“For boiling? A stove. For ice, I like my refrigerator.”

Smart-ass. “But you can influence water?”

“Yes,” she drawled, obviously thinking him a madman.

He tugged her over toward the window. “Can you work with the water inside the plants?”

She gasped. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” She rolled up her sleeves. “Stand back.”

Parker obeyed and hoped she got it right. If not, they were all dead.

Amara pushed and pushed, but nothing happened. The door remained stubbornly shut. “I need help!”

A pair of hands joined hers, their stony grip sure and steady. “I’m here.”

Rock. She’d recognize those hands anywhere. “Thanks.”

“Me too.” Another pair joined Rock’s, pale and small, the nails bright red. She hissed as she pushed. Amara recognized her as one of the vamps who’d cried out that she was guilty.

“Anyone else who wants to help, see if you can find another way out.” She couldn’t run the risk of doing more harm than good. Too much force could take the entire wall out.

She pushed, her muscles straining, and considered taking out the wall anyway. Soon it would be too late. The creaks and groans of the building told her the structure might soon fall on their heads, killing everyone inside.

Then something happened. The plants on the other side of the door quivered. She could feel their pain, but they were tainted, weeds of the worst kind, and she felt very little sympathy for them.

The door moved.

“Bad Parker. No cookie for you.” The voice had grown more distant, weaker. Terri was losing strength.

“Keep pushing!” Whatever was happening, the plants were losing their strength. Out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed a withered, limp leaf falling to the floor. “What the hell?”

“Push now, talk later.” Rock never let up. He kept the pressure going, digging his fingers into the metal door. He didn’t even sound winded, but that was an earth elemental for you. Their strength was rooted in the ground they stood on.

Water lapped at Amara’s feet. “Have the pipes burst?” The town’s witches chanted, the spell they wove keeping the ruined ceiling from collapsing.

“Dunno,” the vamp with the painted nails grunted. “Keep pushing.”

Amara pushed. The door gave some more, the groan of metal and wood shuddering through the room. “It’s gonna give.”

With a shriek, the door burst open. Dry twigs snapped. Dust and pollen swirled around them in a rank, dry cloud.

Rock sneezed.

“Bless you.” The female vamp took a step back, waving her hand in front of her face.

Rock glanced down at the vamp, his nose wrinkling. “Thank you.”

Amara stepped through the door and into the wreckage of the gardens around the town hall. Every single plant was withered and dead. The tree that had once shaded the hall was leafless, its branches creaking in the wind. It looked ready to topple over at any moment. The roses Glinda had planted were gone, broken and twisted by the rampaging weeds.

She stared around at the carnage jealousy had wrought and felt the fire burning in her belly burst into a goddamn volcano. “I’m going to kill that bitch.”

Dominic Davis stepped carefully over the rubble and pushed up his glasses. “Amen.”

The town hall was no longer structurally sound. The plants had, in a short amount of time, nearly destroyed the building. Hundreds of lives would have been lost had the building come down.

All to get to Parker.

Parker sighed and put his hands on his head. He tugged his hair. “How do I fix this?”

“By not being a pussy. Find the bitch, kill her, live happily ever after. The end.”

Right. Like that was ever the end. Happily ever after took hard work, but Parker was willing to put that work in. Finding his sotiei didn’t mean his life would suddenly become a bed of roses.

At least she’d never have to yell at him for leaving the toilet seat up.

Brian sat next to him on the curb. They were across from the town hall, staring at the ruins. Amara was over there with the other dryads, draped in nothing but his shirt, trying to figure out if any of the plants had survived the carnage. He could have answered that.

Thanks to the thorns waving around the windows, the naiad hadn’t been able to pick out the plants individually, saving plant from weed. She’d been forced to call water from all the plants, draining them dry, letting them wither and die a rapid, arid death. That life-giving water now seeped through the cracks of the town hall’s floor, mere inches from the roots of the plants it had once nourished.

“Shit. Dragos and Kate are going at it.”

Parker looked where Brian pointed, uncaring that Dragos was having domestic problems. Kate screamed at Dragos, her long, occasionally pointing at Mina, Greer and Ash with her clawlike nails. Dragos stood with his arms crossed, his expression as cold as ice, his lips compressed into a thin line. “And?”

“Kate is the town treasurer.”

“Fuck. Double fuck.” Not good at all. “You think she’ll try to talk him out of rebuilding?”

“Possibly.” Brian sighed, his shoulders slumping. “Doubt she’ll lift her hand for us now, even to give us the finger.” Not that Parker wanted anyone who smelled as bad as Kate near Amara. He was surprised Dragos couldn’t sense how foul the woman was. Did she have him wrapped up in some sort of spell? If she was as bad as Parker sensed, he wouldn’t be surprised.

Damn. Once they were done dealing with Terri, he’d be trying to free another vampire from another evil witch. He groaned and covered his hands. So much for the white picket fence and two-point-four vamplings.

Amara walked toward them, fierce fury on her beautiful face. He was surprised she’d reverted to human, considering how angry she was. He stood to meet her. “All done, my sweet?”

Her lips curved, but she didn’t respond the way he’d hoped. “I need to go home.” Parker held out his arms, and she stepped into them, shaking with grief and rage. “Explain to me again why the bitch isn’t dead.”

Parker sighed. “Confused vampire hormones. But I’m working on that.”

She shifted against him. He knew it was a result of the rage and the fear, but her nipples were like pinpricks against his naked chest. Suddenly all he could think about was getting her home, getting her naked and checking every single inch of her for wounds before licking her clean. His cock twitched in his jeans as he thought of taking her against the wall, the door. Possibly in the car on the way home. Hell, maybe there was a dark place around the corner, an alley or something where he could feel her around him, know she was safe and sound. He didn’t care that she was dirty and exhausted. All he cared about was reclaiming what was his. He felt his fangs descend as he thought of having her in the jeep, leaving his scent all over it. “We’ll take your car.” She pulled away. “Brian, you take mine.”

Brian glanced over at him. Whatever he saw, he turned away quickly, but not before choking off a laugh. “Whatever you say, boss.”

“Oh, some alone time. Hey, Brian, I don’t suppose you’d like to test-drive Amara’s couch?”

Amara’s eyes were huge. She opened her mouth, but whatever she was going to say, Parker was in no mood to hear. He needed her, needed to finish what had begun a few days before.

He needed to complete the ritual and mark her as his sotiei.

Parker whirled Amara toward the jeep. “Let’s go.”

Amara didn’t argue when Parker chose to drive. She stared out the window, her arms across her chest. She trembled, but he knew it wasn’t from fear. It was rage that made her shiver, anger that had her fingers dancing up and down her arms.

He could work with that. He’d give her an outlet for her rage and grief. He could take whatever she could dish out.