Entwined Enemies (8 page)

She starts using both hands to command objects from around the room. She points at the kitchen oven with one hand and levitates it away from the wall as if it were no heavier than a paperweight. It sails through the air toward him.

Trent catches the oven with both hands, digging his hind claws into the hardwood floor to keep himself from being pushed back. That was the first casting of her spell. What Trent hasn’t accounted for is the refrigerator that Saffron grabbed with her second casting.

She slams it into his back. He wasn’t expecting that at all. Trent actually grunts in pain for the first time.

Now she pours it on.

Saffron pushes the appliances against Trent, squeezing like a trash compactor. Trent turns sideways and tries to push both appliances away at the same time, but he’s struggling from the effort. Something has to give. It’s not Trent.

Dents form in the surface of both metal appliances. His hands, however, remain in place.

Candice untangles herself from Mason and stands up again. She looks to see if Saffron needs help. The Crone of our coven shakes her head almost imperceptibly. Mason stands up as well, but Candice bars his way with her shield.

“No. She’s got this.”

I can feel Sylvia struggling against the paralyzing spell I cast on her body, but she can’t move or speak. She’s watching Trent lose to Saffron, but is powerless against my magic. This needs to happen, no matter how desperately she wants to help him.

That’s when Saffron pulls the refrigerator away. It catches Trent completely off guard. He was fighting a contest of strength in his mind. He couldn’t have been more wrong. Saffron was always intending to use his strength against him.

The sudden removal of one appliance sends Trent reeling, off balance and unable to stabilize his footing in time. He slams against a freestanding support beam that separates the kitchen from the living room. It lets out a loud crack.

The ceiling above our heads creaks. A disturbing sound, especially when you’re standing beneath it.

Saffron follows Trent with the refrigerator, turning it lengthwise, and drives it against his torso from the waist down, pinning him against the support beam and knocking the wind out of him for the first time.

Then she brings the oven back. Slams it into him above the refrigerator. It wallops Trent from the waist up. He’s in a bad shape, but still conscious.

Despite it all, he manages to push against both appliances at the same time, but can’t anchor himself. All he has to push against is the support beam behind him. That’s when I see Trent smile, even if Saffron can’t. It’s a smile directed at me specifically.

Trent knows the pillar behind him is a load-bearing support beam for the whole house.

“Everybody get out!” I yell. “Run!”

There’s no time to act, not at my speed.

Mason dives toward his paralyzed sister. He grabs her and surrounds Sylvia in a protective hug. Candice raises her shield like an umbrella and leaps for a corner of the room.

I cast the one spell that has protected me countless times. I say the words without a moment to spare.

“
Sustento in Carne
.”

The second floor comes crashing down on our heads. Everybody is caught in the avalanche, except Saffron. She’s still floating off the ground in the breakfast nook that extends off the house.

If only the rest of us were so lucky.

I’m alive. I’m buried under rubble, but I’m alive.

The spell around my body is protecting me from the crushing weight of the collapsed floor. I can’t move, but I’m not dead. I’m suspended in debris. The spell even repels all the sharp points of splintered wood and torn metal that would have otherwise run me through.

What it doesn’t provide, however, is a way to breathe.

I can hear the sound of debris being moved and shifted, and muffled voices, but I can’t make out who they are or what they’re saying.

They must be trying to find me. At least, I hope that are trying to find me. They probably have no idea where to look, not specifically, at least. Everybody dove in different directions right before the ceiling collapsed, bring much of the upstairs downstairs.

I can’t go without air for much longer. What little I’m getting is humid and stuffy. Not only that, it’s impossible to take a full breath.

Saffron designed the Maintain the Flesh spell to protect a body from outside harm without dulling the feeling of touch. Still, it never took a situation like this into account, when there isn’t enough air to fill your lungs.

I’m already starting to feel faint. Even my thoughts are becoming fuzzy. I’m trying to stay awake by force of will, but the oxygen deprivation is getting to me. I can’t think straight.

