“Calefacio!” I shouted, elbowing the witch holding me and rolling to the ground. My circle snapped into existence around me with a quick thought. There was a sharp pop, and a scattering of blue-colored shrapnel peppered the outside of my bubble. The plastic balls had burst from the heat, sending superheated sleep potion everywhere. I looked up from between my arms. Everyone was down but Lee, having put enough men between him and the flying potions. In the garage, Ivy stood panting over the last three vamps. We had gotten them. All that was left was Lee. And he was mine.

A smile curved over me as I stood and broke my circle, taking the energy back into my chi. “Just you and me, surfer boy,” I said, tossing the splat ball I had used for a focusing object and catching it. “Care to throw the dice?”

Lee’s round face went still. He held himself unmoving, and then, without a glimmer of emotion, tapped a line.

“Son of a bitch,” I swore, lunging. I slammed into him, knocking him flat on the cobbles. Teeth gritted, he gripped my wrist, squeezing until the splat ball rolled from me.

“You will shut up!” I shouted from atop him, jamming my arm into his throat so he couldn’t speak. He fought me, bringing his hand up to smack my cheek.

My breath hissed out in a pained gasp as he hit the bruise Al gave me. Catching his wrist, I snapped my cuffs on him. Spinning him over, I wrenched his arm out from under him. Knee on his back, pinning him to the pavement, I snapped the other ring about his other wrist.

“I am tired of your crap!” I exclaimed. “Nobody tries to put a black charm on me, and nobody traps me in a boat with a bomb. Nobody!You hear me? Who in hell do you think you are, coming into my city and trying to take over?” Rolling him over, I snatched David’s paper from behind his coat. “And this isn’t yours!” I said, holding it high like a trophy.

“Ready for a little trip, witch?” Lee said, his eyes dark with hate and blood leaking from his mouth.

My eyes widened as I felt him pull more from the ley line he was already linked to. “No!” I shouted, realizing what he was doing. The cuffs were FIB issue, I thought, kicking myself. They were FIB issue, lacking the core of solid silver that the I.S. issue cuffs came standard with. He could jump. He could jump to a line if he knew how. And apparently he did.

“Rachel!” Ivy shrieked, her voice and the light cutting off with a terrifying suddenness.