The need to shift and purge herself of the dark spell gripped her, and she assumed her berserker’s form—furred, fanged, and ready to bring death to the enemy.
Beyond the battling vampires, she spotted the reason for her unease. A tall figure stood camouflaged in the shadows back near a religious relics stall. Hidden in swaths of robe, the figure presented nothing but darkness beneath its hood and gave no idea of its identity.
She started for it and stumbled into the old vampire, who landed right in front of her on his ass. Kraft had done a fair job of tearing him up, but the vamp remained hearty enough to quickly right himself, lift her by the scruff of her neck, and throw her back at the nachzehrer.
Kraft caught her with ease and dropped her to her feet. She gave him a grunt of thanks then turned with him to face the vamp.
“Another time,” the old vampire rasped.
“I don’t think so.” Kraft didn’t sound annoyed, but she caught his irritation regardless. And then he was no longer next to her. He raced to the vamp and tore its head off.
She watched, stunned and impressed. But he didn’t stop there. He ripped the vampire apart piece by piece, until nothing of the whole remained.
“You, come.” Kraft motioned to an elemental mage currently battling a warlock trying to get at the dead.
Riley cursed herself for standing around, watching, and joined those trying to help the injured. She headed for the warlock, who saw her and immediately ran. After dealing with a few other dregs trying to steal from the dead and injured, she trotted back to Kraft, amazed he remained on his feet.
Odd how easily he’d beheaded the old vamp. Why had the fight taken so long?
At her look, he frowned. “What?”
She snorted and glanced from the dead vampire to him.
“I was playing around.”
She twitched her ears.Really? Yet it still took that long to defeat him?
He must have read her disbelief, because he said, “I was. I could have stopped him sooner. I wanted to see what he could do.” Kraft looked down at the inert pieces of the vampire. “And he could do a lot.”
The mage approached but kept Riley between him and Kraft.
Kraft pointed to the remains on the ground. “Mage, light this up. The fucker might just be able to regenerate.”
The mage needed no further urging and set the vampire’s body parts on fire. They went up in a blaze, leaving an ashy residue behind.
“Vampire.” The mage gave a respectful bow then left in a hurry, as eager to get away from the living vampire as the dead one.
Riley watched Kraft, wondering what he thought as he studied her.
Before she could ask, she realized she hadn’t heard much from anyone around. She looked and sniffed but didn’t see or scent Talon anywhere.
Damn it.
The danger past, she shifted back into her human form. “We need to find Talon.” At Kraft’s look, she explained, “The eagle. He’s got information we need.”
“Lead on then.” He waited until she met his gaze before his expression changed. “Best we hurry before I bleed out.”
“What?” Oh great. Just what she didn’t need, to be responsible for his death. “Do you need blood to heal?” Didn’t vampires recuperate as fast as lycans? He’d been healing superfast before.
Kraft seemed to perk up. “Are you offering?”
Was it her imagination, or did his wounds seem to have disappeared under all the blood?
“Come with me. They’ll have something to help you at the Ribald Unicorn, I’m sure. And maybe I can find Talon on the way.”
“Not even a tiny drop of your precious life’s blood? I did defeat the enemy, you know.”
She ignored him and refused to grin at his loud sigh. They found Kraft a bottle of blood at the deserted bar. To her frustration, Talon was nowhere to be found.
