Daide battled horror as a Vampire stepped through the place where the air had split in two. The abomination looked a lot like Raphael, except for his eyes, which made this even creepier. His sense of unease had skyrocketed after listening to the Vampire. Raphael employed the same rapid-fire switches from flattery to coercion, mingled with Vampire compulsion. The combination was hard to resist.

Daide couldn’t stand by and do nothing. Maybe all four of them who’d been Vamps would be susceptible to the siren tug of Vampirism. He remembered struggling to resist Raphael’s streaming wrist—and the mixed sense of relief, gratitude, and revulsion when he’d glommed onto the Vampire, sucking down his blood as fast as he could.

No matter how strong he envisioned himself, he needed a fallback position. Telepathy was still a struggle, but he caught up with Karin and asked, “A favor?”

“Sure. What?” Her voice, warm and strong, steadied him.

“If that bastard turns me, take the saber and cut off my head.”

“You don’t have much to worry about. I suspect it’s what he meant by his companion being unwell. He’s tried and can’t manage turning the other one back.”

“I feel stupid. Should have put two and two together.”

Daide chided himself for being careless. He’d been so troubled when the Vampire appeared, he hadn’t evaluated the thing’s words. Vampires never got sick, so his comment about his companion being under the weather should have kicked up a host of red flags.

Karin held out her hand, and he gripped it hard. Grateful for her steady presence, he ran after the Vampire with her next to him. The vultures flew overhead, a darker place against the night sky.

Picking your allies was a luxury, he reminded himself. The Vamp knew where the Witches were. They didn’t. Maybe they could behead him as soon as he’d uncovered their lair. It grated. He wasn’t in the habit of killing something that hadn’t threatened him.

In truth, he wasn’t used to killing at all. Unless you counted for food, so he wouldn’t starve. The corners of his mouth twitched. He’d been a sorry example of a Vampire. First time failing at something was a point of pride. “How come breaking the Cataclysm didn’t affect this one?” he whispered.

“I have no idea.” Karin kept her voice low. “He’s very old, but then so was Raphael.”

“Yeah, but he was dead before the Cataclysm imploded.”

“True enough.” Karin’s medical bag banged between them.

“Let go,” he said, not wanting to untangle his fingers from hers, but it wasn’t as if she’d ever belonged to him. “I’ll carry your bag. Good that we have supplies. Should have brought mine.”

“It’s not like anyone’s going to steal your kit,” she said and moved closer to him to avoid a lateral fracture cutting through the asphalt. She smelled of wild things, fresh and invigorating, and he inhaled hungrily.

“Depends if any of the humans leave their compound,” he said to remind her they were far from alone here.

“Unless someone there isn’t human, I don’t see how they could penetrate the wards. Oh-oh. The Vamp slowed down. We must be close.”

They left the road on a rutted side track. Daide borrowed from his coyote’s night vision, which was far sharper than his own. The rotten vegetation stink of Witch grew stronger. At least the Vampire was upholding part of his promise. Not that they couldn’t have located the Witches without him, but this was faster, and if the whales were to be believed, time was critical.

Daide dug deep and tried to be happy for Karin and Leif. He hoped they’d find the dolphins before one was turned into an unwilling stud service. The whales’ story about madness had been chilling.

Recco closed on his other side, not saying anything, but tension rolled off him. “I’ll be happy once we get to the other side of this,” he muttered.

“Makes two of us, amigo,” Daide grunted.

“No matter what happens,” Juan chimed in from behind them, “we are never, never going back to being Vamps. Agreed?”

“Not a question you even had to ask,” Daide replied without bothering to elaborate he’d already chosen death over Vampirism.

The Vampire drew to a halt. “As you know, I have exceptional hearing. You needn’t continue your tirade.”

Daide’s head snapped up. If he didn’t know better, the old bastard had actually sounded hurt. Except Vamps didn’t have feelings. Certainly not the old breed like this specimen.

