Blood of the Maple (24 page)

Dragos used his claws as scythes, cutting the weeds one by one. He screamed in rage, his beast completely in control. He bled from numerous cuts, but the flow was sluggish. Amara was terrified what he’d do once the battle ended. She hoped she wouldn’t have to battle the ancient when this was all over. He’d make a beeline for either one of the humanlike women, intent on feeding from them—or the Throne, intent on finding Mina.

Silver flashed; the dryads had entered the fray. The vines fell faster than they had on the roadway. Selena stood at the edge of the clearing, her feet braced apart, her eyes white, her markings glowing brightly. She chanted, low and lyrical, and everywhere her blind gaze fell, the vines did too, shrinking until they were nothing more than what they’d been before Terri had tampered with them.

“Parker!”

Mollie’s shout brought Amara’s attention back to her mate, who was calmly walking across the clearing, the weeds arching out of his way, not once touching his flesh.

Amara followed, swatting down any vines that got in her way. She had the sinking feeling that somehow Terri had gotten hold of him. There was a blank look on his face, one that petrified her. Parker
never
looked blank. Everything he felt was written on his features for the whole world to see, whether he meant them to or not. Even when his beast was in control, Parker’s eyes told anyone who looked how close to death they were. This sensation that he wasn’t in the driver’s seat horrified her. If he wasn’t in control of his body, he could do anything. Even kill. So Amara followed, not getting too close, and left the waning battle to her comrades. She told the trees to keep Ash and Greer aware of where she was headed.

Unless she missed her guess, she’d see Mina and Terri soon, and Ash and Greer would not be far behind.

Parker left the clearing, moving forward, but without that innate, catlike grace she’d come to associate with him. He didn’t even react when branches smacked him across the face, leaving behind numerous cuts and welts. He just kept moving onward.

Whatever Terri had done to him, Amara would see it reversed. She wanted her lover back.

She stayed out of his line of sight in case he had orders to attack anyone he saw. She didn’t want to fight him. She was scared stiff she’d injure him if it came to blows.

The wind changed, and suddenly she was no longer downwind of him. Parker stopped, swiveling his head to the right. He sniffed and shuddered, his body swaying back and forth.

That’s it. It’s me! C’mon, Parker, fight it!

The wind died down. Parker stopped shuddering. He resumed his path, his mind and beast once more asleep, once more moving at another’s command.

Damn it.
Maybe if she got to where he could scent her, he’d be able to break free of the spell woven around him. This was magic at its blackest, taking the will of another and bending it to suit the purposes of the caster. If the white witches caught Terri, they’d bind her from doing harm ever again.

The black ones would try to compare notes.

Parker walked through a shimmering veil, and Amara almost gasped out loud. Abruptly it all made sense. The trap had been set to keep the other dryads from finding out where Mina was being held, where Terri was planning to make her final stand.

They were in the heart of the forest.

They were at the Throne of Oak.

Amara followed Parker through the magical veil that usually guarded the grove. Terri would be aware of her presence, but there was no help for it. Amara wouldn’t be able to sense anything behind that veil without help. Greer and Ash would come as quickly as they could; here in the Throne they’d have far more power than Amara could begin to imagine.

Until they arrived, Amara and Parker were on their own.

“Parker,” a bubbling voice tried to croon. Amara grimaced. That…shambling, scabrous
thing
couldn’t be Terri, could it? It
looked
female, but all Amara could feel was rot.

Parker blinked. “Hello, sweet.”

Amara gritted her teeth. How dare he call that bitch
sweet?

“Where’s Mina?”

Terri paused. “Mina?”

“Oak, Terri. Where’s Oak?”

Terri shrugged. “Her? Where she belongs, of course. In her tree.”

Amara darted a glance at the huge oak that dominated the grove and gasped. Mina hung spread-eagle from the branches of her oak. Her head was down, her limbs trembling with effort. Her feet brushed the top of the carved-stone throne that sat high on its roots. Lesser thrones sat before the Oaken Throne, one each for Greer, Ash and Iva.

