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Her hand continued past his cheek until she smacked it against his forehead and held it firm. John’s eyes went wide. An inhuman roar bellowed from his chest. He released Esther,backing away and scratching with both hands at his face as steam rose from where her palm had been. Through his fingers, Ashley barely made out the black outline of a cross.
Esther’s earring.
Ashley’s laugh came out as a sob when she recognized the shape. No wonder Esther was fidgeting with her ear while John held her. She had a weapon the whole time.
Esther reached Ashley while she was still distracted by John’s face. “Ashley.” She was panting. “Are you all right? I came to tell you not to…”
Her words trailed off as her eyes wandered down Ashley’s front.
Right, she was still covered in blood from her earlier puking stunt.
“It’s fine,” Ashley said. “I’m fine.”
“Ashley.” She touched Ashley’s cheek, and the care in Esther’s eyes was worth everything.
Ashley had missed her so much.
“You haven’t taken the potion yet, have you?” Esther asked.
She couldn’t stand it anymore. Ashley ran her hand along Esther’s arms, her cheeks. This day felt like a dream, and she had to know it was real. That Esther was really here in front of her.
“Ashley.” Esther took both of Ashley’s wandering hands in her own, focusing her back on the question. “Did you take the potion in the necklace?”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart.” Ashley pulled a hand free, still not satisfied, and brushed Esther’s hair back behind her now empty ear. “I gave it a lot of thought first, and the numbers don’t lie. It was worth it. Just to have a chance with you.”
“No.” Esther was crying, too. “No, I’m too late? Ashley, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I didn’t know it wouldn’t work. I came as soon as I found out.”
“Shh, it’s all right, sweetheart.” She continued to brush back Esther’s hair trying to soothe her. “You were all of my yellow cards.”
Esther shook her head, her brows pinching in confusion. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The band?”
“Not the band.” Geez, maybe picking yellow was a confusing choice after all. “I made a color key. I can show it to?—”
Ashley was pulled by the roots of her hair, her scalp on fire, and flung through the air, crashing into a column in the foyer. There was a booming crack that knocked the air from her lungs before she tumbled, her head smacking the floor as she landed. She gasped, trying to suck in air. From her fallen place, her cheek pressed to the cool wood, she saw two boots step toward her. One swung back before burying in her gut. There was a pop in her chest that she guessed was a rib, though this had never happened before so she couldn’t be sure. That was what it would have been in the movies.
Esther was screaming, and Ashley needed to get up and tell Esther to run. But the boot swung again, and this time it caught her in the chin. Stars blocked out her vision.
She pinched her eyes shut, trying to make them work. When she opened them, Ashley had to blink repeatedly before they focused on the scene before her. Esther swung from John’s back, her arms locked around his throat as he spun, trying to fling her from him.
Ashley needed to get up. She needed to help. Esther wouldn’t survive being flung against a wall like Ashley. She was human.
Her side burned, but she forced herself to move through the pain. Bracing a hand against the column, she stood. The old oak sported a deep crack where she’d hit it, like the jagged lines of a map. On the ceiling, holes marred the star-speckled plaster and littered the floor around her.
An idea slowly formed. Ashley pushed at the column below the crack. The wood groaned but wouldn’t budge. This should have been easy, even without the ready crack, but her body was so tired she wasn’t sure how she would do it. A movement in her peripheral drew her attention back to the fighting as Esther was flung across the room and hit the wall by the door.
Esther fell limp to the ground, a small gash leaking a crimson tear down her cheek.
Ashley ran and leaped at John, her arms locking around his neck and her teeth clamping onto his throat. She’d tear out his jugular and leave him gasping until she found something that worked as a stake.
But something was wrong.
Her fangs wouldn’t descend, which meant her teeth wouldn’t sink in.
John laughed and flung her from him. She hit the column again with as much force as before, and this time it was enough. The column cracked, and the small tendons holding it together snapped one by one as the pressure from the ceiling pushed the column into its final bow.
John’s chin tipped to the ceiling as the column groaned, but he was too late. Ashley shot out and grabbed him around the ankle. He fell to the ground. They grappled, both clawing and elbowing, one to get free and the other to hold in place.
“Ashley.” The sound was barely more than a whisper.
