Darkness Divides (Sensor #3) (40 page)

Kerbasi smiled. “I’ve missed you too, little nephilim.”

She took a step back. “What are you doing here?”

“Thought it was time I had a vacation and Melena here was kind enough to host me.”

A female sensor next to Zoe whispered in her ear. We were close enough it was possible she was picking up on the cuffs’ magic. She’d certainly been eyeing our arms in a way that made me think it was possible. The two male sensors standing within the warding circle hadn’t shown the same interest, but their range wouldn’t extend as far for magic spells.

Zoe’s expression turned furious as she turned her attention to me. “I can’t believe Lucas let you do this.”

Yep, the sensor had picked up on the spelled cuffs.

“What makes you think I gave him a choice?” I asked.

She flicked back her strawberry-blonde hair. It was a lot shorter than the last time I’d seen it, but she had it stylishly cut to chin-length. “Very well. I’ll tell you the deal I’m willing to offer. You give me the location of the portal and the fae device. After that, all my people will leave Fairbanks.”

“No deal on the location.” I shook my head.

“Do you really want to fight this battle out-numbered?” she asked, giving me a haughty look.

I shrugged. “If that’s what it takes.”

“Fine, then answer me this…is the portal near Fairbanks?”

I mulled that one over. She’d never find it unless she knew exactly where to look, but if she knew it was close I might never get her to leave. Then again, if all went according to plan she wouldn’t get the chance to search for it.

“It’s…nearby,” I answered carefully.

Zoe looked at her sensors for confirmation of my answer. They all nodded.

“In which direction?”

I hesitated, but decided it was still too vague to be very useful. “East of town.”

“Good enough. You have your deal and we will leave Fairbanks shortly.” She raised her hand impatiently. “Now let me see the fae device.”

“You mean this?” I pulled it from my pocket. “You’ll have to come and get it—if you’re not too scared.”

She scoffed and looked at Kerbasi with disdain. “I am not coming near that man.”

“Ah, he’s just a big softy once you get to know him.” I patted the guardian on the shoulder.

His body twitched when I touched him. I’d never seen a man who was so sensitive about his personal space—especially one who had no problem invading other people’s.

“You must be mad,” Zoe said, still not budging from her spot.

I shrugged. “I’m not the one who won’t walk fifty feet to collect the device I want so badly.”

“Bring it to me.” She beckoned me forth.

I sighed. “God save me from weak women.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Speaks the woman wearing a silver collar to protect her neck.”

“Easy for you to say when no one here can kill you.” Well, I didn’t know about Kerbasi, but I knew the rest of us couldn’t.

“Stalling, sensor?” Zoe asked imperiously.

I said nothing more and started moving toward her. I had the device in my right hand. For my left, I had my thumbnail ready to scratch deeply into my palm. With slow, measured steps I came closer and closer. Zoe moved to the edge of the circle, but backed away when Kerbasi started following behind me.

That hadn’t been part of the plan, but I didn’t care that he did it.

“Tell him to stop,” she demanded.

I paused and gave her an incredulous look. “Do you think he obeys my orders? Believe me when I say that I can’t tell him where to move or stand.”

Zoe looked at the female sensor next to her for confirmation. “Melena speaks the truth.”

The nephilim waved over two of her oldest vampires—both about a millennia old. The low growl I heard coming from Derrick made me think they were the ones who’d helped Zoe kill his family.

“Keep him from coming closer,” she ordered.

They moved to block Kerbasi’s progress. She took a risk by doing that since she had no idea under what circumstances he was here. When he stopped just before them and didn’t go any farther, she grinned.

“Just what I thought.” Zoe smiled imperiously at the guardian. “You can’t attack them unless they attack first, can you? I knew there was no way they’d let you come here unless you had restrictions. You’re just part of the punishment for Melena freeing Lucas.”

The way her mind worked continued to amaze me. If she was smart enough to put this much together, she had to know invading Purgatory would result in consequences for herself as well.