Seconds feel like minutes, minutes feel like hours. How long have I been here? I hear scratching, but can’t tell where it’s originating, like it’s coming from everywhere all at once. That can’t be right. I close my eyes, unable to keep them open anymore.

That’s when I feel the weight of all the crushing debris on me lessen for the first time. I still can’t move, but the burden against the magical barrier protecting me feels much lighter now. It’s hard to say for sure. It could also be delirium talking. Maybe this is what is feels like to die of asphyxiation?

A shaft of light hits me. It’s blinding, but I can move again. I immediately take a full breath, and it feels divine. Have I really been saved? Maybe I didn’t make it. Maybe I’m ascending to the next life.

Ascending? Really? I thought that maybe some kind of purgatory would be in store for me. Possibly worse.

That’s when my eyes adjust. I’m looking up at a ceiling, but it’s two stories high, which is really high for a ceiling. The edges of my vision start to resolve. I realize I’m actually looking through a hole in one ceiling at the next roof above it.

Right. Werewolf. Pillar. Flying appliances. Floor crashing on my head. I’m still alive.

“I’m not dead,” I say.

“Not if I can help it.”

It’s Mason. I recognize his voice right away. He must have dug me out.

“You found me.”

“I know what you smell like,” he says, still lifting debris off me and throwing it to either side.

“That’s because you’re a wolf. Have I told you how glad I am you’re a wolf? I’m so glad you’re a wolf.”

“You’re rambling, but that’s a good sign,” he says with a smile.

I can definitely see his face more clearly now. He’s filthy and disheveled, but intact. His eyes start to water as he looks down at me.

“There’s not a scratch on you,” he says.

“Of course not, silly. I cast a protection spell. The same one I cast on myself when we have sex.”

My voice is light and playful. Kind of like my brain right now.

Two brawny arms reach underneath me and pick me up out of the rubble. He holds me tightly against his chest.

“You cast a protection spell on yourself when we’re together?”

I throw my arms around his neck.

“Well, yes, silly, but only when you get all wolfy and scratchy. How else do you think we can be together?”

“I see,” Mason says. “That actually explains a lot.”

My thoughts are still fluffy, but I’m starting to realize that maybe I should stop talking now.

“Didn’t you know that already?” I ask, ignoring my own advice.

“No. You told me something else, but that’s not important right now. I didn’t know you were a witch then. I do now.”

I did say something else to him, didn’t I? I told Mason that despite how feral he becomes when we have sex, a part of his mind takes care of me. He expected me to be cut up or bruised after we had sex, but I never was, because of the spell. I lied about that.

Now I’m alert.

I swing my legs up out of his arms and land on my feet to face him more directly.

“There’s a reason I told you what I did, and you deserve an explanation, but can we come back to that?”

“Of course,” Mason says. “Now’s not that time. Let’s make sure your friends are all right first.”

“Thank you.”

I look around for Saffron first, who would have been clear of the rubble.

“Saffron? Are you here?” I call out.

“I’m over here,” she calls back.

We leave the hallway where I was driven back by falling debris and make our way into the conjoined living room and kitchen. That’s when I spot Saffron digging through wood and metal in a corner of the room.

There’s a massive hole in the floor where the pillar used to be, the one against which Trent was pinned behind a levitating oven and refrigerator.

Did it all fall through the floor?
I can’t tell. Nothing is moving down there.

Mason and I step around the edge of this room as Saffron uses the Leva Ad spell to clear debris away from the corner, keeping it airborne rather than setting it down anywhere. Candice stands up from under the wreckage and shakes her head. Her shield is dented, but she’s otherwise intact. Just like me.

“Maintain the Flesh?” I ask.

She nods. “You too?”

“Yes.” I look around the room and then at Mason. “Speaking of spells, where’s Sylvia?”

Mason inclines his head toward the breakfast nook. It’s completely shattered. Not just from where Saffron crashed through the ceiling glass—the entire enclosure has been leveled.

Sylvia is sitting in a lawn chair out in the yard, looking back at her house and not moving.

