Spoon pressed right under the vampire’s eye, Trent leaned in. Voice hardly audible, he whispered, “Who’s organizing this?”
I felt Trent’s pull on the line lessen, and the vampire wiggled, still caught but able to move now. “You’re dead, Morgan! You lied to us, and your life is forfeit!”
“I didn’t lie!” I exclaimed, then lowered my voice. This smacked of torture, even if Trent hadn’t done anything but threaten him with a spoon. A spoon right under his eye.
“Flagro,” Trent intoned, and I stiffened. The tip of the ceramic spoon glowed with heat. Whimpering, the captive focused on it, and the scent of frightened vampire rolled into the air.
Jenks darted close, his irritation obvious. “That won’t work. He’ll make it feel good.”
“Not if I scoop his eyeball out.”
Horrified, I gasped. He had to be kidding. “My God. Trent!”
Ignoring my hand on his arm, Trent blew on the spoon to send the heat over the terrified vampire’s face. I couldn’t believe this was happening, and I gasped right along with the vampire when Trent pressed it to his skin, the word “Caecus” intoned with a terrible certainty.
“Trent, stop!” I shouted as the vampire arched in pain, horrified. Jenks simply hovered, clearly not caring. Seeing me ready to smack Trent, the pixy darted over. “Get a grip, Rache,” Jenks whispered, perched at my ear. “It’s not real.”
My breath exploded out from me, and I hesitated. Sweat trickled down Trent’s face where it had beaded. His grip was white knuckled on the vampire under him, pinned to the center counter with a savage force. There was a small crescent shape of red under the vampire’s eye, hardly worth calling a burn. It was more of a pressure mark. It was all show. Everything.
The terror, though, was real.
“Who!” Trent shouted, the vampire moaning under him. “Why!”
Trent pressed the cooled spoon under his other eye, and the vampire screamed again. Lip between my teeth, I darted a glance at the window. They weren’t going to wait for sunrise if they knew we had one of their own.
“My eye!” the vampire howled, struggles growing violent. “You took out my eye!”
His eye was fine, blind under that last spoken charm, but I didn’t like this side of Trent.
“Tell me, or I’ll take out the other!”
Jenks shivered, his wings making a cool spot on my neck. “Tink’s a Disney whore, Rache. Your new boyfriend is kind of scary when he’s pissed.”
“Tell me,” Trent threatened, pressing into him. “Now!”
“It’s the elves!” the vampire screamed. “The elves.”
My lips parted, and I met Trent’s suddenly ashen gaze as he let up.
“Some elf called Landon. He said you’re lying,” the vampire gushed. “He said you know how to bring back all the undead souls and you lied that it would send them into the sun. He said he’d bring all the undead souls back from the ever-after, but we had to kill you first to keep you from reversing his magic. He said you want us to die without our souls! That you’re a demon!”
“He’s the one lying!” I exclaimed, and Jenks darted out. That scream had probably traveled. “Landon wants to wipe out the masters. He’s the one who put them to sleep last July!”
Trent let go and the man dissolved into a sniveling whimper. I could see Trent’s self-disgust, and I brought his hand to my lips, startling him. He hadn’t hurt the man babbling before us. He’d tricked him, tricked him to save our lives.
“You lie,” the would-be assassin said, his fingers feeling his face. “I saw Felix. He has his soul. He doesn’t hunger. He’s whole.” Fear flashed over him, stark and ugly. “I don’t want to lose my soul. You’re a monster! You took my eye!”
Trent frowned. “Landon betrayed you,” he said, making a decisive ending gesture.
The vampire gasped, hunching into himself as the spell broke. Slowly his hands fell and he looked straight at us, wonder in him. “I can see . . .”
Expression still holding that awful hardness, Trent turned to Bis. “If he moves, claw his eye out for real.”
I knew Bis would never do such a thing, but after seeing Trent bluff his way to a confession, the gargoyle hissed, claws scraping lines in the stainless steel.
