“No, she made it. Lilith did it. She’s got more power than I figured.”

“No. No, not her.” Hoyt was forced to brace a hand on Blair’s shoulder for balance. “She has someone, something with the power to do this.”

“We’ll figure it out.” She half carried, half dragged him to the van where Larkin was already helping the other women inside “Glenna, keys. I’ve got the wheel.”

Glenna fumbled them out of her pocket. “Just need a minute, a few minutes to recover. That was…it was rugged. Moira?”

“I’m all right. Just a bit dizzy is all. And a bit sick in the stomach. I’ve never…I’ve never touched anything like that.”

Blair drove, fast enough to cover some distance, and kept an eye on the rearview for a tail. “Earthquakes, false dusk, a little lightning. Hell of a ride.” She slowed as the sun began to break through again. “Looks like she gave up on us. For now. Nobody’s hurt? Just shook up?”

“Not hurt, no.” Hoyt gathered Glenna against him, brushed the tears from her face with his lips. “Don’t. A ghra, don’t weep.”

“There were so many. So many of them. Screaming.”

Blair took two careful breaths. “Don’t do this to yourselves. You tried, you gave it your best. It was always a long shot you’d be able to get anyone out of there.”

“But we did.” Glenna turned her face into Hoyt’s shoulder. “Five. We got five out, then we couldn’t hold it any longer.”

Stunned, Blair pulled off to the shoulder, turned around. “You got five out? Where are they?”

“Hospital. I thought…”

“Glenna, she thought if we could get them out, we could transport them to a place where they would be safe, and be cared for.” Moira looked down at her empty hands.

“Smart. Really smart. It gets them medical attention fast, and keeps us from having to answer awkward questions. Congratulations.”

Glenna lifted her head, and her eyes were ravaged. “There were so many of them. So many more.”

“And five people are alive, and safe.”

“I know, you’re right, I know.” She straightened, rubbed her face dry with her hands. “I’m just shaken up.”

“We did what we came to do. More than.”

“What were they?” Larkin asked her. “What were they you and I fought back there? Not vampires, you said.”

“Half-vamps. Still human. They’ve been bitten, probably multiple times, but not drained. And not allowed to mix blood; not changed.”

“Then why would they fight us?”

“They’re controlled. The best term, I guess, is thrall. They’re under a thrall, and do as they’re ordered. I counted seven, all big guys. We took out four. She probably doesn’t have any more, or not many. It’s got to be tough to keep them under control.”

“There was a fight?” Glenna asked.

Blair pulled back onto the road. “The caves opened. She sent out the first wave, the half-vamps. Then she did her little weather trick.”

“You thought I would leave you there,” Larkin broke in. “You thought I would leave you to them.”

“First priority is to stay alive.”

“That may be, but I don’t desert a friend, or a fellow soldier. What manner of man do you think I am?”

“That’s a question.”

“The answer isn’t a coward,” he said tightly.

“It’s not, and a long way from it.” Would she have left him? No, she admitted. Couldn’t have, and would have been insulted to be told to go. “It was all I could think of to keep the rest of us alive, to keep her from winning. How was I supposed to know you had a dragon on your repertoire?”

In the back seat, Glenna choked. “A dragon?”

“Sorry you missed it. It was wild. But, Jesus, Larkin, a dragon? Someone must have seen it. Of course, everyone else will think they’re nuts, but still.”

“Why?”

“Why? Because, you know, dragon, and how they don’t exist.”

Fascinated now, he swiveled in his seat. “You don’t have dragons here?”

Blair shifted her gaze toward him. “No,” she said slowly.

“Sure that’s a pity. Moira, did you hear that? They’ve no dragons here in Ireland.”

Moira opened her tired eyes. “I think she’s meaning they don’t have them anywhere in this world.”

“Well, that can’t be. Can it?”

“No dragons,” Blair confirmed. “No unicorns or winged horses, no centaurs.”

“Ah well.” He reached over to pat her arm. “You have cars, and they’re interesting. I’m starved,” he said after a moment. “Are you starved? That many changes, it just empties me out. Could we stop somewhere, do you think, buy some of those crisps in the bag?”

I t wasn’t exactly a victory feast, munching on salt-and-vinegar chips and chugging soda from a bottle, but it got them home.

When they arrived, Blair stuck the keys in her pocket. “You three go inside. Larkin and I can take care of the weapons. You’re still pretty pale.”

Hoyt lifted the bag holding the blood he’d bought at the butcher’s. “I’ll take this up to Cian.”

Blair waited until they were inside. “We’re going to have to talk to them,” she told Larkin. “Set up some parameters, some boundaries.”

“Aye, we are.” He leaned on the van as he looked toward the house. It was good, he thought, and somewhat curious, how they understood each other at times with no words. “Are we agreed? They can’t use that kind of magic, at least not often, not unless there’s no choice.”

“Nosebleeds, queasiness, headaches.” She pulled weapons out of the cargo area. You had a team, she thought, you had to worry about its members. No choice. “I could just look at Moira and see the headache. It can’t be good for them, that kind of physical toll.”

“I thought, at first, when I saw them on the ground, I thought…”

“Yeah.” She let out a long, unsteady breath. “So did I.”

“I’ve come to feel a great deal for Hoyt and Glenna, Cian, too, come to that. It’s stronger, deeper even than friendship. Maybe it’s even more than kinship. Moira…She’s always been mine, you know. I don’t know how I could live if anything happened to her. If I didn’t stop it.”