Claimed by Shadow Page 0,68

trying to throw Myra out. If she succeeded, it would really help. My knives could rip through flesh as easily as spirit, but I couldn't risk attacking when Myra was clothed in someone else's body. Her puppets might not deserve an untimely death, not to mention what it would do to the timeline.

Several vamps started toward the woman, looking concerned, and I grabbed Mircea's arm. "Get them back! I can stop this if I get a clear shot.”

"No! You are not killing the host merely-”

"I'm not going to touch the host," I said as the woman screamed and clawed the air. "Once the spirit realizes it can't control her, it will come out. As soon as it does-”

I stopped, but too late. Normally, Myra wouldn't have been able to hear a whispered comment from yards away, but in a vamp's body, she also had a vamp's hearing. The woman's head raised and she gave me a smile that was halfway between a grin and a grimace; then she collapsed. One of the women who had been trying to help her suddenly darted back into the crowd, no doubt with a passenger on board. Damn it!

I searched the crowd for the new host, but when I finally spied her, she'd fainted into the arms of a young vamp. Myra was playing hide-and-seek. "Watch the women," I told Mircea, hoping Myra would overhear. She'd been in only women so far, possibly because she didn't like invading a male's body any more than I did. And those closest to Mircea were all women. If Myra overheard me and switched to men, he'd at least get a split-second warning before he was attacked again.

I went back to scanning the crowd of vamps, who were muttering among themselves but showing no signs of dispersing. In fact, more were drifting over every minute from around the ballroom, as people realized where the entertainment was currently to be found. And the more who crowded in on us, the harder it was to predict where Myra would strike from next.

Fear crept up my spine. All I could see was that ring of faces, avidly waiting to see someone bleed, something die. A male vamp, wearing a vivid green burnoose, fell onto the floor. He was up in an instant, looking around with a snarl, his fangs very white against his dark skin. Then I saw movement toward the center of the circle and caught a look of hatred on Augusta 's face, her blue eyes narrowed to icy chips. The young man had been a diversion.

I clutched Mircea's arm and pointed. "Not him! She's in Augusta!”

A murmur went through the crowd-everyone knew something was wrong, but no one was likely to interfere. This was Europe, and both Mircea and Augusta were members of the North American Senate. If they wanted to kill each other, that was their affair. No one would lift a finger to hinder or to help.

"You can't kill her," I told him in a rush. "Just… disable her, or something." Enough to force Myra to come out and face me. Augusta grabbed up a huge iron candleholder the size of a coat rack that had been lighting the area. She hefted it like it was made of paper, and I realized a flaw in my plan. If she was a Senate member, she had to be a first-level master.

Just like Mircea.

Augusta came at us, brandishing the flaming candlestick, and Mircea swung me out of the way. She barreled past us but turned in a flash and was back for more, slashing with the candleholder like it was an extra-long sword. Sparks flew everywhere and all hell broke loose in the crowd. Vampires are mortally afraid of fire, and the way she was slinging it around, it could hit anyone. There was a mad rush to the door.

Augusta took another swing, Mircea dodged and a dark figure broke away from the crowd, dashing at him with an outthrust hand. Mircea hadn't seen him, but he felt it when the stake slammed into his side. I screamed, and Dmitri looked up for an instant, smirking; then the expression froze on his face. I saw a blade coming out of his chest in the perfect position to have sliced through his heart, and the hilt was in Mircea's hand. Dmitri gave it a disbelieving look and collapsed, his body spasming violently.

Mircea dropped to one knee, a hand to his side, and I knew it was bad. Mircea's blade