Bitch was going to burn for what she did to our beloved Rowena.
I went to step towards her, when a darkness descended onto the cemetery. A heavy blanket of despair fell over me, and I found myself fighting the dark magic best I could. My breathing was labored, and dark thoughts, blood, death and despair flashed through my mind. Thousands of cockroaches flooded the grounds of the cemetery, and I had to fight the urge to run.
Nyx had arrived.
Lydia was bound to me, as soul sisters and conjure partners. All I needed was to trace a quick message for her on my arm and then the same one would appear on hers. Wiccan text.
Kill Seraphina. I sent her.
Seraphina forgotten, I spun to see a big grey wolf at my back.
Dax.
Behind him, a black fog was spanning out into the cemetery carrying misery and fear with it.
“Tell your pack to shield their minds,” I told the wolf.
I didn’t know much about wolf magic but I knew they had some sort of mind control, or Dax did and he could protect their minds. I hoped so at least, otherwise we were screwed. Nyx could make a weak human take their own life in seconds. She was a master of mind control.
That’s when all hell broke loose, the sound of Seraphina and Lydia fighting behind me had started, but I kept my eyes forward. Gliding over the hill was Nyx in all her glory, the king of the local vampire court at her side with a dozen of his cronies.
Shit.
I take back what I said before. I hate vampires and werewolves. From now on, I will only date humans.
Dax’s low growl beside me reminded me he was here with me, and I was suddenly grateful for his pack’s presence. I was going to make him earn this date.
“Ladies!” I shouted. “Whoever kills the most vampires becomes my new second.” I told my coven.
Mariah, a powerful witch and good contender for second, burst forward, flinging injury spells left and right.
Good girl.
The rest of my coven advanced, stalking slowly, building up large spells with their wands, and I saw a few of Dax’s wolves come up behind the vampires on the other side of the hill. Of course she went to the vampires—it would be her only chance at beating us. I was convinced the reason Rowena was killed so easily by her was because she was caught of guard with no protection spells. For some godforsaken reason she chose to throw protection spells at Dax and not save herself.
I sighed. Time to put this bitch back in her grave. I was a little nervous, if I was being honest, I had the power of a high priestess sure but not the confidence. I knew Nyx couldn’t be killed. it was an impossibility but she could be put into a sleep. For that I would need a shitload of magic, my own blood blinding the spell and a sacrifice.
Sacrifice. Shit!
The cockroaches were skittering across my feet now, and I could feel the dark magic trying to press in on me. Trying to suck away my happiness and make me get lost in the dark thoughts that were floating through my mind. The longer Nyx stayed awake and the more people she killed, the more powerful she became. I needed to end this tonight because by tomorrow she might be too powerful for me to wrestle back into the sleep.
I remembered something then.
“Hey, can you talk to all animals or just your dog?” I asked Dax who was stuck to my side, his fur brushing against my leg.
He looked up at me… and said nothing, because he was a wolf. Right.
“Can you call an animal over so I can sacrifice it for a spell?” I asked him. If he said no, I’d have to pray one of these cockroaches counted but I wasn’t sure they were real, probably an illusion spell.
He looked conflicted for a second but then he nodded.
I was just about to pet his head or something to affirm he was a ‘good boy’ when a spell from Nyx slammed into my chest, throwing me backward.
Pain exploded inside of my stomach but ebbed directly after, as my protection spells kicked in.
“You didn’t earn your title you know that, right?” Nyx’s raspy, 100 pack a day smoker voice filtered over to me from a few feet away. “You only got it because mommy and grandma were powerful witches.”
Good. Let her think that.
I dug my nails into my palms letting the blood drip onto the earth.
Then I started to murmur an ancient spell in Aramaic, it wasn’t in any spell books, it was passed down from my gran to me through word of mouth and it made the earth my ally. When I finished it I slammed my palm onto the ground, feeding the earth my blood.
Nyx was slowly stalking toward me, her raven black hair hung limply at her sides, clods of dirt still in it. She was taller than I thought she’d be, nearly six feet and clouds of black magic followed behind her like messengers of death. My eyes flicked briefly to Dax who had the king of the vampires neck in his mouth. It took longer than I expected for my spell to work, but when it did, the ground shook violently and Nyx was thrown off her feet unprepared.
I shot up then, flinging my wand at her, throwing spell after spell to weaken her power. They crashed against her invisible shields as she countered my spells. Then just as quickly and out of thin air, a sword appeared in her left hand.
Damn, weapons-conjuring was some dark magical shit.
I didn’t have that ability but I did know how to conceal them. One tap to my bracelet from my wand and it transformed from the everyday piece of jewelry to a twelve inch dagger with a poisoned blade.
Nyx grinned looking from my dagger to her sword. “Mines bigger,” she said.
She whipped out then, with one of her black tendrils of magic that floated about her, and it slammed into my neck, curling around it and shattering my protection charms.
Shit. I thought my protection wards would hold, but this magic was powerful. Nyx must have been resting in hell for the past hundred years because she’d learned some shit while she was gone. I sliced my sword through the black tendril in vain but nothing happened. My blade passed through it like it was air and yet it felt like a very real, tangible thing was choking me. I couldn’t breathe. My eyes darted around to see the chaos before me and affirm that no one would be helping me. Everyone was locked in their own battle.
I kicked off my shoe then and sank my foot into the earth, still in control of my previous spell. It was hard to be concurred with mother earth at your whim. A tree root sprang out of the ground then, wrapping around Nyx’s abdomen and dragging her to the earth. The black tendril around my throat fell away when she’d smashed into the soil, and I gasped for air, grinning.
Hah! Gotcha bitch.
Stepping forward, I raised my dagger, ready to end this, when something moved in my peripheral.
I saw Seraphina too late. Her fist holding a large rock, she cracked me over the side of the head, and then everything went black.
Four
Dax
I’d just ripped out the vampire king’s throat when I saw a blonde witch come up behind Tatiana and knock her out with a rock.
A howl rocked my chest as I launched off of the ground and ran past Nyx who was hacking away at a tree root, so that I could intercept the blonde. I leapt and sailed through the air landing over Tatiana’s fallen body. Looking up at the blonde witch, I growled. She held the bloodied rock in her hand but looked unsure now that she was faced with going through me. She didn’t seem to have her wand, so I knew she wouldn’t be a problem, I’d take her head clean off in seconds. Tatiana’s body moved underneath me then and I glanced down to see her eyes opening.
With a groan, her arm burst out from under my body and she slammed blondie with a spell that made her eyes go cross-eyed. She dropped to the ground right there, the rock falling from her grasp.
That was effective.