Vail looked at me like I was crazy. “Do you even hear what’s coming out of your mouth right now?” She motioned to the stage. “I think Connor’s going to be fine.”
I turned in time to see Connor lift his guitar high above his head. With a fierce swing, he brought it crashing down, shattering it on the ground. As the pieces splintered apart, a hidden stash of sharpened stakes of various sizes tumbled out.
I froze in horror watching him as he jumped off the stage into the crowd and started running. With remarkable agility,he rolled and dodged Vampire attacks swiftly, thrusting the sharpened stakes into their hearts.
Meanwhile, Diana and Ivy worked in tandem on stage. Ivy was holding some sort of purple light, burning Vampires who got too close, while Diana expertly thrust stakes into any Vampires approaching them. Their accuracy wasn’t as precise or deadly as Donovan’s, but they were still trained killers.
The scene descended into chaos and carnage as Vail grabbed my hand, and together, we bolted toward our car outside the crowd. We struggled to push through the throng of bodies, but were trapped, with no means of dispersing. As we reached the edge of the crowd, Vail halted, as if hitting an invisible barrier. I crashed into her, feeling an unseen force push us back into the midst of the crowd. Glancing down, we discovered a circle of salt surrounding the venue. It was a witch’s circle, and we were trapped inside with the crowd while the band was killing everyone.
I had an impending feeling that if we didn’t do something soon, we were going to get caught by one of the Slayers. Vail knelt on the ground, her purse open in front of her. She took out her spell book and some bottles containing various swirling liquors and dried herbs. She flipped through the pages of the book.
“What are you looking for?”
“I need a spell to dismantle another witch’s circle,” she replied, her fingers delicately tracing the arcane symbols on the pages. “This is going to be tricky.”
While Vail worked on finding the spell and mixing potions from her purse, I looked around for Connor.
I spotted him taking a stake out of the chest of a dead Vampire lying on the ground. Connor’s T-shirt and face were stained with dark blood. He looked up, and our eyes met. A chilling intensity radiated from him, and he gave me a softsmile. He looked like a killer; pure fury blazed in his eyes. I managed a shaky smile in return, masking my fear the best I could. He came over to me, and I flung myself into his arms.
“What’s happening?” I asked him, clinging onto his chest. He held me close, and the wooden stakes tucked into his jeans poked my belly.
“It’s an ambush. Sam planned it. I didn’t know anything about it until right before we went on stage, Ivy told me,” Connor said. Anger filled his voice.
“Why?” I asked him.
“I didn't have time to ask him what he was thinking, but he's an idiot,” Connor responded, frustration evident in his tone. “Here.” He retrieved a wooden stake from his jeans and placed it in my hand. “This will protect you. If a Vampire comes too close, just stab,” he instructed, gently poking my sternum to demonstrate. “Right here, okay? Just like I showed you. You have to do it hard to get past the bone, but it's sharp enough, so don't be scared.”
I stared down at the weapon in my hands, the tip stained with dark red, and gripped it tightly.
Blue flashed at the corner of my vision. I turned, and Vail stood up, the witch's circle behind her ablaze with a wall of blue flame.
I grabbed Connor's hand and turned him toward me. “We need to get out of here. Are you coming with us?”
Before he could respond, a Vampire seized him from behind and threw him to the ground, knocking the breath out of him. Just as the Vampire prepared to lunge at Connor, Vail shot her hands forward, unleashing a blast of wind as powerful as a wall that sent the Vampire crashing back into the crowd. Vail had saved Connor, and I stood there, frozen, watching it all unfold.
Connor looked to Vail in surprise. “Thanks for that,” he said.
She reached down, extending her hand and helping him up. “Are you coming?” she asked him.
Connor glanced at me, and I knew his answer. I had turned down his request to be his girlfriend, and he didn’t need to say a word.
“Sam’s dangerous, Connor,” I said, noticing the hurt flicker in his eyes at my words.
I ran past him, taking Vail’s hand, and jumped through the blue flames into the forest. I watched as other Vampires followed suit. One was hurled over, heaving violently as streams of blood spilled from him. The humans here had Retch in their system.
We reached Vail’s car and quickly got in, driving away from the chaotic scene behind us.
“What about everyone else?” I asked, looking back at the carnage in the woods. The blue flames were high in the sky, and I couldn’t see past them.
“The flames should burn away the witch’s circle soon, so they will be okay,” she said, her gaze locked on the darkness ahead as she accelerated.
“I hope nobody else gets killed in the meantime,” I told her. I was talking about Vampires, but deep down, I knew I was really referring to Connor.
I turned back, focusing on the road as the city lights came into view.
“That was a close one, Rosie,” Vail said, glancing at me.
“Yeah, it was. But is it crazy that I feel exhilarated?”
