humans,” I said. “We should count ourselves lucky that they’re still inside and not out running around on the street. I don’t think people could handle another panic so soon after the vampire attacks.”
“But it seems wrong to just slaughter something so helpless,” J.B. said.
“Better them than us,” I said.
“Can we at least find out what it is we’re killing before we kill it?” J.B. asked.
“How can we do that?” I said.
“Hang on,” Beezle said, giving the colony a good hard stare. “It looks like some kind of green insect, kind of praying mantis-y, but not exactly the same.”
“Green insect?” I asked, dread filling me. “Nathaniel, can you put that nightfire closer to one of the cocoons? I want to try to see the shape of the creature inside.”
Nathaniel sent the nightfire close to one of the closer sacs. A shape was silhouetted inside the slime-covered membrane. The shape of a Cimice. I knew suddenly why the smell had seemed familiar. The stink of the insects had pervaded the air around the mountain, but it hadn’t seemed so strong then, as the space wasn’t enclosed.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered. “How did they get here?”
“Who?” J.B. asked.
“The Cimice,” I said. I started to explain about the Cimice, because I hadn’t had a chance to really tell Nathaniel or J.B. about my adventures, but Nathaniel cut me off.
“The gargoyle explained,” Nathaniel said.
He frowned at the colony of eggs, for that was what they were. Tiny little eggs holding tiny little Cimice that would grow into mating pairs. I remembered what Batarian and Sakarian had said about how quickly the creatures bred. They could overrun the city in no time.
“We have to kill them all,” I said.
“Yes,” Nathaniel said. “If they are as dangerous as you say, then we have no choice.”
We both looked at J.B. He nodded with obvious reluctance.
“If we have to do it, then let’s do it,” he said. “But how did they get here, in this building?”
“Good question,” I said. “Who put them here, and why?”
“There are no clues to be found here,” Nathaniel said. “Except only the obvious one, that this is somehow linked to Titania or a member of her court.”
“Yeah, but what’s the point? Are they after J.B., or Bendith, or me?”
“Maybe it’s got nothing to do with you at all, solipsist,” Beezle said. “Maybe this is just a convenient launching place for an attack.”
“And it just happens to be the building in which J.B. lives?” I asked. “Color me skeptical. Plus, this isn’t exactly a strategic location.”
“Why not?” Beezle asked. “It’s close enough to the Loop to cause chaos, and far enough away that it’s not under the same tight security as most of the other buildings.”
“And maybe I would get blamed for missing the threat under my nose,” J.B. said. “Titania is still technically my sovereign, and she would love to have an excuse to take my crown away and put her own puppet on the throne in my court.”
“Let us destroy these creatures and then worry about where they came from,” Nathaniel said.
“Yeah,” I said, staring at the mass of eggs. “My first instinct would be to set them on fire. But how do we do that without burning the whole building down?”
“Where’s your sword?” J.B. asked.
“With my clothes,” I said.
“Madeline,” Nathaniel said. “When you killed Azazel, did you not reverse his death spell and send it into his own blood?”
“Yes,” I said. “But how will that apply here?”
“If you create a similar spell, you could send it through the first egg,” Nathaniel said. “If the spell were sufficiently powerful, it would follow the cord that binds all of the creatures together and kill all of them.”
“I don’t know,” Beezle said. “This seems kind of subtle for Maddy.”
“I can do subtle,” I said.
I’d halted the momentum of Azazel’s spell and thrown it back to him. I’d done something similar when I’d cast Amarantha from J.B.’s body. But in both cases I was basically acting as a slingshot, hurling the magic back at the person who had created it.
But then again, I had figured out how to take out the colony of Cimice by using their blood. This process wouldn’t be that different. I’d just be finding a different way into the spell.
I’d used my powers to defend myself. I’d killed when I thought there was no other choice. I knew that the Cimice were like a time bomb ticking away down here in this basement, and that people would be unable to defend themselves from these creatures.
This was really the same argument that I’d made to justify the killing of the Cimice on that alien world. And I had done it. To prevent human deaths, to protect the innocent.
So I would do it again. Because it was the right thing to do, or the closest thing to right, and everyone present seemed to agree that it was the best course of action. But it seemed like it was getting too easy for me to justify making the decision to take life away.
“I can assist you,” Nathaniel said. “I will combine my power with yours to ensure there is enough force to eliminate all of the creatures.”
That gave me pause. Every time Nathaniel and I combined our powers, we ended up half-naked on the floor. Of course, we were both already half-naked, and this was hardly a sexy spell. We were going to kill together. It wasn’t supposed to be an arousing act.
“Okay,” I said. “How do we do this? I don’t even know where to begin.”
“What do you normally do when you create a spell?” Nathaniel asked.
“I don’t create spells,” I admitted. “I just throw as much power as I can at whatever is in front of me at the time.”
“I told you it was too subtle for her,” Beezle said.
“It is not. She has performed a task like this before,” Nathaniel said. “Which gives her an advantage over me. Using magic is similar to using a muscle. Once you have used a certain kind of power, it will be easier for you to use it again a second time.”
“So I just need to remember what it felt like to push the death spell into Azazel, and it will all come back to me, like riding a bike?” I asked.
“Precisely,” Nathaniel said. “There is nothing complex in creating magic. You simply need will and focus. Consider your task, and then determine how best to execute it. When you are ready, I will assist you by giving you some of my power.”
“Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. I was nervous, and they were all staring at me, which made it worse. “Can you not stare at me with the weight of your expectations?”
J.B. and Nathaniel both smiled and obediently looked toward the ceiling, but Beezle gave me a pointed stare.
“What?” I asked.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“I can kill them now or I can kill them later, after they’ve done some damage. I’d prefer to do it now, before anyone gets hurt.”
“Yeah, but this is dark magic,” Beezle said. “This isn’t like anything you’ve done before.”
“Are you sure about that?” I asked. “Because when I wiped away all the vampires in one fell swoop, you seemed convinced that was pretty dark.”
“And it was,” Beezle acknowledged. “But should you be making it a habit?”
“What else am I supposed to do?” I said. “No one else knows about this. No one else can take care of the problem. It has to be me. It always has to be me. So let me
My gargoyle opened his mouth again, but I shook my head.
“No,” I said. “I’m going to do this. I have to do this. So be quiet.”
I closed my eyes. I’d never made a complex spell from scratch, but I had done quite a bit of shooting-from-
