“I’m taking Eva,” Letizia said, ignoring both of them and focusing on Wicked Gold and her friend, like they were all that existed in this place or the world. “And we’re leaving. You’re not hurting anyone else tonight.”
“Is that what’s going to happen?” Wicked Gold said, and now his voice was low and dangerous, though his rictus grin stayed perfectly in place. “I don’t think it is. I think she’s staying right here with me, and so are you. You’re in the right place, at the right time, and not a minute too soon.”
He raised his free clawed hand, which began to ignite ominous flames in the air. All around them, the circle of stones began to hum and glow faintly. But instead of the circle’s usual electricity, this charge felt sharper, almost painful, as if in anticipation for the blood about to be spilled.
Letizia bolted forward just a few steps, but it was too late even for a vampire’s speed: Wicked Gold’s spell reached its crescendo, and sheer magical force swept down upon all of them.
As it did, something odd happened to Owen. He’d been standing at the edge of the light, and then the shadows at his back seemed to come alive, lurching forward to seize him and drag him backwards into the darkness. Wicked Gold paid no mind, but Eva’s human eyes could just barely catch a glimpse of what looked like shadowed wings.
Sanguine also had been cowering in his place, half-behind one of the stones, but now he jumped backwards and scrambled away before he could be hit by the wall of magical force—and it was a wall. A barrier cutting the circle off from the rest of reality, creating a tiny snow globe-like world in which there could only be one ruler.
The two of them were gone. Only Wicked Gold, Letizia, and Eva remained in the center, and the ground stopped its shaking, the air falling eerily silent. The edges of the stones and the woods beyond looked distorted, as if the three within were looking out from inside a soap bubble, and suddenly the physical world seemed very far away. The sense of isolation was as unmistakable and undeniable as a locked door in an empty house: Letizia and Eva were alone, cut off from their friends, or any escape.
“There, that’s much better.” Wicked Gold broke into his usual gleaming smile and spread his hands, showing off every long, curved silver claw, some of them still stained red from Eva’s blood. “I thought we should really do this privately.”
“Go ahead,” Eva spat. “If you’re going to sacrifice me, then cut the dramatics and try it!”
“I understand—you must be feeling a little betrayed right now,” Wicked Gold said in a mockery of sympathetic tones. “It’s always hard to think you’re about to spring a trap, only to find out you’re the bait. You’d be a worthless sacrifice. But you have other uses. Like getting me closer to much more important—”
“Bastard!”
Faster than anyone but a vampire could move or even see, Letizia charged forward toward Wicked Gold—but she never connected. By the time she would have, he was gone, and Letizia ran into Eva instead, nearly slamming her off-balance but stopping just in time and using the movement’s momentum to slash through the ropes binding Eva’s wrists. Snarling, huge wings flaring out in a shield between Eva and her opponent, Letizia whirled around to glare at Wicked Gold who now stood, grinning, on the other side of the circle.
“There it is,” Wicked Gold laughed. “I’m not usually a betting man, I don’t like making wagers I haven’t already won—but tonight, I’d bet everything that someone would give their everything—for one little human. Don’t you understand? You’re not the sacrifice. You never were. I wanted the Witch. I only ever wanted the Witch.”
“Well, you’ve got her,” Letizia snapped. “But I don’t plan on sacrificing anything, her life or mine. You want me to choose? I choose to save us both!”
“And even one puny human like me isn’t going to go down without a fight,” Eva shouted, freed hands balled into fists. “And then your spell’s screwed!”
“Oh, you’re feisty,” he said with a surprised-sounding chuckle. “I like that, you’d make a good vampire. But you’re right, any power you have is borrowed. Rubbed off by proximity—but there’s a lot of it there. You’re practically saturated in it, it clings to you like a smell that just won’t wash away.” He grinned over at Letizia now. “You smell like Witch.”
“And you’re almost out of time,” Letizia grinned, baring her fangs and many more sharp teeth. “If you’re going to make your move, you’d better hurry—it’s almost midnight, your time’s almost up! And first, you’ll have to get through me!”
