For a dazed moment as I looked down at myself, I thought I was somehow still wearing my black jeans and blouse. But then I realized the dark tatters hanging over me weren’t clothes—it was my own charred skin. In the midst of the searing pain, I wanted to vomit and scream out of sheer horror, but Francine and Lisa were still fighting for their lives against a maniac determined to murder them. No matter what I looked like or how much it hurt, I didn’t have the option of panicking over the fire’s ravages or waiting until I finished healing to move. I had to act now, or burning myself to crisp by running into that fiery projectile had been for nothing.
I got up, unable to stuff back my gasp at what moving did to my blackened and cracking skin. You’ll heal, I repeated ruthlessly, then tried to force myself into the air. At the first attempt, I flopped back down immediately, cornhusks tearing into my still-partially-charred skin when I crashed. With another pained gasp, I got back up and tried again, flinging myself forward.
This time, I made it about thirty yards before I crashed, but it was enough for me to pinpoint where the deadly amber glow was. I ran in that direction, giving up on flying, the pain slowly starting to ease. Normally vampire injuries healed almost instantly, but with the extent of the damage the flames had caused both to skin and muscle, the healing was taking several minutes. Or it hurt so badly that it felt that way.
I burst into the triangular clearing right as flames licked the dry vegetation at the base of Lisa’s pole. Without slowing down, I barreled into her and lifted upward at the same time. The pole stayed in the ground, but the impact ripped Lisa free of the metal bindings. When the gasoline ignited and shot up the pole, she was already several feet above it, safely free of the flames.
That didn’t make her muffled screams decrease. Right before we crashed down, I saw that she stared at me with abject terror. Then I flipped so I’d take the bulk of the landing, stuffing back a shout as the impact reverberated through me, and the husks felt like they ripped all the new skin off my back.
Lisa expressed her gratitude for me sheltering her against the worst of the crash by punching and kicking me as soon as we skidded to a halt. The rough fall had knocked her gag loose, so she screamed between huge gasps of breath. Normally a human smacking and kicking me would have laughably little effect, but I fought the urge to crawl back into the fetal position and concentrated on catching her hands instead.
“Don’t hit me, that really hurts right now!”
My voice was hoarse to the point of being unrecognizable. Breathing in a lungful of fire will do that to a person, even if that person is a vampire. Lisa stopped fighting me, but she still had fear reeking from her pores even over the stench of gasoline.
“Cat?” she managed, sounding like she didn’t believe it.
“Who the hell else would it be?”
To make up for my sharp words, I tried to smile, but then stopped when that made her recoil. A glance at my arm showed I had a layer of soot over mostly healed skin, but there were still some grisly patches of charred flesh. Okay, so I looked like a crispy demon fresh from the pit, but it was still me.
A fresh river of tears spilled onto her cheeks. “B-but I saw you burn.”
“As Bones would say, right you are,” I told her with a shudder of remembrance. “I healed. Mostly.”
She still looked too shocked to believe me. “But . . . but . . .”
“No time for chatting, we need to get you out of here, and I have to find Francine,” I muttered, grasping her again. This time, she didn’t try to fight me off, but she did yelp when I lifted her and ran toward where my last aerial glimpse showed me the nearest stretch of road was. She’d be safer in the street, away from the fire that might start to spread even more if it wasn’t put out soon.
As soon as I saw pavement, I let her go, dashing back into the cornfield. The pain was almost gone now, to my vast relief. That allowed me to run faster, trying to listen for any sounds that would lead me to Francine. But just like when I walked in here with Sarah, the natural sounds of the drying husks rubbing together combined with the crackles from the nearby fire and the confusion in the other section of the fields as people started to notice the orange lights, my senses were effectively blanketed.
I was about to propel myself over the field and try flying again when a sharp crack rang out, and the stalk next to me exploded. I whirled in time to avoid the next bullet aimed at me, charging toward Kramer with vicious intentness. He’d landed those shots before because I was walking very slowly with Sarah bracing herself on my shoulder, but he wouldn’t get that lucky again.
