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I cursed and ran toward them, grabbing one by the arm and pulling him away from the crime scene and the fight.
What should have been a moment of quiet reflection became—because of fear, shock, language barriers, and the vampire ego—a comedy of errors.
“That blond vampire is attacking!” someone screamed, and someone else tried to wrench me away from the fighters I’d been attempting to separate.
“I’m not the one attacking!” I said. “I’m the one trying to breakit up!” While my katana might have been handy, it was probably better that I didn’t pull it on visiting vampires.
The vampires behind me were shoving each other, which pushed me forward so I nearly tumbled into the spreading blood on the patio.
“Elisa!” Connor called my name, but he’d shoved Riley behind him and jumped into the fray to separate two more fighting vampires.
The fight was all around us, chaos spreading like a rippling wave through the party my parents had so carefully arranged.
A male vampire with platinum hair and pale skin ran toward Riley, malice in his expression. I moved to intercept them, grabbed the arm he raised to strike Riley’s back, and twisted.
The vampire was old, and he was strong. He swung around and backhanded me, and would have sent me to the ground if I hadn’t kept my grip on his free hand.
Pain sang across my face, and the monster decided it had waited long enough. It was heat in my bones and fire across my skin, and it slammed against the edges of my consciousness, trying to break through.
I fought back against two opponents—avoiding the vampire’s next strike and bearing down to keep the monster contained, to keep it from rising up and taking me over.
The vampire snatched his arm away, and this time I let him. He had to shift his weight to stay upright, and I took advantage—a front kick that connected with his chin. A snap of his head, and he fell back to the ground.
Someone grabbed me from behind, pinning my arms. I screamed and kicked backward, fought my way free, and punched the vampire who’d held me, sending him stumbling backward and radiating pain through my arm.
Pain was a drug that fed the monster, and it grew stronger still. If it couldn’t have freedom, it would take blood.
Its rise pushed me down, as if I were sinking slowly to the bottom of a pool, watching the world through sun-dappled water. My body still moved, but the monster was in control. And it was far more bloodthirsty than me.
The vampire I’d punched climbed shakily to his feet and aimed furious quicksilver eyes in my direction.
The monster stretched through my limbs, rolled my shoulders, and then plunged forward. A side kick to put the vampire off balance, and then a front kick to put him down. He hit the ground and grabbed my ankle, and I used my stiletto-clad foot to stomp on his hand.
He screamed, and the monster reveled in it.
Memory flashed—of the man I’d left bruised and bloodied on the sidewalk, my knuckles cracked and raw...
Not again,I told myself.I won’t let it happen again.I mustered every ounce of strength, worked to push up, to swim through the monster’s magic.
“Stop this now!”
My father’s words were an earthquake of power and fury. And they were enough to freeze every supernatural in the scuffle—and send the monster back to its depths. I sucked in a breath like a diver breaking the surface, and felt my fangs retract.... And I hoped to god my eyes weren’t crimson when my father got a look at my face.
He stood behind us, eyes silvered and fangs gleaming, absolute fury in his eyes, in the set of his jaw. The crowd parted as he moved forward, the first sensible thing they’d done.
He gave Tomas a long and somber look, but moved to me first.
“Are you all right?” he asked when he reached me.
“I’m... fine.” I rubbed my forehead, which had the benefit of covering my eyes. “Just a little dizzy. I don’t know who slapped me, but he had some power. Just stings.”
I wasn’t too dizzy to be nervous that my father had seen themonster, to be worried that I’d been discovered. That others would have seen it peeking through and would be just as horrified.
“I’ll be fine in a few minutes. Dad, this was like... mass hysteria.”
“So I see,” he said, then turned his gaze back to Tomas.
Around him, the scene began to order itself as onlookers stepped back, moved away. As if keeping vigil, my father kept somber eyes on Tomas until Theo and Petra joined him and began working to preserve what they could of the scene.
