Page 91 of Changeling
“A spriggan…?” Sasha questioned, low in his incubus growl as his eyes flashed red and his fangs appeared. “You damn trickster, you’re possessing Leven because you can’t handle beingugly?”
The spriggan snarled, proving Sasha had guessed correctly. From what little Nathan knew of spriggans, they weren’t known for being beautiful—and fae were supposed to always be beautiful.
The spriggan charged without another word, but before reaching them, it leapt into the air above their heads, flipping acrobatically to land behind them with the ease of a dancer. By the time Nathan turned, Jim had already been struck, a good swift kick that knocked him into the seats. Nathan fired his own kick into Leven’s hip, stumbling him close enough to Sasha for the incubus to give the kid a good crack of a punch across the jaw and the spriggan went down. Leven was going to be sore tomorrow, but if they subdued him, got the spriggan out of him, then at least he would still be alive.
Suddenly, Nathan found himself flat on his ass after Leven kicked at his shins from his spot on the carpet. The spriggan managed the same with Cam only aimed lower so that the incubus fell forward right on top of Leven’s body. The spriggan wrapped his arms around Cam’s waist and squeezed his ribs sotight that Nathan heard Cam gasp. Leven then effortlessly lifted Cam off of him and threw him into Sasha.
As the spriggan rose to his feet again, a voice called out from the double doors.
“What the hell is going on?”
All four of them whipped their heads to the front of the auditorium. Wade stood with her hands on her hips, the doors still swinging from her entrance as she arrived to pick Leven up from practice. Everyone else had gone.
“Leven…?” Wade called tentatively as she strode down the aisle toward her brother. The furrow to her brow told Nathan that she couldn’t sense any more than Jim had, but as she drew closer, she gasped at the sight of his slit eyes.
The spriggan smirked with what should have been Leven’s sweet face. “Not yet,” it said, “but soon…I will be. With the kind of power in this group, maybe killing all of you will be enough to skip taking those little girls as my finale. Should we find out?” The tone was cruelly playful as Leven raised his arms and all of those who were struggling to their feet jerked back to the floor. Nathan saw Wade fly back into the double doors, striking her head hard before she crumbled.
“Lev—” Nathan tried.
“Doesn’t live here anymore,” the spriggan shot back. He turned to Nathan, who was closest to him in the middle of the carpet. Nathan couldn’t move, felt as if some invisible force were holding him down, much as he had once experienced with Jim. The others looked just as helpless.
They hadn’t been able to bring this thing down when they were ready for it. Nathan had to think of something fast.
“Pretty strange mix of powers you got,” he said, fighting to at least hold his head up. “Just what the hell can a spriggan do, anyway?”
“Oh, normally we’re just clever thieves,” the spriggan said, crouching down in front of Nathan, with Sasha and Cam beyond him, and Jim just behind the spriggan, pushed painfully against a row of seats. “But like this…” he spread out his arms to encompass his new body, “…I can be so much more. My sidhe power amplifies inside a host like this, makes them stronger. I could lift this whole building with my body or mind.”
“Or win a round ofDancing with the Stars?” Nathan huffed.
The spriggan threw Leven’s head back in a laugh. “This body is flexible. Versatile. No doubt about that. And my only threat is the same one I’ve avoided for centuries.” He touched a hand gingerly to his injured shoulder, but it already seemed to be healing.
“Stop…get out of him,” Cam said, strained, as he fought to sit up and failed. “He’s just a kid. You’re not using him to hurt anybody else.”
The spriggan tilted his head at Cam. “And what are you going to do about it?”
Cam’s golden eyes glimmered with tears. “Please…at least let me check on Wade.”
Looking even more amused, the spriggan stood and stepped aside, gesturing toward the double doors where Wade had barely moved from her spot on the carpet. No longer held by the spriggan’s power, Cam was able to stand, and walked with ease past Leven’s body to reach the psychic.
“Nathan,” Sasha hissed out a whisper.
Nathan turned his head to find concerned blue eyes, but nodded to show that he was fine. Then Sasha’s eyes drifted down Nathan’s body to the sheath on his leg. Nathan’s ankle blade had worked before. He didn’t want to stab Leven, but if he could get the other shoulder, another location that the kid could easily survive but that might hurt the spriggan with some extra iron in its veins, that might be the only opportunity they needed.
Nathan looked to Cam as the incubus carefully rolled Wade onto her back, trying to rouse her. The spriggan’s attention was on them, so Nathan struggled to reach for his knife. He could still barely move an inch.
“Nathan…” Walter’s voice came soft and full of static as his Spirit Guide flickered into view in front of him. “The spriggan projects a dampening field while inside a host. That is why Jim could not sense it. Why Sasha and Cam could not sense each other. And why I can be of some assistance.”
Walter crouched in front of Nathan and reached out…totouchNathan’s hand on the carpet. Nathanfeltthe touch, warm and solid on his skin. His mind flared with questions, as Walter flickered again, unstable but still holding, still there.
“I am merely a reflection, Nathan,” Walter said, “but a reflection is all you need.”
Nathan found that he could move with ease while Walter’s hand was on his. He reached with his other hand toward his ankle blade and pulled it free.
“Wade!” he heard Cam cry out, and when Nathan looked, she seemed to be coming to.
“How sweet,” the spriggan said, still facing the pair by the door, “but I think you missed the part of my introduction where I said I was going tokillyou all. With that kind of power, this boy will be mine for good.”
Walter gripped Nathan’s hand and helped him stand. The spriggan raised his arm toward Wade as she sat up and stared at what had become of her brother. She looked stricken, as broken from her serious, take-no-shit exterior as Nathan had ever seen. A burst of invisible power shot from the spriggan’s fingers before Nathan could act, but Cam sprang up, transforming as he moved to protect Wade. One moment a bronze incubus was standing guard in front of her, arms and wings outstretched, the next hehad been slammed back into the doors as Wade had earlier and soon crumbled on top of her still prone body.
