That left Sasha blasting another spel at Chloe, who threw up another shield to block it, but sprawled onto her backside when it struck.
Her heart pounded so loudly in her ears, al she could hear was the rush of blood. Magic hummed beneath her skin, waiting for her to direct it. She wracked her brain for any self-defense spel s she knew.
Merek’s teaching of Alex hadn’t included lessons in casting because wolves couldn’t cast wel . Chloe didn’t think she could do any of the physical moves they’d dril ed. The only magic she was proficient at was what she used at home and at work. Potion making, practical everyday magic. Merek would know the right spel s if he were here, and her heart cinched so hard thinking of him that she gasped with the pain. Tears pricked her eyes. There was another kind of spel she’d used recently, with Merek. Seduction spel s. She staggered under the weight of agony that threatened to crush her, and she desperately tried to shove it away, to remain numb.
The Fae woman’s face swam before her tear-glazed eyes.
That face had haunted her dreams for weeks. The woman who’d tortured her, ripped her already-fragile sense of safety away in a handful of moments. Rage exploded inside her, and she didn’t need the spel s.
Her magic simply reacted as she wanted it to; the simple magic she used with Merek turned dark and deadly.
Massive bolts of lightning shot from her fingertips, sizzling toward the other woman. Sasha tried to set a magical shield around herself, but the amount of fury behind Chloe’s spel meant some of it got through.
A cold smile of satisfaction curled Chloe’s lips as she watched utter shock widen the Fae’s eyes. Then her body began to writhe as the lightning hit her, arced around her, bit into her flesh. A harsh scream wrenched from her throat. The shield before her wavered, and Chloe used the momentary lapse to her advantage. A part of her was stunned at her own ruthlessness, while the rest of her simply reacted.
Another round of lightning forked from her hands, slamming into the Fae. The anger inside Chloe was nowhere near burning out, and she fed it into the spel . Flashes of memory erupted in her mind. Her own torture by this woman. Barely escaping the last ful moon with Alex. Tess’s betrayed, hurt expression when she’d found out they’d al lied to her. The stench of Luca’s flesh igniting in the morning sun. Blood covering Merek’s body, his beloved gray eyes going blank. A raw sob tore from Chloe, but she didn’t al ow herself to stop.
What remained of Sasha’s shield disintegrated in a shower of blue sparks, and Chloe hit the other woman again and again. The shrieks that came from the Fae were barely human, a wild sound of pain. The noise trailed off as she final y passed out, but her body kept jerking spasmodical y under the hits of lightning.
Chloe could kil the other woman. She wanted to kil her. For Merek, for Alex, for herself, for being part of an organization that had harmed so many she loved. She stood on the edge of a precipice she’d never faced before. Violence, rage . . . murder.
For Merek, she pul ed back, shut down the magic. For Alex and Tess, she didn’t al ow herself to look at what her hate had produced. It would fuel her nightmares for years to come.
She had won the fight, but no sense of victory stole through her as she turned away. She was numb, final y, and she welcomed it. Anything to keep from feeling, from coping with what she had seen and done.
She staggered only a step or two before she ran toward the sound of a scream in the night. High-pitched and terrified. Only a woman’s voice could make a noise like that. Tess.
The sound cut off so abruptly it sent chil s racing over Chloe’s flesh. She paused, staring blindly into the cloud-shadowed darkness. Gods, she fucking hated the dark. “Tess!”
Where had the sound come from? She didn’t know which way to go now. Shit. The glare from the city lights only made it harder to see.
“Tess!”
The scream came again, ending in a gurgling choke. Chloe’s heart hammered against her breastbone, and she shot forward, sprinting through the night and praying the roof stayed even underneath her.
The clouds parted, and moonlight gilded the gruesome scene before her. Gregor circled Tess, fangs bared and dripping pink foam. Blood poured from a series of bite marks around Tess’s throat, but she was stil on her feet, stil fighting. The vampire feigned left, darting right in a blur of speed, but Tess had already dived for the ground, both fists swinging in blind arcs.
She connected, hard.
The vampire staggered back maybe an inch, but Tess kicked out with her foot and swept him off his feet.
Damn impressive for a Normal to be holding her own against a ful -grown male vamp. Chloe shook herself, and torched the bloodsucker with her lightning. He jolted and spun, hunching forward in a hissing roar that made her heart stop. He came at her, fangs gleaming in the moonlight.
Chloe glanced around, frantic. A weapon. She needed a weapon. Spel s alone wouldn’t do much to a vampire. Only sunlight would, and it was nighttime. She sliced him with lightning again, concentrating hard on the glow of it. Sunshine. She needed it to be sunshine. Her magic answered her commands eagerly. The crackle of it lifted the hair on the back of her neck. A bal formed between her hands, so bril iant she had to turn her face away and close her eyes.
A hoarse shout from Gregor, and the stink of burnt flesh told her the spel was working. It was too much to maintain for long, but when she blinked her eyes open, there was no one near her. Not Gregor, not Tess.
The hol ow crash of metal sounded as the torched vampire ricocheted off the doorframe before streaking through the open door and into the bowels of the building, clearly deciding this wasn’t a fight he could win.
Good.
She didn’t have a moment for relief as Alex came tumbling by with Smith. The teen wolf’s flesh was shredded to ribbons, his face a barely recognizable mass of blood and broken bones.
The slightly smal er female wolf tackled a pursuing Tess. Lashing backward with her foot, Tess caught the she-wolf in the chest. The wolf grunted, but Tess didn’t have time to do more than rol over before the she-wolf was on her again. The Normal used the heel of her hand to snap the she-wolf’s muzzle back and up.
Both let out an agonized howl as Tess gripped her now broken wrist and the she-wolf tripped back.
Chloe didn’t know what to do, who to try to save. Alex punched al ten talons into Smith’s sides, and the bigger wolf howled in rage, pummeling the boy with fists that sounded like concrete impacting flesh.
Tess’s shriek spun Chloe back toward the other fight. The she-wolf had the Normal on her back, hunching over her body, a taloned hand around her friend’s throat. Tess thrashed for air, for life.
“Get off her, bitch.” Chloe drew back a hand, flung a firebal over the she-wolf’s head, searing her back, but not doing much damage. She had to get the wolf away from Tess. She had to.
Gods help her.
The she-wolf writhed in pain, her huge, half-shifted form crushing Tess. Chloe rushed forward, throwing al of her weight behind the push, but her strength was no match for any werewolf. The she-wolf whipped around and sank her fangs into Tess’s thigh, ripping through cloth and flesh.
“No!” Bitten. Tess had been bitten by a wolf on ful moon, the time of Change. Oh. Gods.
Silver. silver. SILVER. Find Silver. A chorus of whispers sounded off in Chloe’s head. Werewolves were al ergic to silver.