Bloodstone (24 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“Hey!” a man shouted from the porch of the house next door. “Hey, Rebel, shut up!” When his dog increased the vigor with which he barked, the dog’s owner said, “Do you want to go inside? Huh?” The dog yapped a few times in my direction. The man’s shoes slapped the concrete. “All right, fine. You’re coming inside.”

I appreciated the owner’s presence. If the dog went inside, I might be able to leap off the roof and into the next yard, although it would put me in the direction Zephora approached from. With my powers, or without them, I’d have better luck against my sister.

“Hi, Dennis,” said the woman in the yard ahead of me. “Maybe there’s a raccoon or skunk prowling around? I can’t see anything out here.”

“Yeah,” he admitted before buttoning his lips. “Yeah…well, I’m taking Rebel inside. Have a good night, Cybil.” The metal hook of the dog’s leash cranked against concrete. “Rebel, come here!” The dog whined. “Don’t give me that. You’re waking up the neighborhood. Time to go in the house. Hey, I said, let’s go.” A door shut, and both the owner and dog disappeared inside.

I breathed easier knowing any sound I made wouldn’t alert the dog next door to my presence.

“Did you see that?” Cybil asked her dog. “Do you want to be next? No? Then be good!”

The German shepherd whimpered.

I could make a ruckus, which might alert Cybil to Alexis’s presence, and force my sister to leave, but she might instead decide to hurt the homeowner and her dog. As much as I wanted to escape without incident, I couldn’t do so at the expense of someone else’s livelihood. Still, what if she saw me on the roof of her garage? I’d never be able to explain that I was hiding from two powerful witches. Who would believe such nonsense?

I searched the garage roof for something to divert Alexis’s attention. I spotted some rocks, a vacant, brown lunch bag, and an empty plastic container that ordinarily carried motor oil. I suspected kids had found these products in the alley and tossed them up here. A cramp entered my left leg, so I shifted it and accidentally kicked the Penzoil container, which fell off the roof and hit the wooden fence behind me.

The German shepherd started barking again, and Cybil issued a hoarse cry.

I wormed my way back to the spot I’d lain just moments ago in order to get an update on my sister, hoping the disruption had encouraged her to leave the yard, but it hadn’t.

As the German shepherd let out a torrent of barking, Cybil unleashed him from the siding on her home, but held the leash tightly, and they walked toward Alexis.

“You did this,” my sister muttered. “It’s not my fault, little sis. You forced my hand. Remember that.” A few seconds later, as Cybil and her dog came within fifteen yards of the area Alexis inhabited, my sister withdrew from the wall of the garage. She directed her hands at the homeowner and her dog. Twin jets of ice spewed from her hands.

The ice hit Cybil in the neck, sending her to the ground and taking her dog down beside her, although he snapped at my sister, who hurried toward them, since Cybil still maintained a firm hold on the dog’s leash, prohibiting the canine from leaving her side.

My sister angled her blasts of freezing rain at Cybil and her dog. Both flopped on the ground, but Alexis didn’t let up, shooting torrents of cold air at them in addition to ice. As every second passed, she increased the frozen pressure pulsing from her hands.

The dog tried to get up, but his paws slipped on the ice under him. Because Alexis stuffed ice into his face, preventing him from letting out howls or shrieks, he scrambled to get up a few times, but kept slipping back to the ground, sending his owner down with him.

“Trying to bite me?” Alexis asked the dog. “Not gonna happen, you big bastard.” She increased the pressure with which the ice pellets flew at the homeowner and her dog, although the German shepherd endured the brunt of the damage, as it’s legs spread out numerous times while it tried but failed to rise.

Alexis swung her left hand toward the dog, and a green hose lying on the ground flew through the air and smacked Cybil in the head, knocking her unconscious and forcing her to smash into her dog, pinning it to the ground. Whimpering, the dog tried to slither away, but the ice below made it impossible. He spread his paws, but with every attempt, he fell back onto the ground. He tried to rise once more, only to slip and slam his head against the ice. When he didn’t attempt to rise again, it was clear he had lost consciousness.

