I backed up, shifting my gaze and trying to measure the distance between us and the door. Too far. I looked back toward the figure standing before me. “What did you do with Shane?”
“He is mine to do with as I wish.”
“I don’t think he’d agree with that,” I said. I retreated another step. For half a moment, I considered trying to amplify, to share his powers and fight him the way I had fought Susannah. But I dismissed it almost instantly. Sharing Susannah’s powers, even for a short time, had made me feel like something savage and vengeful had been thrashing about inside of me, hunting for an escape. I had felt her corruption, her loathing, and in the chaos I hadn’t been able to separate her thoughts from my own. I didn’t want to know what it would be like to touch the Beneath, even for an instant. Revulsion crept over me.
“His agreement wasn’t asked,” the Beneath answered. “It is my will.”
Esther stepped in front of me. She raised her left hand, and though the colors that began to shine at her wrist were weak and dim, her posture was alert, ready for attack. “Go, Audrey,” she said. “Warn Charles not to come home. Run.”
“He’ll kill you,” I said.
“I am aware of that.”
“No,” I said. She was more at risk than I was. Even now, the unseen Guardian bond that warned Leon I was in danger would be threading through the air, waking the instinct within him. He would appear; he wouldn’t ask questions, he’d just take me away—and leave Esther here. And I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let her be dragged Beneath, like Sonja and the other missing Kin, for it to squeeze the blood from her. For it to feed. I reached toward her. “Come with me.”
But before either of us could argue, or even speak another word—before I could attempt to amplify her powers—Shane was in motion. He crossed the room so quickly I almost didn’t see it, and then he was there, near, his hands in talons and slicing toward Esther.
She evaded him at first. Her own arm whipped up, thrusting him backward with enough force that he stumbled back several steps. It seemed to take him by surprise. He hesitated, watching her intently. The glow at her wrist was slightly warmer now. With one quick motion, she shoved Charles’s leather armchair toward Shane, forcing him to back up once more.
Then she charged.
She was graceful in motion, much faster than I’d have believed possible. She flew toward him, feinting and then sidestepping as he moved to counter. But Esther was out of practice. She hadn’t acted as a Guardian in years, and her powers had been diminished with age. When she tried to grip his neck, he ducked out of reach, and though she managed to deflect his second attack, the third time he caught her. His talons sank into her shoulders. He lifted her into the air and then hurled her across the room.
A scream tore from my throat.
I ran to her, my eyes fixed on the crimson that began to spread across her pale lavender blouse. The lights in her hand didn’t even flicker. They simply vanished. I grabbed her wrist, felt for a pulse. It was there, faint and erratic. Below the thick ooze of red, her chest rose and fell.
Shane stood watching me, but he didn’t attack. “Leave her,” he said. “Let her life soak the ground. Let her give no more gasps.” When I didn’t move, he took a step toward me.
Leon appeared in front of me then.
His back was to me. His tall frame blocked my vision of Shane, so that all I saw was the slight curl to his hair, the taut line of his shirt across his shoulders. And his arm, wrapped around someone much shorter. My eyes caught the shine of blond hair. A black sweatshirt and a white, eight-pointed star. He’d brought my mother with him.
Mom paused only long enough to glance at me and assure herself I was all right, and then she flung herself toward Shane, colors swirling out from both wrists and glimmering at the base of her throat.
Leon turned and knelt beside me, pulling me against him.
“She’s not dead,” I said quickly. “She’s still breathing. We have to get her to the hospital.”
“I need to get you out of here.”
“Mom has Shane distracted. I can wait. Esther can’t.”
He hesitated only a second. Then he nodded and gathered Esther into his arms. I saw her eyelids flicker. A groan escaped her lips. And then she and Leon disappeared, and there was only a smear of blood on the floor where they’d been.
I stood, facing Mom and Shane.
Charles’s desk was positioned between them, its contents knocked askew. The chair had been shoved to the ground, its wheels spinning as Shane thrust it away. For a moment neither of them moved—they waited, assessing, searching for some opening to seize.
“Stay back, Audrey. I’ve got this,” Mom told me.
“You don’t want me to amplify?”
“I want you to stay back,” she repeated.
Shane was still watching her. “I know you as well,” he said. “I have heard your voice through other ears. You call to the dark. You are no stranger to hate. You’ve tasted the blood of the hunt.”
“I mean to taste yours in a second.”
“Brave words, but meaningless,” he said. “If you stop the flow of life in this meat, I’ll take another. There are others, waiting. Eager to know my will. We are near the end now. We are at the cusp. Once the Circle has been opened, I’ll sate your thirst for blood. I will give you the first sip when I carve out your Kin-child’s heart.”
With a growl, Mom jumped up onto the desk and then threw herself toward him.
He evaded, but she battled him backward across the room, their movements almost too rapid for me to follow. Mom dodged, swung, aimed for his neck. Lights spun out from her fingertips. Shane retreated, again and again, though none of Mom’s blows seemed to connect. His talons swiped toward her head, then her chest, but didn’t catch. Finally, she had him backed up against the window, and with a sudden, violent shove she thrust him through it. Glass shattered, flying out all around them. Mom ducked her head out the window to see where he’d fallen. Her hair had fallen loose from its bun, blowing across her shoulders.
She turned back to me for a second. Her brow puckered. “Wait here,” she said, then leaped down from the window after him.
I walked to the window, picking my away across the glass. A gust of wind billowed in, scattering all the papers on Charles’s desk. They floated up into the air and then settled slowly to the floor. Careful not to cut myself on the shards that stuck in the window frame, I peered out into the dark of the yard. We were on the third floor—or at least I was. I could see Mom down in the grass below, the arc of lights flashing as she moved. Neither of them appeared to have been injured by the fall. Shane went on the offensive, swinging toward her, but she caught his arm, bending it backward. He kicked himself free from her and then held back warily. They circled each other across the lawn, the stars bright overhead.
Some of the stars were red.
“Audrey.”
I whirled. Leon stood before me, his shirt stained with Esther’s blood.
I almost couldn’t ask the question. I looked down at my feet, at the glass crushed beneath my sandals. A few of Charles’s books had toppled from the shelves. One lay open beside me, its pages rustling in the breeze. Finally, I said, “Is she still alive?”
“She’s alive,” he said. He moved to my side, lifting his hands toward my shoulders, but he didn’t touch me. After a second, he let his arms fall. “They were taking her in when I left. We should get back there.”
I nodded. “Mom is”—I turned, looking back through the window. She and Shane had vanished—“uh. Gone.”
“I’ll let her know to meet us there.”
“Thank you for helping Esther,” I said.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he pulled me to him and teleported.