Damn; this is wrong, Jez thought. Her own hands were clenched into fists so tightly that her nails were biting into her palms.
"You know, I'm concerned," Pierce said softly from just behind her. "I have a concern here."
Jez glanced at him quickly. Pierce didn't talk a lot, and he always seemed the coldest of the group-aside from Morgead, of course, who could be colder than anyone. Now Jez wondered. Could he, who never seemed to be moved by pity, actually be the most sensitive?
"I'm worried about this fire. I know nobody can look down on us, but it's making a lot of smoke. What if one of the other tenants comes up to investigate?"
Jez almost hit him.
This is not my home, she thought, and felt the part of her that had sighed and felt loved and understood wither away. These are not my people. I don't belong with them.
And Pierce wasn't worth hitting. She turned her back on him to look at Iona again. She was dimly aware of Morgead telling him to shut up, that other tenants were the least of their worries, but most of her attention was focused on the kid.
Come on, kid! she thought. Then she said it out loud.
"Come on, Iona! Put out the fire. You can do it! Just do what you did before!" She tried to catch the child's eye, but Iona was looking at the flames. She seemed to be trembling now.
"Yeah, come on!" Morgead said brusquely. "Let's get this over with, kid."
Raven leaned forward, her long front hair ruffling in the wind. "Do you remember what you did that night?" she shouted seriously. "Think!"
Iona looked at her and spoke for the first time. "I didn't do anything!" Her voice, so composed before, was edging on tears.
The fire was full-blown now, loud as a roaring wind, sending little bits of burning debris into the air. One floated down to rest at Iona's foot and she stepped backward.
She's got to be scared, Jez told herself. That's the whole point of this test. If she's not scared, she'll never be able to find her Power. And we're talking about saving the world, here. We're not just torturing this kid for fun.... It's still wrong.
The thought burst out from some deep part of her. Jez had seen a lot of horrible things as a vampire and a vampire hunter, but suddenly she knew she couldn't watch any more of this. I'm going to call it off.
She looked at Morgead. He was standing tensely, arms folded over his chest, green eyes fixed on Iona as if he could will her into doing what he wanted. Raven and Val were beside him, Raven expressionless under her fall of dark hair; Val frowning with his big hands on his hips. Thistle was a step or so behind them.
"It's time to stop," Jez said.
Morgead's head whipped around to look at her. "No. We've gotten this far; it would be stupid to have to start all over again. Would that be any nicer to her?"
"I said, it's time to stop. What do you have to put out the fire-or did you even think of that?"
As they were talking, Thistle stepped forward. She moved right up to the flames, staring at Iona.
"You'd better do something fast," she shouted. "Or you're going to burn right up."
The childish, taunting tone caught Jez's attention, but Morgead was talking to her.
"She's going to put it out any minute now. She just has to be frightened enough-"
"Morgead, she's absolutely terrified already! Look at her!"
Morgead turned. Iona's clenched fists were now raised to chest-level; her mouth was slightly open as she breathed far too fast. And although she wasn't screaming or crying like a normal kid, Jez could see the tremors running through her little body. She looked like a small trapped animal.
"If she's not doing it now, she's never going to,"
Jez told Morgead flatly. "It was a stupid idea in the first place, and it's over!"
She saw the change in his green eyes; the flare of anger and then the sudden darkness of defeat. She realized that he was going to cave.
But before he could say anything, Thistle moved forward.
"You're gonna die!" she shrilled. "You're gonna burn up right now!" And she began kicking flaming debris at Iona.
Everything happened very fast after that.
The debris came apart in a shower of sparks as it flew toward Iona. Iona's mouth came open in horror as she found fiery garbage swirling around her knees. And then Raven was yelling at Thistle, but Thistle was already kicking more.
A second deluge of sparks hit Iona. Jez saw her put up her hands to protect her face, then fling her arms out as a piece of burning cloth settled on her sleeve. She saw the sleeve spurt with a tiny flame. She saw Iona cast a frantic look around, searching for a way to escape.
Morgead was dragging Thistle back by her collar. Thistle was still kicking. Sparks were everywhere and Jez felt a hot pain on her cheek.
And then Iona's eyes went enormous and blank and fixed and Jez could see that she'd made some decision, she'd found some way to get out of this.
Only not the right one.
She was going to jump.
Jez saw Iona turn toward the edge of the roof, and she knew in that same instant that she couldn't get to the child in time to stop her.
So there was only one thing to do.
Jez only hoped she would be fast enough.
She very nearly wasn't. But there was a two-foot wall at the roof's perimeter, and it delayed Iona for a second as she scrambled onto it. That gave Jez a second to leap through the fire and catch up.
And then Iona was on the wall, and then she was launching her small body into empty space. She jumped like a flying squirrel, arms and legs outspread, looking down at the three-story drop.
Jez jumped with her.
Jez! The telepathic shout followed her, but Jez scarcely heard it. She had no idea who had even said it.
Her entire consciousness was focused on Iona.
Maybe some part of her was still hoping that the kid had magic and could make the wind hold her up.
But it didn't happen and Jez didn't waste time thinking about it. She hit Iona in midair, grabbing the small body and hanging on.
It was something no human could have done. Jez's vampire muscles instinctively knew how to handle this, though. They twisted her as she fell, putting her underneath the child in her arms, putting her legs below her like a cat's.
But of course Jez didn't have a vampire's resistance to injury. She knew perfectly well that when she hit, the fall would break both her legs. In her weakened state it might well kill her.