Anya Bast - Witch Heart

She couldn't draw all four elements at once, but she could pull a thread of each one by one to create absolute destruction.

"Go!" she screamed at Adam and Theo. "I'll hold them off."

"I'm not leaving you, Claire," yelled Adam over the screaming of her magick and the bellowing Atrika.

"I'm the only one who can keep them busy. Go!"

"And when you get tired, what then?" He grabbed her around the waist and hauled her backward.

Theo threw the kitchen door open and they made a flat-out run to the Charger. The daaeman wouldn't take long to shake off the assault. Claire hoped they wouldn't follow up with daaeman magick. Not here in the middle of this idyllic neighborhood in broad daylight.

Theo slid behind the wheel and Claire climbed in the front while Adam melted the tires of the sleek gray sedan on the street, presumably what the Atrika had used for transport if they hadn't jumped here.

Once Adam had lunged into the back seat, Theo slammed on the gas and the car took off, tires squealing on the pavement. Claire held on as the car shot down the street and took a corner too fast. Behind them, the pretty Victorian in the lovely non-magickal neighborhood burned.

Claire tried to catch her breath and keep her heart from beating faster than the car was traveling. She closed her eyes and assured herself that the Atrika couldn't jump into the vehicle with them. As long as they were moving, the daaeman couldn't get a fix on them. To jump they needed an exact location.

A fire truck passed them going the opposite direction. The fire hadn't been too out of control when they'd left. They should be able to take it in hand before it threatened any other properties. As they'd left, she'd felt Theo moor the land around the house, to help keep the fire from spreading.

Adam slammed his fist into the driver's seat in front of him and swore. "That was Ingrid's car out front."

Ah, the gray sedan.

Theo's hands tightened on the wheel. "I know." His voice was low, grim, and resigned.

"How the fuck did they find the Coven witches? Thomas told me they all left the property separately and at different times. They did that in case they were being watched. So what the f—"

Claire turned and speared Adam with her gaze. "You're dealing with the hunter incarnate, Adam. You can take all the precautions in the world, but they'll still find you if they want to badly enough."

"They got our location out of Ingrid or one of the other Coven witches."

She stared at him for a moment, trying to repress the lump of emotion that had sprung into her throat. She felt responsible for this. "Yes." She swallowed hard. "You should prepare for the worst."

"I know." Adam shifted his gaze past her, to the road.

Theo pulled his cell and punched in a number, waited, then snapped it closed. "Ingrid's cell. It was worth a try." His voice was tight with a trace of emotion.

She leaned back against the seat, tears blurring her vision.

"We're heading south, into Iowa," Theo said after several long moments of just the sound of the road under the Challenger's tires. "We're going to keep moving this time. From place to place, until Micah gets something on how to remove the elium. So settle back. We have a long drive."

That night they stopped at a motel that sat on the edge of a corn field. The stalks were demolished and dry, harvested long ago for their corn and then ravaged by deer and other animals.

Adam got out of the car, the gentle rustling of the remaining stalks sounding around them in the cool night air, and glanced at the back seat. He'd thought Claire had been sleeping, but she raised her face and her eyes were wide open. She was pale and her expression a little shell-shocked.

He frowned. "Are you okay?" Pause. "Yeah, that was a dumb question." He opened the back door and helped her out. Her hand in his, only that touch alone, sent a tremor through him.

She shivered a little and he fought the urge to draw her close to him. "I won't be okay until this is over."

"Ditto. Come on, we both need food and a good night's rest. Tomorrow we can go shopping again. Maybe this time we'll get to keep everything we buy."

As they made their way through the parking lot and into the lobby behind Theo, Adam noticed uneasily that the lot was full. When they reached the counter, his fear was confirmed.

"We can do two rooms, not three," said the man behind the counter. "All the hotels are booked up for miles around. There's a big game at the university this weekend."

Theo turned to look at them. Dark circles marked the skin under his eyes and he looked haggard. "Claire shouldn't stay by herself anyway."

Claire stiffened. "I'm more powerful than either of you. Both of you put together!" She glanced at the hotel employee and drew a breath. "I don't need your protection. I need your guidance, but if I must stay with one of you, I prefer Adam." She paused and looked apologetic. "No offense meant, Theo."

Theo blinked. "None taken. I'd rather have a room to myself anyway." He turned back to the man behind the counter.

Adam had been looking forward to the possibility of a night on his own, too, if only to keep his hands off Claire. He didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to do that. Especially not with the vivid dreams that had been plaguing him.

Once he and Claire made it to their room — it wasn't like they had a lot of luggage — Adam pulled the phone book out of the desk drawer and called the first pizza place with delivery he found. After he was done, he put the phone back into the cradle and started to make himself comfortable.

Claire was sitting on the bed, shirt cuffs pulled down over her hands and staring at the faded green carpet at her feet as though it held all the mysteries of the universe.

"You hungry?" he asked, pulling his shirt over his head and tossing it over the back of a chair.

"Famished."

"Ever had pizza?"

She looked up at him. "Pizza? No, but my mother told me it's delicious."

"It is. I guarantee you'll like it."

She returned to staring at the carpet. "I don't deserve pizza. It's my fault those witches were put in danger. If they die—"

He walked to her and put his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look at something other than the floor. "Stop it, Claire. You heard what Theo said about keeping the elium out of the hands of the Atrika. That's for the good of everyone. The Coven witches signed on for this gig. They knew the risks, just like Theo and I do. Anyway, we don't know what happened to them yet. Maybe they got away."

"Maybe. Adam, I got the feeling Theo knows Ingrid personally."

Adam dropped his hands from her shoulders and rubbed his chin. "Yeah, they're sleeping together. I don't know much more than that, though. Don't know if their relationship is about more than just the sex or not. Theo isn't the sharing type."

She swallowed hard. "Do you know any of the missing Coven witches personally?"

"They're all friends, yes. I know them all."

Claire turned her face up to his. "Tell me about them. I want to know these people whose lives I've affected."

Adam sat down beside her and told her everything she wanted to know. He told her about Ingrid and how she had a brutal temper, but a very good heart. How she'd slept with lots of the witches at the Coven, even Jack McAllister for a while, before he'd met his wife and the mother of his child, Mira. He told her about James and how he loved to snowboard and ski. And about Tom and his nasty habit of drinking milk straight from the carton in the Coven's kitchen.

He talked until the pizza came and then while they ate. Claire devoured her share, washing it down with Coke. She'd developed a taste for junk food pretty quickly.