Demon's Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 2 (9 page)

Her leg was bouncing up and down.  She had her hair up and
was wearing yoga pants and a tight shirt to minimize what could be pulled on in
a fight.  Ed seemed to appreciate her wardrobe for other reasons, but she
wouldn’t complain.  They were about a quarter mile from the coven house, and
she was hiding beneath the van with the spike strip behind a subtle glamour. 

Ed had the automatic assault rifle from their last would be
assassins, and a few spells ready to go a little further up the block.  She
hoped their ambush went better than the one sprung on them a couple of days
ago.

She had the elemental watching Gerald, it would come back
when he left the house.  She made sure to specify it wasn’t supposed to give
her knowledge, merely its return meant their target was off his home ground. 
The plan was simple enough, but she was running out of patience.  Finally she
saw the air elemental appear, and sure enough a limo appeared down the road
with their target.

A limo, figures.  Pretentious evil ass.

At the last moment she rolled out the strip in front of the
limo and then rolled out from under the van and stood up behind it as she heard
the loud double bang of four tires being blown out.  The car kept going, albeit
at a reduced speed, and she started to run after it.  She heard Ed squeeze off
four rounds into the windshield, but the bullets were deflected from both the
angle, and presumably the wards.

The damn limo was a tank.

The back door opened and two shifters jumped out.  She
growled as she didn’t have a choice but to go through them.  She took a deep
breath and tried to relax, as she fought two on one while at the same time
trying to disperse the magic clouding and controlling their minds.  She took
note of the rattle of more gunfire as Ed tried to stop the car, but she guessed
the wards held because the car took a right turn further up the street and left
her view.

One of the shifters got a nice kick past her guard, and her
knee snapped straight, but didn’t crack thanks to her wards, but they wouldn’t
last forever.  She released a number of stun spells, once the one was down, the
second was much easier to stun.  She wondered if she was that good, or if the
shifters weren’t fighting at their peak because of the control spells.

She reluctantly admitted to herself it was most likely the
latter.

She hit both of them with a stronger dispersal spell now
that she could concentrate, and they seemed to snap out of it and looked at her
with uncomprehending eyes, as if not sure what they were doing there.  Ed
dropped out of the tree and ran over and they both jumped in the van.

She yelled out at the confused shifters, “Gerald has been
controlling you, I’d advise you make yourselves scarce right now,” as Ed threw
the van into gear and started to chase the limo.

She was sure they’d be gone, but apparently with four broken
tires that wasn’t so easy.  They saw them about a half mile up the road.  He
gunned it, but the car turned again to the right.

Ed smacked the steering wheel, “They’re heading back to the
coven house.  We should have just built a damn bomb.”

She snorted, “That’s not in my skill set, you know how?”

He muttered, “Yes, the war…” he trailed off.

Of course he’d have learned that in the war.  What a mess. 
She’d never considered they wouldn’t stop and would drive away with four flat
tires.  She’d been prepared for fighting Gerald and a few enforcers, not
chasing after them.  She should have known the man was a coward though, and he
was going to get away because they hadn’t planned for it. 

They were quickly cutting down on Gerald’s lead, but not
quickly enough, they were only a quarter mile away from the house at the
ambush, and even with the added blocks for him to get turned around, it added
less than a mile for Gerald to go before he’d make it back home.

Apparently they’d called ahead, when the house came into
view there were two of the enforcers she’d seen, and the other two were
probably in the car pulling in the driveway right now.  It would be suicide to
attack a coven inside their own walls with only one weapon and no surprise. 

Ed turned when they hit the intersection and gunned it. 
What a failure, now they were running.  They wouldn’t have a chance in the
coven’s walls without the benefit of any surprise at all. 

She snickered, “Well, we’d never make it as assassins, can’t
say that’s a bad thing.”

He grunted and took another random turn, it probably didn’t
matter, since Gerald would be able to track them with magic now if he got a
good look at them, which she was sure he did.  It was just a matter of time
before the enforcers came after them, all four of them probably she thought
sourly.

She asked, “What now?”

He shrugged, “Another ambush, we were going to have to face
the enforcers anyway, let’s head out of town a bit further, give us room to
make a plan.”

She took his right hand and squeezed it, “We’ll be fine.”

She ordered the elemental to watch the enforcers, and come
show her where they were when they got within a mile away.  She just hoped the
elemental understood what a mile was.  They decided to make for a forested
area, she could hunt them as a cat and use spells while Ed baited them and set
up some spell traps of his own.  Whatever happened, it would be messy.

Assuming they succeeded, they’d still have Gerald to worry
about it, and they were sure he’d be tracking them as long as they stayed in
town.  There was no doubt things had just gotten very complicated.  They
arrived at a state park nearby and she stripped and changed as soon as she was
far enough back in the trees not to be seen by a passerby.

