one was in trouble, often the others knew and immediately set out to find them. “Good hunting, my brother.”
Benedek nodded. “Same to you, ekäm.”
Isai took to the skies, allowing his brethren to fight the hellhounds. In the many centuries each had lived, they had encountered the demonic beasts and learned the best ways to kill them. Unfortunately, as he had learned, these creatures were spellbound and replenished when one went down. They would try to follow him because they were programmed to kill him, no one else. Barnabas hadn’t counted on the brethren coming when they felt his need.
Isai took the form of a snow flurry as he neared the place where he had left Julija destroying the book. Occasionally, he caught a glimpse of one of his cats, but mostly their bodies were transparent now, as they were hunting, just as he was. He spotted Barnabas bending over Julija’s limp body and plunging a dagger into her. Each time he did, he made shallow cuts and licked at the crimson drops.
Isai pushed fury away. He couldn’t allow anything of himself to get in the way of getting his lifemate back. Before he could decide what to do, he saw Julija’s gaze shift to one of the cats. She was not only alive but thinking. Gathering her strength. Deciding what to do. She had a plan. More than anything he wanted her to throw Barnabas out of her mind, but that wasn’t the most critical thing for her to do.
“You didn’t take my voice, Barnabas.”
“Your screams are delightful, my pet.” Deliberately Barnabas bent his head to kiss her eyes and cheeks and then down her throat, the dagger poised in his fist.
Earth unbind me. Air set me free.
Thunder away. Lightning may I see no more.
Fire now burn, releasing this spell.
Water I command you to become a wall.
As water’s wall is built, I bring forth fire for steam,
Separating all so none may be seen.
Julija whipped up both hands and stabbed her fingers into Barnabas’s eyes, immediately rolling out of his hands to land on her hands and knees in the bloodstained snow. Barnabas swore repeatedly, his hands coming up to his face where his eyes were streaming. He murmured a quick spell to relieve the pain and damage.
Harm sent to me by sacred steel.
I now reverse your direction seeking only the evil that yields.
Julija staggered a few feet from Barnabas, and instantly Blue leapt out of the shadows and sank his teeth into Barnabas’s neck. Belle attacked from behind him. Comet and Phaedra assisted in pulling him down. Even as they did, he shouted out a spell and the cats fell to the ground panting. Before he could retaliate against them, Isai was there, driving Barnabas away from them—and Julija.
She tried to reach out to him, to merge mind to mind, but Barnabas’s spell had forced a separation. Immediately she countered it.
That which dwells in darkness,
I banish you from my mind.
Allowing only that which is tied by love,
To merge within my mind.
As Isai slammed his fist deep into Barnabas’s chest, the dark mage struck hard, using a spell to splinter the ancient Carpathian. Isai’s body separated into what appeared to be numerous life-sized paper dolls. Barnabas smiled his most charming smile and blew on the one closest to him so they fell like dominos almost at Julija’s feet.
“You shouldn’t have made me angry, pet,” he advised. He turned his right hand palm up and began to make a circle with his left over his palm. As he did so he began a little singsong chant. Orange and red flames licked at his palms, forming a ball that grew and grew.
Julija’s heart pounded so hard it hurt. She took a deep breath, not daring to look away. As Barnabas casually tossed the ball toward Isai’s splintered body, she whispered her counterspell.
I call the clouds above,
Bring forth your waters, stopping fires hold.
Let droplets of water dissipate and drown that which would burn,
Returning it all to ground.
Isai rolled, the splinters bonding together as he came to his feet. Both Barnabas and Julija stared at him in shock as he faced the dark mage, his body slightly in front of hers. He bowed toward Barnabas.
“Surely you did not think you were the first to ever use a splinter spell.”
Isai touched Julija’s mind. She felt him come into her and she nearly lost it, wanting to cry with relief. He sounded the way he always did. Confident. He looked invincible.