She caught the incredulous look I’d failed to cover up. “You don’t really think you got the fae device from me so easily, do you? I wanted you to get it. I’ve been searching for that portal for years in this God-forsaken state with no success, but something told me you’d find it if given the proper motivation.”

I stiffened. “You used me to see what the consequences would be, didn’t you?”

“You’re catching on quicker than I’d given you credit for,” she mused.

“What could you possibly want from there so badly to risk it? They will punish you if you use the device,” I pointed out.

She gave a delicate shrug. “So long as I get what I want, I don’t care.”

“What do you want?” I asked.

“That is none of your concern. Now give me the device,” she demanded.

Fine. I’d get more out of her later.

I started walking forward again and she met me at the edge of the circle. This was the tricky part. The moment I gave it to her she could flash away and ruin our plans. I held the device tightly in my grip. With my other hand I began cutting into my palm. At the last moment, I dove toward the circle the same way a baseball player would toward home plate. While hugging the device under me I reached out with my other hand and slapped it down on the ward.

It immediately broke.

“Nooo!” Zoe cried.

Chapter Forty-five

The female nephilim grabbed hold of me and bashed my head into the ground with a force that left me seeing stars. Her hands crept under my body trying to grab the device, but I kept it close to my chest and just out of her reach. She grabbed my shoulder next and started to push me over, but Lucas flashed in and slapped a manacle on her wrist before she could. He quickly followed that with the second one.

Zoe was so busy hurting me she didn’t notice what he was doing right away. A moment later and the two of them were gone. Struggling to a sitting position, I stuffed the device into my cargo pants pocket and buttoned it up.

Nik, Derrick, and Fallon rushed forward, stopping Zoe’s minions before they could move in on me next. The alpha especially appeared in a rage as he took on one of the two older ones who’d likely helped kill his family. He shouldn’t have been quite strong enough to take on an opponent that strong, but revenge does strange things to a person. The vamp never stood a chance. Derrick went straight for grabbing his neck and ripped his head off.

Fallon had the other vamp on the ground, but gave the alpha enough space to do away with that one in a similar manner. In a matter of seconds, two of Zoe’s most powerful supporters were dead. There were plenty more of them, though, and they were closing in on us fast.

It took me a moment to gather my wits. I was rather certain the nephilim had cracked my skull with the head bashing move. She might not be the greatest fighter, but she sure knew how to use her strength.

The clash of swords started up next. In a daze I watched as Nik’s forces clashed with Zoe’s. It seemed that they hadn’t given up yet. Kariann appeared before me and clucked her tongue.

“You can’t just sit around all day, you know.” She reached down and helped me to my feet.

“I was testing the sturdiness of the ground,” I said, trying keep myself steady.

She examined my head, rubbing a finger over the bump that had formed. “You’ll heal soon enough. This will be your first test to see how you work through the pain. Since you can’t die with that choker on your neck, you have no excuse not to fight.”

She shoved me toward a vampire headed our way from across the moonlit field. “Now get moving.”

Kariann zoomed off in a different direction before I could curse her.

My vision swam before me, but I managed to stay on my feet and reach for my gun—to hell with the sword. I was in no shape for intricate blade work, but at close range I could put a bullet in someone’s head. The sword could come after that when my target couldn’t move to avoid it.

I waited until the vampire was half a dozen paces away before raising my Sig and firing. He didn’t see it in time to duck. The bullet went into his right cheek, though I’d aimed for his forehead, but he did go down. I exchanged the gun for the blade and hacked at his head. Thanks to my dizziness, my first strike didn’t go so well. I had to swing again to finish him off.

I sensed an unfamiliar werewolf coming from behind me. There was no time to turn and face him so I flipped the sword around in my hands and thrust it past my right side and into his gut. Pivoting on my feet, I turned to face him. A wave of dizziness crashed over me and I had to clutch at him and the sword to keep from falling.

He was too stunned at the blade running through his gut to take advantage of my momentary weakness. Keeping hold of the hilt, I pulled my gun from its holster again and shot him a couple of times in the neck. Some might have said it was a waste of bullets, but it did the trick. He was definitely as good as dead with his spinal cord detached and his skin hanging by a few threads. I kicked him back to release my sword and looked for the next guy to attack.

