They’re fast, but they’re outnumbered. For every one of them, ten wolves strike back.
Then the ground shifts.
Orem’s voice booms across the clearing—low and resonant, words thick with power. Yelps of pain echo from the center as magic singes our paws. I shake it out as the air flickers. For a second, the forest warps, bending in and out of itself like a heat mirage.
What is this?
Forest’s voice reaches me first.Transport magic.
“Stay alert!” Jericho shouts, as if recognizing the portal energy. “More are coming!”
Through violent red portals, a dozen more vampires appear, jumping right in. One has arms like swords. Another has a long snout with razor-sharp teeth. They look less like vampires and more like experiments gone horribly wrong.
A vampire near me grabs a wolf by the throat and tears it open before Kaine’s water ropes lash around him, crushing his skull. Kaine jerks his hand and another vampire’s head snaps to the side with a wet crack.
The smell of burnt flesh mixes with blood and earth. My ears ring from the noise, yet above us, I swear I hear something. Peering up, my heart somersaults when I see the hawks in an aerial battle with two ravens.
Rage burns through me, and my vision sharpens.Rip is here!
Lunging at a vampire, I sink my teeth into its throat and tear it apart. Ivy yelps nearby but gets right back up.
Under it all, a ripple of energy tugs at me, becoming stronger with every second. A pulse of something I know.
No. Not something.Someone.
My head jerks toward it, instinctive.
A small red shape bolts out of the trees, fast as lightning. It moves low and silent until it hits the first vampire, climbing its back and ripping the vamp’s throat clean open. It leaps off the vampire’s shoulders before he collapses, hitting another vampire with just as much force. That one twists and tries to grab the creature by the tail, but misses. The tiny animal, barely larger than the vampire’s head, yanks an ear off before biting his face and throat. The vampire screams.
My mind struggles to make sense of it.
A fox?
Not just any fox.
My heart knows that fox.
Tobias.I feel him through our tether—recognition, shock, terror. It’s him. That little creature with a furry tail is my mate.
That little creature is also going wild.
The scent of blood seems to drive him feral. He attacks a third vampire, shredding through flesh as if it were paper. He dives under their swings and darts between legs like fire incarnate. His fur is slick with blood, his eyes almost glowing.
He can’t seem to sense friend from foe, though. He lunges for wolves too, digging his teeth into their hind legs like he’s acting on pure adrenaline.
Evan yells, “Tobias, stop! That’s one of ours!”
But he doesn’t stop, biting into another gray wolf. Blood spurts from the wound as it yelps.
Chaos detonates around him. Wolves scatter to avoid getting bitten, clearly confused. The fox’s blood-soaked fur glints under the firelight. He’s beautiful, and wild, andmine.
Then the air changes, and I get a whiff of copper and decay from above.
The hawks cry again, shrill and piercing. A warning.
I look up just in time to see both ravens diving for the yard, their wings tucked and falling surprisingly fast for common ravens. A fireball collides with one of them, killing it instantly. The other raven shifts just before hitting the ground—a streak of dark skin and beaded dreads. His naked body has two deep gashes along the back, but his shoulders are loose as he scans the field.
Even with his back to me, I know it’s Rip.
