Karson’s voice hit my head,‘When you feel the anger, let it surge. It will give you strength when everyone else gives up.’
I let it surge. The fury detonated, a burning cauldron of destruction exploded from my hands. I roared, a sound that was more like a ferocious animal than human. A vivid heat exploded in my head. I drifted outside of myself as I was guided by something primal, something in the attic of my mind, that was faintly familiar.
Sarah cried out in shock. I watched as she slipped backwards, as if someone was behind her, a hand hooked on one leg, dragging her back. I watched her face, bitter with rage and pain, distort. Her lips curled up, fangs dribbled jets of poison and fell to floor like acid from their white ends. Red eyes, evil, devoured all that they lay on like prophecy of death. I heard her scream furiously, a shrill, hideous sound.
I felt nothing but pure, cold rage.
“I will kill you!” she screeched, “and then I will kill Karson, and I will tell him right before he takes his last breath. How I pulled your guts from your stomach, dripped poison onto yourintestines and watched you writhe in agony until you died, witch.”
“You will not touch him, not now, not ever,” I shouted, “do you hear me?”
She grinned with all the warmth of a piranha and held something out in her left hand as if offering it to me. It was an aged, brown, leather-cased book. It was familiar and yet I had never seen it before. Energy seeped off it and quivered to me. It held a hypnotic power that distracted me. I knew what it was. Instinctively, I began to redirect my hand. I had to hold it. The heat inside began to dim, the rage began to fade, the anger and power was slipping away. I felt it drain out like a syphon, depleting my energy as it went.
Sarah stopped being pulled backwards, she was held fast but it wouldn’t be for long. I knew I should concentrate on holding her, yet the power that oozed from the book held me transfixed.
Don’t let go, Amelia, don’t let go, hold on. You have to hold on. Mom’s voice seemed to speak from inside my head.
The book whispered my name, sung a tune I couldn’t resist.
Then from darkness, Wolf’s howl jerked my attention back to Sarah. He was right outside.
“That’s the wolf, Sarah. If he gets in, and he will get in, you’re dead.” I had no clue if he would get in, and if he did, if he’d even attack Sarah, but it was the only card I had to play.
The glow faded from her eyes and disappeared, they were blackened with anger and indecision, and I thought I saw trepidation.
“If I let you go, Sarah, you have to run.”
My power was waning. I gritted my teeth and fought to hold her.
Wolf howled again, there was a sudden, sharp crash. A window shattered somewhere in the house. The sound of a deep guttural growl rumbled through the room.
Wolf had made his way in.
I would have allowed relief then, but Sarah wasn’t conceding. Her lips flagged and gibbered, her eyes were fixed on the blood that seeped over my top and they read like the grim finality of an obituary.
I could hear his feet pounding, the scrape of his nails on the wooden floors, the sounds of his ravaged growling getting louder and closer.
“Sarah, he’s coming. If you stay, you’re dead.” I was getting desperate. I hated her for what she had planned, but I didn’t want her dead. I couldn’t do that to Bob or Marg.
Against every instinct for survival I took the pressure off her. The second I did she came again. I was ready for it. I redirected her with the force of one hand at the large window. Her body smashed through the window, surrounded by a shroud of translucent shards, as Wolf entered the room. He came with such speed, he lost traction as he rounded the corner, his back end shot out sideways, claws grated and tore long crevices through the timber floor. We locked eyes, the amber of his pupils spoke to me and I knew we were safe. He straightened and surged forward, the black of his coat caught by the light in the room, shimmered like the night sky. He took three quick bounds. Sarah’s blur streaked off just before he leaped outside.
Fresh, damp air sliced down my throat. I stood dazed, overcome with dizziness, trembling. My brain hammered painfully against the walls of my head. Warm liquid seeping out of the wounds on my stomach. But strangely I felt no pain other than my head. I was frozen, unable to move, completely and utterly drained of energy. I stared into the mist, praying she didn’t come back in.
“Amy,” Georgie whimpered.
Her voice sparked the last of my strength. Staggering and fighting to stay up, I used my energies to untie the knot on therope around her neck. The end of the rope floated up, curled like a snake, and twisted around and around until it released. Her legs gave way and she collapsed into my arms. Too weak to hold her, we both collapsed to the floor.
Georgie sobbed.
The clock ticked.
In the distance, I heard the sound of a car engine roar like a lion in the dark.
Chapter 86
The Darkness Called My Name
Iturned my head to Georgie. She was sitting, shaking and sobbing.
