The Advent Of The Witch – The Order of the Bear Series (Book 3)

Revenge is a dish best served any freaking temperature you can get it. 

You could say I’m bruised and battered, but hey, that’s just what happens when you get beaten down by a bunch of supernatural monsters. But I’m not dead yet, and while I’m still breathing, I’ve got things to do and vampires to kill. First things first, I have to find Steel because I just know he’s alive out there somewhere.

However, before I can do that I’ll have to survive the night out in the open. Why oh why did I have to unleash the Vampiregeddon? I guess that if the pages all turn blank at the end, it’s safe to say I didn’t make it. I really hope there’s more to my story, though, because dying definitely wasn’t on my bucket list.

I used to think I was just an ordinary human, but I know better now. I’m a witch with a shifter boyfriend. Could life get any weirder?

CHAPTER ONE

CRYSTAL

I used to have simple goals. Go to school. Study hard. Graduate. Get a job to pay off the mountain of student loans. But all the rules have changed, and nothing is that easy anymore. My name’s Crystal Banks, although if you’ve been reading along up to this point, you know that Banks is not the name I was born with.

If you’re feeling daring, take a deep breath and get ready to embrace the crazy crap-fest that is my life. If my drama isn’t your “scene,” I won’t hold it against you. Trust me, I’d try to escape it myself if I could. However, there was no escaping Mrs. Turner, mainly because I was in her house, and she was staring right at me. She spoke, drawing my attention back to the present moment. I have a tendency to drift off; call it A.D.D. if you will.

“Try these on,” Mrs. Turner said, handing me a pair of hot pink tennis shoes. The woman’s wardrobe continued to surprise me. By this point, I could almost imagine that the old woman’s underwear drawer was crammed full of lacy red thongs instead of the expected granny panties. I was used to seeing her dressed in expensive formal wear, but apparently, when she was home alone, she kept things casual.

The shoes were a little snug, which honestly didn’t seem fair. How was it that we were the same height, but I had bigger feet? It was borderline cruel. Then again, on the grand scale of injustices meted out to me lately, my big feet didn’t even warrant an honorable mention.

At least my loaner shoes fit better than Bryan’s. The best she could do for him was a pair of purple flip-flops. It made me shiver just thinking about being barefoot, but I was a weak human. Generally speaking, shifters’ body temps run higher than your average human. So he’d probably be fine, even though we were entering into the first blush of winter. We hadn’t had any snow yet, but that hadn’t stopped me from borrowing a jacket from Mrs. Turner to top off my snazzy pink tracksuit.

Back to Bryan’s girly purple footwear. In addition to the fact that they were covered with butterflies, there was a good two inches of his heel hanging out past the back of the shoe. If I hadn’t already been so down in the dumps, I probably would have struggled to hold in the giggle fest. But lately, I was so unhappy that it was as though all the mirth and laughter had been snuffed out inside of me. I’d doomed humanity, and I’d been assaulted . . . so the fact that I’d survived didn’t exactly light me up like a Christmas tree inside.

Would I ever be able to smile, let alone feel like myself again? I didn’t know where Steel was, but wherever he’d disappeared to . . . he’d taken all of my smiles with him. Joy was nothing more than a transient emotion. It flashed by briefly in our lives, while the day-to-day misery far outweighed the good in what time was allotted to us. Once bright, shiny, and hopeful, I was now a sad, deflated party balloon lying forgotten on the side of the road.

It had only been two nights since my life had fallen apart. I was the idiot responsible for unleashing the Vampiregeddon. I know— somehow, sorry doesn’t seem to cut it. I’d foolishly believed that I could trust Lauren, the blonde witch who’d dubbed herself the master to my lowly apprenticed self. In my defense, trusting her had only seemed natural. She’d been there from the very beginning. She’d been the one who’d told Steel he had to hire me. She’d been the one to help me begin to embrace my burgeoning powers.

But all the while, she’d been plotting her nefarious schemes and teaching me just enough witchcraft so that she could use me to free her undead twin. Yup, I fell for her lies, hook, line, and sinker. Too bad the whole world was going to have to pay for my idiocy. There had been a time in my life when I’d worried about petty things like where my next meal would come from or where I was going to live. Ha! What I wouldn’t give to go back to those simpler times.

My powers were shaky and inconsistent, to say the least. I could only draw on my magic half of the time I tried; actually, I wasn’t sure it even worked that much. But according to Lauren, my raw power was greater than that of any witch in centuries. Then again, that little tidbit had come from the mouth of the devil, so who knew if there was any truth to it or not?

Maybe I was so weak that I’d never have any potential. Perhaps all she’d needed was my blood to work the spell. At that time, I had no way of knowing the exact capacity of my supernatural gifts. Have I mentioned yet how much I loathe secrets and mysteries?

I’d have to make it a point to confer with a different witch in the future, preferably someone who wasn’t a heinous, lying sociopath. But considering the fact that the only other witches I knew were relatives, I wasn’t in a hurry to find out. Actually, I would rather stew in the mystery indefinitely than go crawling home. Some questions weren’t worth the price of getting them answered. My mother and I did not have a functional relationship, not even close.

