“I found him. He’s—” Sera gasped when she located a second familiar twinge next to the first. And a third. One by one, they slammed into her magic, a cascade of fairy-mage power.

“What is it?”

“There are more of them.”

“How many?”

“A lot,” Sera said. “At least a dozen. All hybrid children.”

Naomi tugged on her arm. “Then let’s go get them.” She frowned at Sera when she didn’t budge. “What’s wrong?”

“The children are surrounded by vampires.”

Naomi glanced back at the dead vampires. “We don’t have a choice. We must save those children.”

“I know.” Sera sighed and wiped down her sword. “Follow me.”

They ran down the halls, not bothering to be quiet anymore. All the vampires were moving in the same direction: toward the children. Their magic was heavy with compressed violence, the stench of it nearly smothering the children’s magic, which was tingling with anxiety—an anxiety that was growing with every passing second.

“I think the vampires are moving them,” Sera said.

“Then we’ll have to get to them first.”

Nodding, Sera sped up, sprinting down the halls. She was pushing herself so hard that her muscles burned. Her lungs puffed out in protest, screaming for air. She would be in sorry shape when they got to the vampires. It wasn’t like she had a choice, though. If they didn’t hurry, there wouldn’t even be a fight. The children and vampires would be gone.

She blasted open the door before her, the last one that stood between them and the children. The ball of wind magic ripped the door clear off its hinges, slamming it into the vampires she’d felt on the other side. She burst into the garage and ran over the downed door, trapping the vampires beneath. Every head in the garage snapped toward her. Sera caught a glimpse of a group of children huddled together in the back of the large truck before the vampires closed the latch. Five broke off from the main group and headed for her.

“Stop that truck!” Sera shouted back to Naomi, then blasted the five vampires against the wall.

Naomi streaked past her. She was faster than Sera, closing the distance quickly. By the time the truck pulled out of the garage, she’d hopped onto the back.

Sera spun to face the three vampires running through the doorless passageway. She hurled a wave of magic-charged wind at them, smacking them against the wall beside their comrades. Fueled by rage and adrenaline, her magic soared high, carrying her over the edge of control. Tendrils of purple-gold lightning slithered across the vampires and pinned their limbs to the wall. They shifted and grunted, struggling against their bindings. Sera might not have been physically strong enough to hold a vampire, but right now her magic was rock-solid. The vampires didn’t budge an inch. They were trapped. Tiny flames slid over the lightning tendrils, their soft crackle sweet music to her ears.

“Sera.”

She snapped around at the sound of Naomi’s voice, turning away from the hypnotic dance of red and purple flames. How much time had passed? She needed to stop allowing her magic to carry her so far from the real world. One of these days, she might not come back.

“The children are safe. For the moment, anyway.”

“Shall we check on them?” Sera asked, looking at the truck.

Sometime between her slamming the vampires against the wall and getting lost in the trance of her own magic, Naomi gained control of the truck and had driven it back into the garage. Yarran was hovering in front of the locked latch, pacing in frustration.

“Open up, open up, open up,” he muttered.

“I was just about to check on them,” Naomi told Sera. “Are the vampires secure?”

“They’re not going anywhere,” Sera said into the face of the closest scowling vampire.

In response, he spat at her, but his spittle ricocheted off the magic bindings and splattered him in the eye. Sera snorted at him. The laughter died on her lips, though, the moment Naomi opened the back of the truck. It was dark in there, but not dark enough. Sera could see well enough—or perhaps too well. The children were huddled together. Their bodies quaked with terror. Their magic pulsed out in erratic beats, oozing fear. Their clothes were dirty and crusted with dried blood, and their skin was a grotesque patchwork of bite marks. The vampires had fed from them. Often.

“We’re going to bring you home to your families,” Naomi told them, barely choking out the words. A look of complete horror plagued her usually cheery face. “Which one of you is Jacob?”

One of the older girls scooted forward. “They took Jacob and some others away awhile ago.”

“How long?” Naomi asked.

The girl’s shrug shook her whole body. “A few hours? I don’t know. Whenever they bit us, we lost track of time.”

The other children nodded, fear building in their magic once more. One of the vampires on the wall let out a shrill cackle, and the children retreated further into the shadows. A few of them whimpered. As a little boy began to convulse, something inside of Sera snapped. She spun around and marched up to the cackling vampire. She thrust her hands through the magic bindings, slamming her palms against his chest.

“Where did you take the other children?” she demanded.

He only growled at her.

“Where?” she repeated, shooting lightning through his chest.

The vampire convulsed worse than the poor boy in the truck, a string of gurgled curses streaming out of his mouth.