He stared stoically forward. “There is no way to help them. The Camazotz are summoned from the Underworld for protection. Selene has paid for them with a piece of her soul. Their claws are like razor blades, their teeth venomous. They are things feared even in the Underworld. We cannot stop them.”
“Bullshit!” I yelled in frustration, throwing my hands in the air. “If they exist, there’s a way to defeat them. They have to have a weakness.” My voice was frantic. “Think, Eamon. My friend is dying and I’m going to help him, even if I have to run out there on my own. If you know Selene, and know where they came from, they have a flaw. Think!”
“A witch’s spell,” Eamon said with hesitation. “It might have an effect on them, but only temporarily. It won’t kill them. The Camazotz are born of demons, and demon magic is born of the blood. Witches have an innate protection against blood magic. Their spells are crafted of the earth. But no witch is strong enough to kill them completely.”
“A spell?” The darts from Tally. Tallulah Talbot was a powerful witch. If her magic wasn’t strong enough to knock these things out for a few precious seconds, then no spell was. “I have spell darts in my pack.” I dove to my backpack and tore open the zipper. I snatched the darts off the top and unrolled the fabric, careful not to shred it in my haste. I had no idea which one to pick. They were color coded, but there were no helpful labels or instructions. Two blue, two green, one orange, and one yellow. They were different hues than any of Marcy’s. “Which one do we use?” I looked up at my brother, who stood beside me.
He knelt down. “There aren’t enough darts in there to hit every devil.”
Danny howled, and both Tyler and I wrenched our heads in his direction. He crawled toward Naomi, ripping the beasts off his body as he went. “Get the bloody hell off of me!” he roared. “You will not be the end of me. Naomi, stay with us! Naomi!” He reached her and started to yank them off her, only to have them reappear a second later.
“We have no choice.” I jumped up with the spell case in my hand. “We have to start throwing them or they’re going to die.” I gritted my teeth as I watched Danny continue to struggle. “Tyler, we have to act!”
“Aim the darts at their bodies instead,” Eamon said, walking toward me. “When the spell explodes into their bloodstream, it will instantly contaminate all the winged devils. The Camazotz are consuming their flesh and drinking their blood; they will absorb it by proxy.”
I met my brother’s eye as I held the darts. “Which color? We have freezers, sleepers, and two others, no kills. Choose.”
“Blue,” he said. “Try blue.”
I plucked out the two blues, rolled the case back up, and set it down on my pack. Then I walked as close as I could to the last tree before the clearing. I wedged the outside edge of my shoe against the bark for support and drew back my arm to take aim. Then I faltered. We had only a few precious spells and I couldn’t risk missing my target. If I threw it at Danny and it bounced off one of those the stupid blood-sucking rodents, we lost. New plan.
“Danny! Danny!” I called. He turned toward me, hearing my voice. “I have two spells.” I waved my hand in the air. “I’m going to throw them to you and you’re going to pierce Naomi and then yourself. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
His face was bloody and ravaged. One of his eyelids looked like it was completely gone. Most of his face was covered so I couldn’t see his expression. I couldn’t tell if he understood me or not.
“Danny!” I shouted as I held up the potions again and waved them. “Do you see me? I’m going to throw these to you.” I mimicked tossing them underhand. “You have to catch them and inject Naomi and then yourself!” If he injected himself first, he would be spelled and out cold, so he had to hit Naomi first.
After a moment, he seemed to understand. He turned to Naomi, but instead of turning back to me, he started mindlessly pulling more off her, ignoring me completely.
“Tyler, he’s not listening,” I cried. “Or he can’t understand me anymore. I have to go out there and do it myself. We’re running out of time. Naomi hasn’t moved in too long. I can’t let them die. I’ll run out fast. We know what to expect. I’ll drag them as close as I can back to you before the bastards eat me and I’ll spell them. Then you can shoot me with another dart.”
Tyler hooked me around the waist as I took a step forward. “You are not going out there, Jess. Do you hear me? They will eat you alive, Lycan or not,” he growled. “If Danny’s not listening, make him listen. If that doesn’t work, I’ll go out there.”
“How do I make him listen? I just yelled at him and he ignored me.”
“Your wolf is above his and he’s submitted to you already. I’d do it, but Danny might not listen to me. Command him. Force him to hear you.”
Danny’s wolf had recognized and submitted to me the first time he’d seen me in my Lycan form. “Are you sure it will work?”
“Fuck no!” Tyler shouted. “But it’s the only thing we have left. Do it!”
I gathered as much power as I could and shoved it into my voice. “Daniel Walker! Listen to me!” The sound echoed out of my body in a strong, steady current. I wasn’t sure how much to use, so I threw everything I had at him. “Stop!”
Danny froze, his stunned gaze turning to meet mine.
It worked.
“I’m going to throw something to you. You will catch it,” I told him, strength vibrating my vocal cords. “Insert one dart into Naomi and then one dart into yourself. Do it immediately! Do you understand me?”
He nodded slowly. As he stood, he batted the devils away from his face so he could see.
I was at the very edge of the boundary. A pulse of energy hit me as my foot strayed past the tree. A shock of warning. How could Naomi have missed it? It raced through me like an alarm, running up my leg and back down my spine. I yanked my foot back. The magic had a menacing undertone. I’d never felt anything like it.
Danny opened his arms to ready himself and I lobbed a single dart underhanded. He stumbled forward to catch it. It hit his open palm and he curled his fingers around it, capturing it without breaking it. Then I threw the next one. Once he held both, I yelled, “Go! Pierce Naomi first and then yourself. Do it now!”
He jerked around and fell to his knees next to her. There was a mass of devils on her chest. He ripped them off, their mouths saturated with blood, and plunged the dart deeply into her stomach.
She convulsed once and went still.