No, Poppy, don’t give in. Get to Wanda’s! I yelled at myself.

  In response, I ripped the Jeep into reverse, then I hit the gas pedal and spat gravel as I peeled out of the driveway. Nearly wrecking the Jeep on one of the many Aspen trees that lined the driveway, I somehow managed to steer onto Chestnut Street.

  All the while, I could feel Roscoe like a shadow creeping up on me. Even though I kept looking for him in every direction, I couldn’t see him. Yet, I could still feel him and I was more than sure he was around me—somewhere. Hiding in plain sight. He was tracking me.

  My head jerked up and a flash of horror overcame me as I realized I must have drifted off because I was heading straight for a power pole. I yanked the wheel and zoomed back onto the road when something caught my attention in my rearview mirror.

  I glanced up and almost wrecked my car again. Roscoe was perched on my back bumper. He leered at me through the rearview mirror while he rode on the back of the Jeep. With my heart pounding through me, I veered into the oncoming lane before I realized what I was doing and yanked the wheel the other way.

  Get him off the Jeep! I yelled at myself and made a few more ineffectual jerks to try to shake him off, but he remained, grinning at me as if my attempts to lose him were cute.

  Feeling suddenly exhausted again, I dragged my focus forward and concentrated on the road. Spotting a side road, I swerved onto it and headed up a hill, at the top of which was nothing but morning sunshine. And sunshine was supposed to kill vampires. As I crested the top of the hill, light flooded the Jeep.

  I glanced back, hoping to spot Roscoe in the process of being scorched to a crisp on the bumper, but he only laughed. I stared at him in astonishment, all the while my brain not comprehending the fact that he wasn’t dead or dying. The sun shone full on his bald dome and glinted off his exposed fangs. It didn’t harm him at all.

  Because he’s been feasting on Betanya’s magic all this time, I reminded myself. He has powers beyond those of a normal vampire.

  As if in response to my thought, he sprang off the bumper. I flattened the pedal to the floor while I careened down the backside of the hill which would put me right back on Orchard Street, headed around to Magnolia St, where Wanda’s duplex was located.

  As fast as I drove, Roscoe vaulted over the Jeep and slammed down hard on the hood. He landed in a crouch right in front of me. I screamed in shock and reared back in my seat, releasing the steering wheel for a split second before I remembered myself and grabbed it, righting it from taking a nosedive into the gully beside me.

  What could kill this vampire? I screamed at myself.

  Sunlight was out. That left holy water which I didn’t imagine would do much to him… Okay, what else? Draining him of his blood, which seemed impossible, a stake through the heart—that seemed equally impossible.

  Or was it?

  I took a fresh grip on the wheel and then, noticing numerous low hanging branches of a row of pine trees, I steered into the oncoming lane. Roscoe laughed and tried to reach me through the open window as I slapped and pushed his hand away. Of course, in my current condition, I was no match for him and he managed to grab the door handle and open the door.

  At that moment, I forced the Jeep into the low-hanging branches, hoping one was just sharp enough to do the trick. The branches smacked him across the back and knocked him off the hood. He swung wide on the door and his fingers made claw-like sounds as they stripped the metal from the door in long patches the width of his nails. A second later, the door ripped clean off its hinges.

  Roscoe and the door went down under the wheels. The Jeep bounced over him, but I knew better than to think that would get rid of him. I gritted my teeth and trained every fiber of my being on maintaining control of the vehicle. I yanked back to the correct side road and spotted the sign for Magnolia Street, which was less than a mile away.

  I wasn’t even surprised this time when Roscoe took a flying leap and landed on the hood again. His maniacal laugh echoed in my ears, but I forced it out of my overwhelmed mind. I paid no attention when he reached through the gaping hole where the driver’s door used to be.

  He made a grab for the steering wheel and his fingers locked around my wrist instead, then he pulled my hand off the wheel, but that didn’t stop me from driving one-handed as I tried to fight his hold.

  I had to reach Wanda’s duplex.

  I stomped down hard on the brake and did a side-wheelie onto Magnolia Street. Roscoe slid to the left and almost dragged me out of the cab, but I slammed my foot down on the gas pedal again and shot straight.

