swallowed with frenetic intensity. The red rings in their white-and-black eyes glowed brightly.
The infernus—I needed the infernus! It was too far from me for the command to work! I spun in an unsteady circle, but I couldn’t see it among the litter of construction supplies. Finding a small pendant in this mess would be impossible.
I snatched a piece of rebar from an untidy pile of scrap metal. Turning on the vampires, I swung it into the female clamped onto Zylas’s wrist. It smacked her skull with a dull thud and bounced off. Her gaze, clouded with greed and ecstasy, focused on me.
As I lifted the bar again, she flung her arm out. The blow hit my chest and hurled me off my feet. A whoosh of air, then I slammed into a wall. Pain burst through my ribs and spine. I slid limply to the floor, unable to breathe.
Vaguely, I remembered these vampires were monstrously strong … and I was a feeble, breakable human.
Slumped against the wall, my vision blurring in and out, I tried to bring the room into focus. Zylas hung limply, spasms no longer moving his limbs. His unseeing stare had gone dark, the glowing crimson dimmed to flat, lifeless black. The vampires continued to feed with frenzied gluttony. They were killing him.
“Control yourselves, children.” The dry voice was quiet but its commanding power seared the air. “Even a demon will succumb to death if you drain it.”
The vampire drinking from Zylas’s throat lifted his head, a trickle of dark blood running down his chin. The other two reluctantly pulled their mouths away.
“My lord,” the female breathed, licking her lips clean. “Does the demon need to live?”
The newly arrived vampire glided across the room and stopped, unhurriedly assessing Zylas. Tall, pale, dark hair. Wearing a charcoal sweater and black jeans, he could’ve walked in off the street, but despite the dim light, a pair of curved sunglasses hid his eyes, the lenses reflecting the room. Four more vampires were arranged behind him, all staring hungrily at Zylas.
“Our own source of demon blood,” the man, who could only be Lord Vasilii, said in that emotionless voice, “will benefit us far more than a single indulgent meal.”
The female vampire pouted as she dropped Zylas’s wrist. The other male let go of his arm, and the final vampire pulled the limp demon against his chest, holding him possessively close.
Vasilii stepped closer. With a pale hand, he lifted Zylas’s arm. Inhaling over the bite wound on the demon’s wrist, the man ran his tongue across a trickle of blood.
“Exquisite,” he whispered.
The other vampires stirred restlessly, fixated on Zylas like starving hounds on a slab of meat.
“My lord.” The woman rotated on the spot until she faced me. “If we can’t have the demon, can we drink from the girl?”
“No, Bethany. If the girl perishes, her demon will be released from this world.” Vasilii frowned slightly. “She seems familiar.”
“She’s Jack Harper’s niece,” another vampire supplied. “I recognize her from the photos.”
Photos? What photos?
“Ah.” Vasilii looked across the room, then back to me. “Why are you here, niece of Jack Harper?”
I stared up at him, too terrified to make a sound.
“Is she injured?” His mouth shifted with irritation. “Did you wound her, Bethany?”
“I only struck her once.”
“Hmm. Bring them.”
As he walked away, the vampire holding Zylas followed. The woman leered at me, then grabbed a handful of my hair. Pain tore through my scalp, and I whimpered, clutching her wrist as she dragged me across the floor.
The vampire lord stopped at the makeshift table. Bethany flung me down, and a moment later, Zylas landed beside me, his head striking the concrete with a horrific thud.
After studying the empty table, Vasilii ordered one of his minions, “Watch over them. I will return shortly to question the female. If the demon stirs, bite him again—but do not feed on him.”
My panicked breath whistled through my clenched teeth. I dragged my aching body to Zylas’s side. He was sprawled on his back, blood streaking his neck, and his half-open eyes were black as pitch and empty. How much of his blood had the vampires drained—and how much tranquilizing saliva had they pumped into his body?
I wrapped my fingers around his upper arm. His skin was cool. Zylas? Can you hear me?
He didn’t react. Not even a flicker of awareness in his dark eyes.
“Can you smell it?” Bethany breathed. “His blood … the power in it.”
Another vampire licked his lips. “We will all get to drink.”
“Why can’t