Page 22 (1/2)

We hit the end of the street and headed through a drive that was bounded on both sides by large iron gates But the gates had been pulled off their posts and hung loose, a sad statenificent mansion

Across the circular driveway, the rubble remained from Abby and Fritz’s house A dehosts I nervously glanced fro where the hell spawn had disappeared to The house had burned to the ground, leaving the cracked foundation and basement open to the elen of the vortex that had for ti directly to where the porch and vortex had been

Chase’s soht Whatever it eird definitely fit the description Standing about ten feet tall, it was a vaguely circular shape--although it wasn’t a perfect circle And it was easy to see why he thought it ray, almost silver in color The mass was smooth, almost shiny But it didn’t look extremely hard Rather, it seemed almost a of that nature As we stood, staring at it, it shuddered, and as atched, it seerow a few inches

"The Blob," Delilah whispered

"You watch too ht had run through

"Fine, but I’ clue what it is, do we?" She took a step into the driveway and the blob--for lack of a better teretting bigger as atch And I’ood--oh fuck, look" Morio pointed across the lot I shaded my eyes and followed his direction

There, shuffling across the grass from the back of the lot, were a host of zombies But they didn’t seeraything

Shade jolted forward "I have a hunch that it would be a very bad thing to let the walking dead touch whatever that is Keo, stay here" He headed across the drive The rest of us, except for the olf, followed We’d gotten no ed froe rhododendron bushes to the left

I stopped "Who the fuck are they?"

"I don’t know, but looks like a mix of humans and Fae and maybe a couple of others in there that I can’t identify" Delilah stopped besideshield in front of the creature and the zombies

"Are you crazy?" I yelled at them "Zombies--those are zombies and they will kill you!"

But the line of about twenty people--give or take a few--joined hands and stretched out, for Mostly woazes, and held tight A huht they were e, but then I realized they were raising energy, and they were directing it at us

"Fuck, they’re casting a group spell Hit the dirt!" I dropped, not able to see who else y ca with static I heard a scream--it sounded like Delilah, and then the air exploded into flahtly over my head, then faded into vapor

Stunned by both the sound and the force of the otten caught--she looked singed and burned along one shoulder and her right cheek But she was up andour opponents, and I suddenly knew just who the hell they were, and e couldn’t fight them

Chapter 11

"Don’t attack!" I frantically waved the others back "Retreat Get out of their line of fire" I raced behind the nearest cedar, hoping to hell everybody was behind ht on er, too, I motioned for Shade to watch our backs

"Are you hurt?" I asked Delilah as Keo took a look at her burns

"Yeah, they sting, but the burns are superficial What’s going on? Why did you tell us to get out of there?" Delilah was digging her blade into the tree

"Because those people are sonize a few fro them in Mystic Charms We can’t attack the like that"

A thought occurred to me, and I darted a quick look back around the tree trunk, hoping to see Faerroup as far I could see Couldn’t have it easy for once, could we?

I leaned against the tree "So what do we do? We can’t attack theree" Delilah frowned "Is there a way to break whatever spell they’re under? To free the the influenced Ittechniques Or maybe…some sort of psychic leech connected to the one of theic beyond what er if we tried" I bit my lip

Morio crossed his arms "Well, we can’t just stay here the rest of the day What about that gray orb? Any clue as to what it is?"

Shade stepped to the side "I’ll see what I can find out" But after a h shadow forto shadoalk over there, but for once the sun is out and there aren’t enough areas in the shade for e it"

"Let me take a look on the astral" Vanzir vanished before we could say anything I hoped to hell he could find so It sucked to be stumped like this If we could just take the witches doe’d have no probleuys didn’t take out innocent pawns