He said, “When the wolves get here, you’ll have to drop thehedgeand run away from the demon. Fast. So I can fire at the wolves.”
“I’ll never be able to run,” she said. “I’m so tired my heart hurts when it beats.”
That wasn’t good. “How long can you hold thehedgewhen they get here?”
“I’m draining myself. If I keep draining my own life energies at this rate, I’ll be dead in”—she gave a feeble shrug—“half an hour?”
A very faint, familiar throbbing sound echoed over the hills. Eli went from abject terror at her words to a spark of hope. “Okay. Hang on, Lizzie,” Eli said. “The helo’s almost here.” He shifted her and sent a text to Alex asking for a text number to whoever was on the helo.
“How’s your Wi-Fi battery on the hilltop doing?” Liz mumbled. “I just realized you’ve been texting for hours as I drained rocks and we bled.”
“Not so great,” he said. “Nearly empty.”
The helo grew closer. Dropped low. Eli received another text and the helo moved away. Eli said, “They have our GPS and location and have picked out an LZ. ETA for backup is fifteen minutes, though I got no idea how they’ll get here so fast. Can you hang on?”
“I ’on’ know,” she mumbled. “ ’f I die, then... no.”
Chapter Eight
Liz
Liz could feel a shock roll through Eli like a wave against the shore. He pulled her closer and wrapped them tighter in the bedroll, his body heat against her spine like a furnace, his chin on her head, so that when he spoke it moved against her hair. Casually he said, “Alex just texted me some info about the woman who claimed to be Golda. Her name is Connie Carroll and apparently you killed her daughter in high school.”
“Who? I ’n’ kill an’body.”
“We know. The daughter was a cheerleader and she was out drinking with some friends. Drinking Connie Carroll’s liquor and driving Connie Carroll’s car. There was an accident.”
“I ’member that.” Liz sat up straighter and managed to get her eyes open.
Eli fished around in a pocket and handed her a mint. “It’ll help to restore the moisture in your mouth.”
She looked up at thehedgeand it was pale yellow all over, with a small brown spot where the demon pressed against it. That was bad. Really bad. She looked around and was surprised it was still dark outside. She was so drained that it felt as if she had been working all night. “How long have we been at this?” she asked.
“Three hours.”
“Oh. Well. I’m not tired at all, then.”
Eli laughed silently, his belly moving behind her.
“Okay. Where was I?” Liz asked. “Oh yeah. High school. I spotted a car off the road. It had hit a tree. I called the police. Went to the car. Pulled two passengers out. The driver was already dead.”
“She accused ‘the witch’ of killing her daughter.”
“Yeah. That sucked. Cia and I had to drop out of school for home schooling.”
“She apparently thinks you should have saved her daughter.”
“Her kid’s brains were smashed all over the steering wheel and herbody was hanging out the shattered windshield. Witches don’t do miracles.”
“Huh. Connie Carroll fell apart. She’s now alcohol and drug dependent. She lost her job and is about to lose her house. And to her, you’re to blame for all of life’s misfortunes.”
“Some people are perpetual victims,” Liz said. “My gramma says that. Nothing is ever their fault. It’s always someone else’s fault. They drink or hit their spouse or show lack of compassion for their fellow man and get called out for it, and it’s never their fault. So...” Liz stopped to breathe. “After all this time CC decided to act on wanting me dead. Boo fucking hoo.”
Eli barked a laugh at her language. “Alex says she’s been working with a male vampire named Mayhew and a witch woman, also named Mayhew, who seems to be a descendant of a third person, a vampire witch you killed?”
“Oh. That’s not good. Yeah. Cia and I trapped the Mayhew witch-vamp after she got free from a long-chained lair and killed some people.” She held up her arms and indicated the skin there. “That’s where we got tainted by the blood-curse magic.”
“So all the bad guys you left alive got together and ganged up on you.”
