Biting Cold

chapter TWENTY-THREE

SOLDIERS WISELY LED

The sigil burst into blue flames, pushing all of us backward except Ethan and Mallory, who maintained their positions at the edge of it.

Jeff and Paige hit the ground a few feet away. Falls like that were going to take time to recover from.

“Mallory!” Catcher called out. “Stay strong!”

If she heard him, she didn’t react. Mallory still looked oblivious to everything but the connection between her and Ethan…and the pain it was putting her through. She hit her knees, too, tears streaming down her face as she held open the connection.

With the sigil alight, Seth looked at me. I nodded, and it began.

“Dominic!” he called out. “I will and summon you to appear!”

The sigil brightened, the flame rising, but no angel appeared in the middle of it.

“Seth?”

“Low-grade materials,” he said. “We had to make do. We’re trying.”

I blinked rain from my eyes, my breath steaming in the chill. “Try harder! Mallory can’t keep this up much longer!” She was already, I figured, seconds away from writhing on the ground and taking Ethan back to dark magic town with her.

Seth pulled off his shirt, flexed, and unhinged his wings. They released into the night, sending that sugar cookie smell through the park. My stomach picked the wrong time to grumble.

“Dominic! I will and summon you to appear! Bear witness to my command!”

The sigil flashed and flickered again, and then completely extinguished.

“Is it the rain?” Jeff called out from the other side of the sigil. “Do we have to start over?”

For a moment, there was silence. As if fearful of what we’d wrought, the earth trembled beneath us.

And then, suddenly, the earth inside the smoking circle burst open, and Dominic shot through the air, wings extended.

He roared with impressive gusto, then locked eyes with Seth and flapped his wings back to earth again, stalking toward him with obviously malicious intent.

“You dare call me? You, who cower behind the words and deeds of humans?”

With what little strength he had, Ethan reached out to grab him, but Dominic stepped beyond the bounds of the sigil and out of Ethan’s grasp.

Seth caught the miss and rotated around, luring Dominic back toward the sigil and Ethan.

“Unlike you, I have been working, dear brother. Trying to rid the world of the pestilence you and yours seem so eager to forget.”

Seth’s lip curled. “Humans are not a pestilence on the world. Protecting them is our sole obligation. Our sole responsibility.”

“They are a plague!” Dominic leapt toward Seth, who maneuvered away from him but didn’t manage to get him any closer to Ethan.

Who had said this part was going to be easy? Just grab the monster, she’d said, and pull away his power. I muttered a curse. And tried my own tactic. If Seth couldn’t lure him closer, maybe I could.

“Dominic!” I called out, spinning the sword in my hand, hoping a distraction might be enough. “Fight like a man!”

“I am more than man.” But he was too preoccupied with Seth to bother with me. He pushed Seth like a school bully and, when Seth jumped into the air, followed suit, his wings flapping slowly behind him.

“Every being with power has its purpose,” Dominic said. “I have served mine, and I was punished regardless. My wings bear witness to that.”

His voice was exactly like and unlike Seth’s. The timbre was the same, but the cant of the words was different. Seth spoke plainly; Dominic pronounced.

“You weren’t punished,” Seth said. “You did dark things and your body changed as a result of it.”

They wrestled in the air, the twins of light and darkness, just as in the picture the librarian had showed me. It occurred to me that I was seeing a battle that was primeval, fundamental in nature. Creatures of the beginning of the human world, fighting over whether humans should be allowed to rule themselves.

“Catcher!” I called out. “Throw some magic!”

“I might hit Seth!” he called back. I guess, given what we were battling against, I had to appreciate his concern for the collateral victims of his magic.

They pushed each other away, separating midair before battling again. “I made decisions no one else would make!”

“You destroyed people and cities.”

“They deserved it.”

“It wasn’t your call to make!” Seth raised his voice, his words booming across the park. I expected CPD patrol cars and picture-snapping residents any minute, so I acted.

I got a running start, held my sword upright, and leapt into the air toward the flying dervishes. The edge of my blade caught the webbing of Dominic’s left wing. He screamed out his pain and the wing flapped backward with enough force to propel me through the air, just as he’d done with Jonah.

I hit the ground with a dull thud that pushed the air from my lungs.

The rain had soaked the ground and made the playground muddy, washing away the remnants of the sigil. But Ethan and Mallory waited, magic at the ready, both of them all but humming with the energy of it.

Seth and Dominic rolled through the mud, which put the top of Dominic’s wing within a hand’s length of Ethan.

“Ethan, Mallory, now!” I yelled out.

Ethan grabbed the edge of Dominic’s wing. It took a second, and then Mallory screamed out as the connection burst open between them. There was no pleasure in her scream.

