16. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Ailin

“ A ilin!”

Everything fucking hurt. Fuck, was I even alive? Was this what death felt like?

“Ailin, wake up!”

Pain made it impossible to comprehend the words being yelled at me.

“Oh my god. Ailin, please wake up. You have to be okay. You have to get up.”

That voice. I knew that voice. I… wanted to be near that voice. I… I loved that voice.

“Ailin! Wake the fuck up!”

Sebastian? Was that… my… my viramore?

Another surge of agony shot through my body, traveling from my ribs down to my toes and up to my head. What the fuck was wrong with my body?

“A, please. Please, sweetheart.”

Seb? Seb, I’m here.

“Ailin.”

I felt something wet touch my cheek over and over again, and it took me a long time to realize it was Sera’s tongue. She was lying on my chest, licking my face. She must’ve used our bond to pull herself to me when I was knocked out.

“Ailin, you—no! Get the fuck away from him, you fucking bastard!” I heard a grunt and felt a surge of magic swell around me. “Don’t even think about it. You can’t have them either!”

I groaned as Seb’s words started to make more sense. Shit . He was fighting off whoever had attacked me, wasn’t he? Shit, shit, shit.

I needed to get up. I couldn’t even open my eyes, but I needed to—

“Drink this, sweetheart.” He held a vial to my lips, and even though I couldn’t see anything, I trusted him enough to drink it down. I recognized the taste—a healing tonic. Well, that was a good idea if I ever heard one.

As quickly as I could, I swallowed it down, then I reached my hand down to feel for the grass. Obviously, I couldn’t make a healing bed for myself when we were in the middle of a fight, but I could draw energy from the earth itself to help give myself a boost.

Hopefully enough energy to help me shake this off, get the fuck up, and stop whoever was attacking us.

“Ailin?”

I hummed.

“Ailin, I need you to open your eyes. Please—shit. Hold on, Jorah!”

Jorah? What’s wrong with Jorah?

Seb moved away from me, and I felt my heart leap into my throat with sudden and all-consuming fear. His magic swelled, and I could tell he was casting some kind of blast spell. Which meant he was fighting.

Without me.

And our kids were in trouble.

Fuck .

I forced my eyes open. A blue haze surrounded me—a shield—and I could see a van right beside me that was also under the shield. Right. That was what I’d hit when I went flying, wasn’t it? I must’ve been too close to it to get a shield around only me.

There was a blast large enough to shake the ground, and I heard Jorah and Basil yelling something, making my heart race further. I gently pushed Sera off my chest, and she stood beside me, watching me like a hawk. Using every ounce of adrenaline in my body, I forced myself to sit up and take in the scene.

Seb was standing in front of me, partially blocking my view. He was under the shield with me, guarding me while he threw blasting magic at a target on the other side of the parking lot. I couldn’t really tell what the hell he was fighting, but it must’ve been powerful because Jorah, Thayer, and Basil were also blasting it from different sides, and the enemy still wasn’t going down.

And all around us, there were Christmas decorations and toys going wild with teeth and claws. A bunch were latched onto our shield, trying to chew their way through to us, not that they could possibly get through Seb’s shield. We were safe from them, but they were still gross to look at.

I could only assume the perp had let a ton of them loose, maybe as a distraction? Or to gain more power when they pulled fear and life essence from us.

On the ground, there were several cursed objects already in pieces or burnt to a crisp. When I saw movement to the side of us, I realized why there were so many burnt to a crisp. Zammerra, who must’ve pulled herself to Seb at the same time as Sera, blew fire on an attacking toy soldier. Then she started stomping it to the ground, efficiently killing it and putting out the fire.

Luckily, being a dragon meant the magic flying all over the place would simply bounce off her scales and her hide was so thick it was unlikely that the cursed objects could hurt her, so she wasn’t in any real danger. But there were a lot of cursed items trying to attack. She would be here all day if she tried taking care of them by herself.

I scanned the yard again and tried to focus on the perp, but I still couldn’t see him. I could only tell the guy was flinging black-colored magic all over the place.

Fuck. My viramore and kids were under attack.

I needed to get off my ass and help.

“No, you don’t,” Seb said. “Stay there, A. We’ve got this.”

And maybe they did, but I couldn’t just sit here and watch. I had to help. I had to keep my family safe.

I used the van to help myself up to my feet. Since I still needed the energy from the earth, I transferred the pull from my hands to my feet. I was connected enough to my nature magic that it didn’t matter that I had boots on. The magic—the energy—could still easily reach me.

When I stood, I had to close my eyes from the dizzy spell that overtook me, and I leaned back against the van and squinted as I took a few deep breaths.

