My head lifted from the ground. My vision tunneled on the vampire holding the most precious thing in my life.

Blood roared in my ears. I trembled as the demon’s energy suffused my body until I didn’t know where I ended and it began. I stood and the snow crunched beneath my bare feet.

A growl rumbled up from my chest and echoed through the courtyard.

Elena turned and shock crossed her face before she snarled. “Ava, I need to tend to my mate. Deal with that until I’m ready for her.”

“Yes, Master.”

Ava blurred across the courtyard and grabbed my arm. “Let’s go.”

Blue static erupted across my skin, and she hissed and dropped my arm. “That’s not possible,” she uttered as my body began to glow and my hair crackled and lifted off my shoulders. She took a step back.

I captured her wrist. She screeched in pain and tried to pull away, but my hand was fused to her. A jolt of power took her to her knees.

“Ava Bryant,” my Mori and I said in one voice. “You hurt our mate.”

Her eyes rounded and she shook her head. “I didn’t. She wouldn’t let me touch him.”

I tilted my head to one side and studied the fear in her eyes. Her fear turned to shock when my hand blurred and punched straight through her ribcage. She made a wet choking sound as my hand reappeared holding her demon-encased heart. I squeezed and they both turned to dust.

“Piece-by-piece,” I said as she toppled into the snow.

I turned to face Elena as she laid Nikolas on the ground. Seeing him lying at her feet intensified my rage until there was room for nothing else inside me.

The world slowed down. Elena moved, and I raced forward to meet her attack. We collided and she grabbed for my throat while I went for her chest. My strike was not enough to disable a Master, but it tore her away from me and sent her flying backward. She landed easily on her feet and came at me again. Her claws scored my chest before I struck again. This time she stumbled when she landed.

Hands grabbed my arms from behind. Elena sneered triumphantly as two vampires held me for her.

Flames erupted on either side of me. Screams tore at my eardrums before the two vampires exploded. Burning gore spread across the snow and splattered Elena’s white wedding dress. She shrieked and smacked at the fire licking at her skirt. At the same time, an explosion came from inside the house, followed by screams. It sounded like Grigor’s lab had blown up.

Elena stared hard at me. “I think, niece, that it is time to end this little tantrum of yours. Now, stop this and come to me.”

I felt a soft push against my mind, and I batted it away as if it was an annoying gnat. “Your weak little mind has no effect on me.”

She started to circle me, visibly agitated by the discovery that I wasn’t such easy prey after all. “I can’t believe Nikolas took a half breed for a mate,” she sneered. “Look where it got him.”

Pain lanced through me, but it was quickly consumed by my rage.

“Don’t say his name.”

“It’s your fault he’s dead, you know. He gave you his strength through the bond, didn’t he? He would have survived the change if not for you.” She shook her head. “How does it feel to know you killed your own mate?”

I knew she was baiting me, but the truth in her words flayed open my soul. Nikolas had sacrificed himself for me. He was dead because of me. I would carry that with me for the rest of my life.

Her words served their purpose. I didn’t react fast enough when she flew at me, and she was able to pin me to the ground.

“Looks like old Azar was wrong about you,” she gloated as her fangs extended.

Shouts from inside the house tore her attention from me, and I sent another powerful blast into her. She flew backward and landed a dozen feet away. Smoked curled from the ends of her blond hair, and her fair skin had taken on a slightly gray pallor. Her movements were slower when she got to her feet this time to face off with me.

“Oh dear God. Elena!”

The two of us turned our heads to look at the blond warrior standing near the door. Tristan’s face was etched in shock and pain as he stared at the sister he’d lost many years ago. Behind him stood Chris and Desmund. I should have felt joy at seeing them, but all I felt was anguish and rage. They were too late.

“Tristan,” Elena simpered, giving him an angelic smile.

Her brother stood frozen as a dozen warriors spilled into the courtyard and fanned out around us. Chris and Desmund moved toward Elena with their swords raised.

My voice resonated through the courtyard. “She’s mine.”

“Sara,” Chris began.

The grief tried to surface again, but the rage smothered it. “She killed him. She is mine.”

Chris looked past me to the body lying in the snow. Sorrow filled his eyes, but he didn’t speak. He nodded and stepped back.

Desmund hesitated then did the same.

Elena let out a girlish laugh. “It’s like a family reunion. My beloved brother and cousin, and of course my darling niece. If you’d only arrived a little earlier, Tristan, you could have given me away at my wedding.”

Everyone stared at her, but I knew what she was doing. She was stalling, trying to throw them off while she recovered from my last attack. When Elena’s eyes shifted to me, I saw her real intent. My body buzzed with electricity as I coiled to attack.

In a blur, she was gone, leaving behind nothing but a trail in the snow beyond the courtyard.