Whether or not my powers were great or weak, I still got played. Lauren had tricked me into spilling my blood and breaking the spell that had effectively imprisoned all of vampirekind for three centuries. Yeah, I know, there’s absolutely no way my great great great and a bunch more greats grandmother Alannah McCalaster isn’t still rolling in her grave over my monumental blunder. Sorry I’m a loser, Grandma.

Well, I had no idea how to pull a Michael Jackson and “Heal the World,” so I’d decided to start off with small goals. When the vamps had broken free, I’d been separated from Steel. My near-death experience had taught me one thing, if nothing else. Life was short.

That meant I wasn’t going to allow myself to be paralyzed by the fear of rejection ever again. I was going to find Steel, even though Bryan had assured me that there was no way any of the Order-appointed shifters could have survived the attack. Obstinance just happened to be my middle name, and I refused to believe the man was dead.

I was going to have to “stubborn” my way through this fiasco. No matter what it took, I would find him. I would push, shove, and bluster my way to his side if that was what it took.

Barring myself, Steel was the most tenacious individual I’d ever encountered. So, if anyone could survive ground zero of the mass exodus of thousands of bloodthirsty vamps, it would be him. He’d strap on his silver bear armor and dance with the devil, if that’s what the occasion required.

The only problem with my stubborn delusion was that I couldn’t sense him. Was he simply out of range, or was something more sinister at play here? Where was Steel?

I couldn’t let pesky questions like that percolate in my trauma-addled brain. Thoughts like those were dangerous. I was just going to have to sweat it out for the time being. I may have been broken and bruised from my heart and soul all the way down to my ravaged lady bits, but none of that was going to deter me from my quest.

I was going to find the man I loved, and then I was going to allow myself a good old-fashioned mental breakdown. After I recovered, I was never letting him out of my arms again, not so long as we both continued to suck air.

In addition to my mental distress, I was also in a good deal of physical pain, but I didn’t let on how I really felt. I took tiny mincing steps as I made my way out to the garage where Mrs. Turner kept her massive black SUV. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but then she’d done nothing but surprise me since we’d shown up at her place uninvited. Weren’t old ladies supposed to drive pink Cadillacs, or something equally vintage? The woman was at odds with all geriatric stereotypes. She truly was an original soul.

I’d expected Mrs. Turner to fight against my leaving the safety of her home, but Steel was her grandson, so she was just as motivated to find him as I was. I still didn’t understand why Bryan insisted on coming along for the ride. Given the fact that I was currently filling the world with vacuous silence, it certainly wasn’t for my sparkling conversation.

For that matter, I still didn’t know why he’d risked his life to save me from Blacwin. In case you’ve forgotten my least favorite sex offender of all time, Blacwin was the vampire with the long black hair who’d refused to listen to “no means no.” Thanks to his mind compulsion, I hadn’t even been able to fight back. He was first on my people-to-kill list. Lauren was second. I had a lot of empty spaces on my list, just in case anyone else decided to cross me.

While Bryan certainly wasn’t on my hit list, part of me was still mad at the charming shifter. I didn’t know if it was because he’d failed to rescue me sooner, as in before I’d been violently raped—or because he hadn’t just let me die in peace. I’d been so close to the brink; a couple more minutes with Blacwin’s fangs in my neck, and I would have been free of all the worries of my crap-tastic life.

So, take your pick, because even I didn’t understand the inner workings of my mind. All I knew was that I wasn’t feeling remotely grateful. Maybe I’d appreciate him more in a decade or so, assuming I was still alive.

It hurt to walk—especially with the added weight of my trusty backpack—but I couldn’t let the others see because then they wouldn’t let me out of the house. People can be so annoying when they have your “best interests” at heart. I bit back every wince and choked down the horrid screams that threatened to erupt from my battered psyche. As much as my physical body ached, the agony of my wrecked spirit was a hundred times more crushing.

Bryan offered to drive, but Mrs. Turner shot that idea down fast. I took perverse pleasure in listening to her put him in his place.

“We modern women can do a lot more these days than cook and pop out babies,” she said snidely, as though his offer to drive had been a male chauvinist maneuver. I swear, if I’d been wearing a bra, I would have burned it right then and there in a show of feminist solidarity. “We can work the same jobs as you. We can vote. And we can certainly drive our own cars!”

“I’m sorry for . . . I don’t know what . . . but something,” Bryan muttered wearily before sliding into the passenger seat.

I, for one, was grateful for their little argument because it managed to keep their attention focused on something other than me. There was no way I could control the brief flicker of pain on my face as I pulled myself into the back seat. Thanks to the cold weather, I was also suffering through a nasty case of abdominal cramping that wasn’t all that different from PMS. Keep it together, Crystal, I chastised my inner wuss.

They’d take me back inside in a New York minute if they discovered how hurt I really was. They’d probably never let me leave the house again. Then my boyfriend’s trail would go cold. The thought of not being reunited with Steel caused a spike of mental torture that easily trumped all my physical ailments combined.

There were only so many hours of sunlight in a day, and in winter, there were even fewer. We only had a brief window of time before we’d be forced to slink back to Mrs. Turner’s if we failed in our rescue mission. Private homes were the only safe places to be once the sun went down because vampires couldn’t enter a private residence without an invitation. 