Nik, Derrick, and Fallon seemed to have things under control closer to where the circle had been. Kariann was tearing her enemies apart with her sword just beyond them. I scanned in another directions and caught sight of Lisette taking on a witch. Pixies weren’t immune to magic, but spells affected them considerably less than other races, making her opponent a good match.

Well, sort of. Lisette was doing some sort of karate moves on her that made it impossible to even start a spell. When the witch went flying backwards I decided my help wasn’t needed there.

I made my way past one group of our fighters who didn’t look like they need help and ran across Bambi. She and about a dozen of her troll buddies were taking on three vampires. Pulling a small cloth bag out of her pocket and a lighter, she lit it and threw it at one of the vamps. He was immediately engulfed in flames, though oddly the ground around him remained untouched.

She glanced over at me and winked. “The salt’s good fer more than takin’ baths, girlie. Jus’ don’t tell anyone—'tis a secret!”

I was rather certain I’d never be using that stuff in my bathwater.

As soon as the burning vamp went down, she took a canteen out and splashed something over him. The flames extinguished immediately. She and a few other trolls finished off his struggling form with their sharp teeth and nails. I had to look away when they the blood started spraying. That was a horrible way to go.

I scanned around some more and spotted Ulric. The werewolf pilot was doing his best against two other weres, but he was taking some bad hits. I worked my way over to him as fast as I could. The dizziness was tapering off as my injury had time to heal, but it wasn’t gone yet. I had to wait until I got about ten feet away before I managed to get a shot off on one of Ulric’s opponents.

It landed in his shoulder. Damn, but double vision made it harder to aim. I refocused my eyes until there was only one guy standing there and shot again. This time it hit him in the back of the neck. I was aiming for the head, but that worked too. The werewolf couldn’t keep standing with his spinal cord nearly taken out.

Ulric gave me an appreciative nod and turned his attention to the other guy while I hacked off the head of the one I’d shot. I grazed this one’s chin a bit, but got the job done. Despite my slight lack of coordination, it didn’t appear my strength had diminished much.

I looked around for more opponents to face. Lucas had shown back up while I’d been helping Ulric and had already left a trail of dead bodies in his wake. He usually took his time and jerked the hearts out before taking the heads, but it appeared he just wanted to get the battle over with so he skipped that first part. Zoe’s forces had still outnumbered us before he arrived, but that was quickly changing.

After deciding it only made my head hurt worse to watch Lucas as he zoomed around, I decided to shoot the next vamp that came running by me. He’d been heading toward Nik, but my shot on his arm redirected his attention. This guy was older than the last one I’d killed and a lot stronger. In fact, he was closer to Kariann’s power level. I sure did know how to pick my targets.

He zoomed my way and had me pinned to the ground in two seconds flat. My gun went flying out of my reach. That was enough to get me angry and seeing straight. I kneed him in the groin. He jerked away and slapped me hard enough to dislocate my jaw. Ow! That hurt.

I managed to jerk a hand free as he was raising his fist for what was going to be an even worse blow. Pulling a knife from the sheath on my belt, I shoved it into his heart at the same time his fist came down. It ended up glancing off my forehead before he collapsed partly on top of me. I shoved him away and got up.

I found my sword a few feet away and took the vamp’s head with one swing. That was the beauty of being versatile with weapons—you could just keep grabbing whatever was handy. I located my gun and put it back in my holster.

One glance around told me the battle was just about over. Lucas had left more trails of dead bodies and the rest of our side was working together to finish off the few remaining enemies. I even saw Beck, the werewolf we’d captured and turned, helping Derrick against a couple of Zoe’s guys. Guess he’d managed to stay on our side even after returning to the enemy camp.

The trolls were on their third vampire and it didn’t look good for him. Bambi had just put the fire out and the whole lot of them and had set their teeth into the vamp. Guess we wouldn’t have to worry about feeding them at the celebration dinner. After seeing that, I wasn’t sure I’d be eating either.