His nerve endings sizzled with the power. In the distance, he heard the rumble of thunder.
Impusa heard it too. She turned to the nearest window, a smile on her lips.
“Alright, little man. You want to play. Let’s play. In the end, I’m sure you’ll see things my way.”
He was halfway across the room before he realized she’d thrown a blast of energy at him that flung him toward the wall. He hit with an audible crack, chunks of plaster falling around him.
Wincing at the ringing in his ears, he shook his head and stood, letting his own energy reverberate under his skin like an engine in a hot rod.
“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” he replied. “Hope your homeowners’ insurance is paid up because it was about to get messy.”
Then he drew down the elements that called to him, beckoning him. Always.
And he let them have free rein.
* * *
Bella woke to warm rain beating on her aching head. It felt good.
“Tinia’s teat, Bella. I was afraid I was going to have to take you back to the hotel.”
Luca’s voice came from above her as he held her on his lap.
She stood, shaking herself, testing her bones for weakness or breaks.
She didn’t seem to have any injuries.
But fear had crept in. Would she be able to change forms?
Closing her eyes, she focused inward, focused on her human form. At first, it seemed as if she couldn’t find the power to make the change and the fear became an almost raging terror.
But she stomped it down with determination and tried again.
And nearly wept with joy when her body reverted to its true form.
Kneeling on the grassy earth, she stopped for a second to just breath. Then she took the shirt Luca had pulled over his head and was handing to her.
Looking around, she realized they were in a cemetery, one of the amazingly creepy, aboveground cemeteries New Orleans was known for.
Thunder rumbled overhead, lightning cracked… And she knew.
Fear cramped her stomach. “Gods, Luca, please don’t tell me you left him alone?”
Luca’s strong hands settled on her shoulders, holding her in place and she knew she wouldn’t be able to get away unless she hurt him.
“He made me promise to get you out of there.” Luca had to raise his voice to be heard over the storm, a fierce one by the sound of it. “But I knew you’d want to stay close. I already called Diego and he’s on his way.”
“We have to go back, Luca.”
Luca shook his head. “He doesn’t want you there, Bella. You’ll distract him and he needs to concentrate—”
“Do you know what he’s planning? Do you know what it could do to him?”
Luca glanced up at the angry gray sky then back to her, sympathy in his eyes. “Yeah, I know. It’s his choice, Bella. I gave him my word I would keep you safe and out of it. Your safety is my only concern.”
Gods, how could she make him understand?
She began to struggle against his hold, trying to find a weak spot without hurting him. She had to get back to Steven. But where the hell was he?
A lightning bolt struck a house down the street, showering sparks .
Showing her exactly where she needed to be.
* * *
Steven knew why his mother had trained him so relentlessly to control the darker emotions of rage and hunger.
They were so damn seductive.
The storm had rolled in almost immediately when he’d called it. The power in knowing he controlled the storm ran through his veins like supercharged adrenaline.
His body buzzed with electricity, blood pounding in time to the thunder outside. He knew he’d shocked Impusa with his frontal assault. The surprise on her face when the force of his magic hit her had made him smile. He’d laughed out loud when she hit the wall.
But when she rose and dusted herself off, he knew it wasn’t going to be easy to best her. And he had to if he was going to end this once and for all.
“Did you think it would be that easy?” she sneered. “Nothing is ever as easy as it seems, boy. Especially when you’re dealing with me.”
She shoved a wall of air at him that lifted him off his feet and flung him twice as hard in the opposite direction. His head hit the wall again, making spots swim in front of his eyes. He got to his feet, but she immediately threw him like a rag doll up to the ceiling, bouncing him against the plaster and letting him drop to the floor.
His body, unused to this physical punishment, wanted to give up the battle right there. His knees buckled as he tried to stand and he decided to stay on his knees, play this up. His stomach rolled, threatening to toss its contents at the pain in his head and he didn’t know if he could raise his left arm because that had taken the brunt of the fall to the floor.