“The rear entrance to the Witches’ lair is about fifty feet that way.” He pointed his long-nailed index finger.

“Aren’t you coming with us?” the whales’ leader asked.

“No. I did my part.”

“Well then, we don’t need you anymore.” Juan raced forward, iron blade in hand.

“No!” the Vampire shouted. “You can’t. Don’t you understand? I was the first. I’m who forged an alliance between the devil and Sekhmet to create a master magical race. And now I’m the only one left.” He’d been edging off to one side as he spoke. Power rose around him, thick and glistening.

“All the more reason to end you,” Daide shouted.

He and Recco ran to Juan, who’d followed the Vampire’s retreat. Juan swung the blade, but it bounced off an invisible barrier threaded with the Vampire’s power. Fury boiled from Daide’s guts. “Oh hell, no,” he cried. “You’re not getting off that easy.”

Juan swung the blade again and again, grunting with strain as it ran up against the impenetrable blockade. Sparks flashed where it connected, but the barrier didn’t give. The Vamp had begun to chant, low and guttural; the air surrounding him took on an insubstantial aspect.

“We can’t let him leave,” Karin yelled. Magic flashed from her hands.

Daide snatched the Remington from the whale shifter and hurtled forward with it in firing position. When he got so close heat from the Vampire’s magic seared him, he pulled the trigger. It was a risk. The bullet might not have any better luck than the saber and could ricochet, but if they didn’t act fast, the source of Vampirism would elude them. Daide wasn’t under any illusions they’d ever find him again.

Vamps might not indulge in emotion, but this one’s mask had slipped enough, fear shone through. The rifle blast deafened Daide, but he yanked the bolt back to eject the spent cartridge and seat the next one. Smoke holding the stink of magic rose around him, obscuring his vision. No one yelled at him to stop, so he fired again, blind this time. The bullet Recco fired earlier in the day had evaded the Witch’s efforts to escape its trajectory. Maybe these bullets would be just as dogged.

“Can anyone see?” he screeched before firing a third time.

“No,” Karin yelled back, her voice distorted because his ears were still ringing from the gunshots.

“He’s dead,” one of the whales bellowed. “Good work.”

Daide lowered the rifle, gasping like a landed fish. The carrion stench of Vampire twisted his guts into a painful, burning knot.

“Here.” The whale thrust fresh shells into his hand, and Daide chambered them. The rifle held four rounds.

“Quick thinking with the rifle. He had to go,” Karin said from where she’d moved next to him.

“Indeed, he did, dearie,” an unfamiliar voice cackled from the darkness. “My thanks to you will be allowing you to leave.”

“Not without our kin,” the whale nearest Daide growled, his tone low and menacing.

“You weren’t listening, Shifter.” The Witch’s voice oozed venom. “Leave now before my good nature deserts me. Personally, I don’t care if you live or die. I was being kind, but kindness isn’t part of the natural order of things for Witches.”

Daide stiffened and raised the rifle to his shoulder. Could he shoot blind again? Would it matter to the silver-and-iron-infused shells?

“Do it,” his coyote urged. “Let me switch our vision to your third eye.”

The blackness and smoke ceded to a gray-green, and the Witch became fully visible. Shrouded in a dark shawl that covered her from head to toe, her arms were extended. Mini lightning bolts arced back and forth between her fingertips as she held power in abeyance.

The knowledge she stood ready to mow them down made his decision for him.

The rifle was already in position. He tightened his finger around the trigger and aimed the sights right between her eyes. Slow, steady, he pulled the trigger. The rifle’s report blasted, making his ears hurt worse, but the eerie part was the bullet. He watched it travel as if someone had taken a time-lapse video.

The Witch knew she’d been targeted, and she slid to one side, certain she’d escape, but the bullet doubled around behind her and buried itself in the base of her skull, which exploded. Blood and bits of bone and tissue geysered, and the stench of decaying Witch joined the reek of Vampire.

