chest with both feet, just before the vampire struck Blake. Blake had his back, and now Caleb had his.
But the graves were still resurrecting, and the first of the shadow creatures charged right for Caleb. One of these shadows grabbed him from behind, and his touch sent a chill through Caleb, and deepened his sense of dread. The shadow was so cold and slimy, like a demon from hell.
Caleb threw his arms back and managed to throw it off, sending it flying and knocking into several others. But still more came.
Aiden swung his staff, and Caleb was shocked to see the staff stretch out before him, grow before his eyes. It grew to fifty feet, then a hundred. As it did, Aiden swung it around in a wide circle.
It had a tremendous effect. Aiden managed to knock down every creature that came within a hundred feet of him, in the shape of a huge circle. He killed a hundred creatures in a single blow.
Now, with Blake here, and Aiden’s staff, the momentum was beginning to turn. Caleb felt as if they might stand a chance, especially as he spotted Aiden’s coven members: these soldiers, dressed in their white robes, each wielded a staff of his own, and each swung them in slow but deliberate ways. They were channeling some sort of energy Caleb was not aware of, and as they spun their staffs, they each managed to knock out twenty vampires in a single blow. Clearly, Aiden’s men were infused with a special power, a high state of training that Caleb had never seen.
Caleb lunged forward, transformed in his fury and newfound confidence, and killed a dozen vampires in a few seconds. Blake did the same. Within moments, Caleb and Blake were fighting back to back, each guarding the other. And they were succeeding. The tide was turning.
“Caleb,” came a voice.
Caleb immediately spun. It was a voice he would recognize anywhere, and it sent an electric shock through his system. But it couldn’t be. How could she be here?
“Help me, please!”
As he turned, Caleb was astounded to see who was standing there. Just a few feet away, right before him, stood Caitlin. She stood there, fighting off hordes of vampires, and they were beating her. He couldn’t understand how she could be here, how she could have appeared so quickly, came out of nowhere. Maybe she had dove down, and in the chaos, he had missed her.
He didn’t have time to think about that. His first impulse was to save her, and he leapt into action, landing before her and striking back the vampires attacking her. In moments, he managed to kill a dozen of them, and the others kept a wary distance.
Caleb quickly turned and looked at her. She stood there, looking so helpless, so afraid—and so beautiful. It was the Caitlin he knew. And he felt overjoyed to see her.
Yet at the same time, something bristled inside him. Something deep down told him that something wasn’t right. But he wasn’t quite sure what.
He was so overjoyed to see her, he brushed his premonitions aside as he stepped forward to embrace her. She had been good to her word. She had come back.
“I came back for you,” Caitlin said. “I couldn’t stay away. I had to come and help you.”
She stepped forward, lowering her sword to her side.
“Won’t you give your wife a hug?” she asked.
Caleb stepped forward, took three big steps, opened his arms wide, and came in to hug her.
But as he got closer and closer, his body became colder, and something inside him screamed that something wasn’t right. He didn’t understand it, didn’t know what it could be.
And by the time he realized, it was too late.
Caleb took one more, fatal, step towards Caitlin.
At the last moment, Caitlin’s face collapsed into a scowl, as she pulled back her short silver sword, and plunged it right through Caleb’s heart. She embraced him with one arm, holding the sword with the other, hugging him, driving it all the way through.
Caleb felt the breath rush out of him. The pain was so intense, so startling, his eyes opened wide, and he could hardly breathe.
But even worse, was the pain of betrayal. He had been stabbed in the heart by the one he loved the most, by the person he loved more than anything in the world.
Caleb looked up, into Caitlin’s eyes, wondering how she could do such a thing.
“I told you I would have vengeance,” she said, looking down