The temptation was sudden, and it was strong, like blood and magic were combining to compel me to drink. My eyes silvered and my fangs descended, my fingers suddenly shaking with want. I had to clench my hands to hold myself back, to keep from falling at his feet to drink the blood right from his veins.
This was the lure of fairy blood, and I wasn’t the only one interested. As if propelled by the desire, the monster broke through the barrier I’d erected to keep it quiet, to keep it secreted away. It rose like a flame, brilliant and hot in the darkness, burning away everything around it.
A red haze covered my vision, and I knew my eyes had turned the same color—a side effect of the monster’s magic. As it took control, hatred rose in my stomach like bile. I heard a scream, realized a moment later—when my throat felt like I’d swallowed broken glass—that I’d been the one who’d made the sound.
With the monster in control, I jumped forward toward the fairy. I fell on him, and we hit the ground together in a tangle of arms and legs, trying to get in a strike. I made contact first, landed a punch on his cheekbone that made his head thud dully against the ground. And because that wasn’t enough for the monster, I hit him again.
“Lis! Lis! Elisa!” I heard Lulu’s voice but couldn’t pull myself to the surface. The monster was too strong.
“Snap out of it!” she said.
The fairy beneath me, his gaze still unfocused, grabbed my hands. And then my ankles were drawn together, my feet tangled. I was dragged backward, and the shock was enough to shake the monster loose. It wanted freedom, but it didn’t want me dead. Because that wouldn’t serve its purpose. That wouldn’t set it free.
I looked back. Thin green vines had snaked around my ankles and were working their way up my calves. And others were rising from the ground like a nest of snakes, headed for my wrists.
I shifted, pulling the tendrils around my ankles. A few snapped, putting more of that vegetal scent into the air. But more vines pushed through the stones to replace them and shackled me like iron.
“Elisa!” Lulu was on her knees a few feet away, vines around her ankles, her wrists bound together. This time there was fear in her eyes.
Ruadan knelt beside me, pulled a dagger from a leather holster at his waist, held it up in the moonlight. And then the blade was at my throat, and I stopped moving. I knew what fairies with blades did to vampires.
“It would be a shame to kill you,” he said. “You are an interesting specimen, and I wish to know more about you. And your magic.”
“I’m just a vampire.”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s true.” He angled the blade just enough to prick, and I felt the trickle of blood at my neck.
The look in his eyes made my stomach clench harder. Surprise and shock. Interest and intrigue.
Ruadan dabbed a droplet of my blood with a long, pale fingertip, then flicked his tongue to taste it. “Power,” he quietly said, and there was too much interest in his eyes.
My blood chilled as I realized he’d recognized something about the monster. Maybe not all the details, about the historyor the origin. But he knew there was magic that wasn’t just vampiric.
Before I could respond, there was a howl outside the gatehouse. And the sound was full of anger and rage.
It came at a full run, earth pounding beneath huge paws. Silver fur and ivory fangs glinted in the moonlight, and the scents of pine and smoke and animal lifted on the wind.
It wasn’t until it reached us—until I saw its ice-blue eyes—that I knew we weren’t in danger from him.
Connor.
My heart pounded with a new kind of ferocity.
He bit through the tangle of vines at my feet. There was an answering scream in the crowd of fairies, as if his teeth had met their flesh. There must have been some magical connection to the one who’d woven the magic.
That was enough to have the other tendrils around Lulu and me shrinking back. She ran toward me, helped me to my feet. My legs felt heavy, shaky. Maybe because of the fairy magic. Maybe because of the fight. Maybe because of the monster.
Connor looked us both over, eyes narrowed, then moved in front, putting his body between us and the fairies. He surveyed them, then paced in front of them, anger rumbling in his throat. His ears lay flat, his stance slow. He was big and dangerous, and he was ready to fight.
I was shocked, awed, and a little unnerved. Not just because he’d found us and was obviously trying to protect us, but because he was showing us who he was. Letting Lulu and me see his animal form, the sacred part of himself only other shifters would normally see.
Connor reached Ruadan and bared his teeth, made another threatening growl that lifted goose bumps on my arms.
“Animal,”Ruadan spat, lip curled in obvious disgust. He clearly didn’t have any love for vampires, but he seemed to loathe shifters even more.
Connor growled again, and Ruadan inhaled sharply, nostrils flaring.
Two fairies stepped forward, one on each side of their leader, and drew their blades. This was no longer fairies versus vampires. It was fairies versus Pack.