Of course, all they had to do was look you straight in the eyes and compel you into mindless servitude. Then you’d bend over backwards to invite them into your dwellings and whatever else they demanded of you, including your own blood, body, etc.

They could drain a human being in seconds, but they could also mete out far worse punishments than death. I knew this firsthand. I instinctively clenched my legs tighter together and winced at the resulting discomfort. I bit my lip and sucked it up like a soldier because that’s what I needed to do to accomplish my mission. Big girls don’t cry, right?

The streets were deserted, although I did spy a few anxious faces peering out of parted blinds as we made our way through town. There were even more abandoned vehicles blocking the road now, and I couldn’t help but glance down at all the corpses littering the streets. Those had been people once. They’d been brimming with life, driven by their own hopes and dreams. They were now sad, empty husks, and it was all my fault. Tears trickled silently from the corners of my eyes as I committed every lifeless face to memory. I had so much to atone for.

I wasn’t sure who the bigger threat to humanity was: me or the monsters I’d unleashed. I had to believe that Steel would have the answers for how to fix everything. After all, he was the head of the Order of the Bear. If anyone knew how to fix this mess, it would be him.

That was the hope I clung to. God help us all if I’m wrong. What if I was chasing off after another fool’s errand? Part of me wished that Bryan and Mrs. Turner had stayed behind. I had enough blood on my hands without adding their lives to the tally.

We couldn’t have been more than a mile from the mansion when I began to notice a mass of uniform tan shapes in the distance. When we got closer, I was able to see that the mysterious silhouettes were, in fact, tents. It looked as though the military had set up a whole city in the wee hours of the morning.

They were all too late to do anything; the war was already lost, and it had ended before they’d had the opportunity to fire off so much as a single shot. The United States government had so many wonderful systems in place to deal quickly and efficiently with natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

Somehow, they’d figured out that something was terribly wrong in the area and that it had all stemmed from the general area of Steel’s massive estate. But none of their protocols would help them if they were still in those flimsy canvas structures when night descended. It took far more than bullets to fell a vampire.

They were worse than any virus. Hazmat suits wouldn’t make a lick of difference if they chose to feed. None of the soldiers were safe here. Their waterproof tents might work to dispel sun and rain, but they wouldn’t last five seconds against even one thirsty vamp.

“Someone needs to warn them,” Mrs. Turner said softly.

I agreed wholeheartedly with her. Someone had to clue the humans in to what was really going on here. I only hoped they’d listen; otherwise, there’d be no stopping the inevitable bloodbath that would ensue when the sun disappeared over the horizon. Dark creatures owned the night now, and humanity would have to catch on quickly if they were to stand a chance against the attacking hordes.

As fate would have it, we would be given the opportunity to warn the humans almost immediately because there was a military barricade blocking the gate to the mansion. There’s nothing like five guns aimed in your face to make you want to roll down your window, stat. There was a faint mechanical sound as Mrs. Turner lowered the windows, and I tried to sit very still so as not to draw attention to myself.

I was immensely relieved to see that the mansion hadn’t burned down two nights prior, as I’d feared. It was like a shining beacon of hope in an otherwise dark day. Steel was alive. He just had to be. For all I knew, he was taking a power nap in the master suite. I bet he was just as worried about me as I was about him. I wished the soldier would let us go already so that I could rest my weary head against Steel’s strong shoulders. I only had to pretend to be strong a little bit longer.

“Why are you out of your homes? The city is officially under martial law. Haven’t you been watching the news? Return to your residences immediately. It’s not safe for civilians to be outside.”

It wasn’t safe for anyone. Not even the armed forces, but they didn’t know that yet.

“But my grandson lives there,” Mrs. Turner said, pointing to the mansion.

“And so do I,” I piped up from the backseat. I never claimed to be smart, but sometimes it’s more obvious than others.

The soldier’s demeanor changed instantly. Who’d have thought any of us would have ever had cause to miss the gruff, order-barky version of the lieutenant? He didn’t have a sense of humor to begin with, but what we didn’t know was that we’d been conversing with his good side initially. Bad cop came out to play—apparently, his nice side had closed up shop for the day.

I would have slapped a hand to my face if I hadn’t feared that any sudden movements would have wound up with one or more of us getting shot. I had basically told them that we lived at ground zero. We might as well have written “terrorists” on our foreheads with a permanent marker.

“Hands up where I can see them!” he yelled at us so loudly that saliva splattered the window.

I’m pretty sure I heard someone talking into a headset and saying something about taking in suspects for questioning, but I wasn’t one-hundred percent positive because, at that moment, I was being painfully tugged out of my seat and forced to the ground on my knees. They wrenched my hands behind my back, and something that didn’t quite feel like handcuffs was secured around my wrists. Cable ties, maybe?

I was reasonably certain that I wouldn’t be forced back to Mrs. Turner’s house now, so I had zero motivation to hold back the wounded gasp of pain that burst free from my lips. Ouch! That hurt worse than ten points being deducted for not properly citing a source in a grad-school essay. They shoved me down so hard that my pelvis made devastating contact with the ground.

