Page 10 of Lunar Desires (Celestial Magic #2)
RILEY
“ D o not be greedy,” a second shade said, its eyes appearing beside the first one.
Oh, God.
A vicious hiss responded, the first set of eyes narrowing. “This is no ordinary witch blood. I smell vitality. I smell great power.”
The Shade Horns went off, making me jump.
The shadowy arseholes hissed angrily, glancing about the tunnel.
Yeah, soon you’ll be blasted by a Radiance Pulse Cannon, and all will be right with the world.
I readied my power to deliver some smackdowns.
“I smell it too,” the second shade said. “Which is why you must share. No greedy shade. No greedy shade. No greedy shade.”
“You would not share,” First Shade said. “You would steal. You mean to steal. You are?—”
A roar made me leap into the air with a squeak.
A man’s roar.
“Drake!” I cried.
The shades hissed as one and came at me.
With my heart drumming like it belonged in a heavy metal band, I unleashed my power and pulled them in my direction, then shoved them back. They screamed, their red eyes vanishing into the darkness.
A sickening thud pleased the crap out of me.
“Drake!” I called, dashing back down the tunnel.
Please be okay.
Please be okay.
Please be okay.
“Going somewhere?”
I slammed on my brakes, looking up to see a shade above me, clinging to the ceiling like a twisted version of Spider-Man.
Using my power, I slammed it into the ceiling so hard it cracked the concrete. The arsehole came down, smacking its face on the ground.
Out cold.
“Fuck!” I heard Drake cry.
Dread kicking me between the legs. I ran on, praying to Hecate for me to make it in time. I mean, if she wanted me to be this vessel of moonlight power, it’d be good to save the man who actually wanted to kiss me.
He caused this…
I picked up speed as the tunnel curved, my pulse throbbing.
Please be okay…
A shade cut me off, leaping out of an alcove into my path. “Not so fast!”
Two more followed it, spreading out to block me.
Footsteps sounded from behind me, followed by more hissing. This damn tunnel was filling up with the shadowy arseholes.
“This witch’s blood transcends all,” one of them hissed. Hecate only knew which one, and I didn’t care.
I got to it, pulling and shoving, fending them off while panic crashed inside me. The longer they distracted me, the longer it took for me to get to Drake.
He wasn’t allowed to die.
He wasn’t allowed to leave me.
No matter how much my inner voice admonished him for dragging us into this mess, it didn’t mean I wanted him gone. God, the thought of it burned my soul and then some.
Drake Parish had to stick around. He didn’t get to run away. He didn’t get to be anywhere else.
I roared, fighting harder, dragging a shade toward me before flinging it into the wall. The sound of its head slamming into the concrete was both delicious and sickening. But their pain spurred me on, bloodlust a war drum, pounding from the fresh pool of violence inside me.
Slam. Slam. Slam. These shades didn’t stand a chance.
“Your blood!” the final shade wailed.
Basking in a heady buzz of glory, I drove it into the ground, its neck breaking with a loud snap from the force.
The shadowy body twitched before it exploded into a cloud of shadow.
It swirled angrily in the air for a few seconds, then dissipated, off to be recycled by some shadow witch later down the line.
One shade ‘death’ wasn’t enough. I had to send them all along their way, remove their vile bodies from my presence.
Kill all shades, a voice whispered in my head. A new voice, one dripping in menace.
I swallowed, freaking myself out, wiping the sweat from my eyes.
Kill all shades…
The creatures in question lay around me in broken heaps, not one of them moving. My fingers itched, my palms aching as if I’d been typing on a laptop for too long. Happened sometimes at the library, especially when doing admin work.
Kill all shades…
Ignoring the freaky whispering in my skull, I pressed on a few feet, only for five more shades to block me.
Damn swarm!
I heard movement behind me and spun to quickly assess the situation. Three shades loomed in the curve of the tunnel, the others still knocked out on the ground at their feet.
“There will be no escape!” several voices hissed as one.
“This witch is ours!” more added. “We will bathe in the special blood!”
Although my energy was at a fabulous high with no signs of crashing, a little bit of self-doubt crept it and told me this might be too much for a solo scrap, that maybe I should run and not get cocky.
What solid advice. Where exactly was I supposed to run to? It wasn’t like there were a million options for me to choose from.
Ugh.
Kill all shades…
Damn these inner voices.
Damn this tunnel.
Damn everything.
Including the man responsible?
I reacted out of frustration. If I used my power, it stopped me from thinking. I didn’t want to ponder, I wanted to pound these arsesholes and end the day with a glass of spiced rum with Drake snuggled next to me.
