“You and me are one badass vampire-killing duo.”
I tried to smile back as I swayed on my feet, and Chris had to grab me to keep me from falling. “Looks like you’ll have to go solo,” I panted. I was used up.
Chris yelled Jordan’s name, and she spun around as a male and a female vampire weaved their way toward us. Their ability to evade Alex and Minuet and the way they sometimes blurred as they moved told me these were almost mature vampires.
“Give me my sword,” Chris commanded, but I knew he was still too weak to fight. Jordan knew it, too, and she shook her head without looking at him. She was going to die defending us.
I heard a whimper to my left and cried out when I saw Peter slumped over one of the crocotta. He was bloody and barely moving. A few feet from them, Roland was locked in a death grip with the second creature. My friends were all going to die before my eyes, and there was nothing I could do to help them.
I felt the air move around me a second before two long furred bodies sailed over my head and hit the ground snarling. Hugo was on the female vampire before she knew what hit her, and with one bite, he tore her head from her shoulders. Woolf went after the male who had already turned tail and run. I watched Hugo give the female’s body one last shake before he dropped it and joined Woolf in the pursuit of his prey.
The remaining vampires’ courage left them when they saw the two red-eyed hellhounds that had come to join the fight. They turned and fled for the trees with Hugo and Woolf snapping at their heels and Alex and Minuet attacking them from above.
The sound of snapping bones tore my eyes away from the hellhounds, and I spun in time to see the last crocotta sink to the ground. Roland released its broken neck and staggered back from the dead creature.
I fell to my knees beside Peter and ran my hands over his head and sides. My power was so drained I didn’t know if I had enough to heal him, but I would give everything in me if I had to.
His large head lifted sluggishly, and his amber eyes met mine before he gave my chin a lick.
“Are you okay?” I asked, and he nodded once. I threw my arms around his thick neck and hugged him tightly. Roland came to sit beside me, and I found myself sandwiched between them and struggling not to fall apart. I’d come so close to losing them again. If Alex, Minuet, and the hellhounds hadn’t arrived when they did, we’d all be dead now. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take tonight.
“I think it’s over,” Jordan said in a disbelieving voice.
An eerie silence hung over the grounds. Everywhere I looked, warriors stood with dead vampires at their feet. The quiet was broken only by the distant roars and growls growing fainter by the second.
“Do you think they’ll be okay?” I asked no one in particular, staring at the woods.
Chris let out a bark of laughter that was followed by a fit of coughing. When he recovered, he wiped his eyes and smirked at me. “Sara, I’d take you and your pets into battle with me any day.”
Jordan harumphed and gave Chris a look of pure chagrin as she stabbed the tip of his sword into the ground so close to his foot, he had to step sideways to avoid losing a toe. “Next time, you can carry your own damn sword, Blondie.”
I burst out laughing at the bewildered look on Chris’s face, but my laughter faded when a familiar presence brushed across my mind. My heart soared. He’s safe. I whirled and searched the grounds breathlessly for a glimpse of Nikolas.
He tore around the corner of the main building, carrying a sword in each hand, and wearing a thunderous expression I could see from where we stood twenty yards away. Spotting us, he veered in our direction, and I barely had time to take a breath of air before he was in front of me. He threw down his swords and grabbed my shoulders, ignoring everyone else.
“Are you hurt?” he bit out. His rigid posture and the blazing intensity of his gaze told me he was close to losing it.
“I’m okay, Nikolas; we all are.” I laid my hands against his chest and felt his body tremble from the effort to calm down. Rising up on my toes, I whispered in his ear. “Please, don’t freak out on me, okay? I don’t think I can take it right now.”
A sound like a soft growl rumbled deep in his chest, and I took a hasty step back, only to be pulled against him. I started to protest, but my words were smothered and all thought fled when his mouth came down over mine.
Chapter 24
THIS WAS NOTHING like the tender first kiss we had shared. It was hard and urgent, and it sent a shock wave to the center of my being. I gasped and he deepened the kiss, sending heat unfurling in my stomach and melting the bones in my body until my legs couldn’t support me anymore. He tightened his hold, and my arms moved of their own volition to wrap around his neck.