“Yur—”
He caught her at the back of the neck with his vampire speed, bending and yanking her to within an inch of his face.
“Go,” he growled.
He let her loose, and maddeningly, as she was wont to be, she didn’t run as he instructed, and this time, he didn’t find it charming.
Her voice dripping with fear, the rest of her reeking of it, she asked, “What if they haven’t gotten the protections down?”
“There’s little time, Aurora,” he warned.
She latched onto his arm. “What if they haven’t gotten the protections down? You’ll burn, Yuri.”
“Then be prepared to stop me from doing that if I make it to the van and I’m on fire,” he replied. “Now, go.”
“But—”
“Go!” he thundered.
She wasted a precious second, then turned and ran.
Yuri ran the other way.
Toward the clashing covens.
He was far faster.
Within an instant, he was at the door, and without hesitation, he burst through.
What he didn’t do was burst into a ball of flame.
What he did do was take in the state of play which, unfortunately, was grimmer than he’d suspected.
The coven that guarded the implements was not formidable.
It appeared they were invincible.
He dashed over Jane’s dead body, sensing and speeding toward Barb, who was hanging upside down at the top of the stairs, her frame contorted in unnatural ways, her face twisted in agony, her mouth opened in a silent scream.
He located the witch spelling her, made it to her in a millisecond, snapped her neck in less time than that, and Barb was falling.
Before she hit the stairs and broke her neck, Yuri caught her, raced out of the house, and dropped her to the grass by the side of the van.
“Mom!” he heard Aurora shout from inside the van.
He also heard her moving.
And last, he heard Barb beg, “Help them.”
Yuri caught her anguished eyes, jerked up his chin, and sprinted back.
When he arrived, in short order he found Jane was lost. Jordana was as well. Ruby was still fighting, and apparently losing, until Yuri dispatched the witch she was battling, then grabbed hold of her and deposited her back at the van before he went back to the house.
He then dispatched six of the opposing coven, and while doing it, saw that eight of Barb’s coven were gone.
He vaguely felt the blast of a spell and knew he was under attack. He slayed the witch who’d spelled him only to feel the blast of another spell. He dealt with her too before he heard something that made his blood turn to ice.
“Yuri, watch out!”
He was hit with another spell that deflected as he turned to see a witch with her hand up, a ball of red and blue fire floating in her palm, her aim: Aurora.
In a flash, the warm gush of blood spraying his torso, the witch’s body was at his feet, but her head was in his hands.
Then Aurora screamed and shoved both hands forward. A shimmering wall of undulating white and glittering vermillion and silver burst forth, moving through him, and Yuri looked over his shoulder to see a ball of deep blue slam against it and ricochet back, hitting the witch who threw it, making her immediately burst into flame.
“Fuck,” he clipped, sprinted to the witch and shoved a hand through the fire and into her chest with such force, she flew backward through a wall and outside, where he heard her short scream as she fell.
He also heard her scream die when she landed.
He raced back, hooked Aurora at the waist, and felt her body move like a ragdoll as he bolted through the house, locating the last of the enemy coven and eliminating them, all with Aurora held close to his side, her arms locked around him.
He stopped, dragged in a deep breath, and opened his senses.
There were humans alive in that house, not many, but they were all from Barb’s coven.
The rest were dead.
He put Aurora to her feet, whispering, “It’s clear.”
“Thank the goddess,” she whispered back.
At the sound of her voice, Yuri let her go and took a step from her as he took in another breath.
A breath that didn’t work.
Therefore, he bent toward her and roared, “Are you out of your mind?”
Her body gave a jerk before her expression turned placating and she said softly, “Yuri, I was just—”
“Living out a death wish?” he finished for her irately.
“No, I wanted to—”
“See the end of your days?”
“Let me—”
His voice turned deathly cold when he informed her, “You’d already earned a spanking, my sweet. This fucking stunt,”—he threw out a hand to indicate the house they were in— “means writhing.”
She blinked and asked, “What?”
He bent closer. “Writhing,” he hissed. “What you’ll be doing, along with begging, before I allow release.”
Her eyes rounded as he heard her pulse spike. “I—”
“Nearly got us both killed.”
She straightened her shoulders. “I saved your life.”
“Something that would not have occurred if I hadn’t first saved yours,” he retorted.
Her eyes shifted side to side before they fell to his throat and she admitted, “That’s kinda true.”
“There’s nothing ‘kinda’ about it,” he clipped.
She lifted her gaze. “I was worried about you.”
“And this, my sweet, is the only reason you’ll be writhing and begging for hours rather than days.”
“Yur—”