“I guess we’re gonna find out.”
I reached for my collar, casting a quick glance at Sawyer, who nodded, grim-faced, so I opened the catch. The necklace tumbled to the ground and someone gasped.
I stilled as the change flowed over me, relishing the flare of strength and power, the knowledge that anyone with a brain should be afraid. They should be very afraid.
In this form life was magnified—color and sound and scent. Every whisper, every movement, from the revenants crashed in my ears like waves breaking on a rocky beach.
Sanducci’s eyes glistened onyx, his hair blue-black night, his skin— “Ahh.” I rubbed against him.
The sun sparkled off his skin, and he smelled like . . .
“Lunch.”
The vein in his neck pulsed as it called my name.
Ba-bump. Liz-zy. Ba-bump. Liz-zy.
“Do it,” Jimmy growled.
“Happy to.”
When I was a vampire, the urge to kill was impossible to deny. Hand in hand with that urge went another, that of an alpha wolf drawn to destroy any other alpha in the vicinity. I felt myself pulled toward Jimmy like the tide.
My fangs lengthened, the sensation itchy. The only thing that would soothe it was blood; the only way to end the buzzing in my brain was death.
But how to kill a dhampir. It wasn’t easy. Twice in the same way. Two stakes to the heart. Two golden bullets—kill shots in the exact same place.
I had no weapon but myself. I wanted to drain him, but how did I do that twice? Only one way to find out.
I reached for his head.
“No!”
The word swirled around me, along with a cool, twinkling mist. My arms fell to my sides. I was no longer on an errand of mercy; in this form I didn’t even know what that meant. I still wanted to kill Sanducci, but because of the fairy dust I couldn’t.
I guess Summer wasn’t dead. I’d fix that later.
My fangs still itched; my throat was parched; my stomach cramped in agony. But there was another powerful being very nearby.
I turned toward Sawyer.
“Lizzy, no,” Jimmy said. “That won’t help. You have to kill me.”
“Can’t,” I muttered, drawn across the grass toward the dazzling scent of blood and man and magic that was Sawyer. “And I’m not Lizzy.”
Jimmy began to curse and fight his bonds in earnest.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw fairy dust flying like cat fur in a catfight as Summer splashed the army of revenants.
“Grab her,” she ordered, and they went after the Phoenix like fury.
She fried them of course, but it took her some time. Which allowed me to reach Sawyer.
His face was so sad. I tilted my head. Sadder than I’d ever seen it. His pulse did not beat my name; his pulse barely beat at all.
“You chose him,” Sawyer said.
“Liz loves him. Always has, always will.”
“I know.” In his voice lay despair, and I breathed it in like nectar.
“So sad,” I murmured. “I like it.”
I pressed my hand to his chest, felt his heart beating beneath.
“One thing before I go,” he said.
“Be quick.” I was focused on the steady thump-thump against my palm. I wanted to feel that on the outside instead of the inside. I wanted to taste a heart as it stopped beating. I thought I probably could.
“I chose to leave a child behind.” My eyes flicked to his. “You must protect that gift of faith.”
“Whatever,” I said, and tore out his heart.
CHAPTER 34
I never found out if a heart could continue to beat on the outside of a body, because as soon as Sawyer died the power slammed into me like a truck.
In the distance thunder rumbled; I smelled rain on the wind. My hair crackled. The lightning danced nearby, and I wanted it.
Come to me.
The words were both in my head and in the roll of the thunder. Demonic laughter swelled; the whispers commenced, and I slammed the door. I was too fascinated with the magic to listen.
The Phoenix shrieked her rage, but there was nothing she could do. The fury of the storm was mine; I would command the lightning. Right now, as the newborn power flowed through me, I thought I could command just about anything.
I faced her. She was still fighting revenants, but she was mowing them down pretty fast. Summer had run to Jimmy, of course. But I didn’t care about them now; all I cared about was her.
“Bigger phoenix,” I growled, and called down the storm.
Bolts of lightning slammed into the ground at my feet. The earth trembled beneath my wrath. Blue light shimmered; I had to close my eyes as the lightning hit me. The sizzle and burn, the flare of electricity, made my teeth hum. The back of my neck blazed, and I knew that I could fly.
Dark clouds shrouded the sun, turning the air so cold my breath became smoke. Dust swirled by on the wind, and the rain began to fall like tears.
“You bitch!” The Phoenix stalked across the yard and slapped me in the face. The more I got to know her, the happier I was about foster care. “I told you I was the only one who got to kill around here. Daughter or not, you die.”