Everspell (25 page)

“There the traitor is!” thundered Christophe from our rooftop. In an instant, he swooped down from the top of the house in a purple cloud of smoke and fire, landing in the back of the patio. The trolls followed him clutching the slumped bodies of my mother and Elizabeth. They both seemed to be in some kind of a trance. My dad spotted my mom and lunged forward.

“Lily!” Declan held my dad back.

“No, Evan! That’s just what he wants you to do!”

“He’s right, Evan. Please let us handle it. We’ve dealt with Christophe before.” Eden reached out and placed her hand on my dad’s arm, helping Declan to restrain him.

“Well, it didn’t seem to take very well, did it?” My dad sounded shaken and who could blame him? The first time he saw my mom after four years and she was in the hands of some crazed demon and his sick trolls!

Eden turned to face him. Her voice sounded cold and exacting. “No, it didn’t. You can be sure this time we will not fail. Ladies?”

In an instant, the coven responded, forming the circle I’d gotten so used to seeing. Gypsy motioned over the patio, and instantly all the lights draped across the veranda and through the trees illuminated the area that had been blackened by the darkening night. I watched my witch fiancée take center stage, conjuring the powerful magic she had trained so hard and long to master. Stealthily, the guardian dogs began to take their positions at the four corners of the back yard, preparing to protect their charges from anything that came their way. Everything seemed to be lining up perfectly for the coven to take care of the freak Christophe once and for all and I got anxious for the whoopin’ to begin. Then I heard her.

“No, Sully, you can’t! You’re not that kind!”

That sounded like my sister. Screaming at the top of her lungs. And I mean, loud. I could hear her over the banshee of the wind and the trolls and Christophe and everyone else. I whipped my head around to see what in the world could be going wrong now just in time to see Sully charging through the group of witches toward me. I mindjumped him to see what he could possibly be thinking and when I found out, I almost killed him myself.
He didn’t want to look like a wuss in front of his wife by letting the women fight his battles?
Had he gone freakin’
insane?
Didn’t he understand by now, these weren’t just
any
women? These were
super
women? I wanted to grab him and try to remind him of this very fact condensed into a three second conversation when he
was
grabbed, but not by me and not by any of the coven witches, either.

I never saw the third troll. I’m not sure where he came from and I’m also not sure where they grow trolls that are as strong as my best friend Sully, but this green little freak took my huge friend down in a matter of seconds. The green thing started behind him, and when I blinked again he was on top of him. By the time I realized what had happened, a second troll jumped down from the roof and helped the first one drag Sully over to where Christophe still stood at the back of the garden.

I couldn’t understand how it had happened so fast right in front of me. I knew someone else who would want to know, too. I snapped my head in my sister’s direction. As soon as she figured out what had happened, Jade lost it. She started wailing and carrying on so badly, I developed fear for her babies.

I scanned the area wildly, looking for the best way to get to her fast. Eden and the others were way ahead of me. Prudence moved toward her much more rapidly than I could. Cordelia followed right behind her with Finola in tow. They reached her and maneuvered her bodily back into the house.

Glancing backward into the yard, I noticed Christophe survey the scene with satisfaction. I stared at my mother, still in the ugly troll’s clutches. If I thought the sound of her daughter’s anguish might break her out of her trance, I couldn’t have been more mistaken. Both my mother and Elizabeth remained slumped in the hobgoblin’s obscenely muscular arms.

Suddenly, Serena reached out and grabbed my arm. Her touch so startled me, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Turning, I hugged her hard, overjoyed to be so close to her again.

“So, what are we going to do now? I can’t just let them take Sully. Not when Jade’s gonna have those babies any day now.”

Serena’s grip on my arm tightened. “Any minute now, Logan. Jade’s in labor. We know why Christophe is here today. Jade is having her twins today. You have to handle this one yourself.” And with that, she went in to tend to my sister, leaving me and her coven sisters to deal with the demon. I hoped I was up to the task.

