eldritch files 07 - elemental blood (15 page)

Tas nodded.

"What was Crwys going to say? I mean, do you three have theories?"

"We agree this isn't Quest related. But if the Purs have set one in motion, we have to get the King out of your basement in order to prove to the Purs he lives. Our end game is to stop this, and stop Yolyn."

Brahms cleared his throat. "Samantha? I can stop them from coming here."

"Yeah, I know. And I really appreciate your offer, but I can't just hand ownership over to you. You seem very nice, but I don't know you. There has to be another way." And the idea of it came to me. "Kyle, where's Solomon?"

"He's doing a bit of research on this Quest and that little caveat about a Dragon's heart."

I looked at Ivan. “I thought you were doing that.”

Ivan shrugged. “I ran out of places to look. Remember it has to have been entered into a digital form for me to find it. But if Solomon can find something in a written book…”

That made sense. I looked at Kyle. "Can you call and ask him about warding against gates?"

"Sure." Kyle pulled his phone from his pocket and stepped away from Jack, but not too far. The young Wolf looked exhausted. Someone needed to treat his wounds.

No sooner had I excused myself from Tas and Brahms than the floor of my shop shook beneath me. Everyone yelled out as a bright yellow light outlined the door into the front of the shop. The walls dimmed around us as they sprouted roots and thick trees. Small bone-colored flowers bloomed along these new walls that made the place look as if it were an underground tunnel.

"They're here!" Brahms said as he waved his arm.

I ran to my purse and retrieved my two guns, reunited again. The Lord and The Lady felt good against my palms as I swung them around to face the door. It cracked in two and burst out in opposite directions as Arden's people lay over her to shield her with their bodies.

I fired the first shot as they came through the door, and I smiled when my bullet struck Yolyn's chest.

FIFTEEN

Unfortunately, my bullet didn't pierce what looked like flimsy cloth or leather armor. Seeing me standing there, she narrowed her eyes as her people flooded in from the opening behind her and aimed her arrow at me. I aimed both my guns in return so when she fired, my bullets deflected the arrow and it went wild.

That's when I saw an arrow strike Yolyn in the neck. It was a dark wood arrow, with feathers the color of the sun. Yolyn cried out as she fell, and her soldiers hesitated when they saw their leader fall immediately.

I guessed close to fifteen Risi soldiers had come through my busted door. My Elementals appeared life-sized before me, strangely all clad in their human forms. Belenos, the fiery redheaded beauty that he was the night we bonded, stepped closer and touched my arm. I thought I’d never see him like this again…or that’s what he said. “Desperate measures, Samantha. You should leave.”

"Leave?" I fired at two more soldiers when they decided to ignore their leader and started after Arden and her people. Both soldiers cried out and fell back. "This is my home."

“That you've abandoned for two months.” Belenos's voice had an alarming tone of urgency to it. “We don't have the roots to fortify a defense here. And there are over fifty Risi waiting just on the other side of the gate.”

Crwys and Levi fired at the soldiers, taking them down one at a time as a few scrambled to lift their leader and drag her back through the door. I could just see the glow and spin of what looked like the gate Brahms had made the day before.

But for every one we shot down, more came through that door. The coven formed a protective ward around Arden. I could hear them chanting as their combined power formed a helix around her. But how long would that hold if even one of the Risi got through and shot a coven member?

Not long, was the answer. The helix would fall like a house of cards, and Arden would be vulnerable. She was so badly injured even her own Water Elemental was nowhere to be seen.

My Elementals joined in the fight, reverting to their smaller, more familiar forms. They drowned, blasted, chopped and suffocated as many of the Risi they could. I looked for Jack and Kyle and found them in the fight as well. Jack had shifted to Wolf, and Kyle was shooting basketball-sized flame balls at the soldiers, burning only their flesh and nothing else.

We can't sustain this level of magic
. I picked off another of those little bastards trying to get to Arden.
And the Aces can't help if they're guarding Gypsy Gardens.
I thought of summoning a larger ward and then realized that was impossible without Arcana.

Damn that voice in my head. How long was she going to be mad at me? Was this going to be a reoccurring thing? Her leaving me to teach me a lesson? Though…the last time she disappeared was to save Crwys.

Wait…was that what she was doing now? Did she know he was in danger from Yolyn? I wanted to think that was it and that Arcana's plan would be revealed in time.

Subconsciously I knew that wasn't true. It couldn't be.

More of those bastards came through the door. A group of them started firing off arrows, as well as magic blasts, at the helix surrounding Arden. I got two of them with my guns before Coventina chopped one in half with her axe and Sionna drowned another in a floating ball of water. In fact, she had several dead Risi inside that life-size ball.

More of those strange arrows appeared, taking out the remaining Risi around Arden's people. Who was shooting those arrows? I lowered my arms and ducked behind the edge of one of the shelves in the back as I scanned our side.

And there she was. Tas. Standing in perfect form, holding a bow with one of those arrows nocked. She released it and I watched it sail across the room to hit one of the soldiers entering. Looking back, I watched her hand reach out and pluck another arrow from the air.

What in the hell was she? What kind of creature could summon a bow and arrow and hit with such deadly precision? I was surer now than I'd been before that Tas wasn't a Witch. I wasn't sure what she was, but I was going to find out.

"Samantha," Brahms said, and I whirled around to find him hiding behind me. "Let me shut the gate."

"That's not going to stop the ones already through it. And I have intel there are a lot more."

"But if they see me cast the door, they'll leave. None of them want to be stuck here to be slaughtered. Not with Yolyn down."

I glanced back at the fray and had to consider what it meant to hand over my shop. Contracts in the magical world were a funny thing, though just as perilous as normal world editions with their snags of verbiage. I turned back to him. "And you'll hand it right back over to me when this is done?"

