Darius’s pitch-black box still sat over the intersection’s far end, but its walls were moving—he was shifting the darkness, keeping as many enemies inside its blinding effect as he could. The Keys teams were arranged around its perimeter, battling contracted demons and two of the demon mages who’d made it out.
Darius stood unmoving, shoulders rigid and attention wholly focused on the massive distortion of light he was manipulating. Girard and Alistair stood in front of him. The ground around them had split open, and glowing red lava bubbled in the gaps, black smoke coiling upward. Scattered around the sizzling lava pools were bodies—including two demons. The enemy had tried to take out our most powerful mythic, but they hadn’t been able to get through his protectors.
I was about to return to the wolf battle when I caught a glimpse of movement—a streak of shadow, darting past Darius, Girard, and Alistair. Heading away from the battles.
Heading for the guild.
The creature slid to a stop a few feet from the Crow and Hammer’s door—a tall, thin vampire with fingers that had elongated into stiff claws.
Another appeared beside the first. And another. And another. They gathered in front of the guild, mouths hanging open, fangs displayed. Two slammed into the door and two more grabbed the bars on the windows and wrenched.
Wood splintered. Metal groaned and snapped.
My heart lurched. Our guildmates were in there. Sin and Sabrina and Kaveri and all my friends who didn’t have magic to fight demons and monsters.
A cacophony of alarmed shouts went up from the other side of the intersection, and I jolted, my attention drawn in two directions at once.
Darius’s black rectangle had vanished. He’d turned away, a blade pointing at the bloodsucking fiends breaking down the guild door. The forces he’d been blinding charged into the Keys teams, and crimson power exploded.
I launched forward. A trick. A diversion. The enemy couldn’t reach Darius so they were distracting him instead.
The vampires reeled back from the building, clutching their faces in confusion. Blinded by Darius’s magic. I swung my gun up. Pink mist burst over a vamp. It shook its head. The mist hung in the air, then dissolved to nothing.
Shit. It didn’t work on vampires? Not good!
I dropped the clip out and shoved the second one in. Taking aim, I fired a shot.
An orange paintball burst against the nearest vampire’s chest—and fire exploded across it. A horrendous shriek of agony wrenched from its gaping jaw and it flailed at the flames. The fire stuck to its hands, spreading everywhere it touched. Staggering, it collapsed to the ground, writhing.
Whoa. Hellfire indeed.
I took aim and fired again—and every single vamp blurred with speed as it leaped aside. My shot flew past them all and hit Darius’s SUV. Liquid fire splattered the hatch and a rear tire burst with a fizzing pop.
Even blinded, the vampires had heard the sound of the paintball gun and dodged.
Teeth gritted, I aimed into their group and pulled the trigger rapidly. Four shots flew out, striking two vampires as they tried to duck away. The flaming duo crumpled to the ground, screaming.
That left six blind but deadly undead monsters.
Holstering my gun, I yanked a crystal off my neck and rushed in. I slapped a crystal against one’s shoulder.
“Ori decid—”
The vampire’s arm snapped out, fast as Kai’s lightning.
Its blow only grazed my shoulder—and the inhuman force sent me into a wild spin. I slammed into the wall, agony burning in my shoulder. I shoved off, fumbling with my remaining crystals, and grasped the blue-streaked violet one.
“Ori vis siderea,” I gasped.
My palm tingled. A sizzling orb of arcane power formed in my hand, and as I pulled it away from the crystal, the magic clung to my palm, insubstantial but somehow real, like an extra dense, static-charged bubble of … something.
Drawing my arm back, I hurled it into the vampire’s chest.
The power exploded on impact, and the vampire tottered backward, stained with numbing violet magic.
I leaped after it, ruby artifact in hand. “Ori decidas!”
This time, I rammed the crystal into the vamp’s throat, and it collapsed. Leaving the crystal sitting on the creature, I shot back up.
Claws hooked into my arm. A vampire wrenched me closer, fangs aimed for my throat.
Its head exploded.
The gunshot rang in my ears as I dropped back to my feet. Thirty yards away, Girard aimed his pistol at another vampire. A different vamp grabbed the back of my jacket, but I hardly noticed—because Darius and Girard had turned toward the guild to hold off the vampires. Alistair, a few steps away from them, had just melted another vamp into lava goo.
They didn’t notice what was coming for them.
“Behind you!” I screamed.
They couldn’t hear me—the cries, bangs, crashes, shouts, explosions of power were too deafening—but they must’ve read my lips. Darius and Girard whipped around.
Crimson power blazing up his arms, the winged demon Nazhivēr plunged out of the sky and slammed down on them, driving Girard and Darius into the ground.
I screamed—then screamed even more as the vampire who’d grabbed me crushed me against its chest. Its claws scraped my scalp as it wrenched my head sideways, and hot breath washed over my neck.
A low, vicious snarl.
A shaggy black wolf with ruby eyes vaulted out of nothingness, straight for me. Its gaping muzzle full of white fangs shot past my shoulder and the vampire toppled as the canine slammed us over backward. I wrenched free, leaped up, and darted away.
The varg rushed after me, leaving the vampire with its throat torn out.
I stumbled to a standstill, gawking at the fae wolf positioned beside me. With a shimmer, a second one appeared on my other side.
The vampires pivoted to face us—and I realized there were even more of them now than before. A full dozen. And—my gorge rose—the one with its throat torn up had just climbed onto its feet, blood drenching its front. The thirteen vampires focused their eerie stares on
