Reign of Night (Thorne Hill 7)

“I still feel so useless,” I admit.

“You’re far from useless.” His hand goes to my stomach. “You’re growing a person, Callie. Our person. That’s pretty fucking incredible.”

I look up at Lucas’s handsome face and think about how far we’ve come since the day we met. He’s still the same ruthless killer he was then, not thinking twice before ripping someone’s heart out or throwing them in a deep grave, eight feet down. But his love for me knows no bounds, and each and every day we’re together surprises me more and more that someone like him could love someone like me.

“I suppose it—”

“Shhh,” Lucas interrupts, looking out the window. “There’s something out there.”

A second later, Pandora shadows through the yard and into the house.

“What is it?” I ask, but I already know. There are demons in the woods. “We have to go!”

“I’ll go, you stay,” he tells me and hurries downstairs. I follow after him, calling for Scarlet and my familiars. Binx and Freya are still in the woods, fighting off the demons. I can sense him now, and they are letting me know there are at least a dozen demons, surrounding my coven. I shove my feet into my boots and grab my jacket, running into the yard with Lucas.

“Stay here,” he says when we get to the edge of the warding. “I’ll handle it.” He puts his hand on my stomach and kisses me. “Please, my love, stay here.”

I suck in a shaky breath, rest my hands on my stomach and nod. “Okay.” He kisses me again and takes off. “Go with him,” I tell my Pandora, but keep Scarlet at my side. My nerves prickle and my heart is racing.

“One, two, three, four, five…” I start counting out loud, telling myself I can’t panic until I get to one hundred. “…seventy-four, seventy-five, seventy—” I cut off when a high-pitched scream echoes through the otherwise-silent night.

“Okay, we have to go,” I tell Scarlet, and hook my fingers under her collar, ready to take it off if need be. She pulls me along, guiding me to exactly where the spell is being cast. Tabatha, Evander, Kristy, the twins, Ruby, and several members of the coven’s council are gathered, in the middle of casting the protection spell.

“Hold on,” Tabatha calls to everyone. “The circle isn’t complete yet!”

They can’t stop now, not when everyone needs to cast this spell together, making a chain. If one person stops, it’s like breaking a link and the spell won’t hold. Binx shadows around them, keeping them safe. I can sense Pandora and Freya in the woods, chasing after demons. Lucas is with them and has already gotten two.

“Invoco luna mitte lucis. Defendat. Solem dico. Mitte lucem tuam et. Defendat. Invocabo elementum. Commodare nos in tua potestate. Defendat,” everyone in the circle chants, and I can feel the energy of the spell humming through the ground, sinking into the Ley line. We’re so close! The spell is almost complete.

Scarlet growls, and two demons emerge from the woods. One goes right for the witches, and Binx heads him off.

“Hey, fuckface!” I conjure a bright white energy ball and toss it into the air. The demon looks up, blinded by the light.

Tabatha looks at me, nostrils flaring, but directs her attention back to the spell. I promised I wouldn’t fight demons, and I’m not. My familiars are out there with Lucas, and I just happen to have a hellhound, who’s been dying to rip something—anything—to shreds.

The demon throws up a hand, shrinking my energy ball. Oh shit. These aren’t lower-level demons. They’re more dangerous than I thought, and it also means they’ve burned through their human bodies and there’s nothing left inside to save.

I slip my fingers under Scarlet’s collar and undo the buckle. “Go get ‘em, girl,” I tell her as she transforms into the terrifying hellhound she actually is. The demon looks at Scarlet, pausing for a second. Then he realizes she’s coming for him, and he takes off, but Scarlet is faster.

“I got you,” I tell my friends, picking up a stick and drawing a literal line in the dirt. I kneel down, putting my hand on the edge of the line. “I call upon the powers of light, keep us safe on this dark night.”

Another demon barrels forward, crashing into the line I’ve drawn. Lucas runs after him, grabbing him from behind and sinking his fangs into his neck, ripping away a chunk of flesh. He spits out the blood and shoves the demon to the ground.

“Keep chanting!” Tabatha instructs the group. Another demon comes running from the woods and Lucas goes after him, but the demon has powers we weren’t expecting. He claps his hands together, knocking my vampire back. Before I can conjure anything, Lucas is on his feet again, holding a broken tree branch from the forest floor. He shoves it in the demon’s chest and then grabs his head, spinning it clean around. I send an energy ball its way for good measure, making sure the demon can’t jump into another body.