Chapter 31

31

Work with an endirim. Two endirim. Lilis’ brain centered on that one impossible thought. Voices swirled around her.

“We breathe fire.” Longwei’s voice rose above the others. “We have nothing to offer that Sparkles over there hasn’t already tried.”

“There’s plenty you can try!” Kas roared. “You can fly over it to get a better sense of its size and shape. You could drop things onto it from above. You could try ripping it out of the ground! Use your brains! This tree is a danger to you , too.”

Lilis’ entire body quivered as she fought herself. Fought to respond, fought to keep her emotions in check so she didn’t accidentally let something slip through her bond with Simon. But he had just proposed working with the very creatures who’d ensured his death thousands of years ago.

“Would you prefer to just give up?” Naleli sat, her back against a large oak, one hand drawing circles in the soil with her fingers. With the completion of a larger circle, a small wave of power pulsed outward. As it moved, the colors of the surrounding foliage deepened, grew more vivid, as though someone were adjusting the saturation of the view around them.

The power passed through Lilis.

Just like the other waves of energy lifetimes ago.

She snapped, millennia of fear taking her over. “ Cut that shit out! ”

The conversation stopped. Naleli froze, her gaze settling on Lilis. Lilis began to pant, trying hard not to let images of holding Divit overrun her. Simon isn’t Divit. He’s okay. Don’t get scared.

But one glance at Simon confirmed her worst fears. Pale and sweating, he hunched over, eyes squeezed shut.

Shit! I’m doing what they did! She was overwhelming Simon with her energy, just like the waves of endirim energy that had overloaded Divit lifetimes ago.

Her trembling turned into full body shakes that threatened to tear apart the very ground under her feet. As if to taunt her, the scent of manjeja demons rose in her nose, her memory mixing two horrific encounters.

And then Simon’s strong arm came around her from behind, wrapping around her chest. Reassuring. Warm. Firm. Protecting her from the waves of energy, the haunted memories.

And a tiny spark of calm blossomed in her chest, soothing her as it moved outward, spreading through her like liquid rock. Slow. Inescapable. Had to be earth energy from the endirim. Lilis blew out a shuddering breath and begrudgingly nodded at Naleli. “Thank you.”

Naleli’s eyebrows lifted, eyes widening in surprise. “That wasn’t me.”

Lilis rolled her eyes and pulled away from Simon. “Just take the gratitude. If you’re that embarrassed about helping me, don’t fucking do it next time.” She addressed everyone. “Sorry, but I have a question. Do we actually have a plan? Or have we just decided that we’re all so big and strong we don’t need one?”

“Option B.” Longwei pointed at Kas and Naleli. “This is stupid, and you’re stupid. You ran out of ideas, so you called us. But we’re not going to make anything better for you because we don’t. Have. Different. Abilities! Got it? Nothing’s changed! Hey, do you guys smell something?”

“You’re smelling your own arrogance.” Simon’s deep voice resonated with self-confidence. “And plenty has changed now. You’ve got me.”

“I like you, Nurse Sexy, I really do.” Longwei glanced around the trees and scattered camping equipment of their surroundings as he spoke. “You’ve got a great touch and all, but we don’t need a healer for this one.”

“Nope,” Simon agreed cheerfully. “You don’t. You need a human perspective.”

Kas snorted. “You think you know more about this tree than Naleli?”

Simon reached around Lilis for a marshmallow and popped it in his mouth. He grinned at Kas and took his time finishing his treat. “Last summer, my landlord needed to get rid of a particularly stubborn tree stump, and the removal company recommended hammering in copper nails. The copper seeped into the wood and slowly poisoned it. Took a few months, but we don’t have that stump anymore.”

“So copper and time is all we need? That’s great. Except we can’t get anywhere near it,” Kas muttered.

“And we don’t have a few months,” Naleli added.

“ And it’s a full tree, not a stump,” Longwei put in with a self-satisfied smile.

Simon chuckled.

