Boundary Crossed (Boundary Magic #1)(83)

Shit. I longed to check on my niece, but first I needed to help the others. I spun and flew back out of the door I’d come through. I started to round the corner, but my training kicked in and I jerked to a halt at the northwest corner, peeking around the side of the building.

There was a frickin’ brawl unfolding on the lawn. No, two brawls. Ten feet in front of me, Kirby had Quinn pinned to the ground and was trying to wrestle a shredder out of his hand. Fifteen feet beyond that, Simon was struggling with a shorter man holding a handgun. He’d managed to point the guy’s arm straight into the air, and the shooter had pulled the trigger several times.

Of the two of them Quinn seemed to be in greater danger, so as I walked forward I raised the Beretta and fired two shots directly into Kirby’s stupid thick skull.

That got everyone’s attention.

Simon and the kid—as I got closer I saw his protruding ears and recognized him as poor Yoda, the other pledge—froze for a moment, staring at me. Kirby swayed back, which gave Quinn a chance to wriggle out from under him. Now Kirby was kneeling, blood pouring from his temple, but even as I circled him the bleeding slowed and then stopped. I stared, fascinated. The bullets hadn’t actually gone through his skull. Did vampires have harder bones than regular humans? Maybe if I used a bigger caliber next time—

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Simon snatch the gun from Yoda and club him on the back of the head. By then I was face-to-face with Kirby, who gave me a woozy leer as he began to push himself off the ground. I holstered the Beretta, swung the shotgun up, and fired into Kirby’s chest from two feet away, the gun pointed directly at his heart.

Kirby froze in place, his features gone temporarily slack as his vampire healing powers rushed to keep up with his wounds. That was exactly what I wanted. I dropped the rifle and got even closer—Quinn yelled something at me, but I didn’t hear it—and looked straight into his eyes. Shit, I thought, I should have practiced this.

I breathed in and out slowly, trusting Quinn to help Simon, trusting Simon to keep Quinn from interrupting me. I tuned them out and focused on nothing but Kirby’s eyes. It was surprisingly easy. I’d been practicing my mindset for almost a month now.

When I was sure I could handle it, I opened up a connection between us. I’m not sure how I did it, exactly, I sort of just . . . willed it into existence, and it was there. I pushed my concentration into it—and nothing happened.

Kirby began to blink and stir.

Without my thinking about it, my body did exactly the right thing. I raised my hands and placed them on either side of Kirby’s face, funneling my power into him. And I pushed.

It was too much. I knew the second I’d done it. I wasn’t used to the tattoos focusing my magic like that, and I’d used more force than I needed to. Kirby whimpered, his mind threatening to break.

I backed off slowly, carefully, so I wouldn’t give him mental whiplash. Finally, I found a balanced amount of power and asked him the question, even though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

“Where is Charlie?”

“In the hayloft,” Kirby said, his voice flat and dreamy at the same time.

“Is Atwood with her?”

“Yes.”

“Is she hurt?” My voice hardened, and he paused for a long moment.

Finally he answered, “We gave her a drug to make her sleep, but she’s not injured.”

I gritted my teeth at that, but forced myself to calm down. Drugging babies was horrible, but I needed to concentrate on the fact that she was safe. And finish this.

“Besides you, how many people are involved?” I asked. I wasn’t leaving any room for error this time. We were getting every last f*cker who’d been involved in this kidnapping.

“One,” Kirby said, in that same slightly dreamy monotone I’d heard from Darcy.

Good. “Who?” I demanded. “Who sent you after Charlie?”

“Itachi,” Kirby said. “It’s his operation.”

Itachi.

My mind raced, scrambling to understand. That explained why Kirby had felt it was okay to steal my niece while she was under vampire protection, but according to the vampires, she already belonged to Itachi. Why would he want to steal something he already had?

Then the full implication hit me. If Itachi was behind this, no vampire in Colorado could be trusted. They were all sworn to him, so he could order any one of them to steal Charlie, right? Even—

At that instant, the world dropped out from under me.

For a second I thought I’d been shot, or tackled to the ground, but then Simon’s face was floating in front of mine. “Lex,” he was calling, and I realized I’d simply crumpled into the grass. In front of me, Kirby was lying prone on his stomach, his head facing straight up, a grisly, lifeless expression on his face. Quinn stood over his body. He’d snapped Kirby’s neck, severing the connection between us and nearly breaking my mind.

As I watched him drive a shredder deep into Kirby’s back, I wondered vaguely what it would have looked like if I’d been sensing out life when that happened. Wiping his hands on his jeans, Quinn straightened up, watching me with hooded eyes.

“Quinn?” I said in a small, distant voice. “Why did you do that?”

“I didn’t know how long you could hold him,” he said guardedly. “And I figured you must be done by now. What did he say?”