Cassandra's Dilemma (31 page)

“No, I don’t think so.” Michael gave her hair a jerk.

Rain splashed on her face, washing the foul taste away. She slurped it and then struck out at Michael’s knee. He swore and went down. Cassie didn’t stop because all the self-defense courses her family sent her to told her not to. Her fist connected with his groin. Michael roared, releasing her hair only to backhand her. The blow took her cheek and lifted her up, flinging her away from him and to the water’s edge. Blood filled her mouth, fresh copper with hints of clove, cinnamon, and fresh vanilla.

The flavors were ambrosia to her senses. She savored the taste, the piquant sharpness, and the clarity that rushed in with it. Scrambling to her feet, Cassie lurched to the side to avoid the fist striking at her.

Close.

Too close.

The wind of its passage brushed her nose. She let her momentum carry her, pivoting on her heel and chopping sideways with the flat side of her hand. Her aim was off, but she hit the side of Michael’s neck. He caught her on the backswing, fist slamming into her chest and whooshing all the air out of her lungs.

Cassie stumbled backward, gasping. Ice water rushed up over her ankles. Great gusts of wind lashed at them, sending Michael careening to the side, but the water held Cassie firm. Michael’s hands fisted and struck out. Cassie raised her hands, shielding her face from the flash of fire and the stench of sulfur rushing toward her. Not even the rain could protect her from the searing heat.

The rain sizzled against the heat and her skin scalded, but the greedy, licking flames didn’t touch her. Her eyes peeled open slowly and gaped in wonder at the fire swirling before her, a radiant sunburst of power, but no matter how hard the flames strained, they were stopped before they reached her skin.

“Go away.” She hissed, and the fire evaporated, leaving only steam billowing out, like a low-lying fog shrouding the landscape.

“You stupid bitch!” Michael swore, stalking toward her. But it was the sight behind him that had her lips spreading into a wide, vicious grin. The world slowed, and she saw them, both of them, racing between the raindrops and flashes of lightning.

Jacob’s handsome, stubborn face etched with cold fury. Helcyon’s arresting beauty was alien and remote with the anger burning in his eyes. They were incandescent with power, and their power wrapped around Michael and flung him away from her as his hand brushed her arm.

The detonation filled the air, but Michael was far from down. Her partner landed on his feet, balanced, as though in some awful ballet. Power pooled between his hands, and lightning leaped from them, striking between Jacob and Helcyon, scattering her heroes.

It was Cassie’s turn to charge forward, but tendrils of force wrapped around her ankles, and she jerked backward. Helcyon and Jacob were still on their feet, positioning themselves in front of her. Power surged and force leaped once more from Jacob, pounding against a shield that Michael produced in the air around him. The air was electric with the flavor of the rising power.

Flickering to her left caught Cassie’s gaze. “Helcyon!” The scream tore from her throat as hungry flames raced the lake’s edge and slammed into Helcyon. They encompassed him, surging blue, green, and yellow as they swallowed him whole. Jacob slashed the air with his hands, and flames leaped from Helcyon to encircle Jacob’s fists.

Cassie lurched forward, but the tendrils around her ankles yanked again, and she went down into the water. Scrabbling against the loose rocks and wet sand, Cassie fought for purchase, but the tendrils yanked again, roping up her legs and dragging her into the water.

She opened her mouth to cry out, and the thing pulled her deeper, submerging her under the icy waves. The brackish water pounded in her lungs, a thousand knives piercing her. She fought against the tide, against the thorns driving into her flesh.

When her head broke the surface, she gasped for air, spitting the foul-tasting lake water out. Flashes of fire, heat, and lightning exploded against the shore, dazzling her. Her croak for help was drowned out against the storm’s noise, and then she was yanked under again.

Black spots danced in front of her eyes and ice crawled through her blood, freezing her limbs. Paralysis held her in its choking grip.

She was going to die here.

She was going to die in the lake, just a dozen steps from her saviors.

She was going to die after only just learning how to live.

Her heart strained against the tonnage of power pressing down on her chest. Her lungs screamed for air. She strained against the pull, but now the tendrils were wrapped around her waist, her arms and binding her tighter and tighter.

She sank.

Death waited.

A vicious howl trumpeted through the water, and something large splashed in next to her. Lightning flashed, silver and steel glittering in the darkness crowding her vision. The tendrils loosened their hold and then receded all together.

Too late
.

The water swallowed her sluggish, bruised limbs, and blackness, darker than her blindness, smothered her vision. Too late to save her. She should never have gone without them. She should have trusted their instincts. She should have waited.

“Hey boss, since when are you a woulda, shoulda, coulda person?”
Billy cocked his head at her. “You told me once that you can’t regret past decisions. They’re over and done with. All you can do is work with the consequences and make the best of it.”

Cassie smiled into the face of death. Billy was right. She didn’t believe in regrets. She didn’t believe in trying to second-guess decisions made with the best information available.

I’m sorry, Billy. You deserved better.

“Yeah, I do, boss. Don’t give up! The boss I loved and respected wouldn’t give up.”

