47. Damian

Chapter forty-seven

Damian

T he trail was hidden from us, which was utterly frustrating. How could that stupid vampire hide his trail from me?

We wandered around the yard until Cary showed up. Frustrated, I finally remembered my phone had buzzed earlier. I pulled it out of my pocket and opened it to see the message was from Owen. My heart contracted.

"We have to find him," I said, fear overcoming me.

The four witches looked at me sadly. Cary placed his hand on my shoulder. "Try not to let Owen's kidnapping get to you too much. We need you to stay focused, okay?" he asked, but nothing anyone said could make me less anxious about losing Owen.

Mr. Stages had been right. I was in love with him and wanted him back so I could protect him and love him for the rest of our lives.

Cary froze as something appeared behind me. "Um, I think that's for you," he said and nodded in that direction.

I turned and saw a very wary ghost standing just a few feet away. "Tell them not to approach, or I will leave!" the young woman said.

"If you're here to help, they won't harm you. They've taken an oath."

That seemed to mollify the ghost enough that she approached me. "The spirits from here to Seattle are working together to find your guy. We think we know where he is," she said, giving me hope for the first time since we found the car.

"Where? Show us!" I demanded, and she put her hand on mine.

"Follow me," she said and disappeared. I could still feel her though. When she'd touched me, she'd imprinted on me how to sense her, something I didn't know ghosts could do.

I nodded at the witches beside me and, using my staff, cast the spell to pull all of us behind the ghost. I could feel the witches' skepticism, but I couldn't help but think that was their prejudice weighing in. I had no reason not to trust the ghost, especially if she'd come to me with witches, her most ardent enemy, to help us find Owen.

When we landed at the site of an old house, which was basically a hole with mud walls and a roof that had long ago collapsed, another spirit of an ancient old man stared out into the distance. "They're up to no good out there," he said, turning toward me .

He sized up the witches and sighed. "No need to push me through that confounded veil. I'm willing to go on my own."

"Not tonight, you don't have to. The witches have vowed not to bother anyone in my service who helps me tonight to save my boyfriend. You qualify as that, sir."

"Boyfriend, you say? As in a man?" he asked, and I cringed, ready to hear a lecture about homosexuality. I nodded, though, and the old man smiled. "So nice things have changed. In my day, I couldn't have a boyfriend or even admit I had one. I suspect that's why I'm still here, still searching for a way to reconcile all I lost in that time."

I smiled at the old man and would've liked to console him, but there was still too much at stake. "Thank you. I am forever in your debt."

"Go get your man. I'll stay here and watch. Whatever's out there has created a boundary not even I can get past."

I nodded, then looked at my witch friends. "How do you propose we proceed?" I asked.

"Carefully," Mr. Harrison replied instantly.

The wave of darkness hit us, and I knew we'd already been detected. "Brace for it!" I said just as the second wave hit. This time, fully intending to cause us harm.

My staff was already in my hand, and I shielded us from the worst of the blast. The four witches surrounded me then, each taking a spot in a formation very much like the four points of a compass: north, south, east, west. That's all I needed to know to understand what they wanted from me.

I drew my power from them as they drew it in from each direction. Mr. Stages stood to the north, and the energy that flowed through him and into the staff was powerful. Mr. Harrison stood to the south, and it, too, was powerful enough to fight any enemy we might face.

East and West held their powers, as well. Cary was holding the western flank. The energy grew the longer we stood, and nothing the dark sent at us was remotely strong enough to intercede until a magical arrow pierced through the protections and slammed into me.

I flew into the air and froze. I recognized Balthazar as he rode the air toward us, a malicious smile smeared across his face.

I could barely move, unsure how he had bested me. The Legacy Wizard was supposed to be stronger than any dark force, except my own dark equivalent. That entity was an immortal buried deep within the earth below a mountain in Norway. Balthazar was not him.

