I rounded the corner and almost fell over as I stumbled to a stop. The diner was fine. There was no sign of Carter. What I did see was so much worse. Gabriella was sitting on the steps her arms wrapped around her brother in mute defense. One of her eyes was swollen shut and blood was leaking from her bottom lip, a steady drip, drip, drip that landed in her brother’s hair. My eyes dropped to the boy who was sobbing softly. He was cradling one arm to his chest and the side of his face looked red and puffy. I don’t know how long I stood there in stunned silence before she noticed me.

“Jericho,” she said and her bottom lip split open, transforming the slow drip of blood into a steady stream. “I didn’t know where else to go.”

Her words dragged me back into motion. I walked over to the pair in a daze with the sense that, when I came back to stark reality, something truly awful would happen. I crouched next to them, not trusting myself with words yet. Yeah, something awful was definitely coming. It hadn’t arrived, but I could feel it approaching with grim inevitability like a tsunami you see racing toward the shore.

“What happened?”

“George,” she said, wincing and touching her lip.

She stared down at the blood on her fingertips for a long time before she let her hand drop. It was just as well. I’d known what she’d say before she even said it. Meanwhile, the tsunami raced toward me. I’d warned him. I’d goddamn well warned him what would happen if he did something like this again. I could feel my hands shaking a little even though I didn’t really feel the anger yet. Gabriella looked at me, sudden fear in her eyes.

“My mom! She’s still back there. I just grabbed Mateo and ran. He just kept hitting us and hitting us. I think he broke Mateo’s arm.”

I looked down at the tiny figure she still held in her arms. I resisted the urge to examine the arm he cradled. Anything I did was as likely to make things worse as it was to help.

“Hang in there, Mateo,” I told the boy. “We’ll get you some help real soon.”

It arrived a minute later when Bill rounded the corner in a limping jog. Followed almost immediately by a heavily puffing Jessie.

“Christ,” said Bill under his breath.

Jessie was less reserved. “What the fuck?”

I glanced over at them. “Bill, they’re hurt. You should get them back to Gran’s. Maybe Annie can help them until the ambulance arrives.”

“I’ll see to it. What are you going to do?”

I gave Bill a significant look. “I need to go check on their mother.”

He read my meaning clearly enough. I needed to go make sure their mother wasn’t dead. I touched Gabriella’s shoulder as gently as I could. She gave me an imploring look.

“You have to help my mom.”

“I’ll do whatever I can.”

I stood and stalked toward the garage. Jessie caught up with me a second later.

“What’s the plan, Jericho?”

“We go check on Gabriella’s mother.”

“What if the guy who did that is still there?”

“Please, God, let it be so. I need to talk to that man,” I said. “But Elena is the priority.”

“Right,” she said.

I let us into the garage, and Jessie let out a low whistle. She gave me an appraising look. “Is this your ride?”

“It’s my work car,” I said in a voice I didn’t recognize.

We climbed into the car, and I pulled out onto the street. The drive over passed in a blur. All I knew was that the tsunami had crashed on the shore and filled me with an anger so pure it burned like phosphorous in my chest. I screeched the car to a stop and jumped out, not even bothering to close the door behind me. The yard blinked by as I ran and then my shoulder was hitting the door. It hurt, and I didn’t care. The door sprang open, the cheap deadbolt ripping through the even cheaper door frame.

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What had been Gabriella’s home looked like a grenade had gone off inside of it. The dining room table was tipped over and missing a leg. One of the chairs was in splinters. Glass from broken picture frames glinted everywhere across the floor. The place reeked of spilled booze. Lying on the floor in the middle of this catastrophe was Elena. She was so still that, for one interminable moment, I thought she was dead. Then, I heard her take a wheezing breath and saw the hiccup of motion from her. I ran over and dropped down next to her.

“Elena? Elena, can you hear me?”

Nothing. Not even the barest flicker of eye moment or change in that ragged breathing. She’d been beaten so badly that she was almost unrecognizable. Blood had soaked through her shirt and pants in several places. That phosphorous fire in my chest upped its game to resemble the temperatures you find in the heart of a star. I was going to find George. I was going to do it tonight. I promised myself that this wasn’t going to get put off for another day. A second later and Jessie was crouched on the other side of Elena.

“Oh my god,” she whispered. “Who did this?”

