Page 33 of A Vampire in a Pear Tree
I was mistaken in the potency of the magic with which Yrian had laced the arrows.The druids whom I picked off in their attack on Baltic and Yrian exploded in a shower of light that caused those nearest them to pause.
But my gaze was on Owain as I pushed past Aisling and Ysolde and threw myself on the raven-covered Owain, an arrow clutched in my hand, stabbing wildly into the spinning, twisting black forms.I wasn’t sure which one contained Jerry’s essence, but I figured sooner or later I’d find her.The shadow versions of her and Macha’s raven selves dissolved into nothing as I stabbed them, gradually revealing Owain beneath.He’d been frozen, as if the Jerry swarm had turned him to stone, and to my horror, I could feel him being drained by her, the fine hairs on my arms standing on end in response.
She was taking away his power, everything that kept him safe from being imprisoned again.
He didn’t deserve such treatment.He’d changed how he thought, realized the mistakes he’d made in the past, and served his penance.It wasn’t right that his own mother cared so little for him that she could strip from him everything he was, and discard his broken, empty form into a convenient prison.
“Not while I still have a breath to draw,” I swore as I tried to clear more ravens off him.
“This is bullshit!”one of the ravens said, immediately shifting back to human form, holding her side, which I’d evidently grazed because she didn’t poof into a gold light like the druids I had nailed in the chest.She glared first at me, then at Jerry.“I don’t have a horse in this battle, and I’m not going to stay and get destroyed solely because you have a beef with your son.”
No one stopped her as she hurried out of the fray, not even the druids.
Instead, they let out a battle cry that hurt my ears.From the corner of my eye, I saw Yrian had shifted into the form of a smoky gray dragon, a wave of fire boiling out of him that he directed into the druids.
I was almost sobbing with fear and frustration as I kept stabbing at the Jerry-ravens, one after another dissolving into nothing when the arrow skewered their shadow forms.There were about ten left, and as I raised my hand to jab at the nearest one, it suddenly turned its head and snarled at me.“You traitor!”
“Pot, kettle, black,” I said in a near growl, about to plunge the magicked arrow dead in Jerry’s raven chest, but she spat out a word that sounded very old, sending me flying backward.
I hit the stone wall of the house with a crunching sound that would have made me wince had I not been almost knocked insensible.For a few seconds, pandemonium reigned about me, waves of Yrian’s fire taking down druids on one side, while on the other, Baltic wielded a sword that glowed with blue light.Behind them, Drake and the two vampires were handily lopping off arms and legs of the druids who bypassed the first defense.Aisling threw wards everywhere: some protective, which drifted onto the dragons, and some prohibitive that bound the druids’ feet to the ground, leaving them impotent with rage as they threatened her.
A roar ripped the air, and suddenly Owain was free of the raven swarm, his eyes blazing with a cold, pale light as he threw Jerry aside, leaping over fallen druids to pull me up into his arms, his body warm and solid and so comforting that, for a moment, I sagged against him in relief, but as I was about to push myself back, Jerry—now in her human form—rose up behind him, a wicked-looking, heavily runed and scribed silver dagger clutched in her hand.
She raised the dagger high, obviously about to pierce the back of Owain’s head.
“Nooo!”The word tore from my throat in a scream unlike any I’d ever made, and without thinking, I slammed both hands into Owain’s chest, throwing into the gesture every iota of energy I had, sending him stumbling backward a couple of feet.
It was enough.Jerry’s blade swung downward, barely missing him, but slicing down my arm with a burning pain that almost brought me to my knees.
Owain screamed an oath, dropping both his sword and the morning star, raising one fist to the air.“Orla!”
“About time,” the raven said as she flew down from her perch on the roof, landing on his hand, hopping quickly onto his shoulder.“Give him my talisman, you idiot knocker.He needs it.”
I tried to lift my hand to get the metal disk from my pocket, but my arm hung limply, not responding to my commands.
“You stupid bint,” Jerry said, jumping when Yrian directed a wave of fire at her.“I should have known better than to hire an apprentice.”She leaped toward Owain in a suitably dramatic manner, the bloodstained dagger raised high again.
I got the disk with my working arm right at the moment that time seemed to telescope, stretching out in a way that had Owain’s turn to face his mother slowed, my hand moving at a snail’s pace as I reached above his head, allowing the leather thong bearing the talisman to slide down until it settled around his neck.
The second it touched his bare flesh, he slammed his hands forward, palms out, white light channeled directly into Jerry.A look of utter surprise crossed her face for a moment; then she was gone, as if she’d blinked out of existence.
“Now, that’s what I’m talking about, some good old-fashioned banishment,” Orla said, hopping up and down excitedly.“Do it again!Send all those freaks of nature to the Akasha!”
The druids nearest us paused.As a group, they looked at the spot where a second before, Jerry was about to seriously harm her son.Then they looked at Owain, Orla, and finally me.
I lifted my bow.
“Er ...”The nearest druid cleared his throat.
Baltic and Yrian, both panting, lowered their weapons, while one last arcane ball zipped past my ear to hit an unlucky druid in the face.He went down with a squawk.
“Yeah, I’m out of here, too.My wife wasn’t happy I left her with the kids to answer Jerry’s call, and you never want to piss off an earth fury if you can help it,” another druid said, before giving Owain a half smile.“Glad to see you’re doing well, and are out of the Hour.Never did think it was right that you were put there.Your brothers, yes, they’re batshit crazy, as my youngest would say, but you always seemed to be decent.Welp, brothers, shall we?”
“What about the others?”the druid with the pub owner girlfriend asked, gesturing to the bodies of the fallen.
“Eh.Da will bring them back.He always does,” the first one answered, then, with an apologetic smile at the rest of us, gave a little wave, turned into a raven, and immediately flew off.
“This was fun, but as Flann said, I have things to do.Later, all,” another druid said.
