Both women suddenly covered their mouths as the stench reached them.
Ashley made a gagging sound and stepped back from the opening.
“Are you ladies alright?” I asked.
“We’re okay,” Emily said.
“Except for that smell. What was that thing?”
“A fretha demon, Frazier, the witch or mage–whatever you prefer–summoned it in hopes that it could distract me while she escaped. At that, it appears to have worked, I don’t see her trying to continue the fight,” I added looking down the hallway.
“Yes, right after that creature chased you she ran the other way,” Emily said.
I knelt and studied the decomposing carcass for a second. Spotting the broken tip of Tess’s quarrel, I stuck my hand into the demon gunk, got my fingers around the shaft, and pulled the broadhead free. I shook pieces of stuff from the metal and wood and then held the broadhead over my head between my thumb and forefinger. I triggered my fire tat and a burst of flames enveloped my hand and its contents.
Emily and Ashley gasped and stepped farther back into the building.
I held the flames for only a few seconds and then killed that tat and took a close look at the gently glowing metal. The demon gunk and the remainder of the wooden quarrel had been burned away.
Some particles of odor still clung to me. I focused on them, dropped their temperature down until Brownian motion stopped. Then I triggered my wind tat and let it carry the particles off on the breeze.
I used my chiller tat to cool the broadhead, before stowing it in a jacket pocket. Stepping over the rubble from the wall, I joined the ladies inside the hallway.
“What was all that about?” Emily asked.
“The broadheads are very special. We can’t afford to lose them since I have no idea if we’ll ever be able to get replacements,” I said.
I heard the beat of wings and Maia touched down just outside the debris field. Beast lit a short distance away and made another ill-tempered comment about my leaving decomposing demons rather than burning the bodies. I ignored him.
I saw Tess was looking a little better, but she still looked older than her two aunts did.
Emily gasped at the sight of Tess and hurried to her. I stopped Ashley from following.
“Ashley, do you want to press kidnapping charges against Armstrong and her company?” I asked.
She appeared surprised by my question. “I–I don’t know. Ah, well, yes, sure.”
“Okay, I can put Armstrong on ice while you call the police. Tess and I can’t stay. This whole thing was a diversion, and we have to go, immediately.”
“Really? You’re not going to leave us here, are you?”
“No, you two mount up. I’ll be back in a second,” I said as I started down the hallway.
I reached the room where I’d knocked Armstrong and found the woman still unconscious. Checking her, I found she still had a pulse but was bleeding from head trauma, and the fingers of her right hand looked broken where the pistol had been forced back into them. I considered just putting her in a stasis field, but that would require that I return to release her.
Focusing energy into my muscles, I lifted the woman and carried her across the hall to the table where Emily and Ashley had been restrained. I laid Armstrong on the table and bound both her hands through the metal loop with the same handcuffs she’d used on them. Then thinking better, I cast a spell that made the steel flow as if molten. In a couple of seconds, the handcuffs were almost a single piece of metal.
I almost cast a healing spell on her, but then I was going into a serious battle if my instincts were functioning properly. I couldn’t leave a spell drawing energy.
Hurrying out, I found Emily behind Tess on Maia and Ashley sitting astride Beast. I joined her and ordered him up.
“What’s the rush?” Tess asked.
Police sirens answered for me.
I glanced at my apprentice. She was looking perkier, but it would take a couple of hours for her to restore all the energy she’d used in casting that tremblor spell. I really wanted to ask her how she’d managed that little trick. There was no way she should have been able to learn that spell in so short a time and to have cast it that quickly troubled me to no end. Only a spell tattoo could activate that fast. My apprentice had some explaining to do.
“This was a diversion. They were supposed to keep us away from Rowle’s portal breach until it was too late. We need to get there immediately,” I said. “Beast, let’s drop Emily and Ashley at their home and get to work, double time.”
“As you wish,” he growled.
I wondered momentarily if Maia could keep up with Beast, but within a few seconds of Beast beginning to accelerate, I had my answer. It looked as though she wasn’t even straining to keep up with him.
We reached Tess’s aunt’s home shortly and settled into the back yard long enough for the women to slide down.
“Will you be all right?” Tess asked.
“Don’t worry about us,” Emily responded patting the Beretta Tess had returned to her. “If any of those bastards show up again I’ll give them a lead enema. They won’t surprise me a second time.”
I chuckled. “You should call the cops on them as soon as possible. Armstrong was injured and restrained, but I’d guess her people will have her gone if given time.”
“Will do,” Emily said. “Good luck and take care of my niece.”
“Thank you, I assure you I will. Beast, up.”
We launched like Patriot missiles and headed toward Garden of the Gods.
It was only five or six miles, as the crow (or Beast) flies and we’d be there in a couple of minutes. The sky behind us was more than gray now, and