How could he always be so positive in the face of people tearing him down? The one human in a group of demons and endirim somehow managed to be in charge.

Effortlessly.

“How have you guys survived for thousands of years?” Simon shook his head before addressing Naleli. “You know about this tree, so you must have some idea of a heavy metal that could kill it, right? Maybe not copper, but something else? Drive enough spikes in, you’ll probably at least weaken the tree until it stops producing that poison, and then you can remove it however you like. It wouldn’t take months.”

Longwei’s features scrunched. “But once the spikes go in, how do we know that our tree won’t just absorb or eat them, like some demented Venus fly trap?”

“Because we won’t put them in the tree.” Naleli sat forward, a calculating gleam in her eye. She waved her hand over the ground in front of them, and the dirt lifted into the shape of a small model oak. She held up her other hand, and several thin twigs flew into her grasp. “We’ll put them in the soil surrounding the tree.” She pressed the sticks in a circle into the ground around her small creation. “Like this.”

Longwei nodded sagely. “Good thinking. That’ll only take thirty or forty times as long as the original plan.”

Naleli narrowed her eyes at him. Though she didn’t move, the soil around each small twig darkened in widening circles. “With the right metal, I can retake control of the earth around the tree and devastate it from the inside out. Our only problem is getting close enough to it to get the spikes into the ground.”

“I thought that part was obvious.” Simon spoke with relaxed confidence. “I’ll go.”

“No.” The word flew out of Lilis’ mouth before she even thought it. Her breathing sped up, and her heart raced. Again, the scent of manjeja demon threatened to make her lose her grip on reality. Stay calm.

If she transformed now, it wouldn’t be like the last time. Adrenaline and the healing strength she’d shared with Simon had protected him from the energy she’d transferred in her dragon form. This time, that surge of power all at once might kill him.

Another flicker of serenity warmed her, slowing her body and easing her anxiety. Like one of Simon’s hugs, but without touching her.

Lilis’ brain screeched to a stop. She turned slowly. Simon smiled brightly, his brown eyes sparkling mischievously.

“If you can share stuff,” he told her, “I figured I could, too. It just took me a few tries and a buttload of concentration to figure out how. It needs some tweaks, but as an added benefit, when I send you stuff, less of your stress comes through to me.”

With a smug grin, Naleli sent a pebble flying off into the woods without touching it. “I told you the last one wasn’t me. Your healer mate learns quickly, especially when it has to do with caring for you.”

Lilis cleared her throat and poked Simon’s bicep. “I’m sure you think I should thank you, but I might strangle you instead for messing with the bond like that without telling me.”

“Hey, lovebirds?” Longwei waved a hand between their faces, which Simon swatted away. “Can we get back to not solving the problem of the contamination shrub? Your boyfriend’s idea was only mildly terrible.”

Lilis scowled at Longwei. “Oh, sure. Let’s send the most death-prone human any of us have ever met—my mate —to nail spikes into the poison tree and hope he doesn’t have a fatal reaction. What could possibly make that plan any better?”

“For starters, knowing when your enemy’s sneaking up on you.” Dimitri strode into the campsite, Alkmini at his side, both in their human forms, silver hair blowing wildly in the breeze.

Lilis started toward the newcomer demons, but Kas moved faster. He flashed behind them and grabbed them by the scruff of their necks, lifting them into the air. Naleli rose slowly, her eyes never leaving the demons who began to writhe and whine in pain.

“Big mistake,” Kas growled.

They’re… defending us?!

“Not here… to… harm!” Alkmini managed to say through a clenched jaw. Her forms shifted back and forth rapidly, like a holographic image on a page vacillating in the light.

“Came… to… warn!” Dimitri grunted. “Alex!”

“Shepherd?” Heat surged to Lilis’ face. “What are you going to warn that piece of?—”

“Warn you! ” Alkmini twisted in Kas’ grip and screamed.

