“But if we send this one back to the hive, will Delilah be okay?” I didn’t care about the central motherfucker right now; I wanted my sister free from this freakshow.
Vanzir hesitated. “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “But we can try.”
“Then let’s figure out how to get over to the astral.” As I yanked off my jacket, Smoky and Rozurial bounded into the room, fresh from the Ionyc Sea. Without so much as a preamble, I motioned them over. “Come on, boys, we need to go into the astral, demon hunting.”
Smoky glanced at Delilah, then at me. “I can take two of you. Camille and Menolly, you come with me.”
Roz motioned to Vanzir. “I can probably get you safely across, where I wouldn’t chance it with the girls.”
“I can make it on my own, it just takes me longer than it does you or the dragon,” Vanzir said.
“We don’t have longer,” I said. “Go with Roz.”
Yssak tapped me on the shoulder. “What do you want me to do?”
I pointed at the door. “Keep everybody out unless someone named Chase Johnson or Iris shows up. And guard Delilah. We’re going over physically. So you’re her only protector over here on the solid side of things.”
Yssak nodded and patted his dagger. Neither Smoky nor Vanzir asked who he was as we readied ourselves for the crossing.
Smoky spread out his arms, and Camille walked into the shelter of his left, while I hesitantly stepped into the umbrella of his right. While I liked Smoky well enough, I sure wasn’t as entranced with him as my sister was.
As I slipped under his outstretched arm—the man was six four and towered over me—the musky scent of dragon hit me full-on. Just one more reminder that he wasn’t human. You could slice and dice and rearrange the pieces, but in the end, the puzzle formed one huge-ass, fire-breathing, hot-blooded, white and silver reptile wannabe.
Smoky glanced down at me, almost as if he knew what I was thinking, and smiled softly. “Let’s go take care of Delilah,” he said.
As I huddled in the crook of his arm, staring across his chest at Camille, who looked right at home, I realized that except for going through the portals and being out of my body during my death, and again during the ritual when I broke my bonds to Dredge, my sire, I’d never really ventured out on the astral consciously. I was trapped in my body, though at times in my dreams it felt like I went wandering all over the world.
Camille slid one hand across Smoky’s stomach to touch my own, which was firmly planted on his side in the least obtrusive place I could think of while still maintaining contact. She laced her fingers through mine, and I gazed into her eyes, grateful that she could read me so well.
“Don’t be nervous—we’re going over in body. You’ll be fine,” she said. “This is nothing compared to riding through the Ionyc Sea. It’s no worse than stepping through a portal.”
“Uh-huh.” I didn’t like relying on anybody else for my transportation, but we had no choice. And if she was right, well . . . I’d been through enough portals to know what to expect.
Smoky’s aura began to hum. Even I could hear it, and I was about as head blind as one of half-Fae blood could get when it came to auras and energy signatures. Demonkin, I could sense, and other undead, and physical manifestations like the scent of fear or arousal or heat. But magic—be it Moon or dragon—was beyond me.
I shivered as the world began to fall away, deconstructing itself everywhere but within the shelter of Smoky’s arms. Camille was wrong. It wasn’t like crossing through a portal. Stepping into a portal was like planting yourself between two magnets that yanked body and soul apart and put them back together again somewhere else in the blink of an eye. In the portals, there was the briefest second of feeling like the world had torn itself apart and you with it. But this was different.
Everything outside the barrier that Smoky had erected was nebulous and insubstantial. The shed and Delilah and Yssak slowly faded out of view into a gray mist that sparkled with silver and white points of light, dew glistening on cloud banks.
And then we faded in somewhere else. The mist was still thick when Smoky opened his arms, and Camille and I stepped out of his shadow. It swirled around our ankles, our knees. Vague shapes in the distance resembled twisted, malformed trees.
“Where the hell are we?” I asked, hesitantly stepping forward. The ground—or whatever was under the mist—felt firm enough, but there was an ethereal feel to the air. I quickly turned, staring at Camille. “Can you breathe? Is there oxygen here for you? I can’t even tell.”
