On Wicked Ground (Solsti Prophecy Book 4) (38 page)

Brooke was helpless to respond, caught in the creature’s spell.

Nicole turned a lethal glare on the vampire. “Let her go.”

The female smirked. “No.”

Nicole narrowed her eyes and stared at the vampire, who began making strained, gasping sounds. “Let her go or die, bitch.”

“N-Nothing you…do will matter.” A sick smile painted the vampire’s parted lips. “You’re too late. The battle has begun. Many Lash have already fallen.”

“No. I don’t believe that. Not for a second,” Nicole hissed.

Kai growled something in Demonish to Gunnar, who nodded. With a sharp twist, Kai snapped the vampire’s neck and dropped her to the floor.

Brooke’s muscles wobbled, like she had been suddenly released from a vise.

“You okay?” Kai rushed over to her, holding her close.

“Yes. Who was that?” Brooke asked.

“Has to be one of Elegia’s servants,” Gunnar muttered. “Though her spell was unusual. Add this to the list of creatures using magic who shouldn’t be able to.”

“Where’s Rosa?” Brooke asked.

“Right here, child,” she said from behind Kai. “I don’t know why Elegia would send that creature instead of coming here herself. My guess is she’s afraid she might not be able to defeat me, and this vampire was expendable. Or the creature’s words may be true. The battle may have begun, and Elegia is there. But either way, it’s past time for us to go.”

“Agreed.” Kai motioned Rosa over and Brooke took her hand. The witch murmured a spell, and in seconds they were whisked into a swirling cloud of mist.

C
HAPTER
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HIRTY
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L
IGHT
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above the churning mass of fighters and flickered as their blades swung and plunged. “Is that from spells?” Alina asked.

“I’m thinking yes, but Elegia’s witches don’t seem to be affected at all,” Caine muttered.

“But doesn’t Arawn recruit the best? Why wouldn’t his witches be able to do more?” Gin asked.

“At this point, we need to assume everything she does, everything her people do, is amplified tenfold by her lily mixture,” Mathias said. “Her fighters are more powerful, her witches’ spells are stronger, they all heal faster.”

“Shit, we have to get out there.” Gin started to stand.

Mathias grabbed her arm. “I’m not letting you charge—”

Energy crackled in the air behind them. All four of them whirled, ready for the enemy.

Two Neshis demons tumbled out, orange skin glistening and huge mouths gaping.

Caine whipped out a curved, dangerous looking blade and charged forward.

“No!” Alina yelled. One thing she knew about these ugly, four-armed monsters was that their skin resisted fire. And if she followed Mathias’s assumed statement, then she saw only one logical choice. “Caine, stop! Get back here!”

He halted and slid a wary glance to her.

Fine. If he wouldn’t move, she’d have to be extra careful. Summoning her power, she willed the ground beneath the Neshi demons to open up.

The ground shuddered as a cluster of cracks appeared under their grotesque feet. And in a cloud of dust, howls, and grappling limbs, they plunged down.

Alina closed the gap and turned to Caine. “I told you to get back.”

He stalked over and stood right in front of her. “I don’t know whether to kiss you or lock you up in an ivory tower.” His eyes were tormented with pride and concern.

“I’ll take the kiss later.” She folded her arms. “They can land all around us now. Maybe even inside the building. I can’t stand here hiding anymore.” She grabbed Gin’s hand. “We have work to do.” 

Gin nodded. “We have to get out there. Come with us, baby.” She held out her other hand to Mathias. “I need your fire.”

“Arawn said you were gonna do whatever the hell you wanted,” he muttered, but took his mate’s hand. “Let’s go. Caine, you too.”

Alina darted curious eyes to Caine. He still looked conflicted, but he’d said he’d be at her side the whole time. Time to see it through.

They approached the gap in the barrier, where demons were fighting in a tightly packed group. Metal clanged and scraped. Grunts and battle cries echoed. A blinding flash lit the night, and a huge section of the barrier simply disappeared.

“Oh shit.” Gin stared at the melee in front of them.

“Well, that gives us another place to focus. Come on.” Alina pulled her toward a spot near a big maple tree and stopped. “All right, listen. Our talents don’t really combine for anything that’ll help right this minute. So we stand back to back. You do your thing and I’ll do mine. The guys will help cover us.”

