29. The War Begins

Simeon fought with a ferocity that threatened to leave Angel breathless, if it weren't for the dire threat posed by the golems and the small Council army outside the wards.

The golems oozed across the field, heading with unerring accuracy for the Mansion, heedless of the wards between them and their target. The wards shimmered hellfire green, Angel activating them to the fullest, the shields nearly impenetrable. It would take a lot of magic to get through those wards.

Though something that ate magic might manage it.

The golem sent after Isaac the year before had eaten its way through Angel's wards, not quickly, but with dogged and unrelenting purpose, eventually managing it and nearly getting his brother in the process. If not for Constans using The Way Between and defending Isaac, Angel might have lost his brother that night.

Eroch roared in victory as he incinerated his opponent, the golem reduced to black ash and flailing tentacles cracking apart like warm gelatin.

Angel worked to prevent the enforcers from injuring either Simeon or Ellora, holding shields between the vampires outside the wards and the enforcers at their backs. Ellora was magnificent, blurring in and out as she fought the golem, hacking at tentacles that were slow to reform each time, the ground soaked in congealed blood and viscera. The entire field stunk of rotten blood and gore.

Simeon dodged one tentacle as wide around his torso, coming up from a crouch to hack at the tentacle as it passed by him, nearly cleaving it in two with a single swipe of his broadsword. He sliced at it again and the giant tentacle disintegrated as it was cut in two. The golem screeched, tentacles flailing, both vampires blurring in and out in great bursts of speed that Angel was helpless to follow, doing all he could to cover their backs as the enforcers tossed spells at the combatants.

The golem that Rory and Cian fought was huge, bigger than Daniel expected from hearing about them from Isaac and Rory. It was worse than he imagined, stinking of foul magics and rotting flesh, making him gag even as he fought to keep his family safe.

Cian was nearly invisible, a pale ghost that appeared no more tangible than a wisp of fog, but the blades he held were real and sharp—they cut through the blood-magic beast with ease, as Rory's sword did the same on the other side of the golem. The trouble lay in that the beast was consuming living magic—the vampires had an edge, as their vampiric gifts were fueled by primordial death magics and it was wholly unpalatable to the golems that hungered for living magics.

High Court Sidhe were nothing but living magic, living embodiments of the magic of this world. And Daniel struggled to find a way to fight the golem, even as he shielded the twins from the enforcers trying to ambush them while they fought the golem.

He shielded his mate and brother-in-law, and kept an eye on the enforcers, trusting in Angel to find a solution and soon.

Lightning came at his call, arcing between his hands, and he unleashed the bolts, the lightning breaching the wards harmlessly but smacking the earth in front of the small army of enforcers, shooting up dirt and scorched grass in small explosions.

He forced them back, the golems a distraction as the enforcers attempted to encroach on the wards, even as the golems reached the boundary and began to eat away at the wards. It was slow going—the wards were very old, well-tended, and incredibly powerful. They might not break through before the dragon managed to incinerate them all.

Ignacio ran to Daniel. "Tell your husband to get out of the way—Eroch is coming!"

The dragon had finished with his prey, spitting out the mouthful of ash that was all that was left of the golem, and Daniel saw the same thing Ignacio did—Eroch flying just above the ground, speeding like a bullet, wings making a storm of sound and wind.

"Rory!" Daniel screamed, the sidhe warrior hearing his husband, risking a glance their way. "Move!"

The golem, for all that it lacked a face or eyes, reacted to the approaching dragon, swelling in size, tentacles raised like striking vipers at the dragon, waving threateningly as Eroch sped right at it.

The Brennan twins raced back across the ward line just as Eroch slammed into the golem, screeches and roars puncturing the air in a cacophony of violence. This golem wrapped tentacles around the dragon, capturing Eroch's wings, threatening to crush the seemingly fragile limbs, but Eroch's great maw snapped closed around the biggest part of the golem's center mass, fangs sinking deep, and smoke and fire escaped around his fangs as Eroch unleashed his fire.

"Get back!" They were all too close—the heat from the dragonfire filled the air, and Daniel, the twins, and Ignacio all retreated back from the wards as the air superheated seconds before an explosion of fire and smoke erupted where the dragon and golem stood.

Dragon fire, bright red and orange and impossibly hot, consumed the golem, bathing Eroch in light and fire, wings mantling against the night sky.

"One left!" Angel shouted as the smoke dispersed after Eroch destroyed the second golem. Constantine and Ricon had destroyed another. The remaining golem was being hemmed in by the vampires even as it pressed against the wards, trapped as it focused on passing through the wards.

It ignored the vampires hacking at it, tentacles puncturing the wards inch by inch.

"Is it going to get through?" Isaac asked in dismay.

"It might, the one who made it is funneling power into it," Angel pointed across the field to the magistrate that had crafted that particular golem, and he felt the bump in the ambient magic fields as the magistrate, a sorcerer, tapped into the veil.

Angel, Isaac, and then Milly and Ignacio, focused on protecting the vampires from the spells the enforcers were throwing with increased fervor. Their shields held, but the golem was replacing tentacles as fast as it lost them, a flurry of limbs keeping the vampires at bay, even as it ate away at the wards.

Rory and Cian approached, bracketing Daniel, the sidhe disheveled and covered in gore and black blood. Daniel was the only one not a wretched mess.

"Let Eroch in there, he's coming!" Daniel pointed. Eroch was across the field where he was lumbering toward them, slow going as he shook off what was left of tentacles that had wrapped around his whole body before he destroyed the golem.

"Simeon! Clear the way for Eroch!" Angel shouted to his mate. The vampires all heard him, and they were back across the wards in no time. Isaac ran to Constans as soon as his mate cleared the ward lines, hugging him.

