Deceiver's Bond: Book Two of A Clairvoyant's Complicated Life (53 page)

I followed his gaze half-expecting to find the bodies reanimating. As far as I could tell, though, their positions hadn’t changed, much to my relief. Zombies were notoriously difficult to put to rest. If not death magic, then what? Clearly, something about the magic circle concerned all of the newcomers, although I couldn’t imagine why, since whatever had been wrought was long over. Curious, I closed my eyes and concentrated my magic over the area, swiveling my head as if my face was a satellite dish seeking a weak signal.

“Lire,” Red cautioned. He slipped down my shoulder to perch on top of my backpack. I felt him rearranging my hair, probably to camouflage himself from Fisk and his men and to keep from inflicting his spells on Kieran, who had moved closer to grasp my hand.

“I know,” I murmured. “Something’s not right. I’m … on it.”

Examining the circle in such detail, I fought not to gag and focused on the floor instead of the bodies. And then … I felt it.
This
was the source of the ongoing vibration. Why hadn’t I noticed it when we first walked in? The dissonance rippled outward from the circle’s center to its boundary. It was as if an invisible bubble floated half-submerged over the tile floor—and everything inside it vibrated at a different frequency than Earth.

“It’s not just a circle. It’s a gateway.” I snapped my wide-eyed gaze to Fisk, who had positioned himself squarely in front of me. “But … it doesn’t feed the Otherworld.” I considered the bodies. “Oh. Oh, shit.”

The ward hadn’t simply been erected to keep people out of the building. It also inhibited the gateway. It kept whatever was on the other side from coming through. That’s why we hadn’t felt it. The ward had suppressed its magic.

He examined me as though I should be reported to PETA for pulling a rabbit out of my ear. He scoffed, “Yeah:
Oh shit.
” He didn’t have to add, ‘Stupid cow.’ That much was clear.

The blonde, who would have looked right at home alongside Leif Erikson, glided up to Fisk’s side, moving like he had wheels in his shoes. Instead of a sword, he held a six-foot-long wooden bo staff. His long pale hair had been drawn back into a low ponytail, which emphasized his thickly ridged brow and broad forehead. Even with the incongruity of business attire alongside that preposterous weapon, the guy had presence with a capital ‘P.’

Fisk ignored Kieran and Jackie, as though they posed absolutely no threat, focusing only on me. “Unless you want to die here, give Wade the keystone. There is no time for bullshit.”

The Viking tucked his bo against his side and then held out his hand, palm up. “Please, Miss Devon. There’s no time to explain. The ward must be restored.” He was surprisingly soft spoken.

The two remaining men descended the stairs and took positions near the carnage, staying just outside the yellow spray painted perimeter, swords readied.

“You are an emissary?” Kieran asked.

“Liaison,” Fisk corrected. “The King isn’t the only one who makes use of the bond.” He glanced over his shoulder at the circle before glaring at me and barking, “Keystone. Now.”

I returned his glare, biting back my angry retort, as my neck and face grew hot. If the incessant vibration hadn’t continued to unsettle me, I might have asked him to say ‘please’ just to be petulant.

Asshole.

Kieran squeezed my hand and murmured, “Give it to him, quickly. There are things going on here that we don’t understand.”

I scowled at Fisk before wiping my expression clean and replying, sotto voce, “You know, you should think about leaving all the talking to your friend Wade. The guy has manners.”

I slapped the bolt into the imposing blonde’s waiting palm.

I hadn’t done it particularly hard. I swear. But as soon as it hit his hand, I felt the inaudible
snap
under my fingers as it broke into two pieces.

If the horrified look on Wade’s commanding face hadn’t put me on notice that the shit had well and truly hit the fan, then the immediate rumble along the strands of my magic would have.

Oh, crap.

Jackie, probably sensing what was in store, strode to Kim’s side. They both readied themselves to guard the stairs.

Fisk’s attention shot to the circle, his neck taut, tendons bulging under his flushed skin. “Stand fast,” he ordered his other two men. “The remaining keystones must be protected at all costs.” Turning back to Wade, he snapped, “You know what to do.”

The blonde nodded, almost formally, before whipping his staff horizontally and sinking down to his knees. He laid his weapon reverently on the ground in front of him. Its entire length, I noticed, had come alight with a series of intricate runes.

