Master of Smoke

get the hell out of Dodge. Smoke said Warlock’s coming.” And how weird was it, to tell him something he’d just told her as if he was somebody completely different? But he was, so she was just going to have to deal.
    Shouldn’t be too hard. She’d been breaking the laws of common sense for years now.
    “Warlock?” His voice rumbled, even deeper than normal.
    “You can talk? Good. Yeah, Warlock. In the car, Fang.”
    And he was out of her arms and on his feet, fluid and fast. He put down a hand, caught hers, and pulled her up. By the time Eva found the sword she’d dropped when his convulsions began, he was in the passenger seat.
    Well, at least he’s obedient. Now if we can only get out of here before Warlock shows up. She tossed the sword on the backseat, then slid into the driver’s side and buckled her seat belt out of pure habit. “Buckle up, Fang. The sooner we’re away from here, the better. There’s way too many dead people here.”
    Fang obeyed without fumbling and settled back in the seat as Eva started the car. The Ford ran more smoothly than it had in years.
    “I killed our enemies.” His growling voice barely sounded like the same man at all.
    “I got one, too, but yeah.” Looking back over her shoulder, Eva pulled into the empty road. Now if only she could figure out where the hell she was and how to get home. It was really time to spring for a GPS.
    “What happened when I left you?” Fang asked.
    “This guy, god, whatever ...”
    “His name is Smoke.”
    “Right. Smoke ... umm, came out”—just in time to keep you from dicing me into a Bloomin’ Onion—“and fixed the car. He said Warlock was coming, and then he fell over and went into convulsions. Do you know what happened?”
    “Warlock happened.” Fang flexed his big hands on his jeans-clad knees like a cat kneading a cushion. “Warlock stole our powers. And a good portion of the god. All that is left is the Sidhe and me, and we are in pieces. Too many pieces. Too scattered. We cannot”—he drew spread fingers into a fist—“connect.”
    “She? She who?” God, was there another one? A girl? Shit. Because the lesbian thing was so not happening.
    “Sidhe,” Fang corrected. “Fae. The one you call David.”
    “Oh, Sidhe.” She’d read enough high fantasy to recognize the word. Reaching an intersection, she stopped as the light went red. “Were you together before?”
    “We have been Smoke for many centuries.” With brooding eyes Fang watched a Toyota pickup roll past. “The god arrived in our world with others of his kind. His people are elementals, and alien—no more than magic and will. He would not have survived without a living host. He called, and I answered.”
    As the light turned green, Eva frowned, tossed a mental coin, and turned left. She still had no freaking idea where she was, but she’d lived in Greendale for twenty-five years. Eventually she’d hit a street she recognized. “So this Smoke is some kind of alien?” As if her life wasn’t weird enough.
    “Well, yes. But by your standards, so am I.”
    EIGHT
    Eva blinked at him before jerking her eyes back on the road. “What?”
    “We are not from this Earth. We’re from another ... dimension, I suppose you would say, an Earth where there is magic.”
    Christ, weirder and weirder. I’d think he was nuts if I hadn’t seen him voodoo the car. “But how did you get here?”
    Fang shrugged. “A magical portal.”
    “Oh, Lord, I’m trapped in an episode of Stargate.”
    He frowned at her. “What?”
    “Never mind. So a noncorporeal alien whatsit arrived on magic Earth. Then what?”
    “I was a ciardha then ...”
    “A what?”
    “A ciardha. Something like a tiger, but a little bigger, black, with silver stripes on the haunches.” He smiled at some memory. “All the ciardha females thought I was very beautiful.”
    “Yeah, I’ll bet.” Eva spotted a strip mall she thought she recognized and turned down the street.
    “I had only an animal’s mind until Smoke merged with me. He changed my brain, increased my intelligence, made me more than an animal. Later we found David’s people, and became their god. The one you call David was the greatest warrior of his tribe then, and Smoke selected him to be our new host. When he moved into David’s body, I went with him.”
    Another red light brought her to a halt. “But ... why?”
    He shrugged. “His people were suffering at the hands of the Dark Ones, who were predatory