Wrath

remember yourself.”

Wow. Owen had turned into a real ass, even with his own kind. His new own kind.

“So you do know where he is,” I said to Noah, and I entered his mind again. Tell me silently. Owen doesn’t have to know. Help us, please, Noah. Rina and Sophia would want you to. They love him and miss him as much as they do you—

A blue light flashed at me, and I soared across the room. My back slammed into the stone wall, and the wind flew out of me. I landed on my feet. My eyes narrowed as red rage filled my vision. Did he really just attack me? I flew at Owen again. And this time Tristan didn’t stop me.

Owen’s hand shot up, and I crashed face first into a shield he put up around himself.

“Cheater,” I snarled as I wiped at my nose, expecting blood to be pouring from it.

“Back off, Alexis,” he growled back. “Even you aren’t powerful enough against me.”

Oh. And he’d become quite cocky, too.

My hand flew out in a karate chop, and connected with an invisible wall. Owen shot across the room, but his stupid shield protected him like a bubble, and the impact against the hard wall barely affected him. I fired electricity at him and blue-white light zapped over his shield, illuminating what really did look like a bubble. I pushed more current until cracks began to fissure into it. One grew wide enough to create a hole. Tristan blasted a ball of flame directly into it, but Owen put the fire out before it hit his body, then shot a spell at his former best friend. Tristan ducked and a stone in the back wall cracked and crumbled.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Noah simply watching us, doing nothing to help his comrade. Why didn’t he fight? His eyes bounced back and forth, as though he didn’t know who to fight for. His mind indicated the same hesitation, although he kept his actual thoughts masked with nonsense. Then his eyes and his mind completely glazed over as if his brain had shut down. His head gave one twitch then fell still.

Owen must have noticed, too, because he let out an feral growl. He twirled his hand in midair as if to shoot another spell at Tristan or me, but Tristan’s paralyzing power made its way through the hole in Owen’s shield. The warlock appeared to be frozen in space. Except his eyes. He narrowed them at us, blue orbs hard as marbles.

“All’s fair in love and war,” Tristan said with a dangerous smirk.

“Exactly,” Owen retorted, his voice nearly as treacherous as Tristan’s.

I’ll kill—

Two people popped onto the stairs half a story below, cutting off any thought I’d been sharing with Tristan.

“What is going on here?” exclaimed a familiar, accented voice, formal like the gowns its owner wore.

“Noah?” Mom gasped.

She and Rina stepped onto the top of the stairs and into the room, their brown eyes wide as they surveyed their surroundings. Owen’s eyes sprang wide open, too, and my mouth gaped. Noah’s eyes, however, instead of being full of recognition or regret or even hatred, remained glassy. Empty as could be.

“What are you doing here?” I practically yelled at the matriarch and her second—at my grandmother and mother. They couldn’t be here. Especially Rina. It was too dangerous. She was too weak. What. The. HELL!

“A mother always holds onto a little hope,” said another familiar voice. The redheaded witch whose body Kali had taken over cleared the landing of the stairs right behind them, her fist clamped around Charlotte’s neck as the sorceress dragged the warlock over the last step, then shoved her toward us. Charlotte stumbled once then caught and steadied herself. Kali’s bright green eyes lasered in on Mom, then Charlotte, then me, and then came to rest on Rina. “Doesn’t she? Even when she knows any hope is futile?”

You let her risk her life to see Noah? I asked Mom, disbelief coloring my mental voice.

“He reached out to her for the first time in over a century,” Mom replied. “Nobody could stop her, even if they tried.”

Kali’s green eyes flew to Mom then me and back to Mom, as though she’d “heard” us mind-talking.

“Oh, yes, I heard you. And of course I was right. A mother can’t stay away. I’ve been counting on that.” Kali’s green eyes swung to Charlotte for a moment, and then pierced into me. “Still . . . I hadn’t expected you.”

What? What did that mean? Didn’t she draw us here? Leave the portal open so we would come? Wasn’t it a battle that she wanted? Obviously—she’d gone so far as to bring the head of the Amadis into it. She had to know more Amadis would follow. And sure enough, several pops came from outside on the ground below. I dared to let out a breath as I sensed the Amadis mind signatures.

“I knew you wouldn’t come alone,” Kali said, and she snorted. “As the silly Normans say, the more the merrier. This will be so much fun.”

Do you have a plan? I asked Mom. She gave a slight shake of her head without looking at me. Her and Rina’s full attention remained on Noah. He still stared at . . . nothing. His head twitched again. I glanced at Tristan. Do you?

His eyes tightened infinitesimally. “Not until I figure hers out. Rina and Sophia aren’t here by accident, but I don’t know what she wants from them.”

A smile formed on Kali’s bright red lips. She, obviously, did have a plan. And she had a way of protecting her mind from me.

“Drop the shield, Owen,” Kali ordered. When he didn’t respond, her head cocked and anger flashed in her eyes. She turned that full force on the man she called her son. “I said to drop the shield and cloak. Your little game is over.”

My eyes flicked between Owen and Kali. What did she mean? I pushed my mind, trying to break through the protection she had on her thoughts and on Owen’s, too. I’d broken through her magic before, and I’d grown stronger since, but so had her spell.

A moment passed before Kali figured out that Owen couldn’t do anything because Tristan held him paralyzed. She flicked her wrist. Her staff, with its glowing blue ball at the top of it, appeared in her hand. She curled her fingers around the gnarly wood, lifted it in the air, and slammed it back down on the floor, making the entire structure shake. The roof of the building flew off as if whipped away in a tornado. The walls shattered and the glass disintegrated into dust, leaving us three stories above ground on nothing but a platform. Straight below us, Solomon, Julia, Winston, and several other Amadis vampires and Weres stood with my team, everyone in fighting stances.

Lightning shot across the sky and down to Kali’s staff. A gale of wind blasted at us, whipping my hair against my cheeks. She pointed the staff toward the abbey and thrust it out. Another whoosh of air blasted past us.

“Don’t worry, Owen,” she sneered before turning to face the abbey, “I took care of it myself, like I always have to do. You think you’re so smart, what you did. As if sacred grounds could stop me.” The sorceress flipped her red hair back and looked over her shoulder at us. “But once again, you’re wrong. The boy is mine. And if any of you try to stop me, those soldiers down there will shoot your precious Dorian. Nice of Her Majesty to let me borrow them, don’t you think? Of course, she doesn’t know, but that matters not.”

My gaze followed Kali’s lead. They hadn’t been there before, but now an army of human soldiers—a few hundred Norman mind signatures—encircled the abbey grounds, armed with automatic, military issue guns and plenty of ammo hanging across their chests and backs. How had they suddenly appeared out there? As if on cue and moving as one, they all gripped their guns, stepped their right feet out, and aimed at the center of the dark structure. I felt out for Dorian’s mind signature, and suppressed a gasp when I found it inside the abbey.

Dorian, are you okay?

“Mom? Is that you again?”

Yes, little man. Dad and I are here. But don’t come out, okay? It’s too dangerous right now.

“Okay. I’m fine. I’m not even scared, Mom.”

Hmm . . . his lack of fear wasn’t necessarily a good thing. I appreciated his bravery, but at least a little fear was healthy in this situation. It kept you alert and ready to act. Such fear of Kali and her unpredictable behavior brought my focus away from the abbey and back to the scene directly in front of me.