Chris was swearing and straining against the door, which had jammed open. I scrambled to my feet and drew my knives. Not my guns—I didn’t want to kill either Kevin or Michelle unless I absolutely had to. But I wasn’t going to let us be turned into dog chow either.
The helicopter was probably thirty feet in the air when the wolves reached us. Michelle circled under us, howling her rage and frustration. Kevin didn’t even slow. Instead, he poured on the speed and hurled himself upward in a mighty leap that actually brought his front paws onto the skid. He was struggling to pull the bulk of his body up when I stepped to the opening. I met his gaze. This time I was the one who smiled. Showing my knives and flashing fang, I formed thoughts and projected them individually and distinctly, directly into his mind: I. Don’t. Think. So.
He let go, landing with a thud and a yelp of pain. As we flew off, I saw him rise and shake himself before the wolves ran off to together to find other, easier prey.
I slid my knives back into their sheaths and waddled to the front of the chopper, leaning into the pilot’s area “Take us to the Needle,” I ordered.
“Are you nuts?” Rob answered. “That’s a no-fly zone.”
“My people are under attack. I need to be there yesterday.”
Rob turned to look at Chris, who was shoving past me to take the copilot’s seat. “Boss?”
Chris met my gaze. He got a strange look on his face, and I noticed that the charm he’d worn earlier was nowhere in sight. “Do it.”
Had I influenced him? Maybe. Maybe not. If I had, it wasn’t deliberate. “If you say so.” Rob sounded doubtful, but he turned the chopper and hit the throttle hard enough that I had to grab a handhold to keep my balance. I don’t know how fast we were going, but the scenery was a blur, and the engines were running loud. Rob shook his head and hit a yellow button on the console. Suddenly there was utter silence. I could hear our harsh breathing and the rapid beating of four pulses.
I looked at Chris, a silent question in my eyes.
“Stealth mode,” he answered, looking more like himself. “They won’t see or hear us. It’s damned dangerous—we’re risking a midair collision—but nobody else is supposed to be flying around there and we don’t want to get shot at.
Very cool.
“I don’t know how long it will work. They’re tapping into a node, and that’s going to disrupt any magic in the area.”
Rob scowled. Chris sighed. “Nothing is ever easy with you, is it?”
Emma appeared in the doorway next to me. Her expression was distant, as if she were watching a movie inside her head. Then again, she probably was. I had no doubt her clairvoyant abilities were putting on quite a show. “We need holy water—lots of it.”
Chris sighed again and unfastened his seat belt. He shoved roughly past Emma and me, moving steadily despite the jouncing ride and the wind coming in through the open cargo door. Squatting, he opened a cabinet beneath the seats where Emma and I should have been sitting and started drawing out weaponry, a full-auto Uzi with ammo, pistols, and finally two odd-looking pieces of equipment that I’d never seen before. They looked a bit like flame throwers, but the tanks were marked with a cross and labeled HOLY WATER. They were obviously meant to be worn strapped on the back.
I grabbed one and put it on, grunting with effort. It was much heavier than I’d expected from its size.
Chris said, “They’ve been spelled. The tank holds four times as much as it should. I have no idea how they’ll hold up around the node.”
There was only one way to find out.
He passed me a belt laden with hand grenades marked with a bright gold cross. He had holy hand grenades. I found myself grinning. “Tell me these are from Antioch.”
“Not funny, Graves.”
“Two minutes,” Rob called over his shoulder. “We’re going in hot. It’s ugly down there.”
Emma started to reach for the second tank, but Chris shook his head. “No way. You’re strong, but you’re not strong enough. And Dawna would murder me if I let you both get killed. I’m in enough trouble already. You’re staying here.” As he said it, he hefted the second tank, slipping his arms through the straps.
“My husband is down there,” Emma retorted, but Chris just shook his head.
Her husband? I didn’t say anything—there was no time for it—but if I lived through this, I’d be asking Emma some very pointed questions. I went to the door. Despite the long drop to the ground and the gusting winds, I was determined to see what we were in for. I was trying to take advantage of our position to get a sense of what was happening.
It was eerily familiar. Everything was laid out just as the Wedjeti stones had shown Dottie and me.
The two circles of power were less than a mile apart. To the west, I saw a smaller force in the middle of a ring surrounded by two parallel walls of sandbags. The first wall served as cover for the troops and vehicles. The inner wall protected the mages. From above, I couldn’t make out their identities; all four wore shapeless gray, hooded robes. The magic they wielded was colorful enough to compensate; it glowed a beautiful sapphire blue, creating a blinding glare.
Our fighting force—fifty men and women—was arrayed in a full circle between the sandbag walls. I couldn’t see individuals, but I knew Bubba and Talia were down there.
I turned to the east and my stomach dropped. The circle of power there was huge, glowing a vivid ruby red. Only three mages stood. The fourth—it had to have been Connor Finn—lay still on the ground. I hoped he was dead and that he had died painfully. Even with Connor gone, the enemy’s magic glowed brighter than ours, and by that light I could see a force easily four times the size of ours moving inexorably westward like a single entity. As I watched, there was a flash and a missile flew into the western encampment.
I heard the deafening roar of the explosion, saw bodies blown to bits.
I didn’t throw up. But I wanted to.
Closing my eyes, I concentrated on my siren telepathy, sending out a message to everyone I could reach in our encampment. This is Celia Graves. We’re in the chopper between you and the enemy. Hold your fire.
I said the same thing out loud, ordering Bubba and Talia to make sure the people in charge knew it was me. If I got killed, I didn’t want it to be from friendly fire.
Emma came up beside me. She was wearing the Uzi. With calm determination she wrapped her arm in a strap by the open door. “Half of them are spawn. They’re not even trying to look human. The holy water will injure them enough that the bullets can kill them. Go for a wide arc. I’ll be shooting behind where you spray.”
I turned to look at her face as the chopper began its descent. This grim woman wasn’t the Emma I knew. Then again, I shouldn’t have been surprised. She’d been tormented by a demon once and she was fighting for the lives of people she loved. I nodded as the chopper’s stealth spell failed and the sound of the engines returned with a deafening roar.
Chris tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to see that he’d clipped two lines of black rope to a bar just inside the door. He was handing me gloves like the ones he was already wearing. I pulled them on as Rob prepared to fly us into the center of the melee, a no-man’s-land between the two forces.
I thought of the death stone, lying alone in the center of my hospital bed, and shouted, “Wait! Not here.” I grabbed Chris’s arm before he could throw cables out the open door.