She scouted out a good ambush area, somewhere with lots of
tree top cover and a somewhat limited point of ingress.

Ed managed to get a few trap spells up before the elemental
returned and showed her the enforcers getting out of cars that were parked
right behind their van.  They didn’t have time for wards or anything like that.

Silva growled low in warning and got a tight nod from Ed, and
then she jumped into the treetops and waited for them to show up, it wouldn’t
be long.

She realized that her fire was pretty worthless, but Ed was
very strong with water and earth… maybe a storm might help.  She couldn’t do
much storm wise with the power she was limited to, but just like the club last
month she could use a small amount of magic and at least start some rain
falling, she was positive Ed could use that.  While Silva kept watch and was
ready to pounce, she closed her inner eyes and channeled the magic to stir up a
storm.

Her chest rumbled as she heard them coming through the woods
clumsily, there were four of them.  Unfortunately they were sticking closely
together, so she couldn’t pick them off one at a time.  Still Silva waited, and
she kept vigil with the great cat as her tail slowly swished back and forth. 
When the four men stopped almost directly under her, Silva prepared to leap.

One of the enforcers grunted, “Magic says she’s right here,
don’t make no sense.”

She giggled internally, idiots should learn to look up when
hunting a cat shifter.

Silva chuffed silently in laughter, and then dove with her
claws extended at the guy in the back.

Celia sent dispersal magic out of the end of her claws. 
Between her magic, and Silva raking both claws down his face and chest while
her back claws tried to dig into his stomach, it didn’t take but a second to
slam through the wards and tear into the now screaming witch.  It was much more
efficient than when Celia fought with magic and fists.

Silva leaped almost straight up back into the tree canopy as
the other three guys turned around and looked down at their buddy.

“What the hell was that?”

What must have been the smart one growled, “Cat shifter,
watch the trees morons.”

Celia and Silva looked down, and that’s when Ed struck.  The
earth seemed to melt beneath their feet while the rain gathered in large globs
of water and started to enter their noses and mouths.  She felt one of them try
and access their magic in a panic, and picked that one to pounce on next.  The
results were rather predicable as she mauled a second enforcer to death, and
then took off like a shot over the ground.

Silva ran a little ways before jumping back up in the canopy
and doubling back.  She watched the last two slowly drown to death while
sinking into the earth.  She didn’t know what their active gifts were, but she
was sure they weren’t earth or water.  Ed was so well camouflaged, that they
didn’t even have a target if they could even concentrate enough to use fire or
air… or whatever they had.

It was unpleasant, but she felt relief when they lost
consciousness, they wouldn’t last much longer.  She jumped out of the tree and
went back to where Ed was and rubbed her body along his hip.  He looked a
little nervous, so she chuffed in laughter.

She sent the elemental back to Gerald, and gave it orders to
remember what he said and saw and tell her at sun down, just a few hours away. 
She was feeling frisky and kept bumping into Ed on the way back to the van. 
She had the urge to take him on the forest floor in the rain, but something
told her she wouldn’t feel quite the same when she shifted back.

She’d always felt this amorous after a fight, the adrenaline
and joy of being alive.  Now though, she no longer had to suppress that
feeling, she just had to be a little patient until they were somewhere… nicer.

She snuck into the back of the van when no cars were near,
then changed to human which shed all the water, dirt, and leaves.  She quickly
got some dry clothes on but slowed down halfway through and decided to make a
show of it since Ed couldn’t take his eyes off of her.  She loved how she felt
when he looked at her that way.  She felt desired, sexy, and appreciated.

“So…” she cleared her throat, “What’s next?  I have the
elemental gathering more info but…”

Ed nodded, “Let’s go back to the hotel and take stock.  I
don’t think we can abandon the mission, but it needs rethinking, and some crazy
planning if we’re going to finish Gerald.”

She asked, “Is it safe to go back there?”

He nodded confidently, “We killed all his enforcers, and
he’ll want us to come to him so he keeps his home field advantage.  We’ll put
up a ward or two to wake us in case someone does come, but it should be safe.”

She pondered that for a minute, “Maybe for a day, two tops. 
You can bet he’ll be updating the assassin group on our new location, we can
expect more waves form those psychos.”

Ed frowned, “I didn’t think of that.  You’re right.  We’ll
watch for another day and make plans, but our time is limited.”

When they got up to the hotel room she looked at him
curiously.

She asked teasingly, “Does the tiger make you nervous.”

He smiled, “Absolutely.  I know you won’t hurt me, but my
hind brain sees a huge ass predator, plus, I’d just seen you gut two witches
effortlessly with those claws.  If it helps, I think you’re beautiful as a
tiger.”

She smiled and stalked forward, and then pulled him into a
lingering kiss that promised so much more.

“You say the nicest things,” she said sultrily, “Join me for
a shower?”

