Blade approaches the front door, Prophet right behind him.The rest of us fan out, covering the perimeter.My senses are on high alert, scanning for threats, and that’s when I catch it.
Tessa’s scent.
Faint.Recent.Coming from the van parked behind us.
My head snaps around, and sure enough, there she is, in the passenger seat, with Hannah in the driver’s seat.Both of them are trying to look innocent and failing spectacularly.
Of course she didn’t stay behind.
Blade notices at the same time I do, and the look he shoots Hannah could melt steel.But before he can say anything, Prophet calls out from the doorway.
“Blade.You need to see this.”
We move as one, converging on the house.The front door is unlocked, swinging open at Prophet’s touch.Inside...
Ice.
The entire interior is frozen solid.Frost coats the walls in thick sheets, icicles hang from the ceiling like jagged teeth, and the furniture is encased in crystalline formations that glitter in the afternoon light streaming through the windows.
In the center of the living room, frozen mid-step, are two figures.
Mr.and Mrs.Johnson.
Their faces are twisted in terror, eyes wide, mouths open in screams that never finished.Ice has claimed them completely, their skin, their clothes, even the air around them is frozen in place.
“Jesus Christ,” Ranger breathes.
Prophet moves closer, his hand hovering over Mrs.Johnson’s frozen form.Golden light flickers around his fingers, and his face goes grim.“They’re gone.Dead before the freezing even started.The ice is just...preserving them.”
“How long?”Blade asks.
“Hours.Maybe less.”Prophet’s eyes sweep the room.“Whatever did this was powerful.And it was looking for something.”
“Or someone,” I say, and every head turns toward me.
Because we all know what this is.
The Khorvath.
It’s escalating.Moving from projections and shadows to full manifestations.Attacking humans outside Tessa’s immediate vicinity.Testing the boundaries of what it can do while the wards keep it from reaching her directly.
“We need to get back,” Blade says.“Now.If it’s this strong—”
A scream cuts through the air.
Tessa’s scream.
I’m moving before conscious thought, vampire speed launching me out the door and toward the van.The others follow, but I’m faster, my vision already tunneling, predator mode activating.
The van’s door is open.
Hannah is on the ground, unconscious but breathing.
And Tessa—
Fuck.
She’s half-in, half-out of the vehicle, her body suspended in mid-air as tendrils of black ice wrap around her waist and arms, dragging her backward.The mark on her shoulder is glowing—actuallyglowing—with an eerie blue light, and frost is spreading across her skin from the points where the tendrils touch her.