“Don’t touch me!” I yelled, scooting away from the soldier.

I know that “time is supposed to heal all wounds,” or at least that’s how the saying goes. But it had only been a couple of days, so the way I saw it, I was more than entitled to feel as bitter and distrustful as I darn well pleased. And just then, I was indignant, angry, and depressed, all wrapped up in a banged-up package worthy of a Dickensian drama. 

***

Night was fast approaching, and it didn’t look like the soldiers had any intention of putting an end to their vapid questions. What can I say? I have a short attention span, and there are only so many times that I’m willing to repeat my name and the nature of my employment before I start to get a little irritable. Especially given the fact that one of the jerks had point-blank asked me if I was “doing” by my boss. Rude! There was no way that was his business.

Mrs. Turner had done everything short of voicing the word vampire to explain the nature of the situation, but they weren’t buying it. They’d made up their minds that there was a terrorist cell in close proximity to or inside the mansion itself, and they were convinced that we were all wrapped up in it somehow.

I considered setting something on fire just to introduce them to the paranormal world that hid in plain sight amongst the trappings of modern society. But I thought better of it when I imagined how it would feel if they locked me away somewhere in a top-secret lab to study me. Bryan must have gone through the same thought process because he certainly wasn’t getting his fur on.

“We really need to be on our way before dark,” I said, interrupting the loaded staredown I was beyond sick of receiving.

“What happens at night? Is that when the next attack will be launched?” one of the soldiers asked as though he hadn’t already repeated the same phrase a hundred times. If my hands hadn’t been strapped behind me to the chair, I would have straight-up punched the smug officer in the face.

“You all need to take cover inside private residences,” Mrs. Turner repeated, sounding a bit like a broken record herself.

“Because the bad guys don’t know how to open doors?” one of the soldiers inserted snidely.

Even I had to admit that we sounded crazy. It appeared that we’d reached an impasse. I wished I had the ability to communicate telepathically because I could have spoken secretly with Bryan and Mrs. Turner, and perhaps with our combined brainpower, we could have come up with some sort of halfway decent escape plan.

A soldier came in, parting the tent flap just enough for me to catch a glimpse of the outside world. The sun had set. We were so screwed. We were officially sitting ducks, and there were so many tasty humans roaming about that we might as well have rung the freaking vampire dinner bell.

I met Bryan’s eyes, and I was pretty sure that he, too, had caught on to the whole nightfall detail as well. I was exhausted, and my nether regions were numb, thanks to the endless interrogation. I was cold and hungry, and I hadn’t even begun to recover from my traumatic attack, so I wasn’t feeling all that optimistic about our odds for survival. Even if we had an opportunity to run for it, I wouldn’t get far.

It wasn’t that I was all that bummed about dying or anything. But I had yet to find Steel or fix the mess I’d made, so in a way, it seemed premature. Maybe it was a blessing that I didn’t care more about my own survival because if I had, I would have been terrified. Less than a minute later, a blood-curdling scream rent the air, and the commanding officer swore, bolting up from his chair.

“If they try to leave or give you any trouble, shoot them,” he ordered before darting outside.

“It’s the vampires,” I said, throwing all caution to the wind and using the V word.

One of the soldiers snorted something about “Bigfoot,” and the others just glared at me.

“I know it sounds crazy, but if you don’t listen up, you won’t survive the evening without becoming someone’s snack,” I told the soldier with the bad sense of humor.

“Shut up before I shoot you,” the tall one threatened, aiming his gun at my stomach.

He could have at least had the decency to shoot me in the head. Getting shot in the gut was such a horrible way to go out. I was relieved when he returned his aim to the ground. I shut my mouth, deciding that diplomacy was useless because it obviously wasn’t going to help us get out of there.

I tried to focus on the magic well inside of me. Gunfire began to ring out all around us, but I didn’t let it distract me. I was a still lake, slowly heating up one degree at a time. Little bubbles began to break past the surface as I drew more energy from within myself. I never knew if the power would come when I needed it. Most of the time, it didn’t. Magic was a fickle mistress.

I concentrated on the hard plastic restraints digging into my wrists. I couldn’t see the bands holding me in place, but I could certainly feel the blasted things. I began to feed a tiny trickle of what I hoped was fire into the unyielding material. I couldn’t let them see what I was doing, and it felt like an eternity, but I finally felt some give in the hard bonds.

My genius plan was to cough in order to cover up the sound when my hands broke free, but I didn’t really think that one through. Duh me. That just made them all look at me. Einstein wouldn’t be giving up his title of genius on my account, that’s for sure. Oh well. Since they were already staring at me, I coughed again and tried not to move too much as my arms broke free of the ties.

All my subterfuge was for naught because, at that exact moment, a pale blonde woman stepped into the tent before us. She was dressed like a Viking warrior, which surprised me because every other vampire I’d seen up to that point had been sporting fashions from the 1700s. She must not have bothered to keep up with the latest trends. Doing so probably got old after you lived more than a century.

“You smell delicious,” she stated, stepping towards me with a blissful expression lighting up her face. 

“It’s nice to be wanted and all, but I think I’ll pass,” I retorted.