  Just a little further…

  Roscoe righted himself on the hood and tried to yank me out of my seat, but my seatbelt stopped him. It locked in place so he couldn’t get me out from behind the wheel. I stretched my foot down as far as it would go to keep the accelerator pinned to the floor. Meanwhile, I wrestled the wheel with one hand and, spotting Wanda’s driveway, peeled off the main road, screeching to a stop in front of Wanda’s duplex.

  Roscoe gave my wrist one almighty jerk. At the same moment, he flung himself off the Jeep and pulling against the body of the vehicle, yanked it onto its side. I braked as best I could to avoid disaster and cringed, bracing for impact, but the Jeep was hurtling forward way too fast. Roscoe whipped over it and sprang into the driver’s compartment. He landed right on my lap as the Jeep smashed down on its side and skidded in a rotation down the driveway. It spiraled the rest of the way to the duplex and scraped to a halt right across from Wanda’s front door.

  The instant the vehicle stopped moving, Roscoe pounced. As I fought to get my bearings, he ripped my seatbelt off with one flick of his wrist. Then he grabbed my arm and launched us both upward. Crashing through the passenger window above me, we soared out of the Jeep and into the air.

  I screamed until I was hoarse as glass shattered around me and I closed my eyes against the onslaught. A second later, I felt myself landing and when I blinked, I slammed down on my back, on the pavement outside Wanda’s house.

  Roscoe stood over me and in the near distance, I spotted the Jeep flipped on one side. The wheels turned in silent revolutions and the engine was still running. Broken glass and debris littered the asphalt.

  Roscoe turned as if to walk away from Wanda’s and tugged my arm to drag me after him.

  Fight him, Poppy! I yelled to myself.

  In response, I flipped over with what little strength I still possessed. I might not be able to break his grip, but I had to do something.

  This is still a dream and you can still take control of it, I thought, even though I wasn’t sure if such was really the case anymore. It seemed to me that Roscoe had completely taken charge.

  I lunged for the Jeep and snatched the first object that came to my hand. It was a short length of twisted metal rod broken from the rear bumper. Ordinarily, I would never have been able to free it from the Jeep but this wasn’t ‘ordinarily’. This was a dreamscape.

  In that desperate moment, I pulled the piece free, then I wrenched around and struck with everything I had. I slashed at Roscoe’s arm. Of course, that wouldn’t harm him, but it got his attention. He jerked around with a vicious roar and bared his fangs. Then he lunged for me exactly the way I’d planned.

  I pulled the metal rod back towards me and sliced his face. I was aiming for his neck, but missed and gashed his cheek instead. He whipped sideways and, giving me a view of his chest, I thrust the scrap of metal up and into his chest as hard as I could.

  It plunged up to my knuckles and Roscoe froze, but I could tell I’d missed his heart. He blinked down at the bar sticking out of his torso and his fingers released from around my arm.

  Meanwhile, I scrambled to my feet and, with a burst of renewed energy, took off running for Wanda’s front door. As I did so, the front door opened and Wanda looked out at me, but just as I was about to set foot on her property, an overpowering force snatched me from behind.

  It hit me like a hurricane and jerked me backward, off my feet. Roscoe’s elbow locked around my neck and his arm extended over my shoulder. He hauled me one step at a time away from Wanda’s front door, where her Sanctum Spell would protect me.

  Roscoe’s laugh set my teeth on edge and as Wanda’s shocked expression met my eyes, I struggled for all I was worth, but without success. Roscoe clenched his arm around me and with his other arm, he grabbed the bar and slid it out of his own chest with a nauseating sucking sound. Blood dripped from his hand, arm, and the shaft itself when he brandished the metal before my eyes.

  Holding me in position while he turned the bar around to aim its razor-sharp end toward my sternum, I stared at death hanging suspended above me. Giving one last pathetic struggle to save my own life, Roscoe’s strength dwarfed mine. I couldn’t get away. He tensed for the killing stroke and arched back, raising the weapon on high.

