“Akiva!” I yelled, not yet resorting to my witch magic. I had a feeling it was going to be a long night, and I did not want to tire myself so early.
I lunged between the trees, seeing Aveline hit the ground in a crouch near me. She motioned her hands in a sharp gesture, pushing outwards towards the nearest vampire, who was thrown back into a tree. He snarled at her, bloody mouth agape.
I didn’t give him a chance to scrutinize her longer. I jumped, landing on his shoulders and twisting until I could feel his neck break.
My stomach churned as he fell, but I knew he wasn’t dead yet.
Aveline appeared beside me, swiping her hand across her body and sending the vampire careening into the air with a gust of wind.
He hit a tree with a sickening crunch, thick branches impaling his body.
Two vampires remained, and one of them had Akiva down, though the lich certainly wasn’t out.
He held his curved, sickle-like blade between him and the other vampire, trying to push the blade into the vampire’s throat.
I grabbed the vampire’s hair and shoved her downward, biting my lip to staunch my own distaste as her throat met the sharp edge.
She screamed, the smoky silver blade cutting deep into her throat and, after a moment, completely through it.
Blood spattered onto Akiva’s face but he didn’t seem to mind, and it didn’t dim the sadistic glimmer in his eyes. Aveline sent the other vampire stumbling backwards with another burst of air as he rolled to his feet and tossed the vampire’s head to the ground.
“George?” he asked, surprised. “What are you doing here?”
I turned on him, gaze challenging. “Helping,” I said forcefully. “Do you have a problem with that?”
Before he could reply, the last vampire swept past us in a rush for freedom.
Akiva turned, pointing one finger at the man as he said something in a harsh, unrecognizable language.
Mist crept from the vampire to Akiva, tinged red, as the lich continued to speak.
The vampire screamed in terror and pain both, eyes rolling. He tried to take another step, but fell to the ground as Akiva closed his hand around the red mist, dissipating it.
“What was that? And why didn’t you do it before?” I asked.
Akiva grabbed me suddenly, eyes flicking from my face to my shoulders and downward as if inspecting me for injuries. When he ran his hands up my arm to do the same, I slapped them away, causing him to roll his eyes.
“His soul. And I can’t just walk around ripping out souls, now can I?” He looked us both over. “Cian won’t be pleased. He left you with her,“ He looked to Aveline pointedly, who studied her nails as if he didn’t exist. “So you’d be safe.”
“Well that didn’t work for me,” I shot back. “I’m going to help you. I brought Merric and Yuna here as well.”
He studied me for a moment. “Cian is calling for us,” he said with a long-suffering sigh. I didn’t hear anything. “He’s going to yell at me, I suppose, for not telling you to go home, silly witch.”
Akiva started walking, and I fell into step with him. Aveline did as well.
“That almost sounds like you respect my decision,” I muttered dryly.
He snorted. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” The lich didn’t say anything else, and his silence didn’t invite discussion. He did, however, lead us unerringly to a clearing in the bayou where Cian and Merric stood waiting.
The vampire’s gaze found mine and his jaw clenched. “I thought I made it clear that we would handle this,” he pointed out.
“I thought I made it clear a week ago that I was going to help,” I retorted.
Indra crept into the clearing in his hellhound form, for all the world looking like an oversized and rather shy German Shepherd. Yuna was close behind. The canine walked to me, butting his head against my hand until Cian sighed heavily.
“Don’t encourage her,” he all-but snapped. “You shouldn’t be here, George. How did you even find us?”
I opened my mouth, wanting to get ahead of Merric before he could speak and add to Cian’s insults.
He still beat me to it.
“She used the resources she’s gathered,” the kitsune said, coming to stand with me as Akiva moved away pointedly. “And don’t act so high and mighty. You’re using your hellhound and your lich the same way.”
“It’s different,” Cian replied. “I don’t use them.”
“Why? Because she and I aren’t sleeping together?”
Someone screamed and I whirled to see a vampire come shrieking towards us.
It was the same one I’d helped Akiva behead. I clenched my hand at my side, confused, and my nails bit into my palm.
“They’re getting faster,” The lich intoned as Indra shot forward to take care of the vampire.
“But we killed her,” I argued. “You and I–“
“The witches are keeping them from dying. They regenerate instead,” Akiva explained. “Nothing we kill is going to stay dead until their spell is stopped.”
“Do you not know where they are?” I asked, surprised.
Cian glanced my way. “We do,” he said finally. “But it doesn’t matter. The witches have trapped us in the bayou with Lucia’s people. You, however, could leave. You’re a witch too, so this magic won’t work on you.”
My eyes narrowed. “You mean for me to–“
“Go home,” the vampire finished for me. “We’ll take care of this.”
“I brought Merric to you!” I protested. “I am the one who warned you about the witches beforehand. Perhaps if you had included me in your planning, you wouldn’t be trapped in a damn swamp with alligators and regenerating vampires!”
Unsurprisingly, Cian didn’t rise to my argument. “Go home,” he said again. “I won’t ask you again. I don’t want you getting hurt, and you’ll only slow us down.”
His words stung and my face fell at the impact of them. Indra whined, ducking Cian’s hand when the vampire