“Stay back,” one of the soldiers ordered, stepping forward to block the vampire’s path. She snapped his neck without even blinking, and his face was frozen in a look of surprise. The soldiers began to open fire on her, but I knew that wouldn’t yield the desired results because you don’t bring a gun to a stake fight.

CHAPTER TWO

CRYSTAL

These were trained soldiers, so even with her superhuman speed, some of the bullets at least managed to hit the agile vampire. But they didn’t seem to faze her at all. They might as well have been mosquito bites for all the impact they made, which, quite frankly, sucked. I had hoped that the gunfire would at least slow her down, but we weren’t that lucky.

She reached out her right hand and snagged a soldier who had foolishly stepped closer to her. Then she lifted him up in the air by his collar as though he weighed nothing. All of a sudden, the gunfire ceased. Presumably, the soldiers were holding their fire so as not to hit their fellow man-in-arms.

It was a wasted gesture on their part. No sooner had they stopped shooting than she pulled him in tighter. And it wasn’t so that they could cuddle. Nope. Not even close. She sank her long ivory fangs into his neck so forcibly that I swear I heard a popping sound when she punctured the skin.

Time seemed to stand still for a moment. Then she widened her jaw, plunged in deeper, and ripped his whole throat out. There was a depraved glint in her eyes as she shook her head from side to side like a wet dog. Blood splattered all over the tent, saturating us with a sprinkling of gore. I wasn’t exactly tan to begin with, but I definitely paled a little more at the horrorfest.

The evil vampire was sporting a gleeful grin, as though we were all playing freeze tag in the freaking sandbox of death. There was a disgusting smear of blood obscuring the entire bottom half of her face. In a way, she sort of resembled a toddler whose mother had foolishly strapped them down in a high chair and handed them a bowl full of spaghetti. Just like the child, she’d managed to get the “spaghetti” all over herself and trash the room, but it was doubtful how much of the “meal” she’d actually managed to swallow.

I had been starving for most of the day, but I immediately lost my appetite. Whenever I did eat again—assuming I somehow miraculously made it through the night alive—I certainly wasn’t going to be in the mood for Italian. Come to think of it, I didn’t know if I would ever want to eat anything red ever again.

The gunfire resumed with an intensity that made me hope they had some extra magazines stashed away somewhere because they certainly weren’t rationing their bullets. The blonde vamp began to drink deeply from the lifeless husk of the soldier as she held him in front of her. She was only getting started, and we were all going to end up being side dishes for her if we didn’t manage to get out of there ASAP.

The viking-esque vamp was using the dead soldier as a shield while she guzzled his life-force. We only had seconds to spare; a vampire could drink a man dry faster than I could slam down a cold glass of soda on a hot day.

I scurried over to Bryan to melt away his bonds, but he had already freed himself. The man was solid muscle, even in human form, so I doubted he’d even had to exert much energy into the task. Like me, he’d no doubt been waiting for the right opportunity to make his move. 

Next, I hobbled over to Mrs. Turner, whose chair was stationed several feet away, and I was surprised to see that she had also managed to free herself. The woman never ceased to amaze me. I had to start eating more vegetables. Steel’s grandmother had the whole fountain of youth thing going for her. Most people her age were busy scheduling hip replacement surgeries, but not her. Either Mrs. Turner had Houdini-like prowess or muscles of steel. Either way, I was astonished at her escape artist skills.

As interesting as all those thoughts were, I didn’t have time to entertain them because the bloodsucker had finished slurping down her meaty juice box, and she still looked thirsty. She tossed the dead soldier to the side, and he dropped to the ground like a creepy, lifeless G.I. Joe doll. 

She carried herself with a sort of bored aristocratic air that was at odds with her primitive clothing. In a way, she reminded me of Lauren—not that I needed any more reasons to hate the murderer because she was racking up enough blame all by her lonesome. She was in a hurry to feed, which made sense when you thought about it. She’d been on a forced diet for three hundred years, and she was through with counting calories. She was like a hangry woman tired of Slim Fast at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

She wasn’t going to bother filling a plate at the salad bar. She was going straight for the good stuff, filling up on the ribs and bread before she made her way to the dessert bar. I had a sinking suspicion that I was meant to be the dessert in this scenario. Judging by her current pace, I could only assume that she planned to feast all night.

Big surprise.

One of the soldiers ran out of ammunition. Seriously, I’m astonished it didn’t happen sooner, the way they were firing off rounds pell-mell. When he tried to reload, she took advantage of his helplessness and pounced on him like a cop on a donut. I turned to the four remaining soldiers in the tent who were still standing their ground and shooting at her. They hadn’t figured out that she was immortal yet. Too bad I hadn’t unleashed something more manageable, like a zombie apocalypse; at least then their bullets would have done some good. Vampires were so much harder to kill.

“Come with us!” I screamed at them as Bryan, Mrs. Turner, and I opened up the flap of the tent.

They looked at me and then glanced back at the vampire, who was already half finished sucking the second soldier dry. Apparently, she didn’t do doggy bags. The bullets were already working their way out of her body, and the pile of them littering the ground around her was impressive.

