Page 119 of Darkness Bound (Night Prowler 5)
She shouted, “That’s right, assholes! How d’you like me now?”
Behind her, Leander made a small, wordless noise. Smoke and the smell of charred fabric hung acrid in the air; the fireball had singed the drapery on two sides of the room, leaving it waving in charred tatters from the branches far above, dripping rain.
From everywhere and nowhere arose the screams.
They were eerie and otherworldly, the most frightening sounds she’d ever heard. She didn’t have time to consider the source, because Caesar was shouting at his flame-throwing companion to go again, throwing his arms wide to indicate a wall of fire not only for Jenna and Leander, but for the entire room with everyone in it.
Several members of the Assembly had the presence of mind to Shift to panther. Bursts of heated power rippled through the room as they transformed. With lashing tails, bulging muscles, deadly claws and fangs, they sank into pounce positions, roars of rage ripping from their chests.
The flamethrower stepped to one side. Jenna inhaled a breath that felt like snow. Her pulse slowed with the minute focus of her attention. In the space of a heartbeat, a million thoughts flashed through her mind at the speed of light, a million possible calculations and transformations.
Rain, lightning, bullet, steel, cage, stop, wall, box, kill that piece of—
But instead of throwing another stream of fire in her direction, he turned around in a whip-crack move, bent over, and turned back again.
In his fists, held out at arms’ length, were the twins. It was they who were screaming, screaming with such deafening volume Jenna’s eyes watered. They stared straight at her, holding perfectly still with wide, wide eyes . . . and closed mouths.
Their screams were in her head. Only she could hear them.
Jenna jolted forward, every nerve in her body flayed raw, protective instinct pummeling her mercilessly, flooding her cells with adrenaline. Before she took two full steps, Caesar yanked Hope from the flamethrower’s left hand, and crushed her to his chest.
“Stop!” commanded Caesar. Abruptly, she and everyone else did.
“Jenna.” Leander’s voice was hoarse, beseeching, but Jenna couldn’t look away.
Hope’s tiny white arm flailed up. Her fingers gripped his shirt, bunching the fabric. Her little legs kicked out beneath his arm for a moment, frantic, then she fell completely still.
Hurting my baby! Oh my God, he’s hurting my—
“You and I,” Caesar said to Jenna, lowering his head and looking at her with eyes so black they reflected back not a single flicker of light, “have unfinished business. Send everyone else away and I’ll let the little brats live.”
A lie. She smelled it. She saw it in his eyes. But for a moment she clung to it, hoping she could somehow still turn this to her advantage. If she agreed, she’d at least save the Assembly members, she’d at least gain a few more minutes so she could—
Mama.
Jenna froze. She looked at Honor. Dangling at the end of the flamethrower’s fist, her baby stared b
ack at her with total, unblinking concentration, her green eyes brilliantly, chillingly, alive in her small, angelic face.
Then her infant child smiled at her, and the world ground to a standstill.
To Jenna it was as if a switch had been thrown, and a room that had once been dead black was flooded with drenching golden sunlight. She felt it in her muscles, her cells, the atoms of her body, a mother’s recognition that transcended words or logic, a thing only those joined by flesh and blood can know. She had the urge to laugh and cry at once, as those experiencing transcendent moments often do, but she only exhaled, all the tension draining from her body as if a plug had been pulled.
She was no longer afraid. She didn’t have to be.
“Yes, Honor,” Jenna whispered. “Good girl.”
Honor laughed.
First the flamethrower stiffened, his eyes bulging wide. He tried to speak, but the only sound that passed his lips was a choked, hacking cough, cut off abruptly when his tongue caught on fire. His hair burst into flame next.
Someone screamed.
At the end of his arm, Honor gurgled another sweet laugh, happily kicking her little feet.
The flamethrower shrieked and stumbled back, letting go of Honor, but Jenna had anticipated it. She was Vapor, darting in, then woman, catching the precious bundle an instant before she hit the ground. She slid sideways on her knees over the bare wood until she collided hard with the side of a divan, shielding Honor in her arms. She looked up and froze.
The flamethrower was engulfed in a roaring blaze of fire. He staggered around the room, arms flailing, bumping into furniture as everyone scrambled to get out of his way. Caesar was still standing with Hope in his arms near the doorway, his expression of horror identical to the one worn by his companion.