There was a bump in the ambient magic fields and the magistrate funneled more power into the golem just before Eroch reached it. It grew in size until it matched Eroch—and a long, single tentacle breached the wards.

"Watch out!" Angel shouted.

Simeon grabbed him and blurred them back from the tentacle as it swiped downward. Angel was unable to see what happened next but a duet of screams cut through the night, one of rage and another of pain, making his heart skip a beat.

Simeon stopped, and Angel wrenched himself free, searching for the source of the cries even as Eroch battled the golem that was pressed up to the wards.

Constans stood over Isaac with his sword drawn, having just severed the tentacle that breached the wards, the huge limb oozing into a long puddle of blood and gore, and Isaac writhed on the ground, screaming.

"No, no! Isaac!" Angel shouted, heart in his throat. He ran for his brother, but another tentacle breached the wards in that narrow hole and Constans leaned down with one arm and scooped his mate off the ground and blurred them away to safety.

Angel ran to Constans and Isaac where they stopped at the door of the Mansion, Rory sprinting to reach them as well. Remi, who had been guarding the steps, moved away from the injured man, horror and sympathy in his expression.

Jameson and Scylla staggered onto the stairs, both werewolves panting heavily, pale and streaked with ooze, but they weren't in pain like Isaac. Whatever magics they had as werewolves was keeping the blood magic at bay somehow.

Isaac screamed again.

"Isaac, Isaac! NO," Angel gasped out, seeing the long line of blood and ooze that ran from the side of Isaac's face down his torso to his hip. Isaac screamed in pain, unable to hold still, eyes wild.

"Move," Rory gently ordered Angel and then spoke to Constans. "Hold your mate, I need to heal him and this will hurt. The blood magic is trying to consume him."

Rory placed his hands on Isaac and his brother screamed again, and Angel stumbled to the side of the front steps and vomited into the gravel of the drive.

Cool hands helped him, soothing, rubbing over his shoulders and back as he listened to his little brother cry out in terrible pain.

Tears dripped from his eyes, and it was a tiny whimper from Isaac that ignited the rage in Angel's heart.

Angel carefully stood upright, wiping his mouth with his sleeve, uncaring of the mess he must look like, based on the concern in his mate's eyes.

"I need Cian," Angel said to Simeon, who nodded. Simeon blurred away, retrieving Cian from where he stood at the breach in the wards, watching over Eroch as he fought the golem.

Simeon and Cian returned and stopped in front of Angel, the sidhe warrior appearing unmoved by the sounds of pain and distress coming from Angel's little brother. It was that detached coolness Angel needed to address.

"Open a door to the pit, please," Angel asked calmly, as level-headed as rage could allow him, fiery and winding through his core. It was the option he had broached with Cian in secret earlier—the option that tread the line between making a weapon of the mound and Cian's limits.

He would stop this, and now.

"Are you sure?" Cian asked. "This comes close to making a weapon of the mound, and that I will not do."

"I'll destroy them once they've served their purpose," Angel promised. "Open the door."

Cian's smile was small and yet his eyes held a hint of the devil in them—and Cian, the walking ghost, glamoured to be hidden from view, faded out even more. He descended the front steps, walking across the gravel of the circular drive, and he stopped by the fountain.

The stones of the fountain tumbled to the ground in a rush of dust and crashing of stone against stone, reforming in front of a battle of dragon against golem.

The barest wisp of Cian gestured once, and the fountain was no more, replaced by an archway two stories tall and half as wide.

"Keep everyone back," Angel said to Simeon, who nodded once and pressed a hard kiss to his mouth before pulling away.

Angel went down the stairs and across the gravel drive, joining the nearly intangible form of Cian, and he looked into the archway.

The interior of the mound showed the swamp and the pit, and a ramp of earth that flowed down into the pit at the feet of the horde. Wind buffeted him, smelling of damp, wet earth and stagnant water.

"Call your army, necromancer," Cian said, all but hidden from view. "Let this end."

Angel nodded in agreement and reached inside, harnessing his affinity then focusing his attention outward and through the grand arch into the pit. The listless horde milled against the far wall of the pit, but with little blips of hellfire-green energies; he reached the nearest edge of the horde and a ripple of awareness spread through the teeming mass.

Growls echoed through the pit and out of the arch.

Angel called to the dead.

And they answered.

The golem writhed in his claws, his talons sinking through to the earth below, and Eroch unleashed a torrent of flame that burnt through the golem's center mass and razed the ground bare.

His fire burned hotter than ever before—never had he fought so long at this size, with such intensity, and he was beginning to flag the slightest bit.

The golem finally died, and Eroch roared in victory, his fire eating away at the field around him, the breach in the wards a jagged hole only large enough for a single person to cross through. He positioned himself in front of the hole and roared a challenge to the humans at the road.

He felt it then. A tug on the brooding bond to Angel. He turned, and looked past the wards toward the Mansion. A massive archway stood where the fountain had once been and Eroch was startled to see a horde of zombies spilling forth onto the front lawn.

Cian appeared suddenly beside him, so heavily glamoured that no mortal would see him, no human eyes able to discern his presence—Eroch saw through the glamour to the sidhe hidden within. "You've done well, Little Trouble. Time to retreat. Your brood-father will have his vengeance now."

Eroch snorted out a denial, shaking his head. He wanted to keep fighting!

"Isaac was hurt," Cian said, and Eroch dropped his wings in worry, turning more to see the crowd of people on the steps, Rory and Constantine huddled over Isaac. "Let Angel finish this; go see how Isaac fares."

Eroch took one last look at the enforcers, and then let go of the power from Angel, shrinking immediately. He took to the air and flew through the wards, pausing for a second to hover beside Angel, above the snarling horde.

Angel gave him a proud smile and a nod, and Eroch dipped in the air in a semblance of a bow before heading for his family on the steps.