“No. But Angelina can reach her end. Angie,” Melodie said. “Do you see the energy strand trailing from the hedge, one you twined into your smaller ward?”
“Yes,” Angie said.
Melodie said, “Good girl. Reach up to where it touches the top of your portable circle and, gently, tweak it loose.”
Angie smelled of worry. She knew the Melodie witch was lying. So did the Edmund vampire. But he frowned and nodded at Angie.
Angie reached up and tapped the top of her magics. George didn’t watch her. He watched the Melodie witch and tried not to growl.
There were sparks and flickers of color over George’s head.
Melodie’s hunger smell continued to rise, and she kept glancing at Edmund. The vampire knew he was being watched, though he pretended not to. KitKit should be here.
She could keep all the lies straight.
“Question,” Edmund said to Melodie. “If the small ward falls, won’t the children be caught in the same temporal displacement as their parents?”
“Angie, stop!” Liz said.
George liked Edmund. He would mark the vampire’s shoes and pants to show his approval first chance he got.
Angie’s fingers stopped moving.
For an instant, Melodie’s lips flattened. Her pores emitted the sour stink of frustration, on the night air. She lowered her head and schooled her expression to concern, but George was Bassett Hound. He could not miss the scent change.
Edmund said, “If Angie peels away the power she is drawing from the hedge of thorns, might that also destabilize the entire ward, resulting in a release of energy?”
Cia said, “We could have blown up the entire hillside.”
“We’d have been fine under our own circle,” Liz said, “but at the very least Ed would have been toast and the kids would have been stuck or killed.”
“I gotta peepee! I gotta peepee now!”
“Elizabeth,” Edmund said to Liz, “what would happen if the children simply pushed their small ward through the larger one?”
“We’d have… I don’t know. Cia?”
“I gotta peepee!”
“I think…the smaller ward would peel away and the kids would be free?” Cia said.
“But—”
“Good. We’re coming through,” Angie said.
“No!” both twins shouted.
George pulled his short but powerful legs under him. Angie touched the edge of her protective shield against the outer ward.
I gotta peepee! I gotta peepee! I gotta peepee!” EJ’s voice shrilled.
Angie shoved the small shield hard against the larger one. George helped. Angie smelled of effort and fear sweat again. The edge pressed through, and she and EJ and George followed. Her small ward did not explode. It was too strong. Stronger than the house ward.
Angie smelled proud but her ants smelled mad. “What?” she asked.
George growled very, very low. Dogs did not growl at family, but the ants smelled mean.
“You disobeyed us,” Liz said.
“I been studying the wards and how the energies worked. I figured it would be okay.”
“I gotta peepee!”
Angie’s magics made a cracking noise and fell in sparks. EJ jumped upright, his feet tangling in the blanket; he nearly fell. Edmund caught EJ and carried him behind a tree.
“I get to peepee on the tree? Sissy, I get to peepee on a tree!”
Edmund stepped back around the tree looking amused. George followed the little boy. He had to peepee too. And check the mail. Other dogs had peed here. The smells were…amazing. He had not been outside the ward in… Not ever. There were so many wonderful smells. He smelled EJ’s peepee and then peed himself in the same spot to show he owned EJ, and then he started smelling everything everywhere.
Angie said, “He is such a paaaaaain.”
George smelled magic. Strong bad magic on the wind. And guns and gun powder.
He looked up. Barked. Raced to Angie. Barked again. No one listened to him.
Scratch. Bite. Kill, KitKit thought.
Melodie raised her hands. She shot at Edmund. With a gun.
Edmund said a bad word and dove back on top of EJ, pushing him to the ground.
George saw lights and smelled strange smells as Liz threw magics at Melodie.
Edmund popped beside George and Angie, moving fast, the way vampires did, so fast the air popped. Edmund picked them up and raced behind the tree where EJ was hunkered down.
As fast as his powerful legs could, George leaped on top of EJ’s butt.
Edmund smelled dangerous and George liked his blood smell. Edmund was a good predator. Maybe better than KitKit.
Edmund said, “Angelina. Stay. Behind. The tree.” The smell of vampire magic rolled out over them, what the witches called vampire mesmerism. George should have barked and resisted, but he was suddenly so sleepy.
More gunshots rang out.
The vampire was gone with a small pop of sound.
George blinked his bad eyes. He was supposed to be doing something.
Angie petted George and EJ, who snuggled up against her, muttering sleepily about wanting a hamburger. Thankfully, the blanket was warm, and the smell of little-boy peepee and George pee was a happy smell.
Angie muttered something, broke the compulsion.
George whuffed in surprise. The Edmund vampire was a strong vampire, to put them all under his mesmerism. If KitKit was here, she would have known it was happening and she would have scratched the vampire with her claws. George was ashamed that he did not know the vampire was using his magic. Next time, he would know, and he would bite the vampire.
Angie duck-walked on short legs like a Bassett Hound around the tree to see better.
George walked around the tree to smell better. Sweat, anger, magic, desperation, and hunger were hot on the air.
The twins hit the Melodie witch with magic. They tackled her, restrained her, and left her. Melodie smelled unconscious. Everhart witches were excellent fighters. Even KitKit would approve. Snowflakes began to fall. George had never seen snow. It was beautiful!
Good. Witches. Happy. Freaking. Snow. But. We are. Dying, KitKit thought at him.
Liz asked, “Why would she shoot you?”
Edmund’s scent changed. It was deadly. Predator ready to kill. He said, “Perhaps I was the greater threat. Take me down and then take down the less powerful witches.”
Liz snorted like a Bassett Hound. It was a glorious sound. “Greater threat? I don’t think so. We were prepared, you weren’t. And what good would it do to take us down?”
“I assume that this particular witch is working with the humans attacking the ward,” Edmund said. “There have been tales of black ops government groups and even of private armies kidnapping witches for personal use.”
Liz secured the unconscious witch’s ankles and said, “Fangheads too. Witches for the power, bloodsuckers for the blood.”
George heard something with his beautiful ears. He whoofed softly.
Edmund whirled. “Movement cresting the hillside. The two back there may have backup.”
“Melodie’s gunfire alerted them,” Liz said. “Damn.”
“Keep the children safe,” Edmund said. He was gone with a soft pop.
Liz made a fierce face and smelled of deadly anger. It matched Edmund’s. “Give no quarter,” she shouted.
Angie’s family witches grabbed up EJ, George, and Angie, and raced behind their car. It was fast and George’s middle was sore. But that was better than being dead. The witches set up a protective, warming working.
EJ rolled over and George drooled on EJ’s back. This was nice. He did not like winter cold, and EJ was warm and smelled of the wonderful scent of pee that had splattered on his clothes.