mission magic 01 - the incubus job (14 page)

I glanced once more at So’la, who remained locked in battle with Law. Orange lightning crackled over his skin, and his body glowed red. He was fighting back hard.

I looked at Tabitha. Now or never. I turned my hand over and dripped blood over the top of the box. In that same moment, the door of the ritual space flew off its hinges and across the room. Law stormed in, wrapped in a whirling haze of magic. That’s all I saw before Tabitha’s memories crashed into me again.

I slumped to the floor, reliving each dreadful moment, feeling it as if it were all happening to me. I clutched the box, feeling its spells wake and drink of my pain and suffering. A wet sponginess slid up my hand and over my arm. It sucked on my skin like a mouth. It climbed higher. Immersed in Tabitha’s memories, I couldn’t fight it.

White cold washed down my shoulder. The wetness hardened and drew back, only to return. Again the cold struck at it. Again it pulled away and returned. Over and over the two sensations dueled.

I remembered my skin peeling away. The tongue licking my exposed flesh. The claws scraping the insides of my ribs. Pain racked me. I sobbed and screamed. Law called my name. Flashes of blue light strobed nearby.

I died. Again. My heart in a demon’s mouth.

I slumped, gasping, as the remembered pain of Tabitha’s death seeped away. My body shuddered and shook. Feverish heat wrapped me. My lips were cracked and my tongue felt like leather. The first time I’d experienced Tabitha’s memories had been awful. I hadn’t thought it could feel worse. God, but I didn’t know if I’d ever sleep through the night again.

“Mal! Are you all right? God damn you! You were supposed to wait for me!”

I was curled into a fetal position around the box. Its corners dug into my chest and stomach. I felt like I’d been through a wood chipper. Law continued to harangue me. I pushed myself up. The box tipped on its side. The lid clattered to the floor. Holy crap. It had worked.

I glanced up at Law with an exhausted but gleeful smile. I’d done it!

“Drop your damned wards,” he ordered, his face graven and gray. His eyes were bloodshot, and one had a splotch of red in the corner where a blood vessel had burst. His clothes hung singed and torn. He punched the invisible walls of my circle, and blue magic flashed. I felt the jolt of his magic run through it.

Taking a breath, I eased onto my knees. I looked around for So’la. The demon writhed in a cocoon of orange magic. Taking a breath, I touched the edge of my inner circle and chanted. One by one, the chalk markings evaporated in smoke.

I could feel Law’s impatience. I didn’t hurry. Neither of us would like the results if I lost concentration. It was serious magic. Even Law hadn’t been able to break through it.

Finally the outer circle burned away. Law snatched my shoulders and lifted me to my feet. He looked me over from head to toe and back up again. I imagine I was quite a sight. My eyes were gritty and swollen from crying. My lips were chapped and cracked. The dress was a rag, and my palm still bled from where I’d gashed it with the emerald.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Law does this thing when he starts feeling too much. He hates losing control, so he goes in the opposite direction, all frigid and hard. So cold you’d think he was made of arctic ice. This wasn’t one of those times. Now he was volcanic. His fingers dug into my flesh. I’d have bruises later. I’d hoped he’d cared more. Kinda sad, really. Understatement of my life, but I didn’t want to think about it.

He opened his mouth to say something; then his lips snapped shut. He swallowed hard and shook his head as if to clear it.

“I’m upright and breathing,” I said. “So I’m fine.”

He grimaced. “Right. Why did I bother asking?”

I looked past him at the trussed demon. “How long can you hold him?”

“I have the power of the auberge back. It won’t go anywhere until I let it go.”

“He,” I said absently. Then, “Good.” I wondered why I felt a flicker of pity for the demon.

I pulled out of Law’s punishing grip. “Guess I didn’t need to go to all the trouble to open the box, then. You didn’t need me at all.” Saying the words hurt. That’s when I realized how much I’d missed being his partner. Working together. Maybe I’d thought showing off the skills I’d learned in the last six years would impress him. And maybe I’d had a tiny little sliver of wishful hoping that he’d see that he needed me. Maybe have some big Disney moment where he told me I was the best thing that ever happened to him and yadda yadda yadda. Talk about stupid.

I stepped back. He didn’t need me. He had the power of the auberge and that was more than enough.

