A Ritual of Fire Page 6

  “Fine,” Stella growled, turning fierce eyes on her mother, and despite her bravado, I could see how scared she was. It made me wondered if I looked the same. “I’ll go as long as you do too, mother.”

  Mara glowered at her daughter for a moment, and I wanted to shake them both. We absolutely didn’t have time for this. Those werewolves were getting closer by the second.

  “Very well,” Mara said after so long I very nearly exploded with rage.

  “Finally,” I said, moving toward the far door. “Let’s go before we get eaten.”

  “Is there anything you absolutely need to take with you?” Vlad asked, and I whirled around to glare at him. Didn’t he realize we didn’t have time for this?

  I didn’t hear Mara’s response because my gaze was locked on the screens. They were standing in front of a sigil-inscribed tile, and while I wasn’t sure what it did, I knew it had to be a defense of some sort. A small flicker of relief hit me. Good. That’d buy us time.

  Or so I thought. Before I could even tell the others about what was happening on screen, one of the wolves moved forward and stepped right on the sigil-inscribed tile. A torrent of fire obliterated him while his friends waited for the fire to put itself out. Then they walked by his charred corpse to meet another sentinel.

  “Vlad, look.” I pointed to the screen, one finger shaking. “They’re making it here by sacrificing their own.” I swallowed. “If they keep that up, they’ll be here in no time.”

  “Then they’d better plan on sacrificing more of them. Nancy’s one of our better sentinels. She may not survive this, but she will give us more time,” Mara said as an invisible shield went up between Nancy and the wolves.

  “Either way, we need to—”

  My words were interrupted by an explosion that rocked the room as the wolf broke the barrier with a swipe of his claws. I could see his snout pulled back, growling filling the air as he stalked toward Nancy. She threw her hand toward him and the wolf caught on fire.

  “He should not have been able to bring the shield down so fast.” Mara narrowed her eyes and shook her head as she peered at the screen like she was trying to figure out what was going on instead of fleeing. “Someone or something has to be helping him.”

  “Vlad! We need to go,” I snapped, tightening my grip on my Glock. “Come on.”

  “Mara, we don’t have much time. They will be here soon.” Vlad pulled Mara with him and I followed. Stella stayed behind only long enough to set the last spell before hurrying after us.

  Before she caught up to us, I heard another explosion rock the place. This one was stronger than all of the rest, strong enough that it brought the false ceiling above down on us.

  Vlad used his quick reflexes to protect Mara from the debris. As for me, I was pretty tough. I just put my arms above my head out of instinct more than anything. Still, as debris tumbled all around me, I was glad nothing big fell on me because even though I was a dragon shifter and had stronger skin even in my human form, a giant block would still knock me out.

  As we pushed away the debris, Stella caught up to us.

  I glanced at her. “Nancy?”

  Stella shook her head and her eyes bored into the ceiling as she clenched her fists and took several calming breaths. “At least she took out two more wolves. Eight wolves left.”

  Those weren’t good odds. It made me want to escape even more. Sure, witches protected their own, and if the leader of this coven, who also happened to rule the witch’s council, was murdered, our city would burn as every coven in North America sought vengeance against whoever dared to attack their leader. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t keep us from already being dead.

  Still, as I had the thought, another popped into my brain.

  “Stella, could it be another coven trying to take over?” I gestured back down the tunnel. “You saw how quickly they tore through Nancy’s shield. That had to be with magic.”

  “No way,” she answered as we pushed on. “No coven would act like this. We may not always get along, but we don’t kill our own. A convicted Witch Killer is tortured until the victim begs for a death that won’t easily come.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked. If these werewolves had magic, I wanted to be ready for it. “What about rogues? How do you explain those wolves? Think about it, Stella. They shouldn’t have been able to make it through your wards or best your sentinels so easily. They have to have been amped up on magic.” I wanted to say black magic, but I wanted her to say it first. If I did, she might just clam up, and that wasn’t what I needed right now. I needed her to give me an edge in case those wolves got to us before we escaped.

