Finally she started coughing.
Tristan dropped into a crouch beside her and took her hand, staring at his sister as if to make sure she really was okay.
Dad blurred out of the room then back with a glass of water, which he silently offered Emily. She took it with a grateful nod. After a few sips, she slapped Tristan's shoulder with a loud thwack.
"Don't you ever run that fast with me again, you idiot! You could have killed us both." Her free hand rested protectively over her tummy, which I now noticed was a huge round hill from chest to hips. She closed her eyes, her lips moving soundlessly. Finally her shoulders sagged and her eyes f lew open. "It's still kicking. If you had hurt it-"
A screech of tires outside alerted us all to the arrival of guests. Great.
Tristan darted over to the window and snarled. "They're here. Good. We can finish this."
"No, Tristan," Dad said, and there was no room for argument in his tone. "We must get free and warn the council. If Mr. Williams has staged a coup, then war against the vampires is sure to follow."
A second war between the Clann and vamps. How many times had both my parents and Nanna expressed their fear of this very thing happening?
Our worst nightmares were about to come true.
For the second time that night, my skin broke out in goose bumps as the descendants both inside and outside the house ramped up their power in preparation. Obviously we'd have no time to pack.
Something pounded against the roof.
"What are they, navy SEALs?" I muttered in disbelief. They couldn't seriously be attempting to break into the house from the roof, could they?
Then we heard the crackling.
"They are setting the house on fire," Dad said, his face emotionless though his eyes were dark. "We must get out."
"That's exactly what they want," Tristan growled. "They're trying to smoke us out so they can take us."
I shook my head. "They don't have to smoke us out, Tristan. We can all die by fire right here inside. Remember?"
Dad disappeared then reappeared with a handful of papers, which he stuffed down inside his shirt, using the tucked-in top like a giant pocket for passports, cash and cards.
The crackling turned into a faint roar as tendrils of smoke began to form overhead, then quickly thickened into a cloud that drifted ever lower.
Great. More smoke.
"We must leave now," Dad said. "Through the side parlor windows, I think. We will stay within the cover of the woods and head west on foot. Emily, perhaps I should carry you this time to ensure you can still breathe?"
She hesitated then nodded. "Good idea."
Dad led us out the living room and across the foyer into the parlor. Suddenly the stained-glass window on the front door exploded inward, showering the foyer with a spray of colored glass. Tristan and I both dropped into a defensive crouch, our hands raised and ready to hit whoever came through with a spell.
Instead, fire burst through the foyer like a huge, fastmoving snake, twisting side to side almost as if it had a mind of its own and was searching for us.
Spell fire. It was the only explanation. But I'd never seen it used like this before.
"I will be right back!" Dad shouted then disappeared before I could argue that we shouldn't split up.
He reappeared three seconds later holding two plastic shopping bags full of something. Without explaining, he thrust the bags at me, then scooped up Emily.
"Tristan, the window," he said. "On three?"
Tristan nodded and we all got ready.
Tristan raised his hands, Dad counted, and on three the window exploded outward with Dad leaping out right behind the f lying glass.
I took a deep breath then jumped after him and ran as fast as I could toward the surrounding woods that wound through Jacksonville, following as close to Dad as I could.
I glanced back to make sure Tristan was with us, just in time to see him leaping out of the house with a huge wall of f lames at his back. At first I feared he was on fire, but once he was free of the house, I could see he was also clear of the fire, though the f lames did their best to reach out through the window after us.
And then I saw the entire roof, covered in f lames, collapse on my home.
Tristan grabbed my wrist and pulled me with him, jolting me out of my shock and horror. And then we were all running together too fast for me to think about anything but ducking and dodging low-hanging tree limbs thick with pine needles.
None of us slowed until we were deep in the woods that separated Jacksonville from the surrounding towns in an evergreen cocoon.
Finally, Dad stopped, easing Emily onto a nearby fallen tree so she could catch her breath. Tristan insisted on checking both of us for injuries. Seeing we weren't hurt, he moved away from all of us, turning his back to stare through the woods while Dad called my mother to ask her to come pick us up.
Tristan was too still, standing there with his fists clenched, his feet braced wide, his head unmoving. I tried to search his thoughts for some clue as to what was going on inside his head, but it was a raging roil of emotions way too mixed up and volatile for me to make out.
Emily walked over to him. He turned with a snarl. "What is wrong with you, Emily?"
"What?" she gasped.
"Why didn't you stop them before they killed her? They killed our mother, and you just hid in your room like a scared little kid. You let them kill her!"
Emily took a step back and gasped. Her hands clenched into fists at her side. "I tried-"
"Spare me. You and I both know you're capable of way more than that pathetic little display you put on back there. She wasn't perfect, but she was our mother. She deserved a real fight from you."
"I did the best I could!" Emily shouted. "I was upstairs dressing when they showed up. I fought them for forever all by myself. By the time you showed up, I didn't have anything left!"
His face contorted. "Since when have you run out of energy so-"
"Since this." She jabbed a finger in the direction of her rounded tummy. "This...thing is sucking up all my energy! I almost didn't have enough to even keep them off me tonight till you showed up. If you hadn't come when you did..." Her voice choked.
Tristan stared at her stomach as if seeing it for the first time, his eyes widening. We'd learned Emily was pregnant during the fight at the Circle where I'd turned Tristan, but with all that had happened, without seeing her, the reality hadn't hit until now.