Chapter Forty-three

JADE

I sat on the edge of the small sofa the sisters had stuck me on, trying to catch my breath. The latest contraction had rolled over me less than eleven minutes ago and felt like a truck smashed into the side of me. Those stupid movies they made us watch in the birthing classes that made this out to seem all natural and beautiful were a load of hogwash! It wasn’t any of those things! It made me sweaty and it was painful and I felt like a big giant water balloon, blown up with way more inside me than I should have and ready to blow at any second! And now the ugliest kewpie dolls in the world had returned to ruin my life and snatch my husband? Again? Seriously? Did I have to go through this freakin’ nightmare every year of my life? I mean, really, at some point, it just
got old!

“Here, dear, put this on your forehead. It’ll make you feel better.” Eden handed me a cool washrag. I looked at her like she’d gone crazy.
A damp washcloth
to make the fact that stupid green goons
have taken my husband and something the size of a small planet
wanted to shove out of me
go away?
She stood above me holding the rag until I took it. Prudence came up behind her with a small paper cup. Oh, that had to be the infamous ice chips. I took the cup and jiggled it. Yup. Ice chips. Lovely. This wasn’t even real food. And I was sooo hungry.

So are we
.

I whipped my head around to see who spoke. No one stood there. Eden and Prudence were monitoring the action outside the sliding glass door and busying themselves in the kitchen. Raven wasn’t in sight, which meant she wasn’t in the kitchen area. Slowly, and deliberately, I lowered my head and rubbed my hands on my belly.

Okay, was that one of you in there?

Yes, mommy.

I gripped the edge of the sofa and tried not to appear in the middle of a heart attack. Everyone else in the room seemed far to preoccupied with what was going on outside anyway.

Okay, I should have asked you this before…how?
You’re not even born yet.

Sorry mommy.
We’re warlocks.
We’re different than most babies.
We’re evolved.

Okay, that’s an understatement.
I should have figured warlock babies would be completely different than regular babies.

It’s not a bad thing, mommy.

Hey!
Nothing about you two is ever going to be a bad thing.
I love you both, you got that?
You are the best thing I ever did, along with falling in love with your daddy.
If you’re warlocks, whatever, so what?
I’m a witch, move on.
One thing I can tell you, your parents are going to love you more than any other parents in the world.

We love you too,
Mommy.
We are excited to meet you!

Yeah, well, don’t get all jacked up about that.
I’m a little freaked out myself.

It’ll be okay,
Mommy.
We know it already.

Really?

Yes, mommy.
You’ll be great
. I smiled, lost in the thoughts of my unborn sons.

“Jade? Are you okay?” I jerked around to see Serena standing above me. I hadn’t realized it, but my private conversation with my unborn twins had caused me to curl myself up on the little sofa and turn away into the arm, as though I were trying to bury myself into the cushions. I un-pretzled myself and straightened out in a hurry.

“I’m fine. Just practicing some calming birthing techniques we learned in class.” Serena looked completely doubtful, so I closed my eyes and gave her a couple deep breaths and some panting. Peeking through slitted eyes, it appeared she bought the story.

“Well, we have to get outside to see Logan and Skylar, so Eden and I just wanted to make sure you’ll be okay here. I promise you, we’ll get to Sully. We will.”

I grabbed her arm. “Serena, listen to me.” She stopped and stared right at me. I knew I had her attention. “I know you and the coven sisters always do whatever you have to, but you have to fight doubly hard today, for me. Sully may not be a warlock or have powers or anything, but Serena, he’s my husband.” I stumbled over my words, not sure if I could convey to her how much that man meant to me. “Without him, I’m just Jade, Logan’s sister and Lily’s daughter and your friend, right? But with him, I’m his wife, and I’ll be the mother of his twins, and—they’ll be the most amazing boys, Serena, you can’t even imagine it.” I smiled, knowing my boys could hear me. “With Sully, Serena, I’m everything I can be and more. Because of him. He makes me more than I am. Please, save him. Okay?”