Dominic roared out again, flipping his wing in an effort to dislodge Ethan. He put his palms together, and with a crackle of light, the giant broadsword appeared in his hands. He swiped at Ethan, but Ethan, helped by his vampire strength, dodged the blade and wouldn’t let go, and Mallory wouldn’t break the connection between them.

“Nearly there,” Mallory said, pain in her expression.

Dominic arched back, roaring again like an injured lion. Catcher didn’t miss this opportunity. He wound up two bright blue orbs and tossed them in Dominic’s direction.

They exploded against his chest in a burst of blue sparks. Dominic fell back, hitting the ground with a thud.

But so did Ethan and Mallory.

The dark magic had stopped, and so did the rain.

I knew any reprieve would be temporary. Body aching, I pulled myself off the ground and limped toward them again.

“Mallory! Ethan!”

Ethan’s grip was still on Dominic, but the magic seemed to have knocked him out, too. Catcher dragged Mallory away, her palms red and chafed from the magic she’d pulled out of Dominic. I did the same with Ethan, ignoring the bleeding gash on his arm and the intoxicating scent of blood.

“Watch him!” I demanded of Seth, but Dominic was up and roaring again before I could even pull my sword. Seth took point this time.

I patted Ethan’s face. “Ethan! Wake up.”

He suddenly sat up, coughing and sputtering for breath as if Mallory had sucked out the rest of his oxygen. “I’m okay. I’m fine.”

Tears bloomed at my lashes. “Thank God. Did it work?”

“I think so. I felt so much magic. If he’s not cleaned out, he has a hella large tank.”

I couldn’t help the sarcasm. “Who says ‘hella large’?”

But Ethan’s focus was better than mine. “Sentinel,” he weakly said, pointing back to the fray.

Dominic had Seth pinned in the mud and was whaling, older brother–style, on his twin. I made it to my feet again, my sword now filthy with mud, and wiped it on my leather pants.

I was just about to launch my attack, hopeful Ethan was right about Dominic, when I caught a new trouble blooming.

Mallory was standing again, her hair spread out around her like a static halo, and a gleam of dark magic in her eyes.

I sighed, my stomach curling with the fear that she’d never be able to come back from her addiction. Not if a little demonic filtering took her out.

But she looked at me, and I saw the fight in her eyes.

She wasn’t succumbing to the dark magic. She was just trying to hold it in.

“Paige, Catcher. Help her. She needs to let the magic go!”

When they rushed to her aid, I turned back to Dominic and Seth. I blew out a breath.

“Now or never,” I muttered, and called out his name. “Dominic!” I twirled the sword in my hand once, then twice.

Dominic glanced back at me, grinned maniacally, then stood up. Seth was still in the mud, and he didn’t move. There were bleeding gaps in his wings, and a deep red gash across his shoulder.

If this was going to happen, I was going to be the one to do it.

“Hello, Ballerina.”

“You don’t have the right to call me that.” I backed up a bit, moving the fight away from everyone else.

“Don’t I?” he said. “I was there for all of it. I saw everything that he did, all of your interactions.”

One of his wings shot out, and I rolled across the ground to get away, popping up muddy and bruised again.

“You weren’t invited,” I pointed out. “You were a spy.” His other wing whipped out. The claws at the edge of this wing grazed the ground, and I jumped into the air to avoid it, popping down in a crouch on his other side.

“You’re all flair,” he said, turning to face me.

He thrust out with his sword, and I silently apologized to my katana for any nicks I was about to create, and met his thrust directly.

The jolt sent a wave of pain down my arm.

Dominic laughed and thrust down. I parried, pushing his sword to the side, and used the momentum to swing myself into a butterfly kick. I managed a punch to his kidney, but his wing dipped forward. I still caught the tip of a claw, and it ripped a gash in my calf. The pain was sudden and intense and carried a nauseating sharpness that had to be magical in nature.

I stumbled away, regripping my sword, and turned to face him.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?”

Water dripped into my eyes from my ratty, muddy bangs. “It doesn’t feel like purring kittens,” I admitted. The pain be damned, I ran forward, slicing down with a shot that put a four-inch gash in the top of his left wing.

He screamed out and tossed me away like a doll. I landed on my back again in a puddle of cold water, promising myself a hot bath if I’d only get back on my feet.

One hand behind me, I arced my body and popped up again.

His wing gashed and bleeding, and obviously in pain, Dominic limped toward me. “You don’t know when to quit, do you?”

“I’d say the same for you.” I regripped my sword.

He was tired and injured, and his next shot was sloppy but still powerful. A forward thrust I had to drop down under. I rolled across the ground, clenching my sword to keep from losing my muddy grip, and kicked his leg out from under him, knocking him onto the ground. I scrambled away, but he caught the hem of my pants.

“We weren’t done,” he said, dragging me backward again.

