Hunter suddenly had a stake in one hand and a dagger in the other hand. She didn’t even dignify their order with a response, just started running. The stench didn’t hit us until we rounded the cliff side. Quinn was clinging to the exposed roots and tall grasses, dirt raining down. He grabbed the blue-skinned vampire by the ankle and tossed him down to his brothers, waiting below. Nicholas staked him, ashes billowing around their ankles.

From the dark cave beside us, Hunter and I heard a yelp, followed by a shriek.

“What the hell, man?” a guy bellowed.

“Another one,” Hunter said. We both advanced toward the mouth of the cave. Hunter broke a light stick she pulled from her bag and tossed it inside. The green acidic glow made me think of aliens and sci-fi movies.

And then there wasn’t time to think at all.

A Hel-Blar had a couple cornered in the back of the cave, fish bones and broken glass around their feet. In such a cramped, humid space, the odors were nearly visible—slimy rotting mushrooms and the scum on old water, the kind not even insects will visit. A girl clutched her shirt closed with one hand and hyperventilated. The guy was trying to look brave, but when he saw the blood on his arm, his eyes rolled back in his head. At least it didn’t look like teeth marks. The way his shirt was torn, he’d probably been thrown into the cave wall.

“Keep it together,” Hunter barked in that military-school voice of hers. His back straightened before he consciously thought of it. The Hel-Blar snapped his teeth together, all of them wickedly pointed and as sharp as needles. He wore an odd, twisted copper collar around his neck. Since when did Hel-Blar accessorize?

“What is that thing?” the girl squeaked.

“Just a drunk raver kid, all dressed up,” Hunter answered. “Stay where you are,” she snapped when they stumbled forward. The Hel-Blar snarled.

I picked up a handful of pebbles and threw one at his head. It bounced off his temple and he whipped his head around. I just grinned, showing all my teeth like any good predator, and threw another rock. I kept throwing them until he snarled again, saliva dripping on his chin—and leaped for me.

Okay, so the plan worked better in theory.

Because no matter how prepared I was, or how many times I’d had a vampire leaping at my face, some facts remained the same. They were faster than me. Always.

“Duck!” Hunter yelled as I stumbled back. I went down, hitting my knee hard. Pain bloomed. I’d have a wicked bruise by morning.

You know, if I didn’t get eaten.

Hunter threw her stake with the kind of ease and accuracy one might expect from a straight-A student at a vampire-hunter high school.

Thank God.

The momentum of the stake biting into his chest stopped the Hel-Blar in his tracks. He flew off his feet, clutching at the wound. Thick blood oozed between his fingers. The stake had done enough damage to slow him down but it hadn’t penetrated through his rib cage into the fleshy heart underneath. So he wasn’t dead.

Yet.

I took advantage of his pained yowling and threw myself forward with my own stake. I thrust it into the wound next to Hunter’s stake. Then I leaned back and used the heel of my boot like a hammer to shove it through clothing, skin, and in between bones. Hunter jumped over his decomposing body to usher the couple away. The Hel-Blar disintegrated into dust and a pile of mushroom-scented clothes.

I crab-walked backward to the cave mouth and then pushed to my feet, panting. Nicholas dropped down from the cliff edge in front of me. I screamed before I could stop myself, choking on adrenaline as he rose out of his crouch.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I nodded, coughing. My body was trying to sort through all the stimuli and was momentarily stunned. “I’m fine,” I finally managed to croak.

“What was that?” the girl asked shrilly. “It was, like, some monster, did you see that? Where did he go?”

“We scared him off,” Hunter assured her.

“That thing was not human,” the guy insisted.

I made my expression calm and unimpressed. “You’re drunk,” I said. “You’re seeing things.”

He rubbed his face. “Uh …”

His girlfriend pulled him backward. “Can we go? I want to go. Now.”

They wandered away, back toward the fires and the people. Hunter let out a breath. “That was way too close,” she said, taking out her cell phone. “I’m calling it in.”

Nicholas pulled me against his side. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

I nodded. “We dusted him,” I said, a little proudly.

“I—” He cut himself off abruptly. He, Quinn, and Connor all whirled back toward the cliff.

“Coming around the back,” Quinn said so softly I barely heard him. Hunter hurried to hang up her phone, but they were already moving out like some vampiric fan. We had to run to catch up again.

“So not fair,” Hunter muttered. “I work out all the damn time and he’s still faster.”

“I know,” I agreed, huffing. “Sucks.” I wasn’t even as fast as Hunter. For one thing, I still couldn’t run and talk at the same time.

The moonlight made the Hel-Blar look strangely beautiful, as if she were made of opals and lapis lazuli. Nothing could make the smell beautiful, though.

Before Nicholas and the others could cross the rocky peninsula to reach her, two figures dropped from the hill above. The guy kicked the Hel-Blar in the neck with his steel-toed boot, ivory lace fluttering from his cuffs when he put a hand out to steady his landing. The girl followed, landing with her arm outstretched, stake plunging into the Hel-Blar’s chest. Ashes drifted down and disappeared into the lake.