Into the Woods (13 page)

Someone touched my shoulder. Panic gave me strength. Wide-eyed, I turned to strike, stopping at the soft pull of ley line running through me.

Pierce
.

Exhaling in a wash of relief, I found him close and worried. He crouched beside me and fingered another amulet. “Grit your teeth, and close your eyes,” he said. “Forgive me if it’s too much.”

I nodded. Hunching down, I tried to become one with the floor. My breath caught as a silver-lined ribbon of ever-after iced through me to leave the taste of tinfoil in my veins. The soft presence of Pierce’s body covered mine, sheltering me.

A second boom of sound pulsed over us, and in a visible cloud, the scent of dust and broken wood rose. Coughing, I looked up as Pierce slipped his hand in mind and helped me stand. The vampire was out cold against the wall beside the door. But even more startling was the four-foot-wide hole in the floor between us.

Pierce peered into my eyes, striking me silent with how concerned he was. “Are you well? Did I hurt you?”

I shook my head. “There’s a hole in the floor.”

Pierce pulled me to it. “I’ll catch you.”

I held my breath as he nonchalantly stepped off the edge of the floor and dropped from sight. From across the room came a soft groan, and the vampire moved.

Pulse hammering, I sat on the floor and dangled my feet. “Here I come!” I warned him, then dropped.

I stifled a shriek, but it came out as a yelp when he caught me and we fell in a tangle of arms and legs. We were in a lower living room with soft carpet and lighting, and expensive paintings on the walls. An entertainment center stood in one corner. There were two doors, one beside us, the other across the room.

“You’re heavier than you look,” Pierce puffed, and I scrambled off of him.

“Yeah, well, you’re a lousy catch.” I glanced up at the hole in the floor, then back to the TVs. There were a couple of them, and my lips parted when I recognized a black and white shot of my little car looking funny out there against the expensive estates. Closer to the house was the imprint in the drift where Pierce hit. It made me glad we’d come in the front.

A frightened whimper caught my attention. Together Pierce and I looked to a far corner dusky with a soft light. My hope withered to nothing as I saw Sarah in the grip of a small man dressed in casual sophistication. His silk-clad arm was wrapped around her, covering her mouth. Tears marked her face, and she was terrified.

“Gordian Pierce,” the vampire said in a soft, almost feminine voice. “You should have stayed dead.”

I pressed back into Pierce, then realizing it made me look afraid, I rocked forward. I was still holding his hand. I was telling myself it was so he could do his magic, but the real reason was I was as scared as Sarah.

“You haven’t changed,” Pierce said, a new accent coloring his words. “Still the same Nancy boy forcing your putrid self on little girls, I see.”

Sarah made a heartbreaking sound, and the vampire, Christopher, I guess, stiffened. His knuckles went white where he pressed his hand over her mouth. “I saw you in the ground,” he said bitterly. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Pierce’s hand clenched on mine in a bitter anger. “Your first mistake was putting me in blasphemed ground,” he said shortly. “It left me in a mind to return. Eliminating your filth of existence is worth postponing heaven for.”

Christopher’s chin rose, and a snarl curved his lips up. I knew he was several hundred years old, but he looked thirty. Witch magic at its finest.

“Good,” he said, shoving the girl to a nearby couch, where she collapsed to sob. “I’ll enjoy hearing your screams again between the beautiful thumps of dirt hitting your casket.”

I felt a chill, imagining it. Pierce’s hand on mine went damp with sweat. Mine probably.

“You foul bastard,” Pierce said, his voice shaking. “I will not leave without the girl.”

Intuition and the shifting of light pulled my attention to the hole in the ceiling. “Look out!” I cried, pulling Pierce and myself back when the two vampires from the front door dropped down. Pierce’s free hand started making gestures behind his back, and my pulse raced to make me lightheaded. Smiling like death, they started to advance.

“No!” their master shouted, and they hesitated. “Let them stand.” He flicked his eyes to the one who had carried Sarah down here earlier. “You, man the outside grounds,” he said, then turned a disparaging look at the other. “You mind the stairs. From outside. I don’t want to be disturbed.”

He turned to Pierce and me, and I thought I heard the small man beside me mutter a curse. “I enjoy trespassers,” the vampire said. “The law is going to see you dead again, Pierce. All you have brought to me is more terror to lap up. What a timely gift. Thank you.”