Something writhed against Mina’s skin, and she wheezed. Amara bit back a horrified gasp when that something burrowed under Mina’s skin, twisting inside her like a giant parasite. The pain had to be excruciating. Blood trickled down her skin where the vines and thorns kept her pinned to her tree like a bug.

Mina’s gaze was dull and bloodshot. Crimson dotted her lips. She coughed once and winced. “’Bout time you got here, Amara.” Her voice was husky with fatigue and pain.

“We were delayed.” Amara stepped forward, knowing Terri would get a good, long look at her. “Hey, bitch. Did you know that’s
my
man you’re messing with?”

“He’s
mine!
” Terri shrieked. Weeds sprung up around Amara, trying to block her in. “I will kill you.”

“And my dog too?” Amara pushed at the weeds, startled at their strength. Fuck. Had Terri managed to gain control here? If she had, their chances of survival had dropped to nil.

Parker snorted. Apparently he was no longer under the witch’s control. “Really, Terri. Bad form. Let the women go, and we’ll have a nice chat, hmm?”

“Come here, Parker.” Terri wiggled her fingers in a come-hither gesture that was beyond obscene. Her stench invaded the grove, a poisonous perfume that dulled the senses.

“I don’t think so.” Parker took a step back, toward Amara.

Mina’s back arched. Her head flew back. She screamed, the sound full of petrified agony.

“I don’t think you understand. Come
here,
Parker.” Terri pointed toward the ground in front of her as Mina screamed and
screamed.
“Take your time. I can wait.”

A low growl came from him, but he put one foot in front of the other and stopped where Terri had pointed. Mina’s screaming dissolved into sobs.

Whatever Terri had done to Oak was bad, possibly fatal. Mina’s skin had taken on an ashen tone, and she shuddered with each labored breath she took. Amara hoped the witchdoctor would be able to fix Mina, or all hell would break loose. When Dragos saw Mina’s wounds, he would go ape-shit.

“Do you want them to suffer even more?” A parody of a smile crossed Terri’s lips and Mina groaned. “Feed from me, Parker. Feed from me, and the others may go free.”

“Even Amara?”

She drew in a sharp breath. He couldn’t
possibly
be thinking about drinking the swill running through Terri’s veins.

If he did, there wasn’t enough mouthwash in the world to get
that
taste out of his mouth.

“Even Amara. She won’t matter to you once the spell is complete. Our suffering will be over, Parker. We will be together forever.”

Parker leaned back and took a deep breath. “And Mina will be set down, unharmed?”

“I can’t promise she won’t be damaged. My friends can be enthusiastic when I give them a task.”

Amara shuddered, remembering the wicked weed that had tried to tunnel inside Parker. Amara rooted her feet into the earth, drew back her hand and slammed it into the weed with all her strength.

The weed bent.

Parker leaned back and took another breath so he could speak again. He was trying not to breathe in Terri’s overwhelming stench. “And what task did you give them?”

She drew back her hand and hit the weed.

There was the faintest cracking sound.

“I needed the forest pliant. This was the fastest way.” Terri ran her hands down Parker’s chest, and he trembled. “I have to admit, I’m enjoying the taste of power. It’s so deep and rich and dark. The things I could do with it are endless.”

Shit.
Terri had tapped into Oak’s control over the forest. Amara drew her hand back a third time and gave the weed one more whack.

It broke. Amara was free.

“I don’t think so.”

Another weed sprang up where the broken one lay, covering it, making the base stronger than the first had been. She watched the new weed sink into the old, sucking it dry of what life was left in a matter of seconds.

“You didn’t think I’d give up that easily, did you?”

Amara looked up to find herself eye to eye with the witch. “Hello. You must be Terri.”

What remained of Terri’s eyebrows crookedly rose. “And you are?”