I wrenched the gun away from him, taking ruthless pleasure in sending it sailing off as far as I could throw it. Silver bullets wouldn’t hurt him, so the gun was useless to me. He snarled as he tried to force me to the ground, but I used his wide stance against him by ramming my knee into his groin with enough force to pulverize his parts.
“Who’s crying now, motherfucker?” I spat, using that same knee to blast into his face when he doubled over. Those impacts hurt me, but not as much as they did him, and knowing that made my pain sweet. I sent another brutal hammer into his side, then another one, and another one.
Kramer fell back, unable to protect himself against the blows that came faster than he could react. The ghost had spent centuries dishing out punishment, but from his ineffective counterattacks, he hadn’t spent enough time learning how to defend against it. Battle lust surged through my veins, fueled by the rage I’d held back while Kramer was pawing at me and the knowledge of all the people who’d been unable to fight back due to the superstition and unfairness of the age they lived in. My blows rained down harder and quicker, every nasty, effective trick Bones taught me bearing glorious fruit in the hoarse grunts of pain coming from Kramer as he tried to shield himself.
No, you don’t get away! I thought, increasing my attack when he attempted to crawl out of range of my fists and feet. Especially not tonight.
Just when I was at the height of the euphoric high from delivering a well-deserved beat down, calamity struck.
. . . light over there . . . that’s fire! . . . got to get out of here . . . where are the kids? . . . oh my God, the crops! . . . help, someone help me!
A hundred different voices assailed my mind at the same instant, as debilitating as a karate kick to the face. I clutched my head before I could stop myself, backing away from Kramer in a blind attempt to run before he noticed that I’d stopped beating the shit out of him. But that merciless cascade of voices chased me as I went, growing in volume as if fueled by my agitation.
Kramer launched himself at me with the same single-minded determination I’d showed with him. This time, it was me who couldn’t field the blows fast enough as those voices hammered away in my mind, taking my focus away during the critical split seconds between ducking a kick or punch and having one land with devastating effect. His tackle brought me to my knees, and then a sharp crack to my back had me bent over with pain shooting up my spine. Kramer drew back his foot to kick me again—and his leg was yanked upward. He fell back and was pounced upon by a beautiful brunette who, at the moment, was as solid as he was.
“Run, Cat!” Elisabeth urged me, pounding away at her murderer.
I didn’t run. I waited with overflowing gratitude while Elisabeth gave me the precious moments needed to force the voices down to levels where they didn’t cripple me with distraction. By the time Kramer had regained the upper hand, throwing her to the ground and landing punishing blows to her midsection, I was on my feet, a fresh surge of determination cascading through me. If Elisabeth was here, then Bones couldn’t be far behind.
I launched myself onto the Inquisitor, ripping my fangs through the back of his neck hard enough to sever every tendon. The foulest taste filled my mouth—not blood, but something damp and moldy like it had come from the ground. I spat it out but kept ripping at his neck because it made him scream with pain and stop punching Elisabeth. She vanished underneath in the next moment, app
earing beside me in her usual vaporous, hazy state.
“I can’t help you any more!” she said in anguish. “I don’t have the strength to remain solid.”
Kramer tried to get up, but I rammed my knee into his back hard enough to cripple a normal person and tore a larger hunk out of his neck, spitting it out before answering her.
“You already gave me the help I needed.”
Kramer said something to her in German, unbelievably able to talk despite what I’d done to his neck. I caught the word “hure” amidst the others and snaked an elbow around his throat, pulling up with all my might.
I felt an abrupt lessening of tension, fell backward from my momentum and not having anything to grasp anymore, but when I sprang to my feet, Kramer was also on his. Not only did he still have a head, but the damage I’d done to his neck looked completely healed.
“You can’t kill me, Hexe,” Kramer said, poison dripping off each word. “I am beyond your powers.”
“I’m going to show you that you’re not,” I snarled.
