When he finished, a werewolf with smoky-gray fur stood on the road, metallic amber eyes glinting in the faint glow from the mageglobe escaping between Spencer’s loose fingers. Makai lopped forward on silent paws, keeping pace with the group and the look-away spell still wrapped around them.
Spencer clenched his fingers tight around the mageglobe to hide its glow, ducking his head against the rain. Brooke and Isaac made no move to shift. He figured that was so they could remain anonymous, but if a fight broke out, he hoped they would change their minds.
Their little group hurried down the rural road, the only light shining out the windows of a handful of small houses. They paused by the muddy overlook that was only wide enough for about three cars to park. A hatchback was the only vehicle currently parked there. Makai nosed around it for a second before coming back.
“Gabriel was with her,” Brooke said. Spencer could just make out the frown on her face when he flexed his fingers around the mageglobe.
“Is that a bad thing?” he asked.
“No, he’s pack. But he and his wife bought a house in Morganville a few months back.”
“So you’re saying he should be there and not here.” Spencer looked at Makai, then down the dark road lined with trees and the cemetery he knew was just up ahead, mindful of Fatima’s warning. “All right, let’s see what bullshit is going down.”
Makai took point, and Fatima stayed with him, lengthening her stride to remain by his side. Brooke and Isaac kept pace with Spencer as they traversed Cemetery Road in the dark. No streetlights illuminated the way, the rural road so different from bright Seattle streets.
Spencer walked between Brooke and Isaac, getting nudged to the right when Makai and Fatima abruptly cut in that direction. Brooke didn’t say anything, and neither did Spencer, too aware of how easily sound traveled, even with a look-away spell deployed.
He noticed, when they crossed from the road into the cemetery, a coldness settling over them between one step and the next. The cold couldn’t mask the heaviness in the air, the sense of danger that made the hair on the back of Spencer’s neck stand on end. The Black Diamond Cemetery wasn’t hallowed, sacred ground, but it was a place where the dead resided, and right now, they were clearly disturbed.
His vision became overlaid with Fatima’s sight, old headstones spaced apart coming into sharp relief for him thanks to her better eyesight. They walked past a few of them before Fatima came to a stop, tail lashing back and forth. Spencer turned his head to follow her gaze, staring with a sinking stomach at the magic interwoven over a couple of graves, rising into a dome. He hadn’t seen it with his regular sight, but through Fatima’s eyes, he could make out the hazy curtain meant to hide whatever horror was happening within it.
Spencer snapped his wrist, coaxing his mageglobe larger until it was the size of a baseball. He filled it with a targeted shockwave spell and cast it away from him toward the spellwork no one else could see. Brooke made a strangled little sound in the back of her throat, reaching for him. Spencer blinked his vision back to normal and ducked his head to shield his eyes against the explosion that erupted in the center of the cemetery.
The shockwave spell took out the underlying barrier, tearing it apart and sending whoever was within it scattering in the wake of the impact. Vampires fled to the outskirts to regroup, keenly tracked by Makai. In the fading light, Spencer saw two women crouched over another man who could only be Gabriel lying over a grave. The casting circle with its pentagram burned into the wet grass acted like a cage, holding him in place, even as the radial lines flickered with damage.
Spencer slipped his sight sideways, seeing the bright aura of a sorceress and the whirling darkness of a demon blocking out Angie’s soul. That same sort of shadow encased Gabriel’s soul, all dark malevolence saturating his aura. Then the sorceress slammed her hand on the pentagram, and magic flared briefly like weak Northern Lights. Whatever held Gabriel in place disappeared, and he got to his feet with a jerky motion that spoke of the demon riding his soul not being used to a physical body.
When Gabriel spoke, his voice didn’t sound human in the least, the demon staring right at them through the look-away ward. “Soulbreaker.”
Then a crushing, otherworldly power rolled like a derecho with the speed of a microburst over the cemetery in a split second and crashed into their small group, sending them all flying.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Spencer twisted in midair,so when he slammed into a headstone, it wasn’t skull-first but his shoulder and back taking the brunt. It still hurt like nothing else, pain slicing through his torso and ribs from the impact and driving air from his lungs. He fell to the wet ground and did a quick internal check to make sure nothing was broken as he gasped for breath. He was going to have some spectacular bruises come tomorrow morning, but he’d only get to complain about them if he got rid of some demons.
Training got him back on his feet, and he staggered a step forward, rolling his shoulders against the ache in his body. Takoma’s wool coat hadn’t been much of a cushion, and it was too constricting for the fight coming his way. Spencer shrugged it off, along with his suit jacket, the thin material of his button-down dampening quickly in the rain. He didn’t reach for his sidearm, instead tapping a ley line through his magic. The surge in power made his nerves burn and fingers tingle as he conjured up a mageglobe.
“Angie!” Brooke shouted from somewhere to the left of him. “Gabriel!”
“They’re possessed,” Spencer called out. He blinked rain out of his eyes and slid his sight sideways for a few seconds, getting a feel for the number of enemies they had to deal with. Two demons, no poltergeist, and a sorceress he would bet good money was a hunter—check. Half a dozen vampires who hadn’t left the cemetery yet—also check.
Fatima popped into existence in front of him, paws digging into the muddy ground as she faced off with the pair of demons still standing within the casting circle. The spell had broken the ward hiding them, but the base was still active, courtesy of the sorceress powering it. Spencer was going to go out on a limb and say she was probably a member of the Cascade Coven.
Makai was to his left, the dire’s attention more on the vampires moving around their periphery than the demons. Which was fine—the demons and sorceress were Spencer’s problem to deal with—but he couldn’t ignore the vampires, especially when one dropped down on the closest headstone, cracking it with his landing.
Spencer glared at the familiar face he’d seen in the forest once before. “You again.”
In the light cast from magic, the vampire’s smile was easy enough to see, fangs glinting ominously. “Should’ve stayed in the city.”
The vampire’s blond hair was buzzed short, looking white in the oddly flickering shadows. His clothes were better suited for hunting than a night out on the town, judging by the camouflage material. Although, considering the vampire probably hailed from the Spokane Night Court, he’d fit in just fine with his usual cohorts.
He was a quick little fucker, too, but not quick enough to get past Spencer’s shields.
Spencer slammed a shield down around himself and the people with him, watching as the vampire pulled up short so as to not brain himself on the magical barrier. Shame.
The vampire hissed furiously, the sound more animal than human, snapping his teeth together. “Coward.”
“You wish,” Spencer retorted. Makai growled at him, pawing angrily at the ground in a clear indication he wanted to go fuck up some vampires. Spencer looked over at Brooke and Isaac, who still hadn’t shifted. “Are you going to join the fight?”