Doubt crept in. Lils stepped forward until she was eye-to-eye with Dimitri. She spoke clearly and slowly. “Warn us about what?”

“Coming for you!”

Lilis held up a hand. Whatever Naleli had been doing to the two demons eased because they slumped in relief.

“We don’t have any family. Only Alex,” Dimitri panted, still dangling from Kas’ hand. “He said he could protect us.”

“We always did what he asked,” Alkmini whined in a small voice. “We were good.”

“You’ve been hunting other demons,” Kas reminded her. “Your own kind. I wouldn’t call that good .”

Alkmini hung her head. “He said they were coming for us. That the dragons were here to hunt and kill us.”

“We have nowhere to go now. No family, no home.” Dimitri indicated Lilis with a wave of his hand. “Not since she knocked over our last one.”

“So now that you’re desperate, you seek us out?” Longwei sniffed at them. “Hoping we’ll protect you from demon kin looking to avenge deaths you’ve caused ? Get real.”

Lilis reeled from Dimitri’s words. That utility shed? They’d lived in the utility shed she’d decimated during their fight? Fuck. There went her well-earned fury, up in smoke. She pictured them hiding there, with no one but each other and a trash heap of a relative who dropped in when he felt like it. She could’ve killed them when they attacked Simon! All because Shepherd had hated her enough to risk the lives of his own family.

And now that they were closer and Lilis was calmer, she noticed something about their faces, heights, and coloring.

And the ease with which she’d fought both of them off.

“How old are you?” she asked.

Alkmini lifted her chin. “Why?”

Lilis reached deep inside herself for the last shred of patience she possessed. “If you want our help?—”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Longwei rounded on her, eyes as large as the discarded frisbees lying next to the ruined tent. “ Manjejas? I’m not doing shit with manjejas, and you shouldn’t either after they attacked your mate.”

“I’m eighty-two. Alkmini is fifty-five.” Dimitri seemed even paler than usual as he delivered that information.

Lilis’ blood pounded in her ears.

Simon whistled. “You guys age well.”

“They’re babies,” Lilis breathed. “Well, Alkmini is. For their species, think the human equivalent of a ten- or twelve-year-old. Dimitri, maybe late teens.”

Both demons hung their heads. “Alex is faster than us,” Dimitri muttered. “We tried to stop him.”

Kas lowered them to the ground and threw up his hands. “Perfect. So, on top of everything else on our list, we still have to deal with the half-human with a warped savior complex and a gun.”

“Actually.” Naleli stepped forward, a calculating smile playing on her lips. “I think I have a way our two new friends can help.”

Pale white sunlight filtered through the light gray-brown vapor that permeated the air, the remains of Kas’ repeated forest fires that had decimated so much of the Pine Barrens in his attempt to eliminate a deadly predator.

The shadow ash capable of poisoning and killing so many of her kind.

Lilis trudged determinedly through the ravaged underbrush, following Kas’ directions to the tree, Longwei behind her and Alkmini walking ahead, where Lilis could keep an eye on her. Dimitri had taken Kas back to the makeshift home he’d shared with Alkmini to retrieve some steel pipes and a sledgehammer.

Simon walked beside her, his features hard with determination.

A deep sense of foreboding hung heavily in the air just over her head, darker and larger than any demon she’d ever faced.

Something wasn’t right.

That elusive feeling that she was missing something danced at the edges of Lilis’ awareness. Her dragon could feel it, too, but at least the beast inside her was behaving. It seemed to have found a comfortable balance, watching and waiting to step in without pushing at Lilis to be allowed to the surface.

If you figure out what we’re missing before I do, you have my permission to take over. No holds barred.

Was it the presence of the other demon that had her on edge? Lilis watched Alkmini carefully for signs the other demon might be preparing to betray them and attack. Anything to highlight her stupidity in trusting them.

Hells, what was I thinking?

