I faltered for only a second, then continued running toward her. Cass, too, seemed to hesitate at the smug look on her face, but then launched some more sparkling red magic her way.
Reaching Cass’ side, I took sight with my gun, aiming at her thigh. Good thing I’d injured my right wrist when I fell, instead of my lucky left.
As Cass’ balls of glowing red were about to explode into her chest, I pulled the trigger.
But before either of our attacks could hit their mark, Calista rose to a crouch and pushed toward us with both hands. As if the siren controlled air and not water, her gesture halted our attacks mid-air, an inch from her exposed chest.
Cass’ glowing demon magic and my silver bullet floated in front of her bikinied figure, but nothing else happened.
What the hell was this fuckery?
I ran toward the siren at full speed, holstering my gun as I went—bullets weren’t the only thing in my arsenal—twisting the cork from another of Gran’s vials as I went. The spell would suck every drop of moisture from the water creature.
But I never got the chance to use it.
A wall of water appeared seemingly out of nowhere, right before me. Even as I gasped at its approach, I assumed it must be the remnant water of the swimming pool. The water rushed toward me faster than a tsunami, and before I could hurl the spell at her, it engulfed me.
Letting go of Gran’s spell with a pang of regret, it floated off into the water before I’d had the chance to activate it by breaking it open. I brought both hands up and thrashed wildly, trying desperately to swim out of the pocket of water that now completely covered my body.
The problem was, it was no longer a pocket, more like a large ball, and it swallowed me whole, as if I were stuck in some giant invisible glass bowl filled to the brim.
With a desperate thought of the baby I carried inside, and how I’d promised Brock that I’d protect our little parasite, I swam with everything I had. I pursed my lips shut, forcing myself not to gulp for air like my body urged me to with desperation.
I pumped my arms, uncaring that my right wrist throbbed like a motherfucker with every stroke. Kicking my legs better than an Olympic swimmer, but I made no headway.The water moved with me.
Turning in the water, I saw a blurry look of total desperation on Cass. I made out enough to see that he feared Calista was going to kill me.
He tried to circle the ball of water, but every time he moved so did the liquid mass, and so did Calista. I caught sight of Molly, and the terror on her face about broke my damn heart.
No, I’d be damned if a fucking vengeful siren would be the end of me. I hadn’t fought this hard, for this long, to have my life end like this. Not when I had so much hope now.
Where the hell had that thought come from?
I was pretty sure my life was still as screwed up as it’d been before chasing Calista. It must be the lack of air. My brain was probably gasping for oxygen, which meant so was the baby’s.
Rage boiled inside me and I pumped with so much fury that I managed to pop my head above water for a millisecond, just enough to pull in a ragged breath before I was dragged back in by an unseen force.
A shadow crossed my distorted watery world, and I snapped my head around just in time to see Cass pumping his small wings furiously and managing to make it above the water. That would be a record height for him.
He shot a stream of red crackling light straight at the siren’s chest, and fried her boobs. Thankfully it was enough to distract her concentration; my prison dissolved, a gush of water going everywhere.
I landed on the ground hard, falling partly onto a lawn chair, and possibly cracking a rib or two in the process. My hands tried to catch my fall, but the second I touched my injured wrist to the ground, sharp pain shot up my arm and I yanked it away as if it were on fire.
My body competed between the need to gasp for air, cough my lungs out, and pass out. I gulped in air, choked on it, coughed, and flopped around all while trying to find Cass.
He was taking on Calista on his own, with Molly in the background looking like she was considering intervening. She was totally untrained, and stepping in would only get her killed.
I staggered to my feet, stumbling at first, but sucking it up after. With small steady breaths, I continued to pull in air, like a fish caught out of water as I zeroed in on Calista. No way was the bitch going to hurt my friends. Gran’s water creature spell was gone, and my gun would be no good after taking a dunk, but I wasn’t a two-hit wonder.
Yanking a smoke spell vial from my belt, I pulled the cork out with my teeth, spitting it to the ground. Then I launched the vial right in between Cass and the siren. It was little more than a parlor trick, but Gran’s smoke was thick; it should be enough to allow us to sneak up on the little wench and cuff her. No ordinary cuffs, of course. These cuffs, once placed on the perp, rendered their magic useless.
Thick tendrils of smoke burst into the air beneath Cass and Calista and I grinned, circling the smoke like a shark. I pinned my focus on the place Calista had just occupied, and rounded the smoke, assuming Cass would probably be coming at her from the opposite direction. This wasn’t our first rodeo, and we’d roped far worse than her.
I was just making out the strands of the siren’s thick green hair, and the sparking red magic of my bestie behind her, when thunder clapped overhead. It was so loud and fierce that my bones shook. My wrist and ribs complained. The sky suddenly grew darker than the smoke, and I realized what she was doing. Gran’s sunlight spell would have given us a good ten minutes away from the vamps... but not if the fucking siren was going to affect the weather. I was pretty sure every single vamp my little trick had sent bounding inside for cover, was pressed against the windows, watching the siren’s storm come in. And when it did, we were in a whole boatload of trouble.
Vamps didn’t play nice on the best of days. Even though their seethe had been theoretically harboring a fugitive and breaking the law, they’d see us as the intruders and aggressors. They’d probably just kill us and try to hide the bodies. Mack might figure it out… or he might not; vamps had friends in high places. They were the wealthiest of all the supernatural races.
Thunder clapped again as clouds grew heavy and clashed overhead.
