“You didn’t think I’d give up that easily, did you?”
Amara looked up to find herself eye to eye with the witch. “Hello. You must be Terri.”
What remained of Terri’s eyebrows crookedly rose. “And you are?”
Amara reached deep into the earth, smiling at the response she got from the forest. The cavalry was on its way. “Let me think. You’re the bat-shit crazy bad guy.” Amara’s smile turned evil. “Guess that makes me the hero.”
Up from the earth sprang a huge rocklike formation that batted down the weeds like bugs and knocked both Terri and Amara off their feet.
Terri jumped to her feet faster than Amara. “How?”
Amara rose and punched the woman right in the nose, sending her sailing across the Throne. “It’s good to have friends.”
Terri howled, and her weeds answered, lifting from the ground and writhing around, but the ground rebelled against the invader. It heaved and moved in a quake that would have destroyed a lesser place.
The mountain did not like having Terri there and was showing her the best way it could, with a little help from Rock. The huge park ranger strode into view, batting weeds aside with massive fists. He’d called on the powers of his element, armoring himself against the thorns that tried to rip into his flesh. The deep, grating sound of stone grinding against stone accompanied him as he stomped across the Throne, decimating everything in his path. Almost half the wolf pack fought at his side, their claws and teeth ripping and tearing with deadly accuracy, their alpha at the front of the battle.
Rock and the wolves entered the fray, and leaving Amara free to concentrate her efforts on Terri. She took a brief moment to wonder where the rest of the wolves had disappeared to, but the mountain took her attention. She could barely stay on her feet.
Terri did her best to evade the flying debris the battle between the mountain and the weeds was throwing up, but both Amara and Terri found themselves pelted. Amara ignored the stinging bite of the rocks, her barklike skin absorbing the blows with ease. Terri, on the other hand, sprayed bits and pieces of herself all over the place, chunks falling off with each hit. She screeched with wrath, dancing around like a lunatic, trying to evade the rocks.
She completely missed seeing the hamadryad haymaker that once again sent her skidding across the Throne.
Terri hopped back to her feet with remarkable speed and flung out her hand, screaming in a strange language. A thin green light surrounded her hand; the witch was casting some sort of spell. Amara braced for whatever Terri was preparing to throw at her. From the hatred in Terri’s voice, she’d bet it was supposed to be lethal.
Arms circled Terri from behind. “Now, pretty, we wouldn’t want to do that, would we?”
Terri grasped Parker’s arm and jerked. “Get off!”
“That wasn’t what you were saying that night in the desert,” Parker cooed. “Don’t you remember how sweet it was?”
Terri stopped struggling. Her head tilted to the side, her eyes closed to half-mast. Her breaths came in short pants. Around her, the erupting earth died down as the forest itself seemed to listen to Parker’s crooned words. “I remember. I remember the night, the sound of the cicadas.”
“The strum of the guitar in the distance. You danced so beautifully.” Parker’s hand drifted down Terri’s mold-covered stomach to brush the dandelion growing beside her navel. “You were like a living flame. Remember? Remember how it was?”
Terri moaned, going lax in Parker’s arms. “I remember.”
“Do you remember the crackle of the wood as it burned in the bonfire? The sparks dancing from it, lighting the sky? The way the firelight danced across your skin, warming it, teasing it?” He swayed, taking Terri with him, dancing to a beat only the two of them could hear.
Amara was going to kick his ass when this was all over.
Parker wasn’t looking down at Terri anymore. He was looking beyond Amara, toward the wood. He nodded once and placed a soft kiss on the side of Terri’s neck. “Do you remember what it felt like to burn with passion?”
Terri shuddered. “Please, Parker.”
“Do you?”
“Yes! Please!” Terri’s head fell back against his shoulder. “Please love me.”
Parker’s eyes closed for a brief moment. When he opened them, they’d turned red. Hunting eyes. “No.”
His claws ripped through Terri’s stomach before he spun away, out of her reach. Terri bent over, gasping, stunned at the betrayal. “Parker!”
Mollie, fire sparkling along her skin, her hair a rippling sheet of flame, stepped next to Amara. She raised her hands, palms out, toward Terri. “Burn.”
The blast of heat knocked Amara back a step. It damn near scorched her. Terri shrieked, the flames engulfing her body, the weeds catching fire faster than Amara would have expected. Mollie kept the flame going, roasting the witch with her inner fire. She followed Terri around the Throne, careful to keep the fire from touching anything else within the grove other than the bits and pieces that had fallen off the witch in the rock blasts. What few sparks did land on the native greenery around the great Oak, Mollie swiftly reabsorbed, much to Amara’s shock. Fire was the hardest element to control, but Mollie appeared to be a master.
Terri was reduced to a smoldering pile, but Mollie kept the flame going. Across the funeral pyre from Mollie Selena chanted, cleansing the soul of the fallen witch even as Mollie’s fire cleansed the body. Soon nothing was left but a pile of ash. The markings on Selena’s face faded, Mollie’s fire slowly died and quiet once more entered the grove.
“You two okay?”
Selena snorted. “We weren’t the ones going toe-to-toe with her. Are you okay?”
Amara nodded, staring at the pile of ash, stunned it was finally over. “Ding-dong, the witch is dead.”
Selena sighed. “She was dead the moment her curse hit her. That wasn’t Terri—that was more of a construct, with the drive the curse gave her and a body that would never die. She would have chased Parker through eternity until he gave up, found his true sotiei and killed her, or something caused his death. Once Parker died, the curse would have released her body or, more likely, found someone new to focus on. The only thing I did was try to ensure she can’t get back up again.”
“Wow.” She couldn’t begin to imagine what Terri would have been like in a couple more centuries. Would she have had even the basic appearance of a human, or would she have been a shambling mass, unable to communicate but hell-bent on claiming her vampire? “Wait. She could get back up? Like a fucking phoenix?”
Mollie groaned and settled on the ground. “Thank the Goddess. I wasn’t happy about killing a person, no matter how badly they needed it. A thing, on the other hand? That I have no problems with.”
Selena sat next to the fire elemental and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Terri was long gone. I’m certain the spell she was trying to cast wouldn’t have worked. It requires a soul to do magic, and hers had long ago vacated the premises. I cleared out the curse, but that’s all I had to do.” She smiled up at Parker. “Any desire for vegetable juice now comes from the fact that your sotiei is a hamadryad. You’re clear.”
Parker smiled back. “Good to know. And thanks, Selena. Mollie.”
“You’re welcome.” Selena nudged Mollie.
Mollie grimaced and muttered, “No problem.”
Dragos landed in front of the women. “Are you all right, ladies?” His eyes glowed red, and his accent was suspiciously thick, but otherwise he seemed to have himself under perfect control.