Authors: Angela Knight
Master of Smoke (38 page)
“Then answer one question.” She called her magic, let it spill over her in a breathtaking explosion of pain. The hands that held his acquired claws as she grew until she towered over him with sable fur covering her body. “Can you love me like this?”
He looked up at her, and his lips quirked. “Of course. You’re beautiful.”
Eva snorted. “Baby, every other man I know—with the possible exception of my dad and a couple of vampires—would be running like hell right now. Even Daddy freaked the first time I showed him what I am. Yet you never even batted an eye. You just hugged me and implied something kinky about my furry breasts. Do you have any idea how much that meant to me?”
He shrugged. “Your werewolf form is as beautiful in its own way as your human body.”
“And when you look at me like that, I believe you.” She lifted his hand. “Let me ask you something I should have asked a hell of a long time ago. What’s your Sidhe name?”
He blinked. “What do you mean?”
“What’s the real name of that part of you that’s a Sidhe warrior? Because it’s sure as hell not David. David is a statue in Italy.”
He frowned at her, his expression uneasy. “I like David.”
“But it’s not your name. What’s your Sidhe name?”
“Urúvion. It means ‘fiery.’” He shook his head. “I doubt you can pronounce it.”
She concentrated fiercely, working to reproduce his pronounciation. “Oo-roo-vee-on. How do you spell that? O-r-v ...”
He laughed. “I have no idea. My people didn’t have a written language. Even if we had, I haven’t gone by that name in millennia. Not since I began hosting Smoke and Cat. Everyone else simply calls me Smoke.”
“So.” Eva blew out a breath. “Smoke.” She met his bright blue gaze, her own steady, level with perfect honesty. “I love you, Smoke.”
He blew out a breath. For a moment she wondered if he was going to insist on being called David. Instead he said, “And I love you, Eva.”
The joy she felt surprised even her with its leaping incandescence.
Eva changed back
to her human form, and took his hand again as they started up a winding sand path. The surrounding hillside was covered in long stalks of rustling beach grass and the tiny violet-blue flowers. She swung their joined hands like a child. “You know, I can’t think of the last time I felt this good.”
to her human form, and took his hand again as they started up a winding sand path. The surrounding hillside was covered in long stalks of rustling beach grass and the tiny violet-blue flowers. She swung their joined hands like a child. “You know, I can’t think of the last time I felt this good.”
Smoke laughed. “You made me feel pretty damned good, too.”
“I’m not talking about that.” When he threw her a look of mock hurt, she grinned. “Well, not
just
about that.”
just
about that.”
“Ah.” He sent her a small, warm smile. “So what’s the other reason?”
“Coming clean with my parents after five years of lies. Knowing they’re safe from Warlock.”
His smile faded, and worry darkened his eyes as he looked off into the distance. “Unfortunately, they can’t stay in the Mageverse indefinitely. We’re going to have to find out where he is.”
“You don’t know?” She studied his face, frowning at the unease there. “But Smoke—you—were in his head for days.”
“Yes, but he had me walled up so I wouldn’t overwhelm him. As I tried very hard to do. I got flashes of things, but nothing useable.”
“What was it like?” She asked the question softly, sensing whatever memories he had troubled him. “What’s
he
like?”
he
like?”
“He’s insane,” Smoke said bluntly. “He sees himself as some kind of infallible messiah for his people solely because Merlin chose him.”
“Which begs the question—what the hell was Merlin
thinking
?”
thinking
?”
“He wasn’t like that in the beginning. The problem is that Merlin ordered him to keep an eye on the Magekind in case they ever began abusing humanity. He’s been at that job for a very, very long time, and he eventually grew paranoid. He has a pathological jealousy of Arthur, who has been saving humanity for a millennium and a half, while Merlin ordered Warlock to hide and do nothing. But he wanted to be a hero, too.”
“So instead he decided to become a villain?”
Smoke shook his head. “He doesn’t see himself as a villain. He wants to destroy the Magekind so his people can become humanity’s guardians—and the heroes he thinks they should be.”
