The horse pulled back and my stomach bounced as we settled in a horizontal position. I opened my eyes. We were low enough now that I could clearly make out buildings and streets as we flew two hundred feet above ground, give or take.
The sign for 195th Street came into view and my pulse rose. We were near. Houses and shops lined the streets. My eyes locked on to the nearest bodega. I scanned the dark alleys next to it, my eyes squinting in the wind. I should have brought goggles.
And then I saw him.
“There!” I shouted, pointing at the barely visible shape of a person looming over another in a dark alley. “Take me down right next to that alley behind that apartment building. But not too close. I don’t want to ruin the surprise.” I’ve got you now, you sonofabitch.
Pegasus did as I commanded, tucking his wings and diving for that alley. He landed in an expert canter, folded his wings and knelt. I slid off his back and fell to the ground. Yeah, not exactly the graceful landing I’d envisioned, but after squeezing my thighs like that for so long, I couldn’t feel my legs.
Ignoring Poe’s laugh, I pushed myself to my feet. “You have until sunrise to return to the Netherworld,” I told the horse, rubbing my thighs to try and get the circulation back. “Unless you want me to send you back now?”
Pegasus shook his head, gave a neigh that sounded a lot like a thank you, and then, with a great beat of his wings, he soared into the air like a giant black eagle and disappeared into the night sky.
Pretty horse. I was definitely going to use him again.
I whirled around and started running, pulling on my sigil ring as I shot towards the alley.
“Gotcha, you filthy bloodsucker,” I cried, as I turned the corner and stumbled into the alley.
The vampire was leaning over what I assumed was Charlotte’s granddaughter’s body. The pull of his dark magic was strong, and the air grew cooler the closer I got to him.
I slowed my run to a walk. “It’s over, you sonofabitch,” I panted.
The vampire turned around.
I froze.
Trouble was, he wasn’t a vampire at all. He was a witch.
28
“You!” I cried, shocked and pissed all at the same time. “No. It can’t be.” My mouth fell open, torn between fury and shock, and my face went cold.
Darius stood very slowly and turned to face me. “Yes, it’s me,” said the elderly male witch as he straightened. His black robe swished around him, and his bald head was covered with a cowl.
I frowned. His face looked different, smoother and younger somehow. His beard was dark and marked with silver, and he was taller than I remembered. Gone was the old, crippled man bent with age, and in his place stood a younger, stronger version of the head of the dark witch court.
There was only one way he could have regenerated his body like that. He was consuming the witches’ magic and lifeforce.
Somehow he had figured out how to suck the lifeforce out of the witches, just like a demon.
My body shook as the realization dawned on me. “You twisted bastard. What have you done?” I raged. The flutter of wings sounded as Poe settled himself on a nearby post. My gaze moved to the witch who lay at his feet. Her face was pale, but smooth with fleshy cheeks. She was still alive. He hadn’t drained her yet.
“What I must,” answered Darius, like that was supposed to mean something to me.
A snarl escaped me. “I don’t know how you figured it out, but you must have made quite a deal with a powerful demon if they told you how to drain the lifeforce of a witch. That’s some serious twisted shit. And probably really forbidden.”
Darius smiled like I’d just given him a compliment. “Our numbers are failing. But demons are on the rise. They’re coming for us. Don’t you understand? Soon they will break free from their world and destroy us all,” he said, a feverish gleam in his eyes. A bestial grunt jerked from his throat. “I won’t let them. They will not control our magic, and I will not be tethered to them. I will not be their slave.” He reached up and touched the scar on his face. “Never again.” He lowered his hand, his eyes meeting mine. “Once I had the spell, I took what was rightfully mine.”
“I don’t care what happened to you in the past,” I growled, my head throbbing with rage. “Their lives were not for you to take.” Disgust and adrenaline sparked through me. “You killed them. You evil sonofabitch. And for what? So you wouldn’t have to summon up some demon for more power? How demented is that? These witches had families who cared about them. They were daughters. Mothers. Wives. You had no right to take away their lives.”
Darius smiled. It was an odd thing having a younger face but still the stained and worn teeth of an old man. “Yes. That is exactly right. I took their lives.” He blinked and then stared at me with yellow, glowing eyes—the eyes of a demon.
Bile rose in the back of my throat. “You’re a sick, sick, little witch, and a fucking coward,” I said, and Poe cawed in approval. “It’s why you didn’t want the vampire court involved. Isn’t’ it?” I said. “Because they would have found you out. And they would have killed you.”
I felt a cold pulse of magic rippling in the air, dark and powerful as it wove around us. He was trying to intimidate me with his magic. It wasn’t working.
I took a step forward, challenging him while spindling my own magic from my ring. “Since we’re having this lovely chat. Tell me. Why didn’t you kill me when you had the chance?”
He watched me, and his smile became wider, more impish and demon-like.
“Why only female witches?’ I pressed. “Why not the males?”
“Because the young female witches are so easily persuaded to help—” he bent down, imitating his older self, “—poor old Darius.” He straightened, a dark laugh rumbling in his chest. “Naïve. But that’s in your nature. The females always are.”
I cocked a brow. “It’s in my nature to kill your ass.”
Darius gave me a wicked smile, his dark magic pulsing around us and coming toward me.
My eyes flicked to a metal garbage bin to my left. “Rebis Tollunt!” I shouted and flung out my hand, sending the heavy metal bin straight for the old witch like a missile.
With a simple flick of his wrist, Darius sent the bin crashing into the wall of the neighboring building. Impressive for a witch. But I was just getting started.
Heart thrashing, I pulled on the magic of my sigil ring and cried, “Hasta Feuro!” A yellow-orange spear-like fire shot from my extended hand.
The old witch clapped his hands together, and my spear exploded into tiny sparks.
Darius snarled, the whites of his eyes showing as dark magic dripped from his hands.
“Oh. Shit.”
He flung his hands at me.
“Sphaeras!” I shouted, and a sphere-shaped shield of golden energy expanded over me just as his tendril of darkness hit. My sphere shook, and then it fell.
“This isn’t going so well,” I said as fear pounded through me. The bastard was very powerful.
The raven cawed above me, and Poe dove for Darius, a black arrow of death. As fast as a bullet, in a blur of black, Poe went for the witch’s eye.