I peeled my gaze from the intriguing sight, looking back to Fisk who glared at me as though my need to breathe air was a crime against humanity. He dismissed me with a disgusted curl of his upper lip and snarled at Kieran, “No wonder all of your liaisons are dead. If you have any shred of competency, you’ll guard Wade while he restores the keystone.”

His sword magically materialized in his grip, incandescent runes blazing along the graceful curve of its blade. He spared me a contemptuous glance. “I’ll leave Darwin to take care of the stupid and incompetent.”

Fisk didn’t need to swing his weapon for that cut to be loud and clear. He’d not waste his effort to protect any of us, me in particular. Only the ward mattered. The ward I’d seen fit to compromise, potentially endangering our lives and thousands of others.

When I saw the leviathan Azazel disgorge from the gateway, I couldn’t blame him for wanting me dead. If our roles had been reversed, I’d have probably wished me dead too.

The mountainous eight-foot demon surveyed the basement, laughing mightily, a depraved rumble that instantly transformed my skin to gooseflesh. Something about the way its muscles flexed beneath its leathery brown skin reminded me of the solid body of an Angus bull. Its thick hide was completely hairless and unblemished, even over its genitalia. More disturbing, however, were the six-inch-long black talons it brandished instead of fingers and its creepy black eyes, which appeared much too large for its already huge head. Although roughly humanoid in its appearance and standing sure-footed on two massive legs, its muscular arms were long enough to make me wonder whether it could run on all fours, gorilla-like. Its bald head skimmed the popcorn-textured ceiling, knocking bits of plaster to the floor as it moved.

Behind it, scores of equally horrific creatures spawned into view, as many as would fit inside the fifteen-foot-wide circle. I wasn’t sure whether they were held in check by the remains of the ward or simply waiting for the anticipation to rev up to a fever pitch before launching their attack.

Finally, the leviathan bellowed and the monsters surged into the room, eagerly meeting Fisk and the other sword-wielding men in battle. I cringed at the sight. I’d never seen honest to goodness sword fighting before. Fisk had the social skills of a dung beetle, but
holy shit
, the man could fight. At every sweep of his sword, severed limbs flew. Demonic blood, black and viscous, spattered in all directions. Creatures howled and railed, champing their teeth and clawing at the slippery tile, leery to venture outside the refuge of their circle. Those that did were at the mercy of the three swordsmen and Kim’s lightning. More than once, I watched her power skitter over the floor, searing whatever demon had attempted to move her way, sending it yelping and limping back into the circle. All the while, the colossal demon stood patiently, watching and waiting, a knowing smile plastered to its lips.

Magic, scalding in its intensity, seethed inside of me. Now, more than ever, I had to keep myself firmly leashed. Blowing up the building wouldn’t do us any favors. Our only hope was that Wade could restore the keystone, but how he’d mend the pieces without a welder’s torch, I had no idea.

Heat, however, was something I could provide.

Kieran gestured and a brilliant sword manifested in his right hand, but there was no time to wonder at the spectacle. I was too busy trying to avoid a meltdown.

“Help him,” Kieran said. “We’ll keep them busy.”

My heart fluttered at the thought of taking my eyes off the impending battle. I’d been on a hair trigger, ready to use my power to deflect anything that got past Fisk and his compatriots. So far, no monster had gotten more than a few feet outside the circle, but there seemed to be an endless supply of reinforcements. Eventually, the swordsmen would tire or make a mistake. When that happened …

“Faith, Lire. We will not die this day,” Kieran assured me.

I couldn’t reply. My thoughts were too snarled by fear and it took all of my concentration to keep my power from running rampant. He brushed my cheek with his index finger and then turned back toward the raging conflict, sword raised.

Not wanting to disrupt Wade’s concentration, I eased down to one knee, keeping eighteen inches between us. I shivered at the brush of his magic, cool sparks that skipped along my skin. He pinched his fingers over the bolt, doing his best to hold the pieces together while he worked his spell. In spite of my best effort to avoid his attention, he slid his clear, blue-eyed gaze toward me.

“Would it help to weld the two pieces back together first?” I asked, raising my voice to be heard over the hostilities behind us.

