Something was wrong.

The Magiguard continued down the trail. There was a bend up ahead, and they disappeared from view.

A sick feeling bloomed in my stomach. The fucking gunshot wound effects, no doubt. Urgh. We rounded the bend next to find all the Magiguard gathered in a clearing. I caught sight of Brit’s dark eyes. Her jaw was clenched, and her brows were pinched.

Why were they on their knees?

And then the full picture formed, accompanied by Grayson’s curse and the click and clack of weapons being engaged.

Not ours, but the enemies’.

Huge, hulking figures in black materialized out of the shadows on the other side of the clearing, and I didn’t need my outlier senses to know these weren’t humans.

The flash of fang and the gleam of crimson-ringed irises told me that just fine.

“Move!” someone barked from behind us.

How the fuck had they gotten behind us?

Grayson grabbed my hand and pulled me toward him, shielding me with his huge body.

Ponytail glared at us. “I said static was the signal, not speech.”

Fuck, so that was why my alarm bells had rung. Damn it.

The Magiguard male who’d ushered us to follow orders looked sheepish.

“Get on your knees,” another voice ordered.

My heart sank as I dropped to the ground and finally got a proper look at the shadows around the clearing.

Shadows that moved and weapons that gleamed dully in what little moonlight found its way into this clearing.

We were surrounded.

Cora

Dammit, this would be so much easier if they hadn’t taken my phone off me. I had a picture of the page from the binder in the vault, and the instructions were clear. Sure, I’d read it and stuff, but I was obviously missing something.

“I thought you knew what you were doing,” Hunter says.

I ignore him and continue to circle the, well, circle. I need to remove the anchor symbol. There’s only meant to be one, but there are several here. Do I remove them all? Do I have to pick the right one?

“Do something,” he growls.

I glance up at him, ready to unleash with some cutting words, and change my mind.

He looks…bad. Like I’m-about-to-keel-over-and-die bad.

“Hunter?”

He shakes his head, one hand going to his abdomen. “Please, just do it.”

“Hunter, what’s happening to you?”

“We could get interrupted at any moment. The super vamps could get hold of Fee at any moment and—”

He breaks down in a cough, and blood sputters out of his mouth.

Motherfucker. “Hunter!”

He holds up a hand to ward me off. “The fucking wards, Cora.”

Shit. I need to do something. Fuck it. All the anchors need to go.

I work fast, using a rock I’ve found to scrub at the paint so that each anchor symbol is broken. The light begins to dim.

Yes. It’s working.

I disrupt the final symbol and stand back.

Any second now.

Nothing.

“Cora?” Hunter rasps.

“I don’t get it. It’s supposed to be deactivated. I disrupted all the anchor symbols.”

Hunter coughs wetly. “The middle.”

“What?”

“The one in the middle,” he enunciates, glaring at me while wiping at his bloody mouth.

Fuck, shit. How did I miss that one? I climb into the circle and hit the final symbol. The lights flicker and go out, and then a hot wave of power surges up from the tips of my toes to the roots of my hair.

“Powering up, baby.” I turn to Hunter. “Do you feel—Fuck!”

He’s on the ground.

I rush over and pull him into my lap. He’s barely conscious and there are blue smudges beneath his eyes.

“Hunter, what the fuck.” I shake him.

He opens his eyes. “Save Fee.”

“What did you do? What… The serum? It’s the serum you took, isn’t it.”

His eyes flutter closed.

I want to jump to Fee, but I can’t leave Hunter to die. He’s her mate. I need to get him help. The lab might have a solution. But Fee…

Oh, God. Yes. “Jasper!”

The air crackles and my tormenter appears. His face is dark like thunder, and he advances on me, ready to claim me and take me out of here. It’s so fucked up how I can read his face.

“No!” I grip Hunter tighter. “You need to find Fee. Help her and whoever came with her. Please.”

“I don’t give a fuck about Fee,” he says.

“But you give a fuck about me, so, please. Do it for me.”

He looks like he’s about to tell me to go fuck myself too, but then he takes a deep breath and nods.

“I’ll do it. But then you’re mine. For a whole week.”

His…I know what that means. I have no choice. “Deal.”

He winks out, and I hug Hunter close and make the jump to the lab.

Fee

The super vamps closed in. Barrels of their guns pointed at our heads and hearts. One move and they’d shoot—the warning was written all over their faces. They were fast and strong even with the magic being muted.

