“You are more powerful than your father. That’s why he needs you. But you’ll have to use every ounce of your restraint to beat him.”
“And something else,” Bash said, thinking of the last prophecy as everyone’s attention shifted to him. “I think it’s time we call in our ace in the hole—and finish this.”
BASH LOOKED to Ethan beside him in the back seat as Deanna drove them to Ethan’s childhood home. That’s where Gordon meant for them to go.
Home.
“I won’t tell you everything will be fine,” Bash said, wrapping an arm around Ethan to lean Ethan’s head on his shoulder, “but I do think we can win. Do you know why?”
“Why?” Ethan asked softly.
“Because we both prophesized the same thing—that we can beat him as long as we do it together.”
Ethan burrowed closer against Bash.
“We were probably both meant to be both—Seer and Focus, combining our parents—but circumstances kept us limited. Maybe I was always a little more of a Seer, and you a little more of a Focus. You said people started being drawn to you in prison. You know that’s not normal for police, right?”
“CSI,” Ethan corrected.
“Even so.” Bash smiled.
“I was finally becoming the real me. And now, being around you, that feeling is stronger every day.” At last Ethan lifted his head, green eyes entrancing Bash like always.
Bash could feel what everyone else kept telling them, the clarity of being around Ethan, the added power. “The same will be true in there,” he said as they pulled up in front of a blue house with brick accents and a white fence and porch.
It was a picture-perfect suburban home, but Bash knew it was no happy picture for Ethan, since now he remembered the last time he had been there.
“A Focus enhances the people around them, but if you… focus, you can choose who reaps the benefit.”
“Me and Dad being around each other would naturally make us stronger, even more with Rio there, and you too, but Dad will keep his side of that power for himself to keep control over me.”
“Exactly. But you don’t have to lend him anything either. And you have me. Concentrate on us, on the others, enhance only us, and I know you can be stronger than him.”
They had a caravan behind them, complete with every inner circle member. Even Jay and Maximus had insisted on joining. After the transfusion, Jay had healed to almost full capacity. They were an army to face off against a vampire and a single thrall, but they knew every person would be needed.
Bash checked his cellphone. Every person, including the last who would be meeting them there.
“The living room is the only place large enough for a standoff,” Ethan said, not yet opening the door to get out. “Where Mom died….”
“I wish I could say you don’t have to go in there.”
“I’m okay.” Ethan looked at Bash, and though his smile was strained, it was still breathtaking. “Are you sure you’re glad you saved me that night? Glad you gave in when I wouldn’t let you push me away, even though I ruined all your plans?”
Bash tilted his head as if honestly contemplating that. “Bari isn’t complaining.”
Ethan snickered.
“Jay isn’t either, not really. I would have made a terrible husband.”
“I don’t know. Maybe you just need the right mate.”
“Is that a proposal?”
“After less than two weeks?” Ethan raised a skeptical eyebrow, but then centered his gaze on Bash without anything more to say.
Bash gripped the side of his face and kissed him. “I will give your father one thing. At least his plan of bringing us together proves he has good taste.”
Ethan snickered again, because in a crisis sometimes the only thing to do was laugh.
Deanna cleared her throat in the driver’s seat. The remaining vehicles had all pulled up, some farther down the street to draw less attention from the neighbors, but the others were beginning to gather, leaving Deanna, Bash, and Ethan as the last to exit onto the sidewalk.
“What about the current owners?” Preston asked once they all stood before the first set of steps up to the porch.
“Leo owns it,” Ethan said. They had released him from the basement, but he’d elected not to join them, afraid he’d be more of a liability than any help. “He assumes Dad’s been staying here all this time. I didn’t even think to visit when I first got to town. I couldn’t imagine being here again.”
Luke came up to squeeze Ethan’s shoulder.
“We’re all with you, Ethan,” Bari said.
