Defiance

distance, soupy through the clear plastic goop hardening over the world.

The heavy, flared base hit Leon squarely in the face with a sickening crunch. I wanted to yell I’m sorry! And maybe I did. Someone was screaming, Graves let out a roar, and Leon pitched across the room in slo-mo, curling up like a bug, his lank hair flying and flashing gold for a moment. That dart of golden light hit the wall, a single clean spot of color in all this murk, and I shoved Graves aside through the hardening air. My fingers slipped against the gunk on his skin, my nails slicing hair-fine cuts across his skin, just like hatpin scratches on Gran’s kitchen table. The lamp base flew off, describing a high perfect are, and Leon’s body hit Sergej right in the middle of his leap with a sound like a good clean break on a pool table. The sucker’s face was still plummy and distorted, a mask of grinning hate, and I was already moving.

Faster, faster, but with precision! Christophe yelled inside my head. My grasp firmed on the lamp’s post, the electric cord whipping off with a small cracking sound, also drawn out and weird since I was going so fast.

Graves folded down, tucking and rolling, and Anna was suddenly there, bouncing up off the bed like a jack-in-the-box. She alone seemed to be moving at normal speed; she was heading for Sergej— and right into my line of attack.

My left hand snapped forward, the hex building and tearing free of my fingers in a blue flash that lit the entire room like a camera, freezing time. It hit her square in the solar plexus, stopping her dead, and the woof! sound she made as she tumbled down to the floor in a heap would have been funny if I hadn’t been so goddamn busy.

The ground spun away from under me and the lamp flicked down, hitting the floor and striking up more blue sparks as the force of the hex snapped back along my fingers. The bar spun up after giving me additional lift, I could feel the metal flex as I pole-vaulted, and the instinct that had taken me over was clear and cold as the look in Christophe’s eyes sometimes.

I could also swear to God I heard Dad’s voice, not in my head but from my left, as if he was crouched there watching. You only get one shot at this, Dru-girl. Make it count.

The top of the lamp had snapped off, and now I had a slim iron spear. The lamp base hit the far wall, crunching and crinkling as the force of its impact buckled it, and I had to get the tip up in time, straining against physics and the regular time holding everything else in the room in its clear-glass net.

Another crashing impact, and my feet hit the floor. The aspect blazed hotly all over me, ruffling my hair, and the hunger yanked every vein and artery I owned like it was going to pull them all out in a tangled spaghetti mass. I had a brief, mad, Technicolor vision of Benjamin crouched over his plate of noodles and sauce, and the world spun around me as if it was oiled.

Sergej’s nose almost touched mine. A gush of hot black pattered softly to the floor. I had him pinned, the spear driven through his chest and into the wall behind him. He twitched, hot breath touching my cheek, and my stomach cramped hard.

I’ve heard that if you get it going fast enough, even a straw can punch through steel plate. If you get going fast enough, even a plain old iron lampstand can go through a vampire’s chest. Up on the left side, too, a heart- shot.

Did I do that? My hands gave an amazing flare of rubbed-raw pain. I stumbled back, tripping and saving myself with an instinctive sideways leap. It was a good thing, too, because the spear tore free of the wall with a screech and Sergej fell, his claws slicing empty air. He would have landed right on me if I hadn’t moved. The lamp pole hit the ground and he toppled sideways, landing with a heavier thump than I would’ve thought possible.

The world caught up with a subliminal snap. My sneakers slipped, I was falling, couldn’t stop myself, and training shrieked inside my head to stay on your feet, goddammit, he might get up again, it’s never sure with a sucker, stay UP—

Graves’s hand closed around my upper arm. I let out a half-shriek and he ducked, the punch whooshing past his filthy hair and my claws scything free. Claws, that’s why my wrist was hurting, it’s the claw structures building in there. Go figure. Hooray for me.

“Easy!” he yelled. “Easy! Friend! Friend!”

My heart triphammered, even my throat and wrists pulsing hotly. The shriek died halfway; I swallowed and blinked. “Jesus,” I whispered finally. My fingers tingled as the claws slid back out of sight. The urge to throw up or pass out rolled over me in a big black wave; I held it off with grim determination.

“Nope.” Graves set me on my feet. His eyes blazed now, and how could I ever have thought they’d darkened? They were emerald lasers now. “Dude. You killed him with a lamp.”

Sergej twitched. Both of us jumped nervously. Leon had slid down the wall, spilled off the bed, and landed sitting up. His eyes were closed, mouth ajar, and a trickle of red slid down from his nose. Another trickle traced down his chin. The side of his chest looked funny. Bashed in, like a stove stroked a good one by a massive sledgehammer.

He’d hit Sergej pretty hard. Something that hard, going that fast . . . dear God.

He’s not getting up anytime soon, Dad’s voice whispered inside my head, soft and flat, telling me what was what. Get movin’, Dru-girl.

Anna coughed. She scrabbled weakly against the floor, her shoes scraping a little. Sergej twitched again, and I flinched. My throat was on fire with the bloodhunger, my ears alive with little scraping whispers and the thudding of Graves’s pulse, galloping along and somehow shouting loup-garou, loup-garou. Anna’s pulse was high and fast, slightly further away, murmuring her name over and over as it echoed through her flesh. An-na. An-na. An-na.

The scraping sounds were vampires, and they were all over the house. There were a lot of them.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” I whispered. The electric glow from the corridor still stung my eyes.

“No shit. You think?” He dropped his hand and coughed, rackingly. Under the mask of bruising, his face was alight. “Jesus, Dru. With a lamp.”

It was all I had. I cleared my throat. Looked again at Leon. He didn’t look like he was going to move, either, but I didn’t want to take any chances. My legs felt like rubber noodles. The rest of me felt like it could light a match just by standing too close. Even my hair tingled.

I tested my knees, found out they would hold me up, and stepped cautiously toward Anna. She was making a hurt little sound in the back of her throat now, like a kitten knowing it’s about to be drowned.

Leave her, Dad might’ve said. She’ll slow you down. You look out for you first, Dru-girl.

Yeah. Looking out for number one had made Anna into what she was, hadn’t it.

“What the—” Graves grabbed for me, but I shook him off. “Dru!”

“We can’t leave her here. She jumped him, she’s svetocha.” And I am not like her. I took another step, my foot slipping in a lake of thin greasy black crud. Sergej was producing an amazing amount of fluid. No heartbeat from him, too. If I’d hit him in the heart, it might immobilize him until one of his buddies pulled it out.

Or maybe not. He twitched. The iron spear made a little skreek sound as its tip dragged along the floor.

“Dru.” Graves sounded like he’d been punched. “What about him?” His finger jabbed out, pointing at Leon.

I can’t carry more than one, dammit. “I don’t know. Can you carry him?” I felt bad even asking it. He was bleeding all over, and I’d made it worse.

Graves snorted, green eyes now so bright they almost cast shadows of their own. The Other looked out through those eyes, and if I’d been less worried about a ton of other stuff, I might’ve been a little, well, concerned.

Because the Other didn’t look like he really cared what happened as long as he got to hurt someone.

Graves shrugged. Halfway through the motion he stopped, as if it hurt. “Don’t know if he needs it. He smells dead.”

I didn’t ask how he knew what dead smelled like. “Then leave him.” The words stung my throat. “Worry