Seeing my sister resort to such cruelty, I rose to my feet, extended my hand toward her again, and tried to send a flurry of heat her way.

Once again, nothing happened. Why had I even tried when I suspected that Zephora had rendered my abilities temporarily unavailable? Over the last handful of days, magic had become a major part of my identity, and it now came so naturally while under attack that I hadn’t even given it a second thought.

I glanced behind me and to my left.

Zephora continued walking tentatively down the alley. She stopped a couple houses behind the one Alexis and I inhabited. She looked off to the left, obviously knowing my sister occupied the area since she picked up her magical signature in that direction.

Now that Alexis had rendered Cybil and her dog helpless, I needed to take action, regardless if Nolan hurried back here in time to pick me up before my sister or Zephora ended my life.

I couldn’t imagine climbing down the trellis to return to the ground. At this angle, if I tried to do so, my weight would tip the trellis away from the garage, and I’d crash to the concrete. Keeping my eyes on Alexis, who stood ten feet before the garage and stared at the homeowner and her dog, probably trying to determine if they were out of play, I decided on a different tactic.

I backed up to the edge of the garage and ran toward the front of it. Once I neared the edge, Alexis spun my way, but I’d already lifted off and hurtled through the air toward her.

She had a couple seconds to react, but because she tormented a helpless woman and her dog, she hadn’t enough presence of mind to respond to my assault. A moment later, I bashed into her chest, knocking both of us to the ground. Despite the height from which I’d jumped, my martial arts training helped me take the right angle when hitting the ground, allowing me to bounce back up to my feet before Alexis. I ripped a fist into her stomach, doubling her over and eliciting a groan.

She pointed a hand at me, most likely to sling ice my way, but I blocked it. Sure enough, a shot of icicles thudded into the ground a few inches from my shoes. Unwilling to give her a chance to respond to my attack, I slammed a right-left combo into her face. While she spun in the opposite direction, I grabbed hold of her right shoulder, yanked it toward me, and rammed an elbow into my sister’s face, sending her backwards.

Because she’d prepared to shoot another barrage of ice my way, as she swerved in the opposite direction, she expelled a couple bursts of ice that flew into the air on an arc. However, since Alexis had diverted her attention to the act of falling, she hadn’t put much effort into her icy attack, and the ice arched over the garage and plopped against the pavement in the alley.

She hit the ground with a grunt. She now faced the garden hose she’d used to knock Cybil senseless. Alexis swung toward me, swirling her right hand while doing so before directing the hose at me.

Watching the plastic nozzle speed in my direction, I ducked, but it socked my right shoulder, and I lost my balance. I fell onto all fours and raised my head, only to find the nozzle sailing straight for my nose. I performed a sideways somersault, heading for my sister. The nozzle slammed into the grass, kicking up a tiny patch of dirt.

Rather than attempt to rise up, I rolled toward my sister and did another somersault, all to throw off Alexis’s aim with the hose. When I didn’t see it bash into the grass again, I realized she’d mentally forced it to swing in the air like a lasso in order to build up some velocity so that when she finally whipped it at me, the nozzle would make a powerful impact with my skull.

Rather than give her that opportunity, while spinning on the ground and heading toward her, I yanked a patch of grass from the ground, sprang to my feet and just before she hurled the hose at me, I threw the thatch of grass and soil into her face.

Alexis pulled her hands to her face to deflect the grass, and the hose soared over my head and then fell to the ground. Blades of grass and dirt hit her forearms, but some also managed to pelt her cheeks.

I hadn’t used that strategy in hopes of injuring her but as a diversionary tactic. After disrupting her poise, I rushed her and fired off a punch that landed against her nose.

