Hugh.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as I hopped down to the grass.
“Damian,” Alan said as he grabbed my arm near the elbow and traded grips. He glanced down at my armor and smiled. “It’s good to see you, Cub.”
“You too, Alan,” I said with a small laugh. “We never did get down to the Blackthorne for vampire hour.”
“Another day, then,” he said.
I nodded. “Are you still staying in north city? Trying to, how did you put it, ‘Bring the city back’?”
“Yes, although my girlfriend is not a fan,” he said with a smile. “But really, you can’t expect to make a difference in a community if you don’t get your hands dirty. We’ve been there for a year now. I’ve made friends, gotten to know the neighbors. There are a lot of good people there.”
“As long as they aren’t necromancers,” I said. “Right, Edgar?”
The Watcher turned away, and I was pretty sure he was hiding a smile.
“Alan!” Sam said as she came around the corner.
“Ah, my bitey friend,” he said as he picked Sam up in a hug. They started bantering about pizza and beer and I turned back to Hugh.
“The packs are finalizing some details,” he said, “but Alan and I did not need to be there.” He took my left arm and slid the sleeve back, showing the curved line of scars. “You and your friends are not alone so long as you are tied to the pack.”
“What about Aideen?” I asked as Cara stepped up beside Hugh.
“She stayed behind to watch the shop,” Cara said. “Bubbles and Peanut are with her. She’ll be fine.”
“What if Philip goes to the shop?” I said.
“He’s not heading for the shop,” Hugh said. “We tracked him to Pilot Knob. He’s heading this way now.”
Pilot Knob. The dead city. My hands curled into fists at the thought of what Philip did to that city. Men, women, children. Murdered and wrapped in a black art, fodder for his trap. A trap we’d triggered, raising an entire town full of zombies.
“I gave Mike the Blessing,” Cassie said as she leapt from Aeros’s shoulder and glided over to Hugh.
“And Rivercene?” Cara asked. “Does she still sleep?”
Cassie nodded.
“What’s under that house?” I asked.
“Nothing we need worry about now,” Cara said. “Focus on the task at hand, lest you lose your head.”
A cry split the heavens. My arm flashed to my gun and I wrenched my gaze up to find the Piasa Bird circling above us.
“Um,” I said. “Hugh?”
The wolf grinned. “We brought a friend.”
“As long as he doesn’t try to eat us, I’m good.”
“He would never try to eat someone,” Aeros said as he stood up. “Just because he dismembers a man with his beak does not mean he is eating him.”
I blinked and stared at the mountain of granite.
“This is a beautiful place,” Aeros said as he extended a massive, rocky arm. The Thunderbird circled closer and closer. It spread its wings and glided down to the Old God’s arm. The Piasa Bird was huge, but its rocky perch didn’t shift a bit as the bird clawed its way up to Aeros’s neck and sat its head on top of the old rock.
Sam snorted and giggled. “You look like a crazy old lady with a bird for a hat.”
“That he does,” said a voice from the tree line. A voice I knew, and another friend I’d failed to protect.
They came from the woods, wisps of smoke and power, until I focused on them. The Ghost Pack, led by Carter, smiling like he wasn’t dead. Maggie followed behind him with three others beside her. I recognized Johann and Betsy, two of the liberated wolves, but the third I did not know.
A faint glow weaved through the trees behind them, turning the trees to orange and red shadows.
“Don’t tell me to put it out,” a little girl’s voice squeaked. “It’s dark, you dumb bear.”
I heard Happy chuff before he waddled into view, Vicky riding on his back with a ball of flame in her hands.
She looked up as they cleared the tree line. “Oh,” she said as the fire in her hands popped out of existence. Vicky looked around the field until her eyes fell on me. “Damian!” She swung down from the panda and ran through the grasses.
“Hey, kid,” I said as I bent down to snatch her up, swing her feet at Hugh, and then set her down again. “What are you doing here?”
“Ghost Pack business,” she said with a grin. “Did you like my trick?”
“It was very pretty,” I said. “Can you do that any time you want?”
She nodded and shot a little streamer of flame into the air.
“Wow, you’re really good at that.”
She curled her hand into a fist and the flames solidified into a glowing, searing, blade.
“My god,” Edgar said.
I pointed at him and shook my head when Vicky looked the other way. “That’s a neat sword, Vicky.”
“I know, right?” she said. “I got the idea watching you. It cuts through everything in the Burning Lands.”
