Demon Day (30 page)

“
I told you,” Ana said
shaking her head. “I told you what it would be like.”

I spun round and jabbed a finger at
her. “You never said it would be like this. You never said I would
want him to … to just … Unguh. I want him.”

“
You need to calm down,”
she ordered. “You’re no good to us like this.”

Running my hands down my body I
shuddered, thinking of Breandan’s lips on mine, his hand on my
waist, lower back. His hips grinding…. My eyes landed on the Temple
wall then drifted up….

Ana followed my gaze then cried,
“Wait!”

Too late, I jumped and beat my wings
clearing it in one bound and landed silently the other side. Not
that my impressively quiet landing mattered.

I dropped down right in front of two
Clerics.

They kind of jumped, glanced at each
other, baffled, then drew their weapons and took up warrior
stances. An immediate hail went up and the edges of the courtyard
filled with Clerics.

“…
so we need to catch her.”
I heard Ana’s agitated voice from the other side of the wall as I
paused, trying to decide what was best here. I did not want to hurt
them, but the way they paced forward made it clear they had every
intention of hurting me.

Lex landed on one Clerics back,
digging her thumbs into his eyes. Tomas appeared behind the other
and snapped his neck. The shout to tell them not to kill died on my
lips. I was way too late. Amelia and Nimah landed at my sides; both
human, and took hold of my arms.

“
Real clever, fairy,” Nimah
sighed shaking her head.

I itched to smack the smirk of her
pretty face, but punching her would be like smacking Amelia, who I
was fond of.

Ro scrambled over the wall, unlaced
boots kicking wildly, Runt hanging on his back still. He jumped
onto a nearby tree, grabbing hold of the branch to shimmy down.
Runt fell off him as he hit the floor but was back up on his feet
in a flash.

Ana followed her face red from the
exertion of climbing. Both feet back on solid ground, she calmly
walked up beside me and put her hands on her hips, frowned at the
dead Clerics. Rather she frowned at Tomas who was latched onto a
neck, slurping. We all watched him for a moment or so then got
freaked out, and looked away.

Vampires were quite terrifying. I
would hate to have to deal with more than one at a time; I don’t
think my heart would survive it.

“
Rae, when you and Breandan
touch none of us must be in the immediate area,” Ana
said.

I tore my eyes from the horizon, from
the direction I knew Breandan was coming from. Each step he took
heightened my awareness of him. It was moving closer to a bonfire,
and with each step toward it the temperature increased. Right now
the heat was a balm across my skin, getting warmer, and soon it
would burn me up. I needed to touch him, to hold him, to
lick–

Fingers snapped in front of my face.
“Rae, focus.” I blinked repeatedly and looked at Ana. Her face was
right up in mine and I took half a step back before she grabbed my
shoulder to shake me. Gods, the way she behaved reminded me of
myself sometimes. “You must wait before you touch. You’ll want to
rip his clothes off, but you have to wait.”

At these words, I bared my teeth,
anger bubbling forth. “Why? We’ve been apart too long. He’s mine.”
My voice was a growl.

She sighed. “Would you listen to
yourself? Does anything you are doing right now seem logical and
sane? You have to give us time to get away before you touch. Don’t
let the bond control you. You control it and you must….”

Not really listening anymore, I nodded
ardently, my eyes roving across the courtyard, over the gathering
Clerics heads. “Can’t you feel it?” I groaned and reached out.
“It’s all hot and fidgety growing stronger inside me.”

Ana stomped a large circle muttering
curses.

Tomas dropped the body of the Cleric
he had been drinking to the ground then snatched up the wrist of
the other and bit down. Lex watched him hungrily, but Ro had a
tight grip on her, expression stony.

“
What’s the big deal,”
Nimah asked eying me. “She and lover boy bump uglies and she’ll
mellow out. All the females go nutty once a season on the Pride;
soon as they are mated they’re fine.”

“
How long have she and
Breandan been apart for?”

“
At least,” Amelia looked
up and to the left, “ten hours.”

Ana frowned, worried. “The buildup of
power starts from the moment they stop touching. It’s not so bad if
they separate and keep the physical distance relatively small. Say,
if they’re five minutes from each other for half a day, you may see
a spark when they touch, nothing to be alarmed about. Across such a
distance we’re looking at a blast radius of about a
mile.”

“
Blast radius?” Amelia
echoed, startled.

“
And the bond reacts to
their emotional state. If they were happy and only separated under
pleasant circumstances the effect wouldn’t be so powerful. But with
Rae’s mind under such strain, and you can bet Breandan is almost
chewing his fingers off for lack of touching her….” She let the
sentence drop. “Based on what I saw mere days ago they can’t
control their bond yet. A nexus will open and since they’ll
probably be focused on slacking their need for each other their
entire focus will be absorbed in sensation, not on the magic
exploding around them. With practice they will be able to
manipulate the connection to achieve wondrous works. But that takes
self-control. When the pressure is on Rae’s not big on self
control.” She pointed to me and her voice was shrill. “Does she
look in control? Right now all they’ll manage is an explosion of
raw energy that we’ll all be caught in.”

Some of what she said filtered through
to me. “Are you trying to say that if Breandan touched me,” in
spite of everything I trembled in anticipation of such a touch,
“when you guys are near that–”

“
We could die? Yeah, pretty
much. I’m seeing a few paths were you collide without warning and I
can tell you it’s not pretty … for anybody other than you. All I
see is blackness and roughly translated that means I’m
dead.”

“
Leave then,” I
muttered.

Amelia and Nimah simultaneously took a
step back, eyes wide. They looked at each other and I saw the
instinct to get the hell away from me warring with their instinct
to stand by the one who had rescued them.

