Page 49 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
The evil being threw its arms wide and emitted a high-pitched screech that shredded her eardrums. She rolled outward as it charged, missing the impact, but one of its hands scratched along her belly.
"You ready to die?" The necromancer charged.
Chapter Fifteen
The dagger-like nailsshredded her shirt and left deep gashes. As the necromancer whipped past her, she lodged the knife into its back, hoping it hit low enough to reach a kidney. It might be charged with evil magic, but it was mortal.
Its screeching noise kicked up an octave as it spun. Cornered, her only option was to go low. As it charged with claws out, intent on grabbing her head, she let her legs collapse and rolled, catching the creature like a bowling ball, both now on the ground in the sticky, smelly muck. Ew, there were body parts down here. As they both slipped and struggled to get enough purchase to get upright, her stomach clenched tight, preparing to spew.
Unlike Shane or Antonio, she didn’t have superhuman strength. Witches tried to keep their battles at a distance. Up-close fights always ended in a fast countdown to a brutal death she hoped wouldn’t be hers.
Before either could launch a new attack, the necromancer was plucked off her feet, thrown to the floor, and Shane was on her. He swiped a blade across her neck. Head no longer attached.
Madeline shuffled backward, trembling and blinking to avoid a black out. Her stomach emptied in spasms that ricocheted renewed pain through her and forced her back to her knees. Being up close to the muck initiated renewed heaves.
Shane scooped her off the ground. "Let’s leave."
"Daylight…can’t," Antonio said.
"Stay here. I’ll be right back for you." He carried her to the car, placing her in the passenger seat before grabbing a huge blanket out of the trunk.
Moments later, he returned with a blanket-wrapped body over his shoulder that he locked in the trunk. "Building is on fire. Got to leave before the fire crew shows up."
In the new light of the dawn, she saw she was coated in a mixture of fresh blood and black gooey detritus. She said, "We have to shower now before this infects us."
They needed one last spell before she was entirely depleted. "Drive. I’ll find us a place," she ordered Shane. She waved the crystal in the air and muttered a reveal spell to find an empty house.
"How about a hotel?"
"As if we can march in like this?"
"I can make humans forget us."
She scrunched up her nose. "It’s a gamble. This crap all over us will make our abilities less reliable and sometimes work in the opposite way intended. I’m not willing to take that gamble and end up in a Russian jail."
Outside the main city they drove past a few farms.
The crystal purred in her hands. "There." She pointed up a dirt drive whose ending remained a mystery.
"You sure?"
Was she? She didn’t know. The negative effect of the necromancer’s remains on her could screw her energy, but she had to believe something. She nodded. "Should be empty."
At the end of the road stood a single-story, dilapidated farmhouse.
He said, "We’ll be lucky if this place has running water."
Madeline hopped out of the car. "Strip. Then we'll burn these clothes right now."
"It’s below zero out here."
"Get your clothes off." She threw down her backpack, which was clean since it had stayed in the car and began undressing.
One eyebrow raised, Shane stripped. "Hope there’s no one home or they’re about to get an eyeful."
"Hurry." Naked and freezing wearing only their talismans, she made a pile of their clothes. She wrapped her arms around her upper body to ward against the cold wind, not that it helped, and grabbed up her backpack. Wary of getting distracted, she avoided staring at the now-naked Shane, pushing at the heap of soiled clothing. "Burn them."
"They’re wet. A lighter won’t work."
