Sarah staggered back, her mouth opening as the nightmare powder seared her nose and throat. Her eyes widened and glassed over. She was here in the room but seeing another time. God, let it be the right fucking time.
“You bitch!” she shrieked, her eyes glittering with fury, locked on a point across the room. “You fucking cheating bitch, you were meant to be my friend. I trusted you, I trusted you!”
There was a pause as she listened to words no one else could hear.
“You took him from me, I love him.” She raised her arm and cried out in fury as she hurled my necklace like a sword. Like she did that night. It clattered against the wall and dropped to the ground. Bits of my necklace shattered to pieces. My heart clenched—it was the first intimate gift Karson had given to me, a promise that I was his, protection for me against his own kind. And it was broken.
She staggered back, her hands clutched over her mouth, her face drained to the color of a ghost. “No,” she wailed, tears streaming down her face. “No, no.”
Sarah collapsed to her knees, lifted her head to the ceiling, and let out a scream that split the night sky. Then she collapsedto the floor, her arms around her dead brother’s invisible body as she screamed and screamed and screamed.
Ethan snatched me up and moved me against the far wall. “Can you stand?” he asked gently.
My body tingled; my strength was coming back, and my powers quivered through my veins. I nodded, too afraid if I spoke I’d break the nightmare Sarah was trapped in. My legs swayed as he placed me on my feet. I sagged against the wall, pressing my back into it to hold myself steady. He held me by the arm until he was sure I wasn’t going to fall.
Marg’s body sagged against the cuffs slicing into the skin of her wrists, more blood trickling to the floor.Tick, tick.
Tears fell silently down Bob’s face, his bottom lip trembling as he stared at his daughter, curled into the fetal position, sobbing on the floor.
Ethan turned to the vampires and shouted, “Get out, all of you get out.”
Sarah’s vampires hesitated.
“I’m in no mood for your disrespect,” Ethan snarled. “No harm will come to her, you have my word. Leave!” Sarah was in no shape to protect them, no shape to negotiate anything.
Janice stepped up beside Ethan in a show of support. The vampires knew they were beaten. They turned, their shoulders slumped as they left in a wave of defeat and despair.
“You too,” Ethan ordered Karson’s vampires, his voice hoarse now, as if all the fight had drained out of him. They followed the others down the hallway.
The place was painted red. It was red everywhere I looked, heads, hearts, arms, scattered on the concrete floor.
I tore my gaze away, sweat trickling down my forehead as I willed my powers to rise. My body shook all over as I called on the tiny spark inside. Marg’s cuffs clicked as they unlocked. She fell to her knees, her head bowed, her chest heaving with sobs.
“This is my fault,” Georgie squeaked, her face as white as a sheet. “This is my fault.”
“It’s not your fault,” Josh said gently.
“It is,” Georgie wailed, “I did all of this.”
Josh wrapped her in his arms. “You made a mistake. You couldn’t have known what was going to happen.”
Ethan rubbed the back of his neck, his shoulders slumped, his voice littered with anguish and defeat. “This is my doing. You are not to blame, Georgie. I am.”
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. Ethan went over to Bob. He placed a hand on his shoulder and spoke to him softly.
Monique squatted beside Kenneth. Her hand shook she placed it on his cheek. “Wake up, you fool,” she said, her voice cracking. “This is no time for a fucking nap.”
Karson had not moved from beside Marg.
“Let her go,” Bob said, lifting his head, his eyes desperate. “Please, Karson. Sarah has suffered enough, and Marg …” His lips trembled as he looked at the shuddering shoulders of his wife. “She can’t take much more.”
Karson’s face was stone. “Sarah killed Mary. She must pay for that.”
Sarah lifted her head, her hair wild, her eyes swollen from crying. “I didn’t kill her, but do what you want with me, I don’t deserve to live.”
“Sarah, no, honey, no,” Marg cried, her body shaking as she crawled toward her daughter on her hands and knees.
“Where’s the book, Sarah?” Ethan asked gently. The one thing Sarah had up her sleeve that she might use to negotiate to save Marg’s and her life.
