“Any—” Aurora began just as a shaft of violet light shot from a window of the house and pierced the dark sky, straight to the heavens.

And that was when it hit him in a wave so violent, it knocked him back on a foot.

Fear.

And agony.

“No no no no no,” Aurora chanted, and he knew it was strong enough, she’d felt it too. Then came a terrified, tormented, “Mom.”

“Fuck,” Yuri bit out, took the van key from his pocket and turned to her. “Back to the van. Get in, start it. You get a bad feeling, go.”

“Yur—”

He caught her at the back of the neck with his vampire speed, bending and yanking her to within an inch of his face.

“Go,” he growled.

He let her loose, and maddeningly, as she was wont to be, she didn’t run as he instructed, and this time, he didn’t find it charming.

Her voice dripping with fear, the rest of her reeking of it, she asked, “What if they haven’t gotten the protections down?”

“There’s little time, Aurora,” he warned.

She latched onto his arm. “What if they haven’t gotten the protections down? You’ll burn, Yuri.”

“Then be prepared to stop me from doing that if I make it to the van and I’m on fire,” he replied. “Now, go.”

“But—”

“Go!” he thundered.

She wasted a precious second, then turned and ran.

Yuri ran the other way.

Toward the clashing covens.

He was far faster.

Within an instant, he was at the door, and without hesitation, he burst through.

What he didn’t do was burst into a ball of flame.

What he did do was take in the state of play which, unfortunately, was grimmer than he’d suspected.

The coven that guarded the implements was not formidable.

It appeared they were invincible.

He dashed over Jane’s dead body, sensing and speeding toward Barb, who was hanging upside down at the top of the stairs, her frame contorted in unnatural ways, her face twisted in agony, her mouth opened in a silent scream.

He located the witch spelling her, made it to her in a millisecond, snapped her neck in less time than that, and Barb was falling.

Before she hit the stairs and broke her neck, Yuri caught her, raced out of the house, and dropped her to the grass by the side of the van.

“Mom!” he heard Aurora shout from inside the van.

He also heard her moving.

And last, he heard Barb beg, “Help them.”

Yuri caught her anguished eyes, jerked up his chin, and sprinted back.

When he arrived, in short order he found Jane was lost. Jordana was as well. Ruby was still fighting, and apparently losing, until Yuri dispatched the witch she was battling, then grabbed hold of her and deposited her back at the van before he went back to the house.