Kat watched as Mont ripped free from Darius and rose to his full height, his head wound already healing. Brick swung again, only to be stopped as Mont grabbed his wrist and snapped it. Brick’s weapon tumbled to the ground.

Dawn appeared beside Mont and took a swing at his neck. Before she could slice off his head, Mont released Brick and backhanded Dawn across her chest, sending her flying. Dawn teleported midair and Kat lost track of where she went. Javi appeared behind the vampire and drove a dagger into his lower back. Blood poured out of the creature’s pierced blood pouch.

Kat scrambled for the second bottle of vampire blood on her belt and downed the liquid. Almost right away her shoulder wound began to stitch together.

Mont pulled the sword Darius had impaled him with from his torso and stabbed it into Javi’s upper thigh. Javi teleported away and reappeared in the forest, kneeling over in pain, but no more than a grunt escaped him.

“He’s going after Javi,” Necrus said.

Brick, who held his hand close to his chest but otherwise didn’t seem too concerned about his broken wrist, appeared in the creature’s way. Mont grabbed the hunter’s pauldron and should have been able to toss him aside with ease given his strength, but Brick didn’t budge.

Chase appeared behind Mont and sliced him across his back with an intricately decorated short sword then disappeared.

Mont turned into bats, swarming past Brick and reforming but Chase reappeared and sliced at him again, this time across the lord’s arm. The hunter teleported quicker than Kat expected; appearing, attacking, disappearing.

Dawn rejoined the fight and started doing the same. Mont was equally as fast, avoiding most of their attacks and countering with his own: clawing, punching, or kicking them.

Brick ran interference, keeping Javi safe while he downed some vamp blood, then Brick downed some himself and recovered his weapon. Necrus fired bolts periodically, giving them cover.

Kat wanted to join the fight but wasn’t sure how without getting in their way. That is until she saw an opening. Activating both her reflex and teleport runes, she appeared before Mont, stabbed him in the belly and teleported away. She wasn’t sure if she hit his second blood pouch, but she hoped so.

Chase gave the team hand signals that were too fast for her to decipher. He must have noticed her struggling to keep up because he broke off. Appearing beside her, he said, “Stay with the fledgling. Kill it if Mont gets close. We can’t handle two vamps right now.”

She wanted nothing more than to go to Darius, who was sitting against a tree with his hand pressed to his neck, or to attack Mont…but she followed orders, waiting by her dad. And as she waited, she began to listen to the rhythm of the battle. Chase’s commands; Brick’s eyes as they darted to the next place he planned to teleport; how Necrus waited to fire a shot until he was sure he’d hit his target; Dawn and Javi’s movements as they flanked the sides.

Without a doubt, Ashwood Red moved as a single entity. One she was more than ever determined to be a part of.

But they were a team of cadets facing a vampire lord. And they began to slow; their wounds piled up. A cut there, a bruise here. Mont wore them down and showed no signs of stopping, shifting to bats and back to avoid attacks. Javi stabbed one of the bats. It turned to blood and fell but didn’t seem to slow Mont.

How the heck could they possibly beat him? He seemed invincible. For every blow Ashwood Red got in, he dished out three.

Mont reformed in the center of the clearing. “As entertaining as this is, I have other plans for tonight.”

Chase appeared before him. “Call and cancel. We’ll wait.”

Oh sure. Chase had a stick up his butt all the time, except when facing off against a vampire lord…

Mont smiled and was on Chase in the blink of an eye. He sliced Chase’s chest, cutting through the leather with ease, slashing the hunter’s runes and disabling the ones he cut through. One had to be Chase’s teleport rune since he didn’t disappear when Mont wrapped a claw around his neck.

Brick appeared beside them but before he could swing his mace, Mont, with his free hand, grabbed a dagger from Chase’s belt and drove it into Brick’s neck then plucked up three throwing daggers, hurling them at Darius.

“No!” Kat teleported in front of Darius, except Javi got there first. His protection rune activated, blocking two but he must have been spent because the third sunk into his chest. He grunted and went crashing to the ground.

Chase grabbed an object that looked like a grenade from his belt and pulled the pin. He closed his eyes as he tossed it up. It exploded and silver dust filled the air.

Mont didn’t seem as affected by silver as other vampires Kat had seen but it still burned his skin turning it red. He loosened his grip on Chase’s neck, and Chase gasped for air.

Necrus shot a chain at Mont, who grabbed it midair and yanked, pulling the hunter to the ground. Necrus went down hard and slammed into a tree, the force knocking him out. Dawn appeared behind Mont and staked him.

Nothing happened.

The stake didn’t stop Mont at all. Didn’t even slow him.

Dawn teleported beside Kat. “Shit, how old is this guy?”

Kat had no idea, other than ‘old’. She hadn’t known that stakes wouldn’t work on him.

Having disabled most of the team, Mont turned and locked his red eyes onto Darius.

“I remember you,” he said to Darius. “You taste like your mother.” Darius balled his fists, but he said nothing. “Tell me. Do you love her?”

It took Kat a moment to realize Mont’s question was about her, not Darius’ mom. Darius’ eyes flicked to Kat, and in them, desperation.

“After I kill her,” Mont continued, “I’ll leave you alive so you can feel the pain of what your people have taken from me.”

“Run, Kat. Go,” Darius said, pleading. Wearing pain deeper than she’d ever seen. “Get out of here. Both of you.”

“Like hell we run,” Dawn said and raised her sword.

“Please.” The word a whisper from his mouth. Kat knew he couldn’t lose anyone else. Not to Mont.

She nodded.

Her heart shattered.

And she teleported away.