Gin, Mathias, and Caine all stared at her like she’d spoken an ancient dialect. “Wow, I didn’t know you had this take charge side. You sound just like Nicole when she gets an idea,” Gin murmured.

Alina shrugged. “It’s like a job I might do with my dad,” she said. “Sometimes it all goes to shit, and you have to make adjustments and get out in one piece. Look over there—you can get those guys.” She pointed to two Serus demons who were spewing clouds of toxic breath toward several Lash.

Gin nodded, and Alina turned to assess the field. There were still a lot of tightly clustered fighters, but she only needed a second to take down an enemy. All she needed was for one of them to step far enough—there!

A Viper circled around a thick shrub. Alina was ready. Vibrant energy coursed through her veins as she willed the ground to open beneath him. With a surprised grunt, he was gone.

Another grunt sounded from much closer. Caine. She looked over her shoulder to see him fling a throwing star at a Serus demon.

“Don’t worry, I got this,” he called over his shoulder.

“Okay.” Three shimmering circles drew her attention to her other side in time to see nine Vipers fall out. They hit the ground and sprang to their feet, fangs dripping and eyes hungry.

They were all together and separated from the larger group. She only had a heartbeat to act before they mixed in with the rest. Raising her hand, she commanded to ground to open in a wide gash. The Vipers bellowed and disappeared.

“Whoa, I felt the earth shake that time,” Gin yelled. “Guess you’re doing okay?”

“Yeah.” Alina turned around in time to see Gin fling a loop of fire around a Ghazsul demon’s neck. The loop closed with a sickening hiss. “Any sign of Nicole and Brooke?”

“Look.” Mathias pointed to a spot near the center of the field.

Alina stood on her toes. Several Vipers were gagging, clutching at their throats. Still more were covered in a disgusting sludge of yellowish red liquid. One by one, they fell to their knees. As each one fell, Kai or Gunnar was there to fling a fireball or sever a head.

“Yes! They’re doing their thing!” Gin yelled.

The throng of demons parted and Alina caught sight of Nicole and Brooke, standing just as she and Gin were. Back to back, hands out, power flowing to take down Elegia’s goons in disgustingly painful ways.

A screech rent the air above them, as two winged Ghazsul demons crashed hard to the earth. As they tried to rise, a furious wind beat at their wings, keeping them pinned to the ground.

“I’m guessing that’s Nicole’s work. Help her out and finish them off, Boots,” Caine said.

“I’m on it.” Alina concentrated on the ground beneath the flailing creatures and it swallowed them up. Across the mess of bloody creatures, Nicole met Alina’s eyes and flashed a huge grin, then motioned for her to join them.

“They want us over there,” Gin said. “It’s not that far. Let’s go!”

Alina grabbed Caine’s hand, knowing he’d probably object to them moving through the crowd of fighters. But she felt a tangible pull toward her sisters. This is where she was supposed to be. This was their moment.

With the women in between and the men flanking, they ran toward Nicole and Brooke. A giant Ghazsul flew in a crazy dive and landed directly in front of them, but Mathias was ready with a well-timed fireball. Alina’s heart thundered in her chest as she dodged a severed Neshi arm and then nearly slipped on blood-slicked grass.

Finally they reached her sisters. “Ready to destroy an army, girls?” Nicole’s eyes shone with unbridled joy.

“Yes!” Gin said. “Um, did you get Rosa?”

“Yeah. She’s over there somewhere. She was going after Elegia’s witch group.” Brooke pointed away from Watcher HQ, back where the rogue witches had huddled.

Alina couldn’t see anything except a constant barrage of light. Flashes and flares lit the dark sky with greens and blues.

“All right. Let’s stand like this.” Nicole arranged Gin in one spot and put Brooke at her back. Then she placed Alina and herself at opposite ends. “This way I can freeze Brooke’s water or fling Gin’s fire easier. And we still do whatever our individual talents allow. Okay?”

Gin, Alina, and Brooke nodded.

Caine pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen. “It’s Arawn.” He put the phone to his ear and proceeded to nod, frown, and curse until the call ended.

“What is it?” Brooke asked.

“Trouble in other parts of the realm. Seems this isn’t the only area overrun with an invading army. Tarsa is outnumbered. Rivkin is burning. The farm villages like Ivydale and Cotton Creek are in bad shape.”