“I told you Landon was going to use us,” I said, then softened as I saw Trent shaking. He’d waved off my concern, but I’d known something like this was going to happen. Cincinnati had gone to her knees when the masters had merely fallen asleep. That Landon would try to kill them again wasn’t surprise. The surprise was that I kept thinking he was sane.
Trent splayed his fingers to gauge their shaking. “We’ll be okay. There isn’t a safe way to bring all the souls back,” he said as he made fists of his hands. “Ellasbeth hasn’t called me in over six hours. You told her to call back in four, yes?”
His voice had hardened, and I nodded. He thought Ellasbeth and Landon were working together? Maybe, but Ellasbeth wouldn’t destroy an entire demographic to further herself. Would she? “But you told her if she ever did anything like this again . . .”
My words trailed off. I’d really thought she’d play nice if she had a shot at something normal with the girls. Logic said she was working with Landon, but my gut said different. I’d seen her with the girls. She was Lucy’s mother and loved Ray as if she were her own. She wouldn’t risk them like this. Not now. Not if there was another way.
“Maybe I should tell her killing me won’t give her Lucy,” Trent said.
My shoulders tensed. “Quen gets custody first? That’s a great idea. No one can kill him.”
Trent made an embarrassed sound. Glancing behind me to the cowed vampire, he winced. “Ah, not exactly. I made you Lucy’s legal guardian if I died or was missing for more than six months. If we both go, Al gets her. Ellasbeth probably doesn’t know about that clause.”
Shocked, my head snapped up. “A-Al?” I stammered. “Why not Quen?” But what I really wanted to know was why Al?
Trent was swooping about the kitchen, jamming charms and Ivy’s bottled water into my bag. “Making Quen Lucy’s guardian would make him a target, and I won’t risk Ray. Al being Lucy’s guardian will create a custody battle long enough for Quen to run off with both Lucy and Ray. Besides, if Al has custody, no demon will dare touch her. Or Ray.”
I dropped back a step as I looked for the logic. It made sense—sort of.
Trent handed me my bag. The sill was empty, and I looked in my bag to see Al’s chrysalis among the rest. Really? “I’m sorry,” Trent said, jaw tight. “We have to go.”
Crap on toast, we were going to leave them the church. I started as Trent took me in a quick embrace, my arms pinned between us as he gave me a squeeze. The vampire was watching, but Bis gouging the counter with his nails kept him unmoving.
“I should have seen this coming,” Trent whispered, his breath making tingles against my neck. He sighed, his grip beginning to loosen. “I thought that by bringing Landon in close, I could out-think him. You were right. Is Ivy okay?”
Jenks darted in, his dust telling me everything I needed to know. They were advancing. “She was when I called,” I said as I reached behind me for my splat gun. The vampire’s eyes widened when I smoothly pulled it out and shot him. He started to rise . . . then fell back, slumping all the way to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.
“Jeez, Rache!” Jenks complained as he rose up and down. “Give a pixy some warning!”
If there hadn’t been umpteen more coming our way, I would’ve shoved the window open to air the place out. Frustrated, I faced Trent. “We need to get the girls. Both Lucy and Ray.”
Trent shook his head. “We need to play dead.”
“Huh? Why?” I said, taking the tablet Trent was handing me and shoving it into my shoulder bag.
Frowning, Trent stepped over the vampire to look out the window. “If we play dead, Landon will have to admit he can’t bring their souls back. Support for him will fall apart. All we have to do is wait.”
“Let the vampires bring Landon down.” And Ellasbeth, I added silently, knowing Trent was upset she’d taken this drastic step. God knew I was disappointed. He must be crushed.
“But the church . . . ,” Jenks said, and Jumoke and Izzy flew in, each of them holding a bundle and looking tragic.
I swallowed hard. If we were going to play dead, something was going to get busted up really bad to sanction it. “It’s just a pile of rock, right?” I said, voice breaking. “Is Rex outside? Belle?”
Jenks nodded, scared. “Belle won’t leave. Rache, we shouldn’t either.”