Amara reached deep into the earth, smiling at the response she got from the forest. The cavalry was on its way. “Let me think. You’re the bat-shit crazy bad guy.” Amara’s smile turned evil. “Guess that makes me the hero.”

Up from the earth sprang a huge rocklike formation that batted down the weeds like bugs and knocked both Terri and Amara off their feet.

Terri jumped to her feet faster than Amara. “How?”

Amara rose and punched the woman right in the nose, sending her sailing across the Throne. “It’s good to have friends.”

Terri howled, and her weeds answered, lifting from the ground and writhing around, but the ground rebelled against the invader. It heaved and moved in a quake that would have destroyed a lesser place.

The mountain did
not
like having Terri there and was showing her the best way it could, with a little help from Rock. The huge park ranger strode into view, batting weeds aside with massive fists. He’d called on the powers of his element, armoring himself against the thorns that tried to rip into his flesh. The deep, grating sound of stone grinding against stone accompanied him as he stomped across the Throne, decimating everything in his path. Almost half the wolf pack fought at his side, their claws and teeth ripping and tearing with deadly accuracy, their alpha at the front of the battle.

Rock and the wolves entered the fray, and leaving Amara free to concentrate her efforts on Terri. She took a brief moment to wonder where the rest of the wolves had disappeared to, but the mountain took her attention. She could barely stay on her feet.

Terri did her best to evade the flying debris the battle between the mountain and the weeds was throwing up, but both Amara and Terri found themselves pelted. Amara ignored the stinging bite of the rocks, her barklike skin absorbing the blows with ease. Terri, on the other hand, sprayed bits and pieces of herself all over the place, chunks falling off with each hit. She screeched with wrath, dancing around like a lunatic, trying to evade the rocks.

She completely missed seeing the hamadryad haymaker that once again sent her skidding across the Throne.

Terri hopped back to her feet with remarkable speed and flung out her hand, screaming in a strange language. A thin green light surrounded her hand; the witch was casting some sort of spell. Amara braced for whatever Terri was preparing to throw at her. From the hatred in Terri’s voice, she’d bet it was supposed to be lethal.

Arms circled Terri from behind. “Now, pretty, we wouldn’t want to do that, would we?”

Terri grasped Parker’s arm and jerked. “Get
off!
”

“That wasn’t what you were saying that night in the desert,” Parker cooed. “Don’t you remember how sweet it was?”

Terri stopped struggling. Her head tilted to the side, her eyes closed to half-mast. Her breaths came in short pants. Around her, the erupting earth died down as the forest itself seemed to listen to Parker’s crooned words. “I remember. I remember the night, the sound of the cicadas.”

“The strum of the guitar in the distance. You danced so beautifully.” Parker’s hand drifted down Terri’s mold-covered stomach to brush the dandelion growing beside her navel. “You were like a living flame. Remember? Remember how it was?”

Terri moaned, going lax in Parker’s arms. “I remember.”

“Do you remember the crackle of the wood as it burned in the bonfire? The sparks dancing from it, lighting the sky? The way the firelight danced across your skin, warming it, teasing it?” He swayed, taking Terri with him, dancing to a beat only the two of them could hear.

Amara was going to kick his ass when this was all over.

Parker wasn’t looking down at Terri anymore. He was looking beyond Amara, toward the wood. He nodded once and placed a soft kiss on the side of Terri’s neck. “Do you remember what it felt like to burn with passion?”

Terri shuddered. “Please, Parker.”

“Do you?”

“Yes! Please!” Terri’s head fell back against his shoulder. “
Please
love me.”

Parker’s eyes closed for a brief moment. When he opened them, they’d turned red. Hunting eyes. “No.”

His claws ripped through Terri’s stomach before he spun away, out of her reach. Terri bent over, gasping, stunned at the betrayal. “Parker!”

Mollie, fire sparkling along her skin, her hair a rippling sheet of flame, stepped next to Amara. She raised her hands, palms out, toward Terri. “Burn.”

