My face warmed. I had just added ten thousand to my bank account, courtesy of Quen and his 'little problem.' I could sit on my butt and sulk for one night if I wanted. And I wasn't going to prep the charms I'd be using on said run tonight. Spelling after midnight under a waning moon was asking for trouble. Besides, how I arranged my day was not his business.
Bothered, I looked at the back of the church, not wanting to be rude but not wanting my mom to play twenty questions with David, either. 'I'll be right there, Mom!' I shouted, then turned to Jenks. 'Will you see him out for me?'
'Sure thing, Rache.' Jenks rose up to head height to accompany David into the foyer.
''Bye, David,' I said, and he gave me a raised-hand good-bye and put his hat on.
Why does it all happen at once? I thought, hustling to the kitchen. My mom visiting unannounced would top off an already perfect day. Tired, I entered the kitchen to find her with her head in my fridge. From the sanctuary came the boom of the front door closing.
'Mom,' I said, trying to keep my voice pleasant. 'It's great to see you. But it's business hours.' My thoughts went to my bathroom, wondering if my undies were still atop the dryer.
Smiling, she straightened, peeking at me from around the door of the fridge. She was wearing sunglasses, and they looked really odd with her straw hat and sundress. Sundress? She was in a sundress? It was below twenty out there.
'Rachel!' Smiling, she shut the door and opened her arms. 'Give me a hug, honey.'
Thoughts whirling, I absently returned her embrace. Maybe I should call her psychologist and make sure she was still making her appointments. An odd smell clung to her, and as I pulled away, I said, 'What is that you're wearing? It smells like burnt amber.'
'That's because it is, love.'
Shocked, my eyes went to her face. Her voice had dropped several octaves. Adrenaline shook me. I jerked back, only to find a white-gloved hand gripping my shoulder. I froze, unable to move as a ripple of ever-after cascaded over her, revealing Algaliarept. Oh, crap. I was dead.
'Good evening, familiar,' the demon said, smiling to show me flat blocky teeth. 'Let's find a ley line and get you home, hmm?'
'Jenks!' I shrieked, hearing my voice harsh with terror. Leaning back, I swung my foot up, kicking him square in the 'nads.
Al grunted, his red, goat-slitted eyes widening. 'Bitch,' he said, reaching down and grabbing my ankle.
Gasping, I went down as he yanked me onto my butt. I hit with a thump, panicking. As I kicked ineffectively at him, he dragged me out of the kitchen and into the hall.
'Rachel!' Jenks shrilled, black pixy dust sifting from him.
'Get me a charm!' I shouted as I grabbed the archway and hung on. Oh God. He had me. If he got me to a line, he could physically drag me to the ever-after, me saying no or not.
Arms tensing, I fought to hold onto the wall long enough for Jenks to open my charm cupboard and grab one. I didn't need a finger stick; my lip was already bleeding from the fall.
'Here,' Jenks cried, hovering at ankle height to look me right in the eye. He had the cord to a sleep charm in his grip. His eyes were frightened and his wings were red.
'Don't think so, witch,' Al said, giving me a jerk.
Pain sliced through my shoulder, and my grip was torn away. 'Rachel!' Jenks exclaimed as my fingernails scraped the hardwood floor and then the carpet in the living room.
Al muttered Latin, and I cried out as an explosion blew the back door off its hinges.
'Jenks! Get out! Get your kids safe!' I shouted when cold air raced in to replace the air the explosion had blown out. Dogs barked as I slid down the stairs on my stomach. Snow, ice, and rock salt scraped my middle and my chin. I stared up at the shattered doorframe as David's silhouette showed black against the light. I held my hand out for the charm Jenks had dropped. 'The charm!' I screamed when he clearly had no idea what I wanted. 'Throw me the charm!'
Al came to a halt. His English riding boots making prints on the unshoveled walk, he turned. 'Detrudo,' he said, clearly a trigger word for a curse imprinted on his memory.
