I moved in to finish him and Nikolas shouted, “Sara, look out!”

I spun to find two more vampires standing ten feet away from me. The female reached into her coat and pulled out a gun. A vampire with a gun? I thought a second before she pointed it at me and fired.

For one heart-stopping moment I waited for a bullet to pierce my chest, and I knew with unwavering certainty that I was going to die. All I could think of in that moment was Nikolas.

Instead of agonizing pain, all I felt was a sharp sting in my right shoulder. I stared down in shock at the tiny dart sticking out of my coat. Had they tried to use a tranquillizer on me? They could not know that most drugs didn’t work on the Mohiri because of our accelerated metabolism and healing. Or maybe they thought it would work on me because I was only half Mohiri.

The two vampires began walking toward me. Either they were confident they could take me or they expected the drug to knock me out at any second. I wasn’t going without a fight. I summoned my power.

Nothing happened.

I reached down inside for my power. I could see it swirling at my core, I could feel its heat, but it refused to come. It was as if an invisible wall had sprung up between me and my magic, cutting me off from it.

Blood pounded in my ears as I lifted my eyes to the female vampire who wore a knowing smile. What had she done to me? I backed away, though I knew there was no escape.

Behind me, I could hear Nikolas battling the other vampires. I almost cried out his name, but it froze on my tongue. If I distracted him, he could die. Terror threatened to smother me. I had no weapons, and I was helpless against two vampires without my power.

Nikolas made a sound somewhere between a growl and a shout as the vampires stalked me. They halted and turned wary eyes toward him. I didn’t need to see him to know he had gone into a full-blown rage. It might be the only thing that saved him.

God, please keep him safe, I prayed.

Without my power, there was no wall between me and my Mori and I felt its fear for Nikolas acutely. Come, I told it. We joined and its strength filled me. I didn’t know if it was enough to fight off two vampires, but I would do anything to keep them from taking me from Nikolas. He and I would survive together or we would die together.

Another growl filled the woods and it swiftly turned into a roar. The trees shook and snow fell off them in clumps as a dark shape zoomed over the tops of them.

My mind barely had time to register the scaled body and leathery wings before the wyvern dove at the two vampires who had stopped to stare at him in shock. Their surprise quickly turned to terror, but they had waited too long to flee. The female screamed as flames engulfed her.

The male turned to run, but the wyvern snatched him up and tore him apart with his teeth and claws. Blood sprayed across the snow and hot drops splattered against my cold face.

Bloody pieces of vampire hit the ground as Alex circled the clearing. His crocodile eyes swept over the battle below as if he was choosing his next target. I looked at Nikolas who was in the thick of the fight with the two remaining vampires, and so vulnerable to an attack from above.

“Alex,” I shouted hoarsely, and his head swung in my direction. The last time I’d seen him he’d been chasing vampires away from Westhorne after he’d saved my life. I hoped he remembered that and wasn’t just out hunting anything that moved.

I didn’t sense the new vampire until he was only a few feet away. Alex dove toward us and I lunged to the side to give him a clear path to the vampire. A scream ripped from my lips when I felt clawed feet close around my waist instead. I struggled for several seconds until my feet left the ground. My stomach dropped as quickly as the ground as we rose into the air. I caught a glimpse of Nikolas swinging his sword and at least seven bodies on the ground before we flew over the tops of the trees and the clearing disappeared from sight.

Over the wind and the flapping of Alex’s wings, I heard Nikolas shout my name.

“Oh God!” My stomach churned as I stared at the snow-covered trees rushing by beneath me. I didn’t want to think about where Alex was taking me or what he would do when we got there. He’d saved my life before, but I didn’t know if that had been intentional or because he liked the taste of vampires more. The image of him ripping apart the vampire played over and over in my head. I had to fight the panic building inside me and the urge to struggle. If he dropped me from this height I was dead.

Miles of forest passed below us. Alex flew leisurely over rivers and around hills until I lost all sense of direction. I kept my chin tucked against my chest to try to protect my face from the stinging snow and wind, but my cheeks quickly grew numb from the cold. I tried to use my Mori’s power to warm me as Nikolas’s Mori did for him, but we’d never done that before and it lasted only a few minutes.

I wasn’t sure how long we were in the air – maybe twenty or thirty minutes – before we began to descend toward a river winding through the trees. Alex dipped until my feet were almost touching the rushing water, and I could feel the spray on my face. I held my breath, afraid he was going to drop me into the river. Without my power, the water would kill me. I was a good swimmer, but even if I made it to shore, I’d freeze to death.

He followed the river for a few minutes before he circled a large rock formation along one of the banks. I tried to brace myself for the landing, but my legs were cold and unsteady after being in the air. I stumbled and sank painfully to my knees on the icy rock.

Alex circled me and landed a few feet away, settling down into a watchful crouch. His breath sent huge puffs of steam into the frigid air and small tendrils of smoke curled from his nostrils. I huddled in a ball and watched him out of the corner of my eye, afraid to move. His flames had at least a three-foot reach, and I’d seen what they could do.