Chapter Twenty-Three

I kept the gun in my hand and pulled out a Weather Beater, a spell that would allow me to make a grand entrance. Pausing at the right-hand door this time, I caught the girl peeping out of the closet, watching me.

“Do you know what’s through here?” I asked her.

“A big room. In the middle there’s a giant, like, pit thing. Like a long pit from one side to the other.”

“How many people?”

“There were only a couple when I was in there. Then I came in here with— What happened to the coven?”

“They came down with a case of the stupids.” I rolled my neck. “Here goes nothin’.”

I kicked the door as hard as I could. Wood cracked. The hinges broke. The doorjamb broke away.

Kicking doors was one of my favorite things. I was good at it.

Another kick and it came free, tumbling toward the room beyond.

I peeked in to get the lay of the land.

The room was massive, and just as the girl had described it, there was a gap in the middle, running left to right. Ten feet across, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to jump it. On my side, a handful of men shifted from side to side, startled into turning my way. They’d be throwing spells in a moment. I didn’t have much time.

On the other side, in the left-hand corner, a group of idiots gathered around another bubbling cauldron, probably about to turn themselves into something they couldn’t come back from. A circle had been drawn not far from them, with a human crumpled beside it, clearly dead. The right-hand corner held the object of the dick pic, Mr. Dick himself. Darius was still tied to a stake with a pile of store-bought fire logs piled around his feet.

Chuckles bubbled up inside me at the absurdity.

His gaze was pointed my way, but he was completely relaxed, probably pissed off and wanting me to free him so he could go crazy.

Anticipation heated the fire raging within me. I really wanted to see what damage a vampire like him could do. I suspected it would be awesome.

High up in the middle of the far wall was a circular stained-glass window showering blue light onto a podium. Being that it was night, and the stained glass was not blue, I surmised that the window was magical in an annoying, showy way. A thin figure stood at the podium, straight and tall, with a devil’s mask on.

“Have you come peacefully?” he asked in a slightly muffled and machine-enhanced voice. He was trying to disguise his identity.

“Are you hoping I’ll make fun of you?” I asked. “Because if you keep asking questions like that, it’ll be hard not to.” I noticed the mages spreading out in front of the gap, most with one or more casings in hand, but some holding items. A couple of those mages looked experienced. That was a bad sign.

The building rumbled, and the Dizzy/Callie team keeping the others busy, taking a really long time to just kill them already.

“You are the uncrowned queen,” the mage said, raising his hands. “Bringing you in would grant me a hefty boon.”

“Are you getting that from the demon? Because that’s just silly. They lie, you know.”

He shook, slamming his hands down on the podium. His body went rigid and then he hunched, putting great effort into something. Either the demon was trying to break free, or he was trying to assert his will and smite me somehow. Regardless, it was go time.

I threw the Weather Beater. It hit the ground with a tiny plunk. The rush of a tornado rose out of it, whipping around and catching a mage. It threw him with force, smashing him against the wall. Lightning rained down, hitting another mage. He convulsed, fried by electricity.

A spell sped toward me a moment later, so pale I could barely see it. I could feel it, though, raising my small hairs.

I stashed my gun and ripped out my sword before slashing through the hex, unraveling it. My sword pulled more power, wanting to stay filled. I let it do its thing while running at the nearest mage. I hacked down, chopping his hand, making him drop his spell. Then I ran him through with my blade and turned for the next, kicking out. My foot clipped his jaw, throwing his head to the side. His body followed.

I grabbed out a spell, pinched, and threw. It burned my fingers before I could get it airborne. It ballooned into a ball of light and fell on a mage. He wriggled and screamed, falling to the ground.

That was probably one of John’s spells.

“Take her alive,” the powerful mage yelled.

Yeah, right. Like they had the experience to capture someone of my caliber.

I sliced through the next spell, a weak thing badly realized. Lightning struck beside me. I jumped away, much too close to the Weather Beater. It struck someone else. The last two mages standing on my side of the gap raised their hands, focusing.

“Who has two thumbs and brought a gun to a magic fight? This girl!” I stowed my sword before grabbing my gun. I pointed and shot, taking down the nearest mage. Unlike the zombies, he stayed down, clutching his shoulder. I got the other one in the leg, deciding to leave them for Darius. It was good for my karma. Probably.

As the Weather Beater lost its potency, I stalked to the front of the gap, trying to decide how I wanted to handle this. No one had seen my true magic yet other than that girl, and she was shell-shocked. She wouldn’t remember correctly. I was still in the clear so far.

Weighing my options, I yelled over at the mage, standing behind his podium on a slightly raised platform. “There won’t be a happy ending for you.”

The women in the corner started to chant. I rolled my eyes and swung my gun that way, opening fire. They jerked and screeched, most of them falling down. I was a great shot.

Click, click, click.

I also needed to reload.

“This is your last offer. Join me.” The mage raised his hands over his head.

“No, thank you. You’re too high maintenance.”

The women in the corner changed, hunching. Their words slurred. Hair sprang up all over their bodies as their skin began to rip, tearing down their arms and legs. Fangs grew out of their mouths, and their fingers turned into claw-tipped paws. Snarls replaced their groans of pain.

Magically changed werewolves. What idiots.

Unlike the natural shape-shifter werewolves, which had internal magic passed down through bloodlines, the magically changed variety could infect humans with a bite. The full moon ruled them after their first change. They were the beasts feared in fairytales—hunted mercilessly by the shape shifters, and for good reason.

“Roger is not going to like you very much,” I said, wondering how far they could jump. “But at least it’ll keep him from hounding me. Get it, hounding?”

One of the beasts shuddered, opening its mouth. Saliva dripped from dauntingly large fangs.

“Free me,” Darius yelled, watching the last of the werewolves change. It seemed only his head was free to move. “Free me to deal with them.”

The mage howled in laughter. “And how might she do that?” His hands swung down and in, splayed fingers pointing at me.

A roar of fire burst from between his hands. It shot at me like it would from a massive flamethrower. Feeling the demon within that burst of magic, I stared through the fire as it washed over me, delicious heat tingling my skin.

“So you’re letting that demon take control in order to do hellfire, hmm?” I asked. “That is a dangerous game.”

“What?” he said in a low voice. Then louder: “No!”

I glanced at Darius—nothing more than a flick of my eyes—before firming up my resolution. There was only one way to take down that mage. Only one way to strip that mage of the demon, and then kill the demon so it couldn’t head back to the underworld and reveal what I was.

Darius would witness it all, but I had no choice. For now, I had to trust him in order to get out of here alive. I needed him on my side.

“Oh right, about that queen thing—demons don’t always lie. Just most of the time.” I put my gun away and ran my palm through the air. Fire rose from the stone floor in front of me, answering my call. I spread it out around me, covering the ground and licking at the walls. The demon’s presence pulsed, a heavy feeling in the air.

“No!” the mage hollered. Clutching the podium with one hand, he threw a spell with the other, shaking madly. The demon was rebelling, hearing the call of a stronger master.