Now that Daide could see, the Vampire had degenerated into a pile of bones sticking out of the cloak he’d jauntily wrapped around himself. Made sense. They decomposed fast when they were old like that, reverting to their true age immediately.

“Focus, people,” the whale leader bellowed loud enough for Daide to hear despite his ringing ears. The Shifter hurried toward where the Witch had collapsed into a reeking pile of blood and bones and kicked her aside. Light shone around him as he searched for an opening into her lair.

Daide did a double take. The light was the same phosphorescence common to marine life, shining a pale blue-green. Impressive the whale could summon up elements of his marine self while in human form. Daide drew the bolt back, replaced the spent bullet, and then trotted to an uneven pile of boulders and brush. The whales scented the air as they moved from spot to spot.

“Here,” one of them cried. “Found it.”

Daide wanted to tell him to be quiet, but that was stupid. The Witches knew they were here. And they probably had some way of knowing their messenger was dead. If the Vampire’s count had been correct, it left nine, all of whom would fight to their last spell.

“Won’t open,” another whale grunted.

“Big surprise,” Juan muttered. “I’d bar the gates if I were them too.”

Karin, Aura, and Zoe ran toward the gateway. “It’s enchantment,” Karin said. “I believe we can break through it.”

Daide wanted to argue it was simpler to shoot through the lock, but maybe it wasn’t such a straightforward proposition if magic powered it.

“Are you sure?” one of the female whales asked.

“Because we can go around and find other entrances,” another whale chimed in. “There must be more than one.”

“Hold tight for a minute,” Karin said.

Daide both saw and felt magic boil from her, Aura, and Zoe. A sheet of gleaming green-white coated an old-fashioned wooden door studded with metal crosspieces. The door shuddered and groaned. When it began to vibrate, Daide positioned himself off to one side, rifle raised to address whoever burst through the door when it opened.

A squealing, splintering crack battered his already damaged hearing. Rather than swinging open, the door shattered, falling into clumps of dust and debris. A gush of stale air whooshed through the opening, suggesting it wasn’t one the Witches used often.

He waited, but no one materialized.

“Damn it.” Zoe added Gaelic to her curse. “Means there’s an inner door also firmly locked.”

Karin shrugged. “We figured out the secret of this one. Another will yield faster. It’s a rare magic-wielder who bothers with more than one type of lock.”

“Particularly not here,” Aura agreed. “Why would they? They run the place.”

“Not anymore,” Daide muttered.

The bioluminescence around the whales intensified, and they moved through the shattered doorway, standing in a line to light the way. Karin and the other two women walked briskly through, chanting softly in Gaelic. As Daide passed the whale sentinels, the one nearest him whooped. “Yes. Finally. I sense the dolphins.”

“Must mean the Witches have redirected their power and are mobilizing to launch an all-out attack on us,” Karin said. “Ward yourselves.”

Juan threaded through them until he stood in front of the women, holding the saber. “Safer than bullets in here,” he said.

“Noooooo!” the whale leader thundered. “It’s not us in their gunsights. They’re killing the dolphins.” A blast of magic knocked Daide to his knees, and the whales vanished.

“They teleported!” Karin yelled. “Hurry.”

Daide raced down a winding corridor, alternating between his coyote’s vision and his psychic view. Adrenaline pumped through him. Sure enough, a stout door, this one far more modern, blocked the tunnel.

A blast of white light flew from the women’s joined hands, but the door didn’t so much as quiver. They tried again. Still nothing.

Breath rasped through Daide’s teeth. “Move over. I’ll try the gun.”

“Bad idea,” Karin said.

“Open your magic to us,” Aura twisted to face him and Recco and Juan. “All of you. Have your bondmates help.”

Daide turned his focus inward. “Do your stuff.”

The coyote yipped and yowled. The same sensation he’d had before when the women siphoned power from him prickled up and down his spine. The women shouted in Gaelic. Magic buzzed, pressing inward until the corridor came alive with it. Behind them, an enormous crash told him the ceiling had caved in.

