Anya Bast - Witch Fury

Daaeman magick sizzled and sparked in the space around his body. Sarafina was certain it was enough to kill her where she stood. Perhaps he’d decided she was more trouble than she was worth.

The power exploded and Sarafina dove to the side, literally leaping into the air as though she thought she could fly. She came down hard on her side and rolled away from the daaeman , coming to her feet still gripping the sword. Thank God for all the training Theo had given her.

Every square centimeter of her body ached.

She’d missed the killing blast, but Bai still leapt on her. His blood dripped onto her chest and she screamed, fighting against him. It was like trying to beat up a brick wall. She gouged his eye, which fortunately was not a brick wall — it was soft, squishy, and vulnerable. Digging deep, she took advantage.

Bai yowled and pushed away from her. She sprang to her feet and swung the sword, cutting deeply into his side. The daaeman roared and backhanded her. Sarafina went sprawling to the ground again, pain exploding through her face.

The Atrika followed her, looking as though he intended to simply rip her apart and bypass magick completely.

Seeing an opportunity to end this right now, Sarafina angled her sword upward. Bai fell heavily against the tip, his momentum driving the hilt deeper into his body than Sarafina could have ever hoped to achieve on her own.

She let go of the handle as Bai rolled away from her, the sword still deeply embedded in him. He came to a rest on his side in the deadfall. His body twitched and shuddered, low moans coming from between his thin, white lips. Blood coursed from his wounds, making a dark and smoky puddle in the dirt.

Sarafina also lay on the ground, her breathing coming fast and shallow. Pain had blossomed in her seat and was enhanced by the injuries from the fight — the acid burn, the bruises and cuts she’d sustained. There wasn’t a square inch on her that didn’t hurt, and blood — her own — had dripped onto her shirt and pants.

Her magick was tapped, gone. Her capacity to do physical battle was also gone. If Bai wasn’t dead, if he pulled a horror movie monster move and got up now, she was done for.

When Bai no longer made a move or any sound, she forced herself up onto her feet. Dragging herself to Bai, she saw that the copper blade was still stabbed through his gut. Blood caked the wound on his throat. His eyes were open, but unseeing.

Sarafina knew from Micah’s book that the Atrika would go into a coma if they were badly injured. It was how they healed severe wounds and regenerated. Was Bai in one of those healing comas now?

The only way to be totally sure he was dead was to cut off his head, but the sword was in the Atrika . She supposed she could go get one from the building. There were more in the basement.

God, she didn’t want to cut off his head. All she really wanted to do was pass out.

Her body protesting every moment, she walked back toward the building. She didn’t want to, but she had to. It was the only way to make sure he never came after her again. It was the only way to ensure she ever enjoyed another night’s sleep.

As she approached the building, she remembered the cave. When she’d been in it, she’d felt like something — someone — had been in there with her. At the time she’d thought it had been her imagination, and then Theo had shown up and she’d been distracted.

She went into the building and found another sword. On impulse, she grabbed a flashlight, too. She couldn’t produce so much as a flicker of fire right now.

On the way out, she turned toward the cave and stood, considering her options. Something about that place nagged at her.

The cave was not far from the building and she didn’t have enough energy to walk back to the daaeman , behead him, and then walk back.

What to do? Behead a demon or explore a cave? Decisions, decisions.

Knowing from Micah’s book that she had some time before Bai woke from his coma, if that’s what it was, she turned and walked toward the cave. It was probably nothing, but she needed to check it out — no matter how much she really didn’t want to go spelunking today.

She entered the cave and made her way into the recesses, taking a few turns here and there. There was only one way through as the passageways were just big enough for one adult witch.

The only good part about being in the nasty, damp cave was that if Bai came out of his coma thing prematurely, he wouldn’t be able to find her. The bad thing was that she half expected to stumble across a bear or some other wild animal in here, or worse — a pile of dead bodies or something. It was on Duskoff land, after all.

Finally, she reached a largish cavern-type room. Having freaked herself out by that time and finding nothing but rock inside, she turned around to leave. That’s when her light caught something up against one of the walls.

She stopped and turned, shining her flashlight on the object once more. It looked like. . a casket. Somebody’s coffin.

Oh, hell no.

Sarafina wavered on her feet for a moment. Her head was telling her to go have a closer look, but the rest of her body screamed at her to run away fast.

Her head won and she forced her body to obey.

She hadn’t come this far to not investigate the thing that had piqued her senses. Apparently, this is what she’d come in here for.

She inched closer and closer to the shiny black casket, hoping like hell the top wouldn’t open and a vampire or something wouldn’t pop out. Really, she’d expire where she stood.

As she grew closer, a humming sound reached her ears. Walking around to one side, she shined the flashlight at the back of the casket and saw electrical cords hooking the thing up and running straight into the stone wall.

Well, that was odd.

Frowning, she reached out and touched the brass handle on the side. Maybe it wasn’t a casket, after all. It was pretty big to be one, unless the person inside was a giant. Or. .

A daaeman .

An Ytrayi ?

Rue .

The thought spurred her to push the top open. It wouldn’t budge. Then she saw the latches on the side. She undid the latches and cold steam poured from the edges of the top — like dry ice. Gathering her courage, after all, she’d killed an Atrika single-handedly — well, maybe — she pushed the lid the rest of the way open.

Inside lay a man. Easily seven feet tall, broad-shouldered, blond, with a chiseled, handsome face. It was a daaeman , all right. Sarafina would bet money she’d found Rue, the Ytrayi breed’s missing Cae .

With him, she’d found the elium.

The only problem was that both the daaeman and the elium were frozen solid.

SARAFINA STARTED, COMING AWAKE WHERE SHE’D fallen asleep propped up against the cave wall. Or maybe she’d passed out, she wasn’t sure.

She’d opened the casket all the way and yanked all the electrical cords out in the back, probably destroying thousands of dollars worth of equipment. Eventually, the dry ice had evaporated.

Of course, she had no idea what she was doing. She’d paced back and forth in front of the frozen Ytrayi , wondering about alien metabolisms and trying to recall every science fiction movie or book she’d ever seen or read.

But what was she supposed to do? She was stuck in a cave in the middle of Kentucky trying to thaw out a demon with a weapon inside him. Things didn’t get much stranger or less comprehensible than that. She could only do what she thought was right and hope for the best.

She especially hoped that Rue didn’t kill her if he woke up. Boy, that would really suck. She was so close to getting her life back.