Holy Smokes (36 page)

“I have told you before, Chuan Ren—you will address me, and not my mate,” Drake said as he moved to my side. “She has nothing to do with what is between us. Threats to her are meaningless.”

“Everything is going to be meaningless unless Aisling and I close this portal. You may argue all you want, but I have a job to do.” Nora took two steps forward and lifted both hands, clearly about to start the sealing process.

Two of the red dragons jumped forward, their blades flashing. Kostya leaped into action, throwing himself in front of Nora as the dragons descended.

“Seal it,” Drake commanded as he, too, ran forward. “Chuan Ren! We will settle this here and now! Meet me body to body!”

She laughed, her eyes glowing with a red light that never failed to give me the willies. “Do you think I will be so easily beaten as the last time you challenged me, Drake?”

“This ends now,” he said, removing his tux jacket.

I didn’t have time to do more than draw a ward of protection on him as Chuan Ren laughed again and tossed him one of the blades she was holding. “Yes, I believe it will end now. I will greatly relish destroying you, as well as your mate and your unborn child.”

Drake snarled something and lunged toward her, the force of their blades meeting generating a tiny blue spark.

The other four dragons started toward me, but I was ready for them.

“Effrijim, I summon thee in whatever form is handy!” I yelled, my hands drawing lightning-fast binding wards.

The four dragons snarled as, at my feet, a small Scottish terrier appeared.

“Jim?” I asked, momentarily taken aback.

Familiar eyes looked up at me, easing the pain that had held my heart in such a tight grip. “Fires of Abaddon, Ash! I wasn’t done picking a form! I was just looking at this one! Oh, man, I’m a
midget
!”

“
A
ttack!” I ordered Jim, pointing at the four writhing dragons.

It stared at me in horror. “Are you kidding? Attack with what? My stubby little teeth? I can nip at their ankles, if you think that will help.”

Drake spat out an oath as he leaped on top of a tomb, blood spilling out of a cut across his chest. Chuan Ren followed him, screaming something unintelligible.

“Oh, for god’s sake, why didn’t you pick a Great Dane or something?” I yelled, running over to slap a binding ward on one of the two dragons who were beating the crap out of Kostya. Nora slammed a piece of stone down on the other one’s head, causing him to reel backwards.

“We must seal it, Aisling,” she cried, closing her eyes and starting to sketch the series of wards of adjournment that were used to seal portals.

“I don’t care what you do, just do something!” I ordered Jim, opening the door in my mind as a piece of the stone seal exploded upward. Imps, small, orange in color, and accompanied by a repulsive smell, started to pour out of the broken seal.

Jim bounded over, snarling as it attacked the imps.

Behind me, a man shouted, a dark figure flashing past me as István leaped over Jim and the imps, tackling the foursome who I feared were about to break out of the binding ward. Wards don’t last as long on dragons as they do on people, and mine had been hastily drawn.

Pál raced into the room, glanced quickly at Nora and me, and took in the sight of Drake leaping from tomb to tomb as he fought Chuan Ren, their blades flashing in the light of the lamps, and Kostya doing battle with the other two dragons. He gave a yell and joined the fray with István just as the ward gave free.

I tried desperately to clear my mind of the chaos around us, focusing on the acts needed to seal the portal. Another chunk of the seal exploded, leaving a hole in it about two feet across.

“Ash, I’m gonna need some help here,” Jim yelled, its body covered in imp blood as it attacked the fresh wave of tiny orange beings.

I pulled on Drake’s fire and blasted the entrance of the portal with it, incinerating the imps and stopping their flow for a moment.

Nora drew wards of adjournment, but as soon as they were drawn, they dissolved into nothing.

“What’s wrong?” I yelled across the portal to her.

“This portal is too old. It has too much power. My wards aren’t strong enough. I fear we’re going to have to call for help with it.”

“You go get help. I’ll try to keep it contained until you get back,” I said grimly.

She nodded, racing past me and out the door.

I closed my eyes for a moment as I gathered up every negative emotion I’d felt in the last few weeks. The attacks by the red dragons, Fiat’s evil plots, Kostya’s stubborn insistence, the pain Bael had deliberately caused me, and the thankfully brief grief of losing Jim all roiled together in my gut, churning within me until I allowed it to merge with Drake’s fire.