The only way out was through. He breathed as deep as he could and willed the coyote to mine deeper and find scraps of magic he hadn’t tapped before.

Power swirled in a vortex that threatened to draw him off his feet. Deep booming began in his belly until he felt he’d burst if it didn’t release. A huge rush of sharply defined magic wound through the vortex and headed straight for the door, splitting it cleanly in two.

The women bolted through before the dust settled, with him and the other two men right behind them. Firelight or maybe candlelight flickered, illuminating stone walls. This was an old corridor, clearly built by humans. Two twists and they emerged into a high-ceilinged cavern with a firepit dead in the middle. Whale shifters grappled with some Witches, while others stood with their arms extended, black-tinged power shooting from their fingertips.

“Move over,” Daide yelled. “Whales stay down.” Shouldering the rifle, he waited a split second until a clear path opened before him.

Finally, his obsession with target practice was paying off, although this rifle—or maybe it was the bullets that were magic—would have excused a whole lot of slop. He squeezed off three shots, and three Witches dropped like stones. One bullet remained. He trained it on a Witch with red hair spilling to her knees.

She raised her hands above her head, magic no longer flowing from her. “I surrender,” she said in a clear, ringing voice.

“Well I don’t,” a dark-haired woman who’d been standing in shadows said. “Nona. Stand up for your kind, or I’ll strip you of your power.”

“No.” The redhead squared her shoulders. “They’re going to kill me. I’d rather live without magic than be a dead Witch.”

Juan had circled around behind the raven-haired Witch while her attention was on her companion. In one easy motion, he swung the saber, cleanly decapitating her. Blood spewed, flowing across the cavern’s dirt floor.

The whales grunted, snarled, and snorted as they literally ripped Witch bodies apart. Three Witches lay dismembered and bleeding. The fourth was well on her way out with two Whales grabbing handfuls of her body and shredding her flesh to grisly bits amid shrieks and howls.

Daide stared at Nona. “Where are the dolphins?”

“Where else?” She eyed him defiantly. “We herded them into the sea once you killed Catriona.”

“The one who met us outside?” Karin asked.

“Yup. What are you going to do with me?” Nona tilted her chin.

“Depends on how you behave,” Aura said.

“I’m the last one left,” Nona muttered sullenly. “How the hell do you think I’ll behave.”

“Leif!” Karin shouted. “Lewis. Lynda.”

Dolphin song trilled faintly from the far side of the cavern. Daide sprinted around limestone formations, avoiding rocks and holes. Another corridor wound away from the cavern. Heavy steps thumped behind him. He didn’t have to look back to know several whale Shifters were close.

Intent on following the most obvious path, he was surprised when one of the whales called, “Back up. You missed the turn.”

Daide retraced his steps. The path was empty, but he sensed where the whales had turned right. The track took a definite downward cant, and the smell of the sea slapped him hard. He hoped to hell Karin had her bag. God only knew what they’d find down here.

The ceiling lowered until he had to stoop to keep moving. The whales must have had a hell of a time since all of them were at least half a foot taller than him.

Whoops and hollers reached him. He rounded a bend and came out in another rounded cavern, this one with very little headroom. The whales had dragged the dolphins out of the water onto a sandy spit. Shifter magic glistened and flashed as they worked over them.

“What’s wrong?” Daide asked. “How can I help?”

“Drugged,” one of the whales gritted out.

“That’s good news. I can take blood samples and figure out an antidote.”

“By the time you did all that, they’d be dead,” the whales’ leader said. “Quiet. Let us work.”

Recco pelted into the cavern, followed by Juan and the women. Karin shouldered her way to one of the comatose dolphins and laid her hands atop its head. “It’s a wonder they didn’t drown,” she growled.

“They were well on their way when we arrived,” one of the whales twisted to look at her. “You’re the one who leverages magic to heal.”

