His vampire ash coated my wolf tongue. Yuck. But he deserved it. Hearing Kylee whimper, brought my attention to her.

“The silver, I can’t breathe very well,” she mumbled through the cage.

Shifting to my human form, I stood and banged on the top of the plexi-glass cage, as a large crack ran down the middle. This cage wasn’t strong and it looked poorly constructed. I gripped the lid in my hands and gave a big jerk upward as I ripped it from its hinges. The needles attached to the underside went flying with it, scattering the ground. Holy shit. This must be how Anna felt.

Kylee was weak and could barely push herself up, so I helped pull her to a standing position and threw a lab coat over her. After quickly getting dressed myself, I dodged the scattered needles and walked her down the hall, letting her lean on me. At the end of the hall, I saw Layla in the doorway to the girls’ room. Five other vampires stood behind her in a semi-circle and they were completely unaware of our presence.

I turned to Kylee. ‘You’re too weak to fight.  Go Hide,’ I commanded.  She didn’t argue, just limped off in the opposite direction, the silver slowing her movements.

‘Kylee is free. Attack! Fight for your lives,’ I sent to my pack. They had nothing on us now, war had officially begun.

My words were met with the sound of popping bones and growls just beyond the door and my inner wolf was satisfied.

I decided it was time to let the Devi loose, fully, it was now or never. I had been waiting for this moment for a long time. I had no ties to Kai, no pack members being held captive, it was just me and Layla.

“Layla!” I screamed and the sound of my voice shocked me. It wasn’t me. It was something foreign. The Devi.

Layla slowly spun and for once, I saw fear flash in her eyes as the vampires parted to let her fully see me standing in the hallway, uncaged.

She reached back and grabbed Chelsea’s newly-shifted wolf by the neck skin and took off running with her down a side hall way.

Dammit! Beyond the door, I met Sadie’s eyes as she lunged for a vampire in the doorway.

‘Go!’ she told me. ‘I got this.’ A vampire raised his hand and shot Sadie in the abdomen but then one of my wolves leapt on him, knocking him back as they attacked him in typical wolf-pack fashion.

‘Kai told Tara your spell worked. They are on their way,’ Sadie told me.

I had forgotten Tara was still in Kai’s pack. Good. Help was on the way. I had to go. This was it, my moment. I bolted super-fast down the hallway Layla had gone and saw a door at the end of the hallway about to close. A glowing EXIT sign hung above it and I ran for it, jerking it open to see Layla was halfway across the lawn with Chelsea squirming in her arms. A helicopter whirled to life twenty paces away and she was trying to make a run for it.

Taking a deep breath, I thrust my arms out. “Stop!” I roared with every ounce of magic I could muster. Prudence wasn’t here, it was just me and Layla. Alek’s words of encouragement came to me then as a huge blanket of mist saturated Layla, reaching out like octopus tentacles and pinning her to the spot she stood. I knew that if Kai were here, he would tell me my eyes were green. This wasn’t me, it was her, the Devi. I didn’t know this magic; it was old magic.

Layla dropped Chelsea who ran off across the lawn and back into the building to help the girls. From my peripheral vision, I could see a bunch of cars and trucks driving up the road. Then I felt him. Kai. He was here. I smiled but didn’t dare take my eyes off of Layla. Vampires were pouring out of the doors from behind me, and around the sides of the building, but I used my magic to conjure up a magical wall stopping them.

“You’ve done too much damage for me to let you live. You know that, right?” my Devi voice told Layla.

She glared at me and dug her heels into the ground, pushing off and flying at me to tackle me, breaking my tendrils of magic. I was ready. Squatting down, I put both hands out so when she put her arms around my mid-section taking me down, I had a good grip on her neck. As we tumbled and rolled on the lawn, I squeezed her neck like a sponge. She kicked and struggled as I stood holding her neck in my strong arms and watching her lash out like a fish on a hook.

“Aurora, look out!” I heard Kai scream from far away, just as I felt a dozen bullets sink into my back. Oh shit. Not again. I struggled to breathe as I fell to the ground and turned to see Sylvia running towards me, hands outstretched, mist flying from them and saturating the shooter, a tall, sleek vampire who had broken through my magical wall.

Releasing Layla, a cough rattled my chest as blood came out of my mouth and into my hands. But then, a tingling sensation covered my entire back like pins and needles and the excruciating pain was suddenly gone. I felt the bullets fall out of my back and then the skin healed instantly as if by magic. What the hell? Sylvia collapsed on the lawn next to me and I took a deep breath, no rattling. It was like I had never been shot. What the hell had Sylvia done for me? No! Layla was running for the helicopter as Kai’s pack fought the vampires to keep them from getting to me. Too much was going on and I couldn’t process it.

“Sylvia!” Blood dripped from her mouth and she was slumped over with bullets in her back. I reached behind me, no blood, no bullets. Sylvia was dead. I knew it. Oh my God. She had asked me outside the barn if I trusted her. This was it. This was what she did. Some kind of sacrifice spell. My chest heaved, and all I saw was red. As my fists balled at my sides, I screamed. I screamed so freaking loud the ground rumbled beneath me.