The elves were still in a shield, but all of them were huddled together in the corner, looking absolutely terrified. Shit . Those poor little guys.

A few feet from them, the incubus I’d captured was just standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, watching the fight and not looking the least bit scared. He was in a shield, sure, but it being a stranger’s magic, most people would’ve been scared that the shield wouldn’t hold. Not him, apparently. He looked… intrigued, maybe? Interested in the fight, for sure, but beyond that, I didn’t know.

And that wasn’t what I should’ve been focusing on anyway.

In my head—no, not my head. In my BCA ear mic, Basil said, “Guys, he’s eating my magic again.”

That sentence made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

Jorah’s voice said, “I don’t know. Fuck. How is he absorbing so much?”

“Seb,” I said. “Move back here.”

“No. Stay down, Ailin. We’ll handle it.”

“Sounds like you’re handling it real well.” I winced as soon as I said it. Wow, I was an asshole.

“Fuck you.” There was no heat in his words, only frustration.

“Sorry.”

He waved me off, and I leaned to the side to get a better look at our perp, and my brow furrowed in confusion. The guy, if it even was a guy since I could barely see him, was shrouded in a haze of black shadows. He had a shield around him that was almost too dark to see through, but inside that shield was a storm of dark magic. It was similar to how Basil looked when he used his shadow magic, only this guy’s magic was darker and more… oily? Where Basil’s magic looked natural and inviting, this guy’s was the total opposite.

It looked unnatural, not inviting in the least, and it just sort of exuded evilness.

Great . Sounded like a fun guy.

I gathered up my magic quickly and shot it straight at the guy, then watched in disgust as he sucked it up. His magic sort of absorbed it, and I was horrified when I saw my green magic turn black and oily as it was added to the mix in the perp’s shield.

“What the fuck?”

Seb huffed and stepped back to stand beside me so I could see better, saying, “He keeps absorbing our magics, but he can’t do everyone’s at the same time. We’re trying to hit him all at once so some hits actually make it.”

As if to prove a point, I watched Seb, Thayer, Jorah, and Basil all throw a spell at him, then wrinkled my nose when two out of the four were absorbed, and the two that hit didn’t look like they did a lick of damage to the guy’s shield. Shit. Just how strong was this guy?

“What is he?”

“I don’t know.” They all threw another round of spells at him, and again, half were eaten, half hit. But no damage was done.

The guy shot out four blasts of oily magic, and when the orb aimed for Seb and me hit his shield, my eyebrows rose. The guy’s magic didn’t hurt Seb’s shield at all, but it did leave behind an oily residue that slid down the shield, almost like our shield had been hit with dirty water and was now wet.

“Ew.”

“Right?” Seb said. “It like… drips for a minute before dissipating.”

“It’ll go away?”

“Eventually.”

“Good. Where’s Alec and everyone else?”

“We asked them to stay back. This guy’s magic is too strong for some of the others. We don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”

Huh. That was… not a good sign at all.

They all threw another round with the same result, and the guy threw his disgusting oily orbs at us, making another gross spot on Seb’s shield.

Jorah came over the mic, saying, “He’s a siphoner! Holy shit, I can’t believe I forgot about them.”

This time, when they all threw magic, I joined in. The guy—the siphoner—absorbed two and let three of the spells hit his shield. But that felt and looked like a shield that was just as strong as any of ours.

Which meant… we’d be here for a long-ass time before we saw any difference in it. And… and if he was absorbing our magics, didn’t that mean he was just getting stronger every time we shot magic at him?

“What’s a siphoner?” Thayer asked.

“Uh, give me a second to picture the page.” Jorah and his photographic memory.

We attacked again, but I had to wonder if we were doing more harm than good at this point.

Jorah spoke into his mic again. “A siphoner is sort of like a witch, only they can’t create their own magic.” We went another round with the baddie. “They have to absorb others’ magic and energy in order to cast spells. So, yeah, he’s absorbing our magic and making it his own.”

“Then maybe we should stop throwing magic at him?” I asked even as we went yet another round. “Aren’t we just making him stronger?”

Thayer hesitated for a beat. “Well, yes. We are. But what else are we supposed to do right now? We can’t let him get away, and I think if we stop fighting him, he’ll just leave, and we won’t be able to stop him.”

True enough.

Seb asked, “Jor, how do we stop him?”

“The only way to stop a siphoner is to either wait until he runs out of his magic and take him out by mundane ways. Or we siphon his magic ourselves.”

“You mean, we need to suck his freaking disgusting magic out?” My viramore had such a way with words.