“We were totally done,” I assured him, kicking his brick-solid chest until he reflexively let me go again.

Now breathing a little harder than I did in my practice sessions, go figure, I made it to my feet again. I could keep fighting for a while, but he was going to nail me in terms of brute strength and endurance. I would lose a war of attrition against him.

I remembered what I’d said earlier. Change the odds.

While Dominic got to his feet again, I looked around…and spied something useful.

Sword in front of me, I faked a limp and hobbled backward.

Dominic, the gleam of success in his eyes, stalked me like prey. I called on my musical theater background and made some pretty convincing noises of pain.

He grinned devilishly, then lifted his sword, and, when I faked a backward stumble, ran forward into the tangled skein of swing-set chains.

That was my chance.

Dominic may have been back in human form, but I wasn’t. I still had vampire speed and strength, and I was sure as shit going to use them now. I dropped my sword.

With speed so quick my motion was blurred, I ripped the chains from their moorings. The links were still solid, but as I’d hoped, their connections to the swing set had rusted through. I ran around Dominic, and as he tried to stumble back to his feet, his wings caught in the side supports. I wove the chains around him until he was good and caught and roaring with the indignity of it all.

He was really big on the roaring.

I picked up my sword and stood in front of him, arms raised, sword pointed down, ready to finish this.

“Then do it,” Dominic said. “Suffer your witch to live, and put an end to me.”

“I don’t take joy in it,” I told him. “That’s the difference between us.”

“Are we so different, Sentinel? You kill because you believe it’s right. As do I.”

“I kill to save the lives of others. Unlike you, I have no illusions it makes me a better person.” My hands trembling, I prepared to strike.

“No!”

I froze and glanced back. Seth limped toward us, still holding his wounded arm, one wing dragging on the ground pathetically. “Stop, Merit. This is not your task.”

Wincing, he held out his good hand. “I’ll do it,” Seth said. “I will end his life.”

I looked back at him. “You’ve never killed before. Are you sure you want to start now?”

“He was part of me for centuries. He is, for better or worse, my brother. His blood shouldn’t be on your hands, but mine.”

I wasn’t sure how to argue with him. I wasn’t keen on the idea of killing a man already down, but there was no question he’d keep killing if the opportunity arose. On the other hand, Seth was already racked by grief, and I didn’t want to add to his burdens.

“It would bring me peace,” he said, “to know that you weren’t forced to take another life at my expense. It would help me atone for the trouble I have already caused. For the pain. For the suffering.”

There was no doubting the earnestness in his gaze. He was a grown man—well grown, as it turned out—so I handed over the sword.

He nodded, and as he closed his fingers around the handle and his eyes slipped shut, I’d have sworn he shivered. “The blade was tempered with your blood.”

I nodded.

Seth bowed, his shoulders dipping forward over the gleaming steel of the blade. “I am honored, Merit of Cadogan, to use a blade you have so honorably prepared.”

I blinked back surprise and, when Ethan slipped his fingers into mine, squeezed hard.

Seth walked to Dominic, his wings still pinned, and stood over him. “Messenger, you have failed in your mission, and you have darkened the name of justice. You refused to leave this world when your name was called into the book. Tonight, justice shall be done.”

Dominic swallowed hard, but then he nodded. “Justice shall be done.”

Seth lifted the katana, held it horizontal to the ground. And with a single slice, ripped through Dominic’s chest. Dominic and Seth screamed simultaneously, and light burst forth from the wound Seth had made, angry and red, rays of it shooting across the night like furious lasers. The burst of light opened farther, and then Dominic’s entire body was engulfed in light. The light pulsed, then again, then faster and faster like a beating heart until it exploded into a trillion red sparks.

They rushed across the sky, fading as they moved, and then the light was extinguished, and Dominic was gone. The only trace of him was the bit of blood that still stained my sword.

Without a word, Seth wiped the sword upon his pants, then placed it carefully on the ground. “It is done.”

It became D-Day all over again. The only things missing were soldiers and nurses locked in exuberant embraces. Instead, we had vampires and sorcerers.

Jeff and Paige hugged each other. On their knees in the mud, Catcher hugged Mallory to him, his arms around her. “It’s over. It’s over.”

I looked up at Ethan, whose eyes were closed in relief.

“She’s gone,” he said. “Oh, thank God, she’s gone.”

Thank God, I thought, a silent prayer to whoever might be listening, and wrapped my arms around him. He embraced me.

“She’s gone,” he said again.

“So I heard. Congratulations.” For both of us, I thought.

“You were amazing. A sight to behold. And the swing set was inspired.”

“I had a good teacher.”

“And don’t you forget it,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to my temple.

“She meant me,” Catcher said. “Vampires are so arrogant.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Maybe things could finally get back to normal around here. Whatever that might be.