She woke at the snick of the electronic door lock to their
hotel room, and a soft bang of the slide lock.  She knew that wouldn’t last
long, she glanced at the clock and it was only three fifteen.  How did
assassins get here so fast?  She heard some light sounds as she untangled her
legs from the covers, and Ed’s legs, and rolled silently off the bed onto the
balls of her feet.

She watched the door slowly open as she moved toward it in
the shadows against the wall.  She knew he’d see her almost right away, she had
tan skin, but it wasn’t nearly dark enough and she was complete naked.  She wasn’t
worried, the guy wouldn’t enjoy the view for long.

He slipped in with a fireball in his hand, which immediately
shrunk in size when it came inside her wards, since she’d made them fairly
potent.  The idiot stared at his hand in dismay, then gave up on it and reached
into an inner pocket for something else.  He was so focused on the door, his
magic, and the gun in his pocket, that he didn’t even notice her step into him
until he got an elbow to the face, a knee to the groin at the same time,
followed by stomping on his instep and striking his throat at the same time.

Her other hand held his gun hand in a grip of iron while she
ran dispersal magic against his wards.  He looked hurt, but his wards had
absorbed most of that damage, clearly her tiger claws were a much better weapon
against that.  She felt Silva preen at the thought.

She saw the obvious surprise and panic on his face as her
next elbow was accompanied by a meaty thwack, and his head slammed into the
doorframe knocking him out.  She dragged him inside, shut the door, and
reengaged the manual slide lock.

This had to be the most incompetent assassin yet, maybe
that’s how he got here so fast, local trash.  She snorted in laughter at the
thought, she’d never thought she’d ever have need or cause to rate assassins
before.  She went over to the bed and shook Ed awake.

He wasn’t happy she hadn’t waked him up as soon as she
realized something was wrong.

“I had to move fast Ed, I’ll try to make time next…”

He shook his head, still angry.  He was obviously worried
about her, and he was managing to hold it in, so she let him stew on it as they
took a look at the latest assassin.

The man
was
local, lived just south of Albany.  They
woke him up and questioned him, but didn’t get any more than the usual from
him.  Clearly though, he was the first of wave three.

Ed said under his breath, “I’ll be right back, going to
check his car.  I’m not mad at you, but next time wake me up damn it.  What if
something had happened to you?”

She kissed his cheek and went to get dressed, she was too
wired up to sleep anymore, three hours would have to do.

“I get it, I’m just new at this, remember?  I went with my
instincts, unfortunately cats work alone.”

She cringed when his face hardened, that’d been the wrong
thing to say.

“That’s not what I meant Ed.  Please, I don’t want to work
alone, I just need to train until I overcome those instincts.”

He didn’t look very mollified when he left the room a moment
later, but she just kind of shrugged, he’d either accept her how she was… or eventually
not at all.  It would hurt if it was the latter, but she supposed she’d survive
just fine, it’d be his loss.

When he came back up he seemed to be his old self again, and
she admitted to herself she was relieved.  Did she like him that much already?

“What did he have?”

Ed chuckled darkly, “A shotgun, and what looked like C4
along with a detonator.  There wasn’t that much of it, but enough to blow a
small hole in a door, or wall.”

She frowned thoughtfully, “How about an upstairs window?”

He asked, “What did you have in mind?”

She sighed, “Let’s go now, before the rest of wave three
gets here.  There’s no way to elude them with Gerald feeding them location
info.  He should be sleeping right now, or maybe screwing one of his stepford
wives.”

His eyes crunched, “You didn’t tell me about that.”

She shrugged, “I saw a few of them in the memories, all
glassy eyed with the bowing and scraping.  I only saw one… incident.  I was
trying not to think about it, and it really doesn’t have tactical importance.”

He nodded, “So what’s your idea?”

She sighed, he wasn’t going to like this at all.

“He doesn’t have outside guards anymore; we can just climb
onto the roof, blow the window and shoot the hell out of his bed.  If that
doesn’t work, I can shift and go in after him.”

He shook his head, his voice held a modicum of humor, “It’s
a crazy plan, but this whole thing is nuts, so it probably has a good chance of
working.”

She agreed.  The elemental had come back earlier, before
they’d gotten to sleep, and they didn’t learn anything new.  She did ask the
elemental to show her where he was now.  The compression of air in the room
left and came back so fast she’d have missed it if she blinked.  It only sent
her one thing, he was asleep with one of those woman she’d been talking about
earlier.

She told Ed, “Let’s go, he’s asleep right now.”

He sighed and they headed down to the guys car, and took it
instead of the van.  Things went really well, to a point.  They drove in the
back way and walked around someone else’s property and into the coven house’s
yard.  The roof wasn’t a problem, as the house had a back porch.  She easily
boosted Ed up, and then jumped up high enough to grab the edge and pull herself
up.