Serena brought up both her hands and cupped my head in them. Gazing down at me, she said only one word. “Okay.”

Just like that, I knew she would protect Sully with the same intensity and fierceness that she protected Logan. And in that moment she stopped being just a sister-in-law to be, and she became a sister.

She and the rest of my coven sisters left through the sliding glass door, leaving Sage to stand guard for me behind them. Watching after them, I could hear my boys through my tears.

Good luck Auntie!

Chapter Forty-four

LOGAN

The patio door opened and I whipped my head around to see Serena and Eden standing in the opening. Something had changed. I could see it in Serena’s eyes. Something had happened since she’d told me Jade had gone into in labor and left me. And it sure had nothing to do with babies.

With barely a nod in their direction, the coven sisters seemed to feel it too. No words were spoken, yet they moved quickly to form their coven circle again. All eleven of them, missing only Jade, and my mother and Elizabeth, who were still in the clutches of the freaky green trolls, grabbed each other’s hands and raised them high into the sky. Once again, I’d been taken with the incredible beauty of the witches, all different shapes and sizes, their hair hanging long and loose down their backs, their colorful clothes beginning to whip around in the increasing wind.

Christophe seemed to take notice of the change, too. Furious at the synchronized motion of the coven witches, he seemed determined not to be beaten again. He scrambled for his own response to the supernatural sirens. Raising his own arms heavenward, he shook his fists at the clouds and in answer, hundreds of shards of lightning showered down from the patches of haze headed straight for the back yard. In an instant, the strung lights and candles extinguished and the patio plunged into darkness.

This seemed to please Christophe. Even in the dark, I could see him puff up, taking perverse pleasure in his stupid parlor trick.

Didn’t he remember who he dealt
with?
In the blink of an eye, Serena knew what to do and she chose her weapon well, giving a nod in Gypsy’s direction.

Skylar’s girlfriend unleashed her considerable talents on Christophe’s puny little fireworks. Gypsy dropped hands with her sisters and moved into the center of the circle. She bowed her head and appeared to be muttering. With startling suddenness, she whipped her head up and her hair flew back, flinging sparks into the air! Each spark traveled up and met the end of every single lightning slice released by Christophe and singed it until it fizzled to the ground in a pathetic pile of ash.

But Christophe threw another huge fireball in our direction, only when it exploded, not far from the protected witches’ circle, dozens of snakes slithered out, writhing and wrapping their bodies around the feet and legs of the coven sisters. To their credit, the coven never broke the circle, and most never even looked down. Several fat snakes made their way to where I stood with Skylar and Declan and my dad.

Immediately, we started stomping their bodies, managing to get some of them. But, it became bloody, messy work. And Serena knew a better way.

“Raven! Sister, call your friends!”

Without hesitation, Raven stepped forward, more than prepared to do her part to defeat the beast. Standing in the center of the circle, she began to hum, then she raised her hands, encouraging her sisters to do the same. Soon, a tremendous song rose up from the women, heard above even the howling winds. There could then be heard a rustling in the trees that previously held only the colorful strung lights for a baby shower.

With a great shudder, the trees spewed forth hundreds upon hundreds of birds. They chattered and screamed as they descended upon the patio and swooped down, attacking the snakes , scooping them up, stripping them off of the coven sisters’ legs and ankles, and carrying them away into the night, wriggling and writhing, but never breaking free of the tight grip of a clamped beak.

A growing thumping sound to our right caught our attention next. We could see coming from the shadows a dark shape without form or texture. Pitter patter sounds that grew in volume had me perplexed as to the origin until the shape came into focus. Rats. Dozens of them. At first I was afraid Christophe had called for more of the nasty rodents like the kind that fell from the sky or that might burst into a bunch of sick evil followers. Then I noticed that they were snapping their sharp little teeth down on the remaining hissing serpents still winding around the tiles and realized Raven was commanding them.