He can’t die. I was too afraid for him to try to think about why the possibility of him losing sucked all the warmth from my body.

The red headed male in front of Nikolas darted towards him. Nikolas brought his swords up but the vampire whirled away out of reach at the last second. The feint distracted Nikolas and I choked back a cry as the blond male on his left struck with the speed of a snake, his clawed hand aiming for Nikolas’s throat.

A terrible shriek split the air. The air turned crimson around them and the blond vampire drew back, staring at the stump where his hand used to be. Metal flashed again. The vampire gaped in horror at Nikolas for an endless second – before his head toppled off his neck and rolled a few feet away from him.

The female behind Nikolas let out an enraged wail and launched herself at him, her long black hair flying out wildly behind her. At the same time, the other male attacked from the front, going for Nikolas’s chest. Moving almost too fast to see, Nikolas leapt into the air and flipped backwards over the female’s back, landing deftly behind her. She shrieked in rage and barely missed colliding with her brethren, but she was not fast enough to avoid his claws. Long bloody gashes marred her pale pretty face by the time she stopped her forward rush and spun back to the fight.

Thrown off guard by his contact with the female, the red haired vampire was unable to stop his own advance in time. The sound of steel against muscle and bone sickened me even as I rejoiced in the sight of the blade slicing through the vampire’s chest. Nikolas withdrew and slashed again. The vampire went down, his stomach spilling out onto the grass.

My stomach roiled from the violence and gore but I couldn’t look away from Nikolas who fought with the swift grace of a dancer, his movements controlled and effortless. The savage beauty in his face stole my breath as he pulled his blade from the vampire on the ground and pivoted to meet the female’s second attack. Half demon or no, at that moment he was the most glorious thing I had ever seen.

The female, raging with grief over the loss of what had obviously been her mate, came at Nikolas head on. It took him only seconds to bring both blades up and then down in crisscross strokes across her torso. She stumbled and he drove a sword straight through her heart. In a single motion, he turned and slashed out to behead the red haired male on the ground. He straightened and faced us again, looking like he was barely winded and not surrounded by bloody vampire parts.

Silence fell over everyone. Even the wind seemed to stall in anticipation of what would happen next. Eli’s confident smile faded and there was no mistaking the fear in his voice when he spoke. “All of you!” he ordered sharply. “Finish him.”

None of the other vampires looked eager to follow that order but they all turned to face Nikolas, preparing to rush him all at once.

Eli moved closer to me. “Coward!” I yelled at him for standing back out of harm’s way while his friends did the dirty work.

A few seconds later, my attention was drawn away from Eli by movement in the trees. I watched open-mouthed as Chris stepped into the open followed by two, four – five massive werewolves. After everything that had happened with Roland, the pack had come. My heart swelled till it hurt.

As one the vampires backed up a step.

“Let her go and we will let you live… for today.” Nikolas’s commanding voice rang across the short distance between us and sent tendrils of warmth through my frozen limbs. He was here, he’d asked me to trust him and swore to keep me safe and he had come for me. No matter what happened now, I knew my trust had not been misplaced and I felt a small flare of happiness in spite of my dire situation.

Eli pulled me back against his chest, his claws at my throat and memories of that night in the alley rose up like bile, threatening to choke me.

“I think not.” He took a step toward the cliff edge, pulling me with him. “We both know I could rip her throat out and jump before you reached us.”

Nikolas’s expression did not change. “But then nothing would prevent me from hunting you down, and this time I will not stop.”

Eli’s voice was steady, belying the tremble I felt go though him. “I think sweet little Sara is important to you and you won’t do anything to jeopardize her life.”

Nikolas’s eyes blazed.

“Nothing to say?” Emboldened by Nikolas’s silence, Eli let out an ugly laugh and his other hand touched my cheek, the claws skimming lightly over my skin. “Will you still have nothing to say when I taste her?”

This time there was no mistaking the rage seething beneath Nikolas’s calm exterior. I remembered how I had felt when I’d let the demon possess my body, the heady power and violence that had boiled through my veins, and I knew Nikolas was close to unleashing his own demon.

Eli saw it too. “Stay back, Mohiri,” he ordered, a note of desperation creeping into in his voice. “You might kill me but not before I end her.”

“Let her go and you’ll have a chance of getting out of this alive. Is she worth your life – all your lives?”

“Do it, Eli!” the black vampire named Juan whispered fervently, never taking his eyes off Nikolas. “Give him the bitch.” The other vampires murmured in agreement.

“She is mine and I will not give her up,” Eli hissed back. “You heard the Master. Kill her or take her but the girl is not to be left behind.”

Eli’s declaration was like a bucket of icy water thrown in my face. No matter what Nikolas did Eli would not let me live. My jaw clenched painfully. At least it would be quick and I’d die knowing my friends had come for me.