She heard the arrow before she felt it, the tip just grazing her shoulder before she ducked to the right and into the trees that surrounded the barn.
There was another thunk coming from the roof, then a dark shadow moving in the periphery of her vision.
The world slowed again as she lifted a hand and brought up a wall of powdery snow to surround her.
The faint light from an exterior light cast a moving shadow across that grey wall, and Tatyana saw the figure moving toward her, growing larger.
She smelled nothing familiar.
Within seconds, she yanked down the curtain of white and swung out with her axe, burying the head into the shoulder of the vampire running toward her.
He was dressed entirely in grey, from boots to balaclava, and he carried a curved sword.
He stumbled to the right, falling into the snow from the axe blow, and his sword disappeared into the powdery snow that had fallen earlier in the night. Tatyana kicked, punching the toe of her boot into the man’s groin as he scrambled for his weapon.
Another arrow grazed her, and this time she felt the burn when it touched her skin.
No time. End him.She heard her mate’s voice in her mind.
Tatyana didn’t stop to question her attacker, she lifted the axe again and swung down in a well-aimed arc, severing the vampire’s neck in one blow.
Good. Now look for the next threat.
There was another shadow creeping along the side of her mother’s house. It ducked into the aviary and the birds immediately began the alarm.
Wary of the noise and attention, the vampire backed out of the dovecote—casting that strange scent of sour milk toward her—only to be met by another swing of Tatyana’s axe.
Thwack.
There was a hot splatter of blood, then the vampire’s head fell to the ground and sank into the snow.
She heard Sándor calling: “Tatyana, on your left!”
Turning, she already had her axe raised, but she wasn’t prepared for the spike of heat that came from an arrow sinking into the center of her back.
Twisting heat and the certain knowledge that one of her lungs had a hole in it.
Tatyana felt the slow collapse of air in her body even as she fought through the human instinct to panic. She did not need air to survive. She did not need it.
She remembered Marko’s voice in her mind.Not my heart. Leave it and go.
Tatyana ignored the burning pain and stumbled forward, meeting the raised sword of the oncoming vampire with the handle of her axe, blocking the blow as an angry rush of blood and amnis churned around her.
The snow whirled and leaped, swirling around her attacker as she pulled the solid water to block him.
She blocked another blow, then another, and by then the man’s feet were stuck, surrounded by a wall of ice and snow that was growing taller by the second.
Another blow came, but now it was the vampire wielding the sword who began to panic when he couldn’t move.
She felt him reach down, felt his elemental energy expand as he reached for the earth, but the ground was covered in snow, and it washerelement blocking him.
Tatyana lifted her axe as the ice crawled up his body. She grinned and felt a bubble of blood escape from between her lips.
His legs were covered. His waist. The snow was climbing up his chest, and now his arms were frozen in place. He was utterly defenseless.
She left his head and neck bare so that he could swing his head around in panic, looking for help before she killed him.
Tatyana’s voice was gone because her lung was collapsing, but she could still smile.
