A few vampires were on the ground from the wolves’ attack, but not dead—or at least not all the way dead. Only fire did that.
The fight was moving toward campus, and I wanted it to end now.
“You burn the ones on the ground,” I yelled across the fight to Claudia. “I’m wading in.”
I’d been bitten once, and it was enough to give me a healthy fear of vampires. But not enough to keep me from fighting. I’d faced down a cave of hundreds. Twenty-something may as well have been nothing. At least that’s what I was telling myself.
I used that to push me. I ripped into their chests, just like Mr. Dawson had. Black blood coated my arms, and I kept moving. Throwing vials when I could, ignoring their red gaze, and using my hands when I needed.
When the vials were gone, I dropped the backpack, but two more vampires later and I was left searching the woods for more.
It was done. Over. No more vampires to kill.
I let out a long sigh.
Dastien and I trained so much these days that this fight didn’t even count as a workout, but the adrenaline still had my heart pumping. My hands shook as I wiped black blood off them on my leggings.
I wasn’t sure how long we’d been out here. It seemed like forever and yet only a few seconds. One more win. One more night done.
Damn it. I just jinxed myself. Stupid, Tessa. Amateur move.
Two Cazador wolves broke off to search the woods. Wolf-Mr. Dawson looked at me for a second before howling and following them. One shifted and grabbed the fallen wolf, running toward campus.
“Do you need help?” I didn’t see how many bites the wolf had gotten, but he hadn’t been moving.
“Nah!” he yelled without pausing. “I got him. It’s not bad.”
Okay. If he said so, I had to believe him.
I searched around the woods, looking for anything else needing killing.
Claudia stood with Lucas in wolf form. She said a few words and a flash lit the night. The fire burned bright and hot, ensuring that the vampire wouldn’t rise again.
“How many more?” I asked her.
“Just one over there.” She pointed off to the right. “I tried to keep up with the kills.”
“You’re awesome.”
She gave me a small smile, and I knew if there were a little more light in the woods, I would’ve seen her cheeks pink a bit. Claudia was garbage at accepting compliments. “No big deal.”
“Sure. Burning vampires with a spell isn’t a big deal.” I rolled my eyes even though her human eyes couldn’t see it. “You gotta show me that trick. Would be better than ripping out the hearts.” I looked at my arms. “Gross.”
“I’d be happy to.”
I looked down. Dastien was still in wolf form, panting at my feet as he recovered from the fight. I didn’t feel any pain coming through our bond, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t hiding it from me.
I squatted down beside him. “Any bites?” I started to reach for him to check, but he darted away from me. “Right. Gross hands.” And now that the fight was done, I could do something about that.
I dashed into the cabin to rinse off my arms, and then decided I needed to do a better job of it. I turned the knob on the shower and shed my clothes. I did a quick-thirty-second rinse-off and jumped out. Dastien was in the bathroom and traded spots with me. I searched him, still worried that he might’ve been bitten. Maybe—
I’m fine. I’m not the one that hides vampire bites, but keep looking if you want. His voice came through the bond. Michael is going to come back once the coast is clear, but Claudia said she had something to talk about.
Now?
Unfortunately. She said she needed you for something, and since we were awake…
Right. It was going to take at least an hour for the adrenaline rush to fade enough so that I could sleep. I guessed Claudia was right. I might as well make good use of the time, except I’d been really looking forward to watching some crappy TV and eating equally crappy food.