Clattering and clanging, the chains collapsed as Ira wisped out of them. Billowing into a column of clouds, he came straight for me.

“Seth!” Evan cried, starting forward.

But I was already dipping backward, spinning the loop of Baby’s hilt so the flat was against my palm. I pushed my hands against the floor and sprung out of the circle to land in a crouch just beyond the final barrier. I didn’t need the true sight to see the air ripple as Ira smacked into Yahoel’s entrapment.

Undeterred, the seething pillar of air twisted around and shot in a new direction, only to be rebuffed again.

Evan appeared at my elbow, offering me a hand. “You okay?”

Nodding, I watched Ira flit around his confines. The smoke ping-ponged against the bubble like an angry pinball. At last, the vapor coalesced and Ira--Illya-- materialized in the circle, trembling fists clenched at his side.

“Release me,” he hissed, even more strained and pale.

“Gonna go with no,” I said.

Beni snorted a laugh, then tried to cover it with a cough.

Ira’s face tightened, and I had the feeling he would be flushing with fury if he had enough blood. “You can’t keep me here forever.”

I raised Baby. “Obviously not.”

He raised an imperious eyebrow. “You’re very threatening in those shorts.”

I fought a blush. I’d almost forgotten what I looked like. There hadn’t been time to change from my revealing ‘date’ outfit. “A sword doesn’t care what I’m wearing.”

“You’ve already made a huge mistake just bringing me here,” he said. “I promise you, killing me will not work out for you.”

“What, your blood-daddy will swoop down on our heads?”

“My mother,” he said simply.

“Really?” I laughed, couldn’t help it. “You’re going to tattle to your mommy? The one you’ve already told us isn’t a vampire?”

In a low voice, he declared, “Some things are more powerful than the vampir.”

He pronounced it vom-PEER, like a complete douchebag.

“I think we’ll take our chances,” I started to say, but Evan’s hand covered mine, lowering my sword.

I shot him an outraged glare.

“Let’s go upstairs,” he said. “All of us. Think we need to regroup.”

I huffed. Baby was practically begging to slide between Illya’s cervical vertebrae, but Evan gave me another of his stank eyes, and I acquiesced.

But I couldn’t resist one last parting shot at Ira. With what I hoped was a sultry wink, I purred, “Don’t go away!” Then I turned and sauntered toward the stairs.

He was watching my ass as I went. I didn’t turn to look, but I knew he was.

The basement door opened into the kitchen. Espy’s notes and my mother’s book were still on the table. Espy came up last, shutting the door behind. Murmuring the prayers of protection, she held up two fingers in the Rebuke and traced the outline of the door.

“There.” She turned back to us. “Now we won’t be overheard.”

“Seth what the actual Hyle?” Evan raked a hand through his hair.

“What?” I threw my head back and gave him an eye of my own. “We needed answers, and now we have them.”

“Answers? We have more questions than ever!” He started ticking off his fingers. “We still don’t know who’s behind the murders, or who the victims are, or how they’re chosen, and now we have to worry about what makes Ira’s mother scarier than a vampire.

“But we can find out.” I thrust my finger toward the basement. “We just need to restrain him--”

“How?” He demanded. “He vaped out of vanadium. That’s not supposed to be possible, but he did it.”

“I bet he’s getting too weak to do it again,” I said. “You saw how pale and shaky he was getting.”

“That makes him more dangerous, not less,” he snapped. “The Craving will rise soon, and then what?”

“And then we kill him,” I said. “So let’s wrap this up before we lose our chance.”

“This is not how things are done,” Evan said flatly. “And we can’t do it safely even if it was.”

Crossing my arms, I said, “I thought you were done shutting me down?”

“That was before you went off-mission!” He exclaimed.

“Yeah, Seth,” Beni put in. “I haven’t seen you go off script like this in ages.”

Glowering, I asked, “Are you going to lecture me next?”

“Not at all,” she breezed. “I’m impressed.”

Evan rounded on her. “Don’t encourage him.”

“Somebody ought to ‘cuz you sure haven’t been.” That brought him up short, but she wasn’t done. “You’re so focused on him being the junior partner that you forget he’s also the scion. Did you not just witness him pull a Patriarch-level skill out of his ass on the first try?”

(Technically it was the third try, but I couldn’t interrupt her when she was defending me.)

“I’ve never denied his skill.” Cheeks pink, Evan said, “He’s very good, but he’s also cocky--and reckless.”

She rolled her eyes. “Look, I get it. That annoyingly perfect thing he does can be a lot, but he’s James the Younger, so it’s whatever. It’s fine.”

“...Doesn’t sound fine,” I muttered, but neither of them were listening to me.

“He can’t bend the rules just because he’s the heir,” Evan shot back. “Saint James and I had a whole conversation about it. I can’t let him chase every wild hair--”

“Wild hair?” Beni scoffed. “He’s been right about every ‘wild hair’ so far. The sheriff was acting weird, Ira is a vampire, and there is another cult behind the murders. Seems like he should go a little more wild, if you ask me.”

“Didn’t,” he snapped.

“Well maybe you should,” she said. “Because I’m tired of watching him shrink himself just to please you. You need to appreciate what he is, not try to make him something he’s not.”

Utterly lost for words, Evan just stared.

Into the silence, Espy said, “We have more pressing concerns.”

I thought she meant the vampiric timebomb in the basement, but then a knock came at the door.