“A dead man,” I growled before I got ahold of myself. “I can’t do anything for her. Can you?”

She fumbled with her phone for a second before handing it to me. “I can maybe help a little. Call Annie.”

Jessie rested her fingertips on Elena’s forehead. I felt the power rush into the room as she worked. I looked blankly down at the phone in my hand and then gave myself a mental shove. I clicked send on the contact Jessie had cued up. The phone rang a few times before Annie picked up.

“What is it, Jessie? I’m kind of busy here.”

“It’s Jericho. We’re at Gabriella’s house. Her mother is hurt. Jessie’s doing what she can, but it’s bad.”

There was a pregnant pause and I heard Annie talking to someone in the background. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Thanks,” I said.

I did my best not to distract Jessie while we waited. The strain of whatever she was doing was taking a toll on her. Beads of sweat started to appear on her forehead. Then, they trickled down her face. It probably only took Bill and Annie fifteen minutes to arrive, but that fifteen minutes moved at downright glacial speeds. By the time they arrived, I was standing on the porch. My hands hurt from how often I’d unconsciously clenched and unclenched my fists. I’d had some time to think, and the chain of events wasn’t hard to piece together. I’d been away. Without the constant, overt threat of my presence, George got brave or stupid. Annie rushed past me, and I followed her inside. Annie took one look at Jessie before she grabbed Jessie’s arm and gave her sister a firm shake.

“Jessie! You can stop!”

Jessie looked up. Her eyes were unfocused. Her face was ashen. God, I was so stupid. She hadn’t been ready for this. She’d been unconscious a few hours ago. Too much had happened, too fast. I’d been so focused on Gabriella’s mother and my own anger. I just hadn’t considered what throwing around power would do to oh so recently recovered witch. I went over and helped Jessie to her feet. She swayed drunkenly, like someone who’s been desperately ill for a while.

“I’ve got her. Are you up for this?”

Annie looked at Elena. “More than Jessie. What was she thinking? She knows better.”

“I don’t think either of us was thinking much beyond that Elena needed help immediately.”

Annie bestowed a glare on me, or Jessie, or both of us, but her heart wasn’t in it. A ragged breath from Elena drew Annie’s attention. I led Jessie away. Bill stood in the doorway, giving the wrecked space an evaluative look. He stepped aside so I could deposit Jessie outside on the porch steps. I made sure she wasn’t going to fall over before I joined Bill inside. He folded his arms across his chest as his eyes swept back and forth over the room. He didn’t like what he saw any more than I had. Bill had a lot more experience at checking those emotions than I did, so he focused on the practical.

“We can’t bring the kids back here. Assuming Gabriella’s mother doesn’t need an extended hospital stay, she sure as hell can’t come back here.”

I nodded in agreement. “Put them in my apartment. It’s small, but it should be okay for a bit. Gran has a key.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll make it work.”

Bill gave me a level look, clearly reading my intentions on my face. “What are you going to do, Jericho?”

I answered in a voice that sounded almost calm. “I’m going to keep my promise to the worthless bag of dicks that did all of this.”

“You sure you want to do that.”

“Yeah,” I said, gesturing at the disaster inside the house. “I’m sure.”

Bill nodded. “Carter’s still coming.”

“I know, but this can’t wait. Besides, you and Jessie still need time to enlist some help.”

“True.”

We stood there in silence as Annie worked her subtle magic on the wounded Elena. Jessie joined us after a while. She was still pale but far steadier on her feet. She watched her sister at work for a while.

Annie eventually stood up. “She’s safe to move, now. I’ve got the life-threatening injuries under control, but she needs rest and a hospital.”

“We’ve got it covered,” said Bill.

I helped them get Elena loaded into Bill’s car. Before I left, though, I went back into the house and grabbed a jacket that clearly belonged to George. Annie saw me come back out of the house, saw the jacket, and did some basic math. She met me in the middle of the yard.

“That won’t help them,” she said.

“You’re wrong. It won’t help them today. It will absolutely help them in the long run. Besides, I’m not doing it for them. I’m doing it for me.”

“Jericho, just stop and think for a second.”

I cut her off with an angry gesture. “Everyone gets a reckoning, sooner or later. Today, it’s his turn.”

Then, I walked around her and headed for my car. It was time to take out my anger on someone who genuinely had it coming.