“He’s right. It’s me,” Roger said. “Don’t hurt him.”
Bastian cast a sideways glance at Roger that became a full look as he pivoted. “Shit.”
“We’re not going to hurt anyone,” Noah promised. “But Vincent, buddy, you have got to breathe. Do it with me now, come on. One …”
“Fuck you!” Vincent howled. Every mirror in the room shattered to the floor.
Roger’s vision swam, and the world changed color. Bastian’s tattoo sleeves burst into vibrant color while a bright white aura emanated from him. A similar aura sprang to life around Noah, while soft, yellowy-orange auras encircled Amber, Thomas, and Lacey. Bastian’s cat shimmered as if it had pearlescent strands in its fur.
Dmitri was bathed in a red aura, but the rainbow symbol glowed faintly against his chest. The glimmer of the shifting colors caught Roger’s eye for a fraction of a second.
Then his attention returned to Vincent. A neon rainbow aura pulsed from him, each color striping out from him at a faster and faster pace, nearly becoming a white light.
“Fuck all of you!” Vincent slammed his foot on the floor. The building groaned as a shock wave went through it.
Bastian cast a glance up toward the ceiling. “Mundanes need to get out of here. Now!”
“Because God forbid anyone ever know anything painful!” Vincent continued. “He hurt me over and over and over, andhe’s calling Zack his son. I thought he was joking. He was putting together this whole room, and I thought … I thought maybe … It should have beenmine!”
A wind was kicking up, dust and debris rising into the air. Mirror shards whipped around the room. Amber screamed as Lacey yanked her backward. Thomas reached out for his daughter, and a shard sliced into his arm.
Dmitri blurred, grabbing Amber and Lacey, and hurried the three into the back of the building. There was an exit back there, covered in debris of what had been a storage room, and crashes happened as things were tossed to the side and out of the way.
“Vincent, I know your pain,” Roger said, calling out through the rising storm. “I know what he’s done. I know about his broken promises. You aren’t alone.”
“Yes I am! No one wants me!” Vincent returned.
“Screw this,” Noah muttered. He began to move, the tip of his wand glowed with a dull blue light. “Dor?—”
A flash of seeing Takashi fall to the floor in the hotel room struck him. Takashi’s neck had been snapped. He would have been fine, but to see him crash to the floor was still the visual of his lover collapsing dead in the moment.
Roger had failed too many times. He wouldn’t again.
Instinct kicked in, and with a cry, a blast poured out from him, like the pressure of steam screaming through a kettle. A burst of white light jumped out of him, heading for Noah.
“Defluito!” Bastian called out.
An invisible dart flew into the ball of white light, and it popped harmlessly in the air, never reaching Noah.
“—mi nunc!” Noah finished. A bolt of blue flashed from the end of his wand and struck Vincent in the temple.
Vincent’s eyes rolled upward, into the back of his head, before his eyelids fluttered shut. The radiating neon rainbow faded to a dull gray, and he sank toward the floor.
Roger rushed over to him and caught him. Vincent didn’t rouse as Roger hoisted him into his arms.
The rolling, tossing waves were growing higher, and Roger had no desire to do anything other than ride the current. Logic was a distant call, an echo of reasonability that his rage drowned before it could truly reach him.
Thomas had called these strangers. And these strangers had hurt Vincent, who had trusted him.
The cold of the shadows seeped up through him.
“What. Did. You. Do?” Roger roared. Tendrils of shadow answered his call and began to rise from the floor.
“Shit,” Noah said, eyes going wide. He danced backward with a grace Roger might have admired if his anger wasn’t overwhelming every thought. He aimed his wand at Roger.
Bastian knocked Noah’s wand downward and kept the tip of his own pointed at the corner of the room. “He’s fine. He just needs to grab control.”
Control. What had control gotten him? What had patience won him? A murdered lover who was bound to the monster who had made his nights living hells and another lover who might have been a traitor in his bed.
