Many were natural enemies and shouldn’t be able to be together without fighting. Sydney wasn’t sure what the witch had told them to make them play nice, but whatever it was, they’d jumped the moment she called.
As they moved through the woods, a green glowing mist trailed off the witch. She seemed like a siren to the woodland creatures as the group grew ever larger.
“So,” Fiona said when they reached a clearing, “You don’t know me. Why did you want to join me for the boring work?”
Watching the witch expertly communicate with the animals and get such varying species to come along for their plan was anything but boring.
“It was too much back there with everyone. I was about to come out of my skin.” If she’d been more thoughtful, she would have suggested Noah go on this mission, instead. If anyone needed space and to get away from everyone, it was her mate. But Sydney knew he would have refused, insisting on acting as a pack leader. In just a few days he’d become attached to his new role. It was good for him to get out of his shell. He still needed to prove himself, and wandering off in the woods at a time like this wouldn’t accomplish that goal.
“I know what you mean,” Fiona said. She paused when a crow swooped down and started squawking at her. She squawked back. The bird became enraged and dove toward her. She lifted a hand, flicked her wrist, and the bird went sailing back several yards. “Crows are seriously such pessimists.” She squawked once more and the bird flew away.
“You don’t like crowds, either?” Sydney asked.
“I used to be a shut in. Agoraphobia. I was a prisoner in my own home for years because the birds kept telling me that if I left my house something bad would happen.”
Sydney could relate in a way. It wasn’t fear that had held her captive in her own home, but she’d been a prisoner since childhood all the same. “How’d you get over it?”
“Z kidnapped me because he needed a babysitter for Noah. I’m glad Noah’s okay, by the way. I was sad to hear when he’d been taken. I know how heartbroken Jane and Cole were when they lost him the first time.” Fiona stopped walking, and the animals stopped as well. She turned to Sydney. “Cole will accept you eventually. Just give it some time.”
Sydney nodded, concerned that perhaps Fiona could read her mind or something.
“Wait, Z kidnapped you?”
“Yeah, but I don’t think it’s because he wanted a babysitter.”
Given the couple’s relationship now, Sydney was pretty sure about that as well.
Fiona continued through the meadow, speaking to each animal in turn. Some—like rabbits—she dismissed or maybe told to hide. Sydney thought hundreds of aggressive hoppy rabbits might be just as intimidating as all the rest of the assembled wildlife.
“Why are we bringing deer?” she asked. When one thought of hardcore animal fighters, one did not usually picture deer.
“They’re normally quite docile, except during mating season. But they can kick like hell. I wasn’t sure they’d come, but they agreed. Who am I to turn away good help?”
An explosion sounded in the distance. Sydney turned to see sparks of red and purple and green and blue rising into the air. The magic users were there; the fight had already started. It was much faster than she’d anticipated, even with Tam’s warning that they were on their way. What if Noah and Sydney had gotten home just a few hours later than they had? They would have walked in on the fighting. At least Tam had a few days warning.
Fiona moved faster, speaking each species’ language as she reached new animals. Each time, the animals gathered others of their kind and joined them.
When Sydney and Fiona made it down the hill, the melee had begun in earnest. It was almost impossible to tell who was on which side as sparks and incantations flew. Fiona raised her arms as glowing green light trailed from her hands, wavy like strands of electric hair.
Hundreds of animals both predator and prey, running and flying, had paused, waiting for her command. Fiona dropped her hands, and the animals flew into the fray, attacking and distracting the magic users who had come to do them harm.
“Leave no one alive,” Tam shouted from a few hundred yards away. “I’ve already got a messenger.” She held a young scrawny man with red hair by the scruff of the neck. Then she trapped him in a band of energy.
Sydney flinched at the order to kill everyone, even though she knew the score here. It was kill or be killed. Leaving survivors would just create a larger, angrier army to deal with later. Decimating their numbers was the only hope they might be left in peace.
Tam and Cain had brought in hundreds of demons from the demon dimension. They’d no doubt used a nearby portal while Fiona and Sydney had been out collecting animals. Even before the animals were introduced into the fray, the magic users were beginning to become overwhelmed by the demons they hadn’t expected to fight.
Maybe Uncle Cain felt guilty for staying out of the war years earlier. It hadn’t been his fight, and he’d refused to send his kind in to help. The preternaturals might have lost anyway, even with the demons. It was a big war. This, by contrast, was a battle, and the troops the magic users had sent in were ill-prepared to cope with hoards of unexpected demons and all the local wildlife turning on them, too.
Cain and Luc fought with the rest of them, creating a buffer for Tam, Anna, and Dayne to do defensive magic. Aunt Greta was nowhere to be found, but she wouldn’t be. Except for being able to shapeshift into a housecat, she didn’t have any real powers to speak of. She had more than human strength but she wasn’t strong enough for a fight like this. And she couldn’t do magic.
Sydney heard a hiss and looked up. A black cat sat on a limb high in the tree above her. The cat’s body was arched in angry panic. So maybe Aunt Greta hadn’t gone home. She’d pushed through her fear to stay near Dayne.
Fiona wandered up. The witch was wiped out from the magic and commanding the animals. Aunt Greta meowed at her, and Fiona communicated back.
“Dayne will be okay. I’ll head that way.”
The black cat looked mollified but climbed higher in the tree and kept her worried gaze in Dayne’s direction.
Noah fought nearby with a magic user Sydney recognized. It was the woman he’d let go on the night of their escape. What was her name again? Sydney edged closer.
“Kristen, I spared you once,” Noah said. “I can’t do it again.”
But Sydney saw the pain on her mate’s face, and knew that if he could, he’d spare her a second time. Irrational jealousy stabbed her. What had this woman been to Noah? Why did she hold such power over him? Had she only been kind when no one else was during his captivity? Or had it been something more?
Kristen flung a conjured ball of purple electricity at Noah. He growled as it scorched his skin, then she turned and ran. Kristen knew as well as Sydney did that Noah couldn’t bring himself to end her life. But Sydney could.
Hostility and rage surged through her. The woman had been kind enough when Sydney was captured, but the way she looked at Noah, the way he’d hesitated… Somewhere in the irrational place where the simultaneous claim and mating bond lived, Sydney couldn’t let the bitch live.
She pulled a knife from a concealment band under her top and put on a burst of vampiric speed. She’d slit the woman’s throat before Noah could reach them.