“Why do I have the distinct feeling that wouldn’t be a good thing?”
“Because you’re perceptive. Given the chance, Warlock would become exactly the kind of tyrant Merlin feared.”
“Irony sucks.”
Smoke laughed. “With enthusiasm.”
They crested the hill to see the moon rising in pale splendor above a landscape of enormous stone blocks that stretched for miles in the dark. Eva stopped in her tracks and stared.
Some were square, some tall rectangles, a few looked like squashed donuts, and still others had been piled together as if by a giant child. The blocks looked too big and new to be ruins, yet their arrangement seemed utterly random. “What the hell is that?”
“One of the Magekind’s practice sites,” Smoke explained. “The new recruits can run around those blocks shooting magic at one another to their heart’s content. If they tried that in Avalon, they might blow up something important. Also, sorcery makes one hell of a lot of noise, which pisses off tired witches who’ve just spent weeks in the field. I gather fighting terrorists makes them all a little twitchy.”
Eva snorted. “Yeah, I can see how all those magical booms would trigger a nasty case of PTSD. I ...”
Malevolence seemed to explode in her senses, a sense of sheer evil that made the hair rise on the back of her neck. She sucked in a breath to yell a warning, but Smoke had already thrown up a hand in a sweeping gesture.
Blinding light shot out of the darkness to rage around them as boiling blue energy. Eva instinctively threw her arms up to shield her face. Smoke grunted as if catching something massively heavy.
It took her a moment of stark terror to realize nothing hurt. Eva peered around her arms to find the attack had been blocked by a shimmering hemisphere of golden force.
Smoke’s face contorted with effort, his teeth clenched, his blue eyes glowing. A second flaming ball slammed into the shield he’d cast, then another, then a whole pounding salvo of them, coming fast and hard.
Eva instinctively huddled into the shelter of his strength. He swept out an arm to push her behind him as if to give her the additional shield of his body.
“What the hell is going on?” But even as she yelled the question, she knew the answer.
“Warlock,” Smoke snarled. “How did the bastard find us? Must have tapped into the elemental’s—my—memories. He knows I love this bloody island.”
“Can you cast a gate?” Eva shouted over the noise.
“I’ve already tried. He’s got some kind of barrier blocking me. From the feel of it, he must have walked a spell circle around the whole island and keyed it to tell him when we arrived.”
It felt as if ice replaced the blood in her veins. “It was a trap.”
“And we walked right into it.”
Eva slipped one arm around his waist as she looked past his brawny shoulder. She still couldn’t see where the blasts were coming from.
Smoke swore. “I can’t fire back at him because I’d have to drop the shield. And I can’t do that because it would leave you vulnerable.”
“But Gwen said werewolves are immune to magic!” She had to yell it over the sizzle and crack of the blasts.
“Yes, but you’re not immune to lightning. Just because he uses magic to call down bolts, that doesn’t mean the electricity won’t fry you.”
“And thanks for that mental image.”
“I’m a little too busy for tact, Eva.” Smoke grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her after him as he broke into a sprint. She pounded behind him, heart in her throat. Holding his free hand lifted, he sent power pouring from his palm to feed the shield.
Finally they reached the shelter of one of the massive rocks. Warlock’s blasts splashed harmlessly against it. As if realizing that, he stopped firing.
“I think the bastard may have just outsmarted himself this time,” Smoke whispered into the sudden quiet. “Between that barrier and these attacks, he’s using a lot of power. If you can keep these rocks between you and him, I can take the fight to him. If I wear him down enough, he’s dead.”
“Those stones,” Eva realized. “You said they’re resistant to magic.”
“Otherwise the baby witches would blow them to gravel,” he agreed. “When you get the chance, I want you to shift to wolf form and run like hell. You’ll be faster and more agile on four legs.”
“Four—?” She stared at him. Even as a human, Eva could see pretty well in the dark. “You want me to turn into a regular wolf? But I’ve never done that!”
