My Merlin Awakening (8 page)

My breathing hitched when his palms slid up my side, tugging up my shirt. His fingers traced over the sensitive hollow of each rib. Cold wind hit my bare midriff, caressing it. Vane put a knee on the bed and pulled my hands tightly around his neck. He started to bend me back onto the bed.

The dull roar of an engine being turned on sounded from outside.

Vane let out a groan. He waved a hand and the French doors opened behind us.

I blinked. “What?”

Cupping my face, he gave me a quick hard kiss. “Later.”

He rushed outside. I followed him. Cold stone bricks made up the floor of the wide balcony. My toes had curled into my feet by the time I caught up to Vane at the balcony’s ledge. A black SUV sped out of the driveway into the woods. Vane cursed. “He’s off.”

“Where?”

“I’ve got to go.” Vane leapt on top of the balcony ledge.

I caught his elbow and pulled him back, using one of the grappling techniques he’d taught me. “I’m going too.”

His eyes narrowed. “Not a good time to test me.”

“If it’s about the sword, it’s about me,” I retorted. “Is it?”

Vane opened his mouth. I slapped my hand over it.

My amulet glowed. I gave him a look. “Do you really want to try magic on me?”

Vane pushed my hand away.

“You know where he’s going,” I declared.

“What part of ‘there are gargoyles running around and it’s not safe anywhere but here’ are you unable to grasp?”

I scowled. “What part of ‘you can’t bully me’ are you not getting? I’m going.”

The moonlight left his lean face shadowed and sinister. His eyes glittered with a dangerous light. Little butterflies in my stomach fluttered. I shoved them down.

“You have no idea where to go,” he said.

I touched my amulet. “I can find out.”

Vane ran a hand through his hair and I knew he’d bought my bluff. Without a cataclysmic trigger like the last vision, I was pretty sure there was no way I could read Matt when he wasn’t around. But Vane didn’t know that.

He muttered, “You’re going to drive me mad.”

I played my last card. “Matt isn’t going to tell us anything.”

“Yes.” An arrogant smile broke over his face. “I suppose I did promise you a date. Never say I can’t deliver.”

***

A wide field stretched out in a large square surrounded by a fortress of classically architected business buildings. Tucked in one corner of the square, amorphous shadows floated here and there above the towers of the Salem Witch Museum. The melancholy museum building hid behind the protection of large oak trees. A bright moon highlighted the museum’s arched windows. Matching arched wooden doors barred any visitors from going in at this late hour.

Vane slipped the Land Rover into a dark spot away from any streetlight, about a hundred yards from the museum’s driveway. Not a soul other than us could be seen.

Two empty SUVs sat in the driveway.

 “Not very subtle,” Vane remarked.

“Why are we here?” I sat in the passenger seat of the Land Rover. Tense waves of acid rose in my stomach. “Is this why you directed me to do a project there? Were you using me to look for whatever Matt is looking for?” My voice rose with every word.

Vane straightened away from the steering wheel. “Weren’t you complaining that I hadn’t read any of your work? Now you know I did… that it also gave me an excuse to pop into the museum worked for both of us.”

My voice dripping with syrupy sweetness, I asked, “Did you find out anything?”

“Do you want me to tell you?” he needled.

Blake leaned forward from the middle seat in the back. “Is that Master Emrys’s four by four?”

“Let’s go after them.” Grey snapped the release on his seatbelt and opened the door just behind me.

Vane waved a hand and the door shut itself. He gave me a look. “Did we have to bring the Scooby gang?”

If I hadn’t been so mad at him, I would have laughed. For someone so out of his time, Vane had assimilated well.
But, really, how much TV did he watch?
I told him, “They’re part of this too. You need the help.”

Gia snickered from Blake’s other side. “Does he always need help?”

Blake groaned. “Please, Gia, now I will never be able to remove that image from my mind.”

“Emerson, be quiet. Cornwall, I can always take you back to the hole I found you in,” Vane snarled.