Impusa came closer but still out of physical reach. “Does it hurt, Steven?” she cooed, as if talking to a child. “Your body wasn’t made for physical pain. You’ve spent too much time behind a desk. Your father… Now, your father was a fine specimen.”
She was baiting him. He knew it, yet couldn’t stop himself. “You know nothing about him. Don’t bother telling me your lies—”
Impusa tsked. “Such a tragedy, his death. Trying to save that young girl. Pity there really was no young girl to save. What you might not realize is that we’ve been planning this quite a long time, Steven.”
He tried to shut out her words and prepare to take this fight to the next level. Now that he’d called the storm, he had to harness its power so he could knock this bitch into the last century. And if that failed… Well, maybe he’d get lucky and damage her enough that she’d have to kill him before he could kill her.
“Your poor mother, such a burden she carried all those years. And her family, so closely involved with the
Mal
. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”
No, it didn’t. Anything she said was suspect. His parents were dead. Killed because the
Mal
was evil.
What mattered now was that Bella was alive. He wanted to stay alive to love her but if he couldn’t, well, he was taking this bitch with him.
The electricity in the air began to build, a huge static charge that made his hair stand on end.
Impusa didn’t look impressed. In fact, she laughed. “I’ve done my homework, Steven. You don’t have the training to harness the type of power you’re playing with. And even if you did, you wouldn’t be able to control it. If you try to strike at me, you might hit yourself. And you have something to live for, don’t you?”
Yeah, he did. But he also had something to die for.
To a creature that didn’t have to worry about mortality, she wouldn’t know what that meant.
“I may not have the training.” He continued to draw the electricity out of the air, to gather a charge. “But then I don’t need training to channel the lightning. I just need to draw it to me.”
And he did.
The bolt split through the roof and struck him in the shoulder. The shock to his system nearly knocked him out.
Vaguely, he felt chunks of plaster and wood fall around him, as did the rain through the gaping hole in the ceiling.
The electricity fought to get to the ground but he wrestled enough of it through his body to be able to direct it out at Impusa.
She hadn’t been expecting it, hadn’t thought he’d be able to pull it off, and took the shot of redirected energy directly in the chest.
He heard her scream and, through a nearly blinding sheet of pain, he watched her fly into the wall behind her, her body actually making a hole straight through.
Lightning trailed after her, coursing through her until her skin sizzled with energy.
He tried to hold steady, but the lightning decided it’d had enough of being directed and shot through him to the ground.
And then the pain started.
So much pain, the hair all over his body ached with it. His bones felt like they’d been set on fire and his skin felt as if it were stretched
And then everything went dark.
* * *
“Holy shit,” Luca said.
Bella struggled in his arms, trying to break his binding spell. “Release me, Luca. Now. Steven needs me.”
She knew it with every particle of her being. He was in pain. She felt it as surely as she felt the binding spell locking her in place.
“Luca, please, let me go.”
Her
praetorian
looked into her eyes and released her. She scrambled to her feet and bolted for the house.
The smell of ozone and charred wood burned her nose. She ran faster at the smell of smoke.
She heard Luca call for her, felt his presence behind her but she couldn’t stop. She had a very real sense of déjà vu as she ran. She remembered the day her parents had been murdered. She’d run through the forest, knowing she needed to get to her parents, feeling an urgency she couldn’t explain.
Today, she knew well what could be waiting for her at that house.
She couldn’t lose Steven.
The house was on fire when she got there but she hit the door at a flat run and bounced back when it bowed but didn’t break.
She threw herself against it again, frustration and fear beginning to gnaw at her. She didn’t even realize she was screaming Steven’s name until strong arms wrapped around her from behind.
“Bella, you’re going to hurt yourself,” Luca said. “Let me.”
He moved her aside and smashed through the door with one well-placed kick near the lock.
“Steven!”