She gave me a slow nod. “Yes, it would seem so. This isn’t . . . like the Ionyc Sea. I’ve been in-body on the astral plenty of times before, especially when I run with the Hunt. But . . . this is different. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s almost as if I don’t need to breathe.”
Smoky cleared his throat. “The astral planes are part of the Ionyc Lands, and all of them work on very different principles than Earth and Otherworld. We’ll be fine as long as we don’t step off into the sea. Or unless we hit a patch of rogue magic. Just keep your eyes open for anything that sparkles in an unusual way—especially containing red or orange swirls, which usually indicate sorcery. A number of the shadow sorcerers come to play here.”
“Okay . . . so where’s the creature—” My words drifted off as I noticed a dark shadow to our right. It was hard to tell how far away it was, considering the lack of perspective here on the astral, but it looked for all the world like the demon squids we’d been facing. Only here, we could clearly see what it looked like, and the sight didn’t give me any comfort.
The thing was huge—far larger than it had appeared on the other side. Black, with a bulbous head that was so bumpy it reminded me of either a giant brain or a cauliflower. And two of its tentacles were attached to a silver cord that led to . . . crap! There was Delilah. She wasn’t on the astral, but with the creature connected to her, she appeared in a wispy, ghostlike manner.
“There—it’s sucking her life out of her!” I let out a low growl. “Let’s rip it to shreds.”
Just then, Rozurial and Vanzir appeared next to us. I motioned to Delilah, and they nodded as Camille and I moved forward.
“Wait—let me look for dangers first—”
Smoky’s words were lost as we raced forward. Somebody was fucking with our sister, and that was enough for us. As we raced in, Camille prepped some sort of spell while I quickly calculated the best angle from which to attack the demon. I didn’t want to hurt Delilah, so we had to detach it from her before we started whaling on its butt. That meant severing those tentacles that were sucking the energy out of her silver cord.
As if she’d been reading my mind, Camille sent a bolt of energy—much brighter on the astral than it usually was—toward the upper part of the demon’s feelers. The bolt met its mark, and a brilliant flash severed the appendages from the giant mantle that protected the overstuffed head. As Delilah’s cord retracted and she disappeared from sight, the Karsetii let out a loud shriek and smoothly turned to face us.
“Bring it on, girl,” I whispered, waggling two fingers.
Apparently, the thing was listening. It veered away from Camille and headed directly toward me. I steeled myself for the impact and, as it swung one of its feelers in my direction, I raced forward and leapt in the air, kicking at its head. Unlike at the Avalon Club, this time I landed a hit. Score one for the home team!
My foot landed square under the giant eye, one round pupil swimming in a sea of white. The body of the Karsetii wasn’t nearly as squishy as it looked. In fact, if I’d been alive, I probably would have broken my leg. As it was, I left a nice, tidy imprint on the thing’s forehead.
It roared and lashed out again, this time catching me on the side as I dove for cover. A shock wave raced through my body and sent me into a spasm as I landed, rolled, and came up into a crouch.
Ignoring the pain, I called out to Camille, “Watch out for those tentacles. They land a nasty jolt that would probably drop you in your tracks!”
She nodded as she geared up for another spell. “Gotcha!”
Just then, Smoky came whistling by in his usual fashion, arms outstretched, fingernails turned talons, his ankle-length braid whipping itself out of the way. He scored a hit along the side of the demon, raking a foot-long gash into its side. The thing responded by smacking him with one of the short feelers that wiggled close to its head. Smoky yelled and went careening to the side, landing flat on his back.
“Oh shit,” I whispered. Anything strong enough to knock the dragon off kilter had to be packing a real punch.
“I think the tentacles closer to the head have more juice,” he said, leaping up and adjusting his trench. Amazing. Not a spot on him.
Roz raced to my side. “Let’s see if technology works over here,” he said, pulling out a nasty looking handgun.
“Holy crap, put that thing away—”
I was interrupted by a hail of bullets that went spraying toward the demon. They bounced off, as I’d expected, ricocheting every which way. Thank the gods none of us were in their path.
