Page 97 of Dark Embers

“Very astute, my boy,” said a smooth male voice, sounding as though it was coming from the darkness itself.

The four of us stopped running and instinctively pulled tightly together, angling our backs toward each other.

“Someone give him a gold star,” the voice said, and a figure emerged from the darkness at the other end of the alley.

His skin was pale white and smooth as marble, heavily contrasted by his tailored black suit, manicured black hair, and short goatee. His ice-blue eyes locked onto mine, ensnaring me. That entrancing gaze almost made me blind to the handful of other pale, inhumanly gorgeous creatures that slowly appeared behind him as the darkness seemed to roll back like fog.

I knew without question that the man who stared at me like a hungry lion at a wounded gazelle and the pretty people who now surrounded us were vampires.

I’d known they existed. I knew that they killed my mom and attacked Letti and had taken millions of lives throughout history. But having a distant concept of them and actually seeing them standing a few feet in front of me? Those were two very different things. Even facing the vampire in the sim, it wasn’t real. This was.

Terror pulsed through me, rooting my feet to the spot.

But not terror for myself. Tobias and Ashlyn were two of the only people I had in the whole world, and the thought of losing them to vampires, like I’d lost Mom, was soul-wrenching. I kept trying to put myself in front of them, but Tobias’s large hands and feet kept pushing me back.

“Hello, Arya,” the black-haired vampire said, taking a step toward us. He was clearly the leader. “At last we meet.”

What does he mean? How does he know my name?

“Who are you?” was all my shaky voice was able to say.

He smiled, looking horrifyingly beautiful. “I am Hadrian, the ultimate Denholm Heir and Vampire Unifier. I have been looking for you for a very, very long time, my lost little mermaid.”

Hadrian?

I knew that name. He was the most feared vampire in the shifter world. But why had he been looking for me?

Tobias pushed ahead of me, edging me behind him. “What do you want with her?”

Hadrian turned his icy gaze to Tobias, scanning him up and down. “Stance of royalty, air of self-righteousness, stench of smoke. You must be the latest Dracul progeny. You look just like your father.”

“Answer the question,” Tobias demanded.

Hadrian laughed, and his vampire subjects encircling us chorused in laughter as well.

“You don’t get to order me around, boy. I give the orders.” His lips curled wickedly. “Fetch her,” he said, tipping his head toward me.

Panic flared in my chest as one of the male vampires behind Hadrian dove toward us in a blur of speed.

“No!” Tobias shouted, then hurled a ball of fire at our attacker.

The vampire dodged the fireball and tackled Tobias, and I only just managed to get out of their way. The vampire thrust Tobias up against the brick wall of the back of the strip mall that lined the alley.

Tobias bared his teeth and began to shift. Ash gray scales popped up on his arms and traveled the length of his neck as his body expanded, stretching his t-shirt and jeans until they ripped. His hands turned into claws, and wings sprouted from his back and spread, pushing him away from the wall. The vampire now looked like a small child up against Tobias’s dragon form.

The transformation ignited a free-for-all. Hadrian’s other vampires closed in on us, their eyes aimed at me.

Niko shifted into his dark-red-scaled dragon form, and he and Tobias clawed and bit and spat fire at the vampires, fighting off three or more at a time. Ashlyn put those martial arts movesshe’d been honing in defense class into action, fighting off any vampire that managed to get through Tobias and Niko.

And all I could do was squirm and flinch, standing there with frightened doe eyes and arms hugged against myself. I’d never felt more useless in my life. My friends were fighting for their lives, and I couldn’t do anything to help them.

Watching Ashlyn in action, I now saw how pitiful my fighting prowess was. I had trained for hours in the gym, practicing techniques on dummies and punching bags, but I was no match for these blood-thirsty creatures, and that knowledge paralyzed me. I felt like I was back in the simulation, powerless against the vampire who stalked me. But this time, there were more of them, and they were real.

A female vampire flipped over Tobias and Niko like an acrobat, landing right in front of me. She grabbed my arm and, flaring her brows, said, “Gotcha!”

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Ashlyn yelled, and a blast of fire flashed on the vampire’s back.

The vampire shrieked and spun on Ashlyn, wrapping her in an embrace from behind and sinking her teeth into Ashlyn’s neck faster than Ashlyn could retaliate. Ashlyn screamed.

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