“Yes, it does,” Carter said as he ruffled her hair.
I stared at his fingers moving through her hair. “You can touch her, but I’m not giving you any energy. How?”
“I don’t know,” Carter said. “It’s been like this for a while now. Since we rescued Art.”
“You’re not powering them?” Hugh asked as his eyes trailed from me back to the wolves. “But I can see them as plain as day.” He reached out and pushed Carter’s shoulder.
“Damian,” the Old Man said as he squinted at Vicky. “Why does this little girl, and all of these ghosts, have slivers of your soul woven into their auras?”
“All of them?” I asked. “It should only be … um … ah …” I stuttered and glanced at Edgar. He just smiled and gestured for me to go on. At least that’s what I assumed he was gesturing for.
“I thought it was only Carter and Maggie.”
“No, it’s all of them,” he said.
“Could it be related to the pack magic?” Hugh asked. “I don’t know of any reference to a necromancer becoming a pack member.”
“A pack member?” the Old Man said, his eyebrows rising as he leaned back. “Truly?”
I pushed my left sleeve up and showed him the ring of raised scars.
“Shit,” he said. “I never would have imagined it. After all the hunts? All the death? To make a necromancer one of your own?”
“Sometimes the past must stay the past so we can change what is,” Hugh said.
The Old Man studied Hugh’s face for a moment before he nodded. “Sometimes, wolf, sometimes yes.”
Happy nosed Vicky in the back, knocking her into Hugh. She laughed and scratched the bear’s neck.
“Damian,” Carter said as Vicky and Happy trundled off to see the group around Sam and Frank. “I want you to meet someone. Art.”
The new ghost stepped up beside him, rail thin and smiling as he extended his hand.
I reached out without giving it a second thought and my hand met resistance. I stared at the wolf’s hand. “What the hell is going on?”
“It’s good to meet you too.”
“Ha,” I said as I shook his hand. “Yes, it’s good to meet you. I’m just shocked you didn’t pass right through me.”
The Old Man pushed on Art’s shoulder and Art swayed backwards. “Pack magic,” he muttered. “One more goddamned variable we know nothing about.” He blew out a deep breath.
James grabbed Edgar’s arm and pulled him to the side. They whispered but I still caught snippets of what James was snarling. “… soularts … dark necromancer … enemies.” Edgar snapped at him and James shut his mouth, looking like he’d been slapped. James narrowed his eyes and stalked off toward Aeros. I’m not too proud to admit I kind of hoped the Old God would trip and fall on him.
“Idiot,” Edgar said. “Sometimes that man is more trouble than he’s worth.”
“Is he going to be a problem?” the Old Man asked.
Edgar shook his head. “He’ll be fine. I’ll make sure of it if I have to.”
“We’ll leave it in your hands.”
I looked around our disorganized circle of allies before I said, “I guess we should make a plan.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Z
ola!” Edgar said.
My master glanced up from her huddle with the fairies.
“As your apprentice pointed out, we need to make some plans.”
She nodded. “Sam. Make a circle.”
“Wait,” Aeros said. “I will do this.” He gestured with his hands, palms up and fingers curled, and the earth beneath our feet shook. Dirt and grass roiled as rocks rose up beneath the field. Red stone looked almost black in the dim light, flat and sloping toward the center of the rising ring. When the rumbling stopped, a circle of stone surrounded us.
I brushed off the top of one and sat down. It was a little short, but made for a decent seat. Zola bent down to look at the stone opposite Aeros.
“Ha! You remembered, you old rock pile.”
“Of course,” he said. “Seems only yesterday we buried this circle.”
“Yesterday,” Zola said. “Almost one hundred fifty years, now. Come on, you,” Zola said, motioning to Frank and Sam. Ashley and The Old Man followed as everyone gathered inside the circle. “You fairies might want to close your eyes.” Zola placed her staff deep within a hole on the rock’s top.
“Orbis Tego.”
The hair stood straight up on my arms and I shivered. A breeze rushed by like the world was inhaling, and then it spewed forth a thunderstorm of line energy. Bolts of electric blue singed my Sight as power arced between the rocks and stretched over us in a dome of pulsing light. It dulled slowly, resolving into the blue-tinged shield, flowing and shifting along the back edge of the stone circle.
“Don’t touch it,” Zola said.
“Safe?” Foster asked as he cracked one eye open.
“Safe as a bug zapper,” she said.
“Hey now!” Foster said with small frown. “That was on a dare. Don’t go there.”
