A Little Wicked (The Bewitching Hour Book #4)(44)
She squeezed her eyes shut as the mixed emotions swirling around inside threatened to take over. She could do this. She would do this, damn it.
“The darkness approaches,” said Claudia.
Claire squeezed her eyes shut and when she opened them again, she was ready to go. “How am I supposed to get close?” Surprising someone as powerful as a darkness-fouled Abigail wouldn’t be easy.
“I will distract her.”
“I’m not Sam,” said Claire sternly. “Now isn’t the time to hide things from me. How exactly are you going to distract Abigail?” Well, apparently knowing she was about to die made her ballsier than normal.
“I’m going to distract her by making myself a target.” Claudia turned. They were the same height, but Claudia still managed to look down her nose at Claire. “You’re not the only one willing to die for this.” Then the doors of a nearby building opened and Claudia’s attention was immediately on the movement. “Don’t disappoint me, Claire.”
With that, she walked away. Her strides were long and confident, and Claire only hoped that she could be that put together when it was her turn to approach Abigail.
Abigail herself had left the building and was surrounded by an entourage. Claire was just trying to think of ways to get past the entourage when Claudia waved her arm, sending all of the witches down the street.
That solved one problem. Abigail started to say something, but Claudia wasn’t waiting around. She held her palm out and a burst of blue flame shot out to Abigail.
Abigail threw her arms in front of her face just in time to stop the fire from hitting her. Claire knew that she wasn’t going to get any more distracted than this, so she stepped out from the shadows and started for the frenzy in front of her. She knew that if she gave herself time, she’d chicken out, so she sped up to a jog and ran straight for her best friend’s mother.
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“I think we found Abigail,” said Derek as the entire street was lit up by the blue flame.
Parker slammed on the brakes before they got too close. For a second, they both stared out the windshield. “I don’t want to sound like a coward or anything, but I think we should stay in the car.”
He was inclined to agree with her. When they’d run Abigail Harris’s credit card activity and came up with, strangely enough, a hit on one of the parking meters here, they had planned to drive by to see if it checked out. They’d never planned to confront anyone. “I need to tell Sam we found....” Derek trailed off when he saw the little blonde running across the road before the flames obscured her. “Fuck.” He jumped out of the car and pulled out his sidearm as he tried to assess the situation. Claudia seemed to be giving it her all and Abigail seemed to be straining under the effort to keep the fire away. Would it be possible for Claudia to beat her? Maybe this whole thing would be over before he needed to step in....
But then the flames started to die down and Derek knew it was wishful thinking. Before he could even aim his gun at Abigail, Claire appeared behind her and set a hand on the bared skin of her wrist. A look of surprise came over Abigail, but before she could twist around, she lurched forward as if she were about to gag. Claire’s grip tightened as Claudia fell back a few steps, obviously drained from her display of power.
Derek could only focus on one thing at a time and Claire was his priority. He started toward her but ended up slowing down as he approached. She and Abigail were both writhing on the concrete sidewalk. His first instinct was to get Claire the hell out of there, but he knew she was the one who had killed Jackson. Considering she was touching Abigail, she had to be doing the same thing, but she wasn’t in control like she had been the last time he’d seen her use her strange power. What she was doing now was hurting her.
Killing her.
“Leave her!” called Claudia from where she leaned against a car on the street.
He heard footsteps approach and glanced over just long enough to see it was Parker.
She looked just as conflicted as he did. “We’re just going to leave her?” she bit out.
Derek didn’t know what to say. Claire had chosen this the second she’d walked away. He knew from experience how hard the darkness was to kill. Was he just supposed to sit back and watch this happen? Was that what Sam would want him to do? Was that what his brother would’ve done?
But then Derek saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Five people were running right for Abigail and Claire. Derek had no idea who they were and went against every piece of training he had as he fired off a shot toward the ground in front of them. The bullet did nothing to stop their approach, and he knew it was only a matter of time before they reached where Abigail and Claire were lying defenseless. “We’re pulling her out,” he said even as he was already closing the distance between him and Claire. He managed to get to Claire right as the other witches did. But they ignored Claire and instead pulled an immobile Abigail back into the apartment building while Claire was still gasping in pain.
He hooked one arm behind her shoulders and one under her knees and lifted her up, carrying her away from the chaos as quickly as possible.
“Get her,” he said to Parker, motioning to Claudia as he got Claire to the Charger and put her in the backseat. By the time he looked up again, Parker was leading Claudia to the car. The older woman leaned heavily on Parker, showing just how drained she was. He slid into the driver’s seat and had just pulled the car seat back when Parker slid into the passenger’s seat and tossed him the keys.