“Vane!” I protested.

“Someone’s grumpy,” Gia muttered.

I sighed. Gia was still mad at him about the spell. She had gone from being a Vane supporter to a Vane hater fairly quickly after we’d started training. Or rather she, like Blake, couldn’t understand how I could walk away from Matt. On the other hand, Grey didn’t like Matt. He still blamed him for what happened to Alexa. It was cute how he and Vane had bonded over the past few months over video games; and as a jock, Grey was used to a coach’s abrasive personality, not to mention ginormous ego.

“Why are we waiting?” I asked, before things could deteriorate any more in the car.

Matt and six other wizards came out of the museum. Matt shut the huge door behind them. They started talking to each other.

“What happened?” Blake said.

“They’ve just figured out they’re in the wrong place.” Vane put his hand on the door handle. “Time for me to step in.”

The headlights of another SUV blinded us as it roared down the road on a collision path with us.

“Get out of the car!” Vane yelled. “Gargoyles!”

Vane waved a hand and all the car doors flung open. We leaped out just before the speeding SUV rammed the Land Rover. I landed hard, my palms scraping the ground. Behind me, Blake and Grey were on their knees on the sidewalk. The doors of the SUV opened and three gargoyles jumped out. Three tall men with beastly faces on—the protruding forehead of a Cro-Magnon man, two sharp fangs, and hulking shoulders.

One stared at me. “The sword-bearer! Kill her! We may never get a chance like this again.”

A fireball leaped out of one gargoyle’s palm and headed straight toward me like a live grenade. I had no time to duck. The ruby gemstone on my amulet heated. I saw the soft sheen of a barrier extend around me. The fireball glanced off it.

It hit the Land Rover and exploded with an enormous bang. The mammoth SUV shook as it absorbed the bomb. The gargoyles launched a volley of fireballs.

Blake jumped in front of me. He put up his hand. Yellow light extended from it, making a small shield. On our knees on the sidewalk, Blake, Grey, and I hid behind the meager defense. A relentless barrage of fireballs bombarded us.

“The spell will run out soon,” Blake yelled.

“Can’t you fire back?” Grey shouted.

“It’s taking all my strength to hold the shield,” Blake answered.

“We need swords,” I said.

Grey took a knife out of his pocket. Blake took out a matching one from his. Blake said a word and the knives extended.

“Blake!” I cried.

The shield shook under Blake’s momentary distraction as fireballs continued to hammer it.

“Bugger.” He handed me his sword and concentrated on the shield.

Finally, the volley of fireballs weakened. I said, “Their power is running out.”

“I’m getting tired too,” Blake warned.

“Move forward,” I told him. “We have to take our chance now.”

Blake scooted forward. To our relief, the shield held. Our knees scraped along the concrete sidewalk as we inched toward the gargoyles. Blake faltered over a crack in the sidewalk and a fireball whizzed just above my head, burning off a few strands.

“Blake,” I hissed.

“Sorry,” he mumbled with a nervous laugh.

The fireballs intensified, the closer we got. Then, I heard one gargoyle curse. I met Grey’s eyes.

“Now,” I told Blake.

Grey and I jumped out from behind the shield. The shield evaporated. We ran at the gargoyles, swords in hand. Two of the gargoyles shot at us with weaker fireballs. Blake blocked them one-by-one. The gargoyles raised their own swords. Grey swung his sword at a tall gargoyle on the end. I took the one in the middle. Blake fired his own fireball at the last one.

My sword clanged with the gargoyle’s. His strength threatened to break my arm.

“Worried, sword-bearer?” he growled. “Killing you will make me the most celebrated gargoyle alive.” He pushed down on me to crush me into submission.

Blake’s sword felt clunky in my hand as if it couldn’t decide if it liked me. Still I pushed and met every parry the gargoyle threw at me. The gargoyle pushed me back further down the sidewalk. He stumbled on the same crack Blake had. I took the opportunity to knock the sword out of his hand. I raised the blade and gathered my strength. Ready to behead him.