I didn’t want him to see how miserable I felt. I looked down at the box. The top lay separate on the floor. Inside the bottom was a polished stone about the size of my fist. It was pearly gray with two bumps near the top. A single ring of small runes circled its waist. I was so lost in my own pain that I didn’t think. Before Law could stop me, I bent and picked up the stone in my wounded hand.

A nuclear bomb hit me. My hand burst into flame. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. Filaments of power knotted themselves into my flesh and bone. They snapped tight, tugging me from within. Feelings assaulted me. Pain, hate, anger, helplessness—so much more. I couldn’t sort through it all. Tugging, drawing me like a rip current. I stood still. I followed them. Tracing them back to their source.

So’la.

The stone I held linked us. I told my fingers to let it fall. One by one, I uncurled them. The stone clattered on the floor and rolled away. I waited for the filaments connecting me to the demon to dissolve.

Nothing.

A wave of mindless fury crashed into me, driving up through the connection. So’la battered at me. He was insane with the agony of his bonds and the heartbreak of once again being bound. I called up my shields. They didn’t work. The link between us was too intimate. I could no more block him than I could block myself.

I hated what I did next. “So’la, stop attacking me. Calm down.”

He yanked away from me, forced by my command. My stomach lurched and I swallowed. That’s when I realized that Law was yelling at me again. He was also shaking me.

I made myself focus on him. “I’m okay.”

“The fuck you are,” he growled. “You’ve gone white as a sheet and you’re bleeding.”

My nose again. I don’t usually get nosebleeds. I dashed at the warm trickle with the back of my hand and frowned at the smear of blood. I wasn’t so much bleeding as someone seemed to have left the faucet in my head running.

Law shrugged out of his coat and yanked his shirt over his head. I couldn’t help noticing the way his muscles rippled across his stomach and chest. I was truly pathetic with lousy priorities. I knotted my hand on the cloth as he handed his shirt to me. I pressed it to my nose, breathing deeply of his spicy scent. It brought back too many memories. I pushed it harder against my nose, breathing through my mouth so I wouldn’t have to think about the old days. It didn’t really help.

“Tell me what exactly happened when you touched the command stone,” he ordered. Then, “What the hell were you thinking, Mal? You know better than that. This is probably the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.”

I ignored the last because the only real reply was to tell him he was right and that was the last thing I wanted to do.

“We’re linked. The ties are deep. Essential. You can let him go, by the way. He’s in pain and can’t do anything to hurt us now.”

Law actually rolled his eyes then scowled at me. “What do you mean—essential?”

I tried to find the words to explain what I felt. “The demon is tied to me, flesh and bone and breath. I can’t even shield from him.” I bit my lip. “How do we separate us?”

“We?” Law laughed harshly. “Now it’s we? I thought you were all about doing it yourself. You don’t want anything to do with me.”

“Actually, you’ve got that turned around,” I said. “You’re the one who thinks I’m crippled. You don’t trust me to handle anything without you.”

“Damned straight. If you’d waited for me, you wouldn’t be demonbound right now.”

“I’m not demonbound,” I retorted. “He can’t command me. Besides, you were standing right here when I picked up the stone.”

“Just like a baby playing with a grenade,” he taunted. “Whatever you want to call it, you and that fucking demon are bound together, and if you’d thought for a single second, you wouldn’t be.”

“Fine. I was stupid. Really stupid. You are totally right and I’m totally wrong. I’m unable to function on my own. Are you happy now? If you’re going to keep playing the part of my daddy, then go away, because I don’t need one of those. Plus, I have work to do.”

He speared his fingers through his hair and visibly collected himself. His expression remained taut, grooves cutting deeply around his mouth.

He started to say something else, but I didn’t hear it. All of a sudden, I felt weak. My legs turned to syrup. I sagged. Vaguely I was aware of Law catching me. He laid me on the ground. My head spun and my heart stuttered. All of me felt thin, transparent.

“Mallory?” Law’s voice had gentled. “Can you hear me? Talk to me. Tell me what’s happening.”

I wanted to answer. I couldn’t. What was happening?

“The demon drains you.” The voice was young. A girl. Tabitha? It sounded inside my head. “It draws on your strength to save itself. You must tell it not to.”

Don’t . . .

I sent the silent message, hoping So’la could hear. The pull on my energy stopped. I hadn’t noticed it before. How strange. My head still spun. Wait—Tabitha was talking to me?