  “No!” I heard Wanda scream.

  At the same time, Roscoe flexed and the shaft whistled through the air. At that moment, a scorching sizzle of energy brushed my hair. It missed me by a whisker and pummeled Roscoe in the face.

  The blast smashed him off me. In response, he staggered back, taking the bar with him. I jolted upright to see Wanda still standing on her porch, but now Olga was standing beside her. Both women’s arms were extended out in front of them and they were pounding Roscoe with hexes.

  Standing up, I lunged for the duplex, all the while dodging a rain of spells flying thick and fast. I dove for the porch when an explosion went off behind me. A counter-hex from Roscoe caught one of Wanda’s coming the other way.

  The two spells detonated in a devastating flash of energy that bowled me head over heels onto the stretch of grass in front of Wanda’s duplex. It sounded like a bomb had gone off and my ears couldn’t quite get with the program—everything suddenly sounded blurry, like sound in slow motion.

  And then that blurriness faded and I heard someone bellowing my name.

  “Get up, Poppy! You have to get up!”

  I didn’t want to get up. I felt like a wet dishrag and everything hurt. I didn’t even have the energy to open my eyes.

  “Get up, Poppy!” the voice thundered. “Get up now!”

  I summoned all my resolve and peeled my face off the pavement. Looking up, I found myself staring at a magical battle to end all magical battles. Roscoe fired blasts and curses at the duplex, but they bounced off the Sanctum Spell. They never got anywhere near the porch.

  Meanwhile, Wanda and Olga lambasted him with hexes and blood bolts from the other side. He deflected most of them, but they still managed to hold him at bay and stop him from killing me. Wanda and Olga laid into Roscoe with unimaginable power.

  “Get up, Poppy!” Wanda was the one calling to me. “Get up now!”

  I braced my hands and feet against the ground and forced myself up. Roscoe took notice of me and laughed that awful sound.

  “Now, Poppy!” Wanda yelled, and I forced my feet forward, aiming for the stairs that would lead to her porch.

  Once I reached the stairs, I’d be safe…

  I dove under another blast from Roscoe… or tried to. The impact struck me between the shoulder blades and I toppled onto the grass—but the grass meant I was inside Wanda’s property line. Now Roscoe couldn’t touch me.

  I looked up to see Roy as he reached down and grabbing me under the arms, pulled me the rest of the way into the duplex. Then he looked down at me and shook his head.

  “That was way too close.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  I opened my eyes and looked around myself and instantly didn’t recognize my surroundings. It took me another five or so seconds to realize I was lying on Wanda’s couch and the room was illuminated by a single lamp beside the couch. I glanced out the window and noticed it was dark. Trying to sit up, I immediately wilted again. My head felt like a lead balloon and I struggled to breathe.

  “How long have I been out?”

  Wanda sat down on the cushion next to me. “About six hours.”

  Six hours?!

  “Oh, no!” I yelled, trying to sit up, but finding it inordinately difficult. “I never called to check on Finn,” I explained, shaking my head. “He must be worried sick.” I made another heroic effort to sit up but didn’t get far.

  “Keep still,” Wanda told me. “I already checked on both Finn and Astrid an hour ago. They’re happy at Marty’s gorging on root beer floats.”

  “And Fifi is there with them,” Roy added as he walked into the room and leaned against the doorjamb, studying me as he did so.

  Florence hustled over to me and pressed a cold, wet towel to my forehead. “You’re feverish. I’ll make you some soup.”

  “I don’t want soup,” I answered as I faced Wanda. “What… what happened?”

  She shrugged and then shook her head. “One second you were here and the next you were gone.”

  “Gone?” I repeated, not understanding.

  She nodded. “First you were here and then, blip, you were gone.”

  “And then we saw you outside with Roscoe,” Florence added.

  “Getting my butt kicked,” I finished on the exhale.

  They all nodded. I looked up at Wanda then.

  “The Jeep?”

  “Is destroyed.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t… I don’t understand how that’s possible! I was in the astral plane! Nothing should have happened on the physical plane.”

  “Zee lines between zee astral plane und zee mortal vorld vere blurred,” Olga explained.