Blood spurted from her nostrils and sprayed across her upper lip as her arms flipped in every direction while she tried to regain her balance. Now she’d set her attention on trying to right herself, while pain surely spread through her face, Alexis didn’t have enough wits about her to use magic to deliver another blow. Rather than give her time to do precisely that, I rushed over to her, grabbed a fistful of her shirt, which momentarily stabilized her, and lashed out with an open palm to her chest cavity. The blow sent her backwards and she fell on her butt before turning onto her side.

I felt more than heard her ribs crack, which I figured would make it difficult for her to breathe. I also didn’t anticipate that she’d be able to think about anything other than how agony coursed through the upper half of her body. Still, I knew Zephora would soon arrive at this yard, and I didn’t want to leave my back open to attack, so I slid around my sister’s fallen torso, and put her in a choke hold, which reduced the air going to her brain. Eventually, the move would render her unconscious, allowing me to deal with Zephora.

“What are you doing?” Celestina shouted from behind me.

For a second, upon hearing my niece’s voice, relief swept through me, but when her harsh tone registered in my mind, I realized she was
not
happy. Obviously, she’d seen me attack her mother. I glanced around and didn’t see her anywhere, but a moment later, she emerged alongside the metal fence, heading in my direction.

“I’m sorry,” I told her, gasping. “She attacked me. I had to defend myself.” I turned my head toward her and then nodded at Cybil and her dog. “She knocked them unconscious.”

“Mom?” asked Celestina. She came to a stop, still behind me, as though afraid to take another step. Tears entered her eyes. “You promised,” she whispered in a strangled cry.

“I didn’t kill her,” I said, barely able to keep my tone from quaking. “The vision you saw of me killing her…was wrong. She’s still alive. I kept my promise!”

Now that my breathing had more or less returned to normal, I heard Alexis wheeze and groan in agony every time she tried to breathe. I caught movement behind the garage. “Zephora’s here!” I said, so Celestina would be on guard. “She’s in the alley.”

My niece’s eyes shot upwards as she scanned the area behind me. “I don’t see her. She’s not here.” A second later, she met my gaze. “You promised,” she said, managing to speak a little louder.

“She’s here. Try to detect her soul signature.”

I checked to see if I’d put too much pressure around Alexis’s neck. So far, I’d choked off plenty of air, but not nearly enough to kill her. She would fall unconscious within seconds. When I looked up, I saw Zephora standing in the alley ahead of me, watching me with that creepy grin.

I glanced over my shoulder to alert Celestina, but before I could do so, Zephora pulled out a hand in my direction. A second later, Alexis’s back bashed into my chest, sending me backwards. The force knocked my hands free of my sister, and although she somehow drew away from me and fell face forward, I tilted onto the ground. Since my niece hadn’t lifted a hand toward me, I scanned the alley and saw Zephora’s smile a moment before she hid behind the garage. She had somehow used an energy pulse in order to separate my sister and I.

“Mom?” Celestina squeaked, as she hurried over and crawled over to her “Mom!”

I suspected that Nolan had probably just parked the car on the other street and only now got out of the vehicle to follow my niece’s path.

Celestina turned her mother’s body over and…

A gaping bloody hole appeared in Alexis’s chest. Her heart lay on the grass a few inches away from her body.

When Zephora had pummeled Alexis’s chest, which knocked me backwards, she’d somehow torn through my sister’s chest. And when she’d pulled my sister away from me, she’d ripped out Alexis’s heart.

Nausea roiled my insides. I gagged a dry heave. This was the vision Celestina saw. This was the moment she’d been afraid of. It had nothing to do with me! I’d kept my promise! How could I have known Zephora would have appeared and manipulated events to make Celestina believe I’d deceived her?

My niece tried to scream, but only a soundless hiss escaped her mouth. She cradled her mother’s head in her lap. “Mom?” she asked, tugging her, as though trying to rouse her from a deep sleep. “Mom?” She pressed a pair of fingers against her neck. “Oh, my God! She’s not breathing! This can’t be happening.” She set a fiery gaze on mine. “You promised!”

I shook my head, shocked that she believed me capable of such a horrendous act, especially after I’d sworn not to kill her mother. “It’s not what you think.”