“Good,” Kai said from behind her. There was a smudge of ash against his cheek, but otherwise he looked as human as a dragon shifter possibly could. “There’s something very beautiful about the way that you fight.” He lifted his hand in the air, and her wall of flames turned to smoke. The mages on the other side looked relieved—and sweaty. “You have more control over your magic than you give yourself credit for.”

“Thanks, I—” Something was tugging at her magic like a fish on a hook.

“What is it?”

She stared down at the nearest vampire. His hand was twitching, a final protest before death took him. The magical web—the power of the spell binding him—was unraveling, but it hadn’t vanished completely.

“The trail of magic controlling the vampires. I can follow it,” she told Kai, running off after the unraveling threads. “This will take us to the vampires’ master.” If she could get there before the magic completely disintegrated.

“I’m coming with you,” Kai said, running up beside her.

“And the Council members?”

“They’re all fine. The commandos are with them. Where are we headed?”

“Down.” She sucked in a deep breath. “Red line.”

Penn Station sat below Madison Square Garden, and that’s where their criminal mastermind was. Or had been. The trail was fading fast. She’d have to be faster. She sped up, zigzagging between bustling passengers.

“That way!” she said and ran for a train, trusting him to follow.

He did better than that. He cleared the way. One look at him, and the unflappable New Yorkers scrambled out of the way. Sera and Kai squeezed onto the train as the doors were closing.

“Where is this vampire master?” he asked.

Sera reached out with her magic, trying to get a bite on the unraveling thread. She slouched in defeat when she found it.

“He’s not on this train. He caught the one before us. We’ll never catch him now.”

“We will.”

That was all Kai said before he took off down the aisle, heading for the front of the train. It was harder for the passengers in here to scramble out of the way, but they made a solid effort. Kai’s magic was pounding off the walls, echoing like the beat of a great dragon’s wings. It was so loud that it dwarfed the pitiful thump of Sera’s heart.

“Can you tell where he is?” Kai asked her, breaking through he door to the driver’s cabin.

“He just got off at Central Park,” she said over the driver’s stuttering protests.

“You’re running late,” Kai told the man. He plopped a stack of money onto the dashboard. “Skip every station until Central Park.”

The driver’s eyes darted from Kai to the bundle of bills. His indecision died a spectacular death in the face of avarice. He went on the intercom to rattle off some bullshit excuse to the passengers, then sped them along their way to Central Park.

The train had barely stopped when Sera and Kai sprinted out. They took the stairs in running bounds.

“There,” Sera told him as they ran down the tree-lined path. She pointed at the hooded figure framed against the watery backdrop. He was running too. But he was slower.

“Are you sure?” Kai asked her.

“Yes, he reeks of vampire.”

Kai sniffed the air, then nodded. Apparently, that was good enough for him. “What kind of mage are we up against? I can’t get a fix on his magic.”

“Neither can I. The stench of vampire and all the magic being kicked up by the artifact he’s carrying is putting up too much interference.”

“The Blood Orb.”

“You can feel it too?”

Tendrils of elastic lightning sizzled up his arms. “Yes.”

The mage threw something against the pavement. Glass smashed and magic exploded. A web of purple glyphs appeared on the path ahead, then a portal swirled to life. The mage reached into his pocket and pulled out a red glass orb roughly the size of a tennis ball. The Blood Orb. He tossed it through the portal.

Before he had time to jump in after it, though, Kai snapped his lightning magic out like a whip. The electrified cord latched around the man’s leg, and Kai tugged, tripping him to the ground. The portal flickered out.

“Can we go through?” Kai asked as Sera kicked the ground where the glyphs had just been.

“No, this portal was different. Shorter. We can’t reopen it.”

“Then we’ll have to get what we need from him,” said Kai.

Their mastermind was flapping against the lightning rope, trying to get it off his ankle. As Kai walked toward him in slow, deliberate steps, Sera circled around and cut him off from the other side.

“The Convictionites stole the Blood Orb. Why is a mage working with an organization that wants to wipe out his own people?” she called down to the man at her feet.

His head snapped up, and he met her eyes. “You are not my people,” he growled, his magic lathered with hate. And crazy. There was a lot of that going around lately.

Kai gave the lightning whip a tug, tightening the noose, and stopped beside Sera. “I know him. He works in one of my labs.”

The ruffled mage gave Kai a defiant—if not scared shitless—glare.

“Let me guess,” Sera said. “The lab with the magic-proof armor.”

“Yes.”

“Well, at least we know now where those disagreeable vampires who interrupted my shopping trip got their accessories.” She looked at their traitor. “What did you do, make a copy of the schematics?”