The evidence lay on the forest floor to my far right in the broken body of a Magiguard who’d tried to fight back.

The super vamp broke his spine.

How was this possible?

How were they retaining their abilities, unless…Unless it wasn’t magical. A genetic modification, maybe? Then why use vamps? Why not humans? I was so confused, and there was no time for this train of thought because I was pretty sure we were about to be executed.

“Who wants to go first,” one of the super vamps said. He stepped forward, and moonlight bathed his features—cold dead eyes, sharp cutting cheekbones.

“Boss, orders were to mass execute,” another super vamp piped up.

Cold Eyes turned his head to the other vamp with an icy look. “If I want your input, I’ll fucking ask for it. This is my show, and I’ll run it how I fucking want.”

The other vamp snapped his mouth closed and nodded curtly. “Boss.”

Cold Eyes stepped up to a Magiguard and held the gun to his head. “I think this one will be a headshot.”

“No!” Brit cried out.

The shot was a soft pfft, and the Magiguard keeled over.

He’d done it.

He’d pulled the trigger.

The Magiguard was dead. Eyes open, unseeing dead. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck!

Brit tucked in her chin, shoulders heaving as she fought to keep her shit together.

The super vamp unscrewed the silencer off his gun. “This should make a more satisfying sound.”

No one spoke. No one tried to reason with him, to stall him, because his dead eyes told us that there was no stopping this. To run would mean to be gunned down. To attack would mean to be gunned down. We were fish in a barrel, and he had his gun pointed at one of my Loup. Dexter, that was his name. He was quiet. Kept to himself but was a mean fighter.

Cold Eyes lowered the gun to Dexter’s chest.

“Stop!” The word was out before I could check myself.

The super vamp turned his head to look at me. “Did you want to go next? Is that it?”

Grayson tensed beside me, but before he could speak, Dexter lunged at Cold Eyes. The super vamp spun, and a shot screamed into the night.

For a moment, there was only the rush of blood in my ears, the heave of my breath, and then Dexter’s gurgling death throes filtered through the whooshing in my head. My vision blurred, and I blinked back tears, maintaining eye contact with my Loup until the light in his eyes died.

Super vamp toed Dexter’s body and then moved up the line, skipping another Loup to stop at a Magiguard.

There was no preamble this time. He shot her in the head.

Brit bit back a cry. She was next. Oh, fuck.

He aimed the gun at her chest and then took a step to the left, coming to a stop in front of…Uri?

Oh, shit.

“No!” I lunged toward Uri, but Grayson snagged my waist and hugged me to his chest.

The super vamp’s mouth curled up at the corner. “Oh, you really care about this one, don’t you?” His eyes narrowed. “How does it feel to know you’re powerless to save him?”

“Please don’t.” I struggled against Grayson, but he held me firm.

“Fee, don’t,” Uri said. He shook his head. “Don’t… Don’t look.”

Grayson tried to force me to look away, but I fought him, and he had no choice but to settle for holding me to him.

“You ready, little woman,” super vamp said. He kept his gaze on me while I locked eyes with Uri.

The gunshot was like a slug to my chest, knocking the breath from my lungs and bringing fresh tears to my eyes. It choked me, squeezed my heart in a vise, but I didn’t look away, even as Uri toppled onto his side. I didn’t look away as the life bled from his eyes.

I didn’t look. Away. I… I couldn’t…I

A keening sound filled the air, surrounding me.

“Hush, hush.”

Grayson rocked me, and I realized that the low keening sound that filled the air…it was me.

Super vamp strode over and held the gun up to Grayson’s forehead. “Almost broken, but not quite,” he said. “I wonder if this will help.”

A chill swept over my body, and then a loud crack cut through the air.

I jerked, ice blooming on my chest as for a moment I thought he’d pulled the trigger, but he was looking off to the left, at the ground where one of his team lay dead, head at a funny angle.

A figure stood over the dead vamp, brushing off his hands as if he’d touched something unsavory.

Jasper looked right at me and smiled thinly. “Don’t worry,” he drawled. “The cavalry has arrived.”

Wait, if he was here, then—

The heat of my power exploded like a tsunami through my veins as my Loup roared to the surface.

The super vamp looked down at me, confused.

“You ready, little man.” My words were garbled as my mouth shifted to wolf fangs. “My turn.”