“I seemed to have left my blowtorch at home,” he coolly replied before resuming his concentration. He might have been soft-spoken, but apparently he was a soft-spoken jerk, more than willing to pick up the condescending tone where Fisk had left off.

“Is that a yes? Because I, for one, don’t need a blowtorch to weld it for you. But, you know, don’t let me inconvenience you or anything.”

His attention snapped back to me. “You have a skill in something other than breaking things. Is that what you’re telling me?”

Kieran broke in, “She has several. You would do well to trust her.”

Wade raised one pale eyebrow. “Very well. But if you destroy it, restoring the ward will take longer than we have the ability to manage.”

He placed the bolt on the ground at my knees.

Little did he know, with the dreadful noises behind me, worry about my friends’ safety, and the continued health of everyone outside the building, melting the bolt into a puddle of molten metal was the least of our concerns. Chances were high I’d end up incinerating everything within a five-mile radius.

I scolded myself.
Enough with the melodrama already.

But the thought had given me an idea. One that would require less magical finesse on my part, which, given my track record with my pyrokinesis, was probably a good thing.

I considered Wade and resisted the urge to worry my lower lip. “If I melt it down, inside the channel, can you cast your spell at the same time? It will harden and fill the hole. Would that work, do you think?”

Both eyebrows went up this time. “Yes.”

I levitated the pieces into the hole, bottom half first, and then set to work, gradually applying my pyrokinesis to heat the metal. I closed my eyes and tried to tune out all the sounds behind me, centering all of my concentration on the metal inside the hole.

Not thirty seconds into the process, a monumental roar, followed by earth-shaking footsteps, startled me so badly, I lost it. The air between Wade and me flashed to hundreds of degrees. Scrambling, I coated our bodies with a thin layer of ice and banked my fires.

“Sorry
,
” I yelped.

What the hell was I thinking, offering to do this? It was crazy. I whipped my head around to see the chaos behind me and wished I hadn’t.

Kieran still stood a few feet away, but he wasn’t entirely there. His body had gone almost translucent. Shadow boiled out from beneath his feet, speeding across the floor to intercept a dog-like demon, which had slipped through the front lines. The mangy creature promptly howled in pain as shafts of darkness split its skin, like the crackle glazing on a raku pot. Blood disgorged from the countless lacerations, streamed down its patchy fur, and welled out of its nose and ears. In moments, its howls turned into wet, choked gurgles.

Wade squeezed my arm, drawing my attention back to his blue eyes. Ice still clung to his eyebrows and eyelashes but had melted everywhere else. “They’re holding them off. Keep going. I’m going to interweave my magic with yours. I’ll be touching you. Don’t let it freak you out.”

I nodded stiffly, freaking anyway, but resumed heating the bolt. I hoped like hell he was just as unreadable to me as he’d been to Michael. The last thing I needed was having to deal with his thoughts and memories.

When Wade slid his hand down my right sleeve and intertwined his bare fingers with mine, I held my breath and did my best to ignore the forced intimacy.

His magic faltered just before he turned his astonished gaze on me. “Holy shit. You’re—”

A sharp, agonized scream cut through the tumult and stopped him dead.

I did not want to see what was going on behind me. Honest to God. Just the bloodcurdling outcry alone told me more than I wanted to know. But like Lot’s wife, I couldn’t
not
look. The taste of dread coated the back of my tongue, thick and acrid. I swallowed it down and turned to the source of the scream, still clutching Wade’s fingers.

Everything inside of me went cold. Not just cold. Frigid. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything except stare at a sight I knew would torment me for the rest of my life.

Standing just inside the circle, the towering demon clutched the back of Daniel’s neck, dangling his limp body three feet above the floor. It had just finished gutting him from collarbone to pelvis. Left claw still raised and dripping, the demon shook my childhood friend—my first love—by the scruff, laughing and triumphant, as Daniel’s lifeblood cascaded downward in thick rivulets.

My body finally unlocked. I surged to my feet, releasing Wade’s hand, and screamed, “Danny … no!”

“Lire!” Kieran cut down a giant scorpion-like creature. Regret and unrestrained rage transformed his expression into something truly frightening to behold. If he hadn’t been engaged in battle, I know he would have leapt to my side.