"Yes. I have no use for a man-made building." He actually made a face that looked like he'd smelled something bad.

Brahms had been a boon since he attacked Bastien in the woods. He'd been helpful, and he'd tried to save the King. Seemed to me he wore a hero badge. And he wasn't bad to look at, especially when he glamoured those horns. "I have your word?"

"Of course." He looked around me to the fighting. "We don't have much time."

"What do I do?"

He pulled a leaf from his jacket pocket, and with a wave of his hand, it became a rolled scroll. He unfurled it and produced a feathered quill from the air. "All you have to do is sign here."

"I don't sign things I don't have time to read." I turned and shot another Risi as he came toward us. That's also when I checked the barrels of my pistols. "I got two shots left."

"You don't have to read it. You have my word. Sign and I can get rid of them. And once this is over, all I have to do is tear up the contract."

I pursed my lips as I eyed the quill and the contract. "I keep the contract."

"If you wish." He handed it to me.

I shoved both guns into my back pockets, then pressed the scroll against the wall. The quill felt weird between my fingers. It tingled, and when I signed the name Samantha Elizabeth Hawthorne, something else tingled—my feet where they stood on the hardwood floor. I turned to hand the quill back to Brahms, but he wasn't there.

Shouting brought my attention back to the fight. I shoved the contract into a box on a shelf, along with the quill, cast a small protection over it, and then retrieved my guns before I stepped back out, ready to fight.

But, there wasn't a reason to. Brahms stood in front of the break room table, his arms out wide as a purplish glow surrounded his body, and the Risi soldiers fled back through the door. I lowered my guns, as did Levi and Crwys, and Tas lowered her bow. In fact, it disappeared.

There was an audible pop. I blinked a few times, and everything was back as it was. The door going into the main shop was back intact, and the Risi bodies were gone.

"What just happened?" Crwys said and looked at me.

I gave him a look and I was pretty sure he knew at that moment I'd signed a contract with Brahms. How else was I going to protect everyone?

I opened my mouth to verbally answer him, but one of the coven interrupted. "Lady Samantha, we've done all we can, but we need to get our priestess to a hospital."

I knew Arden hated hospitals. Luckily, she owned one of them. "I agree. Let's get her safely into one of the cars and get her checked in." I pushed my weapons back into my pockets as Crwys, Levi and Kyle helped lift Arden and put her in Crwys's Mustang. It wasn't my first choice, but it was certainly the fastest. And it was a cop car, so no one would ticket Crwys for speeding.

Outside, he kissed me. "Levi and I will get her in and then give you a call about her condition."

"Jack and I will meet you over there," Kyle said as he limped closer.

"Kyle?" I looked at his leg. "You're bleeding."

"I know. I'm out of power to heal it, though. Solomon's going to meet us over at the hospital and heal me. I'll be fine."

I felt a small twang of jealously at that moment. I'd always healed my group. The fact he didn't even ask me spoke volumes. I hadn't been there. For either of them. Ivan or Kyle. And now that I was, it didn't matter, did it?

I watched as Kyle and Jack got into his car, just after Crwys and Levi left with Arden. The coven split up into Kyle's car and one they brought. Once the parking area was clear, I became aware of Tas standing beside me. I didn't look at her. I just asked, "What are you?"

She didn't hesitate. "Is it important?"

"It is to me. I don't like trusting things I can't identify." I turned to look at her exotic profile. "And my magic cannot identify you at all. I saw the bow."

"I know."

"And I saw you conjuring arrows."

"Yes."

I waited. Then, "And?"

"And what?" She looked at me. "Is it so important to label me, Samantha Hawthorne? I am who I say I am. When I confessed I had talents given to me by the God Mother, you assumed I was a Witch, and I was fine with that. But I'm not. I've never been trained as one. I've always worked independently for the God Mother'’s purpose."

"What does that mean?" I put my hands on my hips. "You speak about the God Mother as if you're a Witch, but you're not. I haven't seen an Elemental, but you have Gifts. Diana?"

"Again, another label?"

"I'm sorry, I just…I have to know who and what you are."

Tas finally looked at me, and I swear I felt as if I was going to drown in those soft brown eyes. "I am a good person, Samantha. I work, I pay my taxes, and I fight to put the bad guys away. And I do these things because I was once inspired by someone whose life I destroyed. I watched them slowly rebuild themselves, overcome so many hardships, and succeed to make themselves a better person. When I realized what I'd done, how I'd squandered my power, I pledged my loyalty to the God Mother to make amends. That is what I do. I am neither a Witch, nor a Dianic. I am simply Tasoula."

I felt there was truth in most of what she just told me. But there was vagary in there as well. "Fine. I’ll live with that. For now."

Brahms came out the back door with his hand shoved inside his jacket. "Everything okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I think I'm gonna take a little ride before heading to the hospital. Will you be all right by yourself?"

"I think so."

"I can stay with him. I'd like to take another look at the missing basement, if that's okay?" She looked at me.

"That's fine," Brahms said, before I could say it.

Brahms waved and headed back in with Tas following behind. Something felt odd, and I couldn't put my finger on it. I knew the shop was safe because of Brahms's cap. And Tas was watching him. But there was something I had to go look at for myself. I ran back inside, grabbed my keys, purse and an energy bar before getting into my Jeep. I was happy to see it parked where I'd left it all those months ago. It was dusty, but it cranked right up. Crwys had taken care of it.

I headed out onto Bourbon and turned in the direction of the park. I needed to see where these bodies had been found for myself.

The drive to the park was pretty easy, given it was closing in on six in the morning. The air was brisk and the moon fading with the encroaching day. Tomorrow would be the full moon. I dreaded it. Weird shit always happened on the full moon.