“Why do you fight?” he demanded. “Though you and the others live now, you cannot run from me forever, and you will never trick me into one of your cunning traps.”
I looked up at the sky behind him and smiled, feeling a familiar swell of unadulterated power wash over me.
“You’re right. I’m in no shape to fly you 250 miles to where our new trap is.” Kramer’s victorious smile ebbed when I added, “But I bet my husband’s up for the job.”
Kramer turned around just in time to have a dark form blast into him with enough force to dig a deep furrow into the ground.
“And they say I can’t land without making a mess,” I commented to no one in particular.
Thirty-eight
Bones took one look at my condition and began beating the dark, foul-tasting substance out of Kramer. I’d done a fair job against him myself, but Bones was a lot stronger and hadn’t used up most of his energy healing himself from being burned to kingdom come, let alone been overwhelmed by unexpected voices. I would have loved to keep watching, but I still had things to take care of.
“I need to make sure Francine’s out of the fields,” I said, speaking up to be heard over Kramer’s groans of pain. “She’s covered in gasoline; if she runs into the wrong section of field, it could kill her.”
That wasn’t a concern for me anymore. I was pretty sure any part of my skin that formerly had gasoline on it had been burned off.
“Go,” Bones said, his arm so tight around the Inquisitor’s throat that it would kill him if he weren’t already dead. “I’ve got him.”
I didn’t waste my time running through the fields but mustered up my sagging energy and flew, making sure to keep low enough to see. With the glow from the fire and some of my skin peeking out from under the soot, it was possible anyone looking in my direction might spot me, but hopefully they would think it was a trick of the flames.
With my new vantage point, it didn’t take long at all to spot the trench carving itself into the cornfield that was caused by someone running. I swooped over, not aiming for Francine when I descended because I knew better. Sure enough, I bounced around in a landing that made her scream from fear and run in the other direction, but I got up and grabbed her before she went out of sight again.
“Francine, it’s Cat!” I said, hearing from her thoughts that she didn’t recognize me. After a few good shakes of her shoulders, she lost that terrified blankness in her gaze.
“Cat?” Her face crumpled, and I picked up words like “hideous” and “zombie” as she tried to absorb my appearance now with what I looked like before. “What did he do to you?”
“Burned me like a hamburger on the Fourth of July,” I supplied, glad there weren’t any full-length mirrors nearby. “It looks worse than it is, but we need to get you out of here.”
I propelled myself into the air high enough to see which direction the road was, then dropped back down, wincing because I hadn’t slowed my descent enough to make that painless.
“All right,” I gritted out, cursing whatever I’d done to my ankles. “Let’s go.”
I carried her as I ran through the field toward the road. She could walk, but this was much faster. Once she was safely on the road, crying with relief when she saw Lisa a ways up, I headed back to Bones. This time, I didn’t need to hover above the fields to pinpoint where I wanted to go. I could feel his power reaching out to me, drawing me nearer like a beacon.
When I reached him, I saw with relief that he still had Kramer in a viselike grip. While I didn’t think the ghost was strong enough to wrestle himself away, I was worried about his poofing away, if he could transform himself back to vapor at will. But then I saw what was in Bones’s hand and I laughed out loud at the stunned look on the Inquisitor’s face.
“How do you like the Taser? That was Tyler’s idea after seeing you zapped into flesh when you were fucking with our electricity.”
“I don’t think he fancies it much at all, do you?” Bones asked, pressing its prongs into Kramer’s side. The ghost jerked, eyes bugging in a way that confirmed it hurt.
Well, then it was an effective and fun tool.
Bones tore the Inquisitor’s black robes from him, revealing wrinkled, pasty flesh that I wished was covered back up. Kramer unleashed a torrent of curses at this, but both of us ignored him.
“Do you want to put this on?” he asked, holding the robe out to me.
I looked at it with loathing. “I’d rather stay naked.”
The barest smile touched Bones’s mouth. “Of course. Hold him for a moment.”
