My pulse thrashing, I keep my blades moving and my feet under me. Where’s the team? Where’s Bale? All I see are vampires.
“Fyrestar!” I don’t know where he is, but I scream anyway. “Fyrestar!”
“Idallia!” Bale shouts back. How did he get so far from me?
I kick a bloodsucker off me, and my sliced leg almost gives out. While I wobble, another vampire dives straight for my middle and knocks me over. I land with a grunt, dread lurching through me. The vampire on top of me twists, and his fangs sink into my bleeding thigh. I cry out, the pain searing. Danica charges in, tears him off me, and throws him into another.
She disappears, swallowed by the writhing horde. A woman with the longest fangs I’ve ever seen jumps on me before I can get up. She bites down the second she hits me, sinking her dagger-like teeth straight into my breast. I shriek and pound at her head with the hilts of my swords. She doesn’t even seem to feel them and keeps dragging down long gulps of my blood like it’s a drug.
A huge crimson-and-black dragon surges above me. Bale’s powerful jaws clamp down on the woman sucking from my chest. He bites straight through her, blood spilling over me. He lifts his head and tosses what’s left of her aside. A vampire lunges in and sinks his blade into Bale’s exposed chest, shoving it to the hilt.
Bale roars, and panic hits me. Did that reach his heart?
“Bale?”
“Take the blade out,” he snarls.
I stagger to my feet, lightheaded from blood loss. While Wade and Danica and the two wing guards try to defend us, I grab the heavy blade and yank it from Bale’s chest. Blood gushes from the wound, but he instantly shifts. He’s a man again, his amber eyes holding mine and blazing like burning coals. Under his battle-stained shirt, there’ll be unmarred skin, healed during his transformation. It’s how he gave everlife to our birds.
Bale pivots and starts fighting again, keeping me behind him. I hold on to the vampire’s sword. Mine are on the ground somewhere, trampled and slick with blood.
“Why do they want me like this? What’s happening?” Every vampire here wants a bite of me, and I don’t know why. They pound at my circle of defense while I try to recover enough strength to join the fight. Bale doesn’t answer. Wade might not hear me. Danica simply shakes her head.
A sharp, familiar caw is my only warning before Fyrestar swoops over me and slams into the two closest vampires. He flies between them, and his hard-burning wings slice right through their necks.
I sob once in relief, the sound breaking from me like a cloudburst.
Rim swoops in right after him and tries to do the same. He cuts through one neck, but not the other, his blazing wing not hot or strong enough to do more than knock the bloodsucker over. My eyes widen in horror as the falling vampire snaps up a hand and grabs one of Rim’s feet, yanking my phoenix to the ground. The vampire twists, and his fangs instantly find Rim’s neck, digging through feathers to reach his jugular.
“No!” Terror shatters me from the inside out. I leap between Wade and Danica and skid to the ground. I drop the heavy sword and use both hands to pry the vampire’s jaws apart. He’s working hard to suck Rim’s everlife from him, to take his chance at rebirth. Ferocious and unimaginable strength fills me, and I pull so hard I dislocate the vampire’s jaw, then tear it right off his face. He falls away from me, gushing blood from his ruined neck, and I hurl his mandible at an approaching vampire with enough force to lodge it in her face.
The second Rim is free, he flops weakly away from his attacker, his eyes glazed over.
The vampire claws at me. I heave the sword up and lop off his head just as a warning prickle explodes up my spine.
Dropping the heavy sword, I jerk my dagger from my boot and whip around on one knee. The vampire grabs me before I can blink and viciously bites my neck. She uses her fangs and her hard grip on my arms to drag me up until my feet don’t even touch the ground. Rim squawks weakly. I can’t get my dagger around. She holds me against her in a vile embrace, taking long, deep, heavy drags of blood. She drains far too much before Fyrestar knocks into her, screeching his fury and burning her head.
I fall as the vampire reels away, her hand flying to her mouth. Her fangs darken and crumble. My head spinning, I slowly rise, dragging my dagger and the heavy vampire sword up from the blood-wet ground. My skin feels thin, my veins fragile. While she’s still in shock, I plant my dagger in her neck and rip it sideways, severing the vein. She gurgles, her eyes bulging. As she gushes stolen blood from the jugular, I heave the sword around and slice off her head.
Rim cries a warning behind me. I spin. More bloodsuckers pounce. Fyrestar dives in with violent rage. He doesn’t just burn them; he incinerates.
To the side, I see Bale again—a torrent of power and fury.
Digging up buried strength, I somehow lift the vampire blade and run it through an attacker before her outstretched hands and sharp fangs clamp down on me. The strike doesn’t kill her, but it’s enough to slow her down while Wade leaps in from behind and splits her in half.
Wade’s eyes meet mine, questioning, as she drops between us.
I shake my head. I wish I knew.
Breathing hard but sluggishly, I stagger when my feet don’t feel like they’re under me. The sword slips from my fingers. My vision swims. I keel over and land next to Rimblaze. He blinks at me. I blink back at him.
Groaning, I turn enough to look up. Fyrestar is a storm above us, wings and fire and blazing ferocity. No one can touch us with my warbird’s protection and three of the Elite Wing fighting furiously. Bale roars my name. The deep sound echoes like it comes from far inside Drayke Mountain. It makes me want to go home to my room with the roosting wall and my phoenixes.
I know the moment the rest of the squadron and their wing guards arrive, slower than either Fyrestar or Rimblaze. The vampires trying to get at me suddenly find themselves fighting for their lives. From somewhere in the heart of the battle, Kellan calls for me, so frantic, so frightened.
I can’t answer. I’ve lost too much blood. I barely feel it pumping through my veins. My head feels thick. I shiver.
He needs to move on. His pain breaks my heart. I wish I could’ve loved him the way he loved me. I just didn’t. It would’ve made things easier.
