two camps: the bikers and the Greeks, they seemed remarkably at ease, given what had gone down with the wedding dress.
Then again, they didn’t know everything else that was happening in the house, or even among themselves.
Melody, the Red Skull’s new head of weapons stood. “Now this is more like it,” she said, as Diana handed me a canvas, bedazzled Wal-Mart bag. Glass clinked inside.
Dimitri glared at the witch with the spiky black velvet choker. He seemed ready to strike as I drew out a recycled Smuckers jar filled with a brackish green liquid.
“Protection,” she said, “for your wedding night.”
The biker witches laughed, and I wasn’t sure if she was joking or not.
“Toss it at anything that attacks you,” she said, quite serious. “It’s set to stun.”
“Thanks,” I said, well aware that this was the first gift I’d gotten that I could actually use.
The next jar was full of a pinkish sludge with bits of leaves and flower petals stuck in it.
“Ahhh,” the witches murmured.
“What is this?” I asked, detecting a faint smell of turpentine.
Flava, a skinny witch in a black miniskirt, crossed her legs and grinned at me. “Dab a little behind each ear whenever you want to get him in the mood,” she said, winking. “Works like a charm.”
The biker witches guffawed. I glanced up at Dimitri, who didn’t appear too enthused.
But you know what? This was nice. I opened a Tie Him Up spell, a Tie Him Down spell, some lavender bubble bath.
Everyone who could be here was together. I was receiving some interesting, well-intentioned gifts, and so far, nobody had tried to kill me.
It was a good party.
The gift table was almost empty when my mom handed me an envelope. “I’m glad you’re here for this, too,” she said, patting Dimitri on the shoulder.
He might be man-of-stone, but I couldn’t help getting choked up a bit when I opened the simple, cut-out- card of a bride and groom and found the deed to a condominium by the shore.
“Mom, this is too much.” It was off the California coast, near where we were staying with the witches. Only it was our own place. Tears flooded my eyes as I reached for her, wrapping her in a tight hug. She exhaled, holding me close.
“I only want what’s best for you, honey.”
“But you said…” She’d wanted me to move back and be somebody else and live in Atlanta, and I couldn’t do that.
“I changed my mind,” she said, simply. “You changed it.” She glanced up at Dimitri. “I hope this is okay.”
“It’s perfect,” he said, smiling down at her. “Thank you.”
“We’ll have to ward it,” Melody said.
Yes, well she was the weapons expert. But that was a technicality. Yes, we’d make sure it was safe, and yes, we’d make it our own once we were back from the honeymoon. That’s not what made it so special. It was the fact that my mom bought it for
“Your father still has to sign the papers, but he gets in tomorrow,” mom said.
“So you did this last minute,” I said. Of course she did. She never would have considered something like this even a week ago.
She gave a small shrug and seemed to grow embarrassed. “Now,” she said, moving over to the gift table, “let’s see what else we have for you.”
“I’ve already gotten so much,” I said. It was the truth.
Mom smiled and I could see she was genuinely having a good time. “This one is so pretty,” she said, handing me a pink wrapped box with tiny doves on top.
Dimitri tensed as I opened the white silk ribbon and tore through the paper. I hadn’t even touched the lid of the box before it flew open. Mom shrieked. Dimitri roared as countless shards of God-knows-what hurled straight for my face.
He leapt in front of me, taking the brunt of the blast as we both rocketed backward.
“Curses!” Melody screamed, as spell jars broke and griffins bellowed.
I shoved Dimitri off me as the curses shot to the ceiling like demented wasps. I cut through them with a switch star as a swarm dive-bombed me.
Chaos erupted. Dimitri was down, bloodied. I stood in front of him, taking out as many as I could before he grabbed my legs and took me down, rolling me under his body as another wave struck.
“God damn it,” I pounded against his chest. I needed to fight. I rolled him, forcing him onto his back, which scared the hell out of me because the only way I could pull that off is if he were really hurt.
But I needed to move, to think. Curses came from the underworld. They’d either kill you or take you straight to hell. I didn’t know what kind we had on our hands, but I didn’t want to find out.
The fact that Dimitri was still, here, among the living mean that these things were meant for me.
A demon wanted me.
Well, screw that. I hit the curses again. And again. Taking some out, leaving far, far too many.
My eyes stung from spell dust, and griffin magic, and the sheer power glut in the room. But nothing we’d done so far had destroyed enough of these things to make a difference.
One of them could end me.
They gathered at the ceiling, ready to strike again. There was no way I could get out, nowhere to go. Not without leaving my friends and family behind. Besides, these things would catch me, and I wasn’t about to be nailed in the back.
The third wave descended.
Dimitri tried to stand. I deliberately stepped away from him, toward
Chapter Nineteen
I ran for my wedding gifts. The griffin armor lay in a pile under gift bags and spell jars. Curses whistled through the air behind me as I heaved a piece of bronze wing armor from under the mess and forced it in front of me like a shield. I held tight to the inside buckles, the metal digging into my skin when the blunt force of multiple curses slammed against it.
They threw me back, knocked me onto my side. I curled my legs underneath and clutched the armor in front of me like my life depended on it. Because it did.
Curses sprayed like a hail of machine gun fire. Then, abruptly, the attack ended.
A suffocating stench clouded the air and the silence that accompanied it was almost as scary as the flying curses. My mouth felt dry, and my arms were weak and shaking.
“Lizzie?” My mom was the first to reach me, crawling on her hands and knees, her white pants suit stained with soot, the pink rose dangling lifelessly. “Are you all right, baby?”
“Hold up.” Slowly, I lowered my shield. I drew a switch star for good measure, but there was nothing left to attack. The curses lay imbedded in the griffin armor, dead.
The room reeked of magic, and I saw spots for a second as the witches and the griffins collected themselves off the floor. I crawled over to Dimitri, who looked like hell.
The curses had sliced his face and arms. His shirt was a total loss, and he had one hand over his left shoulder.
“Give me a second,” he said, laying on his back, recovering.
I hovered over him, tried to remove his hand from his shoulder. “Can I see it?”
“No,” he said, resisting.
Men.
