Though her skin was dark umber, Diana would have sworn she blushed, handing it back to him.

Eirikr moved to Chloe, tying it around her neck.

Levi frowned. "That won't be much use. It's a protection for mortals."

Eirikr smirked knowingly. Diana remembered where she'd seen such an amulet. Pregnant women on the hill had worn them, because while they were immortal, their children weren't, not yet. So, Eirikr had sensed the child, somehow, which meant it was still alive.

She squeezed Chloe’s hand.

"Can't hurt," he drawled, moving to the weapons. He loaded his belt with two daggers, and tried a heavy sword's balance, twisting and turning it around his wrist. "You do have some tastes, child," Eirikr told Levi.

Diana laughed. "He's almost your age."

Eirikr might be the first of them, but Levi couldn't be more than one or two hundred years younger. Eirikr shrugged, as if to say, see if I care. He liked to get under Levi's skin, if only because the man was Chloe's mate.

Diana looked around, a little lost.

“What weapon do you use?” Mikar asked her.

He’d pocketed curved daggers and was holding an ax in one hand and a macuahuitl in the other. The wooden club was embedded with sharp blades.

Who would have thought she’d find barbaric weapons so very sexy?

She raised both hands and waved. “These,” she replied.

She could use swords and bows just fine, but Diana was better at hand-to-hand combat.

He grinned. “Come here.”

She didn’t even think, following him like a bee to honey.

Mikar led her in front of a display with several gloves, brass knuckles, and even short karambits.

“Levi caters to all tastes,” she mused, selecting a pair of comfortable gloves. Putting them on, she felt the reinforced knuckles. “Nice.”

“How about these, for your boots?” He pointed to another glass cabinet. She whistled, following him.

There were belts and sheaths she could tie around the boots to fit daggers at each side and pointed blades at the back. Greedily, she took several of the attachments, trying to work out how she could fit them all onto her leather boots. By chance, she was wearing Docs today. Docs with flowers painted along her ankles, but these were more suitable to combat than most of her footwear.

“Here, I’ll tie them for you.”

Mikar got to his knees, and focused his attention on her boots, securing the belts, knives, daggers, blades, and what looked like small shuriken.

But for once, Diana wasn’t paying attention to her shoes. She was watching him, at her feet.

“I can feel you staring.”

“So?” she challenged.

Mikar returned to his feet and shrugged. “So, nothing. I like it.”

Of course he did. Diana rolled her eyes. “When do you think they’ll arrive?”

It had perhaps been an hour since the attack.

Mikar’s face lost all humor. “Soon. The witches will tell us as soon as they sense the wards failing.”

She nodded. There was nothing else to say, really. Soon, they’d be fighting. For their lives. For their home.

“Is there any blood?” Diana asked, of no one in particular.

Levi had had a point. She was rather weak after the effort of holding an entire song for Thanatos.

Diana could hum in the shower, and even sing out of tune like everyone else. But when she called to the power of her voice, it tried her, like all core magic.

“You can have mine,” Mikar offered.

Would she stop getting shocked today?

“You don’t mean that.”

He shrugged. “Vampire blood is more potent. It’ll heal you better than human or synthetic.”

Drinking from a vampire was also, well, lewd. At least when it was from a willing participant. Drinking from an enemy was akin to eating his entrails raw, like a barbarian, but with a friend, a lover? That was just about the kinkiest thing vampires could do together. The Eirikrsons, who only drank vampire blood, were the brutes of their race.

Yet, she had to admit, she was curious.

“Do it, child.” Eirikr looked away from Chloe for long enough to glance her way. “He’s stronger than most. His blood will be the difference between life and death.”

“Well, you can’t have any,” Diana shot back.

It was meant to be a joke, but her delivery had been coated with layers of possessiveness.

And damn if Mikar didn’t notice it.

The room darkened, and at its center, a sphere of light materialized, then exploded with fracas.

Eirikr sheathed his sword and took another one in his hand. “They’re here.”

They moved as one, leaving the Institute at vampire speed.

Diana only stopped when a hand held her wrist back. Mikar. She looked up at him questioningly.

He was offering his wrist, pierced by his own fangs. His blood was dark, but not black like hers. Blue.

She didn’t have time to protest or go into a debate about it. War had come to Oldcrest, and she was tired.

So, she drank.

Till The End

They came from everywhere. The plains, the woods, the hills, and the valleys beyond the lake. By boats, running, transformed into their familiar shapes—bats, eagles, vultures. But at the wards, they waited, pacing and circling, standing by. The walls weren’t breached yet.

