The Council (Darkness #5)(47)

“What of the others? Of the captors?” someone asked from the back.

“Andris is mine. The others can meet their maker.”

Shifting, nodding and wide grins lit up the horde. Jameson ticked his head—a nod he couldn’t help. Apparently I’d said the right thing. Good times.

“Load up.” I pushed through the room, through the aisle made out of bodies, to the front door. Everyone waited for me to pass, more nods granted this time around. More acknowledgement.

I no longer had time to care. With the fundamentals taken care of, I couldn’t help feeling the urgency of the situation. I had to get to Stefan before things escalated.

“Where do you want me?” Harry asked in a shy jog beside me.

Oh yeah, the spare human. I’d almost forgotten about him.

“Can you fight?” I asked.

“Not very well.”

“He was cowering in the hallway when we found him,” Charles said.

Good point.

“Magic?” I tried.

“Some.”

“Uh, okay, well, stick around, get a ride there, and… I guess we’ll just see how it goes.”

Harry nodded and fell behind.

“We’ll probably have to use the fifth element for this one,” Charles said as he strode beside me, leading me to Jonas’ black Hummer. Jameson also walked slightly behind, exactly where he would walk if I were Stefan.

What Charles said dribbled into my head. “The fifth element? Since when is there a fifth element?”

“The element of surprise! Everyone knows that!”

I rolled my eyes as Jameson said, “Can you take nothing seriously?”

“Bro, you do you. Let me do her. She doesn’t have a tree up her ass like you do; she needs to keep things light or she might blow something up.”

“He’s just pissed he’s got no sense of humor,” Jonas reflected in his customary growl as he climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Says Sir Chuckles-A-Lot,” Ann laughed as she jogged past.

Why me?

Chapter 14

The car crunched to a stop in the still of the night, the gravel loose and dirty. A large building hunkered a hundred yards ahead of us. Old and decrepit, the structure looked about ready to collapse. A collection of cars and two motorhomes waited in the parking lot in front, silent and empty. Everyone was inside playing their demonic games.

I took a deep breath as I quietly exited the car. All around me huge warriors collected in an organized horde. The magic users collected off to the sides. Beyond them, in a cluster, stood my girls—my witches. Magic users like me. Birdie had her hands on her hips, as usual, and Delilah picked at her nail as she stared at the distant building. The twins looked around with wide eyes and faint smiles, somewhat dense but more lovable for it.

I was so relieved that I wanted to rush over there and give them a bear hug.

“Okay, Jameson, work with Tim and get this place surrounded. I’ll take the magic users and see if we need to knock down any spells.”

Jameson nodded and stalked off to the side. Tim stepped up to me, his eyes serious and intense. “Don’t sacrifice yourself tonight. Don’t do something that will get you killed needlessly. I don’t know Stefan that well, but if he was anything like me, he would want you safe. He wouldn’t want you killing yourself for him.”

I stared into those brown eyes and saw something I hadn’t noticed before. My stomach swirled with butterflies. “Okay.”

He held my gaze for a second longer before glancing at my lips and walking away.

“A bit gooey for friendship…” Charles nudged my arm.

“Don’t tell Stefan,” I murmured, heading toward the magic users. “He would think it was more than it is and it will make it that much harder for the two to get along.”

“Oh, he already knows. A guy looks out for that kind of stuff.”

“Great.” I wouldn’t think about that now. I put on my bitch face and stalked over to the magic users, motioning for the witches to join us.

“More magic users! Wow!” Harry, who had become my shadow, smiled at the witches. Who ignored him.

“So they got the Boss, huh?” Birdie gave an acknowledging nod to the group.

“Yes. Thanks for coming.” I gave her a shaky smile, trying to bottle up the emotions threatening to break loose and pour out through my eyes.

“Well, what’s next? My ankles are killing me from standing around all night.” Birdie pursed her lips and stared off at the building.

“There is a spell around it,” Delilah noted quietly. “It’s the same sort of thing we saw at that park, and then with that demon. Probably the same guy. He’s pretty good, but not great.”

“If you ever get to meet Cato, you will just sit in an open-mouthed gape at what he can do.” I shook my head as I inhaled. “What does that spell do? Did you check it out?”

“It alerts those inside of someone entering the building, I think. Pretty basic premise with a few embellishes to make unraveling it a little more difficult.” Delilah chewed her lip.

“My, my, you’ve been paying attention in magic class.” I smiled at her, unable to keep the pride from showing on my face.

I turned to the clan magic people. “Zeke, link with Delilah and go take down that spell. You remember the pitfalls of linking with human magic, right? You have to keep it balanced for best effect.”