Anya Bast: Witch Heart

Chaos exploded.

Thomas whirled toward Tevan in combat position even as Adam yanked Claire back hard against him.

Apparently, the tearful reunion would have to wait.

Claire stumbled back and around, watching Adam reach to the nape of his neck and pull a copper blade from the sheath apparently concealed under his long coat. Thomas and Theo had done the same.

Tevan would have his hands full, whether or not he'd ingested the caplium that would make him partially immune to the bite of copper. Claire had taught Thomas how to wield his magick to get it past an Atrika's shields.

"Come on, honey, we've got to go," Adam ground out as he pulled her down the corridor. "Thomas will have my ass on a platter if I don't keep you safe and a fucking Atrika demon just fixed his beady red eyes on you with murderous intent."

Claire glanced back at Thomas and the other witch, Theo. They'd engaged with the daaeman right there by the reception desk. By all Four Houses, she wanted to use her magick! She hated that she was vulnerable and powerless as any common human right now.

Just like the ones who would soon be spilling out into the corridors as a result of the earth magick no longer being focused on keeping them behind doors. "But what about—"

Adam yanked her down the corridor with a strength she couldn't fight, cutting off her sentence. Clearly, she wouldn't be around to see the looks on the human's faces if this fire witch had anything to do with it.

Together they ran to the end of the corridor, turned right, and bolted out a pair of double doors with a flashing red sign above it that read emergency exit. Yes, this was an emergency.

They pounded their way down flight after flight of stairs, their footsteps echoing through the stairwell. Adam kept her hand tight in his and gripped the sword handle in his opposite hand.

"What about the humans?" she panted at Adam. "They're going to start coming out of the rooms, into the corridors."

"Yeah, I know. We don't ordinarily open cans of magickical whoop ass where the normals can see. In this case, I don't know. Thomas and Theo will do their best, but it depends more on that Atrika than anything else. I doubt the demon cares much if he's seen."

"He does. I don't know why but they don't want attention drawn to themselves. I noticed I was safe whenever I was around humans." She paused, remembering the diner. "Well, mostly."

"That's good. We'll take any advantage we've got at this point."

At the bottom of the stairs, he guided her into a corner and carefully opened the door. Apparently, he found the other side Atrika-free because he sheathed his weapon. He threw her the bag draped over his shoulder. "In there you'll find a change of clothes and a wig. Go on and change."

Breathing hard more of pure fear than physical exertion, she doffed her pajama top immediately.

"Oh, fuck," Adam breathed. He turned around.

She wasn't wearing any undergarment beneath.

Oops.

Claire finished dressing, remembering belatedly that Earth customs were different than Eudae customs. Her mother had explained that to her before she'd died. "I apologize, but now is not the time for modesty." She threw her hospital clothing into a corner, having shed all of it but the soft slippers.

Adam turned back around, a grin spread across his mouth. "Did I say I minded?"

Claire's cheeks warmed and she crammed the blond wig over her head. It covered her long, curly dark hair.

She could have forgotten to dress every day on Eudae, walked around naked all the time, and the Ytrayi daaeman would never have given her more than a cursory glance. It wasn't that they didn't view her in a sexual way, it was more that they respected her female status in such a formal, regimented way that they would never allow their libidos to get out of control. They would never note their arousal or comment on her beauty out loud. She'd been totally safe from them.

It was important to remember that aeamon males were different. They would view her in a way the Ytrayi didn't — as a sexual possibility — and did not, by all accounts, have the same restraint and discipline an Ytrayi had.

That was something to get used to. Something important to remember.

He grabbed her hand and opened the door a crack again. "Okay, come on. We have to get out of this building. Hell's breaking loose." Adam pulled her along behind him as he slipped out into the corridor beyond the door.

Two policemen bustled down the hallway past them toward the elevators, hands on their service revolvers.

"Thomas said to go out the Emergency Room exit if we got split up." Adam steered her down a corridor past people in wheelchairs and on gurneys who were accompanied by nurses and doctors.

They made their way through the emergency room waiting area. Claire got an eyeful: there was a woman with a bloody leg, a flushed, tired-looking child, and a man holding his stomach among the waiting throng. Adam guided her out a pair of automatic sliding doors and into the blessedly fresh air.

A shiny silver vehicle pulled in front of them, tires squealing. The dark earth witch, Theo, he was called, sat in the front seat. Thomas drove.

"Get in quick," Theo commanded.

Adam opened the back door, pushed her in, and quickly followed after her. She ended up with her cheek to the leather upholstery and Adam's big body pinning hers as Thomas sped away.

The fire witch helped her sit up and she found herself tucked against his side, his arm around her. His heat calmed her, so he didn't move away.

Thomas glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "Hi, Claire." His gaze was warm, affectionate. Like a brother's.

Her heart plummeted to her toes and she realized she still nursed, way deep down, a little flame for this man. Stupid. She knew all too well his heart belonged to another.

Claire reached out and fingered his blacker-than-obsidian hair. In spite of everything, she grinned. "It's growing back in."

"Everything broken heals. It's good to see you."

Her grin broadened. "Well, that's a lie."

"Okay," he amended with the shrug of one broad shoulder and a disarming smile flashing in the rearview mirror. "I'd prefer it be under different circumstances." He paused. "What are you doing Earth-side and can you tell me why we just had to evade two Atrika demons, Claire?"

She drew a breath, pulled the blond wig from her head, and told him everything that had happened to her in the last forty-eight hours.

"I can't use my magick," she finished. "Rue gave me this ball of… this… this power that the Atrika want so badly and then pushed me through the doorway. I don't know how to wield this daaeman magick yet. I think it's a weapon called the elium and it could kill me or those around me if I try. I only used my own magick in the hospital to reach out to air witches out of pure desperation." She twisted the fake hair in her lap. "You remember how hard it was to kill one Atrika —"

"Now there are two Earth-side."

She nodded.

"But no more. If Rue crashed the doorway, that means no more than two came through. At least there's that."

Claire raised her gaze to meet Thomas's in the mirror for a moment. "Rue crashed the doorway, which means no one comes through… or goes back. Not until he gets it up again, which is time-consuming and difficult to do." She pressed her lips together. "If he's still alive."

"We know how hard it is to create a doorway, Claire. We've been trying to do that for the last eleven months, to pull you through." She started in surprise, but Thomas went on. "I know you declined to come back with me, Claire, but you looked uncertain about your decision to stay."