“Fine. He can make himself useful later by healing my sore muscles.” Sera waved her hand, putting up an ice barrier between the three of them and the vampires. “You think you can shoot more of those guys out of the building?”

“There are too many of them to worry about precision right now, Sera.” Kai hit the vampires with another gust of wind. “This is pure brute force.”

“Your favorite flavor,” she said, grinning despite the dire situation.

He looked at her, his eyes pulsing with magic. “One of them.”

She couldn’t say why, but there was something about the way he looked at her as he said it that made her blush. “Ok.” She could hear more vampires coming. She could feel their vile magic streaming down the side of the building. “Ok, so Mr. Snivels there is useless. How about some backup?”

“I’ve messaged the commandos.”

“How ever did you do that while fighting two dozen vampires?” she asked in shock.

He shrugged. “Multitasking.”

Ok, there was definitely something naughty in the way he looked at her that time. But rather than contemplating what other things he could multitask, she cleared her throat and asked, “When will the commandos arrive?”

“They’re five minutes out,” said Kai. “We just have to hold off the vampires for that long.”

Sera looked at the solid wall of vampires staring out from behind her ice barrier. Their fists pounded at the ice.

“Five minutes, you say?” Sera laughed weakly as the vampires shattered her wall. “No problem.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Web of Magic

THE VAMPIRES MARCHED forward, moving like a group of coordinated soldiers—not like common vampires. The blank obedience in their eyes was downright eerie, far worse than their usual bloodthirsty crimson gleam.

“Any chance the mages downstairs would care to lend us a hand?” Sera asked Kai.

“Doubtful.”

“I’m getting the feeling that your fellow Magic Council members aren’t as hands-on as you are.”

“True. And even if they wished to help, it wouldn’t be a very good idea. They might all be the vampires’ targets.”

“So are you,” she reminded him.

A dangerous look gleamed in his eyes. “I can take care of myself.”

“Just try not to take out the whole building. I hear skyscrapers are expensive,” she teased.

His lips curled up in a deliciously feral grin, and the look in his eyes went from dangerous to deadly. “I’ll try to remember that.”

Sera looked back at Blackbrooke, who was still sitting on the ground, muttering to himself as he rocked. He was so out of it that Sera didn’t think he’d noticed the magic she’d performed earlier. And he certainly wasn’t in any condition to go spelunking through her mind.

“Can you put up a fire barrier to stop them?” Sera asked Kai, pointing at the encroaching vampires. Sure, Blackbrooke was off in his own world, but there wasn’t any need to tempt fate. Her magic was about as reliable as an old car engine.

Kai arched a single eyebrow at her but performed the spell anyway. A wall of flames burst out of the floor in front of the vampires. Vampires had a mortal fear of fire. Any other ones would have at least recoiled. These vampires walked right through the fire. The flames slid off their bodies.

“That’s new. Isn’t that spell supposed to burn them all to a blackened crisp?” Sera asked Kai.

He frowned. “Yes.”

“They’re not even wearing armor,” she commented, looking out at the vampires. They were dressed in normal street clothes, not the fancy armor the vampires from yesterday had been wearing.

“A mage is protecting them from the flames,” Kai said. “Probably the same one who’s controlling them.”

Sera looked at him, surprised.

“I’m not blind, sweetheart. Anyone can see that those vampires are not acting normal. They are being controlled. By a mage. It takes a mage to use any of the Orbs. The only way for a human to use them is if the Orbs have already been saturated with magic.”

“You can see the magic controlling them?” Sera asked, looking at the web of crimson sparkling strands that coated each vampire.

“No, I can’t.” He looked from the vampires to her. “Can you?”

“Yes.”

“Can you break it?” he asked.

“Maybe, if I can get in close enough.”

The last of the vampires had stepped through the flames. They weren’t moving very fast, but they didn’t look like they’d be easy to stop either.

“Their targets are you and Blackbrooke,” Sera told Kai. “You could turn into a dragon and fly away with him while I distract them.”

“That would be contrary to your earlier request.”

“Which one?”

“The one not to break the building. There’s not enough space in here for me to shift into anything large enough to carry Blackbrooke. And,” he added with a growl. “I’m not leaving you here to fight off several dozen vampires alone.”

She shrugged. “They don’t want me. They’ll probably just run off after you fly away with Blackbrooke.”

“But not before they tear you to pieces.”

“I’m offended at how little faith you have in my monster-slaying skills,” she joked. “I’ve fought at least as many giant caterpillars as there are vampires here.”