Her cold neck suddenly felt bare and vulnerable, and she twisted and fought with less skill and more blind panic—opposite the way Kritanu had trained her. One hand grasped a hank of her hair, pulling back, baring her throat as a knee in the base of her back kept her hips grinding into the ground with her struggles.
She swallowed a thick, choking sob, difficult to do when one's neck was craned backward, looking up into the fiery eyes of a blood-craving undead, and gave one last thrust of effort. Wham! She brought both heels up as hard and fast as she could, her hips coming off the ground, and knocked the vampire forward so that he lost his balance and jostled into the one who held her wrists.
Victoria, huddled under two vampires struggling to gain their balance, twisted frantically and tried to slip from underneath, but strong hands grabbed her ankles, and all she could do was buck at the hips.
Then she felt a stirring in the air, a new presence, and in an instant her ankles were released. The unmistakable swish, the faintest crunch, and another poof. The one who'd been on her back was gone.
Her wrists were free, and she rolled half to one side to grab one of her stakes just as another vampire lunged toward her. She lifted the stake and he impaled himself. She leaped to her feet, pushing the hair from her eyes just in time to see Max stake two more undead in one smooth, brutal motion.
And then there was silence.
It was just the two of them, facing each other, breathing heavily, grasping lengths of pointed wood in the garden of Redfield Manor.
"You didn't touch the book."
"What in the blazes were you doing?"
They both spoke at the same time.
Then silence again. His face, harsh and handsome in the shadowy light, glistened with a stripe of perspiration. He whipped it away from where it clung to the edge of his jaw.
Victoria slipped her stake back into its loop at her waist and, using both hands, pulled all of her heavy hair back from where it drooped over her face and shoulders. Verbena was going to have to find a better way to contain it, or she was going to cut it all off. Long hair flying in her face was a liability, and she couldn't chance its obstructing her view as it had tonight.
Max stepped toward her, looming tall, blocking what little of the moon showed as he bent closer. One hand came up and grasped her jaw before she realized what he was doing, turning her head to one side, his long fingers sliding along her chin and brushing down the side of her throat. "You're not hurt," he said, then released her and stepped back. Several steps back.
"You didn't touch the book," she said again, resisting the urge to rub the skin he'd just touched.
"No. You told me not to. It's still inside, I believe. How many did you get?" His breathing had slowed, but the harsh, measuring look was still on his face. A dip of too-long hair brushed one cheekbone near a narrowed eye.
"Five, perhaps six. I lost count. There were twelve out here, and another two inside."
"I got the two inside. And four out here. There are still at least two." He turned to look up at the window from which Victoria had escaped the room. "But they've gone off. You climbed down that tree?"
Victoria nodded, then bent to pick up her other stake. Her breathing had gone back to normal, and it was just sinking in that not only had she been overwhelmed by the number of vampires and nearly lost the battle, but that Sebastian was the houseguest who let them in.
What was he doing here?
She dared not ask Max; to do so would be to admit that she knew Sebastian, and she was fairly certain that would be in violation of their agreement.
"Tell me what you know about the book."
"It's going to be stolen tonight by two—or more—undead. Once they remove it from the house of its owner, it is safe for us to take. But if a mortal takes it, touches it to steal it, he or she will die."
Max stared at her for a moment. "Where did you learn this interesting bit of information?"
"We should not be standing here," Victoria replied, starting to walk toward the front of the house. "If there are at least two vampires left, they are still after the book. We will have to take it from them once they leave the house."
"Victoria." His voice was pitched threateningly, meant to stop her.
But she paid him no heed and continued toward the front side of the house. If she stood in a certain place, she could see the front doorway and remain hidden… whilst also having a view of the garden.
Max stalked after her; she couldn't see him, but could feel the annoyance in the way he moved, silently, but purposefully in her tracks. She picked a place in the shadows of a spreading oak, standing behind its trunk. Max stood just behind her, looking over her head. A piece of bark drifted onto her shoulder from where his fingers touched the tree.
"Victoria, where did you learn this information?"
"It doesn't matter. And besides, I have not asked you how you learned what you know," she replied, still looking straight ahead at the house, trying not to shift. He was right behind her. "Do you think they will remove the book tonight?"
"I don't have the same information you apparently have received, but it would be" my expectation that they will not return to Lilith without the book."
"Undead have to remove it from the house. If there are only two or three of them, we should have no trouble relieving them of their burden."
"Theoretically, yes."
They fell silent, waiting, watching, breathing steadily and smoothly at last.
And then… Victoria started when Max's hand appeared in her periphery, a finger, pointing silently.
Three of them, walking toward the house, in the center of the street as if they owned it. Broad, tall, long hair gusting with each stride. Even from where she was, Victoria saw the whiteness of their skin, the deep, violet-red glow of narrowed eyes. And the long glint of metal swords drooping from their hands.
Her neck felt as if a wedge of ice were pressed against it.
Her stomach tightened and she surreptitiously rubbed her damp palm against the rough bark of the tree.
"Imperial vampires." Max's voice was in her ear, barely audible.
But she hadn't needed to be told; Victoria already knew. The vampires closest to Lilith, closer than her elite retinue of Guardians, and so powerful they could pull the life energy from their victims without using their fangs—just their eyes.
Lilith was indeed taking no chances.
They didn't move as the Imperials approached Redfield Manor. It was fortunate they were downwind from the vampires, and that there was a gentle breeze. It might keep the three from scenting her and Max. Victoria watched them, her neck burning with chill. They were still a distance away, but even now she could feel the power, the hate… the evil. She stifled a shiver.