If she was trying to provoke her opponent into a hasty and careless move, it didn’t work. Wicked Gold circled them and Letizia did not move but turned along to stay facing him, never surrendering her position between him and Eva. They sized each other up less like duelists and more like feral cats, eyes burning and claws and fangs out. Both their faces warped until they barely appeared human at all, and Letizia appeared every bit as monstrous as her enemy.
Then Wicked Gold was gone—only to reappear right in front of her, claws raking at Letizia’s throat. He’d moved so quickly he’d seemed to teleport, and as they grappled and snapped at each other, their outlines blurred until Eva’s eyes couldn’t follow them at all. It was like watching a video sped up past anything natural, uncanny-valley disturbing to the human senses because this couldn’t be real, this was alien, this was wrong.
With an enraged shriek that sounded like a siren from Hell, Wicked Gold disappeared again, popping back into sight closer to Eva—and blocked by Letizia again. Over and over, they both vanished and reappeared, in different places and poses, one or the other seeming to have the upper hand before reality skipped again and reset.
“You’re just stalling me, Witch!” Wicked Gold snapped as he and Letizia appeared atop one of the sharp-edged spires, clinging with claws that left cracks in the smooth, unbreakable-looking surface. “You can’t kill me, you can’t even beat me, all you can do is slow me down!”
“Of course I’m stalling!” Letizia screeched back, but her face was twisted into a terrifying smile instead of a snarl. “That’s all I need to do to beat you tonight!”
Wicked Gold’s only reply was another distorted shriek, a sound that made Eva’s blood chill and the goosebumps that swept over her skin were actually painful—and Letizia’s howls blended until they crescendoed in a riot of screams as if from the throats of a thousand demons. The sound was primally terrifying, something that set off a bone-deep instinct to run, hide, escape it at all costs, because the only thing that could make it was something that should not exist, a glitch in reality, a monster.
But one of those monsters was her friend, Eva screamed silently to her terrified human heart, willing herself to stand her ground—and so far, her friend was winning. As the stones grew brighter and brighter, Wicked Gold’s movements became more erratic, desperate, as if instead of fighting to reach his prey, he were fighting for his life. The teleport-fast moves grew faster and faster, and as they did, the stone circle’s glow grew so brilliant that they were like floodlights, like the kind that would beam down on a night football game—or a deathmatch between two creatures from out of a nightmare.
And then, like a candle flame in the rain, their light began to falter.
“Do you feel that, Wicked Gold?” Letizia cackled, triumph ringing in the alien sound, and now it made Eva’s heart soar instead of quake. “You’re too late! The moment’s almost here and you’re not ready—all this for nothing!”
The vampire’s eyes flashed, standing out in the dark like high-beam headlights, the last thing so many unfortunate night-strollers had seen, accompanied not by a blaring horn but a blood-freezing scream. For once, Wicked Gold had no words on the tip of his tongue, only rage and the promise of death.
His hands flew up not in a slash but raised to the sky, then came sweeping down. Fire flared around him, igniting the air and sending Letizia stumbling back with a pained screech of her own, shielding herself from the magical heat. His own fire wouldn’t burn him,
but to her, it was like the first lethal rays of the sun.
Two could play the stalling game, and that momentary distraction, that second-long delay, was all Wicked Gold needed. Before the Witch could so much as open her eyes, she heard a strangled cry, high and terrified, and cut off brutally quickly.
“Eva!” Letizia forced her eyes open, and screamed again, this time in horror, at the sight before her.
Eva had just barely had time to gasp before the vampire’s claws dug into her neck. Wicked Gold pulled her head back, exposing her neck, and baring his teeth, fangs long and glittering like those of a cobra about to strike. But he didn’t bite. Instead, his silver-clawed hand came off as if to stroke the human’s face—and then in one quick flick of his wrist, he drew that claw across her bare throat, a sharp red line in its wake.
