But how? The mana snake was inside me. Part of me.
It hit me then. Cast the spell on myself.
Just when I thought this night couldn’t get any crazier.
“I link thee within me to me, in magic, as we are in body.” I whispered the link binding spell, hand pressed against my stomach. My skin grew warm, then hot, sweat soaking me.
Strange odors suddenly filled me. Spices like curry, chilis, rich loamy scents of earth and cocoa, all of these warred for my nose’s attention. Candy.
The chaos magic—I smelled it.
Open your mouth and drink it in, the mana snake said.
I opened my mouth and the chaos magic wafted in. My wand slipped from my fingers and landed on the carpet. I slipped and fell to one knee.
I feast! The mana snake exulted.
Mana surged inside me, like a million volts.
I poured it into the mega-gremlin, willing it to heal, and grow stronger.
“Stop!” Gott screamed. He shot searing bolts of magical energy at the mega-gremlin.
But the mega-gremlin shrugged them off.
Gott began chanting a spell, some sort of ward against magic.
A counter spell would take time, time I didn’t have. The mega-gremlin loomed over Gott, a troll-sized gremlin. Trolls were strong as the bones of the earth.
I grinned, and punched the air with my fist.
The mega-gremlin swung its enormous fist in a murderous right cross at Gott’s jaw. A crack like a gunshot, and Gott flew backwards, thudding against the wall, and sliding down to the floor, unconscious. His staff lay beside him, glowing brightly.
The supernatural gazed at me. I braced myself for another wave of lust. She opened her arms.
Here it comes, I thought.
I can feast no more, the mana snake said inside me.
“Not now, you have to.”
Too much chaos magic. It went silent.
“The moment is at hand, the sacrifice will be made,” the nymph sang, her voice ringing like an angel’s trumpet over the cacophony of noise in the ballroom. She walked backwards toward the unconscious Rudy Gott, sprawled out on the hotel carpet.
“Not so fast, lady.” I sent the mega-gremlin charging toward her.
“The sacrifice must be made,” she answered, and pulled herself up against his staff, twining her legs around it and him. “We perish together for her.”
A sound like a collapsing metal tower crashing down filled the air. I clutched at my ears. The mega gremlin froze, impossibly, in mid-stride, beside the gremlins standing stock-still like statues on the stage.
The gremlins and the mega-gremlin began wobbling. Cracks ripped across their skins, revealing roiling chaos magic. The supernaturals dissolved into a writhing cloud, which shot into the super-nymph and Gott’s body. His staff suddenly burst to life. The last thing I saw before blindness hit me was the serpent unfolding bat-wings and heading skyward, burning prismatic colors. Tully grunted, then pain washed over me. The world went black.
For a long moment I stood there, blinded, then fell into the abyss of unconsciousness.
Dara held a vial under my nose. “About time you woke up.”
I pushed myself up. “There ought to be a rule against being knocked out twice in one night.”
“Still not amusing,” Dara said.
The ballroom looked like a hurricane had raged there. Shattered Christmas decorations were strewn across the carpet, and food spattered the wall. Ceiling lights swung from electrical wires, or lay broken on the floor. The partygoers were gone.
“Already managed?” I asked her.
She nodded. “Alpha team, with some help from your R.U.N.E. associates, has taken things in hand. Your burners are cleaning everyone who attended the ball and a cover story has been given to the Portland embed.
Sims was going to be thrilled to have deal with whatever story they came up with.
The stage was empty, bare of anything.
“Gott’s staff turned into a serpent,” I said, sounding like an idiot to myself.
But Dara didn’t sneer. “It did.”
“What happened?”
“Good question,” she asked. “I'd like to know the answer to that.”
Then I saw Tully off to one side, speaking with one of Farlance’s suits, which, come to think of it, looked lot like Dara’s A.S.A. version. Maybe we should go with something other than black.
There was no sign of Director Farlance. Tully met my gaze, disapproval in his eyes, and turned back to the suit.
I wanted to shout, but I didn’t use blood magic! Not at the end, anyway. He must have suspected.
“Did you tell my partner?” I blurted.
Dara narrowed her eyes. “You mean, did I tell me about your using blood magic, or tell him about the mana snake?”
“Yes,” I replied, but there was no sarcasm in my voice.
“No. What good would that do?”
“It could make things pretty hot for me,” I said.
She shrugged. “True, but then we’d lose our hold over you.”
Our hold over you. The words settled over me like a shroud, and I shuddered.
“Gee, thanks,” I said.
“You are a valuable asset. You’ll thank me, in the long run.”
“You’re a nasty piece of work,” I replied.
She shrugged again. “Being one goes with the work.”
I was going to let sleeping mana snakes lie, but right then the most important thing wasn’t that, it wasn’t even if I still had a job, it was, what had just happened.
“A sacrifice, for her. Who is her?” I asked.
“I don’t know that, either,” Dara said. “I’ll be in touch.”
“Gee, thanks,” I said.
She stood and joined Riley and two of her team. Riley looked none the worse for wear, and his own suit unburnt. Magic had been used, of course.
I went over to join Tully. “We made it,” I said. “We stopped the bad guy.”
He looked at me, face expressionless. “Are you off the blood magic, permanently?”
I looked down at my hands, then back into his eyes. “For real.”
“I hope so, I really do,” he said. “Because if you aren’t, I’ll have to report you.”
“Fair enough.” I forced a grin, trying to change the subject. “Hey, way to pull out a win.”
“But what about the bad guy behind the bad guy?” He asked, and I sensed, behind his mask, that he might actually have been happy to see me, even if he