  “There is no way any witches would have helped shifters, especially to attack other witches. I’m sure you know we don’t play well with others.” Stella was stating it mildly.

  Shifters and witches were always at each other’s throats, which was one reason why I’d thought witches were involved in this case somehow. Not this coven, per se, but there has to be at least a high witch somewhere involved if black magic was involved. That combined with the level of magic being used to defeat the wards so quickly, meant there had to be someone powerful backing these wolves.

  “Stella—”

  “Let’s just get out of here first, then we can talk about the possibility.” Without another word, Stella ran ahead to help her mom, leaving me to guard the rear which was fine by me. If the wolves came at us, I wanted a chance to take them on while the others fled. Then, if they got far enough, maybe I could shift and stop them. I might not be able to go full dragon down here, but maybe I wouldn’t have to. A few well-placed fireballs and some scales for armor might be enough.

  “You aren’t afraid of tight spaces, are you?” The wicked gleam in Mara’s eyes as I turned toward her set me on edge.

  “No, why?” I asked, glancing at the door set in the wall just ahead.

  “We have to go through an exit tunnel which will take us to our emergency vehicles.” Mara frowned. “Sorry, but you’ve probably lost that pretty SUV of yours.”

  “No worries, it wasn’t ours.” I shook my head.

  “Good to know.” Stella smirked as she opened the door, revealing what looked like a mine shaft. Without another word, she stepped through, leaving me to follow behind.

  I had to bend my head to fit, and as we moved forward, the tunnel continued to shrink as we moved, walls and ceiling pressing down on us from every angle. Worse, the further we went, the more we had to hunch over to keep from hitting our heads.

  Packed dirt surrounded us all the way around. Two by fours supported the walls and ceiling every few feet. It was sturdy enough to get through as long as we didn’t have to turn around and fight.

  “The wolves will have a problem getting through here quickly, but they will still come,” I called ahead from my position in the rear. “Can we hurry it up?” I didn’t want to be stuck in these tunnels fighting wolves. At this point, the height was still close to five feet. The wolves may not be able to stand erect, but they’d still be better off fighting against someone like me, given they could do it on four legs.

  “I locked the door behind us with a magical spell and also put a thick, metal bar over it. If they get to the door, it will take them a while to get through. We should already be gone by the time they do.”

  Stella’s magic had to be pretty strong if she thought her shield would hold them back for long. Either that or she was extremely confident of her abilities. While I could get behind that kind of confidence, I just hoped it wasn’t misplaced, especially since I’d seen them take down the sentinel’s shield in moments. Then again, Stella had seen that too.

  Before we made it out, an explosion bigger than any of the others rocked the tunnel. Dirt began to fall from the ceiling and walls all around us, and as the two-by fours fought to hold the tunnel together, I wondered if I was about to be buried alive.

  “Was that your trap?” I asked Stella as soon as things settled.

  “Unfortunately.”
She took a deep breath. “I hadn’t expected them to already be at the door. Still, it was a good one. While it might not have killed them all, it had to have taken care of most of them.“ Stella pushed forward and I followed her. “Now we just have to get out of here.”

  “What exactly was the trap?” I wondered aloud.

  “I set magical charges all around the last room in the warehouse. Anyone without our coven’s magic would automatically set it off as soon as they stepped inside the room. Those destruction spells should have brought down the entire warehouse and some of the surrounding buildings down on their heads.” Stella had some serious juice if she managed that without dropping unconscious from the effort.

  Just as I was thinking we were going to get out alive, another explosion rocked the tunnel, causing the section behind us to collapse.

  Dirt began to rain down around us as the two by fours collapsed, and as I threw my arms up in a pointless effort to shield myself, Stella put her hands up and began chanting in Latin. Magic flowed out from her hands in a translucent green fog, causing the tunnel above us and in front of us to stay intact, at least until we moved forward. As we walked forward, the dirt behind us fell down and blocked our rear path.

