Night's Touch (Children of The Night 2)

“More handsome,” Roshan said. “Boys are handsome.”

“Ordinary boys are handsome,” Brenna said. “Our boys are beautiful. Come now, let’s let them sleep,” she said. “They’ll be awake again soon enough.”

Downstairs, Roshan picked up the remote and turned on the TV. He was flipping through the channels when the image of a vampire appeared on the screen.

“Not that old thing,” Cara said.

“What’s the matter?” Vince asked, tweaking her nose. “Don’t you like vampires?”

“Not old black-and-white ones. That movie’s older than dirt.”

“But always good for a laugh,” her father said.

Resigned, Cara settled back on the sofa. She laughed in spite of herself as her father and Vince made jokes about the campy settings and the stilted dialogue. She was about to go into the kitchen for a soda when her parents and Vince went suddenly still.

“What is it?” Cara asked. “Are the babies crying?”

Vince looked at Roshan. “Do you feel that?”

Roshan nodded.

“I do, too,” Brenna said. “There’s black Magick in the air.”

Vince went to the door, but when he turned the knob, nothing happened.

“What’s going on?” Cara looked at her father, then at Vince, and felt their tension communicate itself to her.

She watched in growing horror as Vince and her father went from room to room, trying all the windows and doors.

“They won’t open,” Vince said, his voice hard and flat. “None of them.”

“It’s a spell of some kind, meant to seal us in,” Brenna said. “I can almost taste it.”

Cara started to ask who would do such a thing, but she knew.

They all knew.

“Why would Anton want to seal us inside?” Cara asked. “I don’t understand…” She broke off as the smell of smoke teased her nostrils, shrieked when the carpet beneath her feet burst into flame.

“My babies!” she cried, and ran up the stairs to her parents’ room, her heart pounding. The house was on fire and there was no way out!

Vince looked at Roshan and Brenna and knew they were thinking the same thing. One sure way to destroy the Undead was by fire, and this was no ordinary fire. As he followed Brenna and Roshan upstairs, he noticed that the fire didn’t touch the walls; only the contents inside the house were burning. Pausing on the landing, he watched the sofa explode into flames. Thick smoke rose in the air, and with it the stink of brimstone. Anton had summoned hellfire.

He thought of Cara and his sons. If he couldn’t find a way to get them out of here, they would soon suffocate, which might be a blessing, he thought morbidly, and wondered if the smoke would render him unconscious, as well, or if all the vampires in the house would be cognizant when the flames found them.

In minutes, the living room was a sheet of flames.

“We’re running out of time,” Roshan said. “Brenna, can’t you counteract the spell?”

“Maybe, if I knew what kind of spell it was.”

Vince muttered an oath. Dissolving into mist, he floated up the fireplace chimney, thinking perhaps they could get out that way. No such luck. Bouchard, the bastard, had thought of everything.

Materializing again, Vince paced the floor, his mind racing. There had to be a way out!

The smoke was getting thicker now. The floor beneath his feet grew hot, hotter.

Roshan picked up a chair and threw it against the window. The window shook but didn’t break.

“Let’s try ramming it together,” Vince said. “On three. One, two, three!”

Together, Vince and Roshan slammed their shoulders against the window. Again, nothing happened.

Vince swore softly. For the first time since becoming a vampire, he felt totally helpless. He looked at Cara and his children. Would the smoke render his family unconscious before the flames reached them? He knew the end would be quick for himself and Cara’s parents. The flames would destroy them in an instant. But Cara, and his sons…In his mind’s eye, he saw them in flames, heard their anguished screams as the fire licked their skin, their hair.

He looked at Roshan and knew that his father-in-law was thinking the same thing.

“Do what you have to do,” Roshan said quietly; and then, squaring his shoulders, Roshan went to Brenna. Murmuring, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to save you from the flames this time,” he drew her into his embrace.

She looked up at him, her expression serene, her eyes filled with love. “We’ve had a good life together. I have no regrets.”

Vince returned to Cara’s side. She stood in a corner away from the door and the windows, a crying infant cradled in each arm.

She looked up at him, her face pale and scared. “What are we going to do?”

“I won’t let you suffer,” he said. “I won’t let the flames take you or our sons.”

She stared at him, her eyes growing wide as she understood what he was saying, and she nodded.

Wrapping his arms around his wife and children, he murmured, “Whatever happens, remember that I will always love you, whether in this life or the next.”

Anton stood across the street. He stared unblinking at the DeLongpre house, his whole being focused on maintaining the spell that would destroy the people who had killed his father and his mother.

It was Dark Magick at its most powerful. If only his mother could see him now, he thought. She would be so proud of him. Only a few wizards in all the world had mastered hellfire, and now he was one of them.

Sweat beaded his brow and dripped down his back. Only a few more minutes and it would be over. His parents would be avenged. He could get on with his life.

No smoke escaped the house to alert the neighbors. Even if someone called the fire department, it wouldn’t matter. They couldn’t get in. No one could get in—and no one could get out.

Only a few more minutes and the whole inside of the house would be in flames. When that happened, the house would explode.

Only a few more minutes.

He heard a noise to his right, felt his concentration waver as it came again.

He blinked when a woman stepped in front of him.

“Nice night for a fire,” she said. “Too bad I didn’t bring any marshmallows.”

When she smiled, her fangs were very white.

He didn’t have time to scream as she sank them into his throat.

His spell died with him.

The fires went out as quickly as they had started. Cara clutched her babies closer. Had she imagined the whole awful incident?