Page 38 of Slayer

He grabbed something from the Ferro category and handed it to me. “Take this if you insist on acting like you’re one of us.”

My head reeled back like he’d slapped me.

Insist that I was one of them?

That wasn’t what I was doing. I was just trying to help.

Hurt sliced through me, but I swallowed it down. This wasn’t the time for caring about feelings.

I peered down at the image on the wafer. It almost looked like a vampire stake with bursting lines behind it.

I put the wafer on my tongue and shot Asher a glare. “Next time I’m about to die, don’t save me,” I growled, and his face fell.

He had the good sense to be horrified by my comment as I spun around and ran over to Luna, who was cutting down a vampire that was grasping her shoulder.

I grabbed the vamp by the ponytail and ripped her backward just as Luna plunged her sword into the vamp’s chest.

“Thanks,” she said with relief.

I didn’t feel anything from the wafer yet.

I wondered if he gave me a bunk wafer. Something stupid like sharpened sight or some useless ability like that.

Suddenly the fire alarm turned off, and in the open doorway was Harper’s mom with two dozen other hunters fanned out behind her, weapons already raised and ready. She tossed a steel ball into the room, the metal clattering once as it hit the floor.

“Light bang!” she yelled as Luna put her hands over my eyes.

Even with her hands there, I saw a flash of bright buttery yellow light and heard a collective hissing and growling of every vampire present, the sound echoing off the walls.

Luna removed her hands, and I blinked at the carnage before me, my vision slowly clearing.

The two dozen hunters were in the room now, hunched over the remaining vampires, who writhed on the ground with boils and sores all over their skin as the hunters quickly ended their lives, blades rising and falling in fast, efficient motions.

One female hunter in her mid-twenties walked into the center of the room and stood there very still, the chaos moving around her. Her bright red hair was tied into a topknot, and she was absolutely covered in tattoos from her neck to her knuckles. Her skin was alabaster white, and her almond-shaped eyes told of her Asian heritage.

She took in a deep breath and pulled out…a pen?

Not just any pen. It was like one of those old ink bottle pens with the metal pointed tip.

I watched in fascination as her eyes clouded over, going white, and she pointed the metal tip at the ceiling.

Blue light poured out of it as she then began to draw a shape—no, a rune—into the ceiling itself, the glowing lines carving into the surface like they belonged there.

Luna watched in wonder beside me while the adults began to do damage control, checking bodies, calling out to each other.

When the rune was done, it sat on the ceiling like a glowing beacon.

As I looked closer, it didn’t just look like one rune but multiple overlapping.

“What is it?” I whispered to Luna.

“Voidlock runes. Seal entry points, block vampire passage, sever portal links, protection. There is a bunch in one. She is a master arcanist.”

I stared at the multiple overlapping runes, angry-looking runes with sharp lines and pointed edges.

Whoa.

That was a lot to unpack.