  “Then it wasn’t just a dream?” I asked.

  Wanda and Olga shook their heads and Wanda responded, “The dream world and the real world intersected, just as Olga said.”

  I took a deep breath and tried to understand, tried to wrap my brain around how this was even possible.

  Just then, a crushing boom struck the wall to my left, and the whole building shook. I jolted out of my skin, but still couldn’t sit up.

  “What was that?” I asked, my mouth dropping open because no one seemed to notice the sound, or if they did, didn’t seem very concerned by it.

  “It’s just Roscoe.” Wanda waved behind her. “He’s been at it for hours.”

  I listened to one pounding quake after another. Then I looked up at Wanda, who shook her head.

  “He can try all he wants to get inside, but he won’t be able to break the Sanctum Spell.”

  “Remember, Roscoe isn’t just a vampire,” I started and just the effort to speak took a toll on me. “Since he’s been absorbing witch magic for decades, he’s absorbed some of Betanya’s… abilities. That’s how he hid himself from your tracking spell.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Was that how he did it? I wondered.”

  I nodded. “I’m sure that’s how he was able to muddy the line between the astral and physical planes, as well.”

  “Ya,” Olga said with a nod.

  “He’s immune to sunlight, too,” I continued, as another crash made me look toward the front door. “But I guess you already knew that.”

  “Ya,” Olga answered again, with another nod.

  “I wonder what else he’s immune to,” Roy said.

  I shrugged. “Maybe everything. Maybe we won’t be able to kill him at all.”

  “Now that doesn’t sound like the Poppy Morton I know,” Wanda said with a smile as I shook my head and then breathed out deeply.

  “I feel like hell.”

  “It’s no wonder. Your astral body was almost completely drained and then the astral got confused with the physical so, yeah, you’re probably a complete mess at the moment.”

  I felt like a complete mess but didn’t want to dwell on it.

  “How is Betanya?”

  Wanda shook her head. “She’s completely out of it. If Roscoe’s little temper tantrum doesn’t wake her up, nothing will.”

  “She’s still very weak,” Florence added as she appeared in the hallway.

  Wanda nodded. “She’s likely to be out of action for a while.”

  What blood I had left drained from my face. “How long is a long while?”

  “Who knows?” Wanda responded with a shrug. “I’ve never dealt with this vampire stuff before. But, I’d bet Betanya had to have been incredibly close to death, otherwise Lorcan’s blood would have perked her up by now.”

  “And Lorcan?”

  “Should just be waking,” Roy answered.

  “Well, what are we going to do about…?” Another withering smash hit the building, followed by several more. “Roscoe could keep us barricaded in here forever.”

  “That won’t happen,” Wanda answered.

  “And how are you so sure about that?”

  She shrugged. “We’ll find a way to deal with him, and as soon as Betanya is well, she’ll be the first in line to squash his pin head.”

  I sagged down on the couch again. “I don’t feel good at all.”

  “Understandably so—you were nearly killed.”

  I nodded as Wanda looked over at me again, as if studying me to see how badly off I really was. She reached out and patted my arm. She really had changed from the prickly, anti-social witch she was when she first moved to Haven Hollow.

  “Everything is going to be all right,” she offered but I didn’t think she believed her own words. I certainly didn’t.

  I reclined on the couch, and every limb felt like it weighed a ton, but the despair settling over me was a thousand times worse than the exhaustion.

  Everything was definitely NOT going to be all right, not with one of the most powerful vampires assaulting the duplex. I shut my eyes and gulped down the lump in my throat.

  I just couldn’t shake the feeling that the sky was falling—that everything around me was going to hell in a handbag. I couldn’t remember feeling this bad—ever. Even when Janara, the usurper of the Faerie Court of Winter, kidnapped Finn, I’d never felt this need to just give up. No, back then, I’d done something. I’d fought back.

  Wanda sat up and her tone changed to a brisk, business-like clip. “While you were out, Roy, Olga and I figured out a plan.” She cocked her head to the side and then shook it. “Well, the beginnings of a plan anyway.”