Heaven and Earth
Page 81

The sound of it beat in her head.
Her sister was dead. Slain like a lamb for her love, for her heart. For her gift. Where was the justice?
The air itself was full of howls and screams, a thousand tormented voices. Under her feet, a dirty fog began to creep along the ground, rising until it was up to her ankles, then halfway to her knees. The chill of it seeped into her bones.
Blood for blood. Life for life. Power for power. How could she have believed there was any other way?
Something made her look over her shoulder. Where the house should have been, with its lights glowing against the window, was nothing but a curtain of dirty white.
She’d been cut off from home—and she could see now, as the fog continued to rise and swirl and thicken, from the village as well.
Fine and good, she thought, shoving fear down beneath fury.
“Come on, then, you bastard.” She shouted it, and her voice cut through the fog like a scalpel through gauze. “Take me on.”
The first punch of power knocked her back a full three steps before she dug in. Rage curled inside her. As she threw up her arms, embraced it, lightning slashed the sky and sea like red-tipped whips. Ah, here, she thought, here was magic with muscle. She saw herself, and not herself, standing in the gale, gathering forces. Air, Earth, Fire, Water.
Beside her, Lucy lifted her head and let out a long, ululant howl.
Harding, or what had mastered him, stepped out of the fog.
“Rip always did throw a good tantrum,” Zack said to try to lighten the mood. The living room was in shambles, and if he let himself, he could still feel the buzz of what had whipped through it sting along his skin.
“Fear and anger, anger and fear.” Mia paced as she spoke. “I couldn’t get through it. Ripley’s and the one she comes from. It’s so strong, so thick.”
“Like her skull?” Mac said with a faint grin.
“Precisely. I’d hoped to see what tactic would be taken next, so that we could counter it. That, naturally, would be too simple.”
“This hurts her,” Nell commented.
“I know it does.” Mia patted Nell’s arm absently. “And I’m sorry for it. The thing to do now is to sit
down and figure out how to use those emotions, their negativity, in what comes next. A protective spell, at this point, is only a stopgap. As much as I hate to agree with the deputy, we have to take action.”
She stopped to gather her thoughts. “You haven’t had much experience, Nell, and it wouldn’t be an easy matter in any case.”
“What wouldn’t?” Mac asked. “You’re thinking of a casting out?”
“So handy to have a scholar around. Yes,” Mia continued. “There are five of us. We’d do better with twelve, but there isn’t time to round up recruits. Just as there isn’t time to do much in preparation. We’ll use what we’ve got. Once we’ve . . .”
She trailed off, and her cheeks went deathly pale. “She’s gone. She’s outside the protective boundary.”
Fear leaped out of her before she could cage it. “She’s broken the circle.”
Even as Mac rushed for the door, Mia grabbed his arm. “No, no. Think. Feeling’s not enough, which is her problem. We go together.” Her gaze swept the room. “And we go ready. Do you know how it’s done?”
Mac struggled against panic. “In theory.”
Mia watched Zack snap on his holster. She wanted to tell him that wasn’t the way, but the expression on his face warned her not to bother.
“Tell us what to do,” Nell said urgently. “And let’s do it quickly.”
Ripley planted her feet, legs spread, body braced. It was a dare, and she knew it. Draw him out, she thought. Draw him to her, and save the rest.
And destroy him.
Beside her, Lucy growled low in her throat.
“Harding.” She frosted her voice with amused derision. “Middle-aged, paunchy city boy. Not such a keen choice, if you ask me.”
“A useful shell.” The voice was deeper, and somehow wetter, than it should have been. “We’ve met before,” he told her.
“Have we? I only remember interesting people.”
“What’s in you remembers what’s in me.” He circled her, light on his feet. Ripley turned with him, careful to keep face-to-face. She slid her fingers into Lucy’s collar to hold her in place as the dog leaped and snapped. “You reached for what I have once, took it into you like a lover. Remember the ecstasy.”
It was not, she discovered, a question. But a command. A fast, pulsing thrill pumped through her. Heady and full. Glorious. A kind of full-body orgasm that nearly brought her to her knees with its sheer and ferocious pleasure.
She shuddered from it, didn’t quite bite back a moan.
Yes, God, yes. She could have this ? Such a thing would be worth any price. Betrayal, damnation. Death.
As she struggled to clear her head, she caught the flash of movement. She stumbled to counter, and ended up sprawled on her face in the frigid sand.
It felt as though she’d been rammed by a truck.
He was chuckling, a kind of tickled delight as she shoved to her hands and knees. She watched Lucy charge, leap, teeth bared, and slam into a shield of air that went flaming at the edges at impact.
“No! Lucy, no! Hold.”
“I can give you what you want, and more. But it won’t be free. Not free, yet easy. Why don’t you take my hand?”
She had her breath back, barely. Held a hand out for the dog that trembled with each growl. “Why don’t you kiss my ass?”
He knocked her flat again. One wicked sweep of wind. “I could crush you. Such a waste. Join your power with mine, and we’d rule.”
Liar, she thought. He lies. And he’s toying with you. Be smarter, she told herself. Be meaner. “I’m confused,” she said weakly. “I can’t think. I need to know the people I love are safe.”
“Of course.” He crooned it. “Whatever you want can be yours. Give me what you are.”
She kept her head down as she got slowly to her feet, as if with great effort. It was her mind she shot at him when she tossed her head back. All the fury of it. It was shock she saw on his face, for one gratifying instant. Then his body flew back, hurled by her temper.
The sand where he landed turned black beneath the fog, as if scorched.