in my system. It was part of being the Nex Apparatus. I took vampire blood at least once a week, and sometimes right before I went into battle. I’d taken it the day of my wedding. It would hurt like hell, but I would likely heal. Donovan wouldn’t.
I could feel the heat on my skin, flaring across it. Adrenaline made me hyper aware of my surroundings.
It was the greatest irony that this man’s blood would save me, save Devinshea and Zoey, and he would die because he had no protection.
I heard the queen scream as I reached the king and realized our time was up. I glanced back and that ball of flame had taken out a good portion of our green wall, and the rest of it was on fire. Dean’s shield was holding but it didn’t stop the fire Erna was sending his way, merely shifted it and sent it our direction.
Donovan was running toward me, but we wouldn’t get back to the safety of cover. I saw another shot at surviving though.
“Get behind the bikes,” I shouted as I approached him. I waved to him and he seemed to understand.
Donovan let me pull him down behind one of the big bikes we’d ridden in on, and I felt the first wave hit it. It couldn’t cover all of the two of us, so I tried to block the king from the majority of it. I gritted my teeth against the unholy amount of pain that flared across my skin. I was shocked to see that the clothes Taggart had insisted we all change into before the ride were apparently fireproof. My hands singed and I felt a place at the back of my neck burn, but otherwise I managed to cover my face.
“Nice trick, Dean,” a feminine voice said. “I’ll be honest. I didn’t think you had it in you. But it won’t work for long. Send Summer out here and I don’t care what happens to the rest of you. If Summer isn’t in my custody in thirty seconds, I’ll let the barbarians have you all.”
Donovan was up on his feet at the sound of those words. His hands had burned and one side of his face looked medium rare, but he toughed it out. “No.”
I managed to get to my feet. The smoke was still thick in the air, but I witnessed the utter devastation of the wall that Dev had created.
And I noticed that the king and I were surrounded. They’d managed to get in behind us, taking advantage of the massive hole in our barricade. They were on huge war horses, looking down on us with weapons in their hands.
“Who the fuck are these people and what do they want with my daughter?” Donovan asked.
“These are the dudes Summer told us about, and the last time I came up against them, Dev and I killed the whole lot. Well, except the one who got sucked into the vortex thing,” I explained as we went back to back. “I’ll admit there were way less of them then.”
They wore the same type of clothes the others had, animal-skin pants and loose linen shirts. The clothes weren’t really the problem. The massive horse-like creatures who were kitted out with spikes on their armor, and all those swords and bows and arrows worried me far more than the clothes. If I’d been standing next to Donovan the king, I likely would have yawned, told him to have fun, and sat back to do my nails. That’s how good the king is. But I didn’t have a vampire. I had an already injured human on my hands. My back was to our group so I couldn’t see what was happening with them. I could hear conversation going on yards away, but I was concentrating on not getting the two of us killed.
“Shouldn’t Dev be doing that thing where he has all the plants bury these guys?” I’d heard the stories. Dev could have roots and vines burst from the ground and drag whoever had offended him deep under the dirt.
“Something’s happening.” Donovan’s voice sounded tight. “I don’t think Dev can work his mojo right now. I think somehow the witch is blocking him.”
She was blocking a Green Man? “I didn’t think that could happen. His power has been off the charts since we got here.”
One of the barbarians slipped gracefully out of his saddle and started toward us. He was joined by another two of his cohorts, while