“No!”
The knife fell.
Laughing louder still, she slashed the dagger across her wrist and gushing, red blood poured from the wound.
My mind had time to scream,Holy shit!, but no chance to send the signal for my mouth to do the same.
Loud, hair-raising hissing ripped through the field.
“Mine!”
I didn’t see them move. All I knew was one second the woman was standing in front of me—grinning that stomach-churning grin—and the next she was on the ground, buried under a pile of vampires.
Biting, sucking, tearing, ripping, snarling—they gorged on her like she was the last piece of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.
“Ahhhh!” I shouted. “Sir? Sir!” I spun around looking for Erlik. “Do something! Stop them—!”
“Huh? What the fuck!”
The shout tore my head up. One of the fae guys flailed and bellowed as an interlocking shadow fell over his body. The net appeared out of nowhere and dropped over him, ensnaring his legs, arms, and wings.
He plummeted out of the sky—hitting the dirt hard.
“Teehee.”
The giggle slipped into my ear, sending a chill up my spine.
“What is that?” I cried, whipping around. “Who is—?”
Half a dozen nets appeared in the sky, falling over the shouting fae and ripping them soundly out of the lead.
They crashed like missiles on the field—taking out more than a few unsuspecting runners, and kicking up a cloud of red dust that assaulted my eyes and lungs. Tears swallowed my vision—but not enough that I couldn’t see everything going to hell.
All over the field, the ground opened up—tearing open holes in the earth that swallowed Snake Demon before the “fuck!” was fully out of his mouth.
Tristan skidded to a halt—stopping mere millimeters before the hole that opened up in his path. He made to veer around it, and then the pie hit him in the face.
“Hehehe.”
My head snapped down. Eyes popping at the small, green-winged creature giggling and staring at me with eyes as big as its horned head. Fragile-looking bat wings sprouted from its back and it was off, zipping away almost faster than I could see—laughing the whole way. He flew over the heads of the alpha pack boys just as a succession of cream pies fell on their bellowing heads.
“Imps,” Erlik called as he picked something out from between his teeth. “Just another one of the many creatures that crossed over during the Great Invasion. Not known for killing their targets, they are content to use tricks and illusions to get the upper hand—and how much longer are you fools going to give it to him?!” he burst out, almost making me jump out of my skin. “Get up and kill it! Kill it now! If one little imp is all it takes to stop you running in a straight line, you might as well lie down and die as the worthless cunts you are! Filth! Trash! Leeches! Mutts!”
Shaking my head, I tuned his ranting out.Man, that guy needs to relax.I rocked back on my heels, assessing the situation with new eyes.But at least he finally said something useful. Ifimps don’t like to kill their targets and, from what I’m seeing, no one has been seriously hurt or injured either, then doesn’t that mean this little guy is just...
...playing?
My classmates started to rally, shaking off their shock, nets, and pie bits. Spurred on by Erlik’s taunting, magic started flying all over the place. The pieces of thewomanthe vampires were feeding on vanished like smoke—unleashing a hair-raising chorus of furious hisses and snarls. The vamps vanished in a blink, and just as quickly, the giggling imp was in the sky—far out of reach of the earthbound bloodsuckers.
One tried to jump up and catch him—unleashing a burst of power beneath his feet that propelled him fifty feet into the air... where his grasping hands closed on nothing.
The imp was suddenly nowhere within his reach, giggling another twenty feet above him.
The vampire dropped back down and plunged into a vat of Jell-O.
“Agh!” He strained and shouted as the vat filled to his neck, his mouth, and then over his head—trapped like an egg in aspic. But luckily for him, he wasn’t alone in his fate, because all of his other vampire friends tried jumping at the same time... and ended up in gelatin.
Tossing my head, I sucked in a deep breath.Well, here goes nothing...My breath exploded out of me in a burst of loud, raucous laughter. “Oh my goodness, Mr. Imp, that was a good one! Hahaha! You’re so funny.”