At least a forty Cleric’s were
scattered across the opposite side of the courtyard now, watching
us suspiciously.

Amelia spun to me, gripped my arm in a
death grip. “Why did you come back for us?”

I managed to tear my eyes away from
the sea of crimson, and frowned at her. “I made an oath.” I
shrugged. “I had to keep it.”

“
Father says fairies are
bound by magic to keep their word,” Nimah told her sister, but even
she did not sound convinced.

Amelia was struggling. She let go of
my arm and looked at the Clerics whose numbers still increased.
“The chances of you surviving this…. Why did you come back?” She
was truly astounded. “You could have run to your mate.”

Runt blinked up at me too.

I swallowed hard. I heard the lies
ringing in my ears, proclamations this somehow benefited me, but in
truth, nothing about this situation had ever been good for me. Yes,
I had made a bargain, but I could have left them there and gone
back to the Pride. You see, I knew in my heart that the Sect would
have moved them, and then how would we have found them again? I
could not have left knowing what horrible things they would endure
… possibly worse since Tu would be enraged by my escape.

“
It was my responsibility.
I feel….” I sighed. “I feel responsible for you.”

She watched my blank face carefully.
Her own smoothed out as if she had just found the answer to a
complex question. “So you’re the Priestess the fairies have been
looking for.” She rubbed her own forehead. “Is that what the gold
on your head means? I’ve never seen that before.”

I hesitated. “Why would you think
that?”

“
We shifters try to stay
out of the mess that demonkind created for itself, but you are
legend. Every learned demon knows about you. That and Conall the
fairy has been searching for you for a long time.

“
You know my brother,” I
whispered.

She smiled. “My great grandmother was
my age the first time he came to our Pride searching for word of
you.”

There was no time to dwell on what I
had just learned. My past was key to my future, but every time I
drummed up the strength and courage to look back, I found nothing
but death, horror, and pain.

My head lolled as I breathed in the
scent of the fire drums. It was familiar and comforting – the smell
of ash and damp concrete. Spots of fire with flames that looked
purple broke the solid night. The stars did not twinkle overhead
there was too much cloud cover.

“
I’m sorry we have to
fight,” I said, “but please try not to kill anybody, especially the
Disciples. They just don’t understand.”

The shifters reached a decision and
nodded to each other once. Amelia said. “We’re with you, Rae. By
coming back to save us you have earned our loyalty. Our Alpha would
approve of this alliance.”

Nimah did not blink an eyelid at
Amelia’s swift decision. She acknowledged and respected her
sister’s words without question, which was interesting since Nimah
did not seem one to follow others without causing
trouble.

“
I’m going cat.” Amelia
finished firmly and crouched down, her face already contorting into
a grimace.

“
Crazy fairy going to get
us all killed,” Nimah muttered and watched her sister initiate her
Change. Her gaze drifted to me. “If she wasn’t Alpha female this
would have gone down differently. I want you know that.”

I shrugged, my attention already
focused elsewhere. Hell, I was barely ware of the scorching heat
that emanated from Amelia’s quivering body. Her shrill cry as her
bones popped and muscles tore did not puncture my lust induced
haze.

A frozen hand landed on my shoulder,
and I jumped. Lex smiled the runes on her cheek crinkling. She had
snuck up on me again. Her zombie movement was so creepy. I could
not feel, hear, or smell her at all. She was a void. If ever she
turned on me, she would be a force to be reckoned with.

Her hand slipped from my shoulder and
she glided forward to go stand beside Ro. Runt ambled around the
floor by his ankles as he snapped his neck left to right. Jumping
up and down on the spot, Ro punched his fits in a way that showed
he knew how to use them, and tipped his chin defiantly toward the
line of Clerics that advanced.

I offered my hand to Runt and placed
his cool palm on mine. He was so small and skinny, yet he clutched
at me with a strength that defied his fragile
appearance.

I looked deep into his eyes and in a
serious voice said, “If I die you run, understand?” His huge eyes
blinked up at me then he nodded. Satisfied, I let him go. I was not
worried; he knew how to protect himself. I just hoped that he would
be able to escape unscathed if this went sour.

Amelia had finished shifting, and
slinked back and forth before our odd defensive line. She was a tad
stockier than her twin as human, and in cat form, this revealed
itself in greater muscle definition. Nimah remained human, her wiry
arms crossed over her chest and eyes slitted as she took in the
advancing line of red. Briefly, I wondered what she would look like
in cat form, and why out of the two Amelia always
shifted.

Tomas simply inclined his head at me
then disappeared into the shadows at the edge of the
courtyard.

The Clerics drew their weapons; the
first few paced forward, boots stomping across the concrete.
Disturbingly, Disciples now watched from the shadows, faces ashen
and wild with anticipation of the fight. If they decided to take up
arms and fight there would be too many. Magic or no magic, there
were too many, and I had not the stomach to wield magic with the
intention to kill them.

“
He won’t make it in time,”
I said quietly, tears pricking my eyes.

Ana patted my arm and I shrugged her
off. Gods, these people, and the touching.

“
Have faith, Rae,” she
said. “He’ll get here soon. He’ll find you.”

Taking a deep, bracing
breath I set my two feet apart. I drew strength from Ana’s
unwavering confidence my mate would make it here in time to save me
so I could save him. Hmm. This was not one of my more intelligent
moves. Then why did it feel like I
needed
to be here, right
now?

I sensed him draw nearer, moving
impossibly fast across the earth to reach my side. I could feel the
determination, his single-minded goal to reach me.

My tail cracked like a whip and my
wings, fully healed, spread, reflecting a brilliant gold light onto
the ground before us. I took hold of the Source, bared my teeth,
and hissed menacingly.

Like a punch to the gut I felt a
panicked command slam into my mind.