He nodded curtly at the two vampires, and they slipped away, one through the door and stair behind us, the other jumping straight up through the hole in the floor. Sarah was still crying, and the twin clicks of two doors shutting were ominous. Great. I think it was about to get ugly.

“Believe me,” Pierce whispered, his hand giving mine a quick squeeze.

I flicked a look at him, then back to the vampire. “What?”

Pierce angled to get in front of me. “He’s going to kill me, but I’m already dead. Trust me. As soon as he thinks I’m dead, I’ll move against him. Get the girl out. Please.”

I didn’t want to leave him here. I wouldn’t! “Pierce . . .”

But his fingers slipped from mine.

A jolt of line energy burst in me as I took the entire line myself. Pierce had been siphoning off of me, and I hadn’t even known it. Stumbling back, I barely saw Pierce jump away from me, shouting curses at the vampire.

Lips curled to show his teeth, Christopher went to meet him.

“Pierce, no!” I shouted from where I had fallen to one knee, transfixed when they met. The man didn’t have a chance. My heart pounded in fear as they grappled, the vampire finding his neck and sinking his teeth.

Pierce’s groan struck through me, and I almost panicked. “This can’t be happening,” I whispered. “This can’t be happening!”

I jumped when the girl darted across the room, a white shadow fleeing. She clutched at me, her tear-streaked face pleading up at me. “Get me out,” she whispered, as if afraid he would hear. “Please, get me out!”

I looked at Pierce, slack in the vampire’s grip. The animal hung over him, sickening me.

“Help me!” she sobbed, trying to drag me to the door, but I knew what was behind it.

Jaw clenched, I pried her grip off my arm and shoved her behind me. “Give me a minute,” I muttered. My heart was pounding too fast, and my knees were going weak. Striding to the nearest wall, I lugged a picture from it, staggering at its unexpected weight.

“Get off him!” I shouted, dropping it on the vampire.

Glass cracked and it slid off his back. Snarling, the vampire let Pierce fall, turning with a look on his face to send a ribbon of fear-laced adrenaline through me. Slowly I backed up. Maybe I should’ve taken my chances with the vampire behind door number one.

His mouth red with Pierce’s blood, the vampire started for me, hunched and looking as if he was in pain. “Stupid, foolish witch,” he said, wiping his mouth and then licking the blood from his hand. “Your species will thank me for taking you out before you can breed. The too smart and the too stupid are all culled first. I don’t know which one you are.”

“Stay back,” I said, hand raised as I almost tripped on the rug.

From behind me the girl gasped. My gaze darted to Pierce as he moved. Hope surged, and sensing it, the vampire turned around.

“How many times do I have to kill you?” he snarled when Pierce pulled himself upright, and with a dark grimace, tugged his coat straight. His neck was clean. Not a mark on it.

I didn’t understand. I had seen blood. But had it been real? He was a freaking ghost!

“Once was enough, and I expect it will be your undoing, God willing,” the man said raggedly, and my breath came in with a hiss when a ball of green ever-after swirled into existence between his two hands. He flung it at the vampire. The vampire lunged sideways, and the green, red, and black mass smacked into the wall, harmless.

My short-lived hope vanished, and I looked at Pierce across the living room. I knew it had been everything he had stored in his chi. He had gambled everything on that one throw. There was nothing left. He was helpless unless he could reach me and refill his chi. And there was a vampire between us.

Christopher seemed to know it, and he started to laugh. “I may not be able to kill a ghost,” he said in perverted glee. “But I can still tear your fucking head off.”

I backed to the door with the girl. Nothing left. Pierce had nothing left but those stupid ley line charms of my dad. I felt my expression go slack in thought. The ley line charms . . .

My hand went up to grip the charm around my neck. It would make a circle only I could break. Sarah and I would be safe, but Pierce . . .

Pierce saw my hand, trembling as it gripped the spell. “Use it, Rachel,” he said, falling into a crouch. “Invoke the amulet!”

I tried to swallow, failing. I pulled the charm from around my neck, the chain catching my hair and tugging free. The vampire lunged to catch Pierce. He cried out in pain.

“Hey, prissy face!” I shouted, voice trembling. “You’re a pathetic excuse of a bat, you know that? Can’t get your fangs wet without a glass of milk? Come and get me. He doesn’t have any blood in him.”

The vampire turned and hissed, and my stomach did a flip-flop.
Shit
.

