Roger grinned wider. “And I am going to make certain that no place in this city will protect you.”
“I am the master. The coven will obey me,” Seamus growled.
Roger laughed at him.
Seamus lunged, but Roger was ready for him. He pivoted and sliced out with both daggers as he spun farther away from Seamus. Blood sprinkled the ground. Playing defense, Roger countered Seamus’s next attack, parried the one after that, and then kicked him hard enough to send him against the far side of the circle. Seamus’s back erupted in flames when he touched the wall. With a howl, he staggered forward. Roger threw a blade at his heart, but Seamus knocked away.
After a second, the flames extinguished on their own. A regular vampire wouldn’t be able to pull off that feat without smothering the fire, but Seamus only held his head and shouted until the flames stopped. The acrid smell of burnt flesh coupled with torched wood and decay.
“I’ve managed to rob you and destroy your home with the ragtag resources I’ve managed to cobble together in a few weeks,” Roger said loudly. “You might be surprised how motivated people are in ending your life.”
Seamus laughed with a disturbing malice. “I have turned your loyal pet into my diligent son. In fact, he nn—” Suddenly, Seamus put a hand to his temple. “What have you done to him?”
Roger steadied his stance. “I’ve been here.”
“Take responsibility for your people,” Seamus demanded. “What did they do to my son?”
I pray nothing. Roger flung both his daggers at Seamus, one right after the other, aiming for his chest and his knee. Seamus caught the one going for his heart but failed to move out of the way of the one to strike his knee.
The flames flickered. The dome at the top was beginning to come down. Bastian’s spell was running its course.
Roger pulled his last two daggers and launched himself at Seamus. The tip of one blade sliced Seamus’s shoulder, then missed his target. Seamus blurred with speed to avoid the next two strikes.
Then the circle dropped. Roger flung one dagger at Seamus and leapt upward with all his might. He grabbed onto the chandelier.
His team had formed a semicircle near the door, and with the flames no longer obscuring Seamus, they unleashed their ammunition upon him. Arrows, spells, and silver bullets pummeled Seamus.
The sudden change of light might have played tricks on Roger’s sight, but he could have sworn that Seamus was becoming gaunter, that he was more inhuman as he took the damage. Seamus made a motion with his hand, and his blood rose from the floor to form a shield in front of him. He used it to block the bullets more than the wood flying in his direction.
Rage burning in his eyes, Seamus shot one last look up at Roger and then took off deeper into the mansion.
Roger dropped to the ground as a cheer went up and kept his gaze on the corridor Seamus disappeared through. He noticed that Lee, Bastian, and Lacey kept their focus on the battle instead of cheering, too.
“Roger!” Thomas shouted.
Thomas and Janiyah were carrying Zack between them, one of his arms over each of their shoulders. An arrow stuck out of either side of Zack’s skull, and the fletching matched the ones in Thomas’s quiver. He’d put an arrow in Zack.
“Was it an accident?” Roger hurried to take Zack from them, sweeping him up into his arms.
“We had to knock him out,” Janiyah said.
“He was begging us to,” Thomas added. “There was something wrong with his eyes. They were like ink and fire. He was cutting through everyone he came across but managed to hold off from killing Janiyah. She must have triggered his memory.”
“You know him?” Roger asked as he strode toward the broken front doors. His team swept out ahead of him. No sounds of fighting was a good thing at this point. He rushed toward his truck.
Janiyah blurred ahead and opened the back door for him.
“Apparently, they met in Detroit,” Thomas said tensely. “Something she could have mentioned.”
“Your family killed the nest that made me,” Janiyah replied. “I’m glad, but I’m not stupid enough to think you were going to spare me a second time.”
“But Zack did,” Roger murmured.
“He was trying to, yeah,” Janiyah said, softening.
“Then whatever Seamus was doing couldn’t have been permanent.” Roger climbed into the back and held Zack in hisarms. Holding him was a comfort, but he couldn’t fully relax. Not until he knew where Takashi was.
Thomas climbed into the driver’s seat, and Janiyah took the front passenger. As Thomas put the truck into gear, Janiyah took her phone out of her pocket.