Two shades went into the ceiling, a third into the wall. But I’d left myself open to an attack from behind, getting kicked in the back. I stumbled forward, landing on all fours.
Crap!
I rolled, dodging a sliding attack then jumped to my feet, rage officially ignited.
Oh, now it’s on!
The shade sprang to its feet, hissing out its irritation.
Itchy fingers. Aching palms.
“Trip!” I clapped out the witch bangle spell, sending another shade onto its belly.
I spun to meet an attack, unable to use my power or a spell in time. The shade barreled into me. We went down together, me landing on my spine.
Damn. That hurt, but not like it would’ve before I put the lunar diamonds into the rabbit totem. Instead of a screaming pain or worse, only a dull and distant ache bloomed there.
The shade went for a bite.
I hit it with Tidal Pull, the damn thing spinning up into the ceiling, hitting the concrete face-first.
Itchy fingers. Aching palms.
Scrambling to my feet, I noticed more shades filling the tunnel from both directions. Unrelenting, a pure disease on this world.
By Hecate, what about Drake? Was he… Was he…
I swallowed a whimper, my anger rising, rising, rising. My bloodlust became a rampant thirst in need of quenching. These shades deserved a true death, not the recycling thing.
Actual death.
Itchy fingers. Aching palms.
“Give up, witch,” they said together. “This is the end.”
I mean, at the rate they were coming, I’d have to tire at some point. I couldn’t keep this up all day.
Pfft. We’d see about that!
Itchy fingers. Aching palms.
Pull, shove, spin, slam. Rinse and repeat. The more shades I took down, the more their numbers increased, like the heads of the Hydra from Greek mythology. Only more irritating.
Itchy fingers. Aching palms.
“Riley!” Drake called.
His voice gave me a sharp slap, drawing a cry from my throat. I launched a shade into another, the pair of them going down like skittles.
He’s alive.
He’s alive.
He’s alive.
“Die, witch!”
I spun to meet the attack, jumping back with almost perfect timing, the shade’s talons tearing through the remains of my already ruined jumper, nicking my flesh. It drew blood, throwing more fuel on my fury.
Itchy fingers. Aching palms.
The arsehole got catapulted into the wall, and I broke into a run, flinging shades all over the place, desperate to see Drake, furious at being held up by these beasts.
And so angry at him for dragging me here.
A storm popped off inside me, swallowing any sense of fear or panic. I practically heard thunder in my head, lightning forking behind my eyes. My fury became violent wind whipping up the sea, ripping down trees, tearing across the land.
These monsters wouldn’t have me or Drake.
This would not be the end.
Itchy fingers. Aching palms.
“I’ll kill you all!” I screamed.
My hands ignited with blue light, every bone, every inch of skin on itchy fire.
What the hell?
Collective hissing, not attacks. The shades backed away, as confused as me.
I held up my hands, the magic moving to concentrate at the center of my palms. It drew the shape of a blue crescent moon on each one, sparkling on my skin.
“This…this is?—”
An image of a crescent moon in a night sky, as blue as the one on my palms, snared my mind in a vision and bathed me in lunar power. New power.
What does this mean? I asked it.
Outside of the vision, back in the tunnel, my arms shot forward, palms facing outward. Beams of blue light shot from my hands. They broke apart, becoming lasers, each one skewering a shade.
Wow. My hands burned, aching to merry hell. And I couldn’t move, glued to the spot as this new power worked through me.
The creatures screamed, their forms consumed in blue light, going up like a paper lantern tossed into a bonfire, unable to run from the slew of lasers. It was like being inside a nightclub, only more violent.
By the end of it, there was nothing left but smoldering ash and the stench of burnt hair.
My hands stopped hurting, control of my body returning to me.
“What the hell?” I said, holding my hands up again.
The moon mark remained on my skin, a glittering blue in constant animation.
I’d just developed a new, shade-killing power?
Oh. My. God. If that was the case, then this changed the game.
Big time. Shades were a consequence of Kane Kingwood creating shadow magic—the last apocalyptic threat.
Juliet Aurora and her siblings might have failed to stop Kane, the High Coven stepping in to end the terrible Battle of Coldharbour Downs, but the shades stayed.
They were unkillable, leaving us to rely on the Radiance Pulse Cannons and the power of witchcops to keep us safe.
Holy. Crap.
Hissing further down the tunnel forced me into a run. The remains of the shades swirled into the air as I moved, blowing my mind, bringing back the fear.
What happened next?
Drake first. Worry later.
I saw him on the floor, no shades present. He was bleeding profusely from his right side, not moving, far too pale.
I’m too late…