Chapter 54

‘Down!’ I barked in warning.

Gunnar flung himself out of the way as the gun went off. When he stood up, he was visibly annoyed – and a pissed-off Gunnar was a dangerous Gunnar. Wintersteen had made a grave mistake.

The shot hadn’t even penetrated the door. ‘Birdshot,’ my boss mouthed at me. He’d taught me that you could load a shotgun with different types of bullets commonly known as birdshot, buckshot and slugs. Birdshot was made up of small pellets – but it was still lethal at close range. If we could get some distance between the gun and ourselves, we’d be in with a fighting chance.

‘Drop the gun,’ Gunnar growled through the door.

‘We’re taking the gems and leaving, Nomo. Don’t get in the way.’ It wasn’t Elsa’s voice, it was her husband’s: Larry Wintersteen. But no matter how confident his words, his voice was tremulous, scared. Was he scared of us, the gems, or his wife?

‘Don’t listen to the gems,’ I said urgently. ‘They’re cursed. They have their own agenda.’ I heard Elsa’s derisive snort, the sound of scrambling and the shotgun being pumped again.

‘We’re coming out,’ Larry called. ‘Don’t get in our way. We don’t want to have to kill you.’

Gunnar scrambled to my side. ‘Think you can fling a fireball?’ he whispered.

‘You bet,’ I whispered back. ‘Do you have a plan?’

‘Sort of.’ He leaned down to whisper to Fluffy. My boy got up and ran down the stairs.

Footsteps approached the doorway. Gunnar mouthed at me, ‘Hit her with a fireball on my signal.’

I nodded and started to gather my fire magic in my centre. The sullen teenage boy walked out first, then his seventeen-year-old sister. She looked scared; she’d wrapped her arms tightly around herself and she was sobbing as she ran down the stairs. Larry came out next holding the shotgun, sweating. His hands were shaking as he passed me. We let him go; our focus was on Elsa.

She stepped out holding the red fire gem in one hand and the clear diamond wind stone in the other. Both pulsed with a dark inner light. Her face was a twisted mask and her hair floated around her head, reminding me eerily of Aoife.

‘We will be free.’ The discordant voice that came from her mouth was trifold, as though her voice were overlaid by that of the two sentient gems. It was eerie and wrong.

I licked my dry lips. ‘We both know we can’t let you go, but maybe we can work something out.’

Her black eyes snapped to mine. ‘We will not listen to our enslavers.’

‘I never enslaved you! I don’t believe in supporting slavery in any form. I recently found out that you were sentient.’ My voice was impassioned despite myself. ‘Let me help you.’

I wasn’t lying; I did want to help the banshees locked inside the stone. I honestly believed that their captivity was wrong, even if it was currently saving our skins. There had to be another way to power the barrier, a way that didn’t torment lost souls.

The voices were silent for a few beats. ‘We no longer trust humans.’

‘I’m not a human,’ I pointed out. ‘I’m a vampire.’

This time they shouted at us. ‘We will not listen! It is too late for talking! The time has come for action.’

I didn’t want action. Elsa had blown out my flames like the birthday girl at a party, but I had to try again. I stoked the flames again and felt my fire magic build, then I gathered it, waited for her to pass and threw the flame at her unguarded back. It wasn’t my finest moment but the fate of Portlock rested on us stopping her.

My flames dissipated before they reached her, snuffed out because of some sort of shield of air. Bugger.

She turned, black eyes raging, a ball of flame building around her right hand, the one holding the fire gem. Wind swirled around the hall and the pictures on the walls tilted and fell to the ground. She let the fire go and it twisted, building into a fiery funnel that was heading right for us.

Both Gunnar and I leapt into the bedroom that the family had just left. The fire tornado exploded, throwing us further inside. I hit the far wall; Gunnar hit the dresser. An inferno was raging in the doorway.

‘We’ve got to get out of here, Bunny!’ Gunnar said urgently as he picked himself up.

I looked around but there was no way in hell we could leave through the door. The fire had caught, and it was burning hard and fast. I remembered the other buildings that the fire gem had burned down: they’d all burnt to ashes so quickly.

I whipped out my phone and dialled Liv. ‘Got her?’ she asked in lieu of a hello.

‘Not quite. I’d say she’s got us,’ I said grimly. ‘Elsa’s definitely your girl. She’s got both gems and they’ve possessed her. You need to do everything you can to stop her.’ I rattled off the address. Leaving out Liv had been an oversight on my part; we should have made her come with us to carry out the arrest. Live and learn – if we survived. ‘Gotta go. We’re on fire!’

I cut the call and looked around the bedroom, then I picked up a bedside table and threw it with all my might towards the triple-glazed window. My vampire strength – and the solid oak – did the trick and the glass shattered. I used the table to clear away the shards still hanging in the window frame then grabbed the duvet from the bed. I put it over the window frame to protect us from any sharp bits of glass that I’d missed.

The room was getting warm. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that the flames were now inside the bedroom. We had only seconds left before the fire consumed us. ‘Can you jump from here?’ I asked Gunnar. From this height I figured we were looking at some broken limbs; being a vampire, I’d definitely survive those though the pain was going to suck. Gunnar didn’t have that same certainty.

‘We don’t have much of a choice, do we?’ he said.

‘Do you want me to go down first and catch you?’ I offered.

‘Don’t be cheeky, Bunny Rabbit. But yes – ladies first.’

‘I’m not a lady,’ I protested instinctively.

‘Just go, Bunny,’ he urged. He was right: it was now or never. The flames were only a couple of feet away.

‘Fine.’ I threw my leg over the windowsill, lowered myself until I was hanging from the sill then pushed myself out and down, aiming for the flattest spot I could see.

As I landed, I relaxed my knees and let myself fall into a roll to lessen the impact. Nothing broken. I scrambled aside so Gunnar could land. Looking up, I saw that he was dangling by his hands as I had done. He hit the ground hard and grunted, then he lay scarily still.

‘Gunnar!’ I ran up to him. ‘Are you all right?’ I dropped to my knees beside him.

He gasped as he rolled on his side. ‘I’m okay. I dislocated my left shoulder again while I was hanging, and the fall knocked the wind out of me.’ He sat up with an effort, his left arm hanging limply by his side. ‘I need you to put it back in.’

I baulked at the thought but nodded. I’d seen Thomas do it once before, so I closed my eyes and drew up the memory. I watched it twice over carefully then copied Thomas’s movements exactly. Gunnar let out a strangled cry as it snapped back into place. ‘Okay?’ I asked.

‘Peachy,’ he panted. ‘Give me a second.’ He breathed through the pain then struggled to his knees. He limped for a few steps but seemed okay.

To the side of the house the garage door was open and the Wintersteens’ car was still inside. I wondered why – until I looked around and saw Fluffy with a set of car keys dangling from his mouth. That must have been what Gunnar had instructed him to do.

‘Good boy!’ I patted him, relieved he’d managed to get safely out of the inferno.

We hastily headed to our SUV. In the distance we could see the Wintersteens struggling up the hill towards Vitus Vogler’s house.

Fuck.