She healed so rapidly that there weren’t even visible holes where they had been embedded in her body. Judging by the stark terror lacing the remaining soldiers’ faces, they had just deduced the same thing. I ran out into the night with Bryan and Mrs. Turner, and the soldiers were hot on our heels. Too bad they hadn’t believed us sooner. Our party would have been substantially larger if they had.

When we emerged from the tent, it was as though we were entering a different world. Gone was the immaculate estate that surrounded the mansion. The tent city had been reduced to an active war zone. There were dead bodies strewn everywhere, and the remaining soldiers might as well have been walking corpses for all the chances they stood of surviving the night. Why had they been too stubborn to hear the truth? We’d tried so hard to warn them, but now it was too late for all of us.

Bullets whizzed by in every direction, and a few came a little too close for comfort. The soldiers had yet to realize that there was far more potential for casualties from friendly fire than of actually deterring their enemy. It would have been tempting to take up a stance somewhere and fight if I’d thought there was any chance of victory, but there wasn’t. There was no front line to this battle; everything was helter-skelter.

As sad as it made me, I had to call time of death on the grand scale operating table and move on. There was nothing I could do for the poor soldiers; unless they chose to follow me and my friends, they were already dead. It was time to seek cover, and that meant a house with a roof and a door to keep the monsters at bay.

The mansion was the obvious choice, and with any luck, I would walk into a happily-ever-after tale, and Steel would be waiting for me rapturously with open arms. I would tell him all my woes, and he would hold me while I cried and kiss all my booboos better. He would, of course, have all the answers to the problems plaguing me, and together, we would easily return the vampires to their prison. My upbeat thoughts, delusional though they might have been, allowed me to take off toward the mansion.

Just to be clear, by “take off,” I mean that I limped awkwardly at a snail’s pace because I was in so much flipping pain. With all the bodies lying around in a chaotic muddle, it wasn’t exactly like we could have really run anyway.

Bryan gave me a nasty look that wordlessly communicated, “I’m so mad at you for lying about your miraculous recovery because none of this would have happened if we’d stayed put at Mrs. Turner’s house.”

And I gave him a shrug that communicated, “I’m not sorry, sucker.”

I can’t say that I would have done anything differently, but I did regret having doomed my friends, the soldiers, oh, and every other human being on the planet by freeing the vampires from their magical prison. But guilt was a debilitating emotion, so I had to pack it away for later when I had time to mull it over. Sure, I knew that the chances of surviving the night were poor. It was also highly unlikely that Steel was sitting there twiddling his thumbs inside the mansion instead of coming to my rescue like he usually did. Actually, the odds were slim to none, but I clung tightly to the notion all the same because that was what was keeping my weary feet trucking along step-by-step. Maybe it was a trauma response, but even though Steel had left me a note that he’d be gone, I needed to believe that he’d return for me, even though anywhere else on the planet would probably be safer at that point.

Out of the corner of my eye, I happened to spy a large bat swooping down towards me. It was moving so fast that it was a wonder I’d seen it at all. I acted on instinct, throwing up my hands and calling on the magical abilities that had lain dormant within me for so many years. Forget lighting a candle, this time I was going straight for shooting myself some freaking fireballs.

“Please work,” I mumbled a plaintive prayer as I flung my hands out.

Thanks to my crappy, duplicitous teacher, I didn’t have a lot of aces up my sleeve. Mega-liar Lauren had intentionally left gaping holes in my magical instruction, which was a shame because it would have really been helpful if we hadn’t spent all our time drawing symbols on the ground and making potions that I had no access to at the moment. It would have been great if she’d taught me even one defensive spell that I could use.

But training or no, my luck was about to change. For the first time in ages, fate took pity on me, and the magic not only came when I called on it but did exactly what I wanted it to. I hurled the monstrous fireball at the bat and made a direct hit. Too bad I didn’t have time to congratulate myself. Sure, I’d managed to blast my enemy, but that only meant that instead of having a giant bat flying straight toward me, I now had a giant flaming bat flying straight toward me! The new question was whether I would burn to death or be crushed first and then burn.

The thing was coming down fast like a meteor, so there was no time for my weak human fanny to move out of the way before it struck. What a lame way to die. I heard a familiar bone-popping sound behind me, and a residual spurt of hope sprang up inside of me. How I’d forgotten that Bryan was a shifter was a mystery, but in that moment, I was really grateful for his particular skill set.

Bryan had already grown substantially and was hulking out of his loaner outfit. Too bad winter was now upon us because the guy was going to freeze his balls off if we didn’t manage to track down some more clothes soon. Although Bryan might’ve actually preferred that to being trapped in a purple yoga outfit for the remainder of his days in the vampire apocalypse.

His eyes burgeoned into two huge, brilliant, golden orbs, and his nose extended into a feline muzzle. Golden fur began to sprout from all of his pores, and a majestic mane shot out of the back of his head. His body began to thicken and elongate, and his hands and feet morphed into massive paws. He was running straight toward me, and for a second, I thought that perhaps his animal brain had taken over, and he was going to pounce on me!

At the last second, he leaped and sailed through the air right over my head. I instinctively raised my hands to protect my face, and I let them drop after he narrowly missed my head. I was going to have to brush up on my survival skills, assuming I didn’t, you know, die and all. 

