They were going to split up? I might actually get out of this alive. “That would be great. Thanks.”

Douglas nodded in satisfaction. “Now, where is your car? You said it was a few miles from town.”

“I-I can’t remember.” I gave them what I hoped was a helpless look. “It was dark and I got all turned around. I really am lost.”

“No worries. There are only two roads in and out of town. I’ll find him.” He gave Carla a kiss and whispered something to her. Then he headed back the way they had come.

Carla smiled and took several steps toward me, and I backed up until my calves hit the fountain. She stopped a few feet away, and I gritted my teeth because it felt like ice was going to burst from my chest.

“Don’t worry. Douglas will take care of your cousin.” She gave me a small smile, and I knew she was thinking about exactly how her companion would “take care” of my cousin. She sniffed the air and leaned slightly toward me. “Do you smell that?”

I swallowed hard. “What?”

“I don’t know, but it smells amazing.” She took another step in my direction and sniffed again like a dog picking up a scent. Bile threatened to rise in my throat when she licked her lips. “I’ve never smelled anything like it. It’s –” She stopped and stared hungrily at me. “It’s you.”

She was on me before I could reach for my knife, and her speed and strength told me she had been a vampire for years. Her hands grabbed my shoulders in an iron grip, and she pressed her nose to my throat and inhaled deeply. A shudder passed through her as she breathed in the intoxicating scent of faerie that had probably grown stronger since my liannan. “What are you?” she moaned, her fangs distending to brush against my skin.

I resisted the urge to whimper as she pressed me back against the fountain. My mind threatened to blank out, and I battled with the memory of Eli holding me captive just like this.

“Douglas will be so angry if I don’t wait for him, but I have to taste you.” She pushed my head to the side. “Sorry, sweetheart, nothing personal.”

Her words brought me back to my senses. What was I doing? I was a vampire killer, not some defenseless girl ready to be their next meal.

Power roared through me. Carla’s hands were ripped from my shoulders, and she flew backward to land in the dirt a dozen feet away. That’s more like it, I thought as I watched the vampire sit up wearing a dazed expression.

“What-what did you do?”

“I decided I didn’t want to be tasted. I like my blood right where it is.” My hands began to glow as power filled them. It felt so good to be able to release my power without fear of hurting someone. Someone other than the vampire, that was.

Carla’s eyes narrowed in fear. “What the hell are you?”

Static rolled across my skin, and I resisted the urge to turn up the power. If I scared her too much she might run after Douglas and I’d have to face both of them at once. I needed to take care of her before her boyfriend discovered there was no cousin and came back for me.

“You have no idea how many times I get asked that. The way I heard it, one of my great grandmothers was a faerie. Can you believe that? I guess this” – I held up my hands – “is some kind of faerie thing. Beats the hell out of me, but it does come in handy.”

Hunger replaced the fear in Carla’s eyes. It looked like she had heard how yummy faerie blood was. She stood slowly, never taking her eyes from me. “So you are only half Fae?”

“Something like that.” I could see her mind working, calculating how strong a half faerie was compared to a vampire her age. Come and get me.

Carla leapt at me. I raised my hands, but the force of her attack knocked me off balance, and I put out a hand to keep from falling backward into the fountain. My fingers touched the water, and it felt like I’d grasped a live power line as the water’s magic fed mine. The hand crushed between our bodies found Carla’s chest and my power pushed forward. She screamed, and I gagged as the stench of burnt flesh filled my nostrils.

Regaining my balance, I shoved her away from me and she toppled to the ground. A hole had been burnt through her top and my handprint was seared into her chest. She twitched and gasped for breath, her eyes full of pain and terror as I stood over her.

I crouched beside her, and all I could think about was the family hidden in one of those dark buildings, grieving for their little boy.

“Please...”

I laid my hands on her smoking chest and summoned my power. “Sorry, sweetheart, nothing personal.”

I was washing my hands in the fountain when I sensed Douglas’s return. He let out a howl of outrage when he spied the body of his girlfriend, and then he spun, searching the square for whoever had killed her.

“It’s just you and me,” I said with a calmness I’d never felt before when facing a vampire.

“How?” he demanded, hatred burning in his eyes.

I held up a hand and watched his eyes follow the blue sparks dancing across it. “Half Fae versus vampire. Fae wins.”

“Half Fae?” A familiar hunger filled his eyes.

I sighed at the single-mindedness of these vampires. They were so mesmerized by the chance to taste Fae blood they didn’t stop to consider the danger. Douglas’s girlfriend was dead at my hands, but instead of running, he was planning his attack on me.

This time I would be ready. My hand slipped behind me and touched the water again in preparation for the assault.