Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (15 page)

“Why?” Reed asks
, a sexy smile on his face. He looks absolutely relaxed.

“Because
they’re coming,” I answer
, feeling my heartbeat drumming hard against the walls of my chest.

“Yes,” he says
, “they’re coming and I can kill
them without any repercussions—
no worry for the consequences of wh
at could happen to you if I do.
” The l
ook of pure satisfaction crosses
his face, making me lose some of the
fear I’m feeling for a moment.

Turning
into the weapons room, Reed goes
straight to the vault. Op
ening secret panels in the wall
, he unlocks
an array of badness that I can’t even begin to describe.
“What looks good?” Reed asks
, glancing at Russell.

“Machine gun—
b
road sword—
t
hrowin’ stars—
p
ercussion grenades,
”
Russell barks
out, strapping weapons to his body as fast as
Reed is handing them to him. “You
feel that, Red?” Russ
ell asks
, looking over as
electricity begi
n
s
to
build around me, prickling
my skin.

“Yeah,
someone’s divining
for us…that’s annoying,” I reply
, wrinkling my nose as my hai
r stan
d
s
on end. “Let’s
see if they like being shocked,” I mutter
,
closing my eyes and pulling energy to me, I feel
it dancing over my
skin. Expelling it from me in a pulse
,
it shatters
the windows as it exits
the house.

“T
hat was a bit
more than a shock,” Reed grins
, seeing the shower of shattered glass lying on the floor.

“Oops
,” I shrug
sarcastic
ally, causing
the smile to go all the way to
his eyes. “I’ll take the daggers and
a
battle-
axe.” Leaning over, I
strap
the daggers on my thighs, looking up to see both Reed and Russell checking out my butt. Str
aightening, I clear
my throat,
n
arrowing my eyes at them.
Reed
is
try
ing really hard not to smile. “S
houldn’t
you be concentrating,” I scold
them
both
.

“Just
gettin
’ the proper motivation for
a
fight. I
t’s more fun when you
know w
hat you’
r
e
protectin’
,
” Russell says
, grinning.

“Just make sure you protect your own butt, Russell. I’l
l worry about mine
,” I reply
, reaching for the axe and testing its weight and balance.
Reed put
s
on his protective gear to cove
r his skin. It will help shield
him from the touch of the Ganc
anagh, should he need it. He does
n’t draw the hood up over his head, leaving his face exposed.

“Get ready to tes
t that theory, Red,” Russell says
, all
signs of humor
are
gone as he stares
over my head towards the outer wall with the shatter
ed windows. Dark, ominous
storm clouds
are billowing up outside, carrying on the frigid wind a sweet, sticky scent.

Smelling the scent of the Gancanagh is having a debilitating affect on me. It’s almost like
a learned helplessness reaction—
like
struggling is a futile effort.
Reed
wrap
s his arms around me and
holds
me to him
. “You need n
ot stay for this, love,” he says
softly in my ear. “You’ve already done your part. They’re
here. L
eave now and I’
ll join you when it’s done.”

My fear increases instead of
lessening
at his suggestion
. “No!
I’m staying—
we go together…or not at all.”

“Lov
e, they won’t touch me,” he says
with a radiating confidence.
“Use your portal
and I’ll follow you after—
”

“I’m staying.
I’ll have your back,” I reply
, feeling a creeping chill blowing in the windows. “Can you f
eel
that?” I ask
Reed,
a shiver pass
ing
through me as icy currents begi
n collecting around us.

“Feel what?” Reed counters
, looking at me with concern.

“BRRR,” Russell says
next to us.
“
The temperature just dropped 20 degrees.
”

“I can’t feel it,” Reed says
, watching the goose
bumps rising on my arms. “Their magic doesn’t affect me.”

“Well, I’m feelin’ pre
tty damn affected,” Russell mutters
, showing us the hair on his arms standing straight up.

“Push back,” Reed says
,
frowning.
“Don’t let them take control of your environment. Y
ou own it, Russell, you keep it—
defend it.”

“Ri
ght, Red, help me,” Russell says
. Pulling me out of Reed’
s arms and into his own he sweeps
my hair back from my forehead, gazing into my
eyes. “Start pulling energy—
let’s heat it up.”

“What do you have in mind?” I
ask
, pulling energy to me.

“How about we roll out the carpet for them
,” Russell replies
, concentrating.

