Blood Sins

Their plan was in tatters, and all he could think to do was draw his weapon and

Sawyer began to feel a prickling sensation crawling over him, from his scalp down his neck, spreading outward from his spine. And to his shock he realized that he couldn't move. It was as if his body no longer recognized the direction of his brain.

'I don't think so, Sawyer.' Samuel was smiling at him, a little sadly. 'I really did hope you'd know who your friends were when the time came. I told you so, remember? I'm sorry you made a different choice, truly I am.'

His hand began to lift, and Sawyer watched it with the cold realization that he was going to die. The tingling sensation disappeared, replaced by a slow constriction that sent fiery pain all along his nerve endings.

'Don't,' a woman's voice said.

Samuel paused, his expression at first a sort of amused indifference. But then he turned his head and saw Hollis.

'I really wouldn't,' she said.

Sawyer realized he could breathe again, that the pain had diminishedthough not disappearedas Samuel's attention shifted to the woman who had taken a couple of steps away from the Jeep to face him.

Samuel's hand began to swing toward her, something flickering in his glowing eyes.

'I've opened a door,' Hollis said.

Samuel froze, his eyes still flickering.

Not part of the plan, this isn't part of the plan____________________Sawyer realized he could turn his head just far enough to see Hollis, and even with everything that had happened, he was astonished to see an odd sort of radiance around her.

Her aura. Somehow, she had made it visible.

'A door,' she said to Samuel, her expression intent, eyes narrowed. 'Between our worldand the next.'

Thunder rumbled and lightning laced the darkening sky.

'Hollis,' Galen breathed, 'be careful.'

She never took her eyes off Samuel. 'I'm in the doorway,' she told him. 'Holding them back. Holding back the one thing you know damn well won't be denied to you in that world. Punishment.'

Samuel studied her for a moment, his expression first wary and then certain. 'I don't believe you,' he said, and moved his hand.

Hollis jerked as though from a powerful blow, her aura beginning to shift from a metallic blue to a darker blue shot through with red threads. A thin line of blood trickled from her nose. 'I'll let them through,' she warned him, the words emerging almost in a cough. It was obvious she was in pain, A lot of pain.

'No.' Samuel shook his head. 'You won't.'

His hand lifted, clenching into a fist.

She didn't fly backward as the chauffeur had done, but Hollis jerked again. Her aura vanished with a loud crackle that rivaled the lightning, and she was slammed backwards to the ground.

And lay motionless.

Oh, Christ this wasn't supposed to happen

'Someone's talking,' Samuel repeated, turning his attention from the fallen medium as though he had brushed away a bothersome insect. 'Bishop, is that you? Have I finally lured you to me?'

Bishop faced him, wearing a tight, grim smileand on his very dangerous face it wasn't a pleasant expression. 'I thought it was time we finally met. We came so close last time, but you didn't stick around for the grand finale.'

Move.

Sawyer realized suddenly that he could move, that he could take a step away. He wasn't sure in that moment whether Samuel had released him or someone stronger had pulled him loose, but either way he was able to move to the side and allow the two combatants room.

Doing the only thing he could do for Robin now, for Hollis, for all those Samuel had murdered, he focused his cold rage on his part of what was left of their plan, concentrating on directing all the energy he could muster to help contain Samuel's building energies.

It was like trying to catch lightning in a box.

The real thing crackled across the sky again, and the prickling, uncomfortable sensation of electricity filled the chilly heavy air.

'I had to be somewhere else,' Samuel said to Bishop, apparently unaffected and unworried. 'I knew you'd understand.'

'What I understood is that we managed to hurt you. Dani managed to hurt you.'

'Yes, well. Dani isn't here.'

Again, Bishop smiled. 'Wrong. She is here.'

Samuel's smile faltered for the first time, and his eyes began to dart around as he searched the faces of the dozens of people who had gathered nearby in the Square. Puzzled, curious faces, the only oddity about them the fact that they seemed unaffected by the brutal murders committed before their very eyes.

And all familiar faces. Faces Samuel knew well.

'You're lying, Bishop. Not that I give a damn.' His hand lifted abruptly, palm out, and Bishop was lifted off his feet and slammed back against the Jeep with an incredible force that shattered glass and crunched metal. He hung there, suspended, the vehicle almost wrapped around him as if it had run full speed into an immovable object.

Just like the chauffeur.

For a moment, Bishop's body seemed stiff, but then, abruptly it went limp. Blood trickled down to stain the gravel.

'I'm almost disappointed,' Samuel said, sounding it. 'I expected more of a fight.'

'Then you'll get one,' Tessa said.

Samuel's head turned quickly, and he frowned as he saw her standing only a few feet away to his right. Standing in front of her, pressing against her, was Ruby.

His hand lifted again, but this time a literal shower of sparks cascaded out from Tessa and Ruby, the residue of the deflected energy.

'Try again,' she invited.

He did, his frown deepening, his face twisting with effort as this time he lifted a hand straight upand caught the lightning.

He became a living conduit. A crackling bolt speared his upraised hand and shot out from the hand extended toward Tessa and Ruby. It lasted only seconds.

And again, astonishingly, the force he directed at them was deflected, sparks and threads of energy hissing off in all directions.

'It's amazing what you can hide, especially in a place like this,' Tessa said conversationally. No strain at all showed in her face or in her voice. 'Like Ruby, under the baptistery. Left there to die, slowly, among the trophies you kept. I guess at the end of the day, a serial killer is just a serial killer. For all your fine talk of doing God's work, in the end you're no more than a butcher.'

He let out a sound so primitive it could only have come from an animal and, with both hands, sent a white-hot stream of pure energy to strike them.

This time, it was deflectedand returned to the source, slamming him back against the stone column at the foot of the steps. He hung on, panting a little, his face pale, furious eyes narrowed.

'It's amazing what you can hide,' Tessa said again.

Samuel's head snapped around, because her voice came from his left now. And there she was, with Ruby as before. With Ruby and a dark, solemn-eyed boy. Cody.

'If you only know how,' Ruby said gravely. 'We know how, Tessa and me. And Cody knows how to help us. Cody has a lot of power, but he hid it from you. Until now.'

Samuel, for the first time genuinely baffled and shaken, looked to his right again. Where Tessa and Ruby had stood seconds before, Dani Justice stood now.

'Hi,' she said. 'Remember me? You took away somebody I loved a lot. And you can't get away with that. You don't get to hole up here, getting stronger and stronger by feeding off people. By killing people. You don't get to be