in time. Already my body was slowing down, and I recognized the traitorous fatigue spreading through me. I was out of power. It was over.
I didn’t stop, but my running slowed to a jog, and then I was just sort of stumbling along. Odessa was nearly a block ahead of me, twelve feet away from the train car.
She was just altering her angle so she could make a grab for the ladder—when Tobias burst out of the shadows. He hit her in a bone-crushing tackle that would have done any college football player proud.
Odessa let out a squeak and the two of them went tumbling, coming to a stop inches away from the metal rails. I allowed my flagging body to stop too, watching to make sure they both landed uninjured. I couldn’t make it to them, though—my legs suddenly stopped working, and I made a half-assed attempt to get my hands up before I toppled to the ground.
I never actually hit the asphalt, though, because Milburn caught me. I couldn’t even tell what direction he’d come from, but he was suddenly there. If nothing else, I’d succeeded in chasing Odessa out of the circle that kept vampires out.
I mumbled something at Milburn, and he lifted my right arm and draped it across his shoulders, supporting me around the waist with his left arm. Ahead of us, Tobias had bounced to his feet, and a dazed-looking Odessa was trying to haul herself up, one hand holding the back of her head. When she was at last upright, it was to find Beau standing two inches in front of her, arms crossed over his chest. I couldn’t see his face from where I was, but I didn’t imagine it was friendly.
Odessa, unsurprisingly, burst into tears.
She threw her arms around the vampire. “Uncle Beau, I’m so, so sorry,” she sobbed, burying her face in his shirt. “Whitney said all these things, and I just got so caught up, and—and—”
“Shut up, Odessa,” Beau said, and in his voice was a bone-deep weariness that was somehow also terrifying. “You killed two of my brothers, murdered an innocent human, and destroyed countless of the Unsettled. You have disgraced me in every way possible, and broken my heart to boot. At least have the decency to take ownership of your choices. I’d like to think you’re capable of that much maturity.”
Milburn and I were limping along—okay, he was basically supporting all my weight so we could join the others—and I was close enough to see Odessa sniffle a couple of times, then straighten, tossing her head to clear away the wet hair. The devastated teenager was gone, and this Odessa regarded Beau with cool eyes. “What happens now?” she said, her tone ice cold.
“We’re going to the police station,” Beau said, “where you will turn yourself in for the murder of Becca Rhodes.”
She snorted. “So you’re, what, putting me in time-out to think about what I’ve done? I’ll get out, you know. And I’ll go back to making spirit bottles, and the first one I make will have your name on it.” She tilted her head for a moment. “Hell, if the prison is haunted, I could just—”
“Beau,” I called. “Take off her witch bag.”
He raised his eyebrows at me, and a moment of understanding passed between us as he made the decision to trust me. He tucked two fingers in the back of Odessa’s shirt and deftly pulled out a small leather bag on a cord, dropping it onto the ground.
It was almost too easy. My body was tired, but I dropped effortlessly into my boundary magic mindset, where Odessa’s life force glowed bright and blue. I reached out a hand, imagining ghostly fingers extending from my own. I cupped that blue spirit in my hands and gave it the slightest jerk.
Odessa gasped, her body going stiff, and for just a second I was sorely tempted to finish the job. I could yank the life force out of her and pull it into me. I could take that magic for myself and use it to do anything, hurt anyone, stop my enemies from—
“That’s enough,” Milburn’s voice said softly, and I forced myself to let go, to drop my boundary mindset. It was hard, harder than I was comfortable with. But I did it.
When I could see normally again, Odessa was on her hands and knees, staring at me with huge eyes as she struggled for breath. Beau stood over her, unmoving. I wondered what this