“What’s with the light show?” Sam asked.
“Nothing will penetrate this dome,” Aeros said as he settled onto the ground and sat as close to Indian-style as he could.
Hugh watched Aeros trying to mimic his pose and smiled. The more I thought about it, Indian-style probably wasn’t the best choice of words. Vicky called it criss-cross applesauce, but there was no way in hell I could say that with a straight face.
Aeros stopped moving and exchanged a nod with Hugh. “Not sound nor spell nor man can reach us here.”
“So we don’t have to worry about ears,” Frank said.
Aeros turned to look at him and Frank backed up a step, his hand slipping into the sling of an Uzi. “You have no need to fear me. You are correct. No one can hear us. We are outside of time.”
“What do you mean?” Frank asked. “Outside of time.”
“Time is perhaps not the best word,” Aeros said. He rubbed his hand across his chin and my teeth clenched at the grindstone sounds. “We are within one of the Fae’s Warded Ways, only there is no way in or out of this path. It is a bubble within the Abyss … hmm … a manipulation of the ley lines, you might say.”
Frank’s shoulders relaxed and he sat down on one of the stones. Apparently, when our friendly neighborhood rock talks at length, Frank feels more comfortable.
I stared at the center of the circle for a moment. Thoughts of training with Zola flashed behind my eyes. It was here I had practiced holding a circle shield. Holding it until the lizards would come to investigate. They’d scurry up the surface like it wasn’t anything unnatural. When they got to the top, I’d drop the shield and let them fall into my hand. Always carefully. I didn’t want to hurt them.
I took a deep breath. “How many people did Philip have with him?”
“Not too many,” Hugh said. “Two dozen at most.”
“Two dozen necromancers?” Zola asked. “Zachariah?”
“Yes,” Alan said. “He was with them.”
“I may not be of much use,” Aeros said. “Philip and Zachariah have both managed to subdue me in the past.”
“You’ll still be of use,” Zola said. “Even if we have to set you on fire as a distraction, you’ll be of use.”
I blinked and glanced at my master. “Did you just say you’re going to set Aeros on fire?”
“No,” Zola said. “Ah was merely entertaining the idea.”
“I wish my Pit was here,” Sam said. “Vassili and the others helped us so much last year.”
“Not that much,” Maggie said from her perch beside Aeros and Carter. “We’re still dead.”
“Sorry, Maggie,” Sam said. “I just meant —”
She waved her hand to interrupt Sam. “You don’t need to apologize. My issue is with your Lord, not you.”
“I have a suggestion,” Alan said.
“Then speak,” Aeros said. “We are all friends in this place.”
“I’d like to think we’re all friends outside of this place too,” Alan said.
Ashley settled onto the ground beside Alan and squeezed his foot. He smiled a moment before Hugh let out a quiet laugh.
“Well spoken,” Hugh said. “Tell us of your suggestion.”
“Divide and conquer,” Alan said. “Take the packs into the woods. We’re untouchable with trees as our armor. Use the fairies as scouts.”
“Duh,” Foster said with a grin.
Alan nodded at him. “Zola can be the bait in the trap. The trap we set here. Tell me if I’m wrong, but if she draws enough power from the ley lines, it will draw Philip like a moth to a flame.”
Zola tilted her head and tapped her fingertips on her cane. “It could distract him from an ambush he would otherwise see coming.”
“Wouldn’t this shield we’re in draw him in?” Alan asked.
“No,” Cara said. “We’re outside detection here. If it’s not in his direct line of sight, he’d never notice it.”
“If you drew a bigger circle …” Cassie said and then she nodded to herself. “Draw a bigger circle and call a shield.” Her eyes flickered to the Watchers. “Use a soulart. It will magnify the draw.”
Edgar stared James down and the younger Watcher stayed silent.
“That could work, Cassie,” the Old Man said before his gaze travelled back to Alan. “Cunning, wolf, very cunning. So, we draw straws, pick our stations, and die with honor.”
“Everything but that last part, please,” I said.
“The dying or the honor?” Sam asked.
I narrowed my eyes and let my necromancy expand, my aura crawling and seething across the ground, wrapping itself around my sister’s arm. Sam glanced at her hand, and then her eyes shot up to me.
“Damian, don’t you dare!”
“What?” I said. “Play the stop hittin’ yourself game?” I let her arm go and flashed her a grin. Hell, I hadn’t tried to do that to her in years. I don’t even know if it would work anymore since she’s fed off me so many times.