Kaylin brushed his fingers to his lips and slowly edged up on the Shadow Hunter. He brought out a short dagger, serrated and coated in a magical oil. As he plunged the knife into the side of the Vampiric Fae, aiming for the heart, the oil encouraged the blood to flow and the crimson liquid stained the snow still further.
The Shadow Hunter turned, but I was quicker, stabbing his haunch with my blade and dragging it through his tough hide. Then Kaylin and I lightly danced backward, out of reach of those deadly teeth.
A voice echoed from behind us and I turned to see my cousin Rhiannon, panting as she stretched out her hands, a small red charm in the palm of her right. She whispered, just loud enough for us to hear, "Flame to flame, bolt to bolt, fire to fire, jolt to jolt. Lightning, let me be thy rod."
All hell broke loose as a bolt of snow lightning came forking out of the gathering clouds, ripping to the ground to shatter the Shadow Hunter into a thousand pieces, as if he were a glass dish smashed on concrete.
As soon as the spell sang out of her body, Rhiannon collapsed and Kaylin raced over to catch her. I stared at the remains of the Shadow Hunter and the goblin. Not much left. Nothing to take home with us, except two more notches on our belt, and the hope that we'd be able to sleep soundly, knowing there was one less member of Myst's court in the world. One less toady of hers to slip onto our land.
Kaylin shivered. He was bleeding through the rent in his jacket from the arrow. At that moment, I noticed a trickle running down my own shoulder. I glanced down. A puncture wound had penetrated my jacket. I slipped it off to see blood saturating my top. The goblin must have stabbed me with its claw. I hadn't even noticed.
"We're growing numb to our pain," I said as we turned away from the carnage we'd just inflicted.
"We have to," Kaylin said. "We have to learn to weather the battles because there will be far more to come before things get back to normal. If there even is such a thing as ‘normal' anymore."
I nodded and looked at Rhiannon. "You saved the day." The thank you was implied.
She slipped her arm around my waist and leaned down to kiss my forehead. "I just got home and saw the commotion from the car. Leo's still in town and I don't know where Chatter is."
"In the basement, working with the charms."
"Ah. Good. We'll need them."
"I guess we'd better get back on our land, before anything else comes out of the woods. We need to tend to our wounds and make sure they don't get infected." I wearily turned back to the house.
As we crossed the demarcation line that magically divided the Golden Wood from the Veil House, I couldn't help but shudder. Like it or not, we were pawns in a war between two powerful enemies—Geoffrey and Myst—and we were doing our best just to stay alive.
Chapter 2
"Cicely? Are you ready? It's time." Leo's voice echoed up the stairs. My cousin's fiancé, and a day-runner for the vampires, he'd gotten home shortly after our encounter with the goblin.
After a long shower to wash away my aches and pains, I'd dressed in a cobalt sweater and black jeans, making sure I was neat and tidy. Geoffrey and Regina owned my services—quite literally—and they demanded that their employees appear before them nicely dressed.
My wolf growled as I ran my hand over the tattoo of the beautiful silverish beast that spread across my body, over my stomach.
"Sshh . . . " I whispered. "Hush. I know, I know you're out there hurting, but I can't do anything about it right now."
The wolf growled again and I pressed my lips tight, my heart sore. The memory of Grieve's face, of his hands on my body, his needle-sharp teeth nipping at my skin, swept over me and I dashed my hand across my eyes, careful not to mar the mascara and liner I'd put on. Grieve was lost to the enemy. Myst had claimed him for her own. I was determined to win him back, but in the depths of my heart I was afraid that none of us would come out of this alive.
"Cicely! Get a move on!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." I hurried into my favorite boots—a pair of Icon Bombshells—and slung my purse over my shoulder. Polishing a smudge off my left boot, I decided that I was as good as I was going to get, especially after a tussle with a goblin and a Shadow Hunter.
My hair hung free, smooth and ink-black to my shoulders, and I pulled it back into a sleek ponytail, then slipped on a pair of driving gloves and my leather jacket. I slid my moonstone pendant over my neck and secreted it beneath my sweater, then clattered down the stairs.
"Let's get this show on the road," I said.
Rhiannon was waiting, freshly showered herself, in a pair of khakis she'd paired with a plaid button-down shirt, and a camel wool coat.
My cousin was as bright as I was dark. Heather, her mother, used to call us Amber and Jet—fire and ice. Her hair was flame red, my own jet-black. We were both twenty-six, both born on the summer solstice—she in the waxing hours, me in the waning. I was short and sturdy, Rhiannon tall and willowy. Opposites, yet we had referred to ourselves as twins when we were little.
Leo looked snazzy as usual. Geoffrey insisted he dress well for work, and most day-runners had extensive—and expensive—wardrobes. Leo was lucky. In his case, Geoffrey financed his expenses. Leo's tawny hair was a mass of curls barely skimming his neck and he towered over me, more lean than gangly.
"Be careful," Kaylin said, looking up from his spot on the sofa, where he was reading while petting a half dozen cats who sprawled around him, including Bart, Leo's Maine Coon familiar. "You go off half-cocked and try to stake Lannan and you'll be in a world of hurt."
Lannan. My face flushed and I let out a low growl. Lannan Altos was near the top of my wish-you-were-dead list, only slightly lower than Myst. He was a vampire—one of the Vein Lords—and I was bound to him by an ironclad contract. He'd mind-fucked me once already while drinking the monthly blood tithe I owed him. Next time it would be worse.
Lannan wants to break you, Ulean whispered on a light current of air.