On a Razor's Edge (Darkness #3)(36)

Blue or purple, they weren’t packing much; more like Halloween glow lights than actual threats.

“Join me!” they called in their eerie speech of what sounded like consonants. “I promise great rewards…”

I pushed out my open palm like a stop motion, and then curled it around and up, grabbing the air around them. I squeezed with my fist, the magic acting out my miming, bending their bodies and exploding the magic out of them.

Sweat beaded my brow, more energy taken than I had anticipated. Not good.

I threw out two red jets, blasting open a tree and scattering whatever attack pattern the enemy had tried for. A red jet came my way, trying to bind me.

“I know how to break that one, now.” My black magic crept into the fibers and disintegrated the spell.

I threw out another tree monster, one of the first two having been taken down. I erupted some hives of blue beetles way far away from me, the pests climbing on anything in their path and magically biting legs and faces and whatever they could get at. It wouldn’t kill anyone, but it sure hurt like bloody hell.

White exploded around me, knocking me off my feet. I landed in a bush ten feet away, my ears ringing, my leg screaming, surrounded by Dulcha. I sat up groggily, furry bodies leaping to my aid, standing in front of me, fangs showing and hair bristling. A panther jumped down from a tree branch onto the nearest monster, scratching and clawing the thing to bits.

My leg pounded along with my heartbeat. One attempt to get up had my shin bursting with agony and my head swimming. I leaned against the bush and shielded myself from future Trek attacks. It would drain me every time his magic hit my shield, but that was the good thing about having more power than him, he’d drain faster than me. Eat that!

I zapped off a few fraying spells, my magic wrapping around three Dulcha, unraveling the fabric of their spells. It seemed to work okay, the creatures disintegrating like a sugar witch in the rain. I zipped off a couple more as white exploded against my shield.

That ass**le is starting to piss me off! Just to be a bitch, I fired off a spell in his direction, a zap of pure electricity. He blocked it, the fiend, but it sucked more energy out of him than he was probably used to.

Back to the never ending monsters. I needed to learn more aggressive spells.

I created a tree monster too close. Crap! I fired fraying spells at will, my aim not great under pressure, but the mass of magical bodies starting to crowd around me making even a misfire useful. Smoky wisps clouded my vision, and still they came. Trek must have brought his whole damn arsenal. He was trying for genocide.

“I need you to move me,” I shouted to four furry bodies slashing at monsters in front of me. “I can’t walk on my leg, but we need distance. They’ll follow me wherever I go; I just have to get there. Somewhere.”

Before the first wolf could get in position, the tiger jogged closer, his movements elegant and graceful even though his back was as high as my chest.

He gave one growl and a head jerk.

Get on.

“You are huge, and I think my leg is broken,” I responded, zipping out a few more spells, needing the wolves to start ripping and tearing with vigor as the masses drew closer. It was like a mosh pit at a rock concert.

A mountain lion padded up, his baby-like cry having my bones vibrating. I’d heard real mountain lions when they came down from the mountains, and their screech terrified me.

At least, I’d thought it was a real mountain lion at the time…

The tiger growled and jerked its head again, the smaller lion—though not by any means small—acting like a step ladder to boost me up. The wolves’ snarls drowned out the night, the monsters starting to wade closer.

I grabbed fur and fell toward the mountain lion, half doing a pull-up, half hopping, to get my good leg on its back. I clawed myself higher, the radiating pain in my shin wanting to blot out my consciousness with each pulse of pure agony.

Eye on the prize, I threw my body over the tiger’s back, and then swung my bad leg over his haunches, screaming with the pain. Taking big steadying breaths, I blasted a black spell in Trek’s direction, the magic silky, like an oil slick on water, as it wound through the air--then splashed off his defenses. I’d made that one special, though. It would act like acid, slowly eating away power levels as it burrowed in. It would deplete me, also, but I needed the end in sight. With my leg like it was, I didn’t have long before the pain and shock took me under. I was already starting to get cold, and it had only been a few minutes. My body had started to shut down.

Okay, time to get serious.

Clutching onto the tiger’s back, not knowing his intention and deciding I didn’t care—I didn’t plan to get off—I thought back to the first time I used a spell on the Dulcha. Somehow I had blasted into the fiber of the thing and reached the root to its magic, going back to the source and cutting off the flow of power. Somehow.

Pain making my head throb, I closed my eyes, not worrying about tears. I felt those bastards floating closer, drifting toward my magic like sharks to blood. I also felt my magical acid dripping into Trek’s defenses, his power eroding and him not knowing why.

My cheek lay on surprisingly soft tiger fur. I didn’t even stick out my palm. I envisioned a beating heart at the center of each monster, a cord from its body to the source of magic. I created magical shears, so black that light penetrated, bent to it, and got lost in its gaping maw. I plunged those shears into the first beast, rooting around, finding what felt like a well of palpitating magic, and snipped.