The blast of heat knocked Amara back a step. It damn near scorched her. Terri shrieked, the flames engulfing her body, the weeds catching fire faster than Amara would have expected. Mollie kept the flame going, roasting the witch with her inner fire. She followed Terri around the Throne, careful to keep the fire from touching anything else within the grove other than the bits and pieces that had fallen off the witch in the rock blasts. What few sparks did land on the native greenery around the great Oak, Mollie swiftly reabsorbed, much to Amara’s shock. Fire was the hardest element to control, but Mollie appeared to be a master.

Terri was reduced to a smoldering pile, but Mollie kept the flame going. Across the funeral pyre from Mollie Selena chanted, cleansing the soul of the fallen witch even as Mollie’s fire cleansed the body. Soon nothing was left but a pile of ash. The markings on Selena’s face faded, Mollie’s fire slowly died and quiet once more entered the grove.

“You two okay?”

Selena snorted. “We weren’t the ones going toe-to-toe with her. Are
you
okay?”

Amara nodded, staring at the pile of ash, stunned it was finally over. “Ding-dong, the witch is dead.”

Selena sighed. “She was dead the moment her curse hit her. That wasn’t Terri—that was more of a construct, with the drive the curse gave her and a body that would never die. She would have chased Parker through eternity until he gave up, found his true
sotiei
and killed her, or something caused his death. Once Parker died, the curse would have released her body or, more likely, found someone new to focus on. The only thing I did was try to ensure she can’t get back up again.”

“Wow.” She couldn’t begin to imagine what Terri would have been like in a couple more centuries. Would she have had even the basic appearance of a human, or would she have been a shambling mass, unable to communicate but hell-bent on claiming her vampire? “Wait. She could get back up? Like a fucking phoenix?”

Mollie groaned and settled on the ground. “Thank the Goddess. I wasn’t happy about killing a person, no matter how badly they needed it. A thing, on the other hand? That I have no problems with.”

Selena sat next to the fire elemental and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Terri was long gone. I’m certain the spell she was trying to cast wouldn’t have worked. It requires a soul to do magic, and hers had long ago vacated the premises. I cleared out the curse, but that’s all I had to do.” She smiled up at Parker. “Any desire for vegetable juice now comes from the fact that your
sotiei
is a hamadryad. You’re clear.”

Parker smiled back. “Good to know. And thanks, Selena. Mollie.”

“You’re welcome.” Selena nudged Mollie.

Mollie grimaced and muttered, “No problem.”

Dragos landed in front of the women. “Are you all right, ladies?” His eyes glowed red, and his accent was suspiciously thick, but otherwise he seemed to have himself under perfect control.

Selena and Mollie nodded. “Check on Mina.”

He stared at the Oak, and his body went rigid. No matter the language, a curse was recognizable, and Dragos was letting them fly as he viewed what had been done to his
sotiei.
From the shocked look on Selena’s face, she knew exactly what Dragos was saying.

Dragos flew to the Oak and began freeing an unconscious Mina from her bindings. Odds were good the queen of the wood would find herself in Dragos’s bed before the night was over.

“She had one of Terri’s burrowing weeds inside her. It was how Terri was so much stronger here. She used that connection to siphon off Mina’s powers and torture her at the same time.”

“Ouch. I’d better take a look before Dragos drags her off.” Selena struggled to her feet, jumping when Ash suddenly appeared before her. He grabbed her arm and helped her to her feet. “I’m fine, Mr. Ward. I’ve been hauling my ass off the ground all by myself for years.”

Ash didn’t reply. He kept hold of Selena’s arm and escorted her to Dragos and Mina, his expression grim. It didn’t take long for the witchdoctor to pronounce Mina healed, but when she was done, a fine sheen of sweat dotted her forehead and her hands were shaking. Dragos lifted the unconscious Mina into his arms and flew off before anyone could protest.

Amara studied the pile of ash closely. “You said she might come back. Are you sure?”