“Down!” Trisk shouted, simultaneously throwing a ball of unfocused energy at the vampire leaping for her and pushing Daniel to the pavement. Quen dove into a roll, rising up before them and shoving a ball of force at the nearest attacker. “Quen!” she exclaimed, eyes widening at the three vampires coming at them. “Get back in the circle. Quen!”
“Invoke it!” Quen dove clear of an attacker and flicked a tiny ball of light that exploded in the vampire’s face. The incensed man fell back screaming.
Stupid male ego, she thought, pulling heavily on the line. “Septiens!” she shouted to invoke the circle, and it sprang up.
“Hey!” she yelped, cowering as three vampires suddenly hammered at her and Daniel, held off by the strength of her barrier. Daniel looked up, his foot pressed into the base of the circle. If she touched it, her aura would cause it to fall. If she threw a spell through it, her aura holding the charm together would break it as well. As long as she made no contact, it would be like clear steel.
“My God,” Daniel whispered, touching the barrier to find it give slightly under his fingers, then he jerked, shocked at the three men circling them, slavering almost. “A shield?” he guessed, eyes wide. “How did you do that? Who are you?”
Trisk grimaced. You should have stayed in the circle, Quen. “I’m the same person I was yesterday,” she said. “Just as dumb and foolish.” She jerked when one of the vampires punched at her, the strike ending inches from her head. He smiled at her, teeth wet with saliva. “Just like that stupid Quen!” she shouted, frustrated. If she’d known he was going to take them all on himself, she never would have even helped draw the circle.
But Quen was still standing, flicking orbs of raw energy between spelled ones that blew the attacking vampires back. Trisk tensed, wanting to help but pinned down by her need to protect Daniel, even as he stared, his odd expression making her wonder if he was remembering watching Quen do the same thing a week ago.
“Finish this!” their master shouted. “I have to be home by sunrise!”
“Quen!” she called, frantic as they all fell on him at once. Three men in suits were thrown back, and then Quen was gone again, hidden by a pile of bodies.
“Get off,” Niles said gruffly, picking his men off one by one and flinging them to the side. “Let him up. Let him breathe. I want to see him. I want him alive.”
Daniel got to his feet, awkwardly hunched to keep from hitting his head on the top of her circle. “Who are these people?” he asked, and Trisk felt heartsick. Regardless, if they survived this, Daniel, and even herself, likely, would end up dead at the hands of the enclave. Letting a human know they weren’t alone on the earth was not a forgivable mistake.
“My guess?” she said, giving up on fixing this. “Rick’s family.”
“Rick was in the mob?” Daniel said, getting it utterly wrong and utterly right at the same time.
“Let him up,” Niles said, head cocking when three of his thugs wrestled Quen upright. He was bleeding from his lip, and his once-white shirt was filthy, but his eyes were bright with unspent fight. Eyebrows high, the master vampire turned to her. “Come out. Or he dies. Right here.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said, hands shaking. “Not in front of witnesses.”
The master vampire scoffed, looking at his men leaning against their car and tending their sundry hurts. “Humanity is dying, Dr. Cambri. Soon, there won’t be any witnesses.” His lip twitched as her breath caught. It couldn’t be that bad. “Get out!” he shouted, gesturing at her as if she were a reluctant child. “We need to make an accident.”
Quen gasped, his struggles surging into a frantic motion that cut off with a pop of his shoulder. Trisk reached at his sudden cry of pain, stifled in a groan. “Stay in there,” he ground out through his clenched teeth, head down as he knelt before them, his arm twisted at an unnatural angle. “I’m going to die anyway.”
But letting that happen wasn’t an option, and pulse fast, Trisk touched her bubble, breaking it. “You stay off—” Then she shrieked as someone grabbed her bicep and yanked her from Daniel. Quen looked up, his jaw tight in pain, but behind it was regret. Daniel was silent in the grip of a third vampire.
The master vampire before them grinned, liking Daniel’s shocked reaction when he showed him his long canines. “You really should let the professionals do their job,” he said, nose wrinkling when he motioned to his men, and they enthusiastically began sloshing gas on, in, and over her truck. “Accidents can happen.”
Again he smiled, and Trisk’s anger mixed with fear in an unreal slurry. He was going to burn them alive as Rick had been burned. Son of a bitch . . .
“No,” she whispered, channeling a wad of unfocused energy into the hand holding her.
The vampire gripping her arm jerked. She was free. For one glorious instant, she was free.
“Trisk!” Daniel shouted, and then he gasped.
Trisk spun, the unfocused energy balled in her hand sizzling. Daniel was in Niles’s grip, his head pulled back, his pulse pounding just under his skin, inches from the vampire’s teeth.