“Ryan, wait.”

Matt’s voice stopped me. He stood beside the crashed SUVs. Two dead gargoyles lay on the ground. Blake and Grey leaned against the SUV.

The gargoyle’s face changed back to a normal man’s. He gave me a menacing smile. “I didn’t think you would do it,
sword-bearer
.” He said the last word with a sneer and grabbed my throat.

Red spots blotted my vision and I gasped for oxygen.

Matt rushed toward me. Vane rounded the back of the SUV, holding a sword. In one clean slice, the gargoyle’s head came off. His body fell forward on me while the head tumbled to the ground. Blood sprayed all over my front. It seeped in through my button-down shirt, smearing against my skin.

“Ugh.” I pushed the body off me.

Vane stepped aside to avoid the falling body. “Is that any way to thank me for saving your life?”

Matt stared at the dead gargoyle with a dismayed expression. “I wanted the gargoyle alive, Vane.”

Vane gave him a withering expression. “I’m not taking chances with her.”

“She was handling it just fine. Now, we don’t know who sent them,” said Matt.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“It wasn’t Rourke,” said Matt. The two brothers glared at each other.

“I
was
handling it just fine.” I touched my soaking shirt with a grimace. My hands trembled, but I ignored them.

Vane didn’t. He watched me closely. “Yes, I can see that.”

He had a point. I had been relieved when Matt stopped me from killing the gargoyle. I didn’t know why. I should have had no problem taking out a gargoyle.

Matt touched my shoulder. “
Marsti,
” the soft word fluttered around me. The wind cleansed my shirt, soaking up the blood into bubbles that fell and splattered the grey sidewalk.

Around us, the carnage lay strewn across the quiet street. Moonlight illuminated the smooth faces on the severed heads of the dead gargoyles. The three we fought on the sidewalk. From between the trees, I saw about five more on the driveway. A guardian kneeled down beside two bodies, scarred beyond recognition. Two guardians, I presumed.

“We had four more on our side,” Vane used the edge of his fine wool coat to clean off the blade of his sword.

I looked around in worry. “Gia?”

“A gargoyle knocked her out.” Vane touched my cheek. “But she’s fine.”

“I’ll check on her,” Blake said and hurried around the Land Rover.

My shoulders relaxed. “Good.”

Matt knelt by the gargoyle that had almost taken me down. “Take a look at this.” He turned the gargoyle’s hand over. A curvy V inside a circle had been burned onto the skin like a brand.

“Morgan?” I whispered. Morgan, my ex-boyfriend, had killed my mother before turning on me.

“Are we going to have to kill everyone in his clan?” Vane said in disgust.

Blake walked up to us. “This was an attack on Ryan?”

I shook my head and nodded at the gargoyle below us. “When they first spotted me, I could tell they were surprised. I wasn’t the target here.”

Vane cursed. “No, Merlin is the target.” He looked at Matt. “They’re looking for the same thing you are. But it’s not here. They know it. This is a distraction.”

“What do you mean it’s not here?” Matt demanded. “You know where it is? How do you even know
what
it is?”

“Yes, and no.” Vane strode toward the Land Rover. The engine was crushed. The inside completely destroyed. He glanced around at the other SUVs. They looked in worse condition. “Shite. I’m going to have to walk.”

“Walk to where?”

He raised a brow at me. “Sure you haven’t had enough for one night?”

I bit my lip. The last time I’d followed a wizard down the rabbit hole, it hadn’t turned out well. Still, I wasn’t about to let him go off alone. I was the freaking sword-bearer after all. Whether or not I wanted to be.

“We’re stronger when we stay together,” I said.

“Good girl. Grab a sword, then. We’ll need it.” Vane looked at Matt. “Let’s go.”

“Go where?” Matt frowned.

“You’re not going without me.” Grey still held a sword in his hand.