He kept soaring, and it was actually beautiful to witness. He collided with the flaming bat, and there was a loud slapping sound. The very moment his front paws connected with the bat, he began tearing it to pieces. Chunks of flaming bat arced out in every direction as Bryan landed gracefully on the ground on all fours. I had almost forgotten about the four soldiers until I heard them speak.

“Screw this crap. They don’t pay me enough to die!”

“Vampires are real!”

Yes, vampires are real, you morons. And we would have gotten away from them if you hadn’t held us captive all day! I kept my censure silent for the time being because, well, they were humans, and they were processing a lot in a short space of time.

“That guy turned into a lion!”

“Don’t shoot the lion!” I ordered sternly. “He’s on our side.”

And then my crap-tastic evening got even better. Why does life have to be so unfair? The blonde vampire from the tent had just positioned her Viking butt between us and the mansion. Couldn’t she at least have come up from behind us? Did she sense how stupidly determined I was . . . that I was going to run to that house no matter what . . . right into her waiting arms?

“Don’t look in her eyes!” I yelled at the soldiers.

I did my best to follow my own advice because I planned on never getting compelled by another vampire. The first time had sucked enough, thank you very much. I attempted to launch another one of my trademark fireballs at her like I had with Franken-bat, but my magic rarely did what I wanted it to. My attempts to draw on my supernatural powers were as futile as trying to fire a gun with the safety on.

It was like I could sense the phantom forces, but they kept slipping through my fingers like sand. I couldn’t latch onto the power like I needed to. Well, that sucked. What I saw next was the greatest shock that I could have imagined. Seriously, I wouldn’t have seen it coming, not in a million years. I honestly don’t know why it startled me as much as it did, but somehow this proved a greater shock than anything else I had encountered in the past few months. 

Here’s a quick recap for you of all that had gone down since Steel hired me: I learned all about shifters. I discovered that vampires were real. And, oh yeah, I had to accept that I was a witch, and that my “master” was evil. All that I could stomach . . . kind of. Okay, maybe I was still messed up about all of it, but I was trying.

But then I looked back and saw Mrs. Turner, sweet, old Mrs. Turner—the woman who lived in an apron and baked cookies—who could make culinary creations that made my taste buds dance for joy. The surrogate grandmother of my heart, who had become a dear friend of mine . . . well, her eyes were different. The white part had disappeared, and the orbs had turned completely brown.

I couldn’t tear my gaze away. She was getting progressively bigger. She was bulging right past the circumference of her waistband and growing both taller and wider. Brown fur sprouted from her pores. A snout replaced her nose, and her animal body burst out of the pink 1960s ensemble that she had thrown on before we left her house that morning. Whoa!

Hold the phones, people. Mrs. Turner was a bear shifter. I don’t know why this came as such a surprise to me. She was, after all, related to Steel. But how could that sweet little body house such a monstrous beast? I guess all along I had just assumed that it was some sort of recessive gene, and that he had it while she didn’t. I couldn’t stop staring. Which wasn’t the smartest move because I was still in a pretty explosive situation.

Why had nobody uttered a word about this? Had Steel known that his grandmother was a shifter? Of course he knew. That was a stupid question. The shock of seeing her shift almost made me forget all about the blonde vampire, who I didn’t realize was now within striking distance of me. By that point, Mrs. Turner had morphed completely into her bear form and lunged in my direction. She swatted her paw dangerously close to my fragile cranium, and I heard a loud thudding sound.

I swiveled and witnessed the spectacular sight of the blonde vampire hurling backwards through the air until she crashed into one of the windows of the house. I just stood there dumbfounded as I gaped at the bear standing before me. Mrs. Turner was a shifter, and she had just saved my life! She couldn’t speak in her animal form, but her eyes locked onto me as if she was making sure that I was alright. I smiled awkwardly and gave her a “thumbs up,” which must have done the trick because she turned to face the window where the blonde vamp had crashed.

Viking-Vamp was already climbing out of the broken window, and I could hear bones cracking as she systematically straightened her vertebrae. She had a smile on her face, as if she was amused by the minuscule challenge that the shifters represented. Mrs. Turner and Bryan were moving closer to her, and I was worried because I doubted that even their combined strength would be enough to eliminate the vampire.

It had taken my iffy powers plus an entire pack of shifters to take down that redhead vampire a while back. We were grossly outnumbered, and so far as I knew, there was no more Order of the Bear pack on patrol to bail us out. Even if we succeeded against all odds and took this one vampire down, there were still countless others in the vicinity. What’s that saying about the creek and not having a paddle?

A loud boom resounded behind me, and I was so startled that I jumped up high in the air. There was a stream of smoke flying towards Viking-Vamp, and then she exploded like some kind of disgusting confetti. Pieces of her went flying everywhere. The front of the mansion caught on fire, and I turned around to see one of the soldiers holding a rocket launcher. Smoke was still pouring out of the barrel. The soldiers quickly turned their weapons on Bryan and Mrs. Turner, and I jumped in front of them with my hands in the air. 

