Hollis jerked as though from a powerful blow, her aura beginning to shift from a metallic blue to a darker blue shot through with red threads. A thin line of blood trickled from her nose. "I'll let them through," she warned him, the words emerging almost in a cough. It was obvious she was in pain, A lot of pain.

"No." Samuel shook his head. "You won't."

His hand lifted, clenching into a fist.

She didn't fly backward as the chauffeur had done, but Hollis jerked again. Her aura vanished with a loud crackle that rivaled the lightning, and she was slammed backwards to the ground.

And lay motionless.

Oh, Christ this wasn't supposed to happen

"Someone's talking," Samuel repeated, turning his attention from the fallen medium as though he had brushed away a bothersome insect. "Bishop, is that you? Have I finally lured you to me?"

Bishop faced him, wearing a tight, grim smileand on his very dangerous face it wasn't a pleasant expression. "I thought it was time we finally met. We came so close last time, but you didn't stick around for the grand finale."

Move.

Sawyer realized suddenly that he could move, that he could take a step away. He wasn't sure in that moment whether Samuel had released him or someone stronger had pulled him loose, but either way he was able to move to the side and allow the two combatants room.

Doing the only thing he could do for Robin now, for Hollis, for all those Samuel had murdered, he focused his cold rage on his part of what was left of their plan, concentrating on directing all the energy he could muster to help contain Samuel's building energies.

It was like trying to catch lightning in a box.

The real thing crackled across the sky again, and the prickling, uncomfortable sensation of electricity filled the chilly heavy air.

"I had to be somewhere else," Samuel said to Bishop, apparently unaffected and unworried. "I knew you'd understand."

"What I understood is that we managed to hurt you. Dani managed to hurt you."

"Yes, well. Dani isn't here."

Again, Bishop smiled. "Wrong. She is here."

Samuel's smile faltered for the first time, and his eyes began to dart around as he searched the faces of the dozens of people who had gathered nearby in the Square. Puzzled, curious faces, the only oddity about them the fact that they seemed unaffected by the brutal murders committed before their very eyes.

And all familiar faces. Faces Samuel knew well.

"You're lying, Bishop. Not that I give a damn." His hand lifted abruptly, palm out, and Bishop was lifted off his feet and slammed back against the Jeep with an incredible force that shattered glass and crunched metal. He hung there, suspended, the vehicle almost wrapped around him as if it had run full speed into an immovable object.

Just like the chauffeur.

For a moment, Bishop's body seemed stiff, but then, abruptly it went limp. Blood trickled down to stain the gravel.

"I'm almost disappointed," Samuel said, sounding it. "I expected more of a fight."

"Then you'll get one," Tessa said.

Samuel's head turned quickly, and he frowned as he saw her standing only a few feet away to his right. Standing in front of her, pressing against her, was Ruby.

His hand lifted again, but this time a literal shower of sparks cascaded out from Tessa and Ruby, the residue of the deflected energy.

"Try again," she invited.

He did, his frown deepening, his face twisting with effort as this time he lifted a hand straight upand caught the lightning.

He became a living conduit. A crackling bolt speared his upraised hand and shot out from the hand extended toward Tessa and Ruby. It lasted only seconds.

And again, astonishingly, the force he directed at them was deflected, sparks and threads of energy hissing off in all directions.

"It's amazing what you can hide, especially in a place like this," Tessa said conversationally. No strain at all showed in her face or in her voice. "Like Ruby, under the baptistery. Left there to die, slowly, among the trophies you kept. I guess at the end of the day, a serial killer is just a serial killer. For all your fine talk of doing God's work, in the end you're no more than a butcher."

He let out a sound so primitive it could only have come from an animal and, with both hands, sent a white-hot stream of pure energy to strike them.

This time, it was deflectedand returned to the source, slamming him back against the stone column at the foot of the steps. He hung on, panting a little, his face pale, furious eyes narrowed.

"It's amazing what you can hide," Tessa said again.

Samuel's head snapped around, because her voice came from his left now. And there she was, with Ruby as before. With Ruby and a dark, solemn-eyed boy. Cody.

"If you only know how," Ruby said gravely. "We know how, Tessa and me. And Cody knows how to help us. Cody has a lot of power, but he hid it from you. Until now."

Samuel, for the first time genuinely baffled and shaken, looked to his right again. Where Tessa and Ruby had stood seconds before, Dani Justice stood now.

"Hi," she said. "Remember me? You took away somebody I loved a lot. And you can't get away with that. You don't get to hole up here, getting stronger and stronger by feeding off people. By killing people. You don't get to be God. Not today."

Her hands were at her sides, and as they slowly lifted she appeared to be inside a bubble of shifting, sparking energies. Her energies. Sawyer's. DeMarco's. Tessa's. Ruby's. Cody's. And more.

Much, much more.

Lightning crackled in the sky above her. Then bolts of it struck her aura of energy, intensifying it in a wild explosion of sheer, raw power.

"Not today," she repeated, and thrust her hands forward.

The sound was like an explosion. Was an explosion. A literal wave of incandescent energy surged forward from Dani and struck Samuel with the same kind of force he had used against Bishoptimes ten.

The stone column crumbled to shards and dust, and he lay among the shattered remnants. He wasn't dead, but his face was twisted with agony, blood trickled from his nose and mouth, and when he tried to lift his hands in another attack, it was clear he had nothing left. Not even sparks.

His hands trembled, then fell.

"Father!" Bambi stumbled from the small group of church members standing nearest the steps and knelt among the broken remnants of the stone column, cradling his head. "Father"

Looking down at Samuel, DeMarco said calmly, "I can read him now. It. There won't be another attack. Not today, at least. Maybe not ever." He shifted his gaze to Dani. "Nice shot."

"Thank you." She sagged, a little pale but composed. "I'd been saving that up for a while. And I had a lot of help."

A tall, whipcord-lean man emerged from another small knot of people and folded her in his arms. "Jesus, I wish you'd stop doing this to me," Marc Purcell told her.

"Hey, you hitched your wagon. Your choice. Don't blame me for the consequences."

"Yeah, yeah." He kissed her.

Even though all three were smiling at him, Sawyer made sure Tessa and Ruby and the boy were okay before turning quickly to start toward the ruined Jeep.

"Bishop"

To his astonishment, Bishop, unhurt, was hurrying toward the crumpled vehicle that still held a man in its deadly grip.

"Galen, are you all right?" he asked, reaching his team member.

"Of course I'm not all right. I don't know why you all think this dying shit is painless. Just because I can heal myself does not mean it's a day at the park. Goddammit, somebody get a crowbar or something and get me out of here."

"It's amazing what you can hide," Tessa said. "What you can change. If you only know how."

Indignant, Sawyer said, "But why'd you hide that from me?"