Reaching
out to Reed next to me, I pull
him into our circle, saying, “We’re kinda loose can
n
ons at this point, Reed. It’s best to stay close when we go off.”

“Noted,” Reed says
, resting his hand on my hip
.

Feeling energy burning me, I say
, “Okay Russ
ell, say the words
.”

Russell
mumble
s
something under his breath. When he squeezes my arm, I turn the
energy
outward. It releases from us in a
mass of
billowing
heat
. Fire
erupts
in the room while
a river of flames
snake
s and wea
ve
s
away from us,
blowing a gapin
g hole in the side of the house
and continuing on toward the beach.

“
Russell,” I murmur
, staring out of the gaping hole in the wall in disbelief. Gancanagh that I’ve never seen before are walking through the burning river of fire from the beach, like we extended a red carpet for them.

Russell scowls,
“Not quite the effect I was goin’ f
or.” He lets go of me and pulls
the machine gun up from
its
place on his back.

“Finally,” Reed breathes
, pull
ing me back behind him, he moves forward
, his sword grasped casually in his fist.

Panic begins to choke me as
my wing
s move in agitation. Taking flight, I
hover
in mid-air
in the midd
le of the room. Gancanagh soldiers branch
out, moving in groups of twos and threes. Whis
pering words to myself, I pull
energy to me, feeling
cold fel
las fighting me for control of it
.
Releasing energy, I form
a shield over the flaming opening in the wall, forcing them to enter through the broken windows.

As the first wave of Gancanagh enter
the house,
they
spider
over the walls with the supernatur
al speed of the undead. Reed does
n’t hesitate, moving t
o them with a dizzy
ing
speed, hack
ing their limbs from them with the brutal force of an avenging angel.

“Where is your king?” Reed gri
t
s
out, not letting the soldier answer him before slicing through
cartilage
and sinew, causing blood to seep in coagulating
dollops
from his severed head.

Rapid gunfire punct
ures
the air from Russell’s gun
as 40 caliber rounds burst forth,
riddling the che
st of several Gancanagh who keep
moving toward him, smiling the eerie smiles of the blissfully dead.

B
ut, Russell does
n’t get a chance to use his sw
ord on them before Reed fa
ll
s
up
on them, cut
ting them down before they can
exhale.
Reed manages
to kill every
one of them in the space of a few seconds.

“Hey, those were mine,”
Russell accuses
.

“Sorry,” Reed says
, shrugging.
“There
will be
more.”

Zephyr burst
s
through the door of the room, carrying Buns under one arm
and Brownie under the other. Se
t
t
ing them on their feet, he asks
, “What did I miss?”

“Just th
e warm-up,” Reed replies
with a grin.

“Ugh, you guys are completely insane
,” Buns says
, straightening her top.

“How’d the
negotiations go?” Russell asks
, not looking at Buns or Brownie, but scanning the exterior of the house, waiting for more undead to drop in.

“I’ll tell you how th
ey went, Russell. They went bad. V
ery, very
,
bad,” Brownie replies
with her brows drawn together
,
while
moving to the vault and plucking a crossbow off t
he rack on the wall. Loading it
and strap
p
ing a quiver of
steel-
tipped ar
rows to her she continues.
“We sorta ran into an impasse when Zee he
re hacked the f
allen
R
eaper’s head off!” She extends her hand to Zephyr who grins
broadly.

“I did not like t
he look of him,” Zephyr shrugs
, checking his sword and the menagerie of knives he has strapped to him. “He was hiding something.”

“Let me skool you, Zee. They’re all hiding something. All of them. No exceptions. Ohhh, we
’
re so d
ead! You filleted him,” she says
, rubbing her forehead.
She then shrugs
into her protective clothing, covering her skin from the Gancanagh’s touch.

“He had nothing on those souls. He was stalling
. Yo
u could see it when he start
ed sweating,” Zephyr counters
, donning his armor.

“Sweetie, maybe you staring at him was making him sweaty
. You’re kinda scary,” Buns says
, catc
hing the bow that Brownie tosses
to her with one hand, plucking the tension of the string while
narrowing her eyes as she looks
through the sight window.

“Yo
u think I’m scary?” Zephyr asks
,
his amazin
g blue eyes shining
.

“Uh
huh,” Buns says
, nodding her
honey-blond
head, “Super scary.”

“Alright, save the bedroom talk for later,” Brownie
says
, rolling
her eyes.