“You’re a Dire Wolf, Eva, it’s one of your transformations. Just imagine being a wolf instead of a werewolf. The magic’ll do the rest.”
“Then what?”
“Lay low—don’t try to help me. In fact, stay as far away as possible. I’m going to cut loose with everything I’ve got, and I don’t want you hurt in the process. Besides, we don’t know if he’s brought any of his thugs along, so you need to stay hidden.”
Eva opened her mouth to argue, but another blast hit the block so hard, it rocked against their backs. She gasped.
“I’m going to run left,” Smoke told her, then pointed out across the field. “You go straight. Put as much rock between you and that furry bastard as possible.”
“Are you sure I can’t help?”
“This fight is going to be too far out of your league.” He popped his head around the block, then jerked back as something sizzled. “Go.” When she hesitated, he barked, “I said
go
!”
go
!”
Eva went, flinging herself out into the night, darting for the next block, then the next, concentrating on putting as much distance as she could between herself and Warlock.
At least until she figured out a way to help. Damned if she was going to twiddle her thumbs while Smoke fought for his life.
Suddenly every hair on her body rose, and she smelled the dry scent of ozone. Instinct drove her behind the nearest rock. Lightning shook the ground with a thunderous boom, shaking the earth under her feet. She looked toward the sound, her heart leaping in sheer terror. “Smoke!”
He bellowed, “How’d you like that, you bastard?”
Warlock responded with a roll of profanity, including a few terms Eva had never even heard before.
Smoke
had thrown that bolt? The man she’d spent the afternoon making love to called down lightning?
Holy baby Jesus and all the saints!
had thrown that bolt? The man she’d spent the afternoon making love to called down lightning?
Holy baby Jesus and all the saints!
A chill crept over her, and Eva realized Smoke was right. She didn’t need to get too close to this fish fry.
She was entirely too damned likely to wind up as one of the fish.
On the other hand, Eva did want to find a place where she could watch what was happening. What if Smoke got hurt and needed help?
The trick was to find a decent vantage point that wouldn’t give Warlock an opportunity to take her prisoner.
She scanned the landscape of blocks, standing silver and black in the moonlight. Another blinding bolt illuminated a hunk of stone the size of a two-story building with three shorter cubes arrayed around it like steps. It looked like the perfect vantage point. The only problem was that she’d need to cross half the field to get to it.
Eva cast a quick glance over her shoulder, but she could see nothing of what was going on except flashes of light, Warlock’s red and Smoke’s gold. She broke into a run.
Her destination was still fifty yards away when she smelled a scent she knew too well. She slid to a stop, but before she could whirl to sprint the other way, a Dire Wolf stepped around the block ahead of her. He towered like a grizzly, massive and black as pitch. “Why, hello there.” His grin flashed white with fang.
Eva whirled, then jerked back to avoid slamming into the second Dire Wolf, who’d slipped up behind her.
“You smell like sex,” the pale wolf said. “Want to have a little fun before we kill you?”
Eva gave him a big grin. “Sure. Why not?” She made as if to start toward him—and called her magic. It spilled through her, yanking bone and muscle into burning streams of pain. The world grew as she sank, transforming her into a timber wolf.
Spinning left, Eva ran, zipping behind the closest block before darting around a second stone just beyond it, then making for yet another some yards away.
The two wolf thugs howled and thundered in pursuit. “Get her,” one yelled. “If she gets away, Warlock is going to fuck us up!”
“It’s an island, you moron!” the other snapped back. “Where the hell is she going to go?”
Which was a damn good point.
Doesn’t matter
. She had to give running her best shot and hope something else occurred to her before the bad guys caught up.
. She had to give running her best shot and hope something else occurred to her before the bad guys caught up.
At least she was doing okay with the wolf thing. Eva had been afraid she’d trip over her own paws, but it seemed her body knew how to move in this form. Yet another werewolf mystery, like where her cell phone went when she shifted.
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