As Shadows Fade (The Gardella Vampire Chronicles 5)

The yellow lull allowed her to clear the flames and tumble onto the ground near Wayren, and the force of her jump sent her lurching into the woman’s legs. But the flames remained in their circle around them, and it was eerily quiet within the enclosure.

Victoria scrambled over next to Wayren’s face and touched her cheek. It was warm, and she moved her hand along the woman’s neck to feel for a pulse. She felt nothing. Nothing .

No.

She smoothed a hand over the prone woman’s torso, praying to feel the shift of breath. Just as she did so, Wayren moved beneath her. A slight movement, not even a breath, but a little shift. Almost a shudder.

“Wayren,” Victoria said urgently. She felt again for a pulse, but could feel no sign of life at Wayren’s neck or wrist. Yet her body was warm and felt… alive.

Victoria heard a distant shout and looked over to see Max and Sebastian on the other side of the flames. Their faces were muted by the swirl of angry blue fog, and whatever Max was shouting at her was lost in the whirlwind.

He gestured sharply and she looked up, then immediately dove to the ground, covering Wayren.

The heavy black shapes had become solid ones, with burning eyes of red and orange, and they swooped and skulked. She saw the flash of a claw and the gleam of a long, curved fang, and Victoria reached for her sword.

Standing in the middle of the blue flames, she struck out at the nearest black shape as it dove closer. Her blade went right through it, and a blast of frigid cold swept over her. Staggering back from the force of it, Victoria nearly fell into the blaze behind her.

She caught herself in time, using the tip of her sword, and looked back over at Max and Sebastian. They were gesturing to each other, and she couldn’t tell what they were doing.

A black shape swooped again, and Victoria watched for its eyes, measured, and struck again with her sword, aiming for the neck area.

Reaching up, her arms made a long, high arc, and the blade sliced into the black being. It disintegrated into a burst of smoke. Then another one, and another, swooped down harder and faster, stirring the calm air amid the flames.

One of them scored her arm and shoulder with its claws, and the other rushed over-and through her… God, through her!-sending her stumbling once again toward the flames. Cold shudders paralyzed her for a moment as Victoria collapsed to the ground. Her stomach pitched, and nausea trammeled through her, her muscles weakened and shivering. She struggled to breathe, fought to steady the dizziness that crushed her to the stone floor. Her fingers had loosened over the sword, and she had to focus hard, so hard , to close them again. The weight of the heavy hilt steadied her a bit, and she groped at her belly to touch the two vis bullae beneath her shirt.

Several long moments she lay still, hunched away from the swooping shadows, praying that neither Max nor Sebastian was foolish enough to try to join her. Especially Max, who acted as though he still wore the vis bulla .

The last thing they needed was for all of them to be trapped within this wall of flame.

When she was able to regain control of her movements, she raised her head and crawled back toward Wayren. Staying close to the ground, she looked beyond the flames and toward Max and Sebastian. They were foggy, but she saw that they were holding something up in their hands.

It looked like they each had a bottle. Holy water?

Sebastian shouted something, and Max made hand signals, and Victoria nodded back to them. She gathered up Wayren’s warm, limp body over her shoulder, staying as close to the ground as she could, and dodged another swoop of the black demons.

Max raised his fist and shook it… One… two… three.

The arms of the two men thrust out in unison. Victoria heard the sizzle and hush of the flames as they cowered low, yellow, and bright, and she launched herself into and through the path they’d made.

She crashed into Max, and they fell to the ground. Once again, she was back in the midst of the raging wind, where sound was drowned out and the force of the smoky fog battered at her.

Still holding on to Wayren, Victoria began to scramble toward the door, keeping the limp body cupped near her own.

Before she’d moved very far, however, strong hands pulled at her. Max’s face was there, suddenly, close to hers, and he gestured sharply with his head in the opposite direction.

She nodded, knowing that Max had an unerring sense of direction… and she didn’t. Suddenly Sebastian was there, too. The three of them huddled together over Wayren, protecting her, and, with Max leading the way, stumbled, clustered together, through the deafening, blinding, stinging storm.

The black shadows slung down low, gouging with very definite claws. One of them caught in her hair and pulled, nearly lifting her off the ground. It felt as though the top of her head would be torn off.

She cried out and released her hold on Wayren, grabbing at her own hair and trying to pull up her sword without slicing into her companions, but before she could do so, she felt Sebastian move next to her. Suddenly, her head was released, and she saw the angry curls of the disintegrating demon. Pain still screamed over her scalp, and she was certain half of her head was bald, but she had scarcely any time to recover before another swoop and the cut of sharp talons over her shoulders and along her back.

Max and Sebastian fared little better. They bumped and moved and struggled against each other, protecting Wayren as they tried to beat off the demonic creatures. Victoria found herself trying to shield Max as well. And she noticed, even in the blur of movement and muting fog, that he moved more slowly and heavily than she and Sebastian. She tried to stay close to him, protecting his back and shoulders from the swerving demon shadows.

Somehow, Max found his way to the levered door through which they’d come. Victoria tripped as they went through, catching her shoulder against the corner, and one of the horrible creatures slammed into her back.

She lost her hold on Wayren again, and felt the full force of the shadowy wraith push her very substantially into the stone wall. Her head slammed into stone, sending a ringing into her ears that squealed over and beyond the loud roar.

Someone pulled on her, and she stumbled along, suddenly aware of the warm liquid seeping through her clothing and the dripping on her arms making her hands slippery and sticky.

It was darker here, in the first chamber they’d entered-not because there was less of the glowing blue smoke, but because there were more of the horrible black shadows. They seemed to have multiplied. But Victoria and her companions moved on toward the door, compressed around Wayren.

At last they reached the outside entrance. They were so closely knit together that she felt Max’s movements as he reached for the door, pushing at it, and Sebastian close behind her. When he raised his arm with his own sword, he shifted against Victoria, and she felt the thrust, the arc of each movement. She was aware of the weight of Wayren, the warmth of her body, the silk of her hair, and the stone wall against her cheek…