That reminded Bash of part of his prophecy from the cellar that first night. “Three with the power, but one unenlightened. You may not have shown abilities before now, brother, but I’d say you’ll be just the boost we need.”
Bari preened at the thought.
“We should move,” Deanna said, flexing her hands like she was itching to release claws. “He said the moment the sun sets, and I don’t want to give him any reason to hurt Rio.”
The last of the sun’s rays had indeed dipped below the horizon. They were still one short, but Bash agreed it might be too risky to wait.
“I know we can’t let my dad win,” Ethan spoke up, “but please, I don’t want to kill him. I just found out he’s alive. Sort of. I want….”
“To save him,” Bash finished gently.
“He’s my dad.” Ethan focused on Bash and Bari. “And I know yours was terrible, but mine was amazing. Devoted, loving. He said he’s doing all this for me. I just need to convince him it’s the wrong way to bring us together. Please.”
No one said anything at first. Bash wanted that ending for Ethan, he truly did, but he wasn’t sure it was possible.
“Agreed.” Jay stepped forward, and though Maximus looked surprised, he didn’t protest. “If you think you can reach him, Ethan, we’re with you.”
Bash couldn’t have said it better.
The neighborhood was quiet, almost unnaturally so, and the same was true of the house when they entered with Ethan leading. The lights were on in the entryway, soft, homey. Ethan turned for the living room, only to immediately startle, though it was no surprise to find Gordon by the fireplace with Rio in front of him.
“Rio!” Deanna all but bolted forward, but smartly stopped at Bash’s side. “Let him go! He’s not part of this!”
“Isn’t he?” Gordon said, his voice reminding Bash of Ethan’s, just older and with a sinister edge. “I didn’t think I was part of your world once, but being a Focus is partially to blame for why I was so out of control that even my sire was powerless to stop me. If I wasn’t spared misery, why should he be?”
“Dad,” Ethan said, before Deanna could spout anything too sharp and goading, while Bari came up on Ethan’s other side and the others gathered behind them. “Please, you don’t need to do this. I forgive you. It wasn’t your fault. What happened to Mom…. Leo told me, but I don’t hate you for it. I just miss you. You don’t need—”
“What kind of father would I be,” Gordon interrupted, stepping to the side of Rio, who merely stared forward like a doll, “if I didn’t give you the world, like I always promised?”
“I don’t want—”
“I took the world away from you because I lost control.” Gordon looked down, and Bash saw what he imagined was a shadow of the man Gordon Lambert once was. “I can be in control now. I can control everything so you never have to fear again, so you can have a love of your own and friends and a whole city, all things Leo kept from you to keep you from me.”
His eyes flashed with a bright golden power when he looked forward again, and Rio swayed like being summoned.
Bash heard the telling creak of floorboards, despite not having smelled anyone else when they arrived.
“I have to give Leo credit. Using a rune to mask your scent and presence was a commendable idea. He taught me to do the same. As a Focus, I almost didn’t need a powering rune, but having an extra Focus
around is very useful for projecting that power farther.”
The creaking continued as out of every visible entrance around them appeared enthralled shifters at Stage Two or Three, as if Gordon had gone back to the Shelter to recruit every adult there.
“Even over a whole house.”
Chapter 24
ETHAN SAW in his mind’s eye how easily everything was about to erupt into far more carnage than Siobhan’s arm getting ripped off. There were too many, all shifters, out of control, in too tight a space.
“Dad—” Ethan cut off with a cringe, feeling that pressure again, the force of his father’s thrall trying to turn him to his will. It hurt, more powerful than before with Rio’s amplification, but Ethan was stronger too. “Stop.” He pushed back, knowing his will was the only thing preventing Gordon from taking over Bash and the others too.
“Ethan!” Bash yanked Ethan backward as several shifters sprinted toward them.
Deanna came forward with a swinging fist, packing such a punch that she sent two shifters sprawling into another with a single hit. She roared, shifting to Stage Three, and shredded most of her clothing during the change as she became a big, beautiful panther on two legs.