“Ash! It’s going to blow!” Jim cried, shaking an imp until the little form hung limp in its jaws. “You’re gonna have to seal it now!”

The remainder of the seal exploded upward with a tremendous blast, sending me staggering backwards.

“Mate!” Drake bellowed.

“I’m all right!” I yelled back at him as he twisted just in time to avoid a beheading. “Just take care of her!”

The clash of their swords merged into the chaos of noise from the dragons as they fought around us. I stared with horror at the black abyss that lay open at my feet and knew with absolute conviction that Nora would not make it back in time.

I had to seal the damn thing.

Imps leaped out of the portal, singed and blackened by the dragon fire, their teeth needle sharp as they snapped at my legs.

I had to seal the damn thing now!

“Need a little help here,” Jim snarled, its teeth clamping shut on another imp.

“István!” Pál shouted, going down under a pile of red dragons that suddenly appeared at the door of the crypt.

I pulled hard on Drake’s fire, blasting the portal just as a demon stuck its head out.

“Aisling, close it!” Jim cried.

Behind me, Kostya, István, and Pál flung themselves forward at the incoming red dragons. I didn’t wonder at Kostya helping to fight them; I didn’t have time to do anything but focus on keeping the wave of incoming horror from escaping the portal.

It wouldn’t work. I wasn’t strong enough. I couldn’t do this without the dark power.

“Like hell I can’t,” I growled at my doubts, spreading wide my arms and yelling at the top of my lungs,
“Fettered and fastened, I bury you deep!”

“Oh, man, you’ve been reading the Merseburg Incantations,” Jim said, spitting out a bit of imp. “That’s kind of old, Ash.”

“This portal is old. It will recognize the power of the binding.
Blood bound to stone, so you will keep!
”

The red dragons swarmed over Pál and István. Kostya was using one of their swords against them, but he was quickly being overwhelmed.

Drake shouted as Chuan Ren knocked him backwards, leaving him vulnerable.

I flung a fireball at her, knowing it wouldn’t do her any damage, but it contained enough power to upset her balance. She spun around toward me, screaming at her men.

“The portal!” I yelled above the cacophony to Drake. “Come to the portal!
The red sins of man to my fire be bound!
”

“Arrrrrrrgh!” Jim screamed as it went down in a wave of imps. “Not again!”

“Darkness below; life above will resound!”

Three red dragons leaped toward me. I flung a binding ward at them and jumped across the portal to the far side.

“They’re going for Aisling!” Kostya shouted as he fell under a wave of dragons.

I hadn’t been sure if Drake had heard me or not, but at Kostya’s cry, he screamed with rage, a noise that sounded more like the roar of an enraged animal than anything a human could make.

He threw a handful of dirt at Chuan Ren’s face, vaulted to the top of a tomb, and leaped over the heads of the struggling dragons to land a few feet away.

“The portal!” I yelled, pointing at it.

The dragon fire was dying away. Behind it, dark forms writhed, and I knew that I had a matter of seconds before they would burst out.

He nodded and twisted sideways, anticipating Chuan Ren’s attack. She leaped off the same tomb he had used, but he was several inches taller than her. He grabbed her in midair, spinning them both sideways as he flung himself to the ground.

Chuan Ren screamed as she fell into the portal.

“Bone to bone, blood to blood, fire to life, so are you sealed!”
I shouted, my voice hoarse as I drew one last ward on the portal. The instant the sentence left my lips, a crack of thunder exploded around us, the shock wave knocking everyone backwards.

Echoes of the explosion rang in my ears, leaving me disoriented and confused for several seconds, but at last the various noises resolved themselves into separate sounds, most of them recognizable.

“
Kincsem
! Aisling!”

I opened my eyes to the glorious sight of Drake’s concerned face, bloodied, battered, but whole. “Did it work?”

“The portal is sealed. Do not move. You could be injured. Do you hurt anywhere?”

“Yeah,” I said, shifting to the side. “It’s my back. There’s something…I think…oh, my god! I landed on an imp!”

Drake didn’t even grimace as I wiped my impy hand on his sleeve. “Do not try to sit up. You could have injuries.”

I laughed, much to Drake’s shock. “Sweetie, I’m a tough cookie. It’s going to take more than being knocked onto an imp…ew! A pile of imps! Oh, my god, my whole back is covered in imp goo! Argh!”

