Page 70 of Aleko
“Why?” asked Sebastian and then looked at Killian. “Or why not?”
“Doesn’t matter,” said Killian, shaking his head. “I’m going down to the beach.”
“I’ll go with—”
An explosion rocked the building, cutting off Sebastian.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” said Alex.
Episode 36
Warlocks
Eliandra
The moon flashed intermittently between boiling slate-gray clouds, illuminating the white walls of the Ash villa. Eliandra watched as a line of black clad men crept over the bluff, looking to attack the house from behind. The road in front of the estate was full of black military-type vehicles and another group of men were lining up with a jeep mounted machine gun, waiting for anyone to exit the house. She could see a fire had started in the branches of a tree that leaned over the wall of the estate and there were black marks on the gate. This wasn’t what she’d expected when she wished to know where Luca would be.
The front gate trundled open and Lia tensed. The warlocks readied themselves, but the driveway was empty. It was as if the open gate was an invitation. One of the men in front of the house stepped forward. Lia could hear him chanting and although she couldn’t distinguish the words, she felt a sense of disgust and dread. A black cloud began to form between his hands, flickering in the headlights of the cars.
“Kolduny,”hissed Lia.
On top of the wall, spotlights snapped on, pinpointing the warlocks.
“Incendium!”shouted a voice from the villa, and the black cloud exploded in a fireball, tossing the warlock backward. There was a yell of confusion among the warlocks as they tried to put the fire out. In all the chaos, it was easy to miss the sound of a single gunshot, and none of the warlocks noticed that the man behind the machine gun was now dead.
Inside the villa courtyard, Lia watched as Alekos jumped ontothe top of the wall. The group of warlocks in front of her stood up, every gun sighting on Alekos.
“I wish,” whispered Eliandra, lifting the wand, “you would fall.”
The warlocks took a step forward and then, in a wave, all tripped. There were muffled curses as they tried to pick themselves back up. By the time they were back on their feet Alekos had dropped off the wall and out of sight onto the road.
She was watching for Alekos and missed the warlocks in front of her move toward the house, but before she could lift her wand, she saw two slinking wolves in the grass. One dark and one light, tails and ears low, they stalked the men in front of her.
There was a yell and gunfire from the road and then the two wolves struck. Lia watched as pieces of the kolduny went flying. She tried to make herself feel bad about it, but couldn’t. When the wolves finished their attack, they ran toward the road and Alekos.
Lia nodded and breathed out a sigh of relief. Hudson and Killian had come home. Alekos wasn’t alone. They would protect him from the warlocks. She would protect him from Seth. She might not be able to fix all of her mistakes, but she could start with this one.
“I wish,” said Lia, lifting the wand, “not to be seen until I reach my destination.” She slashed across the air in front of her and it left a barely discernable trails of sparks.
Lia walked down toward the open gate of the villa.
Alex
Alex had never understood why warlocks didn’t attack the house. It wasn’t as if they had ever made a secret of who they were or where they lived. Alex was even fairly certain Pellos had put a return address on the boxes of body parts he and Killian had shipped back to them. Pellos and Killian remainedstubbornly unrepentant about that incident, but had it been him receiving those care packages, Alex would have called in every favor he had and brought an army to his enemy’s front door.
Well, now they were on his front porch.
Alex ducked behind one of the vehicles, dodging a black cloud of magic. The junior warlocks apparently weren’t as chicken as their elders. But unfortunately for them, there had been a lot of time for Alex to consider his defense strategy. None of the warlocks had even made it onto the driveway. Which would make Hudson happy. Leaving Yazmin alone in the house had brought him to a near panic. It wasn’t until Yazmin had pointed out in a very firm voice that she was quite well-equipped to defend the villa and knew what to do with warlocks that he had agreed to leave. Alex caught a glimpse of Hudson leaping over one of the warlock vehicles. The entire reason Alex had purchased the estate—aside from the view—was that short of an armed armada in the bay, it was difficult to attack the house on more than one side. And currently, the warlocks were discovering that once they had pulled up to the estate, it was difficult to turn around or escape without pulling into the villa’s circular driveway. He supposed that someone would try it eventually, and then they would discover the booby traps.
Alex slashed his way through a few more cars. He could see Hudson and Killian working their way toward him from the opposite direction. Everything was going to plan.
Sebastian ran by carrying a screaming warlock.
Mostly according to plan. No one could really fully account for Sebastian getting pissed off.
Not that he was far behind Sebastian in the pissed off category. The fucking warlocks needed to get the message. The Rejects were not to be fucked with. And also, he did not have time for this horseshit.
Alex looked around for another warlock to punch and sawPellos, dash forward and duck behind one of the warlock vehicles.