  That might have been a Godsend. There was no way any surviving wolves would be able to catch up to us. They would have to go around and find out where this tunnel exited. By then, we would be gone.

  9

  Alyson

  The tunnel led out through a small hatch into a surprisingly-well stocked garage. It was a self-contained building, maybe an old storage building. My eyes were immediately drawn to one vehicle in particular.

  “Please tell me that’s what we’re taking.” I pointed to a shiny, black Hummer. It looked like it was a second gen model, not the smaller H3.

  Stella raised her brows and smiled before jumping into the driver’s seat. “Well, get in. Vlad, can you get my mother situated in the backseat and sit with her? Alyson, I’ll need you up front in case we come across anything you need to shoot.” Stella handed me the AK-47 along with three Glocks as I slid into the seat. “In the center console should be more ammo for both.”

  Wow, Stella was prepared for an invasion. Just great, I actually liked this chick. Mentally, I threw my hands in the air and began to give up my hatred toward her. Little by little, she seemed to make it impossible to not be friends.

  “We should head to the latest crime scene assuming we aren’t followed. I want your mom to see if she can recognize any scent or witch signatures.” I checked the ammo on all of the weapons and made sure the safeties were still on for the guns Stella handed me as well as my own.

  The last thing we needed was a loaded weapon going off when we crested a hill. I was sure we would be doing some serious off-roading before we made it to the last crime scene in Palmdale.

  We peeled out of the garage and into the dead of night in the high desert. Though we weren’t out in the greater LA basin yet, we were about half-way down the Angeles National Forest. If we could get to Santa Clarita, we could probably lose anyone who’s following us, if any of them survived the final explosion of the witch’s lair.

  I kept an eye out for any headlights in the rear-view mirror. It could signal we were being followed. This wasn’t exactly an area known for tourists, so anyone here would most likely be after us. After we went for a few miles with no one in sight, I started to relax. We were going to get to the city.

  “Do you have a safe house the rest of your coven knows about?” I knew Stella had a destination in mind, I just didn’t know what it was.

  Stella had slowed up on the gas over the past few miles. She must have felt like I did, we were out of danger. For the moment. “Yes. It’s in the city. Any of us who survived the attack will go there, as will the rest of our family when they come back and see what happened. It’s the only place in the area we have now. Thankfully, no one outside of the coven knows about it.”

  “Umph.” I must have banged my rump at least a dozen times already on this trek. I was in pretty good shape, but riding through the desert at over forty miles an hour just wasn’t good for the body, even in a Hummer.

  We finally pulled out of the desert and were heading down highway 14 toward Santa Clarita. Too bad we weren’t going for the roller coasters the town was so well known for. Although, this ride was like a roller coaster, just not as fun. I didn’t know how Mara was handling the jerking motions of riding off-road through the desert.

  “They’re heeeeerrre,” Mara said in a sing-song voice which reminded me of the Poltergeist. Even the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, just like when I watched the movie.

  Before anyone had a chance to question the old bat, lights showed up in the rear view mirror. I should have known it was too easy to get away.

  “Get ready to start shooting. We aren’t far from the 5 freeway. This is going to get hairy.” Stella’s knuckles turned white as she tightened her grip on the steering wheel.

  I wasn’t going to complain about getting to kill some werewolves. These guys were definitely going to get what they deserved and more. Still, I wondered why they were after the great witch. Was it because they were connected to the other murders or for another reason entirely? I wasn’t sure, but either way, they were going down.

  When the car got closer, Vlad rolled down his window and hung out from behind Stella, holding his service pistol. With his side covered, I rolled my window down and hung out with the AK-47 at the ready. Between the both of us we would have no problem hitting the oncoming car and anyone inside. I only hoped I could stop them before we entered the freeway. Right now, we were traveling down a small highway which wasn’t known for late night traffic. Most of the traffic on this road happened during commuter’s hours so it was the best place to have a running gun battle.