Letizia’s scream—which now had a very human edge of horror—sliced through the air, and Eva dropped to her knees. Wicked Gold shoved her away and the Witch rushed forward, catching her before she could drop entirely, one gray hand pressed against the lethal wound to stop Eva’s life from slipping away and onto the cold ground. But it was useless, and from the terror building in her wide, staring eyes, Eva knew it as well as she did.
“No! No, no, no, I can’t lose you too!” Letizia cried as more blood seeped past her fingers and the claws she struggled to keep from doing more damage, but the liquid was as impossible to hold as grains of sand through the hourglass of a human life.
Then her mouth opened wide again, and her too-long, too-extended fangs made her look like a snake unhinging its jaw, ready to devour its prey.
“I could turn you,” she offered, pleaded, voice still distorted but heavy with pain and near-panic, eyes entirely black and fixed not on the blood pouring from Eva’s neck, but her face. “It would save you. Forever.”
Eva couldn’t speak. Her mouth was filled with blood and her grasp on this mortal coil weakening—but she shut her eyes and jerked her head in one silent gesture. No.
And that was all it took. Consent had never mattered to vampires, historically, but Letizia had broken tradition her entire long life. She snapped her mouth shut on air instead of flesh, fangs retracting—but that didn’t mean she was happy to do it.
“Damn it all!” Letizia’s voice rose again, a wail filled with frustration and despair. “I can’t lose another one to this place!”
“Then save her!” Wicked Gold snarled back, pointing his clawed hand toward the bonfire. “You know what you have to do to save her! The magic wants what it wants!”
“I—” Letizia looked frantically from Eva to the fire: the only thing present that could kill a vampire. For one second that seemed to stretch into eternity, she stared at the raging flames. In her eyes were flames, and tears, and a world of possibilities, of what would happen if she set Eva down and walked into that fire. Her second death, final and irreversible, to buy another’s life.
Letizia took a step forward and began to lower her friend to the ground. Then—
“No.” Eva’s hand shot up and grabbed at Letizia’s face, smearing a bloody handprint across her cheek but making her look down and away from the fire. She forced the words out like each one was a shard of broken glass. “Don’t,” she gasped. “Not that either!”
“I’m saving you,” Letizia whispered. “I promised I would. I promised I’d do anything, and I’m going to keep—”
The stones came alive one last time, raging with life and heat, a supernova of magic that made even the oldest and most powerful of vampires into something small, young, and lost. The air inside the circle blazed bright as noon on a summer’s day, and hot as a backdraft from a burning house.
“What—?” Letizia exclaimed as all of that power, all that energetic glory, chained for one hundred and fifty years into stones awoke and flew free—and as Eva’s body in her arms began to blaze as hot as any flame.
As Letizia gasped and instinctively, unwillingly let her go, Eva’s body left the ground.
The power from the stones lit her up like a halo of fire, light pouring from her eyes and mouth like Cruce in his last moments, but this was nothing so deadly. The stones weren’t just glowing faintly now; they shone with a white light that lit up the circle so brightly it was like the sun had just rose from its center, like each spire was a crystal with a blazing star captured inside it, and every bit of power flowed into Eva until she lit up too.
Then, as suddenly as if a switch had flipped, the lights went out, and the humming fell silent. Eva dropped to the ground but didn’t hit; Letizia had caught her again and held her close, frantically feeling at her neck and face.
“You’re okay, you’re fine,” Letizia murmured, but sounded less certain and more like she was trying to convince herself. Then she stopped, holding very still. When she spoke again, her tone was awed. “You’re okay!”
“Hell yeah,” Eva mumbled, head rolling to rest on Letizia’s shoulder. She smiled, lopsided but wide, and let out a woozy-sounding giggle. “That was… some good shit.”
“I thought you weren’t swearing anymore,” Letizia said, a smile spreading across her own face, though her eyes were wet.
“Well… special occasions.”
But the circle was not finished with them yet. The ground shook once more, and then the hurricane wind returned, but it seemed to come from the sky. There was a feeling of pressure, of something being torn down, and Letizia flared out her wings. She wrapped them tightly around herself and Eva, shielding both of them from the force.
