Moon Shimmers(66)

Smoky tapped me on the shoulder. “Simple. Ionyc Sea. It’s easy enough for me to pop you in, then out. I can see exactly where we’re aiming for even though I haven’t been there before. We step out, you throw the bombs, we vanish again.”

“That would work,” Bran said. “How long till those things heat up the water?”

“Drop the entire bag in there and within five seconds, it’s going to be one hell of a hot tub. That many bombs? Will take it from cool shaded bathing pond to boiling lobster pot within less than a minute. They won’t have time to get out before they’re burned. Now, it may not kill them, I honestly don’t know, but at least they won’t be able to retreat into the water to recharge for a while. That hot? Will take at least ten minutes to calm down to unpleasantly warm.” Roz motioned to Smoky. “Go, while they still haven’t noticed us. We’ll engage the moment you vanish away from the pond.”

Smoky held out his arm and I snuggled into it. “This will be quick. Try to keep alert.”

“All right. The drift doesn’t take hold of me that fast if we aren’t traveling a great distance.” When traveling through the Ionyc Sea, if we were journeying farther than a few miles or between worlds, the massive churning of energies lulled me to sleep. Delilah encountered the same effect, though it was less now that she was getting used to journeying through the alternate realms as a Death Maiden.

I held tight to the bag of firebombs as we faded, focusing all my thoughts on what I had to do. The currents had barely taken hold of us, the mist swirling like nebulous ghosts, when we stepped off the Sea again, right next to the pond. The kelpies were gathered on the other side, near the cascading water from the upper tiers. I didn’t stop to think, just tossed the bag of firebombs into the water, and Smoky swept me into the Sea again. The next thing I knew, we appeared at the treeline.

The others had already charged out, and I hurried to look at what our handiwork had wrought. The kelpies were screaming, high-pitched whistles of pain that hurt my ears. They were struggling to reach the eastern edge of the pond where they could climb out, but the waters around them were churning. I wished at that moment that we had long-distance weapons with us. A good bow and quiver of arrows would solve a lot of our problems right now.

As it was, the others were on the shore, ready to meet the kelpies. The females shifted direction, heading instead for the western side. Bran and Delilah raced around to meet them. One of the males broke off from the others, swimming toward the south point, but Roz and Venus were there. Smoky and I took the eastern edge. I pulled out my dagger. One of the males still heading in our direction vanished from sight, sinking in the boiling water. He then bobbed up again, floating, his skin blistered through the layers of mud. I grimaced. Not the prettiest way to die.

Smoky pushed me behind him as the other kelpie approached the edge of the pond. I moved back, glancing over to see the one heading to the south—toward Roz and Venus—also vanish below the water. They raced around to bolster Delilah and Bran’s presence. One of the females had reached the water’s edge. She was trying to dodge Bran’s attacks, but he was deadly with his sword. Delilah moved around back of her, lunging with Lysanthra.

The other two females pulled themselves ashore, one managing to evade Roz’s stun gun. But the other met Venus head-on. He was swifter with his dagger than she was with her claws, and he plunged it into her heart with dead-center accuracy. She convulsed as blood pulsed out around the blade. Venus pulled, hard, and the barbs on his dagger ripped the surrounding flesh as he yanked the blade out of her. An explosion of blood saturated her chest, splattering the old werepuma as well, and she stumbled back, falling to her knees. He brought the blade across her throat, and that put an end to any life she might have left in her.

The one who had evaded Delilah’s attack staggered as Bran sliced through her arm, cutting it cleanly off. She managed to dodge them, heading back to the pond, but stopped as she eyed the still-boiling water. As Bran jogged toward her, she made her choice and threw herself in the pond, sinking beneath the surface.

The third female was headed in our direction. Smoky charged forward, his nails lengthening into claws, and in a blur of movement, he slashed across her chest, neatly opening her up. My husband was good at eviscerating his enemies, I had to give him that. She looked down, a confused expression in her eyes as she watched her organs tumble out. Another moment and he sliced her throat, and she went down, quivering for a few seconds until her body stilled.

I gave one glance back at the pond, counting the floating bodies. Yes, we had managed to kill them all. “I guess…we’re done.”