She could feel the wards of course, but they were still on
the outside of the house, so the headache wasn’t too bad.  She knew it would be
worse if she was forced to go in, but she thought she could fight it off long
enough to rip his throat out and escape if it became necessary.  The house
wards were too strong to try and disperse, it would take destroying the bags
hidden and protected in the four corners, and a decently long ritual to
completely disperse them.  The power of the magic behind it was able to
withstand much more power than a personal ward for a variety of reasons. 

They found the right window and placed the C4, and then
stepped up the roof and around the corner of the eaves to set it off.  Even
covering her ears, it was really loud.  Ed dropped down in front of the blown
window with his shotgun and pulled the trigger.  She jumped down and could see
Gerald there glaring, and the second round of buck shot out.  It seemed to lose
a lot of its power before it hit Gerald, and rolled off his body from his
personal ward.

She pulled on her magic and changed, ripping her clothes to
pieces in the process, and she lunged at Gerald with her claws out.  As soon as
she went through the window the world turned white with pain, then black, and
she knew no more.

She woke up in a tiny five by five room.  The ceiling, three
walls and the floor were made of cement, and she was lying on an uncomfortably
hard bunk with a single thin blanket.  There was no other furniture in the
room, not even a lamp.  There was light, from a spotlight through the fourth
wall, which was made up of bars in front of her as she sat up.  Like a jail
cell.  She was naked of course, and pulled up the blanket to cover herself,
suddenly feeling body shy for some reason.

She’d never felt pain like that, when she’d went in the
window, and what she remembered of the wards, none of them could do that, which
meant… he must have added another ward since the first time she’d spied, and
when they attacked his trap was sprung.  She looked dubiously at the bars, she
doubted she’d have the strength but, she’d try.

She reached for Silva and found… nothing.  A howling empty
space in her mind.  Her eyes widened and filled with tears, this was
impossible.  Wasn’t it?  She still felt her witch magic, the source of her
power, and she could feel the thrumming wards around her, they would keep her
magic contained in this cement room.  She might be able to break them down
given enough time, but to start trying meant someone would come quickly and
stop her.

She looked around, got up and pushed her head against the
bars, or tried, she couldn’t touch them and the wards threw her back and she
hit the wall.  It hurt a lot more than she expected.  She felt weak, her
shifter strength gone with her soul’s sister, with Silva.  She was starting to
panic, and she felt weak, useless.  Did she always feel like this before her
true self came out last month?  She sat down and her mind spun as she tried to
work out what to do.

She heard a door open and pulled the blanket around her more
thoroughly.  Her face drained of all color as Gerald walked in front of her
cell.

“That was amazingly foolish, did you really think you could
kill me in my own home?”

She frowned, “Where is Ed?”

He threw back his head and laughed, “Dead my dear.  I shot
him with fire, it burned into his chest, and he and that stupid shotgun went
flying off my roof.”

Her eyes widened and she started to cry.

He snickered, “Stop that, you should be more worried about
yourself.”

Despite what he said, she could sense he was enjoying her
tears, and took pleasure in it.

“Why,” she said in a defeated voice, “what can you possibly
do to me to hurt me more?”

He shook his head, “After you understand the answer to that
question, and once I believe you’ve suffered fully for your transgressions
against me and keeping Elaine from me.  Only then will I make you a mindless
slave to attend my bed.  After all, you are rather attractive, and I grow tired
of the same women night after night.”

He laughed, “But first, you’ll suffer, and you’ll learn
exactly what I can do to hurt you more.”

She shook her head, “What did you do to my shifter
abilities.”

He snickered, “A little potion I worked up.  Shifters are a
pain to control, so it helps to suppress their nature first.  How does it feel
to be so helpless?”

She frowned, she did feel helpless, but for the first time
she felt hope.  Potions would wear off.

She asked, “How did you know we were coming?”

He snickered, “Why you told me, you idiotic fool.  Or didn’t
you know my wards detect the passing of an elemental.  Think on that a while,
it’s your fault that… Ed was it?  Is dead.  I was asleep until your spy tripped
the wards.  I’ll be back in the morning.”

She cried for a long time after he left.  She wasn’t sure if
she should believe him or not about Ed, without her shifter abilities, she
couldn’t tell the truth from lies.  She decided he had to be lying, or… he just
had too.  She was weak, not as strong willed, and nowhere near as brave this
way, but she was still determined that if she was going to die here, she’d find
a way to take him with her.

She mentally ordered her elemental to examine the shield and
blocking wards on this prison, and tell her about them.  The flood of
information was almost too much, just like the first time she’d done this, but
she recovered.  Then she studied the wards, and made plans.  The truth of it
was, she wasn’t as brave, but when he took Silva away, he gave her something
back.  The ability to use every iota of her witch magic, all at once…

And even if it was the last thing she ever did, she would
make him heartily regret it.