I jumped out and rounded the front of the van to join my boss.
The coven had hidden behind trees and bushes. I’d spotted over half of them within the first ten seconds of my search. But they weren’t the threats. I was concerned about the ones I couldn’t place.
Something came flying at Vayl from the lower branches of a huge old fir tree. He dodged left to miss it, and it landed at my feet, a mutated pinecone that flamed first red, then black as it ate its way into the earth. I took aim, but Vayl beat me to her, leaping into the tree like a panther, his powers leaving a wake of frost behind him. She dropped first, a frozen corpse, touched by the cantrantia of a wraith. He followed, landing in a crouch, his fangs bared as he searched for his next victim.
Movement inside the cairn we’d toured earlier caught my enhanced vision. “Come out of there right now or I start shooting!”
“Don’t! We’re on our way!” A line of three women paraded down the narrow path. The GhostCon lanterns, already lit in anticipation of the tours that would begin in an hour or so, shone on their pale and unrepentant faces.
“Raise your hands!” I yelled. I counted palms, coming up with an uneven number just as the third woman jerked her hidden hand out and pointed at me, as if accusing me of some heinous crime. I hit my knees and rolled behind a standing stone, my hair rising off my scalp as one of the cairn rocks spun to the spot I’d just vacated and exploded. I covered my head until the hail of fragments slackened, then popped cover just long enough to bring her down. She’d probably been a grandmother.
A piercing scream from deeper in the woods brought me to my feet. “Cole,” I whispered, though my mind insisted no man could take his voice that high, not even under torture.
I ran in that direction, holding out my free hand for Vayl to grab. Together we raced into the forest, a couple of night creatures prepared to deal death to anyone who blocked our paths.
We stopped just outside a clearing made unnatural by the creatures inhabiting it. I was sure it was only the second time Inland Taipans had ever set foot, er, scale in Scotland.
Floraidh stood with her back to us, trying to get Cole to vacate the spot where Dormal had dumped him, probably during the wreck. She’d rammed the Big Red into a huge spruce, hitting it so hard that the headlights shone into one another. I couldn’t see her at all. Maybe she’d been thrown under the low-growing branches of another tree.
A ravine drew a line between us and them. The depth of a grave and just wide enough that even a world-class long jumper couldn’t make the leap, it divided the clearing on the diagonal without even a fallen tree to simplify the crossing. Moss covered the ground on both sides, and in places small patches of white wildfë ofarilowers reflected the moon’s light. The place probably made visitors gasp in delight during the day. Right now it made me want to puke. Mainly because Floraidh kept slapping Cole, and his only response was a groggy roll of the head.
Vayl touched my arm, calling my attention to Dormal. She’d just walked out of the trees on the opposite end of the glade, but still on Floraidh’s side of the land split. The collision hadn’t improved her hair, leaving it ratty and full of pine needles. Her dress, a dark brown sack that might’ve doubled as a grain tote, had ripped at the hem, but she’d left the shard of material to hang like a lifeless tail. She resembled a homeless woman who’s just gotten her fix for the day. Her mouth moved without emitting sounds. Her fingers rubbed together as if she was fantasizing about money. And she scented of burning pitch.
But none of that mattered.
For her it was all about the snakes, at least a hundred of them this time, slowly closing in on Floraidh and her captive. Now I understood why Cole thought he’d seen Dormal crying in the castle. Sweat ran down her cheeks like tears, and her shoulders shook from the effort it took to control the animals as they slithered over one another’s bodies, often rising three or four feet like cobras in an effort to intimidate each other. And when that didn’t work they struck, trading bites that left both reptiles twitching in the wake of their brethren.
We’d finally found Bea. Now it all clicked into place. Of course I hadn’t picked up on Bea’s otherness, because I was already sensing Dormal’s abilities and writing them off to Scidair.
Floraidh looked over her shoulder, the whites of her eyes practically glowing in the dim light of the glade. “Dormal, you have to understand!” Floraidh cried. “This is the only way to bring Edward back—”
“Fuck Samos!” Dormal cried, temporarily losing track of her spell and the snakes as a result. The mass stopped. Milled. Began to fight. Those on the outskirts glided off to find more reasonable-sized prey. “I told you we didn’t need him! But would you listen? No, you were smitten the moment he slithered into Tearlach. Just like one of these Damned Ones, he was. Lovely and smooth on the outside. But dripping with venom! I won’t lose you to him twice! Better you should die to one of his nature than fall prey to his intrigues again!”
Floraidh gave a mighty heave that ripped Cole’s sleeve, exposing most of a lean, tanned shoulder. But she still managed to pull him to his feet just in time to save his toes from a curious Taipan tongue. “Dormal, please! We’ll do anything you say! Just don’t let us die this way!”
Cole’s eyes finally focused. “Did somebody say die?” He looked down. “Shitsuckers! The ground’s moving!” He tried to back up, couldn’t because of the trees crowding him, and shook Floraidh until her head rocked. “Do something!” he yelled.
Floraidh’s response was to scamper up the nearest branch, leaving Cole to try to haul himself up after her. It didn’t work as well for him since his brain hadn’t quite reconnected with his extremities. But then she grabbed his outstretched hand. Moments later they were perched beside each other like a couple of enormous bats, Cole bitching at Floraidh like she hadn’t just thrown him in the back of an overgrown golf cart and hauled him into the woods to act as her lab rat.
“Why didn’t you throw some kind of counterspell down there?” he demanded. “You’re supposed to be the big bad coven leader. Kick some ass already!”
“I can’t!” Floraidh cried. “All my powers are tied up in the resurrection.”
“I told you not to waste yourself on that brute!” Dormal screamed. “What will you have left when he returns? You’ll be nothing but an empty husk!”
“You don’t know that!” Floraidh yelled back.
Great, the cats are fighting and the snakes can climb trees, I thought as Dormal began chanting again and the Inland Taipans responded in force. I elbowed Vayl, pointed to a spot where I thought I could get a clear shot without endangering Cole. He blinked, nodded, even smiled a little as if everything was just fine. But he’d bitten his bottom lip as we’d watched the snakes advance. And while blood trickled down his chin, everything below his neck seemed to have frozen in place. I despise snakes, his wide eyes told me.
I nodded my understanding. Wished he hadn’t lent his cane to Albert. Though his innate powers kept him well armed, he’d have felt better with his sword in hand.
Aha! I reached into my pocket, pulled out my bolo, and offered it to him. A nearly audible pop as he took it and relief loosened all his major muscles.
Using the new skills I’d developed in my funky joinage with Trayton, I slunk to the new location I’d picked. Dammit! She’d moved, pressing her left side against a thick-trunked oak as if she needed the extra support while she conducted the slitherage.