“Rachel, no!” Pierce cried, but the vampire tossed him into a wall like a rude book. I winced when he hit and slid down to stare at me in fear.

“Trust me,” I mouthed, and he scrambled up. But he was too far away, and he knew it.

Pulse hammering, I fell into a crouch and beckoned the vampire to me. “You’re nothing but a sorry-assed, hide-in-the-ground child molester,” I taunted, and the vampire went almost choleric.

“I’m going to kill you slow,” he said, advancing slowly.

“Great,” I said, estimating the distance between us. “But first, catch this!”

His hands flew up as I pulled the pin and threw the amulet. It thumped into the vampire’s grip, and he sneered at me. I smiled back, and as smooth and pure as water, a wash of gold-tinted ever-after flowed up and around him, trapping him.

“No!” the vampire screamed, throwing the amulet, but it was too late. My eyes widened and I fell back in shocked awe as the vampire seemed to devolve into a raving lunatic, hammering at the barrier between us, almost spitting in frustration. Howling like a mad thing, he threw himself against it, over and over. And it held.

Shaking, I leaned against the back of a couch. “Stupid ass,” I muttered.

“Miss Rachel!” Pierce cried out, and I blinked when he grabbed me, spinning me to face him. His hands heavy on my shoulders, he looked me up and down, his blue eyes searching me. “Are you well?”

I blinked again at him. The adrenaline was wearing off, and I was feeling woozy. “Sure. Yes. I think so.”

The girl screamed, and a vampire dropped into the room through the hole in the ceiling. From behind the other door, the thumping of feet said the other was coming, too, drawn by Christopher’s furious shouts.

Pierce took me in a brief, surprising hug. “You’re grit, Rachel. Pure grit,” he said, rocking me back. “But you should have used it to save yourself and the girl. All they have to do is throw you into the bubble, and it will fall.”

“Nonsense,” I said, hearing my words slur. “Just pull some more power from me and blast them back to hell.”

His eyes widened, and he held me upright as the door behind us opened to show the second vampire. The girl was at our feet, sobbing. I might have joined her, but I had a feeling I was going to pass out soon, anyway. Damn it, I hated this. I was just kidding myself that I could do this for a living.

I pushed from Pierce, unsteady as I put my hands on my hips and looked from one vampire to the other. I felt like I was drunk. Faint through the broken ceiling came the wail of sirens. “You all better go,” I said boldly, sounding like John Wayne to my ears. “Or my friend here will blast you all to hell. He can do it. Can’t you?”

But Pierce was watching the monitors with the strength of hope in his grip as he held me upright. I wavered as the two vampires exchanged a knowing look. The master vampire trapped in the circle hesitated in his tantrum, going white-faced when his two servants gave him a short, nervous bow.

“Don’t leave me!” the master vampire shouted, hammering on the invisible barrier. “I will hunt you down and take your last blood, then kill you again!”

I smirked, muscles going slack. Pierce caught me with a little grunt. On the monitor were several I.S. cruisers, a news van, and, Lord help me, my mother in her Buick. Robbie got out first, having to be restrained from storming the house on his own. “That’s the I.S.,” I said, my words running into each other in a soft, slow drawl. “I left my mother a note. She’s probably got half the force behind her.” Blinking, I struggled to focus on the two vampires. “Don’t mess with my mom. She’ll kick your . . . ass.”

The two vampires looked at each other, and as their master howled, they levered themselves back out through the ceiling. There was a faint thump of feet overhead—and they were gone.

“I think I’m going to pass out,” I said, breathless, and Pierce eased me to the carpet. My head lolled, and the edges of my sight grayed. “I’m sorry,” I started to babble, feeling light and airy. “I shouldn’t have come down here. I’m no good at this.”

“You are exceptional at this.” Pierce held my hand and fanned me with a magazine. “But please, Miss Rachel, don’t pass out. Stay with me. At least a little longer. If you succumb, your circle might fall.”

“That’s not good,” I mumbled, struggling to keep my eyes open, but damn it, I had overtaxed my body and it was shutting down. When the adrenaline had flowed, it had been fantastic. I had been alive and strong. I felt normal. Now all that was left was the ash of a spent fire. And it was starting to rain.

“Rachel?”

It was close, and I pulled my eyes open to find Pierce had cradled my head in his lap. “Okay,” I breathed. “Are you okay?”