“Don’t shoot them! They’re the good guys!” I yelled out, repeating my earlier directive.

“What are you freaks?” one of the soldiers asked, still keeping his gun pointed at us.  

“We are fighting the vampires! We tried to warn you, but you wouldn’t listen.” Those were the only words I got out before I heard Bryan and Mrs. Turner shifting back into human form. I wish I could have taken a picture of the faces that the soldiers made when they saw this, because it was priceless. I wanted to frame it and mount it on a wall somewhere. 

“We need to get inside now,” ordered Mrs. Turner.

I glanced over at her initially when she spoke, but she was naked, and it was really awkward, what with her boobs hanging out everywhere. I’ll just say TMI in advance, but seriously, I hoped that I held together that well when I was her age. That still didn’t mean I wanted an eyeful, though. I squinted my eyes and tried to focus on her face. 

We all started running towards the mansion, and the soldiers must have decided to listen because they weren’t shooting at us. The mansion was on fire, but hopefully we’d be able to put it out, or at least hole up in a different wing until sunrise. All eyes went up to the night sky when we heard the sound of an army helicopter flying overhead.

A group of soldiers had either been trying to take out the enemy from above or flee, but they didn’t succeed at either. Two giant bats were wrapped around the frame, and they sent it spiraling out of control. There was an awful sputtering sound when the engine failed, and then the helicopter dropped down out of the sky. It crashed right into the mansion. I gasped incredulously.

Bryan scooped me up and darted back towards the open gates. I winced in pain, being jostled so abruptly brought my injuries back to the forefront. I took a deep breath and tried to rise above it, because what other choice did I have? Thanks to the combined assault of crispy-Viking and the crashed chopper, the whole mansion was a blazing inferno. Even so, it seemed like there had to be somewhere safe inside the building. And I needed to go inside, because what if Steel was trapped and needed my help to get free? I tried to break loose of Bryan’s grasp, but he wouldn’t budge.

“There’s no way I’m letting you go in there!” he yelled through the constant noise around us.

“I have to see if Steel is in there!” I answered. 

“He’s not there. If he’s alive, he wouldn’t be in the mansion. That’s not the protocol he would have followed in the event of a prison break.”

Who was he to tell me what I could and couldn’t do? If Bryan was so concerned for my welfare, he should have stopped Lauren from taking me down to the caverns in the first place. And he had refused to let me die after Blacwin raped me. That was when I decided that I’d had enough of his help. But my struggles were in vain.

Bryan was stronger than I was, so there was nothing I could do about it when he pulled me into his arms and began racing towards the car. The majority of the military had most likely been killed, but I wanted to believe that some had managed to escape; it wasn’t likely, though. The four from the tent were still awkwardly tagging along, seeing as they had nowhere else to go.

Fire lit the night sky a glowing reddish orange, but it was choked with the pitch-black forms of hundreds of bats. We soooo weren’t making it to the car. Even if we did somehow reach the vehicle, they’d just swarm us and make us crash like the helicopter. But my bag was still in the car, and I had a crazy idea whirring about in my mind.

Bryan flung open the car door, and no doubt he expected me to climb inside, but I had other plans. I grabbed my backpack, dumped out the contents, and eagerly seized the salt canister. I was either stupid or a genius. Only time would tell.

“Everybody get close to me, and don’t move!” I yelled. I still can’t believe they listened to me. I appreciated their show of faith and only hoped I didn’t let them down.

I opened the salt canister and started pouring it in a circle around us. By this point, it was impossible to see anything except bats obscuring my view. They had completely surrounded us on all sides, including the area above us. I completed the circle and screamed, “Ampnos!” I could feel the fissure of power running from my body and heating the ground beneath our feet. It could only mean that the spell had worked. At least I hoped it would work; this was the first time I’d ever gotten a chance to try it, so I wasn’t all that positive. Too bad Mrs. Turner had previously forbidden me from attempting this spell anywhere near her precious garden, or I’d have had a little more confidence.

In the midst of the swarm, a single face gradually became more visible. It was pale and attractive with brilliant blue eyes. I instinctively turned away, but I saw that one of the soldiers had already locked eyes with him. 

“Don’t look at him!!” I screamed at the soldier. But it was too late. He was already trying to break free from our cluster. If he broke a line in the circle of salt, we were all toast. Before I could think of anything to do, Bryan acted. His fist sailed straight into the soldier’s jaw, knocking him out cold. He grabbed him and dropped his body down safely in the center of the circle as far away from the salt ring as possible.

“Close your eyes and stay still, and we just might survive the night!” I screamed, struggling to project my voice over the cacophony of flapping leathery wings.

The flimsy layer of salt seemed the most insubstantial of barriers, but it was the only protection we had. I sat down wearily on the ground, and the cold seeped instantly into my aching limbs. Winter was upon us, but here we were, trapped out in the open, completely exposed. I couldn’t begin to list all of the things that might possibly go wrong, like what if it rained? Would my magic circle wash away?

There was so much night left before daybreak that I already felt defeated. I wasn’t sure if any of us would live to see the sunrise. Worst of all, I couldn’t stop worrying about whether or not Steel had still been inside the mansion when the helicopter crashed into it.