Even while Mal had Cara literally in his hands, she seemed to fade, and then was pulled backward rapidly into…nothing. He grabbed for her but was too slow. Like his vision, but worse because it was real.
He stood alone in a hell of smoke and flickering red fire, and everything he tried to do right had gone wrong.
He had lost Cara.
Mal hated losing people he loved.
His howl echoed through more worlds than he knew about, but afterward he was still alone.
Cara was gone, Marigold was gone. It was just him.
“Morningside,” Mal growled.
Cara said the vampire was calling to her.
Which meant that she was going to join him.
Mal turned around, ready to race to the door that Marigold originally led him to. But that was ages ago, after a thousand twists and turns in this mirror world where nothing made sense.
If only he could just sidestep into the real world, like he…wait, what if he could?
Mal concentrated and slid into the amorphous in-between, the thin barrier that separated one world from the next. And this time he stayed there for a moment, searching.
He sensed the hellhole almost immediately. It was so powerful that it practically had its own gravitational pull, no matter which world you were in.
Mal moved toward the hellhole, reasoning that if he stepped out into the real world just at the boundary of it, he’d find the summoning circle Morningside was desperate to activate.
The hellhole seemed to rumble and glow as he approached it, like a volcano ready to erupt.
Then Mal felt something else, little lines pulling him toward other sparks of light. With a shock, he recognized the connections with his own brothers. And a little thinner, to Lily. A black metal chain to Behemoth, punctuated with locks.
And finally, new but blazing, to Cara.
Like a predator tracking prey, Mal stepped out into the real world.
Right next to the summoning circle.
He had no idea how long he’d been gone. Lex and Lily had been fighting the vampire Karl Egan, but now there was just ash near their feet, and both of them stood looking wiped out but still wary.
Lex’s eyes widened on seeing Mal emerge from nowhere, but he gestured for Mal to get out of the way. Good advice, since Dom and Morningside were engaged in some sort of mental battle. They stood on opposite sides of the marquetry floor, their attention locked on each other and no one else. Behemoth prowled the circumference of the circle, hissing and yowling.
Where is she? the cat demanded when Mal appeared.
“I don’t know! She got sucked out of wherever we were because she said Morning—”
Then Cara flickered into sight, exactly between the two casters.
“Cara!” Mal screamed.
She didn’t react to that, even to turn her head and look at him.
Mal tensed, ready to jump into the circle and grab her out of there.
Hold still.
Mal glared at the cat. “Cara needs help.”
You need to let her act as she wishes.
Before Mal could respond, the vampire raised its arms above its head. “There she is. My darling girl who’s going to put her heart and soul into this gate. Come here,” he ordered Cara.
She swiveled her head partway, giving a disdainful glance to Morningside. “If you’re going to break a girl’s heart and soul, you should at least know her name.”
“Cara Ann Michaels!” he shouted.
She laughed and shook her head.
Now, Behemoth ordered. Distract him.
Mal was moving before the cat finished. Morningside, focused on why Cara was eluding him, reacted a little too late when Mal attacked.
The two of them ended up in a tangle, wrestling for some advantage on the other. A candle was knocked over, then another. The flames suddenly brightened.
Mal pulled out the stake he’d stashed away, but Morningside anticipated that and knocked it away. The vampire was by far the toughest Mal had ever faced. Older, smarter, stronger.
Lex rushed up, throwing something toward them. A second later, Morningside let out an earsplitting shriek as holy water rained down, scorching the vampire’s flesh.
Mal took a breath during that moment of respite.
Cara still stood directly in the center of the ornate circle.
“Dominic Salem,” she said, her voice clear and remarkably stable. “You know what spell you need to cast. To close the portal requires a sacrifice, and I am that sacrifice. I was afraid before, but now I am willing to face my fate. Now I understand what my sacrifice means.”
Dom looked once at Mal, his expression haunted, then refocused on Cara. “I will. Be ready when the portal opens. If you hesitate, a lot of bad could come pouring out.”
“Have faith,” Cara said, pulling on a chain around her neck, then touching a silk cord bracelet on her wrist.
Mal wanted to stop her, convince her there was another way. This was supposed to be his big surprise, damn it.
Then Morningside sunk fangs into Mal’s arm and he nearly passed out.
He saw a streak of blackness rush toward him.
Behemoth.
The cat’s claws shredded half of the vampire’s face, and the fangs retracted.
Mal summoned every ounce of survival instinct and lashed out hard at Morningside, knocking the vampire to the floor, just outside the border of the circle.
Lily called out, and Mal caught what she threw to him—a silver cross. He pressed it into Morningside’s chest, and the creature’s flesh started smoking.
Dom was speaking, his voice unnaturally loud. Mal looked over in horror when the marked boundary of the circle erupted into a wall of thin green flames. Dom wasn’t inside it anymore, but Cara was.
No.
Mal tried to stand. He’d get to her, he’d pull her to safety.
The vampire dragged him down, still as tough as when this started. Mal struggled, even as his spine tingled and his skin prickled. Like a lightning storm was coming.
Dom’s ritual hit the crucial point, and even Mal felt the energy level spike as the long-suppressed gate was wrenched open with the magic of Dom’s spell.
Cara put her hands into the vortex that opened in the center of the circle.
And then she stepped into it.
Mal was sure his heart stopped.
Behemoth raced toward Dom, who spoke a final phrase just as the cat raked his claws across the border of the circle, disrupting the flow of magic. The green flames flickered and died as the energy dissipated into the atmosphere with a loud boom.
Lily screamed as the wax of several candles ignited at once, little supernovas all around the circle. Morningside also reacted to the presence of living, licking flames, letting go of Mal and looking around for a place to flee.
The vortex pulsed once, and Mal tensed, fearing what might come out of it.
He saw Cara, her red hair swirling around her head like a halo of fire. Her eyes were closed.
She returns, Behemoth called exultantly. Reach for her!
Mal reached out, taking hold of Cara, pulling her from the closing portal into the world where she should be.
They crashed backward onto the wooden surface of the parlor floor. Mal kept his arms around her to cushion the impact. “Cara, I’ve got you. It’s ok.”
He looked up and saw that where the portal had been, there was only a dwindling spot, like everlasting night being compressed to a pinprick…and then nothing.
“It’s over,” he said. “Cara, it’s ok.”
She lay there, unresponsive. Not even breathing.
“Cara!” Mal shoved aside the terror that wound up his spine and bent over Cara, ripping her shirt aside to expose her skin.
Mal’s physical training included CPR, and he knew that he needed to be her lungs and her heart, counting until her body caught the rhythm and could work on its own again.
Two breaths. A sharp hit to her chest, pushing down to jumpstart her system.
He waited. Nothing. Repeat. He’d do this forever, until he had no more breath to give.
Then Cara coughed, smoke curling past her lips as she took a rattling inhalation.
Relief flooded through Mal. “Cara, you’re breathing.”
He stared at her chest, now rising and falling. He saw that a faint bruise was spreading over the spot where he’d jammed his palms on her ribs.
She took a few more ragged, rough breaths, and none of them had any more smoke in them.
“Mal,” Cara whispered, her eyes fluttering open. “You’re supposed to ask before you kiss someone. You trilobite.”