September Moon (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #8)(105)

“Don’t do it,” Jenner whispered. “Don’t go to him.”

We were getting nowhere. I couldn’t keep hiding under trees until Shya roasted them all.

“I have an idea,” I said, laying a hand on Jenner’s arm. “If this works, then I’m sorry.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

I didn’t bother to answer. I was about to try something that might work or it might just make my head explode. Either way, it was all I had left to throw at the demon. I had to try.

Striding away from the pitiful coverage of the remaining trees, I tapped into the power I shared with Arys. It spilled over me like a dam breaking under the pressure of a flood. This would be the last time I would do this as a mortal. I wouldn’t survive it this time.

Shya was right in that our vampire power was rooted in darkness. But I wasn’t a vampire. I was a Hound of God, a creature of light with a natural ability to channel and manipulate energy. Any energy. Even dark energy.

The dark and light had existed together inside me for some time now. They had often been at war, battling for supremacy. Now I was going to make them work together for my purpose. Or die trying.

I reached for Arys, a metaphysical summons that he couldn’t help but answer. The power rose hard and fast, causing my nose to bleed before I’d even done anything. Talk about going out with a bang.

“You want me, Shya. Then come and get me.” My fingers crackled and sparked with swirls of gold and blue. I stopped short of walking right up to him. I wasn’t that brave or that stupid.

Arys came to stand next to me. His eyes were wild, full on wolf eyes. My eyes. I was certain mine reflected him as well.

With him so close, the force surging through us both was amplified, and I struggled to stay on my feet. My intent was to draw on the mass of dark power I had access to through Arys and Jenner while using the light within me to bend it to my will. If it worked the way I hoped, I would essentially be fighting Shya’s evil with my own dark power guided by the light.

“You won’t survive such a foolish attempt,” Shya said though he didn’t seem convinced.

“Probably not. But hey, I came here to die. Why prolong it?”

Without a word of warning, I reached out to every vampire connected to me, drawing on their power and harnessing it as my own. In my mind I could feel them. From Jenner and Kale so close to me to Sloane in Europe where she lounged in bed with a young human man. Even Hurst deep in the bowels of his hidden Las Vegas home.

Gabriel too was affected. Part of our bloodline, he was now a link in the circuit. And I could feel that he was close. The power of several vampires slammed through me, and I released it in a well-focused attack on the smirking dragon.

It smashed Shya into the side of the hospital before throwing him to the ground. Rather than individual shots I projected a steady stream of power. Even in his outrageous form, it held him down, giving me a chance to reclaim the place in the grass where Lilah’s door lay.

Arys helped me to maintain the load. The pressure inside my head grew steadily, but it was manageable. I squinted through the throbbing in my skull and saw only the demon I needed to beat down.

Laughter filled the night. Shya found it funny that I was pouring so much into an attack. He couldn’t be killed, but he could be weakened and driven back to the other side.

I tasted honey and smelled perfume. The vampires I channeled were very much in my head. So when Gabriel stepped into view, I was ready for the black magic he threw.

It hit me like a splash of hot wax, quickly cooling and flaking away. The cross pendant around my neck felt cold in contrast. Judging by the surprise on Gabriel’s ashen face, he’d been expecting a different outcome.

Uttering something Latin, he tried a different tactic. The little heathen was disrupting my concentration enough that Shya was advancing on me.

Shaz was a blur of white as he leaped on Gabriel, taking the newbie vampire down. It was all I could do to keep my attention on Shya, even when I heard Shaz yelp.

I drew harder on my link to the vampires while grabbing hold of the spark of light that made me twin to Arys’s dark. It was all I had to fight with.

Blood didn’t just drip from my nose. It ran. Maintaining the flow of so much power was quickly taking its toll. Never before had I tried something so immense. It was breaking me fast.

Arys grabbed my hand and kept me on my feet. Together we channeled more power than any being should ever know. It kept Shya at bay though it didn’t appear to do much harm.

All we needed was a window of opportunity. Just enough time for Arys to bleed me. I would beat him into it if I had to. There would be no backing out. We had to see this through.

Shya’s laughter had stopped. The black mist clouded him once again, and I watched eagerly, hopeful it was a sign that he was weakening. Because I sure as hell was.

When the mist cleared he stood there in his human form with wings spread for balance. He had underestimated what a Hound could do. His outrage was written all over his face.

A surge of hope and renewal convinced me that I had him. If I could just keep it up a little longer, just maybe he would be forced to vacate.

“I can hold out longer than you can,” Shya called. “You’ll kill your vampires as well as yourself before you beat me.”

“Arys,” I tried to say, but my voice failed me.

Still he heard me. He squeezed my hand, trying to strengthen me. But it was no longer enough. Too many times, too much power, my mortal body was unable to take anymore.