“Yes.”

“Okay, so how the hell do we do that?” Basil asked.

“I… don’t know. We need an artifact or something that can do it.”

We went another round, and I grimaced when I watched the dickhead absorb Seb’s magic. I… did not like the thought of that at all. No one was allowed access to my viramore’s magic like that. No one. Ever. Especially not some evil maniac dickhead.

Sera let out a growl at my feet. She was now in her black leopard form and allowing me to lean a little of my body weight on her, which I gratefully appreciated.

Seb reached over without looking at me and gave my arm a squeeze as he asked Jorah, “Do you know of any? Like, can we send the others out to get something we can use?”

Even from here, I could see Jorah’s frustration. “I don’t know.”

“Fuck,” Seb said to only me. “What the hell are we going to do, A?”

I mentally ran through every artifact and magical item we had in our basement, but I honestly couldn’t think of a single one that would help us. But then my eyes went over to Seb and the very big staff he was holding in his hands.

“We’re so stupid.”

“Huh?”

“Your staff. You can use your staff, can’t you?”

Seb sort of blinked and glanced around for a second before staring at his staff. Then he turned to me. “Holy shit. Yes. My staff can definitely do it, but… I need to be a lot closer than this.”

I nodded. “That’s doable.” Then, over the mic, I said to the kids, “Seb’s staff can absorb the magic, but we need to move closer.”

Bas said, “We’ll watch your backs, and once you’re close enough, we can create a distraction so he doesn’t notice right away.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

Seb said to only me, “You can wait here. I’ll go up alone so you don’t have to walk.”

“I can walk—”

“No. You can stay the fuck here, Ailin Ellwood.”

“Sorry, baby, but I’m coming. Between the healing tonic and the nature magic I’ve been using, I’m fine.” Was I a hundred percent? Not even close. But I’d have to be dead to let my viramore move closer to some powerful being we knew so little about that was trying to kill us.

“Fine. But don’t get hurt again or I’ll kick your ass myself.”

That made me smile. “Deal.”

He rolled his eyes, then started moving closer to the siphoner, and I was right there beside him for every step, albeit a bit shakier. Luckily, Sera walked with me, helping me immensely. I wasn’t great, but I was going to do this with my viramore anyway. No way would I wait all the way by the van when this siphoner was so dangerous.

We had to dodge a ton of toys and decor that were still trying to attack us.

We moved as close as we could before the guy tried backing up. Luckily, Bas, Thay, and Jor had surrounded the bastard while I was down and out, so he had nowhere to go.

In my head, Seb said, “It’s not working. His shield is too powerful. I need… I need to touch his shield with my staff. That’s the only way it’ll work.”

Which meant he was going to have to drop his own shield in order to reach it. “Like hell you’re dropping your shield.”

“It’s the only way, Ailin.”

“No.”

“Sweetheart, I know you’re hurting and stressed, so I’m trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you’re not bossing me around either, okay, asshat? I’m doing this because I’m the only one who can. You’re just gonna have to deal.”

Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck. He was… he was right. But I didn’t want to put him in danger. He needed to stay under a shield.

Seb sighed in my head. “A, it’ll be fine. You guys keep him distracted, and I’ll get started. Watch my back.”

Fuck. Fuck! “You promise me you’ll be okay?”

“Yes. I promise.”

Fucking hell. “Fine. But I’m not happy about this plan. At all.”

“Noted. Now, make yourself a shield.”

I did as he asked, pulling a shield over the top of Sera and me under Seb’s shield. My viramore shrunk his own shield down to cover only himself, fully separating us. I really fucking hated this plan. So fucking much.

I took a deep breath. “I’ll move farther to the right and attack to distract him, and you can do your thing.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.”

“Don’t sweetheart me. I’m mad at you.”

He sighed in my head again but didn’t say anything else, so I moved forward with our plan.

I stepped to the side with Sera against my legs and started blasting the siphoner with magic. Spell after spell after spell. I hit him with small blasts, big ones, with wind, with pure power. And then I reached out with my nature magic, found a bunch of branches that must’ve fallen off the trees behind the building, and made them fly.

I knew they wouldn’t do any harm to the guy’s shield or anything, but they would—hopefully—serve as a good distraction.

The guy hit the branches with magic, making them blast apart in the air, and that just pissed me off. Maybe those branches were dead already, but that didn’t give him the right to destroy a part of nature. Fucking asshole.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Seb drop his shield, press his staff right up against the siphoner’s shield, and the orb on the end of the staff glowed yellow. I kept flinging magic, sticks, leaves, and rocks at the guy, trying to keep his attention. I’d rather him eat up all my magic than realize what Seb was doing and start attacking him.

