I turned, surveying the forest. It had more in common with a war zone than it did a forest.
Niamh and her followers watched with gloating glances as the rest of us tore each other apart.
She was the reason for all this. Small threads of magic trailing from her to half those here.
I snapped.
I was before her between one moment and the next, grabbing her throat and wrenching her up before slamming her into a tree.
The shock on her face would have been comical if I hadn’t been so damn mad.
Her expression hardened and power snapped up, trying to burn me out. I let it glance off me, unheeding as it poured past me.
The shock in her face was gratifying, and I grinned down at her, my fangs fully lowered.“Weren’t expecting that, were you?”
I didn’t wait for an answer, burying my fangs in her throat. It was like biting into an electrical outlet. Pure, raw power poured down my throat.
The feeling was indescribable, better than anythingI’d ever tasted—with the exception of Liam’s blood, but for different reasons.
It was life, bubbly and effervescent. Fire dancing along every nerve at the same time. Like fire, it gave even as it took, scorching those same nerve endings.
But I still couldn’t stop. I needed more, even as it became too much. Her power filled me up, threatening to make me burst from my skin. It felt like strapping onto the outside of a rocket, then being shot through the atmosphere.
I fought to stay present, to not get lost. If I did, if I surrendered myself to this never-ending well, I wasn’t coming back.
Abruptly, I was in a deep dark space, streams of power all around me. Some small, some no more than a trickle, others vast streams that might have once carved canyons.
I understood, even as I didn’t know how, that each of these were Niamh’s victims. People and creatures she’d forced under her will.
I could break those bonds. I knew how. Liam and the stag had shown me the way.
A whisper came up from the deep.They could be yours.
I saw that Niamh herself wasn’t powerful. No, she’d stolen what she had from others, every bond she placed strengthening her.
And every single one of them could be mine. All I had to do was reach out and grab them. No more running from other spooks. No more balancing on a knife-edge between what the vampires wanted and what I needed to survive.
There wouldn’t be a soul alive who could challenge me if I took these as my own.
I reached out, fire sparking along my fingertips, burning those threads until there was nothing left, not even ash.
Power wasn’t what I was after. It never had been.
Someone jerked me back from Niamh’s throat, Liam’s frantic face above mine. He said something and I blinked dumbly at him.
He dragged me back several paces, unconcerned as Niamh fell to her knees. She was too drained to give more than a token protest when Daniel grabbed her arm and lifted her up.
All around us the fighting had stopped.
A large blond-white wolf trotted up to me, her tongue lolling out of her mouth. She nudged my hand and gave a happy yip.
“You make such a pretty puppy, Caroline,” I said, happily. My lips still felt numb and my head swam with magic.
I wanted to loll on the ground, run naked through the forest and frolic in its meadows.
Liam’s firm grip told me none of that was happening. He walked up to Eric and thrust me into his hands.
“Keep her safe,” he ordered.