Under the roar came the sound of Wicked Gold’s frantic, confused curses, but they were tiny, futile sounds, nearly drowned out under the infinitely more powerful surge of magic. He was like someone standing on their roof howling into a thunderstorm and expecting to be heard and feared. Nature would always have its way, and magic was nothing more than a particularly strong and beautiful natural force.
Then, as if that storm were moving off quickly and the skies above clearing, the wind and sound died down. The air had lost its charge, and the light from the stones was extinguished. The bonfire flames were gone, leaving only faintly smoldering embers behind.
Slowly, Letizia lowered her wings, unfurling the cocoon she’d wrapped around herself and Eva. The stones were dark, the air was still, and Wicked Gold was gone. The woods did not move around them, and even to a vampire’s superior senses, all signs pointed to them being the only two people around for miles.
Letizia and Eva were left standing in the center of the circle, alone.
Nails and Maestra didn’t do many things silently, but as they flew, skimming just over the treetops, they made no noise at all, even while carrying a body each—both Milo and Owen alive and unharmed, though Owen did seem shocked into silence. They touched down, setting their new friend and likely enemy down gently.
“Thank you,” Milo said, only a little wobbly from combined adrenaline and relief. “This should be far enough away that he won’t be on us immediately, but we should still—”
“Angels!” Owen exclaimed breathlessly. He hadn’t said a word during the flight, but as soon as his feet hit the ground he spun around to take in both vampire girls and sucked in a shocked gasp, eyes wide and jaw dropped. He fell to his knees amid the underbrush and bent forward into a pose of worship and surrender. “Glorious divinity, immaculate creations filled with the grace of Heaven! Blessed am I to be—”
“What?” Maestra cut in, stemming the flow of his adulations. “What’s happening right now? Are you talking to us?”
“Sublime angels, I am your humble servant,” Owen continued, still facing the ground. “Unworthy to receive your grace, but only say the word, and I shall be blessed beyond—”
“Uh, okay, this is weird,” Maestra said, and Owen immediately fell silent. “I’ve definitely never been called an angel before. Usually people think we’re the opposite of that.”
“Is this guy for real?” Nails asked, sounding caught between concern and laughter. She gingerly extended one wing
to poke at Owen’s bent back, and though he didn’t get up, he did suck in another audible gasp.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Milo said, grabbing Owen by the elbow and hauling him up to his feet. “Now come on, we don’t have time for this.”
“No—stop! What are you doing?” Owen cried as Milo pulled him away from the fire’s glow and deeper into the dark forest-in-the-city. “You’re interrupting the most important night of my—of our lives! The ritual, it’s happening right now—”
“I know!” Milo shouted back, not releasing their death grip on his arm or stopping for a moment. “I know what tonight is, and I’m getting you as far away from here as I—”
“Wait—wait!” Owen shook his arm free and stumbled back.
“What?! We have to move, Owen! I’m saving you!” Milo cried.
“What? No! No, now I can finally save you!” Owen stared at Milo, sweaty and panting but smiling. “You’re here. You’ve come back! You’re finally going to take your place as—”
“No,” Milo said flatly, fear dropping off their face, replaced by a tired, studiedly blank expression. “I’m doing no such thing. I just came to make sure you weren’t about to get sacrificed or anything, and now that I’ve done that, I believe we’re done here.”
“Done, really?” Nails cut in, a disappointed groan in her voice. “That took like five seconds! Come on, there’s gotta be more to it than that—we should go back and kick his ass for real!”
At the sound of her voice, Owen looked back over and seemed shocked and awed all over again at the presence of two vampires. He didn’t speak this time, instead once again falling to his knees in a position of submissive supplication.
“No need, that ritual is thoroughly derailed,” Milo said, sounding well convinced, and ignoring Owen’s rapture. “And Wicked Gold is wise enough to know when something’s a lost cause. Still, you two really shouldn’t have done that,” they added, looking over at their friends over Owen’s huddled form.
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