Bari shifted too, a gorgeous silver werewolf, identical to Bash in that form.
Before Bash could shift in kind, Ethan felt another press of power from his father and clenched his eyes against it. Ethan may be keeping his friends from becoming puppets, but there weren’t enough of them to take on everyone enthralled, not when Ethan looked over his shoulder to see even more shifters swarming the others.
Siobhan sprinted to hold off the enemies pouring down the stairs. Ethan had seen her at Stage Two before, but everyone was changing to their largest selves, Siobhan included, becoming a humanoid raptor in scales of platinum and gold.
Preston and Luke made a wall against more enemies swarming in from the kitchen. They were smaller than the others, but Luke was a vicious werecat with his orange tiger stripes, and Preston was a fiercely fast wererat whose teeth looked more daunting than anyone else’s.
Jay and Maximus struggled to hold the front door shut against even more foes, despite their brown- and black-furred wolf forms being larger than Bash or Bari’s.
Worse was when Nell, near the back wall of the foyer, tried casting a spell, her hands lighting up with runes, but the door into what was once Gordon’s office burst open, and she was nearly snatched up by lunging hands like a scene out of Night of the Living Dead.
“Please!” Ethan whirled his attention to his father. He could feel the soft brush of fur growing on Bash’s arms, clinging to Ethan as if afraid to join Deanna and Bari and be turned against them like before. “You can’t make up for losing control by controlling me!”
A lizard with far too many rows of teeth broke through the line Deanna and Bari were trying to hold, and Bash had to let Ethan go so he could shift.
Ethan hated how powerless he felt, standing there as Bash transformed in a blink, ruining his clothing as most of the others had, and snatched the bounding lizard out of the air by the throat to toss it into a corner. Ethan needed to fight, too, but all these people were innocent; he didn’t want to hurt them.
“We have to incapacitate Rio!” Bash roared, his voice different but discernable coming from a snout.
“Don’t hurt him!” Deanna pleaded.
“Rio will survive a concussion! We won’t survive this!” Bash said, jumped by two catlike shifters while Deanna and Bari were too busy taking on three or four others at a time. Ethan had to act.
Zipping forward, he grabbed both cats by their clothes and slammed them together as roughly yet as carefully as he could, finding a balance that knocked them out without causing too much damage.
Gordon wasn’t stupid. He remained behind Rio with a row of shifters in front of them holding the line while others attacked. It was constant, but if Ethan didn’t swing too hard, he was able to take out several at once without lasting harm.
“This is foolish. Yield,” Gordon called over the din, and again Ethan felt that press.
He couldn’t let them hurt his father, he thought suddenly, and lashed out to grab the closest offender.
Bash.
No—Bari.
Ethan had him by the throat, squeezing too tightly, making Bari choke and claw at him, his bright wolf eyes dimming….
No, Ethan wrenched free of his father’s control, releasing Bari with a cringe of shame. Bari huffed relief before spinning to slash at his next attacker.
Just like everyone else, Ethan could do this—he had to.
The number of shifters streaming in was dwindling, save the line guarding Rio and Gordon, but when Ethan glanced once more at the rest of the pack, he saw them struggling.
Ethan’s power was helping them keep control, but none of them wanted to hurt these people. They weren’t enemies, they were slaves, pawns, and it was much harder to fight when holding back.
Siobhan was faring as best she could, bottlenecking the stairs to keep from being surrounded, but her strength was waning against such a massive push of bodies. She seemed about to burst back, thrown down the steps, but the sudden appearance of a dozen rats surging upward between her legs saved her.
“About time!” Siobhan growled.
“It’s a nice neighborhood!” Preston howled in explanation.
He had Luke beside him as he called his rats, but their presence could only help so much.
Then Jay slammed the front door shut with a cry of success and leaped forward to launch at those closing in on Preston and Luke, leaving Maximus to keep the door closed.
