You wish,I said and let go of his wrist.
He gave Bec a last look, as if trying to warn her not to do something stupid, then turned on his heel and walked to the house with long, confident strides.
A bad feeling built in my chest as we watched him disappear around the side of the house. Only three seconds after we couldn’t see him any longer, Bec started shifting from foot to foot and grasping her hands tightly together.
“We should follow him,” Bec said.
“No, we wait here,” I said, ready to grab her if she tried anything.
“I feel bad,” she said. “This whole thing is my mess. Neither of you should be here. If Marduk gets hurt it’ll be my fault.”
I felt a zig of awareness come from Marduk. “He’s found something."
“What?” she asked, grabbing my hand in both of hers.
“I don’t know, but it's something he wasn't expecting.”
Marduk's shout of surprise hit my ears at the same time I felt a flash of shock, then pain.
“Stay!” I barked at Bec and rushed to the house. I don’t know why I bothered because Bec followed right behind me.
I knew I was taking her into danger, but I couldn’t stay back if Marduk was in trouble. He was a competent warrior and a powerful Jörmungandr, but he was also my twin. I couldn’t ignore the sensation of pain coming from him.
“At least stay behind me,” I said as we rushed around the side of the house. It was overgrown and partially blocked by a falling fence. Too impatient to squeeze past that point, I grabbed hold of a section of fence, ripped it apart and tossed it away.
With that out of the way, I charged into the backyard. I skidded to a halt when I found Marduk. He was standing still, facing off with an unfamiliar figure.
To a human, they probably looked like they were simply staring at each other, but I could feel the power battering at Marduk’s natural magical barrier. Some of his aura had already been stripped off. I'd never seen any magic do that so quickly.
“Stay back!” I yelled at Bec. I could only hope she obeyed.
With a roar, I launched myself at the stranger. Pain enveloped me as I tackled him. We landed on the rotting back porch, falling through it in a cloud of dust and dirt. Somehow, I ended up on the bottom, and the weight of the stranger drove all the air out of my lungs.
Pain and the fall made me disoriented enough that I wasn’t able to grab hold as the figure scrambled off me and back onto the part of the porch that was still whole.
Damn it!
I stood up in time to see Marduk land a mighty blow, sending the man flying against the wall of the house. The stucco cracked and the wall buckled so he ended up half in the house with his feet outside.
Marduk was quick to stumble to me. “Danzig?”
The last of the pain caused by touching the stranger was gone, but I was coughing from the dust.
“I’m fine,” I gasped.
“Get away from them!” Bec screamed. We both looked to find that the man was free of the wall and was standing up with one hand extended, holding a band about the size of a dog's collar in both hands. His lips were moving, and I got a whiff of something powerful. Whatever spell he was about to unleash on us was strong.
I could smell death on it.
His blue eyes gleamed with malice, and his thin lips were pulled back tightly as he mumbled the words.
We had seconds to get Bec away.
Without hesitation, Marduk grabbed me by the back of the jacket and lifted me out of the broken section of porch, tossing me ahead of him.
I landed on my feet, and we both ran at Bec, except she wasn’t staying still. Instead of running away as she should be doing, she stepped closer.
No, she wasn’t stepping, she was pitching. Her hand swung forward so fast it was a blur and the rock went flying at the stranger. I heard a cry of pain, but I could also still smell the death magic.