A stubborn spark of fight kindled inside of her heart, and it thumped with renewed vigor. The world was muffled around her, the water clogging her ears, and she pushed against the bottom, pushing, shoving, pulling, and straining against the languor in her limbs and the screaming in her lungs until the surface parted.

Cassie sucked in an agonizing breath of air, but she was too far out, and there was nothing to stand on. Her arms slowed, and she was slipping back under the water, her muscles refusing to obey her.

The trumpet sounded again, closer this time, and a hard length of body exploded out of the water next to her. Teeth seized her collar and jerked her toward a long neck.

She struggled to grab the wet hair sliding over her fingers. She grappled with it, tangling it around numb fingers.

Cassie wanted to cry out from the loss, but only a gurgle of sound escaped. She was slipping back into the water when teeth seized her again. She was moving toward the shore, the flashes of light piercing the blackness. Sucking in another greedy breath of oxygen, she found the strength to hold onto the hair, no—not hair, the mane.

It was a horse’s mane. The long body the mane was attached to swam against the tide and carried her toward the shore. As the water gave way to land, Cassie was on her feet, stumbling. The horse slowed its progress but continued urging her out of the water, and she leaned on him for support.

Warm breath whuffed against her face, and she lifted a weary hand to brush the silky nose. “Thank you,” she croaked. Eyes of flaming red and gold gazed down at her knowingly, and Cassie hissed out a breath of shock.

Domoir.

Domoir had plunged into the lake after her, defeating whatever thing held her in its grip, and pulled her out.

She wrapped her arms around the muscled column of his throat and hugged him. His head bobbed down, tucking against her back in affection. Clinging to Domoir, she fought for her footing and shoved the wet hair out of her eyes. Scarlet fire painted the landscape. Rocks sizzled and burned. Blinking against the sting of smoke, she forced one foot in front of the other. Domoir shadowed her steps, supporting her.

Where are they?

She jerked her gaze around. The lightning shivered and turned the lake bright white before plunging it all into darkness. The flash burned her retinas, but she made out three male figures fighting, two on one. Another bolt of lightning split the sky, forking down to slam into the ground. The sizzle of ozone and sulfur stung her nostrils, but it was the masculine groan of agony that jerked her into action.

Stumbling into a run, she was never more grateful for Domoir than she was as he seemed to sense her need and guided her right to them. Helcyon’s blade cleaved the air, cutting away black strands binding Jacob, but the motion left his back open to attack.

Michael was on his feet and lunging for the dark-haired Elf when Cassie screamed and Jacob threw his hand out. The scene froze in front of her, as though the world paused, holding its breath. The fist around her heart uncurled its fingers, and white heat stoked her blood until she was riding on a wave of it.

Cassie stared at the fingers of her right hand as white light coalesced around her fingertips and then leaped from her, arcing like the lightning slicing the sky to fuse with Jacob. The power turned molten silver and leaped again, spreading against Helcyon and shimmering into vibrant gold.

Michael’s blow landed against the cascading golden shimmer, and he flew backward, slamming into the earth, and her held breath released. Cassie fell to her knees, torn between staring at her fingers and at the men. Helcyon caught Jacob’s hand and jerked him to his feet.

“Cassie?”

“Cassandra?”

Twin voices of worry overlaid each other.

Her heart swelled. They were alive. Bruised, burned, and bloodied, but they were alive.

Jacob slipped his arm around a very battered Helcyon and hauled him over to Cassie. He dropped the Elf next to her.

“Watch her.”

Helcyon opened his arms, and she wrapped herself around him, uncaring of the blood, soot, and mud. The Glashtyn bellowed, taking a protective stance as Jacob made his way toward Michael.

“Is he dead?” Her heart squeezed for the grief he’d wrought and the people he’d killed.

“No.” Jacob’s voice was grim.

“But he’s going to wish he was.” Helcyon tucked her into his side, stroking her hair. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

“And he never will again.” Jacob kicked Michael once before flipping him over and securing his wrists with a zip tie. His hands glowed briefly, but Cassie watched Jacob, not Michael. She didn’t care if he was breathing.

When Michael was secure, she held a hand out to Jacob, one arm still around Helcyon, and hoped.

Jacob limped toward her and caught her hand, lifting it to his lips for a gentle kiss.

Chapter Twenty

Cassie lost all track of time between the reports, the paperwork, and the police station where Michael had been turned over to the custody of humans and Jacob’s own team—Wizards all, apparently. At some point, she’d fallen asleep tucked into Helcyon’s side. But neither man listened to her when she insisted they should go to a hospital to treat their injuries.

Instead, they retreated in the Glashtyn’s SUV form and drove until the city lights disappeared. The house they pulled up in front of couldn’t have been Jacob’s place, from what she’d gathered of the layout when she was there and from the damage it must have suffered. It boasted no neighbors save for the tall trees stretching toward the sky.

Helcyon carried her inside, ignoring her protests that she could walk on her own.

“I’ll be inside in a few minutes,” Jacob called, turning his palms outward toward the house. Tingles shivered over her skin as she recognized the magic pouring off of him.