the weaker witches again and firmly thrust his finger towards her. Lealandra placed her hands on her hips and shook her head. He rolled his eyes and then a sigh lifted his shoulders and he touched her cheek.

She knew what he was trying to tell her. Be careful. She mirrored him, stroking his cheek, and smiling as she nodded. He had to be careful too. While he had completely regained his power, he still had a weak spot. Her. He would be worried about her during the fight. She would do her best, would fight without restraint so he didn’t have to worry and wouldn’t leave himself open to attack.

Taig gave her one last look and then burst into the large open plan room with a roar. Lealandra followed and immediately pinpointed Gregori, her gaze sweeping away from the bank of windows that formed the long wall opposite her. He stood to her right in the low-lit brown-walled room, near his office and the mahogany double doors to his master suite. She broke away from Taig and headed straight for Gregori and the supreme mages. Gregori was pale even in the dim light of the stand lamps and ceiling spotlights. Dark rings circled his hazel eyes, his face gaunt and hollow. His jaw-length brown hair was a mess, strands falling out of the ponytail, and the tail of his black shirt hung loose from his trousers. He stared at her with dark lifeless eyes. He was still recovering from her spell. Now was her chance.

The second she was within reach of firing a spell at Gregori, something hit her and flung her backwards towards where Taig was fighting near the couches and table at the other end of the long room. The world rushed by and she held her hands out. Red threads of magic wound around her fingers and she slowed. Such a simple attack wasn’t going to stop her. She pushed her arms towards the supreme mages and frowned as she unleashed her magic, sending one of the older greying men flying backwards past Gregori, creating an opening.

She ran at Gregori.

The other supreme mage appeared in a swirl of dark blue material in front of her, the tails of his long coat flaring outwards, and backhanded her. The power behind the strike sent her smashing into the dark carpet and her entire side ached but she refused to give up so quickly. Before he could attack again, she shot a spell at him, a red burning orb that he ducked to avoid. It caught his grey hair, singeing it, and he cast a dark look her way and raised his hands. She barrelled into him, taking him down, and was about to unleash another attack when he cast his own spell and threw her off him. She tumbled along the carpet with the force of the bolt of magic and ended up near Taig.

The area was a mess now. One of the couches was broken clean in two and the table was kindling. Taig had already dealt with one of the witches. He hurled the other one across the room, sending him crashing into the far wall and the massive modern painting that covered it, and then held his hand out to her. She took it and smiled when he helped her up.

The guard attacked him. Taig growled and punched him hard across the jaw and then in the stomach. Lealandra ran back to her own fight at the other end of the room. Taig could handle the guard but she was beginning to think that she couldn’t handle Gregori and his goons. She shot two spells at the supreme mages to incapacitate them and then launched everything she could at Gregori. Three spells in one. Bind. Silence. Pain. One big spell that drained her.

The two supreme mages deflected the spells she had hurled towards them but didn’t move to protect Gregori. She breathed hard, weak and dizzy from using so much magic in one spell, and watched Gregori. He casually lifted a hand and waved her spell away as though it was nothing more than a gnat. She cursed. He had regained more power than she had anticipated.

She hadn’t thought this through and she had placed both herself and Taig in danger because of it.

Taig was a blur of fury as he passed her. Her eyes widened when he threw the guard at the group facing her. The witch hit one of the supreme mages, taking him down, and Lealandra hit the other with a spell but they fired one back at her. She didn’t have time to avoid it. It struck her and her hands snapped to her sides, her body encased in invisible chains that tightly held her. Binding spell. She swore silently and glared at the supreme mage who had fired it. Binding spells were strong and almost impossible to break without outside intervention from another witch.

The mage disappeared. Lealandra’s eyes widened when she realised what was going to happen. This had been a terrible mistake. She should have thought it through.

A sharp pain in her neck sent rage pulsing through her and she struggled, fighting the binding spell and trying to lift her arms. Gregori stared at her from his place of safety, untouchable. Taig fought the second supreme mage, trying to get to her, his black t-shirt ripped to shreds and his face and arms bloodied from the fight. What had she done? She should have listened to him and to her mother. They weren’t strong enough yet to fight and she had played right into Gregori’s hands.

Her head spun but she fought on. Her magic rose, seeping into her veins and then out of her, creating an aura that shifted her hair, sending it floating and swirling. She growled when her teeth sharpened and the world changed. Her hands moved a millimetre and Gregori frowned.

The magic surged through her and took control.

With an inhuman cry, Lealandra shattered the bonds that held her and turned on the supreme mage. The needle left her neck and she tried to get it from him but it disappeared from his hand. She screamed and launched him backwards, sending him slamming into the brown wall and knocking him unconscious. She turned on Gregori. He waved the needle at her. She had been a fool.

Noises came from the stairwell. The others had reached them.

Lealandra set her sights on Gregori and ran at him, intent on finishing him off, her magic demanding his blood for what he had done. It controlled her, whispered the words for a forbidden incantation in her mind, one that she didn’t know but recognised deep within her soul. Such a spell wouldn’t only kill Gregori. It would kill everything within a mile radius. She couldn’t do such a thing. Taig would die. She fought the magic but couldn’t stop it. It wouldn’t listen to her. She wasn’t strong enough to command it now. The rage inside her, the desire for violence, was frightening. She no longer felt herself. She felt trapped inside someone else’s body, unable to do anything. Unable to protect the man she loved.