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“I’m fine,” I told Ashael. “In fact, I’m fabulous.”
His grin was annoying in its smugness. Should teach him a lesson. Make him bleed a little…and then lick it.
“She’s, ah, growling,” Denise said with concern.
Ashael waved. “Pay it no mind. Now, care to tell what happened that caused you two to run afoul of a sea god?”
“A sea god?” Denise repeated.
“You’re both infected with contagious sea god magic, so you must have run afoul of one,” Ashael said.
I was going to answer, but suddenly, the whole room tipped. Fucking floor was at it again! I grabbed the wall to stay upright, confused to see that Ashael and Denise were still standing without help. Why wasn’t the floor attacking them, too?
Denise sighed. “I couldn’t see most of what went down, but from what I know, Cat pissed off a bunch of witches, and they hit her with an immobility spell. They must have hit me with it, too, although mine didn’t take effect until after they left.”
“They didn’t spell you. Cat did,” Ashael said. At Denise’s shocked look, he continued, “Not on purpose. You know I can see magic as easily as you see colors. That’s how I saw that the magic on Cat is contagious. Once she was infected, she infected you. You would’ve infected me, too, if I wasn’t a demon. This type of magic is very rare, so what did Cat do to anger those witches?”
“She stopped them from killing a kid,” Denise said, sounding a bit dazed now.
Ashael whistled. “Ah. That’ll do it. Ancient gods have no sense of humor when it comes to someone interfering with their sacrifices, and that child must have been the god’s sacrifice.”
“That’s what they said,” I filled in, no longer needing to hug the wall to stand. My head felt a little clearer, too, although I still thought the floor was daring me to a fight.
Ashael’s dark gaze fixed on me. “That’s why the sea god gave its acolytes the power to hex you with contagious magic.”
“Goddess,” I corrected him.
“Goddess, then. Did her acolytes tell you about the other spell they sealed onto you?”
“What other spell?” Denise asked, sounding surprised.
That’s right, she didn’t know. All of a sudden, I felt a lot more sober. “The one that makes me the goddess’ new sacrifice on the full moon.” Then, my voice hitched from more than the room-tilting effects of Ashael’s blood as I added, “And anyone I’ve infected with the spell is her sacrifice, too.”
“But you’re a vampire,” Denise sputtered. “Only decapitation or silver through the heart can kill you, and nothing can kill me except demon bone through both my eyes.”
Ashael looked thoughtful. “Under normal circumstances, that’s true, but with ancient gods, all bets are off. You have until the full moon, hmm? That gives you two nights.”
“So, how do we kill this goddess?” Denise demanded.
Ashael snorted. “You don’t. The sea is older than anything on this planet, so the gods it produced are among the most ancient and powerful. You can’t kill her. Neither can I.”
I started to speak, and then burped with such force that it rustled the hair around my face. I clapped a hand over my mouth, aghast. Then, despite our very serious circumstances, all of a sudden, I couldn’t stop laughing.
“I haven’t burped since I was human! Wow. That sounded like years of trapped air ripping out of me, didn’t it?”
“There must be a way to stop this,” Denise said, ignoring my comment.
Ashael gave her a level look. “Most spells die with their caster, so kill the witch that hexed Cat, and that should do it. I warn you, though: a witch powerful enough to channel sea-god magic won’t die easily, and my race has a truce with other gods, so I can’t help you. The sea goddess would consider my killing her acolytes a violation of that truce. But vampires and humans have no such truce, so as long as you offer the sea goddess a substitutional sacrifice, she shouldn’t avenge her acolytes if you kill them to break the spells.”
Really? That was some bullshit.
“Bad goddess,” I said.
Denise didn’t seem to care about the sea goddess’s refusal to avenge her acolytes. “How do we find the witch who hexed Cat in order to kill her?”
I waved my arms. “I know this one! The same way they tracked me, through the magic in their spell. Right?”
Ashael inclined his head. “That, I could do for you, but aside from that, and from leaving you more of my blood to stave off Cat’s immobility spell, I must remain out of this.”