“What now?” Levi asked Eirikr, deferring to his expertise.

The ancient, still in his ridiculous sweatpants, rested in a crouch, eyes narrowed.

“We can’t let them take us on all fronts,” he replied. “So now, we burn Oldcrest.”

Mikar couldn’t have heard that right. “What?”

“No, it makes sense,” Chloe said, backing him up. “Vampires can be killed by fire. If we burn part of the territory, they won’t come that way. They’ll have to enter where we want them to.”

Right. Except for one thing. “But then, Oldcrest will be burned,” Mikar pointed out.

Eirikr was entirely unapologetic. “Oldcrest or some of us. You choose. Can’t save everything.”

This was madness.

“I’ll get started at the bottom of the hills.” Blair started to walk away.

“Wait!” Was Mikar the only one thinking things through? “Greer is somewhere there. Cosnoc, or maybe Ruby brought her to Night Hill. We have to…”

“The witch is on Night Hill; she will be safe.” There was no hesitation in Eirikr’s tone. “Safer than most of us. The houses are protected. She’ll live, unless we fail.”

And failure wasn’t an option. Not to him.

And not to Mikar.

“I’ll take you,” Seth said to Blair. “If we need other witches…”

“Dude, trust me, it’s not that hard to set stuff on fire.”

He took her hand and the next instant, they were gone.

“What about the lake? We can’t burn that. And the Wolvswoods…”

Shit, they should have reached out to the shifter pack in there. Although their relationship was currently shaky, given that most of the pack had attended a hunt, chasing and killing some humans several months ago, they should have had a chance to leave before they were surrounded like this.

Eirikr snorted. “The wolves aren’t helpless. Worry about yourself, and your pretty girlfriend.”

Diana looked uncomfortable, and Mikar could have killed him.

“I can take care of myself,” the woman retorted. “But thanks for saying I’m pretty.”

“Stop riling Mikar up,” Chloe told Eirikr.

The elder frowned. “Why? It’s entertaining.”

“Because there are thousands of vampires at the gates and we should concentrate on that.”

Eirikr rose from the ground. “Twelve thousand, seven hundred and thirteen, so far. More are coming. They’re waiting for reinforcements before breaking the wards.”

“How could you know that?” It made no sense that he’d be able to count them all out, not when they were stationed all around Oldcrest. In front of them, from the south roads, there couldn’t be more than a couple of thousand people.

“Because I can multitask,” he replied. That wasn’t much of an answer. After a beat, he added, “And scan what’s happening inside the weaker minds.”

Eirikr was a telepath?

None of what he’d heard about the ancient had suggested it.

“How?”

“Spend enough time in a cave, you’ll figure it out, too.” He tilted his head east. “The fire’s started. The easternmost group is moving south. I say we don’t give them a chance to reach the rest of their company. Let’s hunt.”

Then, he ran.

Mikar generally never needed to exert himself to catch up with anyone, but to follow Eirikr, he had to use all his strength. Yet Chloe’s steps hit the ground as hard, as fast, as his.

And so did Diana’s. There might just be something to the “drinking vampire blood” trick.

Chloe and Eirikr led their group through Oldcrest till they’d reached the base of Cosnoc.

“Whoa. Blair’s skilled at pyrotechnics,” Alexius said.

The entire border was on fire, wild flames spreading fast across the plains and crawling uphill.

Eirikr smirked, like he was having fun, got to a shallow crouch, and leaped. The jump projected him high enough to clear the flames, and then some.

They heard screams on the other side of the flames.

Mikar and Diana exchanged a glance, before jumping. It wasn’t too high, come to think of it. Most vampires would have been able to clear a few yards. Eirikr had counted on their enemies’ instincts to move away from the fire, regardless of whether it posed a real threat to them, and he’d been right.

Outside the borders, the ancient was tearing through vampire after vampire, the blades in his hands moving like extensions of his deadly arms. Mikar took the macuahuitl strapped to his back and joined in, fighting close enough to Diana to ensure no one was taking her by surprise. He moved to swing the club of blades on a snarling young vamp reaching for her hair, and hit her right through the throat. A second swipe cut her head clean off. Mikar just had time to register movement from the corner of his eye, and Diana’s fist collided with a dark-haired man in a dustcoat. She kneed him where it hurt, and when he fell forward, planted the blade at the back of her heel through his heart from the back, breaking ribs along the way.