Trent gestured to Bis, and the gargoyle jumped to my shoulder, his tail wrapping tightly around me to secure his hold. The kid could jump only one at a time on his own, but if I warped everyone’s aura to look the same, we could all go together. Probably. “I’ll try to contain the damage, but if worse comes to worst, Jumoke and Izzyanna can move into my gardens. You, too, Jenks,” he added, and Jenks frowned, a black dust falling in the center of the golden sparkles. “Belle doesn’t have out-of-season newlings to look after,” he added, and Jenks stiffened.
“I’m wherever Ivy and Rache are.”
Trent’s arm slipped around my waist. “I don’t want any of you hibernating. Can you get them there safely, Jenks? We can’t go. It’s the first place they’ll look for us, and I can’t take this to my girls.”
Looking even more disgusted, Jenks nodded again, his expression softening as he saw Izzy holding her tiny middle. “Call me.”
Trent’s expression relaxed, making me love him all the more. “Thank you,” he said, looking over the church as if it was his own. “Have Quen escort Ellasbeth out and close the grounds. He’s to go into hiding if he has to, but Ellasbeth is not to leave with the girls.”
My gut hurt at the thought of damaging the church. It’s just a pile of rocks, I told myself, but it was my pile of rocks.
“It’s going to be fine, Rachel,” Trent said, but the pinch to his brow said differently. “Ellasbeth will be years contesting it in the courts. We’ll be back long before that.” I met his eyes, and he added, “The trick will be to die convincingly without doing too much damage.”
“You think a modified heat charm?” I said, knowing there was a firewall between the old part of the church and the new.
Trent shook his head, his eyes on the vampire at our feet. He took a breath to say something, then froze. His eyes went to the hallway.
Jenks’s wings clattered. Jumoke and Izzy darted out, wings silent. “See you in a few days,” Jenks said as he circled me, his dust falling as if in protection. “Trent, if she dies, I’ll cut your pointy ears off and eat them in front of you.”
I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, but Bis had tightened his grip. “Where do you want me to jump you?” he asked, clearly worried and smelling of iron and pigeon.
The tunnels? I thought, but it was too late, and we ducked below the counter at the soft scrape of shoe in the living room. “Go!” I mouthed to Jenks, and he gave me a last disparaging look as he darted out. This was going to be tricky. We had to destroy the back of the church and get out before it took us with it, and do it all so whoever was attacking would think we were caught up in it.
“Victor?” a masculine voice hissed, and I glanced at the vampire, his legs still in view of the hallway. Oh yeah. What about him?
“Now!” Trent shouted, and we stood, my hand reaching for my splat gun.
What in hell am I supposed to do? I wondered, shooting at the vampire in black.
Apparently it was the right thing as the man snarled, showing me his teeth as he rolled in to make room for the rest. The window over the sink exploded inward, and I swung my gun, little puffs of air unnoticed in the howl of attack.
Someone touched me. It wasn’t Trent, and I loosed a blast of energy through my body, sending the vampire screaming in pain to fall backward into two of his buddies.
“That’s right!” I yelled, shooting at them, but they darted back and my spells broke harmlessly against the cupboards. “Run, you little chip-fanged wannabes!”
My heart thundered. Eyes wide, I found Trent. He looked magnificent, magic arching from hand to hand as he blasted anyone who got a foot inside the kitchen. There were six down already, and he took out the two I’d missed even as I watched. Breathless, I smiled as he shouted and blew a hole right through the wall and four more crashed backward into the fireplace. That was okay. Ivy had been talking about opening the two rooms up.
“Trent!” I shouted, realizing Bis was still on my shoulder, his wings open as he kept his balance. “I think we can do this!” I wouldn’t have to leave my church. I wouldn’t have to abandon the only place I’d ever felt was mine.
His expression was wild. He met my eyes, and something plinked through me. He loves me, I thought, knowing he’d do anything if it would keep me safe, even if that meant letting me do something stupid like try to save my church.
A head poked up behind the smoldering couch, visible past the broken wall. There was a sudden flurry of motion, and five bodies dove out of the open back door. The one remaining slowly stood. Smirking, he dropped something heavy. I watched it fall as if in slow motion.
Trent grabbed me, spinning me down and around. Bis’s wings flapped madly as we hunched into a ball.