Niley yelled, You cannot cross the circle, Anita. I could feel it growing, swelling, like a dank, unseen fog. But they were miles away, and the spell was almost complete. I felt Richard and the others moving through the trees like a solid wind. I felt the hard edge of his panic and ran faster.

I felt Richard running, running towards us. I ran in the dark and couldn't see and didn't need to. I ran as if the ground told me where to go, and the trees opened up like welcoming hands. I ran like I'd run earlier in the day with Richard.

They'd know I was coming now, but it couldn't be helped. I unleashed that power inside me and sent it outward, casting like a net to catch a faint, ruffling scent of evil. I had to believe it as I threw myself into the black woods. When he came to, he'd get them into the house and they'd rescue Daniel. I left him with Roxanne and the vampires and Ben. I eased up on the gun more and blinked at him. She pressed clawed hands into the bark of the tree on either side of him and clawed long furrows in the bark. Linus's voice rose in a singsong rhythmn that filled the night with echoes and movement as if the darkness itself shivered at the words. If I get you into the house, the woman will be dead before you can get to her. They're going to kill the man and sacrifice the woman now. There isn't time to rescue them both, Howard said. They'd drawn a circle on the ground with something dark and powdery. He was dressed in the same suit I'd seen him in earlier. They'd chosen the top of a hill that had once been meadow, but some time today they'd bush-hogged all the grass and meadow flowers so that the hill was bare and broken under the moonlight. I was both happy to see her still fighting and sorry that she hadn't passed out. I thought at first she was unconscious, but her hands flexed and strained against the ropes. She was tied naked to stakes driven into the ground. The palest thing in the clearing was Charlotte Zeeman's skin. But there was nothing but darkness and a silver wash of moonlight. In the movies there would be an altar and maybe a fire or two, at least a torch.

Im bored red button