“Idiot! Put that thing away. You can’t kill most demons with guns. You should know that!” Vanzir strode up and yanked the gun out of Roz’s hand, tossing it on the ground.
“Vanzir’s right. We aren’t out to kill this one, anyway. It’s just going to go home to the mothership until we can take care of the main creature.” Camille let out a little growl. “I wish I could call on the lightning here, but it just doesn’t work the same as it does on the flip side. The best I can do without Morio is to use energy bolts. If he was here, we could try death magic.”
As she was talking, the big bruiser had started to cruise over our way, and now it lashed out with one of its tentacles, aiming directly for her head. There wasn’t time to warn her, so I just leapt, grabbing her by the shoulders and rolling to the ground with her. We landed hard in the thick of the mist as it swirled up to coil around us. Camille let out a loud “Oof” as we hit the ground, her skirts tangling around my legs. Ms. Demon of the Deep’s tentacle passed overhead without making contact.
As I scrambled to untangle myself from Camille’s voluminous yards of chiffon, Vanzir moved forward, his eyes shifting through a kaleidoscopic array.
He spread his arms high, and from the palms of his hands glistening threads appeared, billowing in the astral breeze. Vanzir let out a low belly laugh as the threads grew in length, shooting toward the Karsetii demon like a swarm of bizarre neon worms. The look on his face was freaky-ass scary, and for the first time, I realized how glad I was that he was on our side.
“Oh great gods, look at him.” Camille shuddered as I helped her up. “Can you see the threads?”
“Yeah,” I said. “What the fuck are they?”
“I’m not sure but they’re—holy hell, look at that. They’ve attached to the demon!” She backed up a step, her gaze riveted on the pair.
Vanzir’s threads—still connected to his palms—had made contact with the Karsetii. They were burrowing into the creature’s side just like the tentacles of the demon had burrowed into Delilah’s silver cord. He let his head hang back and a look of sheer bliss swept over his face. Not good bliss, but dark, wild, feral bliss that made me both want to touch that energy and yet run like hell.
“He’s feeding,” Camille whispered. “Vanzir’s a dream chaser. He feeds off dreams. He must be able to drain energy off astrally based creatures, as well.”
“Whatever he’s doing, it’s working.” Smoky pointed toward the Karsetii. “Look.”
The demon was fading right before our eyes. The aura around it began to dissipate, and without warning, it vanished with a pop. Vanzir stumbled, falling as the shock of disconnection hit him.
“Are you all right?” I hurried to his side, kneeling to make sure he was okay. “Are you hurt?”
He shook his head. “No.”
I extended a hand, and he stared at me for a moment, then accepted my help. As I pulled him to his feet, I caught a whiff of his scent. He looked on edge. “You sure you’re okay?”
He leaned close. “You know what the scent of blood does to you, girl? This is my form of blood. Draining energy intoxicates me. We all have our triggers, babe. This is mine.”
As he spoke, a wave of sexual tension burst through my shields, and I bit my lip as my fangs extended. He noticed and slowly licked his lips, a dangerous gleam filling his gaze.
I swallowed, trying to push back the thoughts starting to run through my head. I so did not need to get involved with a demon—at least not with a full-fledged bad-guy demon who was under our subjugation. But Vanzir held my attention, and with a slow smile that bordered on mockery, he blew me a kiss.
Turning my back on him, I strode over to where Camille and Smoky stood. “Let’s get the fuck out of here before that thing comes back.” Without another word, we crossed back to our home to see how Delilah was faring.
CHAPTER 13
Yssak was exactly where he’d been when we left. He watched impassively as we stepped out of the astral. Delilah was huddled on the sofa, awake and looking scared.
I hurried to her side. “We chased it away for now. We have to find the hive mother that’s spawning those beasts, though.”
She shuddered and let out a sigh. “Will it come back after me? I feel so incredibly tired.”
“What can we do?” I turned to the others. “Until we can find this thing, how do we protect her? It can break through the wards on the land. We can’t see it even when it can see us. The Karsetii could easily sneak an attack on her before we can stop it. And when it retreats to the astral—like it did this time—we’ll be helpless until we can get over there.”