Page 79 of Wake the Dream

“Illaria, back!” His reflexes a hair faster than hers, Kieran pushed her behind him, and the vampires swarmed.

Illaria knew without a shadow of a doubt they would both kiss their asses goodbye today.

The first wave of fanged fiends came at them with force, reaching out to grab at them, canines bared. They blended together into a single unit. A single mass of blood-sucking force that would tear across the city after they were finished here. A hand on her shoulder sent her flying backwards when one of them came too close.

With a groan, Illaria rolled onto her stomach and from there attempted to claw her way across the ground, pushing to her feet. She barely had the strength of will to turn and face her mother.

“Get out of here!” Kieran yelled, three of them piling on top of him. “Fly, Illaria.”

She tried to retaliate with a yell of her own, to tell him she had no intention of leaving him there alone. Her throat clenched. A hoarse whisper made it through her vocal cords but nothing else.

Pounding footsteps sounded behind her and she crouched next to one of the pine trees, her gut spasming.Come on!She tried to call her wings, and searing pain assaulted her as if someone had plunged their fists through her skin and ripped both out without her knowing.

“Kieran!” She stumbled forward when he elbowed the nearest vamp in the chest.

He turned to her, gripped her arm to keep her from plummeting to the ground when she tripped over an exposed root.

“I told you to fly.” He drew his gun and fired off a round when a second vampire stepped too close. The creature exploded into dust the instant the bullet pierced its head. Damn, the thing must be loaded with priest-blessed silver bullets.

“I’m not leaving you here alone.”

“Then we’re both going to die,” he replied simply.

She couldn’t tell him, not when she drew on her magic and found it sputtering, slow to start, like a car engine desperate to turn over. She couldn’t tell him that she knew his intent.

To sacrifice himself.

And that if she knew of a way, she would have done the same thing for him.

“Come on,” she mumbled, calling on her magic, scrambling away when one of the vamps lunged at her.

Hands held in front of her torso, she called the wind, called the air to do her bidding, the way it responded to Oona.

Nothing came.

The vampire at her feet hissed, the sudden cloud cover keeping the sky dark enough for them to be out during the day.

Damn her mother. Damn them all.

“Come on!”

She accompanied the scream with a curse, her hands slamming together to form a dagger of air. It shot straight from her palm through the heart of the vampire. He exploded into dust and left her crippled from the backlash. Knees buckling, Illaria sank ungracefully down to the ground.

She heard her name called in Kieran’s rich baritone, the sound colored with fear for her safety.

Panic washed through her when a cold rain sprang from a split in the clouds and the nest of vampires rushed closer with each second. Around them, people screamed at the onslaught. Humans. Even children.

She had to do something to keep the vamps from endangering the rest of the town. Keep them here in the clearing.

Impossible when she couldn’t even call her magic. She roused enough energy to kick out and slam her boot into one of their faces, but it was futile. At this point, they blended together. Snapping fangs like animals with rabies.

The horde decided to move as a unit.

She’d be lunch soon enough.

Surprise came swiftly when they slammed into a barrier of blue sparks. It had risen from the ground in an instant, forming a dome around the clearing and keeping the vampire horde contained and away from the rest of the town.

She spared a glance around, trying to find the source of the wall. Magic like this could only come from one place.

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