in the fight, but he managed to open a link to me. He says he can hear Conal screaming.” Her mouth tightened. “They’re torturing him.”
“How many wolves?” Helena thrust away the memory of blowtorch pain as fangs ripped into her belly. Looking down to see a coil of something red…
“At least ten. But there’s worse news.” Her jaw flexed. “I tried to open a gate and couldn’t.”
“Siobhan,” Liam spat. The magical geas that bound Maeve and her daughter insured neither could use magic in anything directly involving the other. It was a devil’s bargain from Maeve’s point of view, but she’d have agreed to worse to save her granddaughter. Otherwise Siobhan would have killed the little girl despite Conal’s efforts to save her.
Unfortunately, the geas did nothing to protect Conal, which was apparently why Siobhan had gone after him. She had an uncanny instinct for the best way to hurt her mother. But why now? Helena wondered. It had been thirty years, for God’s sake. Figure it out after you save the hostage. “We’ll take care of it. Where’s Conal now?”
Maeve made one of those sweeping, graceful gestures she used to work magic. A soft tinkle and chime sounded from the bells worked into her braids as her power rose, smelling of ozone. “Essus?”
“I’m… I’m here.” His normally resonant voice sounded from midair, ragged and gasping. In the distance, a man cried out, voice strained through clenched teeth.
Helpless terror as teeth ripped into flesh…”What happened?” Helena demanded.
“We were having… having dinner. Ten werewolves… multiple gates. Conal couldn’t get to his sword. Tried to fight. I raked them… claws… fire blasts. Nothing… Nothing…”
Helena winced. “Magical attacks don’t work on werewolves.”
“How did you get away?” Maeve asked.
“Conal said… ‘Get Maeve.’ So I flew, but… but there was a wolf on the balcony and he… I tried…”
“Are there any wolves in sight now?” Liam demanded.
“No. They’re in… in the first-floor great room… I’m in the upstairs hall outside… outside the balcony.”
“We’re on our way.” Helena reached for her magic and let it roll over her in a stinging blast of whirling energy. Shifting on Mageverse Earth was easier than on its non-magical twin, and she needed every advantage she could get.
Her body flooded with strength and power, even as her center of balance rocked forward onto clawed toes. Helena looked down and saw that her clothing had vanished, replaced by sleek black fur that grew longer on her breasts and groin. Her hands were much larger, tipped with three-inch claws, just as her teeth had grown sharp in her long wolf muzzle. She was going to need every lethal one of them.
Maeve looked up at her, her gaze worried. A moment ago, she’d been eight inches taller, but now she barely came up to Helena’s chin. “Are you ready for this?”
“Of course.” Ten werewolves. Ten. This is going to be bad. But she was no stranger to fear, and it had never stopped her yet. The odds suck, but I’ve got a death god. I’ll get hurt, but I’ll survive. I always do.
Until I don’t, whispered a voice. She ignored it.
Helena drew Liam from the holster belted around her hips. He felt almost dainty in her clawed hand now, more like a derringer than a .38. Unlike the rest of her clothing, he and his gear hadn’t disappeared with her transformation, since she wore him on her hip even in dire wolf form. “Open a gate to Essus.”
“Let me get presentable first,” he said, shifting out of the smart-ass Ladysmith guise to become a sawed-off shotgun with two huge barrels. His gun belt glowed bright around her hips. When the light faded, it had transformed into a long scabbard that ran down her back from right shoulder to left hip. As usual, the swirl of so much magic felt like ants swarming over her skin.
A glowing red point appeared in midair, expanding into a wavering oval that looked like a clear pool of water turned on its side. Looking through the dimensional gate, Helena saw what appeared to be a pile of red and yellow feathers lying in the middle of a long hallway.
“Good hunting,” Maeve said gruffly, the bells in her long hair chiming.
“I will get Conal back.” Helena dipped her head to the goddess and stepped through the gate, reality warping around her as she slipped from one universe to the next.
As her feet touched down on the hallway’s polished wooden floor, the world seemed to go dull and lifeless. The