The further they progressed, the more the weakness hung like an oppressive yoke around her neck, dragging her body down. The poison thickened the air, sucking her strength from her. She would need to stop soon, or she would be as useless to Simon as she’d been to Caelius, poisoned and drained, unable to move fast enough to catch him.

As the bushes thinned, a small fire line in the dirt came into view. Kas had set up this boundary to indicate the point at which he could no longer continue. Lilis blew out a shaky breath and focused all her efforts on not hurling. Sweat dripped down her neck, sides, and back, and her entire body felt like someone had poured cement into her skin. Slow, heavy, and rigid, her human form seemed to trap and suffocate her dragon.

If it was this bad on this side of the line, what would it be like closer to the tree? Or worse, infected by the sap?

Lilis shivered, thinking of Kas and Naleli’s friend, unable to tap into his connection with his element on his own.

No one could continue but Simon. No demon or endirim could cross this point with the tree fully intact and expect to have any strength left.

Wanting to apologize for not being able to go with him, for not being able to keep him safe, she turned to Simon. Her pulse jumped. H er mate .

He breathed comfortably and not like he was trying not to pass out. His toned body moved easily, and the smile he offered Lilis brightened his warm brown eyes. Everything about him took her breath away. And for a dragon, that was saying something. Her breath was her fire, her life, and her defense. Simon swept all those away to see into her very heart, her very essence.

Lilis sniffed and wrinkled her nose. Her sense of smell was completely shot with Alkmini only feet away. She only wanted to smell Simon, to let his scent comfort and reassure her.

As though he could hear her thoughts, Simon wrapped her in his powerful arms. She buried her face in his neck and inhaled, calming a degree.

It didn’t last.

A small spark of light erupted out of the corner of her eye, followed immediately by the sounds of projectile vomiting.

“I hate… the way you travel,” Dimitri declared between retches.

Kas patted him on the back. “Give it a few minutes. It’ll pass.” He held up a bundle of pipes and flashed them, one by one, into the soil several feet behind Lilis and Simon. Then he closed his eyes, and a few seconds later, wave after wave of earth energy swept into them.

Whether he’d done it on purpose or not, Kas had placed the pipes far enough away from Lilis that Naleli could influence them without the energy disturbing Lilis. Lilis struggled against the gratitude that swept through her.

Maybe Longwei was right. I am getting soft if I’m willing to work with manjeja demons and feeling any instincts other than “kill immediately” toward an endirim.

After a few minutes, the pipes began to warp and expand, glowing with endirim energy and some other substances Naleli was sending into them from afar. More heavy metals and organic materials to disrupt the shadow ash’s influence over the earth surrounding it.

As the waves began to subside, Lilis nestled further into Simon’s embrace. Everything about this situation felt like a cruel joke, replaying the death of her earlier loves. From working with demons not unlike those who had killed Henri, to her weakness like when she’d failed to save Caelius, to the waves of energy staying just barely away from her instead of passing through her and into Divit.

“I don’t like this,” she whispered in his ear. “Simon, I can’t just?—”

“We don’t have a choice,” he answered. “Let me do this for you. For everyone here.”

The last of Naleli’s energy subsided, and Kas stepped closer. “Simon.” His deep voice washed over Lilis, more powerful than the endirim energy waves. “It’s time.”

No!

Longwei offered his hand to Simon. “Well, Simon Human, it’s been real, but?—”

“Kai Wei Qi.”

“Great luck?” Longwei’s features scrunched. “Your Chinese name,” he said very slowly and carefully, “means incredibly lucky? ”

“Seems we have more in common than you thought, huh Long wei ? Both being so great and all.”

Longwei’s face broke into a grin, and he started laughing. “Let’s hope your parents put some protection on you with that one. Your karma or luck or whatever hasn’t been great so far.”

Simon shook his head. Gathering the pipes, he loaded them into a large duffel and shouldered it. Then he bent and captured Lilis’ mouth in a thorough kiss before pulling away.

He left, disappearing into the one smoky gloom Lilis couldn’t penetrate.