Magic Binds (Kate Daniels #9)(52)

Have to run.

. . .

I heard myself screaming.

Barabas was screaming next to me, abject terror turning his face into a bloodless mask. Julie was on the ground, curled into a ball.

Curran leapt over the seven-foot fence and ran to me.

“Help!” I yelled.

He looked up, his eyes following Christopher back and forth as he circled us in the air. Curran’s muscles tensed. He gathered himself, jumped up as if shot out of a cannon, knocked Christopher out of the air, and landed on top of him on the ground.

Christopher tried to rise. Curran’s body twisted into warrior shape, packing on muscle and pounds. He strained, keeping Christopher down.

I threw myself on him, adding my weight to Curran’s. Barabas landed on the other side, clamping Christopher’s left arm. Julie grabbed Christopher’s leg.

“Christopher,” Barabas called. “We’re all safe. You don’t have to hurt anyone. Nobody’s in danger . . .”

Christopher snarled, baring his fangs, and stood up, heaving all of us up with him.

“Curran!” I yelled.

“I’ve got him.” Curran’s body thickened again. He was almost completely lion now. Hundreds of pounds of weight, but Christopher was still standing.

“Chris!” Barabas called.

Christopher screamed. Every nightmare I’d ever had came together and punched me in the face.

. . .

I had to stay. I had to hold him down. I had to or he would kill Teddy Jo.

I had to protect Teddy Jo.

Tears wet my cheeks.

Behind me Maggie shot out of the house, barking at the top of her lungs, and bit Curran’s ankle.

“Julie,” he growled.

She let go of Christopher, grabbed the little dog, and carried Maggie back into the house. Every muscle in my body shook under the strain of keeping Christopher down.

A rider on a black horse galloped up and dismounted.

“I’ve got this,” Roman called out. “I’ve got this!”

He reached between us and stuffed a clump of dark fabric into Christopher’s mouth.

Christopher flailed. My legs left the ground and I swung free above the grass.

Roman’s staff opened its eyes. He thrust it into the ground. Magic shifted around us.

“Syra mat zemlya, ne dershi ty ego!”

Christopher sank into the ground up to his hips. Curran grabbed his right arm, while Barabas wrapped himself around his left.

“That ought to do it,” Roman said. “Greeks and their wings. Flying here, flying there, screaming their heads off, scaring the horse.”

The fashion division of Clan Nimble applauded from the doorway. Nice of them to help.

“Christopher,” Barabas called. “Christopher!”

Christopher ignored him.

Sometimes an educated guess is the best you’ve got. “Deimos?”

Christopher’s face snapped toward me.

“Deimos?” Barabas asked, his voice hitting a high note.

“Son of Ares, the Greek god of war, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love.”

“A god?” Barabas asked. “What is he a god of?”

“Terror.”

Christopher stared at me. If looks could kill, I’d be down on the ground breathing my last breath.

“How?” Curran asked me.

Gods couldn’t manifest except during a flare. “I have no idea. Deimos must’ve been inside Christopher and he saw Teddy Jo, recognized him as Thanatos, and lost his mind.”

The Johns Hopkins psychiatrist did say Christopher would need an incentive to want to heal. This was not what I had in mind.

Teddy Jo pushed the two Jeeps apart, marched out, and punched Roman in the jaw.

Okay. The world had really gone insane.

The volhv stumbled back a couple of steps. “What the hell was that for?”

“You know what for.”

“I didn’t take it.”

“No, but he did.”

“I wasn’t involved in any of that. It’s your own fault. If you hadn’t chased after naked women at night, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“I thought she was in danger,” Teddy Jo ground out.

“Sure, you did. Keep telling yourself that.”

Teddy Jo took another step forward.

Roman’s dark eyebrows furrowed. “Watch it, birdie, before I break those wings off. I already got one of you. I have no problem adding another.”

Nice to know that in a crisis his Russian accent evaporated. I stepped between them. “What’s going on?”

Teddy Jo waved his arms. “What’s going on is I was flying here to meet with you and you sicced the son of Ares on me. I’m a demigod. That’s a full-out avatar. How is he not disappearing?”

“Nobody knew he was an avatar. You triggered his transformation. It’s not my fault you left your sword at home.”

“I didn’t leave it, damn it all to Tartarus!”

“Baby,” Curran called, his voice saturated with controlled exertion. “Take Teddy Jo and go. Christopher isn’t going to calm down until you leave.”

I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay and figure out what was going on with Christopher. But he was right. Christopher wouldn’t calm down until Teddy Jo was out of sight and striking range.