“I am. Let me test something.” Karin settled into a low chant. A visible thread of power—green woven with white—left her fingers and wound around the dolphin she was crouched next to. The pitch of her chant lowered until it almost disappeared from Daide’s hearing, but he was certain the sea creatures could hear the low notes. The ribbon pulsed and brightened.

The dolphin shook itself; a cascade of hoots and bleats tumbled from it right before it shimmered into Lewis’s human form. “Thank you.” He threaded his arms around Karin, hugging her.

She looked at the whales’ leader. “Summon the Gaelic spell for healing and wholeness. Once it reaches its zenith, mix water with your casting. The resulting cord will circle your patient. Keep feeding water, but mix in air until the cord turns color. When that happens, wait.”

“Did you all get that?” the whale asked his companions. Amid a chorus of yesses, each of the whales settled next to a dolphin.

“I’ll take another,” Karin said and moved to the next closest dolphin.

Recco elbowed Daide. “We need to learn that spell.”

“For now, let’s do what we can to keep their lungs working while they’re waiting for magic to heal them.” Daide settled next to a dolphin, massaging its chest cage.

Recco did the same.

“Those look like chest compressions,” Juan noted.

“They are, but you can press harder. No hyoid bone to break off,” Daide said.

“We’ll work on the last two,” Aura said, motioning to Zoe.

Daide focused on the animal beneath his hands. The feel of its skin. Its warm breath. Running on instinct, he used his mind voice. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes.”

“Who are you?”

A rumbling chuckle preceded. “We all look alike, eh? Leif. I’m Leif. Although you might be better off leaving me here.”

A deeply sinking feeling rocked Daide, and his hands stilled. “You had sex with one of them?”

“At least one. They ensorcelled me, so I have no memory.”

“They’re all dead. Will it matter?”

The dolphin rocked beneath his touch, struggling against the effects of whatever he’d been dosed with.

“Karin,” Daide called. “This one is Leif.” He didn’t tell her anything further. That tale was Leif’s to impart.

“Hang on. Just finishing up here.”

She crawled to where they were and repeated her incantation. Maybe because Leif wasn’t under too deep, the dolphin shifted into his human body quickly. He shook his blue-gray hair until water sheeted from him, and then he struggled to sit.

“You say all the Witches are dead?” He looked right at Daide.

“All but one,” Daide said.

“There might be hope for me yet, so long as she isn’t pregnant.” A grimace twisted his features into something harsh and foreboding.

Understanding carved worry lines into Karin’s forehead. “Crap. We didn’t get here in time.”

“So long as no child of mine is born, all should be fine,” Leif answered.

“That’s right.” A whale stood over them. “We left two of us riding herd on the Witch who surrendered.”

“Surrendered?” Leif barked a bitter laugh. “What a joke. She said what she had to to save her own skin.”

“Regardless.” Karin pushed to her feet, standing bent over because of the ceiling. “I’ll check her over right now. Even if she’s pregnant, we can make sure she doesn’t stay that way.”

“Wrong,” Leif said. “We do not kill the unborn.”

“To save your life?” Daide looked askance at him.

“For any reason.” He struggled partially upright. “Let’s go see what my fate is.”

“Be right there.” Daide scanned the cavern. Between them and the whales, all the dolphins were in various stages of recovery. Most had shifted to human, so it seemed safe to follow Leif. He’d been surprised by the dolphin Shifter’s reaction to abortion. Karin had suggested that path, so clearly land Shifters didn’t share their sea kin’s philosophies.

He turned his attention inward. “Can you shed some light on this?” he asked his coyote.

“No, but we should hurry. I don’t trust that Witch.”

“Good point. Neither do I.” Daide hurried after Leif, hoping against hope the redhaired Witch wasn’t carrying his child. If she was, he’d have to figure out a way to make sure the baby was never born—even if it meant killing the Witch. The more he thought about it, the better he liked that solution. It sidestepped the sea Shifters’ aversion to abortion nicely.