Once within, and the alley now blurred and frozen in present-time, she faced him. “Devyn, when Mitrana enters the time-path, how do I block her? I’m not trained for this.”
“I know what to do here. I want you to move us right next to Mitrana. She’ll want to get out of the alley and we can’t let her leave. The vampires will keep her from escaping through the air, while we hold her off at this end. But for this to work, Em, you’ll need to wind up your battle energy.”
“My what?” She’d never done something like this before. She knew most realm-folk had a latent ability to access and explore battle energy, but it normally required years of training.
Devyn’s lips quirked. He placed his hands on her shoulders and entered her mind. Feel the bond. I can sense things through your faeness now and you can make use of my battle-energy training. You’ll see.
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
Emily directed her time-path vibration to the exact spot where the woman stood. “Do it now, Emily. Back to the present and battle Mitrana. Keep her engaged as long as you can to give Vojalie time to get here. As soon as you feel her ready to slide into the time-path move us back in, and we’ll repeat the process. She’s gifted, this woman.”
Emily gave herself to the extraordinary experience and felt what it had been like for Devyn to make war all these decades. The sensation was exhilarating. This must have been what Vojalie meant about needing to work with Devyn, because in no other way could Emily imagine being able to stand up to the dark fae’s power by herself.
I’m seeing it, Dev. I am. We can do this.
He moved behind her and put his hands on her waist. Okay, move into the present. As soon as the dark fae tries to slide into the time-path, you’ll block her with battle energy, then move back in. We’re going to do this again and again until Vojalie arrives. The vampires will keep Mitrana from escaping into the air and they’ll ground Leonus for good.
Got it.
Emily mentally moved the time-path back to the present. At almost the same split second that she returned to real-time, she felt the dark fae wind up her own time-pathing vibrations, ready to disappear into the continuum.
Emily lit up her battle energy.
The dark fae stared at her with horror-stricken eyes. She tried to step into the continuum, but Emily hit her with a burst of blue battle energy from her hands and arms.
The dark fae responded with her own battle force in streams of red power. Sparks flew as the two frequencies made contact.
Devyn had hold of her waist. She felt his own power streaming into her and strengthening her.
When Emily sensed the dark fae was at the same time preparing to glide into the time-path, Emily stepped back in, taking Devyn with her.
The dark fae was right there, in the time-path. It was like meeting someone at the front door. Her eyes were wide and as distressed as before. “How are you doing this?”
Touch her, Em, and take her back to the present, then fire away once more.
Emily swept forward and half-touched, half-pushed the dark fae out into real-time. She and Devyn followed with her. It felt like a perfectly orchestrated ballet as she simply lifted her arms and let her battle energy fly.
Mitrana, however, was gifted and returned with the same precision and strength. More blue and red sparks flew into the air.
Emily had never felt more alive than she did right now. All her senses were tuned to Mitrana. Yet it wasn’t just her faeness she was experiencing, but her secondary vampire nature as well.
With her level of focus, once again she knew when the dark fae was revving up for another run at the continuum.
Devyn was still connected to her as she whipped back just in time to catch Mitrana once more. The dark fae tried to counter Emily’s physical shove, but Emily had already anticipated her maneuver and flew at her hard, literally shoving her out of the time-path with both physical force and her time-pathing energy.
Hit her again with your battle energy. You’ve got this.
By the time Devyn’s words hit her mind, she was already firing at the dark fae.
Mitrana looked angry now, her pale complexion redd
ened with rage. She battled back with red streams of power. More sparks.
Suddenly, Vojalie and her team appeared. She had three other women with her. They were a practiced unit and even while Mitrana was locked in battle with Emily, the women as one cast a power-enhanced net over the dark fae.
Emily withdrew her battle energy.
Mitrana immediately began to thrash in an attempt to break free. A fireball of power blossomed then ignited the net from within. Emily could see the dark fae would soon be able to escape if something wasn’t done.