Jude turned to face him. “I don’t want to have this conversation. We need to do as much as we can in daylight.”
“I wasn’t going to start a conversation. I was stating a fact.” He took Jude’s hands in his. Mack’s skin was warm and rough. “If we survive, we can talk about what happens next.”
For a moment Jude was sure that Mack wanted there to be something after this. There could be, couldn’t there? As long as they survived, there was a chance. There was a peace to being out here, away from the constant buzz of the city and all of its grids and circuits. The quiet no longer scared him. He didn’t need to be connected to, or surrounded by, electricity to use it. He had more control out here. Or did he have control because of Mack and the bond?
Jude gave Mack’s hands a squeeze. Would he be able to wake up next to Mack if he was no longer a witch, or would being human be a constant reminder of the magic he’d lost? There’d be no bond, so he wouldn’t be able to feel Mack’s emotions, his desire or his concern.
His fear that this might all be for nothing.
If he wasn’t a witch, he wouldn’t be able to look Mack in the eye without feeling like he’d failed everyone and everything. But he didn’t say that. He smiled instead. “Let’s start ringing this mine in salt.”
That was backup plan number one.
Mack took the salt and made his way around the mine at a jog, leaving a trail of salt behind him. It wouldn’t be a perfect circle, but that didn’t matter. It was the intent. While he could make a binding circle that would last until morning, they needed something more to hold it come dawn, when daylight had a way of disrupting magic, so he could claim success.
He also didn’t trust the websites that said aufhockers only hunted at night. They were in its territory, and the usual rules wouldn’t apply. He also wanted the chance to go into the mine and examine the original spell. For that they needed the aufhocker out here and trapped.
While Mack walked, Jude got out the pepper. The salt made a more solid protection circle, trapping them all inside, but a pepper circle had binding properties, so he should be able to trap just the aufhocker in it. He had practiced, but in daylight it had fallen as fast as he could build it.
He made a large pepper circle that started at the mine entrance and almost reached the truck. Standing in the middle, he pushed a little magic into the circle. A little of himself. The circle formed but could still be crossed. However, it wouldn’t take much to raise when the time came. But he didn’t know if it would work.
The final plan, plan three, involved the nails and a lot more effort and magic. He laid out six pentagrams made of nails and with a little spark of electricity joined the point of each star. He couldn’t do a sleeping spell, but he could lay these out and make them into a net to capture the creature. The net would survive dawn, because he would power it. With the metal still warm in his hands, he placed them in a circle near the entrance. It couldn’t be too small or the odds of the aufhocker stepping into it would be too slim. Too big and it would drain him too fast.
He glanced up as he placed the last one. Glowing yellow eyes watched him from the entrance. The sun had almost set. Cold raked down his back. He shifted electrons so his fingers crackled with sparks. The creature didn’t move.
It was waiting.
So was he.
He sent lightning through each pentagram, binding it to the ground so it couldn’t be kicked out of place, therefore ruining the net.
Mack returned with an almost empty bag. His gaze turned to the mine entrance. “We have an audience.”
“Yeah. If she doesn’t come out, she’ll still be trapped here.” He’d need to activate the salt circle, and he wasn’t ready to trap Mack and him in it with the aufhocker—yet.
“Unless there’s another exit.”
Which there probably was. He didn’t know if she’d be able to escape underground. There was undoubtedly a dig yourself out clause to a salt circle. There was always an out clause with magic. Nothing was ever total. “That’s why you’ve got the tranquilizer.”
“We don’t even know if that works on aufhockers. They aren’t your average cow. She might shake off the drug like a bee sting.”
“Better than nothing.” One of their plans had to work. If not, they were back to fighting like last night.
Mack bent to look at the pentagram at his feet. “You made that. You welded the points?”
“I guess. Metal melts in the heat of the lightning.”
“Can you control the heat?”
“That depends on your definition of control. Not to within a degree, but I can make the strikes hotter or colder. It’s about how much energy is in the charge.” He’d never thought of it as welding before.
Mack stood. “Did you want me to stop her from running back into the mine? Test out the tranquilizer, or do we keep that as a last resort?”
He wanted to say use it now, but if it failed…
Seconds ticked past. “I don’t know.”
If it worked, they could drag her into the net. Problem solved. Except he had to put magic into these spells to keep them active. The longer he did that, the more it would take from him. He didn’t want to activate them too early.
“I don’t know how to do this. I’m not even sure that I can hold it all night.” That the creature had watched him set up was unnerving, but how could it know what he was doing? Even if she was just
