Page 111 of Bite of Passage
“Hope this works.”Gemma hooked her external hard drive to her computer and waited.She held her breath and stared at her computer screen.“Oh, my God.Look!”She pointed.
“Is that a new episode?”Val asked.
Gemma nodded.
The opening theme of the show echoed around them.
Val grabbed her hand.“I’m so excited for you.And for me to see into another realm!”
The scene opened up in a stone structure, but not Skarde’s house.He was fighting not one, but two beings—a witch and a zombie.They watched him dodge and score hits with his knife.He uttered something, possibly a spell, that froze one of his opponents for a moment, just long enough for him to kill it.
As the camera panned back, Gemma recognized the church where Skarde had fought the zombie-making witch while she’d been attacked at the inn.
“Zombies with some level of reasoning?”Val whistled.“Those guys require top level magic.See the tattoos on the witch’s neck?She’s upper echelon.I have total respect for this vampire of yours, going after someone who can make zombies like those.”
The witch blasted Skarde with some sort of lightning strike, which threw him out of the half-foot thick wooden doors into some sort of courtyard where, of course, it was raining.It had to be behind the church, since she didn’t recognize the space.
“Always with the rain,” she muttered.
Skarde rolled and stared her way.“Gemma?”
She waved at the television.
His eyelids closed and he ran a hand through his hair.“Of course you pick now to show up.”
She stood directly in front of the screen.“What does that mean?Are you happy with your alone time?Did it help you decide youdon’twant me back?”
“Get the hell over here.”His lips turned upward into a smile.“Fair warning, there’s an angry witch trying to kill me in there.”He nodded toward the church
She glanced at Val.“I?—”
“Go.I had a dream that I think means I’ll see you again.Maybe through a portal.Maybe by dream walking.Maybe we’ll meet somewhere else.”Val hugged her.“You’re my bestie and I’m going to miss you like a hole in my heart.Now go.Drool a bit on that brother of Skarde’s for me.”
“Cade?”
Val’s face flashed bright pink.
“Seriously?”Gemma whistled.“He hates witches.Just saying.”
“You go.”
“Thank you.For everything.You have all my account information.If you need anything, you can have whatever you want.”
Gemma pushed her hands through the screen, the portal sucking her in and compressing her.As she landed, shards of glass fell around her from the church window that had served as the other side of the portal.
No option to return.No problem.She had no desire to go back.
I’m home.
ChapterForty-Seven
With a dark expression,Skarde gave her a slow once-over from her jeans to her sweater to her breasts and then her face.His dark lashes framed his blue eyes, making them stand out in his face.“Only you would recruit a witch to fight a witch and then befriend her.Have you got any other unusual friends in that other place?”
“You mean Val?She’s a good friend.Has been since before I got her to fight that witch at my place.Doing the unpredictable is my thing.”She stepped around pieces of broken glass.“Will a broken portal cause me seven years of bad luck here, like breaking a mirror over there?If so, do you know a spell to counteract it?”The smell of his blood, even though he stood six or seven feet from her, nearly stole her sanity.Exquisite.Tempting.Her stomach growled.
“I’ve never heard of bad luck from a broken portal.”Gaze fixed on her he said, “I’m sorry.So fucking sorry.”
The muffled sounds of a man screaming as if jumping into battle and then a blast came from inside the church.