She ran into the house and into chaos. The front room had collapsed in on itself and flames licked at the walls even as rain fell through the hole in the ceiling. Bits of wood and paper and fabric floated in the air and the foul stench of burned things nearly made her retch.
“Steven!”
The framework of the house groaned around her and she heard Luca tell her to be careful.
She barely heard him. She had to get to Steven. He was in here and he needed her.
She called to him again and heard a faint groan from somewhere in the back of the room. Heading for the sound, she started throwing debris out of her way. Luca moved ahead of her, seemingly oblivious to the heat and the flames flaring around him.
They found him pinned beneath a beam, unmoving.
“No, no, no.”
She heard the despair in her voice and had to force the fear away.
Blood ran from a gash on his head, so much it had stained most of the front of his shirt. But it was the blood running from his ears and the corners of his mouth that terrified her.
She dropped to her knees beside him but Luca was there before her. Before she could tell him not to, he lifted the beam off Steven so she could pull him out. Then Luca picked Steven off the floor as if he weighed nothing and turned to leave.
They were almost to the door when the building began to shake.
“Run, Bella, it’s coming down!”
They ran, making it outside just as the house collapsed behind them.
Bella heard sirens getting closer, surprised the police and fire engines weren’t here already. Luca didn’t stop. He took off, away from the sirens.
“Bella, here. Quick.” Luca stopped at a car on the street. “Open the door. Hurry.”
Without checking to see if it was locked, she smashed her hand through the passenger-side window and opened the door. Climbing in the backseat, she helped Luca slide Steven’s unmoving body into the car.
Luca practically ripped open the driver’s side door to get in and placed his hand on steering wheel. With a muttered spell, the car started.
The first cop pulled around the corner as Luca floored it. Sirens blaring, he came after them. She didn’t care. She ripped at Steven’s clothing, a hand on his wrist. He’d gone so still.
And now she couldn’t find a pulse.
“Bella, we’ll be there in five minutes.”
Someone screamed, a continuous wail. After a few seconds, she realized it was in her head. She couldn’t think, could barely function. Steven was dying. She had to do something but she didn’t know what, didn’t know how.
No. She
did
know how. She
could
do this. She
had
to do this.
Houses whizzed by as Luca tried to lose the cop, still close enough that she could hear the squeal of tires behind them. She drew in a deep breath and shut it out. Shut everything out except Steven.
She couldn’t lose him like this.
She wouldn’t.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Steven woke in a haze of pain so severe, he couldn’t even cry out.
It was all he could do to keep conscious.
“Shh, Steven. Go back to sleep.” Bella whispered in his ear, her voice soothing. “You need to rest.”
He tried to shake his head, tried to make her understand. Wanted to tell her he loved her, in case he didn’t wake again, but he couldn’t form the words. All he could do was stare at her beautiful face and try to ride out the pain before it went dark again.
The next time he surfaced, the pain had receded to the point that he could speak.
“Bella.”
“Hey, bro. Take it easy.” Cole’s voice this time, his hand almost too heavy on Steven’s shoulder.
Steven turned his head toward the voice, groaning at the pain in that simple movement. “Bella?”
“Asleep. Right here.” Cole pointed behind him but Steven couldn’t bring himself to see that far. “Don’t be an ass and wake her. She hasn’t slept much the past two days.”
“Two days?”
“Yeah, you did it up right.” Cole’s hand tightened on his shoulder for a few brief seconds, but Steven still felt the tremor running through him. “Don’t fucking do it again. You scared the shit out of us, man. Your heart stopped twice after they got you back to the hotel.” Cole turned his head to speak to someone behind him. “Go get Dr. Kent.” Then Cole leveled his dark gaze back on him. “How do you feel?”
“Like…maybe dying would’ve been easier.”
Cole’s expression hardened. “If you weren’t in such bad shape, I’d punch you for that. Don’t
even
say that around Bella. She
will
hit you. That was a fucking stupid stunt, you idiot.” He paused. “Did it work?”