“Listen to her, Luciana,” Claudia said. “Think about what you’re doing. This is evil.”
Luciana didn’t even look at Claudia. She was too far gone. Magic flowed around her, like wind, raising her hair and making her skirts flow around her legs. But that wasn’t what had me scared. It was the look in her eyes. And the fact that they’d turned completely black. Not even a hint of white was left in them.
I had to stop her before she finished this spell.
A figure in white dashed toward us. I moved to meet him, but stopped just as he dashed between Luciana and me.
“Mother!” Daniel said as he ran in front of her. “Stop! You can’t do this. You’ll kill us all.” When she didn’t respond, he turned to us. “We have to stop her.”
When Daniel hadn’t shown up at St. Ailbe’s, I was worried I was wrong about him. It felt good to be right.
“Let’s knock her out,” I said. “If she won’t stop casting, then we just shut her up.”
Luciana’s lips moved rapidly as the wind grew around her. She raised her arms to the sky and a red light from the ground rose around her.
Daniel shook his head. “It’s too late. The spell she’s doing…it’s a chain reaction. Once it’s started…”
“So what do we do?” I shouted.
Enemy Weres streamed in from the parking lot, led by a certain wolf I remembered from my nightmares.
Now. I needed to smash the jars. They were both here, and if Luciana was using some of my power to call up whatever that was, then I needed to cut her off. Fast.
A vampire swiped at me, and I dodged out of the way and hit the ground rolling. The vampire lunged again, and I heard Claudia shout the incantation just before the vampire’s ashes rained down on me.
Shit. This was getting bad.
Before one more thing could go wrong, I threw the jars as hard as I could on the ground. Both jars bounced and started rolling away from me.
My heart dropped into my stomach. “No. Oh shit.”
“What’s wrong?” Claudia said.
“The jars.” I pointed at them as they rolled deep into the fight.
“Is that what I think that is?” Daniel asked.
“Yes.”
“I’ll get them,” Claudia said.
“No.” I grabbed her arm before she could go. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I’ll be okay.” She ran after the jars before I could stop her.
I didn’t have time to watch her. A mass of black fur headed my way and I took off running. I dodged around a tree, but it was still on me. I could hear it panting. I looked over my shoulder and it was already leaping into the air, teeth bared in a snarl.
I dropped flat on the ground, and the wolf soared overhead.
Before I could get up, a vampire was on me. I didn’t have time to think as anger heated my blood. I wasn’t going to get bit. Not again.
My hands partially shifted and I punched through its chest, ripping out the heart. It collapsed against me and I gagged from the vile stench. I pushed the body off and climbed to my feet, but I was covered in black vampire goo. The half-decayed heart still throbbed in my hand.
Thank God Meredith had been right. I was still a Were. Just not an alpha one.
I tossed the heart on top of the now-still vampire.
Daniel gagged, quickly covering his mouth with his hand. “That’s disgusting.”
“Understatement of the year.” I wiped the vampire goo on my pants and reached into my pocket with my clean hand, grabbing a vial. “Do you mind?” I asked as I held it out to him.
He took the vial and ignited the vampire. “You got any more?”
They weren’t doing me any good, so I unloaded my stash on him. “Be safe.”
Bright bursts of magic were flaring all around me as wolves and witches fought. I tried to find Claudia but it was chaos.
Where in the hell were my fucking jars?
I spotted Dastien’s gray and white fur. The battle had taken him farther away than I’d thought. If something happened, I wanted to be closer to him. I took a breath and started across the quad.
The earth rumbled again as Luciana’s chanting grew louder. I swayed on my feet, trying to stay upright, but something slammed into my side hard enough to break ribs. I hit the ground wheezing.
I couldn’t stop. I had to get it off me. I had to get to Luciana before she finished calling up that hellspawn.
Jaws snapped at my neck, but I managed to hold the mass jet-black fur off of me.
Oh shit. It was Mr. Hoel. It was happening.
