blast lifted her off her feet and smashed her into another car, a Passat, maybe. It didn’t stop her; instead, she turned and fired one back, blindly, along the path of my blast. Which I wasn’t standing in anymore. Instead, I was standing four feet to the right, focusing on the moment she released her attack. In that instant, when her energy was blazing forth, I slipped through the tiny opening it created in her shields and planted a burst of power deep in her brainstem, like planting a hook. Then I pulled with everything I had. Instead of immolation, I removed the heat from her skull… all of it.
A rippling wave of hot air flashed out of her, leaving her frozen in place, literally. Her greasy hair was frosted to her head and a snotsicle connected her nose to her upper lip. She teetered before falling backward, her head shattering into a hundred shards of frozen flesh, bone, and brain. Wow—disgusting.
Ryanne groaned, the sound jolting me into motion. I scooped up the fallen book and stuffed it under my t-shirt, then I moved to Ryanne. A glance at Arcane showed the guards still struggling with the door, so I flicked enough power at the lamppost to shift it off the Lexan.
Ry was breathing okay, but she had slammed into the truck really hard, her torso catching the full brunt of the witch’s kinetic blast.
Voices hollered, footsteps stampeded, and then people were there. The guards, Dr. Rosewell, Gina, and Jenks all arrived. Rosewell pushed me gently out of the way and began to examine Ryanne. I stepped back to give her room, Gina taking my place for a moment.
Under my shirt, the book squirmed slightly, almost making me hurl right there. The waves of wrongness coming off it were overwhelming, and yet for some reason, I kept it hidden.
Gina stood up and turned to me. “What happened?”
Chapter 33
I told her the whole story with the omission of the book. The witch had been hellish strong, but I told her my guess was that this would turn out to be the missing New York City witch, the one who had murdered her whole circle and stolen their powers. Why was she here? No idea, unless she had somehow heard of a school in Vermont with young, naïve witches fresh for the draining.
“Declan, the guards, Jerry and Sean, saw you pick something up after the witch died. What was it?” Gina asked. I remembered belatedly that she used to be an NYPD detective.
“My phone,” I said, pulling it from my jeans pocket.
“You grabbed your phone before checking on Ryanne?” she asked, managing to question my intelligence and friend value in one shot.
I felt my eyes narrow.
Schinden sie für ihre Frechheit.
What? What the fuck was that? Was it out loud? Where’d that come from?
My face must have twitched or something. “It was on the ground, between me and Ry. If I needed to call 911, then I needed it in my hand, don’t you think?”
She studied me carefully. I could tell she wasn’t buying it. Not only that, but she was trying to decipher whatever emotions my face must have just flashed at her. After a few seconds, she turned and looked at the headless corpse.
“She almost beat you?” she asked. Again she managed to convey disbelief and disappointment in a single sentence.
“She attacked from ambush, which is why Ryanne was flattened first,” I said.
Gina glanced at me, eyebrows raised before the answer came to her. “Oh, a female would be the greater threat.”
I nodded. “If she was the missing witch, then it explains her power… she was carrying a full circle’s worth with her. She was also pretty skilled. She threw some stuff around that I’ve never seen before.”
“You didn’t recognize it?” Gina asked.
“Just because I’m strong doesn’t mean I know everything,” I said. “My mother died when I was eight. She didn’t have time to teach me a lot, and Aunt Ash didn’t know as much as Mom. I never met another witch until six months ago. The only reason I won is because Chris and Tanya chose to spend four days beating me senseless and I seem to have learned something.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry, Declan. I forget how young you are and as you say, we sometimes mistake raw power for experience. I’m afraid my old police instincts took over for a bit. How are you doing? With all that?” she asked, waving at the now-blanket-covered body.
I shuddered, but before