  “Hold on, let them get a little closer.” Vlad must have wanted to get the driver before they realized what we had.

  “Uh, I think you need to take that guy out now. There’s someone hanging out a window on my side with a semi-automatic. Mara, lean forward and stay out of the path of stray bullets.” I pulled the trigger before they were close enough.

  Bullets slammed into the Dodge Charger chasing us, tearing some pretty large holes in the front fender and the windshield.

  “Flames and cauldrons,” I cursed. I was definitely going to have to speak to the boss about getting an AK-47 for field use.

  My next burst hit the guy in the front passenger seat, spraying blood across the back of his seat as he slumped against his seatbelt. A quick glance at Vlad let me know he had emptied his weapon because he was shoving a new magazine into place. It made sense. After all, his Glock only held ten rounds while my AK-47 held thirty.

  I glanced down to see Mara was still sitting upright in her seat, and saw the witch hadn’t ducked down at all. Instead, she stared wide-eyed out the back window.

  “Mara, please duck down so no stray bullets can get you. All of this will be for nothing if you get killed en route,” I called.

  “Don’t worry, dear. I have my shield up. No bullets will get through.” The old lady sat there like nothing was wrong. She didn’t look frightened or worried. Her face was calm and she even had a small smile going. Crazy coot.

  Still, that made me a bit relieved. After all Vlad and I could both take a few as long as they didn’t get any important organs, and we both had accelerated healing powers. That just left Stella, but something told me she probably had a shield too.

  Still, getting shot wasn’t exactly fun, especially when compared to shooting the bad guys.

  I leaned outside the window and took aim, while trying to dodge bullets coming from the Charger. This time, my burst only succeeded in perforating the car, but it did cause the guy who had my matching AK-47 to tuck back inside his car to save his skin.

  Stella swerved back and forth, trying to give both Vlad and I good shots while keeping the enemy from hitting us too hard, but even still, as my next burst tore the fe
nder off their car, the back window of our Hummer shattered as at least a dozen bullets came careening right for Mara.

  A blue glow surrounded her, and I heard a popping sound like popcorn. Her shield protected her, sending the bullets ricocheting back out the window. Crazily, they seemed to fly back in the exact same trajectory they came flying in on.

  Man, I needed to get one of those. Talk about return to sender.

  “Hold on!” Stella screamed as she took the 5 freeway entrance way too fast for any car, let alone a SUV. Granted, the Hummer was weighted to be able take a good turn but even still it came up on two tires, and for a moment, I worried we were going to tip over. Only, just as we were about to tip over, white light enveloped the car, pushing it back on its wheels in a shriek of steel. As I glanced at Mara in time to see the glow fading from her hand, the tires caught with a squeal of burning rubber and we were off again.

  As we careened around the corner, stray bullets took out the rear side window on my side of the Hummer. They were getting too close to hitting me. While I could heal from a bullet or two, it’d still hurt like a son of a gun. Worse, I had to stay out here if I had any hope of stopping them before they turned us into swiss cheese.

  “Hang on!” Stella cried right before the Hummer lurched sideways, careening across the street.

  I almost dropped the gun as I grabbed the side and held on for dear life. The second we started to straighten out, I aimed at the Dodge again. This time I hit someone leaning out to fire at us. The rounds tore into his chest, ripping him from the car and sending his bullet-riddled corpse skidding across the asphalt.

  As my AK-47 went empty, another one of their guys returned fire. Before I could duck back inside, a bullet smashed into my left bicep. Agony shot through me as the AK-47 in my hands slipped from my grasp to dangle by the strap.

  Ignoring it, I threw myself back into my seat and gritted my teeth as red began to soak through my sleeve. Even still, I could feel it starting to heal already, and a quick look told me why. It was a through and through. Still, I’d need to wrap my arm to keep the blood flow to a minimum.