I kept a solid grip on the ghost while Bones took off his shirt. Kramer kept up with his threats against me, my family, my friends, my ancestors, and anyone else the Inquisitor could think up. With his shirt off, I saw that Bones had more Tasers strapped to his upper arms. We should have enough voltage to keep Kramer from attempting to dematerialize, if he even had that ability before the sun rose.
I’d passed Kramer off to Bones and slipped his shirt over my head when two other large objects came beaming toward us from the sky. Ian and Spade, I noted, the latter carrying Tyler. No wonder the medium looked even less pleased about flying than usual.
They landed with a smooth grace that made me jealous. Unlike Bones, who now only had on a pair of pants and boots, all three men wore long trench coats. Spade took one look at me, and his was off before he’d gone another step.
“Thanks,” I said, putting it on more because I was cold than any concerns about flashing my butt if Bones’s shirt rode up.
Ian, ever tactful, had another form of hello.
“Christ, Reaper, with your bald head and all that soot, you look like a mannequin someone attacked with a blowtorch.”
“Ian, if I weren’t holding this sod, you’d be on the ground right now,” Bones gritted out.
“I’m not holding anyone,” Spade said, and whacked Ian hard enough to make him stagger.
I ran my hand over my head and winced when all I felt was smooth skin. Well, what did I expect? That my hair had been fireproof?
“Please tell me there’s a neat vampire trick that can help me grow this back quicker?”
“There is, and you’re lovely with or without hair,” Bones said, actually making it sound sincere.
Tyler held open his coat in flasher style, grinning when Kramer let out a fresh spurt of curses at him.
“Look what I brought for you, ghostfriend!”
I no longer had any worries about our having enough Tasers for the long trip. Tyler’s coat was stuffed with them, as were his pants pockets and the holster straps around his shirt. “That’s why they brought me,” he went on. “Didn’t want to be packing as many themselves in case they had to fight, but I’m weighted down with them. Now that it looks like you’ve got things under control, let’s pass these puppies out.”
I took a few Tasers, filling up the folds and pockets of Spade’s coat. Ian and Spade divvied up the rest, testing a
few out on Kramer just for kicks, it looked like.
“We need to check on Lisa and Francine,” I said.
We found them right where I had left them, far enough up the street to be away from the mass of activity that was now taking place at the entrance to PumpkinTown. I was just telling them to head over there so they could get treated by the ambulances that were arriving when I heard something crash through the fields about a hundred yards away. I caught brief snatches of yelps over the approaching sirens, crackling flames, chaos from the Halloween guests, and constant rustling noises from the cornstalks. But it was the mental screams and distinct patterns of white noise that identified who was out there.
I didn’t need to see her to know that Sarah was going deeper into the fields, not toward the safety of the roads. The fire department might get here in time to save her, but then again, they might not. With Sarah’s broken ankle and internal injuries from Kramer’s kicks, there was a good chance she wouldn’t outrun the flames or would be overcome with smoke. Sarah had looked forward to watching me, Lisa, and Francine burn, but despite its being poetic justice, I couldn’t sentence her to the same fate.
“It’s Sarah,” I said, squaring my shoulders. “I’ll go get her.”
Spade was off like a shot before the last word left my mouth. A few moments later, I heard a scream. Saw a streak of movement going straight up until that scream faded away, and I couldn’t follow them with my gaze anymore. And then, about a minute later, I heard a rush of panicked thoughts right before something fell from the sky at a great speed, landing in the field with a thump I more sensed than heard.
Spade came plummeting down far slower. He landed without a single hitch in his stride, a dark little smile playing about his lips.
“Turns out she doesn’t need your assistance,” he said, tone as casual as if he’d just helped Sarah cross a street, not dropped her from at least a mile up. Spade was usually chivalrous to a fault, but try to kill his wife, and you wouldn’t have a former eighteenth-century nobleman on your hands. You’d have a lethal, avenging vampire.