“I grabbed her and leapt outside,” Mason tells me. “She was still paralyzed. I hope you understand. That’s why I went for her instead of you.”

I place a hand on the side of his face.

“You don’t have to explain. She was helpless. I would think less of you if you didn’t try to save her first.”

I look outside at Sylvia.

“Still, my spell can’t be active anymore. She should be able to move now.”

“I think she might be in shock,” Mason says, “especially if what I’m feeling from her right now is any indication.”

“Go. She needs her twin brother right now. Let Candice, Saffron, and I deal with this mess right now.”

Mason looks down through the hole and sniffs the air. “What about him?” he says.

I look down at the mountain of rubble that settled in the basement. I can’t even see the oven or refrigerator. There’s just too much broken construction material and drywall, not to mention any furniture from upstairs that came crashing down as well.

“If a house falling on Trent hasn’t killed him, I shudder to think about what can. Either way, let us take care it. Candice and Saffron can sense things without seeing them. Go mind your sister.”

Mason nods. “I’m sure you know spells that are far better at sorting through these sorts of things than my sense of smell, but if you need my nose, let me know.”

He cups the side of my face briefly and then makes his way outside through what remains of the breakfast nook.

The sweat on his dusty, muscular back glistens in the sun. His clothes tore away when he shifted into a half-man, half-wolf, but the top half of his pants remain, albeit shredded.

I notice for the first time that the wounds Baldy gave Mason are still healing. The holes in his crucified hands disappeared almost immediately, but there was a lot more going on at the time.

First of all, Mason changed from a man into a massive wolf, shifting through his half-man, half-wolf hybrid shape. Second, he was being magically infused with his own refined werewolf lust. That must have supercharged his regeneration time.

More than anything, I can’t help but feel enormously lucky with Mason. Not because I could admire his rippling physique all day. I feel fortunate because of how well he’s adjusting to the idea of me being a witch.

Neither of us are talking about the fact that I stripped the flesh off a werewolf in front of him. Indeed, Mason went in for the kill right afterward. It needed doing and we did it together. We’ve already moved on.

Wait until he finds out I’m a sixty-nine-year-old woman in the body of an eighteen-year-old. I expect
that
will blow his mind.

Despite all the chaos around me right now, I suddenly want Mason all to myself, someplace alone and dark and warm where we can really cut loose on each other. What I want, however, will have to wait. At least for a little while.

I turn back to Candice and Saffron who are looking down into the basement through the hole.

“He’s still alive down there, isn’t he?” I ask.

Saffron nods. “He’s moving a little, but not much.”

I guess a wolf of his power isn’t killed by dropping a house on him after all. He might be entombed down there, but that won’t last forever. Wolves are burrowing creatures, after all. Left alone long enough, Trent will
dig
his way out.

Still, if we’re going to finish him off, we have to uncover him first. That will run the risk of setting him free. We need to be ready for that. Trent has already proven to be unnaturally fast.

Candice is thinking along the same lines.

“You two are going to need silver weapons. Silverware won’t be enough against him. I’ve got my silvered sword, but we should all be armed against him.”

“What about the spikes that were used to crucify Mason? They should be buried around here somewhere. Let me get them.”

“We don’t have the time,” Saffron says. “
Veniat ad Me, Argenti
.”

I recognize the Latin. Suddenly all the silver in the room streaks toward Saffron, most of it coming from under the debris.

The silver objects converge on Saffron and then stop, hovering in midair around her body, including Candice’s Viking sword.

I’m in awe of Saffron’s mastery of witchcraft. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her improvise a spell on the spot. Near as I can tell, she makes up spells as needed.

This one was called Come to Me, Silver.

I’ve had to practice every spell I know. I can learn new spells quickly, but it wasn’t until I fell in love with Mason that I was able to improvise a spell. The first time was to summon him back to me. The painting was instrumental there. Today was the second time, infusing Mason with the lust I’d siphoned from him into the quicksilver pool.