I gasped as a black and red shadow of ever-after struck David, throwing him into the far wall and out of my sight. 'David!' I called as Al started dragging me again.
Wiggling, I twisted so I was on my butt and not my stomach. I cut a small swath through the snow behind Al as he pulled me kicking to the wooden gate at the front of the garden that led to the street. Al couldn't use the ley line in the graveyard to drag me into the ever-after, as it was entirely encircled by holy ground that he couldn't cross. The nearest ley line I knew about was eight blocks away. I had a chance, I thought, the cold snow soaking my jeans.
'Let go!' I demanded, kicking the back of Al's knees with my one free foot.
His leg buckled and he stopped, his irate look clear in the light from the streetlamp. He couldn't turn misty to avoid the strikes since I would be able to slip his grip. 'What a canicula you are,' he said, taking both ankles with one hand and continuing.
'I don't want to go!' I shouted, grabbing onto the edges of the gate as we passed through it. We jerked to a stop, and Al sighed.
'Let go of the fence,' he said, sounding tired.
'No!' My muscles started to shake as I fought to keep unmoving while Al pulled. I had only one ley line charm imprinted on my subconscious, but trapping Al and me in a circle would get me nowhere. He could break it as easily as I, now that his aura would be tainting it.
A cry slipped from me when Al gave up trying to drag me through the gate and he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. My breath exploded out of me as his muscle-hard shoulder cut into my middle. He stank of burnt amber, and I fought to get free.
'This would be a lot easier,' he said as I jabbed my elbows between his shoulder blades to no effect, 'if you would accept that I have you. Just say you'll come willingly, and I can pop us into a line from here and it will save you a lot of embarrassment.'
'I'm not worried about embarrassment!' I stretched to reach a passing limb of a tree, my breath coming out in relief as I snagged one. Al jerked back, pulled off balance.
'Oh, look,' he said as he yanked me free and my palms came away scraped and bleeding. 'Your wolfie friend wants to play.'
David, I thought, twisting to see past Al's shoulder. As I struggled to breathe, I saw a huge shadow standing at the center of the lamp-lit, snow-packed street. My mouth dropped. He had Wered. He had Wered in less than three minutes. God, that must have hurt.
And he was huge, having retained his entire human mass. His head would come to my shoulder, I'd guess. Black silky fur, more like hair, shifted in the cold wind. His ears were flat against his head, and an impossibly low warning growl came from him. Feet the size of my spread hands dug into the snow as he barred our way. He gave an indescribably deep warning bark, and Al chuckled. Lights were coming on in adjacent houses and curtains were being peeked around. 'She's legally mine,' Al said lightly. 'I'm carting her home. Don't even try.'
Al started down the street, leaving me torn between screaming for help and admitting I was a gonner. A car was coming, its lights throwing everything into stark relief. 'Good, doggie,' Al muttered as we passed David with a good ten feet between us. Looking harsh in the light from the headlamps, David bowed his head, and I wondered if he had given up, knowing he could do nothing. But then his head came up and he started after us.
'David, there's nothing you can do! David, no!' I shrieked when his slow lope shifted into a full run. Eyes lost in a killing frenzy, he barreled right for me. Sure, I didn't want to be pulled into the ever-after, but I didn't want to be dead, either.
Swearing, Al turned around. 'Vacuefacio,' he said, his white-gloved hand outstretched.
I twisted on his shoulder to see. A black ball of force shot from him, meeting David's silent attack two feet in front of us. David's huge feet skidded, but he ran right into it. Yelping, he rolled, tumbling into a snow pile. The scent of singed hair rose and was gone.
'David!' I cried, not feeling the cold that pinched me. 'Are you all right?'
I yelped as Al dumped me on the ground, a blocky hand squeezing my shoulder until I cried out in pain. The thick sheet of compressed snow on the pavement melted up through me, and my rear went numb with hurt and
