Page 76 of Prince with a Chance of Darkness

Good.

We needed that.

“Why would Dracula hurt the girls?” I asked as we ran. I was thankful I at least kept up on daily running over the years, or I’d have been huffing and puffing like a lifelong smoker climbing Mount Everest.

Bram stopped so fast that I nearly collided with him. He grabbed my arm, his gaze narrowing on the darkness off to the side of campus. A second later, robed monks came rushing out and at us. Some students in the area began to scream as some monks were holding daggers and swords.

From the lack of full-on pandemonium, I figured most of the students assumed this was a college prank.

Bram drew his shoulders back and lifted his arms. “Run!”

I felt the power in his command. Had I not been a natural-born slayer with a lot of vampire traits, I’d have probably felt compelled to obey. The students scattered like roaches when a light came on.

Suddenly, the air around us felt wrong.

Wild and unstable.

Exactly like that night eighteen years ago.

Fear slammed through me. What if there was another white light incident? What if it happened and my daughter was whisked off to another state, never able to get close to me again for the next two decades? What if all of the things that attackedthe Gallows Lane home all those years ago had returned, and right now, my baby girl was trying to fight them off?

Jonathan was to me in an instant, grabbing my elbow and leading me in the direction of the Gallows Lane home.

We ran, not bothering to hide the fact we were more than human, as noted by the speeds we were able to achieve. None of us cared. Our only concern was for the girls. We were almost to the house when I saw vampires coming in at us from all angles and wolf shifters attacking them head-on.

While I'd only been back in Grimm Cove two weeks and didn't go running nightly in wolf form with my sister and her mate (for obvious reasons), I recognized a few of the shifters. They were Harkers’ wolves.

Thank God!

Not that I needed to worry about it since three men jumped in to save me as if I wasn’t born a slayer. I jumped over the man who had tackled the vampire and kept running toward the Gallows Lane home. Jonathan remained by my side.

In the street, in front of the home, was a mass of robed men, vampires, and cat-shifters of all things. My throat constricted as fear for my daughter and niece consumed me.

Jonathan’s upper body began to shift, and he was left covered in gray fur with more mass to him. He jumped into the air, and when he came down, he beheaded two robed men. One of the men had been carrying daggers. I grabbed them from the ground and rolled over the back of another, slashing out and stopping a vampire in its tracks. It gave me a confused look before I thrust a dagger into its heart.

Poof.

It was no more.

There was a massive growl a second before a huge tiger came jumping out of nowhere at me. I went low, intending to gut it from below. There was a flash of blonde curls, and the tiger wassuddenly on its side with a petite woman in a long blue gown sitting on it. Her hand was covered in blood, and it took my head a second to realize she was holding a heart, drinking from the valve as if it were a straw. She smiled up at me, and I spotted fangs. They were pinkish from blood. “Hello.”

I blinked; sure I was seeing things. When I realized I knew her, I gasped. She was one of The Weird Sisters. The one who had covered Lucian’s junk from our view when he’d been naked outside of the cave in Romania twenty-two years ago.

She held the heart out to me as it dripped blood. “Want a sip?”

I shook my head.

She glanced around as if she were afraid of being caught before using her free hand to reach down the top of her gown, between her breasts. She pulled what looked like a juice box straw from the area. She held it out to me next. “Here. You can use this.”

A vampire rose up behind her, and I threw a dagger at it, scoring a chest hit. Dust rained down on the blonde. She closed her eyes, kicked her feet and giggled, sipping from the heart. “This is so much fun. I’ve missed you, Mina.”

I didn’t have time to figure out if she was truly a friend or just bat crap crazy.

She began to sing softly, and I stiffened, recognizing her voice then.

“You were there. Eighteen years ago,” I said fast. “When I was with…”

“Tempi!” screamed Hannah.

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