Ethan had overpowered Jay so easily before, but against his own kind, Jay was incredible, charging through a column of attackers and knocking them off their feet while barring several others from getting through.
That left Nell, who couldn’t help much since she’d had to cocoon herself in a shimmering shield to keep from being torn apart by shifters continuously throwing themselves at her. She was more support than offense.
Like Ethan was supposed to be.
Looking around at the ongoing chaos, Ethan tried with every ounce of focus in him to actively empower his friends, urging them to be the strongest they’d ever been. Then he reached out for the power he felt in Bash, the dimmer echo of it in Bari, and funneled that added strength into what he was already amplifying. He needed the others to create a clear path to Gordon and Rio and all this could be over.
Preston caught Ethan’s eye with a curl of his wererat lips, as if to say he felt the power Ethan was gifting him, and he started to summon a ball of lightning like that day in the den, only this one grew larger and larger like a living, pulsing storm, crackling across the room.
Nell saw, too, and released her shield bubble long enough to chant something that made runes light up all down one arm—and then light up similarly down one of Preston’s arms, empowering his spell that much greater.
“Duck!” Ethan cried, but Bash and those closest to him were too encumbered to listen.
As Preston released his wave of lightning, Ethan used his speed to pull each of the others out of the way until they became a huddle in the center of the room, leaving Preston’s spell to erupt with an impressive pulse that knocked everyone else in the living room to the floor.
Including Rio, who flew back into Gordon and slammed him against the fireplace.
Ethan flashed forward before anyone else could recover, over the downed shifters to reach Rio, and grabbed either side of his face to force his will between Rio and Gordon.
“Stop.”
Rio blinked in Ethan’s hold. “Ethan? What the—”
“No!” Gordon roared, and Ethan thought he’d seize Rio, but he moved past Ethan, too fast to stop, and grabbed Bash from the ground. “This is your fault!” he cried, with Bash dangling like he weighed nothing in Gordon’s grasp, even in his monstrous form. “I was wrong. If you were the one, this would be over by now. You were never worthy of my son!”
“Dad!”
Everything stopped as if someone had pressed the pause bottom, Gordon too, but like he didn’t know why his grip suddenly wasn’t as strong as it should be.
Was it Ethan, winning the battle of wills? But no, the house was still, the fighting stopped, and the front door must have opened again, because Robert Hedin came into the living room, calm as could be, right through the others until he stood beside Gordon and patted him on the shoulder.
“Hey, man, chill,” he said exhaustedly, like all he wanted was a drink.
Completely the opposite of that press on Ethan’s skull, he felt a wave of release and freedom pulse outward from the contact point of Robert’s hand. Rio was free, and so was everyone else, even starting to shift back to their human forms as if drained of any mystical power.
Bash pried himself from Gordon’s grip, coughing and breathing deep, left in his tattered clothes, while Gordon stood stunned, staring at his suspended arm and then at Robert.
“A Null,” he whispered, as if his mind had cleared for the moment too.
“For the record”—Robert turned to Bash—“I was not that late. You started without me.”
“No.” Gordon shook his head, fangs still bared as he snapped at Robert, who recoiled, and then Gordon spun to look at Ethan. “You don’t understand. This was all for you.”
“No, Dad,” Ethan said, moving forward through the quiet crowd. “You don’t understand. But I hope someday you can.” Clenching his fist with unrelenting resolve, Ethan reared back and cracked his father across the jaw hard enough to drop him.
IT WASN’T only Bash that Ethan had to ask permission from, but the whole pack, Jay and Maximus as their neighbors, and every enthralled shifter who awakened with expressions of horror once their master was unconscious.
Most of them wanted Gordon dead, but Ethan pleaded, begged for them to understand and have mercy, and swore that he’d be the one responsible for whatever happened next.
By the Red Moonlight Page 22
