Page 87 of Cold Sacrifice

She sent a pot flying at my head, and though it was a slow, clumsy throw and the pot dropped before it reached me, it was still amazing. She pulled knives from the block and sent them at me, and she didn’t use her hands to do it. She used her mind.

“Joe,” I yelled, as she yanked open cabinet doors and flung every plate, mug, and glass inside them at me, Joe, and Trinity. One of the glasses hit me in the face, and I felt my cheekbone begin to immediately swell. It also began immediately to heal.

And Joe was a vampire. He could take anything she threw at him.

But Trinity, though a witch, was not a wolf or a vampire, and the second Jolene seemed to realize that, she focused her attack on the small woman cringing against the wall.

As soon as he finished salting the room, Joe joined me. I sheathed my blade, and we created a wall between Trinity and Jolene, both of us throwing our arms up to deflect the barrage of items she threw. Joe had circled the three of us with a separate salt line and Jolene couldn’t cross it, but the things she threw could.

Most spirits couldn’t pick up objects and throw them at a person, but Jolene was not most spirits. And she realized something almost immediately. She could toss a heavy object at the salt, displace it, and cross the broken salt line.

Then all Joe could do was attempt to quickly redraw the line. I could have taken Trinity out of the kitchen, but Jolene was a spirit. She’d catch us in an unprotected room and then she would unleash her rage upon us.

No. This had to end tonight.

“Help me figure this out,” I told Trinity. “She has a tether. Severing it is the only way to force her to cross over.”

“The grave,” she suggested immediately. She had a black eye and a bruise on her forehead but barely seemed to notice. “Maybe she left something in the grave.”

“Maybe,” I said. “A piece of jewelry or a picture she had on her when she was buried.” And then I cried out, that cry turning into a moan as the wound on my arm began to pull so tightly I thought the flesh was being ripped from the bone. The pain was intense, and it grew more painful by the moment. Just like Jolene’s power.

“Come here,” Jolene cried. “Come here, you disgusting vampire-loving animal.”

She’d seen me kissing Bastien. Had seen me protecting him. And Jolene could carry one hell of a grudge.

Trinity grabbed my arm as a plate hit the wall behind us and shattered into a dozen pieces before crashing to the floor. “Kait, tell me exactly what she did to you to give you that wound.”

“She had a whip of magic. It was more like a tentacle, like it was part of her body. I cut that fucker off and…” I paused, trying to steady myself as I felt something move inside my arm. “It feels like some of that tentacle is embedded in my arm.”

“Because it is,” she said. “And there’s your tether. It’s in your arm, Kait.” Funny how she sounded more sympathetic than happy at having discovered something so important.

“I’ll have to dig it out,” I whispered.

Joe roared with rage as a heavy glass pitcher connected with his temple. And then, Jolene was no longer attempting to pull me to her. She was succeeding.

The pain in my arm became abruptly unbearable, and my legs gave out. I began to move across the floor as I lay on my side, my arm cradled against my chest, blood wetting my clothes.

Joe’s yell was hoarse as he leapt over the salt and flung himself to where he believed Jolene stood, intent upon breaking her focus before she pulled the bone right out of my arm. But she was ready for him, and she was so happy to have someone she could actually touch.

Especially a vampire.

She took him by surprise, because though he saw a plate hovering in midair and believed he knew where she was, he couldn’t actually see her. And he could not hurt her. But he was doing exactly what he meant to do.

Getting her to focus on him. Protecting me.

She used him to erase the salt behind which Trinity and I were at least a little safe. He was big, and she tossed him through the air like he was a skinny little kid. Her aim was true, and when he fell, it was with a crash that shook the house and obliterated the salt line he’d put down just moments before.

The necromancer didn’t hesitate. The second he hit the floor, she came for me. She would have gotten me, too, if Richard hadn’t roared into the kitchen with so much fierce energy I was sure both Joe and Trinity would be able to see him.

There were obviously cracks in Joe’s salt line, and Richard seemed to know exactly where they were. Either that, or salt simply couldn’t keep him out.

When he put his body between Jolene and me, she slammed into him, and that collision hurt them both. Her eyes moved rapidly side to side, and for a few seconds, her image dimmed, blinking in and out as she wobbled like a drunk leaving a bar.

Richard fared better but not by much. He groaned as he leaned forward, eventually floating a foot or so off the floor, his body jerking spasmodically.

The relief in my arm was immediate. I scrambled to pull Joe back so I could put down what was left of the salt before Jolene regained her senses.

“Joe,” I yelled. “Wake up!” I knew he wasn’t really asleep, exactly, but Jolene had done something to him that had knocked his mind for a loop. He sat up at my voice, stiff and blank, and I saw only a dark vampire stare in his eyes.