I tilted my head a little as a thought struck. "No, you won't. If you could do that, you'd have already done it. It has to be me, doesn't it?" The key to the Key. "I'm the one who has to place the amulet in the book. It won't work otherwise, will it?"
"You have to be alive. There's nothing in the rules that says you can't be in pain. Or that you have to place it willingly." With a nasty little grin, Alister pulled the trigger.
Chapter Twenty-four
It felt like hot lava was burning my skin off as the bullet ripped through my jacket, shirt, and the meaty part of my upper arm. Holy hell, it stung. My right knee and palm made hard enough contact with the concrete floor, I knew I'd have bruises for days. But it could have been worse. I could be dead.
The second I saw Alister's finger tighten on the trigger, I'd dived toward the floor. The bullet hit me in the arm instead of the chest. Alister needed me alive to place the amulet, but he didn't need me alive once he got what he wanted.
I staggered to my feet, only to find Alister already standing, ready to take another shot. If I charged him, could I knock the gun out of his hand before he shot me again?
Something whizzed by my head and crashed into Alister's arm, knocking his hand away. His gun went off with a loud explosion, the bullet burying itself in the wall of the house inches from my head. For a split second, I stared dumbly at the small marble dragon lying on the floor at Alister's feet before a blur streaked past me. Alister and his attacker tumbled to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs. The gun went off again, this time taking out the overhead light. Giving myself a mental slap, I ran toward the two men grappling on the floor. I gave Alister's hand a swift kick. Instead of letting go of the gun, he tried to bring it up and shoot his attacker. So I did what anyone would do. I stomped on his wrist good and hard.
Alister let out a scream of agony, and I felt the bones of his wrist crunch under my boot. The gun fell from nerveless fingers, and I scooped it up. With one hand now essentially useless and the gun in my possession, the fight between the two men was decidedly one-sided and not in Alister's favor. Within moments Alister was penned face-down, arms wrenched behind his back.
"Inigo." I breathed a sigh of relief. I hadn't been sure he'd come. It was a good sign that he had, right?
Inigo gave me a wry smile. "You sure know how to show a guy a good time." His hair was mussed, his lower lip split and bleeding, and there was a bruise blossoming on his right cheekbone. Still, he was the best thing I'd ever seen.
I opened my mouth, but before I could get a word out, the large kitchen window behind us exploded. I ducked, covering my head and neck with my arms as glass sprayed everywhere. I didn't even have time to cuss before the patio was swarming with the undead, spilling through the open door and shattered window. More were appearing from around the sides of the house and over the back fence. How many were there? It seemed like hundreds.
Without thinking I raised the gun and started firing into the oncoming horde. It was a regular gun with regular lead bullets. Other than annoying the vampires, they were pretty much useless. The last thing I needed was for Alister get his hands on the gun and shoot me or Inigo, so I emptied the clip into the vamps. The second the gun was empty, I tossed it away and pulled out my knife. They were on me now. So many of them. Far too many for me to fight. All I could do was hack away blindly, hoping against hope the blade would find its mark. Talons scraped bloody furrows along my cheek and ripped my leather jacket to shreds. That pissed me off. I'd liked that jacket. It had cost almost five hundred bucks. And now it had a bullet hole and vampire claw marks.
To my left I caught Inigo out of the corner of my eye fighting for his life while Alister Jones was calmly letting himself into the house and out through the front door. "Oh, no you don't." I started to go after him but there were too many vampires. There was no way I could fight my way through them. I'd be lucky to survive, never mind catch up to Alister before he got away. There was only one thing left to do. It meant sacrificing everything I owned and putting both myself and Inigo in mortal danger, but what else was there to do?
Another set of claws like fingernails raked across my back, carving deep furrows. I gasped at the sharp pain. Hot blood dripped down my back and slid below the waistband of my jeans. How bad was I hurt? It didn't matter. I had to stop Alister.
I ditched the inhibitions, the questions about my powers. I ignored any worry about control. Instead, with a scream from the very depths of my soul, I ripped off the metaphorical lid and let all of my powers free at once. With the screeching sound of hell itself, out poured Darkness, Fire, Smoke, Earth, and finally the latest: Water. In a whirling vortex of empty blackness and brutal fire, they screamed through the room seeking their prey. One by one, they swallowed the vampires, leaving only the echoes of their screams as they burst into dust and ash.