“Be thankful they were there,” he answered, frowning as I got to my feet. “They cushioned the force of your landing. I don’t like you moving before a doctor can see you.”

“I’m fine. I wouldn’t move if something felt wrong, but nothing hurts except the thought of my back being covered in imp guts.”

He frowned again at me. I kissed the tip of his nose, my back twitching at the uncomfortable wetness. “I’m not going to look, I’m not going to look,” I muttered, then immediately had to look.

I don’t know how many imps there were, but they were squashed flat into an Aisling-shaped mound, the sight of which I doubted I’d soon forget.

“I’d demand a shower, but I guess we have a few dragons to take care of,” I said as he helped me over a chunk of fallen tomb. To my amazement, the room was empty of red dragons. “Where did they all go?”

Drake understood what I was asking. “They left as soon as they saw Chuan Ren go into the portal.”

“You’re kidding! They just turned tail and ran?”

He shrugged. “My dragons would not run if I fell, but the red dragons…they are different.”

“Bunch of weenies,” I muttered, taking a quick look around to assess the damage.

Pál sat next to István, whose arm hung at an unnatural angle. Kostya stood at the portal, an odd expression on his face.

“You threw Chuan Ren into Abaddon,” he said finally. “You sealed her in there.”

“It seemed like too good an opportunity to miss,” I said as Drake and I picked our way over to the portal. I looked with no little amount of pride at the stone circle, once again intact, the wards glowing with faint golden auras. “Two birds with one stone, if you’ll excuse the unintentional pun. I’d say I’m sorry that it messes up your plans for getting into the weyr, Kostya, but to be perfectly honest, I’m not at all sorry. I don’t know if Abaddon can hold Chuan Ren, but assuming it does, I’m thrilled that she’s out of our hair.”

Gabriel appeared at the door, Tipene at his side. “Are you all right? There was a horrible explosion—half the chapel came down.”

“Is Maata all right?” I asked, concerned.

“Yes, we had moved her out before the second wall came down. What has been happening here?”

He and Tipene gawked at the site of destruction.

“I had to close a portal. Chuan Ren kind of got in the way of it and…er…fell in.”

His gawking changed to an outright goggle of astonishment. “She
what
?”

“It’s a bit of a long story—”

“One which you will tell later. Sit,” Drake ordered, pointing to a convenient piece of stone.

“Sweetie, I’m fine!”

“Sit!”

I sat, smiling to myself as he quickly explained what had happened to Gabriel. I smiled through the quick examination he insisted Gabriel conduct on me, and I was still smiling when, a half hour later, we made our way out of the crypt and up into the relatively fresh air of London.

Nora met us as we skirted the destroyed chapel. Emergency crews had the area cordoned off, but several ambulances were pulled up next to the remains of the building.

“Have you seen Paula and my uncle?” I asked Nora as she rushed toward me. A familiar man was at her side. Evidently Nora had called in the bigwigs. “Are they all right?”

“Your family is fine,” she said, giving me a hug. “Everyone is. Rene got everyone away from the church before the first bomb blew. I had no idea there was a second one, but I can’t tell you how worried I was that it had…but you’re here, and now I’m going to embarrass us both by weeping.”

“You’re not going to be the only one,” I said, tearing up as I hugged. Drake murmured something about being right back and went to help Pál take István to the ambulance.

I smiled at the man next to Nora. “I’m sorry, Mr. Battiste, you’re bound to think us a couple of silly women.”

“On the contrary, my opinion of both of you holds nothing but admiration. Am I correct in thinking that the bomb has temporarily blocked the portal?”

I shook my head. “That wasn’t a second bomb. It was the reverb from the portal sealing.”

His brown eyes widened slightly at my words. Nora gasped. “Aisling, you didn’t!”

“Yeah. I used a variation on the Merseburg Incantations. I figured if the portal was so old that normal wards and spells wouldn’t work on it, then something with a bit more age might. And it worked!”

“Good lord,” she said, glancing at the head of the Guild.

He was silent for a moment, his eyes examining me carefully. My happy glow of success faded as I wondered if I had done something horribly wrong.

“I wish to be sure I understand the situation completely. You closed the portal?”