Page 41 of Toadstools and Vampire Kisses

“Eleanor!” I shout.

I’m relieved when my cousin glances over and pushes her way through the crowd backing away from it as the mushrooms begin to coalesce into something resembling a musculature. She is nearly out of breath when she arrives at my side, her eyes wide as she watches the rickety dancing skeleton. Some of the fungi breaks free and tumbles off of him, hitting the ground with a greasy splat. Although it responded to my magic, this is no natural fungi.

Reacting instinctively, I clear the spores away with Reynard’s assistance as he intuitively summons forth a wind, casting them out into the distant forest in hope that whatever they carried does not affect anyone in here.

Eleanor watches the mist of spores flow out of the room with a relieved expression. “Good call,” she says as she begins to circle the skeleton.

“Since when did you have necromancy skills?” I hiss over at her.

“I-I don’t!” she replies, shooting an angry look at a distant spot. There is something about her expression at that moment that makes my skin prickle with an awareness ofsomethingthere that, for whatever reason, only she can see. She turns a worried look on me and shakes her head. “I don’t know what is doing this, but this is not my magic.”

“She is speaking truthfully,” Reynard growls as he backs up with me firmly leashed to him beneath his wings. “This does not smell like her magic.” He draws in another breath and hisses. “This carries the scent of what we assumed to be a wraith. It is just as muddled as before, but the scent signature is undeniably the same.”

“But wraiths do not do this,” I protest. “They are specters. They don’t reanimate bodies, not even to trigger our fear. They have enough ways to do that without needing to.”

“That is because it is no wraith,” Ulrek comments, ducking past us so silently that I didn’t hear his approach.

Apparently, Reynard didn’t either, because he jerks uneasily against me, his wings tightening with such a constrictive force that I’m forced to tap on the soft membrane to remind him to let me breathe. Ulrek scowls at him but appears even more perturbed as he glares at the skeleton practically writhing in a weird dance now that the fungal mass is muting any clattering of its bones.

“What is it then?” Eleanor whispers, a soft glow of magic shimmering suddenly around her hands.

“A festering skeletal abomination,” he replies, eyeing it cautiously. He gives me a quick nod. “It is good that you thought to remove those spores, but we are going to need to deal with this before it prepares to release more. This thing is of old vampiric necromantic magic,” he snarls.

“So it is necromancy,” I murmur, suddenly feeling a whole hell of a lot safer inside the tight clasp of Reynard’s wings. “But why would someone send something covered with foreign spores in here?”

He doesn’t answer right away, but his expression tightens as he circles the skeleton. His eyes flick to Eleanor. “Best thing we can do is get this thing out of here and set it on fire. Are you capable of summoning flames?”

I’m about to protest because I have never seen Eleanor draw up fire in my life, but I am surprised when her eyes flick away briefly and she nods.

“I am.”

“Or I can,” Adeon’s deep voice booms as he comes to a halt beside Eleanor and sets one large hand on her arm. Ushering her behind him, he gives her a small smile. “Go see to Katherine while I take care of this, please.”

Ulrek makes a sound low in his throat and looks to Reynard. “We are going to trust a dragon?”

The dragon grunts apprehensively as he sneers over at him. “This is my family. I laid claim to it long before Reynard put the coven under his protection too. Not that I don’t admire that,” he grumbles, “but it is my duty and privilege to do this. I can both carry it out and set it aflame in a safe place.”

I sense Reynard nod above me. “Ulrek if it makes you feel better to accompany him, then do so, but I agree that Adeon is best for this. Whatever that thing is carrying is less likely to do damage to a dragon as it would any of the witches here, or even us should it suddenly shake more of those things loose from its bones.” He gives the skeleton a disgusted look.

“Very well,” Ulrek agrees sourly. “I’m going to need to shapeshift to keep up, but I will report back to you when it has been seen to. Whoever is playing with it is a fool, but for whatever reason they are determined to risk killing everyone here. As to why,” his eyes turn on me, “it was set up to become active the moment it came into contact with you. Whoever sent this wants you dead. It may be a play to get to Reynard in hopes of removing a death dealer from the equation, but there is little doubt that you are the target, Miss Fran.”

“Fuck,” I whisper and am nearly squeezed to death by Reynard’s wings. “Reynard—” I tap again on the velvety membrane “—can’t breathe, honey.”

Reluctantly the wings loosen around me, but I can hear the venom in his voice as he speaks. “I am taking my mate away from here.”

Without any further word of warning, his wings snap away and he gathers me into his arms as he spins around, his wings flapping aggressively to chase away those who have drifted too close.

“Get back,” he snarls, “unless you are so foolish to court being infected.”

“We have it under control, Reynard!” my mother calls as she and Eleanor begin to direct everyone to return to their rooms. “Just get my daughter out of here.”

With that he complies, his wings snapping us up into the air to barrel out of the ballroom, but rather than go up the stairs, he sails out the door with me in his arms, leaving my vision of my family shrinking in the distance behind us as he heads for the woods.

ChapterTwenty-Five

REYNARD

Ido not release Fran until we are in a clearing absent of any foul magic and the smell of whatever has been hunting the coven’s grounds. I am tempted to leave the Durmont coven behind altogether due to the terrible memories that phrase has dredged up.“Old necromantic vampire magic.”The art is not as nearly as rare among my kind as it is among humans, but there is one vampire who comes to mind that I do not wish to think about. They are dead—I know they are dead, but it does not quell my impulse to flee with my mate. The only thing that stays me is that I can feel my mate’s distress the farther we get from her family home. She won’t abandon them, and that fact makes me want to roar with frustration.

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