Page 67 of Mated to the Enemy
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Red light flashed, and suddenly, Klaue was gone.
Looking around wildly as the world went insane around her, Jessica tried to locate him. Her night vision was completely destroyed by the bursts of red. Shouts filled her ears, and snaps of energy assaulted them. She hunched down, trying to make sense of the madness, but only becoming more distraught, and more disoriented.
Something blue glowed in the sky and shot toward her. She raised a hand to block it, realizing at the last minute it must be blue magic.Death magic.Her arm wasn’t going to stop it. If it went through a massive tree, it would go through her.
Brilliant white exploded in a sphere around her and the pendant Klaue had told her to wear started to grow warm. It was a shield, she recalled vaguely. The magic artifact automatically repelled other magic.
Still, she couldn’t see, and the force of the blast had thrown her backward. Red suddenly flashed against the far side of her shield as she encountered some other sort of magic, and the pendant grew even hotter. The assault from above and to her front hadn’t weakened.
It must be the mage. He’s here. He anticipated us.
The world around her split with green and red, and the occasional blast of blue as the shifters fought back, trying to distract the mage from his target: her.
They weren’t having much luck. Their attacks never penetrated his own shield, and the defenses they could conjure up were meagre compared to hers. Klaue had given her the best.
Someone ran up to her and grabbed her. Jessica screamed and chopped down hard on the wrist with all her might. The hand withdrew for a second and someone cursed.
“I’m with you,” they snapped, then tackled her to the side.
Her shield was no protection against anything but magic, and the pair tumbled down as something big and heavy flew through the space they’d just occupied. Her eyes weren’t able to see what, the constant flashes of magic in the dark effectively keeping her blind.
“Kasperi?” she breathed, suddenly recognizing the voice.
“The one and the same,” he growled, standing up. He was close enough for her to make him out in the darkness. “Get back!”
She stood behind him as green magic in the shape of a diving bird of prey stooped down on them. Kasperi held aloft a scarf.
“Ummm,” she mumbled as the bird grew in size as it descended. What the hell was he going to do with a scarf?
“Quiet. I’m not very good at this,” he snapped.
Then the scarf began to move in circles as he whirled his wrist around, slowly, then speeding up. The silken scarf glowed red and the tip reached out for the bird. Kasperi made the circle bigger, and then bigger still, flicking it out to ensnare the bird.
With a grunt, he turned, the scarf moving with him, the green magic contained within, like some sort of trap. Spinning completely, he flicked his wrist and the scarf launched the bird right back where it had come from.
There was a roar of frustration and then a huge flash of green as the bird exploded across the sky. Jessica went blind once again, but not before she realized what had happened.
“Not good?” she said, holding on to Kasperi’s back as he guided her across the lawn. “You call that not good?”
“I didn’t think it would work,” he admitted. “I—look out!” He snapped his wrist up again, the scarf whirling about in tiny circles as it deflected a lance of red energy headed straight for her head.
Kasperi snarled in anger, wrapped the scarf around his fist and under the same armpit, creating a line. Then he concentrated, and pulled the scarf back, like it was a slingshot. A roiling ball of red-fire appeared in the center, and he let it fly, then followed it up with several more, all aimed at the sky.
“Uh, he’s flying,” she said, suddenly realizing that the mage wasn’t on the ground.
“Yeah, he is. And the bastard is tearing us apart,” Kasperi said.
“Klaue?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted heavily.
“We need to find him.”
Kasperi turned to look at her. “We can’t. We’re falling back. We have to go, now, before the wolves get back. There’s no time. It’s a bloody trap, Jess. They knew we were coming. Someone betrayed us.”
Jessica pushed him aside and stepped into the path of a blue cloud, wincing at the brightness as her shield flared up and stopped it, nearly burning her skin in the process.