I wanted to ask her why. I tried to open my eyes. When had they shut? They were too heavy. Vaguely I heard Law talking to me, his hand wrapping mine. I was still sinking.

“She and the demon are tied now. Should one die, so will the other.”

The words danced together in my brain, making no sense. I let them go. I should do something. I should . . .

Fog rolled through my head. Voices whispered nonsense. Bodies pressed against me, arms clasping me. All around. Healing green washed through me. For a moment my mind cleared. The ghosts surrounded me. They held me in the center of a group hug. I wanted to laugh. That was funny. Wasn’t it?

I felt their energies tattering as they poured healing into me. That wasn’t right. No. I shoved at them. No. They tightened around me. I struggled against their sacrifice. Too much sacrifice. Not for me. I didn’t want people dying for me. Not even dead people. They’d saved me this way from the lich, only they were now trying to save both So’la and me together. It was too much for them.

I gathered my magic and shoved. They barely moved. It was enough. I invoked my shields, sealing the ghosts out.

Now I was alone.

Silence pressed against me. I drifted on a cloud of gray. I felt myself dwindling. It wasn’t like I thought dying would be. This was softer, easier. No pain. I didn’t feel much of anything at all. I wasn’t cold. Comfortably numb. Ha. That was funny. I wondered who’d I’d be seeing on the dark side of the moon.

All at once, a jolt of something lanced through me. Somewhere in the distance, my body arced off the floor. The tendons of my neck tented, and my eyes went wide.

Another jolt.

Live.

I didn’t recognize the voice. It was low and gravelly. Like Johnny Cash after a bottle of Jack.

I’m not actually trying to die.

Then live . . . Master.

Such bitterness in that word.

Electric energy buzzed through me. I soaked it up, feeling myself becoming whole again. I don’t want to be your master. Go away.

Is that an order, Master?

You’re damned— I stopped. I needed to think before I said or did something else stupid. I didn’t know the rules of the link between us.

Truly I am damned.

I sighed. Pity party much? Look, all I want to do is cut us apart and send you back to Demonville where you belong. Tell me how.

You cannot.

Funny. Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off. Now tell me how. Aren’t you supposed to obey me?

I am. You cannot.

So’la was serious. Maybe you should explain this to me. Use small words.

To the sorcerer too. It will be easier.

You mean you won’t have to explain twice.

That too. Release your shields. Wake up, Master.

Call me that again, and I’ll kick you in the balls. Do you have balls?

So’la laughed. Huge balls, Mistress. And a cock to stir your dreams.

TMI. Curiosity got the better of me. For being as big as you claim, they were sure microscopic when I was looking. Besides, you were pretending to be a girl. So are you a drag queen on your days off?

Demons are wise enough to protect our sexual organs. Pause. Interesting that you were looking.

No matter what the species, men were men and they liked it when people looked at their junk.

Hard not to look when you’re that ugly.

I can be beautiful for you.

Why bother? Anyway, I’m not into girls.

Seductive laughter. Have no fear. I can be the man of your dreams.

I thought of Law. No, you can’t.

I let go of my shields and blinked my eyes. Fluttered them, actually. Blinking was a lot of work. My lips were sandpaper; my tongue, leather. The rest of me might just as well be dead for all I could feel it.

“Mallory? Talk to me. Please.”

Law’s voice sounded desperate. He held my face in his hands, and moisture dripped onto my forehead and cheeks. Was he crying? The idea was so incredible that I had to see for myself. I forced my eyes open. He looked at me upside down. His face was haggard and white. He held me between his knees as he knelt on the floor. I wasn’t sure but it seemed his hands shook.

“Mallory? Can you hear me?”

I probably looked like a zombie. I sure as hell felt like one. Then I got another little jolt of power from So’la. It frizzled painfully across my skin and sank inward. Thank you, Mr. Passive Aggressive. Before he’d healed me gently. Now I guess I deserved only pain. I twitched and gasped, my hands knotting into fists.

“I’m—” I got that far before I started coughing. I rolled onto my side as deep, wrenching barks tore through my body. Law soothed his hands over my back as the frenzy continued. I’m not sure how long I did that before I quieted. Law pulled me up to sit against him and pressed a glass to my lips. I sipped. Half of it dribbled over my chin and down my neck, and a little wet my parched lips and tongue. I grabbed the glass around Law’s hand and drank greedily. When I was finished, he pulled it away.