The kids attacked him as well, keeping the guy more than busy with all of us.

I pulled on my magic, creating a huge glowing orb of power, hoping it would be too appetizing for the guy to ignore, and threw it at him. As predicted, he pulled the magic into himself and his shield, and the green morphed into black as the guy smiled cruelly at me.

But then he froze for only a millisecond, and I knew the jig was up.

He turned, saw what Seb was doing, and threw a big oily black orb at him. I couldn’t throw a shield in front of my viramore like I wanted because that would either break the staff’s connection to the siphoner’s magic, or it simply wouldn’t work because there was nowhere for the shield to go.

Instead, I quickly gathered another power orb and threw it at the siphoner’s spell, trying to knock it off course while my heart thumped hard in my chest. I felt like letting out a joyous yell when it worked, and his spell flew past Seb and hit the ground, harming no one.

But of course the siphoner wasn’t finished. He lobbed three more spells at Seb, and I heard Bas yell, “I got the left one, Dad!”

Showing a huge amount of trust in my kid, I ignored the one farthest to the left and sent two of my own orbs at the other two.

All three attacks were taken down, and I yelled in my head to Seb, “Hurry the fuck up, baby.”

“Almost done. Give me a few more seconds.”

Bas and I knocked down four more attacks before Seb yelled out loud, “Got it!”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the siphoner’s shield fell. He was still surrounded by a cloud of magic, but it was a hell of a lot better than it’d been a minute ago.

Only a second later, all three of my kids had their tranq guns raised. They all fired, and the siphoner used his magic to hit the darts out of the way and to the ground, blocking each hit.

As the siphoner fought back, flinging magic everywhere, I focused on defense, making sure my kids and Seb were safe.

Because he was distracted with physical blows, he didn’t see my viramore move closer to him. Seb used the staff’s length to stretch across the space and into the cloud of magic circling the man.

Seb’s staff glowed yellow for a moment before it mixed with his blue enchanter magic. And then, a few seconds later, it started to darken as it sucked up the ambient magic around the siphoner.

The siphoner started to panic when he realized his magic was being taken away. He screamed as if he was in horrible pain—for all I knew, it really did hurt him, but I didn’t think so. In his panic, he missed one of the kids’ darts, but he was so worked up that it didn’t take him down. At least not right away.

The guy fell to his knees, though, still screaming and crying, and I watched in mild horror as my viramore stepped even closer to him, still pulling on the guy’s magic, pulling on his soul. Souls were linked to magic, and now that the siphoner had no magic left, it looked like Seb’s staff was going for the very essence of the man.

“Seb, you can back off now,” I said, surprised he was still going when the guy was down and out of magic. When Seb didn’t respond, I stepped closer. “Seb. Stop.”

He still didn’t stop.

I moved up next to him and placed my hand on his staff-arm, gently tugging it away from the siphoner. “Seb? Baby, you need to stop.” I gave his arm a little shake. “Sebastian! Stop!”

Finally, he snapped out of whatever trance he was in, blinked, and a horror-filled expression crossed his face a moment before he cut the staff off and stepped back.

“Ailin…” He sounded horrified.

“It’s okay, baby. You’re okay, and so is he.” I glanced down at the siphoner, who was passed out—from the tranq, not from Seb’s staff. Thayer was cuffing the man with special handcuffs made for supernaturals. “You did good, baby.” I put my hand on the small of Seb’s back and leaned in to kiss his cheek since I could feel how upset he was.

“The staff… it… it wanted to consume him. Once it felt all that power, it just… it didn’t want to let go. It hasn’t taken over like that since I first started using it.” That was probably fifty years ago, so I could understand why he was freaked out.

“It’s okay.”

“I could’ve killed him.”

I wanted to say so what? He deserves it. But I knew that wasn’t the right response. “But you didn’t.”

“I could have.”

I sucked in a breath. “Baby, everything’s okay. That dickhead’s fine, and no one’s hurt—”

“You’re still hurt, Ailin.”

I huffed. “I’m fine.”

He sent me a small glare, but I was glad he was focused on that rather than the siphoner or the staff.

“Come on, let’s help Zamm kill the rest of these damned cursed objects, get the elves back home, and take in the prisoners.”

That made Seb glance at the incubus, who was still standing there with his arms crossed over his chest. “Where did that guy come from? Why’s he here?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure we’ll find out.” I kissed his cheek again. “Ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.”

With one more squeeze of comfort, I released him, turned around, and jumped back into the fray.