Page 75 of Of Nine So Bold

“Let me rephrase that,” I whisper-shouted over their protests. ”I’m going. I can shift like Casimir, and three against six is better than two.”

“No,” Dex replied immediately. “If they catch you, there’s no telling what they’ll do. You?—”

“They won’t,” I said.

From his expression, he clearly wasn’t willing to gamble my safety on that. Neither were the others.

“Are you prepared to hurt your own people, princess?” Casimir asked quietly.

I looked away, my stomach churning. “We need to help Niko.”

“And if your stepmother has more traps and spells waiting?” Lars pointed out. “Ones that could hurt vampires too?”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. I knew it was a risk. For the gods’ sakes, I’d just been worrying about the same thing. But what was I supposed to do? Stay hiding back here while they raced in, risking their lives, when I was one of the few who could get close enough to disarm the soldiers before they hurt anyone?

To hell with that.

I shifted and took off into the forest, leaving the men scrambling in my wake.

“Shouldn’t have mentioned the damn queen,” I heard Clay hiss at his brother.

Beyond the next rise, a small valley came into sight, clustered with trees and holding a pond at its heart. Moonlight reflected from the water’s still surface, and nothing moved on the rocky banks. The shadows in the forest were deep, and even with my visual abilities in this form, it took me a moment to pick out the telltale shape of a man hiding in the undergrowth.

A dull gleam came from the darkened metal of his breastplate, marking him as a soldier. His sword was sheathed at his side, and his expression was bored as he idly scanned the pond and the surrounding hillsides.

I raced at him, sticking close to the tree line to hide among the shadows.

He didn’t even turn.

Slamming into him, I knocked him down and muffled his mouth before he could shout. He thrashed in my grip, struggling to reach his weapon, but my strength as a vampire was more than his as a man.

My vampire side pounded through me, urging me to bite him, end this, stop him from hurting anyone ever again. I held on tight as I fought it, but that side’s instincts were louder in this form. Stronger.

His motions slowed. He stilled and went limp. I released him carefully, relieved I could still hear the thud of his heartbeat in his chest.

One down.

I turned, making myself focus past the drumming of hunger from my vampire side. I’d need to feed again soon.

But not from humans. Never from humans. Not if I wanted to stay sane.

The vampire side of me didn’t like that.

Snarling at it silently, I lunged at another soldier walking into view. He’d been strolling along, likely following a route he’d walked hundreds of times, and he gave no sign of having heard his fellow soldier’s struggles. Just before I reached him, his eyes fell on the man I’d knocked unconscious, and he opened his mouth to yell.

I drove him backward into the bushes, muffling his cries. He was even easier to subdue than the previous one—as if, now that I’d figured out how to do this, my vampire side enjoyed tearing the soldiers down a littletoomuch.

A smoky form rushed past me when I drew back from the soldier, and Ruhl’s green eyes gleamed as he became his wolf form in the darkness. His tongue lolled between long fangs, and I’d swear he was grinning at me.

I glanced around, searching for Casimir. Somewhere to my left, a faint grunt came from beyond the bushes and then fell silent.

Worried, I started toward it, only for Casimir to emerge and shift into his human form. “Are you all right?” he whispered.

“Yes. You?”

“Quite.” He smiled, his fangs showing. “Though I suspect Dex and your mate may wish to express someopinionslater about your insistence on being the one on the front line.”

Casimir’s eyes held a gleam of amused anticipation as he spoke, and my core twisted hotly at the implication.

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