“You gotta ask why a defenseless girl would walk up to a house full of blood suckers.” I watched their eyes go round as blue sparks rolled over my skin and lifted my hair from my shoulders. A thrill shot through me, and I knew how a hunter felt when they sighted their prey.

Six pairs of eyes suddenly shifted to my right as Eldeorin made his entrance. I used their surprise to my advantage, and I attacked before they knew what was happening. A few months ago, my power would have given a baby vampire a very painful but otherwise harmless shock. Not so anymore.

I hit the leader with a palm heel strike that sent him flying backward with flames sprouting from his chest. My leg swept another vampire off his feet. I grabbed his arm and shot power into him as a third vampire jumped on my back. The one on my back screamed and tried to get away from me as soon as he got a taste of my power. I flipped him over my shoulder and grabbed his throat before he hit the ground. After spending the last month killing older vampires, fighting a bunch of baby vamps was almost too easy. In less than two minutes, I killed four of them, while Eldeorin took care of the last two.

“That worked well.”

I barely heard Eldeorin because I was listening to the sounds of fighting coming from inside the house. By my count we had killed about fifteen vampires so far. That still left twenty or so, and I knew they weren’t all young or Nikolas and his team would have taken care of them already.

“There are still too many of them.” I ran toward the house, but instead of going to the front door, I went around to the back. The door was wide open and I could see movement inside. I took a deep breath and prepared to call out again, hoping to trick a few more vampires into leaving the house.

Before I could open my mouth, my eyes were drawn to a movement above. A figure dove through a window and rolled across the roof of the back porch. Nimbly she came to her feet and jumped off the porch, landing silently in the grass. Shock immobilized me when I saw her hair gleaming like white gold in the moonlight.

“Madeline!”

She glanced at me in surprise, then she began to sprint away.

“Mother!”

Madeline stopped running, and her head swung in my direction again. At first she looked confused, and then I saw recognition in her eyes. I knew Eldeorin had lifted my glamour so she could see the real me. Shock and something I could not define passed over her face as we stared at each other for several seconds. I waited for her to say something to the daughter she hadn’t seen in sixteen years.

She ran instead.

I didn’t try to chase her, as much as I wanted to, because I could never catch her on foot. I watched as she raced toward the tall fence at the back of the yard and vaulted over it without once looking back.

Vampire screams drew my attention back to the house. There was no time to dwell on the fact that I’d finally caught up to Madeline and let her slip away. Or to question what kind of mother leaves her daughter – even an estranged one – behind with a vampire horde. Right now, my only concern was the vampire that had run outside at the sound of my voice. He wasn’t young like the ones out front, and I barely had time to recover from my shock about Madeline before he was on me.

Eldeorin materialized and ripped the vampire away from me. I don’t think I ever fully grasped the extent of my mentor’s power until I saw a mature vampire almost disintegrate in his hands. Would I ever be that powerful? The prospect excited and frightened me at the same time.

A male shouted inside the house, and he was answered by another. Nikolas!

I was almost to the open door when three figures flew through it. The two vampires snarled and rounded on the blond warrior as he raised his long thin sword. I knew Chris could handle them. I wasn’t so sure about the two more vampires sneaking up behind him.

I pulled out one of the knives I hadn’t needed until now. It wasn’t a throwing knife in my hand, but I knew from practice how to hold it and make it behave like one. I didn’t hesitate as I drew back my arm and let the knife fly straight into the chest of one of the advancing vampires.

The vampire’s strangled cry alerted Chris to the threat behind him and drew everyone’s attention to me. Chris frowned, and his expression told me he was surprised to see someone else there. His lack of recognition told me Eldeorin had glamoured me again.

One of the vampires split away to come after me, and the others attacked Chris. I had my other knife out and my power ready before the vampire reached me. He lunged at me, but his eyes were on the blade in my right hand instead of my glowing left hand. I let him grab me before I brought my hand up between us. Shock registered on his face, and he shuddered violently as my power found its mark. I threw him away from me, and he twitched on the ground in his death throes.

My attention turned back to Chris, who had killed one vampire and was quickly dispatching the other. His opponent fell and he immediately scanned the yard for other dangers. His eyes fell on me, and he gave a slight nod before he raced back into the house again. I heard more shouts and screams and the sound of metal sliding through flesh. When two more vampires fled from the house with fear written plainly on their faces, I knew the battle had turned in our favor. I let Eldeorin have the pleasure of killing the vampires before they could escape.

A vampire crashed through a lower window and another ran out the back door. I was moving to intercept them when a warrior sped through the doorway and cut one down with one of his swords. He spun away from the dying vampire to impale the one that had gone through the window before it had a chance to stand.