Page 86 of A Court of Bones & Sorrow

They can’t be brought back, I reminded myself. It still felt like I was killing my own kind, but we didn’t have a choice. Either we kill them or they kill us.

And I wouldn’t be dying here tonight.

With no warning, the female Strigoi dove forward, trying to slash my throat with her claws. I twisted to the side, barely avoiding her attack. My blade kissed her throat, and blood sprayed, but she didn’t even notice.

My instincts screamed at me and I whirled, shoving my dagger forward, sinking it into the chest of the male Strigoi. He snarled inches from my face, and then something slammed into my side, ripping me away from the male Strigoi while also tearing the blade from my hand.

I landed on my back, the female Strigoi on top of me. She lunged forward, her fangs bared, and I shoved her to the side but not far enough—instead of her ripping out my throat, she bit deep into my shoulder. A scream ripped out of me as I tried to push her off me, but the male was there immediately. He wrenched my left arm to the side and then tore into my arm.

Bites from a Strigoi were nothing like the ones from a Moroi. These two were feral in the way they bit, their fangs constantly shifting and piercing my skin over and over as they greedily gulped down my blood. I could hear Vail roaring, trying to fight his way to me.

He wouldn’t make it though, not before these two sucked me dry.

The male Strigoi still had my arm pinned down, but the female Strigoi had shifted to get a better angle, so my right arm was no longer pinned beneath her. I felt my own nails harden into claws, and I shoved my hips up as hard as I could. It didnothing to dislodge the male, but the female reared back and screamed into my face.

I shoved two fingers directly into her left eye.

She shrieked, and I fought the urge to clamp my hands over my ears. This time when I shoved her, she moved, crashing into the Strigoi who had been frantically drinking from my arm. The two of them went down in a snarling pile of fangs and tangled limbs.

I scrambled back and twisted, trying to shove myself up, but my arm gave out. Then my vision darkened as pain laced up my entire body. I tried again using only my right arm and managed to get to my feet. I blinked several times, trying to clear my vision, but it barely helped. Blood flowed from the wounds on my shoulder and arm. The Strigoi had really chewed the fuck out of me.

“Daggers,” I mumbled. “Need weapons.”

Before I took a step, both of the Strigoi were rising, still snapping at each other, but my hopes of them taking each other out vanished. The female Strigoi’s left eye was nothing but a bloody socket, but her remaining one was locked on me.

I took a step back and swayed slightly. Shit. How much blood had I lost? Too much. The answer was too fucking much.

A flash of silver caught my attention, and I looked towards Vail’s fight with the three Strigoi just in time to see the head of one of them slide off its shoulders. The smell of blood permeated the air, both ours and theirs. Something glinted in the moonlight on the ground to my right.

The dagger I had dropped at the beginning of the attack.

I started to move towards it before realizing how monumentally stupid I was being. Flinging my hands out to my sides, I called the daggers to me. Both of them obediently leapt to my palms, one still stained with the Strigoi’s blood.

If we survived this, Vail was going to give me so much shitfor creating these fun little blood daggers and forgetting to fucking use them.

The male Strigoi cocked his head in a move that was so different from how Moroi moved, it sent chills down my spine. His nostrils flared wide as he breathed in my scent before he stalked towards me. The female Strigoi was struggling a little with depth perception, and her movements had lost some of their fluidity. She jerked forward, a low snarl vibrating from her throat.

My vision started to waver again, blackness seeping in at the edges.

Don’t pass out. Don’t pass out. Don’t fucking pass out. I chanted the words over and over in my mind, the motto the only thing keeping me standing.

The two Strigoi moved farther apart, forcing me to split my attention.

I spun around slowly, trying to keep them both in my line of sight but they were on opposite sides now, so I couldn’t guard against one without turning my back on the other.

Without any warning, the male Strigoi leapt at me, fangs bared and claws aimed at my neck. A snarl at my back told me the female was moving in too, and in that split second, I knew I was going to die. I raised the dagger to meet the male, wanting to at least take him out and give Vail a fighting chance at surviving all of this.

Then a whistling sound raced through the air, followed by two loud cracks. I dove to the side, and the two headless bodies of the Strigoi who’d been attacking me crashed into each other before falling to the ground, their heads spinning through the air before landing a few feet away.

Two long, dark, slender shapes moved on the ground, the last couple of feet of each lined with bloodred, serrated edges. I leapt to my feet from where I’d landed on my ass and stared at the tall figure wrapped in a black cloak.

Bright red eyes peered out from underneath the hood. They looked me over once, eyes glowing brighter at each of the wounds I bore, before he snarled and sprinted to where Vail was still squaring off against one Strigoi.

So this was the beast Draven hid beneath that charming prince exterior.

Another loud crack rang through the air. Then thethudof a body hitting the ground.

I looked down at the corpses of the Strigoi who had attacked me and offered them a silent prayer to find peace in whatever afterlife greeted them.

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