I stumbled to a stop in front of Stevie Rae and paused only long enough to blow out her candle and say, “Earth! I release you from my circle!” I grabbled Stevie Rae’s arm as the element released her, and she almost fell.
“I’ve got you, Stevie Rae!” Rephaim was suddenly there, beside Stevie Rae, putting a strong arm around her waist to support her, and brandishing what looked like little more than a pocketknife in his other hand.
Great. Had no one but Stark brought real weapons? I already knew the answer to my question. No one had expected our well-intended protection spell to turn into the zombie apocalypse. We were woefully unprepared for everything that happened next.
“Follow me!” I told Rephaim.
With Stevie Rae and Rephaim, I staggered to Shaylin.
“Water! I release you from my circle! Stay with us. Hang on to Rephaim if you can’t walk. We’re getting Shaunee and Aphrodite!”
Shaylin nodded and grabbed Rephaim’s arm. We lurched to Shaunee.
“Get out of the way, boy! You’re messing up the camera’s shot.”
I glanced over my shoulder. Aphrodite’s mom was screaming at Darius, who had taken a stand between our circle and the group of journalists. He’d drawn a sword (thank Goddess for the training of the Sons of Erebus Warriors)—obviously ready to protect them if the zombie things started to attack.
“He’s all that’s standing between you and death!” Aphrodite said.
“He’s all that’s standing between me and showing the truth to the world!” Francis LaFont shouted back.
“Fire! I release you from my circle!”
But Shaunee wasn’t even looking at me. She was staring over my shoulder at the middle of the circle. She pointed a trembling finger, saying, “Fledglings! Oh, Goddess. There are fledglings puking out of that mess.”
I barely took time to look, but what I saw fueled me with enough adrenaline to push me around the circle. With Stevie Rae and Shaylin clinging to Rephaim, and Shaunee hanging on to me, I closed the last yards to Aphrodite.
“Air! I—”
“JACK!” The cry overpowered my words with the force of its agony. I looked up at the ridge. Damien was there beside Stark. Stark was holding his arm as he struggled to get free, his eyes huge with shock he stared behind me at the center of the circle.
“Don’t look. Just finish closing the fucking circle!” Aphrodite said.
“Air! I release you!” I blew out the yellow candle, and with a small sizzle, like a snuffed-out flame, the glowing thread that held our circle together extinguished. The five of us reeled as we were released from the terrible drain that had usurped the power of our circle from us.
A heartbeat after, there was another terrible sound—only this one was less a ripping than an explosion. I turned to see the twisted rowan had been sucked into the ground. Nothing remained of it or the ritual symbols I’d placed beside it. All that remained was a circle of gore filled with salivating, hissing monsters that had definitely been released from whatever confusion had contained them.
At the middle of that circle stood Jack Twist, looking pale and confused. In the center of his sallow forehead was the outline of a red crescent moon.
“We are free!” cried one of the creatures whose face was Marked with the fully formed tattoo of an adult red vampyre. “Devour them!”
Then all hell broke loose. Literally.
The red vampyres began pouring out of the circle. Half of them closed on us, while the other half faced off with Darius, who was still standing between them and the group of humans.
“Get up here! Now!” Stark shouted. I glanced up as arrows rained down on the creatures. Damien was lying in a crumbled heap at Stark’s feet.
“Go! Go! Go!” I said. “Get up there!”
Stevie Rae, Shaylin, and Shaunee ran for the stone stairs. Rephaim was backing away more slowly, his knife raised against the hissing horde, but the creatures had paused as they batted at the arrows fired one right after another from Stark’s deadly bow.
With a sick stomach, I realized that none of the creatures were mortally wounded. Sure, they’d paused, but they were simply pulling the arrows from their bodies and throwing them to the ground—like they were annoying insects.
“Stark! It’s not working! Add intent!” I yelled to him, then I grabbed Aphrodite’s arm. “Come on!” She shook me off and started forward.
“Not leaving Darius,” she said firmly.
“Hell yes, you are!” I shoved her into Rephaim. “Get her out of here!” Rephaim nodded, hooked his arm around her slender waist, lifted her, and as she kicked and screamed he kept backing to the stairs.
“Darius! Time to go!” I yelled, retreating to follow Rephaim as, finally, one creature shrieked and fell to the ground. Stark’s arrow had caught him through the throat, burying itself to its feathers. A bloom of metal and blood sprouted from the back of his neck.
Darius was fighting a closing half circle of creatures. Most of them were running after the journalists who had finally stopped listening to Aphrodite’s mom and were rushing with a lot of hysterical screaming to a line of cars parked illegally on Twenty-First Street. Aphrodite’s mom hadn’t followed them. She was cowering behind Darius, whose sword was singing in a loop around them, catching a random creature’s arm as they hissed and circled.
“Sever their spines! That’s the only way to kill them!” Stark shouted. “Zoey, get your ass up here!”
“Getting!” I yelled. “Darius, grab LaFont and let’s go!”
Darius did exactly that. In one motion he picked up Frances LaFont and flopped her over his shoulder in a classic fireman’s carry. With his free sword hand, he plowed through the snarling creatures, taking off the nearest vampyre’s head. The creature crumbled, twitching spasmodically, but it definitely didn’t get up.
And just like that, the red vampyres scattered. Later, when I had time to think, I remembered that they’d been hissing words of encouragement to each other, but after Stark and Darius figured out their weakness, those whispers changed. It seemed the creatures shared a brain and, Borg-like, the horde scattered, fading into the snowy darkness.
“Come on, Darius!” I called to him.
Hefting LaFont, Darius jogged across the circle, and ran right into Jack.
Jack hadn’t moved. He hadn’t followed any of the adult vampyres. He was still standing in the blackened ruins of what used to be a twisted rowan tree. Darius staggered to a stop not three feet from him.
“Jack?” he said, taking a step closer to the boy.
“I—I can’t.” Jack had his arms wrapped around his chest, like he was trying to hold himself together. His voice was his own, and not his own. It hit me hard when I realized who it reminded me of—Stevie Rae. When she was a red fledgling. Before Aphrodite’s sacrifice. When she had little to no control over her feral urges.
“Darius, don’t—” I began the warning too late.
“Can’t … Need to feed!” Jack hissed and gathered himself, obviously ready to leap on Darius. The Warrior’s eyes widened in understanding. His raised sword wavered, and for a horrible second I thought the Son of Erebus Warrior was going to get eaten by sweet, zombie Jack.