From my peripheral vision, I saw all four of the witches were each encased in some kind of bubble. They all writhed in pain, and I fought to get free to, if nothing else, save them.

"Aah, you've come to watch my party," Balthazar said as he entered our circle. "How nice of you. Oh, and how nice of you to provide your own blood to ensure you couldn't intervene. I would stop resisting if I were you. You donated enough of your DNA to keep you trapped for at least another twenty-four hours. "

At first, I had no idea how he'd gotten my blood, but then—the golem! I'd forgotten I'd put a golem into the hands of the vipers. The only way to give a golem life was with the creator's blood. Damn, had I just sealed Owen's fate?

Balthazar couldn't kill me. Intuitively, I knew my powers would prevent that. He could, however, kill Owen and the witches while I watched. With his blood spell, there was not a damned thing I could do to stop him.

Balthazar waved a wand that magically appeared in his hand, and we all floated behind him. When we got to a spot surrounded by what appeared to be thorny bushes and locust trees, I saw a real unicorn lying on a slab. It was some sort of altar, and although I couldn't ascertain what kind of magic they did there, another symptom of being held in the blood spell, I sensed it was deeply embedded in the dark.

"Karkadann, it's time!" Balthazar said, and I watched as Shadow, the woman who'd pretended to be my friend, the one who'd gotten Molly mixed up in all this crap, wandered into view, a look of pure arrogance on her face.

"Do it, dark witches. Start the chants!"

I heard a low hum like a thousand voices making the same note, and then dark witches came forward, each dressed in dark clothing. Some seemed way too old to be alive. I knew dark witches could prolong their lives, but not without doing serious damage to their souls. These were no longer healthy witches, and their humming drew from an energy outside this world .

Demonic would be the word a layperson would call this energy. I knew it was more than that. It was a bastardization of the very darkness they served. Dark didn't want destruction. It wanted balance. I felt that the instant the nasty aura came into my presence. If I'm right, and I pray to the gods that I am, dark would resist. I didn't know how, but I was happy to feel awareness that it would.

Would it be enough to save Owen? I had no idea, but I hoped beyond hope.

Shadow shifted from her human shape into the Karkadann. In any other situation, I would say the creature was as beautiful in its darkness as Owen was in his Re'em state. It was then that it struck me: the Karkadann was not the enemy of the Re'em. Could it be? Was Shadow Owen's salvation? I dared not even have that much hope.

I watched as the power grew around us. Inky, unnatural darkness swirling in dark foglike rings. It smelled of death and decay but also sulfur. What were the words used in old times? Oh, brimstone. It smelled of death and brimstone.

Shadow, in Karkadann form, moved forward slowly, and I realized she was waiting for something. There were thousands of creatures around us. Maybe even hundreds of thousands. As each creature lifted its voice along with the dark witches, I noticed a dark glow, literally dark energy growing around Balthazar. It was then I realized what his end goal was.

"You're trying to absorb the Re'em's energy?" I asked, hoping to distract him, to distract them .

A wave of dark energy hit me so hard I felt nauseous, but with it came Balthazar's response. "The era of the Re'em is over. No more will it reincarnate. After tonight, the darkness will remain in power forever."

I strained against my restraints. I couldn't let that happen. I had to stop it somehow, some way. Yet, I couldn't undo a curse that used my own blood against me. Fuck, how had I let this happen?

When all the entities' voices joined together, the sound made me feel as if it could pull my soul from my body. It was both loud and too quiet at the same time. It was so unnatural, so out of, well, out of balance. It was the opposite of me and everything I stood for.

Balthazar yelled then, "Now, Karkadann, do it now!"

Shadow, in her Karkadann form, rose on two legs. The dark energy that flowed around Balthazar glowed on the tip of her horn. She faced Owen, who lay unconscious on the slab. I screamed as she came down, her horn pointing directly at my beloved Owen. Tonight, the world as we knew it was going to end, and with it was going to be the death of the only man, the only creature I would ever love.