"Vampire!" Mr. Williams roared and pointed.
I had just enough time to throw up a shield of energy around myself before the blue energy orbs hurtled my way, hitting my shield hard enough to force my calves and thighs to strain to keep me from falling backward.
"Savannah!" Tristan yelled, but it took a few seconds before he vamp blurred between Mr. Williams and Co. over to me while holding his sister tight against his side. As soon as he let her go, she wobbled then fell to her knees and threw up.
I increased my shield so it wrapped around both Tristan and Emily, as well. But the descendants had stopped throwing orbs at me as if waiting for something.
"You okay?" Tristan asked me, watching the descendants.
"Yeah. But your mom..."
"Why, Tristan, you fiend," Mr. Williams said with a slow smile that didn't reach his eyes. "You killed your mother!" He made a tsking sound and wagged an index finger. "You have been a very naughty boy this evening."
"What? I didn't..." Tristan glanced down at me with a frown. Then his gaze slid over to the body at my feet.
His eyes rounded, all color draining from his face. "No..."
Then he noticed Dylan still crouched over his mother's body with one hand at her neck, checking for a pulse.
"No!" Tristan roared, and the purely animalistic sound sent chills crashing through my body.
Then everything went really crazy, and even with the adrenaline-increased speed of my thoughts and reactions, I still had trouble following what happened next. To our left, more blue orbs exploded, forcing me to focus on holding the shield and returning fire against Mr. Williams and his crew.
"Emily, help!" I shouted. But when I glanced at her, she seemed too deep in shock over her mother's death. Emily had draped herself over her mother's body and was sobbing so hard her entire body rocked, though the sound was lost beneath the shouting and sizzling of f lying orbs filling the room.
Then Tristan burst free of our shield and vamp blurred straight at Dylan.
"No, Tristan!" I yelled. "He didn't-"
But I couldn't speak fast enough to beat Tristan's speed as he tackled Dylan at a run, driving his former childhood friend backward.
"You killed my mother!" Tristan screamed into his face as he grabbed two handfuls of Dylan's shirt.
Then he picked up Dylan and threw him across the room with another animal-like roar.
Dylan hit the stone fireplace with a loud crack so hard the thick wooden mantle broke along its length and half of it clattered along with him onto the hearth. Air whooshed out of Dylan's lungs, and his eyes closed as he went limp.
Oh, my God.
Sirens wailed outside. I couldn't get a read on Mr. Williams's thoughts, so I searched one of his crew member's instead.
Police. And not only were they Clann, they were also very much on Mr. Williams's side and in on tonight's attack.
This whole thing was a setup to either kill the entire Coleman family or at least frame Tristan for his mother's death, leaving Mr. Williams as the clear choice to succeed Nancy Coleman as the next Clann leader.
"We have to go!" I grabbed Emily, dragging her with me over to Tristan even as Emily screamed and tried to reach for her mother again. She fought me so hard I was afraid I'd bruise or break her arms trying to hold her. "Tristan! We've got to go! The Clann police are coming for you."
He looked past me at his mother's body, taking a lurching step forward.
"She's gone," I said, risking letting go of Emily with one hand so I could grab his shoulder and shake him even as my heart ached for him. "We can't stay!"
His jaw clenched, his eyes turning white and narrowing as he looked at Mr. Williams.
Mr. Williams smiled back.
Tristan scooped up Emily in his arms. She didn't even have time to gasp before we took off with her out the patio doors and across the backyard west toward the woods and downtown Jacksonville.
I had run with Tristan before since turning him, but never as fast as this. Tonight the Tristan I had once known as a small boy was gone, replaced with a furious animal. Fangs extended and lips peeled back in a snarl, he ran on pure instinct with his sister, never looked down at her or around us as he vamp blurred through town toward my house. It was all I could do to keep up with him, and when we burst into the house through the front door, stopping only once we reached the living room, I had to bend over and catch my breath.
He set Emily on the leather couch then darted away to the front window to pace back and forth, his fists clenching and unclenching over and over. A quick peek at his thoughts actually made me f linch and stare in horror.
He wanted Mr. Williams and the rest of the Clann to follow him here. He wanted revenge. He wanted their deaths... and their blood.
"Tristan..." I whispered.
Dad vamp blurred into the room. "What has happened?"
Swallowing hard, I spoke as fast as I could, telling him what had happened at the Coleman house. With every word I spoke, his face grew darker and darker.
I looked down at Emily, expecting her to fill in the details of the fighting that had occurred upstairs. That's when I realized she wasn't breathing.
Oh, God. If Tristan lost her, too, he'd never survive it.
"Emily!" I whispered, checking her throat for a pulse. Nothing.
Tristan disappeared from the window, reappearing in a crouch at Emily's head. "Emily? Emily!" he shouted.
Dad grabbed Tristan's wrists before he could tap his sister's cheeks.
"Do not touch her," Dad said. "In your present state, you will kill her."
Tristan growled at him, chest heaving. "Let go of me. She is my sister."
"Tristan, please let him help," I said.
Tristan glared at Dad for several long seconds. Finally he nodded and took a step back.
"Was she awake before you picked her up?" Dad asked Tristan.
Tristan nodded, his eyes wild as his hands buried themselves in his hair and gripped the curls as if to tear them out.
"You ran too fast with her. The pressure of the movement prevented her from drawing a breath." Dad pinched her nose and opened her mouth as if to give her CPR, then hesitated and looked up at me. "I cannot. She is Clann. I..."
He was afraid he might give in to the temptation to bite her.
I took over, carefully giving Emily a deep breath, then another, and another.