Mainet took the bloody athame and sliced open his own belly, a strong, deep cut. His blood splattered the vampires in the circle and they snapped up their heads. Their jaws unhinged and they licked their skin where his blood landed. I had seen some of this, but not enough. Not nearly enough. And I had changed so much with each and every action.
I looked back at Gramma. She now looked like the grandmother I remembered, not the outclan priestess she had eaten. She chewed into the fingers of the demon. She chewed and her body began to writhe.
The demon laughed. The sound sent ice through my blood.
Mainet lay across Lachish’s body, the heart and lungs pumping between his sliced belly and hers. The witch struggled, grunting and gasping. Mainet unhinged his jaw, bit into her neck, gently, and began to suck.
Molly and Big Evan ran onto the balcony. They had gotten through the ward. Fury rode into my soul like one of the horses of the apocalypse, taking me over. I had told them to keep her safe. I had also kept Bruiser out, but if Moll was in, then so was he. And they would both be dead. Unless... My eyes met Evan’s. He nodded, hard. He had something.
Against my breastbone, the gold crucifix heated and froze, burning my flesh again.Le breloqueflashed with scalding heat, singeing my hair and skin.
Now,Beast said.
“Now,” I whispered.
Eli’s battlefield awareness took me over.
The world slowed. Everything went crystalline and clear, sharp-edged. The entire room came into focus.
Eli and I sprinted forward.
Evan whirled something over his head. Released it at Ursula, the witch with the drum.
We pushed off with our toes. Stretching into our run.
Evan’s magical snare spun through the air. Wrapped around Ursula’s neck. Tightened.
Instead of the next witch in line catching the drum and continuing the rhythm, Fiona missed her grab. Her hand batted across the bottom of the heartbeat drum. She dropped it. The drum landed. A clanging, discordant, twanging rattle. The death circle wavered.
We were eight strides into the echoing room.
The cord strangled Ursula. She stepped out of her position in the circle and began to fall. Clawing at her throat. The circle flickered. Losing power.
Leo stepped into the sanctuary, his arm on fire.
Lachish wailed, the sound muffled by her gag. The sound my memories had been waiting for.
Except Molly was here. Too many futures had collided.
Ten strides.
The demon on the wall turned to Molly. With his free hand, he reached to her. Molly froze. The demon latched on to her death magics, his claws gripping the air in front of her.
I leaped. Stretched out in midair. Eli running at my side. Together we broke through the faltering circle. I fell forward as Eli fired three shots. Ka dropped. Dead, if she didn’t shift fast enough.
Three shots. Sabina/Grandmother staggered.
Horizontal in the air, I cut into Mainet with the broken Mughal blade. Waist high, deep. At his kidney. The broken blade ripped deep into him and up, caught on ribs. Pulling my arm back.
Gramma began to fall. Still with the demon’s fingers in her mouth as she toppled.
She pulled the shadow-flesh off the wall and down.
In front of me.
I fell across the smoky arm of the dark one. Against his chest.
My world lit up with electric pain. Frozen agony. No breath. A roar like an earthquake. Gunshots in the far distance. Wind whipping my face. Frigid cold freezing my pelt.I/we did not see this possibility,Beast thought.
