A vampire floated above the rest. I left my backpack unzipped and put it on backwards. I stood, palming one of the vials in one hand and my holy water gun in the other. As the vampire gained speed, moving toward me, I threw the vial and said the words.

The explosion was easily three times as big as the one Dastien’s gave off. The vampire screamed as decayed flesh melted from its bones. Flames rained down on the vampires below, burning them to a crisp.

All movement in the cavern stopped for a moment.

And then hell broke loose as the vampires in front swept toward us. The wolves ripped into the closest vampires.

“Your blood makes them stronger. You throw the vials. I’ll back you up with water,” Meredith said.

I tossed at anything that moved. Once they learned what our plan was, they stopped their freaky floating tricks. Any that Meredith got with her gun burned down to dust. It only took a squirt per vampire, but we didn’t have an endless supply. And we were still grossly outnumbered.

“We need to get out of here,” I said. “We can’t hold them off here until morning.”

“So what now?”

“We burn a path.”

Donovan barked twice.

“I’m taking that as confirmation that my plan is good.” As soon as I said that, the vampires converged to block the way out. “You assholes are just making this easier.” I hoped I was right.

I threw the vials in quick succession. “I’ll grab left and center. You take care of right. Wolves, don’t let anything get us from the back.” I took a deep breath.

How the hell did I end up in charge here?

Jesus.

I counted to ten and slid down the rock formation, throwing vials ahead of me. The heat from the fire burning the vampires licked along my skin, but didn’t last long enough to burn. Not looking at what I was hitting, I shot my water gun as quickly as I could with my left hand, and kept pushing forward as I threw the vials. When they hit the vamps, they burst into flames. It spread to the surrounding vampires within two seconds and then burnt out.

Throw. One. Two. Step.

Throw. One. Two. Step.

Throw. One. Two. Step.

The sounds of the battle grew behind me, making my stomach knot. I wanted to look back and see if Dastien was okay, but there wasn’t time. He’d do his job, and I’d do mine. Our only shot of surviving was to keep moving forward.

It seemed like forever before we reached the mouth of the cavern, but we did.

I didn’t know how many vampires were in the tunnels. If there were hundreds more, we were going to be totally screwed. I could see a good thirty up ahead. I reached for another vial and felt only a handful left.

Sweat rolled down my hairline. I threw another vial into them and used the sudden vampire torches to peek behind us. The light didn’t reach far back into the cavern. It looked more like a stormy sea threatening to swallow us whole than individual monsters.

Shannon backed into me before throwing herself at the horde that still gathered behind us. There was no way to separate them from the cave walls until they moved.

This was bad. Really bad.

I threw my last vial and grabbed the other water gun from my back pocket. “Run!” I charged into the vampires blocking our way through the tunnels, dousing them with holy water as I ran. The blessed water wasn’t as effective as whatever was in the vials. They took longer to spark, but burned for longer.

Flames licked my skin as I pushed forward, but I would heal. Teeth sank into my arm and I screamed.

Dastien leapt. His teeth sunk into its neck, and the head severed—spurting black goo all over me.

Holy shit. That was gross.

Another clawed down my side, and then I couldn’t think anymore.

I moved in a flurry of action.

Run. Fight. Get out. Those were my only thoughts.

I don’t know how I made it, but finally we hit the outside. I was bleeding from vampire scratches and the bite on my forearm burned wickedly.

“Wait!” Meredith screamed.

I spun to her. Were we not all out? I thought we were all out!

She pulled out the three blue vials from her back pocket, and tossed them into the entrance. She said something in French that I didn’t understand.

The fire roared, knocking me back.

“What the hell was that?”

Meredith squatted a little and rested her arms on her thighs. “Just a little spell. You needed it. To activate the blue ones,” she said between gasps. “I was saving it. In case we got out.”

“In case we got out? In case we got OUT! Why the hell didn’t you use it in there? We could’ve fucking DIED!” She was nuts. I was going to kill her for that.