“Oh shit,” Gin said, eyes wide.

“But we need to stay here and fight, right? We can’t be in three places at once,” Alina said.

“Exactly,” Caine said. “Which is why we need the Makara. We’ll send them to the other locations that Elegia has targeted while we stay here.”

“Perfect. Hang on.” Alina knelt on the ground. She placed both hands flat on the soft grass and drew on her power. Though the undead warriors hadn’t specifically told her how to contact them, she somehow just knew. On a deep level she couldn’t explain, she understood that the earth acted as a conduit from her to them.

She formed a crack in the earth, then widened it to a wide gaping hole ten feet across. In her mind, with her hands in the dirt, she reached out to the undead Makara chief.
I need you to fight.

For a minute, nothing happened. Her sisters and the Watchers around her held their breath.

Alina swallowed hard.
Come on!

The earth trembled under Alina’s knees. Her power swirled around her, making the hair on her arms stand up and filling her with purpose. With an eerie rumble and low keening moan, the hole filled with a rush of red shapes that built and grew, rising toward the top.

Slowly, majestically, a group of ten Makara floated up to her with Zhaber at the front.

Alina stayed where she was at the lip of the crater, gazing at the undead leader. Calm loyalty and confidence etched his lifeless face. An odd dichotomy, but Alina held no fear or doubt. Red lines of flickering light zapped around his cloaked figure. His eyes were dark, yet held bright sparks that if he was human would seem like excitement.

“You summon us, my lady?”

“Yes, I do. We are at war. The enemy has many faces. They are stronger due to a drug created by their leader, a vampire female. My sisters and I must stay here and fight. I need you to travel to other regions and fight against the vampire’s other armies.” Alina looked up at Caine, who stood next to her. “Can you grab something with that flowery chemical smell on it?”

“Sure.” He darted to a downed Neshi demon and dragged it close to the edge of the hole.

“All the enemy has ingested a plant that makes them smell like this guy.” Alina pointed to the dead Serus. “That scent will be your identifier for who to kill or capture. I need you to go to Tarsa, Rivkin, Ivydale, and Cotton Creek.”

Zhaber moved close to the Serus demon and inhaled, then bowed low and his voice rasped like gravel. “We shall fight, my lady. We are honored to do as you ask.” He turned to face his kin, assembled behind and below him like a great red mass of nebulous power, and barked out a command in a language Alina had never heard before.

And then they swept up from the ground.

Like red ribbons, they slithered over the grass and around trees and the building, their feet not touching down. They moved like silent wraiths through the frenzy on the field and away, splitting into four groups and disappearing from sight.

Holy fucking shit.

Caine didn’t think he’d ever get over the sight of his tiny woman commanding a legion of crimson undead warriors. Alina had done it with every confidence, just as she had ever since they’d come out here.

Shit, it was like she locked up her feelings in order to—

His eyes landed on a sight that chilled his blood, and at the same time fired to life every fighting instinct he had.

The Viper general who’d led the charge into his home village.

Here, among Elegia’s forces.

Giving Mathias’s sister Ria a seriously hard time.

Fuck. The desire for revenge burned in Caine’s blood, warring with the need to stay close to Alina.

She must have sensed his mood, or maybe had just followed the direction of his eyes as his breath sawed in and out of his lungs. “That’s him, isn’t it?” she asked.

Caine nodded, past the point of coherent speech. Seeing the Viper, alive, healthy and fighting, unraveled all of Caine’s logical thoughts. A small part of him argued that he needed to think clearly, to call on his tactical skills no matter what the threat.

But all he saw was the destroyed village at the edge of Lake Coriander. All he saw were charred bodies. Leafless trees blackened and poking angrily at the smoky sky.

“Go,” Alina’s soft voice cut through the riot in his mind. “I’ll be fine with my sisters.”

Caine turned to her. Green eyes that were on fire and yet still sympathetic. Sweet face framed by her short blond hair. “I don’t want to leave—“

“Shh.” She laid a hand on his arm. “This is your chance. I’ll be fine. Plus, this way I can be your back up.”

He let out a breath, staring at her and falling for her even more. He leaned down and pressed a swift kiss to her lips. “I’ll be back. I promise.”

“I know.” She smiled.