Their voices thundered through the air and a massive cloud began to sweep up around them, black and shadowed and thick. I hadn’t seen this spell before, but instinct told me I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of whatever they had summoned up.
Delilah raised her head and stared up at the sky for a single moment before a shimmer flickered around her, and when it died down, she stood there, in her panther form, massive and muscled and furious. To one side of her, I caught a glimpse of a shadowed, translucent form. Arial—Delilah’s twin—a wereleopard—who had died at birth. We only managed to see her in leopard form—Camille and I, that is. But Delilah had met her in the temple at Haseofon where the Death Maidens congregated in their service to the Autumn Lord. They had talked, at length, and eventually Delilah had come to understand how they both ended up with the Autumn Lord.
We were a poised tableau, including Telazhar, who cagily scanned each of us, only his eyes moving as he looked from face to face. The Demon Gate was forming, and the sly smile on his face told me he was planning on bringing something terrible and big and bad through it.
Camille and Morio pressed their shadow cloud closer. It hovered around the gate now, waiting. I debated on whether to attack the necromancer, but even as I was about ready to move forward, Vanzir’s soul-sucking tentacles reached the old man. With a blinding flash, Telazhar flicked one hand toward them and Vanzir went flying back a good twenty feet to land inches from his dragon. He rolled to his feet and raised his hands again.
At that moment, the ground began to shake around the Demon Gate, and I quickly returned my attention to whatever the hell was about to come through. And then—the gate was suddenly full of mist and shadow as a figure stepped through. He was twenty feet tall if he was an inch, a skeleton warrior dressed in ancient armor, wielding a massive sword of bone and crystal. What the hell? A wave of fear spread out from the creature, as tangible as Morio and Camille’s shadow cloud that immediately descended on him.
“Lychkonneg . . .” Roz whispered, pronouncing it “Lihk-kohn-negg.”
Holy fuck, I knew what that was. A lychkonneg was a skeletal king, and his touch could freeze the flesh and instill instant hypothermia. He could suck the magic out of the soul, as easily as a kid sucked soda out of a straw. And I knew something else, something I wasn’t sure if Morio and Camille knew.
“Don’t send your cloud over to him—death magic will only strengthen him!” My voice wasn’t all that loud but when I wanted to, I could make myself heard and right now? I needed them to hear me.
“Wuucan—attack!” Telazhar’s voice was harsh.
The skeletal figure turned toward us, a garish grin on his face. He raised his sword and swung it into the shadow cloud, which clung to the blade. Wuucan—the lychkonneg—spread his arms wide, laughing as the energy spun around the blade and up to his mouth, where he sucked it in. It strengthened him—his energy flared as he drank it in.
Energy vampire, I thought.
Immediately, Morio and Camille broke off their attack and Morio shifted into his youkai-kitsune demon form, growing eight feet tall, his face lengthening into a muzzle, his nails growing into sharp talons. He let out a roar and lunged forward. Roz focused the stun gun on Telazhar and let loose with it, hitting the old sorcerer in the back. Camille raised her hands, calling on the power of the Moon Mother. As clouds began to pack in over the city and lightning flashed, her eyes grew wide and flecked with silver. The Moon Mother was listening tonight.
Arial had been sneaking around, and now she attacked the necromancer from the back. As Telazhar lurched forward from the force of the stun gun, the bolt hitting him hard, Arial pounced. I wasn’t sure what she was doing, but she seemed to have done something because Telazhar turned sharply, his eyes wide with the first flicker of worry I had seen.
A goblin wielding an ax ran in front of him, trying to protect him. That, I could do something about, I thought. I flipped through the air, landing in back of the goblin, though trying to keep my distance from Telazhar. I had no doubt he had plenty of kill-the-vamp spells in his repertoire. The goblin jerked as I caught hold of his head. This was no time for subtlety. I twisted, hard, and the crunch of bones told me that I had done my job.
As he fell, I grabbed the ax—which was quite a pretty thing—out of his hand and hoisted it over my shoulder. I turned to see Telazhar, with his back to me, fighting Morio, who was bearing down on him.
I didn’t waste any time but brought the ax back and swept it around as hard as I could in a semicircle. I managed to connect with his back, driving it hard into his flesh. As Telazhar sputtered and dropped his staff, Morio let loose with a long sweep of his talons, raking Telazhar’s torso.